Ken Burns Vietnam Documentary

A lot of the folks here might want to tune in to the 10 part documentary that begins tonight on PBS about the Vietnam war, by perhaps the greatest documentarian of our age, Ken Burns.

www.pbs.org...

Though at times Burns’ documentaries get a little tedious, overall he has done a great job of filling us in on history, as his past docs on the Civil War, baseball, and many others, have done

Thanks for the heads up. Always enjoy his work.

a reply to: Willtell

I will, thank you for the reminder. Though I've been told, by a couple that have seen it, that it is very corporate friendly. Will keep an open mind. I love documentaries of all kinds.

One I'm recommending at the moment is "A Good American" on Netflix and other places. It touches on the Viet Nam era in part.

a reply to: Willtell

Just set my DVR to record the entire series

a reply to: FyreByrd

I wouldn’t be surprised. Burns gets film nobody gets. To get that kind of access one has to be somewhat establishment. PBS is very establishment liberal.

I wonder who will be the heroes in this?




not really....

Ken Burns has the best documentaries. His History of Baseball was amazing, as well as the Civil War series.

a reply to: Willtell

NICE his civil war documentary was as top notch as they get.

originally posted by: Willtell
a reply to: FyreByrd

I wouldn’t be surprised. Burns gets film nobody gets. To get that kind of access one has to be somewhat establishment. PBS is very establishment liberal.

Yep - compromise is necessary. I'll be very interested in what he does with the subject.

I'd like to hear your thinking on "A Good American' - I found it fascinating - it's basically about the history and 'distortion' of signals traffic intelligence - can't think of any other way of putting it. That field, if you will, was being developed during the VIet Nam era - and is 'key' to the survellience state. And - and almost made me a 'believer' in it's usefulness ... if responsibly deployed.

originally posted by: Willtell
a reply to: FyreByrd

I wouldn’t be surprised. Burns gets film nobody gets. To get that kind of access one has to be somewhat establishment. PBS is very establishment liberal.

true, but its like you said higher level.
supplement his overall theme with your own with extra learning materials and make up your own mind.

Id use his documentaries as a source anyday, just one of many of course.

a reply to: FyreByrd

It was a disappointment to see that you thread of a few days ago "A Good American" received almost no responses except for mine and a couple of others. I was surprised of no response from anybody about my very likely explanation for the burying of the digital system in favor the old analogue system. Had they gone with the digital mining program, they could have exactly nailed the members and member states responsible for 9/11.

From: www.veteransforpeace.org...

Doug Rawlings, who served in an Army artillery unit in Vietnam from 1969-70, watched the first episode at his home in central Maine and had this to say: “It was certainly engaging,” but Rawlings noted “When the narrator says early on that “America’s involvement in Vietnam…was begun in good faith, by decent people, out of fateful misunderstandings.’ The U.S. did everything it could to keep Vietnam a French colony and failing that to make it an American one, no matter the cost. Burns and Novick actually show that pretty clearly, yet they still say it was begun in good faith? That just shows how powerful the myth that America is always on the side of the angels.”

I watched the first episode the production quality was excellent. I don't care for 'voice-over' documentaries much.

Since my cursory reading of the Pentagon Papers, I've always had a feeling that this was about the old colonial powers manipulating the US to 'protect' their interests and this doc has only reinforced that 'feeling'. I still see it happening - in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, South China sea and increasingly Africa. Mid and South American. I see the US not representing it's own interests but the interests of old (and now multinational) colonial interests.

We're DVRing and watching it bit by bit.
Seems like the reasoning for the war was only 10% or something to save the country.....and about 70% to make the US look good....loosely remembered from from a document they showed.

Good show so far, makes me remember why I was against the war way back then.
Shows how the WH and government withheld info from the US citizens.