65.
We’ve come a long way from eighth grade algebra and Mr. Niederman and Buddy Holly, haven’t we?
Oh, Mr. Bauch, there are so many facts of the matter to consider.
This one, for instance, from Wikipedia:
George Stephen Morrison (January 7, 1919–November 17, 2008) was an admiral and naval aviator in the United States Navy. Morrison was commander of the US naval forces in the Gulf of Tonkin during the Gulf of Tonkin Incident of August 1964. He was the father of Doors lead singer Jim Morrison.
Another fact might be some of Jim Morrison’s lyrics:
This is the end, beautiful friend
This is the end, my only friend
The end of our elaborate plans
The end of everything that stands
The end
And perhaps we could then finish with this paragraph from Robert McNamara’s obituary in the New York Times:
Congress authorized the war after [President] Johnson contended that American warships had been attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats in the Gulf of Tonkin on Aug. 4, 1964. The attack never happened, as a report declassified by the National Security Agency in 2005 made clear. The American ships had been firing at radar shadows on a dark night.
Did Fleet Commander Morrison know that the intelligence which escalated the war in Vietnam was at least suspect and maybe plain wrong? Did he know that millions would die for nothing? And what did Jim Morrison know?
Radar shadows on a dark night.
When asked, Jim Morrison often said that his family was dead.
Soon everyone from this little story will be dead, and even these few remaining pieces from the jigsaw puzzle will be lost in the dusty interstices of time.