Since it was PBS, I knew I’d just get pissed off. My wife, who is 11 years younger than I and wasn’t old enough during the event to really understand things, is watching it.
I suggested that when she either has questions, or finds something interesting, she should ask me about it.
I didn’t watch. Did Kenny (little boy hair cut) Burns own up to JFK murdering Diem?
I recorded it on my DVR. I fast forward through all of the interviews with the anti war demonstrators, draft dodgers, etc. That cut the viewing time by at least one half. The combat footage and military veterans’ interviews were worth watching.
As a Viet Nam combat vet (1965-1966) I do not trust anything the media put out about Viet Nam. So I skipped it.
I finished episode 8 last night. I have been watching it on PBS.org. I won’t proclaim to be an expert on the Vietnam War. It was before my time so I have been trying to learn from it.
A few things I have taken away from it so far ....
(1) The men and woman that served in Vietnam are just as much a hero as those that served in WWII, Desert Storm, the Korean War, or any of our wars. Their nation called on them to serve and they answered the call.
(2) We supported France to defend their colonialism. They left and then our politicians changed that to defending against communism.
(3) Democrats were 10x more responsible for us being there. The series likes to say that both parties are responsible for our involvement but I place it 10x more on the democrats.
(4) The origins of the protesters — civil disobedience — are pretty much the same today as it was then — loser college and university professors, the media, etc. I think muslim groups should be included too.
Again, I am no expert on the Vietnam War. I have great respect for those that served and I am always wanting to learn more.
Until we start fighting wars with an endgame.....I refuse to watch these shows or back the wars after it has been proven to me that America is not in the war to win. I respect and thank the American servicemen for their service and sacrifices.
But there hasn’t been a war with an endgame since WW 2.
Simple..... you kick ass all over the country(s) you’re fighting, (unfortunately including civilians), until they scream for you to stop.
We need men like Patton and Curtis LeMay fighting our wars.
I was four years old when Saigon fell. I can remember even at four, my Mother escorting me out of the living room while my Vietnam Veteran Father (USMC) ranted and cursed at Cronkite on 30 April. He never talked about the war with me, until I came home on leave after AIT. He hated the anti war left and the media, and simply said “We won the war and they turned it into defeat”. He died in 1998 at age 56, from Agent Orange related cancer. Semper Fi, Dad. Y’all deserved better.
Completely ignores the role of the American Communist Party and the commuter flights to Hanoi and back by the "antiwar" (pro-enemy) leadership.
Lots of propaganda about how the enemy "just wanted to reunify the country" when there never was a "unified" Vietnam, ever and the enemy used a terrorist campaign to overcome the South for communism. Cute use of "mood music" to guide the viewer to how they should understand the scenes.
At least they did reveal at long last the atrocities committed by the enemy at the end of the battle for Hue City.
Was general gapp interviewed? Perhaps he is dead now. He was the the main general for the Vietnamese. I remember watching him describe how they were ready to quit when we left
In Ken’s world, the USSR and KGB didn’t exist.
bfl
If Nixon had unleashed the B52s , mined Haiphong harbor like he did to get the POWS back and peace treaty signed and went into Cambodia the week after he took office instead of putzing around for 4 years the war would have ended in February 1969 and countless American and Vietnamese lives saved and Vietnam would be free today
great series as good as the 13 hour one a few years ago and more participant interviews.
Good description of doings in Saigon from before the war to the fall.
Good descriptions of some battles like on hills when US troops or marines were surrounded and some hero stood up.
Goot coverage of NV strategy.
Downside making Kerry look like a hero instead of the traitor who interjected himself into the negotiations.
All and all good contribution to the history of the war.
i recommend Burns on the civil war (lots of letters from soldiers and their families good comments from historians). jazz, and baseball.
All 10 episodes available too stream at PBS web site.
I was a child at the time of the War, so I cannot comment on how accurately they portray it.
I am struck at how much of the goings on I could remember. The names, places, the photos, and a lot of the story. I would have been around 9-10 in 68-69.
That said, I don’t find the parts on the anti war side THAT bad. In fact, during the earlier episodes its relfected that most of the protesters were white kids in college who did not want to be drafted. It all but came short of calling them pussies. I felt pretty good about that.
And where the show commented on the idiocy of the military leaders they made it pretty clear that the men on the hills were doing their duty and getting it done.
I did not think I would like the series, but I find it compelling. I am DVRing it so I can watch it in smaller chunks—a couple of hours a night for a couple of weeks is a little to much immersion.
I watched the bottom half of this series mainly to see the film footage, I didn't believe for a minute that anything on PBS would be accurate or unbiased.
Well, it was a disaster, wasn’t it? The war, I mean. Good intentions didn’t turn it into a good war. Our highly-paid leaders can screw up royally, and we have to live with the consequences.
The problem with john kerry and jane fonda and their like, is that they wound up ashamed of their country.
I fell for Ken Burns’ “Civil War” series, but by the time of his series about baseball I was already leery of him. I happen to know quite a bit about the history of MLB, but what I saw was a documentary about evil racist white team owners and evil racist white American baseball fans. And I’ve never looked at any further Ken Burns productions.
I haven’t seen it as having actually been there I don’t need to. But I suspect that like all liberals Burns is spending a lot of time on US atrocities and ignorong the far worse VC atrocities. US atrocities were largely individual and the perps were often punished when caught. VC and NVA atrocities were Policy. This distinction escapes liberals like Burns who want to justify their draft-dodging treason.