A spokesman for McNamera's estate reported that an estimated 1,564 former Secretaries of Defense passed away this morning, or the equivalent of 9,423 people who were not warmongers.

I saw him arriving on The Other Side and being met by a group of soldiers in jungle-rotted fatigues who'd like to have a litte talk with him.

He should have died long ago at the end of a rope.

Or at least forgotten in a dank, dark prison cell.

Hell gained another resident today.

fascinating.

McNamara took a lot of negative press over the years, and did not quit because of it.

Let that be a lesson to Palin and Palinistas everywhere. Robert McNamara was tougher than Sara Palin.

(And let this be the taunt, this notice of her complete lack of fortitude, be issued to Palinistas across the land: quitters are not winners.)

Given the evil he helped perpetrate.

for the GOP today. mcnamara came of age in WW2 and so was understandably enthralled by the awesome power of the US military, so why couldn't it be used to bomb vietnam (and SE asia) into submission?

likewise, with the GOP chicken-hawks so awed by the US' advanced weapons, the easy victory in Iraq War (the Original Recipe) two decades ago, etc, why shouldn't we expect such a massively misplaced response (smart bombs vs. boxcutters; abrams tanks vs. IEDs) to our new geopolitical reality.

the sad fact is that mcnamra seemed caught up in his own ego and intelligence while trodding what he thought was a respectable path to stop the spread of communism. it's hard to believe -- and that's not to say we should forgive -- that he operated with the same carelessness, violence and ignorance that characterizes our current warmongers.

The movie is brilliant, although McNamara still doesn't fully come clean in it, and is seen still seeking to justify some of his more basic failures, however each of the 11 lessons offered by him in the film are worth learning.

I also want to note that his personal role in the Cuban Missile Crisis literally saved the world and preserved American democracy. There were those in the military command structure who felt that they had the authority to attack Cuba pre-emptively, without waiting for civilian approval. McNamara successfully took control of the situation and kept the President and the Secretary of Defense in command of the armed forces, giving time for a diplomatic solution and avoiding nuclear war.

In some sense, his failures in Vietnam can be attributed to HIM, as the civilian in charge of the military, not to un-accountable generals, because of his success in dealing with Cuba. That accountability is something for which we owe him a debt.

The AP chose merely to note that he played a role in the crisis without expanding on it.

Do you think Bush,Cheney, or Rumsfeld will be in the least bit repentant?

After he left office, it emerged that he'd had doubts early on about what the U.S. was doing in Vietnam, even as he led the American effort there.

When the beleaguered Communists who were struggling to govern Afghanistan begged the Soviet Union for help, at first Yuri Andropov argued against the idea.

According to Marxist theory, he said, Afghanistan was not ready for a socialist revolution, and so the Soviet Union should NOT rescue the Afghan Communists from the civil war they'd managed to provoke.

Then apparently he went to bed and woke up with the opposite opinion, and a story of heartache for the world began.

It's shocking how many similarities there are in those two stories.

The Cold War was like a giant pile of Stupid infecting talented minds across the world.

The Cold War was like a giant pile of Stupid infecting talented minds across the world.

I love this. You could also replace "Cold War" with a blank and make one hell of an effective Madlib.

...he lived a lot longer than many of the better men he sent to their deaths. GTFO.....

And may the spectres of bloody young men in camoflage and women and children with oozing wounds from naplam continually disturb that rest. I could wish the same for Bush the Younger when his time comes.

He pursued an ill-advised policy, but that does not make him evil. There will be time to analyze his legacy, but for crying out loud, his body isn't even cold yet!

This asshole is burning in it.

He was forever trying to understand why our assumptions were wrong, principally that the Vietnamese had a breaking point. They didn't and were willing to accept a high level of casualties in pursuit of national unifcation. The author of "The Sorrow of War," a novel which has been translated into many languages, was one of two survivors of a 500-man NVA brigade.

The fact MacNamara tried to figure out what went wrong makes him stand out from the current crop who didn't seem the least bit bothered when their assumptions about Iraq, such as "we'll be greeted as liberators" turned out to be wrong.

Let's show some respect.

He pursued an ill-advised policy, but that does not make him evil. There will be time to analyze his legacy, but for crying out loud, his body isn't even cold yet!

I've never understood this point of view. What does his body's temperature have to do with anything? When a prominent person dies, it's customary to reflect on his life and to pass judgment on it. We are not in his memorial service.

"architect of the war" "led the war effort"

Um. I don't think so.

Mr. Koppelman should do two things. 1. Learn a little bit of history. 2. Learn something about civics.