In another plane entirely, a long, interesting review of a new book, a "political biography" of Jane Fonda. One excerpt:
"This [the massive bombing of North Vietnam] was the reason for Fonda's trip [to North Vietnam]. Again, the timing was devastating. She arrived as US bombers appeared to be making preliminary strikes against North Vietnam's system of dikes, which if breached would destroy farmland and starve the population. The Pentagon denied the raids. At a press conference in Paris Fonda presented film proving that they had taken place. That same day, the State Department cancelled its scheduled rebuttal. One of the diplomats laid low by the humiliation was America's UN envoy, George H.W. Bush. 'I think that the best thing I can do on the subject is to shut up,' he told the press, after promising them evidence of American innocence. No wonder Nixon was keen to attack Fonda."Pentagon credibility. The oxymoron to end all oxymorons.
