Robert McNamara

McNamara graduated from UC Berkeley and Harvard Business School, then spent World War II in the Army Air Forces before Henry Ford II hired him and a group of veterans to modernize Ford Motor Company with new management control systems. After a brief stint as Ford's president, he became secretary of defense under Kennedy in 1961, the youngest ever appointed and ultimately the longest-serving at over seven years. He advised Kennedy through the Cuban Missile Crisis, favoring a blockade, and helped design a Cold War strategy of flexible response rather than massive retaliation. After the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, he presided over a massive build-up of U.S. troops in South Vietnam, driven by fears that a Communist takeover would topple other regional governments. By 1968, increasingly doubtful that American soldiers could win the war, he resigned to lead the World Bank for thirteen years, redirecting its mission from infrastructure toward poverty reduction. In his later writings and interviews, including his memoir, he expressed regret for decisions made during Vietnam.