Robert McNamara Quotes

Robert McNamara — American Public Servant born on June 09, 1916, died on July 06, 2009

Robert Strange McNamara was an American business executive and the eighth Secretary of Defense, serving from 1961 to 1968 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, during which time he played a major role in escalating the United States involvement in the Vietnam War. Following that, he served as President of the World Bank from 1968 to 1981. McNamara was responsible for the institution of systems analysis in public policy, which developed into the discipline known today as policy analysis. McNamara consolidated intelligence and logistics functions of the Pentagon into two centralized agencies: the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Defense Supply Agency... (wikipedia)

It would be our policy to use nuclear weapons wherever we felt it necessary to protect our forces and achieve our objectives.

Never answer the question that is asked of you. Answer the question that you wish had been asked of you.

A computer does not substitute for judgment any more than a pencil substitutes for literacy. But writing without a pencil is no particular advantage.

Neither conscience nor sanity itself suggests that the United States is, should or could be the global gendarme.

Coercion, after all, merely captures man. Freedom captivates him.