Robert S. McNamara | 1916 - 2009

McNamara, left, and President John F. Kennedy walk toward a pier in Hyannis Port, Mass., in July 1961. Kennedy was so impressed on meeting McNamara that he offered him a choice of leading the Defense Department or the Treasury Department. McNamara chose Defense.  (John Rous / Associated Press)

McNamara, seen in a Nov. 17, 1961, photo, transformed the Defense Department into the giant military and civilian fiefdom it remains today. Among his creations were the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Defense Supply Agency, the predecessor of the massive Defense Logistics Agency.  (Harvey Georges / Associated Press)

McNamara, center, and Army Gen. Maxwell Taylor, left, confer with President Kennedy at the White House in 1963 about U.S. military efforts in South Vietnam. McNamara served as secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War under presidents Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.  (AFP/Getty Images)

From front, McNamara, President Lyndon Johnson, and Secretary of State Dean Rusk listen to a briefing on the Vietnam War in September 1964. McNamara later questioned “domino theory” fears that a loss in South Vietnam would have led to a succession of Communist takeovers elsewhere in Southeast Asia.  (AFP/Getty Images)

McNamara points out action in the Gulf of Tonkin against U.S. destroyers in a post-midnight media briefing on Aug. 4, 1964, at the Pentagon. The episode spurred a near-unanimous Congressional vote to authorize President Johnson to deploy ground troops. Years later, historians still spar over whether the attacks were as serious as they were initially reported -- and whether they justified a major escalation of the war.  (Bob Schutz / Associated Press)

McNamara announces his resignation as secretary of Defense at a news conference at the Pentagon on Nov. 29, 1967. He had held the job for seven years and went on to become president of the World Bank.  (Charles Gorry / Associated Press)

McNamara meets his wartime adversary, retired Vietnamese military commander Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap in Hanoi in 1997.  (Hoang Dinh Nam / AFP/Getty Images)

McNamara, right, and Arthur Schlessinger, Jr., an aide from the administration of President Kennedy, arrive at Jose Marti International Airport in Havana. McNamara played a central role in the Kennedy administration’s nuclear brinksmanship during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  (Adalberto Roque / AFP/Getty Images)

McNamara leaves the Heavenly Rest Episcopal Church on Jan. 19, 2002, after funeral services for Cyrus R. Vance, who was secretary of State under President Carter.  (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)

McNamara and Diana Masieri talk with journalists after their wedding at St. Francis Basilica in Italy on Sept. 16, 2004. McNamara is survived by Masieri, his second wife; and by his three children from his first wife, Margaret, who died in 1981. He is also survived by six grandchildren.  (Stefano Medici / Associated Press)