We dont credit with torpedo capability, although they may have it. Washington and Lyndon Johnsons view and mcnamaras view, could wanted to shoot. They wanted to be tough. They are in an election season. They have to be seen to be tough. False reports gave them an excuse to do something they wanted to do. You see, some of the back and forth, and i give mcnamara some credit on this, because mcnamara actually paid attention when the ship captain harrick sends him the 1 00 message. Mcnamara already advises the president were under attack, were going to shoot back. Were going to do that. Mcnamara gets the followup where the ship commander says, dont think so. Mcnamara goes ballistic. He is a pretty powerful, forceful follow, robert mcnamara. Among other things, he calls up the admiral in charge of Pacific Command and says, what is this . They dont think you dont understand that were already in motion here. Weve already had the meetings with the principals. President s already signed up. Wer
News anchor tom brokaw on his more than 50 years of reporting on world events. Thats this Christmas Day on the cspan networks. For a complete schedule go to cspan. Org. About 50 years ago on august 10th, 1964, president Lyndon Johnson signed the gulf of tonkin resolution, which in lieu of a declaration of war gave him broad powers to wage war in Southeast Asia. That resolution was passed by congress in response to an august 2nd attack, and an alleged august 4th incident in the golf of tonkin involving u. S. Destroyers and vietnamese torpedo boats. American history visited the National Security archive at George Washington university to learn about numerous declassified documents that have shed more life on the gulf of tonkin incidents. Im tom blanton, the director of the National Security archive. Were here on the top floor of the main library at George Washington university, which is where we live. And were in a room full of boxes of declassified documents. Its really an artifact beca
News anchor tom brokaw on his more than 50 years of reporting on world events. Thats this Christmas Day on the cspan networks. For a complete schedule go to cspan. Org. About 50 years ago on august 10th, 1964, president Lyndon Johnson signed the gulf of tonkin resolution, which in lieu of a declaration of war, gave him broad powers to wage war in southeast asia. That resolution was passed by congress in response to an august 2nd attack, and an alleged august 4th incident in the golf of tonkin involving u. S. Destroyers and vietnamese torpedo boats. American history visited the National Security archive at George Washington university to learn about numerous declassified documents that have shed more life on the gulf of tonkin incidents. Im tom blanton, the director of the National Security archive. We are on the top floor of the main library at George Washington university which is where we live. We are in a room full of boxes of declassified documents. Its really an artifact because m
News anchor tom brokaw on his more than 50 years of reporting on world events. Thats this Christmas Day on the cspan networks. For a complete schedule go to cspan. Org. About 50 years ago on august 10th, 1964, president Lyndon Johnson signed the gulf of tonkin resolution, which in lieu of a declaration of war gave him broad powers to wage war in Southeast Asia. That resolution was passed by congress in response to an august 2nd attack, and an alleged august 4th incident in the golf of tonkin involving u. S. Destroyers and vietnamese torpedo boats. American history visited the National Security archive at George Washington university to learn about numerous declassified documents that have shed more life on the gulf of tonkin incidents. Im tom blanton, the director of the National Security archive. Were here on the top floor of the main library at George Washington university, which is where we live. And were in a room full of boxes of declassified documents. Its really an artifact beca
Save the world. This is 45 minutes. Im delighted to be atlanta. What a great book festival thiss is. I think the book i wrote is relevant. I wrote a biography of dwightthe eisenhower who is a warrior, was determined to keep us out of asd war. But before i talk about my book they asked me to talk a little bit about the writing life and my own expenses as a writer, so i will. I got out of college and i tried to write the Great American novel, and i wrote about 80d pages of it and i brought it tor my father to read. My father is a book editor, and they came down for breakfast in the morning and he looked up at me and he said, its awful. Hoolt that was our entire conversation. I applied to law school that e ternoon. Pe [laughter] this was before parents believed in selfesteem and all that. Ill. It was awful. It was a mercy killing. It wa [laughter] i went to law school, which was good most of becauser i marriedo my better, to spot the issue, helped my writing. I knew that i didnt want to b