Vietnamese propaganda films, 1971-1972

Enable table view

• Description: The Culprit is Nixon

  1 film reel (27 minutes) : black and white, sound print, 972' ; 16mm

  Produced in North Vietnam as propaganda and given to members of a U.S. peace contingent in Hanoi in October, 1972, just before the Presidential election in which Nixon was running for office as the incumbent against George McGovern, the South Dakota Senator and an antiwar candidate. It's safe to imagine that having the North Vietnamese on his side did not especially help McGovern in his campaign for American votes. The high profile delegation included the writers Denise Levertov and Muriel Rukeyser, and Jane Hart, the wife of then-Senator Philip A. Hart of Michigan.

  Dates: 1972
  Container: Reel 1
• Description: U.S. War Techniques and Genocide in Vietnam

  2 film reels (34 minutes) : black and white, sound, prints ~600' each ; 16mm

  Film produced by the Vietnam People's Army Film Studio and given to members of a U.S. peace contingent visiting Hanoi in late October 1972, just before the Presidential election that year, in hopes that it would be publicized in the U.S. upon their return. The high-profile entourage of women consisted of Jane Hart, wife of Senator Philip Hart; the poet Denise Levertov; and the novelist Muriel Rukeyser. They met with the Vietnam Committee for Solidarity with the American People and the Vietnam Women's Union. The U.S. and Vietnam were at the time negotiating a cease-fire -- neither side in especially good faith, as it turns out in retrospect -- and their agreement was due to expire at the end of October unless both sides ratified and signed it by then. Neither did. The Presidential election pitted Richard Nixon, running on a "Peace with Honor" [in Vietnam] theme, against George McGovern, running explicitly as an antiwar candidate. Nixon won 49 states in a landslide. The peace delegation had little but symbolic impact: it reiterated, as had been the case for years, that the bulk of the artistic community in the U.S. was soundly antiwar, and it showed -- as had also been the case for some time -- that the antiwar movement now included part of the mainstream of American life, in this case represented by a moderate Senator's wife.

  Dates: 1971
  Container: Reel 2-3