rotten > Library > Biographies > US Officials > Robert McNamara

Robert McNamara

  • Secretary of Defense for LBJ during the Vietnam War. In particular this is the guy that got us hip deep in quagmire. On his hands is the blood of 50,000 American boys.
  • Member, Trilateral Commission. Brookings Institution.
  • Mutually Assured Destruction—Atomic Bomb.

Timeline

9 Jun 1916 Robert McNamara born, San Francisco CA.
1937 Graduates (Economics and Philosophy) University of California, Berkeley.
1939 MBA, Harvard University.
13 Aug 1940 Marries Margaret Craig.
1943 Captain, U.S. Army Air Force.
1946 Leaves Army Air Force as Lt. Col.
9 Nov 1960 President of Ford Motor Corp., the first non-Ford in this position.
21 Jan 1961 U.S. Secretary of Defense under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, until his resignation in 1968.
Apr 1961 Give the go-ahead for Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.
1962 McNamara's approach to fighting Communism, according to a report he authored: "The military tactics are those of the sniper, the ambush, and the raid. The political tactics are terror, extortion, and assassination."
Oct 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Aug 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident.
29 Nov 1967 Lyndon B. Johnson announces McNamara's resignation.
29 Feb 1968 Resignation as Secretary of Defense, primarily due to disenchantment over the Vietnam War.
Apr 1968 Head, World Bank.
30 Jun 1981 Retires as head of the World Bank.


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