To The Moon

On August 4, 1964, two US Navy destroyers were conducting intelligence patrols in the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of Vietnam, when the task force commander grabbed the radio and reported that they were under attack by three North Vietnamese torpedo boats.

The news traveled very quickly all the way to the Pentagon, and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara briefed President Lyndon Johnson on the situation.

They demanded retaliation. And only a few days later, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution… which essentially authorized full blown military conflict in Vietnam.

The only problem, of course, is that the supposed August 4th attack in the Gulf of Tonkin never actually happened.

McNamara himself admitted decades later that the attack was made up, and a declassified report from the National Security Agency showed that there weren’t even any North Vietnamese patrol boats in the area.

Despite the complete fabrication, however, the US went on to engage in a long and costly war. And the man who headed up the effort was a four star general named William Westmoreland, a career officer who had been described by his Pentagon bosses as “the best we have, without question.”

Westmoreland aggressively expanded the war, increasing the number of American troops on the ground by nearly 50x. And he was constantly on TV telling the American public how great the war effort was going and predicted victory by 1967.

At first, everyone believed him. The government still had credibility back then, so few people questioned the commanding general’s assurance that the war was going well.

Westmoreland himself became wildly popular; Time magazine made him the “Man of the Year” in 1965, and his name was even thrown around as a potential candidate for US President.

Little by little, though, it became clear that the war in Vietnam was NOT going as well as Westmoreland had claimed. And in 1968 when the North Vietnamese launched a ferocious assault known as the Tet Offensive, it was obvious that America was losing.

People were shocked; Westmoreland had over 500,000 troops, vastly superior weapons technology, and nearly infinite financial resources at his disposal. And yet he still couldn’t win.

America’s reputation for invincibility was tarnished. The consequences for the US economy were devastating. Social chaos at home was rising-- in large part because of the failed war effort.

And the government’s credibility would never recover… also in large part to Westmoreland’s fabricated claims of success.

You’d think that a guy whose leadership had caused so much damage would have been fired swiftly. But Westmoreland not only kept his job… he was actually PROMOTED to Chief of Staff of the Army.

Sadly this is a common theme in government: failure is rarely punished. It is often rewarded.