The Fog of War: Lessons One and Two

Résumé du document

Through the process of critical oral history, Robert McNamara has re-evaluated his experience as the Secretary of Defense under the Kennedy and Johnson presidencies. Filmmaker Errol Morris shaped his documentary The Fog of War around eleven lessons from the life of McNamara. The first two lessons are "Empathize with your enemy? and "Rationality will not save us.? They are useful to think about the future foreign policy making. The contemporary issue of terrorism highlights the realistic nature of the lessons. In the documentary The Fog of War, Robert McNamara gives a clear definition of empathy: "We must try to put ourselves inside their [our enemies'] skin and look at us through their eyes, just to understand the thoughts that lie behind their decisions and their actions.? Empathy is different from sympathy; it does not imply having feelings, but rather implies understanding the thoughts and emotions of one's enemy (Ralph K. White).

Extraits

[...] Chapter 1. The Fog of War. pg The Fog of War, pg Brenner, Philip. “Overcoming Asymmetry: Is a Normal US-Cuban Relationship Possible?” in Cuban Foreign Policy After the Cold War, eds. H. Michael and John Kirk (2006). Huntington is quoted in: Blight, James, and Robert McNamara. Wilson's Ghost. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books Group. pg Wilson's Ghost. Chapter 2. The Fog of War. [...]

[...] The North Vietnamese were ready to fight to the death because they saw the United States as a colonial power, exactly as France, Japan and China had been since the 1870s. The more the Vietnamese were bombed, the more they were willing to resist. The U.S. leaders did not perceive this colonial dimension; they saw Vietnam as a Cold War theater. According to the “domino theory,” the North Vietnamese had to be fought against in order to avoid the spread of communism in Asia. If the Vietnamese resisted the fierce U.S. bombing, it was supposedly because their leaders did not value life. [...]

[...] The contemporary issue of terrorism shows how applicable the lessons are. Lesson One: “Empathize with Your Enemy” In the documentary The Fog of War, Robert McNamara gives a clear definition of empathy: must try to put ourselves inside their [our enemies'] skin and look at us through their eyes, just to understand the thoughts that lie behind their decisions and their actions.” Empathy is different from sympathy; it does not imply having feelings, but rather it implies understanding the thoughts and feelings of one's enemy (Ralph K. [...]

[...] embassies of Kenya and Tanzania, before 9/11. Yet, there was no real, strong action from governments and intelligence services in the West. In U.S. universities, courses of Arabic language and civilization just appeared. It may be already too late. Finally, the biggest difficulty to deal with terrorism is its form. During the Cold War, the main adversary of the United States was a clearly defined country: the USSR. Today, the Bush administration has declared a on terrorism,” but terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda are non- state actors, hard to locate and identify. [...]

[...] In the documentary Hearts and Minds, a U.S. pilot explains that he could not empathize because he never saw any killed or burned Vietnamese. His job was only to be precise in the bombing. “Surgical strike” was also at the core of the first Gulf War. The main difficulty of empathy is probably its subjective nature. Robert McNamara pleads in favor of an “increase” of empathy, but this is not easy to measure. It is essential for the U.S. government to recruit people able to understand the culture of their enemies, but is this enough? [...]