Robert McNamara (June 9, 1916 — July 6, 2009) was an American business executive and the eighth United States Secretary of Defense. McNamara served as Defense Secretary for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson during the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1968. Following that he served as President of the World Bank from 1968 until 1981. McNamara was responsible for the institution of systems analysis in public policy, which developed into the discipline known today as policy analysis.

Robert Strange McNamara was born in Oakland, California, where his father was the sales manager of a wholesale shoe company; he got his middle name "Strange" from his mother's maiden name. He attended Piedmont High School in Piedmont, California, where he was president of the Rigma Lions boys club in 1933. McNamara became an Eagle Scout, and graduated in 1937 from the University of California, Berkeley, with a Bachelor of Arts in economics with minors in mathematics and philosophy, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in his sophomore year, and earned a varsity letter in crew. He was a member of the UC Berkeley Golden Bear Battalion, Army ROTC. He then earned a master's degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1939.

After earning his MBA, McNamara worked a year for the accounting firm Price Waterhouse in San Francisco. In August 1940 he returned to Harvard to teach in the Business School and became the highest paid and youngest Assistant Professor at the time. Following his involvement there in a program to teach the analytical approaches used in business to officers of the Army Air Forces (AAF), he entered the Armed Forces as a captain in early 1943, serving most of the war with the AAF's Office of Statistical Control. One major responsibility was the analysis of U.S. bombers' efficiency and effectiveness, especially the B-29 forces commanded by Major General Curtis LeMay in China and the Mariana Islands. He left active duty in 1946 with the rank of lieutenant colonel and with a Legion of Merit.