The Vietnam War

An immersive 360-degree narrative telling the epic story of the Vietnam War as it has never before been told on film. Featuring 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.

The Vietnam War is a United States documentary miniseries broadcast on PBS in 2017, produced by Florentine Films and WETA and presented as a ten-episode, roughly 109-minute-per-episode history. Narrated by Peter Coyote, it assembles testimony from nearly eighty witnesses, including American veterans and antiwar voices such as Marine Karl Marlantes and John Musgrave, alongside Vietnamese combatants and civilians from both the winning and losing sides, among them Bao Ninh and Bui Diem. Rather than following a single protagonist, the series builds its engine from the collision of these accounts: each episode lays out how decisions in Washington, Saigon and Hanoi played out on the ground, where soldiers and villagers lived with free-fire zones, body counts and shifting orders. The structure is chronological and cumulative, so the viewer gathers the war piece by piece from many incompatible memories. Its tone is sober, immersive and unflinching, with a melancholy weight rather than sensationalism. Archival footage and firsthand voices give it a visceral, grounded texture. Set across the 1950s through the 1970s in Vietnam, the United States and beyond, it suits viewers drawn to war history, Cold War politics and oral history. Fans of The World at War, Band of Brothers and The Cold War will find resonance in its scale and seriousness.

Viewers and critics broadly acclaim the series as a landmark, immersive documentary that gives a multi-perspective account of the Vietnam War through testimony from Americans and Vietnamese on both sides.

• The World at War (1973)epic war documentary with testimony from both sides, serious historical tone
• Band of Brothersmulti-episode chronological documentary of a twentieth century conflict told through witness interviews
• The Cold Warsweeping documentary history of cold war era conflict using interviews and archival footage

Release Date

2017-09-17

Episode runtime

109 min

Rating

9.1 / 10 (231)

What is The Vietnam War about?

A ten-episode documentary miniseries that recounts the Vietnam War through the testimony of nearly eighty witnesses from America, Vietnam and beyond.

What is The Vietnam War like to watch?

Ember's analysis rates the pacing of The Vietnam War as measured, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as dense.

Is The Vietnam War violent?

Somewhat. Ember rates the violence in The Vietnam War as moderate.

What did critics think of The Vietnam War?

Viewers and critics broadly acclaim the series as a landmark, immersive documentary that gives a multi-perspective account of the Vietnam War through testimony from Americans and Vietnamese on both sides.

Which shows are like The Vietnam War?

Shows with a similar feel include The World at War (1973), Band of Brothers, and The Cold War.

How long is The Vietnam War?

The Vietnam War: 1 season, 10 episodes.

Is The Vietnam War still running?

No, The Vietnam War has ended.

Where can I watch The Vietnam War?

In United States, The Vietnam War streams on Hoopla, PBS Documentaries Amazon Channel, KQED, Thirteen, WETA+.