Philip Gourevitch’s We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda and Romeo Dallaire’s Shake Hands With the Devil: the Failure of Humanity in Rwanda both left me deeply shaken – both require of the reader an intimacy with the author’s agony, and both require that one ask very uncomfortable questions about the essential nature of the human animal – much like Goldhagen’s Hitler’s Willing Executioners.
Tony Lake, Clinton’s National Security Advisor at the time, was at the centre of US policy responses to the event. I’ve read on several occasions that he has been personally very troubled by the failure of US policy and of his own office. The NYT has an article on his reaction to the film after a recent private screening. One can’t help being suspicious of government officials seeking out redemption for their presumed sins, but equally one can’t sit in judgment of ordinary people doing their best in extraordinary times. To his credit, he seems to be approaching this process with decency and respect.