MCNAMARA, IN HIS DEFENSE.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

`WHAT MAKES US omniscient?'' Robert McNamara, the U.S. defense secretary under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, asks (cries, is more like it) during Errol Morris' stunning and sobering documentary ``The Fog of War.'' ``If we can't persuade nations with comparable values of the merit of our cause, we better re-examine our reasoning.''

McNamara isn't talking about the current war in Iraq, but the parallels are self-evident. Morris (``The Thin Blue Line'') interviewed McNamara two years ago when the one-time military strategist was 85, extremely lucid and clearly eager to share his wisdom and maybe exonerate his culpability in the Vietnam War in the process. Perhaps the most distressing thing about McNamara's observations, which are divided into 11 ``lessons,'' is the inevitable conclusion that there will never be a war to end all wars, and if there is, nobody will be around to celebrate.

``You can't change human nature,'' McNamara says with the matter-of- fact, technocrat tone that irritated so many back in the day.

Morris, employing his signature elegance and a haunting, nerve-jangling score from Philip Glass (chosen, Morris says, because he creates a feeling of existential dread better than anybody he knows), wants us to feel the urgency of a world filled with nuclear weapons and flawed human beings who, all too often, lack an empathy for their adversaries.

That lack of understanding, McNamara believes, is largely responsible for the deaths of 58,000 Americans and 3.4 million Vietnamese. (These are McNamara's numbers, but if you're old enough to remember, the guy had a knack for figures). The film examines McNamara's complicated role in the war: taped conversations from the Kennedy and Johnson White Houses indicate his reservations; yet, when push came to shove and Johnson wanted to escalate the bombing and send in more and more troops, McNamara dutifully obeyed with a duplicity that sometimes bordered on the criminal.

``Fog of War,'' arranged around historical footage, Morris' well-crafted collages and a series of candid interviews with the intellectually commanding McNamara, is not intended to condemn or exonerate the man. Morris obviously finds him fascinating, both for his extraordinary life - Morris also helped design the horrific bombing of Japan during World War II and revived the Ford Motor Co., briefly serving as president - and for his unwillingness to offer any kind of mea culpa for the hard decisions he made while crunching numbers for the military.

``I'd rather be damned if I don't,'' McNamara says, explaining his continuing refusal to explain some of the reasoning behind Vietnam decision- making. In some people's eyes, he will always be damned. But, as ``The Fog of War'' demonstrates, he shouldn't be ignored.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

THE FOG OF WAR - Four stars

(PG-13: images and thematic issues of war and destruction.)

Director: Errol Morris.

Running time: 1 hr. 46 min.

Playing: Laemmle Sunset 5 in West Hollywood.

In a nutshell: Riveting portrait of former U.S. defense secretary Robert S. McNamara. In a year of great documentaries, this might be the best.

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Former U.S. defense secretary Robert McNamara re-examines his role in the Vietnam conflict in ``The Fog of War.''