LBJ and McNamara: The Vietnam Partnership Destined to Fail

"In this book, I have sought to blend personal experience, journalism, and scholarship. It is history written by a journalist who was there."-Peter L. W. Osnos

LBJ and McNamara: The Vietnam Partnership Destined to Fail details how President Lyndon B. Johnson and his secretary of defense, Robert McNamara, made choices central to U.S. strategy in Vietnam, ending in defeat. The portrait emerges of men who knew that conventional victory was impossible but who could not or would not reverse the policies that they and the military pursued.

In their own words, especially McNamara's, how and why this happened is a story never before told with such immediacy and insight. The lessons for today's policymakers are clear-and could have avoided the outcomes of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Discover untold insights of the critical Vietnam War decisions made by President Johnson and Robert McNamara, their struggles with policy reversals, and the lessons relevant to today's conflicts. Also featuring a unique audio bonus with exclusive, candid audio from McNamara's memoir creation.

"A slim volume with a knife's edge, even a half century later. . . . [I]n LBJ and McNamara, Osnos nails it."-Washington Monthly

"Utilizing his unprecedented access to the record, Peter Osnos has excavated the complex relationship between Lyndon B. Johnson and Robert S. McNamara. Osnos expertly pulls back the curtain, revealing the central role that the character and personalities of these two complicated men played in the decision to escalate the war. We learn something new on almost every page."-Robert K. Brigham, Shirley Ecker Boskey Professor of History and International Relations, Vassar College, and author of Reckless: Henry Kissinger and the Tragedy of Vietnam

"LBJ and McNamara: The Vietnam Partnership Destined to Fail brings to one of history's most-well covered topics new insights and a deeper understanding of Johnson and McNamara than we have ever had. . . . The approaching fifty-year anniversary of the end of the Vietnam debacle offers the right moment to learn anew."-Daniel Weiss, Homewood Professor of the Humanities, Johns Hopkins University; president emeritus of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and author of In That Time: Michael O'Donnell and the Tragic Era of Vietnam

Author: Peter L. W. Osnos
Publisher: Rivertowns Books
Published: 11/12/2024
Pages: 178
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.47lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.48d
ISBN: 9781953943552


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 12/02/2024
Kirkus Reviews 12/15/2024
Choice 07/01/2025

About the Author
Osnos, Peter L. W.: - Peter L. W. Osnos is the author of An Especially Good View: Watching History Happen, the coauthor of Would You Believe . . . The Helsinki Accords Changed the World? and the editor of George Soros: A Life in Full. He is the founder of the publishing house PublicAffairs and a former publisher of the Times Books imprint at Random House, where he was previously a senior editor and associate publisher. Prior to his career in book publishing, he spent eighteen years at The Washington Post, where he was a correspondent in Saigon, Moscow, and London and served as foreign editor and national editor. He is a graduate of Brandeis University and the Columbia School of Journalism, and his writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, and Columbia Journalism Review, among other publications. He lives in New York City.