Ben Rhodes review of McNamara at War: A New History, by Philip and William Taubman (The New York Review of Books, February 28, 2026) has clarified for me the mystery of why the U.S. keeps engaging in wars abroad that it cannot win and that are clearly misguided and unwise from the start. We do it over and over. We don’t learn.
Robert McNamara, as Secretary of Defense for John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson, believed that Communism would spread across Asia and the world if we didn’t stop it in its tracks in Vietnam. This domino theory didn’t really pass the sniff test, but somehow it caught hold and led a group of men to believe they could force their into another nation and be received as heroes setting the place free. In time, McNamara would come to see it all as a huge mistake — one that cost 60,000 thousand American lives and the lives of three million Vietnamese people. In the end, the Vietnam War solved nothing. But as Ben Rhodes points out in his review, while McNamara understood the futility of America’ actions, he could never acknowledge the tragic belief in American exceptionalism that put us in Vietnam in the first place.
Rhodes argues that it is this belief in American exceptionalism, embedded in each generation since World War II, that keeps getting us mired into winless wars abroad — heartbreaking wars that do nothing to improve our standing in the world or life on this planet. It’s time to shed this tattered old coat.
Our current president and gang of thugs and thieves are just the latest example of American leaders swayed by such tragic and misguided thinking — though this time they are dispensing with any pretense of moral reasoning. Trump and Co. seem simply to believe that with astonishing belligerence and a plethora of weapons they can bend the world to their will. This new twist on the belief in American exceptionalism has led Trump to illegally depose Venezuela’s leader and declare himself in charge of Venezuela on behalf of oil companies. It has led him to threaten Greenland, Canada, Cuba, Mexico, Colombia, and Panama and other nations. And now it has led him to start a war with Iran that will result in more death, destruction, and economic turmoil without changing the international landscape in any positive way.
About the Vietnam War, Rhodes asks the key questions: “What led men like ‘[McNamara] into rooms where they made decisions regarding a country they knew nothing about? How could American officials so devalue the lives of the Vietnamese relative to our own, killing more than three million Vietnamese people before our chaotic exit? What innate confidence in our own special character leads the U.S. government to try to control a world that does not want to submit to our will and does not believe in our supremacy?”
Regarding Trump, Rhodes says, “the lessons of history are immaterial to his lust for personal aggrandizement and hemispheric [and now global] domination.” Trump’s philosophy of “winning” at all costs has morphed into a horrid political philosophy of might makes right. But for the rest of us, it’s essential to know that the lessons of blind faith in American exceptionalism have been an ongoing problem for decades now. The war in Iran cannot lead to any positive outcome for the U.S. or the world. While it’s unlikely that Trump will acknowledge any of this and pivot to embrace moral leadership and rational diplomacy. On this matter, he’s a lost and broken man. But with the upcoming mid-term elections, the rest of us have an opportunity to start the process of putting an end to this long-running, delusional thinking — or at least curb its worst impulses. We need to focus on building a U.S. Congress with members who have a strong humanistic base and who will honor, support, and strength domestic and international laws for the benefit of all, home and abroad.
We are not special, folks. We Americans are just a collection of humans who are fortunate enough to live, as of this writing, in a democratic nation built on laws that give us the opportunity to live fulfilling lives. And America isn’t really a great nation. We have plenty to celebrate. But we also have plenty of problems — thanks in large part to the increasing anti-democratic policies championed by wealthy and arrogant men who are primarily interested increasing their own wealth at the expense of the rest of us.
To the degree that we have relative power in the world, I think we have an obligation to both get democracy right in our nation and help others in their journeys toward greater freedom and justice. But we don’t have the right to abuse our position of relative strength in the world by unleashing bombs whenever we’re not getting our way with other nations. I’m not saying we need to leave Iran alone. I have no love the Islamic State or for repressive leadership in any nation. But I am saying that dropping of bombs — including on a school full of children — is not a way forward. It’s another damaging display of our misunderstanding of America and its values. It’s an act of arrogance and cruelty. Or maybe just the stupidity built into blind power.
The problem with much that I read these days is that article after article lays out, in great detail, the issues we face — such as this confused notion of American exceptionalism — often without offering a better path forward. I get it. It’s not easy to know how we should act collectively to solve our problems at home and abroad. And I don’t think I have any brilliant answers other than to encourage us all to reflect more deeply on our actions. But I hope it’s clear that, as a minimum, we need better American leadership. We desperately need it. Whatever else we might do on behalf of national and global health and stability, we should also let our elected officials know what we think of the work they are doing or not doing. And this year, we need to elect a new cohort to Congress that fully understands the need for thoughtful, measured, intelligent, historically informed moral leadership that puts a premium on democracy, freedom, and justice.
The job of every elected official should be to serve the greater good. If they can’t do this, they have failed us and the world. I’m holding on to the belief that democracy will return in full in 2028 — and we’ll be back on the road our founding father’s wanted us to follow. But it starts with our daily vigilance now and with a change in Congressional leadership in the midterm elections. A little humility — and letting go of the problematic notion of American exceptionalism — will help in the process.
Peace to you all.
If you’re visiting The New York Review of Books website, you might also read:
Signifying Absolutely Nothing, by Fintan O’Toole
Who Speaks for Us? by Marilynne Robinson