“We never really figured out who the enemy was.”
“I had to come to grips with the fact that leadership was either out of touch or lying.”
“It’s very difficult to dispel ignorance if you retain arrogance.”
The government lost our trust. Forever.
These are just a few of the things veterans point out in Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s new PBS documentary THE VIETNAM WAR, an epic, 10-part, 18-hour series that depicts that fateful time in American history.
In a current environment where trust in the U.S. government is dropping, seemingly by the day, we would do well to reflect on the time when our “innocence was first lost.”
Burns and Novick masterfully and exhaustively document the War itself–complete with stories told by both American and Vietnam vets (North and South), and journalists who were on the front lines. They include acts of bravery by men and women who served selflessly and valiantly, and the never-ending heartache of families who lost loved ones.
But just as important, with great nuance, they tell a story of confusion, anger, resentment, pride and conflicted patriotism against a backdrop of political ego and an insistence on saving face.
Love it or hate it, the Vietnam War was not a time of ambivalence. Neither is this.
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Veterans of foreign wars, what did you think then–and how do you feel now?
Families of veterans, did you believe in your country’s cause–even as it endangered one of your own?
Did Americans ever regain their innocence?
What does a world leader who lies more often than he tells the truth mean for our future?
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