I can't. I'm sorry.". Revealing the complex emotions and daily realities of fighting in the war, these close accounts offer a powerful, uniquely personal portrait of the many faces of Vietnam's veterans.From Publishers Weekly:This is a poignant collection of letters and poems, mostly to loved ones back home, written by soldiers while serving in Vietnam. [4][5] It was also screened out of competition at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival.[6]. Pretend not to notice if he acts dazed, eats with his fingers instead of silverware and prefers C-rations to steak. [2] Ebert wrote in his review: "This movie is so powerful precisely because it is so simple. Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam 1987 l 2of2 The Vietnam War Follow Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (TV Movie 1987) Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam is a 1987 American documentary film inspired by the anthology of the same title, directed by Bill Couturi in 1987. To stop communism from spreading. Passes Congress by voting, expands Presidential powers. Both were equally powerful. The words in the letters are read by some 40 different actors and actresses, whose voices you can sometimes identify, until you stop thinking in those terms. Also, new "total war" strategies radically increased civilian casualties and military "battle fatigue.". This book does a really good job of showing what the troops were feeling while in the Vietnam. This led to hundreds of innocent (and unarmed) women and children being killed. Troops In Vietnam. Ambiguities aboundfrom pain, disillusionment and sorrow for dead comrades to a hard-earned measure of individual strength and survival. I found this book in Half Price Books, and I knew I had hit gold. This book is incredibly sad. There have been many great movies about Vietnam. What Couturie and his researchers have done is amazing. You don't know how close I have been to getting killed or maimed. This HBO production also received theatrical release. Those who experienced modern combat firsthand were more often than not psychologically traumatized: American combat veterans of the Vietnam War, in particular, exhibited "traumatic stress syndrome" in large numbers. What was the official certification given to Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (1987) in Italy? They tell me the letters I write to you and leave here at this memorial are waking others up to the fact that there is still much pain left from the Vietnam War. Retrieved April 12, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/excerpts-dear-america-letters-home-vietnam-1967-1979. What is the main fighting objective of U.S. troops in Vietnam? 00:00. However, the date of retrieval is often important. //, The twentieth century was a decade of war: of the hundred million war-related deaths worldwide since 1700, over 90 percent occurred in the twentieth century. Too many times I have seen guys near me get hit and go home in a plastic bag. The _____ distance between two points is a straight line. "David Halberstam Nearly forty years after the official end of the Vietnam War, Dear America allows us to witness the war firsthand through the eyes of the men and women who served in Vietnam. Black Ford), Excerpt from My Army Life (c. 1866, by Frances C. Carrington), Excerpt from Memories of the North American Invasion (c. 1850, by Jos Mara Roa Barcena), Excerpts from on the Growth of Plants in Closely Glazed Cases Ward, Nathaniel B. A documentary featuring letters written by U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines during the Vietnam War to their families and friends back home. Not having much knowledge on the Vietnam war, this book really opened my eyes and my heart - it really made me feel something, just reading these simple letters home. Dear America : letters home from Vietnam. I thought the book was very good. Treat him with kindness, tolerance, and an occasional fifth of good liquor and you will be able to rehabilitate that which was once (and now a hollow shell) the happy-go-lucky guy you once knew and loved. One of the most difficult things to do is to stand in another man's shoes. The words are the words of the soldiers themselves, and the images are taken from their own home movies and from TV news footage of the war. following the performance, we met privately with them, and we all sat stunned as grown men wept hysterically on account of the memories it brought back for them, as many of the veterans were the same age we were at the time of the performance when they first saw combat overseas. But I finally got through to her. I'm very, very glad I read this book. Too many of the letters have the biographical note KIA.And how well these soldiers wrote. [CDATA[ Jim told me how you died, for he was there and saw the helicopter crash. The film's narration consists of real letters written by American soldiers, which are read by actors including Robert de Niro and Martin Sheen. Not because of how it was written, but the subject. The entire books is all real letters from soldiers that were stationed in Vietnam. It was sad to read comments about these guy's future plans only to find out that they never made it that far. SOURCE: Bowman, David, and Peter Roepke. Explore 12 critical episodes in the Vietnam War from its World War II origins to the Fall of Saigon. My mother did not believe that I was coming home. Its such a complex social event, and this books confronts it full on, often with notes on the outcome (and sometimes tragedy) of the lives of the authors of the letters. I saw the movie years ago and immediately went and got the book. I would rather have had you for 21 years, and all the pain that goes with losing you, than never to have had you at all. Never ask why the Jones' son held a higher rank than he did, and by no means mention the word "extend." Killed In Action (To Date). Some try to tell the truth, others to conceal it. You keep turning pages because you're finding outfor the first timewho our Vietnam soldiers were and are. Briefly describe the Vietnam War Memorial. -Mom. "San Jose Mercury News"Listen to these authentic voices of the Vietnam war. What i really liked about it was that some of the letters were from the same people, so you could kind of follow the soliders and really get get a good perspective of what it was like over there. To read their thoughts, desires, concerns, passions, etc. Published in The Things They Carried, 1990 The letters are read by famous actors and actresses. Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam: Directed by Bill Couturi. He said how you stayed the same happy-go-lucky guy that you were when you arrived in Vietnam. This is a really bare-bones book. Vietnamese Movie Info. (April 12, 2023). 4.5 stars. It was so heartbreaking and raw and beautiful. And, boy, was she happy. A portrait of Americans' experiences in Vietnam, told through letters written to friends and loved ones back home. It is very sad but a must read. They speak of patriotism, of confidence, of new friendships. Do not let it shake you up if he picks up the phone and yells "Sky King forward, Sir" or says "Roger out" for good-by or simply shouts "Working.". "I tell you truthfully I doubt if I'll come out of this alive," a private named Raymond Griffiths writes home to his girlfriend. Archive footage of the war and news coverage thereof, augment the first-person "narrative" by men and women who were in the war, some of whom did not survive it. This was a turning point in the war because this event only showed us that the war was not even close to being over. "In my original squad, I'm the only one left unharmed." 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