Movies
In 1915, was when D.W. Griffith’s film, Birth of a Nation was released. William J. Simmons led the lynch mob and a lot of anonymous members of the community were involved in the Klan as well. They murdered Jewish factory superintendent Leo Frank and after that, burned a cross upon a hill and claimed to be the knights of the Ku Klux Klan . This film was the first ever to be screened at the White House. This film made a major impact for African Americans because it justified racism and discrimination, which would cause many problems in the years to come.
The film was against communism and pro-Saigon. It was released at the climax of American association in the Vietnam War. John Wayne had the idea to make the movie as pro-military as possible. The film was mainly about the fight for freedom against communist forces. There was a simple layout of good and evil in the film with of course the United States on the “good” side. A person who was watching this film and had no other information about the war itself, there would be some one-sided about the conflict.
Winter Soldier is another impactful film about the Vietnam War. It was an example of antiwar propaganda and was released in 1972. This documentary shows the testimony of American soldiers assigning war crimes in Vietnam. The Winter Soldier investigation happened in Detroit, Michigan from January 31st to February 2nd, 1971. Soldiers who returned from the war in Vietnam took part in this war crime hearing. There were claims of Veterans who gave detailed stories of awful civilian murders by the United States forces. Even though the crimes supposedly committed were horrible there was no further investigation into this. This film was meant to spark emotions. The film was highly controversial because critics debated about whether or not everything was true. This caused a lot of problems because if you’re going to charge soldiers with war crimes, you better have accurate evidence.