In Retrospect Quotes

“The ancient Greek dramatist Aeschylus wrote, “The reward of suffering is experience.” Let this be the lasting legacy of Vietnam.”
― Robert S. McNamara, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam

“So I conclude that John Kennedy would have eventually gotten out of Vietnam rather than move more deeply in. I express this judgment now because, in light of it, I must explain how and why we—including Lyndon Johnson—who continued in policy-making roles after President Kennedy’s death made the decisions leading to the eventual deployment to Vietnam of half a million U.S. combat troops. Why did we do what we did, and what lessons can be learned from our actions?”
― Robert S. McNamara, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam

“Early in his administration, President Kennedy asked his cabinet officials and members of the National Security Council to read Barbara Tuchman’s book The Guns of August. He said it graphically portrayed how Europe’s leaders had bungled into the debacle of World War I. And he emphasized: “I don’t ever want to be in that position.” Kennedy told us after we had done our reading, “We are not going to bungle into war.” Throughout his presidency, Kennedy seemed to keep that lesson in mind. During the Bay of Pigs crisis in April 1961, against intense pressure from the CIA and the military chiefs, he kept to his conviction—as he had made explicitly clear to the Cuban exiles beforehand—that under no conditions would the United States intervene with military force to support the invasion. He held to this position even when it became evident that without that support the invasion would fail, as it did.”
― Robert S. McNamara, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam

“Having reviewed the record in detail, and with the advantage of hindsight, I think it highly probable that, had President Kennedy lived, he would have pulled us out of Vietnam. He would have concluded that the South Vietnamese were incapable of defending themselves, and that Saigon’s grave political weaknesses made it unwise to try to offset the limitations of South Vietnamese forces by sending U.S. combat troops on a large scale. I think he would have come to that conclusion even if he reasoned, as I believe he would have, that South Vietnam and, ultimately, Southeast Asia would then be lost to Communism.”
― Robert S. McNamara, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam

“The point I wish to emphasize is this: human beings are fallible. We all make mistakes. In our daily lives, they are costly but we try to learn from them. In conventional war, they cost lives, sometimes thousands of lives. But if mistakes were to affect decisions relating to the use of nuclear forces, they would result in the destruction of whole societies. Thus, the indefinite combination of human fallibility and nuclear weapons carries a high risk of a potential catastrophe. Is there a military justification for continuing to accept that risk? The answer is no. In”
― Robert S. McNamara, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam

“He can either act as a judge or a leader….I have always believed in and endeavored to follow the active leadership role as opposed to the passive judicial role.”
― Robert S. McNamara, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam

“They taught that business leaders had a duty to serve society as well as their shareholders, and that a company could drive for profits and at the same time meet social responsibilities. I think of this in a phrase Walker and Learned might have liked: “There is no contradiction between a soft heart and a hard head.” That has been a guiding principle in my life.”
― Robert S. McNamara, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam