Hearts and Minds (1974)

[thismightbezach]

Originally Posted by phoenixandrew

Thank you ZoetMB for your post.

I'm really disappointed in Dr. Svet Atanasov's propaganda-slanted review of "Hearts and Minds." For him to accuse the filmmaker of propaganda and to accuse the filmmaker of not showing fairness to the pro-war people in this movie and to make this moronic statement that the U.S. was "fighting multiple enemies" shows just how ignorant and misinformed Dr. Atanasov is about the Vietnam War in general.

The truth is there are no two sides to American involvement in Vietnam. The side supporting the war was WRONG, plain and simple. The U.S. had no business being in Vietnam in the first place. That's not a political statement, that is a FACT. The Vietnam War was a result of anti-Communist paranoia instigated by Joseph McCarthy. During the Cold War, the U.S. had a foreign policy of supporting right-wing dictatorships as long as they were anti-Communist. All of these right-wing dictatorships had human rights violations far worse than whatever the Soviet Union was guilty of. Yet, the U.S. had the gall to lecture Soviet-bloc countries about human rights. Speaking of human rights, most of the atrocities against Vietnamese civilians including women, children and babies were committed by racist Vietnamese-hating American troops more so than the Viet Cong and Ho Chi Minh combined. I will only agree with the reviewer that William Westmoreland did no justice for his argument supporting the war.

Up until today, I had utmost respect for all reviewers on Blu-ray.com, including Dr. Svet Atanasov. Then I read his review on "Hearts and Minds" and that alone changed my opinion of this reviewer 180 degrees. As far as to who the enemy was, the U.S. is its own worst enemy.

Even bleeding-heart liberal Roger Ebert said the film sometimes looks like propaganda. It makes the U.S. Army look like a barbaric savages. Meanwhile, Ho Cho Minh is made to look like Jesus Christ. Look at the scene where he's sitting down laughing with a bunch of children. I found that to be completely nauseating considering the millions he killed. He was a monster.

The film also says nothing about the millions of civilians killed by the communists [in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos] after we left in 1975.

Originally Posted by phoenixandrew

All of these right-wing dictatorships had human rights violations far worse than whatever the Soviet Union was guilty of.

Huh? You really don't know your history. Let's crunch the numbers. Pinochet killed a mere 3,000, a drop in the ocean compared to the communists. Stalin alone killed 40 to 62 million. Mao was responsible for 45 to 75 million deaths.

You were saying?