The Vietnam War 2017

Going into this documentary I had very little knowledge about Vietnam. I knew it went poorly for the US, but I didn't even know the outcome.

The series started with a historical summary of the colonial period. Then the war begins. With every episode, the reality gets sadder. My disbelief kept growing. The US leadership making one mistake after the other, while South Vietnam was being consumed by greedy and corrupt politicians. The common people kept dying and the leadership kept pumping more of them into the meatgrinder. I was waiting with every episode for things to finally change for the better, but it kept getting worse and worse.

To call this war a tragedy is an understatement.

Very well done. So much I didn't know and worst yet, so much that was kept out of PQ at that time because of... translation..?

Very interesting so far, I was very young when this was happening but I do remember seeing this on the news.

I know it's very very long, but it is absolutely worth every minute. They really go over the whole history of the thing, from colonial era to after South Vietnam fell, and bring out all the horrors of war in general, the political and military failures, and telling some people's stories from both sides in detail.

Some of those stories really burn themselves into your mind (for example John Musgrave). They portray the horrors these frontline grunts went through in quite graphic detail, and it's the first time it really sunk in just how broken these guys were when they came home (if they came home).

One of the finest documentaries ever made

Described by the show's official website as "an immersive 360-degree narrative," The Vietnam War is a behemoth in every sense of the word; written by historian Geoffrey C. Ward and directed by celebrated documentarians Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, the series cost $30 million to make, and was in production for over ten years, with the ten episodes running to a gargantuan eighteen hours. Assembled from over 24,000 photos and 1,500 hours of archive footage, the show features interviews with 79 people, including analysts, bureaucrats, journalists, artists, anti-war protestors, draft dodgers, conscientious objectors, deserters, Gold Star family members, and American, South Vietnamese, and North Vietnamese troops. Deliberately eschewing interviews with historians and major polarising figures, Burns and Novick concentrate almost exclusively on the experiences of ordinary people and soldiers from every side. The series also attempts to balance multiple perspectives; the American military and government, the South Vietnamese military and government, the North Vietnamese military and government, the anti-war movement, Gold Star families, journalists, and the intelligence community. And as a piece of documentary filmmaking, this is a masterpiece.

For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/xh8Kd

Like many others my knowledge of the war in Vietnam was rather limited. Of course I know the general facts but not the many details. This has to be the most comprehensive documentary about the war that's ever been done. Every episode is a like a movie in itself.
It takes a look at the political decisions and what happened during the war with American society. I found all of this equally interesting, disturbing and frightening at the same time, especially in light of how things are today.
This is mainly told through the eyes and accounts of the people who were there. Which makes you connect with everything so much more. Althought I would never claim to understand what they went through I have a much better picture now. And they let both sides speak, let them tell their view of things.

In the end their's no victor, just victims.