Ken Burn’s Vietnam
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Ken Burn’s Vietnam
Watched Ken Burn’s Vietnam courtesy of Netflix. Just got through episode one. Interesting gem of a piece. A bit of a political slant, but still well worthwhile.
There seems to be an invisible hand through the early history of modern Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh writes to both presidents Roosevelt and Truman about independence (maybe FDR too?) but the letters never reach them. However they are preserved in CIA files. An american OSS officer attempts to broker an agreement between the French and Ho Chi Minh but is ‘mistakenly’ killed by the Viet Min. While Ho
Chi Min goes to Paris to press the case for Vietnamese independence, Giap purges the entire party of anyone who isn’t a die hard communist.
Ho Chi Minh was a nationalist. He joins the communists because they were anti-colonial. Never really communist. The day the Japanese left, he was making national speeches quoting Jefferson. Vietnam seemed like it could have been easily been a democracy.
It’s well known that communists agents had infiltrated both the British and American governments. Conspiracy theories?
There seems to be an invisible hand through the early history of modern Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh writes to both presidents Roosevelt and Truman about independence (maybe FDR too?) but the letters never reach them. However they are preserved in CIA files. An american OSS officer attempts to broker an agreement between the French and Ho Chi Minh but is ‘mistakenly’ killed by the Viet Min. While Ho
Chi Min goes to Paris to press the case for Vietnamese independence, Giap purges the entire party of anyone who isn’t a die hard communist.
Ho Chi Minh was a nationalist. He joins the communists because they were anti-colonial. Never really communist. The day the Japanese left, he was making national speeches quoting Jefferson. Vietnam seemed like it could have been easily been a democracy.
It’s well known that communists agents had infiltrated both the British and American governments. Conspiracy theories?
Re: Ken Burn’s Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh and the OSS
OSS Deer Team members pose with Viet Minh leaders Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Giap during training at Tan Trao in August 1945.
......At this last dinner with his gracious hosts, Thomas decided to get right to the heart of it. So many of the reports he had filed with the OSS touched on Ho’s ambiguous allegiances and intents, and Thomas had had enough. He asked Ho point-blank: Was he a Communist? Ho replied: “Yes. But we can still be friends, can’t we?”.........
It was a startling admission. In the mid-1940s, the Viet Minh leadership, under Ho Chi Minh, looked to the West for help in its independence movement and got it.
Also in March 1945, Viet Minh guerrillas rescued a U.S. pilot who had been shot down in Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh himself escorted the pilot back to the American forces in Kunming, where the Fourteenth Air Force was based. Rejecting an offer of a monetary reward, Ho asked only for the honor of meeting Maj. Gen. Claire Chennault, founder of China’s legendary American Volunteer Group, the “Flying Tigers,” and now commander of the Fourteenth Air Force. During the meeting on March 29, Chennault thanked Ho, who, after promising to help any other downed American pilots, requested only an autographed photo of the general. Ho would later cannily show the picture to other nationalist Vietnamese factions as proof of his warm relations with—and implied support from—the Americans. At this time, few knew that Ho (whose real name was Nguyen Ai Quoc) was a long-time Communist who had been trained in the Soviet Union. Even the Office of War Information reportedly was impressed by Ho and his “English, intelligence and obvious interest in the Allied war effort.http://www.historynet.com/ho-chi-minh-and-the-oss.htm
OSS Deer Team members pose with Viet Minh leaders Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Giap during training at Tan Trao in August 1945.
......At this last dinner with his gracious hosts, Thomas decided to get right to the heart of it. So many of the reports he had filed with the OSS touched on Ho’s ambiguous allegiances and intents, and Thomas had had enough. He asked Ho point-blank: Was he a Communist? Ho replied: “Yes. But we can still be friends, can’t we?”.........
It was a startling admission. In the mid-1940s, the Viet Minh leadership, under Ho Chi Minh, looked to the West for help in its independence movement and got it.
Also in March 1945, Viet Minh guerrillas rescued a U.S. pilot who had been shot down in Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh himself escorted the pilot back to the American forces in Kunming, where the Fourteenth Air Force was based. Rejecting an offer of a monetary reward, Ho asked only for the honor of meeting Maj. Gen. Claire Chennault, founder of China’s legendary American Volunteer Group, the “Flying Tigers,” and now commander of the Fourteenth Air Force. During the meeting on March 29, Chennault thanked Ho, who, after promising to help any other downed American pilots, requested only an autographed photo of the general. Ho would later cannily show the picture to other nationalist Vietnamese factions as proof of his warm relations with—and implied support from—the Americans. At this time, few knew that Ho (whose real name was Nguyen Ai Quoc) was a long-time Communist who had been trained in the Soviet Union. Even the Office of War Information reportedly was impressed by Ho and his “English, intelligence and obvious interest in the Allied war effort.http://www.historynet.com/ho-chi-minh-and-the-oss.htm
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Re: Ken Burn’s Vietnam
I think I'll have to watch this over the weekend. Thanks for the share.
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