It's very much to their advantage
to have a negotiation to get us the hell out
and-- and give us those prisoners.
That's right.
If they'll make that kind of a deal, we'll make that
any time they're ready.
Well, we've got to get enough time to get out.
We can't have it knocked over brutal-- to put it brutally, before the election.
That's right.
If a year or two years from now,
North Vietnam gobbles up South Vietnam,
we can have a viable foreign policy
if it looks as if it's the result
of South Vietnamese incompetence…
So we've got to find some formula…
that holds the thing together a year or two,
after which, after a year, Mr. President,
Vietnam will be a backwater.
If we settle it, say, this October, by January '74, no one will give a damn.
We lost a lot of people, but not as much as the other side.
Kissinger was so… confident
that he could shove down our throat that draft agreement.
But, the big contention issue was
the North Vietnamese troops still remain in Vietnam.
I was able to tell my boss, "Hey, man, that guy, he's--"
"He's full of something, okay?"
I reaffirm again that the whole people of South Vietnam will resist again
any peace which demands rendition of South Vietnam
and which will give South Vietnam to the Communist aggressors.
There was at some point that, you know, we could not negotiate anymore.
Nixon at that time basically said,
"If you guys don't sign, we're going to go alone."
That means the end of help and assistance to South Vietnam.
So we said to ourselves, "Okay, the Americans promised to help us."
"We believe that the US will be on our side to execute it."
They started bombing us on December 18th,
and in January 1973, the Paris Peace Accords were signed.
And after the treaty was signed,
the whole, if you will, political climate in the US has changed.
Nixon, at that time, was consumed by Watergate.
As a-- a student of American government,
I understood the executive's totally powerless now.
After being embroiled in the Watergate, Nixon had no power.
Ambassador Martin thinks that he can save South Vietnam,
in spite of all the odds.
I don't want to use the word "delusional,"
because he should have seen the writing on the wall.
We searched and destroyed. We were strongly determined to kill them.
That's how our spirit of intense fighting spread further south.
We killed them along the withdrawal route.
They withdrew in chaos.
Our vehicles ran over them.
We drove ahead of them, and no one shot anyone.
When they heard us honk, they scattered.
The Americans fought a war here
without success and went home.
They promised if the Communists invaded again,
there'd be action taken. But there's been no reaction.
Therefore, the least they can do is to send us more support,
but they have not sent it.
What does this amount to?
Breaching promises, unfairness, a lack of righteousness,
inhumane treatment towards an ally that is suffering,
the shirking of responsibility of a superpower.
With the evacuation, I think,
as far as the, um, performance of the, um, Navy
was absolutely, totally superb.
I work for the American staff.
Yes, I know that.
But I must come in case-- just in case.
Can you help, uh, us?
I was standing in front of the Presidential Palace in Saigon.
We saw the tanks from North Vietnam moving into the palace.
It looked like a bad dream, like a nightmare.
That palace is a symbol of freedom,
of the goodness that we've been fighting for.
I photographed tanks that entered the Independence Palace.
As it pertains to photography,
this image is now considered a symbol of the 1975 victory.
When the tanks bulldozed through the gates
of the Independence Palace,
my heart was filled with extreme joy but also full of immense pain.
Happiness that there was peace again,
but remember my comrades and my brothers
who sacrificed their lives all over Saigon.
I will never forget it for a second, even a minute.
I replied, "The South is liberated, the South is liberated!"
Everyone was baffled. No one believed it.
The feeling was indescribable.
How do you feel if you win the match?
We rejoiced that day.
When Saigon fell, I assessed 100% that the Americans lost.
And this was the last battle.
We said that, "Now the liberation soldiers
have returned to Saigon, 'Hồ Chí Minh City.'"
The American newspaper Time published a large cover photo of Hồ Chí Minh
and a mark for Saigon declaring "Hồ Chí Minh City."
Everything we hoped for, everything we're fighting for,
disappeared in front of me.
After the "War of Peace," the reconstruction,
the Communist Party paid attention and took care of my family and me.
We were given a house and were able to build a metal roof.
Before, we could never afford a metal roof.
We could not contain the pain of millions of Vietnamese mothers
whose children died in Vietnam,
nor could America contain the pain of 50,000 families.
So, we must understand the past to build the future.
Even though we hear that a lot, "Thank you for your service,"
you can't say that to them.
I'd really like to say,
"I'm sorry."