joker-scar As with all of Ken Burns doc's, this one has miles of fantastic footage, minutia of unknown little details, great editing, splendid narration and cherry picking of the facts which glosses over some controversial information on a subject which the controversatial aspect is the entire theme of that horrible conflict. I have watched all Ken Burns previous docs and they are amazing, but I have also noticed a "template" of sorts being used over and over again. Mr. Burns loves his Mr. Smith all American type folks that still embrace the Norman Rockwell version of their country but in this particular subject matter... it treads a dangerous line, historically speaking. I am an amateur student of history and my knowledge of Vietnam and other connecting aspects of 20th century history are pretty abundant therefore I knew certain facts going in and was for good or ill waiting for certain "facts" to be revealed. Here is the main problem: for the first 4 episodes every country's negative aspects of its own involvement is shown; it's viciousness, ruthlessness, brutality, etc. Countries like China, France, East Germany, North and South Vietnam, the Viet-Cong, ARVN, Russia and especially Communism in general... "everybody" except the US, which is handled with kid gloves. Whenever a person from the Pentagon or in some higher up government position is talking, present day interviews, they seem to be saying they had knowledge and passed it along to the right channels and it was either ignored or buried. The US side is presented as mis-informed, mis-guided, mis-lead, mis-read, mis-taken, mis-communicated to, etc. etc..... basically a victim dragged into a situation and trying to rise above it to fight for freedom the world round. None of the sinister tactics of US foreign policy is shown which led up to its involvement and when it does show some sort of negative aspect towards that notion, it is so down played as to supposedly arouse sympathy in the viewer. There are many important focal points in history and as far as the Cold War is concerned it is Truman which can be blamed for starting that war and successive administrations for keeping the fear alive. All the good will FDR had slowly built up with Russia over the years while in office, Truman shot down in almost a blink of the eye with trying to get tough with the Russians. Churchill nailed the coffin shut with his famous Fulton Missouri "iron curtain" speech which scared everyone in the western world with the perceived Communist bogey-man wanting to invade small town USA. Churchill admitted that the Russian's, and Stalin, always stood by their word and never broke it, unlike the Western powers that turned their backs on Russia before the end of the pacific war. I am no way endorsing Soviet Russia under Stalin, he was a ruthless dictator who slaughtered millions of his own people in the purges in the 30's, but if Truman had not listened to the hardliners and his own little-boy inferiority complex, the Cold War might not have even happened at all, saving thousands of lives and billions of wasted dollars and denying the world a save environment to life. The Military gained by the Commie-bogeyman fear with increased budgets, corporate American benefitted and Politian's played the fear card to win votes. Everybody wins, except everyone loses in the end. This same bogey-man fear comes to bite the Government in the butt years later; Truman regrets forming the CIA, Ike warned the country about the military industrial complex, Kennedy gets his head blown off because he wants to pull the reigns back in regard to the Russians and LBJ's ego won't allow him to cut his losses and pull out of the Nam and hard line, overzealous voters won't let him because of that over-stoked fear about Communism drilled into them since 1945. When all is said and done many facts were still not presented which is unforgivable being the doc is 16 hrs. 30 minutes long. It totally ignores the CIA's deep involvement, which is only glossed over a few times and treated like they had very little input in the thing overall. The Agency nurtured that conflict for decades and when it was the right time, handed it over the military to mop-up in 1965. Plainly put, Vietnam was used a platform for the US and Russia to trade blows without direct confrontation and it getting out of hand with one side or the other pushing the nuclear button.

Trey Yancy This is a truly excellent film. I was two years too young to go to Vietnam but my draft number was 028, which means I would definitely have gone. Even so, as my father was recently retired career Air Force at the time, so I was deeply immersed in the whole Stateside experience.The only caveat is something that shows an uncharacteristic lack of attention for a Ken Burns film, which was the music. Most of it was spot-on; with the music being contemporary with the images and narration at any given time, but some of it was ridiculous. Examples include using a 1975 Led Zeppelin song for events taking place in 1969, and alternate takes of Beatles tunes that were completely unknown to the public until their Anthology release in 1995. It is not a big deal, except no soldier in Vietnam would have heard any of this. In this case, to the filmmaker it was nothing more than music, but to the people dealing with day-to-day life during the Vietnam war it mattered. To me it seems as disrespectful as if they had included Scott Joplin rags in The Civil War.With the above exception, it is a great miniseries. From the telling of the Hal Wallace story (the subject of We Were Soldiers Once and Young) to the ignorance and naivete of Jane Fonda, and everything else, this covers the range. This series takes everything in a strictly chronological order, which is great, but sometimes the mixing in of things tends to frequently change the pace. A contrasting approach might have been the combination of chronological order and arrangement by topic, such as that used in From the Earth to the Moon, would have made things soak in a bit deeper.The uncredited George Santayana quote about repeating the mistakes of history is a key yet understated theme in this series. The irresponsible attitude towards Afghanistan after the Russians were driven out is a repeat of the Vietnam story - the opportunity to make things right early on that was ignored by shortsighed and self-centered politicians which led us to the present unresolvable situation - same thing. We are also seeing this in the Trump administration - a voluminous number of issues that are repeats of the mistakes of short-sighted and self-centered politicians of multiple generations in the past. It is like the certitude of McNamara and his peers in the past, except their conclusions were based on massive data and not on seat-of-the pants-thinking.The mistakes of the U.S. regarding Vietnam will continue to be repeated over and over until the people in power start taking seriously the deep moral truths behind the Consitution and Declaration of Independence. As long as our leaders have no humility and are driven by power and ego, we will have many Vietnams in the future - Vietnams in every facet of our national activities, causing endlessly increasing headaches and crises that will burden future generations. It's tragic, but it is the inevitable product of the combination of the ignorance and arrogance that characterize the vast majority of our leaders.

Luap79 I have so many words, but I don't know how best to express them. This documentary is very hard to watch at times, but it is (in my opinion) something that everyone (who was not there) should watch. This series has taught me many things, not only about what it was like for my dear old friend and his comrades on the ground, but also the abysmal way in which the war was carried out and the poor decision making by the governments involved. Now 39 years of age, I grew up not knowing much about the Vietnam war. We (in Australia) were not taught anything about war other than the 1st and 2nd world wars. We celebrated ANZAC Day in memory of those who died in WW1. So to now have this superb documentary to further my research is truly appreciated and I thank all involved. This series is not some remake of a brutal war, it is the war. So be warned, this is not something I would recommend to someone suffering from depression, PTSD or any other mental illness likely to be triggered by the harsh reality of war. I have found myself in tears on many occasion whilst watching this, but for me, this is a journey I must take. I only wish that the Australian and New Zealand involvement had a mention. I give The Vietnam War series a solid and well deserved 10/10 stars.

hermesmmm Explains in a confused way the beginning of the war. Everyone knows that the Tonkin incident never happened. It also seems that according to the documentary, the war was lost by South Vietnam. In the documentary, war criminals are presented as people who defend a good cause. A great exculpatory maneuver under the guise of an objective documentary ...