Vietnam speaks out on US documentary TV series 'The Vietnam War'

Vietnam's foreign ministry on Thursday reaffirmed the just nature of the country's resistance war against the U.S., following the release of an American documentary TV series on the war.

“The Vietnamese people's resistance war against America was a just resistance war that had promoted the solidarity and strength of the whole nation, and was supported by friends and people around the world,” foreign ministry spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang said in a statement posted on the government's official Facebook page.

“That is why we achieved the final victory with the reunification of our nation.”

Hang stressed that the recent positive developments in the Vietnam-U.S. comprehensive partnership have resulted from great efforts by both countries and Vietnam's policy of putting the past aside, overcoming differences, promoting similarities and looking to the future.

“I personally hope the American people and the filmmakers understand the legitimacy of the resistance war as well as Vietnam's goodwill,” the spokesperson said.

“The Vietnam War” is an 18-hour documentary TV series by American filmmakers Ken Burns and Lynn Novick about the titular war. The 10-part series, which took over a decade to make, is being screened on U.S. public TV every weekday night, with the first episode airing last Sunday.

In the series, Burns brings in decision-makers and rank-and-file soldiers. He also spoke to people who did not fight in the war, which set off a protest movement in the United States whose divisions can still be felt today.

"But also, most importantly," he told AFP, was including "the voices of the Vietnamese [...], civilians, and to have a much fuller multidimensional portrait".

"When the Americans talk about the Vietnam War they talk only about themselves and that is limiting. We were obligated to include all these other voices," he said.

Despite that, the series has raised questions on "the right way" to portray the war, which killed more than three million civilians and 2.5 million troops fighting on both sides of the front line, according to Vietnam's official data.