>> McNamara was responsible for the deaths of 50,000 young Americans <<
I don’t think I’d go so far as to put it that way. I believe McNamara was basically just going along with what LBJ wanted. Let’s put the blame where it really belongs, directly on the head of LBJ. By excoriating McNamara, we let LBJ off too easily.
Now one can plausibly say that McNamara was the archetypical coward because although he eventually came to realize the wrongness of LBJ’s strategy, he didn’t speak against it in public nor did he do the truly honorable thing and resign. But the world is full of cowards, whereas the evil genius of an LBJ is a much rarer phenomenon — and fortunately so.
If someone is a murderer’s accomplice doesn’t that make him a murderer, too?