Numbers Man by Oliver_Kim

This is a cross­post of the full text of Num­bers Man from In Devel­op­ment. If you en­joy the ar­ti­cle, you can sub­scribe to In Devel­op­ment’s sub­stack here. His­tory re­mem­bers two Robert McNa­ma­ras.Lin­ger­ing in pub­lic mem­ory is McNa­mara as US sec­re­tary of defense—the ar­chi­tect of Amer­ica’s es­ca­la­tion in Viet­nam and, for a time, one of the most vil­ified figures in the coun­try. Then, for a thin slice of de­vel­op­ment spe­cial­ists, Robert McNa­mara is re­mem­bered as pres...