The Fog of War - A-

On DVD (2003). Rated PG-13, 116 minutes.

The Fog of War explores Robert S. McNamara's (US Secretary of Defense 1960-1967) impact on the world through a 2003 interview and archival recordings and footage. Widely villified and blamed for the war in Vietnam, McNamara is a controversial figure in recent US history. In this film he essentially makes the point that he, along with all humans, is fallible, and morality and ethics are not clear cut when you lead the largest and most powerful military force in the history of the world.

I was most struck by the humanity and fragility revealed in the film. Many people assume that high level leaders, such as McNamara or presidents or senators, are super-human and have some special insight or magical ability. The truth of the matter is, they're just smart folks that fate put in those positions, just like you or I. The recordings of McNamara talking with Kennedy and Johnson about the Cuban Missile Crisis and Vietnam are scary and revealing. They don't know the answers and aren't sure about the outcomes.

One of the highlights for me was McNamara's discussions on the dangerous intersection of nuclear power and human fallibility. He discusses in detail how close we really were to nuclear war in Cuba, and seems generally convinced that such a conflict is an eventual certainty. Another highlight was his discussion of whether he was responsible for the firebombing of Japanese cities during WWII (when he was an adviser to the Pacific theater general). He gets into the 'greater good' and asks the question why something is moral only if you win; he hypothesizes that had the US lost he and his commander would've been guilty of war crimes for the firebombings. Is killing 100,000 Japanese civilians in one night morally justified if it helps the US win the war?

The film also underscores the randomness, chaos, and inter-relatedness of seemingly small events in the world. McNamara talks at length about how LBJ only started bombing on North Vietnam after an erroneous report of a bombing. The filmmakers play the audio from the boat captain that reported the false torpedo attack, and it is amazing to think that an error by a couple of sonar techs on a boat in the Pacific ushered in a conflict that killed more than 50,000 Americans and tore apart the most powerful country in the world.

This is a must-see for anyone with even a passing interest in history and ethics.