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Posted on 09/22/2017 11:10:12 AM PDT by grayhog
Steve Sherman and VVFFH are reviewing each episode, pointing out the falsehoods, misrepresentations, outright lies and propaganda as they come up. Here is a summary of the first episode:
Segment One: (1945-1959)
Fails to mention that Ho Chi Minh was a Comintern (Soviet) agent for nearly 20 years, not a nationalist as portrayed in the documentary. If he was a true nationalist, he would have worked with the other anti-French nationalists (VNQDD, Dai Viet, Catholic, Cao Dai, etc.) instead of betraying them to the French Surete to be imprisoned or killed. He also murdered many anti-French nationalists and Vietnamese patriots because they would not adopt the measures and policy objectives of the Viet Minh. If Ho was a “nationalist first and communist second,” so were Stalin, Mussolini (was a communist before he formed the fascist movement), and Mao – all were socialists first and nationalists second. Even Hitler was a socialist, if not a communist. Also, if Ho was a nationalist, why was he an officer in the PLA and why was he sent to Thailand by the Comintern to build the communist party there? No, Ho was a communist first period!
The portrayal of Ho as someone who admired the US and our policies is a false one. Ho was in dire straits at the end of WWII and he was desperate for any help he could receive. The Chinese Nationalists controlled China in 1945 and Mao’s base was in northwest China (Yennan), far from Vietnam. The idea that some sort of deal could be made with Ho to turn him into a Tito is not supported by any evidence, only supposition. Ho curried favor with the Americans simply because the Nationalist Chinese were not providing his communist guerrillas with any assistance after 1942 and he was willing to do just about anything to get US money and military equipment, using the gullible (and pro-communist) elements in the OSS to achieve it. The largest anti-Japanese guerrilla force in Vietnam during WWII was the one controlled by the Chinese Nationalists, not Ho’s small force. This all changed when the Nationalist left Vietnam in early 1946. Once Mao took over China in 1949, the French colonial control of Vietnam was doomed.
No mention is made of the fact that only ONE US pilot shot down over Vietnam in WWII was rescued by Ho’s organization. The rest were rescued by Chinese Nationalist/Vietnamese forces. The reason for such poor results is Ho had very few guerrilla fighters in the field when the OSS visited him. He was simply making an empty promise when he told them he would rescue downed American flyers.
It appears with this documentary Burns is involved in a campaign by the left to refresh and advance its historical attack on our military. That campaign is no doubt intended to impact the prospective action that may well be taken in the near term by our CinC.
Vietnam and Trumps's presidency are perhaps the two recent events that presented the greatest threats to the left's worldview.
The new info for me on this episode were the deeper details on Ho Chi Minh such as how he took out rivals so his Communist group could lead the fight against the French.
Like all good Communist leaders?
Pretty much. The main point in the article was this was totally danced around in the PBS show with a light glossing over about HCM’s time in Moscow and how he used Jefferson’s words in a speech or letter. IOW, the usual bait-and-switch.
VVFH is on Facebook
I’ve portions of the episodes. It is pointed out that we killed North Vietnamese, Viet Cong, and anyone else at the other end of a gun by the thousands. The problem was that the guys at the other end of the gun just would not give up or quit.
Yeah. I wonder if they will equate the mass graves in Hue (if they even mention them) to Mai Lai. I am willing to bet money they spend half an episode on Mai Lai, and about 30 seconds on the people murdered at Hue.
I suppose the only reason they will mention Hue is for the purpose of creating that moral equivalence.
Complete anomaly for the USA and its military.
Business as usual for Communists, who have murdered 100-200 million of their own citizens in the last century.
I tried to watch an episode and couldn’t make it through it. It wasn’t about “The War”. Maybe later on there will be, but the war footage consisted of close ups of dead bodies.
I was unimpressed and cancelled the remaining episodes.
Wow. Being political.
To the children today, Vietnam is akin in relevance to WWI back when I was a young boy (during the Vietnam war.)
It was too long ago, and too confusing. No matter how much we want them to learn about history in this world, they won’t spend more than a week on the entire sixties. And less on the 50s.
We are better off working to keep us out of the next one. Oops...too late.
The show is stupid and commits blatant doublethink.
It parrots how Hot Chi Minh cribbed from the Declaration and wanted US recognition, and then later on talks about the Maoist land reforms that occurred.
If Ho wasn’t a Communist first, why would he push for such Maoist policies immediately?
It doesn’t even address that or say how they were forced to do so, it just casually states such.
Bump.....
For additional supporting information on what Steve has written so well about Ho Chi Minh and his communist fanaticism, try to find online the Sen. Judiciary Committee, Senate Internal Security Subcommittee study “The Human Cost of Communism in Vietnam”, 1972 (there are two followup parts to it, the Testimony of D. Gareth Porter and THCCIVN, Testimony of Daniel Teodoru).
I created the original study and with the late David Martin (SISS analyst, supporter of Mikhailovich and his Chetniks in Yugoslavia), we put the publication together. It included original interviews with Vietnamese figures, plus communist terrorism casualty figures from at least three countries (good through early 1972 (not including those after the Easter offensive and then thru the fall of SVN in 1975, and its aftermath of slave labor camps and massive executions in secret of GVN and ARVN members.
VVFH also has a serious of yearly “Yellow Books” entitled “Vietnam in the Year of the (Goat, Snake, Tiger, etc) that go from 1963 through 1975, 1974 will be coming out next year).
VVFH also took on John Kerry and his war crimes claims before Congress and elsewhere (Steve was a Special Forces leader who had operational connections to John Kerry and his Swift Boats on the Bay Hap River).
At a National Archives meeting in DC several years ago, VVFH members totally redirected their Vietnam symposium by having people who dealt directly with Pres. Diem talk about what it was like and what was happening in VN at that time. The opposition never produced anyone like that, and revelations about what was going on in SVN by VVFH members really shook up the participants and the audience, because they were hearing things from the people who were there, from grunts to provincial advisors, diplomats to journalists, etc.
The purpose of VVFH is to bring to the public’s attention “factual history”, not some of this leftist cdrap and propaganda that you find in the works of Prados, Porter, Appy, Turse, Young, etc.
VVFH could adopt the motto “The Truth Shall Set You Free” from communist propaganda and disinformation which many heard from Tom Hayden, Jane Fonda, Dr. Spock, Dave Dellinger, and a lot of other reds and dupes.
Ken Burns’ documentary has some very good material in it and some crap, including a distinct anti-VN bias that Burns privately told some people about.
Watch the VVFH sites for more articles and analysis, stuff you wont’ get in the mainstream media or academia.
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