Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us. The Lord hath wrought great glory by them through his great power from the beginning. Such as did bear rule in their kingdoms, men renowned for their power, giving counsel by their understanding, and declaring prophecies.
- Ecclesiasticus 44:1-4
There were very few grunts on the ground by 1973, so the last episode of Mr. Burns "Grunts of Vietnam" series has to focus on the only place Americans were in the picture (although only slightly at risk): the fall of Saigon. We get 30 minutes on that event, with a lot of coverage of the Marine guards at the embassy.
1. The Fall of Saigon
In my review of episode 8, I said:
Tet was like the chain reaction phase of an A-Bomb - it's all over in 30 nanoseconds; but it takes another whole second for the enormous energy released to begin to become manifest macroscopically.
That energy should have ended the war in 1968. Instead, we got Nixon, who prolonged it for another seven years. Nixon was what nuclear weapons people call "a tamper".
General comment:
This series should really should be named "Grunts of Vietnam" because everything else is background, except a little for air support and helicopters. That explains how they will be able to cover the last six years of the war in only two episodes. Those years aren't about grunts. Operation Linebacker (1972) didn't happen to grunts. Watergate didn't affect grunts.
Episode 6 continues the complete disappearence of the CIA from Viet Nam. There is also an almost complete minimization of the technological advantage the US had, via "electronic battlefield" programs, such as Arc Light B-52 strikes. To hear Mr. Burns's version it was merely our guys with machine guns and artillery and ordinary close air support versus VC/NVA guys with their machine guns and artillery and anti-aircraft guns.
These two episodes are heavy on personal reminiscences of soldiers, very light on policy. Once again, not a word is spoken about the CIA. Let's dive in:
1. The Phoenix Program (also, see ADDENDUM)
We have pictures of elections in South Vietnam, but zero mention of the beginning of the infamous Phoenix Program, which began in 1967, in the time frame of these two episodes.
This episode covers the Tonkin Gulf incident and the arrival of US combat troops, in the 1964-65 time frame. That means there is plenty of combat to fill the time.
Once again, what was missing is more important than what was shown. Because what was missing would have given more weight and context to the anti-war movement. I am assuming that the narrative of this series is chronological. If he jumps back in time in later episodes, I will rethink these comments.
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
Well, I was certainly not expecting real history. I watched to see the pictures.
Real history? In the first episode, they interview Donald Gregg, whom they caption only as "CIA". (factoid: Gregg joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1951. He served in Japan from 1964 to 1973.) He voices the opinion that Viet Nam was a mistake.
Yeah, that Donald Gregg:
Iran-Contra
