The Vietnam War on PBS

[Heliman]

Last night I watched the first episode of Ken Burns' newest series. "The Vietnam War" looks to be a typical Burns myopic of historical events. I am looking forward to all the episodes. Already learned a lot in the first episode. Anyone else take time to see it?

Dave

 

[Jeepnik]

On the plus side, a local PBS station had a special about a reporter who found the crew, some of the patients and a few others involved in a medevac flight in 1971.

Haven't watched it yet, but it should be interesting. We'll just have to see how politicized it is.

Regardless, the reporter did ride a Huey into a hot LZ. Politics aside he's no coward.

 

[Big Old Boy]

I enjoyed it just set vcr to record series. I did my twelve months in country yet learned a lot last night.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

I very much enjoyed the history of Vietnam since WWII in the first episode. It explained a lot. I will be watching the series.

 

[Valmet]

I enjoyed it just set vcr to record series. I did my twelve months in country yet learned a lot last night.

Thank you for your service.

Some Ken Burns stuff is better than others. I enjoyed his Vietnam series

 

[daveg.inkc]

Ngo Dinh Diem assassinated Nov.2, JFK on Nov. 22. And Madame Nhu being in the US on Nov.2. Very interesting history.

 

[roarindan51]

The Diem Assassination had me scratching my head,, I thought our Govt./C I A had some very dirty hands when that happened, but they glossed right over that, making Kennedy a look good.

 

[Heliman]

I don't think they made Kennedy look good at all. More inept and misinformed in my opinion. I believe he mentioned in a roundabout way that success in South Vietnam was improbable with Diem in charge. I believe they turned a blind eye to the generals when Diem was assassinated.

 

[bobski]

so far best line was.....

'you kill one bad guy, you gain one dead bad guy.
kill the wrong one, you make 10 enemies.'

I was in grade school when the monks burned themselves. wow. who would guess, id grow up and the war would be still on when I signed up?

 

[toysoldier]

I thought it was a very good program. There was quite a lot of detail on how the situation evolved from the French conquest in the 1850's. One thing they didn't mention was that a lot of the French forces after WWII were Foreign Legion---many of them ex-SS Germans who had nowhere else to go at the end of the war. The French were more than happy to enlist them and send them to die in a colonial war.

 

[Heliman]

Episode 3 of 10 on tonight. I am DVRing the series.

 

[Pat-inCO]

I don't think they made Kennedy look good at all.
More inept and misinformed in my opinion.

I think Kennedy got distracted with Cuba more than anything else.

It was LBJ that really did us in.
All the information that I have says we could not win with him "leading".

 

[graygun]

I haven't seen any of it...maybe later. What's ironic is being there,getting info only via AFRTS,Pacific Stars and Stripes,Army Times and so on,you could maybe know less about things than some at home. Of course,depending on your job over there,you might know a lot.

 

[Big Old Boy]

I know my unit spent some time in Cambodia in 1969 even though the government said we will not have troops in Cambodia, oh well that's what it was.

 

[daveg.inkc]

I have the book " Chickenhawk" by Robert Mason. He was a Huey pilot at "Golf Course". He flew into LZ X-Ray. Very good reading. Also "We Were SoldiersOnce,,,And Young" by Lt Gen Harold Moore and Joesph Galloway.

 

[Selena]

My Dad walk out of the room about 20 minutes into the show. Whether from producer bias or bringing up bad memories I have no idea. What I found interesting is that in the public school we were told the monks committed suicide in protest of US involvement in their country not that Buddhists were... shall we say under-represented.

 

[Ugly Hombre]

I like the show, though I think it is far to leftist tinged- no or very little coverage of the Communist terror, deception and lies. That is the MO of all American media.

US mistakes, errors and lack of understanding are the prime target- perhaps rightfully so, I guess as its a American film.

But-- they need to show, should show the evil reality of the NVA and the VC- and expose the truth about the Communist method of Gov. and its brutal, evil, hive mind system of social rule.

The Communists were and are- a enemy of our republic just as bad if not worse than the National Socialist Nazi's, in many ways the Communists are more evil.

The corrupt leftist infested American media will never touch on that fact- they always spike it or hide it.

The American GI's who faught them in Korea and Vietnam, deserve great respect- they have mine.

 

[graygun]

The actual coverage back then was pretty biased too.

If it gets on Netflix,I may watch some of it.

 

[ronto]

When in the Nha Trang cat houses I was known as a #1 GI and had an empty wallet to prove it. I don't care to hear about the anti-war cowards or the plight of the poor little VC or NVA that my artillery unit blew up every chance we got...screw Ken Burns and his documentary!

 

[mhblaw]

It is very interesting. I was in law school, married with a child during the mid 60's so my number never came up. Amazing that things that were happening in VN were not reported like the show indicates the info was there. Like Johnson tapes etc. Also am reading HUE, 68 a new book by Mark Bowden about the Tet offensive in 1968. One of my law school class mates, Steve Haukness, went to work for the CIA after graduation and was killed in Hue. Found his body in 1974. He is mentioned in the book.

 

[Ugly Hombre]

"When in the Nha Trang cat houses I was known as a #1 GI and had an empty wallet to prove it. I don't care to hear about the anti-war cowards or the plight of the poor little VC or NVA that my artillery unit blew up every chance we got...screw Ken Burns and his documentary!"

+ 1000 it is irritating to see the whiney chitbirds made out to be more than what they were- or are.

I would not pay to watch it, just watching it for free on cable. There is some good footage on there like interview segment with Charlie Beckworth and Hal Moore. I do like seeing the series, take what is of worth and discard the rest.

RT, thank you for your service to our country-

 

[SR1911SHOOTER]

Been there, done that, forget it!
Blackie

 

[bobski]

I hope they remind everyone that the north cheated by going thru laos and Cambodia to get to us.
they should have kept carpet bombing them into submission.
I haven't seen that many m1 carbines and m14's all in one place in a long time.
anyone else catch that?

 

[Ray Newman]

As I spent 20 months -- 7/65 - 3/67 -- in Vietnam with Echo battery (105's) , 12th Marines, I have no desire to revisit the past.

 

[Heliman]

I know that from an emotional standpoint that many folks may not want to revisit this time in the past. I personally am a Vietnam vet who wants to visit this program from a historical stand point. I find history fascinating and this show is interesting to me. I have no preconceived notions regarding the political viewpoint. I will watch the entire series then form an opinion as to the motives of the producers.

 

[2Late45]

I find it interesting to hear interviews from NVA survivors, and taped conversations from the Johnson Whitehouse. Political leaders trying to run a war 10,000 miles away while mis-leading the American people.

I survived rocket and mortar attacks and never fired a shot in anger, all the while maintaining F-4's and 130 gunships that couldn't close the Ho Chi Min trail even while killing hundreds nightly. That war is a part of our history whether we like the way it's retold or not.

 

[picketpin]

In retrospect it just seems like such a waste. I'll probably simply buy the series from PBS and watch at my own pace. Our little Police Action did a Hell of a lot of harm to a LOT of people and the country as a whole.

As for protesters and or guys that went to Canada. This is after all America and you do have a right to question the government and it's policies.

Don't get me wrong, I was Regular Army. I joined damned well knowing where I was headed, I got no Rosie O'Donnell coming. On the other hand out of the 8 of us on the team I'm the last guy standing. Some died in Country, a couple died a few years later of their injuries. One finally shot himself about 15 years ago. I'm the last guy standing.

I went to The Wall once when I was in DC. I visited the traveling version 25 years ago or so, when it was in Nampa, ID. They had some young Marines as guides in Nampa. When I walked up one asked me if I need help? "No thanks, I know where to look". When I was leaving I encountered 6 Marines in full dress uniform, saluting me. I returned their salute with tears running down my face. I'll NEVER go again.

RWT

RA
11B40D
Americal
In Country 2 years, 10 months 21 days
Patient at Walter Reed 11 months 9 days
Last pain free day of my life, Nov 21 1971
Number of surgeries from service connected injuries in the last 45+ year, 43.

 

[bobski]

that war was a classic cat fight. two fighting women....and the guy tries to break them up...and then both women start beating on the guy.

 

[vito]

I've been out of town for a few weeks and while my DVR is recording this series I haven't had the chance to watch any of it yet. And there is no question that Ken Burns is strongly liberal so I expect to see a leftist political slant. But I am still hoping that he covers certain aspects of the war, such as the admission by leaders of North Vietnam years later that they were ready to throw in the towel but the protests by anti-war Americans and the news media support of these protests encouraged the North to hang in there and hope we lost all heart in the fight. So that in fact the anti-war protests prolonged the war and turned actual military victory into defeat for the U.S. I was there late in the war, 1970-71, and it was totally obvious that we had no real strategy other than to just keep doing what we had been doing rather than trying to win. So I guess I am saying that if Burns focuses on the ineptness of our political and military leadership he certainly is not wrong about that, but the whole truth is a bit more complicated.

 

[wunbe]

It really does not matter how fully factual -- or not -- the Burns epic might be. The motives behind it are the issue.

I do not need Burns to tell me what happened in those dark days. Lived through it and read enough of the post mortems to know it was a tragic cock-up from the start; pursued by cynical politicians covering their asses rather than trying to win; and all wrapped in a thick coat of patent lies from the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution to the Great Bugout. (How could it be otherwise with a psychotic like LBJ as CINC during most of it!) A national tragedy and epic waste of resources -- moral, political, and temporal. Period. Do you really need hours of TV to tell you this?

One big problem is Burns will not say that Vietnam -- while hopelessly FUBARed -- evolved as part of a continuum of fairly successful containments of violent Communist takeovers worldwide which as a strategy eventually brought down the USSR and ended Commusist takeovers everywhere but US universities.

IMO the retelling now is an effort by the left to revive their salad days in the face of growing rejection of their efforts to control everything. They can only do this by reopening old wounds and creating disorder in the hope that they can come to power in the ashes. It is all part of their inexorable -- although often only half-conscious -- drive towards violent revolution. The only big gainers will be the ANTIFA recruiters.

And before anyone starts chanting "bring it on" , consider that their right wing radical counterparts surely will help stoke the fires but also get swept aside by their inability to concentrate, plan and execute, and coordinate.

wunbe