I could say, good riddance, but that wouldn’t seem nice or professional. Still, it does seem appropriate.

As the man who spearheaded sending thousands upon thousands of Americans to Vietnam for no reasonable or justifiable purpose, many in the US will not morn the loss of Robert McNamara.

McNamara tried to bring corporate management both to the Pentagon and to the Vietnam war. He succeeded at home, but he lost miserably in Vietnam. He lived life as a bean counter, and he transferred that mentality to become a “body counter.” Once involved in the war, he escalated the number of soldiers from about 1000 to almost 500,000, and he watched as so many returned in body bags, with lost limbs, and addicted to the drugs necessary to deal with the living hell.

In 2003, he admitted to some terrible things that he knew about the war and the misjudgments made by his people and him. I think that he must have known of his responsibility for the thousands of lives lost.

No mourning in my house today, as I remember the friends who died in the jungles of Vietnam.