LES VRAIS ET LES FAUX SECRETS DU PENTAGONE ["The True and False Secrets of the Pentagon"]

Hanoi: Le Courrier du Viet Nam, 1971. First Edition. Very good.. Scarce North Vietnam propoganda published in the wake of the release of the Pentagon Papers. Coming the same year as Daniel Ellsberg's leak (which was published in June of that year), this represents an early and possible first official response to the revelations contained therein. From the introduction: "It is repugnant for honest people to believe that the government of a country with the reputation of the United States had for many years premeditated, prepared, and planned, down to the most minute details, a systematic aggression, a criminal war of genocide against a small people, a tiny country situated more than 10,000 kilometers from America's frontiers; to think that this government for many years has deliberately and knowingly lied to cover up the crime, to hide its plans and deceive the American people, the US Congress, and America's allies as well as its friends and supporters throughout the world" [translated from the French]. The nine-page introduction is followed by a "documents" section (the bulk of the book), which in addition to excerpts from the Pentagon Papers, also contains Presidential speeches (Kennedy, Johnson) interspersed with North Vietnamese statements and commentary. Though OCLC some two dozen copies worldwide, only four of those are in the US (Harvard, Yale, Cornell, and Columbia), with none currently in trade as of April 2017. A significant and uncommon work of Communist propoganda from the height of the Cold War and the Vietnam conflict. Wraps. Small 8vo. Original wraps. Covers a little worn with some soil. Slight lean. Toning overall. Still, sound. Very good. Text in French. 138pp.