In Retrospect The Tradegyand Lessons of Vietnam

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	• In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam Robert S. McNamara Vintage, 1996 - 576 pages average customer review:based on 71 reviews view larger image
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Lessons Learned

I first bought this book without thinking. After looking at it for over a year I had not gotten over my anger at McNamara enough to start the book. However, after over a year of staring at it on my coffee table I decided I would try and read it. I am now glad I did!!! If you think you know what happened, as I did(I am 70 yrs old), you will find a very interesting chapter entitled "Lessons Learned". There are eleven lessons to be learned and on a scale of 1-10 I would give McNamara 20.
Most books like this one are autobiographical in nature and are a chance for the writer to congratulate himself. If thats what you think you will be surprised by how candid Mc is with this book. He was and is not an expert on Southeast Asia culture but he has learned a lot and now knows the value and importance of what he did not know.

Having complimented Mc I need to say that there was a thread running through the book that was unsettling to me! He constantly reminds the reader of how "loyal" he was to JFK and LBJ. I have read over 150 books about the Nazis who surrounded Hitler and in their biographies and autobiographies each seem to be always trying to prove their "loyalty" to the Fuherer. I think Germany would have been better served if the loyalty had been to Germany and its people instead of their leader. LBJ was a deceitful President and I was disappointed to be reminded of Mc's loyalty to him. The honorable thing would have been to resign his position but I guess loyalty was how Mc was so successful in the corporate world. Some call it "suck up".

As I read the chapter of the lessons learned it was clear to me that George W Bush never read this book--although he claims to have read one book while in college--it wasn't this one.

It strikes me that this book should be required reading for anyone wanting to work in our State Dept, Defense Dept, or anyone attending a military academy. I am sure the next Administration would be a lot wiser if they read this before making rapidfire decisions by people who were in way above their heads. After all, Mc and the DOD had no experts they trusted who understood the culture ans history of Southeast Asia. If they had they would have understood the struggle was for independance not colonialism and democracy versus communism was never the thing that motivated the recruitment of south Vietnamese into the VC or explained the extremely high desertion rate of the south Viet soldiers. Shame on you, Mc.

I used to hate McNamara because of his 1960's arrogance but now I have to say that if he were ever to come to my town I would want to shake his hand, buy him a cup of coffee, and tell him he has made a great contribution in telling what was done and explaining what could and should have been done and what he learned from taking the time to write this valuable book and expose his weaknesses, warts and all.
Thank you, Mc!

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In Retrospect

A must read for those interested in the workings of the federal government during crisis situations. Provided me with an understanding of how the US became involved in the Vietnam War and the conflict of decisions on the prosecution of the war. I am a Vietnam Veteran.

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Historical

This book has the feel of a man pooring out his soul. He told the truth as he saw it and I saw no reason to find fault with his history. To get a good feel for the book go to Charlie Rose archives and watch his interview with McNamara and the producer of his documentary.

One thing that will upset many people is to see how McNamara changed over the years but then refused to speak up when he believed the Iraq War was wrong. He knows the war was built on lies but still refused to speak out. That seems to me to mitigate the pooring out his soul for VietNam.

I would hope that the brainiacs like McNamara, et al, would somehow try to protect the American people but that does not seem to be the case. Such it is with politics.

Rick Clark
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In Retrospect The Tradegyand Lessons of Vietnam

The paperback book came in very good condition and well within the shipping time promised.

An excellent read.

I don't have any wordy review. I doubt I can add anything that hasn't been discussed already. I just wanted to submit my five stars to Amazon. But I do want to say that Bob McNamara reminds us that the majority of elected officials are men and women who dearly love their country and act in accordance with that love. It is easy to agree upon a goal. It is much more difficult to agree upon the strategies to achieve that goal. Vietnam is a tragic example, made even more tragic by the fact that we so rarely learn from history.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

The Secretary of Defense for the Kennedy and Johnson administrations provides an account of how and why America became involved in Vietnam and discusses the long-term ramifications of decisions made during the 1960s. Reprint. 125,000 first printing.