(Walt BJ) wrote:

Slightly off track but consonant with earlier comments:
Ogden, Josephus Daniels did bad things to the Navy. No booze
(officially)is one item. The infamous Robert S MacNamara still rankles
me more than anyone in recent history. I was reading 'Yankee Station'
where the author was discussing RM and I suddenly became conscious my
jaw was aching. Then I discovered I was grinding my teeth at reading
the same complaints about RM, from a carrier pilot, that we had in the
USAF. What a jerk RM is.

Oh, geez, how your sins live on!

It was a joke, Walt, a joke. With the point that *every* President,
starting with George Washington, has selected some stinkers as cabinet
members. Even if you limited it to SecDefs [or SecWar/SecNav in
pre-1947 days].

Let me state, for the record, gentlemen, that I am not now, nor have I
ever been, a member of the "We Love Robert S. McNamara" club. Not
now, not in 1961 when he was appointed, not in 1968 when he left.

I would want to point out that it wasn't all RM. A *lot* of people in
the White House, up to and including LBJ, took great delight and pride
in micromanaging the VN war, down to the grunt squad and section of
squadron aircraft levels at times.

OJ III