Former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara Dies

foxnews.com ^ | 07/06/09 | Staff

[Right Wing Assault]

The Giap quote appears to ba an urban legend.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1941710/posts?q=1&;page=51

While various Vietnamese may have said things things similar to parts of this quote, so far, no one has been able to find this quote in anything General Giap or Colonel Bui Tin (or anyone else) have said or written.

[mad_as_he$$]

I have seen Giap interviewed on I think the Military Channel. It was a show about the Art of War and how he used it plan Tet. He did not say exactly that we had them beat after Tet (which would seem to be an admission he would not make in public) but that we had the "advantage". If you study Tet it is clear that the North's troops blew it when they killed the nuns and a few thousand other "civilians". They lost support from the people who had been feeding them info and then were strung out with no food or weapons moving. That is the actual reason Tet was a failure for a NV perspective.

I am sure that the show will be on again I recommend it to everyone. The Art of War is very important in the current situation. 0 clearly does not understand it and that is his weakness.

I also recommend everyone read Giap's book. It is a great insight into Asian military thinking.

[MeekOneGOP]

bump, Phil !!

[Portcall24]

As a former BUFF radar navigator we knew how to end the war in weeks. Bomb the Red River dikes, flood the entire country.

There's few things in life that an Arc Light can't solve!

[dools007]

Good riddance to this elitist fool. 30 years after Vietnam, the scum had the audacity to say that he doubted the success of the very war he executed under Kennedy and Johnson.

So, even as he doubted, he continued to send American soldiers into harm’s way. What a guy. What a redemption.

Then, 40 odd years later, a guy names Rumsfeld tries to fight the same kind of minimalist war under Bush. History repeated—again.

Both McNamara and Rumsfeld were/are elitist idiots who knew nothing about war and learned nothing about war.

[rbg81]

Well, I thought “The Reckoning” was top notch. It had the advantage of not being politically charged. Can’t vouch for his other stuff as I never read them.

[CodeToad]

Just kidding, man, just kidding.

[mckenzie7]

Your post 268 says it all for me.

Just think (maybe that is too painful)of the damage that all of these incompetents under Obama and Obama himself will create.

[RetiredArmy]

I’ll look for it at books cost a million or barney rubbles! :-)

[riverdawg]

“... not one word about his time at the World Bank.”

His tenure as President of the World Bank was as disastrous in its own way as his time as SecDef. Untold billions of dollars were thrown down the rat holes comprising so-called “developing countries” without any measurable improvements in the lives of ordinary people. However, the international-aid pimps and the recipient-nations’ dictators and their cronies did quite well.

[riverdawg]

“The man was ... a technocrat who might serve as an adequate technical advisor but who was way out of his depth as a commander.”

This is almost exactly what I said to a friend this morning during a conversation about McNamara. It's like giving an organization's bean counter responsibility for major policy decisions.

[KTM rider]

wasn't "'ol bombs away bob" involved in the bay of pigs and the cuban missle crisis ?

the Gulf of tonkin ?

and the godfather of M.A.D. hysteria ?

[angcat]

Can you recommend some reading on the war that is truth. I would love to check it out.

[stan_sipple]

“Dereliction of Duty” by Col McMaster is excellent

[stan_sipple]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dereliction_of_Duty_(1998_book) “Colonel H.R. McMaster, 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, wrote Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, The Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies that Led to Vietnam. The book took 5 years to research and was completed in 1997 as a part of McMaster’s Ph.D. thesis at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Much of the book details the lies and manipulation perpetrated by Robert McNamara and U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s staff who were more concerned with political victories in the US, than military victories in South Vietnam. In his opinion, the military, particularly the Joint Chiefs of Staff, offered little to no help in charting a successful plan of action to pacify a Viet Cong insurgency in the south, nor did they provide a coherent set of military objectives to be attained against the North Vietnamese Army (NVA), Viet Cong (VC), or any of the military and political infrastructure north of the 19th parallel.”

[discostu]

The stupidity of those that appointed McNamara (or Obama) doesn’t forgive his own stupidity. Primary blame for any screw always must go to the up-screwer, the enablers get some too, but they were just enablers they didn’t actually do the dumb deed.

[shredderman]

Only for the Air Force,...not the Navy, as it was also supposed to be for. The idea for a single aircraft to do the same duties ashore as at sea is a ludicris idea at best, and that debacle showed it in spades. At least it gave some good ideas to Grumman for the F-14’s systems. It was too heavy a beast to get off the deck, even before putting on weapon systems..........

[colorado tanker]

There is an excellent piece in today’s Journal editorial page about this guy. Bottom line is Ike was the wise man and super-intelligent McNamara was the fool. Of course, that’s not how today’s government and media see it, because they have the same disease as Mac.

[shredderman]

You and me both........

[angcat]

Thank you

I seem to recall the same title pertaining to a Bill Clinton book also?