In Retrospect

By Robert S. McNamara, Brian VanDeMark,

Book cover of In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam

Book description

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER. The definitive insider's account of American policy making in Vietnam.

"Can anyone remember a public official with the courage to confess error and explain where he and his country went wrong? This is what Robert McNamara does in this brave, honest, honorable, and altogether compelling book."—Arthur Schlesinger,…

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Why read it?

1 author picked In Retrospect as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I wonder whether the war in Ukraine will be remembered as a folly of Western hubris or a Churchillian stand against another European warmonger.

The experts believe the latter, but then so did the best and brightest minds in the sixties when, first under Kennedy and then Johnson, the United States leadership believed that victory was just around the corner, just one more troop surge, just one slight tweak to the strategy, just one more South Vietnamese leadership change away from victory.

Reading through Robert McNamara’s reflections on the Vietnam War offers a fascinating insight into the challenges of wartime…

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