Ken Burns' new documentary: The Vietnam War

Some of it is just stock battle footage, but a lot of the Hill 875 & 173rd Airborne footage was taken from that fight. I think a lot of the film of the Marines at Con Thien was real also.

 

Not only would I not assume that the battle footage you're seeing during a particular segment is from the actual battle being discussed, last night I noticed a note deep in the credits that said something like this (paraphrasing from memory):

"Combat film from previously produced films shown in this production may contained sequences that have been staged."

 

There is a line in the credits every night that says (and I'm quoting right off the screen here) "Some archival materials contain scenes that may have been staged by their original creators".

 

We were typing at almost the same time lol.

 

I thought the 'staged' thing was a given. Whenever you see a snippet that looks like it's in crystal clear HD it seems obvious to me. Don't think Burns is trying to fool anybody.

 

I'm pretty sure that the narrator mentions this (mid-episode) in maybe the 3rd night's episode (which is only about how far my wife and I have been able to watch, as it all stacks up on our DVR).

Hearing that seemed entirely consistent with then nature of what was on the screen (which seemed just a little too convenient to have been filmed in real-time, at the time).

(Best as I'm recalling at the moment, at least.)

 

One of the PBS stations (either Detroit or Seattle, the two I have access to) supplemented with a recent hour long piece about a Medevac flight which was visited by a CBS cameraman and reporter in 1971. They re-interviewed three of the soldiers who had wounds, the helicopter pilot and co-pilot of the flight, and a ground medic. Showed some insight into the after effects pretty much everyone experienced and the reluctance to seek help for a long time.

 

Thanks, it would be interesting to know which were authentic to the particular battle and which were not (whether unknown footage of the time or re-enactments) - I'll dig around online and see if any of the production crew did just that. Heck, I'd find a bonus feature on how they created the re-enactments interesting!

 

Irregardless of the credit I (and, more accurately, Eddie Mann) pointed out, I wouldn't take the "staged scenes" thing too far. I believe almost all of the color film of US troops in combat is authentic. The Vietnam war was well-photographed, usually by professional news cameramen.

I think most of the staged footage is the black and white archival images. There was one brief filmed segment of a truck being blown up at night on the Ho Chi Minh Trail; the explosion was directly behind the truck being filmed and the fire perfectly outlined the image of the destroyed truck. The likelihood that someone was filming this truck in the jungle late at night just as it was destroyed by a bomb is remote.

However, I'm certain that much of the battle footage is authentic. I just don't think you're watching the actual moments of combat that are being described by the interviewees at that moment.

 

Watching these episodes is like seeing the scariest horror movie of all time unfold stage by stage to a horrible conclusion.

 

Watching these episodes, which tells a powerful story; not the only story but a vivid portrait - the music certainly reflected the times. The turmoil, the spiritual soul searching, the fight for peace - through war or peace signs. IMO, the twisted pushing and pulling of the guitar solo of "Are you experienced, Jimi Hendrix Experience" is an appropriate flagship musical representation.

 

I see a lot of this on the internet, a sort of brushing off of educational achievement.
It is still better to be a "closed minded" person with a college-degree than an open minded person without a post-secondary education in today's world. I wonder what your "clueless colleagues" think about you.

 

Three good books that will help one really understand Vietnam and our involvement in Indochina after World War II:
The Quiet American by Graham Greene.
Fire in the Lake by Frances Fitzgerald.
The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam.

The Greene novel was written 10 years before our entry into Vietnam and is strangely prophetic. Fire in the Lake is a history of Vietnam and their cultural viewpoint toward the conflict. The Halberstam book is about how the
the mantra "what is good for GM is good for the country" was transferred to the Vietnam war effort by McNamara.

 

I thought McNamara came from Ford?

 

He did.

 

I am finding this series very hard to watch. Not because it is badly done but how depressing it is. At least as early as 1962, many in the U.S. gov't saw this war as unwinnable, but given election concern and saving face, they were "forced" to continue the fight at a great human cost on all sides. The same mistakes over and over again. Just like in Iraq we had and continue to have no pulse on the will and desires of the people there. I am now believe that no government has its people's best interests in mind, but only care about power and status - like a middle school bully. We are raised to believe in this American Exceptionalism at an early age and the most telling line from the series so far for me is when the former Green Beret says I am from the last generation that believed what the government told us.

 

Its a scientific fact that the more a professor expresses their theories and lack of life experiences to young impressionable minds, the more intelligent the students become. Eventually we will reach the stage where a fully educated humanity, complete with certified degrees, pontificates upon feeding itself and no one has to do the demeaning, low brow work of planting, harvesting, etc.

 

People in charge seem to forget that those lost lives aren't just numbers. Every one of them is a son, grandson, father, husband uncle, or friend to somebody else. And of course these days the same applies for women. I personally believe the best way to support the troops is to put as few of them in harms way as humanly possible.

 

There must be other people watching this who had "draft numbers". I can't remember which year it was, but it must have been around my senior year in high school (1970-71). I don't think most of ever sweated it out, but my draft number was a comfortable "high" 256. I remember I had a friend who had a "low" draft number (30 or less). He was 5'7" and feared if he was drafted that he would be assigned to being a "tunnel rat" (first serviceman down in an effort to root out Vietcong).

 

I know the North Vietnamese recreated some of their '50s victories for promotional films, some of that probably found it's way in to the early part of this.

Also I have to correct myself: Ho Chi Minh wrote a declaration of independence based on the U.S. document. I think I wrote it was a constitution before, sorry about that. Watching the first two parts of the earlier Vietnam, A Television History made me recognize this.

 

Draft numbers drawn in 1972 applied to me. My number was 329, but in early 1973 Melvin Laird announced no further draft orders would be issued.

 

I missed that scene. Lots of trucks were demolished by AC130 gunships during that war. I saw some of their film and as the cameras improved so did the footage.

 

I've had that same feeling all along, a sense of impending doom. You know how it will end.

 

Doo wocka doo wocka doo, and it's one, two, three what're we fightin' for? Don't ask me I don't give a damn.

 

getting through the Tet offense Sunday is going to be extremely hard, at least for me.