Blog 12 TJM

The documentary Fog of War brings us the life and lessons of former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. The film is angled around the decisions he made during the Vietnam War. To me the whole film feels as though he is trying to rationalize the decisions he made during that time. An example of his rationalizations is the firebombing of Tokyo. The decision led to the death of over 100,000 Japanese, but McNamara said it was one of those decisions made in the "Fog of War." He also goes on to say that if America had lost the war they would have been tried as war criminals because the bombing was essentially acts of war, nonetheless they needed to be done to save American lives.

McNamara explains his eleven points as guidelines he follows. In 2-4, rationality will not save us, there's something beyond oneself, and maximize efficiency, we see life lessons. These three lesson seem to be points that one could use in everyday life. We see the first shift as he moves on to lessons 5-8. These lessons deal with warfare, especially number 5, proportionality should be a guideline in war. Its obvious that he didn't follow his own lesson when he ordered the bombing of Tokyo. The second shift in his reasoning comes in the last three, 9-11. In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil, never say never, and you cant change human nature, all seem to deal with rationalizations. It seems to me that McNamara is rationalizing with himself that he could not help the decisions he made, they had to be done.

Hindsight seems to play a big role in this documentary as well. McNamara looks back on events and tells of his decisions, knowing he cannot change them but looking back seeing a new light. He also spoke of the Fog of War. The decisions made at the time were all made in a time when all you could count on was the fact that no matter what decision was made lives were going to be lost. Through the whole interview McNamara seemingly tries to repent for the thing that he did and the decisions that were made that cost hundreds of thousands of lives in the Vietnam War.