Maybe its time to remind younger voters that the Viet Nam war went wrong..

[AntiFascist]

There are several good films that could be shown prior to the election about this war. "Full Metal Jacket" is one of my personal favorites.

[TaleWgnDg]

1. yeah but that film is more anti-military than it is anti-Nam . . .

Kubrick was brilliant as usual, however . . .


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edited to add:

here's a great website and if the PBS film/video is available at your local public library then I strongly urge you and others to get it . . . either that or buy this PBS video directly from PBS.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/

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on further edit to add:

"First a handful of advisors, then the marines, finally an army of half a million. That was the Vietnam War. It was an undeclared war. A war without frontlines or clear objectives. A war against an elusive enemy. A war.

"It was a war that blurred the line between friend and enemy.

"It was a war with deep roots, deeper than most Americans knew. Ho Chi Minh and his followers fought for decades against the French then against the Americans and their South Vietnamese ally.

"It was a war that turned South Vietnam inside out. A war that changed the GIs who fought in it.

"It was the first television war, with uncensored battle reports flashed to the folks at home.

"It was the first war Americans opposed in huge numbers, openly and passionately.

"The Vietnam War ended when the Communists took Saigon.

"The end of the war left questions and issues that are still unanswered and unresolved.

"Vietnam...a noble cause? a shameful venture? This television series looks back at a hard chapter in American history. Two and one-half million Americans fought in Vietnam and 58,000 Americans died there. Why?"

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/
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[AntiFascist]

3. Thanks for the PBS links and info....

those are great!

In Kubrick's defense, I'm sure he did his normally extensive and painstaking research to make sure the film was as realistic as possible. He did focus on some of the most negative aspects of boot camp and the Tet Offensive.

[ronabop]

5. It was the military who lied to us about...

...body counts. Missions. Capability. Effectiveness.

FMJ is anti military, as an organization, but pro-soldier, as an individual.

Supporting the troops can include comdemning the military body as a whole. A soldier is not the whole military, any more than the whole military represents every single soldier.

-Bop

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. When you leave with them shooting at you in full retreat

it's not what I would call a glorious moment.

[AntiFascist]

4. I just watched Hijacking Catastrophe.....

and everything has changed. It paints a much more frightening picture of neoconservatism than even I ever imagined. It masterfully ties together PNAC, peak oil, and the war in Iraq. It also gives the best argument I've seen yet for why the inexperienced chickenhawks aren't able to run a war properly, and draws valuable parallels with Viet Nam. ALSO, it presents a strong economic argument for how the dollar is being devalued as the country goes bankrupt, and how we are ultimately at the mercy of our foreign creditors. I highly recommend it!!!!!

[crickets]

6. TIME

The war related magazine covers alone from that era... beheadings? I remember the results of two carried by the hair. On the cover.

Movies? File footage from the news.

[KharmaTrain]

7. We blew the chance of a generation

Unless you were there it's hard to explain the emotions that were frayed on this Slimeboat crap. It's like I'd hear my father tell stories about WWII, but it wasn't until the end of his life that I could really understand the emotions he felt...and he could open up about what he saw in the battlefield and going into the consentration camps.

Some of the slime boaters I actually have sympathy for as they've gotten crapped on over and over again. First in being dragged into that war, then being used afterwards as scapegoats (almost exclusively by their elder veteran bretheren) and then tormented over the years with being representatives of a "dirty war" we lost...as thought it was their fault this happened. It's a shame they've been played again, and how compromised they became in a vain attempt to earn respect from the same assholes who screwed them over 35 years ago.

As far as movies, I strongly suggest Deer Hunter, Full Metal Jacket, Coming Home and Platoon..plus there's an excellent PBS "Vietnam...the 1,000 day war" series from the 80s (music by Mickey Hart) that is one of the most comprehensive studies I've seen.

[AntiFascist]

8. good suggestions!

:kick: