How are the Pentagon Papers perceived?
Leslie Gelb: Mind you, I think that most of what’s been written about Pentagon Papers just isn’t true. They say that the Pentagon Papers show that the history of United States and Vietnam is the story of lying. That’s what the Pentagon Papers prove, our leaders lied to us. There was lying that went on from time to time, to be sure. But by and large, we got involved in Vietnam because that’s what we believed. We believed in the domino theory. We believed that certain nations were lost and will lead to communism, will lead to loss of other nations. That’s what happened with Hitler and Hirohito in World War II. They took little nations and then bigger nations and then we got involved in World War II. So we believed in the domino theory. My whole generation was raised on the domino theory. And it was believed at the time, including by me, that Vietnam was kind of the testing ground of the confrontation between East and West. So we fought there, principally, for that reason. And it was supp
