Why does Hollywood now eulogise the Vietnam fiasco?

[Alexander's Horse]

You look at Hollywood films and now its very cool for a heroe to have served in Vietnam. Just about every heroe in a war or espionage flick now has a Vietnam past.

Pardon me? I thought U.S. involvement in Vietnam was deeply unpopular, a shameful episode in the nation's history and a national embarrassment as a result of the humilating defeat.

So now Vietnam is cool? Some films even seem to portray it as some kind of victory.

Its also getting kind of silly because the U.S. withdrew from Vietnam 30 years ago. The latest Brad Pitt effort has him as a sniper in Vietnam in April 1975 and hardly having aged a day 25 years later.

[Solly]

It seems to be cool over there to be a numbhead soldier.

Over here and eslewhere it's probably one step below bricklayer/plumber kind of occupations.

[TCO]

If you think about it, you will figure it out, AH.

[Felch]

It wasn't a humiliating defeat at all. By 1973 the Viet Cong ceased to function as a political or military force. Just examine the North Vietnamese invasion, and you'll realize it was not supported by any sort of guerilla movement in the south. Nor did southerners take major roles after the GVN fell. Most positions in the south were taken by northerners.

The United States won every major engagement, and together with the Vietnamese people, we eradicated the Viet Cong infrastructure and ability to fight. After 1973 it was an invasion that overthrew the government in Saigon, not a rebellion.

I would agree however that it was shameful. We left an ally in the lurch when they needed us, and the US should never let fear dictate its policy like that again.

[monkspider]

Originally posted by Felch X
It wasn't a humiliating defeat at all. By 1973 the Viet Cong ceased to function as a political or military force. Just examine the North Vietnamese invasion, and you'll realize it was not supported by any sort of guerilla movement in the south. Nor did southerners take major roles after the GVN fell. Most positions in the south were taken by northerners.

The United States won every major engagement, and together with the Vietnamese people, we eradicated the Viet Cong infrastructure and ability to fight. After 1973 it was an invasion that overthrew the government in Saigon, not a rebellion.

I would agree however that it was shameful. We left an ally in the lurch when they needed us, and the US should never let fear dictate its policy like that again.

The main reason it is being brought back is because it makes good sense, propaganda wise. The Vietnam War is the war that most similarly resembles the current "war on terror", with the "heroic" united states military facing a technologically-inferior, but determined, enemy.

[Alexander's Horse]

Originally posted by GP
If you think about it, you will figure it out, AH.

Unlike the American public I seemed to have worked out that anyone who served in Vietnam, aside from a few current generals, is now either pensioned off or dead.

[chequita guevara]

AH, we don't get our pensions until we're 67. If the average age of a US GI in Vietnam was say, 20, that means that the average vet would be between 50 and 60. They still have decades to go before getting their pensions.

The reason the War is being respun is because it is nigh unto treason to criticize the US these days. Hollywood follows the mood of the times, and after 20 years of Reaganite spinning, the Vietnam war was a heroic, well-intentioned, mission whose only problem was the fifth column at home who stabbed Germany ... er, America, in the back.

Despite Felch X's view, he is correct that by the end of our involvement in the war, the Viet Cong had been destroyed as a force. After all, the US waged a very powerful war against the people of South Vietnam, wiped out the countryside, funneled the peasants into concentration camps (aka, resettlement villages), and killed approaximately 40,000 South Vietnamese via assassination through the Pheonix Program.

He's wrong, though to think the US should have stayed. The US never should have been there in the first place. We were propping up an illegal dictatorship which was opposed by the vast majority of it's population. Had we stayed much longer, the US military would have revolted. Popular unrest at home was on the verge of making the country ungovernable. Had we stayed, it would have destroyed the United States. . . . So I guess it's too bad we left.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
after 20 years of Reaganite spinning, the Vietnam war was a heroic, well-intentioned, mission whose only problem was the fifth column at home who stabbed Germany ... er, America, in the back

[Felch]

I didn't say we should have stayed, but we should have supported our ally. Keep in mind that the post-1975 regime wasn't very popular either. It was at least as repressive as the former South Vietnamese government, was only marginally less corrupt, and didn't have the massive economic aid from America.

The Vietnamese viewed the Russian advisors (which were never very numerous) as being like Americans without the money.

[Alexander's Horse]

I think the least plausible characters are guys who are portrayed in films as middleranking officers or NCO's in Vietnam and then show up in films as still middle ranking officers or NCO's thirty years later

Talk about the career plateau from hell

[MrFun]

I'm just waiting for the two military-experienced experts, MTG or Chris62 to parachute into this thread and give their three cents.

[finbar]

Sorry, you got me instead. Horse - it's called revisionism, you know that.

[Alexander's Horse]

The sad part is Vietnam was for a time excellent territory for film makers and with such good live footage to draw on - the Tet offensive attack on the U.S. embassy, the street execution of a Tet infiltrator by the Chief of the Saigon Police, Khe Sanh, the North Vietnamese tank crashing through the gates of the Saigon Presidential Palace flags unfurled, naked napalmed children running down the road out of a village on fire, the Mai Lae massacre, U.S. sailors pushing helicopters into the sea off the flight deck during the evacuation of Saigon, people fleeing from the roof of the U.S. embassy, fighting each other to get through the gates into the embassy compound.

Yep, that sure was one glorious victory

[David Floyd]

Actually it's quite plausible for an NCO in Vietnam to still be an NCO today, albeit a very senior one.

It's also quite plausible for lower-ranking officers to still be around as high ranking ones.

[Alexander's Horse]

Yes but they are portrayed at the same rank and not having aged a day. The US armed forces must have the fountain of youth.