Ken Burns: How Vietnam War sowed the seeds of a divided America [View all]

[turbinetree]

Ken Burns surveyed the audience at the Kennedy Center in Washington and asked that anyone who served in the Vietnam war stand up. To prolonged applause dozens rose, among them Senator John McCain and former secretary of state John Kerry.

Then Burns asked everyone who had protested against the war to stand up too. Veterans including McCain joined the applause as they did so.

Then, spontaneously, some members of the two groups reached across the stalls and shook hands. Burns said he “couldn’t tell the difference” between them and expressed hope that this is how reconciliation begins.

“I thought that was kind of nice,” said Jim Greene, 72, who went to Vietnam in 1966 as a tank commander in the 2nd marine division. “Time heals most wounds.”

The gathering last Tuesday night went on to watch a 45-minute preview of The Vietnam War, a 10-part, 18-hour documentary about what Burns and his co-director Lynn Novick call the most important event in American history since the second world war.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/16/ken-burns-vietnam-war-documentary-john-mccain

I was a protester and proud of this fact..................