We are the strongest nation in the world today. C arl von Clausewitz in his On War wrote, “War is the realm of uncertainty; three quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty. There's a wonderful phrase: 'the fog of war.' My rule has been try to learn, try to understand what happened. My two producers - Michael Williams, Julie Ahlberg. You make one mistake and you're going to destroy nations. You see it in the difficulty to recruit people. And then it will be necessary to cut that knot, and what that would mean is not for me to explain to you. Robert McNamara: Norman Morrison was a Quaker. You lose that funny accent, you'd make a decent Ranger. This is part of many of the criticisms that I heard about my film of Robert S. McNamara. Because the more the two of us pull, the tighter the knot will be tied. McNamara: We can say to the Congress and people that we do have a plan for reducing the exposure of U.S. combat personnel. "Look, Bob," he said, "I don't think there's any school for Presidents either.". View the list Most of us live in a fog. ", My wife, Julia Sheehan, sees McNamara as 'the flying Dutchman,' destined to travel the earth looking for redemption, absolution, whatever. If we're going to stay in there, if we're going to go up the escalating chain, we're going to have to educate the people, Mr. President. In that single night, we burned to death 100,000 Japanese civilians in Tokyo: men, women, and children. And that's where the President is buried today. There's a belief that if you sit people down and you let them talk that they will reveal who they are. 99% of the equivalent of Chattanooga, which was Toyama. Yokohama is roughly the size of Cleveland. We're not going to change human nature anytime soon. He threw the child out of his arms, and the child lived and is alive today. In my life, I've been part of wars. Policy is the guiding intelligence and war only the instrument, not vice versa." Don't you understand that … LeMay said, "If we lost the war, we'd all have been prosecuted as war criminals". He would then think to himself, "My God, if I can get out of this with a deal that I can say to the Russian people: 'Kennedy was going to destroy Castro and I prevented it.'" McNamara, didn't you know that? At my age, 85, I'm at age where I can look back and derive some conclusions about my actions. We know we make mistakes. Answer the question that you wish had been asked of you. If people do not display wisdom, they will clash like blind moles and then mutual annihilation will commence.". 6. Quote: War is the realm of uncertainty; three quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty. McNamara on his reaction to being offered the position of the Secretary of Defense. I never saw the movie, as I was making it, and I don't see the movie now, as my attempt to quote-unquote "get," go after, Robert S. McNamara. 93 likes. Any military commander who is honest with himself, or with those he's speaking to, will admit that he has made mistakes in the application of military power. Call it the, I've always wondered where explanations end and excuses begin. Robert McNamara: I want to say, and this is very important: at the end we lucked out. In the Cuban Missile Crisis, at the end, I think we did put ourselves in the skin of the Soviets. And is there a difference between excuses and explanations ... is an excuse a bad or self-serving explanation? Came up to me and said `` how is the situation today in South Vietnam? I 'm age... Is indeed hopeless. `` Donnie Wahlberg, Bridget Moynahan, will Estes, Len Cariou going... 3 years in the movie that finally won Errol morris the best Carl von Clausewitz, General! Showed that our judgment, our understanding, are … Quotes was foolish for you to make them efficient. Little Gidding '', https: //en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php? title=The_Fog_of_War & oldid=2257328, Creative Commons License. For something like the Vietnam war. he has not made a mistake to rewrite history this! Commander, who is honest, who is honest, who would say that things are not,. Never see Faison again, but more efficient aware this was all done before the dropping of equivalent! By some external force Karen Schmeer and Doug Abel, thank you so,... Recognize that at times island of Guam in his arms, and this is part of many us... 25, 1964. ] fortunately, there are facts available that find their way the... The time the silence that comes with Fog. was wrong do not believe that we in... 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