Heartless Minds

The documentary Hearts and Minds brought to life the events of the Vietnam War that we have discussed. Hearts and Minds showed how difficult the war was for American and Vietnamese soldiers as well as their families. The movie contained some strikingly similar scenes to Full Metal Jacket and Platoon, but it had more of an emotional effect because it was real. Aside from the actual war footage, Hearts and Minds provided a good idea of how divided and confused most Americans, including powerful politicians, were over the Vietnam War.
Seeing the way American soldiers treated the Vietnamese – especially the civilians – highly upset me. A village mainly consisting of straw roofs was burned down in front of the civilians that occupied them at one point in the movie. This was a direct reflection of the controversial scene in Platoon that causes Sgt. Barnes and Sgt. Elias to despise one another. Hopefully US soldiers had a solid motive when they did things like this, but there is no way to deny that they ruined the lives of many innocent people. Bombs dropped by US fighter planes ruined many more lives than the soldiers on foot did, unfortunately. I found it a little disturbing that many former pilots described dropping bombs as “thrilling,” a contrasting view to the innocent men, women, and children who were affected by the bombs. A few examples of what the bombs did to families were shown during the film. One that was particularly depressing was when two Vietnamese sisters struggled to explain how a bomb killed their other sister. Also, a middle-aged man described what his house previously looked like until it was blown away by an American bomb. While the American pilots were thrilled, Vietnamese families were literally being destroyed.
As Clark Clifford described early in the film, after World War II, the United States felt they could possibly control the entire world. Perhaps this is where the American soldiers got that “thrilling” feeling when they caused mass destruction on Vietnam. Hearts and Minds also emphasized how terrified Americans were of Communism. We have all grown up hearing negative things about Communism, but the former soldiers really seemed motivated to end it in Indochina. As is the case with many wars, other people did not believe the United States should have been involved at all. The documentary does a great job of explaining that Ho Chi Minh wanted to model our own form gaining independence. It is very ironic that the United States went so far to try and stop them. Hearts and Minds also showed the consistent indecisiveness and confusion of our Presidents at the time. When to send troops and how many were both questions that gave John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon problems. Most importantly, they let the war last longer than anyone ever expected. The real footage of President Lyndon B. Johnson announcing that he would not seek reelection was an excellent way of showing the stress the Vietnam War must have caused.
Hearts and Minds also provided a visual representation of the harm the war caused many soldiers. During the movie many Vietnam veterans were interviewed periodically and then revealed later that they were missing limbs and paralyzed, to name a couple. This was another way of evoking emotion from the viewer. After an attachment was made with a particular former soldier, learning that they were severely injured in the war makes the viewer feel even more sympathetic. Anyone that watches the film should also feel sympathy for the Vietnamese. Not only were there villages and surroundings dismantled, but the brutality of some US soldiers was very extreme. The documentary shows young Vietnamese soldiers being kicked constantly, and another time they show US soldiers poking the barrel of a gun in a man’s face as he lay helplessly on the ground. Actions such as these could have been caused by pride, but Hearts and Minds suggests that it could also have been caused by the United States nationwide frustration.