Play Audiobook Sample
McNamara at War: A New History Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(0.00) - 0 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
A REVELATORY PORTRAIT OF ROBERT S. McNAMARA, INFORMED BY NEWLY DISCOVERED DIARIES, LETTERS, AND INTERVIEWS WITH THOSE CLOSEST TO HIM.
Robert S. McNamara was widely considered to be one of the most brilliant men of his generation. He was an invaluable ally of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson as U.S. secretary of defense, and he had a deeply moving relationship with Jackie Kennedy. But to the country, McNamara was the leading advocate for American escalation in Vietnam. He strongly advised Johnson to deploy hundreds of thousands of American ground troops, just weeks before concluding that the war was unwinnable, and for the next two and a half years, McNamara failed to urge Johnson to cut his losses and withdraw.
McNamara at War examines McNamara’s life of intense personal contradictions, following his childhood, his career as a young faculty member at Harvard Business School, and his World War II service, to his leadership of the Ford Motor Company and the World Bank. Philip and William Taubman had access to materials previously unavailable to McNamara biographers, including Jacqueline Kennedy’s warm letters to McNamara during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations and beyond; family correspondence dating back to McNamara’s service in World War II; and a secret diary maintained by McNamara’s top Vietnam policy aide. What emerges is the comprehensive story of the infamous former leader of the Pentagon: riven by melancholy, guilt, zealous loyalty, and a profound inability to admit his flawed thinking about Vietnam before it was too late. McNamara at War is a portrait of a man at war with himself—with a grave influence on the history of the United States and the world.
“Excellent and probing about one of the central figures of the Vietnam War.”—Bob Woodward, author of War
Download and start listening now!
McNamara at War Listener Reviews
Be the first to write a review about this audiobook!
About the Authors
Philip Taubman, deputy editorial page editor of the New York Times, has written about national security and intelligence issues for more than twenty years. Earlier in his career, Taubman wrote about sports, education, and business for Time magazine and Esquire. He graduated from Stanford University in 1971, where he majored in modern European history and was editor of the campus newspaper, the Stanford Daily. Taubman is married to Felicity Barringer, who also works for the Times.
William Taubman is the Bertrand Snell Professor emeritus of political science at Amherst College. His biography, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
About David Colacci
David Colacci is an actor and director who has directed and performed in prominent theaters nationwide. His credits include roles from Shakespeare to Albee, as well as extensive work on new plays. As a narrator, he has won numerous Earphones Awards, earned Audie Award nominations, and been included in Best Audio of the Year lists by such publications as Publishers Weekly, AudioFile magazine, and Library Journal. He was a resident actor and director with the Cleveland Play House for eight years and has been artistic director of the Hope Summer Rep Theater since 1992.