THE VIETNAMINIZATION OF ICONIC AMERICAN FILMS

            For a student whose studies concentrate on military history, the 1960s and 1970s are most strongly characterized by the Vietnam War. In class, Little Big Man was introduced as a Vietnam War movie, but all films from the second half of class can be similarly tied to defining moments in the war. 

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            The history of the Vietnam War begins long before 1965, in the decade following WWII when the Vietnamese and their French colonizers warred over the right to self-determination. At the same time, in the world of movies, the Corleone crime family was caught in a war of its own that claimed the lives of Sonny, the Godfather himself, and many others. Despite the death of Vito, and the disastrous French defeat at Dien Bien Phu, neither conflict fully resolved itself. Forces like Michael Corleone and the US Military had to pick up where their predecessors had left off. Both of these new leaders had fresh plans to bring peace to the situation, but ultimately introduced more violence by escalating the conflict. Both The Godfather and the Vietnam War are stories of foreign workers. The Corleone family held ties to Italy while operating their business in the US, and the US Military occupied itself with business in Southeast Asia during the 1960s and 1970s. The written piece “Citizen Khan” worked as a companion to describe the lives of foreign workers. In the article, Khan attempted to cut off financial support to a violent family member who, in turn, murdered Khan. The piece ends by saying, “Over and over we forget what being American means.” This quote is a reminder that the immigrant experience has shaped America, but so too has America been shaped by a culture of violence.

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            As war intensified in Vietnam with the arrival of US combat troops in 1965, the military was eager to test new mobile warfare tactics. The Battle of the Ia Drang Valley was one of the first tests of air cavalry and napalm in live combat. The excitement of newly realized mobile warfare was reflected in the newfound freedom of Thelma and Louise. Similarly, the women became caught up in violent spontaneity under the guise of liberation. In both cases, hubris got the better of the situation. As American troops pursued the enemy into the jungle, they were plagued by ambushes. When Thelma and Louise’s luck finally ran out, the women too met a violent end. Just as firebombing during WWII paved the way for napalm use in the Vietnam War, Betty Friedan’s book The Feminine Mystique served as a precursor to the adventures of Thelma and Louise. The book ties all elements into one argument regarding gender. In 1963, Friedan mockingly writes, “Doesn’t she know yet how lucky she is to be a woman?” At a time when the Vietnam War was just a glimmer in the eye of President Kennedy’s mishandling of Southeast Asian affairs, Friedan could see few advantages to the patriarchy under which she lived. However, as the Vietnam War heated up, women were exempt from the draft that tore apart the US. The disallowance of women in combat roles, prior to 2015, was one of Phyllis Schlafly’s arguments against the Equal Rights Amendment in 1977. Though it may seem morbid, Thelma and Louise pushed the boundary of gender by giving women the opportunity to die. Just as historians can muse over the merits of using napalm in the Vietnam War, it is up for debate whether this act of suicide was an effective use of ‘girl power.’

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            1968 brought a new style of warfare to Vietnam. The Battle of Hue, the largest of the war, took place in an urban setting, necessitating close combat unseen since WWII. The involvement of civilians, death of innocents, and the destruction of property draws obvious connections to Do the Right Thing. Just like the escalation of the situation at Sal’s into a violent brawl, doing the ‘right thing’ became a contested opinion during the Vietnam War. The growing number of civilian casualties and destruction of entire cities in Vietnam, like the death of Radio Raheem and burning of Sal’s Pizzeria, caused many to question the use of violence to solve problems. The companion reading to Do the Right Thing, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, delves into this conundrum. Coates grew up seeing a world founded on violence and recognized the way it took hold of black American communities as a consequence of fear and paranoia. Coates wrote to his son, “What I told you is what your grandparents tried to tell me: that this is your country, that this is your world, that this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.” The 140,000 civilians living in Hue at the time of the battle were also forced to find a way to live within the imposed culture of violence. 

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            After the Battle of Hue, a horrible massacre occurred in the Vietnamese ville of My Lai. In class, this incident was discussed in regard to Little Big Man, but it also shares parallels with the Watergate Scandal depicted in All the President’s Men. The Watergate Scandal is one of many examples of presidential corruption through American history, and the My Lai Massacre is just one of the wartime atrocities committed in Vietnam. Historian Gary Kulik called it “an atrocity producing war.” Similarly, the presidency could be seen as a corruption producing job. The investigative journalism of Woodward and Bernstein changed the way Americans viewed their presidents, and the My Lai Massacre changed the way Americans viewed their military. As Hunter S. Thompson put it, “Richard Nixon broke the heart of the American Dream.” A film rife with atrocity that supplemented class discussion on the Vietnam War was Apocalypse Now. An iconic film in its own right, it too shares themes with All the President’s Men. When Woodward and Bernstein began investigating official reports regarding the Watergate Incident, they had no idea “the horror” they would uncover. Similarly, when CPT Willard began his journey to eliminate COL Kurtz, nothing could prepare him for the truth. Despite the fiction of the latter, both hold implications for the memories of Nixon and the Vietnam War in the minds of American people.

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            The Tet Offensive, My Lai Massacre, and gift of television that brought the war into every living room in America, sparked controversy over the merits of fighting such a war. The fickle attitude of the American government regarding the issue is mirrored in Little Big Man. Jack’s loyalties were easily swayed, making him appear a weak character with little conviction. So too did the American government during the Vietnam War waver between an obligation to limit the spread of communism and a responsibility to protect American lives and appease protestors at home. The chapter “On the Rainy River” from Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried accompanied this film. His attitude of, “I was a coward. I went to the war,” more subtly shows the human duality displayed in Little Big Man. O’Brien goes on to grapple with the importance of truth when conveying emotionally potent stories, deciding that factual details are not necessary for reflecting on the paradoxes of war, supporting the use of seemingly unrelated sources, such as these films, to accurately convey a narrative of war.

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            In 1973, US troops withdrew from Vietnam, entrusting the defense of South Vietnam to local forces. Protesting cries of, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!” could no longer be ignored. Network also featured an ambitious transfer of power. If Howard Beale can be seen as the Vietnam War, Diana Christensen is the United States, intervening in an attempt to fix the situation. In the end, both South Vietnam and Beale were killed by their protectors. Conservative icon Barry Goldwater wrote in 1960 that corruption stems from, “the natural tendency of men who possess some power to take unto themselves more power.” This tendency caused the United States to get in over its head in Vietnam, and caused Christensen to take on too much with Beale. Both situations ended in shocking displays of violence and disaster, televised to the American public. 

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            The Vietnam War ran in the background of every event in the 1960s and 1970s and changed media forever. The same issues grappled with during the war have been pondered over in film and literature ever since. Fiction contains insight into human psyche in a manner more easily understood than the complex conflicts of war. Icons transcend the time and situation in which they were created and contain messages applicable to a wide variety of world issues.