THE "AS SEEN ON TV HAT SQUAD": ROBERT McNAMARA

ROBERT S. McNAMARA

AS SEEN IN:
"Path To War"

AS PLAYED BY:
Alec Baldwin

From the New York Times:

Robert S. McNamara, the forceful and cerebral defense secretary who helped lead the nation into the maelstrom of Vietnam and spent the rest of his life wrestling with the war’s moral consequences, died Monday at his home in Washington. He was 93.
Mr. McNamara was the most influential defense secretary of the 20th century. Serving Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1968, he oversaw hundreds of military missions, thousands of nuclear weapons and billions of dollars in military spending and foreign arms sales. He also enlarged the defense secretary’s role, handling foreign diplomacy and the dispatch of troops to enforce civil rights in the South. From Mark Evanier:

Mr. McNamara was, of course, one of the prime architects of the Vietnam War at its inception, though to his credit, he later tried to dial it down...and, still later, apologized and admitted some pretty deadly errors.
One wonders if Donald Rumsfeld will ever have the self-awareness to try and atone. His recent statement that he regrets how they happened to foresake compliance with the Geneva Conventions gives one hope. On the other hand, Rumsfeld doesn't regret that they did it; only that they seem to have done it sorta by accident.

McNamara has been played in the TV Universe by:

Alec Baldwin
. . . Path to War (2002)

Dana Elcar
. . . The Missiles of October (1974)

Hanns Ernst Jäger
. . . Die Kuba-Krise 1962 (1969)

James Rae
. . . Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (2000)

Mitch Ryan
. . . "Robert Kennedy & His Times" (1985)

David Schramm
. . . "Kennedy" (1983) I have 'Kennedy' and "The Missiles Of October" on order from Netflix and will soon be sharing other pictures of McNamara....

BCnU.....

[Also seen in these photos: Michael Gambon as President Lyndon B. Johnson, and Donald Sutherland as Clark Clifford.]