Can G-8 help poor farmers?
Jonathan Power Barbara Ward, the distinguished writer for The Economist and a close friend of Robert McNamara, told me back in 1972 that McNamara bled inside for what hed done in Vietnam. Ward was cross with me for using this quote, understandably so as this was the first time that an intimate friend had gone on the record with McNamaras inner feelings. She went on to say that over time people would judge him more by what he was initiating in his relatively new job as president of the World Bank. Judging from last weeks obituaries she was wrong about that. Vietnam, the Cuban missile crisis and his changing attitude to nuclear weapons dominate present day memories. Yet it is true that what he did at the World Bank is worth remembering, especially his efforts to turn aid in the direction of small farmers. Under his tenure the World Bank spent 30 percent of its budget on helping small Third World farmers be more productive. Today, as before McNamara, it spends about 10 percent. His decisi
