Robert McNamara was a towering figure of our times.He entered the arena of international peace and security with his appointment as US Secretary of Defence by the late President John F. Kennedy. Having been part of the disastrous Bay of Pigs episode he was also in the centre of the Cuban Missile Crisis when the world came perilously close to a suicidal nuclear exchange. His later analysis of this with his Russian counterparts has helped enormously in understanding the limitations of decison-making with regard to the use of nuclear weapons.
 
Under the Kennedy and Johnson Adminstrations McNamara was one of the much vaunted "best and the brightest" responsible for the Vietnam war which he regretted deeply in later life.As President of the World Bank he introduced a new vision of development by insisting on the redistribution of income targeting the lowest income brackets along the principle of equity.
 
My first personal encounter with Bob Mc Namara was as colleagues in the Canberra Commisson on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons where he was a strong and unequivocal advocate of the total elimination of nuclear weapons. Thereafter we met frequently in Washington DC and in New York sharing platforms for nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation. I recall with deep admiration his passion and intellectual rigour undimmed by advancing age.
 
It is a tragic irony that his passing away should coincide with a time when we are perhaps closer to the achievement of a nuclear weapon-free world than ever before.
 
Jayantha Dhanapala
President of the Pugwash Conferences on Science & World Affairs
 
7th July 2009