Ken Burns : Vietnam

Sleddog46

I can't wait until tomorrow (Sunday) when PBS airs the first of The Ken Burns documentary on Vietnam. It took 10 years of research to complete. If any of you have watched anything by him then you know it will be excellent. I'm sure some of you will have conflicting opinions about this. Sorry if I touch a sore spot.

Sketch6995

I like all ken burns stuff.  His doc on the civil war was amazing.

IndustMech

Just set the DVR

First_Warrior

Watched the first part. I'm interested to see if the Street Without Joy, and the defective M-16's we traded our M-14's for will be mentioned. Also Benard Fall, the french author who tripped a mine and was killed about 75 yards from me.  I was a grunt with the Walking Dead battalion of the 9th Marines in 1966-1967.

Sketch6995

I found the torrent and threw it on my seedbox.  I will collect all 10 or 12 parts of it, however many there are.

If anybody would like copies let me know 

TX98Z28

We never should have went to Vietnam.

Sketch6995

Agreed.  But we did and we gotta own up to it.  
I didn't know we armed Ho Chi Minh in 45.

We seem to have a bad habit of doing that.
We give somebody some guns and next thing you know they're shooting at us.
I just hope we finally learn a lesson from it.

Sleddog46

That's the thing about Burns documentary's he tries to show the story from both sides without being judgemental. Sketch6995 I agree about learning a lesson, but with his work we might end up having more questions than answers.

Sketch6995

I work almost exclusively with VA patients, I just lost a marine who served from 68 to 70, he then Volunteered for Edgewood arsenal.
This guy had so many things wrong with him
I couldn't keep track of all his medications.
Or all of his strange infections.  He was a proud man, and it was my honor to be with him when he passed.  He served his country and was never sorry he did.
He told me a lot of stuff over the last 3 years.
I will never forget the lessons he woke me up too.

dirtdude

Going to start it up tonight

Sleddog46

Sketch6995 said:

I work almost exclusively with VA patients, I just lost a marine who served from 68 to 70, he then Volunteered for Edgewood arsenal.
This guy had so many things wrong with him
I couldn't keep track of all his medications.
Or all of his strange infections.  He was a proud man, and it was my honor to be with him when he passed.  He served his country and was never sorry he did.
He told me a lot of stuff over the last 3 years.
I will never forget the lessons he woke me up too.

I'm sure the Gentleman who just passed found a great deal of comfort from your kindness, care, & friendship. You were lucky to be able to share in his life and be with him in his time he had left. Don't EVER forget the lessons he told you. There's too many like him who could use a friend like you. Thank you for what you do & for sharing your story. I worked with severely handicapped children for years and I know the connection and sense of loss when you lose one. The room I taught lost 6 children in less than 2 years and finally burned me out. Keep up your valuable work because IT doesn't go unnoticed and it is appreciated and makes a difference.

First_Warrior

Well last night Burns mentioned my battalion " The Walking Dead" and also the M-16's we got that constanty jammed.  We were up against the NVA all the time and they were tough, well equiped and not afraid to die.
.Don't worry guys I'm taking my meds.

Sleddog46

First_Warrior said:

Well last night Burns mentioned my battalion " The Walking Dead" and also the M-16's we got that constanty jammed.  We were up against the NVA all the time and they were tough, well equiped and not afraid to die.
.Don't worry guys I'm taking my meds.

Roger, you and many others in the show said that about the V.C & the N.V.A. I guess if you want something that bad...   FYI The last 5 parts start again Sunday night and finish up on Thursday.

Sketch6995

Vietnam left it's Mark on my family.
Each one of those medals comes complete with a horror story.  
Without a happy ending.
The person that went, was not the person we got back.
One of the reasons I choose to work so closely with our vets.  
It says on a big sign in the lobby of the VA hospital

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM IS VISIBLE HERE.

Every single day i walk in that building, I think about that sign.

I'm sorry as hell that ever happened.

Thinking back on it now.....it just seems surreal.  How the hell did that become a good idea?  Do I see any parallels with current events?  It seems like we never learn any lessons, except bigger and better ways to kill each other.

First_Warrior

I've got that print hanging on the wall in my studio.

CharlieHeis

The first few episodes are airing all day today. Unfortunately I missed the first one but I'll dvr the rest and hope it is replayed soon.

Guitarded

I watched the first three episodes last night. 
Very interesting history of how it all started. 
Disgusted by the fact that if the CIA didn't install their guy (who ended up being a dictator with his brother the psycho running the military) Ho Chi Minh would have been elected by the people and none of the war needed to happen. 
I love my country, but hate politicians. 

Sleddog46

It is such a tragedy that so many had to die or be permanently injured because the A holes with their inflated ego's running this country were more concerned about their image and election prospects than they ever were with the thousands who died for NOTHING. Fast forward to 2017 and again "What has changed"?  @Guitarded, I agree with your last line...I love my country, but hate politicians.

Sketch6995

Well there was a big Communist scare going on ever since the fifties, And all of those people were a product of that.
Thinking about it now it doesn't really make sense because we've seen communism fail.   We know it isn't the big devil they thought it was.
I'm not excusing what they did, But Americans were pretty worried about the global spread of communism then.  The worst thing you could call someone back then was a commie. 
When people get scared, they do stupid things. 
What really gets to me is the fact that we don't seem to be learning any lessons from it.
Everybody makes mistakes, even countries.
But the real failure is when you don't learn from your own history.
Because then you are doomed to repeat it. 

Amos_Umwhat

Went to a friends house last night, he's been watching.  He spent '72 - '74 as a Navy medic supporting a Marine outfit in country.  He says it brought back some vivid memories, bad dreams, and re-opened the question in his mind; "why do we usually seem to support corrupt dictatorships, rather than the populations hungry for freedom?"

Yakster

Got an email saying that I can watch all episodes on the PBS Roku channel, cool, since I didn't record the series.

Sketch6995

I have all the episodes downloaded to a server, if anyone wants them, I'm happy to give the FTP details.
MKV format, Most newer televisions will play them from a thumb drive-in the USB port 

CharlieHeis

Yakster said:

Got an email saying that I can watch all episodes on the PBS Roku channel, cool, since I didn't record the series.

Thanks for the heads up, as I checked to see if it was on Apple Tv too, and it was.

First_Warrior

I went to Vietnam in Sept 1966 before the causality rate climbed and the protests started. I returned after six weeks on a medical ward in Japan in July 1967. I was never disrespected upon my return because it was fairly early in the conflict. While in Vietnam we never had the luxury of thinking whether we were right or wrong. We just tried to stay alive. Minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, week by week,and month by month. I was in a roving battalion that was doing search and destroy operations constantly. Never behind the wire, always humping searching for and finding NVA and killing them. Never civilians.
The Marines I was privileged to serve with and who were killed didn't die for nothing. They died for each other. I know it's hard to understand givin the scope of the Vietnam war but for us grunts it was a daily struggle for survival. The only reason I'm walking and talking is because of the blood sacrifice of the Marines who didn't make it.