I think the spirit of this thread is to be light - I saw a great documentary last night on DvD:
The Fog Of War.
Interview with Frank McNamara (secretary of defense? during the Cuban missile crises and involved in WWII). He talks of 11 lessons he has learned about war given his involvement in possibly approving agent orange, using incendiary bombs in Japan and deepening troop involvement in Vietnam after Kennedy's assassination.
At 85 this guy was sharp as a whip.
He spent time at Ford and become president too. Apparently the seat belt was his insight.
Things that stood out for me:
1. Am I a war criminal? If the US had lost WWII he feels that he would have been tried as a war criminal given the use of incendiary bombs killed so many people in the bombings of the largely wooden cities in Japan.
2. JFK memory fresh. He got quite emotional in talking about the day he received the call from Robert Kennedy that JFK had just been shot. After so many years it was interesting that his whole event so still so visceral for him.
3. JFK avert Vietnam? He is quite diplomatic about this but does suggest that they were in the process of disengaging from Vietnam just before JFK's death. After that - it went in completely the reverse direction.
4. Know your enemies. He talked about the ability to empathize with your enemy so you could give them an exit strategy that would save face in the context of the Cuban missile crises. He goes on to say how very close we were to WWIII and our failure to empathize during the Vietnam war to bring closure to the conflict.
5. Colloborators. If you unable to get your traditional and like minded allies to join in your current conflict (e.g. Vietnam) then you probably should not be entering the conflict.
"I think my brain just shoved its head up its own ass in retaliation. " HaemishM.
2. JFK memory fresh. He got quite emotional in talking about the day he received the call from Robert Kennedy that JFK had just been shot. After so many years it was interesting that his whole event so still so visceral for him.
Think of how you'll relate the story about 9/11 to your grandkids. JFK's assassination was the equivalent of 9/11 for the boomer generation. Likewise, the 'greatest generation' had the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Prior to 9/11, the Challenger explosion was the closest moment I had to that...I can still remember being in 4th grade, and having an extended recess because our teacher had been watching the coverage, and couldn't stop crying. The Challenger, of course, being the "Christa McAulliffe - 1st teacher in space" mission and whatnot.
Anyway, I've been bandying about renting this flick for a while, think I'll give it a whirl.
I highly recommend renting this one. As mentioned above, If I can keep my shit together even half as good as this guy does at 85 I will be happy.
Too many nuggets of tasty stuff in this film to go into atm... However the most moving and/or interesting part to me was the section on war criminals. You are looking at a man who has been involved in some rather horrific things in Japan and Germany. A man who knows full well that if things had turned out differently he would have been charged as a war criminal.
-me
"There is dignity and deep satisfaction in facing life and death without the comfort of heaven or the fear of hell and in sailing toward the great abyss with a smile."
Interesting that he would consider himself a war criminal. I was in viet nam and think of him as a technocrat who didn't know a fucking thing about war or it's consequences.
Thanks for the info .
My first post but I've lurked for awhile and enjoy the give and take of these boards. Cheers
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