----- Original Message ----- From: "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, December 13, 2004 11:29 AM Subject: Re: "God Is With Us" L3
> On Mon, Dec 13, 2004 at 08:27:45AM -0600, Dan Minette wrote: > > >From 1969 to 1970, he served as Director of the Office of Economic > > Opportunity and Assistant to the President. From 1971 to 1972, he was > > Counsellor to the President and Director of the Economic Stabilization > > Program. In 1973, he left Washington, DC, to serve as U.S. Ambassador to > > the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels, Belgium > > (1973-1974). > > > > I rather suspect that Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity or the > > Director of the Economic Stabilization Program had virtually nothing to do > > with running the Viet Nam war, though. :-) > > Surely he was well aware of it, if he was qualified to be Ambassador to > NATO. No doubt...But since this happened after the US withdrawal, I figured it gave no indication that he had influence on our Viet Nam policy. I am not letting Rumsfeld off the hook...arrogance of incompetence comes to mind when I listen to him. The statement I was questioning is in this exchange: <quote> > Wow, Warren, political scientists, historians, and > just about everyone else have been discussing Vietnam > for thirty years, trying to figure out exactly what > the "lessons of Vietnam" are - and you know for sure > what we can learn from that war? Pray tell, do share > them with us. Let's see. For starters, don't let old hawks like Rummy and Cheney grab the reins. ... <end quote> I was questioning how we could learn not to trust old war dogs like Rumsfeld and Cheney as a lesson of 'Nam. In a sense, one could say that Rumsfeld mis-applied a lesson from Viet Nam by overrunning the basic philosophy of the military in a way that McNamara didn't question Westmoreland's failed strategy. One could certainly fault Kissinger and Laird for 'Nam, a lot of the war was on their watch, but I think that Nixon's team's actions needs to be understood in terms of their relatively complex set of goals. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l