Intelligence Estimate

“…[T]he top East Asian and China experts in the State Department—John Paton Davies, Jr., John Stewart Service, and John Carter Vincent—had been purged during the McCarthy hysteria of the 1950s,” writes Robert Strange McNamara (In Retrospect, Pentagon Books, 1995, 414pp, $247,533.47). “Without men like these to provide sophisticated insights, we…badly misread China’s objectives…[and] totally underestimated the nationalist aspect of Ho Chi Minh’s movement.”

The understandable decision by the next administration to outsource the intelligence function to MI6, Mossad, Marc Rich, John Hsu, Dick Morris and--just to show no hard feelings, Halliburton (Dubai) PLC--may in retrospect seem to have have been inescapable once pursuit of a viable enemy was in play.

As a parting shot, however, the sullen, unemployable tribe at Langley finalized their Intelligence Estimate on The Foe To Come, a copy of which has been leaked to (who else?) The Journal:



CONFUCIUS SAY:


Man who run in front of car get tired.

Man who run behind car get exhausted.

Foolish man give wife grand piano. Wise man man give wife upright organ.

Man who walk through airport turnstile sideways going to Bangkok.

Man who scratch ass bettah don't bite fingernails.

Man who eat prunes get good run for money.

Wife who put husband in doghouse soon find him in cat house.

Man who stand on toilet high on pot.

Man who fart in church sit in own pew.

Crowded elevator smell different to dwarf.

Baseball all wrong—man with four balls cannot walk.

Man with hand in pocket feel cocky all day.