Robert MacNamara Dies
Discussion
350GT said:
One of the chaps who has been involved in a huge amount of world breaking events. Overlooked fellow, who's part in politics will be overlooked by laymen.
There's a brilliant documentary about him called "Fog of War" - until I watched that I had no idea how significant a figure he was. He was also responsible for such micro management decisions as "body count" and running a war by statistics. His influence led to other too-detailed moves such as the President and his cabinet actually choosing targets on a map....something the field generals and staff should have been doing. The politicians hamstrung the military largely based on his actions.
towser said:
350GT said:
One of the chaps who has been involved in a huge amount of world breaking events. Overlooked fellow, who's part in politics will be overlooked by laymen.
There's a brilliant documentary about him called "Fog of War" - until I watched that I had no idea how significant a figure he was. Superb doc, that. He was a brilliant and totally amoral guy, and it came through in spades.
Eric Mc said:
He was one of the first examples of the modern approach of bringing a successful businesman into the political arena in the assumption that business management techniques can be applied to politics and war.
At least MacNamara had the guts to admit that it wasn't such a good idea.
Yes, that he did.At least MacNamara had the guts to admit that it wasn't such a good idea.
Eric Mc said:
One of the most important members of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations and looked on as the architecht of America's involvement in Vietnam died today. He was 93.
"Both the International Herald Tribune and the Financial Times describe the former Secretary of Defense as the “architect” of the Vietnam War. This is news to us and libelous to real architects; as near as we could tell, the war went on without plans or blueprints, clapped together by jackleg meddlers. Then, the whole thing fell down in a heap."Gassing Station | News, Politics & Economics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff