Covert operations appealed to McNamara and the president because they appeared to be low-cost. U.S.-sponsored action against the North, however, represented a shift in the nature of the American commitment to the war. The formation of Krulak’s committee bypassed the JCS and excluded the Chiefs from the planning process. LeMay recalled that “we in the military felt we were not in the decision-making process at all. Taylor might have been but we didn’t agree with Taylor in most cases.”83
