Neil Sheehan Quotations

Americans, particularly after World War II, tended to romanticize war because in World War II our cause was the cause of humanity, and our soldiers brought home glory and victory, and thank God that they did. But it led us to romanticize it to some extent.

I think you have to remember that Americans saw their purpose as so innately good that they could excuse the pain they would inflict on others to carry out those purposes. Because the purposes were so good, they would justify this pain we were inflicting on other people.

We thought that whatever we wanted to do was right and good, simply because we were Americans, and we would succeed at it because we were Americans.

You remember all those phrases about how 'these people' - Asians - don't value human life like we do. Well if you spend any time around them, you discover that they love their children just as much as we love ours. That is certainly true of the Vietnamese.

These men were wrongfully rejected, the veterans. The fighting man should never have been blamed for Vietnam.

We had a military and political leadership at that period which was genuinely deluded.

People talked to me in a way I think they would not have talked to somebody who hadn't shared the experience; they gave me their papers, they gave me their diaries. I found people constantly opening up to me. And I think they did because I had shared that experience with them.

The unthinkable occurred: two communist countries went to war with each other.

We wanted to see this country win the war just as much as those advisors did. We felt we would help to do that by reporting the truth. And so there was the moral outrage over this general and the ambassador in Saigon who kept denying the truth we would see.

World War II had been such a tremendous success story for this country that the political and military leadership began to assume that they would prevail simply because of who they were. We were like the British at the turn of the 19th century.

I went to Vietnam; it was my first assignment as a reporter for the UPI, and I never could get away from the war.

I never got away from the war. Not because I was obsessed with it in those years, but because it was the event of my generation and I started out covering it so I stayed with it.

Just because you put higher-octane gasoline in your car doesn't mean you can break the speed limit. The speed limit's still 65.

At least I'm at peace with myself. I have done my best to write a book about what really happened there and why it happened and it's done, it's published. I won't write another book on Vietnam.

The destruction of civilian hamlets, the killing and the wounding of civilians, became vastly greater than it had been before, and it was very upsetting; but I still couldnt bring myself to understand that the policy itself was wrong.

We're still in the midst of our own special inspection and will be there every step of the way.

We've reviewed all the information they gathered at the 110 percent power level and have not identified any anomalies or reasons to prevent them from going to the next higher power level.

We're continuing to evaluate those. If any violations are identified as a result of those inspections, they would be reflected when the performance indicator/inspection findings web page for the plant is updated quarterly. They would also be included in the 2006 annual assessment letter for the plant, which would be issued next March. Any non-'green' findings would result in additional inspections for the plant.

Our resident inspectors ... will be reviewing the event and the way it was responded to. The company will most likely have to do its own root-cause assessment of what happened.

We would certainly consider any information that they submit, ... However, time and again the emergency plan for Indian Point has been reviewed and tested and it's been demonstrated capable of doing the job.

We always look for a site that accommodates as many people as possible. You can never make everybody happy.

We see nothing at this point that indicates any widespread contamination.

You have to look at the broader perspective here. Before companies even submit applications (for license renewal) they have to do a tremendous amount of advance work.

The risk significance is low in terms of public health and safety, ... We're talking about a small amount of water. We're doing a special investigation because we want to make sure that (Entergy) has their hands around the extent of the cracking, the extent of the leakage, and determine exactly where this moisture originated.

Any contamination that exists is at low levels. It does not pose a threat to the public or workers at the site.

They're not going to know that for certain until they shut the plant down and get into the containment building and get a closer look.

The NRC looks at on-site response and (Federal Emergency Management Agency) evaluates the off-site response, ... The exercise is designed to make sure the emergency plans are capable of doing the job. The plan is a living document that needs to constantly be evaluated and upgraded.

They've taken samples along the riverfront, and they're getting zeros there. But there is a great dilution factor once you get to the river.

He's one of five commissioners and he's free to express his concerns.

The commission has said time and time again that issues like emergency planning, spent fuel storage and security should be dealt with in the here and now and not in connection with a license renewal.

Among other things, we will be providing full details of how we intend to approach our Special Inspection of the spent fuel pool leakage and inviting the state to observe those efforts, ... Had we seen any evidence that worker or public health and safety was in any way endangered, we would have responded accordingly.

You remember all those phrases about how these people - Asians - dont value human life like we do. Well if you spend any time around them, you discover that they love their children just as much as we love ours. That is certainly true of the Vietnamese.