Fog of War

I gained so much knowledge for Fog of War. So far, the movies and documentaries we have watched have been more entertaining and appealed to emotions more than anything else. Although Fog of War was not as entertaining as the others, I thought it was much more educational. It covered so much information of the "behind the scenes" and pointed out things that were going on that we didn't know about. 

I didn't have a clue who McNamara was before watching this documentary but I can definitely see why he was so controversial when he was Secretary of Defense and why he had so many critics. A lot of times we look at government officials jobs and criticize them and tell them how bad they are at what they are doing but we never put ourselves in their shoes and think about how hard their job is so it was good to see someone who played such an important role in the war their story and how they handled everything. I have a lot of respect for McNamara. He went through everything that happened, good and bad and didn't show one side of it. At the end of Fog of War he talks about how he feels very accomplished for what he has done but also deeply sorry for the mistakes he has made. He explains that he is thinking in hindsight when talking about everything for this documentary but when he was actually going through it and making these difficult decisions, he didn't have hindsight. He made the best moves he could with what he was dealt with.

The lessons that were outlined by McNamara were effective because it emphasized the key points and they were good ones at that. Lesson 9: In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil. This lesson is what I think Americans today lose sight of somewhat. I liked how he believes this but at the same time he says, "Human beings must stop killing other human beings...At times you will have to engage in evil, but minimize it." McNamara was dead on with this statement, we have to find some middle ground with this lesson. A lot of people blamed McNamara for everything bad that happened during that time, but he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. His job was to help the President get what he wanted carried out and accomplished. This was not a problem with Kennedy because they were on the same page, however when Johnson became President a lot of things changed. McNamara respected Johnson greatly but they did not agree on our position in the war. He was fired/resigned from the job and awarded the medal of freedom which says a lot about McNamara's character. The quote that best sums up the documentary for McNamara is "I'm damned if I do, I'm damned if I don't, I'd rathe be damned if I don't." He had many decisions and positions to make and he did the best he could at the time. I think he did exceptionally well at being Secretary of Defense and although many criticize him, could they have done a better job? I think no matter what happens, there will be those people who love you and those who hate you. 

I loved the domino effect. Nothing was said about them but the metaphor was there and it was bold and it was a great addition to the documentary rhetorically speaking. As little kids, we all play with dominos and line them up and see all of them fall one after another just by pushing the first one. They were lined up in one line and then split into two different lines. This is a great way to think about war. When you make one decision, you may not realize what all is following but it leads to this huge train of decisions and at some points you choose to go one way over another, but in the end, it's all over and all there is left to do is pick up the damage that you caused.