Until enough time has passed that the data can be declassified, we may not know the full extent of the damage that Trump did during his time in office through revelation of classified information and sabotage of the intelligence apparatus of the U.S. government. Everything about our intelligence operations is, for good reason, classified. My work in Vietnam was not completely declassified until 2016, over forty years after the end of the Vietnam war. So the details of Trump’s malfeasance may not be made public during our lifetimes.
I am most concerned right now about what Trump may do now that he is out of office. His fondness for Vladimir Putin and the Russians is well known. His desire for revenge against those who failed to reelect him is well documented. He is deeply in debt and owes large sums to foreign interests. Might he bargain with foreign governments offering information in return for favors? Would we even know that he had done so?
It seems intrinsically obvious to me that the less classified information Trump has, the better. Someday Americans will learn the full scope of damage Trump inflicted on our country. My children and my children’s children will likely know the whole truth.
Meanwhile, let’s not give any more precious secrets to Donald Trump.
Tom Glenn, Writer 
Hi Tom. Hope all is well with you. I read your blog every day and I am impressed with the variety of subjects you cover, especially those dealing with Vietnam. As you know, you were my mentor and the major protagonist in NSA offering me a job, which turned into a career. The year I spent in Saigon working for you was an unforgettable experience.
Tom, my wife was reading a book dealing with a myriad of subjects when she came across portions of a chapter dealing with the My Lai atrocity and the cover up. The book is titled “The Man Who Shot The Man Who Shot Lincoln” by Graeme Donald , published in 2010 by Osprey Publishing. In the chapter called “There’s Something Wrong Here,” (Page 222) the author recounts the events leading up to the massacre and the ill-fated coverup that followed. It’s interesting to note that while MACV tried to quash reporting of what actually happened, I quote in part: “Nothing stops gossip and, with rumors spreading fast through the rank and file, within six months, Tom Glen (sic), a 21 year old in the 11th Light Infantry, wrote a letter to General Creighton Abrams, Westmoreland’s replacement. Stating that he deplored the general brutality of American troops to the civilian population in general, Glen also hinted at the horrors of My Lai without actually mentioning the village by name. Fearing this to be the first crack in the can of worms they dreaded being opened, the “investigation” of these allegations was put into the carefully selected and “safe” hands of a 31 year old major who could be trusted not to fumble the ball….this major was careful to conduct his so-called investigation without talking to Glen, and swiftly concluded the matter with a risible report that dismissed all Glen’s allegations. Using a distorted kind of “Catch 22″ logic, the report stated that Glen’s allegations of atrocious relationships between American troops and Vietnamese civilians, caused by the brutality of the former, must be false because, as everybody knows relationships between American troops and the Vietnamese were just peachy. As it turned out, Colin Powell, author of the report, was wasting his time because another, far more damaging letter was already in the post.”
Well how about that, Tom? What say you?
Cheers, Ron
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Ron, thank you for the comment. I know so little about My Lai or the government’s reaction to it that I can’t comment. It’s certainly true that both MACV and the U.S. government as a whole were less than honest about what was going on in Vietnam. My favorite example is the very end, April 1975, when I warned over and over that the North Vietnamese were about to attack Saigon. Neither the ambassador nor the U.S. federal government believed me or prepared. That brought back bitter memories of the Tet Offensive which I foretold and wasn’t believed—because the possibility of a country-wide offensive flew in the face of U.S. propaganda that we were winning the war. In both cases, the official U.S. position was art odds with the truth.
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