The Fog of War

The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003)
Documentary about Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations, who subsequently became president of the World Bank. The documentary will combine an interview with Mr. McNamara discussing some of the tragedies and glories of the 20th Century, archival footage, documents, and an original score by Philip Glass. Written by Paul Klenk

Robert S. McNamara discusses his experiences and lessons learned during his tenure as Secretary of Defense under John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. He talks about his work as a bombing statistician during World War II, his brief tenure as president of Ford Motor Company, and the Kennedy administration's triumph during the Cuban Missle Crisis. However, the film focuses primarily on his failures in Vietnam. The theme of the film are his "eleven lessons" learned during this time. Some of these include improving military efficiency, understanding your enemy, and the frustrations of trying to deal with (and unsuccessfully trying to change) human nature.

After McNamara left the Johnson administration under a fair amount of disgrace, he was appointed to lead The World Bank. Fast forward to 2005, and we have Paul Wolfowitz, a key architect of the Iraq War, leaving the Dept. of Defense also under disgrace and getting to lead The World Bank. Now we know where our next military bungler will go and save some face…