ABSTRACT
For better and many would say for worse, Robert Strange McNamara impressed his stamp on the World Bank and transformed its culture. His presidency lasted from 1 April 1968 until 30 June 1981; he was reappointed twice although he did not complete his third five-year term. When he came to the Bank after serving as United States Defense Secretary from 1961 to 1968, he left behind him not only the Pentagon but also a full-scale war in Vietnam which was rending the country. McNamara approached the scourge of absolute poverty as a missionary and it is he who lastingly changed the Bank’s mission. McNamara’s predecessors at the Bank had been patrician, establishment figures, at home in the East Coast investment banking world. Non-governmental organizations demand that the Bank slow down and involve local people in the design and implementation of projects which will affect their lives. McNamara’s final legacy has had rather more sinister consequences.
