McNamara's Path to Power: Statistical Control at Harvard Following Pearl Harbor William Taubman, Amherst College, with John Batchelor The discussion with Professor William Taubman focuses on Robert McNamara, a brilliant student his whole life who was famously known for his roles as Defense Secretary and World Bank leader, and later for apologizing for Vietnam War mistakes. The conversation traces the moment McNamara moved from being a young professor at Harvard Business School to making decisions for the U.S. Air Force. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, McNamara, wanting very much to participate in the war, rushed to discuss the conflict with his neighbors. The war came to him when Tex Thornton, who was at the Pentagon, arrived from Washington to establish a school at Harvard where officers would learn statistical control. McNamara was one of the first Harvard instructors to agree to teach the new curriculum. Thornton quickly realized that McNamara was the "pick of the litter at Harvard" and the ideal person to fit his mission of attracting brilliant Harvard professors to teach statistical control to American officers, thus beginning McNamara's influential career.