Summary on Robert McNamara's: The Fog of War


The Fog of War is a documentary in which former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara takes his audience on a journey. As he replays his memories of his involvement of four major wars in history, he attempts to "try to learn and understand what happened" and present an ethical explanation for each occurence. The journey begins with the analysis of the war between the United States and Cuba. As the main focus is described as "empathiz(ing) with your enemy, McNamara emphasizes the importance of "putt(ing) ourselves inside the skin" of our assumed to be enemy in that particular time. In doing so we obtain the capability of essentially examining ourselves and the purpose of the enemy, in hopes of understanding the thoughts that "lie behind their decisions and actions". This particular act, however, is not to further our knowledge of the presumed enemy to attack but instead negotiate peace, which obviously introduces various benefits. "If individuals do not display wisdom, McNamara adds, they will clash like blind moles and then mutual annihilation will commence." In addition another subcategory is highlighted as McNamara continues his focus on the U.S.-Cuban war. It is the idea that "rationality will not save us." This logic is derived from his experiances regarding the Cuban Missile Crisis. In essence the lesson that is presented as a result of this occurence is that "the indefinite combination of human fallibility and nuclear weapons will destroy nations. In other words if the aspect of miscommunication and heavy artillery conjoin war seems inevitable. McNamara also considers the war between the United States and Germany. The focal point within this occurence is the idea that "there's something beyond one's self. Though the initial assumption from an audience may be that this something is God. However, McNamara emphasizes something rather than someone, which supports the logic that it resides within the humanly concept of war. This particular instance is witnessed in what he recalls the "Abort rate". This was the title that summed up the total number of individuals who, prior to completing a military assignment, aborted it. McNamara elaborates on the concept as he recollects what was called "Form 1A", which was a mission report that a troop had to fill out including the cause of why he backed out. As a larger number of these were seen by McNamara, he came to the realization that "they were aborting out of fear." This particular affair supported the idea that there is something greater than oneself. This something was essentially the aspect of loyalty and patriotism for one's country, which was not witnessed in those who signed Form 1A. The conflict between America and Japan served as another war that bordered on the aspect of what McNamara felt was the essence to "maximimize efficiency". The bombing of Tokyo became the aspect of focus as McNamara was faced with the question of whether or not he was "consciously aware" of the fact that he allowed the bombing of what would be 100,000 Japanese civilians in "a single night". Though he realized the effects in the present time period, back then it was simply believed to be "a part of a mechanism that recommended it." In a sense this may be similar to the soldiers who participated in the Mylai massacre, in that those men were also following a mechanism that was bestowed upon them. Similar to those individuals, McNamara also faced the question of whether or not the act was an immoral one. The last war that McNamara recalled was the the disastrous confrontation between the United States and Vietnam. Upon examination of this the idea that "proportionality should be a guideline for war", was reestablished. Unlike the conflict between Cuba, McNamara articulates on the fact that beneficial knowledge that could lead to peace was not available, as it had been in the conflict with Cuba. From this occurence McNamara emphasizes his logic that the "human race prior to that time and now has not really grappled with what are the rules of war". Until that is possibly reached or focused on prior to actual attacks war will continue to torment our nations.