An NBC report on the US Government’s decision to release a full redacted accounting of The Pentagon Papers:
Tag: Vietnam War
The Vietnam War
Finally after 40 years the US Government will publish The Pentagon Papers for the very first time.
The study commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara was officially titled: “United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense” and was a secret kept hidden from President Johnson. and American public for over 40 years.
The study traces US involvement in Vietnam beginning in 1945 just after World War II and ending in 1967 before the Tet Offensive. The report, a scathing self-examination of U.S.-Vietnamese relations and the Vietnam War, led to one of the largest and most significant court battles ever concerning government secrets vs. freedom of the press. Nixon’s demand to damage Ellsberg resulted in the Watergate scandal.
The Nixon Library has a copy in that was part of President Richard Nixon’s papers. It will be released at 9 a.m., June 13, 40 years to the day that leaked portions of the report were printed on the front page of The New York Times.
Watching this documentary about Daniel Ellsberg reminded me of his rather extraordinary life that has not yet stopped. With the recent WikiLeaks sensation its worth reminding America how powerful documents can change people and governments.
I read Ellsberg’s book Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers back in 2006 (review here) and realize its better than the movie.
However for today’s Gen Y its more than enough to get them visually interested in events as old as Vietnam, Watergate and Nixon.
Movie Website
Writers are Heroes. David Halberstam wrote his groundbreaking The Best and the Brightest in 1972 but won a Pulitzer Prize in 1964 for reporting on Vietnam. Did Halberstam reveal the deep mistakes (in Vietnam) that are visible today in Iraq? There are probably just a few books regarding Vietnam that can actually upset you, the reader after 40 years. David’s writing does just that.
Clearly conveyed by very bright men in President Kennedy‘s Administration, they looked past the expected failures; lack of leadership of the South Vietnamese government, an empty South Vietnamese military, a war against colonialism not communism and even falsified reports by the US military on the progress of the war. That almost documentation-like writing proved US interests in Vietnam would fail in Kennedy’s Administration.
Was our continued commitment a combination of China falling to the communists, the effects of the Korean War, McCarthyism and a view that Democrats were actually soft on communism? Clearly Kennedy surrounded himself with the best, smartest and successful cabinet members. Halberstam’s detailed writing provides the type of deep background on all who served in both Kennedy and Johnson’s Administration exploring how talented they all were, including Adlai Stevenson.
It was a bit of a surprised to learn outgoing President Eisenhower suggested in his first meeting with then President-elect Kennedy that the country would indeed fight communism in Southeast Asia…but in Cambodia.
It was also very interesting to see Daniel Ellsburg mentioned — prior to his Pentagon Papers leak. Very bright men thinking they could win a war by freeing people who viewed America not as liberators but as colonial invaders.
So I reached the finish line of Bob Woodward’s three part series on Bush at War. State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III is hard hitting to say the least. Not sure why I could not get through it earlier. I’ve been on a reading tear of late, but also pulling duty on our bathroom update for our first born.
As the book clearly shows, there are a lot of issues that have turned into stumbling blocks for the Bush Administration. It clearly shows we are involved in another disaster: Vietnam 2.0
Amazed that Woodward closed the series and his book with feedback from Robert McNamara, former US Secretary of Defense during Vietnam.
Pick your poison: is it worse that Bush could not admit during five minutes of questioning that no weapons of mass destruction (WoMD) were ever found in Iraq — or was it Johnson’s Gulf of Tonkin resolution? Your pick.
Did McNamara micromanage the war like Donald Rumsfeld? Are we today supporting an army in Iraq as weak as the South Vietnamese Army? Probably if the time frame was the ARVN following the Tet offensive.