As with all of Ken Burns doc's, this one has miles of fantastic footage, minutia of unknown little details, great editing, splendid narration and cherry picking of the facts which glosses over some controversial information on a subject which the controversatial aspect is the entire theme of that horrible conflict.
I have watched all Ken Burns previous docs and they are amazing, but I have also noticed a "template" of sorts being used over and over again. Mr. Burns loves his Mr. Smith all American type folks that still embrace the Norman Rockwell version of their country but in this particular subject matter... it treads a dangerous line, historically speaking.
I am an amateur student of history and my knowledge of Vietnam and other connecting aspects of 20th century history are pretty abundant therefore I knew certain facts going in and was for good or ill waiting for certain "facts" to be revealed. Here is the main problem: for the first 4 episodes every country's negative aspects of its own involvement is shown; it's viciousness, ruthlessness, brutality, etc. Countries like China, France, East Germany, North and South Vietnam, the Viet-Cong, ARVN, Russia and especially Communism in general... "everybody" except the US, which is handled with kid gloves. Whenever a person from the Pentagon or in some higher up government position is talking, present day interviews, they seem to be saying they had knowledge and passed it along to the right channels and it was either ignored or buried. The US side is presented as mis-informed, mis-guided, mis-lead, mis-read, mis-taken, mis-communicated to, etc. etc..... basically a victim dragged into a situation and trying to rise above it to fight for freedom the world round. None of the sinister tactics of US foreign policy is shown which led up to its involvement and when it does show some sort of negative aspect towards that notion, it is so down played as to supposedly arouse sympathy in the viewer.
There are many important focal points in history and as far as the Cold War is concerned it is Truman which can be blamed for starting that war and successive administrations for keeping the fear alive. All the good will FDR had slowly built up with Russia over the years while in office, Truman shot down in almost a blink of the eye with trying to get tough with the Russians. Churchill nailed the coffin shut with his famous Fulton Missouri "iron curtain" speech which scared everyone in the western world with the perceived Communist bogey-man wanting to invade small town USA. Churchill admitted that the Russian's, and Stalin, always stood by their word and never broke it, unlike the Western powers that turned their backs on Russia before the end of the pacific war. I am no way endorsing Soviet Russia under Stalin, he was a ruthless dictator who slaughtered millions of his own people in the purges in the 30's, but if Truman had not listened to the hardliners and his own little-boy inferiority complex, the Cold War might not have even happened at all, saving thousands of lives and billions of wasted dollars and denying the world a save environment to life. The Military gained by the Commie-bogeyman fear with increased budgets, corporate American benefitted and Politian's played the fear card to win votes. Everybody wins, except everyone loses in the end. This same bogey-man fear comes to bite the Government in the butt years later; Truman regrets forming the CIA, Ike warned the country about the military industrial complex, Kennedy gets his head blown off because he wants to pull the reigns back in regard to the Russians and LBJ's ego won't allow him to cut his losses and pull out of the Nam and hard line, overzealous voters won't let him because of that over-stoked fear about Communism drilled into them since 1945.
When all is said and done many facts were still not presented which is unforgivable being the doc is 16 hrs. 30 minutes long. It totally ignores the CIA's deep involvement, which is only glossed over a few times and treated like they had very little input in the thing overall. The Agency nurtured that conflict for decades and when it was the right time, handed it over the military to mop-up in 1965.
Plainly put, Vietnam was used a platform for the US and Russia to trade blows without direct confrontation and it getting out of hand with one side or the other pushing the nuclear button.
Review of The Vietnam War
