Editing Robert McNamara (section)

==World Bank president==
[[File:Robert McNamara visited Indonesia in 1968 during his tenure as World Bank President.jpg|thumb|247x247px|McNamara visited [[Jakarta]], [[Indonesia]] during his tenure as [[President of the World Bank Group|World Bank President]] in 1968.]]
Robert McNamara served as [[President of the World Bank Group|head of the World Bank]] from April 1968 to June 1981, when he turned 65.<ref name=WBtribute>{{cite web|access-date=2007-05-26|url=http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTABOUTUS/EXTARCHIVES/0,,contentMDK:20100171~pagePK:36726~piPK:36092~theSitePK:29506,00.html|title=Pages from World Bank History – Bank Pays Tribute to Robert McNamara|date=March 21, 2003|work=Archives|publisher=World Bank|archive-date=August 5, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070805062211/http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTABOUTUS/EXTARCHIVES/0,,contentMDK:20100171~pagePK:36726~piPK:36092~theSitePK:29506,00.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In March 1968, McNamara's friend Senator [[Robert F. Kennedy#1968 presidential candidate|Robert Kennedy]] entered the Democratic primaries with aim of challenging Johnson. Kennedy asked McNamara to tape a statement praising his leadership during the Cuban Missile Crisis with the understanding that the statement was meant for a TV ad.{{sfn|Langguth|2000|p=451}} McNamara praised Kennedy's "shrewd diplomacy", saying he had "remained calm and cool, firm, but restrained, never nettled and never rattled".{{sfn|Langguth|2000|p=541}} Though this was a violation of World Bank rules, McNamara felt guilty over refusing Kennedy's requests to resign and decline the World Bank presidency.{{sfn|Langguth|2000|p=541}} He was attacked for the tape with the ''New York Times'' in an editorial lambasting him for his "poor judgement and poorer taste".{{sfn|Langguth|2000|p=541}} For a moment, McNamara feared he would be fired from the World Bank.{{sfn|Langguth|2000|p=541}}

A safe was installed in McNamara's office at the World Bank to house his papers relating to his time as Defense Secretary, which was a normal courtesy extended to former Defense Secretaries who might face controversy over their actions and wish to defend themselves by quoting from the documentary record.{{sfn|Langguth|2000|p=540}} When the Pentagon Papers were finished in April 1969, and a copy of the Papers were brought into McNamara's office, he became angry and said: "I don't want to see it! Take it back!"{{sfn|Langguth|2000|p=540}} By 1969, McNamara wanted to forget the Vietnam war and did not want any reminders of his former job.{{sfn|Langguth|2000|p=541}}

=== Tenure ===
In his 13 years at the Bank, he introduced key changes, most notably, shifting the Bank's economic development policies toward targeted poverty reduction. Prior to his tenure at the World Bank, poverty did not receive substantial attention as part of international and national economic development; the focus of development had been on industrialization and infrastructure. Poverty also came to be redefined as a condition faced by people rather than countries. According to Martha Finnemore, the World Bank under McNamara's tenure "sold" states poverty reduction "through a mixture of persuasion and coercion."{{sfn|Finnemore|1996|p=89–97}} McNamara negotiated, with the conflicting countries represented on the Board, a growth in funds to channel credits for development, in the form of health, food, and education projects. He also instituted new methods of evaluating the effectiveness of funded projects. One notable project started during McNamara's tenure was the effort to prevent [[river blindness]].<ref name="WBtribute" />{{sfn|Hotez|2007|p=1979–1980}}

The World Bank currently has a [[World Bank Scholarship|scholarship]] program under his name.<ref name=WBscholarship>{{cite web|access-date=2007-05-26|url=http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/mcnamara.html|title=Robert S. McNamara Fellowships Program|work=Scholarships|publisher=World Bank|archive-date=July 17, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070717113820/http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/mcnamara.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Controversies ===
==== 1973 Chilean coup ====
{{main|1973 Chilean coup d'état}}
In 1972, McNamara visited Santiago to meet President [[Salvador Allende]] to discuss the latter's policy of nationalization, especially of the copper mining companies.{{sfn|Talbot|1984|p=47}} McNamara's son, [[Craig McNamara]] was living in Chile at the time, but the two did not meet owing to the rift over the Vietnam war.{{sfn|Wells|1994|pp=110–111}} McNamara ''fils'' stated in 1984: "I think my father truly respected Allende-his compassion, his humility. But he disapproved of the nationalizations".{{sfn|Talbot|1984|p=47}} The meeting with Allende concluded with McNamara ending all World Bank loans to Chile.{{sfn|Talbot|1984|p=47}} On 11 September 1973, Allende was overthrown in a coup d'état led by General [[Augusto Pinochet]]. In 1974, McNamara visited Santiago to meet Pinochet and agreed to the World Bank resuming loans to Chile.{{sfn|Talbot|1984|p=47}} Craig McNamara, who was visiting the United States at the time of the coup and chose not to return to Chile was outraged by the decision to resume the loans, telling his father in a phone call: "You can't do this-you always say the World Bank is not a political institution, but financing Pinochet clearly would be".{{sfn|Talbot|1984|p=47}} McNamara ''pere'' flatly stated in reply: "It's too late. I've already made my decision".{{sfn|Talbot|1984|p=47}} McNamara ''fils'' felt that his father's claim that he had to cease loans to Chile because the Allende government's nationalization policy was an "economic" matter that fell within the purview of the World Bank, but human rights abuses under Pinochet were a "political" matter that was outside of the World Bank's purview was disingenuous and dishonest. Craig McNamara stated: "I was really upset by that. That was hard to mend".{{sfn|Wells|1994|p=111}}

==== Forced sterilization ====
{{see|Compulsory sterilization}}
As World Bank President, he declared at the 1968 [[Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group|Annual Meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group]] that countries permitting birth control practices would get preferential access to resources. During the 1975-1977 [[The Emergency (India)|emergency]] in India, McNamara remarked "At long last, India is moving to effectively address its population problem," regarding the forced sterilization.{{sfn|Matthews|2019}}{{sfn|Mann|2018}}{{sfn|Follett|2020}}