both secretary brown and professor herring alluded to clark clifford. clifford saw the role as convincing president johnson to get out of vietnam. clifford was convinced that the american adventure was draining the economy and threatening to reduce the united states to the second class economic power is very, very concerned that that was a true strength of the united states and not the military might. in order to ka joel johnson day and night, he let his deputy run the department of defense. it was everything to strategic arms. the only time he actually made a decision about the budget and strategic arms, he managed to mess up a nuclear submarine program that he had to go to clean up. clifford was successful in convincing johnson that it was a losing battle and it was time to call an end to escalation and reduce the american commitment to vietnam. both secretary brown and herring alluded to mcnamara's brilliance. george bundy who served with mcnamara. he is the ablest man in government. when he makes a basic decision and gets up ahead of steam, he doesn

i have very little to say about clark clifford on the secretary for a year. he devoted himself almost entirely to vietnam and left the running of the department to paul who was then his deputy who was the secretary of defense. clark was a very able advocate and had all the talents of an actor. both in appearance and his ability at presentation and he did help lyndon johnson start to get out of the war. thank you. >> thank you, doctor brown for contextualizing the vietnam war. this sets a nice base line for the next two speakers. my task is to introduce the speakers. this is an easy task for me because they are two of the ablest trackticianers of the historical craft today. first, george, george herring had a virginia ph.d. and taught almost four decades at the university of kentucky. there he mentored many thesis and his students teach history and the history of the vietnam war. george also served in the best journal doing diplomatic history and he also served as president of the society for the american foreign relations. he made his greatest contribution at

i have very little to say about clark clifford. he was only secretary for a year. and he devoted himself almost entirely to vietnam. and left the running of the department to paul mittsa, who was then deputy secretary of defense. clark was, i think, a very able advocate and he had all the talents of an actor, both in appearance and his ability at presentation. and he did help lyndon johnson start to get out of the war. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you, dr. brown, secretary brown. we're contextualizing robert mcnamara in the defense department and the vietnam war. this sets down a nice base line for our next two speakers. i will introduce those speakers, george herring and ed drea. this is an easy task for me, because they are two of the ablist practitioners of the historical craft today. first george. george herring has a virginia ph.d. he taught almost four decades at the university of kentucky. there he mentored many ph.d. thesis, and his students teach throughout the land teaching history of the vietnam war. george also served as editor of the best -- probabl