Robert McNamara and Vietnam War

In Robert Mc Namara’s book, In Retrospect, McNamara discusses the decisions involving
Vietnam under Kennedy and Johnson. McNamara offers an explanation on why he believes both
Kennedy and Johnson decided to expand the war in Vietnam.
When Kennedy was elected to office in 1960 he continued the anti-Communist policies of
his predecessor, Eisenhower. Kennedy followed Eisenhower’s example of “containing” the
Communists. McNamara feels that Eisenhower deeply affected Kennedy’s approach to Southeast
Asia. McNamara also recognized that Kennedy followed a policy of containment. He writes that
Kennedy, “accepted (the) idea advanced by George F. Kennan in his famous July 1947 ‘X’ article
in Foreign Affairs, that the West, led by the United States, must guard against Communist
expansion through a policy of containment.”(McNamara 30) This policy was one of the factors in
Kennedy’s decision making and attitude towards the conflict in South Vietnam. McNamara
real...