Hollywood as a soft power tool during the Vietnam War: Apocalypse now redux and the green berets

The culture, ideology, and political policies of the United States shaped the agenda of the Cold War. During this process, the Pentagon used Hollywood to depict communism as a frightening threat in various forms and engaged in a struggle against countries that did not adopt the political ideologies of the United States. Hollywood, as a non-state actor, also criticized Washington's policies, serving as a symptom of governance technology. In this study, the processes by which the nationalist ideology, which led American soldiers to victory in World War II as defenders of freedom, repositioned itself against the threat of communism in Asia are examined, and the policies of the White House in combating communism, depending on the variability of soft power, are analyzed through two films from the Vietnam War era.