(Post for 2/18) "You ever fought a war with no draws? "

In George Orwell's 1984, one of the main themes stresses how the lack of a developed language can oppress the minds of the speakers. Hearts And Minds challenges Orwell's belief. The simplistic speech of the soldiers who fought in Vietnam was so much clearer and simply honest; compare their speech to that of of men higher up the rank and things aren't as clear.

Take, for example, William Marshall. When he spoke, one could understand what he was thinking. He was speaking openly and even though his English was so much less refined than, say, LBJ's or Gen. Westmorland's, he was still easy to understand. Marshall's speech was simple yes, but the listener gets the sense that he isn't hiding anything, that he is speaking from his heart. By giving us the truth, the soldiers relieve their audience of their ignorance and show them exactly how this war has affected them so deeply. They do this to try and keep us from allowing such a thing to happen again. It's just like Marshall says, "I'll make you hear about it everyday... you wanna forget so that somebody else can go do it somewhere else? Hell no".

Listening to the government officials and high ranking officers was a different story. They are trying to leave their listener's in the dark about what happened in Vietnam. In contrast to the soldiers, they rarely give a personal opinion on the War. They try so hard to maintain an image and keep the blame from falling on themselves. All of what they say is in a more refined form of English. Because of this, the audience has a hard time understanding. One could tell they were deliberately talking in circles, choosing their words carefully, trying to craft believable lies on the spot. If the audience only knew the officials' crimes, they would surely want punishment. By keeping the audience ignorant of the truth, these officials control the audience's minds and as a result, theyevade the consequences of their actions.