JENNINGS: The Vietnam War Through Red Lenses

JENNINGS: The Vietnam War Through Red Lenses

http://www.truthrevolt.org/author/phillip-jennings)

The Last Days in Vietnam is an Oscar-nominated documentary covering the very end of South Vietnam, in April, 1975. Rory Kennedy’s dramatically sad and horrific documentary is both difficult (for a Vietnam Veteran at least) to watch and a chronicle of American compassion and angst. The fall of a democratic society to Communist tyranny should be lamented by Americans, who sacrificed greatly in their defense. It is a film of pathos, frustrating and yet strongly uplifting at times as American soldiers, diplomats and newsmen risk their careers and their lives to save Vietnamese friends from the invading North Vietnamese Army. Uplifting, unless you’re Associate Professor Christoph Giebel of the University of Washington, Seattle. In a review of the film posted to the website of Vietnam Scholars Group (sic) by Professor Giebel, the film is “dangerously simplistic,” and “much more of a commentary on current US culture—steeped in nationalistic discourses of exceptionalism, thoroughly militarized, and narcissistic—than a reflection of its actual quality.” In fact, the film “is the worst attempt at documenting the war (he) has seen in a long time.” (If you want to understand why young people are anti-American and anti-war.... Then you just have to understand the kind of professors they are being indoctrinated by. (NOT taught, NOT educated) I have myself wound up in an exchange with this nasty, arrogant jerk, and on a forum for educators when I brought up his biased views, I was lambasted by those in charge because all the other professors consider him a wonderful educator. What does that tell you about things in higher education these days? Why am I worried about the future of the nation? How can anyone not be concerned now? --Del)