Good Morning, Vietnam: Not Historically Accurate

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“Here’s a little riddle for you. What's the difference between the army and the Cub Scouts? Cub Scouts don't have heavy artillery!” Adrian Cronauer tried to bring a kind of relief to the people of the war through his radio show. Cronauer was a United States Air Force sergeant and radio broadcaster who inspired the movie Good Morning, Vietnam. The Vietnam War, which was by far the longest war the United States has participated in, went on from 1945 until 1975. Even though the United States was involved with the war since the 50’s, by aiding France, they did not send troops until 1965. The Vietnam War began because North Vietnam wanted to combine both parts of Vietnam into one big country, but South Vietnam did not want this. The United States helped South Vietnam from keeping the countries separate and keeping communism out of their country. The war seemed like it would never end so a cease-fire was arranged in January 1973; although the war did not officially end until April 30, 1975. In this war, almost 60,000 Americans died and about 2 million Vietnamese died. The United States only got involved because they wanted to prevent communism from spreading throughout the rest of the world. Good Morning, Vietnam is not historically accurate because it did not portray Adrian Cronauer or the Vietnam War in the correct way.

Adrian Cronauer, played by Robin Williams, is United States Air Force sergeant and a talented radio Disk Jockey. In 1965, General Taylor hears one of Cronauer’s shows over Armed Forces radio in the island of Crete, and requests that he transfers his show to Vietnam so that he could be a confidence booster to these people during the time of war. Hauk adheres to strict Army guidelines in terms of humor and music pr...

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History.com staff, . "History.com." Vietnam War History. A E Networks, n.d. Web. 13 Feb 2014. .

Fellers, Carla. ""What a Wonderful World": The Rhetoric of the Official and the Unofficial in Good Morning, Vietnam." Musical Choices. (November 1, 2005): 235-236. Web. 5 Mar. 2014. .

Hopkins, Alexander E. "Protest and Rock n' Roll During the Vietnam War." Student Pulse 4.11 (2012). http://www.studentpulse.com/a?id=713

Fellers, Carla A. "What A Wonderful World": The Rhetoric Of The Official And The Unofficial In Good Morning, Vietnam." War, Literature & The Arts: An International Journal Of The Humanities 17.1/2 (2005): 232-241. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.

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