Momentos decisivos: La guerra de Vietnam

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.

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.

After Ken Burns' magisterial and monumental 18-hour deep dive into the Vietnam War, you'd think there'd be nothing left to say. But "Turning Point: The Vietnam War" on Netflix proves there's still room for new voices, especially from both North and South Vietnam, that bring fresh, essential perspectives to this complex and chaotic chapter of history. The series is balanced, detailed without dragging, and as harrowing as any account of America's decades-long misadventure. Fifty years after the fall of Saigon, this story remains urgent and deeply unsettling. Like Brian Knappenberger's earlier "Turning Point" series on 9/11 and the Cold War, it's clear-eyed, unflinching, and committed to telling the truth, warts and all. It's definitely a worthy watch.

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.

Some comments are unfair to say that the series presented Ho Chi Minh as a leader who only wanted to turn Viet Nam communist. Very early on (I think latter part of Ep 1 or Ep 2 onwards), they narrated how Ho Chi Minh banked on the USA history's of struggle for independence against Great Britain, and hoped that the US would likewise support Viet Nam's fight against the French. It also recognized that in Viet Nam, the war was known as an "American War" instead of "Vietnam War", acknowledging the dominant US-centric perspective in calling it the latter.

For the most part, I found this documentary balanced, only because when I find myself sympathizing (?) with one side, it would give another perspective that makes you realize that none of those involved were innocent - they all have blood on their hands for having no regard for non-combatants/civilians. It's materials like this that give us a chilling reminder that war is never the answer.