Dereliction of Duty, H. R. McMaster
Dereliction of Duty, H. R. McMaster
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Dereliction of Duty
Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam

Author: H. R. McMaster

Narrator: H. R. McMaster

Unabridged: 15 hr 58 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 09/25/2018

Synopsis

""The war in Vietnam was not lost in the field, nor was it lost on the front pages of the New York Times or the college campuses. It was lost in Washington, D.C."" —H. R. McMaster (from the Conclusion)Dereliction Of Duty is a stunning analysis of how and why the United States became involved in an all-out and disastrous war in Southeast Asia. Fully and convincingly researched, based on transcripts and personal accounts of crucial meetings, confrontations and decisions, it is the only book that fully re-creates what happened and why. McMaster pinpoints the policies and decisions that got the United States into the morass and reveals who made these decisions and the motives behind them, disproving the published theories of other historians and excuses of the participants.A page-turning narrative, Dereliction Of Duty focuses on a fascinating cast of characters: President Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, General Maxwell Taylor, McGeorge Bundy and other top aides who deliberately deceived the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the U.S. Congress and the American public.McMaster’s only book, Dereliction of Duty is an explosive and authoritative new look at the controversy concerning the United States involvement in Vietnam.

About H. R. McMaster

H. R. McMaster is the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. McMaster served as a U.S. Army officer for thirty-four years and retired as a lieutenant general in 2018. He remained on active duty while serving as the twenty-sixth assistant to the president for national security affairs. He is the author of three bestsellers, Dereliction of Duty, Battlegrounds, and At War with Ourselves.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Scott on October 01, 2012

This is a very detailed and somewhat shocking book telling of how America sunk itself into the Vietnam war fiasco, and it's truly a sorrow to read. I never knew Johnson, McNamara, the Bundy brothers and Taylor were such lying assholes, as well as Rusk, McNaughton and the other civilians in charge of......more

Goodreads review by Brett on January 01, 2023

"[By July 1965] LBJ had misrepresented the mission of U.S. ground forces in Vietnam, distorted the views of the Chiefs to lend credibility to his decision against mobilization, grossly understated the numbers of troops General Westmoreland had requested, and lied to Congress about the monetary cost......more

Goodreads review by Andrew on May 30, 2016

In Dereliction of Duty H.R. McMaster provides a devastating portrait of an administration which stumbled evermore into a war it had no interest in and no understanding of. McMaster’s central concern is to show the decision making processes that pre-determined a US loss in Vietnam. He begins with John......more

Goodreads review by Ed on February 26, 2017

It you like histories of the bureaucratic minutiae and system failures that lead to bad advice badly given, institutional paralysis in the face of collapsing strategy and a determined refusual to accept reality (which I do) you will love this book. McMaster is a serving career Army officer with a PhD......more

Goodreads review by Barry on April 25, 2017

McMaster has done a commendable piece of work detailing the machinations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Sec Def Robert McNamara, and LBJ. LBJ attempted a constant balancing act by trying keep the Joint Chief’s from publicly opposing military operations in Vietnam by pretending to take parts of their......more

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