The Gospel of Moll

The National Security Archive (not, mind you, the National Security Agency) posted a short piece on its website yesterday about another, less well-known, side of McNamara:

For most of the last two decades of his life, despite enormous criticism, McNamara took the lead in several series of historical investigations that have changed our understanding of the past and generated important discussions about how similar tragedies can be avoided.

….

For McNamara’s critics, these exercises were little more than attempts to assuage a guilty conscience and paper over a blood-soaked personal record. For most of those who participated with him, however, there was no mistaking the genuine fervor for learning from what he labeled as the mistakes of previous policies. McNamara approached each event with characteristic intensity and focus, and with a readiness to accept an extraordinary level of scrutiny and skepticism.

Few senior officials who exercised power over life and death for citizens or soldiers have ever taken upon themselves the kind of responsibility that Robert McNamara shouldered to look deeply into those decisions, open himself up to confrontation and attack, and come to grips with those human tragedies so as to help us all not to repeat them. We mourn his passing.