Nazi Germany, KKK = US soldiers in Vietnam - eff you Landis

Sigh. The point of those situations he found himself in were due to HIS racial issues. The point of finding himself in Vietnam and being seen as Vietnamese by other Americans (the soldiers) was to give him insight into the lot of the *beep* he hated (and spoke of in the opening scene); it wasn't to claim the US soldiers were haters of the Asian race. It was to show him that these *beep* are people like him, with the same hopes and fears and value in terms of humanity. Before that, he HIMSELF probably saw the war as 'us Americans handing it to the *beep* In that scene, he found himself as one of the 'them'.

PS: I'm from the South Pacific, so don't have a pony in the race.

You are not a stupid person and I am not trying to treat you as such. However, one thing you are missing here is not that American troops were mean, hateful or anything like that. One thing to think about is that in the other cases, the KKK and Nazi, there was a distinction made between the victim and victimizer. With the KKK it was being a different ethnic group, Black and the victimizeres were all white, a bit distinction there. In Nazi Germany. there was a process that was subtle historically, but in the film, any Jew would be wearing the star of David which brought attention to the fact that they are Jewish and considered "lesser people" not even human, so there is that distinction in the two. If I am not mistaken, and I might be, Morrow's character speaks English and the Germans ask him what he is doing here (Germany) it is not clear if America was involved with the war at that point so it could be that they thought he was a spy or something. But the difference in language is there too in that case.

During the Vietnam war, there was none of these distinctions. My twin uncles were Marines in Vietnam, one in actual combat and the other on a ship waiting to invade Cambodia. The draft was also in effect and also think that the average 18 year old American kid did not know anything about Vietnam or most Asian countries. There was no "uniform" that was different, no language, no physical distinction such as hair or eye color and they spoke the same language. I do think most platoons or units had one guy who did learn at least some Vietnamese, but the small villages were caught right in the middle of the US and North Vietnam and sometimes had to hide "enemy" combatants. If the Americans came, they did not know unless they were told by someone who was friendly and who was not and mistakes were made. One thing that the Vietcong tried to do was to infiltrate orphanages and monasteries that were declared "safe" from takeover or fighting of any kind. In the film, Morrow's character is mistaken for an enemy combatant. The Americans did not hate the Vietnamese and really did try to help them but I know from talking to other vets that there were times when they worried and wondered who was who. That is all that part was trying to portray. In that case, I have to back up Landis in what he was trying to do with the segment about the show being on the other foot. Now, do not mistake any of this for me defending him regarding the accident because that is different.

We just got out of a similar situation in the Middle East, they all spoke Arabic except Iranians speak Farsi, and unless you are trained, which takes about a year and a half because I did go to DLI which is the language school for the military in 89, and that is how I know that. I have heard fellow vets who are also friends of mine and when they would talk about it, they would tell me (some *beep* that I knew off the bat) but true stories of some of the things that they had to do and it was horrible.

I'm sorry. I don't mean to go on about that. It was a bad time because it is true that there were times when American troops did not know who was who. So, I do not believe it was a statement about Americans so much as a statement about making assumptions that not be accurate. I hope this clears up some things for you or at least gives you a "because" scenario. Thank you for your time.

What a load of *beep* That wasn't the point at all, genius.

Well, name some other things he could've gone thru in 1983 when they made the film.

I always got the impression that the opening segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie was more about putting Vic Morrow's character in the shoes of various victims or the racial groups he had been berating in the bar, rather than to necessarily attack any particular group of oppressors, so to speak. Of course no one is directly comparing the KKK and the Nazis to US soldiers serving in Vietnam, although it is true that many atrocities were perpetuated by some soldiers as is the case in all wars; the comparison is between the victimisation of various racial groups.

In the Nazi segment, he was not in Germany, he was in Nazi occupied France. You can tell by the signs in the background and the lady cooking dinner. She was shouting in French, not German.

[deleted]

on the receiving end of hatred