THE DVD box states The Vietnam War a film made by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick and has a tag line of "There is no single truth in war".

This ten part 18 hour documentary covers all aspects of the Vietnam War from 1858-March 1973 and March 1973-onward.

This documentary (all episodes) is not merely emotional, it is heart breaking, gut wrenching, physically demanding, joyous, sad, it leaves you feel despair and desolate at what is happening (as you watch) and what you know will happen.

You get reaction from people during the time of the war from interviews and news broadcasts and reaction from those who took part in it as they speak about it today.

It would be too easy and glib to say this is an emotional roller coaster, this is raw emotion, raw hatred, raw courage and raw stupidity.

It shows in this war, the best of humanity and the worst of humanity, all in the name of what? That is the question I asked myself what was it in aid of?

You could hear former soldiers talking about the futility of what they did.

One compared war to real estate, you took the land from another and then you were meant to hold onto it.

Not in Vietnam, the Americans lost thousands of soldiers lives taking hills just to leave them as soon as they got to the top.

It is hard to watch not just because you know what the outcomes of all the battles will be but because those who fought, those whose fellow soldiers lost their lives tell you what they felt and how they now feel forty plus years after.

You hear from the families of soldiers who were killed in battle, you see home movies or tape recordings they send out to their sons in Vietnam to make sure they knew what was happening on the Home Front.

You hear the tape recordings of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon discussing a the war with their advisors while they were in office and what is happening and what needs to be done.

As we hear you realise. this was the time when American leaders lied to the public, not telling them the truth and not telling them the full extent to what was happening in Vietnam.

They were covering up. And this greatest cover up came when Watergate engrossed an American public and they saw what President Nixon had been doing.

This was the first war covered on television, it was beamed into people's home across the country on a nightly and daily basis.

There was no escaping it. You had anti-war protests taking place at the same time the country battled with Civil Rites for African-Americans. There were demonstrations against the war in London, Paris, Washington, Chicago to name a few locations.

They trouble was to quote the song For what it's worth by Buffalo Springfield "There's battle lines being drawn. Nobody's right if everybody's wrong."

And that is what it felt like in America during the mid sixties to early 1970s. You were as the saying goes: "You were either part of the problem or you were part of the solution".

The trouble was there was no solution just withdrawal.

Somerset County Gazette:

In 1967, a computer at the Pentagon was given all the statistical information about The Vietnam War up until that point.

It was not given figures about resistance fighters who came from villagers or farmers.

Any way, the computer ran all weekend and on the Monday morning there as one card in the tray. It said the USA had won the war in 1965. Trouble is no one really won the war even when it ended and the USA withdrew everything from South Vietnam by 1973.

One soldiers compared the Vietnam War to a drunken uncle you don't talk about while another said all the soldiers who came home from the war in Vietnam came home alone.

Not only did the Veterans have to fight in Vietnam, they had to fight against a country which was divided over the war, you were either for it or against it and also not being able to talk about what they did as it was a contentious issue in America.

What you see and hear in this documentary is brave people, ordinary people who did extraordinary things and who are paying a price for what they did.

The Vietnam War you feel is a forgotten war, remembered by those who fought in it but pushed to one side by everyone else.

It is interesting to learn this was the first war fought using helicopters which ferried troops in, food to soldiers and ammunition and equipment all over Vietnam.

It is ironic this war machine was used to airlift hundreds of Vietnamese and Americans out of the country as the North Vietnamese Army (the Vietcong) were entering Saigon.

It spirited the last Americans away off the roof of the American Embassy, a few hours before the city and Embassy were over run by the Viet Cong.

The only time you really hear about Vietnam is in the remark when someone is talking about a modern war and they say: "We don't want this turning out to be another Vietnam". Without adding anymore words an image of failure is thrown up and loss.

If you do nothing else in 2018, if you watch nothing else on DVD this year, you should watch this 10 part series.

It will be gruelling, it will be draining and it will be tough. But when you get to end of the last episode you will be elated by what you have experienced.

Music plays an important part in a the programmes.

No track is better than another at conveying emotion, but at the end it is hard not to be moved when Let it Be by The Beatles plays over the final credits.

You can purchase The Vietnam War box set online at pbsamerica.co.uk/shop