Fake History Episode 8

So far, I have spent a lot of time detailing my various impressions of the Burns & Novick documentary. After viewing this 8th episode I felt overwhelmed with a feeling of, as Yogi Berra may have said (but if he didn't someone must have said) Deja Vu all over again.

My problem with TV, film, and video presentations of history is that the viewer gets only a “feeling” about history. The overall feeling from Burns & Novick is of horror that war is hell and gloom from what one sees, cherry-picked facts, truths, and half-truths. As I reviewed the notes I made for this episode I saw the same pattern. Do I really need to go through a detailed review of the same patterns just with different times, events, and people?

The nurse who becomes anti-war, the repetitive counter-culture music (still no “Ballad of the Green Beret”), the combat veteran who does his job killing the enemy and seeing his buddies killed and becomes anti-war, a Black soldier turned against the war, a Hispanic soldier turned against the war, a Japanese-American soldier turned against the war, a Marine veteran turned against the war, lots of rioting by some small percentage of the total population but given vast coverage that magnifies its effect, even someone who ran to Canada.

However, here is what Terry Garlock, a Cobra helicopter gunship pilot has written about Tommy Clack, who is president and chairman of the board of the “Walk of Heroes” Veterans War Memorial located in Rockdale County, Georgia. Tommy lost both legs and an arm when hit by a rifle-propelled grenade in Vietnam. Clack told another Vietnam veteran, “After I was interviewed by Burns’ team, I was told directly by Ken Burns that they would not be using my interview since I was too positive about our generation and my pride in my service in the Vietnam War.”

I know that the Vietnam era media coverage and post-war academic teaching and writings about the war were mostly anti-war, and there seems to be a devotion to that kind of coverage and history. Perhaps because when Burns & Novick, and their subordinates, researched the subject all they found was slanted coverage and opinions. There is counter information out there, the master research tool of the current time, Google, will find more information about the Gulf of Tonkin, the communist death squads of TET 1968, in-depth treatments of the Phoenix Program, and more.

How many other Tommy Clacks did Burns & Novick interview but discard because what was said did not conform to their pre-conceived biases?

Have you watched this documentary so far? Has it encouraged you to go out and find recent writings about this war? If not, why not? Are you satisfied that Burns & Novick have given you all you need to know?

I hope you have not given up on learning what other truths may be out there beyond what has only been put out by anti-war people.