A year later, in the late fall of 1965, U Thant’s efforts in 1964 became public knowledge. When the story broke, senior officials in the Johnson administration instantly knew they faced a sticky problem. The disclosures, they realized, made them appear to have been not merely skeptical of a diplomatic settlement in Vietnam in late 1964, but actively opposed to such a solution. Critics were bound to pose one question above all, they knew, a question for which they had no ready answer. People were certain to ask, George Ball said to a colleague, “Why didn’t you find out [what Hanoi had in
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