Thanks to all for some good ideas for further reading, and especially to exlrrp for your comments. I'll definitely get McNamara's book. Clifford and others in the Johnson administration who came to the conclusion that the war was a mistake remained loyal to Johnson for two main reasons, I think. One is that they were strong believers in his domestic programs and commitment to civil rights and helping the poor, and the other was that they thought they could influence Johnson to bring the war to an end. McNamara was one of the ones who gave up and bailed out.
exlrrp, I believe you'd really like Ho Chi Minh: A Life, by William Duiker. It doesn't gloss over either the good or the bad. Another fabulous book about which the same can be said is The Life and Times of Pancho Villa, by Friedrich Katz.
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Everything is what it is and not something else. Joseph Butler, 1736
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