# First reference to Vietnam War in U.S. production?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-reference-to-vietnam-war-in-u-s-production/371496>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [September 5, 2006, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-reference-to-vietnam-war-in-u-s-production/371496 "2006-09-05T12:55:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-reference-to-vietnam-war-in-u-s-production/371496/1 "2006-09-05T12:55:08Z")

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What was the first reference to Vietnam in a mainstream U.S. film or TV show? The earliest I can think of is _The Twilight Zone_ episode _In Praise Of Pip_ (1963).

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**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-reference-to-vietnam-war-in-u-s-production/371496/2 "2006-09-06T03:59:11Z")

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[Five Gates to Hell (1959)](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0052808/)?

I’ll have to pull this one out and watch it again. One of the nurses throws a barb at Nancy Kulp about how she’s never had a man.

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**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-reference-to-vietnam-war-in-u-s-production/371496/3 "2006-09-06T04:21:01Z")

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[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.]  
What was the first reference to Vietnam in a mainstream U.S. film or TV show? The earliest I can think of is _The Twilight Zone_ episode _In Praise Of Pip_ (1963).  
[/QUOTE]

That would have been my nominee.

I remember that Jack Klugman was the star. When he gets word that his son has been wounded in action in Viet Nam, he says something like, “There isn’t even supposed to be a war there.”

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**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-reference-to-vietnam-war-in-u-s-production/371496/4 "2006-09-06T04:25:12Z")

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_[China Gate](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0050252/)_ (1957), written and directed by Sam Fuller, starring Gene Barry and Angie Dickinson. The plot description in the AFI Catalog of Motion Pictures begins,

> [@](#):
>
> In 1954, along a mountain range known as the China Gate, a small Northern Vietnamese village remains as the last holdout against the steadily encroaching Communist doctrine voiced by Ho Chi Minh. The starving peasants have paid dearly for their idealism, and are pounded daily by bombs.

Followed by _[The Quiet American](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0052106/)_, starring Audie Murphy, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, from the novel by Graham Greene. Technically, it’s about the Indochinese War, 1946-1954, which segued into the Vietnam War.