the tindog coffeehouse

Just thought this was interesting, considering I’ve discussed (and quoted) author Donald Miller a few times and recently blogged about Robert McNamara.  Seems Miller had a a few words to say on his blog about the former Secretary of Defense as well.

Yesterday, Robert S. McNamara passed away. MacNamara was President of Ford Motor Company before going to work at the Department of Defense. He was instrumental in the bombing of Japan in World War II, and is often called the architect of the war in Vietnam. But toward the end of his life, MacNamara began to reconsider his actions. He even wrote a book confessing what he felt were his wrongs. He left the Johnson administration and ran the World Bank, some believe, to make up for the many lives lost under his command.

I don’t have a strong opinion about the war in Vietnam. War is messy, and I tend to believe we had good reason to be there, though it certainly didn’t turn out the way we would have hoped. But hindsight is twenty-twenty. I am more interested in MacNamara, though. I am more interested in a man with a distinguished career suddenly coming out and admitting he was wrong. It is so rarely seen by a government leader.

Like many of those who commented on Miller’s blog, I don’t know that I can buy the theory that McNamara’s move to the World Bank was a way to make up for his role in the Vietnam War.  Not that he wasn’t remorseful for his actions — I have no way of knowing that — but I tend to agree more with John Perkins’ assessment of him as an economic imperialist rather than reformed benefactor.  Maybe that’s the pessimist in me, or maybe I’m just disillusioned.

Previously:
What do Iran, Honduras, and Robert McNamara have in common?