Especially in a country such as Bhutan in which the government controls almost half of the gross
national product, wise decision-making by government bodies is vital for progress toward increased GNH.
Yet, close study of governmental decision-making processes elsewhere suggests that even highly intelligent,
educated, and competent individuals may fall prey to a phenomenon known as groupthink which
can lead to disastrous governmental decisions. Awareness of groupthink first emerged in a study of U.S.
policy-making by social psychologist Irving Janis (1971, 1982, 1989). Janis studied the decision-making
processes that led U.S. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson to make decisions that led to
the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and the escalation of the war in Vietnam, both of which were widely acknowledged
in retrospect to have been extremely unwise and to have led to much unnecessary loss of life.