Time and Chance: The Burdens of Vietnam

McNamara tried to keep Americans on point in Vietnam ...

In 1968, when Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, worn down by years of dealing with the burdens of the Vietnam War, resigned his post, his associates at the Department of Defense gave him a large globe inscribed with the words: "To the outstanding public servant of our time."

But during the ensuing years, that view came to be severely challenged. Disgruntled with a seemingly unending, unwinable contest, a rising death toll, and the harsh divisions it was causing in America, McNamara's critics began calling Vietnam "Mr. McNamara's War."

One of McNamara's associates, Dr. Robert Brown, who was there on the day McNamara received his going away gift and later himself became Secretary of Defense in the administration of President Jimmy Carter, believes if you judge his former boss solely on his first four years, the accolade is deserving. "He revolutionized the Department of Defense," Brown says.

... however pictures like this told a different story.

However, all those brilliant advances were undone during his second 3 years, Brown contends  "That was a tragedy, a tragedy of almost Shakespearean proportions," Brown explained. "It was a tragedy for him, for President (Lyndon) Johnson and, most of all, for the country."

Brown was one of 3 panelists who participated today in a program at the National Archives entitled McNamara, Clifford, and the Burdens of Vietnam, 1965 - 1969. The program was presented by the Archives, the Historical Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the Vietnam Center at Texas Tech University.

Initially a strong proponent of the war, McNamara, like so many of his contemporaries, didn't become skeptical of the chances of a U.S. success until the war had expanded to almost a point of difficult return. "He tried to find ways to limit the war, but he couldn't and so he resigned," Brown said.

Toward the end of his tenure, McNamara, who was known for his fierce loyalty to the office of the presidency, had to support positions he didn't hold. "We knew when a position wasn't his," Brown said. "He would speak louder, lean forward, and pull his socks up."

Ironically, McNamara had only intended to serve 4 years, according to Brown. "There is an old saying in Washington that friends come and go, but enemies accumulate," Brown said. "Four years is long enough. You begin to mistake familiarity with wisdom. It's hard to rethink things. It's hard to clean up your own mess."

Dr. George Herring, a professor and Vietnam War historian, agreed with Brown's assessment of McNamara's brilliance and energy. "He came to personify the ethos of the (early) 69s," Herring said. "He was the can-do man in the can-do society in the can-do era."

Herring said that President Johnson's decision not to seek re-election and McNamara's steeping down from his post, both triggered by the Vietnam quagmire, heralded "the end of an era bright with promise."

As the war continued, McNamara found himself besieged by critics on both sides of the political spectrum. The doves on the left blamed him for starting and continuing a senseless war. Meanwhile, the hawks on the right chastised him for failing to give the military the support it needed for victory.

"In my 40 years of talking to Vietnam veterans, only the name of Jane Fonda is likely to provoke more anger than that of Robert McNamara," Herring said. "He put his loyalty to the president above the truth. Ultimately, he was done in by the war that came to bear his name."

Dr. Edward Drea, whose book McNamara, Clifford, and the Burdens of Vietnam, 1965 - 1969, gave its title to this presentation, said that those setting American policy failed to take into account the unrelenting determination to prevail by the North Vietnamese and the deep corruptness of the South Vietnamese government.

Despite McNamara's many strengths, like all men, he obviously had flaws, flaws which often become exacerbated with increased power. Drea cited one such flaw of McNamara, pointed out by fellow adviser McGeorge Bundy. "Once his (McNamara's) mind is made up, he does not keep the sharpest eye out for new evidence," Drea quoted Bundy as saying.

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
It is one of the most popular, great unanswerable questions in American history. So, of course, it was asked today. What would have happened in Vietnam, and by extension to America itself, if President John Kennedy had not been assassinated in 1963? Although Presidents Johnson and Richard Nixon are most often associated with Vietnam, President Dwight Eisenhower and his successor Kennedy, also had roles to play. At  the time of his assassination, Kennedy had more than 16,000 American troops serving in an advisory capacity in Vietnam. "We don't know what would have happened, but we know Kennedy had a powerful aversion to sending in combat troops," Dr. Herring said. "But I don't buy the early withdrawal theory. Those 16,000 advisers would make it much more difficult to get out." Drea said Kennedy might have used his popularity and great political skills to keep public opinion focused on winning the war. "He might have made it a more popular war," Drea said. "He had the rhetorical flair and the charisma. He could have made some decisions that Johnson was terrified to make." However, former Defense Secretary Brown cautioned that there are limitations, even in a popular war. "Making it popular wouldn't have necessarily made it winnable," he said.