Robert McNamara 1916-2009
Robert Strange McNamara, 93, who was born on June 9, 1916 in San Francisco, died today. McNamara was a business executive and served as the Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1968 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He later served as President of the World Bank, from 1968 to 1981.
Robert Strange McNamara’s father was Robert James McNamara, a sales manager of a wholesale shoe company. His mother was Clara Neil Strange McNamara. He attended Piedmont High School in Piedmont, California. McNamara was an Eagle Scout. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1937 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics, with minors in mathematics and philosophy; he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in his sophomore year. McNamara then earned an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1939. He worked for a year at Price Waterhouse in San Francisco then returned to Harvard to teach analytical approaches used in business to officers of the Army Air Forces (AAF). McNamara entered the Army in 1943 as a captain and served through most of WWII with the AAF’s Office of Statistical Control. He left active duty in 1946 as a lieutenant colonel.
A group of 10 officers, originally chosen on the basis of intelligence (IQ), was hired en masse by Ford Motor Company after a proposal made by Charles “Tex” Thorton (a colonel under whom McNamara had served) for Ford to hire either all 10 or none. The group was known within Ford as the “Whiz Kids.” In 1960, McNamara became the first president of Ford from outside the family of Henry Ford.
As Secretary of Defense under John F. Kennedy, McNamara worked to place more of U.S. forces under civilian command and control. Kennedy and McNamara rejected the philosophy of “massive retaliation” favored by Dwight D. Eisenhower in favor of a flexible response. McNamara also created the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Defense Supply Agency.
McNamara played a large role in the Kennedy Administration’s defusing of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. In his annual report of the same year, he talked about preparation for counter-insurgency operations to counter communist “wars of national liberation,” in places like South Vietnam.
As Secretary of Defense, McNamara instituted systems analysis as a basis for making key decisions on such things as force requirments and weapons systems. Later, McNamara put in place a statistical strategy for victory in Vietnam. McNamara believed that there was a limited number of Viet Cong fighters in Vietnam and that a war of attrition would destroy them. He applied metrics (body counts) to determine how close his plan was to succeeding.
McNamara was instumental in persuading Congress that the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in 1964 was a reason for escalation. The Congress passed the Southeast Asia Resolution (better known as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution), which granted President Lyndon B. Johnson the authority to assist any Southeast Asian government considered to be jeopardized by “communist aggression,” including the commitment of U.S. forces without a declaration of war. The resolution served as Johnson’s legal justification for escalating US involvement in the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). It gave the U.S. president the exclusive right to use military force without consulting the U.S. Senate. It was based on a false pretext, as Johnson later admitted.
McNamara grew more and more controversial after 1966 as he differed with President Johnson and the Joint Chiefs of Staff over strategy in Vietnam. In November of 1967, McNamara announced his pending resignation and that he would become president of the World Bank. McNamara himself expressed uncertainty over whether he resigned or was fired. When he left office in February of 1968, President Johnson awarded him both the Medal of Freedom and the Distinguished Service Medal.
McNamara published his memoir, In Retrospect, in 1995. The book was an account and analysis of the Vietnam War from his point of view. Reviews of the book were very mixed. The book has been viewed as McNamara’s attempt to apologize for his role in the war, but the book has also been viewed as an attempt to shift blame to others, in order to transform McNamara’s image from being an architect of the war to an opponent.
The famous quote by Winston Churchill comes to mind, “History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.” 
The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003), a documentary film in which McNamara was interviewed, won an Academy Award for Documentary Feature.
The Wikipedia article details many more aspects of McNamara’s life and legacies.
Robert S. McNamara died in his sleep at his home in Washington early in the morning on July 6, 2009.
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