In Retrospect essays

In Retrospect essays Robert McNamara In Retrospect Random House New York, 1995 Vietnam had long since been a place of controversy, and where our government focused its fear of communism for many years. Throughout the Kennedy and Johnson administrations the government maintained that the war between the Communist north and the south can only be won by the South Vietnamese, and that our military cannot win it for them. It stressed that the fall of South Vietnam to communism would threaten the rest of the western world. Robert McNamara, the Secretary of Defense during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, wrote In Retrospect because he wanted to Put Vietnam in context,(xx). McNamara wanted to explain why the mistakes of Vietnam were made, not to justify them, but to help the American public understand them. He relies not only upon his memories, but upon People have often called Vietnam, McNamaras war, because he made it his responsibility. As he learned more and more about south Vietnam, he became well acquainted with its leader Ngo Dinh Diem. Diem portrayed himself as a man who shared our western values. Though as our government would soon realize he was not the man we had hoped for. Diem needed to be removed from power, he was becoming more and more unpopular with his people. The Kennedy Administration seemed split on how democratic Diem really was. His conflicts between the Buddhists and Catholics were becoming more outrageous than ever. The administration supported a generals coup to get Diem out of power. Diem and his brother Nhu were both assassinated during this coup. On November 22, 1963, Kennedy, himself, was also assassinated on the streets of Dallas. McNamara poses many questions as to whether the war would have continued on the same route had Kennedy not been killed. McNamara feels that had Kennedy lived he would have pulled us out of ...