Ken Burns & Lynn Novick's Documentary of the Viet Nam War

[Minimalist]

Remember that the republicunts did not sell out to Jerry Falwell and the "religious right" until Reagan....  which is when I bid adieu to the republicunt party.  In the 60's the Democrats were solid in the south so yes, things have changed as the GOP embraced Nixon's southern strategy and the smart parts of the country said "fuck that."

[Crossless2.0]

Remember that the republicunts did not sell out to Jerry Falwell and the "religious right" until Reagan....  which is when I bid adieu to the republicunt party.  In the 60's the Democrats were solid in the south so yes, things have changed as the GOP embraced Nixon's southern strategy and the smart parts of the country said "fuck that."

True.

I wonder too the extent to which Carter being an outspoken Baptist may have helped him. Those southern states that went for him voted overwhelmingly for Nixon in '72. Of course, that's hardly surprising, since there was no way McGovern was going to get traction with them.

[Minimalist]

McGovern was a one-issue candidate and Nixon lied and manipulated the war so that his one-issue was defused.

[Anomalocaris]

Viet Nam poised no danger to the U.S. We decimated a subsistence farming nation because of right wing ideology! I knew this in 1970 when I was 11 years old. Any takers?

We let one country fall to the Communists and the others know we don't give a fuck about them.

Yeah, right.


We let Vietnam fall in the end, and gave up Taiwan. In return for letting one domino piece fall and more or less cutting the other loose and letting it twist in the wind, we return gained china as an ally against the USSR and put USSR in a strategic bind they never figured out how to escape from.

The ultimate conclusion of the Vietnam War was as complete and utter a refutation of the domino theory as can be conceived.

[Brian37]

I watched the first episode, Deja Vu, of the The Viet Nam War last night.  I found it very interesting, I learned some deeper things about the origins of the conflict that I did not know before, such as the French occupation of Indo-China starting in 1858.  Ken Burns work has always impressed me, very well done.  What did any of you think of it if you watched it?

The only war in the 20th century I can look back and justify was WW2. America's policies since seem to get us stuck in quagmires and simply play into the profitable economics of the global weapons industry which sell to both friend and foe.

I watched some of it too. And to see the North Nam soldiers speak of their fears and family like we do ours, constantly confirms what I have accepted for a long time, we are not a separate species.

It does not mean I agree with one party states, it merely means we are still ultimately the same species.

The west would like to think it does not have a dominionist attitude, but it does, on par with the middle east's attitude that Islam will be the cure for the world.

Ultimately, until humans face the fact it isn't about ideology, but control of resources, our species will keep letting our respective powers divide us.

[The Grand Nudger]

We closed out the last century in Kosovo....... we forget that, because of how we opened the next century.

@Min about repeating our past. Jumped out at me too, from an early episode, comments about our failure to recognize that this was the dying gasp of colonialism and subsequently backing the wrong guys.

[Thumpalumpacus]

That was a stunning series.  The depth of the deception was remarkable.  58,000 dead, hundreds of thousands physically wounded, who knows how many mentally wounded and in the end Gerald Ford, knowing he had no chance of winning the 1976 election after pardoning Nixon said "fuck it." 

And now we are doing the same shit in Afghanistan.

We NEVER learn.  We deserve whatever we get.

I caught most of Wednesday's episode, about the "Vietnamization" and Vets Against the War movement. At one point one vet was saying, "We had to show what was going on so it didn't happen again." I couldn't help myself blurting out, "Yeah, so how'd that work out for us?"

It was really heart-breaking television and I'll definitely be watching the entire series soon.

[Minimalist]

We closed out the last century in Kosovo....... we forget that, because of how we opened the next century.

@Min about repeating our past.  Jumped out at me too, from an early episode, comments about our failure to recognize that this was the dying gasp of colonialism and subsequently backing the wrong guys.

It seems that all anyone has to do is wave a flag and 'Murricans fall into line.

We are a nation of gullible shits.

[Minimalist]

Colbert - from Friday night.







And Stephen also did this a couple of days earlier.