The Errol Morris film "Fog of War" played to a capacity crowd in Manchester, VT on March 5, 2004 in a benefit screening for Clear Path International. Thank you to Sony Pictures Classics for donating the screening and to Northshsire Bookstore and Village Picture Shows for making it all possible!

The initial press announcing the event is below.

Manchester, VT- One of the most controversial figures of our time, Robert S. McNamara, narrates the story of his life and the behind the scenes decision making of the Vietnam War in the Oscar Nominated Errol Morris documentary film, The Fog of War. Sony Pictures, Northshire Bookstore, and Village Picture Shows are sponsoring a benefit screening of this remarkable film at the Village Picture Shows on Friday March 5th in Manchester, Vermont. Proceeds from this event will go to Clear Path International, a nonprofit organization assisting landmine and bomb accident survivors in Southeast Asia.

Robert McNamara was the Donald Rumsfeld of the Vietnam era. As the Secretary of Defense from 1961 until 1968, he was the public face and the chief strategist of United States’ military efforts in Southeast Asia. Long a controversial figure, McNamara in his book “In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam” declared the United States was "wrong, terribly wrong” in Vietnam.

The Fog of War attempts to go further into that statement and allows McNamara the opportunity to explain what happened in Vietnam and why. The subtitle of The Fog of War is “Eleven Lessons From the Life of Robert S. McNamara” and the lessons given could not be more pertinent as the United States finds itself once again in a controversial war far from home.

“Many of the issues that McNamara is talking about in the movie are relevant to what’s going on right now,” said Errol Morris whose directorial credits include A Brief History of Time as well as Fast, Cheap and Out of Control “and there’s this surreal sense that nothing has changed. I suppose it’s the sense that we learned nothing from the past.”

The Fog of War is a 20th century fable, a story of an American dreamer who rose from humble origins to the heights of political power. Robert S. McNamara was both witness to and participant in many of the crucial events of the 20th century: the crippling Depression of the 1930s; the industrialization of the war years; the development of a different kind of warfare based on air power and the creation of a new American meritocracy. He was also an idealist who saw his dreams and ideals challenged by the role he played in history.
The Fog of War will be screened at Village Pictures Shows on Friday, March 5th at 7pm. Admission is free, however donations to Clear Path's work will be gratefully accepted.

For additional information please call Clear Path International at (802) 867-4406.
Clear Path International, founded by Martha and James Hathaway of Dorset, Vermont and Kristen Leadem of Manchester, is a non-profit organization that provides comprehensive care to landmine and bomb accident survivors in Vietnam, Cambodia and along the Thai-Burma border. For more information please visit www.clearpathinternational.org