2009年7月7日星期二

Robert Mcnamara (1916-2009) ~ 美越战争设计师

我们夸大了他们的行为将给美国带来的危险

我们低估了一个人为其国家战斗的信念和价值观

我们只看重最先进的武器、装备和军队,而忽视了如何赢得来自不同文化背景的人民的心

上帝并没有赐予美国任意塑造每个国家和民族的权力

上面的话,出自一位被称为“美越战争设计师”的灵魂人物口中。这个人是 Robert Mcnamara, 美国前国防部长,也曾任职世界银行行长达10年。

他在今天与世长辞,享年93岁。(1916-2009)

其实也就是到他离开的这一刻,才认识到这一个人。但是,“美越战争设计师”这个名衔带来了吸引力,一位主导或者曾经陷入如此惊心动魄战事,甚至让一个大国陷入不可思议的战败局面的主角,他的人生观究竟是怎么样的?

无意间看到,曾经有人在他办公室外自焚,来抗议越战,还有无数的抗议浪潮,但是,这个人的坚定实在不能不让人佩服。

厌恶邪恶与霸权,但是,不得不佩服这些人的果敢和坚定,有多少人能够在万千异议声浪前,依然故我、坚持己见?!更何况,他背负的是上万的生命和国家庞大资产的投入。

后来知道,他不只能够上战场,还是一位经济专才,一位朋友在Facebook对他留下这样的评论:

Do you know that he was a very successful head of the World Bank (who eradicated river blindness, expanded funding to third world development, improved economic research at the WB) and could even be attributed for bringing down Japan in WWII to a faster conclusion (destroying military/civilian morale through strategic bombing in Japan?) And... Read more that he also reshaped the US military to better deal with post WWII (ie Cold War) warfare?

No doubt a lot of people died, but his legacy is not as straightforward as it seems. He is very well known for his expression of misgivings/lessons of his tenure as the Secretary of Defense, and he made it clear that his legacy would be having people to learn from his mistakes :-)


在看到他在越战后的反思,不得不佩服他所反省到的结果。美越战事或许带给美国惨痛的回忆,但是,他的结论,将是能够让美国深深受用的训诫,也是美国必须时时紧记的处世之道!

没有评论: