Comprehensive information and links about The Fog of War

The Fog of War , is a documentary film directed by Errol Morris and released in December 2003. The film includes an original score by Philip Glass and won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The term "fog of war", made popular by Carl von Clausewitz in his book in 1832, refers to the cloud of uncertainty that descends over a battlefield once fighting begins.

table

Concept

The film traces the life of Robert Strange McNamara, United States Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1968. While the Vietnam War is clearly the focus of the debate about McNamara's legacy, the film begins during perhaps an even more crucial event in world history: the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. From this event comes one of the 11 lessons McNamara recounts of his life and service: "You have to empathize with your enemy." McNamara was interviewed for over 20 hours for the film.

In a 2004 appearance at UC Berkeley, Morris said that he was inspired to create the movie after reading McNamara's 2001 book (with James G. Blight), The entire webcast can be found at UC Berkeley News. When pushed to apply his "lessons" to the US invasion of Iraq, McNamara refused, arguing that former Secretaries of Defense should not comment on the policy of the current Secretary of Defense. McNamara suggested that other people were welcome to apply his lessons to Iraq if they wanted to, but that he would not explicitly do it, and noted that his lessons were more general than any particular military conflict (he had indeed written them some time before the Iraq war).

were created by Errol Morris; they are not explicitly McNamara's (at the aforementioned UC Berkeley event, McNamara contended that he did not agree with Morris's interpretations in all respects). McNamara eventually went public with his own list of lessons, which can be found below.