Not until he got to work on the history that become known as the Pentagon papers, however, did he decide that the more serious lying ran in the opposition direction -- that every president back to Truman had simultaneously misled the public about our right to interfere in Vietnam and our chances, with every military escalation, for success.
(Although, distractingly, even some serious lies can be good.
They would have to consider if it was "a white lie" or "a really serious lie", he said.
Where possible, try to differentiate between serious lies – eg round bullying, promiscuity, heavy drug use – and more trivial, like the odd spliff.
In comparison, when it comes to spotting really serious lies - those that could, for example, affect national security - he says simply that he "does not believe we have solid evidence that anything else works better than chance".
I focus on serious lies: where the consequences for the liar are grave if they're found out, and where the target would feel properly aggrieved if they knew".
As Marcy Wheeler recently wrote, the CIA's own public records reveal serious lies to Congress about their torture program, yet no one in the CIA has ever been punished as a result of that knowledge.
If it's a serious lie, then you should LOOK serious.
The only serious faults lay in the work of some vocal soloists, but they were the least of what the evening was about.
Serious trouble lay ahead, however, if the chaplains were to come into conflict with the commanding officer and to preach against him, as Francis Fletcher had preached against the behaviour of Sir Francis Drake at a crucial moment during the voyage of the Golden Hind.
Serious challenges lay ahead given the complex nature of cytotoxic metabolism with multiple players working together to influence drug effectiveness and/or toxicity.
