For the people who think it's easy to make decisions in World Affairs, this is the program that will put you straight.
I made reference to treacle in my review of the the first episode and the situation just gets stickier as things move along. Regimes that we saw as friendly to our cause were in fact just scamming us for their own ends. The naive American view that they could make things better overlooked the fact that the rural Vietnamese detested them.
And who could blame them?
There was wholesale indiscriminate killing, blatant disregard for the Geneva Convention rules of war ( rules of war .. now there's an oxymoron if ever there was one) The various administrations and the permanent military had no idea as to what to do, other than bomb and immolate whatever land was below them.
It was always a case of : if you make this decision it will make these people angry, if you make the opposite decision it will make those people furious
Hey guys, did you ever try a REAL and EFFECTIVE United Nations?
But I digress, this riveting account confirms my own opinion. And my own opinion is that, even today, most Americans, especially those at the highest levels of Government, have no idea how to deal with world problems.That's probably because the majority think that going abroad means going to Hawaii!
Most of the American public have no idea where the countries in contention are!
The big shot's biggest mistakes invariably come from backing the wrong horse with their support for insurgents, it's like supplying guns to your enemies.
I should say that I myself have no idea as to how to deal with world problems but it does seem to me that less belligerent nations like China and India are more able to settle their disputes without violence.
Apart from the general incompetence that the series highlights, the most touching aspect of the entire theme is the forgiving nature of the Vietnamese people. There seems to be no bitterness towards the war or The Americans and they've left all the hatred behind. Compare that to the Middle East and you have to shake your head!