McNamara, defense chief during Vietnam War, dies

Oh yea, aside from trying to scrap what seems like almost every current aircraft we fly early in their lives, there's a lot of people convinced his ability to be a politician and convince us to stay out of a major air offensive in the early days of the war "lost it" for us. Thought that would be another good debatable statement to hear opinions about...
 
The Fog of War

http://www.sonyclassics.com/fogofwar/

This was an absolutely amazing documentary on McNamara. It goes into his background, and he talks about WW2 and Vietnam in a way I'd never expect out of him.

There was a really powerful scene towards the end where he talks about meeting his North Vietnamese counterpart...and when they talked they both realized how pointless the whole thing was.
 
fog of war is a great documentary!!!

I won't say it changes any opinions but I'd say it definitely sheds a new light on him, its VERY GOOD!
 
McNamara brought his 'whiz kids' to the Pentagon. Numbers counted. So..
you had fighters flying sorties without some empty stations
you had body count as a measure of success
you had the TFX which became the F-111 and it was to be THE multirole fighter. The Navy quickly bailed out of the pig and the USAF worked for decades before it became a formidable war machine.
McNamara was arrogant and wrong.

Oh, and McNamara was at Ford when they introduced the Edsel. Need any more info?
 
Mcnamara is one to remember. I think Rumsfeld will be remembered in a similar way.

Mcnamara was big into the ppbs acquisitions, whiz kid bean counting analysis etc. Made many changes in the way things were done. Also led during an unpopular war.

Rumsfeld totally changed things acquisition wise with his capabilities based planning, spiral development and he too led during an unpopular war.

Both will remembered by the history books many years later...
 
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