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General Anthony Zinni — the former US commander in the Middle East and perhaps the most voluble of Mr Rumsfeld’s critics — was particularly taken with a study written by a youngish Army officer, H.R. McMaster, criticising the US Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Robert McNamara era for not speaking up more loudly against a war they knew could not be won.

Our military won the war in Viet Nam. The civilians lost the media war here in the US to the communists.

[Pelham]

Our military won the war in Viet Nam. The civilians lost the media war here in the US to the communists.

The article mischaracterizes McMaster's book a bit from what I recall of it. McMaster laid a lot of blame on civilians, McNamara and Johnson in particular, but he faults the senior military for not speaking up against those two, whose strategy did so much to damage our ability to conduct the war. The only flag officer I recall who did speak up was Admiral US Grant Sharpe who wrote a sharply critical book when he retired.

[Rembrandt]

"Our military won the war in Viet Nam. The civilians lost the media war here in the US to the communists."


Amen.