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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:01,566 --> 00:00:03,000 ANNOUNCER: MAJOR SUPPORT FOR "THE VIETNAM WAR" 2 00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:06,500 WAS PROVIDED BY MEMBERS OF THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY, 3 00:00:06,500 --> 00:00:10,465 INCLUDING JONATHAN AND JEANNIE LAVINE, 4 00:00:10,465 --> 00:00:13,365 DIANE AND HAL BRIERLEY, 5 00:00:13,365 --> 00:00:15,766 AMY AND DAVID ABRAMS, 6 00:00:15,766 --> 00:00:18,265 JOHN AND CATHERINE DEBS, 7 00:00:18,265 --> 00:00:21,166 THE FULLERTON FAMILY CHARITABLE FUND, 8 00:00:21,166 --> 00:00:23,233 THE MONTRONE FAMILY, 9 00:00:23,233 --> 00:00:25,565 LYNDA AND STEWART RESNICK, 10 00:00:25,565 --> 00:00:28,332 THE PERRY AND DONNA GOLKIN FAMILY FOUNDATION, 11 00:00:28,332 --> 00:00:29,332 THE LYNCH FOUNDATION, 12 00:00:29,332 --> 00:00:32,200 THE ROGER AND ROSEMARY ENRICO FOUNDATION, 13 00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:35,633 AND BY THESE ADDITIONAL FUNDERS. 14 00:00:35,633 --> 00:00:37,533 MAJOR FUNDING WAS ALSO PROVIDED 15 00:00:37,533 --> 00:00:39,265 BY DAVID H. KOCH... 16 00:00:41,566 --> 00:00:43,765 THE BLAVATNIK FAMILY FOUNDATION... 17 00:00:46,100 --> 00:00:48,533 THE PARK FOUNDATION, 18 00:00:48,533 --> 00:00:50,700 THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES, 19 00:00:50,700 --> 00:00:52,899 THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS, 20 00:00:52,899 --> 00:00:55,566 THE JOHN S. AND JAMES L. KNIGHT FOUNDATION, 21 00:00:55,566 --> 00:00:58,332 THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION, 22 00:00:58,332 --> 00:01:01,000 THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS FOUNDATIONS, 23 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:03,200 THE FORD FOUNDATION JUSTFILMS, 24 00:01:03,200 --> 00:01:04,400 BY THE CORPORATION 25 00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:05,632 FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING, 26 00:01:05,632 --> 00:01:07,599 AND BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU. 27 00:01:07,599 --> 00:01:08,733 THANK YOU. 28 00:01:13,266 --> 00:01:15,400 ANNOUNCER: BANK OF AMERICA PROUDLY SUPPORTS 29 00:01:15,400 --> 00:01:20,299 KEN BURNS' AND LYNN NOVICK'S FILM "THE VIETNAM WAR" 30 00:01:20,299 --> 00:01:22,700 BECAUSE FOSTERING DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES 31 00:01:22,700 --> 00:01:25,299 AND CIVIL DISCOURSE AROUND IMPORTANT ISSUES 32 00:01:25,299 --> 00:01:27,599 FURTHERS PROGRESS, EQUALITY, 33 00:01:27,599 --> 00:01:29,599 AND A MORE CONNECTED SOCIETY. 34 00:01:34,066 --> 00:01:38,099 GO TO BANKOFAMERICA.COM/ BETTERCONNECTED TO LEARN MORE. 35 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:02,400 (distant helicopter blades beating) 36 00:02:02,500 --> 00:02:04,165 (radio feedback) 37 00:02:06,632 --> 00:02:12,233 JOHN MUSGRAVE: I was assigned a listening post at Con Thien in the fall. 38 00:02:12,332 --> 00:02:16,233 That was like getting a death sentence at a trial. 39 00:02:16,332 --> 00:02:18,665 Because that's just three Marines out there with a radio. 40 00:02:20,133 --> 00:02:21,765 And that's the scariest thing I did. 41 00:02:21,865 --> 00:02:24,566 You're listening for the enemy. 42 00:02:24,665 --> 00:02:27,699 They call you on the radio every hour, 43 00:02:27,800 --> 00:02:29,133 "Delta, Lima, Papa, Three, Bravo, 44 00:02:29,233 --> 00:02:32,533 "Delta, Lima, Papa, Three, Bravo, this is Delta Three. 45 00:02:32,633 --> 00:02:35,699 "If your sit rep is alpha sierra, key your handset twice. 46 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:37,066 (two blips of static) 47 00:02:37,165 --> 00:02:38,765 "If your situation report is all secure, 48 00:02:38,865 --> 00:02:40,466 break squelch twice on the handset." 49 00:02:40,566 --> 00:02:42,466 (two lower-toned blips of static) 50 00:02:42,566 --> 00:02:44,566 And if it's not, they keep thinking you're asleep 51 00:02:44,665 --> 00:02:47,199 so they keep asking you, "If your sit rep is alpha sierra," 52 00:02:47,300 --> 00:02:48,633 and then it finally dawns on them 53 00:02:48,733 --> 00:02:51,265 maybe there's somebody too close for you to say anything. 54 00:02:51,365 --> 00:02:54,300 So then they say, "If your sit rep is negative alpha sierra, 55 00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:55,765 key your handset once," 56 00:02:55,865 --> 00:02:57,733 and you damn near squeeze the handle off the, you know, 57 00:02:57,832 --> 00:03:00,966 and two on the radio because they're so close 58 00:03:01,066 --> 00:03:03,099 that you can hear them whispering to one another. 59 00:03:05,532 --> 00:03:06,932 And that's scary stuff. 60 00:03:07,032 --> 00:03:08,199 That's real scary stuff. 61 00:03:08,300 --> 00:03:11,932 And I'm scared of the dark, still. 62 00:03:12,032 --> 00:03:14,865 I still got a night light. 63 00:03:14,966 --> 00:03:18,165 When my kids were growing up, 64 00:03:18,265 --> 00:03:21,900 that's the first time they really found out 65 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:24,066 that Daddy'd been in a war when they said, 66 00:03:24,165 --> 00:03:26,633 "Well, why do we need to outgrow our night lights? 67 00:03:26,733 --> 00:03:28,099 Daddy's still got one." 68 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:34,966 ("So What" by Miles Davis playing) 69 00:03:35,066 --> 00:03:39,165 JOHN KENNEDY: Let the word go forth from this time and place, 70 00:03:39,265 --> 00:03:42,099 to friend and foe alike, 71 00:03:42,199 --> 00:03:46,300 that the torch has been passed to a new generation 72 00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:53,066 of Americans born in this century, tempered by war, 73 00:03:53,165 --> 00:03:56,765 disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, 74 00:03:56,865 --> 00:03:58,233 proud of our... 75 00:03:58,332 --> 00:04:00,099 JACK TODD: I still believed, very much, 76 00:04:00,199 --> 00:04:04,865 in this concept of an heroic America, 77 00:04:04,966 --> 00:04:07,599 America being a really special country, 78 00:04:07,699 --> 00:04:10,865 the best country in the world, the best democracy, 79 00:04:10,966 --> 00:04:14,900 all the things that we believe about it, which... 80 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:17,100 and I didn't really see anything wrong with that. 81 00:04:19,832 --> 00:04:24,332 I was sure that we were right to be in Vietnam. 82 00:04:24,432 --> 00:04:26,565 You know, because it started under Kennedy 83 00:04:26,665 --> 00:04:29,100 and, to me, JFK was God. 84 00:04:29,199 --> 00:04:32,566 Anything that he thought was right, I thought was right. 85 00:04:34,832 --> 00:04:38,932 NARRATOR: At 43, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the youngest man 86 00:04:39,033 --> 00:04:42,566 ever elected president of the United States. 87 00:04:42,665 --> 00:04:45,033 He had promised bold new leadership, 88 00:04:45,132 --> 00:04:48,466 and to his supporters his inauguration seemed to signal 89 00:04:48,566 --> 00:04:51,300 a new day. 90 00:04:51,399 --> 00:04:54,332 To those new states whom we welcome 91 00:04:54,432 --> 00:04:57,233 to the ranks of the free, 92 00:04:57,332 --> 00:05:03,266 we pledge our word that one form of colonial control 93 00:05:03,365 --> 00:05:05,800 shall not have passed away 94 00:05:05,899 --> 00:05:11,033 merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. 95 00:05:11,132 --> 00:05:16,233 We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. 96 00:05:16,332 --> 00:05:20,766 But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting 97 00:05:20,865 --> 00:05:26,233 their own freedom and to remember that, in the past, 98 00:05:26,332 --> 00:05:29,699 those who foolishly sought power 99 00:05:29,800 --> 00:05:34,066 by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside. 100 00:05:37,899 --> 00:05:40,233 (cheers and applause) 101 00:05:42,432 --> 00:05:44,699 NARRATOR: The new president gathered around him 102 00:05:44,800 --> 00:05:48,600 an extraordinary set of advisors who shared his determination 103 00:05:48,699 --> 00:05:53,699 to confront communism, including Secretary of State Dean Rusk, 104 00:05:53,800 --> 00:05:57,533 National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy, 105 00:05:57,632 --> 00:06:00,266 his deputy Walt Rostow, 106 00:06:00,365 --> 00:06:04,733 special military advisor General Maxwell Taylor, 107 00:06:04,833 --> 00:06:08,365 and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, 108 00:06:08,466 --> 00:06:10,033 who had given up his post 109 00:06:10,132 --> 00:06:14,065 as president of the Ford Motor Company to serve his country. 110 00:06:14,165 --> 00:06:20,165 He was a pioneer in the field of systems analysis. 111 00:06:20,266 --> 00:06:23,065 Like the president who picked them, 112 00:06:23,165 --> 00:06:27,266 all of Kennedy's men had served during World War II. 113 00:06:27,365 --> 00:06:29,600 Each had absorbed what they all believed 114 00:06:29,699 --> 00:06:31,565 was its central lesson: 115 00:06:31,665 --> 00:06:35,665 ambitious dictatorships needed to be halted in their tracks 116 00:06:35,766 --> 00:06:38,932 before they constituted a serious danger 117 00:06:39,033 --> 00:06:41,066 to the peace of the world. 118 00:06:41,165 --> 00:06:44,332 Meanwhile, in South Vietnam, 119 00:06:44,432 --> 00:06:46,432 the National Liberation Front-- 120 00:06:46,533 --> 00:06:49,399 labeled by its enemies the Viet Cong-- 121 00:06:49,500 --> 00:06:51,766 was determined to overthrow 122 00:06:51,865 --> 00:06:54,932 the anticommunist and increasingly autocratic 123 00:06:55,033 --> 00:06:58,233 government of Ngo Dinh Diem. 124 00:06:58,332 --> 00:07:02,399 In North Vietnam, unbeknownst to Washington, 125 00:07:02,500 --> 00:07:06,399 Ho Chi Minh, the father of Vietnamese independence, 126 00:07:06,500 --> 00:07:09,699 was now sharing power with a more aggressive leader, 127 00:07:09,800 --> 00:07:12,699 Le Duan, who was even more impatient 128 00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:15,199 to reunify his country. 129 00:07:16,632 --> 00:07:18,266 BAO NINH: 130 00:07:35,466 --> 00:07:38,966 LESLIE GELB: None of us knew anything about Vietnam. 131 00:07:39,066 --> 00:07:43,165 Vietnam in those days was a piece on a chessboard, 132 00:07:43,266 --> 00:07:45,332 a strategic chessboard, 133 00:07:45,432 --> 00:07:49,300 not a place with a culture and a history 134 00:07:49,399 --> 00:07:54,865 that we would have an impossible time changing, 135 00:07:54,966 --> 00:07:57,832 even with the mighty force of the United States. 136 00:07:57,932 --> 00:08:02,533 NARRATOR: Over the next three years, the United States would struggle 137 00:08:02,632 --> 00:08:07,033 to understand the complicated country it had come to save, 138 00:08:07,132 --> 00:08:10,199 fail to appreciate the enemy's resolve, 139 00:08:10,300 --> 00:08:13,932 and misread how the South Vietnamese people really felt 140 00:08:14,033 --> 00:08:16,000 about their government. 141 00:08:17,899 --> 00:08:20,100 The new president would find himself caught 142 00:08:20,199 --> 00:08:24,766 between the momentum of war and the desire for peace, 143 00:08:24,865 --> 00:08:27,832 between humility and hubris, 144 00:08:27,932 --> 00:08:34,298 between idealism and expediency, between the truth and a lie. 145 00:08:45,932 --> 00:08:51,133 ("My Country 'Tis of Thee" playing) 146 00:08:54,533 --> 00:08:57,700 KENNEDY: And so, my fellow Americans, 147 00:08:57,799 --> 00:09:02,865 ask not what your country can do for you, 148 00:09:02,966 --> 00:09:05,265 ask what you can do for your country. 149 00:09:12,100 --> 00:09:15,966 MUSGRAVE: I grew up in Missouri, near Kansas City, 150 00:09:16,066 --> 00:09:19,133 a little community called Fairmount. 151 00:09:19,232 --> 00:09:20,666 I was born in 1948. 152 00:09:20,765 --> 00:09:23,265 And there were lots of kids being born in those days 153 00:09:23,365 --> 00:09:24,899 from the guys who were lucky enough to come home 154 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:25,966 from World War II. 155 00:09:27,232 --> 00:09:30,566 My dad was a pilot in the Army Air Corps. 156 00:09:30,666 --> 00:09:33,365 And all of dad's friends 157 00:09:33,466 --> 00:09:36,500 were World War II vets or Korean vets. 158 00:09:36,600 --> 00:09:39,200 And all of my male teachers were veterans. 159 00:09:39,299 --> 00:09:41,700 And even my pastor had been a chaplain. 160 00:09:43,232 --> 00:09:48,033 Well, they were my heroes, and I wanted to be like them. 161 00:09:55,066 --> 00:09:57,932 NARRATOR: For all of John Kennedy's soaring rhetoric, 162 00:09:58,033 --> 00:10:00,600 for all the talent he gathered around him, 163 00:10:00,700 --> 00:10:03,932 the first months of his presidency did not go well. 164 00:10:04,033 --> 00:10:08,365 He approved a CIA-sponsored invasion of Cuba 165 00:10:08,466 --> 00:10:12,932 at the Bay of Pigs that ended in disaster. 166 00:10:13,033 --> 00:10:14,832 He felt he'd been bullied 167 00:10:14,932 --> 00:10:17,265 by Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev 168 00:10:17,365 --> 00:10:19,633 at a summit meeting in Vienna. 169 00:10:19,732 --> 00:10:22,000 He was unable to keep the Soviets 170 00:10:22,100 --> 00:10:24,365 from building the Berlin Wall. 171 00:10:24,466 --> 00:10:28,600 And in Southeast Asia, he refused to intervene 172 00:10:28,700 --> 00:10:31,832 against a communist insurrection in Laos. 173 00:10:31,932 --> 00:10:36,466 Critics accused him of being immature, indecisive, 174 00:10:36,566 --> 00:10:40,165 inadequate to the task of combating what seemed to be 175 00:10:40,265 --> 00:10:42,665 a mounting communist threat. 176 00:10:42,765 --> 00:10:46,200 "There are just so many concessions that we can make 177 00:10:46,299 --> 00:10:48,700 in one year and survive politically," 178 00:10:48,799 --> 00:10:53,466 he confided to an aide in the spring of 1961. 179 00:10:53,566 --> 00:10:58,799 In South Vietnam, Kennedy felt he had to act. 180 00:10:58,899 --> 00:11:01,566 After the president received reports 181 00:11:01,666 --> 00:11:04,133 that the Viet Cong might be in control 182 00:11:04,232 --> 00:11:08,166 of more than half the densely populated Mekong Delta, 183 00:11:08,265 --> 00:11:12,265 he dispatched General Maxwell Taylor and Walt Rostow 184 00:11:12,365 --> 00:11:14,432 to Vietnam. 185 00:11:14,533 --> 00:11:18,265 They urged him to commit American ground troops. 186 00:11:18,365 --> 00:11:19,932 Kennedy refused. 187 00:11:20,033 --> 00:11:23,666 It would be like taking a first drink, he said-- 188 00:11:23,765 --> 00:11:26,832 the effect would soon wear off and there would be demands 189 00:11:26,932 --> 00:11:30,265 for another and another and another. 190 00:11:30,365 --> 00:11:33,732 Instead, in the midst of a cold war, 191 00:11:33,832 --> 00:11:37,000 with its constant risk of nuclear confrontation, 192 00:11:37,100 --> 00:11:40,332 the president supported a new "flexible" way 193 00:11:40,432 --> 00:11:45,899 to confront and contain communism: limited war. 194 00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:50,700 This is another type of warfare, new in its intensity, 195 00:11:50,799 --> 00:11:53,332 ancient in its origin-- 196 00:11:53,432 --> 00:11:58,265 war by guerrillas, subversives, insurgents, assassins; 197 00:11:58,365 --> 00:12:02,765 war by ambush instead of by combat; 198 00:12:02,865 --> 00:12:05,399 by infiltration instead of aggression. 199 00:12:07,133 --> 00:12:09,533 NARRATOR: To fight his "limited wars," 200 00:12:09,633 --> 00:12:12,500 Kennedy hoped to use the elite Green Berets, 201 00:12:12,600 --> 00:12:16,066 special forces trained in guerrilla warfare, 202 00:12:16,166 --> 00:12:18,700 counterinsurgency. 203 00:12:18,799 --> 00:12:23,500 They were meant to be dispatched to hotspots around the world. 204 00:12:23,600 --> 00:12:26,332 ROBERT RHEAULT: Khrushchev said, "We're not going to destroy you 205 00:12:26,432 --> 00:12:27,832 with nuclear weapons, 206 00:12:27,932 --> 00:12:30,966 we're going to destroy you with wars of national liberation." 207 00:12:31,066 --> 00:12:32,966 Everybody talked about the fact 208 00:12:33,066 --> 00:12:37,732 that communism was spreading and it had to be stopped. 209 00:12:37,832 --> 00:12:40,500 You went to Command and General Staff College 210 00:12:40,600 --> 00:12:44,100 and you were playing on maps with nuclear weapons 211 00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:45,799 and so forth. 212 00:12:45,899 --> 00:12:50,765 And I escaped from that by getting into Special Forces. 213 00:12:50,865 --> 00:12:53,500 So that instead of planning what we were going to do 214 00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:58,533 if World War III broke out, we were actually doing stuff. 215 00:13:00,066 --> 00:13:03,500 And Vietnam was a place where we were going to draw the line. 216 00:13:05,166 --> 00:13:06,865 NARRATOR: Kennedy sent the Green Berets 217 00:13:06,966 --> 00:13:09,200 to the Central Highlands of Vietnam 218 00:13:09,299 --> 00:13:12,865 to organize mountain tribes to fight the Viet Cong 219 00:13:12,966 --> 00:13:17,633 and to undertake covert missions to sabotage their supply bases 220 00:13:17,732 --> 00:13:20,732 in Laos and Cambodia. 221 00:13:20,832 --> 00:13:25,265 But Kennedy understood that counterinsurgency alone 222 00:13:25,365 --> 00:13:26,432 would never be enough, 223 00:13:26,533 --> 00:13:29,966 so he doubled funding for South Vietnam's army, 224 00:13:30,066 --> 00:13:35,332 dispatched helicopters and APCs, armored personnel carriers. 225 00:13:38,332 --> 00:13:42,066 Kennedy also authorized the use of napalm 226 00:13:42,165 --> 00:13:46,600 and the spraying of defoliants to deny cover to the Viet Cong 227 00:13:46,700 --> 00:13:50,566 and destroy the crops that fed them. 228 00:13:50,665 --> 00:13:53,732 A whole array of chemicals was used, 229 00:13:53,832 --> 00:13:57,200 including one named for the color of the stripes 230 00:13:57,299 --> 00:14:03,299 on the 55-gallon drums in which it came-- "Agent Orange." 231 00:14:03,399 --> 00:14:06,899 And the president quietly continued to increase 232 00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:09,865 the number of American military advisors. 233 00:14:09,966 --> 00:14:15,232 Within two years, the number he had inherited would grow 234 00:14:15,332 --> 00:14:18,533 to 11,300, 235 00:14:18,633 --> 00:14:21,100 empowered not only to teach 236 00:14:21,200 --> 00:14:24,133 the Army of the Republic of Vietnam-- the ARVN-- 237 00:14:24,232 --> 00:14:26,200 to fight a conventional war, 238 00:14:26,299 --> 00:14:28,466 but to accompany them into battle, 239 00:14:28,566 --> 00:14:32,000 a violation of the agreement that had divided Vietnam 240 00:14:32,100 --> 00:14:33,066 back in 1954. 241 00:14:33,165 --> 00:14:36,732 (gunfire) 242 00:14:36,832 --> 00:14:40,799 The administration did its best to hide from the American people 243 00:14:40,899 --> 00:14:43,232 the scale of the buildup that was taking place 244 00:14:43,332 --> 00:14:45,100 on the other side of the world, 245 00:14:45,200 --> 00:14:48,033 fearful that the public would not support 246 00:14:48,133 --> 00:14:54,966 the more active role advisors had begun to play in combat. 247 00:14:55,066 --> 00:14:57,665 Mr. President, a Republican National Committee publication 248 00:14:57,765 --> 00:15:01,066 has said that you are... have been less than candid 249 00:15:01,166 --> 00:15:05,000 with the American people as to how deeply we are involved 250 00:15:05,100 --> 00:15:06,899 in Vietnam. 251 00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:09,500 Could you throw any more light on that? 252 00:15:09,600 --> 00:15:11,600 We have increased our assistance to the government, 253 00:15:11,700 --> 00:15:13,432 its logistics. 254 00:15:13,533 --> 00:15:15,399 We have not sent combat troops there. 255 00:15:15,500 --> 00:15:18,666 Though the training missions that we have there 256 00:15:18,765 --> 00:15:21,533 have been instructed if they are fired upon to... 257 00:15:21,633 --> 00:15:24,500 they are, would of course, fire back, to protect themselves. 258 00:15:24,600 --> 00:15:26,332 But we have not sent combat troops 259 00:15:26,432 --> 00:15:28,700 in the generally understood sense of the word. 260 00:15:28,799 --> 00:15:34,399 So that I-I feel that we are being as frank as the... 261 00:15:34,500 --> 00:15:35,665 as we can be. 262 00:15:35,765 --> 00:15:37,299 I think we... what I have said to you 263 00:15:37,399 --> 00:15:40,466 is a description of our activity there. 264 00:15:45,033 --> 00:15:48,466 NEIL SHEEHAN: I was a child of the Cold War. 265 00:15:48,566 --> 00:15:52,033 When I got off the plane in Saigon on a humid evening 266 00:15:52,133 --> 00:15:53,966 in April 1962, 267 00:15:54,066 --> 00:15:57,932 I really believed in all the ideology of the Cold War. 268 00:15:58,033 --> 00:15:59,066 On... 269 00:15:59,165 --> 00:16:01,732 That if we lost South Vietnam, 270 00:16:01,832 --> 00:16:04,200 that the rest of Southeast Asia would fall to the communists. 271 00:16:04,299 --> 00:16:08,100 There was an international communist conspiracy. 272 00:16:08,200 --> 00:16:10,633 We believed fervently in this stuff. 273 00:16:10,732 --> 00:16:14,600 NARRATOR: Neil Sheehan was a 25-year-old reporter 274 00:16:14,700 --> 00:16:18,000 for United Press International, UPI. 275 00:16:18,100 --> 00:16:22,166 He had served three years in the Army in Korea and Japan 276 00:16:22,265 --> 00:16:25,000 before deciding to become a newspaperman. 277 00:16:25,100 --> 00:16:29,299 Vietnam was his first full-time overseas assignment, 278 00:16:29,399 --> 00:16:31,232 and his only worry, he remembered, 279 00:16:31,332 --> 00:16:34,000 was that he would get there too late and miss out 280 00:16:34,100 --> 00:16:36,066 on the big story. 281 00:16:36,165 --> 00:16:40,299 Sheehan and other reporters rode along as the ARVN mounted 282 00:16:40,399 --> 00:16:43,899 a series of helicopter assaults on enemy strongholds 283 00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:46,332 in the Mekong Delta and elsewhere 284 00:16:46,432 --> 00:16:49,865 and brought terror to the Viet Cong. 285 00:16:49,966 --> 00:16:52,966 American pilots were at the controls. 286 00:16:53,066 --> 00:16:57,466 SHEEHAN: It was a crusade and it was thrilling. 287 00:16:57,566 --> 00:17:00,066 And you'd climb aboard the helicopters 288 00:17:00,166 --> 00:17:03,500 with the Vietnamese soldiers who were being taken out to battle. 289 00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:05,165 And they'd take off. 290 00:17:05,266 --> 00:17:07,900 And they'd contour-fly, they'd skim across the rice paddies 291 00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:10,165 at about three or four feet above the paddies, 292 00:17:10,266 --> 00:17:14,133 and then pop up over the tree lines that lined the fields. 293 00:17:14,232 --> 00:17:15,400 It was thrilling. 294 00:17:15,500 --> 00:17:16,732 I mean it was absolutely thrilling. 295 00:17:16,833 --> 00:17:19,833 And you believed in what was happening. 296 00:17:19,932 --> 00:17:22,000 I mean you had the sense that we're fighting here 297 00:17:22,098 --> 00:17:25,900 and some day we'll win, and this country will be a better, 298 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:27,032 better country for our coming. 299 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:31,799 NARRATOR: The new M-113 armored personnel carriers 300 00:17:31,900 --> 00:17:35,566 were capable of churning across rivers and rice paddies 301 00:17:35,665 --> 00:17:37,432 and right through the earthen dikes 302 00:17:37,532 --> 00:17:39,833 that separated one field from the next. 303 00:17:41,266 --> 00:17:46,266 The Viet Cong had nothing with which to stop them. 304 00:17:46,365 --> 00:17:52,099 JAMES SCANLON: We were just overwhelming them with force, with firepower. 305 00:17:52,200 --> 00:17:55,500 And the firefights would be over in a pretty short time. 306 00:17:55,599 --> 00:17:58,266 MAN ON RADIO: We have some people running along the dikes. 307 00:17:58,365 --> 00:18:01,299 Actually, the canal is perpendicular 308 00:18:01,400 --> 00:18:02,799 to the one you're attacking now. 309 00:18:02,900 --> 00:18:06,766 They have on black uniforms, and I estimate approximately 3-0. 310 00:18:06,865 --> 00:18:09,432 Do you have them in sight? Over. 311 00:18:09,532 --> 00:18:11,732 SCANLON: That's what was causing us to win, see. 312 00:18:11,833 --> 00:18:14,965 And we were winning one after the other. 313 00:18:15,066 --> 00:18:18,633 And we were not meeting a heck of a lot of resistance. 314 00:18:18,732 --> 00:18:22,465 NARRATOR: Captain James Scanlon had been stationed in West Germany 315 00:18:22,566 --> 00:18:25,665 and had seen for himself the brutality with which 316 00:18:25,766 --> 00:18:28,299 the communist East Germans dealt with anyone 317 00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:31,799 who dared try to escape to the West. 318 00:18:31,900 --> 00:18:34,133 He was now in the Mekong Delta, 319 00:18:34,232 --> 00:18:37,200 an advisor to the 7th Division of the ARVN, 320 00:18:37,299 --> 00:18:42,000 and had begun to see evidence of Viet Cong brutality as well. 321 00:18:45,232 --> 00:18:48,900 SCANLON: Those of us who talked to the people who fled East Germany, 322 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:53,000 we saw the need to stop the growth of communism, 323 00:18:53,099 --> 00:18:56,500 to stop the dominoes from being tumbled. 324 00:18:56,599 --> 00:18:59,133 That was a worthy cause. 325 00:19:00,633 --> 00:19:04,400 NARRATOR: As the ARVN and their advisors pursued the Viet Cong, 326 00:19:04,500 --> 00:19:07,133 the government of Ngo Dinh Diem had launched 327 00:19:07,232 --> 00:19:11,532 an ambitious program meant to gain control of the countryside 328 00:19:11,633 --> 00:19:14,299 by concentrating the rural population 329 00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:16,965 into thousands of fortified settlements, 330 00:19:17,066 --> 00:19:21,400 ringed with barbed wire and moats and bamboo spikes 331 00:19:21,500 --> 00:19:24,165 meant to keep out the Viet Cong. 332 00:19:24,266 --> 00:19:28,599 They were called strategic hamlets, part of the effort 333 00:19:28,700 --> 00:19:31,766 to win the hearts and minds, and loyalty, 334 00:19:31,865 --> 00:19:33,266 of the Vietnamese people. 335 00:19:33,365 --> 00:19:37,965 The French had tried something like it a decade before. 336 00:19:38,066 --> 00:19:42,000 They had called it pacification. 337 00:19:42,099 --> 00:19:44,665 ROBERT McNAMARA: President Diem's strategic hamlet program 338 00:19:44,766 --> 00:19:47,200 is making substantial progress. 339 00:19:47,299 --> 00:19:51,932 About 1,600 of the some 14,000 hamlets 340 00:19:52,032 --> 00:19:55,599 have been fortified to date. 341 00:19:55,700 --> 00:19:57,900 NARRATOR: By the summer of 1962, 342 00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:01,333 news from South Vietnam seemed so promising 343 00:20:01,432 --> 00:20:05,165 that Defense Secretary Robert McNamara made sure 344 00:20:05,266 --> 00:20:08,333 the Pentagon was prepared to implement a plan 345 00:20:08,432 --> 00:20:11,900 for a gradual withdrawal of American advisors 346 00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:14,566 to be completed by 1965. 347 00:20:14,665 --> 00:20:18,200 So far as most Americans knew, 348 00:20:18,299 --> 00:20:21,133 the United States was achieving its goal: 349 00:20:21,232 --> 00:20:24,500 a stable, independent, anticommunist state 350 00:20:24,599 --> 00:20:26,700 in South Vietnam. 351 00:20:26,799 --> 00:20:31,165 It was "a struggle this country cannot shirk," 352 00:20:31,266 --> 00:20:33,032 theNew York Tim es said, 353 00:20:33,133 --> 00:20:37,532 and the United States seemed to be winning it. 354 00:20:39,200 --> 00:20:43,066 But that same summer, Ho Chi Minh traveled to Beijing 355 00:20:43,165 --> 00:20:46,665 in search of more help from the Chinese. 356 00:20:46,766 --> 00:20:50,099 The American buildup in South Vietnam had alarmed him 357 00:20:50,200 --> 00:20:52,400 and the other leaders in Hanoi. 358 00:20:52,500 --> 00:20:55,766 Ho told the Chinese that American attacks 359 00:20:55,865 --> 00:21:01,732 on North Vietnam itself now seemed only a matter of time. 360 00:21:01,833 --> 00:21:05,833 The Chinese promised to equip and arm tens of thousands 361 00:21:05,932 --> 00:21:08,900 of Vietnamese soldiers. 362 00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:12,500 Meanwhile, the Politburo in Hanoi had directed 363 00:21:12,599 --> 00:21:15,865 that every able-bodied North Vietnamese man 364 00:21:15,965 --> 00:21:20,799 be required to serve in the armed forces. 365 00:21:20,900 --> 00:21:24,066 ("Honky Tonk Pt. 1" by Bill Doggett playing) 366 00:21:27,766 --> 00:21:30,000 NARRATOR: Inspired by their president's call, 367 00:21:30,099 --> 00:21:33,299 thousands of young Americans would join the Peace Corps 368 00:21:33,400 --> 00:21:37,232 and other organizations to help project American ideals 369 00:21:37,333 --> 00:21:39,700 and goodwill around the world. 370 00:21:40,799 --> 00:21:46,799 ("Honky Tonk Pt. 1" continues) 371 00:21:52,599 --> 00:21:57,299 RUFUS PHILLIPS: We were not only there in Vietnam to stop communism, 372 00:21:57,400 --> 00:22:01,232 but there had to be something positive. 373 00:22:01,333 --> 00:22:04,566 We're trying to find out what the Vietnamese people want 374 00:22:04,665 --> 00:22:07,266 and to help them get it. 375 00:22:07,365 --> 00:22:08,599 And that was very simple 376 00:22:08,700 --> 00:22:10,732 but, if you think about it, also very complex. 377 00:22:10,833 --> 00:22:13,200 But it went to the heart, I thought, 378 00:22:13,299 --> 00:22:15,665 of what we were trying to do. 379 00:22:15,766 --> 00:22:17,566 ("Dirty Overalls" by Woody Guthrie playing) 380 00:22:17,665 --> 00:22:20,900 NARRATOR: Pete Hunting, a 22-year-old from Oklahoma City, 381 00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:24,566 would go to Vietnam right after college to do what he could 382 00:22:24,665 --> 00:22:27,900 to help poor villagers in the countryside. 383 00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:30,365 WOODY GUTHRIE: ♪ I was a soldier in the fight 384 00:22:30,465 --> 00:22:32,700 ♪ And I fought till we won 385 00:22:32,799 --> 00:22:36,865 ♪ My uniform's my dirty overhauls. ♪ 386 00:22:36,965 --> 00:22:38,766 HUNTING (dramatized): Dear Margo, 387 00:22:38,865 --> 00:22:41,266 I finally finished up my work in Phan Rang last week. 388 00:22:41,365 --> 00:22:43,232 Had spent a month working on a windmill 389 00:22:43,333 --> 00:22:45,333 I'd promised the people of one hamlet. 390 00:22:45,432 --> 00:22:50,000 Cost a lot of money, too, which I paid out of my own pocket. 391 00:22:50,099 --> 00:22:53,865 GUTHRIE: ♪ Well, I'll give you my sweat, I'll give you my blood. ♪ 392 00:22:53,965 --> 00:22:56,066 HUNTING (dramatized): I'm in soaring spirits today 393 00:22:56,165 --> 00:22:59,333 despite all the natural disasters, political intrigues, 394 00:22:59,432 --> 00:23:01,500 and subversive activities. 395 00:23:01,599 --> 00:23:04,000 NARRATOR: Pete Hunting worked 396 00:23:04,099 --> 00:23:06,900 for the International Voluntary Services, 397 00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:10,732 a nonprofit organization committed to improving 398 00:23:10,833 --> 00:23:13,932 agriculture, education, and public health. 399 00:23:14,032 --> 00:23:17,200 He was one of hundreds of dedicated aid workers 400 00:23:17,299 --> 00:23:19,833 in South Vietnam. 401 00:23:19,932 --> 00:23:23,665 GUTHRIE: ♪ My hoe is my gun. 402 00:23:23,766 --> 00:23:25,932 HUNTING (dramatized): Latest news on this side of the world 403 00:23:26,032 --> 00:23:28,032 is that I'll almost definitely be extending over here 404 00:23:28,133 --> 00:23:30,000 for another two years, 405 00:23:30,099 --> 00:23:32,232 providing the country stays in one piece that long. 406 00:23:35,299 --> 00:23:37,432 NARRATOR: Two years after he arrived, 407 00:23:37,532 --> 00:23:39,932 Pete Hunting was driving in the Mekong Delta 408 00:23:40,032 --> 00:23:42,833 when he ran into a Viet Cong ambush. 409 00:23:42,932 --> 00:23:46,400 He was shot five times in the head... 410 00:23:46,500 --> 00:23:48,099 (gunshot) 411 00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:50,165 the first American civilian volunteer 412 00:23:50,266 --> 00:23:52,932 to be killed in Vietnam. 413 00:23:57,566 --> 00:24:08,165 (helicopter blades beating, voices on radio) 414 00:24:08,266 --> 00:24:13,833 (distorted sound of gunfire, explosion) 415 00:24:21,432 --> 00:24:23,732 People used to joke in Vietnam 416 00:24:23,833 --> 00:24:25,465 about winning the hearts and minds. 417 00:24:25,566 --> 00:24:29,099 And you hear that expression, but that should not be a joke. 418 00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:31,299 It's a serious, serious problem. 419 00:24:31,400 --> 00:24:33,833 If you pull off a military operation, 420 00:24:33,932 --> 00:24:37,532 and it may be successful on the military basis, 421 00:24:37,633 --> 00:24:40,500 but you destroy a village, 422 00:24:40,599 --> 00:24:44,333 then you've created a village of resistance. 423 00:24:44,432 --> 00:24:48,299 NARRATOR: Few advisors understood the unique challenges 424 00:24:48,400 --> 00:24:51,133 of fighting an insurgency in Vietnam 425 00:24:51,232 --> 00:24:55,133 better than Lieutenant Colonel John Paul Vann. 426 00:24:55,232 --> 00:24:57,865 A career soldier from Virginia, 427 00:24:57,965 --> 00:25:00,133 he was the senior American advisor 428 00:25:00,232 --> 00:25:04,232 to the 7th ARVN Division in the Mekong Delta. 429 00:25:04,333 --> 00:25:08,799 Small, wiry and abrasive, John Paul Vann was convinced 430 00:25:08,900 --> 00:25:13,000 he knew how to defeat the Viet Cong. 431 00:25:13,099 --> 00:25:17,633 PHILIP BRADY: John Paul Vann was simply the most remarkable soldier 432 00:25:17,732 --> 00:25:18,799 I ever met. 433 00:25:18,900 --> 00:25:20,766 Period. 434 00:25:20,865 --> 00:25:25,599 The biggest challenge of John Paul Vann's life 435 00:25:25,700 --> 00:25:31,500 was somehow saving Vietnam, winning. 436 00:25:31,599 --> 00:25:34,500 That, to him, was the ultimate challenge. 437 00:25:34,599 --> 00:25:36,965 (explosion) 438 00:25:37,066 --> 00:25:38,633 NARRATOR: When it became clear to Vann 439 00:25:38,732 --> 00:25:41,599 that the tactics the Americans had taught the ARVN 440 00:25:41,700 --> 00:25:44,799 were beginning to make more enemies than friends, 441 00:25:44,900 --> 00:25:49,566 he sought out newspapermen to spread the word. 442 00:25:49,665 --> 00:25:53,532 NEIL SHEEHAN: He was able to explain to us what was going on. 443 00:25:53,633 --> 00:25:56,932 The important thing was not to alienate the population. 444 00:25:57,032 --> 00:25:59,900 That if you got sniper fire from a hamlet, 445 00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:02,365 you sent in riflemen to take out the sniper. 446 00:26:02,465 --> 00:26:04,732 You didn't shell the place, because you were going to kill 447 00:26:04,833 --> 00:26:07,133 women and kids and destroy houses 448 00:26:07,232 --> 00:26:09,700 and you were going to turn the population against you. 449 00:26:11,932 --> 00:26:15,200 NARRATOR: Most press coverage of Vietnam was upbeat 450 00:26:15,299 --> 00:26:17,965 in the tradition of previous wars. 451 00:26:18,066 --> 00:26:22,865 But a handful of young reporters including Neil Sheehan, 452 00:26:22,965 --> 00:26:25,432 David Halberstam of theNew York Times, 453 00:26:25,532 --> 00:26:28,066 and Malcolm Browne of the Associated Press, 454 00:26:28,165 --> 00:26:31,865 who spent time in the field with officers like Vann, 455 00:26:31,965 --> 00:26:36,000 were beginning to see that from the Vietnamese countryside, 456 00:26:36,099 --> 00:26:38,266 things looked very different than they did 457 00:26:38,365 --> 00:26:42,165 from the press offices in Washington or Saigon. 458 00:26:42,266 --> 00:26:46,432 SHEEHAN: So it was terribly important that we not only win the war 459 00:26:46,532 --> 00:26:49,365 but that we as reporters report the truth 460 00:26:49,465 --> 00:26:52,299 that would help to win the war. 461 00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:55,432 We were very fervent in wanting to report the truth 462 00:26:55,532 --> 00:26:58,599 because it was very important to the welfare of our country 463 00:26:58,700 --> 00:27:00,099 and to the welfare of the world. 464 00:27:02,232 --> 00:27:05,665 NARRATOR: Sheehan and his colleagues began asking tough questions 465 00:27:05,766 --> 00:27:10,700 about what constituted progress, what victory would look like, 466 00:27:10,799 --> 00:27:13,099 and if the people in the countryside, 467 00:27:13,200 --> 00:27:16,799 where 80% of South Vietnam's population lived, 468 00:27:16,900 --> 00:27:21,665 could ever trust the government in Saigon. 469 00:27:21,766 --> 00:27:24,766 SHEEHAN: I remember going, during one of Robert McNamara's visits, 470 00:27:24,865 --> 00:27:27,833 out to one of these hamlets. 471 00:27:27,932 --> 00:27:29,365 The Vietnamese general who commanded the area 472 00:27:29,465 --> 00:27:30,900 was telling McNamara what a wonderful thing this was. 473 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:33,500 And the-the... some of these farmers were down 474 00:27:33,599 --> 00:27:37,232 digging a ditch around the... around the hamlet. 475 00:27:37,333 --> 00:27:40,665 And I looked at their faces and they were really angry. 476 00:27:42,432 --> 00:27:44,000 I mean it was very obvious to me 477 00:27:44,099 --> 00:27:46,932 that if these people could, they'd cut our throats. 478 00:27:51,266 --> 00:27:55,232 NARRATOR: Farmers resented being forced to abandon their homes 479 00:27:55,333 --> 00:27:57,766 and move to strategic hamlets. 480 00:27:57,865 --> 00:28:01,932 Corrupt officials siphoned off funds. 481 00:28:02,032 --> 00:28:04,432 And villagers blamed the Diem regime 482 00:28:04,532 --> 00:28:08,400 for failing to protect them from guerrilla attacks. 483 00:28:08,500 --> 00:28:13,665 As the people's anger grew, so did the ranks of the Viet Cong. 484 00:28:13,766 --> 00:28:18,066 SHEEHAN: It turned out that the Viet Cong were recruiting men 485 00:28:18,165 --> 00:28:21,599 right out of those strategic... so-called strategic hamlets. 486 00:28:21,700 --> 00:28:23,700 And then the whole program fell apart. 487 00:28:24,900 --> 00:28:26,500 NGUYEN NGOC: 488 00:28:47,465 --> 00:28:51,333 NARRATOR: Nguyen Ngoc's father was a postal clerk south of Danang. 489 00:28:51,432 --> 00:28:55,900 His brothers and sisters taught in South Vietnamese schools. 490 00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:59,665 But he joined the revolution, and as a political officer, 491 00:28:59,766 --> 00:29:03,700 wrote poems, songs, and slogans to inspire the people 492 00:29:03,799 --> 00:29:08,299 in the countryside to support the Viet Cong. 493 00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:12,932 DUONG VAN MAI: The Viet Cong cadre would come in and talk to them 494 00:29:13,032 --> 00:29:17,799 and their message is usually (speaking Vietnamese), 495 00:29:17,900 --> 00:29:20,400 which means "turn your grief into action. 496 00:29:20,500 --> 00:29:22,900 "Do something about it. 497 00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:24,932 "Join us. 498 00:29:25,032 --> 00:29:26,400 "We'll fight together. 499 00:29:26,500 --> 00:29:30,900 "We'll liberate the country from this corrupt, unjust government. 500 00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:32,900 "We'll throw out the foreigners. 501 00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:34,700 "We'll reunify the country. 502 00:29:34,799 --> 00:29:37,865 "And we'll bring in this great regime 503 00:29:37,965 --> 00:29:39,500 "that will take care of you 504 00:29:39,599 --> 00:29:41,400 and bring economic and social justice." 505 00:29:43,500 --> 00:29:46,599 NARRATOR: The Viet Cong ran rival local governments, 506 00:29:46,700 --> 00:29:50,500 complete with their own tax collectors and school teachers, 507 00:29:50,599 --> 00:29:55,000 spies and propagandists, and province chiefs. 508 00:29:57,599 --> 00:29:59,799 To make matters worse, 509 00:29:59,900 --> 00:30:03,633 ARVN troops and American advisors now found themselves 510 00:30:03,732 --> 00:30:06,633 confronted by a new threat: 511 00:30:06,732 --> 00:30:09,900 battalions of well-armed Viet Cong soldiers, 512 00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:13,165 as well as by local guerrillas. 513 00:30:13,266 --> 00:30:15,465 SHEEHAN: We'd armed them. 514 00:30:15,566 --> 00:30:18,900 You could hear the arming of the Viet Cong. 515 00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:22,432 Back in early '62, they only had one machine gun per battalion. 516 00:30:22,532 --> 00:30:23,599 (single gunfire burst) 517 00:30:23,700 --> 00:30:25,165 It was sporadic fire. 518 00:30:25,266 --> 00:30:29,165 Then, as they captured more and more of these American arms, 519 00:30:29,266 --> 00:30:31,000 when you made contact, it fi... 520 00:30:31,099 --> 00:30:33,333 it would build up into a drumfire of automatic 521 00:30:33,432 --> 00:30:34,865 and semi-automatic weapons. 522 00:30:34,965 --> 00:30:37,865 (cacophony of gunfire bursts) 523 00:30:42,599 --> 00:30:45,700 RUFUS PHILLIPS: Secretary McNamara decided that he would draw up 524 00:30:45,799 --> 00:30:48,633 some kind of a chart to determine 525 00:30:48,732 --> 00:30:51,566 whether we were winning or not. 526 00:30:51,665 --> 00:30:54,266 And he was putting things in 527 00:30:54,365 --> 00:30:57,133 like numbers of weapons recovered, 528 00:30:57,232 --> 00:30:59,500 numbers of Viet Cong killed. 529 00:30:59,599 --> 00:31:02,000 Very statistical. 530 00:31:04,566 --> 00:31:06,965 And he asked Edward Lansdale, 531 00:31:07,066 --> 00:31:10,766 who was then in the Pentagon as head of Special Operations, 532 00:31:10,865 --> 00:31:12,865 to come down and look at this. 533 00:31:12,965 --> 00:31:17,099 And so Lansdale did and he said, "There's something missing." 534 00:31:17,200 --> 00:31:20,400 And McNamara said, "What?" 535 00:31:20,500 --> 00:31:24,032 And Lansdale said, "The feelings of the Vietnamese people." 536 00:31:24,133 --> 00:31:27,965 You couldn't reduce this to a statistic. 537 00:31:28,066 --> 00:31:32,633 NARRATOR: Robert McNamara had vowed to make America's military 538 00:31:32,732 --> 00:31:34,099 "cost-effective." 539 00:31:34,200 --> 00:31:37,900 He demanded that everything be quantified. 540 00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:41,799 In Saigon, General Paul D. Harkins, 541 00:31:41,900 --> 00:31:45,165 head of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, 542 00:31:45,266 --> 00:31:48,500 known as MACV, dutifully complied. 543 00:31:48,599 --> 00:31:53,200 He and his staff generated mountains of daily, weekly, 544 00:31:53,299 --> 00:31:55,465 monthly, and quarterly data 545 00:31:55,566 --> 00:31:58,566 on more than a hundred separate indicators, 546 00:31:58,665 --> 00:32:03,165 far more data than could ever be adequately analyzed. 547 00:32:03,266 --> 00:32:06,532 (typewriter keys clacking) 548 00:32:06,633 --> 00:32:09,432 General Harkins had little use for skeptical reporters 549 00:32:09,532 --> 00:32:11,066 like Neil Sheehan. 550 00:32:11,165 --> 00:32:13,633 Bad news was to be buried. 551 00:32:13,732 --> 00:32:17,833 Harkins ignored the alarming after action reports 552 00:32:17,932 --> 00:32:21,500 John Paul Vann and other officers were sending in 553 00:32:21,599 --> 00:32:23,566 from the field. 554 00:32:23,665 --> 00:32:26,633 DONALD GREGG: I was going to be made head of the Vietnam desk 555 00:32:26,732 --> 00:32:28,700 at CIA headquarters. 556 00:32:28,799 --> 00:32:32,032 And the first person of importance that I met 557 00:32:32,133 --> 00:32:34,333 was General Harkins. 558 00:32:34,432 --> 00:32:36,865 And he started out by saying, 559 00:32:36,965 --> 00:32:39,732 "Mr. Gregg, I don't care what you hear from anybody else, 560 00:32:39,833 --> 00:32:42,133 "I can tell you without a doubt we're going to be out of here 561 00:32:42,232 --> 00:32:44,032 with a military victory in six months." 562 00:32:45,532 --> 00:32:47,465 JAMES MOSSMAN: The country's 12 million peasants 563 00:32:47,566 --> 00:32:50,165 can scarcely remember what peace was like. 564 00:32:50,266 --> 00:32:52,099 They're caught between the predatory guerrillas 565 00:32:52,200 --> 00:32:54,700 and the almost equally demanding soldiery. 566 00:32:54,799 --> 00:32:57,099 Their lives are lived in a state of permanent uncertainty, 567 00:32:57,200 --> 00:32:59,799 punctuated by bouts of violence 568 00:32:59,900 --> 00:33:01,333 as government forces come to grips 569 00:33:01,432 --> 00:33:03,665 with the black-clad communist rebel forces 570 00:33:03,766 --> 00:33:05,099 called the Viet Cong. 571 00:33:09,833 --> 00:33:12,333 HUY DUC: 572 00:33:51,232 --> 00:33:54,599 NGUYEN NGOC: 573 00:34:37,032 --> 00:34:39,733 CAO XUAN DAI: 574 00:35:03,065 --> 00:35:07,300 On our side we were not as committed 575 00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:09,233 and we were... 576 00:35:09,333 --> 00:35:12,565 our leaders were corrupt and incompetent. 577 00:35:12,666 --> 00:35:17,632 And so deep down we'll always have this fear, 578 00:35:17,733 --> 00:35:23,300 this suspicion that in the end it'll be the communists who won. 579 00:35:23,400 --> 00:35:26,865 TOM VALLELY: When John Kennedy assembled 580 00:35:26,965 --> 00:35:29,000 what he thinks is the best and the brightest, 581 00:35:29,099 --> 00:35:35,266 20 years before that in a cave in the northern part 582 00:35:35,365 --> 00:35:37,932 of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh also put together 583 00:35:38,032 --> 00:35:39,432 his best and the brightest. 584 00:35:39,532 --> 00:35:42,599 And these guys are at it for a while. 585 00:35:42,699 --> 00:35:46,233 And when we show up, they were far along 586 00:35:46,333 --> 00:35:52,199 to consolidating their victory over this inevitable conflict 587 00:35:52,300 --> 00:35:56,833 between Ho Chi Minh and John F. Kennedy's vision. 588 00:35:56,932 --> 00:36:02,000 The more you think about the American strategy, 589 00:36:02,099 --> 00:36:05,699 the more you know 590 00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:08,565 that it was never going to work out particularly well. 591 00:36:23,432 --> 00:36:29,099 RHEAULT: I was at my top of my game when I was in combat. 592 00:36:34,065 --> 00:36:37,132 You don't have the luxury to indulge your fear 593 00:36:37,233 --> 00:36:39,199 because other people's lives depend upon 594 00:36:39,300 --> 00:36:40,599 you keeping your head cold. 595 00:36:49,365 --> 00:36:52,333 You know, when something goes wrong, 596 00:36:52,432 --> 00:36:53,733 they call it emotional numbing. 597 00:36:53,833 --> 00:36:56,099 It's not very good in civilian life, 598 00:36:56,199 --> 00:36:58,400 but it's pretty useful in combat. 599 00:37:10,099 --> 00:37:12,699 To be able to get absolutely very cold 600 00:37:12,800 --> 00:37:17,965 about what needs to be done and to stick with it. 601 00:37:23,800 --> 00:37:26,733 To me it's, it's a little bit distressing to realize 602 00:37:26,833 --> 00:37:28,500 that I was at my best 603 00:37:28,599 --> 00:37:31,266 doing something as terrible as war. 604 00:37:40,666 --> 00:37:43,199 MOSSMAN: President Kennedy has staked his reputation in Asia 605 00:37:43,300 --> 00:37:46,132 on saving South Vietnam from communism. 606 00:37:46,233 --> 00:37:48,632 As the army makes the sweep towards the village 607 00:37:48,733 --> 00:37:50,532 suspected of harboring Viet Cong, 608 00:37:50,632 --> 00:37:53,733 it can't tell whether it will meet resistance. 609 00:37:59,965 --> 00:38:02,166 The troops round up all the young men they can find, 610 00:38:02,266 --> 00:38:05,333 since they can't tell who is a communist just by looking. 611 00:38:07,833 --> 00:38:10,500 Those who try to run for it are shot 612 00:38:10,599 --> 00:38:12,532 on the assumption they have something to hide. 613 00:38:17,565 --> 00:38:21,199 TRAN NGOC CHAU (in English): 614 00:39:04,199 --> 00:39:09,065 NARRATOR: Each of South Vietnam's 44 provinces had its own chief. 615 00:39:09,166 --> 00:39:11,965 Some were simply political appointees, 616 00:39:12,065 --> 00:39:14,833 corrupt allies of President Diem. 617 00:39:14,932 --> 00:39:20,565 Tran Ngoc Chau, province chief of Kien Hoa, was different. 618 00:39:20,666 --> 00:39:25,500 A privileged judge's son from the old imperial city of Hue, 619 00:39:25,599 --> 00:39:28,565 he and two of his brothers had fought against the French 620 00:39:28,666 --> 00:39:30,032 with the Viet Minh. 621 00:39:30,132 --> 00:39:34,132 But he had refused to join the Communist Party; 622 00:39:34,233 --> 00:39:37,166 he admired their dedication, but disliked the way 623 00:39:37,266 --> 00:39:40,400 they punished those who dared differ with them. 624 00:39:40,500 --> 00:39:43,465 Instead, he left the Viet Minh, 625 00:39:43,565 --> 00:39:46,699 became a major in the army fighting against them, 626 00:39:46,800 --> 00:39:50,666 and eventually so impressed Diem with his insider's knowledge 627 00:39:50,766 --> 00:39:54,599 of communist tactics that he was promoted to colonel 628 00:39:54,699 --> 00:40:00,532 and made chief of Kien Hoa, a Viet Cong stronghold. 629 00:40:00,632 --> 00:40:04,300 PHILLIPS: He was absolutely incorruptible. 630 00:40:04,400 --> 00:40:09,365 And people came to really understand that here's a guy 631 00:40:09,465 --> 00:40:12,465 who's, even though it's not an elected system, 632 00:40:12,565 --> 00:40:15,400 who never... nevertheless really represents us. 633 00:40:17,099 --> 00:40:19,000 NARRATOR: "Give me a budget that equals the cost 634 00:40:19,099 --> 00:40:23,300 of one American helicopter," Chau liked to say, 635 00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:26,032 "and I'll give you a pacified province. 636 00:40:26,132 --> 00:40:30,199 "With that much money, I can raise the standard of living 637 00:40:30,300 --> 00:40:31,800 "of the rice farmers, 638 00:40:31,900 --> 00:40:33,599 "and government officials can be paid enough 639 00:40:33,699 --> 00:40:38,400 so they won't think it necessary to steal." 640 00:40:38,500 --> 00:40:40,965 Rather than hunt down the Viet Cong, 641 00:40:41,065 --> 00:40:43,733 he sought to persuade them. 642 00:40:45,099 --> 00:40:48,300 TRAN NGOC CHAU (in English): 643 00:41:34,932 --> 00:41:39,032 ("Walk, Don't Run" by the Ventures playing) 644 00:41:39,132 --> 00:41:42,733 NARRATOR: Back home, Americans were paying little attention 645 00:41:42,833 --> 00:41:45,000 to what was happening in Vietnam. 646 00:41:45,099 --> 00:41:47,833 They were watching The Beverly Hillbillies 647 00:41:47,932 --> 00:41:50,032 andGunsm oke on TV, 648 00:41:50,132 --> 00:41:53,065 were interested in whether the Yankees would win 649 00:41:53,166 --> 00:41:54,565 the World Series again 650 00:41:54,666 --> 00:41:58,800 and in the recent death of Marilyn Monroe. 651 00:41:58,900 --> 00:42:02,000 ("Stand By Me" by Ben E. King playing) 652 00:42:02,099 --> 00:42:04,500 But some Americans had been growing impatient 653 00:42:04,599 --> 00:42:07,865 with the slow pace of social change. 654 00:42:07,965 --> 00:42:09,599 BILL ZIMMERMAN: We were told in the '50s 655 00:42:09,699 --> 00:42:12,400 that we lived in the best country in the world. 656 00:42:12,500 --> 00:42:15,900 In the middle of, you know, trying to figure out 657 00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:18,233 what it meant to be a citizen of the... 658 00:42:18,333 --> 00:42:20,666 of this best country in the world, 659 00:42:20,766 --> 00:42:22,565 suddenly the civil rights movement exploded 660 00:42:22,666 --> 00:42:24,599 into our consciousness. 661 00:42:24,699 --> 00:42:30,833 BEN E. KING: ♪ When the night has come... 662 00:42:30,932 --> 00:42:32,766 ZIMMERMAN: We didn't think we had any power. 663 00:42:32,865 --> 00:42:36,000 We didn't think we could be actors in history, 664 00:42:36,099 --> 00:42:38,699 that we could affect things. 665 00:42:40,932 --> 00:42:44,000 KING: ♪ No, I won't be afraid 666 00:42:44,099 --> 00:42:45,932 ♪ Oh, I won't... 667 00:42:46,032 --> 00:42:47,766 ZIMMERMAN: And suddenly, you know, 668 00:42:47,865 --> 00:42:49,766 these young black students in the South 669 00:42:49,865 --> 00:42:51,465 were doing exactly that. 670 00:42:51,565 --> 00:42:54,632 And it just blew the tops of our heads off. 671 00:42:54,733 --> 00:43:00,365 KING: ♪ So darling, darling, stand by me ♪ 672 00:43:00,465 --> 00:43:04,800 ♪ Oh, stand by me 673 00:43:04,900 --> 00:43:10,065 ♪ Oh, stand, stand by me 674 00:43:10,166 --> 00:43:12,932 ♪ Stand by me 675 00:43:13,032 --> 00:43:15,699 ♪ If the sky that we look upon... ♪ 676 00:43:15,800 --> 00:43:19,199 NARRATOR: Other Americans were concerned about the proliferation 677 00:43:19,300 --> 00:43:22,532 of nuclear weapons in the world. 678 00:43:22,632 --> 00:43:26,532 Perhaps it would be a good thing to put Khrushchev and Kennedy 679 00:43:26,632 --> 00:43:30,432 on an island and not let either one of them off 680 00:43:30,532 --> 00:43:32,800 until they came to an agreement. 681 00:43:32,900 --> 00:43:35,266 KING: ♪ Stand by me 682 00:43:35,365 --> 00:43:40,199 ♪ And darling, darling, stand by me. ♪ 683 00:43:44,400 --> 00:43:47,833 (bicycle bells ring, motors rumble) 684 00:43:55,565 --> 00:43:58,699 SHEEHAN: And if you were in a cafe when Diem was giving a speech, 685 00:43:58,800 --> 00:44:00,565 somebody would get up and shut the radio off, 686 00:44:00,666 --> 00:44:02,432 it would be coming in over the radio. 687 00:44:02,532 --> 00:44:04,833 Somebody would get up and they'd just shut the radio off. 688 00:44:04,932 --> 00:44:09,099 I mean, he was not connected with... to his own population. 689 00:44:12,065 --> 00:44:16,965 PHAN QUANG TUE: Diem was simply the opposite of what democracy was. 690 00:44:17,065 --> 00:44:20,833 South Vietnam, in the competition against the North, 691 00:44:20,932 --> 00:44:26,000 that should been, should have been a golden opportunity 692 00:44:26,099 --> 00:44:31,400 to have that society open with the free press, 693 00:44:31,500 --> 00:44:33,500 free expression. 694 00:44:33,599 --> 00:44:36,333 But there was not much choice 695 00:44:36,432 --> 00:44:40,833 if the two system are structurally dictator 696 00:44:40,932 --> 00:44:42,233 and oppressive systems-- 697 00:44:42,333 --> 00:44:48,666 one under the Communist Party, one under a family. 698 00:44:49,766 --> 00:44:52,300 CHAU (speaking English): 699 00:45:05,599 --> 00:45:09,199 NARRATOR: Diem's brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, had been the architect 700 00:45:09,300 --> 00:45:11,699 of the strategic hamlet program, 701 00:45:11,800 --> 00:45:15,932 ran a personal political party that mirrored the techniques 702 00:45:16,032 --> 00:45:18,500 and the ruthlessness of the communists, 703 00:45:18,599 --> 00:45:22,766 and supervised a host of internal security units 704 00:45:22,865 --> 00:45:27,000 that spied on and seized enemies of the regime. 705 00:45:28,865 --> 00:45:30,965 Some reporters who probed too deeply 706 00:45:31,065 --> 00:45:33,465 into what Diem and Nhu were doing 707 00:45:33,565 --> 00:45:35,733 were ordered out of the country. 708 00:45:35,833 --> 00:45:36,766 (gunshot) 709 00:45:36,865 --> 00:45:39,266 When an American journalist objected, 710 00:45:39,365 --> 00:45:43,432 Nhu's sharp-tongued wife told him Vietnam had no use 711 00:45:43,532 --> 00:45:46,166 for "your crazy freedoms." 712 00:45:47,632 --> 00:45:49,500 Meanwhile, out in the countryside, 713 00:45:49,599 --> 00:45:53,766 John Paul Vann and other advisors had begun to notice 714 00:45:53,865 --> 00:45:57,599 that the corruption within Diem's regime had filtered down 715 00:45:57,699 --> 00:45:59,632 to the commanders in the field. 716 00:45:59,733 --> 00:46:04,733 Troops, who had once been willing to engage the enemy, 717 00:46:04,833 --> 00:46:08,865 now seemed strangely reluctant. 718 00:46:08,965 --> 00:46:13,766 God, I was told so many times, "(speaking Vietnamese)." 719 00:46:13,865 --> 00:46:15,766 You know, "Scanlon, (speaking Vietnamese)." 720 00:46:15,865 --> 00:46:16,965 Um... 721 00:46:17,065 --> 00:46:22,266 very dangerous, you know, going out there. 722 00:46:22,365 --> 00:46:25,099 NEIL SHEEHAN: John Vann would go out with them at night. 723 00:46:25,199 --> 00:46:29,300 And he noticed that somebody would always cough 724 00:46:29,400 --> 00:46:32,733 or make some other slight noise when it turned out 725 00:46:32,833 --> 00:46:35,233 that the Viet Cong were heading into the ambush site. 726 00:46:35,333 --> 00:46:37,065 They did not want to get in a fight. 727 00:46:37,166 --> 00:46:40,365 NARRATOR: South Vietnamese officers were chosen 728 00:46:40,465 --> 00:46:43,932 less for their combat skill than for their loyalty 729 00:46:44,032 --> 00:46:48,000 to President Diem, and their men knew it. 730 00:46:49,300 --> 00:46:50,632 RHEAULT: What we should've done is 731 00:46:50,733 --> 00:46:55,300 either forced the Vietnamese-- I mean really forced them-- 732 00:46:55,400 --> 00:46:57,500 to clean up their act. 733 00:46:57,599 --> 00:46:59,632 And if they wouldn't clean up their act to say, 734 00:46:59,733 --> 00:47:02,132 "We're out of here. 735 00:47:02,233 --> 00:47:05,032 "Because we don't bet on losing horses. 736 00:47:05,132 --> 00:47:07,532 "This is a losing horse. 737 00:47:07,632 --> 00:47:09,900 You are not going to win this insurgency." 738 00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:12,733 We, as Americans, should have understood the desire 739 00:47:12,833 --> 00:47:16,300 of the Vietnamese people to have their own country. 740 00:47:16,400 --> 00:47:19,400 I mean we did the same thing to the Brits. 741 00:47:25,032 --> 00:47:29,865 NARRATOR: In October of 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union 742 00:47:29,965 --> 00:47:32,733 came closer than they would ever come again 743 00:47:32,833 --> 00:47:35,500 to mutually assured destruction. 744 00:47:35,599 --> 00:47:38,599 Good evening, my fellow citizens. 745 00:47:38,699 --> 00:47:42,666 This government, as promised, has maintained 746 00:47:42,766 --> 00:47:46,599 the closest surveillance of the Soviet military buildup 747 00:47:46,699 --> 00:47:48,500 on the island of Cuba. 748 00:47:49,500 --> 00:47:51,532 Within the past week, 749 00:47:51,632 --> 00:47:54,932 unmistakable evidence has established the fact 750 00:47:55,032 --> 00:47:58,432 that a series of offensive missile sites 751 00:47:58,532 --> 00:48:03,565 is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. 752 00:48:03,666 --> 00:48:06,865 NARRATOR: The Soviets had secretly placed nuclear missiles 753 00:48:06,965 --> 00:48:10,000 90 miles from the United States. 754 00:48:10,099 --> 00:48:15,000 The Joint Chiefs of Staff urged President Kennedy to bomb Cuba. 755 00:48:15,099 --> 00:48:19,233 He resisted and instead ordered a naval blockade 756 00:48:19,333 --> 00:48:23,733 to stop Soviet ships from resupplying the island. 757 00:48:25,300 --> 00:48:30,699 For 13 excruciating days, the world held its breath. 758 00:48:34,099 --> 00:48:37,333 Finally, in exchange for a private pledge 759 00:48:37,432 --> 00:48:40,132 to remove American missiles from Turkey, 760 00:48:40,233 --> 00:48:43,833 Khrushchev agreed to remove his missiles from Cuba. 761 00:48:46,666 --> 00:48:49,666 Neither the United States nor the Soviet Union 762 00:48:49,766 --> 00:48:53,800 wanted so direct a confrontation ever again. 763 00:48:53,900 --> 00:48:56,300 From now on, limited wars, 764 00:48:56,400 --> 00:48:58,900 like the growing conflict in Vietnam, 765 00:48:59,000 --> 00:49:02,500 would assume still greater importance. 766 00:49:05,800 --> 00:49:10,300 MUSGRAVE: I'd grown up in the shadow of the mushroom cloud. 767 00:49:10,400 --> 00:49:14,432 And I remember the... watching President Kennedy speak 768 00:49:14,532 --> 00:49:16,099 during the Cuban Missile Crisis 769 00:49:16,199 --> 00:49:18,400 and wondering if I was ever gonna kiss a girl. 770 00:49:18,500 --> 00:49:21,365 And so this was just continuing that battle 771 00:49:21,465 --> 00:49:23,233 against the Russians. 772 00:49:23,333 --> 00:49:26,865 Only we were fighting, you know, their, their proxies, 773 00:49:26,965 --> 00:49:30,400 the Vietnamese there-- but it was monolithic communism. 774 00:49:31,766 --> 00:49:34,632 It didn't matter to me where it was, I was going to go 775 00:49:34,733 --> 00:49:38,800 if my government said we needed to be there. 776 00:49:38,900 --> 00:49:41,833 We were probably the last kids of any generation 777 00:49:41,932 --> 00:49:43,166 that actually believed 778 00:49:43,266 --> 00:49:45,000 our government would never lie to us. 779 00:49:50,333 --> 00:49:52,632 SHEEHAN: We had been writing stories about all the flaws 780 00:49:52,733 --> 00:49:55,565 on the Saigon side-- about how they wouldn't fight, 781 00:49:55,666 --> 00:49:58,400 about the corruption, they wouldn't obey orders, 782 00:49:58,500 --> 00:50:00,032 the disorganization. 783 00:50:01,965 --> 00:50:06,500 And then all of a sudden the Viet Cong, for the first time, 784 00:50:06,599 --> 00:50:07,965 the "raggedy-ass little bastards" 785 00:50:08,065 --> 00:50:10,865 as the Harkins's people in Saigon called them, 786 00:50:10,965 --> 00:50:12,500 stood and fought. 787 00:50:12,599 --> 00:50:14,865 And suddenly all the flaws on the Saigon side 788 00:50:14,965 --> 00:50:17,266 were illuminated by this. 789 00:50:17,365 --> 00:50:20,565 Like a star shell, it illuminated the battlefield. 790 00:50:20,666 --> 00:50:22,132 Everything came out. 791 00:50:23,400 --> 00:50:26,699 NARRATOR: A few days after Christmas 1962, 792 00:50:26,800 --> 00:50:30,266 the 7th ARVN Division got orders to capture 793 00:50:30,365 --> 00:50:32,465 a Viet Cong radio transmitter 794 00:50:32,565 --> 00:50:37,199 broadcasting from a spot some 40 miles southwest of Saigon 795 00:50:37,300 --> 00:50:40,266 in a village called Tan Thoi. 796 00:50:40,365 --> 00:50:43,099 The village was surrounded by rice paddies. 797 00:50:43,199 --> 00:50:49,199 An irrigation dike linked it to a neighboring hamlet-- Ap Bac. 798 00:50:49,300 --> 00:50:53,632 Intelligence suggested no more than 120 guerrillas 799 00:50:53,733 --> 00:50:56,065 were guarding the transmitter. 800 00:50:56,166 --> 00:50:59,500 John Paul Vann helped draw up what seemed to be 801 00:50:59,599 --> 00:51:02,032 a foolproof plan of attack. 802 00:51:02,132 --> 00:51:06,365 Supported by helicopters and armored personnel carriers, 803 00:51:06,465 --> 00:51:10,333 some 1,200 South Vietnamese troops would attack the village 804 00:51:10,432 --> 00:51:12,266 from three sides. 805 00:51:12,365 --> 00:51:15,233 When the surviving Viet Cong tried to flee through the gap 806 00:51:15,333 --> 00:51:19,266 left open for them, as they always had whenever outnumbered 807 00:51:19,365 --> 00:51:21,565 and confronted by modern weapons, 808 00:51:21,666 --> 00:51:25,166 artillery and airstrikes would destroy them. 809 00:51:25,266 --> 00:51:29,733 Vann would observe the fighting from a spotter plane. 810 00:51:29,833 --> 00:51:35,432 But the intelligence underlying it all turned out to be wrong. 811 00:51:35,532 --> 00:51:41,065 There were more than 340 Viet Cong, not 120, in the area. 812 00:51:41,166 --> 00:51:44,099 Communist spies had tipped them off 813 00:51:44,199 --> 00:51:46,300 that they were soon to be attacked. 814 00:51:46,400 --> 00:51:50,465 And this time they would not flee without a fight. 815 00:51:52,932 --> 00:51:55,666 Among them was Le Quan Cong, 816 00:51:55,766 --> 00:52:00,199 who had been a guerrilla fighter since 1951, when he was 12. 817 00:52:14,666 --> 00:52:19,733 NARRATOR: At 6:35 in the morning on January 2, 1963, 818 00:52:19,833 --> 00:52:23,132 ten American helicopters ferried an ARVN company 819 00:52:23,233 --> 00:52:26,599 to a spot just north of Tan Thoi. 820 00:52:29,500 --> 00:52:32,500 They met no resistance. 821 00:52:32,599 --> 00:52:36,166 Meanwhile, two South Vietnamese Civil Guard battalions 822 00:52:36,266 --> 00:52:39,565 approached Ap Bac from the South on foot. 823 00:52:42,565 --> 00:52:46,233 The Viet Cong commander let the Civil Guards get within 100 feet 824 00:52:46,333 --> 00:52:48,900 before giving the order to fire. 825 00:52:51,400 --> 00:52:54,166 Several South Vietnamese soldiers were killed. 826 00:52:58,132 --> 00:53:01,199 Survivors hid behind a dike. 827 00:53:01,300 --> 00:53:04,032 (gunfire) 828 00:53:04,132 --> 00:53:05,965 Ten more helicopters, 829 00:53:06,065 --> 00:53:09,766 filled with troops and escorted by five helicopter gunships, 830 00:53:09,865 --> 00:53:11,132 roared in to help. 831 00:53:12,666 --> 00:53:14,632 LE QUAN CONG: 832 00:53:37,965 --> 00:53:42,266 NARRATOR: Viet Cong machine guns hit 14 of the 15 aircraft. 833 00:53:42,365 --> 00:53:47,733 Five would be destroyed, killing and wounding American crewmen. 834 00:53:49,199 --> 00:53:51,365 LE QUAN CONG: 835 00:53:57,432 --> 00:53:59,800 NARRATOR: The enemy concentrated their fire on the ARVN 836 00:53:59,900 --> 00:54:02,965 struggling to get out of the downed helicopters. 837 00:54:03,065 --> 00:54:06,032 "It was like shooting ducks for the Viet Cong," 838 00:54:06,132 --> 00:54:08,065 an American crewman remembered. 839 00:54:10,400 --> 00:54:13,400 Colonel Vann circled helplessly overhead. 840 00:54:13,500 --> 00:54:15,900 He radioed the ARVN commander, 841 00:54:16,000 --> 00:54:20,099 urging him to send an APC unit to rescue the men. 842 00:54:21,432 --> 00:54:24,000 SCANLON: I got the word from John Vann 843 00:54:24,099 --> 00:54:26,900 that American helicopters were down. 844 00:54:27,000 --> 00:54:29,365 They were right in front of the Viet Cong positions. 845 00:54:29,465 --> 00:54:32,766 We had Americans killed and wounded 846 00:54:32,865 --> 00:54:34,932 and we had to get over there right away. 847 00:54:35,032 --> 00:54:38,932 NARRATOR: Like Vann, Captain Scanlon was only an advisor. 848 00:54:39,032 --> 00:54:42,465 Captain Ly Tong Ba, his ARVN counterpart, 849 00:54:42,565 --> 00:54:45,266 would have to give the order to advance. 850 00:54:45,365 --> 00:54:48,599 Scanlon liked and admired him. 851 00:54:48,699 --> 00:54:51,132 SCANLON: I turned to Ba and said, 852 00:54:51,233 --> 00:54:53,900 "Hey, you know, you got to get over there right away." 853 00:54:54,000 --> 00:54:58,500 And Ba said to me, "I'm not going." 854 00:54:58,599 --> 00:55:01,965 NARRATOR: Ba's superiors within the ARVN, far from the battlefield, 855 00:55:02,065 --> 00:55:05,132 had told him to stay put. 856 00:55:05,233 --> 00:55:09,166 And John Vann, my boss, was, uh, screaming at me over the... 857 00:55:09,266 --> 00:55:12,565 over the radio to get them over there. 858 00:55:12,666 --> 00:55:17,000 NARRATOR: It took Scanlon an hour to convince Captain Ba to move. 859 00:55:17,099 --> 00:55:19,500 Another two hours were lost 860 00:55:19,599 --> 00:55:22,599 before the APCs could make their way through the paddies 861 00:55:22,699 --> 00:55:24,900 toward the trapped men. 862 00:55:26,865 --> 00:55:29,132 The firing had died down. 863 00:55:29,233 --> 00:55:31,132 SCANLON: Everything was quiet. 864 00:55:31,233 --> 00:55:33,932 You could see the open expanse of rice fields. 865 00:55:34,032 --> 00:55:37,333 And my reaction was, hey, it was all over. 866 00:55:37,432 --> 00:55:40,632 NARRATOR: The first two APCs dropped their ramps. 867 00:55:40,733 --> 00:55:43,099 Infantry squads stepped out, 868 00:55:43,199 --> 00:55:46,166 prepared to spray the tree line with automatic fire 869 00:55:46,266 --> 00:55:47,465 as they advanced. 870 00:55:47,565 --> 00:55:50,266 In the past, that had been enough 871 00:55:50,365 --> 00:55:53,699 to make the Viet Cong scurry away. 872 00:55:53,800 --> 00:55:56,065 This time was different. 873 00:55:59,766 --> 00:56:01,766 Eight of the APCs came under attack. 874 00:56:01,865 --> 00:56:05,233 Within minutes, six of their gunners had been killed, 875 00:56:05,333 --> 00:56:06,565 shot through the head. 876 00:56:07,965 --> 00:56:10,065 SCANLON: And boy, we got raked. 877 00:56:10,166 --> 00:56:11,900 So it was like a pool table. 878 00:56:12,000 --> 00:56:13,365 We were on the green 879 00:56:13,465 --> 00:56:15,699 and they were in the pockets shooting at us. 880 00:56:15,800 --> 00:56:18,565 NARRATOR: When Captain Ba managed to convince 881 00:56:18,666 --> 00:56:21,233 a few more APCs to advance, 882 00:56:21,333 --> 00:56:24,300 guerrillas leapt from their foxholes 883 00:56:24,400 --> 00:56:26,432 and hurled hand grenades at them. 884 00:56:31,432 --> 00:56:33,833 None did any real damage, 885 00:56:33,932 --> 00:56:37,500 but the drivers were so demoralized that they halted, 886 00:56:37,599 --> 00:56:42,532 turned around, and withdrew behind the wrecked helicopters. 887 00:56:42,632 --> 00:56:44,532 From his spotter plane, 888 00:56:44,632 --> 00:56:48,766 Vann begged the ARVN to make a simultaneous assault 889 00:56:48,865 --> 00:56:52,233 on the enemy by all the remaining ground forces. 890 00:56:53,365 --> 00:56:56,365 ARVN commanders refused. 891 00:56:58,766 --> 00:57:01,733 That night, the Viet Cong melted away, 892 00:57:01,833 --> 00:57:05,233 carrying most of their dead and wounded with them. 893 00:57:07,365 --> 00:57:11,432 At least 80 South Vietnamese soldiers had been killed. 894 00:57:11,532 --> 00:57:16,900 So had three American advisors, including Captain Ken Good, 895 00:57:17,000 --> 00:57:18,132 a friend of Scanlon's. 896 00:57:22,032 --> 00:57:25,932 SCANLON: We stacked the armored personnel carriers with bodies, 897 00:57:26,032 --> 00:57:27,733 stacked them up on top till they... 898 00:57:27,833 --> 00:57:29,666 we couldn't stack anymore. 899 00:57:29,766 --> 00:57:35,865 And, um, I wouldn't let the Vietnamese touch the Americans. 900 00:57:35,965 --> 00:57:38,733 So I carried Americans out. 901 00:57:38,833 --> 00:57:41,099 And, um... 902 00:57:41,199 --> 00:57:43,400 And I was... I was exhausted. 903 00:57:43,500 --> 00:57:49,365 They told me about Ken Good getting killed. 904 00:57:49,465 --> 00:57:53,699 And Ken and I had worked so hard with our two battalions. 905 00:57:53,800 --> 00:57:59,599 And to hear that... he got killed hurt. 906 00:57:59,699 --> 00:58:01,333 (voice breaking): Great guy. 907 00:58:02,766 --> 00:58:04,965 NARRATOR: Reporters arrived from Saigon 908 00:58:05,065 --> 00:58:09,000 before all of the ARVN dead could be removed. 909 00:58:09,099 --> 00:58:13,300 They were horrified at what they saw and tried to find out 910 00:58:13,400 --> 00:58:16,065 what had really happened. 911 00:58:16,166 --> 00:58:20,599 John Paul Vann took Neil Sheehan and David Halberstam aside 912 00:58:20,699 --> 00:58:22,632 and told them. 913 00:58:22,733 --> 00:58:24,500 The Battle of Ap Bac had been 914 00:58:24,599 --> 00:58:27,333 "a miserable goddamn performance." 915 00:58:27,432 --> 00:58:29,565 "The ARVN won't listen," he said. 916 00:58:29,666 --> 00:58:32,599 "They make the same mistakes over and over again 917 00:58:32,699 --> 00:58:34,733 in the same way." 918 00:58:36,400 --> 00:58:37,900 But back in Saigon, 919 00:58:38,000 --> 00:58:41,699 General Harkins immediately declared victory. 920 00:58:41,800 --> 00:58:44,800 "The ARVN forces had an objective," he said. 921 00:58:44,900 --> 00:58:46,333 "We took that objective. 922 00:58:46,432 --> 00:58:49,932 "The VC left and their casualties were greater 923 00:58:50,032 --> 00:58:52,599 "than those of the government forces. 924 00:58:52,699 --> 00:58:54,333 What more do you want?" 925 00:58:55,800 --> 00:58:58,132 When Halberstam and Sheehan reported 926 00:58:58,233 --> 00:59:01,132 that Ap Bac had in fact been a defeat, 927 00:59:01,233 --> 00:59:05,300 the U.S. Commander in the Pacific denied it all 928 00:59:05,400 --> 00:59:10,932 and urged the reporters to "get on the team." 929 00:59:11,032 --> 00:59:13,065 SHEEHAN: Ap Bac was terribly important. 930 00:59:13,166 --> 00:59:15,333 They had shot down five helicopters, 931 00:59:15,432 --> 00:59:17,833 which they previously had been terrified of. 932 00:59:17,932 --> 00:59:22,000 They'd stopped the armored personnel carriers. 933 00:59:22,099 --> 00:59:24,099 They demonstrated to their own people 934 00:59:24,199 --> 00:59:27,266 that you could resist the Americans and win. 935 00:59:30,965 --> 00:59:33,199 LE QUAN CONG: 936 00:59:46,932 --> 00:59:50,699 NARRATOR: In Hanoi, the Battle of Ap Bac was seen 937 00:59:50,800 --> 00:59:55,400 by Party First Secretary Le Duan and his Politburo allies 938 00:59:55,500 --> 00:59:57,699 as evidence of the inherent weakness 939 00:59:57,800 --> 01:00:00,766 of the South Vietnamese regime. 940 01:00:00,865 --> 01:00:04,599 Even when faced with American advisors and weaponry, 941 01:00:04,699 --> 01:00:08,465 the Viet Cong had learned how to inflict heavy casualties 942 01:00:08,565 --> 01:00:12,365 on Saigon's forces, and get away again. 943 01:00:13,865 --> 01:00:17,666 In Saigon, President Diem claimed the ARVN were winning, 944 01:00:17,766 --> 01:00:19,000 not losing. 945 01:00:19,099 --> 01:00:22,365 Ap Bac had only been a momentary setback. 946 01:00:22,465 --> 01:00:24,266 And he resented Americans telling him 947 01:00:24,365 --> 01:00:27,965 how to fight his battles or run his country. 948 01:00:28,065 --> 01:00:33,065 The president's sister-in-law, Madame Nhu, went further. 949 01:00:33,166 --> 01:00:37,565 She denounced the Americans as "false brothers." 950 01:00:39,032 --> 01:00:41,833 "We don't have a prayer of staying in Vietnam," 951 01:00:41,932 --> 01:00:46,000 President Kennedy privately told a friend that spring. 952 01:00:46,099 --> 01:00:48,166 "These people hate us. 953 01:00:48,266 --> 01:00:51,599 "But I can't give up a piece of territory like that 954 01:00:51,699 --> 01:00:56,199 to the communists and then get the people to reelect me." 955 01:01:00,300 --> 01:01:02,833 (loud commotion) 956 01:01:02,932 --> 01:01:04,465 ED HERLIHY: Buddhist monks and nuns are joined 957 01:01:04,565 --> 01:01:05,965 by thousands of sympathizers 958 01:01:06,065 --> 01:01:07,733 to protest the government's restrictions 959 01:01:07,833 --> 01:01:10,766 on the practice of their religion in South Vietnam. 960 01:01:12,365 --> 01:01:15,932 SHEEHAN: Diem began by alienating the rural population. 961 01:01:16,032 --> 01:01:18,599 And that started the Viet Cong. 962 01:01:18,699 --> 01:01:21,532 And now he was alienating the urban population. 963 01:01:21,632 --> 01:01:24,166 HERLIHY: Seventy percent of the population is Buddhist 964 01:01:24,266 --> 01:01:25,766 and the demonstrators clashed with the police 965 01:01:25,865 --> 01:01:30,032 during the week-long series of incidents like this. 966 01:01:30,132 --> 01:01:33,532 NARRATOR: In the months that followed the Battle of Ap Bac, 967 01:01:33,632 --> 01:01:38,300 South Vietnam plunged into civil strife that had little to do 968 01:01:38,400 --> 01:01:41,199 with the Viet Cong. 969 01:01:41,300 --> 01:01:45,266 Religion and nationalism were at its heart. 970 01:01:45,365 --> 01:01:49,099 A Catholic minority had for years dominated the government 971 01:01:49,199 --> 01:01:52,032 of an overwhelmingly Buddhist country. 972 01:01:53,632 --> 01:01:56,032 That spring in the city of Hue, 973 01:01:56,132 --> 01:01:59,065 Christian flags had been flown to celebrate 974 01:01:59,166 --> 01:02:02,300 the 25th anniversary of the ordination 975 01:02:02,400 --> 01:02:05,199 of Diem's older brother as a Catholic bishop. 976 01:02:08,333 --> 01:02:11,666 But when the Buddhists of the city flew their flags 977 01:02:11,766 --> 01:02:17,099 to celebrate the 2,527th birthday of Lord Buddha, 978 01:02:17,199 --> 01:02:20,032 police tore them down. 979 01:02:20,132 --> 01:02:22,766 Protesters took to the streets. 980 01:02:24,865 --> 01:02:28,666 The Catholic deputy province chief sent security forces 981 01:02:28,766 --> 01:02:31,565 to suppress the demonstration. 982 01:02:31,666 --> 01:02:33,233 The soldiers opened fire. 983 01:02:33,333 --> 01:02:34,233 (two gunshots) 984 01:02:34,333 --> 01:02:37,266 Eight protesters died. 985 01:02:37,365 --> 01:02:43,233 The youngest was 12; the oldest was 20. 986 01:02:43,333 --> 01:02:47,199 The Diem regime blamed the Viet Cong. 987 01:02:48,800 --> 01:02:52,599 Monks throughout the country demanded an apology. 988 01:03:01,465 --> 01:03:03,766 They also called for an end to discrimination 989 01:03:03,865 --> 01:03:06,132 by Catholic officials. 990 01:03:06,233 --> 01:03:09,400 Many Buddhists had come to see Diem's policies 991 01:03:09,500 --> 01:03:12,766 as a direct threat to their religious beliefs. 992 01:03:15,565 --> 01:03:19,199 DUONG VAN MAI: My family was against what Diem was doing. 993 01:03:19,300 --> 01:03:21,865 My mother was convinced 994 01:03:21,965 --> 01:03:25,900 that Diem was destroying the Buddhist faith. 995 01:03:26,000 --> 01:03:30,166 She would go to the pagodas and listen to the monks' speeches. 996 01:03:30,266 --> 01:03:33,632 And she was just extremely upset. 997 01:03:35,000 --> 01:03:36,199 She was not alone. 998 01:03:36,300 --> 01:03:39,099 There was a lot of people like her. 999 01:03:39,199 --> 01:03:43,132 NARRATOR: American officials urged Diem and his brother Nhu 1000 01:03:43,233 --> 01:03:46,532 to make meaningful concessions to the Buddhists, 1001 01:03:46,632 --> 01:03:48,666 for the sake of maintaining unity 1002 01:03:48,766 --> 01:03:51,300 in the struggle against communism. 1003 01:03:51,400 --> 01:03:53,032 They refused. 1004 01:03:55,565 --> 01:04:00,532 On June 10, 1963, Malcolm Browne of the Associated Press 1005 01:04:00,632 --> 01:04:03,500 received an anonymous tip: 1006 01:04:03,599 --> 01:04:06,766 something important was going to happen the next day 1007 01:04:06,865 --> 01:04:10,266 at a major intersection in Saigon. 1008 01:04:10,365 --> 01:04:12,300 He took his camera. 1009 01:04:19,833 --> 01:04:23,199 To protest the Diem regime's repression, 1010 01:04:23,300 --> 01:04:29,699 a 73-year-old monk named Quang Duc set himself on fire. 1011 01:04:47,300 --> 01:04:52,432 As a large, hushed crowd watched him burn to death, 1012 01:04:52,532 --> 01:04:55,965 another monk repeated over and over again 1013 01:04:56,065 --> 01:04:59,000 in English and Vietnamese, 1014 01:04:59,099 --> 01:05:02,032 "A Buddhist monk becomes a martyr. 1015 01:05:02,132 --> 01:05:04,766 A Buddhist monk becomes a martyr." 1016 01:05:11,565 --> 01:05:14,432 SHEEHAN: I remember they held the ashes 1017 01:05:14,532 --> 01:05:17,032 of the monk who burned himself to death 1018 01:05:17,132 --> 01:05:20,132 where it was kept in one of the main pagodas. 1019 01:05:20,233 --> 01:05:26,333 And lines of people came to pass by, and I saw these women, 1020 01:05:26,432 --> 01:05:29,400 not rich women, ordinary Vietnamese women, 1021 01:05:29,500 --> 01:05:32,465 take off the one piece of gold they had on, their wedding ring, 1022 01:05:32,565 --> 01:05:37,465 and drop it in the bottle to contribute to the struggle. 1023 01:05:37,565 --> 01:05:41,400 And I thought to myself, "This regime is over. 1024 01:05:41,500 --> 01:05:42,565 It's the end." 1025 01:05:46,666 --> 01:05:49,266 NARRATOR: Soon other monks would become martyrs. 1026 01:05:52,532 --> 01:05:58,065 Fresh outbursts by Madame Nhu only made things worse. 1027 01:05:58,166 --> 01:06:01,632 Burning monks made her clap her hands, she said. 1028 01:06:01,733 --> 01:06:04,300 If more monks wanted to burn themselves, 1029 01:06:04,400 --> 01:06:07,500 she would provide the matches. 1030 01:06:07,599 --> 01:06:09,465 The only thing they have done, 1031 01:06:09,565 --> 01:06:15,266 they have barbecued one of their monks, 1032 01:06:15,365 --> 01:06:20,900 whom they have intoxicated, whom they have abused the confidence. 1033 01:06:21,000 --> 01:06:25,300 And even that barbecuing was done 1034 01:06:25,400 --> 01:06:27,632 not even with self-sufficient means 1035 01:06:27,733 --> 01:06:30,766 because they-they used imported gasoline. 1036 01:06:32,465 --> 01:06:35,099 DUONG VAN MAI: They thought she was arrogant, 1037 01:06:35,199 --> 01:06:36,666 she was power hungry. 1038 01:06:36,766 --> 01:06:40,032 They suspected her and her husband of being corrupt. 1039 01:06:40,132 --> 01:06:46,400 Nhu ran the secret police, which arrested and tortured people. 1040 01:06:46,500 --> 01:06:49,699 People feared the Diem regime. 1041 01:06:49,800 --> 01:06:53,365 Perhaps more than they feared it, they really hated it. 1042 01:06:55,632 --> 01:06:58,266 NARRATOR: Students, including many Catholics, 1043 01:06:58,365 --> 01:07:00,833 rallied to the Buddhist cause. 1044 01:07:00,932 --> 01:07:04,132 So did some army officers. 1045 01:07:04,233 --> 01:07:08,500 People among the military had to ask the question, 1046 01:07:08,599 --> 01:07:11,900 "Can we continue this kind of situation like that 1047 01:07:12,000 --> 01:07:15,400 "when the whole country, country was almost burning 1048 01:07:15,500 --> 01:07:17,132 with the kind of protest from the Buddhists?" 1049 01:07:17,233 --> 01:07:18,166 You see? 1050 01:07:21,833 --> 01:07:25,766 ZIMMERMAN: I first became aware of Vietnam because of a burning monk. 1051 01:07:28,300 --> 01:07:33,099 We had watched the civil rights movement in the South 1052 01:07:33,199 --> 01:07:36,099 and it had set the standard for us 1053 01:07:36,199 --> 01:07:42,532 to stand up against injustice, allow yourself to be beaten up, 1054 01:07:42,632 --> 01:07:44,932 allow yourself to be attacked by a dog 1055 01:07:45,032 --> 01:07:47,365 or hit by a police truncheon. 1056 01:07:47,465 --> 01:07:49,333 And we had enormous respect 1057 01:07:49,432 --> 01:07:52,565 for people who were willing to go that far. 1058 01:07:56,965 --> 01:07:59,865 And then one day in 1963, 1059 01:07:59,965 --> 01:08:04,400 we saw on television a picture of a monk in Saigon. 1060 01:08:05,833 --> 01:08:07,965 This was an extraordinary act. 1061 01:08:10,365 --> 01:08:13,166 Why was a Buddhist monk burning himself 1062 01:08:13,266 --> 01:08:16,000 on the streets of Saigon? 1063 01:08:18,733 --> 01:08:21,132 NARRATOR: The protests continued. 1064 01:08:21,233 --> 01:08:26,065 Tensions between Washington and Saigon steadily worsened. 1065 01:08:26,166 --> 01:08:30,065 The more the Kennedy Administration demanded change, 1066 01:08:30,166 --> 01:08:34,132 the more Diem and his brother Nhu seemed to resist. 1067 01:08:35,800 --> 01:08:38,533 The White House announced that a new American ambassador, 1068 01:08:38,632 --> 01:08:43,765 former senator Henry Cabot Lodge, was being sent to Saigon, 1069 01:08:43,865 --> 01:08:46,332 a man eminent enough, the president hoped, 1070 01:08:46,432 --> 01:08:51,500 to make Diem listen more closely to American advice. 1071 01:08:51,600 --> 01:08:55,365 Diem professed to be unimpressed. 1072 01:08:55,466 --> 01:08:58,100 "They can send ten Lodges," he said, 1073 01:08:58,199 --> 01:09:02,132 "but I will not let myself or my country be humiliated, 1074 01:09:02,233 --> 01:09:06,000 not if they train their artillery on this palace." 1075 01:09:06,100 --> 01:09:10,666 He did promise the outgoing ambassador, Frederick Nolting, 1076 01:09:10,765 --> 01:09:13,500 that he would take no further repressive steps 1077 01:09:13,600 --> 01:09:15,166 against the Buddhists. 1078 01:09:16,932 --> 01:09:22,166 Then, a few minutes after midnight on August 21, 1963, 1079 01:09:22,265 --> 01:09:25,733 with Nolting gone and Henry Cabot Lodge's arrival 1080 01:09:25,832 --> 01:09:29,365 still one day away, Diem cut the phone lines 1081 01:09:29,466 --> 01:09:32,800 of all the senior American officials in Saigon 1082 01:09:32,899 --> 01:09:36,432 and sent hundreds of his Special Forces 1083 01:09:36,533 --> 01:09:40,332 storming into Buddhist pagodas in Saigon, Hue, 1084 01:09:40,432 --> 01:09:43,632 and several other South Vietnamese cities. 1085 01:09:43,733 --> 01:09:46,500 Some 1,400 monks and nuns, 1086 01:09:46,600 --> 01:09:52,199 students and ordinary citizens were rounded up and taken away. 1087 01:09:52,300 --> 01:09:55,865 (shouting) 1088 01:10:00,033 --> 01:10:04,466 Martial law was imposed, public meetings were forbidden, 1089 01:10:04,565 --> 01:10:08,966 troops were authorized to shoot anyone found on the streets 1090 01:10:09,065 --> 01:10:10,699 after 9:00. 1091 01:10:10,800 --> 01:10:14,100 PETER ROBERTS: Tanks guard a pagoda in Saigon 1092 01:10:14,199 --> 01:10:16,865 during South Vietnam's bafflingly complicated crisis 1093 01:10:16,966 --> 01:10:19,966 that has the government of President Ngo Dinh Diem, 1094 01:10:20,065 --> 01:10:23,800 students, and Buddhists, and the United States government 1095 01:10:23,899 --> 01:10:27,500 all trying to guess one another's next move. 1096 01:10:27,600 --> 01:10:31,399 NARRATOR: When college students protested in support of the monks, 1097 01:10:31,500 --> 01:10:35,033 Diem closed Vietnam's universities. 1098 01:10:35,132 --> 01:10:38,899 High school students then poured into the streets. 1099 01:10:39,000 --> 01:10:41,565 He shut down all the high schools 1100 01:10:41,666 --> 01:10:42,832 and the grammar schools, too, 1101 01:10:42,932 --> 01:10:46,166 and arrested thousands of school children, 1102 01:10:46,265 --> 01:10:49,132 including the sons and daughters of officials 1103 01:10:49,233 --> 01:10:51,199 in his own government. 1104 01:10:51,300 --> 01:10:54,365 PHAN QUANG TUE: I participated in the demonstrations. 1105 01:10:54,466 --> 01:11:01,332 I strongly believed that that government has to be overthrown 1106 01:11:01,432 --> 01:11:03,533 because it's a dictator government. 1107 01:11:03,632 --> 01:11:05,600 We couldn't stand it anymore 1108 01:11:05,699 --> 01:11:09,365 and this is an opportunity to rise against it. 1109 01:11:09,466 --> 01:11:13,432 NARRATOR: Phan Quang Tue was a law student that summer. 1110 01:11:13,533 --> 01:11:17,432 His father was a prominent nationalist whom Diem had jailed 1111 01:11:17,533 --> 01:11:20,765 for calling for greater democracy. 1112 01:11:20,865 --> 01:11:24,365 PHAN QUANG TUE: I was and I'm still a Catholic, 1113 01:11:24,466 --> 01:11:26,699 not a very good Catholic. 1114 01:11:26,800 --> 01:11:28,632 I don't practice religiously. 1115 01:11:28,733 --> 01:11:30,632 But I'm a Catholic. 1116 01:11:32,132 --> 01:11:33,565 I was rightly arrested 1117 01:11:33,666 --> 01:11:36,733 because I did participate in demonstration. 1118 01:11:36,832 --> 01:11:39,733 And I was interrogated 1119 01:11:39,832 --> 01:11:42,899 and briefly tortured, beaten a little bit. 1120 01:11:47,199 --> 01:11:50,000 HERLIHY: Henry Cabot Lodge took over as U.S. ambassador 1121 01:11:50,100 --> 01:11:51,565 in the midst of the turmoil. 1122 01:11:51,666 --> 01:11:53,000 And he has reported to have demanded 1123 01:11:53,100 --> 01:11:55,265 that President Diem's brother Nhu be ousted 1124 01:11:55,365 --> 01:11:57,733 or U.S. aid to Vietnam will be cut. 1125 01:12:01,100 --> 01:12:03,000 NARRATOR: In the wake of the pagoda raids, 1126 01:12:03,100 --> 01:12:05,466 a small group of South Vietnamese generals 1127 01:12:05,565 --> 01:12:09,132 contacted the CIA in Saigon. 1128 01:12:09,233 --> 01:12:12,666 Diem's brother Nhu was now largely in control 1129 01:12:12,765 --> 01:12:14,733 of the government, they said. 1130 01:12:14,832 --> 01:12:19,466 What would Washington's reaction be if they mounted a coup? 1131 01:12:19,565 --> 01:12:22,565 President Kennedy and his senior advisors 1132 01:12:22,666 --> 01:12:27,466 happened to be out of town, so Roger Hilsman, Jr., 1133 01:12:27,565 --> 01:12:31,033 assistant secretary of state for Far Eastern affairs 1134 01:12:31,132 --> 01:12:33,432 and a critic of the Diem regime, 1135 01:12:33,533 --> 01:12:37,565 took it upon himself to draft a cable with new instructions 1136 01:12:37,666 --> 01:12:40,500 for Ambassador Lodge. 1137 01:12:40,600 --> 01:12:44,466 The U.S. government could no longer tolerate a situation 1138 01:12:44,565 --> 01:12:48,733 in which power lay in Nhu's hands, it said. 1139 01:12:48,832 --> 01:12:52,065 Diem should be given a chance to rid himself of his brother. 1140 01:12:53,500 --> 01:12:57,033 If he refused, Lodge was to tell the generals, 1141 01:12:57,132 --> 01:13:00,632 "then we must face the possibility that Diem himself 1142 01:13:00,733 --> 01:13:04,500 cannot be preserved." 1143 01:13:04,600 --> 01:13:08,233 The president was vacationing at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. 1144 01:13:08,332 --> 01:13:12,199 Undersecretary of State George Ball read part of the cable 1145 01:13:12,300 --> 01:13:15,365 to him over the phone. 1146 01:13:15,466 --> 01:13:17,632 Since the early 1950s, 1147 01:13:17,733 --> 01:13:19,300 the United States government had encouraged 1148 01:13:19,399 --> 01:13:25,632 and even orchestrated other Cold War coups in Iran, Guatemala, 1149 01:13:25,733 --> 01:13:30,132 the Congo, and elsewhere. 1150 01:13:30,233 --> 01:13:34,065 Kennedy decided to approve Hilsman's cable 1151 01:13:34,166 --> 01:13:37,300 in part because he thought his top advisors 1152 01:13:37,399 --> 01:13:39,432 had already endorsed it. 1153 01:13:39,533 --> 01:13:42,332 They had not. 1154 01:13:42,432 --> 01:13:47,533 And somehow, because of a cable that came out from Washington, 1155 01:13:47,632 --> 01:13:50,932 Lodge decided that the only solution was to get rid 1156 01:13:51,033 --> 01:13:54,733 of not just Ngo Dinh Nhu, the bad brother, 1157 01:13:54,832 --> 01:13:57,265 but also of Diem himself. 1158 01:13:57,365 --> 01:13:59,432 And that started us on this whole business 1159 01:13:59,533 --> 01:14:02,300 of promoting a coup. 1160 01:14:02,399 --> 01:14:05,765 And it was not a good idea. 1161 01:14:05,865 --> 01:14:08,632 I just had a feeling of impending disaster. 1162 01:14:09,832 --> 01:14:12,432 NARRATOR: On September 2, 1963, 1163 01:14:12,533 --> 01:14:16,166 Labor Day, Walter Cronkite of CBS News 1164 01:14:16,265 --> 01:14:18,765 interviewed President Kennedy. 1165 01:14:18,865 --> 01:14:22,865 The president used the opportunity to deliver a message 1166 01:14:22,966 --> 01:14:24,733 to President Diem. 1167 01:14:24,832 --> 01:14:28,565 Mr. President, the only hot war we've got running at the moment 1168 01:14:28,666 --> 01:14:31,132 is of course the one in Vietnam, 1169 01:14:31,233 --> 01:14:34,065 and we've got our difficulties there, quite obviously. 1170 01:14:34,166 --> 01:14:38,666 I don't think that unless a greater effort is made 1171 01:14:38,765 --> 01:14:40,632 by the government to win popular support 1172 01:14:40,733 --> 01:14:42,100 that the war can be won out there. 1173 01:14:42,199 --> 01:14:44,065 In the final analysis, it's their war. 1174 01:14:44,166 --> 01:14:48,033 Hasn't every indication from Saigon been 1175 01:14:48,132 --> 01:14:50,166 that President Diem has no intention 1176 01:14:50,265 --> 01:14:51,166 of changing his pattern? 1177 01:14:51,265 --> 01:14:52,166 If he doesn't change it, 1178 01:14:52,265 --> 01:14:54,100 of course, that's his decision. 1179 01:14:54,199 --> 01:14:56,199 He has been there ten years and, as I say, 1180 01:14:56,300 --> 01:14:57,565 he has carried this burden 1181 01:14:57,666 --> 01:14:59,000 when he has been counted out on a number of occasions. 1182 01:14:59,100 --> 01:15:00,100 Our best judgment is 1183 01:15:00,199 --> 01:15:02,699 that he can't be successful in this basis. 1184 01:15:02,800 --> 01:15:05,365 But I don't agree with those who say we should withdraw. 1185 01:15:05,466 --> 01:15:06,632 That would be a great mistake. 1186 01:15:06,733 --> 01:15:08,000 That'd be a great mistake. 1187 01:15:08,100 --> 01:15:09,966 I know people don't like Americans to be engaged 1188 01:15:10,065 --> 01:15:11,065 in this kind of an effort. 1189 01:15:11,166 --> 01:15:13,533 47 Americans have been killed. 1190 01:15:13,632 --> 01:15:15,533 We're in a very 1191 01:15:15,632 --> 01:15:18,399 desperate struggle against the communist system. 1192 01:15:18,500 --> 01:15:21,733 And I don't want Asia to pass into the control of the Chinese. 1193 01:15:21,832 --> 01:15:23,966 Do you think that this government still has time 1194 01:15:24,065 --> 01:15:26,500 to-to regain the support of the people? 1195 01:15:26,600 --> 01:15:29,033 I do. 1196 01:15:29,132 --> 01:15:31,832 With changes in policy and perhaps in personnel, 1197 01:15:31,932 --> 01:15:33,365 I think it can. 1198 01:15:33,466 --> 01:15:36,733 If it doesn't make those changes, 1199 01:15:36,832 --> 01:15:39,033 I would think that the chances of winning it 1200 01:15:39,132 --> 01:15:40,800 would not be very good. 1201 01:15:42,533 --> 01:15:45,332 NARRATOR: Despite the cable, Kennedy and his advisors 1202 01:15:45,432 --> 01:15:48,765 were sharply divided about a coup. 1203 01:15:48,865 --> 01:15:54,132 Robert McNamara, Maxwell Taylor, Vice President Lyndon Johnson, 1204 01:15:54,233 --> 01:15:58,565 and the head of the CIA all cautioned against it, 1205 01:15:58,666 --> 01:16:02,065 because, while none of them especially admired Diem, 1206 01:16:02,166 --> 01:16:06,733 they did not believe there was any viable alternative. 1207 01:16:06,832 --> 01:16:09,800 GREGG: Fritz Nolting was called in. 1208 01:16:09,899 --> 01:16:12,332 And he said, "As difficult as they are to deal with, 1209 01:16:12,432 --> 01:16:17,365 "there is nobody with the guts and sangfroid in Vietnam 1210 01:16:17,466 --> 01:16:19,166 "of Diem and his brother Nhu. 1211 01:16:19,265 --> 01:16:22,632 "And if we let them go we will be saddled 1212 01:16:22,733 --> 01:16:26,600 by a descending cycle of mediocre generals." 1213 01:16:26,699 --> 01:16:28,666 And he was absolutely correct. 1214 01:16:30,332 --> 01:16:33,166 NARRATOR: But several State Department officials believed 1215 01:16:33,265 --> 01:16:38,000 that without fresh leadership, South Vietnam could not survive. 1216 01:16:38,100 --> 01:16:41,365 The debate intensified. 1217 01:16:42,533 --> 01:16:44,399 "My God," the president said, 1218 01:16:44,500 --> 01:16:47,832 "my administration is coming apart." 1219 01:16:47,932 --> 01:16:51,265 In the end, Kennedy instructed Lodge 1220 01:16:51,365 --> 01:16:53,666 to tell the renegade generals 1221 01:16:53,765 --> 01:16:56,065 that while the United States does not wish 1222 01:16:56,166 --> 01:17:00,233 to stimulate a coup, it would not thwart one either. 1223 01:17:01,733 --> 01:17:04,765 The generals laid their plans. 1224 01:17:04,865 --> 01:17:07,365 (gunfire) 1225 01:17:11,100 --> 01:17:16,699 On November 1, 1963, troops loyal to the plotters 1226 01:17:16,800 --> 01:17:18,899 seized key installations in Saigon 1227 01:17:19,000 --> 01:17:22,466 and demanded Diem and Nhu surrender. 1228 01:17:25,000 --> 01:17:27,432 REPORTER: The battle for the city went on for 18 hours 1229 01:17:27,533 --> 01:17:30,765 and most of it was centered on the presidential palace. 1230 01:17:30,865 --> 01:17:34,332 Just after 6:30 in the morning Saturday, the shooting ceased. 1231 01:17:36,666 --> 01:17:38,533 (people cheering) 1232 01:17:43,265 --> 01:17:48,565 NARRATOR: Diem and Nhu escaped, took sanctuary in a church, 1233 01:17:48,666 --> 01:17:51,632 and agreed to surrender to the rebels in exchange 1234 01:17:51,733 --> 01:17:55,466 for the promise of safe passage out of the country. 1235 01:17:55,565 --> 01:17:59,033 They were picked up in an armored personnel carrier... 1236 01:17:59,132 --> 01:18:01,033 (gunshot) 1237 01:18:01,132 --> 01:18:05,233 And murdered soon after they climbed inside. 1238 01:18:05,332 --> 01:18:06,666 (gunshot) 1239 01:18:10,033 --> 01:18:13,399 Madame Nhu survived the coup. 1240 01:18:13,500 --> 01:18:16,765 She was on a goodwill tour in the United States. 1241 01:18:22,000 --> 01:18:24,533 PHAN QUANG TUE: The system was overthrown on November 1. 1242 01:18:24,632 --> 01:18:27,233 I was released November 4. 1243 01:18:27,332 --> 01:18:33,432 And it was the most exciting moment in the life of Saigon. 1244 01:18:35,265 --> 01:18:40,533 The excitement, you could feel it in the air. 1245 01:18:40,632 --> 01:18:45,065 DUONG VAN MAI: I was thinking that, yeah, it's a good thing. 1246 01:18:45,166 --> 01:18:48,800 Diem was making it impossible to win the war 1247 01:18:48,899 --> 01:18:52,365 because people were so against him 1248 01:18:52,466 --> 01:18:56,966 that the war would be lost if he stayed in power. 1249 01:18:58,600 --> 01:19:00,666 My father was a bit worried 1250 01:19:00,765 --> 01:19:02,865 because he didn't know who was going to replace Diem. 1251 01:19:05,666 --> 01:19:08,199 NARRATOR: Ambassador Lodge reported to Washington 1252 01:19:08,300 --> 01:19:12,832 that "every Vietnamese has a smile on his face today." 1253 01:19:12,932 --> 01:19:16,533 "The prospects are now for a shorter war," he said, 1254 01:19:16,632 --> 01:19:19,500 "provided the generals stay together. 1255 01:19:19,600 --> 01:19:22,332 "Certainly officers and soldiers 1256 01:19:22,432 --> 01:19:25,533 who can pull off an operation like this," he continued, 1257 01:19:25,632 --> 01:19:28,966 "should be able to do very well on the battlefield 1258 01:19:29,065 --> 01:19:31,533 if their hearts are in it." 1259 01:19:34,300 --> 01:19:37,432 President Kennedy was not so sure. 1260 01:19:37,533 --> 01:19:41,765 He was appalled that Diem and Nhu had been killed. 1261 01:19:41,865 --> 01:19:45,466 Three days later, he dictated his own rueful account 1262 01:19:45,565 --> 01:19:49,699 of the coup and his concerns for the future. 1263 01:19:51,300 --> 01:19:55,100 KENNEDY: Monday, November 4, 1963. 1264 01:19:55,199 --> 01:19:58,132 Over the weekend the coup in Saigon took place. 1265 01:19:58,233 --> 01:20:01,000 It culminated three months of conversation, 1266 01:20:01,100 --> 01:20:06,265 which divided the government here and in Saigon. 1267 01:20:06,365 --> 01:20:11,466 I feel that we must bear a good deal of responsibility for it, 1268 01:20:11,565 --> 01:20:14,500 beginning with our cable of August 1269 01:20:14,600 --> 01:20:17,199 in which we suggested the coup. 1270 01:20:17,300 --> 01:20:20,100 I should not have given my consent to it 1271 01:20:20,199 --> 01:20:22,466 without a roundtable conference. 1272 01:20:24,500 --> 01:20:29,865 I was shocked by the death of Diem and Nhu. 1273 01:20:29,966 --> 01:20:34,000 The way he was killed made it particularly abhorrent. 1274 01:20:34,100 --> 01:20:36,632 The question now is whether the generals can stay together 1275 01:20:36,733 --> 01:20:40,500 and build a stable government or whether public opinion in Saigon 1276 01:20:40,600 --> 01:20:44,265 will turn on this government as repressive and undemocratic 1277 01:20:44,365 --> 01:20:46,300 in the not-too-distant future. 1278 01:20:51,332 --> 01:20:53,632 NARRATOR: Kennedy would not live to see the answer 1279 01:20:53,733 --> 01:20:56,233 to the question he had asked. 1280 01:20:56,332 --> 01:21:00,733 He was murdered in Dallas 18 days later. 1281 01:21:00,832 --> 01:21:05,800 There were now 16,000 American advisors in South Vietnam. 1282 01:21:05,899 --> 01:21:11,233 Their fate and the fate of that embattled country rested 1283 01:21:11,332 --> 01:21:16,500 with another American president, Lyndon Baines Johnson. 1284 01:21:16,600 --> 01:21:20,565 (distorted rock music playing) 1285 01:21:34,000 --> 01:21:36,132 SHEEHAN: We thought we were the exceptions to history, 1286 01:21:36,233 --> 01:21:37,699 we Americans. 1287 01:21:37,800 --> 01:21:40,432 History didn't apply to us. 1288 01:21:40,533 --> 01:21:42,666 We could never fight a bad war. 1289 01:21:42,765 --> 01:21:44,632 We could never represent the wrong cause. 1290 01:21:44,733 --> 01:21:45,865 We were Americans. 1291 01:21:47,065 --> 01:21:48,300 Well, in Vietnam it proved 1292 01:21:48,399 --> 01:21:50,899 that we were not an exception to history. 1293 01:21:52,132 --> 01:21:54,432 (distorted rock music continues) 1294 01:22:03,399 --> 01:22:05,800 ("Mean Old World" by Sam Cooke playing) 1295 01:22:10,100 --> 01:22:18,865 ♪ This is a mean old world to live in all by yourself ♪ 1296 01:22:23,600 --> 01:22:29,832 ♪ This is a mean old world to live in ♪ 1297 01:22:29,932 --> 01:22:32,632 ♪ All by yourself 1298 01:22:36,466 --> 01:22:43,500 ♪ This is a mean world to be alone ♪ 1299 01:22:43,600 --> 01:22:49,533 ♪ Without someone to call your own ♪ 1300 01:22:49,632 --> 01:22:55,632 ♪ This is a mean old world to try and live in ♪ 1301 01:22:55,733 --> 01:22:58,199 ♪ All by yourself 1302 01:23:02,432 --> 01:23:08,533 ♪ I wish I had someone, someone ♪ 1303 01:23:08,632 --> 01:23:10,865 ♪ Who'd love me true 1304 01:23:15,300 --> 01:23:25,500 ♪ I wish I had someone who loved me true ♪ 1305 01:23:28,132 --> 01:23:34,500 ♪ If I had someone who loved me true ♪ 1306 01:23:34,600 --> 01:23:41,100 ♪ Then I know I wouldn't be so blue ♪ 1307 01:23:41,199 --> 01:23:47,765 ♪ This is a mean old world to try and live in ♪ 1308 01:23:47,865 --> 01:23:50,365 ♪ All by yourself 1309 01:23:52,632 --> 01:24:00,800 ♪ Lord, I find myself dreaming 1310 01:24:00,899 --> 01:24:03,132 ♪ I found a love 1311 01:24:06,533 --> 01:24:13,800 ♪ Sometimes I find myself dreaming ♪ 1312 01:24:13,899 --> 01:24:17,199 ♪ I found a love 1313 01:24:19,600 --> 01:24:27,500 ♪ Sometimes I dream I've really found a love ♪ 1314 01:24:27,600 --> 01:24:33,533 ♪ Someone who loved me true as the stars above ♪ 1315 01:24:33,632 --> 01:24:39,100 ♪ For this is a mean old world to try and live in ♪ 1316 01:24:39,199 --> 01:24:43,399 ♪ All by yourself. 1317 01:24:46,865 --> 01:24:53,399 Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH, access.wgbh.org 1318 01:24:54,466 --> 01:24:55,666 ANNOUNCER: LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FILM 1319 01:24:55,666 --> 01:24:58,533 AND FIND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES AT PBS.ORG/VIETNAMWAR 1320 01:24:58,533 --> 01:25:02,533 AND JOIN THE CONVERSATION USING HASHTAG VIETNAMWARPBS. 1321 01:25:02,533 --> 01:25:04,000 "THE VIETNAM WAR" IS 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