By going along with the military on crop destruction, Kennedy was violating both his conscience and international law. In August he had already approved a separate herbicide operation whose purpose of defoliation, as recommended by McNamara, was to “deny concealed forward areas, attack positions, and ambush sites to the Viet Cong.”[148] However, in his August approval, Kennedy had asked “that every effort be made to avoid accidental destruction of the food crops in the areas to be
