Word: mcnamaras
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...YEARS AMERICANS have been trying to learn the lessons of Vietnam while disagreeing on what they are. Given that endless debate, it was inevitable that Robert McNamara would conclude his controversial new book, In Retrospect, with a chapter on the lessons of the war. "I don't think the country has yet learned the lessons," he said in an interview with Time last week. "If it had, I wouldn't have written the book." McNamara points to the dangers of underestimating nationalism, of faulty evaluations, of asking the military to achieve more than weapons can deliver. The nation worries through...
...When McNamara confesses in his book, "We were wrong, terribly wrong," he means mostly that he and his colleagues misjudged the nature of the cold war and the role Vietnam played in it. In a 1991 interview with Time, McNamara recalled, "We thought there was considerable evidence China intended to extend its hegemony across Southeast Asia and perhaps beyond." But he added, "I'm not at all sure now." While many Americans agree with him that the domino theory was probably founded on an illusion, not everyone is convinced. Rusk was not, and neither is Walt Rostow, who was special...
Former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara brushed off a demand by the commander of the American Legion that he donate all royalties from his new autobiographical "confessions" of error in Vietnam to veterans' causes. "If Secretary McNamara is sincere about atoning for sending Americans into a war he knew they couldn't win, then he shouldn't profit financially from this sad, tragic, late confession," said William Detweiler, leader of the 3.1-million member veterans' group. McNamara's replied (through publisher Times Books) that he'd prefer to make any charitable contributions "privately...
Asked on PBS' MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour Monday why he didn't speak out years ago, McNamara exclaimed: "What should I have said that would not have brought aid and comfort to the enemy? I was the secretary of defense...
President Clinton says he took some comfort from a new book by one of theVietnamwar's chief architects. Asked by CNN White House correspondent Wolf Blitzer whether he felt vindicated by former President Defense Secretary Robert McNamara's statement this week that the war was a terrible mistake, Clinton replied, "Yes, I do; I know that sounds self-serving, but I do." The conversation occurred off-camera Thursday after CNN taped an interview. White House press secretary Mike McCurry confirmed the exchange today, adding that McNamara's admission "vindicates the views of millions of Americans, including President Clinton, that...