The Vietnam War

SGaynor

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Dec 6, 2006
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Bristol, TN
Very good documentary (at least the first two episodes, 3h into an 18h documentary) on the Vietnam War.

Good stuff on PBS, definitely worth watching.
 

SGaynor

Well-known member
Dec 6, 2006
7,148
162
52
Bristol, TN
If you watch any episode of this, you should watch the one focused on the Tet Offensive (Episode 6).

Absolutely amazing. One of the most powerful things I've ever watched.

It is basically a summary of the horror, inhumanity, shitty leadership (lying, miscalculations), and sacrifice that occurred during that war. On both sides. The American stories and the Vietnamese stories (both North and South) are incredibly powerful. The the execution of a VC/NVA by the S Vietnamese General is just...well...just...

http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-vietnam-war/episodes/episode-6/
 

emmodg

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Apr 17, 2006
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It's all fake news! PBS?? That's a commie left-wing propaganda machine!
 

SGaynor

Well-known member
Dec 6, 2006
7,148
162
52
Bristol, TN
It's all fake news! PBS?? That's a commie left-wing propaganda machine!

At one point, it kind of felt like that in that episode, where they showed the video of Gen Loan executing the prisoner (the photo is famous, the video rarely seen) and talked for minutes about how horrible it was that this general just causually executed the prisoner (who killed a SV colonel and his family).

But then they talked about the massacres by the NVA/VC at Hue. 2800 rounded up and executed.

(Last night I learned that a college friend who came to the US from S Vietnam in 1985, had his maternal grandparents kidnapped and killed in Hue. :eek:)

It's definitely balanced, IMO.

(Note, I'm not saying they say US atrocities are just as bad as VC/NVA, but that it doesn't whitewash it - it talks about US finding their dead mutilated, the Vietnamese saying they killed prisoners; but also how US troops would collect ears, or how one Marine said, "We didn't torture or mutilate prisoners. But a prisoner is someone you had to take back to camp. Any one who surrendered to us was a sorry fuck." Basically, they took no prisoners. Incredibly powerful stuff.)