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In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam, by Robert McNamara (Times, 414 pp., $27.50)

ROBERT McNamara must be wondering why he bothered. Twenty-seven years after leaving office as Lyndon Johnson’s secretary of defense, he has broken his silence with a soul-baring mea culpa on the Vietnam War, of which he was a principal architect. Instead of public admiration for his candor, he has received a torrent of abuse. Angry Vietnam veterans revile him for the incompetent military strategy; antiwar zealots denounce him for not recanting and speaking out earlier. “Evil” and a “scoundrel,” writes the distinguished military commentator (and Vietnam vet) Colonel Harry Summers; “lasting moral condemnation” is what the New York Times calls down upon him.

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Peter W. Rodman

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In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam, by Robert McNamara (Times, 414 pp., $27.50)

ROBERT McNamara must be wondering why he bothered. Twenty-seven years after leaving office as Lyndon Johnson’s secretary of defense, he has broken his silence with a soul-baring mea culpa on the Vietnam War, of which he was a principal architect. Instead of public admiration for his candor, he has received a torrent of abuse. Angry Vietnam veterans revile him for the incompetent military strategy; antiwar zealots denounce him for not recanting and speaking out earlier. “Evil” and a “scoundrel,” writes the distinguished military commentator (and Vietnam vet) Colonel Harry Summers; “lasting moral condemnation” is what the New York Times calls down upon him.