RN Documentary: The Best of Times, the Worst of Times - War and Memory

In my father’s Brooklyn neighborhood of brownstones, there was a Korean War vet local kids referred to as “the ducker.” He wandered the streets, muttering, and when a plane flew overhead, he’d huddle in the nearest doorway, shaking, terrified. The community accepted his fragility, even the kids knew not to mock or disturb him. A Vietnam vet friend who served in the infantry, less traumatized, but no less, in Professor Winter’s phrase, “shadowed for life,” by his experience found the ambiance at home somewhat less sympathetic. This interesting, nuanced documentary brought both men to mind. In it, Professor Winter offers insights on the interplay between society’s framing of any war and how its survivors remember and tell their stories, particularly in wars lacking a national consensus. His comments are interwoven with interviews from Dutch veterans of the war in Indonesia, a conflict soldiers were told was a war of liberation. They discovered otherwise. The interplay makes for a textured conversation – the thoughtful professor speaking in general, the veterans recounting their painful specifics. This piece on war and memory is thought-provoking. Would be an obvious choice for Memorial Day or other war anniversaries, and given our current war, extended duty for reserve soldiers, and controversy over treatment of prisoners, well worth airing right now.