Robert Mcnamara

Robert Strange McNamara lived at the center of power in exciting and perilous times. He dragged the Ford Motor Company--and the U.S. automobile industry--into the modern world; he presided over the U.S.

The gig: Craig McNamara is a sustainable farming expert, organic walnut farmer in the Sacramento Valley town of Winters, founder of the nonprofit Center for Land-Based Learning and the California Farm Academy, and president of the state Board of Food and Agriculture, which advises state officials on farming policies. Organic food basket: At his Sierra Orchards, Craig McNamara makes extensive use of pro-environment and conservation techniques as he grows 450 acres of organic walnuts, presses organic olive oil from 150 trees that are more than a century old and helps his son raise hops for a local craft beer.

In Art Seidenbaum's review (Book Review, April 21) of William Ury's "Beyond the Hotline," he writes: "Kosygin in 1967, was the first caller. Then-Secretary of State Robert McNamara had to wake President Johnson whose first response was to wonder what to say." McNamara was a "whiz kid," but he never was secretary of state. McNamara was secretary of defense. Dean Rusk held the state post. Query: Who made the booboo? Seidenbaum (and his editors) or Ury? MYRON W. CURZON Los Angeles

Two citizens groups, one led by the son of former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, went to court to try to derail California's bid for the atom-smashing superconducting super collider. In the suit filed in Alameda County, the Super Collider Action Committee and the Stockton area Coalition Against the Super Collider Site claimed that the state violated the California Environmental Quality Act by not doing environmental impact reports before bidding for the massive $4.4-billion federal project.