Robert McNamara Biography

Appointed Secretary of State for Defence, 1st term

Directs Pentagon assessments of the expanding advisory war

McNamara discussed military options including surveillance, quarantine, air strikes, and invasion.

McNamara asked military planners to refine blockade, air-strike, and invasion options while the President considered how to respond.

McNamara worked on a quarantine plan designed to halt additional offensive weapons without immediately attacking existing missile sites.

McNamara organized the naval interception plan and continued preparations for air strikes and invasion.

McNamara briefed Kennedy on naval interception procedures and the military preparations supporting the proposed quarantine.

McNamara reviewed rules governing interception, inspection, and possible seizure of vessels carrying prohibited military equipment.

McNamara closely supervised naval operations as the quarantine line became active in the Atlantic approaches to Cuba.

McNamara argued against automatic retaliation after the loss of Rudolf Anderson's U-2, helping preserve time for negotiation.

McNamara directed the military to maintain pressure and surveillance while Soviet forces began preparing the missiles for removal.

McNamara oversaw the military transition from quarantine operations after the remaining Soviet IL-28 bombers were scheduled for withdrawal.

Appointed Secretary of State for Defence, 2nd term

Asks SAC to improve its capabilities for limited war

Defends administration policy during passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

NSA Bundy & Defence SecretaryMcNamara send a memo to Johnson stating Americas military involvement is Vietnam failing. Bundy & McNamara advise Johnson the US has reached a fork in the road in Vietnam & must either soon escalate or withdraw

McNamara & Westmorland agree to use B52s for conventional bombing in South Vietnam

Reccommends to Johnson a diluted version of Bundys "just right" option

Resigns after Johnson ignores his advice to stop bombing Vietnam

Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara created the Vietnam Study Task Force on June 17, 1967, for the purpose of writing an "encyclopedic history of the Vietnam War". McNamara claimed that he wanted to leave a written record for historians, to prevent policy errors in future administrations

Resigns after Johnson ignores his advice to stop bombing Vietnam

Instead of using existing Defense Department historians, McNamara assigned his close aide and Assistant Secretary of Defense John T. McNaughton to collect the papers. McNaughton died in an air accident one month after work began in June 1967, but the project continued under the direction of Defense Department official Leslie H. Gelb

Vance & McNanamara advise against accepting the JCS proposals for further forces

The Stennis Committee defends restricted bombing in North Vietnam. Says only annhilation can break the will of the north Vietnamese

Announces he will leave the Defense Department amid doubts about the war

McNamara neglected to inform either President Lyndon Johnson or Secretary of State Dean Rusk about the study. One report claimed that McNamara planned to give the work to his friend Robert F. Kennedy, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968. McNamara later denied this, although he admitted that he should have informed Johnson and Rusk

McNamara approves a sortie rate of 1,200 effective from 1st Feb

It was classified Top Secret-Sensitive, although Sensitive was not an official classification and only indicated that access should be controlled.

McNamara left the Defense Department in February 1968, and his successor Clark M. Clifford received the finished study on January 15, 1969, five days before Richard Nixon's inauguration – although Clifford claimed he never read it.

The study contained 3,000 pages of historical analysis and 4,000 pages of original government documents in 47 volumes.

An account of the war commissioned by McNamara iitains leaked to the New York Times

Death of Robert McNamara