The film “Fog of War” is a documentary created about Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam, Robert McNamara. McNamara uses this documentary to look back at his responsibilities and decisions during the war. He also uses the documentary as a way to express the lessons he learned during the Vietnam War. One of the reasons why this documentary was created is so McNamara can show the American people that he made the necessary decisions at the time. He didn’t directly say that he had made mistakes during the war, rather tried saying that people sometimes make mistakes because we’re all just human.
Throughout the film he presents us with eleven lessons that he learned during the war. These lessons are supposed to provide a morally correct way to how war should be fought. One lesson that I found to be very interesting was, “in order to do good, you must engage in evil.” I found this to be interesting because many military leaders believe this and to some extent, I do as well. My concern, with this lesson, is that how is a government supposed to know where the line is, where the evil needs to stop. Most wars have a goal, but do not have a specific enemy. Not having a specific enemy causes the military to not notice when they cross the line, and evil is not needed anymore.
About halfway through his lessons, the ideas shift. I felt that from lesson 6 to 11, McNamara, was trying to justify the actions that he instructed the military to take. At this point of the film, he starts saying that everyone makes mistakes that is part of human nature. I also noticed a change in his tone; he goes from being confident and very outspoken to avoiding questions and not talking about the Vietnam War.
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ReplyDeleteThe film “Fog of War” is a documentary created about Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam, Robert McNamara. McNamara uses this documentary to look back at his responsibilities and decisions during the war. He also uses the documentary as a way to express the lessons he learned during the Vietnam War. One of the reasons why this documentary was created is so McNamara can show the American people that he made the necessary decisions at the time. He didn’t directly say that he had made mistakes during the war, rather tried saying that people sometimes make mistakes because we’re all just human.
Throughout the film, he presents us with eleven lessons he learned during the war. These lessons are supposed to provide a morally correct way to how war should be fought. One lesson I found to be very interesting was, “in order to do good, you must engage in evil.” I found this to be interesting because many military leaders believe this and to some extent, I do as well. My concern is that how is a government supposed to know where the line is, where the evil needs to stop. Most wars have a goal, but do not have a specific enemy. Not having a specific enemy causes the military to not notice when they cross the line, and evil is not needed anymore.
About halfway through his lessons, the ideas shift. I felt that from lesson 6 to 11, McNamara, was trying to justify the actions that he instructed the military to take. At this point of the film, he starts saying that everyone makes mistakes and that is part of human nature. I also noticed a change in his tone; he goes from being confident and very outspoken to avoiding questions and not talking about the Vietnam War. This just shows that he has some regrets from the war, and knows he made mistakes.