Ken Burns: The Vietnam War

[ABNAK]

Been watching it all week.

Probably the best thing I've ever seen on the Vietnam war. I knew the french dragged us into that mess but I didn't realize DeGaulle actually threatened to move France into the communist sphere of influence if we didn't support them in their attempt to regain their colony.

I have to wonder if Kennedy had not been assassinated if he's have eventually stopped supporting the South. I also didn't realize the full extent of what a continuous train wreck the South Vietnamese government was. If only we had supported freedom for Indochina when Ho Chi Mihn first approached the US prior to turning to Russia and China.

Could have been a different world.

I've done some reading on the subject and the supposed overtures by Uncle Ho are a bit misleading. He was a avowed Marxist since the 1920's and had no intention of NOT being a commie. He just wanted our help to rid them of France. He was never going to "come over to our side of the fence" politically. That is why we rejected his overtures.

[WillBrink]

It's a solid documentary, but so far does not adding anything some of the other excellent documentaries on that war have given us and will not set the standard. "Problem" for Burns is, everything he does will always be compared to his documentary on the the Civil War, which was a masterpiece and sets the standard by which others will be judged.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

It's a solid documentary, but so far does not adding anything some of the other excellent documentaries on that war have given us and will not set the standard. "Problem" for Burns is, everything he does will always be compared to his documentary on the the Civil War, which was a masterpiece and sets the standard by which others will be judged.

And a lot of people were fairly ignorant of the Civil War and he presented the limited media in a new way, luckily named the "Ken Burns Effect". There is no shortage or ignorance of the media about the Vietnam War- it was at the dawn of modern media about the most self absorbed generation.

[TexHill]

It's a solid documentary, but so far does not adding anything some of the other excellent documentaries on that war have given us and will not set the standard. "Problem" for Burns is, everything he does will always be compared to his documentary on the the Civil War, which was a masterpiece and sets the standard by which others will be judged.

I was a senior in high school when "The Civil War" aired for the first time. My father was a history teacher so it was no surprise that our family watched it, but all of my friends and their families were watching it too. Probably the only documentary to garner that kind of attention and praise.

[SteyrAUG]

I've done some reading on the subject and the supposed overtures by Uncle Ho are a bit misleading. He was a avowed Marxist since the 1920's and had no intention of NOT being a commie. He just wanted our help to rid them of France. He was never going to "come over to our side of the fence" politically. That is why we rejected his overtures.

He first approached the US after WWI. And true he had little interest of joining anyone, he just wanted independence for Indochina. And while he formed a marxist government, he didn't seek assistance from Russia or China until after WWII and after he approached us a second time. The big problem is unlike Stalin, he had nothing to offer in return.

[WillBrink]

he didn't seek assistance from Russia or China until after he approached us.

As did Castro, but that's another story. Not saying we should or should not have welcomed Castro but it should be noted he was given a heroes welcome in the US by the public and did attempt get the US to work with him and was told to go shit in his hat. Hence, we were given right of first refusal.

[chuckman]

And a lot of people were fairly ignorant of the Civil War and he presented the limited media in a new way, luckily named the "Ken Burns Effect". There is no shortage or ignorance of the media about the Vietnam War- it was at the dawn of modern media about the most self absorbed generation.

That's what Burns said, why he was hesitant to do a series on Vietnam. He said there's already a ton of good stuff out there, including the people who were there on both sides.

I think it's fairly objective; Burns is pretty apolitical.

[Slater]

I was a young Airman Basic (E-1) in 1978 and most (if not all) of the NCO's I worked with were Vietnam vets. I remember one of them saying to us younger troops "you guys missed a damn good war". From a USAF perspective maybe he was right.

[SteyrAUG]

As did Castro, but that's another story. Not saying we should or should not have welcomed Castro but it should be noted he was given a heroes welcome in the US by the public and did attempt get the US to work with him and was told to go shit in his hat. Hence, we were given right of first refusal.

Yeah, we had such a long history of installing governments that we really thought we could never fail. We've screwed the pooch and created our own enemies a few times now. Hard to reconcile our "line in the sand" regarding communist Vietnam with our current policies regarding China and ironically enough Vietnam.

So many opportunities to deescalate the cold war just pissed away. Of course the most appalling thing is strong evidence that we had live American POWs still in captivity in the early 80s. I cannot even begin to imagine what that must have been like to be abandoned by the US. Given the economic crisis of Vietnam at the time, I don't imagine they were living very well.

[SteyrAUG]

I was a young Airman Basic (E-1) in 1978 and most (if not all) of the NCO's I worked with were Vietnam vets. I remember one of them saying to us younger troops "you guys missed a damn good war". From a USAF perspective maybe he was right.

Unless of course you got shot down. But had to be a certain amount of job satisfaction running CAS for guys on the ground who were in a shitstorm.