Robert S. McNamara died today.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Robert S. McNamara

WASHINGTON (AP) — Robert S. McNamara, the brainy Pentagon chief who directed the escalation of the Vietnam War despite private doubts the war was winnable or worth fighting, died Monday. He was 93.

McNamara, who had been in failing health for some time, died at his home, his wife Diana said.

McNamara revealed his misgivings three decades after the American defeat that some called "McNamara's war."

He told The Associated Press in 1995, the year his best-selling memoir appeared, that "we were wrong."

Closely identified with the war's early years, McNamara was a forceful public optimist. He predicted that American intervention would enable the South Vietnamese, despite internal feuds, to stand by themselves "by the end of 1965." The war ground on until 1975.

McNamara was recruited from the presidency of the Ford Motor Co. to run the Pentagon by President John F. Kennedy in 1961.

He stayed in the defense post for seven years, longer than anyone else since the job's creation in 1947. He left on the verge of a nervous breakdown and became president of the World Bank.

McNamara was a key figure in both the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of April 1961 and the Cuban missile crisis 18 months later. Historians have pointed to McNamara's role in steering internal debate away from a U.S. airstrike

He was born in San Francisco. At the University of California at Berkeley, he majored in mathematics, economics and philosophy.

As a professor at the Harvard Business School when World War II started, he helped train Army Air Corps officers in cost-effective statistical control. In 1943, he was commissioned an Army officer.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl...MokknAD999B7HG0

[scandal 951]

Well after all, he wasn't an IMPORTANT Fvcking person (IFP) like Michael Jackson,

so of course he only warrants a single VJ thread which will get a handful of responses, maybe, if he's lucky. Or perhaps just Mr Bill's OP and my followup, and that will be that.

Because of course the man who largely defined American's foreign policy and military posture for a generation, and was directly accountable for a war he himself later referred to as a mistake and which cost tens of thousands of American lives..... well, that's clearly not as big a deal as an emaciated pop singer with a horrific plastic surgery outcome. Oh, and a cool sequined glove, I'll grant you that.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

Well after all, he wasn't an IMPORTANT Fvcking person (IFP) like Michael Jackson,

so of course he only warrants a single VJ thread which will get a handful of responses, maybe, if he's lucky. Or perhaps just Mr Bill's OP and my followup, and that will be that.

Because of course the man who largely defined American's foreign policy and military posture for a generation, and was directly accountable for a war he himself later referred to as a mistake and which cost tens of thousands of American lives..... well, that's clearly not as big a deal as an emaciated pop singer with a horrific plastic surgery outcome. Oh, and a cool sequined glove, I'll grant you that.

You sound like a text book!

[scandal 951]

Well after all, he wasn't an IMPORTANT Fvcking person (IFP) like Michael Jackson,

so of course he only warrants a single VJ thread which will get a handful of responses, maybe, if he's lucky. Or perhaps just Mr Bill's OP and my followup, and that will be that.

Because of course the man who largely defined American's foreign policy and military posture for a generation, and was directly accountable for a war he himself later referred to as a mistake and which cost tens of thousands of American lives..... well, that's clearly not as big a deal as an emaciated pop singer with a horrific plastic surgery outcome. Oh, and a cool sequined glove, I'll grant you that.

You sound like a text book!

Well at least marc'ie poo :star: you're helping us bump up the thread message-count, in a feeble attempt to compete with the Michael Jackson onslaught. God love ya for that!

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Well after all, he wasn't an IMPORTANT Fvcking person (IFP) like Michael Jackson,

so of course he only warrants a single VJ thread which will get a handful of responses, maybe, if he's lucky. Or perhaps just Mr Bill's OP and my followup, and that will be that.

Because of course the man who largely defined American's foreign policy and military posture for a generation, and was directly accountable for a war he himself later referred to as a mistake and which cost tens of thousands of American lives..... well, that's clearly not as big a deal as an emaciated pop singer with a horrific plastic surgery outcome. Oh, and a cool sequined glove, I'll grant you that.

I bet he couldn't moonwalk and didn't wear a glove and grab his crotch, so why should he get any press?

[scandal 951]

Well after all, he wasn't an IMPORTANT Fvcking person (IFP) like Michael Jackson,

so of course he only warrants a single VJ thread which will get a handful of responses, maybe, if he's lucky. Or perhaps just Mr Bill's OP and my followup, and that will be that.

Because of course the man who largely defined American's foreign policy and military posture for a generation, and was directly accountable for a war he himself later referred to as a mistake and which cost tens of thousands of American lives..... well, that's clearly not as big a deal as an emaciated pop singer with a horrific plastic surgery outcome. Oh, and a cool sequined glove, I'll grant you that.

I bet he couldn't moonwalk and didn't wear a glove and grab his crotch, so why should he get any press?

Exactly.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

Well after all, he wasn't an IMPORTANT Fvcking person (IFP) like Michael Jackson,

so of course he only warrants a single VJ thread which will get a handful of responses, maybe, if he's lucky. Or perhaps just Mr Bill's OP and my followup, and that will be that.

Because of course the man who largely defined American's foreign policy and military posture for a generation, and was directly accountable for a war he himself later referred to as a mistake and which cost tens of thousands of American lives..... well, that's clearly not as big a deal as an emaciated pop singer with a horrific plastic surgery outcome. Oh, and a cool sequined glove, I'll grant you that.

You sound like a text book!

Well at least marc'ie poo :star: you're helping us bump up the thread message-count, in a feeble attempt to compete with the Michael Jackson onslaught. God love ya for that!

Lil truth kinda hurts doughnut? The only thing I be bumpin is outtin you.

Well after all, he wasn't an IMPORTANT Fvcking person (IFP) like Michael Jackson,

so of course he only warrants a single VJ thread which will get a handful of responses, maybe, if he's lucky. Or perhaps just Mr Bill's OP and my followup, and that will be that.

Because of course the man who largely defined American's foreign policy and military posture for a generation, and was directly accountable for a war he himself later referred to as a mistake and which cost tens of thousands of American lives..... well, that's clearly not as big a deal as an emaciated pop singer with a horrific plastic surgery outcome. Oh, and a cool sequined glove, I'll grant you that.

I bet he couldn't moonwalk and didn't wear a glove and grab his crotch, so why should he get any press?

Exactly.

Team WOG!

Edited July 7, 2009 by ={Rogue}=

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Well after all, he wasn't an IMPORTANT Fvcking person (IFP) like Michael Jackson,

so of course he only warrants a single VJ thread which will get a handful of responses, maybe, if he's lucky. Or perhaps just Mr Bill's OP and my followup, and that will be that.

Because of course the man who largely defined American's foreign policy and military posture for a generation, and was directly accountable for a war he himself later referred to as a mistake and which cost tens of thousands of American lives..... well, that's clearly not as big a deal as an emaciated pop singer with a horrific plastic surgery outcome. Oh, and a cool sequined glove, I'll grant you that.

I bet he couldn't moonwalk and didn't wear a glove and grab his crotch, so why should he get any press?

Exactly.

And he didn't sell 750 million records either. What did he do besides escalate a war? Even Bush started two wars.

[scandal 951]

Well after all, he wasn't an IMPORTANT Fvcking person (IFP) like Michael Jackson,

so of course he only warrants a single VJ thread which will get a handful of responses, maybe, if he's lucky. Or perhaps just Mr Bill's OP and my followup, and that will be that.

Because of course the man who largely defined American's foreign policy and military posture for a generation, and was directly accountable for a war he himself later referred to as a mistake and which cost tens of thousands of American lives..... well, that's clearly not as big a deal as an emaciated pop singer with a horrific plastic surgery outcome. Oh, and a cool sequined glove, I'll grant you that.

I bet he couldn't moonwalk and didn't wear a glove and grab his crotch, so why should he get any press?

Exactly.

And he didn't sell 750 million records either. What did he do besides escalate a war? Even Bush started two wars.

That's a good point. Though with Bay of Pigs, and then Cambodia and Laos, you could make the claim that Macnamara had his hands in more wars that just Vietnam.

But the 750 million records things --- well that is quite true. Besides, Macnamara had a really geeky hairstyle.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

I thought it was Obama who caused the Vietnam War?

[scandal 951]

I thought it was Obama who caused the Vietnam War?

No, Obama is the one who led to the defeat of the Confederacy in the Civil War.

All good southern white folk would do well to hate on him for that.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

I thought it was Obama who caused the Vietnam War?

No, Obama is the one who led to the defeat of the Confederacy in the Civil War.

All good southern white folk would do well to hate on him for that.

I thought he was the one who told Paul Revere that the British were coming.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

[Immigrant2009 0]

Robert S. McNamara

WASHINGTON (AP) — Robert S. McNamara, the brainy Pentagon chief who directed the escalation of the Vietnam War despite private doubts the war was winnable or worth fighting, died Monday. He was 93.

McNamara, who had been in failing health for some time, died at his home, his wife Diana said.

McNamara revealed his misgivings three decades after the American defeat that some called "McNamara's war."

He told The Associated Press in 1995, the year his best-selling memoir appeared, that "we were wrong."

Closely identified with the war's early years, McNamara was a forceful public optimist. He predicted that American intervention would enable the South Vietnamese, despite internal feuds, to stand by themselves "by the end of 1965." The war ground on until 1975.

McNamara was recruited from the presidency of the Ford Motor Co. to run the Pentagon by President John F. Kennedy in 1961.

He stayed in the defense post for seven years, longer than anyone else since the job's creation in 1947. He left on the verge of a nervous breakdown and became president of the World Bank.

McNamara was a key figure in both the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of April 1961 and the Cuban missile crisis 18 months later. Historians have pointed to McNamara's role in steering internal debate away from a U.S. airstrike

He was born in San Francisco. At the University of California at Berkeley, he majored in mathematics, economics and philosophy.

As a professor at the Harvard Business School when World War II started, he helped train Army Air Corps officers in cost-effective statistical control. In 1943, he was commissioned an Army officer.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl...MokknAD999B7HG0

RIP.

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

I remember watching "The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from The Life of Robert McNamara" in my Political Science class. Even after all was said and done he still blankly defended himself.