Robert McNamara, Ex-Pentagon Chief, Dies

Served As Secretary Of Defense For Presidents Kennedy, Johnson During Vietnam War; Dies At 93

(AP)  Robert S. McNamara, the cerebral secretary of defense who was vilified for prosecuting the Vietnam War, then devoted himself to helping the world's poorest nations, died Monday. He was 93.

McNamara died at 5:30 a.m. at his home, his wife Diana told The Associated Press. She said he had been in failing health for some time.

For all his healing efforts, McNamara was fundamentally associated with the Vietnam War, "McNamara's war," the country's most disastrous foreign venture, the only American war to end in abject withdrawal rather than victory.

Known as a policymaker with a fixation for statistical analysis, McNamara was recruited to run the Pentagon by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 from the presidency of the Ford Motor Co. He stayed seven years, longer than anyone since the job's creation in 1947.

His association with Vietnam became intensely personal. Even his son, as a Stanford University student, protested against the war while his father was running it. At Harvard, McNamara once had to flee a student mob through underground utility tunnels. Critics mocked McNamara mercilessly; they made much of the fact that his middle name was "Strange."

After leaving the Pentagon on the verge of a nervous breakdown, McNamara became president of the World Bank and devoted evangelical energies to the belief that improving life in rural communities in developing countries was a more promising path to peace than the buildup of arms and armies.

A private person, McNamara for many years declined to write his memoirs, to lay out his view of the war and his side in his quarrels with his generals. In the early 1990s he began to open up. He told Time magazine in 1991 that he did not think the bombing of North Vietnam - the biggest bombing campaign in history up to that time - would work but he went along with it "because we had to try to prove it would not work, number one, and (because) other people thought it would work."

Finally, in 1993, after the Cold War ended, he undertook to write his memoirs because some of the lessons of Vietnam were applicable to the post-Cold War period "odd as though it may seem."

"In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam" appeared in 1995. McNamara disclosed that by 1967 he had deep misgivings about Vietnam - by then he had lost faith in America's capacity to prevail over a guerrilla insurgency that had driven the French from the same jungled countryside.

Despite those doubts, he had continued to express public confidence that the application of enough American firepower would cause the Communists to make peace. In that period, the number of U.S. casualties - dead, missing and wounded - went from 7,466 to over 100,000.

"We of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations acted according to what we thought were the principles and traditions of our country. But we were wrong. We were terribly wrong," McNamara, then 78, told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of the book's release.

The best-selling mea culpa renewed the national debate about the war and prompted bitter criticism against its author.

"Where was he when we needed him?" a Boston Globe editorial asked. A New York Times editorial referred to McNamara as offering the war's dead only a "prime-time apology and stale tears, three decades late."

McNamara wrote that he and others had not asked the five most basic questions: Was it true that the fall of South Vietnam would trigger the fall of all Southeast Asia? Would that constitute a grave threat to the West's security? What kind of war - conventional or guerrilla - might develop? Could we win it with U.S. troops fighting alongside the South Vietnamese? Should we not know the answers to all these questions before deciding whether to commit troops?

He discussed similar themes in the 2003 documentary "The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara." With the U.S. in the first year of the war in Iraq, it became a popular and timely art-house attraction and won the Oscar for best documentary feature.

The Iraq war, with its similarities to Vietnam, at times brought up McNamara's name, in many cases in comparison with another unpopular defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld. McNamara was among former secretaries of defense and state who met twice with President George W. Bush in 2006 to discuss Iraq war policies.

In the Kennedy administration, McNamara was a key figure in both the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of April 1961 and the Cuban missile crisis 18 months later. The crisis was the closest the world came to a nuclear confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States.

McNamara served as the World Bank president for 12 years. He tripled its loans to developing countries and changed its emphasis from grandiose industrial projects to rural development.

After retiring in 1981, he championed the causes of nuclear disarmament and aid by the richest nation for the world's poorest. He became a global elder statesman.

McNamara's trademarks were his rimless glasses and slicked down hair and his reliance on quantitative analysis to reach conclusions, calmly promulgated in a husky voice.

As a professor at the Harvard Business School when World War II started, he helped train Army Air Corps officers in cost-effective statistical control. In 1943, he was commissioned an Army officer and joined a team of young officers who developed a new field of statistical control of supplies.

McNamara and his colleagues sold themselves to the Ford organization as a package and revitalized the company. The group became known as the "whiz kids," and McNamara was named the first Ford president who was not a descendant of Henry Ford.

A month later, the newly elected Kennedy, a Democrat, invited McNamara, a registered Republican, him to join his Cabinet. Taking the $25,000-a-year job cost McNamara $3 million in profit from Ford stocks and options.

As defense chief, McNamara reshaped America's armed forces for "flexible response" and away from the nuclear "massive retaliation" doctrine espoused by former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. He asserted civilian control of the Pentagon and applied cost-accounting techniques and computerized systems analysis to defense spending.

Early on, Kennedy regarded South Vietnam as an area threatened by Communist aggression and a providing ground for his new emphasis on counterinsurgency forces. A believer in the domino theory, which held that countries could fall to communism like a row of dominoes, Kennedy dispatched U.S. "advisers" to bolster the Saigon government. Their numbers surpassed 16,000 by the time of the president's assassination.

President Lyndon Johnson replaced Kennedy and retained McNamara as "the best in the lot" of Kennedy Cabinet members and the man to keep Vietnam from falling to the Communists.

When U.S. naval vessels allegedly were attacked off the North Vietnamese coast in 1964, McNamara lobbied Congress to pass the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which Johnson used as the equivalent of a congressional declaration of war.

McNamara visited Vietnam, the first of many trips, and returned predicting that American intervention would enable the South Vietnamese, despite internal feuds, to stand by themselves "by the end of 1965."

That was an early forerunner of a seemingly endless string of official "light at the end of the tunnel" predictions of American success. Each was followed by more warfare, more American troops, more American casualties, more American bombing, more North Vietnamese infiltration and more predictions of an early end to America's commitment.

[inesje88]

I feel bad bringing up all the atrocities committed by this man. To his credit, he did not implement Operation Northwoods. That would have been a disaster if implemented. Never the less, he really served those who own and run the corporate empire well.

[inesje88]

Love the part that mentions he was President of the World Bank. When the World Bank "loans" money to a 3rd world country it is a scam. They send in economic hitmen to countries in which US corporations desire the natural resources they have. It is an economic war. The loans actually go to corporations to build in that 3rd world country. The 3rd world country ends of defaulting on the loans. The loans are set up that way (similar to the mortgage crisis we have in the USA presently-loans made to people who can never pay them back).Then the corporations explote the resources of that 3rd country or force the country to make policy decisions favorable to the large corporations when they default on these huge loans. How befitting a man instrumental in the scam that killed thousands of our finest, injured even more and cost us billions, Viet Nam, gets rewarded by becoming Pres. of The World Bank. Those who controls the worlds money,controls the world. Most of the wars and conflicts in the world in these modern times are due to corporations and how they expand their empire. Mr. MacNamara, your final fate lies in the hands of God, not those whose lost loved ones died due to your policies. You are lucky.

[waiting4gado]

I visited Ho Chi Minh this past May, on the 34th aniversary of the fall of Saigon. While I was there I purchased a copy of McNamara's book, "In Retrospect". I was not subject to the draft until after the Johnson administration, but I protested against the war while still in high school. In all honestly I enjoyed reading McNamara's story. Was he responsible for huge mistakes? Clearly. Was he criminal in intent or responsibility? Doubtful. Many American soldiers died under his watch, and I am certain that he took that with him to his grave. Perhaps in historical analysis it will be detremined that we lost the Viet Nam War because the war was planed and managed by World War II veterans who were never able to propell themselves beyond that 1940's mind set. Maybe that is what is going on today. Viet Nam vets seeing Iraq as a continuation of their own war.

[michigander62]

McNamara was in deed a war criminal. His arrogance and stupidity caused the death and destruction of hundreds of thousands of M/W. Not just the >50K on the Wall. JFK new the war was wrong and so did Eisenhower, but not the brain dead Johnson. They both should be labeled criminals and have history record them as such.

[dennisgreen5]

Viet-Nam was a long time ago. The Secretary of Defense was selected by President Kennedy to fill that post. His job was to win the war as best as he knew how. That war wasn't the fault of any one man. It was the fault of every citizen who was intelligent and mature enough to guide this country down a different path but didn't. Congress, the president and and the pentagon put us there as early as 1956. The voters should have been paying attention to halt the escalation of that war.

[stn_sage]

I agree with you when you suggest that every citizen needs to be MORE discerning when it comes to electing politicians to lead them!

But the obvious facts are that many Americans are poorly educated, easily deceived, and make the wrong choices when electing officials. As that changes, less scoundrels will get elected!

I disagree with you when you attempt to get the public to be responsible for the war! This war CAN be traced to a hand-full of politicians and appointees! THEY had the power and authority to act in matters regarding the war---NOT the public! THAT, WAS their job! And, they did it poorly at best! THEY should be held accountable for their actions!

We elect the politicians to do the work of government, if they can't or won't do it, all we can do is replacement them. But, the PUBLIC is NOT responsible for THEIR MISTAKES!

[mejordelahistoria]

"the only American war to end in abject withdrawal rather than victory. "


......that's not true, these colors ran in Korea, there was no victory there neither. In Beirut we also ran out after terrorists killed hundreds of marines. In Somalia we ran also ever short of victory. In Iraq we failed to find weapons of mass destruction, and now we leave a devastated country that celebrates us leaving and an insurgency we never really stopped.

[stn_sage]

Well, your summary is pretty accurate! Though, each is a unique situation with factors that must be analyzed specific to it!

Regarding the passage you quote, I think the author was speaking in terms of the overall lengthy nature of that war, the heavy manpower and material commitment to it, and the resulting failure to achieve the desired result---compared to some of the other wars you note in your
summary!

[Solarrays247]

IT REALLY IS SO TRAGIC THAT SO MANY LIVES WERE LOST BECAUSE THEIR MISSION WAS POLITICAL AND UNCLEAR. SUCH WERE THE TIMES THEN.

WE ALSO HAD THE DRAFT WHICH MEANT THAT OUR YOUNG MEN COULD BE TAKEN INVOLUNTARY AND SENT TO DEATH OR A LIFETIME OF TRAUMA!!!
by HGOODGUY July 6, 2009 2:07 PM PDT


Yep, many of us lost good buddies and relatives in that tragic war called Vietnam.

That is....unless your name was AWOL George W. Bush, or five-time deferment Dick Cheney....and these two "brave" (snicker) men got to send another generation of brave young people to their possible death or physical and/or mental trauma....this time to an illegal war. You are right though, at least this time our young people were not drafted...they were just lied to.

[brady51h-2009]

They better keep his burial place a secret because the lines to water his grave will be very long. He was a useless Know-it-all bookworm who killed a lot of America's best youth. He will be remembered as one of America's most hated citizens.

[stn_sage]

I think you're right---on BOTH counts!

[HGOODGUY]

MAYBE THE LESSONS LEARNED IN VIET NAM, AS A RESULT OF MCNAMARAS FLAWED PERCEPTION, ARE THE REASON THAT OUR TROOPS ARE RESPECTED AND NEVER SENT ANYWHERE UNLESS THE MISSION IS CLEAR.

IT REALLY IS SO TRAGIC THAT SO MANY LIVES WERE LOST BECAUSE THEIR MISSION WAS POLITICAL AND UNCLEAR. SUCH WERE THE TIMES THEN.

WE ALSO HAD THE DRAFT WHICH MEANT THAT OUR YOUNG MEN COULD BE TAKEN INVOLUNTARY AND SENT TO DEATH OR A LIFETIME OF TRAUMA!!!

AT LEAST NOW MILITARY SERVICE IS VOLUNTARY AND, AS A RESULT, SOLDIERS KNOW WHAT THEY ARE BEING TRAINED FOR AND HELD IN HIGH ESTEEM.

MCNAMARA DIRECTED THE VIET NAM WAR ON "INTELECT AND THEORY" AND NEVER REALIZED THE HUMAN TOLL.

DEAD IS NOT THEORY--DEAD IS JUST DEAD!!!!

[johninpennsyl]

The devil had to wait a long time for this bum.
He sent a lot of good,young men to their deaths,for no reason,and then had the balz to say it might have been a mistake.
My brother Pat,one of those good young men was killed in Nam in July 1966,and this worthless a$$wipe lives to be 93.
May Robert Strange McNamara rot in hell.

[stn_sage]

There are MILLIONS of Americans who can relate to what you are saying!
I'm sorry about your brother Pat, that's why these clowns need to be
held accountable for their actions! So, men like your brother aren't
needlessly killed! That's why Bush & Co. ought to be prosecuted for
what they've done regarding the Iraq War! For the good men & women
who were senselessly killed during this war, too!

[branchltd]

The bean counter would not be missed by Vietnam Veterans. His policies were the main cause of the Vietnam debacle. Rumsfeld is his clone. Neither of them were qualified to serve as secretary of defense. They were put on board to save money, not win and wars. In both cases they grossly undersupplied the military actions resulting in unnecessary casualties. The basic principle of warfare is to hit the enemy with everything you can as soon as you can, not what these idiots were doing.

[branchltd]

The bean counter would not be missed by Vietnam Veterans. His policies were the main cause of the Vietnam debacle. Rumsfeld is his clone. Neither of them were qualified to serve as secretary of defense. They were put on board to save money, not win and wars. In both cases they grossly undersupplied the military actions resulting in unnecessary casualties. The basic principle of warfare is to hit the enemy with everything you can as soon as you can, not what these idiots were doing.

[hermitdave]

America again lets a WAR criminal die of old age. This guy LIED as thousands of Americas soldiers died and were maimed. For sure his middle name STRANGE was a fitting description. Just like Rummy did for Cheney, Strange Mac did for the military industrial complex of that era. As long as America continues to let its leaders do very STUPID stuff with immunity from prosecution, it will loose brave soldiers obeying orders of STUPID GREEDY leaders. Now as Obama continues the Cheney crusades the people responsible for both the Afghan and Iraq debacle retire to write books like STRANGE MAC did, never fearing anyone from the government will ever bring charges of MURDER of innocents against them. What a shame that incompetence in politics is rewarded by a nice pension, book deals, public speaking for big money.

[Sloughfoot]

End of Story!

[walt1944]

I remember McNamara as a "YES" man who was a "hawk" during the Vietnam War. He would go to South Vietnam and talk with that idiot General Westmoreland who ALWAYS wanted MORE and MORE and MORE; then McNamara would come home and demand that another 100,000 boys had to be drafted into the army so Westmoreland could have more "cannon fodder" to play with. If you had 2 arms, 2 legs, and 1/4 of a brain you got sent to Vietnam, PERIOD!

Everyone, from draft age kids to the relatives of those same kids, to returning Vietnam vets HATED McNamara and were all glad when LBJ finally let him go!

Since then, the hypocrite had been crying that he was "misunderstood" that he really hated the Vietnam War and was a critic of the war. He tried to convince everyone that he was just doing his job even though he had differences of opinion with LBJ.

Well, with all that blood on his hands, he can now try to convince a HIGHER POWER of that! No one here believed a word of it!!!

HAIL OBAMA???????

[venkata4--2008]

His death came 45 years too late.

[stn_sage]

The truth is---a h*e*l*l*u*v*a lot of people feel that way about him!

But, the point is: he brought it upon himself!

[culturechang]

His legacy will rightfully be as the "dispassionate architect of the Vietnam War".

[6591Hou]

Absolutely correct, McNamara was the prototypical statistician trying to quantify and predict battlefield victory by tracking data bits such as body counts among others. He may have been able to apply that sort of cold analysis to predict Ford's business performance but the intangible variables of combat escaped him. He was cold, he was analytical, and he was wrong........sounds like another far more recent SecDef as well.

[pensacola8-2009]

The Cold War brought out the best and the worst in both nations. For many military persons, it was confusing to learn that one day they were in the best, and the next day, they were in the worst place they could be.

McNamara's service was considered honorable at the time and forced many dissidents in the USA to raise the conscience of the nation with protests for better priorities and better conflict resolution processes.

McNamara was part of a larger group that once had the majority in this nation. Many in that generation had counterparts in the Soviet Union who were equally tenacious and never backed down, until political leaders on both side started talking.

I do beleive that McNamara was good at his job, and that many Americans and Russians simply didn't like the task he had, and neither knew what they realy wanted. It was that dislike which fueled dissention and protests and took the country to a new direction. If he had been poor at his job, neither the USA or Soviet Union might have had enough time to decide what they really wanted.

The Cold War was a robotic fight without conscience that eventually resulted in both sides acquiring one. Many feel that it was more of a rebound war left over from unresolved issues in WWII.

Today, the NSA struggles for a valid mission. It was created to fight the cold war, and re-organized government serious enough to start the collection of Federal Income Taxes, but today, it lives the nightmare predicted by Eisenhaur of becoming the Defense Industrial Complex that dominates the priorities of the nation.

Robet McNamara was a good warrior, but had bad leaders to follow.

[stn_sage]

by pensacola8-2009 July 6, 2009 9:03 AM PDT
Robet McNamara was a good warrior, but had bad leaders to follow.
---------------------------------
You're usually more perceptive than your conclusion on Mr. McNamara shows!

Does a good warrior prevent the troops from winning by establishing 'rules of engagement'?

Does a good warrior risk the lives of the troops by trying to save a few dollars here and their---that is, 'fighting it cheap'?

Does a good warrior 'tell his boss what he wants to hear' when he knows it's not the truth? Does he do this for YEARS!?

Does a good warrior 'cut'n run'---quit his job because the stress of what he did is playing heavily upon his conscience?

Does a good warrior after supporting the war for years, say toward the end that it might be a 'mistake'---to begin the process of extricating himself---when he knew it WAS?

And, does a good warrior spend forty PLUS years alibiing, misstating, and spinning his own involvement in that war?!

The answer to these questions---my answer, is NO!

Robert McNamara was not a warrior, he was a successful auto exec, his
skill(s) were not transferable as Secretary of Defense, and consequently, he gave bad advice to his superiors regarding the war.

[koko98-2009]

Was he a war crimminal, maybe. He certainly felt guilty enough about it. But he did come up with the idea for the Cuban missile blockade and he did save Ford in the fifties by green lighting the Falcon and the Mustang.

[goeswest]

I was too young to remember much of the Vietnam War,but as I grew older I learned about Robert McNamara.Why he did what he did when he knew the war could never be won,we will never know.All I do know is that he died with the blood on his hands from more than 58,000 men and women who lost their lives and tens of thousands more soldiers who were wounded in a useless war.

[barberd3]

It was Robert McNamara, his failed tactics and his failure to support our troops, who made those sacrifices "useless." They didn't have to be. Dozens of books have been written about the "lessons of Vietnam," including McNamara's own. The lesson I'd like to remember is that we have a choice, we can make this generation's sacrifices in Iraq and Afghanistan "useless," or make them count. The way to make them "useless" would be to abandon the sacrifices already made, to fail to see this through. A Vietnam veteran.

[brianbwb-2009]

To barberd3

The way to make the sacrifices in Iraq and Afghanistan count is to realize that they were not sacrifices for country, but sacrifices for multinational corporations who use them as a free mercenary service, and profiteers, who use the war budget as a source of corporate welfare.

Then bring them home, make those who sent them there pay, and use that realization to make sure such cannot happen again.

Otherwise the sacrifice is for nothing.