Ken Burns, Vietnam. We are half way through episode 5. My wife and I are at a loss for words.

[NRaleighLiberal]

I was born in 1956 - episode 5 covers mid 1967, so I was 11. Of course, I had no idea.

We are streaming it on the Passport app on Roku.

This is not an easy watch, but to us, incredibly relevant for too many reasons to list. As a peek into the minds of politicians and the military - what the public is told vs what the truth is, our country's perception of itself on the world stage, the incredible divisions that can form, the parallels to today in so many ways, the courage and honesty of those who are interviewed during the show (which must rip open deep scars and wounds)....

I can't imagine what it would have been like to be there. I can't imagine anyone who was there emerging unchanged.

It just seems to us to be exceptionally important to watch - probably more than once - to finally get some sense of the Viet Nam War and how it continues to impact our country.

[Glorfindel]

1. I was in Vietnam from Dec. 66 to Dec. 67. I was 21 years old.

I have debated watching the Ken Burns program. I'm not ready yet. It's been 50 years this year, and I'll probably watch it eventually, but not yet. It took me until 1996 to visit the "wall" Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC, for fear I'd recognize a name on it. As for being unchanged...well, of course the experience changed me. That war changed everything, including this country's perception of veterans. Three Vietnam veterans in a row were defeated in presidential elections...Gore, Kerry, McCain. I'm sure Ken Burns will do his usual excellent job of telling the story, and it definitely needs to be told. It may be another entire generation before we can all put that war behind us. Your statement "what the public is told vs what the truth is" is more telling than you can ever imagine.

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. Thank you, in every way I can possibly thank you.

I just looked up the NY Times review of the show - and found this rather telling final paragraph

"The saddest thing about this elegiac documentary may be the credit it extends its audience. “The Vietnam War” still holds out hope that we might learn from history, after presenting 18 hours of evidence to the contrary."

Indeed.

[RobinA]

6. Indeed

And what is the talk/ debate of the day? Whether football players should be allowed to kneel for the National Anthem. That's not even the most important story in football.

[jaysunb]

9. You're telling my story, almost verbatim. n/t

[Docreed2003]

10. "Welcome home brother"....

May not mean much but I think, as a combat vet myself, it carries more weight than "thank you for your service". Watching this series has been eye opening and enlightening to me, but at the same time incredibly hard to watch because I lived through my generations "Vietnam" as a combat surgeon in Afghanistan in 2011 at a forward base that received the brunt of American, NATO, and local casualties. I can't imagine watching a documentary on Afghanistan right now, and it's been years since I was there, much less visiting a monmument for those who died in OIF/OEF. The greatest gift for my service I received was when we touched down in US soil and walked through the gates in Maine, a stop off before heading to NC, and we were greeted by Vietnam vets, Korean Vets and even WWII vets to welcome us home. It was a small thing, but these folks sacrificed their personal time to do this small act and it was truly special. So, "Welcome Home"...even if its decades passed due.

[Duppers]

22. I'm fighting tears reading your post and others on

this thread. I lost a dear friend in 'Nam, never got to say, "Welcome home."

[Ken Burch]

19. Thank you for your service...which continues today, in MANY ways.

n/t.

[Upthevibe]

25. My heart goes out to you, Glorfindel....

I just can't imagine the horror....I've been watching the Ken Burns program as well. It's truly laying it all out there. I don't blame you for not being able to watch it. Maybe you'll never watch it...you lived it....

[LeftInTX]

55. I can't imagine

My dad was also there around that time.

I was 10.

He was a pilot, so I think it insulated him a bit.

[madokie]

67. From June of '69

to Oct of '70. I went over as a young kid of 21 came home as an old broken man of 22. Totally completely forever changed.

I still can't watch any of the movies including this one. I still can't visit the Wall although the traveling Wall has been near here three times now. The last time my brother picked it up in Big Cabin Ok and delivered it too Tahlequah OK. Called me to see if I wanted to ride with him. I couldn't do it. I doubt I will ever see either the Wall in Washington DC or the traveling Wall. Just too emotional for me. My camp was overrun two weeks after I left to come home and according to the news 25 died. Beings as I spent a good portion of my time there as the postal clerk more than likely I knew most if not all of them. Some I'm sure were my best friends and I can't bear the thought they lost their lives that day. All of us just kids full of life, full of dreams, full of hope of when we got back home what we were going to do, not knowing that no matter, if like me, I got my body home alive our minds would never make it back.

It took me all of a week to ten days after arriving in country to realize what we, America, was doing there was as WRONG as WRONG can ever be.

I'm glad those of us who got our bodies home alive did. My life has been fucked in so many ways ever since then.

Peace



So Sad

[Glorfindel]

78. I'm glad we got back, too, madokie.

I agree with you about the movies. I have seen parts of "The Deer Hunter" and "Platoon," but not all of them. Even "Forrest Gump" was kinda tough to watch, although it's a comedy. (They did get the helicopters right, though.) I totally understand your not wanting to see the wall. There was only one name on it that I recognized, and I had already heard he'd been killed. So, as far as I know, all my buddies made it back. Sometimes I think of them, maybe bald, pot-bellied, wrinkled, playing with their grandchildren, retired, traveling, and I hope they're all well, happy, and prosperous.


Peace to you, too.

[jimmil]

92. I was there 69-70

It took me until 2006 to see the Wall. I looked up some names there and as I read them I saw their faces again. It just all came back. I wish I had never gone.

[Demtexan]

3. My brother was there at the time.

I do remember my Mother being a wreck that year.

I was just a very young teenager.

This show has brought back a lot of memories.

That war cost us a lot.

What we could have had if not for Vietnam War.

I do remember the good things President Johnson did.

Tonights episode is so powerful.

[RobinA]

4. You Think That One

is hard to watch, wait until you get to the Tet Offensive and Johnson railing about how all the news media does is lie. The more things change...

[Demtexan]

5. Yes.

President Johnson got painted into.a corner.

[Ken Burch]

20. He didn't have to paint the party into a corner with him.

Once he withdrew, he should just have let Humphrey do whatever he needed to do to unify the party against Nixon.

He didn't have to force Humphrey to make his delegates to vote for a Vietnam plank that basically said "the war's going to go on, and what people voted for in the primaries didn't matter".

If LBJ had brought the troops home the day after he withdrew from the race, nothing would have been worse in Vietnam or here, and much would be better.

[Demtexan]

38. I know.

He could not admit he had a made a mistake.

Like the song that was in the one of the episode.

The Big Muddy.

Remember The Smothers Brothers tv show.

[still_one]

54. no excuse. The the Gulf of Tonkin was a lie, and he knew it

[Demtexan]

74. Yep.

President Johnson did some good things also early.


Food stamps and Head Start.

Medicare and Medicaid.

Civil rights.

None of these will be remembered because of the Vietnam War.

We got a Nixon because of the Vietnam War.

President Kennedy got sucked up in the Vietnam War.

The damn war was a cancer.

I liked this show because it went into the early history of the war.

[onetexan]

77. agree, there were many points where it was clear

the US involvement should have ceased, starting with Kennedy's administration. It carried on for another 12 years ending with 58K US troops dead, & over 3 million Vietnamese soldiers & civilian casualties. This was a civil war to end colonialism. US involvement made it much worse.

[dflprincess]

7. I haven't watched the series.

I've been so angry since last November that I didn't think I could stand getting angry all over again about that stupid, stupid war.

[LittleGirl]

18. +1

Me either. I hated that war. All of my brothers could have been drafted and the only reason my 65 yr old brother wasn't was because he got hepatitis in high school and was in the hospital for 65 days. He was given last rites twice. I hated that war and therefore there was no way I could watch the series this day and age. Thankfully, my other two brothers were younger after the draft ended in 1973. I would have been a protestor if I was old enough. God bless the soldiers.

[Demtexan]

8. The episode is being repeated now.

If anybody missed it.

[a kennedy]

11. All I remember is crying at Lyndon Johnson saying he would't run again.

What the hell did I know, just that Bobby Kennedy was my hero and was running for President.

[Ken Burch]

21. That whole damn year was cause for crying.

n/t.

[Gore1FL]

40. Except Apollo 8.

[Warren DeMontague]

48. Yep

[Ken Burch]

60. That was a small saving moment...otherwise...little but tragedy...

The assassinations...police brutality against people of color in the cities that rose up after MLK's murder...the continued brutalization of Vietnam...the crushing of the dream of a better world in the streets of Chicago, more brutally in Paris, even MORE brutally in Prague.

It was, to use Elvis Costello's phrase from years later, "flowers in the dirt".

To me, a person who experienced that year as a child, this song sums up the depths of the sense of loss...and it's telling that the person who wrote and sang this chose to die less than eight years later:

[Not Ruth]

12. I wish that America had taken the knee on Vietnam instead of faking a reason to kill

[SMC22307]

13. Wait til you get to tonight's Episode 6.

It's especially brutal.

[BigmanPigman]

14. Watch Apilcopyse Now as I did in Vietnam Film class...

It has been a part of my political history and why I continue to fight against government BS, lies, etc. It was the first film after Coming Home that portrayed the reality of the BS that was glossed over by popular myth, likeThe Green Berets, most of our country's "mistakes" usually are.

[IronLionZion]

15. Trump wants his Gulf of Tonkin incident so badly

[Ken Burch]

23. And then he wants to prove that Nixon's "madman theory" of foreign policy was right after all.

God(s) help us.

[sarcasmo]

16. PBS has a great free app for Roku.

[NRaleighLiberal]

26. yes - that's what we are using.

[Atman]

27. For Amazon FireTV and Apple TV as well.

One thing for sure...you can't binge watch it. One episode and I'm drained.

[LeftInTX]

41. I know. I can't watch one episode in a sitting.

I have to break it up.

[TeeYiYi]

65. You can watch...

...the unedited (explicit language version) at pbs.org

They also have the original edited broadcast version, a Spanish language version and a Vietnamese subtitle version that you can choose from.

All episodes are available up to and including tonight's episode 6, if you happened to miss any. The quality is amazing. I've been watching the explicit language version on my laptop.

As a child of the 60s, I didn't think I would be that interested in 'another Vietnam show'... Boy, was I wrong. I think that after 50 years, they must've released information that was previously unavailable; real eye opening stuff... This documentary is deceptively good. It draws you in and doesn't let go.

It's hard core, unvarnished truth; beautifully told from both sides. Another Ken Burns masterpiece. I can't wait for episodes 7 through 10.

TYY

[The Wizard]

17. Two weeks in country and I knew

it was a load of shit we were being fed.

[Cryptoad]

24. When they "thank me for my Service"

I tell them,, "Don't thank me,, thank those that never came home!"

[Upthevibe]

29. It's just now showing here in L.A. (tonight's episode) I love Peter Coyote's narration....n/t

[Cryptoad]

31. Im not watching it!

I dont need all that shit stirred up inside me ,,,,,,,,

[elleng]

28. 'what the public is told vs what the truth is, our country's perception of itself

on the world stage'

[Lucinda]

30. Burns does incredible work.

[Hoyt]

32. Haven't watched all of it yet. It's very good, but not a revelation. That war, like most if not all,

since WWII and maybe Korea was not fought for any worthy purpose. Vietnam was particularly bad because young men were drafted/forced to participate.

Since Iraq, it's hard to understand why people enlist to participate in what amounts to the 21st Century version of the Crusades.

[Warpy]

72. Exactly why so many of us, myself included, are so passionate about no draft again

unless this country is physically invaded by another power. The abuse of all those young kids was appalling, and it wasn't just the two years out of their young lives. Modern war destroys people and a lot of the guys might have come home without major wounds, but they were deeply wounded just the same.

I lost a lot of friends my age to drugs, alcohol, and suicide (often all three) because of that rotten war.

I don't ever want to give any president, especially a war hawk, that kind of power over young Americans, ever again.

And don't give me that bullshit about rich guys with sons in the game. That doesn't happen. Or about people in the suburbs objecting to their kids going into the military against their will. That doesn't happen, either. Those of us who were adults back then know better.

[RandomAccess]

79. For the most part, we still have a draft --

it's an economic one. Yes,people who are born warriors of whatever class and economic status join, but the vast majority are just poor kids -- or undocumented immigrants until recently -- lookin' for a way up out of hopelessness.

You're right. Rich kids don't go. But middle class kids do -- and that was, at heart, a huge part of why the Vietnam war ended.

[Warpy]

81. The war ended because taxes were going up

and people saw all that money going down the five sided rathole called the Pentagon and resented the hell out of it, especially since everything else was getting shortchanged.

They didn't know that five sided rathole was permanent.

[RandomAccess]

87. And of course the protests had nothing to do with it.

I see.

[Warpy]

89. The protests inspired a lot of hippie hating and college resentment

from bedrock suburbanites who voted for Nixon because he hated hippies.

[RandomAccess]

91. Well I'm sure glad

I've had the opportunity to have the whole thing explained to me by someone who clearly knows everything there is to know about it.

[YOHABLO]

33. I think it's important to remember there was a draft. Some went to Canada others never

came home. I was born in '55 and lived my life thinking that I too would one day be called up. When '75 came around and the draft, and the war was all but over, it was a sigh of relief that I never had to confront that decision as to whether to go .. or head north. It's a very controversial issue. If there were a draft today, what kind of stigma would be attached to those who say hell no I'm not fighting in Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen?

[NRaleighLiberal]

35. I agree - being one year younger than you, I can also share in the sigh -

my parents were all ready to ship me off to Canada if things went longer or differently.

[LeftInTX]

46. You're lucky that your parents would have supported you

I'm a she, but the same age.

My dad served in Vietnam from 1966-67.
I was 10.

He came back bitter....he would argue with us about it in the 70s.
We kept telling him the war was unwinnable and he wouldn't listen.
He just complained that liberals and hippies were pacifist quitters.
He got involved with those Swift Vote Veterans for Truth years later.

My dad would have never let my brother go to Canada to escape the draft.

It's good that your parents were supportive.
My dad rubbed that war in our faces.

[NRaleighLiberal]

47. I come from a long line of New England liberals/doves. My grandparents supported me leaving as well.

And our daughters continue the line of liberals/doves!

[LeftInTX]

50. Treasure them for what they taught you!

[NRaleighLiberal]

52. I do - my memories of them are priceless. thanks for your lovely responses and comments....

[lpbk2713]

34. I noticed Sam Hynes had a brief spot in tonight's episode.

He was included prominently in Ken Burns' The War.

[LuckyLib]

36. My entire teen years and most of my 20's was

within the frame of the war. It permeated the lives of all of us. Each episode I find myself repeating "What a waste!" And we learned nothing.

[NRaleighLiberal]

37. We have a severe fault as a species - an inability to learn from past mistakes, and excess hubris

[Big_K]

94. It's hard to watch the US getting involved in Vietnam

and not think about Afghanistan and especially Iraq.

[NRaleighLiberal]

105. absolutely

[GP6971]

39. I agree, it's hard to watch and I remember it so well

I was 18 at the time and freshman year at college and in Army ROTC.

[Martin Eden]

42. "It just seems to us to be exceptionally important to watch"

I agree. Understanding this history is vitally important.

My wife and I are watching it. I was born in 1957 and she in 1954. Some of what we've seen is very familiar and some is revelatory. All of it is heartbreaking.

A young president had inspired a new generation of Americans to ask what they could do for their country, then so much promise and potential was horribly wasted in an obscene war that tore our country apart and wreaked greater havoc on poor people halfway around the world who struggled for decades to free themselves from foreign invaders.

Going forward, the biggest tragedy might be important lessons not learned.

[LeftInTX]

53. Sadly, I heard that Cheney was very bitter about Vietnam

He felt that the war was winnable and that liberals forced the govt to withdraw.

So, he tried it again in Iraq.

"Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results"

I hope he and Rumsfeld are watching this series.

[Ken Burch]

61. He felt the war was SO winnable that HE didn't even need to fight in it.

[LeftInTX]

63. That's a job for "little people".

[JI7]

62. he got like 15 deferments to avoid serving there

[LeftInTX]

64. I know. It was "someone else's" dirty job.

[flotsam]

69. Why does an asshole who grabbed five deferments

get to be bitter???

[bobbieinok]

43. Lived through it. Unable to watch

[sarge43]

84. Yes.

Didn't have to be there to know that it was a disaster and a tragedy.

Still can't remember without feeling all over again the anger and the pain.

[NRaleighLiberal]

44. I'm off to bed...thanks to you all for so many thoughtful responses and comments.

[Cereal Killer]

45. PBS.ORG

http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-vietnam-war/watch/

[Warren DeMontague]

49. It's leaving me with a big pit in the middle of my stomach.

But yes, super important television.

[Bradshaw3]

51. I include this with The Civil War as his best. It is a masterpiece.

Vietnam was a central part of my formative years (born in 1953) but luckily I missed out on being drafted due to a high lottery number. I was heavily involved in protests and in heated class discussions in a conservative state, so it was often tense in those years. I knew I never would have gone had I been called but I respect so many of those who did, although we have to remember that Americans committed atrocities over there as well which have not been covered in the media. I assume My Lai will be in the next program; we'll see if he includes the Phoenix program as well.

Regardless, this program so far to me is a masterpiece. It is difficult to watch at times but I would urge those who haven't to do so. I think it will promote healing and understanding, as it has for me in watching American soldiers talk about their hate for the Vietnamese. I now understand why so many felt the way they did. We are being torn apart again as a country and I just hope it doesn't devolve into 1968 all over again, as that was the most horrible year for America in my lifetime.

[Demtexan]

97. We are the same age and I would never went to Vietnam.

I respect those who did go.

My brother did not have to go but he did.

He went off with a friend who died when his helicopter crashed.

My brother came home messed up.

He spent a long time in a VA hospital.

This war was part of our young lives from birth until our early 20's.

My brother's friend lasted one day in Vietnam.

[Bradshaw3]

102. Sadly there are thousands and thousands of stories like theirs

I don't know if younger people today know how much the war affected our formative years as you pointed out, even those of us who didn't go.

One of the things I've been struck with in reading these threads is the number of veterans who aren't watching the documentary. Yes I know veterans generally don't like to talk about their war experiences, and my father was like that about his WWII experience. But those who don't want to watch seems like a large number and I think I understand more after talking with a vet today. It was just such a uniquely bad experience for him in every respect he doesn't want to go back there again, even on film.

[Demtexan]

109. I never trusted Washington.

This war did effect us younger people who had older family members who did go.

The 60's changed us from our parents.

I did serve in the Army but after the Vietnam War was over. I was in from 1976 to 1980. I got out when Reagan came in.

I remember my brother sent home audio letters on the old style recorders. He bought two of them. That brought the war home to me as a kid. In some of the tapes my brother was in a bunker with shelling going on. My parents could not listen to them but once.

I still have the tapes.

I can more then understand why the Vets are having a hard time watching the show. It is hard on me and I was a just a kid.

I told a young friend to watch if she wanted to understand the 60's.

[Bradshaw3]

110. Thanks for sharing your experience n/t

[leanforward]

56. I was in RVN from July 66 to Sept 67.

I respect K Burns. But, I have declined to watch. I might in the future. But, consistent with what I've done in the past, some of this RVN stuff gets to me. I know names on the wall.

You're right, it is not easy to watch.

No one who was at the tip of the spear, escaped unchanged. Those soldiers lives have been changed forever, the ones that came home. When I say soldiers, I include sailors, marines, coasties, and any other Americans . Have you ever talked to parents of an American lost in RVN?

However, with the current political climate, I hope they impeach pRezident dRumpf. Follow the money. The man is crooked.

Anybody friendly with the pa'ruskies is a traitor. pRezident dRumpf is a traitor in order to build his business model. He could care less about the citizens that voted for him.

[NRaleighLiberal]

57. + a zillion

[FuzzyRabbit]

66. + another zillion.

I usually don't watch movies or TV shows about the Vietnam war, until this series. Great series so far, although it leaves out a lot of important stuff, ie the role that American businesses played in prolonging the war.

I was in college in Tacoma during the mid and late 1960s. Fort Lewis and McChord AFB was where most GIs returned from Vietnam. Talking to returning GIs was a real eye opener.

I remember one evening at a south Tacoma coffee house, The Shelter Half.

A soldier back that day from Vietnam came in and announced that US soldiers had massacred a Vietnamese village, and the army was trying to cover it up. Suddenly all the GIs had shocked and dismayed looks on their faces.

I heard nothing more for a long time and wondered if what he said was true. Several months later we learned from the news about the My Lai massacre.

My Lai happened in March 1968. I wonder why it was left out of this evenings show, which covered the first half of 1968.

[Lucca2]

58. Thank you for your compassion for those who served.

I was in college and worked for peace in my young way, but my older brother served two tours as a pilot (449 missions) and the divide in our family nearly crushed us all. He made it home but he went through hell for a while. What a hell on earth war is.

[Thekaspervote]

59. I had family members and high school friends that were injured or died.. can't watch

Too too painful

[pbmus]

68. 68-69, Phu Bai, HQ 24th Corps

Am still deciding on watching ... personally my experiences changed me forever both physically and emotionally...war is hell on earth and is the biggest failure committed by human kind.

[WinkyDink]

70. I was a new h.s. graduate in 1967. A classmate's brother was killed in Vietnam. A college friend

(college was the heart of the protests, 1967-71) was born on 9/14/49, the first date, #1, for Nixon's lottery. He and others managed to get medical deferments (one was even in ROTC).

Who in good conscience now (and nobody I knew then) could blame these teen-age or barely 20-year-old young men for wanting to not go and kill or be killed for no known sensible reason?

I won't watch this epic.

I watched it with Walter Cronkite. I knew the fear in my friends. And I was a war protestor on a college campus when others were slain by the National Guard on theirs.

[Rollo]

71. I've been recording it to watch later... like during my next period of unemployment...

Or when I have a bad case of the flu.

What little I watched already is quite painful to see again... I was in my late teens in the late 1960's, and all those images and statements brought back memories of a turbulent time made more turbulent by youth.

I will watch it eventually, but on my own terms, so to speak.

[secondwind]

73. My husband returned from Vietnam a changed man, with bursts of anger, throwing objects etc

He came home in 1969, and who knew about PTSD back then? It destroyed our marriage, although we remain close friends for the sake of our daughter.

To this day, he refuses to talk about it. I don't think he ever will.

[malaise]

75. This

what the public is told vs what the truth is, our country's perception of itself on the world stage,

America has done an awful lot of evil to folks across this planet - and apparently this will not change.
M$Greedia has helped to perpetuate the lies and myths.

[mnhtnbb]

76. My husband was "Berry planned" during Vietnam years which essentially was a deferment

for medical school and specialty training. He thought by the time he was done with all those years of school,
it would be over. It wasn't and he ended up joining the Air Force to put in his two required service years. He was
assigned to McClellan AFB in Sacramento.

So he didn't have to "go" to Vietnam, but as a newly trained psychiatrist he sure saw a lot of the effects of
that war on the soldiers who did serve in Vietnam. My husband went on to work--at least part time--for the next
20 years of his career in the VA system where he heard the stories of Vietnam vets--as well as vets from other wars.

He has been watching the series. I can't bring myself to watch it.

[tavernier]

80. Can't watch it.

Barely made it past The Wall in DC. I lost friends, school mates, a boy who once told me I was his first kiss... couldn't have had many more after as he was only nineteen. Brokaw talks constantly about the greatest generation. I've often longed to ask him if he thinks they were so great, why did they work so hard to wipe out half of my generation?

[bullsnarfle]

82. It should be a law.

Every politician, Pentagon denizen, staff officer, advisor, war-mongering pundit, and anyone who has any influence over whether this country goes to war, should have to watch this series from beginning to end.

Oh, and by the way, at the end there WILL be a test.

[FairWinds]

83. Tonight's episode (1969 and later) should cover . .

the GI resistance to the war from within the military.

It was massive, and scared the bejeesus out of the powers that be.

It was also a major factor in ending the war, but is carefully being edited out of our history.

I myself did not learn about it until years later, and I was there in Vietnam while it was going on (1968-59) !!

We'll see if Burns/Novick get into this - I doubt that they will.

See, "Sir, No Sir" free on Youtube.

[pwb]

85. First air cavalry, 69-70, Cambodia too.

I went thinking it was right, came home knowing it was wrong.

[Stuart G]

90. Can't Watch..but I watched another Ken Burns video..3 or 4 times.

It was horrific ..So I am sure this will be horrific. Which one you ask?...Burns did a series on the "Civil War"..
and I showed the ..."Battle of Gettysburg" to my classes when I was teaching.. Some early war pictures, mixed in with narration of families and towns that sent soldiers to the wary, and never came back..Also letters that soldiers sent home to families. Burns also included paintings of battles..and quotes from soldiers who were in the battle: how they felt, and what they saw. He had actors do the readings, so that a person watching imagined he was listening to the actual person writing..(sound effects too).. He did an incredible job of recreating that battle. Total picture..before, during and after.

I knew after viewing it, what a master story teller Ken Burns is....Oh, it was very sad, and was meant to be....
I lived through the lies of Viet Nam, watched it on tv... Marched....didn't serve. Taught high school in two of the roughest schools in a large Midwestern city, Attacked more than once...Several riots in the schools that I taught in......

[The River]

86. It's Like Deja Vu

all over again.

I was there 68-71....

Kinda therapeutic.

[cp]

88. Riveting.

Lived through it as a young person who was "safe" because of being female. Not so my friends.
One of the best things I have ever seen. I will watch it all again, it's so rich in detail and our history that I cannot absorb it in one viewing.
Burns and Novick have done a brilliant job and given a huge gift to our country. Thank you.

[Juliusseizure]

93. Vietnam War Not Taught in Schools

I was born in '71 and at least my school didn't cover it at all. I don't recall a single discussion through school and no political science college course covered it.

My knowledge is mostly based on the movie "Born On the Fourth of July" and references in music. I remember Reagan's worst nightmare was another Vietnam.

Anyway, very shallow understanding. Schools need to at least address it.

[LS_Editor]

95. Just wait. It gets worse. Nixon committed treason by telling the NV not to negotiate with LBJ (1968)

[dalton99a]

101. Yep.

[SMC22307]

106. That was stunning.

There's so much focus on Watergate... I'm almost embarrassed to admit I didn't know about him sabotaging peace talks.

[Big_K]

96. Got a PBS Passport so I could watch them all last week

It is a hard thing to watch. Like a few other folks above, I was born in 1955. At 18 I still had to go get a draft card, but I didn't need to worry about being drafted at that time. But I do have to say there was a LOT going on that I was unaware of as a suburban kid. I was thinking about the Navy as a draft alternative so I could stay way offshore -- not knowing about the Brown Water Navy and the Swift Boats.

My brother (who was in Vietnam) suggested ROTC and get the Army to pay for me to become a Veterinarian. He said Veterinarians in the Army were the food inspectors, and had a pretty easy gig.

My brother was a clerk in charge to finding and getting doctors to Vietnam. He wasn't "in the shit" necessarily, but still never talks about his time there. And I've seen a few examples of horrible anger coming to the surface over things like someone cutting him off in traffic. Literally getting out of the car and running up to their window screaming at them. Luckily no one has pulled a weapon on him.

And considering George Bush and our escapades in Iraq, I don't think we learned a lot from Vietnam.

[globe lady]

98. another view

During the war, my brother, a senior in college, had a high draft number. During that year, he began to suffer from what was then called a nervous breakdown. After consulting with a Dr, it was suggested that he commit himself for what was suposed to be R and R and comprehensive workup. He hitchiked to the nearest state hospital and arrived about 7 PM. The attendant accused him of trying to dodge the draft and sent him away. He was a 4.0 student working on his thesis on Chaucer. One week later, after coming home he committed suicide. As sad at it was, my other brother was the one that found him. Two weeks late he was drafted! I thought my Mom would go mad...
That brother served, was not harmed physically, and to this day I am in awe of what a kind and gentle man he is. Yes, I hated , yes, I demonstrated, but for different reasons. I have equal empathy for those who served as those who did not. His name won't be on the wall, but should be. Thx.

[Rhiannon12866]

103. I am so very sorry, that was a terrible war.

It divided the nation and so many of our young men were lost - or had their lives and those of their families changed forever. I once worked with a guy who had been in the thick of the fighting, he shared snapshots he'd saved and he was still feeling the effects, both emotional and physical, all 20+ years later. And he was also a very kind human being.

Welcome to DU, globe lady! We're glad to have you with us!

[Hortensis]

111. So incredibly tragic. I share your feelings at least at least in empathy.

No blame for any of the boys I knew who shared the terrifying reality that they would from graduate high school to Vietnam.

Welcome to DU, Globe Lady. Like your name.

[SergeStorms]

99. Americans' distrust with politicians began.

And Richard Nixon's Watergate lies opened the flood gates. Few Americans ever looked at their government the same way again. I know I never did.

[Botany]

100. It was so long ago but I remember like it was yesterday when the word about .......

http://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/44773/JAMES-E-RUDD

.... my friend's brother hit Chestnut St. in our little city. The neighborhood never seemed the same.

[Nevernose]

104. When is the episode on dating and STDs?

I was lead to believe that wearing a rubber was, at a bare(back) minimum, as dangerous as Vietnam. I'm sure the greatest president in the history of the world (except for those presidents who have personally committed the act of genocide) wouldn't have misled me, would he?

[burrowowl]

107. I was shot at UNM campus twice for protesting

confronted at a lycée in France went Kent State went down by over 2000 students and teachers as an exchange instructor, I keep watching it and even though it makes my blood boil. I haven't learn more than I knew then.

[FairWinds]

108. We owe it to our kids and grandkids to struggle to make . .

the US less militaristic.

I joined Veterans For Peace, and would suggest that you consider it.
One need not be a vet to join.

And yes, great for Burns/Novick to show Nixon's treason (Reagan did the same thing with Iran)

But B/N did NOT present a word about the anti-war resistance from within the military.