CANNES: Parallels between the Vietnam war and this year’s Iraq conflict were highlighted on Wednesday when a documentary on Robert McNamara, US defence secretary from 1960 to 1968, was screened at the Cannes film festival.

The remarkable production, which intermingles interviews with the 86-year-old and footage illustrating his role in the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, at the head of the Ford Motor Company, and in advising president Lyndon Johnson on Vietnam, drew acclaim from reviewers.

Many whispered or chuckled as they watched the film by US director Errol Morris and noted the similarity between the Cold War rhetoric of the time and recent speeches given by US President George W. Bush, particularly in terms of justifying the use of US military might in questionable conflicts.

One such moment came when Johnson is heard saying in a speech on Vietnam: “We have declared war on tyranny and aggression.”

But McNamara, who mostly comes across as a somewhat smug but lucid academic, offered moment of frankness and doubt that often appear lacking from his counterparts today.

At one point, in reference to a World War II firebombing of Japanese cities before the dropping of A-bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, McNamara — who was a lieutenant colonel in the US air force at the time — admits that he and his top military commander were “behaving as war criminals”.

If the United States had lost the war, he says he believes he and Washington’s leaders would have been tried for their acts, in which 100,000 Japanese civilians were killed in just one night’s firebombing of Tokyo.

And he adds: “What makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?”

Morris said that the documentary was made “pre ‘shock and awe’” — a reference to the widespread bombing of Iraq that accompanied the US invasion of the country.

He also said that the former secretary, who had originally accorded just one hour for the documentary, finally gave him 20 hours, and the whole was enhanced with excerpts from recently declassified recordings of Johnson talking to McNamara.

In another of history’s ricochets, McNamara spoke to his interviewer about the unique dominance enjoyed by the United States, mostly in reference to Vietnam and the lack of allied support. But to the audience the words sounded much more contemporary.

“I don’t believe we should ever apply that economic, political or military power unilaterally... if we can’t convince the world of our aims, we’d better re-examine our reasoning,” McNamara says.

The film, which got its world premiere at Cannes, was shown out of the competition for the festival’s Palme d’Or prize.—AFP