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You should have been in Washington in 1967-68. **S**

I had just come back from SEA --a Tonkin Gulf tour in mid '67 -- just after the Liberty Incident...to serve as Aide to Adm Moorer, the new CNO.

We had in succession that year: The firing of McNamara; loss of Scorpion; Burning of Washington; the Pentagon Riots;
The Pueblo capture; TET, Assassinations of MLK and Bobby Kennedy; and a few odd little quirks like Johnson's "I will not run again" uproar -- March '68.

I was ready to get back to Saigon for some sanity. **S**
I have never in my wildest dreams been able to describe effectively the pensive and truly depressed mood of the nation's Capitol. It was truly surreal.

As an example, during the burning of Washington, in early March, '68, I had to send a detachment of Marines from Henderson Hall to the Willard Hotel in two 6X6's to literally rescue and retrieve a friend of the admiral's who had flown in from a tour in Viet Nam -- a dollar a year retired WW2 flight surgeon, Knox Pittard, who was with AID as a napalm reconstructive surgeon for the civilian populace.

It was suicidal to be on the street in a civilian car in central DC that night.

And, that is the true story of Washington in 1968. By those standards, today is a cake-walk.