Friday, September 29, 2017

The Tragedy of the PBS-Ken Burns Version of the Vietnam War

Via Jonathan

 http://i2.cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/140618113403-13-iconic-vietnam-war-restricted-horizontal-large-gallery.jpg
My own views on the Vietnam war haven't changed much in the intervening half-century, since my assignment in Vietnam with Special Forces, but I am called, today, a "revisionist" by some who have never served our country.  I have subsequently learned, thanks in part to Burns's history, that a "revisionist" is anyone who opposes the Communist Party line, so I guess I can live with that.

 Ken Burns, in his new PBS series, correctly points to the Vietnam War as a source of the polarization in our society today.  And he correctly urges us to revisit, understand, and come to grips with details making up that history through civil (as opposed to raucous) discourse.  He apparently believes he is presenting a fair picture of that history and that if we see it as the "tragedy" he paints, we will align our views with his so as to restore a more cohesive society.

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