Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Week 8 Open Post
For this weeks open topic discussion I have chosen to make a few little comments about the film Hearts and Minds. Firstly I found this film to be very interesting. It is probably not known widely throughout my generation but during the Vietnam conflict politicians would often say that the goal for American troops was to win the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people. Obviously the film makes an interesting commentary on certain ways that Americans actually did affect the heats and minds of the Vietnamese people predominantly in a negative way. I do however believe that it is important to understand that there were many different types of American soldiers in Vietnam. Not all of the troops in Vietnam spent there time in whore houses and smoking pot. Although some Americans damaged many homes and killed civilians there were soldiers who did not participate in these sorts of activities; at least without the fervor that was portrayed in the soldiers by the film. It is also important to remember that this was a war on insurgents and guerillas. Often times there were Viet Cong troops living among civilians who would farm during the day and run combat missions at night. So at least in my mind it is easy to see how the separation of the VC from civilians could become blurred in the minds of American soldiers. I think that the film has an important and valuable message that should not be overlooked, but I also think that it is important to observe differing viewpoints.
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3 comments:
Oddly enough I couldn’t sleep last night so I turned on the TV and noticed that Platoon was on. I only watched about thirty minutes of it but it was really interesting to see it again after our recent discussions on war in film. Platoon actually helped to drive home the point that I was trying to make in the post. The film portrays both types of Vietnam solider, the good and the bad. It is interesting to watch film like Platoon because they show us a visual representation of how these different types of troopers would function together during the war. I really appreciated how they attempted to show the differing viewpoints of the soldiers and the reasoning behind their actions.
I agree that there are many different types of soldiers but I also am taking note of O'Brien when he says that the lines between good guy and bad buy are blurred, you don't know whose side you are really on. The positive efforts and "good" soldiers are overlooked due to the immense amount of death and tragedy. I think more importantly, which emphasizes your point as well is that in the film at the very end, the closing argument and important discussion was the lack of discussion, questioning and listening by soldiers, civilians and government during and after the war. In order to understand both sides, you must observe, learn about and listen to both sides. This was not done and I question whether it can honestly ever be done, our wiring is so complex coupled with the simple fact that we know relatively nothing about the brain, human emotions, reactions to adverse stimuli...etc. History questions if we can do it, science questions if we can do it...is there an answer? A black and white? Separation is always blurred, between yes and no, listening and ignoring, isolation and love...
I believe the Vietmanese would had have a different perspective about us if the VC's wouldn't have hid among the people and instead evacuated the people into a safe place. You don't fight a war in a city, you take it to some place were the least civilian causualties will take place. It's no wonder the Vietmanese hate us.
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