The Fog of War

Infobox_Film
name = The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara


caption = Theatrical release poster
imdb_id = 0317910
writer =
starring = Robert McNamara
director = Errol Morris
producer = Errol Morris
Michael Williams
Julie Ahlberg
distributor = Sony Pictures
released = flagicon|France 21 May 2003 (premiere at Cannes)
flagicon|USA December 19, 2003 (limited)
flagicon|Canada February 6 2004 (limited)
flagicon|Australia March 18, 2004
flagicon|UK April 2, 2004
runtime = 95 min.
country = United States
language = English
budget =
music =
amg_id = 1:285691

"The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara" (2003), directed by Errol Morris, is an American documentary film about the life and times of former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. The original score is by Philip Glass.

The film is a composite interview of McNamara, detailing his life between 1961 and 1968, and the difficult career decisions he took in that time. "The Fog of War" title denotes battlefield uncertainty during the fighting. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Concept

With archival footage, White House Cabinet conversation recordings, and an interview of the eighty-five-year-old Robert McNamara, "The Fog of War" depicts his life, from working as a WWII Whiz Kid military officer, to being the Ford Motor Company's president, to managing the American Vietnam War, as defense secretary for presidents Kennedy and Johnson — emphasizing the war's brutality under their regimes, and how he was hired as secretary of defense, despite limited military experience.

In a 2004 appearance at U.C. Berkeley, Errol Morris said his inspiration for the documentary derived from McNamara's book (with James G. Blight), "" (2001). [ [http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/02/05_fogofwar.shtml UC Berkeley News] ] Morris interviewed McNamara for some twenty hours; the two-hour documentary comprises eleven lessons from "In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam" (1996). He posits, discourses upon, and propounds the lessons in the interview that is "The Fog of War". Moreover, at the U.C. Berkeley event, McNamara disagreed with Morris's interpretations in "The Fog of War", yet, on completion, McNamara complemented the original, eleven lessons with an additional, ten lessons; they are in "The Fog of War" DVD.

When asked to apply the eleven lessons from "In Retrospect" to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, McNamara refused, arguing that ex-secretaries of defense must not comment upon the incumbent defense secretary's policies. He suggested other people could apply the eleven lessons to the war against Iraq, but that he would not, noting that the lessons are generally about war, not a specific war.

R.S. McNamara's eleven life lessons

#Empathize with your enemy.
#Rationality will not save us.
#There's something beyond one's self.
#Maximize efficiency.
#Proportionality should be a guideline in war.
#Get the data.
#Belief and seeing are both often wrong.
#Be prepared to reexamine your reasoning.
#In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil.
#Never say never.
#You can't change human nature.

Ten additional lessons from R.S. McNamara

These supplement the documentary; they are in the DVD's special features.

# The human race will not eliminate war in this century, but we can reduce war, the level of killing, by adhering to the principles of a just war, in particular of proportionality.
# The indefinite combinations of human fallibility and nuclear weapons will lead to the destruction of nations.
# We are the most powerful nation in the world — economically, politically, and militarily — and we are likely to remain so, for decades ahead, but we are not omniscient. If we cannot persuade other nations, with similar interests and similar values, of the merits of the proposed use of that power, we should not proceed unilaterally, except in the unlikely requirement to defend the continental U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii.
# Moral principles are often ambiguous guides to foreign policy and defense policy, but surely we can agree that we should establish as a major goal of U.S. foreign policy and, indeed, of foreign policy across the globe: the avoidance, in this century of the carnage — 160 million dead — caused by conflict in the 20th century.
# We, the richest nation in the world, have failed in our responsibility to our own poor, and to the disadvantaged across the world, to help them advance their welfare in the most fundamental terms of nutrition, literacy, health, and employment.
# Corporate executives must recognize there is no contradiction, between a soft heart and a hard head. Of course, they have responsibilities to their employees, their customers, and to society as a whole.
# President Kennedy believed [that] a primary responsibility of a president — indeed "the" primary responsibility of a president — is to keep the nation out of war, if at all possible.
# War is a blunt instrument, by which to settle disputes between or within nations, and economic sanctions are rarely effective. Therefore, we should build a system of jurisprudence based on the International Court — that the U.S. has refused to support — which would hold individuals responsible for crimes against humanity.
# If we are to deal effectively with terrorists across the globe, we must develop a sense of empathy — I don't mean sympathy, but, rather, understanding to counter their attacks on us and the Western World.
# One of the greatest dangers we face today is the risk that terrorists will obtain access to weapons of mass destruction, as a result of the break-down of the Non-Proliferation Regime. We in the U.S. are contributing to that breakdown.

Eleven lessons from the Vietnam War

The documentary's lessons-learned concept is McNamara's eleven-lesson list of "" (1996). In "The Fog of War" DVD, Chapter 14 has a dual soundtrack, the Johnson-McNamara White House telephone conversation conclusion has two (2) versions: (i) Johnson says: "OK Bob . . . . " in the latest edition DVD; and (ii) "I Give UP!" in the older-edition DVD; accessible by enabling the 'English Subtitles'.
# 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.
# We viewed the people and leaders of South Vietnam in terms of our own experience … We totally misjudged the political forces within the country.
# We underestimated the power of nationalism to motivate a people to fight and die for their beliefs and values.
# 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.
# We failed then — and have since — to recognize the limitations of modern, high-technology military equipment, forces, and doctrine.
# 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.
# 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.
# 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.
# We did not recognize that neither our people nor our leaders are omniscient. Our judgement 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.
# 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.
# 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.

Underlying many of these errors lay our failure to organize the top echelons of the executive branch to deal effectively with the extraordinarily complex range of political and military issues.

Charity

Sony Pictures Classics allowed proceeds from limited screenings of "The Fog of War" to benefit Clear Path International's work with victims of war in Vietnam.

References

Source: [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v4/sub/MarketingPage?user_URL=http://www.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2FArticleNews%2FTPStory%2FLAC%2F20040124%2FMCNAMARA%2FTPColumnists%2F&ord=1104459518361&brand=theglobeandmail&force_login=true Globe and Mail, Jan. 24, 2004] - registration required

References

External links

* [http://www.sonyclassics.com/fogofwar/ Official site] (Sony Classics)
*
*
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8653788864462752804 "The Fog of War"] on Google Video, 1 hr 47 min 3 sec
* [http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/04/31/errol_morris_interview.html Making History: Errol Morris, Robert McNamara and The Fog of War]
* [http://alternativereel.com/conspiracy/Eleven_Lessons.html Eleven Lessons from The Fog of War]
* [http://www.errolmorris.com/film/fow_transcript.html Transcript of the film]

###@@@KEY@@@###succession box
title=Academy Award for Documentary Feature
years=2003
before="Bowling for Columbine"
after="Born into Brothels"