PUBLISHER’S NOTEBOOK: The war we didn’t talk about

Sunday:

‘The Vietnam War’, Part 1 of 10

7 p.m., PBS, Channel 7

or http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-vietnam-war/watch/

Thursday evening at the Glenn Massay Theater, Alaska Public Media hosted a preview of the new documentary series ‘The Vietnam War’ by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. The preview extracted scenes from the 10-episode, 18-hour series. Judging from the preview, Ken Burns and team delivers again. Burns reveals Vietnam from all sides, American and Vietnamese soldiers, Vietnamese civilians, American protesters and both governments.

Vietnam is a topic that we don’t talk about much anymore. It’s the war that seems to be swept under the rug. As one of the interviewees said in the preview. “We approach Vietnam like families with an alcoholic father — ssshhh, we don’t talk about that.”

My dad served 21 years in the US Army, retired as a First Sergeant in 1978. From 1968 to 1969 he was in Vietnam. He was 28-years-old with three children and one on the way. While in Vietnam he received two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart. It took 40 years for him to talk about it. I don’t have a clear picture of his experiences there. Like the television series I have excerpts but I’m fortunate because I have more than most. Men returned and didn’t talk about it. We didn’t push them. The perspective of the North Vietnamese for me will be interesting. When you’re a 6-year-old boy and your dad went off to war you tend to grow up viewing the people he fought against as nothing besides the enemy. The interviews in the preview of the North Vietnamese soldiers was striking. From one interview the former Viet Cong soldier explained that when he returned home his mother was so happy. They wanted to celebrate but didn’t dare out of respect for the other families in their town. Most in town didn’t make it home. For them to celebrate would have been disrespectful. Protesters of the war were also viewed as the enemy. Our view in our household was they weren’t part of the solution so they were part of the problem. I’m not sure if my Dad ever reconciled that one. They were Americans protesting the war, but for him and many other soldiers they took it as though they were protesting them.

When I approached my dad in 2009 to talk about the war to a reporter I worked with, he immediately turned me down.

“All I can tell you about Vietnam is this: When I die I hope I go to Heaven but I want to go to hell first, so I can find Lyndon Johnson and kick his ass.” Dad always felt there were decisions made in Washington D.C. that hampered their efforts. What will the series reveal about the agony of a President who entered a war that by many accounts he did not believe we would win?

I know a few things about Dad’s time in Vietnam. Prior to Vietnam he requested to be a drill sergeant at Fort Ord in California because he wanted to see California. Fort Ord was an infantry base. When he arrived in Vietnam for processing they took a look at his personnel folder and told him he had infantry experience and assigned to an infantry unit that was right in the thick of things. Dad was in communications. In his words, “it was hell for 30 days until they moved me to my unit”. I know that he was in a battle that a George Smith was killed and another George Smith was taken captive. When the Army sent notification to the families they got the two Smiths confused and sent the wrong notices to their homes. The family that was told their George had died would later be reunited while the news for the other family ended in tragedy. I also know that after one battle on the Black Virgin Mountain over a hundred Viet Cong were killed. Many nights Dad’s unit fought off attacks from the Viet Cong who wanted to control the mountain that was a strategic communication post for the U.S.

Dad was still bothered by that order.

“We loaded the bodies on a cargo net and, with a Chinook, dropped them in the village in the valley beneath us. We were to send a message. I didn’t like that decision.”

For many in my generation, Vietnam is a mystery. We were left with very few answers to questions about what happened over there. Ken Burns presents documentaries in a format that is both interesting and enlightening. I’ve set my DVR to record each episode and will be watching to learn more about the war we didn’t talk about.