Robert McNamara - American Face Of The Vietnam War »
Posted By FunnyBoyz 7 months ago in Political News
Some images die hard. And some images never die. Robert McNamara (June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009) as the American face of the Vietnam War, pushing and announcing troop escalations to a high of 585,000 on June 10, 1968, defending and selling the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to Congress, and his assembly line definition of success by body count – is one of those images. With his slick thinning hair, academician’s wire rimmed glasses, well cut Brooks Brothers suits and starch-on-starch shirts, Robert Strange McNamara’s persona evoked American imperialism.
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FunnyBoyz
Never let a FOOL KISS YOU or a KISS FOOL YOU.
Give it some time and think about it..
I want to be clear upfront ...
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djn3nunez37 months ago
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So you're saying McNamara was a Hippie?
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FTA-
However, by November of 1967, the technocrat in him realized the numbers didn’t add up. He threw in the towel by recommending publicly to freeze troop levels; stop bombing North Vietnam; and hand over the war to the South Vietnamese Army and their cadre of corrupt generals. Lyndon Johnson asked him to resign and appointed him president of the World Bank. After the war, “Mac the Knife,” as he was often called derisively, visited Vietnam many times to help the country with reconstruction. Apologists cite those efforts to help and heal as well as his private and quiet opposition to the war as evidence of his conscience and the sincerity of his redemption. -
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sinophil497 months ago
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beavith - You have no idea what you are talking about. I was born in Asia and the press reports in Asia about Vietnam and the war were far different from the pablum that was given out here.
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We KNEW how corrupt all those Vietnamese politicians were, from Ngo Dinh Diem down to Nguyen Van Thieu. We KNEW that they were not fighting for democracy, but for their own political longevity. They were all corrupt to the core.
When Van Thieu escaped to Taiwan just before the fall of Saigon, he brought along 2 planeloads of his household goods and stolen wealth. Then vice president Nguyen Cao Ky was not as fortunate. He escaped on board a US naval ship and could not bring most of his stolen wealth.
Although the population of the USA was well-intentioned, the government and political decisions made were colonial and cold hearted. Ho Chi Minh was a Communist - true. But, beyond that, he was a nationalist who led the Viet Minh forces for Vietnamese independence and defeated the French forces.
Most Americans do not know that Ho had spent part of his education in the US. Ho repeatedly asked Harry Truman for help in negotiating independence from France. Truman repeatedly turned him down. So Ho naturally turned to Russia as an ally and became a full fledged Communist. Who knows what history would have been like if Truman had helped Ho and Vietnam become independent, like he supported the founding of Israel.
Anyway, South Vietnam was a bastard child born from the Geneva Accords to provide a safe haven for the French until they could withdraw. Ngo Dinh Diem was to be the interim leader until national elections could be held.
Well, Ngo loved power so much that he abrogated that agreement and cancelled the elections in order to hang on to power. He declared South Vietnam a democracy fighting Communism and an ally of the USA. Our government fell for this and refused to force Ngo to go thru with the elections.
The rest is history.
So yes, the USA, though well intentioned, is much to blame for the division of Vietnam, for Ho Chi Minh to fully embrace Communism, and for the carnage up to 1975.
It seems the USA (especially conservatives) still has not learned that power and military might does not solve all problems. Statesmanship and diplomacy are necessary and more fruitful in some situations. If one uses a hammer for all problems, soon all problems look like nails.
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Justice4All7 months ago
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McNamara wrote a very interesting book on the Vietnam war in the late 1990's. Called "In retrospect". His last chapter was lessons to be learned to prevent making another mistake like Vietnam.
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Even though the book was written in the late 90's Bush managed to make all the same mistakes just 5 years later in Iraq. And guess what, the outcome was almost the same too.
The one thing we learn from history is that we never learn anything from history.-
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chevydog7 months ago
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I tried really hard to think of parallels between VietNam and Iraq. The only ones that jumped immediately to mind for me was that they both lasted a looong time; and both were promoted by Texas politicians.
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From a standpoint of comparative history, it makes make more sense to me to ask about parallels /differences between Korea and VietNam.
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