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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:01,566 --> 00:00:03,000 ANNOUNCER: MAJOR SUPPORT FOR "THE VIETNAM WAR" 2 00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:06,500 WAS PROVIDED BY MEMBERS OF THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY, 3 00:00:06,500 --> 00:00:10,465 INCLUDING JONATHAN AND JEANNIE LAVINE, 4 00:00:10,465 --> 00:00:13,365 DIANE AND HAL BRIERLEY, 5 00:00:13,365 --> 00:00:15,766 AMY AND DAVID ABRAMS, 6 00:00:15,766 --> 00:00:18,265 JOHN AND CATHERINE DEBS, 7 00:00:18,265 --> 00:00:21,166 THE FULLERTON FAMILY CHARITABLE FUND, 8 00:00:21,166 --> 00:00:23,233 THE MONTRONE FAMILY, 9 00:00:23,233 --> 00:00:25,565 LYNDA AND STEWART RESNICK, 10 00:00:25,565 --> 00:00:28,332 THE PERRY AND DONNA GOLKIN FAMILY FOUNDATION, 11 00:00:28,332 --> 00:00:29,332 THE LYNCH FOUNDATION, 12 00:00:29,332 --> 00:00:32,200 THE ROGER AND ROSEMARY ENRICO FOUNDATION, 13 00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:35,633 AND BY THESE ADDITIONAL FUNDERS. 14 00:00:35,633 --> 00:00:37,533 MAJOR FUNDING WAS ALSO PROVIDED 15 00:00:37,533 --> 00:00:39,265 BY DAVID H. KOCH... 16 00:00:41,566 --> 00:00:43,765 THE BLAVATNIK FAMILY FOUNDATION... 17 00:00:46,100 --> 00:00:48,533 THE PARK FOUNDATION, 18 00:00:48,533 --> 00:00:50,700 THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES, 19 00:00:50,700 --> 00:00:52,899 THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS, 20 00:00:52,899 --> 00:00:55,566 THE JOHN S. AND JAMES L. KNIGHT FOUNDATION, 21 00:00:55,566 --> 00:00:58,332 THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION, 22 00:00:58,332 --> 00:01:01,000 THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS FOUNDATIONS, 23 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:03,200 THE FORD FOUNDATION JUSTFILMS, 24 00:01:03,200 --> 00:01:04,400 BY THE CORPORATION 25 00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:05,632 FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING, 26 00:01:05,632 --> 00:01:07,599 AND BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU. 27 00:01:07,599 --> 00:01:08,733 THANK YOU. 28 00:01:13,266 --> 00:01:15,400 ANNOUNCER: BANK OF AMERICA PROUDLY SUPPORTS 29 00:01:15,400 --> 00:01:20,299 KEN BURNS' AND LYNN NOVICK'S FILM "THE VIETNAM WAR" 30 00:01:20,299 --> 00:01:22,700 BECAUSE FOSTERING DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES 31 00:01:22,700 --> 00:01:25,299 AND CIVIL DISCOURSE AROUND IMPORTANT ISSUES 32 00:01:25,299 --> 00:01:27,599 FURTHERS PROGRESS, EQUALITY, 33 00:01:27,599 --> 00:01:29,599 AND A MORE CONNECTED SOCIETY. 34 00:01:34,066 --> 00:01:38,099 GO TO BANKOFAMERICA.COM/ BETTERCONNECTED TO LEARN MORE. 35 00:02:06,566 --> 00:02:10,133 JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: Sometimes I would hear a car crunch up in the snow, 36 00:02:10,233 --> 00:02:12,566 and I'd think maybe it would be somebody coming 37 00:02:12,665 --> 00:02:14,133 to give us bad news. 38 00:02:14,233 --> 00:02:17,165 Which was not good for me to think. 39 00:02:17,265 --> 00:02:19,165 It was an underlying anxiety 40 00:02:19,265 --> 00:02:22,165 that I really think was there all the time. 41 00:02:23,733 --> 00:02:26,699 NARRATOR: All his young life, Denton Crocker, Jr.-- 42 00:02:26,800 --> 00:02:29,000 known as "Mogie" to his family-- 43 00:02:29,099 --> 00:02:31,133 had dreamed of serving his country, 44 00:02:31,233 --> 00:02:33,500 of putting his own life on the line 45 00:02:33,599 --> 00:02:37,432 in defense of what he called "individual freedom." 46 00:02:37,533 --> 00:02:41,500 He'd wanted to serve in Vietnam so much 47 00:02:41,599 --> 00:02:44,633 he'd pressured his parents into granting their permission 48 00:02:44,733 --> 00:02:47,765 for him to join the Army before he was 18. 49 00:02:50,165 --> 00:02:53,800 He was eager for combat and pleased when he was assigned 50 00:02:53,900 --> 00:02:58,233 to the 1st Brigade of the celebrated 101st Airborne, 51 00:02:58,332 --> 00:03:02,532 the "Screaming Eagles" who had led the way on D-Day. 52 00:03:02,633 --> 00:03:06,400 But he was quickly disappointed to find himself attached 53 00:03:06,500 --> 00:03:11,400 to battalion headquarters, repairing weapons, making lists, 54 00:03:11,500 --> 00:03:13,265 keeping records. 55 00:03:13,365 --> 00:03:16,865 It was "boring," he wrote home. 56 00:03:16,966 --> 00:03:20,133 MOGIE CROCKER (dramatized): I think perhaps you will understand my disappointment 57 00:03:20,233 --> 00:03:23,033 when you see that there is little sense in being over here 58 00:03:23,133 --> 00:03:25,332 unless one faces the main objective, 59 00:03:25,432 --> 00:03:28,000 the destruction of the VC. 60 00:03:30,165 --> 00:03:32,633 Certainly one feels no sense of accomplishment 61 00:03:32,733 --> 00:03:35,432 when one's friends are facing all the dangers. 62 00:03:38,765 --> 00:03:41,966 JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: I had a map on the back of the living room door. 63 00:03:42,066 --> 00:03:46,000 And I put pins in it every time Denton Jr. moved. 64 00:03:46,099 --> 00:03:47,533 And he moved a lot. 65 00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:51,165 And I knew those names at one time 66 00:03:51,265 --> 00:03:56,466 as well as any area of our own world. 67 00:04:07,566 --> 00:04:09,932 LYNDON JOHNSON: Well, how'd you have a good weekend? 68 00:04:10,032 --> 00:04:11,000 ROBERT McNAMARA: (laughs) 69 00:04:11,099 --> 00:04:12,400 Yeah, I did, Mr. President. 70 00:04:12,500 --> 00:04:13,699 I hope you did too. 71 00:04:13,800 --> 00:04:15,233 JOHNSON: What's your thinking these days? 72 00:04:15,332 --> 00:04:16,600 I haven't talked to you. 73 00:04:16,699 --> 00:04:18,000 What's happening to our pause? 74 00:04:18,100 --> 00:04:19,533 What are our generals saying? 75 00:04:19,632 --> 00:04:22,065 McNAMARA: See, I think you'll find some foreign leaders 76 00:04:22,165 --> 00:04:24,966 will criticize you if you resume bombing. 77 00:04:25,065 --> 00:04:28,665 As a matter of fact, no other intelligence source 78 00:04:28,766 --> 00:04:31,800 that I've seen indicates that Hanoi is even considering 79 00:04:31,899 --> 00:04:33,600 moving toward negotiation 80 00:04:33,699 --> 00:04:35,832 in order to lead us to extend the pause. 81 00:04:35,932 --> 00:04:37,365 Intelligence information... 82 00:04:37,466 --> 00:04:41,266 NARRATOR: As 1966 began, the president of the United States 83 00:04:41,365 --> 00:04:43,766 was just learning the name of the man 84 00:04:43,865 --> 00:04:48,132 who was the most powerful member of the Politburo in Hanoi-- 85 00:04:48,233 --> 00:04:49,733 Le Duan. 86 00:04:49,832 --> 00:04:51,600 McNAMARA: ...First Secretary of the Communist Party, 87 00:04:51,699 --> 00:04:54,832 a man named Le Duan-- L-E capital D-U-A-N-- 88 00:04:54,932 --> 00:04:57,300 who today is putting considerable pressure 89 00:04:57,399 --> 00:05:00,932 on Ho Chi Minh and others to ensure continuing a war 90 00:05:01,033 --> 00:05:03,432 that he thinks they either are winning or can win. 91 00:05:03,533 --> 00:05:05,432 ("Masters of War" by The Staple Singers playing) 92 00:05:05,533 --> 00:05:07,932 ♪ They're masters of war 93 00:05:10,699 --> 00:05:15,865 ♪ You build all the big guns 94 00:05:15,966 --> 00:05:17,466 ♪ You build the big planes. ♪ 95 00:05:17,565 --> 00:05:19,233 NARRATOR: As they continued to escalate the war, 96 00:05:19,332 --> 00:05:22,199 Johnson and McNamara were frustrated 97 00:05:22,300 --> 00:05:26,233 that American commanders in Vietnam, who had come of age 98 00:05:26,332 --> 00:05:28,665 during World War II and Korea, 99 00:05:28,766 --> 00:05:30,899 were having a hard time making sense 100 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:33,399 of what was happening on the ground. 101 00:05:33,500 --> 00:05:38,632 In the months and years to come, as the American presence grew, 102 00:05:38,733 --> 00:05:41,033 Hanoi would escalate too, 103 00:05:41,132 --> 00:05:43,932 sending more and more soldiers south, 104 00:05:44,033 --> 00:05:47,199 strengthening its own air defenses, 105 00:05:47,300 --> 00:05:49,432 and recruiting more fighters 106 00:05:49,533 --> 00:05:52,932 from the alienated South Vietnamese countryside. 107 00:05:56,766 --> 00:05:59,766 The Johnson administration was desperately trying 108 00:05:59,865 --> 00:06:04,000 to prop up the government in Saigon and, at the same time, 109 00:06:04,100 --> 00:06:07,300 help that government to somehow win the loyalty 110 00:06:07,399 --> 00:06:09,266 of its own people. 111 00:06:09,365 --> 00:06:13,432 Johnson had tried to forge an international coalition 112 00:06:13,533 --> 00:06:15,833 to defend South Vietnam. 113 00:06:15,932 --> 00:06:21,033 But only five other countries would ever send combat troops-- 114 00:06:21,132 --> 00:06:25,033 Australia and New Zealand, Thailand, the Philippines, 115 00:06:25,132 --> 00:06:27,065 and South Korea. 116 00:06:28,600 --> 00:06:33,165 America's most important allies, Britain, France and Canada, 117 00:06:33,266 --> 00:06:39,266 refused to take part and were calling instead for peace talks. 118 00:06:39,365 --> 00:06:42,033 And more and more Americans, 119 00:06:42,132 --> 00:06:44,865 including some of the country's most respected 120 00:06:44,966 --> 00:06:46,800 foreign policy experts, 121 00:06:46,899 --> 00:06:50,399 were beginning to question the way the war was being fought, 122 00:06:50,500 --> 00:06:52,733 whether it could ever be won, 123 00:06:52,832 --> 00:06:57,766 and if the United States should be in Vietnam at all. 124 00:06:58,899 --> 00:07:00,300 (explosion) 125 00:07:00,399 --> 00:07:08,199 As 1966 began, 2,344 Americans had died in Vietnam. 126 00:07:08,300 --> 00:07:11,165 Nearly 200,000 were stationed there, 127 00:07:11,266 --> 00:07:14,333 and more were on their way. 128 00:07:15,800 --> 00:07:18,233 Those soldiers would quickly discover 129 00:07:18,332 --> 00:07:20,565 that the war they were being asked to fight 130 00:07:20,665 --> 00:07:23,365 was not their father's war. 131 00:07:26,233 --> 00:07:29,500 SAM WILSON: We tend to fight the next war 132 00:07:29,600 --> 00:07:32,466 in the same way we fought the last one. 133 00:07:32,566 --> 00:07:36,733 We are prisoners of our own experience. 134 00:07:36,832 --> 00:07:39,233 And many of the things that we learned that worked 135 00:07:39,332 --> 00:07:40,399 in World War II 136 00:07:40,500 --> 00:07:44,000 were not applicable to the war in Vietnam. 137 00:07:45,865 --> 00:07:48,000 We simply thought we'd go in with a sledgehammer 138 00:07:48,100 --> 00:07:49,766 and knock things down, clean them up, 139 00:07:49,865 --> 00:07:51,733 and it would be all over. 140 00:07:51,832 --> 00:07:55,300 It was a kind of an oversimplification 141 00:07:55,399 --> 00:07:57,132 of the problem 142 00:07:57,233 --> 00:08:01,533 combined with our overconfidence that caused us, 143 00:08:01,632 --> 00:08:04,165 I think, to be arrogant. 144 00:08:04,266 --> 00:08:07,565 And it's very, very difficult to dispel ignorance 145 00:08:07,665 --> 00:08:09,833 if you retain arrogance. 146 00:08:09,932 --> 00:08:15,065 STAPLES SINGERS: ♪ I'll stand over your body and make sure that you're dead. ♪ 147 00:08:23,332 --> 00:08:24,699 (gavel pounding) 148 00:08:26,100 --> 00:08:29,065 NARRATOR: In early February of 1966, 149 00:08:29,165 --> 00:08:32,232 President Johnson got more bad news. 150 00:08:32,332 --> 00:08:35,133 His old friend, J. William Fulbright, 151 00:08:35,232 --> 00:08:36,298 the powerful chairman 152 00:08:36,399 --> 00:08:38,899 of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 153 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:42,100 planned to hold hearings on the Vietnam War, 154 00:08:42,200 --> 00:08:46,700 and the television networks intended to cover the hearings 155 00:08:46,799 --> 00:08:48,600 from gavel to gavel. 156 00:08:48,700 --> 00:08:52,133 Fulbright, who had once supported the war, 157 00:08:52,232 --> 00:08:54,133 now opposed it. 158 00:08:54,232 --> 00:08:57,500 LBJ was alarmed. 159 00:08:57,600 --> 00:09:00,432 His own advisers had been giving him conflicting advice 160 00:09:00,533 --> 00:09:03,033 about Vietnam for years. 161 00:09:03,133 --> 00:09:06,200 But a public debate about how he was running the war 162 00:09:06,299 --> 00:09:10,332 in front of millions of Americans filled him with dread. 163 00:09:12,133 --> 00:09:14,399 As the hearings got underway, 164 00:09:14,500 --> 00:09:16,166 the president tried to deflect attention 165 00:09:16,265 --> 00:09:20,000 by suddenly announcing he was going to a military conference 166 00:09:20,100 --> 00:09:24,299 in Honolulu, to meet for the first time the two generals 167 00:09:24,399 --> 00:09:27,166 who now headed the Saigon government. 168 00:09:27,265 --> 00:09:28,899 ED HERLIHY: It is a meeting without precedent, 169 00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:31,799 and is designed to strengthen United States determination 170 00:09:31,899 --> 00:09:35,365 to pursue to the end the drive against communist domination 171 00:09:35,466 --> 00:09:36,832 in South Vietnam. 172 00:09:40,899 --> 00:09:44,332 NARRATOR: General Nguyen Van Thieu was the chief of state, 173 00:09:44,432 --> 00:09:47,899 but real power lay with Thieu's bitter rival, 174 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:51,200 the former head of the South Vietnamese Air Force, 175 00:09:51,299 --> 00:09:54,365 Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky. 176 00:09:54,466 --> 00:09:59,265 Ky was "an unguided missile," according to one U.S. diplomat, 177 00:09:59,365 --> 00:10:02,066 known for his flamboyant uniforms, 178 00:10:02,166 --> 00:10:06,200 his gaudy private life, and his public pronouncements. 179 00:10:06,299 --> 00:10:10,566 He once told a reporter that what Vietnam really needed 180 00:10:10,666 --> 00:10:13,100 was "five Hitlers." 181 00:10:13,200 --> 00:10:16,865 PHAN QUANG TUE: How could we allow and accept that to happen? 182 00:10:16,966 --> 00:10:18,899 He was a charlatan. 183 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:21,566 The man not only has no training, 184 00:10:21,666 --> 00:10:24,732 has no education, but doesn't seem to inter... 185 00:10:24,832 --> 00:10:30,299 be interested in being educated, and proud of his ignorance. 186 00:10:30,399 --> 00:10:33,932 TRAN NGOC CHAU (speaking English): 187 00:10:46,899 --> 00:10:49,899 (laughing) 188 00:11:03,700 --> 00:11:07,000 NARRATOR: President Johnson spent most of his time in Honolulu 189 00:11:07,100 --> 00:11:10,299 urging Ky to focus on pacification-- 190 00:11:10,399 --> 00:11:13,432 earning the support of the South Vietnamese people 191 00:11:13,533 --> 00:11:16,799 by undertaking economic and social reforms 192 00:11:16,899 --> 00:11:20,966 Americans had been calling for for more than a decade. 193 00:11:21,066 --> 00:11:24,600 Johnson wasn't interested in "high-sounding words" 194 00:11:24,700 --> 00:11:26,865 about progress, he said. 195 00:11:26,966 --> 00:11:29,365 He wanted genuine achievements-- 196 00:11:29,466 --> 00:11:34,500 what they called in Texas, "coonskins on the wall." 197 00:11:34,600 --> 00:11:38,399 BUI DIEM: Well, nobody understood what does it mean "coonskin." 198 00:11:38,500 --> 00:11:43,100 And people the Vietnamese at the delegation they ask me, 199 00:11:43,200 --> 00:11:45,033 "You understand what it is?" 200 00:11:45,133 --> 00:11:47,566 And myself I said, "Well, I don't understand." 201 00:11:47,665 --> 00:11:50,066 I have to ask some Americans to explain to me. 202 00:11:50,165 --> 00:11:53,332 And some American friends, they explain to me later on 203 00:11:53,432 --> 00:11:55,566 and only by then the Vietnamese understood. 204 00:11:57,299 --> 00:11:59,299 I happen to hold the point of view 205 00:11:59,399 --> 00:12:00,966 that it isn't going to be too long 206 00:12:01,066 --> 00:12:03,133 before the American people, as a people, 207 00:12:03,232 --> 00:12:05,799 will repudiate our war in Southeast Asia. 208 00:12:05,899 --> 00:12:07,600 MAXWELL TAYLOR: That, of course, is good news 209 00:12:07,700 --> 00:12:08,899 to Hanoi, Senator. 210 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:10,666 MORSE: Oh, I know that 211 00:12:10,765 --> 00:12:13,399 that's the smear artist that you militarists give to those of us 212 00:12:13,500 --> 00:12:15,100 that have honest differences of opinion with you. 213 00:12:15,200 --> 00:12:17,865 But I don't intend to get down in the gutter with you 214 00:12:17,966 --> 00:12:20,200 and engage in that kind of debate, General. 215 00:12:20,299 --> 00:12:23,732 NARRATOR: Johnson's trip to Honolulu had not distracted 216 00:12:23,832 --> 00:12:25,133 the American public. 217 00:12:25,232 --> 00:12:28,332 They were riveted to the hearings. 218 00:12:28,432 --> 00:12:30,865 And I also think that great countries, 219 00:12:30,966 --> 00:12:32,932 especially this country, 220 00:12:33,033 --> 00:12:35,865 is quite strong enough to engage in a compromise 221 00:12:35,966 --> 00:12:38,133 without losing its standing in the world, 222 00:12:38,232 --> 00:12:40,700 without losing its prestige as a great nation. 223 00:12:40,799 --> 00:12:42,865 On the contrary, I think it would be 224 00:12:42,966 --> 00:12:47,232 one of the greatest victories for us and our prestige 225 00:12:47,332 --> 00:12:51,165 if we could-could be ingenious enough and magnanimous enough 226 00:12:51,265 --> 00:12:53,133 to bring about some kind of a settlement 227 00:12:53,232 --> 00:12:55,000 of this particular struggle. 228 00:12:55,100 --> 00:12:59,533 NARRATOR: Fulbright invited the respected diplomat George Kennan 229 00:12:59,633 --> 00:13:01,232 to testify. 230 00:13:01,332 --> 00:13:04,299 For two decades, his doctrine of containment-- 231 00:13:04,399 --> 00:13:06,299 stopping Soviet expansion-- 232 00:13:06,399 --> 00:13:09,466 had been the basis of American foreign policy, 233 00:13:09,566 --> 00:13:12,633 and had in some ways been the justification 234 00:13:12,732 --> 00:13:18,000 for leading the United States into its proxy war in Vietnam. 235 00:13:18,100 --> 00:13:19,399 KENNAN: The first point I would like to make 236 00:13:19,500 --> 00:13:23,732 is that if we were not already involved as we are today 237 00:13:23,832 --> 00:13:25,533 in Vietnam, 238 00:13:25,633 --> 00:13:27,100 I would know of no reason 239 00:13:27,200 --> 00:13:29,799 why we should wish to become so involved, 240 00:13:29,899 --> 00:13:31,500 and I could think of several reasons 241 00:13:31,600 --> 00:13:33,033 why we should wish not to. 242 00:13:33,133 --> 00:13:37,265 You have referred to containment here. 243 00:13:37,365 --> 00:13:42,633 How... how can we contain in Vietnam? 244 00:13:42,732 --> 00:13:46,399 We would do better if we really would show ourselves 245 00:13:46,500 --> 00:13:49,966 a little more relaxed and less terrified of what happens 246 00:13:50,066 --> 00:13:52,033 in the... 247 00:13:52,133 --> 00:13:55,932 certainly in the smaller countries of Asia and Africa, 248 00:13:56,033 --> 00:14:00,066 and not jump around like an elephant frightened by a mouse 249 00:14:00,166 --> 00:14:02,365 every time these things occur. 250 00:14:02,466 --> 00:14:06,133 NARRATOR: Johnson was relieved when, at the last moment, 251 00:14:06,232 --> 00:14:09,200 instead of airing Kennan's testimony, 252 00:14:09,299 --> 00:14:12,700 CBS showed reruns ofThe Real McCoys, 253 00:14:12,799 --> 00:14:16,799 The Andy Griffith Show andI Love Lucy. 254 00:14:16,899 --> 00:14:20,966 But NBC kept the cameras running. 255 00:14:21,066 --> 00:14:23,865 This is not only not our business, 256 00:14:23,966 --> 00:14:25,865 but I don't think we can do it successfully. 257 00:14:25,966 --> 00:14:28,832 And I take it by this you mean that 258 00:14:28,932 --> 00:14:31,932 this is simply not a practicable objective, 259 00:14:32,033 --> 00:14:34,500 as I understand it, in this country. 260 00:14:34,600 --> 00:14:36,865 We can't achieve it even with the best of will. 261 00:14:36,966 --> 00:14:39,600 This is correct, and I have a fear 262 00:14:39,700 --> 00:14:45,232 that our thinking about this whole problem is still affected 263 00:14:45,332 --> 00:14:49,966 by some sort of illusions about invincibility on our part. 264 00:14:59,665 --> 00:15:01,899 NARRATOR: Just before the hearings began, 265 00:15:02,000 --> 00:15:05,066 the president had decided to resume the bombing of targets 266 00:15:05,166 --> 00:15:07,033 in North Vietnam. 267 00:15:07,133 --> 00:15:12,932 The 37-day pause that had begun on Christmas Eve 1965 268 00:15:13,033 --> 00:15:16,100 had yielded no hint of Hanoi's willingness 269 00:15:16,200 --> 00:15:18,332 to come to the negotiating table. 270 00:15:20,500 --> 00:15:24,399 In South Vietnam, Viet Cong guerrillas were now believed 271 00:15:24,500 --> 00:15:28,500 to control nearly three-quarters of the country. 272 00:15:28,600 --> 00:15:31,399 But General William Westmoreland, 273 00:15:31,500 --> 00:15:35,299 the American commander, thought his most urgent task 274 00:15:35,399 --> 00:15:39,100 was to destroy the North Vietnamese regular army units 275 00:15:39,200 --> 00:15:41,000 Hanoi was sending South. 276 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:45,865 Westmoreland's target for the next two years 277 00:15:45,966 --> 00:15:50,133 would be reaching what he called the "crossover point"-- 278 00:15:50,232 --> 00:15:53,100 the point at which U.S. and ARVN forces 279 00:15:53,200 --> 00:15:57,100 were killing more enemy troops than could be replaced. 280 00:15:58,100 --> 00:16:01,765 It would be a war of attrition. 281 00:16:01,865 --> 00:16:06,765 But that would require still more American soldiers. 282 00:16:08,865 --> 00:16:12,133 They came from every corner of the country. 283 00:16:15,332 --> 00:16:18,832 MATT HARRISON: I was born at West Point when my dad was on the faculty there. 284 00:16:18,932 --> 00:16:21,432 From my earliest recollection, 285 00:16:21,533 --> 00:16:23,799 West Point was what I wanted to do, 286 00:16:23,899 --> 00:16:26,666 not even particularly because I had an inkling 287 00:16:26,765 --> 00:16:28,932 or a strong desire for a military career. 288 00:16:29,033 --> 00:16:30,133 It's just... 289 00:16:30,232 --> 00:16:32,066 West Point was kind of the height of my ambition. 290 00:16:32,165 --> 00:16:34,265 ("On, Brave Old Army Team" playing) 291 00:16:34,365 --> 00:16:37,432 NARRATOR: The son of a colonel who had served in World War II, 292 00:16:37,533 --> 00:16:42,299 Matt Harrison had grown up on Army bases around the world. 293 00:16:42,399 --> 00:16:44,399 For him and his four siblings, 294 00:16:44,500 --> 00:16:48,865 the military was always at the center of their lives. 295 00:16:48,966 --> 00:16:53,100 ANNE HARRISON BOWMAN: You addressed parents "sir" and "ma'am," 296 00:16:53,200 --> 00:16:56,000 and you said "yes" and not "yeah." 297 00:16:56,100 --> 00:16:59,365 And you answered the phone, "Colonel Harrison's quarters." 298 00:16:59,466 --> 00:17:02,265 We got up every Saturday morning and we dusted the house. 299 00:17:02,365 --> 00:17:05,299 My dad would put on the West Point marching band 300 00:17:05,400 --> 00:17:07,465 and my sister and I would dust around the living room. 301 00:17:08,932 --> 00:17:10,566 NARRATOR: It seemed to Matt's parents 302 00:17:10,665 --> 00:17:12,865 that he could do no wrong. 303 00:17:12,965 --> 00:17:16,232 He was the embodiment of the values they had hoped to instill 304 00:17:16,333 --> 00:17:21,365 in all their children: duty, honor, and country. 305 00:17:22,900 --> 00:17:25,299 HARRISON: The strongest impression I have from my class 306 00:17:25,400 --> 00:17:29,732 and my classmates was they were guys who just were idealists. 307 00:17:29,833 --> 00:17:32,766 And I think guys drawn from little towns 308 00:17:32,865 --> 00:17:36,200 all across the United States had that in common. 309 00:17:36,299 --> 00:17:39,200 It was a time before the questions 310 00:17:39,299 --> 00:17:41,365 about American exceptionalism. 311 00:17:41,465 --> 00:17:43,400 We didn't question. 312 00:17:43,500 --> 00:17:46,633 We believed in what this country stood for, 313 00:17:46,732 --> 00:17:50,965 and we believed that people who had the ability 314 00:17:51,066 --> 00:17:54,200 to lead soldiers should do that. 315 00:17:55,665 --> 00:17:58,400 ("Mustang Sally" by Wilson Pickett playing) 316 00:18:03,365 --> 00:18:05,865 PICKETT: ♪ Mustang Sally 317 00:18:05,965 --> 00:18:07,432 ♪ Huh! 318 00:18:07,532 --> 00:18:09,566 ROGER HARRIS: I wanted to go with the gladiators. 319 00:18:09,665 --> 00:18:11,532 I wanted to go with the tough guys. 320 00:18:14,165 --> 00:18:18,165 I was born in Boston, in the Roxbury section of Boston. 321 00:18:18,266 --> 00:18:21,333 There were those who would recruit you for gangs 322 00:18:21,432 --> 00:18:24,700 and try to entice you to do things 323 00:18:24,799 --> 00:18:28,365 that-that weren't in the best interest of society. 324 00:18:28,465 --> 00:18:29,500 Let's put it like that. 325 00:18:30,900 --> 00:18:33,099 NARRATOR: Roger Harris dreamed of going to college 326 00:18:33,200 --> 00:18:35,865 on a football scholarship, but was not big enough 327 00:18:35,965 --> 00:18:38,400 to play for his team in high school. 328 00:18:38,500 --> 00:18:40,665 HARRIS: And so I enlisted in the Marine Corps. 329 00:18:40,766 --> 00:18:44,732 And I felt that... that it was a win-win 330 00:18:44,833 --> 00:18:49,633 because, one, if I died, then my mother would be able 331 00:18:49,732 --> 00:18:52,900 to receive the $10,000 insurance policy. 332 00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:54,700 I thought that was a lot of money, 333 00:18:54,799 --> 00:18:56,365 that my mother will be rich if I die. 334 00:18:56,465 --> 00:18:57,400 You know, she'll be rich. 335 00:18:59,099 --> 00:19:01,865 If I live, then I'll be a hero, you know, 336 00:19:01,965 --> 00:19:04,232 and I can come back and get a job. 337 00:19:04,333 --> 00:19:06,700 Naive, dumb, you know? 338 00:19:08,333 --> 00:19:10,799 NARRATOR: John Musgrave was from the Fairmount neighborhood 339 00:19:10,900 --> 00:19:13,266 of Independence, Missouri. 340 00:19:13,365 --> 00:19:16,732 MUSGRAVE: I was 17 and my best friend and I 341 00:19:16,833 --> 00:19:18,965 went down and enlisted in the Marine Corps. 342 00:19:19,066 --> 00:19:22,000 I had always dreamed of being a Marine. 343 00:19:22,099 --> 00:19:23,732 And... 344 00:19:26,633 --> 00:19:30,465 Well, I knew I wasn't going to be a man right away 345 00:19:30,566 --> 00:19:33,066 but I was going to be a Marine, and that was enough. 346 00:19:33,165 --> 00:19:37,365 I'd be doing something mature. 347 00:19:37,465 --> 00:19:40,032 And I'd be doing something that was important. 348 00:19:40,133 --> 00:19:44,932 And there was a war on and I wanted a piece of it. 349 00:19:46,833 --> 00:19:49,000 BILL EHRHART: I grew up in Perkasie, Pennsylvania. 350 00:19:49,099 --> 00:19:51,232 And every Memorial Day 351 00:19:51,333 --> 00:19:54,432 all that generation of World War II would dress up 352 00:19:54,532 --> 00:19:56,532 in their American Legion uniforms and parade around. 353 00:19:58,066 --> 00:20:01,932 And I'd put red, white, and blue crepe paper on my bicycle. 354 00:20:02,032 --> 00:20:04,333 And the kids could ride behind the parade. 355 00:20:06,066 --> 00:20:09,566 NARRATOR: Bill Ehrhart would sign up in part because his father, 356 00:20:09,665 --> 00:20:12,500 a pastor, had not served. 357 00:20:12,599 --> 00:20:15,633 Ehrhart was a gifted student 358 00:20:15,732 --> 00:20:17,665 and in his senior year in high school 359 00:20:17,766 --> 00:20:20,766 was accepted by four colleges. 360 00:20:20,865 --> 00:20:22,665 Had he attended any one of them, 361 00:20:22,766 --> 00:20:26,032 he would have been deferred from the draft. 362 00:20:26,133 --> 00:20:27,665 It all came down to this notion 363 00:20:27,766 --> 00:20:30,700 of I was going to serve my country and be a hero 364 00:20:30,799 --> 00:20:34,266 and have that gorgeous Marine Corps uniform. 365 00:20:34,365 --> 00:20:37,333 And the girls would just be draped around my neck 366 00:20:37,432 --> 00:20:40,066 and nobody would beat me up again. 367 00:20:40,165 --> 00:20:41,465 But at the same time 368 00:20:41,566 --> 00:20:45,000 I would really be serving my country. 369 00:20:45,099 --> 00:20:47,833 It was my chance to be... (sighs) 370 00:20:47,932 --> 00:20:50,500 one doesn't want to trivialize it, but it was my chance to be 371 00:20:50,599 --> 00:20:52,432 the star of my own John Wayne movie. 372 00:20:52,532 --> 00:20:57,732 It was my chance to do what that World War II generation had done 373 00:20:57,833 --> 00:21:00,066 and seemed to be so proud of. 374 00:21:00,165 --> 00:21:03,133 Now I had my turn. 375 00:21:04,532 --> 00:21:05,766 NARRATOR: Wherever they came from, 376 00:21:05,865 --> 00:21:08,833 whatever their reasons for joining the military, 377 00:21:08,932 --> 00:21:11,333 training transformed them. 378 00:21:11,432 --> 00:21:15,799 (United States Marine Band playing "Semper Fidelis" march) 379 00:21:20,299 --> 00:21:22,566 For about the first five weeks at Parris Island, 380 00:21:22,665 --> 00:21:26,165 I was convinced that I was going to die there. 381 00:21:27,633 --> 00:21:29,732 The drill instructors said they were going to kill me. 382 00:21:29,833 --> 00:21:31,400 And they certainly sounded serious. 383 00:21:34,032 --> 00:21:36,732 MUSGRAVE: I grew up in segregated neighborhoods all my life. 384 00:21:36,833 --> 00:21:40,599 So, I'd never met a black person till I arrived at boot camp. 385 00:21:40,700 --> 00:21:44,400 Never stood next to a black person or a Hispanic 386 00:21:44,500 --> 00:21:46,165 or anyone who was Jewish. 387 00:21:46,266 --> 00:21:49,400 I just... they didn't mix where I grew up. 388 00:21:49,500 --> 00:21:51,965 So that was just eye opening. 389 00:21:52,066 --> 00:21:55,532 But when I got to talking to everybody, we were all the same. 390 00:21:55,633 --> 00:21:58,232 We were all working class and poor. 391 00:21:58,333 --> 00:22:01,566 And we all wanted to be Marines real bad. 392 00:22:02,732 --> 00:22:05,266 EHRHART: By the time I graduated, 393 00:22:05,365 --> 00:22:08,665 I felt like I was king of the world. 394 00:22:08,766 --> 00:22:10,700 I was God. 395 00:22:10,799 --> 00:22:13,066 I could do anything. 396 00:22:13,165 --> 00:22:16,400 On that day I became a Marine. 397 00:22:16,500 --> 00:22:20,299 You know, the Marine Corps trains you to be a fighter. 398 00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:22,465 They train you to fight, they train you to kill. 399 00:22:22,566 --> 00:22:25,700 They used to say that if you're a Marine, you can't die 400 00:22:25,799 --> 00:22:28,400 until you kill three Vietnamese. 401 00:22:29,732 --> 00:22:31,633 And I said, "Well, I'm from Roxbury. 402 00:22:31,732 --> 00:22:36,633 If the expectation is three, I'll do ten." 403 00:22:38,432 --> 00:22:40,066 You know, craziness. 404 00:22:40,165 --> 00:22:42,133 (gunshot) 405 00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:52,000 LESLIE GELB: The tendency for a great power is to use 406 00:22:52,099 --> 00:22:54,000 what it's greatest at-- 407 00:22:54,099 --> 00:22:57,299 namely its firepower, destructive power. 408 00:22:57,400 --> 00:23:00,633 Dropping a lot of bombs and shooting a lot of artillery 409 00:23:00,732 --> 00:23:02,500 at a distance. 410 00:23:02,599 --> 00:23:03,865 You save lives. 411 00:23:03,965 --> 00:23:06,566 You kill a lot of them, you don't lose a lot of us. 412 00:23:08,165 --> 00:23:10,932 NARRATOR: The central coastal province of Binh Dinh 413 00:23:11,032 --> 00:23:13,932 was home to more than half a million people. 414 00:23:14,032 --> 00:23:17,633 For decades, it had been a guerrilla stronghold, 415 00:23:17,732 --> 00:23:20,599 and in early 1966, 416 00:23:20,700 --> 00:23:25,833 the Viet Cong had been augmented by North Vietnamese regulars, 417 00:23:25,932 --> 00:23:28,532 some 8,000 men in all. 418 00:23:32,032 --> 00:23:34,900 General Westmoreland sent 20,000 American, 419 00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:37,865 South Vietnamese and South Korean troops 420 00:23:37,965 --> 00:23:41,266 storming across the province in pursuit of the enemy 421 00:23:41,365 --> 00:23:43,932 and their sources of supply. 422 00:23:44,032 --> 00:23:48,599 They first dropped leaflets and broadcast from loudspeakers 423 00:23:48,700 --> 00:23:50,732 to warn villagers of the terrible fate 424 00:23:50,833 --> 00:23:54,532 that awaited anyone who fired on their helicopters, 425 00:23:54,633 --> 00:23:56,865 urged them to leave their homes, 426 00:23:56,965 --> 00:24:00,200 promised safe passage to any Viet Cong 427 00:24:00,299 --> 00:24:01,865 who wished to surrender. 428 00:24:01,965 --> 00:24:05,532 Then they called in airstrikes and artillery 429 00:24:05,633 --> 00:24:09,400 and blew the hamlets to bits. 430 00:24:09,500 --> 00:24:13,900 It was the first large-scale search-and-destroy campaign 431 00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:15,833 of the war. 432 00:24:15,932 --> 00:24:17,333 (shouting, gunfire) 433 00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:23,099 The offensive lasted 42 days. 434 00:24:23,200 --> 00:24:29,799 The Army reported 2,389 enemy soldiers killed. 435 00:24:29,900 --> 00:24:32,833 Westmoreland was pleased. 436 00:24:32,932 --> 00:24:35,532 But commanders on the scene were concerned 437 00:24:35,633 --> 00:24:39,299 that despite all the American firepower brought against them, 438 00:24:39,400 --> 00:24:43,232 most of the North Vietnamese regulars had still managed 439 00:24:43,333 --> 00:24:46,965 to escape back into the Central Highlands. 440 00:24:47,066 --> 00:24:51,665 The operation would drive more than 100,000 civilians 441 00:24:51,766 --> 00:24:53,432 from their homes. 442 00:24:54,732 --> 00:24:57,799 Similar search-and-destroy and bombing campaigns-- 443 00:24:57,900 --> 00:25:03,066 17 large-scale U.S. offensives in 1966 alone-- 444 00:25:03,165 --> 00:25:04,599 would produce a total 445 00:25:04,700 --> 00:25:07,665 of more than three million homeless people 446 00:25:07,766 --> 00:25:09,333 all across the country, 447 00:25:09,432 --> 00:25:14,665 roughly one-fifth of South Vietnam's population. 448 00:25:18,932 --> 00:25:22,266 Since there was no front in Vietnam, 449 00:25:22,365 --> 00:25:25,865 as there had been in the first and second World Wars, 450 00:25:25,965 --> 00:25:30,299 since no ground was ever permanently won or lost, 451 00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:34,032 the American military command in Vietnam-- MACV-- 452 00:25:34,133 --> 00:25:38,566 fell back more and more on a single grisly measure 453 00:25:38,665 --> 00:25:40,432 of supposed success: 454 00:25:40,532 --> 00:25:42,766 counting corpses. 455 00:25:42,865 --> 00:25:45,532 Body count. 456 00:25:50,700 --> 00:25:52,032 JAMES WILLBANKS: The problem with the war, 457 00:25:52,133 --> 00:25:54,766 as it often is, are the metrics. 458 00:25:54,865 --> 00:25:59,732 It is a situation where if you can't count what's important, 459 00:25:59,833 --> 00:26:02,333 you make what you can count important. 460 00:26:03,665 --> 00:26:05,465 So, in this particular case what you could count 461 00:26:05,566 --> 00:26:08,032 was dead enemy bodies. 462 00:26:09,965 --> 00:26:12,700 JOE GALLOWAY: You don't get details with a body count. 463 00:26:12,799 --> 00:26:14,633 You get numbers. 464 00:26:14,732 --> 00:26:19,500 And the numbers are lies, most of 'em. 465 00:26:19,599 --> 00:26:24,133 If body count is your success mark, 466 00:26:24,232 --> 00:26:30,299 then you're pushing otherwise honorable men, warriors, 467 00:26:30,400 --> 00:26:31,732 to become liars. 468 00:26:33,566 --> 00:26:35,400 ROBERT GARD: If body count 469 00:26:35,500 --> 00:26:36,732 is the measure of success, 470 00:26:36,833 --> 00:26:40,400 then there's the tendency to count every body 471 00:26:40,500 --> 00:26:42,633 as an enemy soldier. 472 00:26:42,732 --> 00:26:47,200 There's a tendency to want to pile up dead bodies 473 00:26:47,299 --> 00:26:53,365 and perhaps to use less discriminate firepower 474 00:26:53,465 --> 00:26:54,932 than you otherwise might 475 00:26:55,032 --> 00:26:58,500 in order to achieve the result 476 00:26:58,599 --> 00:27:02,266 that you're charged with trying to obtain. 477 00:27:15,865 --> 00:27:18,299 (man shouting) 478 00:27:22,700 --> 00:27:28,232 MERRILL McPEAK: Just think about the problem from the North's point of view. 479 00:27:28,333 --> 00:27:31,599 They had to supply the South. 480 00:27:31,700 --> 00:27:34,932 I'm talking about bringing in people, equipment, supplies, 481 00:27:35,032 --> 00:27:36,932 and so forth. 482 00:27:37,032 --> 00:27:42,000 They started from nothing and pushed a road through that... 483 00:27:42,099 --> 00:27:45,032 through an area the size of Massachusetts. 484 00:27:45,133 --> 00:27:49,066 So this is not a trivial amount of real estate 485 00:27:49,165 --> 00:27:52,333 that they took over, built a road on, 486 00:27:52,432 --> 00:27:54,032 and then maintained it. 487 00:27:56,766 --> 00:28:00,432 NARRATOR: For years, Hanoi had smuggled most of its arms and supplies 488 00:28:00,532 --> 00:28:03,865 to the South aboard an improvised fleet of junks, 489 00:28:03,965 --> 00:28:06,333 trawlers and freighters. 490 00:28:06,432 --> 00:28:08,965 But when the U.S. Navy effectively blockaded 491 00:28:09,066 --> 00:28:10,833 the Southern coastline, 492 00:28:10,932 --> 00:28:13,266 the North Vietnamese would be forced to move 493 00:28:13,365 --> 00:28:16,133 almost all of their supplies overland, 494 00:28:16,232 --> 00:28:18,333 through Laos and Cambodia, 495 00:28:18,432 --> 00:28:20,766 neutral countries Hanoi considered 496 00:28:20,865 --> 00:28:23,232 part of the greater battlefield. 497 00:28:23,333 --> 00:28:26,932 Americans called it the Ho Chi Minh Trail. 498 00:28:27,032 --> 00:28:31,032 The North Vietnamese called it Route 559, 499 00:28:31,133 --> 00:28:35,099 after the men and women of the 559th Army Corps, 500 00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:38,599 who were turning it from a braided web of footpaths 501 00:28:38,700 --> 00:28:42,865 into 12,000 tangled miles of jungle roadways 502 00:28:42,965 --> 00:28:46,665 down which men and materiel streamed south. 503 00:28:47,900 --> 00:28:49,200 When they had fought the French, 504 00:28:49,299 --> 00:28:53,365 the Viet Minh had depended on tens of thousands of porters, 505 00:28:53,465 --> 00:28:56,432 then on legions of bicycles. 506 00:28:56,532 --> 00:28:59,700 Now, to offset the growing American presence, 507 00:28:59,799 --> 00:29:03,532 the North Vietnamese used more mechanized transport-- 508 00:29:03,633 --> 00:29:06,732 relays of six-wheeled Russian-built trucks 509 00:29:06,833 --> 00:29:10,465 traveling under cover of darkness. 510 00:29:10,566 --> 00:29:13,532 MACV reasoned that if the Ho Chi Minh Trail 511 00:29:13,633 --> 00:29:16,133 could somehow be sufficiently damaged, 512 00:29:16,232 --> 00:29:20,532 the enemy would be unable to sustain itself. 513 00:29:23,099 --> 00:29:26,665 Three million tons of explosives would eventually be dropped 514 00:29:26,766 --> 00:29:29,365 on the Laos portion of the trail alone-- 515 00:29:29,465 --> 00:29:33,599 a million more tons than fell on Germany and Japan 516 00:29:33,700 --> 00:29:36,500 during all of World War II. 517 00:29:36,599 --> 00:29:40,599 Some key choke-points were hit so many times 518 00:29:40,700 --> 00:29:44,099 the workers gave them names-- "the Gate of Death," 519 00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:49,900 "Fried Flesh Hill" and "the Gorge of Lost Souls." 520 00:29:52,032 --> 00:29:54,566 To expose enemy traffic, 521 00:29:54,665 --> 00:29:57,532 other aircraft dropped chemical defoliants, 522 00:29:57,633 --> 00:29:59,566 including Agent Orange, 523 00:29:59,665 --> 00:30:02,599 that destroyed thousands of acres of jungle 524 00:30:02,700 --> 00:30:06,465 and turned the earth into what one American pilot called 525 00:30:06,566 --> 00:30:09,165 "bony, lunar dust." 526 00:30:11,066 --> 00:30:13,400 McPEAK: We'd punch a hole in the road and say, 527 00:30:13,500 --> 00:30:15,032 "Ha ha, they'll never get around that one." 528 00:30:15,133 --> 00:30:17,732 And the next day you'd come up, and the hole wouldn't be there; 529 00:30:17,833 --> 00:30:20,566 and there'd be dust on the trees back, you know, 50 meters 530 00:30:20,665 --> 00:30:23,532 in both directions, saying, heavy traffic all night. 531 00:30:24,865 --> 00:30:27,532 DONG SI NGUYEN: 532 00:30:40,799 --> 00:30:45,665 NARRATOR: As many as 230,000 teenagers, many of them volunteers, 533 00:30:45,766 --> 00:30:49,799 worked to keep the roads open and the traffic moving. 534 00:30:49,900 --> 00:30:52,833 More than half of them were women. 535 00:30:55,400 --> 00:30:58,400 Le Minh Khue, who had left her home in the North 536 00:30:58,500 --> 00:31:01,432 with a novel by Ernest Hemingway in her backpack, 537 00:31:01,532 --> 00:31:05,099 observed her 17th birthday on the trail. 538 00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:07,500 LE MINH KHUE: 539 00:31:21,333 --> 00:31:26,432 NARRATOR: Thousands died on the trail from starvation and accidents, 540 00:31:26,532 --> 00:31:30,133 fevers and snakebite and sheer exhaustion, 541 00:31:30,232 --> 00:31:33,066 as well as from the relentless bombing. 542 00:31:38,865 --> 00:31:41,133 LE MINH KHUE: 543 00:31:55,032 --> 00:31:57,099 TRAN CONG THANG: 544 00:32:40,066 --> 00:32:42,365 (Doug Wamble's "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" playing) 545 00:32:45,032 --> 00:32:47,365 HOWARD K. SMITH (on television): But in this kind of war you never know. 546 00:32:47,465 --> 00:32:49,232 You have to be constantly alert 547 00:32:49,333 --> 00:32:51,766 because you can't tell friends from enemies. 548 00:32:51,865 --> 00:32:55,333 Relax for a moment and your reward may be a grenade 549 00:32:55,432 --> 00:32:56,865 or a hail of bullets. 550 00:32:56,965 --> 00:32:59,133 CAROL CROCKER: I couldn't watch the news. 551 00:32:59,232 --> 00:33:02,400 My parents would be sitting in front of the television 552 00:33:02,500 --> 00:33:04,900 and I would hide in the kitchen. 553 00:33:07,032 --> 00:33:10,599 Of course you don't tell anybody, but it was too much. 554 00:33:10,700 --> 00:33:12,633 I really didn't want to know. 555 00:33:12,732 --> 00:33:15,665 ("Smokestack Lightnin'" by Howlin' Wolf playing) 556 00:33:22,633 --> 00:33:26,633 HOWLIN' WOLF: ♪ Oh-oh, smokestack lightnin'. 557 00:33:26,732 --> 00:33:30,099 NARRATOR: Mogie Crocker had spent most of his boyhood 558 00:33:30,200 --> 00:33:31,865 reading about war. 559 00:33:31,965 --> 00:33:35,299 But nothing had prepared him for what he would experience 560 00:33:35,400 --> 00:33:38,365 in Quang Duc Province on the Cambodian border. 561 00:33:40,432 --> 00:33:42,066 He had deliberately fouled up his work 562 00:33:42,165 --> 00:33:44,566 at battalion headquarters so badly 563 00:33:44,665 --> 00:33:46,232 that he had finally been reassigned 564 00:33:46,333 --> 00:33:49,766 to what he wanted most-- a combat unit. 565 00:33:49,865 --> 00:33:53,865 HOWLIN' WOLF: ♪ Whoa-oh, tell me, baby 566 00:33:53,965 --> 00:33:57,965 ♪ What's the matter with you? 567 00:33:58,066 --> 00:34:01,232 ♪ Why don't you hear me cryin' ? 568 00:34:01,333 --> 00:34:03,032 ♪ Oooh 569 00:34:03,133 --> 00:34:06,165 JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: Not hearing in those days was so difficult. 570 00:34:06,266 --> 00:34:10,666 There'd be at least eight to ten days usually between letters. 571 00:34:10,766 --> 00:34:14,699 So knowing he was in action, you just didn't know what, 572 00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:16,599 you know, might be going on. 573 00:34:18,432 --> 00:34:20,465 NARRATOR: Mogie's battalion commander, 574 00:34:20,565 --> 00:34:22,766 Lieutenant Colonel Henry Emerson, 575 00:34:22,865 --> 00:34:24,365 known as "The Gunfighter," 576 00:34:24,465 --> 00:34:28,199 was courageous, implacable, relentless. 577 00:34:29,599 --> 00:34:31,500 A few months before Mogie got there, 578 00:34:31,599 --> 00:34:35,000 he had offered a case of whiskey to the first of his men 579 00:34:35,099 --> 00:34:39,166 to bring him the hacked-off head of an enemy soldier. 580 00:34:39,266 --> 00:34:42,132 They did. 581 00:34:44,965 --> 00:34:49,065 For nine days in early May of 1966, 582 00:34:49,166 --> 00:34:53,500 Mogie and his outfit battled nothing but the terrain. 583 00:34:53,599 --> 00:34:56,599 They struggled through a labyrinth of elephant grass 584 00:34:56,699 --> 00:34:58,032 and thorn bushes, 585 00:34:58,132 --> 00:35:00,932 bamboo taller than three men 586 00:35:01,032 --> 00:35:03,766 and triple-canopied jungle so thick 587 00:35:03,865 --> 00:35:07,900 it sometimes took an hour to move 100 feet. 588 00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:09,166 (thunder rumbles) 589 00:35:09,266 --> 00:35:10,699 The monsoon had begun. 590 00:35:10,800 --> 00:35:14,266 Sunlight rarely reached the forest floor. 591 00:35:14,365 --> 00:35:16,400 Finger-long black leeches 592 00:35:16,500 --> 00:35:20,132 caused wounds that quickly became infected. 593 00:35:20,233 --> 00:35:23,532 When Colonel Emerson learned that four companies 594 00:35:23,632 --> 00:35:26,233 of North Vietnamese were preparing an ambush, 595 00:35:26,333 --> 00:35:29,432 he decided to ambush the ambushers. 596 00:35:30,632 --> 00:35:34,199 On May 11, he ordered his men to attack, 597 00:35:34,300 --> 00:35:37,800 backed by massive air and artillery strikes. 598 00:35:40,199 --> 00:35:42,199 Before the fighting ended, 599 00:35:42,300 --> 00:35:48,333 some 2,000 shells had slammed into the enemy positions. 600 00:35:48,432 --> 00:35:52,233 Blood was everywhere, pooled on the ground, 601 00:35:52,333 --> 00:35:55,800 smeared on leaves and grass and bamboo. 602 00:35:55,900 --> 00:35:58,333 There were scores of corpses, 603 00:35:58,432 --> 00:36:02,900 torn to pieces or blown into the earth, hidden in thickets, 604 00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:06,132 half-buried in scooped-out graves. 605 00:36:06,233 --> 00:36:08,565 The earth-shaking concussions 606 00:36:08,666 --> 00:36:12,565 had blown the eyeballs of some of them from their heads. 607 00:36:14,032 --> 00:36:15,365 In the midst of the fighting, 608 00:36:15,465 --> 00:36:18,132 Mogie's squad was moving along a narrow path 609 00:36:18,233 --> 00:36:21,400 when two enemy machine guns opened up on them. 610 00:36:21,500 --> 00:36:24,266 (gunfire) 611 00:36:27,766 --> 00:36:30,965 His closest friend was fatally wounded. 612 00:36:31,065 --> 00:36:35,733 Mogie crouched in front of him, radioed for suppressive fire, 613 00:36:35,833 --> 00:36:39,733 and then, as both machine guns continued shooting, 614 00:36:39,833 --> 00:36:44,233 he carried his dying friend off the battlefield. 615 00:36:45,333 --> 00:36:46,532 For his courage, 616 00:36:46,632 --> 00:36:50,865 he would be awarded the Army Commendation Medal. 617 00:36:53,065 --> 00:36:56,365 In his letters home, Mogie told his family 618 00:36:56,465 --> 00:37:00,365 nothing of what he'd seen or done. 619 00:37:00,465 --> 00:37:04,233 (David Cieri playing "Sound of Silence") 620 00:37:07,699 --> 00:37:11,065 JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: One day when I was at the post office mailing something, 621 00:37:11,166 --> 00:37:15,065 I asked the clerk, "How do they let you know 622 00:37:15,166 --> 00:37:17,032 if your son is wounded?" 623 00:37:17,132 --> 00:37:20,166 It was very hard for me to form those words. 624 00:37:20,266 --> 00:37:22,865 But I just felt I've got to know. 625 00:37:22,965 --> 00:37:27,266 I just felt so suspended in space, in anxiety. 626 00:37:29,166 --> 00:37:32,599 And the man said, "Now, don't ask that. 627 00:37:32,699 --> 00:37:35,132 Don't think about that." 628 00:37:35,233 --> 00:37:37,900 I said, "Well, I have to know." 629 00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:41,599 And he said, "Don't worry, they'll tell you." 630 00:37:44,833 --> 00:37:49,099 (Pete Seeger playing "The Willing Conscript") 631 00:37:49,199 --> 00:37:51,365 SEEGER: ♪ Oh sergeant, I'm a draftee 632 00:37:51,465 --> 00:37:54,065 ♪ And I've just arrived in camp ♪ 633 00:37:54,166 --> 00:37:58,699 ♪ I've come to wear the uniform and join the martial tramp ♪ 634 00:37:58,800 --> 00:38:03,532 ♪ And I want to do my duty, but one thing I do implore ♪ 635 00:38:03,632 --> 00:38:05,300 ♪ You must give me lessons, sergeant ♪ 636 00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:08,565 ♪ For I've never killed before. ♪ 637 00:38:10,465 --> 00:38:15,166 PHILIP CAPUTO: I didn't like the war protesters whatever. 638 00:38:15,266 --> 00:38:18,400 I kind of felt that they were privileged, spoiled kids 639 00:38:18,500 --> 00:38:25,266 who may have been protesting because they didn't want to go. 640 00:38:25,365 --> 00:38:27,800 So they leave it to some guy 641 00:38:27,900 --> 00:38:30,199 that maybe got through two years of high school 642 00:38:30,300 --> 00:38:31,565 to go do it for 'em. 643 00:38:32,766 --> 00:38:35,233 BILL ZIMMERMAN: The war by 1966 644 00:38:35,333 --> 00:38:37,800 began to impact the middle class 645 00:38:37,900 --> 00:38:41,065 because the draft calls had to be enlarged. 646 00:38:41,166 --> 00:38:44,166 They couldn't get enough people to volunteer 647 00:38:44,266 --> 00:38:46,500 or draft people out of the working class. 648 00:38:46,599 --> 00:38:48,465 They started drafting people out of college. 649 00:38:48,565 --> 00:38:52,733 And that's when the antiwar movement shifted 650 00:38:52,833 --> 00:38:56,432 from a moral movement to a self-interest movement 651 00:38:56,532 --> 00:38:59,632 driven by people who didn't want to go to war 652 00:38:59,733 --> 00:39:04,065 and their loved ones who didn't want them to go to war. 653 00:39:04,166 --> 00:39:06,565 SEEGER: ♪ And I know that it won't matter ♪ 654 00:39:06,666 --> 00:39:10,065 ♪ That I've never killed before. ♪ 655 00:39:10,166 --> 00:39:11,465 (school bell rings) 656 00:39:11,565 --> 00:39:13,833 NARRATOR: Bill Zimmerman was a graduate student 657 00:39:13,932 --> 00:39:18,300 at the University of Chicago in May of 1966. 658 00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:21,032 The son of Eastern European refugees, 659 00:39:21,132 --> 00:39:23,699 he'd worked for civil rights in Mississippi 660 00:39:23,800 --> 00:39:27,099 and had been opposed to American involvement in Vietnam 661 00:39:27,199 --> 00:39:29,932 since 1963. 662 00:39:30,032 --> 00:39:32,500 The draft was a consuming issue 663 00:39:32,599 --> 00:39:35,132 for young men of Zimmerman's generation. 664 00:39:35,233 --> 00:39:39,532 Since 1942, every male citizen of the United States 665 00:39:39,632 --> 00:39:43,333 had been required to register at age 18. 666 00:39:43,432 --> 00:39:46,900 But of the nearly 27 million American men 667 00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:49,733 who came of age during the Vietnam War, 668 00:39:49,833 --> 00:39:52,833 more than half avoided military service 669 00:39:52,932 --> 00:39:55,400 through exemptions and deferments. 670 00:39:55,500 --> 00:39:59,166 Nearly 500,000 Americans applied 671 00:39:59,266 --> 00:40:01,500 for conscientious objector status 672 00:40:01,599 --> 00:40:03,766 on religious or moral grounds, 673 00:40:03,865 --> 00:40:06,865 six times as many as in World War II. 674 00:40:06,965 --> 00:40:13,132 In all, 170,000 were allowed to perform alternative service 675 00:40:13,233 --> 00:40:17,599 in hospitals, homeless shelters, and schools. 676 00:40:17,699 --> 00:40:21,766 Some were trained as medics and sent to Vietnam. 677 00:40:21,865 --> 00:40:24,365 At least two were killed; 678 00:40:24,465 --> 00:40:28,233 both received the Congressional Medal of Honor. 679 00:40:28,333 --> 00:40:32,699 A million young men served in the Reserves or National Guard 680 00:40:32,800 --> 00:40:36,400 with the expectation they would never be sent into combat. 681 00:40:36,500 --> 00:40:41,032 Reservists and Guardsmen were almost always white, 682 00:40:41,132 --> 00:40:43,833 generally better educated, better connected, 683 00:40:43,932 --> 00:40:46,565 and better paid than draftees. 684 00:40:46,666 --> 00:40:50,266 Interrupting their lives, President Johnson felt, 685 00:40:50,365 --> 00:40:53,199 would have increased opposition to the war. 686 00:40:53,300 --> 00:40:58,833 "If you've got the dough," GIs said, "you don't have to go." 687 00:40:58,932 --> 00:41:00,400 ("Backlash Blues" by Nina Simone playing) 688 00:41:00,500 --> 00:41:02,699 The result was an Army heavily skewed 689 00:41:02,800 --> 00:41:05,565 toward minorities and the underprivileged. 690 00:41:05,666 --> 00:41:08,699 SIMONE: ♪ Mr. Backlash, Mr. Backlash 691 00:41:08,800 --> 00:41:11,400 ♪ Just who do you think I am? 692 00:41:11,500 --> 00:41:14,432 ♪ You raise my taxes, freeze my wages ♪ 693 00:41:14,532 --> 00:41:17,599 ♪ And send my son to Vietnam. 694 00:41:17,699 --> 00:41:21,465 NARRATOR: For a time, African Americans, 695 00:41:21,565 --> 00:41:25,166 though they represented only 12% of the population, 696 00:41:25,266 --> 00:41:29,000 suffered a disproportionate number of casualties. 697 00:41:29,099 --> 00:41:33,065 Resentment began to grow. 698 00:41:33,166 --> 00:41:35,132 STOKELY CARMICHAEL: We've got to build so much strength 699 00:41:35,233 --> 00:41:36,733 in building our community, 700 00:41:36,833 --> 00:41:38,865 that if they come to get one person, 701 00:41:38,965 --> 00:41:40,365 they going to have to mess with us all. 702 00:41:40,465 --> 00:41:41,599 That's what we got to do! 703 00:41:41,699 --> 00:41:43,065 That's what we go to do. 704 00:41:43,166 --> 00:41:44,565 (applause) 705 00:41:44,666 --> 00:41:49,132 We've got to build so much strength inside our community, 706 00:41:49,233 --> 00:41:52,565 so that when LBJ says, "Come here, boy, to my war," 707 00:41:52,666 --> 00:41:54,666 we say, "Hell no, we ain't going." 708 00:41:54,766 --> 00:41:55,965 (applause) 709 00:41:56,065 --> 00:41:58,333 SIMONE: ♪ But the world is big. 710 00:41:58,432 --> 00:41:59,632 MUHAMMAD ALI: I'm not going to help nobody 711 00:41:59,733 --> 00:42:01,965 get something my Negroes don't have. 712 00:42:02,065 --> 00:42:03,333 If I'm going to die, I'll die now, 713 00:42:03,432 --> 00:42:06,166 right here fighting you, if I'm going to die. 714 00:42:06,266 --> 00:42:10,099 You my enemy, my enemy is the white people, not Viet Congs, 715 00:42:10,199 --> 00:42:11,666 or Chinese, or Japanese. 716 00:42:11,766 --> 00:42:14,166 You my opposer when I want freedom. 717 00:42:14,266 --> 00:42:16,132 You my opposer when I want justice. 718 00:42:16,233 --> 00:42:17,666 You my opposer when I want equality. 719 00:42:17,766 --> 00:42:19,532 And you want me to go somewhere and fight, 720 00:42:19,632 --> 00:42:21,965 but you won't even stand up for me here at home. 721 00:42:22,065 --> 00:42:27,166 NARRATOR: At first, 10,000 draftees were called up each month, 722 00:42:27,266 --> 00:42:32,565 but in 1966, the growing demand for fresh troops in Vietnam 723 00:42:32,666 --> 00:42:36,266 raised that number to 30,000. 724 00:42:36,365 --> 00:42:39,565 Now, thousands of college students 725 00:42:39,666 --> 00:42:43,000 could no longer expect a deferment. 726 00:42:43,099 --> 00:42:46,400 ZIMMERMAN: And if your rank fell below a certain threshold, 727 00:42:46,500 --> 00:42:49,632 you were yanked out of college. 728 00:42:49,733 --> 00:42:52,365 And the worst that could happen to you is you would be killed 729 00:42:52,465 --> 00:42:54,166 in Vietnam. 730 00:42:54,266 --> 00:42:57,699 So we protested at the University of Chicago 731 00:42:57,800 --> 00:43:02,400 that the university was complicit with this war 732 00:43:02,500 --> 00:43:06,766 by agreeing to supply those rankings to the draft board. 733 00:43:06,865 --> 00:43:09,465 We thought for the first time, you know, 734 00:43:09,565 --> 00:43:11,365 we're really having an impact. 735 00:43:15,166 --> 00:43:20,766 NARRATOR: But a majority of Americans, old and young, supported the war. 736 00:43:20,865 --> 00:43:23,065 The Young Americans for Freedom, 737 00:43:23,166 --> 00:43:26,599 created by the conservative writer William F. Buckley, 738 00:43:26,699 --> 00:43:31,365 held counter-demonstrations on campuses across the country. 739 00:43:31,465 --> 00:43:34,865 CROWD: ♪ His truth is marching on. 740 00:43:40,300 --> 00:43:42,432 LE QUAN CONG: 741 00:44:29,900 --> 00:44:33,699 DUONG VAN MAI ELLIOTT: I was brought up to believe that the communists were people 742 00:44:33,800 --> 00:44:38,800 who destroy the family, destroy religion, 743 00:44:38,900 --> 00:44:42,365 and people who had no allegiance to our country 744 00:44:42,465 --> 00:44:45,532 but to international communism. 745 00:44:45,632 --> 00:44:49,666 My mother would describe them as (speaking Vietnamese), 746 00:44:49,766 --> 00:44:52,000 which means that these are people 747 00:44:52,099 --> 00:44:54,766 with the head of a water buffalo and the face of a horse, 748 00:44:54,865 --> 00:44:58,800 meaning that they were subhumans, and they were brutal. 749 00:45:00,132 --> 00:45:03,400 But on the other hand I thought they also include people 750 00:45:03,500 --> 00:45:07,166 like my sister Thang and a lot of my cousins. 751 00:45:07,266 --> 00:45:11,532 I couldn't quite reconcile the two images. 752 00:45:11,632 --> 00:45:15,900 But of the two, I think the other image was much stronger 753 00:45:16,000 --> 00:45:17,900 because I was so scared of them. 754 00:45:18,000 --> 00:45:21,500 I thought these people must be really, really horrible people. 755 00:45:21,599 --> 00:45:24,065 That was the frame of mind I had 756 00:45:24,166 --> 00:45:28,400 when I started doing research into the communist movement. 757 00:45:28,500 --> 00:45:32,000 NARRATOR: Duong Van Mai was the daughter of an official 758 00:45:32,099 --> 00:45:35,266 in the South Vietnamese government and was now married 759 00:45:35,365 --> 00:45:37,932 to an American, David Elliott. 760 00:45:38,032 --> 00:45:41,166 Back in 1964, she had gone to work 761 00:45:41,266 --> 00:45:43,865 for the RAND Corporation in Saigon. 762 00:45:43,965 --> 00:45:46,199 The think tank had been commissioned 763 00:45:46,300 --> 00:45:50,099 by Robert McNamara to do a study of enemy prisoners 764 00:45:50,199 --> 00:45:53,166 to find out "Who are the Viet Cong? 765 00:45:53,266 --> 00:45:55,565 And what makes them tick?" 766 00:45:57,300 --> 00:45:59,599 DUONG VAN MAI ELLIOTT: I remember my first interview. 767 00:45:59,699 --> 00:46:01,365 I was by myself. 768 00:46:01,465 --> 00:46:06,333 I was very young and I was going to this pretty grim prison 769 00:46:06,432 --> 00:46:11,065 to interview this high-ranking cadre who had been captured. 770 00:46:11,166 --> 00:46:15,199 I went in thinking I'm going to meet this beast, you know, 771 00:46:15,300 --> 00:46:17,666 this guy with the head of a water buffalo 772 00:46:17,766 --> 00:46:19,300 and the face of a horse. 773 00:46:19,400 --> 00:46:22,000 He walked in and he was very surprised to see me. 774 00:46:22,099 --> 00:46:23,266 (chuckles) 775 00:46:23,365 --> 00:46:26,000 Just as surprised as I was to see him. 776 00:46:26,099 --> 00:46:30,400 Here was a man who had devoted all his life to fight 777 00:46:30,500 --> 00:46:33,400 for what he called a just cause 778 00:46:33,500 --> 00:46:36,132 to free his country of foreign domination, 779 00:46:36,233 --> 00:46:40,800 to reunify the country under just government. 780 00:46:40,900 --> 00:46:42,900 So he really totally believed in it 781 00:46:43,000 --> 00:46:46,233 to the point that he sacrificed his whole life to this cause. 782 00:46:46,333 --> 00:46:49,065 So I left, I was very... I was very impressed with him. 783 00:46:50,733 --> 00:46:52,500 NARRATOR: When the RAND report was presented 784 00:46:52,599 --> 00:46:55,532 to McNamara's top deputies at the Pentagon, 785 00:46:55,632 --> 00:46:58,632 describing the Viet Cong as a dedicated enemy 786 00:46:58,733 --> 00:47:02,199 that "could only be defeated at enormous cost," 787 00:47:02,300 --> 00:47:06,632 one senior official said, "If what you say is true, 788 00:47:06,733 --> 00:47:09,233 "we're fighting on the wrong side, 789 00:47:09,333 --> 00:47:12,300 the side that's going to lose this war." 790 00:47:15,733 --> 00:47:19,432 (Donovan's "Sunshine Superman" playing) 791 00:47:26,500 --> 00:47:33,599 DONOVAN: ♪ Sunshine came softly through my a-window today ♪ 792 00:47:33,699 --> 00:47:40,766 ♪ Could've tripped out easy a-but I've a-changed my ways. ♪ 793 00:47:40,865 --> 00:47:46,199 STUART HERRINGTON: The overall myth of an American army running roughshod 794 00:47:46,300 --> 00:47:51,532 by policy, by strategy, by tactics to terrorize and murder 795 00:47:51,632 --> 00:47:56,300 and victimize the innocent population of South Vietnam, 796 00:47:56,400 --> 00:47:58,000 that image is the... 797 00:47:58,099 --> 00:48:01,365 it-it doesn't do justice to the young men and women 798 00:48:01,465 --> 00:48:02,666 who served over there. 799 00:48:02,766 --> 00:48:05,599 It's certainly not an accurate depiction 800 00:48:05,699 --> 00:48:08,199 of what our army was about. 801 00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:13,199 NARRATOR: From the first, the Johnson administration understood 802 00:48:13,300 --> 00:48:15,132 that the war could not be won 803 00:48:15,233 --> 00:48:19,065 without convincing poor farmers living in the countryside 804 00:48:19,166 --> 00:48:22,932 that the government in Saigon, not the Viet Cong, 805 00:48:23,032 --> 00:48:27,565 had their best interests at heart. 806 00:48:27,666 --> 00:48:29,833 In addition to the military, 807 00:48:29,932 --> 00:48:32,965 many American aid organizations were at work 808 00:48:33,065 --> 00:48:34,766 in Vietnamese villages. 809 00:48:34,865 --> 00:48:37,666 They dug wells and built windmills, 810 00:48:37,766 --> 00:48:41,733 started schools, introduced improved rice, 811 00:48:41,833 --> 00:48:43,532 provided medical care, 812 00:48:43,632 --> 00:48:47,400 and electrified much of the countryside. 813 00:48:49,965 --> 00:48:52,800 Under pressure from Robert McNamara, 814 00:48:52,900 --> 00:48:56,632 MACV struggled to find ways to measure the progress 815 00:48:56,733 --> 00:49:01,099 of pacification in South Vietnam's 44 provinces, 816 00:49:01,199 --> 00:49:06,065 220 districts and 13,000 hamlets, 817 00:49:06,166 --> 00:49:11,333 and finally came up with the Hamlet Evaluation System. 818 00:49:11,432 --> 00:49:15,565 Soon some 220 U.S. district advisers 819 00:49:15,666 --> 00:49:19,432 were required to produce some 90,000 pages 820 00:49:19,532 --> 00:49:24,300 of data every month-- a mountain of information so daunting 821 00:49:24,400 --> 00:49:28,065 no one could make sense of it. 822 00:49:30,766 --> 00:49:33,599 PHILIP BRADY: Everything can be quantified. 823 00:49:33,699 --> 00:49:37,565 So you can literally say, "How pacified is this village?" 824 00:49:37,666 --> 00:49:40,699 "It's 37.5% pacified." 825 00:49:40,800 --> 00:49:43,000 Well, what does that mean? 826 00:49:43,099 --> 00:49:44,432 An American would tell you, 827 00:49:44,532 --> 00:49:47,865 "You know, we haven't had an incident in this village 828 00:49:47,965 --> 00:49:50,500 or this province," whatever. 829 00:49:50,599 --> 00:49:56,432 "The incident rate's going down, and therefore we're winning." 830 00:49:56,532 --> 00:49:59,132 But we would point out that certain troubled areas 831 00:49:59,233 --> 00:50:01,833 in the provinces that we were working in, 832 00:50:01,932 --> 00:50:05,132 we would say simply that it's not pacified 833 00:50:05,233 --> 00:50:09,032 unless you want to consider it pacified by the other side. 834 00:50:10,733 --> 00:50:13,065 HERRINGTON: To the extent that pacification was succeeding, 835 00:50:13,166 --> 00:50:16,233 schools were being built, wells were being cleaned. 836 00:50:16,333 --> 00:50:17,632 And then one fine night 837 00:50:17,733 --> 00:50:20,500 here comes 400 North Vietnamese soldiers into the village, 838 00:50:20,599 --> 00:50:23,432 executes the village chief, kidnaps 12 of the young people 839 00:50:23,532 --> 00:50:27,000 for, you know, service in the revolutionary armed forces, 840 00:50:27,099 --> 00:50:29,199 and the people look at the government and say, 841 00:50:29,300 --> 00:50:34,565 "You promised us you'd protect us, but you didn't stay." 842 00:50:39,932 --> 00:50:41,699 MIKE HEANEY: I was over there early. 843 00:50:41,800 --> 00:50:46,132 I was with a really good unit, who believed in Army traditions, 844 00:50:46,233 --> 00:50:47,833 they believed in honor, 845 00:50:47,932 --> 00:50:51,932 they believed even in treating your enemy humanely 846 00:50:52,032 --> 00:50:54,099 once he was a POW. 847 00:50:54,199 --> 00:50:58,632 NARRATOR: Lieutenant Mike Heaney from Basking Ridge, New Jersey, 848 00:50:58,733 --> 00:51:01,800 was a platoon leader in the 1st Cavalry Division. 849 00:51:01,900 --> 00:51:05,166 He'd arrived late in 1965 850 00:51:05,266 --> 00:51:08,266 and was assigned to a densely populated section 851 00:51:08,365 --> 00:51:09,599 of central Vietnam, 852 00:51:09,699 --> 00:51:11,800 where he found himself surrounded 853 00:51:11,900 --> 00:51:14,166 by North Vietnamese infiltrators 854 00:51:14,266 --> 00:51:17,800 and villagers whose loyalties were unclear. 855 00:51:18,900 --> 00:51:21,099 HEANEY: We never really figured out 856 00:51:21,199 --> 00:51:23,666 how to determine who the enemy was. 857 00:51:23,766 --> 00:51:28,632 Being normal, decent American boys, 858 00:51:28,733 --> 00:51:31,599 you don't just put your rifle up and take a shot at a guy 859 00:51:31,699 --> 00:51:32,865 and try to kill him 860 00:51:32,965 --> 00:51:36,733 unless you're pretty sure this is an enemy. 861 00:51:36,833 --> 00:51:39,400 And if he wasn't armed, 862 00:51:39,500 --> 00:51:43,500 or wasn't menacing you in any way, we wouldn't shoot him. 863 00:51:45,166 --> 00:51:46,865 We'd go through a village 864 00:51:46,965 --> 00:51:49,400 in which there would be no people we could identify 865 00:51:49,500 --> 00:51:53,000 as enemy soldiers, and we'd find a big cache of rice. 866 00:51:53,099 --> 00:51:56,365 So the standing instructions were blow that up, burn it, 867 00:51:56,465 --> 00:51:58,233 destroy it, poison it, whatever. 868 00:51:58,333 --> 00:52:01,965 We really didn't want to do that because it... 869 00:52:02,065 --> 00:52:04,300 You didn't have to be a rocket scientist to look around 870 00:52:04,400 --> 00:52:05,932 and see these people are depending on this. 871 00:52:06,032 --> 00:52:06,965 This is their food. 872 00:52:09,599 --> 00:52:12,500 We were told sometimes to burn thatched dwellings. 873 00:52:12,599 --> 00:52:13,932 And guys would unenthusiastically 874 00:52:14,032 --> 00:52:16,166 try to light a roof. 875 00:52:16,266 --> 00:52:18,000 And as soon as the flame burned out, 876 00:52:18,099 --> 00:52:20,500 they weren't going to try again. 877 00:52:20,599 --> 00:52:23,900 Our hearts really weren't in trying to destroy 878 00:52:24,000 --> 00:52:26,199 civilian food, civilian homes. 879 00:52:26,300 --> 00:52:29,432 It gave us an uneasy feeling about, 880 00:52:29,532 --> 00:52:31,266 "What is this war is about?" 881 00:52:34,065 --> 00:52:35,632 (gunfire) 882 00:52:35,733 --> 00:52:37,733 NARRATOR: Most of the fighting in Vietnam 883 00:52:37,833 --> 00:52:40,400 was the kind Mike Heaney was about to see-- 884 00:52:40,500 --> 00:52:46,266 small-scale, close-up, and initiated by the elusive enemy. 885 00:52:47,733 --> 00:52:50,465 The military called it "contact." 886 00:52:52,000 --> 00:52:57,632 "War is hell," grunts liked to say, "but contact is a mother." 887 00:53:02,199 --> 00:53:06,965 HEANEY: The job of an infantry platoon usually is to try to scare up 888 00:53:07,065 --> 00:53:10,132 enemy infantry and take it down. 889 00:53:10,233 --> 00:53:14,699 Really, the tactic was we were acting as bait. 890 00:53:14,800 --> 00:53:16,833 And at some level we knew that. 891 00:53:16,932 --> 00:53:19,699 You know, go walk in the woods and draw fire. 892 00:53:21,465 --> 00:53:23,132 NARRATOR: Six months into his tour, 893 00:53:23,233 --> 00:53:25,932 Heaney undertook what he and his men thought 894 00:53:26,032 --> 00:53:27,699 would be an easy assignment: 895 00:53:27,800 --> 00:53:32,000 climb a slope not far from their base at An Khe 896 00:53:32,099 --> 00:53:35,733 and drive a small enemy mortar unit off a ridge line. 897 00:53:35,833 --> 00:53:40,532 HEANEY: As soon as we started out, we started to get some bad vibes. 898 00:53:40,632 --> 00:53:45,932 We found some boot prints in the mud 899 00:53:46,032 --> 00:53:48,632 at the edge of this landing zone, 900 00:53:48,733 --> 00:53:51,733 and a nice trail, a well-used trail going up the ridge. 901 00:53:51,833 --> 00:53:55,965 I remember talking to one of my squad leaders about this. 902 00:53:56,065 --> 00:54:00,233 And we were both sitting there, "Well, shit, this sucks." 903 00:54:01,432 --> 00:54:04,333 And all of a sudden the very point man, 904 00:54:04,432 --> 00:54:06,766 the first guy in the column, Sergeant Mays, 905 00:54:06,865 --> 00:54:10,333 without saying anything just put his M16 up to his shoulder 906 00:54:10,432 --> 00:54:11,865 and fired off a round. 907 00:54:11,965 --> 00:54:15,132 And he turned around and he said, "VC on the trail. 908 00:54:15,233 --> 00:54:16,965 VC on the trail." 909 00:54:19,000 --> 00:54:22,900 Before I had a chance to digest this, he went down, 910 00:54:23,000 --> 00:54:23,900 shot right through the chest. 911 00:54:24,000 --> 00:54:24,932 (bullet hitting) Boom! 912 00:54:26,365 --> 00:54:28,166 And all of a sudden 913 00:54:28,266 --> 00:54:32,132 what was a very well-laid ambush erupted. 914 00:54:33,432 --> 00:54:37,565 And it was so loud and so unexpected 915 00:54:37,666 --> 00:54:42,000 I was stunned for... for a little bit, you know. 916 00:54:42,099 --> 00:54:43,766 "What the fuck is going on?" 917 00:54:43,865 --> 00:54:47,699 NARRATOR: Heaney's radio operator, Private Terry Carpenter, 918 00:54:47,800 --> 00:54:50,233 got the company commander on the line. 919 00:54:50,333 --> 00:54:53,500 "We've run into something bad," Heaney said. 920 00:54:53,599 --> 00:54:58,500 At that moment, a bullet hit Carpenter in the head. 921 00:54:58,599 --> 00:55:00,099 HEANEY: I knew Terry was down. 922 00:55:00,199 --> 00:55:02,099 I knew Sergeant Mays was down. 923 00:55:02,199 --> 00:55:04,599 I had asked the first machine gun crew to come up 924 00:55:04,699 --> 00:55:06,400 and start laying down machine gun fire. 925 00:55:06,500 --> 00:55:08,932 They got blown away pretty quickly. 926 00:55:09,032 --> 00:55:12,400 They never really had a chance to lay down much fire. 927 00:55:12,500 --> 00:55:14,233 At that point there wasn't anybody left 928 00:55:14,333 --> 00:55:16,199 in my forward unit. 929 00:55:16,300 --> 00:55:19,199 Every one of them had been taken down except me. 930 00:55:19,300 --> 00:55:21,065 Every one. 931 00:55:21,166 --> 00:55:23,465 (voice breaking): Every one had been killed 932 00:55:23,565 --> 00:55:25,666 or mortally wounded at that point. 933 00:55:30,000 --> 00:55:31,365 NARRATOR: Night fell. 934 00:55:31,465 --> 00:55:33,432 What was left of Heaney's company braced 935 00:55:33,532 --> 00:55:37,233 for the assault they assumed would come at dawn. 936 00:55:38,400 --> 00:55:40,400 I was lying there on the perimeter. 937 00:55:40,500 --> 00:55:42,666 I was right next to a dead enemy soldier. 938 00:55:42,766 --> 00:55:45,500 It was kind of my face and his feet 939 00:55:45,599 --> 00:55:47,199 and I kept looking back at him, 940 00:55:47,300 --> 00:55:49,833 because I couldn't see any wounds on him. 941 00:55:49,932 --> 00:55:52,365 And, you know, the strange things you think, 942 00:55:52,465 --> 00:55:54,132 "This guy's going to kill me. 943 00:55:54,233 --> 00:55:55,532 "He's faking it. 944 00:55:55,632 --> 00:55:56,833 "He's waiting until the assault, 945 00:55:56,932 --> 00:55:58,932 then he's going to jump up and kill me." 946 00:55:59,032 --> 00:56:00,532 And I almost shot him again. 947 00:56:00,632 --> 00:56:02,300 Just to make sure he was dead. 948 00:56:03,833 --> 00:56:06,099 NARRATOR: Then the enemy began to lob mortar shells 949 00:56:06,199 --> 00:56:08,465 among Heaney's men. 950 00:56:08,565 --> 00:56:10,666 HEANEY: I felt like somebody had taken a bat 951 00:56:10,766 --> 00:56:14,900 and hit me on my calf, my right calf, as hard as he could. 952 00:56:15,000 --> 00:56:20,000 I was so stunned by the shock of being hit, 953 00:56:20,099 --> 00:56:25,233 and I just drew in a deep breath of air in terrible pain. 954 00:56:25,333 --> 00:56:27,632 I couldn't speak. 955 00:56:27,733 --> 00:56:30,565 Right after the ambush happened, 956 00:56:30,666 --> 00:56:32,532 and I knew I'd lost a bunch of guys, 957 00:56:32,632 --> 00:56:36,833 I said a prayer to God saying, basically, 958 00:56:36,932 --> 00:56:39,465 "If you need any more guys from my platoon, take me. 959 00:56:39,565 --> 00:56:41,500 Don't take any more of my men." 960 00:56:41,599 --> 00:56:44,932 As soon as I said it, I freaked myself out and said, 961 00:56:45,032 --> 00:56:48,733 "Holy shit, can I take that prayer back?" 962 00:56:48,833 --> 00:56:49,865 But it was too late. 963 00:56:49,965 --> 00:56:51,432 I'd-I'd said it. 964 00:56:51,532 --> 00:56:52,865 And as it turns out, 965 00:56:52,965 --> 00:56:56,565 not one more man in my platoon died after that prayer. 966 00:56:58,132 --> 00:57:02,400 NARRATOR: American artillery finally zeroed in on the enemy. 967 00:57:02,500 --> 00:57:05,333 The survivors of Heaney's company stumbled down the hill 968 00:57:05,432 --> 00:57:07,132 to safety. 969 00:57:07,233 --> 00:57:10,132 He was carried to a hospital. 970 00:57:18,000 --> 00:57:20,865 HEANEY: I was lying on my bed sobbing. 971 00:57:20,965 --> 00:57:23,300 And this nurse came over. 972 00:57:23,400 --> 00:57:25,000 She bent over and said, "Lieutenant... 973 00:57:25,099 --> 00:57:27,500 "You... the-the your men are all over the place. 974 00:57:27,599 --> 00:57:29,666 You've gotta stop crying." 975 00:57:29,766 --> 00:57:32,532 And at that point my platoon sergeant, 976 00:57:32,632 --> 00:57:36,000 huge black guy from Detroit whom I loved dearly, 977 00:57:36,099 --> 00:57:39,599 Sergeant Sam Hunt, he came over and he sat down next to me 978 00:57:39,699 --> 00:57:41,199 (voice breaking): and he took my hand 979 00:57:41,300 --> 00:57:42,666 and he said to this nurse, 980 00:57:42,766 --> 00:57:44,400 "Ma'am, this here lieutenant 981 00:57:44,500 --> 00:57:46,500 don't have to stop doing anything." 982 00:57:50,865 --> 00:57:55,500 LE CONG HUAN: 983 00:58:34,900 --> 00:58:38,233 (crowd shouting angrily) 984 00:58:38,333 --> 00:58:40,000 JOHN LAURENCE: The students are angry now. 985 00:58:40,099 --> 00:58:41,632 And the word is passed 986 00:58:41,733 --> 00:58:45,099 to gather at Saigon's main Buddhist pagoda after dark. 987 00:58:47,166 --> 00:58:48,532 JOHN QUINN: After all these years, 988 00:58:48,632 --> 00:58:52,000 the Vietnamese have learned to live with crises and war. 989 00:58:52,099 --> 00:58:55,365 But they haven't learned yet to live as a nation. 990 00:58:56,800 --> 00:58:59,065 JOHNSON: Now, Dean, what are we going to do? 991 00:58:59,166 --> 00:59:03,032 Are we moving to the point where it would be difficult for us 992 00:59:03,132 --> 00:59:04,932 to ask people to continue to die out there, 993 00:59:05,032 --> 00:59:07,965 this kind of stuff going on every two or three months? 994 00:59:08,065 --> 00:59:09,900 DEAN RUSK: I think not yet, sir, by any means. 995 00:59:10,000 --> 00:59:13,233 I think that this is still a minority problem. 996 00:59:13,333 --> 00:59:16,233 But political talk is not going to be able to get anywhere 997 00:59:16,333 --> 00:59:18,199 if they don't maintain the elements of order. 998 00:59:22,266 --> 00:59:25,099 NARRATOR: On May 15, 1966, 999 00:59:25,199 --> 00:59:28,333 the government of South Vietnam, the country for which 1000 00:59:28,432 --> 00:59:30,932 so many Americans were risking their lives, 1001 00:59:31,032 --> 00:59:33,800 again seemed on the brink of collapse. 1002 00:59:36,233 --> 00:59:39,865 The ascendancy of Prime Minister Ky had dealt a severe blow 1003 00:59:39,965 --> 00:59:42,632 to activist Buddhists, who had been demanding 1004 00:59:42,733 --> 00:59:46,432 representative government and a negotiated end to the war 1005 00:59:46,532 --> 00:59:48,733 since 1963. 1006 00:59:48,833 --> 00:59:52,833 When Ky suddenly fired a rival general, 1007 00:59:52,932 --> 00:59:54,666 a popular Buddhist commander, 1008 00:59:54,766 --> 01:00:00,032 demonstrators poured into the streets of Hue and Danang. 1009 01:00:00,132 --> 01:00:02,400 They shut down the port 1010 01:00:02,500 --> 01:00:04,699 through which U.S. supplies had been flowing. 1011 01:00:06,800 --> 01:00:10,766 Some South Vietnamese soldiers, loyal to the dismissed general, 1012 01:00:10,865 --> 01:00:13,400 abandoned the struggle against the communists 1013 01:00:13,500 --> 01:00:15,932 and headed for the city. 1014 01:00:16,032 --> 01:00:19,400 Angry crowds burned American jeeps. 1015 01:00:19,500 --> 01:00:23,532 Signs reading "Peace!" and "Americans Go Home!" 1016 01:00:23,632 --> 01:00:25,333 appeared everywhere. 1017 01:00:25,432 --> 01:00:28,599 President Johnson was so concerned, 1018 01:00:28,699 --> 01:00:32,266 he asked his advisors to ready a fallback position 1019 01:00:32,365 --> 01:00:34,365 if the Ky government fell. 1020 01:00:34,465 --> 01:00:38,065 If necessary, he said, the U.S. should be prepared 1021 01:00:38,166 --> 01:00:40,632 to get out of Vietnam and perhaps 1022 01:00:40,733 --> 01:00:45,032 make a stand against communism in Thailand instead. 1023 01:00:47,199 --> 01:00:49,300 Ky ordered South Vietnamese soldiers 1024 01:00:49,400 --> 01:00:52,065 to surround and subdue Danang, 1025 01:00:52,166 --> 01:00:55,932 where they exchanged fire with their former comrades. 1026 01:00:59,565 --> 01:01:04,865 As Ky's forces stormed Buddhist pagodas in Danang, 1027 01:01:04,965 --> 01:01:08,032 his warplanes strafed dissident troops 1028 01:01:08,132 --> 01:01:09,865 occupying the central market. 1029 01:01:12,865 --> 01:01:14,599 The rebellion was crushed. 1030 01:01:14,699 --> 01:01:17,599 Washington was relieved. 1031 01:01:17,699 --> 01:01:21,465 Ky seemed to be back in control. 1032 01:01:21,565 --> 01:01:25,865 But from his command post on a hilltop outside the city, 1033 01:01:25,965 --> 01:01:29,365 an American Marine lieutenant had watched in disbelief 1034 01:01:29,465 --> 01:01:33,166 as two battles unfolded simultaneously: 1035 01:01:33,266 --> 01:01:38,432 in the west, his fellow Marines were fighting the Viet Cong; 1036 01:01:38,532 --> 01:01:42,233 in the east, the South Vietnamese army 1037 01:01:42,333 --> 01:01:45,166 seemed to be at war with itself. 1038 01:01:50,099 --> 01:01:52,833 (Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence" playing) 1039 01:01:52,932 --> 01:01:55,932 ♪ Hello darkness, my old friend. ♪ 1040 01:01:56,032 --> 01:01:58,965 MOGIE CROCKER (dramatized): May 16, 1966. 1041 01:01:59,065 --> 01:02:01,565 Dear Mom and Dad-- 1042 01:02:01,666 --> 01:02:03,599 Our operation here on the Cambodian border 1043 01:02:03,699 --> 01:02:05,900 has been quite a success. 1044 01:02:06,000 --> 01:02:08,266 No doubt you will hear about it on the news. 1045 01:02:09,632 --> 01:02:11,865 We keep getting more and more operations thrown at us 1046 01:02:11,965 --> 01:02:14,000 so that nothing is very sure. 1047 01:02:14,099 --> 01:02:18,800 SIMON AND GARFUNKEL: ♪ ...that was planted in my brain still remains. ♪ 1048 01:02:18,900 --> 01:02:21,766 CROCKER: Whether I will go out again soon I don't know, 1049 01:02:21,865 --> 01:02:23,266 but don't plan on steady mail. 1050 01:02:26,532 --> 01:02:28,800 Tell Randy I'm looking forward to seeing his new dog. 1051 01:02:32,099 --> 01:02:35,099 I may take a 15-day leave to Tokyo 1052 01:02:35,199 --> 01:02:37,032 to keep from cracking up. 1053 01:02:37,132 --> 01:02:39,766 SIMON AND GARFUNKEL: ♪ 'Neath the halo of a street lamp. ♪ 1054 01:02:39,865 --> 01:02:41,733 JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: It was a lovely spring day, 1055 01:02:41,833 --> 01:02:44,965 and I opened the letter that said that. 1056 01:02:45,065 --> 01:02:47,932 And I was just really devastated 1057 01:02:48,032 --> 01:02:52,199 because by that time Vietnam was in total chaos. 1058 01:02:52,300 --> 01:02:54,733 There was a continuing changeover 1059 01:02:54,833 --> 01:02:58,900 of people in authority at the government in South Vietnam. 1060 01:02:59,000 --> 01:03:02,532 And there were protests of the Buddhist monks and others 1061 01:03:02,632 --> 01:03:03,833 that... 1062 01:03:03,932 --> 01:03:05,865 there were anti-American demonstrations. 1063 01:03:05,965 --> 01:03:08,666 I just thought, "Why? Why are we there?" 1064 01:03:10,400 --> 01:03:12,300 CAROL CROCKER: I think that letter when my brother 1065 01:03:12,400 --> 01:03:15,000 showed a kind of despair 1066 01:03:15,099 --> 01:03:18,365 is probably the first time he'd expressed that openly 1067 01:03:18,465 --> 01:03:21,266 to the whole family. 1068 01:03:24,900 --> 01:03:29,365 It echoed back to the day he'd said to me, 1069 01:03:29,465 --> 01:03:31,000 "I don't want to go back." 1070 01:03:32,500 --> 01:03:34,300 NARRATOR: To an old high school friend, 1071 01:03:34,400 --> 01:03:38,365 Mogie was even more forthcoming. 1072 01:03:38,465 --> 01:03:41,065 MOGIE CROCKER (dramatized): Dear Duff, 1073 01:03:41,166 --> 01:03:43,500 Since I last wrote, which is several months, 1074 01:03:43,599 --> 01:03:45,699 a number of exciting but terribly unpleasant events 1075 01:03:45,800 --> 01:03:49,599 have occurred, the worst of which was being pinned down 1076 01:03:49,699 --> 01:03:51,132 by two Chinese light machine guns 1077 01:03:51,233 --> 01:03:53,733 firing 900 rounds per minute 1078 01:03:53,833 --> 01:03:56,532 and having my best friend killed more or less beside me. 1079 01:03:58,699 --> 01:04:00,266 Someday I may tell you the whole story 1080 01:04:00,365 --> 01:04:03,199 if my nerves aren't completely gone by then. 1081 01:04:03,300 --> 01:04:06,599 Actually the latter is just wishful thinking, 1082 01:04:06,699 --> 01:04:10,965 in false hope they will take me off the line. 1083 01:04:11,065 --> 01:04:14,965 I was fantastically religious for a while, 1084 01:04:15,065 --> 01:04:18,233 sending up various and sundry prayers mainly concerned 1085 01:04:18,333 --> 01:04:21,300 with trying to stay alive, 1086 01:04:21,400 --> 01:04:25,932 but I am once again an atheist until the shooting starts. 1087 01:04:31,632 --> 01:04:33,565 (gunfire) 1088 01:04:38,900 --> 01:04:42,965 (drums playing up-tempo march cadence) 1089 01:04:43,065 --> 01:04:44,599 HARRISON: I really believed 1090 01:04:44,699 --> 01:04:49,000 that we had to stop the communist expansion. 1091 01:04:49,099 --> 01:04:54,166 I also believed that we were on the side of the angels. 1092 01:04:54,266 --> 01:04:56,733 Just as France had provided us with support 1093 01:04:56,833 --> 01:04:59,865 during our revolution, we were providing the South Vietnamese 1094 01:04:59,965 --> 01:05:02,099 with support during their revolution. 1095 01:05:02,199 --> 01:05:05,800 NARRATOR: Matthew Harrison was among the 300 graduates 1096 01:05:05,900 --> 01:05:10,465 of the class of 1966 who volunteered to go to Vietnam. 1097 01:05:10,565 --> 01:05:11,465 MAN: Rangers! 1098 01:05:11,565 --> 01:05:12,599 MEN: Rangers! 1099 01:05:12,699 --> 01:05:14,365 MAN: All the way! MEN: All the way! 1100 01:05:14,465 --> 01:05:17,965 NARRATOR: But first, he went to Florida to become a Ranger 1101 01:05:18,065 --> 01:05:20,766 and endured nine weeks of the most demanding training 1102 01:05:20,865 --> 01:05:22,766 the Army had to offer. 1103 01:05:22,865 --> 01:05:25,365 MAN: Airborne daddy gonna take a little trip! 1104 01:05:25,465 --> 01:05:28,032 MEN: Airborne daddy gonna take a little trip! 1105 01:05:28,132 --> 01:05:31,733 NARRATOR: The man in charge was Major Charles A. Beckwith-- 1106 01:05:31,833 --> 01:05:33,199 Chargin' Charlie-- 1107 01:05:33,300 --> 01:05:36,465 hero of the siege of Plei Me the year before. 1108 01:05:36,565 --> 01:05:41,000 "If a man is bloody stupid," he told each group of newcomers, 1109 01:05:41,099 --> 01:05:44,400 "his mother will receive a telegram and it will say, 1110 01:05:44,500 --> 01:05:47,266 "'Your son is dead because he's stupid.' 1111 01:05:47,365 --> 01:05:52,666 "Let's hope your telegram only reads, 'Your son is dead.' 1112 01:05:52,766 --> 01:05:55,800 "With the training we're going to give you here, 1113 01:05:55,900 --> 01:05:59,800 "maybe your mother won't receive any telegram at all. 1114 01:05:59,900 --> 01:06:01,800 So pay attention." 1115 01:06:03,099 --> 01:06:04,333 To make it through, 1116 01:06:04,432 --> 01:06:06,532 Harrison and his fellow trainees had to survive 1117 01:06:06,632 --> 01:06:11,000 days without sleep; were deprived of food and water, 1118 01:06:11,099 --> 01:06:15,065 forced to march up mountains until their feet bled 1119 01:06:15,166 --> 01:06:18,699 and patrol through swamps that harbored copperheads 1120 01:06:18,800 --> 01:06:20,032 and cottonmouths; 1121 01:06:20,132 --> 01:06:23,166 had to learn how to detect booby traps 1122 01:06:23,266 --> 01:06:28,400 and outmaneuver veterans masquerading as Viet Cong. 1123 01:06:28,500 --> 01:06:32,800 "Expect the unexpected," Beckwith told his trainees 1124 01:06:32,900 --> 01:06:34,532 again and again. 1125 01:06:34,632 --> 01:06:37,932 "Life is unfair." 1126 01:06:39,300 --> 01:06:41,300 Once he'd become a Ranger, Harrison was eager 1127 01:06:41,400 --> 01:06:45,199 to get to Vietnam and put into action 1128 01:06:45,300 --> 01:06:48,733 the survival and leadership skills he'd been absorbing 1129 01:06:48,833 --> 01:06:51,099 for five years. 1130 01:06:51,199 --> 01:06:54,132 HARRISON: I remember discussing with my classmates 1131 01:06:54,233 --> 01:06:56,632 how horrible it would be to serve in the Army 1132 01:06:56,733 --> 01:07:01,099 if everybody just a year ahead of us had served in combat 1133 01:07:01,199 --> 01:07:03,465 and we didn't have the opportunity to do that. 1134 01:07:03,565 --> 01:07:06,733 I was afraid we were going to win the war too quickly 1135 01:07:06,833 --> 01:07:09,532 and I wouldn't have a chance to experience it. 1136 01:07:17,733 --> 01:07:21,132 ("L'Assassinat De Carala" by Miles Davis playing) 1137 01:07:33,032 --> 01:07:38,865 NARRATOR: June 3, 1966, was Mogie Crocker's 19th birthday. 1138 01:07:38,965 --> 01:07:42,532 His company was involved in yet another campaign, 1139 01:07:42,632 --> 01:07:46,300 aimed at finding and killing North Vietnamese troops 1140 01:07:46,400 --> 01:07:50,932 filtering into the Central Highlands from Laos. 1141 01:07:51,032 --> 01:07:54,932 As night fell, Mogie and his squad were ordered 1142 01:07:55,032 --> 01:07:57,199 to move up toward the crest of a hill 1143 01:07:57,300 --> 01:08:00,632 overlooking a besieged ARVN outpost 1144 01:08:00,733 --> 01:08:02,800 so that artillery could be brought up 1145 01:08:02,900 --> 01:08:06,266 and positioned to shell the enemy in the morning. 1146 01:08:09,233 --> 01:08:13,065 They moved slowly, warily up the slope. 1147 01:08:13,166 --> 01:08:15,233 Mogie was the point man. 1148 01:08:18,233 --> 01:08:20,932 Out of the darkness, a machine gun opened up. 1149 01:08:21,033 --> 01:08:23,565 (gunfire) 1150 01:08:23,666 --> 01:08:28,332 Denton Crocker, Jr. never made it to the top of the hill. 1151 01:08:36,399 --> 01:08:38,100 ("One Too Many Mornings" by Bob Dylan playing) 1152 01:08:38,199 --> 01:08:40,399 DYLAN: ♪ Down the street the dogs are barkin' ♪ 1153 01:08:40,500 --> 01:08:44,166 ♪ And the day is a-gettin' dark. ♪ 1154 01:08:44,265 --> 01:08:47,765 JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: It was just a lovely day to be out in our garden. 1155 01:08:49,666 --> 01:08:53,500 Candy, our little girl, went to a birthday party. 1156 01:08:53,600 --> 01:08:56,832 And the other children were just around the house, I guess. 1157 01:08:56,932 --> 01:09:01,899 But shortly after lunchtime, I stepped out on the porch. 1158 01:09:06,166 --> 01:09:09,432 I saw two men in uniform coming to the house. 1159 01:09:12,100 --> 01:09:15,699 And I knew something terrible had happened. 1160 01:09:17,065 --> 01:09:18,666 And I ran down the steps. 1161 01:09:18,765 --> 01:09:21,332 And I just grabbed hold of one of them and said, 1162 01:09:21,432 --> 01:09:23,300 "Don't tell me. Don't say it. 1163 01:09:23,399 --> 01:09:25,966 Not my beautiful boy." 1164 01:09:26,065 --> 01:09:28,466 And he just said, "Yes." 1165 01:09:28,565 --> 01:09:30,432 DYLAN: ♪ From the crossroads of my doorstep ♪ 1166 01:09:30,533 --> 01:09:32,565 ♪ My eyes start to fade. 1167 01:09:32,666 --> 01:09:35,065 CAROL CROCKER: I was sitting on the couch in the living room. 1168 01:09:35,166 --> 01:09:39,065 I suddenly heard my mother screaming for my father. 1169 01:09:39,166 --> 01:09:43,100 Like in a movie, here came the priest up the stairs 1170 01:09:43,199 --> 01:09:45,600 with a soldier, and she's going, "Oh no." 1171 01:09:45,699 --> 01:09:49,399 And she's calling my dad. 1172 01:09:49,500 --> 01:09:52,265 My reaction was to leap up off the couch, 1173 01:09:52,365 --> 01:09:53,832 race out the back door 1174 01:09:53,932 --> 01:09:55,865 and I grabbed my little brother's hand 1175 01:09:55,966 --> 01:09:57,332 and I just started walking. 1176 01:09:57,432 --> 01:09:59,832 I said, "You have to come with me." 1177 01:09:59,932 --> 01:10:01,600 I said, "I have something to show you." 1178 01:10:01,699 --> 01:10:03,699 I have no idea where I was going. 1179 01:10:03,800 --> 01:10:08,533 I just said to myself, "No. 1180 01:10:08,632 --> 01:10:10,000 This isn't going to happen." 1181 01:10:10,100 --> 01:10:13,765 And something made me turn around 1182 01:10:13,865 --> 01:10:17,865 and I walked up to the back of the house from the alley. 1183 01:10:17,966 --> 01:10:20,832 And my dad was standing there. 1184 01:10:20,932 --> 01:10:24,466 And I fell into his arms and I said, 1185 01:10:24,565 --> 01:10:26,399 "Don't let it be true, Dad. 1186 01:10:28,765 --> 01:10:30,832 Is it true?" 1187 01:10:30,932 --> 01:10:32,500 And he said, "Yes." 1188 01:10:35,533 --> 01:10:38,733 I somehow knew that things had changed forever. 1189 01:10:40,432 --> 01:10:43,466 That my mom as my mom and my dad as my dad, 1190 01:10:43,565 --> 01:10:46,600 it was never going to be quite the same again. 1191 01:10:46,699 --> 01:10:48,600 I just, I remember sitting on the couch 1192 01:10:48,699 --> 01:10:50,699 and I put my arms around them and I said, 1193 01:10:50,800 --> 01:10:54,000 "We'll love each other and we'll be all right." 1194 01:10:54,100 --> 01:10:57,399 But I don't know how far it carried. 1195 01:10:57,500 --> 01:10:58,765 You know? 1196 01:10:58,865 --> 01:11:01,365 We all tried. 1197 01:11:01,466 --> 01:11:04,132 DYLAN: ♪ We're both just one too many mornings ♪ 1198 01:11:04,233 --> 01:11:07,233 ♪ And a thousand miles behind. 1199 01:11:07,332 --> 01:11:09,800 JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: Carol said to me one day 1200 01:11:09,899 --> 01:11:12,265 very shortly after Denton was killed, 1201 01:11:12,365 --> 01:11:17,065 probably that very day, "How can you believe in God?" 1202 01:11:17,166 --> 01:11:20,300 And I said, "Because we had Mogie." 1203 01:11:23,565 --> 01:11:28,166 And I think that his life was a real gift. 1204 01:11:28,265 --> 01:11:31,365 It was a privilege to have him. 1205 01:11:31,466 --> 01:11:32,632 A friend wrote to me, 1206 01:11:32,733 --> 01:11:36,399 "Our children are really only on loan to us," 1207 01:11:36,500 --> 01:11:38,399 which I guess is true. 1208 01:11:40,899 --> 01:11:44,666 NARRATOR: Ten days later, an Army captain escorted Mogie's body 1209 01:11:44,765 --> 01:11:47,033 to Dick Stone's funeral home. 1210 01:11:47,132 --> 01:11:50,033 The family priest had suggested 1211 01:11:50,132 --> 01:11:52,533 that Mogie be buried in Saratoga Springs 1212 01:11:52,632 --> 01:11:56,565 so that his parents could easily visit his grave. 1213 01:11:56,666 --> 01:12:01,399 But they chose Arlington National Cemetery instead. 1214 01:12:02,765 --> 01:12:07,000 "A corner of my heart knew," his mother remembered, 1215 01:12:07,100 --> 01:12:08,733 "that if he were buried near us, 1216 01:12:08,832 --> 01:12:13,533 I would want to claw the ground to retrieve the warmth of him." 1217 01:12:19,666 --> 01:12:21,000 (applause) 1218 01:12:21,100 --> 01:12:22,632 LYNDON JOHNSON: I hear my friends say, 1219 01:12:22,733 --> 01:12:25,065 "I am troubled," and "I am confused," 1220 01:12:25,166 --> 01:12:26,565 and "I am frustrated," 1221 01:12:26,666 --> 01:12:29,233 and all of us can understand those people. 1222 01:12:29,332 --> 01:12:32,300 Sometimes I almost develop a stomach ulcer myself, 1223 01:12:32,399 --> 01:12:34,466 just listening to them. 1224 01:12:34,565 --> 01:12:37,233 And we all wish the war would end. 1225 01:12:37,332 --> 01:12:39,466 We all wish the troops would come home. 1226 01:12:39,565 --> 01:12:42,765 There is no human being in all this world 1227 01:12:42,865 --> 01:12:46,533 who wishes these things to happen, 1228 01:12:46,632 --> 01:12:48,600 for peace to come to the world, 1229 01:12:48,699 --> 01:12:51,300 more than your president of the United States. 1230 01:12:51,399 --> 01:12:54,800 ("The Beginning of the End" by Nine Inch Nails playing) 1231 01:13:01,765 --> 01:13:03,666 NARRATOR: The military claimed to have killed 1232 01:13:03,765 --> 01:13:10,399 some 57,000 enemy soldiers in the first six months of 1966. 1233 01:13:10,500 --> 01:13:13,432 But privately the administration worried 1234 01:13:13,533 --> 01:13:16,432 that General Westmoreland's "crossover point"-- 1235 01:13:16,533 --> 01:13:19,765 the moment when more enemy soldiers had been killed 1236 01:13:19,865 --> 01:13:23,800 than could be replaced-- seemed no nearer. 1237 01:13:23,899 --> 01:13:27,600 From the first, the Joint Chiefs had urged the president 1238 01:13:27,699 --> 01:13:28,966 to be more aggressive-- 1239 01:13:29,065 --> 01:13:34,699 to permit troops to pursue the enemy into Laos and Cambodia 1240 01:13:34,800 --> 01:13:39,600 and to expand the target list for bombing in North Vietnam. 1241 01:13:39,699 --> 01:13:43,800 Johnson still would not allow borders to be crossed 1242 01:13:43,899 --> 01:13:47,265 by regular ground troops for fear of bringing China 1243 01:13:47,365 --> 01:13:50,865 or even the Soviet Union into the war. 1244 01:13:50,966 --> 01:13:53,632 And he was wary of heavier bombing, 1245 01:13:53,733 --> 01:13:56,666 fearful of hitting more civilians. 1246 01:13:56,765 --> 01:13:59,500 But despite his concern, 1247 01:13:59,600 --> 01:14:03,265 the president now agreed to intensify the bombing campaign 1248 01:14:03,365 --> 01:14:05,932 called Operation Rolling Thunder. 1249 01:14:06,033 --> 01:14:09,100 He approved attacks on oil facilities 1250 01:14:09,199 --> 01:14:11,432 all over North Vietnam, 1251 01:14:11,533 --> 01:14:14,432 including some sites adjacent to the cities 1252 01:14:14,533 --> 01:14:18,100 of Haiphong and Hanoi. 1253 01:14:18,199 --> 01:14:20,132 His commanders assured him 1254 01:14:20,233 --> 01:14:22,899 that this would be a mortal blow to the enemy, 1255 01:14:23,000 --> 01:14:25,733 sure to force the North Vietnamese 1256 01:14:25,832 --> 01:14:27,399 to the bargaining table. 1257 01:14:34,899 --> 01:14:38,632 Tens of thousands of sorties were flown. 1258 01:14:41,699 --> 01:14:44,932 Many bombs hit their intended targets. 1259 01:14:45,033 --> 01:14:47,100 But many missed 1260 01:14:47,199 --> 01:14:50,899 and fell on residential neighborhoods instead, 1261 01:14:51,000 --> 01:14:53,899 just as the president had feared. 1262 01:14:58,399 --> 01:15:01,565 JOHNSON: Things are going reasonably well in the South, aren't they? 1263 01:15:01,666 --> 01:15:03,832 McNAMARA: Yes, I think so. 1264 01:15:03,932 --> 01:15:06,365 Because we think we're taking a heavy toll of them, 1265 01:15:06,466 --> 01:15:09,132 but it just scares me to see what we're doing there 1266 01:15:09,233 --> 01:15:12,332 with God knows how many airplanes and helicopters 1267 01:15:12,432 --> 01:15:17,199 and firepower and going after a bunch of half-starved beggars. 1268 01:15:17,300 --> 01:15:19,466 This is what's going on in the South. 1269 01:15:19,565 --> 01:15:22,065 And the great danger is that, 1270 01:15:22,166 --> 01:15:26,765 that they can keep that up almost indefinitely. 1271 01:15:26,865 --> 01:15:28,733 The only thing that'll prevent it, Mr. President, 1272 01:15:28,832 --> 01:15:30,565 is their morale breaking. 1273 01:15:30,666 --> 01:15:33,065 There's no question but what the troops in the South, 1274 01:15:33,166 --> 01:15:34,699 the VC and North Vietnamese, 1275 01:15:34,800 --> 01:15:37,600 they know that we're bombing in the North. 1276 01:15:37,699 --> 01:15:39,199 And we just have a free rein. 1277 01:15:39,300 --> 01:15:40,800 And when they see they're getting killed 1278 01:15:40,899 --> 01:15:42,533 in such high rates in the South, 1279 01:15:42,632 --> 01:15:45,966 and they see that the supplies are less likely to come down 1280 01:15:46,065 --> 01:15:47,666 from the North, I think it will just hurt their morale 1281 01:15:47,765 --> 01:15:48,832 a little bit more. 1282 01:15:48,932 --> 01:15:50,199 And to me that's the only way to win 1283 01:15:50,300 --> 01:15:52,166 because we're not killing enough of them 1284 01:15:52,265 --> 01:15:55,399 to make it impossible for the North to continue to fight. 1285 01:15:55,500 --> 01:15:58,265 But we are killing enough to destroy the morale 1286 01:15:58,365 --> 01:15:59,765 of those people down there 1287 01:15:59,865 --> 01:16:01,932 if they think this is going to have to go on forever. 1288 01:16:03,765 --> 01:16:04,832 JOHNSON: All right. 1289 01:16:04,932 --> 01:16:06,765 Go ahead, Bob. 1290 01:16:11,600 --> 01:16:13,166 BAO NINH: 1291 01:16:31,899 --> 01:16:34,765 HO HUU LAN: 1292 01:16:52,265 --> 01:16:55,865 McPEAK: People talk about collateral damage, but it means something. 1293 01:16:57,500 --> 01:17:00,065 You don't want to do collateral damage. 1294 01:17:00,166 --> 01:17:03,265 You want to do the damage you want to do. 1295 01:17:03,365 --> 01:17:05,233 That's the winning way to do this. 1296 01:17:13,233 --> 01:17:16,399 (distant, echoing shouting) 1297 01:17:18,966 --> 01:17:21,233 EVERETT ALVAREZ: Even though I was in a cell by myself 1298 01:17:21,332 --> 01:17:24,100 and others were in by themselves, we weren't alone. 1299 01:17:24,199 --> 01:17:26,666 We were together in this old French prison 1300 01:17:26,765 --> 01:17:29,565 halfway around the world from the United States. 1301 01:17:29,666 --> 01:17:34,166 Gradually I began to realize this could go on a long time. 1302 01:17:34,265 --> 01:17:37,600 A long time to me was like maybe a year or two. 1303 01:17:37,699 --> 01:17:41,966 I never dreamed it would be eight-and-a-half years. 1304 01:17:42,065 --> 01:17:46,666 NARRATOR: By the summer of 1966, Lieutenant Everett Alvarez, 1305 01:17:46,765 --> 01:17:49,699 the first American pilot to have been shot down 1306 01:17:49,800 --> 01:17:54,132 over North Vietnam, had been a captive for nearly two years 1307 01:17:54,233 --> 01:17:57,100 and had been joined in and around Hanoi 1308 01:17:57,199 --> 01:18:00,300 by more than 100 other downed airmen. 1309 01:18:00,399 --> 01:18:04,265 Even though the North Vietnamese considered them all 1310 01:18:04,365 --> 01:18:07,632 "aggressors," "criminals," and "air pirates" 1311 01:18:07,733 --> 01:18:11,132 rather than prisoners of war deserving of humane treatment, 1312 01:18:11,233 --> 01:18:14,932 Alvarez and the others had been treated relatively well 1313 01:18:15,033 --> 01:18:16,265 at first. 1314 01:18:16,365 --> 01:18:19,365 But that hadn't lasted long. 1315 01:18:19,466 --> 01:18:23,265 The men were soon forbidden to communicate with one another, 1316 01:18:23,365 --> 01:18:25,733 forced to bow to their jailers, 1317 01:18:25,832 --> 01:18:29,166 and told that their country had forgotten them. 1318 01:18:29,265 --> 01:18:32,733 They were subjected to isolation, beatings, 1319 01:18:32,832 --> 01:18:35,365 and hour upon hour of torture, 1320 01:18:35,466 --> 01:18:39,065 all aimed at forcing them to admit their guilt 1321 01:18:39,166 --> 01:18:43,565 and record statements denouncing the war. 1322 01:18:43,666 --> 01:18:45,100 (door slams) 1323 01:18:45,199 --> 01:18:47,932 ALVAREZ: When that cell door would open, when they would say, 1324 01:18:48,033 --> 01:18:53,466 "You, your turn," you know, the bottom just fell out of you, 1325 01:18:53,565 --> 01:18:56,632 and you knew that you may not come back. 1326 01:18:56,733 --> 01:19:01,899 The manacles, the ropes, the beatings, they broke bones. 1327 01:19:02,000 --> 01:19:03,832 They... they did everything. 1328 01:19:05,399 --> 01:19:07,065 My arms turned black 1329 01:19:07,166 --> 01:19:10,332 from the cuffs that cut off all circulation. 1330 01:19:10,432 --> 01:19:12,199 And they didn't let me die. 1331 01:19:12,300 --> 01:19:14,399 They just kept the pain. 1332 01:19:14,500 --> 01:19:17,565 That's when I realized that I was not a superhuman. 1333 01:19:21,265 --> 01:19:26,600 The first time I broke and gave them something, I felt so low. 1334 01:19:26,699 --> 01:19:30,000 I felt so little. 1335 01:19:32,166 --> 01:19:34,800 NARRATOR: Some of the men who were forced to record statements 1336 01:19:34,899 --> 01:19:39,332 did their best to make their true feelings known back home. 1337 01:19:39,432 --> 01:19:43,365 Commander Jeremiah Denton blinked his eyes to spell out 1338 01:19:43,466 --> 01:19:45,865 "torture" in Morse code. 1339 01:19:53,399 --> 01:19:56,932 On July 6, just one week after American bombs 1340 01:19:57,033 --> 01:19:59,865 had first fallen on Hanoi and Haiphong, 1341 01:19:59,966 --> 01:20:04,332 jailers rounded up Alvarez and 51 other prisoners, 1342 01:20:04,432 --> 01:20:06,899 and, while cameras rolled, 1343 01:20:07,000 --> 01:20:09,500 marched them through downtown Hanoi, 1344 01:20:09,600 --> 01:20:12,932 past the angry citizens of the city. 1345 01:20:13,033 --> 01:20:15,399 ALVAREZ: I could hear the crowd being whipped up. 1346 01:20:15,500 --> 01:20:19,432 And as I passed this one fellow with the megaphone, 1347 01:20:19,533 --> 01:20:21,600 he looked at me and he yelled to the crowd. 1348 01:20:21,699 --> 01:20:24,765 "Alvarez, Alvarez, son of a bitch, son of a bitch!" 1349 01:20:24,865 --> 01:20:28,399 People started pressing in, throwing things-- 1350 01:20:28,500 --> 01:20:30,500 bottles, shoes. 1351 01:20:30,600 --> 01:20:32,765 But the guards by this time were having a hard time 1352 01:20:32,865 --> 01:20:35,265 keeping the people away. 1353 01:20:35,365 --> 01:20:38,199 NARRATOR: The North Vietnamese had hoped to rally 1354 01:20:38,300 --> 01:20:42,699 international support for trying the prisoners as war criminals. 1355 01:20:42,800 --> 01:20:44,699 It backfired. 1356 01:20:44,800 --> 01:20:49,033 People everywhere, even many of those who opposed the war, 1357 01:20:49,132 --> 01:20:53,166 sympathized with the stumbling, helpless men. 1358 01:20:54,533 --> 01:20:57,500 Plans for public trials were canceled. 1359 01:20:59,765 --> 01:21:04,300 The bombing continued, and more American planes were shot down. 1360 01:21:07,132 --> 01:21:11,666 The North Vietnamese took pride in capturing American airmen. 1361 01:21:11,765 --> 01:21:15,699 Even children were expected to do their part. 1362 01:21:15,800 --> 01:21:17,365 (call and response with teacher and children) 1363 01:21:17,466 --> 01:21:19,365 TEACHER: Hands up! Hand up! 1364 01:21:19,466 --> 01:21:22,000 TEACHER: 1365 01:21:22,100 --> 01:21:23,166 Hands up! 1366 01:21:23,265 --> 01:21:24,065 Hands up! 1367 01:21:24,166 --> 01:21:25,000 TEACHER: 1368 01:21:25,100 --> 01:21:26,065 Hands up! 1369 01:21:27,399 --> 01:21:29,632 McPEAK: The bombing around Hanoi and Haiphong 1370 01:21:29,733 --> 01:21:32,132 that resulted in so many of our people being POWs 1371 01:21:32,233 --> 01:21:33,365 for a long period of time 1372 01:21:33,466 --> 01:21:35,300 was fought out of the White House basement, 1373 01:21:35,399 --> 01:21:38,300 with the president himself picking targets, 1374 01:21:38,399 --> 01:21:40,199 and deciding that we're going to attack now, 1375 01:21:40,300 --> 01:21:42,332 and then we're going to pause for awhile. 1376 01:21:43,533 --> 01:21:48,132 Airpower was being misused, big time. 1377 01:21:51,565 --> 01:21:54,100 NARRATOR: Operation Rolling Thunder did destroy 1378 01:21:54,199 --> 01:21:58,632 most of North Vietnam's oil storage facilities. 1379 01:21:58,733 --> 01:22:01,632 But the North Vietnamese shifted 1380 01:22:01,733 --> 01:22:04,466 most of their oil to underground tanks, 1381 01:22:04,565 --> 01:22:10,399 and more arrived every day from China and the Soviet Union. 1382 01:22:13,565 --> 01:22:16,632 The bombing was stepped up anyway. 1383 01:22:18,632 --> 01:22:19,699 Throughout the North, 1384 01:22:19,800 --> 01:22:22,533 enough crude air shelters were fashioned 1385 01:22:22,632 --> 01:22:26,666 from concrete pipe buried five feet beneath the ground 1386 01:22:26,765 --> 01:22:29,733 to accommodate some 18 million people-- 1387 01:22:29,832 --> 01:22:33,100 virtually the entire population. 1388 01:22:33,199 --> 01:22:37,065 (workers singing in Vietnamese) 1389 01:22:37,166 --> 01:22:41,100 Over a million people were said to be working around the clock 1390 01:22:41,199 --> 01:22:43,865 to undo what American bombs had done. 1391 01:22:43,966 --> 01:22:46,600 When key bridges were destroyed, 1392 01:22:46,699 --> 01:22:49,100 they fashioned pontoon bridges overnight 1393 01:22:49,199 --> 01:22:50,966 to keep traffic moving. 1394 01:22:51,065 --> 01:22:55,832 Crews waited along the roads with heaps of gravel and stone 1395 01:22:55,932 --> 01:22:59,932 and stacks of wood to fill bomb craters. 1396 01:23:00,033 --> 01:23:06,100 They worked under the slogan "The enemy destroys, we repair. 1397 01:23:06,199 --> 01:23:10,832 The enemy destroys, we repair again." 1398 01:23:10,932 --> 01:23:15,699 (workers continue singing) 1399 01:23:17,199 --> 01:23:19,565 WILLBANKS: Rolling Thunder was the dumbest campaign 1400 01:23:19,666 --> 01:23:22,000 ever devised by a human being. 1401 01:23:22,100 --> 01:23:24,265 The normal human thing to do 1402 01:23:24,365 --> 01:23:26,899 is to think that your enemy thinks like you. 1403 01:23:27,000 --> 01:23:29,899 There's the old story, apocryphal, 1404 01:23:30,000 --> 01:23:31,765 that when McNamara wants to know 1405 01:23:31,865 --> 01:23:34,865 what Ho Chi Minh is thinking, he interviews himself. 1406 01:23:34,966 --> 01:23:37,733 What the problem then becomes is 1407 01:23:37,832 --> 01:23:41,466 that you keep trying to send messages that are rational 1408 01:23:41,565 --> 01:23:43,899 based upon your judgment of rationality, 1409 01:23:44,000 --> 01:23:47,265 but have nothing to do with the definition of rationality 1410 01:23:47,365 --> 01:23:48,800 on the other side. 1411 01:23:50,100 --> 01:23:52,132 So what's irrational to us 1412 01:23:52,233 --> 01:23:54,033 is totally rational to the other side 1413 01:23:54,132 --> 01:23:58,832 if you've decided that you are going to reunify the Vietnams 1414 01:23:58,932 --> 01:24:03,300 no matter what it takes, no matter how many casualties. 1415 01:24:06,966 --> 01:24:09,832 NARRATOR: Hanoi did all it could to publicize the damage 1416 01:24:09,932 --> 01:24:13,199 American bombs were doing to civilians. 1417 01:24:13,300 --> 01:24:18,466 Most Americans dismissed the reports as communist propaganda. 1418 01:24:20,600 --> 01:24:23,832 But when Harrison Salisbury of theNew York Times 1419 01:24:23,932 --> 01:24:29,600 traveled to North Vietnam and reported on Christmas Day, 1966, 1420 01:24:29,699 --> 01:24:30,966 what he had seen, 1421 01:24:31,065 --> 01:24:35,265 public doubts about the morality of the war grew. 1422 01:24:36,699 --> 01:24:39,265 GELB: A lot of the military we talked to 1423 01:24:39,365 --> 01:24:43,666 shared our concerns about how the war was being fought, 1424 01:24:43,765 --> 01:24:46,100 and whether or not it could be won. 1425 01:24:46,199 --> 01:24:49,199 But when it came to an official position, 1426 01:24:49,300 --> 01:24:52,166 it was what we know well, 1427 01:24:52,265 --> 01:24:55,199 namely, "We can win this war and we're doing it right. 1428 01:24:55,300 --> 01:24:59,865 We just need more-- more troops, more bombing." 1429 01:25:06,065 --> 01:25:10,600 WILSON: I recall on one instance after I had returned from Vietnam, 1430 01:25:10,699 --> 01:25:14,365 I went by to see McNamara. 1431 01:25:16,332 --> 01:25:20,765 He was saying, "Well, how is our strategic bombing program 1432 01:25:20,865 --> 01:25:23,332 affecting the course of the war?" 1433 01:25:24,533 --> 01:25:29,132 I said, "It is not gaining us anything. 1434 01:25:29,233 --> 01:25:32,932 Indeed, it is counterproductive." 1435 01:25:34,500 --> 01:25:35,800 He said, "What do you mean?" 1436 01:25:38,466 --> 01:25:44,699 "Mr. Secretary, the sledgehammer approach is not working. 1437 01:25:44,800 --> 01:25:47,800 "These people know that at some point 1438 01:25:47,899 --> 01:25:50,466 "we're going to get tired of killing them. 1439 01:25:50,565 --> 01:25:52,932 And they think they can outlast us." 1440 01:25:53,033 --> 01:25:57,632 And he said, "Why don't people tell me these things?" 1441 01:26:00,233 --> 01:26:03,666 I said, "Mr. Secretary, you don't ask." 1442 01:26:03,765 --> 01:26:07,065 ("I Am a Rock" by Simon and Garfunkel playing) 1443 01:26:07,166 --> 01:26:09,300 CRAIG McNAMARA: I think every father and son 1444 01:26:09,399 --> 01:26:15,166 struggles in the course of their lives together. 1445 01:26:15,265 --> 01:26:19,265 SIMON AND GARFUNKEL: ♪ In a deep and dark December 1446 01:26:19,365 --> 01:26:24,699 CRAIG McNAMARA: And I don't think my dad and I were exempt from that. 1447 01:26:24,800 --> 01:26:27,399 The interesting thing for me is 1448 01:26:27,500 --> 01:26:31,065 the space to talk about Vietnam was never created. 1449 01:26:31,166 --> 01:26:35,132 And that was clearly a decision on my father's part. 1450 01:26:35,233 --> 01:26:37,033 SIMON AND GARFUNKEL: ♪ I am a rock. 1451 01:26:37,132 --> 01:26:40,600 NARRATOR: Craig McNamara, the son of the Secretary of Defense, 1452 01:26:40,699 --> 01:26:42,832 was a student at St. Paul's School 1453 01:26:42,932 --> 01:26:44,565 in Concord, New Hampshire, 1454 01:26:44,666 --> 01:26:48,865 where a teach-in about the war was to be held. 1455 01:26:48,966 --> 01:26:52,365 I remember calling my father from a phone booth and saying, 1456 01:26:52,466 --> 01:26:54,632 "Dad, we're going to have this experience 1457 01:26:54,733 --> 01:26:56,466 "and if there's any support materials 1458 01:26:56,565 --> 01:27:01,832 that you think I should present, please let me know." 1459 01:27:03,332 --> 01:27:06,065 The support materials didn't come. 1460 01:27:06,166 --> 01:27:10,233 I think my father really wanted lovingly to protect me 1461 01:27:10,332 --> 01:27:13,500 from the Vietnam experience to the best of his ability. 1462 01:27:13,600 --> 01:27:15,332 Well, we know you can't do that. 1463 01:27:15,432 --> 01:27:19,500 Things bleed through and it just doesn't happen that way. 1464 01:27:19,600 --> 01:27:22,132 Probably, he realized at that time 1465 01:27:22,233 --> 01:27:27,065 that the support materials... weren't there. 1466 01:27:32,832 --> 01:27:35,100 ROBERT McNAMARA: Today I can tell you that military progress 1467 01:27:35,199 --> 01:27:39,800 in the past 12 months has exceeded our expectations. 1468 01:27:39,899 --> 01:27:41,800 The Viet Cong have been unable to mount 1469 01:27:41,899 --> 01:27:44,033 the offensive that they had planned 1470 01:27:44,132 --> 01:27:48,733 designed to cut the country in half at its narrow waist. 1471 01:27:48,832 --> 01:27:50,800 The military pressure, 1472 01:27:50,899 --> 01:27:52,966 which forces have brought against them, 1473 01:27:53,065 --> 01:27:54,500 have prevented them from mounting that offensive 1474 01:27:54,600 --> 01:27:57,966 and have inflicted very heavy casualties on them. 1475 01:27:58,065 --> 01:27:59,699 No matter how you measure it, 1476 01:27:59,800 --> 01:28:03,365 we're better off than we thought we would be at this time. 1477 01:28:04,832 --> 01:28:06,432 ("Ain't Too Proud To Beg" by the Temptations playing) 1478 01:28:06,533 --> 01:28:09,233 ♪ I know you want to leave me... ♪ 1479 01:28:09,332 --> 01:28:11,065 EHRHART: Certainly when I arrived, I'm thinking 1480 01:28:11,166 --> 01:28:13,166 I'm involved in a winning enterprise. 1481 01:28:13,265 --> 01:28:15,033 I mean, America doesn't lose. 1482 01:28:15,132 --> 01:28:17,065 We never lose. 1483 01:28:17,166 --> 01:28:21,033 I had sort of not really known much about the War of 1812, 1484 01:28:21,132 --> 01:28:24,565 which was... pretty much of a draw, 1485 01:28:24,666 --> 01:28:27,865 or the Civil War in which half of America lost, 1486 01:28:27,966 --> 01:28:31,100 and the Korean War where we won the first half 1487 01:28:31,199 --> 01:28:32,300 and lost the second half. 1488 01:28:32,399 --> 01:28:35,100 But I'd been taught America never loses. 1489 01:28:35,199 --> 01:28:39,233 NARRATOR: The Marines had been the first American combat troops 1490 01:28:39,332 --> 01:28:41,332 to fight in Vietnam. 1491 01:28:41,432 --> 01:28:43,865 And they were expected to fight longer 1492 01:28:43,966 --> 01:28:48,365 than their Army counterparts-- 13 months instead of 12. 1493 01:28:50,332 --> 01:28:52,166 Marine privates Bill Ehrhart, 1494 01:28:52,265 --> 01:28:56,865 John Musgrave, and Roger Harris all arrived at Danang 1495 01:28:56,966 --> 01:28:59,466 in early 1967. 1496 01:28:59,565 --> 01:29:03,733 MUSGRAVE: The first thing that assaulted my nose was the foreign smells. 1497 01:29:03,832 --> 01:29:06,166 And watching people relieve themselves 1498 01:29:06,265 --> 01:29:07,733 by the side of the road 1499 01:29:07,832 --> 01:29:10,632 and seeing animals I'd never seen before-- 1500 01:29:10,733 --> 01:29:12,632 the big water buffaloes. 1501 01:29:12,733 --> 01:29:15,132 You know, it was like being on Mars, 1502 01:29:15,233 --> 01:29:18,932 because it was totally foreign to me. 1503 01:29:19,033 --> 01:29:23,699 But I honestly, in my dumb Missouri kid kind of way, 1504 01:29:23,800 --> 01:29:26,199 I thought, "Look at all those foreigners." 1505 01:29:26,300 --> 01:29:28,733 And it didn't dawn on me for a little while 1506 01:29:28,832 --> 01:29:32,033 that the only foreigner in that area was me. 1507 01:29:33,899 --> 01:29:37,632 HARRIS: The feeling was that we were going over to rescue folks. 1508 01:29:37,733 --> 01:29:40,800 And that the communists were taking over this country 1509 01:29:40,899 --> 01:29:42,899 and they needed help. 1510 01:29:43,000 --> 01:29:45,533 But then when we got there we realized that... 1511 01:29:45,632 --> 01:29:47,765 that it wasn't exactly like that, you know. 1512 01:29:47,865 --> 01:29:50,166 Many of the Vietnamese, they would spit at our trucks 1513 01:29:50,265 --> 01:29:52,166 and they'd tell us to go back to America. 1514 01:29:52,265 --> 01:29:53,800 And then, you know, we began questioning ourselves, 1515 01:29:53,899 --> 01:29:55,132 you know, why are we here? 1516 01:29:56,565 --> 01:29:58,332 These people don't want us here. 1517 01:30:00,432 --> 01:30:04,365 NARRATOR: Roger Harris was assigned to G Company, 2nd Battalion, 1518 01:30:04,466 --> 01:30:08,466 9th Regiment of the 3rd Marine Division at Phu Bai, 1519 01:30:08,565 --> 01:30:10,765 outside of Hue. 1520 01:30:10,865 --> 01:30:12,932 John Musgrave was first stationed 1521 01:30:13,033 --> 01:30:17,233 with the 1st Marine Division at the Danang Airbase. 1522 01:30:17,332 --> 01:30:19,899 And Bill Ehrhart joined the 1st Regiment 1523 01:30:20,000 --> 01:30:23,300 of the 1st Marine Division near the city of Hoi An. 1524 01:30:25,932 --> 01:30:27,899 Private Ehrhart was given a desk job, 1525 01:30:28,000 --> 01:30:30,100 collating snippets of information 1526 01:30:30,199 --> 01:30:32,365 for the daily intelligence summary. 1527 01:30:34,600 --> 01:30:36,733 Three days after he got to Hoi An, 1528 01:30:36,832 --> 01:30:42,000 a group of civilian detainees was brought into the compound. 1529 01:30:42,100 --> 01:30:45,533 EHRHART: These two amtracs come in the back gate. 1530 01:30:45,632 --> 01:30:48,065 The Marines up top start pushing them off. 1531 01:30:48,166 --> 01:30:49,699 Their hands are tied, their feet are tied, 1532 01:30:49,800 --> 01:30:51,500 they have no way to break their fall. 1533 01:30:51,600 --> 01:30:56,365 You literally can hear bones snapping, shoulders dislocate. 1534 01:30:56,466 --> 01:30:59,466 And I grab Corporal Sal, 1535 01:30:59,565 --> 01:31:02,565 and he says in the absolute flattest, hollowest voice 1536 01:31:02,666 --> 01:31:04,065 I've ever heard, 1537 01:31:04,166 --> 01:31:08,399 "Ehrhart, you better keep your mouth shut and your eyes open 1538 01:31:08,500 --> 01:31:10,765 "till you understand what's going on around here. 1539 01:31:10,865 --> 01:31:13,265 "Those trackers, they're hitting mines out there 1540 01:31:13,365 --> 01:31:15,199 "on the sand flats every day. 1541 01:31:15,300 --> 01:31:17,332 "They're getting killed; they're getting maimed. 1542 01:31:17,432 --> 01:31:20,899 "And these people know where those mines are. 1543 01:31:21,000 --> 01:31:24,632 "You treat these people nice in front of the trackers 1544 01:31:24,733 --> 01:31:25,932 "and those trackers 1545 01:31:26,033 --> 01:31:27,666 "will rearrange your head and ass for you 1546 01:31:27,765 --> 01:31:29,265 and walk away laughing." 1547 01:31:30,865 --> 01:31:34,033 Well, at that point, three days into Vietnam, 1548 01:31:34,132 --> 01:31:35,932 I'm thinking, "Whoa. 1549 01:31:36,033 --> 01:31:39,332 What the hell is going on here?" 1550 01:31:42,632 --> 01:31:45,100 I think it is destroying the good name 1551 01:31:45,199 --> 01:31:47,765 and the leadership of the United States. 1552 01:31:47,865 --> 01:31:52,800 Furthermore, I believe that the war is militarily unwinnable. 1553 01:31:52,899 --> 01:31:57,332 I believe that thousands of American young men 1554 01:31:57,432 --> 01:32:01,600 are being asked to die to save Lyndon Johnson's face. 1555 01:32:01,699 --> 01:32:05,166 He must know by now that this war is unwinnable, 1556 01:32:05,265 --> 01:32:07,632 but he does not know how to give up. 1557 01:32:07,733 --> 01:32:11,432 Therefore, I believe that young men are not only justified 1558 01:32:11,533 --> 01:32:14,565 but to be thanked if they point this out 1559 01:32:14,666 --> 01:32:18,533 by refusing to take part in such an outrageous war any longer. 1560 01:32:18,632 --> 01:32:22,432 ("Footprints" by Wayne Shorter playing) 1561 01:32:22,533 --> 01:32:25,800 NARRATOR: Dr. Benjamin Spock was the best-loved pediatrician 1562 01:32:25,899 --> 01:32:27,233 of his time; 1563 01:32:27,332 --> 01:32:31,265 millions of American parents had consulted his bestseller, 1564 01:32:31,365 --> 01:32:33,699 Baby and Child Care. 1565 01:32:33,800 --> 01:32:38,300 In early 1967, he wrote the preface to an article 1566 01:32:38,399 --> 01:32:41,100 in the leftist magazine Ramparts 1567 01:32:41,199 --> 01:32:46,765 on the impact of American napalm on South Vietnamese children. 1568 01:32:46,865 --> 01:32:51,666 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was among those who had read it. 1569 01:32:51,765 --> 01:32:54,899 He had been agonizing about the war for months. 1570 01:32:55,000 --> 01:32:57,832 But he had been reluctant to break openly 1571 01:32:57,932 --> 01:33:01,932 with Lyndon Johnson, who had done so much for civil rights. 1572 01:33:02,033 --> 01:33:06,199 Now he could no longer stay silent. 1573 01:33:06,300 --> 01:33:11,466 MARTIN LUTHER KING: I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight 1574 01:33:11,565 --> 01:33:16,565 because my conscience leaves me no other choice. 1575 01:33:16,666 --> 01:33:22,666 A time comes when silence is betrayal. 1576 01:33:22,765 --> 01:33:29,565 That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam. 1577 01:33:29,666 --> 01:33:31,533 ("Talking World War III Blues" by Bob Dylan playing) 1578 01:33:31,632 --> 01:33:34,832 NARRATOR: Eleven days later, King joined Dr. Spock 1579 01:33:34,932 --> 01:33:37,632 and perhaps half a million other protestors 1580 01:33:37,733 --> 01:33:41,033 at a massive demonstration in Central Park 1581 01:33:41,132 --> 01:33:43,233 organized by a new coalition, 1582 01:33:43,332 --> 01:33:48,000 the National Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam. 1583 01:33:48,100 --> 01:33:50,233 ♪ Some time ago a crazy dream came to me ♪ 1584 01:33:50,332 --> 01:33:53,300 ♪ I dreamt I was walkin' into World War III. ♪ 1585 01:33:53,399 --> 01:33:56,466 ZIMMERMAN: That was the biggest crowd any of us had ever been in 1586 01:33:56,565 --> 01:33:58,000 in our lives. 1587 01:33:58,100 --> 01:34:02,233 And when the front of the march got down to the United Nations, 1588 01:34:02,332 --> 01:34:05,265 the back of the march had not yet left Central Park. 1589 01:34:05,365 --> 01:34:08,600 That's how many people we were. 1590 01:34:13,265 --> 01:34:17,500 Not all of the people on that march were students. 1591 01:34:17,600 --> 01:34:22,432 And as a result, we all felt we have a chance now. 1592 01:34:22,533 --> 01:34:27,132 You know, there's a path that we could see to ending the war. 1593 01:34:30,666 --> 01:34:33,265 MARTIN LUTHER KING: Stop the bombing. 1594 01:34:33,365 --> 01:34:37,132 Let us save our national honor. 1595 01:34:37,233 --> 01:34:41,500 Stop the bombing, and stop the war. 1596 01:34:41,600 --> 01:34:46,466 Let us save American lives and Vietnamese lives. 1597 01:34:46,565 --> 01:34:50,166 Let us take a single instantaneous step 1598 01:34:50,265 --> 01:34:51,632 to the peace table. 1599 01:34:51,733 --> 01:34:53,233 Stop the bombing. 1600 01:34:54,765 --> 01:34:56,865 NARRATOR: The antiwar movement was growing 1601 01:34:56,966 --> 01:35:00,100 in numbers and militancy. 1602 01:35:00,199 --> 01:35:04,065 "We are no longer interested in merely protesting the war," 1603 01:35:04,166 --> 01:35:07,632 one organizer said, "we are out to stop it." 1604 01:35:10,500 --> 01:35:14,432 Meanwhile, some in the Johnson administration became convinced 1605 01:35:14,533 --> 01:35:17,765 the antiwar movement was a communist conspiracy 1606 01:35:17,865 --> 01:35:19,733 directed by Moscow. 1607 01:35:19,832 --> 01:35:24,565 The FBI and the CIA, which was barred by statute 1608 01:35:24,666 --> 01:35:27,065 from operating within the United States, 1609 01:35:27,166 --> 01:35:31,466 began infiltrating the movement, wiretapping its leaders, 1610 01:35:31,565 --> 01:35:36,632 even inciting violence in order to undercut their appeal. 1611 01:35:40,632 --> 01:35:43,666 ZIMMERMAN: At that time, people who supported the war 1612 01:35:43,765 --> 01:35:47,166 were fond of saying "My country right or wrong"; 1613 01:35:47,265 --> 01:35:50,233 "America, love it or leave it." 1614 01:35:50,332 --> 01:35:53,765 Or "Better dead than Red." 1615 01:35:53,865 --> 01:35:58,033 Those sentiments seemed insane to us. 1616 01:35:58,132 --> 01:36:00,300 We don't want to live in a country 1617 01:36:00,399 --> 01:36:02,666 that we're going to support whether it's right or wrong. 1618 01:36:02,765 --> 01:36:04,132 We want to live in a country 1619 01:36:04,233 --> 01:36:07,466 that acts rightly and doesn't act wrongly. 1620 01:36:07,565 --> 01:36:11,899 And if our country isn't doing that, it needs to be corrected. 1621 01:36:12,000 --> 01:36:15,199 So we had a very different idea of patriotism. 1622 01:36:15,300 --> 01:36:21,899 So we began an era in which two groups of Americans, 1623 01:36:22,000 --> 01:36:24,966 both thinking that they were acting patriotically, 1624 01:36:25,065 --> 01:36:27,265 went to war with each other. 1625 01:36:27,365 --> 01:36:31,100 Over 200,000 communist sympathizers 1626 01:36:31,199 --> 01:36:34,199 in that park this morning tried to burn this flag, 1627 01:36:34,300 --> 01:36:35,932 but they didn't succeed. 1628 01:36:36,033 --> 01:36:37,600 RICHARD NIXON: I would put it this way-- 1629 01:36:37,699 --> 01:36:40,065 there's a monstrous myth abroad, 1630 01:36:40,166 --> 01:36:43,632 a myth which Hanoi creates and which it believes, 1631 01:36:43,733 --> 01:36:46,865 and that is that the United States is so divided 1632 01:36:46,966 --> 01:36:51,600 that if they just hang on that they will win in Washington, 1633 01:36:51,699 --> 01:36:53,865 and in the United States the victory that our fighting men 1634 01:36:53,966 --> 01:36:55,666 are denying them in field. 1635 01:36:55,765 --> 01:36:58,600 WESTMORELAND: As I have said before, 1636 01:36:58,699 --> 01:37:02,533 in evaluating the enemy strategy it is evident to me 1637 01:37:02,632 --> 01:37:06,265 that he believes our Achilles' heel is our resolve. 1638 01:37:07,666 --> 01:37:09,899 NARRATOR: Two weeks after the Manhattan protest, 1639 01:37:10,000 --> 01:37:14,166 General Westmoreland addressed a joint session of Congress, 1640 01:37:14,265 --> 01:37:17,565 the first general ever to be called home from a battlefield 1641 01:37:17,666 --> 01:37:20,166 by his president to do so. 1642 01:37:20,265 --> 01:37:25,932 Backed at home by resolve, confidence, patience, 1643 01:37:26,033 --> 01:37:29,100 determination, and continued support, 1644 01:37:29,199 --> 01:37:33,265 we will prevail in Vietnam over the communist aggressor. 1645 01:37:33,365 --> 01:37:34,832 (applause) 1646 01:37:34,932 --> 01:37:37,100 NARRATOR: Behind the scenes, 1647 01:37:37,199 --> 01:37:40,600 neither Westmoreland nor the administration he served 1648 01:37:40,699 --> 01:37:43,832 was confident the United States would prevail. 1649 01:37:45,365 --> 01:37:47,632 Westmoreland reported to the president 1650 01:37:47,733 --> 01:37:50,265 that according to the latest statistics, 1651 01:37:50,365 --> 01:37:54,265 the crossover point had finally been reached that spring, 1652 01:37:54,365 --> 01:37:58,765 except in the military sector just south of the DMZ. 1653 01:37:58,865 --> 01:38:02,966 But, he warned, the United States was doing little better 1654 01:38:03,065 --> 01:38:04,500 than holding its own. 1655 01:38:04,600 --> 01:38:08,332 If he were given 200,000 additional troops 1656 01:38:08,432 --> 01:38:11,699 and allowed to go into Laos and Cambodia, 1657 01:38:11,800 --> 01:38:13,865 he could cut off the Ho Chi Minh Trail 1658 01:38:13,966 --> 01:38:16,666 and end the war in two years. 1659 01:38:16,765 --> 01:38:20,132 But "When we add divisions," Johnson asked, 1660 01:38:20,233 --> 01:38:22,800 "can't the enemy add divisions? 1661 01:38:22,899 --> 01:38:25,100 Where does it all end?" 1662 01:38:25,199 --> 01:38:28,432 Westmoreland had no answer. 1663 01:38:28,533 --> 01:38:31,565 Instead, he and the Joint Chiefs asked the president 1664 01:38:31,666 --> 01:38:35,500 to permit them to bomb sites just below the Chinese border, 1665 01:38:35,600 --> 01:38:38,332 and to mine the harbors of North Vietnam 1666 01:38:38,432 --> 01:38:44,265 to keep Hanoi's Soviet ally from resupplying her by sea. 1667 01:38:44,365 --> 01:38:49,733 Meanwhile, Robert McNamara, the chief architect 1668 01:38:49,832 --> 01:38:52,899 of American strategy in Vietnam, 1669 01:38:53,000 --> 01:38:55,132 had grown less and less confident 1670 01:38:55,233 --> 01:38:57,365 in its ultimate success 1671 01:38:57,466 --> 01:39:01,432 and in the repeated calls for more men and more bombing 1672 01:39:01,533 --> 01:39:04,565 made by the military he oversaw. 1673 01:39:04,666 --> 01:39:09,699 GELB: Robert McNamara was the giant of Washington, D.C. 1674 01:39:09,800 --> 01:39:15,000 He was the embodiment of intellect and self-confidence. 1675 01:39:15,100 --> 01:39:18,666 If there was a problem, there had to be an answer. 1676 01:39:18,765 --> 01:39:21,800 And that was his fatal flaw. 1677 01:39:21,899 --> 01:39:24,565 The startling thing is 1678 01:39:24,666 --> 01:39:30,765 that this man who never seemed to doubt anything he said, 1679 01:39:30,865 --> 01:39:34,432 actually began to doubt profoundly what he was doing 1680 01:39:34,533 --> 01:39:36,065 in Vietnam. 1681 01:39:36,166 --> 01:39:37,765 But we didn't know about it. 1682 01:39:37,865 --> 01:39:41,265 NARRATOR: In a private memorandum to the president, 1683 01:39:41,365 --> 01:39:43,932 McNamara told Johnson that 1684 01:39:44,033 --> 01:39:46,800 "the picture of the world's greatest superpower 1685 01:39:46,899 --> 01:39:51,800 "killing or seriously injuring 1,000 non-combatants a week, 1686 01:39:51,899 --> 01:39:56,365 "while trying to pound a tiny, backward nation into submission 1687 01:39:56,466 --> 01:39:59,466 "on an issue whose merits are hotly disputed 1688 01:39:59,565 --> 01:40:01,565 is not a pretty one." 1689 01:40:01,666 --> 01:40:06,365 He urged the president to limit troop levels, not raise them, 1690 01:40:06,466 --> 01:40:10,565 and to declare an unconditional end to all bombing 1691 01:40:10,666 --> 01:40:13,132 north of the 20th parallel. 1692 01:40:13,233 --> 01:40:17,199 "The war in Vietnam is acquiring a momentum of its own 1693 01:40:17,300 --> 01:40:20,300 that must be stopped," McNamara wrote. 1694 01:40:20,399 --> 01:40:23,800 "Dramatic increases in U.S. troop deployments 1695 01:40:23,899 --> 01:40:26,765 "and attacks on the North are not necessary 1696 01:40:26,865 --> 01:40:28,533 "and are not the answer. 1697 01:40:28,632 --> 01:40:32,399 "The enemy can absorb them or counter them, 1698 01:40:32,500 --> 01:40:34,100 "bogging us down further 1699 01:40:34,199 --> 01:40:39,432 and risking even more serious escalation of the war." 1700 01:40:39,533 --> 01:40:44,233 In the end, Johnson tried to find a middle ground. 1701 01:40:44,332 --> 01:40:46,832 He expanded the list of bombing targets, 1702 01:40:46,932 --> 01:40:49,765 but he refused to mine the harbors 1703 01:40:49,865 --> 01:40:52,100 and he agreed to send Westmoreland 1704 01:40:52,199 --> 01:40:54,966 only 47,000 more troops, 1705 01:40:55,065 --> 01:40:58,265 which would bring the total of U.S. forces in the country 1706 01:40:58,365 --> 01:41:00,632 to more than half a million men. 1707 01:41:02,966 --> 01:41:08,166 On June 17, 1967, Robert McNamara placed a call 1708 01:41:08,265 --> 01:41:12,432 to his military assistant, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Gard. 1709 01:41:12,533 --> 01:41:15,600 GARD: My phone rang and the little light showed 1710 01:41:15,699 --> 01:41:18,300 it was the secretary on the line. 1711 01:41:18,399 --> 01:41:21,565 And I picked it up and said, "Yes, Mr. Secretary?" 1712 01:41:21,666 --> 01:41:23,533 And Mr. McNamara said, 1713 01:41:23,632 --> 01:41:26,265 "Bob, I want a thorough study done of the background 1714 01:41:26,365 --> 01:41:28,865 of our involvement in Vietnam," and hung up the phone. 1715 01:41:28,966 --> 01:41:32,332 NARRATOR: Leslie Gelb, a 30-year-old member 1716 01:41:32,432 --> 01:41:35,632 of the International Security Affairs staff, 1717 01:41:35,733 --> 01:41:38,765 was named to oversee the top-secret analysis 1718 01:41:38,865 --> 01:41:43,100 of how key decisions had been made, going all the way back 1719 01:41:43,199 --> 01:41:45,332 to the Truman administration. 1720 01:41:47,432 --> 01:41:52,365 GELB: McNamara gave us full access to his closet, 1721 01:41:52,466 --> 01:41:55,033 in his office, which was like a room. 1722 01:41:55,132 --> 01:41:57,565 But all his private papers were there. 1723 01:41:57,666 --> 01:42:00,100 And I was picking out the memos, 1724 01:42:00,199 --> 01:42:02,865 a lot of which I helped to write. 1725 01:42:02,966 --> 01:42:06,100 But there were others in there that I had never seen. 1726 01:42:06,199 --> 01:42:13,300 In these memos you began to see Robert McNamara communicating 1727 01:42:13,399 --> 01:42:18,466 with the president, alone, his doubts. 1728 01:42:18,565 --> 01:42:20,865 It stunned me. 1729 01:42:28,500 --> 01:42:31,432 HARRISON: I had thought that we were mostly fighting a guerrilla war. 1730 01:42:34,100 --> 01:42:40,365 I didn't know that we were going to be fighting guys like us, 1731 01:42:40,466 --> 01:42:42,300 that I had a doppelganger out there 1732 01:42:42,399 --> 01:42:47,666 who was leading a rifle platoon, who knew what he was doing, 1733 01:42:47,765 --> 01:42:53,199 who was as fully prepared to kill me as I was to kill him. 1734 01:42:53,300 --> 01:42:55,365 (band playing a march) 1735 01:42:55,466 --> 01:42:58,533 NARRATOR: That June, First Lieutenant Matthew Harrison 1736 01:42:58,632 --> 01:43:03,332 finally got his orders to join the 173rd Airborne, 1737 01:43:03,432 --> 01:43:07,632 an elite unit ready to rush anywhere they were needed. 1738 01:43:07,733 --> 01:43:13,233 They called themselves General Westmoreland's Fire Brigade. 1739 01:43:17,666 --> 01:43:21,132 Harrison's arrival at Bien Hoa was a reunion of sorts. 1740 01:43:21,233 --> 01:43:26,000 He and seven others from the West Point class of 1966 1741 01:43:26,100 --> 01:43:29,132 all found themselves serving in the 2nd Battalion, 1742 01:43:29,233 --> 01:43:32,533 including two especially close friends: 1743 01:43:32,632 --> 01:43:36,632 Donald Judd and Richard Hood. 1744 01:43:36,733 --> 01:43:39,899 HARRISON: As young lieutenants, as 22-year-olds, 1745 01:43:40,000 --> 01:43:45,100 we really were idealists and we really were Boy Scouts. 1746 01:43:45,199 --> 01:43:49,432 I really felt as though I was uniquely qualified 1747 01:43:49,533 --> 01:43:51,166 to lead American soldiers 1748 01:43:51,265 --> 01:43:53,565 and that there was nothing more important 1749 01:43:53,666 --> 01:43:56,065 than what I was going to be doing. 1750 01:43:56,166 --> 01:43:59,699 But when I joined the 173rd, 1751 01:43:59,800 --> 01:44:03,466 I think the first day I was there some guy showed me 1752 01:44:03,565 --> 01:44:07,399 what looked like a bunch of apricots on a leather thong. 1753 01:44:07,500 --> 01:44:11,065 Turns out they were ears, dried, desiccated. 1754 01:44:12,865 --> 01:44:16,565 I understood theoretically what it meant to be in a war. 1755 01:44:16,666 --> 01:44:19,600 But, of course, no one can really understand it 1756 01:44:19,699 --> 01:44:21,100 until they've done it. 1757 01:44:22,865 --> 01:44:25,932 ("Wild Child" by the Ventures playing) 1758 01:44:26,033 --> 01:44:28,765 NARRATOR: Harrison was a platoon leader in Charlie Company. 1759 01:44:28,865 --> 01:44:34,565 His West Point classmates served with Alpha Company. 1760 01:44:34,666 --> 01:44:36,932 Within a few days, 1761 01:44:37,033 --> 01:44:39,932 they were helicoptered into the heart of the Central Highlands 1762 01:44:40,033 --> 01:44:43,533 near Dak To, where North Vietnamese regulars 1763 01:44:43,632 --> 01:44:48,666 were said to be threatening a Special Forces camp. 1764 01:44:48,765 --> 01:44:51,565 They were all airlifted into landing zones 1765 01:44:51,666 --> 01:44:54,932 hacked out of the steep, jungle-blanketed slope 1766 01:44:55,033 --> 01:44:58,800 of a mountain the Americans called Hill 1338 1767 01:44:58,899 --> 01:45:04,233 for its height in meters, with orders to hunt down the enemy. 1768 01:45:04,332 --> 01:45:06,699 They walked for two days, 1769 01:45:06,800 --> 01:45:09,666 following a well-worn enemy trail, 1770 01:45:09,765 --> 01:45:14,399 constantly on the lookout for booby traps or ambushes. 1771 01:45:18,865 --> 01:45:20,765 On the evening of June 21, 1772 01:45:20,865 --> 01:45:24,132 Harrison's Charlie Company settled in for the night 1773 01:45:24,233 --> 01:45:27,632 while his friends in Alpha Company set up camp 1774 01:45:27,733 --> 01:45:30,065 a little less than two miles to the south, 1775 01:45:30,166 --> 01:45:33,932 along the same slippery jungle path. 1776 01:45:34,033 --> 01:45:38,800 No one knew that an entire North Vietnamese battalion-- 1777 01:45:38,899 --> 01:45:41,300 perhaps 500 men-- 1778 01:45:41,399 --> 01:45:44,132 was encamped on the other side of a ridgeline, 1779 01:45:44,233 --> 01:45:48,000 just a few hundred yards away. 1780 01:45:50,000 --> 01:45:52,000 At 6:58 the next morning, 1781 01:45:52,100 --> 01:45:55,832 a patrol from Alpha Company stumbled into a squad 1782 01:45:55,932 --> 01:45:57,600 of North Vietnamese. 1783 01:45:57,699 --> 01:46:00,600 The Americans withdrew 1784 01:46:00,699 --> 01:46:04,000 and struggled to establish a perimeter. 1785 01:46:04,100 --> 01:46:06,632 Within minutes, they were under attack 1786 01:46:06,733 --> 01:46:11,265 from relentless AK-47 automatic fire. 1787 01:46:11,365 --> 01:46:14,632 The enemy mounted attack after attack, 1788 01:46:14,733 --> 01:46:17,632 drawing closer each time. 1789 01:46:17,733 --> 01:46:21,565 Alpha Company radioed for air and artillery support, 1790 01:46:21,666 --> 01:46:25,666 but the triple-canopy jungle blocked the spotter's view. 1791 01:47:17,166 --> 01:47:20,533 NARRATOR: At around noon, Harrison's unit was ordered to rescue 1792 01:47:20,632 --> 01:47:23,565 the trapped men of Alpha Company. 1793 01:47:23,666 --> 01:47:27,332 HARRISON: It was mountainous terrain. 1794 01:47:27,432 --> 01:47:29,166 We were carrying two bodies 1795 01:47:29,265 --> 01:47:31,733 along with a bunch of engineer equipment. 1796 01:47:31,832 --> 01:47:37,065 And we could not push down the couple of hundred meters 1797 01:47:37,166 --> 01:47:40,132 to where the most of the fighting had taken place. 1798 01:47:40,233 --> 01:47:41,966 (explosion) 1799 01:47:42,065 --> 01:47:44,332 NARRATOR: The going was steep and slippery. 1800 01:47:44,432 --> 01:47:46,500 North Vietnamese troops, 1801 01:47:46,600 --> 01:47:49,399 now entrenched along both sides of the trail, 1802 01:47:49,500 --> 01:47:54,132 prevented Matt Harrison and his men from reaching Alpha Company. 1803 01:47:54,233 --> 01:47:57,800 At dusk, the shooting died down, 1804 01:47:57,899 --> 01:48:00,332 and they dug in at the top of a ridge 1805 01:48:00,432 --> 01:48:03,399 and did their best to sleep. 1806 01:48:05,199 --> 01:48:08,966 HARRISON: So we lay there on the night of June 22 1807 01:48:09,065 --> 01:48:13,565 and we could hear the screams of the wounded down the hill 1808 01:48:13,666 --> 01:48:18,265 as the North Vietnamese went around and shot them. 1809 01:48:18,365 --> 01:48:21,533 NARRATOR: By dawn, the enemy had melted away. 1810 01:48:25,233 --> 01:48:28,500 Harrison and his platoon crept down the hillside 1811 01:48:28,600 --> 01:48:32,233 and reached what was left of Alpha Company. 1812 01:48:33,632 --> 01:48:39,466 Out of 137 men, 76 lay dead along the path. 1813 01:48:39,565 --> 01:48:44,565 Forty-three had been shot in the head at close range. 1814 01:48:44,666 --> 01:48:49,300 Ears had been cut from some; eyes gouged out; 1815 01:48:49,399 --> 01:48:51,332 ring fingers missing. 1816 01:48:51,432 --> 01:48:55,132 Twenty-three more men were wounded. 1817 01:48:55,233 --> 01:49:01,100 Harrison found his classmates, Donald Judd and Richard Hood, 1818 01:49:01,199 --> 01:49:03,300 among the dead. 1819 01:49:04,932 --> 01:49:09,065 HARRISON: This was my introduction to war. 1820 01:49:09,166 --> 01:49:13,000 This was my welcome to Vietnam. 1821 01:49:15,233 --> 01:49:18,699 We spent the rest of the day putting those bodies 1822 01:49:18,800 --> 01:49:22,199 into body bags and getting them out of there. 1823 01:49:22,300 --> 01:49:25,065 Getting-getting killed is forever. 1824 01:49:25,166 --> 01:49:30,932 And, um, that was something that I had known theoretically 1825 01:49:31,033 --> 01:49:33,233 but I now understood particularly 1826 01:49:33,332 --> 01:49:35,899 when I put my two classmates in body bags, 1827 01:49:36,000 --> 01:49:38,632 guys that I had gone to school with for four years 1828 01:49:38,733 --> 01:49:41,733 and were good friends and who just the week before 1829 01:49:41,832 --> 01:49:44,765 we had been drinking beer and ribbing each other 1830 01:49:44,865 --> 01:49:48,000 and these guys were now gone. 1831 01:49:49,033 --> 01:49:50,033 NARRATOR: Charlie Company found 1832 01:49:50,132 --> 01:49:53,733 just nine or ten North Vietnamese bodies. 1833 01:49:53,832 --> 01:49:56,533 Harrison and his men were ordered to search 1834 01:49:56,632 --> 01:50:00,466 the nearby hillsides for more enemy dead, 1835 01:50:00,565 --> 01:50:04,600 who commanders assumed had been killed by U.S. artillery. 1836 01:50:04,699 --> 01:50:08,300 MACV needed its body count. 1837 01:50:10,899 --> 01:50:13,966 HARRISON: We never located them and I believe today 1838 01:50:14,065 --> 01:50:17,065 that we didn't locate them because they weren't there. 1839 01:50:17,166 --> 01:50:21,666 I think we just took a terrible loss on June 22. 1840 01:50:21,765 --> 01:50:28,865 To admit that a rifle company in the 173rd had been wiped out 1841 01:50:28,966 --> 01:50:31,132 by the North Vietnamese was not something 1842 01:50:31,233 --> 01:50:32,632 our leaders were prepared to do. 1843 01:50:32,733 --> 01:50:38,399 So we had to sell ourselves and we had to sell the public 1844 01:50:38,500 --> 01:50:41,899 on the idea that we had inflicted casualties 1845 01:50:42,000 --> 01:50:43,765 on the North Vietnamese as severe 1846 01:50:43,865 --> 01:50:46,132 as they had inflicted on us. 1847 01:50:46,233 --> 01:50:50,765 NARRATOR: An officer told a reporter that the shattered rifle company 1848 01:50:50,865 --> 01:50:55,100 had killed 475 enemy soldiers. 1849 01:50:55,199 --> 01:50:59,265 When another officer suggested to General Westmoreland 1850 01:50:59,365 --> 01:51:02,300 that the figure seemed too high to be believable, 1851 01:51:02,399 --> 01:51:04,765 he replied, "Too late. 1852 01:51:04,865 --> 01:51:07,265 It's already gone out." 1853 01:51:07,365 --> 01:51:10,233 HARRISON: Within a few days after the battle, 1854 01:51:10,332 --> 01:51:12,565 Westmoreland came up to speak 1855 01:51:12,666 --> 01:51:16,399 to what we thought of ourselves as his brigade. 1856 01:51:16,500 --> 01:51:22,533 And he hopped up on a hood of a jeep in very crisp fatigues 1857 01:51:22,632 --> 01:51:25,533 looking every inch the battle commander 1858 01:51:25,632 --> 01:51:29,966 and gave us a pep talk and told us how proud he was 1859 01:51:30,065 --> 01:51:32,600 and what a magnificent job we had done. 1860 01:51:32,699 --> 01:51:37,666 But by then I had more than just a suspicion 1861 01:51:37,765 --> 01:51:43,932 that this was a fairy tale, that Westmoreland was wrong 1862 01:51:44,033 --> 01:51:46,966 and I didn't know whether he knew he was wrong 1863 01:51:47,065 --> 01:51:50,800 or whether he believed what he was being told 1864 01:51:50,899 --> 01:51:53,132 and wanted to believe. 1865 01:51:53,233 --> 01:51:57,632 But this was the first time that I had to come to grips 1866 01:51:57,733 --> 01:51:59,500 with the fact that the leadership 1867 01:51:59,600 --> 01:52:03,300 was either out of touch or was lying. 1868 01:52:03,399 --> 01:52:05,533 ("One Too Many Mornings" by Bob Dylan playing) 1869 01:52:05,632 --> 01:52:07,600 DYLAN: ♪ Down the street the dogs are barkin' ♪ 1870 01:52:07,699 --> 01:52:10,132 ♪ And the day is a-gettin' dark. ♪ 1871 01:52:10,233 --> 01:52:14,033 CAROL CROCKER: I remember a very difficult conversation I had 1872 01:52:14,132 --> 01:52:17,466 with a girl who had really been a best friend of mine. 1873 01:52:17,565 --> 01:52:20,966 And the talk turned to Vietnam. 1874 01:52:21,065 --> 01:52:23,966 And I remember her looking at me and saying, 1875 01:52:24,065 --> 01:52:31,399 "My father says that you can't listen to people 1876 01:52:31,500 --> 01:52:34,132 "who've lost someone in the war 1877 01:52:34,233 --> 01:52:35,865 "because they're going to support it 1878 01:52:35,966 --> 01:52:38,000 to justify that person's death." 1879 01:52:39,832 --> 01:52:42,865 I felt like she'd hit me in the stomach. 1880 01:52:42,966 --> 01:52:47,166 But I knew at that moment there were some factions developing 1881 01:52:47,265 --> 01:52:51,065 and this wasn't going to be an easy path to walk; 1882 01:52:51,166 --> 01:52:52,832 that people were going to have opinions 1883 01:52:52,932 --> 01:52:55,233 about my brother's death 1884 01:52:55,332 --> 01:52:59,065 that in some ways had nothing to do with his death for me. 1885 01:53:01,166 --> 01:53:03,533 ("The Sound of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel playing) 1886 01:53:03,632 --> 01:53:07,800 ♪ Hello darkness, my old friend ♪ 1887 01:53:07,899 --> 01:53:12,399 ♪ I've come to talk with you again ♪ 1888 01:53:12,500 --> 01:53:17,132 ♪ Because a vision softly creeping ♪ 1889 01:53:17,233 --> 01:53:21,632 ♪ Left its seeds while I was sleeping ♪ 1890 01:53:21,733 --> 01:53:28,233 ♪ And the vision that was planted in my brain ♪ 1891 01:53:28,332 --> 01:53:31,832 ♪ Still remains 1892 01:53:31,932 --> 01:53:37,666 ♪ Within the sound of silence 1893 01:53:37,765 --> 01:53:42,065 ♪ In restless dreams I walked alone ♪ 1894 01:53:42,166 --> 01:53:46,632 ♪ Narrow streets of cobblestone ♪ 1895 01:53:46,733 --> 01:53:51,199 ♪ 'Neath the halo of a street lamp ♪ 1896 01:53:51,300 --> 01:53:55,832 ♪ I turned my collar to the cold and damp ♪ 1897 01:53:55,932 --> 01:54:02,533 ♪ When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light ♪ 1898 01:54:02,632 --> 01:54:06,000 ♪ That split the night 1899 01:54:06,100 --> 01:54:12,233 ♪ And touched the sound of silence ♪ 1900 01:54:12,332 --> 01:54:16,199 ♪ And in the naked light I saw 1901 01:54:16,300 --> 01:54:20,932 ♪ Ten thousand people, maybe more ♪ 1902 01:54:21,033 --> 01:54:25,600 ♪ People talking without speaking ♪ 1903 01:54:25,699 --> 01:54:30,000 ♪ People hearing without listening ♪ 1904 01:54:30,100 --> 01:54:37,466 ♪ People writing songs that voices never share ♪ 1905 01:54:37,565 --> 01:54:41,132 ♪ And no one dared 1906 01:54:41,233 --> 01:54:46,832 ♪ Disturb the sound of silence 1907 01:54:46,932 --> 01:54:51,332 ♪ And the people bowed and prayed ♪ 1908 01:54:51,432 --> 01:54:55,733 ♪ To the neon god they made 1909 01:54:55,832 --> 01:55:00,065 ♪ And the sign flashed out its warning ♪ 1910 01:55:00,166 --> 01:55:04,533 ♪ In the words that it was forming ♪ 1911 01:55:04,632 --> 01:55:06,166 ♪ And the signs said 1912 01:55:06,265 --> 01:55:11,899 ♪ The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls ♪ 1913 01:55:12,000 --> 01:55:15,432 ♪ And tenement halls 1914 01:55:15,533 --> 01:55:24,000 ♪ And whisper'd in the sounds of silence. ♪ 1915 01:55:35,332 --> 01:55:52,466 (helicopter blades beating) 1916 01:55:53,533 --> 01:55:54,733 ANNOUNCER: LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FILM 1917 01:55:54,733 --> 01:55:57,600 AND FIND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES AT PBS.ORG/VIETNAMWAR 1918 01:55:57,600 --> 01:56:01,600 AND JOIN THE CONVERSATION USING HASHTAG VIETNAMWARPBS. 1919 01:56:01,600 --> 01:56:03,065 "THE VIETNAM WAR" IS AVAILABLE 1920 01:56:03,065 --> 01:56:04,733 ON BLU-RAY AND DVD. 1921 01:56:04,733 --> 01:56:06,399 THE COMPANION BOOK, SOUNDTRACK, 1922 01:56:06,399 --> 01:56:07,800 AND ORIGINAL SCORE FROM THE FILM 1923 01:56:07,800 --> 01:56:08,932 ARE ALSO AVAILABLE. 1924 01:56:08,932 --> 01:56:11,033 TO ORDER, VISIT SHOPPBS.ORG 1925 01:56:11,033 --> 01:56:13,500 OR CALL 1-800-PLAY-PBS. 1926 01:56:13,500 --> 01:56:14,932 EPISODES OF THIS SERIES ALSO 1927 01:56:14,932 --> 01:56:16,033 AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD 1928 01:56:16,033 --> 01:56:17,132 FROM iTUNES. 1929 01:56:20,399 --> 01:56:22,533 ANNOUNCER: BANK OF AMERICA PROUDLY SUPPORTS 1930 01:56:22,533 --> 01:56:27,432 KEN BURNS' AND LYNN NOVICK'S FILM "THE VIETNAM WAR" 1931 01:56:27,432 --> 01:56:29,832 BECAUSE FOSTERING DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES 1932 01:56:29,832 --> 01:56:32,432 AND CIVIL DISCOURSE AROUND IMPORTANT ISSUES 1933 01:56:32,432 --> 01:56:34,733 FURTHERS PROGRESS, EQUALITY, 1934 01:56:34,733 --> 01:56:36,733 AND A MORE CONNECTED SOCIETY. 1935 01:56:41,199 --> 01:56:45,233 GO TO BANKOFAMERICA.COM/ BETTERCONNECTED TO LEARN MORE. 1936 01:56:48,699 --> 01:56:50,132 ANNOUNCER: MAJOR SUPPORT FOR "THE VIETNAM WAR" 1937 01:56:50,132 --> 01:56:53,632 WAS PROVIDED BY MEMBERS OF THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY, 1938 01:56:53,632 --> 01:56:57,600 INCLUDING JONATHAN AND JEANNIE LAVINE, 1939 01:56:57,600 --> 01:57:00,500 DIANE AND HAL BRIERLEY, 1940 01:57:00,500 --> 01:57:02,966 AMY AND DAVID ABRAMS, 1941 01:57:02,966 --> 01:57:05,466 JOHN AND CATHERINE DEBS, 1942 01:57:05,466 --> 01:57:08,365 THE FULLERTON FAMILY CHARITABLE FUND, 1943 01:57:08,365 --> 01:57:10,432 THE MONTRONE FAMILY, 1944 01:57:10,432 --> 01:57:12,765 LYNDA AND STEWART RESNICK, 1945 01:57:12,765 --> 01:57:15,533 THE PERRY AND DONNA GOLKIN FAMILY FOUNDATION, 1946 01:57:15,533 --> 01:57:16,533 THE LYNCH FOUNDATION, 1947 01:57:16,533 --> 01:57:19,399 THE ROGER AND ROSEMARY ENRICO FOUNDATION, 1948 01:57:19,399 --> 01:57:22,832 AND BY THESE ADDITIONAL FUNDERS. 1949 01:57:22,832 --> 01:57:24,733 MAJOR FUNDING WAS ALSO PROVIDED 1950 01:57:24,733 --> 01:57:26,466 BY DAVID H. KOCH... 1951 01:57:28,765 --> 01:57:30,966 THE BLAVATNIK FAMILY FOUNDATION... 1952 01:57:33,300 --> 01:57:35,733 THE PARK FOUNDATION, 1953 01:57:35,733 --> 01:57:37,899 THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES, 1954 01:57:37,899 --> 01:57:40,100 THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS, 1955 01:57:40,100 --> 01:57:42,765 THE JOHN S. AND JAMES L. KNIGHT FOUNDATION, 1956 01:57:42,765 --> 01:57:45,533 THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION, 1957 01:57:45,533 --> 01:57:48,132 THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS FOUNDATIONS, 1958 01:57:48,132 --> 01:57:50,332 THE FORD FOUNDATION JUSTFILMS, 1959 01:57:50,332 --> 01:57:51,533 BY THE CORPORATION 1960 01:57:51,533 --> 01:57:52,765 FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING, 1961 01:57:52,765 --> 01:57:54,733 AND BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU. 1962 01:57:54,733 --> 01:57:55,865 THANK YOU. 262014