Risky putting it here instead of in the "Political pundit" sub-forum, but since it IS a television show on PBS, about water that is now well under the bridge, I figured I'd treat it as such.
I missed the first episode on Sunday, having spent the evening (and a pleasant evening it was) with fellow forumites, but caught the second episode last night. I had heard filmmakers Ken Burns and Lynn Novick interviewed about it last week. It sounded fascinating, and last night's episode lived up to my expectations. I gather it will be broadcast on 10 consecutive nights (nothing gets pre-empted by football games on PBS), although it can also be streamed on-line. The film-makers do NOT recommend binge-watching.
To those of us of a certain age, JFK was a sacred figure of sorts. I still remember when our grade 7 teacher came back that Friday afternoon from a brief interruption at the classroom door, with a look of horror and disbelief, and broke the news. But of course, as 12 year-olds we knew nothing of what was going on legislatively, or in terms of policy decisions. We only knew who "the good guys and bad guys" were, and thought that Kennedy was a good guy. So, learning last night that it was Kennedy who initially authorized the use of Agent Orange, and who also ramped up American participation in Viet Nam, was a bit of a head turner. Not that "good guys" are incapable of making honest-but-poor policy decisions. But it was a side that had simply never dawned on us. Moreover, foreign policy is generally not something that very young people think about. We were far more concerned with what we were seeing on TV with respect to the civil rights movement.
One of the things the series contains a lot more of are tapes of conversations involving both Nixon and Johnson. In the interview, Burns and Novick both expressed a certain surprise for the way in which both presidents could switch topics from Viet Nam to more mundane matters.
In any event, I look forward to the rest of the series, and hope you do too. That war is something that many of us may think we know something about, but will learn we knew very little.
I missed the first episode on Sunday, having spent the evening (and a pleasant evening it was) with fellow forumites, but caught the second episode last night. I had heard filmmakers Ken Burns and Lynn Novick interviewed about it last week. It sounded fascinating, and last night's episode lived up to my expectations. I gather it will be broadcast on 10 consecutive nights (nothing gets pre-empted by football games on PBS), although it can also be streamed on-line. The film-makers do NOT recommend binge-watching.
To those of us of a certain age, JFK was a sacred figure of sorts. I still remember when our grade 7 teacher came back that Friday afternoon from a brief interruption at the classroom door, with a look of horror and disbelief, and broke the news. But of course, as 12 year-olds we knew nothing of what was going on legislatively, or in terms of policy decisions. We only knew who "the good guys and bad guys" were, and thought that Kennedy was a good guy. So, learning last night that it was Kennedy who initially authorized the use of Agent Orange, and who also ramped up American participation in Viet Nam, was a bit of a head turner. Not that "good guys" are incapable of making honest-but-poor policy decisions. But it was a side that had simply never dawned on us. Moreover, foreign policy is generally not something that very young people think about. We were far more concerned with what we were seeing on TV with respect to the civil rights movement.
One of the things the series contains a lot more of are tapes of conversations involving both Nixon and Johnson. In the interview, Burns and Novick both expressed a certain surprise for the way in which both presidents could switch topics from Viet Nam to more mundane matters.
In any event, I look forward to the rest of the series, and hope you do too. That war is something that many of us may think we know something about, but will learn we knew very little.
