title A Bright Shining Lie describes Vietnam to the letter. American generals and advisors were lying to the president and the public about how the war was going. General Westmoreland assured President Johnson that his war of attrition was severely hurting the Viet Minh and their ability to wage war. He consistently ignored or failed to report increasing Viet Cong activity in the Siagon area, and boasted that he would have the war won within a year. The Tet offensive proved him to be wrong. Another major lie of the war was the effectiveness of the AVRN troops. Vann many times reported on how the practice of buying one's promotion within ARVN produced officers that were not competent. Added with the fact that they were ordered to keep casualties down; they often avoided engagements with the Viet Cong, which rendered them useless. However, they did start to conduct fake raids and bombardments, with fictitious body counts to make it appear as if they were doing something. This was pointed out to the generals in charge, but instead of taking action they added these fake engagements to their statistics, in order to bolster their claim that they were winning the war. The constant lying reminded me of what Tim O'brien said about war stories in The Things They Carried. He said that there were no war stories that they were all just stories. As you can see there were a lot of war stories being told during Vietnam. Vann himself was a lie, which raises serious questions about his judgment. Vann was an outstanding military officer, he always got his tasks accomplished and seemed to be the all American hero. This, however, was just an illusion that he constructed. Vann was a married man with children, who also happened to be a very good solider. Vann also led a secret life that he tried to keep hidden from most people. Vann had the habit of seducing women and keeping mistresses as young as 15 years of age. While stationed in Germa...
