US News
OBITUARY: Vilified for Vietnam, McNamara became his own critic
By Mike McCarthy Jul 6, 2009, 16:44 GMT
Washington - Robert McNamara, the former US defence secretary who died Monday, will be long remembered as the architect of the Vietnam War, but also for his tireless efforts in his later years to speak candidly about the mistakes that led to one of the worst foreign policy blunders in American history.
McNamara died at his home in Washington at the age of 93 after his health rapidly deteriorated, the Washington Post reported, citing members of his family.
Robert Strange McNamara left a lucrative job as the head of Ford Motor Company to become then president John F Kennedy's defence secretary in 1961, and shortly thereafter played a key role in two crises: The Bay of Pigs, the failed CIA-backed invasion of Cuba, and later the Cuban Missile Crisis.
At the same time, he was advising Kennedy to increase the role of the United States and would later do the same when Lyndon Johnson took over the White House following the death of his predecessor. The escalation would later evolve into one of the worst wars in US history that claimed the lives of nearly 60,000 US soldiers and left a nation badly divided.
The conflict in Vietnam would later be dubbed 'McNamara's War' and he became the peace movement's top villain. McNamara was famous for his penchant for strict quantitative analysis to measure progress, which allowed him to turn around Ford.
But that approach became the focus of critics who alleged the statistical analysis used by McNamara to publicly argue the Americans were winning in Vietnam did not reflect the realities of war in Vietnam's jungles.
McNamara, the longest serving defence secretary ever, would later say that towards the end of his tenure he had begun to have deep reservations about the course of the war and advised Johnson to begin exploring peace negotiations.
Johnson, who had once held McNamara in the highest esteem, began to differ with his defence secretary on the best way forward, and by 1968 the president had shown McNamara the door with an appointment to head the World Bank, a job McNamara stayed in until 1981.
McNamara then focused his effort on helping developing countries, massively expanding the size of the World Bank and its capacity to issue loans during his 13-year tenure.
Despite his success, McNamara could not escape the ghosts of Vietnam.
McNamara generally refused to discuss the war after he left the Pentagon. He dodged questions about it during interviews, often saying his feeling about the conflict were personal and should remain private.
But he later changed his mind. In 1995, he published a controversial memoir called In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam. In the book, where he admits 'we were terribly wrong,' McNamara provided a candid account of the closed-door decision making that dragged the United States into the conflict.
In the preface, McNamara explained why he chose to go public with the book:
'We of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations who participated in the decisions on Vietnam acted according to what we thought were the principles and traditions of this nation. We made our decisions in light of those values. Yet we were wrong, terribly wrong. We owe it to future generations to explain why.'
McNamara would also become a critic of future military conflicts. He warned against the first Gulf War in 1991, and sharply criticized former president George W Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq.
In the years since his memoir, he organized seminars to discuss Vietnam, after including other key players in the policy and met with his Vietnamese counterparts. He further outlined the fallacies of war decision making in the 2003 award-winning documentary The Fog of War.
McNamara is survived by his second wife, Diana, whom he married in 2004. His first wife, Margaret, died in 1981 of cancer. They had three children together.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
1) we had them beat and then left before we were done
2) 2.2 million people died afterwards, from forced starvation, work camps, ethnic cleansing, etc.
Because we all know you are a liar and make up things, please reference where you got both of these outrageous statements:
'1) we had them beat and then left before we were done'
When did we have them beat?
'2) 2.2 million people died afterwards, from forced starvation, work camps, ethnic cleansing, etc.'
Please reference where you got this, I think that again you are a liar and made this figure up.
if SP4 prefers his fairy tales to reality,it really doesn't matter much at all.Didn't he cvaim there were WMD in Iraq,so what else to expect from a lunatic .Soon the entire GOP will fit in one single cuckoo's nest.
just like the Iraq war
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HODxnUrFX6k
Hard to mourn a world-class blood encrusted war criminal.
We killed hundreds of thousands who were no danger to us.
Yes indeed, he was truly an evil guy. After admitting that he knew from the beginning that the war was a mistake, how could you see him a anything other than a dreadful person with the blood of thousands on his hands. I surprised he didn't get a Nobel Peace Prize like Kissinger or Arafat. Good riddance to a monster relic.....And no, 'we' didn't learn a thing from Vietnam. Even though it has been common practice to compare every conflict to the Vietnam War, it is just a moronic observation usually to no conclusion.
The only thing we should have learned from this conflict and it's place in history is that people and collectively governments, are inherently, actively, ignorant.
...there are publications indicating at least two million died in the persecutions, the additional ten years of war (Cambodia), the ethnic cleansing of the Montagnards, Laotions, 'guest workers' sent to Siberia to build the Trans-Siberian Pipeline. Heck, I've read stuff, over the last 25 years reaching four million, but doubt those numbers, and their content. Nonetheless, this was the result of letting the North have it's way, after we'd virtually brought them to a standstill, and forced an armistace upon them.
Just think of what Vietnam could be today, an economic miricle like S. Korea, a world industrial player, and all those who died in the gulags, in the protracted war with their neighbors, the ethnic minorities killed all saved. Furthermore, with a presence there, it would be unlikely the holocaust in Cambodia would have ever happened.
This of course, would be a good study for someone like you, were you to quit wanking to the Jonas brothers website, but I have my doubts. Far eaiser to rank others posts as opposed to making a contribution of your own, eh? No monkeyboy, I suppose not.
Really?
'...there are publications indicating at least two million died in the persecutions, the additional ten years of war (Cambodia), the ethnic cleansing of the Montagnards, Laotions, 'guest workers' sent to Siberia to build the Trans-Siberian Pipeline. Heck, I've read stuff, over the last 25 years reaching four million, but doubt those numbers, and their content. Nonetheless, this was the result of letting the North have it's way, after we'd virtually brought them to a standstill, and forced an armistace upon them.
Really liar? If there are hundreds please back up your 'Vietnam' quote with one of these. Remember you said Vietnam, Cambodia was an entire different internal conflict. Some back please, #1 liar.
'Just think of what Vietnam could be today, an economic miricle like S. Korea, a world industrial player, and all those who died in the gulags, in the protracted war with their neighbors, the ethnic minorities killed all saved. Furthermore, with a presence there, it would be unlikely the holocaust in Cambodia would have ever happened.'
Have you been there liar? I know the answer is no, you are too stupid to experience the world. You are too stupid to understand that Cambodia is entirely different than Vietnam. Vietnam is thriving idiot, check things out before you spout your stupid mouth out, then you would quit looking so stupid---oops I doubt that.
'This of course, would be a good study for someone like you, were you to quit wanking to the Jonas brothers website, but I have my doubts. Far eaiser to rank others posts as opposed to making a contribution of your own, eh? No monkeyboy, I suppose not.'
God your stupid. Just because someone questions your lies you think they are kids. How stupid you are, and quite the liar. My 'contribution' is to call you on your lies, which is easy. You know how I can tell you are a liar, you are speaking. Now get some proof of some of these outrageous statements---Vietnam idiots stick.
...monkey boy, if you disagree with me, use that razor sharp insight to prove me wrong. Please, I'd love to know. Tell us, for example, how prosperous Vietnam is, after their ethnic cleansing, their trips to the Gulag, etc. Heck, they might be..I mean until you compare them to someone like Taiwan or S. Korea Go ahead monkey boy, be the man, show us what you've got. Better than being the bitch you are.
I swear, monkey boy, you are as useless as a tits on a bull.
Here is, after an extensivce search (one googling!) the intro from a U of H archived piece. Now after this, do you think you can manage to do your own research, just once?
Once again, my stats are reinforced i.e. an estimate of 3.8 million, higher than the 2.2 million referred to earlier, although I have issues with the 3.8 million number, too.
Now run along and inform yourself. Remember, you cannot find this info on the Jonas Brothers Website.
STATISTICS OF DEMOCIDE
Chapter 6
Statistics Of
Vietnamese Democide
Estimates, Calculations, And Sources*
By R.J. Rummel
Perhaps of all countries, democide in Vietnam and by Vietnamese is most difficult to unravel and assess. It is mixed in with six wars spanning 43 years (the Indochina War, Vietnam War, Cambodian War, subsequent guerrilla war in Cambodia, guerrilla war in Laos, and Sino-Vietnamese War), one of them involving the United States; a near twenty-one year formal division of the country into two sovereign North and South parts; the full communization of the North; occupation of neighboring countries by both North and South; defeat, absorption, and communization of the South; and the massive flight by sea of Vietnamese. As best as I can determine, through all this close to 3,800,000 Vietnamese lost their lives from political violence, or near one out of every ten men, women, and children.1 Of these, about 1,250,000, or near a third of those killed, were murdered.
Your statements do not match the truth. You are a liar.
The quote that you posted says 'Of these, about 1,250,000, or near a third of those killed, were murdered'. That is not what you said liar.
how much time this SP character devotes to this site and the long (supposedly) researches he does on any topic. Apparently not much of a life.
....I guess you'd have to define 'murder' in the context of Vietnam. Honestly, your father must be dying to trade you up for a real pet monkey...
yeah, about thirty seconds on the Internet....god, that's an eternity....
that neither one of us spelled it correctly for one thing, and who are you kidding about 30 seconds on the Internet? Although no one really cares.
he calls himself SP4---he cannot spell his own name.
...it's a tough job doing research these days....all those internet searches...heck...we had to use a library...
God you must be proud SP4 to be the oldest (and of course the most ignorant) POS on this site? And you actually made it through a comment without a misspelled word.
...we adults don't reward what is supposed to be the standard, only exceptional performance. Now run along, the short bus is leaving.
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The big question is...Jul 6th, 2009 - 18:02:44
did we learn from that horrific mistake?
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