It’s a surefire bet for frustrated liberal nostalgia. A 1972 war
protest film is playing at an artsy theater just blocks from the
White House. And not just any antiwar film. It’s Winter
Soldier, documenting the Winter Soldier Investigation, the
Vietnam Veterans Against the War event on which Sen. John Kerry
based his infamous 1971 Senate testimony. Winter Soldier
is a parade of vets “testifying” about war atrocities — rapes,
disembowelments, butchering, indiscriminate killing, and other
savagery — that they allegedly witnessed in Vietnam.
Though awful stuff, it’s still an antiwar propaganda piece, the
contents of which are widely disputed and otherwise known.
TAS attended Sunday night not to see the film, but for the
advertised post-film panel discussion. The scene was predictable.
Like a college “teach-in,” the film would display one point of
view, then the “experts” would convene, earnestly cluck their
tongues about modern failures to learn from the past, practice a
little group-think with the audience, and congratulate themselves
on their moral superiority. It did not disappoint.
Alleged atrocities by American soldiers in Vietnam formed the
backdrop for a condemnation of war generally and the war in Iraq
specifically. And in this regard the panel was dutifully uniform:
Dr. Arthur Blank Jr., a psychoanalyst/psychiatrist who saw 400-plus
soldier-patients in Vietnam; Paul Kawika Martin, a D.C.-area
professional peace activist; and Sanho Tree, a fellow at the
Institute for Policy Studies and occasional assistant to Harry
Belafonte.
Like the investigation depicted, the purpose of showing
Winter Soldier wasn’t actually to investigate and
prosecute war crimes. It was to show that atrocities are
commonplace, part and parcel with war per se. In this telling, war
criminals are victims of war, morally equivalent to everyone
involved: civilian leaders, military leaders, our troops, and enemy
troops.
Activist Martin kicked off his remarks saying that the film
“touches me and my work” as a “consideration of what the true costs
of war are.” Martin then summed up those costs in Iraq in terms of
bodies: over 2,100 U.S. “casualties” (sic), hundreds of coalition
partners killed, 2,000 dead Iraqi soldiers, and over 15,000 U.S.
soldiers wounded. Martin did not say how many civilians Saddam
Hussein killed during his reign.
All wars being equal, attendees hoped that Winter
Soldier catalyzes an American retreat from Iraq. “If the Swift
Boat attacks during the presidential campaign were a grenade in the
culture wars,” Sanho Tree said, “this is the H-bomb because I think
it’s really going to blow open discussion about the nature of our
wars. I think it will make us confront this myth of American
exceptionalism, that somehow we’re the good guys and we’re unique.
I think a lot of people are going to ask, ‘How is it possible that
American boys can commit these kinds of atrocities?’ I don’t think
it’s that unusual, actually.”
Q&A from the audience made the panel seem moderate. The
first commenter thought the panelists and the documentary are too
soft on our soldiers in Vietnam and Iraq. “Several million
Vietnamese killed in the Vietnam War, at least one hundred thousand
Iraqis killed in the current war. And I hear these soldiers talking
a great deal about their experience, their suffering, their
pain….But they’re telling us about the atrocities they committed.
They’re telling us that our conduct in the war was criminal. And I
hear people coming from Iraq today telling us the same thing that
they did…to the people of Iraq…. So I don’t see why the three
of you are focusing so much only on the soldiers, and feeling sorry
for them, and being supportive of them…. I think maybe we focus
on a guilt trip and saying, ‘Americans are bad because we did this
in Vietnam, we’re bad because we’re doing this in Iraq.’ No.
Germans did it too. Russians did it too. This is what happens in
war.” The gentleman was neither rebuked nor challenged.
The discussion led to some creative peace initiatives when a
young Freudian asked, “What is it about our culture that allows,
promotes this kind of militarization of the psyche?” Dr. Blank’s
diagnosis was, “Not enough women running governments.” Tree said
gays are also under-represented.
Some attendees tried to rally the old gang for another fight, to
little success. An aging Students for a Democratic Society activist
offered the wisdom of the '60s peace movement: “What are we doing?
What can we do?” he asked. “I don’t know the answer to that. People
are trying, but people also don’t want to spin our wheels.” Another
erstwhile activist wondered where the Vietnam Veterans Against the
War are in the current struggle. “You guys! It’s time to do it
again,” she pleaded, “And I’ll help.” Her rallying cry elicited no
noticeable response from the handful or so left in the theater.
But Blank’s been there as an early VVAW member. He knows how
this ends. “I thought that the millions of dollars and hundreds of
thousands of person hours that we put into helping people who
served in Vietnam and were troubled would make a major contribution
to preventing anything like it from ever happening again….It
turns out I was altogether wrong about that,” Blank admitted.
The first commenter also doubted Winter Soldier would
change anything. “You said this film is going to be a bombshell,”
he told Tree. “I’m very skeptical of that. I don’t think many
people are going to see this film.”
Contacted by TAS, the film’s distributor attempted to
dispel this notion. “It’s playing everywhere around the country,”
said Dennis Doros, an owner of Millarium Zero. “The attendance,
however, to see a grim view of reality, is not as great as it could
be. Whether people want to see reality or not is always a debate
for the history of cinema.” So how many have seen it? Doros said
the company does not watch its film’s gross receipts, but would say
it has played in 75 theaters since Veterans Day with 50 more to
come. At that rate, success may be another 33 years off.
