Kendra Elm Dr. Strangelove
The film Dr. Stangelove portrays the United States Military as incapable of protecting our country and makes a joke out of what would be a very serious situation. I believe this showing of the military is over-exaggerated, but is based on many truths. The first of which is international diplomacy. In the film when the US president is taking to the leader of Russia their phone call is a complete joke. Demitry is drunk and incoherent of what is about to happen and the President is just playing along. These phone calls between countries show how difficult it is to work between countries. Another aspect is domestic diplomacy. The communication between the generals and the President is very poor. One general is taking on the phone to his woman when he is in a meeting of national security. They are unable to get communication to the base where another military commander has gone rogue and sent a fleet of planes to attack Russia.
Plan R, as called in the film, was an attack plane that could be ordered by someone of lower rank in the military in case of a sneak attack on the United States. I think the point of this part of the movie was to show how in many cases the military tries to cover all of its basses, but it can backfire. They thought this plan would be good if something drastic were to happen, but they didn't think about the human side of the plan, and obviously that turned out badly. I believe all of these examples are things that happen in the military but taken to the extreme. No system can be flawless, and Dr. Strangelove picked on the flaws in the military and in a way made us lose trust in the American system of government. So, I can't say the the portrayal of the military was unfair as much as it was taken out of proportion.