Robert McNamara Quotes

I'm not so naive or simplistic to believe we can eliminate war. We're not going to change human nature anytime soon. It isn't that we aren't rational. We are rational. But reason has limits. There's...

Robert McNamara

From the Documentary The Fog of War - 2003

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Never answer the question that is asked of you. Answer the question that you wish had been asked of you.

Robert McNamara

From the Documentary The Fog of War - 2003

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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...

Robert McNamara

From the Documentary The Fog of War - 2003

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We all make mistakes. We know we make mistakes. I don't know any military commander, who is honest, who would say he has not made a mistake. There's a wonderful phrase: 'the fog of war.' What "the...

Robert McNamara

From the Documentary The Fog of War - 2003

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Norman Morrison was a Quaker. He was opposed to war, the violence of war, the killing. He came to the Pentagon, doused himself with gasoline. Burned himself to death below my office. He held a...

Robert McNamara

From the Documentary The Fog of War - 2003

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"Mr. McNamara, You must never have read a history book. If you'd had, you'd know we weren't pawns of the Chinese or the Russians. McNamara, didn't you know that? Don't you understand that we have...

Robert McNamara

From the Documentary The Fog of War - 2003. Thach, former Foreign Minister of Vietnam, 1995, as recalled by McNamara.

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I formed the hypothesis that each of us could have achieved our objectives without the terrible loss of life. And I wanted to test that by going to Vietnam.

Robert McNamara

From the Documentary The Fog of War - 2003. McNamara, on his 1995 meeting in Vietnam with the former Foreign Minister of Vietnam.

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Were those who issued the approval to use Agent Orange criminals? Were they committing a crime against humanity? Let's look at the law. Now what kind of law do we have that says these chemicals...

Robert McNamara

From the Documentary The Fog of War - 2003

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What makes us omniscient? Have we a record of omniscience? We are the strongest nation in the world today. I do not believe that we should ever apply that economic, political, and military power...

Robert McNamara

From the Documentary The Fog of War - 2003

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Let me go back one moment. In the Cuban Missile Crisis, at the end, I think we did put ourselves in the skin of the Soviets. In the case of Vietnam, we didn't know them well enough to empathize. And...

Robert McNamara

From the Documentary The Fog of War - 2003

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