Ken Burns' Vietnam

[chas]

Japes,

Thanks. My pal Taeblewalker's dad also served in Vietnam, although I've never met him.

I had relatives in my parents' generation who served in all three major theaters of WWII: Europe, The Pacific, and China. The British WWI Memorial at Ypres in Belgium has entire rows of infantrymen with my name on it, although I didn't know any of them. But my great uncle served in the British Navy in that war, and my grandfather in the US Army.

In the best bonus extra of the 11 on the DVD set, Vietnam War veterans meet with younger vets from Iraq and Afghanistan, to help them get in touch with where they're at. Its very beautiful and touching. One of the older guys is one of the major speakers in the series.

***

In Episode 9, Nixon orders his 'burglars' to a break in because he's most afraid that someone has evidence of what he pulled during his first presidential campaign, which I mention above, and so his chickens came home to roost. Because this break in maneuver, failing here, would fail even worse at Watergate, when they would be caught.

Also in that episode, John Kerry shows up testifying before Congress.

And the campaign of George McGovern is covered. Being allowed to vote for the very first time was a big deal for me, and he got my vote.

On the other hand, my college girlfriend in Wisconsin turned 21 just when that state lowered the drinking age to 18. Disgusted, I can see her in a bar growling 'these punk kids haven't earned it yet!'

***
Tim O'Brien, another of the major US veteran interviewees, has some of his books suddenly prominantly in Barnes & Noble this week. I read one of his first volumes a long, long time ago, called If I Die In A Combat Zone, Box Me Up And Ship Me Home.

[Hahma]

I finished episode 7, where Nixon had done his treason. I hadn't known that before this show. I knew about Watergate but didn't know the finer details like him having the South Vietnamese stay away from the bargaining table until after he got elected. And those audio tapes of Nixon lying to Johnson, and Johnson knowing it. That was neat to hear.

[chas]

Just finished the final Episode 10, which will be broadcast for the first time tonight. Here are a few random thoughts it generated for me.

With all the refugees fleeing all around the world today, people today may be familiar with the term "boat people." But they may not realize that the original modern term was "Vietnamese Boat People." Some of the many who sent themselves out on the open sea to flee the fall of the South at the end of the war died, some were picked up, and others made amazing miraculous journeys to reach the USA.

There is a great episode of Anthony Bourdain's show on international travel on cooking, where he visits Vietnam (I keep wanting to say North Vietnam, but there is no such nation anymore). Its well worth watching to see the state and attitude of some of the people there today.

Reconciliation takes a long time. So does healing. Last Spring I visited Japan, as probably my last overseas trip. I had a great time. The people I met were wonderful, even those I met randomly, who were not in the hospitality industry. My Father felt very differently about the Japanese. He served in the WWII Pacific, and as children we were never allowed to enter his bedroom and wake him up. I saw him wake up from a nap on the living room couch with a sudden shock and shudder. Apparently he punched my mother every once in a while if she bumped up against him, because he thought the Japanese were sneaking into his tent to knife him.

[chas]

Here's a link my sister sent me. She lives up in Massachusetts, where this professor works. He's a Vietnam historian blogging comments about all of the episodes of the Burns series. He was asked to do it by the Organization of American Historians. I've only seen his first post so far, before I saw the series, and it looked thoughtful and interesting.

http://www.processhistory.org/appy-v...r-documentary/

I notice one comment already is by Tim O'Brien, one of the series interviewees, as noted in my previous post. I'll be checking out all of these blog posts now.

[chas]

I've just checked out the aforementioned blogs and their comments. They are very worthwhile. While I like Ken Burns' work, they mention further issues as well as pluses and minuses of his series treatment, that serve as balancing correctives and issues for further inquiry. Here is the professor's bio from the site:

"Christian G. Appy is a professor of history at the University of Massachusetts. His next post, about Episode 1, will appear following its East Coast broadcast on Sunday, September 17. He is the author of American Reckoning: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity (2015), Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides (2003), and Working-Class War: American Combat Soldiers and Vietnam (1993). He also serves as an OAH Distinguished Lecturer."

[chas]

Here are some of the issues raised on the blog. I'm posing them as questions, rather than trying to clarify who said what among the blogs, comments, and replies to comments:

1. Was the war a Vietnamese Civil War, as portrayed by the series, or an anticolonial war?

2. Did the series focus too much on Americans?

3. Why were there no documentaries about the war at the time it was raging, on any of the US commercial networks?

4. Did the series fail to cover the (non-veteran) antiwar movement in the US adequately?

5. Did the US effort to retake the city of Hue after the Tet offensive kill so many civilians that we convinced the Vietnamese that we would not or could not protect them? (In general, although there were atrocities on all sides, the US killed the great majority of civilians during the war).

6. Was JFK killed because he was planning to pull us out, just before he was assassinated?

7. Were the Vietnamese fighting China for hundreds of years before the period covered, or was their nation just part of the Chinese empire?