usafa93
Anyone with a degree from a respectable United States university will roll their eyes at the title after viewing. What Oliver Stone presents is far from the "untold" history of the United States. Rather, it is the preached party-line of academia. It is told every day. If you have never been exposed to this alternate point of view, you might consider this series interesting and worthwhile.Essentially, the alternate vantage is that the United States acts with ruthless self-interest, and is ruled by a small cadre of elitists. I suggest the actual truth lies somewhere in the middle. The pacing and presentation of this "history" lesson is a bit like General X's history lesson from Oliver Stone's "JFK." If you got a kick out of that monologue, you'll eat this documentary up.
keelhaul-80856
This is a very interesting documentary that focuses on little- acknowledged facts that may very well change the views of average Americans, if their teachers or the media ever bothered to delve into it. I always enjoy any piece like this that sheds new light on subjects of history, religion, or politics. The only reason I don't rate it as a 7 or 8 is simply because of my own in-depth studies of history and my knowledge of Oliver Stone's other works. While he provides a great deal of lesser-known facts regarding FDR's administration, the world wars, etc. he still seems to leave viewers with the impression that the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, and other areas under communist regimes were actually just nice guys with no real axe to grind. In leaving out the other hidden histories of what truly happened in many of these nations, leading up to the points where they intersect with US affairs, I feel it leaves the wrong impression that the US is solely to blame for multi-faceted problems and doesn't address the hidden hands of bankers and secret societies and communists who brought on many issues and atrocities. Similar to his treatment of the JFK saga, Stone gets some of it right, and does a good job of at least raising good questions and shedding light on obscure facts, but doesn't quite hone in on the full picture. Still, worth a watch, but I would suggest a much deeper study of the wars, ideologies, and other agendas at play.
Xillx
The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone is in the most part a condensed analysis of the causes and consequences of the long-term American imperialism plan following WW2.It briefly covers the atrocities of the other imperialist nations and sets the context for explaining the pivotal moment in history that lead America to present itself as the "police of the world".It is a must see, it is very well structured and narrated.The most shocking aspect of American history is the lack of empathy by the American power structure in regards to the millions of death they've caused in other nations since WW2, as well as an apparent lack of justice for American war criminals.Hitler and Stalin were worse by a huge margin undoubtedly, but this doesn't justify the unjustifiable like Vietnam, Iraq, support of puppet dictators, overthrowing democratically elected governments, arming fanatics, betraying the Geneva convention, lying to the UN, drone bombings of civilians, etc.It seems that after launching the first atomic bombs the United States of America have been governed by less than brilliant megalomaniacs. Even the wisest and most humanist presidents had little power to stop a long-term military plan for world control.
earthinspace-1
These episodes are a good addition to the mental library of a serious history buff. For a big-picture treatment, this series does make quite a few boo-boos at the big-picture level. Examples:1) We hear several times a thesis that "Stalin always kept his word, so why didn't we make better friends with him?" Back at home, Stalin wasn't keeping his word very well. Should we have ignored what was occurring in the Soviet Union? Sure, there's occasional mention of Stalin's brutality. It seems thrown in, to avoid omitting it altogether.2) We hear that Japan was ready to surrender and Truman wanted to use the bomb as leverage at Potsdam. That's a reasonable thesis. But that was only part of the picture. It cannot stand alone. If we examine everyone's motives at the time, as this film partly did, what emerges is not the simple feeling we get from the film: "America bad, Japan not as bad." Still, it's fine to have these details offered up. They even mention the 45,000 Korean slaves who were in Hiroshima on that tragic day.In hindsight, Oliver Stone's ideas are okay as learning opportunities. It's not fair to assume that Americans living in the mid-20th Century should have known then what we know now. But it's fair to second-guess them now as a meditation for future use. That will happen to our times too.I've watched the first five episodes and plan to watch the rest.