Fog of War Review

    The first time I saw this film was in an AP US History course, where the focus of study was a more complete understanding of America's political atmosphere during the Cold War. The film paints a fascinating picture of the life of Robert McNamara, the Secretary of Defense under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations and the face of the Vietnam War. The film edits together film clips of press conferences and new reports of the 1960s along with interviews with the then 85 year old McNamara.  Photos of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the war in Vietnam, WWII bombings and air attacks are all featured in the film. It was split into sections as "Lessons" such as "Rationality will not save us" and "Get the data." Each of these sections depicts a lesson learned by McNamara during his time as Secretary of Defense.

    This is a particularly important film to discuss in relation to human rights because it calls into question the actions of a 'superpower,' the United States, and presents the events in a way that places doubt on the US as the sole arbiter of universal moral standards. It is often easy for Americans to denounce human rights abuses as they feel that they only occur in Third World Countries. However, "The Fog of War" clearly depicts that the United States can and has been a perpetrater of human rights abuses.

     McNamara discusses his involvment in WWII, the Cuban Missile Crisis and particularly his decisions in the Vietnam War.  My second viewing of this film was interesting because this time I did not focus on the political or historical aspects of his actions, but rather on their place in an international legal framework of human rights. Until the release of the documentary, it was well known that McNamara was rather reticent about speaking of his time as Secretary of Defense. However, he holds little back as he discusses both the external events and his internal struggle to make decisions for the good of the nation. One begins to see him as a person, an individual forced to make decisions, rather than as a representative of the institution of the state. His political moves, based in a Realist understanding of the world, were made from a position of feeling forced to exert power and support America's national interests. That national interest in the time of the Cold War was the ending of the spread of Communism, and McNamara was tasked with achieving this goal at any cost.

    Another reason this film is interesting from a human rights perspective is to understand the differences in the oppressor and oppressed's point of view. While the Vietnamese, rightly, saw the war as a symbol of imperialism and human rights violations in the form of bloody conflict and unconscionable bombings, the United States saw it as the means to an end. The war was the lesser of two evils, the second evil being Communism. Thus one can see how easily a nation can be swayed to commit human rights abuses under the conviction of righteousness, and it is very difficult to shake this point of view. This documentary is valuable to show Americans that there can be no moral high ground based off of one's country, as all have equally participated in violating the rights of many people.