Turning Point: The Vietnam War

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.

There have been many excellent TV/streaming series on the Vietnam War and this is another. To be clear, the big events of the war, especially from the years 1965 to 1973 were amply addressed by the other series and the only thing different about this one is some of the interviewees are new.

Where the series adds something new is at the beginning and end of the conflict. The description of the early 20th century developments and the Kennedy years contained some material I don't remember from other series. Ditto for the period after the Paris Peace Treaty. For example, a representative of the Communists admitted they went too far in their postwar purge of the former South Vietnam. I don't remember the other series showing expressions of doubt or regret by the Communists. I think this speaker's regrets could be expressed more freely because relations between the US and Vietnam are so much better today.

Finally, I'm a little surprised that other reviewers suggest the series only shows the American perspective, the series interviews many Vietnamese from both sides of the conflict. While I think the series is perhaps it little more generous to some American critics of the war then they should have been, I don't get the criticism of Dan Rather's inclusion. He was covering the war throughout the entire period of heavy American involvement. He is certainly very critical of the effort in retrospect, but I suspect he was like Walter Cronkite and millions of other Americans in thinking it began as a noble cause.

There have been several documented series covering the subject matter over the decades , but this one ( in my humble opinion ) is the most concise . It doesn't skirt around the truth and in particular the lies from both sides . And there were lots of falsehoods by both and successive administrations about what was being done " over there " . Episodes three and four encapsulated the worst of what was being carried out , both in Vietnam and in America in 1968 . I'm disappointed that the producers didn't critique the over promoted and utterly hopeless Westmorland in more detail , as he more or less brought the whole thing to its knees and cost the lives of thousands of American servicemen and woman , not to mention the millions of Vietnamese civilians who were brutalised on a daily basis . The delicious irony of including the biggest draft dodger in history , John Wayne , was not lost on me.

A series for the ages.

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.

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.