Spies, Advisers and Grunts: Film Portrayals of US Counterinsurgency in Vietnam

Jeffrey Michaels; Andrew Gawthorpe

doi:10.1080/09592318.2015.1050824

Spies, Advisers and Grunts: Film Portrayals of US Counterinsurgency in Vietnam

Jeffrey Michaels, Andrew Gawthorpe

Defence Studies

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Vietnam was a complex conflict, which historians and political scientists have struggled to understand. Some of the bitterest disputes in the historiography revolve around the US approach to counterinsurgency in Vietnam. Many different facets of the war have received the attention of filmmakers, and an examination of their work suggests new ways of thinking about the conflict. This article considers film portrayals of three phases of the Vietnam War – firstly, the early period of ‘political action’, then the advisory period, and finally the Americanization of the war after 1965. It suggests that by examining the experiences of participants in each of these phases, Vietnam War cinema helps to illustrate the problems that faced various American approaches to counterinsurgency in the conflict. Combined with the importance of films in determining popular perceptions of both historical conflicts and counterinsurgency in general, it suggests that they are worthy subjects of study and critique.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	668-687
Journal	Small Wars and Insurgencies
Volume	26
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2015.1050824
Publication status	Published - 2015

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10.1080/09592318.2015.1050824

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Spies, Advisers and Grunts: Film Portrayals of US Counterinsurgency in Vietnam

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