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• Robert McNamara served as the U.S. Secretary of Defense under President's John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1968 during the Vietnam War.

  McNamera died at the age of 93 on the morning of Monday, July 6, 2009.http://www.startribune.com/50018222.html?elr=KArks:DCiUBcy7hUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aU7DYaGEP7vDEh7P:DiUs

• Fast Facts

  1. Full name: Robert Strange McNamara
  2. Born: June 9, 1916
  3. Birthplace: San Francisco, California
  4. Wife: Diana Masieri Byfield
  5. The documentary Fog of War explains the difficult times of his career
  6. "Strange" was his mother's maiden name
  7. Died on Monday, July 6, 2009

• Career

  In addition to his time as Secretary of Defense, McNamara has been a very successful businessman has written books, and spoken on a variety of humanitarian subjects. He was President of the World Bank from 1968 to 1981 and became President of Ford Motor Company in 1960.

• Secretary of Defense

  President-elect John F. Kennedy first offered the post of secretary of defense to former secretary Robert A. Lovett. Lovett declined but recommended McNamara. McNamara immediately began to reorganize and streamline the nation's defense force and bureaucracy. He was central to the Kennedy administration's drive to change U.S. military strategy from reliance on nuclear massive retaliation to one of flexible response. McNamara emphasized cost control, the phasing out "obsolete weapons systems," and greater overall efficiency.

• Related Mahalo Pages

  Cuban Missile Crisis | Donald Rumsfeld | Ford | Lyndon Johnson | John F. Kennedy | Harvard University | Robert Gates | The Fog of War | University of California, Berkeley | United States | Vietnam War | World Bank

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