And, even more specifically, he is most well known for his admission, published in his memoirs in 1995, that he felt -- essentially from the beginning of our country's involvement in Vietnam -- that the United States would be unable to win the war.
Yes, that's right.
The architect of the war, one of Kennedy's "best and brightest," the brilliant CEO of Ford Motor Company, felt from the beginning that the edifice he constructed was not durable like the cars his previous employer built. Rather, it better resembled a house of cards. (More like a cemetery of cards, actually.)
Why didn't he broach his concerns to President Johnson? Because he felt that he was simply a vehicle for LBJ's intentions and desires, and that he owed his loyalty to the president.
This is a pathetic, tired refrain that continues to this day. A recent example includes Colin Powell being a bagman for the Bush Administration, convincing the United Nations (and, by extension, the rest of the world) that Iraq was, indeed, developing and stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. Meanwhile, he was informed beforehand that George Tenet's "slam dunk" was a total fabrication. (Not, of course, that Colin Powell was a novice at being a tool of the Republican Party. He did his best to portray the My Lai massacre as a picnic.)
Alan Greenspan, also, waited until he was out of the government -- and, consequently, much less empowered to effect any change -- to inform everyone that one of the Bush Administration's major errors was abandoning fiscal restraint. (Meanwhile, Greenspan bears absolute responsibility for the Internet and real-estate bubbles, though he'd never admit it.)
Okay, I realize I'm getting sidetracked. Enough of Powell and Greenspan -- back to the ultimate government shill, Mr. McNamara.
I recognize that the pressures of politics are immense, and that standing up to the president would be an intimidating task. However, McNamara was strong enough to lead Ford, and I would think his forbidding intelligence could have crafted a way to communicate his doubts to LBJ. Guess not.
Apparently, he took his failure to make a stand quite hard, and "[o]n many occasions when confessing his errors regarding Vietnam, his voice shook or cracked and tears came to his eyes."
I find myself having a vanishingly small amount of sympathy -- or empathy -- for him. My father was drafted to Vietnam while his wife -- my mom -- was pregnant with me. Fortunately, my father returned safely, but over 58,000 sons, brothers, and fathers never did -- and McNamara bears a great deal of responsibility for THAT body count.
So McNamara felt himself a little weepy on occasion because of his inaction? He did live to be 93, so he might have had quite a few tears spill down his face. I doubt, however, that they outnumbered the tears shed by the mothers, wives, and children of those dead 58,000 soldiers. I hope the image of a different soldier visited him every day, and continues to do so. Wherever he is.
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