Kissinger's "salted peanuts"

[John J. McCarthy]

From: National Security Archive <archive@GWU.EDU>

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To: NSARCHIVE@hermes.gwu.edu

Subject: Kissinger's "Salted Peanuts" and the Iraq War

Date: Monday, October 02, 2006 4:22:05 PM [View Source]

National Security Archive Update, October 2, 2006

KISSINGER'S "SALTED PEANUTS" AND THE IRAQ WAR

National Security Archive Posts Original

Document Cited in Bob Woodward's "State of Denial"

For more information contact:

John Prados - 301/545-0564

Thomas Blanton - 202/994-7000

http://www.nsarchive.org

Washington, DC, October 2, 2006 - For understandable reasons, the George W. Bush

administration has shunned comparisons between the war in Iraq and the Vietnam

War. But in his latest book, State of Denial, Bob Woodward writes that Henry

Kissinger, the former secretary of state--and a secret (and frequent) consultant

to the current president--has made the parallel explicit to the White House.

According to Woodward, Kissinger recently gave a Bush aide a copy of a memo he

wrote in 1969 arguing against troop withdrawals from Southeast Asia, an issue as

salient four decades ago as it is now.

Kissinger's September 10, 1969, advice to President Nixon famously characterized

withdrawals from Vietnam as "salted peanuts" to which the American people would

become addicted.

The National Security Archive has obtained an original copy of the memo and

today is posting it on its Web site along with commentary by Archive Senior

Fellow and noted Vietnam expert John Prados, who recently edited a major

collection of declassified documents on the Vietnam War. The commentary provides

some historical context for the document and draw parallels and distinctions

between the situations then and now.

Follow the link below to read the document and analysis from John Prados.

http://www.nsarchive.org

Bests,

John McCarthy