my review of "Going Upriver"...be gentle?

[ElsewheresDaughter]

Let me start out by saying that I am 52 years old, and although I have always voted in the past I have never been what some would call “politically active,” this is until now. The events of the last four years have awakened me, just as it has awakened many others of my generation. We can no longer just absent mindedly cast our ballots and go about our merry ways, letting those we have voted for declare wanton wars and kill in our names.

The film Going Upriver opens with a recount of the early childhood of Senator John Kerry and his college years spent at Yale. The documentary then turns to his enlistment into the U.S. Navy, and his career as the commander of a swift boat during the Vietnam War. His shipmates give their accounts of the events that they saw in Vietnam. One man named Rassmann tells how after being blown over board from a blast, a wounded John Kerry saved his life by turning the speeding swift boat around and pulling him from the river while under heavy fire. Two other crewmen recall how John Kerry beached the boat, pursuits on foot, and kills a Vietnamese sniper who was armed with a rocket propelled grenade launcher. These two events earned John Kerry two metals, a Silver Star and a Purple Heart. Another shipmate states that swift boats had an average casualty rate of 75% and that on some portions of the river it was as high as 90%.

John Kerry came to see the ugliness and the horrible injustices of “free fire zones” which meant that all persons remaining within them - civilians, old people, women and children – were considered the enemy and killed at will. During the “search and destroy” missions all males of military age were killed, the homes and fields in the villages were burned, and the livestock was destroyed. These types of military actions did not fit into Kerry’s code of moral decency.

The Tet Offensive was the pivotal point of the Vietnam War making Kerry realize that he and the American people had been misled by the government, misled into fighting in a war that achieved very little at too great a cost - 8,000 wounded and 1,500 U.S. soldiers dead.

On his return back home, John Kerry found himself in the middle of a deeply divided America. There were anti-war protests in the streets of most major cities. The counter culture was in full swing; demonstrations were taking place on hundreds of college campuses across America. It was apparent that the American people were ready for change. John Kerry saw that he was not alone in his misgivings of the injustice of the war. He joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), and after earning the respect of these veterans he soon became their spokesman. Listening to the accounts of these men and what they had experienced – the atrocities committed in Vietnam, Kerry was determined to bring their issues to the attention of the nation’s lawmakers on Capital Hill and the White House itself. Eventually Kerry was invited to appear before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations where spoke for 2 hours and asked the questions, “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?” This speech was instrumental in convincing lawmakers that ending this pointless war was a necessity. While this speech endeared him to many of the people in the anti-war movement, it also created enemies for Kerry both on Capital Hill and within the Nixon White House.

I found that Going Upriver has many chilling parallels to the times we live in today - Iraq. I am of the opinion that if given the chance on November 2nd John Kerry will once again be instrumental in putting America on the right path.

[A Brand New World]

1. I agree with you 100%. My husband & I just watched it this past

weekend and we remarked many times the similarities between Vietnam and Iraq. It really is deja vu. And Kerry is just the man to pull this country together. Your assessment of the movie is very accurate.