Not to assume that the deceased are always remembered fondly, but I'm a bit confused by your comment. If he isn't great, but had noble purpose, I'd love to know how that works–at least, to learn a different way of quantifying a life lived.

Not for us to judge the historical impact of his work; we haven't the perspective.

He encouraged Nixon to bomb Vietnam if the war continued, which the Nixon admonistration estimated would have killed 1 million people.

Everyone is a mixed bag of good and bad, but pushing a military leader to kill so many (mostly civilian) people is not forgivable.

Why?

He was ardently anti-communist.

I'm sure he believed what he was doing was moral, just as the Bush administration thought invading Iraq was moral. That doesn't mean civilian lives instantly exit the equation.