This TV show is not the vietnam I remember. I spent a year with the 25th INF Div in CU CHI. I never thought someone would make a chicflic (soap) out of the Vietnam War. If I could spend my tour in China Beach I would have extended.
shareYes, most Viet Vets didn't have this kind of experience there. I doubt that your average Korean vet had a M*A*S*H experience, either.
shareAccording to people I've talked to who did serve in Korea, the problems they had with the TV series were that the actors were way too old to be playing those characters and most of the women were too attractive looking. They say the movie was more realistic but they also knew that the director didn't intend it to be only about Korea but could also have been about Vietnam.
shareYes, M*A*S*H started out about Korea (from the novel) but wound up preaching about Vietnam. Watch some of the cast documentaries. Hell, even Star Trek did it.
Fight the FOCA
American woman in VN? I saw very few from a long distance (officers may see much more) In China Beach the war seems like a distraction from all the fun from the clubs, beach, sex .... In both the EM and NCO clubes I don't remember ever seing an American girl.
shareCraigpvln, I hope the reason you did not see many American WOMEN in Vietnam was that you did not need them--meaning the nurses. Here is a great site that details the role of the American woman in Vietnam, not just nurses. I have a bias here, since I am a nurse--not a Vietnam nurse, however. Take care, and enjoy the site.
www.womeninvietnam.com
Visit the Vietnam War Nurse Memorial in Washington D.C.!
"Anyone who tells a lie has not a pure heart, and cannot make a good soup." Ludwig Van Beethoven
Just like YOU said...it's a TV SHOW...... Of course it's not going to portray it as it truely was. However, I'm pretty sure that lot's and lot's and lot's of men were as injured/mangled/disabled and in need of the nurses as it's portrayed in this tv show. I'm sure you remember that.
shareI was an Emergency Room volunteer in the late 1980's, and, one busy night, made the mistake of telling an on-call plastic surgeon (who, unknown to me at the time, had been a young doctor at a real-life Korean MASH unit) that our busy night was comparable to an episode of MASH.
I still remember his short, but biting, comment of the actual experience:
"It was terrible"
I sometimes think that's why MASH turned from slapstic to a more serious tone, especially in it's last 5 seasons - it was as if God knew that the show needed to give the experience more credit due, since the dark comedy was probably something that actually was done from time to time, but, was done - in between terrible human suffering.
As for China Beach, well, my own experiences were from the sidelines, but...
I was part of the Vietnam draft, but, never called to duty (the war was winding down by then), however, I was "educated", in a sense, when it came to the problems of Vietnam Veterans as portrayed in China Beach, to the point that, like Colleen McMurphy, I was on a very long road trip when we decided to visit the Vietnam Memorial - in fact, unknown to me at the time, just two or three months after the last scene of the television series was filmed at that very site in the Spring of 1991...
I must admit that I cried when realizing that the final scene of China Beach was filmed at the Vietnam Memorial (a place where I had just been), because...
Ironically, when a teenager, and even as a young adult, I somehow felt left out about not being called to serve in Vietnam (that's what happens when a person is young and doesn't know any better), but, in seeing where the final scene had been filmed, and, having just returned from that very place myself, I felt satisfaction in knowing that at least I could say that I was at the place where this series (which meant so much to some who did serve in Vietnam) was filmed - I'd like to think that perhaps someone in Heaven who did serve (and who's name is on the Wall) was told how I always felt, and, put in a good word for me...
Also ironic was at the time of my visit, I had just ended an almost 2-year role as an Emergency Room volunteer, so, in some sort of sad way, could say that I understood what it was like to see terrible human suffering...
I've been reading a lot of first person accounts of female nurses in Vietnam and "China Beach" didn't capture their experiences either. A lot of those nurses had a real problem with the show and how their profession was portrayed. The show was a male producer's perspective on how he imagined it would be - outrage from real nurses at how they were being portrayed caused the show's staff and actors to meet with actual nurses and inject more reality into the show after that but it was still very dramatized.
From what I've learned, the experiences of women who served in Vietnam really varied depending on where they were assigned and when - the war changed a lot from the early years to later on when things and morale were getting worse - someone there in 1967-68 would have had a very different experience from someone assigned in 1970-72. There certainly was no singular defining experience for them. Their stories are really heartbreaking. I can't even imagine what it must have been like for them treating what would have been otherwise healthy young people for injuries from landmines, shrapnel, etc. with limited resources.
unfortunatly like a lot of shows/movies about certain wars or historical events, they're made for entertainment. Which means that they will put things in to either lighten the moods or provide juicy encounters (i.e. Stalag 17 & WW2, lots of comedic moments wrapped into a pow/nazi camp movie?!?!)
My father served in Vietnam and also watched China Beach with my mother & I (I was a preteen), he would point out to me that things we're not that way and it actually ended up being a great way for my father to educate me on his experiences there. Without it, he would have never pulled out his bootcamp yearbook(?) or photo albums and other things he brought home and discussed why he the man he is today.
Florida2: "I sometimes think that's why MASH turned from slapstic to a more serious tone, especially in it's last 5 seasons - it was as if God knew that the show needed to give the experience more credit due, since the dark comedy was probably something that actually was done from time to time, but, was done - in between terrible human suffering."
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No, MASH got serious to ascend the lofty soapbox and preach about the tragedies of war to a listening audience.
I worked with a couple of Viet Nam vets at the time this show aired and one of them said these tv versions of the war were laughable. At best these shows and movies were nothing more than Hollywood attempting to recognize an experience that many Americans and their families had to endure.
Too little, too late.
Everytime I could get out of the field in '68 and get to Danang was like visiting Americana for me. In the rear with the gear and the beer. Ass and grass as an option.
There was an in-country R&R site on My Khe ("me kay") Beach, what we called China Beach east of the Han River and a short drive from central Danang. I don't recall seeing many American gals there, but there were a number of them in the hospitals that I was in.
There were also female USO volunteers. Twice when my Marine Combined Action Platoon village unit took fatalities some USO gals were driven out into the villes south of Chu Lai to visit and cheer us up by playing board games and such for a few hours. (When I offered to let them fire a rifle and pose with it for a photo, the USO gals said they were not permitted to handle weaspons.)
In short, said USO gals spent more time in the field than many American servicemen who never left big rear areas like Danang, Nha Trang, or the city limits of Saigon. Not passing judgement here on the REMFs or some of the American gals in uniform or civilians that moonlighted by turning tricks in Vietnam, I'm merely providing some perspective on the 15 percent or so who were in the field and others who were not.
I never got an incountry R&R never saw a VN beach; worked 7am to 7pm every day, hot and damp; never had a hot shower till R&R in Hawaii. Also the only American woman I ever saw (from a diistance) were from The Red Cross or the USO (very few shows).
Also EMs and NCOs could not be close with nurses (mostly officers - guess why.
If I had been posted at an R&R area I could be more understanding.
Poor them no AC!
Many woman had to suffer some hardships; many boys suffered lots worse.
The doctors and nurses did a super job (my hat off) dustoff persons and field Medics even more so.
Maybe because nurses are officers and it would have been fraternization......
shareDid u watch the show? It was not a chickflick (a derogatory term). It tried to bring attention, recognition and heart to the war and experiences people had there. TV drama has certain requirements, so it's not reality, but I'm proud it was on (I'm a viet nam era vet, too). Rarely did tv go there, so I'm glad a very well done, written and acted show wanted to shine a light on a very important and emotional time in USA's history. Don't be so critical. Not many shows were ever on tv like it and it was one of TV Guides TOP 25 shows of all time. And many other best lists as well.During the run of the show they had "specials" w/real nurses giving accounts and disucssing the show - an attempt to show the "real" experience. We differ, but thanks for Your service. Truly.
shareThank you, debbiebuster2001.
I don't think the show was sexist at all. Maybe the first season was a bit uneven, but when John Wells took over in the second season, the show went to some really dark places, main characters were killed off and it all culminated in that wonderful final season.
I think we should distinguish that the show was set in Viet Nam, but didn't claim it was only about Viet Nam. Do you think people who drive taxis for a living didn't scoff at "Taxi?" Or that "Cheers" really showed what it's like to own a bar? Or "Law and Order" is an accurate account of New York law and order? "China Beach" was a show with a backdrop of Viet Nam and a great cast of characters and actors that moved and entertained me every week.
i visited vietnam 2 years ago. it was nice. not many white women
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