"It took years for Congress to learn that the Gulf of Tonkin incident was a fraud and the White House had used that fraud to enter an awful war we'd eventually lose. That's doubly stupid and tragic. "
"Early in the Vietnam War, my dad was assistant secretary of the Navy. He told me the war was useless and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara was fixated on body counts and bomb tonnages. According to my dad, when the great historian of Vietnam, Bernard Fall, told McNamara the United States couldn't win, McNamara said, "Where are your numbers?"
"Within a year or so, McNamara knew the war was hopeless but kept cheering it on.
"According to my dad, a Marine general who was a close friend cried when his troops were ordered to Vietnam. He knew they'd be wasted, but in public he kept a brave face.
"And so it went for years. Officials at all levels of government knew things about Vietnam they didn't tell the public.
"Here one should applaud one official, Daniel Ellsberg, for handing the Pentagon Papers to the press and demolishing years of official lies about Vietnam.
"Who knows what official lies we're hearing about Sept. 11 and the war on terrorism? "
sfgate.com
Re: the question of whether an investigation into the worst intelligence failure makes sense, which Cheney and the rest of the administration opposes. |
