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"The War" (by Ken Burns) Part 4 of 7; Airing on PBS @ 7PM Central 9-26-07
pbs.org ^ | undated | PBS staff

Posted on 09/26/2007 2:30:49 PM PDT by VOA

This is a "heads-up" for the airing of "The War", the Ken Burns
(Florentine Films) production on PBS.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: documentary; kenburns; pbs; thewar; wwii
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To: groanup
I don't like to watch PBS. Saw part of yesterday's episode and it was OK. Nothing special.
41 posted on 09/26/2007 6:35:33 PM PDT by Ukiapah Heep (Shoes for Industry!)
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To: All
So far I think the series is a good one. Watching different accounts we can always learn something. Fortunately, a significant part of this series is the words of the Veterans and Americans in general themselves. Thats a good thing.

Curious, any WWII veterans or historians out there have an idea or stats of how many Americans didn’t want to join the services during WWII?

42 posted on 09/26/2007 7:26:53 PM PDT by msnpatriot (Free Republic is my 1st stop!....After that check out my 'Political Watercooler' on googlegroups...)
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To: indcons

Thanks indcons. I hope Ken’s next documentary is about the Spanish conquests of the late 15th-early 16th centuries. ;’)


43 posted on 09/26/2007 7:43:46 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Profile updated Wednesday, September 12, 2007. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: wbill

Well put.


44 posted on 09/26/2007 7:44:46 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Profile updated Wednesday, September 12, 2007. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: colorado tanker
And Americans, black and white, from the North and West saw for the first time and first hand race segregation when they were stationed in the South. It had a profound effect on many.

Huh? Do you honestly think that there was no segregation and discrimination in the North and the West before and during the war?

45 posted on 09/26/2007 7:45:48 PM PDT by groanup (Limited government is the answer. What's the question?)
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To: colorado tanker; groanup

“And Americans, black and white, from the North and West saw for
the first time and first hand race segregation when they were stationed
in the South.”

Statistically, that probably is most of the story.

But it’s not ALL of the story.

As even Burns (a mild tip of the hat to him) listed a number of
locations in last night’s Part 3 on racial strife...and some of those
locales were most decidedly ABOVE the Mason-Dixon Line.

Well, I guess if I’m going to ding Burns for spending maybe about double
the air-time he need to make his points about how G-d-awful America was
during WWII...
I should give him credit for admitting it was NOT a 100% “Southern thing”.


46 posted on 09/26/2007 8:03:41 PM PDT by VOA
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To: Fiona MacKnight
Does anybody think in those terms any more?

Uh, your mom.
And almost surely my mom.

Age 9 at Pearl Harbor, she tells me how listening to the rather
strained talk of the adults got her worried that the Japanese
were going to making strike her home.
In a little town in north-central Oklahoma.
47 posted on 09/26/2007 8:08:13 PM PDT by VOA
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To: VOA

Ah, the radio message of D-Day by Robert St. John.
I saw a documentary on him. IIRC, he lost his job at NBC during
the Red Scare (he was a leftie).
BUT, then ended up as a reporter from and an advocate for Israel.
In that regard he was a different kind of leftist than the ones
we endure in the USA today.


48 posted on 09/26/2007 8:19:52 PM PDT by VOA
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To: VOA

OK, a tip of the hat to Burns for including all the “thanksgiving”
observances as news of D-Day spread in the USA.
And even the religious services got acknowleged.

Wow....
Burns even included FDR’s “imprecatory” (sp?) D-Day Prayer.
I wonder who at “Florentine Films” went to bat to air FDR’s voice
intoning “Almighty G-d,...”.


49 posted on 09/26/2007 8:24:10 PM PDT by VOA
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To: msnpatriot

“Fortunately, a significant part of this series is the words of the Veterans and Americans in general themselves. Thats a good thing.”

I agree. Tuesday night’s episode was very slow moving. Tonight’s was better.

As tonight’s program wrapped up, I prayed and as God to use it to open the eyes of my fellow Americans. Perhaps this series (even with some of its liberal bias) can be used to help people see the necessity of fighting through to victory.

My heart is so heavy when I hear the traitorous remarks of many in our nation’s capital who want to turn tail and run from the enemy of freedom we now face.

I was heartened to hear the final song in tonight’s program pay tribute to Americans. Yes, America is a force for good in the world. The bravery and courage of our soldiers—past and present—bear witness to our love of liberty. Not only do these courageous souls fight and die for us, but they do so by the thousands for people they don’t know. God bless every one.


50 posted on 09/26/2007 8:29:37 PM PDT by freedom4me ("Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom."--Ben Franklin)
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To: VOA

This was my first night watching it, and I thought it was done rather well. Very stirring and stunning images and accounts. I am surprised PBS didn’t make him edit out all references to “the Japs”.


51 posted on 09/26/2007 8:31:50 PM PDT by Shelayne (NO running or relenting until the problem has been dealt with-decisively,systematically,permanently.)
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To: Shelayne
I am surprised PBS didn’t make him edit out all references
to “the Japs”.


Yes, that is a bit suprising.

Honestly, I've been trying to keep these "comment" threads going
in order to get a...oh darn it, I'm going to say it...opinion
from a DIVERSE audience.
(Despite what the folks at Democratic Underground would say about
Freepers being a bunch of monolithic, mind-numbed fascist robots.)

I'm afraid I'm in the unenviable position of "the chicken in
the middle of the road" as I see both good, neutral and bad things
about Burns' treatment.

But I MUST watch it because I'm sure my young niece and other younguns
from my extended family will watch it in coming years at school.

And I want to know the whole of this show well so I can comment
(positively or negatively) about the show in the future.
52 posted on 09/26/2007 8:43:18 PM PDT by VOA
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To: VOA
"At the rate it's going I get the feeling (without analyzing) that PBS and Burns decided "no more than 30 minutes of real war documentary between each "America was awful then" gripe-session".

Okay...I'm sure this is not an original thought...but, I have to ask.

Why is it conservatives and other normal people have completely conceded Hollywood and the media to the liberals? (I deliberately excluded academia because I realize it's hopeless).

Is there not a studio or network out there even slightly interested in bankrolling an accurate account of anything...or does it all have to be liberally biased?

Hey, here's a novel concept: let's shoot the moon and find some struggling producer willing to put together the first-ever conservatively-biased account of some/any event in America's history.

I know I may be pipe dreaming here, but why is that (seemingly) such an unattainable dream...and why are we forever wallowing in liberal bias?

53 posted on 09/26/2007 8:56:08 PM PDT by daler (The best things in life...aren't "things.")
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To: VOA

....I haven’t seen any interviews with a veteran looking back with nostalgia at the good times,laughs and comradship in the service...ever been to a WWII reunion?...I have, and the men reminisce with fondness over the good times.....they also respect with honor the terrible times of death and loss...for many men the War was the high point of their lives....my old sergeant major was with Patton and saw his share and had a silver star to prove it, but yet had wonderful stories....example: you could always tell a grizzled veteran infantryman from a green replacement because the seasoned veteran carried a corkscrew....the better to “liberate” French vinyards don’cha know!

....Burn’s approach reminds me of a college in our area that was going to have a 1950s themed dance....the administration canceled it because they said “the 50s weren’t a very good time for blacks”


54 posted on 09/26/2007 9:07:00 PM PDT by STONEWALLS
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To: daler
Is there not a studio or network out there even slightly interested
in bankrolling an accurate account of anything...or does it
all have to be liberally biased?


Maybe you haven't tried FOX News Channel?

And those wild-and-crazy guys that are
not-fired-only-because-they-actually-have-great-ratings
at CNN Glen Beck and Lou Dobbs?

Yes, liberal, revisionist drivel is the order of the day.

BUT, thanks to competition and "alternate" delivery systems like
AM talk radio and the Internet, truth-tellers have a fighting
chance.
Which is not something I would have felt in the early part of
"The Clinton Years".

And I fondly remember the first days I heard Rush Limbaugh on
radio while I was in an academic lab that was on the cutting edge
of political-correctness.

But for Rush, I'd just thought I was the guy that was going insane then!

Listening to Rush then on the radio...reminded me of poor souls behind
the Iron Curtain tuning in Radio Free Europe/Voice of America
discovering voices of reason/truth...while they lived in the hell
of "a workers' paradise".

Hence my Free Republic Handle of "VOA".
55 posted on 09/26/2007 9:14:11 PM PDT by VOA
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To: STONEWALLS
...a college in our area that was going to have a 1950s themed dance....
the administration canceled it because they said “the 50s weren’t
a very good time for blacks”


Franz Kafka Lives!
At least in academia!!!
56 posted on 09/26/2007 9:17:04 PM PDT by VOA
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To: VOA

Well, Burns is giving the “Go For Broke” guys some just due.

Linked below is a profile of the fellow whose name adorns the walls
of the US Army Reserve center at the corner of Wilshire and San Vicente/Federal
in West Los Angeles (just to the west of the VA Hospital).

I admit the real reason I know about it was that I saw the fenced in
Army center and when I located an apartment a couple of block away
down Wilshire...I took the apartment, thinking if there was another bit
of “civil unrest”, I’d at least head over there.
(Silly though I know, but that’s how a flyover guy things a few years
after the Rodney King riots and the OJ trial).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadao_Munemori


57 posted on 09/26/2007 9:27:42 PM PDT by VOA
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To: VOA

URL for a thread about an IBD editorial on “The War” and our present-day
circumstances:

‘The War’ - Then And Now
IBD ^ | September 25, 2007
Posted on 09/25/2007 7:39:56 PM PDT by Kaslin

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1902183/posts?page=1


58 posted on 09/26/2007 9:48:53 PM PDT by VOA
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To: Mike Darancette

Well, my impression that it was nothing in comparison with what the japs did to American prisoners. I gather that as the war wore on, our guys became more like the Japanese troops, because that was the only way to take them down. They were, after all, religious fanatics dying for a living god, the Emperor. Don’t waste lives trying to take them prisoners: just kill them


59 posted on 09/26/2007 10:01:44 PM PDT by RobbyS ( CHIRHO)
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To: VOA
Sure...I watch FNC regularly.

And I don't think they're biased at all.

If anything, they tend to buy into the current media "thought-pattern" of the day.

Sure...not as bad as the other networks, but the "conservative" label on FNC is, IMO, not only a bad rap, but a strategy of the left.

I'm talking about plays, movies, documentaries, music videos...other cultural commodities that are now virtually 100% liberal.

Does anybody have any interest in producing entertainment/news fare for normal people?

It would seem to make economic sense.

60 posted on 09/26/2007 10:03:23 PM PDT by daler (The best things in life...aren't "things.")
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