phyncke: (USA Barn)
[personal profile] phyncke
So amid all the hullabaloo about celebrity deaths, there is one of real significance to me. Robert McNamara died on July 6th and as true blue Cold Warrior and Secretary of Defense during some very significant years of the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations, he is worth noting. He is credited with increasing the US presence in Vietnam from 500 to 16,000 troops and applied systems analysis to public policy in a big way. After his post in US Administration, he went on to become President of the World Bank.

Also his full name is Robert Strange McNamara. That is totally cool. His wiki article is here if you want to take a gander:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_McNamara

His obituary is here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090706/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/obit_mcnamara

I studied him as a student in my undergrad days and feelings about him are ambivalent. He died at the age of 93.

He is not Michael Jackson but he is surely important. I really do find the whole thing about Michael Jackson distateful really. I will get on my soap box for a moment. My state, California, spent millions on that funeral, at a time when we could ill afford it and when public employees are being asked to take a paycut and there will be layoffs. There is a huge disconnect there. I certainly hope that his estate will kick in some of that money to the public coffer. I did not watch any of that and as a state employee I was personnally offended by that whole thing. /rant

*My rant is not about MJ himself. I was a huge fan of his from way back. Love his music. Let me clarify that point.*

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