Documentaries greatly enhance understanding of a topic. They often include primary sources which give viewers a feel for the time period and strengthen the clarity of the situation. The Vietnam War was incredibly complex and brutal; it’s harsh legacy survives to this day. In Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam, the letters and videos supplement the viewers understanding of the atrocious reality of the war in Vietnam and paint a picture how soldiers and others truly felt about the war effort. Many of the letters resonate with the audience. One audience that combines both the atrocity of war with the jovial spirit of a young man was written by Marion “Sandy” Kemper. Kemper penned his letter while he recuperating from an injury during a
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However, the documentary ends of a letter from the mother of William R. Stocks. Her son died in a helicopter crash. A friend of his, Jim, who served in Stocks’ unit described their position in the war to Stocks’ mother by calling them “sitting ducks.” Unlike the majority of the letters -- all written during the war -- she wrote the letter in 1984, eleven years after the “official” end of the Vietnam War. In it, she describes how she feels when she goes to the Vietnam War Memorial and touches her son’s name. She describes how she felt he was away and how she thought “how scared and homesick [he] must have been.” In addition, her main concern about her son in the war was if he changed his “happy-go-lucky” nature like Jim proclaimed many of the men did when they got “mean streaks down their backs.” However, Jim informs her Bill stayed the same. This overjoys her. Stocks’ mothers letter probably evokes the most emotion from the viewers because it’s ridden with the everlasting pain of a woman who lost her son. She writes this letter for her son, who is dead and cannot read it, so it really acts as a journal for her to vent her feelings and express her grief. At the end of the letter, she proclaims she is so lucky to have gotten 21 years with her son and this creates a truly emotional and loving image of a woman, who like many others, lost her son to an
However, the documentary ends of a letter from the mother of William R. Stocks. Her son died in a helicopter crash. A friend of his, Jim, who served in Stocks’ unit described their position in the war to Stocks’ mother by calling them “sitting ducks.” Unlike the majority of the letters -- all written during the war -- she wrote the letter in 1984, eleven years after the “official” end of the Vietnam War. In it, she describes how she feels when she goes to the Vietnam War Memorial and touches her son’s name. She describes how she felt he was away and how she thought “how scared and homesick [he] must have been.” In addition, her main concern about her son in the war was if he changed his “happy-go-lucky” nature like Jim proclaimed many of the men did when they got “mean streaks down their backs.” However, Jim informs her Bill stayed the same. This overjoys her. Stocks’ mothers letter probably evokes the most emotion from the viewers because it’s ridden with the everlasting pain of a woman who lost her son. She writes this letter for her son, who is dead and cannot read it, so it really acts as a journal for her to vent her feelings and express her grief. At the end of the letter, she proclaims she is so lucky to have gotten 21 years with her son and this creates a truly emotional and loving image of a woman, who like many others, lost her son to an