Straight Power Concepts, post by Mark

In our second class, we read a declassified portion of a 1948 planning study by George Kennan, who noted, "The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts.  The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better."

That day came with the U.S. invasion of Vietnam.



President Richard Nixon: “We’ve got to be thinking in terms of an all-out bombing attack [on North Vietnam}…Now, by all-out bombing attack, I am thinking about things that go far beyond…I’m thinking of the dikes, I’m thinking of the railroad, I’m thinking, of course, of the docks.”

National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger: “I agree with you.”

President Nixon: “And I still think we ought to take the dikes out now. Will that drown people?”

Kissinger: “About two hundred thousand people.”

President Nixon: “No, no, no…I’d rather use the nuclear bomb. Have you got that, Henry?

Kissinger: “That, I think, would just be too much.”

President Nixon: “The nuclear bomb, does that bother you?…I just want to think big, Henry, for Christsakes.”