FOR 20 YEARS AMERICANS have been trying to learn the lessons of Vietnam while disagreeing on what they are. Given that endless debate, it was inevitable that Robert McNamara would conclude his controversial new book, In Retrospect, with a chapter on the lessons of the war. "I don't think the country has yet learned the lessons," he said in an interview with Time last week. "If it had, I wouldn't have written the book." McNamara points to the dangers of underestimating nationalism, of faulty evaluations, of asking the military to achieve more than weapons can deliver. The nation worries through that...
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