One was first broadcast in 1983, I was 26 years old. The other had half of it broadcast this week, I am now 60 years old. Thirty four years a part. One put together by a contemporaneous journalist who had experienced the war first hand. The other by an experienced documentarian. One was “six years in the making”, the other 10 years. Both attempt to tell the story that has defined my generation, The Baby Boomers.
Vietnam was directed by generals and politicians who had fought in WWII which shaped their attitudes about war. The generals for the most part were junior officers in WWII. Just as the junior officers of Vietnam were the senior generals during the first Gulf War and the beginning of the the second. That’s the way war works. Unfortunately the ultimate lesson of war is lost. But you’ll hear it echoed by many of the participants;
There is no winning or losing in war, only destruction. Only those who have never participated in war talk about winning or losing.
Watching Stanley Karnow’s Vietnam and reading his book shaped or maybe even reshaped my perspective of the war in Vietnam and war in general. I’m hoping The Vietnam War by Ken Burns will do the same for millennials today.
I was too young for the draft during Vietnam. Actually they had stopped the draft a few years before I turned 18. And before I turned 18 they had even stopped registration. (Registration was brought back several years later but there was about an 18 month gap where some of us never had to register for the draft.) When I graduated from high school on 9 June 1975, it had been 9 days since Saigon had fallen to the army of North Vietnam. So my class and those just before and just after never experienced the trauma first hand.
Both documentaries had and have their critics. Criticizing, content, style or whether or not there was/is enough focus on this part or that. I have my on little peeves, but they’re just a distraction. Watch the series, but don’t stop there. Let the series be the tease to learn more.
I’ve read books by authors mention in Burn’s Vietnam that hadn’t been written when Karnow’s was broadcast. Neil Sheehan’s, A Bright Shining Lie is but one. Another book is about the West Point class of 1966, a class doomed to be the bloodiest class in West Point history. Then there’s Robert Timberg’s A Nightingale’s Song. A book about five graduates of USNA at Annapolis and how Vietnam shaped them and how all five were involved in Reagan’s Iran/Contra.
As per usual this post didn’t go in the direction I thought it was when I started. Let’s just say, I want to encourage everyone to watch the current series. And if you can find a copy of the 1983 series (probably at the library) please do. And don’t forget to read more.
Probably my biggest gripe with Burns’ series is his failure to show more history of Vietnam. Karnow explains that Vietnam had been invaded and repelling invaders for 15 centuries before France arrived in the mid 19th century. Context.
One other thing before I go, after watching the first part of Burn’s Vietnam, you might be inclined to blame de Gaulle for our presence in Vietnam. Just be aware that for 34 years I have put the blame on Winston Churchill. It’s complicated. But the less complicated version is two basic reasons;
1) Fear
2) Bigotry
Fear of communism and bigotry against non-European peoples. And those two reasons alone could elicit several Ken Burns’ documentaries.