I have see documentary about Vietnam war by Oliver Stone. it has a different political perspective about the war.
I've watched a bit of this and will continue watching. Last episode was interesting as they were talking about la Drang where Hal Moore led a battalion in the week long battle to kill the enemy. They had Joe Galloway (the photographer) talking about it and showed scenes that line up with scenes in the movie "We Were Soldiers". Yea...I saw the Oliver Stone one talking about "Platoon". I had no idea the backstory. Elias was a real guy. Even Barnes was based on a real guy.
Each episode is at least 2 hrs long. 10 episodes, that's like 10 movies. 10 of the best movies you've ever seen. Episode 5 probably better than most movies this year, lol.
Loving this so far. I'm glad he dedicated so much time to the buildup instead of just starting in 1965. This is the first time I've ever seen interviews with former vietcong and NVA guys. Very interesting to hear their perspective all these years later. Anyone notice Trent Reznor did the original music? It fits perfectly with the material. Most other Vietnam docs just play 60's music.
Fell alseep after getting halfway through the first episode this morning. Not because it was boring, I was just exhausted.
If you took out all the bombs we dropped and the enemy casualties from those, then I wonder what the casualties would have been from our side inflicted on them? Basically, if it was just our ground forces fighting enemy ground forces with no air support, then it seems like we were always getting our tails kicked and we were always getting baited and drawn into ambush after ambush. The recurring theme is we never figured anything out on the ground. One of the recent episodes detailed something about a hill 865 (or whatever). The enemy set up their fighting position and bunkers in advance on the hill knowing they were going to bait our troops to the hill and ambush our troops. Even with us basically shelling the whole hill killing all the trees in the process, they were hunkered down in their newly built bunkers. Then, we start trying to go up the hill to take it. They draw us in and then unleash hell on our guys. And, at the same time, they ambush our forces at the bottom of the hill. Then, after a few days, the enemy retreats from the hill. We take the hill for like a day when they are all gone. Then, we leave the hill. Then, it seems our troops died taking the hill...for nothing. And, that's how they felt as well. Everything our ground troops did seemed to be a reaction to an ambush. The enemy just toyed with us the whole time. They had all the control. Just think how fast that war would have been over with if we had no air campaign. To this day, I still wonder if any lessons were learned from Vietnam? Somehow, I doubt it. Interesting that we dropped more ordinance in that war than we did in all of WWII.
Not usually a fan of documentaries, but yeah, this one is great. Draws me in like game of thrones does.
It's brilliant and super sad and depressing. I'm emotionally drained already in the middle of episode 7. Had to sign up for the PBS passport so I can watch episode 6-10.
The answer to your question is an empathic NO! If possible take a look at Konregal and Restrepo on Netflix about the conflict in Afghanistan. The parallels are absolutely eerie - from the tactics used by the Taliban to the day-to-day reality faced by US troops to the antipathy of the civilian population toward the US presence. It's Vietnam all over again down to the military and government making the same misjudgments and mistakes. This is literally the best documentary I've ever seen on Vietnam - way better than "Vietnam: A Televion History". Of particular interest are the tapes of private phone conversations between Kennedy, Johnson, McNamara and others. Kennedy's exposed grave doubts about this endeavor right before his assassination while the others knew this was a lost cause back in 1965 yet they still sent more and more American solders into the meat grinder - exploiting those individuals whose sense of patriotism led them to believe in their leaders and those economic circumstances prevented them from going to college and getting that student deferment. And that, to me, is the biggest tragedy of this whole sordid mess.
If the US did not have to worry about China and was able to send ground troops into North Vietnam things would have been very different and i believe it would have been over real quick
Damn the episode juxtaposing Nixon's private conversations with his staff and his speeches to the American people was shocking. Nixon was truly a scumbag and crook. The case of the massacre of 500+ villagers (including babies for god sakes) and the subsequent punishment or lack thereof for the perpetrators was the most infuriating and disturbing thing in the series. This was a great documentary series. I learned so much about Ho Chi Minh's early life, LBJohnson follies despite mostly good intention, Nixon's crookedness and the immense tragedy that was the Vietnam war. Loved all the personal interviews and stories from all the sides, though iMO they should have left on the cutting room floor the story about the deserter who moved to canada... dude was boring and provided nothing interesting.
I thought it was interesting how they talked about a lot of he US soldiers being young men being too poor to be go to college and get a student deferrent. Than showed the sons and daughters of the rich N. Vietnamese studying in the USSR
