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

[99yam40]

those that chose to stay in school got deferments for awhile, that is the only thing I can see that made a difference as to who got drafted.
But there were many that enlisted too instead of being drafted

[Kirk Gibson]

Enlisted

I enlisted in the AF near the end. Three days before basic training ended they announced no more being sent to VN. Then I went to tech school for almost a year learning electronics and applied to my field (missile guidance systems) then was stationed at a location that I am still not supposed to talk about for the remaining 3 years. BUT as it turned out I was able to use the training they gave me to get a great job whe n I got out.
The AF was one of the best things that ever happened to me, but I heard a lot of horror stories (from guys in all branches) that were returning back and consider myself lucky that I didn't end up over there. But not too many silos in VN.

[99yam40]

I had 2 high school friends that joined the AF on the buddy system around 71or72, they told them they would learn a trade useful in life after service.
they split them up after basic training

one became a machine gun mechanic and the other a BB stacker( loaded bombs onto aircraft)

[BQUICK]

My number was 113....lucked out.
I didn't realize how messy and complicated it was politically there. I thought the Viet Cong were up in the North but they were all over the South. And Ho Chi Min didn't seem that horrible in the beginning.....I could see the point of his resistance. But in the end what a mess it was!

[Reel Kahuna]

Been there and done that. For me, no use watching it.

[cleddau1]

Some study of the history of Indochina would be of benefit. The Vietnamese simply wanted their country back, first from the French who invaded and colonised in1884, then the Japanese in the the 1940's, then the French supported by British in 1945. In 1946 2 million Vietnamese died of famine when the French forced much needed food to be exported to France. French finally defeated by the history professor and part time general Giap and then had to contend with the US military-industrial complex.
The old men, women and children bombed by LBJ in Vietnam had no choices other than to hide in concrete pipes.
Difficult though it would have been the U.S. draftees did have choices they could:
go to prison like Muhammed Ali
emigrate to Canada
Join the National Guard like George Bush
take a Rhode's Scholarship and go to Oxford like Bill Clinton

The moral of the story is "keep out of other people's countries" and no-one is more guilty of this than the UK, responsible for most of the mess in the Middle East (even the name is a reference to it's distance from the UK)

Hopefully Ken Burns documentary will clarify...........

[HandyJack]

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

Everything about that statement is wrongheaded and racist.

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.

Amen brother. Back then they were obsessed with the country not becoming communist, so I do "get" their thinking (another free land right next to China, great!) but either fight the war and make them all free or get out and go home. None of this half hearted imaginary line-holding operations.