War movies probably shouldn't serve as historical documents but - for better or worse - the truth is that they do.  Our culture is one that watches films, then assumes what we know about history based off the films that we've seen.

Vietnam, specifically, has been warped by Hollywood films.  As Vietnam surges further into our past, and as increasingly fewer Americans are able to remember the Vietnamese conflict through their own memories, we're left to a collection of films to do the remembering for us.

Unfortunately, this is going to be a national memory stained with inaccuracies, errors, and mistakes. (Thanks Hollywood!)

So what does Hollywood teach us about Vietnam?

First and foremost, that American soldiers in Vietnam routinely killed civilians.  This is one of the biggest war movie tropes from Vietnam.  In Born on the 4th of July, Platoon, Casualties of War, and Full Metal Jacket - just to name a few - the protagonists all have to deal with truly psychopathic comrades who enjoy murdering civilians.  

Civilians undoubtedly were killed by U.S. soldiers.  The Mai Lai massacre looms immediately to mind for many Americans.  There was also a disturbing documentary called Winter Soldier that featured U.S. servicemen explaining the murderous acts they participated in and or witnessed.  I wasn't in Vietnam, so I can't say this with any certainty, but my own research seems to suggest that these episodes were few and far between.  The problem though is that when each film focuses on the absolute worst behavior of the U.S., it begins to seem as if this murder of civilians was the rule rather than the exception.

The second thing we've been told about Vietnam from the movies?  That U.S. soldiers routinely took drugs.  In Platoon, Sheen's character is "inducted" into the Platoon when he shares in a night of drug inhalation.  But again, my own research suggests that while this undoubtedly did occur, it was again, a fairly rare occurrence.  (From my own time in Afghanistan, wide spread drug use seems almost unthinkable!)

Third, we've been told by innumerable movies that veterans were spit on when returning home.  This too seems to be a cultural myth.  While I'm sure that at some point in time, a veteran somewhere was spit on and called a "baby killer," the idea that this happened with such frequency that it was a thing that all veterans experienced seems to be entirely made-up, a fiction which has been reinforced by the movies that have repeatedly told us that was a shared experience, even if it wasn't.

There have been hundreds of movies about conflict in Vietnam - that war is already hardened in our collective imagination.  I wonder what future movies will teach us about Iraq and Afghanistan?