My Dad, My Uncles on Nam
My father had some friends over. They peppered each other with cognac and spring rolls [that’s the explanation for the crunching on the telephone]. “Can you believe it? We’ve been here for thirty years?” my dad said, referring to all the the American press Vietnam is receiving for the “Fall of Saigon.”
He reminisced about when they watched “The Deer Hunter” for the first time. He said that a common friend had told him it was about Vietnam. And then my father and his friends all decided to see it together, not knowing the true premise of the movie was about American Veterans, mental illness, and their difficult reintegration back into society. It stars Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, and a young Christopher Walken.
“I hated that movie,” my Dad said, “It was bullshit. Americans hear the bad things that rarely happen and make movies from it. Saving Private Ryan—it’s about one guy. That’s dumb. Hamburger Hill, Platoon—it’s all dumb. Those things rarely happened, because so many of them were doing cocaine and smoking marijuana. That was the only way to survive the war. Americans were sending us their kids, 18 year olds and making them watch people die in numbers.”
“They hated us when we came here,” my uncle said. “American just couldn’t handle that much death, 50,000 of them dying on their TV. It’s easy to say that they all went crazy,” my uncle said trying to bring it back to the movie.
“But what about our side, they think after all those years there aren’t crazy Vietnamese people?” They make it sound like they all died fighting, they didn’t. We know that. Half of them killed themselves on drugs and whores. They even shot themselves, calling it, what do they call it?”
“Friendly fire, Dad.”
“Friendly fire and they have the nerve to make movies like Missing in Action and Rambo. One guy standing still and shooting down an army—what does that say about how they view us?” my dad said.
“You know if they sent Chuck Norris and Rambo in the first place, then we wouldn’t have had to fight at all,” my uncle said, “Think they’d go to Iraq?”
He reminisced about when they watched “The Deer Hunter” for the first time. He said that a common friend had told him it was about Vietnam. And then my father and his friends all decided to see it together, not knowing the true premise of the movie was about American Veterans, mental illness, and their difficult reintegration back into society. It stars Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, and a young Christopher Walken.
“I hated that movie,” my Dad said, “It was bullshit. Americans hear the bad things that rarely happen and make movies from it. Saving Private Ryan—it’s about one guy. That’s dumb. Hamburger Hill, Platoon—it’s all dumb. Those things rarely happened, because so many of them were doing cocaine and smoking marijuana. That was the only way to survive the war. Americans were sending us their kids, 18 year olds and making them watch people die in numbers.”
“They hated us when we came here,” my uncle said. “American just couldn’t handle that much death, 50,000 of them dying on their TV. It’s easy to say that they all went crazy,” my uncle said trying to bring it back to the movie.
“But what about our side, they think after all those years there aren’t crazy Vietnamese people?” They make it sound like they all died fighting, they didn’t. We know that. Half of them killed themselves on drugs and whores. They even shot themselves, calling it, what do they call it?”
“Friendly fire, Dad.”
“Friendly fire and they have the nerve to make movies like Missing in Action and Rambo. One guy standing still and shooting down an army—what does that say about how they view us?” my dad said.
“You know if they sent Chuck Norris and Rambo in the first place, then we wouldn’t have had to fight at all,” my uncle said, “Think they’d go to Iraq?”
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