When Officials Bend Knee to Duplicitous Presidents

The collusion of LBJ and Robert McNamara in official lies about progress in Vietnam not only proved fatal to 55,000 Americans and millions of Indochinese but destroyed faith in government for decades

Note to readers: My review of Peter Osnos’ In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam, appeared originally in the January edition of The Washington Monthly. It’s reprinted here with their permission. Given the 56th anniversary of the communists’ surprise, massive 1968 Tết Offensive—which obliterated the Johnson administration’s false assurances a…