On Tue, 26 Aug 2014 09:02:42 -0500, Richard
wrote:

On 8/26/2014 12:57 AM, John B. Slocomb wrote:

In actual fact the "powers that be", at least in the case of the
F-111, was not the Air Force, it was the civilian portion of the DOD
that was dreaming of an "all purpose" airplane. It might also be noted
that the airplane was built by General Dynamics and one might think
about who was president at the time and where G.D. was based :-)


For pete sake, guy.
That was Robert Mcnamara's doings.


Initially, the basic policies outlined by President Kennedy in a message
to Congress on March 28, 1961, guided McNamara in the reorientation of
the defense program. Kennedy rejected the concept of first-strike attack
and emphasized the need for adequate strategic arms and defense to deter
nuclear attack on the United States and its allies. U.S. arms, he
maintained, must constantly be under civilian command and control, and
the nation's defense posture had to be "designed to reduce the danger of
irrational or unpremeditated general war". The primary mission of U.S.
overseas forces, in cooperation with allies, was "to prevent the steady
erosion of the Free World through limited wars". Kennedy and McNamara
rejected massive retaliation for a posture of flexible response. The
U.S. wanted choices in an emergency other than "inglorious retreat or
unlimited retaliation", as the president put it. Out of a major review
of the military challenges confronting the U.S. initiated by McNamara in
1961 came a decision to increase the nation's "limited warfare"
capabilities. These moves were significant because McNamara was
abandoning President Dwight D. Eisenhower's policy of massive
retaliation in favor of a flexible response strategy that relied on
increased U.S. capacity to conduct limited, non-nuclear warfare.

...

During the Kennedy administration, the U.S. military advisory group in
South Vietnam steadily increased, with McNamara's concurrence, from 900
to 16,000.[22] U.S. involvement escalated after the Gulf of Tonkin
incidents in August 1964, involving an attack on a U.S. Navy destroyer
by North Vietnamese naval vessels.[25]

But declassified records from the Lyndon Johnson Library indicated that
McNamara misled Johnson on the attack on a U.S. Navy destroyer by
withholding calls against executing airstrikes from US Pacific
Commanders. Instead, McNamara issued the strike orders without informing
Johnson of the hold calls, constituting a usurping of the president’s
constitutional power of decision on the use of military force.[26]
McNamara was also instrumental in presenting the event to Congress and
the public as justification for escalation of the war against the
communists. The Vietnam War came to claim most of McNamara's time and
energy.

...

Yup. The illustrious McNamara. And General Dynamics was a Texas
company :-)

But, I'm not sure how much blame actually should be attributed to
McNamara personally, other than of course he was the captain of the
ship and thus responsible for everything that happened. The lying,
cheating, back-biting and stealing that went on there between the
various branches of the military and governmental and non-governmental
organizations was amazing.
--
Cheers,

John B.