Former Secretary of Defense and Author Robert McNamara Has Died

Former secretary of defense Robert McNamara–the controversial political figure who orchestrated the Vietnam war for two different presidents–passed away this morning.

While best-known for his role as a public servant, his whole reputation changed in 1995 when he published the memoir, “In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam.” In that book, he characterized the handling of Vietnam as “wrong, terribly wrong,” altering the memory of that war forever.

Here’s more from his obituary: “Publication of that book opened some kind of intellectual floodgate for McNamara; he developed a virtual fourth career of organizing and participating in seminars about the war–about who did what and why, and about how doing something else might have meant, if not a different outcome, at least less death.”

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