Burns, Episode 2 - The Whitewash of the CIA continues
It is now apparent that Mr. Burns is completely minimizing the CIA's role in Viet Nam. That role was even more prominent in the years before the commitment of US troops in 1964. But you would never know it from Mr. Burns.
Here are four examples of that minimization:
1. Rufus Philips
One of the commentators in the series is Rufus Philips, who is captioned as USAID. Well that is a complete misrepresentation. At the time of Viet Nam, he worked for Ed Lansdale (see yesterday's OP) of the CIA. Philips is directly quoted twice in Tim Weiner's history of the CIA.
1) Lansdale had "a very broad charter", said the CIA's Rufus Philips...
2) The (US) ambassador sent the CIA's Rufus Philips to see Diem. They sat in the palace and talked of war and politics. Then "Diem looked at me quizzically and said 'Is there going to be a coup against me?' " Philips remembered.
- Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes - The History of the CIA
If Mr. Burns will deliberately misrepresent one of his major talking heads, why should I not suspect and fact-check every word he says? And, as this is a whitewash, every word he doesn't say.
2. Diem was run by the CIA
The second quote above draws back the curtain on a second whitewash of the CIA by Mr. Burns. Burns studiously avoids mentioning non-military US support was delivered to Diem. Here is what Mr. Burns leaves out:
the CIA provided (President Diem) with millions of dollars, a phalanx of bodyguards, and a direct line to (CIA director) Allen Dulles . The agency created South Vietnam's political parties, trained its secret police, made its popular movies, and printed and peddled an astrological magazine predicting that the stars were in Diem's favor.
- Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes - The History of the CIA, p243
In other words, Diem was a CIA creation and a CIA puppet. Yes, Diem was a crazy fanatic, but the CIA was literally (in the person of Mr. Philips) at his elbow every step of the way, as the second Weiner excerpt above shows. The US was not, as Mr. Burns's circumlocutious narrative implies, out of the loop and reacting after the fact.
Mr. Burns made sure to say exactly how much military aid, and how many US advisors were in Viet Nam; but he has zero to say about the secret financing of Diem's political/secret police regime. Its classic magician's slight-of-hand to draw attention to one thing (millitary aid) to hide the thing (spook control) the other hand is doing. Fifty years on, we are all wise to this con.
3. The secret war in Laos
The third whitewash of CIA direction and control (not mere "involvement" or "facilitation") concerns Laos. Mr. Burns's narrative merely states that ON EDIT (after re-watching): "Green Berets were sent to the Central Highlands to organize resistance and to make raids into Laos and Cambodia." the US sought tribal allies in Laos to fight North Vietnamese troops. That is a complete misdirection. Burns mentions that we sent soldiers to places inside Viet Nam to "raid into Laos", but he completely ignores the massive numbers of CIA agents and material actually inside Laos:
Laos became a flashpoint...The CIA set to work buying a new Lao government and building a mercenary army to fight the communists and attack the trail...The CIA forced out a freely elected coalition government and installed a new prime minister, Prince Souvanna Phouma...
The real battle for Laos began after the CIA's Bill Lair...discovered a Lao mountain tribesman named Vang Pao...who led the hill tribe that called itself the Hmong...In early January 1961, the CIA's pilots delivered their first weapons to the Hmong. Six months later more than 9,000 hill tribesmen controlled by Vang Pao joined...combat operations against the Communists.
Kennedy did not want to send American combat troops to die in those jungles. Instead, he called on the CIA to double its tribal forces in Laos...
- Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes - The History of the CIA
So, the CIA was running the show in Laos. In 1964, that show would escalate into the "Secret War", during which the US dropped 250 million tons of cluster bombs on Laos. As Weiner reports, Kennedy was perfectly happy to have the CIA buy governements and armies in Laos. Laos was a huge part of the Viet Nam story from 1959 onwards. Episode 2 covers the first four years of that period; and yet there is not one word on CIA political activities in Laos.
----
4. The Hmong, the Golden Triangle, and the CIA
The final whitewash in this episode is the fact that the Hmong tribesmen traditionally dealt in opium, and the CIA decided to market that opium for them, taking some of the profits to finance their war in Laos. Here are two stories, one from the NYT, that report this common knowledge, which eludes Mr. Burns.
During the Vietnam War, operations in Laos were largely a CIA responsibility. The agency's surrogate there was a Laotian general, Vang Pao, who commanded Military Region 2 in northern Laos. He enlisted 30,000 Hmong tribesmen in the service of the CIA.
These tribesmen continued to grow, as they had for generations, the opium poppy. Before long, someone - there were unproven allegations that it was a Mafia family from Florida - had established a heroin refining lab in Region Two. The lab's production was soon being ferried out on the planes of the CIA's front airline, Air America.
- Larry Collins, NYT, The CIA Drug ConnectionIs as Old as the Agency
----
while it was true Vang Pao got a lot of money and arms from the CIA, a major source of his financing was the opium trade run out of Southeast Asia’s “Golden Triangle.” That little piece of history never managed to make it into the obits, which is hardly a surprise. The people the CIA hired to run dope for Vang Pao went on to run dope for the Contras in the Reagan Administration’s war against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. And talking about close ties between drugs and the CIA in Southeast Asia and Central America might lead to some very uncomfortable questions about the people we are currently supporting in Afghanistan.
Readers should search out a book by Alfred McCoy called “The Politics of Heroin in South East Asia,” and pull up a Frontline piece entitled “Drugs, Guns and the CIA” by Andrew and Leslie Cockburn. What they will find is not in the Times and the AP obits...
The trade in opium and heroin in Laos was linked in turn to the U.S. supported regime in South Vietnam led by President Nguyen Van Thieu. Much of that heroin ended up in the bodies of American GIs—during the height of the war there were between two and three fatal overdoses a day
- Conn Hallinan, Dispatches From The Edge: Vang Pao, Drugs & the CIA
----
Bottom line: Mr. Burns is demonstrably not a historian. He is a propagandist, towing the CIA propaganda line, whitewashing their criminal activities.
Comments
What was Smithers' role in this?
Isn't he the guy who actually presses the button when Mr. Burns says, "Release the hounds"?
"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama
Not being a Simpson's watcher, I had to google that reference
I like what I have seen of the Simpson's. I just don't have time for it.
Glad your'e watching
this so I don't have to. I just don't think I can watch, it would cause a dangerously high increase in my blood pressure. In my mind the most important function of this site is to try and discern the truth from the lies in all of our received media. So thank you for your time and work on this subject.
Unfortunately we have to repeatedly go over old news and try and point out the BS in it because of the never ending repetition of lies by the corporate media. Being a never-ending stream of BS means we have to keep responding to it forever, like Sisyphus and his stone. The work must be done. I see no other alternative.
That's how I feel
Every media lie is a shovel full of dirt with which they are trying to bury the truth alive.
The pushback must continue until the whole, coordinated fraud becomes obvious to even the dullest Trump and Hillary supporter.
spin, spin, spin
https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/
"The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public, but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.”
Henry A. Wallace
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
The country started to go downhill when TPTB axed Wallace...
from being VP on the 1944 ticket. Instead, we got that plodding hack, Harry Truman, who did whatever the MIC told him. Of course, a lot of that was down to FDR keeping him out of the loop on really important stuff, like the Manhattan Project.
But still, Harry was a small time guy. That's why he got rolled into signing the 1947 NSA, which created the CIA.
Burns did a halfway decent job in
the series on baseball. After that, not so much. Now he seems to have joined the propaganda ministry. What I am wondering is why now? Is this supposed to persuade us that foreign interventions are not so bad after all?
I still remember the historian who said there were three American achievements of world historical importance: our constitution, jazz music and the game of baseball. My sentiments exactly.
Thank you for subjecting yourself to this and deconstructing it for us.
Mary Bennett
"Why now?"
One true motivation is that people are dying. Especially the movers and shakers, who were of an older generation than the grunts. The grunts too are dying fast - might have something to do with PTSD, heroin habits they picked up in country, the destruction of the US middle class....
Another motivation for Mr. Burns is that there are boatloads of archival footage and photos, which is his stock in trade. Its a subject that has lots of raw material.
So, I think a case can be made for "why now?".
What a case can't be made for is the shameless airbrushing of history, the highly selective list of presenters he chose, and the misrepresentation of their Deep State affiliations.
The CIA has owned the media since the day it was created (see Mighty Wurlitzer). At this point, they own the independent creators as well. Bob Ballard, of Titanic fame, did his deep sea research on behalf of the Navy/CIA. Now it seems Mr. Burns is being paid well to sell out his reputation as a historian to cover the CIA's ass. His funders this time include David Koch, Blavatnik (the richest Russian oligarch in the UK), the Ford Foundation, and the usual cast of rightwing family foundations - with a few modestly leftwing family foundations thrown in for cover.
I knew something smelled bad
in the trailers leading up to the series debut. One excerpt had the narrator saying that all the protesters against the war were college students and that when the draft was ended there were no more protests.
This is pure bullshit! I was there. And the protesters were largely non college students because students were deferred from the draft.
For this reason I have not watched the program.
Thanks for justifying my decision. I look forward to your continued analysis of this bit of fiction pushed on the American people.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Didn't watch the trailers
And its probably a few episodes more to get to the anti-war protests; so I don't know if your quote represents the implicit editorial stance of Mr. Burns or is just one POV among many.
Burns can get away with tossing out inflammatory statements like you quoted because he says its up to the viewer to sort the wheat from the chaff. What a cop out. Still, given his funding, its safest to draw no conclusions beyond "we F-d up". Why did he even bother?
the funding
You answered your own question in the act of asking it.
Why did he even bother?
The funding! Money for Ken Burns, today and tomorrow!
"Follow the Money." -- Deep Throat
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Hiding in plain sight.
Watergate 101 - follow the money. Duh.
Thank you,
thank you, thank you, thank you for this work. Like randtntx , I have avoided watching it because if it went well, I would be relieved, but if it went as you are describing it, I would possibly have serious blood pressure problems.
At the same time, because you have been so assertive and so good at bringing the precise evidence to bear against it, I think I can now watch it knowing people like you are fighting back immediately.
I don't know what to say about Ken Burns. I have respected him so much. I feel his series on the Civil War is truly important, and I agree with Nastarana that Baseball was very good. I don't know how the CIA is rehabilitating itself in the minds of people like Ken Burns. Your description of all the funds available to the CIA to do harm leads me to believe they just have unlimited money to throw at anything they decide to control, and this Vietnam series may be one they threw money at.
Yeah, I'm disappointed w Mr. Burns
But, given the funders, and the corporate control of our "public" broadcasting, (Did you know that PBS will not air a show that has even a slight contribution of union money?) it only confirms that PBS is just another branch of the Kochtopus.
The whole country feels like a zombie movie where folks who used to be your smart friends are now these shambolic monsters who want to spread the disease.
My only hope is that millenials find this whole thing so boring and deliberately lacking i analysis that they skip it. In the US, we hardly get any analysis or deep perspective anymore. There is a tiny bit of it in the voice over, like where they say the US had no comprehension of Viet Nam as a country with a history, no awareness of how much we were loathed.
I mean, episode 2 had quite a bit about Diem, about his sociopathic brother, and his dragon lady sister-in-law, Madame Nhu. But the only "analysis" they offered was that Diem was the best we could hope for, all the alternatives were worse. Really, that is all you have to say? Perhaps you could have commented on why this was the "best" and how that was par for the course for the US in the Cold War. We supported the KMT dictatorship on Taiwan, the Rhee police state in Korea, the murderous Suharto in Indonesia, and Diem in VN.
Gee, Mr. Burns, could you possibly find a pattern in all the dictatorships that were the only allies we could find for our one-drop-of-Communist-blood policy vis-a-vis Third World nationalism? Nah. He has to leave that for the viewer to figure out - if the viewer has accerss to the broader history of SE Asia, as opposed to scary maps of RED China and its RED puppet states, and the Domino Theory. (Again, the DT is offered; but no rebuttal is offered.)
The more editorial choices I examine closely, the more disgusted I get.
Your comments here
provide the beginnings of several essays I hope C99 might discuss.
Your term,
is one that I hope you will use far and wide.
Your statement,
describes so well what I struggle with. I'm stunned and baffled at how the CIA has any credibility for anyone in this country, much less people I know and respect.
And what you say here,
just to name a few psychopathics we've armed. I hope you will bring these facts to Burns' attention. It's time we told the truth with an expectation that the American people can handle it. What was he thinking?
Kochtopus indeed.
One would think that PBS's award-winning science series NOVA would have been explaining, and sounding the alarm about, global warming for years. They should have been screaming about it, no ? Alas, that program is funded by the David H. Koch Foundation hence a near blackout on coverage of the issue.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
Indeed, the Kochtopus has its tentacles deep into science
Yesterday, I wrote about Eli Broad, a co-member with the Kochs in the "Billionaire Boys Club".
The Kochs know the value of science; they are merely haggling about the price. They want to pay as little as possible for scientists and make sure to get a monopoly on them too. For the Kochs and real-estate magnatre Eli Broad, science is just another area for monopoly rent extraction. Censoring climate change news is merely a side benefit.
remember that whole controversy about naming things
after confederates?
well, there's a school named after vang pao in fresno, california, and twice now Madison, WI has come close to honoring him. (Wisconsin has a significant Hmong population.)
An interesting point, with respect to some of the arguments that were made regarding memorials to various confederates, is this peculiar statement from a local Hmong politician, who was generally regarded as very progressive:
This odd notion -- that the way to honor the contributions of "people" is to single out one of them by name -- is somewhat dubious in general, but beyond dubious in this particular, per Alfred McCoy:
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Thanks for the pointer to Hmong in US
Sadly, it looks like its now politically incorrect to mention the drug running CIA/Hmong connection. Identity Politics comes to the Hmong. Vang Pao is a war hero? Jeez, why not give a medal to Colonel Kurtz? It is absolute Manichean craziness to think that just because he fought commies, he must be a saint and all is forgiven.
But, TPTB sure keeps the facts buried:
NOTE: Refs 8-12 are documents produced between 1973 and 1976. That would imply that the denials in the Wikipedia article were made over 40 years ago, and have not since been revisited.
Its fascinating that the same stale Wikipedia article cannot be bothered to include a report from the pre-castration incarnation of Frontline:
Given the imbalance in resources, I can see the true narrative slowly being shoved aside by the bullshit TPTB have been peddling for almost 50 years now. Institutions can operate over that time span; it is only the rarest of geniuses who can spend half a century single-handedly preserving the truth. And even then, the intended audience has tuned out a long time ago, because it is old, boring stuff.
Who cares who lied 50 years ago, even if it wound up killing millions of people, blowing up entire countries, permanently polarizing the US political process, and subverting the Constitution? I don't care. What I want to know is who won Dancing with the Stars.
who cares?
After working two gig temp jobs and my Uber shift just to pay the rent on a shitty rat-trap tenement apartment, it's all I can manage.
In other words, this, too, is deliberate.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
I am sorry for your situation
You are right. It is what TPTB want - a stressed out, exhausted, precarious population.
I completely understand why no one cares. Fifty years on, we still can't get TPTB to admit the truth that we already know. I can see why getting from paycheck to paycheck is more important.
Tony Ortega on Americans' celebrity obsessions
arendt said:
Tony Ortega had an interesting take on this kind of thing onb his blog this afternoon:
source
Now, Ortega's thrust these days is the manifold abuses practiced by the Church of Scientology. But the exact same thing can be said about "who lied 50 years ago, even if it wound up killing millions of people, blowing up entire countries, permanently polarizing the US political process, and subverting the Constitution".
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Everyone wants his 15 minutes of fame
I'm sure that Burns auditioned all the talking heads for this documentary. He wanted people with good stories, but he also wanted people who looked good and sounded good on camera.
I'm sure people will, as you say, make minor celebrities out of these talking heads - instead of thinking about how we screwed the pooch in Viet Nam.
"The public's obsession with celebrities" was
, in my opinion deliberately cultivated by TPTB as part of the dumbing down of America effort.
It began with People magazine. At the time it began to be published I thought it odd, but it was from Time publishers who still enjoyed a rather sterling reputation at the time so I really didn't question it further.
Do you remember Anna Nicole Smith? She was a nobody from the D list whose only accomplishments were huge breasts and an nonagenarian millionaire husband. Based on the coverage upon her drug overdose death one would have thought she was Princess Diana. It went on for months.
"Entertainment Tonight" popped in around the same period along with it's copycats but worse, celebrity news began to infiltrate our regular, respected ABC, NBC, CBS news programs. Such news still operates as filler therein on a regular basis, allowing these programs to ignore more important real news; they concurrently began to report on international matters less and less.
The magazines at the checkout stand are now bursting with celebrity magazines. What had once garnered a modicum of interest from a small minority of people has been exploited to become "celebrity obsession".
These were not market forces of demand creating products. These were products generating demand. The case of celebrity obsession was the first time I noticed this trend; this was when I began to wonder why capitalism was no longer operating as advertised.
I dislike it when "the people" are blamed for failures of awareness or political interest or for not rising up or for letting things happen without a peep. The people have been trained, and like them I too feel powerless. So. Let's go watch a superhero movie and fuggetaboutit.
Ugh, the 25th "anniversary" of Princess Di's death...
what an orgasm of icky, second-hand voyeuerism.
You are right about supply side forcing, I can't imagine people clamoring for this garbage.
You won't find any non-corporate media on sale at supermarkets or Walgreen's/CVS. Its all celebrity propaganda and bodice ripper/true crime boilerplate paperbacks.
PBS has to keep the people who benefit
from our policy of endless war happy. That would be their biggest benefactors. People like the Kochs and Annenbergs. War is a lucrative business for these people. And it helps cover their donations to PBS.
To this day the very memory of the 'war' in Vietnam gives off the stench of US corruption and death. Right now, we are in a time when the US government, the CIA, and neocons/neoliberals on both sides are destabilizing governments all over the planet just like they did back then. And there are more military actions scheduled. TPTB needs to get everybody to get with the program. It's not in their best interests for the plebs to understand that the same CIA tactics and propaganda that were used in the time of the Vietnam 'war' are the same tactics they're using today.
That war would have drug on as long or longer than our military escapade in Afghanistan if not for the anti-war protests. Now some are starting to ask the same questions about Afghanistan (and Iraq) and our disastrous meddling there that they were asking back in 1968 about Vietnam. In fact, the most popular Senator in office today is questioning the disastrous effects these 'wars' are having on the U.S. and the rest of the world and stating outright that the current policy of endless war is wrong. Not at all as strong and often as I would like, but it is a rare cry against the current policy of endless war that we're being gaslighted into supporting now.
TPTB have to legitimize the war in Vietnam. Because if what we did to that country was wrong, doing the very same thing NOW is wrong as well. And a nation on a mission to be the world's policeman and landlord cannot afford the plebs to get all uppity and obstructionist on them. It's imperative that people believe that what we're doing in the Middle East, Eurasia, Africa, etc., are not seen as illegal and immoral military acts of destabilization and conquest of a sovereign nation in the same vein as Vietnam was, but that we are fighting 'wars' based on the same bullshit excuse that it is for our own 'security' and in the best interests of the U.S. The 'righteousness' of their cause comes into question if the people of this country understand that what is being done now to usurp foreign leaders and destabilize governments all over the planet are the same tactics as what was done back lthen (and by the same bunch of corrupt thugs - the CIA), there might just be an impetus for the birth of another anti-war movement.
And you know from what happened to those who protested Shock and Awe that an anti-war movement will NOT be tolerated.
NO EDIT: I thoughr I needed to fix something but I was wrong (although there are probably still typos I can't see because I'm using an iPhone.)
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
Winner, winner, chicken dinner
Boy, was I overfocused on the past. You are right. This is not about the past, its about the future. Truly Orwellian:
With this point clearly in mind, I can predict how Burns will deal with the anti-war protests: dirty f-ing hippies who just wanted to smoke dope and have sex and not get killed.
I'm pretty disgusted with Ken Burns. Especially after
I watched his little 'cover his ass' commercial describing the 'method he used when producing this multi-episode gaslighting extravaganza. If he had REALLY done all the research he claimed he did he'd be telling a whole different story.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
research
Maybe not.
Maybe Ken Burns figured out what we've been saying about PBS and money was the facts, and he needed to be able to pay to get his Vietnam War epic made.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
I really don't want to watch any more of him patting himself...
on the back. Could I impose on you to say what his "method" was? No problem if you don't want to.
What was Ken's method of research? Apparently to go
through the historical (hysterical) record and cherry pick names, dates, and places that make the US look like a 'helpful ally' by either lying about the true criminal or inhumane nature of their actions or by ignoring or covering up for them all together.
These are events and bad actors from that era that people who were politically aware at that time know they are lying about or totally ignoring. But people too young to know the truth about what happened back then are clueless, so it's easy to 'pull the wool over their eyes'. They are who Burns and TPTB are trying to influence. They are the most cannon cannon fodder and the citizen who will be expected to pay for their current and future foreign entanglements. TPTB can't afford another generation that refuses to cooperate with them and support the new American Empire.
And as you said before, he did it for the paycheck and exposure.
EDIT: we're/were and most of first sentence of the second paragraph
EDIT EDIT: took out some extraneous letters and spellings that were typos or courtesy of Autocorrect. Nuts.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
You really get this
Your description of his method is a perfect abstract template of every example I have been posting.
Really, this movie is Grade A propaganda.
I understand what you're talking about. In fact I think that
what needs to be done is a documentary about all the ways we're being lied to by sources and/or people that we should be able to trust. Especially the ones we bankroll. One night could be elected officials and how they are becoming more dishonest by the day. And more blatantly arrogant about it. Next night could be the media. Bwahahaha, the media (print, televised, internet) might actually take a week. Then people like Burns who are or have become front men/women for special people or interests and who are willing to totally misrepresent our history to line their own pockets and provide cover and excuses for their wealthy benefactors.
I think you get my drift.
Since the normal methods information distribution (newspapers, t.v., whatever) would NEVER touch anything like I described above, this it would or could only be possible for mass viewership via YouTube or Facebook or something like that (and even they censor sites or delete accounts if they don't like what's being posted).
Who would or could do this? Who would risk doing this? It could be a career killer.
EDIT: Beahahaha/Bwahahaha
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
Amanda Matthews has your answer.
Her comment below nails it:
https://caucus99percent.com/comment/296843#comment-296843
US media, aka "The Mighty Wurlitzer"
have been running cover for the CIA ever since I can remember. I suppose that's how this audaciously criminal Agency has been able to continue flouting both the law, and any sense of human decency for so long. Without the continuous complicity and support of a lazy and dishonest media, the CIA would have been exposed, dishonored, and disbanded long ago.
Though I haven't watched it, I suppose Ken Burns' history series might be intended to serve as a "limited hangout" for the Agency -- this being a propaganda technique it has often used in the past to cover its (very bloody) tracks.
native
Search of reviews is interesting.
Most reviews coming out of large media concerns give the series high praise. Those out of alternate media are uniformly negative. This review seems encapsulate many critiques of the Burns series:
http://www.alternet.org/documentaries/ball-o-confusion-comin-your-tv-ken...
Thanks for this link
It confirms that they are going to whitewash the CIA's role and pretend that we were just dumb but earnest. In reality, the leadership was using the CIA to overthrow governments and bomb countries without any oversight. All of them - Eisenhower, Dulles, Kennedy - were high on the power trip, the Praetorian Guard, the secrecy.
The CIA's actions then maneuvered the suckers in the military and Congress into sticking our collective arm into the meatgrinder for the profit of the MIC.
Burns is going to go anywhere near that.
Absolutely fantastic post pointing out the differences
between what really happened at that time and the players involved and Ken Burns' version of the historical record. Someone needs to make a documentary on the truth as you described it, not some after-the-fact nonsense that leaves out (or lies about) the war, how and why we were really there, and who really caused it.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
Talking points:
http://vietnamfulldisclosure.org/index.php/talking-points-approaching-bu...
Hope this helps!
"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama
Thank you. Very useful. n/t
Ken Burns living down to his reputation?
Say it ain't so.
He's a well funded, maker of 'safe', middle-brow 'documents'.
The Terry Gross of visual content.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
Just saw this on Facebook. Kochs?
PBS is currently airing a ten-part documentary about the Vietnam War by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that is financed by the Koch Brothers and Bank of America and promoted by the Pentagon. We speak with Vietnam scholar, Professor Bob Buzzanco about the real history of the Vietnam War, what led to it and the opposition that developed. He emphasizes that it is important to understand this history so that we do not repeat it in North Korea or the Middle East. Then we speak with Vietnam Vet, David Ross, about his experiences in Vietnam and subsequently in organizing veterans to stop the war.
http://clearingthefogradio.org/the-truth-about-the-vietnam-war/
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Oh yeah the Kochs. I watch a lot of PBS (if i do watch tv)
and Koch has his names all over the place . But I notice it's basically on programs like this, and Nova, stuff that deals with real human events and history. Not Masterpiece Theatre or Sherlock.
This article explains it all far better than I can:
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
He was on the board of WGBH, the flagship PBS station
until acivists raised his profile to a level he found uncomfortable. He quit to avoid the spotlight, stealth being the constant tactic of the Koch's deep-pockets, decades-long campaign to abollish government.