My Reaction to Hearts and Minds

Hearts and minds was a very “eye opening” film. Many people cannot tell you all the events of the Vietnam War, many people do not even know why the Vietnam War occurred. That is why I say this film is eye opening, you a revealed so many views and opinions from all sorts of different sides. After this film, you will be able to make you own opinion and view point on The U.S government’s choices and the Vietnam people. I am a person that was lost and did not know much or understood the war. I do not keep up with the news or even global events. It is not as if I do not care, I just feel there is never anything good to hear about on the news. The actions our government makes are what we just have to deal with. We elected a president to run our nation, so we have to trust and believe in him. I just find it easier for myself not to follow everything they say. Most of the time I do not fully understand what is going on anyway. I know I cannot help the situation; Most of it is really upsetting to me. I find I am a very sensitive person so I get emotional and I feel another person’s pain right away.

            Peter Davis Directed Hearts and Minds I believe to help us have an understanding of the Vietnam War. It was a very big and important War. Many people have their own beliefs of the war. Davis shows us different points of views such as soldiers, injured soldiers, the Vietnam citizens affect by the war, government officials, and many other people. The viewpoints that affected me the most was what our soldiers had to say about their experience in the war and those of the Vietnam citizens. The soldiers had many different viewpoints themselves. At the time of the war while they were in battle they were just fighting to fight. They did not even know the reason for fighting anymore. They just knew their mission and accomplished it. After the war as they think back about the bomb droppings and the gases they start to understand how wrong that was. It was emotional for some of them because now they have families and they could not even imagine anything happening to them. I am happy some of the soldiers realized later on the abuse and destruction the war caused for innocent young children of Vietnam. Other soldiers however found the fun in killing. The War did not affect them in an emotional way they enjoyed their missions and just listened to their government. There was one soldier that I felt his reaction to his injury was very imperative. This soldier suffered from his wound and it left him paralyzed. He was a soldier with a lot of pride in his nation and the military. When he knew he was wounded, his thoughts were “wow I’m going to die and for what?” Those would have been his last thoughts. He lost everything he believed in at that moment. His pride in everything about his nation and his military was gone.  I can be sympatric to his change in heart because he was fighting a war that no one knew the real reason it occurred and why they were fighting. 

            They had a lot of interviews from the Vietnam citizen. I think it was important to get their points of views because it’s their country and family that was at stake. Many people were hurt because of all the attacks. They lost their home, families and source of income. Many young children died from all of the bombings and gases. That hurt me the most because they are just children, they probably did not even understand what was going on. To see planes dropping bombs and planes exceeding gas must of scared them and make them wonder about it also. I feel the pain each parents probably feel for losing their children at a young age. Children mean everything to their parents and for a war to make them lose their children they probably can’t cope with the pain. There was one man who did express how it made him feel. And I’m happy and proud of him to express himself because it should be know how children died from these bombings and gas releases. Other than that man many citizen were surprising to me because the mostly they expressed was their pain and grief about everything that happened to them. They did not say anything bad about the U.S government.

                I just wish that there could have been another way to handle whatever reason the U.S government did have this war. Or even if they had to have the war, they could have found a way to keep the children safe. Children have no say and they aren’t doing anything wrong. I know that the U.S government cannot take back anything that happened, but I hope they will make better decisions further on. I am also hoping they will try every alternative before turning to any form of violence.