Word: arguments
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Admiral David McDonald, chief of naval operations, recently returned from Viet Nam, translated this argument into flesh-and-blood terms last week. "The bombing," he reported, "is substantially slowing down the infiltration of men and supplies into South Viet Nam, and the slowdown has saved an awful lot of lives of Marines and Army soldiers on the ground." The price of another long pause would thus be prohibitively high unless the other side responds in kind. From Hanoi to date there has been only silence on this score...
...separating noncombatant Vietnamese hiding underground from Viet Cong. Often the gas is pumped into the tunnel complexes by means of long hoses attached to gasoline-driven pumps, but gas grenades are usually used. Last week U.S. troops in Tay Ninh were hit by Communist gas grenades. With that, the argument against U.S. use of nontoxic gas went up in a puff of smoke...
What spoils this picture of constant improvement is the sneaking suspicion that the improvement is not always real-in other words, the old bogy of planned obsolescence. Advertising, so goes the argument, not only exaggerates the improvements in many products but also relentlessly creates demands that never existed before. Obviously this is true; yet there is a limit to the process. Detroit may be able to get away with a mere face lifting on its cars for a season or two, but sooner or later there has to be genuine innovation, or else the consumer will simply not respond. Similarly...
Secondly, there is the hope of changing current policy. All other, more moderate, channels having been tried, anti-Administration policy has been escalated. The argument here, as I understand it -- and it strikes me as valid -- is that in order to promote a change in policy, a noticeable and vocal opposition is necessary. The growth of such an opposition is dependent, in good measure, on knowledge of its own strength. Communications media not having served extensively as forums for policy debate, the occasion of McNamara's visit could be used to publicize opposition at Harvard in the hope of encouraging...
McNamara dismissed as ridiculous the argument that this move would overweight the power of military in society. The extra training, he said, would require slightly more funds than the regular program. But there should be no danger of "diluting" the strength of the military and the benefits will be well worth the cost: "I wouldn't be surprised," he said, "if we would increase the life-time earnings of these people two or three times...