The Vietnam War

[Clocker]

Part 1 of "The Vietnam War", the new Ken Burns documentary, was shown on PBS last night (Sunday). It is must see TV. Part 2 tonight.

George Will's review is here, one of many raves about the show:
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/will091817.php3

Many reviews in the media are by critics who have seen the full 18 hours. In addition to the historic value, I can see that it is relevant to what is going on today, especially with regard to North Korea.

[Jess Hawsen Arown]

What was Burns take on the Gulf Of Tonkin incident?

[jay68802]

Originally Posted by Jess Hawsen Arown

What was Burns take on the Gulf Of Tonkin incident?

Watched this last night and it was a very good program. will watch tonight. They did not get to the Gulf Of Tonkin incident (or non-incident) yet. Look forward to that.

[Racetrack Playa]

PBS -episodes 1-5 available free and now @
http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-vietnam-war/watch/

[Clocker]

Nick Gillespie at reason.com has an in-depth interview with the filmmakers, Ken Burns and Lynn Novick.

Progressives are forewarned that there are things at reason.com that can make your brain hurt.

One point that Burns and Novick make in the interview is that what most Americans have learned about Vietnam is from the perspective of Americans. It is clear from the first episode that they are making a big effort to show things from the perspective of Americans and of North and South Vietnamese.


http://reason.com/reasontv/2017/09/1...ns-lynn-novick

[RunForTheRoses]

Thanks for the heads up Clocker, it was off my radar. Will most likely download and binge watch.

Very interesting history, did they start with the French and Dien Bien Phu? It has been a difficult land to control, like Afghanistan. The Chinese didn't fair well there either, remember the 1979 Sino-Viet conflict?

[Tom]

It was really god last night.
We sure screwed that one up royally.

[Clocker]

Originally Posted by RunForTheRoses

Very interesting history, did they start with the French and Dien Bien Phu? It has been a difficult land to control, like Afghanistan. The Chinese didn't fair well there either, remember the 1979 Sino-Viet conflict?

Vietnam was a French colony before it was occupied by the Japanese in WWII. A resistance group called the Viet Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh, opposed the French, and then the Japanese. The US and China supported the Viet Minh against Japan during the war.

The Viet Minh, backed by China, stepped up their fight against the French after the war, and eventually won a huge battle at Dien Bien Phu. The French decided to pull out, and peace accords "temporarily" split the country, with the Viet Minh running the north and a French supported puppet government running the south.

[Clocker]

Originally Posted by Tom

We sure screwed that one up royally.

Shows what bipartisanship can accomplish. It took the efforts of governments under the leadership of Truman, Ike, JFK, LBJ, and Nixon to accomplish a cluster-fluck that big.

[Tom]

The only smart decision we made over there was to get out.
Funny how the first thing France did after we liberated them was to run off to deny others their liberty. We could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives if we had let the nazis keep control of France.

[ElKabong]

Episodes one thru three have been good so far. I had my doubts going in, burns first documentary that I knew of was Baseball. Awesome stuff. Everything that followed from him really sucked and in most cases were slanted politically.

He's done a good job of getting all three sides' views. US, north and south Vietnam. Going back in Vietnam history for 100 years was necessary and was well pieced together.

[Ocala Mike]

Originally Posted by Jess Hawsen Arown

What was Burns take on the Gulf Of Tonkin incident?

Last night's episode pointed out that the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was in the mill months before the Gulf of Tonkin "incident." It was policy waiting for an excuse to put it into effect.

I was in the AF, 1964-1968, but never got to Nam. Did serve in SAC stateside, 1967-1968, and we sent our B-52's over from Pease AFB, NH to bomb North Viet Nam during Operation Arc Light.

[FantasticDan]

Originally Posted by ElKabong

Episodes one thru three have been good so far. I had my doubts going in, burns first documentary that I knew of was Baseball. Awesome stuff. Everything that followed from him really sucked and in most cases were slanted politically.

Wow, you've watched "everything" he's produced since 1994 and it all "really sucked", huh?

Give us an example or two of the suckage..

[ElKabong]

Originally Posted by FantasticDan

Wow, you've watched "everything" he's produced since 1994 and it all "really sucked", huh?

Give us an example or two of the suckage..

the civil war
baseball, the second documentary. i think it was named the tenth inning.

mystery solved, off you go.

[FantasticDan]

Originally Posted by ElKabong

the civil war

Ken Burns' The Civil War sucked???????





"Off you go" is right