# Vietnam War

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Vietnam War," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/vietnam-war/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The war John Kiriakou grew up in the shadow of — his parents marched against it — and the deep precedent for everything he fights: entered on the Gulf of Tonkin lie, prosecuted by generals who knew for a decade they were losing (per the Pentagon Papers), studded with torture whose victims recited the Green Bay Packers' starting lineup as "intelligence," and ended in part by Daniel Ellsberg, "the godfather of all modern national security whistleblowers." Even Robert McNamara, he notes, understood waterboarding was a bridge too far.*

- **Entry:** Justified by the Gulf of Tonkin incident — "a lie" (per Kiriakou)
- **Pentagon Papers:** Generals knew for nearly a decade the war was being lost
- **Torture lesson:** U.S. POWs under torture named the Green Bay Packers' starting lineup
- **CIA context:** The agency "ran wild" unchecked from 1947 until the post-Vietnam reckoning of 1975

The **Vietnam War** predates [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s career — he was born in 1964, and his parents marched against the war[1][2] — but it supplies the precedents for nearly every argument he makes.

## The war of lies

Kiriakou files Vietnam first in his catalogue of wars launched on falsehoods: the push for U.S. involvement came from the Gulf of Tonkin incident — *"a lie"* — just as Iraq came from lies later.[3] The [Pentagon Papers](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/daniel-ellsberg) showed not only that the war was being lost but that the generals had known it for almost a decade while lying to the president — which is why Kiriakou calls [Daniel Ellsberg](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/daniel-ellsberg) *"the godfather of all modern national security whistleblowers."*[4] He repeats the consensus tribute without irony: Ellsberg is *"the guy that ended the Vietnam War."*[5] He even quotes the biographer's account of Lyndon Johnson explaining what the war was about by exposing himself.[6]

## The torture precedent

Vietnam anchors Kiriakou's core case against torture: American POWs have described being tortured for names and answering with the starting lineup of the Green Bay Packers, or inventing ships and positions in the South China Sea — *"literally anything that they think you want to hear just to get you to stop."*[7][8] Waterboarding was used as recently as Vietnam, part of a lineage running back through the Belgians in the Congo to medieval China.[9] And the era's own villain knew better: even Robert McNamara — *"the one responsible for the Vietnam War"* — understood the technique was too clearly illegal.[10]

## The institutional reckoning

In Kiriakou's history of the CIA, Vietnam marks the turn: the agency *"ran wild"* unchecked from 1947 through the war's end, until 1975 — the war lost, the assassination programs exposed — when things finally tipped toward the [Church Committee](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/church-committee) era of oversight.[11] The [Cold War](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cold-war)'s worst nightmare, he says flatly, was the U.S. invasion of Vietnam.[12]

## See also

- [Daniel Ellsberg](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/daniel-ellsberg)
- [Church Committee](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/church-committee)
- [Cold War](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cold-war)
- [Waterboarding](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/waterboarding)
- [Sam Adams Award](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/sam-adams-award)

## Sources

1. The Real News Network (2015-04-16), at 07:45. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlJO1uL1CsE&t=465s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-04-16-the-real-news-network-the-real-news-network/
2. Doing Time Like A Spy — On Prison Survival & the CIA (2017-06-06), at 1:14:28. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-5yxHqYJ-k&t=4468s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2017-06-06-disruption-network-lab/
3. Kiriakou & Rebecca Vincent: Assange Countdown to Freedom (2020-12-24), at 00:01. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZO4p1ag9LQ&t=1s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2020-12-24-live-on-the-fly-randy-credico-kiriakou-rebecca-vincent-assange-countdown-to/
4. Foresight with Ken Weaver--John Kiriakou, Whistleblower (2019-03-14), at 27:05. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcTHv1zLD7M&t=1625s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-03-14-salem-access-tv-public/
5. John Kiriakou on the Persecution of Daniel Hale (Ep. 5533) (2021-06-01), at 38:04. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tU2jvrjAx0&t=2284s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2021-06-01-scott-horton-daniel-hale-persecution/
6. The Iraqi Pissing Match - John Kiriakou on RAI (4/10) (2015-04-23), at 02:20. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKTfNz1JIoE&t=140s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-04-23-the-real-news-network-the-iraqi-pissing-match-john-kiriakou-on-rai/
7. John Kiriakou — Whistleblower Protections, Torture, and Ju (2020-11-23), at 12:58. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7Uq2aYrR5w&t=778s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2020-11-23-revolutionary-change/
8. Why Torture is Both Immoral AND Ineffective / John Kiriakou (2020-11-24), at 04:09. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIpcxZJ1R4k&t=249s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2020-11-24-revolutionary-change-why-torture-is-both-immoral-and-ineffective-j/
9. On Torture, Prison PTSD (2019-04-20), at 17:45. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ewyza8fR3o&t=1065s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-04-20-david-gornoski-on-torture-prison-ptsd/
10. Foresight with Ken Weaver--John Kiriakou, Whistleblower (2019-03-14), at 04:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcTHv1zLD7M&t=255s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-03-14-salem-access-tv-public/
11. Potkaars podcast (2019-05-01), at 28:01. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgJLnojqKY8&t=1681s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-05-01-potkaars-podcast-potkaars-podcast/
12. The JK Report (2026-07-01), at 32:49. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PpseUAcs-I&t=1969s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-01-the-jk-report-the-jk-report/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/vietnam-war/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt