Ray McGinnis is an author and investigative reporter

Book: Unanswered Questions: What the September Eleventh Families Asked and the 9/11 Commission Ignored

by Ray McGinnis: Paperback, Kindle

Article: The Vietnam War: Riding The Tiger - the problem with Ken Burns' Vietnam documentary by Ray McGinnis

FREE Borrowable Ebook: JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why it Matters by James Douglass

The Gulf of Tonkin resolution

McNamara admitted that nothing happened on August 4, 1964 (Gulf of Tonkin incident)

Video: Gulf of Tonkin: McNamara admits it didn't happen

General Maxwell Taylor said that John F. Kennedy was the "one man"

who was "strongly against…sending ground troops to Vietnam"

One of the talking heads in the Burns-Novick documentary is Leslie Gelb

Gelb was director of the project that produced the Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam War

Kennedy wanted to withdraw ALL American personnel from Vietnam by the end of 1965

Kennedy stood up to Khrushchev in Berlin

General Maxwell Taylor was a hawk who wanted American troops in Vietnam

Kennedy reminded Taylor "In your assessment you should bear in mind that the initial responsibility for the

effective maintenance of the independence of South Vietnam rests with the people and government of that country."

The narrator says "Kennedy also authorized the use of napalm" and "agent orange"

Dow Chemical Company manufactured napalm B for the American armed forces from 1965-69

The use of napalm in Vietnam began in March 1965 i.e. almost a year and a half after Kennedy was killed

American bombing operations of the Vietnam War all took place after President Kennedy was assassinated

Kennedy and McNamara had authorized only training and specifically forbade combat of US personnel

Kennedy and McNamara were not informed that US personnel were leading air strikes with South Vietnamese pilots

A character assassination of President Kennedy has been going on in the media ever since he was killed

Strategic Hamlet Program in South Vietnam

Strategic Hamlets were being built in areas where there were no Viet Cong

Another talking head is Rufus Phillips who is identified as "USAID"

Phillips was a CIA officer and protege of Edward Lansdale

Lansdale was a CIA operative working under the cover of the US Air Force

Who does the CIA really work for?

American volunteer Pete Hunting died in Nov 1965

But his death is shown in the 1961-63 episode (i.e. when Kennedy was President)

Lansdale sabotaged Kennedy's initiatives in Vietnam in 1961

FREE Borrowable Ebook: Censhorship in Vietnam: Brave New World by Thomas Bass

CIA's Phoenix Program in Vietnam targeted civilians and not soldiers

By the CIA's own estimates at least 41,000 Vietnamese civilians were killed under the Phoenix Program

Why Statistics Matter and Order of Battle estimates omitted in episode

The Order of Battle study estimated the number of Viet Cong fighters was in the range of 40,000 to 50,000

Colonel James Winterbottom ordered the team to bring down the figure to 20,000

Finally in the printed version it was pushed down further to 16,500

General Harkins ordered the estimates of the casualty figures for the Viet Cong be inflated by 30%

and the casualty figures for the South Vietnamese Government be artificially reduced by 30%

Senator Mike Mansfield’s report to the president in 1962 recommending American withdrawal from Vietnam

Kennedy told Mansfield he wanted to proceed with a complete military withdrawal from Vietnam

But he told Mansfield he couldn’t do a complete withdrawal until he was re-elected in 1964