Nuclear Posture Review Blasts All Reason

As a Vietnam combat veteran I’m disgusted that you gave one inch of space to the immoral, lying architect of Lyndon Johnson’s war effort (“A Pretty Poor Posture for a Superpower,” Commentary, March 13). While I was there (1966) we fought with both hands tied behind our backs. We entered North Vietnamese airspace at the same time every day, presumably to be sure they were ready for us.

Robert McNamara kept us from destroying key targets--which helped to prolong the war and ensure more needless American and South Vietnamese deaths. He kept South Vietnam from even faking an invasion of the North; thus the North Vietnamese could thrust all available forces into the South with impunity.

He and his virtual co-conspirators, Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden, should all be in the dock for treason.

Bill Spillane

Manhattan Beach

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The thought of President Bush’s new Nuclear Posture Review fills me with so much more terror than the possibility of a terrorist attack.

Alison Broadbent

Santa Monica

McNamara and Thomas Graham Jr. presciently note that if Bush and his nuclear advocates are allowed to play out their game, “We will live in a far more dangerous world, and the United States will be much less secure.”

I would only add that it is becoming increasingly obvious that this is precisely what Bush wants. Everything he does destabilizes the economic, political and environmental equilibrium of the planet. This administration moves us into a “fuzzy” World War III, antagonizes the rest of the world and completely embarrasses the sensible people of the U.S.

The only beneficiaries of these senseless acts are, at least in the near term (the Bush myopic “vision” at its best), the far-right wing, big business and Pentagon hawks. Perhaps Bush’s assumption is that there will be no tomorrow, so let’s give today to the rich and not worry about what comes next.

Gary S. David

La Jolla