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Other military men also blamed Johnson for timidity in his waging of the war. Westmoreland said later, "It takes the full strength of a tiger to kill a rabbit." A battalion commander added, "Remember, we're watchdogs you unchain to eat up the burglar. Don't ask us to be mayors or sociologists worrying about hearts and minds. Let us eat up the burglar our own way and then put us back on the chain."
. . .
Labor leaders, including Walter Reuther, supported escalation in 1965-66. AFL-CIO president George Meany ardently backed it long after that. "I would rather fight the Communists in South Vietnam," he said in 1967, "than fight them down here in the Chesapeake Bay."
-- Grand Expectations by James T. Patterson
In the study of history, sometimes it can seem like only the names change. But you can also see evolution. We never have been able to simplify the military mission like that in the modern post-World War II era, and America has not been able to impose its will. It's not like the ancient Roman Empire. And we struggle and try to sort through these limitations, working out various theories of containment.
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Other military men also blamed Johnson for timidity in his waging of the war. Westmoreland said later, "It takes the full strength of a tiger to kill a rabbit." A battalion commander added, "Remember, we're watchdogs you unchain to eat up the burglar. Don't ask us to be mayors or sociologists worrying about hearts and minds. Let us eat up the burglar our own way and then put us back on the chain."
. . .
Labor leaders, including Walter Reuther, supported escalation in 1965-66. AFL-CIO president George Meany ardently backed it long after that. "I would rather fight the Communists in South Vietnam," he said in 1967, "than fight them down here in the Chesapeake Bay."
-- Grand Expectations by James T. Patterson
In the study of history, sometimes it can seem like only the names change. But you can also see evolution. We never have been able to simplify the military mission like that in the modern post-World War II era, and America has not been able to impose its will. It's not like the ancient Roman Empire. And we struggle and try to sort through these limitations, working out various theories of containment.
