How Playboy Changed the Vietnam War
Via : https://vitkvv2017.livejournal.com/8156729.html
With the death of Hugh Hefner, an era has passed. Yet what Playboy will definitely not be able to lose is his story.
"If World War II was a war of stars and stripes and Betty Grable, then the Vietnam War was a war of Playboy magazine."
- Ward Just, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer
America from the Playboy-Vietnam War nexus : .[Spoiler (click to open)].Playboy becomes a mouthpiece for the counterculture
Remember the scene from Apocalypse Now: the main character arrives at the stadium near the frontline base and finds himself in the middle of a crazy show: models from Playboy arrive on helicopters and erotically dance to Creedence in front of hundreds of frantic soldiers. Historically, the scene is terribly implausible: the "bunnies" of the magazine have never done anything like this in Nam. But this moment incredibly accurately captures the feeling of America from the Playboy-Vietnam War nexus.
And its brightest moment was during the Vietnam War. It was then that the magazine showed completely nude models for the first time. It was then that he changed the perception of sex, making the ideal of a woman a "real friend." It was then that it became a counterculture publication, where Kerouac and Vonnegut were published, and interviews with Malcolm X could be read.
Hefner's magazine made its own sexual revolution. During the Second World War, either hand-drawn pin-up models or unattainable cold Hollywood empresses looked at the fighters from the pages. Playboy dismisses these concepts, and the main seasoning of the publication is the image of the "girl next door." The nude and certainly chic models were not alien goddesses, but improved versions of the very girls who were waiting for the soldiers at home.
The magazine itself took a similar part in the lives of the soldiers: it burst in on supply helicopters and brought the soldiers a piece of America, forcing them to completely forget about the landings on the Iroquois, Ho Chi Minh and the bullets of the for a while.
The U.S. generals knew that Playboy had gone from being a magazine with bare coquettes to a social time bomb, but they couldn't do anything about it-without it, the whole operation could be shut down, because the soldiers would definitely mutiny. Feminism, black rights, politics, beatings of demonstrators, drugs and homosexuality in the military. And all this, a soldier, gritting his teeth and cursing, his own generals allowed him to read.
"Traditionally, a soldier would be advised by friends to tell the chaplain, report to the Army inspector, or write to Congress. Now, thanks to the Playboy Forum Officer Injustice Letters, there's another court of last resort."
Playboy was not just a magazine where provincial Jane and Mary sparkled with beautiful breasts and asses. For the soldiers who had barely reached the age of puberty and had been sent to the slaughterhouse, it was a revelation like no other. There you could read scathing criticism of your government, and at the same time it supplied them with new issues. Here you could write yourself to the publication and participate in an open correspondence, a kind of forum, right on the pages of the magazine. In addition to erotica, news, lifestyle, polemics and literature, for which the soldier opened Playboy, was the local forum. The editors of the magazine used this word to describe a column in which ordinary readers could communicate, addressing everyone and even individual readers at the same time.
An ordinary guy from Oklahoma serving near Da Nang had just as much chance of getting into the pages of a magazine as Bond author Ian Flemming or Vonnegut.
A soldier turned the page from the centerfold and came across texts about architecture, lifestyle, the latest gadgets and travel. Flipping even further, he immersed himself in stories by Vonnegut, Ian Fleming, Nabokov, or Arthur C. Clarke. Then there was a column in which a completely stunned soldier even read exposés about his leadership from fellow fighters.
Playboy was of great importance in raising the morale of the soldiers. The officers understood this and brought it to the places where the troops were stationed by wagons. It wasn't just about sex, although it clearly set the right level of emotional involvement for the publication. Looking at the smooth lines of Girl of the Month, the soldier knew on a primitive level what he was fighting for. This had a terrific effect on the fighters. Looking at the photo, they imagined what kind of reward awaited them at home.
Playboy changed the norms and rules of sexuality and brought them to everyone at the same speed, from the young hangman from New York to the soldier in the trenches. The all-American ideal of a woman had shifted from the image of an inaccessible and fatal beauty to the ideal life partner - educated (but not snobbish), cheerful, courageous, and ardent. A constant controversy ensued, which grew into a column where Playboy published articles about social problems and radical metamorphoses of America.
The publication became so radical for its time that it was possible to read on its pages both an interview with the icon of the struggle for the struggle for black rights, Malcolm X, and, with a small margin, an interview with the founder of the American Nazi Party, George Lincoln Rockwell. As unbelievable as it seems now, it looked just as unbelievable then.
A similar change of orientation applied to the question of race. Black men and even Asians who served in the U.S. military (they had a particularly hard time) suddenly found nude models of their own race on the pages of a magazine. And this was not a pathetic handout to the colored soldiers, these were the equivalent uninhibited and beautiful women who rightfully received the title of "Girls of the Month" in Playboy.
The abusive episode of Vietnam speaks volumes about the impact that the magazine had on the minds of the army. Playboy decided to be the first to be on the wave of the sexual revolution. In just one year, it went from a publication where nipples were censored to a bombshell in which you could see a completely naked woman who was not ashamed to show her pubes.
American POWs who were captured in 1971 and released in 1973 were shocked to see full nudity in Playboy. Fantastic women, fantastic stories, fantastically bold themes - in the 70s!
by Volodymyr Brovin
.Humanitarian Sexual Aid
Apocalypse Now 1979 - Suzie Q - Playboy Playmates Jungle Show
Going back to a moment in Apocalypse Now, the real "Playboy bunnies" actually came to Vietnam to keep up the
morale of the soldiers. But in reality, everything did not go as it seems. First of all, everything was very
innocent, and secondly, such visits caused rather frustration and depression. Fighters were lured by the
image of a passing "Miss Market" and immediately driven into the jungle to die in Viet Cong traps or ambushes.
From one of the best movies ever made, Apocalypse Now. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola in 1979.
The action takes place in 1970 during the Vietnam war.
dr. π (pi)
.
With the death of Hugh Hefner, an era has passed. Yet what Playboy will definitely not be able to lose is his story.
"If World War II was a war of stars and stripes and Betty Grable, then the Vietnam War was a war of Playboy magazine."
- Ward Just, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer
America from the Playboy-Vietnam War nexus : .[Spoiler (click to open)].Playboy becomes a mouthpiece for the counterculture
Remember the scene from Apocalypse Now: the main character arrives at the stadium near the frontline base and finds himself in the middle of a crazy show: models from Playboy arrive on helicopters and erotically dance to Creedence in front of hundreds of frantic soldiers. Historically, the scene is terribly implausible: the "bunnies" of the magazine have never done anything like this in Nam. But this moment incredibly accurately captures the feeling of America from the Playboy-Vietnam War nexus.
And its brightest moment was during the Vietnam War. It was then that the magazine showed completely nude models for the first time. It was then that he changed the perception of sex, making the ideal of a woman a "real friend." It was then that it became a counterculture publication, where Kerouac and Vonnegut were published, and interviews with Malcolm X could be read.
Hefner's magazine made its own sexual revolution. During the Second World War, either hand-drawn pin-up models or unattainable cold Hollywood empresses looked at the fighters from the pages. Playboy dismisses these concepts, and the main seasoning of the publication is the image of the "girl next door." The nude and certainly chic models were not alien goddesses, but improved versions of the very girls who were waiting for the soldiers at home.
The magazine itself took a similar part in the lives of the soldiers: it burst in on supply helicopters and brought the soldiers a piece of America, forcing them to completely forget about the landings on the Iroquois, Ho Chi Minh and the bullets of the for a while.
The U.S. generals knew that Playboy had gone from being a magazine with bare coquettes to a social time bomb, but they couldn't do anything about it-without it, the whole operation could be shut down, because the soldiers would definitely mutiny. Feminism, black rights, politics, beatings of demonstrators, drugs and homosexuality in the military. And all this, a soldier, gritting his teeth and cursing, his own generals allowed him to read.
"Traditionally, a soldier would be advised by friends to tell the chaplain, report to the Army inspector, or write to Congress. Now, thanks to the Playboy Forum Officer Injustice Letters, there's another court of last resort."
Playboy was not just a magazine where provincial Jane and Mary sparkled with beautiful breasts and asses. For the soldiers who had barely reached the age of puberty and had been sent to the slaughterhouse, it was a revelation like no other. There you could read scathing criticism of your government, and at the same time it supplied them with new issues. Here you could write yourself to the publication and participate in an open correspondence, a kind of forum, right on the pages of the magazine. In addition to erotica, news, lifestyle, polemics and literature, for which the soldier opened Playboy, was the local forum. The editors of the magazine used this word to describe a column in which ordinary readers could communicate, addressing everyone and even individual readers at the same time.
An ordinary guy from Oklahoma serving near Da Nang had just as much chance of getting into the pages of a magazine as Bond author Ian Flemming or Vonnegut.
A soldier turned the page from the centerfold and came across texts about architecture, lifestyle, the latest gadgets and travel. Flipping even further, he immersed himself in stories by Vonnegut, Ian Fleming, Nabokov, or Arthur C. Clarke. Then there was a column in which a completely stunned soldier even read exposés about his leadership from fellow fighters.
Playboy was of great importance in raising the morale of the soldiers. The officers understood this and brought it to the places where the troops were stationed by wagons. It wasn't just about sex, although it clearly set the right level of emotional involvement for the publication. Looking at the smooth lines of Girl of the Month, the soldier knew on a primitive level what he was fighting for. This had a terrific effect on the fighters. Looking at the photo, they imagined what kind of reward awaited them at home.
Playboy changed the norms and rules of sexuality and brought them to everyone at the same speed, from the young hangman from New York to the soldier in the trenches. The all-American ideal of a woman had shifted from the image of an inaccessible and fatal beauty to the ideal life partner - educated (but not snobbish), cheerful, courageous, and ardent. A constant controversy ensued, which grew into a column where Playboy published articles about social problems and radical metamorphoses of America.
The publication became so radical for its time that it was possible to read on its pages both an interview with the icon of the struggle for the struggle for black rights, Malcolm X, and, with a small margin, an interview with the founder of the American Nazi Party, George Lincoln Rockwell. As unbelievable as it seems now, it looked just as unbelievable then.
A similar change of orientation applied to the question of race. Black men and even Asians who served in the U.S. military (they had a particularly hard time) suddenly found nude models of their own race on the pages of a magazine. And this was not a pathetic handout to the colored soldiers, these were the equivalent uninhibited and beautiful women who rightfully received the title of "Girls of the Month" in Playboy.
The abusive episode of Vietnam speaks volumes about the impact that the magazine had on the minds of the army. Playboy decided to be the first to be on the wave of the sexual revolution. In just one year, it went from a publication where nipples were censored to a bombshell in which you could see a completely naked woman who was not ashamed to show her pubes.
American POWs who were captured in 1971 and released in 1973 were shocked to see full nudity in Playboy. Fantastic women, fantastic stories, fantastically bold themes - in the 70s!
by Volodymyr Brovin
.Humanitarian Sexual Aid
Apocalypse Now 1979 - Suzie Q - Playboy Playmates Jungle Show
Going back to a moment in Apocalypse Now, the real "Playboy bunnies" actually came to Vietnam to keep up the
morale of the soldiers. But in reality, everything did not go as it seems. First of all, everything was very
innocent, and secondly, such visits caused rather frustration and depression. Fighters were lured by the
image of a passing "Miss Market" and immediately driven into the jungle to die in Viet Cong traps or ambushes.
Click to viewFrom one of the best movies ever made, Apocalypse Now. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola in 1979.
The action takes place in 1970 during the Vietnam war.
dr. π (pi)
.