[Updated: 1 pm, 7/8/09] I just learned that the former U.S. Secretary of Defense and past president of the Ford Motor Company, Robert McNamara, died this morning. May he rest in peace—though I may be one of only a few, historians or otherwise, who wills his soul any good fortune. I gained some acquaintance with McNamara’s biography and place in history not through the press or any personal memories of Vietnam, but through the tough documentary Fog of War. The film’s subtitle—“Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara”—goes some way toward explaining my less-than-disgusted view of McNamara’s place Read more