Vietnam Films

[thedrifter]

VIETNAM VETERANS FOR ACADEMIC REFORM
The student auxiliary at the University of Kansas

Leonard Magruder - Founder/President
Former professor of psychology - Suffolk College, N.Y.

PRESS RELEASE: Two new documentaries on Vietnam vets lack opportunity to be
seen by public.

Leonard Magruder, President of Vietnam Veterans for Academic Reform, said
today that at least two new documentaries showing Vietnam vets in the more
positive light they deserve are having trouble getting shown.
The problem with such films, he said, based on his own past experience, is
that the portrayal of the Vietnam War and its veterans presented at both
high schools and universities is almost always the more negative version that
fits better with the collection of lies that were spread in the 60's by the
campus war protestors.
Mackubin Thomas Owens, who led a Marine rifle platoon in Vietnam in
1968-69, and is now a professor at the U.S. Naval College in Newport, Rhode
Island, in a recent article on the Web refered to a "culture war" that
continues to rage for the soul of America, the central objective of which is
to control the way the past is
portrayed.(http://www.nationalreview.com/owens/owens060502.asp)
The significance of this is that "to control the past is to give meaning
to the present and direction to the future." Left/liberal academics continue
to perpetuate a false image of the Vietnam War in an effort to impose their
ideological agenda on student leaders of tomorrow. When this is publicly
questioned, the invariable response, said Owens, is "How dare you question or
ridicule the idealism of this holy period of history." Mr. Magruder, who was
a professor of psychology on three campuses during the 60's said he was in
complete agreement with Owens that "it was not idealism but hypocrisy." Much
of this hypocrisy comes out in two new documentaries that are having
difficulty being shown, based on interviews with Vietnam vets. "There are
many forces in our society that would like to keep films like this from the
public",said Mr. Magruder. To show what sometimes has to be done, in the 80's
Mr. Magruder spent $8000 in a successful campaign to get PBS to show
"Television's Vietnam: the Impact of Media" by paying to show the film
himself on various TV stations around the country. Narrated by Charton
Heston , PBS had ordered the film boycotted because it showed how the
national media has distorted the truth about the Vietnam War.Wrote General
Westmoreland to Mr. Magruder "Congratulations on the success of your campaign
to get "Television's Vietnam" shown around the country."
Mr. Owens in his article went on to say "There are two competing
interpretations of the 1960's." In the anti-war version the 60's
were"exciting, heroic, and uniquely infused with moral passion" In the second
version ,"It was a time of incredible intellectual flatulence when
precocious adolescents under the tutelage of Herbert Marcuse and the like
affected a pose of moral superiority vis-a-vis their countrymen. It was a
time when self-styled radicals embraced the enemy against whom their
countrymen were fighting and dying." This second version never mentions the
legacy of the campus protestors, 250,000 South Vietnamese war dead, at
least 100,000 summary executions at the hands of the Communists , a milllion
and a half 'boat people', half of whom perished at sea, an equal number
lost in "re-education camps," a genocide in Cambodia, over 3,000,000 lives
lost, and an encouragement of Soviet adventurism.
Two documentaries have recently become available which emphasize the
second, less flattering version of the 60's. The importance of these films is
that they clearly show that the war protests of the 60's were ideologically
motivated and rested on a false interpretation of the war more sympathetic to
the enemy than to the American effort to save South Vietnam from Communist
tyranny, and did great damge to the returned veterans. Said Mr. Magruder,
"Bringing this out at this time of a new war, the war on terrorism, is
extremely important as large segments of intellectual centers such as Harvard
and Berkeley are recycling the same lies and again supporting the enemy,
that is, the terrorists, just as they supported the Viet Cong in the 60's."
The first new film has just been mentioned in a news item out of CNS
News.com, "Documentary Sheds New Light on Vietnam War". Christel and Calvin
Crane traveled 14,000 miles across America interviewing Vietnam vets,
recorded in a four-part film "The Long Way Home Project". According to a
promotional press release the series provides "a more positive and unbiased
look at the country's longest war and highlights many of the misconceptions
America has about the men and women who served the country in this conflict."
Said Christel Crane, " It reveals the stereotype of the Vietnam Veteran as
being almost completely false." Vietnam vet and former Sec.of the Navy James
Webb said of this stereotype in a recent article in "U.S.A. Today", "Those
who avoided serving in Vietnam have played the main role in protraying the
war as an immoral conflict...to justify not having gone.." Said the CNS press
release, "So far there have been no agreements to broadcast the documentary."
The second documentary by private citizens on this same theme was
produced by Mr. Magruder, President of Vietnam Veterans for Academic Reform.
In the mid 80's Mr. Magruder took his camcorder to Vietnam vet parades in
Chicago and Houston and interviewed 68 Vietnam veterans at random, asking
them the question that had been studiously avoided by the national media,
"What do you think about the campus war protestors."Across the board the
general response was that the position of the protestors was "false,
hypocritical, and damaging to the war effort."- ("The Stalwart", K.U. student
newspaper).
The film that came out of these interviews is a 1 -hour representative
sample from the 68 interviews and is titled "How the Campus Lied About
Vietnam". As President of a student organizaton Mr. Magruder is able to reach
a large number of faculty, administrators, and student organizations through
the campus Internet and has at least three times over the last few years
asked for some group or class to sponsor a showing of the film, with no
response."There are any number of classes in political science, American
history, Asian studies etc., that touch on the Vietnam War that should have
expressed some interest in this film", said Mr.. Magruder "but since it is
known that the veterans in the film seriously question the morality of the
campus "peace" movement this type of film is especially threatening to
academics." The R.O.T.C. unit at the Univ. of Kansas, however, has just told
Mr. Magruder they will show the film next semester, and the President of a
large student organization says he will get his group to sponsor a campus
-wide showing of the film, which is certain to create an uproar as it is
completely as odds with what students are taught about the war.Almost all of
those interviewed , for example, disagreed with the war protestors that the
war was "immoral". Almost uniformly the veterans interviewed by Magruder
approved of the mission in Vietnam, and view the war protests to have been
based on lies that not only led to tyranny for the South Vietnamese, but
sterotypes that did great damage to them when they returned home.


Cont.............................................. ...

[thedrifter]

American students, in fact the whole country, must become aware , based on
films such as these, and all the new books and revelations in recent years
including memoirs from the enemy, of how wrong the academics were who
engineered the anti-war movement, This could prove a fatal blow to the
largely leftist ideological agenda that is tyrannizing American higher , and
even secondary education and threatening to lead to a new polarization such
as occured in the 60's. If students can see how academics lied to students
about Vietnam in the 60's , maybe they won't take too seriously their
pronouncements on the war on terrorism. The following is an example of what
is happening along those lines.
Steve Miller, a junior at Santa Monica High School, CA , said this
recently about the indoctrination that is going on in a June 14 article in
Frontpage Magazine. "There is a war going on in America, - a war of ideology.
It's being waged in public schools like mine. The problem is much more severe
than many are aware . Those running the school and teaching the students have
such deeply held left-wing beliefs that they cannot help but spread their
agendas to the young people.This is evidenced in nearly ever facet of the
school and has resulted in the indoctrination of thousands of students, some
unaffected, but many more misinformed, misguided, and misdirected.
Subsequent to 9/11 the school newspaper condemned the notion of a military
response and a Muslim leader was brought to the school to explain the glory
and splendor of Islam. My history teacher handed out a lengthy article
lambasting the United States as absolutely wicked and also condemned the
notion of a military response.Teachers hand out left-wing articles with
little or no balance, administratrors avoid conservative speakers at all
costs, liberals are routinely brought in who assert the same position that
teachers drill into their students, multiculturalism is coupled with
anti-Americanism, and history is rewritten leaving out everything that might
cause students to be patriotic."
This is a perfect description of what happened in higher and secondary
education in the 60's.

The Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program of Houston, in a booklet it
produced to challange the lies about the Vietnam War said, "The
misinformation currently dissemminated about Vietnam ultimately reflects upon
the motivers, convictions, values and integrity of those who participated in
the war at the behest of their country... it is imperative that the record be
set straight."
Even though, especially in the light of recent history books, there are no
facts that the former war protestors can point to that vindicates their
position, it is imperative for them to continue to urge the nation to ignore
the correct historical conclusions.To admit to having been wrong in their
views on the war would mean to face not only enormous guilt but even more
important , disproof of their ideological or philosophical ( usually some
version of Marxism) assumptions. They must of necessity cling to the position
that they were right , that those who fought were wrong , and that there is
nothing to discuss. Demonstrations that they were wrong, however, is
absolutely crucial at this time when so many left/liberals on campuses across
the nation are coming out in support of the international terrorists that are
attempting to destroy America as well as beginning a monstrous new wave of
anti-Semitism on campuses.

Mr. Micheal Clodfelter, Vietnam combat veteran and author of perhaps the
best history to date of the Vietnam War, "Vietnam in Military Statistics:A
History of the Indochina
Wars,1772-1991", wrote this recently. "During an era when it was both
politically incorrect and uncool to show support for the American men and
women in uniform, Leonard Magruder was one of the comparatively few members
of academia to publicly stand by and stand up for those warriors fighting
America's most devisive war. This film is a testament to Magruder's loyalty
to the veterans of Vietnam and the steadfastness of his convictions."
Mr. Magruder has announced that he will send a copy of his film , "How
the Campus Lied About Vietnam", to the head of any academic or veteran group
that will show it to the members. It is also hoped that they will try to get
the film shown on local televison stations. No cost, simply send request to
Magruder44@aol.com. For more information on V.V.A.R. go to:

http://vvar.homestead.com/main.html

Board of Advisors - National
Mr. Richard Kitson - President, Vietnam Veterans of America - Suffolk Chapter
(New York)
Mr. Dennis Garbosky - founder, Vietnam War Historical Society (New York)
Lt. Col. Chuck Allen (ret.) - founder, National Vietnam Veterans Review
(North Carolina)
Mr. Ray Gallagher - past Commander, American Legion - Toronto (Canada)
Col. Stanley Horton - former Director, V.V.Leadership- Houston (Texas)
Mr. John Lowe - Commander, Native American Veterans Association (Kansas)
Mr. Roger Young - Co-Editor, Northwest Veterans Newsletter, and military
consultant - (Washington)
Mr. Stephen Markley - former Director, V.V.Leadership - Minnesota (Kansas)
Dr. William Beausay - Academic Consultant - psychology (Ohio)
Mr. Steve Hawkins - President, Committee on the Crisis in Education (Kansas)
Mr. Bernie Russo - President, VVA Chapter #484, Editor, VVA Newspaper- Conn.
Edition (Connecticut)
Mr. Joseph P. Larson - Consultant - Computer Science (Kansas)
Beverly Haire - Consultant - POW/MIA issues (Florida)
Mr. Bill Laurie - Academic Consultant - History of Vietnam War (Arizona)
Rev. Lloyd Snodgrass - Academic Consultant -Theology (Kansas)
Past members:
Mr. David Horowitz - President, Center for the Study of Popular Culture
(California)

Mr. Jack O'Brian - President, Vietnam Veterans of America - Long Island
Chapter (New York)
Mr. Michael Capel - Editor, Campus Report, -AIA (Washington)

Sempers,

Roger

[Sparrowhawk]

The truth will be told as more and more of the Vietnam Veterans reach retirement years and began to share with the world their story, their journey their love for this country at a time the majority of America kept silent and in doing so failed to support the American fighting men at war.


Sempers

Xook