Help! PBS Documentary

[freeandfun1]

About three years ago I watched one of those documentaries on PBS where somebody tells the story of a parent, or something like that. They always self-made documentaries by journalists that grew up as poor minorities, or some journalist that has a "hard-luck" story to share.

Well, I would like to find the documentary I saw that was about a journalist that was telling her story of growing up without a father. Her father had been killed in Vietnam before she was born.

Well, now that I look back at the story, it was nothing but a pre-campaign piece for John Kerry. How? Well, the entire story was about how her father had been killed and guess who he had served under? John Kerry.

In the documentary, I remember John Kerry talking about how he had been killed in the same incident that Kerry had won his Silver Star. Now from what I understand, nobody was killed in that action other than the kid with the RPG. I am not sure, so I will admit that.

Anyway, I would like to see if what JK said in that documentary jives with what he is saying today.

It would be interesting to see. I remember thinking, "who is this guy? he sounds like a real hero".

Geeze. If I had only been keeping up huh?

 

[insein]

About three years ago I watched one of those documentaries on PBS where somebody tells the story of a parent, or something like that. They always self-made documentaries by journalists that grew up as poor minorities, or some journalist that has a "hard-luck" story to share.

Well, I would like to find the documentary I saw that was about a journalist that was telling her story of growing up without a father. Her father had been killed in Vietnam before she was born.

Well, now that I look back at the story, it was nothing but a pre-campaign piece for John Kerry. How? Well, the entire story was about how her father had been killed and guess who he had served under? John Kerry.

In the documentary, I remember John Kerry talking about how he had been killed in the same incident that Kerry had won his Silver Star. Now from what I understand, nobody was killed in that action other than the kid with the RPG. I am not sure, so I will admit that.

Anyway, I would like to see if what JK said in that documentary jives with what he is saying today.

It would be interesting to see. I remember thinking, "who is this guy? he sounds like a real hero".

Geeze. If I had only been keeping up huh?

How long ago? You remember month, year?

 

[freeandfun1]

I'm gonna be honest, I don't remember. It was one of those nights when I was just "flip'n" through the channels.

What caught my eye was the footage of Vietnam. I always stop to watch military footage on documentaries.

I am perusing the PBS website now trying to find out if I might be able to locate it and then order it.

**EDIT**

I found it. The title is, "Be Good, Smile Pretty"

But I was wrong.... I think her father just went to Annapolis with Kerry.

Anyway, I found this interesting point in story about her documentary on the VVA.com website.

Tragos' journey of discovery began in March 2001 when she stumbled across an account on a web site of the incident in which her father was killed. That led her to confront her mother and grandmother and to make a journey to talk to her father's Annapolis classmates and those he served with in Vietnam. Remarkably, Tragos was able to find still photographs and film footage of the aftermath of the event, along with radio transmissions of the engagement. Her recreation of what happened on the river is a chillingly remarkable achievement.

Wouldn't that imply that ALL radio transmissions were recorded? I would love to hear the radio transmissions from Kerry's HEROIC events.

Here are some links:

Donald Glenn Droz

Be Good, Smile Pretty

Death of the 43 - PDF FILE

 

[insein]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/111ts.html

A transcript with Kerry in it. But no mention of the Silver star incident.

NARRATOR
The heartland remained conservative. But some Americans were coming back from Vietnam with changed perspectives. One of them was Lt. John Kerry, here filmed in the Mekong delta with his own 8 millimeter camera.
JOHN KERRY
A typical mission really didn't have any sense to it. The logic that was explained to us by the command in Vietnam was that we were quote, "showing the flag in the back yard of the enemy." There were people who believed, there were people who believed that we were fighting communism and that this was terrific and it was important, and who were all swept up in it. But I think most people did not. Most people began to see that we weren't gaining any territory, we weren't winning the hearts and minds of anybody, we certainly weren't securing any particular stronghold or strategic objectives, we were simply doing a very macho kind of public demonstration of our presence.
People did not listen to the veterans of the war. The press itself had diffi-culty in perceiving of a group of Vietnam veterans being opposed to the war. And that it was a story of profound importance, why the war itself was wrong. And why we were not going to be successful, and why we had to recognize that. We just felt that story had to be told, and the only way to tell it was to take it to Washington in that form.

SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMM. HEARING, April 1971, Lt. John Kerry
We wish that a merciful God could wipe away our own memories of that service as easily as this administration has wiped their memories of us. And so, 30 years from now, our brothers go down the street, without a leg, without an arm, or a face, and small boys ask "Why," we will be able to say "Vietnam," and not mean a desert, not a filthy obscene memory, but mean instead, the place where America finally turned and where soldiers like us helped it in the turning.

Nothing yet though.

 

[freeandfun1]

BUMP - NOTICE EDITED PORTION

I'm gonna be honest, I don't remember. It was one of those nights when I was just "flip'n" through the channels.

What caught my eye was the footage of Vietnam. I always stop to watch military footage on documentaries.

I am perusing the PBS website now trying to find out if I might be able to locate it and then order it.

**EDIT**

I found it. The title is, "Be Good, Smile Pretty"

But I was wrong.... I think her father just went to Annapolis with Kerry.

Anyway, I found this interesting point in story about her documentary on the VVA.com website.

Tragos' journey of discovery began in March 2001 when she stumbled across an account on a web site of the incident in which her father was killed. That led her to confront her mother and grandmother and to make a journey to talk to her father's Annapolis classmates and those he served with in Vietnam. Remarkably, Tragos was able to find still photographs and film footage of the aftermath of the event, along with radio transmissions of the engagement. Her recreation of what happened on the river is a chillingly remarkable achievement.

Wouldn't that imply that ALL radio transmissions were recorded? I would love to hear the radio transmissions from Kerry's HEROIC events.

Here are some links:

Donald Glenn Droz

Be Good, Smile Pretty

Death of the 43 - PDF FILE

 

[Jimmyeatworld]

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2003/12/xxx_smile_prett.html

This doesn't say anything about the Silver Star, but it does offer this interesting little bit.

"It is also important to note that in A Soldier's Story, John Kerry, one of Droz' close friends during the War, reveals that he decided he'd finally had enough of combat when he learned of Droz' death on the River. Within a short time Kerry requested a transfer out of combat with Droz' death being the catalyst that transformed him into an antiwar activist."

 

[insein]

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2003/12/xxx_smile_prett.html

This doesn't say anything about the Silver Star, but it does offer this interesting little bit.

"It is also important to note that in A Soldier's Story, John Kerry, one of Droz' close friends during the War, reveals that he decided he'd finally had enough of combat when he learned of Droz' death on the River. Within a short time Kerry requested a transfer out of combat with Droz' death being the catalyst that transformed him into an antiwar activist."

That is a very interesting tidbit. Good find, free.