From Max’s Dad:
Vietnam. If you werent around when that war raged on you dont know nuthin about division. Oh we have division now between dummies and non dummies and white supremacists and normal people but thats not what went on back then. Ken Burns latest is a must. His past documentaries have been fascinating and this one should be just as great. Burns may be the James Patterson or Thomas Kincaid of documentarians but you cvsannot deny his passion or attention to detail. His Baseball doc and his Jazz doc were the ones I looked forward to for years and neither disappointed. Vietnam wont either.
Vietnam was the event that “radicalized” me. Before 1968 I cared about baseball. The 64 Series with Bob Gibson, the 65 Series when my Twins lost, the 67 American League pennant race when my Twins lost on the final day. That was it. That was my list of what I cared about. Then came 1968.
1968 I was in 6th grade. I was oblivious to what was going on. I remember LBJ quitting on a Sunday night and my grandma expressing surprise. I remember Bobby Kennedy coming into a presidential race I knew nothing about. I remember MLK being assassinated and Bobby Kennedy going into a black neighborhood and telling them what had happened, an act of courage and compassion that has never been duplicated in politics. But Vietnam? That was just a war far away and one we had to win. Just like WW2, the war my father fought in. Hell yes I was for the war, why wouldnt I be? I was a kid raised on WW2 movies and TV shows.
One day Sister Julie asked us in class who supported the Vietnam War.