Two Days in October - A Look Back to 1967

[kerrygoddess]

Two Days in October - A Look Back to 1967
PBS is airing a documentary tomorrow night, October 17th that is well worth watching: Two Days in October.



I received a screening copy of the documentary the other day and finally sat down to watch it last night. It’s hard not to reflect on the parallels of the what is happening now in our country and Iraq when watching Two Days in October. For all of us who question why we are in Iraq and the role of propaganda in our government and and our media, it’s a compelling look at striking similarities.

Some stayed. Some went. All fought.

In October 1967, history turned a corner. In a jungle in Vietnam, a Viet Cong ambush nearly wiped out an American battalion, prompting some in power to question whether the war might be unwinnable. On a campus in Wisconsin, a student protest against the war spiraled out of control, marking the first time that a campus anti-war demonstration had turned violent.

American Experience presents Two Days in October, based on the book They Marched Into Sunlight by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Maraniss. From director Robert Kenner (War Letters, Influenza 1918, John Brown’s Holy War), this moving film examines the critical events that took place in the turbulent fall of 1967.

The emotionally wrenching parallel stories are told by the people whose lives were irrevocably changed by what happened — American and Viet Cong soldiers, relatives of men killed in battle, protesting students, police officers, and university faculty and administrators. Collectively, their words speak to the heartbreak caused by the war and the stark division it wrought on the home front. “Nearly forty years later, it’s obvious that the pain lies just below the surface for those who were involved,” says Kenner. “They’re still affected by those two days.”

One of the aspects of the film that struck me, was the accounts by the soldiers who were in the battle recounted in the documentary.

MORE & LINKS - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=861

[pstans]

1. I was born in 1980, so I don't know a whole lot about this era

and I will be watching this tomorrow. I loved the Bob Dylan thing they had on a few weeks ago and then they followed that with 2 more shows on the 1960's that week. It was great and I am eagerly waiting to learn more.

Hopefully the parrellels continue and Bu$h turns out like Nixon.

[kerrygoddess]

3. Good to hear you'll be watching

My daughter was born in 89 and she really enjoyed it. There's a whole section on the website for teachers to use actually.

[rzemanfl]

2. The book was really interesting for me because I still remember

a lot of the Madison characters (at least the way they looked then).

[kerrygoddess]

4. I haven't read the book

But think I will now that i have seen this.

[KC21304]

5. My daughter was born in Oct 1967

and is a history teacher, so I'm sure she won't miss it. Thanks for the info.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

6. I was a sophomore in high school in 1967....

...it was five short years after JFK's assassination, and the Vietnam War was becoming a nightly obsession on the evening news, and in the halls of my school. Little did we know that two more major assassinations would take place, that four kids would die at a small college in Ohio, and that many thousands of Americans would die in a small foreign land that very few Americans could even locate on a map.

And here we are again thirty-eight years later...and Americans are dying in a small foreign land that very few Americans can even locate on a map.

[pstans]

7. This is just starting

[astroBspacedog]

8. I read the book

and guess who were students at Madison in Oct, 67. Dick and Lynn !!