Heard the news today that Robert McNamara has passed away. By coincidence, Marc and I just saw The Fog of War two days ago. I would describe the movie as “chilling.” Robert McNamara is clearly a thoughtful, intelligent, reasonable person. Yet in the movie he describes his involvement with fire-bombings in WWII – actions he admits would be “war crimes” if the U.S. had lost. He is the secretary of defense during the Vietnam war, and oversees the escalation there.
Overall, you get the picture of someone who is caught up in larger events and is unable to wrestle with them. The larger machinations of nations, and the prejudices and assumptions that go unchallenged, seem to carry him along with them.
I find it scary. I may be naive, but I have always hoped that with small steps towards rationality, every generation will get better at peaceful conflict resolution. Yet, the mistakes and thinking that he reveals are so simple. “Be prepared to reexamine your reasoning” is one of his lessons. Don’t we know this? Shouldn’t people in power have checks and balances on how they make decisions?
It’s all very scary. I hope that McNamara’s legacy is for future leaders to learn from his mistakes, but I don’t know how likely that is.
I like your commentary about McNamara and in general about the learning from mistakes of the past but I think things like decency and the difference between right and wrong take a back seat to winning and losing. This is because the consequences of losing in the decision maker’s mind far out ways what is the right thing to do. Perhaps this is why McNamara did what he did at the time but now has difficulty consoling himself for the actions he took.
In terms of every generation getting better, unfortunately history tends to repeat itself. Afganistan is the most recent example that comes to mind. 130 and counting.
I like your commentary about McNamara and in general about the learning from mistakes of the past but I think things like decency and the difference between right and wrong take a back seat to winning and losing. This is because the consequences of losing in the decision maker’s mind far out weighs what is the right thing to do. Perhaps this is why McNamara did what he did at the time but now has difficulty consoling himself for the actions he took.
In terms of every generation getting better, unfortunately history tends to repeat itself. Afganistan is the most recent example that comes to mind. 130 and counting.