Vietnam war architect McNamara is dead

Robert McNamara, the US secretary of defence who was one of the main architects of the US war in Vietnam, died Monday. He was 93. McNamara oversaw the escalation of US war efforts in Vietnam from 1961 to 1968. He was also an early advocate of counter-insurgency operations and a key architect of Cold War nuclear policy.

A trained economist, he also helped turn around the Ford auto company in the post-World War II era and then used his talents to improve the image of the World Bank during his long tenure as president from 1968 to 1981.   

McNamara was a key member of president John F. Kennedy's cabinet, a team famously described as “The Best and the Brightest” in author David Halberstam’s seminal book on the Vietnam war. But in later years McNamara came to regret his Vietnam role, although he remained silent until the publication of his controversial 1995 memoirs In Retrospect: The Tragedies and Lessons of Vietnam.