> moment on point: mcnamara says openly that one should never answer the
> question asked. instead, answer the question you would have liked to
have
> been asked. of course, he uses this thinking to cop to squirming under
> pressures that might've pushed him over the edge, thus maintaining his
> "moderate" image.
I loved that bit--and think it's good to keep that principle in mind when listening to any political figure: if they're not answering the question directly, try to figure out what question they are answering.
I think the question McNamara was answering again and again in the film was this: "How could *anyone* be complicit in such horrible acts?" Hence all the stuff about serving at the pleasure of the President, that he was constrained by what seemed to be the only possible alternatives, etc...To me, it all added up to him wanting to shout, "If you were in my shoes, you'd have done the same!" And while that may be true, it WOULDN'T excuse any of US, either.
> the interviewer asks him straight out if he feels like
> he's damned if you do...and mcnamara says yes i'd rather be damned if
i
> don't [comment any further about my role in vietnam].
I figure he knows what he did was flat out horrible, and that there's nothing he could say that could come close to an apology or compensation.
> the most telling stuff comes early when he talks about firebombing
japan. he
> says if they'd lost they'd most certainly be treated as war criminals
for
> their role in the firebombing. i was fascinated that he'd even admit
such a
> thing.
Wasn't he quoting LeMay when he said that? And I thought the whole quip was that *if they lost,* they would be prosecuted as war criminals. As I remember, he then went on to wax rhetorical about the absence of such law or international bodies to deal with such questions at the time. LeMay had it right: you win a war, and your brutalities become classics of strategy; lose it, and your acts on the battlefield are reviled. LeMay knew the firebombing of civilians, even by those standards, was beyond the pale. He just didn't care.
Curtiss