Writes Seymour Hersh, "LEAVING LAS VEGAS/Inside the last tortured days of the Biden campaign" (SubStack).
Hersh suggests that Harris continues to be under Obama's control, and "she had better perform." She's not the nominee yet.
Hersh also writes that Kamala Harris "often showed little interest" in "the President’s Daily Brief, a highly classified summary of current intelligence that is prepared overnight by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and delivered by hand to the most vital offices in Washington, including the vice president’s." Hersh says that Harris even "asked the agency to stop delivering it to her."
Speaking of Seymour Hersh... his name came up in a NYT obituary published yesterday, "William Calley, Convicted of Mass Murder in My Lai Massacre, Dies at 80/Hundreds of Vietnamese civilians died at the hands of American soldiers, but Lieutenant Calley was the only one found guilty":
Although Lieutenant Calley’s immediate superiors knew generally what had happened, the atrocity was covered up in military reports that called it a successful search-and-destroy mission. It took nearly a year and a half — and persistent efforts by a few soldiers and an independent investigative journalist, Seymour M. Hersh, who later won a Pulitzer Prize for his disclosures — for investigations to grind forward and the story to reach a stunned world.
By then, Lieutenant Calley, a short, stocky man scorned by his troops and fellow officers as an insecure leader who could hardly read a map or a compass and who seemed to lack common sense in the field, had been promoted to first lieutenant and awarded a Bronze Star with oak leaf cluster and a Purple Heart....
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94 comments:
Obama has been pulling the strings since the beginning of the Biden
Presidency.
..."In 1974, a federal judge in Georgia, J. Robert Elliott, overturned the conviction, saying Mr. Calley had been denied a fair trial because of prejudicial publicity. The Army appealed, and Mr. Calley was confined to barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kans., for three months. He was then released on bail and never returned to custody.
In 1975, a federal appeals court in New Orleans reversed Judge Elliott and reinstated the conviction. And in 1976, the United States Supreme Court refused to review the case, letting the conviction stand and closing a bitter chapter of national history. By then, Mr. Calley had qualified for parole. His life term had been whittled down to slightly more than three years of house arrest and barracks confinement that had ended in 1974..."
No doubt he was part of the massacre, but also no doubt he was roasted alone.
What happened in Vegas didn’t stay in Vegas. Diminished Joe.
Harris was part of a threatened coup.
PB said...
"Obama has been pulling strings since before the beginning of the Biden Presidency."
I'm going to say it goes back at least to the runup to the 2016 election. But that makes me wonder: who's pulling Obama's strings?
I get the sense that Obama is fighting to keep control, and another faction is doing a pretty good job of taking it away. It seems to me The Light is waning a bit. We'll see how big a mess develops in Chicago, inside and outside the hall. I think the VP choice, and how it's made, may also be something to watch.
Hersh also writes that Kamala Harris "often showed little interest" in "the President’s Daily Brief, a highly classified summary of current intelligence that is prepared overnight by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and delivered by hand to the most vital offices in Washington, including the vice president’s." Hersh says that Harris even "asked the agency to stop delivering it to her."
That sounds racist and misogynist to me.
The question becomes, what do we do when she has to read it and make decisions that will affect the entire world? She's never- not once in her life- ever led anything as a Chief Executive. Just what are we doing here?
So another Progressive coup.
Comment page is nearly unusable on mobile devices. Heckuva job, Google.
"We will invoke the 25th unless you resign as president" is a very reasonable thing to say to someone who is genuinely believed to be incapable of continuing in his role.
"We will invoke the 25th unless you decline to run for another term, in which case we will allow you to serve out this one" is dastardly. Either they believe he is incapable of finishing his term as president or they don't. In either case this is egregious.
I agree
has a kind of Rod Blagojevichian whiff to it all doesnt it?
Sounds like a conspiracy to throw out the results of the Democratic Primary. Isn’t this against the law in New York and Atlanta?
from Miranda Divine -
On paper she looks good. She is attractive, youngish (22 years younger than Joe), a woman of color, a former senator, prosecutor, California attorney general. But that is where the appeal ends. The reality of Kamala is a toxic mess of inanity, insecurity, inappropriate laughter and off-putting coquetry.
Not only is she every bit a DEI hire, as Joe Biden himself said when he declared he was looking for a black female running mate. She is reportedly abrasive behind closed doors, judging by the high staff turnover and leaks from ex-aides who said she never did the work and then blamed them when she fell flat on her face.
She is an anti-Catholic bigot who promotes divisive racial policies. As a senator she once berated a Catholic judicial nominee for belonging to the Knights of Columbus.
She promotes the rancid notion of “equity” which she helpfully defined as equality of outcome, the very basis of communism. She doesn’t think deeply enough to have acquired an actual ideology, so I hesitate to call her a communist. She is just an opportunist, riding the latest fad.
Sensible Republicans are sounding a note of caution, suggesting that she may have electoral potency, although that is more about Democrat expertise at the dark art of “getting out the vote” in blue cities in swing states. But in the normal course of events, she is personally unpalatable and a frivolous choice at a time of international peril with two serious wars threatening to spin out of control.
Despite attempts by media handmaidens to erase her history as Border czar, there is ample video evidence that she was handed the poison portfolio of managing the illegal migrant crisis.
“The stench is making me clench.”
That must have come as a shock to Biden. Things like that could cause a cardiac event.
“Hersh suggests that Harris continues to be under Obama's control, and "she had better perform." She's not the nominee yet.”
Does that sound like a person saving Democracy?
Last Fall, I was talking to Judge Brian Buscher at a social event about his confirmation hearing and - for the life of me - I couldn’t remember who the Senator was who insulted him about Catholicism. People need to hear Kamala’s radical policy positions in her own words.
Elizabeth Warren(D) just declared that all illegal entrants should be granted amnesty.
Remember ... the Daily Presidential Brief is how the FBI delivered the "news hook" for the media to print the fake Russia dossier that was written by Hillary Clinton and used to derail Trump's first presidency.
Harris is smart to keep those people OUT of her office.
As sock puppet Biden said in 2008, "I mean, you got the first sort of mainstream African-American...who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man" Yeah, it is. Bill Clintion called it (and Obama) a 'fairytale' around the same time. Obama, the "One", the 'community organizer from Chicago, is sock puppet #1. He pulls no strings. Obama is a 'mouthpiece' kept on a short leash.
"Obama called Biden after breakfast and said, "Here’s the deal. We have Kamala’s approval to invoke the 25th Amendment.".
Based on Joe's continued "performance" shouldn't the 25th still be invoked? We have 5+ months left in Joe's administration. Wouldn't it be strange if Harris loses the election but then becomes president after Joe is declared unfit sometime around Thanksgiving?
Hersh did reporting on the supposed deal Gerald Ford orchestrated to get Nixon to resign so he's got form in this area. I don't think it matters who got Biden to agree to drop out, if he even did agree, who knows what that tired old man thinks is going on these days?
I would hope that while all eyes are on Chicago, the media will take us on a tour of the Obama Presidential Center. Or whatever is at the site.
It's Hersh, I don't believe he is any more credible today than he was yesterday.
“Based on Joe's continued "performance" shouldn't the 25th still be invoked? ”
Deal is a deal, Jack. You can’t go back on a deal. Unless the deal is the hold a Primary and tell Democratic voters that it means anything, which case pray they don’t alter the deal further.
Her comment showing little concern about the shenanigans in Venezuela's election (the people of Venezuela have spoken, she said) indicates that she is an incredibly shallow thinker at best.
Hersh is kind of the old time insider, as I recall. And not a doctrinaire "Party" guy, but a pretty straight shooter compared to most. I might actually read the whole article because I find it odd we still don't know why Biden was missing a week, what exactly made him change his mind, and who in the hell is running the country* right now.
*The official Whitehouse reaction to the massacre in northern Israel yesterday only said the "VP had been notified" and then featured a quote from her. Is Joe that irrelevant already?
They’re not saving democracy. They are saving the Democrats’ “Our Democracy”. Big difference.
Daryl Cooper (MartyrMade) did a incredible pod on Mi Lai that gets into how the Army had completely broken down. Well worth th 90 minutes
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0EykhpxhQn34t5uRKxSrXj?si=2RiBGSbUTzq-ijmvjJ72Vw
"Sounds like a conspiracy to throw out the results of the Democratic Primary. Isn’t this against the law in New York and Atlanta?"
Only if your name is Donald John Trump.
Comment page is nearly unusable on mobile devices. Heckuva job, Google.
Uncharacteristically I did not check it on my phone before firing up the laptop. Sorry to hear this (and the seconding of it. However, on the big screen this is quite nice and you can reply to specific comments.
The Dems have that mental disorder of leftism to contend with.
Crap, there's no home button or hot link to the main site.
Obama's doing his unofficial duty as a past president, which is good. Who else is going to do it? Bush should have been consulted but I think he's senile himself.
Anyway, all is well, chief of staff and NSA running the show.
.
But Kamala...does not sound good.
Vote for Kamala so you can tell your daughters, you too can aspire to be anything you want when you grow up. Of course, you'll be controlled by a man behind the scenes, but what the hell, it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.
This. To threaten with (and offer to withhold) Constitutional action to achieve a Democrat Party private goal is extortion. Kamala, Schumer, Pelosi and Obama should all be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
""We will invoke the 25th unless you resign as president" is a very reasonable thing to say to someone who is genuinely believed to be incapable of continuing in his role." It could be, but not by a former President that's been out of office for 8 years. Nope. Obama doesn't get to fire the President.
He's fairly good on raw facts. Where he often falls on his ass is interpretation.
Calley did nothing wrong.
My problem with being able to reply to specific commenters is that the nested comments are going to get skinnier and skinnier over to the right until they become unreadable - we've all seen it. It'll save us some time in quoting other commenters but I think it'll degrade the overall experience. I think it'll also mean that we won't all read everything - just the nested threads were individually involved in.
Plus, is anyone else having a thing where the space for your comment is very limited and you end up typing blind once you exceed it? At least in this post I am able to swipe up any time I want to SEE what I've typed AFTER I've typed it, but on another post this morning I could not do that and had to publish my post with no ability to check for typos.
Interesting. I was trying to reply directly to a comment but it's not nesting the comments, just listing replies-to-comments below replies-to post. This comment is a test. And it'll be my last one - sorry for not being germane.
Is Hersh going to commit suicide?
Who will be the backup puppet to the backup puppet?
Deeply.
Hersh suggests that Harris continues to be under Obama's control, and "she had better perform." She's not the nominee yet.
This is why Trump is smart not to debate Harris prior to the Dem Convention - don't let them see her in action before they install her as the nominee. Otherwise, he will be playing Whack-A-Mole as new candidates are identified in the search for someone who can take him on.
This is lot of great stuff in one post. So, we're supposed to believe that Mr. O threatened Biden with the 25th to get him out. I find that unbelievable. Do realize what a disaster that would've been for the Democrats? And that it would've destroyed any chance of their beating Trump?
So, i don't believe it. And I dont think Hersh given his reporting on the blowing up of the Nordstream Pipeline by the USA, has inside knowledge of Obama-Biden discussions. Its a great story though.
As for Calley, I feel sorry for him. And I shouldn't. Its true that in these sorts of vicious guerilla wars atrocities will happen. But that doesn't make the perpetrators nice guys or admirable in any way.
And the Hypocrisy on the part of the NYT is incredible. This is the same newspaper that gives cover Israel atrocities, and applauds War criminal (yet to brought to justice at the ICC) Netenyahu. You can take what Calley did at Mi Lai and multiply x 100 and you have what Israel has done to Gaza.
BTW, I'm always struck at how limited people are in their morality. Bomb Dresden or Gaza or Hiroshima and kill 10,000 innocent kids with fire and high explosives and people shrug their shoulders. But if you line up 50 kids and machine gun them to death, everybody is outraged.
Calley could have dropped napalm on the village and killed as many people and gotten nothing more than a "Well done"
Don't you hate it when a great force of personality takes over an entire political party and guides it based on his own strategies whims and desires? That's got to be the worst.
When Barry Goldwater, Hugh Scott, and John Rhodes went to tell Richard Nixon that his support in Congress had collapsed, they did it in full view of the public, and stood and took questions from the press.
When Trump gets reelected, he should take away Hugh Thompson's metal of honor, posthumously and give it to Lt. Calley.
Hersh is 5 years older than Biden. All his sources died in the 80s. Since then he just makes shit up
Someone forced Biden out of the race. Now, I don't necessarily believe Hersch has any more insight into these events than I do, but it is reasonable to assume the 25th threat was part of the weaponry brought to bear on Biden.
Excellent question. Takes "Who's your Daddy?", up a few notches to, "Who's your President?".
Who answers the 3 a.m. phone call?
Who nominates federal justices?
Who issues executive oreders?
Who's the Commander-in-Chief?
Who has the power to declare martial law?
Who signs and vetoes legislation?
Who nominates ambassadors?
Who nominates heads of executive depts.?
Et-effing-Cetera?
The present situation is a charade. Worse than, "Who's in charge?" is, "Is anybody in charge?".
Twenty-fifth amendment or have Joe punch the clock at the Oval Office every day.
Right now, the US does not have a credible government. Our country is in great peril.
By way of contrast, can someone remind me of how many Vietnamese were prosecuted for atrocities during that war. I remember reading somewhere that the UN was prosecuting someone from the Khmer Rouge, but he died while awarding trial.
Tho' I seldom comment here, I do like the new "system"!
The My Lai massacre should never be mentioned without addition of the name of the man who stopped it. WO Hugh Thompson, a helicopter pilot, saw the dead and the ongoing massacre from the air, landed his helicopter, ordered his crew chief and door gunner to cover him from the copter, and personally approached the US forces and told them that if they fired on civilians cowering in a bunker that his crew would shoot them. They stopped killing civilians and the massacre ended. How he could walk with such big brass ones is a story for another day.
This sort of correlates with the Monica Crowley story but the difference is that the Bidens or someone running Joe named Kamala to thwart Obama' plan to replace her with someone more electable.
In 71-72 I would hear "William Calley died for our sins". It would be called a "meme" today.
Many of us in the military at the time felt that Calley was a scapegoat.
Guilty of war crimes and deserving of punishment. But placed in an impossible situation by the politicians and brass. Singled out to atone for their crimes.
John Henry
Battle Hymn of William Calley was in frequent rotation on the Acey-Deucey Club Juke box in 71-72
https://youtu.be/PCPywCCrW5Y?si=Eo6JV1wyMqNtMOFO
Acey-Deucy Club was the 1st/2nd class petty officer (E-5/6) club for non navy types.
John Henry
Calley could have dropped napalm on the village and killed as many people and gotten nothing more than a "Well done"
Yup.
Something that still grinds my jaws more than 50 years later is how the POW's were treated and feted by the military. In the early 70s, at Roosevelt Roads Naval Station it seemed like once a month there would be some official remember the POWs/Bring them home activity.
Nothing at all wrong with that. At at Roosey, we had a lot of Naval Aviators who had been there done that, knew POWs personally, and realized that it could easily have been them. It was highly personal with them and I can certainly sympathize.
But 50,000 of my fellow servicemen died in VN. Hundreds of thousands more were maimed and mutilated.
Most of them were enlisted. In 7-1/2 years in the Navy there was never anything to commemorate them that I saw.
The POWs were almost all officers, mostly Aviators and pilots.
A lot of people at the time, me included, resented this. I still do.
The flyboys can do nothing wrong. Fuck 'em.
John Henry
The Great Ahmed Khan still at the head of the table.
It is fun to say things like this. It works on Desantis and Obama supporters.
But a comment like this just highlights that you do not understand why people support Trump. If you think Desantis would have won without Trump in the primary you are dumb enough to believe this.
Ever since Hersh pointed out that the US blew up the Nordestream Pipeline and brought the receipts this seems to the popular sentiment in some circles.
That isn't the theory I was working off of.
But Hersh has sources that provide clear details that fit the pattern pretty well.
Obama is not as smart as I thought he was. He also thinks more of himself than he should.
This is the part that sticks. Kamala is unpopular and obviously stupid.
On the other hand Obama picked Joe and got him installed in 2020. He may think he can do it again.
Howard,
Wouldn't Thompson have to have actually won a medal of honor before President Trump could take it away?
(He won The Soldier's Medal for his My Lai actions. and good on him for those actions)
John Henry
I still think he has a "brain trust" directing him. I'm reading "Rising Star." by Garrow.
Poor Howard. Still trying to suck up to the DNC after slipping off the plantation briefly where you made some sense.
"...he would place a call to Biden."
What is the difference between that and "he would call Biden"? When you "place a call" you have your pinky finger extended?
Cut out the deadwood, you "news" hacks! The worst faggot of deadwood is "ended up;" as in "...he ended up placing the call." WHAT!? It was his final act? He died with the phone in his hand.
"deeply" (The Word!)
Sy Hersh's most stupid post in recent times was his claim that Biden ordered the CIA to blow up the Russian pipelines in the Baltic Sea. That claim went unsubstantiated. so Hersh dropped the subject.
It appears the "reply" format has lived a short life :-)
I see both sides but unless you have time to be at the keyboard all day and night, it's pointless to support or reject another commenter's view and. perhaps, invite other takes. IMO, communication is incomplete unless there is more than one voice.
Peace.
Sy Hersh's most stupid post in recent times was his claim that Biden ordered the CIA to blow up the Russian pipelines in the Baltic Sea. That claim went unsubstantiated. so Hersh dropped the subject.
He made threats against those very pipelines, so it's not crazy talk.
Tell me, oh global geopolitical genius, how many entities have the means, motive, and opportunity to do what was done?
Who answers the 3 a.m. phone call? Nasty Boys!
Who nominates federal justices? Nasty Boys!
Who issues executive orders? Nasty Boys!
Ladies? Nasty boys don't mean a thing
Oh, you nasty boys
Corksoaker Obama is the jug-eared clown who stirs the toilet that constitutes leftwing politics.
Seymour Hersh is kind of a one-man National Enquirer. Some truth mixed in with kooky conspiracy theories. However, since 2000, conspiracy theories have actually been spoiler alerts, to a much greater extent than would be normal.
It may be true, but I suspect more that the Biden crime syndicate was given the final $ number and told the 25th Amendment would be next (i.e. signature or his brains on the paper, per the Godfather). That would have been a spectacle. A 25th Amendment would have been entertaining to watch, as it would require Republican votes to succeed. I would hope in that case, the Rs would have insisted on 100% approval by both House and Senate Democrat members before casting a single vote in favor.
I am assuming this is all anonymous sources, which means nothing without additional evidence.
That said, the story sounds plausible, at least in broad strokes. I suppose the real question is who was and who is the real President. Biden was obviously suffering from dementia before he was elected. How much of his Presidency is him making decisions and how much of it is the cabal who propped him up making decisions? When it comes to foreign policy, it is hard to say as (a) Biden is incredibly stupid on foreign policy and (b) his cabal is dominated by Obama loyalists who have a very skewed and far left view of the world that makes them think that making friends with Iran solves all issues. Biden's domestic policies have historically been whatever the flavor of the month was as he has no principles, so I doubt he even really cares.
gadfly: "Sy Hersh's most stupid post in recent times was his claim that Biden ordered the CIA to blow up the Russian pipelines in the Baltic Sea. That claim went unsubstantiated. so Hersh dropped the subject."
There is zero chance the US was not behind the destruction of the Nordstream pipelines. None.
Howitzer Howard: "When Trump gets reelected, he should take away Hugh Thompson's metal of honor, posthumously and give it to Lt. Calley."
Howard is simply attempting a hypothetical/deflection/projection hoax-y claim to deflect from what his New Soviet Democraticals are ACTUALLY doing: Biden has literally ordered the incompetent Gen Austin and DOD to conduct a reassessment of the actions of those 20 soldiers who received the Medal of Honor at the Battle of Little Big Horn.
Howitzer Howard hasn't had a single thought that wasn't placed there by his political betters....like the good little New Soviet Democratical dhimmi that he is.
Calley could have dropped napalm on the village and killed as many people and gotten nothing more than a "Well done"
Dark Island needs to brush up on the ROE for air-to-ground attack in Vietnam.
But 50,000 of my fellow servicemen died in VN. Hundreds of thousands more were maimed and mutilated.
Most of them were enlisted. In 7-1/2 years in the Navy there was never anything to commemorate them that I saw.
The POWs were almost all officers, mostly Aviators and pilots.
A lot of people at the time, me included, resented this. I still do.
The flyboys can do nothing wrong. Fuck 'em
That was a pitiful statement, John Henry. Next time around, I wish you a back seat ride with Wild Weasel.
Why you hatin' on officers and aviators and POWs? Every flyer I ever knew understood his life depended on the the enlisted guys on his ground crew and treated them with honor and respect.
Of the 50,000+ dead because of service in Vietnam, I would bet the number of "flyboys" far exceeded the number of USN enlisted men. RIP to all of them.
One of the special 'perks'of wearing a uniform is the right to bitch about anything and everything. So, enjoy your misery. Perhaps you should look into some kind of 'reparations' :-)
You raise an interesting question, NKP. Never looked before but easily answered.
US Navy total VN deaths 2,559
https://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics
US Naval Aviators 401
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_losses_of_the_Vietnam_War
So it looks like 2,158 non-Naval Aviator USN deaths or about 5 times as many.
Can't readily find a number for USAF pilots shot down.
John Henry
Reading NKPs response to my comment, perhaps I came across the wrong way.
I certainly did not mean to diminish the suffering of the POWs.
I had and have no objection to commemorating them. No objection to the PR campaign to bring them home. They certainly deserved both.
My objection was that this was done and we enlisteds were expected to pay homage. But nobody, pretty much ever, then or now, in the military or out, pays attention to the enlisted who bore the brunt of the suffering and dying in VN.
And that still pisses me off more than 50 years later.
I am not looking for reparations or recognition. I was strictly Atlantic, never heard the sound of gunfire except for occasional recreational shooting from the fantail. But those 50,000+ names on the wall in DC? They were all from my generation. (More or less)
As for Naval Aviators, I have known a lot over the years. A lot while I was active, many more in the 23 years I taught for SNHU at Roosey Roads and 15-25% of my students were Naval Aviators.
In general they are very intelligent, hard working, highly motivated. ANd just strapping one of those things on, going out and doing carrier ops or going downtown in VN takes a huge set of balls. I take nothing away from them on any of those scores.
But they think they are hotshots. Mostly because they really are. If you have done it, it ain't bragging. That tends to make a lot of them assholes to a greater or lesser extent. In my experience.
What about you, NKP? Ever serve? Know many Naval Aviators personally?
John Henry
She’s been selected. The theater of the election is for those who still are foolish enough to think the system is still operant. Meanwhile Obama’s speechwriters are crafting Kamala’s inaugural address. Book it.
I have a number of Dem co-workers who are fine with Obama leading from behind the scenes. They want to vote for an Obama. They would rather vote for Michelle than for Kamala.
I argue that this is not ok in principle. They don’t care. They are fine with a proxy POTUS.
I think it’s time for an open discussion about proxy presidents.
In Re: Comments.
There was one day when all were really tiny, but I have had no problems. I am on an Android, using the default internet app, and this phone isn't the latest - I've had it for about five years and it wasn't the katest when I got it from Tracphone.
Hope that info helps.
He threatened to take Joe paddle-boarding.
There's a reason Kamala has never received a vote in the Democrat primary and, I believe we're going to find out why shortly. Kamala is just like Joe, but for different reasons, the more she talks the worse she becomes, as a candidate. I sincerely hope Trump gives her all the chances she needs to present her plans for the country, rather than responding to something Trump said about her.
Obama wasn't a hands-on guy when he was in charge, and he hasn't become one since. He's the guy the party elite calls in when they really need somebody to get Biden to do something. If he were an active participant in day-to-day politics or the architect of the administration's policies, his intervention wouldn't have been as powerful or as convincing. If it were just another in a series of weekly or monthly phone calls, the Bidens might not have taken the call.
Hersh makes things up, but his take on the Kennedys may have been more accurate than anything that was written at the time. At this point, it's likely that the conspiracy theorists do pick up on some things that the Deep State doesn't tell us.
gadfly said...
Sy Hersh's most stupid post in recent times was his claim that Biden ordered the CIA to blow up the Russian pipelines in the Baltic Sea. That claim went unsubstantiated. so Hersh dropped the subject.
The US obviously blew up the pipeline. Nobody intelligent even argues this anymore. The way the European "Investigators" clammed up and dropped all of their investigations made that clear.
Hersh also clearly had primary sources.
He didn't drop it. He made sure everyone knew the truth.
But nobody, pretty much ever, then or now, in the military or out, pays attention to the enlisted who bore the brunt of the suffering and dying in VN.
Did you miss Dear Hunter, Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, Platoon? Ever read A Rumor of War, Fields of Fire, Matterhorn, We Were Soldiers Once...and Young or countless others? Hardly a fucking flyboy in sight.
But they think they are hotshots. Mostly because they really are. If you have done it, it ain't bragging. That tends to make a lot of them assholes to a greater or lesser extent. In my experience.
In the fighter pilot community, anyone who wonders who the World's Greatest Fighter Pilot is, can be sure of ONE thing - it ain't him. Members sometimes act accordingly. Forward Air Controllers, in-country C-130 crews, gunship crews, Jolly Green guys and other sundry had their own stories to tell. You might enjoy reading The Ravens (available on Amazon, of course) or watching Masters of the Air on Apple. Most crewmembers in WWII B-17s and B-24s were enlisted, by the way. And, as much as I hate score keeping in matters of life and death, it may interest you to know that 8th Air Force lost more people in WWII than the entire Marine Corps. RIP to all.
As for me - yes I put in 20+. Between '65 and '71, I did two tours and many 'visits' on special projects. My first trip as a dumb-ass brown bar was to replace my next door neighbor and friend who was lost on his first mission. We had no paved runway and no jets. About half-a- dozen small outfits operating out of plain sight, doing God-knows-what-all. We worked from last light till first light and returning crews drank around a bonfire in the jungle every night until the last crew came home safely. "Good Times". The Air Force Commander in Vietnam was not fond of non-conformers and tried to have us banished more than once. The Bad-Ass US ambassador in Laos thought that was nonsense and told The Big Boss from Saigon to fuck off. I was in our one-room HQ when this happened. "Good Times".
As for POWs, in the late 60s I was part of the planning group concerned with repatriation of airmen in captivity. As such, I saw every single bit of intel on what was happening to these individuals, in great detail. They deserved every bit of the care and support they received. I will always be inspired by the words spoken by the ranking officer among POWs, when he stepped off the plane in the PI: "We are honored to have had the opportunity to serve our country under difficult circumstances..."
As for Naval Aviators, yes, I've known a few, including my brother, my brother-in-law, my best friend from HS, a former Air Boss on the Nimitz, a former SecNav and my best friend at US Forces Japan HQ in the 80s. A wild bunch if there ever was... They got hung out to dry at "Tailhook" in 'Vegas and an era ended. Now, the Navy, along with the military, is fully "woke".
Wow.The last of the great bloggers brings up Hersh, then goes back to Calley and Vietnam. Congratulations on continuing to deliver at this high level.
At some point Hersh went into a decline, relying on a few bad sources, believing the CIA is behind everything. I'm pretty sure he was right about the Nord Stream pipeline.
A small elite in DC, making decisions in secret to further their own careers, telling themselves they are serving the public to whom they are consistently lying. This does indeed take us back.
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