The Rhetoric of Hearts and Minds

I just wanted to say something I didn't get to say in class on Tuesday. There was something said about Hearts and Minds being bad Rhetoric because it was just as bad as the other films...just showing one side of the argument. The reason I found this movie to be a good film was because it actually did show both sides in a way. For example: There was the perception of what the American people thought of the Vietnamese. Then the film would show something to counter those statements. It convices us as an audience that the Vietnamese people aren't primitive, or ignorant, or people who don't value life. They are human like you and me. It also showed how ignorant our leaders were...it was actually disappointing to see how that one guy kept stumbling, trying to buy time when Davis asked him about communism. The pilot seemed like the only guy who realized that this perception that we had about the Vietnamese was very wrong...he even broke down crying when he was asked to put himself in that situation. Trip to Hanoi is interesting because it somewhat does the same thing. It goes from the author being ignorant...thinking as the people in Vietnam as primitive...like in Hearts and Minds, to her changing her perception of the people after she knew what they were about...