Word: laird
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...segments. First the heavy raids in the southern part of the country were billed as "protective reaction" to the downing of a U.S. reconnaissance plane. Then it was acknowledged that they were aimed at enemy supplies. First there was a denial of strikes farther north, with Defense Secretary Melvin Laird explaining that the bomb damage near Hanoi reported by the North Vietnamese may have been caused by their own missiles fired at U.S. planes. Then, when Hanoi put some exploded U.S. Shrike missiles on exhibit, came the Pentagon admission that there had been a diversionary attack by fighter-bombers...
...Laird admitted that he had planned to keep the P.O.W. operation secret but finally announced it to avoid a "credibility problem." He insisted: "This was not a failure." If not, the word has meanings unknown to the laymen and to the servicemen who carried out the mission...
Puzzled observers noted that the U. S. has satellites which can see trucks and gun emplacements, which might have provided some clues about whether the camp was occupied or not. Laird pointed out that, of the known prison camp sites, Son Tay was the only one open enough to allow helicopter landings; this argument is a joke-something like the man who lost a dime in a dark alley and looked for it under the streetlight because he could see better there...
Certainly one of the real reasons for the raid was to discredit opposition to the brutal escalation-Laird explained that bombing had taken place north of the 19th parallel as a "diversionary" move to protect the raiders. Senators who questioned the justice of bombing supply dumps, rail lines, truck depots, and Army barracks in the Hanoi area were thus neatly put in the position of opposing efforts to free U. S. prisoners...
...pretext for the Son Tay raid was fragile. Cora Weiss, who returned from Hanoi with the news that six prisoners of war had died, has claimed that Laird twisted the information and that, in her opinion, the prisoners did not die of mistreatment. The U. S. can easily hoke up another "mistreatment" scare whenever it decides that the North Vietnamese need a dose of terror, and send in the kamikaze killers...