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it was when the Americans invaded
Southern Vietnam in large numbers.
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00:00:42,250 --> 00:00:44,919
They searched for soldiers.
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00:00:45,003 --> 00:00:49,340
They took people,
and they beat them for no reason.
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00:00:50,175 --> 00:00:53,678
They murdered people, burned down houses.
5
00:00:57,557 --> 00:01:02,645
There was this hatred,
but I didn't know then it was hatred.
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00:01:02,729 --> 00:01:09,235
But I wanted to join the revolution
to stop it,
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00:01:09,319 --> 00:01:15,116
to stop those cruelties,
those inhumanities.
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I have to say that the first time I shot
and I saw that I had killed an American,
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made me thrilled.
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I destroyed one tank,
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and then about 15 American soldiers.
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In all the battles that I participated in,
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I was given the name "Tank Killer Hero."
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We all longed for a tranquil life,
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a peaceful life.
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No one wants war.
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00:01:59,077 --> 00:02:04,457
But now that we had guns in hand,
we had an obligation to join the fight.
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00:02:45,707 --> 00:02:48,793
was enormously important
for 20th century history.
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00:02:50,253 --> 00:02:51,838
For many decades afterwards,
20
00:02:51,921 --> 00:02:54,591
{\an8}the word "Vietnam" symbolized
so many things
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00:02:54,674 --> 00:02:56,009
{\an8}to so many different countries.
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00:02:57,635 --> 00:03:01,055
For Americans, obviously,
the word "Vietnam" meant the war.
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00:03:01,556 --> 00:03:04,809
Whereas, for many other countries,
the word "Vietnam" meant revolution
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00:03:04,893 --> 00:03:06,644
and independence and freedom.
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{\an8}Because the history of Vietnam
is a history of revolution
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00:03:11,441 --> 00:03:14,569
{\an8}against foreign occupiers.
27
00:03:28,082 --> 00:03:32,045
{\an8}Long before the American War
in Vietnam started,
28
00:03:32,128 --> 00:03:33,963
{\an8}there had already been a great tradition
29
00:03:34,047 --> 00:03:37,133
{\an8}of Vietnamese resistance
to French colonization.
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00:03:44,390 --> 00:03:46,142
{\an8}Since 1858,
31
00:03:46,226 --> 00:03:48,353
{\an8}Vietnam had been colonized by France.
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00:03:51,314 --> 00:03:53,858
The French Empire was very exploitative.
33
00:03:55,693 --> 00:03:58,947
Colonial rubber plantations
were basically hell on earth.
34
00:03:59,530 --> 00:04:04,077
{\an8}They would make Vietnamese
as young as, you know, ten years old,
35
00:04:04,160 --> 00:04:06,788
{\an8}uh, work under horrible conditions.
36
00:04:07,830 --> 00:04:09,791
Toiling away day and night.
37
00:04:10,792 --> 00:04:12,543
It was basically slave labor.
38
00:04:14,921 --> 00:04:17,298
And if you weren't going to work
39
00:04:17,382 --> 00:04:20,426
in the manner
that your French colonial overseer wanted,
40
00:04:20,510 --> 00:04:22,929
there was torture, there were executions.
41
00:04:24,555 --> 00:04:28,142
{\an8}And all of this benefit and profit
flowed back to France.
42
00:04:29,227 --> 00:04:30,687
{\an8}Enter Hồ Chí Minh.
43
00:04:35,900 --> 00:04:39,988
{\an8}He is one of the extraordinary political
figures of the 20th century, no question.
44
00:04:41,030 --> 00:04:46,369
{\an8}Hồ Chí Minh is a revolutionary
unlike any other.
45
00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:51,958
{\an8}So when I talk to people, I say,
"Now, did Fidel Castro travel the world?"
46
00:04:52,041 --> 00:04:52,875
{\an8}"No."
47
00:04:52,959 --> 00:04:55,503
{\an8}"Did Mao Zedong travel the world?"
48
00:04:55,586 --> 00:04:56,504
{\an8}"No."
49
00:04:58,089 --> 00:05:00,883
As a young adult,
Hồ Chí Minh had to leave Vietnam
50
00:05:00,967 --> 00:05:02,719
to make his fortunes elsewhere.
51
00:05:02,802 --> 00:05:07,181
He makes it to the United States,
and eventually back to Europe,
52
00:05:07,265 --> 00:05:11,644
starting in London as a sous-chef
for a well-known pastry chef.
53
00:05:14,188 --> 00:05:17,317
And from there,
he makes it to Paris in 1919.
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00:05:19,235 --> 00:05:21,321
When Hồ Chí Minh lands in Europe,
55
00:05:21,404 --> 00:05:25,283
he meets other revolutionary,
anti-colonial Vietnamese
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00:05:25,366 --> 00:05:29,287
{\an8}who are hoping to overthrow the French
and liberate their country.
57
00:05:33,249 --> 00:05:35,835
It's the political awakening
of Hồ Chí Minh.
58
00:05:36,961 --> 00:05:40,757
And in the 1920s,
he really advances global communism.
59
00:05:42,925 --> 00:05:45,636
A communist,
although many of his followers are not,
60
00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:51,225
Ho, trained in Moscow, educated in Paris,
follows a pure nationalist line.
61
00:05:51,309 --> 00:05:54,062
To the simple peasants,
he is their leader and benefactor,
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00:05:54,145 --> 00:05:55,563
and they revere him.
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00:05:55,646 --> 00:05:57,190
"Uncle Hồ," they call him.
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00:05:59,400 --> 00:06:02,111
Uncle Hồ is our common father.
65
00:06:03,279 --> 00:06:07,867
{\an8}We listen to Uncle Hồ's teachings,
that we must love our country,
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00:06:08,743 --> 00:06:10,912
protect our country,
and keep it from division.
67
00:06:13,998 --> 00:06:16,125
Hồ Chí Minh believed that he had to return
68
00:06:16,209 --> 00:06:18,127
to the borders within Vietnam,
69
00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:20,588
and this took place in 1941.
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00:06:29,847 --> 00:06:33,059
During World War II,
there was an opportunity
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00:06:33,142 --> 00:06:36,396
{\an8}for Vietnam to assert its independence.
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00:06:36,479 --> 00:06:40,191
{\an8}There was a nationalist organization
that included a lot of communists.
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00:06:43,861 --> 00:06:45,947
{\an8}And at the tail end of World War II,
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00:06:46,030 --> 00:06:49,200
{\an8}they declare themselves
the Democratic Republic of Vietnam,
75
00:06:50,284 --> 00:06:51,619
led by Hồ Chí Minh.
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00:06:56,916 --> 00:07:00,503
They decide to break free
from the French colonial masters
77
00:07:00,586 --> 00:07:03,881
that had been running the show
for the past 80 years.
78
00:07:10,972 --> 00:07:13,349
{\an8}And in December of 1946,
79
00:07:13,433 --> 00:07:16,936
we see the first major shots fired
to eject the French.
80
00:07:19,063 --> 00:07:21,607
The situation
in French Indochina grows graver
81
00:07:21,691 --> 00:07:23,693
as bitter fighting sweeps through Hanoi,
82
00:07:23,776 --> 00:07:25,987
leaving misery and destruction
in its wake.
83
00:07:28,906 --> 00:07:31,617
What's interesting
about Hồ Chí Minh is how much he believes
84
00:07:31,701 --> 00:07:33,494
that the Americans, the United States,
85
00:07:34,245 --> 00:07:35,872
{\an8}are going to be there for him.
86
00:07:38,207 --> 00:07:40,209
{\an8}He fixated on the reality
87
00:07:40,293 --> 00:07:44,630
that the United States itself was born
out of an anti-colonial reaction,
88
00:07:45,298 --> 00:07:46,799
in its case to Great Britain.
89
00:07:47,383 --> 00:07:51,512
{\an8}"So, of course, the Americans
will support me for this in my endeavor."
90
00:07:51,596 --> 00:07:54,098
{\an8}I think he believed that very strongly,
91
00:07:54,182 --> 00:07:56,726
{\an8}and he sent letters to Harry Truman,
92
00:07:57,393 --> 00:08:00,855
a series of letters
that all go unanswered,
93
00:08:00,938 --> 00:08:05,359
but in which he, Hồ,
asks for American support.
94
00:08:07,737 --> 00:08:10,823
But the French are very clever
95
00:08:11,616 --> 00:08:14,327
in playing up the Cold War dimension,
96
00:08:15,578 --> 00:08:18,164
that Indochina
is part of the larger struggle
97
00:08:18,247 --> 00:08:19,582
between East and West.
98
00:08:19,665 --> 00:08:23,711
And "You, the United States,
need to support us
99
00:08:23,794 --> 00:08:27,381
because we are contributing
to this larger Cold War effort."
100
00:08:27,465 --> 00:08:29,258
{\an8}In Indochina,
101
00:08:29,342 --> 00:08:31,636
{\an8}we are fighting against communism.
102
00:08:32,470 --> 00:08:36,307
{\an8}We are fighting for democracy
103
00:08:36,974 --> 00:08:39,519
and for the freedom of the world.
104
00:08:40,728 --> 00:08:42,939
They understand
that this matters in Washington,
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00:08:43,523 --> 00:08:49,070
and so Washington commits itself
more and more to the French war effort,
106
00:08:49,153 --> 00:08:52,156
in large part
because of Cold War concerns.
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00:08:58,621 --> 00:09:01,040
Hồ Chí Minh has
an understanding from early on
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00:09:01,123 --> 00:09:04,460
that he can't really compete
with the French
109
00:09:04,544 --> 00:09:07,255
when it comes to military strength.
110
00:09:11,425 --> 00:09:14,262
But Hồ Chí Minh understood
something important,
111
00:09:14,971 --> 00:09:17,974
which was that they were fighting
on their own turf,
112
00:09:18,516 --> 00:09:20,810
and they would outlast the French.
113
00:09:24,021 --> 00:09:25,606
{\an8}And of course this culminates
114
00:09:25,690 --> 00:09:29,110
{\an8}in one of the great military encounters
of the 20th century,
115
00:09:29,193 --> 00:09:30,861
the Battle of Điện Biên Phủ.
116
00:09:37,451 --> 00:09:39,120
{\an8}It was the end of the garrison.
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00:09:39,203 --> 00:09:42,915
{\an8}It was the end
of the French adventure in Indochina.
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00:09:46,294 --> 00:09:49,755
As the last French soldiers
cross the bridge leading from Hanoi,
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00:09:49,839 --> 00:09:51,799
Việt Minh guards take over.
120
00:09:51,882 --> 00:09:55,094
Communism has won
a far-reaching victory in Asia.
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00:09:57,013 --> 00:09:59,807
The French defeat at Điện Biên Phủ
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00:09:59,890 --> 00:10:02,685
would actually kick off
the Geneva Conference.
123
00:10:07,732 --> 00:10:10,901
{\an8}The victory at Điện Biên Phủ
gives the Việt Minh bargaining power
124
00:10:10,985 --> 00:10:13,112
{\an8}at a peace conference in Geneva.
125
00:10:14,947 --> 00:10:16,782
It is at this conference
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00:10:16,866 --> 00:10:18,993
that the great powers agree
127
00:10:19,076 --> 00:10:21,787
to a political settlement in Indochina.
128
00:10:21,871 --> 00:10:24,957
And there are really
two agreements reached,
129
00:10:25,041 --> 00:10:28,252
one of which is a ceasefire
at the 17th parallel
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00:10:28,336 --> 00:10:30,504
and a regrouping of forces,
131
00:10:30,588 --> 00:10:33,633
so that the French
will be below the 17th parallel.
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00:10:33,716 --> 00:10:36,302
The Việt Minh will be
above the 17th parallel.
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00:10:37,094 --> 00:10:39,972
It divides Vietnam into North and South,
134
00:10:40,056 --> 00:10:42,224
turns over the North to the Communists.
135
00:10:42,850 --> 00:10:46,228
They get all of Vietnam
north of the 17th parallel
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00:10:46,312 --> 00:10:47,938
with Hanoi, their capital.
137
00:10:48,022 --> 00:10:50,941
There's also an agreement
that there will be an election
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00:10:51,025 --> 00:10:56,447
for reunification of Vietnam
to take place by mid-1956,
139
00:10:56,530 --> 00:10:57,907
so two years hence.
140
00:10:57,990 --> 00:11:01,118
{\an8}The United States
bitterly opposed the settlement,
141
00:11:01,202 --> 00:11:04,455
{\an8}and Secretary of State John Dulles
actually described it
142
00:11:04,538 --> 00:11:06,957
{\an8}as a defeat for American foreign policy.
143
00:11:07,958 --> 00:11:10,336
{\an8}The Americans were
very frustrated with the French
144
00:11:10,419 --> 00:11:14,340
{\an8}for being unable to defeat
this weak, inferior army.
145
00:11:15,549 --> 00:11:20,805
The Geneva Conference officially ended
the French military role in Indochina.
146
00:11:21,972 --> 00:11:28,813
By 1955, Eisenhower looked to assume
the burden that the French had undertaken.
147
00:11:31,148 --> 00:11:34,443
What that meant was keeping Vietnam
away from communism
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00:11:34,527 --> 00:11:37,446
and preserving
a non-communist South Vietnam.
149
00:11:40,324 --> 00:11:44,161
What you see emerge are these two states,
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00:11:44,245 --> 00:11:47,123
a South Vietnam and a North Vietnam.
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00:11:47,832 --> 00:11:49,583
Above the 17th parallel,
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00:11:49,667 --> 00:11:52,336
Hồ Chí Minh would be in charge,
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00:11:52,420 --> 00:11:56,924
with the People's Republic of China
supplying aid matériel
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00:11:57,007 --> 00:11:58,551
to the North Vietnamese.
155
00:11:59,093 --> 00:12:02,263
Below the 17th parallel
would be Ngô Đình Diệm
156
00:12:02,346 --> 00:12:04,765
{\an8}as prime minister of South Vietnam,
157
00:12:04,849 --> 00:12:07,017
{\an8}and then later on, president.
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00:12:10,271 --> 00:12:12,565
After the Geneva agreements,
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00:12:12,648 --> 00:12:17,361
Hồ Chí Minh and his government was able
to receive Communist Chinese support
160
00:12:17,862 --> 00:12:18,946
to build an army
161
00:12:19,029 --> 00:12:21,699
and also to launch
the so-called "land reform"
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00:12:21,782 --> 00:12:23,033
in North Vietnam.
163
00:12:24,160 --> 00:12:27,288
{\an8}They believed property
must be publicly owned,
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00:12:27,371 --> 00:12:31,542
{\an8}because a privately-owned property
is the source of exploitation.
165
00:12:33,002 --> 00:12:38,299
{\an8}They sent teams of cadres
into every village under their control
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00:12:38,966 --> 00:12:44,054
{\an8}to incite the poorest farmers
to rise up against the landlords.
167
00:12:46,307 --> 00:12:50,811
{\an8}They took over all the people
who owned properties,
168
00:12:50,895 --> 00:12:52,062
{\an8}who owned land,
169
00:12:52,146 --> 00:12:56,025
and they had, uh,
what they called "people's court."
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00:12:56,108 --> 00:12:58,903
And all the peasants
and other people around
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00:12:58,986 --> 00:13:01,071
who had worked for the landowners,
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00:13:01,155 --> 00:13:03,616
they were the people who became judge.
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00:13:04,658 --> 00:13:08,245
They said
that these landowners exploited them,
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00:13:08,871 --> 00:13:12,166
so they were the people
who had to be killed,
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00:13:12,875 --> 00:13:17,254
and the Communist Vietnamese
beheaded them.
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00:13:18,380 --> 00:13:22,426
My grand-uncle was a rich farmer
in a village next to mine.
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00:13:23,427 --> 00:13:25,930
When the Communists asked the people
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00:13:26,013 --> 00:13:29,391
to give their gold, their money
to the movement
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00:13:29,475 --> 00:13:31,393
{\an8}to buy guns for the soldiers,
180
00:13:31,977 --> 00:13:35,064
{\an8}he gave everything he had.
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00:13:36,816 --> 00:13:39,944
But when the land reform program began,
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00:13:40,027 --> 00:13:43,239
the local committee picked him,
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00:13:44,240 --> 00:13:46,784
put him out in a tribunal.
184
00:13:46,867 --> 00:13:50,329
People hurled insults at him,
calling him names,
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00:13:51,038 --> 00:13:52,414
"enemy of the people,"
186
00:13:52,498 --> 00:13:54,041
"enemy of the revolution."
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00:13:56,710 --> 00:13:57,628
Killed him.
188
00:13:58,587 --> 00:13:59,755
They shot him to death.
189
00:14:03,759 --> 00:14:07,263
Somewhere around 20,000 or 50,000
190
00:14:07,346 --> 00:14:09,348
were executed in this campaign.
191
00:14:10,307 --> 00:14:16,522
One day, a Communist guy came
to tell my father and my mo-- my mother,
192
00:14:16,605 --> 00:14:20,943
"You should go, fast.
They're going to take you."
193
00:14:22,236 --> 00:14:24,613
So we went south in 1954.
194
00:14:26,156 --> 00:14:29,368
More than one million
Vietnamese desert their homes
195
00:14:29,451 --> 00:14:32,955
and flee southward
rather than live under a Communist regime.
196
00:14:37,334 --> 00:14:39,420
Over time, there's a question
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00:14:39,503 --> 00:14:43,465
of what's going to happen
with those two states,
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00:14:43,549 --> 00:14:46,385
South Vietnam and North Vietnam?
199
00:14:49,013 --> 00:14:52,933
{\an8}There were supposed to be
elections held in the summer of 1956
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00:14:53,017 --> 00:14:56,478
{\an8}so that North and South could be unified.
201
00:14:57,396 --> 00:14:59,523
The North Vietnamese leader Hồ Chí Minh
202
00:14:59,607 --> 00:15:01,150
was supposed to be on the ballot,
203
00:15:01,233 --> 00:15:03,319
{\an8}and the President of South Vietnam,
204
00:15:03,402 --> 00:15:05,237
{\an8}Ngô Đình Diệm,
could also be on the ballot.
205
00:15:06,864 --> 00:15:10,576
But there will be no election in 1956,
206
00:15:10,659 --> 00:15:14,955
even though this had been called for
in the Geneva Accords of 1954.
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00:15:17,207 --> 00:15:19,376
Diệm had no interest in those elections.
208
00:15:20,210 --> 00:15:24,298
He recognized that Hồ Chí Minh
likely would have won those elections.
209
00:15:25,215 --> 00:15:28,093
Ngô Đình Diệm would claim that an election
210
00:15:28,177 --> 00:15:31,180
in a Communist-controlled area
would be impossible.
211
00:15:32,014 --> 00:15:35,351
Once the North Vietnamese
realized that there was going to be
212
00:15:35,434 --> 00:15:39,271
no elections to reunify the country,
they felt they had to do something.
213
00:15:42,942 --> 00:15:47,154
They were not happy with just having
a communist system in North Vietnam.
214
00:15:47,237 --> 00:15:49,615
They wanted to have it all over Vietnam.
215
00:15:50,115 --> 00:15:53,619
So that was the ultimate reason
for them to wage the war.
216
00:15:59,333 --> 00:16:03,963
{\an8}Every young man
and the entire nation marched to battle
217
00:16:04,046 --> 00:16:07,216
{\an8}with the spirit of determination
to fight and win.
218
00:16:07,299 --> 00:16:10,219
{\an8}Chairman Hồ's goal was
independence and freedom.
219
00:16:11,220 --> 00:16:15,975
{\an8}We had to liberate South Vietnam
and unify the Fatherland.
220
00:16:20,521 --> 00:16:24,274
{\an8}The act of a country attacking
another country is an "invasion."
221
00:16:27,069 --> 00:16:30,823
And entirely at the time,
even though it was a single people,
222
00:16:31,907 --> 00:16:34,243
it was two different regimes.
223
00:16:36,662 --> 00:16:38,038
This is horrible.
224
00:16:38,122 --> 00:16:40,541
We want just to live in peace
in the South.
225
00:16:42,084 --> 00:16:45,963
But we must fight
because we want to preserve the nature,
226
00:16:46,046 --> 00:16:49,383
the way of-- of life in the South.
227
00:16:50,092 --> 00:16:51,468
It's civil war.
228
00:16:52,678 --> 00:16:55,431
Both sides believed
in their vision of a nation,
229
00:16:55,514 --> 00:16:57,433
but they just had
extremely different visions
230
00:16:57,516 --> 00:16:58,684
of how to achieve that.
231
00:17:01,020 --> 00:17:02,688
This was a crucial moment
232
00:17:02,771 --> 00:17:05,733
when history could have taken
a very, very different direction.
233
00:17:07,568 --> 00:17:12,031
The United States could have just taken
a neutral approach to what was happening.
234
00:17:12,114 --> 00:17:14,700
{\an8}And, obviously,
the United States did not do that.
235
00:17:22,041 --> 00:17:24,251
{\an8}And in 1965, we start to see
236
00:17:24,334 --> 00:17:27,421
{\an8}a really huge buildup
of the American presence there.
237
00:17:28,464 --> 00:17:30,507
{\an8}That changed the nature of the war.
238
00:17:31,842 --> 00:17:34,011
Before the-- the Americans came in,
239
00:17:34,094 --> 00:17:36,472
it's a war
between the North and the South.
240
00:17:36,555 --> 00:17:38,891
And we were fighting against them.
241
00:17:40,392 --> 00:17:42,144
When Americans came in,
242
00:17:42,227 --> 00:17:46,857
now the Communists tell their soldiers,
"You have to die for your country."
243
00:17:48,150 --> 00:17:51,278
We kicked the French out,
but now the Americans came in.
244
00:17:56,158 --> 00:17:59,661
The Communists call it
"anti-American war,"
245
00:18:00,412 --> 00:18:04,917
to defeat the Americans
and their Vietnamese puppets.
246
00:18:06,794 --> 00:18:13,509
It was primarily framed as a patriotic war
against a foreign invader.
247
00:18:13,592 --> 00:18:16,512
Even though the US
did not invade South Vietnam.
248
00:18:24,311 --> 00:18:26,480
In North Vietnam, at this point,
249
00:18:27,064 --> 00:18:30,109
everyone held up Hồ Chí Minh
as a symbolic leader.
250
00:18:31,318 --> 00:18:33,445
{\an8}But if you were forced to come up
251
00:18:33,529 --> 00:18:36,073
{\an8}and-- and pinpoint
who was the actual leader,
252
00:18:36,156 --> 00:18:37,658
{\an8}it was Lê Duẩn.
253
00:18:42,162 --> 00:18:47,376
{\an8}My father was born
in Hau Tien village, Quảng Trị,
254
00:18:47,459 --> 00:18:49,503
on the outer bank of the Thạch Hãn river.
255
00:18:52,131 --> 00:18:54,216
He joined the Communist Party.
256
00:18:55,968 --> 00:19:01,723
{\an8}During his political activities
from 1930 to 1945,
257
00:19:02,266 --> 00:19:05,602
{\an8}he spent ten years
in French colonial prison.
258
00:19:07,855 --> 00:19:11,316
So in 1957,
259
00:19:11,400 --> 00:19:16,071
Uncle Hồ asked him to go to the North
260
00:19:16,155 --> 00:19:19,283
to become the First Secretary
of the Central Party Committee.
261
00:19:22,369 --> 00:19:24,538
Lê Duẩn was the General Secretary,
262
00:19:24,621 --> 00:19:27,082
was the head honcho,
was the number one leader
263
00:19:27,166 --> 00:19:28,917
of the Vietnamese Communist Party.
264
00:19:30,460 --> 00:19:35,382
And he saw no other path
to liberation of Southern Vietnam,
265
00:19:35,465 --> 00:19:38,719
and no path towards reunification
of the entire country,
266
00:19:38,802 --> 00:19:40,220
other than through war.
267
00:19:41,722 --> 00:19:46,226
Because Lê Duẩn had
decided to expand the war in the South,
268
00:19:47,144 --> 00:19:50,397
{\an8}that required a lot more weapons
and a lot more people.
269
00:19:50,480 --> 00:19:54,151
{\an8}And to do that, you had to expand
the Hồ Chí Minh Trail dramatically.
270
00:19:59,489 --> 00:20:03,493
{\an8}The Hồ Chí Minh Trail is
the major supply route of men and arms
271
00:20:03,577 --> 00:20:05,829
{\an8}from North Vietnam into South Vietnam.
272
00:20:07,122 --> 00:20:09,541
Vietnam is divided at the 17th parallel.
273
00:20:09,625 --> 00:20:11,627
You had South Vietnamese soldiers
274
00:20:11,710 --> 00:20:14,713
and then American soldiers
guarding the DMZ.
275
00:20:15,464 --> 00:20:19,176
So the infiltration route would
have to run through Laos and Cambodia
276
00:20:19,259 --> 00:20:20,469
into South Vietnam.
277
00:20:24,765 --> 00:20:29,353
The Hồ Chí Minh Trail began
as a series of small dirt paths.
278
00:20:30,562 --> 00:20:34,608
If you were a North Vietnamese soldier
bringing supplies down South,
279
00:20:34,691 --> 00:20:37,152
it would take months of arduous trekking
280
00:20:37,236 --> 00:20:39,988
to go from North Vietnam to South Vietnam,
281
00:20:40,072 --> 00:20:42,658
carrying things by bicycle or on back.
282
00:20:44,993 --> 00:20:47,579
My unit had
some people who cleared the forest
283
00:20:47,663 --> 00:20:48,914
wherever we needed to go.
284
00:20:49,414 --> 00:20:52,542
{\an8}Actually, there were
a lot of roads back then.
285
00:20:52,626 --> 00:20:55,545
{\an8}But now, they call it
the Hồ Chí Minh Trail.
286
00:20:58,215 --> 00:21:00,050
Back then, our march was very grueling.
287
00:21:01,760 --> 00:21:04,179
There were hundreds of ways to die,
not just a few.
288
00:21:04,721 --> 00:21:06,098
From bombs and bullets…
289
00:21:10,018 --> 00:21:13,689
Crossing streams,
you could be swept away by the current.
290
00:21:15,148 --> 00:21:18,318
There were people
who got sick, got malaria.
291
00:21:19,945 --> 00:21:22,197
There was such hunger
and starving to death.
292
00:21:24,616 --> 00:21:27,536
From the starting point
to our destination,
293
00:21:27,619 --> 00:21:28,912
we lost six full months.
294
00:21:32,207 --> 00:21:35,627
The undeclared war
raging today in South Vietnam
295
00:21:35,711 --> 00:21:38,839
is not being fought
in the streets of cities,
296
00:21:38,922 --> 00:21:40,465
but the central highlands.
297
00:21:41,008 --> 00:21:44,886
Into this remote, mountainous,
largely jungle-covered region,
298
00:21:44,970 --> 00:21:48,348
the Communists of North Vietnam
have infiltrated a steady stream
299
00:21:48,432 --> 00:21:52,144
of agitators, terrorists,
and professional guerrillas.
300
00:21:57,983 --> 00:22:01,903
The Communist philosophy
was to take over the countryside,
301
00:22:01,987 --> 00:22:05,699
surround the cities, and eventually,
you can take over the government.
302
00:22:08,994 --> 00:22:12,497
{\an8}And so the Communists
were basically in control
303
00:22:12,581 --> 00:22:15,000
{\an8}of large chunks of the countryside,
304
00:22:15,584 --> 00:22:16,877
{\an8}perhaps 70% of it.
305
00:22:18,086 --> 00:22:21,548
Now they're controlling manpower,
now they're controlling the rice crop.
306
00:22:21,631 --> 00:22:25,761
Now they're controlling a large part
of the economics of the country.
307
00:22:32,559 --> 00:22:34,478
We don't know the Communists.
308
00:22:34,561 --> 00:22:39,900
We just only know the Việt Cộng fight
against American invaders.
309
00:22:40,692 --> 00:22:43,320
{\an8}But we don't know why they're there,
310
00:22:43,403 --> 00:22:47,491
{\an8}and we didn't really know the Communists
and what they believe.
311
00:22:49,326 --> 00:22:50,285
We farmers.
312
00:22:51,912 --> 00:22:55,165
We don't know which side are we on,
313
00:22:55,791 --> 00:22:58,168
but we know that we love our Motherland.
314
00:23:02,631 --> 00:23:05,008
"Việt Cộng" is a derogatory term
315
00:23:05,092 --> 00:23:07,803
for the Communist enemy,
this guerrilla army.
316
00:23:09,012 --> 00:23:12,974
They would become known officially
as the National Liberation Front.
317
00:23:15,185 --> 00:23:17,020
We don't call them "Việt Cộng."
318
00:23:17,646 --> 00:23:20,524
We call them Chú giải phóng quân.
319
00:23:20,607 --> 00:23:22,984
So it's "Uncles of Liberation."
320
00:23:24,111 --> 00:23:27,614
They are the villagers.
They know us. They live with us.
321
00:23:28,115 --> 00:23:31,243
So we're comfortable with them.
We supported them.
322
00:23:35,539 --> 00:23:39,251
The problem is that Americans
had a very hard time distinguishing
323
00:23:39,334 --> 00:23:42,045
South Vietnamese guerrillas
and North Vietnamese forces
324
00:23:42,129 --> 00:23:44,297
from the civilian population.
325
00:23:46,466 --> 00:23:49,136
And part of insurgent strategy
is to blur the boundaries
326
00:23:49,219 --> 00:23:51,972
between combatants and non-combatants.
327
00:23:54,015 --> 00:23:56,601
Both the Americans
and the South Vietnamese understand
328
00:23:56,685 --> 00:23:58,437
if we're going to win the war,
329
00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:01,106
we're gonna have to push
the Communists out of the villages,
330
00:24:01,648 --> 00:24:03,400
regain control of the countryside.
331
00:24:05,735 --> 00:24:07,446
The question always was,
332
00:24:07,529 --> 00:24:12,451
what was the strategy that would work
to push the Communists out?
333
00:24:14,828 --> 00:24:19,416
Pacification is what the war
in South Vietnam is supposed to be about.
334
00:24:19,499 --> 00:24:23,587
That is, the effort to bring
all the country's 12,000 hamlets
335
00:24:23,670 --> 00:24:25,172
under government control.
336
00:24:27,382 --> 00:24:30,135
{\an8}The Strategic Hamlet Program
is actually an idea
337
00:24:30,218 --> 00:24:31,803
{\an8}from the South Vietnamese.
338
00:24:33,013 --> 00:24:36,641
{\an8}And the idea is that you would create
these fortified settlements
339
00:24:37,225 --> 00:24:39,853
{\an8}that would be purged of insurgent forces.
340
00:24:41,938 --> 00:24:45,567
An area, a town, a hamlet
may have given hospitality
341
00:24:45,650 --> 00:24:48,028
or been held hostage by the enemy.
342
00:24:48,111 --> 00:24:51,031
We move in
and compel the people to move out.
343
00:24:51,948 --> 00:24:55,410
They would take peasants away
from where they would live traditionally
344
00:24:55,994 --> 00:24:58,413
and concentrate them in places
345
00:24:58,497 --> 00:25:01,958
where they could theoretically
start their lives over again as farmers
346
00:25:02,042 --> 00:25:03,293
behind barricades.
347
00:25:03,960 --> 00:25:06,338
And the guerrillas
would be left in the countryside.
348
00:25:07,464 --> 00:25:11,843
Over time, more and more Americans start
taking over the pacification effort.
349
00:25:12,469 --> 00:25:15,555
{\an8}They call these refugee communities
"New Life Hamlets."
350
00:25:16,139 --> 00:25:18,225
In one way, it's a better life.
351
00:25:18,308 --> 00:25:21,311
For here, for the moment at least,
they are removed from the war.
352
00:25:21,394 --> 00:25:24,648
But in many other ways,
it's not better at all. It's worse.
353
00:25:30,362 --> 00:25:32,531
Americans show up in our village.
354
00:25:33,406 --> 00:25:37,410
They say, "Everybody have to go.
Your village's gonna be leveled."
355
00:25:37,494 --> 00:25:41,331
Mama-san…
Hey, Bill, tell her she's got to leave.
356
00:25:43,250 --> 00:25:45,585
Tell this Mama-san
to get that stuff and get out of here.
357
00:25:46,211 --> 00:25:47,712
Come on, let's go.
358
00:25:47,796 --> 00:25:50,006
Go? Go where? Go where?
359
00:25:50,674 --> 00:25:55,011
You thinking about here you have house,
you have… everything.
360
00:25:56,429 --> 00:25:58,598
Overnight, you become a refugee.
361
00:25:58,682 --> 00:26:00,141
Okay, burn it!
362
00:26:02,602 --> 00:26:06,481
All the people put in one refugee camp
363
00:26:07,065 --> 00:26:11,653
with a little bamboo hut
or shack for them to live there.
364
00:26:13,780 --> 00:26:14,906
No rice paddy.
365
00:26:16,157 --> 00:26:17,659
How can people survive?
366
00:26:19,119 --> 00:26:20,161
We starving.
367
00:26:20,954 --> 00:26:22,872
That is what I see. That's what I saw.
368
00:26:24,541 --> 00:26:26,751
This idea did not work out very well.
369
00:26:29,879 --> 00:26:33,508
Vietnamese guerrillas continued
to infiltrate the hamlets.
370
00:26:34,968 --> 00:26:38,179
And many of the people wanted to go back
to their ancestral farms and villages,
371
00:26:38,263 --> 00:26:39,180
and many of them did.
372
00:26:42,267 --> 00:26:45,854
"Pacification" was
a sort of precursor, in a sense,
373
00:26:45,937 --> 00:26:46,980
to "counterinsurgency,"
374
00:26:47,063 --> 00:26:50,150
which is the phrase
that the Americans come to use,
375
00:26:50,650 --> 00:26:54,321
including the American commander,
William Westmoreland.
376
00:26:54,404 --> 00:26:57,365
{\an8}I-- I think, in essence, uh,
377
00:26:57,449 --> 00:27:01,578
{\an8}a victory
in a counterinsurgency environment
378
00:27:01,661 --> 00:27:04,205
{\an8}is to win the hearts and minds
of the people.
379
00:27:05,582 --> 00:27:08,793
General William C. Westmoreland
380
00:27:08,877 --> 00:27:12,130
was chosen by President Johnson
381
00:27:12,213 --> 00:27:16,885
to take command in Vietnam in mid-1964.
382
00:27:18,094 --> 00:27:21,014
The commander
of the United States Army in Vietnam,
383
00:27:21,097 --> 00:27:22,515
William Childs Westmoreland,
384
00:27:22,599 --> 00:27:26,353
51, four-star general,
controls and coordinates
385
00:27:26,436 --> 00:27:29,856
the vast and growing assembly
of American power in Vietnam.
386
00:27:30,357 --> 00:27:32,901
{\an8}By the time Westmoreland got there,
387
00:27:32,984 --> 00:27:39,199
{\an8}the South Vietnamese military were losing
over 100 men a week, at least.
388
00:27:39,282 --> 00:27:40,784
- Morning, General.
- Morning.
389
00:27:43,411 --> 00:27:45,038
Westmoreland says
390
00:27:45,121 --> 00:27:47,957
that the offensive
that he has anticipated,
391
00:27:48,041 --> 00:27:50,418
that he'd been fearful of, is now on.
392
00:27:51,711 --> 00:27:54,631
And he wants people
as quickly as he can get them.
393
00:27:58,176 --> 00:28:01,054
{\an8}Over a period of months, in 1965,
394
00:28:01,137 --> 00:28:04,516
{\an8}Westmoreland asks for, and gets,
395
00:28:04,599 --> 00:28:08,812
{\an8}a steady increase
in the American troop commitment.
396
00:28:11,898 --> 00:28:14,234
I was born and raised in Macon, Georgia.
397
00:28:14,734 --> 00:28:16,611
My father was a sharecropper.
398
00:28:17,278 --> 00:28:20,490
{\an8}And I'm one of 13 children.
I was number nine.
399
00:28:23,243 --> 00:28:27,497
Macon, Georgia was
a very racially-oppressed town.
400
00:28:29,457 --> 00:28:31,376
Everything was still segregated.
401
00:28:31,876 --> 00:28:34,671
You know, the white and colored restrooms,
402
00:28:35,380 --> 00:28:37,215
sitting on the back of the bus.
403
00:28:37,841 --> 00:28:39,592
You know, it was just very,
404
00:28:39,676 --> 00:28:42,595
not only oppressive, but depressing to me.
405
00:28:43,263 --> 00:28:45,056
You know, I just knew
there was a bigger world
406
00:28:45,140 --> 00:28:47,267
and there was something better to do
407
00:28:47,350 --> 00:28:51,521
rather than to be
in this very, very racist town.
408
00:28:53,356 --> 00:28:56,651
And so I joined the Army
at a very early age,
409
00:28:56,735 --> 00:28:58,027
at-- at 17.
410
00:28:59,904 --> 00:29:03,283
Little did I know
that Vietnam would be on the horizon.
411
00:29:06,453 --> 00:29:09,497
And of course, it was a stalemate
from the very beginning,
412
00:29:09,581 --> 00:29:11,499
as far as we were concerned.
413
00:29:13,376 --> 00:29:14,961
{\an8}My parents were always
414
00:29:15,044 --> 00:29:18,673
{\an8}more on the Democratic,
leftist side of the coin.
415
00:29:19,632 --> 00:29:22,510
{\an8}So they were obviously
against the war from the beginning.
416
00:29:24,095 --> 00:29:25,597
I was against the war.
417
00:29:26,139 --> 00:29:27,348
But at that age,
418
00:29:27,432 --> 00:29:30,935
you know, I don't think a lot of people
think those things through clearly.
419
00:29:31,519 --> 00:29:32,854
And I obviously didn't.
420
00:29:33,521 --> 00:29:35,315
So I said, "Well,
I'm going to quit high school
421
00:29:35,398 --> 00:29:36,733
and join the Marine Corps."
422
00:29:37,650 --> 00:29:40,737
My parents had a heart attack
when they heard I was going.
423
00:29:40,820 --> 00:29:43,907
They were not, uh, thrilled
with that decision.
424
00:29:45,700 --> 00:29:48,328
When I went to Vietnam,
we flew into Đà Nẵng.
425
00:29:49,579 --> 00:29:53,458
And they said, "Well, we're not going
to stop this plane when we land."
426
00:29:55,543 --> 00:29:57,879
"They're taking incoming at the airport."
427
00:29:59,714 --> 00:30:02,592
The C-130 has a back ramp
that they lower down.
428
00:30:03,301 --> 00:30:06,554
And they throw you out the plane,
and there's incoming coming around.
429
00:30:06,638 --> 00:30:09,933
And you just run
to the side of the-- the airstrip
430
00:30:10,016 --> 00:30:12,352
and jump into a foxhole until it stops.
431
00:30:13,311 --> 00:30:15,563
That's when I said,
"Now I stepped into some shit."
432
00:30:16,105 --> 00:30:18,024
"This is not a good place."
433
00:30:18,775 --> 00:30:19,692
The first day.
434
00:30:24,989 --> 00:30:28,576
When I first got to Vietnam,
assigned to my unit,
435
00:30:28,660 --> 00:30:30,328
{\an8}I met Jake Main.
436
00:30:31,162 --> 00:30:32,997
{\an8}And he became my first friend.
437
00:30:34,707 --> 00:30:36,376
{\an8}As a new guy in the unit,
438
00:30:36,459 --> 00:30:38,586
{\an8}you get what's called "shit detail,"
439
00:30:38,670 --> 00:30:40,839
{\an8}either guard duty or mess duty.
440
00:30:40,922 --> 00:30:42,257
And I picked up guard duty.
441
00:30:43,758 --> 00:30:45,552
I got outpost nine.
442
00:30:46,469 --> 00:30:51,808
And then one night, I'm on guard duty,
and about, um, 1:30 in the morning,
443
00:30:51,891 --> 00:30:53,560
a trip flare went off.
444
00:30:54,561 --> 00:30:58,106
It pops up in the air and it lights up,
and you see what's going on.
445
00:30:58,731 --> 00:31:00,525
And there were all these Việt Cộng,
446
00:31:00,608 --> 00:31:04,404
and they were already
past the wire into the compound.
447
00:31:04,487 --> 00:31:06,739
And as soon as I saw them, I opened fire.
448
00:31:09,200 --> 00:31:11,119
Everything started blowing up.
449
00:31:11,703 --> 00:31:16,249
They blew up the artillery pieces
and the fuel dump and the ammo dump.
450
00:31:17,250 --> 00:31:20,378
We had 28 men wounded and five men killed.
451
00:31:25,091 --> 00:31:26,175
One of them was…
452
00:31:29,721 --> 00:31:31,055
…my friend Jake Main.
453
00:31:35,393 --> 00:31:39,314
I thought, "Wow, I'm in this place,
454
00:31:39,397 --> 00:31:42,775
and the people who live here,
it's their job to kill me."
455
00:31:44,068 --> 00:31:45,528
"This is really serious."
456
00:31:45,612 --> 00:31:48,573
"And if I don't pay attention,
I'm not going home."
457
00:31:56,039 --> 00:31:58,416
And I made a decision that day
458
00:31:58,499 --> 00:32:00,668
that I'd have no empathy
for the Vietnamese.
459
00:32:00,752 --> 00:32:03,338
And I was going to kill
every one of them that I could.
460
00:32:03,421 --> 00:32:05,882
I'm gonna get them back
for what they did to us.
461
00:32:18,603 --> 00:32:20,605
In the beginning,
when I first arrived there,
462
00:32:20,688 --> 00:32:23,107
{\an8}we went into villages and that,
we'd be friendly.
463
00:32:23,191 --> 00:32:24,776
{\an8}We'd pass out candy to the kids.
464
00:32:24,859 --> 00:32:27,278
{\an8}And it was just a friendly-type situation.
465
00:32:30,198 --> 00:32:33,201
I'll have to go get more.
I'll have to go get more.
466
00:32:33,284 --> 00:32:34,786
Okay, I'll be right back.
467
00:32:37,789 --> 00:32:41,417
But as time went on
and we started taking some casualties,
468
00:32:41,501 --> 00:32:42,627
the attitude changed.
469
00:33:06,943 --> 00:33:11,489
We would be out
in the bush for 30 to 60 days.
470
00:33:14,450 --> 00:33:17,370
Going through villages every day.
471
00:33:18,371 --> 00:33:20,665
And almost always,
472
00:33:20,748 --> 00:33:27,338
{\an8}we would receive one or two… gunshots
from a rifle, sniper.
473
00:33:38,850 --> 00:33:40,685
That was guerrilla warfare.
474
00:33:42,478 --> 00:33:44,897
You can get killed any moment.
475
00:33:48,943 --> 00:33:51,571
There are people
getting hit by stray rounds.
476
00:33:52,697 --> 00:33:54,490
Just stepping on booby traps.
477
00:33:55,158 --> 00:33:57,618
My squad leader, on my third week,
478
00:33:57,702 --> 00:34:00,538
stepped on a booby trap
and blew his legs off.
479
00:34:00,621 --> 00:34:03,249
Had to run up
and try to stop the bleeding.
480
00:34:04,292 --> 00:34:05,418
His legs were gone.
481
00:34:06,169 --> 00:34:07,503
His fingers were gone.
482
00:34:09,380 --> 00:34:11,257
And he died on the helicopter.
483
00:34:27,940 --> 00:34:31,527
With the loss
of the soldiers in the company,
484
00:34:32,195 --> 00:34:34,572
troops very much started
to change their position
485
00:34:34,655 --> 00:34:36,199
against the Vietnamese people.
486
00:34:37,158 --> 00:34:38,910
They're losing some of their friends.
487
00:34:43,081 --> 00:34:46,667
And it just, uh, worsened as it went on.
488
00:34:49,754 --> 00:34:52,882
This war is not
going to be won by any single battle
489
00:34:52,965 --> 00:34:56,886
or series of battles
or even series of campaigns.
490
00:34:57,637 --> 00:35:03,351
We should develop a hard-hitting,
well-balanced, highly mobile force
491
00:35:03,851 --> 00:35:04,811
here in Vietnam,
492
00:35:05,478 --> 00:35:08,481
that we can sustain indefinitely,
if required.
493
00:35:20,535 --> 00:35:23,162
Westmoreland comes up
with what becomes known
494
00:35:23,246 --> 00:35:24,914
as "search and destroy" missions.
495
00:35:30,253 --> 00:35:34,298
The search and destroy tactic
developed by our forces in Vietnam
496
00:35:34,382 --> 00:35:36,008
means just what it says.
497
00:35:36,592 --> 00:35:40,263
To search out the enemy,
no matter how difficult the terrain,
498
00:35:40,346 --> 00:35:42,014
to engage him in battle,
499
00:35:42,098 --> 00:35:44,225
and, in the end, to destroy him.
500
00:35:47,562 --> 00:35:51,274
Also, you have in Vietnam
these things called "free-fire zones."
501
00:35:51,357 --> 00:35:53,985
{\an8}That's an entire region
502
00:35:54,068 --> 00:35:57,363
{\an8}that would be declared
a zone that was open for attack.
503
00:36:00,324 --> 00:36:05,454
We would, uh, tell civilians
to move out of a zone.
504
00:36:07,540 --> 00:36:11,460
And then we would assume
they all did what we told them.
505
00:36:13,254 --> 00:36:17,175
And that it contained
nothing but enemy troops.
506
00:36:19,343 --> 00:36:23,347
{\an8}And then it was a free-fire zone
507
00:36:24,140 --> 00:36:27,185
{\an8}in that you could shoot anywhere in it
508
00:36:27,268 --> 00:36:29,353
{\an8}without pre-clearance.
509
00:36:41,949 --> 00:36:44,911
Roger, I am now firing. Copy, over.
510
00:36:50,208 --> 00:36:53,794
But, of course,
it wasn't clear of civilians.
511
00:36:58,090 --> 00:36:59,842
It became extremely messy
512
00:36:59,926 --> 00:37:03,888
because a lot of civilians didn't agree
to the idea of free-fire zones.
513
00:37:03,971 --> 00:37:05,681
These were simply imposed on them.
514
00:37:07,183 --> 00:37:10,561
And so a lot of civilians ended up
being killed in these free-fire zones,
515
00:37:10,645 --> 00:37:13,064
either deliberately or accidentally.
516
00:37:17,610 --> 00:37:20,529
We were taught
that the Vietnamese were warned to leave.
517
00:37:21,447 --> 00:37:23,282
And all the Vietnamese that stayed
518
00:37:23,366 --> 00:37:26,327
were part of the infrastructure
for the Việt Cộng.
519
00:37:29,455 --> 00:37:32,833
I was told I'm in a free-fire zone,
I can kill everybody I find.
520
00:37:33,376 --> 00:37:37,004
And our method of operation
was called "search and destroy."
521
00:37:38,881 --> 00:37:40,800
You just hunt for people,
and you kill them.
522
00:37:42,093 --> 00:37:43,886
And you can kill them however you want.
523
00:37:45,554 --> 00:37:47,265
Everybody killing everybody.
524
00:37:48,099 --> 00:37:51,644
The people who had
nothing to do with the politics,
525
00:37:51,727 --> 00:37:57,942
who had nothing to do with how the war
turned into such killing zones.
526
00:37:58,025 --> 00:38:01,904
It's just so sad and suffering.
527
00:38:04,073 --> 00:38:06,742
So this is what built up hatred
528
00:38:06,826 --> 00:38:11,080
and built up
why did the villagers join the Việt Cộng.
529
00:38:13,541 --> 00:38:16,168
{\an8}They say,
"When the enemy comes to the house,
530
00:38:17,003 --> 00:38:18,296
{\an8}even the women fight."
531
00:38:21,382 --> 00:38:22,800
We fought with whatever we had.
532
00:38:22,883 --> 00:38:28,514
It didn't matter
that we didn't have modern weapons.
533
00:38:28,597 --> 00:38:32,518
I'm the prime example.
On my first day, I received…
534
00:38:34,020 --> 00:38:36,188
I received a World War II-era rifle.
535
00:38:42,486 --> 00:38:48,284
If you got to use modern weapons,
that meant that you got them yourself
536
00:38:49,160 --> 00:38:52,705
by killing the enemies
and taking their guns.
537
00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:55,666
And I really like that.
538
00:38:55,750 --> 00:39:01,213
And in my gut,
all I wanted to do was fight head-on.
539
00:39:06,802 --> 00:39:10,681
The North Vietnamese
relied very heavily on women soldiers.
540
00:39:12,767 --> 00:39:18,397
I think there were 1.5 million women
fighting on the Communist side.
541
00:39:22,318 --> 00:39:25,946
And among young people
who volunteered for the war,
542
00:39:26,030 --> 00:39:29,742
up to 70% of the volunteers were women.
543
00:39:34,080 --> 00:39:37,124
They called us the "Việt Cộng,"
but we were the Liberation Army.
544
00:39:37,792 --> 00:39:43,214
{\an8}We were all comrades
and considered ourselves one family.
545
00:39:43,297 --> 00:39:48,344
{\an8}When one person fell,
five to seven others stepped forward.
546
00:39:50,679 --> 00:39:57,144
At that time,
it was a hot-blooded atmosphere.
547
00:39:57,228 --> 00:40:01,899
If there was a gun and someone came,
I would fight right away.
548
00:40:03,067 --> 00:40:04,276
I would shoot immediately,
549
00:40:04,360 --> 00:40:07,405
because I would never use the excuse,
"My emotions got in the way."
550
00:40:07,488 --> 00:40:08,906
This was for the love of the people.
551
00:40:11,700 --> 00:40:14,620
This is a war with free-fire zones,
552
00:40:15,454 --> 00:40:19,166
with death, murder, and mayhem
taking place in the countryside.
553
00:40:19,959 --> 00:40:24,880
{\an8}If, uh, North Vietnam would, uh, stop,
uh, sending infiltrators and arms
554
00:40:24,964 --> 00:40:26,298
into the South,
555
00:40:26,382 --> 00:40:28,759
that this matter could be resolved
very quickly.
556
00:40:28,843 --> 00:40:30,970
But every night on the nightly news,
557
00:40:31,053 --> 00:40:34,723
the war is reported
from the side of the United States
558
00:40:34,807 --> 00:40:37,101
and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam.
559
00:40:43,649 --> 00:40:46,360
Here is the United States
Information Service building,
560
00:40:46,444 --> 00:40:50,948
where every day at 5:00 p.m.
occurs the oddest ritual in Saigon,
561
00:40:51,031 --> 00:40:53,033
the military briefing for the world press.
562
00:40:53,117 --> 00:40:58,956
Đức Cơ, "D-U-C, C-O,"
Special Forces camp in Pleiku,
563
00:40:59,039 --> 00:41:01,333
it was mortared again
at eleven o'clock this morning.
564
00:41:01,417 --> 00:41:05,045
Every day, there is
an official US government report
565
00:41:05,129 --> 00:41:07,506
on the military actions that took place.
566
00:41:08,299 --> 00:41:09,925
This brings the total
567
00:41:10,759 --> 00:41:17,224
from January 1 through April 1 to 10,746.
568
00:41:17,725 --> 00:41:19,977
And they're called
"The Five O'Clock Follies"
569
00:41:20,060 --> 00:41:22,021
because they were absolutely idiotic,
570
00:41:22,104 --> 00:41:23,731
just straight-up propaganda.
571
00:41:23,814 --> 00:41:25,149
{\an8}These were the targets
572
00:41:25,232 --> 00:41:28,360
{\an8}of the United States Air Force
in North Vietnam today.
573
00:41:28,444 --> 00:41:31,780
{\an8}There were something like 600 reporters
574
00:41:31,864 --> 00:41:33,699
{\an8}in Vietnam at its height.
575
00:41:34,492 --> 00:41:36,994
{\an8}Many of them were "on the team,"
576
00:41:37,745 --> 00:41:39,079
as the expression was.
577
00:41:39,163 --> 00:41:41,248
You're either on the team
or not on the team.
578
00:41:42,708 --> 00:41:46,670
Westmoreland would often summon
US journalists into his presence
579
00:41:46,754 --> 00:41:49,340
and tell them to straighten up.
580
00:41:50,424 --> 00:41:52,843
"We want some more
positive reporting out of you."
581
00:41:52,927 --> 00:41:54,428
"We're winning this war."
582
00:41:58,599 --> 00:42:01,894
But the best reporters are those reporters
who are actually on the ground,
583
00:42:01,977 --> 00:42:03,229
traveling around.
584
00:42:06,065 --> 00:42:08,442
{\an8}We're on the outskirts
of the village of Cẩm Nê
585
00:42:08,526 --> 00:42:11,195
{\an8}with elements
of the 1st Battalion, 9th Marines.
586
00:42:12,321 --> 00:42:16,325
{\an8}One of those great Vietnam
war reporters was Morley Safer,
587
00:42:16,408 --> 00:42:17,743
{\an8}working for CBS.
588
00:42:19,662 --> 00:42:22,957
He accompanies
a group of Marines into the field.
589
00:42:24,250 --> 00:42:26,126
We were walking into this village when--
590
00:42:26,210 --> 00:42:28,462
You can hear what happened.
591
00:42:28,546 --> 00:42:30,214
There's some sniper fire.
592
00:42:31,882 --> 00:42:35,553
And he notices that the US military
with their Zippo lighters
593
00:42:35,636 --> 00:42:39,181
are actually igniting the thatch roofs
594
00:42:39,265 --> 00:42:42,685
of the Vietnamese houses
of an entire village.
595
00:42:42,768 --> 00:42:46,730
And Morley Safer captures this on film,
and he reports it.
596
00:42:58,409 --> 00:43:02,162
The day's operation
burned down 150 houses,
597
00:43:02,246 --> 00:43:05,082
wounded three women, killed one baby,
598
00:43:05,165 --> 00:43:07,167
wounded one Marine,
599
00:43:07,251 --> 00:43:09,587
and netted these four prisoners.
600
00:43:11,338 --> 00:43:15,801
Today's operation is
the frustration of Vietnam in miniature.
601
00:43:15,884 --> 00:43:18,345
There is little doubt
that American firepower
602
00:43:18,429 --> 00:43:21,056
can win a military victory here.
603
00:43:21,140 --> 00:43:23,559
But to a Vietnamese peasant
604
00:43:23,642 --> 00:43:28,188
whose home is a--
means a lifetime of backbreaking labor,
605
00:43:28,272 --> 00:43:30,983
it will take more
than presidential promises
606
00:43:31,066 --> 00:43:33,736
to convince him that we are on his side.
607
00:43:34,528 --> 00:43:35,362
Morley Safer…
608
00:43:35,446 --> 00:43:38,157
This got a tremendous amount of attention.
609
00:43:39,366 --> 00:43:42,661
{\an8}It's one thing to battle for a village
or battle in the village.
610
00:43:42,745 --> 00:43:45,497
{\an8}It's another thing
to start setting fire to homes.
611
00:43:46,248 --> 00:43:48,626
Nobody thought
American troops would do that.
612
00:43:50,210 --> 00:43:52,588
I would say it was the first real shock
613
00:43:53,339 --> 00:43:57,134
that Americans got
of what the reality of war is.
614
00:44:04,475 --> 00:44:05,809
At the White House,
615
00:44:05,893 --> 00:44:08,812
President Johnson was appalled
616
00:44:08,896 --> 00:44:10,439
and also furious.
617
00:44:11,190 --> 00:44:13,942
He didn't think
that CBS should have run the footage.
618
00:44:14,026 --> 00:44:15,986
And he got busy on the telephone.
619
00:44:16,070 --> 00:44:20,949
He called Dr. Frank Stanton,
who was President of CBS Corporate.
620
00:44:22,076 --> 00:44:23,494
He went to the very top.
621
00:44:24,662 --> 00:44:28,374
Johnson says,
"Frank, are you trying to fuck me?"
622
00:44:28,916 --> 00:44:32,836
And then demanded
that Morley Safer be fired by CBS.
623
00:44:34,922 --> 00:44:38,550
And Frank Stanton refused
to fire Morley Safer.
624
00:44:42,137 --> 00:44:46,266
Not long after that,
late November of 1965,
625
00:44:46,767 --> 00:44:47,976
I arrived in Vietnam.
626
00:44:51,438 --> 00:44:52,731
Dan Rather, CBS News…
627
00:44:52,815 --> 00:44:58,070
I came enthusiastic,
but not very smart about wars.
628
00:44:58,696 --> 00:45:00,989
But for whatever shortcomings I had,
629
00:45:01,657 --> 00:45:05,911
I went to Vietnam determined
to see what was happening in combat,
630
00:45:05,994 --> 00:45:09,373
not just hang around
some headquarters in Saigon.
631
00:45:10,332 --> 00:45:12,501
And when I said, "Where's the action?"
632
00:45:12,584 --> 00:45:18,090
I was told it's in the northern part
of the country in a place called Tam Kỳ.
633
00:45:21,802 --> 00:45:24,596
{\an8}When I got there,
it looked like a Hollywood movie.
634
00:45:24,680 --> 00:45:27,850
{\an8}There was tremendous gunfire
on both sides.
635
00:45:28,726 --> 00:45:32,187
Could you tell us what's happening here?
Fill us in on what the situation is?
636
00:45:32,271 --> 00:45:35,357
There were a lot of people
falling and dying or wounded.
637
00:45:35,858 --> 00:45:38,277
And there was a Marine who'd been hit.
638
00:45:39,194 --> 00:45:42,656
One of his companions asked
if we could help him.
639
00:45:42,740 --> 00:45:45,784
- We need some help over here.
- I'll give you a hand.
640
00:45:47,578 --> 00:45:50,706
You know if you're a Marine,
you never sound retreat.
641
00:45:51,331 --> 00:45:54,042
But as the battle developed,
642
00:45:54,668 --> 00:45:59,214
the situation seemed to be
that the Marines were vastly outnumbered.
643
00:46:00,132 --> 00:46:02,176
It had been underestimated,
644
00:46:02,259 --> 00:46:05,262
the strength of the Việt Cộng forces
who were there.
645
00:46:06,180 --> 00:46:09,558
That was typical
of much of the fighting in Vietnam.
646
00:46:10,601 --> 00:46:12,478
{\an8}This is the 25th Infantry Division,
647
00:46:13,353 --> 00:46:16,523
{\an8}the newest troops in South Vietnam
for the United States.
648
00:46:17,149 --> 00:46:18,859
Everything in the modern Army's book
649
00:46:18,942 --> 00:46:21,862
is thrown into clearing
this one half-mile sector.
650
00:46:22,780 --> 00:46:26,366
Included is the new
flame-throwing armored personnel carrier.
651
00:46:28,118 --> 00:46:29,912
Dan Rather, CBS News.
652
00:46:29,995 --> 00:46:32,956
- Fire!
- With the 25th Division, South Vietnam.
653
00:46:33,749 --> 00:46:36,084
I was in Vietnam for almost a year.
654
00:46:38,045 --> 00:46:39,546
Time and time again,
655
00:46:40,255 --> 00:46:41,507
there'd be a battle
656
00:46:42,174 --> 00:46:43,717
or even a small firefight,
657
00:46:43,801 --> 00:46:45,427
and we did not prevail.
658
00:46:57,356 --> 00:46:59,733
{\an8}For those who read
the figures on American dead
659
00:46:59,817 --> 00:47:03,362
{\an8}week after week, 95 one week, 116 another…
660
00:47:04,112 --> 00:47:06,031
For those who read
those figures and wonder
661
00:47:06,114 --> 00:47:09,827
how so many Americans die
in what is supposed to be a small war,
662
00:47:10,327 --> 00:47:13,038
many of them die like proud Rudolph Nuñes,
663
00:47:13,121 --> 00:47:16,834
on a patrol point, in the jungle, alone.
664
00:47:18,460 --> 00:47:19,711
Dan Rather, CBS News…
665
00:47:19,795 --> 00:47:23,257
The longer I stayed,
the more obvious it became
666
00:47:23,340 --> 00:47:26,760
that what the leaders
of the country in Washington,
667
00:47:26,844 --> 00:47:29,596
and for that matter
the top military leaders in Vietnam,
668
00:47:29,680 --> 00:47:33,433
were saying was in direct contrast
669
00:47:34,059 --> 00:47:37,271
to what reporters, including myself,
were finding on the ground.
670
00:47:38,730 --> 00:47:40,524
There was a credibility gap.
671
00:47:43,151 --> 00:47:45,445
The majority
of the United States population
672
00:47:45,529 --> 00:47:47,489
supported the war in Vietnam.
673
00:47:47,573 --> 00:47:48,949
And why is that?
674
00:47:49,032 --> 00:47:50,534
Because night after night,
675
00:47:50,617 --> 00:47:53,954
they got,
"Successful US military engagement."
676
00:47:54,037 --> 00:47:56,665
Night after night,
they got the body count.
677
00:47:56,748 --> 00:48:00,002
The enemy again suffered
far greater casualties.
678
00:48:00,085 --> 00:48:02,504
Fifty bodies were found
right around the perimeter,
679
00:48:02,588 --> 00:48:06,383
and at least 170 others
were counted in the jungle nearby.
680
00:48:09,177 --> 00:48:10,888
The daily body count,
681
00:48:10,971 --> 00:48:15,225
how many tens or hundreds
of Vietnamese guerrillas were killed
682
00:48:15,309 --> 00:48:17,728
versus the amount
of American soldiers being killed,
683
00:48:17,811 --> 00:48:21,023
became enormously important
to the United States.
684
00:48:29,406 --> 00:48:31,700
In the past four and a half years,
685
00:48:32,284 --> 00:48:34,077
{\an8}the Việt Cộng, the Communists…
686
00:48:35,913 --> 00:48:38,999
have lost 89,000 men,
687
00:48:39,082 --> 00:48:42,169
killed… in South Vietnam.
688
00:48:44,755 --> 00:48:48,926
{\an8}Robert McNamara, he had a mind
that worked with data, numbers, and so on.
689
00:48:49,009 --> 00:48:52,054
{\an8}And ultimately, in the Vietnam years,
was not a plus.
690
00:48:54,598 --> 00:48:58,226
One of the great controversies
was the kill ratio.
691
00:48:58,936 --> 00:49:03,065
Their goal was to kill enough of the enemy
692
00:49:03,857 --> 00:49:07,277
that the enemy couldn't replace
the troops it had lost
693
00:49:08,070 --> 00:49:11,406
and eventually would have to give up
because they didn't have the troops.
694
00:49:18,372 --> 00:49:19,998
It's just so typical, Mr. President.
695
00:49:20,082 --> 00:49:22,876
It's a relatively small enemy force.
696
00:49:22,960 --> 00:49:24,169
We think we're--
697
00:49:24,252 --> 00:49:27,339
we're, uh, taking a heavy toll on them.
698
00:49:27,422 --> 00:49:29,758
And if we-- we hurt them enough,
699
00:49:30,258 --> 00:49:32,469
it isn't so much
that they don't have more men
700
00:49:32,552 --> 00:49:35,514
as it is that they can't
get the men to fight.
701
00:49:46,858 --> 00:49:50,988
Any unit that was engaged
had to send back a body count.
702
00:49:52,197 --> 00:49:53,615
It sounds like it oughta be easy.
703
00:49:53,699 --> 00:49:56,660
{\an8}You open up with your artillery
or machine guns or whatever,
704
00:49:56,743 --> 00:49:58,829
{\an8}and then you go out
and pick up the bodies.
705
00:49:58,912 --> 00:50:00,163
{\an8}It doesn't work that way.
706
00:50:04,251 --> 00:50:06,628
If there are any enemy dead or wounded,
707
00:50:06,712 --> 00:50:08,588
the enemy has hauled them out.
708
00:50:08,672 --> 00:50:09,673
None are seen.
709
00:50:11,717 --> 00:50:14,469
It's not like the Việt Cộng
left their bodies out there
710
00:50:14,553 --> 00:50:16,263
so that we could go out and count them.
711
00:50:16,346 --> 00:50:19,516
They had whole units
that did nothing but clear the battlefield
712
00:50:19,599 --> 00:50:22,185
because they didn't particularly want us
to know how many of theirs
713
00:50:22,269 --> 00:50:24,062
that we'd managed to kill.
714
00:50:25,647 --> 00:50:29,109
Any commander in the field
had to come back with a high body count.
715
00:50:29,192 --> 00:50:30,610
So anyone who was killed,
716
00:50:31,361 --> 00:50:36,575
men, women, children, everybody,
they were all counted as dead Communists.
717
00:50:37,534 --> 00:50:39,661
These numbers were completely faked up.
718
00:50:40,454 --> 00:50:43,540
The historians estimate
that one-third of the body count
719
00:50:43,623 --> 00:50:45,584
actually was just civilians
who were killed.
720
00:50:52,174 --> 00:50:54,426
We were taught if we killed ten Vietnamese
721
00:50:54,509 --> 00:50:56,053
for every American that died,
722
00:50:56,136 --> 00:50:57,262
we're going to win.
723
00:50:58,096 --> 00:51:00,849
It's like if you're playing baseball,
you want to get home runs.
724
00:51:00,932 --> 00:51:03,435
You know, if you're playing football,
you want to get touchdowns.
725
00:51:03,518 --> 00:51:06,063
If you're in war, you want to get bodies.
726
00:51:07,147 --> 00:51:10,567
And what you're thinking about
is the body count.
727
00:51:10,650 --> 00:51:12,861
"I got another.
I got another. I got another."
728
00:51:12,944 --> 00:51:14,946
You want to have a high body count.
729
00:51:16,114 --> 00:51:19,701
{\an8}When we would move
through a village, it was really bad.
730
00:51:20,619 --> 00:51:23,455
{\an8}Our lieutenant would call in artillery,
731
00:51:23,538 --> 00:51:27,292
and they would shoot in,
maybe, 20 artillery rounds
732
00:51:27,375 --> 00:51:28,627
and hit the village.
733
00:51:29,544 --> 00:51:31,630
And then they would call in an airstrike.
734
00:51:34,049 --> 00:51:37,427
And then we'd get up
and start to walk through the village,
735
00:51:38,386 --> 00:51:41,139
and it was nothing but dead bodies.
736
00:51:41,223 --> 00:51:46,561
Old women, old men, children, and babies.
737
00:51:46,645 --> 00:51:49,773
All dead, and all just mutilated.
738
00:51:49,856 --> 00:51:52,692
Their body parts
are spread all over the place.
739
00:52:00,325 --> 00:52:05,580
Those are the, uh, kinds of memories
that, uh, stay with me.
740
00:52:20,303 --> 00:52:22,514
There's no such thing as a clean war.
741
00:52:24,266 --> 00:52:26,017
War is terribly chaotic.
742
00:52:27,018 --> 00:52:31,398
And the people who suffer most
are women and children, and old people.
743
00:52:33,191 --> 00:52:34,860
It was certainly true in Vietnam.
744
00:52:37,904 --> 00:52:41,616
This should be seen
in the context, by the way,
745
00:52:42,409 --> 00:52:43,535
that the other side,
746
00:52:43,618 --> 00:52:47,664
that is the combined forces
of North Vietnam and the Việt Cộng,
747
00:52:48,582 --> 00:52:51,918
destroyed many more villages
than American troops destroyed.
748
00:52:54,838 --> 00:53:00,802
It was not unusual for them to string up
a leader, hung by the neck, in a village.
749
00:53:02,846 --> 00:53:06,558
Terrible atrocities happened
on a regular basis,
750
00:53:06,641 --> 00:53:09,352
with both sides and all sides
fighting the war.
751
00:53:12,063 --> 00:53:13,440
Over time,
752
00:53:13,523 --> 00:53:17,235
there's a growing sense
that the war is a stalemate,
753
00:53:17,319 --> 00:53:20,697
and though the enemy
is not appreciably closer to victory,
754
00:53:20,780 --> 00:53:21,865
neither are we.
755
00:53:25,493 --> 00:53:29,247
But Westmoreland preaches
that progress is being made.
756
00:53:32,792 --> 00:53:38,173
He says, "What I need from you
in Washington is more troops."
757
00:53:45,347 --> 00:53:48,934
Johnson will continue to accede
to Westmoreland's requests
758
00:53:49,017 --> 00:53:50,477
for more troops in the field.
759
00:53:51,686 --> 00:53:55,523
In 1964, there are about 112,000 Americans
760
00:53:55,607 --> 00:53:57,901
that are being inducted
into the Armed Forces.
761
00:53:58,401 --> 00:54:01,488
{\an8}By 1965, that-- that number
more than doubles.
762
00:54:02,030 --> 00:54:03,823
{\an8}When you get to 1966,
763
00:54:03,907 --> 00:54:08,495
{\an8}there are over 380,000 inductees
into the US Armed Forces.
764
00:54:09,454 --> 00:54:13,750
And this is where the increases
in the draft become incredibly important.
765
00:54:16,044 --> 00:54:20,674
The draft for Vietnam
had been pulling in American men
766
00:54:20,757 --> 00:54:22,717
since the early 1960s.
767
00:54:23,843 --> 00:54:26,388
But at the point
where Johnson Americanizes the war,
768
00:54:26,471 --> 00:54:28,306
it expands massively.
769
00:54:28,890 --> 00:54:30,433
These are draftees,
770
00:54:30,517 --> 00:54:31,977
young Americans,
771
00:54:32,477 --> 00:54:36,064
{\an8}selected as being qualified
to fulfill a military obligation
772
00:54:36,147 --> 00:54:37,857
established by Congress.
773
00:54:37,941 --> 00:54:41,027
The minimum of two years
must be spent on active duty.
774
00:54:41,111 --> 00:54:42,028
Repeat your full name.
775
00:54:42,112 --> 00:54:46,366
There are ways to get out of the draft,
though, through a variety of deferments,
776
00:54:46,449 --> 00:54:47,659
whether you were married,
777
00:54:47,742 --> 00:54:50,537
what occupation you had,
what level of schooling you had.
778
00:54:52,205 --> 00:54:55,500
{\an8}During World War II or Korea,
the draft was almost universal,
779
00:54:55,583 --> 00:54:57,585
{\an8}but nowadays, fewer people are called.
780
00:54:58,253 --> 00:55:01,047
Graduate school or marriage
offer routine deferments,
781
00:55:01,131 --> 00:55:03,717
despite the American involvement
in Vietnam.
782
00:55:04,718 --> 00:55:07,929
But there is a real sense
that this was unfair,
783
00:55:08,013 --> 00:55:11,099
because if you had resources,
784
00:55:11,182 --> 00:55:12,934
if you had connections,
785
00:55:13,018 --> 00:55:15,979
you could figure out a way
to get out of the draft.
786
00:55:20,066 --> 00:55:23,153
People from working-class backgrounds,
787
00:55:23,778 --> 00:55:29,617
minorities, were far more likely
to be drafted because of deferments.
788
00:55:38,835 --> 00:55:40,712
I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia.
789
00:55:41,588 --> 00:55:42,589
I'm an only son.
790
00:55:43,840 --> 00:55:46,551
{\an8}Was very close to my mom.
791
00:55:46,634 --> 00:55:49,387
{\an8}And… And me and my dad was close as well,
792
00:55:49,471 --> 00:55:52,140
{\an8}but I was really a mama's boy.
793
00:55:53,224 --> 00:55:57,020
When I got the draft notice, I had a job.
I was working at a railroad.
794
00:55:57,103 --> 00:55:59,397
My mom took it out the mailbox.
795
00:55:59,981 --> 00:56:02,359
She said, "Listen now, you ain't going."
796
00:56:05,278 --> 00:56:06,946
But all of my friends was going.
797
00:56:07,739 --> 00:56:11,034
Everybody in my little crew was drafted.
798
00:56:11,701 --> 00:56:14,829
Selective Service tells
each state how many men they have to send.
799
00:56:15,580 --> 00:56:18,541
While the state, in turn,
tells each city and town.
800
00:56:19,417 --> 00:56:21,878
I'm actually 19 years old
when I get the notice,
801
00:56:21,961 --> 00:56:24,172
but I was 20 when I actually went in.
802
00:56:25,382 --> 00:56:28,510
I didn't have a clue
what was actually going on in Vietnam.
803
00:56:29,719 --> 00:56:31,429
You know, we was children.
804
00:56:32,013 --> 00:56:34,516
And we wound up
in the military being drafted.
805
00:56:35,600 --> 00:56:41,189
{\an8}So we had a disproportionate number
of Black soldiers in the Vietnam War,
806
00:56:41,272 --> 00:56:43,650
especially in the combat units,
where I served,
807
00:56:43,733 --> 00:56:45,360
and-- and the front line units.
808
00:56:51,741 --> 00:56:54,285
You know, our percentage
of the population was
809
00:56:54,369 --> 00:56:57,288
about 11-12% at the time.
810
00:56:59,624 --> 00:57:01,251
And sometimes you would see
811
00:57:01,334 --> 00:57:05,338
25% of the front line units
consisted of Black soldiers.
812
00:57:08,383 --> 00:57:10,760
And you think
about the country at that time…
813
00:57:14,597 --> 00:57:16,975
Sir, can we pray together, you and I?
814
00:57:17,475 --> 00:57:20,437
You do your praying,
I do mine, big boy. You don't pray for me.
815
00:57:20,520 --> 00:57:22,730
- I don't want you to pray for me.
- Will you pray for us?
816
00:57:22,814 --> 00:57:25,108
{\an8}Because I don't think your prayers
get above your head.
817
00:57:25,191 --> 00:57:27,944
{\an8}- Well, will you pray for us?
- No, I'm not gonna pray for you.
818
00:57:29,404 --> 00:57:31,072
I'll tend to my business,
you tend to yours.
819
00:57:31,156 --> 00:57:32,657
Now, you better move these people out.
820
00:57:34,033 --> 00:57:38,788
In '65, '66, we still had
discrimination going on in the South.
821
00:57:41,332 --> 00:57:44,252
{\an8}John Lewis, my hero, was beaten
822
00:57:44,335 --> 00:57:47,213
{\an8}on that Edmund Pettus Bridge
in Selma, Alabama,
823
00:57:47,922 --> 00:57:49,883
struggling for the right to vote.
824
00:57:55,472 --> 00:57:57,807
All of these men
were being sent to Vietnam,
825
00:57:57,891 --> 00:57:59,809
a lot of them Black soldiers.
826
00:57:59,893 --> 00:58:03,688
But yet their families
still were struggling
827
00:58:03,771 --> 00:58:04,981
for the right to vote.
828
00:58:07,775 --> 00:58:09,986
{\an8}The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King,
829
00:58:10,069 --> 00:58:13,573
{\an8}a Baptist minister,
has become a symbol of the struggle
830
00:58:13,656 --> 00:58:17,494
{\an8}to end racial segregation
here in the United States.
831
00:58:17,577 --> 00:58:21,080
{\an8}Black and white together!
832
00:58:21,164 --> 00:58:24,876
{\an8}At the time that I received
my orders to go to Vietnam,
833
00:58:24,959 --> 00:58:27,420
{\an8}it was the same time,
834
00:58:27,504 --> 00:58:29,881
in April of '67,
835
00:58:29,964 --> 00:58:35,136
when Dr. King gave
this major speech in New York
836
00:58:35,220 --> 00:58:37,347
against the Vietnam War.
837
00:58:39,265 --> 00:58:43,811
A time comes when silence is betrayal.
838
00:58:44,854 --> 00:58:47,857
And that time has come for us
839
00:58:48,358 --> 00:58:50,193
in relation to Vietnam.
840
00:58:52,946 --> 00:58:57,033
{\an8}He says US is the main purveyor
of violence in the world today.
841
00:58:57,116 --> 00:58:58,826
{\an8}Pretty radical statement for somebody
842
00:58:58,910 --> 00:59:01,955
{\an8}who had been meeting regularly
with the President of the United States
843
00:59:02,038 --> 00:59:04,165
in the White House
just a year or two before.
844
00:59:04,791 --> 00:59:08,920
It became clear to me
that the war was doing far more
845
00:59:09,003 --> 00:59:11,965
than devastating
the hopes of the poor at home.
846
00:59:13,383 --> 00:59:15,385
It was sending their sons
847
00:59:15,468 --> 00:59:18,638
and their brothers
and their husbands to fight
848
00:59:19,430 --> 00:59:23,101
and to die
in extraordinarily high proportions
849
00:59:23,184 --> 00:59:25,645
relative to the rest of the population.
850
00:59:26,437 --> 00:59:28,982
He said the war in Vietnam is racist,
851
00:59:29,065 --> 00:59:32,110
and what's happening
in the United States is racist
852
00:59:32,193 --> 00:59:36,489
and also a result
of great class inequality
853
00:59:36,573 --> 00:59:38,658
and the failures of American capitalism.
854
00:59:40,285 --> 00:59:43,288
{\an8}He connected the domestic and the foreign.
855
00:59:43,371 --> 00:59:45,290
{\an8}This was a radical move
856
00:59:45,373 --> 00:59:49,627
that unsettled many of his allies
and many other Americans at the time.
857
00:59:51,212 --> 00:59:53,631
We were taking the Black young men,
858
00:59:54,966 --> 00:59:57,302
who had been crippled by our society,
859
00:59:57,385 --> 01:00:00,513
and sending them 8,000 miles away
860
01:00:01,681 --> 01:00:05,643
to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia
861
01:00:05,727 --> 01:00:10,732
which they had not found
in Southwest Georgia and East Harlem.
862
01:00:11,608 --> 01:00:15,194
And that dawned on me
that I was-- He was talking about me.
863
01:00:18,615 --> 01:00:22,619
He was speaking
about why young Black soldiers
864
01:00:22,702 --> 01:00:26,122
shouldn't be fighting
in Vietnam in that era…
865
01:00:27,582 --> 01:00:30,918
because of what was happening
in our own country.
866
01:00:31,002 --> 01:00:33,046
From Louisville, Kentucky,
867
01:00:33,838 --> 01:00:36,799
{\an8}the Heavyweight Champion of the World,
868
01:00:36,883 --> 01:00:38,760
{\an8}Muhammad Ali.
869
01:00:42,472 --> 01:00:44,182
{\an8}Muhammad Ali got drafted.
870
01:00:47,852 --> 01:00:49,562
Knockdown, ladies and gentlemen!
871
01:00:49,646 --> 01:00:52,523
A right-hand shot.
A right-hand shot on the chin!
872
01:00:52,607 --> 01:00:55,652
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Muhammad Ali
873
01:00:55,735 --> 01:00:57,403
has just refused to be inducted
874
01:00:57,487 --> 01:00:59,364
into the United States Armed Forces.
875
01:01:01,324 --> 01:01:04,577
My conscience won't let me
go shoot my brother,
876
01:01:04,661 --> 01:01:06,537
or some darker people,
877
01:01:06,621 --> 01:01:09,082
or some poor, hungry people in the mud
878
01:01:09,165 --> 01:01:10,708
for big, powerful America.
879
01:01:10,792 --> 01:01:12,043
And shoot them for what?
880
01:01:12,126 --> 01:01:15,129
They never called me "nigger."
They never lynched me.
881
01:01:15,797 --> 01:01:19,008
We identified with him
and what he was saying.
882
01:01:19,092 --> 01:01:22,095
He said, "No Vietnamese
ever called me a nigger."
883
01:01:22,679 --> 01:01:28,351
And we agreed with him that we don't
have a beef with the Vietnamese.
884
01:01:28,434 --> 01:01:32,063
We have a beef
with some of our fellow American soldiers.
885
01:01:34,148 --> 01:01:37,819
We have some beef with those communities
that we had come from.
886
01:01:40,530 --> 01:01:43,199
Are we a country
founded on freedom and democracy?
887
01:01:43,282 --> 01:01:44,117
We are.
888
01:01:44,200 --> 01:01:46,786
{\an8}But are we also
a country founded on genocide,
889
01:01:46,869 --> 01:01:49,747
{\an8}enslavement, colonization, and warfare?
890
01:01:49,831 --> 01:01:50,665
{\an8}We are.
891
01:01:51,499 --> 01:01:54,585
That contradiction exists
at the very origins of the country.
892
01:01:54,669 --> 01:01:56,796
And that fracture has always existed,
893
01:01:56,879 --> 01:01:59,716
ready to break
at certain moments of intense crisis,
894
01:01:59,799 --> 01:02:02,093
which is what the war in Vietnam
brought forth.
895
01:02:03,344 --> 01:02:05,054
- Are you going?
- Hell no!
896
01:02:05,138 --> 01:02:07,181
- For Uncle Sam?
- Hell no!
897
01:02:07,265 --> 01:02:09,100
- Vietnam?
- Hell no!
898
01:02:09,183 --> 01:02:10,977
- Are you going?
- Hell no!
899
01:02:11,060 --> 01:02:13,146
- Are you going?
- Hell no!
900
01:02:13,229 --> 01:02:17,108
I like to think
of the war in Vietnam's domestic impact
901
01:02:17,191 --> 01:02:22,530
in the United States as being manifest
via civil war in the American soul.
902
01:02:22,613 --> 01:02:25,908
You should be ashamed!
All of you! What do you want?
903
01:02:25,992 --> 01:02:29,412
Communism right on your front door?
Go ahead and fight!
904
01:02:30,037 --> 01:02:31,873
- We won't fight!
- Kill them!
905
01:02:31,956 --> 01:02:33,207
We won't fight!
906
01:02:33,291 --> 01:02:36,127
I don't think it's a coincidence
that the anti-war movement
907
01:02:36,210 --> 01:02:38,838
grew in scale and in ferocity
908
01:02:39,630 --> 01:02:45,094
{\an8}along with the rise
of other social movements of liberation.
909
01:02:45,720 --> 01:02:49,307
Black power make us proud!
910
01:02:49,390 --> 01:02:53,102
Hey, hey, LBJ!
How many kids did you kill today?
911
01:02:53,186 --> 01:02:54,812
- Vietnam?
- Hell no!
912
01:02:54,896 --> 01:02:56,689
- Are you going?
- Hell no!
913
01:03:03,446 --> 01:03:06,491
Meanwhile, the military insisted
914
01:03:07,074 --> 01:03:09,327
{\an8}in its briefings
to the press and the public
915
01:03:10,495 --> 01:03:12,663
that there was light
at the end of the tunnel.
916
01:03:15,792 --> 01:03:17,210
What can we look forward to?
917
01:03:17,293 --> 01:03:20,797
Is it going to be
much the same, better, or worse?
918
01:03:20,880 --> 01:03:22,924
Do you see a light
at the end of the tunnel?
919
01:03:23,007 --> 01:03:26,469
Well, I do indeed see light
at the end of this long tunnel.
920
01:03:27,762 --> 01:03:31,182
I think the year 1967 will be…
921
01:03:32,183 --> 01:03:33,351
a good one.
922
01:03:38,689 --> 01:03:43,319
Westmoreland will come back
in 1967 three times to the United States.
923
01:03:44,403 --> 01:03:45,947
{\an8}President Johnson will call him back
924
01:03:46,030 --> 01:03:49,158
{\an8}for what becomes known
as "a salesmanship campaign."
925
01:03:50,076 --> 01:03:53,830
{\an8}We will prevail in Vietnam
over the Communist aggressor.
926
01:04:00,378 --> 01:04:03,798
It is conceivable to me
that within two years or less,
927
01:04:04,423 --> 01:04:08,469
{\an8}it will be possible for us to phase down
928
01:04:08,553 --> 01:04:11,222
{\an8}our level of commitment.
929
01:04:12,640 --> 01:04:14,308
Yet behind closed doors,
930
01:04:14,392 --> 01:04:17,687
he's telling a slightly different story
to the President.
931
01:04:21,440 --> 01:04:23,776
Westmoreland came in last night to me.
932
01:04:23,860 --> 01:04:25,152
He's very distressed.
933
01:04:26,153 --> 01:04:29,532
{\an8}He has concentrated
more firepower and bombing
934
01:04:30,283 --> 01:04:32,952
in the last week on the DMZ,
935
01:04:33,452 --> 01:04:35,872
and they've concentrated more on us,
936
01:04:35,955 --> 01:04:39,250
than has ever been concentrated
in any equivalent period
937
01:04:39,333 --> 01:04:40,877
in the history of warfare.
938
01:04:40,960 --> 01:04:44,338
Much more than was ever poured
on Berlin or Tokyo.
939
01:04:47,842 --> 01:04:50,553
He's saying that this war
is still stalemated.
940
01:04:51,095 --> 01:04:54,640
Every time that we inflict
higher casualties upon the enemy,
941
01:04:54,724 --> 01:04:56,851
they put more forces into the field.
942
01:05:03,482 --> 01:05:07,194
{\an8}The CIA's best analysts wrote
a book-length study
943
01:05:07,278 --> 01:05:11,073
called "The Vietnamese Communists'
Will to Persist."
944
01:05:12,575 --> 01:05:16,746
And it concluded that the United States
was not going to win the war in Vietnam
945
01:05:16,829 --> 01:05:19,790
because no matter
how many of them we killed,
946
01:05:20,374 --> 01:05:22,084
there were more of them.
947
01:05:22,585 --> 01:05:25,212
Their ranks did not fall in number.
948
01:05:25,296 --> 01:05:27,423
The enemy had the will to persist.
949
01:05:28,257 --> 01:05:31,052
Secretary of Defense McNamara
read the study,
950
01:05:32,094 --> 01:05:35,640
and that is when he ordered up
the Pentagon Papers,
951
01:05:35,723 --> 01:05:36,974
as we know them,
952
01:05:37,892 --> 01:05:40,019
which was a massive study,
953
01:05:40,102 --> 01:05:45,191
an encyclopedia of the history
of American involvement in Vietnam.
954
01:05:46,233 --> 01:05:49,236
They knew then
that they could not win the war.
955
01:05:50,571 --> 01:05:52,073
And when I say "they,"
956
01:05:52,156 --> 01:05:54,325
I mean the Secretary of Defense,
957
01:05:54,408 --> 01:05:56,327
the best analysts at the CIA,
958
01:05:57,828 --> 01:06:01,374
and the President of the United States,
to some extent.
959
01:06:03,584 --> 01:06:05,503
Johnson didn't want to believe that.
960
01:06:06,504 --> 01:06:08,506
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen…
961
01:06:08,589 --> 01:06:10,591
Did they tell the American people?
962
01:06:11,384 --> 01:06:12,468
No, they did not.
963
01:06:16,430 --> 01:06:18,599
McNamara seemed so sure of himself,
964
01:06:18,683 --> 01:06:21,018
{\an8}but privately, and I saw it,
965
01:06:21,560 --> 01:06:24,855
{\an8}when he'd get on certain subjects,
he just would tear up.
966
01:06:25,940 --> 01:06:28,192
McNamara had a growing sense
967
01:06:28,275 --> 01:06:30,903
that the United States needed
to find a way out of Vietnam,
968
01:06:30,987 --> 01:06:34,031
that this thing was a loser,
this thing is not going to work.
969
01:06:36,367 --> 01:06:38,995
And McNamara sent a memo to the President,
970
01:06:39,078 --> 01:06:40,871
basically saying it's time
to stop the bombing,
971
01:06:40,955 --> 01:06:42,873
it's time to stop troop increases,
972
01:06:42,957 --> 01:06:45,668
it's time to accept the fact
that we can't win the war,
973
01:06:45,751 --> 01:06:47,628
and we need to find a way to get out.
974
01:06:50,923 --> 01:06:52,341
And Johnson thought,
975
01:06:52,425 --> 01:06:54,593
{\an8}"This guy got me in,
now he wants to get out,
976
01:06:54,677 --> 01:06:57,680
{\an8}and I'm going to pay, politically,
for getting out."
977
01:06:59,265 --> 01:07:02,309
{\an8}It was a problem
of him getting re-elected.
978
01:07:04,311 --> 01:07:06,022
Well, I know goddamn well I'm unpopular.
979
01:07:06,105 --> 01:07:07,648
You don't have to tell me I'm unpopular.
980
01:07:07,732 --> 01:07:10,067
I know that.
I've been in politics 40 years.
981
01:07:10,151 --> 01:07:13,029
And when a man's carrying a war
and carrying a tax bill
982
01:07:13,112 --> 01:07:16,699
and carrying all the problems I've got,
of course you're not gonna be popular.
983
01:07:17,908 --> 01:07:22,830
Johnson found a way, basically,
to maneuver McNamara out of the Pentagon.
984
01:07:27,543 --> 01:07:30,171
{\an8}I've greatly valued the opportunity
to serve my country
985
01:07:30,254 --> 01:07:31,630
{\an8}as Secretary of Defense,
986
01:07:32,131 --> 01:07:34,133
{\an8}and I'm profoundly grateful
to the President
987
01:07:34,216 --> 01:07:37,678
for his unfailing support
and for his personal friendship.
988
01:07:43,851 --> 01:07:47,646
The enemy has been defeated
in battle after battle.
989
01:07:59,533 --> 01:08:02,369
{\an8}But the situation was
far worse than we imagined.
990
01:08:06,123 --> 01:08:09,835
In 1968, all those progress reports
991
01:08:11,045 --> 01:08:12,505
just burst into flames.
992
01:08:15,174 --> 01:08:17,009
About 3:30 in the morning,
993
01:08:17,093 --> 01:08:22,098
I heard the rattle of machine gun fire
and the noise of explosions.
994
01:08:23,974 --> 01:08:26,268
The VC are attacking the city.
995
01:08:26,352 --> 01:08:27,812
They're shelling it.
996
01:08:31,357 --> 01:08:34,693
All of a sudden,
the whole country was under attack.
997
01:08:34,777 --> 01:08:36,445
They had already infiltrated.
998
01:08:37,780 --> 01:08:40,449
This and 34 other South Vietnamese cities
999
01:08:40,533 --> 01:08:44,161
were rudely awakened
to the Việt Cộng's most audacious attack,
1000
01:08:44,662 --> 01:08:45,746
the Tet Offensive.