The Vietnam War

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the inadequacy of information given to the president during the Vietnam war. The writer of this paper contends that certain officers and generals as well as Pentagon officials and advisers to the president felt that telling the whole truth would be a mistake and cause actions detrimental to the war. The result of delaying the truth not only cost American lives, it established a code of silence among the officers and officials in charge.

From the Paper:

"Among the first to put a positive spin on a negative situation was Gen. Paul Harkins, in command of the Saigon Army Command (he was Westmoreland's predecessor). Harkins, for example, saw first hand the atrocities committed by South Vietnamese troops to their prisoners. Harkins also refused to believe intelligence about Vietcong infiltration, supplied to him by those under his command who had seen the "factories" being built in Vietnam hamlets, an d guns fashioned out of metal rods."

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