Just think of all those young boys who died over there in Viet Nam

[arcadian]

Some of them had probably never kissed a girl before. Fucking Mcnamara, fuck you.

[Sal Minella]

1. Only once in a very great while,

I regret being unable to believe in an afterlife where souls can suffer endless torment in the fires of Hell, for the evil they have done.

[mix]

2. and the millions of Vietnamese deaths and casualties

and the generations scarred here and there

[arcadian]

3. Indeed

[Boojatta]

4. Some of them were never going to kiss a girl.

However, with DADT, we'll never know which of them were going to kiss a girl, but hadn't yet done so, and which of them were never going to kiss a girl.

[arcadian]

7. True that.

[virgogal]

5. JFK and LBJ kept him on,though. They are just as much to blame.

Nam was often called "Johnson's War".

[MajorChode]

8. Vietnam was really nothing by the time JFK died

US troops were only deployed in the role of training South Vietnamese forces. By the time JFK died, there had been less than 200 US military deaths in Vietnam in all the years we had been involved there.

[Fire1]

10. It WAS Johnson's war. Kennedy planned to withdraw

from Nam in December of 1963. Of course, he was assassinated before he had the chance.

[northzax]

22. sure,if you want to believe that

seems remarkably un-like JFK, but sure.

the buck stops at the Oval Office. Bush is responsible for Rummy and Cheney's wars and JFK and LBJ are responsible for McNamara.

fucking John Fiztgerald Kennedy. Murderous genocidal asshole.

say it, you'll feel better.

[dflprincess]

6. McNamara's worse sin is that he knew the war was wrong by 1967

(he admitted that in his book) and even after he left the Johnson administration he did not speak out publicly. ('m inclinded to think had JFK lived, he might have listened to those around him, unlike Johnson.)

Supposedly, he told Humphrey he'd stand with him if Hubert broke with Johnson, but neither one of them had the guts to do it on their own. It's a sad thing, Humphrey did a lot of good in his career, but in the end he put his own ambition ahead of the lives being destroyed by that war. I hope they're both burning.

I was hoping there'd be some kind of lottery on line for tickets to his funeral - for those of us who might like a chance to dance on his casket.

[Diane R]

9. Thank you. My brother was KIA when he was 1 week past 20. McNamara didn't deserve a long life.

[Journeyman]

11. I've thought often of McNamara over the years, and Bundy, and Rostow . . .

and the rest of that corrupt, criminal crew . . .

I often draw their portraits in lake slime to remind me of their deeds.

Animals come late at night to appraise what I've done and to urinate.


(Paraphrased from Evan S. Connell, Points for a Compass Rose.)

[Obamanaut]

12. Recall that the first advisors were sent during the Truman

administration, with more during Eisenhower's.

[Historic NY]

13. You'd better blame NIXON too he added approx. 22000 more....

[Texas Lurker]

14. Viet Nam

You can blame a great deal on Nixon but not this war. JFK sent
in many more than were needed to "advise", LBJ sent
in hundreds of thousands. This was my generation and I well
remember it. Before Nixon's first term was over the draft was
ended and before he left office we were out of there. Blame
him for other things, not this.

Sgt US Army
2 years 9 months 26 days 1971-1974

[coalition_unwilling]

18. I respectfully disagree with

your exoneration of Nixon.

While it is true that he did not start the war, Nixon campaigned in '68 on a "secret plan" to end the war. Events subsequently showed that the only "plan" Nixon had was to win the war . . . by expanding it to Cambodia and Laos.

More U.S. soldiers and Southeast Asians died 1969-74 than had died in the 15 years previours (mainly thanks to massive aerial bombing).

[Thothmes]

19. Can you support that statement with some facts

[coalition_unwilling]

20. Not sure exactly what you mean --

do you want more facts than I provided in my first post or citations for the facts I already posted?

[Thothmes]

21. At least for the Americans, the numbers I have seen do not

support your claim that more were killed 69-73 than the previous 15 years. American combat deaths from 1965 through 1968 are 35,751. For the years 1969 through 1973 they are 20,863. If you have facts to the contrary, I would like to see them.

[spanone]

15. just like the young boys rumsfeld, cheney & bu$h* sentenced to death

[Lex]

16. As Bob Dylan sang

"I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand over your grave
'til I'm sure that you're dead . . . "

[FarCenter]

17. Hey, hey, LBJ; how many kids have you killed today?