Wolves + Sheep: When Nightvision Was Green
This week’s Wolves + Sheep features a reference to “Annex Foxtrot” - a ten page document drafted by Captain Ron Wildemuth of the U.S. Navy and completed on August 14, 1990. It’s an important document because it was the first major redefinition of miltary press policy post-Vietnam and major elements of it were still hampering press coverage of U.S. military operations in the 2003. Escorted press pools, “embedded” reporters, censorship of copy, privileged access to small-town newspapers, rehearsed press briefings, screening of reporters (c.f. Nixon’s White House, which authorised a press pass for Hunter S. Thompson without demurring), all confidently enacted as policy on the understanding (backed by contemporary opinion polls) that the public was happy to go along with an optimistic, stats-tech heavy interpretation of progressive warfare.