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Word: mcnamaras (lookup in dictionary) (lookup stats)
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...only the latest paradox in the career of Robert McNamara that he turns out to be a chief victim of the Viet Nam study that he initiated. In the documents that have been revealed to date-a partial picture, to be sure -the judgment of the once infallible Defense Secretary seems badly flawed. In the early 1960s, few other Government officials had quite his sense of assurance that escalation would pay off, that a steady application of American pressure and resources would turn the tide...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: The Nation: The Particular Tragedy of Robert McNamara | 7/5/1971 | See Source »

Somehow the strategies that won praise for McNamara in his early years as Pentagon chief landed him in deep trouble later. He wanted to escape from the Eisenhower era's reliance on massive retaliation, so he pursued what was then considered a liberal course. He prepared for conventional war to combat Communism wherever it appeared to threaten American interests. Yet he helped lead the nation into a war of unforeseen magnitude. His business acumen enabled him to gain control of the sprawling Defense establishment. Yet he was so infatuated with statistics that he was long blinded to the human...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: The Nation: The Particular Tragedy of Robert McNamara | 7/5/1971 | See Source »

...first his personality seemed monolithic enough. He gave a powerful impression of the assured technician. Even reporters who did not cover the Pentagon liked to attend his press conferences. Briefed to the eyeballs behind his almost rimless glasses, his gleaming black hair immaculately slicked, McNamara delivered an unstoppable stream of convincing detail. He had a swift answer for every question, a sharp rebuttal for every doubt...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: The Nation: The Particular Tragedy of Robert McNamara | 7/5/1971 | See Source »

...McNamara overawed the generals and admirals who worked for him, and he barely disguised his contempt for the military way of doing things. His notion of opening a conversation was not "Hello" but "I've got ten minutes for this one." And ten minutes it was. The military resented the fact that he and his small band of "Whiz Kids" shunned their advice and blithely turned down the weapons they wanted. They grudgingly admitted that McNamara's cost-effectiveness program had brought rationality to much Pentagon planning, but they could not forgive him for never admitting...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: The Nation: The Particular Tragedy of Robert McNamara | 7/5/1971 | See Source »

...McNamara brought the same technological assurance to the war in Viet Nam. At first he was too busy with reorganization to notice it. But as it grew, he willingly took command of what came to be called "McNamara's war." In 1964, he made his famous pronouncement that American troops would be home by Christmas of 1965. When that did not happen, he pressed hard at the White House for a greater troop commitment. He was mesmerized by the feat of getting the forces to Viet Nam: "We put 100,000 men across the beach in 120 days...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: The Nation: The Particular Tragedy of Robert McNamara | 7/5/1971 | See Source »

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