Robert McNamara is dead but he’s left quite an impression

Robert Strange McNamara died in his sleep this morning. A peaceful end for the 93 year old Master of War who tried to rationally streamline violence, warfare and the American automobile. He never dropped a bomb or fired a gun, but he could annihilate whole cities with his slide ruler and pen. The firebombing of Tokyo (seen above), the body counts of Vietnam, and the Ford Falcon were all brainchildren of Master Robert. Good night Shiva.

It’s important to note that prior to all the bombing and postwar hindsight, McNamara was hailed as the “whiz” kid that scored highest on the standardized tests and processed information better than a computer. Trouble was he had no moral intelligence- winning and losing had nothing to do with right and wrong. I wonder how much we’ve learned

The Fog of War (2003) is an in depth discussion with McNamara where he nurembergs himself out of culpability by reasoning that he’s learned a lot of lessons. Highlights include scuttling the Domino theory and a mea culpa long gaze when Errol Morris asks him if he considers himself a War Criminal. In McNamara’s defense, he is possibly one of the only wartime architects to enter the house of Empire and to ever come close to apologizing for his errors. Once you get in, the machine tends to eat you.