Why did Ho Chi Minh grow a beard?

[LMcD]

I've just watched the first 2 episodes of 'The Vietnam War.', currently being shown on BBC 4. Pretty grim at times, but absolutely riveting. The whole series is on the iPlayer, with Episodes 1 and 2 available until Wednesday night.
(The beard is grown in Episode 2).

[eighthobstruction]

....to appear older (more gravitas)....excellent series....

[Serial_Apologist]

....to appear older (more gravitas)....excellent series....

Cuts in the public sector...

[Lat-Literal]

To get to the other side.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

He saw the zebra crossing.

[eighthobstruction]

....coz....

[Serial_Apologist]

...bruv...

[Richard Tarleton]

Not sure what the last few posts are on about - to get back to the OP, a superb, mesmerising series, though , as this review says:

The Vietnam War’s second installment — which sees the US drawn into active military engagement in Vietnam in a sustained way — concludes with a then-secret government study which concluded that the war was likely impossible to win, and even if it could be won, the cost might be too much to bear. Viewers will likely note that it then takes another 10 years for the US to exit the country and conflict.

What lies between that moment and the miniseries’ end (which is 15 hours away at that point) can be a long, brutal slog. Though PBS is offering the series on its website for binge viewers, I can’t imagine watching more than an episode or two at a time. There is something dark and murky and repetitive about the whole enterprise, especially as everyone involved sinks deeper and deeper into the quagmire.

I've just watched episode 7 - next stop the My Lai massacre. I was leading a sheltered life as an undergraduate at the time, toiling away in the library, only intermittently aware of just how bad things were, and were to become.

Wars likely impossible to win.......

[LMcD]

Same here! I can clearly remember the newspaper coverage of the siege at Dien Bien Phu, but had absolutely no idea of its context.
I find I can't watch more than 1 episode at a time, and yet I can't wait for the next....
Given the numerous references I've found to an 18-hour running time, are we to assume that the series has been edited for broadcast on the BBC?

[eighthobstruction]

....Yes, one imagines the hours of interviews that end up for each individual only perhaps a minute or two each. I'm remembering that poor Vietcong survivor who was tortured by the US and South Vietnamese,and his reliving of the pain....how proud the North Vietamese are of their participation, and mostly feelings of shame from the Americans....but again pride in professionalism and comradeship....Johnson made some bad and twisted decisions....but the name Tricky Dickie does not seem a half way towards showing how monstrous Nixon was in lying, manipulating and serving himself ....