Review

Robert McNamara Chose Loyalty to the President

A new biography should be required reading for everyone currently working in silence in Washington. September 26, 2025, 2:00 PM Comment icon View Comments ( )

Black-and-white photo of a man in a suit speaking into multiple microphones at a press conference, with a large map of Southeast Asia and a Department of Defense seal visible in the background.

The life of Robert McNamara, the secretary of defense under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, is an American tragedy. The history is not only tragic—as Pulitzer Prize winner William Taubman and his brother, former New York Times Washington bureau chief Philip Taubman, explain in their fascinating new book McNamara at War —because McNamara ended up isolat

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