Robert Mcnamara Vietnam War Summary

The bombing campaigns in Vietnam, Rolling Thunder, Linebacker I, and Linebacker II, still remain controversial today. The common academic threat revolves around that if Rolling Thunder saw a more destructive use of air power, as used during Linebacker I and II, it would have been successful. Mark Clodfelter wholly disagrees with this idea. Throughout his book, Clodfelter believes that Linebacker I and II saw success because they had a different political objective. In the preface, he writes that many Air Force personnel “ignore the essence of why bombing “worked” in 1972 – because it was the proper instrument to apply, given Nixon’s specific goals and the political and military situation that then existed”(p xii). This is further clarified by stating what Richard Nixon’s aim for the bombing campaigns was versus what Lyndon Johnson wanted.

Earle Wheeler was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1964 to 1970, during the Vietnam War. From 1962 to 1964 he served as Chief of Staff of the United States Army and then in July 1964 the U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Wheeler as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to succeed General Maxwell Taylor. Wheeler was the longest-serving Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to date, serving six years. Wheeler and Robert McNamara the Secretary of Defense often disagreed with one another, they have great respect for each other. General Wheeler being the nation’s top military officer undoubtedly spanned the height of America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. Wheeler oversaw and supported the expanding U.S. military role in the Vietnam War in the mid-1960s, consistently backing the field commander's requests for additional troops and operating authority. He often urged U.S. President Johnson to strike harder at North Vietnam and to expand aerial bombing campaigns. Wheeler was concerned with minimizing costs to U.S. ground troops. At the same time, he preferred what he saw as a realistic assessment of the capabilities of the South Vietnamese military.

Renowned historian and classicist scholar Victor Davis Hanson’s January 11, 2012 commentary entitled “Heavy Price of Defense Spending Cuts: Nations That Choose Butter over Guns Atrophy and Die” warrants a thoughtful analysis of its merits and shortcomings by U.S. military officers entrusted with leading this nation’s youth while implementing our national strategy.

In the Fog of War, Former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara recounted his experiences when serving for both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Throughout the film he shared eleven lessons that he learned as a result of the war and politics. The lessons range from empathizing with one 's enemy to the fact we cannot change human nature. This essay will discuss some of McNamara’s lessons and how they illustrated institutions, bargaining, cooperation, power and sovereignty.

Key holder to the most classified secrets in the world, former member of the CIA and the National Security Council (NSC), and the man who was in the war room with President Obama; watching live streamed footage of the raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound. Who is this man? Brought in by President Bush to be the Secretary of Defense in 2006, and served under President Obama where he helped find and bring down Osama Bin Laden. Robert M. Gates writes his inside experiences as Secretary of Defense during the war on Terror and brings you through some of his toughest decisions. In Secretary Gates memoir titled Duty, Gates struggles with sending more troops to fight against the war on terror and dealing with the after effects of his decisions, such as

Context: The catastrophe that leads to the creation of the United States Special Operations Command (USSOC) was Operation Eagle Claw. Operation Eagle Claw was went on a mission that failed; the day was April 24-25, 1980 when United States military attempted to rescue almost sixty American who were held hostage by the Iranian radicals who stormed the American Embassy in Tehran. The mission pointed out the deficiency within the United States military command structure. It is important to note that the mission was ordered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter with the hope of ending the Iran hostage crisis (Marion, 2009). Therefore, what caused the military to failed, was this due to lack of collaboration and poor coordination effort, was this a lack of leadership direction, was this a lack of imagination within the military leadership or political pressure, was this a poor training of personnel or underestimation of the mission?

Someone of his caliber and his position should have known that there are clearly written rules regarding war and there have been for centuries. The Just War Theory has been around for centuries and has specific principles that must be met and followed for a war to be justified and McNamara most likely knew that these principles, especially those concerning proportionality and discrimination between civilians and combatants, were not being followed when they bombed

The war budget during World War II was very high and in result the economy was prosperous. This changed after major cuts had been made to Johnson’s Great Society as the entry to the Vietnam War was just too enormous (Doc H). Almost 200 billion dollars were used to support the Vietnam war. This massive amount could have been used to better domestic policies and better public agencies. This also led to increased inflation rates and the economy slowly started to go downhill. This inflation is better known as stagflation, as the high inflation was combined with high unemployment. In the eyes of George McGovern (Doc H), the U.S. has a very limited amount of resources which require much more immediate attention than the Vietnam War. He believes using this large sum of money of war is a waste of both the currency and the manpower. McGovern was an advocate for smaller military budgets and even smaller defense spendings. He did not approve of the massive defense spendings on behalf of the U.S. government. Nonetheless, he promoted the idea that limited defense spendings would not only reduce the increasing rates of inflation, but it would also make it easier to support the domestic programs of the Great Society. If more of the defense spendings were used to support programs on the homefront, the economic tensions during the 1965 to 1975 period may not have

The investigation assesses the level of success President Richard Nixon’s Vietnamization policy attained during the Vietnam War to end U.S. involvement in the war. In the strive to evaluate the level of success this policy demonstrated, the investigation evaluates the ability of the policy to equip, expand, and train Southern Vietnamese forces and allocate them to a substantial combat position, all while simultaneously reducing the quantity of U.S. combat troops in a steady manner. The Vietnamization policy is investigated and analyzed by both its causes and effects. The motivation that led to Nixon’s creation of this

McNamara Lesson eight: Be prepared to reexamine your reasoning. “What make sense omissions? Have we have a record of omissions, we are the stronger ace in the world.” In these statements, he talks about how The President and all the people who was closed to the president influence him on his decision to go to war.

The Vietnam War put a strain on America’s economy. Kennedy and Johnson’s policy was of gradual escalation. Unfortunately, this caused for increasing investment in the war. Johnson tried to approach these problems with programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, as a part of a larger plan called the Great Society. It was a “war against poverty”. However, as the war raged on, more and more money and lives went into Vietnam, and the ‘Great Society’ was not a priority. Many people such as George McGovern criticized the massive deficit spending on the war (Doc H). This eventually turned into both an economic recession and inflation, which became known as ‘stagflation’ (stagnation and inflation). Nixon, the president succeeding Johnson, would attempt to alleviate the situation by freezing prices and wages temporarily. In the aftermath, many people have realized that the way we approached Vietnam was not right. Robert F. Kennedy tells that the reason that there has not been yet a solution to Vietnam is not because of lack of manpower, but because the way we sought to alleviate the problem was by manpower. (Doc E).

On June 1967, officials in the U.S. military headquarters were ordered to collect a history of U.S. strategy toward Vietnam by Robert McNamara, the secretary of defense. Daniel Ellsberg, was an officer hired to work on the project, helped combine a 47-volume archive consisting of 7,000-pages that Ellsberg called "evidence of a quarter century of aggression, broken treaties, deceptions, stolen elections,

In 1996, the United States was struggling with the Iraq Disarmament Crisis, as Iraq continued to deny inspectors access to a multiple of sites. The U.S. fails in its attempt to build military support to investigate Iraq and aid the United Nations Council. From this event many people seen flaws in the department of defense and decided they wanted a reform in the chain of command. Many believed that the department of defense needed a lot of changes since it was created in 1947. William Cohen decided to write a new policy for the department of defense to reform and restore the department of defense. He felt that by passing this Act that it could help better protect his Americans that he represents.

During Errol Morris 's documentary, The Fog of War, Eleven Lessons by Robert S. McNamara former Secretary of Defense McNamara, one of the most infamous figures of the Vietnam era, proves to be a greatly compelling figure, someone who can be self-critical and reflective about the decisions he made to

Christine Vavra POSC 305-01 1/21/2015 Insight on the Fog of War The Fog of War is a Sony pictures documentary based on Robert McNamara. Robert served three years in the Army Air Corps, five weeks as the president of the Ford Motor Company, seven years as the Secretary of Defense, and 13 years as the president of the World Bank. Although Robert has many accomplishments, this documentary focuses and highlights his years as the Secretary of Defense under Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard M. Nixon. In hindsight of his career, Secretary McNamara looked back on his career as Secretary of Defense in both a positive and Negative light being truthful to himself and his audience.