Turning Point: The Vietnam War is a five-part docuseries, directed by Brian Knappenberger, that examines how the United States became involved in the civil war in Vietnam, starting in the early 1960s, how we escalated our involvement, and how the war’s unpopularity generated the protests and peace movements that dominated the last half of the decade.
Opening Shot: A shot of a young Scott Camil, a Vietnam vet from Florida. He talks about joining the Marines and being sent directly to Vietnam in the early 1960s, his voice catching when he recalls some of the marching songs he and his fellow Marines sang in basic training.
The Gist: In the docuseries, director Brian Knappenberger speaks to a wide variety of experts, from veterans of the war to people who participated in antiwar protests, to journalists who covered the war, like Dan Rather and Peter Arnett. He also speaks to Vietnamese veterans of the war who fought on both sides.
The first episode goes into detail about how the U.S. got involved in the civil war that was raging in Vietnam at the dawn of President John F. Kennedy’s term. By 1961, Ho Chi Minh’s forces in the North, who were supported by China and the USSR, laying waste to the democratic nation in South Vietnam.
In 1961, with Kennedy already reeling from the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, took the advice of advisors like defense secretary Robert McNamara to send advisors to Vietnam, citing the “domino theory;” in other words, if a communist government takes over South Vietnam, then it will likely take over all of Southeast Asia, then who knows where would be next?
One of the big themes cited by the experts Knappenberger talks to is that, in those early days, what the public knew about what we were doing in Vietnam was much different than reality. The advisors were participating in firefights, even though the public was told they’re there to train the South Vietnamese soldiers. And as our presence there escalated, stories of costly battles became stories of victories by the time they got filtered through to the public. Even the 1963 conflict in the Gulf of Tonkin, which led JFK to get a congressional resolution authorizing use of force in the region, was built on bogus intelligence.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The direct comparison is Apple’s recent docuseries Vietnam: The War That Changed America.
Our Take: This is the third in the Turning Point series that Knappenberger and Luminant Media have produced, and in all of them, the director takes a methodical look at the subject, whether it’s 9/11, the Cold War or Vietnam. Instead of just diving in at a certain point, there’s an examination of events and decisions — many of them later proven to be mistaken or faulty — that led up to what the series is examining.
He definitely takes that approach with Vietnam, not sparing blame from either JFK or Lyndon Johnson, who became president after Kennedy was assassinated. In fact, he and the experts he talks to puts our involvement in that war squarely on their shoulders. How they discuss LBJ’s relative cluelessness and hesitation about Vietnam in the earliest months of his presidency is especially frank.
The first episode also takes some time to discuss the conditions that led to the Buddhist uprising against the South’s largely Catholic government. The image of a Buddhist monk setting himself on fire is familiar to many of us through things like the Rage Against The Machine album cover or an ad-libbed Robin Williams line in Good Morning Vietnam, but the actual movement behind that image, and the tragedies that preceded it, are more known to historians than the average person. The uprising also shows that the regime backed by the U.S., under president Ngô Đình Diệm, might not have been much better than the Soviet-backed forces in the North. It makes more than an implication that, while Kennedy might not have authorized the 1963 assassination of Diệm, he certainly backed the coup that led to his death and may not have minded the outcome.
Sex and Skin: None, though be warned: There are lots of shots of dead bodies during the first episode, shown in the usually violent and gruesome ways people are killed in wartime.
Parting Shot: Scenes of American soldiers firebombing villages where suspected Viet Cong were holed up, with Phùng Thị Lệ Lý Hayslip, who lived in one of those firebombed villages, saying “It was so sad and suffering, the people who had nothing to do with the politics. Everybody killing everybody.”
Sleeper Star: Many of the veterans that were interviewed are now in the seventies and eighties, but their recall of the battles they were in are vivid, which makes sense given what they saw. We were also impressed with the recall both Rather and Arnett, who are over 90, had about events they covered 60 years ago.
Most Pilot-y Line: Sometimes the needle drops on these documentaries are pretty obvious, like playing “Gimme Shelter” under the ending montage. That song has been shorthand for Vietnam since at least Apocalypse Now, which was 46 years ago.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Turning Point: The Vietnam War is a thoughtful, meticulous and considered examination of the U.S.’s involvement in Vietnam and how it changed how we saw our government. It certainly can be argued that the divided situation we’re in as a country in 2025 can be traced to how cynical Vietnam made us, and Knappenberger doesn’t hesitate to make that argument in the first episode.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
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