Correction: The Lavelle Case

[groovedaddy]

Because of a cover-up, cowardice and scapegoating in the Nixon White House, editorials on this page in the early 1970s misstated the role of an Air Force general in a series of bombing raids of North Vietnam.

The general, John D. Lavelle, commander of the Seventh Air Force, acted with direct authorization from President Nixon when he ordered more than 20 airstrikes against North Vietnamese antiaircraft missile sites between November 1971 and March 1972. As General Lavelle insisted then, he was not a rogue officer waging his own “massive, private air war.” He did not willfully violate rules of engagement, nor did he authorize flight crews to file false reports.

This correction was delayed because Mr. Nixon; his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger; and top cabinet and Pentagon officials never revealed evidence that would have exonerated General Lavelle. The truth lay hidden for nearly 40 years in the squalid thickets of the Nixon tapes. Researchers brought the facts to light in 2007, leading to revised accounts of the case, explained in a Defense Department announcement last week.

The question at the time was whether Air Force pilots were allowed to bomb enemy missile sites whose tracking radar had not locked onto their planes. The rules of engagement then supposedly forbade it, though Mr. Nixon, the commander in chief, had issued a secret order — conveyed to General Lavelle by his Pentagon superiors — to bomb dangerous targets at will.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/opinion/08sun3.html?th&emc=th

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. How many more "truths" are still "out there'

and why do people still believe what the pentagon/press/powers say?

[groovedaddy]

2. Dissenting opinion from someone involved in the investigation

EARLIER this month the White House recommended that the Senate rehabilitate John D. Lavelle, an Air Force general who in 1972 was removed from his command in Vietnam and demoted to major general after he ordered unauthorized air strikes and created a system to falsely report them.

General Lavelle died in 1979, still professing his innocence. In recent years, though, evidence has emerged that seems to support his case, leading the Air Force to call for his reinstatement as a four-star general.

That would be a grave mistake. Having worked for a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee during its initial investigation into the Lavelle affair, I believe that his rehabilitation could seriously undermine civilian-military relations during our own time of war.

The charges against General Lavelle stem from his role as commander of the 7th Air Force, based in Saigon. Just seven months into his tour, he was relieved of command after an Air Force investigation found that on 28 occasions he had ordered aircraft to attack North Vietnamese positions without first being fired on, contrary to the written rules of engagement, and that he had masked those unauthorized attacks with falsified reports of enemy activity.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/opinion/19stevenson.html?th&emc=th

[tt_chatter]

3. ...

interesting