The wreckage of a U.S. B-52 shot down in 1972 sits in a small lake in Hanoi.(Getty Images)
CBS’s award-winning reality show “The Amazing Race” is under fire, accused of insulting Vietnam vets by using the wreckage of a B-52 as a prop and having contestants learn a song that extolls the virtues of the Viet Cong.
“I don’t know how many Vietnam vets are on here, but there should be a campaign to have CBS apologize publicly,” one viewer said in an online message board.
In the controversial episode, which was set in Hanoi, contestants traveled to a B-52 Memorial, consisting of the wreckage of an downed American bomber plane, to look for clues in the show’s around-the-world scavenger-hunt,
Fox News reports.
The wreckage is treated as a prop, with an ‘Amazing Race’ ‘Double-U-Turn’ sign placed in front of it,
In another scene, contestants are shown by locals how to sing a song in which the lyrics read: “Vietnam Communist Party is glorious. The light is guiding us to victory.” The song is performed in front of a picture of North Vietnam’s late communist leader Ho Chi Minh.
Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld raged on his late night show “Red Eye”: “How did it not cross the producers’ minds that this might offend the men who fought in Vietnam and the families of those who died there?”
“The Amazing Race” is one of the country’s most successful reality shows. It has won 14 primetime Emmys since going on the air in 2001.
Another online critic said: “So, did anyone but me find the ‘Amazing Race’ going to Hanoi and extolling the greatness of Hanoi offensive? Especially the part where the contestants had a ‘clue’ box at a Hanoi monument of a downed B-52?’’
Fox said efforts to get comments from the show’s producers were not answered.
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