Series features the epic true stories of the men and women who served through rare archival footage and moving reunions
“Vietnam: The War That Changed America” weaves together powerful first-person testimony, never-before-seen archival footage, and emotional reunions between veterans, some of whom haven’t seen each other in nearly half a century, to bring them healing, remembrance, and reconciliation. Filmmakers pulled from over 1,100 hours of archival footage to take viewers behind the headlines, into the lives of soldiers, civilians on all sides of the conflict, anti-war protestors, and survivors to provide a raw portrait of a nation torn apart by war. Across six episodes, a picture also builds of the profound changes to the United States itself, and the very different country that emerged from the war.
Some of the featured voices include: Bill Broyles, a celebrated Hollywood screenwriter and Lieutenant in the war who reunites with a member of his platoon after 50 years; Hilary Brown, ABC News’ first female foreign correspondent who covered the fall of Saigon firsthand; Melvin Pender, the Olympic gold-medal winning runner who competed in 1968 between tours in Vietnam; soldiers from the Viet Cong who fought in the Tet Offensive, including the first Viet Cong woman in her district to shoot down an enemy aircraft; a veteran who thought his life was over, forced to parachute into the Ho Chi Minh trail, who reunites with the man who rescued him; and Vietnamese civilians who witnessed and fled from the war.
