I was born just shy of 10 years after Saigon fell so I had no relation to the war. I do have a strong interest in history, especially military history, but I must be honest, I avoided this documentary for a long time because Vietnam can be a hurtful subject and everything about the war since it ended has been so negative. I would never argue we, America, won the war, but everything I have ever been shown, taught, or read pretty much makes the point that everything about the war was evil or wrong. No exception. One evening I finally watched this documentary and I have to say it was perspective changing. I cannot tell you firsthand what Vietnam was like, but I can tell you first hand that if you started school in the 1980s or later, you have never been taught an unbiased view of the war. This documentary is the closest thing to an unbiased take on Vietnam I have yet encountered. This documentary does exactly what a good documentary should; open you to multiple perspectives by exposing you to film and primary sources and interviews. That exposure challenges you to think on your own. I came away with a new opinion on the whole war.Many reviewers criticize and say this documentary is jingoistic by trying to convince people the war was being won. On the contrary, the only reference to 'winning' I saw was the quotations of the Johnson administration about how we were 'winning' in body counts and the documentary uses this directly as a contrast to the reality the soldiers were facing of the ground. That is the endless Search and Destroy runs where people would die and gained territory was quickly abandoned. This documentary pulls no punches and is not afraid to showcase the insanity of the Vietnam War. Lots of stupid things were done. Lots of opportunities were missed. This documentary does not hide it.On the other side, this documentary doesn't write off the war as inherently evil or as a perpetually lost cause. It does not hide the fact we now know the NVA was nearly crippled after Tet and the US didn't capitalize on it. Similarly it doesn't hide that Nixon balked at destroying Vietcong supplies in Cambodia after Kent State. Are those things controversial? Yes. Missed opportunities? Maybe so. The documentary doesn't tell you what to think, it simply exposes you to fresh perspectives that my grade school teachers never offered me.Don't let commercial reviews fool you. This documentary is not overly simplistic. It is simply a fresh overview of a very complex subject. Overviews have their place. I guarantee that you will take new things away from this film. This documentary overviews the good bad and the ugly. Before I saw it all I was ever taught was the bad and ugly.Ultimately, this documentary really shines in giving our G.I.s the credit they deserve for sacrificing everything in the absence of clear objectives. Don't marginalize them or this documentary just because a majority of historians feel that Vietnam has to be portrayed a certain way.

I came to this thread late, as I have just finished watching a couple of episodes this morning (looking for the possibility of seeing some of my unit on film). I wasn't going to post, but after reading the opening comment, I felt I had to.Having "been there, done that", I can vouch for the brutality and finality of war - not the reason. While the war was ultimately lost as a result of Washington's policies and the limitations put on us in the way of target selection and operational freedom, it does not diminish the sacrifices made by the soldiers, both enlisted and conscripted, as the writer (whose greatest sacrifice would most likely be doing without that second latte) so blithely intimates. His post has to be the most hypocritical drivel in history - taking the term "pious" to unimaginable heights. The poster is obviously a product of our more recent public school system, where the only history taught is the revisionist version designed to minimize the innate goodness of America in favor of the progressive view of the US as warmongering for no apparent reason. This snarky diatribe serves only to highlight the staggering naiveté of today's youth - full of angst and anger, while having no greater generation problem to deal with than a cell phone battery going dead in the middle of a mindless tweet.Stop trying to place your narcissistic slacker "Millennial" spin on history, and go back to your PlayStation, where you can play shoot-em-up all day without the consequences of return fire....news flash - real life doesn't come with a reset button.

I for one really enjoyed this mini-series, from the first episode to the last, it really has a lot of entertainment value. For the record, I am a currently a double major in history and political science and I would most definitely recommend this to anyone who is interested.Warning: it is fairly one sided towards the American perspective, but that does not mar it in my opinion, it just requires a conscious acknowledgment of that prior to watching it. With that said, for entertainment value it was great ( 10/10 ), turn it up full blast and for a spilt second you might actually forget feel like you are there. The footage was great and very powerful at times.To get the most out of this mini-series I would suggest doing some reading prior to watching it (or after if you are truly impatient), but I believe most will have at least a working knowledge of what Vietnam was about. But like others have said, for a more in depth understanding of this war, it is critical to look somewhere else. Overall this was a thrilling documentary (or mini-series) that holds a lot of entertainment value and for those who can look past the one sided nature and biases of it, you will walk away satisfied. For the more cynical of critics, this may seem like a Hollywood production glorifying the war and justifying American heroes. However, for the most part this does not glorify the Vietnam but rather tries to recount history by jazzing it up a bit.

This series is about war, politics and people. Just like with WWII in HD, I am in awe of history in video, specially in HD. I lived through those times with limited cognisance of what was really transpiring although soon after coming to assimilate what its overall impact would eventually come to be. Listening to and seeing the few participants, interspersed with the reality of that arguably unnecessary conflict is engrossing.Reviews of this, and similar series, should be devoid of political rhetoric and consistent with the presentation quality and viewers objective appreciation of what was created and produced through significant effort.One needs to remember that honour and duty among soldiers in rarely arrogance or narcissism. These human beings were placed in a terrible place and asked to do terrible things, or else rendered criminals in their own country or dishonoured as soldiers. Most were completely ostracized and suffered severe mental depressions, upon returning home to their families and friends. IMO, their "OO-RAH" is purely a sense of camaraderie and commitment to their fellows in the battle zone where there was no time or point to pander politics or resentment to their leadership... lives were at stake.THIS IS A MUST SEE FOR HISTORY BUFFS!