Robert McNamara and Bill Moyers

I was on a commercial trade mission to China in the 1990s. I was the designated hitter to make the case against Most Favored Nation trade status for the Chi-Coms. You know: Fair and balanced.

Former Vietnamera SecDef McNamara joined us for a few days.

One day on our special bus I asked him if he was ever going to write about the Vietnam War. He said, incredibly: "I'm waiting to see what the experts say."

He did finally write it probably a quarter of a century after the conflict which he quarterbacked.

He said we made a big, big mistake, and that he thought that then. Think of the possible implications: dead people because of his silence.

(I was on LBJ's staff and thought it was a neccessary conflict, albeit tragic.)

Bill D. Moyers, the man most probably most responsible for my coming to the LBJ White House, was always kind and courteous to me. He taught me a great deal.

I understand now that he is writing a similar sort of memoir, with a longer time lapse.

Sad.

Ben