Personally, I don't hold the Chiefs as culpable as the rest. McNamara, Rusk and Taylor tried to freeze out the Chiefs from the inner ring of decision makers and did not effectively convey the real concerns of the Chiefs and the size of the force they felt would be necessary to win.
“A very good book. When I read it I figured McMaster’s career was over. Glad I was wrong.”
It apparently did slow down his promotions.
Like you, I didn’t agree with holding the JCS culpable. They wouldn’t have been able to imagine the degree that LBJ, McNamara and Taylor were misleading and outright lying to them.
And besides, as McMaster documents LBJ had no intention of heeding their advice anyway.
One of the most valuable lessons from this book is that Presidents need to include the JCS in their deliberations.
Eisenhower bequeathed Kennedy and Johnson a security structure that had two advisory groups which included the JCS.
Kennedy dismantled that apparently because he felt intimidated by senior military. He relied instead upon his Harvard eggheads.
Johnson continued the policy of shutting out the JCS because he didn’t want to hear their opinions. So instead Johnson had his Vietnam strategy designed by a couple of lawyers.