Winter of discontent

OneWorld UK

By Daniel Nelson

Winter Soldier was made in 1971 as a record of testimonies by men and women who has served in the US military during the still ongoing Vietnam war. Is there any point in seeing it today? There most certainly is.

As you watch and listen to these soldiers talking about events they had recently taken part in or witnessed, one word comes constantly to mind: Iraq.

In a sense, that’s unfair. It’s probably all wars that should be seen through the prism of these painful testimonies. It would take an extraordinarily disciplined and efficient training regime and chain of command to contain and channel the fear, aggression, anger, frustration, confusion and desire for revenge that battle provokes.

In Vietnam, the stress of war, supercharged by racism, led to the My Lai massacre. In Iraq, it led to the massacre recreated in the recent film, Battle for Haditha, and the abuse of prisoners revealed in the photographs taken inside Abu Ghraib.

But as this documentary shows, such abuses are not rare aberrations. In many, probably most, wars they are common.

Sadly, the film did not have the impact the makers hoped. It was put together by a group of independent filmmakers who realised the importance of the meeting conducted by Vietnam Veterans Against the War in Detroit. They filmed the vets – including subsequent presidential candidate John Kerry – talking about atrocities and war crimes, and then spent eight months editing the footage and adding film clips and snapshots from Vietnam. The resulting film was virtually unreported by the mainstream media.

It was the first time Vietnam vets had publicly testified about their experiences, which included throwing Vietnamese out of helicopters (in one testimony it was made into a game, to see who could throw a man furthest), torture, rape, indiscriminate killing of civilians and cutting off body parts.

It showed, in Kerry’s words, that serious abuses were “committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.” It showed, in other words, that atrocities were not the result of individual misconduct but the result of military policies. That, too, is a reminder for Iraq.

It showed, though this was not the main aim of the filmmakers, the personal toll on many of the soldiers themselves.

The men and women in this film were brave to give their testimonies when they did (and many had proved, over and over again, their belief in the values so loudly proclaimed by the US and by their valour in battle).

The filmmakers can also be proud of their commitment. It is a film that needs to be shown over and over, on television as well as in cinemas.

* Winter Soldier is at the ICA, The Mall, SW1, London until 26 May