If you are old enough to remember the Vietnam War or to have studied it in school, this will sound familiar.
The Fake Narrative
The political leadership of the United States, President Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, wanted to prosecute the Vietnam War with as limited a force as possible. The “military,” knowing that a large force would be necessary, attempted to build the force through incremental, ever increasing troop requests. Ultimately, the never-ending requests and the growing quagmire disillusioned McNamara.
The origin of this narrative can be traced to a book titled The Pentagon Papers. The Secret History of the Vietnam War as Published by the New York Times. This book was not the complete study stolen by Daniel Ellsberg. It included some of the Papers, but four reporters (Neil Sheehan, Hedrick Smith, E.W. Kenworth, and Fox Butterfield) took turns explaining to the rest of us what various portions of the Papers meant. The beginning of McNamara’s so-called disillusionment came at the end of 1965. The Times story was that at the end of 1965 U.S. commander General William Westmoreland “suddenly found it necessary to request a vast increase in troops for Phase II of his plan. The General said he would need 154,000 more men.”
The Actual Plan
Here is the actual account from the complete 12-volume Government Printing Office Pentagon Papers that Vietnam: Strategy for a Stalemate.
Image: U.S. Army
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