With three combat deployment to Vietnam, Tom Draude watches with interest

Capt Tom Draude, USMC
Republic of Vietnam, 1970
Advisor to Vietnamese Marines
With 1stLt Tri (who had graduated from the The Basic School, Quantico VA)

Tom Draude, BGen USMC (ret) has watched each episode of the Ken Burns series “The Vietnam War” that is airing on PBS he joined us to share his thoughts on the series.  Like many, he has watched with interest the interviews with North Vietnamese Army soldiers and Viet Cong fighters; he’s also been keenly interested in how the experience of those who lost family members has been conveyed to the audience.

Draude also talks candidly about post-Vietnam Marine Corps life and how many officers put the experience away and didn’t speak of it, even with subordinates, which in retrospect was a mistakes.

 

IS KEN BURNS BEING TOO KIND TO ROBERT MCNAMARA IN HIS PBS SERIES ON THE VIETNAM WAR?

Robert S. McNamara
Secretary of Defense
1961-1968

I received an email from Ohio that asked if Robert McNamara being treated with kid gloves by Ken Burns?  He was the arrogant architect of the Vietnam War — is he being given a pass.

We’ll talk about it.

 

KEN BURNS’ DOCUMENTARY — THE VIETNAM WAR: Bob Nilsson reviews Part 3

Bob Nilsson
Capt USMC
Founder, 100 Entrepreneurs Project

Bob Nilsson was Captain of Engineers in the Marine Corps and fought in Vietnam 1966-1967.  He reacts to episode #3 of Ken Burns The Vietnam War documentary.

An interesting part of the series is how it has animated the community of Vietnam veterans.  Will this be a fair account of a complex war? Or, will it be another screwing-over of the their community?

VIETNAM ON PBS, FEMALE RIFLE PLATOON COMMANDERS & A SOLUTION TO OUR IMMIGRATION ISSUES: Montana Man & Mac

Montana Man
aka Rob Schwarz
LtCol USMC (ret)

Rob Schwarz joins us to talk about:

(1)  The Ken Burns PBS documentary The Vietnam War

(2)  The first female Second Lieutenant to get through the Infantry Officer’s Course, what does he think?

(3)  His solutions to “The Wall,”  “Dreamers” and the “parents of Dreamers”