The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness
Outlook

Robert McNamara as a loving father — who couldn’t talk about Vietnam

Review by
From left, President John F. Kennedy, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson talk at the White House in March 1961. In his memoir, Craig McNamara writes of his father: “We had perfected the paradox of our relationship. Whenever we spoke and I asked him about Vietnam, he always deflected. There was never a big confrontation between us.” (Henry Burroughs/AP)
6 min
correction

An earlier version of this review incorrectly said that Robert McNamara left his job as secretary of defense when Richard M. Nixon was elected president. McNamara left the Pentagon in February 1968, and Nixon was elected president in November. The text has been corrected.

In 2015, Craig McNamara — the son of former defense secretary Robert McNamara — got in touch with Rich Rusk, son of former secretary of state Dean Rusk. They had a lot in common. Their fathers had been chief promulgators of the war in Vietnam. Both sons had opposed the war. Both loved their fathers desperately, although Rusk once refused to speak to his for 14 years. Both had gone off the grid for extended periods of time — Rusk, salmon fishing in Alaska; McNamara, traveling and, for years, subsistence farming in South America. They talked about visiting Vietnam together, but they never made it. On Jan. 28, 2018, Rusk killed himself by jumping off a bridge.