RIPPLE SALVO… #104… SELF-DECEPTION…
Good Morning: Day ONE HUNDRED FOUR of a 900 day review (God willing) of Operation Rolling Thunder…
11 JUNE 1966…ON THE HOME FRONT… (NYT)… Great Saturday in both Washington and New York City….
Page 1: “Congressman Links Fatal XB-70 Flight To Publicity Photo”… the Chairman of the House Appropriation Committee George Mahan of Texas expressed his shock and dismay when he learned that the mid-air between an F-104 and the XB-70 was to take publicity photos for a jet engine contractor. Congressman Mahan: “The formation was formed in order that photographs could be taken for the use of the General Electric Company which manufactures the engine of these five aircraft. The loss of these men, and an aircraft in which more than $500 million has been invested by taxpayers while accommodating the public relations department of a private company is indefensible.” The F-104 flew into the right wing of the XB-70. One pilot was killed and one safely ejected….(article accompanied by pictures of mid-air…provided by General electric???)…Page 1: “Ky Sends Force of 400 To Take Control Of Hue”…”in a move to regain control of the city from Buddhists and military dissidents. Hue, 400 miles north of Saigon is the only remaining Buddhist stronghold in Central Vietnam. For the last two weeks the junta has been negotiating with units of the dissident Army division in Hue’ in an effort to wean them from the Buddhist cause. The negotiations have been going so well, the junta apparently felt confident to take its first direct action. The combat police seized all dissidents stronghold and began disarming and purging the local police force.”… Page 4: Defense Department announces names of 14 American troops killed in actin in Vietnam war…
Page 6: “Moscow Affirms Stand on Vietnam”…”Leonid Brezhnev cites but doesn’t explain new measures the Soviet Union is implementing to show support for North Vietnam. “Soviet policy is invariable in support of Vietnamese Communists. We are taking new measures and making new efforts in Vietnam to help speed the victory of the heroic Vietnamese people. we shall do everything in our power to organize a united anti-imperialism front in support of Vietnam. American aggression must stop.”….Page 8: “Cultural Shock In Jidda”…The severity of Koranic Penal Code disturbs many westerners living in Saudi Arabia. “Experience elsewhere in the Arab or Moslem world is no better preparation for Saudi Arabia than life in contemporary Boston would be for the witchcraft trials and punishments of 17th century Salem. Saudis assert that the severity of the punishment, stoning for adultery, cutting off a hand for theft, beheading for murder and offenses against public order and safety–is such that they deter most potential criminals.”
11 JUNE 1966… ROLLING THUNDER OPERATIONS… NYT (12 June reporting 11 June ops)… Page 1: “US Bombs Area Of Two-Day Battle” … After 250-men of the 101st Airborne Division reached safety after waging an intense 2-day battle, the US air forces heavily bombed the Central Highlands ridge where a large North Vietnamese force was still entrenched… Page 3: “In the north United States Navy pilots destroyed 30 railroad cars and an engine in the Pocan railroad yard 17 miles north of Thanh Hoa. the pilots reported that the first car they set off ignited the others like a string of firecrackers. Air Force bombers also hit a ten car train 20 miles northeast of Mugia Pass. They also reported 31 buildings, six trucks, 3 junks, and 3 bridges destroyed in other strikes.” Ther were no aircraft lost in Southeast Asia on 11 June, 50 years ago this day…
RIPPLE SALVO… #104….NATIONAL SELF-DECEPTION… Deception: the act of deceiving….
Theodore C. Sorensen, author and a speech writer for JFK , offers this bit of wisdom to assist me discussing a serious problem in the United States: “If we can but tear the blindfold of self-deception from our eyes and loosen the gag of self-denial from our voices, we can restore our country to greatness.”
David Shapiro, in his book “Social Research,” writes on the “psychology of self-deception”…
“It is easy to lose one’s way in the subject of self-deception, so I will stay close to actual events as much as possible. To begin with, an example, in which it seems that knowing something is not as simple and unambiguous a condition as one might imagine; A businessman is talking about his partner and friend of many years. He chooses his words carefully. With obvious reluctance, he says that it is ‘p0ossible’ that this man has been cheating him. He is silent for a moment, then he says quietly that he thinks he has known thie ‘in a way’ for a long time. finally, he adds, “But you don’t really know it until you say it out loud.
“Thus we learn that there are two kinds of knowing: knowing ‘in a way’ and ‘really’ knowing. Furthermore, the transition from one to the other occurs upon ‘saying it out loud.’ The difference, in other words, is not a matter of acquiring additional information, but of conscience articulation of what was already in some sense known but not articulated. One might call it a process of consciousness raising. The early state in which the speaker did not know (and did not want to know) what he knew.; the final state was one in which he realized what he knew, admitting it to his listener and to himself at the same stroke. It appears, therefore, that there is a distinction between what one feels or believes about something and what one imagines oneself to feel or believe. A disjunction between these two is what we call self-deception.”
James Thomson, contributed a short piece entitled “United States National Interest in Vietnam” to the Harrison Salisbury collection of views he labeled “Vietnam Reconsidered: Lessons From a War.”… Thomson traces the origin of that national interest to a 1952 National Security Council statement on “U.S. Objectives and Course of Action With Respect to Southeast Asia,” and the statement therein: “Communist domination, by whatever means, of all Southeast Asia would seriously endanger in the short term, and critically endanger in the long term, United States security interests…the loss of any single country in Southeast Asia would lead to Communism in all of Southeast Asia, then India, then the Middle East, and finally, would endanger the stability and security of Europe. A long swim!” He briefly reviews the nation’s efforts to do good work around the globe as a benevolent big brother. He cites our participation in the World Wars, the Cold War, the Marshall Plan, Point Four, foreign aid, and Food for Peace, etc., as satisfying the “national itch to do good.” He suggests that “America’s sentimental imperialism has been a prime and underreported motivation of presidents and even some secretaries of state in the long and futile effort to deny Indochina to Communism and save it for our way of life. Its motivation runs deep in our history and in our intellectual bloodstream. It has sometimes accomplished great good, but when accompanied with our grandiosity, our military might, and our frustration, it has indeed produced lethal consequences.”
“The major problem of America’s Indochina involvement was not, however, its missionary impulse, but the refusal to understand and acknowledge that the hostilities occurring in Vietnam were fundamentally, for all their complexities, messiness, and longevity, elements of a civil war. sad to say , it never suited the purposes of the American government to come to the recognition and understanding, to level with the American people on the nature of that war, to level with the Congress, or even to level with itself. Indeed, at the root of many of the large and small deceptions that characterized America’s Vietnam policy over the years, there was the most fatal flaw of all–namely collective self-deception. And given that flaw, there was no way to face and tell the truth that we had, after all, no real stake or national interest there, and made a bad mistake, and should simply get out.”
The social science folks make good use of family situations to make the case that it is not unusual for a family to employ, either as individuals or as a whole family, self-deception in dealing with that family problem. For example, an alcoholic parent, child abuse or a drug problem. In these cases the whole family accepts the need to lie to themselves. The studies on self-deception carry this one step further. I quote from a New York Times Magazine article (May 12, 1985): “Family therapists have described this sort of denial and cover-up as ‘the game of happy family.’ It is just one aspect of the larger phenomenon of human self-deception, the nature of which is only now beginning to be understood by cognitive psychologists. The scientists’ work explains how and why people lie to themselves. And patterns emerge from the scientific evidence that would seem to indicate that, just as individuals and families deceive themselves, so do larger groups of people, so do whole societies. The new research reveals a natural bent toward self-deception so great that the need for counterbalancing forces within the mind and society as a whole forces such insight and respect for truth- becomes more apparent than ever.”
From the foregoing, it is my conclusion that our beloved country has now become so addicted to collective self-deception on a national scale, that making America great again, may be impossible. Lift a rock anywhere in the country and you will be met by individuals and groups, especially politicians and political parties, that know no other way than to avoid the truth even when they know it. They eat, sleep and breathe self-deception. And they become the cheer leaders who use a legion of journalists and media outlets to propagate lies and deceptions, convinced that this is normal and acceptable behavior. Who among us really believes that the economy is improving; that a $20 trillion national debt is not a big problem; that Hillary never tells a lie; that the United States military is the most powerful in the history of the world; that super heroes in costumes are real heroes; that the quality of life in the United States will be better for our children; that Americans are fit; that political correctness and celebrating multi-culturalism is bringing us together; that bilingual is better than one English as the national language; that the deal with Iran on nuclear weapons is good for the world and the United States; that campaign financing is not a national problem; that immigration is not a national problem; that Obama Care is what we were told it would be; that folks can use any bathroom they want to; that global warming is caused by human behaviors is established/resolved science; that expanding our military presence in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Mid-East is in our national interests?
Just as we deceived ourselves that Vietnam and the dominoes of Southeast Asia were vital national interests; that the Gulf of Tonkin incident was reason for Rolling Thunder; that WMDs in Iraq were a cause for war; that retaliation for 9/11 required a war in Afghanistan; and that our government is keeping us safe and secure, we continue to practice a national self-deception that is destroying us from within.
Our two candidates for President are both riding on platforms that promise to make America better or great again. Both must memorize and practice the Theodore Sorensen advice: “If we can but tear the blindfold of self-deception from our eyes and loosen the gag of self-denial from our voices, we can make our country great again.” For as long as our countrymen and women bask in self-deception in lieu of honesty, and fail to demand the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth from themselves, their groups, their media, and the national leadership, we will continue to disintegrate.
“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” (S. Kierkegaard)
“If it is necessary sometimes to lie to others, it is always despicable to lie to oneself.” (W. Somerset Maugham)
“No satisfaction based upon self-deception is solid, and, however unpleasant the truth may be, it is better to face it once for all, to get used to it, and proceed to build your life in accordance with it.” (Bertrand Russell)
Lest we forget…. Bear ………. –30– ………..