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  1. #11
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    I thought it did a pretty fair job of portraying the Vietnamese vets in a sympathetic light...

    Veterans Angry, Disappointed following PBS' Vietnam War Documentary
    2 Oct 2017 | A gripping documentary on the Vietnam War -- described by many viewers as a masterful depiction of a prolonged conflict that divided the nation -- has left many American and Vietnamese veterans feeling deeply disappointed, even betrayed.
    "The Vietnam War" -- a 10-part, 18-hour PBS documentary by American filmmakers Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that concluded Thursday night -- depicts the history of the war through photographs, archival footage and interviews with more than 80 veterans and witnesses from all sides. The film has been hailed as a hard-hitting, raw account of the war and the players involved. But veterans of the South Vietnamese military say they were largely left out of the narrative, their voices drowned out by the film's focus on North Vietnam and its communist leader, Ho Chi Minh. And many American veterans say that the series had several glaring omissions and focused too much on leftist anti-war protesters and soldiers who came to oppose the war. On Thursday evening, hours before the film's final installment aired, a group of American and South Vietnamese veterans came together at a San Jose home to share memories of the war and talk about the documentary.

    Sutton Vo, a former major in South Vietnam's army engineering corps, watched the series but has told friends and family not to do so. The film is "pure propaganda," he said. "The Vietnam War included the Americans, South Vietnam and North Vietnam. But in the 18 hours, the role of South Vietnam was very small," said Vo, 80. "Any documentary should be fair and should tell the truth to the people." After the war, Vo was sent to a communist "re-education" camp, where he was imprisoned for 13 years. At one point, he said, he was confined for three months to a pitch-black cell virtually 24 hours a day -- his feet shackled and his hands bound with rubber string -- after an escape attempt.


    American Vietnam War veterans and South Vietnamese Vietnam War veterans meet up to discuss the PBS documentary on the Vietnam War by American filmmaker Ken Burns

    Despite South Vietnam's fall to the communists in 1975, he said, South Vietnamese soldiers did what they could with what little they had. "We fought for our country with our best," Vo said. "We didn't need the Americans to do our job for us. We didn't need the American GIs to come and fight for us. We needed money, supplies and international support." Like Vo, Cang Dong spent time in a re-education camp; he was freed in 1987. Dong, 70, president of the local chapter of Associates of Vietnam Veterans of America, has just started watching the series, but said he's unhappy with what he sees as the filmmakers' glorification of Ho. "Everything is a big lie," he said. "To our people, Ho Chi Minh was a big liar and immoral."

    Veteran Jim Barker, 70, of San Jose, also said he was surprised by the extent of coverage given to North Vietnamese soldiers in the film. "What bothered me is the element of arrogance that seemed to come out in seeing themselves so superior. I had trouble with that," said Barker, who was an adviser with a South Vietnamese intelligence unit in the Central Highlands and survived the siege of Kontum in 1972. "That focus detracted attention from the people of South Vietnam and the idealism that was there." In a recent interview with New America Media, Novick acknowledged that historically the stories of South Vietnamese were simplified in the U.S. news media, which she said portrayed the South as "inept and corrupt." "But the film has gone a long way to tell their stories, the heroism and the stories of personal sacrifice made by those on the losing side," she said.

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    Is about half of A Thousand Years: A History of Vietnam and newer material...

    Bringing ‘The Vietnam War’ Home
    October 17, 2017 - I’ve watched the entire series of The Vietnam War: A Film by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick three times now and I’ve learned something new every time. You might have recorded it on your DVR or figure that you’ll stream it while it’s available on the PBS website or catch it while PBS stations around the country are re-airing the series this month.
    Going Deep on ‘The Vietnam War’ With Ken Burns

    Or you could make a worthwhile investment in the Blu-ray or DVD. You can get either one at Shop PBS. There’s also a 2-CD soundtrack of songs from the film and single CD of the score, a book version by Geoffrey Ward and an audiobook read by Ken Burns. There are discounts if you bundle some of the items.

    Explore the Many Sides of ‘The Vietnam War’ With Director Lynn Novick

    There’s an informative Making-Of documentary where the filmmakers talk about the difficult decisions about what to include and what to leave out of the final film. There are a handful of completed scenes that aren’t included in the broadcast version of the program. I wish there were more of those.


    John Musgrave Plays a Key Part in Ken Burns’ Vietnam War Series

    Marine John Musgrave is one of the key contributors to the series. The most powerful bonus feature is a meeting between Musgrave and a group of Iraq and Afghanistan share their stories and provide support to each other. There’s also a fascinating clip in which series contributor and Vietnam War deserter Jack Todd speaks with cadets at West Point and embraces the idea of a universal draft. It’s an uncomfortable and respectful conversation on both sides.

    5 Reasons You Need to Watch ‘The Vietnam War’ on PBS

    The Vietnam War is an ambitious attempt to open a conversation about the ongoing fallout from the war in Southeast Asia. Right on the box, the directors make their beliefs clear: “There is no single truth in war.” Every viewer will find things that will make them uncomfortable and might even inspire some frustration or anger. Consider it a call to arms: men and women who experienced the struggles of the Vietnam need to share their stories and give the rest of us new perspective on the era.

    https://undertheradar.military.com/2...tnam-war-home/

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    SRO Pentagon Audience Gives Rave Review to Ken Burn's Vietnam Documentary...

    ‘The Vietnam War’ Gets Raves from SRO Pentagon Audience
    October 19, 2017 - Filmmakers Ken Burns and Lynn Novick got a thumbs-up Tuesday from a standing-room-only Pentagon audience for their acclaimed PBS series The Vietnam War.
    If the documentarians had second thoughts about showing excerpts and discussing the series before uniformed personnel of all ranks and Defense Department civilians, those thoughts quickly dissipated in the packed Pentagon auditorium. The two were applauded when they walked in, when they walked out, and numerous times in between. “It’s an honor to be here with you,” Novick said. “We have a treat today,” Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said in introducing Burns and Novick, whose work has won rave reviews but has been criticized by some for supposedly implying a “moral equivalence” between war protesters and those who fought in it.


    Ken Burns and Lynn Novick discuss their film at a PBS event earlier in 2017.

    Shanahan focused on those who served, and continue to serve through the example of shared sacrifice they set for future generations. “Ken, Lynn, thank you for telling the story that, as [Defense Secretary Jim Mattis] told the Association of the U.S. Army last week: ‘The Vietnam veterans raised today’s generation of military leaders. In that way, their protection of our country extends beyond their own years in uniform to the present day,’ ” he said. “Those veterans deserve to know their sacrifices are not taken for granted,” Shanahan said. “Ken, Lynn, we at the Department of Defense are grateful to you for this opportunity.”


    Marines marching in Danang. March 15, 1965.

    The co-directors stressed that the series is an effort at storytelling meant to avoid taking sides in the greater interest of opening up an overdue national conversation on the war and its aftermath in the U.S. and in Vietnam. However, Burns said there was one indisputable takeaway. “We’ve learned one lesson from the war, which is we’re never going to blame the warriors again, and that’s a really good lesson,” he said to sustained applause.

    [center]
    Vincent Okamoto in “The Vietnam War” documentary.[/cengter]

    Vincent Okamoto, an Army veteran who was the most highly decorated Japanese-American to survive the Vietnam War, said it better in one of the excerpts shown at the Pentagon: “You know what — the real heroes are the men that died, 19- and 20-year-old high school dropouts. They didn’t have the escape routes that the wealthy and the privileged had, and that was unfair,” he said. “And so they looked upon military service as like the weather. You have to go in and you do it. But to see those kids who had the least to gain — there wasn’t anything to look forward to, they weren’t going to be rewarded for their service,” Okamoto said. “And yet, their infinite patience, their loyalty to each other, their courage under fire was just phenomenal,” he said. “And you would ask yourself, ‘How does America produce young men like this?'”

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