Episode 10: “Let it be.”
“The Vietnam War” begins with Henry Kissinger’s call to put Vietnam behind us. It ends with the Beatles’ “Let It Be.” Ken Burns and Lynn Novick explai...
The American War
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A podcast guide to "The Vietnam War," the new documentary from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. Washington Post Opinion columnist Alyssa Rosenberg breaks down each episode of the film with Burns and Novick themselves, getting the story behind the stories, and grappling with the lessons the United States learned -- and failed to learn -- in Vietnam and at home. Listen after you watch each episode of "The Vietnam War" for a new perspective on how the film was made and what it all means.
Episode 9: “The Marine Corps was the thing that I did that gave me my own confidence in myself.”
Some soldiers in Vietnam fought bravely, and then came home to oppose the war they’d served in. Their experiences are a reminder that Vietnam mixed up...
Episode 8: “You have these two parallel threads on a collision course and that's where they meet.”
The Kent State massacre was one of the most searing domestic moments of the antiwar movement. Alyssa talks to Ken and Lynn about their memories of the...
Episode 7: “It's torturing me and I needed to tell you this.”
In America, the My Lai massacre helped turn Americans against the war, while in Vietnam, atrocities such as the massacre at Hue are still taboo subjec...
Episode 6: “It's very rare to see a photograph of a person who was in the act of dying.”
The Vietnam War produced indelible wartime photography. “The Vietnam War” takes a closer look at the stories behind the photos, including Eddie Adams’...
Episode 5: “I only killed one human being in Vietnam.”
As African Americans fought for their rights at home, anti-Asian racism shaped American policy in Vietnam and became a coping tool for soldiers. Alyss...
Episode 4: “We want the dead to come back to us.”
Many of the Gold Star parents who lost their children in Vietnam are aging, and as they are, their stories are being lost. Alyssa finds out how Lynn N...
Episode 3: “We are behaving like ugly Americans.”
To truly understand what happened to America in Vietnam, Ken Burns and Lynn Novick knew they had to talk to our former opponents. Alyssa talks to Lynn...
Episode 2: “To me, JFK was God.”
It’s easy to say now that the Vietnam War was always a doomed endeavor. But Americans who went to fight in Vietnam thought they were answering John F....
Episode 1: “We are possessed by a desire not to know about Vietnam.”
In the premiere episode of “The American War,” Alyssa talks to Ken Burns and Harvard professor Fredrik Logevall about Episode One of "The Vietnam War,...