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| Actors: Everett Alvarez, George Ball, Dai Bao, Herbert Bluechel, Charles Henri Bonfils
Studio: Wgbh Boston
List Price: $99.95
Buy Used: $29.90
You Save: $70.05 (70%)
Used (4) from $29.90
Rating:  40 reviews
Sales Rank: 16493
Format: Box Set, Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Vietnamese (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 7
Running Time: 780 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 6304462522
UPC: 783421261037
EAN: 9786304462522
ASIN: 6304462522
Theatrical Release Date: October 4, 1983
Release Date: March 28, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 40
 Sellout July 1, 2006
Nonesuch Explorers (Too Close To L.A.)
34 out of 42 found this review helpful
By removing what they considered "outdated" material, PBS has alienated many who would have been more than glad to buy the whole series on DVD in the original version, ourselves included.
Objecting to the deletions has nothing to do with one's personal view on the war or with "secret, inside information". It has to do with ethics. All of the material in the original series was relevant to an understanding of the many perspectives of a very complex situation. Cut that out, and you lose some of that perspective.
This is another instance of public television selling out to the right and fearing to air something because it might be "unpopular". "Now with Bill Moyers" discussed this in depth before it was yanked; get transcripts of this show, or do a google search on "Moyers, Democracy in Danger" and read his address to the National Conference on Media Reform.
I was going to buy, but I won't now. May 1, 2006
M. Clair
32 out of 34 found this review helpful
"Vietnam - A Television History" is more than a source of information about the Vietnam War, it is a fine example of early 1980s television documentary and provides insight to the thoughts of a nation when the documentary was released. Unfortunately, you lose that insight to early 1980s America by releasing an altered version. No material is "outdated" from a historian's prospective and it is a shame that the producers of "The American Experience" did not realize that before releasing this "revised" edition.
 Beware! 2 out of 13 episodes have been taken out! August 11, 2004
T. Duy
31 out of 32 found this review helpful
I am a fan of this series and when I found out that the DVD was out I immediately purchased it. Unfortunately, I was completely let down. There were way too many commercials and the 4 dvds only comprise of 11 hours as oppose to the 13 hours of the original series. The original series had 13 episode but the dvd version only has 11 episodes. They are missing episode 13 which is suppose to be titled "Legacies". This was an extremely important episode that should not have been taken out because it was the final conclusion. It's like watching a movie and missing the last showdown. There is also another episode that was taken out but I don't remember which one.
MORALLY REPREHENSIBLE LIES October 2, 2004
benjamin kerstein (israel)
25 out of 66 found this review helpful
This has to be one of the most flagrantly biased and dishonest documentaries ever to air on American television. It is a non-stop marathon of philo-totalitarianism, apologetics for tyranny, whitewashing of mass murder, and outright lies, such as claiming the Khmer Rouge were American supported. (They only recieved American assistance when they were out of power and a small part of an ad hoc group of armed bands harassing the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia; during their oft-denied - by anti-war leftists like Noam Chomsky - autogenocide of millions of their own citizens, the Khmer Rouge were squarely in the communist bloc.) There is an excellent overview of some of the - failed - attempts by other filmmakers to provide balance or rebuttal to this ugly piece of work in the book PBS:BEHIND THE SCREEN, which is highly recommended to anyone who wants an objective look at how public broadcasting conducts itself. This film is more than bad, it is a morally vile apologia for the tyrannical subjugation of an entire country and the murder or exile of well over a million people, and the demonization of those - American and Vietnamese alike - who sought to prevent precisely that eventuality. This film is the moral equivalent of Holocaust denial, and ought to viewed as such by anyone who watches it.
journalism and not history March 14, 2005
it (Sunnyvale, CA USA)
25 out of 45 found this review helpful
This is the usual journalistic mixture of important, trivial, direct falsehoods, and falsehoods of omission. It is the usual flash, trash, hype, and jive. Rare events are featured which gives the viewer the impression that they were common. Here is a hypothetical example. A police officer kills an innocent person on purpose. The program then implies that this is commonly done and is the official policy of the police agency and the US government advisors and the reason you never heard about these widespread killings was that there was an official government coverup. The most useful thing you can do with this is to compare the information presented with the memoirs of Henry Kissinger and the books listed below. This should cure you of ever believing what is presented in the news.
Here is one example of the misrepresentation in the program. You may remember the famous photo of the captured person being shot in the head. This program calls him a Vietcong. In reality this person was a regular North Vietnamese Army officer whose assignment was to kill the family members of South Vietnamese officials. The Geneva Convention on Land Warfare requires combatants to wear distinctive uniforms. It allows the killing of captured members of the other side who were not wearing distinctive uniforms.
Another example of stupid comments is on one operation where the Marines went into an enemy stronghold to destroy the supplies and tunnel complexes and then leave. The narrator makes the stupid comment that the enemy soldiers returned to the area after the Marines left as if the Marines had not accomplished their mission.
It is common for government heads to say one thing in speeches and do another in private. Saudi Arabia is an example in the recent middle east war. Public speeches said that they would not help the US forces. In private they allowed use of their bases. This program shows similar speeches without commenting on what happened in private. Cambodia is an example where they wanted out help against the North Vietnamese presence but gave speeches to the opposite.
The Pentagon Papers
A Rumor of War
Decent Interval
Decision for Disaster
You will learn from The Pentagon Papers that President Johnson was quite aggressive in escalating the war against the advice of the CIA and other agencies and that he would make decisions on his own without consultation. This program gives the false inference that President Johnson was pulled into the war reluctantly and by others.
The book Decision for Disaster is by an insider on the Bay of Pigs invasion. You will learn about how unskilled the Kennedy white house staff and appointed state department officials were. This same poor judgement carried over into the administration's policy in Vietnam.
I was an army lieutenant in Vietnam and what is presented in this program is nothing near what I saw and did.
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