“We went back and didn’t study anything”
April 30 marks the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, the capital of the Communist North Vietnamese army captured South Vietnam, marking the official end of the Vietnam War – a conflict that lasted for two decades and caused millions of lives. About 60,000 of them are American soldiers. Among the survivors are director Oliver Stone, whose combat injury has earned him a variety of decorations, including a bronze star with a “V” device, a purple heart with a cluster of oak leaves (indicating two wounds), an air medal and a combat infantry badge. Stone – Through the landmark film of 1986 Row and 1989 Born on July 4 Allowing the country to deal with the trauma of war – reflects his time in Vietnam, his conversion to pacifism when he returns to the United States, and his thoughts about the similar endless and deadly conflicts that currently plague the planet.
My first teacher went to Vietnam in 1965. I was 18 and taught there after I attended Yale. Three years later, I went to another soldier. I am still very young and I don’t have the conscience of all of us now. This was just what we all believed at the time. Vietnam suddenly became the center of the world. Just like Ukraine is now, people are crazy and say we have to fight for Ukraine.
The militarist mentality was born in the United States. That's in our blood. I grew up relatively conservative. In 1965, Vietnam was an interesting place to become a teacher. It feels like a divine mission. But when I was traveling in Asia, I saw Cambodia before the war – Pol Pot Pot – I ended up in Laos. The more I see, the worse it looks. When I went back to be a soldier, it was already frustrating. All barbed wire camps.
We put a hundred and fifty million people on the ground and as a soldier I could see it was a mess. It was just this bad war, we were counting the bodies and pretending we had won. The whole thing is based on lies. There are many other lies. In my book Chasing the Lightit tells me my Vietnamese version. By the time I left in December 1968, I had been injured twice and saw a lot of movement. I was shot dead on my neck and shrapnel on my lower body. It was a miracle that I survived a neck injury because that was about a quarter of an inch from my carotid artery. But I was back in the battle anyway.
I spent most of my 15 months in the jungle on the plains around the beach. I've been in contact with a lot, who knows, maybe I've got agents Orange poisoned. We used to browse these things often. You've seen a movie – Row,,,,, Born on July 4 – Then I adapted its Vietnamese side through the 1993 book Ly Hayslip, Heaven and Earthbefore we got there, it depicted a beautiful Vietnam.
When Richard Nixon entered the White House in January 1969, I had left Vietnam a month ago. For the Americans, the war dragged on for another four years until 1973. Then Nixon reached a deal to get out the prisoners of war. Most of the American combat troops were eliminated before 73 years. Between 69 and 73 years, the number of casualties was surprising. I think this is a disagreement between two regimes, Lyndon B. Johnson and Nixon.
I returned to the United States in 1968. In 1970, I went to New York University Film School. It was a very revolutionary place. The student's body did not trust veterans and things, so I shut my mouth. My feelings about war changed in the early 1970s, but by the mid-70s, I would be standing completely on the other side of the fence. Jane Fonda and I are more aligned. After the war, I grew up to be her. Her opposition seemed odd as it continued.
We know that Johnson was over when he refused to run in March 1968. Therefore, he did not support his policy in Vietnam. The army continued to move forward. American media is so “Rah Rah” in Vietnam. This is part of the problem our country is facing – the media tells us what to think. The New York Times Very bad. In every war – Vietnam, Iraq, etc. – read their editorial. They are so wise and pro-government. They have always been the government. I can say that they are the government line. At the end of Vietnam, they changed because they hated Nixon. Now they hate Trump. So, they have been following Trump. But the truth is, they support the Ukrainian war. So that's the same nonsense. The Ukrainian War was another war of total lies. They have been lying to the American public, and the public has fallen for it.
When Saigon fell – April 30, 1975 – I was relieved. Everyone is. In a sense, it was a wonderful moment. A wave of movies began Deer Hunter (1978), Revelation Now (1978) and Jane (Fonda) movies go home. All of these are noble movies. Then I'll do Row.
I did Born on July 4a very powerful anti-military film. It was released on December 20, 1989. The United States invaded Panama that day. This is the beginning of change – a shift in military and faith that moves into the system. It's George HW Bush. The next thing you know, we are in the Iraq War, it's all based on propaganda. According to the media, we are heroes. The army is doing well. The next thing you know, we're back to Iraq for the Second Iraq War. It didn't stop. As Bush 41 said, “The ghosts of Vietnam are forever buried in desert beaches on the Arabian Peninsula.”
Some people are worried that we will become peaceful and too soft. So that's why they recycled the feeling that we had to be hard again. We did it. We got very hard. Before you knew it, by the late 1990s, we had this policy – it was written in ink, and we had lived up to most of it – taking seven countries on the Neocon list. So far, we've hit six of them. Of course, the seventh is Iran. If we follow Iran, that's a huge mistake. We will bury Bush's nonsense in the ashes of history. But I think we will go. Netanyahu, he is our leader. He is our foreign policy. Middle East policy passed him. I think that guy is absolutely fanatical. I interviewed him a few years ago and I thought he was angry at that time. He really hates Arabs. He just couldn't overcome it. So we go back to learning nothing.
I think this country is indeed historically problematic.