Review| The Vietnam War – Part Two

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick have produced another stellar documentary series with The Vietnam War. They crafted an excellent narrative of the events surrounding the war, providing much-needed context, setup, and thoughtful analysis – allowing those who lived the war from all sides to have a say. However, the film still has some annoying biases, even though both Burns and Novick assured us there wouldn’t be any.

In Part One, I looked at the film’s merits and mistakes. Today, we’ll take a look at the thematic side. In The Vietnam War‘s narrative, all sides of the conflict were culpable in some way for its disastrous outcome. I believe the war began with sincere purposes and devolved into a quagmire. This is a reflection of the arrogance on all sides – the arrogance sometimes inherent in humanity itself.

Stuff to Ponder

“In Vietnam, the Communist Party was triumphant. And they have exceptionalism, too. Their exceptionalism got in their way and our exceptionalism got in our way.”

The above quote from US Marine Tom Vallely’s interview alludes to what I found to be the big thematic throughput for the whole film, and quite possibly the war itself: the perniciousness of arrogance on all sides.

It’s my opinion that the American involvement in Vietnam began with noble intentions (fighting and containing the evils of communism). However, instead of truly understanding the resolve of the enemy and adapting our initial strategy accordingly, the Americans were arrogant in their approach.

They prosecuted the war based on academic strategy (including piles of meaningless, incomprehensible data), not accounting for the unquantifiable human factors, and lack of transparency with the American public. These made the situation spin out of control very quickly, causing the war to draw. The terrible ambivalence and loss of resolve of succeeding administrations, as well as an arrogant congress breaking support promises to the South Vietnamese, made everything worse.

Among the Vietnamese forces themselves, the Southern leadership’s arrogance manifested itself in the form of graft, corruption, and constant coups – too occupied with their own internal squabbling and power-grabs to organize themselves and be a better ally to the Americans. After the South was defeated, the North was arrogant in their victory, unifying the country through force, not reconciliation, and essentially force-feeding the Vietnamese to the evil of communism – which the people are still reeling over today.

Finally, the arrogance of the American anti-war movement was made clear from their sometimes-violent clashes with the authorities, along with a preening moral superiority while showing utter disrespect toward the American soldiers coming home from Vietnam. Terrible epithets like “baby killers” were used often to describe the servicemen. Some even brazenly cheered on the enemy, waving the North Vietnamese and Viet-Cong flags, and celebrated the American defeat and the fall of Saigon in 1975.

“Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”  – Proverbs 16:18

Arrogance is discussed throughout the Bible, along with its destructive hold on the human heart. Story after story in Scripture contains arrogant people, and almost all of them eventually fall because due to the consequences of hubris.

One of Jesus’ quintessential traits is His humility. Here was God made human, the perfect being with unlimited power. But he made Himself human so that we knew he understood us. He taught humility at the Sermon o the mount and modeled it countless times, healing and forgiving sins. He humbled Himself before men – even unto death on the cross. In fact, one of the intended bi-products of Jesus’ time on earth and His crucifixion is that we cannot save ourselves from our own sin, so there is no reason to be prideful.

In the Book of Ephesians, Paul writes that “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.” We must live our lives in humility and quiet strength because there is really nothing to be prideful about. We are all equally guilty and thank the Lord that He saw fit to show us the way.

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me.”  – Luke 9:23

Part of “denying ourselves” is humbling ourselves before the Lord and before our fellow human beings. We are all sinners, and God made the ultimate sacrifice for us and so that no one could boast! God does not favor anyone over another, nor does He see anyone as superior. We all need to eat some humble pie and be grateful to God for His sacrifice.

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you.”  – Ephesians 4:32

Humility also breeds wisdom and forgiveness. The film showed many interviewees speaking with great candor about the things they did, and the peace and reconciliation they have experienced in the decades since. What was particularly heartening to see at the end of The Vietnam War were many former American soldiers going back to Vietnam and embracing their former enemies as friends.

I was especially touched to see Nancy Biberman, an anti-war activist, become remorseful over the actions she took against the American soldiers coming home from Vietnam. Biberman was humble enough to realize that her actions only made the situation worse.

Even the American government itself recently reestablished relations with the current Vietnamese leadership, signaling a move forward for both nations (though I hope we tread lightly with the communist government).

So What I’m Trying to Say is

The Vietnam War is Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s best documentary in years. I’m looking forward to owning it on Blu-ray. It is very compelling – an excellent journey into a very complicated time in American history. While it still contains some of the biases that have plagued Burns’ recent works, they are kept to a minimum. They don’t take away from the emotional resonance of the series, and the human lesson learned from the conflict.

The Vietnam War was a lesson in the danger of arrogance. We are all capable of it – no matter where we come from. Arrogance can cause even the strongest nation on earth to forget their purpose, inflict needless damage on an enemy, and even tear their own society apart. The true antidote to arrogance and pride is humility. Being humble enough to understand one’s shortcomings is the best path to understanding and peace. Through humility comes wisdom and forgiveness, and we could all use a lot more of both.