[shove_it]

His middle name was ‘Strange’. He was a real good bean counter. These are the nice things I can think of.

[yarddog]

I remember a phrase: Riddle, Strange but True.

I know Riddle was Jimmy Hoffa and Strange was Mcnamara but can’t recall who had “True” as his middle name.

[DManA]

And he used too much grease in his hair. DANG! That wasn’t a nice thing. Let me go back and think some more. I’ll come up with SOMETHING.

[olrtex]

Maybe, as you say, “he was a real good bean counter,” I don't know. But as you imply, bean counting alone does not count for much. When I served on the USS John F. Kennedy (CVA 67) in the late 1960s, the scuttlebut (and that's all it was) was that the ship had been changed from nuclear powered to oil fueled as a McNamara money-saving measure. You gotta figure that didn't work out too well over the life of the ship (although 1,200-psi steam-which I understand is not possible with nuclear power-does count for something). More importantly, it probably provides additional evidence that McNamara had much more intelligence than he had good judgment. The focus should have been on combat effectiveness more than on cost of fuel.