John Theodore McNaughton (November 21, 1921 – July 19, 1967) was an American government official who was United States Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs[1] and Robert S. McNamara's closest advisor.

He was defeated in the election by Harold H. Velde Tall and fast-talking[3] McNaughton began his career as an academic as an associate professor at the Harvard Law School in 1953.

Major General Charles J. Timmes later said that McNaughton, during a discussion of the Vietnam War, had asserted that one could find the solution to any problem "by simply dissecting it into all its elements and then piecing together the resultant formula".

He had been friends with strategic theorist (and later Nobel prize winner in economics) Thomas Schelling since they worked in the administration of the Marshall Plan in Paris.

Together, they outlined a bombing strategy to intimidate North Vietnam in the spring of 1964, leading to the first phase of Operation Rolling Thunder which took place between March 2 and 24, 1965.

In addition, the Viet Cong should agree to terminate terror and sabotage activities and allow Saigon to exercise "governmental functions over substantially all of South Vietnam.

In March 1965, McNaughton told President Johnson that while such efforts might not pay off quickly enough to affect the present ominous deterioration, some may, and we are dealing here in small critical margins.