Cover-Up Worse Than Crime: Silence Around Hersh's Bombshell & Ominous Gulf of Tonkin Parallels
18:50 GMT 22.02.2023 (Updated: 18:54 GMT 22.02.2023)
© Photo : Danish Defence Command/Forsvaret Ritzau Scanpix
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Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh has shed more light on US-Norwegian military cooperation which started after the end of the Second World War, and evoked memories of the controversial Gulf of Tonkin incident that opened the door to the decade-long Vietnam War.
"Hersh seems to be exhorting those few who like to engage on facts, to return to the scene of a major inflection point in modern history, when America and allies may have stumbled into a searing foreign policy disaster that, without doubt, ruined millions of lives," Wall Street analyst and investigative journalist Charles Ortel told Sputnik. "Three plus years after former President Eisenhower's warning to 'beware the military-industrial complex'; a year and change after the Bay of Pigs fiasco; and scant months following assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Hersh alleges he has evidence that the CIA and elements from Norway were engaged in highly provocative acts against North Vietnam that likely were never authorized by Congress."
The Wall Street analyst continued, citing Hersh, that "when Defense Secretary Robert McNamara likely knew the retaliatory actions of the North Vietnamese occurred, McNamara incited Lyndon Johnson to claim that US naval forces had been subject to unprovoked attacks and push Congress to launch the US down a path of death and destruction, likely on false pretenses." The war claimed the lives of 58,000 American soldiers and millions of Vietnamese people.
"If true, how many lives have been lost and how many nations affected by this corrupt subterfuge? Moreover, are the attacks upon Nord Stream out of the same errant and dangerous playbook?" Ortel asked.
22 February 2023, 14:19 GMT
Deep State Roots & CIA Clandestine Wars
Another issue touched upon by Hersh is the role apparently played by the CIA to push the US into the war in Vietnam. "By early 1964 at least two Norwegian sailors confessed to their involvement in CIA-led clandestine attacks along the North Vietnam coast," the Pulitzer-prize journalist revealed, adding that "the CIA’s lethal game of cat-and-mouse warfare" led to what we now know as the Tonkin incident.
It appears that at the time, the US intelligence agency already exercised powers which had never been granted to it.
"America's founders personally understood that war should be a final option, pursued only when all others have been exhausted," Ortel said. "[T]hey crafted the Constitution to require that only members of the House of Representatives – the body directly elected by the people then – would be capable of declaring war."
Американские морпехи во время участия во Вьетнамской войне
© AP Photo / Eddie Adams
"After 1945, following two world wars, one imagines that even responsible persons might have believed that America needed a group that would be skilled enough to scout around the world and help prepare the nation to resist, even tamp down, dangerous conflicts that threatened our national security. Sadly, as case after case now demonstrates, the CIA and the vast group of 'national security' agencies that have evolved seem incapable of regulating themselves, and resist, perhaps until now, all manner of timely oversight by Congress or by the electorate," the analyst pointed out.
Ortel emphasized that particularly at present, as the world "stares into a yawning abyss over Ukraine and, perhaps soon, about Taiwan, Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike should ask how much sense it makes to continue worshipping at the altar of perpetual wars that harm our nation and its remaining prestige while all the while enriching defense contractors and shadowy outfits, as well as cash-starved dynastic politicians and their extended families."
He argues that if US lawmakers wish to avoid World War III, they need to kick off robust investigations of past errors, and push a pause button to examine fairly what should come next in Ukraine, Taiwan, and the Middle East.
A napalm strike erupts in a fireball near U.S. troops on patrol in South Vietnam, 1966 during the Vietnam War
© AP Photo
Costly Vietnam and Ukraine Conflicts
Several decades ago, the Vietnam War came as a disaster for the American people. At the same time, however, the exhaustive war, which lasted until the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, clearly benefited the US military-industrial complex and American financiers.
"Some of the very people who swarmed against Vietnam, and later against Iraq, are marching in lockstep against Russia, in theory to back the Ukrainian people," remarked Ortel. "But does the Kiev regime serve the true interests of its citizens? Was it fairly elected? Does it have its own set of corrupt donors? Is it a freedom-loving regime, or even a democracy? All of these are fair questions which very few in the media or in politics around the world care to address."
20 April 2018, 19:05 GMT
To complicate matters further, the family of the incumbent president apparently has corrupt and even potentially treasonous ties to Ukraine, which have yet to be fully investigated, Ortel highlighted. It raises a lot of questions about the Biden administration's motives of pouring billions of dollars into the black hole of the Ukraine conflict.
To date, Washington has provided over $110 billion in military and economic aid to Ukraine since February 2022. The Vietnam War (1955-1975) cost the US around $168 billion or, based on the current dollar value, the equivalent of about $1 trillion. It seems that this time, the US administration is spending money at a more rapid pace. According to some economists, Washington's massive spending on the Vietnam War led to widespread inflation, exacerbated by a worldwide oil crisis in 1973 and skyrocketing fuel prices.
"At present, the cause for Ukraine and against Russia attracts support across the Democrat Party and from conflicted 'Republicans in Name Only' (RINO) including Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and Mitt Romney," noted Ortel. "This cause is presently a proxy war – I suspect that should American bodies become conscripted into conflict, the tenor of the debate will change. But so long as the conflict and destruction occurs outside our borders and so long as money flows back to politicians and their families, common sense and fair compromise is unlikely to result, with Ukraine and the state of international relations damaged grievously and perhaps beyond short-term repair."
11 February 2023, 15:39 GMT
Hersh's Wakeup Call While West is Sleepwalking Into Disaster
At the end of his story, Hersh returned to Nord Stream and asked: "What else do we not know about the secret operation in Norway that led to the destruction of the pipelines? And is there anyone in the Senate and the House, or in the American press, interested in finding out what was going on—and what else we do not know?"
This shift in topic is by no means accidental, since Hersh's Nord Stream bombshell has either been muted or smeared by the Western corporate media, according to Ortel.
"A modern adaptation of an ancient saying – 'a lie travels half-way around the world before truth has a chance to catch up' is applicable here," the analyst said. "Modern media relies upon gaining prompt access to senior government officials to stay abreast or even ahead of the news cycle. Around the world, we see that journalists who do not toe the government line frequently are cut off from access, hurting their employers and, ultimately, their careers."
Apparently therefore, Hersh opted to publish his exposes on Substack, an independent online platform. "He is challenging all of us who care to join the debates he has thankfully instigated over what truly happened with the Nord Stream pipelines and what likely did happen to trigger outbreak of a ghastly war in Vietnam and Southeast Asia that so grievously weakened America in many ways and countless others," Ortel emphasizes.
The media silence surrounding Hersh's bombshell piece is deafening and so is the unwillingness of US, EU, and even UN institutions to get to the bottom of the Nord Stream sabotage attack.
"As was famously said about Watergate: 'The cover-up is worse than the crime,'" the Wall Street analyst said. "How many established politicians in both parties understand that they and America itself, as well as key allies, may be compromised by defense contractors and other war profiteers who have become merchants in misery – never wishing to stop making money from the very problems they persist in creating and magnifying?"
"Hersh is persistently asking each of us to open our eyes, engage our brains, and step back from the brink of utter disaster. Above all, he is fairly asking us to forcefully question those in authority who make loud arguments but fail to back their claims with verifiable facts. World War III is the wrong answer," Ortel concluded.
