Winter Soldier January 31, 2013
Posted by irishelectionliterature in Film and Television.trackback
Winter Soldier consists of footage of testimony given by Vietnam veterans of the routine atrocities they observed and committed.
In 1971 Vietnam Veterans Against the War invited returning soldiers to go to Detroit and speak out about the war crimes they had committed and witnessed while stationed there. The Winter film collective realised the historical importance of the event and documented it, creating Winter Soldier. The documentary was barely seen by audiences until was finally released to American cinemas in 2005. Many choking back tears as they spoke, veterans (including former Presidential candidate John Kerry) revealed shocking and officially sanctioned participation in horrific war crimes and acts of violence including the destruction of entire villages, the torture and rape of civilians, as well as executions of POWs.
Harrowing, chilling, and ultimately tragic, it’s a portrayal of how easily the dark side of human nature can be brought out.
This is being shown in the IFI on the 1st , 2nd and 3rd of Feb.
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The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
Well worth watching. And this is an excellent companion piece.
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This is also a great companion piece.
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See also new book by Nick Turse “Kill Anything that Moves”
Havent read it yet but seems to debunk notion that My Lai was an exceptional event in the war
http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780805086911
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I have Turse’s thousand-page long PHD thesis on my harddrive somewhere. He traces the roots of such events back to the nineteenth century expansion of the US.
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It has less to do with the ‘dark side of human nature’ than with deliberate counter-insurgency policy.
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Indeed, good point. The glib trotting out of “human nature” (which is such a complex and loaded subject) as an excuse really gets my goat.
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