Mackubin Thomas Owens

Mackubin Thomas Owens is a Providence contributing editor, the dean of academics at the Institute of World Politics, and editor of Orbis. He is the author of US Civil-Military Relations After 9/11: Renegotiating the Civil-Military Bargain. Mac is a Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam, where as an infantry platoon and company commander in 1968-1969, he was wounded twice and awarded the Silver Star medal. He retired as a Colonel in 1994. Follow him @MacOwens4

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A Failure to Discern: Burns & Novick’s “The Vietnam War” is Bad History

The PBS documentary fails to distinguish moral differences between belligerents, to account for the post-1968 strategy, and to learn the right lessons.

vietnam war
Mission Failure: The Burns & Novick “The Vietnam War” Misses its Target

In this first of a two-part review, Mac Owens reflects on the Ken Burns & Lynn Novick PBS documentary “The Vietnam War” and why it falls short of its effort to provide a balanced view of the conflict.

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