Scope and Content Note
The papers of Robert Strange McNamara (1916-2009) span the years 1934-2009, with the bulk concentrated between 1968 and 2005. McNamara was a business executive with Ford Motor Company before his appointment as United States secretary of defense in 1961. In 1968, McNamara resigned as defense secretary to become president of the World Bank. The collection is composed of two supplementary parts. Part I documents McNamara's private and public life primarily following his departure as secretary of defense, including his terms as president of the World Bank, his role as counselor and adviser to various private corporations and nonprofit organizations and foundations, and his role as public statesman advocating solutions for the critical domestic and foreign policy issues of the times. The series in Parts I and II are similar, and while their proportions vary, the content of respective series remains largely the same with the notable exception of files in Part II dedicated to the analysis of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War and the publication of his books In Retrospect and Argument without End. Further descriptions of each part follow.
Part I
Part I of the McNamara Papers spans the years 1958-2003, with most of the material dated between 1968 and 2000. The papers in Part I highlight his position as president of the World Bank and a member on the boards of directors and advisory councils of numerous private corporations and nongovernmental institutions. While the papers include some material concerning his tenure as secretary of defense, Part I contains limited documentation for the years prior to his service at the World Bank. Part I is organized into the following series: Correspondence , World Bank , Organizations , Subject File , Speeches and Writings , Miscellany , Classified , and Oversize .
The Correspondence series contains letters received and copies of replies. It was McNamara's practice to handwrite many of his replies in the upper right-hand corner of the incoming letters that were then photocopied for later transcription. Although his handwriting is sometimes difficult to decipher, the photocopy is often the only copy of his correspondence that remains in the collection. The series informs on a broad scope of McNamara's personal friendships, professional connections, and advocacy issues providing an overview of his relationships and interests that are more fully developed in other series of the collection. Prominent topics include defense and foreign policy issues, arms control and nuclear policy, the World Bank, foreign and domestic politics, economic policy, and international development as well as letters from the public that reflect the variation of popular opinion regarding McNamara's legacy as a leading strategist of the Vietnam War and director of the World Bank. Included among McNamara's friends, colleagues, and media representatives noted in the series are Graham T. Allison, James G. Blight, McGeorge Bundy, William P. Bundy, Lloyd N. Cutler, Alain C. Enthoven, Orville L. Freeman, Kurt Gottfried, Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman, W. Averell Harriman, Paul Hendrickson, Henry Kissinger, Frans M. Lurvink, Helmut Schmidt, Sargent Shriver, Gerard C. Smith, Carl E. Taylor, Stewart L. Udall, Cyrus R. Vance, and Barbara Ward.
Following his resignation as secretary of defense, McNamara served as president of the World Bank from 1968 to 1981. The World Bank series provides insight into the policies and operations of the bank and its affiliated institutions during McNamara's terms as president. The series is a study of the organizational reforms introduced by McNamara as the bank changed from a project-oriented investment bank to a development institution at the service of its member states while simultaneously increasing the amount of capital financing needed to accomplish its goals. Under his leadership, the bank targeted poverty reduction, increased funding for health, food, and education programs, and instituted new methods of accountability for budgeted projects. The series contains memoranda, reports, program and policy papers, and other material documenting the bank's administrative structure and strategic planning projects as well as personnel and public relations issues.
Organizational restructuring was constant during McNamara's presidency, and several files contain material related to staff grievances and other commentary concerning institutional reorganization. Of particular interest are a set of notes and notebooks kept by McNamara of his conversations and field visits. The notes of conversations record McNamara's exchanges with and reactions to various officials and directors of the World Bank and world leaders in meetings concerning the operations of the bank. The notes of his field visits are filed alphabetically by country and record meetings with representatives of member countries and other entities, exclusive of the United States. Memoranda for the record were prepared along with briefing memoranda and background material, some with handwritten notations by McNamara. Items marked “impressions” are personal notes written by McNamara for his own reference and were not distributed to bank staff. The series also includes technical notes containing background papers and reports and a country file of correspondence, memoranda, reports, and policy papers providing financial analysis of the bank's development policies.
Upon his retirement from the World Bank in 1981, McNamara served on the boards of directors and advisory councils of a variety of private corporations and nonprofit organizations and foundations principally focusing on issues of the environment, East-West relations, arms control and nuclear weapons, population and development, especially as it affected the Third World, and world hunger. The Organization series contains the records of McNamara's transactions with these institutions and is arranged alphabetically by name of organization. Prominent organizations include the African Development Bank, Aspen Institute, Atlantic Council of the United States, Battelle Memorial Institute, Brookings Institution, Council on Foreign Relations, Enterprise Foundation, Global Coalition for Africa, Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust, InterAction Council, International Irrigation Management Institute, Kettering Foundation, National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, Overseas Development Council, and the Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs. The records illuminate the internal operations and policy disputes within many of the organizations with which McNamara was associated. The series contains correspondence, notes and notebooks, policy papers, studies and reports, agenda and briefing books, background material, and other items that chronicle McNamara's travel arrangements and attendance at various conferences, meetings, symposia, and workshops in his capacity as corporate adviser on behalf of the organizations. Drafts and typescripts from speaking engagements and other presentations supplement similar material arranged in the Speeches and Writings series.
McNamara worked independently on many of the same issues he supported at the World Bank and as an organizational representative. Among these the most urgent for him was the threat of nuclear weapons. The Subject File contains material on arms control and nuclear weapons that chronicle McNamara's efforts on behalf of treaties and strategies designed to reduce the risk of nuclear war. The series also includes material commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary in 1987 of the Cuban Missile Crisis, with reflections on the decisions that prevented an exchange of nuclear missiles between the United States and the Soviet Union. Other material associated with McNamara's tenure as secretary of defense include both defense department records and papers relating to post-defense issues. The latter includes briefs, depositions, and other court records relating to McNamara's testimony in the 1984 trial of Westmoreland v. CBS, Inc. Though he had consistently refused to respond to questions concerning the Vietnam War, McNamara, by agreeing to testify on Westmoreland's behalf and submitting an affidavit at the trial, compelled the need for deposition and invited cross-examination. Under oath and for the public record, McNamara, for the first time since he left office as defense secretary, was forced to defend his role in the formulation of the government's Vietnam strategy. In a letter written to newly elected President Bill Clinton, November 23, 1992, located within the “presidential administrations and campaigns” files, McNamara provides a hopeful coda to the controversy stating, “For me–and I believe for the nation as well–the Vietnam War finally ended the day you were elected president.”
In addition to his efforts towards eliminating nuclear weapons, McNamara also sought to alleviate global poverty by supporting economic development in Third World countries. While president of the World Bank, McNamara became committed to fostering programs designed to break the cycle of poverty afflicting many of the world's developing nations, particularly food, health, and population problems in Africa. The Subject File contains material relating to these issues under the “geopolitical file” heading. The series also includes material referencing attempts to eliminate the cause of the parasitic disease onchocerciasis or river blindness in Africa, a program originated by the World Bank during McNamara's presidency. In pursuit of his “visions” for a better world, McNamara became a frequent traveler on a circuit of conferences and meetings that defined his agenda as outlined above, which papers are located in the Subject File.
McNamara addressed the issues of war and peace most directly in his articles, books, and speeches. The Speeches and Writings series contains correspondence, drafts and typescripts, background and research material, and editorial comments largely relating to these public statements and writings. Articles written by McNamara explore themes such as the imbalance of population growth and economic development and the threat of nuclear arms in the modern world. The series contains limited documentation regarding the publication of McNamara's books with the exception of Blundering into Disaster, a plea for nuclear reduction and arms control. Files related to his speeches, lectures, and participation in symposia contain correspondence concerning booking and travel arrangements, drafts and typescripts, and printed copies. A file titled “printed and typescript copies,” labeled “statement file” by McNamara, serves as a partially indexed selective compilation of his speeches and writings.
In addition to McNamara's speeches and writings, the series also includes papers concerning his radio and television appearances and interviews as well as the speeches and writings of others. In November 1983, following the ABC television broadcast of The Day After, a fictional portrayal of the effects of nuclear war on an American town, McNamara joined a studio panel in reviewing the film and discussing the consequences of such a war. Public comments and reactions to McNamara's performance, contained in the Speeches and Writings series, reflect the political debate that the film and commentary provoked. After many years removed from the defense department, McNamara became less reluctant to grant interviews and agreed to participate in a number of official oral history interviews conducted by the Office of the Secretary of Defense Historical Office, which transcripts, as well as those of other interviews, are located in Speeches and Writings. The series also includes material gathered for Deborah Shapley's 1993 biography of McNamara, Promise and Power, reflecting the controversy it generated.
In addition to containing McNamara's appointment books and files on recreation, travel, and real estate, among other topics, the Miscellany series includes material concerning McNamara's first wife, Margaret, founder of the nonprofit children's literacy organization Reading Is Fundamental. The series includes condolence letters and other memorial items occasioned by her death in 1981 as well as a set of interviews conducted by Suzan Ruth Travis-Cline.
Part II
Part II of the McNamara Papers spans the years 1934-2009, with the bulk of the material concentrated between 1968 and 2005. Part II supplements Part I and is organized similarly. The few correspondence files that exist are arranged in the Miscellany series. Compared with Part I, the World Bank series in Part II is limited in scope, but the Speeches and Writings file is greatly expanded. Part II is organized into the following series: World Bank , Organizations , Subject File , Speeches and Writings , Miscellany , Classified , Top Secret , Formerly Restricted Data , Sensitive Compartmented Information , and Oversize .
Although not as extensive as the records in Part I, the World Bank series in Part II contains inclusive sets of memoranda for the record and minutes of President's Council meetings. The material provides a record of bank meetings with a memoranda for the record prepared by the personal assistant to the president or by McNamara himself. The memoranda chronicles the bank's operations and decision-making procedures revealing the internal policy debates that often led to the development of international financial aid programs. The series also contains a set of historical reports that track the evolution of the bank's policy agenda over the decades.
The organizations listed in Part II mirror those in Part I and reflect McNamara's wide range of interests. Papers in Part II of the Organizations series overlap and add continuity to corresponding material in Part I. Organizations with whom McNamara became newly affiliated or whose records have been significantly expanded or supplemented from Part I include the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Corning Inc., Drug Strategies, East African Development Bank, Eminent Persons Group on Curbing Illicit Trafficking in Small Arms and Light Weapons, Henry L. Stimson Center, Honorary Presidential Advisory Council on Investment in Nigeria, Rockefeller Foundation, Trilateral Commission, Urban Institute, World Food Prize Foundation, and World Resources Institute.
Beginning in the late 1980s, McNamara embraced an historical methodology called “critical oral history” that provided a framework within which he could publicly analyze his actions as defense secretary, addressing the questions that had long surrounded his public service. Unlike conventional oral history, critical oral history subjects dialogue and memory to documentary analysis and scholarly review. The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was the first event McNamara analyzed using this method. In a series of six major conferences from 1987 to 2002, referred to as the Cuban Missile Crisis Project, McNamara and other former Kennedy administration officials, along with their Soviet and Cuban counterparts, including Cuban President Fidel Castro, were questioned about the crisis. Part II of the Subject File contains a full range of documents gathered and produced by the project, spotlighting the dangers and behind-the-scenes negotiations that brought the nations to the brink of nuclear war.
While writing his memoir In Retrospect, McNamara offered a proposal to initiate a joint American-Vietnamese project on the Vietnam War based on the principles of critical oral history and modeled after the Cuban Missile Crisis Project. Principally organized by James G. Blight of Brown University, and sponsored by Brown's Thomas J. Watson, Jr. Institute for International Studies, the project consisted of many preliminary meetings and full conferences from 1995 to 1999 that convened under the general title “Missed Opportunities: Revisiting the Decisions of the Vietnam War.” McNamara's exploratory trip to Hanoi in November 1995 on behalf of the project, his first trip to Vietnam since the 1960s, generated considerable domestic controversy and subsequent criticism. Material in Part II of the Subject File documents all aspects of the project whose data provided the basis for McNamara's book Argument without End.
Many of the same subjects and topics explored in Part I of the Subject File are continued in Part II, including files on arms control and nuclear weapons, commissions, conferences and meetings, geopolitical issues, and onchocerciasis (river blindness). Upon his departure from the Defense Department, McNamara was presented with a multivolume bound compilation of his background briefings and public statements. These volumes along with several files of declassified memoranda, position papers, and reports and other related material provide further insights to McNamara's years as defense secretary.
In 1995, McNamara, in collaboration with Brian VanDeMark, published In Retrospect. Described in the preface as “. . . the book I planned never to publish,” McNamara proceeded to set forth his account and analysis of the Vietnam War with emphasis on the mistakes made and lessons learned from America's involvement in the conflict. The Speeches and Writings series contains extensive research files, drafts, editing and production material, public response and reaction, interview transcripts, promotion and publicity material, and related items concerning the writing and publication of McNamara's long-awaited memoir.
Planned as a sequel to his Vietnam memoir and originally drafted as “In Retrospect II,” McNamara published Argument without End in 1999. Based on conversations between Americans and Vietnamese who were active participants during the war, the book, cowritten with James G. Blight and Robert K. Brigham, was the product of the Vietnam War Project described above. Proposals and outlines for the book are contained in the Speeches and Writings series, in addition to correspondence, editing, publicity and publication material, and drafts from various stages of the book's progress. These files, along with those for the Vietnam War Project, provide an extensive record of the project and the book that grew from it.
In Wilson's Ghost, James G. Blight and McNamara collaborated again to publish an analysis of American foreign policy in the post-Cold War world. The Speeches and Writings series documents the research and publication of McNamara's last major book, including correspondence exchanged with Blight, drafts, and editing and publicity material.
Other subjects and topics featured in Speeches and Writings include the documentary film The Fog of War; Deborah Shapley's biography, Promise and Power; and continuing files from Part I concerning interviews, printed and typescript copies of public statements, and radio and television appearances. The Fog of War, winner of the Academy Award for documentary feature in 2003, was produced and directed by Errol Morris and consists of interviews with McNamara and archival footage. The film considers McNamara's personal and public life and examines the eleven lessons of war posited in his memoir In Retrospect. Speeches and Writings contains reaction to and commentary on the film as well as correspondence, interview transcripts, and research material from the film's production. Files on Promise and Power, include transcripts from a set of interviews conducted by Shapley with McNamara in preparation for the book that complement related files in Part I.