Robert McNamara

“Neither conscience nor sanity itself suggests that the United States is, should or could be the global gendarme.”

“Coercion, after all, merely captures man. Freedom captivates him.”

“We burned to death 100,000 Japanese civilians in Tokyo - men, women and children. LeMay recognized that what he was doing would be thought immoral if his side had lost. But what makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?”

“One cannot fashion a credible deterrent out of an incredible action.”

“A computer does not substitute for judgment any more than a pencil substitutes for literacy. But writing without a pencil is no particular advantage.”

“It would be our policy to use nuclear weapons wherever we felt it necessary to protect our forces and achieve our objectives.”

“Never answer the question that is asked of you. Answer the question that you wish had been asked of you.”