Attacked by the mostly liberal film critic establishment with almost hysterical furor in its day, enough time has passed to appreciate this movie for what it actually is, an utterly fascinating time capsule that is a pretty crap flick.
The one big big budget pro-Vietnam War film was always going to be up against it; things aren't helped by some shoddy filmmaking. Structure wise, the film really should have focused just on the siege - then they throw in this extra act about a female agent who helps them abduct a general, which clunks.
Hokey moments abound - the intro sequence where sergeant Aldo Ray professes to be non political then gives journos a lecture about why they want to be in Vietnam; the journalist from the woman's journal being apologetic on that fact; meeting Hamchuck the orphan; Hamchuck getting into bed with Jim Hutton; Hamchuck going "you funny"; pretty much every sequence involving Hamuck (including the ending exchange "was my Peterson brave?" "Yes he was brave" "what will happen to me now" "You let me worry about that you're what this war is all about".)
But it's fascinating, utterly fascinating. It takes these well warn World War Two and Western tropes - evil generals, double agent women, spies, sieges in outposts, yelling savage natives - and puts them in this fresh Vietnam War setting. It's remarkable to see Wayne talking about DMZ and saying Vietnam place names. It contrasts sharply to Vietnam War tropes (soldiers going crazy and raping/napalming Vietnamese etc) which we assume are so much more accurate because... um... we see it more in movies I guess.
Some of the action isn't bad - I enjoyed the siege component as a good old fashioned John Wayne siege story. And the film doesn't stuff around showing the harshness of war - we meet key soldiers who die (eg the likeable Jim Hutton winds up in a trap - this made me feel sad; Mike Henry gets a whole taking-out-several-VC-before-being-killed himself sequence). The Vietnamese enemy are admittedly heavily depersonalised as wild, mostly faceless savages (just as they were in Platoon and Full Metal Jacket), but the South Vietnamese are allowed a bit of characterisation: the double agent girl, the officer. It is completely worth seeing.
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