Ken Burns' "Vietnam War" series on PBS

bama579

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Jan 15, 2005
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I'm of that generation . . . remember being very relieved when my draft lottery number was 320.

The family was soooo happy when brother made it back from his tour there in the late 60s.

The series has been deeply affecting. So many blunders by S Viets and us . . .
 

92tide

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I'm of that generation . . . remember being very relieved when my draft lottery number was 320.

The family was soooo happy when brother made it back from his tour there in the late 60s.

The series has been deeply affecting. So many blunders by S Viets and us . . .
i've heard good things about this documentary and will try to check it out. my uncle was an artillery officer in vietnam for a stretch (2-3 years i think) and my dad didn't get drafted because he was working for texas instruments at the time and i think they were doing a lot of the aviation/radar equipment.

i was born in '69, so i have no memories of that time.
 

day-day

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There was so much going on during this time period. I've liked the series so far. There was some good information in the early 60's that was completely ignored.

Fantastic film footage.

The next show should cover the time period when my father was over there ('67-'68) and I was in the 3rd grade. His younger brother was over there a little before that.
 
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jabcmb

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I'm of that generation . . . remember being very relieved when my draft lottery number was 320 . . .
Mine was 37. A friend of mine was 366. I have been surprised how well the series has stuck to the facts. Johnson/McNamara and their vacuous tactical pronouncements, please. An hour spent with von Clausewitz early on would have saved thousands of lives.
 

tidegrandpa

All-American
I pulled my big brother's draft notice out of the mailbox and saw the 1A designation and bawled like a baby.
I dodged the bullet, wasn't quite old enough, it ended the January of my senior year of high school, however big brother did have sense enough to go volunteer at Air Force and his worst duty(thank God) was cryptography assignment in Okinawa for bombing mission encryption.
Lot's of others were not so fortunate and I remember all the flag and draft card burning on TV, made me sick.
 

Chukker Veteran

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I pulled my big brother's draft notice out of the mailbox and saw the 1A designation and bawled like a baby.
I dodged the bullet, wasn't quite old enough, it ended the January of my senior year of high school, however big brother did have sense enough to go volunteer at Air Force and his worst duty(thank God) was cryptography assignment in Okinawa for bombing mission encryption.
Lot's of others were not so fortunate and I remember all the flag and draft card burning on TV, made me sick.
We had close to the same experience. I was born in early January, and missed getting a lottery number by those few days. If I had been born the December before, I would have been in the mix.
It's hard for people to imagine how differently war was viewed by the general public then. With nearly everybody subject to the draft, it was much harder to sell a war to the public. Now that we don't draft, it's much easier for the general public to ignore things like a 16 year war in Afganistan.
And then there were the frivolous deferments. I think Dick Cheney used at least five different deferments to avoid serving. It's a worn out topic, but so many guys who advocate war avoided serving when they had a chance. Of course, Trump avoided the draft because he was crippled by a bone spur in his foot. He later couldn't even remember which foot it had been, if my memory is correct.
 

rolltide_21

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Thank you for the recommendation I’ll have to check it out.

Another series I enjoyed was CNN’s series on the 60s. Their episodes on the Vietnam war were captivating. Of course anything Tom Hanks has a hand in is usually fantastic. I also enjoyed the History Channel’s Vietnam in HD. This was a unique time in our country’s history. Things like this are great for people like me who didn’t live through it. Gives us perspective on why the chips have fallen the way they have.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

day-day

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We had close to the same experience. I was born in early January, and missed getting a lottery number by those few days. If I had been born the December before, I would have been in the mix.
It's hard for people to imagine how differently war was viewed by the general public then. With nearly everybody subject to the draft, it was much harder to sell a war to the public. Now that we don't draft, it's much easier for the general public to ignore things like a 16 year war in Afganistan.
And then there were the frivolous deferments. I think Dick Cheney used at least five different deferments to avoid serving. It's a worn out topic, but so many guys who advocate war avoided serving when they had a chance. Of course, Trump avoided the draft because he was crippled by a bone spur in his foot. He later couldn't even remember which foot it had been, if my memory is correct.
In last night's episode the change in policy that opened the draft up to guys in college was covered. When there was mention of folks with money being able to get around going to war and that the National Guard members wouldn't go to Vietnam, a couple of group photos were shown from that time. In these photos there was a young Bill Clinton and a young George W. Bush.
 

gtowntide

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My wife has been watching this but having been there in 68 and 69, I have no desire to see it. The experience profoundly changed me and my politics for life. I now believe the people making decisions to go to war should experience it for themselves.
 

selmaborntidefan

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My Dad was at DaNang, 1970-71. It was his misfortune that the first day he was there, the Kent State massacre occurred, and they put them in further security lockdown. His barracks was bombed twice, the epicenter of one in the room next to his.

The man literally NEVER said a single word to me about it except that he was there and his barracks got hit twice.

I know nothing about him being over there other than he was.


When Bill Clinton ran for President in 1992, his carefully crafted actions to stay out of Vietnam were something of an issue (though somehow less of an issue than National Guardsman Dan Quayle, who actually served). I was young, in the service at the time, and angry at Clinton for, in my view, draft dodging. While I still have issues with Clinton on a lot of things, my view on that has changed as I've learned more about the draft lottery and how it was "every man for himself" at trying to not get drafted and in that sense, he didn't do anything differently than millions of others (of course I could also point out it only became relevant when he, unlike those millions of others, decided he wanted to be commander-in-chief, but this isn't intended to be a Bill Clinton post).

Having spoken with guys at the time who lived through it.....it was just different than anything I can recall about the military. The WW2 generation had a very real threat to the world's existence. Vietnam was a case of "we already know what happened in Korea so oh boy." Indeed, I spoke to many guys in their 40s in 1992 who - while generally pro-military conservative - had NO PROBLEM at all with what Clinton did and had their own tales of how to avoid going to Nam.

On the basis of these stories alone, I'm interested in it.

Thanks to all of you - with deepest sincerity - who have shared stories. It is a blank segment of my Dad's life I just don't know much about, which suggests a level of pain he may still have. When he had his strokes on Father's Day 2016, he suddenly wanted to see a shrink and his PTSD of a LOT of things suddenly came out.

I wish it had before but......you do what you have to.
 

GrayTide

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The entire Vietnam Era, the draft, POWs/MIAs, protests, race riots, etc made for a very scary and unsettling time in our country. The one thing I remember most was sitting down for supper with my parents and brother with Chet Huntley and David Brinkley giving the daily war report complete with enemy and our own body counts for the week. First televised war, and we obviously did not learn from that debacle since we are in the same fix in the Middle East. I do however enjoy Ken Burns' work.
 

gtowntide

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I really don't think we learned anything in Vietnam because 58000+ men died and no one knows why. It was based on lies and completely eroded my faith in the government.
 

GrayTide

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I really don't think we learned anything in Vietnam because 58000+ men died and no one knows why. It was based on lies and completely eroded my faith in the government.
We did not learn a damn thing from America's involvement Vietnam nor will we have learned anything from Iraq and Afghanistan because war is good for the military-industrial complex and always will be. Something Eisenhower warned the country about.
 
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IMALOYAL1

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Oct 28, 2000
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So many decisions based on what will get me re-elected. Sad.

and,

Oliver Stone's Untold History of the United States

It's a good watch also.
 
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bama579

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Charter added most of the series to on demand. Perhaps most providers have done so, too.

Not the first episode, though. Too bad . . that one had loads of historical info going as far back as WW2, the French in the 50s, etc.
 

tlockwood

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1. My father served there. He volunteered to go in with the USMC. He has yet to tell me anything he ever did or saw there.

2. Like my father, I joined the USMC. I went to boot camp 6 days after the Gulf War started. I missed that war, but got to learn a lot of geography later in my tour. Rawanda, Bosnia, Somalia, and Haiti. I served proudly, though I must state that I had (and still do) a very big issue with Clinton sending me to these places when he would not go himself. I understand that I volunteered, but he did not.

3. I do not generally use the word hate when discussing people. Bin Laden is one I have used this word on, and Hanoi Jane is the other. I cannot stand her. Her comments just the other day only made it worse. I am a Christian. Only by being so would I spit on her if she was on fire!

4. Ken Burns does awesome work. I have watched his documentary on Baseball a few times and really enjoyed it. I am a a Civil War nut and believe his work on this is the best ever done. I have watched it as many times as I have read To Kill a Mockingbird. I love the details of history, like knowing about Wilmer McClain (interesting read if you don't know who he was). Burns finds that information and presents it like it common knowledge to all except me. I have little doubt he did the same on his new documentary.
 

day-day

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When cleaning out my parent's home after my father died, we found reel-to-reel tapes (and the recorder) that we sent back and forth when my dad was in Vietnam. We reused the same tapes so some information was recorded over when we sent them back and forth.

We were able to play on the recorder after all these years and ended up digitizing them. Very interesting listening to them and not just from a family point of view. My dad had some interesting stories, some of which would fit right in on these history shows; I think he tried not to say things that would worry us back home.
 
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