Ken Burns Vietnam
Posted: June 26, 2017 Filed under: America Since 1945, Vietnam, war 1 Comment
This fall, Ken Burns new documentary about the Vietnam War will be on PBS.
Any one of these clips from it will make you still for a minute.
The intensity of what happened with the US in Vietnam is insane. The magnitude of the scar is unspeakable. Literally: we can’t talk about it.
When Ken Burns made The Civil War, about something 150 years ago, it made people cry. What is it going to be like to watch The Vietnam War, a thing every person in my parent’s generation had to reckon with in some serious way?
I saw that one of the talkers is Karl Marlantes. His book What It Is Like To Go To War is astounding.
I’m not sure enough people heard about it. At one time I had the same publisher as Karl Marlantes, which I was very proud of, they sent me his books for free.
Marlantes tells this story about running into Joseph Campbell, by chance:
Absolution.
Imagine having whiskey with Joseph Campbell.
The best discipline:
The other day on Reddit “Today I Learned” I saw this.
I went to check the source, the Lodi News Sentinel, 1971:
Preserved at this blog:
There the author gives a question and answer about his own time in Vietnam and after that I would describe as harrowing and illuminating and powerful.
Ken Burns made some darn good movies.
Helytimes 
I’ve been reading a number of Vietnam books – including Matterhorn (which blew my mind) – in anticipation of the Ken Burns documentary this fall. In fact I recently put up a post about it. I”ll have to read that other Marlantes book. It sounds fascinating, and I wasn’t aware of it. Thanks.