Search - Vietnam War Secrets on DVD

Secrets Revealed

Edward Rasen Jr. | Maui | 03/14/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Vietnam War Secrets is a professionally produced eleven-hour documentary series. Some episodes such as Great Victory are History channel style reports replete with maps, diagrams, illustrations and rare film footage; another about US Navy aircraft carriers is hosted by Chet Huntley of NBC News. Others are new, full-length interviews with among others, General Nguyen Khanh, the former leader of South Viet-Nam; and Frank Snepp, the CIA's chief analyst in Viet-Nam from 1972 to 1975.

All the interviews and host segments were shot on 16mm film or high definition video in professional television studios with professional cameras, lighting and audio equipment. Accusations by Karl May are outright lies. Apparently, Karl May does not like the message so he resorts to lies to discredit the production.

The interview with General Khanh is the first he has given since ruling Viet-Nam and he discloses the incompetency of U.S. Ambassador Maxwell Taylor and military commander General William Westmoreland; and, that Westmoreland engaged in petty revenge against Vietnamese generals who criticized or disagreed with his bankrupt military strategy. Stanley Karnow never mentions this feud in his seminal book.

Frank Snepp reveals that U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin was incompetent and out of touch with reality which resulted in thousands of Vietnamese agents and employees being sacrificed to the North Vietnamese. Stanley Karnow does not mention such in his book. Karl May does not mention these startling interviews in his bogus review.

Karl is like the dorky nerd you knew in grammar school who was constantly taunted and ridiculed but because he was dimwitted could only reply "I know you are, but what am I."

I will match my credentials anytime against Karl May. I served for twenty eight months in Viet-Nam as a combat infantryman and Long Range Recon team leader. I graduated from the famous MACV 5th Special Force Group RECONDO School, which has long been featured on the History Channel. I was wounded in combat and awarded the Bronze Star for Valor, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry and the Combat Infantryman Badge (CIB).

I returned to Viet-Nam as a journalist and eventually became a producer for ABC News. Subsequently, I have visited Viet-Nam to conduct research for this and other programs. Besides General Khanh, I have interviewed Pham Van Dong, the premier of North Viet-Nam, and Ho Chi Minh's chief deputy.

I have spent months at the National Archives and Center for Military History conducting research. Karl May claims that he knows everything presented in Vietnam War Secrets yet does not offer any new information or rebuttals.

He attacks me for sitting in front of an American flag and my voice which is like killing the messenger because you don't like the message. In reality he is just an angry, incontinent, bigot. If he does not like the message he should say so. Only, a slimeball would tell lies to attack a combat Viet-Nam veteran. So, we know that Karl did not serve in Viet-Nam.

I sincerely recommend you buy and watch the series. The secret about the Gulf of Tonkin was not revealed by the National Security Agency until December 2005. Much of the information has only been officially revealed in the last several years. Books written five, ten or twenty years ago do not include such information. Some of the information I present is based on personal experience and even includes rare films that I shot in Laos and Vietnam during 1970 or in Cambodia during 1979.

I suggest you ask Karl May to refute facts rather than sling cheap insults. Product reviews are suppose to be about the product not personal attacks. Vietnam was a great tragedy and many people died in vain. Ironically, after years of hysterical propaganda, Viet-Nam is again an ally and friend endorsed by President George Bush, Jr. who personally nominated Viet-Nam for membership in the World Trade Organization and invited the President of Viet-Nam to the White House. U.S. Navy ships now make "goodwill" visits to Sai Gon.

Only the truth will free you from political bigots and propaganda.
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Truth Revealed

Paul | North Carolina | 02/06/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Vietnam War Secrets is a set of four DVDs that exposes former classified documents that the American public had no knowledge of until now. The DVDs are not an action packed military movie narrated by a current film star, but a narrative of what really happened, from beginning to end, narrated by Mr. Rasen who to his credit is not only a Vietnam Veteran, but a long-time researcher/journalist, writing specifically about Southeast Asia and the Vietnam War. His perspective and his knowledge of the war and all the research he prepared to accomplish an accurate chronology is commendable. The DVDs include rare photos, US Army film footage, statistics, reports, documents, and interviews. For anyone interested in military history or for students who are engaged in research, this is an excellent source. It would be hard to imagine any other set of DVDs that has recorded such an extensive chronology of the war. In addition, there is a written booklet with a complete chronology,a Table of Contents with a synopsis of each subject. It is impossible to view and digest all the material in one sitting, however, it would prove to be a fine reference tool."

Vietnam War Secrets

Raffone | Los Angeles | 01/01/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There isn't any video or television series that exposes so much about America's longest and most unpopular war. This ten-hour series on four DVDs is essential for anyone seeking answers or a better understanding of the undeclared war Vietnam and the secret bombing campaigns against Laos and Cambodia. The producer was a news producer for ABC News in Vietnam and Cambodia plus served in Vietnam as a combat infantryman.

Mr. Rasen cuts through decades of myths and propaganda and exposes how President Lyndon Johnson was selling 2 million bushels of grain to the Soviet Union during the mid-1960s so it would not collapse after two years of drought and famine. Meanwhile, he sent American soldiers to Vietnam to allegedly stop the communists from taking control. In reality, Johnson didn't care about Vietnam and thought the military operation would last 6 to 12 months and the soldiers would return home to cheering crowds and he could take advantage of the situation to silence conservative Republicans who opposed his welfare and civil rights programs.

Also, revealing are the rare, previously unseen films from the U.S. Army, the National Liberation Front in South Vietnam and the Pathet Lao in Laos, plus incredible interviews with Nguyen Khanh, former leader of South Vietnam and Frank Snepp, the CIA's chief analyst in Saigon until the final days before the North Vietnamese Army occupied the city. Both tell startling stories of incompetent U.S. officials including U.S. ambassadors and other high-ranking officials. It is amazing such incompetence is only now being revealed.

This series should be required viewing for all Vietnam veterans, their children and grandchildren because as Mr. Rasen says "the first casualty was truth." There are so many secrets revealed in this series that it would take pages to discuss. For less than $20, this is a truly great bargain."

Read a book instead....

Tormentor | Texas | 01/12/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Absolutely atrocious.

I would have to advise anyone perusing this website in search of a documentary on the Vietnam War to approach this coma inducing snooze fest with extreme caution. Do not be fooled by the content it promises to deliver.

If you're like me, you read the details of any dvd like this with utmost scrutiny lest you find yourself in possession of yet another, by now dime per dozen, chest thumbing, pseudo-patriotic account of US military glory and heroics in a war that was in reality nothing less than a genocidal campaign against a civilian population the US was there ostensibly to "defend". This dvd clearly does not follow that line and for that, we can all be thankful. However, content alone cannot save a documentary. The presentation is truly baffling. I would suspect that the narrator probably borrowed a cheap camera, slipped down into his mother's basement and procured the flag the family hoists up each memorial day, draped it on a wall behind him and then rummaged around for the nearest garden chair to sit down in to present what must be the dullest lectrure ever delivered in the English language. The first disc consists of nothing whatesoever except for the shot of the aformentioned narrator, looking rather uncomfortable (it probably was a tad drafty in his mum's basement) uttering line after monotonous line even mis-speaking on a few occasions. He has zero personality or charisma and it becomes a truly Herculean task to fight off the onslaught of sheer fatigue this utterly unmemorable and excruciatingly dull presentation will induce. There is one other thing that happens in disc one, the narrator who I'm guessing probably stole a few old reels of archival news coverage from the local library, pauses momentarily from his tiresome droning and allows the aforementioned archival footage to present the points he himself has already butchered to the point in which no one on Earth could possibly care about them by virtue of his tedious delivery. This though did present the one interesting moment of disc one, it was indeed a truly vigorous exercise of the intellect to ascertain just what was more torturously dull, the narrator or the pathetic archival footage he vainly hoped would make him look better. The resulting judgment was a ruling of "no contest". I cannot comment on the other three discs because naturally, I did not watch them. I just couldn't. If the introductory disc is that poor, the disc that ideally should compel the viewer and draw them in, what are the chances the others could possibly salvage the wreckage of disc one?

One wonders how this piece of garbage was ever released. I could only conclude that the studio that released it must be owned by proponents of the far right who astutely realized that this amatuerish production does (like Michael Moore) far more to discredit the left than anything else.

Again, I must emphasize that the content itself was good, but the presentation made it unwatchable. You'd be better off spending your money on a book which without question would be far more entertaining as well as more insightful than this dvd. I came into it agreeing with the points made on the dvd (and still do) but midway in disc one, I seriously wanted to switch sides just because of how lame the narrator is.

It's worth noting that more than 40 years before this embarrassing dvd was released, Noam Chomsky pinned a book on the Indochina Wars which were still raging at the time. Unlike the narrator, Chomsky was active then, in the hopes of ending an unjust war the narrator was actually fighting in. It's all hindsight is 20/20 now perhaps for the narrator, but Chomsky was slashing the fictitous justifications for the most disgraceful of wars when it was actually happening. If you want to partke of something truly revelatory and insightful, read Chomsky's book At War with Asia. If you have an unruly and hyperactive child you wish to sedate, watch this video.

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