Versions of Truth The Press, Kennedy, and Vietnam Revisited

Versions of truth Advise and consent? Intra-administration conflict: JFK v the State Department Outing a CIA agent/ Intra-administration conflict: CIA v the State Department The abdication of the press

“Kennedy’s Struggle with Bureaucracy”

Gareth Porter’s findings in Harriman papers March, 1962, North Vietnam indicated for the first time it was interested in peace negotiations on South Vietnam. April, 1962, John K. Galbraith, US ambassador to India, proposed that the US put out peace feelers to the North Vietnamese through India and Moscow.

Kennedy insisted that Harriman send instructions to Galbraith on an Indian approach to peace talks. Galbraith Harriman

Cable Never Sent [Harriman’s actions] represented an outright sabotage of Kennedy’s effort to establish a diplomatic track on Vietnam.

The following week, Harriman sent cables to Galbraith and US ambassadors in Saigon, Paris, and Phnom Penh to reduce pressures behind conference.

Little press coverage given to the findings of these papers.

Plan B By midsummer ‘62 Kennedy shifted his attention from negotiations to a plan for phasing out the US military presence in South Vietnam as his main policy issue.

Kennedy’s overriding purpose in sending McNamara-Taylor mission to obtain a recommendation from his most senior advisors for complete withdrawal by the end of Gareth Porter

“Kennedy harbored doubts, extending to measured resistance, on the Vietnam War. But it was countered by the fact that he had such articulate and committed warriors to contend with” in his administration. Galbraith, 2005

Today and yesterday Outing a CIA agent:

“What I Didn't Find in Africa" by Ambassador Joseph Wilson July 6, 2003 “The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” George W. Bush, January 28, 2003 State of the Union address

Robert Novak Outs CIA Agent “Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction.”

David Corn, The Nation Did Bush officials blow the cover of a U.S. intelligence officer working covertly in a field of vital importance to national security and break the law in order to strike at a Bush administration critic and intimidate others?

Classified info leaked by “Two senior administration officials.” Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, a Republican appointee, announced that Lewis "Scooter" Libby lied to a grand jury, lied to FBI agents and obstructed an investigation into the White House cover-up of the lies that led our nation to war in Iraq.

History Revisited “Ngo Dinh Nhu struck back at his American enemies by using newspapers he controlled in Saigon to reveal the name of the CIA station chief in Saigon, John Richardson.”

Regime Change Secrets that everybody knew: widespread dissatisfaction with the South Vietnamese government resulted in unfavorable publicity the regime reportedly received funds from the CIA for Special Forces units

10-2 Krock, NYT “Whatever else these passages disclose, that representatives of other Executive branches have expanded their war against the CIA from the inner government councils to the American people via the press.”

Ambassador Lodge enters the picture, Aug Lodge was enthusiastic about the [Aug. 24th] cable… CIA Station Chief in Saigon Richardson reported back through CIA channels that the ambassador had regarded the cable as an order to support the coup. Lodge considered that he had been undermined by the CIA Station Chief in Saigon.

Lodge’s priorities re the CIA Station should be out of Chancery building Head of Station not to be Special Assistant to Ambassador Should end backgrounding press by CIA CIA has more money; bigger houses than diplomats; bigger salaries; more weapons; more modern equipment…

Starnes Outs CIA Agent Starnes, Scripps Howard "According to a high United States source here, twice the C. I. A. flatly refused to carry out instructions from Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge…” The C. I. A.'s growth was "likened to a malignancy" which the "very high Official was not sure even the white house could control "any longer." "if the United States ever experiences [an attempt at a coup to overthrow the Government] it will come from the C. I. A. And not the Pentagon."

“Dammit, the CIA is supposed to gather information, not make policy…” The agency "represents a tremendous power and total unaccountability to anyone.”

Halberstam NYT

10-4 Frankel, NYT “Mr. Lodge requested the replacement of the CIA chief John H. Richardson.”

Frankel, NYT “…one point of view in the State Department and another at the Pentagon, while the CIA was skating around them both.”

10-6, Pearson Until [Lodge complained about Richardson] JFK appeared to be listening more to the military and the CIA than to his diplomats.”

NYT October 7, 1963 “Mr. Richardson was a critic of Vietnamese opposition elements and until the Buddhist crisis, saw little likelihood of a coup.”

My Father The Spy John H. Richardson, Jr. Inspecting Special Troops in the mountains of Vietnam, 1962 With General Ton That Dinh in Saigon, 1962

About John Richardson 1. One of the founding members of the CIA 2. Chief of station in Vienna, Athens, Philippines, Saigon Lodge wanted him fired and replaced by General Ed Lansdale. Kennedy refused.

October 10, 1963 Q. Mr. President, could you discuss some of the recent public accounts of CIA activities in South Vietnam, particularly the stories of, or reports of how the CIA has undertaken certain independent operations,.... JFK. I can find nothing--and I've looked through the record very carefully over the last nine months and I could go back further--to indicate that the CIA has done anything but support policy. White House Press Conference

CIA is not happy President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board Meeting

Leaks McCone recalled the editor of Newsweek said he obtained information from State Department …

“There are two sets of foreign policy”: 1. Recommended by the State Department, and 2. that put into effect regardless of the State Department, by the CIA and US Military Not just in 1963…

The result in 1963 When Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, there were 16,000 US military advisers in Vietnam. That grew to more than 500,000, and the war raged for another decade. Iraq?

Media Versions of Truth Story of war under reported “failed to meet their obligations” Blame the messengers “Too close to the story”

Lessons Learned? I came dangerously close to forgetting that its officials and journalists were waging the game with real lives, and deaths. Max Frankel

Versions of Truth