The passing of Robert McNamara on Monday marked a moment of reflection for a generation and offers lessons on our country's history of war and the challenges of public service.
He was appointed Defense Secretary under President Kennedy and served through the end of the Johnson administration, a tumultuous eight years when America's involvement in the Vietnam war reached its peak and our country faced the very real possibility of nuclear Armageddon in the Cuban Missile Crisis.
When Kennedy was assassinated, Johnson entrusted McNamara with winning the Vietnam War. He became a principle author of Johnson's escalation of that war, but eventually concluded that no amount of bombing and no commitment of more troops would secure a victory.
McNamara ultimately recommended to the president that efforts be directed at negotiating a settlement with Hanoi. Instead of accepting that advice, Johnson accepted McNamara's resignation. He became president of the World Bank and earned respect for his efforts to global poverty.
But McNamara refused to go public with his opposition to the Vietnam War, forgoing the opportunity to redeem his reputation with a generation of war protesters who considered him a war criminal. The war raged for seven long years after he left the Pentagon.
Only decades later did McNamara admit that the escalation of the war was a terrible mistake. McNamara cited a failure to understand the enemy, a failure to see the limits of high-tech weaponry, a failure to tell the truth to the American people, and a failure to grasp the nature of the threat of communism.
Most of those lessons are as relevant in the midst of ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as they were when U.S. troops fought in Vietnam. McNamara's death offers an opportunity to remember those lessons, and to reflect on the obligations of public officials to tell the truth, even about their own mistakes, when it can make the most difference.
