McNamara Printing

After hearing that Robert S. McNamara had shed some tears about the Vietnam era I naively thought I would also find a public apology to the American people. But nothing of the sort took place, not even a word of penance.          

Instead,  the author begins by lauding himself and his involvement with the "Whiz Kids" at the Ford Motor Co. He describes his unexplained adulation of President Kennedy and his early admission of being unqualified for his role as Secretary of Defense.

He writes about a conversation he had with Sergeant Shriver, President Kennedy's brother-in-law.

At four sharp, Sarge Shriver entered my office. He began the conversation by saying, "The president-elect has instructed me to offer you the position of Secretary of the Treasury."

"You're out of your mind," I said. "I'm not qualified for that."

"If you hold to that position," said Sarge, "I am authorized to say Jack Kennedy wishes you to serve as Secretary of  Defense."

"This is absurd!" I said. "I'm not qualified."

"Well, the president-elect at least hopes you will give him the courtesy of agreeing to meet with him tomorrow in Washington," Sarge countered. I could not say no.

If he was so unqualified, why in the world did he take the job?

Then there are the many pictures of himself, his many awards and the stuff that self-aggrandizement is made of.

What follows is a description of the Defense and State departments being misled and totally out of touch with reality. I still wanted to believe that Robert S. McNamara was really sorry for what had happened. I am apparently a victim of wishful thinking.

By December 1967 we had 485,000 troops in South Vietnam and the death toll was 16,000. In the following year the death toll doubled to 30, 568. By January of 1973 the death toll was reaching 58,000!

Now, I ask, who set up the initial program of increased troops that caused the increase of those killed in action, if not Secretary of Defense McNamara? How could a person write in his resignation letter to President Lyndon Johnson, "No other period in my life has brought so much struggle or so much satisfaction," when the machinery for mass destruction was being increased daily.

It has taken Americans more than 20 years to come to terms with the Vietnam War. We have spent millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of hours in rehabilitative work with the veterans and their families. Many of us pray daily that the lives sacrificed were not in vain. When I speak to men and their families who have been in Vietnam I see their never ending tears and uncontrollable anger. Now, after many years, we have finally built a memorial honoring our 58,000 dead. Finally the Vietnam monster has been put under control. We have given back the veterans their dignity.

Now comes McNamara reopening the Pandora's box calling this 'a big mistake.' He destroys the hard-earned self-respect of the veterans. Once again he destroys the equilibrium of America. He has the gall to say that he is helping us with this book,

In retrospect, he blames the we and not the I, deflecting the real person responsible.

"We of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations who participated in the decisions on Vietnam acted according to what we thought were the principles and traditions of this nation. We made our decisions in light of those values. Yet we were wrong, terribly wrong. We owe it to future generations to explain why."

McNamara blames the dead Presidents, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CIA and South Vietnam but never himself!

I think that McNamara is a very shrewd person. He slyly sets the reader up to think that he is sorry but, in essence, he is not. What he portrays is his being manipulated by others, thus vindicating himself. Remember this, McNamara, was not just as much a victim as the 58,000 killed. Yes, McNamara has not changed one bit.

Most disturbing is his short and only consolation for veterans and their families found at the very end of the book.

"In the end, we must confront the fate of those Americans who served in Vietnam and never returned. Does the unwisdom of our intervention nullify their effort and their loss? I think not. They did not make the decisions. They answered their nation's call to service. They went in harm's way on its behalf. And they gave their lives for their country and its ideals. That our effort in Vietnam proved unwise does not make their sacrifice less noble. It endures for all to see. Let us learn from their sacrifice and, by doing so, validate and honor it."

It's so cheap it makes me sick.

If there is one thing I agree with in the book, It is the statement found in the preface, "This is the book I planned never to write." Yes, in retrospect, the book should never have been written.