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00:00:06,548 --> 00:00:08,846
...you got through!
Did you pass Chee on the road?
2
00:00:08,967 --> 00:00:10,310
No.
Where are the children?
3
00:00:10,427 --> 00:00:12,020
Kansas found a shelter for them.
4
00:00:12,137 --> 00:00:13,855
Get down, everybody!
5
00:00:16,892 --> 00:00:19,645
My older sister and I one time
6
00:00:19,770 --> 00:00:23,820
uh, we're watching the movie
So Proudly We Hail on TV.
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00:00:23,941 --> 00:00:25,341
Listen, we still have
a few minutes!
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00:00:25,442 --> 00:00:27,194
That's a story about the nurses
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00:00:27,319 --> 00:00:32,120
who were trapped on Bataan and
Corregidor during World War II.
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00:00:34,326 --> 00:00:37,956
It was the first, probably,
time in my life that...
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00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:39,878
I, uh...
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00:00:39,998 --> 00:00:44,174
I realized that women could do
brave and courageous things.
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00:00:44,294 --> 00:00:46,797
It wasn't just something
men could do.
14
00:00:52,511 --> 00:00:55,355
Second Lieutenant Joan Furey
15
00:00:55,472 --> 00:01:00,273
had wanted to be a nurse ever
since she was a small child.
16
00:01:00,394 --> 00:01:02,021
She attended nursing school,
17
00:01:02,145 --> 00:01:05,445
and, when a high school
classmate was killed during Tet,
18
00:01:05,566 --> 00:01:09,821
joined the Army to do
what she could for the wounded.
19
00:01:11,280 --> 00:01:14,955
Furey was assigned
to the 71st Evacuation Hospital
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00:01:15,075 --> 00:01:18,705
at Pleiku, in the heart
of the Central Highlands.
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00:01:20,330 --> 00:01:23,880
Nothing had prepared her
for what she saw and did
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00:01:24,001 --> 00:01:26,299
over the next 12 months.
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00:01:30,382 --> 00:01:32,510
Wounded men were choppered in
24
00:01:32,676 --> 00:01:35,304
at all times
of the day and night.
25
00:01:35,429 --> 00:01:38,353
So were Viet Cong
and NVA soldiers,
26
00:01:38,515 --> 00:01:41,439
who sometimes spat
at the medical personnel
27
00:01:41,560 --> 00:01:45,281
trying to save
their limbs or lives.
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00:01:48,567 --> 00:01:51,070
Whenever the hospital
came under mortar fire,
29
00:01:51,194 --> 00:01:54,789
Furey stayed with
the most seriously wounded men
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00:01:54,906 --> 00:01:56,123
in the ICU.
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00:01:58,076 --> 00:01:59,498
We had flak vests and helmets,
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00:01:59,620 --> 00:02:01,293
and we crawled
around on the floor.
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00:02:02,914 --> 00:02:04,040
I mean, you really,
34
00:02:04,207 --> 00:02:06,050
you just could not leave them
unattended.
35
00:02:07,711 --> 00:02:10,931
We just kind of had to swallow
your own fear.
36
00:02:12,507 --> 00:02:15,226
A triage officer
made the grim decisions
37
00:02:15,344 --> 00:02:17,392
as to who might be saved
38
00:02:17,512 --> 00:02:20,891
and those for whom
there was no hope.
39
00:02:21,016 --> 00:02:23,940
One of the things that
initially was so difficult
40
00:02:24,061 --> 00:02:26,905
was what we called
"expected" patients.
41
00:02:27,022 --> 00:02:29,571
And these were patients
that would be brought in
42
00:02:29,733 --> 00:02:32,156
from the battlefield
and it was determined
43
00:02:32,277 --> 00:02:34,871
they had no chance to survive.
44
00:02:34,988 --> 00:02:37,582
But they weren't dead yet.
45
00:02:38,742 --> 00:02:40,039
They brought in a...
46
00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:43,505
a young soldier
who had a head injury,
47
00:02:43,622 --> 00:02:47,092
and they said, "He's expected."
48
00:02:47,209 --> 00:02:49,428
I kind of freaked out, uh,
49
00:02:49,586 --> 00:02:52,590
and I decided that,
no, they were wrong,
50
00:02:52,756 --> 00:02:55,760
and I was gonna take care
of this patient.
51
00:02:55,926 --> 00:02:58,395
I told the corpsman
to get me blood.
52
00:02:58,512 --> 00:03:00,139
And he's saying,
"Well, Lieutenant,
53
00:03:00,263 --> 00:03:01,936
the patient is expected."
54
00:03:02,099 --> 00:03:03,942
I said, "Get me blood."
55
00:03:04,101 --> 00:03:07,025
So, I take off
the dressing, and...
56
00:03:07,145 --> 00:03:10,649
the whole back of his head
had been gone.
57
00:03:10,774 --> 00:03:12,276
When that happened,
58
00:03:12,442 --> 00:03:15,616
all the blood
I had been giving him came out.
59
00:03:15,779 --> 00:03:20,000
A friend of mine who came over
just walked me out of there.
60
00:03:20,117 --> 00:03:23,667
And a few minutes later,
you walk right back in...
61
00:03:25,664 --> 00:03:27,632
...and you get back
to doing it.
62
00:03:51,314 --> 00:03:53,316
# Been dazed and confused #
63
00:03:53,442 --> 00:03:55,319
# For so long,
it's not true... #
64
00:03:55,485 --> 00:03:58,329
Richard Nixon had
taken office as president
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00:03:58,488 --> 00:04:01,412
in January of 1969,
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00:04:01,533 --> 00:04:03,752
pledged to restore law and order
67
00:04:03,869 --> 00:04:06,088
and end the war with honor.
68
00:04:06,204 --> 00:04:08,332
Things were calmer at home,
69
00:04:08,498 --> 00:04:11,342
but in Vietnam,
peace was no closer.
70
00:04:15,130 --> 00:04:18,509
American soldiers still died
pursuing guerrillas
71
00:04:18,633 --> 00:04:21,432
who appeared and disappeared
like phantoms.
72
00:04:22,679 --> 00:04:25,603
Americans still died
capturing hills
73
00:04:25,724 --> 00:04:29,024
only to give them up and have
to take them back again.
74
00:04:29,144 --> 00:04:33,274
Men and materiel were
still flowing into the south
75
00:04:33,398 --> 00:04:36,902
despite the controversial
bombing of Cambodia.
76
00:04:37,027 --> 00:04:40,622
Through it all,
Hanoi remained immovable.
77
00:04:40,739 --> 00:04:43,709
The communists insisted
there could be no peace
78
00:04:43,867 --> 00:04:47,542
until the Saigon government
was replaced
79
00:04:47,704 --> 00:04:52,050
and the United States withdrew
from Vietnam.
80
00:04:52,209 --> 00:04:56,089
Meanwhile, the American public
was losing patience.
81
00:05:07,140 --> 00:05:11,941
Privately, Nixon knew that
military victory was impossible,
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00:05:12,062 --> 00:05:13,564
that things would have
to be settled
83
00:05:13,730 --> 00:05:16,904
at the bargaining table
in Paris.
84
00:05:17,025 --> 00:05:18,322
He had to find a way
85
00:05:18,443 --> 00:05:20,741
to extricate Americans
from Vietnam
86
00:05:20,862 --> 00:05:22,910
without seeming to surrender.
87
00:05:23,031 --> 00:05:24,874
Nixon also believed
88
00:05:24,991 --> 00:05:27,835
his reputation
as an implacable anti-communist
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00:05:27,953 --> 00:05:30,797
could work to his advantage
with Hanoi.
90
00:05:30,914 --> 00:05:33,258
"We'll just slip the word
to them," he said,
91
00:05:33,375 --> 00:05:37,221
"you know, 'Nixon's obsessed
about communism.
92
00:05:37,337 --> 00:05:39,590
"'We can't restrain him
when he's angry,
93
00:05:39,714 --> 00:05:42,593
"and he has his hand
on the nuclear button, '
94
00:05:42,717 --> 00:05:45,846
"and Ho Chi Minh
will be in Paris in two days
95
00:05:45,971 --> 00:05:48,850
begging for peace."
96
00:05:48,974 --> 00:05:53,024
But Ho Chi Minh
was old and ailing now.
97
00:05:53,144 --> 00:05:55,192
And Le Duan and the other men
98
00:05:55,313 --> 00:05:58,362
who had been calling the shots
in Hanoi for years
99
00:05:58,483 --> 00:06:00,861
had no intention
of giving up their goal
100
00:06:00,986 --> 00:06:04,616
of uniting their country
under communist control.
101
00:06:06,950 --> 00:06:10,454
Richard Nixon, having promised
a swift end to the war,
102
00:06:10,579 --> 00:06:13,674
would, like all the presidents
who came before him,
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00:06:13,790 --> 00:06:16,009
end up widening it.
104
00:06:16,126 --> 00:06:19,721
In the process, he would
re-ignite opposition to the war
105
00:06:19,838 --> 00:06:21,465
on American campuses
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00:06:21,631 --> 00:06:25,135
that threatened to tear
the country apart again.
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00:06:25,260 --> 00:06:28,730
# I look at you all #
108
00:06:28,847 --> 00:06:32,397
# See the love there
that's sleeping #
109
00:06:34,853 --> 00:06:37,231
# While my guitar #
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00:06:37,355 --> 00:06:39,278
# Gently weeps #
111
00:06:42,402 --> 00:06:45,246
# I look at the floor... #
112
00:06:45,363 --> 00:06:47,331
The late '60s
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00:06:47,449 --> 00:06:51,499
were a kind of confluence
of several rivulets.
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00:06:51,661 --> 00:06:53,459
# Still my guitar... #
115
00:06:53,580 --> 00:06:56,504
There was the
antiwar movement itself...
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00:06:59,794 --> 00:07:04,425
...the whole movement
towards racial equality,
117
00:07:04,549 --> 00:07:07,018
the environment...
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00:07:07,135 --> 00:07:09,888
the role of women.
119
00:07:10,013 --> 00:07:12,391
And the anthems
for that counterculture
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00:07:12,515 --> 00:07:16,941
were provided by the most
brilliant rock-and-roll music
121
00:07:17,062 --> 00:07:18,985
that you can imagine.
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00:07:19,105 --> 00:07:20,857
# And I notice... #
123
00:07:20,982 --> 00:07:25,237
I don't know how we
could exist today as a country
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00:07:25,362 --> 00:07:29,412
without that experience.
125
00:07:29,532 --> 00:07:32,536
With all of its warts
and ups and downs,
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00:07:32,702 --> 00:07:36,377
that produced
the America we have today,
127
00:07:36,498 --> 00:07:38,045
and we are better for it.
128
00:07:38,166 --> 00:07:39,964
# Surely be learning... #
129
00:07:40,085 --> 00:07:42,008
And I felt that way in Vietnam.
130
00:07:42,128 --> 00:07:43,926
# Still my guitar... #
131
00:07:44,047 --> 00:07:46,550
I turned the volume
up on all that stuff.
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00:07:48,718 --> 00:07:52,222
That represented
what I was trying to defend.
133
00:08:06,569 --> 00:08:08,947
# Oh, Oh #
134
00:08:09,072 --> 00:08:11,951
# Ooh, ooh, oh, oh... #
135
00:08:15,662 --> 00:08:17,380
I never prayed
136
00:08:17,497 --> 00:08:20,046
the whole time
I was in the P.O.W. camp,
137
00:08:20,166 --> 00:08:22,965
but I had, like, a mantra.
138
00:08:23,086 --> 00:08:25,339
Every night
when I went to sleep,
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00:08:25,463 --> 00:08:28,558
after a certain point,
I would say,
140
00:08:28,675 --> 00:08:32,851
"I'll be here
when the morning comes."
141
00:08:32,971 --> 00:08:35,144
And I felt if I could just live
one more day,
142
00:08:35,265 --> 00:08:38,610
then I could live one more day,
and then one more day.
143
00:08:38,768 --> 00:08:41,567
At the peace talks in Paris,
144
00:08:41,688 --> 00:08:46,194
the Nixon administration
had introduced a new demand...
145
00:08:46,317 --> 00:08:48,319
U.S. troops would not withdraw
146
00:08:48,445 --> 00:08:51,699
until all American prisoners
had come home
147
00:08:51,823 --> 00:08:54,372
and Hanoi had provided
a strict accounting
148
00:08:54,492 --> 00:08:56,745
of those missing in action.
149
00:08:56,870 --> 00:09:00,215
No one knew
how many prisoners there were.
150
00:09:00,331 --> 00:09:04,177
Most were airmen
held in or around Hanoi,
151
00:09:04,294 --> 00:09:06,968
but a handful of others,
like Hal Kushner,
152
00:09:07,130 --> 00:09:10,509
were struggling to survive
in makeshift jungle camps
153
00:09:10,633 --> 00:09:13,307
in South Vietnam.
154
00:09:13,470 --> 00:09:16,974
Hanoi would not reveal
the names of the men they held,
155
00:09:17,140 --> 00:09:20,986
because they still insisted
they were not prisoners of war,
156
00:09:21,144 --> 00:09:23,192
but war criminals.
157
00:09:23,313 --> 00:09:26,533
They subjected many
to brutal torture,
158
00:09:26,649 --> 00:09:28,743
extracted "confessions,"
159
00:09:28,860 --> 00:09:30,988
and refused
to permit inspections
160
00:09:31,154 --> 00:09:34,033
by the International Red Cross.
161
00:09:34,157 --> 00:09:38,207
The Johnson administration had
generally downplayed the issue,
162
00:09:38,328 --> 00:09:42,299
hoping quiet diplomacy
might bring the men home.
163
00:09:42,415 --> 00:09:44,008
The Nixon administration
164
00:09:44,125 --> 00:09:46,924
launched
a "go public" campaign instead,
165
00:09:47,045 --> 00:09:49,639
meant to put the plight
of American prisoners
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00:09:49,756 --> 00:09:51,804
and those missing in action
167
00:09:51,925 --> 00:09:53,893
at the center of things.
168
00:09:54,010 --> 00:09:56,104
It also provided a rebuke
169
00:09:56,221 --> 00:09:58,269
to those in the antiwar movement
170
00:09:58,389 --> 00:10:00,437
who seemed more sympathetic
171
00:10:00,558 --> 00:10:03,687
to North Vietnamese civilians
who had been bombed
172
00:10:03,812 --> 00:10:05,439
than they were to U.S. airmen
173
00:10:05,563 --> 00:10:09,067
who had been shot down
doing that bombing.
174
00:10:09,192 --> 00:10:13,698
Sybil Stockdale, whose husband,
Commander James Stockdale,
175
00:10:13,822 --> 00:10:16,496
was the highest-ranking prisoner
in Hanoi,
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00:10:16,616 --> 00:10:18,869
formed the National League
of Families
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00:10:19,035 --> 00:10:22,414
of Prisoners and Missing
in Southeast Asia,
178
00:10:22,539 --> 00:10:25,167
and led delegations of wives
to Paris
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00:10:25,291 --> 00:10:28,670
to confront
North Vietnamese negotiators.
180
00:10:28,795 --> 00:10:33,392
Five million Americans began
wearing tin or copper bracelets
181
00:10:33,508 --> 00:10:36,011
engraved
with a missing man's name
182
00:10:36,136 --> 00:10:38,514
and date of loss.
183
00:10:38,638 --> 00:10:42,859
More than 50 million
P.O.W./M.I.A. bumper stickers
184
00:10:42,976 --> 00:10:46,571
would be sold
over the next four years.
185
00:10:46,688 --> 00:10:48,986
Despite what their jailers
had told them,
186
00:10:49,107 --> 00:10:53,283
the prisoners had not been
forgotten by their country.
187
00:10:53,403 --> 00:10:55,826
Eventually,
one journalist wrote,
188
00:10:55,947 --> 00:10:58,075
many "people began to speak
189
00:10:58,241 --> 00:11:02,212
"as though the North Vietnamese
had kidnapped 400 Americans
190
00:11:02,328 --> 00:11:06,754
and the United States had gone
to war to retrieve them."
191
00:11:06,875 --> 00:11:11,301
At the same time, the Saigon
government of Nguyen Van Thieu
192
00:11:11,421 --> 00:11:14,641
was holding prisoners
of its own.
193
00:11:14,757 --> 00:11:16,600
There would eventually be
194
00:11:16,718 --> 00:11:20,439
some 40,000 North Vietnamese
and Viet Cong soldiers
195
00:11:20,597 --> 00:11:22,474
in four crowded camps.
196
00:11:22,599 --> 00:11:26,524
Another 200,000
South Vietnamese civilians
197
00:11:26,644 --> 00:11:30,524
would also be held,
many without trial.
198
00:12:51,980 --> 00:12:54,950
There are certain
rules to tunnel warfare.
199
00:12:57,193 --> 00:12:59,867
Don't turn on the light
200
00:13:00,029 --> 00:13:02,999
unless you're really, really,
really sure you're alone.
201
00:13:03,116 --> 00:13:06,711
Use your senses.
202
00:13:06,828 --> 00:13:09,923
Do your first killing
as quietly as you can.
203
00:13:10,039 --> 00:13:12,087
That means don't shoot.
204
00:13:13,418 --> 00:13:16,092
I chased somebody into a tunnel,
205
00:13:16,212 --> 00:13:21,469
met them at a bend
in the corner, in the dark.
206
00:13:21,592 --> 00:13:23,060
I thought I was alone
207
00:13:23,219 --> 00:13:26,393
and then I smelled their breath.
208
00:13:26,514 --> 00:13:32,487
And we had a wrestling match
in the dark.
209
00:13:32,603 --> 00:13:34,947
And I got the upper hand
210
00:13:35,064 --> 00:13:38,284
and crushed
this person's trachea,
211
00:13:38,401 --> 00:13:41,029
held him down while he died...
212
00:13:42,780 --> 00:13:44,657
...and then got out.
213
00:13:47,410 --> 00:13:50,084
I beat and strangled
someone to death
214
00:13:50,246 --> 00:13:51,998
in a tunnel
215
00:13:52,123 --> 00:13:54,091
in the dark.
216
00:13:54,208 --> 00:13:55,755
Um...
217
00:13:55,918 --> 00:13:58,296
But that wasn't
the only casualty.
218
00:13:58,421 --> 00:14:02,676
The other casualty was
the civilized version of me.
219
00:14:23,237 --> 00:14:26,116
April 1969
220
00:14:26,240 --> 00:14:29,164
marked the high point
of American military commitment
221
00:14:29,285 --> 00:14:30,707
to South Vietnam.
222
00:14:30,828 --> 00:14:38,178
543,482 men and women
were now in country,
223
00:14:38,294 --> 00:14:42,299
and tens of thousands more
were stationed
224
00:14:42,465 --> 00:14:45,435
at airbases and aboard ships
beyond its borders.
225
00:14:46,761 --> 00:14:51,437
40,794 had died.
226
00:14:51,557 --> 00:14:56,484
And more than $70 billion
had been spent.
227
00:15:00,191 --> 00:15:02,489
That spring, a new battle
228
00:15:02,652 --> 00:15:04,700
caught the attention
of the American public,
229
00:15:04,821 --> 00:15:09,497
a struggle to take still
another numbered hill...
230
00:15:09,659 --> 00:15:13,254
Hill 937 on military maps.
231
00:15:13,371 --> 00:15:15,248
For nine days,
232
00:15:15,373 --> 00:15:17,309
American and South Vietnamese
troops have been trying
233
00:15:17,333 --> 00:15:19,256
to take a mountain
near the Laotian border,
234
00:15:19,377 --> 00:15:22,221
and ten times
they have been thrown back.
235
00:15:46,863 --> 00:15:49,412
The casualties
have been so high-
236
00:15:49,532 --> 00:15:52,786
50 Americans and
250 North Vietnamese killed...
237
00:15:52,910 --> 00:15:55,538
that the mountain has come
to be known as "Hamburger Hill."
238
00:15:55,705 --> 00:15:59,300
Today, another 600 allied troops
were thrown into the battle.
239
00:16:11,053 --> 00:16:13,351
A weary G.I. told a reporter
240
00:16:13,473 --> 00:16:15,475
that his battalion commander
241
00:16:15,600 --> 00:16:20,447
"won't stop until he kills
every damn one of us."
242
00:16:26,861 --> 00:16:29,114
After 11 days of fighting,
243
00:16:29,238 --> 00:16:31,912
the Battle for Hamburger Hill
ended.
244
00:16:33,409 --> 00:16:36,083
56 Americans died.
245
00:16:36,245 --> 00:16:40,500
420 more were wounded.
246
00:16:40,625 --> 00:16:44,220
A week later, the Americans
abandoned the hill,
247
00:16:44,337 --> 00:16:47,216
just as they had abandoned
so many other hills
248
00:16:47,340 --> 00:16:51,846
they had taken at great cost
over the years in Vietnam.
249
00:16:54,013 --> 00:16:56,892
General, could you explain for
us again the strategy involved
250
00:16:57,016 --> 00:16:59,986
in the decision to
withdraw American troops
251
00:17:00,102 --> 00:17:03,231
after they had taken
Hill 937, or Hamburger Hill?
252
00:17:05,441 --> 00:17:09,321
No piece of ground, as such,
253
00:17:09,445 --> 00:17:11,823
is important to us.
254
00:17:11,948 --> 00:17:13,666
HUNTLEY".
In the United States Senate,
255
00:17:13,783 --> 00:17:15,501
Senator Kennedy
of Massachusetts delivered
256
00:17:15,618 --> 00:17:17,416
a brief speech
criticizing what he called
257
00:17:17,537 --> 00:17:20,461
a "senseless and
irresponsible military pride
258
00:17:20,581 --> 00:17:22,959
"in which American men
are sent to their deaths
259
00:17:23,084 --> 00:17:25,803
in pointless battles like
this one for Hamburger Hill."
260
00:17:25,920 --> 00:17:27,968
Kennedy called
upon President Nixon
261
00:17:28,130 --> 00:17:30,224
to issue new orders
to commanders in Vietnam
262
00:17:30,341 --> 00:17:31,843
to halt such actions
263
00:17:31,968 --> 00:17:33,766
and he charged
that they contradict
264
00:17:33,886 --> 00:17:35,229
the president's
stated intentions
265
00:17:35,346 --> 00:17:37,019
of seeking a negotiated peace.
266
00:17:39,892 --> 00:17:43,192
There had been more
deadly weeks during the war,
267
00:17:43,312 --> 00:17:47,658
costlier battles,
larger numbers of casualties.
268
00:17:47,817 --> 00:17:53,995
But more and more Americans
seemed to have had enough.
269
00:17:54,115 --> 00:17:56,459
The following month,
Life magazine
270
00:17:56,576 --> 00:17:58,578
published the names
and photographs
271
00:17:58,703 --> 00:18:01,422
of all 242 Americans
272
00:18:01,539 --> 00:18:05,385
who had died in combat
in just one week.
273
00:18:05,501 --> 00:18:09,347
For the first time,
in a national publication,
274
00:18:09,505 --> 00:18:13,351
casualty statistics
came with human faces.
275
00:18:16,262 --> 00:18:18,981
The only way they could
measure success in Vietnam
276
00:18:19,098 --> 00:18:21,192
was, was was kill ratios...
277
00:18:21,309 --> 00:18:23,437
how many of them
versus how many of us.
278
00:18:23,561 --> 00:18:25,689
Well, the only thing
that's important
279
00:18:25,855 --> 00:18:28,108
to the American people
is the "us."
280
00:18:28,232 --> 00:18:31,782
You know, if there's three
us dead, that's the number.
281
00:18:31,902 --> 00:18:35,031
Not 30, you know,
Vietnamese dead.
282
00:18:35,156 --> 00:18:38,205
And, so, politically,
an attrition strategy
283
00:18:38,326 --> 00:18:40,454
just can't last very long.
284
00:18:40,578 --> 00:18:42,046
We don't care what the ratio is,
285
00:18:42,163 --> 00:18:43,443
we just want the absolute number
286
00:18:43,497 --> 00:18:46,091
of how many American kids died.
287
00:18:46,208 --> 00:18:49,462
A Gallup poll now
found that most Americans
288
00:18:49,587 --> 00:18:53,342
believed Vietnam
had been a mistake.
289
00:18:53,466 --> 00:18:56,390
Richard Nixon knew he needed
to signal to the public
290
00:18:56,552 --> 00:18:58,725
that an end was in sight.
291
00:19:00,640 --> 00:19:04,019
The National Security Council
had warned Nixon
292
00:19:04,143 --> 00:19:06,145
that the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
293
00:19:06,270 --> 00:19:08,898
the secretaries of state
and defense,
294
00:19:09,065 --> 00:19:13,946
the C.I.A.,
and the U.S. Embassy in Saigon
295
00:19:14,070 --> 00:19:17,074
all privately agreed that
without U.S. combat troops,
296
00:19:17,239 --> 00:19:18,786
the South Vietnamese
297
00:19:18,908 --> 00:19:23,459
"cannot now, or in
the foreseeable future,
298
00:19:23,579 --> 00:19:25,673
"stand up to both Viet Cong
299
00:19:25,790 --> 00:19:29,420
and sizeable
North Vietnamese forces."
300
00:19:29,543 --> 00:19:31,420
Nonetheless,
301
00:19:31,587 --> 00:19:34,591
Secretary of Defense
Melvin Laird said,
302
00:19:34,757 --> 00:19:38,136
the war was now
to be "Vietnamized."
303
00:19:38,260 --> 00:19:41,890
Saigon's troops would gradually
take over responsibility
304
00:19:42,014 --> 00:19:44,517
for engaging the enemy.
305
00:19:44,642 --> 00:19:47,737
It would be
General Creighton Abrams' task
306
00:19:47,853 --> 00:19:50,106
to ready the ARVN for that role,
307
00:19:50,272 --> 00:19:52,946
and to make sure
that American casualties
308
00:19:53,067 --> 00:19:55,161
were held down in the interim.
309
00:19:57,780 --> 00:20:02,957
Meanwhile, American troops
would start to go home.
310
00:20:03,077 --> 00:20:05,876
# Gimme a ticket
for an aeroplane #
311
00:20:05,996 --> 00:20:08,249
# Ain't got time
to take a fast train #
312
00:20:08,374 --> 00:20:09,974
When Nixon came in
313
00:20:10,042 --> 00:20:13,797
and he announced
the phase withdrawal,
314
00:20:13,921 --> 00:20:16,299
turning over the fighting
to the Vietnamese,
315
00:20:16,465 --> 00:20:18,843
which was something
the French had tried before.
316
00:20:18,968 --> 00:20:20,720
They call it jaunissement...
317
00:20:20,845 --> 00:20:24,145
yellowizing the war.
318
00:20:24,265 --> 00:20:30,272
We knew that the Vietnamese Army
was not up to fighting this war.
319
00:20:30,396 --> 00:20:32,819
If they couldn't do it
with the Americans,
320
00:20:32,982 --> 00:20:35,986
how were they going
to do it without the Americans?
321
00:20:36,152 --> 00:20:39,156
# Lonely days are gone #
322
00:20:39,321 --> 00:20:42,120
Although Washington
planned to vastly increase
323
00:20:42,241 --> 00:20:45,165
military support
of the South Vietnamese Army,
324
00:20:45,286 --> 00:20:48,460
General Abrams knew
that Vietnamization alone
325
00:20:48,581 --> 00:20:50,834
could never defeat the enemy.
326
00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:53,378
But he had his orders.
327
00:20:53,502 --> 00:20:56,176
The reason I
was ordered home early
328
00:20:56,338 --> 00:20:58,136
was because Nixon...
President Nixon
329
00:20:58,257 --> 00:21:01,511
announced the policy
of Vietnamization.
330
00:21:01,677 --> 00:21:05,727
Now, Vietnamization was a lie,
331
00:21:05,848 --> 00:21:09,694
but it had
an element of truth in it.
332
00:21:09,852 --> 00:21:12,071
We were leaving, okay?
333
00:21:12,188 --> 00:21:14,031
And that sealed
the South's fate.
334
00:21:14,148 --> 00:21:15,525
I knew it.
335
00:21:15,649 --> 00:21:18,528
And I think anybody
who was conscious
336
00:21:18,694 --> 00:21:20,367
and could see what was going on
337
00:21:20,529 --> 00:21:21,701
knew it.
338
00:21:21,822 --> 00:21:24,291
Nixon then flew to Midway Island
339
00:21:24,408 --> 00:21:27,958
to meet with South Vietnamese
President Nguyen Van Thieu.
340
00:21:28,078 --> 00:21:31,207
He had not dared
invite Thieu to Washington
341
00:21:31,332 --> 00:21:34,211
for fear of sparking
mass demonstrations.
342
00:21:34,335 --> 00:21:35,678
# Lonely days are gone #
343
00:21:35,795 --> 00:21:37,889
President Thieu informed me
344
00:21:38,005 --> 00:21:41,760
that the progress
of the training program
345
00:21:41,884 --> 00:21:43,557
and the equipping program
346
00:21:43,677 --> 00:21:45,850
for South Vietnamese forces
347
00:21:45,971 --> 00:21:50,977
had been so successful, uh,
that he could now recommend
348
00:21:51,101 --> 00:21:54,401
that the United States
begin to replace
349
00:21:54,522 --> 00:21:58,777
U.S. combat forces
with Vietnamese forces.
350
00:22:04,073 --> 00:22:06,451
Thieu had said no such thing
351
00:22:06,575 --> 00:22:09,078
but felt he had to go along.
352
00:22:09,245 --> 00:22:11,919
"There is nothing I can do,"
he told a friend.
353
00:22:12,039 --> 00:22:14,337
"Just as we could
do nothing about it
354
00:22:14,458 --> 00:22:17,052
"when Eisenhower,
Kennedy, and Johnson
355
00:22:17,169 --> 00:22:20,093
decided to come in."
356
00:22:20,256 --> 00:22:23,180
"We were clearly
on the way out of Vietnam,"
357
00:22:23,300 --> 00:22:26,429
National Security Advisor
Henry Kissinger remembered,
358
00:22:26,554 --> 00:22:29,273
"by negotiation if possible,
359
00:22:29,390 --> 00:22:33,145
by unilateral withdrawal
if necessary."
360
00:22:33,269 --> 00:22:36,239
He and the president
were redefining
361
00:22:36,355 --> 00:22:39,199
what victory would look like.
362
00:22:39,316 --> 00:22:42,240
Nixon and Kissinger...
363
00:22:42,361 --> 00:22:44,363
They...
364
00:22:44,488 --> 00:22:46,741
Their job is to clean up.
365
00:22:46,866 --> 00:22:48,459
They're, they're...
366
00:22:48,576 --> 00:22:50,453
The war's over, okay?
367
00:22:50,619 --> 00:22:54,044
When Nixon and Kissinger,
when they come, they're...
368
00:22:54,164 --> 00:22:55,507
they're not gonna win the war.
369
00:22:55,624 --> 00:22:57,968
So they develop
370
00:22:58,085 --> 00:22:59,712
a secret strategy.
371
00:22:59,837 --> 00:23:03,683
They surrender without saying
they surrendered.
372
00:23:06,176 --> 00:23:09,350
This is not a bad strategy,
this is the only strategy.
373
00:23:17,688 --> 00:23:21,192
As American soldiers
began leaving South Vietnam,
374
00:23:21,317 --> 00:23:24,491
American weaponry
and materiel poured in.
375
00:23:26,113 --> 00:23:28,161
# Circle for a landing #
376
00:23:28,324 --> 00:23:30,497
# Get your feet
back on the ground #
377
00:23:30,618 --> 00:23:33,588
More than a million M16 rifles,
378
00:23:33,704 --> 00:23:39,632
40,000 grenade launchers,
thousands of wheeled vehicles...
379
00:23:39,752 --> 00:23:41,345
so many,
one congressman complained,
380
00:23:41,503 --> 00:23:44,677
that it seemed as if
the United States taxpayer
381
00:23:44,798 --> 00:23:48,974
was being asked to "put every
South Vietnamese soldier
382
00:23:49,094 --> 00:23:51,472
behind the wheel."
383
00:23:51,597 --> 00:23:53,725
It didn't
make any sense, of course,
384
00:23:53,849 --> 00:23:56,728
because we tried that
in 1962 and '63.
385
00:23:56,852 --> 00:23:58,650
The people hadn't changed.
386
00:23:58,771 --> 00:24:00,371
They were just
giving 'em more furniture.
387
00:24:23,462 --> 00:24:27,262
South Vietnamese
armed forces were expanded
388
00:24:27,383 --> 00:24:31,638
from 850,000 men
to over a million.
389
00:24:31,762 --> 00:24:33,685
But nothing could alter the fact
390
00:24:33,806 --> 00:24:35,228
that rampant corruption
391
00:24:35,391 --> 00:24:38,770
continually eroded
their effectiveness.
392
00:24:38,894 --> 00:24:40,988
The way it works is this:
393
00:24:41,105 --> 00:24:43,528
a man makes a deal
with his commanding officer,
394
00:24:43,649 --> 00:24:46,243
perhaps to pay the officer
his full salary.
395
00:24:46,402 --> 00:24:49,326
In exchange, you never have
to show up for duty,
396
00:24:49,446 --> 00:24:51,915
except perhaps once a week
at the ceremony.
397
00:24:52,074 --> 00:24:54,076
So while you're theoretically
in the Army,
398
00:24:54,201 --> 00:24:56,579
you can hold
a full-time civilian job.
399
00:24:57,871 --> 00:25:00,715
LAM QUANG THY.
400
00:25:16,682 --> 00:25:20,277
Many ARVN units did fight well.
401
00:25:23,397 --> 00:25:25,399
They had borne the brunt
of the fighting
402
00:25:25,524 --> 00:25:26,946
during the Tet Offensive,
403
00:25:27,067 --> 00:25:29,866
and, by the middle of 1969,
404
00:25:29,987 --> 00:25:34,584
90,000 of them
had been killed in combat.
405
00:25:34,700 --> 00:25:40,082
Their bravery was
often overlooked by Americans.
406
00:25:40,205 --> 00:25:43,800
We were disdainful of them.
407
00:25:43,959 --> 00:25:46,883
We overstated their incompetence
408
00:25:47,004 --> 00:25:50,725
because we wanted
to overstate our importance.
409
00:26:02,770 --> 00:26:07,901
Part of going to war in Vietnam
I, I enjoyed.
410
00:26:08,025 --> 00:26:12,781
If you survive it,
it's, it's quite thrilling.
411
00:26:12,905 --> 00:26:15,784
It's the history of the world.
412
00:26:17,284 --> 00:26:18,661
It's hard to survive.
413
00:26:18,786 --> 00:26:20,663
I mean, in, where I was,
survival is an issue.
414
00:26:20,829 --> 00:26:24,879
I would have loved to have been
in the National Guard.
415
00:26:27,127 --> 00:26:28,379
Period.
416
00:26:30,047 --> 00:26:32,846
I knew the core issue
417
00:26:33,008 --> 00:26:35,807
of what was acceptable in war
and what wasn't.
418
00:26:35,928 --> 00:26:37,180
I knew that.
419
00:26:37,346 --> 00:26:40,065
I didn't need to get that
from the Marine Corps.
420
00:26:40,182 --> 00:26:43,607
I got that from Sunday school.
421
00:26:43,727 --> 00:26:46,606
Thomas John
Vallely was born in Boston,
422
00:26:46,730 --> 00:26:48,073
the son of a judge,
423
00:26:48,190 --> 00:26:51,034
and brought up
in the suburb of Newton.
424
00:26:51,193 --> 00:26:56,541
Undiagnosed dyslexia kept him
from doing well in school.
425
00:26:56,698 --> 00:26:58,700
By 1969,
426
00:26:58,826 --> 00:27:02,376
Vallely was a radio operator
in the Marine Corps,
427
00:27:02,538 --> 00:27:05,542
part of a massive
search-and-destroy mission
428
00:27:05,707 --> 00:27:09,837
in Quang Nam Province in the
northern part of South Vietnam.
429
00:27:11,672 --> 00:27:13,265
On August 13,
430
00:27:13,382 --> 00:27:15,055
his company was ambushed
431
00:27:15,217 --> 00:27:18,687
and came
under heavy machine gun fire.
432
00:27:26,103 --> 00:27:30,233
It was a "grab 'em by
the belt" type of situation.
433
00:27:30,357 --> 00:27:33,236
And we lost a lot of people.
434
00:27:34,778 --> 00:27:36,075
So did they.
435
00:27:37,990 --> 00:27:40,038
Lot of people laying around.
436
00:27:42,703 --> 00:27:45,001
Vallely radioed
for reinforcements.
437
00:27:45,122 --> 00:27:48,626
Then he picked up a rifle
and ammunition
438
00:27:48,750 --> 00:27:51,128
from a wounded Marine,
439
00:27:51,253 --> 00:27:53,255
and, firing as he went,
took up a position
440
00:27:53,422 --> 00:27:56,221
just ten feet
from an enemy machine gun.
441
00:27:56,341 --> 00:28:01,768
He hurled a smoke grenade
to mark their position.
442
00:28:01,889 --> 00:28:05,769
And then, as enemy fire
swept back and forth
443
00:28:05,893 --> 00:28:08,021
across the field,
444
00:28:08,145 --> 00:28:09,692
he moved from Marine to Marine,
445
00:28:09,813 --> 00:28:11,440
pointing out targets
among the trees
446
00:28:11,607 --> 00:28:14,326
and encouraging his comrades.
447
00:28:20,365 --> 00:28:23,244
For his conspicuous gallantry,
448
00:28:23,368 --> 00:28:27,123
Tom Vallely was awarded
the Silver Star.
449
00:28:27,247 --> 00:28:29,466
You want to
tell your grandchildren
450
00:28:29,583 --> 00:28:32,678
it has a lot to do with courage,
451
00:28:32,794 --> 00:28:36,298
uh, but it, it's
really quite reactive.
452
00:28:36,423 --> 00:28:38,676
It's survival.
453
00:28:38,800 --> 00:28:40,894
Either you're...
454
00:28:41,011 --> 00:28:43,560
It's, it's...
455
00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:46,024
There's no choice here.
456
00:28:46,141 --> 00:28:50,146
You react or you're not gonna
have grandchildren.
457
00:28:53,023 --> 00:28:54,334
Give me an "F"!
458
00:28:54,358 --> 00:28:55,234
"F"!
459
00:28:55,359 --> 00:28:56,576
Give me a "U"!
460
00:28:56,693 --> 00:28:57,569
"U"!
461
00:28:57,694 --> 00:28:58,786
Give me a "C"!
462
00:28:58,904 --> 00:29:00,656
"C"!
Give me a "K"!
463
00:29:00,822 --> 00:29:01,664
U Kn!
464
00:29:01,823 --> 00:29:02,995
What's that spell?!
465
00:29:03,158 --> 00:29:05,001
Two days after the battle
466
00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:07,288
in which Tom Vallely
distinguished himself,
467
00:29:07,412 --> 00:29:09,085
and while
half a million Americans
468
00:29:09,206 --> 00:29:11,504
were still in Vietnam,
469
00:29:11,625 --> 00:29:13,502
half a million Americans
gathered
470
00:29:13,627 --> 00:29:16,380
on a dairy farm
in upstate New York
471
00:29:16,505 --> 00:29:19,725
for a music festival: Woodstock.
472
00:29:19,841 --> 00:29:22,185
# Way down yonder in Vietnam #
473
00:29:22,302 --> 00:29:24,350
# Put down your books
and pick up a gun #
474
00:29:24,513 --> 00:29:25,698
# We're gonna have a whole lot
of fun #
475
00:29:25,722 --> 00:29:30,228
# And it's one, two, three,
what are we fighting for? #
476
00:29:30,352 --> 00:29:32,696
# Don't ask me,
I don't give a damn #
477
00:29:32,813 --> 00:29:35,157
# The next stop is Vietnam #
478
00:29:35,274 --> 00:29:37,402
# And it's five, six, seven #
479
00:29:37,526 --> 00:29:39,654
# Open up the pearly gates #
480
00:29:39,778 --> 00:29:42,827
# Well, there ain't no time
to wonder why, whoopee #
481
00:29:42,948 --> 00:29:44,916
# We're all gonna die #
482
00:30:39,421 --> 00:30:43,676
Ladies and gentlemen, Santana!
483
00:30:43,800 --> 00:30:46,519
You've been told once,
you've been told twice.
484
00:30:46,636 --> 00:30:48,183
That's all...
spread it out!
485
00:30:50,307 --> 00:30:51,604
# What's your name? #
486
00:30:51,725 --> 00:30:53,773
This guy from Arkansas
487
00:30:53,894 --> 00:30:58,195
told me he would not carry
the radio for me.
488
00:30:58,315 --> 00:31:03,196
He said, "I will not follow you
like Cheetah follows Tarzan.
489
00:31:03,320 --> 00:31:05,448
It's not gonna happen, Sarge."
490
00:31:05,572 --> 00:31:10,294
And I thought, "Oh, this is
gonna be a really long year."
491
00:31:10,410 --> 00:31:12,458
I've got people
down there sweeping,
492
00:31:12,579 --> 00:31:13,796
so get 'em down there.
493
00:31:13,914 --> 00:31:15,541
# It's the time #
494
00:31:15,665 --> 00:31:18,794
He evolved a little bit.
495
00:31:18,960 --> 00:31:21,634
You know,
he, he kind of got the idea
496
00:31:21,755 --> 00:31:24,804
that the enemy's bullets
are colorblind.
497
00:31:24,925 --> 00:31:28,179
They would shoot anybody,
not just me.
498
00:31:30,806 --> 00:31:34,527
African-Americans had
served in every American war
499
00:31:34,643 --> 00:31:37,021
since the revolution.
500
00:31:37,145 --> 00:31:39,489
In the early years
of the Vietnam War,
501
00:31:39,648 --> 00:31:41,992
they suffered
a disproportionate number
502
00:31:42,109 --> 00:31:44,032
of combat deaths.
503
00:31:44,152 --> 00:31:47,326
When civil rights leaders
complained,
504
00:31:47,447 --> 00:31:50,246
the Defense Department
made a concerted effort
505
00:31:50,367 --> 00:31:52,415
to right that balance,
506
00:31:52,536 --> 00:31:56,006
and by 1969, it had succeeded.
507
00:31:56,164 --> 00:31:58,007
But behind the lines,
508
00:31:58,166 --> 00:32:01,670
African-American soldiers
were still treated differently
509
00:32:01,837 --> 00:32:04,056
from their white counterparts.
510
00:32:14,891 --> 00:32:17,161
And here there's all,
all these beast motherfuckers
511
00:32:17,185 --> 00:32:18,371
walking around here
with their hair
512
00:32:18,395 --> 00:32:20,864
looking like goddamn girls,
513
00:32:20,981 --> 00:32:22,198
and we can't wear our hair
514
00:32:22,315 --> 00:32:23,908
motherfucking three inches long.
515
00:32:24,025 --> 00:32:26,278
The motherfucking regulation
is three inches.
516
00:32:26,403 --> 00:32:29,031
And most of the brothers
can wear a afro,
517
00:32:29,197 --> 00:32:30,995
the hair gonna be
motherfucking two inches.
518
00:32:31,116 --> 00:32:32,709
And why we got to get
our hair cut?
519
00:32:32,868 --> 00:32:34,211
That's what I want to know.
520
00:32:34,369 --> 00:32:36,212
# Yeah, man, ooh, yeah #
521
00:32:36,371 --> 00:32:39,215
Vietnam was a microcosm.
522
00:32:39,374 --> 00:32:41,092
Everything that was happening
in America
523
00:32:41,209 --> 00:32:42,961
was happening in Vietnam,
really,
524
00:32:43,086 --> 00:32:45,214
in one way, shape, or form.
525
00:32:45,338 --> 00:32:47,136
In the rear,
526
00:32:47,257 --> 00:32:50,727
there were Confederate flags
flying.
527
00:32:50,886 --> 00:32:53,890
I mean, of all
things to have over here, man,
528
00:32:54,055 --> 00:32:56,228
why a Confederate flag?
529
00:32:56,391 --> 00:32:58,519
As a matter of fact,
I think there ought to be
530
00:32:58,643 --> 00:33:02,523
some goddamn law to fucking
outlaw them goddamn flags, man.
531
00:33:02,647 --> 00:33:06,743
The fucking Confederacy
is gone, man.
532
00:33:06,902 --> 00:33:09,246
When one is in an environment
533
00:33:09,404 --> 00:33:14,035
where everyone has a gun,
automatic weapon,
534
00:33:14,159 --> 00:33:16,753
I'll be goddamned if someone's
gonna call me a nigger
535
00:33:16,912 --> 00:33:18,835
or give me a bullshit order.
536
00:33:18,955 --> 00:33:22,835
I mean, that was the attitude,
to risk my life for what?
537
00:33:22,959 --> 00:33:24,381
# Sweeter than honey #
538
00:33:24,503 --> 00:33:27,382
There was all
kind of craziness happening,
539
00:33:27,506 --> 00:33:30,726
because white people were still
calling, you know, us niggers,
540
00:33:30,842 --> 00:33:33,721
and then there were some black
people calling us Uncle Toms.
541
00:33:33,845 --> 00:33:35,267
There were the antiwar folks
542
00:33:35,388 --> 00:33:37,607
who were calling us
baby killers, say...
543
00:33:37,724 --> 00:33:39,702
You know, you can say what you
want, but you can say it
544
00:33:39,726 --> 00:33:41,412
from over there
because if you get in range,
545
00:33:41,436 --> 00:33:45,316
you're gonna get serious damage
done to you.
546
00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:46,987
Say what you want
from a distance,
547
00:33:47,108 --> 00:33:49,253
but if you get close to me,
I'm gonna rip your throat out.
548
00:33:49,277 --> 00:33:50,824
You know?
549
00:33:50,946 --> 00:33:54,496
But when we
walked outside that wire,
550
00:33:54,616 --> 00:33:57,540
we went out into the bush,
we were tight.
551
00:33:57,661 --> 00:33:59,880
Even with our differences.
552
00:33:59,996 --> 00:34:01,964
Maybe we had threatened
each other,
553
00:34:02,123 --> 00:34:05,127
we'd had a fight back
in the base,
554
00:34:05,293 --> 00:34:07,921
but when we were out there,
you know,
555
00:34:08,046 --> 00:34:11,596
we, we were a, a fighting unit.
556
00:34:13,093 --> 00:34:16,893
And it's almost like
an identity crisis.
557
00:34:17,013 --> 00:34:21,018
I was born here,
and my parents were born here.
558
00:34:21,142 --> 00:34:23,361
I felt, in a way,
559
00:34:23,478 --> 00:34:26,527
more American than Mexican.
560
00:34:26,648 --> 00:34:28,195
...hand and repeat after me...
561
00:34:28,316 --> 00:34:32,617
The U.S. military did
not officially count Hispanics,
562
00:34:32,737 --> 00:34:37,334
but an estimated 170,000
would serve in Vietnam
563
00:34:37,492 --> 00:34:41,497
and more than 3,000
lost their lives.
564
00:34:41,621 --> 00:34:44,215
Like their fathers
and grandfathers,
565
00:34:44,332 --> 00:34:48,337
many saw military service
as both a patriotic duty
566
00:34:48,503 --> 00:34:51,222
and an opportunity to advance
their standing
567
00:34:51,339 --> 00:34:53,842
in the United States.
568
00:34:54,009 --> 00:34:57,058
But as casualties mounted
569
00:34:57,178 --> 00:34:59,180
and with a burgeoning
Chicano identity movement
570
00:34:59,347 --> 00:35:01,691
among farm workers
and college students,
571
00:35:01,808 --> 00:35:06,439
anti-war sentiment
in Hispanic communities grew.
572
00:35:06,563 --> 00:35:10,193
We're protesting against
the discriminatory draft laws
573
00:35:10,317 --> 00:35:12,365
that give deferments
574
00:35:12,485 --> 00:35:15,614
to all the Anglo middle-class
people of this country
575
00:35:15,739 --> 00:35:18,709
and make the heaviest burdens
of the war
576
00:35:18,867 --> 00:35:21,871
fall on the poor,
fall on the Mexicano.
577
00:35:22,037 --> 00:35:24,256
I had learned
578
00:35:24,372 --> 00:35:28,297
about my sister and my mother's
antiwar activities
579
00:35:28,418 --> 00:35:30,295
while I was still in Vietnam.
580
00:35:30,420 --> 00:35:32,548
In fact,
my sister wrote and said,
581
00:35:32,714 --> 00:35:35,092
"I hope you're okay with this."
582
00:35:35,216 --> 00:35:36,843
And she was honest with me.
583
00:35:36,968 --> 00:35:38,845
She told me
what they were doing.
584
00:35:38,970 --> 00:35:42,065
She says, "I'm doing it for you,
'cause I want you to come home."
585
00:35:50,523 --> 00:35:53,743
In line with our policy
of taking a stand
586
00:35:53,860 --> 00:35:55,578
on the pressing issues
of the day,
587
00:35:55,695 --> 00:35:58,574
we now present another in our
continuing series of editorials.
588
00:35:58,698 --> 00:35:59,574
The subject:
589
00:35:59,699 --> 00:36:02,498
are our draft laws unfair?
590
00:36:02,619 --> 00:36:04,667
Here again,
speaking for our program,
591
00:36:04,788 --> 00:36:07,337
is Mr. Patrick Paulsen,
vice president.
592
00:36:09,209 --> 00:36:11,462
Now, we don't claim
the draft is perfect,
593
00:36:11,586 --> 00:36:13,634
and we do have
a constructive proposal
594
00:36:13,755 --> 00:36:15,757
for a workable alternative.
595
00:36:15,924 --> 00:36:17,926
We propose a draft lottery
596
00:36:18,051 --> 00:36:20,395
in which the names
of all eligible males
597
00:36:20,512 --> 00:36:22,059
will be put into a hat,
598
00:36:22,180 --> 00:36:25,730
and the men will be drafted
according to their head sizes.
599
00:36:25,850 --> 00:36:29,354
The tiny heads will go
into the military service
600
00:36:29,479 --> 00:36:33,825
and the fat heads
will go into government.
601
00:36:33,942 --> 00:36:35,819
Roger, 3-1 is on his way.
602
00:36:35,944 --> 00:36:38,572
5-8-1.
603
00:36:38,697 --> 00:36:42,702
A 19-year-old
high school dropout says,
604
00:36:42,826 --> 00:36:45,625
"Why are we here?"
605
00:36:45,787 --> 00:36:47,505
And the, the standard response,
606
00:36:47,622 --> 00:36:49,545
at least on
an official level, was,
607
00:36:49,666 --> 00:36:52,510
to prevent
international communism
608
00:36:52,627 --> 00:36:55,506
from conquering the world.
609
00:36:55,630 --> 00:36:59,430
The men say, "Hey,
that, that's bullshit."
610
00:37:01,678 --> 00:37:03,180
So the other reason put forth,
611
00:37:03,304 --> 00:37:05,306
at least in the latter days
of the war,
612
00:37:05,473 --> 00:37:07,817
was to maintain America's
international credibility
613
00:37:07,976 --> 00:37:10,479
with our allies,
and our enemies.
614
00:37:10,645 --> 00:37:14,650
Uh, no 19, 20-year-old kid
wants to die to maintain
615
00:37:14,816 --> 00:37:17,990
the credibility of
Lyndon Johnson or Richard Nixon.
616
00:37:18,111 --> 00:37:21,490
And so, within a relatively
short time,
617
00:37:21,614 --> 00:37:23,708
the guys were saying,
618
00:37:23,825 --> 00:37:26,578
"Look, we shouldn't be here,
but we are.
619
00:37:26,703 --> 00:37:28,580
"So my only function in life
620
00:37:28,705 --> 00:37:31,834
"is to try and keep you alive,
buddy,
621
00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:35,004
"and to keep my precious ass
from being killed.
622
00:37:35,170 --> 00:37:38,800
And then to go home
and forget about this."
623
00:37:41,301 --> 00:37:43,929
The grunts, uh,
624
00:37:44,053 --> 00:37:47,182
don't always do what the captain
says, you know.
625
00:37:47,307 --> 00:37:50,732
We got, uh... the captain
will stay back,
626
00:37:50,852 --> 00:37:52,729
he'll tell the platoon
or something
627
00:37:52,854 --> 00:37:55,528
to go out so many
hundred meters, you know.
628
00:37:55,690 --> 00:37:57,363
We don't do it.
629
00:37:57,525 --> 00:37:59,277
We only go as far
as we get out of sight,
630
00:37:59,402 --> 00:38:00,824
sit down, and come back in.
631
00:38:00,945 --> 00:38:02,798
What happens
to an unpopular officer
632
00:38:02,822 --> 00:38:04,824
out in the field?
633
00:38:04,949 --> 00:38:07,873
Mostly unpopular officers,
from what I've heard,
634
00:38:07,994 --> 00:38:10,588
if they, if they mess with
a grunt too much,
635
00:38:10,705 --> 00:38:13,584
they get shot at.
636
00:38:13,708 --> 00:38:17,087
It had always
been a part of war.
637
00:38:17,212 --> 00:38:20,216
In Vietnam,
it was called "fragging,"
638
00:38:20,381 --> 00:38:24,557
after the fragmentation grenades
most often used.
639
00:38:24,719 --> 00:38:28,394
Beginning in the summer of 1969,
640
00:38:28,556 --> 00:38:32,402
as thousands of American troops
began going home,
641
00:38:32,519 --> 00:38:36,069
the number of reports of the
murder or attempted murder
642
00:38:36,189 --> 00:38:38,191
by enlisted men
of their superiors
643
00:38:38,316 --> 00:38:41,320
increased alarmingly.
644
00:38:41,444 --> 00:38:46,575
The Army would investigate
nearly 800 cases.
645
00:38:46,699 --> 00:38:48,622
Most took place
far from the fighting,
646
00:38:48,743 --> 00:38:51,417
usually the violent outcome
of arguments over race
647
00:38:51,579 --> 00:38:53,707
or women or drugs
648
00:38:53,832 --> 00:38:56,802
rather than the war itself.
649
00:38:56,918 --> 00:38:59,467
But there were exceptions.
650
00:38:59,587 --> 00:39:01,464
It's a totally different army
651
00:39:01,589 --> 00:39:05,435
than what we sent
to Vietnam in 1965.
652
00:39:05,552 --> 00:39:09,557
And the new lieutenant comes in,
all gung-ho for body count.
653
00:39:09,681 --> 00:39:13,106
He wants contact,
he goes crazy, and says,
654
00:39:13,268 --> 00:39:15,521
"1 want a volunteer for this."
655
00:39:18,356 --> 00:39:24,113
That new gung-ho officer
was a clear and present danger
656
00:39:24,237 --> 00:39:27,912
to the life and limb
of the grunts.
657
00:39:28,032 --> 00:39:30,581
They'd have subtle hints,
like a little note saying,
658
00:39:30,702 --> 00:39:33,296
"We're gonna kill your ass
if you keep this up."
659
00:39:33,454 --> 00:39:36,378
Or instead
of a fragmentation grenade,
660
00:39:36,499 --> 00:39:40,220
they may throw a smoke grenade
in an officer's hooch or bunker.
661
00:39:40,336 --> 00:39:44,307
And if they didn't correct
their behavior and outlook,
662
00:39:44,424 --> 00:39:47,803
yeah, they would frag them.
663
00:39:47,927 --> 00:39:51,557
I saw it happen in a very, uh,
strange way.
664
00:39:51,681 --> 00:39:59,816
We were in a base and a Marine
started running towards me.
665
00:39:59,939 --> 00:40:01,987
I didn't realize that what he...
666
00:40:02,108 --> 00:40:04,202
what he was doing back
in the dark over there
667
00:40:04,319 --> 00:40:06,492
was actually
throw a hand grenade
668
00:40:06,613 --> 00:40:10,038
underneath the space
that is underneath a hooch.
669
00:40:11,576 --> 00:40:13,829
And when it exploded,
I went, "Holy shit."
670
00:40:13,995 --> 00:40:17,295
And I knew right away
what he had done.
671
00:40:17,415 --> 00:40:20,669
And he was
an African-American Marine.
672
00:40:20,793 --> 00:40:22,670
African-Americans were treated
673
00:40:22,795 --> 00:40:25,139
with disrespect
by their superiors.
674
00:40:25,256 --> 00:40:29,102
This was not uncommon.
675
00:40:29,218 --> 00:40:34,099
So in a ways,
as bad as this sounds,
676
00:40:34,223 --> 00:40:36,601
maybe that guy
had it coming to him.
677
00:40:36,726 --> 00:40:38,194
I don't know.
678
00:40:41,439 --> 00:40:44,238
In Paris, the 29th session
of the so-called peace talks
679
00:40:44,359 --> 00:40:45,235
took place.
680
00:40:45,360 --> 00:40:47,158
There was no progress.
681
00:40:47,278 --> 00:40:50,578
In Vietnam, it was announced
that 139 Americans
682
00:40:50,698 --> 00:40:52,200
lost their lives last week,
683
00:40:52,325 --> 00:40:54,874
bringing total deaths
in our longest war...
684
00:40:55,036 --> 00:40:57,880
The four-way
peace talks in Paris
685
00:40:58,039 --> 00:41:00,588
continued to go nowhere.
686
00:41:00,708 --> 00:41:04,258
To break the logjam,
Nixon directed Henry Kissinger
687
00:41:04,379 --> 00:41:07,053
to begin secret talks,
688
00:41:07,173 --> 00:41:09,767
the first in a series
of clandestine meetings
689
00:41:09,884 --> 00:41:12,637
with the North Vietnamese alone.
690
00:41:12,762 --> 00:41:14,981
They first met
in an apartment building
691
00:41:15,098 --> 00:41:17,100
on the Rue de Rivoli.
692
00:41:17,225 --> 00:41:20,149
The Viet Cong and the
South Vietnamese government
693
00:41:20,269 --> 00:41:22,943
were not included.
694
00:41:23,064 --> 00:41:25,988
Hanoi remained immovable.
695
00:41:26,109 --> 00:41:29,864
They would not even admit they
had troops in South Vietnam,
696
00:41:29,988 --> 00:41:33,913
let alone discuss
withdrawing them.
697
00:41:34,033 --> 00:41:35,751
Now Kissinger warned
698
00:41:35,910 --> 00:41:39,084
that if there were no change
in their position by November 1,
699
00:41:39,205 --> 00:41:41,082
the one-year anniversary
700
00:41:41,249 --> 00:41:43,547
of President Johnson's
bombing halt,
701
00:41:43,668 --> 00:41:45,341
President Nixon
702
00:41:45,461 --> 00:41:48,340
would "consider steps
of grave consequence."
703
00:42:00,935 --> 00:42:04,405
September 2, 1969,
704
00:42:04,522 --> 00:42:06,775
was the 24th anniversary
705
00:42:06,899 --> 00:42:10,654
of Ho Chi Minh's declaration
of Vietnamese independence
706
00:42:10,778 --> 00:42:13,122
in Hanoi's Ba Dinh Square.
707
00:42:15,158 --> 00:42:19,959
At 9:45 that morning, Ho died.
708
00:42:20,079 --> 00:42:24,676
He was said to be 79,
but like so much about him,
709
00:42:24,792 --> 00:42:30,094
the precise date of his birth
was shrouded in mystery.
710
00:42:30,214 --> 00:42:32,808
He had been "Uncle Ho"
for decades,
711
00:42:32,925 --> 00:42:36,179
the living embodiment of the
struggle against the Japanese,
712
00:42:36,304 --> 00:42:39,183
the French,
the Saigon government,
713
00:42:39,307 --> 00:42:42,151
and then the Americans.
714
00:42:44,395 --> 00:42:47,148
In a speech
to the National Assembly,
715
00:42:47,273 --> 00:42:51,653
Le Duan, the First Secretary
of the Communist Party,
716
00:42:51,819 --> 00:42:53,071
who had been the architect
717
00:42:53,196 --> 00:42:55,745
of North Vietnamese
military policy
718
00:42:55,865 --> 00:42:57,117
for a decade,
719
00:42:57,241 --> 00:43:01,212
promised to fulfill
what he said was Ho's vision:
720
00:43:01,329 --> 00:43:07,177
the reunification of the country
on communist terms.
721
00:43:08,795 --> 00:43:11,423
Nothing had changed.
722
00:43:11,547 --> 00:43:13,400
Hanoi has
given the false impression
723
00:43:13,424 --> 00:43:16,678
that all is wine and roses
and it isn't so.
724
00:43:16,803 --> 00:43:19,147
The same day Ho Chi Minh died,
725
00:43:19,263 --> 00:43:21,812
an unusual press conference
was held
726
00:43:21,933 --> 00:43:24,812
at the Bethesda Naval
Medical Center.
727
00:43:24,936 --> 00:43:27,564
Two ailing prisoners of war,
728
00:43:27,688 --> 00:43:31,158
Robert Frishman
and Douglas Hegdahl,
729
00:43:31,275 --> 00:43:33,528
who had recently been released
by the North Vietnamese,
730
00:43:33,653 --> 00:43:35,747
spoke in public
for the first time
731
00:43:35,863 --> 00:43:37,661
about the severe treatment
732
00:43:37,782 --> 00:43:41,127
they and their fellow prisoners
had received.
733
00:43:41,244 --> 00:43:43,713
I don't think
solitary confinement,
734
00:43:43,830 --> 00:43:47,585
forced statements, living in
a cage for three years,
735
00:43:47,708 --> 00:43:51,554
being put in straps, not being
allowed to sleep or eat,
736
00:43:51,671 --> 00:43:55,096
removal of fingernails,
being hung from a ceiling,
737
00:43:55,216 --> 00:43:57,469
having an infected arm
which was almost lost,
738
00:43:57,593 --> 00:43:59,812
not receiving medical care,
739
00:43:59,929 --> 00:44:02,057
being dragged along the ground
with a broken leg,
740
00:44:02,223 --> 00:44:05,102
or not allowing exchange of mail
to prisoners of war
741
00:44:05,226 --> 00:44:06,569
are humane.
742
00:44:06,686 --> 00:44:10,862
Douglas Hegdahl
was quiet, self-effacing,
743
00:44:10,982 --> 00:44:13,531
and so apparently clueless,
744
00:44:13,651 --> 00:44:15,699
his North Vietnamese guards
745
00:44:15,820 --> 00:44:18,539
had called him
the "stupid one."
746
00:44:18,656 --> 00:44:20,078
But once released,
747
00:44:20,241 --> 00:44:23,415
he was a gold mine
of information.
748
00:44:23,536 --> 00:44:27,416
He had memorized the names
of more than 200 prisoners
749
00:44:27,540 --> 00:44:31,135
to the tune of
"Old McDonald Had a Farm."
750
00:44:31,252 --> 00:44:34,096
Thanks to him,
scores of American families
751
00:44:34,213 --> 00:44:36,261
would find out
for the first time
752
00:44:36,424 --> 00:44:41,555
that their sons and husbands
and fathers were still alive.
753
00:44:41,679 --> 00:44:45,149
Within a few days
of the press conference,
754
00:44:45,266 --> 00:44:49,021
Hanoi's treatment of the
prisoners began to improve.
755
00:44:49,145 --> 00:44:52,991
"A lot less brutality,"
one captive remembered,
756
00:44:53,107 --> 00:44:55,610
"and larger bowls of rice."
757
00:45:10,458 --> 00:45:11,852
All right, who's wounded?
758
00:45:11,876 --> 00:45:14,470
All right, give me some cover!
759
00:45:14,629 --> 00:45:17,257
Devallier is
the lone medic in the platoon.
760
00:45:17,381 --> 00:45:18,507
He's scared,
761
00:45:18,633 --> 00:45:20,977
scared from the moment
he gets out of the chopper
762
00:45:21,093 --> 00:45:22,470
to the moment it picks him up.
763
00:45:22,637 --> 00:45:25,481
Scared that someday
he's going to get killed
764
00:45:25,640 --> 00:45:28,610
picking up a wounded buddy.
765
00:45:32,355 --> 00:45:34,528
I was the replacement
766
00:45:34,649 --> 00:45:38,244
for a medic who had been killed.
767
00:45:38,361 --> 00:45:41,911
First time out, we were assigned
to do a patrol.
768
00:45:42,031 --> 00:45:45,410
Remember to stop the bleeding!
769
00:45:45,534 --> 00:45:51,132
And we stumbled
actually into an ambush.
770
00:45:54,001 --> 00:45:57,346
And it was incredibly
terrifying.
771
00:45:57,463 --> 00:45:59,716
Guys were screaming and yelling.
772
00:45:59,840 --> 00:46:02,093
There was shooting everywhere.
773
00:46:02,218 --> 00:46:06,189
That first firefight,
I remember praying to God,
774
00:46:06,305 --> 00:46:12,403
if He got me through this
that I would make a difference.
775
00:46:12,520 --> 00:46:16,821
That I really would make
a difference.
776
00:46:16,941 --> 00:46:19,990
Sometimes their lives
depend on you, I mean;
777
00:46:20,111 --> 00:46:23,035
you hold it in your hands,
as a medic.
778
00:46:23,155 --> 00:46:25,999
It's just hard to say
but right then,
779
00:46:26,117 --> 00:46:28,336
you hold life and death
in your hand.
780
00:46:28,452 --> 00:46:32,127
In Vietnam,
medics and navy corpsmen
781
00:46:32,248 --> 00:46:34,717
accompanied infantry units
on patrols,
782
00:46:34,834 --> 00:46:36,677
search and destroy missions,
783
00:46:36,794 --> 00:46:40,264
and large-scale
combat operations.
784
00:46:40,381 --> 00:46:44,136
Nearly 2,000
would lose their lives.
785
00:46:47,930 --> 00:46:50,479
Unlike in previous wars,
786
00:46:50,599 --> 00:46:53,899
many medics in Vietnam chose
to carry weapons,
787
00:46:54,020 --> 00:46:56,398
and when the shooting started,
788
00:46:56,522 --> 00:46:59,196
were willing to use them
to protect themselves
789
00:46:59,317 --> 00:47:02,161
and their wounded comrades.
790
00:47:02,278 --> 00:47:05,657
I carried an M16,
791
00:47:05,781 --> 00:47:08,830
but I did not know
if I could kill.
792
00:47:08,951 --> 00:47:12,546
Part of being a medic
was to save lives.
793
00:47:12,663 --> 00:47:18,887
I wondered, if the scenario
presented itself, would I?
794
00:47:19,003 --> 00:47:23,600
I did participate
in shooting at the enemy.
795
00:47:23,758 --> 00:47:26,136
We killed a lot of people.
796
00:47:26,260 --> 00:47:29,514
I feel that responsibility.
797
00:47:30,973 --> 00:47:33,817
I feel blood on my hands.
798
00:47:39,231 --> 00:47:43,828
When you kill someone
for your country,
799
00:47:43,944 --> 00:47:46,868
all things change.
800
00:47:49,992 --> 00:47:52,415
# Come ye #
801
00:47:54,830 --> 00:47:58,209
# Ye who would have peace... #
802
00:47:58,334 --> 00:47:59,734
We believed it's possible
803
00:47:59,835 --> 00:48:01,883
to create a substantial
majority in this country
804
00:48:02,004 --> 00:48:03,597
for withdrawal from Vietnam,
805
00:48:03,714 --> 00:48:05,466
and that's what we're about
in the long run.
806
00:48:05,591 --> 00:48:07,434
In November,
we'll be back again,
807
00:48:07,551 --> 00:48:09,019
in December,
we'll be back again.
808
00:48:09,136 --> 00:48:10,979
And we intend to build
the movement,
809
00:48:11,138 --> 00:48:13,391
which will make it imperative
810
00:48:13,516 --> 00:48:15,814
that the United States
withdraw from Vietnam.
811
00:48:15,935 --> 00:48:18,779
The organizers of
the moratorium do not aim
812
00:48:18,896 --> 00:48:21,490
at confrontation
or scuffles with the police.
813
00:48:21,649 --> 00:48:24,573
Instead, they want to involve
the most people possible
814
00:48:24,693 --> 00:48:27,617
in some gesture of protest,
however modest,
815
00:48:27,738 --> 00:48:31,242
so as to show the administration
that a large bloc of Americans
816
00:48:31,367 --> 00:48:33,836
care not about winning
or losing the war,
817
00:48:33,994 --> 00:48:36,167
but only about ending it.
818
00:48:36,288 --> 00:48:39,508
# Ye who have no fear #
819
00:48:39,625 --> 00:48:40,751
Thank you.
820
00:48:40,876 --> 00:48:43,095
Now, I understand
821
00:48:43,212 --> 00:48:45,465
that there has been
and continues to be
822
00:48:45,589 --> 00:48:48,433
opposition to the war
in Vietnam on the campuses
823
00:48:48,551 --> 00:48:51,430
and also in the nation.
824
00:48:51,554 --> 00:48:52,555
Uh, we expect it.
825
00:48:52,680 --> 00:48:54,557
However, under no circumstances
826
00:48:54,682 --> 00:48:57,856
will I be affected whatever
by it.
827
00:48:57,977 --> 00:49:01,777
Hoping to undercut
support for the moratorium,
828
00:49:01,897 --> 00:49:04,070
Nixon canceled the draft calls
829
00:49:04,191 --> 00:49:07,946
for the months
of November and December 1969.
830
00:49:08,070 --> 00:49:11,370
And he instituted
a random lottery system
831
00:49:11,490 --> 00:49:14,209
based on the date
of a young man's birth,
832
00:49:14,368 --> 00:49:17,212
intended
to treat rich and poor alike
833
00:49:17,371 --> 00:49:21,001
and do away
with unfair deferments.
834
00:49:21,125 --> 00:49:24,629
It was good policy and
a brilliant political maneuver.
835
00:49:26,172 --> 00:49:27,515
On the line,
brothers and sisters.
836
00:49:27,631 --> 00:49:29,008
On the line now.
837
00:49:30,801 --> 00:49:32,895
As people across
the country organized
838
00:49:33,053 --> 00:49:34,851
for the peaceful moratorium,
839
00:49:34,972 --> 00:49:36,895
members of a radical faction
840
00:49:37,057 --> 00:49:39,731
of the Students
for a Democratic Society...
841
00:49:39,894 --> 00:49:41,066
the "Weathermen"...
842
00:49:41,187 --> 00:49:42,234
took more direct action.
843
00:49:42,396 --> 00:49:43,648
# The man in a trench coat #
844
00:49:43,772 --> 00:49:46,366
Less interested
in ending the war
845
00:49:46,484 --> 00:49:48,953
than in sparking
a violent revolution,
846
00:49:49,069 --> 00:49:53,791
they staged what they called
four "Days of Rage" in Chicago.
847
00:49:53,908 --> 00:49:56,002
# You better duck
clown the alleyway #
848
00:49:56,118 --> 00:49:59,167
We no longer
simply resist the pigs.
849
00:49:59,288 --> 00:50:01,256
We no longer trap ourselves
850
00:50:01,373 --> 00:50:02,875
so that the only possible motion
851
00:50:03,000 --> 00:50:05,048
is in response to pig attacks.
852
00:50:05,169 --> 00:50:07,388
We have gone on the offensive.
853
00:50:07,505 --> 00:50:09,382
It is we who call the shots now.
854
00:50:09,507 --> 00:50:11,635
"Kill all the rich people,"
855
00:50:11,759 --> 00:50:12,976
one of their leaders said.
856
00:50:13,093 --> 00:50:16,063
"Break up
their cars and apartments.
857
00:50:16,180 --> 00:50:18,274
"Bring the revolution home.
858
00:50:18,432 --> 00:50:19,934
"Kill your parents.
859
00:50:20,059 --> 00:50:23,188
That's really where it's at."
860
00:50:23,312 --> 00:50:25,189
Weathermen takes
its name from a line
861
00:50:25,314 --> 00:50:26,941
in a Bob Dylan song which says,
862
00:50:27,107 --> 00:50:28,825
"You don't need a weatherman
863
00:50:28,943 --> 00:50:30,365
to know the way
the wind blows."
864
00:50:30,486 --> 00:50:31,988
# Wash the plain clothes #
865
00:50:32,112 --> 00:50:33,489
# You don't need a weatherman #
866
00:50:33,614 --> 00:50:37,244
# To know which way
the wind blows #
867
00:50:37,368 --> 00:50:39,621
The Weathermen assumed
868
00:50:39,787 --> 00:50:42,415
thousands would rally
to their cause.
869
00:50:42,540 --> 00:50:45,544
Only 600 did.
870
00:50:45,668 --> 00:50:49,138
They blew up a statue
honoring slain policemen,
871
00:50:49,296 --> 00:50:52,470
ran through the streets
wielding chains and pipes,
872
00:50:52,633 --> 00:50:54,727
smashing windows and windshields
873
00:50:54,843 --> 00:50:58,347
and charging police barriers.
874
00:50:58,472 --> 00:51:00,145
Six were shot.
875
00:51:00,266 --> 00:51:02,985
250 were jailed.
876
00:51:03,143 --> 00:51:06,317
75 policemen were injured;
877
00:51:06,480 --> 00:51:09,484
a city attorney
was paralyzed for life.
878
00:51:11,694 --> 00:51:15,073
The Black Panthers
denounced the Weathermen
879
00:51:15,197 --> 00:51:18,167
as "anarchistic,
opportunistic...
880
00:51:18,325 --> 00:51:21,795
Custeristic."
881
00:51:21,912 --> 00:51:24,961
Probably 1969 was the year
882
00:51:25,082 --> 00:51:27,210
in which most of us
were more alienated
883
00:51:27,334 --> 00:51:31,180
and felt
more like revolutionaries.
884
00:51:31,297 --> 00:51:35,973
And it led
to a lot of crazy responses.
885
00:51:36,093 --> 00:51:39,939
I wanted the country to undergo
a radical transformation,
886
00:51:40,055 --> 00:51:42,934
a redistribution
of wealth and power.
887
00:51:43,058 --> 00:51:45,311
But to try to bring that about
888
00:51:45,436 --> 00:51:48,155
through armed struggle
in the United States
889
00:51:48,272 --> 00:51:50,195
was insane.
890
00:51:50,357 --> 00:51:52,701
These were all
infantile fantasies
891
00:51:52,818 --> 00:51:55,571
that people came to
out of the frustration
892
00:51:55,696 --> 00:51:58,324
of not having
a workable strategy
893
00:51:58,449 --> 00:52:01,703
for ending the war.
894
00:52:01,827 --> 00:52:03,388
What do you think
people ought to do, governor,
895
00:52:03,412 --> 00:52:05,210
who are genuinely opposed
to the war
896
00:52:05,372 --> 00:52:07,500
but not in favor
of the Viet Cong?
897
00:52:07,625 --> 00:52:11,971
Well, I think that we have
had... experiences before
898
00:52:12,087 --> 00:52:14,556
of people who have been
opposed to wars,
899
00:52:14,715 --> 00:52:17,559
and I think they deal through
their own representatives,
900
00:52:17,676 --> 00:52:20,054
and it's dealt with
in government channels.
901
00:52:20,179 --> 00:52:22,557
But once the killing starts,
902
00:52:22,723 --> 00:52:24,566
the very difficult thing then
is,
903
00:52:24,683 --> 00:52:28,483
how do you register
these protests
904
00:52:28,604 --> 00:52:30,572
without lending comfort
and aid to the enemy,
905
00:52:30,689 --> 00:52:32,566
without strengthening
his resistance
906
00:52:32,691 --> 00:52:33,738
and his will to fight
907
00:52:33,901 --> 00:52:36,404
and thus
killing more of our men?
908
00:52:36,528 --> 00:52:40,578
And most Americans in the past
have always respected it.
909
00:52:40,741 --> 00:52:42,243
You see, the people
in this country
910
00:52:42,409 --> 00:52:44,332
aren't fighting a Vietnam War.
911
00:52:44,453 --> 00:52:45,921
The government's fighting it.
912
00:52:46,038 --> 00:52:47,158
Well, the government is, uh,
913
00:52:47,247 --> 00:52:49,341
the government is the
people, supposedly, No.
914
00:52:49,458 --> 00:52:51,618
But in this instance, it is not.
Not anymore, it's not.
915
00:52:51,752 --> 00:52:53,129
No, I agree with you, it is not.
916
00:52:53,253 --> 00:52:54,596
Not in this situation, it's not.
917
00:52:54,713 --> 00:52:56,090
Shouldn't I
let my government know
918
00:52:56,256 --> 00:52:57,348
that I think they're crazy?
919
00:52:57,466 --> 00:52:58,934
I think they are insane, really.
920
00:52:59,051 --> 00:53:00,974
This is an insane thing
we're doing.
921
00:53:01,095 --> 00:53:02,563
As a matter of fact,
922
00:53:02,680 --> 00:53:04,728
Nixon said
he will not listen to us
923
00:53:04,848 --> 00:53:06,441
and that he will not
be dictated to
924
00:53:06,558 --> 00:53:08,310
from the people in the streets.
925
00:53:08,435 --> 00:53:12,281
The people in the streets
are me.
926
00:53:15,359 --> 00:53:19,614
The moratorium on October 15,
927
00:53:19,780 --> 00:53:21,248
held all across the country,
928
00:53:21,365 --> 00:53:24,164
was the largest outpouring
of public dissent
929
00:53:24,284 --> 00:53:25,706
in American history.
930
00:53:29,790 --> 00:53:34,466
# Blackbird singing
in the dead of night #
931
00:53:34,628 --> 00:53:39,805
# Take these broken wings
and learn to fly #
932
00:53:39,967 --> 00:53:43,767
# All your life #
933
00:53:43,887 --> 00:53:48,484
# You were only waiting
for this moment to arise #
934
00:53:48,600 --> 00:53:51,319
It was peaceful, middle-class,
935
00:53:51,478 --> 00:53:54,448
carefully focused
on ending the war.
936
00:53:54,565 --> 00:53:56,943
"It's nice," one marcher said,
937
00:53:57,067 --> 00:53:58,785
"to go to a demonstration
938
00:53:58,902 --> 00:54:03,749
without having to swear
allegiance to Chairman Mao."
939
00:54:03,866 --> 00:54:05,288
# All your life #
940
00:54:05,409 --> 00:54:07,912
Surely this is a
day unique in our history.
941
00:54:08,036 --> 00:54:11,006
Never have
so many of our people publicly
942
00:54:11,123 --> 00:54:13,421
and collectively
manifested opposition
943
00:54:13,542 --> 00:54:16,591
to this country's involvement
in a war.
944
00:54:16,712 --> 00:54:19,636
It is unlikely
we will remain unchanged.
945
00:54:19,757 --> 00:54:22,601
Hundreds and hundreds
of thousands
946
00:54:22,718 --> 00:54:24,878
in cities from New York,
with its eight million people,
947
00:54:24,928 --> 00:54:28,182
to Dubois, Wyoming,
with its 800 people,
948
00:54:28,348 --> 00:54:30,521
have sought to impress
upon the president
949
00:54:30,684 --> 00:54:32,686
their opposition to the war.
950
00:54:35,230 --> 00:54:42,034
The first large protest
march I went to was in Baltimore.
951
00:54:42,154 --> 00:54:45,704
I'd never been with that many
people at one time.
952
00:54:45,824 --> 00:54:51,877
Just the energy of the crowd
itself was tremendous.
953
00:54:51,997 --> 00:54:54,250
I wondered
if everybody was in it
954
00:54:54,374 --> 00:54:56,376
for the right reasons.
955
00:54:56,502 --> 00:55:01,053
I wasn't there to drink
or smoke pot.
956
00:55:01,173 --> 00:55:03,392
Not in those situations.
957
00:55:03,509 --> 00:55:07,013
These, to me,
were serious business.
958
00:55:07,137 --> 00:55:10,562
This was the business
of living life.
959
00:55:10,724 --> 00:55:12,021
This was not a party.
960
00:55:12,142 --> 00:55:14,770
I didn't just want
to be with the crowd.
961
00:55:14,895 --> 00:55:16,897
I didn't just want
to make noise.
962
00:55:17,022 --> 00:55:19,024
I wanted to make a difference.
963
00:55:19,149 --> 00:55:23,575
And I in no way
wanted to dishonor my brother.
964
00:55:23,737 --> 00:55:25,239
# For this moment to arrive #
965
00:55:25,364 --> 00:55:27,332
For most of the
government today,
966
00:55:27,449 --> 00:55:28,871
it was business as usual.
967
00:55:28,992 --> 00:55:30,744
But at noon
on the Capitol steps,
968
00:55:30,869 --> 00:55:33,247
a thousand young
congressional staff employees
969
00:55:33,372 --> 00:55:35,966
stood in silence for 45 minutes.
970
00:55:36,083 --> 00:55:40,634
# Blackbird singing
in the dead of night #
971
00:55:40,754 --> 00:55:44,133
The children of several
of the president's closest aides
972
00:55:44,258 --> 00:55:45,635
and cabinet members
973
00:55:45,759 --> 00:55:48,433
took part
in the national moratorium.
974
00:55:48,554 --> 00:55:51,808
Vice President Agnew's
14-year-old daughter
975
00:55:51,932 --> 00:55:53,559
wanted to march,
976
00:55:53,684 --> 00:55:55,186
but he wouldn't let her.
977
00:55:55,310 --> 00:55:57,278
Coretta Scott King,
978
00:55:57,437 --> 00:56:00,281
the widow
of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
979
00:56:00,399 --> 00:56:03,073
led thousands
of silent demonstrators
980
00:56:03,193 --> 00:56:06,948
streaming past the White House,
where Nixon sat alone,
981
00:56:07,072 --> 00:56:10,372
writing notes to himself
on a yellow pad.
982
00:56:10,492 --> 00:56:12,369
"Don't get rattled.
Don't waver.
983
00:56:12,494 --> 00:56:15,043
Don't react."
984
00:56:17,666 --> 00:56:19,464
On November 3,
985
00:56:19,585 --> 00:56:22,930
the president sought
to seize back the initiative.
986
00:56:23,046 --> 00:56:24,798
Good evening,
my fellow Americans.
987
00:56:24,965 --> 00:56:28,811
He went on national
television and called for patience
988
00:56:28,927 --> 00:56:32,147
and asked Americans
to rally behind him.
989
00:56:32,264 --> 00:56:34,062
To you,
990
00:56:34,182 --> 00:56:38,483
the great silent majority
of my fellow Americans,
991
00:56:38,604 --> 00:56:40,481
I ask for your support.
992
00:56:40,606 --> 00:56:43,530
I pledged in my campaign
for the presidency
993
00:56:43,650 --> 00:56:45,152
to end the war
994
00:56:45,319 --> 00:56:48,243
in a way
that we could win the peace.
995
00:56:48,363 --> 00:56:51,993
The more support I can have
from the American people,
996
00:56:52,159 --> 00:56:54,161
the sooner that pledge
can be redeemed;
997
00:56:54,286 --> 00:56:57,665
for the more divided we are
at home,
998
00:56:57,831 --> 00:57:01,426
the less likely the enemy
is to negotiate at Paris.
999
00:57:02,878 --> 00:57:05,222
Let us be united for peace.
1000
00:57:05,339 --> 00:57:09,594
# We don't smoke marijuana
in Muskogee #
1001
00:57:09,718 --> 00:57:11,846
The speech was a triumph.
1002
00:57:11,970 --> 00:57:15,850
Nixon's approval rate
soared to 68%.
1003
00:57:18,185 --> 00:57:20,529
All that's in the news
1004
00:57:20,646 --> 00:57:22,740
is the fact that
the moratoriums are meeting,
1005
00:57:22,856 --> 00:57:24,824
that our country's sick...
1006
00:57:24,942 --> 00:57:26,694
sick of this and sick of that.
1007
00:57:26,818 --> 00:57:29,412
It's young people are all
the ones that are standing up.
1008
00:57:29,529 --> 00:57:32,874
And there is a silent majority,
which is no longer silent.
1009
00:57:33,033 --> 00:57:36,207
We're the people
who are wanting to show
1010
00:57:36,370 --> 00:57:39,214
that man deserves freedom
no matter where he is.
1011
00:57:39,373 --> 00:57:41,546
# A place where even squares
can have a ball #
1012
00:57:41,667 --> 00:57:44,216
Many brave men died in
this country to make it free...
1013
00:57:44,336 --> 00:57:45,963
I believe that.
1014
00:57:46,088 --> 00:57:48,261
And let you...
and let you have everything.
1015
00:57:48,382 --> 00:57:51,602
Senator Fulbright
said some months ago
1016
00:57:51,718 --> 00:57:54,221
that if the Vietnam War
went on much longer,
1017
00:57:54,346 --> 00:57:58,146
the best of our young people
would be in Canada.
1018
00:57:58,266 --> 00:58:01,065
Indeed, as for these deserters,
1019
00:58:01,186 --> 00:58:05,111
malcontents, radicals,
incendiaries,
1020
00:58:05,232 --> 00:58:07,576
the civil
and the uncivil disobedience
1021
00:58:07,693 --> 00:58:09,536
among our young,
1022
00:58:09,653 --> 00:58:11,496
SDS, PLP,
1023
00:58:11,613 --> 00:58:12,840
Weatherman one, Weatherman two,
1024
00:58:12,864 --> 00:58:15,037
the Revolutionary
Action Movement,
1025
00:58:15,158 --> 00:58:17,252
Panthers, lions, hippies,
1026
00:58:17,411 --> 00:58:20,164
yippies, tigers alike.
1027
00:58:20,288 --> 00:58:22,757
I'd rather swap
the whole damn zoo
1028
00:58:22,874 --> 00:58:25,297
for a single platoon
of the kind of young Americans
1029
00:58:25,419 --> 00:58:26,716
I saw in Vietnam.
1030
00:58:29,798 --> 00:58:32,972
"We've got the liberal
bastards on the run now,"
1031
00:58:33,093 --> 00:58:35,596
Nixon told his aides,
1032
00:58:35,762 --> 00:58:39,858
"and we're going to keep them
on the run."
1033
00:58:50,152 --> 00:58:54,373
# My son, my son #
1034
00:58:54,489 --> 00:58:56,457
My doorbell rang,
1035
00:58:56,575 --> 00:58:58,703
and it was this guy
standing there,
1036
00:58:58,827 --> 00:59:01,922
and he said, "Ms. Howard,
we're marching in Memphis
1037
00:59:02,039 --> 00:59:04,838
in protest of the Vietnam War."
1038
00:59:04,958 --> 00:59:06,926
I said, "Really?"
1039
00:59:07,044 --> 00:59:10,469
He said, "And we figured
in view of what happened..."
1040
00:59:10,589 --> 00:59:13,718
I said, "Yeah, my son's death."
1041
00:59:13,842 --> 00:59:16,595
He said, "Well, we thought
you'd like to join us."
1042
00:59:16,720 --> 00:59:18,973
I said,
"One of the reasons he died
1043
00:59:19,097 --> 00:59:20,474
"was so you have the right.
1044
00:59:20,599 --> 00:59:23,318
"In this country,
you have a right.
1045
00:59:23,477 --> 00:59:25,525
"Go right ahead and demonstrate.
1046
00:59:25,645 --> 00:59:27,613
Have at it."
1047
00:59:27,731 --> 00:59:30,075
I said, "But no,
I won't be joining you."
1048
00:59:30,192 --> 00:59:31,819
I said, "But I'll tell you what.
1049
00:59:31,943 --> 00:59:33,661
"If you ever
ring my doorbell again,
1050
00:59:33,779 --> 00:59:36,749
I will blow your damn head off
with a .357 Magnum."
1051
00:59:47,125 --> 00:59:49,344
Well, I was stationed in Vietnam
1052
00:59:49,503 --> 00:59:52,848
at a province called Quang Ngai.
1053
00:59:53,006 --> 00:59:54,566
Even back during the time
of the French,
1054
00:59:54,633 --> 00:59:58,604
it was a very heavily
Viet Minh area,
1055
00:59:58,720 --> 01:00:01,189
and, when I arrived,
heavily Viet Cong.
1056
01:00:02,849 --> 01:00:06,399
No province suffered
more during the American war
1057
01:00:06,520 --> 01:00:08,864
than the coastal province
of Quang Ngai.
1058
01:00:11,066 --> 01:00:15,788
More than 70% of its villages
had been shelled by Navy ships,
1059
01:00:15,904 --> 01:00:19,704
bombed, bulldozed,
or burned to the ground,
1060
01:00:19,866 --> 01:00:22,210
and more than 40% of its people
1061
01:00:22,327 --> 01:00:24,876
had been forced
into refugee camps
1062
01:00:24,996 --> 01:00:28,421
before Tim O'Brien
from Worthington, Minnesota,
1063
01:00:28,542 --> 01:00:30,920
got there in 1969.
1064
01:00:33,046 --> 01:00:34,686
It was a
province that was viewed
1065
01:00:34,798 --> 01:00:37,142
much as I guess
many Americans might view,
1066
01:00:37,259 --> 01:00:39,478
you know,
sort of redneck America.
1067
01:00:39,594 --> 01:00:42,939
Sort of country bumpkins.
1068
01:00:43,056 --> 01:00:44,450
And they may have been
country bumpkins,
1069
01:00:44,474 --> 01:00:46,897
but they were
fiercely independent.
1070
01:00:47,060 --> 01:00:50,405
Private O'Brien
served in Alpha Company,
1071
01:00:50,522 --> 01:00:55,073
3rd Platoon, 5th Battalion,
23rd Americal Division,
1072
01:00:55,235 --> 01:00:58,330
headquartered
at a landing zone called Gator,
1073
01:00:58,446 --> 01:01:01,620
"30 or 40 acres
of almost-America,"
1074
01:01:01,741 --> 01:01:03,368
O'Brien remembered,
1075
01:01:03,493 --> 01:01:06,713
with hot showers and cold beer.
1076
01:01:08,456 --> 01:01:10,129
There was no sense of mission.
1077
01:01:10,250 --> 01:01:11,752
There was no sense
of daily purpose.
1078
01:01:11,918 --> 01:01:13,920
We didn't know
why we were in a village
1079
01:01:14,087 --> 01:01:16,181
or what we were supposed
to accomplish.
1080
01:01:16,298 --> 01:01:18,426
So we'd kick around jugs of rice
1081
01:01:18,592 --> 01:01:21,436
and search houses
and frisk people,
1082
01:01:21,553 --> 01:01:23,851
and not knowing
what we were looking for
1083
01:01:23,972 --> 01:01:27,351
and rarely finding anything.
1084
01:01:27,475 --> 01:01:28,692
And somebody might die,
1085
01:01:28,810 --> 01:01:30,608
one of our guys,
and somebody might not.
1086
01:01:30,729 --> 01:01:33,073
Then we'd come back to
the same village a week later
1087
01:01:33,190 --> 01:01:35,409
or two weeks later,
do it all over again.
1088
01:01:35,525 --> 01:01:38,278
It was like chasing ghosts.
1089
01:01:42,407 --> 01:01:44,159
An American APC
1090
01:01:44,284 --> 01:01:47,788
accidentally crushed one man
from O'Brien's company.
1091
01:01:47,954 --> 01:01:52,130
An enemy grenade skittered off
O'Brien's helmet and exploded,
1092
01:01:52,250 --> 01:01:55,629
wounding a G.I. standing
a few feet away.
1093
01:01:58,590 --> 01:02:02,470
But mines and booby traps
were the greatest menace.
1094
01:02:09,017 --> 01:02:11,520
Somewhere around
80% of our casualties
1095
01:02:11,645 --> 01:02:14,023
came from land mines
of all sorts.
1096
01:02:15,774 --> 01:02:18,653
In Vietnam, for me,
just to get up in the morning
1097
01:02:18,818 --> 01:02:21,992
and look out at the land
and think,
1098
01:02:22,113 --> 01:02:24,866
"In a few minutes
I'll be walking out there,
1099
01:02:24,991 --> 01:02:27,835
"and will my corpse
be there or there?
1100
01:02:27,994 --> 01:02:31,168
Will I lose a leg out there?"
1101
01:02:31,289 --> 01:02:35,510
I'd always thought of courage
as charging enemy bunkers
1102
01:02:35,627 --> 01:02:37,846
or standing up under fire.
1103
01:02:38,004 --> 01:02:41,304
But just to walk
through Quang Ngai,
1104
01:02:41,424 --> 01:02:43,677
day after day,
from village to village,
1105
01:02:43,802 --> 01:02:48,148
and through the paddies
and up into the mountains,
1106
01:02:48,265 --> 01:02:51,769
just to make your legs move
was an act of courage
1107
01:02:51,893 --> 01:02:54,521
that if, say,
you were living in Sioux City,
1108
01:02:54,688 --> 01:02:56,281
it wouldn't be courageous
1109
01:02:56,398 --> 01:02:58,867
to walk to the grocery store
or down Main Street,
1110
01:02:59,025 --> 01:03:01,528
you know, just to have
your legs go back and forth.
1111
01:03:01,653 --> 01:03:03,246
But in Vietnam, for me,
1112
01:03:03,363 --> 01:03:05,457
just to walk felt
incredibly brave.
1113
01:03:05,573 --> 01:03:08,042
I would sometimes look
at my legs as I walked,
1114
01:03:08,159 --> 01:03:10,082
thinking, "How am I doing this?"
1115
01:03:42,444 --> 01:03:44,663
Bao Ninh was 17
1116
01:03:44,779 --> 01:03:47,623
when he was drafted
into the North Vietnamese Army
1117
01:03:47,741 --> 01:03:48,833
to fight the Americans,
1118
01:03:48,950 --> 01:03:52,250
just as his father
had fought the French.
1119
01:03:52,370 --> 01:03:55,590
His war would take place
in the Central Highlands
1120
01:03:55,707 --> 01:03:57,801
of South Vietnam.
1121
01:03:57,917 --> 01:04:00,011
It was American firepower
1122
01:04:00,128 --> 01:04:04,634
that Bao Ninh and his fellow
soldiers feared the most.
1123
01:06:30,153 --> 01:06:32,201
Back in the spring,
1124
01:06:32,322 --> 01:06:35,747
Tim O'Brien's outfit had been
sent into an area of operations
1125
01:06:35,867 --> 01:06:38,620
the Americans called
"Pinkville,"
1126
01:06:38,745 --> 01:06:40,588
clusters of villages
1127
01:06:40,705 --> 01:06:44,050
that included a hamlet
they called My Lai.
1128
01:06:46,002 --> 01:06:48,096
We hated going there.
1129
01:06:48,254 --> 01:06:50,973
When we'd get the word,
"You're headed for Pinkville,"
1130
01:06:51,090 --> 01:06:53,110
one guy would say to another,
"Somebody's gonna die,"
1131
01:06:53,134 --> 01:06:54,454
or, "Somebody's
gonna lose a leg."
1132
01:06:54,594 --> 01:06:56,562
We were terrified of the place.
1133
01:06:56,679 --> 01:07:00,104
It was littered with land mines.
1134
01:07:00,225 --> 01:07:02,023
The villagers were...
1135
01:07:02,143 --> 01:07:03,941
The expressions on their faces,
1136
01:07:04,062 --> 01:07:08,317
including the children
of, say, six or five years old,
1137
01:07:08,441 --> 01:07:13,538
had a mixture of hostility
and terror.
1138
01:07:15,907 --> 01:07:17,329
I can't say
many of the villagers
1139
01:07:17,450 --> 01:07:19,452
came with open arms to us,
1140
01:07:19,619 --> 01:07:21,621
but this place was special.
1141
01:07:21,746 --> 01:07:23,714
And I remember talking
to fellow soldiers,
1142
01:07:23,831 --> 01:07:26,084
thinking,
"What is it with this place?"
1143
01:07:27,460 --> 01:07:29,462
And then about three-quarters
of the way
1144
01:07:29,629 --> 01:07:31,222
through my tour in Vietnam,
1145
01:07:31,339 --> 01:07:34,513
the story of the My Lai Massacre
broke in the States.
1146
01:07:35,843 --> 01:07:38,813
On November 12, 1969,
1147
01:07:38,972 --> 01:07:41,475
the Dispatch News Service
in Washington
1148
01:07:41,599 --> 01:07:45,649
moved a story by investigative
journalist Seymour Hersh.
1149
01:07:47,021 --> 01:07:49,240
It was soon followed
by the publication
1150
01:07:49,357 --> 01:07:54,329
of graphic photos taken by Army
photographer Ronald Haeberle.
1151
01:07:55,822 --> 01:07:59,622
The story and the pictures
stunned the country.
1152
01:07:59,742 --> 01:08:01,289
HUNTLEY".
Charges have been made
1153
01:08:01,411 --> 01:08:04,130
that troops
of the Americal Division
1154
01:08:04,247 --> 01:08:07,672
killed as many as
567 South Vietnamese civilians
1155
01:08:07,792 --> 01:08:10,921
during a sweep in March 1968.
1156
01:08:12,213 --> 01:08:14,181
20 months earlier,
1157
01:08:14,299 --> 01:08:17,724
on the morning
of March 16, 1968,
1158
01:08:17,844 --> 01:08:20,472
105 men from a rifle company
1159
01:08:20,597 --> 01:08:22,725
belonging
to the Americal Division,
1160
01:08:22,849 --> 01:08:24,943
and led by Captain Ernest Medina
1161
01:08:25,059 --> 01:08:27,187
and Lieutenant William Calley,
1162
01:08:27,312 --> 01:08:31,362
had been ordered to helicopter
into the village of My Lai 4.
1163
01:08:32,734 --> 01:08:35,954
Since arriving in Vietnam,
they had lost 28 men
1164
01:08:36,070 --> 01:08:40,917
to mines and booby traps
and unseen snipers.
1165
01:08:41,034 --> 01:08:45,881
Two days earlier, a popular
squad leader had been killed.
1166
01:08:46,039 --> 01:08:49,669
They had been told
a unit of main-force Viet Cong
1167
01:08:49,792 --> 01:08:51,419
was waiting for them,
1168
01:08:51,544 --> 01:08:54,297
and they were eager for revenge.
1169
01:08:55,632 --> 01:08:58,101
But they received
no hostile fire,
1170
01:08:58,217 --> 01:09:03,018
encountered no enemy soldiers.
1171
01:09:04,515 --> 01:09:07,769
Instead,
over the next four hours,
1172
01:09:07,894 --> 01:09:10,738
Medina, Calley,
and their men murdered
1173
01:09:10,855 --> 01:09:18,489
407 defenseless old men,
women, children, and infants.
1174
01:09:28,539 --> 01:09:31,167
Many of the women and girls
were raped
1175
01:09:31,292 --> 01:09:33,590
before they were shot.
1176
01:09:36,673 --> 01:09:38,926
There would have been
still more slaughter
1177
01:09:39,092 --> 01:09:43,222
had a helicopter pilot named
Hugh Thompson, Jr., not landed
1178
01:09:43,346 --> 01:09:46,725
between the men and some
of their intended targets
1179
01:09:46,849 --> 01:09:50,444
and ordered his crew to open
fire on their fellow Americans
1180
01:09:50,603 --> 01:09:53,823
if they did not stop
shooting civilians.
1181
01:09:57,110 --> 01:10:00,614
At the same time,
just a mile or so away,
1182
01:10:00,780 --> 01:10:05,456
another company murdered
97 more villagers.
1183
01:10:07,453 --> 01:10:10,457
And suddenly it was
like a window shade going up,
1184
01:10:10,623 --> 01:10:12,000
and then there's light,
1185
01:10:12,125 --> 01:10:14,127
and we understood
what had engendered
1186
01:10:14,252 --> 01:10:17,552
this horror in these kids' faces
1187
01:10:17,672 --> 01:10:20,391
and fear and the...
and the hatred.
1188
01:10:20,508 --> 01:10:24,012
Hundred and some American
soldiers in four hours or so
1189
01:10:24,137 --> 01:10:26,811
butchering innocent people,
1190
01:10:26,931 --> 01:10:28,979
in all kinds of ways...
machine-gunning them
1191
01:10:29,100 --> 01:10:31,353
and throwing them in wells
and scalping them
1192
01:10:31,477 --> 01:10:33,354
and killing them in ditches
1193
01:10:33,479 --> 01:10:36,073
and taking a lunch break
and then doing it some more.
1194
01:10:37,233 --> 01:10:39,327
Systematic homicide.
1195
01:10:39,485 --> 01:10:40,987
What kind of people?
1196
01:10:41,112 --> 01:10:42,112
Men, women, children?
1197
01:10:42,196 --> 01:10:43,618
Men, women, children.
1198
01:10:43,740 --> 01:10:45,413
- Babies?
- Babies.
1199
01:10:45,533 --> 01:10:47,410
Uh, Lieutenant Calley
came over and said,
1200
01:10:47,535 --> 01:10:49,412
"You know what to do with them,
don't you?"
1201
01:10:49,537 --> 01:10:51,005
And, uh, I said, "Yes."
1202
01:10:51,164 --> 01:10:55,135
So I took it for granted that
he just wanted us to watch them.
1203
01:10:55,251 --> 01:10:57,003
And he left and came back
1204
01:10:57,128 --> 01:10:59,677
about ten or...
ten or 15 minutes later,
1205
01:10:59,797 --> 01:11:03,927
and said, "How come you ain't,
uh, killed them yet?"
1206
01:11:04,051 --> 01:11:05,598
You killed how many
at that time?
1207
01:11:05,720 --> 01:11:08,223
Well, I fired my automatic,
so, uh...
1208
01:11:08,347 --> 01:11:10,975
you can't, uh...
you just spray the area on them,
1209
01:11:11,100 --> 01:11:13,444
so you really can't know
how many you killed
1210
01:11:13,561 --> 01:11:16,280
because it comes out
so doggone fast.
1211
01:11:16,397 --> 01:11:20,618
So I, I might've killed
about, uh, ten or 15 of them.
1212
01:11:21,778 --> 01:11:23,246
Men, women, and children?
1213
01:11:23,362 --> 01:11:24,909
Men, women, and children.
1214
01:11:25,031 --> 01:11:27,079
And babies?
And babies.
1215
01:11:28,576 --> 01:11:30,453
Why did I do it?
1216
01:11:30,578 --> 01:11:33,377
Because I felt like
I was ordered to do it.
1217
01:11:33,498 --> 01:11:36,047
And it seemed like, uh...
1218
01:11:38,753 --> 01:11:42,724
Well, at the time, I felt like
I was doing the right thing.
1219
01:11:42,840 --> 01:11:44,717
I really did.
1220
01:11:44,842 --> 01:11:47,937
Because, uh, like I said,
I lost buddies,
1221
01:11:48,054 --> 01:11:49,931
I lost... I lost a good...
1222
01:11:50,056 --> 01:11:54,402
damn good buddy...
Bobby Wilson...
1223
01:11:54,560 --> 01:11:58,190
and it was on my conscience,
and it was on...
1224
01:11:58,314 --> 01:12:00,237
So after I done it, I felt good.
1225
01:12:00,399 --> 01:12:04,529
But later on that day,
it was getting to me.
1226
01:12:04,654 --> 01:12:07,703
It's so hard, I think,
for a good many Americans
1227
01:12:07,824 --> 01:12:10,828
to understand
that young, capable,
1228
01:12:10,952 --> 01:12:14,172
brave American boys
1229
01:12:14,288 --> 01:12:17,212
could line up
1230
01:12:17,333 --> 01:12:21,930
old men, women,
children, and babies
1231
01:12:22,046 --> 01:12:24,765
and shoot them down
in cold blood.
1232
01:12:29,512 --> 01:12:31,731
How do you explain that?
1233
01:12:31,848 --> 01:12:33,771
I wouldn't know.
1234
01:12:43,901 --> 01:12:48,031
The killing of civilians
has happened in every war.
1235
01:12:48,155 --> 01:12:52,456
In Vietnam,
it was not policy or routine,
1236
01:12:52,577 --> 01:12:55,171
but it was not
an aberration, either.
1237
01:12:56,789 --> 01:13:01,590
Still, the scale
and deliberateness and intimacy
1238
01:13:01,711 --> 01:13:03,805
of what happened at My Lai
1239
01:13:03,963 --> 01:13:05,215
was different.
1240
01:13:05,339 --> 01:13:06,966
It was different
1241
01:13:07,091 --> 01:13:09,810
because they were killing
Vietnamese point-blank
1242
01:13:09,927 --> 01:13:11,270
with rifles and grenades.
1243
01:13:11,387 --> 01:13:13,685
They were murdering them
directly.
1244
01:13:13,806 --> 01:13:15,979
They weren't doing it
with bombs and artillery.
1245
01:13:16,142 --> 01:13:17,619
If they'd been doing it
with bombs and artillery,
1246
01:13:17,643 --> 01:13:18,787
nobody would have said a word,
1247
01:13:18,811 --> 01:13:20,251
because it was going on
all the time.
1248
01:13:21,314 --> 01:13:22,566
Not every soldier
1249
01:13:22,690 --> 01:13:24,408
participated in the killings
that day.
1250
01:13:24,525 --> 01:13:28,029
Some led villagers away
to safety.
1251
01:13:28,154 --> 01:13:30,907
But a failure
of military leadership
1252
01:13:31,032 --> 01:13:34,127
at nearly every level had
created the conditions
1253
01:13:34,243 --> 01:13:37,622
that made the massacre possible.
1254
01:13:37,747 --> 01:13:41,968
The My Lai story might have
shocked the American public,
1255
01:13:42,084 --> 01:13:44,257
but it was not news to the Army.
1256
01:13:44,378 --> 01:13:47,507
It had occurred
almost two years before,
1257
01:13:47,673 --> 01:13:50,677
just after the Tet Offensive.
1258
01:13:50,843 --> 01:13:53,187
Hugh Thompson,
the helicopter pilot
1259
01:13:53,346 --> 01:13:55,348
who had tried
to stop the massacre,
1260
01:13:55,514 --> 01:13:58,313
reported what he had seen,
1261
01:13:58,434 --> 01:14:00,311
but no one
in the chain of command
1262
01:14:00,436 --> 01:14:01,562
was willing to act.
1263
01:14:01,687 --> 01:14:05,317
The slaughter was covered up.
1264
01:14:05,441 --> 01:14:09,196
Later, an ex-corporal
named Ronald Ridenhour,
1265
01:14:09,320 --> 01:14:10,947
who had heard
about what had happened
1266
01:14:11,072 --> 01:14:12,995
from several men
who had been there,
1267
01:14:13,115 --> 01:14:16,494
wrote letters to the
president of the United States,
1268
01:14:16,619 --> 01:14:18,371
the secretary of defense,
1269
01:14:18,537 --> 01:14:22,383
and more than two dozen other
high-ranking officials.
1270
01:14:22,541 --> 01:14:25,670
Personally,
what decision-making process
1271
01:14:25,795 --> 01:14:28,594
did you go through before
you decided to take your action?
1272
01:14:28,714 --> 01:14:32,389
I guess I just wrestled
with my own conscience
1273
01:14:32,510 --> 01:14:34,729
to try to decide
what action to take.
1274
01:14:34,887 --> 01:14:36,889
I felt that I had
to take some action.
1275
01:14:37,014 --> 01:14:38,357
I had to do something.
1276
01:14:38,474 --> 01:14:39,691
I couldn't just...
1277
01:14:39,809 --> 01:14:42,312
just rest with this knowledge
for the rest of my life
1278
01:14:42,436 --> 01:14:45,235
that I couldn't... I couldn't
live with myself if I did.
1279
01:14:45,398 --> 01:14:48,322
President Nixon's first reaction
1280
01:14:48,442 --> 01:14:52,572
was to investigate those
who reported the slaughter.
1281
01:14:52,697 --> 01:14:55,371
"It's those dirty rotten Jews
from New York
1282
01:14:55,491 --> 01:14:56,743
who are behind it,"
1283
01:14:56,867 --> 01:14:58,244
he told an aide.
1284
01:14:58,411 --> 01:15:02,666
Eventually, Lieutenant General
William R. Peers,
1285
01:15:02,790 --> 01:15:06,590
a veteran of 30 months as
a troop commander in Vietnam,
1286
01:15:06,752 --> 01:15:08,425
was assigned to head a panel
1287
01:15:08,546 --> 01:15:11,299
to look into
what had really happened.
1288
01:15:11,424 --> 01:15:14,473
Peers found that 30 persons,
1289
01:15:14,593 --> 01:15:16,937
including
the division commander,
1290
01:15:17,054 --> 01:15:19,273
General Samuel W. Koster,
1291
01:15:19,390 --> 01:15:21,643
had either committed atrocities
1292
01:15:21,767 --> 01:15:25,738
or had conspired
to cover them up.
1293
01:15:29,775 --> 01:15:33,496
Peers had wanted to call My Lai
a "massacre."
1294
01:15:33,612 --> 01:15:36,866
His superiors
made him use the phrase,
1295
01:15:36,991 --> 01:15:40,996
"a tragedy
of major proportions."
1296
01:15:41,120 --> 01:15:46,627
In the end, the Army indicted
25 officers and men,
1297
01:15:46,751 --> 01:15:51,882
including the platoon leader,
Lieutenant William Calley.
1298
01:15:54,467 --> 01:15:56,469
Calley's a killer.
1299
01:15:56,594 --> 01:15:58,471
Calley's a murderer
1300
01:15:58,637 --> 01:16:00,810
and a... a sick person.
1301
01:16:02,933 --> 01:16:05,937
I'm not gonna be
in any, you know, uh,
1302
01:16:06,062 --> 01:16:08,485
propaganda movie for
the United States Marine Corps,
1303
01:16:08,647 --> 01:16:10,524
but we didn't have that guy.
1304
01:16:12,818 --> 01:16:15,241
We had individuals who, who...
1305
01:16:15,362 --> 01:16:17,330
who committed war crimes,
of course.
1306
01:16:17,448 --> 01:16:21,373
And, um, you know,
I wanted to kill them.
1307
01:16:21,494 --> 01:16:23,997
I sometimes wish I did kill 'em.
1308
01:16:26,832 --> 01:16:30,587
But... I was afraid to kill 'em.
1309
01:16:33,005 --> 01:16:34,928
# Two, one, two, three, four #
1310
01:16:40,513 --> 01:16:42,015
# Everybody's talking about... #
1311
01:16:42,139 --> 01:16:45,234
I never considered
the Vietnamese our enemy.
1312
01:16:45,351 --> 01:16:47,024
They had never done anything
1313
01:16:47,144 --> 01:16:49,693
to threaten the security
of the United States.
1314
01:16:49,814 --> 01:16:52,533
They were off 10,000 miles away,
1315
01:16:52,650 --> 01:16:54,368
minding their own business,
1316
01:16:54,485 --> 01:16:56,829
and we went there
to their country,
1317
01:16:56,946 --> 01:16:58,368
told them
what kind of government
1318
01:16:58,531 --> 01:17:00,750
we wanted them to have.
1319
01:17:00,866 --> 01:17:04,996
Well, when
I see the war protesters,
1320
01:17:05,121 --> 01:17:06,873
I react on a couple of levels.
1321
01:17:06,997 --> 01:17:09,500
Intellectually, I certainly
understand their right
1322
01:17:09,625 --> 01:17:11,298
to the freedom of speech.
1323
01:17:11,418 --> 01:17:12,795
But I will tell you
1324
01:17:12,920 --> 01:17:15,844
that when I see them
waving NLF flags,
1325
01:17:15,965 --> 01:17:19,185
the enemy that I and my friends
had to fight,
1326
01:17:19,301 --> 01:17:22,475
and some of my friends
had to die fighting,
1327
01:17:22,596 --> 01:17:24,223
that doesn't sit very well
with me.
1328
01:17:24,348 --> 01:17:27,443
# All we are saying... #
1329
01:17:27,560 --> 01:17:30,484
On November 15, 1969,
1330
01:17:30,604 --> 01:17:32,823
half a million citizens
turned out
1331
01:17:32,940 --> 01:17:35,443
against the war in Washington,
again.
1332
01:17:35,568 --> 01:17:37,866
# Everybody's talking
about revolution... #
1333
01:17:37,987 --> 01:17:41,207
This time, buses
provided an impenetrable wall
1334
01:17:41,323 --> 01:17:43,496
around the White House.
1335
01:17:43,617 --> 01:17:45,961
President Nixon claimed
he was too busy
1336
01:17:46,078 --> 01:17:48,251
watching football on television
1337
01:17:48,372 --> 01:17:49,589
to pay attention,
1338
01:17:49,707 --> 01:17:54,087
but he did suggest that
Army helicopters might be used
1339
01:17:54,253 --> 01:17:56,096
to blow out
the marchers' candles.
1340
01:17:56,255 --> 01:17:58,223
# All we are saying... #
1341
01:17:59,884 --> 01:18:01,903
Hundreds of thousands
of others demonstrated
1342
01:18:01,927 --> 01:18:05,431
in San Francisco and New York.
1343
01:18:12,730 --> 01:18:15,074
The most striking
antiwar protest
1344
01:18:15,191 --> 01:18:16,408
of this Thanksgiving Day
1345
01:18:16,525 --> 01:18:18,948
occurred not in this country,
but in Vietnam,
1346
01:18:19,111 --> 01:18:21,489
though its form was
uniquely American.
1347
01:18:21,614 --> 01:18:23,708
About 100 American soldiers
1348
01:18:23,824 --> 01:18:26,202
stationed at a hospital
in Pleiku
1349
01:18:26,327 --> 01:18:28,876
refused to eat their traditional
turkey dinner.
1350
01:18:28,996 --> 01:18:32,967
They described their fast as a
passive protest against the war.
1351
01:18:41,759 --> 01:18:43,386
The Army did what the Army does.
1352
01:18:43,510 --> 01:18:45,030
Every year, you know,
for Thanksgiving,
1353
01:18:45,095 --> 01:18:46,221
they make a big deal.
1354
01:18:46,347 --> 01:18:47,547
They're gonna bring in turkey,
1355
01:18:47,640 --> 01:18:49,075
they're gonna bring in
mashed potatoes,
1356
01:18:49,099 --> 01:18:51,397
and apple pie and whatever.
1357
01:18:51,518 --> 01:18:53,395
And by this point, I think,
1358
01:18:53,520 --> 01:18:56,490
a lot of us were very,
very cynical about the war
1359
01:18:56,607 --> 01:18:58,405
and what was going on.
1360
01:18:58,525 --> 01:19:01,904
But we weren't gonna make
a big deal about it.
1361
01:19:02,029 --> 01:19:04,578
We knew there were gonna be
TV people there.
1362
01:19:04,698 --> 01:19:07,827
And a couple of the organizers
were looking for people to talk.
1363
01:19:07,952 --> 01:19:09,545
They came to me, I said, "No."
1364
01:19:09,662 --> 01:19:12,006
I said, "Look, I'm gonna fast
and do my thing."
1365
01:19:12,122 --> 01:19:13,965
I said,
"But I, I really don't want
1366
01:19:14,083 --> 01:19:16,381
to be involved
with any media thing."
1367
01:19:16,502 --> 01:19:20,882
That Thanksgiving Day,
Lieutenant Furey was on duty
1368
01:19:21,006 --> 01:19:25,056
when one of her patients took
a sudden turn for the worse.
1369
01:19:25,177 --> 01:19:28,181
Some patients, they
just get into your heart.
1370
01:19:28,347 --> 01:19:29,894
And this kid, I think he was 18.
1371
01:19:30,015 --> 01:19:31,437
His name was Timmy.
1372
01:19:31,558 --> 01:19:35,984
It was unlikely
he was gonna survive.
1373
01:19:36,105 --> 01:19:39,530
And I just got so angry.
1374
01:19:39,692 --> 01:19:43,071
I just lost it.
1375
01:19:43,195 --> 01:19:45,289
I remember walking out
of the O.R.,
1376
01:19:45,406 --> 01:19:47,300
I ripped off the gown,
and I ripped off the mask,
1377
01:19:47,324 --> 01:19:50,544
I walked outside, I said,
"Where are those reporters?"
1378
01:20:03,757 --> 01:20:05,902
I mean, you know, you don't
demonstrate against the war
1379
01:20:05,926 --> 01:20:07,052
in a war zone.
1380
01:20:07,177 --> 01:20:10,056
By that time, of course,
you, you had the attitude,
1381
01:20:10,180 --> 01:20:11,978
"What are they gonna do?
1382
01:20:12,099 --> 01:20:13,976
Send me to Vietnam?"
1383
01:20:22,943 --> 01:20:25,867
Let's just say that
being a Marine combat veteran
1384
01:20:25,988 --> 01:20:29,913
on a college campus
in 1969 and 1970...
1385
01:20:30,075 --> 01:20:31,793
it wasn't a real good thing
to be
1386
01:20:31,910 --> 01:20:33,958
if you wanted to get dates
and be popular.
1387
01:20:36,790 --> 01:20:40,260
When I came home, it seemed like
1388
01:20:40,377 --> 01:20:43,677
I didn't have anything
to give to anybody else.
1389
01:20:47,134 --> 01:20:51,139
Marine Corporal John
Musgrave had very nearly died
1390
01:20:51,263 --> 01:20:55,894
in combat below the DMZ
in the autumn of 1967.
1391
01:20:56,018 --> 01:20:58,771
Wounded in the jaw and shoulder,
1392
01:20:58,937 --> 01:21:02,612
his ribs shattered,
lung pierced, nerves cut,
1393
01:21:02,733 --> 01:21:07,034
he had spent 17 months
in Navy hospitals.
1394
01:21:07,154 --> 01:21:10,203
He was now studying
at Baker University
1395
01:21:10,324 --> 01:21:13,077
in Baldwin City, Kansas.
1396
01:21:15,537 --> 01:21:19,917
But wherever he went,
the war was never far away.
1397
01:21:22,169 --> 01:21:26,470
And the peace movement,
for a while, got real nasty,
1398
01:21:26,632 --> 01:21:28,600
calling veterans baby killers.
1399
01:21:30,677 --> 01:21:32,475
It did more than piss us off.
1400
01:21:32,638 --> 01:21:34,436
It broke our hearts.
1401
01:21:34,556 --> 01:21:36,809
What were they thinking?
1402
01:21:36,934 --> 01:21:42,191
You don't turn your backs
on your warriors.
1403
01:21:42,314 --> 01:21:44,817
I didn't trust anybody anymore.
1404
01:21:46,318 --> 01:21:48,616
Just my family.
1405
01:21:48,737 --> 01:21:51,160
Musgrave was so hurt
1406
01:21:51,323 --> 01:21:53,291
by the way
some people treated him
1407
01:21:53,409 --> 01:21:56,709
that he volunteered
to return to Vietnam.
1408
01:21:56,829 --> 01:22:00,459
Because of his injuries,
the Marines turned him down,
1409
01:22:00,582 --> 01:22:04,428
and asked him
to help recruit men instead.
1410
01:22:04,545 --> 01:22:06,468
He did for a time,
1411
01:22:06,588 --> 01:22:09,558
but when students asked him
questions about the war
1412
01:22:09,675 --> 01:22:11,427
he couldn't answer,
1413
01:22:11,552 --> 01:22:12,644
he also began to read
1414
01:22:12,761 --> 01:22:17,016
about how and why
it was being fought.
1415
01:22:17,182 --> 01:22:20,812
I had friends in
country on a second tour,
1416
01:22:20,936 --> 01:22:24,031
and, you know, I, I was still...
considered myself a Marine.
1417
01:22:24,148 --> 01:22:26,901
And... and the more I read,
1418
01:22:27,025 --> 01:22:32,247
the less I found to be able
to defend our presence there.
1419
01:22:32,364 --> 01:22:36,369
So then, I, I just stopped
talking to everybody.
1420
01:22:38,662 --> 01:22:42,587
Musgrave gradually felt
as if he were being torn in two.
1421
01:22:42,708 --> 01:22:46,588
And he was still haunted
by the memory of those Marines
1422
01:22:46,712 --> 01:22:51,309
who had died while he had lived.
1423
01:22:51,425 --> 01:22:54,554
I was dating my .45
in those years, you know.
1424
01:22:54,678 --> 01:22:57,352
Coming home at night
after drinking,
1425
01:22:57,473 --> 01:22:59,475
and pressing it up
against my temple,
1426
01:22:59,600 --> 01:23:02,399
or putting it under my chin,
1427
01:23:02,561 --> 01:23:04,814
wondering if this was gonna be
the night
1428
01:23:04,938 --> 01:23:06,906
I was gonna have the guts
to do it.
1429
01:23:08,692 --> 01:23:10,837
I'd had a round chambered,
and I'd taken the safety off.
1430
01:23:10,861 --> 01:23:13,080
Same kind of pistol
I carried in Vietnam.
1431
01:23:15,699 --> 01:23:18,999
And I thought, "I'm really gonna
do it tonight."
1432
01:23:19,119 --> 01:23:22,919
You know, like, "Whew, I'm
really gonna do it," you know.
1433
01:23:23,081 --> 01:23:24,958
And my dogs...
I'd let my dogs out.
1434
01:23:25,083 --> 01:23:26,585
I had two dogs.
1435
01:23:26,752 --> 01:23:28,254
And they jumped
on the front door
1436
01:23:28,378 --> 01:23:29,658
and scratched on the front door.
1437
01:23:29,755 --> 01:23:31,507
They wanted in.
1438
01:23:31,632 --> 01:23:32,817
And I put the safety
back on the pistol
1439
01:23:32,841 --> 01:23:34,593
and set it down
and went and let 'em in.
1440
01:23:36,428 --> 01:23:39,102
And they were so open
in their love for me
1441
01:23:39,223 --> 01:23:40,850
that I literally said out loud,
1442
01:23:40,974 --> 01:23:46,105
"Whoa, if I really want to do
this, I can do this tomorrow."
1443
01:23:46,271 --> 01:23:47,614
And I went back in the room,
1444
01:23:47,731 --> 01:23:49,574
and I put the pistol
in the drawer, and...
1445
01:23:49,691 --> 01:23:52,615
and I... I think
that was the closest I came.
1446
01:23:52,736 --> 01:23:54,329
I think maybe
I would have killed...
1447
01:23:54,446 --> 01:23:56,699
k-k-killed myself that night.
1448
01:23:56,823 --> 01:23:58,166
But something as simple
1449
01:23:58,283 --> 01:24:00,706
as my dogs wanting back in...
1450
01:24:00,827 --> 01:24:04,081
stopped that thought, you know.
1451
01:24:06,833 --> 01:24:09,803
I'm really glad
that it didn't happen.
1452
01:24:09,962 --> 01:24:13,091
But at the time,
it just made so much sense.
1453
01:24:17,970 --> 01:24:19,893
Richard Nixon's
troop withdrawals
1454
01:24:20,013 --> 01:24:23,187
finally turned Musgrave
against the war.
1455
01:24:23,308 --> 01:24:26,027
"If it ain't worth winning,"
he said,
1456
01:24:26,144 --> 01:24:28,488
"it ain't worth dying for."
1457
01:24:28,605 --> 01:24:31,154
His loyalty to the Marines
1458
01:24:31,316 --> 01:24:34,160
would not yet let him
openly say that,
1459
01:24:34,278 --> 01:24:36,701
but he told a campus
antiwar meeting
1460
01:24:36,822 --> 01:24:39,666
that they should stop acting
as if they didn't give a damn
1461
01:24:39,783 --> 01:24:42,536
about the men
who had been asked to fight,
1462
01:24:42,661 --> 01:24:45,005
and received a standing ovation.
1463
01:24:49,334 --> 01:24:51,632
The turning
point for me, I think,
1464
01:24:51,753 --> 01:24:54,723
was one evening I spent
with my friend Sonny Walter,
1465
01:24:54,840 --> 01:24:57,343
who had been, uh... just been
discharged from the Army,
1466
01:24:57,509 --> 01:25:00,012
and had come home
and spent an evening
1467
01:25:00,178 --> 01:25:02,681
before I went in
pleading with me not to go.
1468
01:25:02,848 --> 01:25:05,351
He even offered
to drive me to Canada.
1469
01:25:05,517 --> 01:25:08,020
He was showing me some
horrible pictures of Vietnam
1470
01:25:08,186 --> 01:25:09,859
from his own service there.
1471
01:25:11,815 --> 01:25:13,692
I think everything
that happened after it
1472
01:25:13,859 --> 01:25:15,361
had its seeds in that evening.
1473
01:25:17,571 --> 01:25:20,871
While attending
the University of Nebraska,
1474
01:25:20,991 --> 01:25:24,746
Jack Todd had undergone
Marine officer training,
1475
01:25:24,870 --> 01:25:28,249
but bad knees
had forced him to drop out
1476
01:25:28,373 --> 01:25:30,421
and he believed
that exempted him
1477
01:25:30,542 --> 01:25:33,091
from having to take part
in a war
1478
01:25:33,211 --> 01:25:35,805
he had come to see as immoral.
1479
01:25:35,922 --> 01:25:39,972
He began work as a reporter
on The Miami Herald.
1480
01:25:40,093 --> 01:25:44,724
But in the autumn of 1969
he received a draft notice
1481
01:25:44,848 --> 01:25:47,146
from the Army anyway.
1482
01:25:47,267 --> 01:25:48,610
# The thrill is gone #
1483
01:25:48,727 --> 01:25:50,070
So I went into my physical
1484
01:25:50,228 --> 01:25:52,268
and I showed them my discharge
from the Marine Corps
1485
01:25:52,356 --> 01:25:54,029
and I actually remember
a sergeant,
1486
01:25:54,149 --> 01:25:55,543
or whoever
I was talking to, saying,
1487
01:25:55,567 --> 01:25:57,740
"But, uh, you were discharged
from an officer program.
1488
01:25:57,861 --> 01:25:59,283
We're drafting you
as a private."
1489
01:26:01,531 --> 01:26:03,909
In late November 1969,
1490
01:26:04,076 --> 01:26:08,377
Todd reported for basic training
at Fort Lewis, Washington.
1491
01:26:08,497 --> 01:26:10,420
# You know you done me wrong #
1492
01:26:10,582 --> 01:26:12,505
Morale just could
not have been worse.
1493
01:26:12,626 --> 01:26:14,424
And-and it seemed to include
1494
01:26:14,544 --> 01:26:17,343
even the sergeants
and the officers.
1495
01:26:17,464 --> 01:26:21,344
Nobody wanted to go.
Nobody wanted to go.
1496
01:26:21,468 --> 01:26:24,768
America just seemed to have
shifted from the Woodstock high
1497
01:26:24,930 --> 01:26:25,977
of the summer to this...
1498
01:26:26,098 --> 01:26:29,272
this sort of bitter
Nixonian low.
1499
01:26:29,393 --> 01:26:32,738
Jack Todd and
another member of his unit
1500
01:26:32,854 --> 01:26:35,778
began to talk at night
about what it meant
1501
01:26:35,941 --> 01:26:37,443
to be true to one's conscience.
1502
01:26:41,738 --> 01:26:44,116
Some 170,000 men
1503
01:26:44,282 --> 01:26:46,580
were granted
conscientious objector status
1504
01:26:46,702 --> 01:26:49,251
during the Vietnam era.
1505
01:26:49,371 --> 01:26:51,044
But because Jack Todd
1506
01:26:51,164 --> 01:26:53,337
questioned the existence of God,
1507
01:26:53,458 --> 01:26:57,133
that avenue was closed to him.
1508
01:26:57,254 --> 01:26:58,471
There were really two choices.
1509
01:26:58,630 --> 01:27:00,348
It was go to jail
or go to Canada.
1510
01:27:00,465 --> 01:27:02,934
And, for me,
going to jail was just...
1511
01:27:03,051 --> 01:27:04,928
That one, I couldn't face.
1512
01:27:05,053 --> 01:27:06,930
So I went to Canada.
1513
01:27:07,055 --> 01:27:10,730
# Farewell, Angelina #
1514
01:27:10,851 --> 01:27:14,697
# The bells of the crown #
1515
01:27:14,813 --> 01:27:16,986
I remember that
last beautiful drive,
1516
01:27:17,149 --> 01:27:19,652
from Seattle to Vancouver,
1517
01:27:19,776 --> 01:27:24,282
all the towering Douglas firs
along the road.
1518
01:27:24,406 --> 01:27:26,579
And I remember,
after we crossed the border...
1519
01:27:26,700 --> 01:27:29,169
it was a breeze, they just
sort of waved us through...
1520
01:27:29,327 --> 01:27:31,421
and just looking in the
rearview mirror, thinking,
1521
01:27:31,538 --> 01:27:32,790
"Man, there goes my country.
1522
01:27:32,914 --> 01:27:35,918
I'll never see it again."
1523
01:27:36,042 --> 01:27:39,137
# But farewell, Angelina #
1524
01:27:39,254 --> 01:27:42,474
# The night is on fire #
1525
01:27:42,591 --> 01:27:44,468
# And I must go #
1526
01:27:46,928 --> 01:27:49,602
I get called a coward
all the time.
1527
01:27:49,723 --> 01:27:52,818
It took me a long time
1528
01:27:52,934 --> 01:27:55,357
not to feel that what I had done
1529
01:27:55,520 --> 01:27:58,069
was-was cowardly,
because I still had
1530
01:27:58,190 --> 01:28:01,569
that military ingrained
feeling inside.
1531
01:28:03,195 --> 01:28:06,290
That was the bravest thing
I ever did.
1532
01:28:06,406 --> 01:28:08,374
It was
the bravest thing I ever did.
1533
01:28:11,203 --> 01:28:14,753
Jack Todd eventually
found work as a reporter,
1534
01:28:14,873 --> 01:28:17,877
which allowed him to gain
"landed immigrant status,"
1535
01:28:18,001 --> 01:28:21,301
a step toward
Canadian citizenship.
1536
01:28:21,421 --> 01:28:25,927
Only a quarter of the estimated
30,000 Americans
1537
01:28:26,051 --> 01:28:28,895
who crossed into Canada
managed to do so.
1538
01:28:29,012 --> 01:28:31,231
# The sky is erupting #
1539
01:28:31,348 --> 01:28:35,023
# And I must go
where it is quiet. #
1540
01:28:35,143 --> 01:28:38,317
At the same time,
some 30,000 Canadians
1541
01:28:38,438 --> 01:28:41,908
would volunteer to fight
in Vietnam.
1542
01:29:00,794 --> 01:29:04,094
I thought about...
1543
01:29:04,214 --> 01:29:06,137
my parents and my siblings
1544
01:29:06,258 --> 01:29:09,888
and my wife and my little girl.
1545
01:29:10,011 --> 01:29:13,436
And one of the things
that bothered me, is that I...
1546
01:29:13,557 --> 01:29:18,154
I couldn't really remember what
they looked like after a while.
1547
01:29:18,270 --> 01:29:20,614
I remembered what
their pictures looked like.
1548
01:29:20,772 --> 01:29:25,118
And when I imaged them
in my mind's eye
1549
01:29:25,277 --> 01:29:28,702
I would image a picture,
a photograph.
1550
01:29:31,449 --> 01:29:32,802
Valerie Kushner
arrived on the...
1551
01:29:32,826 --> 01:29:34,920
Hal Kushner's wife, Valerie,
1552
01:29:35,036 --> 01:29:37,130
had heard virtually nothing
of her husband
1553
01:29:37,247 --> 01:29:40,922
since his capture
by the Viet Cong in 1967,
1554
01:29:41,042 --> 01:29:43,636
and she had traveled
to the Far East
1555
01:29:43,795 --> 01:29:46,139
to try to improve
conditions for him.
1556
01:29:46,256 --> 01:29:49,510
I think my period
of greatest frustration
1557
01:29:49,634 --> 01:29:52,513
was just before and just after
the birth of our son.
1558
01:29:52,637 --> 01:29:55,186
He was born in April of 1968
1559
01:29:55,307 --> 01:29:59,153
and my husband was captured
in November of 1967.
1560
01:29:59,311 --> 01:30:03,157
So my husband does not yet
know of his birth.
1561
01:30:03,273 --> 01:30:05,473
With their father
gone, the Kushner children
1562
01:30:05,525 --> 01:30:08,620
rely heavily on their
mother and their grandparents.
1563
01:30:08,737 --> 01:30:10,177
Young Mike has never
seen his father,
1564
01:30:10,322 --> 01:30:12,620
but six-year-old
Toni-Jean remembers.
1565
01:30:12,741 --> 01:30:14,181
And the remembrances
of Major Kushner
1566
01:30:14,326 --> 01:30:15,953
are everywhere in their house.
1567
01:30:16,077 --> 01:30:18,171
Toni, however,
knows only that he's away,
1568
01:30:18,288 --> 01:30:19,974
that he's been captured,
that grandfather fills in
1569
01:30:19,998 --> 01:30:21,250
until Dad comes home.
1570
01:30:21,374 --> 01:30:25,220
The Kushners worry,
but they do not grieve.
1571
01:30:25,337 --> 01:30:27,305
Don Farmer, ABC News, reporting.
1572
01:30:34,220 --> 01:30:36,314
In February 1970,
1573
01:30:36,431 --> 01:30:39,560
in a house in an industrial
suburb of Paris,
1574
01:30:39,684 --> 01:30:42,187
Henry Kissinger
began a new series
1575
01:30:42,312 --> 01:30:45,737
of secret negotiations...
talks so secret
1576
01:30:45,857 --> 01:30:50,078
even the secretary of state
was not told about them.
1577
01:30:50,195 --> 01:30:52,197
His negotiating partner
1578
01:30:52,364 --> 01:30:56,039
would be Le Duan's close
political ally, Le Duc Tho,
1579
01:30:56,201 --> 01:30:59,705
a veteran of 40 years
of revolutionary warfare
1580
01:30:59,829 --> 01:31:03,550
and party intrigue...
shrewd, implacable,
1581
01:31:03,708 --> 01:31:07,383
and openly scornful
of Vietnamization.
1582
01:31:07,504 --> 01:31:10,178
If the United States
could not win
1583
01:31:10,298 --> 01:31:13,472
with half a million of its own
troops, he asked Kissinger,
1584
01:31:13,593 --> 01:31:16,187
"How can you succeed
when you let your puppet troops
1585
01:31:16,304 --> 01:31:18,557
do the fighting?"
1586
01:31:18,723 --> 01:31:21,897
The American admitted
he had no answer.
1587
01:31:27,691 --> 01:31:29,864
Despite the impasse in Paris,
1588
01:31:29,985 --> 01:31:33,580
Nixon's first year
had been a triumph.
1589
01:31:33,697 --> 01:31:39,750
He had withdrawn
115,000 troops from Vietnam.
1590
01:31:41,079 --> 01:31:44,299
American casualty figures
were down.
1591
01:31:44,416 --> 01:31:46,965
Reduced draft calls
1592
01:31:47,085 --> 01:31:49,258
and the president's
new lottery system
1593
01:31:49,421 --> 01:31:52,425
had blunted some opposition
to the war.
1594
01:31:55,343 --> 01:31:57,766
And the violent actions
of some revolutionaries
1595
01:31:57,929 --> 01:32:01,433
were tarnishing
the antiwar cause itself.
1596
01:32:01,558 --> 01:32:05,404
Between September 1969
and May 1970,
1597
01:32:05,520 --> 01:32:08,114
there would be
hundreds of bombings...
1598
01:32:08,231 --> 01:32:10,029
banks and courthouses,
1599
01:32:10,150 --> 01:32:13,279
induction centers
and ROTC buildings.
1600
01:32:15,321 --> 01:32:17,198
One police officer was killed.
1601
01:32:18,491 --> 01:32:19,868
Three would-be bombers
1602
01:32:19,993 --> 01:32:23,668
accidentally blew themselves up
in Greenwich Village.
1603
01:32:23,788 --> 01:32:25,961
# Well, well #
1604
01:32:26,082 --> 01:32:29,962
The antiwar
movement split apart.
1605
01:32:30,128 --> 01:32:32,847
And there were people who felt
that the only way
1606
01:32:32,964 --> 01:32:36,685
we were ever gonna end the war
was by becoming more violent.
1607
01:32:36,801 --> 01:32:39,645
You know, that we had to match
violence with violence.
1608
01:32:39,763 --> 01:32:44,485
How that was gonna happen
wasn't spoken about openly.
1609
01:32:44,601 --> 01:32:47,275
But there was just
this undercurrent.
1610
01:32:47,395 --> 01:32:49,648
This is a plumbing pipe
1611
01:32:49,773 --> 01:32:53,198
completely full of gunpowder.
1612
01:32:53,318 --> 01:32:55,446
# Music so high
you can't get over it #
1613
01:32:55,570 --> 01:32:57,948
My fellow Americans,
1614
01:32:58,073 --> 01:33:00,542
we live in an age of anarchy,
1615
01:33:00,658 --> 01:33:03,161
both abroad and at home.
1616
01:33:04,704 --> 01:33:09,676
We see mindless attacks
on all the great institutions,
1617
01:33:09,793 --> 01:33:12,137
which have been created
by free civilizations
1618
01:33:12,253 --> 01:33:14,847
in the last 500 years.
1619
01:33:16,216 --> 01:33:18,344
Even here in the United States,
1620
01:33:18,468 --> 01:33:22,018
great universities are being
systematically destroyed.
1621
01:33:25,141 --> 01:33:27,860
If, when the chips are down,
1622
01:33:27,977 --> 01:33:30,446
the world's
most powerful nation,
1623
01:33:30,563 --> 01:33:32,236
the United States of America,
1624
01:33:32,357 --> 01:33:37,204
acts like a pitiful,
helpless giant,
1625
01:33:37,362 --> 01:33:41,037
the forces of totalitarianism
and anarchy
1626
01:33:41,157 --> 01:33:43,785
will threaten free nations
and free institutions
1627
01:33:43,910 --> 01:33:45,457
throughout the world.
1628
01:33:45,578 --> 01:33:49,583
On April 30, 1970,
1629
01:33:49,707 --> 01:33:51,459
President Nixon
shocked the world
1630
01:33:51,584 --> 01:33:54,633
by announcing that he had sent
30,000 American troops
1631
01:33:54,754 --> 01:33:58,384
storming into Cambodia.
1632
01:33:58,550 --> 01:34:01,520
The previous month,
Prince Norodom Sihanouk
1633
01:34:01,636 --> 01:34:03,809
had been overthrown in a coup.
1634
01:34:03,930 --> 01:34:06,228
For years, he had allowed
the North Vietnamese
1635
01:34:06,391 --> 01:34:08,894
to keep sanctuaries
in his country,
1636
01:34:09,060 --> 01:34:10,937
but he had not protested
1637
01:34:11,062 --> 01:34:14,487
when American planes
bombed them.
1638
01:34:14,607 --> 01:34:17,201
The new president, Lon Nol,
1639
01:34:17,318 --> 01:34:21,164
was an anticommunist,
backed by the United States.
1640
01:34:21,281 --> 01:34:23,579
Nixon now felt he could do
1641
01:34:23,700 --> 01:34:27,295
what American generals had been
wanting to do for years...
1642
01:34:27,412 --> 01:34:31,167
pursue the enemy beyond
the borders of South Vietnam.
1643
01:34:32,750 --> 01:34:35,549
The 30,000 American troops
1644
01:34:35,670 --> 01:34:40,801
were joined by 50,000
ARVN soldiers.
1645
01:34:40,925 --> 01:34:42,848
The objective was to attack
1646
01:34:42,969 --> 01:34:45,597
North Vietnamese
base camps and supply lines
1647
01:34:45,763 --> 01:34:48,983
and to buy time
for the South Vietnamese Army
1648
01:34:49,100 --> 01:34:51,478
as it got ready to fight
on its own.
1649
01:34:53,521 --> 01:34:55,774
Nixon told the public
1650
01:34:55,899 --> 01:34:59,449
he had ordered an "incursion,"
not an "invasion,"
1651
01:34:59,569 --> 01:35:04,040
intended only to protect
American boys in South Vietnam
1652
01:35:04,157 --> 01:35:08,287
and in response to North
Vietnamese "aggression."
1653
01:35:11,247 --> 01:35:15,002
I wasn't worried
about political conflict.
1654
01:35:15,126 --> 01:35:17,754
I was worried about,
"Am I gonna be alive
1655
01:35:17,879 --> 01:35:19,301
in the next ten minutes?"
1656
01:35:20,965 --> 01:35:24,265
We were on the Western edge
of the invasion.
1657
01:35:24,385 --> 01:35:27,639
We went as far
as anybody went in Cambodia.
1658
01:35:29,015 --> 01:35:30,392
And it was a hot LZ.
1659
01:35:30,516 --> 01:35:35,192
I got holes shot in my backpack.
1660
01:35:35,313 --> 01:35:36,690
I was laying on my face
1661
01:35:36,814 --> 01:35:38,987
and they were shooting holes
in my backpack,
1662
01:35:39,108 --> 01:35:42,032
which means they missed my head
by maybe four inches.
1663
01:35:43,988 --> 01:35:47,333
I really didn't think I would
see the end of that week.
1664
01:35:53,790 --> 01:35:57,294
The sight of American
troops crossing the border
1665
01:35:57,418 --> 01:36:01,264
into Cambodia reignited
the antiwar movement.
1666
01:36:01,381 --> 01:36:02,553
Come on, let's go!
1667
01:36:02,674 --> 01:36:04,768
If the troops were coming home,
1668
01:36:04,884 --> 01:36:06,886
if the war was winding down,
1669
01:36:07,011 --> 01:36:10,936
why had Nixon decided
to widen it?
1670
01:36:11,057 --> 01:36:13,776
How could invading
another country
1671
01:36:13,893 --> 01:36:17,739
help bring peace
to Southeast Asia?
1672
01:36:17,855 --> 01:36:19,528
The reaction on the campuses
1673
01:36:19,691 --> 01:36:21,159
was swift and predictable.
1674
01:36:21,276 --> 01:36:22,869
The students
and many of their teachers
1675
01:36:22,986 --> 01:36:24,454
were against the president.
1676
01:36:24,570 --> 01:36:27,699
Princeton students called
for a nationwide student strike.
1677
01:36:27,865 --> 01:36:31,540
Antiwar rallies were planned
at Harvard, MIT, Indiana,
1678
01:36:31,661 --> 01:36:33,755
Purdue Universities
and other colleges.
1679
01:36:39,043 --> 01:36:42,263
On Monday morning, May 4, 1970,
1680
01:36:42,380 --> 01:36:44,883
some 2,000 students
gathered on the commons
1681
01:36:45,049 --> 01:36:48,849
at Kent State University
in Kent, Ohio.
1682
01:36:48,970 --> 01:36:52,691
Some were simply
moving from class to class.
1683
01:36:52,807 --> 01:36:56,186
Others planned to attend
a rally called to protest
1684
01:36:56,311 --> 01:36:58,905
Nixon's widening of the war
1685
01:36:59,022 --> 01:37:04,700
and the presence of the Ohio
National Guard on campus.
1686
01:37:04,819 --> 01:37:07,823
Governor James Rhodes
had called in the guardsmen
1687
01:37:07,947 --> 01:37:09,290
two days earlier
1688
01:37:09,407 --> 01:37:14,789
after a mob set the old wooden
ROTC building on fire
1689
01:37:14,912 --> 01:37:16,789
and then prevented
the fire department
1690
01:37:16,914 --> 01:37:19,258
from putting out the flames.
1691
01:37:22,295 --> 01:37:26,300
Rhodes had compared protestors
to Nazi brownshirts
1692
01:37:26,424 --> 01:37:29,849
and promised to use
"every weapon to eradicate
1693
01:37:29,969 --> 01:37:34,190
the worst sort of people
we harbor in America."
1694
01:37:38,853 --> 01:37:44,075
The guardsmen's weapons were
loaded with live ammunition,
1695
01:37:44,192 --> 01:37:45,910
though no one in the crowd
knew it.
1696
01:37:46,027 --> 01:37:49,247
Why do you have to have a gun?!
I don't understand!
1697
01:37:49,364 --> 01:37:52,243
Leave this area immediately!
1698
01:37:52,367 --> 01:37:56,122
The students
were ordered to disperse.
1699
01:37:56,245 --> 01:37:57,838
They stood their ground.
1700
01:38:03,920 --> 01:38:07,049
Tear gas scattered some of them.
1701
01:38:26,401 --> 01:38:30,247
The guardsmen seemed
to fall back.
1702
01:38:30,363 --> 01:38:34,459
But then members of Troop G
wheeled around and opened fire
1703
01:38:34,575 --> 01:38:38,580
on students gathered in
and around a parking lot.
1704
01:39:10,153 --> 01:39:12,281
Somebody call for an ambulance!
1705
01:39:14,073 --> 01:39:16,952
There's people dying down here!
Get an ambulance up here!
1706
01:39:23,666 --> 01:39:27,011
67 rounds in 13 seconds
1707
01:39:27,128 --> 01:39:31,508
killed two young women
and two young men...
1708
01:39:34,469 --> 01:39:37,598
Including
an ROTC scholarship student
1709
01:39:37,722 --> 01:39:40,191
who had simply been an onlooker.
1710
01:39:45,897 --> 01:39:50,573
That dead child on the ground
1711
01:39:50,735 --> 01:39:53,989
was one of ours.
1712
01:39:54,113 --> 01:39:57,413
If we could kill
our own students,
1713
01:39:57,533 --> 01:40:02,585
uh, what had happened
to our country?
1714
01:40:04,749 --> 01:40:07,593
Nine more students were wounded,
1715
01:40:07,752 --> 01:40:11,677
one of whom
was permanently paralyzed.
1716
01:40:23,017 --> 01:40:27,363
Several hundred angry,
grieving students sat down
1717
01:40:27,480 --> 01:40:29,482
and demanded to know
why the guardsmen
1718
01:40:29,607 --> 01:40:31,484
had fired on their friends.
1719
01:40:35,029 --> 01:40:37,828
Sir, you've got a
couple hundred students...
1720
01:40:37,949 --> 01:40:39,326
An officer ordered them
1721
01:40:39,450 --> 01:40:41,202
to "disperse
or we will shoot again."
1722
01:40:41,327 --> 01:40:44,206
How long will you give us?
You've got five minutes.
1723
01:40:44,330 --> 01:40:47,209
Please listen to me right now!
1724
01:40:47,333 --> 01:40:49,882
Only the anguished pleas
1725
01:40:50,002 --> 01:40:54,553
of geology professor Glenn Frank
averted further tragedy.
1726
01:40:54,674 --> 01:40:56,347
Talk, Dr. Frank. Talk.
1727
01:41:21,701 --> 01:41:24,500
That just symbolized for me
1728
01:41:24,662 --> 01:41:28,508
what this war was doing
to our culture.
1729
01:41:28,624 --> 01:41:30,342
These were kids on both sides,
1730
01:41:30,501 --> 01:41:33,220
young National Guard boys
1731
01:41:33,337 --> 01:41:36,591
who had very little training
and probably scared,
1732
01:41:36,716 --> 01:41:38,844
and not well led
1733
01:41:38,968 --> 01:41:40,728
and-and young men and women
on the other side
1734
01:41:40,845 --> 01:41:42,313
protesting the war out there
1735
01:41:42,430 --> 01:41:44,649
for, you know,
idealistic reasons.
1736
01:41:44,765 --> 01:41:47,314
And look at what happens
1737
01:41:47,435 --> 01:41:53,533
when we let things get as bad
as they got.
1738
01:41:55,359 --> 01:41:57,908
According to one national poll,
1739
01:41:58,029 --> 01:42:00,703
58% of the American people
1740
01:42:00,865 --> 01:42:03,664
thought the killings justified.
1741
01:42:06,662 --> 01:42:09,882
The parents
of the dead ROTC student
1742
01:42:09,999 --> 01:42:12,593
received a flood of hate mail,
1743
01:42:12,710 --> 01:42:16,010
suggesting that they should be
grateful their boy was dead
1744
01:42:16,130 --> 01:42:20,681
since he'd been
"just another communist."
1745
01:42:25,931 --> 01:42:29,401
During the days that followed,
all across the country,
1746
01:42:29,560 --> 01:42:32,063
more than four million
college students
1747
01:42:32,229 --> 01:42:34,072
demonstrated against the war
1748
01:42:34,231 --> 01:42:37,110
and what had happened
at Kent State.
1749
01:42:39,695 --> 01:42:43,620
# I came upon a child of God #
1750
01:42:43,741 --> 01:42:48,292
# He was walking
along the road #
1751
01:42:48,412 --> 01:42:50,255
# And I asked him #
1752
01:42:50,414 --> 01:42:52,587
# Where are you going? #
1753
01:42:52,750 --> 01:42:56,596
# And this he told me #
1754
01:42:56,712 --> 01:43:01,263
448 campuses closed down,
1755
01:43:01,425 --> 01:43:06,932
and the National Guard
was called out in 16 states.
1756
01:43:07,098 --> 01:43:08,270
# Band #
1757
01:43:08,432 --> 01:43:10,434
# I'm gonna camp out #
1758
01:43:10,559 --> 01:43:14,029
At Jackson State
University in Mississippi,
1759
01:43:14,146 --> 01:43:18,276
state police opened fire
on a dormitory.
1760
01:43:18,442 --> 01:43:20,240
Two students died.
1761
01:43:20,361 --> 01:43:23,240
12 more were wounded.
1762
01:43:25,282 --> 01:43:27,284
Jackson State,
those were my people.
1763
01:43:27,451 --> 01:43:29,249
Those were black kids.
1764
01:43:29,370 --> 01:43:31,589
And they died.
1765
01:43:31,706 --> 01:43:35,085
# Back to the garden #
1766
01:43:35,209 --> 01:43:37,462
Army private Tim O'Brien
1767
01:43:37,628 --> 01:43:41,303
was now back home in Minnesota.
1768
01:43:41,424 --> 01:43:44,849
There was a huge march
1769
01:43:44,969 --> 01:43:46,767
after the Kent State shootings
in St. Paul,
1770
01:43:46,887 --> 01:43:49,185
and I joined the march.
1771
01:43:49,306 --> 01:43:54,483
I just wanted to put my body
amidst these 100,000 people,
1772
01:43:54,603 --> 01:43:57,732
that word "no" being uttered
by my body, if not by my mouth,
1773
01:43:57,857 --> 01:43:59,279
by just making that march.
1774
01:43:59,400 --> 01:44:02,825
That same march
I was doing in Vietnam
1775
01:44:02,945 --> 01:44:05,164
that seemed senseless
and purposeless
1776
01:44:05,322 --> 01:44:06,414
and without direction,
1777
01:44:06,532 --> 01:44:09,331
here it felt sensible
and purposeful
1778
01:44:09,493 --> 01:44:12,713
and with direction,
heading for that state capital
1779
01:44:12,830 --> 01:44:16,130
to say no.
1780
01:44:16,250 --> 01:44:19,424
And, boy, did it feel good.
1781
01:44:24,383 --> 01:44:26,181
Marine Corporal Bill Ehrhart
1782
01:44:26,343 --> 01:44:28,721
was a student
at Swarthmore College
1783
01:44:28,846 --> 01:44:32,942
near his hometown
in eastern Pennsylvania.
1784
01:44:33,058 --> 01:44:37,484
And here's this
very famous photograph.
1785
01:44:37,605 --> 01:44:40,404
And I just looked at this thing.
1786
01:44:44,695 --> 01:44:46,197
And I came unglued.
1787
01:44:48,532 --> 01:44:51,877
I don't know
how long I sat down on the curb,
1788
01:44:52,036 --> 01:44:55,415
and I don't know
if I was there for 15 minutes
1789
01:44:55,539 --> 01:44:56,961
or an hour and a half.
1790
01:44:57,082 --> 01:44:59,301
Just had a breakdown.
1791
01:44:59,418 --> 01:45:03,013
Just crying,
sobbing uncontrollably.
1792
01:45:03,130 --> 01:45:04,983
All I could think was,
"It's not enough to send us
1793
01:45:05,007 --> 01:45:07,351
"halfway around
the world to die.
1794
01:45:07,468 --> 01:45:10,221
"Now they're killing us in
the streets of our own country.
1795
01:45:10,346 --> 01:45:11,689
I have to do something."
1796
01:45:13,682 --> 01:45:14,774
And I finally...
1797
01:45:14,892 --> 01:45:16,690
whenever
I finally cried myself out,
1798
01:45:16,811 --> 01:45:19,234
I got up and I joined
the antiwar movement.
1799
01:45:22,566 --> 01:45:26,912
I remember when the
kids were killed at Kent State,
1800
01:45:27,029 --> 01:45:29,703
and I thought,
1801
01:45:29,824 --> 01:45:32,953
"My God, we're killing
our own children now.
1802
01:45:33,077 --> 01:45:34,795
We've really gone mad."
1803
01:45:34,912 --> 01:45:36,209
And I wasn't...
1804
01:45:36,330 --> 01:45:39,209
That's when I was hiding
from things.
1805
01:45:39,333 --> 01:45:41,256
I wasn't
in anybody's movement then.
1806
01:45:41,418 --> 01:45:43,045
I was just drinking.
1807
01:45:45,172 --> 01:45:50,554
But that was one of the things
that told me
1808
01:45:50,678 --> 01:45:52,931
America needed a wake-up call.
1809
01:46:26,130 --> 01:46:28,974
# Tin soldiers
and Nixon's coming #
1810
01:46:29,091 --> 01:46:31,935
# We're finally on our own #
1811
01:46:32,052 --> 01:46:35,352
# This summer
I hear the drumming #
1812
01:46:35,472 --> 01:46:39,147
# Four dead in Ohio #
1813
01:46:39,268 --> 01:46:41,942
# Got to get down to it #
1814
01:46:42,062 --> 01:46:45,316
# Soldiers are cutting us down #
1815
01:46:45,482 --> 01:46:49,157
# Should have been done
long ago #
1816
01:46:51,739 --> 01:46:53,286
# What if you knew her #
1817
01:46:53,407 --> 01:46:57,002
# And found her dead
on the ground? #
1818
01:46:57,161 --> 01:47:01,166
# How can you run
when you know? #
1819
01:47:22,186 --> 01:47:24,564
# La la-la-la,
la la la la #
1820
01:47:24,688 --> 01:47:28,443
# La la-la-la,
la la la #
1821
01:47:28,567 --> 01:47:31,537
# La la-la-la,
la la la la #
1822
01:47:31,695 --> 01:47:34,949
# La la-la-la,
la la la #
1823
01:47:35,074 --> 01:47:37,452
# Got to get down to it #
1824
01:47:37,576 --> 01:47:41,080
# Soldiers are cutting us down #
1825
01:47:41,205 --> 01:47:44,960
# Should have been done
long ago #
1826
01:47:47,378 --> 01:47:49,426
# What if you knew her #
1827
01:47:49,546 --> 01:47:53,551
# And found her dead
on the ground? #
1828
01:47:53,676 --> 01:47:57,271
# How can you run
when you know? #
1829
01:48:17,491 --> 01:48:20,335
# Tin soldiers
and Nixon's coming #
1830
01:48:20,452 --> 01:48:23,547
# We're finally on our own #
1831
01:48:23,664 --> 01:48:26,588
# This summer
I hear the drumming #
1832
01:48:26,709 --> 01:48:29,053
# Four dead in Ohio #
1833
01:48:29,169 --> 01:48:32,218
# Four dead in Ohio #
# Four #
1834
01:48:32,339 --> 01:48:34,467
# Four dead in Ohio #
1835
01:48:34,591 --> 01:48:37,435
# Four #
# Four dead in Ohio #
1836
01:48:37,553 --> 01:48:40,102
# How could they? #
# Four dead in Ohio #
1837
01:48:40,222 --> 01:48:43,271
# How many more? #
# Four dead in Ohio #
1838
01:48:43,434 --> 01:48:45,528
# Why? #
# Four dead in... #
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