Throughout Hearts and Minds Peter Davis constantly includes scenes that portray America as idiots. Why are we fighting the war? Who knows... The soldiers and majority of the American people had no idea yet we were killing and losing as many soldiers as we have in any other war. I think Peter Davis makes sure to present this as a larger point to inform viewers as to how passive we can be as a nation. Ironically the only Americans who seemed to figure out that we were the bad guy and did not belong in Vietnam, or were opting to move to Canada to avoid becoming a pointless killer, were the ones that were looked at as outcasts from America by dehumanizing our country rather than the Vietnamese. Though I had immense respect for them while watching the documentary, majority of American outcasted these people when this movie came out. I suspect that had a big part to do with what made it controversial along with presenting a more sympathetic outlook on the Vietnamese through carefully placed scenes that appeal to pathos. This is not to say that now we should all believe America was completely wrong and the Vietnamese were right, but it does make you think more critically after seeing both sides. I find it most difficult, and a big problem I am having, is to look at any form of Vietnamese text without forming some bias based on pathos. No one form of text has equally presented both sides of the story equally, yet I am beginning to see that piece of media may be impossible to make. For this classes purposes though I feel that Hearts and Minds was the most real and impacting as it is going to get for me and feel deeply sympathetic to both side. Both sides for their losses and more for America as apparently we are a bunch of rich dumbasses.