Exclusive: Robert McNamara deceived LBJ on Gulf of Tonkin, documents show

[lhartwich]

For you fellow history buffs, get a load of this news hot off the press shedding further light on the depths of McNamara's depravity:

See: http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/07/08/robert-mcnamara-deceived-lbj-on-gulf-of-tonkin/

[Cruelbreed]

Didn't know the man, but he seems far too sly and deceptive for me to ever have been able to trust. Not comforting, imagine the crap that goes on now?

[bobdina]

The ships were still attacked on the 2nd with one of the destroyers receiving minor damage from either gunfire or small caliber cannon fire(documented by pictures and reports of the crew) so I really don't think this would have changed anything. The North Vietnamese were quite upset we had ships in the Gulf of Tonkin to begin with. Personally from what I've seen and read they would have continued to harass and attack those ships until either we pulled them back or did what we did anyway, the only difference would have been a few days or weeks at the most. The mold was cast when the French left. Don't get me wrong though I think Mcnamara was an ass but you can't put yourself in other peoples shoes 40 years later and say this could have happened or that. It's just like the people who now condemn us for dropping atomic bombs on Japan because they are looking at it through today's moralities not that we saved untold American AND Japanese lives . We would have been in Vietnam as soon as the North crossed the border to stop the "red scare", would it have been later? sure it would, but we still would have been there. The opinions expressed are just my humble ones.

[Cruelbreed]

I agree, I didn't know the man nor did I live in that time. The way he is depicted, withholding information from the president, just really tarnishes the image.


Don't get me wrong though I think Mcnamara was an ass but you can't put yourself in other peoples shoes 40 years later and say this could have happened or that. It's just like the people who now condemn us for dropping atomic bombs on Japan because they are looking at it through today's moralities not that we saved untold American AND Japanese lives . We would have been in Vietnam as soon as the North crossed the border to stop the "red scare", would it have been later? sure it would, but we still would have been there. The opinions expressed are just my humble ones.

Probably the best way you could put it.