Roundup: Talking About History

Joseph L. Galloway: Robert McNamara shredded truth and distorted history

... Back in 1990, I had a series of strange phone conversations with McNamara while doing research for my book We Were Soldiers Once . . . And Young. McNamara prefaced every conversation with this: "I do not want to comment on the record for fear that I might distort history in the process." Then he would proceed to talk for an hour, doing precisely that with answers that were disingenuous in the extreme — when they were not bald-faced lies. After hangi

Judith Miller: What Robert McNamara Taught Us

The tragic figure of Robert McNamara reminds us that government officials can and should ask the kind of policy questions he posed after it had long ceased to matter. His sad fate reminds us of the enormous potential consequences of failing to do so. Almost more than Nixon, more than LBJ, Robert McNamara came to personify America's tragic engagement in Vietnam. "McNamara's War," Senator Wayne Morse had called it in the spring of 1964, a description that the then cocky form

Paul Robinson: Russian Lessons in Afghanistan

[Paul Robinson is a professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa. He is completing a book on the history of Soviet economic and technical assistance to Afghanistan.] We met on a wet winter day outside Altufievskaia station at the northern end of the Moscow subway system and drove into the countryside. Once the senior official responsible for Soviet economic and technical assistance to Afghanistan, Valerii Ivanov has had frequent vi

David N. Gibbs: Was Kosovo the Good War?

This article draws from David N. Gibbs's new book, First Do No Harm: Humanitarian Intervention and the Destruction of Yugoslavia (Vanderbilt University Press, June 2009), especially from chapter 7. Readers interested in obtaining full source citations can find most of them in the book or request them from the author at dgibbs@arizona.edu. As the 1999 NATO war against Serbia reaches its tenth anniversary, it is being recalled with a measure of n

Jason Weixelbaum: A Review of the Shocking Revelations of U.S. Corporate Collaboration with Nazi Germany

[Jason Weixelbaum follows issues of corporate complicity related to World War II.] Americans are unceasingly reminded of the shared memories of the self-titled “Greatest Generation” that beat back the Nazis and saved the world from fascism. Is there another side to this heroic narrative? Although historians generally commend the United States as an instrumental force behind the undoing of Hitler’s Nazi regime, many prominent American companies and citizens knowingly aided the incept

John Pilger: Mourn on the 4th of July

[John Pilger, renowned investigative journalist and documentary film-maker, is one of only two to have twice won British journalism's top award; his documentaries have won academy awards in both the UK and the US.] The monsoon had woven thick skeins of mist over the central highlands of Vietnam. I was a young war correspondent, bivouacked in the village of Tuylon with a unit of US marines whose orders were to win hearts and minds. “We are here not to kill,” said the sergeant, “we ar

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

[Gareth Porter is an investigative journalist and historian who covered the Vietnam War as Saigon Bureau Chief for Dispatch News Service International in 1970-71 and taught international studies at the City College of New York and American University from 1982 to 1990. His book Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam, documents US policymaking on Vietnam during the Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson administrations. He has a doctorate in Southeast Asian politics from

WSJ Editorial: McNamara and the Liberals' War

Robert McNamara died on Monday at age 93 like he lived most of the latter half of his life, scorned and derided by his former liberal allies for refusing to turn against the Vietnam War as early as they did. As the New York Times put it in a page-one obituary headline, McNamara was the "Architect of Futile War." In historical fact, Vietnam was the liberals' war, begun by JFK, escalated by LBJ, and cheered on for years by giants of the American left before they turned again

Philip Bobbitt: McNamara's Compassion

[Philip Bobbitt, a law professor at Columbia, is the author, most recently, of “Terror and Consent: The Wars for the 21st Century.”] For Christmas in 1963 we gathered at the ranch that had belonged to my great-grandfather, a few miles outside the town — Johnson City — named for our family. Lyndon Johnson, my uncle, presided over the noisy feast, and the unwrapping and the prayers. By the fire, that afternoon, he quizzed me on the cabinet he had inherited. I was 15, a hi

Errol Morris: McNamara in Context

[Errol Morris, a filmmaker, writes the “Zoom” column at nytimes.com/morris.] HOW should we remember Robert McNamara? As an engaged public servant who participated in some of the most important decisions of the 20th century? A hawk who served as the chief architect of the war in Vietnam? A technocrat who never fully understood the moral implications of his policies? A hero who steadfastly worked to prevent the escalation of conventional war into thermonuclear conflict? All of the abo

Peter Ferrara: The Bush Doctrine Is Still Working

[Peter Ferrara served in the White House Office of Policy Development under President Reagan and as Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States under the first President Bush. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.] A central theme of President Bush's administration was to promote democracy in the Middle East. He argued that establishing a full fledged democracy in Iraq in the heart of the Middle East would have transforming effects throughout the Mus

David Ignatius: McNamara's Complicated Legacy

[David Ignatius is a twice-weekly columnist for The Post, writing on global politics, economics and international affairs.] I grew up in the shadow of Robert McNamara, almost literally. My father, Paul Ignatius, joined his team at the Pentagon in 1961 and remained with him through the Vietnam years as a close aide and, afterward, as a friend. So for me, McNamara's death evokes a whole world of relationships and dreams and reversals that characterized the Washington of the 1960s.

Michael Lind: All sides blame McNamara for Vietnam

Robert McNamara has died. Notwithstanding his previous career at Ford in the 1950s and his later career as president of the World Bank, Robert Strange McNamara will always be remembered for his service as secretary of defense for the Kennedy and Johnson administrations during the height of the Second Indochina War, known in the U.S. as "the Vietnam War." In death, as in life, he is likely to prove to be a Rorschach test for what people think about that conflict and the four-decade Col

Ben Stein: Wal-Mart in the Wilderness

So, here I am at the Ponderay, Idaho Super Wal-Mart. It is beautiful. They've totally redesigned it to be far more wide open, with immense aisles, immaculately clean surfaces, and somehow still a fabulously good selection of items. Anyone who follows me even a little bit knows I am an extreme fan of Wal-Mart, which basically adds several percentage points of extra income to every worker's pay check by offering such low prices as it does. Plus, the Wal-Mart is a friendly, upbeat shop

Pejman Yousefzadeh: Our "Inordinate Fears" of Communism

[Pejman Yousefzadeh is an attorney in Chicago and a Senior Editor of The New Ledger. (Courtesy, The New Ledger).] Nearly twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the end–or at least, the beginning of the end–of the Cold War, it seems that some people are still having trouble processing the lessons of the epic struggle. Not surprisingly, perhaps, one of those people, Andrew O’Hehir, writes for Salon. O’Hehir reviews Archie Brown’s The Rise and Fall of Communism, and draws con

NYT Editorial: Pardon boxer Jack Johnson

It was on the Fourth of July 99 years ago that Jack Johnson, the proud and gritty African-American boxing champion, outraged the world of bigotry by retaining his heavyweight crown against the “Great White Hope,” Jim Jeffries. Riots ensued across the country as racists took to the streets, while black ghettos celebrated the triumph of their own flamboyant champion, the son of former slaves. This landmark moment in the struggle up from slavery still has not been set right in history.

Sarah Vowell: I stand up to defend Rhode Island's name

LAST month, Rhode Island’s Legislature approved a proposal to allow a ballot referendum in 2010 to change the state’s official name from “State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations” to simply “State of Rhode Island.” According to The Providence Journal, “Proponents of the name change say the word ‘plantations’ is offensive to the African-American community because it conjures up images of slavery.” On the one hand, as a person who spends a minimum of 20 minutes a week furious

John Gilbert McCurdy: Bachelors at the time of the American Revolution

[John Gilbert McCurdy, an assistant professor of history at Eastern Michigan University, is the author of “Citizen Bachelors: Manhood and the Creation of the United States.”] BY July 4, 1776, Elbridge Gerry had tired of independence. A delegate at the Second Continental Congress, Gerry had worked for months to secure his country’s freedom. But in the oppressive heat of a Philadelphia summer, Gerry’s mind turned to the woman he had left behind in Massachusetts. While America’s freedo

Peggy Noonan: In appreciation of our country's founders

Monday, July 1, was heavy and hot, and a full-scale summer storm passed through the city late in the morning. John Dickinson of Pennsylvania rose to speak. He knew he was endangering the respect in which he was broadly held, his "popularity," but he once again counseled caution: Slow down, separation from Britain is "premature," to declare independence now would be "to brave the storm in a skiff made of paper." When he sat down, "all was silent except for the r

L. Brent Bozell: Oliver Stone, Lousy Historian

Dear Oliver, Many years ago, when Bill Maher’s comedy show was hosted by Comedy Central and he was funny, his formula for success was truly unique. Every week two sets of political and/or cultural opposites were pitted against each other, and he refereed with humor. It was all designed for a good laugh and succeeded because once upon a time Bill Maher was truly funny. Some producer really thought in extremes when they pitted Oliver Stone and Brent Bozell for one episode