The Vietnam War

[cranberry]

I was disappointed they didn't tell us more about what happened to Madame Nhu, who was conveniently in the U.S. (in Beverly Hills) when her husband and brother-in-law were murdered in the coup.

 

[Stoney]

I was disappointed they didn't tell us more about what happened to Madame Nhu, who was conveniently in the U.S. (in Beverly Hills) when her husband and brother-in-law were murdered in the coup.

I googled her out of curiosity. Appears she went on to live a long healthy life in exile on the French Riviera. Died only recently in 2011.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Did the book discuss Eisenhower overthrowing governments in Guatemala and Iran?

No.

 

[cranberry]

Wow. I don't know how you discuss Eisenhower and overlook that kind of stuff.

 

[User 11148]

Ran into a colleague who served in Vietnam today and asked him about the series. He said that, so far, he's found it both fair and informative. He said that experiences varied radically in Vietnam based on what you did and when and where you did it and that he's interested to see how/if his "facet" will be touched upon. He was a 1st Lt. in 1st Cavalry (helicopter pilot) and was there starting around 1970. Nixon's Vietnamization was well underway by then, and his base was well south, on the Mekong Delta.

 

[lcjjdnh]

Part II: The opening interview with the former soldier from Missouri was outstanding. The way he described being out there on night lookout duty, afraid to hit the transmit button on his radio because he feared the enemy was so close; how he tried to explain to his little kids why he's still afraid of the dark . . . a riveting couple of minutes.

I hope the people at the White House are watching this.

Not a Steve Bannon fan--and obviously he's not there now--but he was right on in seeing the wisdom in the Best and the Brightest.

Opinion | Steve Bannon’s Book Club

 

[Riptide]

Read this book ...

 

[hondo]

The lesson of Vietnam was how many smart people could do so many dumb things.

 

[Neutral Corner]

Burns was on "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross today. They talked both about the series and the background stuff about how it was made, where they found the various people who were interviewed, etc. Pretty good, if you want to hit the web site.

 

[UPChip]

Wow. I don't know how you discuss Eisenhower and overlook that kind of stuff.

The overthrow of Mossadegh was briefly referenced near the end of Ch. 2 when Kennedy was weighing a coup against Diem.

Edit: The first four or five chapters are on the PBS website for streaming. I've seen 1, 2 and the second half of 3 now. It is very Ken Burnsy, and the quality is there, but I am having trouble keeping up with locations. Kind of bounces around.

 

[BTExpress]

Given the advisers and military hawks surrounding Ike and JFK, it's a miracle we made it through the end of the 60s.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

The Vietnam War is the single greatest real life example of the sunk cost fallacy. And it shows how that fallacy affects all humans, no matter how smart they might be.

 

[BTExpress]

Vietnam was just one tentacle of the sunk cost fallacy of the Truman Doctrine.

 

[User 11148]

The US's experience in Vietnam strikes me as this odd funhouse mirror: No matter how you approach it, it coughs up an interpretation that confirms your priors.

 

[Ace]

The episode with journalists Joe Galloway and Morley Safer really showed how braves those SOBs were and how important the reporting was to turning public opinion.

People are so willing to believe whatever crap they are spoofed that sometimes you've got to hit them over the head with truth a couple hundred times.

 

[User 149557]

As I watch it and I see so many people saying Burns has lost his fastball, I also wonder if his style has been aped so many times that we're bored by it. Or maybe he really has lost a few miles per hour.

I feel like the jumping back and forth in the timeline is an effort to freshen up the approach.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Given the advisers and military hawks surrounding Ike and JFK, it's a miracle we made it through the end of the 60s.

They couldn't intimidate Ike like they could JFK because Eisenhower had so much experience at the highest levels of the military. And Kennedy held them off pretty well, especially in the Missile Crisis, when they were all hot to invade Cuba, but he missed the best chance to get us out of Vietnam in 1963 with minimal damage because he was more interested in getting re-elected than making the hard, right but potentially unpopular decision to withdraw completely.

 

[BTExpress]

Given the advisers and military hawks surrounding Ike and JFK, it's a miracle we made it through the end of the 60s.

They couldn't intimidate Ike like they could JFK because Eisenhower had so much experience at the highest levels of the military.

They just went behind his back, flying U-2 missions into Soviet airspace to sabotage Ike's attempts at detente with Khrushchev.

 

[User 11148]

They just went behind his back, flying U-2 missions into Soviet airspace to sabotage Ike's attempts at detente with Khrushchev.

The U-2 missions were absolutely not "behind Ike's back."

 

[BTExpress]

Eh, Khruschev pretty much blamed Dulles for it. At least according to his son.