Based on the content analysis, the Department of Defense should have used 

the Principles of Information (Appendix A). Whenever war occurs, no one can be 

sure what elements the troops will be exposed to. Therefore, when the accusations 

first began, the government should have rightly claimed they did not know what 

was causing the veterans' sicknesses, but they would find out. That is the command 

message that all media relations officers are taught when dealing with a crisis. The 

officer tells the media and the public that they are investigating. So why did the 

government not choose this route for the Gulf War illness? We can not speculate. 

It would seem the government would have learned its lesson in denying Agent

Orange existed during the Vietnam era (Waldman, 1996).

    One method of confirming our hypothesis would be to examine a similar

incident where the Department of Defense used their Principles of Information. An

example would be the groping incident that occurred at the United States

Military Academy in the fall of 1994.  The West Point Public Affairs Office knew the

incident, which involved male football cadets accused of groping female cadets at a

football rally, would an interest story for the media to cover.  They decided to go

directly to the press and disclose all the facts of the situation.  They followed the

Department of Defense’s Principle of Information and told the media all they could

about the incident right after it occurred. 

    The spokesman, West Point Superintendent Army Lt. Gen. Howard D. Graves,

told the media there was an ongoing investigation about the accusations and he

would report the results of the investigation as soon as they were made.  The public

affairs office was up front about the issue and initially the media swarmed to cover

the story but soon the story died because all the media could report was the facts.

There was no cover-up so there was no other story to tell.  After a  couple of days,

the story was out of the news until the results of the investigation were made. 

The reason this situation could have been a potential public relations disaster was

the circumstances were similar to the Navy’s Tailhook situation.  The public affairs

office knew the media would tie the two situations together so they did not want to

handle it the same way the Navy did. Therefore, the West Point incident was tied to

Tailhook in a positive way—showing the best way to handle a bad incident. 

    The West Point Public Affairs Office received the Public Relations Society of

America’s Silver Anvil award that year for their handling of the crisis

communications situation.  Others praised the incident as a success for handling a

potentially crippling situation with great finesse and ease. For more information

about this incident, contact the West Point public affairs office.