McNamara was a troubled man
I am watching this guy try to somehow explain the rationale behind fire bombing 67 japanese cities, but underneath he knows it was wrong, he knows he would be a war criminal if they had lost the war and says it.
When he mentioned the part about become Secretary of Defense under Kennedy, and the strain it put on his family and he says "it probably killed my wife and gave my son ulcers...", and he kind of laughs it off, then I knew he had gone a bit nuts.
McNamara liked being in the limelight and he did what he had to do to stay there. He was a yes man to LeMay, to Kennedy, to Johnson, whatever they wanted he did it, and he seemed to rationalize it, internalize the moral contraditions...
I think in some ways he was no better than any Nazi general who claims he was only following orders. It doesn't matter that Japan and Germany atacked first. Fire bombing civilians is not moral. And Vietnam was more clear cut. This was a foreign country in which we had no business interferring. To his credit he did break with Johnson on Vietnam and left in 1968. He didn't speak out however, believing this would "give aid and comfort to the enemy". Weak argument.
Lesson for politicians: Don't get hung up in dogma. Communism is not evil, and Vietnam is a good example of that. Ho Chi Minh was leading a movement for national liberation and he happened to be a communist. That didn't make him evil or a totalitarian butcher. Same with Fidel in Cuba.
In the end his conscience was catching up to him. At that age it has too. That I respect and to make this film took some guts on his part. Hopefully, it will have an effect on military leaders and decision makers.
A troubled man trying to make peace with his life ......
The lessons of war should be, don't start one, if you get into one end it as quick as possible, and don't trust a lot of crazy generals. Nuclear disarmament is a necessity to preserve the human race, because as McNamara pointed out, the only thing that prevented a nuclear war over Cuba in October 1962 was LUCK!
watch this video of McN on Charlie Rose:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5348483561222197140#20m19s