Who was the worst architect of war?

[JohnnyCougar]

or the equivelant position?

Edit: Thread title.

[7th_Sephiroth]

1. Dick Cheney

First Bush Admin

[dave123williams]

2. Robert MacNamera, hands down.

[idiosyncratic]

10. At least he eventually apologized. Think * or Rummy will? NO!! n/t

[Poppyseedman]

11. Hard to believe he wasn't on the list

Robert S. McNamara makes Rumsfeld look like a piker.

That SOB should burn in hell for what he did.

Rumseld may be a prick, but he's a long way from standing in McNamara shoes for being the worst.

[mitchum]

3. Henry "Needs To Be Measured For A Rope" Kissinger

[zonmoy]

4. but why measure him

having him with too short a rope would be great.

[NightTrain]

5. Pardon my ignorance, but when was Kissinger Secretary of Defense?

I seem to recall that he was Nixon's Secretary of STATE. :shrug:

[tritsofme]

14. IIRC Kissinger at one point was National Security Advisor to Nixon

and was also Secretary of State, sometimes holding both positions simultaneously, possibly holding both under Ford as well..

[American Tragedy]

6. Kissinger wasn't Secretary of Defense

And I don't know if I would call Herman Goering an equivalent to defense minister, which is a position of civilian authority. He was Feldmarshal of the Luftwaffe, and then Reichsmarshal, the highest military rank.

If he were considered such, he would have probably been the worst, both from a moral and practical standpoint. He was brutal and sociopathic, founded the Gestapo, and was a vain, incompetent junkie whose presence ultimately helped Germany lose the war.

I would add McNamara to your poll. There is a fairly solid consensus among historians and former members of the administration that if he had advised Johnson to quit Vietnam from the beginning, the President probably would have done so.

McNamara did eventually develop enough insight to recognize his tragic mistakes, but of course it was too late.

[JohnnyCougar]

7. ok...I changed it to architect of war

I will add McNamara then

[American Tragedy]

8. Worst in the sense of morality, or competence?

Sorry, I keep dissecting your poll, but I actually find the question very interesting.

[Ladyhawk]

9. Yeah, I think Rummy wins the incompetence issue. n/t

[imenja]

12. Rumsfeld is not the architect of this war. He is it's administrator

[imenja]

13. delete

[Swamp Rat]

15. If building crappy lego houses that immediately self-destruct

can be considered architectual work, then I pick Rummy-Dummy.

[tritsofme]

16. Kaiser Willaim II

He didn't take Bismark's advice to befriend Russia and avoid a two front war in Europe.

In my time however its Robert MacNamera without a doubt. That man has the blood of a lot of American boys on his hands.