Robert McNamara

Robert McNamara was an American business executive and government official who served as secretary of defense under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1968. He brought statistical systems analysis and centralised management techniques from Ford Motor Company into the Pentagon.

McNamara became one of the principal architects of the American escalation in Vietnam, a policy he later acknowledged had been deeply flawed. After leaving the Defense Department he served as president of the World Bank and later wrote extensively about nuclear danger, development and the failures of Vietnam-era decision-making.

In Jeff Shaara’s The Shadow of War, Kennedy confront military advice for air strikes or invasion, while Robert McNamara helps organise a naval quarantine intended to stop additional equipment without triggering an immediate war.