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Robert McNamara dies

  • 06-07-2009 4:21pm
    #1
    Morlar
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,273 ✭✭✭


    Former USA Defence minister Robert McNamara has died .

    http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0706/mcnamarar.html

    He served as US secretary of Defence from 1961 - 1968.

    Seeing through the Cuban Missile Crisis and later the escalation into the vietnam war which he had been extremely wary of. Before that he was an IBM and General Motors executive who was known for his innovative approach to business & research. In later life he ended up at the World Bank.


    He became very well known for the documentary the Fog of war and some would say Rumsfeld has failed miserably in his efforts to mimic the relationship he enjoyed with the press. The fog of war also contained his 11 lessons (learned from his experience)

    R.S. McNamara's eleven life lessons

    1. Empathize with your enemy
    2. Rationality will not save us
    3. There's something beyond one's self
    4. Maximize efficiency
    5. Proportionality should be a guideline in war
    6. Get the data
    7. Belief and seeing are often both wrong
    8. Be prepared to reexamine your reasoning
    9. In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil
    10. Never say never
    11. You can't change human nature


    He had also an involvement in WW2 where he was worked in the offices of Strategic bombing command analysing bombing statistics. He was also highly critical of curtis le may (though he respected his motives).

    He always struck me as a very interesting and honest person. Even going as far as a trip to Vietnam after the war to try to understand his former advesary, also from what I recall a trip to Cuba.


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