Ken Burns series "Vietnam" on PBS

[Lcountz]

Tonight the new 10 part series on Vietnam war, produced by Ken Burns, will air on PBS at 8pm ET ( here)...

I think it will run ten consecutive nights.....

FYI in case anyone planned to watch and didn't realize it starts tonight.....

 

[frayne]

Thanks, being a Nam vet I have mixed emotions but will probably watch the first installment. Ken Burns usually does an excellent job and I expect this to be no different. With that said, it will probably dredge up old memories better kept in the old memory vault.

I served with the 1st Cav in Nam as a 19 year old, shake n bake, airborne-ranger, SSG, grunt, 70-71.

 

[LOL!]

I'm going to watch the whole thing. I did not go to Vietnam, but my dad did. I met a vet on my last plane ride. He was wounded 6 times which he described as not sissy wounds because he had to spend time in the hospital each time. I've never had a vet open up like that to me, not even my dad.

I also watched https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam:_A_Television_History and read Karnow's book while I was still in school. Now that I am older and have children in their twenties, I'll see how I have changed.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Former United States Senator and Secretary of the Navy James Webb, who also was a highly decorated combat Marine in Vietnam, summed it up on a CBS Sunday Morning show in 2014: "If you were there, I don't need to explain. If you weren't, I can't explain."

and

Michael Herr, who helped write the screenplay for "Full Metal Jacket" and "Apocalypse Now," wrote, "All the wrong people remember Vietnam. I think all the people who remember it should forget it, and all the people who forget it should remember it."

 

[Marita40]

I'm looking forward to it. I grew up in that era; my whole generation was profoundly affected by it. Ken Burns does excellent work, and this will probably not be an exception.

Thank you for your service Frayne.

 

[euro]

I served with the 1st Cav in Nam as a 19 year old, shake n bake, airborne-ranger, SSG, grunt, 70-71.

Heartfelt thank you for your service, frayne!

 

[hesperus]

I served with the 1st Cav in Nam as a 19 year old, shake n bake, airborne-ranger, SSG, grunt, 70-71.

and another big thank you for your service

 

[braumeister]

Thanks, being a Nam vet I have mixed emotions but will probably watch the first installment. Ken Burns usually does an excellent job and I expect this to be no different. With that said, it will probably dredge up old memories better kept in the old memory vault.

That's the way I look at it. I seriously doubt if I could watch much of it without getting very uncomfortable, so I probably won't.

 

[REWahoo]

Although I really like Ken Burns documentaries, I'm also in the "no need to open old wounds" camp and won't be watching.

 

[Amethyst]

We will probably get it when it comes out on Netflix. My memories of the Vietnam War were as a kid trying to get somebody, anybody, to tell me why we were fighting it. I knew in a simplistic way, why WWII had to be fought, and I was looking for something similar, i.e. "We were attacked" or "The Vietnamese are trying to take over the world!"

As far as I could tell, it was just a bunch of our soldiers and a bunch of Vietnamese civilians getting killed for no reason, and it went on and on and on for my entire childhood. And I worried about my brother, who was there for a while during his Navy career.

 

[Gumby]

I am about 5 years too young to have been drafted, turning 18 in January 1977. However, my dad went over there five times the 60s, so it was a big part of our lives. And that probably accounted for why we paid so much more attention to the war than most Americans (as remains the case today). I expect I'll watch at least the first episode.

 

[Texas Proud]

I will record it and watch later...


Saw him talking about it and the difference in this than others is he got info from Russia, China and North Vietnam.... so not just footage and stories from the US side...

 

[brett]

Thanks for the reminder....I set it up to tape.

Should be interesting. We recently spent a month in Vietnam. Very different perspectives on that side of the page.

 

[Dawg52]

Thanks for the reminder. Plan to watch some of it.

 

[ivinsfan]

My DH a Nam vet isn't sure he wants to watch it. we'll probably use the PBS streaming app on Fire TV..that way you can stop and return if it gets too intense.

 

[calmloki]

Burns is good but think I'll pass.

 

[Jerry1]

....I set it up to tape.

This gets an LOL from me every time. Even when I say it, I have to think to myself, "you haven't had a 'tape' for years."

If you do have a VCR laying around, take care of it, they don't make them any more and my wife and I are struggling to figure out how to save our home made tapes. One of them has us bringing our daughter home in 1983.

As for Vietnam, I will be watching it but will either record it or catch it on demand. Thanks for the reminder.

 

[scrabbler1]

Burns is good but think I'll pass.

Same here.

 

[gerntz]

Although I really like Ken Burns documentaries, I'm also in the "no need to open old wounds" camp and won't be watching.

Agree. If you lived thru it, who needs Ken Burns? I mean I loved his Civil War & baseball history series.

 

[GrayHare]

Episode 1 helped fill in some history details I did not know. I did not care for the departure from Burns' usual chronological ordering of segments.

 

[Sirka]

Same here, I will watch some of it.

 

[RunningBum]

Episode 1 helped fill in some history details I did not know. I did not care for the departure from Burns' usual chronological ordering of segments.

Agreed on both counts. One minute he's talking about immediate post-WW2 events, then suddenly he's there's a short peace about protests in the US obviously in the late 60s or 70s. It got a bit choppy at times.

 

[2soon2tell]

Frayne,

Thanks for your service.

2soon2tell USN 69-72

 

[Texas Proud]

This gets an LOL from me every time. Even when I say it, I have to think to myself, "you haven't had a 'tape' for years."

If you do have a VCR laying around, take care of it, they don't make them any more and my wife and I are struggling to figure out how to save our home made tapes. One of them has us bringing our daughter home in 1983.

As for Vietnam, I will be watching it but will either record it or catch it on demand. Thanks for the reminder.

You can pay someone to convert tape to whatever medium you want...

 

[DrRoy]

I was planning to watch and did. Burns is up to his usual standard. I remember seeing it on the news as a kid. I have an interest in general history and military history as well.

 

[garyt]

This gets an LOL from me every time. Even when I say it, I have to think to myself, "you haven't had a 'tape' for years."

If you do have a VCR laying around, take care of it, they don't make them any more and my wife and I are struggling to figure out how to save our home made tapes. One of them has us bringing our daughter home in 1983.

As for Vietnam, I will be watching it but will either record it or catch it on demand. Thanks for the reminder.

You can get them transferred to DVD's