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The many decisions made by the policymakers in Washington regarding the War in Vietnam, perhaps America’s greatest foreign policy failure, had many consequences that, though unforeseen, could have been avoided. The main policymakers include: John F. Kennedy, L ....

Middle of Essay
.... counts. The brutalizations that took place, because of the need for a high body count, are among the most atrocious the eyes of the world have ever seen. During the Vietnam War, the body count was the most important statistic to the U.S. Military command. The efforts to quantify the complexities of the war into simple numbers pervaded every aspect of U.S. military presence in Vietnam. Secretary of Defense from 1962-1967, Robert McNamara, did a lot to persuade high-level policymakers that a "win" in Vietnam was just a matter of improving the numbers. The most devastating consequence of this mindset was the great number of Vietnamese civilians kil ....