Latest news with #TurningPoint:TheVietnamWar
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Envoy Relying on Netflix Documentaries to Figure Out His Job
Donald Trump has always boasted about hiring 'the best people,' but his special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, was a real estate investor and lawyer before being chosen for the role, with no foreign policy experience. So, he opened up Netflix. Witkoff told The Atlantic that he has been learning on the job thanks to Netflix documentaries like 'Turning Point: The Vietnam War.' Witkoff has also reportedly read books to brush up on international affairs, although the article didn't mention which ones. Shortly after his inauguration, Trump tasked Witkoff with negotiating a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and has since expanded his role to work on mediating between Ukraine and Russia. Witkoff has broken with past U.S. policy by directly reaching out to Hamas, and meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin by himself, relying only on Putin's interpreters. 'I spent a lot of time with President Putin—talking, developing a friendship, a relationship with him—and that led to Marc getting on the plane,' Witkoff told Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, during an FII Institute forum in Miami in February, describing his success in getting American schoolteacher Marc Fogel released from Russian prison. Witkoff has brushed off criticism about his lack of experience, relating foreign policy to his business background. He told The Atlantic that '[d]iplomacy is negotiation. I've been doing it my whole life.' Trump chose Witkoff because they're friends. The two have known each other since the 1980s, and Witkoff was golfing with Trump at Trump International Golf Club in Florida during an assassination attempt in September. But how does any of that demonstrate skill at resolving international conflicts and representing American interests?
The Advertiser
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Advertiser
Born after the Vietnam War? Stream this series to understand the conflict
This week's streaming highlights include Turning Point: The Vietnam War on Netflix and Prime Video's Another Simple Favour starring Blake Lively.
Tom's Guide
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
I just watched Netflix's 'Turning Point' documentary on the Vietnam War 50 years later — and it chilled me to the bone
War movies aren't my thing. Most feel like different flavors of the same played-out, pro-military propaganda, where the human toll takes a backseat to the fighting (re-created with the full Hollywood treatment, naturally) and what uplifting narratives can be spun out of the bones of an awful chapter of human history. That's why I was surprised when Netflix's "Turning Point" series quickly became one of my favorites on the streamer. Directed by Brian Knappenberger, it retraces pivotal historical events through an unflinching, methodical and most of all deeply human lens. Turning Point: The Vietnam War | Official Trailer | Netflix - YouTube Watch On Each multi-episode series breaks down some of the thornier topics we learned in history class with the care they deserve, shaving off the veneer of American exceptionalism we were taught. You may like Previous entries tackled the Cold War and America's "war on terror," two conflicts that trace a direct line to the country's state of bipartisan animosity, public distrust and corruption today. By no coincidence, both conflicts are similarly inextricable from America's war in Vietnam, which is the subject of Knappenberger's latest entry. "Turning Point: The Vietnam War" premiered on Netflix on April 30, timed to the 50th anniversary of when the communist North Vietnamese captured Saigon in the U.S.-supported South Vietnam, widely considered to be the end of the conflict. This five-part series features footage from the frontlines, recordings of U.S. presidents, testimony from historians, and interviews with people on all sides of the conflict to paint a clear picture of incompetence and hubris at the highest levels of power. Now that "Turning Point: The Vietnam War" is streaming on Netflix, I'd encourage as many people as possible to check it out. Especially if, after doomscrolling through recent headlines, you've ever asked yourself, "How the hell did we get here?" It's less a history lecture and more a haunting reminder that history is ours to shape, for better or worse. What is 'Turning Point: The Vietnam War' about? From the jump, "Turning Point: The Vietnam War" makes it painfully clear that nothing about this conflict is simple. The soundbite you were taught in history class doesn't do it justice. While April 30, 1975 marked the fall of Saigon and the end of the fighting, the fallout is still simmering to this day, as demonstrated through a montage of recent headlines about mounting public cynicism for American leaders and clips of the January 6th U.S. Capitol attack in the first episode. A quote from author and historian Thomas Bass in that episode's opening moments really stuck with me: "We all live under the shadow of Vietnam." (Image credit: Netflix) Rather than beating you over the head with facts and figures from the historical record, the docuseries kicks things off on a more personal level with testimony from those involved in the fighting. The opening shot introduces us to Scott Camil, a Vietnam vet from Florida, as he talks about the grueling basic training he went through after joining the Marines, his voice breaking when he remembers the marching songs he and his fellow Marines used to sing. Just as he was given one story about the war and why he was risking his life halfway across the world, so was the American public. One of the recurring themes among the experts Knappenberger talks to is how ardently American leaders worked to keep the public ignorant of the full scope of the country's involvement, especially in the early days. As the war escalated, tales of costly battles were deliberately rewritten into stories of triumph by the time they made the morning paper. (Image credit: Netflix) Bogus intelligence, costly mismanagement, and political deception unfortunately surface as cornerstones of the U.S.'s involvement in Vietnam throughout the documentary. Knappenberger and the experts he interviews spare no blame for American leaders. Tape recordings of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon talking to advisors at the time offer an intimate glimpse into history, drawing you in in a way that makes you feel like a fly on the wall of history. Particularly striking is their candid discussion of LBJ's uncertainty and hesitation over Vietnam in the early months of his presidency after Kennedy's assassination, building a picture of an insecure man out of his depths suddenly surrounded by what he's been led to believe are the nation's brightest minds. Each episode goes through painstaking lengths to outline the key players and events, lining them up like dominoes in a game you know will end in disaster — it's just a matter of how much worse it was than you realized. Why 'Turning Point: The Vietnam War' is a must-watch (Image credit: Netflix) If all that sounds like I'm asking you to sit through the equivalent of a history lecture, I'm seriously selling it short. What sets these "Turning Point" docuseries apart is how each takes the utmost care to present the historical record in a way that you never forget that wars are fought between people, not ideologies. People who bear scars that are still festering to this day. And it's that throughline of humanity that makes these docuseries so riveting to watch and easy to lose yourself in — whether you're a history nerd or not. Like the first two "Turning Point" series, this cuts to the heart of why history is worth learning about. It takes these kinds of major events that, over time, balloon into nebulous concepts we struggle to wrap our heads around now, so many decades removed, and shaves them down to a series of interlocking blocks behind which we can see the flawed individuals pulling the strings all along. Each series shows how a million different outcomes could have unfolded had this or that leader acted differently, had the public known x, y, z, or if different decisions were made. But this is what happened, and this is what we got, and trying to pretend the world we see today isn't directly a result of that is not only an insult to what was lost, but a disservice to ourselves and the responsibility we have to shape the future. As cliche as it is to say, that lesson is more important now than ever. If it sounds like I'm proselytizing, it's because Knappenberger's shows never fail to get me fired up when it feels like the news cycle has beaten the hope about humanity out of me. There's a quote from one of my favorite games "Disco Elysium" that goes "that we continue to persist at all is a testament to our faith in one another." It feels strange to say, given the grim subject matter and all, but the "Turning Point" series restores my faith in people, in our collective capacity to forge history. Something that's far too easy to lose sight of these days. "Turning Point: The Vietnam War" is streaming now on Netflix. More from Tom's Guide Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.
Axios
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Netflix series on the Vietnam War looks at pain across racial lines
A new Netflix-limited series takes a fresh look at the Vietnam War that examines the conflict from the eyes of Black soldiers, Vietnamese fighters and journalists on the 50th anniversary of its end. Why it matters: The Vietnam War has split Americans across ideological and racial lines for much of the last few decades, with those divisions around the U.S. role in the world still evident today. Zoom in: " Turning Point: The Vietnam War," which was released on Wednesday and is now streaming on Netflix, confronts those divisions head-on while trying to make sense of why the United States got involved in Vietnam in the first place. Following in the footsteps of other Netflix series, "Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War" and "Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror," this five-episode docuseries goes beyond military failures and diplomatic moves. Instead, the series examines the political and cultural reckoning that followed the war, which reshaped American society and created generations of distrust. Series director Brian Knappenberger tells Axios the war birthed a "radically different country" in the U.S. and fostered division about government, protests and duty. "I think the reason to look back on it is because the Vietnam War just had this lasting impact on us." Knappenberger says his goal was not to glorify the past and political figures but to take an honest assessment, even when it hurt. The intrigue: Unlike many previous documentaries on the Vietnam War, " Turning Point: The Vietnam War" actively uses the voices of Black soldiers to show how the conflict affected them as the Civil Rights Movement hit an apex. Black veterans talking of grappling with their conflicted feelings, fighting for "democracy" in Vietnam while being treated like second-class citizens back home. In addition, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize-winning Vietnamese American author of "The Sympathizer," talks in the documentary about the effects of the war on his family. Flashback: President John Kennedy got the U.S. involved in a civil war in Vietnam amid the Cold War and fears of spreading Communism. After his assassination, President Lyndon Johnson escalated U.S. involvement, sparking anti-Vietnam War protests on college campuses across the nation. President Nixon continued the war, even expanded it to nearby Cambodia, until agreeing to a peace accord. Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese fighters on April 30, 1975. Juan José Valdez of San Antonio, Texas, was the last of the 11 U.S. Marines out of Vietnam before the fall of Saigon. Zoom out: The new documentary comes as a new pol l shows a majority of American adults, including most Vietnam War veterans, think the United States should have stayed out of Vietnam. The survey by Nexstar Media and Emerson College Polling, released this week, showed that a majority of adults (62%) think the U.S. should have stayed out of Vietnam. A plurality of U.S. adults (44%) think the war in Vietnam was not justified, while 29% believe the war was justified. Yes, but: Knappenberger says it's also important to take into account the voices of North Vietnamese who were involved in the war and how it transformed their lives. The documentary talks to several Vietnamese figures who recount their experiences and the lingering results decades later. Between the lines: Thousands of returning Vietnam War veterans suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and were shunned by anti-war protesters and war supporters for the defeat.
Hamilton Spectator
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
Trending on Netflix and Crave: Must-watch series and movies premiering and streaming this weekend
Each week, Netflix and Crave unveil a list of the top-ranked titles to stream, including newly released and trending content. These are the current highest-ranked series, films and premieres in Canada for each respective platform this week, and worth watching this weekend. Netflix features a daily top 10 chart on its streaming platform based on views in Canada. The following titles have made this week's list in their respective categories: 1. 'You' (Season 5) 2. 'Sullivan's Crossing' 3. 'Battle Camp' 4. 'Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight' 5. 'Turning Point: The Vietnam War' 6. 'Ransom Canyon' 7. 'The Eternaut' 8. 'Chef's Table: Legends' 9. 'Special Ops: Lioness' 10. 'Black Mirror' (Season 7) 1. 'Exterritorial' 2. 'Havoc' 3. 'The Heartbreak Kid' 4. 'Den of Thieves 2: Pantera' 5. 'Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken' 6. 'Jewel Thief - The Heist Begins' 7. 'Life of the Party' 8. 'Bullet Train Explosion' 9. 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' 10. 'Primal Fear' Each week, Crave releases a roundup of premieres, releases and trending titles to stream in Canada. Here is what made the cut for the week of May 1 to —7: '100 Foot Wave' (Season 3)' — May 1 'Drag Brunch Saved My Life' (Premiere) — May 2 'The Righteous Gemstones' (Season Finale) — May 4 Movies
