The Ten Thousand Day War

"Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War" is a 26-part series and still one of the best documentary series on the Vietnam War. This Canadian production is well-written and well-produced and gives a succinct though comprehensive narrative in chronological order of the events in Vietnam from 1945 onwards. The series eschews political and social bias or commentary and only relates the facts of the events of the war as they occurred. The series deals only briefly with the First Indochina War of the Vietminh against the French as the main focus is by far America in Vietnam. The series concentrates on the American phase of the war from 1962 through the U.S. military advisory stage to the Tonkin Gulf Incident of 1964 and then the U.S. commitment of the fighting arms of the U.S. armed forces in 1965 when U.S. troops were sent to South Vietnam to engage in battle against the Vietcong guerrillas and the North Vietnamese Army to the U.S. withdrawals of its fighting arms from 1969 to 1973 and the Paris Peace Accords of 1973. Veteran American actor Richard Basehart gives the narration and the fact that the series was made in 1980, only 5 years after the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese, makes the events with which it deals seem fresh as they had occurred only in the recent past at the time the series was produced. If one wants a comprehensive history of the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, this series is certainly one of the better documentary series to watch.

Richard Basehart's commanding voice narrates this Vietnam War documentary in an ominous fashion making this truly the BEST documentary in existence on this subject.

The story is told in a frightening manner by Basehart. There are interviews with many of the people who were directly involved and the film footage is real and breath-takingly brutal at times. But this is the way it was and aficionados of military history and international politico-culture should watch this documentary at least once.

Highly recommended to all Americans and Vietnamese as well as students of the Vietnam War conflict.

A friend gave this to me once. He gave me the entire DVD set. It was sitting in my box of movies for 5 years before I finally decided to watch it today. And I know now what I knew back then. This "historical documentary" is utter nonsense. There is no mention of the pentagon papers or any of the countless blatant government lies. Just like the official 9/11 story, this is typical Vietnam war government propaganda not unlike the old world war 1, 2 or any other war propaganda film from any era really. Anyone who thinks this is a legitimate piece of historical documentation should simply re-check the facts and their ignorance and lack of intelligence will soon be very apparent. Anyone half intelligent can already tell you that this "documentary" is utter garbage but I was just surprised at the number of people who are actually interested in this trash as a serious, historically accurate recount of events. Disheartening.

I watched the movie with tears and smiles alternatively. Anger surged in me to see the ruin of Hanoi after the 12-day bombard. And by living in the country right now with my parents, who's been living in Saigon for 50 years, I understand that we're much better off now, and would have been better if the American didn't bring war here. Watching the movie, I learned more of the different kinds of wars that the America planned in Vietnam, and what disasters they caused.

The series seems to do well with the interviews with the real people. But I don't like it that some people only give generic opinions, like the analyst near the end of the series, I forgot his name.

There should also be more documentary images, like the life in the army camp of the South Vietnam, and those of the North (if possible). There's also a sudden change from the year of 1972 to 1975 (I'm not sure if the in-between was censored, because I watched this series on TV).

I ordered this complete mini-series for video a couple weeks ago. It starts with the mostly unknown first ("French") Vietnam war. The French lose the war. The Vietnamese gain independence, but like Korea (or like Germany used to) they are devided by two different systems. Of course the major eye is on the 2nd ("American") war: Though America and his Allies fought heavily, the war was lost. A big reason was the American home-front with its peace movement,but the main cause for the loss of South Vietnam was South Vietnam itself. They thought the Americans would do the whole job themselves alone. America tried as hard as the could, but it was an unequal fight in many ways. The real losers of the war were the 18, 19, 20-year old boys, who were sent to a foreign, unknown country. Most of them didn't really know what they were fighting for, they just did what they were told to.

With a lot of interviews (with members of both sides) and a lot of realism, this series is probably the best Vietnam war documentary.