Chapters 17-18 Summary and Analysis

McNamara was the one who set the tone for Vietnam policy in the first few months of the Johnson administration. Rusk would later take on this role as his relationship with the new President developed. Bundy had a strained relationship with Johnson but the Johnson administration needed him, as became obvious when they found it hard to function when Bundy was on vacation.

McNamara's December 1963 trip to Vietnam revealed to him the degree to which he had been misled about the situation. The new government was not working out and the Vietcong were gaining in strength. Their Vietnam policy was placing increasing blame on Hanoi for the situation. The problems were political and this is what the intelligence reports were failing to pick up. In his meetings with the military, they worked out plans for covert operations against the...