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The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara
Is this chart at a reasonable height for you?
Or do you want it lowered?
- Fine.
- All right.
Earlier tonight...
Let me first ask the TV.
Are you ready?
All set?
Let me hear your voice level,
so it's the same.
- How's my voice level?
- That's fine.
Terrific.
Now, I remember exactly
the sentence I left off on.
I remember how it started,
and I was cut off in the middle.
You can fix it up.
I don't want to go back, because
I know exactly what I wanted to say.
- Go ahead!
- Okay.
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.
He's killed people, unnecessarily.
His own troops or other troops.
Through mistakes,
through errors of judgment.
A hundred, or thousands, or tens of
thousands, maybe even 100,000.
But he hasn't destroyed nations.
And the conventional wisdom is...
...don't make the same mistake twice.
Learn from your mistakes.
And we all do. Maybe we make
the same mistake three times...
...but hopefully not four or five.
There'll be no learning period
with nuclear weapons.
Make one mistake
and you're gonna destroy nations.
In my life, I've been part of wars.
Three years in the U.S. Army
during World War ll.
Seven years as secretary of defense
during the Vietnam War.
Thirteen years at the World Bank.
Across the world.
At my age, 85...
...l'm at an age where I can look back...
...and derive some conclusions
about my actions.
My rule has been, 'try to learn.'
Try to understand what happened.
Develop the lessons and pass them on.
This is the secretary of defense of
the United States, Robert McNamara.
His department absorbs 10 percent
of the income of this country...
... and over half of every tax dollar.
His job has been called
the toughest in Washington...
... and he is the most controversial
figure that has ever held the job.
Walter Lippmann calls him both
the best secretary of defense...
... and the first one to ever assert
civilian control over the military.
His critics call him a 'con man,'
...'an arrogant dictator.'
Mr. Secretary, I've noticed
... that little silver calendar thing there.
Can you explain that?
Yes, this was given by President Kennedy.
... 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23...
... 24, 25, 26, 27, and finally 28,
were the dates...
... when we literally look ed down
the gun barrel into nuclear war.
Under a cloak of deceit...
...the Soviet Union introduced
nuclear missiles...
...into Cuba...
...targeting 90 million Americans.
The CIA said the warheads
had not been delivered yet.
They thought 20 were coming
on a ship named the Poltava.
We mobilized 180,000 troops.
The first day's air attack
was planned at 1080 sorties...
...a huge air attack.
Kennedy was trying to keep us out of war.
I was trying to help him keep us out of war.
whom I served under...
...as a matter of fact,
in World War ll, was saying:
' Let's go in.
On that critical Saturday,
October 27th...
...we had two Khrushchev
messages in front of us.
One had come in Friday night,
and it had been dictated...
...by a man who was either drunk,
or under tremendous stress.
Basically, he said, ' If you'll
guarantee you won't invade Cuba...
...we'll take the missiles out.'
Then, before we could respond,
we had a second message...
...that had been dictated
by a bunch of hard-liners.
And it said, in effect, ' If you attack...
...we're prepared...
...to confront you with
masses of military power.'
So, what to do? We had the
soft message and the hard message.
At the elbow of President Kennedy
was Tommy Thompson...
...former U.S. Ambassador to Moscow.
He and Jane, his wife, had lived with
Khrushchevand his wife on occasion.
Tommy Thompson said,
' Mr. President...
...I urge you to respond to the soft message.'
The president said to Tommy,
'We can't. That'll get us nowhere.'
Tommy said,
' Mr. President, you're wrong.'
Now, that takes a lot of guts.
In Thompson's mind was this thought:
' Khrushchev's gotten
himself in a hell of a fix.'
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.'
Thompson, knowing Khrushchev
as he did, thought:
' Khrushchevwill accept that.'
And Thompson was right.
That's what I call empathy.
We must try to put ourselves
inside their skin...
...and look at us through their eyes...
...just to understand the thoughts...
...that lie behind their decisions
and their actions.
Khrushchev's advisors were saying:
'There can be no deal...
...unless you somewhat
reduce the pressure on us...
...when you ask us to reduce
the pressure on you.'
Also, we had attempted to invade Cuba.
Well, with the Bay of Pigs. That
undoubtedly influenced their thinking.
I think that's correct.
But more importantly, from a Cuban
and a Russian point of view...
...they knew what, in a sense,
I really didn't know.
We had attempted to assassinate Castro...
...under Eisenhower and Kennedy,
and later, under Johnson.
And in addition to that, major voices
in the U.S. Were calling for invasion.
In the first message,
Khrushchevsaid this:
'We and you ought not pull
on the ends of a rope...
...which you have tied the knots of war.
Because the more the two of us pull...
...the tighter the knot will be tied.
And then it will be necessary
to cut that knot...
...and what that would mean
is not for me to explain to you.
I have participated in two wars
and know that war ends...
...when it has rolled through
cities and villages...
... everywhere sowing death and destruction.
For such is the logic of war.
If people do not display wisdom...
...they will clash like blind moles...
...and then mutual annihilation will commence.'
I want to say,
and this is very important:
At the end, we lucked out.
It was luck that prevented nuclear war.
We came that close to nuclear war at the end.
Rational individuals.
Kennedy was rational.
Khrushchevwas rational.
Castro was rational.
Rational individuals came that close
to total destruction of their societies.
The major lesson
of the Cuban Missile Crisis is this:
The indefinite combination
of human fallibility...
...and nuclear weapons will destroy nations.
Is it right and proper...
...that today there are 7500 strategic
offensive nuclear warheads...
...of which 2500 are on 15-minute alert...
...to be launched by the decision
of one human being?
It wasn't until January, 1992...
...in a meeting chaired by Castro
in Havana, Cuba...
...that I learned 162 nuclear warheads...
...including 90 tactical warheads...
...were on the island at the time
in this critical moment of the crisis.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing...
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"The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 Sep. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/the_fog_of_war:_eleven_lessons_from_the_life_of_robert_s._mcnamara_8370>.
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