Special Reports

Robert McNamara dies

Robert S. McNamara, who served as defense secretary during the Vietnam war and the Cuban Missile Crisis, has died at the age of 93. McNamara, who served Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961-1968, was also a key architect of the nuclear deterrence policy. After leaving the Pentagon he became President of the World Bank.

His wife Diana said he had suffered failing health for some time and died in his sleep at home in Washington, DC. Before taking up the post as Pentagon chief in 1961, McNamara was the president of Ford Motor Company, turning the company around in the post World War II era.

McNamara was fundamentally associated with the Vietnam War, called “McNamara’s war” by many of his critics. He was derided mercilessly;critics made much of the fact that his middle
name was “Strange.”

McNamara in South Vietnam in 1965 (Photo credit: SSGT R. W. SAVATT, JR./AFP/Getty Images)

In Errol Morris’s 2003 film, The Fog of War, McNamara spoke frankly about the Vietnam war, the Cuban missile crisis and World War II, giving a behind-the-scenes account of the context in which important decisions were taken, in so doing raising questions about the nature of war and human behavior.

Watch other parts from ‘The Fog of War’

BBC obituary

Washington Post obituary

New York Times obituary