My husband and I watched Fog of War with McNamara on Showtime I think the other night. Fog of War won an oscar too I believe... anyhoo... The only question I have is why would Kennedy choose McNamara for Def Secty? A man with no military experience and a CEO for three months with Ford Motor Co? No wonder we lost. I actually found I had sympathy for Johnson.
Don't ever!
Johnson was Commander-in-Chief. If he had had the guts Truman had in his little finger, we wouldn't have been flying people off the rooftop in Saigon.
We fought the VietNam War like a football team behind one point with a first down and one minute left in the fourth quarter on the two yard line when the coach sends in instructions to fall on the ball four downs and run out the clock.
The scoreboard says we lost. The players know better.
If I remember correctly, the talk at the time was that McNamara was a brilliant man. You can be brilliant, and still not know how to fight a war.