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'Fog of War' Robert McNamara, dead at 93

By April MacIntyre Jul 6, 2009, 15:27 GMT

Robert McNamara, the former secretary of defense, an executive of industry who was best known as the primary architect of U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam, died early this morning at age 93.

(File) A file photograph dated 13 May 2004 , shows Robert McNamara, former US Secretary of Defense during the early part of the Vietnam War, and president of the World Bank from 1968 to 1981 at the Barcleona Forum, Spain. Robert McNamara, the former US secretary of defence, businessman and later head of the World Bank, has died at the age of 93. The Washington Post newspaper reported his death on its online edition 06 July after being informed by McNamara's family. McNamara was defence secretary throughout most of the Vietnam war, from 1961 to 1968. He had previously been the first non-family member to head the Ford Motor Company. EPA/ALBERTO ESTEVEZThe Washington Post reports McNamara died at home, and no cause of death was released.McNamara served the presidencies of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson, where he directed a U.S. military buildup in Southeast Asia during the early years of a Vietnamese conflict that escalated into war that claimed 58,000 Americans' lives.According to the Post obituary, McNamara was president of Ford Motor Co. For 13 years after he left Washington in 1968, he was president of the World Bank. The Post writes:"He was a brilliant student, a compulsive worker and a skillful planner and organizer, whose manifest talents carried him from modest circumstances in California to the highest levels of the Washington power structure. He was said to have built a record of achievement and dedication in business, government and public service that few of his generation could match."McNamara was held responsible for the humiliating Vietnam war which he acknowledged and accepted in a controversial 1995 memoir "McNamara's war." He was the subject of the 2004 Oscar winning documentary, "Fog of War," by Errol Morris, which shared intimate footage and eleven lessons McNamara learned about the nature and conduct of modern war..

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Jamey HechtJul 7th, 2009 - 00:30:50

At this hour of Mr. McNamara's death I direct your attention to an elegy for President Kennedy, LIMOUSINE, MIDNIGHT BLUE: FIFTY FRAMES FROM THE ZAPRUDER FILM, in which the following lines occur:

'Before you tapped him / for Defense, McNamara ran Ford Motor Co., / and if we’re lucky, he’s got more bold new ideas.'

...as well as these lines:

'Ask not what the tolling bell can do for you, / ask what it matters in eternity. / Consider the dying stars, / how they bring unfinished business to a perfect end.'

For 8 sample poems, each with its own little VIDEO, see www dot jameyhecht dot com.
Thank you.

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'Fog of War' Robert McNamara, dead at 93

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