Dereliction of Duty: Obama’s Foreign Policy Record Is As Bad As Johnson’s

In 1998, H.R. McMaster, the current National Security Advisor in the Trump Administration, wrote an explosive blockbuster about the origins of the Vietnam War. Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies that Led to Vietnam stemmed from his PhD. dissertation when he was a graduate student at the University of North Carolina. McMaster had a brilliant career in the U.S. Army, and his elevation to National Security Advisor is a boon to the nation.

In this explosive book almost 20 years ago, McMaster exposes how President Lyndon Johnson, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, and General Maxwell Taylor hid the truth from the American people about the Vietnam War  and conspired to neutralize the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the key decisions that led   to  the Vietnam War.  The impeccably researched book is a searing indictment of President Johnson, showing how he lied repeatedly to the nation in 1964 in order to crush Republican challenger Barry Goldwater in the election that fall.   His top lieutenant, McNamara, did everything possible to aid and abet Johnson in his deceit, hamstringing the Joint Chiefs and thus preventing them from figuring out the proper level of U.S. involvement in Vietnam.