Fateful Triangle

Peace for Galilee520a device to take over southern Lebanon and establish a Christianprotectorate in what remains—too good to overlook, apparently. Similarly,the important study by Ehud Ya’ari, Egypt and the Fedayeen,based on captured Egyptian documents that reveal Egypt’s efforts toavert the impending Israeli attack in 1956 by keeping the border quiet,has been loyally disregarded by American scholars. The same is true ofofficial military histories and much else. 279The practice is common elsewhere as well, of course. Consider, forexample, the fate of the Pentagon Papers, 280 an unusually revealingrecord of high-level government planning, therefore largely ignored inrespectable scholarship, except for its bearing on tactical questions oflimited significance. *Returning to the mission of mercy, after the somewhat unfortunateefforts to impress the foreign TV crew near Rashidiyeh, the convoy wenton to Tyre (the Jerusalem Post reports that “the closer the convoy got tothe city of Tyre, the more impressive the destruction grew. Everythingalong the road had been burned, wrecked, crumpled, blown to pieces”).*The Beacon press edition of the 4 volume Gravel edition is the only readiblyaccessible source for something close to the full record (plus some additionalmaterial). It contains an index volume (volume 5, with critical essays and anindex), which is obviously indispensable for anyone expecting to use thedocuments. By the end of 1982, 2700 copies of this volume had been sold,many, presumably, to people who were interested in the analytic articles byAmerican, Vietnamese and French scholars and journalists. The conclusion isthat even universities, let alone others, do not intend to have the materialavailable for research. Quite apart from its insight into Vietnam war planning,this material is quite unusual for what it tells about the workings of governmentand long-term strategic planning. Material of this sort is rarely available untilmany years have passed or at all, apart from captured enemy archives.Classics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky