The absurd body counts and kill ratios were proof of his leadership. He sold them to LBJ, who in turn presented them as fact to the American people.
Never mind that this fellow had been busy that morning shooting scores of people in cold blood,9 the image alone told a simpler, more brutal story, one brandished enthusiastically by the war’s opponents.
The upbeat DHS report was some kind of high-water mark for government gall – a tough record to beat. After sitting back and watching the Cabal do all the work, and nearly succeed, Uncle Sam finally found a role for himself: proclaim victory and then stick a flag in it!
Local recruits made regular night trips past villages on the city’s outskirts just to make guard dogs bark, which became such a nightly occurrence that few paid attention to it anymore – either that or the dogs would grow so accustomed they no longer stirred.
Many of the things overheard were redolent of deeper knowledge.
The plan called for attacks leading up to Tet against American bases throughout the South – Khe Sanh, Da Nang, Con Tien, Pleiku, and others. It anticipated that Westy would move his troops to defend his own bases, which would leave Saigon, Hue, Can Tho, Nha Trang, and dozens of other South Vietnamese cities to be defended by much weaker ARVN forces.
So they turned around and retraced their trip as morning dawned, eventually reentering the southern gate at Phu Bai. At about 8:30, more than four hours since they had been awakened to board the trucks and go south, they came barreling straight through the base and exited the north gate – confirming suspicion inside the trucks that no one in charge had a clue.
So making him rattled and weary became a strategy.
And while each death would echo loudly halfway around the world, hurling families and even whole communities into grief, often with shattering consequences for generations, in Hue there wasn’t even time to stop and look, much less grieve.
Hanoi’s leaders were virtuoso songbirds of propaganda. They lived in a bubble. There were no voices of dissent in their society to check or challenge wishful thinking.
Today there is big money for those who can stealthily invade computer networks, or construct a secure botnet, and no modern military arsenal is complete without state-of-the-art malware.
And Johnson was a convert. Body counts were the first thing he asked for in regular war briefings. He bragged that his general in Vietnam killed thousands of enemy personnel for every one man he lost:.
Katie assured him that she was professionally nonjudgmental – which was not true; she was the opposite and was revolted by his crimes.
How much sense would it make, after all, for someone involved with a kidnapping to draw attention to himself by claiming to be a witness and telling an elaborate lie?
More bombs had been dropped in North and South Vietnam by the beginning of 1968 than had been dropped over Europe in all of World War II, three times more than were dropped in the Pacific theater, and twice as many as in Korea.
I pride myself on not making people’s experience shittier.
The Battle of Hue would be the bloodiest of the Vietnam War, and a turning point not just in that conflict, but in American history. When it was over, debate concerning the war in the United States was never again about winning, only about how to leave. And never again would Americans fully trust their leaders.
Gunny, get down!” Ker told him. “You’re going to get hit!” “By the time I get down, I’ll already be hit,” he said. “So I may as well stand up here and see what the hell is going on.
Mark reiterated how assiduously the FBI and his own department were now gathering evidence against him.
When Gonzalez and Canley were close enough to the machine gun they called for suppressing fire and then stood and hurled grenades. At the blast, they charged, firing their rifles on automatic, silencing the gun.