The Vietnam War - PBS

[Robert Engel]

It appears PBS has taken it down. My wife was watching and got the to 7th episode.

They do this consistently I think its because they want DVD sales.

Eventually it will show up on Netflix or Amazon I will definitely watch it.

[Mike Henderson]

I served in Vietnam 1970-71. My analysis is that it was a hopeless war. The only way to win the war was to take the fight to North Vietnam. China had let it be known that if we invaded North Vietnam they would enter the war. The Korean War was not that long ago and the United States was not willing to get into another war with China.

The North Vietnamese could arm and train their soldiers in North Vietnam and choose when to attack (they were supplied by the Soviet Union and China). As long as the North Vietnamese were willing to take the casualties from the bombing and land fighting, they could continue the war indefinitely.

Here's a famous quote from the war about Harry Summers:

"In July 1974 he returned to Vietnam as chief of the Negotiations Division of the Four Party Joint Military Team (FPJMT). The main task of the U.S. delegation was to resolve the status of those Americans still listed as missing. During one of his liaison trips to Hanoi, Harry had his now-famous exchange with his North Vietnamese counterpart. When Harry told him, "You know, you never beat us on the battlefield," Colonel Tu responded, "That may be so, but it is also irrelevant."

Mike

[Dave Anderson NH]

I watched the whole series beginning to end. While there were some quibbles on my part about how things were portrayed, overall I would give the series a grade of B. I would also characterize the series as " a political history of the war with bits of the war thrown in." The biggest omission is that no mention was made (or I missed it) that it wasn't a single war. It was 10,000 very different wars in different locales and everyone participants perception made it millions of individual wars. My single biggest gripe about the series is a somewhat personal one. No mention was made of the Marine Corps Combined Action Program, a very successful US/Vietnamese effort. Google it if you are interested.

[Mel Fulks]

I doubt I'll watch it, but I'm wondering if there is much about the pentagon papers ?

[Frederick Skelly]

I doubt I'll watch it, but I'm wondering if there is much about the pentagon papers ?

Purely an aside, the National Archives have them posted online at this location: https://www.archives.gov/research/pentagon-papers.

[Nick Decker]

I doubt I'll watch it, but I'm wondering if there is much about the pentagon papers ?

Yes, there was quite a bit about them in one of the episodes.

[Chris Parks]

It was different wars to different people and even nations. Australia, New Zealand and Britain had just been through a similar "war" in Malaya where "communists" had decided that the government needed the boot, between the three nations they concocted a plan and effectively squashed the guerilla style action by doing exactly the same, live in the bush and match them. The Ozzies went into Vietnam with that back ground and did the same thing and the North Viets were not impressed so they fought a different style of action to the American forces which relied on mass destruction. In the end it was a futile exercise in stupidity as no one in the country wanted them there but our political betters kept shouting the commies are coming and insisted that the action go on to the cost of every country involved. Looking back it is staggering to think how many lives were lost at the whim of politicians who just wanted to get re-elected.

[Jerry Bruette]

I was born in 1960 and have two older brothers that had low numbers in the draft lottery, one was drafted and the other enlisted, neither served in Viet Nam. I'm thankful that I have brothers that aren't scarred from being there. My parents watched the news every night and I can still remember the nightly body counts that Walter Cronkite would give.

I watched the series to learn about what happened and I didn't know or understand at the age of 8 or 10. I think I learned alot about the war, why it happened and why it shouldn't have and didn't have to turn out the way it did. I hope other people in much more powerful and influential positions have also learned why wars of that type and supposed purpose shouldn't be fought.

To all the vets regardless of which branch you belonged I thank you for your service and if you are scarred I hope you can someday heal.