Francis Terry McNamara

Francis Terry McNamara (born November 2, 1927) is a retired career Foreign Service Officer, ambassador and author.

Early life Francis Terry McNamara was born in Troy, New York, November 2, 1927 to John F. McNamara, Sr. and Ellin F. Fennelly. Always fascinated by things nautical, he found a summer job in 1944 as a deckhand working on the last coal-burning tugboat on the Hudson River and Erie Canal (New York State Barge Canal).

Later the same year, an underaged McNamara convinced a Navy recruiter to sign him up, and he spent the latter part of World War II in the submarine service, being discharged in 1946. After the war, he entered Russell Sage College in Troy, New York. His education was again interrupted when he volunteered to return to active duty with the Navy during the Korean War, from 1950 to 1951.

Returning to college after Korea, Mr. McNamara graduated from Russell Sage College in January 1953 with a B.A. During this period, his summer breaks were spent at sea working as a merchant seaman. During the 1953-1954 academic year, he was engaged in graduate studies at McGill University in Canada. He continued these studies at Syracuse University from 1954 to 1956, while working for the State Bank of Albany, Albany, New York, and later as a management intern with the United States Army Ordnance Corps at the Watervliet Arsenal, Watervliet, New York. Following the American evacuation of Vietnam, he was appointed Associate Director of the Task Force for Resettlement of Indochinese Refugees in the United States.

McNamara then went to Quebec City as consul general during the separatist Parti Québécois' first challenge to Canadian unity. This assignment was followed with an academic year (1979-1980) in the Foreign Service Institute's Executive Seminar in National and International Affairs (formerly the Senior Seminar). In 1980 he was named Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. During this tour, he organized the State Department's bicentennial celebrations. In December 1981, McNamara was appointed United States Ambassador to Gabon and São Tomé and Príncipé.

Following his ambassadorship in Gabon, McNamara spent a year as a foreign affairs fellow at the Hoover Institution in Stanford University. His year in academia was followed by a posting in 1985 as Deputy Chief of Mission in Beirut at the peak of the Lebanese Civil War. During his two-year tour in Beirut, he also often served as chargé d'affaires. Upon his return from Lebanon, he was granted a two-year sabbatical, which was spent as senior research fellow at the National Defense University finishing a scholarly work begun at the Hoover Institution entitled France in Black Africa.

McNamara's twilight tour as a Foreign Service Officer came in 1989 with his appointment as US Ambassador to Cape Verde.

In 2003, McNamara went with a joint task force to Liberia as Political Advisor to the commanding general. JTF Liberia deployed in support of a West African force in its successful effort to end civil war in chronically troubled Liberia.

Awards In recognition of his service, the State Department awarded the Ambassador four Superior Honor Awards and three Meritorious Honor Awards for acts or qualities ranging from bravery to "unusual political acuity". For his World War II and Korean War service in the US Navy, he was awarded various campaign medals. Russell Sage College, his alma mater, granted him an honorary doctorate in 1988.

Publications McNamara's assignment to Cần Thơ, Vietnam was the basis of Escape with Honor: My Last Hours In Vietnam, written with former British diplomat Adrian Hill (Washington, D.C., Brassey's Memories of War Series, 1997). It is a vivid account of the final days of the U.S. Consulate at Can Tho, and the harrowing evacuation with his U.S. and Vietnamese employees and dependents by boat down the Bassac River on April 29–30, 1975 during the American evacuation of South Vietnam.

His publications also include France in Black Africa (Washington, DC: National Defense University Press, 1989), a standard work in English on France's unusually close relations with its former African colonies.

Family McNamara is married to the former Cong Tang Ton Nu Nhu De, and has seven children. He lives in Arlington, Virginia.