The Noble War

   Book Review -- VIETNAM THE NECESSARY WAR, by Michael Lind; review by 
by Robert G. Kaiser. Lind argues that the war was not a disaster but 
a noble undertaking which had many positive consequences. He concludes 
that the war had to be fought to preserve American credibility...Lind 
finds fault with traditional criticisms of the war, insisting that it 
was neither so savage nor so unjustified as many have concluded. He 
does not understand Ho's one great advantage that the U.S. and its South 
Vietnamese allies could never trump. [Ho Chi Minh and] the Communist Vietminh 
defeated the French colonizers, a source of legitimacy and strength that they 
never lost. The Americans, were the white-skinned successors to the French. 
They helped restore the army the French had created, whose Vietnamese 
officers had actually adopted French names and passports...but their 
status was always, suspect. The war, complex as it was, never lost 
one essential quality: The North Vietnamese were the home team, the 
Americans and their Vietnamese helpers were the visitors. 
Washington Post January 31, 2000 X08.


Ralph McGehee Comment: 

   As I read Kaiser's review I felt a great deal of irony, for 
the fact that we could never win in Vietnam and that we were the 
invaders is what I attempted to tell the CIA from late 1967 through 
January 2000. 

   But the Agency has brain lock and cannot accept even these 
belated truths. CIA propagandized itself and the world about Vietnam 
and still believes its own lies. See for instance the book, CIA AND 
THE VIETNAM POLICYMAKERS: THREE EPISODES 1962-1968, by Harold Ford, 
published in 1998 by the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence.

   The Agency also possesses brain lock about most all of its 
covert/intelligence operations. Until someone in government
realizes this and takes action to correct, it will create
more Vietnam-like disasters. To work in the CIA one must be
true believers not analysts, even though George Tenet ardently
claims to court such. Compliance, not intelligence, is the 
CIA's golden rule.

   One can only speculate about its intelligence today on Colombia,
as the United States mounts a massive paramilitary operation there.
Does CIA intelligence reflect facts or policy. What about its propaganda? 
Americans should have no illusions that the Agency and other involved 
government entities even know the truth, as they blind themselves and 
gird for war.

Ralph McGehee
http://come.to/CIABASE