Again, many thanks to the kind reader who sent me The Cat From Hue, what an excellent book, read it. That in mind, one of its themes is the author's increasing and in the end utter distrust of the MACV establishment account of the war.
John Laurence came to believe MACV was lying and he was in the right place to know, he covered the war at its sharp end for a solid five years (1965-70). You see, he was being told at press conferences that we were unequivocally winning and he knew we weren't, at least in terms of big picture.
Plaudit aside, things have moved on and the likes of Laurence, Dana Stone, Tim Page, Michael Herr, Sean Flynn et al wouldn't be tolerated. In fairness, why should the US warfighting hegemon tolerate a potentially subversive element. Then again, the reverse side of the medal says that that same hegemon shouldn't lie at the expense of lives and the enrichment of its pocketbook.
So to what extent are we being lied to about the Ukraine conflict? I'll wager the monkey, and he's a vicious little beast, that we shouldn't believe half of what we're told, and that's a conservative wager. Bets on?
