Few works of journalism can claim the label definitive. But to many viewers and critics, PBS's 13-part series Viet Nam: A Television History, first telecast in the fall of 1983, seemed a valid contender for the title. Scrupulously researched, the $5.6 million project recounted the complex history of the war with admirable thoroughness and dispassion. The series was widely praised as a comprehensive and balanced piece of work, and it won a host of major journalism awards, including six Emmys.
This week, however, the series will come under attack on the very network that gave it life. PBS, in an unusual...