Film: Fog of War Robert McNamara After reading the Synopsis of the film answer the following questions. 1. How does McNamara describe the 2oth Century? 2. What is the goal of the film? 3. Who is Robert McNamara? 4. List the vast experiences of his career. 5. At the end what type of conflict does McNamara believe might play out in the society of the future? Questions based on the film. Lesson # 1 Empathize with your enemy Try to put ourselves inside of their skin to look through their eyes, to understand their thoughts that lay behind their decisions and actions. McNamara says that empathy was present in the Cuban missile crisis but absent in Vietnam. Describe the examples of empathy or lack of empathy for each case. 6. Example of Empathy in Cuba 7. What was President Kennedy trying to do? 8. What did Curtis Lemay want to do in regards to Cuba?
1 9. What are examples of lack of empathy in Vietnam? Lesson #2 Rationality will not save us. “Rational individuals came very close to total destruction of their societies.” 10. What was Castro willing do destroy? What did he tell the Soviets to do if the U.S. had invaded Cuba? 11. Does McNamara believe that Premier Khrushchev and President Kennedy were rational leaders? 12. How many warheads were on the island of Cuba? Did the U.S. government know this at the time? 13. What was the nuclear advantage that the U.S. had over Cuba? 14. What did McNamara believed keep us out of nuclear war? 15. Does McNamara believe the danger of Nuclear destruction exist today? Skip Lessons 3 & 4­ go to main menu and start with Lesson 5. Lesson #5 Proportionality should be a guideline. Proportionality argues that it is wrong to use more force than is necessary to achieve success. 16. Are there International Laws that “define” the rules of war? 17. What was the percentage of Japanese civilians killed in the major Japanese cities during WWII? 18. What did we use to bomb these Japanese cities? 19. All of these bombings were done before we _____________ the bomb on Hiroshima.
2 20. What does McNamara say the U.S. would have been tried for if we had lost WWII? Skip lesson #6 and move on to #7 Lesson #7 Belief and seeing are both often wrong. 21. The USS Maddox was on a ________________ war mission. Background to Gulf of Tonkin
· Aug. 2, 1964; Maddox attacked, act of aggression but U.S. does not respond. Shells from N. Vietnamese ship.
· Aug. 4, 1964; two other reported torpedo attacks, ship patrol goes back and forth on whether attacks really occurred and finally they say yes!
· Pres. passed war resolution act­gave authority to the president to escalate troops.
· U.S. retaliates for attack on USS Maddox by bombing cities in N. Vietnam.
· Later found out that freak weather may have affected the sonar radars, and any movement was seen as a torpedo. Later proved we were not attacked! 22. What did McNamara and his staff believe was N. Vietnam’s intent at this time? 23. McNamara states, “We see what we want to see”. What do you think he means? 24. Describe operation Rolling Thunder. 25. In 1995 McNamara visits Vietnam and meets with Former Foreign Minister of Vietnam during the war. McNamara admits that the two countries totally misunderstood each other. Describe this misunderstanding. Lesson #8 Be prepared to reexamine your reasoning. 26. What does McNamara believe that the U.S. should never apply its power _________________________? 27. Did any of our allies support us in the Vietnam war?
3 28. McNamara states that we can’t persuade our allies, we should reexamine our reasons. Can that apply to any events today? 29. What is Agent Orange? How does it work? Lesson #9 In order to be good, you may have to engage in evil. 30. What did Norman Morris, a Quaker, do out side of McNamara office? 31. What statement did his wife make? 32. How many protestors attended the 1967 protest of the Vietnam War in Washing D.C.? If there is still time in class just continue to watch the documentary.
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