The fact that Johnson overruled Westmoreland actually shows the power of the so-called taboo in this case.https://twitter.com/kroenig/status/1048599315193778176 …
-
Plus there's a gray area: much of the global & domestic political reaction could have been based on a taboo against use, even if US policymakers were thinking instrumentally.
And of course one need not believe that there are such fine lines between strategic, moral, instrumental, etc., lines of thought. They're all messy human beings, after all! But this is the historian in me speaking, I know. :-)
