damned if i don't...

The world lost a giant today. Robert S. McNamara died in his sleep at the age of 93. Although Secretary McNamara's name will forever be synonymous with the Vietnam war, it is not the failure of that war that he should be remembered for. He should be remembered for the lessons that the world learned from his mistakes. McNamara recognized the folly of war later in his life. Although he had been a key strategist in the Second World War, helped the world survive the Cuban Missile Crisis and, of course, was the architect of the escalation of Vietnam, it is his mea culpa that he should be remembered for. We lost a piece of history today. The world lost a giant today.

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
-T. S. Eliot

The Fog Has Lifted ... for one man

From the BBC:
Robert McNamara, who served as US defence secretary during the Vietnam war and the Cuban Missile Crisis, has died aged 93.

Mr McNamara, served under presidents John F Kennedy and Lyndon B Johnson. He was also an architect of the US policy of nuclear deterrence.

He had suffered failing health for some time and died in his sleep at his home in Washington DC, his wife Diana said.

After retiring in 1981, he championed the cause of nuclear disarmament.
Before taking up the post of US Secretary of Defense in 1961, Mr McNamara was the president of Ford Motor Company, turning the company around the post World War II era.

He is most closely associated with overseeing the escalation of the US war in Vietnam from 1961 to 1968.

However, in his 1995 memoirs In Retrospect: The Tragedies and Lessons of Vietnam he wrote of his regret over his Vietnam role.