Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Burns & Novick's The Vietnam War #2

Episodes 6-7 covered the events of 1968 (an exception noted below). What a year! The Tet Offensive starting January 30, the mini-Tet offensive in May, North Vietnam's massacre of South Vietnamese in Hue, Martin Luther King's assassination, Bobby Kennedy's assassination, the Democratic National Convention in Chicago with the attending riots and violence, Nixon winning the presidential election, attempted peace talks including arguing about tables.

Mostly news to me was the extent of North Vietnam propaganda and lies to Vietnamese people, and the cruel treatment of them, hordes of women included, sending them off to battle.

The testimony of a Japanese-American U.S. Army officer in Episode 7 was very powerful.

Also in Episode 7 was a hilarious comment about General Creighton Abrams, who took over command of U.S. operations in the Vietnam War in 1968 (after General Westmoreland). Abrams was a "soldier's soldier", and "the kind of guy who could inspire aggression in a begonia."

The My Lai Massacre occurred in 1968 but was not included. There is a brief mention of it in the summary for Episode 8, covering April 1969-May 1970, which airs tonight. I suppose the film makers put it there because it didn't hit the news until about 18 months after it happened.

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