Turning Point: The Vietnam War

Another exceptionally objective docuseries from the new master of historical shows.

As a Brit, I can appreciate that my reaction and perspective to this series & the Vietnam war in general is wildly different from anyone in the US. Conversely, since my country opted not to engage in the conflict, we weren't really educated on it any real detail - so broadly speaking, even as a bit of a history dweeb, I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to any of the decades-long western battles against communism.

That's why I'm especially grateful to the talents of Brian Knappenberg.

Rather than portraying 9/11, the Cold War or in this latest fine entry into his canon as a 'rah! Rah! America!' Indulgence, he's proactively evenhanded, fair & draws remarkably detailed and articulate accounts from people who were really there. Yet despite the density of information & intelligence with which it's done, it's still accessible to even a Luddite like me.

It's powerful, powerful stuff - and while I can absolutely 100% appreciate that this must be deeply grating for a lot of those in the states, as a fascinated outsider? It's quite an excellent entry into the mountains of existing work covering this engrossingly chaotic period in modern human history.

Bravo.

I have been a Netflix subscriber for years and years and this has to be the best documentary I have ever seen. It is so thoughtful and through, and honest.

I remember sitting in the high school auditorium with all the other male seniors to sign up for the Selective Service in 1972. The representative where really honest with us. It was during the time when the draft was based on the lottery system. They told us if your number was 100 or less, you would be drafted, if it was about 100, no worries. Mine was in 343.

I had to possibility of participating in history, but too dimwitted to understand what it meant.

Now I know, and the knowing makes me feel ashamed for our country.

Best line in the documentary is "We are the United States of Amnesia". Ain't it so, all you can do is weep.

This is a must watch, even for people that do not live in this country.

Therefore the first question will be: is it worth to watch?

To make it short: Yes, today more than some years ago It is of course primarily from an US point of view, in spite of several Vietnamese interview partners.

Does it miss possibly important details as some critics here argue? Most likely as all major conflicts have deeper roots and more sideways as you have footage to make a documentary about, but IMHO the series provides such a plethora of footage that most of us will see something new and disturbing.

The Vietnam War, as many conflicts before and afterward are presented as an array of conflicting political and military decisions, when in the end they are just killing humans on both sides for no reason. 50 years from now we'll see a similar documentary about the Ukraine, if free speech is still possible.

There is no new insight here, and if you're familiar with the Ken Burns series, this is the lackluster remake. It duly covers the various turning points, from French loss to Tet to scuttled peace talks and Nixon's genocidal campaigns to name a few. We get various asides along the way; the student anti-war movement, the elections of '68, the treatment of returning veterans.

If it's your first comprehensive surveying of the Vietnam story, you will get the whole thing. It is, as usual, told from the American perspective; ill-advised entanglement in a faraway jungle, increasingly bitter and chaotic. There are also some Vietcong voices this time around.

There's so much that went wrong in a decade that to survey as we do, with talking heads, and condensing to snippets, makes it seem self-evident. There's no way to tell what a world would look like in which the CIA didn't lose the plot probably starting with Cuba, for example, or 'domino effect' thinking didn't win over in policy circles. And it's important to note how badly Washington misunderstood context; the generals did really think in terms of fighting in the Pacific Theater, but there the troops had been propelled by Pearl Harbor and fighting the good fight.

I really enjoy this kind of documentary, especially because its length - over five hours - allows it to take its time and properly explore a story from as many angles as possible.

What struck me most, personally, was that I ended up feeling sympathy and even a kind of sorrow for both sides. The filmmaker makes a real effort to stay as neutral as possible, showing the motivations - and especially the suffering - on both sides of the conflict.

One real eye-opener for me was what happened to the South Vietnamese who had worked with the Americans, after the US defeat and the communist takeover. It was shocking to see the consequences they faced. And what's more, the country is still divided in many ways because of this war - emotionally, politically, socially.

Neither side is painted as the bad guy.