The discussion among Vietnam Old Hacks lately has been about the worst Vietnam movie ever made. The Deer Hunter appears to hold a huge lead in the voting. John Wayne’s The Green Berets, which featured the sun setting in the east, was considered such a laughable cartoon that it didn’t qualify for consideration.

I couldn’t agree more on The Deer Hunter, that absurdly inaccurate, distorted, overwrought 1978 attempt to be THE Vietnam movie. Most veterans I know were either angered by it or amused by its over the top pretensions.

Members of Vietnam Old Hacks see the small mistakes in the movie — Robert DeNiro wearing a beard with his Class A uniform, DeNiro wielding a flamethrower in the middle of the jungle, the unit patches worn on the wrong shoulder, the ludicrous Russian roulette scenes — that create a sense that the war in the movie was not even close to the war they knew.

The Old Hacks know. They are a loosely formed, Internet-connected group that covered Vietnam or served there or both. Some of them live in Southeast Asia or make frequent visits to haunting old haunts. Some are planning a reunion in Saigon next year.

Vietnam Old Hacks is a way to connect, to find old friends from AP or UPI, CBS or the Los Angeles Times. It is an opportunity to compare notes on favorite wartime hangouts — the best noodle shop in Saigon, that rooftop bar where the war could be taken with a cocktail. There are some war stories but there don’t seem to be many in the few weeks I have been checking in. These are people, after all, who saw the war up close and fed it back to us every day. They covered their war as no war has been covered since. And some of them worry. They worry about what they call “deja vu all over again.” As they talk of the old days, and of movies, they also talk of right now. They find disturbing common ground.

Afghanistan, some Old Hacks fear, is taking on way too many similarities to Vietnam. Old lessons seem to be getting ignored — again.

It can get downright eerie if you think about it too much, although thinking about it too much is probably not going to become a national obsession.

There is the long, draining defeat of the Russians preceding our charge into Afghanistan just as there was the long, draining defeat of the French before our charge into Vietnam.

There is the government in Afghanistan, propped up by the United States but enjoying what appears limited popular support. There was the government in South Vietnam, propped up by the United States but enjoying what appeared limited popular support.

There is the push for more troops. There was the push for more troops.

There are the people coming home from Afghanistan and Iraq badly messed up and finding a country that doesn’t seem to know or care about what they’ve been through. There were people who came home from Vietnam all messed up and finding a country where many people held them in spitting contempt.

We might have learned from the past, but there’s previous little evidence of it.

Still, there are differences. There is no military draft now. There was a military draft during Vietnam. Parents had to worry about their sons getting that letter and being sent to war. Now, parents can let other parents worry.

And there is the difference noticed by some Vietnam Old Hacks who have been to Afghanistan: The bars and bar girls of Saigon have not been transported to Kabul.

bkerr@projo.com