To wit:
... [A] major element of the election campaign that President Kennedy had just won was the charge by the Democrats, including President Kennedy, that Eisenhower had left a missile gap; that the Soviets had been permitted, by inaction on the part of the U.S., to build up a superior nuclear missile force.
So clearly my first responsibility as Secretary of Defense was to determine the degree of the gap and initiate action to close it. So my deputy Ros[well] Gilpatric and I immediately began to work on that, on January 21st, 1961. And it took us about three weeks to determine [that] yes, there was a gap. But the gap was in our favor. It was a totally erroneous charge that Eisenhower had allowed the Soviets to develop a missile force superior to the U.S.
Now how did it come about? Was President Kennedy lying? No. The problem was that, at that time, there was no unity in our intelligence service.
-- from a CNN interview with Former SecDef Robert McNamara.
Ancient history to some here, perhaps... and what was that about "those who refuse to learn are doomed to repeat..."?