Ken Burns Vietnam War epic

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Niner
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Ken Burns Vietnam War epic

Post by Niner » Fri Sep 29, 2017 2:23 pm

I saw all of them including the tenth and last one that was broadcast last night. What the show had to say that impressed me was the dept of information that revealed how vile, self centered, deceiving and morally bankrupt our Presidents, and their henchmen, were during the conflict.

I got a feeling if Burns lives long enough to do one on the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc., the story about what the Presidents have done would be more of the same....the war that they knew couldn't be won, the collateral civilian death, the death of young Americans half way round the world for no clear reason...and the light at the end of the tunnel that is really another oncoming train.
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OverHill
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Re: Ken Burns Vietnam War epic

Post by OverHill » Sat Sep 30, 2017 9:22 am

I was a member of the 2nd/503rd in the early 1960's spending most of my time working with the Nationalist Chinese paratroopers on Taiwan. Some minor injuries prevented me from another enlistment so I was fortunate to make it home in 1963 missing the events my old unit (now part of the 173rd Airborne) experienced during the later 1960's and early 1970's covered in detail by the series. Being an ex-military type at that point I had little respect for the protestors. I believe it was clear to most Americans our leader's were not being totally honest with us, however, after seeing the series I realized I had no idea how bad things really were. Later as an engineer my office mate for a few years was an ex-Vietnam ARVN helicopter pilot; one of the ones flying out to the ships at the final fall shown in the series; we often discussed the war from his point of view and it matched very closely the descriptions covered in the series. Anyway, I have to agree with you on what we would find if they ever do a new series on the Middle East conflicts.
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Re: Ken Burns Vietnam War epic

Post by Niner » Sat Sep 30, 2017 11:28 am

I'm pretty well connected to a lot of guys who served in the 6th battalion 31st Infantry, 9th Division, in Vietnam because of a website I started many years ago. Niner Delta from also this site being one of them. And the other day I got an email from a former platoon sergeant in Delta company 69...not my company and not my time slot...but a guy I've come to know well over the last fifteen years. He had noticed a short film clip as background in episode 8 of the Burns history to some dialog showing his platoon all grouped together in some base camp or other reacting to the camera. He went on to list guys in the picture and it was one of those wow and surprise moments. He sent all those guys who were still alive that he recognized an email notice....he also keeps the extensive "roster" of everybody in the battalion we have been able to find over the years so that wasn't hard to do.

I found the clip and posted about it at my battalion site.

The thing that suddenly occurred to me was that the story being voiced wasn't about THEM at all. And the video image was gone before the story teller had completed a sentence. They were just abstract moving figures. The generic stock from which body counts are drawn. Casualties are only real people to their next of kin ....and their friends and the guys they fought beside.

http://www.6thofthe31st.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4054
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