Intelligence: The god that failed

Manufacturing or cherry-picking evidence to ensure conformity to a specific vision is a temptation hard to resist

On October 22, 1963, US President John F. Kennedy invited the publisher of the New York Times for lunch. During the meal he suggested that the Times transfer its correspondent in South Vietnam, David Halberstam, to another posting.

Halberstam’s reporting indicated that the Saigon regime was losing the war against its communist Vietcong adversary. This c…