Every online comments section regarding Ken Burn's "Vietnam"

[SHRED]

99% of the comments are about how Vietnam affected them personally and/or America at large.

I find virtually NO comments on the environmental devastation we did to that country nor this:

The human costs of the long conflict were harsh for all involved. Not until 1995 did Vietnam release its official estimate of war dead: as many as 2 million civilians on both sides and some 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died in the war.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War

Self-centered to the extreme.
When will we learn?

[dogman]

1. It was also great for the fossil fuel industry.

Hell, we even burned our shit with fuel.

[Wounded Bear]

2. I've come to believe that is why RWers love war...

it's the last thing they can do that doesn't require an environmental impact report.

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. Ever notice that facebook comments are almost always about how I did this or that?

[SHRED]

5. They need to rename it

"MYFACE_book"

[Aristus]

4. No doubt a bunch of old Geritol-suckers whining about Jane Fonda.

They never seem to express any anger over the people who sent them over there, though...

[SHRED]

7. They are proud

Even with all we know now they are still "proud" they went to that war.

For me the real heroes are people like Muhammad Ali and other resisters who refused to go and the many who suffered serious injuries and sometimes death in the streets protesting.

[SHRED]

14. People's Park one dead

Many seriously injured.

I get your point. I'll modify my post.

[zipplewrath]

6. Natural tendency

I'm a bit of an amateur historian. I'd read a dozen books on the D-day invasion and the battle for Europe. I'd seen the movies, I'd visited battlefields all over Europe. When I visited Normandy beach for the first time many parts were very familiar too me. But when I stepped into a German bunker for the first time, I was awe struck by one thing. I had never, ever, considered the view of that day from the point of view of the "German" soldier in those bunkers. These were bottom of the rung conscripts, not loyal SS officers. Many of them weren't even German, but were Hungarian, Polish, or other nationalities that were forced into service. And they were looking at the worlds largest armada ever assembled, and literally hundreds of thousands of men coming ashore.

And they were alone.

They really had no where to go. We were bombing them all around. The ships were shelling them. We were advancing on their positions despite the amazing amount of shooting and killing they were doing. But we kept coming, and there were no real reinforcements coming. They fought, mostly I suspect because they didn't really know what else to do. But I also suspect that they quickly figured something else out.

They were about to die.

We didn't really take prisoners on the beach. We shot them, or threw grenades in their bunkers, or worse flame throwers. The bunker in which I stood and a rear facing door on it. The outside is still blackened by the flame thrower we used on it. Often, when reaching a bunker, the flame thrower would just stick his weapon in the opening and fill it with flame.

And I thought of all of this for the first time in my life, standing in that bunker, looking out on that beach, and I was horrified anew.

It doesn't surprise me that the vast majority of remembrance of the Vietnam war is from the point of view of the American Soldier. Ken Burns will be presenting the other point of view. But it takes a strange set of circumstances some times to jar one out of a point of view and "walk a mile in their shoes" of the "enemy".

[SHRED]

10. I remember when we illegally invaded Iraq

The bombs started falling.
I had horror in my heart and tears in my eyes while 75% of Americans waved the flag and had tears of joyous "revenge".

[Act_of_Reparation]

8. I find your anecdotal investigation very compelling.

In no way does it sound like a sanctimonious whine.

[Arkansas Granny]

9. Something that has amazed me over the years is the fact that none of the Vietnamese or other

SE Asians I have known harbor any ill will toward America. It's not just the young people who were born in this country, but people of my age who lived through that conflict, as well. I truly expected that they would resent the fact that we killed so many civilians and devastated their land and then abandoned them.

This series is really educating me on the reasons for our involvement. At the time, we were so focused on stopping communism that I didn't realize that the regime that we were supporting was so corrupt. I was really struck by the fact that Ho Chi Minh used the words of Thomas Jefferson in his speeches as he tried to establish independence from the French.

[SHRED]

11. It is amazing

Are they Buddhist in that country?

Please excuse my ignorance but that may explain this phenomenon.

[Ex Lurker]

15. Majority Buddhist with a large Catholic minority NT

[Arkansas Granny]

16. I have one dil who is Laotian. Her family is Buddhist and came to this country after the end of

war and several years in refugee camps. Her extended family and friends in this country still adhere to Buddhist principles and ceremonies. Her parents never learned enough English to be conversational, so the only way we could communicate was through one of the younger ones interpreting for us.

Another dil is Vietnamese. Her mother is Catholic, but her father didn't embrace any particular religion, even though he was a very spiritual person. My dil is not religious at all. Her father spoke enough English that we could discuss matters when they came over here for visits. Her mother understands some English, but we communicate mostly through my dil or with signs. She currently lives in Ho Chi Minh City (which they still refer to as Saigon).

I have never really considered that religion had anything to do with their feelings, although I suppose it's very possible.

[lamp_shade]

12. There are 10 more episodes.

[Brother Buzz]

19. Online comments section, not the series

Burns already touched on Agent Orange in episode two.

[bathroommonkey76]

17. Self-centered?

Did you lose your father in the Vietnam War? How about two of your uncles? Sorry, for being "self-centered" about a country who took three of my family members. I honestly give two fucks on the environmental devastation and loss of Vietnamese life over there.

[loyalsister]

18. I think it's natural that reviews of history ressurect personal memories

On the other hand, if that is the focus a lot will be missed. So far, it has been a mindblowing reveal of the length and details of the story we thought we knew.