The film "Fog of War" is a documentary film about McNamara looking back into past wars that he had experienced while in high government official jobs. McNamara's creation of this documentary was to attempt to justify himself for the mistakes and his wrong doings. He did not try to justify himself in saying going to war is wrong, but rather he stated eleven lessons that war should be guided off from in order for the war to be morally correct. McNamara used these lessons in order to give advice for the US government to improve actions they take in future conflicts that could lead to war, instead of just blaming past actions that cannot be fixed. For example McNamara's fifth rule that is proportionality where he is not blaming the government's decision to totally destruct cities in Japan during World War II. Instead the government should have rules in place so another incident like this does not happen.
The ideas of the lessons in the documentary shift when the war changes from World War II to the Vietnam War. McNamara appears to be much less sure on his actions in the Vietnam War. For example when discussing about the harmful effects of Agent Orange, McNamara acts very unsure on his decision in saying he could not remember if he supported the dropping of Agent Orange or not. In comparison to the time of World War II he was much more sure of his actions on what was happening.Therefore McNamara's lessons try to cover his uncertainty and mistakes up.
The film "Fog of War", is a documentary about McNamara looking back into his past experience with wars while in high government official jobs. McNamara's creation of this documentary was an attempt to justify himself for the mistakes and his wrong doings in order to change people's perceptions of him. He did not try claiming the war is wrong, but rather he stated eleven lessons that war should be guided off from in order for the war to be morally correct. McNamara used these lessons in order to give advice for the US government to improve actions they may take in future conflicts; instead of just blaming past actions that cannot be fixed. For example McNamara's fifth rule, which is proportionality where he is not blaming the government's decision to totally destruct cities in Japan during World War II. Instead he states how the government should have rules in place so another incident like this does not happen.
ReplyDeleteThe ideas of the lessons in the documentary shift when the war changes from World War II to the Vietnam War. McNamara appears to be much less sure on his actions on the Vietnam War. For example when discussing about the harmful effects of Agent Orange, McNamara acts very unsure on his decision in saying he could not remember if he supported the dropping of Agent Orange or not. In comparison to the time of World War II he was more certain of his actions to what was happening. Sometimes it was hard to tell how sincere McNamara really was in the film. I felt at times he was just looking for sympathy from his viewers. McNamara's lessons try to cover his uncertainty and mistakes up. Therefore the main purpose of McNamara making this film was he wanted to leave a legacy behind him before he passed away.