Robert S. McNamara, RIP: The architect of the Vietnam War finds peace

The Washington Times ^ | July 7, 2009 | Editorial

[Abakumov]

Mr. McNamara's last day at the Pentagon was a comedy of errors. A grand farewell ceremony was planned on the lawn near the river entrance, and thousands assembled in the freezing rain. Meanwhile, the elevator taking Mr. Johnson, Mr. McNamara and 11 others jammed between floors, and they were stuck for 15 minutes. "What's wrong with this thing?" the president asked. "Don't ask me," Mr. McNamara replied, "I don't work here anymore."

[South40]

Someone flush the bastard before he resurfaces.

[Jackson57]

I know there a thousands of Viet Nam vets drinking beer and holding their bladders so they can go p*$$ on his grave. He’s responsible for thousands of those names on the Wall in DC.

[conservative cat]

Since I was born in the 70’s, I didn’t quite know all about Vietnam (other than taught by lib teachers). My dad served two tours, and somehow McNamara came up in conversation one day. I quickly found out how passionate my normally calm father got about HIM!

[packrat35]

Well I’m not going to say anything good about him so I’ll say nothing.

[South40]

There is nothing good to say.

[Kansas58]

I was in Marine Boot Camp in 1977.
Ya, I know, but I joined to show a cousin that I was proud of his service, in Vietnam, as well as to see if I could cut it.
Even though Drill Instructors are supposed to avoid politics, the name McNamara came up, and I swear I thought Senior Drill Instructor Gunnery Sargent Ward would explode, his face got so red and he was so angry.
“Body Count” was a McNamara idea.
It was stupid, of course. Yes, people have to die, in any war, but you WIN wars by taking GROUND, and by making it impossible for your enemy to fight back.
Getting into a population war, with Asian countries, was a very stupid idea.

So much for the Ivy League brains who think they are so damn smart!

[Jan Hus]

You got that right Brother!

[Jackson57]

I doubt that you’d find a single VN vet that has anything but disdain for McNamara. And you’re right, liberals have rewritten history about that war. John Kerry even referred to it as “Mr. Nixon’s war”, when it was completely Kennedy and Johnson.

[babygene]

“Robert S. McNamara, RIP: The architect of the Vietnam War finds peace”

Doubt if it’s peace he funds...

[Squantos]

This POS stood before a judge whose ass he can’t kiss or bullshit today.

He is hopefully burning in hell right now if I get to vote.

[Nam Vet]

I'll reserve comment. That bastard better not be planted anywhere near Arlington.

Nam Vet

[CardeadInKy]

No RIP for this elitist liberal know-it-all. He will go straight to hell, because there are 50K plus guards to heaven that would never allow him, Johnson, Kennedy's, or their other We-know-how-to-run-a-war better than the military high command.

Obama will also have his butt kicked to hell also.

67-68 VN Vet

[randomhero97]

I would like to call my dad and uncle to see if they heard the news but I don't want to lose my hearing from being screamed at in the phone.

I have never seen two normally calm men get worked up over a name. My dad told me Westmoreland was pretty much "handcuffed" throughout the whole war.

[Nosterrex]

Having served in the Navy during Vietnam, I have no love for McNamara and LBJ. These two are responsible for the deaths of thousands of military personnel by their belief that they were smarter than anyone else on the face of the earth. Their arrogance cost the United States dearly. We have another arrogant commander in chief that is presently serving in the White House.

[imahawk]

Its a shame that General Westmoreland didnt live a few more years to see this POS go first.

[gigster]

Remember that J. F’in Kerry was in Cambodia in 1968,on a secret mission from the then-President, R.M. Nixon.
He remembers this as if it was yesterday.
Wait a moment,1968,Richard Nixon, Cambodia.
Nevermind.

I was having a couple of beers with my buddy, Frenchy, today, and McNamaras’ name came up.
My pal had worked at Ford Motor Company before joining the U.S.M.C, in 66’.
He was there, and said that Robert McNamara was universally despised by the men who were In-Country.
McNamara didn’t do sh!t while he was at Ford, either.

[llevrok]

he couldn’t die soon enough, in my book.

[dcwusmc]

Good riddance. He was a truly loathsome creature. Between him and Henry Kissinger, I really don’t know who I despise more: McNamara for getting us into that war and binding our hands so we were not ALLOWED to win (and then pushing “Project 100,000” on the services to FURTHER mess things up), or Kissinger for writing off over 2,000 of my brothers (the MIAs) just so he could get his f&^*ing Nobel Peace Prize. I can’t wait until Henry the K takes HIS dirt nap.

(Oh, and Bobby gave us that abomination known as the M-16. And his autobiography says that the “Whiz Kids” KNEW there was no way we could win in Vietnam, but we went in ANYWAY. What an utterly abominable piece of excrement!!!)

[sushiman]

Robert S. McNamara . Know what the S stands for ? No , not that , STRANGE . No joke .

[lewislynn]

He also screwed up the Ford Thunderbird when he made it a 4 seater.

[dcwusmc]

Yes, you’re absolutely correct. You win the Kewpie Doll! (And he sure lived up to that name, didn’t he?!?!?!)

[Daaave]

McNamara "told Time magazine in 1991 that he did not think the bombing of North Vietnam — the biggest bombing campaign in history up to that time — would work but he went along with it "because we had to try to prove it would not work, number one, and (because) other people thought it would work."

"...in 1995. McNamara disclosed that by 1967 he had deep misgivings about Vietnam — by then he had lost faith in America's capacity to prevail over a guerrilla insurgency that had driven the French from the same jungled countryside.

Despite those doubts, he had continued to express public confidence that the application of enough American firepower would cause the Communists to make peace. In that period, the number of U.S. casualties — dead, missing and wounded — went from 7,466 to over 100,000.

legacy.com

[BIGLOOK]

Too bad MacNamara didn’t live long enough to see his epitaph.

[UnwashedPeasant]

Died in his sleep? How very sad.

Should have been at teh end of a rope.

[DakotaRed]

I have no tears for McNamara.

I think it tragic that over 58,000 of my brothers and sisters dies long before he did and because of his mismanagement of a war he later said he knew all along as unwinnable.

Fortunately for him, God is his judge, not me.

[sushiman]

Dittos ! The bastard !

[ComputerGuy]

I wonder where his grave is going to be.
I just might stop off and relieve myself.

[Luke21]

He was not much of a human being. My late father, also a vet hated his and Lyndon Johnson’s guts equally.

[lentulusgracchus]

My dad told me Westmoreland was pretty much "handcuffed" throughout the whole war.

That was LBJ who did that. He was a mega-mega-metaphysical control freak. He was such a big control freak, Bill Moyers is still controlled by LBJ 40 years later!

Even Molly Ivins, as lefty as they get, called LBJ "a miserable human being". He was truly loathesomeness incarnate. Hell flared up like the Chicago fire when he died.

LBJ, McNamara, Henry the K, Ellsworth Bunker, William Bundy (the Gollum of the Johnson Administration), those guys were all real prizes.

By comparison, Dick Nixon looks positively human. Oh, and in his spare time, McNamara screwed up the F-111, the Edsel, and the World Bank. Damn, he smart.

[Kozak]

Not just the body count.
He also micromanaged the Air War in his “Harvahd” way. Charts and graphs about bomb tonnage, sorties etc.
NO bombing NV airfields and taking out their air force on the ground. Refused to let the commanders use their initiative in destroying the enemy. Idiot.

[Jimmy Valentine]

"McNamara didn’t do sh!t while he was at Ford, either."

Possibly you are forgetting his great contribution to the development of the Edsel?

[gigster]

Re: The Edsel.
That’s just what my buddy, who worked at Ford then, said.

[investigateworld]

This POS stood before a judge whose ass he can’t kiss or bullshit today. He is hopefully burning in hell right now if I get to vote.

The bean counting Sonnofabitc-- has eternity to reflect on his evil.

[Squantos]

At least the Heros that went to Heaven don’t have to dwell with him.....

[squirt]

I will piss on his grave one day.