When today's leaders were young, lies poisoned American efforts in Vietnam. The poison has endangered our efforts in Serbia. The lieutenants of the Vietnam War are the generals who run the Pentagon and so control resources NATO needs. The spirit of the honor code in the academies and of training in core values in the services is that the duty to live up to those values increases with rank. But in practice the duty decreases with rank.
Generals get off light, while sergeants suffer.
The honor code encompasses all aspects of a cadet's life, extending beyond the professional and academic realms into the personal realm. An individual's nonverbal communications that create an impression or convey a message to someone else in lieu of an oral or written statement must be truthful. Equivocation is the intentional use of vague, misleading or ambiguous language. Equivocation is a subset of lying. Cadets are expected to exercise tact in social situations.