Anyone older than 60 watching the Ken Burns films about Vietnam?

[boscoe99]

Surely is bringing up some old memories.

Iraq, Iran, Libya, Afghanistan, et al seem like deja vu all over again.

I grew up in a town outside of an army base. Saw the body bags returning to the base on the evening news every night. Lt. William Calley was famous in the town and the base. Maybe infamous.

I was a draft dodger. Joined the Navy after getting my "greetings from uncle sam" letter.

What a shame. What a waste.

[99yam40]

I have not watched any of it.
My draft # was 97 .
got my greetings ,
went to catch the bus to go get a physical,
was told they had there quota and cut off at 95.
So I went back home.

My brother was tired of school so he joined the army, they sent him to electronics school.
he worked in communications
he and one other guy in his unit got to go to Germany instead of Nam.
we were lucky

[pstephens46]

Will watch it on "on demand". Wife was watching crap last night. I went to bed. CNN had a series on the 70's. Slanted a little but still enjoyed it.

New talent on weather channel tonight. Beautiful girl but I swear she already has a baby bump. Weather channel ladies always get pregnant quickly. My fav is Jen in the morning.

[robert graham]

I'm 73 and I lived through those years....Vietnam was just a big waste of time, money and soldier's lives...just like most wars! This old world can't quit having wars, so take your pick!...What a Damn waste!

[Jason2tpa]

Iraq, Iran, Libya, Afghanistan, et al seem like deja vu all over again.

Ken Burns makes incredible documentaries. Yes, I'm following the Vietnam doc, though I'm not 60, born after the US exited Vietnam. You nailed it with your above ^^^ statement. Did our government not learn anything from the mistakes made by Vietnam era administrations!?! We've been at war in the middle east for so long now that the news barely reports on it. I lost count the number of years we've been over there. And for what? What have we gained? Zip, zero, nada. And the reason we have yet to pull out?...to save face.

[Captn Dave]

Yes, a good series. Learning a lot about all the government intentions and involvements.

My brother's number was 13. He went quickly but was one of the lucky ones.

I had 167 and the war was winding down so was never called.

The government intentions were correct. To stop Communism spread. But the whole thing was such a cluster **** on both sides.
A few years after the pull out the Soviets did base subs in Da Nang.

Now they're getting back at us with imported farmed shrimp.

[dray0151]

New talent on weather channel tonight. Beautiful girl but I swear she already has a baby bump. Weather channel ladies always get pregnant quickly. My fav is Jen in the morning.

Mentioning Alex!!!! She is really nice looking has been on for a few months I think.

[oldmako69]

58 here. I'll watch every second of it.

I have two older brothers. We lived close to DC and my folks were news hounds. We'd watch both Cronkite and Huntley and Brinkley each night. As such, I was well aware of what was going on and the vigorous debate / protests even though I was just barely a kid. I remember delivering The Post the morning that it ended and reading the news by moonlight as I went door to door. My next door neighbor never made it back. He was a young guy with twin girls. What a waste.

Burns has a real knack for storytelling. I think that every kid in America should be required to watch "The Civil War" series when they get to high school. His film on prohibition was great too.

I wish he'd tackle The Panama Canal. David McCullough wrote a great book about it, if interested.

[seabiscuit]

Well done series. Can only watch part of it. Too hard.

[HandyJack]

Like Jason, I wasn't born till it was over but my Dad was in it in Germany, France, then VN. He was the green army guy holding the phone/walkie talkie yelling for air support.

I just caught the episode last night and I'm not one for watching documentaries, but this one caught and held my interest. It has a slant, you can tell. But the overall theme is about right.

And now again we're fighting an endless war that nobody cares about. But we used to care about it and that was the time we should have put it down for good. You can't fight a war with one hand tied behind your back.

You have to go in, break stuff, kill things, and make sure those bastards can't hijack a plan ever again. We've been fighting muslims since they started hijacking our ships in the 1700s. The only time they left us alone is when we went in and killed them all. And that only lasted a few decades until they bred back into fighting strength.

If it's muslim, it dies. The End.

[RayBersch]

USMC 1964-1967 - once you have perused the Pentagon Papers you know the story and the rest is hard to watch and it is so hard to comprehend how our government thought during those times. All too raw for me but friends tell me it is well done so maybe I should watch it - later.

[oldmako69]

Just before the movie Saving Private Ryan came out The Washington Post ran a feature story on the film. They gathered a group of guys who were in the landing craft and others who participated in the D Day Invasion. To a man they all reported that it was the first movie they had seen which most accurately portrayed the horrors of that day. Fact based fiction I suppose, but very powerful. I think it behooves us to learn as much as we can about history, before we ask our young men to sacrifice their lives. No matter how painful to watch, this new series will help highlight the idiocy of this war and the idiots in Washington whose agendas aren't always pure or obvious, then or today.

As I recall, one of the main lessons learned about the VN war, was let the generals fight the war, not Washington. What have we accomplished since the first Iraq war (Bush Sr vs Saddam)? I submit, not much. And, at what cost? If they weren't sitting on oil, we never would have gotten beyond sanctions and a dog and pony show at the UN. Our country is dying a slow death, yet we continue to spend trillions around the globe. I feel for our kids, those families who gave all, and all the vets now walking around with limbs missing.

I eagerly await the next installment Sunday night. Its a great country, but its not all great. History has proven that.

I guess that makes me a Commie.

[Jason2tpa]

I recon watching the series would be difficult for vietnam vets. Not just because of the heartbreaking memories, but also because of what we now know. Probably a similar feeling these vets had of when returning from their tour. Instead of a heros welcome, like their fathers received after WWII, they were spit on and protested.

My father never had his number called, luckily. Though many of his high school buddies did. And the ones who lived to return that he still keeps in touch with, he says none of these vets can watch war films or tv shows. Conversely, my mothers father was coast guard WWII, omaha beach D-day. He lived the remainder of his life with survivors guilt. Would never talk about the war. But he'd watch those old WWII war films all night long. Go figure.

[cleddau1]

2 million Vietnamese deaths
50000 young Americans with ethnic minorities over represented
" old white men sent young black men to kill yellow men"
The best book is The 10000 Day War by Michael Maclear
Never a committed communist all Ho Chi Minh wanted was freedom from French Imperialism and only turned to China and Russia to assist in this aim.
He said to the US at the end of both World Wars when Vietnam was given back to the French "all we want is what you have got, freedom to govern ourselves...."
I intend to watch Ken Burns's documentary, his Civil War series was rivetting and have watched it several times.

[dray0151]

50000 young Americans with ethnic minorities over represented
" old white men sent young black men to kill yellow men"

Plenty of white boys didn't come back walking or whole either, Many of my buddies are in that group, yes minorities were high but no one deserved to die in that rotten land. The gooks weren't worth it. Sorry. If the people in the country can't defend themselves then why do we need to be there, we can't change the minds of idiots, you can't fix stupid if they want to live the way they do. Just don't come here and then try to get your country in order, stay there and do it.