Ken Burns Vietnam on PBS
 

I've been storing this up in my DVR. I was one of those punk kids in DC protesting the war starting in '70. One memory was when the composition of the protesters changed to veterans and parents in '71.

There was no spitting on vets or any such nonsense. If we had seen any of that shit, the perp would've been picking their teeth up off the sidewalk. Not saying there weren't isolated incidents of such mistreatment of our vets but we never saw any of it.

For the record, that scene in Forrest Gump where Abbie Hoffman jumped up on stage at the Lincoln Memorial, we hippies booed and chased him off the stage. We were there for the music after being teargassed and chased around the Washington Monument by the DC Mounted Police. Fuckin' Cossacks.

Abbie Hoffman was a poseur.

Boy, this one by Mr. Burns is going to be tough to watch but watch I will.

I watched the entire thing Sunday night. It was very hard to watch at times after learning that my brother had been in Cambodia and had the horrendous experience of finding one of Pol Pots "Killing Fields", hundreds of dead bodies hacked to pieces, rotting in the hot sun.

I think this would have been 1970 or '71. Not sure as I was very young. 6 or 7 years old.

Pol Pot ran Cambodia and did his big killing from 75 to 79. What your brother saw was just somebody doing a warm-up.

Been a bittersweet experience reliving some of the memories. Got lucky and never received the letter like so many others. Heard most of the same stories from those who did serve.
Would be great if the younger ones who this is news to learned from it. History does not repeat itself, human nature does......


Barney

The music used has had an evocative immediacy in this context, like it really wasn't that long ago.
Drink a toast of your choosing the to the fallen, the lost, and the survivors.

Seconded.

We've made it through the fourth episode (I DL'd via a notorious torrent site). No probelmo for the wife but it's giving me the shivers and we're not even yet to "my era" ('69-'70). Don't know I'll make it all the way through unless i 'scuse myself from the viewing room @ strategic points to grab a(nother) small glass of vino.

Regarding this seeming still not all that long ago an event, even -- dare i write -- fresh -- in our heads, I'm on board w/ that sentiment and assessment, though not necessarily in that order.

We got through episode 8 last week, (Kent state), and had to take a break. At least I did, because I remember when all that happened. My wife, born in '65, is getting an education.

Hopefully we will watch the last two episodes this week,