Episode
American Experience: Vietnam: A Television History (Part 1 & 2)
Overview
"Vietnam: A Television History" begins by tracing the "Roots of a War" to French colonialism. "America's Mandarin" looks at the start of America's involvement in Vietnam during the 1950s and '60s.
Details
- Series
- American Experience
- Season
- Season 9
- Episode
- Episode 11
- Air date
- 1997-05-26
- Runtime
- 55 min
Episode context
Vietnam: A Television History (Part 1 & 2) is Episode 11 in Season 9 of American Experience. It aired on 1997-05-26. The runtime is 55 min.
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Episode 10: Gold Fever
The 1890's in America were desperate times. A depression brought bank and business failures and forced millions of men and women from their jobs. When gold was discovered in a frozen no man's land between Canada and Alaska, 100,000 people made the treacherous journey in search of riches.
Episode 12: Vietnam: A Television History (3): LBJ Goes to War
LBJ Goes to War (1964-65) examines the escalating American involvement following the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. Interviewed: Gen. William Westmoreland (USA Ret.) and former Secretary of State Dean Rusk.
More episodes from this season
Episode 9: Around the World in 72 Days
At the age of nineteen, Nellie Bly talked her way into an improbable job on a newspaper, then went on to become "the best reporter in America." She was serious and spunky. To expose abuse of the mentally ill, she had herself committed. But when she travelled around the world in just 72 days, beating Jules Verne's fictional escapade, she turned herself into a world celebrity.
Episode 13: Vietnam: A Television History (4): America Takes Charge
In "America Takes Charge (1965-67)," GIs recall combat experiences during the years of U.S. military escalation. Also: a sequence in which Americans and Vietnamese describe the same operation.
Episode 8: Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern
A story of the realities leading to the vanishing role of the family farm in the United States.
Episode 14: Vietnam: A Television History (5): America's Enemy
As "Vietnam: A Television History" continues, "America's Enemy (1954-67)" examines the escalating war from the point of view of North Vietnamese leaders and their followers, beginning with the country's partition after the French defeat. Interviewed: former Premier Pham Van Dong.
Episode 7: New York Underground
It began with the blizzard of 1888 -- mountains of snow twenty feet high, horse cars and omnibuses abandoned, the city paralyzed. There was no doubt New York needed a public transportation system. It would be an American epic -- the largest public works project in history, overshadowed only by the Panama Canal.
Episode 15: Vietnam: A Television History (6): Tet 1968
Vietnam: A Television History": TV-news footage graphically recalls "Tet 1968," the bold North Vietnamese and Vietcong offensive. The attacks gave the enemy a "brilliant political victory" in the U.S, says former Secretary of State Dean Rusk.
Episode 6: Big Dream, Small Screen
The little known story of Philo T. Farnsworth, a Utah farm boy who first sketched out his idea for electronic television at the age of fourteen. An eccentric genius, Farnsworth spent years battling corporate giants to receive acknowledgment for his invention.
Episode 16: Vietnam: A Television History (7): Vietnamizing the War
"Vietnam: A Television History": The gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops and their replacement by the South Vietnamese are recalled in "Vietnamizing the War (1968-73)." But morale was low among Americans still in the country, and veterans interviewed recall racial divisions and the availability of drugs.
Episode 5: The Telephone
At first rented only "to persons of good breeding," seen as an expensive luxury for doctors and businessmen, within a decade the telephone had begun to transform American life. Trees gave way to telephone poles as operators known as "hello girls" began to connect a sprawling continent.
Episode 17: Vietnam: A Television History (8): Cambodia and Laos
America's involvement in—and secret bombing of—Cambodia and Laos are chronicled as "Vietnam: A Television History" continues. After the bombing halt in August 1973, the Communist Khmer Rouge advanced on the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, and finally, in April 1975, the city fell.