{"id":2635,"date":"2018-01-15T10:07:38","date_gmt":"2018-01-15T16:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/?p=2635"},"modified":"2018-01-15T10:22:03","modified_gmt":"2018-01-15T16:22:03","slug":"open-letter-to-the-children-of-robert-mcnamara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/open-letter-to-the-children-of-robert-mcnamara\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Letter to the Children of Robert McNamara"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear McNamara Children,<\/p>\n

This is a belated apology.\u00a0 I have been meaning to set things straight, but the right moment never materialized, and now it has been over 50 years.\u00a0 However, my guilt came flooding back as I watched the recent Ken Burn documentary on the Vietnam War.\u00a0 Night after night I saw your father, with his slicked back hair, ramrod straight part and rimless glasses.\u00a0 He was an intimidating figure as Secretary of Defense, standing in front of a map of Vietnam with the menacing China and Russia seeping down from above.<\/p>\n

You must understand that I was watching him at the same time our neighbors were building a bomb shelter in their basement and we were having bomb drills at school.\u00a0 At the sound of the alarm we all rushed to crouch beneath our desks with our hands on top of our heads.\u00a0 But even at age 12, I knew this was a useless exercise.\u00a0 That flimsy desk could never protect me from an atom bomb.\u00a0 I counted on your father to save me.<\/p>\n

And then I saw him in the flesh.\u00a0 Perhaps you remember a family spring break ski vacation in Utah in 1964. \u00a0My family was there too.\u00a0 Your father brought an air of celebrity to the entire resort and everyone treated your family with the utmost deference.\u00a0 My ski school instructor scuttled us to the side of the slope as your father passed.\u00a0 I have a distinct memory of his smiling face as he whizzed by in baggy ski pants, his greased down hair totally unperturbed by the blowing wind.\u00a0 I looked at him and thought, \u201cHow can this man be taking a vacation.\u00a0 How could he be smiling?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t the Communist threat a serious business?\u00a0 Who\u2019s manning his post back in Washington?<\/p>\n

One day I arrived at the lift line at the same time as your father.\u00a0 Then he did the unthinkable.\u00a0 He cut in line.\u00a0 In my suburban grade school,\u00a0 my only exposure to social justice was simple:\u00a0 No cuts.\u00a0 It was inviolate.\u00a0 Line cutters were bullies, the worst sort of kids, deserving universal scorn.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t care whether your father was the only thing between and me and the Commie horde, your father cut in line.\u00a0 It was unforgiveable.<\/p>\n

I fumed.\u00a0 At lunch I saw my opportunity for retribution. \u00a0I couldn\u2019t get back at the mighty McNamara, but you kids were in my ski school and emerged as surrogate targets.\u00a0 I looked at the youngest and blurted out the meanest thing I could think of. \u00a0\u201cYou know, there is no such thing as Santa Claus.\u00a0 I mean it.\u00a0 He isn\u2019t real. Your parents are lying to you.\u201d\u00a0 I remember mouths hanging open, and a little drop of milk hanging from one of your lips as you sat in stunned silence.<\/p>\n

Yes, it was me.\u00a0 I was the one who punctured the greatest hoax of childhood, drained the magic out of Christmas.<\/p>\n

I immediately felt remorse.\u00a0 I had turned into a vindictive bully, worse than a line-cutter.\u00a0 Any regrets quickly turned to abject fear.\u00a0 What would your father do to me if you told him about my indiscretion?\u00a0 Robert McNamara, the man who held the fate of nations, who sent young men off to remote rice paddies, there was probably nothing he couldn\u2019t do to me.\u00a0 Apologizing and admitting my guilt would only exacerbate the situation.\u00a0 I wanted to slink away and hide forever.<\/p>\n

Now I want to make amends.\u00a0 So here it is.<\/p>\n

I am very sorry for my unwarranted cruelty.\u00a0 I am ashamed that I turned into the person I did not want to be.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Wait a minute, now I am rethinking this.\u00a0 Maybe I did you a favor.\u00a0 My Santa Claus reveal was perhaps your introduction to the fine art of the dissembling and deception of adults.\u00a0 Maybe it prompted a critical and questioning mind that has served you well over the years. And perhaps you began to understand the tyranny of the lie, that once established it is so difficult undo.\u00a0 Armed with this knowledge, perhaps you were better able to understand the agony of your father as he absorbed the guilt of Vietnam.<\/p>\n

Okay, who am I kidding here? Forget it, I\u2019m overstepping.\u00a0 Just please accept my apology.<\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/p>\n

Liza Blue<\/p>\nFollow Liza Blue on: \"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>Share: \"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear McNamara Children, This is a belated apology.\u00a0 I have been meaning to set things straight, but the right moment never materialized, and now it has been over 50 years.\u00a0 However, my guilt came flooding back as I watched the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mcsweeney-rejects"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iVc8-Gv","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2635"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2637,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2635\/revisions\/2637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}