How data wrecked American warfare Robert McNamara remade the military
'Robert S. McNamara articulated a vision of victory in Vietnam, speaking not of jungles, villages, or human lives, but of body counts, kill ratios, and sortie statistics.
Stephen Pimentel
April 25, 2025
Standing before the White House press corps 60 years ago this weekend, Robert S. McNamara articulated a vision of victory in Vietnam, speaking not of jungles, villages, or human lives, but of body counts, kill ratios, and sortie statistics. For McNamara, success was quantifiable, shaped by metrics suitable for spreadsheets. Moulded by the techniques of Harvard Business School and the logistics of the Second World War, he believed that, with the right data, any problem could be solved.
As Secretary of Defense between 1961 and 1968, McNamara introduced systems analysis into decision-making, asserting that war could be rationalised and won through quantitative management that would later shape much of the activity of the American government. Vietnam became his proving ground, with progress measured by tons of bombs dropped, roads cleared, or Viet Cong killed. If the numbers looked good, so too would the future.
Yet the press conference betrayed the fragility of his vision, which mistook legibility for understanding. Beneath the seductive statistics lay deeper truths that were resistant to data’s neat columns. The jungle might be penetrated by special forces or removed by Agent Orange, but the culture and politics that flowed through it remained elusive. America’s failure to quell these currents would ultimately cost it the war.
https://unherd.com/2025/04/how-data-wrecked-american-warfare/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups[0]=18743&tl_period_type=3
