Fifteen years later, in 1982, when Neil Sheehan was researching his book about the war, A Bright and Shining Lie, he came across documents concerning my Pentagon-assisted manuscript. They showed that McNamara had sent the manuscript to the American Ambassador in South Vietnam, Ellsworth Bunker, who requested a certain Bob Kelly to write an overall report, with a view to discrediting my reporting, and arranged to get The Atlantic magazine (where Bunker mistakenly thought my article was scheduled to appear) to “withhold publication.”
15年后的1982年，当尼尔·希恩为他的战争著作 《美丽谎言》 搜集资料的时候，他发现了我在五角大楼的协助下完成的手稿。这表明麦克纳马拉把手稿寄给了美国驻南越大使艾尔斯渥兹·巴克尔，后者让一个叫鲍勃·凯利的人写一份总结报告，目的是要批驳我的手稿，并要求 《大西洋月刊》 （巴克尔误以为我的文章要在上面登载）“暂不刊发。”