Ken Burns’ new documentary, “The Vietnam War,” has resurrected debate over perhaps our nation’s most controversial conflict, with most pundits sharing the view that the war was a needless, corrupt waste of time, treasure, and lives.

Even conservative Maureen Callahan writes that the war was as a stain on United States history — a humiliating loss shrouded in American lies, deceptions, and atrocities perpetrated on foreign people.