John T. McNaughton and Vietnam: The Early Years as ... - Viet-studies

BENJAMIN T. HARRISON AND CHRISTOPHER L. MOSHER 497
him unfairly. 4 Moreover, Robert McNamara has categorically denied
that his assistant was ever a ‘secret dove’. 5 Obviously the former secretary
of defense, who made only a few obscure references to McNaughton in
his memoirs, is best served by making his own evolution to dove status a
solitary one to his own personal credit alone. But all is not so simple, as
is made clear in this article which sheds new light on both McNaughton
and McNamara.
Obviously there were not many doves in the Kennedy and Johnson
administrations. 6 John McNaughton was unusual not only as an opponent
of the Vietnam War but also because he was a Midwesterner in what was
a predominately Northeastern establishment. He grew up in Pekin, Illinois
(b. 1921), where his father owned a newspaper. He became its editor
(1951–2) after serving in the Second World War, a stint as a Rhodes
Scholar and completing his legal studies. He ran unsuccessfully for
Congress in 1952 and the next year joined the faculty of Harvard Law
School. He became deputy assistant secretary of defense for arms control
in 1961 and established his reputation as one of the leading experts of the
day on nuclear disarmament as well as playing a role in negotiating the
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (1963). His fervent support for limiting nuclear
weapons would certainly endear him to Robert McNamara because
McNamara has campaigned tirelessly for nuclear disarmament.
Nevertheless, McNaughton and McNamara had their differences.
Indeed, McNaughton’s previous involvement with elective politics and
McNamara’s total lack of political experience would separate the two on
Vietnam policy. The secretary of defense was more typical of the
‘Camelot’ group associated with President John Kennedy that had never
run for political office. These individuals lacked a feeling for American
public sentiment on the war and for the Vietnamese thirst for independence.
When President Lyndon Johnson bragged to his mentor, House
Speaker Sam Rayburn, about the illustrious staff he had inherited from
Kennedy, the response was the sage observation, ‘Well, Lyndon, you
might be right and they may be every bit as intelligent as you say, but I’d
feel a whole lot better about them if just one of them had run for sheriff
once.’ 7 With elective office not in their background, it was easy for them
to ignore public opposition at home and abroad. Johnson should have
paid more attention to that reality, but it is one of the many facts he
ignored concerning Vietnam. McNamara was once asked why he had
turned down the vice-presidential ticket in 1964. ‘I really believed,’ he
replied, ‘I was totally incompetent to run with no experience on an
4 Inside the Pentagon Papers,
ed. John Pradas and Margaret P. Porter (Lawrence, Kan., 2004)
[hereafter Inside the Pentagon Papers], p. 78.
5 Question posed by Benjamin Harrison during the ‘Question and Answer’ period following Robert
McNamara’s talk on ‘World Security’ at University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, 2 Dec.
2002. Further attempts to interview McNamara were declined.
6 David Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest (New York, 1972) [hereafter Halberstam, Best and
Brightest].
7 Ibid., p. 53.
© 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2007 The Historical Association and Blackwell Publishing.