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McNamara's Lethal Illusions
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One of the great Vietnam War correspondents, former Newsweek Saigon bureau chief Kevin Buckley, on why Robert McNamara, who died Monday, was a descendant of the villain in Graham Greene’s The Quiet American.
In February 1968, when I first arrived in Vietnam as a reporter for Newsweek, Robert McNamara was a figure of both mirth and rage in Saigon conversations. In December 1967, he had announced that he was stepping down as secretary of Defense, and in public still appeared to be as much of a boastful hawk as he had ever been.
The mirth came from imagining how he would twist the Tet Offensive, which was under way, into “progress.” The attacks contradicted nearly everything he had been saying over the years. The rage came from his defiant belief in the fiction of the domino theory—if Vietnam fell, all the nations of Asia would follow—and his bloodless recitation of numbers, of body counts, throughout his tenure.
The soldier helped me understand the deeper meaning of McNamara’s belief in statistics, firepower, and the carnage that ensued: “The trouble is [the Vietnamese] fuck faster than we can reload.”
Numbers and more numbers came from McNamara and his minions, and they translated into bloodshed for the troops whom he deceived long after he had “doubts,” and bloodshed for the Vietnamese who bore the brunt of his belief in firepower—incalculable tons of firepower.
On my fourth day “in country,” I went to Hue, where the Marines were regaining control. I shared a helicopter with a soldier who told me he had been in Vietnam for two years.
“Now the whole country’s a free-fire zone,” he said, with a disturbing cheerfulness. Then he provided his own metric of what was going on, and it has always helped me understand the deeper meaning of McNamara’s belief in statistics, firepower, and the carnage that ensued.
“The trouble is [the Vietnamese] fuck faster than we can reload,” the soldier said.
It’s understandable and probably correct to think of McNamara as a super accountant who dreamed in equations. But I prefer to think of him as just another descendant of Alden Pyle, the villain of Graham Greene’s 1955 masterpiece, The Quiet American. I reread the book when I arrived in Saigon, and I like to reread it every few years. It was especially resonant in Saigon back then because the spirit of Greene—he was quite alive, if not actually present—suffused the old French-style city and the corridors of the Continental Hotel. One could read his pages and then encounter Americans who seemed to have read the book as a recipe for how to behave.
Thomas Fowler is the jaded British journalist who is Greene’s narrator and alter ego. He and Pyle become friends and suitors of the incomparable Phuong. To make a brisk story very short, Pyle believes in the domino theory, and a wacko “Third Force.” He takes part in, and bungles, a plot that kills hundreds of people right outside the Continental Hotel. Pyle himself ends up dead.
Along the way, Fowler says of Pyle: “I never knew a man who had better motives for all the trouble he caused.”
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Why America Must Learn to Bow
Martin Jacques is the cofounder of the UK think tank Demos, writes a regular column for The Guardian, and is a visiting research fellow at the London School of Economics Asia Research Centre. His new book, When China Rules the World, is available now.
Going Rogue: The Index
Christopher Buckley's books include Supreme Courtship, The White House Mess, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, and Florence of Arabia. He was chief speechwriter for Vice President George H.W. Bush, and is editor-at-large of ForbesLife magazine. His new book is Losing Mum and Pup, a memoir. Buckley's Daily Beast column is the winner of an Online Journalism Award in the category of Online Commentary.
This is the finest piece of writing I've ever had the pleasure of reading at this site.
Thank you.
Frightening, in a way, to hear of such horror presented in poetic images. Do we really learn from history? Each conflict is exceptional. The 21st centruy brings global conflict, without national boundaries, technological warfare and yet still driven by some of the most stubborn and consistant influences as culture and religion.
I have heard the most reproduced photograph to date is the gleaming picture of Earth from space with its brilliant blue waters, continents adrift with shorelines suggesting the jigsaw puzzle of time and clouds hangingn in our protective atmosphere. Is it only at this distance that we live in peace?
McNamara's passing at such a grand old age makes the timing of this piece all the more significant. What a beautifully written critique of the smart fool. It really does evoke Graham Greene. No fog here. Thank you sir.
spinoza got it right, this essay was written by a pro.
Quite refreshing in today's googleworld.
Hard to believe a man with such complexity and impact on the world and American lives leaves us as the press focuses on Palin, Jackson and Sanford. Especially as the President is in Russia, the Vice President visits Iraq, we wage war in Afghanistan, North Korea shoots missles, and Israel deals with Iran and Palestine.
Anyone who hasn't seen "The Fog of War" needs to rent the DVD knowing that it requires concentration and study but the result will be well worth your investment.
McNamara already had one statistical disaster to his credit when he entered govt. Notably, the Edsel, which he helped Ford Motor Co design with the help of a questionnaire on consumer trends.
Of course, using his metric- the body count- we clearly won the war.
I don't think the body-count measure was McNamara's. I think that was the orders of Westmoreland, the theatre commanding General.
McNamara was as vain as the rest of the best and the brightest of his whiz kids. He never came to terms with what an arrogant screw up he'd been. And it was his own vanity that caused him to suffer after he lost faith in the war. He couldn't believe that such a "smart" guy could screw up so badly. Vietnam was a battle in the Cold War. We lost that battle, hardly the first in US history. But we won the war. Graham Greene was a great novelist. But cynical though he and his fellow Europeans may be, the Europeans (French) screwed up in Vietnam first and we (and teven hey) fought bravely there and well. Americans aren't so innocent and naive as Greene would have us believe. If it weren't for us, the Europeans would all be speaking either German or Russian. Maybe Greene should have written a novel about that! George Patton
The can-do American spirit buttressed by our post-modern superiority complex was the national mindset: we were invincible. In his role as menace-ster of justice, McNamara not only embodied this jingoistic spirit but defended it! He believed in the domino theory - the democratic one. George Bush instigated a war envisioning the same thing. He just changed the name to New World Order. That trajectory we now know was as feckless and misguided as Pyle's ideology.
Any criticism of McNamara should include his bosses - JFK & LBJ. Kennedy gets a historical pass on Vietnam as it may cloud the revisionist ideal of "Camelot". McNamara was a cog, JFK was the driver.
I'd like to know why this writer ignores "The Fog of War," the movie narrated largely by McNamara that seemingly attempts to make amends for the debacle in Viet Nam and provide lessons for the future.
Probably the writer ignores McNamarra's attempt to purify his past for what it was. An immoral attempt to somehow avoid his own guilt. 25 years too late, the man saw the light. Hallelujah!
Of couse, he claims he saw it in the sixties, just couldn't say anything then. Thousands and thousands more died as he looked on benignly. At least, Lyndon Johnson went to an early grove openly tormented by what he had condoned and promoted.
I really dislike hypocrites who deny their own evil. These Hail Mary conversions are too much. I guess we'll see a few more as Bush, Cheney, Condi, and dozens of other war criminals realize they won't live forever.
Actually, I don't think McNamara was attempting to "purify" his past actions. He was attempting to explain them. He was obviously tormented by what he did, and he was trying to provide experience-based advice for future administrations---given by a guy who really fucked up.
McNamara includes 11 of these pieces of advice, and most of them revolve around understanding the culture and the motivation of your soon-to-be enemy. He relates a meeting with one of the heads of North Viet Nam after the war, and his revelation as to how totally off-base the American understanding was. And he implies that it could have been solved with diplomacy.
Alden Pyle? You must be thinking of Gomer Pyle and have somehow dyslexized the meaning somewhat. Or, perhaps that is the role of literary device. *big smile here*
The main reason we lost in Viet Nam is that we tried to win a counter insurgency with conventional methods. Despite some lip service to wining the hearts and minds of the people, our strategy was to defeat the enemy with air power, helicopter gunships and troops rapidly deployed by more helicopters. (Read "Fiasco" to better understand.) Given the incompetent corruptness of the South Vietnamese government it is likely that the war was unwinnable. But the correct strategy is always helpful.
McNamarra was nothing but a number cruncher. He never understood "Garbage in, garbage out." The air force presented statistics about the number of "enemy structures" destroyed, which were nothing but farmers' huts, perhaps containing an AK-47 or two. The army's "body counts" were inflated by orders of magnitude. He was unfortunately the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is to be pitied as much as censured.
Interesting insight into the man Kevin.
He had a negative impact on our independence.
http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2009/07/independence-from-what.html
McNamara believed in many fictions but the domino theory wasn't one of them. Does Buckley know what happened after the fall in Cambodia and Laos?
Extraordinary essay.
The book is one I have read and re-read many times.
We lost the war in Viet Nam because politicians played with lives, because they played war games with human beings.
And then we cut and ran and left Saigon and the South Vietnamese on their own, and they died in the millions.
Iraq and Afghanistan are very similiar to Viet Nam in their beginnings, but we can and should re-write the endings.
What kind of a nation would America be if it cannot clean up after itself?
Oh. Rhetorical question.
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As I said earlier, I think the body count measure was the brainchild of Gen. William Westmoreland, the commanding general. If I'm wrong about that, I'd like to know, but that's how I remember it.
Hmm, inventor of the "Body Count." What a wonderful metric. It's tortured flames burn through the "Fog of War". Was he thinking of numbers of our boys killed/mained or just the numbers of orientals who were "wasted"?
where is my comment? is there a trick to getting to all comments ?
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When you read the history of the Vietnam War, and McNamara's role in conducting it, it's almost as if this greatest bean counter who ever lived studied every military defeat ever suffered and attempted to fold it into our strategy in Vietnam. And the arrogance with which he went about it was almost beyond belief.
The man was incapable of doing anything right. Which says a volumes about the Presidents he worked for.
I did not say the US strategy saved lives. It most certainly did not.
Viet Nam was simply an excellent example of a war conducted solely by politicians to score votes. For God's sake, attacks were scheduled to make the evening news!
And the failure of the US to let the actual military leaders, those who didn't care about votes, but understood military needs and strategies, run that war cost countless lives.
I do not know yet if the US should have been in Viet Nam.
I have serious reservations about the US presence in Iraq. It doesn't matter.
We are there.
Because of US actions, those countries cannot yet provide security or fulfill other proper government roles for their people.
An instantaneous pullout of all US forces would condemn iraq to the same fate as Saigon, Cambodia, and Laos.
Not a good idea.
Whether we should be ther eor not, we are there.
And we as a people have to clean up our messes, like it or no.
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Thank you.
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