Whipped Cream Difficulties

But I believe President Obama has done something right.

Back during the Vietnam war, there was a four-star general in the Air Force named John D. Lavelle. In 1972, he was accused of ordering unauthorized bombing missions in North Vietnam, and of trying to cover up those missions. General Lavelle denied the charges, and claimed the missions were authorized; however, he was demoted and forced to resign anyway.

Lavelle died in 1979, but insisted in interviews that the missions were authorized, and that he was acting on the orders of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Yesterday, President Obama asked the Senate to restore General Lavelle’s missing star, which would effectively (in my humble opinion, and in the opinion of the WP) restore General Lavelle’s honor.

The president’s decision is based on evidence uncovered by Aloysius Casey, a retired general, and his son, Patrick, who were researching a biography of another Air Force general. In the process of their research, they found documents showing that, yes, the Joint Chiefs of Staff knew of and authorized the missions.

Even more damning, they found audio recordings showing that President Nixon also ordered and knew of the missions, and actually dithered about whether or not to throw General Lavelle under the bus.

“I just don’t want him to be made a goat, goddamnit,” Nixon told his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, on June 14, 1972, a few days after it was disclosed that Lavelle had been demoted for the allegedly unauthorized attacks. “You, you destroy a man’s career. . . . Can we do anything now to stop this damn thing?”

On June 26, Nixon’s conscience intervened in another conversation with Kissinger. “Frankly, Henry, I don’t feel right about our pushing him into this thing and then, and then giving him a bad rap,” the president said. “I don’t want to hurt an innocent man.“

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 5th, 2010 at 1:23 pm and is filed under Clippings, Leadership, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.