Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire PBS "Vietnam" - My review

Why am I not surprised that you would post like you did?

please elucidate a bit further. whom is trolling whom? just trying to be clear here, and not to confuse.

personally i don't believe neither (either?) RR nor Slavek are trolling anyone, certainly not you and your kind.

they're expressing honest feelings, opinions, and intentions. i have no clue as to your purpose. do you have one?

I know, Dave. He gets one straight answer, after which it's GFY (Gonna Fling Yoghurt)

I watched, sadly, nearly the whole thing. I have read widely about that period of history and for much of it was there. Unfortunately, I found it mostly to be true.

There were criminal traitors. I didn't know that Nixon had sent an agent to President Thieu to get him to delay peace talks until after the election. I did know about the lying duplicitousness of LBJ, who got some of my friends killed. Most of the South Vietnamese government leaders were crooked dictators.

Then there was Jane Fonda. She actually said, on camera in Hanoi, that the American pilots, some of whom I later met, were war criminals and should be executed. Why wasn't she tried for giving aid and comfort to the enemy? If some old soldier should happen to wipe her out today, it would be a crime. I abominate crimes. But I might smile a little while I read her obituary.

But the greatest crime of all, in my opinion, was our total abandonment of the South Vietnamese who had helped us. The series showed the US ambassador denying we would evacuate Saigon, and lulling them into a false sense of security, promising them that if we did leave, we would get them out. He lied. It was a terrible shame. And it was a terrible shame to deny them aid we had promised.

Nothing should take away from the valor of our soldiers. Their leaders betrayed their honor.

If you want to know what happened, read "A Bright Shining Lie" by Col. John Paul Vann, "A Rumor of War" by Philip Caputo, and "We Were Soldiers Once, and Young."

I appreciate your review and would like to add mine if you don't mind. I agree the Air Force and Navy were largely glossed over in order to make room for all the political schit they tried to cram into 10 episodes.

As mentioned earlier they do a good job of trolling the audience. First episode or two you think it may be alright and you'll walk away with some new knowledge. And in some ways you do. But like anything left, they progressively increase the stupid in hopes that you're so numb by episode 10 you just nod your head and agree with all their slanted schit.

And unless you have previous knowledge of some of the vets they're interviewing, you think they're just gathering first hand info and trying to put the viewer in this guy's shoes. But it doesn't take long for the light bulb to go off and you say "Ah, schit. This is a warrior turned protester." Which also makes you stop and think 'How do I believe anything somebody this radical is saying to begin with?'

By episode 9 and 10 I'm sitting there thinking 'JFC. Only a PBS regular has this much free fugking time on their hands. I'm devoting 15 hours of my life to this schit?'

Of course they eviscerate Nixon. To the point you start wondering if you are watching a documentary on Vietnam or the impeached president himself. They try and take some hard shots at LBJ, but anybody with an IQ over 3 (I'm a 5.5) knows the commies only see and saw LBJ as a useful idiot. Too much audio and memoranda coming out of that mother fugker's office for them to not throw him right under the bus as often as possible. He's the definition of expendable in the eyes of these left wing fugks.

The ending was exceptionally fugked up. Some of these guys you have pegged but some you're still on the fence about. And the ones you might be on the fence about end up being the guy that made an entire fugking career out of his one year in Vietnam. Not taking anything away from their service, but watching some of them throw their medals isn't easy to watch. Most of them turn out to be fugkin' therapists and fugkin' writers. But the oddest thing was some of the people they interview throughout the whole series, aren't even in the ending. Poof. They're fugkin' gone. For example, they don't say anything about the guy that killed the VC in the tunnel. I believe his name was Alvarez.

And every time that draft dodging POS that renounced his citizenship came on screen I turned red with anger. And that Zimmerman fugk? I'd like to smash that pompous looking face of his with a hammer, and decapitate him with a sickle. I was SHOCKED to learn he's a "political consultant" (WTF that means) in Southern California. Gee, I thought maybe he went on to engineer bridges or something. What a waste of life. And he speaks as though he exhibited the same level of bravery as our servicemen in Vietnam. Hope he gets ass cancer.

I really did appreciate the testimony of some of the vets though. Especially the teacher from Boston and the MD that was a POW for all those years.

And I had no idea The Vietnam Memorial was conceived by a Chinaman. I also didn't know it was so controversial at the time. I was still just a little muffdiver when it went up.

But overall, not bad.


Clark

I haven't watched the last few episodes but this quote from Vincent Okamoto, born in an internment camp, from it moved me:

“Nineteen-, 20-year-old high school dropouts. . . . They looked upon military service as like the weather: You had to go in, and you’d do it. But to see these kids, who had the least to gain, there wasn’t anything to look forward to. . . . And yet, their infinite patience, their loyalty to each other, their courage under fire. . . . You would ask yourself, ‘How does America produce young men like this?’ ”

Quick clip about his service.

decisions in this world are now made based upon a political basis, for better or worse.

aire man, the new president following roosevelt opted to utilize the a-bomb as an important part of the final solution to wwii. he had to make a political decision while serving as the cic of all us military arms & divisions.

vietnam, in the end was just another political enterprise. it had a military component. the military component wasn't the overriding factor. sorry for anyone who thought it was all military and nothing else. that's not how countries down here on the earth interact with each other. humans, assigned to various countries; and who has the longest, biggest, hardest dick? is that how it works? of course not. we all know better.

the catholics sucked the baptists into supporting the overthrow of the heathens from the communist regime. we all failed, miserably. and now the religious groups want to infiltrate this country with illegal aliens.

wonder if the average, tax-paying american worker will ever wake up? or is it too late?

Steve,

I really liked that guy too. I believe it said he is a District Court Judge now in Los Angeles.




Travis

Gus,

Whoever told you that you were an intellect, was fugking with you.

Stop trying. You're a dumb ass.




Travis

When I lived in Los Angeles, I became slightly acquainted with one of the men interviewed in the final segment of the PBS series, Vietnam. His name was "Frank Snepp," a former CIA operative, who was the chief Vietnam strategist analyst for the CIA. He served in Vietnam for five years and was the last CIA officer out on the final day when Saigon fell, April 29, 1975.

In the PBS series, the intercuts of Snepp's interview were very short about the disaster of our withdrawal and all the Vietnamese left behind who were our allies. Snepp's later book, Decent Interval reveals how the situation at that time in Vietnam and Saigon, came to be. It's a very interesting read.

https://franksnepp.com/

I agree with others here who posted that after the first episode, the segments got "lefter and lefter." I know several Vietnam veterans who have almost as much dislike and disgust for John Kerry, as they do for Jane Fonda. They believe that Kerry betrayed the veterans by his Congressional testimony which labeled them as "baby killers," "murderers," etc., etc., etc.

Unfortunately, today those labels still are believed by the people on the left.

L.W.

Rocky nailed it 100%--- The 95 % of the Americans I met or were station with in Vietnam were flag waving , God loving , beer drinking, United States loving GI's.
I just spent 4 days in Kokomo In. with Thousands of Vietnam Vets. Jane Fonda ---John Kerry not welcome there. In the Film Burns walked on eggshells about Fonda. Kerry's makeup artist does a great job covering up those huge purple heart scars. Web

it's all exceedingly unfortunate. no matter how we allocate recriminations all around. i know i did my part. did my best. thought the whole thing was strange. but there it was.

we had to respond in our own respective ways, and positions, and understandings.

the war was fought. we can argue about who won. ho chi minh city is listed on the map.

it was unfortunate, it was sad, and i never ever voted democrat party after that fiasco. nixon was better than the demo alternative. and so it has been ever since.

what we had was a failure to communicate. being patriotic is one thing, but failing to see the futility of the demo leadership is so important.

people need to re-assess the condition in which they find themselves?

i'm glad it's all over, and we're still free to pursue our dreams, pay taxes, and commute to work.

I'm with Rocky and Flave on this one. Burns has produced a pile of flaming craq.

The early segments were ":okay" but -- where was the Navy? The Air Force? Then they got to Tet and that was it for me. Zimmerman? He missed his calling, running a reeducation camp.
My Dad was a FAC, commanded the detachment at Vinh Long in late 68 early 69 in the Delta when things were pretty hot there. But the IDEA of fighting the war was NOT a mistake. HOW it was fought by Johnson (and JFK, who was NOT a real sharp knife) was our downfall. Nobody, but nobody, and especially a slimy pig like Nixon, could have salvaged Johnson's mess.
But it was beyond insane not to punch west to cut off the Trail, all the way across Laos to our allies in Thailand. That failure alone doomed the effort. In war, logistics are everything.
Then, what about after? The Rouge, the camps, the boat people, the millions massacred? That alone makes American involvement a just cause then, now and always. Even the dysfunctional SVN governments were better than what the North Vietnamese did after "victory."
The only good part was having Vince Okamoto on there. He nailed it.
Just a travesty.

Rocky - I agree with you. In all fairness, men went to Vietnam and fought with dignity and honor for (what they believed was) a good and worthy cause; many were killed and maimed. Unfortunately, the war was (and I have mixed feelings on this) not a truly just war. You know the following history, but some may not.

Vietnam had been a united nation for centuries until the French and later, the Japanese, occupied it. Following the end of French rule it was divided into two states (North and South). It is interesting to note that Ho Chi Minh (formerly Nguyễn Sin) appealed to President Woodrow Wilson in 1919 or 1920 to allow an intact Vietnam to become independent of France following WWI, but there was no response to this request it remained a French colony. It has been suggested that this was a "lost moment" when Hồ Chí Minh might have adopted a pro-American and less socialist position if Wilson had met with him and discussed the situation.

Following the fall of the French in Vietnam, an international commission (Geneva Accords) divided Vietnam into two parts. It was intended that the 2 parts would be reunited following an independent election; unfortunately, the election in the South was fraudulent and the nation remained divided. The North decided to fight and reunite the nation.

I supported the way at the time, but now understand the North's desire to reunite the country. I still support the men who fought there. And you are correct, the Air Force's and Navy's roles have been sadly neglected in this series.

the story can't be told in a way to meet everyone's needs. all we can do is express our feelings, positions & beliefs. no one will come back from the dead based upon our rehashing of that unfortunate circumstance.

anyone who got through the process while occupying any point in the system could consider themselves lucky or fortunate. and i mean that sincerely.

surely we can all agree that it's over and done, whatever belief we might have about that adventure in the American tradition and history.

i can't explain it, and have pretty much given up attempting to do so. let dead horses lie.

Rocky doesn't talk much about his service there. I have learned a little bit about some of the things he did, and I can tell you that he served honorably and meritoriously in a dangerous line of work, as did so many.

They say that our current political class is the worst we've ever had. I'm not so sure of that when I think back on the events of the Viet Nam era.

That war was a Cluster. Start to finish.


Gentleman who served there,

You volunteered, or answered your countries call,

You did your duty honorably.



Thank you.

I am glad I have been too busy with work stuff to watch this. Tim O'Brien is a horse's ass and no account whining son of a shoat.


Rocky you and all the others that went to Vietnam as patriots and served honorably are true American Heroes and I thank all of you for your service and sacrifice.

Anyone who expected PBS to produce anything related to U.S. warriors with any degree of honesty will really enjoy the upcoming series on the 2nd amendment, police integrity and hunting.


Gus has an almost insurmountable lead in the race for the stupidest person in the history of the 24 hcf.


mike r

It was enlightening to see just how conniving the POTUSs of that era were. A lesson we should not forget.