Robert McNamara, Original Whiz Kid and former Sec. of Defense, Has Died

Photo by Stan Wayman

July 6, 2009 — Robert McNamara served as Secretary of Defense under President Kennedy and President Johnson; he was 93 years old. Most remember him as Vietnam-era Defense Secretary but he also had an impact on Detroit, specifically Ford Motor Company.

After achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel with the Army Air Forces he joined Ford Motor Company. McNamara was one of ten former WWII officers who became known as the “Whiz Kids”. A group credited with stopping the company’s losses and administrative chaos in the post-war era. During his time as a Ford executive he placed high emphasis on safety standards. In November, 1960, McNamara would eventually become the first Ford president from outside the Henry Ford family.

Robert McNamara’s post atop Ford Motor Company was short-lived as five weeks into the position, then President-elect John F. Kennedy, offered him a cabinet position. In 1961 McNamara accepted Kennedy’s invitation to serve as Secretary of Defense. He continued to serve under President Johnson until February, 1968, making him the longest-serving and probably most influential Defense Secretary of our time.

In 2003, in a documentary by Errol Morris, The Fog of War, gave McNamara a new voice to explain his actions. Here is an excerpt from the film.

In the documentary, McNamara pondered about those who have led people into war.

“Any military commander who is honest with himself will admit that he has made mistakes in the application of military power. He’s killed people, unnecessarily… a hundred, or thousand, or tens of thousands, maybe even a hundred thousand.”

Later in life during a speech at Brown University, McNamara said Vietnam provided crucial lesson that needed to be applied to U.S. foreign policy in Iraq.

At the age of 65, McNamara became president of the World Bank. He was credited with shifting the Bank’s focus toward poverty reduction. He oversaw a spectacular growth in funds to channel credits for development in the form of health, food, and education projects. The World Bank currently has a scholarship under his name: the Robert S. McNamara Fellowships Program.

In Oval Office tapes, available at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, speaking of McNamara, President Johnson said “He just gives you the answers, and he gives you cooperation, and he’s a can-do fellow.” Whether one agrees with, or debates his policies, Robert S. McNamara’s life included many first-hand decisions in moments which shifted 21st century American politics.

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WCBS Radio: Robert S. McNamara Dies