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"The Vietnam War"


dpberr

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While vacationing at my grandparent's condo thing down in Florida the retirees would tell me they enjoyed all the overtime they collected helping build airplanes and bombs and guns for the Vietnam war, helped pay for their nice retirement from an assembly line job.

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After Calley was sentenced the vast majority of Americans supported his actions at My Lai, at least according to the polls.

 

Basically every able-bodied male in English Canada volunteered for World War 2.

I didn't mention My Lai so maybe your response is for someone else? Given the testimony of those that participated in the massacre, it's surprising (but not shocking) that average Americans, not well acquainted with the facts and blinded by their jingoistic fervor, would respond to polls like they did. It was a deplorable and depraved act.

 

Enlistment rates were high for all allied countries in WWII and I'm not surprised Canada answered the call back then. But given that both Great Britain and France officially declined to be allied with the US in Vietnam, the number of Canadians who enlisted was surprising. And ironic as I said previously.

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Read dozens of books on the Vietnam war, and the Gulf of Tonkin was a total fiction, it's not even in dispute.

 

David Koch is a MAJOR sponsor of this series.... Burns is trying to get a touchy-feely "can't we all just get along here" vibe as always

 

Standing with the efforts of the individual men and women who fought to the best of their abilities is a good thing here, the rest is about as emotional and third-rate history as he has done for the Civil War, baseball and jazz.

And that is what i wrote, and what Burns put in the film. Where is the disconnect?

 

If you dont like Burns, why do watch?

 

I thought the Civil War film was excellent, enjoyed Baseball as well, have not seen Jazz

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And that is what i wrote, and what Burns put in the film. Where is the disconnect?

 

If you dont like Burns, why do watch?

 

I thought the Civil War film was excellent, enjoyed Baseball as well, have not seen Jazz

 

It's good TV. But it's a 3rd-rate way to learn history. Getting weepy for sad things isn't really learning history.

 

You didn't come across at least a dozen horrible errors in the Baseball series?? Without even trying??

 

Jazz is Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington for about 14 of the 18 hours, which I'm sure there are still people alive who would want that ratio of Louis and Duke at the expense of Miles Davis and what followed....

The PBS series on Nam from about 30 years ago was much more clinical and pointed in presentation, on youtube. But we are in very very emotionally driven times.

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While vacationing at my grandparent's condo thing down in Florida the retirees would tell me they enjoyed all the overtime they collected helping build airplanes and bombs and guns for the Vietnam war, helped pay for their nice retirement from an assembly line job.

 

There weren't any additional airplanes built for Vietnam.

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How many helicopters were built? Bell made out like bandits, making over 10k during the war.

If what was reported in the documentary is true, there were over 35,000,000 chopper sorties flown by the US during the war. Just a mind numbing, staggering number.

 

And the beat goes on even today. What did Eisenhower warn us about?

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If what was reported in the documentary is true, there were over 35,000,000 chopper sorties flown by the US during the war. Just a mind numbing, staggering number.

 

And the beat goes on even today. What did Eisenhower warn us about?

 

You ain't lying, sir. :beer:

 

We still haven't learned our lesson as a nation, or as citizens.

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Another illuminating episode last night. I was struck by many things including the irony of 30,000 Canadians volunteering to fight in Nam while tens of thousands of American boys sought to avoid service by going there.

 

Most struck by the level of hatred shown towards the parents of William Schroeder, Kent State student and an ROTC member who was shot and killed by Ohio National guardsmen while simply observing the events from a student parking lot. His parents received the most vile kind of hate mail imaginable with sentiments suggesting they were better off that their "commie" son was dead. I don't believe in hell, but part of me wishes there was an eternal place of misery for the special kind of evil those letter writers represent. Despicable.

The role of rumor, misinformation and propaganda in history is pretty large. I was talking with my Nam Vet friend about Kent state and he rattled off several "facts" about the "prostitute girl" that was shot. Like the students deserved to get shot. I try not to let my jaw drop. The ROTC member I knew about, I didn't know his parents were hit with hate mail. Good God! Just terrible.

 

The book "Nixonland" by Rick Pearlstein has an amazing section in it about Kent State

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  • 3 weeks later...

Finally finished the series.

 

Overall I thought it was very good. So frustrating to see all of these battles that took place that when once secured, the USA would just abandon the area.

 

A lot of insight into the Presidents involved, but it sure felt like there was a lot of intent to trash Nixon.

 

I was shocked at how kind they were to Jane Fonda.

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If what was reported in the documentary is true, there were over 35,000,000 chopper sorties flown by the US during the war. Just a mind numbing, staggering number.

 

And the beat goes on even today. What did Eisenhower warn us about?

Yep, war is big business in this country. Has been for quite a while.

 

I like how they have figured out that you can make a lot of money building these places back up after you destroy them, too.

 

Make some bucks on both ends of the equation.

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We have a very good friend who was there near the end of the war. He played the role of a disenchanted US vet and got embedded with the enemy. He downplays it, saying he'd do tiny little thing like break a transistor radio tube when no one was looking. He doesn't like to talk about it, so we never press. My kids ask if I've ever seen him with his shirt off, and I say no. They played hoops with him on weekends, and when he's skins there is a GIANT scar that runs across his midsection. No one asks.

 

My older sister's prom date went over. He was lost within a few months.

 

A guy from my neighborhood went, but came back and was a wreck. His brother was closer to my age and lost control of the fingers in his right hand when he got slashed and suffered nerve damage the day the brother snapped and tried to attack the parents with a knife and he stepped in to save them.

 

I could go on.....but it's too sad.

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