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Title: In Retrospect : The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam by Brian VanDeMark, Robert S. McNamara ISBN: 0-679-76749-5 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 19 March, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.4 (42 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Dry in tone, but important reading
Comment: Perhaps only Lyndon Johnson could have offered more insight into the decision-making that guided the United States' involvement in Vietnam. From that standpoint, this book is fascinating and heart-breaking. McNamara concisely offers up question after question that should have been debated - but were not - within the Johnson administration.
Still, I have a couple of issues with this book. One, McNamara seems overly generous in distributing blame to others, especially President Johnson. It's true that McNamara takes on blame himself, and it's also true that Johnson deserves ultimate responsibility for the actions of his administration. Still, it somehow seems unfair, considering LBJ is no longer around to defend himself. And I don't feel McNamara takes enough blame upon himself as Secretary of Defense. Two, a lesser issue, is McNamara's irritating habit of referring to almost everyone by their first name, making it difficult at first to keep up with the cast of characters (except General Westmoreland, who is annoyingly reduced to "Westy" throughout the book).
It is at the end, when McNamara sums up the lessons learned from Vietnam, that "In Retrospect's" real power comes through. These are important lessons that would serve us well in the post-9/11 world, if only our "leaders" had the foresight to study them. Sorry to add a political tone to this review, but I can't help but be frustrated at those whose egos lead them to repeat the mistakes of the past. This is McNamara's greatest legacy - the urgent plea to build a brighter future, from one who led us through the past. That alone makes "In Retrospect" important reading.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Sanitized View of the Vietnam War
Comment: Almost 30 years after his departure from the Department of Defense, Robert McNamara has decided to share his views of what led to and furthered US involvement in Vietnam. McNamara makes a few points that are helpful in understanding the decision-making process used by McNamara and his fellow policymakers. For example, McNamara is quick to remind us that US involvement in Vietnam began long before the Kennedy presidency. He also carefully outlines the mindset in which he and others were working. This mindset involved an absolute misunderstanding of the Vietnamese people and an incredible fear of the spread of Communism. These, among others described, were very real errors committed by McNamara and other policymakers. They failed to consult experts concerning many issues surrounding US involvement in Vietnam. What McNamara does not address, however, is the countless deaths, injuries and emotional scars experienced on both the American and Vietnamese sides. The only death McNamara seems affected by is that of a protester that burned himself to death 40 feet beneath McNamara's Pentagon office window. McNamara is interested in accepting his share of the blame for poor policy making, but seems unable to come to terms with the carnage that resulted from his errors. After reading McNamara's book, I have come to the conclusion that he is telling the truth about certain errors he made, but it is only half of the story. Also, beware of McNamara's ability to provoke sympathy. He describes his position with the Pentagon as being a very small part of a huge policymaking machine. He says he disagreed with many of the policies put forth, but failed to voice his opinions or his opinions were crushed by fellow policymakers. This, I do not believe. McNamara was an extremely powerful and influential policymaker during his stint as Secretary of Defense.
If you are interested in the history surrounding the Vietnam War, read this book, but be sure to read others as well. This is one part of US involvement, but fails to tell the whole story. The book also has interesting insights into decision-making on a national level.
Rating: 5
Summary: Hindsight But Perceptive and Honest
Comment: I listened to the audio tape of this book because I intended to see Fog of War. The documentary about Robert McNamara's views, expressed in this book. This book gives McNamara's, views on war and peace in the nuclear age based on his experience as Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1968 under presidents Kennedy and Johnson and his service as a staff officer to General Curtis LeMay during WWII. General LeMay's command was responsible of the fire bombing of Japanese cities (bombing that in the aggregate did more damage and took more lives than the nuclear events at Hiroshima and Nagasaki). One wonders why, if firebombing was so destructive, was it necessary to use nuclear bombs. McNamara does state that President Truman's decision to use nuclear weapons was correct.
The premise of this book is that given human fallibility and the power of nuclear weapons to destroy entire nations in a few minutes we must be better prepared to solve international problems through diplomatic means or mediation by third parties i.e. the United Nations. Further if there is to be a war it has to be done with multilateral consent and not just one nation squaring off against another.
This book is broader than just McNamara's experience in Vietnam it details his life experiences that led him to his conclusions. Conclusions that include his belief that the Vietnam War was a mistake and that in the case of Japan, General Curtis LeMay's comment that they would all be prosecuted as war criminals because of the fire bombing if we lost the war, was probably correct. This is balanced by the fact, he points out, that sometimes you must do evil to accomplish good i.e. countless American lives were saved by the fire and nuclear bombing of Japan.
McNamara states when we entered the Vietnam War we knew we could not win because we wanted to avoid a larger war with China and possibly Russia. Mr. McNamara knew this in 1962 or 1963 because intelligence reports including CIA evaluations revealed that bombing in itself could not stop North Vietnam from supplying the South with men and supplies and since the supplies of war was generated outside North Vietnam we were powerless to destroy the means of production also. Our leaders knew for every troop commitment by the U.S. the North Vietnamese could match it with an increase of their own troop strength. Further it became obvious that the will to fight in the South basically centered in the Army and not the people. After Diem and his brother were assassinated with U.S. complicity, there was no viable political base to build on. We lost the hearts and minds of the people to the Viet Cong very early.
Mr. McNamara points out that the only way out of Vietnam was unilateral withdrawal because the North knew it was winning and there was nothing to negotiate. Bombing did not seriously interdict their ability to wage the war or recruit men to fight.
So how did we go there in the first place? Mr. McNamara believes it was caused by the lack of experienced U.S. Southeast Asia experts. The fall of China and the subsequent McCarthy witch-hunts had effectively purged our government of knowledgeable experts on the area. He makes the point that to the Vietnamese the war was a fight against colonialist aggressors and a civil war. Vietnam had been in a battle to free itself from Chinese domination and later French domination for a thousand years. The Americans were seen as a new colonialist aggressor while we saw ourselves in a battle to stop communist expansion.
In the end the lives of 58000 Americans and three million Vietnamese (The equivalent of twenty seven million Americans. McNamara loves numbers and their relationships) were lost on misperceptions given as advice to our presidents and political leaders. Advice McNamara disagreed with and which ultimately caused his dismissal by President Johnson. This is documented by statements on tape and internal government documents since released. The hawks appear to be senators, congressmen, cabinet members and outside experts buttressed by the Joint Chiefs who were always for escalation and a military solution which would have been impossible with out a probable third world war with nuclear consequences for every living soul on earth.
McNamara points out in October 1963 the military had advised the invasion of Cuba when unbeknownst to us the Russians had ninety tactical nuclear weapons and about sixty strategic nuclear weapons in Cuba. If Kennedy and Kruschev were unable to negotiate a peaceful withdrawal there would have been a nuclear exchange with the probable end of human civilization as we know it. The same situation occurred in Vietnam if we had followed military advice and escalated the war by using tactical nuclear devices China would felt threatened and entered the war.
McNamara makes the point that in this nuclear age we cannot go to war over a misunderstanding of another nations actions. A nuclear exchange offers no
room for correction or change of policy or goals once its done its all over.
History is plastic as it unfolds and in the heat of the moment one decision can lead to unintended results and history is always plastic in the subsequent interpretation and evaluation of events and so it is with McNamara and his views. One thing McNamara has right is that we cannot have a nuclear exchange by large powers or even lesser powers, ever, or else we will see Armageddon in our time.
This book is a clear statement of the terms of life in the nuclear age. As McNamara points out we are not going to change human nature but communication and understanding can be improved. I have written a longer review of the book and film at mechanic-al.org/Ed
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Title: Argument Without End: In Search of Answers to the Vietnam Tragedy by Robert S. McNamara, James G. Blight, Robert K. Brigham, Thomas J. Biersteker, Herbert Y., Col. Schandler ISBN: 1891620878 Publisher: PublicAffairs Pub. Date: 16 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: Dereliction of Duty : Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam by H. R. McMaster ISBN: 0060929081 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 June, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam ISBN: 0449908704 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 26 October, 1993 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Wilson's Ghost: Reducing the Risk of Conflict, Killing, and Catastrophe in the 21st Century by Robert S. McNamara, James G. Blight ISBN: 1586481436 Publisher: PublicAffairs Pub. Date: 17 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Vietnam: A History by Stanley Karnow ISBN: 0140265473 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: June, 1997 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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