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Robert S. McNamara, perhaps the most influential defense secretary
of the 20th century, who helped lead the nation into the maelstrom of
Vietnam and spent the rest of his life wrestling with the war’s moral
consequences, died early Monday at his home in Washington, D.C., the
Associated Press reported, citing his wife, Diana. He was 93, and
according to the news agency, had been in failing health for some time.
Serving Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1968, Mr. McNamara oversaw hundreds of military missions,
thousands of nuclear weapons and billions of dollars in military
spending and foreign arms sales. He also enlarged the defense
secretary’s role, handling foreign diplomacy and the dispatch of troops
to enforce civil rights in the South.
“He’s like a jackhammer,” said President Johnson. “No human being
can take what he takes. He drives too hard. He is too perfect.”
As early as April 1964, Senator Wayne Morse, Democrat of Oregon,
called Vietnam “McNamara’s War.” Mr. McNamara did not object. “I am
pleased to be identified with it,” he said, “and do whatever I can to
win it.”
Half a million American soldiers went to war on his watch. More than
16,000 died; 42,000 more would fall in the seven years to come.
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