Ben Rhodes earlier this year in NYRB: ‘One of the curious aspects of McNamara’s character is that he seemed to view Vietnam as a calamity that happened to him. To be sure, the war made his life difficult. His children came to oppose it. His wife developed severe ulcers from the stress.’

And: ‘Henry Kissinger, for his part, was not tortured by second thoughts. He mocked McNamara, the Taubmans recount: “‘Boohoo, boohoo,’ Kissinger said, pretending to cry and rub his eyes. ‘He’s still beating his breast, right? Still feeling guilty?’” Kissinger was entirely comfortable with power and was thus lauded and handsomely rewarded by the ruling class until his death, in a way that McNamara wasn’t. Perhaps this was because Kissinger never really believed in a virtuous American exceptionalism in the first place.’

Kissinger believed that the empire should set the rules—for him, that was exceptionalism. An honest man.

(a sf 2266)