Ken Burns, The Vietnam War

Discussion in 'Cactus Cafe' started by BevoJoe, Oct 6, 2017.

  1. BevoJoe

    BevoJoe 10,000+ Posts

    The wife and I have been watching this multi-part series. Lots of information from recently declassified files, LBJ's coverups and lying about the actual situation and more.

    Through out the series there is a lot of music from that time period. Being a kid in the 60's, I grew up listening to bands like CCR, CSN, Country Joe & the Fish, Steppenwolf, Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane and the rest. So, the other night we were watching the episode with the Kent State shootings. At the end of the show, the sound track was playing Ohio by CSN. She looked at me and asked, "was that a war protest song from that era?" I was surprised, said "Well YEAH! That was a huge one when it hit the air waves in the early 70s. You didn't know that?" She said, "I've heard that song for years, I like it, but I had no idea it was a protest song." Sometimes I forget how much younger she is than me, I responded with "the lyrics...Tin soldiers and Nixon coming...we're finally on our on...this summer I hear the drumming...4 dead in O-hi-o!" I paused, "Gotta get down to it...Soldiers are gunning us down...Should have been done long ago...What if you knew her and..Found her dead on the ground...How can you run when you know" that was a protest song!" She had no idea.

    There were others as well we talked about. After a pause, she looked at me "you never talk about the war." I thought for awhile, "I always supported our troops. I respected them and was glad to see guys older than me come home. They were not treated well when the got back either. Some of my buddies older brothers didn't make it back. The Kent State shootings changed a lot of opinions about and support of the government and the war. That war was little more that a giant cluster f**k, and **** sandwich for our guys, and I hope we heed the harsh lessens it presented." That's about as much as I will say about it.
     
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  2. Statalyzer

    Statalyzer 10,000+ Posts

    **** sandwich for the average citizen of Vietnam too (South especially, but North too). About the only people it was good for were a few government leaders, generals, and fat cats in the North. :(
     
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  3. nashhorn

    nashhorn 5,000+ Posts

    Sucked in every imaginable way. Kent State was a major turning point for so many of our generally lackadaisical public.
    Great series, from what I have caught while wife has been watching. But bad memories.
     
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  4. OldHippie

    OldHippie 2,500+ Posts

    I watched that Ken Burns show too. Along with the Kent State shootings, the Tet offensive was also a big turning point for public opinion even though the opposition forces suffered huge losses.

    The movie "Flags of Our Fathers" mentions the Iwo Jima flag raising photo playing such a major public opinion role in WWII and the photo of the South Vietnamese general shooting the North Vietnamese fighter in the head during the Tet offensive playing a big role in public opinion against the Vietnam war.

    There were lots of iconic photos from the Vietnam era in that Ken Burns show, including that Kent State girl kneeling next to the student who had been shot, the police general executing the prisoner, the naked Vietnamese girl running down the road with napalm burns and the line of people to the helicopter on top of the US embassy at the final evacuation of Saigon.
     
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  5. Statalyzer

    Statalyzer 10,000+ Posts

    Tet was a pretty genius move by the NVA leadership, sadly. Let their pseudo-Allies the Viet Cong get destroyed wearing American willpower down, and that way when the North finally took over the South there wasn't much of the VC left to have to share the victory with.
     
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