Historical Figure
Robert McNamara
d. 2009
American businessman and government official (1916–2009)
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Biography
Robert Strange McNamara was an American businessman and government official who served as the eighth United States secretary of defense from 1961 to 1968 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson at the height of the Cold War. He remains the longest-serving secretary of defense, having remained in office over seven years. He played a major role in promoting the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. McNamara was responsible for the institution of systems analysis in public policy, which developed into the discipline known today as policy analysis.
Timeline
The story of Robert McNamara, told in moments.
Became president of Ford Motor Company, the first person outside the Ford family to hold the title. He'd been one of the "Whiz Kids," a group of Army Air Forces veterans who modernized Ford with statistical analysis after WWII. He held the job for five weeks.
Appointed Secretary of Defense by JFK. Served seven years, the longest tenure in the role's history. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, he was one of Kennedy's closest advisors, advocating the naval blockade over an air strike.
Privately concluded the Vietnam War was unwinnable even as he publicly defended escalation. Commissioned the Pentagon Papers, a secret history of the war. The contradiction ate at him for decades.
In Their Own Words (7)
Neither conscience nor sanity itself suggests, that the United States is, or should or could be the global gendarme.
In: Charles E. Miller (2010) Conscience, Denied, p. 21, 2010
I would rather have a wrong decision made than no decision at all.
Quoted in: Charles A. Stevenson (2006), SECDEF: The Nearly Impossible Job of Secretary of Defense, p. 28, 2006
Lesson #7: Belief and seeing are both often wrong.Lesson #8: Be prepared to reexamine your reasoning.Lesson #9: In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil.Lesson #10: Never say never.Lesson #11: You can't change human nature...
Robert S. McNamara (2004), Official Teacher's Guide for The Fog of War, p. 5, 2004
It would be our policy to use nuclear weapons wherever we felt it, necessary to protect our forces and achieve our objectives.
In: Herbert Y. Schandler (1975), US Policy on the Use of Nuclear Weapons, 1945-1975. p. 55, 1975
You can never substitute emotion for reason. I still would allow a place for intuition in this process, but not emotion. They say I am a power gabber. But knowledge is power, and I am giving them knowledge, so they will have more power. Can't they see that?
In: Henry L. Trewhitt (1971) McNamara, p. 119, 1971
Artifacts (15)
This is the safest place to be in the world right now
A media relations specialist who was working in the building at the time recounted years later that she told a coworker, "This is the safest place to be in the world right now". Another was on the...
Out of the Cold: New Thinking for American Foreign and Defence Policy in the 21st Century
Robert McNamara draws on his experience working for the government during the Cuban missile crisis and the Vietnam war, to trace US-Soviet relations in the last three decades, and opens the debate on...
Wilson's Ghost: Reducing The Risk Of Conflict, Killing And Catastrophe In The 21st Century
President Kennedy's former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and coauthor Blight (international studies, Brown U.) offer suggestions as to how the United States could and should change its foreign...
Wilson's Ghost: Reducing The Risk Of Conflict, Killing, And Catastrophe In The 21st Century
With Wilson's Ghost, Robert S. McNamara and James G. Blight deliver an impassioned plea and a decisive and multi-faceted program for making the 21st century a more peaceful century than the last. The...
Disconnection and Cancel Culture: Karens, Kyles, and Intolerance in American Society
Taking a sociological approach, this timely book explains the significance, development, and impact of cancel culture. Robert McNamara discusses the popular phenomenon of ‘Karens’ and their male...
Between the 11th floor and the 9th floor, we wound through this maze. When we go...
ase that survived the disaster, and World Trade Center workers who knew escape routes. One survivor stated, "Between the 11th floor and the 9th floor, we wound through this maze. When we got to the...
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