Vietnam War Documentaries

This past Sunday, the Everett Public Library screened two documentary films produced during the time of the Vietnam war. The creation and distribution of these films are a part, perhaps less well known, of the story of United States involvement in Vietnam.

Night of the Dragon, released in 1966, and Vietnam! Vietnam!, completed in 1968 but not released until 1971, were produced and distributed by the United States Information Agency (USIA) – the independent agency within the executive branch of our government that existed from 1953 to 1999. Part of the mission of USIA was to explain and support American foreign policy and promote US national interests through overseas information programs. These two films, narrated by Charlton Heston, were part of a USIA attempt to explain and justify US involvement in Vietnam to the world.

Neither of these films could be shown in the US at the time they were released. Until 1990, federal law prohibited films produced by the USIA to be shown within the US unless a special exemption was made by Congress for a particular film. Congress was reluctant to have USIA information efforts directed at American citizens.

USIA practice was to distribute its films to foreign cinemas and world leaders, and to show them in USIA libraries around the world. While Night of the Dragon was shown widely abroad, Vietnam! Vietnam! was given very little exposure. By the time it was ready for distribution in 1971, our foreign policy and the military and political situation had changed and the film was not considered helpful.

Both of these films are included in the dvd, Vietnam: A Retrospective that can be found in the Everett Public Library collection. (Nicholas Cull’s The Cold War and the United States Information Agency: American Propaganda and Public Diplomacy, 1945-1989 will be available soon for check out – for those who would like to read about the USIA.)

Marge Bodre
Everett Public Library