Argument Without End —Robert S. McNamara - Review
Spotlight Reviews January 4, 2000 Reviewer: miketol@mtco.com (Eureka, IL United States) When In Retrospect first came out, some of the people at the college where I teach came up to me and said: "Did you hear? McNamara's published a book and he says the Vietnam War was all a mistake!" Whoa - talk about your late-breaking news! Still, I suppose hearing those sentiments from the highest levels imparts a certain power to them that us lowly grunts could never hope to possess - but I think I recall saying "this is a big mistake" on my first patrol (I served in 'Nam in '68-'69). The rub, of course, comes when we try to figure out WHY it was a mistake, and it is here that McNamara can give us something truly significant. Does he? I think that he does, but what he has to give us has been dished up many times before. Apparently realizing that he hadn't provided those answers the war requires in In Retrospect, McNamara instituted a series of conferences...