Vietnam - Ken Burns Documentary

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Son of Butch

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10 parts 18 hours I've only seen a few hours.
A 10 year 30 million dollar project by Ken Burns. I expected better.

It is not as gripping as I had anticipated, a little bit of a let down, something seems to be missing to me.
 
I just randomly turned on the TV and it was on KET, a PBS locally broadcast network. It got my attention. The primary thought I had was, "It had to be the greatest loss of life, injury and suffering for nothing that the human race has ever seen".
 
Bright Raven":1s1qs4st said:
I just randomly turned on the TV and it was on KET, a PBS locally broadcast network. It got my attention. The primary thought I had was, "It had to be the greatest loss of life, injury and suffering for nothing that the human race has ever seen".
Sort of like Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder playing a tennis match against each other. :shock:
 
TexasBred":1nmq69md said:
Bright Raven":1nmq69md said:
I just randomly turned on the TV and it was on KET, a PBS locally broadcast network. It got my attention. The primary thought I had was, "It had to be the greatest loss of life, injury and suffering for nothing that the human race has ever seen".
Sort of like Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder playing a tennis match against each other. :shock:

Sidenote: they played some recordings of President Johnson in discussions with political and military leaders. Wow! He was not the brightest Star in the Sky!!!
 
I got the opportunity to take a Vietnam lit class where the prof was a special forces veteran that had been in South Vietnam. It was once a week and we read a book, then play "fact or crap with Bob" as I like to call it. He would discuss the realities and falsities of each book we read. It's been 10 years and I can't remember many of the books we read. At the end of the semester, we watched a 45 movie that had songs from the era over images from the war. It was spectacular. After it was over, we had a panel of 3 veterans talk about their experiences and answer questions. One of them was a special forces sniper that did week long, one man missions into Laos and Cambodia (whoops!). I have been in the room with murderers and some really tough dudes, but this unassuming Grandpa was probably the scariest person I have ever encountered b/c I knew that if he had to, he could still get things done.

One of the biggest take aways I had from the class was that the US military used, for the time, very sophisticated war simulators on computers. They ran them thousands and thousands of times. The United States never won. Yet, they kept throwing young man after young man at the problem. There were a lot of really good men, on both sides, who died and an entire country was destroyed for nothing. I'm no fan of communism, but if that's what the people want, it's up to them to live with it.
 
Bestoutwest":2sz52ayb said:
I got the opportunity to take a Vietnam lit class where the prof was a special forces veteran that had been in South Vietnam. It was once a week and we read a book, then play "fact or crap with Bob" as I like to call it. He would discuss the realities and falsities of each book we read. It's been 10 years and I can't remember many of the books we read. At the end of the semester, we watched a 45 movie that had songs from the era over images from the war. It was spectacular. After it was over, we had a panel of 3 veterans talk about their experiences and answer questions. One of them was a special forces sniper that did week long, one man missions into Laos and Cambodia (whoops!). I have been in the room with murderers and some really tough dudes, but this unassuming Grandpa was probably the scariest person I have ever encountered b/c I knew that if he had to, he could still get things done.

One of the biggest take aways I had from the class was that the US military used, for the time, very sophisticated war simulators on computers. They ran them thousands and thousands of times. The United States never won. Yet, they kept throwing young man after young man at the problem. There were a lot of really good men, on both sides, who died and an entire country was destroyed for nothing. I'm no fan of communism, but if that's what the people want, it's up to them to live with it.
That explains it......1960's computers. :lol2: :lol2:
 
Son of Butch":16d3zk61 said:
10 parts 18 hours I've only seen a few hours.
A 10 year 30 million dollar project by Ken Burns. I expected better.

It is not as gripping as I had anticipated, a little bit of a let down, something seems to be missing to me.


I've watched the past three nights. Very educational for me. I was born during the middle of that mess. It wasn't taught at all in school during my time. So honestly I was very ignorant of the history of the war.
 
More than half of the boys in my high school died for what?
It is hard to figure out what is going on during the middle of any crisis & it was a crisis on TV every night & with the mail bring notices 1A drafted then they took guys that were married; then they got so desperate they started taking married with children or it was in the works. What is not known about that war is enough to make three more movies & twenty books that nobody will read. Why then & why now; because nothing is simple. I thought this forum was about sharing & helping each other & cattle talk. Like what about country of origin labeling (COOL) how do we get some consideration when half the consumers do not know that Mexico & Canada born cattle sell as US beef that USDA does not mean USA born. The war is as & was often described as hellish; so lets not want war or wish hell onto others as those who have seen hell never forget the smells or ITS horror.
 
I doubt if any more than 5% of my graduating class were killed during Vietnam, and that's a very liberal guess. I personally only know of one off the top of my head and he was killed in a training accident at Camp Pendelton.
 
I watched the entire series. The French colonial history from 30s/40s/50s was something I knew little about. The interviews with the NVA veterans bought interesting perspectives. The casualties they withstood were amazing. I think the biggest government failures by our ex leaders were around how misleading and destructive and illegal polices were done for personal and political reasons. I know some of the same kinds of failures still happen in big companies and government agencies, and "leaders" are rewarded for it.

It appears that there were several key decision pts in the long and bloody journey:
- supporting French colonialists rather than Uncle Ho
- total misread of the culture
- SV government coup
- Kennedy's death/LBJ's tough guy escalation
- focusing on and lying about body counts
 
greybeard":1mm1cyr3 said:
Haven't watched it. Saw the original series decades ago.
Glad you came back. My wife had 3 of her brothers there at the same time. Watching the news every night was a big deal for their family.
 
Stocker Steve":faqw1o9g said:
I watched the entire series. The French colonial history from 30s/40s/50s was something I knew little about. The interviews with the NVA veterans bought interesting perspectives. The casualties they withstood were amazing. I think the biggest government failures by our ex leaders were around how misleading and destructive and illegal polices were done for personal and political reasons. I know some of the same kinds of failures still happen in big companies and government agencies, and "leaders" are rewarded for it.

It appears that there were several key decision pts in the long and bloody journey:
- supporting French colonialists rather than Uncle Ho
- total misread of the culture
- SV government coup
- Kennedy's death/LBJ's tough guy escalation
- focusing on and lying about body counts

One of the many reasons I truly hate the French.
 
World politics are so complex. Communist dictatorships are ruthless murderers.
USA leaving southeast Asia gave rise to Pol Pot murdering 25% of Cambodia's population in just a few short years,
during communist 're-education/genocide'.
 

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