Was the war in Vietnam all about us?
James Fallows in the Atlantic:
Those who were around during the Vietnam war have exhausted every possible argument about who did what, and why, and when, and with what justification. Those who were not around must no doubt have had their fill—though for them and everyone else I highly recommend the new 10-part, 18-hour series on the Vietnam war by the filmmakers Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, which will air on PBS in September (and which I’ve been watching in previews)...
Rob's comment:
I've only seen the trailer and some other previews on PBS during that network's seemingly endless fund-raising drive, but they raise concerns. There's no mention of the historical roots of the Vietnam War: that the US took over only after the French could no longer afford, politically and economically, to continue the battle to subdue its former colony.
No mention yet of the battle of Dien Bien Phu, the Geneva Conference in 1954, or the Geneva Agreements that came out of the conference, which the US quickly began to undermine.
Ken Burns himself talks about the "complexity" of the war and how war brings out "the worst and the best" in people. How bravely US soldiers fought! It's beginning to sound like the US attack on and invasion of Vietnam was, in the end, all about us!
A behind-the-scenes preview features praise for Ken Burns, with Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks leading what seems like the media's pre-emptive strike on behalf of his credibility. The 64-year-old Burns isn't particularly convincing on camera, with his dyed hair and the bangs of a 12-year-old boy. Aldon Pyle makes a documentary on Vietnam!
Burns has rightly said about the Civil War: it was "about slavery, slavery, slavery."
I've only seen the trailer and some other previews on PBS during that network's seemingly endless fund-raising drive, but they raise concerns. There's no mention of the historical roots of the Vietnam War: that the US took over only after the French could no longer afford, politically and economically, to continue the battle to subdue its former colony.
No mention yet of the battle of Dien Bien Phu, the Geneva Conference in 1954, or the Geneva Agreements that came out of the conference, which the US quickly began to undermine.
Ken Burns himself talks about the "complexity" of the war and how war brings out "the worst and the best" in people. How bravely US soldiers fought! It's beginning to sound like the US attack on and invasion of Vietnam was, in the end, all about us!
A behind-the-scenes preview features praise for Ken Burns, with Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks leading what seems like the media's pre-emptive strike on behalf of his credibility. The 64-year-old Burns isn't particularly convincing on camera, with his dyed hair and the bangs of a 12-year-old boy. Aldon Pyle makes a documentary on Vietnam!
Burns has rightly said about the Civil War: it was "about slavery, slavery, slavery."
The simple truth about Vietnam: It began as a colonial war that the United States adopted and rebranded as an anti-Communist war.
Hard to boil that down succinctly like Burns did on the the Civil War. Maybe this: After the French were defeated, the US war in Vietnam was a war of aggression aggression aggression against the Vietnamese people.
See also A Vietnam veteran looks back and Courage was not enough.
Hard to boil that down succinctly like Burns did on the the Civil War. Maybe this: After the French were defeated, the US war in Vietnam was a war of aggression aggression aggression against the Vietnamese people.
See also A Vietnam veteran looks back and Courage was not enough.
posted by Rob Anderson @ 11:08 AM
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