Watching this video, it looks pretty interesting. I like how he goes on to say that proportionality should be a guideline for war and then there's like a chart that shows how the bombing campaign of Japan was analogous to having destroyed X% of various US cities which was pretty chilling.
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :
That's my all time favorite documentary. And Errol Morris is one of my favorite as well (not to mention the music is by Philip Glass, another favorite).
Watching it inspired me to read In Retrospect which is a good read and I heartily recommend it to anyone trying to understand American involvement in Vietnam. McNamara is one of the few men in history who wielded real power, changed the world, and then came out and honestly spoke about both his triumphs and his mistakes with equal candor. And I find his perspective spellbinding and ... educational.
Hobbes Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
Oh definitely yeah and it keeps getting better as I watch it. His discussion with the Vietnamese foreign minister later on is of interest.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
That was definitely an excellent documentary. The stuff about the Cuban Missile Crisis chilled me to the bones though.
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :
If you have it on DVD, I recommend watching the deleted scenes. There are some really good ones in there. In particular the one about Ford's accounting is amazing, and I love the romanticism of the poetry ones. (Some of these are available on youtube if you're into that sort of thing).
Hobbes Posted by manji (Member # 11600) on :
The interviewer sounds kind of obnoxious.
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
Truth usually is.
Posted by Mial (Member # 12687) on :
Yes, Blayne, I think Robert McNamara raises some complex and hard to answer questions. War results in yucky stuff and politicians have to make tough decisions that are easy to be criticized after the fact.
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