In Retrospect; The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam
McNamara, Robert S. with VanDeMark, Brian
Langue : anglais
Edité par Times Books/Random House, New York, 1995
- Signé
- Livre relié
- Occasion
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Etat: Occasion - Assez bon
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xviii, 414 pages. Stamped and signed bookplate on fep. Endpaper maps. The Secretary of Defense for the Kennedy and Johnson administrations provides a perceptive and candid account of how--and why--America became involved in Vietnam, discussing his own activities and the legacy of decisions made during the 1960s. Robert S. McNamara was an influential and controversial American executive and public official who came to personify the technocratic approach to mid-century governance and warfare. He served as the secretary of defense from 1961 to 1968. He was appointed by President John F. Kennedy and continuing under Lyndon B. Johnson, McNamara became the longest-serving Defense Secretary in U.S. history. He revolutionized Pentagon management with data-driven systems but became the primary architect of American military escalation in the Vietnam War. Brian VanDeMark is an American historian, professor, and author specializing in 20th-century American foreign policy, military history, and the psychological blind spots of political leadership. Early in his career, VanDeMark established himself as a trusted researcher for major political figures. In addition to co-writing In Retrospect with McNamara, he served as the primary research assistant for legendary political advisor Clark Clifford's bestselling autobiography, Counsel to the President. In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam is a 1995 memoir by former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. It is a controversial insider’s account detailing the fatal misjudgments, flawed foreign policy assumptions, and hubris that led the United States into the devastating conflict in Southeast Asia. The book details eleven major misjudgments that McNamara—who served under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson—acknowledges he and other U.S. leaders made during the escalation of the conflict. Key highlights from the book include: Misunderstanding the Enemy: U.S. policymakers viewed the Vietnam War through the rigid lens of the Cold War, mistakenly assuming North Vietnam was a puppet of Soviet or Chinese communist expansion, rather than recognizing it primarily as a nationalist movement. Flawed Assumptions: Leaders overestimated the effectiveness of bombing campaigns and failed to understand the limitations of conventional military force against an entrenched guerrilla insurgency. Lack of Communication: McNamara admits that top officials isolated themselves from historical and regional experts on Southeast Asia, ignoring vital warnings about the difficulties of winning the "hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese people. Hiding the Truth: U.S. leadership frequently shielded the true costs and escalating nature of the war from the American public and Congress, which eroded institutional trust.…
N° de réf. du vendeur 68074
- Titre
- In Retrospect; The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam
- Auteur
- McNamara, Robert S. with VanDeMark, Brian
- Éditeur
- Times Books/Random House, New York
- Année de publication
- 1995
- État de l'article
- Very good
- Jaquette
- Very good
- Signé
- Signed
- Reliure
- Hardcover
- Langue
- anglais
- ISBN à 10 chiffres
- 0812925238
- ISBN à 13 chiffres
- 9780812925234
- Illustrateur
- Diane Walker (Author photograph)
- Édition
- Second Printing [stated].
- Catalogues du vendeur
- CIA
« Synopsis » peut appartenir à une autre édition de cet ouvrage.
Extrait
This is the book I planned never to write.
Although pressed repeatedly for over a quarter of a century to add my views on Vietnam to the public record, I hesitated for fear that I might appear self-serving, defensive, or vindictive, which I wished to avoid at all costs. Perhaps I hesitated also because it is hard to face one's mistakes. But something changed my attitude and willingness to speak. I am responding not to a desire to get out my personal story but rather to a wish to put before the American people why their government and its leaders behaved as they did and what we may learn from that experience.
My associates in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations were an exceptional group: young, vigorous, intelligent, well-meaning, patriotic servants of the United States. How did this group—"the best and the brightest," as we eventually came to be known in an ironically pejorative phrase—get it wrong on Vietnam? That story has not yet been told.
But why now? Why after all these years of silence am I convinced I should speak? There are many reasons; the main one is that I have grown sick at heart witnessing the cynicism and even contempt with which so many people view our political institutions and leaders.
Many factors helped lead to this: Vietnam, Watergate, scandals, corruption. But I do not believe, on balance, that America's political leaders have been incompetent or insensitive to their responsibilities and to the welfare of the people who elected them and to whom they are accountable. Nor do I believe they have been any worse than their foreign counterparts or their colleagues in the private sector. Certainly they have shown themselves to be far from perfect, but people are far from perfect. They have made mistakes, but mostly honest mistakes.
This underscores my own painful quandary about discussing Vietnam. I know that, to this day, many political leaders and scholars in the United States and abroad argue that the Vietnam War actually helped contain the spread of Communism in South and East Asia. Some argue that it hastened the end of the Cold War. But I also know that the war caused terrible damage to America. No doubt exists in my mind about that. None. I want to look at Vietnam in hindsight, not in any way to obscure my own and others' errors of judgment and their egregious costs but to show the full range of pressures and the lack of knowledge that existed at the time.
I want to put Vietnam in context.
We of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations who participated in the decisions on Vietnam acted according to what we thought were the principles and traditions of this nation. We made our decisions in light of those values.
Yet we were wrong, terribly wrong. We owe it to future generations to explain why.
I truly believe that we made an error not of values and intentions but of judgment and capabilities. I say this warily, since I know that if my comments appear to justify or rationalize what I and others did, they will lack credibility and only increase people's cynicism. It is cynicism that makes Americans reluctant to support their leaders in the actions necessary to confront and solve our problems at home and abroad.
I want Americans to understand why we made the mistakes we did, and to learn from them. I hope to say, "Here is something we can take away from Vietnam that is constructive and applicable to the world of today and tomorrow." That is the only way our nation can ever hope to leave the past behind. The ancient Greek dramatist Aeschylus wrote, "The reward of suffering is experience." Let this be the lasting legacy of Vietnam.
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