Historian Howard Zinn Responds To Robert S. McNamara’s Death, Calls Him A “War Criminal”

Posted by Staff on July 6, 2009 |

By Justin Duckham-Talk Radio News Service

Renowned Historian and social critic Howard Zinn, who wrote the ground-breaking book “A People’s History Of The United States”, spoke with Talk Radio News Monday about the death of controversial former Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara. Zinn refers to McNamara as a war criminal, pointing to the Defense Secretary’s key role in orchestrating the Vietnam war. Zinn also compares McNamara to Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense during the Bush administration. Zinn states that while McNamara is smarter than Rumsfeld, both are the figure heads of “ugly, immoral wars” (2:53)

 

 Standard Podcast [2:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

July 6, 2009

4 Responses to “Historian Howard Zinn Responds To Robert S. McNamara’s Death, Calls Him A “War Criminal””

1. Bennett Says:
   July 6th, 2009 at 11:03 pm

   Generally I agree with Mr. Zinn. On this one it is very different. I was against the Viet Nam war, lost many friends to it. Worse I dealt with many that came back either physically or psychologically in tatters. Mr. McNamara was With W. Edwards Demming, A.G. Ashcroft, John Galliard and a few others part of a unsung group of men that did what no other country on earth ever did. Won a war on two fronts. It was Bonaparte’s and Hitler’s failure, but somehow we did on on a much broader front with limited resources and virtually no advance planning. Our backs were to the wall and by the use of statistics they shortened the war and saved lives. I know that I would not be here without that brain trust. For all of his brain power Mr. McNamara himself questioned how you could be a war criminal in defeat and somehow avoid the charge in victory. Unlike Mr. Rumsfeld, McNamara admitted he was wrong. He told President Johnson numerous times that we did not know enough to escalate. It was Johnson’s own desire to look as tough on Communism as Goldwater to politically neutralize the Republicans. The Vietnamese foreign minister was almost right in his accusing McNamara of not knowing history and the final mistake was not learned by McNamara or do our leaders today seem to understand it. Our country was founded in a guerrilla war. We won two major battles, Saratoga and Yorktown. Lost all the others. No standing army in history has ever defeated a guerrilla force. The only exceptions to this is when the military power fought a war of annihilation. That is our choice when fighting unconventional foes. We must make a conscious decision to become genocidal war criminals or get out. There are no other political or military options. I do not know if we would have been better off if Mr. McNamara had decided to get rich and stay at Ford. He saved thousands of lives with safety improvements in a few months. Shortened World War II and brought my father home to my mother. Sent 58,000 Americans to their deaths and ruined a million more American lives. Cost millions of lives of our enemies. The man worked by numbers and those are his numbers. If these statistics were baseball he would be a hall of fame player. But, unlike so many of the generation that stood and protested him, stand in judgement of him, he chose to serve to the best of his ability and failed. I honestly cannot think of anyone I would rather have had in that position during October 1962 or during Viet Nam. The difference between McNamara, Rumsfeld, Pol Pot, LeMay or any of the Nuremberg group was he did do a Mea Culpa. He was obviously a man who was trying to redeem himself. At the start of the Viet Nam escalation he was a voice of caution that was given an order, not that it is an excuse, Nuremberg taught us that, but he did try to tell Johnson it was a quagmire and we had no way of seeing our way out. At the time he left the defense department it was obvious he was a broken man. In the end he was a brilliant, flawed, human who took on the heaviest burdens in history. Had Lincoln lived to 92 and lost, how would history would have viewed him? His administration was corrupt, Grant took the heat for that and is viewed as the worst president, yet he won the war. War crimes can be laid at their doorstep too. Camp Douglas in Chicago, many more lives wasted. Freed the slaves to bring in Jim Crow. I’ll leave judgement to God, it is not for me to say. I too am human. To say you are human is to say you are imperfect. To say you are human is perfection in itself. Yet there are 58,000 families that obviously have a problem with his humanity for good reason. I am so thankful he brought my father home to me. But, in his last lucid moments my father cried over the children of Tokyo, made friends with a POW that tried to kill him. To condemn McNamara I have to condemn my father and my entire existence. My father played his part in that too and there is no way I could look at that man in his final days with the tears in his eyes over the defeat of a desperate enemy and call him a war criminal. War is terrible and somehow we have to learn that. There are no winners in that game and there is no hall of fame.

2. chuck wintner Says:
   July 7th, 2009 at 12:01 am

   Robert McNamara began America’s self-hatred that has lasted nearly 50 years, and now threatens to destroy our country permanently. My generation, the baby-boomers, are still in Post Traumatic Stress from the Vietnam Lie, incapable of perceiving differences between it, our incursion into Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan, Israel’s defense against genocide, or any defense against any attack on democracy.

   Neurological science has discovered that within a small portion of our brain, called the amygdala, lives the memories of our life’s traumas. The amygdala is hypervigilant to stimuli that trigger those traumatic memories, and stores those new stimuli in the same place. That’s why every U.S. war becomes “another Vietnam,” no matter what the circumstances.

   Our enemies are now within. They have taken control of the House, the Senate, and The White House. They were martialed into action by McNamara, Johnson, Bill Moyers, Dean Rusk, McGeorge Bundy and many others exemplifying what Senator J.W. Fulbright called “The Arrogance of Power.”

   Our generation, once patriotically inspired by JFK, became cynical after his successors, and crossed over the important line between self-criticism and self-hate. We were led there by McNamara, Johnson, and the rest. May they all rot in hell.

3. Joanne Says:
   July 12th, 2009 at 4:53 pm

   I see the usual self pitying boomer rhetoric here, about how Vietnam destroyed their lives. Most boomers I know had tons of fun. It was the Vietnamese who suffered. Now we’re getting the same whining from the Iraq veterans. Most people suffer not at all from the Iraq War. It’s the Iraquis who are suffering.
   Honest to god. When will americans grow up?

4. jgogek Says:
   July 13th, 2009 at 4:18 pm

   How many people did Robert McNamara kill in the Vietnam War, both both white and Asian? Does anyone have that figure?