I’ve spent the last 4-5 years studying Vietnam. Last night I had to turn Cover-Up off halfway through and go to bed. My Lai gets to me pretty bad, and I hadn’t even reached the part about the babies and the bayonets yet.
The best of what Cover-Up has to say is that a second massacre happened the same day, 1.5 miles away, and no one noticed for weeks of reporting. The best of what Cover-Up has to say is that this went unnoticed, not because there was a cover-up, but because “That’s just another day in Vietnam.”
“We are a culture of enormous violence.”
Last night, I went to bed thinking about how the American public, our neighbors, our families, have not made an attempt to reckon with the evil acts we committed against Japan, Vietnam, Iraq, or Afghanistan. I went to bed thinking about the clear-eyed mother who said of her genocidal son, “I sent them a good boy and they sent me back a murderer.”
“I sent them a good boy and they sent me back a murderer”
I woke up this morning, and Marco Rubio, Stephen Miller, and President Donald Trump had authorized and executed an invasion of Venezuela without Congressional consultation or approval. Not that they would have stopped them anyway. They never have.
I woke up this morning, and another nation’s President had been kidnapped in our name, and bombs had burned. I woke up this morning, and a friend said they weren’t even shocked. Because that’s just another day in Vietnam.
Then I got up and I finished watching the movie.
4/5
Could’ve been angrier.
Cover-Up (2025) is now available to watch on Netlix.