Former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara Dies

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

[DFG]

Former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara has died.

McNamara, 93, died at home in his sleep Monday morning, his wife Diana told The Associated Press. She said he had been in failing health for some time.

Known as a policymaker with a fixation for statistical analysis, McNamara was president of the Ford Motor Co. when President John F. Kennedy asked him to head the Pentagon in 1961.

McNamara worked for seven years as the defense secretary in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, longer than any other person in that post. He headed the war department during the build-up of forces in Vietnam.

He is considered the architect of the concept of "mutual assured destruction," a key feature of the nuclear arms race during the Cold War.

[alice_in_bubbaland]

What about the Sixty thousand killed during the Vietnam war? I hold LBJ and Robert McNamara responsible for the fiasco they created by expanding the war from 1963 to 1969.

No, I will not say “God rest his soul”. Please, read up on your history. Many of us here lived through or fought in the Vietnam war and do not need a lecture!

[Bigun]

“What we still don’t understand is why you Americans stopped the bombing of Hanoi. You had us on the ropes. If you had pressed us a little harder, just for another day or two, we were ready to surrender! It was the same at the battles of TET. You defeated us! We knew it, and we thought you knew it. But we were elated to notice your media w as definitely helping us. They were causing more disruption in America than we could in the battlefields. We were ready to surrender. You had won!”

General Vo Nguyen Giap in his memoirs

[neocon1984]

He and his “Whiz Kid” accountants screwed up the auto business back in the 50’s.

[norraad]

I’m not a vet, but I hate him for what he did to the auto industry, etc., and will be in line with the vets to piss on his grave(aka v.vet.urinal).

[TCats]

Perhaps you should just let it go. 23? You have no idea what this guy did nor are you qualified to ‘Correct’ others who do.

[verity]

Agree.

Good riddance to an arrogant bastard.

[TChris]

Do you think Johnson enjoyed the Viet Nam war ?

That isn't what you asked. You're changing the subject.

Your question was whether or not Johnson loved America. I believe Johnson loved Johnson, first and foremost.

I could go over to DU and read the same comments about Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, and even Reagan.

Yes, you could. But they're wrong.

The important thing isn't whether or not people say bad things about someone, but whether or not those things are true.

we are better than this

Better than what, exactly? Pointing out the truth?

[se_ohio_young_conservative]

The war was a disaster. History says that.

But my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ went to the cross for a reason. and I hope Robert McNamara accepted that gift and is with him in heaven.

we are talking about a human being.

[mad_as_he$$]

Good. I spit on his grave.

[muawiyah]

Knew several of the Project 100,000 guys. All were excellent soldiers ~ biggest problem they had was dyslexia.

[Lazamataz]

Good point. Allow me to rephrase:

“Bad man. Good death. Prayers and condolences to his family.”

Better, no?

[OldMissileer]

...suggested putting odometers on aircraft! True story.

At least we would know how far the aircraft taxied and the length of take-off before wheels up and the roll-out after touchdown! :)

[Costumed Vigilante]

Fortunately, this will not interfere with his ability to vote Democrat.

A verbis ad verbera

[muawiyah]

McNamara never felt pain. Part of his problem too.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

He was the father of the Ford Falcon.

[gogeo]

One of the “Whiz Kids.”

[mad_as_he$$]

Reading Giap’s book made me sick. We had them beat after Tet and we folded up and went home. Cost South Vietnam I do not know haw many lives.

[gorilla_warrior]

McNamara was obtuse, megalomaniacal, arrogant. He suffered from smartest-kid-in-class myopia and bullheadedness. But the lying, the deception, the dishonesty, and the toadying to LBJ are what put him in the criminal class. I am thankful that I forgot he was still alive all this time. It shows that maybe I am beginning to get over what that horrible generation did to us. Now that the last of them are finally going away I can think about other things, like finding a country where I can be free again.

[iopscusa]

I would add Theodore Roosevelt to Goldwater list of the most dishonest men.

[Kandy]

Just as today, with TOTUS and his chosen thugs, the Peter Principle applied as well back then.