There seems to be a lot of generated buzz about the new
motion picture, ‘The Post.’ I do like
Tom Hanks in almost anything he does, but I just don’t think so – not this
time. I’ll save my nine or ten bucks.
The movie is about, what has come to be called, the Pentagon
Papers. This story was exploding about
the time I was becoming a new FBI Agent – 1971.
I had just left military service.
Even the premise for the movie, whether or not the New York
Post should publish top secret classified documents misappropriated (stolen) by
Daniel Ellsberg (a Vietnam anti-war activist) in their newspaper, is less than
factual. The story regarding the
Pentagon Papers was originally published in the New York Times and the New York
Times received a Pulitzer Prize for their journalistic efforts.
What were the Pentagon Papers about? In summary, it documented how the U.S. government,
under various Presidents (Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon) lied to the American
people about motives for the war, military conditions relevant to the war to
include personnel losses and mission miscalculations.
Is this a movie review?
No. That would require me seeing
the movie.
I just want to say that said movie is apparently one more creative effort to make a considerable profit;
as well as to minimize (perhaps unintentionally), the sacrifices made by our
military.
If you watched Ken Burns’ ‘Vietnam’
on PBS, you’ve pretty much heard the whole story. Yes, many in the military died in vain. Yes, the government lied to all of us; and
many American soldiers, as well as innumerable Vietnamese; died needlessly. But this does not in any way diminish the
courage, sacrifice, honor and bravery of our military personnel who were killed
or suffered grievous injuries. Let’s all
remember that. Does the motion picture community
still have to make more money off of this?
Moreover, I don’t particularly want to have to hear how courageous
the management at the Washington Post were back then - as depicted by Hanks and
Streep. For ‘gosh sakes,’ the story had
already been in the New York Times.
Cliff Hanger: Will the Post be sued? Will they have to go
to jail? Nope. Now you know the ending. The movie is simply contrived nonsense.
True Nelson
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