[yankeetravels]

I started watching the Vietnam War documentary PBS put out by Ken Burns yesterday after reading a little of this thread. I've always been interested in Cold War American history because I don't feel like it was remotely covered in school when I was being taught American history. I remember near the end of the school year in class, we covered everything in more detail pre-WWII and when we got to the Vietnam War, we glossed over it because textbooks just didn't have it out. My teacher even acknowledged America really didn't like to talk about this time period.

I'm only part of the way through, but I've gone deeper into information of this time period now. What I'm realizing is I had no idea just how fucked and complicated Vietnam was for how long. One quote in the documentary by a veteran on the Vietnamese side was quoted basically saying war had no winners and losers. Only people killed. I really agree with this the more I watch. Everyone in some way has been portrayed as having blood on their hands from the French to the Japanese, Americans, and even all sides in native Vietnam. They even addressed Ho Chi Minh, who is portrayed as the big nationalist to lead an independence movement but also willing to get blood on his hands by killing and imprisoning some innocent.

I thought this was a great way to address it. I looked at America as the villain of the war for a while, but I'm realizing now that it was probably a lot more complicated, with nobody being completely innocent. But, that's probably true in all of human history, which in a weird way connects us and makes us realize we're not all that different.

This makes me appreciate more what Vietnam is now, considering they're gaining a rep as an up and coming popular country for more expats to relocate too and they seem to have an insane amount of more stability than the baby boomer and beyond generations did. Still have to watch the rest of the documentary and I plan on binging it.