It seemed like that platoon was filled with cowards. Junior didn't want to fight and he left Bunny,O'Neil wanted out and he hid in the final battle.Francis stabs himself to get out...NO WONDER WHY THE USA LOST THIS WAR!
The 21st century is when it all changes
Because according to this movie, few, if any of the guys, were really worthy of respect! World War 2 was even more horrible than Vietnam, but those fighting knew their purpose and many of the grunts fighting came from patriotic and hard-working backgrounds, not inner city punks and dull-witted bumpkins that had little, if any, sense of patriotism. As for blacks in WW2, not sure, and couldn't see why they'd be fighting for a country they have few rights for in the first place.
The Vietnam war in reality didn't affect Americans nearly as much as WW2. Most Americans at that time could have given less of a crap about it
The people least worthy of respect in Platoon were the conservative whites not the "inner city punks". Bunny enjoyed killing, Barnes killed a fellow soldier to save his own @ss, and Wolfe was the biggest coward of all. The most moral characters of all were the heads or the "punks". The soldiers in the Vietnam war were fighting for nothing and felt that way. Which is why everyone was counting down the days left until they could go home. In WW2 soldiers were fighting against one of the worst human beings in recent history and everything he stood for. How much more motivation could Americans get to stand up and fight. The only people who were motivated in Platoon to fight were the sadistic ones who enjoyed killing for sport.
shareI felt sorry for Wolfe and what he was placed into. His main problem was he was inexperienced, did not fit the bill, and had no business out in the bush attempting to lead war-hardened troops. But yes, Barnes clearly intimidated him, especially when he was brushed off during the assignment of the troops to the ambush and after calling the wrong coordinates and getting his own men injured or killed. And of course he evaded responsibility declaring to the Captain he saw nothing and that the village chief was an NVA.
shareThe people least worthy of respect in Platoon were the conservative whites not the "inner city punks".
If you bone up on your history, you will learn that blacks DID fight in WWII - albeit in segregated units. Some black solider irreverently referred to themselves as "E.R.N." (Eleanor Roosevelt's N-words).
shareThey did fight in WW2 although, yes, in segregated units and in most cases they were not in combat units but in supply services, ammunition trucking, that kind of thing. I believe about 1,000 African Americans were killed in the war, with the largest single death toll being in the Port Chicago disaster when over 200 of them were among servicemen killed in a massive explosion while loading ammunition onto a ship in California. African Americans in the US armed forces were treated rather like the Japanese treated their Korean soldiers - as second class citizens (Korea was a Japanese colony from 1910 to 1945).
"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."
The day you go to a war zone is the day you can call somebody a coward, until than show some respect.
shareUm, it's just a movie, they weren't real soldiers, so we can call their characters whatever we want.
What about those who didn't go because only they couldn't make the cut for health reasons?
sharematagt1983 replied Jan 17, 2014
Exactly. People saying otherwise are the same out of shape waste of space that think they know about athletes. To say they are cowards while lives can be taken in a split second is a joke. Go play call of duty some more.
Well I'm not exactly in shape neither so that was just lame to say. And you are just as guilty as the other guy because you are calling out big people. That's just as lame.
shareIt might 'seem' that way if you have a shallow way of thinking and believed the actions of a couple characters to be emblematic of how the majority was. People wanted out of the war because they knew it was wrong - even president johnson believed that too, just before he committed troops there. He was the REAL coward because he was afraid he wouldn't be elected in '64 and might be impeached if he didn't act "tough on communism" as the loud farts who were over military age always roared. This is revealed in an audio recording recently released of him calling around to get opinions on what he should do about vietnam. O'neil would be the tough guy up front type but coward in reality, while others were open about their feelings. You might say the leutenant was a coward too because he was scared - but that doesn't dictate if you would fight when attacked. And stabbing yourself is pretty hard to do - that takes some courage. O'neil couldn't have done it.
Its accurate to say the US didn't achieve their goals in vietnam because americans weren't committed to something they believed to be wrong. Its total ignorant *beep* to blurt that it was due to cowardice.
"Death, has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war".Donald Rumsfeldshare
Why do we keep saying America "lost" the war?
We didn't lose.
We stopped fighting when it stopped being profitable.
God bless America.
UMMM... Isn't that losing?
share"UMMM... Isn't that losing?"
No, the U.S., North Vietnam and South Vietnam all signed the Paris Peace Accords (a peace treaty officially titled the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Viet Nam). When a peace treaty is signed to end a way, there is no official winner or loser, but militarily speaking, the US never lost a major battle and killed about 10 of their soldiers for every 1 of ours that they killed.
North Vietnam reneged on the treaty soon thereafter, which means, they started a brand new war (you could call it the Vietnam War: Part II) that the U.S. decided not to take a combative part in. The US obviously can't lose a foreign war that they never even engaged in.
Anyone who believes this modern "the US lost the Vietnam War" retcon has been tricked. I grew up in the 1980s and we were taught in school that it was a draw, which is valid way of putting it for a war that ended due to a peace treaty.
Amen.
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"Leave the gun. Take the cannoli."
Does it matter if you lost or not? you destroyed the country with your massive bombardments and destroyed the next several generations of children because you sprayed chemcicals over the jungle. You still see misformed children being born because america was trying to bring their freedom.
If god blesses america it is no god of mine
Are you crazy? There was a draft. These soldiers didn't volunteer. Of course you are gonna get an army of juniors.
History is written by the victors.
1) It wasn't our war to lose.
2) If anything, it was politics that lost the war, not our soldiers.
History is a dense and scary thing. Do a little research and learn it sometime.