Word: mcnamara
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...outgoing Secretary and the military commanders also clashed last spring over the extent of a troop increase. McNamara was successful in persuading the President to give General Westmoreland only a fraction of the new troops he wanted for 1968, thereby avoiding a call-up of the reserves...
During this controversy, however, McNamara further jeopardized his relations with the military by openly criticizing the manpower efficiency of Westmoreland's command in Vietnam. He forced the U.S. commanders in Vietnam to increase the percentage of troops in the field, while cutting the number needed for non-combat operations...
...McNamara's third major clash with the generals over Vietnam policy in the last year concerned the construction of a $3 billion anti-infiltration barrier across the 17th parallel. McNamara is understood to have though that the success of this device--yet to go into operation--might have obviated the need for air raids into the North. But the pro-bombing generals insisted that it would be ineffectual, and would commit large numbers of troops to stand guard at the border. Since McNamara is now leaving, there is some doubt that the controversial barrier will ever go into operation...
...event, most non-civilian officials in the Pentagon--and Vietnam--are likely to breathe a good deal easier than they have for the past seven years. McNamara, almost alone among the eight Defense Secretaries since the National Defense Act of 1947, considered himself and acted as the President's top adviser on all matters pertaining to American military operations...
More important, and far more disturbing to the military chieftains, McNamara was able to strip the services of much of their political and economic power. He fully centralized Pentagon budgeting procedures and placed the three services' procurement operations under civilian direction--saving billions and sharply cutting the military's domestic political influence...