Former Defense Secretary, Ford Whiz Kid Robert McNamara Dies
July 06, 2009
Robert S. McNamara, the Ford Motor Co. Whiz Kid who became U.S. Defense Secretary
vilified during the Vietnam War, died Monday at the age of 93 after an illness.
McNamara, who joined Ford in 1946, was one of 10 former World War II officers who became known as the Whiz Kids who saved the failing company by implementing modern management systems. McNamara started as manager of planning and financial analysis and rose quickly through the ranks to the top post. He was the first non-Ford family member to serve as president to that point.
Current Ford Chairman Bill Ford said in a statement issued Monday that McNamara's dedicated service to Ford will long be remembered. "Bob's contributions as a member of the history-making Whiz Kids and his visionary efforts on behalf of automotive safety and environmentalism are as relevant today as they were then," he said.
In the 1950s, McNamara opposed Ford's Edsel program, now synonymous with major blunders, and eventually stopped the program. He was the force behind the popular 1960 Ford Falcoln sedan, which he saw as a small, simple and inexpensive-to-produce vehicle as a better alternative to the big, expensive-to-make cars of the era. He also focused the automaker on safety. He tried to terminate the Lincoln brand after its large cars of the late 1950s proved unpopular but oversaw the re-make of the brand, which introduced a smaller and eventually popular Continental in 1961.
McNamara was recruited from Ford by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to run the defense department. He stayed through the Johnson administration to become considered as possibly the most influential defense secretary of the 20th century largely as the architect of the controversial and failed Vietnam War, which became known as "McNamara's War."
McNamara spent the rest of his life wrestling with the war's outcome, lessons learned from it and its moral consequences, confessing in his memoir that his own conduct during Vietnam was "wrong, terribly wrong." He spent his later years seemingly to make up for Vietnam by devoting his life largely to charitable work.
Photo from Ford Motor Co. Archives
Robert McNamara (left) chats with Henry Ford II.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:59 AM under Ford | Comments (1) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
He was a beast - he literally changed the lives of hundreds of millions of people. The Fog of War is an incredible documentary. It reveals that not only was he a man who made a difference but that he had the ability to reflect on his mistakes pass on valuable advice to all future corporate leaders and heads of state.
Posted by: blueguydotcom | July 06, 2009 at 10:54 AM