Film focuses on information, lessons learned that those who served want Americans to know.
A group of Atlanta veterans has produced a documentary film to counter what it calls “decades of misinformation” about U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
Featuring commentary by historians and those who served, “Truths and Myths of the Vietnam War” examines the treatment of returning veterans, media influence, the antiwar movement and humanitarian acts by U.S. troops – and challenges the predominant view that the war was unwinnable.
“None of us had any experience making a film, writing a script or any of this,” says Jim Dickson, secretary of the Atlanta Vietnam Veterans Business Association (AVVBA) Foundation and a member of American Legion Post 201 in Alpharetta, Ga.
“It was something we believed in strongly, though, and put our hearts into …. We'd seen things written (about the Vietnam War) and movies and so forth, and thought, ‘Gee, that isn't really the way it was.’ We knew there was a strong need for it.”
On March 29 – National Vietnam War Veterans Day – the documentary was screened at the National Infantry Museum in Columbus, Ga. “Truth and Myths of the Vietnam War” has also aired twice on public television in Georgia and once in South Carolina, boosting AVVBA’s hopes to get it on the air in every state.
The biggest audience, however, has been online, where the 47-minute film can be watched or downloaded at AVVBA’s YouTube channel. So far, it’s topped 477,000 views and received nearly 1,600 comments, mostly positive.
“I would say the primary response we’ve been getting is, ‘Thank you,’” says David Naglieri, the Emmy Award-winning filmmaker who steered “Truth and Myths of the Vietnam War” from paper to screen.
Among the emails he’s received are messages from sons and daughters of Vietnam veterans “who saw their dads suffer because of the scarlet letter imprinted on them due to their service,” and widows wanting to thank Naglieri and the film team for “presenting a different narrative, something you don’t hear about or read about in school.”
Approached by Dickson and his team in 2022, Naglieri saw an opportunity to help the veterans refute what they see as lies and distortions in popular films and books.
“I really believe in presenting historic truth and presenting voices that have been suppressed, and so this for me kind of became a passion project,” he says.
Actor Sam Elliott introduces the film, noting that “we owe it to these veterans to listen to what they have to say about the war they served in” – about 2.7 million Americans during 16 years of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia. More than 58,000 were killed, and some 300,000 were wounded.
Roughly three in 10 Vietnam veterans are living today, the last of a generation of warriors that President Ronald Reagan, in 1981, said “fought as bravely and as well as any Americans in our history. They came home without a victory not because they’d been defeated, but because they’d been denied permission to win.”
James Robbins, dean of academics at the Institute of World Politics and author of “This Time We Win: Revisiting the Tet Offensive,” says Reagan’s words reflect the feelings of most Vietnam veterans, nearly 90% of whom say they’re proud of their service. Yet they’re concerned that much of what has reported or presented in films and schools and universities about the war “is neither factual nor complete,” he says.
Rarely mentioned are the “unprecedented humanitarian acts” by U.S. troops, according to retired Army Maj. Gen. Patrick Brady, who received the Medal of Honor in 1969 for risking his life to evacuate 51 seriously wounded men in four separate missions and using three different UH-1H helicopters.
As an example, he points to the 54th Medical Detachment, a helicopter ambulance unit that evacuated 21,435 patients – including 8,904 civilians and 531 enemy soldiers – in a period of 10 months. Beyond that, between 1964 and 1970, civilian action missions by the 5th Special Forces Group alone built 1,003 schools, 398 medical clinics, 6,436 wells, 1,939 kilometers of road, 670 bridges and 129 churches.
“I’ve often said humanitarianism was our great victory in that war,” Brady says.
Yet returning U.S. troops were, in some places, vilified. A Marine Corps veteran recalls landing in California and being pelted by garbage and feces thrown from a “hippie bus.” A former Army captain describes being surrounded in a San Francisco terminal by a group of six or seven men yelling insults. One stood a foot from him and spat on his chest.
“People would look at you, but they wouldn’t make eye contact with you,” says Army veteran Bryan Tate about his arrival at Chicago O’Hare. “If you were walking down the ramp or the hallway, they would get way over to one side. You felt like a stranger. Here you’re so glad to be back in the U.S., and yet it was extremely uncomfortable with the chilly reception.”
“Truths and Myths” also looks at the war’s political front. Where the North Vietnamese could not or did not win on the battlefield, they sought victory through propaganda. This, combined with Soviet and U.S. Communist Party funding of antiwar organizations at home, had an outsized effect on Congress and media coverage.
Finally, the documentary argues that the Vietnam War could have been won at several points using sensible strategies, saving thousands of lives. Rather than employing forceful measures at the outset, the Johnson administration chose a policy of “gradual escalation” – strongly opposed by military leadership. In addition, U.S. troops had to fight under highly restrictive rules of engagement, protecting civilian lives but leading to more American casualties.
The success of operations Linebacker I and II in 1972 brought North Vietnam to the peace table, but Congress soon sharply reduced funding for South Vietnam. Meanwhile, China and the Soviet Union had increased their support for North Vietnam by 50% between 1973 and 1975, and the North invaded the South again in violation of the treaty. What followed was a massive wave of Vietnamese refugees fleeing the country, many perishing at sea. Hundreds of thousands of others were murdered, executed or starved.
More people died in the decade after the communist takeover than in the previous 20 years of war, says Leonard Scruggs, author of “Lessons From the Vietnam War: Truths the Media Never Told You.”
The team behind “Truths and Myths” wants this information to contribute to, and perhaps even reshape, public perception of the war – and why Americans fought.
“I think this film will stand the test of time and hopefully, slowly, make an impact,” Naglieri says.
Dickson adds, “We often hear that this is something that's long overdue. We don't want to make one penny on it. We consider the film our enduring legacy for future generations.”
He adds, “This isn't about what we each did. This is about what we all did, and to try to tell that there was a purpose to our service – that it was for a noble cause, an important cause.”
- Honor & Remembrance