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At Ford, McNamara played a major role in bringing out the compact, best-selling Falcon (and a lesser one in putting together the ill-fated Edsel). He also dismayed car connoisseurs by changing the sporty Thunderbird from a two-seater to a four-seater—a decision, however, that more than tripled "T-bird" sales. As a reward for such judgments, McNamara has become a millionaire, and last year earned $410,000 (about $150,000 after taxes). Last week McNamara announced that in addition to taking a mammoth salary cut to serve as Defense Secretary (statutory pay: $25,000, plus use of a chauffeured Cadillac), he would sell his 24,250 shares of Ford stock, drop options on 30,000 more shares—a potential personal loss of more than $3,000,000. Typically, McNamara turned down the suggestion from a Kennedy staffer that he should sell the stock to his children, thereby avoiding the loss without violating any conflict-of-interest law.
McNamara was suggested for Defense by Manhattan Banker Robert Lovett, himself a onetime Secretary of Defense (1951-53), who had first been offered the job in the Kennedy Administration. The Pentagon, highly fond of retiring Secretary Thomas Gates, sighed at the thought of educating the fourth Secretary in eight years, and some recalled the memory of the lackluster regime (1953-57) of another automan, General Motors ex-President "Engine Charlie" Wilson. (In an echo of Wilson's oft-quoted remark, a newsman asked McNamara: "Do you believe that what's good for Ford is good for the country?" Replied McNamara: "I shall act in the interest of the country. That is all I will say on the subject.")
Detroit associates expect that McNamara will be dutifully efficient in following Jack Kennedy's lead; they also expect that his austere manner and lack of defense experience may lead to personal difficulties until he gets the feel of Washington and his new job. Once he does, it will be clearly good for the Pentagon and the U.S. if the man from Ford can go on making "an awful lot of right decisions."
SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY
Clarence Douglas Dillon, 51. Two days before Jack Kennedy named him Secretary of the Treasury, Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Douglas Dillon met in Paris with diplomats from 19 other nations to sign the charter of a new international outfit called the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The aims of the charter very much reflect Dillon's own long-range attitudes. The idea is to build a sound international economic structure, with emphasis on free trade and joint Western development of the fledgling nations. In his new Treasury job, Dillon will be looking through the other end of the telescope. He will be charged with building a sound U.S. economy to assure the basis of free world strength. "He knows," said a friend last week, "that if you are successful everywhere else and your financial structure is gone, you're kaput."