Fateful Triangle

Peace for Galilee493distorted picture of the event.” Others reacted similarly, * In fact, the firstvolume, containing the analysis, grossly falsifies the evidence presentedin the second volume, containing the supporting documentation, so evenon internal grounds the study would at once be dismissed by anyrational commentator. Furthermore, crucial documentary evidence isomitted and the study fails to raise even the most obvious questions(e.g., how did news reporting compare with intelligence analyses,available from the Pentagon Papers and elsewhere?). When theseelementary inadequacies are overcome, we see from Braestrup’s ownevidence—and what he omits—that the media accepted the frameworkof state propaganda and were more optimistic about the prospects forAmerican arms than internal intelligence documents, not too surprisingsince the media tended to rely on public government statements, notknowing then what was being transmitted internally. The FreedomHouse case is narrow to begin with—that the press was too“pessimistic.” By Freedom House standards, one must conclude, thepress must not only accept the assumptions of the state -propagandasystem but must do so in an upbeat and enthusiastic spirit in its news*See, e.g., Col. Harry G. Summers, New Republic, Feb. 7, I983, a review-articlebased on the Yale University press reissue, which typically regards the study asdefinitive, raising no questions about it. Summers claims that “Braestrup waswidely attacked” both by supporters and opponents of the war and by “thejournalistic profession,” citing no examples and giving no indication that therewas any favorable reception prior to his own; he also, incidentally, expresses apoint of view concerning the war and the U.S. involvement in it that meritsattention. The review predictably ends with a comparison to the “mediacoverage of the recent war in Lebanon”: “As was true with Tet, the mostdamaging aspect of this reporting has been its effect on weakening thecommunity of interest that is the bedrock of the American-Israeli alliance.”Classics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky