Jonathan Mirsky

BBC4’s The Vietnam War was unique, informative and shattering

The Vietnam War
BBC4

The BBC should be praised for showing all ten episodes of this unique, informative and shattering American series on the Vietnamese war, despite screening eight fewer hours than in the original. Before each episode the BBC warned that ‘some viewers may find some scenes upsetting’. Which ones? A frog jumping in a pool of blood from the head of a dead Vietcong (NLF) fighter? The Saigon police chief shooting a prisoner in the head? The American colonel offering a case of whiskey to the first man to bring him the severed head of an enemy soldier? Which he gets. The eager US soldier on his first day in Vietnam noticing strings of what he thought were leaves, which he realised were the ears of dead enemies? (In Vietnam I saw marines wearing necklaces made of ears.) The My Lai massacre of 407 women, men, and children in a village with no enemy opposition? Or, most telling, the American corporal describing how he had entered a black hole looking for enemy soldiers.

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