Ken Burns Viet Nam

rayjay

Senior Member
Anybody watching it? I'm DVR'ing it and watching it a bit at a time. I've read a tremendous amount on 20th century history with a focus on the wars so most of the facts will be known to me but I will watch it all eventually.

During my medical travails of the last 2 years I have met some Vietnamese now living here and have had some interesting conversations. I would love to spend a few hours with them discussing their views of VN's history, our involvement and the times up to today. All of these people are poster children for how it's supposed to work out when America takes in true refugees from oppression.
 

georgia_home

Senior Member
really liking this! i've read some of this before, but it hit's some points move vividly.

the tapes of johnson and mcnamara and how early on they realized it was a lost cause, in their words, directly from their mouths. actually hearing the audio, not reading a transcript.

seeing things like how the enemy just used raw/mass labor to rebuild all the things destroyed, in a day or two is enlightening.

a number of things ring true today, or of heavy interest.

not to derail this thread, but with regard to russia/election, anyone catch how many times the usa.gov was active in or approving of regime change in Saigon? (let alone all the south american, african, asian countries we diddled in.)

and the obvious comparisons to the 16 years of afghanistan stuff.

the role of the MSM then, early on vs post '64-65ish, going from part of the propaganda to ?reality?. similarities to the runup for the 2nd iraq war, and wmd's.

i'll save more than that for the political thread.
 

JSnake

Useless Billy Bouncer
I've been watching. Waiting to see how much they talk about the marine action at Dong Ha/Dai Do. There's a member in another forum I visit that was in the thick of it there and inspired me to read a book on it to learn more. Georgia's own Gen. James Livingston also earned his medal of honor in the battle.
 

rayjay

Senior Member
The whole strategy was completely and totally morally bankrupt. If you read much about communist takeover of countries one of the things you will see is that the people at the top are completely psychotic. They will murder countless numbers of their own citizens even if the person has done absolutely nothing worthy of even coming to the attention of the leadership. Your great grand daddy was from some country the dictator doesn't like and boom, your whole extended family gets a bullet in the brain along with anyone else with similar ancestry. Stalin murdered millions upon millions of people during his time.

With this being the case how is 'body count' ever going to win the war ? The NV leadership is totally unfeeling to the numbers of casualties they suffer. It doesn't even register on their radar. They kill 100 Americans while losing 1000 they call it a victory. The only way to beat them is kill them all. Hanoi should still be rubble similar to how Berlin or Toyko looked at the end of WWII.
 

georgia_home

Senior Member
there is a direct relationship between the will to win and the will to kill.

The whole strategy was completely and totally morally bankrupt. If you read much about communist takeover of countries one of the things you will see is that the people at the top are completely psychotic. They will murder countless numbers of their own citizens even if the person has done absolutely nothing worthy of even coming to the attention of the leadership. Your great grand daddy was from some country the dictator doesn't like and boom, your whole extended family gets a bullet in the brain along with anyone else with similar ancestry. Stalin murdered millions upon millions of people during his time.

With this being the case how is 'body count' ever going to win the war ? The NV leadership is totally unfeeling to the numbers of casualties they suffer. It doesn't even register on their radar. They kill 100 Americans while losing 1000 they call it a victory. The only way to beat them is kill them all. Hanoi should still be rubble similar to how Berlin or Toyko looked at the end of WWII.
 

hunterofopportunity

Senior Member
Being to young to have been in V.N. I watch to learn. As a former Marine watching, this is gut wrenching, to see lives wasted by politics and the Generals taking orders from Washington.
 

Walker44

Senior Member
Watched it up till tonight and wont watch again Poor Ken all his other productions were his own This one has a co producer and it is apparent that the co producer has tilted the story to the new accepted version . There were several instances about CBS news that were glanced over The picture from Tet where the police chief kills the man in the street was discussed BUT the finding or 2800 bodies that were shot in the head outside of Hue was glanced over Too bad you will never learn the truth
 
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