There's No Escaping Vietnam

Platoon, Hamburger Hill, and the Memory of the War

Fifty years ago the United States signed a peace agreement to end its military campaign in Vietnam. Combat troops began the process of leaving a conflict that had steadily escalated over the previous two decades culminating with final departure of troops from Saigon two years later.

Of course, for the survivors of the war on both sides, plus those who mourn those lost, I would imagine that the war never quite left them. We know here in the United States that veterans are dealing not only with PTSD but also the after effects of exposure to chemicals such as Agent Orange, a defoliant used to make enemy combatants more visible.¹ Visible too are the effects in Vietnam as generations of Vietnamese people have dealt with the effects of chemical warfare on their lands and people.²

Vietnam, I think, shattered the notions of American exceptionalism. Much has been made of the racism of the war (not uncommon during warfare, my thoughts is that killing of humans is so opposite the human experience that one must find a way to think of their opponent in ways that portray them as inhuman). World War II was a smashing success for the United States—our ancestors helped to save the world from one of the world’s great evils in Adolf Hitler and free the Pacific of the Japanese Empire. Korea, the Forgotten War (except for those souls like my grandfather and late grandfather-in-law who fought it), maybe a draw. But Vietnam. Vietnam was a loss. And a loss in a war that many did not understand why we were fighting in the first place. America’s first quagmire. America’s first loss.

What to the American is the nation who could fight the Germans and Japanese at the same time, but could not defeat the Vietnamese?³

American pop culture, perhaps famously critiquing the war during its time, moved next to a sense of mourning the war.⁴ Ronald Reagan famously appropriated Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” for his reelection campaign in 1984, though his campaign people apparently never stopped to listen to the words. Not that it mattered. The Boss released his song in 1984, just two years after First Blood hit the screen, one of the biggest films to hit upon PTSD in Vietnam veterans, as well as their struggles to adjust to life after the war. Another film we could talk about here is 1978’s The Deer Hunter. There would be others.

In fact, much of the 1980s in music and especially film, had to deal with Vietnam. It’s not hard to find. I just listed a couple films. But think about Eddie Murphy in Trading Spaces. Where do we first encounter him? Pretending to be a disabled veteran. That ghost Maverick is chasing in Top Gun? His father, who died in Vietnam. And of course there were the revenge fantasies of Missing In Action and Rambo: First Blood Part Two. I tend to think of that decade from 1978 to 1988 or 1989 as a sort of Golden Age of Vietnam War films. Audiences devoured these movies. Studios delivered.

Perhaps none of these is better sheerly on a cinematic scale than Oliver Stone’s Platoon. Based in part on his own experiences in Vietnam, the movie follows Charlie Sheen’s Chris Taylor as he ventured into hell, torn between rivals Sergeant Barnes and Sergeant Elias. As the film’s tagline revealed, “the first casualty of war is innocence.” Released in December 1986, it won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1987.

Platoon was the first movie I ever saw that dealt directly with Vietnam, though hot on its heels was 1987’s Hamburger Hill.⁵ I’ve long presumed Hamburger Hill to be the forgotten film in the trilogy of Vietnam War films that year, with the other being Full Metal Jacket. It is maybe in some ways a more clever film than the other two, somehow less overt in its message. But I rewatched it a couple years ago and I think it is a phenomenal film that somehow people missed.

So what I thought we’d do this week would be to bring on Rob Thompson to talk about Platoon on the podcast and follow it up with a livetweet session on Sunday night featuring Hamburger Hill. Rob’s a historian of the war, and just released his first book about the conflict in 2021. I’ll put a link below if any of you are interested. I’m looking forward to our conversations this week and hearing what stories you have about Vietnam or its legacy. And without further ado, here are links to the podcast:

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Here’s Rob’s new book on the Vietnam War, Clear, Hold, and Destroy:

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And here is the trailer for Hamburger Hill. You can find it on Amazon Prime. Jump in with us on Sunday night (May 7) at 8pm Eastern. Just search for my handle (@herberthistory) or the hashtag #HATM.

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And that’s it tonight. Thanks for reading. I hope you get a chance to listen or jump in, and I’ve got a special substack post coming for ya soon. Take care of each other.

1. The numbers are staggering. Nearly 30% of American Vietnam veterans suffer from PTSD. Over 300,000 veterans have died due to exposure to Agent Orange— nearly five times as many who perished during the conflict. https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/publications/agent-orange/agent-orange-summer-2015/nvvls.asp ; https://www.veterans.nd.gov/news/agent-orange-its-affecting-veterans-and-their-kids#:~:text=The%20number%20of%20Vietnam%20veterans,thousand%20who%20died%20in%20combat.

2. The Red Cross estimates that 3,000,000 Vietnamese suffer from the after effects of Agent Orange exposure with 150,000 suffering from serious birth defects. You can google images if you so choose, though I warn you that what you will find is heartbreaking. https://www.veterans.nd.gov/news/agent-orange-its-affecting-veterans-and-their-kids#:~:text=The%20number%20of%20Vietnam%20veterans,thousand%20who%20died%20in%20combat.

3. I write this with full respect towards the people of Vietnam and their ancestors. I’m trying in these words to show the emotions I think many Americans felt in the years immediately after the conflict ended.

4. Country Joe and the Fish’s “I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag,” or Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son” appeared instantaneously in my head as I wrote this, but there are no shortage of anti-war anthems coming out of the 1960s. There’s a view pro-war songs as well. Here’s a short list: https://vvmf.wordpress.com/2021/12/01/40-songs-about-the-vietnam-era/

5. My best friend, Jesse Maupin, and I- maybe 11 by the time we saw these on HBO, rewatched these films along with Full Metal Jacket endlessly. We had a vested interest in the war. Jesse’s dad had served as a gunnery sergeant during the war and to us, he and the veterans we saw were larger than life. We were also maybe an hour from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, home of the 101st Airborne and holy shit did we wanna be those guys when we grew up.Jesse’s dad was the best. Quick story- we’d spend weeks at each other’s houses in the summer. Don—Pop—would always try to get us to eat pork brains with eggs for breakfast and seemed to delight when we’d run the other way. He passed on a few years ago, but I loved the man. That’s what you do when you have best friends. Their families become yours.