This is America in Pursuit, a limited run series from NPR and ThruLine.

I'm Randabed Fetach.

Each week, we bring you stories about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the U.S.

that began 250 years ago.

Since these words were first penned, the vision of America has been determined by people

testing these ideals against the realities of everyday life. And in the mid to late 20th century,

the Vietnam War put those ideals to the test. The war forced Americans to confront questions

about governmental power, the realities of warfare,

and what happens to democracy when citizens disagree with their leadership?

This is what the war in Vietnam is all about.

American soldiers hiking their way through the sweaty jungles of South Vietnam,

searching for an elusive enemy.

And of course, by 1967, 1968 is a staple of the nightly news on television.

The war entered the homes of Americans through televisions, newspapers, and radio.

Images of what was actually happening in Vietnam

changed the way Americans thought of

and engaged with the war.

And it changed the way the story of war was told.

We might see Vietnamese peasants in obvious anguish,

distressed, grieving,

but mostly the Vietnamese who featured in American news broadcasts were silent.

Today on the show, the Vietnam War, what happened in Vietnam and how it changed America's

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