Goodbye Robert McNamara

For those of us who lived through the Vietnam War, and who were truly paying attention, there were many personalities who represented the principles and ethics of that conflict to whom we looked either in awe and respect, or with hatred and disdain. Lyndon Johnson, himself, was the principle hate target.

But for me, McNamara was the man who signified not only the Best and the Brightest, but the most Machiavellian, the most efficient, the coolest and coldest of the war makers. He was a Kennedy man, a confidant, a manipulator, a man determined to meet the call of his country, and maybe he was even a genius. In my recollection, he deserved both the awe and contempt that were visited upon him by the people.

Late in life, he may have said that he was wrong. If he meant that, then he lived long enough to gain wisdom.