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THE NEW YORK TIMES

Ex-Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara Dies at 93
By TIM WEINER
Published: July 6, 2009

Robert S. McNamara, perhaps the most influential defense secretary of the 20th century, 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 early Monday at his home in Washington, the Associated Press reported, citing his wife, Diana.

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Zitat von Tyler Cowen

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But McNamara also had a huge influence on the economics profession, most of all through his 13-year presidency at the World Bank. He focused the Bank on poverty reduction, he brought Communist China into the Bank, he introduced the practice of five-year lending plans, he significantly increased the Bank's budget, he grew staff from 1600 to 5700, he favored sector-specific research, he raised money from OPEC, he strongly encouraged "scientific project evaluation," and he started a largely successful program to combat "river blindness"; the latter may have been his life's achievement. The Bank as a large, modern technocracy -- for better or worse -- dates largely from his tenure.

He probably shaped the Bank more than did any other single person.

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