Silent Victory

"Unit pride" could be the motto of Company F of the 51st Long Range Patrol Airborne Infantry. Considered by many historians to have been the most successful unit of its kind in the Vietnam War, the veterans meet some 30 years later in Virginia Hashii's documentary Silent Victory for a reunion in Austin, Texas to renew old friendships and reminisce about the war: a bit grayer and slower of step, the men still display a palpable pride in their unit's accomplishments. A mobile intelligence-collection outfit operating far from base, deep in enemy territory--the LRPs were the eyes and ears of the Army, ‘out-guerilla-ing the guerillas' in the Viet Cong's "back pocket" from Saigon to the Cambodian border. Recalling their coming of age as 18 to 20-year-old kids, with older vets teaching the ropes to the "cherries," the guys share plenty of vivid anecdotes about the fog of war, a confusing place where one vet recalls operating so close to the VC that one enemy soldier relieved himself on the GI as he hid in the bushes. Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, who appears here, remembers the Tet Offensive (January 1968) as a decisive American military victory, but the propaganda war had already been lost at home, and most vets agree that, ultimately, you fought for yourself and the guy next to you. Both vivid and informative, Silent Victory nevertheless suffers from the constant overuse of military jargon that will confuse and finally bore some viewers. A strong optional purchase. Aud: C, P. (S. Rees)