This is a thrilling piece of biography that will stand as one of the great American portraits. McNamara called for a boost in American firepower and a troop increase to 200,000 soldiers. . . It is a staggeringly ambitious undertaking that is fully matched by Halberstam’s performance. . . . This is in all ways an admirable and necessary book.”—Newsweek “A story every American should read.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch The book will stand for the foreseeable future as the best study of the tragic mistakes that led to so much suffering."—Robert Dallek Many books have been written on the tragic decisions regarding Vietnam made by the young stars of the ... To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. In 1961 President John F. Kennedy appointed McNamara as Secretary of Defense of the United States. Later, during the Johnson Administration, McNamara backed the escalation of U.S. involvement after the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964, during which U.S. ships were allegedly attacked . The aerial bombardment seemed to have worked as the first helicopters dropped off their passengers with no incident. The United States military considered Operation Starlite a success. Robert Strange McNamara (June 9, 1916 - July 6, 2009) was an American business executive and the eighth United States Secretary of Defense, serving from 1961 to 1968 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. The story of America as seen through the eyes of the former Secretary of Defense under President John F. Kennedy and President Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert McNamara. McNamara was of course best known as a controversial Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, where he oversaw the escalation of America's involvement in the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War: A Concise History. They were never expected to stop the bombings, so even the smallest challenger was seen as a victory. The preliminary targets were the factories manufacturing war materiel and other resources, like refineries, that allowed the North Vietnamese to make war on their southern neighbor. 50-51. Westmoreland also argued that thus far, the bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail had so far proven to be ineffective and needed . Robert S. McNamara announces that he will resign as Secretary of Defense and will become president of the World Bank. In this intriguing work, editors James G. Blight and janet M. Lang, who served as academic advisors on the film, bring together film transcripts, documents, dialogues, and essays to explore the issues raised by Robert McNamara's life and ... In 1965, prior to the escalation of the war, Johnson noted to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara that he was worried about getting "tied down in a Third World War or another Korean action."[26] This memory contributed to assumptions that ultimately helped create the failure of the escalation of air power. In essence, Johnson declared that the US was open to discussions of a peaceful solution but did not offer any real specifics. The North Vietnamese bluntly stated that no negotiations would occur as long as the US military was still in the south. Kat Eschner However, subsequent landings were met with much stiffer resistance. Reconsiders Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara's decisions during the Vietnam War, exposing doubts and questions. 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McNamara was frank about his career in The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert McNamara, and in his autobiography. But the program led to over dependency on the government welfare for minorities and poor whites which ended up destroying the poor and black family structure. Learn why a country that had been barely known to most Americans came to define an era. McNamara, in full Robert Strange McNamara, (born June 9, 1916, San Francisco, California, U.S.—died July 6, 2009, Washington, D.C.), U.S. secretary of defense from 1961 to 1968 who revamped Pentagon operations and who played a major role in the nation's military involvement in the Vietnam War. He decided against activating the National Guard and Reserve but doubled the number of men to be drafted per month from 17,000 to 35,000. Announcing his resignation, McNamara took the position of President of the World Bank, and left office in early 1968. Over the next three and a half years, the United States would drop over 100K pounds of explosives on North Vietnam, devastating much of the country's infrastructure. On April 20, 1965, the US presence had grown to 33,000 troops, with 20,000 more expected. This effort was a failure. A beat passes. Many believe McNamara's fall from grace after Vietnam marked the end of his career. They were wrong. In Robert McNamara's Other War, Patrick Allan Sharma reveals the previously untold story of what happened next. McNamara convinced Johnson to pursue the third option; though he admitted it would cost money and lives in the short-term, the Secretary believed that military expansion would eventually bring the communists to the negotiating table. During the Second World War Japan invaded the French colonies of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. | {{course.flashcardSetCount}} New York: Oxford Press, 2008. I have done so because of my feeling of obligation to the President and to the nation,” he says. Because of his influence over the President, McNamara is perhaps responsible that any other Johnson advisors for the escalation of the Vietnam War after 1965. Lawrence, Mark Atwood. After the multiple landings were executed, the marines were meant to push the Viet Cong into an exposed position where the United States' naval firepower could be brought to bear and destroy the opposition. McNamara lived another six after that, dying in his sleep on July 6, 2009, at the age of 93. He was "the can-do man in the can-do society in the can-do era," David Halberstam wrote in The Best and the Brightest, and during the Kennedy and early Johnson years, he managed America's expanding involvement almost as if he were a desk officer. The North Vietnamese knew they were no match for US airpower, so they didn’t commit many resources to oppose it. “No one of my predecessors has served so long. This is history on a grand scale, and a book of overwhelming importance to the public record. 2. The Resolutions gave the president far greater latitude to coordinate and carry out military strikes without an official declaration of war. The obituaries written for Robert S McNamara, the former US secretary of defence who . Operation Rolling Thunder. Robert S. McNamara, the forceful and cerebral defense secretary who helped lead the nation into the maelstrom of Vietnam and spent the . On this day in 1966, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara sent a top-secret memorandum to President Lyndon B. Johnson expressing his . Johnson did just that: in 1965, at McNamara's urging, he ordered the first U.S. combat troops to protect South Vietnam from communist incursions. In a meeting with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, he believed 57 battalions were needed and additional helicopter and support units. Originally published in 2006, this volume from the History Office of the Office of the Secretary of Defense provides a narrative history and assessment of the early years of Robert McNamara's tenure as Secretary of Defense, including ... This is the first major biography, & only complete history, of this enigmatic man who has been a towering figure of the 20th century. In late 1967 it was clear that President Johnson was ready for McNamara to go. Drawing on a wealth of newly released documents from the LBJ Library, including the Tom Johnson notes from the influential Tuesday Lunch Group, George Herring discusses the concept of limited war and how it affected President Johnson's ... Leaving government did not mean the end of Robert McNamara's public life. The Cold War was essentially fuelled by a conflict of ideology, and Johnson's ideology was strongly rooted in the past. He also recommended increasing the bombing of North Vietnam from 2,500 missions a month to 4,000 a month. He went on to become the president of the World Bank, dragging Vietnam around like a ball and chain, particularly after the publication of The Pentagon Papers and David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest, both of which tarnished his days overseeing the Defense Department. Americanization. If not the major theme, one of the themes throughout 1965 was the build-up of American troops in South Vietnam. The war wasn't about politics or ideals but about freedom for the people of vietnam. Dien Bien Phu. McNamara was frank about his career in, “I think the human race needs to think more about killing,” he says in the award-winning documentary’s, “Surely he must in every quiet and prosperous moment hear the ceaseless whispers of those poor boys in the infantry, dying in the tall grass, platoon by platoon, for no purpose,” the. In April of 1965, President Johnson delivered a pivotal speech at Johns Hopkins University. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. Edwin E. Moïse, Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1996), pp. The 1964 presidential election was still being decided, and Johnson did not want to commit too much to a distant war. General William Westmoreland was, in the words of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, "the best we've got." And he was determined to succeed in Vietnam. Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject History Europe - Other Countries - Newer History, European Unification, grade: 1,7, University Pierre-Mendès-France (Institut des Etudes Politiques), course: Cours spécialisé, 11 entries in ... In addition to learning more about the Viet Cong's combat methods, several other lessons were taken from Operation Starlite. 2. By 1960 McNamara was the first person from outside the family of Henry Ford to become president of the company. Perhaps the operation's heaviest fighting occurred when a support column got lost trying to find the company it was meant to aid. Found insideUltimately, this study is about a smaller Vietnam War than that which is commonly recalled. Second, the standard field rifle, the M-14, was not conducive to fast deployment, specifically helicopter insertions. Manage My Data. McNamara's memo was one of the most important policy statements of the entire war. It laid out the general logic and beliefs of the American approach to Vietnam: the aversion to humiliation, the need to sustain American credibility in fighting communism, the underestimation of the Viet Cong, and the belief that escalating military pressure would force the communists to reach a negotiated settlement. The President trusted McNamara's assessments, and regularly met him over Tuesday lunches to select bombing sites. The Secretary of Defense during the administrations . As the Marines were moving northward, they took fire from the village of An Cuong. President Johnson, for his part, continued to try and plot a gradual build-up in the war. “... I’m very proud of my accomplishments, and I’m very sorry that in the process of accomplishing things, I’ve made errors.”. Though it was not the first civilian group to speak out against the war, the first formal “teach-in” was organized at the University of Michigan, critiquing US involvement in Southeast Asia. The marines took several losses, and while they claimed significant damage to the enemy, it was hard to determine because of the system of bunkers and tunnels the Viet Cong used. In the fascinating Oscar-nominated documentary, The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara, Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line, Dr. Death) interviews the now 86-year old Defense Secretary in an effort to come to terms with what led to the quagmire of Vietnam and reveals a more complex, even strangely sympathetic man. By 1965, with the election won and, however tenuous, a justification for increased military activity, Johnson approved Rolling Thunder. First, this was going to be an “American Only” operation. Robert S. McNamara, Architect of a Futile War, Dies at 93. Robert S. McNamara, the brainy secretary of defense who directed the escalation of the Vietnam War despite private doubts the war was winnable or worth fighting, died Monday at 93. In July of 1965, facing an insurgent Viet Cong and yet to see signs of a U.S. victory (even with almost 100,000 troops in Vietnam), McNamara composed one of the most influential approaches to the war: a now-famous memo to the President. “The ghosts of those unlived lives circle close around Mr. McNamara.”. FILM FACTS: WAYS TO INFLUENCE 1. He thought a business education was the only worth. Finally, the book explores the complex aftermath of the war--its enduring legacy in American books, film, and political debate, as well as Vietnam's struggles with severe social and economic problems. 3. The search and development for a lighter, streamlined weapon became an important concern for the United States military. No sooner had Johnson decided to escalate in 1965 than results called the strategy into question, Mr. McNamara writes. The United States and the Johnson administration put those new powers to use in 1965. Chronicles Abraham Lincoln's success at turning the Civil War to the North's favor during the year of 1862. The Fog of War: Directed by Errol Morris. Robert Strange McNamara (/ ˈ m æ k n ə m ær ə /) (June 9, 1916 - July 6, 2009) was an American business executive and the eighth United States Secretary of Defense, serving from 1961 to 1968 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.He played a major role in escalating the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War. In 1945 the French returned, but Ho Chi Minh, leader of the Vietnamese Communist Party, saw an opportunity for his country to become . Privacy Statement Fredrik Logevall provides a concise, comprehensive and accessible introduction to the origins of the Vietnam War from the end of the Indochina War in 1954 to the eruption of full-scale war in 1965, and places events against their full ... BALL: That's absolute nonsense. President Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara. He was "the can-do man in the can-do society in the can-do era," David Halberstam wrote in The Best and the Brightest, and during the Kennedy and early Johnson years, he managed America's expanding involvement almost as if he were a desk officer. The ‘architect of the Vietnam war’ never formally apologized, but struggled with its consequences for the rest of his life. The plan sought to target a combined air and ground forces, supported by naval artillery, an area where the Viet Cong was suspected of concentrating. The amount of firepower the United States brought to any battlefield could make any ambush, like the one during Starlite, into a shooting gallery once American artillery gained its bearings. Mr. McNamara . an Ohio university where National Guardsmen opened fire on students protesting the Vietnam war on May 4, 1970, wounding nine and killing four. Instead, the resupply column was ambushed by the Viet Cong. With his book Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam, (HarperCollins, New York, 1997, $27.50), Major H.R. Not only that but his Great Society program was a disaster. 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