Based on Neil Sheehan’s controversial book about the making of the Vietnam war, this HBO production is told from the perspective of Lt. Colonel John Paul Vann (Bill Paxton), one of the original military advisers sent in 1962 to prop up the fledgling South Vietnamese army against the Viet Cong. Battle-ready and enthusiastic upon his arrival, Vann quickly learns that political and social pressures are causing the South Vietnamese to doctor evidence of their victories and local military brass to take undeserved credit for over-hyped battles. As the propaganda draws America ever deeper into a war most people clearly don’t understand, Vann takes issue with the corruption and finds his career in tatters–only the beginning of a long journey that piles tragedies upon ironies