Vietnam, If only History were taught this way in the first place... I've learned more facts in the first two episodes...

Awesome, TV.

Best Regards,

Ron Carter

The sequence on the forward observation post is breathtaking in it's simplicity and terror.  War.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/01/ken-burns-lynn-novick-do-vietnam-a-tale-of-two-critics/

After all that this country, our vets, and most of all Vietnam and its people, went through then, it's all the more sad to see that we are at it again (or still?), seemingly endlessly, in place after place.

Leaving aside the recent election for now, this is what saddens and scares me most about the country we are leaving to our kids.  ****.  I thought that what we did and said and decided then could make a difference.

Probably won't be watching; still too raw "after all these years."

mjc said:

After all that this country, our vets, and most of all Vietnam and its people, went through then, it's all the more sad to see that we are at it again (or still?), seemingly endlessly, in place after place.

Leaving aside the recent election for now, this is what saddens and scares me most about the country we are leaving to our kids.  ****.  I thought that what we did and said and decided then could make a difference.


Probably won't be watching; still too raw "after all these years."

I didn't think I would/could watch it, but I caught a few minutes last night and now want to see it from the beginning.  It was such a difficult time for everyone. 

We started watching it last night. As painful as it is, it's also poignant and extremely informative. I was born in 1961, and the Vietnam War was the beginning of my awareness of politics.

I was born in '53 and the war in Viet Nam was front in center in my life all through high school and the first years of college. I marched and sang, etc. and lost friends. Mine was the last year of the draft and I luckily had a very high lottery number. But the war had a enormously profound impact on me and my peers. 

I can't watch shows like this one (and certainly can't visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington -how marvelous it is- how stunning - and how absolutely devastating) without crying. 

I saw one episode last night (I went to college with Ken Burns) and I thought it was very well done, not afraid to pose a revisionist point of view. I hope to watch more of it. 

Thank you for your perspective, @The_Soulful_Mr_T. It means a lot.

I don't have broadcast tv. Is there a way to stream this?

GoSlugs said:

I don't have broadcast tv. Is there a way to stream this?

We use the PBS app on our Apple TV. You can probably stream it from pbs.org.

I served 18 months over there,you leave the war,the war doesn't leave you.

I was in the USMC in the Danang area in 1969. The South Vietnamese people hated us and we hated them. The only thing I learned how to say in Vietnamese is "didi mau", (get lost/go away).

Interesting content but I have to say some of Burns' signature style I always find annoying. First his documentaries can be SLOW moving, unnecessarily so. Sometime it feels as if his documentaries are as long as the subject they are covering. Specific to Vietnam the backwards film at the beginning of episode 1 (as far as I have gotten) was making me sick to my stomach watching it. Too disorienting. But I did learn a lot from the episode about the dynamic after WWII. I knew the general thrust but not many of the details. 

These comments surely say we all need to learn more and talk more.  The SMT pretty much sums up my own experiences...  Except that my number was 99 and I got drafted.  That said, I never had to be in Vietnam.  Never left the US.  Work with plenty of young men who had brought that war home with them...

Best Regards,

Ron Carter

Here is a writer who is making predictions on what he will see in the series.  Then he is going to watch it and see if his predictions were true. He bases these on previous works by Burnes.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/22/ken-burns-and-lynn-novicks-vietnam-war-some-predictions/

I'm curious to hear what anybody who watched the series thinks of Paul Street's preemptive assessment, which nan linked to above.

i have nothing to say about Paul Street's assessment since he hasn't been in any situation that a veteran has been in. He's a writer,critic and now a Monday morning quarterback. 

FrankWarzocha said:

i have nothing to say about Paul Street's assessment since he hasn't been in any situation that a veteran has been in. He's a writer,critic and now a Monday morning quarterback. 

So only veterens can comment on the Vietnam war?  That's just stupid.  

nan said:

So only veterens can comment on the Vietnam war?  That's just stupid.  

Was he more or less right about Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's "Vietnam War"?

The History Channel did a much better job in there 10 year old 10 part series than Burns did. There was to much going back and forth and while the Viet Cong were talking the lettering was hard to read. The History Channel didn't have lettering but a translator,and the battle of Hue was an hour long. Both series did make President Johnson a fool that he was on his foreign policy and General Westmorland with a big ego.Combine those 2 equals disaster.

Awesome programming. 

Here's a critial review from a Vietnam War reporter:

http://mailchi.mp/johnpilger/the-killing-of-history

nan said:

Here's a critial review from a Vietnam War reporter:

http://mailchi.mp/johnpilger/the-killing-of-history

From "A Bright, Shining Lie," I know a little about the amount of time that Neil Sheehan, an adviser to Burns and Novick, spent reporting in Vietnam during the war. Can you tell me anything more than John Pilger does in this piece (not so much a review, since he watched only the first episode) about how long Pilger spent reporting there?

Tom_Reingold said:

GoSlugs said:

I don't have broadcast tv. Is there a way to stream this?

We use the PBS app on our Apple TV. You can probably stream it from pbs.org.

Netflix and local libraries will likely have the DVD set when it is issued.

Bah. Big long ramble about how awful it all is. Pilger claims to be a filmmaker and journalist, if Burns' work is so bad ("The Killing of History" title, then "...it is difficult to watch the film’s jumble of “red peril” maps, unexplained interviewees, ineptly cut archive and maudlin American battlefield sequences....) why doesn't he do something better?

nan said:

Here's a critial review from a Vietnam War reporter:

http://mailchi.mp/johnpilger/the-killing-of-history

DaveSchmidt said:

nan said:

Here's a critial review from a Vietnam War reporter:

http://mailchi.mp/johnpilger/the-killing-of-history

From "A Bright, Shining Lie," I know a little about the amount of time that Neil Sheehan, an adviser to Burns and Novick, spent reporting in Vietnam during the war. Can you tell me anything more than John Pilger does in this piece (not so much a review, since he watched only the first episode) about how long Pilger spent reporting there?

 I don't know Pilger or how long he was working there--I get the sense it was a long time.  I googled him and there is lots of information on him.  He's an Australian and he makes documentary films.  He made a film about Vietnam and he has witten on it before.  Here is something from 2001: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Pilger_John/Vietnam_Heroes.html

I am very anti-war so I was attracted to his viewpoints but I am still learning about this period in history.  It's good to get information from mulitple sources.  

Does anyone know how long the episodes will be available for streaming via the website?  I already don't see the first couple of episodes there, but perhaps I'm not looking in the right place?

nan said:

I am very anti-war so I was attracted to his viewpoints but I am still learning about this period in history.  It's good to get information from mulitple sources.  

I agree. 

That's a lot of reading to link to. I got as far as the period that was covered in the first two episodes of the Burns-Novick documentary (which is as far as my viewing has taken me for now). No doubt Pilger would remain less than satisfied, but my takeaways from both his book and "The Vietnam War" were very similar.

Another interesting review. This one tries to say nice things but also has some big dissapointments, especially with the portrayal of the antiwar movement:  https://www.truthdig.com/articles/vietnam-myopia-50-years-later/

So many parallels between the Vietnam era and Iraq, Afghanistan, and Trump. Scary stuff.