Promise and Power: The Life and Times of Robert McNamara (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The former secretary of Defense and president of the World Bank here breaks a long silence on Vietnam and other matters in the more than 20 interviews that form the basis for freelance journalist Shapley's majestic biography. McNamara explains for the first time why he urged U.S. entry into Vietnam, offers his analysis of mistakes the government made and reveals why he urged American soldiers to fight on after he had decided the war was unwinnable. This major work doesn't confine itself to McNamara as war manager, however; Shapley also explores in impressive depth how McNamara accomplished the makeover of three massive institutions--the postwar Ford Motor Co., the Pentagon (where he reformed the defense budget and policy in positive, enduring ways) and the World Bank, where he helped spread the Green Revolution to small farmers and poor people in the Third World. Shapley goes far in unraveling the complexities of this enigmatic man--his deviousness and ruthless will, his violent emotions, his managerial brilliance and his noble goals. She is not always gentle with her prickly subject, about whom she ultimately delivers this startling verdict: "He is a pivotal figure in the weakening and decline of America, despite the many virtues of the American Century he embodies." Photos.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Shapely, an investigative reporter and author of The Seventh Continent: Antarctica in a Resource Age ( LJ 10/15/85), has crafted a highly readable study of one of the major actors in the recent American dream. This first comprehensive biography of McNamara chronicles his youth and education before focusing on his varied career. Shapley taps a profusion of secondary and primary sources, including her own interviews with McNamara, to track the "whiz kid" from his early days teaching statistical control to Army Air Force officers in World War II through his climb to the presidency of Ford Motor Company, his pivotal role as secretary of defense in shaping America's Vietnam policy, to his impact on development as president of the World Bank. Throughout, Shapley highlights McNamara's commitment to statistical analysis and how his penchant for control affected the institutions and people he touched. Essential for collections supporting contemporary American history, policy analysis, or management studies.
- James Kuhlman, Univ. of Alabama Lib., Tuscaloosa
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 734 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co (T); 1st edition (January 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316782807
• ISBN-13: 978-0316782807
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #894,823 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Shows McNamara to be more than a Vietnam Villian..., April 26, 2001

By	Thomas Moody (STEPHENVILLE, TEXAS United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Promise and Power: The Life and Times of Robert McNamara (Hardcover)

A very good book and more surprising than one would imagine...most everyone's opinion of Robert McNamara, I'm sure, is that of the cold/calculating pro-Vietnam Defense chief, when, in fact, this book proves that there's much more to him than Vietnam and also proves (in my opinion) that the policy used in the Cuban Missile Crisis (gradual escalation...a perceived success) failed miserably when implemented in Vietnam. Shapley pulls no punches when she feels that McNamara is holding back or hiding something, but is also sympathetic when discussing other areas of his life (World War II, Ford company President...etc). I give this book 4 stars as opposed to 5 stars only because of the extensive detail in every aspect of MaNamara's life that's covered (I can only stomach so much about the World Bank and all their detailed policies). Generally a fine book and should be read along with McNamara's own "In Retrospect" to get the true picture of a brilliant and at the same time troubled man.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Revealing than McNamara Himself, April 10, 2000

By	Bruce P. Barten (Saint Paul, MN United States) - See all my reviews

Of all the things in this book, a few stand out as being unique. While November of 1965 might not be of much importance for most people, it was particularly troubling for the Secretary of Defense. This book puts that time in Chapter 17, called "Two Enormous Miscalculations." The most unexpected event on November 2 was the death of "a thirty-one-year-old Quaker pacifist" named Norman Morrison, who had "drenched himself in kerosene and burned himself to death" in "the parking lot below the window of McNamara's office to send a message to him." (p. 354) The calculations of the chapter were military: setting how many American troops would be sent to Vietnam. I see McNamara using his position to express a deeper concern, in a memo to the president on December 6, 1965, that "the odds are about even that, even with the recommended deployments, we will be faced in early 1967 with a military standoff at a much higher level." (p. 359) This book exists mainly to show the nature of that problem. Those who write about these things as mere political concerns, and call such thinking the Vietnam Syndrome, can see, if they care to look here, that this was the real nature of the Vietnam experience as it was weighed in the scales of up and down, when it was happening. This book also meets McNamara head on at his usual level. For example, in the Epilogue, when the author "suggested quoting some things he had said, he snapped that he would deny having said them." (p. 614) If McNamara could have limited what he said to whatever was in his own best interest, he would never have told you people so much.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent - the book that needed to be written, July 12, 1999

By	[e-mail] (Manchester, New Hampshire) - See all my reviews

This book caused Bob McNamara to write the book that he said he would not write. Deborah Shapley did an outstanding job. It was well researched covering millions of years that shaped mountains, rivers, races, wars and events that lead to what we called Vietnam. The role of Wilson after WW1 and '...let the peoples decide...' did not include Ho Chi Minh. If Japan and France could not control Vietnam, how could the U.S.A.? VERY Costly error.