THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 8, 1995 TAG: 9507080216
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Maddry
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
ON JULY 4 I found myself thinking about the 58,000 men and women we lost in the Vietnam War.
I had a copy of Robert S. McNamara's book in hand: ``In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam.''
The former defense secretary has been catching it from all sides because of his failure to go public with his belief that the war was unwinnable after resigning from his post at the Pentagon.
I picked up his book, willing to pile onto McNamara after the whistle had blown. Truth is I never liked him.
With his wire-rimmed glasses, clipped speech, and a brilliant mind as incisive as the part in his back-swept hair, he exuded hubris. There was a bloodlessness about him. And a stiffness - like the collar of the New England schoolmaster of yesteryear he resembled.
We tend to delight when such men are humbled.
I expected little in the way of wit or color in anything written by McNamara and found less. But after the first 50 pages I was astonished by the honesty - or so it seemed - of his presentation. And his eagerness to accept responsibility for mistakes. He repeatedly says ``I was wrong. I should have done this. . . . '' Or words to that effect.
With each decision to escalate the numbers of American troops tossed into the maw I cringed, knowing the final outcome.
It was a war founded on the premise that communism was monolithic, that all of Southeast Asia would fall under the red shadow if the domino of South Vietnam toppled. The hypothesis was seldom challenged at the highest levels of our government.
That was mistake number one. But there were dozens of others. And in the recounting of those errors McNamara draws us a blueprint for failure - a text on how not to fight a war:
Know little or nothing of the history, culture and mindset of your ally or enemy.
Choose to defend a country with an unstable government lacking the allegiance of its people.
Believe that high-tech military equipment is a match for a highly motivated enemy fighting a guerrilla war and requiring little in the way of supplies.
Fail to draw Congress and the American people into a frank discussion and debate of the pros and cons of large-scale military involvement.
Because of the book, I have come to admire Mr. McNamara. I believe he has purposely humbled himself in order to present his step-by-step analysis of how not to fight a war. It is uniquely valuable because of his special relationship with Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.
It must be painful to concede so many errors with candor, particularly when those mistakes were written, in a sense, with the blood of young men and women in their country's service.
The author's inconvenience in writing ``In Retrospect'' - while slight when compared to their greater sacrifice - is an act of patriotism nevertheless. by CNB