Blog 12- RR

In the film, "The Fog of War", former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara talks about his careers in life. He discusses being involved as an officer in World War 2, being a professor at Harvard, becoming the President of Ford, and his eventual move into the position of Defense Secretary under President John F. Kennedy. He discusses all of the events he was involved in, including the Bay of Pigs and the Vietnam War. He does this by discussing 11 lessons he has learned in his life, which are:
1)Empathize with your enemy
2)Rationality will not save us
3) There's something beyond one's self
4) Maximize efficiency
5)Proportionality should be a guideline in war
6) Get the data
7) Belief and seeing are often both wrong
8) Be prepared to re-examine your reasoning
9) In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil
10) Never say never
11) You can't change human nature

In the first 4-5 lessons we see McNamara having sympathy for the people who died during the Vietnam War, almost showing that he was against the whole conflict. He used past events, like when Tokyo was burned in WW2 to legitimize his reasoning. However, after the 5th lesson, his attitude started to change from sympathy to defending himself and legitimizing his actions. He was using the excuses that the government had used to defend itself from the atrocities and actions they had made during the Vietnam War. At the end, he does not take any responsibility for his actions, and blames it all on LBJ. He also states that he thinks that if JFK were in office, things would have gone differently.

I am not sure how I feel about McNamara's sincerity in the film. He cries quite a bit, but I am not sure that he is crying because he genuinely feels bad, or if he is making himself cry only to appear that way. I was starting to believe him as the film progressed, but every inch of belief I had went out the window when he refused to take responsibility for any of the choices made during the Vietnam War. After viewing the film, I think that Robert McNamara filmed this documentary to make himself feel justified in his actions, not to apologize to all of those who had been badly affected by the decisions he had helped make.