I was in the military in the late 60s, but I did not go to Vietnam. I watched this with a friend of my age who was there as an Army corporal for two years. He gave the film high marks for accuracy. Lancaster was excellent in portraying the skepticism of career military officers about our involvement. The scene where he must go and plead with the corrupt South Vietnamese officer is especially telling. The "cowboy" character was well conceived. Unlike another reviewer, I did not see the Wasson character becoming totally callous. In fact his last line about just wanting "to go home now" (spoken to the spectral Viet Cong in the mist after the battle) shows his disillusion with the war.