Amen.
-----Original
Message-----
From:
owner-KOREAN-WAR-L@raven.cc.ku.edu
[mailto:owner-KOREAN-WAR-L@raven.cc.ku.edu] On Behalf Of
AMPSOne@aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 9:03
PM
To:
KOREAN-WAR-L@raven.cc.ku.edu
Subject: Re: No Gun
Ri
Case in point
on objectivity:
The US claimed it shot down over 800 MiG-15s, with
only about 900 in theater at the outside.
The VVS and Chinese claim
they shot down over 800 F-86 Sabres, which is 100 more than were in theater
for the entire course of the war.
Who's right and who's wrong?
If your type of reporters looked at this, they would immediately
assume that the Soviets were right and the USAF "as usual" was lying about
its losses.
On the other hand, pro-USAF flacks assume that the
Commies are lying and really got pasted but won't admit it.
The
truth -- objective truth -- is somewhere in the middle.
Same goes
for No Gun Ri. Did civilians get killed? No doubt. But was it a deliberate
US plot and coverup? Given the morality of the times and US officers in
general, not bloody likely. Once again, objective truth is probably
somewhere in the middle. But you jump right up and take one of the most
extremely subjective points of view as fact without the slightest
hesitation, based on your own subjective views of the US and the
war.
There are always going to be problems. Song My ("My Lai" proved
that in 1968. But then again, objective facts after the war show that Tet
1968 in Vietnam was one of the greatest victories in American military
history, as it literally obliterated the VC as a force in South Vietnam and
forced the VPAF to take over the prosecution of the war from that point on.
However, subjective reporting by even people thought to be objective like
Walter Cronkite painted it as a disaster. It was a leadership failure, not a
failure of the American fighting man.
Cookie Sewell
AMPS
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