Robert McNamara is most remembered today as President Kennedy's Defense Secretary. His time in that position encompassed most of America's involvement in the Vietnam War, and while many definitely view him as an immoral and despicable person for his part in furthering the conflict, this documentary tries to (via the words of McNamara himself) expose some of america's past mistakes. While nobody likes to make them, they are one of the fastest ways to learn something. The film itself consists of archive footage from various points in history, stretching all the way back to 1917 when McNamara was born. Having been born just in time to miss the carnage of the First World War, we see how Robert went to the prestigious college at Berkeley University before going on to study business at Harvard. By the time of World War 2, he was an officer in the Army Air Forces. His boss, General LeMay, orchestrated absolutely unrelenting bomber raids on dozens of Japanese cities in the closing months of the war. McNamara reveals how during a mission over Tokyo, over 100 thousand people were killed in just one night (more than all of England in the Blitz). Post war, he served as president of Ford for a little over a month before leaving voluntarily to serve as JFK's secretary of defense. In this role, he would be responsible for advising Kennedy on the escalating and worrying situation in Southeast Asia and what should be done about it. This documentary, at several points, has the same powerful effect on the viewer that something like Ken Burns' vietnam series did for me. The things being shown onscreen are often shocking, and they typically come right after the other, allowing you to fully realize the sheer scale of the things McNamara oversaw. One scene has him discussing the Cuban Missle Crisis, probably the closest the world ever came to ending. LeMay, now an air force Chief of Staff, was trying to urge Kennedy to bomb cuba. Thankfully it didn't come to that, but eventually in the 1990s, a meeting between Fidel Castro and McNamara revealed that the former was fully willing to obliterate his entire country (and possibly Earth) in order to engage in nuclear war with the US. You can't talk about Robert without bringing up how he handled vietnam. In the early 60s, McNamara saw Kennedy more distraught than ever before after learning that a coup had taken place in south vietnam, which resulted in its president being murdered. Although america never officially said it was at war with north vietnam, McNamara shared the view of many other americans: the south was our friend and we couldn't let go of it. After Kennedy is shot and LBJ replaces him, things honestly just get worse and worse. US casualties rapidly pile up, and the men there don't even want to fight in the first place. Still, McNamara explains that he was serving under the president, and it was his job to execute whatever plans the president thought necessary in order to resolve the vietnam issue. Because the film spends the most time on the subject of vietnam, it becomes kind of confusing, and even McNamara himself says he's reluctant to talk about the war. Not because he's ashamed of his part in it, but because it was such a complicated series of events that anything he says will require a slew of analyses. Throughout the movie, he makes several important points that americans should remember if they want to avoid horrific events like vietnam in the future. One of these is especially memorable and will apply as long as the US is a country. He says that america should be ready and able to explain the justness of what it is trying to do militarily to its allies. During vietnam, even america's staunchest partners (Britain, France, etc.) stood out of it and saw it as an act of aggression. Most people thought we had no right to be there. If the US is having a hard time explaining why a war is necessary, maybe the mindsets of those in charge needs adjusting. McNamara's points are all crucial and relevant to the modern world, but he states something a lot would disagree with, that being the fact that participating in evil acts can sometimes be unavoidable. He relates to his time in world war 2, during which his superior LeMay sent hundreds upon hundreds of planes at a time towards japan in order to completely level many of their cities. Not even counting the two nukes, the bomb damage done to the country was ridiculous. Cities roughly the size of New York had over half their buildings blown to bits. McNamara's point here is that while many would think LeMay is a war criminal for ordering things like that, it had to be done so that american troops wouldn't have to undertake the unthinkable task of physically invading japan. McNamara even appears sad when recounting many of these moments, proving that he most likely remembers and admires a famous quote by JFK: mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind. The quote is much more haunting when you understand the earth is (still) infested with thousands of nuclear weapons, each one powerful enough to destroy an entire city. McNamara tells us hopefully war planners won't make the mistakes they already made a second time, but in the age of nuclear weapons, even one mistake in unacceptable. Just one will essentially start armageddon. Overall, The Fog of War is a really great documentary. It goes over the actions of an important american figure; one who understood the futility of war but sent thousands of young americans to their deaths in a jungle on the other side of the world for basically no good reason. It wasn't a proud chapter in US history, but if you don't learn from history, you will have to repeat it.
Review of The Fog of War
