McNamara's Evil Lives On
Why not speak ill of the dead?
Robert McNamara, who died this week, was a complex man -- charming even, in a blustery way, and someone I found quite thoughtful when I interviewed him. In the third act of his life he was often an advocate for enlightened positions on world poverty and the dangers of the nuclear arms race. But whatever his better nature, it was the stark evil he perpetrated as secretary of defense that must indelibly frame our memory of him.
To not speak out fully because of respect for the deceased would be to mock the memory of the millions of innocent people McNamara caused to be maimed and killed in a war that he later freely admitted never made any sense. Much has been made of the fact that he recanted his support for the war, but that came 20 years after the holocaust he visited upon Vietnam was over.
Is holocaust too emotionally charged a word? How many millions of dead innocent civilians does it take to qualify labels like holocaust, genocide or terrorism? How many of the limbless victims of his fragmentation bombs and land mines whom I saw in Vietnam during and after the war? Or are America's leaders always to be exempted from such questions? Perhaps if McNamara had been held legally accountable for his actions, the architects of the Iraq debacle might have paused.
Instead, McNamara was honored with the Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon Johnson, to whom he had written a private memo nine months earlier offering this assessment of their Vietnam carnage: "The picture of the world's greatest superpower killing or seriously injuring 1,000 noncombatants a week, while trying to pound a tiny backward nation into submission on an issue whose merits are hotly disputed, is not a pretty one."
He knew it then, and, give him this, the dimensions of that horror never left him. When I interviewed him for the Los Angeles Times in 1995, after the publication of his confessional memoir, his assessment of the madness he had unleashed was all too clear:
"Look, we dropped three to four times the tonnage on that tiny little area as were dropped by the Allies in all of the theaters in World War II over a period of five years. It was unbelievable. We killed -- there were killed -- 3,200,000 Vietnamese, excluding the South Vietnamese military. My God! The killing, the tonnage -- it was fantastic. The problem was that we were trying to do something that was militarily impossible -- we were trying to break the will; I don't think we can break the will by bombing short of genocide."
We -- no, he -- couldn't break their will because their fight was for national independence. They had defeated the French and would defeat the Americans who took over when French colonialists gave up the ghost. The war was a lie from the first. It never had anything to do with the freedom of the Vietnamese (we installed one tyrant after another in power), but instead had to do with our irrational Cold War obsession with "international communism." Irrational, as President Richard Nixon acknowledged when he embraced détente with the Soviet communists, toasted China's fierce communist Mao Tse-tung and then escalated the war against "communist" Vietnam and neutral Cambodia.
It was always a lie and our leaders knew it, but that did not give them pause. Both Johnson and Nixon make it quite clear on their White House tapes that the mindless killing, McNamara's infamous body count, was about domestic politics and never security.
The lies are clearly revealed in the Pentagon Papers study that McNamara commissioned, but they were made public only through the bravery of Daniel Ellsberg. Yet when Ellsberg, a former Marine who had worked for McNamara in the Pentagon, was in the docket facing the full wrath of Nixon's Justice Department, McNamara would lift not a finger in his defense. Worse, as Ellsberg reminded me this week, McNamara threatened that if subpoenaed to testify at the trial by Ellsberg's defense team, "I would hurt your client badly."
Not as badly as those he killed or severely wounded. Not as badly as the almost 59,000 American soldiers killed and the many more horribly hurt. One of them was the writer and activist Ron Kovic, who as a kid from Long Island was seduced by McNamara's lies into volunteering for two tours in Vietnam. Eventually, struggling with his mostly paralyzed body, he spoke out against the war in the hope that others would not have to suffer as he did (and still does). Meanwhile, McNamara maintained his golden silence, even as Richard Nixon managed to kill and maim millions more. What McNamara did was evil -- deeply so.
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
Much was made of out of the My Lai massacre. That kind of stuff was happening almost every day. My brother and many of my close friends were there and wrote running accounts of the atrocities. Somehow Americans are always shocked to hear of the horrors of wars, the lies that are told, the Big Daddy Warbucks stories of unlimited riches for those war profiteers, yet Americans are like mute animals as they are herded around by the mass media to vote for war.
Being patriotic is supporting our constitutional government from usurpers. Most of these come from within and they are not communists. Our sold-out politicians are like a vast comedy except that the suffering they cause is real; they aren't. They are either ignorant or lying. McNamara is an example of a statistician who lied about war with numbers. That was his job.
Again, we need more whistleblowers, not more secrecy in the name of national security. Was losing 60,000 servicemen and women security? Whistleblowers need to be able to bring qui tam lawsuits on behalf of taxpayers and have immunity from being prosecuted.
Once Ellsberg blew the whistle, the cat was out of the bag. Ellsberg took the heat. McNamara finally corroborated the narrative that the anti-war movement had put forth but not until 1998. When Ellsberg faced a treason charge, his life was virtually destroyed. Judge Matt Byrne, a Republican, finally dismissed the charges. Today, Ellsberg would be quietly silenced as a terrorist, no doubt.
Nixon resigned after Watergate, but the war continued until 1975.
Watergate wasn't enough, however, and nether was the fiasco in Vietnam. The same group behind both pushed on into Iran/Contra, the Savings and Loan bailouts, right up into the present wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and maybe Iran. The present economic crisis is a reflection of the same process. It is a disease that threatens our constitution.
Our country is crumbling under a blanket of fraud by those who claim to protect us. We need a war crimes department to put the brakes on this killing-for-dollars crew. Banks love to lend money to governments for wars and defense contractors make a killing every time.
Late confessions do nothing to prevent further "evil" in real time. It is rather a kind of self-exoneration rather than redeeming the gross injustices of the past in a meaningful way. Could McNamara not anticipate in real time that bombs we were dropping on the “tiny little” Vietnam would ultimately be " three to four times the tonnage … as were dropped by the Allies in all of the theaters in World War II over a period of five years?” Did he not know the extent of the human casualties the ongoing war was causing on both sides?
It seems to me that one of the root causes of our people in general and public officials in especial not being as truthful as they should is by consciously or subconsciously relying on the Fifth Amendment's, "No person shall be ... compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself," and thus an individual's right against self-incrimination and the "I take the Fifth" statement to avoid telling the truth. Perhaps the Fifth Amendment should be re-phrased so that it would apply exclusively and only to criminals in danger of being forced to make confessions that have no basis in reality.
It is very difficult to forget, for example, our past presidents looking directly at the cameras and telling the nation that they had done nothing wrong and detrimental to the well-being of our of society. McNamara spoke when it was safe for him to speak.
Mr. Sheer, I am being a bit redundant in may of these McNamara rants. Who teaches what to these "elite" in Harvard, Yale and Princeton? Why do these "chosen" ones keep "leading" this country into these horrific scenarios. We are in two idiotic wars and numerous drug interdiction murderous imbroglios throughout the world NOW. WHAT are the future elite dweebs being fed in these dens of regurgitation in the present. We are not looking for the Michael Jackson of Vietnam here. It is not about personalities, if so, the problem dies with the vilified war star. Find the source! The murder and the economic turmoil continues until some bubble head brings the universities out of the 19th century.
and what about nixon and kissinger????? the war did not end when mcnamara was out of the cabinet.. thousands more americans were killed in vietnam and thousands of vietnamese too.. remember nixon had a plan to end the war when he was elected in 1968 . only he was lying and kissinger complimented him on his courage to defy the protesters and keep the war going. they share
a great deal of the blame too.. at least mcnamara admited that he was wrong...
"The one thing history teaches, is that man learns nothing from history..!
Hegel...
Read "An Enormous Crime" to learn the tragic story of hundreds of American's abandoned in Southeast Asia after the end of the war.
McNamara lied to LBJ, Congress, and the US public in order to pursue a policy of war.
McNamara lied to LBJ about Tonkin Gulf 'incident'
by Gareth Porter
http://raw
I agree with you.
If McNamara had a conscious, he would have returned the Medal of Freedom, awarded to him by President Lyndon Johnson, after he wrote "In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam" back in 1995. Considering that in the 1970's, angry Veterans tossed their awards. Maybe some lesson would have been learned, by his actions not by his writing a book. Too late.
Also, let's not forget, his arrogance. He still remains the longest serving Secretary of Defense in U.S. History. How's that for overbearing pride. The man spent almost the entire decade of the 1960's as Secretary of Defense. Considering, he turned down President John F. Kennedy's initial offer to serve as Secretary of Treasury. He had no problem accepting and becoming Secretary of Defense, although having very little knowledge of government bureaucracy, and of Defense matters, particularly, in the height of the Cold War.
McNamara had no conscious. Maybe his biggest punishment was living till 93, and reliving his actions, in his mind. Again, that's assuming he had a conscious. What a Tragedy.
McNamara wrote his memoir in the hopes that "we would never make the same mistake." Then he sat in silence as we proceeded to make exactly the same mistake in Iraq.
During the good old days of the cold war, we would have to work with some of the worst dictators and leaders in the world. Any one that aligned themselves with organized labor in these countries, especially in the third world like Africa, was usually instantly spun to the extreme by their domestic security services, with the banner of the cold used at the sloppiest and quickest pretense. Probably some of the most horrific and terrible crimes occurred to these people (even though they were trying to fight for the same principles we claim to hold dear and universal) so we could be the freest and safest country on earth. Some people would swallow anything for the greater good but they should never call themselves American.
The profit center called Vietnam, was the direct result of the failure of Americans to heed the dire waring Eisenhower proffered in 59. and to break the grip of greed and remove the "revolving door" between the penta gone and the M.I.C.
Every war and conflict since, including the "cold war" have been mass marketed to the citizenry for the sole benefit of the oil/weapons barons and financiers of WAR!
One clean sweep will one day stop these criminals from carnage policy for profit.
When the citizens of this Nation and others finally cut the connection between the masters of the universe and elected and hoped to be elected representatives, we will only then have true representational government.
Clean elections means honest governance. $$$$$$$$ still is the root of all evil!
As a vietnam era ex-marine, I see a Deja Vu in Iraq today, as in vietnam era we were told if we did not stop them there, a domino effect would occur with communism spreading everywhere, and we also have committed another mistake supporting a regime, leaders whom the people do not support, and are only proped up with our soldiers and military might at a cost of lost lives, maimed lives, of our citizens, and a bankrupting effect on economy! Historians will write of those who drove us into this middle east mistake as very similiar to those in the vietnam era! I venture to say all those whom fail to repent prior to their deaths whom created all this earthly horror, and blood shed, will find a sad moment in facing jesus and him not knowing them, I cannot venture whether this late deceased man repented sincerely or not, that truly is up to jesus and god, fortunately for us all man does not determine whom gets the pass to enter those pearly gates if so, mankinds hatereds, prejudices would make many not fit to enter!
I don't think Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush, Wolfowitz or Perle have comparable consciences to McNamara - they won't be recanting their support for the poorly justified wars they promoted - even twenty years from now.
To qualify for evil status, though I would expect some component of premeditation. I haven't seen any evidence that McNamara was sitting in his office brainstorming about where in the world he could start a war and kill millions of noncombatants for the hell of it. The fault was in not stopping the war when he realized the error of it all.
It's odd how when people in American administrations make 'mistakes' or 'errors in judgement' and millions of innocents and combatants alike die from bombs, bullets, land mines and napalm there are no war crimes trials or recrimination.
Elections have consequences. American elections have big consequences. The world should take American elections a whole lot more seriously - it seems the entire world is at risk when we don't elect leaders with a conscience, a strong historical perspective, adequate education, adaptability, wisdom and sound judgement.
The group of Vietnam Vets that backed bush and the Iraqi conflict should be publicly humilated for trying to make what we did more patriotic therefore the Iraqi conflict is patriotic. Bastards.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
