What role did Robert mcNamara play in the decision to escalate us military involvement in Vietnam?

Answer 1

Robert McNamara was Secretary of Defense during the early days of the Vietnam War. Robert McNamara spoke to Congress about the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 and begged Congress to let the United States enter fighting in Vietnam. Before that, the United States involvement was only a teaching mission to teach South Vietnam how to organize and fight North Vietnam.

Answer 2

He was the boss. McNamara was the man that ok'd the new M16 assault rifle for Vietnam; at the time, the M16 was classified by the US Army as a "Jungle Rifle" for use ONLY IN VIETNAM. Not for use in the United States, Europe, or South Korea, or anywhere else. The M14 US service rifle was for use everywhere else (but was also used in Vietnam).

Answer 3

Secretary of Defense. His greatest contribution? You can thank McNamara for the "assault" rifle. It was he that gave the green light for the then newly called "jungle rifle" (AR15/M16) to be tested in South Vietnam in 1962.

Today every country on earth is armed with an assault rifle and it is the most popular rifle in the United States. The enemies AK47 came later in the Vietnam War, and previous to its arrival the communists used the semi-automatic SKS.