Why Vietnam?

A speech by President Johnson about the reasons for his Vietnam policy is the starting point of this controversial documentary. With a reference to history - if you let dictators have their way it will lead to catastrophe, as is evident from the cases of Hitler and Mussolini in 1938, the American policy regarding Vietnam is presented as a battle for freedom. For the American audience, this is interpreted as follows: South Vietnam really wants to be like America: working hard and enjoying the fruits of a prospering agriculture, an efficient industry, an abundance of raw material, and free elections. But the communist North Vietnam is lying in wait for this rich booty. The North Vietnamese enemy consists of trained agitators that commit deeds of terror, but apart from that remain invisible. According to this film, Ho-Chi-Minh's face was typical, because, as the commentator notes at shots of the North Vietnamese leader in the company of a group of children, "he plays the kindly smiling grandfather, but behind the smiles is a mind planning a reign of terror in South Vietnam".
WHY VIETNAM? was made in the tradition of the WHY WE FIGHT-films from WW II. The explicitly authoritarian character of the film is striking: the public is addressed as children by fatherly politicians (Johnson, McNamara, et al.) who "want only the best for them", while the pedantic voice-over admonishes them to be sure to pay attention. No wonder that WHY VIETNAM?, when coming out in the U.S., encountered aversion from young people who were enraged at the authoritarian and politically biased character of the film.