Architect of the Vietnam War Sure Wished He Hadn't Done That
Robert McNamara accomplished many things in his long life, from revitalizing Ford Motor Co. with a new line of safe compact cars to decades of work to alleviate global poverty and reduce the risk of nuclear war. But he dies today as the "architect of the Vietnam War," and it seemed the whole rest of his life was a good faith attempt to make up for that awful karma.
The Fog of War, excerpted here, is the 2004 documentary based on McNamara's 1995 memoir,In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam. Both contain McNamara's 11 lessons, a sort of Right Path in Retrospect from the mind of a chastised American industrialist turned warmonger turned peacemaker.