Peering into the fog

Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (1961-68), TIME magazine, Feb. 16,1963

The death of Robert McNamara marks the passing of one of the most complex, and still widely reviled figures from the Vietnam era. As Secretary of Defense under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson (1961 -68), McNamara oversaw the U.S. military during what was generally considered to be, up until our current forays into Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, the most disastrous and destructive war undertaken by America.

During McNamara's tenure as Secretary of Defense, some 16,000 U.S. soldiers died in Vietnam (with 42,000 more to follow). How many Vietnamese died? Two million? Some say three million with perhaps 750,000 dead in Laos and Cambodia. The numbers hide the actual horrors.

McNamara remained famously and frustratingly tight-lipped about his role in Vietnam for many years, but eventually did open up in a brilliant film by Errol Morris called The Fog of War which was first released at Cannes in May 2003, exactly three weeks after George W. Bush's infamous "mission accomplished" speech.

If you've never seen this film, watch it. If you haven't seen it in a while, watch it again. It serves as a stark reminder why we were wrong in Vietnam and why, tragically, unforgivably, we are making the very same mistakes again four decades later in Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Pakistan.

The film is based on a series of interviews with McNamara in which he very candidly and, with a visible sense of regret, painfully reflects on the American war making he has witnessed during his own life beginning with his earliest memory of Armistice Day, November 11, 1918 up to his time serving in the Pacific during World War II and his days as Secretary of Defense during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the escalation of America's war in Vietnam through 1968.

McNamara, who has been described as everything from a "whiz kid" and "brainy" to an "arrogant dictator," "war monger" and "con-man," comes clean, to a degree, as he lays out 11 lessons he says he has learned during his life. A decidedly troubled-looking McNamara, now looking back at wars he has experienced, asks questions about human judgment and unavoidable mistakes, about the morality vs. immorality in making war, and the what he describes as the importance of empathizing with one's enemy.

He asks if it is right and proper that there are 7,500 strategic offensive nuclear warheads, of which 2,500 are on a 15-minute alert to be launched by the decision of one human being.

"In order to win a war, should you kill 100,000 people in one night?"

To give viewers a sense of proportionality, and perhaps illicit some empathy, McNamara lists some of the main Japanese cities where large portions of the civilian populace was killed before Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed. As the names Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Toyama, Kobe, and others flash on the screen, they are followed with the names of American cities of similar size flashing beside their Japanese equivalent with a background of archival footage of pulverized Japanese cities.

"I think the human race needs to think more about killing. How much evil must we do in order to do good?"

It is hard to watch the film and not feel that McNamara has, albeit belatedly, "seen the light."

In one telling moment, McNamara recalls the words of Air Force General Curtis LeMay who said, "'If we'd lost the war, I think we'd all have been prosecuted as war criminals.' And I think he's right," McNamara says. "He, and I'd say I, were behaving as war criminals." With a bleak facial expression that can only be described as grim recognition, McNamara asks, "What makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?"

THEN Sec. Defense Robert McNamara with President Lyndon Johnson in November of 1967.
Photo by Yoichi Okamoto/LBJ Library

The film documents a deteriorating situation in Vietnam and McNamara's clashes with President Johnson and his own speculation of what might have been had Kennedy not be assassinated. Liberal use of archival footage and raw reel-to-reel taped conversations reveal a White House script from the 1960s which could have been taken straight from the mouths of Bush, Cheney, or Rumsfeld in the 2000s.

NOW: Robert McNamara (seated) shaking hands with Sec. Defense Donald Rumsfeld in 2003.
Photo by Stephen Crowley/New York Times.

As the above eerie photo reveals, history is repeating itself in a number of ways. Above we have Robert McNamara who oversaw the early years of the disaster of Vietnam shaking hands with Don Rumsfeld who oversaw the early years of the disaster(s) of Afghanistan and Iraq. McNamara and Rumsfeld were born only 16 years and one month (to the day) apart and they look like they could be brothers. From the matching staid navy jackets and blue neck ties, the thinning slicked-back greasy hair, the wire-rimmed glasses and the greyish skin stretched over their thin frames, the two make for downright spooky apparitions.

The difference, we may find one day, is that unlike McNamara who, at times, appears to show honest remorse and regret, Rumsfeld might simply lack the humanity and humility do the same. And though it is impossible to say McNamara was not an enabler and facilitator of the war in Vietnam, he does at least, in The Fog of War, admit the policies during his tenure were "wrong, terribly wrong."

He continues:

"The conventional wisdom is don't make the same mistake twice. Learn from your mistakes."

Unfortunately, if you take the time to read Robert McNamara's 11 lessons from his 1995 book In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam, you can see clearly that during the Bush administration, and now under the Obama administration, we are committing the exact same mistakes McNamara warns of in our current wars.

1. We misjudged then — and we have since — the geopolitical intentions of our adversaries … and we exaggerated the dangers to the United States of their actions.
2. We viewed the people and leaders of South Vietnam in terms of our own experience … We totally misjudged the political forces within the country.
3. We underestimated the power of nationalism to motivate a people to fight and die for their beliefs and values.
4. Our judgments of friend and foe, alike, reflected our profound ignorance of the history, culture, and politics of the people in the area, and the personalities and habits of their leaders.
5. We failed then — and have since — to recognize the limitations of modern, high-technology military equipment, forces, and doctrine.
6. We failed, as well, to adapt our military tactics to the task of winning the hearts and minds of people from a totally different culture.
7. We failed to draw Congress and the American people into a full and frank discussion and debate of the pros and cons of a large-scale military involvement … before we initiated the action.
8. After the action got under way, and unanticipated events forced us off our planned course … we did not fully explain what was happening, and why we were doing what we did.
9. We did not recognize that neither our people nor our leaders are omniscient. Our judgment of what is in another people's or country's best interest should be put to the test of open discussion in international forums. We do not have the God-given right to shape every nation in our image or as we choose.
10. We did not hold to the principle that U.S. military action … should be carried out only in conjunction with multinational forces supported fully (and not merely cosmetically) by the international community.
11. We failed to recognize that in international affairs, as in other aspects of life, there may be problems for which there are no immediate solutions … At times, we may have to live with an imperfect, untidy world.

Confronting Washington's current leader's folly against the backdrop of eternity, McNamara must be shuddering in his grave. Perhaps the one thing we can do to see that McNamara's realizations were not all for naught, is to watch the film, consider the ideas, and learn from our errors.

You can watch The Fog of War (1 hour 47 min) free simply by clicking here.

http://www.sonyclassics.com/fogofwar/