U.S. stays mum on bad Vietnam intelligence

WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- The U.S. National Security Agency is refusing to make public mistakes allegedly made by U.S. intelligence agents that precipitated the war in Vietnam.

In a classified in-house journal published five years ago, NSA historian Robert Hanyok found a pattern of translation mistakes that went uncorrected, altered intercept times and selective citation of intelligence in August 1964.

President Lyndon Johnson used the intelligence to persuade Congress to authorize broad military action in Vietnam, but most historians have concluded in recent years the data were wrong, The New York Times reported.

Matthew Aid, an independent historian who has discussed Hanyok's Tonkin Gulf research with current and former NSA and CIA officials, said he had decided to speak publicly about the findings because he believed they should have been released long ago.

"This material is relevant to debates we ... are having about the war in Iraq and intelligence reform," said Aid. "To keep it classified simply because it might embarrass the agency is wrong."