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Drawing lessons from an unwinnable war

Reading Time:5 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP

IN RETROSPECT, Robert McNamara Times Books, $270 NOW he tells us. More than 30 years after Robert McNamara was responsible for the American contribution to peace and security in South Vietnam he thinks it was all a mistake.

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Those who left blood and friends on obscure battlefields are understandably miffed. After the ruin of so many young lives he now says: 'We were wrong, terribly wrong.' The bitterness is understandable, though McNamara says sacrifices made are not diminished by the errors of policy which caused them.

This is an engaging book. The writer comes across as a sincere and well-meaning individual. He is perhaps a bit too ready to believe that everyone else he worked with was in the same category.

He is clearly thoughtful, intelligent, and aware of the pitfalls of writing a volume like this. Co-author Brian Van De Mark seems to have spent most of his time chasing up documentary evidence to ensure accurate recollection despite McNamara's emotional stake in the issues covered.

Careful readers between the lines will note that he did not have to spend seven years as Secretary of Defence. A man who has run the Ford Motor Company (and he was not responsible for the Edsel) is rarely short of lucrative opportunities. If there is such a thing as a disinterested urge to serve, then he had it. Yet here, alas, is one of our century's more uneasy consciences.

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Younger readers will have to take my word for it that for those born just too late to share the world with Adolf Hitler, the Vietnam War loomed huge on the politician horizon. If you were European you did not have to participate, but could not avoid having an opinion.

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