Texas Tech University

A Bright Shining Lie

Moving Image Item Number: 1179VI2762
Pages
0
Media Type
Moving Image
Physical Location
D024.3C
Copyright Statement
1998 Home Box Office
Number of Media
1
Language(s)
English
Item is Copyrighted – Check for access via the Vietnam Reading Room portal.
Format
DVD
Time - Hr:Min:Sec
01:58:00
Digitized in HD?
No
Dates
Existence: 1998
General Note
Vietnam was a devastating War. From the Communist North to the U.S. supported South, it saw one nation brutally torn apart, and at the heart of it, one man. Lt. Colonel John Paul Vann (Bill Paxton) is one of the first U.S. senior military advisers sent to Vietnam. Vann is as complex as the war itself - a husband and father who takes lovers as casually as he takes control of every situation...except one. In Vietnam, Vann finds himself fighting a war he cannot win alongside a corrupt and demoralized South Vietnamese Army. But what leads a man to expose the truth and sacrifice his career? To fly from a loving home to a war-torn battlefield. To turn from a soldier of strategy to a general of ruthless bombing campaigns which can only destroy what they cannot defeat. A man - a time - a nation of change. What they share together and what tears them apart is A Bright Shining Lie.

Perma Link
https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/virtualarchive/items.php?item=1179VI2762

Citation
A Bright Shining Lie, 1179VI2762. 1998, Michael Cook Collection, Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University, https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/virtualarchive/items.php?item=1179VI2762, Accessed 18 Feb 2026.

Pub Credit Line
1179VI2762, Michael Cook Collection, Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University

Added: 10 Jan 2010 [Updated: 20 Jan 2026]