I watched a BBC documentary on Vietnam War during weekend, titled, How Vietnam was lost.
How Vietnam was lost attempts to showcase two events which occurred during a weekend in 1967, which the maker of the documentary feels, changed not only the course of direction of war in Vietnam, but also its perception in US and had far reaching consequences.
The first event happened in Vietnam, where an American battalion was ambushed by Vietcong and 61 American lives were lost. Second event happened at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where a seemingly peaceful protest by students was crushed by the Madison police department, who had entered the campus for the first time in the history and eventually lead to even bigger protests by students.
What I really liked about this particular documentary was the fact it tried to showcase the point of view of all the parties involved, including a Vietcong soldier and a colonel and there was only a slight hint of trying to sculpture the mind of the audience and for most part, one is left to think and decide for him/herself, who was in the right and who wasn’t.
This means, irrespective of how one feels about the Vietnam War, it is an interesting documentary to watch and due to this, gets a big thumb up from me. If you haven’t seen it yet and love watching documentaries about historical events and war, then How Vietnam Was Lost is a must watch for you!
2 Comments
But the title itself has a western bias? War lost? For whom?
It certainly is and no attempts are made to hide this fact. However, the views of the troops on the other side of the divide were also represented through couple of Vietcong veterans.