Secrets of War

SEcrets of War takes an exceedingly complex conflict, and reduces it to a simplistic dichotomy of good and evil, with the U.S., of course, being the side of good. Most striking though is what the film omits. In addition to the aforementioned omission of civilian casualties, the film also omits that the war was started on a lie with the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the brutalities committed by U.S. forces, and the indifference of much of the Vietnamese civilian population to their own conflict. All of this in addition to over-playing the threat that was posed by the Soviets. A viewer watching this series, who received no other information about the war, would have some very one sided views of the conflict.

Unfortunately, the notion promoted by the US military to this day that in Vietnam the Americans scored all those "battlefield victories" goes unchallenged here. In truth the whole idea of what a victory is, even what constitutes a "battle", had to be re-thought in that conflict.

There also are some outright distortions, such as the reason behind Operation Linebackers I and II--the notorious "Christmas Bombing" of Hanoi. It was not Hanoi's intransigence that caused the Paris peace talks to stall. The problem was the administration in Saigon--our own side, that is--that showed a sudden and very ill- timed independence and balked at signing the accords, knowing it had no popular support in the South.