Vietnam: The War That Changed America is an outstanding documentary that relates various aspects of the war as interpreted by some who served there. Their stories are compelling, surprising, horrifying and guaranteed to make you cry. We see them 50 years ago on film in country and we meet them back home today.
The first thing misleading about the documentary is the time frame - the war did not start in 1965. President Kennedy was of course assassinated in November of 1963. The Viet Nam war was his war. Kennedy sent the first 15,000 combat soldiers to Viet Nam. He authorized the use of napalm, agent orange and air power. The 58,000 Americans who died there and perhaps over a million Vietnamese who died are ultimately a result of his stimulus and leadership. President Kennedy bears the most responsibility for America's involvement in the war.
Missed entirely in the documentary was the religious aspect of the war. Catholics vs Buddhists. I enlisted in the military and volunteered to go to Viet Nam. When I spoke to any Vietnamese whether an ARVN soldier, shopkeeper or bar girl they all understood the division between the relatively affluent, upwardly mobile and privileged Catholics and the poor and lesser treated Buddhists. This hostility formulated and motivated the Viet Cong guerrillas in the south and aligned them with the NVA communists of the north.
The documentary leaves the impression that young black soldiers were given the most dangerous assignments in Viet Nam and consequently died in greater numbers than their percentage of Americas population. The war's data and the KIA men and women listed on the Viet Nam War Memorial does not verify that assumption. Young black men died in Viet Nam at almost exactly at the same percentage of black men in the US population. If a composite was formed of a typical Viet Nam KIA based on statistics he would be a 20 year old white kid from California.
Viet Nam did change the US Military in one major way. The US Military no longer wants to go to war with draftees and has formed a professional military. It prefers to fight with those who want to serve rather than those who are forced to. Whether this somewhat incestuous policy is good for the future of America remains to be seen, but it has definitely suppressed anti-war protests of America's military adventures after Viet Nam.
Finally, the treatment by the public of US Viet Nam veterans is touched upon, but in my opinion it has been somewhat exaggerated. There were probably instances when vets were spat upon and cursed as baby killers, but by in large the attitude was indifference - not condemnation.
Soldiers should probably not expect parades and accolades when we lose a war.
The attitude of the public towards the military changed dramatically after 9-11. The public began thanking soldiers for their service when they realized our oceans no longer protected them and that a determined enemy could reach out and kill them at any time.
So, did Viet Nam change America? We were divided then and we still are.
