Apocalypse Then & Now by J. Austin Duke Apocalypse Then & Now by J. Austin Duke APPROVED: _____________________________ Dr. Derek Frisby Global Studies Department _____________________________ Dr. Doug Heffington Global Studies Department ______________________________ Dr. Dennis Mullen Honors Council Representative - ______________________________ Dr. Philip Phillips Associate Dean, University Honors College I For Pa II Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………….………………………………………...1 Project Origins……………………………………………….………………………….1 Pre-Production…………………………………………………………………………..2 Production……………………………………………………………………………….3 Post-Production………………………………………………………………………….4 Findings………………………………………………………………………………….5 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………..9 Appendix A: Interview Questions for Vietnam Veterans…………………………….....11 Appendix B: Interview Questions for College Students………………………………...13 Appendix C: Transcript of Narrative…………………………………………………….15 III Abstract This project is a documentary film about changing perspectives in public opinion and public memory of the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was an event that left a mark on American society and is seen by many as a turning point in American history. This project will examine how the Vietnam War is remembered by the American people, both those who were young when the war was happening and those who are only now studying it. The main content of this project comes from a series of interviews with veterans of the Vietnam War returning to Vietnam decades later and with modern-day college students who are studying the war through a study abroad program in Vietnam. This project will show how people’s personal opinions on the war have changed over the years and how the entire American society’s views on Vietnam have shifted across generations and will attempt to explain why these changes have occurred. Project Origins I first began work on this film in the spring semester of 2015 when I decided to go to Vietnam with Dr. Frisby’s study abroad course on the Vietnam War and the public memory. I saw this as an opportunity to make an interesting and unique creative/research project. I decided to put to use the video production skills I had acquired through my studies the College of Mass Communication and make a documentary film about changes in public perspectives on the Vietnam War. My model for making this film was the work of renowned video historian Ken Burns. 1 Pre-Production Once I decided on making the film, I began to plan the type of film I would make. I decided that the best way to make a film about changes in public perspective on a war that ended forty years ago would be to make an interview-focused documentary. This film would focus on the way individuals viewed the Vietnam War while it was happening and compare those to their views on the war now and how American society’s views on the war have changed. I knew that on this trip I would be with other students as well as veterans of the Vietnam War. I decided that I would interview the students and veterans while we were in Vietnam. Before we departed, I wrote a list of questions for these interviews. My original plan was to interview each subject before and after the trip. This ended up not being possible. The veterans all lived in other states, and the other students were still busy with class right up until the week before we left. I prepared a set of questions for the veterans (Appendix A) and the students (Appendix B). To prepare for this project, I began to conduct research to understand better what information I would be covering. At this point, my research focused on major events of the war as well as important events in the United States in regards to the war, such as protests and government decisions on US policy in Vietnam. I also researched pop culture related to the Vietnam War in the years after the war, specifically movies about the Vietnam War. 2 Production On May 11, 2015, we left Nashville and flew west, first to Los Angeles and then on to Vietnam. As soon as we arrived in Vietnam, I began to record video and take photographs that could be used as B-roll in my film. B-roll is footage that has no dialog or principal performers in it. In the context of my film, B-roll is used to fill the space between interviews and to supplement the information revealed through interviews. To record video footage and photographs I used the Canon Rebel t5i DSLR. I spent the first week getting to know the veterans in our group before I began the interviews. Because we were often in transit, the only chances I had to conduct these interviews were after dinner in the dining rooms and lobbies of the hotels we stayed in. These were not ideal locations because I could not control the environment and on man of the interview videos one can hear people in the background. These were also not very well lit locations. Because I had to travel overseas I could not take any lighting equipment with me and there was nowhere to rent lighting equipment. Because of this, I had to shoot at a high ISO. The ISO can best be described as the camera’s sensitivity to light. The higher the higher the ISO, the more sensitive to light the camera is and the more it can capture in dark environments. Unfortunately, shooting at a high ISO yields a grainy, low quality image. When recording the interviews, I used a process called dual system audio. This means that the audio and video are recorded to separate devices. I continued to use my Canon camera to record video. For audio, I used a wireless lavalier microphone clipped 3 to the subject’s collar. To record the audio, I used a Zoom H4N audio recorder. All interviews were recorded in stereo. I was able to interview all the veterans on the trip, but I was unable to interview the students on the trip because of time constraints. Because of our conflicting schedules over the summer, I had to wait until September to interview the other students on the trip. I interviewed Nathan Abelt, Jonathan Essaf, and Sean Martin. I intended to interview Timothy Chitpanya, another student from our trip, but he did not respond to my e-mail. After conducting all the interviews, I wrote a script for narration to tie the interviews together and discuss other important information not discussed in the interview (Appendix C). I recorded myself reading the narration with the Zoom recorder. Post-Production I edited this footage in Adobe Premiere Elements 9 editing suite on my laptop. For additional B-roll I used military archival footage and historical newsreel footage on the Vietnam War. The military archival footage is in the public domain because any kind of recording made by a member of the US military in the course of their duty is in the public domain. The newsreel footage is not public domain and is property of CBS, but it is permissible for me to use it in this film under Fair Use because I am not using it for its artistic merit but rather I am commenting on it and critiquing it. The music I used in this film is a collection of traditional Vietnamese folk music that is not copyrighted and is performed by the house band at a restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City. The music used in the film’s ending credits is performed by the US Navy Band and US Army Band and is in the public domain. 4 After editing was complete, I published the video on a DVD. The final video is fifty eight minutes and thirty eight seconds long. Findings My findings from doing this project were somewhat surprising. Originally, my perception of the Vietnam War were that most people in the US opposed it and that most of the men who fought there were draftees like my grandfather. Through my interviews and research, I found that most of the men who served in Vietnam volunteered for service and most people on the home front supported the war or were or just did not care about the war.1 During his interview, Marine Corps veteran Doug Woods said that when he joined the Marines in the late 1960’s, most people didn’t care about the war as it was “old news.”2 I also found that the anti-war movement was not a wide sweeping movement that encompassed the bulk of the population but was a small movement of a few people, mostly college students and other young people. In fact, it was the college students that started the anti-war movement; the first anti-war demonstrations of the Vietnam era occurred on college campuses.3 Yale University played host to many groups that opposed the war, such as the May Second Movement and the Progressive Labor Party.4 Eventually, the anti-war movement grew to include more than just college students and 1 Small, Melvin. Antiwarriors: The Vietnam War and the Battle for America's Hearts and Minds. Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources, 2002, 24. 2 Woods, Doug. "Doug's Interview." Interview by author. May 20, 2015. 3 Hall, Mitchell K. Vietnam War Era People and Perspectives. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2009, 67. 4 Small, Antiwarriors: The Vietnam War and the Battle for America's Hearts and Minds, 13. 5 was even supported by well-known individuals such as Dr. Benjamin Spock and Jane Fonda joined the anti-war cause. 5 What I found to be the main turning point in American opinion on the Vietnam War was the Tet Offensive. The Tet Offensive was a massive offensive by the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong that was launched against the major cities of South Vietnam on January 30, 1968.6 The communist forces were initially successful as they had the element of surprise, but they were eventually defeated by the combined US and South Vietnamese Forces and the Viet Cong was effectively eliminated as a major threat.7 Although the Tet Offensive could be seen as a military victory for the US forces and their allies, the general public was given a version of events that painted the battle’s results in a negative light and made Tet seem like a defeat for the US military. This was thanks in part to journalists like Walter Cronkite who said that the war could not be won.8 Despite the growth of the anti-war movement, they remained only a small piece of American society. Only weeks after the Kent State protests, one-hundred thousand people in New York City marched in protest against the anti-war demonstrators. 9 This was an isolated incident and pro-war demonstrations were uncommon during the latter half of the war and in the end it was public apathy that ended American involvement in Vietnam.10 I found that in the years since the Vietnam War, most veterans still believe that they were doing the right thing in doing what their country asked them to do. Some now 5 Small, Small, Antiwarriors: The Vietnam War and the Battle for America's Hearts and Minds, 24,150. 6 Schmitz, David F. The Tet Offensive: Politics, War, and Public Opinion. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005, 83. 7 Ibid., 159. 8 Ibid., 112. 9 Hall, Mitchell K. Vietnam War Era People and Perspectives. 90. 10 Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam, a History. 2nd Rev. and Updated ed. New York, New York: Penguin Books, 1997, 671. 6