Vietnam: A Television History; Interview with Richard C. Holbrooke [2], 1982
Description:
Between 1963-1966 Richard Holbrooke completed diplomatic service first as a provincial representative for the Agency for International Development (AID), then as Staff Assistant to Ambassadors Maxwell Taylor and Henry Cabot Lodge. Holbrooke talks about his work in Vietnam, the assessments he had to complete and how the information he gathered while on the ground in Vietnam differed from that which we received from the United States Government. He refers to this as the "Credibility Gap": the making of decisions by the US Government on incorrect information. Holbrooke also states that the most tragic mistake made by the United States Government was that it could "bleed an Asian communist enemy into the point of fading away." He then begins to recall when his perceptions about Vietnam began to change and how he believed that the United States was becoming a dependency for the Vietnamese.