In Remembrance of Robert S. McNamara, Futurist

 Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara died on July 6, 2009, at his home in Washington, D.C. He was 93.

McNamara was a member of the World Future Society board of directors, invited by a fellow board member, Nobel Prize winning chemist Glenn T. Seaborg, to join in early 1983. In his acceptance letter to Seaborg, McNamara stated that he was anxious “to have the opportunity for association with you and with [former Agriculture Secretary] Orville Freeman.” (Freeman and McNamara both served in the Kennedy and Johnson cabinets.)

McNamara expressed reservations, however, due to being “heavily committed” at that time; he offered to join the board on a trial basis: “If, at the end of one or two years I have not lived up to your expectations I may resign.” He never did, and remained on the Society’s masthead until his death.

Born on June 9, 1916, in San Francisco, McNamara graduated from the University of California in 1937 and received an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1939, where he taught as an assistant professor. During World War II, he served three years in the U.S. Air Force and received the Legion of Merit.

After leaving the government in 1968 at the height of the Vietnam War, McNamara became president of the World Bank Group of Institutions, retiring in 1981. It was this experience that he brought to the World Future Society, including the publication of an article in THE FUTURIST on “The Population Explosion” (November-December 1992).

Widely known as the “architect” of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, McNamara attempted to share the lessons he learned. In 1995, he wrote the soul-searching memoir, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam (Times Books/Random House), and in 2003, he was the subject of a documentary, The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara, directed by Errol Morris. The film won the 2004 Academy Award for best documentary.

In his book, McNamara wrote, “I want Americans to understand why we made the mistakes we did, and to learn from them. I hope to say, ‘Here is something we can take away from Vietnam that is constructive and applicable to the world of today and tomorrow.’ That is the only way our nation can ever hope to leave the past behind.”--Cynthia G. Wagner.