The Vietnam War, as told by its veterans: ‘When are we going to learn our lesson once and for all?’

When mass tragedies occur, journalists and historians often struggle to put faces to the victims. More than 2.7 million Americans served during the Vietnam War, and over 58,000 were killed during the conflict. It is estimated that up to three million Vietnamese died in the war, which took place between the mid-1950s and the mid-1970s. The documentary series Vietnam: The War That Changed America, now available on Apple TV+, puts names and surnames to these devastating numbers.

Narrated by actor Ethan Hawke and directed by Rob Coldstream, who has worked on documentaries focusing on Donald Trump, Queen Elizabeth II, and Anne Boleyn, Vietnam: The War That Changed America recalls in six chapters the armed conflict that marked the history of both countries, on the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the end of the most controversial war in the history of the U.S. Intense first-person testimonies and immersive archival images aim to make the story as intimate as possible.

Throughout its episodes, the Apple TV+ documentary also shows the collateral damage suffered by many civilians on both sides, and reunions between soldiers who survived on the battlefield.

One of the faces that humanizes the series is that of the American Bill Broyles, 80, a Vietnam War veteran and screenwriter who has drawn on his personal experiences to recall or adapt them in works of fiction such as the television series China Beach and the cinematic odysseys Apollo 13, Jarhead, Flags of Our Fathers and Cast Away. In addition to giving interviews, the filmmaker collaborated with the documentary series team as an advisor. “The idea was to recount everything that is not in the history books and in most documentaries about Vietnam, almost always focused on historical and war analysis, in more general patterns,” he explained to EL PAÍS at the end of January from his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in a telematic conversation.

“I’ve seen about 50 fictional films about the Vietnam War and, although they all have their good points, they end up being a way of showing the political opinions of their director. For years, Hollywood used Vietnam to portray its fictional psychopaths, as in Taxi Driver,” says Broyles. “That’s why this documentary tries to be more human. Its episodes reminded me of what William Faulkner said: ‘The past is never dead. It’s not even past.’ Well, in Spain you know that better than anyone.”

Broyles also experiences one of the reunions that take place on camera. He recalls that when he took command of his platoon, his men had already been at war for months. His first firefight left him so shaken that he lost his voice. He had to rely on his radio operator, Jeff Hiers, who by then embodied the disillusionment that had gripped many soldiers. The relationship between the two became intimate when Broyles decided to rebel and fake radio communications to make it appear to the military command that they were on the battlefield, when in reality he was keeping his men out of the firing line. “Connected by a radio cable, one’s life depended on the other,” he says.

Broyles turned to Hiers as a consultant for his China Beach series. The last time they met was 40 years ago, at a memorial service for the victims of Vietnam. “When I met him, he was a 19-year-old who had dropped out of school, but who had much more experience than I had on the battlefield. I learned much more from my subordinates than I did at Oxford University,” admits the filmmaker. “When I met him again for the documentary, I thought: ‘There he is, the most rebellious soldier in history, turning up years later in his military jacket.’ Because, despite everything, what he experienced has continued to be important in his life,” says Broyles.

To obtain lesser-seen images of a historical event that has been under scrutiny for half a century, the series’ research team was divided into two groups. One of them examined more than 1,000 archive images stored in various countries around the world. The other tracked down the people who appeared in them and ended up talking directly to more than 1,000 of them across the globe.

To update the undigitized footage, the series creators re-scanned it in 4K, restoring and colorizing it where necessary. Their audiovisual sources are so disparate that they combine personal Super 8 footage shot by pilot John Stiles from his own cockpit, footage from the pioneering Canadian war correspondent Hilary Brown that was left on the cutting room floor, and some little-known Japanese color images that show everyday wartime life from the Vietnamese point of view.

“My son was in the Iraq War and also in Afghanistan. He enlisted after 9/11. I begged him not to. I even began to process my experience in Vietnam in a different way when I became the father of a son who was on the battlefield. I was even clearer about what we saw then. What does Iraq or Afghanistan have to do with us? What did we lose in Vietnam? When are we going to learn our lesson once and for all?” Broyles concludes.

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