After Having Watched "Dear America":

I must say that I really enjoyed this documentary. It was great to gain insight as to what really was going on in the war written at the time of it and by those involved. Everything we have either read or seen to date has been fictionalized or "Hollywooded-up" so gaining first-hand knowledge was a welcome reprieve from otherwise commercially distributed products. You got more of a sense of the unique individualness of the men rather than looking at the war in a broad sense with views expressing a particular slant. Everyone involved had a unique take on the war. This film showed us that ideologies were as diverse as some fighting for freedom and an end to communism, while others did not even know why they were there. It was also of interest to see how particular viewpoints of the war changed as time went along. If the letters were displayed chronologically (I believe I remember that they were), then it was of interest to realize that the later documents had a decidedly more grim outlook than those of earlier years. So were the soldiers influenced greatly by the viewpoints being expressed at home or were they honestly sharing the same thoughts? How might the war have turned out had there been more support? No resistance? The only thing I wish is that they could have had real veterans reading the letters. While they may be good actors, having the actual voices of those involved would add an air of credibility to the film that was not otherwise present. Overall, this was a marvelous documentary.