Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam
by H. R. McMaster
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Book Summary Information
Author: H. R. McMasterEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1998-05-08
ISBN: 0060929081
Number of pages: 480
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Book Reviews of Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam
Book Review: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"
Summary: 5 Stars
The above quotation from George Santayana perfectly explains why Major McMaster's 1997 book is so richly relevant today. The debacle that was the Viet Nam War is a story of hubris, intransigence, misplaced ideology and unbridled ego that led to the needless deaths of 58,209 American soldiers and over a million Vietnamese.
The war was predicated on a lie, maintained by lies and even today, thirty years later, most of what we think we know about the war turns out to be lies.
The war led to the downfall of at least two presidents, and even more importantly, world opinion toward the United States. Our national policy since the defeat in Hanoi has been one of "trying to recover our national dignity" at home and trying to rekindle trembling respect in the world community.
It is supremely ironic therefore that the policymakers who could benefit most from the lessons of Viet Nam seem not to have studied the facts behind the lies, and instead rely on some of the same failed advisors whose faulty military strategy got us into this mess. It is not only ironic but appalling.
More Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam reviews:
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