re: The Vietnam War (Ken Burns)

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It's interesting to look at countries that were colonized by the French and Spanish as opposed to those colonized by the British. By and large, the French/Spanish possessions were (still are, a lot of times) complete trainwrecks upon gaining independence. Whereas, British colonies seemed to fare much better.

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Between WWII, the First Indochina War, and the Algerian War, the French were basically in a constant state of war from 1939 until the early 1960s.

Both of their colonial wars lasted around 7 years each.

I will be curious to see how much Burns let's his bias show through. The Left in America has always assumed they occupy the moral high ground when it comes to the Vietnam War. It's such a bedrock of their belief system that they won't even acknowledge the sins of their side during that time. The outright support of our enemy (Hanoi Jane being the most egregious example*) as well as the despicable treatment of American servicemen and veterans. They will never admit that Vietnam was, in fact, a winnable war. A lot has to do with the Left's belief in Marxist ideals and support for the Soviet bloc countries.


The Right - or, at least, the anti-Communists in America - definitely screwed the pooch when it comes to Vietnam. But I think their mistakes were more of a misreading of the tea leaves and knee jerk Cold War thinking. Personally, I thinkmtheres damn few places worth getting 18 year old American boys killed over. Vietnam ain't one of them. But you have to look at it through the lens of Cold War thinking and it is understable how terrible mistakes were made that got us in that mess.














*In fact, Burns' treatment of Jane Fonda will be a litmus test. I think he's going to softsell her treasonous behavior and paint her in a somewhat sympathetic light. But, we'll see. I've loved everything he has done so far.

Episodes 1 through 5 should be streaming on PBS. I think the rest of them are available after Thursday. I could be wrong on that though.

By the time I get my kids to sleep and hit the recliner for this it puts me right to sleep. I'm not saying it is boring or bad by any means. Ken Burns docs just go at such a relaxing pace. I guess I need to try watching them earlier in the day.

What a contemptible, horrible person, but dammitt, I'd hit it. I'd hit it!

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More agenda-based slanted history garbage from Ken Burns? No thanks. Would rather watch a documentary on the history of paper clips

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How many years must pass before this accusation can't be made? World War One?

I thought the first episode was pretty good. Too much footage from people who lived it to be poo-poo'ed in my opinion.

I did not know about the early stuff with the family in charge of that first province. I knew monks were burning themselves, but never heard the whole story as to why.

Episodes 3 and 4 are fantastic.

Burns covered Ia Drang very well

Please take your revisionist drivel to the poliboard.

Wtf are you talking about?