always bitch and whine.... NO! that's not it.

Why do you Gentlemen like some Vietnam war movies?  Sometimes when I watch some of them they are kinda bashing the whole situation and/or degrading the guys who served.  I don't have any up front examples, but Sometimes when I watch them I see parts that don't exactly show good men or even a good group of them.

Maybe I don't know what I am getting at or maybe I do and it is hard to explain.  Basically I was never there and I would like you input on why you watch them?

I guess this may apply to other Veterans as well.

i have noticed that too, most of the movies show the troops as undisciplined.

Quoted: <snip> Maybe I don't know what I am getting at or maybe I do and it is hard to explain. I guess this may apply to other Veterans as well.

Well when you figure it out you can ask a question we can understand.

'Bout the only other vetrans that understand nam vets might be korean "war" vets. They got the first screwing.

I wasn't there... I had orders cut for that unspeakable place.. I ended up in Frankfurt replacement depot. (Life was good!)

Quoted: i have noticed that too, most of the movies show the troops as undisciplined.

Good point.  Even watching M.A.S.H., filmed in that era, reflect unruliness.  Perhaps it reflects social attitude towards the military at the time?

After a few history classes regarding the american military....I've got a few theories as to why hollywood likes to portray vietnam vets badly.

But since I'm too tired to go into much detail, the main theme is this:


Good people doing the best they could given the circumstances, is NOT what hollywood wanted to portray about the war.  Hollywood, like most leftists, thinks the military is bad.  Thus, they're going to do everything they can to convince the rest of the country that the military really IS bad.


Make sense?

Quoted: Quoted: i have noticed that too, most of the movies show the troops as undisciplined. Good point.  Even watching M.A.S.H., filmed in that era, reflect unruliness.  Perhaps it reflects social attitude towards the military at the time?

MASH, from what I've heard from interviews with Korean War era docs, is accurate in that respect, in regards to the docs. Many of them were young kids right out of med school who got drafted. Since they were docs, they got cut a fair amount of slack.

I like seeing the "Soldiers" (acters really.....) Popping the VC's.
I dont buy the hollywood crap about em being all undisiplined.

lotsa vietnam movies dwell on the lower economic folk being drafted. Most of these folks didn't want to be there. They saw the south locals helping the north militia and they didn't understand why they were there (if the southerners didn't want to be "liberated" or protected from the spread of communism to their region).
"Platoon" had a decent mix of draftees, enlisted and the commissioned.

Nothing that hollywood can make would really show what war is like. They may be close but not exactly.

Full Metal Jacket movie was close but again, not how it really was. The censors won't allow it.

I've asked my father (retired SGTMAJ USMC) in the past about his thoughts on the draft being reinstated.  My Dad's problem with the draft is that alot of "hooligans and troublemakers" in the sixties and early seventees opted to join the military and go to Vietnam, versus end up in the slammer.  As a result, the "quality of soldier" of some was questionable

Quoted: After a few history classes regarding the american military....I've got a few theories as to why hollywood likes to portray vietnam vets badly. But since I'm too tired to go into much detail, the main theme is this: Good people doing the best they could given the circumstances, is NOT what hollywood wanted to portray about the war.  Hollywood, like most leftists, thinks the military is bad.  Thus, they're going to do everything they can to convince the rest of the country that the military really IS bad. Make sense?

+1

99% of the screenwriters/producers/directors/actors using Vietnam as a vehicle for their story telling WEREN'T there but never let THAT fact stop them from "Telling it like it was"

Believe it or not, youngster, there was once a time when the American Public didn't like the military.


There might be an old timer out there that will tell you that I'm not telling a fib when i tell you that when I came home from Basic training that someone spit on me and called me a baby killer at Logan Intl airport.

Part of it was that the services had a real leadership problem in that they allowed the troops to do as they damned well pleased.

BTW, Why did I join the army instead of the Corps?

Because I walked into the Marine recruiter and watched the recruiter taping the arm of a junkie to hide the tracks to get him through the physical. ("Parris Island'll straighten him out!")I decided I didn't want any part of that shit, so I joined the army.

Little did I know that the Army was just as bad.  

During the early part of the Vietnam mess, things were pretty squared away, but toward the end, the troopies didn't give a fuck because the public didn't support them.

recruiting standards dropped because they couldn't get anybody.

When I went through basic, about 1/3 to 1/2 of my platoon was qualified for Special Olympics.

Don't believe the standards had dropped that low? Then why did I make E-5 in 16 months?

Why are the troops pictured as complainers?

They had every right to. The American Public ad let them down big time!

Vietnam provides an easy vehicle to push you antiwar thoughts. It was an unpopular war, and it's veterans were mistreated by huge numbers of people. Some filmmakers are probably trying to stress the "horrors of war", but that often entails making soldiers in Vietnam look like savages, regardless of the truth.

Additionally, Vietnam marked the turning point in American opinion about war. Many people consider WWII to be the last "good" war. In reality however, it seems that the 1960's was simply the decade in which the United States embraced the concept of the counter-culture. In my opinion, this marked a sharp decline in the quality of America's youth, and ultimatly American society. Veterans of more recent wars, like me, have encountered resistance from protesters and non-veterans who seem to think that war is never a solution, and that it is "cool" to protest it, even if you have no fucking idea what is really going on.