Defense Secretary During the Vietnam War

For all his faults Robert S. McNamara (June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009) took on the job that few of us would take.  America’s leaders really believed that the fall of Vietnam would result in communist domination of South East Asia.  Forgotten by most of us is the fact that the West was in the midst of a war with the U.S.S.R. on the future of world economies.  Both McNamara and LBJ were wrong but thought they were right.  I do not buy McNamara’s contention that he thought the war was wrong.  He adopted that view after he saw that it was a losing proposition costing thousands of American lives.  American right wing radio still believes we did the right thing and so do many Americans.   As recently as last week radio show host Hugh Hewitt was talking about the war and why it was the right thing to do.  I initially supported the war until I realized we had no offensive plan to end the war and the South Vietnamese were not interested in winning the fight.