I was in 'Nam. When this came out, I tried to pick up my theater seat and throw it at the screen - I liked John Wayne - but then he went ahead and trashed everything I and my brothers went through - I am sick of the stinking young pups who recite lies they hear from draft-dodgers like Limbaugh and Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush, & co., thinking they are doing me and my brothers honor. Denying reality is no honor. Refusing to face facts is not courage. Distorting history don't help any of us in any way.
The war was all heat and sweat and dirt and bugs - we were all down sick with something mostly. I never got to see the enemy up close alive, they were just blurs through the bush. Sometimes I didn't even look at them, I just pulled the trigger and hoped I kept breathing.
The locals hated us - even those who wanted us to stay and fight for them, so they wouldn't have to do it themselves. They kept trying to sell us cheap dope, cheap girls, and rancid meat, telling us it was "local cooking." It was clear that, behind their fear of us, their was a real contempt. The first three months, I thought I was fighting for my country; then all I was fighting for was to get home.
The 'commanding' officers, when we saw them, were all dressed fresh, washed and shaved. And well fed. I watched my best friend die with shrapnel tearing his guts into stringy beef for these b*st*rds- and now I'm supposed to praise some stupid Hollywood propaganda from WWII with the names all changed - and this does us honor?! This is supposed to be the "American" thing to do?! I thought forced culture was a Soviet idea - when did we suddenly go Bolshevik?
This was a good country until it started lying to itself. I did fight for America. I fought for the freedom guaranteed in the Constitution - the right to disagree. And those who don't like it can get bent.
I won't be lied to again. I was there. I know this war. And this piece of crap of a 'movie' ain't it.
The war was all heat and sweat and dirt and bugs - we were all down sick with something mostly. I never got to see the enemy up close alive, they were just blurs through the bush. Sometimes I didn't even look at them, I just pulled the trigger and hoped I kept breathing.
The locals hated us - even those who wanted us to stay and fight for them, so they wouldn't have to do it themselves. They kept trying to sell us cheap dope, cheap girls, and rancid meat, telling us it was "local cooking." It was clear that, behind their fear of us, their was a real contempt. The first three months, I thought I was fighting for my country; then all I was fighting for was to get home.
The 'commanding' officers, when we saw them, were all dressed fresh, washed and shaved. And well fed. I watched my best friend die with shrapnel tearing his guts into stringy beef for these b*st*rds- and now I'm supposed to praise some stupid Hollywood propaganda from WWII with the names all changed - and this does us honor?! This is supposed to be the "American" thing to do?! I thought forced culture was a Soviet idea - when did we suddenly go Bolshevik?
This was a good country until it started lying to itself. I did fight for America. I fought for the freedom guaranteed in the Constitution - the right to disagree. And those who don't like it can get bent.
I won't be lied to again. I was there. I know this war. And this piece of crap of a 'movie' ain't it.