Rating: 
Summary: We already knew this!
Review: I admire McNamara for his "coming" out of the closet, but he has told us nothing we didn't already know. Bob, you are years and 58,000 lives too late. I admit to grabbing the book at first opportunity, however, was disappointed in that it was a rehash of "old news." Mr. Secretary, you were not the villain of our part in the War....at least you had the courage to back out of an unwinnable situation. What I don't understand is how you can still praise LBJ and Westy when it is clear they completely bungled an already discomposing situation. No need to elaborate....Johnson gave up after TET, his ego would not allow him to lose the election. Westmoreland was portrayed perfectly in his infamous on-scene interview immediately after TET...certainly not that of a supreme leader. Face it....Giap threw out the bait and Westmoreland bought it. Mr. McNamara's book is personably written....you have to like the man. He was thrown in a situation for which he was ill equipped. DOD is not Ford Motors. But he accepted the challenge and did his best. When he no longer could put up with the disease that permeated the Vietnam situation, he bowed out with dignity. The book is easy to read, laced with personal insight, but I am not convinced he has been completely truthful with us about the leadership. Then again, as a refined politician to the end, he elicited the polish that JFK saw in him at the outset. The author is a decent person and took the chance to redeem himself, but as noted before it was just too late....way late.
Rating: 
Summary: It takes courage and guts
Review: I am not an American. I was born in 1969. So I have no direct emotional connection to Vietnam. I respect people who do. But I can not agree with reviewers like Labradorman -otherwise a good reviewer- when he says: "Boycott this book". I can't see how boycotting the personal account of one of the leading protagonists of this drama can help understand what happened and why. McNamara is implaccable with himself and his mistakes, generous to his colleagues, and noble to the presidents he served. And yet, throughout the book it is clear that one of the officials who always had second thoughts and always pushed for further analysis was McNamara himself. A personal account supported by an impressive documental research, this book deserves to be read, for the personal advantage of the reader. It should be read not only by people interested in Vietnam, but by any one with an interest in public administration, government, and high-level decision making. This is a tour de force in the guts of one of the most formidable machines of government humankind has devised: the American government. We can see here how, even "the best ans the brightest" can make fatal -literally fatal- mistakes. We can see how the Cold-War mind affected every other decision. Points of interest: the position of the Joint Chiefs, always asking for more bombing and more soldiers; the conduct of undersecretary of State George Ball, one of the most sensible; the frivolous conduct of an inadequate ambassador, like Henry Cabot Lodge; and, of course, the tension and hesitation of McNamara. One can only hope more public officials would write honest and courageous books.
Rating:
Summary: Historical Gem
Review: I did not fight in Vietnam. However, I believe this book is valuable for its insightful look into the men who made the decisions for our involvement in Vietnam. I can only imagine how difficult it must of been for our President and McNamara to continue to send troops into a country where the outcome was in doubt. Our country never faced such an outcome! This book will be useful to anyone needing to brush up on their knowledge of Vietnam.
Rating: 
Summary: ARE YOU READING THIS REVIEW, MR. MCNARAMA?
Review: I listened to the audio tape of this book because I intended to see Fog of War. The documentary about Robert McNamara's views, expressed in this book. This book gives McNamara's, views on war and peace in the nuclear age based on his experience as Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1968 under presidents Kennedy and Johnson and his service as a staff officer to General Curtis LeMay during WWII. General LeMay's command was responsible of the fire bombing of Japanese cities (bombing that in the aggregate did more damage and took more lives than the nuclear events at Hiroshima and Nagasaki). One wonders why, if firebombing was so destructive, was it necessary to use nuclear bombs. McNamara does state that President Truman's decision to use nuclear weapons was correct. The premise of this book is that given human fallibility and the power of nuclear weapons to destroy entire nations in a few minutes we must be better prepared to solve international problems through diplomatic means or mediation by third parties i.e. the United Nations. Further if there is to be a war it has to be done with multilateral consent and not just one nation squaring off against another. This book is broader than just McNamara's experience in Vietnam it details his life experiences that led him to his conclusions. Conclusions that include his belief that the Vietnam War was a mistake and that in the case of Japan, General Curtis LeMay's comment that they would all be prosecuted as war criminals because of the fire bombing if we lost the war, was probably correct. This is balanced by the fact, he points out, that sometimes you must do evil to accomplish good i.e. countless American lives were saved by the fire and nuclear bombing of Japan. McNamara states when we entered the Vietnam War we knew we could not win because we wanted to avoid a larger war with China and possibly Russia. Mr. McNamara knew this in 1962 or 1963 because intelligence reports including CIA evaluations revealed that bombing in itself could not stop North Vietnam from supplying the South with men and supplies and since the supplies of war was generated outside North Vietnam we were powerless to destroy the means of production also. Our leaders knew for every troop commitment by the U.S. the North Vietnamese could match it with an increase of their own troop strength. Further it became obvious that the will to fight in the South basically centered in the Army and not the people. After Diem and his brother were assassinated with U.S. complicity, there was no viable political base to build on. We lost the hearts and minds of the people to the Viet Cong very early. Mr. McNamara points out that the only way out of Vietnam was unilateral withdrawal because the North knew it was winning and there was nothing to negotiate. Bombing did not seriously interdict their ability to wage the war or recruit men to fight.
So how did we go there in the first place? Mr. McNamara believes it was caused by the lack of experienced U.S. Southeast Asia experts. The fall of China and the subsequent McCarthy witch-hunts had effectively purged our government of knowledgeable experts on the area. He makes the point that to the Vietnamese the war was a fight against colonialist aggressors and a civil war. Vietnam had been in a battle to free itself from Chinese domination and later French domination for a thousand years. The Americans were seen as a new colonialist aggressor while we saw ourselves in a battle to stop communist expansion. In the end the lives of 58000 Americans and three million Vietnamese (The equivalent of twenty seven million Americans. McNamara loves numbers and their relationships) were lost on misperceptions given as advice to our presidents and political leaders. Advice McNamara disagreed with and which ultimately caused his dismissal by President Johnson. This is documented by statements on tape and internal government documents since released. The hawks appear to be senators, congressmen, cabinet members and outside experts buttressed by the Joint Chiefs who were always for escalation and a military solution which would have been impossible with out a probable third world war with nuclear consequences for every living soul on earth. McNamara points out in October 1963 the military had advised the invasion of Cuba when unbeknownst to us the Russians had ninety tactical nuclear weapons and about sixty strategic nuclear weapons in Cuba. If Kennedy and Kruschev were unable to negotiate a peaceful withdrawal there would have been a nuclear exchange with the probable end of human civilization as we know it. The same situation occurred in Vietnam if we had followed military advice and escalated the war by using tactical nuclear devices China would felt threatened and entered the war. McNamara makes the point that in this nuclear age we cannot go to war over a misunderstanding of another nations actions. A nuclear exchange offers no
room for correction or change of policy or goals once its done its all over. History is plastic as it unfolds and in the heat of the moment one decision can lead to unintended results and history is always plastic in the subsequent interpretation and evaluation of events and so it is with McNamara and his views. One thing McNamara has right is that we cannot have a nuclear exchange by large powers or even lesser powers, ever, or else we will see Armageddon in our time. This book is a clear statement of the terms of life in the nuclear age. As McNamara points out we are not going to change human nature but communication and understanding can be improved. I have written a longer review of the book and film at mechanic-al.org/Ed
Rating: 
Summary: Hindsight But Perceptive and Honest
Review: I listened to the audio tape of this book because I intended to see Fog of War. The documentary about Robert McNamara's views, expressed in this book. This book gives McNamara's, views on war and peace in the nuclear age based on his experience as Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1968 under presidents Kennedy and Johnson and his service as a staff officer to General Curtis LeMay during WWII. General LeMay's command was responsible of the fire bombing of Japanese cities (bombing that in the aggregate did more damage and took more lives than the nuclear events at Hiroshima and Nagasaki). One wonders why, if firebombing was so destructive, was it necessary to use nuclear bombs. McNamara does state that President Truman's decision to use nuclear weapons was correct. The premise of this book is that given human fallibility and the power of nuclear weapons to destroy entire nations in a few minutes we must be better prepared to solve international problems through diplomatic means or mediation by third parties i.e. the United Nations. Further if there is to be a war it has to be done with multilateral consent and not just one nation squaring off against another. This book is broader than just McNamara's experience in Vietnam it details his life experiences that led him to his conclusions. Conclusions that include his belief that the Vietnam War was a mistake and that in the case of Japan, General Curtis LeMay's comment that they would all be prosecuted as war criminals because of the fire bombing if we lost the war, was probably correct. This is balanced by the fact, he points out, that sometimes you must do evil to accomplish good i.e. countless American lives were saved by the fire and nuclear bombing of Japan. McNamara states when we entered the Vietnam War we knew we could not win because we wanted to avoid a larger war with China and possibly Russia. Mr. McNamara knew this in 1962 or 1963 because intelligence reports including CIA evaluations revealed that bombing in itself could not stop North Vietnam from supplying the South with men and supplies and since the supplies of war was generated outside North Vietnam we were powerless to destroy the means of production also. Our leaders knew for every troop commitment by the U.S. the North Vietnamese could match it with an increase of their own troop strength. Further it became obvious that the will to fight in the South basically centered in the Army and not the people. After Diem and his brother were assassinated with U.S. complicity, there was no viable political base to build on. We lost the hearts and minds of the people to the Viet Cong very early. Mr. McNamara points out that the only way out of Vietnam was unilateral withdrawal because the North knew it was winning and there was nothing to negotiate. Bombing did not seriously interdict their ability to wage the war or recruit men to fight.
So how did we go there in the first place? Mr. McNamara believes it was caused by the lack of experienced U.S. Southeast Asia experts. The fall of China and the subsequent McCarthy witch-hunts had effectively purged our government of knowledgeable experts on the area. He makes the point that to the Vietnamese the war was a fight against colonialist aggressors and a civil war. Vietnam had been in a battle to free itself from Chinese domination and later French domination for a thousand years. The Americans were seen as a new colonialist aggressor while we saw ourselves in a battle to stop communist expansion. In the end the lives of 58000 Americans and three million Vietnamese (The equivalent of twenty seven million Americans. McNamara loves numbers and their relationships) were lost on misperceptions given as advice to our presidents and political leaders. Advice McNamara disagreed with and which ultimately caused his dismissal by President Johnson. This is documented by statements on tape and internal government documents since released. The hawks appear to be senators, congressmen, cabinet members and outside experts buttressed by the Joint Chiefs who were always for escalation and a military solution which would have been impossible with out a probable third world war with nuclear consequences for every living soul on earth. McNamara points out in October 1963 the military had advised the invasion of Cuba when unbeknownst to us the Russians had ninety tactical nuclear weapons and about sixty strategic nuclear weapons in Cuba. If Kennedy and Kruschev were unable to negotiate a peaceful withdrawal there would have been a nuclear exchange with the probable end of human civilization as we know it. The same situation occurred in Vietnam if we had followed military advice and escalated the war by using tactical nuclear devices China would felt threatened and entered the war. McNamara makes the point that in this nuclear age we cannot go to war over a misunderstanding of another nations actions. A nuclear exchange offers no
room for correction or change of policy or goals once its done its all over. History is plastic as it unfolds and in the heat of the moment one decision can lead to unintended results and history is always plastic in the subsequent interpretation and evaluation of events and so it is with McNamara and his views. One thing McNamara has right is that we cannot have a nuclear exchange by large powers or even lesser powers, ever, or else we will see Armageddon in our time. This book is a clear statement of the terms of life in the nuclear age. As McNamara points out we are not going to change human nature but communication and understanding can be improved. I have written a longer review of the book and film at mechanic-al.org/Ed
Rating:
Summary: "Sorry about that"
Review: I read a comment saying this book should be called "Sorry about that". MacNamara says they "were wrong" - does that mean he and America are sorry? Well if so, why has America done virtually nothing to help Vietnam recover? Consider these facts: Over 3 million Vietnamese were killed and 5 million injured This does not include Cambodians, and Laotions - perhaps another million or so! AMERICA's illegal war resulted in the rise of the Khmer Rouge who killed another million or 2 AMERICA dropped 3 times the bomb tonnage dropped in WW2 - in ALL THEATRES of war! over 50,000 innocent Vietnamese have been killed by unexploded AMERICAN ordnance - many of them were school children A trade embargo for 20 years Agent Orange birth defects still occuring today And still virtually no help As an Australian living in Vietnam, I am just disgusted with America and its self righteousness. MacNamara and his accomplices are just war criminals. Another reviewer wrote that MacNamara nearly came to blows when challenged about his history - so he would attack someone for mere criticism - perhaps shows his violent, and now we know, genocidal, personality. America should pay the reparations Nixon agreed to - $3.5 bn in 1973 - today around $14 bn - plus further compensation for Agent Orange - and it should be forced to clean up its murderous war waste. Oh America, what a shame you are to the world!
Rating:
Summary: "Sorry about that"
Review: I read a comment saying this book should be called "Sorry about that". MacNamara says they "were wrong" - does that mean he and America are sorry? Well if so, why has America done virtually nothing to help Vietnam recover? Consider these facts: Over 3 million Vietnamese were killed and 5 million injured This does not include Cambodians, and Laotions - perhaps another million or so! AMERICA's illegal war resulted in the rise of the Khmer Rouge who killed another million or 2 AMERICA dropped 3 times the bomb tonnage dropped in WW2 - in ALL THEATRES of war! over 50,000 innocent Vietnamese have been killed by unexploded AMERICAN ordnance - many of them were school children A trade embargo for 20 years Agent Orange birth defects still occuring today And still virtually no help As an Australian living in Vietnam, I am just disgusted with America and its self righteousness. MacNamara and his accomplices are just war criminals. Another reviewer wrote that MacNamara nearly came to blows when challenged about his history - so he would attack someone for mere criticism - perhaps shows his violent, and now we know, genocidal, personality. America should pay the reparations Nixon agreed to - $3.5 bn in 1973 - today around $14 bn - plus further compensation for Agent Orange - and it should be forced to clean up its murderous war waste. Oh America, what a shame you are to the world!
Rating:
Summary: Would give it 3 and a half if I could; mixed feelings....
Review: I think Bob McNamara is a monster...all politicians are monsters. There has not been a single statesmen in history with very rare exceptions (Lazaro Cardenas and Nehru post-1948/9) that have not engaged in bloodshed and mass violence. There are two points about this book that i find quite galling. One, McNamara does not say a word about Agent Orange, I find his refusal to address an indication of his guilt in the matter. In Fog of War he cliams he "does not remember" who gave the final OK for that horrible chemicals use but does not any weapon used by the US military have to have the consent of the Secretary of Defense? Maybe he faced pressure from the Joint Chiefs to use it but that still doesnt make it ok with me or anyother sensible person. Next, is the issue of the M-16, McNamara was so enthused about the weapon that he ordered it shipped to Vietnam en masse by 1965. The M-16 was a disaster, it jammed more than fequently, thousands of US troops died as a result. Draftees wrote heart wrenching letters home begging their parents to do something to get the weapon improved. The situation got so bad that US troops actually took AK-47's, a much better Soviet rifle, of the bodies of dead VC/NVA and used them in combat. It was not until two years later that the M-16 was improved and jamming rates dropped, yet it took untold numbers of US deaths to finally bring McNamara around to the point that he could admit to his own mistake. Yet, he is completely silent on this issue as well. McNamara also praises Westmorland too highly (his constant use of the friendly term Westy for that idiot general made me want to puke). It seems to me all 'Westy' could do was turn South vietnam into a moonscape by endless bombing and use of chemical agents. When that didnt work all he could do was call for more troops and get more Americans and Vietnamese killed (the more troops you have on the ground the more die mr 4 star general....)
The bad aside McNamara realizes his mistakes and that is noble if nothing else. We lost that war fare and squre and I think we should admit it. McNamara is not better or no worse than a Nixon or a Kissinger or a Truman all of whom killed millions through their own warped perseptions of the world and their deadly modern military machine. What makes McNamara different is that he admits to more mistakes than all of these other politicians/murderers combined and thats something we all should admire.
Rating: 
Summary: The author is a genocidal murderer
Review: I was drafted and sent to Vietnam in 1968. I have always wondered how a man could be so evil. Unfortunately the world court does not pursue U S war criminals. The man should be in prison and not making huge royalties from his lieing novels for God's sake.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating!
Review: If only every government official would come clean like this. A fascinating insight into McNamara and the Vietnam War. Engrossing.
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