James Carroll and I have a lot in common. He is three years older than I, which is nothing now that we are in our 70s. We have Catholicism in common, mine eschewed. We have hatred of the Vietnam war in common. I was married to an Air Force fighter pilot in the late 60s and early 70s. He'd been an accounting major at Notre Dame. A trumpet player in the marching band and in a smaller group of talented musicians who played at dances. Who knew this gentle man would turn into a killer? I hated it, and we parted.

The book ends as the US is dropping bombs on Iraq in the early 90's. Again, who knew that we'd have 9-11? That we would have that as an excuse to bomb and bomb again? Who knew we'd STILL be in the Middle East trying in vain to inflict democracy on cultures so ancient that we can never be successful? What hubris! What arrogance!

"...what war does, what it is. No one wins. Victory is impossible. Victory is meaningless. Victory is a lie. Victory is another name for murder."

I loved the book. It has helped me deal with some conflicts of my own, with my family and with my country. The following quote is what I take away.

"...no human being has the right to sit in absolute judgment of another. ...the essential note of our relationship to God, and to each other, must be forgiveness."8 s Eric_W1,930 384

James Carroll is a former priest, son of an air force general, and brother both to a draft resister and an FBI agent whose assignment was to track down draft resisters. James left the priesthood, saddened and sickened by the war in Vietnam and perhaps subconsciously by his father's role in it. This book is, in part, his reconciliation with God and his father - maybe because, in some measure, they were one and the same.

His father was certainly James' idol. He put himself through law school while working in the Chicago stockyards, became an FBI agent because there were no law firm jobs early in the war, and brought himself to the attention of J. Edgar Hoover by suggesting a novel way of involving the FBI in a manhunt for an escaped prisoner who had never committed a federal crime - charging him with failure to notify his draft board of a change of address. That led to Hoover's recommendation that he head a new Office of Special Investigations of the Air Force . This office had tremendous power - it was not subject to the regular chain of command, which made the brass nervous - but they discovered his usefulness when he used his FBI skills and connections to discover that a letter libeling some of the Air Force generals was a Navy hoax. The Navy was trying to smear the Air Force so the new service would not be given control over nuclear weapons.

The fifties were a time of great fear. Even Pope Pius XII, insisting on neutrality during WW II, delivered several pronouncements justifying war with the Communists (Fascists were OK because they believed in God; Communists were not, because they didn't). In a fabulous casuistry he even promoted the view that killing millions during a nuclear exchange was acceptable under the doctrine of "unintended but predictable consequences," i.e., the deaths would be not objectionable because they were unintended. Thus the Cold War and MAD (Mutually Assured destruction) were legitimized.

Carroll's father once said that if he ever had to leave, the young James was to get everyone into the car and drive as far away from Washington as possible. He told his son world War III was inevitable. Man had never created a weapon he did not eventually use. As head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, he was the one who recognized the significance of the missiles in Cuba. The . generals' wives took turns parking at the end of the runway where the choppers were parked. As long as those helicopters remained there, they knew the brass had not been evacuated to Thunder Mountain, and they could remain at home. The fatalism of his parents was one reason he decided to become a priest: to emphasize the spiritual, which was all that now mattered.

The split between James and his father became more pronounced over Martin Luther King, Jr. Carroll has since learned from David Garrow's book, The FBI and Martin Luther King:
From Selma to Memphis that the FBI under a racist Hoover had evidence that Stanley Levinson, a King confidant, had ties to Moscow and honestly believed he might be a Soviet agent. Joseph could not reveal any of that to his son - not that it might have made any difference by that point. The tenor of the anti-King campaign changed after King won the Nobel Prize and Hoover determined to bring him down. Illegal wiretaps revealed King's enthusiasm for extramarital affairs, and soon he became "that degenerate." Joseph told his son his support (and that of the Vatican by now) of King was simply naive and ill-informed. No child can accept that kind of explanation.

In a very interesting section, Carroll traces United States involvement in Vietnam to the machination of Cardinal Spellman, who was impressed by the mystic Diem, then an exile in the U.S. Diem was placed in charge of the government in an attempt to Catholicize the country. The writings of Tom Dooley, later revealed to be a CIA shill, were a further attempt to portray Vietnam as a predominantly Catholic country - it was 90% Buddhist. Even McNamara referred to Vietnam in speeches as a Catholic nation. Diem was vicious in his discrimination against the Buddhists. "Diem was a Vietminh's dream, driving more and more of the populace into its arms. Americans expected him to be a democrat, but he was a true medieval Catholic of the kind that even the Vatican knew only in nostalgia. Diem believed that he ruled by the will of God."
But General Carroll was a pariah in his profession as much as his son was at home. Here was an Air Force general who had never flown a plane, had not served in WW II, who had not had to rise through the ranks. So he had an extra motivation for not rocking the boat. It was this civilian background, and nonparticipation in the Pentagon internecine battles, that influenced Kennedy to appoint him as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Kennedy wanted an independent source of information after the Air Force brass had lied to him about the nature of the missile gap (there was one, but it was in our favor). James learned later that the DIA had questioned many of the data supplied by the Pentagon about how the war was going, but it was ignored.

General Carroll eventually broke with Defense Secretary Melvin Laird over a policy issue and retired from the Air Force. Unfortunately, father and son never reconciled. The general died in 1991, sick with Alzheimer's disease and "an almost entirely broken man."
This is one of the best, most honest and revealing memoirs I have read.

Carroll's novel Memorial Bridge apparently deals with the same era and topics.

biography-memoir5 s Edith456

2 1/2 stars.

It seems a pity to me that someone James Carroll, a writer with an unparalleled up-close view of developments in the US during the Viet Nam war should have squandered it writing an often narcissistic account of his love/hate relationship with his father, a former top level FBI man and top Air Force intelligence officer. his father, James Carroll studied for the priesthood, but un his father, took the vows, only to leave the priesthood later, finding the church's attitudes sclerotic, not matching his picture of what the Catholic faith could be.

Much of what Carroll writes is very interesting, and certainly revived my memories of the period--but with much more inside information than I had at the time. His memories of the central place that the church had in Catholic households brought back the period very sharply. However, I don't think he has ever gotten to the bottom of his relationship with his family, which leads to a lot of rather contradictory remarks about especially his parents, and especially about his father. Obviously, understanding one's place in one's family is always a work in progress, but the passive-aggressive depictions of his parents (showing at times scant compassion toward a man who was suffering from Alzheimer's) were unsettling.

My chief complaint about this book is that, while a memoir such as this is clearly going to be centered on the writer's experience of his life, Carroll reveals a narcissistic, sometimes hostile, streak which unbalances his story, and frequently made me wish I could hear the other person's side of things.

Worth reading if you can accommodate yourself to Carroll's company long enough to take in what he saw of the war.

history memoir4 s Wendy Bousfield110 9

I read this book back-to-back with Kafka's LETTER TO HIS FATHER. Both writers have fathers whose approval they spend their lives seeking, and from whom they are temperamentally and vocation-wise incapable of pleasing. Kafka says: "My writing was all about you." Carroll might say the same.

Joe Carroll left the priesthood to marry Jim's mother, Mary. He became an FBI agent and distinguished himself by capturing Roger "Terrible" Touhy, a Chicago gangster. Through J. Edgar Hoover's influence, Joe became a General in the Air Force and head of the OSI, an agency that would coordinate intelligence of all agencies and branches of the military. While Joe Carroll supports the war in Vietnam, his son, as a priest and chaplain at BU, becomes increasingly involved in anti-war activity. Jim's heroes are the Berrigan brothers. After Jim and his father become estranged, the book recounts, heartbreakingly, attempts on both sides to bridge the gap.

Even after he has left the priesthood, Jim perceives struggles within the Catholic church in a powerfully personal way. He says of himself: "The broadly political is always personal. And always religious. Doubt is at the heart of my faith, as objection is at the heart of my loyalty" (279). For Catholics struggling to understand the impact of Vatican II on seminarians and working priests, there is no better book. Caroll's style is gorgeously metaphorical.3 s Sallie Dunn670 59

I’m really glad I chose this book for a prompt in my reading challenge: a National Book Award winner. This book appealed to me because it encapsulated my background and childhood. Much of the Catholic Church history it cites was so relevant to me as I was a catholic school kid and remember the death of Pius XII and the election of John XXIII as well as John Paul VI. But I was too young to have any knowledge of church politics. (I never even caught a whiff from the nuns who schooled us.) So this book was eye opening for me in that respect. Also I appreciated the chronological history of the war in Vietnam and its escalation and atrocities. And one man’s awakening to the Civil Rights movement. A very satisfying non fiction read. 3 s Amy Salvatore73 2

I really loved this memoir. I found it captivating. I learned things about Catholicism in the 60s and the Vietnam War that I never knew. I will be using excerpts of this book in class this year. Most of all, it is a heartfelt story of a man who sought his father's love by taking on the vocation of priesthood in his father's place. He finds that, just as his father before him, he cannot fulfill his vow. His desire to do for his father what his father could not do is the central tension of the book. His decisions during his work as a priest during the volatility of America in the 60s and his choice to protest the war lead to the disintegration of his relationship with his father. The prose is beautifully rendered and the tenderness of Carroll's portrait of his father, a tough FBI man whose appointment to the highest echelons of government positions, is touching and loving despite his father's refusal to understand his son. Un many memoirs where grown children paint pictures of parents who were mean spirited or downright cruel, Carroll chooses to portray a man at odds with his own feelings and loyalties, recognizing that humans are more complex than their actions might reveal. This book would appeal to Catholics and non-Catholics, but it would especially resonate with people who are of an age to remember the divisiveness of the Vietnam War.
2 s Cheryl1,520

Excellent! This highly-readable book is not only interesting but very thought provoking. Brought back a lot of memories and added more dimension to other events from that time. It sparked several serious discussions as well with my own daughter.

I'm glad this book crossed my path. I heartily recommend it to anyone interested in the Vietnam war and to book clubs that very well written non-fiction.biography history memoir ...more2 s Dan Krieger2 1 follower

If you are into the sixties, Carroll's autobiographical account is a must read!2 s Marguerite Hargreaves1,255 25

The dynamics in the Carroll family make for interesting reading, on the scale of Homer or Shakespeare. The memoir is more interesting for some of the shared experiences (Air Force life, including a stop in Wiesbaden and dad's two tours in Vietnam, along with theology studies). But, the word "scrupulosity" comes to mind:

"It was no news that I was a sinful human being. A pointed sense of my own fallenness had been attached to my heels a shadow since my brother, through some fault of mine, had contracted polio."

Carroll notes it, too: "My every success, since it came at Joe's expense, would feel failure -- a sad pattern grooved into my psyche to this day."

I'd have d a little more reflection about how Carroll's faith evolved after he left the priesthood. As written, it comes across as still fairly Old Testament, eye-for-eye.

I've enjoyed Carroll's writing for years, particularly his thoughts about the Church.

"The Officers' Club dwarfed the church -- a reminder of what really mattered here."

"I believe that to be made in God's image is to do this: arrange memory and transform experience according to the structure of narrative. The story is what saves us."

"Go about your eating and drinking and being together, and let that be the ligament binding you to God."

The inside information about the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, the workings of the FBI and the antiwar movement is fascinating. biography-memoir gotta-have-faith1 Steve Watson476 36

A beautiful memoir of a death of a father and a kind of partial death of a father-son bond. Also a memoir of one kind of faith lost, and another held.

"Even as I swore to be a priest forever, I was afraid that I was losing my faith. Yet even at that moment of my infinite distance from the pieties that were expected of me, I was finding my faith. I was discovering the God of Jesus Christ, the blasphemer, the heretic, the criminal, the disgrace. In Jesus Christ, passion, doubt, uncertainty, anguish, despair even - all the emotions breaking in me me while I was prostrate on that cold stone floor - were signs not of moral failure but of human life. As I looked forward to a priesthood of which I knew already that neither the cardinal not my parents would approve, my spine was stiffened by the knowledge that Jesus, in keeping bad company, had been disapproved that. The Gospels recorded a way of life that, from what I could see had little to do with the life these others expected me to lead. I was very much afraid, but I did not feel alone. I had as friends and comrades Patrick Hughes and a few others, heading out with me from exactly such a place. And I had a vivid sense of the presence at my elbow of Jesus Christ. By some miracle of a transformed faith, despite all the reasons not to, I trusted Him. I wanted to speak of Him to others. The truth is, I still do." (222)1 Carol49

James Carroll is a master storyteller, and in this he tells his own story of coming of age during the decades we call the Vietnam Era. James grew up adoring his father, a three-star Air Force General, but never quite pleasing him. The struggle continued throughout his becoming a priest, and then becoming an activist against the Vietnam War, a bold and courageous decision in view of his father's military standing. He also had a brother who was a Conscientious Objector living in another country, and a brother who was an FBI agent, ironically assigned to track down draft dodgers and individuals who earned the disdain of J. Edgar Hover.

James' attempts to reconcile with his father never succeed, even to his father's death and burial at Arlington National Cemetery. Some stories aren't tied up with a nice ribbon at the end, and this one isn't. But however heartbreaking, it is a story told with gut-wrenching honesty, and James lets you see his personal and spiritual development during a time when the country was wrenched apart over a senseless war. It's a book you will have a hard time putting down1 Joe535 18

This book was not as good as I'd thought it might be, or as it could have been. The subject matter was interesting, and occassionally the author's insights were fairly good, but overall it seemed very self serving and, at the same time, either naive or ignorant. It was fascinating to see the interaction and dynamic in retrospect, but I think the author has still yet to fully acknowledge everything that happened or look at the events from a non-biased perspective.
There were a lot of aspects of the book that could have been developed more to make it more interesting, but others should probably have been either left out or reduced. Regardless, it was an interesting story and another look at recent events in American and Catholic history that should not be completely discounted.1 Nicola255 6

More than any other book I've read about the American war in Vietnam and the civic unrest of the Martin Luther King era, this book brought me to understand the personal impact of these events upon privileged white society. Carroll's painful struggle to confront and reconcile his upbringing with the new political realities was honest and agonizing. His father's high political office deepens the complexity of his struggle along with the pressures of being in the clergy.
I haven't read a lot about the rise of the Catholic left in America, so this was illuminating. This is an important book written by someone with a very unique perspective.1 Ann Quinn11

I loved this book. If you want to know more about what it was in America during the Vietnam War, it is packed into this book. If you want to understand Catholicism better--its politics and what it can be for people, what it doesn't have to be (there are some lapsed Catholics in my own family history, so I'm fascinated), you will learn a lot. I'm amazed at how much I learned in 279 pages. I think this should be required reading for every seminarian of every denomination, especially in the DC area. 1 Mary Wallan153 2

While every good author goes through many drafts of a book, James Carroll had to dig much deeper to write An American Requiem .

The book chronicles Carroll's relationship with his father from the time their values were the same to the days when they were not. The elder Carroll, a high-ranking military intelligence officer and staunch Catholic, had high expectations for his sons. James seemed destined for the priesthood from an early age and pursues that vocation. But over time, with changes in the Church, the Civil Rights Movement and above all, the Vietnam War, he becomes disillusioned with his own role and that of his father.

The book reads very well. A gifted writer, Carroll moves handily between current and future events emphasizing themes over chronology. You see early on where the book is headed and he takes the time to tell the story in a very compelling way.

He is very open about his challenges in disagreeing with his father while struggling to maintain a loving relationship with him. Carroll's honesty and vulnerability is very appealing and relatable. His thoughtful reflections on family dynamics could only have been the result of deep and lengthy soul-searching.

The book is a very poignant and personal look at a son living with regrets about unresolved conflict, yet coming to clarity about what he could not fix, as shown in these last lines:

My father was dead. A fallible man. A noble man. I loved him. And because I was so much him , though appearing not to be, I had broken his heart. And the final truth was - oh, how the skill of ending with uplift yet eludes me - he had broken mine. Jennifer HallockAuthor 5 books37

I have never seen a father and son so set on different courses for such good reasons, and while we see only through the son's eyes, both people are presented honestly and with layers of nuance. I almost would not have believed the story if it were written as fiction—but because I know the truth behind so much of their intertwined histories, and because I teach a class on the Vietnam War and am steeped in that truth as well, I can see how both father and son could not have done otherwise than they did. The fracture of their relationship is terribly sad, and I wish that Jim's relationship with Joe Sr. could have been healed in the same way his brother Dennis's was. Unfortunately, though, father's Alzheimer's ran out the clock.

The Vietnam War history is told well, and Carroll does get into parts of the early war that many people might not be aware of, especially around the choice of Ngo Dinh Diem and the later coup that overthrew him. While I knew that history, I did not quite put together the pieces around Catholic ties and Cardinal Spellman until now. Moreover, coming from an Air Force family, the impact of the bombing campaigns (including the use of napalm and the considered use of nuclear weapons) are felt in particular relief here. This really gives you the perspective of someone trying to change the system from within (the father, whose DIA regularly said the bombing campaigns were doing nothing to help the war effort) and from outside (the son, who protested and marched in Washington and elsewhere). R. Allain53 1 follower

Growing up in this country in the Sixties and Seventies resembled the Sufi parable of a blind person encountering an elephant. The pachyderm felt dramatically different depending on the part touched. But as James Carroll reveals in his engaging, tumultuous autobiography, in the end it was a damn momentous creature - and time. And the author forged riveting life chapters juggling influences ranging from J. Edgar Hoover (FBI) to Allen Tate (poet) to Daniel Berrigan (underground Jesuit priest). So as a son of privilege with a distant, overachieving military dad, Carroll, saddled with a staunch Catholic upbringing, Cold War angst and a simmering war in Vietnam did the natural thing. Pleasing his family, he became a priest. Yet with raw psychological candor, his strong suit, this was hardly the oasis he imagined. For in war, neutrality isn't an option. Assigned to a rabidly anti-war campus (Boston University), with Catholicism roiled by Vatican Two and a father helping steer the war at the Pentagon, the author's odyssey, uh, might be best summarized by quoting Bob Dylan: "I haven't known peace and quiet for so long, I can't remember what it's ." But in James Carroll's deft telling, it was seldom forgettable or insignificant. Patrick Henry77

An American Requiem was the choice of our book group. We are guys who were in the seminary together in the '60s. Most had left active ministry, raised families and went on to successful careers. The book was looking back at the idealism of young adults living through turbulent times.

Most everyone thought this book illustrated the disillusion of the Sixties. The author, a former Catholic priest, traces his vocation to his mother's hopes. But the church was not a good fit. His leaving tore at the perception of the good Catholic family who thought they raised a son to priesthood.

The father of James Carroll rose to the highest level of leadership in the military. The son, however, takes an opposite path of peace advocate. Carroll goes out of his way to confront General Carroll and lob bitter jabs against all his father stands for. All in the name of peace for the world, but fostering unneeded strife in the family.

I found James Carroll's account candid, but sort of mean spirited. It struck me as an extended adolescent tantrum. Maybe he'd see things differently now. Liquidlasagna2,303 75

Definately a strange book about the family weirdness

when your father is the head of the Defence Intelligence Agency

........

wiki

Relations with sons

The Vietnam War introduced serious tensions into the general's family life. His son Dennis fled to India to escape service.

Nevertheless, General Carroll donned his uniform to represent Dennis, after he returned from India, before the Selective Service board and succeeded in getting his son recognized as a conscientious objector.

There were also serious disagreements with his son James, who was ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood in 1969.

Father and son first clashed over the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; the general suspected several of King's aides were Communists, whereas James admired King as a champion of the poor.

James' anti-war activity was an embarrassment to his father.

James Carroll's memoir, An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War That Came Between Us, winner of the National Book Award in 1996, addressed his differences with his father directly. Kevin A.257

This book had been sitting on my shelf for years unread. In my mind it had become “another baby boomer fights with his father over Vietnam.” But the story is so much more than that — and, having been born in 1943, James Carroll was not a baby boomer.

Instead it is the story of his father, who once prepared for the priesthood before leaving to get married. He then became an FBI agent, an Air Force intelligence officer, and eventually the first head of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Then it is the story of James Carroll, who in administration and emulation of his father becomes a priest. Only he becomes an anti war radical priest while his father serves as a general in his office in the Pentagon.

This book is fascinating to this non-believing non-Catholic, opening up a world unknown. Carroll is a conscientious if dour guide. If nothing else this book makes one feel the weight of responsibility of both father and son that they shared despite themselves. Tamara MurphyAuthor 1 book28

As much as I try to limit my intake of the memoir genre, when I read a good one I always come back to the truth that it's my favorite. I am captivated not only by a story well told but also by the work a good memoirist does to connect the dots between all the influencers in their context: generations of family members, religious and educational backgrounds, word events and socio-economic factors. I'm fascinated to watch not only the facts of one person's life play out by also by their work in interpreting meaning. James Carroll has a good and hard story. I kept reading sections out loud to Brian. Much of the story felt especially timely, in the light of daily reports of conflict and scandal in both the political and religious spheres. I appreciate the way Carroll made meaning, grieved loss, and sought reconciliation with his ideals and his reality. Two thumbs way up.2018 Kevin241

Hard to believe this is an autobiography. a real insight into the USA from WW2, Cold War and in particular the Vietnam war. as the son of an FBI Agent who later became an air force General heading up Counter Intelligence and advisor to Presidents. Carroll is well placed to witness so much. Growing up in a Catholic family and later a priest, he describes the role of the Catholic church in Politics and there often pro war role. again providing information on the church and ties to dictators and looking after the church. The USA war machine in the hands of Generals and there lies to not only the President, the people and there allies. truly an eye opener of a read. if you want a good read or a history buff interested in politics of America from the 40s to the 90s you will enjoy this. 4.4 stars Terry MarshallAuthor 1 book25

The protests that have gone on this past year transported us to James Carroll’s excellent memoir, AN AMERICAN REQUIEM. His military family expected him to become a priest and lead a contemplative life. So he did . . . for a while.

But he abandoned the contemplative life, wound up protesting the Vietnam War in the 1960s, and eventually left the priesthood.

Carroll’s book tells a compelling story, and is beautifully written. It has lessons aplenty for us all. And we can relate so deeply to his angst at wanting to live up to his parents' expectations, at the same time he had an irresistible inner calling to follow his conscience, which told him to oppose the war. Katie17

I have never thought of myself as being overly interested in memoirs, but I actually d this one. The writing was compelling, and the subject was interesting. For anyone with an interest in Vietnam, this is probably worth a read. James Carroll is an author with many publications to his name. Prior to becoming an author, he actually was ordained as a priest. He was an anti-war activist priest during Vietnam, and his father was heavily involved in the war effort. Needless to say, their opposing views did not do wonders for their relationship. This memoir is definitely worth perusing. David 25 2

Being there!

This profound, award-winning memoir does not need my review. But I must thank James Carroll for taking me through our shared history, and being there in the midst of, and presence to the major events and historical figures that made that history. My relationship to my father was also defined by a lost vocation to the priesthood and conflict over the Vietnam war. The pathos of his relationship to his father is deeply moving, and deeply felt. Thank you, James. Amanda Trosten-BloomAuthor 7 books4

A fascinating and heart-wrenching memoir about a Catholic family's journey through the Vietnam era. Carroll tells the story of his journey from son of a conservative air force general / FBI higher-up and ordination by one of the Catholic Church's more conservative archbishops, to antiwar activities . Filled with photographs and powerful personal stories. I loved it. Mary Brown534 5

This 1996 national Book award winner is a memoir of the son of an Air Force lieutenant general during the Vietnam War. James Carroll does everything he can to find love from his emotionally distant father, including becoming a priest. Eventually he opposes the war and leaves the priesthood, and stops trying to do everything to get his father's love. J.368

I enjoyed this book. I got a feeling of openness and honesty that was an expression of someone working through strong emotions concerns their family. I also identified with so much in the book: the author and I are almost precise contemporaries, we both grew up in Northern Virginia, and we both experienced many of the same memorable events.2020 Charles26

Fascinating story. These two men, father and son, saw much and were directly involved or present for many pivotal events in the Cold War. This book tries to show how faith (in both god and country) can bind us together. But also how faith, only for faiths sake and not for the ones in our lives, can tear us apart. Eric251 2

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