[7] McNamara felt that the Vietnam War was "absolutely wrong" and was deeply hurt that his father refused to discuss the issue with him, saying dismissively that his son was an uninformed teenager.
[4] Paul Warnke, an aide to the Defense Secretary McNamara stated: "I'm quite sure that the strong opposition of his own children to the war had a very definite impact on him.
McNamara recalled: "Pretty much all the time at Stanford was occupied with anti-Vietnam and Cambodia demonstrations...I remember the rage settling in on me, and the frustration that we all felt because we couldn't stop the war".
McNamara served as part of a mock court that convicted Nixon of war crimes for ordering the Cambodian invasion, which was followed up by a bout of window breaking and other property damage on the Stanford campus.
[9][10] The historian Melvin Small described McNamara as leading an "especially destructive rampage" at Stanford that caused much property damage.
[10] After McNamara left Stanford, he spent several years traveling through Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile.
[12] In 1973, McNamara visited the United States where over the course of a dinner, he became caught up in an argument with Katharine Graham, the owner of The Washington Post newspaper and his father over Chile.
[11] Shortly before he was due to return to Chile, the Allende government was overthrown in a military coup d'etat led by General Augusto Pinochet on 11 September 1973.
[11] The Pinochet government vowed to "exterminate Marxism" in Chile, earning a reputation as one of the worst human rights abusers in Latin America.
[11] In 1974, Robert McNamara again visited Santiago to meet General Pinochet and announced that the World Bank would resume making loans to Chile.
[11] Craig was so outraged that he decided to fly to Washington to confront his father, recalling that he told him over a phone call that: "You can't do this-you always say the World Bank is not a political institution, but financing Pinochet clearly would be".
[11] McNamara felt that his father was being disingenuous in his claim that he had to refuse loans to Chile under Allende because the nationalizations of the copper mining companies was an "economic" matter that was within the remit of the World Bank, but he could make loans to Chile under Pinochet because human rights abuses were a "political" matter outside of the World Bank's remit.
McNamara has also been recognized for his outstanding agricultural work and commitment to ensuring a healthy, sustainable food system for California and the nation.
[15] In 1992, McNamara described his mission as "...to inspire and motivate people of all ages, especially youth, to promote a healthy interplay between agriculture, nature and society through their own actions and leaders in their communities".
[16] Craig and Julie McNamara are the founders of the FARMS Program, a partnership that started in 1993, joining Sierra Orchards (the operational farming entity of McNamara's family), UC Davis, the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom and the Yolo County Resource Conservation District.
These trees are already fifteen years old, they are so stunted and weak, not because the moths are so much of a problem anymore, thanks to Rachel's biological control using synthetic pheromones.
"[17] McNamara stated that the problem was that the soil of California was infested with nematodes, parasitic worms that attack the roots of his walnut trees.
[17] McNamara concluded: "There are no organic methods to control these nematodes and because we did not want to fumigate the soil with methyl bromide before planting, we accept the reduced yield".