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John B. OakesJohn B. Oakes
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mean, what pressures do you think he was under from the Pentagon and from McNamara to continue the presence and to build up the presence?

Oakes:

To continue?

Q:

Yes, and to build up the presence.

Oakes:

See, what I was saying before [pause] -- Well, of course, the person that -- But it's so hard to attribute now. There certainly were Pentagon hawks who -- there were certainly people in the Pentagon -- Gee, that thing [the microphone] comes off.

Q:

Sorry. Your shirt is so nice and slippery.

Oakes:

I'm sorry. And you think -- I mean, you're suggesting that McNamara --?

Q:

No, not necessarily. I'm just trying to --

Oakes:

Well, certainly, he was getting military advice from the Pentagon, sure, and certainly from the Air Force people that the only way to clean up the Vietcong was by massive and increased -- by escalation. The only way we could win this war or bring an end to it was by sort of wiping out -- I don't think anybody, and I'm not sure your question implied -- I certainly can't, don't and can't believe that anybody in the Pentagon or anywhere else in the United States was advocating -- You weren't implying, were you, that anybody was advocating that, if necessary, we'd have to go to a nuclear war?





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