Chapters 15-16 Summary and Analysis

The fact that the war was not going well made Kennedy very frustrated. McNamara and Taylor were sent to Vietnam in September to review the situation. At this time Kennedy learned that USAID had cut off commodity aid to Vietnam. Kennedy did not like it but found that it was an automatic move when there were disagreements with the host government.

In Vietnam McNamara began to suspect the accuracy of the military reporting. Even though the trip changed their perceptions of the situation, they wrote an optimistic report saying they felt the Americans would be out of Vietnam by the end of 1965. The Vietnamese people were hostile to both Diem and the Vietcong and a meeting was held with the Vietnamese generals about staging a coup against Diem. The U.S. assured the generals that U.S. aid would...