Strength and Honor by Terry L. Garlock | Vietnam Veterans of America
As the noted Vietnam War correspondent Joe Galloway says in his preface: “As you read the stories in Terry’s book, think about this: they were the best you had, America, and you turned your back on them.”
I
was only one of many Vietnam veterans who wrote opinion columns
criticizing the Vietnam War film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, opining
their work seemed more like propaganda than history. In doing so I
occasionally used “Burns” as shorthand for the pair, to which Ms. Novick
emailed me her objection. She is correct, I should consistently include
her name as co-producer because she is equally culpable in the hit
piece they brazenly call a documentary.
So,
Ms. Novick and Mr. Burns, this is for you. My back-handed compliment is
that your wholly inaccurate film is a slick rationalization for aging
Americans who, decades ago, loudly encouraged our enemy while we were
killing each other in combat. For those harboring doubts about actively
opposing us in their youth while we served our country in a war, your
film may have supplied just the soothing salve they need.
You
bent the truth in your film too far, too consistently, too
repetitively, and omitted too much to leave any room for me to believe
those errors, omissions, distortions, half-truths and complete
falsehoods were remotely accidental.
Like
a house of distorted mirrors, you portrayed the murderous and avowed
Stalinist Ho Chi Minh as a nationalist driven by reunification of North
and South Vietnam rather than his real commitment to Communist conquest
of free South Vietnam. Your film repeatedly depicted the war as
unwinnable, the North Vietnamese cause as just, war crimes between the
two sides as morally equivalent, American troops as victims, South
Vietnamese as mere bit players, all that and much more of your content
completely opposite of the truth. You selected for dominant interviews
from the tiny percentage of American combat veterans with a grievance
who joined the protestors when they returned home.
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