“No Fail” Fridays
[This is the first in a series. It will be a weekly challenge to historians: The Son Tay Raid was a SUCCESS. No qualifier is appropriate. Over these next few Fridays, I’ll show you why.]

Challenge 1: There is a word that is too often used in conversations about the Son Tay Raid. That word should be banished from any analysis of the Raid. You could say it’s an ‘F-word.’ We will challenge your thinking. It may take some humility to accept the truth. For far too long, the humility requirement has only been one-way. The truth is only revealed when you can take on a more mature mindset.
* The simple mind obsesses over what is seen.
* The mature perspective takes into consideration the unseen (for two-and-a-half years after the Raid, there was major progress that no one outside Hanoi was aware of.)
* The simple mind is swayed by immediate shiny objects like punditry and political gossip.
* The mature mind trusts that a little time is needed to gather all the facts (even though Senators Gore and Fulbright and others were relentless in publicly scolding and scoring political points, the civilian and military commanders were mature in accepting the heat knowing they had made the right decision to approve the mission.)
* The simple mind is slave to personal bias against a political leader.
* The mature mind weighs the actual results, letting the data objectively guide their conclusions.

In yesterday’s photo, you saw President Nixon and Dr Kissinger. At least half of our country has pre-conceived biases against them. I’d like to challenge all of us give them credit for their noble intentions. Can we be humble enough to do that?

Humility accepts ambiguity in this world and doesn’t worry excessively about what other people will think. A commander has to make decisions even in the Fog of War. And character is to be judged in how they deal with the Friction of War—when things don’t go fully as you planned. Do you blame? Do you distance yourself from the results of your decisions? Or, to protect your image, do you avoid making difficult decisions in the first place?

It is important to note that yesterday’s Oval Office photo was AFTER the Raid. Nixon and his leaders did not distance themselves. They weighed all the best intel that technology could provide, committed themselves to the Raid’s prioritized list of objectives, made the hard decisions, and, with heroic integrity, stood publicly to honor the men who laid their lives on the line for their fellow man. We’ll post more photos of how proud America is of the Son Tay Raid.

When you consider this, how do you feel about President Nixon’s decision to approve the Son Tay Raid?

US Senator Jeremiah Denton (formerly a POW and then an Admiral) said it this way:

“The Son Tay Raid was the greatest thing that happened in Vietnam.”

Reading the Raiders’ stories in Who Will Go will challenge historians (and maybe you.)

Click Here:  The book.