Series humanizes the Vietnam War — conflict that still haunts us
Ken Burns and Lynn Novick have produced an extraordinary documentary about the Vietnam War, both informative and touchingly human. So far, PBS has only broadcast the first few episodes of this 18-hour film, but these early segments already tell a compelling and little-known tale.
The documentary presents several key points in its opening episodes about the origin of the war, most of which hinge on Ho Chi Minh’s character and the bitter resentment of the Vietnamese toward their French colonial masters. Vietnamese resentment was in reaction to the harsh measures the French employed to control them. Ho’s communists returned these harsh measures with crushing brutality and, when the U.S. established a government in the south, the Americans and their South Vietnamese allies followed suit.
Ho Chi Minh was a determined patriot who spent his entire life trying to rid his country of foreign armies — first the French, then the Americans. He became a communist because he believed this ideology, with its anti-colonial thrust, would help him liberate Vietnam of foreigners. His dedication and his organizational skills won him a great deal of popular support in both the north and south of Vietnam. Had there been an election, as was promised in the Geneva agreement of 1954, there is no question but that Ho would have won it by a large majority. But the U.S. and the South Vietnamese would not allow the election to take place.
One of the most impressive features of Burns’ and Novick’s documentary is its reliance on comments from participants in the war: North Vietnamese, South Vietnamese, Viet Cong and American. Reinforcing this “all sides” aspect is the use of North Vietnamese combat film in addition to scenes filmed from the American side.
This war still haunts the memories of many in my generation. I never saw combat in Vietnam myself, but many of my friends did. I was in the Navy Reserve for a couple of years in the 1960s, and, as soon as I was discharged, I became active in the anti-war movement. But, though I never felt the full, horrific force of this war, it still haunts me.
The profoundly human touch of Burns’ and Novick’s film is certain to bring more than a few viewers to tears. In this regard, it reminds
me of the 1987 HBO documentary Dear America: Letters Home from
Vietnam. If you are willing to subject your heart to another arduous wrenching, give that documentary a look, once you’ve finished the PBS series.
And, speaking of documentaries, one of the most revealing scenes about the Vietnam War can be seen in Errol Morris’ The
Fog of War. Here Robert McNamara, former Secretary of Defense and America’s chief architect of the war, declares that after talking to Hanoi’s leaders in 1995, he concluded the war was entirely unnecessary, a result of each side misunderstanding what the other wanted.
But it wasn’t just ignorance that led us into this tragedy. Deception also played a part. As the PBS documentary makes clear, our government was not honest with us about its aims or the bleak prospects for success. The consequences of our leaders’ dishonesty continue to trouble us. At one point in the Burns and Novick film, U.S. Marine veteran John Musgrave says, “We were probably the last kids of any generation that actually believed our government would never lie to us.”
A healthy wariness toward one’s government is, I believe, solid practice. But the depth of distrust we’ve had to live with since the 1970s is disheartening, and much of this distrust stems directly from the Vietnam War. Those of us who are of a certain age can recall when the phrase “Vietnam and Watergate” was used as shorthand for governmental deceit and a justification for all-around cynicism.
Though the Burns and Novick documentary maintains a neutral, nonjudgmental tone, I believe it makes clear that there is a lesson to be learned from the Vietnam War: When gross dishonesty and blind ignorance flourish at the highest levels of government, everything we hold dear is in jeopardy.