,
United States Army Chief of Staff A scene described as one of the film's "most shocking and controversial sequences" shows the funeral of a
South Vietnamese soldier and his grieving family, as a sobbing woman is restrained from climbing into the grave after the coffin. The funeral scene is juxtaposed with an interview with General
William Westmoreland—commander of American military operations in the Vietnam War at its peak from 1964 to 1968 and
United States Army Chief of Staff from 1968 to 1972—telling a stunned Davis that "The Oriental doesn't put the same high price on life as does a Westerner. Life is plentiful. Life is cheap in the Orient." After an initial take, Westmoreland indicated that he had expressed himself inaccurately. After a second take ran out of film, the section was reshot for a third time, and it was the third take that was included in the film. The film also includes clips of
George Thomas Coker, a
United States Navy aviator held by the North Vietnamese as a
prisoner of war for six and a half years, including more than two years spent in solitary confinement. One of the film's earliest scenes details a homecoming parade in Coker's honor in his hometown of
Linden, New Jersey, where he tells the assembled crowd on the steps of city hall that, if the need arose, they must be ready to send him back to war. Answering a student's question about Vietnam at a school assembly, Coker responds that "If it wasn't [sic] for the people, it was very pretty. The people there are very backwards and primitive and they make mess out of everything." In a 2004 article on the film,
Desson Thomson of
The Washington Post comments on the inclusion of Coker in the film, noting that "When he does use people from the pro-war side, Davis chooses carefully."
Time magazine's Stefan Kanfer noted the lack of balance in Coker's portrayal, "An ex-P.O.W.'s return to New Jersey is played against a background of red-white-and-blue-blooded patriots and wide-eyed schoolchildren. The camera, which amply records the agonies of South Vietnamese political prisoners, seems uninterested in the American lieutenant's experience of humiliation and torture." The film also features Vietnam war veteran and anti-war activist
Bobby Muller, who later founded the
Vietnam Veterans of America.
Daniel Ellsberg, who had released the
Pentagon Papers in 1971, discusses his initial gung-ho attitude toward the war in Vietnam. The concluding interview features US Vietnam veteran Randy Floyd, stating "We've all tried very hard to escape what we have learned in Vietnam. I think Americans have worked extremely hard not to see the criminality that their officials and their policy makers exhibited." The film includes images of
Phan Thị Kim Phúc in sections of a film shot of the aftermath of a napalm attack which shows Phúc at about age nine running naked on the street after being severely burned on her back. • Jerry Holter and Charles Hoey - USAF pilots •
J. Edgar Hoover • Senator
Joseph R. McCarthy • Former Cpl. Stan Holder • Former 1st Lt.
Bobby Muller (now using a wheelchair) • Kay Dvorshock - Bobby Muller's girlfriend •
Daniel Ellsberg - former aide Defense Dept. (
Rand Corporation) •
General William Westmoreland - Commanding General Vietnam 1964-68 • Nguyen Van Toi - Vietnamese man • Vo Thi Hue and Vo Thi Tu - Vietnamese sisters • Father Chan Tin of Saigon • Diem Chau - editor of Trinh Bay magazine • David Emerson of Concord, Massachusetts - father of dead pilot • Mui Duc Giang - Vietnamese coffin maker • Former Specialist 5 Edward Sowders - army deserter • Mrs Lora Sowders - mother of Edward Sowders • Barton Osbern - former Army Intelligence Officer, CIA • Sgt. George Trendell of
Fort Dix New Jersey • Thich Lieu Minh of the An Quang Pagoda, Saigon • Former Sgt. William Marshall of Detroit • Colonel
George Patton IV (as "George Patton III") • Duong Van Khai - refugee • Nguyen Ngoc-Linh - chairman of Mekong Conglomerate, former Cabinet Minister in South Vietnam • Mike Sulsana - amputee • (voice of)
I. F. Stone - journalist • Senator
Eugene McCarthy • Senator
Robert F. Kennedy •
Ngo Dinh Diem - President of South Vietnam 1955-63 • General
Nguyen Khanh - President of South Vietnam 1964-65 •
General Maxwell Taylor - ambassador to South Vietnam 1964-65 • Nguyen Thi Sau - former political prisoner (F) • Ngo Ba Thanh - political prisoner • Mary Cochran Emerson - mother of dead pilot • Vu Duc Vinh - North Vietnamese bombing victim ==Critical reception==