The Vietnam War

Remarquable série documentaire, à voir pour s'ouvrir sur une compréhension d'une guerre aberrante, et finalement réfléchir sur le monde, les enjeux de la société moderne et ce que nous sommes devenus...

Ik heb deze Blu-ray besteld en heb vandaag (6 februari 2021) ontvangen. Nergens op de pagina staat dat de Blu-ray Disc die je krijgt Regio A is. Hij is ook gewoon leverbaar voor Regio B. Ik heb gelukkig een regiovrije Blu-ray-speler. Uitkijken dus...

I watched this documentary on Netflix when it was on and it's probably the best war documentary I have ever watched - it's fantastically well put together with objective, insightful and thought provoking commentary from the combat zones, and also the anti-war movement going on back in the states at the time. The soundtrack is likewise exceptional.However, I had to return my box set because it only plays in region A (North America) and would not work on my UK blu-ray player (region B). The product listing does not specify that it is region A - so double check before ordering that your blu-ray can play region A discs. I was disappointed to have to send mine back, but this is a functionality issue - the documentary itself is utterly outstanding.

El mejor y más detallado documental sobre ese conflicto y uno de los mejores documentales bélicos que haya visionado. Son muchas horas pero no se hace largo.

I watched this set of ten episodes, curiously, sitting in my apartment in Saigon, where I spend a fair bit of time each year. I've been coming to Vietnam for close to twenty years, and while I've read a great deal about the war, written (and usually biased) from both sides, nothing has done as good a job of highlighting the run-up, the events, and the aftermath of that 30-year conflict as this series has managed. It's balanced, interesting, engrossing, and moving. Yes, it shows the American side of events and the current events in the US during the war, but that's to be expected. This isn't rah-rah, nor is it defeatist, but a fair, critical (for all four sides - and yes, there were four sides not two!) analysis of the events. It is, quite simply, the best analysis of the war I've ever seen, and also a time capsule view of the events in the US while the Vietnam war happened, often conflicting (such as the racial movement, Watergate, and so on). This is a superb historically accurate documentary, and I can't recommend it enough.This is not a fast watch, spanning twenty hours or so, but it is engrossing. It's superbly edited, wonderfully scored, and laid out in a way that leads you through events in a logical and objective manner. I could write pages on this documentary, but it's enough to say you really should watch this series if you are at all interested in the events in South East Asia, the US, and the world following WW2 and leading up to the Nixon years. You will learn a great deal from this series, and not just about the US involvement in a civil war in Vietnam. Commentary from by Vietnamese friends, on both sides of the events, are overwhelmingly positive for this documentary and, quite often, greatly moving, as is the film itself. Kudos to Ken Burns!

As expected from any of Ken Burns-Lynn Novick's collaborations, this is a comprehensive account of the Vietnam War.While produced for a primarily American audience, it would be a mistake to conclude that this is a series that examines the war from purely the American side. It doesn’t. The Vietnamese interviewees – from the North and the South – paint a picture that fills in a lot of gaps in understanding their motivations, doubts and concerns by utilizing interviews from citizen-soldiers, army veterans and politicians alike.The raw honesty, regret and matter-of-factness of the interviewees from both sides of the conflict are absolutely riveting, sometimes shocking and often sad at times. From the American POV, one gets a strong sense that combatants knew they were in a losing proposition; interviews with parents of American KIAs are heart-rending. Both sides talk of the high cost they paid in lives lost, the savagery of the fighting as well as the moral shortcuts that at times were taken.The series also looks at the socio-political pressures placed on the U.S., which hampered its ability to prosecute the war on its terms. On one hand, LBJ is portrayed as reluctantly escalating the war effort at the expense of pursuing social reform back home, yet on the other his frustration with the inability to show actual progress in winning the war is evident in the taped telephone conversations that are employed economically throughout the episodes.Again, from the North and South Vietnamese angle, political and social upheaval and uncertainty are outlined quite clearly. Time is spent explaining the causes and results of Buddhist self-immolation, for instance; the succession of corrupt regimes in South Vietnam is shown to be clashes of power-hungry personalities as they jockeyed for influence. The North Vietnamese regime is shown not to have been immune to this as well, as we see the waning real influence of Ho Chi Minh in the latter part of the war.The series uses period music in an interesting way: only music of the period being covered is used. In other words, if an episode is covering a period from 1966-1967, music from 1969 is not used until the series reaches that point in the timeline. It cleverly demonstrates how popular music – in the case of rock music – was a reflection of the mood prevalent in the U.S at that point in time.The imagery is, for the most part, impeccable. The series uses news footage, video and film – most of it in colour – and cleaned up and enhanced where possible, resulting in clarity of footage that almost makes you think it’s happening today, not 50 years ago.To sum up, it’s a series that makes one think hard about the awfulness and futility of war, especially when the outcomes are uncertain, and the moral impetus is not clear. It is a period of continuing controversy in the United States, a time when America, despite its superior firepower and military might, came to realize it was in a war over which it no longer had dominion.Finally, it also reveals the failure of the American politicians to control the message: regardless of the statistics and body counts that were held up as proof of turning the tide, over time the American Press didn’t buy it and reported it as such. It’s a cautionary tale for today’s governments when attempting to deliver a message that doesn’t pass the smell test.

The US entered into the war of 1812 in order to grab the rest of the North American continent. "Just a matter of marching". It did not go well.This began a long history of American wars based on bad decisions by presidential politics, laughable strategy and a deplorable lack of knowledge about the enemy. This video set provides perhaps the best-documented recent example of the phenomenon. For many viewers, This will be safely enough in the past to allow an objective view of how this kind of insanity leads Americ to save millions communism by killing them.For a more modern example of this phenomenon, one of many wars America is still in the process of losing, I recommend.There is an eery parallel here, where a President promises to end a war but is trapped by the political calculations and the complete lack of knowledge of who the enemy is, what they want and what their strengths are. Just as in Viet Nam, the "solution" is to throw in American technology and firepower to kill enough people so that the enemy (whoever that is) will be forced to the negotiation table.The process was visibly at work when Bush invaded Iraq to preempt an imaginary Weapons of Mass Destruction program resulting in the war that has spread over the entire world against an enemy that the US still shows no signs of .understanding.What is unique in this video project is the insight into how the "enemy" saw the war, along with how heavily the thumb of presidential politics weighed on the scales of reason.

I purchased this DVD set because I had served in Vietnam on active duty in the USAF and my wife is Vietnamese, I married her there when working as a civilian in Vietnam in 1974 (a civilian contractor FEC/ITT COMVETS Project 1972-74). I traveled in much of Vietnam, from the Delta Camau, Central Highlands and Coast up to Dong Ha near the DMZ as well as Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Vientiane, Laos once each as part of my job inspecting Communication sites. I've been to more places in Vietnam than my wife has. I was fortunate, I was not in jungles, "humping the bush." During the TET offensive of the night of 31 January 1968, I did get into a brief "firefight" along with about 10 other USAF personnel Emergency Ordinance Disposal personnel and Security Police. This brief firefight was with VC penetrating a perimeter near the Air Vietnam Hangers at Tan Son Nhut AB. This encounter probably lasted around 10-30 seconds but seemed much longer especially when a bullet sings past your right ear and your face is hit with wood splinters from ammo boxes stacked and sandbag filled revetment hit you in the face, fortunately I wear glasses or I would have had wood splinters in my eyes. Tan Son Nhut is located west of downtown Saigon aka Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) now. I was outside guarding our Communications Center. Later in February and through most of 1969 we had rocket attacks precisely at 1:05AM and 5:01AM, you could set your watch by them. Rockets attacks at Tan Son Nhut ranged from 146 122 MM rockets on February 17, 1968 down to one, two or more during each attack. These harassing rocket attacks occurred daily from February 17, 1968 to around mid July 1969, then ceased. This was enough combat action for me. The Communication Center I worked in during the TET offensive to my surprise is still standing, saw it when boarding a flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia in 2015 and then last February a flight to Yangon, Myanmar aka Rangoon, Burma, needless to say I am surprised that quonset hut is still there. The series reviewed many facts that many are likely not aware of pertaining to Vietnam and the US involvement. Many of the things brought forth in the series I was only aware of because I worked in Communications over there in the USAF and later as a Civilian Contractor. I also flew as a first officer for a large US non-scheduled airline in 1970-71. Flew both personnel and cargo into and out of the country in that time frame (70-71). A thought that often crossed my mind when flying troops in and out of the country was this; How many will not make it home? As a crew we never openly discussed this. Fortunately for the flight crew (pilots and flight engineer) most of us were also veterans many from WW-II and Korea. Our feelings were mixed and changed on a daily basis in other words confusion over the war and its conduct. We had little personal contact with the passengers but our flight attendants did, some of those ladies openly weeped when the troops had left the plane and prior to the troops returning to the US, Japan or the Philippines depending on the route boarded taking them out of Vietnam. I had a couple of high school classmates who did not return alive from Vietnam and some who I served with on active duty when there as well who did not return alive from Vietnam. My wife's experiences were horrendous, in comparison to my experiences, she was born in war and left Vietnam in 74 with me and knew nothing but war. She witnessed a younger sister murdered by either ARVNS, Militant Buddhists, Thieves or VC who were sacking and looting their house in Long An Province not sure who the perpetrators were this was around 1961 or 2 the younger sister murdered was a twin of a currently surviving sister they were about two at that time, her name was Chong, the family never mentions her name anymore. These ruthless people slit Chong's throat because she kept screaming and wouldn't stop. This was in front of the entire family, there was nothing her father, mother, grandparents or sisters could do but watch in horror. My wife's mother was shot in the head by a stray large caliber bullet early in the morning as she slept in her house in Nha Be (suburb of Ho Chi Minh City) in 1980 a time of alleged peace and the end of the war. My wife's father died in 1982. She never saw her parents after 1974. The family was also sent to a reeducation center and spent two years there. We visit Vietnam every two years now since 2011, it took that long for us to decide to go back, my wife had not seen anyone in her family from the time we left in September 1974 until February 2011. She will not go to Northern Vietnam. I have and the people there; my journey to the North was more out of curiosity and likely personal closure as well. The people in Hanoi and the North are friendly now, I actually found them more open and friendly and curious about the US then the people in the Southern portions of Vietnam. I am going to Hanoi and Lao Cai Province next week and then on to Laos, Northern Thailand and Malaysia. Today Vietnam is unified, and in peace, the hardline Communist lines have waned and the trend is towards a Capitalistic System but there is some discrimination toward the people of the Southern portion of Vietnam but this too is decreasing rapidly. The most provoking thought in my mind is what if President Truman had been shown Ho Chi Minh's letter to him requesting US intervention in preventing French reoccupation at the end of WW-II; Perhaps President Truman was shown the letter and simply chose to ignore it. If President Truman was not shown the letter would he have stepped up and negotiated Vietnam's independence from France back then? Ho Chi Minh was not the typical hardline Communist, he reflects this in his speeches continually citing the US Declaration of Independence and Constitution as references. Could the war with France and then our involvement been prevented saving millions of lives and billions of dollars? The real hardliner Communist in Vietnam was Le Duan, it is he and his cronies who refused to come to the peace table when initially proposed, then bickered about the seating, walking out. Many of us in the USA and free world were firmly convinced back then that the domino theory was a fact, that we had to take a stand against Communism and Vietnam was the place chosen to make that stand. What we did not realize was the fact the economics of a Communist regime would implode on itself over time as demonstrated in rapid succession in the late eighties and early nineties. As usual Ken Burns' documentary is very accurate and portraying all sides to the story an exceptional documentary that will hopefully bring more understanding to the issues of the sixties and the early seventies and the dilemmas faced by our people and politicians. The photos below were all taken by me in 2011 and 2017: Hoan Kiem Lake, Hanoi, 2011; The Hanoi Hilton aka Nha Tu Hoa Lo, 2011; Halong Bay, Northern Vietnam Gulf of Tonkin, 2011; Freeway leading to Ho Chi Minh City aka Saigon 2017; and the Skyline of Ho Chi Minh City aka Saigon on Nguyen Hue Street looking toward the river, 2017; Apartment my Wife and I lived in 1974, 32 Tran Cao Van Street District 3, Saigon aka HCMC, 2011. This apartment was next door to the French Ambassadors house, the US Counsel General lived across the street, The Embassy Guard Marine Barracks to around the corner. The famous picture of the Air America Helicopter on the roof of an apartment was next to the French Ambassador's house and housed US Embassy and USAID employees. Those images of the fall of Saigon are very difficult for me to watch, and more so for my wife. This documentary evokes considerable emotion both good and bad for myself and my wife. We are simply glad the country is evolving economically and peacefully.