RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Remembering We Were Soldiers and Another America
BY TITUS TECHERA • MAY 24, 2024
The Vietnam War has been depicted onscreen repeatedly, usually as a cautionary tale of American hubris and young male naïveté. But a 2002 film directed by Randall Wallace (Braveheart) and starring Mel Gibson sees the war, and the men who died fighting in, with very different eyes.
Memorial Day was first instituted in the aftermath of the Civil War, to appease the suffering caused by the terrible bloodshed of that conflict, in which almost as many men died as in the wars of the 20th century combined. It had become necessary to give a public character to mourning since the survivors could not forget their family members, and the cemeteries, at that time still very much connected with churches, were full of the memory of the war, as were so many other institutions. At that time, it was called Decoration Day.
Then came the World Wars, and the character of dying for America changed. The nation became the preeminent power in the world, as well as the savior of civilization. Memorial Day thus lost the sorrow and guilt and fears that come from internecine strife, not least since these heroes were shared as the property and responsibility of the whole nation, now no longer divided. Though denied triumph, this was later true of the men who died in the Korean War.
https://rlo.acton.org/archives/125583-remembering-we-were-soldiers-and-another-america.html
