NR | 6 episodes | Documentary, War, History | 2025
With a running time of 255 minutes culled from over 1,100 hours of archival footage spread out over six lean and efficient episodes, the new docuseries “Vietnam: The War That Changed America” (“Vietnam”) is being released 50 years after the end of the war.
Directed by longtime British documentarian Rob Coldstream, “Vietnam” shares significant overlap with previous similar past productions. It would be impossible not to. Yet the documentary separates itself from the others by putting the emphasis on the individuals doing the fighting and the often devastating toll the war took on their stateside families.
Boots on the Ground
Unlike any other war before or since, Vietnam was an ongoing, practically live TV event. Every night, the Big 3 networks (CBS, ABC, and NBC) would air what took place the same or previous day on their evening news broadcasts.At first, this “you are there” presentation was embraced by Americans as it bolstered support not so much for the war itself but rather for the U.S. sons and daughters on the ground. The first official conflict, the five-day-long November 1965 Battle of Ia Drang, ended with more casualties on the Viet side and both sides claiming victory.
A sound bite from one U.S. soldier—“We were winning”—at the start of the second episode underscored the overall attitude of the troops in the first full year of the war. However, in 1967, morale began to wane, the North won more battles, and the momentum had clearly shifted. The North further penetrated the South, establishing dominance in the Mekong Delta region and eventually reaching the far south capital city of Saigon.
Not My War
The North’s “divide and conquer” approach with both the troops and their loved ones back home started yielding metaphoric fruit. Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) refused to be drafted. In April and June 1968, anti-war leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated, respectively. Riots raged in major cities across the land. Black Panther-inspired American medal winners at the Mexico City Olympic Games raised leather-gloved fists at their awards ceremony. The seeds of discontent had been sown.As with most past Vietnam War live-action movies and documentaries, Coldstream includes many of the same 1960s performers (Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Who, The Doors, The Animals, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Lynyrd Skynyrd) on the soundtrack.
Coldstream, however, picks titles from those artists that never appeared in any previous Vietnam films. Some of these songs aren’t initially lyrically fitting, but all eventually make for perfect fits.
The Wind-Down
Vietnam was the first war that the United States lost and came to terms with defeat. This conflict had so little to gain and so much on the line. It was tough for the majority of the American people to accept. Loss seemed inevitable almost from the start; prolonging it and stalling its conclusion only added salt to already festering wounds.For the final three episodes (“Mutiny,” “Homecoming,” “The Endgame”), Coldstream pulls off a near-impossible feat. He’s able to offset the bitter sense of futility, loss, and the useless sacrifice of blood and treasure with a handful of profiles focusing on civilians, soldiers, medical personnel, and journalists taking place in the present day.
All of these human-interest subplots are laced with the types of dramatic and mystery threads generally associated with scripted, fictional, live-action storytelling.
The ability of Coldstream to lift and wrap up a production so top-heavy with loss with these soaring, loving, inspirational, heartwarming, and unexpectedly happy endings was a minor miracle. Showing the strength of soul and character displayed by these selfless individuals, who sacrificed so much, and emerging on the other side exhibiting bottomless and upbeat optimism is frequently overwhelming.
M.I.A.
If there is anything to find fault with in “Vietnam,” it is Coldstream’s thorough avoidance (or purposeful omission) of the origins of the U.S. involvement in the war. Yes, the 1965 Battle of Ia Drang marked the start of physical conflict. However, the United States, through the 1947 Truman Doctrine, began providing funding and sending political advisers to the South in September of 1950. By 1954, the United States had spent over $1 billion ($11.73 billion in 2025 dollars) supporting French troops already involved in armed battle.The limited U.S. involvement steadily continued under both the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. The series states that the war was overseen by four U.S. presidents when in reality it was six—Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford.
Had Coldstream opened “Vietnam” with this little-publicized but significant chunk of historical backstory, the complexion of the series would have changed greatly and gone from almost excellent to near perfect.
