Viet Nam: New Roles for an Old Cast

The war's principals and bit players are rebuilding their lives

Some actors were so prominent in the Viet Nam tragedy that they became permanently identified with their roles: Robert McNamara was the whiz-kid president of Ford Motor Co. beforehand and head of the World Bank afterward, but he is still remembered as the Secretary of Defense who calibrated America's growing involvement. Others were caught in the national spotlight for an awkward instant and have been trying to live it down ever since. Mary Ann Vecchio was a 14-year-old runaway from Florida captured by a photographer as she knelt in anguish over a dead student on the Kent State campus in 1970....

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