Vietnam Architect Robert McNamara Dead at 93

(NEWSER) - The governor of Alaska and the architect of the Vietnam War both make fine examples of how not to quit a government post, David Broder writes in the Washington Post. Robert McNamara waited 28 years to explain that he stepped down as defense secretary because of his grave doubts about US strategy, and "the public reaction was harsh"—many believed untold numbers of lives could have been saved if he had gone public sooner. More»

(NEWSER) - At long last, Robert Strange McNamara has “shuffled off to join LBJ and Dick Nixon in the 7th level of hell,” writes journalist and author Joseph Galloway, who couldn’t be more pleased. “McNamara was the original bean-counter—a man who knew the cost of everything but the worth of nothing.” Galloway writes that he had the misfortune of interviewing the former defense secretary and promoter of the Vietnam War several times; he spoke only off-record, and offered mostly lies. More»

(NEWSER) - Robert McNamara led many careers but will be best remembered for his time as secretary of defense during the Vietnam War. Though he privately disagreed with some decisions, he maintained a public optimism about “McNamara’s War” that earned him derision, Reuters reports. Describing the impact of the war that got away for Newsweek, Evan Thomas writes: “He was a man who wanted to, needed to, be in control. And he could not be that man—no one can.” More»

A la JFK's Cabinet, too often masks poor judgment, inexperience

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama has won praise for appointing “the best and the brightest” to his Cabinet during a time of war and economic hardship. But all the back-patting sounds a little too familiar, Frank Rich writes in the New York Times. “The stewards of the Vietnam fiasco had pedigrees uncannily reminiscent of some major Obama appointees,” he observes. More»

Prize-winning writer who blended journalism with history was 73

(NEWSER) - David Halberstam, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who wrote definitive annals of everything from the Vietnam War to pro football, was killed in a car crash in Menlo Park, Calif., today. Halberstam, who wrote 21 books, was on his way to interview former New York Giants quarterback Y.A. Tittle when the car he was riding in was broadsided. More»