16. The Vietnam War
Few events of American history divided the nation as did the war in Vietnam. During the war, few films were made about the events in Southeast Asia, at least during the 1960s. One of the earliest, made by John Wayne in 1968, was The Green Berets. The film presented an unabashedly pro-American involvement point of view. The film featured the techniques of the propaganda films produced during World War II as recruiting vehicles for the armed forces. Bombardier recruited men to operate Norden bombsights, Crash Drive enticed men into the submarine service. Wayne’s Green Berets featured the US Army Special Forces, at the forefront of American aid in South Vietnam. It presented most of the Vietnamese people as appreciative of American help, though incidents of treachery appear.
Good American soldiers battle not just the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong, but betrayal by leading South Vietnamese commanders and politicians. A cynical American press gradually comes to understand the “truth” of what was happening in the country, and why Americans needed to be there. Support for the North Vietnamese communists from the Soviet Union, China, Czechoslovakia, and other communist countries appeared early in the film. Not until America withdrew from Vietnam did films appear critical of US involvement and activities during the protracted war.