I think the human race needs to think about killing. How much evil must we do to do good?

I don't object to its being called "McNamara's war." I think it is a very important war and I am pleased to be identified with it and do whatever I can to win it.

Neither conscience nor sanity itself suggests that the United States is, should or could be the global gendarme.

That's one of the major lessons: no president should ever take this nation to war without full public debate in the Congress and/or in the public.

I think the human race needs to think about killing. How much evil must we do to do good?

Rationality will not save us.

I formed the hypothesis that each of us could have achieved our objectives without the terrible loss of life. And I wanted to test that by going to Vietnam.