First published 1998
McMaster examines how America stumbled into the Vietnam catastrophe through deception and failed leadership in Washington. Drawing from newly released meeting transcripts and personal accounts, he reveals how President Lyndon Johnson, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, General Maxwell Taylor, and advisor McGeorge Bundy systematically misled the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Congress, and the American people. The author traces the specific policies and decisions that dragged the United States into Southeast Asian conflict, identifying the officials responsible and their underlying motivations. McMaster challenges existing historical explanations and participant justifications with thorough research into crucial confrontations and turning points. His analysis demonstrates that Vietnam's failure stemmed not from battlefield defeats or media coverage or campus protests, but from fundamental dishonesty within the highest levels of government. The book reconstructs the decision-making process that committed America to a disastrous war through deliberate deception of military leadership and democratic institutions.
Genres: history, 20th-century, political-science, politics, non-fiction, biography-memoir, military-history, american-history
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Vietnam, Southeast Asia
Period: 20th-century
446 pages · Paperback · Harper Perennial