McNamara at War - A New History

Robert S. McNamara was widely considered to be one of the most brilliant men of his generation. While he could be cold and arrogant, he was an invaluable friend to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson and had a deeply moving relationship with Jackie Kennedy. McNamara was the leading advocate for American escalation in Vietnam, even after he concluded that the war was unwinnable.

In McNamara at War, Philip and William Taubman trace McNamara's career from a young faculty member at Harvard Business School and his Second World War service to his leadership of the Ford Motor Company and the World Bank. McNamara at War is a portrait of a man at war with himself-riven by melancholy, guilt, zealous loyalty and a profound inability to admit his flawed thinking about Vietnam.

About the author

William Taubman is the Bertrand Snell Professor of Political Science Emeritus at Amherst College. His book, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is also the author of McNamara at War: A New History and Gorbachev: His Life and Times. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.Philip Taubman, a former New York Times reporter, is affiliated with Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation. He is the author of In the Nation’s Service: The Life and Times of George P. Shultz

Product details

• Authors: Philip Taubman, William Taubman, Taubman Philip
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 23.09.2025
• EAN: 9781324007166
• ISBN: 978-1-324-00716-6
• Illustrations: 16 pages of illustrations
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; USA, Vietnam, Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Military, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Political, Biography: historical, political & military, 20th Century, military history, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, HISTORY / United States / 20th Century, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, Political leaders & leadership, c 1960 to c 1970, United States of America, USA, History of the Americas, Biography: historical, political and military, Military history: post-WW2 conflicts, Political leaders and leadership, c 1955 to c 1975 (Vietnam War period), Vietnam War, HISTORY / Wars & Conflicts / Vietnam War