Skip to main content
Donate to the 95 years appeal
Sins of the Father
RON JACOBS has some painful memories triggered by Robert McNamara son’s memoir of the fraught relationship he had with his father, a key architect of the US war on Vietnam
(L to R) Robert McNamara, Lt Col David Clement and Maj Gen Lewis and W Walt en route to the Le My City Hall during McNamara's visit to the Marine units in the area on July 18 1965 [manhhai/flickr/CC]

Because Our Fathers Lied: A Memoir of Truth and Family, from Vietnam to Today
by Craig McNamara
Little Brown and Company, £24.44

WHEN I read this book by the son of Robert McNamara, a key architect of the US war on Vietnam, I couldn’t help but compare my experience as the oldest son of an air force officer.

My dad wasn’t an architect of the US war on Vietnam; his role was that of an engineer.

Like thousands of others in the military and throughout the US bureaucracy of war, our fathers were family men.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
jacobs
Books / 8 August 2025
8 August 2025

RON JACOBS rides shotgun with a member of Black Bloc on the wave of anti-capitalist protests of the 1990s and early 2000s

US
Books / 1 August 2025
1 August 2025

With reservations, RON JACOBS recommends a deep dive into the nature, history, and mindset of US intelligence

flynn
Book Review / 18 July 2025
18 July 2025

RON JACOBS welcomes a timely homage to one of the IWW and CPUSA’s most effective orators

dicks
Books / 29 June 2025
29 June 2025

RON JACOBS welcomes a survey of US punk in the era of Reagan, and sees the necessity for some of the same today

Similar stories
chile
Books / 16 May 2025
16 May 2025

RON JACOBS welcomes an investigation of the murders of US leftist activists that tells the story of a solidarity movement in Chile

barbarism
Book Review / 9 May 2025
9 May 2025

RON JACOBS welcomes the translation into English of an angry cry from the place they call the periphery

ON THE SAME SIDE OF HISTORY: Audre Lorde, left, with Meridel
Book Review / 29 December 2024
29 December 2024
RON JACOBS reviews a new biography of the American poet who revolutionised the perception of black writers in the creative milieu of the day
Rita Martenson, Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland in the FTA
Culture / 9 October 2024
9 October 2024
RON JACOBS revisits the Antiwar Troupe’s 1971 Tour