Customer Reviews

The Pentagon Papers

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Prepare to have your trust in government shattered. It illustrates the "credibility gap" during the Vietnam War, i.e., the gap between what Johnson and Kennedy were saying to the public and what was actually happening in Vietnam. The administrations constantly lie to the American public on our progress in the war. What's most interesting is reading these documents alongside speeches made to the public during this time by McNamara and Johnson. It's quite startling. Read this book.

Amazon pulled Wikileaks from their site because it represented classified government documents. So what is the Pentagon Papers still doing on this site?

Oh right, Amazon wasn't around in 1971 to cave in to pressure from right wing politicians to betray the First Amendment right to publish classified materials that have been leaked by others.

This book covers but a small part of the overall deception of the government in the Vietnam War. It does paint an excellent picture of the inner workings and the thinking of corrupt officials up to and including the president.