Vietnam War
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Vietnam War (also known as the Second Indochina War, the American War in Vietnam and the Vietnam Conflict) occurred from 1959 to April 30 1975 in Vietnam. To a degree, the war may be viewed as a Cold War conflict between the U.S., its allies, and South Vietnam on one side, and the Soviet Union, its allies, the People's Republic of China, and North Vietnam on the other. Others, however, viewed the conflict as a civil war between communist and non-communist Vietnamese factions.
In popular culture
The Vietnam War has been featured extensively in television, film, video games, and literature in the participant countries. In American popular culture, the "Crazy Vietnam Veteran", who was suffering from Posttraumatic stress disorder, became a common stock character after the war.
One of the first major films based on the Vietnam War was John Wayne's pro-war film, The Green Berets (1968). Further cinematic representations were released during the 1970s and 1980s, including Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter (1978), Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979), Oliver Stone's Platoon (1986) – based on his service in the U.S. Military during the Vietnam War, Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (1987), Hamburger Hill (1987), and Casualties of War (1989). Later films would include We Were Soldiers (2002) and Rescue Dawn (2007).
The war also influenced a generation of musicians and songwriters in Vietnam and the United States, both anti-war and pro/anti-communist. The band Country Joe and the Fish recorded "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag" / The "Fish" Cheer in 1965, and it became one of the most influential anti-Vietnam protest anthems.
See also
- General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner in Saigon (1968) by Eddie Adams
- Phan Thi Kim Phuc
- Opposition to the Vietnam War
- Napalm