The Vietnam War: A Film by Ken Burns

[Amanah]

I’m watching The Vietnam War: A Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick . (Actor), Ken Burns (Director), Lynn Novick (Director)

Watching this DVD series is making me sick to my stomach. The President and his advisors knew in 1965 that we could not win the war, but Johnson did not want to back down from “fighting the communists” before his election, and then the government kept going to save face. And they just didn’t want to admit they were wrong in being there. Didn’t know how to end it, so the war kept going on and on like a human meat grinder. The government lied to us over and over while human lives were being forfeited for a lost cause.

The South Vietnamese considered us as occupying them, we did not take them into consideration, only our own agenda. The North Vietnamese were very cunning fighters, their loss was more than ours, but they would not back down.

In the end 58,220 U.S. lives were lost.

Our soldiers came home and just didn’t want to talk about it. It wasn’t like WW2 where we had a just cause.

If anyone is considering watching it, I would advise against it unless you can stomach being subjected to a dark, oppressive, illusion shattering truth.


https://www.amazon.com/Vietnam-War-F...nd+Lynn+Novick

[Sean]

My dad was a major there in artillery. He now tells all that happened there. Wow. I will look that series up.

[Esaias]

Uncle Sam never intended to "win". Stopping communism was not the actual goal, just what they told the public. We stayed there, not because of being "afraid to back down" or looking bad, but other reasons, mostly $$$ in oil, heroin, and arms/munitions.

My dad served there in 67-68, I Corps, Americal Division, 198th LIB, Recon (Echo Company). Did everything the LRRPs did except jump out of planes. Said there was no point in jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. Spent some time in Laos (oops, we were "never there") recruiting Montagnards to run ops for guys wearing suits, ties, and sunglasses, carrying briefcases up in the Annamese Mountains.

The truth will only come out on Judgment Day.

[Esaias]

BTW, he made six predictions long before he died. Five have come to pass. Only one remains. Time will tell, but if he was right, things are going to get ugly in America. Real ugly. Buy a cowboy hat.

[houston]

Originally Posted by Esaias

BTW, he made six predictions long before he died. Five have come to pass. Only one remains. Time will tell, but if he was right, things are going to get ugly in America. Real ugly. Buy a cowboy hat.

The five were?

[aegsm76]

My uncle served in the Air Force.
Bombers.
Said that we could have cut off supply lines anytime we wanted.
However the politicians were the ones calling the shots on what was bombed.
Said they would see columns of soldiers and military supplies heading south, but were prevented from bombing.

[Esaias]

Originally Posted by houston

The five were?

He would die unexpectedly.

He would die on St Patrick's Day.

His sisters would smell his rotten corpse.

I would seriously wish I could talk to him about some things when I was older.

The next big war would be in the Mideast.

All these were said to me back in the 80s when I was a young'un.

He died suddenly of a heart attack on St Patrick's Day. Nobody found him until three days later. At his wake (open casket) if you leaned over the casket you could catch the smell (funeral home didn't want me to do an open casket because of the lack of early refrigeration...) and his sisters (whom he had a bit of a grudge with) could smell him. I wish I could talk to him about a few things, not just "miss my dad" stuff. In 2001 we bombed Afghanistan and its been going ever since over there.

He hated rednecks. But he said "the redneck will save America". I had NO idea what he meant, for the longest time. I think I know now, though.