Movie Review

These three films focus on decisions by three presidents to employ military force. The film on Richard Nixon, naturally, is entirely concerned with the Vietnam War, particularly with the bombing and invasion of Cambodia and the 1972 Linebacker bombing of North Vietnam. The film on George Bush concentrates on the Gulf War, with a brief review of the Panamanian invasion of 1989. The third film in the series deals with President Bill Clinton's policy toward Somalia, Iraq, Haiti, and, especially, the Balkans. Among those appearing as interviewees on film are Melvin Laird, Bob Woodward, and Alexander Haig (in the Nixon film); James Baker, John Sununu, and Richard Cheney (discussing Bush); and Richard Holbrooke, Lawrence Eagleburger, and Leon Panetta (on Clinton). The films are produced in a lively, professional, and accessible style. The latter two films effectively evoke the way in which past events impinge on present concerns: primarily in the form of the Vietnam syndrome but also in Bush's fear, confided to his journal, of "another Tehran" in the immediate wake of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. (Good use is made of Bush's journal. We see his January 1991 complaints about reporters whining over the decision to make the oncoming war a highly censored one.) Some of the interviewees—Anthony Lake in the Nixon film is the outstanding example—offer incisive and memorable comments. The Clinton film deals particularly well with that president's special difficulties with the military. All three films will be viewed with profit, especially by those who are fairly new to these episodes in the recent history of U.S. foreign and military policy.

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