Path to War Page #2

to another.

It was a matter of convenience,

and schoolin and

I don't think religion should be

a matter of convenience.

And this is a private matter, Luci.

You're finishing up at Texas,

aren't you, Lynda?

Next year, Ma am.

She's dating George Hamilton,

you know.

The actor?

Yes.

With the tan?

And your sister may consider

that a private matter, too.

Oh, mother, you must be joking.

Come on now, damn it,

what's the reason this time?

I don't have the qualifications

to be CIA director.

I decide the qualifications.

You had all the qualifications to be

Attorney General, didn't ya,

to succeed Bobby Kennedy.

Yeah.

Yeah, and here I am stuck

with a friend of his, Katzenbach.

He's excellent.

Ah, well all right you told me

your interest is foreign affairs.

Well, that's where I need your help,

foreign affairs.

What is CIA but foreign affairs?

I think my skills would better serve

you in foreign policy,

Mr. President, not foreign intrigue.

I hear you billed a million dollars

last year,

First lawyer in the country

to do that. True?

Well,

that's what five percent came to.

Well then, you can afford to take

a hiatus from all this money-makin,

come serve your president.

I don't think you need an attorney,

old friend.

I think you need a magician.

A magician?

Yes. Someone who can make

a small corner of

Southeast Asia disappear.

President Kennedy

did not lose South Vietnam

and I'm not gonna lose South Vietnam.

I kept all these people on,

they assured me,

told me to stick it out.

Now, that little sonovabitch Bobby

is just hovering

to swoop down and reclaim the mantle

if I fail.

He'll hang me from my left ball,

Goldwater hang me from my right.

That is complete nonsense.

You humiliated Goldwater

in the election.

The entire Right wing is in disarray,

Bobby is a freshman Senator

with no record.

His brother was a no record

Senator too, wasn't he,

when he came out of no where?

Daddy?

Would you like some desert

or are you on your diet?

Oh, now, now, you save some

for me if it's good.

How about you, Mr. Clifford?

No, thank you.

No, he's not gettin anything tonight.

Now, Jack Kennedy put sixteen

thousand advisers in there,

I put in another eight.

We've got twentyfour thousand men

teachin them people how to shoot

and fly planes.

We've got patrols

and covert operations,

we've got an alphabet

soup of aid programs,

a lot of which I'd like

to have right here

and none of it's workin

because with all this coup sh*t

it's like buildin bricks

with no mortar down there,

there's nothin real to hang it all on.

Now, Ho Chi Minh knows this

and he's gonna keep his people

attackin until there's nothin left.

Now, if we call it quits

and continue as we are,

South Vietnam, maybe

the whole of Southeast

Asia goes communist.

Eh-eh, now even George

all admits that.

Everybody else thinks we aught

to up the ante.

Bombing?

Look at this.

A bunch of sheds,

just outside on the water.

And they call that a military target.

There's school right up the street,

Poles built it for em.

Hell, Clark, I could build em a

thousand damn schools.

I'd like you to start to follow

the situation down there,

read some of these reports

they keep throwin at me.

Eh, I just don't know what to believe

any more biggest damn mess.

And bein on the outside

you could take a fresh look.

I'll do everything I can to help.

Yeah, except come work for me.

Hey, what about the Supreme Court,

what if a seat opens up?

I'm an advocate, I'm not a judge.

Hell, Clark, you're a hick lawyer

from Missouri.

Well, I may be a hick lawyer

from Missouri,

But as you yourself pointed out

I haven't made

Missouri wages for a long, long time.

You know,

I ran sayin I was for peace,

now sure as hell,

they're tellin me I gotta do

what I said I wasn't gonna do.

What Goldwater was gonna do.

Luci's converting to Catholicism.

Big decision for a young girl.

He told me.

He said when the press gets wind

they'll make it sound

as if she did it

as a tribute to the Kennedy's.

I swear

I think he was only half joking.

Clark?

Hello? I'm sorry, he's asleep.

He just got over neumonia,

I'd rather not wake him.

I... I know, is it possible...

Marg?

Sorry, Bob, must be pretty damn bad

to keep you at home.

Let's just call it the Hanoi flu.

What the hell's goin on here?

General.

Corps Head Quarters at Pleiku.

Vietcong cut through the wire,

blew up our advisers barracks,

planes and choppers on the runway

and Camp Holloway.

Casualty report.

More of the same,

advisers compound next door.

VC got in with mortar

and grenade launchers.

There are eight dead, a hundred

and twenty plus wounded,

six choppers, one transport destroyed

other aircraft severely damaged.

Mr. Secretary?

The National Security Advisors

in Saigon, is he not?

Didn't the CIA say Hanoi

would connect Bundy's visit

with a decision on bombing?

Vietcong agents in Saigon government

probably leaked it out.

And knowing this, knowing this look

what they did, Bob.

They blew up a hundred

and twentyeight people

just to thumb their noses at us.

Now what the hell

are we going to do about it?

Number 33, the North Vietnamese

barracks at

Dong Hoi just over the border

in North Vietnam,

about six thousand troops based there

An isolated facility

with minimal civilian support.

What are the expected casualties?

Thirty six hundred troops,

uh, roughly forty civilians.

How'd you come up with these numbers?

Sir, we take the approach, look at

the blast pattern,

size of the blast, demographics...

Mr. President, it's a sophisticated

an analysis as I've seen,

unprecedented in aerial warfare.

Well, Ho Chi Minh's not gonna

turn tail overnight.

Saigon's gonna take a shellackin

for anything we do.

And if they go

in now it'd be like sendin

in a widow woman to slap Jack Dempsey.

Sir, we doubt Hanoi will slap back.

Didn't MacArthur say the same thing

when a million Chinese poured

into Korea?

What does State think of this?

The risk of inaction

means more aggression,

Ambassador Taylor concurs.

He's meeting

with Saigon's leaders now

and should be calling

the Situation Room momentarily.

They'll put him through to me.

Mr. President, if I might.

I was in charge of

bombing survey's during World War'II,

And bombing never wins a war.

Rather than erode the enemy's

will it strengthens it,

we've seen this time and time again,

in the Blitz, Berlin.

Well, Blitz and Berlin

never woulda happened

If we didn't lay down

to Hitler's Munich.

And if we lay down now it'll be

the same thing again.

An open invitation to more

of their aggression.

Mr. President, what we're proposing

with Rolling

Thunder is a strictly limited program

of sustained retaliation

moving Northward only if Vietcong act

vity persists.

But it will persist, Bob.

We'll be bombing their cities

before we know it,

now do we expect Russia to sit still

for that? Or China?

Comparisons with Korea fifteen years

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