In the end success is all that matters. Rumsfeld opposed the plan that brought ultimate success. That’s what he’ll be remembered for. I could probably find things that MacNamara did that were good but it won’t change history’s judgement of his failure.
When I said Rummy didn’t listen to his Generals, you know what I meant. Having someone in and letting them bend your ear for a few minutes then ignoring what they say doesn’t constitute listening.
No, I disagree. Success is not all that matters, when we can look back at it after the fact.
If that were true, Admiral Nimitz would have never made it to flag officer rank because he was the Commanding Officer of a destroyer that went aground when he was a young officer. But someone made a decision back then that went against the prevailing wisdom, that the Captain is is always going to be culpable in a grounding.
When you say “He didn’t listen to his generals” that explicitly means he ignored them.
He did no such thing. I don’t know anything about you or what you do for a living, but I find it hard to believe you can make a statement like that while at the same time, understanding the duality of responsibility and the decision making process.
I just spent a year and a half of my life engrossed in installing a system that could directly affect the lives of thousands of people. Hundreds of my co-workers use this system as their primary tool to deliver care to patients, and if I made a subtle mistake in the way I implemented this, I could contribute directly to the death of a patient.
There were occasions where I was making dozens of decisions a day. I had to meet with and get the advice and input of many people in order to make the right choice, and often many of these people knew a lot more about certain aspects of issues than I did.
But it was not a democracy. I did not take a vote and the majority won. There were times I made a decision to go in a particular direction against the advice of people. Not because I was right and they were wrong, but because I was selected to do this job because I had to be the one to tie it together.
That was Rumsfeld’s responsibility to his President.
And by the way, McNamara WAS a failure, and would have been even if we succeeded in Vietnam.
Rumsfeld was NOT a failure. He coordinated and was largely responsible for one of the most efficient and overwhelming military victories with the smallest number of casualties in history.