Description
The Vietnam War is a 10-part, 18-hour documentary television series by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick about the Vietnam War. The documentary premiered on the Public Broadcasting Service on September 17, 2017. The series "features testimony from nearly 80 witnesses, including many Americans who fought in the war and others who opposed it, as well as Vietnamese combatants and civilians from both the winning and losing sides." Deliberate attention was given in avoiding "historians or other expert talking heads" and "onscreen interviews with polarizing boldfaced names like John Kerry, John McCain, Henry Kissinger and Jane Fonda" - instead, interviews were intended "to give the ground-up view of the war from the mostly ordinary people who lived through it." The researchers for the film also accessed more than 24,000 photographs and examined 1,500 hours of archival footage. Within the 18-hours of documentary, there are scenes covering 25 battles, 10 of which are detailed set-piece battle scenes documenting the action from multiple perspectives. The script for the show was written entirely by Geoffrey Ward, and the narration was made by Peter Coyote.