Vietnam war era defense secretary decries Bush's 'unilateral' policy

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040416/pl_afp/us_iraq_vietnam_mcnamara&cid=1521&ncid=1480

NEW YORK (AFP) - Former US defense secretary Robert McNamara, a central figure in the Vietnam war, denounced President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s policy in Iraq (news - web sites) on, saying the United States should not have used its power "unilaterally."


"We are the strongest nation in the world today," McNamara said. "We should never use that power unilaterally."


"If we had followed that rule we wouldn't have been in Vietnam," he said at the Plaza Hotel here in a conference organized by the American Bar Association.


McNamara was the hawkish US secretary of defense from 1961-68 under presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, both Democrats. Bush is a Republican who is running for re-election against Democratic Senator John Kerry (news - web sites) in November.


more

[bicentennial_baby]

1. Oh snap

That's funny.

[IndianaGreen]

6. McNamara sure has a lot of room to talk about unilateral

He was a jerk then, and he continues to be a jerk now.

Millions died or were maimed and wounded because of him.

[struggle4progress]

14. Actually, it's a big step for McN ...

He said years ago that he had opposed VN war but felt he had to be silent team-player; more recently, his view has been that he's not in a position to criticize anyone.

The advice he's giving now seems good; it'll be too bad if nobody listens.

[Turbineguy]

2. It took the death of 58,000 Americans

and Lord knows how many Vietnamese for this man to learn this lesson. And he's a smart guy.

How many will it take with Bush?

[MikeG]

5. It was over 3 million Vietnamese.

One of the reasons they hate us is we don't ever seem to have that number on the tip of our tongues.

[Turbineguy]

7. I'll make the effort of remembering that.

[MikeG]

3. Robert McNamara - NeoDove

[thetone]

4. Learn from mistakes

We ought to appreciate anyone that can learn something from the mistakes he has made.

[doni_georgia]

8. How stupid does Yahoo think its readers are

Sorry - this just stood out to me - that Yahoo felt the need to tell people WHO Bush* is:

"McNamara was the hawkish US secretary of defense from 1961-68 under presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, both Democrats. Bush is a Republican who is running for re-election against Democratic Senator John Kerry (news - web sites) in November."

[Qanisqineq]

9. I recently heard someone say

that Rumsfeld makes McNamara look like a military genius. I wish I could remember who said that. I wouldn't know whether or not that is true, but I thought it sounded funny.

[Leilani]

10. He should just shut up!

He is lucky he wasnt tried & hung after the true story of Vietnam deception came out.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

11. McNamara, now there's a name one can NOT trust!

:eyes:

[AussieInCA]

12. he says this in the film "fog of war"

and a bunch of other leasons learned looking back on it all. It's a good film to see inside the head of today's leadership. I saw that last night and found it frightening how similar the events he went through are the same ones we face today. Not suprising he came out and said this.

[DemoTex]

13. I've seen "The Fog of War" twice.

And I don't see many films. Who knew that McNamara was involved in planning the fire-bombings of Japan in WWII? I sure didn't. The music for that scene is awesome.

I told Mrs. D before seeing "Fog" the first time that the film would be a more authentic account of the way things were in the mid-60s if mention were made of Norman Morrison's suicide-by-fire on the Pentagon steps (below McNamara's office) in early November, 1965. I really did not expect to see that incident. Imagine my surprise when Norman Morrison's suicide made it into "The Fog of War."