(CNN) -- Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, a key architect of the U.S. war in Vietnam under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, has died at age 93, according to his family. Robert McNamara took a lead role in managing the U.S. military commitment in Vietnam. McNamara was a member of Kennedy's inner circle during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when the United States and the Soviet Union stood on the brink of nuclear war. But he became a public lightning rod for his management of the war in Vietnam, overseeing the U.S. military commitment there as it grew from fewer than 1,000 advisers to more than half a million troops.
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Robert McNamara was key architect of war in Vietnam under two presidents
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McNamara became lightning rod for his management of that war
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He was member of President Kennedy's inner circle during Cuban Missile Crisis
Robert McNamara
Robert McNamara
McNamara
Robert McNamara
McNamara
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