Lions for Lambs – A Movie Review
Lions for Lambs, featuring some of the greatest actors of our time (Robert Redford, Meryl Streep & Tom Cruise and a terrific supporting cast), is an extraordinary film. It manages to capture the “essence” of the combat experience by portraying two American soldiers who are willing to lay down their lives for each other, and at the same time it perpetuates horrible lies about America’s involvement in the Vietnam War.
The theme of this movie is that the young war-fighters are the “Lions,” and their leaders are the “Lambs” – military leaders who do not deserve them, who are willing to “waste” them for their failed strategies. The phrase “Lions for Lambs” was derived from literature written about the trench warfare of World War I, and the accusation was directed toward British military leadership who were willing to sacrifice countless thousands of young men in a tragic and futile effort to attack the entrenched Germans. Unfortunately, this parallel, while compelling and great grist for a Hollywood movie has nothing whatsoever to do with today’s situation, nor does it have anything to do with the truths of warfare in Vietnam.
If you enjoy films for the acting alone, you will not be disappointed by Lions for Lambs – the acting is excellent. If you are like me, however; and are at all sensitive about the persistent myths and untruths that remain to this day about the Vietnam War – you will have a very hard time with this movie’s plots, and its not-so-subtle messages.
When the Senator (Tom Cruise) discloses to the Journalist (Meryl Streep) a “new strategy” to win the War against Terrorism in Afghanistan, by deploying small units “to take the high ground to draw the enemy out,” Ms. Streep’s line is, “Sounds like bait to me!” She then goes on to explain that “The U. S. Military tried that strategy in 1968 in Vietnam.” A short while later, she continues: “The 58,000 names on The Wall seem to indicate that (the strategy) didn’t work then,” and concluded that it would not work again on this battlefield. The theme of the young Lions being sacrificed to the senior military leaderships’ failed strategy during the Vietnam War was driven home. That is, at least, if you believe those myths and lies about the Vietnam War. Although I was entertained by the acting, and appreciated the scenes involving the young guys during their college careers and their amazing love for each other as they volunteered for service in a U. S. Army Special Forces unit, and found themselves fighting for their lives, and for each other, I was horribly disappointed that this movie’s theme is based upon those lies. The movie seems to try to leverage our “failure” in Vietnam against today’s situation in the Middle East. As a Vietnam Veteran, I cannot remain silent any longer while these myths and lies are used against today’s U. S. Military.
Yes, I was “the bait” during the Vietnam War. I served as an Infantry Officer in the U. S. Marine Corps. My job during most of my tour in Vietnam War was as a Platoon Commander. I fought the elusive Viet Cong in an insurgency / counter-insurgency for over a year, so I know about being “bait.” Did I like being “bait?” Hell, no. We used to joke about it, though, because we knew it was a very dangerous occupation; but it was necessary and someone had to do it. The phrase we used when we left the relative safety of our combat base on an extended patrol was, “Let’s go bait the hook.” The lie that Ms. Streep’s character’s lines perpetuate is that it supposedly “didn’t work.” That’s one of my problems with this film. The fact is, that strategy did work, over and over again; on virtually every battlefield during the Vietnam War. That strategy worked, and it had nothing to do with our “losing” the Vietnam War. It had very little to do with those too-many names on The Wall.
In fact, in early 1968, we were militarily winning that war. Our enemy would hit us and run away; they would hide in the forests and disappear into the populace; they would wait until they could hit us again, and then run away again. The only way we could engage them was to send out small units on patrols, to saturate the countryside. Once we found them (or they found us) we could react with overpowering forces and superior firepower. Sometimes the bait was gobbled up; other times, we somehow wriggled off the hook. But always, always, we caught our fish.
Occasionally, larger NVA units would stand and fight us. They were good fighters, and brave, and sometimes they hurt us very badly. But, we prevailed over them when they stood and fought due in large part to our superior weapons, and great small-unit leaders (I’m talking about my squad leaders here, the “typical 19-year-old” who fought the Vietnam War) who displayed unbelievable leadership and courage in very difficult situations.
The worst lie this movie told about the Vietnam War, however, was that this “failed strategy” of “baiting the hook” (which, by the way, is just about the only way a conventional force can fight and defeat an insurgent force), or any failure of our military, caused us to lose that war. That is a horrible lie. The Vietnam War was not lost by any military person, or any military strategy or tactic. The Vietnam War was lost by journalists, politicians and anti-war protestors.
When Walter Cronkite stood outside the Citadel Fortress of Hue, and made his famous pronouncement that the result of the enemy’s Tet Offensive of 1968 was “The light at the end of the tunnel is getting dimmer,” that pronouncement flew in the face of the reality on the ground. In fact, the light at the end of the tunnel was getting much brighter. When General Giap launched his infamous Tet Offensive, he fully expected the South Vietnamese citizenry to rise up and join his war-fighters, to throw the Americans out of Vietnam. They did not do so. The results of the Tet Offensive of 1968 were, in truth, devastating to the North Vietnamese Army; we also completely eliminated the Viet Cong as a fighting force during that month of terrible fighting. We (the U. S. Military) actually won the Vietnam War in March of 1968. But General Giap watched “the news” from America, so when he saw Walter and his fellow journalists ignore the facts and declare defeat, and when he saw the increasing wave of anti-war sentiment, and when he heard American politicians clamor to get us out of Vietnam, Giap took hope and realized that all they had to do was hunker down, hang on, and eventually America would leave. Sound familiar? That’s exactly what happened then, and our legacy from that era remains today. In my mind, at least half of those names on The Wall fall squarely at the feet of misguided journalists, weak-willed politicians, and the anti-war protest movement.
Unfortunately, those myths and lies about the Vietnam War persist to this day; they have become part of the fabric of our culture and they infest much of our literature. The so-called “silent majority” of Americans believed them then, and they still believe them today. Any group of terrorists who pose a serious threat to our nation’s interests overseas know, from our history, from this unearned legacy, that all they have to do is keep blowing people up, to keep hanging on, and America will eventually betray its allies and leave that part of the world. It’s happening again today, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and movies like this one will encourage our enemies to hunker down, and hold on.
Maybe some day Hollywood will have the guts to tell the truth about the Vietnam War, the only war in our history where we won every single significant battle, and yet we “lost” the war. I hope it happens soon, because I fear that the unearned legacy of the Vietnam War will prevail, and we will be doomed to repeat history.
Nicholas Warr – November 13, 2007
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