Presidential Decisionmaking and Vietnam

Looking back, I clearly erred by not forcing . . .a knock-down, drag-out debate over the loose assumptions, unasked questions, and thin analyses underlying our military strategy in Vietnam.I had spent twenty years as a manager identifying problems and forcing organizations--often against their will--to think deeply and realistically about alternative courses of action and their consequences.I doubt I will ever fully understand why I did not do so here."--Robert McNamara, In Retrospect [1] "Even after twenty years, the American public debate [on Vietnam] has not attained an objective perspective and still seems more eager to assign blame than to draw lessons from the experience."--Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy

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