McNamara
McNamara is an Irish surname meaning "son of the sea hound." It appears most often as a reference to Robert McNamara, U.S.
Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War, whose name became associated with technocratic overconfidence and data-driven military strategy that proved disastrously wrong: the McNamara fallacy—measuring only what can be quantified while ignoring what matters.
Progressive increase in intensity
- Gulf of TonkinInlet between Vietnam, China
- Agent OrangeWartime defoliant chemical
- body countTally of the deceased
- Pentagon PapersLeaked Defense Department documents
Tet Offensive · napalm · Saigon · draft · Hanoi · Vietcong · domino theory · Ho Chi Minh Trail
U.S. military headquarters
- KennedyIrish-origin surname, political dynasty
- JohnsonPatronymic meaning son-of
- cabinetEnclosed storage furniture
- defense secretaryCabinet official overseeing military
Cold War · nuclear deterrence · Cuban Missile Crisis · RAND · whiz kids · cost-benefit · metrics · briefings
escalation
Progressive increase in intensity
- Gulf of TonkinInlet between Vietnam, China
- Agent OrangeWartime defoliant chemical
- body countTally of the deceased
Pentagon Papers · Tet Offensive · napalm · Saigon · draft · Hanoi · Vietcong · domino theory · Ho Chi Minh Trail · Mekong Delta
Pentagon
U.S. military headquarters
- KennedyIrish-origin surname, political dynasty
- JohnsonPatronymic meaning son-of
- cabinetEnclosed storage furniture
defense secretary · Cold War · nuclear deterrence · Cuban Missile Crisis · RAND · whiz kids · cost-benefit · metrics · briefings · policy
shamrock
Three-leafed Irish emblem
Clare · Gaelic · emerald · Guinness · soda bread · colcannon · Hibernia · Eire · Erin · brogue
genealogy
Study of family descent
family · lineage · Irish surname · patronymic · kinship · descent · bloodline · relatives · pedigree · Donegal
- Mc surnamesMcDonald, McCartney, McCarthy, McConnell, McGregor
- Vietnam WarVietnam War, Vietnam, Tet Offensive, My Lai Massacre, Viet Cong
McNamaraMuhammad Ali
Legendary heavyweight champion
Martin Luther King Jr. · Jane Fonda · Ho Chi Minh · Joan Baez · conscientious objectors