Examining the Role of Johnson, McNamara, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Vietnam War: Uncovering the Lies Behind the Dereliction of Duty

Anynoym: Sehr detailliert, zeichnet aber ein anderes Bild als man in Europa gemeinhin hat vom Krieg in Viet Nam.

Germany on Sep 13, 2022

Gopi Karunakaran: Absolutely a great book. A no holds barred account of the US Secretary of Defence, Robert McNamara's policies in Vietnam based on research and study of documents. An in-depth analysis of why America went to war on the basis of the flawed thinking of one man and his ego. Sadly, the Chiefs of Staff failed to stand up and confront him. McNamara and his boys reduced fighting wars with time tested doctrines to fighting with statistical data and analysis. The other actors too do not pass muster.

India on Jul 05, 2021

Clem: Dereliction of Duty is one of those books that I would give a grade of A+ to the first half of the book; but a D- to the second half. So about a ‘B’ overall. There have already been so many books about the Vietnam war; both the war itself and the politics behind it. The first question one should ask is “Is there really anything new that we haven’t read before?” In a sense, you could argue that this book does fill somewhat of a void in the unpleasant history. The bulk of this book takes place in the years 1964 and 1965; when things were just starting to heat up and the country hadn’t yet been exposed to ubiquitous peace rallies, sabotaged presidential conventions, and Woodstock. For me, this was the overall problem of the book though. It didn’t seem necessary to spend so much time and effort focusing on these two years alone. Yes, these years are important and, yes, this is where the tiger started to become too hard to tame, but there’s simply too much minutiae here. There comes a point where it’s not necessarily enjoyable to read about every single thing that was said by every single member of LBJ’s cabinet and/or the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

This book, as...

United States on Mar 29, 2020

Fernando Arenas: recibí el producto a mi entera satisfaccion

Mexico on Aug 22, 2018

Robert G McPherson: A terrific account of how political, financial and military over-indulgence and hubris got the US into such hot water in Vietnam,. The whole experience was basically repeated by George Bush and crew in Afghanistan and Iraq, and as was the case in VIetnam, the trouble continues seemingly endlessly.

Canada on Sep 22, 2017

PONZETTO G: I bought the book both to read the first comprehensive review based on recently disclosed records, and on the Author being selected as National Security advisor. I was very satisfied on both counts. The book makes a very persuasive case in favour of speaking truth to power, however unpalatable, and he also has a track record on that score. His being selected for that post makes me think that the present administration might be way more pragmatic than commonly thought

Italy on Jun 30, 2017

Stephen Bang: This book is extremely important and valuable for two reasons. First, I believe it is a very honest and accurate description of how Eisenhower, JFK, and LBJ got America into the Vietnam War. There are a lot of biased books, but this book is heavily documented, based on declassified memos and communications from the highest ranking civilian and military leaders. It seems to me that both “war hawks” and “war doves” will find it honest and informative. Second, the author was recently appointed as National Security Advisor to Donald Trump. So it reveals some of the thinking of this important advisor. We should not expect that H.R. McMasters will be derelict.

So who was derelict? LBJ and McNamara most importantly, because they cared about winning the 1964 election and passing the Great Society legislation, way more than what was the right thing to do in Vietnam, way more than the lives of those who would die. They lied and manipulated to get their way. All of the JCS were derelict for not standing up to LBJ and McNamara, allowing themselves to be manipulated. But I don’t think we should be too hard on the JCS, because they are required to follow the orders of the...

United States on Apr 15, 2017