This past week, PBS has been airing a 10-day, 18 hour documentary showing the historical progression of the Vietnam war. It includes original footage taken during the time and battles. This war involved early versions of embedded reporters and photographers. I have been watching this series. I chose to watch to understand the genesis and chronology from a viewpoint of policy failure over several decades in multiple countries. While in high school I had read the series of books by Dr. Thomas A. Dooley, in an attempt to understand the politics of the situation. Sadly, years later these books were claimed to be disinformation by the CIA to promote the evil nature of the Viet Minh couched in the guise of humanitarian work. The conflict in this area of the world began long before I was born, with the US exit and the fall of Saigon occurring when I was a university undergraduate student. While the war involved the US, soldiers from Canada participated, too. A woman in my grade 12 class owned the flag from her brother's coffin when it was returned from Asia. The link with journalists on the ground provided the world with daily updates from the battle fields -- right there on our television screens during the 6 o'clock news. We learned a new lexicon -- VC, ARVN, LZ, DMZ, Huey, Charlie and such. The advent of TV tables made it easier to sit and watch while eating supper. It didn't take long for me to begin to choose to eat elsewhere -- eating supper while watching people die seemed wrong or at least desensitizing to violence and value of life. It also messed with appetite. Not that I chose to ignore the news, I just didn't get it with my dinner. Later in life, I've encountered a few draft dodgers who made a life in Canada -- some talk more than others about their decision. It couldn't have been easy.
Music from this era was part of my youth -- I still know the full lyrics to most of these. Song lyrics dealt with experiences during time in conflict, a few with patriotism, but many with a clear anti-war sentiment. Songs exist from many wars with most I know from the two world wars, Southeast Asian conflicts, the US civil war, and more recent military actions. Perhaps these go back to the role of troubadour spreading the stories of death, bravery, loss. Others deal with anger and fear and major differences in ideologies. During the Vietnam war, we sang them all, though I suspect there were some that we didn't fully recognize as antiwar songs. Radio stations of the day placed many songs that were clearly against the government of the day on a no play list -- so using clever metaphor might have made it easier to get the songs some air play.
Choosing a song for today was far from easy. There are so many that fit the topics well. In the end, I've chosen one from a musical, Miss Saigon, which modernizes Puccini's Madame Butterfly. I recall seeing this at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto years ago. The song chosen occurs just before the intermission. It is a much needed break for the audience at that point. The music for this piece brings the tension and panic of the fall of Saigon to the stage in a way that made the audience the crowd outside the embassy walls. When the helicopter took off and the curtain closed, the theatre was silent for a few seconds and then there was a collective sigh of sorts -- we'd all been holding our breath. That was a haunting part of the news coverage that I'd then felt like - in some small way - I understood better. Enjoy!
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