Former U.S. Defense Chief Fights Vietnam Again

Former U.S. Defense Chief Fights Vietnam Again

(EXCERPT) Sat December 20, 2003 09:43 AM ET (Page 1 of 2), By Sheri
Linden

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Robert McNamara, the Vietnam-era U.S.
secretary of defense, looks into the camera and recites a favorite
passage of T.S. Eliot, his voice thick with emotion, his eyes welling
with tears.

The lines that so move him relate to self-exploration, which might
seem an unlikely topic for a man critics regard as the consummate Cold
War bureaucrat -- an "IBM machine with legs," in one memorable
description.

But the heartfelt poetry recitation is one of many emotional moments
in "The Fog of War," the new, myth-busting film by documentarian Errol
Morris, the man behind such acclaimed works as "Thin Blue Line" and
"Mr. Death."

The new film makes clear that McNamara, one of the last surviving
members of the Camelot of President John F. Kennedy's White House, is
also that rare commodity, a public official willing to grapple with
his role in history.

As secretary of defense from 1961 to 1968, McNamara has gone down in
history as the chief architect of America's involvement in Vietnam, a
disastrous venture that scarred the nation and cost hundreds of
thousands of lives. But as Morris finds out, nothing is a...

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http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=4026346

---------------------------
Otis Willie
Associate Librarian
The American War Library
http://www.americanwarlibrary.com