In my post a few days ago on James Galbraith's articles about John Kennedy's Vietnam policy, I mentioned the book JFK and Vietnam (1992) by John Newman, one of Galbraith's supporting sources. I was struck by this particular passage in Newman's book, which provides a great illustration of the difficulty the Pentagon has long had in adjusting its conventional war orientation to the demands of counterinsurgency.
It describes a January 1961 meeting that included Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, Assistant Defense Secretary William Bundy, and Lt. Gen. Lionel McGarr, then one of the key military men on Vietnam policy (head of the Military Assistance Advisory Group [MAAG] for Vietnam):
<< The concept behind a "clear and hold operation" was to first clear a populated area [of enemy forces] with the regular army and then hold it with the local civic action teams and paramilitary forces. McGarr outlined his plan for Zone D, a traditional communist stronghold in Phuoc Thanh Province, but McNamara objected because this province, being heavily forested and sparsely populated, had little in it to hold. McGarr's plan appeared to be a purely conventional military action, lacking the important paramilitary and political components of the clear-and-hold concept. McGarr was focused on killing the enemy: he would take two South Vietnamese divisions and "clean them out." William Bundy, who was watching McGarr's performance in disbelief, recalls it this way: "He presented a sort of arrowed here they are dug in ... and here's where we go and swing around them and we go clobbety-clobber to here and there and everywhere" kind of briefing. Bundy passed McNamara a note saying, "This man is insane." While McGarr delivered this "WWII map exercise," McNamara read Bundy's note, nodded, and whispered, "Burn that." >>
And apart from its relevance to the military problem of counterinsurgency, it's a well-told story!
2 comments:
just passing through your journal...i left a comment in your entry where the "intelligent" demureheart tried to turn your beliefs into a debate as this person has done so many others. you would probably enjoy reading marcia ellen's life as it ought to be... http://journals.aol.com/happyb8888/MarciaEllenLifeAsItOughtToBe/ she has alot of interesting facts about the government and president bush. enjoy. demureheart also attacked her as well.
Thanks for stopping by. I posted a comment after yours on the post demureheart focused on. I agree with you about Marcia Ellen's Journal. I also have it in my list of Other Journals. She has good quality content. And I completely jealous of her graphics. I really have to work on that. - Bruce
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