I did not even bother watching.
On one hand, I have admired Ken Burns for his polished presentation method, because anyone who is talented enough to get a special effect in an image editor named after him has something going for him (at least in the video editing and production aspect).
But I detest his slimy, smarmy, liberal slant he inserts into everything, all under the guise of claims of evenhanded treatment from him and his supporters, which happen to be the same people who review, judge, and hand out awards.
When I talked to people who eagerly wanted to know if I had seen the Vietnam production and what my thoughts on it were, I told them I didn’t watch it, and had no intention of watching it. They were disappointed, since I am often vocal on these types of things, and I think they wanted validation since they apparently enjoyed watching it.
Reading the linked article was disturbing, because it was stunningly (in my opinion) prescient.
The author drew the bleak picture of a future where the people who knew anything about the conflict are going to be either silent or gone, and the only historical context to those tumultuous times for the vast majority of people will be the PBS series that they will show over and over again (infuriatingly, on our taxpayer dime) and which will be standard fare recommended by the NEA for classroom material on that subject.
An evenhanded approach would say that yes, it is true that America made mistakes, and yes, atrocities were committed by individuals, as happens in all war. But the atrocities on the American side were, as a rule, committed by individuals and not part of government policy. Those mistakes were also made by the communists, and the atrocities they committed were sanctioned officially by the government. What happened to thousands of people in Hue was government policy, standard fare murder of intellectuals by communists when engaged in a power struggle.
And yes, the RVN and its military were flawed with spotty performance. But a large number of them fought reliably and valiantly with and beside our troops and often died there. There are plenty of Americans who served who had South Vietnamese they respected serving with them.
And yes, American military performance was occasionally spotty, as is the record of all combatants in all wars. But the vast majority of those who served (including draftees) did so to the best of their ability and faithfully to what we regard as “American Values”. And many of them came home, not as unstable, mentally damaged, drug addled, victimized losers, but as men who went on to have wonderful families, and successful jobs. They may not have “enjoyed” their time there (and wished the entire time they weren’t there) but I think there were few who were not touched and changed deeply to their core for the rest of their lives by their service there, and to this day regard it as one of the most formative and important (if not the most formative and important) times in their lives. And most of them are profoundly (and justifiably) proud of their service.
But most of all, any “evenhanded” approach would point out that we, as a nation, obtained a peace in 1973 at the Paris Accord that could have, and should have guaranteed safety to the Republic of Vietnam against the aggression of the Communist North Vietnam, but that through our own cowardice, irresolution, and outright hostility and backstabbing, reneged on the terms of that treaty to our former ally, and threw them to the communist wolves from the north, who did indeed ravage the population. And we LET that happen.
And an evenhanded approach would point out that it was the American Left that was responsible for this black betrayal, as black as our betrayal at Yalta to Eastern Europe and the Chinese Nationalist government, and that we condemned millions to imprisonment and death, and a huge number of others to oppression with their only option being to flee through pirate and shark infested waters.
An evenhanded approach would tell all this and more, but Ken Burns’ Vietnam, by all accounts wasn’t, and...it didn’t.
I agree with you. We won the war.
I enjoyed your post. Thank you for putting the time into writing it.