Apparently placing his daughter out of harm's way, Morrison trenched himself with gasoline and set himself on fire. By self-immolation, Morrison denied his family his presence, deprived the rest of us of his intelligence and did not end the war one minute sooner than it otherwise ended. In the greatest of ironies, Morrison is honored in Vietnam. Streets in Hanoi are named after him. The Vietnam War was a stressful time.
Stress can serve to develop and nurture character.
In the case of McNamera and Morrison stress revealed two self-absorbed characters with too little faith in anyone but themselves. McNamera and Morrison were intelligent, perhaps too intelligent. Their only real faith was in themselves. The heroes of Vietnam were people like the other individuals portrayed in Hendrickson's book. These people, who are less interesting because they are not so single-minded and arrogant, are like the rest of us.