Who was the worst Secretary of Defense?

[12th Doctor]

I am curious as to why no one has brought up any of the Carter/Clinton people who let the DoD atrophy.

That being said, though, Rumsfeld is clearly the worst.  Total incompetence.

McNamara doesn't deserve the slams he takes, and his whole "Mia Culpa (sp)" tour of recent years is just an attempt to "fix" his legacy.

First off, he played a big part in keeping us out of a nuclear exchange in 1962.  Secondly, we had every reason to be in Vietnam.  Thirdly, most of what went wrong there was not directly McNamara's fault, though he shares some of the blame, that much is true.

[12th Doctor]

The real tragedy of Iraq and Vietnam... and most history, in fact, is that people will learn the wrong lessons.  In both cases, it was how we conducted ourselves, not the action itself, that was at fault.  In both cases, huge mistakes were made after the initial phases, and a real strategy was not mapped out... and then each operation has a laundry list of specific mistakes.

[12th Doctor]

I am curious as to why no one has brought up any of the Carter/Clinton people who let the DoD atrophy.

You do know that Clinton was carrying out the plan put in place by the Sec of Defense of his predecessor (aka Dick Cheney).  Bush/Cheney began the plan of scaling back the military.

Yes, I do know that.