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Ford Falcon |
Robert S. McNamara will undoubtedly have his name go down in the history books as being one of the U.S. Secretaries of Defense who presided over the Vietnam War. What is lesser well known about Mr. McNamara is that before his stint in politics, he spent 14 years working for the Ford Motor Company. He joined the Blue Oval in 1946 and worked his way up the ranks in short order. By 1955, he had become the General Manager of the Ford Division.
In 1957, McNamara had a eureka moment: most cars of the day were big, weighing about two tons. If a family wanted to get a second car, say for a housewife running errands during the day, they wouldn't need another 4,000 pound behemoth. That'd just be a waste of building materials. Within three years, that idea was transformed into the Ford Falcon, a compact car that went on the market in 1960 and proved to be wildly successful, selling about a half-million units in the first year on the market. The Falcon would stay on the market until 1970 and proved to be an influence to Lee Iacocca, a Ford designer who used some of the Falcon's architecture to develop the Mustang.
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Robert McNamara with President John F. Kennedy |
The Falcon wasn't the only model that McNamara got his hands on. He also made the decision to convert the Ford Thunderbird from a two-seater to a four-seater. At the time, the decision seemed to be unwise, because the aesthetics of the car were a bit compromised by adding the extra bench seat. However, McNamara's choice was vindicated as soon afterward the Thunderbird's sales figures started growing, eventually reaching about four times the levels of the two-seater version.
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From left: Dean Rusk, Secretary of State; President Lyndon B. Johnson, and Robert McNamara |
In November 1960, McNamara became the President of the Ford Motor Company, the first man to do so who was not part of Henry Ford's family. His tenure at the top didn't last long, though. Less than five weeks into the job he was approached by Robert Sargent Shriver, brother-in-law of John F. Kennedy to serve as either the Treasury Secretary or the Defense Secretary. McNamara eventually settled into the Defense Secretary post and kept it after President Kennedy was assassinated, serving under Lyndon B. Johnson. McNamara left the post in 1968 to serve as head of the World Bank before retiring in 1981 at the age of 65.
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