McNamara Book on Vietnam

Re “McNamara Takes Much of Blame for Vietnam,” April 9: I have two memories of my father before he went off to Vietnam: one of showing off his new, cherry Chevy hot-rod and the other of throwing up in that racer en route to Disneyland. I was 5 when the Army sergeant notified me, my mom and 3-year-old brother that my dad had been killed by a “widow-maker” bomb in the jungles of Vietnam.

Now former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara gives a teary apology and says he regrets his policy in Vietnam during the “police action.” Save your tears. What’s sad and regrettable is that defense secretaries, Pentagon officials, Administration leaders and patriotic flag-wavers never consider the human toll of carrying out flawed policy.

SHANNON HART

Los Angeles

No, McNamara did not give false information to Congress at the time it passed the 1964 Tonkin Gulf resolution. As a captain in the U.S. Army during 1969, I served as officer in charge of the United States Armed Forces Element of the III Corps combined Interrogation Center at Bien Hoa, Republic of Vietnam. While I served in that capacity a North Vietnamese prisoner of war, who had served aboard one of the North Vietnamese patrol torpedo (PT) boats, confirmed that North Vietnamese PT boats had attacked a United States destroyer at night in the Tonkin Gulf, on or about the date of the Tonkin Gulf incident. He remembered the name of the U.S. ship his PT boat attacked as something similar to the “Matlock,” not too far off from the “Maddox,” when you consider small black lettering on the fantail of a gray ship at night.

A declassified confidential message, emanating from MACV Advisory Team 95 will confirm the interrogation of this prisoner of war, if any reporter or historian cares to dig through U.S. Army archives for a copy of the message.

ALFRED M. DIAZ

Colonel, U.S. Army Reserve

San Dimas

This article left me heartsick. McNamara is made out to look like some weary and wizened, downtrodden, almost heroic leader. Taking much of the blame shouldn’t be so difficult for a 78-year-old man. Especially after years of silence.

If the attempt was to close the gap between cynicism and respect for the government--it comes for me, as does this book, 20 years too late. As a young optimist in the ‘60s, I sat alongside my classmates who were grappling with the fears of going to Vietnam. Later, in college, some of my classmates, the luckier ones who actually made it back from there, attended school, courtesy of the government. These fellows were physically and morally wrecked.

Is it a coincidence that the Times Books division of Random House is publishing his memoirs at the same time as the 20th anniversary of the fall of Saigon? That’s got to be good for at least 100,000 sales. Also, for one so pained by his immense guilt, where is the restitution plan; just how much of the money that will undoubtedly come from the sale of his book will be given to the veterans of the Vietnam conflict? Or their survivors? Hindsight is 20-20 vision, and this guy has 10-10.

JAYE ALISON MOSCARIELLO

Los Angeles

As we saw recently with the success of “Forrest Gump,” vast segments of the American public prefer to remember us drug-taking, free-loving, freak college students who rode all night and risked injury, or worse, to march in the many protests against the Vietnam War, as a continuing blight upon the national escutcheon. It is thus a source of bittersweet comfort to discover that the man in a better position to know than almost anyone, McNamara, has concluded we were right. History may eventually record our action as moral and courageous. But I can’t say I expect to see it in my lifetime.

SARAH MAGEE

Sierra Madre

So McNamara is sorry about the Vietnam tragedy. It’s too bad that those who paid most dearly are not here to see his tears. What amazes me is that our recent history is rife with these “mistakes.” Why is it that as those responsible get older we don’t hear more apologies? Assassinating elected leaders, training those responsible for genocide; surely these acts must weigh on someone’s conscience.

WILLIAM LAWRENCE

Tustin

The Times and reporters Josh Getlin and Thomas Lippman deserve great praise for their portraits of World War II and Vietnam as moral crusades as well as moral dilemmas, particularly Lippman’s review of McNamara’s role in the Vietnam War.

My sole criticism is that Getlin (“Vietnam and WWII: Myths and Memories,” April 9) failed to mention that President Reagan unremittingly referred to Vietnam as a “noble war,” and President Bush hailed our victory in the Gulf War as a triumph over the “Vietnam syndrome.” Reagan and Bush were rankled by our defeat in Vietnam and were determined to reassert our military supremacy throughout the world. It is estimated that 3 million Vietnamese died in the war in their country, as well as 58,000 young Americans. Both Reagan and Bush believe that Vietnam was worth the human sacrifice on so colossal a scale.

HENRY CHESLER

Los Angeles