MGB Fog of War 12

The Fog of War is a documentary about U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara and the actions he took politically throughout his life. McNamara was involved in many big events throughout American history. The film is told from his perspective, and highlights his involvement as Ford Motors President, the Cuban Missile Crisis and especially the Vietnam War. This film takes on a more factual and historical perspective as it is a documentary. Although many topics are covered, McNamara mainly focuses on the Vietnam War under the Kennedy and Johnson era. As a nonfiction film, McNamara narrates the story of the Vietnam War in eleven main components.
Lesson #1 Empathize with your enemy.
Lesson #2 Rationality will not save us.
Lesson #3 There’s something beyond one’s self.
Lesson #4 Maximize efficiency.
Lesson #5 Proportionality should be a guideline in war.
Lesson #6 Get the data.
Lesson #7 Belief and seeing are both often wrong.
Lesson #8 Be prepared to reexamine your reasoning.
Lesson #9 In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil.
Lesson #10 Never say never.
Lesson #11 You can’t change human nature.

These are all points that McNamara only had the insight of after the war. He explains them with this insight and also his regrets on the war. Several of the lessons follow the theme of the strategy of war, while others are more moralistic. The moralistic reasons, like 11, show how McNamara regrets many of the events that happened in the Vietnam War. His perspective is interesting, because it shows the side of the government and society back home compared to the “in country” perspectives we’re already analyzed.

McNamara is very honest in the film. He admits, while showing graphs of death tolls and other graphic evidence of the war, that he made errors. He states in the film, “Any military commander who is honest with himself, or with those he's speaking to, will admit that he has made mistakes in the application of military power. He's killed people unnecessarily — his own troops or other troops” (McNamara, 2004). As Secretary of State, it was McNamara’s job to advise the president on foreign affairs. McNamara’s reasoning behind the film was to make peace with his involvement and to confess the errors on his involvement to American society. Prior wars that McNamara had dealt with were not as complicated, and the U.S. always seemed to have the upper hand. He admits that the government did not know how to handle this war in the right way because it was the first war they had encountered like this in American history.

The ideas on the film shift from excuses to explanation by his 11 reasons and discussion of the Vietnam War. The 11 ideas were not specific to only the Vietnam War, but all wars. His new philosophy through his explanation of the war shows how the ideas shifted based on his affirmations of what went wrong.