American Experience

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	Robert McNamara			36 of 41

In 1960, Robert McNamara resigned as president of the Ford Motor Company to accept a position as John F. Kennedy's secretary of defense. Under Kennedy, and later under Lyndon Johnson, McNamara supported increased U.S. involvement in Vietnam, but began to change his position in about 1966. By 1967, he openly supported a peaceful solution to the conflict. His 1996 book In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam details the policy decisions behind America's descent into the Vietnam quagmire. His subsequent books include Argument Without End: In Search of Answers to the Vietnam Tragedy (1999) and Wilson's Ghost: Reducing the Risk of Conflict, Killing, and Catastrophe in the 21st Century (2001). A 2003 documentary, The Fog of War put McNamara and his views on movie screens and back into headlines across the country. "I think the human race needs to think about killing. How much evil must we do in order to do good?" he asked.