Braxton Taylor
This year marks a handful of important anniversaries in the history of the Vietnam War. The United States’ initial involvement in the Republic of Vietnam began in November 1955, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower first sent American advisers to the country.
In the memory of most Americans, the conflict really began 10 years later in November 1965, when American and North Vietnamese troops met in their first major combat engagement at the Battle of Ia Drang and the U.S. Army first used the Air Assault tactic that would dominate much of the war.
Then, in April 1975, the North finally captured South Vietnam’s capital, reunifying the two countries and closing the door on 20 years of conflict. American involvement in the war had ended in 1973, but as Americans watched the dramatic, desperate evacuation of Saigon, they were forced to reflect on the blood and treasure spent over the previous two decades.
In commemoration of the final end of the Vietnam War and the fall of Saigon, Apple TV+ will premiere a new documentary that looks at the war, its impact back in the United States and in Vietnam, all told by the veterans and civilians who lived it.
The six-part documentary series, “Vietnam: The War That Changed America,” begins streaming on Jan. 31, 2025.
“At the time, it was America’s longest running war, and it was a period of huge cultural change,” Caroline Marsden, the show’s producer, told Military.com. “It is very much about the human experience of the war. We don’t have any expert interviews or historians being interviewed. The idea is that you’re hearing the people on the ground who experienced it directly.”
Indeed, the series provides first-person testimony of the events that took place in Vietnam and in the United States, as the Vietnam War was the first major conflict that could be transmitted to American living rooms every night. Marsden and her crew tracked down soldiers and civilians from all sides of the war to bring viewers as close to the conflict as possible.
“We started from the archive footage and we looked for people in the archive, and I think 50% of the people we interviewed, you can actually see them in the footage,” Marsden said. “Then they’ll tell us about someone else that they knew and we follow that thread, led by the strongest experiences … not using archival footage as wallpaper, we’re putting people there in a way that gives you [viewers] a sort of visceral sense of being there. … We don’t want it to be a history lesson. We want you to feel as much as possible what it was like.”
Unlike previous wars that produced a groundswell of patriotism back in the United States, the Vietnam War fueled a counterculture that only grew as the war dragged on. Marsden’s show looks at the effects of those counterculture movements and increased opposition to the war, both inside and outside the military.
“One of our interviewees talks about hearing Hanoi Hannah, this North Vietnamese propagandist,” Marsden recalls. “He is Black. He’s 17. He came out of Louisiana. His world was this small, very small town before going to Vietnam. They all tune in to listen to this North Vietnamese woman, because she’s playing great music. She starts addressing Black American GIs and says, ‘Why are you fighting us? You should be fighting your government back home. Is there quality of life in the United States?’
“He’s shocked, right?” she continued. “He’s like, ‘No one had ever said this stuff out loud.'”
Along with commentary and testimony from Americans, “The War That Changed America” features men and women who fought with the Viet Cong and the People’s Army of Vietnam, providing gripping narrative and emotional context to the most important events of the era, such as the 1968 Tet Offensive.
“We’re led by people’s testimony,” Marsden said. “The idea also is to have a broad range of perspectives. … The films I’ve made about World War II, 9/11, there’s a lot of violence, and I think it can put a lot of people off watching a documentary about incredibly violent events. This is going to be a tough watch, but what we look for are the shards of light. We look for stories of people who’ve made extraordinary decisions. It is such a unique, different look at the war, and I think it’s a very good vehicle to explain it to a new generation.”
Keep Up With the Best in Military Entertainment
Whether you’re looking for news and entertainment, thinking of joining the military or keeping up with military life and benefits, Military.com has you covered. Subscribe to the Military.com newsletter to have military news, updates and resources delivered straight to your inbox.
Story Continues
Read the full article here