meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The John Batchelor Show

26: McNamara at War: Loyalty, Secrets, and the Vietnam Conflict. Professor William Taubman discusses Robert McNamara's complicated role during the LBJ years. McNamara enabled the Vietnam War escalation, notably misrepresenting the Gulf of Tonkin incidents to

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Arts, Society & Culture, Books, News

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 25 October 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

McNamara at War: Loyalty, Secrets, and the Vietnam Conflict. Professor William Taubman discusses Robert McNamara's complicated role during the LBJ years. McNamara enabled the Vietnam War escalation, notably misrepresenting the Gulf of Tonkin incidents to Congress. Despite later secretly opposing the war ("I want so badly to bring the boys home"), he remained silent due to loyalty to Johnson and the presidency. Taubman also details McNamara's role spying on the Kennedys for LBJ and his "loving" relationship with Jackie Kennedy. His post-Pentagon role at the World Bank served as a form of repentance.
1968

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Building a coffee business?

0:02.0

Serving the best Americano in town is up to you.

0:04.0

But winning back time and growing your business,

0:06.0

leave that to SumUp.

0:07.0

Take orders and payments anywhere with the new SumUp terminal.

0:10.0

Turn occasional customers into regulars with a free loyalty program.

0:13.0

And with the SumUp point of sale system,

0:15.0

you'll always know when you're running low on your best-selling blends.

0:18.0

Visit sumup.co.uk to learn more. I'm John Batch with Professor Bill

0:26.9

Talbman of Amherst College with his brother Philip Talbman have published a new book that's filled

0:32.7

with information I've never read now. I'm not a narrow reader. I'm a wide reader. I had to ask Bill again and again before we started, has anybody ever seen this before? Much of it not, especially this part. Linden Johnson wants to be elected president of the United States. He wants the endorsement of the American people because he's

0:54.6

inherited the job with the tragedy of JFK. But on the eve of his nomination process and

1:02.2

convention hall in Atlantic City in the heat of the summer, he hears a story that Jackie Kennedy

1:09.1

is going to come out for Bobby Kennedy and

1:12.4

urge his nomination for president.

1:16.4

That does not happen, but there is reason to believe, in fact, it's in the voice of McNamara

1:23.4

telling the president that McNamara will spend the evening, the night with Jackie Kennedy,

1:31.4

before that event could happen, and he will carry to the president the information that

1:35.8

and he wants to know, will Jackie Kennedy do this or not.

1:39.5

A shorthand version is that McNamara, to win the favor of the president who's anxious and

1:46.5

insecure and actually sure that he's going to be humiliated by the Kennedys again, he uses

1:55.1

McNamara to spy on the Kennedys, and McNamara goes along with it, and it's not the only

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from John Batchelor, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of John Batchelor and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.