Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam

by H.R. McMaster

Serving in World War II helped Johnson advance his political career. After gaining a commission as a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy, he secured from President Roosevelt an assignment to the Pacific as part of a three-man observation team. One of Roosevelt’s aides wrote in his diary that Johnson was anxious to be in a danger zone to enhance his appeal to the electorate. On June 9, 1942, Johnson got his wish. He rode on a B-26 bombing run from an airfield in New Guinea. While approaching the target area, Johnson’s plane experienced a mechanical malfunction and came under attack from Japanese fighters. The pilot nursed the aircraft back to base and landed it smoothly on the runway. The plane to which Johnson had initially been assigned was not as fortunate and crashed into the ocean, killing the entire crew and one of his fellow observers, Lt. Col. Francis Stevens, who had taken Johnson’s seat. The next day Johnson headed for home. During a brief stopover in Australia, Johnson and his surviving fellow observer met the commander of the Southwest Pacific Theater, Gen. Douglas MacArthur. MacArthur told Johnson that he was awarding him the Silver Star Medal for gallantry during his ride on the B-26 bomber. No other crew member, not even the pilot who landed the crippled plane, received a decoration. A week after his return to the United States, LBJ was out of uniform and back in the House of Representatives.48 Despite his limited experience, Johnson assumed the demeanor of...

McNamara soon established himself as the most indispensable member of Johnson’s cabinet. When Johnson called congressmen, he told them what a great job McNamara was doing in the Pentagon. A month after taking office, the president worried that he would have to report a cost overrun of $400 million in defense spending for fiscal 1964. McNamara, who had a knack for manipulating numbers, offered a solution. He volunteered to underestimate deliberately what moneys were spent for defense and later feign surprise when spending exceeded his department’s forecast. The dependable McNamara saved the president from considerable embarrassment with Congress.56 When necessary McNamara would disparage the military members of his department to protect Johnson’s standing with the legislators. When Republican Rep. Gerald Ford

observed that he “did not impress the SECDEF [secretary of defense] with his belligerent and somewhat fumbling

There have been no divisions in this government. We may-have been wrong but we have not been divided. –LYNDON B. JOHNSON, 19671

Eager to get moving, we never stopped to explore fully whether there were other routes to our destination –ROBERT S. MCNAMARA, 19951