47 h. ago Mission relatable: forget the stunts, the key to Mission Impossible’s appeal is office dynamics

From put-upon backroom schlubs to everyone-knows romances, the franchise reflects modern work culture, especially the collective banter With Tom Cruise’s reckoning upgraded to “final” in the imminent instalment of the Mission: Impossible franchise, it seems a strong probability that the curtain is about to fall on cinema’s leading daredevil. Unless his Impossible Mission Force agent Ethan Hunt expires mid-battle like 007 in No Time to Die, it seems likely the character will be gracefully retired. Cruise, now 62, can’t reasonably be expected to suction-cup himself to landmark architecture for much longer. Which begs the question of his IMF colleagues: what to buy the departing espionage hotshot? There’s always the trusty carriage clock (fitted with disarmable neutron bomb, just to keep his skills ticking over).The office comparison isn’t just fanciful. Along with envelope-pushing stunts and concierge-class glamour, part of the reason for the Mission: Impossible franchise’s resurgence...

Events

47 h. ago Mission relatable: forget the stunts, the key to Mission Impossible’s appeal is office dynamics | Phil Hoad

From put-upon backroom schlubs to everyone-knows romances, the franchise reflects modern work culture, especially the collective banter With Tom Cruise’s reckoning upgraded to “final” in the imminent instalment of the Mission: Impossible franchise, it seems a strong probability that the curtain is about to fall on cinema’s leading daredevil. Unless his Impossible Mission Force agent Ethan Hunt expires mid-battle like 007 in No Time to Die, it seems likely the character will be gracefully retired. Cruise, now 62, can’t reasonably be expected to suction-cup himself to landmark architecture for much longer. Which begs the question of his IMF colleagues: what to buy the departing espionage hotshot? There’s always the trusty carriage clock (fitted with disarmable neutron bomb, just to keep his skills ticking over).The office comparison isn’t just fanciful. Along with envelope-pushing stunts and concierge-class glamour, part of the reason for the Mission: Impossible franchise’s resurgence...

Events

8 d. ago Investigations continue to find truth behind famous Vietnam War photo

The film ‘The Stringer’ alleges that the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph was taken by Nguyen Thanh Nghe

Events

1 week ago Donald Trump insults Britain’s brave war heroes by claiming America 'won' the world wars

Many pointed to the fact that Trump himself received five deferments during the height of the Vietnam War - four were for education and one was a ‘medical waiver’ after his graduation

Politics

2 w. ago ‘Still an open wound’: damning docuseries revisits Vietnam war 50 years on

Netflix series Turning Point: The Vietnam War goes back to retrace a devastating history from multiple perspectivesThis Wednesday, 30 April, marks a full half century since the fall of Saigon. The takeover of the South Vietnamese capital, renamed Ho Chi Minh City, by North Vietnamese forces reunited a country riven by a decades-long civil war that killed more than 3 million civilians – a triumph of one vision of Vietnam’s future at the violent expense of another, with many caught perilously in between.For the US, the fall of Saigon was an indisputable humiliation and the end to what was then its longest war, one that killed over 58,000 servicemen, divided a nation and has only grown more ignominious with time. Fifty years on, the picture is clear: the Americanization of the Vietnam War was an unfathomably costly, poorly run, incomprehensibly horrific folly based on political lies and dubious intelligence. It is taught as a brief but upsetting chapter in American schools – if it’s ta...

Events

2 w. ago The US left Vietnam 50 years ago today. The media hasn’t learned its lesson | Norman Solomon

The myth that news coverage turned Americans against the war persists. In fact, it was largely complicit in perpetuating the conflictThe last helicopter liftoff from the roof of the American embassy in Saigon on 30 April 1975 marked the end of the Vietnam war. Fifty years later, mythology about US media coverage of the war is locked into the faulty premise that news outlets were pivotal in causing Americans to turn against it. Some say that mainstream media undermined a noble war effort, while others say that coverage alerted the public to realities of an unjust war. Both assertions are wrong.Scapegoating the media fits neatly into “stab in the back” theories of Americans who can’t stand the fact that their country lost a war to impoverished Vietnamese fighters. And praising the media as catalysts for the nation’s roused conscience gives undue credit while fostering illusions about mainstream news coverage of America’s wars. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Vietnam celebrates 50th anniversary of end of war: ‘Now it’s time for peace’

About 13,000 people, including troops, militias, veterans, and local citizens take part in parade

Events

2 w. ago From M*A*S*H to The Sympathizer: 12 TV shows shaped by the Vietnam War

If you wanted to find the Vietnam War in American television shows, you mostly had to wait until it was long over

Events

2 w. ago From M*A*S*H to The Sympathizer: 12 TV shows shaped by the Vietnam War (cloned)

If you wanted to find the Vietnam War in American television shows, you mostly had to wait until it was long over

Events

2 w. ago 10 fiction and nonfiction books to understand the Vietnam War

The Vietnam War inspired enduring literature, from both sides of the world

Events

2 w. ago Celebrations in Ho Chi Minh City mark 50 years since end of Vietnam war

Thousands gather to see parade featuring marching troops and an air show of Russian-made fighter jets and helicoptersThousands of Vietnamese people have celebrated the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war, in what the country’s communist leader said was a “victory of justice over tyranny”.Celebrations culminated in a grand parade in Ho Chi Minh City with thousands of marching troops and an airshow featuring Russian-made fighter jets and helicopters, as Vietnamese waved red flags and sang patriotic songs. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago For some Americans, the end of the Vietnam War after Saigon fell 50 years ago is still deeply felt

The Vietnam War that ended after the fall of Saigon 50 years ago greatly impacted U.S. society

Events

2 w. ago ‘Bombs and bullets were like rain’: 50 years on from the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam war

Xuan Phuong, a war correspondent who is now 96, recalls the day she entered the city after South Vietnam’s surrenderThe day that Saigon fell, Xuan Phuong, a war correspondent, could only hear shouting and commotion. It was 30 April 1975, and helicopters were frantically lifting personnel and civilians from the US embassy. Phuong, who had travelled down from the north, was initially held back by troops who said fighting was still continuing. When she was finally able to reach the centre of the city the following day, 1 May, she found chaos. Clothes and luggage were scattered and discarded along the streets. Buildings were being looted.It felt like a dream, Phuong, now 96, said. She stood inside the Presidential Palace on 2 May, watching as the president of South Vietnam, Duong Van Minh, surrendered. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Asian American veterans share emotional stories 50 years after Vietnam war: ‘Looking like the enemy’

In one video, a former marine describes how a sergeant hit him on his first night in Vietnam because he assumed he was Vietnamese

Events

2 w. ago Asian American veterans share emotional stories 50 years after Vietnam War

Five decades after the end of the U.S.-led war in Vietnam, Asian American and Pacific Islander veterans are reflecting on the life-changing ordeal that was at time made more complicated by their race

Events

2 w. ago 50 years after the war ended, Vietnam is still grappling with the legacy of Agent Orange

The chemical ghost of the herbicide used by US forces still haunts generations

Events

2 w. ago The Vietnam War ended 50 years ago, but the battle with Agent Orange continues

The Vietnam War ended 50 years ago but the disaster unleashed by American use of Agent Orange continues unabated

Events

2 w. ago The Vietnam War produced classic Hollywood films — and hardly any classic female roles

The Vietnam War produced some of the most classic films of the late 1970s and 1980s

Events

2 w. ago The end of the Vietnam War was also a turning point for protest songs

The departure in 1975 of the last Americans from Vietnam didn't only end a tragic chapter in the history of the two countries

Events