By JUDITH GAYLE | Political Waves
Us old hippie types came face to face with a familiar name a few days ago; just one more of the steady stream of those passing into the Great Beyond. But this one provoked a heart-heavy remembrance. Many MANY of us appear to be hoping he’ll need sunscreen where he’s going, if not full gear to protect from karmic napalm. Robert McNamara — a man as fully hated as Rumsfeld, and but one order of magnitude beyond — has gone to meet his Maker. He died in Washington, DC Monday at the age of 93.
What did McNamara do to earn so much strong feeling? Secretary of Defense to JFK, he was inherited by LBJ and played war architect to the Vietnam debacle, much as Eichmann played accountant and manager to Hitler’s final solution; cut and dried, numbers and charts, records and dispassionate statistics. The business-as-usual accounting he put forth to the nation was met with counterpoint by REAL … yes, we had actual reporting then … footage coming out of ‘Nam of wounded soldiers and burnt children. This, every night on the nightly news. Body counts in the hundreds every week. Astonishing that it went on so long.
Mr. M showed no heart until much much later in his life; and even then, he couldn’t quite apologize for all he’d orchestrated — although he clearly saw in retrospect how badly he’d fumbled it all. By some reports, he left LBJ’s administration when it became apparent how badly he’d botched; by others, he was asked to leave. His legacy is the ‘business’ of war; his very name a cautionary tale.
McNamara devoted his later years to heading the World Bank, focusing on poverty and assuaging his conscience. I don’t believe in Hell but if what weighs heavily on our soul continues with us until we can sort it through, Mr. M has plenty of sorting ahead of him — and millions of brutal deaths as companion. He was the Godfather of our current military industrial complex and responsible for recreating the American fighting force to become what it is today; a crackerjack and world-dominant killing machine. Systems analysis was Mr. M’s game — now its ours. Over 58,000 of our soldiers and nurses died in Vietnam; over a quarter of a million were wounded; close to 2000 were MIA. Estimates for Vietnamese casualties range to over two million, and the Vietnam War is what led to the killing fields of Cambodia. If its true that we must feel, actually feel, the impact of our activity on earth through the events of those who suffered them before we can move on, Robert McNamara has a very long and painful life review ahead.
Essentially, this was one of the most pitiful humans on the planet; he knew what he did, and he regretted it — read his own thoughts in this article from a website called Hullabaloo. He wrote a number of books on the topic, and consented to an extraordinary interview in a film called The Fog of War, all trying to get a grip on it; maybe he’s got one now.
hey, at least the man had remorse, at least he had some humanity.
Unlike the truly sickening empty shells of Bush Cheney horror- true nazi’s apparently…
Fog of War was an amazing movie.
Len – absolutely.
In the past 5 years, my husband has used the phrase ‘I want to blow my brains out’ at least 5 times. He’s 65.
These Iraq veterans are having huge problems too. I work with several who are getting counseling, but I’mnot sure it is enough. This will be with us for the next 40 or 50 years.
Is easy to say ‘love yourself’ but not so easy to teach.
Patty,
Thank you for your wake-up call, your words are well taken. In addition i would note another thing that today’s events have brought out. Llines seem to have been drawn sometime over the last 40-some years. Look around at who was mourning whom today. Listen around and who considers one transitioned man to be a hero and and another to be evil. See any patterns?
Sobered and Uneasy,
Len Wallick
It is also estimated that over 1 million Viet Nam vets have committed suicide, a statistic that is left out. I lost more than one classmate to suicide.
My husband is a republican because of Lyndon Johnson. He blamed the war on the democrats, and on Johnson in particular. Another good friend was in that very first group that went to fight in Viet Nam – the one the movie was about, ‘We Were Soldiers.’ He said he didn’t sleep for five years afterward. He is a democrat turned republican too.
War was never about a policital party, any more than climate change is about the weather. It is ALL about MONEY, making money, cheap goods, cheap oil, free labor – MONEY. Climate change was about forcing companies to move where there were no climate laws, yep – more money, and break the unions too while you are at it. Pretty soon Americans will be glad to get $3.50 an hour work, which takes us back to pre-Viet Nam top wages doesn’t it? The dollar stores and Walmart are starting to sell American made goods again. ha. The joke has always been on us hasn’t it?