On Robert McNamara's Passing

As the architect of the Vietnam War, McNamara was never one of my favorites. I saw only his public side: the slicked "hair helmet," robotic and humorless presentation, and the obsession with statistics. To me, he seemed more likely to be pictured reviewing parades from the Kremlin than prosecuting war in the interest of the free world. He was the kind of personality that made me strive for a centered existence. Of course, there was a private, softer side to McNamara and it emerged years later in his Vietnam mea culpas. Joseph Califano Jr. - one of McNamara's Pentagon "whiz kids" - reflects on the private man in his editorial appearing in today's Washington Post.

I hope Robert McNamara finds the peace that eluded him for much of his life.