In the 1960 presidential campaign, John Kennedy accused the Eisenhower/Nixon administration of allowing a “missile gap” to arise between the Soviets and the U.S.  He claimed the Soviet nuclear capacity exceeded ours and we were all in danger of a fiery death. Kennedy knew it wasn’t true. The Soviets knew it wasn’t true. Everyone in the American security establishment knew it wasn’t true.  But Kennedy figured he could win votes by scaring the American people. 

When LBJ claimed we were winning in Vietnam, the North Vietnamese knew it wasn’t true. Our military certainly knew it wasn’t true (as the Pentagon Papers showed). He lied to try to keep diminishing support for the war from evaporating completely. 

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