McNamara's "In Retrospect", etc.

None of these entries, astute and otherwise, refer to Robert McNamara's book In Retrospect: the tragedy and lessons of Vietnam. Yet, all of them were posted after it was published. It is probably the most important book of the last 50 years. He admits he was mistaken. When will those of you who are still for that war?

According to the Geneva Accord of 1954, there never was a South Vietnam; the line at the 17th latitude disappeared in 1956.

Military science: McNamara and Lyndon Johnson represented the top of the chain of command. Johnson, commander in chief, quit the war and the presidency, admitting the war had "failed to win the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese". The military should have obeyed that, not run amok instead.

Not only did the US murder 3 million Vietnamese, but it murdered Vietnam's chance for democracy, leading to war instead of elections. I don't know the state of Vietnam's democracy today.

Try Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Kissinger for war crimes.

Lay off Jane Fonda. Her only mistake was apologizing. Some of your language in her regard has been criminal. In fact, the laws on language do not allow several entries on this site.

Arthur Toegemann (c) 2003