Robert McNamara
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Robert McNamara was an American businessman who served as Secretary of Defense under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson during the Cold War and Vietnam War era. His tenure matters historically because he significantly shaped U.S. military policy and strategy during some of the most consequential and controversial periods of the 20th century.
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Robert Strange McNamara (/ˈmæknəˌmærə/; June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009), also known by his initials RSM, was an American businessman and government official who served as the eighth United States secretary of defense from 1961 to 1968 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson at the height of the Cold War. He remains the longest-serving secretary of defense, having remained in office over seven years . He played a major role in promoting the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. McNamara was responsible for the institution of systems analysis in public policy, which developed into the discipline known today as policy analysis.
McNamara graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard Business School. He served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. After World War II, Henry Ford II hired McNamara and a group of other Army Air Force veterans to work for the Ford Motor Company, reforming Ford with modern planning, organization, and management control systems. After briefly serving as Ford's president, McNamara accepted an appointment as secretary of defense in the Kennedy administration.
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1916 births2009 deaths20th-century American memoirists20th-century American politiciansAmerican people of Irish descentAmerican people of the Vietnam WarAmerican PresbyteriansBurials at Arlington National CemeteryBusinesspeople from MichiganBusinesspeople from Oakland, CaliforniaCalifornia RepublicansCivilian recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (United States)