It’s more than just being too soon it’s hard to take pride in a war that by any definition we lost. The Vietnam images are not still, black-and-white photographs or faded images, but sometimes vivid film, punctuated by interviews of all involved - communist soldiers, war protesters and, of course, members of the armed forces who fought there. Other strife-ridden periods of our past - the nobility of the Blue and Gray or the Greatest Generation, the subjects of previous Burns documentaries - could evoke sentimentality despite the terrible carnage they engendered. For those who served or protested or watched from the sidelines, there is no cause for nostalgia. There is little to celebrate during that period.
#Pbs battlefield vietnam series#
The series is broad in scope, ranging from the French colonial era starting in the mid-1800s to the fall of Saigon in 1975, including the shameful cut-and-run by Washington that left our South Vietnamese allies to slaughter from the North. I don’t believe that was the intent of the series, though, and it does give a panorama of the war in a way that only a documentary can. As a veteran and sometime student of the war, there were no major surprises, and I had long ago given up on making sense of the Vietnam morass. The documentary heaps ineptness upon ignorance upon immorality by policymakers and the military brass - all guided by an archaic worldview shaped by the Cold War and the post-WWII can-do attitude. Because the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund was one of the sponsors of a panel discussion hosted by WHYY Tuesday, I was permitted to watch all 18 hours of the 10-part series. In July, President Joe Biden ordered the Department of Homeland Security to begin the process of allowing foreign-born veterans who were deported to return to the U.S. “The Department of Homeland Security recognizes the profound commitment and sacrifice that service members and their families have made to the United States of America,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced.I was pretty sure I would be in a state of funk after watching The Vietnam War: An Intimate History, the Ken Burns/Lynn Novick documentary premiering on Sunday on PBS. “They were discarded.” Biden begins process for return has treated these veterans,” said Ruhman. “The phrase ‘Thank you for your service’ really rings hollow when you see how the U.S. Some have passed away. “They are sitting ducks for the cartels, who threaten them with violence if they don’t join their criminal gangs.” They are usually released onto the streets of Tijuana at night with no money, no phone, nothing.” Some deported veterans are reduced to homelessness or develop serious substance abuse problems. The veterans sent to Mexico are often not familiar with the country, said Jan Ruhman, a Marine Corps veteran and veterans’ advocate based in San Diego. Most deported veterans are sent to Mexico, although some have been sent to Jamaica, South Korea, the Philippines and Nigeria. government has deported, because immigration authorities do not keep statistics on military service of deportees. There is no official tally of the number of veterans that the U.S. She has worked on other deported veteran’s cases, such as that of Hector Barajas-Varela, a veteran who was able to return home in 2016 after receiving a pardon from California’s governor.
#Pbs battlefield vietnam pro#
“Very often, service members are assured that all of their citizenship paperwork will be taken care of (by the government).” In fact, noncitizen veterans must still go through the naturalization process.Īlong with other lawyers and nonprofit groups, Sagastume has represented the Valenzuela brothers pro bono. military automatically confers citizenship. Sagastume said that it is a misconception that serving in the U.S. Still, over the years they were able to rebuild their lives and live with stability - until they received the orders of removal for the acts they committed as young men. Both brothers were later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and classified as disabled. Manuel’s misdemeanors included battery and resisting arrest. When they initially returned from Vietnam, readjusting to civilian life proved difficult. Valente pled guilty to several misdemeanors, including assault and theft.