Ken Burns' "The Vietnam War" Series

My wife and I just finished watching the series.  We thought it was well done. When interviewed, Ken Burns stated he was trying very hard not to interject his own feelings into the series, and wanted the audience to come to their own conclusions.  There were some amazing moments in the series, including recordings of the presidents talking to cabinet members.

I thought the interviews with the vets were well done, and allowed them to say what they wanted to say.  The history leading up to US involvement was pretty illuminating.

I am not ashamed to say that I cried like a baby during the last episode that covered the monument in DC being built.  To all the vets on the forum, thank you for your service.

D

DasBeav

 

 

GMorrison

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien.

A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo.

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you, sir. I have read "A Rumor of War" and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was thinking more on a broader spectrum, like David Halbarstam's book. For some reason I thought the Viet Nam war was like the Korean conflict where everything happened close to the border. Probably looked at map of Viet Nam hundreds of times and didn't realize it was basically Siagon and the rest was"enemy" territory.

 

 

The war zone was the whole of the former French Indochina. Laos, Camobodia, and North & South Vietnam, the waters offshore and the skies overhead. There are plenty of books to read on the subject, but really no one size fits all single book that I've yet come across that fully cover the subject to recommend. 

A few more focused books I can recommend:

Dispatches- Michael Herr

Bloods- Wallace Terry

We Were Soldiers Once... And Young- Joseph Galloway and Hal Moore

One Day In A Long War, May 10,1972- Jeffrey Ethel and Alfred Price

Siagon was "enemy" territory too.  They lost a couple of F4's in Thailand before I got there as well due to charges brought in under the fences.  The only safe place over there was on the freedom bird on it's way to Clark AFB.

Unfortunately, the lessons learned over there have been lost to history, and now history repeats it's self in other places.

Devil Dawg

 

Rob Gronovius

I can definitely see doing one tour, surviving and then getting out.

 

 

 

 

 

GMorrison

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien.

A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo.

 

 

i watched this serie last month on french tv .

Excellent .

You're right  i've got the Ken Burns civil war DVD box set .......... a must .

Devil Dawg

 

 

Rob Gronovius

When I was in college in the 80s, I took a Vietnam War history course based on the 1983 PBS 13 episode documentary, Vietnam: A Television History and the 1985 rebuttal produced by Accuracy in Media called Television's Vietnam: The Real Story narrated by Charlston Heston.

It's been over thirty years since I took that class. Communism was bad, but we backed some pretty brutal regimes.

 

 

 

Yeah, that's talked about quite a bit in the first episodes (the bad regimes, that is). The first "democratically-elected" president of Vietnam was one bad dude (I can't remember, nor know how to spell, his name). It was insinuated that he rigged the election (where have I heard that term recently?  ), and pretty much took over the entire country, but, we decided to back him because, supposedly, ANYTHING else was better than communism. Turned out we was wrong. That was one thing I learned. Another thing I learned was that Ho Chi Minh tried to get the US to help him get the Japanese out of Vietnam at the end of, and just after, WWII, but he eventually fell on deaf ears. The OSS was very instrumental in helping him, but couldn't convince the people that needed convincing.

And the French pretty much got the whole mess started back in the 1860s, and then couldn't handle what they started. But now I'm giving away the whole plot!

 

Rob Gronovius

I can definitely see doing one tour, surviving and then getting out.

 

DasBeav

I just finished it and it is worth watching. My whole insight on the war is based on my father did one tour and left the Army because he didn't want to go back. I read a few books that were vague on the whole war or were focused on one battle, Hue, Khe San, etc. Any recommendations for books to read? I was quite naive on many aspects of the war....

Rob Gronovius

When I was in college in the 80s, I took a Vietnam War history course based on the 1983 PBS 13 episode documentary, Vietnam: A Television History and the 1985 rebuttal produced by Accuracy in Media called Television's Vietnam: The Real Story narrated by Charlston Heston.

It's been over thirty years since I took that class. Communism was bad, but we backed some pretty brutal regimes.

Yeah, that's talked about quite a bit in the first episodes (the bad regimes, that is). The first "democratically-elected" president of Vietnam was one bad dude (I can't remember, nor know how to spell, his name). It was insinuated that he rigged the election (where have I heard that term recently?  ), and pretty much took over the entire country, but, we decided to back him because, supposedly, ANYTHING else was better than communism. Turned out we was wrong. That was one thing I learned. Another thing I learned was that Ho Chi Minh tried to get the US to help him get the Japanese out of Vietnam at the end of, and just after, WWII, but he eventually fell on deaf ears. The OSS was very instrumental in helping him, but couldn't convince the people that needed convincing.

And the French pretty much got the whole mess started back in the 1860s, and then couldn't handle what they started. But now I'm giving away the whole plot!

stikpusher

One critique of the show that I read says that it gave short shrift to the Air Force And Navy actions in 1972. Which historically speaking were critical to getting us OUT of the war. 

During my time in service I served under two NCO’s (among the many Vietnam vets that I served under or with) who were both SF before the commitment of regular ground forces. Their tales were interesting. Unfortunately it’s been so long, that I’ve forgotten more than I remember of their war stories. 

stikpusher

 

Devil Dawg

Heck, you know how it is, stik.....ya can't please everybody. I don't read movie reviews for that very reason - if I believed them all, I would never watch a movie! And I've seen some darned good ones that were panned by the critics.

Anyways, give it a watch. You'll know if you like it or not after the first episode.

Gary

 

 

I don’t watch much TV anymore. We cut the cable last year and just have some streaming and broadcast. Add that with my evening work hours, with daytime TV being 98% manure and you get the picture. 

If I happen to get a chance to see it, I’ll have a look. But i have more than enough to do in my spare time nowadays... 

Tried watching it a couple times and each time I ended up falling asleep during it. I guess it was a real snooze fest for me. I was really disappointed in it.

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien.

A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo.

I just finished it and it is worth watching. My whole insight on the war is based on my father did one tour and left the Army because he didn't want to go back. I read a few books that were vague on the whole war or were focused on one battle, Hue, Khe San, etc. Any recommendations for books to read? I was quite naive on many aspects of the war....

I have not seen it, but it's on my binge list for when I have time.

When I was in college in the 80s, I took a Vietnam War history course based on the 1983 PBS 13 episode documentary, Vietnam: A Television History and the 1985 rebuttal produced by Accuracy in Media called Television's Vietnam: The Real Story narrated by Charlston Heston.

It's been over thirty years since I took that class. Communism was bad, but we backed some pretty brutal regimes.

That series mainly looked at the political aspect of the world's first televised war. It did not look into many of the historic battles beyond those that had a political effect on the war.

One critique of the show that I read says that it gave short shrift to the Air Force And Navy actions in 1972. Which historically speaking were critical to getting us OUT of the war. 

During my time in service I served under two NCO’s (among the many Vietnam vets that I served under or with) who were both SF before the commitment of regular ground forces. Their tales were interesting. Unfortunately it’s been so long, that I’ve forgotten more than I remember of their war stories. 

I have not seen it.

Crit is going to be tough as it is kind of a "broad" subject.

I got 1 A and lottery number 86 but is was 1974 and the draft ended in 1972.

Definitely did not want to be sucked into that action, however would have enlisted USN if it came to that. Did get reclassified as 1AO. Draft Board guy says "I'll put you at the front of your patrol with a big red cross on your forehead". 

In a bigger sense if you include the very legitimate stateside resistance to the war, the backlash on that, and the fallout, I understand the series falls way short.

Maybe a separated history one day.

Devil Dawg

Heck, you know how it is, stik.....ya can't please everybody. I don't read movie reviews for that very reason - if I believed them all, I would never watch a movie! And I've seen some darned good ones that were panned by the critics.

Anyways, give it a watch. You'll know if you like it or not after the first episode.

Gary

 

 

I don’t watch much TV anymore. We cut the cable last year and just have some streaming and broadcast. Add that with my evening work hours, with daytime TV being 98% manure and you get the picture. 

If I happen to get a chance to see it, I’ll have a look. But i have more than enough to do in my spare time nowadays... 

Heck, you know how it is, stik.....ya can't please everybody. I don't read movie reviews for that very reason - if I believed them all, I would never watch a movie! And I've seen some darned good ones that were panned by the critics.

Anyways, give it a watch. You'll know if you like it or not after the first episode.

Gary

I’ve heard about it. But I have read that it concentrates too much on some things and completely overlooks other things.