Intelligence and Vietnam (II): Return of The Top Secret 1969 State Department Study

[Douglas Caddy]

Intelligence and Vietnam (II): Return of The Top Secret 1969 State Department Study

 

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/intelligence-vietnam/2004-12-02/intelligence-vietnam-ii-return-top-secret-1969-state-department-study

[Steve Thomas]

31 minutes ago, Douglas Caddy said:

Intelligence and Vietnam (II): Return of The Top Secret 1969 State Department Study

 

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/intelligence-vietnam/2004-12-02/intelligence-vietnam-ii-return-top-secret-1969-state-department-study

"Archive director Thomas Blanton commented that "Lessons from the Vietnam experience with intelligence run directly counter to today's reform proposals for the U.S. intelligence community. Instead of a centralized 'czar,' this history suggests we need a multiplicity of competing agencies and analyses. Instead of policymakers who cherry-pick only the intelligence they want to hear, we need to encourage dissents and force closer examination of contrary findings. Instead of covering up with the cloak of secrecy, we need to open the insider critiques in real time and enrich the public debate.""

"It is an account of sometimes breathtaking, sometimes frustrating efforts to speak truth to power in a situation of primary importance to the United States, its leaders, and its people."

Sounds like we could have used that in the Iraq war and WMD's.

Don't let Trump anywhere near Iran.

Steve Thomas

 

Edited December 27, 2020 by Steve Thomas

[Larry Hancock]

The hearings and reports following the Cuba Project and the Bay of Pigs concluded exactly the same thing....only took about four years to totally forget that.  Its not a lesson most administrations what to hear; the really only want to hear the story lines they use to get elected.  Which of course is extremely dangerous....