J.Q. "Tony" Hart, then a chief petty officer assigned to a U.S. Navy relay station in Morocco that handled communications between Washington and the 6th Fleet, remembered listening as Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, in Washington, ordered Rear Adm. Lawrence Geis, commander of the America's carrier battle group, to bring the jets home.
When Geis protested that the Liberty was under attack and needed help, Hart said, McNamara retorted that "President [Lyndon] Johnson is not going to go to war or embarrass an American ally over a few sailors."
I despise McNamara.
So do I... and not only for this, but for his comments in his autobiography, where he stated that they KNEW going in that we could never actually WIN in Vietnam, but they decided to keep that from the President and go to war ANYWAY.
I equally loathe Henry Kissinger... for writing off over 2000 men missing in action, many of whom WERE YET ALIVE, just so he could get his nobel peace prize.
58,000-PLUS of my generation killed and scores of thousands more injured and maimed to NO LEGITIMATE PURPOSE. And a goodly number of them were killed because McNamara pushed that POS M-16 on us that kept jamming in the field and folks found dead after the battle, with their rifles apart, trying to clear jams. You BET I loathe the pair of them.
He is on the piss on his grave list around here.
Bump!