McNamara: A War Criminal, a Liar, and a Director of the Washington Post company

James Bovard, July 06, 2009

In its obituary article on Robert McNamara today, the Washington Post mentions that McNamara was a director of the Washington Post company.

Was that honor bestowed because of McNamara’s lies or because of his war crimes?

Or maybe he was just a really really great dinner guest at the homes of Post editors and owners.

And people wonder why the Washington Post grovels and helps cover up Leviathan’s worst abuses….



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18 Responses to “McNamara: A War Criminal, a Liar, and a Director of the Washington Post company”

  1. Mario Rizzo
    July 7th, 2009 at 3:52 am

    McNamara was an example of how brilliance without a moral compass can turn a life into a tragedy.

  2. BradSmith
    July 7th, 2009 at 4:37 am

    Fire bombing Japan,The Viet-Nam War, Bay of Pigs, USS Liberty etc. Like many other criminals he felt bad after it was over (Whoopy). He was a war criminal plain and simple. It's like saying I know I should not have killed your familly but I am really and truly sorry. I am not a man filled with vengeance but he may have got what he deserved, A long life living with his crimes and worrying about where he was headed.

    Peace!

  3. Andy
    July 7th, 2009 at 6:18 am

    He has so much to answer for. Now that he is finally at that place where all is known he shall see and suffer the consequences of his actions.

  4. jackbootstate
    July 7th, 2009 at 6:54 am

    Well, this leaves one man standing who I think is worthy of a war crimes trial for his behavior with regard to U.S. Indochina policy, 1961-73, and that would be Henry Kissinger. They've all grown old and died, and they've never been held accountable for their savage campaign of destruction against Indochina. Plus, our government has never been forced to compensate Indochina for its destruction.

    In 1993, after 18 years of unrelenting economic warfare by Washington against Vietnam, plus a fiscally draining war with China and occupation of Cambodia, an exhausted Vietnam raised the white flag of surrender and "agreed" to pay the debts of the Saigon government. The U.S. achieved a more decisive victory in Indochina than it did over Japan in World War II. This should hardly be surprising given the balance of forces in that conflict. The U.S. has a zero percent chance of losing a war against three former French colonies. The French Empire, under U.S. control, in Indochina was restored and it is about time people face up to this simple truth. Winners of wars don't work in sweat shops in Saigon making shoes for Nike.

    Unfortunately, the virtually everybody within the anti-war agrees that the U.S. "lost" the war. All the perpetuation of this myth does is not force us to live up to our moral and legal responsibility to compensate Indochina for its destruction.

  5. markdavid
    July 7th, 2009 at 4:36 pm

    I'm pleased to see no white-washed obituaries for this man. I thought for sure the press would try and pass him off with the glories of war like a Memorial Day parade. Also, I forgot about the USS Liberty and him compliance with LBJ in that whole pack of lies. His repentance is worthless to history, those he helped kill, and the lives that are ruined.

  6. July 7, 2009 « Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?
    July 7th, 2009 at 12:36 pm

    [...] http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2009/07/06/mcnamara-a-war-criminal-a-liar-and-a-director-of-the-washingt... [...]

  7. Scott
    July 7th, 2009 at 10:06 pm

    Is this even an article?

  8. rvajs
    July 8th, 2009 at 1:27 am

    As sorry a human being as McNamara was, he did have decency enough to regret his part in the VietNam War – the Neocons (the Cheneys, Pearles and Wolfowitzs) are many steps lower on the moral evolutionary scale – they are without shame, without regrets, actually without a shred of humanity. And Kissinger – Kissinger is a scumbag that comes along once in a generation. The Devil will not torture him – he will greet him as a long lost brother

  9. Orville H. Larson
    July 8th, 2009 at 5:18 am

    I never knew that McNamara was a director of the Washington Post. The Post is a corrupt, statist, neocon rag. I hope it goes belly-up, and the sooner the better.

  10. Andy
    July 8th, 2009 at 5:24 am

    Well said.

  11. Captain Tom
    July 8th, 2009 at 12:58 pm

    In the south there's an old saying…"Hell must exist, because where else would Sherman be?" Ditto for McNamara, et. al.

  12. marshall
    July 8th, 2009 at 3:43 pm

    I think rvjas makes a good point (as does Scott). The crimes of the last administration are far greater than those of McNamara. We did not invade a sovereign nation on trumped up charges in the case of Viet Nam. The multi-nation force, led by the US, was invited to South Vietnam to check Soviet and Chinese sponsored aggression. Without the US policy of Soviet containment the Marxist dream of world domination had every chance of success.

  13. Marcus
    July 8th, 2009 at 3:45 pm

    The real tragedy of McNamara is that if he had been more curious about how to make sure his stats could be applied to make the world a better place, then we would be applauding him. But for him it seems, his was the position that he gave you the stats to make the situation better, you make it work around the stats. That worked in the business climate at the time but government, the army and wars don't respond to a business model. Too many prima donas running around loose. His vision (all military boots and shoes black instead of black, brown or white white, M-16 aerospace rifel versus a more robust small caliber rifle on more traditional models that were more suitable to abuse) assured that he wouldn't understand that he couldn't control the forces he was in charge of. He was just too narrowly focused given the position he was in. Sort of like Eugene Stoner (he was the inventor of the prototype of the M-16), too enamored of technology and stats to see that crap in a carbon fiber bag is still the same crap in a burlap bag, just lighter crap.

  14. GregPreston
    July 9th, 2009 at 7:48 pm

    Christopher Hitchens argues that well (Kissenger). BTW Fog of War was awesome even if you despise McNamara. Pirate it if you don't want to pay his estate.

  15. DrFix
    July 10th, 2009 at 11:25 pm

    Are you sure that two million dead Vietnamese and about sixty thousand Americans was worth "containing" Marxist world domination? We trade with these people regularly now so what exactly did all the containment do other than keep the undertakers busy?

    And I really have to laugh when people say we were "invited"…. LOL! Yeah, right. And there are WMD's in Iraq, Clinton didn't inhale, the BATF is only here to help you etc. etc. etc. ad-nauseum.

  16. DrFix
    July 10th, 2009 at 11:31 pm

    The hubris and arrogance exhibited by pointy headed bean counters in positions of power. They "do" things because they "can" and because they're allowed to get away with it. No ultimate accountability other than the grave.

    Which reminds me of that story, or joke, about how the Americans spent oodles of cash to develop a pen that writes in weightlessness and how the practical Russians simply used a pencil. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

  17. Robert Wenzel
    July 13th, 2009 at 12:38 pm

    In Alice Schroder's book about Warren Buffett, Snowball, she mentions that Post owner Kay Graham was dating McNamara.

    Apparently, Buffett and McNamara were rivals for Graham's attention.

  18. Jim Bovard
    July 15th, 2009 at 8:26 pm

    Fascinating!

    Oh, the off-color humor opportunities that this presents….