"Cachiusa" in "The deer hunter"

[AnHai Doan <anhai@cs.washington.edu>]

Hi, someone mentioned earlier "Cachiusa", the famous Russian song 
(DDa`o vu+`a ra hoa...). The weirdest place where I heard this song
is in "The deer hunter" (Ng` sa(n nai), an (in)famous American film
about the Vietnam war.

In this film, there is a scence when relatives and friends gathered to say
farewell to four (?) guys going over to Vietnam. At the end of the huge
farewell party, everyone sang the song "Cachiusa" as the boys said good-bye
and left.

To use PatPong folks' expression, I almost fell off my chair hearing 
this song in an American film, and in one about the Vietnam war, it was 
so unexpected. What do you think, what could the director try to say with 
choosing this song?

Cheers, Hai.

PS. In World War II, one of the most favorite songs of American soldiers
marching toward Berlin was a German song.