MovieChat Forums > Last Days in Vietnam (2016) Discussion > Graham Martin is the villian

Graham Martin is the villian

posted 9 years ago by dazfiddy
3 replies | jump to latest

I watched this documentary last night on the BBC, and was shocked at the revelations. If there is a villain in this piece, then it has to be the US Ambassador in Saigon, Graham Martin. He was not an evil man,but merely a man unsuited for the situation. His refusal to accept that South Vietnam was finished, and that an evacuation should be planned was criminally irresponsible. With so many lives at stake, he clearly failed to grasp the danger that he placed many of the South Vietnamese who worked for or depended on American support. The picture is of a man in a massive state of denial.

[–] TristramShandy 9 years ago

Agree completely with the statement that his refusal to see the reality of the situation was irresponsible and not what you would want from an official whose choices had such an effect on so many. Why he did what he did did seemed to come from a real love for the South Vietnamese, though, rather than a love for capitalism, power, hegemony, etc. I appreciated how he wanted to "go down with the ship"; that choice did right some of the wrongs (he saved many lives that he had potentially doomed).

[–] olihist 8 years ago

Its easy from watching this film to view Ambassador Martin as the "villain" because he failed to consider the reality that South Vietnam was collapsing beyond all hope of repair. On the other hand, Martin had to consider the risks behind publicly acknowledging South Vietnam as a failing state and telling Americans to evacuate. In addition, Martin had an adopted son who died in Vietnam, which would have made him even more determined to save the South Vietnamese from the North. Far from being an absolute villain, Martin in many ways emerges in this film as a sympathetic yet tragic figure of a tragic episode in American history.

[–] dazfiddy 8 years ago

There are moments is history when a person with incredible authority fails to read the tea leaves due to personal or ideological reasons. The tragedy of Vietnam was that so many American officials were worried about prestige and the "signals" that would be sent America's allies and foes. Cold War thinking seemed to override reason. All Presidents from Eisenhower to Nixon are guilty of this.By 1975, it was obvious that the South could not defeat the North, and that there was no way Washington would come to Saigon's rescue. Maybe for Martin, that was a bitter pill to swallow.