Proud to be an Amercian?...Not! (Hearts and Minds)

Wow, after watching this documentary called Hearts and Minds, I questioned whether I was actually proud to be an American. A part of me felt guilty for feeling this way, but the other part of me says, "Why should I be proud of the corruption and embarrassment that way portreyed during this war?" Emotions such as anger, saddness, embarassment, and guilt ran through me continuously and I was rather overwhelmed. Not only was I overwhelmed with emotions, but also by the footage that I was viewing constantly.

This documentary was put together very well in the sense of affecting the viewer. The idea and time to use actual footage was genius when it came to creating the ethos for their argument. I never questioned the validity of their information or the argument that they presented because the footage was real! There were no special effects or theatrical scenes to sway me, just the facts. This is a very powerful way to get your point across. No, this movie was not the most entertaining and no it did not catch my attention the first ten minutes or keep me on my toes, but since I have an interest in this topic, I was more and more intrigued. I was so intrigued that I acctually doubted my own countries sincerity of the well being of human beings.

Human beings were treated like road kill if they were the 'squinty eyed gooks' or viewed as just another number if they were one of our soldiers. How is this right? The documentary made a very clear and well put together argument when they were showing how we as a nation only care about winning. It's true! I am a very competitive person in EVERYTHING I do and will never change! We all watch and root for our favorite football team and are extremely pissed of they lose. When we lose we always want to fire the guy in charge (aka in this case our president). The president during the times of war are not allowed to lose. It's America, we do not accept failure. We didn't know why we were there, we just wanted to kill those gooks and leave! Walk away with our victory. In a way we were all brainwashed.

This film made it very obvious that we Americans are just our of our minds at times. It showed the most cruel acts that made it so hard to watch. Our soldiers were murdering INNOCENT human beings that even included children. What did the children ever do to us? What did an innocent woman ever do to us? All they were trying to do was feed their family and SURVIVE. They carried no weapons or try to kill our soldiers, just SURVIVE. The excessive bombing was ridiculous and this documentary showed us how unnecessary it was. The actual interviews with the citizens that lost family members, home, and food was sickening. It truly hurt to watch. Our soldiers ruined their food supply for no reason but to make their life hell. They lit their houses on fire, just to see them suffer. They beat men and women just to have fun and because they thought that's what they had to do for America. Our government made them think that they were doing this country justice and make them proud, but personally it only made me embarassed to be an American. The interview with the air bomber was the highlight evidence. He explained how they never saw the aftermath of the dead that they themselves created. He was there 'because it was his job' and he had a 'duty'. He did not have a problem sleeping at night untiil he had his own children and realized that he would not be able to survive if they were ever killed the way he killed those poor children in Vietnam. The interviews with the soldiers that didn't even know why they were there and just wanted to kill every 'enemy' in their way so America would 'win' this 'war'. There's so many things wrong with that statement. Was it even a war?

The Vietnamese obviously saw this whole war as a fight for their independence and fight against genocide! How insane is it to hear another country believe that were were the ones involved in genocide! Heating the interviews with their citizens talking about this, hit me hard. I was indenial, but the more I watched, the more I believed it was true. We were murders and so high on our horse that were ignored every sign saying "America is wrong". For so many years they tried to hold onto their reasons why they were there, but there honestly was never a good enough reason to take the lives of innocent beings and not feel guitly for one second. I agreed with that poor man that said he wanted the camera men to send his baby girl's shirt to Nixon because she would never be able to wear it again.

But still with that annoying POW that is broadcasted the entire time, the government wanted to him to preach his story to influence citizens to supporting the war. Comments such as 'I would do it all over again' made me sick ,but what bothered me the most was his speech to the children. Why do that? The children do not need to be hearing all that. And yes there were guys like him supporting the war and there were the guys that ran to Canada because they could not handle the killing of inncent lives for no reason. Yet, our country punished them for doing something they believed in. Wow. Yes this was a lot, but I had a lot to say about this documentary. It really influenced my feelings about this war.