Why isn McNamara speaking out more about the war in Iraq?
It’s a great puzzle. But he comes from a different generation. I tell myself that his generation, which lived through the Depression and that won World War II, has a very different set of ideas. McNamara constantly reminds me, Kennedy was elected, Johnson was elected, and he was not. He served at the pleasure of the Presidents who appointed him. He had no independent voice. Q: That’s a very old-fashioned attitude. A: McNamara takes very seriously the constitutional role that he played. I don’t buy it. I have to tell you that to me issues of truth and importance to the American people trump issues of loyalty to the President and the executive branch. But it’s very much part of his story and very much part of the film. One of the most distressing things I’ve seen in recent years is Colin Powell testifying at the U.N. [I was asking myself] what in God’s name is going on? What is going through his head? Does he believe what he’s saying? “He’s a complex man, and my view of him is complex —
