A dramatization of the Johnson administration, focusing primarily on the Vietnam War.
This film does make for a very acceptable crash course on the Vietnam War, and I am glad I watched it. However, no TV drama is complete without those ridiculous human interest adornments which, among other dubious points, will lead an ignorant man like myself to deduce that Mrs. McNamara's stomach problems were just another nasty effect of the war. Johnson comes across as a semi-moron, and I have no further information that will put this labeling into question. The Negro question serves as a countertheme, and is perhaps useful for an analysis of what really happened both in American and in Asian hearts and minds at that period. The question of why would America get involved in the affairs of a distant country at all, apart from the sound military considerations by George Ball, is not once raised in the movie. Vietnamese division into two countries makes for a stark contrast to the cohesiveness of the North Vietnamese people, and is a matter of wonderment to me. Why would anyone try to politically divide a people which is so homogeneous in everything else? The reverse of that question is, why is Johnson so emphatic in his speech about his policies being not for the North, nor for the South, but for the whole America? Why would anyone try to politically unite a people which is so heterogeneous in everything else?
Rating: 63
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