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McNamara was also keenly aware that his own internal resources were diminishing. Indeed, he has been telling intimates for some time that the moment was coming for him to move on —the moment when, as he put it last week, "there would be benefits from the appointment of a fresh person." He is only 51, but for six years and eleven months McNamara has usually worked a six-day week, twelve hours or more a day, with scant vacation for physical relaxation and no mental release at all from the relentless pressure of running an establishment now spending some $76 billion a year and employing 4,500,000 people. This year he has had to bear the added strain of his wife Marge's illness. "She has my ulcer," McNamara has said casually, hinting that his worries have rubbed off on her.
No Rush. Thus McNamara's problem was an intensely personal one. Doubtless a man of his drive, dedication, and desire to win—whether at chess, squash or disputes over great public issues—feels an emotional anchor to his job and to seeing the war through. But McNamara is also supremely rational; his reason could not ignore the logic in favor of a change in jobs. Thus, while his heart said stay, his mind said go.
But how was he to quit? There was no gracious or easy way, either for McNamara or the President, to arrange the order of his going. A firm request from the Chief to stay on, probably half expected by McNamara, would have settled things; but it never came. From the President's viewpoint, McNamara's reasons for wanting to leave were sound. Tactical political considerations dictated that the closer to Election Day the resignation occurred, the more serious its impact.
Yet on neither side was there a disposition to rush matters. It was last April 18 that George Woods, the World Bank president, whose term expires Dec. 31, sounded McNamara out about taking over the job. McNamara went to Johnson with the idea, said he was interested but added that he would stay at the Pentagon as long as Johnson wanted him there. "You can have anything you want," Johnson responded.
"The country owes it to you. I owe it to you." No firm decision was made, and there the matter rested for a time. Although Woods had made himself available for an extension of service of up to one year, Treasury Secretary Henry Fowler in September told his fellow World Bank governors that the U.S.—which has always supplied the bank's president—would nominate a new one in October. When Fowler suggested that he give the bank a choice, including McNamara, Douglas Dillon and David Rockefeller, the President replied that his first, second and third nominees were all named McNamara.
Ego Reflex. Around the middle of October, Johnson asked McNamara if he was still interested. "I answered in the affirmative," McNamara said last week, and there was another exchange of assurances—McNamara's that he would serve as long as the President desired, Johnson's that McNamara could have any job he wanted, specifically the presidency of the bank. Yet both men were probably troubled.