Joe! This is thought-provoking and deep stuff. It's the truth. From the time our first-grade teacher had us play "telephone" in class to show us how lies and rumors get started and grow, I have been careful. Gossip is misinformation and never to be believed. Besides, people who gossip are just bored little folks with no life. These instances you state are huge. Especially Vietnam because that hits home. I took a course on the Vietnam war in college and the textbook I had said exactly that about the Gulf of Tonkin. I believed it because it was a college textbook!!