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Missing from Ken Burns’ ‘Vietnam’: The patriotism and pride of those who fought
NY Post ^ | 19 September 2017 | Bing West

Posted on 09/21/2017 9:20:30 AM PDT by oh8eleven

Most of the interviewees talk in the lugubrious tones of the defeated. We all know the story ends badly. But when it’s over, we aren’t told why we lost. The music is more memorable than the pictures, and the pictures are more compelling than the narration. We are deluged by sights and sounds but not enlightened as to cause and effect.

The film casts the antiwar movement in a moderately favorable light. Are the protesters the real heroes here? What about the valiant US soldiers, 75 percent of whom were volunteers?

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 60s; defundpbs; documentary; kenburns; moviereview; vietnam; war
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To: x1stcav
Not entirely...the demonrats in Congress, along with not so few Repub’s, were the final reason the war was lost.
True, but that was early 70s. Five years earlier, after Tet, the North was totally decimated and ready to call it quits. But they took solace and strength from the scumbags still marching in the streets and decided to wait us out.
61 posted on 09/21/2017 10:24:59 AM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: tumblindice

“Then ... they lost interest (”War is hard ... “) and bailed, started blaming Nixon and back-biting our troops & CICh until Congress cut funding.”


I WAS around and always heard Johnson and McNamara blamed,not Nixon.

.


62 posted on 09/21/2017 10:25:03 AM PDT by Mears
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To: Chainmail

The South Vietnamese government was inept and corrupt.


63 posted on 09/21/2017 10:25:54 AM PDT by RedMonqey ("Gun-free zones" equal "Target-rich environment.")
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To: VietVet876
The fighting in Taiwan was never as ferocious as it was in Viet Nam and there was lots of downtime so that’s when the drug use mainly occurs.

What about Tet 69 when TuDo St. was overrun?

64 posted on 09/21/2017 10:28:29 AM PDT by SanchoP
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To: RedMonqey

No doubt - but they deserved to be free, didn’t they?


65 posted on 09/21/2017 10:29:10 AM PDT by Chainmail (A simple rule of life: if you can be blamed, you're responsible.)
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To: oh8eleven
I didn't really get that from the series so far. One of the soldiers they covered was a kid named Mogie Crocker. They went to great length to show his patriotism and his willingness to serve his country.also, in episode 4, a reporter was quoted as saying that the men he saw in Vietnam were every bit as brave as the so-called Greatest Generation.

All in all, I'd say LBJ and McNamara have borne the brunt of the scorn. But that could also be my personal point of view being confirmed.

66 posted on 09/21/2017 10:31:44 AM PDT by Repealthe17thAmendment
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To: Wyrd bið ful aræd
The military won the war. Washington lost it.

The one mistake for US was the incessant reporting(on our side)was the causality reports.

The Cong didn't report their losses and it wouldn't have mattered to them.

"Die a hero on the battlefield or die a coward with a bullet in the head"
67 posted on 09/21/2017 10:32:14 AM PDT by RedMonqey ("Gun-free zones" equal "Target-rich environment.")
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To: oh8eleven

Let me offer another perspective from my personal observations directly after we pulled out of Vietnam.

I served a tour there in the Army from 70-71.

After the war, in August of 1974, I went back to Vietnam as a government contractor with Lear-Siegler in an effort to teach the S. Vietnamese military how to take care of and maintain the immense amount of aircraft that we left with them, as part of Nixon’s “Vietnamization” program.

This was at Tan Son Nhut AFB, and between classroom and flightline instruction that I gave to S. Vietnamese military personnel, it was obvious to me by their ho-hum attitudes and lack of motivation to learn, that they didn’t want to have anything more to do with the war and they knew S. Vietnam was in the process of falling to the North’s southward march.

Everyday I would see numerous cargo planes landing and off-loading hundreds of dead S. Vietnamese solders, and my students saw it too.

I won’t watch the Burn’s documentary and don’t know if he’ll touch on the “Vietnamization” effort that America undertook, but from my perspective, I knew during the Summer of ‘74 that it was a losing effort, and 8 months later S. Vietnam fell to the Communists.


68 posted on 09/21/2017 10:33:02 AM PDT by PROCON (#MAGA)
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To: Chainmail
No doubt - but they deserved to be free, didn’t they?

Vietnamese were less concerned about being free than kicking out foreigners.

They even went to war with the communist Chinese shortly after the fall of Saigon.

That said, it's currently easier to open and run a business in former Saigon than New York City...

69 posted on 09/21/2017 10:34:15 AM PDT by Snickering Hound
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To: hal ogen

He was on Fox and friends the other day and then went on Brian’s radio show. He seemed nice. At least nicer than idiot Jimmy Kimmel who threatened to pound Brian if they ever met after Brian was calling Kimmel an elitist.


70 posted on 09/21/2017 10:35:07 AM PDT by Mozilla (Truth Is Stranger than Fiction)
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To: RedMonqey
The South Vietnamese government was inept and corrupt.
I'd ask which one, but they were all corrupt.
The only good part of Diem's government was his brother's wife - Madam Nhu.
71 posted on 09/21/2017 10:35:07 AM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: ilovesarah2012
"My husband was in the Air Force and stationed in Taiwan. According to him, everybody was using a lot if drugs. Could that have anything to do with the outcome?"

I'm reasonably sure that Taiwan was out of range for any targets near us - but if so, it could explain why the Air Force always seemed to hit the wrong treelines - or us.

I was in direct combat on the ground and to best of my knowledge no one ever used drugs - 1. when somebody's trying to kill you and any step you take can be your last, you tend not to want to dull your senses anymore than you have to and 2. Not exactly sure where you'd get drugs, since we always in the field, never in the rear.

72 posted on 09/21/2017 10:35:59 AM PDT by Chainmail (A simple rule of life: if you can be blamed, you're responsible.)
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To: oh8eleven

Of course, the left has diligently worked for 40 years to remove patriotism and pride in country from our skools, they don’t want today’s young people to be exposed to that kind of thinking now.


73 posted on 09/21/2017 10:37:10 AM PDT by Let's Roll ("You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality" -- Ayn Rand)
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To: oh8eleven
Missing from Ken Burns’ ‘Vietnam’: The patriotism and pride of those who fought

Which is EXACTLY why I didn't even bother to tune in to watch the show. FU Ken Burns!

74 posted on 09/21/2017 10:37:52 AM PDT by nutmeg
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To: oh8eleven

Ken Burns is a typical New England Leftist...


75 posted on 09/21/2017 10:38:31 AM PDT by nutmeg
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To: Mozilla

No LIB is “nice”. They hate you, your family, your success and your freedom.


76 posted on 09/21/2017 10:38:59 AM PDT by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
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To: Repealthe17thAmendment
Mogie Crocker. They went to great length to show his patriotism and his willingness to serve his country
True, but you knew right from the beginning, the way it was presented, he was doomed.
I also didn't like the way they strung his mother along; reliving all that heartache and horror.
If that were me and my mother, I'd come back from the dead and kick Burns' @ss.
77 posted on 09/21/2017 10:41:07 AM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: Snickering Hound
"Vietnamese were less concerned about being free than kicking out foreigners."

So say you - and when were you there?

The villagers I saw every day I was there didn't want a thing to do with the VC or the NVA - they just wanted to be free to live their own lives. They knew why were there, most of them - and they were worth protecting.

78 posted on 09/21/2017 10:41:25 AM PDT by Chainmail (A simple rule of life: if you can be blamed, you're responsible.)
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To: oh8eleven

Burns did the same distorted versions of history re the Civil War and WWII. It is all about social justice and aggrieved minorities.


79 posted on 09/21/2017 10:42:33 AM PDT by kabar
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To: nutmeg

Ken Burns is a history revisionist, whose documentaries are used in the public schools to teach “history”. No wonder the last couple of generations believe the way they do. Too bad they can’t be rounded up and made to sit through REAL history lessons.


80 posted on 09/21/2017 10:42:46 AM PDT by Flaming Conservative
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