"The Vietnam War " on pbs ..

[furrowtickler]

Wow , what a shameful time for politicians playing God .
The exact same thing has happened far too often ... like Iraq .
Makes one wonder what Cotton had brought up so many times about the very few evil people running the show behind the scenes. And for such a long time .

[sofa.king]

I hope there is a special place in hell for all corrupt politicians and leaders in the world. If it wasn't for social media we wouldn't know half of what is going on and if we knew all that was happening there would be a revolution worldwide.

[monte]

I have watched some of that series as well.
I knew the US had a tough time during those years but this documentary really showed how bad things go there.
The young US soldiers talking about "Fragging" their gung ho officers was shocking to me but people were trying to survive.

[sofa.king]

By the way furrow that is an excellent documentary iv caught most of the episodes.

[fjlip]

Dirt poor communists fought the biggest richest high tech war machine on earth and WON!
What contrasts. Shocking revelations.

[sawfly1]

you have to wonder , for what , what benefit, other than profits for the war machine
all those lives lost

the claim at the time was , if they got out the , commies would take over all of south east asia.
well they did win. and now the USA 40 years later , trades with Vietnam.
and communism fell apart all on its own. the sky did not fall

Iraq , same thing, they had a whole lot of military hardware getting dated.
clear out the old stuff, try out the new toys , great for the arms business.
new demand equals profits.
you just need to find or makeup an excuse to start a war

when Vietnam had had enough of the french , and got them out , then the Americans come in .
to interfere .
they just wanted to run their own country

[blackpowder]

I own most of Ken Burns' documentaries. The shift toward accepted mistrust of officialdom then, has given us the carbon and class wars of today. One could even argue, Trump. Mistrust of course rightfully earned by the likes of Nixon.
The motivations and machinations of the war itself I see as fascinating, but same play different actors.
Remember people, when "judging" history and its players. Context, context, context.

[rockpile]

another side to the Viet Nam war - people. I've been to Washington twice, last time in 2007. The war memorials are a very short walk from the Lincoln Memorial. Walked past the Viet Nam memorial both times. A long black granite wall with the names of all the 50,000 plus killed there. Both times there were people standing in front of their loved ones name sobbing and crying. After all these years. Saw a new one last time dedicated to the women in the forces killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Lots of flowers and wreaths. A family gathered there all sobbing and crying and I remember thinking it didn't have to be that way. Shame! The most spectacular is the Korean war memorial, really well done. I highly recommend Washington as a holiday destination, so much to see and so much history. P.S. - the Canadian Embassy is spectacular!

[grassfarmer]

The famous quote by McNamara after the US got terminally set back in the Tet campaign that "We will bomb Vietnam back into the stone age" seems timely at a time when Trump is threatening to "totally destroy North Korea". It doesn't look like the disastrous foreign policies the US pursue show any sign of changing.

Rockpile, I agree Washington is perhaps the most worthwhile place to visit in the US.
Vietnam is also well worth a visit, I went in the 90's and it was sobering. A beautiful landscape with beautiful, forgiving people. Fascinating peasant agriculture shaped by chemical residues and unexploded munitions, a reminder that the after effects of war linger long after it ceases to made daily headlines on the news.

[mustardman]

One very telling statement from this show was a speaker saying that the U.S Always thinks it's the GOOD Guy, always fighting on the right side, a country can get into BIG problems thinking they are Always Right.

Unfortunately they did the same thing in Iraq, there Invasion and interference in that country has Created ISIS.


In Vietnam it's called the American War
U.S didn't realize what they were doing in Vietnam was same as when the British were in the 13 colonies in War of independence