Robert McNamara: His Legacy As The Architect of the Vietnam War

Robert McNamara (1916-2009), the US Ex-Defense Secretary who played a controversial role in the Vietnam War, died in his sleep on July 6 2009 at the age of 93.

As one of the most influential figures in 20th century American history, McNamara's role in the Vietnam War has been the subject of much debate. McNamara has been frequently criticized for his decisions, as the Vietnam War resulted in the death of 3 million Vietnamese and thousands of Americans.

McNamara has also been compared to Donald Rumsfeld, who served as the US Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 and presided over War in Iraq. Both men presided over high-profile, controversial wars, were selected to serve for two consecutive terms and were replaced as those wars began to appear un-winnable. Both McNamara and Rumsfeld have also been heavily criticized for their decisions, which resulted in the death of thousands and tarnished the reputation of the United States.

McNamara's Political Career

At the beginning of his career, McNamara, a statistician, worked with General Curtis LeMay to  to manage the bombing campaigns against Germany and Japan by ruthlessly using statistical methods. 67 Japanese cities were firebombed and just under 1 million people were killed, of these 100,000 were killed in just one night. 

Later, after being appointed as the US Secretary of Defense by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, McNamara sent approximately 500,000 American soldiers to the war in Vietnam. Of these, more than 16,000 died under his watch and 42,000 died after he ended his term as the Secretary of Defense.

McNamara's Regrets

However, in 1966, McNamara began questioning "the wisdom of the US involvement in Vietnam." The value of the Vietnam War and its consequences would be questions that haunted him for years to come. 

In the 2003 film, "The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert McNamara", McNamara raised questions about the nature of war and human behavior by providing a behind-the-scenes perspective of the Vietnam war, the Cuban missile crisis, and World War II. He "expressed his regrets about the stubborn ‘stay the course’ mentality that dismissed even the most thoughtful and constructive criticism as merely anti-war propaganda."

However, critics argued that McNamara admitted his regrets 30 years too late.

Brief Biography of McNamara

Robert Strange McNamara was born on June 9, 1916 in Oakland California. He studied at the University of California Berkeley and the Harvard Business School. After completing his MBA, he worked for Price Waterhours and became the highest paid and youngest Assistant Professor at Harvard in 1940. Before serving as the US Secretary of Defense he was the President of the Ford Motor Company.