Warring

AND SO IT BEGINS: On Sunday night, we watched the premiere of Ken Burns' "The Vietnam War" on PBS. Episode 1 was appropriately titled: Déjà Vu (1858-1961). It chronicled the century of the French occupation of Vietnam, how contentious and, frankly, unsuccessful it was, and painted the picture of just how difficult that country was to try to control through a typical Western military-style approach.

We were also introduced to Ho Chi Minh and Ngo Dinh Diem, two important historical figures we'd like to learn lots more about. (Let's face it, 90 minutes is not enough time to cover 100+ years of history.)

If you missed the series premiere last night, PBS has made the program available for online viewing. After a century of French occupation, Vietnam emerges independent but divided.

While watching the first episode, my ear kept zeroing in on the soundtrack for the program. The familiar songs included definitely put a time stamp on the events. 

The PBS website has this to say about the music included along with the movie:

The Vietnam War features more than 120 iconic popular songs that define the era, including tracks from The Beatles; Rolling Stones; Bob Dylan; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; The Jimi Hendrix Experience; Simon & Garfunkel; Big Brother & The Holding Company (feat Janis Joplin); B.B. King; Creedence Clearwater Revival; Barry McGuire; Buffalo Springfield; The Byrds; Otis Redding; Santana; Marvin Gaye; Ray Charles; Nina Simone; The Temptations; Booker T. and the M.G.s; Pete Seeger and more.

The series also features new, original music written and recorded by Academy Award-winning composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, as well as new music arranged and performed by Grammy Award-winning cellist Yo-Yo Ma and The Silk Road Ensemble. Additional music in the film was composed by David Cieri and Doug Wamble, both of whom are longtime collaborators with Florentine Films.

The images from the war, at home and abroad, are compelling - and often horrifying. PBS has an interactive photo mosaic here: http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-vietnam-war/vietnam-stories/photo-mosaic/

CJ had this short bit to say about the program's premiere:

The first episode is primarily about the causes leading up to the Vietnam war, starting with the French occupation of Vietnam. In the 19th century, France's army had colonized Vietnam, and enslaved a large portion of the Vietnamese population. Many Vietnamese men, women, and children were forced to do work for the government, with no pay. In 1919, a man using the alias "Nguyễn Ái Quốc" ("Nguyễn the Patriot") wrote a letter to the French ruler of Vietnam, asking for independence. It is not believed that the letter was ever read.

Nguyễn Ái Quốc, whose real name was Nguyễn Sinh Cung (and would go under over 70 different aliases before settling on "Hồ Chí Minh", meaning "The Enlightened One"), would go on to form the Communist Party of Vietnam (then known as the Indochinese Communist Party), after learning about Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin (both prominent communist figures). Ho became involved in the Viet Minh, a militia advocating for the independence of Vietnam from French rule. The Viet Minh would eventually fight for the North Vietnamese Army (the communist, China-backed one) in the Vietnam war.

MEANWHILE, IN FRANCE: A week from now, we will be in Dunkirk, France, as part of our big field trip abroad. 

We'll be taking a ferry into Dunkirk from Dover, U.K. Situated on the shores of the North Sea near the Belgian-French border, it's just 21 miles across the English Channel from U.K. to France.

History.com notes, "Because of its seaside location near the borders of three European powers, Dunkirk (known as Dunkerque in French) and the surrounding area have been the scene of centuries of commerce and travel, as well as numerous bloody battles."

Before we see Dunkirk for ourselves, we wanted to see this summer's blockbuster movie of the same name. It's about "Operation Dynamo," or the evacuation of British soldiers across the North Sea to England, while the German forces had them cut off and greatly outnumbered. 

Because there were not enough military vessels to make it happen, the British government implored anyone with any sea worth boat to be part of the rescue. What happened next became known as the “Miracle of Dunkirk.”

By June 4, when the Germans closed in and the operation came to an end, more than 338,000 soldiers were saved. 

The movie was kind of an 'old school' war movie. Planes and boats and bombs and bombs and bombs and explosions and planes and bombs and boats and bombs. 

Honestly, after watching "The Vietnam War" last night and "Dunkirk" today, we were on war overload. It's a lot to think about and process. We're lucky we have the luxury of having the time to contemplate it all. The shows we've seen in the past two days drove home the fact that far is unrelenting and immediate and it's about surviving in milliseconds.