What is war?
No one can give a definite answer.
Through The Fog of War, we may get a glimpse of Robert McNamara's understanding of war from the thirteen lessons he gave. War is complex, changeable and cruel, as he himself said:
There'sa wonder phrase: the for of war, it means that war is so complex it's beyond the ability of the human mind to comprehend all the variables.
That's exactly what happened. Throughout human history, how many times have humans killed each other? What is the reason for each time? We may be able to analyze the causes of war by studying history and studying historical materials. However, the actual situation can never be analyzed. Because sometimes even the leaders of the two warring countries do not know what they are fighting for.
That was the case with the Vietnam War.
McNamara recalls the Vietnam War
We see incorretly or we see only half of the story at times. We see what we want to believe.
During the Cold War, in order to contain the red forces in Asia, the United States planned to help South Vietnam attack North Vietnam. The situation was extremely tense. On August 4, 1964, two US destroyers J claimed to be attacked by North Vietnamese missiles in the Gulf of Tonkin, which eventually led to US President Johnson's order to attack several targets in North Vietnam. The US Congress passed the "Tokyo Bay Resolution" on August 5, 1964. ( Gulf Of Tonkin Resolution ) authorizes Johnson to take the necessary steps to repel any military attack on the armed forces of the United States.
However, the United States later discovered that their two destroyers were not actually attacked that day. But it was too late, the war had already happened.
McNamara recalls:
We were wrong, but we had in our minds a mindset that led to that action. And it carried such heavy costs.
And so a potentially avoidable war broke out. Because people only see what they want to see.
Or the Vietnam War.
After the Vietnam War, McNamara went to Vietnam to discuss with the former prime minister of Vietnam, what would have happened if there had not been a war between the two countries at that time? After a discussion, it was discovered that the two countries were not fighting a war at all.
Vietnam thought that the United States was to replace the colonial interests of France in Vietnam and regarded Vietnam as its own colony, so they fought against it and vowed to fight to the last person.
Why did the US fight the Vietnam War? Just think that Vietnam wants to unite with Russia and the red regimes in Asia to compete with the United States.
In other words, the Vietnamese viewed the war from the perspective of national independence, while the Americans viewed the war from the Cold War mentality.
In fact, the two countries are not involved in the same war at all.
So, if the peaceful resolution of the Cuban missile crisis was due to being able to see through the eyes of the enemy, the Vietnam War, on the other hand, was blind and led to a completely unnecessary war.
This documentary really made me feel the meaninglessness of war. I believe there are still many wars, not only the people, but even the heads of government of the two countries are fighting without knowing why. In the face of various international disputes, China has always been condemned. Many keyboard warriors think China has no guts. Wrong, if someone dares to invade us today, China will definitely fight back. But these international disputes can be discussed, do we have to fight against each other?
Hope for world peace.
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