Page Two
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Tuesday, June 22, 1971
ARTICLES IN TIMES, POST
Viet papers: History
SEDITOR'S NOT: Before a federal Korean War more than a de- of Robert S. McNamara, then
of the New dma Taes Tuesday cade earlier: Never fight a land secretary of defense.
articles, the paper's reports on war in Asia. The New York Times ob-
She origins ofe n a nene President Lyndon B. Johnson taned part of the report and
ment in that strttgge. On Friday had decided after a month of began a series of stories last
and Saturday, the Washington Post heavy bombing of North Viet- Sunday covering the period
began a series of articles based on nam that air power alone would 1964-65.
she same studies, bat was en-
joineda entinuing publication never bring Hanoi to its knees. Two more installments a p -
early Saturday morning. The fo- The consequences of his de- peared before a federal court
lowing analysis summarizes t h e s s ordered a halt on Tuesday,
major points in those disclosures cisson was foreseen with un- while the government sought an
and draws together the narratise of canny accuracy by George W.
escalation. Ball, then undersecretary of injunction against resumption.
By The Associated Press State. He sent a memorandum While the government w as
to Johnson, shortly before the taking The New York Times to
When the United States sent decision was made, proposing court The Washington P o s t
combat troops to South Viet- negotiations. began a series of their own se-
nam in the spring of 1965 it cast "The alternative - no matter cret Pentagon study.
aside a policy followed since the what we may wish to do - is The N. Y. Times study shows
almost certainly a protracted that planning for an active role
CORRECTION war involving an open-ended in the war began in the spring
commitment of U.S. forces, of 1964, a full year before the
An advertisement which ran in mounting U.S. casualties, no as- first heavy U.S. bombing strikes
SchreFrSchreid' aSce sed urance of a satisfactory solo- on North Vietnam and the.
claiming that Cinema h r spon- tion, and a serious danger of introduction of combat forces
sored the film The Thomas escalation at the end of the into South Vietnam.
Crown Affair on the weekend road," Ball wrote. On Jan. 22, 1964, the J o i n t
of June 1 1 -12 was incorrect. These ev en t s unfold in a Chiefs of Staff, with Gen. Max-
The film was actually spon- top-secret study of the Viet- well Taylor as chairman, sug-
sored by the Orson Welles Film nam war prepared by the Pen- gested in a memorandum to Mc-
Society. tagon in 1967-68 on the orders Namara that the U.S. involve-
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of escalation
ment in South Vietnam be step- in May 1964 for increasing mil-
ped up. itary pressure on North Viet-
The memorandum said: . . , nam culminating in full-scale
"The Joint Chiefs of Staff are bombing by U.S. planes. He
increasingly mindful that our suggested a congressional reso-
fortunes in South Vietnam are lution "authorizing whatever is
an accurate barometer of our necessary with respect to Viet-
fortunes in all southeast Asia nam."
. . A loss of South Vietnam Johnson resisted advice to
to the Communists will presage step up the war, however, and
an early erosion of the remasn- to seek a congressional resolu-
der of our position in that sub- tion to strengthen-his hand in
continent." South Vietnam.
They suggested that the Uni- That summer, John Me-
ted States take over the tactical Naughton, assistant secretary
conduct of the war from t h e of defense, sent a memorandum
South Vietnamese, bomb North to McNamara suggesting these
Vietnam "using U.S. resources U.S. aims in South Vietnam:
under Vietnamese -cover" and To avoid a humiliating
support South Vietnamese com-
mando raids in the North. U.S. defeat to our reputation as
a guarantor.
The administration decided - To keep South Vietnam
on covert attacks on North and then adjacent territory
Vietnam, and consisted of South from Chinese hands."
Vietnamese commando raids To permit the people of
along the coast to destroy rail South Vietnam to enjoy a bet-
and highway bridges, the para- ter, freer way of life."
chuting of sabotage and psy- In August, the U.S. destroyer,
chological warfare teams into Maddox, in the Gulf of Tonkin
the North and kidnaping of to gather intelligence for com-
formatin m- mando raids, reported an attack
by North Vietnamese torpedo
Returning in March f r o m boats. The Maddox was joined
Saigon, McNamara painted 'a by the destroyer C. Turner Joy,
gloomy picture of South Viet- which also came under the tor-
nam. He proposed South Viet- pedo boats' attack, according to
namese raids into Laos against governments announcements.
North Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh Less than 12 hours after the
supply trail, plus air attacks on news reached Washington, U.S.
military and industrial targets carrier planes were on their way
in the north by South Viet- to North Vietnam for the first
namese planes backed by a U.S. retaliatory bombing raids.
Air Force squadron. The Gulf of Tonkin resolution,
Johnson approved the plan drafted by the administration
but parts of it apparently never and giving Johnson broad pow-
were carried out. ers to conduct operations in
William Bundy, assistant sec- Vietnam, passed Congress eas-
retary of state for Far Eastern ily as a rescult of the destroy-
retairysofstteJohfonFaaen ers' reports.
The Pentagon study says the
U.S. air reprisal was "an im-
portant threshhold in the war
crossed with virtually no do-
Join mestic criticism.
During these months, John-
son was campaigning for the
presidency with professions of
CO -O PS restsaint in Vietnam while his
opponent, Republican Sen. Bar-
ry Goldwater, was urging heavy
(668-6872) bombing of North Vietnam.
See VIET, Page 5
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