Abuse of Power, by Theodore Draper
Eckstein, George
There has been no dearth of commentaries on the Vietnam War and on the crisis into which it has plunged this country. The very proliferation of writings is a measure of the depth of this...
...But the reasons given by Kennedy's aides for his increase of political and military assistance, apparently against his own better judgment—namely that he "had no choice, but to work within the situation he had inherited" (Schlesinger)— this could equally be applied to defend Johnson's escalations...
...For each time, and under four different Presidents, we have come to do exactly what we knew (and said) should not be done...
...These corruptions have reached Orwellian proportions, and in his painstaking research of sources Draper amasses a truly amazing collection of examples...
...It shares the qualities of Draper's previous work: his respect for facts, his concern with truth, his getting at the roots...
...President Johnson and his closest associates might do well to keep in mind what was said of another military victory by Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, in 279 B.C...
...Yet, increasingly difficult as it may have become, there has always existed, and still exists, the option to de-escalate a war that—except for a few blind military minds—both sides must know they cannot win...
...The result is that it makes a political solution less possible...
...With each step the American military investment has increased, and each increase has made it more difficult for the U.S...
...commitment, had resisted the pressures of their hawks to a substantial degree...
...All great powers which have overestimated, overindulged, and overextended their power have come to grief...
...Among the recent critical writings many have been valuable in one way or another...
...Against this hubris of "the American century" Draper warns in his concluding paragraph: Whatever one may think about getting out...
...Above all, he puts the U.S...
...Draper questions whether Kennedy himself would have used such an easy excuse, and finds this sense of fatality the most devastating aspect of our Vietnam policy...
...his critique is directed against its abuse, not against its use...
...there is still the larger and deeper crisis of how we got into the war...
...In this connection, Draper examines the question whether John F. Kennedy would have avoided the extent of involvement that has occurred since 1965...
...What emerges from this analysis is a policy that increasingly substitutes military means for political and economic ones and relies more and more on the exercise of naked power...
...role in the Vietnam War in relation to similar actions in Cuba and Santo Domingo...
...to extricate itself from this originally unwanted involvement...
...But, at least to my knowledge, none of these so far has treated the theme as comprehensively and, at the same time, concisely, as Theodore Draper's new book...
...Both Eisenhower and Kennedy, while extending the U.S...
...Draper does not ignore the realities of power...
...The chief contributor has been, of course, our Secretary of State, and compared to him and perhaps some of the military brass, MacNamara and Taylor are at times examples of sobriety...
...Fortunately, as Draper points out, there are still reporters who are able to correct the official picture...
...His judgment becomes all the more devastating for not neglecting nuances and degrees of responsibilities...
...society...
...Draper follows the Vietnam War through what he calls its seven major "turning points," from the decision by Truman-Acheson to aid the French colonial administration in 1950, to the take-over of the war from the South Vietnamese in Fall 1966 (step 6), and the intensified attacks on the North (Hanoi-Haiphong) in February I967...
...Another appalling aspect of this wrong-headed policy stands out in Draper's examination: the corruption of language and reasoning, the amount of deceit and self-deception it has produced among our policymakers...
...There has been no dearth of commentaries on the Vietnam War and on the crisis into which it has plunged this country...
...The very proliferation of writings is a measure of the depth of this crisis: no comparable output accompanied, for example, World War II, even though it cut much deeper into the fabric of U.S...
...This corruption of the truth is, of course, frightening not only because it misleads the public, but because it prevents our decisionmakers from discerning the facts, and thus from a proper appraisal of the forces at work in the world today...
...This honorable stance of at least a fairly substantial section of publications and TV-networks, together with the increasingly critical attitude in the Senate, may yet prevent the escalation of the war beyond Vietnam...
Vol. 14 • November 1967 • No. 6
