Galloway On McNamara: Reading An Obituary With Great Pleasure

McClatchy:

Well, the aptly named Robert Strange McNamara has finally shuffled off to join LBJ and Dick Nixon in the 7th level of Hell.

McNamara was the original bean-counter -- a man who knew the cost of everything but the worth of nothing.

Back in 1990 I had a series of strange phone conversations with McMamara while doing research for my book We Were Soldiers Once And Young. McNamara prefaced every conversation with this: "I do not want to comment on the record for fear that I might distort history in the process." Then he would proceed to talk for an hour, doing precisely that with answers that were disingenuous in the extreme -- when they were not bald-faced lies.

Read the whole story: McClatchy

Comments

[swpeace]

10:23 PM on 07/07/2009

McN. and his war was wrong, any-one who now tries to defend it was either not there or does'nt know some-one who was.

[BlueZoo]

09:31 PM on 07/07/2009

What's wrong with us? I don't care if McNamara was the devil incarnate. He's dead now and he has family who are in mourning! It isn't asking so much to respect the dead. You can argue the politics all year long but, please, have a little consideration and respect!

btw: I have a family member whose name is on the Vietnam Wall! I know the pain! I listened to an ADC scream in his nightmares for a week after coming home. I've friends who never were whole again after their service in Nam. It's been decades and it's time we all move on...

[rovezaleeker]

07:31 PM on 07/07/2009

I'm sorry, I thought that was a picture of David Letterman. Go back to your arguing. I didn't mean to interrupt.

[motoGpifupleez]

06:47 PM on 07/07/2009

I, along with millions in South East Asia will read Kissingers obituary with an equally large smile.

[Tulka2]

01:41 AM on 07/08/2009

The fact that Kissinger walks free and is a sought after television guest is enough to make me know we live in a corrupt empire. My personal apology as an American citizen and kind regards to you.

[motoGpifupleez]

06:46 PM on 07/07/2009

Such a shame he was allowed to go peacefully in his sleep in the comfort of his home at 90+ years of age. Watching his "greatest hits" on 'DemocracyNow!' right now. What a first rate POS.

[Artos]

06:23 PM on 07/07/2009

More people should read world history in America rather than just American or State histories. We might learn more about what actually makes other people tick and why things today are the way they are. In other words the moment in history when someone in power first made a decision that laid the first stone for later issues. For instance Our involvement with Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh didn't just start with Kennedy, it started with Roosevelt during WWII and our deal with Ho. A deal that Truman reneged on, which set the stage for our further desire to inflict abuse upon the Vietnamese. Eisenhower continued the stupidity and Kennedy enlarged upon it which then grew even larger thanks to Johnsons lies. Finally we have Nixon who also thought he could build his reputation with it. One ill advised President after another using poor judgement regardless of Political Party. And still the Vietnamese succeeded in uniting their nation under one flag despite our efforts. Today greedy American Companies and Corporations are shafting Americans so that they can take advantage of the cheap labor to be had in Vietnam. Who one?,The Vietnamese or the Capitalist Warmongers, it's hard to tell.

[OliverTwist]

05:56 PM on 07/07/2009

Every person who is willing to entertain and consider a question like, "Was the Iraq war worth it?" shares in the affliction that corrupted Robert McNamara.

[deeppeace]

05:09 PM on 07/07/2009

He's saving seats in the 7th circle for Cheney and Rumsfeld.

[Blackspeare]

05:07 PM on 07/07/2009

The problem and irony is that he never paid for his deed----he lived a good life. As for burning in Hell----it's a comforting thought, but, alas, there is neither Heaven nor Hell. Life is like a candle----some burn bright and some flicker, but when the flame goes out that's all there is!

[Tulka2]

02:04 AM on 07/08/2009

Perhaps by his negative example, he helped humans evolve away from war....? It's the old Judas argument, isn't it? Who is the real hero in the New Testament? Who is the real hero of the Old Testament.... God or Lucifer? Questions to get one burned at the stake.

[TJCole]

04:52 PM on 07/07/2009

It's not just the 58,000 dead but all those who died inside and 160,000-200,000 of them that committed suicide at last count, and I'm sure many more should be added to that list...

McNamara killed a lot of guys I knew, and destroyed a lot of lives and hopeful futures...but he wasn't alone The CFR and CIA where just as guilty, of all that waste and death and the savagery...

We haven't learned anything from McNamara's mistake, and misjudgment and arrogance not one thing...

"The one thing history teaches, is that man learns nothing from history..!"

Hegel

[HamletsMill]

06:51 PM on 07/07/2009

Sadly, so far it appears this is true. I knew many to. But with the rise of the Internet, things may change. People may actually start to learn. Even in the United States. We can only hope. So it goes.

[damyanky]

10:16 PM on 07/07/2009

Yes, history repeats because people don't pay attention, or they are exhausted by the struggle and just want to forget and laugh again. But we have such better communication now. It's very hard for the evil to conceal their deeds, and the flaying of every politician begins before the polls are even closed. So, be alert! Don't be simply amused by Winkie the Wolf-Wacker; don't just cringe over Sparky the Flagellant; continue to watch out for Karl the Mauve who will ultimately write speeches for the Sarah. Call out the liars of all sorts whenever you see them. Don't let any of it pass. As for McNamara----in love and gratitude for all of our Vietnam vets who continue to suffer physically and mentally----I'm glad he is dead at last.

[twoopeneyes]

03:16 PM on 07/07/2009

Old men always send the young men to die in wars that are later forgotten memories.
No one can remember what they were for.

There still dead though.

[didntvote4thedude]

04:06 PM on 07/07/2009

That's the way it is and that's the way it will always be.
Get over it. Become a general and continue the tradition.

[fredisfred]

05:37 PM on 07/07/2009

It doesn't have to be that way.

[Tulka2]

02:09 PM on 07/08/2009

If you read history, your pov would be less despairing.

When the abolitionists were trying to end slavery, they were told that there were slaves in the Bible, God wanted there to be slaves, there would always be slaves, that was just the way of the world. Oh, there are still slaves today, but no where in the world is slavery legal and that is an amazing human evolutionary step.

While there might always be crazy, individuals who will do mad, destructive things to other humans, we look for the day when war is no longer national policy anywhere on earth. The example of the abolition of slavery is our beacon.

[madtom]

03:01 PM on 07/07/2009

Just a war criminal.

Let's show America's surviving war criminals how they will be treated in death, if we can't imprison them first.

[hypnus]

04:32 PM on 07/07/2009

McNamara was not a war criminal and to put him that category lessens the impact of those who truly are criminal. McNamara was not an evil man, simply a man who was tragically wrong. We “hate” him because we lost and that’s the bottom line. If we had achieved a victory in Vietnam or something on the order of what happened in Korea by the mid 60’s, McNamara would be a foot note in history; hated no more or less , remembered no more or less than, Robert A. Lovett.

[cplKlyde]

04:47 PM on 07/07/2009

The only time mcNamara ever told the truth was during an interview with a documentary film maker he admitted that had the US lost WWII he and Curtis LeMay and others would have been tried as war criminals for his planning of the fire bombing of Toykyo and the killing of 100,000 civlians. He was a filthy war criminal and and you are contemptible for attempting to diminish his crimes.

[HamletsMill]

06:57 PM on 07/07/2009

It sounds like you have neither been in a war or know history. All soldiers end up embittered in both victory or defeat. The sacrifice will always be judged having been too great for what comes after the anguish. Only these who were directly involved in it in some way know. Only they know.

[thromulese]

02:34 PM on 07/07/2009

In the run up to the war in Iraq the McClatchy paper was one of the only ones that said bluntly what a mistake it truly was. This while every other MSM outlet was cheerleading the shock and awe of an illegal war for oil.

Bravo McClatchy.

They have the backbone to speak truth to power. A very rare commodity these days.

[imusintheevening]

05:49 PM on 07/07/2009

well said

[ohiodem250]

01:42 PM on 07/07/2009

Michael Jackson gets a stampede of elephants. Robert McNamara gets public scorn.

Great job, America!

[AuntiepoppyCock]

01:59 PM on 07/07/2009

A poem:

Ashes to ashes
dust to dust
If there is a god in heaven McNamara is in H ELL smelling the devils musk.

[thromulese]

02:45 PM on 07/07/2009

McNamara deserves all the scorn he gets and then some.

He IS a war criminal. there is no comparison to Mr jackson.

[kassandrasduplex]

01:03 PM on 07/07/2009

The difference between McNamara and Kissinger? One was a man with a conscience and one is a psychopath.
McNamara was ordered by LBJ to expand the war and he did what his commander ordered. He regretted it and early. He also was sympathetic to the de-escalation Kennedy was planning but which was cut short prematurely.
Odd, the media heap such scorn on this man and glow over the other nore wicked one.

[Beantownbadboy]

01:23 PM on 07/07/2009

You are not going to get away with that false info you are peddling. It was McNamara ,Secy.of Defense who pushed Johnson to inject more troops in Vietnam. He was a bean counter who thought massive numbers would be the answer. Your revisionist history is wrong.

[apduncan1]

02:18 PM on 07/07/2009

Neither ... Brown & Root (AKA Halliburton) was in charge then and it is in charge now.