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Mattius_
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On public radio, on the show 'All things considered', Walter Cronkite reflected on a similar situation a president of the US faced in 1964 where suspect intelligence lead to commitment of hundreds of thousands of troops into Vietnam. In this interview, Croncite narrates the hours of August 3rd and 4th of 1964 where a discussion between President Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara unfolds.
In this discussion, the President discusses with the Secretary of Defense modes to instigate an attack on a US destroyer a few miles off the coast of Vietnam. They chose to bait a torpedo attack in order to start war by ordering the destroyer closer to shore. Without knowing the source of the baited 'torpedo' attack, they put the gears into motion in starting a war which will cost 60some thousand American lives. They then react accordingly by retaliating by means of an aerial bombing. Johnson gets on national television and tells the people of the US that a destroyer was attacked, and that the US must commit to war. All of this transpired without the confirmed evidence of a real torpedo attack from the North. The thought then was that even if a specific intelligence was wrong a little here, and a little there, that we would still be there teaching the commies a lesson.
This situation seems very similar to what happened in Iraq. We went in with unconfirmed evidence, thinking that even if we don't find the stone cold evidence, we'll be taking out a bad guy making it justified. It appears that history has repeated itself, at the cost of American lives, money, and favor.
Audio transcript:
http://search1.npr.org/search97cgi/s97_cgi?action=FilterSearch&QueryZip=+AND+%28Date+%3E%3D+07%2D26%2D2004%29&Filter=archive%5Ffilter%5Fclean%2Ehts&ResultTemplate=allow%5Fre%5Fsort%2Ehts&QueryText=+AND+%28Date+%3E%3D+07%2D26%2D2004%29&Collection=ATC2&SortSpec=Date+Desc+Score+Desc&ResultStart=11&ResultCount=10&CleanQuery=&how_long_ago=7 [Broken]
In this discussion, the President discusses with the Secretary of Defense modes to instigate an attack on a US destroyer a few miles off the coast of Vietnam. They chose to bait a torpedo attack in order to start war by ordering the destroyer closer to shore. Without knowing the source of the baited 'torpedo' attack, they put the gears into motion in starting a war which will cost 60some thousand American lives. They then react accordingly by retaliating by means of an aerial bombing. Johnson gets on national television and tells the people of the US that a destroyer was attacked, and that the US must commit to war. All of this transpired without the confirmed evidence of a real torpedo attack from the North. The thought then was that even if a specific intelligence was wrong a little here, and a little there, that we would still be there teaching the commies a lesson.
This situation seems very similar to what happened in Iraq. We went in with unconfirmed evidence, thinking that even if we don't find the stone cold evidence, we'll be taking out a bad guy making it justified. It appears that history has repeated itself, at the cost of American lives, money, and favor.
Audio transcript:
http://search1.npr.org/search97cgi/s97_cgi?action=FilterSearch&QueryZip=+AND+%28Date+%3E%3D+07%2D26%2D2004%29&Filter=archive%5Ffilter%5Fclean%2Ehts&ResultTemplate=allow%5Fre%5Fsort%2Ehts&QueryText=+AND+%28Date+%3E%3D+07%2D26%2D2004%29&Collection=ATC2&SortSpec=Date+Desc+Score+Desc&ResultStart=11&ResultCount=10&CleanQuery=&how_long_ago=7 [Broken]
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