Review of The Fog of War (2003) by Wayne L — 05 Feb 2009

One of the most thought-provoking films I have seen in years. In his 80's, Robert McNamara came up with 11 lessons he learned throughout his life - and a truly remarkable life it has been. He was deeply involved in the high-level planning during world war 2, later became the first CEO of Ford who wasn't a member of the Ford family, President of the World Bank, and the Secretary of Defence during one of the most turbulent times in American history. Some of the moral issues he had to wrestle with are remarkably similar to those we face today. When he said of the Vietnam war, "we are the strongest nation in the world today, I dont' think we should ever apply that economic, political and military power unilaterally. If we had followed that rule in vietnam, we wouldn't have been there. None of our allies supported us, not Britain, not Germany, not Japan, not France. If we can't persuade nations with comparable values of our cause, we'd better re-examine our reasoning." I thought... if only George Duh. Bush had watched this. But somehow I doubt this is the kind of movie he watches in his spare time.

Also remarkable are some of the events covered in this movie, which seemed under-reported by the media at the time. In the 90's McNamara met with Fidel Castro, who revealed that during the Cuban missile crisis, hundreds of Soviet nuclear warheads were actually present in Cuba, unbeknownst to the US. This shows how close we were to nuclear annihilation.

Love him or hate him, one has to admit that McNamara was a very influential figure in US history. Watching the movie you cannot help but feel his fierce intellect even in his 80's.

My only peeve about this movie is that a couple of the lessons seem a little mundane, a bit like life lessons from Grandpa sitting on an armchair: "There is something beyond oneself", "You can't change human nature" just don't seem very enlightening.

By the way, am I the only one who notices the physical resemblance between him and Donald Rumsfeld? PHYSICAL only, intellectually Rumsfeld doesn't hold a candle against McNamara.