Any of you guys watching this Ken Burns documentary?

yes

-------------------------------

yep

Absolutely.

Yes...I just turned it on.

I'm not a fan of Ken Burns, so I won't be watching it.

With Burns' Leftist bias, I'll wait to read the reviews from forum members that served during that time or have an in-depth knowledge of the war before I view it.

I would be interested in feedback and make sure that it is even balanced. Otherwise I am not inclined to view.

As a young Marine I lived and experienced it. I don't need Burn's perspective of Viet-Nam.

I'm recording it. Caught the first episode last night and thought it was very well done, especially with the history behind our involvement in Vietnam and Korea post WW2.

I switched past it a few times tonight, seeing enough not to stay. I can't give it a fair assessment having seen so little but one thing that jumped out at me was the music. Almost criminally manipulative. Ken Burns, Peter Coyote, Nam? No.

I am watching it. Interesting review of the history and how the French started the mess and then dropped it into our laps. Eisenhower was correct in his first approach to stay out of it.

The Vietnamese are good people who just want to live their lives in peace. The colonial countries of England and France were out of bounds on their involvement there. France wanted the rubber plantations.

I plan on watching once there are a few episodes available to watch in a row, as long as reviews are good and an agenda isn't too obvious.

I heard an interview with the filmmakers about it and they took 10 years to make it. There's so much footage of that war that most documentaries about it mostly use the same footage over and over because nobody has ever taken the time to review the thousands of hours of available film. They also went to great pains to add realistic sound when none existed.

They claim they tried hard to just tell the story from the perspective of the different sides, without any agenda, but of course we've heard that before. For now, I'm open minded about it.

Burn's "documentaries" are always entertaining. Not necessarily 100% accurate and always biased/slanted in their point of view; but entertaining.

Lil" Skinny B. is a propagandist, not a historian. He's even admits it! Remember when the President of the Sons of Confederate Veterans disagreed with some of Lil' Skinny's portrayals in his Civil War video. Burns was challenged to a public
debate. Skinny refused, whining "I'm not a historian"!

Burns claims "The Vietnam War' has been ten years in the making. It's interesting they somehow failed to interview Hal Moore about the Ia Drang valley battles (which are significantly featured in one episode). I'd like to think Gen. Moore told the little leftist bastard "to eat shit and die"! Joe Galloway (only U.S. civilian awarded the Bronze Star for bravery in Vietnam) does comment on what transpired. Galloway talked his way onto a helicopter headed to the Ia Drang battle shortly after it began. I respect Mr. Galloway, but suspect he got "bought" as the 'special correspondent' for "The Vietnam War".

Recording it. Also watched the first 2 episodes and so far looks good to me. I was in Nam in '69.

What I've learned so far:

Ho Cho Minh was a noble patriot who sacrificed everything for his country.

Colonialism is bad

Next up: Americans are bad.

I heard all I needed to know when I saw that I think it was Vanity Fair gave it good reviews!

I'm hoping that there's a break in the script, and a segment- at least 15 minutes long- praising FDR is inserted.

Oh, it has nothing to do with Vietnam, but if you saw the Ken Burns series on the Roosevelts, you'll know that FDR walked on water, so why shouldn't he show up randomly in other Burns' films? He is, after all, divine and omniscient, the savior of the world. Enthroned with God Almighty, he is.

No shit.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
I'm hoping that there's a break in the script, and a segment- at least 15 minutes long- praising FDR is inserted.

Oh, it has nothing to do with Vietnam, but if you saw the Ken Burns series on the Roosevelts, you'll know that FDR walked on water, so why shouldn't he show up randomly in other Burns' films? He is, after all, divine and omniscient, the savior of the world. Enthroned with God Almighty, he is.

No shit.

Then Burns has some 'splanin' to do.

Ho Chi Minh had two very distinct features: 1) he was a nationalist who wanted independence for Vietnam, first from the French, then from the Japanese, then from the French again...; 2) He was a communist.

He wrote letters to Roosevelt (who was no fan of the French at the time) proposing an alliance against the Japanese, which would result in Vietnamese independence at the end of WWII.

Roosevelt ignored him and sided with the French. If Roosevelt was all about self-determination and anti-colonialism, then why did he support the French effort to re-occupy Vietnam?

IMO, it was a bad call. What did siding with the French get us? France was completely destroyed after WWII, they would have gone along with the Marshall plan even if we'd let their asses hang out to dry in Vietnam. We could have had an ally in SEA to contain China. The Vietnanese and Chinese aren't natural allies, but we helped push them together with the war in SEA.

We were friends with one communist already (Marshal Tito in Yugoslavia), so it wasn't like the US government had a moral obligation to fight communism everywhere it put down roots. Not investing in Vietnam or at least staying neutral bit us in the ass. And we supported plenty of other characters in the region who were far more distasteful than Ho Chi Minh, folks like Marcos and Suharto.

If Uncle Ho was so noble, then why didn't noble Roosevelt support him. Or conversely, if Roosevelt was so noble and far-sighted, why didn't he support Ho Chi Minh?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: LDD,

We followed the French because they were supposed to be our allies and swallowed the bait, hook, line, and sinker.
The north was communist but De Gaulle wasn't exactly a capitalist himself.