Well, here goes.
I have now finished "Sideshow", all of it including the "Notes" section in the back. I think that Shawcross wanted to show that Kissinger and Nixon, when it came to SE Asia, liked to mislead, to put it one way. I think they liked the secret part of the bombing campaign because they thought they were pulling the wool over the Congress and the Nation's eyes and carrying out a policy that most certainly would have consequences but no one to blame for them. Nixon had Watergate because he never did understand some of the fundamentals of the American liberties and apparently Kissinger showed a lot of contempt for them too. I don't think the welfare of Cambodia was ever a concern for these 2; I do think it was a concern for the Pentagon and the State Dept., but not enough of a one to have some backbone and see what was really going on. It was an employee of the Pentagon that fudged all of the numbers for Menu and then lied to the Congress about it. Of course, this was also the end of the 60's renaissance of the American consciousness and many (educated) people began to want to know what was really going on. Many people began to understand that to have a real quality of life, you had to know what was going on. In a sense, some Americans woke up. The secret bombing of Cambodia was never a part of the anti-war movement; it was only about pulling out of the war because the Vietnamese did not want us there. That they fell prey to the bloodthirsty Communists is a karma of their own making. Today, people like to say that SE Asia is really capitalist; but, I am not sure of it at all. I don't think they are anything yet; they still have not had any education or literacy training about democracy and liberties..
These are my thoughts for today.
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