Product Description

INSIDE THE VIETNAM WAR (DVD MOVIE)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15597 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2008-06-03
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 150 minutes

Features

• National Geographic presents insights into a U.S. mission to contain the spread of Communism in Vietnam that escalated into brutal warfare, with no end in sight. ?Inside the Vietnam War? features riveting first-hand accounts of U.S. Veterans experiences during the Vietnam War matched with in-country archival film footage, audio recordings and personal photos. Using innovative tactics like helicopt

Customer Reviews

Very Good Documentary from a U.S. Viewpoint
This is not an all inclusive documentary or very thorough. It's shown from a U.S. military viewpoint with interviews of surviving U.S. veterans. It's all on one disc and about 2 and 1/2 hours long.
It picks up the war in the early 1960's with JFK sending military advisors and ends with the fall of Saigon in 1975, with veterans giving thier recollections for the battles and the time periods they served.
The battle footage is excellent, hard hitting, and not for the faint of heart (lots of blood and gore).
There are interviews with some very famous veterans. Colonel Hal Moore (who Mel Gibson portrayed in the movie "We Were Soldiers"). Philip Caputo, who wrote an excellent early account of his experience in Vietnam, "A Rumor of War". Retired General Barry McCaffrey, a military analyst for Fox News, I believe, are the three I knew of.
I'm a 22 year Army veteran. I joined the Army in 1972 but didn't go to Vietnam (by the the time I went into basic training in April 1972, the U.S. military's commitment in personnel there had dropped way down to around 50,000). But,as a teenager in the mid to late 1960's, I watched the war unfold on the nightly news and wondered after I turned 18 would I get drafted and go there. This war had some meaning in my early life, of course no way like those who actually served.
The recollection of some of the veterans gave me a lump in my throat and misty eyes. Very powerful emotional stuff.
But on the negative side. There are no interviews with any surviving NVA soldiers or Viet Cong, or any South Vietnamese.
It doesn't cover at all how Vietnam became divided in 1954 or the French involvement prior to that. The political wrangling and protests in the U.S. are covered just enough to get the jist.
This is still a very good documentary. Very powerful.

The best!
I bought this for a friend who needs to occasionally revisit his experiences in Viet Nam. He has shared it with many of his friends who went through the same trama. This is the one you want to watch if you want to see and hear the recollections of the fighting men from this War. Be warned that this will bring tear to your eyes.

VIETNAM PERSPECTIVE
Inside the Vietnam War is AN EXCELLENT FILM based on true and/or actual events that happen during a trying time in US history. Having a lot of friends and associates serve in the war gave me a better understanding of what actually happened and a disturbing opinion about the people behind the decision making in the white house.

However, more importantly, this film gave me a better perspective of the way the US media reported events and how they tried to manipulate US citizen's public opinion about this war. We should be outraged. The part of the film that showed Walter Cronkite indicating the TET offensive was a "stalemate" was treasonist. Although I do not remember the exact numbers, the body count of the offensive was overwhelmingly in favor of the Americans. Somewhere near 100,000 enemies killed to less than a thousand Americans. In addition, there was not one single offensive launched by the Vietcong (VC) and/or North Vietnam Army (NVA) that the American military did not overtake and win. NOT ONE. And this is undisputed.

In the end, war is HELL. But you go to war to win. And if successfully killing the enemy is an indication of winning the war, then the American military was overwhelmingly successful. The final numbers are mind-boggling; over 1.5 million VC/NVA (and unfortunately Vietnam citizens) to roughly 58,000 American military personnel.

We all should be proud of our American men and women in uniform. They did not ask to go there; they were told and given orders. They obeyed, did their job and did it well. We should be more worried about our decision makers and policy makers than our military.

This film should help everyone become more informative about this war.