All language subtitles for h.u.s03e04.1080p.web.h264-cbfm_track3_[eng]

History is not an exact science.

It is never set in stone.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC)

As time passes knowledge of the past
is refined and evolves?

(DRAMATIC MUSIC)

But, by definition
existing ideas have thick skins

and are hard to shift.

(UPLIFTING MUSIC)

(HELICOPTER WHIRS)

(ROCKET LAUNCHES)

(EXPLOSION)

(INDISTINCT ANNOUNCEMENT)

(CROWD CHEERING)

To understand
the realities of the world

you sometimes have to shake them up

and decipher the facts
by looking at them another way.

Posterity has made the Vietnam War
an American war.

And, yet...

(THEME MUSIC PLAYS)

February 25, 1954.

Ho Chi Minh, the communist leader,
about to inspect his troops...

For close to nine years,

he has been fighting
to free his country

from French colonial rule.

A country riven by a fault line,

which pushed some of his compatriots
to fight against his ideology.

(INTENSE MUSIC)

But, between a young Vietnamese
subsidiary soldier

in the French army

and a young soldier
from the Viet-Minh army,

only the uniform differed.

The wounded shared the same pain

and the dead the same soil.

Their fratricidal struggle
had only just begun.

(SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC)

Three months later,

the communists triumphed
at the battle of Dien Bien Phu.

Humiliated, France was forced
to leave the territory

after 80 years of domination.

Finally Free, the victors rejoiced,

but the ideological
divides remained.

During the Cold War,
in a world cut in two,

the Geneva Accords established
the division of Vietnam

into two distinct entities
on either side of the 17th parallel.

The North passed
under communist control,

while a pro-Western regime supported
by the USA settled in the South.

Two antagonistic states
faced each other

and the population had 300 days
to choose its side.

Frightened by the severity
of the coming regime,

the North experienced
a real haemorrhage, exodus.

Catholics, soldiers loyal to France,

and anti-communists of all stripes
left their native land.

Propaganda did the rest.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC)

Almost one million
reached the South,

leaving behind
most of their possessions.

The waves of these would-be exiles
made the news.

The evacuation now
Northern Vietnam is progressing

within the terms
of Geneva armistice agreement

these refugees are passing
through a check point at high fund

before boarding
French ship Esperance

but it is suitable name
for this vessel

with its promise
of a more hopeful future

for this unhappy people.

One of the desperate
castaway is confided,

"I have never forgotten
our last sight of Hanoi,

"the city we loved so much.

"My friends and I had tears
in our eyes."

(OMINOUS MUSIC)

(CLOCK DINGS)

In the South, the uprooted
arrived in a territory

in the throes of chaos.

Entire regions
were under the control

of powerful religious sects,

whose paramilitary factions

flourished during the war
against the French.

Entrenched in their strongholds,

their leaders refused
to submit to the new state.

Worse, their demonstrations
multiplied

and reached the heart
of the capital.

(SPEAKS ANCIENT LANGUAGE)

One man would put an end
to these clashes,

Ngo Din Diem,
Prime Minister of South Vietnam.

In the name of national unity,

he engaged in a ruthless campaign
to quell the rebellion.

On November 26, 1955.

After a bloody victory,

Ngo Dinh Diem
proclaimed himself president.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS)

At the same time, in North Vietnam,

the roar at the end of fighting

gave way
to a completely different score.

Looking like an ascetic old sage,

President Ho Chi Minh
established a totalitarian regime

based on the Chinese model.

The red order was spreading.

On the menu,
single party and personality cult.

Very quickly,
cities were brought to heel.

Starting with Hanoi,

suspected of being infected
with traitors,

it had to be purified of its germs.

Arrests of real
or presumed troublemakers

struck the population.

An inhabitant
of the Northern capital

summed up the situation,

There are not many families left

who don't have a loved one
in prison.

Like a contagious disease,
fear is spreading everywhere.

And, this purge
did not spare the countryside.

Under the pretext
of redistributing the land,

an agrarian reform eliminated anyone
considered a landowner.

A farmer revisited
this social purge,

This estate belonged
to Mme Nguyen Thi Nam,

a patriot who had helped
the communists.

Both her sons were officers.

One was even
a political commissioner.

Yet it was concluded
that she was a landowner.

Mme Nam was sentenced
to death and executed.

During these summary executions,

close to 15,000 Vietnamese
were executed by other Vietnamese.

As in China,
denunciation wreaked havoc.

Kangaroo courts and self-criticism
sessions smashed all dissent,

under the tutelary figure
of the father of the nation.

In the other half of Vietnam,

President Ngo Dinh Diem
also left his mark,

aided by a large number
of portraits.

Behind a facade of democracy,
the prisons were full,

public opinion muzzled,
and the press censored.

Elections were a farce,

thousands of opponents
were secretly executed.

A refugee proclaimed
his disappointment,

The people here do not have
a better life than in the North.

The constitution is used
to disguise a dictatorship,

we have no freedom

and our independence is subordinated
to the United States.

A police regime reigned supreme,

supported by its main backer,
the USA.

This was proven by the warm welcome
President Eisenhower

reserved for his protege...

Or the arrival of the Archbishop
of New-York in Saigon,

bringing his blessing
to the strong man of the country.

A fervent Catholic,

Diem had a visceral hatred
of communists.

Since the execution
of his elder brother

and his nephew by the Viet-Minh,
he had vowed to eradicate them.

On either side of the 17th parallel,

two authoritarian regimes
were imposing

their intransigence
on the population.

A counter-revolution
was responding to a revolution.

All it lacked was a spark
to ignite the powder.

(SPEAKS ANCIENT LANGUAGE)

The Geneva Accords had provided
for a referendum

to decide on the reunification
of the Vietnamese territory.

However, President Diem
did not intend

to proceed with these elections...

In his eyes, South Vietnam
had to remain independent.

Catholics, pillars of the regime,
brought him their unfailing support.

Deprived of this vote,
the North retaliated.

If reunification
couldn't be achieved

through the ballot box,
it would be via weapons.

Everyone was encouraged
to take part.

To free their brothers
from oppression,

a vast operation to infiltrate
the South was set up.

Driven by a patriotic fervour,

many volunteers would join
the Nation Front for the liberation

of South Vietnam.

(INDISTINCT SHOUTS)

Before undertaking their mission,

recruits were subjected
to a harsh test.

Urged to make sacrifices,

many would pay a high price
for their commitment.

(INTENSE MUSIC)

One of these
young patriots admitted,

"Dying in battle."

We never questioned this ideal.

But, we didn't realize that
our superiors were unconcerned

about our place in history.

A complex network of paths
for vehicles

was created to discreetly transport
these combat units.

The legendary Ho Chi Minh Trail

winds like an umbilical cord
through jungle and mountains.

Gradually, thousands of men,
tonnes of weapons,

ammunition and equipment

would thus be directed southwards
to supply a formidable guerrilla.

First, it spread in the countryside.

Hamlets loyal
to the Southern regime were torched.

To stem these incursions
into his territory,

Ngo Dinh Diem mobilized his army.

Close to 1,70,000 men,

equipped from head to toe
by the United States.

US instructors took charge
of the troops' training.

Soon, clashes between the South

and those then referred
to as the Viet-Cong multiplied.

Caught in the crossfire,
a farmer testified...

"If the soldiers from the South

"were elephants
trampling our villages,

"the Viet-Cong were snakes
who would come at us in the night."

An old Vietnamese adage

states that war has no regard
for the most humble,

nor for family or friends.

That would turn out
to be brutally true.

For a time in the early 1960s,

all dialogue between
those in the North

and their hostile brethren
in the south was broken.

Since the division,

a weighty silence had fallen
on the hearts of families

who hid their grief with dignity.

(MAN SPEAKS ANCIENT LANGUAGE)

(WOMEN SPEAKS ANCIENT LANGUAGE)

Meanwhile, in Saigon,

the intolerance and brutality
of the regime

were gradually undermining
its foundations.

President Diem's unpopularity
fell under the spotlight...

Students launched
a protest movement.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

In the countryside,

Viet-Cong attacks
increasingly mobilized

the national army.

(INTENSE MUSIC)

(HELICOPTER WHIRS)

(GUN SHOTS)

(GUT SHOT)

The United States was concerned

about the escalation
of guerrilla fighting.

Kennedy feared
that the communist threat

would set the whole of Asia ablaze.

Hoping to contain this surge,

Washington tripled the number
of military advisers on the ground.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

However, nothing could stop

the relentless machinery
of turmoil in Saigon.

It was now the turn of the Buddhists

to invade the streets
of the capital.

A majority in the country,

they denounced the pro-Catholic
favouritism of the government

and proclaimed their discontent.

(INDISTINCT SHOUTS)

A ferocious repression
fell upon them.

As a sign of protest,

the venerable Quang Duc
set himself on fire.

The image shocked
the public imagination.

As much as the intervention
of Mme Nhu,

President Diem's sister-in-law,
who commented on the event.

The only thing they had done,
they have barbecued

one of their monks,
uh, whom they had intoxicated,

whom they had abused
the confidence.

An irony revealing
the blindness of the regime,

which this time,

failed to put a stop
to the uprising.

With the pagodas revolt,
the crisis dragged on,

leading to more suicides.

The situation irritated the US.

Regular army generals
then incited a coup d¹etat.

CIA and military advisors
were taken into their confidence.

With Washington's backing,
the conspirators took action.

On November 1, 1963,
at the end of mass,

Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother,
Ngo Dinh Nhu,

his faithful advisor,
were assassinated.

Their troops who had remained loyal
were arrested and imprisoned.

Rid of the dictator,
people rejoiced.

The headquarters
of the presidential party

was ransacked

and its propaganda
fuelled multiple fires.

However, despite
the assassination of the President,

the fracture
of the population remained.

Confrontations between Buddhists
and Catholics turned into riots.

While a fiercely
nationalist opposition

denounced the interference
of the United States

in the country's affairs.

Deaf to these complaints,
the military seized power.

South Vietnam
was plunged into chaos.

In Hanoi, on the other hand,
the regime held its course.

Communism reigned supreme

and reunification of the territory
remained its leaders' obsession.

The Ho Chi Minh Trail
had become a real highway.

Day and night, it was traversed

by an uninterrupted
stream of fighters.

As they progressed south,

hundreds of villages rallied
to the cause,

often willingly,
sometimes through force.

A doctor lamented...

"Families were torn apart.

"One brother could fight
for the North,

"another for the South.

"They could kill each other."

(OMINOUS MUSIC)

No matter how hard
the southern army tried,

its men wore themselves out
trying to flush out an elusive enemy

that attacked by surprise...

Then disappeared into the jungle,

after sowing its share
of desolation.

The United States was alarmed.

Their rampart against communist
invasion was cracking.

The time had come for Washington
to take things in hand.

In the summer of 1964,

the opportunity
finally presented itself.

My fellow Americans,
renewed hostile actions

against United States ships
on high seas and Gulf of Tonkin

have today required me
to order the military forces

of the United States
to take action and required.

President Johnson,
Kennedy's successor,

used the pretext
of a North Vietnamese pseudo-attack

against one of its destroyers,

to fly to the aid
of its South Vietnamese ally.

On March 8, 1965.

An initial contingent
of 3,500 marines

landed on Da Nang beach.

The arrival
of the mighty United States,

shifted the perception
of what was until then

only a conflict between Vietnamese.

A proxy war began,

and the Americans
played a starring role.

To track the Viet-Cong

who swarmed
through the southern territory,

the US Army sent
in its ground troops.

And, against the North
which supplied the Viet-Cong,

a vast bombing campaign
was launched.

In three years,

Operation Rolling Thunder
dropped as many bombs

as had fallen on Europe
during the Second World War.

All kinds of devices napalm,
fragmentation, phosphorus.

In addition, some 80 million litres
of Agent Orange

and other defoliants were used.

Hundreds of hectares
of forest disappeared

to deprive the enemy of any refuge.

In vain.

Far from folding
under the firepower,

the Northern leaders profited
from the war of massive destruction.

Ho Chi Minh embodied David
in the fight against Goliath.

He became the voice of a people
and its fierce determination.

(SPEAKS ANCIENT LANGUAGE)

By the end of 1966,

close to 2,00,000 GIs were
committed alongside South Vietnam.

Three years later,
it was almost half a million.

5,00,000 men
mired in a national conflict

whose stakes
had been gradually diluted.

At the same time,
3,20,000 Chinese soldiers

came to support
their communist brothers

in the North.

In particular, for air defence.

However, behind the presence
of these foreign players,

the main protagonists
remained Vietnamese.

Drawn into a war where the boundary

between male and female
was blurring,

women made an unrecognised

and largely underestimated
contribution.

In the North,
their mobilization was total.

Hundreds of thousands
of them answered the call

of enrolment campaigns.

Hailed as heroic patriots,

they would face anguish,
hunger, cold,

as well as violence and enemy fire.

One of their comrades testified
to their involvement...

"They were as tough
as seasoned old staggers,

"they'd shout orders
and carry their weapons

"like the Saigon girls wore
their jewellery."

Very young girls,
most often of peasant origin,

were integrated
into the "Shock Youth" battalions.

Assigned in particular

to maintaining
the Ho Chi Minh Trail,

they would go through the conflict
with nothing but an ideal,

shovels and pickaxes
as their only baggage.

Others, assigned
to industrial production,

would leave their homes

to fill the ranks
of the defence militias.

In the South too,
women bore the burden of war.

While some signed up
for the female cor

of the armed forces,

others, in order to survive,
joined the militia.

One of them confessed...

"It was the rapes that made me
see the true face of this war.

I felt that to defend my life
and the lives of my family,

"I had no choice but to join
the other women in the fight."

Similarly, teenage girls recruited
by the Viet Cong

would go deep into the jungle,
ready for any fight.

Others refused to choose sides,
but like their sisters,

bore the stigmata of a civil war
that did not speak its name.

(SPEAKS ANCIENT LANGUAGE)

Early 1968.

Saigon, unlike most cities
in the South,

remained unscathed

by the fighting that ravaged
the rest of the country.

But, this respite would not last.

For Hanoi, the prolonged guerrilla
strategy had had its day.

To win a decisive victory,
a general insurrection was required.

All resistance movements
were mobilized for the occasion.

January 31, 1968.

As the Vietnamese were preparing
to celebrate the lunar new year,

the Tet offensive was launched.

More than 50 cities
in the South were targeted.

80,000 fighters left
their hiding places in the jungle

looking to trigger
a popular uprising.

Armed with blacklists
of officers and officials,

they were ordered
to eliminate all traitors,

and crush
as many enemies as possible.

Three days later,
the city of Hue was taken,

and treated
to a revolutionary purge.

Faced by an intimate enemy,
often a close friend or family,

thousands of civilians
were executed.

(INTENSE MUSIC)

A survivor recalled,
"There was Doan,

"who had studied
at the same school as me.

"She had suddenly returned to Hue
with a gun,

"enthusiastic about finding

"such and such a person
and shooting them dead."

The response was led
by the South Vietnamese army

and supported by the Americans.

After 24 days of fierce fighting,

the former imperial capital

was transformed
into a field of ruins.

The Viet Cong were wiped out.

In Saigon, the US Embassy

was high on the communist forces'
target list.

Reputed to be impregnable,

the building was stormed
by a suicide squad

of nineteen fighters.

There were clashes
at every crossroads.

It took several days
for the national army

to regain control of the capital.

Street by street.

House by house.

On February 1, 1968,

A frail Vietnamese man
in a plaid shirt,

arrested by Southern soldiers

appeared on screens
all over the world.

Suddenly General Nguyen Ngoc Loan
drew his Smith and Wesson.

The victim was a Viet-Cong,
accused of murdering a policeman

and his whole family
during the clashes.

Among the journalists
present that day,

Eddie Adams immortalized the scene.

His photo gave
an indelible face to the war

waged between the Vietnamese.

(HELICOPTER WIRES)

From Dalat to Nha Trang
and from Chu Lay to Can To,

it was the same spectacle.

The same victims
of an unrelenting fratricidal war.

The Tet Offensive ended in disaster.

The expected general uprising
never materialized

and more than half of the Viet Cong
troops lost their lives.

Despite this stinging defeat,

the leaders in Hanoi
showed no signs of giving up.

General Giap, declared...

(SPEAKS ANCIENT LANGUAGE)

A Military setback
but a psychological victory.

The excessive media coverage
of the conflict

crystallized the anger
of the pacifist movements,

and the United States
was held responsible

for the violence tearing
the Vietnamese people apart.

Disavowed, President Johnson
was shunned from office.

In January 1969,

he gave up his position
to Richard Nixon,

who had campaigned
on American disengagement.

In one year,
100,000 GI's were repatriated.

From then on, the new president
of South Vietnam,

Nguyen Van Thieu,

took note of the scheduled departure
of his powerful ally.

To compensate for the withdrawal
of US forces,

the general mobilization of all men

between the ages
of 18 and 38 was declared.

Swiftly, from a land of 17 million,

the Southern army added
one million conscripts.

They were joined
by young people of 16 and 17,

the self-defence forces
of villages and hamlets.

It was their job to prevent
the last rural areas

that weren't communist

from succumbing to the sirens
of propaganda,

and seeing their inhabitants
join the enemy.

With the Americans' departure,

the conflict showed
its true colours.

That of a fratricidal war.

Prisoners were sometimes
from one side

and sometimes from the other,

but all were Vietnamese.

Sometimes the barbarity
of these clashes led to tragedy.

Such was the case
with the bombing of Trang Bang.

Perpetrated not by the Americans
but by the South-Vietnamese.

On June 8, 1972.

One of their aircraft unloaded
its cargo of napalm over its target.

Purported to be a hideout
for Viet-Cong fighters,

the targeted temple
housed civilians,

and among them, children.

The iconic image

of this nine-year-old girl
running naked,

racked with pain, and alone

embodies the full dimension
of the Vietnamese tragedy.

January 27, 1973.

After years of negotiations,

France invited all belligerents

to put an end
to this lawless conflict.

(SPEAKS ANCIENT LANGUAGE)

The United States ended
their involvement in this war,

a war carried out,

without ever being
formally declared.

The two hostile brothers, meanwhile,
agreed to a ceasefire.

However,
peace would be long in coming.

With the country no more
than a mass of shapeless roads,

a magma of tears and blood.

Nothing could overcome
North Vietnam's determination

to continue the fight
with its neighbour

until reunification.

Pham Van Dong's declaration
was unambiguous.

(SPEAKS ANCIENT LANGUAGE)

In December 1974,

an army of 1,00,000 foot soldiers
set off for Saigon.

The campaign baptized Ho Chi Minh

in memory of the leader
who died five years before

was carried out with great speed?

The communist troops progressed
in leaps and bounds.

In Da Nang,
panic seized the inhabitants.

They stormed the port in the hope

of finding a ship
that would reach Saigon.

Thousands drowned offshore
in makeshift crafts.

At the airport,
they swarmed over the last aircraft.

On March 29, 1975,

the fall of the city
sounded the death knell

of the South Vietnamese regime.

The roads were filled with hordes
of families still fleeing south

in the mad hope
of finding refuge there.

The national army was in disarray.

Nothing could stop
the triumphant march

of the communists to the capital.

One month later,
Saigon was in meltdown.

The roadblocks designed to channel
the influx of hundreds of thousands

of refugees provoked
harrowing scenes.

The perimeter of the US Embassy
was overrun

by those desperate
to leave the country.

A few lucky souls
were evacuated by helicopter,

among them President Van Thieu.

(HELICOPTER WIRES)

But, for most,
Saigon was turned into a dead end.

Southern army soldiers
had already ditched their uniforms

and got lost in the crowd,
hoping to save their skins.

Finally, the North Vietnamese
vanguard entered Saigon.

On April 30, 1975,

just before noon
the first communist soldiers

occupied the presidential palace.

General Van Minh,

last representative
of a dying power,

tendered its surrender.

(SPEAKS FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

As a denial of the civil war,
with the guns finally silent,

a colonel from the North declared,

"Our victory is the victory
of the entire Vietnamese people,

"only the American invaders
have been defeated."

Pragmatic, Saigon quickly adopted
the colours of the victors.

An officer wrote with humour,

"Before 1975,
it was dangerous in the North

"to admit that one had relatives
in the South.

"After April 1975,
the trend in the South

"was to recognize their family
in the North."

Overnight, the traces
of the past disappeared.

This was not enough
for the northerners,

who wanted to make their mark

by naming the city
after their spiritual father.

(SPEAKS ANCIENT LANGUAGE)

July 2, 1976.

The dreams of Hanoi's old guard
had come true.

Ho Chi Minh was no more,
but his will had been fulfilled,

Vietnam was now a free country,
independent and reunited.

But, the path to unity began
with ideological unification.

The communists
had not quite finished

with their former adversaries.

Considered traitors,
henchmen of American imperialism,

soldiers from the southern army,
civil servants,

religious figures and intellectuals

suffered the violence
of political re-education.

Nearly 150 so-called
"Rehabilitation centres"

were set up throughout the country.

Prime Minister Pham Van Dong
explained their philosophy.

(SPEAKS ANCIENT LANGUAGE)

The propaganda images showed
attentive pupils

paying attention
to the socialist lessons

being taught to them.

In reality, national reconciliation
took a punitive form.

Locked up in forced labour camps,

these men and women
experienced hunger,

sickness, ill-treatment and torture.

Among the thousands
of deported South Vietnamese,

many would spend up to 15 years
in these morbid antechambers.

Those that did not die there...

Others were moved
to New Economic Zones.

This was a euphemism used
to designate desolate lands,

most often devoid
of any infrastructure.

There they would learn the life
of a peasant,

wielding spades
in mine-infested fields of cassava.

To the communist leaders,

yesterday's enemies
remained enemies.

Deprived of civil rights,

such discrimination
also applied to their children.

A father shared his dismay,

"I cannot accept that my daughter
cannot go to university.

"She is condemned to live like
a murderer's child

"with shame
written on her forehead."

This vindictiveness
also struck the mothers,

sisters and wives of the vanquished.

The contempt and mistrust shown
to them made their lives impossible,

many shut themselves away
in internal exile.

One of them confessed...

"It is terrible
to live in the world of silence.

"With every action, every step,
I was on a field riddled with mines.

"Sometimes I no longer dared breathe
for fear of myself.

"I didn't want to hear
my heart beating."

As for those called
the dust of life,

street children born
with American blood in their veins,

their mother's native land
would be denied to them

all their lives.

Often abandoned at birth,

as shamed as too overwhelming

for those
who in the eyes of the victors

had betrayed the nation.

They had to learn
to live with their differences.

Downgraded,
stigmatized and repressed,

thousands of families chose exile.

Having experienced
the split between North and South,

the fracture
was perpetuated worldwide.

Between 1975 and 1985,

close to 8,00,000 Vietnamese managed
to leave their country by sea,

risking their lives.

0.5 million others fled over land

to end up in grim refugee camps
in Thailand.

In all, over 1.3 million Vietnamese
abandoned their homeland.

And, though the fratricide
finally ended,

it was only for lack of fighters.

In 1995, President Clinton announced
the normalization of relations

between Hanoi and Washington.

Many saw this as the end
of a conflict

that pitted the US giant
against the Vietnamese minnow.

It is true that for years,
Hollywood,

through its planetary blockbusters,

always pitched the war
as an American war.

an impression the Vietnamese leaders
were able to use to their advantage.

By basing its legitimacy
on the rhetoric of a just war,

fought for freedom
and independence,

Hanoi largely contributed

to obscuring the reality
of a civil war

that pitted Vietnamese
against Vietnamese.

But, the power of myths
often outweighs the logic of reason.

Captions edited by Ai-Media
ai-media.tv