Culture » September 27, 2005

When We Were Psychos

By Michael Atkinson

In 1969, news of the My Lai massacre hit the American press and gave the already-queasy stateside citizenry a shock to the system. Nothing in that tumultuous era evoked so terrifyingly the feeling that a line had been crossed, from hopeful civilization to horrific monstrosity.

There was fallout of all varieties, but one of the most remarkable results was eventus non grata then and remained so for decades: the January, 1971 “Winter Soldier Investigations,” held in a Detroit Howard Johnson conference room. (The title is a reply to Thomas Paine’s “times that try men’s souls,” when “the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”) Organized by several antiwar organizations, the event was simple: More than 100 returned Vietnam veterans spoke in public, and for the media, about atrocities they’d witnessed and performed upon the peasant population of Southeast Asia. True to its leash, the media didn’t report on it, but a document was created nonetheless, a documentary made by an anonymous collective of 18 filmmakers. Winter Soldier was left undistributed, and shunned by the networks (although PBS reportedly broadcast it once late at night as a replacement program). While the war still raged, it only appeared in 1972 at the Whitney Museum in New York or at sporadic campus screenings. Then it vanished.

Now, Milestone Films, under its new offshoot Milliarium Zero, has disinterred this galvanizing broadsword. In what is effectively its first release, the film will play in more than 100 cities this year, and then get locked in DVD amber for the world to see. It is a simple, grainy, talking-heads documentary, but it is violently upsetting and required viewing.

Vietnam homefront experience has come to be defined as the “living-room war,” suggesting that we saw it all on our televisions, and that public exposure was part of the propulsion that caused the U.S. government to finally cease aggressions. But the testimony in Winter Soldier makes it clear that we actually saw very little—My Lai was no aberration, but a paradigm of U.S. activity, and what was de rigueur on the ground was largely kept from reporters’ cameras.

The film’s relentless first-person-witness assault echoes Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah, demonstrating that being told can be more lacerating than being shown. We experience not only the atrocities but the shock felt by the witnesses and the emotional venom still necrotizing their lives. No fiction film about Vietnam has ever come close to this movie’s portrayal of American guilt and trauma. The chillingly calm speakers recount incidents that have made many walk out of the theater in a sickened swoon. But while we may weep for the broken heart of an American generation, the real remorse here is for the victims: Asian farmers mutilated and slaughtered as a kind of imperial bloodsport—tossed out of helicopters on a bet, disemboweled alive, thrown down wells with grenades, men, women and children, by the thousands.

One movie can only have so much impact, but it’s tempting to imagine that if Winter Soldier had been properly screened in 1972, the war might’ve ended sooner, or, at least, Americans would know something they still apparently don’t about the conflict, its costs, and the nature of their leadership. (A major at the time, Colin Powell came late to My Lai, officially excusing it and maintaining that American-Vietnamese relations were “excellent.”) Most of all, they might’ve learned something about murder and butchery—that even when it happens to Asians far away, we’re ultimately responsible for the bodies and rivers of blood.

Winter Soldier might’ve been the most important film of the Johnson-Nixon era, and yet it was effectively censored. Its release, 33 years too late, is also a few years overdue this decade. If only Milestone had dropped this payload on us in 2002, as the war machine was oiling up. Now, it’s a film for the future—in an ideal and informed democracy, a Winter Soldier screening would be a voter registration requirement.

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• Reader Comments

  Yes war is Hell. Yes horrible things happen in war. Yes the soldiers on the US side also did some unbelievably horrible things. All true. Too true.

  But let’s be fair. Let us not forget the atrocities committed by both sides, in every conflict. Let us not think we are *that* different from the other side.

  Let us not forget that the official policies of the US are much higher than the behaviours actually performed and seen on the battlefield. At least that is something.

  Finally, let us put this all into some sort of context. Given that peoples are capable of such horrors, how do we stack up against the Holocost of the Germans? The death marches and comfort girls of the Japanese? The gulags of the Soviets?

  Are we noble? Or are we swine? Or are we merely human?

  Posted by wolf on Sep 27, 2005 at 1:15 PM

  Wolf,
  The whole point of the Winter Soldier Investigations is that US POLICY involved ordering soldiers to commit atrocities and war crimes.  This is so important, that it’s worthy of being repeated: The whole point of the Winter Soldier Investigations is that US policy involved ordering soldiers to commit atrocities and war crimes.
  Everyone knows atrocities were committed - we have numerous reports and photos.  Many people, like yourself, want to blame these atrocities on individual soldiers.  While all individuals must take personal responsibility for their actions, the US public and government, too, must take responsibility for ordering soldiers to commit atrocities. 
  Your lame comparisons to Hitler and Stalin are pathetic.  Yes, the US government is better than them, but so what?  The KKK didn’t do as much damage as Hitler or Stalin, but are you rushing out to join the klan? 
  We should evaluate the morality of actions, by considering them in light of moral maxims, not by comparing the actions to the absolute worst murders that we can think of. 
  For a long time, the US government has been trying to get people to do what you are doing: to blame the soldiers, rather than examining the policy and the orders those soldiers are given.  Hopefully, the release to this film will open some eyes to what these soldiers were ordered to do, orders that came directly from their commanders, but orders for which the entire US public is to some degree responsible.

  Posted by justaguy on Sep 28, 2005 at 12:08 AM

  “We should evaluate the morality of actions, by considering them in light of moral maxims,”

  Agreed.

  “not by comparing the actions to the absolute worst murders that we can think of.”

  Disagree. We do not exist in a vacuum. To expect perfection is to be disappointed. Better to see how people and nations actually behave in practise, and then “grade” on a curve.

  “For a long time, the US government has been trying to get people to do what you are doing: to blame the soldiers,”

  Yes. I do blame the soldiers. They are/were responsible for their actions.

  “rather than examining the policy and the orders those soldiers are given. “

  The two are not mutually exclusive. We should “teach” (don’t they already *knoe*?) soldiers not to follow immoral or illegal orders and attempt to alter US policy so that it is as moral as possible.

  But in the end, we will still be imperfect and immoral, at least at times. It is merely the nature of our existance. This does not imply we should not strive for excellence, only that we should not dispair when we fall short.

  There is a underlying issue lurking in many of these type discussions. Is the US “superior” to other nations? Or are all nations equally “valid” (moral?)? It seems to me that many believe the latter, whereas i explicitly believe the former. . .

  In any case, we are all (presumably) on the same side. No more atrocities! Well, maybe just some “lite” torture in Gitmo (you know, loud music, stress positions, maybe a dog or lady to put them offbalance, but no physical torture), but only if it really is likely to get useful information.

  Posted by wolf on Sep 28, 2005 at 9:08 AM

  We Are Still Psychos

  Driven Psycho by Big Oil

  Our fat, macho, sassy, propaganda informed population is complicit, trusting, compliant, sheltered, scared, Islamaphobic, and impotent.  We’ve been tricked and drugged big time by Big Oil into massive self-destructive consumerism.
  America is a huge car, huge house in a subdivision, huge big screen (but little reality), nearby huge freeway and huge mall, huge commute, huge slums, huge poverty, huge personal debt, huge public debt, huge risk to the environment, huge risk to the world.  How can people live like that?

  They’ve just been driven psycho by Big Oil. 

  How much longer can people live like that?  Big Oil, only driven by trips to the bank, wants the addiction to to continue, disavowing the millions of victims, at home and abroad, strewn in their wake. 

  The Bush govt is not even vaguely considering leaving Iraq.  Our psycho addiction must secure “our oil supply.” The stuporous population nods. 

  Or, Just Say NO to Big Oil.

  Break the addiction, be creative, recover, delay ‘the peak’ and the rising seas that will sink all tankers.

  Posted by vanromeo on Sep 28, 2005 at 9:18 AM

  vanromeo - i agree with some of what you say. We (the west) are addicted to oil. We should certainly sever the money/oil/weapons pipeline between the modern world and the middle east.

  However, i don’t think the US consumer is being “tricked” into anything. It is just our collective natures to be greedy. Thus we have people living beyond their means, often making them only a few paychecks from poverty. (In a modest neighbourhood i walk though, there sits a Hummer in the driveway. What a waste!)

  I don’t know what the government can or should do to help. But i do know that individuals can help themselves greatly. Live within your means! Save 10% of your income. End your own indentured servitude! Break your chains. . .  (i know, i speak to deaf and unbelieving ears)

  Posted by wolf on Sep 28, 2005 at 10:38 AM

• extended discussion >>>Continued...

  Discussions with more than 5 comments are continued on our special discussion page to encourage continuity and ease of use. There are currently 17 posts.

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