3/20/88

      An article in the Baltimore Sun calls attention to the rising incidence of impostors who tell grisly stories of wartime daring-do in Vietnam, but who never served there, let alone saw combat. Psychologists and counselors working with Vietnam veterans have identified one telltale sign of these liars; a propensity to claim involvement in some atrocity, such as massacring women and children. One is reminded of exterminationist Germaine Tillion's thoughts on this issue back in July 1954, at which time she wrote "Those persons (who gratuitously lie) are, to tell the truth, very much more numerous than people generally suppose, and a subject like that of the concentration camp world -- well designed, alas, to stimulate sado-masochistic imaginations -- offered them an exceptional field of action. ... There have been publishers to print some of their imaginings, and more or less official compilations to use them, but publishers and compilers are absolutely inexcusable since the most elementary inquiry would have been enough to reveal the imposture."