Burchett, CIA and The Vietnam War

   A poster questioned my use of Wilfred Burchett as a source of 
information on the enemy. I should explain, I could have used quotes 
from Vo Nguyen Giap or Mao Tse-tung or other Communist authorities, but 
they use Communist dialectics and their terminology is obtuse. I took 
courses in their history and was tutored in their meanings -- and spent 
much time trying to decipher their writings. 

   To the layman the writings of Mao and Vo may be meaningless or convey 
inaccurate impressions. I used Wilfred Burchett's "Vietnam: Inside Story 
of the Guerrilla War," as his explanations are in plain English and employ
terminology understandable by all. The picture that he conveys in "Inside" 
closely accords with my understanding developed from the writings of 
Mao and Vo and others and from intelligence I developed on Asian 
revolutionary structures. 

   I believe it is critical if not mandatory to understand the other 
side -- who ever it is, whenever it is -- not just from the perspective 
of Washington's politically attuned operators and analysts, but 
also from the perspective of the enemy. This is real intelligence. 

   If the CIA can learn this lesson how much better off would we all be? 
Just in this one case -- had we understood -- there would have been no war.

   (One might hope that the CIA has finally caught up to reality. To see 
the Vietnam war from its perspective read a study published in 1998
by the History Staff of the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence. 
It calls the study, "CIA and Vietnam Policymakers: Three Episodes 
1962-1968. The author, Harold P. Ford, the highest level CIA analyst on 
the war, does not appear to cite a single Communist source. Most all 
citations are to U.S. Government reports and position papers. His book 
might better be entitled: Alice in Wonderland II.)

Ralph McGehee
http://come.to/CIABASE

>Newsgroups: soc.history.war.vietnam
>Subject: Burchett (Was: Col Hackworth, et.al.)
>Date: 1 May 1999 16:24:50 -0400
>Message-ID: <99shwv20364@panix3.panix.com>
>References: <99shwv20008@panix3.panix.com> <99shwv20128@panix3.panix.com>
>NNTP-Posting-Host: panix3.nfs100.access.net
>NNTP-Posting-Date: 1 May 1999 20:24:51 GMT

>In article 99shwv20128@panix3.panix.com, Ralph McGehee wrote:
>-snip- 
>RMG> For a better view of the war see the book by the leftist, Wilfred
>RMG> Burchett -- Vietnam: Inside Story of the Guerilla War.

>Ralph, I respect your own views but Wilfred Burchett was hardly an
>objective observer and I regard him as a traitor to Australia. During a
>libel case in Australia started by Burchett, the jury heard evidence
>that he had actively participated in interrogation of Australian, US
>and UK POWs by enemy interrogators during the Korean War. -snip->

Regards, (Name deleted by RMC)