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Robert McNamara In Retrospect Random House New York, 1995 Vietnam had long since been a place of controversy, and where our government focusedit's fear of communism for many years. Throughout the Kennedy and Johnson administrationsthe government maintained that the war between the communist north and the south can only bewon by the South Vietnamese, and that our military cannot win it for them. It stressed that thefall of South Vietnam to communism would threaten the rest of the western world. Robert McNamara, the Secretary of Defense during the Kennedy and Johnsonadministrations, wrote In Retrospect because he wanted to "Put Vietnam in context,"(xx). McNamara wanted to explain why the mistakes of Vietnam were made, not to justify them, butto help the American public understand them. He relies not only upon his memories, but upon People have often called Vietnam, McNamara's war, because he made it hisresponsibility. As he learned more and more about south Vietnam, he became well acquaintedwith it's leader Ngo Dinh Diem. Diem portrayed himself as a man who shared our westernvalues. Though as our government would soon realize he was not the man we had hoped for.
" The bookmakes a lot of valid points though it is hard to follow at times. McNamara lists eleven reasons for the major causesof Vietnam. A second attack was supposed to have taken place on August fourth, butMcNamara has now concluded that the second attack never happened. The basic reasoning behind us being in Vietnam was to advise the South Vietnamese onhow to stop pressures from the north. McNamara poses many questions as to whether the war would have continued on the same routehad Kennedy not been killed. McNamara is not only to blame for thiswar many mistakes were made, including the entire administration, generals, and Vietnamese. Hisconflicts between the Buddhists and Catholics were becoming more outrageous than ever. His last deed in regards toVietnam was to oppose General Westmoreland's petition for 200,000 supplementary troops. " Kennedy was ready to start pulling our troops out because it was obvious thatthe war was un winnable. McNamara summed up alot of misconceptions of what really happened, he doesn'ttry and sugar coat he comes right out and says "We were wrong, terribly wrong. When McNamara left the state department he had realized that the U.
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