jadis

McNamara is an interesting case because there's a chapter in his memoirs (from what I was told by a friend with knowledge on the subject, haven't read it myself) that gives credence to the controversial "JFK ultimately wanted out of Vietnam" theory. Granted he's an unreliable witness who shifted his political positions many times but there's also nothing about this bit of information that somehow exculpates him in hindsight or makes him look good in any way (if anything the other way around), which is why it's interesting.

"Which US official in this or that administration said what when" is an area where I'm completely out of my depth. But an interesting thing I learned from reading up on the death gasps of the French colonial empire is that

1) JFK was a well-informed and articulate critic of US bankrolling of the French military in Indochina and Algeria even before his election as president, he believed that the European colonial project lost all legitimacy

2) JFK had warm personal relations with a few Third World leaders like Sukarno and Nkrumah. He took those people seriously and had respect for the national liberation movements in those countries because he assumed they would join the capitalist order if you offer them the right conditions. In other words, he had his reservations about the Domino Theory and didn't view the postcolonial countries as Soviet pawns in the making (which is the only way someone like Dulles regarded them). So in that sense it's about much more than Vietnam, where obviously no one doubted the communist presence.