[Eric in the Ozarks]

McNamara oversaw the development of the Ford Falcon while he was at Ford Motor Co. He was one of JFK's "whiz kids." I forgot where Rusk came from...

[RLK]

It wasn't the Falcon, it was that other model that fell on it's behind. McNamara was a graduate student and Fellow at Harvard teaching statistics when the war broke oth. Dean Dornan sort of voulunteered McNamara for the defense department. Basically, Dean Dornan wasn't unhappy to see McNamara go and found a way to ease him out the door. McNamara went into the army with the advanced rank of captain and taught short statistics courses to DiD personnel in this country and in the UK. He was promoted to Lt. Colonel before leaving. He never picked up a rifle or saw action during his tenure.

If you look closely at McNamara's background, he was a blowhard with an agressive intimidating manner beneath which was very little talent.

[lentulusgracchus]

Actually, Macnamara and the other "whiz kids" got that name during the "Big Show", when they were coddled as part of a hothouse set up by Bernard Baruch to be staff hey-boys for Franklin Roosevelt's "brain trust". During the war, they were given various policymaking jobs. John Kenneth Galbraith got to be FDR's wage-and-price czar, e.g.: he was the guy in charge of the wage hold-down during the war that saw inflation jump 25% in 1946 as soon as the controls were taken off. I don't recall what Macnamara was doing, but he and the Bundy Brothers had jobs, and some of their creche-siblings went off to the OSS: William F. Buckley Jr., for example. They were all spoiled rotten (says me), and it showed later in life, too.

Macnamara's Ford "triumph" was the Edsel. I thought it was a nice-looking car, but it flopped. Basically, there wasn't room in the market between Ford's Fairlane 500 and the Mercury line.......and I also was told at the time that the Edsel had a Freudian front end design that didn't connote masculinity as well as it might (harrumph!). The model was withdrawn after the 1960 model year. Its "seagull" tail fins were echoed in the 1959 and 1960 Chevy and the 1960 Ford. Macnamara was also the originator of the idea for the TFX, which flopped as a joint Navy/Air Force light bomber but survived and had a decent career as the F-111 "Aardvark", which is still in service with Australia.

[razorback-bert]

Dean Rusk was in charge of Rockfeller(SP I am having a massive brain fart) Center, before becoming Sec of State.