I almost didn't start watching it, but I've been slowly working my way through the episodes and I've just reached the part about the Tet Offensive.
Until watching the documentary, I wasn't really aware of how unstable the government was in South Vietnam during the war.
It's a little surprising (although maybe not that surprising) that I identify and relate more to the enlisted Marines and soldiers doing the fighting than most of the officers, any of the protestors, and definitely none of the politicians.
The one thing I think that caught me off guard so far is the extent to which the politicians seemed to more or less accurately access how poor our chances were, but that they never would state it openly and publicly acted and spoke as if the contrary was true.
I should note that one thing that's been odd for me is to watch a documentary, as history, for things that were going on and which I somewhat remember from my youth.
Things that happened in my adulthood I generally regard as not really history. Things far enough back that I was a kid I view differently, but that doesn't mean I can't recall them. It's odd to watch things that you have snippets of memory of from when you were five or so and on up.
I'm surprised by how much I actually have a bit of memory of from when I was quite young.
It might just be some sort of creative liberties being taken in the documentary, but it irritated me that Johnson's decision process usually seemed to be, "Well, I don't think there's any chance that this will work, but let's go ahead and do it anyway".
Then, all the yes-men nodded their heads in agreement and the doomed-to-fail plan was put into place.
It makes me wonder how much death and destruction has been caused by that sort of thinking throughout world history.
Yes, that's hard to grasp. They seem to have been hoping against hope, and keeping their views concealed at the same time. And then you have the comment from McNamara that he had little hope that it would work out but that he didn't feel there was any other choice. It would have been better to acknowledge the lack of realistic hope to the public even if that was his view.
5 comments:
I almost didn't start watching it, but I've been slowly working my way through the episodes and I've just reached the part about the Tet Offensive.
Until watching the documentary, I wasn't really aware of how unstable the government was in South Vietnam during the war.
It's a little surprising (although maybe not that surprising) that I identify and relate more to the enlisted Marines and soldiers doing the fighting than most of the officers, any of the protestors, and definitely none of the politicians.
Thanks Rich.
The one thing I think that caught me off guard so far is the extent to which the politicians seemed to more or less accurately access how poor our chances were, but that they never would state it openly and publicly acted and spoke as if the contrary was true.
I should note that one thing that's been odd for me is to watch a documentary, as history, for things that were going on and which I somewhat remember from my youth.
Things that happened in my adulthood I generally regard as not really history. Things far enough back that I was a kid I view differently, but that doesn't mean I can't recall them. It's odd to watch things that you have snippets of memory of from when you were five or so and on up.
I'm surprised by how much I actually have a bit of memory of from when I was quite young.
It might just be some sort of creative liberties being taken in the documentary, but it irritated me that Johnson's decision process usually seemed to be, "Well, I don't think there's any chance that this will work, but let's go ahead and do it anyway".
Then, all the yes-men nodded their heads in agreement and the doomed-to-fail plan was put into place.
It makes me wonder how much death and destruction has been caused by that sort of thinking throughout world history.
Yes, that's hard to grasp. They seem to have been hoping against hope, and keeping their views concealed at the same time. And then you have the comment from McNamara that he had little hope that it would work out but that he didn't feel there was any other choice. It would have been better to acknowledge the lack of realistic hope to the public even if that was his view.
Post a Comment