"It Didn't Have to Be That Way"

"The danger of the backstabbing myth that Nixon spun in No More Vietnams is that it paves the way for more Vietnams. Today, no politician wants to be accused of losing Iraq or Afghanistan. That doesn't mean any of them (or their civilian and military advisers) have ever come up with a way to win either war. Nixonian myth, however, gives them a politically acceptable alternative to admitting failure. They can hold up the false hopes that training and equipping the local armies will enable them to replace American soldiers and that a political settlement will reconcile parties who have demonstrated their inclination to fight out their differences. The cost of false hope is measured in lost and shattered lives.
"Fortunately, Nixon's myth is shattered by the evidence on Nixon's tapes and in his White House documents.


Salon runs an excerpt from Ken Hughes's Fatal Politics: The Nixon Tapes, the Vietnam War, and the Casualties of Reelection.