Barbwire:
[…] Absent from discussion in the Burns work is the absolute truth that communism kills – and not just in Vietnam or Southeast Asia. Communist regimes are responsible for the deaths of more than 100,000,000 people in the 20th century, nearly one-third the number of the current population of the United States. Its surviving victims number many times that. People do not die breaking into communist paradises. As an old Vietnamese friend who escaped to freedom in 1980 after several attempts described it: “If they could, even the trees would leave.”
“No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War.
It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now.”
I wanted to, I tried to, I did…..I watched less then one episode because he forgot that I lived this….I was too young to be drafted, yet I knew many that were. I have spent 50 years knowing some that did serve…..Those are the people that I want to learn some lessons…..Not Ken Burns….
That’s an easy one. I detest Ken Burns and will not watch. Totally interested in the topic, but not this liberal asshat’s version of it.
I saw Burns live well over a decade ago. I was agnostic on him prior to the event. I’ve hated him ever since. What a preening, self aggrandized piece of crap he is.
He’s a big government television propagandist tool he is.
Defund PBS.
^^
Beware of sloppy ending above. Sorry.
Let me guess the Ken Burns plot: America is evil.
Did I get it right?
Probably.
Has Ken Burns ever made a series that did not go out of its way to point out how rotten the U.S. was/is?
Burns is yet another reason to defund PBS. He’s a multimillionaire, his sponsors are multimillionaires, and the PBS makes millions off the sale of his productions. He’s the Big Bird of Leftist Filmmakers.
I tried to watch but didn’t make it a half hour. Couldn’t get past the commie bullshit. DEFUND PUBLIC TV & RADIO!
At the link there’s a video about ‘Nam (movie trailer) by a guy who has no use for Ken Burns.
RadioMatt….I think his Civil War series was excellent. He used such notable historians as Shelby Foote for his material.
I thought his WW2 and Civil War Series were very good, and I learned quite a lot. However, with the Vietnam War being so heavily, opportunistically politicized, I’m already very skeptical. I wish we had given our soldiers the warm welcome home that they so deserved.
I previously sent this to a group of retired, mostly Marine Vietnam vets who I call great friends.
I am not a Vietnam Vet; enlisted in Dec 77. Also, I did not watch the series so I had no reason to comment on it. However, I have been paying close attention to the post-series conversation both here and elsewhere on line and here is my guestimate of the reason for Burns’ series. As always I could be wrong, but I think this is the bottom line up front: it’s part of a very long leftist war against war.
In the past 16 years, public support has slowly but steadily been turning against the Vietnam protestors and toward Vietnam Vets. In the last several years even old protestors have been writing articles about how wrong they might have been; how their actions eventually hurt themselves morally and/or hurt their children. At the same time, commercials supporting military personnel, and especially supporting the Vietnam Vet-aged guys – like the ones with characters who look pissed when the young guys get called “heroes” – have become the rage. The latest example is a “Moment of Truth” commercial found at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=x2L3skZ7FEw.
Well, those changes in public perception cannot be left unchallenged. The Vietnam protestors have started fighting back. Just who do you think supports PBS? Young military folks or the old anti-Vietnam War era families with money? By supporting series like Burns’ film on the war, they get to reinforce WHY they were protesting, why it was important to be protesting, why YOU should be protesting today. They get to sell WHO they were protesting against – those politicians or folks like Westmoreland – who even the military who were there blame for the mistakes. Most importantly, they get to retake the high ground with a new generation who was starting to look at them like the anti-American jerks they are. They get to breed a new generation of anti-war protestors who will themselves burn their draft cards in the event the big one ever goes up and a draft is re-initiated.
Burns’ series was but a skirmish in the long fight to retain the high ground by folks totally against war; a war PBS is happy to fight for them. “See, no matter how right you think it might have been, the Vietnam War was wrong. That makes the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria,
etc., etc., wrong.”
None of us want war, but sometime war is necessary – just not to the folks behind series like Burns’.
When Jane Fonda is making popcorn before watching it’s a safe bet you can expect nothing more than the same distorted horseshit they’ve been trying to sell for years now.
I didn’t watch it, I couldn’t watch it.
I knew nothing of International policy at the age of 18, I didn’t know the plans or strategies of Washington D.C, the president, Pentagon, the generals or many times those leaders I reported to.
I have nothing but contempt for those with a liberal/socialist agenda telling me about Vietnam (45 years later) when they have absolutely no personal experience. They pick and choose those interviewed, as well as, what documents they use to build their Vietnam falsified fantasy.
The real heroes were those who by choice or by draft served.
It was the democrat, liberal/socialist, SDS, left politicians, hollywood and the media that tied our hands through political subversion.
Through this pressure the Generals were no longer implementing strategies, they were being directed by public opinion of the vocal minority.
The majority didn’t stand up, those that did were chastised by the media. Much like during the Obama Administration.
Somethings don’t change.
However, President Trump is trying and he’ll succeed if the “Silent” Majority” awakens this time around.
I truly don’t know if Ken Burns ever produced anything worth watching. I have never seen any of his products.
I am another vet who couldn’t watch Ken Burn’s Vietnam documentary. And I won’t watch reruns of it later either. I could smell a rat even before they aired it and knew it pretty much would distort the true history of the lousy Vietnam War and give more praise to the commies than all the brave Soldiers and Marines and Navy and Air Force veterans who fought in that damned war. And besides having grown up back then and seeing all the anti war protests and everything associated with it that was constantly on the news I had a pretty good idea of what was going on at the time. And being amongst the last of the draft age cohort since I was in 19 in 1972 (Nixon ended the draft just before the 72 presidential election when I was in boot camp) and getting a low draft number I volunteered for the Navy. I saw the end of the Vietnam war in 1975 just after Saigon fell to the communists and we bugged out betraying the Vietnamese people on my 2nd cruise to SE Asia aboard the USS Kitty hawk CV63 in May and June of 1975. We should’ve won that damned war but after the Tet Offensive early in 1968 the media, no thanks to Uncle Walter on CBS and other media schmucks pretty much gave it up as a lost cause and tilted towards the cause of Uncle Ho and the Viet Cong and the US as the bad guys. I love the Vietnamese people and they got a shitty deal from the democraps especially Sen. Frank Church from Idaho. I try not to be bitter about that whole era but at the same time I think it should’ve had a different outcome if all the damned politicians like LBJ, Robert McNamara etc. wouldn’t have micro managed it like they did and allowed the military to its job of winning that war. And bless all the Vietnam vets many of whom are very good friends of mine, we deserved better.
This is why journals and notes from ancient times til now are important. We find out more from letters and notes written by soldiers and generals all around the world without depending on people like Burns.