No Substitute for Victory

No Substitute for Victory (1970)

*** (out of 4)

I guess it would be impossible to view something like this documentary without getting overly political but I'm going to try. This documentary was hosted and narrated by John Wayne who talks about how liberals, flag-burning college students, communists and dirty politicians are causing American troops to die in Vietnam.

NO SUBSTITUTE FOR VICTORY is called by some a masterpiece of propoganda while others call it something evil and something that tries to promote war and death. I personally wouldn't agree with either of those groups but at the same time it's easy to see why some might be offended by the material and espcially if you're a liberal. Wayne's narration attacks liberals as well as the media for telling lies and not telling the whole story (sound familiar?) and there's no doubt that the film really attacks both parties.

While watching the film, I couldn't help but say that it was well-made for what it was and featured some great interviews with various people who have been in Vietnam and seen what was going on. Is this pure propaganda? Well, of course! That's why it was made. Even if you don't agree with the views and opinions given, the filmmakers and I'm sure Wayne believed in their hearts that they were doing the right thing.

When I was looking for things to watch on my Amazon Fire, I was surprised to find this very obscure documentary from 1971 which starred John Wayne. And, as a retired US History teacher, I did find it interesting....though flawed.

Wayne hosts the film and introduces a variety of people sharing his views on how the Vietnam War should be fought. One thing about the war that is often forgotten is that although it was unpopular in later years, much of this was due to HOW the war was being fought and many were not against the US being at war but the politicians' running of the war. This is a big part of the show...pushing for politicians to stop micromanaging the war and let the men fight an all-out war. This aspect of the film is interesting and if fought this way, the war MIGHT have been won by the US and South Vietnam. Apart from this aspect of the film, I did find that the film never questioned why the US went to war there in the first place and some of the history lesson given by Lowell Thomas was suspect...such as him calling Lenin 'Vladimir' (a common mistake...but he was NO Vlad). I also was surprised when he mentioned that Charles Lingburgh was a war hawk in WWII...which was completely untrue. Lindburgh was actually pro-Hitler in the 1930s and only became pro-war after the US was attacked.

So is it any good? It's okay...and, oddly enough, the worst part about it was Wayne's poor delivery of his lines. It also didn't help that there were CONSTANT refrains from the song "The Ballad of the Green Berets"...to the point of inducing nausea. As far as a history lesson, while not always accurate, it did provide an interesting insight into how the war might have been successfully fought. Overall, a film most people probably wouldn't watch in the first place, but at least the history teacher in me found a few things to like.

This film gets 5 out of 10 stars for accurately portraying the American point of view on the Vietnam War from a right wing, hawkish perspective. There is absolutely no counter argument made, and any and all contradictory facts (of which any historian worth his salt could find an overwhelming number) are deliberately omitted. If you're unfamiliar with the extreme right-wing take on Vietnam, then there is value in seeing this film. But don't expect to walk away from it knowing the truth of what happened, or what went wrong in Vietnam during America's campaign in Southeast Asia.

Sadly, the well worn points made in this film about the military "having to fight with one hand, or both hands, tied behind its back", the fingers pointed at the traitorous liberal media and politicians inexplicably siding with communists, have been taken as articles of faith by vast numbers of people today. The actual facts are far more subtle.

In truth, America had many successes in Vietnam - both political and military, but failed to properly understand and capitalize on them or see the bigger picture until too late. Ironically, the positions taken in "No Substitute for Victory" in support of the war, are among the main reasons why the Communists prevailed. American impatience with the pace of victory and frustration in coping with an enemy using asymmetrical battle tactics led to a widening of the war, including carpet bombing and the resulting 'collateral damage', which in turn lost us the very 'hearts and minds' that we needed to win in order to take popular support away from the Communists. At the same time, propaganda (like this film) and outright lies by the military (inflated body counts, deliberately under reporting enemy numbers) led to wide scale disillusionment and loss of credibility with the American people.

Rather than own up to America's tactical and political blunders - which would make American a more powerful and effective champion of the freedoms it stands for and hopes to spread around the world, movies like this put the blame on easy targets (hippies, traitors in the media and government) and in doing so, miss the point of history entirely and, worse of all, perpetuate a culture war that continues to divide us as a people.

It's easy to dismiss this propaganda film as right-wing rhetoric because of its pro-military view on fighting an unpopular war. John Wayne was a fervent rightist and believer in the fundamentals of a Constitional Republic. That is--besides being a movie superstar. Mr. Wayne's narrative acts as a sort of lead-in to military leaders who comment about the facts of the warfare and politics of Vietnam as they see them, and the consequences of fighting a war they felt Congress didn't have the will to win. Plus there's mention of the 'Liberal Press' not helping matters much by how they report the news. Sound familiar? "If it bleeds it leads" is still prevalent in the media. Many of the arguments in this film could be shifted to what's going on in the war against terrorism. Could be that the tenets of modern warfare have commonalities in any case when it comes to the defense of freedom. Highlights include archival scenes of air attacks, refugees ritualising with their dead, and a whole spectrum of war-torn Vietnam with the American's being fundamentally the good guys. Whether you agree with this film or not, it's a great curio for propaganda film buffs and can be found for typically a dollar in a cheap DVD bin. The film transfer and sound quality are passable for a color film from 1970. Bonus: Check out John Wayne's bad toupee!

This would truly be the most hilarious film ever made if it wasn't so tragic. In this 70 minute blast-from-the-past, John Wayne uses everyone from Hitler to Stalin to liberal college professors (gasp!) in an attempt to persuade America not to give up on what was surely one of the most awful, despicable wars ever fought.

Everything Big Duke Wayne says in this right-wing agit-pop has been thoroughly disproved by history but that shouldn't keep you from loving his mouth-frothing reactionary madness.

What's amazing is that W. Bush literally re-iterated the Duke's view during his presidency when he famously said that the real lesson of Vietnam was that the US didn't go FAR ENOUGH!!! In reality, that was probably the only lesson the American-Vietnam War DIDN'T teach us.

Cringe-inducing. Watch it and cry.