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Since I have seen "Fog of War" I am a big admirer of Mr Namara. He was incredible smart and very philosophical person. He was lifted by John F. Kennedy into a position of power and was responsible to run the Vietnam war.

Certainly a job not many people would love to take on.

In his later days he tried to create good "realpolitik" to improve humanity and bring old foes together. He also wrote an excellent book about war, politics and warfare. He really faced many ugly questions and tried in his own technocratic and human way to find some answers.

He also reflected on his mistakes in old age and changed many of his opinions – something not many politicians are able to do.

orangeguru (2009-07-06 | 22:06) | Permalink
Tags: Historica, McNamara, us history, usa, war

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Comments

4 responses to:
'R.I.P Robert Strange McNamara'

RichMc

July 7th, 2009 at 06:43

Good synopsis of Robert McNamara. In one passage in “The Best and the Brightest” by David Halberstam he relates just how smart and attentive to details McNamara was. McNamara had been listeniing to and watching a slide presentation on the developments in the Vietnam War. Late in the afternoon he points out that the slide he is currently viewing, slide 900 something was contrdicted by a slide he had seen earlier that morning. If anyone had ever sat thru some of these military briefings they tend to be studded with numberous details. The fact that he was able to pay that kind of attention is indeed remarkable. And yet despite all of that attention to detail he failed to see the larger picture of what Vietnam really was.

I do believe McNamara had good intentions in his heart. If only his genius would have allowed him to clearly see the bigger picture.