Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara presents a fascinating case study in ethical drift and reconciliation. Chapter 17 of Just Lead explores his regret and his long effort to rebuild trust decades after the close of the Vietnam War.
This video, drawn from the U.S. Army’s pictorial archives, shows McNamara in the early 1960s searching for justification—both moral and strategic—for deepening America’s involvement in Vietnam.
President Lyndon Johnson’s guidance framed the conflict as part of a broader struggle: the spread of communism halfway around the world, yet somehow on America’s own doorstep. It was a continuation, not a break, from the logic that had guided Eisenhower and Kennedy.
Across four presidencies, the rationale remained consistent. Containment was the creed. Preventing the spread of communism throughout Asia became a matter of national identity as much as policy. You can still hear its echo today, faint but familiar, in the language of trade and influence between the United States and China.
Trust runs through that story like a thread. Without it, there is no agreement, no compromise, no confidence in purpose.
On the home front, leaders must first win belief before they can ask for sacrifice. It’s in that light that this video was created—to answer the question every citizen eventually asks of their leaders: Why? Why advisers? Why troops?
Many remember Vietnam as a war of the late 1960s and early 1970s. In truth, the roots ran far deeper. After France’s withdrawal from Indochina, the United States stepped in to support the anti-communist government of South Vietnam.
That commitment began quietly in the early 1950s, when Washington backed French efforts against Ho Chi Minh’s forces. Following the Geneva Accords of 1954, U.S. attention shifted to the South, intent on containing the North’s growing alignment with China and the Soviet Union.
That’s where this video picks up the story. I hope you enjoy it. If you do, please grab a referral link for this Substack page and share it on your socials. The more the merrier.
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