The Vietnam War Documentary: A Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick

VIDEO: Watch Bank of America executive, Thong Nguyen, share his Vietnam War perspective with Ken Burns

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(music playing throughout)

KEN BURNS
Documentary Filmmaker

THONG NGUYEN
President of Retail Banking, Bank of America

[Thong Nguyen] So Ken, what prompted you to look at The Vietnam War?

[Ken Burns] The Vietnam War is the most important event in the second half of the 20th century for Americans, and I thought I knew something it about it. And, you know, beginning this project was almost daily humiliation of how much I didn’t know and when you understand that, then it permits you to shift your perspective and listen to everybody’s stories and maybe find some common ground. How has your perspective on what happened and the war changed?

[Thong Nguyen] It has changed quite a bit. As a youth in Vietnam, you believe what you were told.

[Ken Burns] Right

[Thong Nguyen] And, you know, the world was very, very clear and black and white that way. My father’s from the South, he’s in the military. My mother’s from the North, her uncle’s in the military. And as you know, there’s also a third party, which is the Viet Cong, which is the Southern insurgents, in the South. And I also have an uncle who was a part of Viet Cong.

[Ken Burns] Wow

[Thong Nguyen] So, you know, from an emotional standpoint it was a lose, lose, lose, either way. And then, you know, over the years you learn to heal. And not only that, sort of have the compassion among the different people and recognizing the sacrifices that they have done. That’s a very healing process to do that.

[Ken Burns] I agree. This is what I’ve learned in all the films about war that I’ve done; is that soldiers, the experience for soldiers is very, very similar. So we made a very important decision to not just tell the American story, but to talk about the South Vietnamese experience, civilian and military, also the North Vietnamese, what it was like to be a Viet Cong guerilla and hear from everybody and put our arms around all of that. And I have to tell you that this couldn’t have happened anywhere else but public broadcasting. And we have enjoyed for more than ten years, the time it’s taken us to make this, the support of Bank of America. So this is an opportunity for me to say thank you!

[Thong Nguyen] What you did superbly well is that you merged a very large picture of a very consequential conflict…

[Ken Burns] Yes

[Thong Nguyen] But in parallel bring that to a very emotional, personal level. After the war, my uncle from the North finally met with my father in the South, and so you have two fairly, highly ranked people getting together. And so in some ways, you know, that human level has always been connected.

[Ken Burns] Wars, you know, obviously reveal with worst of us, but they also sometimes reveal the best of us: courage and comradeship and partnership. And we think that this is an important story to tell.

[Thong Nguyen] And the way you did that, I mean, it’s not something that you watch, it’s something that you feel. So, thank you for that.

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Learn more at bankofamerica.com/vietnamwar
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The Vietnam War, A film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick

VIDEO: The Vietnam War, a landmark documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick

VO: Bank of America proudly supports Ken Burns’ and Lynn Novick’s film: The Vietnam War.

VO: Because fostering different perspectives and civil discourse around important issues furthers progress, equality and a more connected society.

ALT VO: Go to bankofamerica.com/betterconnected to learn more.

Super: The Vietnam War Film Title, PBS logo

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Bank of America employees share their Vietnam War stories and perspectives

Bank of America employees share their Vietnam War stories and perspectives

See the speaker highlights and more from The Vietnam War premier events hosted by Bank of America

John McCain, Ken Burns, Anne Finucane, Brian Moynihan, John Kerry

See the speaker highlights and more from The Vietnam War premier events hosted by Bank of America

We partnered with Spotify and popular artists on song covers from the Vietnam War era

IN THE NEWS: Bank of America executive discusses the importance of civil discourse around Vietnam

Charlotte Business Journal It is important we all stop and understand the varying perspectives Andrew Plelper Global Head of ESG, Bank of America

IN THE NEWS: Bank of America executive discusses the importance of civil discourse around Vietnam

Today and every day We're committed to supporting service members and veterans in their transition to civilian life. See how

A dialogue on The Vietnam War with Ken Burns and Bank of America’s Anne Finucane

Anne Finucane, Vice Chairman, Bank of America and Ken Burns

A dialogue on The Vietnam War with Ken Burns and Bank of America’s Anne Finucane

See how we're committed to driving economic and social progress. Learn more

View The Vietnam Era gallery by Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist David Hume Kennerly

View The Vietnam Era gallery by Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist David Hume Kennerly

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VIDEO: Photographer David Hume Kennerly and journalist Peter Arnett discuss their roles covering Vietnam

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DAVID HUME KENNERLY: Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photographer

PETER ARNETT: Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist

[Peter Arnett] For me, um, Vietnam was really my true education as a journalist.

[David Hume Kennerly] Vietnam was the war of my generation. As a photographer, as a newsperson, I had to cover the war and I had to see for myself what was going on.

[Peter Arnett] Much of what I wrote and what many of the pictures that you took, of course, were not negative in terms of America’s overall policy. We were the reality check on what government was doing.

[David Hume Kennerly] If TV brought the the Vietnam War into your living room, it was always a still picture that got right to your heart and soul. Eddie Adams, who, our friend who took that great shot of, uh, General Loan shooting the guy in the head told me that all the good pictures had already been taken. Nick Ut’s photograph of uh, Kim Phuc running down the road after being Napalmed, those were photographs that you had not seen from the war. You see action, you see uh, some bodies, but what was the emotional toll? I don’t think people understand how important it was to GIs that we were out there with them, and, uh, we were just telling their story, and that was really important.

[Peter Arnett] The newspapers, editors, wanted that soldier’s point of view. The perspective of what it was like being in the swamps of the Mekong Delta -- up to your neck at some points.

[David Hume Kennerly] I think a perspective I got on the war was very different the day I went into a Viet Cong village. What I found out was that they had kids in the village, they were Viet Cong soldiers, they were sympathetic to the other side, but they were like everybody else. That was really a big deal because we couldn’t cover both sides of the war.

[Peter Arnett] I went on hundreds of military operations, and I did it because I knew that if I could get through the operations, if I could come up with a kind of information that was important to viewers and readers, then the, the danger was worthwhile. And I’m very glad that I was there, and glad that I covered it, and maybe miraculous that I survived it.

[David Hume Kennerly] I’ve thought a lot about how I was changed by The Vietnam War. I went over, I had just turned twenty-four, and almost a whole year I was in combat. When I, when I hit twenty-five, um, it was a major celebration. I thought I would never see twenty-five years old, and ever since then my birthdays have meant so much more to me. The fact that Vietnam is in the past for me, although it has informed my whole career, um, means I’m one of the luckiest people on the face of the earth. Art Card: Bank of America proudly supports a Ken Burns and Lynn Novick film, The Vietnam War, premiering September 17 at 8 p.m. Eastern on PBS.

[Logos] Legal: Bank of America, N.A. Member FDIC © 2017 Bank of America Corporation. Art Card:

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IN THE NEWS: Read the New York Times op-ed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick

The New York Times We'll never understand what happened if we do not ask our allies and our enemies. Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, Directors, The Vietnam War

IN THE NEWS: Read the New York Times op-ed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick

The Vietnam War: Fostering Dialogue Through Different Perspectives

Learn more about The Vietnam War in this letter from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick

We're able to tell the epic story of the war as it's never before been told on film. Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, Directors, The Vietnam War

Learn more about The Vietnam War in this letter from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick

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VIDEO: Watch the trailer for Ken Burns' latest documentary, The Vietnam War

[helicopter sound, protesters]
PHIL GIOIA: I think The Vietnam War drove a stake right into the heart of America. Unfortunately we’ve never moved really far away from that… and we never recovered.

KEN BURNS: There was no way we could avoid telling this story. [battle sounds] Wars are so extraordinarily revealing, obviously of the worst of humanity, but as it turns out, also the best of humanity.

LYNN NOVICK: There’s been a lot done about this subject: Books, documentaries, feature films, novels… I mean, it’s not like no one’s ever tried. But it remains this kind of unfinished business in American history.

KEN BURNS: So it’s time now. The decades have passed, and it’s important now to go back and try to understand it.

VINCENT OKAMOTO: The real heroes are the men that died. To see these kids who had the least to gain, and yet their loyalty to each other, their courage under fire was just phenomenal. And you would ask yourself, how does America produce young men like this?

SARAH BOTSTEIN: We wanted to get to know the people, we wanted to get to know the place, we wanted to spend time there. Trying to figure out how to do what we do in Vietnam was really a challenge.

LYNN NOVICK: There’s no one American side. And then within Vietnam, there’s the winning side. There’s the losing side. They were our enemy and our ally. There’s just so many different perspectives, we tried to bring them all together.

KEN BURNS: This is, without a doubt, the most ambitious project that we have ever undertaken. PBS is the only place it could’ve been done.

LYNN NOVICK: I think the country’s ready to have the conversation we’ve never had about the war which we really need to have.

KEN BURNS: This film is not an answer, but a set of questions about what happened.

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Connect to history

The Vietnam War

VIDEO: Watch Bank of America executive, Thong Nguyen, share his Vietnam War perspective with Ken Burns

VIDEO: The Vietnam War, a landmark documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick

Bank of America employees share their Vietnam War stories and perspectives

See the speaker highlights and more from The Vietnam War premier events hosted by Bank of America

A dialogue on The Vietnam War with Ken Burns and Bank of America’s Anne Finucane

View The Vietnam Era gallery by Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist David Hume Kennerly

VIDEO: Photographer David Hume Kennerly and journalist Peter Arnett discuss their roles covering Vietnam

IN THE NEWS: Read the New York Times op-ed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick

The Vietnam War: Fostering Dialogue Through Different Perspectives

Learn more about The Vietnam War in this letter from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick

VIDEO: Watch the trailer for Ken Burns' latest documentary, The Vietnam War

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