Dereliction of Duty (1997 book)
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| Author | H. R. McMaster |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Vietnam War |
| Publisher | Harper Perennial |
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Publication date
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September 2, 1997 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 352 |
| ISBN | |
Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, The Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies that Led to Vietnam is a 1997 book written by H. R. McMaster, at the time a Major in the United States Army. (He subsequently became National Security Advisor in 2017 after having risen in rank to a Lieutenant General.) The book presents a case indicting former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his principal civilian and military advisers for losing the Vietnam War. The book was based on McMaster's Ph.D. thesis at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
McMaster blamed leaders in Washington for losing the Vietnam War, writing:
The book examines the failure of Robert McNamara and U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson's staff, alongside the military and particularly the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to provide a successful plan of action to pacify either a Viet Cong insurgency or decisively defeat the North Vietnamese Army. McMaster details why military actions intended to indicate "resolve" or to "communicate" ultimately failed when trying to accomplish sparsely detailed, confusing, and conflicting military objectives. In his opinion, the military is to be used appropriately in order to meet objective military targets and goals.
Unusual for an active-duty officer, McMaster scolded the U.S. government for its "arrogance, weakness, lying in pursuit of self-interest [and] abdication of responsibility to the American people."
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