What Did we Learn?

In the documentary "Hearts and Minds", Davis uses the brutal images he’s captured first-hand in conjunction with interviews from both sides to convey the thought that the American’s were ignorant and merciless in regard to the situation in Vietnam. He builds credibility as an anti-war proponent by interviewing soldiers who have come back willing to tell their agonizing stories. It is incredible the level of self- indignation these soldiers felt towards the acts they committed. It is also incredible the level of ignorance that high-ranking officials in the American government display through their comments on the war.

Throughout the movie, the audience was introduced to many different people. We saw deserters, POW’s, Senators, Generals, and the soldiers themselves. Each one had a different perspective on the war. For example, the soldiers that we met that have come back from the war agreed that America shouldn’t have been there. One ex-soldier stated, “We weren't on the wrong side. We were the wrong side.” This simple parallelism perfectly summarizes what many soldiers agreed upon. They felt that they were more the enemy than the enemies they were fighting. At the end of the movie, one of the soldiers was asked what they thought America learned from being in Vietnam. He simply replied that everyone involved in the war was afraid to admit that they did in fact learn something. Whether it was out of shame for what they did or out of some level of self-preservation, many Americans were afraid to admit what they had done.

One specific idea that Davis wanted to convey was excellently executed near the end of the movie. Davis was trying to prove that the view that Americans had towards the Vietnamese was completely skewed as a result of labeling them their enemy for so long. In the scene that I am referring to, Davis documents the grief that the Vietnamese go through when dealing with the deaths of loved ones. We hear the piercing cries of children and witness one mother trying to climb into the grave of what the audience is led to presume to be her son. All of these images provoke sympathy with the audience, and when General Westmoreland comes on the screen immediately after stating “The Oriental doesn't put the same high price on life as does the Westerner. Life is cheap in the Orient”, we are angered by the idea that someone could be that incredibly ignorant.

The naivety portrayed in the American people in the documentary leads the audience to question whether or not what was happening in Vietnam was worth it. Additionally they were led to question the level of inhumanity that people could drop down to. Overall, Davis is successful in conveying his extreme disapproval of the war. Sense this was compiled in hindsight of the war, Davis uses this documentary as a warning for the future, one that he hopes will sink into every heart of every American.