'Because our fathers lied': From the war in Vietnam to sustainable peace

I have some insights into this issue since I traveled to Vietnam for the second time this past February, when I took part in a documentary based on my memoir, "Because Our Fathers Lied."

I chose the title of my book from a line in a Rudyard Kipling poem, which reads, "If any question why we died tell them, because our fathers lied."

My father, Robert S. McNamara, served as Secretary of Defense under Presidents Lyndon Johnson and John F. Kennedy and is widely regarded as the architect of the American War. But my book title is also appropriate because I am not the only child of an American leader of the 1960's who was responsible for planning and overseeing the unjust war.

Back then I only found inner peace after dropping out of college, beginning a journey to South America that lasted for over two years. I cultivated sugarcane and milked cows alongside indigenous farmers on subsistent farms from Mexico to Chile. Secretary of State Dean Rusk's son, Richard, who also opposed the war and once refused to speak to his father for years, fled to Alaska, where he became a fisherman and later a journalist. Army Chief of Staff General William C. Westmoreland's son has written about his trauma growing up in his household.

Hundreds of thousands of young men and women marched in the streets of America as I did; many of them soldiers and veterans, calling for the end of our government's support for the war in Vietnam.

I tried repeatedly as a young man to engage my father in conversations about the war. He always changed the subject and never admitted to the damage he was inflicting on a generation of Vietnamese and American people. In my rebellious state I tried to provoke him, hanging the United States flag upside-down in my bedroom as a sign of distress.

Craig McNamara (L) and his father Robert McNamara, who died in 2009. Photo courtesy of Craig McNamara

On my first visit to Vietnam, in 2017, I traveled with my daughter, Emily, and met some of the children of Vietnamese leaders, including General Vo Nguyen Giap's son. In Quang Tri Province I met Chuck Searcy, co-founder of RENEW, the project that has cleared more than 815,000 unexploded landmines and bombs since 2001. During that visit RENEW invited me to serve on their advisory board.

This year's visit, arranged by VTV4, offered me new perspectives on the war and introduced me to many new friends. I previously found it difficult to understand how Vietnam could defeat an enemy with far superior firepower and technology.

In fact, technology and statistical analysis were my father's strengths, which he had deployed while serving in WWII and when working for the Ford Motor Company. He used his sophisticated strengths to create the McNamara Line, a wide corridor of electronically fortified land stretching from the East Sea to the Laotian border.

On March 4 I traveled with the film crew to Quang Tri and met with Vietnamese veterans, who shared personal stories of the low-tech tactics they used to defeat the McNamara Line. For example, they collected abandoned American aluminum canteens, cups and plates, and strung them along the length of the Line to blow in the wind, sending sound waves to falsely indicate supply lines moving across the demilitarized zone. Sometimes they enhanced these primitive tools by putting mice or frogs inside to animate these containers, giving the false impression of troop movements.

More disturbingly, I learned about the results of my father’s fascination with statistics, which led our military leaders to demand ever-increasing daily numbers of "enemy" killed. This data helped the military when they pursued more money, troops and arms from our Congress—and hit me hard when former Army photographer Ron Haeberle and I met with two survivors of the My Lai massacre in Quang Ngai and heard them wail as if the slaughter of their families had just occurred.

Haeberle explained the details of each of his My Lai photographs. They had been published in America's LIFE magazine in November 1968 and helped turn American public opinion against the war.

The Army's official reports at the time still boasted of killing hundreds of combatants, not civilians.

Where does this leave us today, 50 years after the end of the war?

During this visit, I learned from many veterans and guerrillas how, even while suffering enormous casualties, they were motivated by a desire to expel foreign troops and reunify their country.

Most importantly, I was physically embraced by our former enemies, who told me they wish only to move forward. I came away with a strong belief that we can, and we must continue to join hands, as countries and on the grassroots level on the road toward true peace and reconciliation.

As a farmer of organic walnuts, almonds and olives in California for the past 40 years, I believe strongly that the land provides us with spiritual and nutritional resources to support our people. Early during this recent visit, I toured a model organic farm near Da Nang and was inspired by what I saw.

I am inspired by the words of the prophet Isaiah in the Hebrew bible, exhorting us to turn our swords into plowshares. I hope in the future to work with American and Vietnamese farmers and policymakers to ensure that we respect the earth and create sustainable agricultural practices to serve our children and grandchildren for generations to come.

Together we can build a sustainable peace.

*Craig McNamara, an American farmer and activist, is the son of Robert S. McNamara, U.S. Secretary of Defense under Presidents Lyndon Johnson and John F. Kennedy.