Catherine:

…an “insider’s” book, not an outsider assault on the military… The war in Vietnam was not lost in the field, nor was it lost on the front pages of the New York Times or the college campuses. It was lost in Washington, D.C.

I no longer believe that the MSM has the power to lose a war.

I am not familiar with this book. Given your statement that it is an “insider” book, however, keep in mind that our military has developed a very sharp sense of not seeking out scapegoats and will have serious looks at how their performance could have and should have been better.

This is true, also, of our more sucessful corporations and can be found in “insiders” business and management books. Don’t blame the press or the stockholders or “world events” – figure out how and why YOU screwed up and don’t do it again.

Interestingly this same attitude is not present in our analyst/pundit classes. You’ll never find an analysts exploring how he arrived at a bad analysis – there will always be some scapegoat. Same is true of our pundits. Krugman will never revisit his failed analysis and if he does he will sacrifice an entire flock (herd?) of scapegoats to excuse the mistakes he made.