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Craig McNamara Confronts His Father’s Legacy in ‘Because Our Fathers Lied’

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2726 Ratings

🗓️ 10 May 2022

⏱️ 57 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Robert McNamara was president of the Ford Motor Company, head of the World Bank, U.S. Secretary of Defense and widely considered to be the architect of the Vietnam War. He was also a father. His son, Craig McNamara, depicts their strained, yet love-filled, relationship in his new book, “Because Our Fathers Lied,” which explores the wall that existed between them as a result of Craig’s deep opposition to the Vietnam War. We’ll talk with McNamara about what it means to carve out his own legacy and how he contends with his father’s actions today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:59.4

From KQED.

1:04.9

From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Mina Kim.

1:15.6

Coming up on Forum, many of us have something in our family history we grapple with, something

1:20.6

apparent or relative has done, that we're uncomfortable with or even ashamed of.

1:25.6

For Craig McNamara, that something is a devastating war

1:30.1

that cost millions of lives. He's the son of Robert McNamara, U.S. Secretary of Defense

1:36.1

under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, who oversaw the Vietnam War. Greg McNamara joins us to

1:42.5

talk about what he's learned from decades wrestling with his father's legacy.

1:46.0

His new memoir is Because Our Fathers Lied. Forum is next after this news.

1:52.0

This is Forum. I'm Mina Kim.

2:05.1

Craig McNamara is a walnut farmer in Winters, California.

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