20-09-2017, 04:39 PM
Jim DiEugenio Wrote:Is anyone watching this right now?
I have the ten disk set, and I am waiting for when I have time to sit down and view it all.
I am getting some pretty bad reports so far on the spin of the series. Specifically about how it started as some kind of noble gesture, the papering over of Kennedy's withdrawal plan and also the Tonkin Gulf incident as some kind of retaliation against the north. I mean how do you retaliate for one bullet? You start a war over it?
Very discouraging if its true. There is so much good info on this today. And it does not appear that this show uses it.
I have been watching the series and if anyone is expecting a deep politics angle on how the war started, you won't see it in Burn's and Novick's series.
Did not get the impression that they said it started as a noble gesture. They mentioned the domino theory, the fear of the spread of communism. They did not show a president being bullied by war-hawks to start the war and one person even said go in all the way or get out.
To be fair to Ken Burns, to whom I admit I am a big fan, he would not be the best person to look to, to get into the real reasons for this war because his financial backers would not allow it. The other problem is that much has been written about how the US got into that war and a 10 part series could probably be made about this topic alone. Burns and Novick are going to focus on the whole war, its impact at home and this does not leave much time to really get into the details of how the war really started and the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
One thing I like about the series is that they did not name Oswald as Kennedy's assassin. They avoided the topic all together. Better that than the usual lone-nut lies that are usually told. I recommend this series to anyone who really enjoys history and has an interest in the war itself, and not just its connection to Kennedy's assassination.
