Make the Afghan War Memorial public
Episode Stats
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176.18523
Summary
In the final chapter of the Ken Burns documentary on the Vietnam War, "The Vietnam War: The Final Chapter" we get to the story of the creation of the Veterans Memorial Wall in the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and the controversy surrounding the unveiling of the Afghanistan War Memorial in Canada.
Transcript
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if you haven't seen it already I highly recommend checking out the Ken Burns
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documentary on the Vietnam War it came out last year and it's really long it's
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like 10 12 parts it's about 20 hours long and it goes into detail about the
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whole saga of it both during the war what happened in the US what happened
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there in Vietnam the things beforehand leading up to it and the things that
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happened after in the aftermath now it's a controversial film because there are
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many historians veterans they like some parts they don't like others I think
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that's part and parcel whenever you do a big endeavor like this but the part that
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interested me the most was my reaction not so much to the the sections on the
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war when it was happening but the final chapter which is about people's lives now
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and then the decades after the war and and how they came to terms or didn't
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come to terms with what happened and a large part of that final part has to do
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with the creation of the veterans memorial wall in the National Mall in
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Washington DC and at first when I realized this would be the concluding
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chapter I thought this is kind of a bit of a letdown because we've had all this
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drama about the actual war on the ground back in the day and then they wrap it up
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talking about the construction of this memorial I mean this isn't it kind of small
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in scope by comparison I was wrong I was very wrong that was perhaps the most
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moving part of the whole film you have to watch this these people who whether
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they were folks who were served in the war and many people who were in the war
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they came back and then they started protesting the war others who were proud
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to have served in it from the beginning to the end people who were war
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resistors on the ground draft dodgers all that sort of stuff and they talk
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about their experiences with this memorial being created and going to visit
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it and it just meant so much to so many people so many mixed emotions it was
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remarkable to hear people even people who had been protesters against the
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soldiers that they're weeping in this documentary about their regrets about the
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awful things they said about the young American men who went to go out and fight
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and put their lives on the line incredibly powerful and I tell all of this to say
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it really drove home to me memorials matter war memorials matter they matter to
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the people who served they matter to the people who returned they matter to the
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families of the people who did not return and they matter to the whole country so
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when news broke that the Afghan war memorial here in Canada was opened in
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secrecy behind a security perimeter in D&D headquarters where regular Canadians
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can't visit to pay their respects where servicemen can't pay their respects
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where the families of the fallen cannot go to pay their respects and were not
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invited to the ceremony I thought something is deeply flawed here this is
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wrong there's been public outcry and a number of individuals including the
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prime minister have said we're going to look at ways to make this right and I
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hope they do and I want to I want to take them at their word at this because
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this well there should be a nonpartisan issue the current government the
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current prime minister they they have some issues when it comes to the military
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and with being soft and extremism that makes you think perhaps this is actually
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part of a trend but I want to take him at his word that he's going to make it
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right but we have to hold him to it and we have to have a specific request and
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that request is make the memorial public at one point they said okay we've
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acknowledged we blundered a bit so we're going to make it easy for the
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families to show up but they were going to have to call ahead and book a time and
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you know maybe the department say no you can't come this day you got to come
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that day no it has to be something like so many war memorials all across the
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Western world all across the whole world where anybody can show up at any time for
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whatever reason and pay their respects to have a moment of reflection whatever
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they're doing there because this memorial created by soldiers for soldiers is now