The Fog of War is a documentary film that recounts the experiences of Robert. S. McNamara as a public figure in American history. McNamara has long been a controversial figure and many regard him negatively. The reason that McNamra made this film is in order to change public sentimnet about himself. McNamara wanted to show people that he was a human being and that he fought to take the actions that he strongly believed were correct. Another reason that McNamara made this film is to teach future military leaders the lessons neceassary to fight wars in the futuure. McNamara takes all of his experieinces and packages them into his eleven themes that allow for war to be fought under the best strategy.
There is a point in the film where some of what McNamara says begins to change. Up untill and including his lesson "Get the Data" McNamara is very sure that all of his actions were correct. He was very strong in his convictionsa and believed that mathematical sciences and data analysis can provide strong backing for any tactical decision. The tone changes when McNamara begins talking about Vietnam. It is clear that the once sure of his actions McNamaranow had many doubts. The viewer can tell that McNamara is not as positive of his actions during the vietnam war as he was previously. McNamara goes as far as to say that the U.S. ivolvement in Vietnam was created under the wrong pretenses. It is clear that McNamara is not as confident about Vietnam as he was about World War II.
The Fog of War is a documentary film that recounts the experiences of Robert. S. McNamara as a public figure in American history. McNamara has long been a controversial figure and many regard him negatively. The reason that McNamara made this film is to change public sentiment about himself. McNamara wanted to show people that he was a human being with a heart, and that he fought to take the actions that he strongly believed were correct. It was important for McNamara to leave behind a legacy of humaneness and immense loyalty to his country. He did not want to be largely remembered in history as the man who fire bombed Tokyo. Another reason that McNamara made this film was to teach future military leaders the lessons necessary to fight wars as humanely as possible in the future. McNamara took all of the experiences from his lifetime and packaged them into his eleven themes that will allow for war to be fought under the best strategy in the future.
ReplyDeleteThere is a point in the film where some of what McNamara says begins to change. Up until and including his lesson "Get the Data" McNamara is very sure that all of his actions were correct. He was very strong in his convictions and believed that mathematical sciences and data analysis could provide strong backing for any tactical decision. McNamara seems to be extremely sure of all the decisions he made during his time at Ford and during the Second World War. The tone changes when McNamara begins talking about Vietnam. It is clear that the once sure of his actions McNamara now had many doubts. The viewer can tell that McNamara is not as positive of his actions during the Vietnam War as he was previously. Vietnam was a very different type of war than World War II. McNamara goes as far as to say that the U.S. involvement in Vietnam was created under the wrong pretenses. McNamara frees Kennedy of all responsibility for what occurred in Vietnam. McNamara claims that there would have been no U.S. involvement in Vietnam if Kennedy had not been assassinated. Instead McNamara blames almost the entire war on Lyndon Baines Johnson. Johnson gave a lot of resistance to McNamara’s plans and it is clear that McNamara was too proud to accept someone disagreeing with his plans. It is clear that McNamara was not as confident about the operations in Vietnam as he was about those of World War II.