VIETNAM WAR INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT: AN INFORMATIONAL 3-EPISODE VIDEO SERIES
*Warning: Graphic Materials and Video Discussion May Affect Veterans Suffering From PTSD
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Film/Television
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PBS, The Vietnam War | A Film By Ken Burns & Lynn Novick (September 16, 2017); https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-vietnam-war/;
Watch The Vietnam War | A Film by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick | PBS
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PBS describes this film, which took ten years to make, as follows:
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“Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s ten-part, 18-hour documentary series, The Vietnam War, tells the epic story of one of the most consequential, divisive, and controversial events in American history as it has never before been told on film. Visceral and immersive, the series explores the human dimensions of the war through revelatory testimony of nearly 80 witnesses from all sides—Americans who fought in the war and others who opposed it, as well as combatants and civilians from North and South Vietnam.”
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Mark Leepson, Arts Editor and Senior Writer, the VVA Veteran, The Ken Burns Documentary – A Review | Vietnam Veterans of America (vva.org) (Sept. 16, 2017);
https://vva.org/arts-of-war/the-ken-burns-documentary-a-review/
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An independent reviewer who fought in Vietnam analyzes the Burns and Novick film, providing what he describes as “nitpicks,” but concluding as follows:
“What we get about virtually everything else in the film is on the mark. That includes issues as complex and controversial as why the Americans helped France regain its Indochinese colonies after World War II; the 1963 Diem assassination; the 1968 Tet Offensive; the 1968 My Lai Massacre and its explosive aftermath in 1969; the 1970 Cambodian Incursion; the “secret” bombing of Laos and Cambodia; the 1968 presidential election campaign; and much (much) more. The film’s history of the war greatly benefits from on-target analyses by military historians, former military and civilian leaders, former war correspondents, and one-time policymakers.”
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Online Journals, Publications & Periodicals
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Meisenzahl, Anne, and Roger Peace. Protest Music of the Vietnam War. United States Foreign Policy History and Resource Guide website, (2017, updated September 2021)
http://peacehistory-usfp.org/protest-music-vietnam-war/
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Here is a helpful summary of this article:
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“In the early 1960s, before the antiwar movement gained a measure of popularity, folk singers Peter, Paul, and Mary (Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey, and Mary Travers), Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, and others spread the antiwar message through their music. “Some of the first organized activities against the Vietnam War centered on the singing of songs at concerts, in clubs, and on campuses,” notes the historian H. Bruce Franklin.”
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History.Com
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History.com Editors, Vietnam War Protests (Updated: March 30, 2020; Original: February 22, 2010); https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-protests
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“Vietnam War protests began small among peace activists and leftist intellectuals on college campuses but gained national prominence in 1965, after the United States began bombing North Vietnam in earnest. Anti-war marches and other protests, such as the ones organized by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), attracted a widening base of support over the next three years, peaking in early 1968 after the successful Tet Offensive by North Vietnamese troops proved that war’s end was nowhere in sight.”
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VIDEO EPISODE 1
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
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*Warning: Gun violence and graphic content and photographs*
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Video Footage
Public Domain Footage, 1967 Vietnam War protests in New York City and San Francisco - newsreel and archival footage (2013);
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMNX6zyAmGs
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This is the opening footage I used for Episode 1
History.Com
History.com Editors, Kent State Shooting (Updated April 27, 2021; Original Sept. 8, 2017); https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/kent-state-shooting:
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“Four Kent State University students were killed and nine were injured on May 4, 1970, when members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a crowd gathered to protest the Vietnam War. The tragedy was a watershed moment for a nation divided by the conflict in Southeast Asia. In its immediate aftermath, a student-led strike forced the temporary closure of colleges and universities across the country. Some political observers believe the events of that day in northeast Ohio tilted public opinion against the war and may have contributed to the downfall of President Richard Nixon.”
History.com Editors, This Day In History National Guard Kills Four At Kent State (March 3, 2010 originally, updated May 2, 2022),
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/national-guard-kills-four-at-kent-state:
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“On May 4, 1970, in Kent, Ohio, 28 National Guardsmen fire their weapons at a group of anti-war demonstrators on the Kent State University campus, killing four students, wounding eight, and permanently paralyzing another. The tragedy was a watershed moment for a nation divided by the conflict in Vietnam, and further galvanized the anti-war movement.
Two days earlier, on May 2, National Guard troops were called to Kent to suppress students rioting in protest of the Vietnam War and the U.S. invasion of Cambodia. The next day, scattered protests were dispersed by tear gas, and on May 4 class resumed at Kent State University. By noon that day, despite a ban on rallies, some 2,000 people had assembled on the campus. National Guard troops arrived and ordered the crowd to disperse, fired tear gas, and advanced against the students with bayonets fixed on their rifles. Some of the protesters, refusing to yield, responded by throwing rocks and verbally taunting the troops.”
History.com, Jessica Pearce Rotondi, How Nixon’s Invasion of Cambodia Triggered A Check On Presidential Power (Aug. 20, 2020 originally, updated June 8, 2022), https://www.history.com/news/nixon-war-powers-act-vietnam-war-cambodia:
“Cambodia was officially a neutral country in the Vietnam War, though North Vietnamese troops moved supplies and arms through the northern part of the country, which was part of the Ho Chi Minh trail that stretched from Vietnam to neighboring Laos and Cambodia.
In March 1969, Nixon began approving secret bombings of suspected communist base camps and supply zones in Cambodia as part of “Operation Menu.” The New York Times revealed the operation to the public on May 9, 1969, prompting international protest. Cambodia wasn’t the first neutral country to be targeted by the United States during the Vietnam War—the United States began secretly bombing Laos in 1964, and would eventually leave it the most heavily bombed country per capita in the world.”
VIDEO EPISODE 2
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Video Footage
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Sunsetty, Vietnam war combat footage (Gimme Shelter Instrumental) (2018), https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=Z9gk7k8e_FA&feature=emb_logo;
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This is the opening footage used in Video 2.
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*Please note that copyrighted music included in this video segment of my project was originally embedded in YouTube video, which provides appropriate licensing information.
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CBS Evening News, CBS Camera Rolls As Platoon Comes Under Fire, April 30, 2105,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89_3DgW_7mg
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Here is the CBS description providing background information about its news segment:
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“In March of 1970, CBS News Correspondent Richard Threkeld was embedded with a platoon patrolling the jungles of Vietnam near Cambodia. The GIs came under fire from North Vietnamese forces as Threlkeld’s crew documented the intense firefight. This original report aired on the CBS Evening News on March 27, 1970.”
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ShockandAweUSA, Vietnam War Footage: Agent Orange (Oct. 22, 2018):
Vietnam War Footage: Agent Orange - YouTube
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This video consists of footage showing Agent Orange being spread during the Vietnam War to destroy foliage, and American protests against use of Agent Orange and demanding compensation for soldiers.
Periscope Films, Vietnam War F-105 Napalm Bombing Missions: Raw Footage (Silent) XD31101 (August12, 2021):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxkz9uvl1VM
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*Warning: Thirteen minutes, fifty-three seconds of graphic overhead footage of Vietnamese villagers being bombed.
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British Movietone, Largest Anti-Vietnam War Protest in Washington, D.C. (Nov. 13, 2020); https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nT-_ieQ57A
Above the Brain, Agent Orange | The Chemical That Destroyed Generations (Dec. 17, 2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXRYSit2AY4
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MadMax2K2, My Lai Massacre In Pictures (August 28, 2007):
*Warning: please note images are graphic*
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Here is the video producer’s description of the presentation:
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“My Lai Massacre In Pictures,” U.S army photographers captured the events of the day, from the morning at LZ Dottie to the massacre itself.
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Some of the photos of the operation were published in a U.S Army newspaper without giving the impression that a massacre had taken place, other photos were secretly taken by R. Haeberle on his own camera, rather than the army issued one which was subject to censorship.
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An estimated 504 Vietnamese civilians were killed by U.S. Army forces on March 16, 1968, in the hamlet of My Lai, during the Vietnam War.”
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Film/Television
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PBS, My Lai | American Experience, April 21, 2015,
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/mylai/; see also Amazon DVD:
https://www.amazon.com/American-Experience-Lai-Barak-Goodman/dp/B003CP1SS8/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1522697532&sr=1-1&keywords=my+lai&dpID=519F%252B8unXtL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch; (Downloadable Film Transcript: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/mylai/#transcript)
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“What drove a company of American soldiers — ordinary young men from around the country — to commit the worst atrocity in American military history? Were they “just following orders” as some later declared? Or, did they break under the pressure of a vicious war in which the line between enemy soldier and civilian had been intentionally blurred? AMERICAN EXPERIENCE focuses on the 1968 My Lai massacre, its subsequent cover-up, and the heroic efforts of the soldiers who broke ranks to try to halt the atrocities and then bring them to light.”
Winner of the 2010 Peabody Award and the 2010 Primetime Emmy Award for Non-Fiction Directing”
Iowa PBS, Opposition To the Vietnam War In the United States (October 21, 2015): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVNUlOUlMeo
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Here is the description Iowa PBS provided for its presentation:
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“As opposition to the Vietnam War grew, protests erupted in communities and college campuses across the United States. In May of 1970, four students were killed by Ohio National Guard troops on the campus of Kent State University in Ohio during a protest. The deaths shocked the nation and brought attention to the unrest of the times. This segment from Ohio Public Television’s Iowans Remember Vietnam documentary includes archival footage and first-person accounts from a news reporter, protestor, and draft resistor from the era.”
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Iowa PBS, Agent Orange and the Vietnam War (October 21, 2015): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woPoCDAazhM
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This Iowa PBS program covers the deadly diseases caused by Agent Orange, which was originally intended to eliminate jungle foliage providing cover for the Viet Cong, but harmed American soldiers exposed to it:
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“Agent Orange was the name of a potent herbicide that was used by United States troops during the Vietnam War to defoliate trees in the jungle. The chemical has since been determined to cause various diseases, including cancer. This segment from Iowa Public Television's Iowans Remember Vietnam documentary includes archival footage, and a first-person account of a veteran and his experiences with Agent Orange.”
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Online Journals, Publications & Periodicals
Type Media Center, Ron Ridenhour’s Last Talk: My Lai and Why it Matters (March 16, 2020), https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-sz-002&ei=UTF-8&hsimp=yhs-002&hspart=sz¶m1=3786861526&p=ronald+ridenhour&type=type80211-2114405773#id=1&vid=1c890cc5a10ffa4ae6a21bc65e014461&action=click
“Ron Ridenhour delivers his final lecture, at Tulane University on March 15, 1998 — the 30th anniversary of the My Lai massacre — with an introduction from Randy Fertel. He reflects on the central question that looms over the horrific event to this day: whether it was an aberration, or an operation — a tool that remains in the US Military’s toolkit to this day.”
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Cooper Thomas, Esri's StoryMaps team, Bombing missions of the Vietnam War: A visual record of the largest aerial bombardment in history, https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/2eae918ca40a4bd7a55390bba4735cdb
“Between 1965 and 1975, the United States and its allies dropped more than 7.5 million tons of bombs on Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia—double the amount dropped on Europe and Asia during World War II. Pound for pound, it remains the largest aerial bombardment in human history.”
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BBC, The Vietnam War, 1954-1975: Why did US tactics fail in Vietnam? https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z9rxv4j/revision/4
“In 1965 the USA launched Operation Rolling Thunder: the bombing of military targets in North Vietnam. Vietnam is a LONG way from America so, why did the US get involved in this conflict?”
Jennifer Llewelyn, Jim Southey, Steve Thompson, Vietnam War Soldiers, Alpha History (June 30, 2019); https://alphahistory.com/vietnamwar/vietnam-war-soldiers/
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PBS, American Experience, Vietnam: A Television History | Article
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/vietnam-my-lai-massacre/#:~:text=Call%20for%20Investigation,Company%20who%20had%20been%20there
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Here are important article excerpts giving an overview of the film, cited separately in this Bibliography:
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“Poised for Conflict
My Lai lay in the South Vietnamese district of Son My, a heavily mined area where the Vietcong were deeply entrenched. Numerous members of Charlie Company had been maimed or killed in the area during the preceding weeks. The agitated troops, under the command of Lt. William Calley, entered the village poised for engagement with their elusive enemy.
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Massacre
As the ‘search and destroy mission unfolded, it soon degenerated into the massacre of over 300 apparently unarmed civilians including women, children, and the elderly. Calley ordered his men to enter the village firing, though there had been no report of opposing fire. According to eyewitness reports offered after the event, several old men were bayoneted, praying women and children were shot in the back of the head, and at least one girl was raped and then killed. For his part, Calley was said to have rounded up a group of the villagers, ordered them into a ditch, and mowed them down in a fury of machine gun fire.”
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San Joaquin Delta College, Coming Home, A Study In Contrast Delta Winds: A Magazine of Student Essays (2001)
https://www.deltacollege.edu/student-life/student-media/delta-winds/2001-table-contents/coming-home-study-contrast#:~:text=Perhaps%20the%20cruelest%20aspect%20of,drug%20addicts%20and%20war%20mongers
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“Perhaps the cruelest aspect of the war was the treatment of the returning soldiers. Unlike the hero status given to the returning soldiers form World War II, the soldiers that served in Vietnam were portrayed as baby killers, psychos, drug addicts and war mongers. It was not an uncommon scene for returning soldiers to be confronted at airports by protesters carrying signs with anti-war slogans. The protesters used the signs to attack the soldiers and even threw urine at the veterans. In some instances, soldiers were refused service in restaurants.”
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History.com
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Jessica Pearce Rotondi, Events That Laid the Groundwork for the Vietnam War, (Aug. 20, 2020 originally, updated June 8, 2022); Photo Credits: The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images History Stories; https://www.history.com/news/vietnam-war-origins-events
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Here is the author’s brief synopsis:
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“The conflict in Vietnam took root during an independence movement against French colonial rule and evolved into a Cold War confrontation.”
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History.com Editors, Vietnam War Timeline (Sept. 13, 2017, updated Feb. 26, 2020), https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-timeline
Here is a summary of events shown in the editors’ Vietnam War timeline:
“The Vietnam War started in the 1950s, according to most historians, though the conflict in Southeast Asia had its roots in the French colonial period of the 1800s. The United States, France, China, the Soviet Union, Cambodia, Laos and other countries would over time become involved in the lengthy war, which finally ended in 1975 when North and South Vietnam were reunited as one country. The following Vietnam War timeline is a guide to the complex political and military issues involved in a war that would ultimately claim millions of lives.”
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History.com Editors, Lyndon Johnson approves Operation Rolling Thunder (June 10, 2019);
https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/operation-rolling-thunder
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Here is a brief definition of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s campaign known as “Operation Rolling Thunder”:
“Operation Rolling Thunder was the codename for an American bombing campaign during the Vietnam War. U.S. military aircraft attacked targets throughout North Vietnam from March 1965 to October 1968. This massive bombardment was intended to put military pressure on North Vietnam’s communist leaders and reduce their capacity to wage war against the U.S.-supported government of South Vietnam. Operation Rolling Thunder marked the first sustained American assault on North Vietnamese territory and represented a major expansion of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.”