Be skeptical of Ken Burns’ documentary: The Vietnam War
by Terry Garlock
For many years I have been presenting to high school classes a 90 minute session titled The Myths and Truths of the Vietnam War. One of my opening comments is, “The truth about Vietnam is bad enough without twisting it all out of shape with myths, half-truths and outright lies from the anti-war left.” The overall message to students is advising them to learn to think for themselves, be informed by reading one newspaper that leans left, one that leans right, and be skeptical of TV news.
Part of my presentation is showing them four iconic photos from Vietnam, aired publicly around the world countless times to portray America’s evil involvement in Vietnam. I tell the students “the rest of the story” excluded by the news media about each photo, then ask, “Wouldn’t you want the whole story before you decide for yourself what to think?”
One of those photos is the summary execution of a Viet Cong soldier in Saigon, capital city of South Vietnam, during the battles of the Tet Offensive in 1968. Our dishonorable enemy negotiated a cease-fire for that holiday then on that holiday attacked in about 100 places all over the country. Here’s what I tell students about the execution in the photo.
Enemy execution by South Vietnam’s Chief of National Police, 1968
“Before you decide what to think, here’s what the news media never told us. This enemy soldier had just been caught after he murdered a Saigon police officer, the officer’s wife, and the officer’s six children. The man pulling the trigger was Nguyen Ngoc Loan, South Vietnam’s Chief of National Police. His actions were supported by South Vietnamese law, and by the Geneva Convention since he was an un-uniformed illegal combatant. Now, you might still be disgusted by the summary execution, but wouldn’t you want all the facts before you decide what to think?”
We watched on the news with a very different flavor of BS. I couldn't finish the first episode. Objective the new stuff isn't.
My dad headed over and left a pregnant wife and two young kids at home. Tough time to go. He was in or near Pleiku. He doesn't mind talking about those days and he tried to make as many reunions as possible until he found it too tough to travel. He still does remember the guys that are "forever young", the guys that will always be 18 or 19 because that's as old as they ever got. He has stories about many of them. A couple guys were captured at 18 or so and since '66 was early in the war, by the time they were released they had missed so much of their lives and so much of the rest of the world had changed.
Of course perspective changes with time. The evening news at the time would report casualty numbers, where some fighting was located, and maybe show video of fighting. The war protests would also have coverage. There was some objectivity but it was within a system that was biased to support "official" government positions. At the time it was difficult for the mainstream to see that bias.
Walter Cronkite, "the most trusted man in America", added his opinions and they were sometimes opposite of the government's.
I look at it as the system was reporting within the framework created by the government. Westmoreland wanted to fight a war of attrition so info supporting that position was supplied to the press. Yes some of the atrocities from both sides were reported. My Lai still sticks in my mind even though I was barely old enough to understand what happened. The trial received a lot of press so that probably had something to do with it. Kent State was similar in some regards. Of course the thing that really jaded me with respect to the government's ability to generate propaganda was Nixon's peace with honor announced just before an election. The war wasn't important, re-election was.
lessons were learned. When the Gulf War broke out, the 'news' was tightly controlled by the Army
That was a tough part, but a necessary part.
Good thing we learned our lesson so that doesn't happen again
