11 lessons from commander Robert McNamara, now 80yrs old.
"Any military commander who's honest with himself will admit that he has made mistake in the application of military power. He's killed people, unnecessarily, his troops or other troops, through mistakes, through errors of judgement."
Education pendant la grande depression. Bosse pour le Air Force Statistical Bureau pendant la 2nd guerre mondiale.
Chinese air fields for new US B-29 built by chinese laborers to go bomb Japan steel mills. Did not work for fuel efficiency so move the bomber's base to Guam. Under LeMay's command, March of 1945, in one single night, 100.000 civilians died in the Tokyo bombing, men women and children. "I was part of a mechanism that in a sense recommended it (...) I analyzed bombing missions and how to make them more efficient (in a sense of weakening the enemy)".
Most of Japan was already obliterated before the dropping of the atomic bomb (by LeMay's command). "Killing 50 to 90% of Japanese people killed in 67 cities, and then bombing them with 2 nuclear bombs, is not proportional, in the mind of some people, to the objective we were trying to achieve". Don't blame Truema for dropping it, "US-Japan war was one of the most violent in human history". "LeMay has said 'if we had lost the war, we would all be prosecuted as war criminals' and I think he's right".
Bosse ensuite pour Ford Motors apres la guerre, Ford Falcon, ceintures. President of Ford for 5 weeks in 1960. Devient ensuite ministre de la defense sous Kennedy.
October 62 Cuba missile crisis. "Luck saved us from nuclear annihilation".
Vietnam.
Pulling out troop with JFK until South-Vietnam coup in 63 which overthrown and assassinated president Diem and his brother in 63 (with very probable US involvement).
JFK assassination.
August 2nd 1964, the destroyer Madddox reported that they were attacked by a north Viernamese patrol boat - an act of aggression in international water. "We recovered pieces of north vietnamese shells from the deck of the Maddox, so there was no question on my mind that it did happen. But in any event, we didn't respond ("Kennedy got shitbagged for not protecting the national interest)". August 4th, the Maddox reported being attack but the source of the attack was harder to determine. Big confusion, spent 10 hours that day figuring out what was happening, before concluding that there had been an attack. LBJ authorized bombing of NV targets as a result. It was later established that there was no attack at all that day; no enemy vessels at all in the area.
Rolling Thunder: In 1 year of bombing in Vietnam, 2-3 times more bombs than for all of Europe during WW2. 1965: on envoie les marines.
During the Cuba crisis we did empathize with the soviets toward the end and that's what saved us, but that never happened with the Vietnamese because they mindsets were completely alien to us.
3.400.000 Vietnamese killed. 58.000 Americans.
None of our allied (Japan England Germany France) supported our decision. When countries with similar values don't support your decision you should re-examine your causes. Then Vietnam prime minister: "we're fighting for our independence, you were fighting to enslave us. We we determined and no amount of US pressure would have change that".
Agent Orange.
Protest anti-guerre. Mec qui s’immole au Pentagone.
President de la World Bank de 1968 a 1981.
Images d'archives présidentiel Kennedy LBJ.
7.6/10
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