Vietnam in HD

This series is about war, politics and people. Just like with WWII in HD, I am in awe of history in video, specially in HD. I lived through those times with limited cognisance of what was really transpiring although soon after coming to assimilate what its overall impact would eventually come to be. Listening to and seeing the few participants, interspersed with the reality of that arguably unnecessary conflict is engrossing.

Reviews of this, and similar series, should be devoid of political rhetoric and consistent with the presentation quality and viewers objective appreciation of what was created and produced through significant effort.

One needs to remember that honour and duty among soldiers in rarely arrogance or narcissism. These human beings were placed in a terrible place and asked to do terrible things, or else rendered criminals in their own country or dishonoured as soldiers. Most were completely ostracized and suffered severe mental depressions, upon returning home to their families and friends. IMO, their "OO-RAH" is purely a sense of camaraderie and commitment to their fellows in the battle zone where there was no time or point to pander politics or resentment to their leadership... lives were at stake.

THIS IS A MUST SEE FOR HISTORY BUFFS!

I was surprised to see there was only one review of this , i was expecting a couple of hundred at least. Clearly the other poster was not impressed by this series and i agree with a lot of what he said but i also think that these pages in history shouldn't be forgotten and if that means some cheesy music and a bit of hammy voice acting then so be it, although i think Michael C Hall was the ideal person to narrate this.

Putting the production aside there is a wealth of archive footage that gives you a glimpse of what it was like over there, I've never been in a war but I feel I should at least watch these documentaries and try to understand what they go through. I'm not even American and I feel I owe them that which is why i was surprised to see such a small number of reviews.

I make a point of watching and reading as much as I can on any conflict that people have fought and died in, to recognize and remember what they did is the least we can do. Listn to the real guys talking ,look at their faces in the archive footage and read between the lines...ignore the music, that is how you watch a war documentary.

Did I miss something here?

This was an excellent production. As some stated, a 'must see' for students of history and those interested in the Vietnam War.

It's a recollection, a compilation using home movie footage, archival footage, material released through FOIA, and plenty of other sources never before assembled together to present a very personal view of what it was like to fight in Vietnam and to be at home waiting for the loved one to return.

A personal view.

Judging by the criticisms of others here, complaining that the series is too patriotic or pro- American, I have to say, did you watch the same documentary as I did? Simply because the production focuses on American soldiers in this conflict does not make it jingoistic. It simply means it's from a perspective. Good grief, lighten up.

What I saw were personal stories, stories of men asked - no, make that ordered, drafted into action for their country (in this case, the United States). Action most neither asked for nor wanted. Yet, action they fulfilled nevertheless.

What I did NOT see was the flag waving jingoism many here are complaining about. If anything, this documentary illustrates the futility of that conflict and how the American leadership lacked the moral justification to order young men into battle. Yet, the men who were ordered to do so, did the best they could under the worst of circumstances, only to come home to the misguided anger, hate and violence of American protesters, which some of the comments here seem to side with.

This is a well produced, illustrative and interesting production on the personal side of Americans in Vietnam, right up there with the outstanding works of PBS's "Vietnam A Television History" and Stanley Karnow's companion book.

Like I said above, ignore the critics. See it.

This series is great for anyone who is not familiar with the Vietnam War. The personal accounts are wonderful and really take you inside the mindset of the time. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing from the soldiers, and appreciated the fact that the series attempted to stay away from political commentary / opinions about the war. I watched the series with two good friends who served in Vietnam, and both of them felt that it was an accurate portrayal of the war and the atmosphere at home. While it does gloss over some events, I suppose that cannot be helped since the series is only 6 episodes long, with each episode running about 45 minutes. I would recommend this to anyone who wants a good overview of the war and wants to hear it from the mouths of the men and women who served there. I'm also happy to see that the History Channel is still occasionally producing series with real historical content.

I'm giving this one a 5 for the footage. It's nice to see so much original footage and that's what I'm always looking for. I admire the people with the cameras in the field. So using their footage means giving them credit for what they did. They shot with cameras, not with guns. Too bad, however, that it's almost all US footage, almost no North VN footage was used.

Other than that, this is yet another very one-sided documentary of the Vietnam war. From the first second to the last everything shouts "look at us heroes, we're so awesome, we did so good". Americans seem to be utterly incapable of objectively reporting on the subject of war. It seems to me that with every documentary on the subject they're doing all they can to cover up the fact that they got their asses kicked. By a much weaker force by the way. Just admit it and move on. Terrible things happened and those are the facts. That's what I want from a documentary, the facts! Not a deep-sounding voice telling me how difficult some General's decision was, how long he had to think about it just to portray him as a good guy. State the facts please, and leave it at that. Don't put the ever-American gloss over it to make it look more than it is.

Conclusion : If you want a 50/50 mix between some Band Of Brothers with some info put in and everything video and audio pointing out they were incredible heroes, than watch this. If you're looking for a good documentary stating the facts and looking at this war from both sides, keep looking, this is not it.