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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:01,566 --> 00:00:03,000 ANNOUNCER: MAJOR SUPPORT FOR "THE VIETNAM WAR" 2 00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:06,500 WAS PROVIDED BY MEMBERS OF THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY, 3 00:00:06,500 --> 00:00:10,465 INCLUDING JONATHAN AND JEANNIE LAVINE, 4 00:00:10,465 --> 00:00:13,365 DIANE AND HAL BRIERLEY, 5 00:00:13,365 --> 00:00:15,766 AMY AND DAVID ABRAMS, 6 00:00:15,766 --> 00:00:18,265 JOHN AND CATHERINE DEBS, 7 00:00:18,265 --> 00:00:21,166 THE FULLERTON FAMILY CHARITABLE FUND, 8 00:00:21,166 --> 00:00:23,233 THE MONTRONE FAMILY, 9 00:00:23,233 --> 00:00:25,565 LYNDA AND STEWART RESNICK, 10 00:00:25,565 --> 00:00:28,332 THE PERRY AND DONNA GOLKIN FAMILY FOUNDATION, 11 00:00:28,332 --> 00:00:29,332 THE LYNCH FOUNDATION, 12 00:00:29,332 --> 00:00:32,200 THE ROGER AND ROSEMARY ENRICO FOUNDATION, 13 00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:35,633 AND BY THESE ADDITIONAL FUNDERS. 14 00:00:35,633 --> 00:00:37,533 MAJOR FUNDING WAS ALSO PROVIDED 15 00:00:37,533 --> 00:00:39,265 BY DAVID H. KOCH... 16 00:00:41,566 --> 00:00:43,765 THE BLAVATNIK FAMILY FOUNDATION... 17 00:00:46,100 --> 00:00:48,533 THE PARK FOUNDATION, 18 00:00:48,533 --> 00:00:50,700 THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES, 19 00:00:50,700 --> 00:00:52,899 THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS, 20 00:00:52,899 --> 00:00:55,566 THE JOHN S. AND JAMES L. KNIGHT FOUNDATION, 21 00:00:55,566 --> 00:00:58,332 THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION, 22 00:00:58,332 --> 00:01:01,000 THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS FOUNDATIONS, 23 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:03,200 THE FORD FOUNDATION JUSTFILMS, 24 00:01:03,200 --> 00:01:04,400 BY THE CORPORATION 25 00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:05,632 FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING, 26 00:01:05,632 --> 00:01:07,599 AND BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU. 27 00:01:07,599 --> 00:01:08,733 THANK YOU. 28 00:01:13,266 --> 00:01:15,400 ANNOUNCER: BANK OF AMERICA PROUDLY SUPPORTS 29 00:01:15,400 --> 00:01:20,299 KEN BURNS' AND LYNN NOVICK'S FILM "THE VIETNAM WAR" 30 00:01:20,299 --> 00:01:22,700 BECAUSE FOSTERING DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES 31 00:01:22,700 --> 00:01:25,299 AND CIVIL DISCOURSE AROUND IMPORTANT ISSUES 32 00:01:25,299 --> 00:01:27,599 FURTHERS PROGRESS, EQUALITY, 33 00:01:27,599 --> 00:01:29,599 AND A MORE CONNECTED SOCIETY. 34 00:01:34,066 --> 00:01:38,099 GO TO BANKOFAMERICA.COM/ BETTERCONNECTED TO LEARN MORE. 35 00:01:50,332 --> 00:01:52,665 CROWD (chanting): No more war! No more war! 36 00:01:52,765 --> 00:01:56,332 No more war! No more war! 37 00:01:56,432 --> 00:01:58,000 No more war! No more war! 38 00:01:58,099 --> 00:01:59,432 ("Get Together" by the Youngbloods playing) 39 00:01:59,533 --> 00:02:02,900 No more war! No more war! 40 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:05,766 No more war! No more war! 41 00:02:05,865 --> 00:02:06,965 No more war! 42 00:02:07,066 --> 00:02:10,633 CROWD (chanting): U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! 43 00:02:10,733 --> 00:02:13,865 YOUNGBLOODS: ♪ Love is but a song to sing 44 00:02:13,966 --> 00:02:17,599 ♪ Fear's the way we die 45 00:02:17,699 --> 00:02:19,699 (crowds shouting, clamoring) 46 00:02:22,466 --> 00:02:25,765 ♪ You can make the mountains ring ♪ 47 00:02:25,865 --> 00:02:28,800 ♪ Or make the angels cry 48 00:02:31,400 --> 00:02:32,900 (shouting continues) 49 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:35,165 ♪ Come on, people, now 50 00:02:35,265 --> 00:02:36,800 ♪ Smile on your brother 51 00:02:36,900 --> 00:02:38,633 ♪ Everybody get together 52 00:02:38,733 --> 00:02:42,633 ♪ Try to love one another right now ♪ 53 00:02:45,865 --> 00:02:47,765 KARL MARLANTES: My brother picked me up 54 00:02:47,865 --> 00:02:51,000 at Travis Air Force Base. 55 00:02:51,099 --> 00:02:53,199 And I remember he had a Valiant, 56 00:02:53,300 --> 00:02:55,165 an old beat-up Valiant. 57 00:02:55,265 --> 00:02:56,566 And we met inside the terminal. 58 00:02:56,665 --> 00:02:58,265 And I was so happy to see him. 59 00:02:58,365 --> 00:02:59,566 I just love my brother. 60 00:02:59,665 --> 00:03:01,165 (crowd shouting in distance) 61 00:03:01,265 --> 00:03:03,265 He said, "Now, I don't want you to get upset, 62 00:03:03,366 --> 00:03:05,133 "but we're probably gonna get some trouble 63 00:03:05,233 --> 00:03:08,699 when we go outside." 64 00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:11,133 And I went, "Trouble? I just got back from Vietnam. 65 00:03:11,233 --> 00:03:12,665 What are you talking about?" 66 00:03:12,765 --> 00:03:14,699 I mean, I knew that there was unrest. 67 00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:16,566 YOUNGBLOODS: ♪ If you hear the song I sing 68 00:03:16,665 --> 00:03:20,300 MARLANTES: But when we got in his car to drive away from the terminal, 69 00:03:20,400 --> 00:03:24,265 we had to wind our way through protesters 70 00:03:24,365 --> 00:03:27,665 that were pounding on the car with the ends of their signs 71 00:03:27,765 --> 00:03:29,765 and were snarling at me 72 00:03:29,865 --> 00:03:33,265 and pounding on the window and shouting obscenities at me. 73 00:03:34,432 --> 00:03:36,900 That was my welcome home to America. 74 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:38,699 (shouting continues) 75 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:40,533 I was just stunned. 76 00:03:40,633 --> 00:03:41,966 YOUNGBLOODS: ♪ Come on, people, now 77 00:03:42,066 --> 00:03:44,432 I have never felt... 78 00:03:44,533 --> 00:03:48,000 any anger toward people that were war protesters. 79 00:03:48,099 --> 00:03:51,633 It's a legitimate political stance. 80 00:03:51,733 --> 00:03:55,865 For people that descended into that, I... 81 00:03:55,966 --> 00:03:59,566 I-I think that they were really wrong. 82 00:03:59,665 --> 00:04:02,066 YOUNGBLOODS: ♪ Try to love one another right now ♪ 83 00:04:02,165 --> 00:04:05,665 It was this-this heartbreak of why are you doing this? 84 00:04:05,765 --> 00:04:08,365 I mean, you don't know who I am. 85 00:04:08,466 --> 00:04:11,233 And it happened over and over. 86 00:04:11,332 --> 00:04:13,233 YOUNGBLOODS: ♪ Everybody get together 87 00:04:13,332 --> 00:04:16,966 ♪ Try to love one another right now ♪ 88 00:04:17,065 --> 00:04:19,533 ♪ Right now 89 00:04:19,632 --> 00:04:23,533 ♪ Right now. 90 00:04:29,665 --> 00:04:30,932 (siren wailing) 91 00:04:31,033 --> 00:04:33,100 NARRATOR: In the spring of 1970, 92 00:04:33,199 --> 00:04:36,466 despite the uproar over the invasion of Cambodia 93 00:04:36,566 --> 00:04:39,533 and the killing of four students at Kent State, 94 00:04:39,632 --> 00:04:42,365 President Nixon's hold on what he called 95 00:04:42,466 --> 00:04:46,266 "the great silent majority" seemed secure. 96 00:04:46,365 --> 00:04:50,033 A Gallup poll showed that most Americans 97 00:04:50,132 --> 00:04:52,832 blamed the students, not the national guardsmen, 98 00:04:52,932 --> 00:04:54,000 for what had happened. 99 00:04:54,100 --> 00:04:57,165 (shouting, clamoring) 100 00:04:57,266 --> 00:05:00,466 At an antiwar demonstration in Manhattan, 101 00:05:00,565 --> 00:05:03,565 hundreds of construction workers in hard hats 102 00:05:03,665 --> 00:05:05,932 attacked protestors, 103 00:05:06,033 --> 00:05:08,833 sending 70 to the hospital. 104 00:05:11,665 --> 00:05:14,466 And when workers marched on City Hall 105 00:05:14,565 --> 00:05:16,466 a few days later, 106 00:05:16,565 --> 00:05:19,665 Nixon wrote the president of their union 107 00:05:19,766 --> 00:05:21,665 to say how pleased he was 108 00:05:21,766 --> 00:05:23,266 "to see the tremendous outpouring 109 00:05:23,365 --> 00:05:25,565 "of support for our country 110 00:05:25,665 --> 00:05:30,165 demonstrated in your orderly and most heartening rally." 111 00:05:30,266 --> 00:05:32,033 How do you feel about the construction workers 112 00:05:32,132 --> 00:05:33,966 who attacked the, uh, demonstrators last Friday? 113 00:05:34,066 --> 00:05:36,233 Don't say attacked. Don't say attacked. 114 00:05:36,332 --> 00:05:37,865 They were provoked. 115 00:05:37,966 --> 00:05:39,800 They were provoked, man. 116 00:05:39,899 --> 00:05:41,199 We work for a living. 117 00:05:41,300 --> 00:05:43,365 Every day we get up, we're out there in the cold, 118 00:05:43,466 --> 00:05:44,466 the rain, the snow, right? 119 00:05:44,566 --> 00:05:46,533 We got to have these dirty s... 120 00:05:46,632 --> 00:05:48,899 Forget about it, I don't want to talk about it, man. 121 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:51,266 Anybody that can take a Viet Cong flag and fly it 122 00:05:51,365 --> 00:05:54,600 and wave it and bring it up this avenue 123 00:05:54,699 --> 00:05:57,566 and get away with it-- and get away with it-- 124 00:05:57,665 --> 00:05:59,865 that's unpatriotic to me. 125 00:05:59,966 --> 00:06:04,500 NARRATOR: When American troops withdrew from Cambodia 126 00:06:04,600 --> 00:06:06,165 at the end of June, 127 00:06:06,266 --> 00:06:08,432 the White House reported that they had killed 128 00:06:08,533 --> 00:06:12,365 11,349 enemy troops, 129 00:06:12,466 --> 00:06:14,966 captured 22,000 weapons 130 00:06:15,065 --> 00:06:21,699 and had destroyed 11,688 bunkers and buildings. 131 00:06:21,800 --> 00:06:24,865 But after so many years of fighting, 132 00:06:24,966 --> 00:06:28,365 more and more Americans were tired of the war, 133 00:06:28,466 --> 00:06:30,766 wanted to get out of Southeast Asia, 134 00:06:30,865 --> 00:06:35,699 and did not want the president to expand the conflict further. 135 00:06:35,800 --> 00:06:38,699 Among their representatives in Congress, 136 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:42,365 antiwar sentiment had steadily grown. 137 00:06:42,466 --> 00:06:45,399 As the president searched for a face-saving way 138 00:06:45,500 --> 00:06:48,365 to end the war, he continued to withdraw troops. 139 00:06:48,466 --> 00:06:50,033 CROWD (chanting): U.S.A.! U.S.A.! 140 00:06:50,132 --> 00:06:53,899 But even as American casualty figures fell, 141 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:57,665 the gulf between Americans at home widened, 142 00:06:57,766 --> 00:07:00,333 tearing communities, neighborhoods, 143 00:07:00,432 --> 00:07:02,865 even families apart. 144 00:07:02,966 --> 00:07:06,033 CROWD (chanting): No more war! No more war! 145 00:07:06,132 --> 00:07:07,766 Nixon was convinced-- 146 00:07:07,865 --> 00:07:10,000 just as Lyndon Johnson had been-- 147 00:07:10,100 --> 00:07:12,500 that the antiwar movement was somehow 148 00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:14,632 being directed from Hanoi, 149 00:07:14,733 --> 00:07:17,432 Beijing and Moscow. 150 00:07:17,533 --> 00:07:19,966 "Within the iron gates of the White House 151 00:07:20,065 --> 00:07:22,565 a siege mentality was settling in," 152 00:07:22,665 --> 00:07:25,266 a Nixon aide remembered. 153 00:07:25,365 --> 00:07:28,766 "It was now us against them. 154 00:07:28,865 --> 00:07:31,966 "Gradually, as we drew the circle closer around us, 155 00:07:32,066 --> 00:07:35,632 the ranks of them began to swell." 156 00:07:35,733 --> 00:07:39,000 (crowd chattering) 157 00:07:39,100 --> 00:07:42,432 PHIL GIOIA: I think the Vietnam War drove a stake 158 00:07:42,533 --> 00:07:45,932 right into the heart of America. 159 00:07:46,033 --> 00:07:47,865 It polarized the country 160 00:07:47,966 --> 00:07:50,533 as it had probably never been polarized 161 00:07:50,632 --> 00:07:52,233 since before the Civil War. 162 00:07:52,332 --> 00:07:54,600 And unfortunately, we've never moved 163 00:07:54,699 --> 00:07:56,566 really far away from that. 164 00:07:56,665 --> 00:07:59,266 And we never recovered. 165 00:07:59,365 --> 00:08:01,266 CROWD: No more war! No more war! 166 00:08:01,365 --> 00:08:03,432 CROWD: U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! 167 00:08:03,533 --> 00:08:05,365 CROWD: 168 00:08:05,466 --> 00:08:08,199 No more war! No more war! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! 169 00:08:08,300 --> 00:08:10,800 U.S.A.! U.S.A.! No more war! No more war! 170 00:08:10,899 --> 00:08:14,632 No more war! No more war! No more war! 171 00:08:14,733 --> 00:08:17,533 (chanting stops) 172 00:08:17,632 --> 00:08:20,100 ♪ 173 00:08:21,733 --> 00:08:23,365 DAVID FROST: Thank you very much, indeed, 174 00:08:23,466 --> 00:08:25,432 and welcome to this, uh, special, 175 00:08:25,533 --> 00:08:27,899 very special edition ofThe David Frost Show. 176 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:31,800 The vice president himself wanted to debate with students, 177 00:08:31,899 --> 00:08:35,665 and we suggested a format in which he might like to do so. 178 00:08:35,765 --> 00:08:38,200 Welcome Eva Jefferson from Northwestern, 179 00:08:38,298 --> 00:08:40,899 who testified before the Scranton Commission 180 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:44,000 on Campus Unrest and is majoring in political science. 181 00:08:44,100 --> 00:08:45,566 Is that right? Right. 182 00:08:45,665 --> 00:08:47,533 NARRATOR: Eva Jefferson, 183 00:08:47,633 --> 00:08:50,133 whose father had served in Vietnam, 184 00:08:50,232 --> 00:08:52,033 was now the student body president 185 00:08:52,133 --> 00:08:54,432 at Northwestern University. 186 00:08:54,533 --> 00:08:56,133 After Kent State, 187 00:08:56,232 --> 00:08:59,232 she had forcefully stopped angry protestors 188 00:08:59,332 --> 00:09:03,133 from burning down the ROTC building at her school, 189 00:09:03,232 --> 00:09:07,133 and later testified before a presidential commission 190 00:09:07,232 --> 00:09:11,133 looking into the causes of student unrest. 191 00:09:11,232 --> 00:09:14,033 She had warned then that some students 192 00:09:14,133 --> 00:09:15,966 were becoming so frustrated 193 00:09:16,066 --> 00:09:17,966 that they felt they had no choice 194 00:09:18,066 --> 00:09:21,265 but to engage in violence. 195 00:09:21,365 --> 00:09:23,633 And right now it's a privilege to welcome 196 00:09:23,732 --> 00:09:25,432 the vice president of the United States, 197 00:09:25,533 --> 00:09:27,700 Spiro T. Agnew. 198 00:09:27,799 --> 00:09:31,133 (audience applauding) 199 00:09:31,232 --> 00:09:32,633 AGNEW: Let me 200 00:09:32,732 --> 00:09:35,665 take brief exception to one thing you've said, 201 00:09:35,765 --> 00:09:37,000 that the only way to get the attention 202 00:09:37,100 --> 00:09:39,100 of the society is to bomb buildings. 203 00:09:39,200 --> 00:09:41,033 What I attempted to do 204 00:09:41,133 --> 00:09:43,000 before the Scranton Committee was to explain 205 00:09:43,100 --> 00:09:45,665 what could motivate someone to blow up a building. 206 00:09:45,765 --> 00:09:48,633 I did not say I endorse this, and if you read my testimony 207 00:09:48,732 --> 00:09:51,200 quite carefully, you'll know that I didn't. 208 00:09:51,299 --> 00:09:54,033 And it's this type of-of just picking up on what, 209 00:09:54,133 --> 00:09:56,932 allegedly, I said instead of really studying what I said 210 00:09:57,033 --> 00:09:58,500 that-that really disturbs me. 211 00:09:58,600 --> 00:10:00,166 (quietly): May I respond? Because you're making people 212 00:10:00,265 --> 00:10:02,432 afraid of their own children. 213 00:10:02,533 --> 00:10:04,533 Yet they're your children, they're my parents' children, 214 00:10:04,633 --> 00:10:05,832 they're the children of this country. 215 00:10:05,932 --> 00:10:07,932 Yet you're making people afraid of them. 216 00:10:08,033 --> 00:10:09,966 And I think this is the greatest disservice. 217 00:10:10,066 --> 00:10:12,666 There's an honest difference of agreement on issues, 218 00:10:12,765 --> 00:10:15,232 but-but when you make people afraid of each other, 219 00:10:15,332 --> 00:10:18,200 you-you isolate people, and maybe this is your goal, 220 00:10:18,299 --> 00:10:19,500 but I think this is... 221 00:10:19,600 --> 00:10:21,466 this could only have a disastrous effect 222 00:10:21,566 --> 00:10:23,700 on the country. (applause) 223 00:10:23,799 --> 00:10:26,633 Let me say first that isolating people 224 00:10:26,732 --> 00:10:27,832 is not my goal. 225 00:10:27,932 --> 00:10:30,765 If that were true I wouldn't be here tonight. 226 00:10:30,865 --> 00:10:32,799 And let me take exception to that 227 00:10:32,899 --> 00:10:35,765 oft-repeated rationale that, uh, 228 00:10:35,865 --> 00:10:38,200 violence is the only way to get results. 229 00:10:38,299 --> 00:10:40,799 I was trying to explain to you the rationale of some students 230 00:10:40,899 --> 00:10:42,066 who are openly revolutionary. 231 00:10:42,165 --> 00:10:44,432 You're not listening to what I'm saying. 232 00:10:44,533 --> 00:10:46,899 I'm-I'm really distressed. Just what are... what are you advocating? 233 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:48,932 EVA JEFFERSON PATERSON: They were trying to politically 234 00:10:49,033 --> 00:10:51,332 benefit from making us out to be 235 00:10:51,432 --> 00:10:54,966 these scary, horrible, violent people. 236 00:10:55,066 --> 00:10:57,633 We weren't. We were against the war. 237 00:10:57,732 --> 00:10:59,100 We thought the war was wrong. 238 00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:00,533 We thought we were lied to. 239 00:11:00,633 --> 00:11:02,200 And we were in the streets. 240 00:11:02,299 --> 00:11:06,166 America has always had a rich tradition of protests. 241 00:11:06,265 --> 00:11:09,765 We were founded by protesting England. 242 00:11:09,865 --> 00:11:12,100 So to make people afraid of their kids, 243 00:11:12,200 --> 00:11:14,265 I think, was wrong, but that's what they were about. 244 00:11:14,365 --> 00:11:16,533 They were fearmongers. 245 00:11:29,033 --> 00:11:31,765 BAO NINH: 246 00:11:58,799 --> 00:12:01,332 PHAN QUANG TUE: It was fratricide. 247 00:12:01,432 --> 00:12:03,832 You can say, "Well, but-but they are communist." 248 00:12:03,932 --> 00:12:06,166 Okay, they're communist. 249 00:12:06,265 --> 00:12:08,932 "They are the worst Vietnamese in the entire world. 250 00:12:09,033 --> 00:12:10,865 We were the good Vietnamese." 251 00:12:10,966 --> 00:12:13,732 But let's face Vietnamese killing Vietnamese. 252 00:12:13,832 --> 00:12:15,966 How-how do you deny that? 253 00:12:19,033 --> 00:12:20,732 If you don't call that fratricide, 254 00:12:20,832 --> 00:12:24,466 what do you call that? 255 00:12:24,566 --> 00:12:26,000 What do you... how do we... 256 00:12:26,100 --> 00:12:28,033 I explain that to-to my children? 257 00:12:32,865 --> 00:12:34,765 NARRATOR: The Cambodian incursion had 258 00:12:34,865 --> 00:12:38,133 at least temporarily reduced the flow of North Vietnamese 259 00:12:38,232 --> 00:12:41,932 men and supplies through that country, 260 00:12:42,033 --> 00:12:44,000 but they were still streaming down 261 00:12:44,100 --> 00:12:46,832 the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos. 262 00:12:46,932 --> 00:12:49,732 The White House wanted them stopped. 263 00:12:49,832 --> 00:12:53,399 But this time, South Vietnamese troops 264 00:12:53,500 --> 00:12:56,100 would have to try to do the job alone. 265 00:12:56,200 --> 00:13:01,133 By the end of 1970, both houses of Congress 266 00:13:01,232 --> 00:13:04,000 had barred all U.S. ground personnel, 267 00:13:04,100 --> 00:13:07,166 even advisors and special forces, 268 00:13:07,265 --> 00:13:09,166 from crossing the border. 269 00:13:09,265 --> 00:13:13,066 On February 8, 1971, 270 00:13:13,166 --> 00:13:17,466 17,000 ARVN troops began moving into Laos 271 00:13:17,566 --> 00:13:20,332 to destroy the enemy's jungle bases 272 00:13:20,432 --> 00:13:24,100 and to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail. 273 00:13:24,200 --> 00:13:28,600 The Americans could only provide air support. 274 00:13:28,700 --> 00:13:32,600 Nixon and his National Security Advisor, 275 00:13:32,700 --> 00:13:35,799 Henry Kissinger, believed that a successful operation 276 00:13:35,899 --> 00:13:38,033 would boost morale in Saigon 277 00:13:38,133 --> 00:13:41,533 and prove to Hanoi and the American public 278 00:13:41,633 --> 00:13:45,533 that the ARVN could fight and win on their own, 279 00:13:45,633 --> 00:13:49,633 that Vietnamization could work. 280 00:13:49,732 --> 00:13:53,832 Their target was the North Vietnamese logistics hub, 281 00:13:53,932 --> 00:13:57,200 the abandoned town of Tchepone. 282 00:13:57,299 --> 00:13:59,365 U.S. intelligence 283 00:13:59,466 --> 00:14:01,265 believed there were no more 284 00:14:01,365 --> 00:14:05,799 than 22,000 North Vietnamese troops in the area. 285 00:14:05,899 --> 00:14:09,932 But there would eventually turn out to be 60,000, 286 00:14:10,033 --> 00:14:13,765 and their commanders knew there was only one route 287 00:14:13,865 --> 00:14:16,966 the ARVN was likely to take. 288 00:14:17,066 --> 00:14:19,966 Harry Hue, who had been fighting the communists 289 00:14:20,066 --> 00:14:23,600 for eight years, was in the invasion force. 290 00:14:24,600 --> 00:14:26,566 HUE (speaking English): 291 00:14:50,832 --> 00:14:53,732 (explosion) 292 00:14:53,832 --> 00:14:57,432 NARRATOR: Although individual ARVN units fought bravely, 293 00:14:57,533 --> 00:15:00,000 the invasion was a failure. 294 00:15:17,666 --> 00:15:21,332 Almost half of the 17,000 South Vietnamese 295 00:15:21,432 --> 00:15:22,865 who entered Laos 296 00:15:22,966 --> 00:15:26,100 would be killed, wounded or captured. 297 00:15:27,700 --> 00:15:31,066 HUE: 298 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:05,600 BAO NINH: 299 00:16:27,200 --> 00:16:28,832 NARRATOR: In late March, 300 00:16:28,932 --> 00:16:30,600 as the surviving ARVN forces 301 00:16:30,700 --> 00:16:32,265 straggled back across the border 302 00:16:32,365 --> 00:16:34,500 into South Vietnam, 303 00:16:34,600 --> 00:16:38,432 crowds of weeping women, children and old men-- 304 00:16:38,533 --> 00:16:41,566 dressed in white, the color of mourning-- 305 00:16:41,665 --> 00:16:45,165 begged for news of the soldiers who were missing. 306 00:16:45,265 --> 00:16:49,633 In Vietnam, the dead must receive proper burial 307 00:16:49,732 --> 00:16:53,566 so that their restless souls can have peace, 308 00:16:53,665 --> 00:16:55,665 and their families needed to know 309 00:16:55,765 --> 00:16:57,332 the time of their deaths 310 00:16:57,432 --> 00:17:00,466 so that they could honor them each year. 311 00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:05,000 Even before the invasion was over, 312 00:17:05,098 --> 00:17:07,500 President Nixon had told an aide, 313 00:17:07,598 --> 00:17:09,665 "We must claim victory, 314 00:17:09,766 --> 00:17:12,232 whatever the outcome." 315 00:17:46,532 --> 00:17:48,732 Consequently, tonight, 316 00:17:48,833 --> 00:17:53,032 I can report that Vietnamization has succeeded. 317 00:17:53,133 --> 00:17:55,333 Because of the increased strength 318 00:17:55,432 --> 00:17:56,799 of the South Vietnamese, 319 00:17:56,900 --> 00:17:59,432 because of the success of the Cambodian operation, 320 00:17:59,532 --> 00:18:00,732 because of the achievements 321 00:18:00,833 --> 00:18:03,833 of the South Vietnamese operation in Laos, 322 00:18:03,932 --> 00:18:05,465 I am announcing an increase 323 00:18:05,566 --> 00:18:07,833 in the rate of American withdrawals. 324 00:18:07,932 --> 00:18:10,333 We have it in our power to leave Vietnam 325 00:18:10,432 --> 00:18:12,566 in a way that offers a brave people 326 00:18:12,665 --> 00:18:15,299 a realistic hope of freedom. 327 00:18:15,400 --> 00:18:16,700 We have it in our power 328 00:18:16,799 --> 00:18:18,965 to prove to our friends in the world 329 00:18:19,066 --> 00:18:21,833 that America's sense of responsibility 330 00:18:21,932 --> 00:18:25,299 remains the world's greatest single hope of peace. 331 00:18:25,400 --> 00:18:29,700 And generations in the future 332 00:18:29,799 --> 00:18:33,200 will look back at this difficult, 333 00:18:33,299 --> 00:18:36,965 trying time in America's history, 334 00:18:37,066 --> 00:18:39,566 and they will be proud 335 00:18:39,665 --> 00:18:42,865 that we demonstrated 336 00:18:42,965 --> 00:18:45,532 that we had the courage 337 00:18:45,633 --> 00:18:49,000 and the character of a great people. 338 00:18:49,099 --> 00:18:49,965 OPERATOR: Dr. Kissinger, sir. 339 00:18:50,066 --> 00:18:51,566 NIXON: Yeah. 340 00:18:51,665 --> 00:18:52,566 KISSINGER: Mr. President? 341 00:18:52,665 --> 00:18:53,732 NIXON: Yeah. Hi, Henry. 342 00:18:53,833 --> 00:18:55,200 KISSINGER: This was the best speech you've delivered 343 00:18:55,299 --> 00:18:56,400 since you've been in office. 344 00:18:56,500 --> 00:18:57,500 NIXON: Yeah. 345 00:18:57,599 --> 00:18:59,965 I'll tell you one thing, this was, uh... 346 00:19:00,066 --> 00:19:02,165 This little speech was a work of art. 347 00:19:02,266 --> 00:19:04,900 I mean, I-I know a little something about speechwriting. 348 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:07,200 And it was no act, because no actor could do it. 349 00:19:07,299 --> 00:19:09,232 No actor in Hollywood could have done that that well. 350 00:19:09,333 --> 00:19:10,633 KISSINGER: It's the best... 351 00:19:10,732 --> 00:19:11,932 NIXON: I thought that was done well, didn't you think? 352 00:19:12,032 --> 00:19:13,333 KISSINGER: First of all, no actor could have written it, 353 00:19:13,432 --> 00:19:14,633 to begin with. 354 00:19:14,732 --> 00:19:16,365 You couldn't have done it unless you had meant it. 355 00:19:16,465 --> 00:19:17,700 NIXON: Yeah. 356 00:19:17,799 --> 00:19:20,066 And if it doesn't work, I don't care. 357 00:19:20,165 --> 00:19:22,299 I mean, right now, if it doesn't work... 358 00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:23,400 Then let me say, though, 359 00:19:23,500 --> 00:19:24,766 I'm going to find out soon, 360 00:19:24,865 --> 00:19:26,099 and then I'm going to turn right 361 00:19:26,200 --> 00:19:27,799 so goddamn hard it'll make your head spin. 362 00:19:27,900 --> 00:19:29,400 We'll bomb those bastards right out of the... 363 00:19:29,500 --> 00:19:32,333 off the earth. I really mean it. 364 00:19:32,432 --> 00:19:35,432 ("We Gotta Get Out of This Place" by the Animals playing) 365 00:19:39,633 --> 00:19:43,932 ♪ In this dirty old part of the city ♪ 366 00:19:44,032 --> 00:19:48,465 ♪ Where the sun refuse to shine ♪ 367 00:19:48,566 --> 00:19:51,732 ♪ People tell me there ain't no use in trying ♪ 368 00:19:56,500 --> 00:19:58,200 Do you belong to the same generation 369 00:19:58,299 --> 00:19:59,465 that is protesting at home? 370 00:19:59,566 --> 00:20:00,732 Do you feel as if you belong 371 00:20:00,833 --> 00:20:02,432 to those people? Very much. 372 00:20:02,532 --> 00:20:03,732 You do? Very much. 373 00:20:03,833 --> 00:20:06,099 I wish they'd get us out of here, I really do. 374 00:20:06,200 --> 00:20:09,299 ♪ We gotta get out of this place ♪ 375 00:20:09,400 --> 00:20:13,266 ♪ If it's the last thing we ever do ♪ 376 00:20:13,365 --> 00:20:16,500 ♪ We gotta get out of this place ♪ 377 00:20:16,599 --> 00:20:18,232 ♪ Girl, there's a better life 378 00:20:18,333 --> 00:20:21,500 JAMES GILLAM: Almost all of us were draftees. 379 00:20:21,599 --> 00:20:24,500 None of us cared a damn about the war. 380 00:20:24,599 --> 00:20:27,200 We just didn't want to get blown up. 381 00:20:27,299 --> 00:20:29,299 We just didn't want to die in the jungle, 382 00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:31,799 holding your guts in. 383 00:20:31,900 --> 00:20:37,365 So the idea is do six months, maybe eight months, 384 00:20:37,465 --> 00:20:42,700 get an R&R, take a deep breath and try to finish up, 385 00:20:42,799 --> 00:20:46,532 try to do something that would get you sent to base camp. 386 00:20:46,633 --> 00:20:50,465 Just don't die because you're not gonna win. 387 00:20:50,566 --> 00:20:52,633 ANIMALS: ♪ We gotta get out of this place ♪ 388 00:20:52,732 --> 00:20:56,133 ♪ If it's the last thing we ever do ♪ 389 00:20:56,232 --> 00:20:58,400 REPORTER: Chess is the most serious contest 390 00:20:58,500 --> 00:21:00,200 Glen Hindley will engage in, 391 00:21:00,299 --> 00:21:03,133 for he has not fired a shot in his nine months 392 00:21:03,232 --> 00:21:04,732 in the field with Charlie Company. 393 00:21:04,833 --> 00:21:06,500 HINDLEY: Well, I haven't shot anybody yet. 394 00:21:06,599 --> 00:21:08,299 I don't plan on it. 395 00:21:08,400 --> 00:21:10,365 I haven't fired my gun since I been here, 396 00:21:10,465 --> 00:21:12,500 and I like it that way. 397 00:21:12,599 --> 00:21:14,700 REPORTER: How can you get away with that? 398 00:21:14,799 --> 00:21:16,299 Just don't fire it. 399 00:21:16,400 --> 00:21:17,700 I plan to go across the... 400 00:21:17,799 --> 00:21:19,066 across country when I get back 401 00:21:19,165 --> 00:21:21,032 because I'll see the people I know over here, 402 00:21:21,133 --> 00:21:23,333 plus I'll be able to talk to a lot of other people, 403 00:21:23,432 --> 00:21:25,500 maybe convince them that killing for peace 404 00:21:25,599 --> 00:21:26,799 just doesn't make sense. 405 00:21:26,900 --> 00:21:29,932 ANIMALS: ♪ We gotta get out of this place ♪ 406 00:21:30,032 --> 00:21:35,099 ♪ If it's the last thing we ever do ♪ 407 00:21:35,200 --> 00:21:37,000 ♪ We gotta get out of this place. ♪ 408 00:21:37,099 --> 00:21:39,165 NARRATOR: "The morale, discipline, and battleworthiness 409 00:21:39,266 --> 00:21:43,165 of the U.S. Armed Forces," a retired Marine colonel wrote 410 00:21:43,266 --> 00:21:45,566 in the spring of 1971, 411 00:21:45,665 --> 00:21:48,900 "are lower and worse than at any time, 412 00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:53,200 possibly in the history of the United States." 413 00:21:53,299 --> 00:21:55,432 An official report had found 414 00:21:55,532 --> 00:21:58,532 that one out of four enlisted men in Vietnam 415 00:21:58,633 --> 00:22:01,500 had used marijuana regularly-- 416 00:22:01,599 --> 00:22:04,200 but almost never in combat. 417 00:22:04,299 --> 00:22:06,566 SOLDIER: There's, uh, drugs everywhere. 418 00:22:06,665 --> 00:22:07,865 Really, you could, uh... 419 00:22:07,965 --> 00:22:10,432 Well, within... within ten minutes in country, 420 00:22:10,532 --> 00:22:12,700 I-I had people approaching me selling scag. 421 00:22:12,799 --> 00:22:14,032 INTERVIEWER: What's scag? 422 00:22:14,133 --> 00:22:15,266 It's heroin. 423 00:22:15,365 --> 00:22:18,299 NARRATOR: Heroin was cheap, 424 00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:20,965 pure, and everywhere. 425 00:22:21,066 --> 00:22:23,633 The Pentagon would eventually acknowledge 426 00:22:23,732 --> 00:22:27,432 that 40,000 American troops had been addicted to it. 427 00:22:27,532 --> 00:22:30,700 ANIMALS: ♪ We gotta get out of this place ♪ 428 00:22:30,799 --> 00:22:34,232 ♪ If it's the last thing we ever do ♪ 429 00:22:34,333 --> 00:22:36,532 ♪ We gotta get out of this place ♪ 430 00:22:36,633 --> 00:22:39,932 ♪ Girl, there's a better life 431 00:22:40,032 --> 00:22:41,133 (coughs) 432 00:22:41,232 --> 00:22:43,700 ♪ For me and you 433 00:22:43,799 --> 00:22:45,700 ♪ Ooh, baby 434 00:22:45,799 --> 00:22:49,665 "The rearguard of a once 500,000-man army," 435 00:22:49,766 --> 00:22:51,032 an officer wrote, 436 00:22:51,133 --> 00:22:54,900 "is numbly extricating itself from a nightmare war 437 00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:58,133 "the armed forces feel they had foisted on them 438 00:22:58,232 --> 00:23:01,700 "by bright civilians who are now back on campus 439 00:23:01,799 --> 00:23:06,432 writing books about the folly of it all." 440 00:23:06,532 --> 00:23:09,165 Even General Creighton Abrams, 441 00:23:09,266 --> 00:23:12,400 commander of military operations in Vietnam, 442 00:23:12,500 --> 00:23:14,299 now admitted privately, 443 00:23:14,400 --> 00:23:17,633 "I need to get this army home to save it." 444 00:23:17,732 --> 00:23:19,165 ANIMALS: ♪ I know it, too, baby 445 00:23:19,266 --> 00:23:21,200 ♪ Oh, yeah. 446 00:23:30,532 --> 00:23:32,900 The telegrams and letters coming into this courthouse 447 00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:35,165 are from all parts of the country. 448 00:23:35,266 --> 00:23:38,099 From Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a man writes, 449 00:23:38,200 --> 00:23:40,732 "Congratulations to the Calley jurors. 450 00:23:40,833 --> 00:23:43,032 "A courageous and fair decision. 451 00:23:43,133 --> 00:23:45,165 Justice still exists." 452 00:23:45,266 --> 00:23:50,165 NARRATOR: On March 29, 1971, 453 00:23:50,266 --> 00:23:52,099 at Fort Benning, Georgia, 454 00:23:52,200 --> 00:23:55,232 a military court found Lieutenant William Calley-- 455 00:23:55,333 --> 00:23:57,566 and only Lieutenant Calley-- 456 00:23:57,665 --> 00:24:00,232 guilty of murdering Vietnamese civilians 457 00:24:00,333 --> 00:24:03,333 at My Lai back in 1968. 458 00:24:06,266 --> 00:24:10,566 He was sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor. 459 00:24:10,665 --> 00:24:13,299 The commander of Calley's division, 460 00:24:13,400 --> 00:24:15,465 General Samuel Koster, 461 00:24:15,566 --> 00:24:18,365 who had watched some of the slaughter from a helicopter 462 00:24:18,465 --> 00:24:21,365 and done nothing to stop it, was now the superintendent 463 00:24:21,465 --> 00:24:24,665 of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. 464 00:24:24,766 --> 00:24:28,566 He was forced to resign. 465 00:24:28,665 --> 00:24:31,665 The other 23 officers and men 466 00:24:31,766 --> 00:24:34,032 who had been indicted were either acquitted 467 00:24:34,133 --> 00:24:36,799 or had their cases dismissed. 468 00:24:36,900 --> 00:24:40,333 The Calley verdict proved as controversial 469 00:24:40,432 --> 00:24:42,633 as the war itself. 470 00:24:42,732 --> 00:24:44,799 TROTTA: A lady in Cheyenne, Wyoming, says, 471 00:24:44,900 --> 00:24:47,165 "What the jury has done to Lieutenant Calley 472 00:24:47,266 --> 00:24:49,365 "is a disgrace to this nation. 473 00:24:49,465 --> 00:24:51,333 "The enemy is the enemy, 474 00:24:51,432 --> 00:24:54,133 the enemy is the enemy." 475 00:24:54,232 --> 00:24:56,465 From Bellefontaine, Ohio, a doctor says, 476 00:24:56,566 --> 00:24:59,232 "Let us not condemn Lieutenant Calley 477 00:24:59,333 --> 00:25:01,633 "when it is the character of the war 478 00:25:01,732 --> 00:25:04,365 which is at fault for such slaughters as My Lai." 479 00:25:04,465 --> 00:25:07,700 What is your initial reaction to this verdict, sir? 480 00:25:07,799 --> 00:25:09,965 I thought he would be found not guilty. 481 00:25:10,066 --> 00:25:11,932 'Cause you send in a man into combat, 482 00:25:12,032 --> 00:25:14,333 you train him to be a... a killer, 483 00:25:14,432 --> 00:25:16,599 and then, when he does, why then, 484 00:25:16,700 --> 00:25:18,532 uh, you prosecute him? 485 00:25:20,432 --> 00:25:24,099 NARRATOR: Some believed everyone involved should have gone to jail; 486 00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:27,266 others believed that Calley had been made a scapegoat 487 00:25:27,365 --> 00:25:31,133 for the criminal misdeeds of his superiors. 488 00:25:31,232 --> 00:25:35,099 And still others felt a systemic failure of leadership 489 00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:37,465 had occurred in a chain of command 490 00:25:37,566 --> 00:25:42,200 that stretched all the way up to the commander in chief. 491 00:25:44,766 --> 00:25:46,532 According to a Gallup poll, 492 00:25:46,633 --> 00:25:51,833 79% of the American public disagreed with the verdict. 493 00:25:51,932 --> 00:25:55,333 Nixon decided to intervene. 494 00:25:57,700 --> 00:26:01,133 Calley spent just three days behind bars. 495 00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:04,965 The president ordered him transferred 496 00:26:05,066 --> 00:26:07,200 from federal prison to house arrest 497 00:26:07,299 --> 00:26:09,465 at Fort Benning, pending appeal. 498 00:26:09,566 --> 00:26:11,566 MAN: Okay, I'm gonna walk back from each side. 499 00:26:11,665 --> 00:26:13,766 NARRATOR: Captain Aubrey Daniel, 500 00:26:13,865 --> 00:26:16,400 who had successfully prosecuted Calley, 501 00:26:16,500 --> 00:26:19,665 wrote Nixon, accusing him of compromising 502 00:26:19,766 --> 00:26:22,333 "such a fundamental moral principle 503 00:26:22,432 --> 00:26:24,833 "as the inherent unlawfulness 504 00:26:24,932 --> 00:26:28,032 of the murder of innocent persons." 505 00:26:28,133 --> 00:26:30,532 A military appeals court 506 00:26:30,633 --> 00:26:34,365 eventually reduced Calley's term to 20 years, 507 00:26:34,465 --> 00:26:37,333 the secretary of the army cut it to ten, 508 00:26:37,432 --> 00:26:39,900 and after just three-and-a-half years 509 00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:42,932 under house arrest, he was paroled. 510 00:26:47,165 --> 00:26:49,566 TIM O'BRIEN: Who's responsible? 511 00:26:51,833 --> 00:26:56,133 The human beings who did this... 512 00:26:56,232 --> 00:26:59,665 These are war crimes. 513 00:26:59,766 --> 00:27:03,700 The individual human beings who put a rifle muzzle 514 00:27:03,799 --> 00:27:04,865 up against a baby's head 515 00:27:04,965 --> 00:27:08,299 and shot the brains out of that baby-- 516 00:27:08,400 --> 00:27:11,165 nothing happened to them. 517 00:27:11,266 --> 00:27:13,532 Nothing! 518 00:27:20,932 --> 00:27:24,732 HAL KUSHNER: And we walked up the Ho Chi Minh Trail. 519 00:27:26,900 --> 00:27:29,665 And they said we walked 900 kilometers-- 520 00:27:29,766 --> 00:27:35,400 540 miles in 57 days. 521 00:27:35,500 --> 00:27:39,266 And we met all these people going both ways. 522 00:27:39,365 --> 00:27:42,833 We met civilians coming south. 523 00:27:42,932 --> 00:27:45,665 We met soldiers going north and south. 524 00:27:45,766 --> 00:27:48,965 We met people humping artillery rounds. 525 00:27:49,066 --> 00:27:50,333 We met a... 526 00:27:50,432 --> 00:27:52,299 I remember a whole unit, 527 00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:54,333 a company-size unit, of women. 528 00:27:56,732 --> 00:27:59,700 On the way, in one of these villages, 529 00:27:59,799 --> 00:28:03,299 I stole a uniform. 530 00:28:04,865 --> 00:28:06,599 Just khaki pants and khaki shirt. 531 00:28:06,700 --> 00:28:07,932 And I stole it. 532 00:28:08,032 --> 00:28:11,432 And I folded it up and I put it in my pack. 533 00:28:11,532 --> 00:28:14,766 NARRATOR: By early 1971, 534 00:28:14,865 --> 00:28:16,732 army doctor Hal Kushner 535 00:28:16,833 --> 00:28:18,599 had been a prisoner of the Viet Cong 536 00:28:18,700 --> 00:28:22,032 in South Vietnam for more than three years. 537 00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:27,700 He had survived ill treatment and a host of illnesses, 538 00:28:27,799 --> 00:28:31,099 and he had buried 13 of his fellow captives, 539 00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:33,032 who had died of starvation 540 00:28:33,133 --> 00:28:36,665 and sickness and despair. 541 00:28:36,766 --> 00:28:40,566 Now, he and the other survivors from his camp 542 00:28:40,665 --> 00:28:44,299 were being moved all the way to North Vietnam. 543 00:28:46,732 --> 00:28:48,333 Kushner and his companions 544 00:28:48,432 --> 00:28:50,799 eventually reached the city of Vinh, 545 00:28:50,900 --> 00:28:53,599 where they boarded a train to Hanoi. 546 00:28:53,700 --> 00:28:55,732 KUSHNER: And I put on this fresh uniform, 547 00:28:55,833 --> 00:28:57,599 and when I got off the train 548 00:28:57,700 --> 00:29:01,400 I was met with this officer in a jeep. 549 00:29:01,500 --> 00:29:03,099 And he just looked at me and he said, 550 00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:04,299 "You're an officer, aren't you? 551 00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:06,532 You come here." 552 00:29:06,633 --> 00:29:08,900 And he just... I felt very proud that I looked good 553 00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:10,900 when I came off that train. 554 00:29:17,299 --> 00:29:20,599 NARRATOR: Kushner joined hundreds of American captives 555 00:29:20,700 --> 00:29:23,200 who were scattered among five prisons 556 00:29:23,299 --> 00:29:26,400 in and around Hanoi. 557 00:29:26,500 --> 00:29:29,066 KUSHNER: We hadn't been there long when the word came down 558 00:29:29,165 --> 00:29:31,900 from the American senior ranking officer 559 00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:36,299 that nobody would go home unless everybody went home. 560 00:29:36,400 --> 00:29:39,365 That nobody would cooperate with the Vietnamese. 561 00:29:39,465 --> 00:29:41,400 (indistinct voice on radio) 562 00:29:44,766 --> 00:29:48,333 But we heard him on the camp radio once... 563 00:29:48,432 --> 00:29:50,333 (radio transmission continuing) 564 00:29:50,432 --> 00:29:53,365 ...telling us that we should cooperate. 565 00:29:55,599 --> 00:29:58,400 And it was obvious, from his voice and his inflection, 566 00:29:58,500 --> 00:30:00,532 that he had been tortured and beaten 567 00:30:00,633 --> 00:30:03,532 and was being made to say that. 568 00:30:03,633 --> 00:30:05,700 And that's what they did. 569 00:30:05,799 --> 00:30:10,200 NARRATOR: Eventually, Kushner, like most of the prisoners, 570 00:30:10,299 --> 00:30:13,000 would be forced to record a statement 571 00:30:13,099 --> 00:30:15,032 against the war. 572 00:30:16,266 --> 00:30:17,799 (light clicks on) 573 00:30:20,599 --> 00:30:23,133 KUSHNER (on recording): 574 00:30:49,365 --> 00:30:50,932 KUSHNER: They wanted propaganda statements 575 00:30:51,032 --> 00:30:52,599 to say the war was criminal, 576 00:30:52,700 --> 00:30:55,200 to say that we were criminals. 577 00:30:55,299 --> 00:30:57,500 And they used our weakness against us. 578 00:30:57,599 --> 00:30:59,000 (light clicks off) 579 00:30:59,099 --> 00:31:02,066 ("Gimme Shelter" by the Rolling Stones playing) 580 00:31:02,165 --> 00:31:05,965 CROWD (chanting): No more war! No more war! No more war! 581 00:31:06,066 --> 00:31:09,833 No more war! No more war! 582 00:31:09,932 --> 00:31:11,932 JOHN MUSGRAVE: The first time in our history 583 00:31:12,032 --> 00:31:14,500 that veterans came home from a war and said-- 584 00:31:14,599 --> 00:31:16,032 while the war is still going on-- 585 00:31:16,133 --> 00:31:19,133 and said, "This war's got to stop." 586 00:31:19,232 --> 00:31:22,099 And the American people 587 00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:24,532 might not listen to a bunch of long-haired hippie kids. 588 00:31:24,633 --> 00:31:26,465 What do they know? 589 00:31:26,566 --> 00:31:29,333 But the working class, the great "silent majority"-- 590 00:31:29,432 --> 00:31:31,865 Richard Nixon always talked about his "silent majority" 591 00:31:31,965 --> 00:31:34,465 that would back him by being silent-- 592 00:31:34,566 --> 00:31:37,032 we were their kids. 593 00:31:37,133 --> 00:31:39,766 And it finally dawned on me-- 594 00:31:39,865 --> 00:31:41,932 and this was a long, painful process-- 595 00:31:42,032 --> 00:31:44,900 that... that I wasn't helping anybody 596 00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:48,099 by keeping my mouth shut. 597 00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:51,365 NARRATOR: Less than three weeks after Lieutenant Calley 598 00:31:51,465 --> 00:31:54,133 was found guilty, some 2,000 members 599 00:31:54,232 --> 00:31:56,165 of an organization called 600 00:31:56,266 --> 00:31:58,732 Vietnam Veterans Against the War 601 00:31:58,833 --> 00:32:03,599 and their followers descended upon Washington, D.C. 602 00:32:03,700 --> 00:32:07,633 MICK JAGGER: ♪ Ooh, storm is threatening 603 00:32:07,732 --> 00:32:11,200 ♪ My very life today 604 00:32:11,299 --> 00:32:16,232 ♪ If I don't get some shelter 605 00:32:16,333 --> 00:32:19,732 ♪ Oh, yeah, I'm gonna fade away ♪ 606 00:32:19,833 --> 00:32:23,333 ♪ War, children 607 00:32:23,432 --> 00:32:25,865 ♪ It's just a shot away 608 00:32:25,965 --> 00:32:27,965 ♪ It's just a shot away ♪ 609 00:32:28,066 --> 00:32:31,400 ♪ War, children 610 00:32:31,500 --> 00:32:33,333 ♪ It's just a shot away 611 00:32:33,432 --> 00:32:37,000 ♪ It's just a shot away. ♪ 612 00:32:37,099 --> 00:32:40,532 VVAW was a-a... it was great therapy. 613 00:32:40,633 --> 00:32:42,700 We were working it out ourselves. 614 00:32:42,799 --> 00:32:45,066 Vets taking care of vets. 615 00:32:45,165 --> 00:32:46,865 We were generals in our own right. 616 00:32:46,965 --> 00:32:48,500 And we didn't join anything. 617 00:32:48,599 --> 00:32:50,165 We became something. 618 00:32:50,266 --> 00:32:52,365 And that, yes, I was a Marine, 619 00:32:52,465 --> 00:32:54,200 but I was first and foremost 620 00:32:54,299 --> 00:32:56,566 a citizen of the United States of America. 621 00:32:56,665 --> 00:33:00,432 And being a citizen, I had certain responsibilities. 622 00:33:00,532 --> 00:33:03,599 And the largest of those responsibilities 623 00:33:03,700 --> 00:33:07,000 is standing up to your government and saying "no" 624 00:33:07,099 --> 00:33:09,133 when it's doing something that you think 625 00:33:09,232 --> 00:33:11,932 is not in this nation's best interest. 626 00:33:12,032 --> 00:33:17,232 That is the most important job that every citizen has. 627 00:33:17,333 --> 00:33:21,000 ROLLING STONES: ♪ Rape, murder 628 00:33:21,099 --> 00:33:24,232 MUSGRAVE: I served my country as honorably, 629 00:33:24,333 --> 00:33:27,432 when I was in Vietnam Veterans Against the War, 630 00:33:27,532 --> 00:33:31,066 as I did as a United States Marine. 631 00:33:31,165 --> 00:33:34,500 And, in fact, I conducted myself as a Marine 632 00:33:34,599 --> 00:33:37,299 the whole time I was in VVAW. 633 00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:38,932 I... My-my whole life, 634 00:33:39,032 --> 00:33:41,766 I conduct myself as a Marine. 635 00:33:41,865 --> 00:33:45,200 NARRATOR: Navy Lieutenant John Kerry, 636 00:33:45,299 --> 00:33:48,599 who had commanded a swift boat in the Mekong Delta 637 00:33:48,700 --> 00:33:51,200 and was one of the organization's leaders, 638 00:33:51,299 --> 00:33:52,633 was invited to address 639 00:33:52,732 --> 00:33:54,865 the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 640 00:33:54,965 --> 00:33:57,932 still chaired by J. William Fulbright. 641 00:33:58,032 --> 00:33:59,432 Thank you. 642 00:33:59,532 --> 00:34:02,965 MUSGRAVE: I went up for the presentation. 643 00:34:03,066 --> 00:34:05,266 And it was standing room only. 644 00:34:05,365 --> 00:34:09,166 And I was crammed up against the wall in the very back. 645 00:34:09,266 --> 00:34:12,300 And when John... 646 00:34:12,400 --> 00:34:15,199 gave that presentation... (gavel bangs) 647 00:34:15,300 --> 00:34:17,800 ...I felt like he was speaking for all of us. 648 00:34:17,900 --> 00:34:21,266 KERRY: We could come back to this country and we could be quiet. 649 00:34:21,365 --> 00:34:22,865 We could hold our silence. 650 00:34:22,965 --> 00:34:26,432 We could not tell what went on in Vietnam, but we feel, 651 00:34:26,532 --> 00:34:29,365 because of what threatens this country, 652 00:34:29,465 --> 00:34:31,233 we have to speak out. 653 00:34:31,333 --> 00:34:33,166 Millions of men who have been 654 00:34:33,266 --> 00:34:36,333 taught to deal and to trade in violence 655 00:34:36,432 --> 00:34:38,733 and who were given the chance to die 656 00:34:38,833 --> 00:34:41,032 for the biggest nothing in history, 657 00:34:41,132 --> 00:34:44,766 men who have returned with a sense of anger 658 00:34:44,865 --> 00:34:46,266 and a sense of betrayal 659 00:34:46,365 --> 00:34:48,733 which no one has yet grasped. 660 00:34:48,833 --> 00:34:51,465 We rationalized destroying villages 661 00:34:51,565 --> 00:34:53,099 in order to save them. 662 00:34:53,199 --> 00:34:55,266 We saw America lose her sense of morality, 663 00:34:55,365 --> 00:34:58,300 as she accepted very coolly a My Lai 664 00:34:58,400 --> 00:35:00,800 and refused to give up the image of American soldiers 665 00:35:00,900 --> 00:35:03,599 that hand out chocolate bars and chewing gum. 666 00:35:03,699 --> 00:35:06,266 We learnt the meaning of free-fire zones, 667 00:35:06,365 --> 00:35:08,865 shoot anything that moves, 668 00:35:08,965 --> 00:35:11,132 and we watched while America placed a cheapness 669 00:35:11,233 --> 00:35:13,400 on the lives of Orientals. 670 00:35:13,500 --> 00:35:17,400 We watched the United States' falsification of body counts-- 671 00:35:17,500 --> 00:35:20,932 in fact, the glorification of body counts. 672 00:35:21,032 --> 00:35:23,599 We watched while men charged up hills 673 00:35:23,699 --> 00:35:26,833 because a general said that hill has to be taken. 674 00:35:26,932 --> 00:35:29,632 And after losing one platoon or two platoons, 675 00:35:29,733 --> 00:35:31,032 they marched away 676 00:35:31,132 --> 00:35:33,032 to leave the hill for the reoccupation 677 00:35:33,132 --> 00:35:36,000 of the North Vietnamese. 678 00:35:36,099 --> 00:35:38,666 And we are asking Americans to think about that. 679 00:35:38,766 --> 00:35:40,932 Because how do you ask a man 680 00:35:41,032 --> 00:35:43,766 to be the last man to die in Vietnam? 681 00:35:43,865 --> 00:35:48,500 How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake? 682 00:35:48,599 --> 00:35:51,632 And so, when, 30 years from now, 683 00:35:51,733 --> 00:35:54,432 our brothers go down the street without a leg, 684 00:35:54,532 --> 00:35:57,099 without an arm or a face, 685 00:35:57,199 --> 00:35:59,833 and small boys ask why, 686 00:35:59,932 --> 00:36:02,699 we will be able to say "Vietnam" 687 00:36:02,800 --> 00:36:06,365 and not mean a filthy, obscene memory 688 00:36:06,465 --> 00:36:11,766 but mean instead the place where America finally turned 689 00:36:11,865 --> 00:36:16,565 and where soldiers like us helped it in the turning. 690 00:36:16,666 --> 00:36:18,400 Thank you. 691 00:36:18,500 --> 00:36:20,432 (cheers and applause) 692 00:36:24,932 --> 00:36:27,833 MUSGRAVE: I thought, "I have never heard 693 00:36:27,932 --> 00:36:30,766 "so... such an incredible speech 694 00:36:30,865 --> 00:36:33,300 that says exactly what I'm feeling." 695 00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:36,766 You know? It was extraordinary. 696 00:36:36,865 --> 00:36:39,233 Extraordinary. 697 00:36:39,333 --> 00:36:42,900 NARRATOR: But some veterans remembered a different part 698 00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:44,833 of Kerry's testimony, 699 00:36:44,932 --> 00:36:48,565 testimony in which he repeated accounts of atrocities 700 00:36:48,666 --> 00:36:52,465 he had heard from other American veterans. 701 00:36:52,565 --> 00:36:55,733 KERRY: They told the stories of times 702 00:36:55,833 --> 00:37:00,800 that they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, 703 00:37:00,900 --> 00:37:04,666 taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals 704 00:37:04,766 --> 00:37:06,465 and turned up the power, 705 00:37:06,565 --> 00:37:09,900 cut off limbs, blown up bodies, 706 00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:12,565 randomly shot at civilians, 707 00:37:12,666 --> 00:37:16,900 razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan... 708 00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:19,432 GIOIA: What I saw in Vietnam was not the soldier 709 00:37:19,532 --> 00:37:21,432 that Mr. Kerry or his colleagues 710 00:37:21,532 --> 00:37:23,565 were describing at that time. 711 00:37:23,666 --> 00:37:26,099 There was no widespread atrocity. 712 00:37:26,199 --> 00:37:27,766 There was... there were a couple of units 713 00:37:27,865 --> 00:37:30,365 that went right off the rails, and we can talk about that. 714 00:37:30,465 --> 00:37:33,099 But they were not out-of-control animals, 715 00:37:33,199 --> 00:37:35,233 which was the way they were portrayed. 716 00:37:35,333 --> 00:37:38,900 And what was even worse was they were alluding to the fact 717 00:37:39,000 --> 00:37:40,300 that you would take ordinary kids 718 00:37:40,400 --> 00:37:42,865 and turn them into these savages, 719 00:37:42,965 --> 00:37:44,465 war criminals, and the... 720 00:37:44,565 --> 00:37:45,932 that the military was doing that. 721 00:37:46,032 --> 00:37:48,599 And it didn't. Didn't happen that way. 722 00:37:48,699 --> 00:37:51,065 I'm still very angry about that. 723 00:37:51,166 --> 00:37:53,000 ROLLING STONES: ♪ War, children 724 00:37:53,099 --> 00:37:54,532 NARRATOR: The next day, 725 00:37:54,632 --> 00:37:57,800 700 Vietnam Veterans Against the War 726 00:37:57,900 --> 00:38:00,065 gathered at the Capitol. 727 00:38:00,166 --> 00:38:03,132 MUSGRAVE: We originally intended to put our medals in a body bag 728 00:38:03,233 --> 00:38:06,099 and have them delivered to Congress. 729 00:38:06,199 --> 00:38:09,500 But the Nixon administration erected 730 00:38:09,599 --> 00:38:15,099 this big wire and wood fence on the steps of our Capitol 731 00:38:15,199 --> 00:38:18,733 to keep us out. 732 00:38:18,833 --> 00:38:20,733 To keep out the young men and women 733 00:38:20,833 --> 00:38:23,400 who were fighting that war. 734 00:38:23,500 --> 00:38:25,865 And all that did was piss us off 735 00:38:25,965 --> 00:38:29,865 and give us the greatest photo opportunity 736 00:38:29,965 --> 00:38:32,632 that we could ever have. 737 00:38:32,733 --> 00:38:33,800 Silver Star. STEVE SHAW: Purple Heart. 738 00:38:33,900 --> 00:38:36,032 MAN: Bronze Star. 739 00:38:36,132 --> 00:38:37,865 Cross of Gallantry. SACHS: Distinguished Flying Cross. 740 00:38:37,965 --> 00:38:39,333 And everything else! (cheering) 741 00:38:39,432 --> 00:38:41,132 FERRIZZI: I don't want these fucking medals, man! 742 00:38:41,233 --> 00:38:44,465 The Silver Star, the third highest medal in the country, 743 00:38:44,565 --> 00:38:46,065 it doesn't mean anything! 744 00:38:46,166 --> 00:38:48,465 Bob Smeal died for these medals! 745 00:38:48,565 --> 00:38:50,965 Lieutenant Panamaroff died so I got a medal! 746 00:38:51,065 --> 00:38:53,400 Sergeant Johns died so I got a medal! 747 00:38:53,500 --> 00:38:55,400 I got a Silver Star, a Purple Heart, 748 00:38:55,500 --> 00:38:57,800 Army Commendation Medal, eight Air Medals, 749 00:38:57,900 --> 00:38:59,266 National Defense, 750 00:38:59,365 --> 00:39:00,432 and the rest of this garbage! 751 00:39:00,532 --> 00:39:02,365 It doesn't mean a thing! 752 00:39:02,465 --> 00:39:03,865 (cheering) 753 00:39:03,965 --> 00:39:07,532 JAGGER: ♪ Mm, the flood is threatening 754 00:39:07,632 --> 00:39:09,065 ♪ My very life 755 00:39:09,166 --> 00:39:11,266 FERRIZZI: Throwing my medals back was probably harder 756 00:39:11,365 --> 00:39:12,666 than going to the war. 757 00:39:12,766 --> 00:39:15,333 Was actually harder than going and serving in Vietnam. 758 00:39:15,432 --> 00:39:19,865 JAGGER: ♪ Or I'm gonna fade away 759 00:39:19,965 --> 00:39:22,365 FERRIZZI: If this medal is so important, let's make it important. 760 00:39:22,465 --> 00:39:24,065 Here it is. You can have it back. 761 00:39:24,166 --> 00:39:26,199 End the war in Vietnam. 762 00:39:26,300 --> 00:39:27,833 What else is there? 763 00:39:27,932 --> 00:39:29,199 I... There was nothing else. 764 00:39:29,300 --> 00:39:30,699 I wouldn't put 'em on my wall for my son. 765 00:39:30,800 --> 00:39:32,932 I never want... that was the last thing in the world 766 00:39:33,032 --> 00:39:35,632 I would ever want my son to revere. 767 00:39:35,733 --> 00:39:37,965 (indistinct shouting) 768 00:39:38,065 --> 00:39:40,900 TOM VALLELY: It was a difficult decision for me. 769 00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:45,900 I did it out of a disrespectful loyalty. 770 00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:49,932 I was proud of my military service. 771 00:39:50,032 --> 00:39:52,266 And I wanted to say, "You know, I don't think 772 00:39:52,365 --> 00:39:55,065 you guys know that much," the American military. 773 00:39:55,166 --> 00:39:58,166 "You know, I think you should think again 774 00:39:58,266 --> 00:39:59,632 "about this enterprise. 775 00:39:59,733 --> 00:40:02,099 And here you go, pal." 776 00:40:02,199 --> 00:40:03,965 Tim Bagwell from Sacramento, California, 777 00:40:04,065 --> 00:40:06,965 still on active duty, and I say get the hell out. 778 00:40:07,065 --> 00:40:08,032 (cheering) 779 00:40:08,132 --> 00:40:10,766 ("Gimme Shelter" continues) 780 00:40:20,333 --> 00:40:22,699 MUSGRAVE: When we threw our medals away, 781 00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:24,300 that got their attention, 782 00:40:24,400 --> 00:40:26,965 because America values those things. 783 00:40:27,065 --> 00:40:28,400 So do we. 784 00:40:28,500 --> 00:40:30,699 That's why it was so important. 785 00:40:30,800 --> 00:40:33,833 NARRATOR: The police had been ordered not to arrest 786 00:40:33,932 --> 00:40:36,432 any of the veterans, because, 787 00:40:36,532 --> 00:40:39,032 Pat Buchanan, a White House aide, wrote, 788 00:40:39,132 --> 00:40:42,500 they were "being received in a far more sympathetic fashion 789 00:40:42,599 --> 00:40:44,699 "than other demonstrators. 790 00:40:44,800 --> 00:40:48,432 The 'crazies' will be in town soon enough," he continued, 791 00:40:48,532 --> 00:40:50,599 "and if we want a confrontation, 792 00:40:50,699 --> 00:40:52,666 let's have it with them." 793 00:40:52,766 --> 00:40:55,065 He was right. 794 00:40:55,166 --> 00:40:57,400 In the days immediately following 795 00:40:57,500 --> 00:40:58,865 the veterans' protest, 796 00:40:58,965 --> 00:41:01,000 other groups of antiwar activists 797 00:41:01,099 --> 00:41:04,099 moved into the capital. 798 00:41:04,199 --> 00:41:07,865 The most radical called itself the May Day Tribe 799 00:41:07,965 --> 00:41:10,932 and threatened to close the city down. 800 00:41:11,032 --> 00:41:14,266 For three days, they staged hit-and-run raids 801 00:41:14,365 --> 00:41:16,132 throughout Washington-- 802 00:41:16,233 --> 00:41:18,666 blocking bridges and traffic circles, 803 00:41:18,766 --> 00:41:20,099 smashing windows, 804 00:41:20,199 --> 00:41:22,599 hurling rocks, burning cars. 805 00:41:22,699 --> 00:41:23,666 (sirens wailing) 806 00:41:23,766 --> 00:41:25,065 RENNIE DAVIS: If Richard Nixon thought 807 00:41:25,166 --> 00:41:28,465 that this week was something, wait until the next round. 808 00:41:28,565 --> 00:41:31,132 This is only a warm-up of what is going to come. 809 00:41:31,233 --> 00:41:33,965 This is going to continue until the war ends. 810 00:41:34,065 --> 00:41:36,266 NARRATOR: Some 12,000 were arrested-- 811 00:41:36,365 --> 00:41:38,833 7,000 on a single day, 812 00:41:38,932 --> 00:41:42,400 the largest number of arrests in 24 hours 813 00:41:42,500 --> 00:41:44,900 in United States history. 814 00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:48,365 BILL ZIMMERMAN: I realized, coming away from Washington, 815 00:41:48,465 --> 00:41:50,766 that our whole strategy was wrong 816 00:41:50,865 --> 00:41:54,500 and that we were becoming more and more militant 817 00:41:54,599 --> 00:41:57,365 at a time when more and more Americans 818 00:41:57,465 --> 00:41:58,965 were opposing the war 819 00:41:59,065 --> 00:42:01,565 but were turned off by our militancy. 820 00:42:01,666 --> 00:42:04,565 So we were doing exactly the wrong thing. 821 00:42:04,666 --> 00:42:08,132 NARRATOR: The White House was initially pleased. 822 00:42:08,233 --> 00:42:11,300 Public sympathy for the veterans was largely forgotten 823 00:42:11,400 --> 00:42:15,333 in the face of days of battle in the streets. 824 00:42:15,432 --> 00:42:18,465 Polls showed that most Americans approved 825 00:42:18,565 --> 00:42:20,365 of the arrests. 826 00:42:24,532 --> 00:42:27,565 But those same polls also showed 827 00:42:27,666 --> 00:42:30,365 that most Americans no longer believed 828 00:42:30,465 --> 00:42:34,166 they were being told the truth about Vietnam. 829 00:42:39,132 --> 00:42:41,833 MUSGRAVE: When I got home, my... so my dad's pissed off. 830 00:42:41,932 --> 00:42:45,666 'Cause he's-he's a true believer, you know? 831 00:42:47,199 --> 00:42:49,432 He was already receiving threats 832 00:42:49,532 --> 00:42:52,666 because I'd thrown away their medals. 833 00:42:54,432 --> 00:42:57,400 And that pissed my dad off then. 834 00:42:57,500 --> 00:43:00,132 And you would've thought I hadn't done anything wrong. 835 00:43:00,233 --> 00:43:03,266 Because then somebody outside the family was messing with me. 836 00:43:03,365 --> 00:43:05,400 And he said, "Son, don't worry. 837 00:43:05,500 --> 00:43:07,400 "Those were your medals. You paid for 'em. 838 00:43:07,500 --> 00:43:08,800 "You can do anything you want with 'em. 839 00:43:08,900 --> 00:43:10,965 "They want to jack with us, they'll face us both. 840 00:43:11,065 --> 00:43:12,699 We'll-we'll take 'em on in the driveway." 841 00:43:12,800 --> 00:43:15,465 You know? "Yo, Dad." 842 00:43:16,733 --> 00:43:18,666 (applause) 843 00:43:20,365 --> 00:43:22,800 (band playing "Thank Heaven for Little Girls") 844 00:43:22,900 --> 00:43:25,800 NARRATOR: On June 12, 1971, 845 00:43:25,900 --> 00:43:28,132 Richard Nixon's daughter, Tricia, 846 00:43:28,233 --> 00:43:32,766 married Edward Cox in the White House Rose Garden. 847 00:43:32,865 --> 00:43:36,465 The country watched it all on television. 848 00:43:39,900 --> 00:43:43,065 The wedding was still news the next day. 849 00:43:43,166 --> 00:43:46,666 But another story on the front page of theNew York Times 850 00:43:46,766 --> 00:43:49,565 caught the president's attention. 851 00:43:49,666 --> 00:43:52,733 The article, by Neil Sheehan, 852 00:43:52,833 --> 00:43:55,532 was the first report of what came to be called 853 00:43:55,632 --> 00:43:57,400 the Pentagon Papers, 854 00:43:57,500 --> 00:44:01,065 7,000 pages of highly classified documents 855 00:44:01,166 --> 00:44:03,132 and historical narrative, 856 00:44:03,233 --> 00:44:05,465 compiled secretly at the orders 857 00:44:05,565 --> 00:44:09,333 of former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. 858 00:44:09,432 --> 00:44:12,666 He had hoped a study of the decision-making process 859 00:44:12,766 --> 00:44:16,266 that had led the United States to become so deeply involved 860 00:44:16,365 --> 00:44:19,599 in Vietnam would help future policymakers 861 00:44:19,699 --> 00:44:22,300 avoid similar errors. 862 00:44:23,900 --> 00:44:25,932 SHEEHAN: I thought I knew a great deal. 863 00:44:26,032 --> 00:44:28,065 I thought I knew most of what was worth knowing 864 00:44:28,166 --> 00:44:29,400 about the war. 865 00:44:29,500 --> 00:44:33,199 And, suddenly, I didn't. 866 00:44:33,300 --> 00:44:36,266 It wasn't a reporter's version of an event. 867 00:44:36,365 --> 00:44:38,199 It wasthe ir version of an event. 868 00:44:38,300 --> 00:44:40,532 It was their telegrams, their orders, 869 00:44:40,632 --> 00:44:42,465 their memoranda, et cetera. 870 00:44:56,932 --> 00:45:00,000 NARRATOR: The documents proved that American presidents 871 00:45:00,099 --> 00:45:01,932 and their closest advisors 872 00:45:02,032 --> 00:45:04,000 had steered the United States 873 00:45:04,099 --> 00:45:06,800 toward deeper involvement in Vietnam, 874 00:45:06,900 --> 00:45:11,300 despite their own grave doubts about the chances for victory. 875 00:45:20,166 --> 00:45:22,666 They had known that the Saigon government 876 00:45:22,766 --> 00:45:25,166 was weak and incompetent... 877 00:45:32,532 --> 00:45:36,465 ...that the enemy was disciplined and resilient... 878 00:45:42,565 --> 00:45:46,333 ...and that the bombing of the North wasn't working. 879 00:45:53,900 --> 00:45:57,965 Yet, they had routinely lied about all these things 880 00:45:58,065 --> 00:46:00,599 to Congress and the American people. 881 00:46:24,766 --> 00:46:26,432 (sighs) 882 00:46:26,532 --> 00:46:29,465 I certainly don't endorse 883 00:46:29,565 --> 00:46:34,465 anyone releasing top-secret material to the press. 884 00:46:36,166 --> 00:46:40,065 Um, on the other hand, uh... 885 00:46:40,166 --> 00:46:43,300 I was very concerned 886 00:46:43,400 --> 00:46:45,833 about the fact that the, uh, 887 00:46:45,932 --> 00:46:51,199 government was not being up front with the American people 888 00:46:51,300 --> 00:46:54,965 in certain respects with the Vietnam War. 889 00:46:55,065 --> 00:46:58,233 NARRATOR: Two copies of the report had been stored 890 00:46:58,333 --> 00:47:01,666 at the RAND Corporation, a California think tank, 891 00:47:01,766 --> 00:47:03,733 where Daniel Ellsberg, 892 00:47:03,833 --> 00:47:08,532 one of the study's 36 authors, worked as an analyst. 893 00:47:08,632 --> 00:47:11,565 Ellsberg had once supported the war. 894 00:47:11,666 --> 00:47:13,565 He'd served in the Pentagon, 895 00:47:13,666 --> 00:47:16,065 and spent two years working for the State Department 896 00:47:16,166 --> 00:47:18,300 in Vietnam. 897 00:47:18,400 --> 00:47:22,800 But he had come to see the war as profoundly immoral, 898 00:47:22,900 --> 00:47:25,400 and hoped that if Americans understood 899 00:47:25,500 --> 00:47:29,833 how administration after administration had misled them 900 00:47:29,932 --> 00:47:32,400 about what was being done in their name, 901 00:47:32,500 --> 00:47:35,032 they might help bring it to an end. 902 00:47:35,132 --> 00:47:38,865 He and Anthony Russo, another RAND employee, 903 00:47:38,965 --> 00:47:42,365 secretly copied most of the report. 904 00:47:42,465 --> 00:47:46,565 Ellsberg offered it to three leading antiwar senators, 905 00:47:46,666 --> 00:47:50,565 hoping they would be willing to reveal its contents. 906 00:47:50,666 --> 00:47:53,300 None dared do it. 907 00:47:53,400 --> 00:47:56,900 Meanwhile, Neil Sheehan of theNew York Times, 908 00:47:57,000 --> 00:48:01,032 who had been reporting on Vietnam since 1962, 909 00:48:01,132 --> 00:48:04,900 and had already secretly read some of the documents, 910 00:48:05,000 --> 00:48:08,965 asked Ellsberg to show him the whole report. 911 00:48:09,065 --> 00:48:12,099 SHEEHAN: At that point, I was very passionate about the war. 912 00:48:12,199 --> 00:48:15,632 I felt that it was really wrong, 913 00:48:15,733 --> 00:48:17,599 because we were getting a lot of Americans 914 00:48:17,699 --> 00:48:19,932 and a lot of Vietnamese killed for no purpose. 915 00:48:20,032 --> 00:48:23,766 We were gonna lose this war. 916 00:48:23,865 --> 00:48:28,065 And so I vowed to myself when I saw this material 917 00:48:28,166 --> 00:48:29,932 that this is never gonna go back 918 00:48:30,032 --> 00:48:31,599 into a government safe again. 919 00:48:31,699 --> 00:48:33,365 The American public had paid for it 920 00:48:33,465 --> 00:48:36,132 with the lives of their sons and with their treasure, 921 00:48:36,233 --> 00:48:37,932 and it's gonna be published. 922 00:48:38,032 --> 00:48:39,599 NIXON: That piece in theTimes 923 00:48:39,699 --> 00:48:40,900 is, of course, 924 00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:44,065 a massive security leak from the Pentagon, you know. 925 00:48:44,166 --> 00:48:45,865 ROGERS: Yeah. 926 00:48:45,965 --> 00:48:49,000 NIXON: It all relates, of course, to everything up until we came in. 927 00:48:49,099 --> 00:48:50,699 ROGERS: Yeah. 928 00:48:50,800 --> 00:48:53,233 NIXON: And it's, uh, it's ver... it's hard on Johnson, 929 00:48:53,333 --> 00:48:56,666 it's hard on Kennedy, it's hard on Lodge. 930 00:48:56,766 --> 00:49:00,166 NARRATOR: At first, Nixon was not unduly disturbed 931 00:49:00,266 --> 00:49:02,666 by the newspaper's revelations. 932 00:49:02,766 --> 00:49:06,300 They reflected badly on his Democratic predecessors, 933 00:49:06,400 --> 00:49:08,766 not on him. 934 00:49:08,865 --> 00:49:12,065 But Henry Kissinger quickly convinced Nixon 935 00:49:12,166 --> 00:49:13,965 that if theTime s were permitted 936 00:49:14,065 --> 00:49:17,800 to reveal the classified secrets of earlier presidents, 937 00:49:17,900 --> 00:49:22,900 it was only a matter of time until someone leaked his own. 938 00:49:23,000 --> 00:49:26,833 The Justice Department obtained a temporary court order 939 00:49:26,932 --> 00:49:30,500 forbidding theTi mes from publishing further installments 940 00:49:30,599 --> 00:49:33,632 on the grounds of national security. 941 00:49:33,733 --> 00:49:37,432 But soon, both theBoston Globe 942 00:49:37,532 --> 00:49:41,400 and theWashington Pos t were also printing excerpts. 943 00:49:43,032 --> 00:49:45,565 On June 30, 1971, 944 00:49:45,666 --> 00:49:48,333 the United States Supreme Court, 945 00:49:48,432 --> 00:49:50,599 citing the First Amendment, 946 00:49:50,699 --> 00:49:54,266 ruled six to three that theTimes had the right 947 00:49:54,365 --> 00:49:57,833 to publish the stolen documents. 948 00:49:57,932 --> 00:50:00,032 SHEEHAN: And I went down into the basement 949 00:50:00,132 --> 00:50:02,432 to wait for the presses to start to roll, 950 00:50:02,532 --> 00:50:05,132 and they had these huge round reams of paper. 951 00:50:05,233 --> 00:50:06,333 (whirring) 952 00:50:06,432 --> 00:50:07,932 And, finally, the presses started to roll. 953 00:50:08,032 --> 00:50:12,465 And it was just an exquisite moment of vindication 954 00:50:12,565 --> 00:50:14,699 of the freedom of the press in this country 955 00:50:14,800 --> 00:50:16,400 and how important it is. 956 00:50:16,500 --> 00:50:18,465 (rhythmic rattling) 957 00:50:18,565 --> 00:50:21,233 KARL MARLANTES: That changed 958 00:50:21,333 --> 00:50:23,233 our whole attitude toward government. 959 00:50:23,333 --> 00:50:25,699 Up until then, the president wouldn't lie. 960 00:50:25,800 --> 00:50:27,932 After then, they always lie. 961 00:50:28,032 --> 00:50:30,500 NARRATOR: The day the presses began to roll again, 962 00:50:30,599 --> 00:50:33,833 Nixon ordered attorney general John Mitchell 963 00:50:33,932 --> 00:50:37,500 to try to discredit Daniel Ellsberg, who had just 964 00:50:37,599 --> 00:50:39,800 been indicted by a federal grand jury 965 00:50:39,900 --> 00:50:42,065 for theft and conspiracy 966 00:50:42,166 --> 00:50:46,132 under the Espionage Act of 1917. 967 00:51:21,099 --> 00:51:25,300 NARRATOR: Nixon feared Ellsberg possessed more classified documents 968 00:51:25,400 --> 00:51:27,833 that would show that he himself had lied 969 00:51:27,932 --> 00:51:31,699 about the secret bombing of Cambodia and Laos, 970 00:51:31,800 --> 00:51:34,532 and he believed that Ellsberg had had help 971 00:51:34,632 --> 00:51:38,065 and wanted to know the names of his co-conspirators. 972 00:51:38,166 --> 00:51:40,500 The president created a private, 973 00:51:40,599 --> 00:51:43,900 clandestine investigative unit within the White House. 974 00:51:44,000 --> 00:51:46,900 It came to be called "The Plumbers." 975 00:51:47,000 --> 00:51:50,532 John Ehrlichman, one of Nixon's closest aides, 976 00:51:50,632 --> 00:51:54,000 eventually ordered them to burglarize the office 977 00:51:54,099 --> 00:51:57,032 of Ellsberg's Los Angeles psychiatrist 978 00:51:57,132 --> 00:51:59,099 in search of material 979 00:51:59,199 --> 00:52:02,900 with which he could be blackmailed into silence. 980 00:52:03,000 --> 00:52:07,199 Nixon may have privately feared something else as well. 981 00:52:07,300 --> 00:52:10,099 He was told that the safe at another think tank, 982 00:52:10,199 --> 00:52:13,800 the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., 983 00:52:13,900 --> 00:52:17,965 contained files that might reveal the secret role 984 00:52:18,065 --> 00:52:21,932 his campaign had played in torpedoing the peace talks 985 00:52:22,032 --> 00:52:25,233 on the eve of his election three years earlier, 986 00:52:25,333 --> 00:52:29,932 which President Johnson had then considered treason. 987 00:52:30,032 --> 00:52:33,733 Nixon wanted his "plumbers" to break into Brookings, 988 00:52:33,833 --> 00:52:38,166 crack the safe, and remove the files. 989 00:52:38,266 --> 00:52:40,465 None of it was legal. 990 00:52:40,565 --> 00:52:43,699 Nixon did not care. 991 00:53:14,432 --> 00:53:18,666 NARRATOR: The Brookings break-in would never take place. 992 00:53:18,766 --> 00:53:21,233 The burglars would be unable 993 00:53:21,333 --> 00:53:24,432 to find Ellsberg's file in his doctor's office. 994 00:53:24,532 --> 00:53:27,965 But Nixon's obsession with his enemies 995 00:53:28,065 --> 00:53:31,800 would be the undoing of his presidency. 996 00:53:33,099 --> 00:53:36,565 ("Embryonic Journey" by Jefferson Airplane playing) 997 00:53:40,532 --> 00:53:42,500 (laughter and chatter) 998 00:53:49,065 --> 00:53:51,000 (indistinct voice of man speaking French over microphone) 999 00:53:52,400 --> 00:53:54,666 JACK TODD: Once a month, I have a dream 1000 00:53:54,766 --> 00:53:59,300 that I'm... I'm back... I'm back in basic training. 1001 00:53:59,400 --> 00:54:00,833 But I'm the age I am now, 1002 00:54:00,932 --> 00:54:03,199 which is way too old to be in the military. 1003 00:54:03,300 --> 00:54:05,666 But, you know, somehow I've gotten a waiver, 1004 00:54:05,766 --> 00:54:07,365 and I'm going through all the training, 1005 00:54:07,465 --> 00:54:09,532 and there's some major war going on. 1006 00:54:09,632 --> 00:54:12,766 And I'm going to get there, and I'm going to be a hero 1007 00:54:12,865 --> 00:54:18,166 and vindicate myself and be taken back by my country. 1008 00:54:18,266 --> 00:54:20,099 (car horn honks) 1009 00:54:20,199 --> 00:54:24,432 NARRATOR: Jack Todd had crossed into Canada in early 1970, 1010 00:54:24,532 --> 00:54:26,266 rather than take part 1011 00:54:26,365 --> 00:54:29,000 in what he believed to be a dishonorable war. 1012 00:54:31,400 --> 00:54:35,166 He found himself living in a strange underground world 1013 00:54:35,266 --> 00:54:37,333 of deserters and draft evaders 1014 00:54:37,432 --> 00:54:41,733 and the disaffected Canadians who gathered around them. 1015 00:54:41,833 --> 00:54:45,900 In 1971, he was living in Montreal, 1016 00:54:46,000 --> 00:54:48,032 restless and often depressed, 1017 00:54:48,132 --> 00:54:51,733 increasingly alienated from his country, 1018 00:54:51,833 --> 00:54:54,965 but also anxious always for news from home, 1019 00:54:55,065 --> 00:54:57,833 and eager to know how his boyhood friends 1020 00:54:57,932 --> 00:55:00,965 from Scottsbluff, Nebraska, were doing. 1021 00:55:01,065 --> 00:55:03,666 One, named Ron Bales, 1022 00:55:03,766 --> 00:55:06,833 had lived just down the street. 1023 00:55:06,932 --> 00:55:11,699 And, uh... my mother sent me a letter, um, 1024 00:55:11,800 --> 00:55:13,965 and I remember taking the clipping out of it. 1025 00:55:14,065 --> 00:55:17,565 I had walked up to Mount Royal in Montreal to read the letter. 1026 00:55:17,666 --> 00:55:20,532 And the clipping was from theScottsbluff Star-Herald, 1027 00:55:20,632 --> 00:55:23,400 and it was about Ron being killed in Vietnam. 1028 00:55:26,632 --> 00:55:29,599 Why? Why? 1029 00:55:29,699 --> 00:55:33,666 It was long after we knew how wrong the war was, 1030 00:55:33,766 --> 00:55:37,833 and guys like Ron were still dying, you know. 1031 00:55:39,666 --> 00:55:41,599 Why? 1032 00:55:42,900 --> 00:55:45,233 The government today restricted the use 1033 00:55:45,333 --> 00:55:47,833 of the weed killer 2,4,5-T on the ground 1034 00:55:47,932 --> 00:55:49,833 that the chemical has caused birth defects 1035 00:55:49,932 --> 00:55:52,465 in some laboratory animals. 1036 00:55:54,365 --> 00:55:59,065 NARRATOR: Since 1962, American and South Vietnamese forces 1037 00:55:59,166 --> 00:56:02,532 had sprayed some 20 million gallons of herbicides 1038 00:56:02,632 --> 00:56:06,833 over roughly one quarter of South Vietnam. 1039 00:56:06,932 --> 00:56:10,099 The idea had been to reduce casualties 1040 00:56:10,199 --> 00:56:13,666 by clearing areas around U.S. installations, 1041 00:56:13,766 --> 00:56:17,965 and to deny the enemy crops and forest cover. 1042 00:56:18,065 --> 00:56:22,132 The most frequently used defoliant was Agent Orange, 1043 00:56:22,233 --> 00:56:25,132 which contained 2,4,5-T. 1044 00:56:25,233 --> 00:56:27,300 When environmentalists convinced 1045 00:56:27,400 --> 00:56:30,465 the Nixon administration to ban the weed killer 1046 00:56:30,565 --> 00:56:32,132 on American farms, 1047 00:56:32,233 --> 00:56:35,032 the Pentagon had reluctantly agreed 1048 00:56:35,132 --> 00:56:38,766 to stop using Agent Orange in Vietnam. 1049 00:56:38,865 --> 00:56:43,599 The ecological damage defoliants did was obvious. 1050 00:56:43,699 --> 00:56:47,699 The damage done to soldiers and civilians 1051 00:56:47,800 --> 00:56:52,000 would be the subject of angry debate for decades. 1052 00:56:55,300 --> 00:56:58,199 (crowd shouting in Vietnamese) 1053 00:56:58,300 --> 00:57:01,032 TED KOPPEL: Opposition to the Saigon government 1054 00:57:01,132 --> 00:57:03,465 is not just Viet Cong. 1055 00:57:03,565 --> 00:57:05,065 TUE: How many governments 1056 00:57:05,166 --> 00:57:08,166 actually care for the Vietnamese people? 1057 00:57:08,266 --> 00:57:12,000 KOPPEL: The student antiwar, anti-American movement 1058 00:57:12,099 --> 00:57:14,532 is larger than its small demonstrations indicate. 1059 00:57:14,632 --> 00:57:17,400 TUE: You don't need military aid... 1060 00:57:19,465 --> 00:57:21,865 ...to promote democracy in Vietnam. 1061 00:57:21,965 --> 00:57:25,233 To return to the Vietnamese people 1062 00:57:25,333 --> 00:57:27,666 their right that... 1063 00:57:27,766 --> 00:57:29,932 their right to speak freely. 1064 00:57:30,032 --> 00:57:32,699 You don't need even one penny. 1065 00:57:32,800 --> 00:57:35,900 You don't need to consult the White House, 1066 00:57:36,000 --> 00:57:38,932 you don't need to care about the American media, 1067 00:57:39,032 --> 00:57:41,532 you don't need French, you don't need Chinese, 1068 00:57:41,632 --> 00:57:43,199 you don't need Americans. 1069 00:57:43,300 --> 00:57:47,733 If you really care for Vietnam then you turn back inside. 1070 00:57:47,833 --> 00:57:51,365 NARRATOR: South Vietnamese president Nguyen Van Thieu 1071 00:57:51,465 --> 00:57:53,432 was campaigning for reelection. 1072 00:57:53,532 --> 00:57:55,865 The Americans had insisted on it 1073 00:57:55,965 --> 00:57:58,632 and urged him not to rig the race, 1074 00:57:58,733 --> 00:58:01,733 for fear it would resemble too closely 1075 00:58:01,833 --> 00:58:04,266 the fraudulent communist "elections" 1076 00:58:04,365 --> 00:58:07,766 routinely denounced by the United States. 1077 00:58:07,865 --> 00:58:09,432 But Thieu made sure 1078 00:58:09,532 --> 00:58:12,432 no serious candidates ran against him, 1079 00:58:12,532 --> 00:58:16,300 and claimed to have won 94% of the vote. 1080 00:58:16,400 --> 00:58:20,099 It became known as "the one-man election," 1081 00:58:20,199 --> 00:58:21,365 and added to the ranks 1082 00:58:21,465 --> 00:58:24,465 of what was called the "Third Force": 1083 00:58:24,565 --> 00:58:28,333 South Vietnamese hoping for a negotiated settlement 1084 00:58:28,432 --> 00:58:30,599 and an end to the bloodshed. 1085 00:58:47,333 --> 00:58:49,465 NARRATOR: By the middle of 1971, 1086 00:58:49,565 --> 00:58:52,465 Nixon and Kissinger were looking for a way 1087 00:58:52,565 --> 00:58:55,965 to get all U.S. troops out of Vietnam 1088 00:58:56,065 --> 00:58:58,565 before his re-election campaign began 1089 00:58:58,666 --> 00:59:00,565 the following year, 1090 00:59:00,666 --> 00:59:03,065 but to do so without causing 1091 00:59:03,166 --> 00:59:06,099 Saigon to fall too soon. 1092 00:59:42,900 --> 00:59:45,300 NARRATOR: At the secret talks in Paris, 1093 00:59:45,400 --> 00:59:48,465 Kissinger had offered his North Vietnamese counterpart, 1094 00:59:48,565 --> 00:59:51,766 Le Duc Tho, the most significant concessions 1095 00:59:51,865 --> 00:59:54,833 the United States had yet made: 1096 00:59:54,932 --> 00:59:58,432 North Vietnam could keep its troops in the South-- 1097 00:59:58,532 --> 01:00:00,432 tens of thousands of them. 1098 01:00:00,532 --> 01:00:04,932 And in exchange for the release of American prisoners of war, 1099 01:00:05,032 --> 01:00:06,632 all American troops 1100 01:00:06,733 --> 01:00:10,000 would be withdrawn within seven months. 1101 01:00:12,199 --> 01:00:15,565 Le Duc Tho countered with a new offer of his own: 1102 01:00:15,666 --> 01:00:17,865 Hanoi would release the prisoners 1103 01:00:17,965 --> 01:00:21,766 simultaneously with the departure of U.S. forces. 1104 01:00:21,865 --> 01:00:25,032 But he still insisted that Washington remove 1105 01:00:25,132 --> 01:00:28,599 President Thieu from power. 1106 01:00:28,699 --> 01:00:31,465 Kissinger was encouraged that the North Vietnamese 1107 01:00:31,565 --> 01:00:35,333 seemed, for the first time, to be negotiating seriously. 1108 01:00:35,432 --> 01:00:40,199 He could almost "taste peace," he told a friend. 1109 01:00:40,300 --> 01:00:41,865 Thieu knew nothing 1110 01:00:41,965 --> 01:00:45,099 about the new American concessions to Hanoi. 1111 01:00:45,199 --> 01:00:49,065 He was worried about something else. 1112 01:00:52,199 --> 01:00:54,132 ANNOUNCER: NBC News interrupts regular programming 1113 01:00:54,233 --> 01:00:56,032 to bring you a special report. 1114 01:00:56,132 --> 01:00:58,599 The announcement I shall now read is being issued 1115 01:00:58,699 --> 01:01:03,365 simultaneously in Peking and in the United States. 1116 01:01:03,465 --> 01:01:05,132 NARRATOR: Richard Nixon, 1117 01:01:05,233 --> 01:01:08,333 famous for the ferocity of his anticommunism, 1118 01:01:08,432 --> 01:01:10,965 astonished the world by announcing 1119 01:01:11,065 --> 01:01:14,599 that he was planning to restore relations with China 1120 01:01:14,699 --> 01:01:18,065 that had been severed for more than two decades. 1121 01:01:18,166 --> 01:01:21,800 The United States had gone to war in Vietnam 1122 01:01:21,900 --> 01:01:24,932 in part to block Chinese expansionism. 1123 01:01:25,032 --> 01:01:29,166 What would Nixon's visit mean for Thieu's future 1124 01:01:29,266 --> 01:01:31,500 or for that of his country? 1125 01:01:31,599 --> 01:01:34,766 Thieu was afraid he knew. 1126 01:01:34,865 --> 01:01:37,500 "America has been looking for a new mistress," 1127 01:01:37,599 --> 01:01:38,900 he told an aide, 1128 01:01:39,000 --> 01:01:41,733 "and now Nixon has discovered China. 1129 01:01:41,833 --> 01:01:45,565 "He does not want to have the old mistress around. 1130 01:01:45,666 --> 01:01:49,400 Vietnam has become old and ugly." 1131 01:02:02,099 --> 01:02:05,699 KUSHNER: I believe it was in the fall of 1971. 1132 01:02:08,300 --> 01:02:12,400 And they called us out and they hung a bed sheet 1133 01:02:12,500 --> 01:02:17,166 and they had a projector and they showed us 1134 01:02:17,266 --> 01:02:20,733 color and black and white movies 1135 01:02:20,833 --> 01:02:24,132 of these protests in Washington. 1136 01:02:24,233 --> 01:02:26,166 (shouting) 1137 01:02:28,932 --> 01:02:30,865 And in the same film 1138 01:02:30,965 --> 01:02:33,132 it showed John Kerry. 1139 01:02:33,233 --> 01:02:35,365 And I remember he was very articulate, 1140 01:02:35,465 --> 01:02:37,632 very, very well spoken, 1141 01:02:37,733 --> 01:02:40,699 very fluent 1142 01:02:40,800 --> 01:02:43,400 and a good spokesman 1143 01:02:43,500 --> 01:02:44,900 for his cause. 1144 01:02:45,000 --> 01:02:47,065 Someone has to die so that President Nixon 1145 01:02:47,166 --> 01:02:49,766 won't be-- and these are his words-- 1146 01:02:49,865 --> 01:02:53,599 "the first president to lose a war." 1147 01:02:53,699 --> 01:02:54,865 And I remember very well, 1148 01:02:54,965 --> 01:02:57,500 he's sitting with his fatigue jacket 1149 01:02:57,599 --> 01:02:59,199 and long hair 1150 01:02:59,300 --> 01:03:01,432 and testifying about atrocities 1151 01:03:01,532 --> 01:03:03,465 and war crimes that... 1152 01:03:03,565 --> 01:03:05,565 we perpetrated. 1153 01:03:05,666 --> 01:03:08,632 Cut off limbs, blown up bodies, 1154 01:03:08,733 --> 01:03:11,000 randomly shot at civilians... 1155 01:03:11,099 --> 01:03:13,065 KUSHNER: But I was shocked by what he said. 1156 01:03:13,166 --> 01:03:14,900 And I didn't believe it. 1157 01:03:15,000 --> 01:03:18,365 I didn't believe it at all. 1158 01:03:20,099 --> 01:03:22,965 I mean, I'm sophisticated to know, and I knew then, 1159 01:03:23,065 --> 01:03:25,565 that bad things happen in war and they happen on both sides, 1160 01:03:25,666 --> 01:03:29,300 and I had seen the evidence of the other side too, also. 1161 01:03:29,400 --> 01:03:30,699 And I knew it. 1162 01:03:30,800 --> 01:03:33,032 And... but still, to hear the testimony 1163 01:03:33,132 --> 01:03:38,065 and to hear it used as a weapon 1164 01:03:38,166 --> 01:03:40,699 against our further prosecution of this war 1165 01:03:40,800 --> 01:03:45,632 that we were suffering for was very powerful indeed. 1166 01:03:45,733 --> 01:03:48,365 NARRATOR: A few months later 1167 01:03:48,465 --> 01:03:51,632 Kushner got an even bigger shock. 1168 01:03:51,733 --> 01:03:54,000 VALERIE KUSHNER (on recording): My son has no father. 1169 01:03:54,099 --> 01:03:57,699 This Christmas Day we celebrate the birth of a son to Mary 1170 01:03:57,800 --> 01:04:00,365 and this Christmas Day some other mother's son 1171 01:04:00,465 --> 01:04:02,800 will die in Vietnam. 1172 01:04:02,900 --> 01:04:05,465 That death takes away all that was taught to us 1173 01:04:05,565 --> 01:04:08,132 by Christ's birth. 1174 01:04:08,233 --> 01:04:10,532 KUSHNER: The whole time I was in the South 1175 01:04:10,632 --> 01:04:12,965 I never got one letter, one bit of information. 1176 01:04:13,065 --> 01:04:15,099 When I got to North Vietnam I got no letter, 1177 01:04:15,199 --> 01:04:17,632 no bit of information, nothing. 1178 01:04:17,733 --> 01:04:23,365 Then, I think it may have been Christmas of '71, 1179 01:04:23,465 --> 01:04:27,900 my wife wrote an op-ed piece in theNew York Times. 1180 01:04:28,000 --> 01:04:31,465 She had become politically active. 1181 01:04:31,565 --> 01:04:33,800 NARRATOR: The families of POWs 1182 01:04:33,900 --> 01:04:37,565 overwhelmingly supported the Nixon administration. 1183 01:04:37,666 --> 01:04:40,565 Valerie Kushner did not, 1184 01:04:40,666 --> 01:04:42,300 and the North Vietnamese were quick 1185 01:04:42,400 --> 01:04:45,632 to exploit her antiwar views. 1186 01:04:45,733 --> 01:04:47,565 They broadcast a message 1187 01:04:47,666 --> 01:04:50,599 they had permitted her husband to record for her. 1188 01:04:50,699 --> 01:04:53,400 It was the first time she had heard his voice 1189 01:04:53,500 --> 01:04:55,432 in four years. 1190 01:04:57,766 --> 01:05:00,500 KUSHNER (on recording): I received the glasses, Val, 1191 01:05:00,599 --> 01:05:03,365 and my eyes have improved considerably. 1192 01:05:03,465 --> 01:05:06,099 Please let me know about Brother John. 1193 01:05:06,199 --> 01:05:08,666 He or she is almost four now, 1194 01:05:08,766 --> 01:05:11,333 and he or she is old enough to understand 1195 01:05:11,432 --> 01:05:14,865 where Daddy is and that I love him or her 1196 01:05:14,965 --> 01:05:18,233 immeasurably despite our never meeting. 1197 01:05:18,333 --> 01:05:21,965 I calculate that T-Bird is now in second grade, 1198 01:05:22,065 --> 01:05:24,099 and I know she is doing well. 1199 01:05:24,199 --> 01:05:26,000 She is a grown-up lady now 1200 01:05:26,099 --> 01:05:29,932 and I hope you have plans for piano or ballet lessons soon. 1201 01:05:30,032 --> 01:05:32,532 Happy eighth birthday, dear T-Bird, 1202 01:05:32,632 --> 01:05:34,099 and Merry Christmas. 1203 01:05:34,199 --> 01:05:36,432 When I left you I promised to come home 1204 01:05:36,532 --> 01:05:38,065 before you were five. 1205 01:05:38,166 --> 01:05:41,900 I didn't fulfill that promise, but when I do return, 1206 01:05:42,000 --> 01:05:44,565 I will never leave you again. 1207 01:05:44,666 --> 01:05:47,365 His optimism about the whole situation amazes me. 1208 01:05:47,465 --> 01:05:48,833 I'm just very happy 1209 01:05:48,932 --> 01:05:51,300 that he can't see this morning's newspaper. 1210 01:05:51,400 --> 01:05:54,365 Because I-I don't have the same optimism 1211 01:05:54,465 --> 01:05:56,132 or the same confidence in this government 1212 01:05:56,233 --> 01:05:59,032 that he seems to have. 1213 01:06:03,000 --> 01:06:08,465 NARRATOR: President Nixon's visit to China in February of 1972 1214 01:06:08,565 --> 01:06:11,099 not only alarmed President Thieu, 1215 01:06:11,199 --> 01:06:14,065 it worried Hanoi as well. 1216 01:06:14,166 --> 01:06:17,300 The North Vietnamese remembered how Ho Chi Minh 1217 01:06:17,400 --> 01:06:20,300 had felt betrayed in 1954 1218 01:06:20,400 --> 01:06:23,000 when Moscow and Beijing had compelled them 1219 01:06:23,099 --> 01:06:27,233 to sign the Geneva Accords, dividing Vietnam in two. 1220 01:06:27,333 --> 01:06:30,432 Now, they were concerned that warmer relations 1221 01:06:30,532 --> 01:06:32,800 between the United States and China 1222 01:06:32,900 --> 01:06:36,699 might soon mean less support from Beijing. 1223 01:06:36,800 --> 01:06:40,632 Nixon was also planning to travel to Moscow 1224 01:06:40,733 --> 01:06:44,199 to meet with Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev, 1225 01:06:44,300 --> 01:06:46,099 seeking to ease tensions 1226 01:06:46,199 --> 01:06:50,000 with North Vietnam's other communist patron. 1227 01:06:50,099 --> 01:06:54,800 Before that summit took place, First Secretary Le Duan, 1228 01:06:54,900 --> 01:06:57,766 the man who headed the Politburo in Hanoi, 1229 01:06:57,865 --> 01:07:01,233 decided to undertake a new kind of offensive. 1230 01:07:01,333 --> 01:07:05,032 It would be conventional warfare this time, 1231 01:07:05,132 --> 01:07:09,000 and on a scale he had never before attempted. 1232 01:07:09,099 --> 01:07:11,900 Le Duan had several goals in mind: 1233 01:07:12,000 --> 01:07:14,333 to strengthen his hand at the peace talks 1234 01:07:14,432 --> 01:07:16,865 by altering the military balance of power 1235 01:07:16,965 --> 01:07:18,532 in South Vietnam, 1236 01:07:18,632 --> 01:07:22,032 to show that the ARVN could not stand on their own, 1237 01:07:22,132 --> 01:07:25,833 and to convince the Soviets and the Chinese 1238 01:07:25,932 --> 01:07:29,800 his revolution was still worth supporting. 1239 01:07:33,932 --> 01:07:37,865 The assault began on March 30, 1972. 1240 01:07:37,965 --> 01:07:41,400 14 North Vietnamese infantry divisions-- 1241 01:07:41,500 --> 01:07:44,132 more than 120,000 men-- 1242 01:07:44,233 --> 01:07:46,733 now, for the first time, 1243 01:07:46,833 --> 01:07:50,766 supported by hundreds of Soviet and Chinese-made tanks 1244 01:07:50,865 --> 01:07:55,932 and other armored vehicles, attacked on three fronts: 1245 01:07:56,032 --> 01:07:59,699 across the demilitarized zone, 1246 01:07:59,800 --> 01:08:04,199 in the Central Highlands 1247 01:08:04,300 --> 01:08:08,766 and west of Saigon. 1248 01:08:08,865 --> 01:08:13,900 Americans would call it "The Easter Offensive." 1249 01:08:14,000 --> 01:08:16,800 To the South Vietnamese, 1250 01:08:16,899 --> 01:08:20,432 it would be remembered as "The Summer of Flames." 1251 01:08:20,533 --> 01:08:23,600 REPORTER: The South Vietnamese Army knew this day was coming: 1252 01:08:23,699 --> 01:08:24,966 the day without Americans. 1253 01:08:25,065 --> 01:08:26,399 It was to be the big test, 1254 01:08:26,500 --> 01:08:27,733 both for them 1255 01:08:27,832 --> 01:08:30,765 and for President Nixon's Vietnamization program. 1256 01:08:30,865 --> 01:08:33,733 The results in so far are not encouraging. 1257 01:08:33,832 --> 01:08:36,800 Whole battalions of the government's third division 1258 01:08:36,899 --> 01:08:39,199 joined the refugees on the road south. 1259 01:08:39,300 --> 01:08:43,132 They had been outnumbered, overpowered, overwhelmed. 1260 01:08:43,233 --> 01:08:45,432 NARRATOR: An entire ARVN regiment 1261 01:08:45,533 --> 01:08:47,733 surrendered at Camp Carroll. 1262 01:08:47,832 --> 01:08:49,600 North Vietnamese troops 1263 01:08:49,699 --> 01:08:52,500 then swiftly overran Quang Tri Province, 1264 01:08:52,600 --> 01:08:57,565 driving tens of thousands of terrified refugees southward. 1265 01:08:57,666 --> 01:09:01,199 They nearly cut South Vietnam in half 1266 01:09:01,300 --> 01:09:04,033 through the Central Highlands 1267 01:09:04,132 --> 01:09:08,332 and drove toward Saigon, hoping to seize large areas 1268 01:09:08,432 --> 01:09:11,365 along the Cambodian border. 1269 01:09:11,466 --> 01:09:14,265 It looked as if it were going to be 1270 01:09:14,365 --> 01:09:17,033 a total defeat for the ARVN. 1271 01:09:17,132 --> 01:09:21,065 There were only 60,000 U.S. military personnel 1272 01:09:21,166 --> 01:09:23,132 left in South Vietnam, 1273 01:09:23,233 --> 01:09:26,233 and very few of them were combat troops. 1274 01:09:28,765 --> 01:09:31,865 Suddenly, the survival of everything Nixon and Kissinger 1275 01:09:31,966 --> 01:09:34,199 had worked for was in peril. 1276 01:09:34,300 --> 01:09:38,632 They had to do something-- and fast. 1277 01:10:00,800 --> 01:10:04,233 NARRATOR: Nixon ordered up Operation Linebacker-- 1278 01:10:04,332 --> 01:10:06,832 massive air attacks 1279 01:10:06,932 --> 01:10:08,332 on the advancing North Vietnamese. 1280 01:10:10,132 --> 01:10:12,233 "The bastards have never been bombed 1281 01:10:12,332 --> 01:10:15,265 "like they're going to be this time," he said. 1282 01:10:18,966 --> 01:10:22,166 The most crucial battle of the Easter Offensive 1283 01:10:22,265 --> 01:10:24,000 was fought at An Loc, 1284 01:10:24,100 --> 01:10:26,666 a city that commanded Route 13, 1285 01:10:26,765 --> 01:10:30,000 a paved highway that led directly to Saigon, 1286 01:10:30,100 --> 01:10:32,399 just 60 miles away. 1287 01:10:35,265 --> 01:10:37,600 North Vietnamese artillery fire 1288 01:10:37,699 --> 01:10:39,632 and a massive infantry and armor attack 1289 01:10:39,733 --> 01:10:41,832 drove the city's ARVN defenders 1290 01:10:41,932 --> 01:10:46,233 into an area less than a mile square. 1291 01:10:46,332 --> 01:10:51,666 Repeated efforts to reinforce and resupply them failed. 1292 01:10:51,765 --> 01:10:55,065 The ARVN bravely held out. 1293 01:10:55,166 --> 01:10:57,600 JAMES WILLBANKS: The number one thing we did 1294 01:10:57,699 --> 01:11:00,300 was coordinate the air strikes. 1295 01:11:00,399 --> 01:11:02,832 General Hollingsworth went to General Abrams 1296 01:11:02,932 --> 01:11:05,033 and begged for all the B-52s he could get, 1297 01:11:05,132 --> 01:11:06,966 and on the 10th and 11th of May, 1298 01:11:07,065 --> 01:11:12,765 he planned a B-52 strike every 50 minutes for 24 hours. 1299 01:11:23,432 --> 01:11:24,666 NARRATOR: In the end, 1300 01:11:24,765 --> 01:11:29,166 American airpower made the difference. 1301 01:11:34,699 --> 01:11:37,365 The North Vietnamese and their armored columns, 1302 01:11:37,466 --> 01:11:38,899 massed in the open, 1303 01:11:39,000 --> 01:11:42,832 proved easy targets for American pilots. 1304 01:11:42,932 --> 01:11:46,899 "This," one American advisor said, 1305 01:11:47,000 --> 01:11:50,966 "was the kind of war we came to fight." 1306 01:12:01,632 --> 01:12:04,600 PHAM LUC: 1307 01:12:42,865 --> 01:12:44,600 (explosion) 1308 01:12:44,699 --> 01:12:48,000 NARRATOR: The North Vietnamese suffered 10,000 casualties 1309 01:12:48,100 --> 01:12:49,832 at An Loc alone 1310 01:12:49,932 --> 01:12:54,065 and lost most of their tanks and heavy artillery. 1311 01:12:54,166 --> 01:12:55,666 (explosions continue) 1312 01:12:57,466 --> 01:12:59,899 WILLBANKS: The bottom line was that all the air power 1313 01:13:00,000 --> 01:13:01,600 in the world would not make a difference 1314 01:13:01,699 --> 01:13:03,033 if the ARVN hadn't stood and fought. 1315 01:13:03,132 --> 01:13:04,565 (people shouting) 1316 01:13:04,666 --> 01:13:08,033 They had held Kon Tum, they had held An Loc, 1317 01:13:08,132 --> 01:13:09,800 they had re-taken Quang Tri. 1318 01:13:09,899 --> 01:13:11,966 They had taken the best that the North Vietnamese 1319 01:13:12,065 --> 01:13:13,699 had to throw at them. 1320 01:13:13,800 --> 01:13:17,033 So I thought if we continue to maintain that support, 1321 01:13:17,132 --> 01:13:18,332 perhaps they had a chance. 1322 01:13:18,432 --> 01:13:22,332 DUONG VAN MAI ELLIOTT: The Easter Offensive, to me, 1323 01:13:22,432 --> 01:13:25,666 showed that the South Vietnamese could fight, 1324 01:13:25,765 --> 01:13:28,733 but only up to a certain point. 1325 01:13:28,832 --> 01:13:31,500 So, my question would be, 1326 01:13:31,600 --> 01:13:33,500 what would happen when the Americans left 1327 01:13:33,600 --> 01:13:36,166 with their B-52s, you know? 1328 01:13:36,265 --> 01:13:37,765 (protestors chanting) 1329 01:13:37,865 --> 01:13:40,932 NARRATOR: Americans may have approved of the renewed use 1330 01:13:41,033 --> 01:13:44,300 of American air power to stop the communist advance 1331 01:13:44,399 --> 01:13:45,765 into the South, 1332 01:13:45,865 --> 01:13:50,432 but Nixon had also ordered American planes to resume 1333 01:13:50,533 --> 01:13:53,733 sustained bombing of North Vietnam, 1334 01:13:53,832 --> 01:13:57,399 which had been halted since the Johnson administration. 1335 01:13:57,500 --> 01:14:01,300 Some saw the new bombing, which vastly exceeded 1336 01:14:01,399 --> 01:14:03,399 all previous campaigns, 1337 01:14:03,500 --> 01:14:08,233 as evidence that a war Nixon had promised was winding down 1338 01:14:08,332 --> 01:14:11,100 was once again being escalated. 1339 01:14:11,199 --> 01:14:14,533 (plane soaring) 1340 01:14:14,632 --> 01:14:16,065 LESLIE GELB: The bombing campaign 1341 01:14:16,166 --> 01:14:17,632 was much more extensive 1342 01:14:17,733 --> 01:14:22,199 than the bombing campaign under Lyndon Johnson. 1343 01:14:22,300 --> 01:14:23,365 And from a standpoint 1344 01:14:23,466 --> 01:14:25,966 of pressuring them to make concessions 1345 01:14:26,065 --> 01:14:27,899 at the negotiating table, 1346 01:14:28,000 --> 01:14:30,365 historically, that's how you did it. 1347 01:14:30,466 --> 01:14:32,699 Only it didn't work with these guys. 1348 01:14:32,800 --> 01:14:34,632 (bombs exploding) 1349 01:14:34,733 --> 01:14:36,399 They took the pounding. 1350 01:14:38,466 --> 01:14:40,265 (men yelling in Vietnamese) 1351 01:14:43,533 --> 01:14:47,132 NARRATOR: Le Minh Khue, who had served four years 1352 01:14:47,233 --> 01:14:50,600 as a Youth Volunteer on the Ho Chi Minh trail, 1353 01:14:50,699 --> 01:14:53,332 was now back home in North Vietnam. 1354 01:14:54,632 --> 01:14:57,832 LE MINH KHUE: 1355 01:15:35,399 --> 01:15:38,300 NARRATOR: Among the thousands of South Vietnamese 1356 01:15:38,399 --> 01:15:41,100 who lost their lives in the Easter Offensive 1357 01:15:41,199 --> 01:15:44,365 was the brother of Phan Quang Tue. 1358 01:15:44,466 --> 01:15:47,000 PHAN QUANG TUE: I had a brother, Tuan. 1359 01:15:47,100 --> 01:15:51,199 And we were raised together. 1360 01:15:51,300 --> 01:15:55,000 He would have been now 67. 1361 01:15:55,100 --> 01:15:57,832 When his plane was shot down 1362 01:15:57,932 --> 01:16:02,000 and later on they weren't able to recover him, 1363 01:16:02,100 --> 01:16:04,666 his body, so he disappeared, 1364 01:16:04,765 --> 01:16:09,132 he was missing in action, he was 26 years old. 1365 01:16:09,233 --> 01:16:12,600 He has his full life ahead of him. 1366 01:16:12,699 --> 01:16:15,699 (voice breaking): Tuan never had a chance to live his life. 1367 01:16:17,800 --> 01:16:21,432 And I can never overcome the feeling, 1368 01:16:21,533 --> 01:16:25,632 as to himself 1369 01:16:25,733 --> 01:16:27,966 and his generation, 1370 01:16:28,065 --> 01:16:31,300 sacrifice their lives for what? 1371 01:16:33,132 --> 01:16:37,466 And the frustrating thing is that even Vietnamese themself 1372 01:16:37,565 --> 01:16:39,500 do not seem to value that loss. 1373 01:16:45,800 --> 01:16:48,800 NIXON: There's only one way to stop the killing. 1374 01:16:48,899 --> 01:16:52,533 That is to keep the weapons of war out of the hands 1375 01:16:52,632 --> 01:16:58,365 of the international outlaws of North Vietnam. 1376 01:16:58,466 --> 01:16:59,699 Throughout the war in Vietnam, 1377 01:16:59,800 --> 01:17:02,565 the United States has exercised a degree of restraint 1378 01:17:02,666 --> 01:17:04,800 unprecedented in the annals of war... 1379 01:17:04,899 --> 01:17:06,399 (planes flying overhead) 1380 01:17:06,500 --> 01:17:09,300 NARRATOR: Le Duan's Easter Offensive, like Tet, 1381 01:17:09,399 --> 01:17:11,632 had been a great gamble. 1382 01:17:11,733 --> 01:17:14,466 So was Nixon's next move. 1383 01:17:14,565 --> 01:17:17,600 The massive North Vietnamese assault had failed, 1384 01:17:17,699 --> 01:17:19,100 the president said, 1385 01:17:19,199 --> 01:17:22,233 but it could never have been mounted in the first place 1386 01:17:22,332 --> 01:17:24,832 without weapons and supplies provided by China 1387 01:17:24,932 --> 01:17:27,500 and the Soviet Union. 1388 01:17:27,600 --> 01:17:31,765 Accordingly, he ordered 11,000 mines laid 1389 01:17:31,865 --> 01:17:35,265 in North Vietnamese waters to block further access 1390 01:17:35,365 --> 01:17:37,033 to Haiphong harbor. 1391 01:17:37,132 --> 01:17:40,865 It was something the Joint Chiefs had been asking for 1392 01:17:40,966 --> 01:17:42,800 for years. 1393 01:17:42,899 --> 01:17:45,033 The scheduled summit with the Soviets 1394 01:17:45,132 --> 01:17:46,832 was just two weeks away, 1395 01:17:46,932 --> 01:17:49,132 and some advisors had urged the president 1396 01:17:49,233 --> 01:17:52,166 not to take any action that directly threatened 1397 01:17:52,265 --> 01:17:56,033 Soviet ships, for fear they would cancel it. 1398 01:17:56,132 --> 01:17:58,733 Nixon thought he had to take the risk. 1399 01:17:58,832 --> 01:18:02,899 And so he spoke directly to Moscow. 1400 01:18:03,000 --> 01:18:06,432 Let us not slide back toward the dark shadows 1401 01:18:06,533 --> 01:18:09,365 of a previous age. 1402 01:18:09,466 --> 01:18:14,132 We do not ask you to sacrifice your principles 1403 01:18:14,233 --> 01:18:16,233 or your friends, 1404 01:18:16,332 --> 01:18:19,666 but neither should you permit Hanoi's intransigence 1405 01:18:19,765 --> 01:18:22,365 to blot out the prospects we together 1406 01:18:22,466 --> 01:18:23,832 have so patiently prepared. 1407 01:18:26,666 --> 01:18:29,399 NARRATOR: Nixon's gamble paid off. 1408 01:18:29,500 --> 01:18:31,065 The Soviets and the Chinese denounced 1409 01:18:31,166 --> 01:18:36,600 the president's action, but then did nothing. 1410 01:18:36,699 --> 01:18:41,765 On May 26, the United States and the Soviet Union signed 1411 01:18:41,865 --> 01:18:45,800 an historic Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, 1412 01:18:45,899 --> 01:18:49,100 the first agreement to limit nuclear armaments 1413 01:18:49,199 --> 01:18:51,565 since the Cold War began. 1414 01:18:51,666 --> 01:18:54,733 For the Soviet Union, for China, 1415 01:18:54,832 --> 01:18:57,199 as well as for the United States, 1416 01:18:57,300 --> 01:19:01,800 Vietnam's significance was steadily receding. 1417 01:19:38,399 --> 01:19:40,166 NIXON: I know. 1418 01:20:04,065 --> 01:20:06,000 (camera shutter clicks) 1419 01:20:08,199 --> 01:20:12,765 NARRATOR: On the morning of June 8, 1972, 1420 01:20:12,865 --> 01:20:17,265 Nick Ut, a 21-year-old South Vietnamese photographer 1421 01:20:17,365 --> 01:20:19,600 working for the Associated Press, 1422 01:20:19,699 --> 01:20:23,132 was accompanying ARVN troops on Highway One, 1423 01:20:23,233 --> 01:20:25,699 moving toward a village called Trang Bang, 1424 01:20:25,800 --> 01:20:28,565 to dislodge North Vietnamese forces 1425 01:20:28,666 --> 01:20:32,432 that had occupied it during the Easter Offensive. 1426 01:20:32,533 --> 01:20:35,699 Ut was beginning to put his cameras away, 1427 01:20:35,800 --> 01:20:37,733 ready to return to Saigon, 1428 01:20:37,832 --> 01:20:42,565 when he saw a South Vietnamese fighter suddenly dip down 1429 01:20:42,666 --> 01:20:44,699 toward the fleeing refugees, 1430 01:20:44,800 --> 01:20:47,699 whom the pilot mistook for the enemy. 1431 01:20:47,800 --> 01:20:52,033 (explosions) 1432 01:20:52,132 --> 01:20:56,932 (camera shutter clicking) 1433 01:21:01,166 --> 01:21:04,399 (speaking English): 1434 01:21:38,600 --> 01:21:40,132 (speaking Vietnamese) 1435 01:22:11,166 --> 01:22:16,199 NARRATOR: Ut drove the badly burned girl, Kim Phuc, 1436 01:22:16,300 --> 01:22:18,533 and several other injured children 1437 01:22:18,632 --> 01:22:20,865 to a hospital in Saigon. 1438 01:22:20,966 --> 01:22:25,332 She had been burned over 30% of her body. 1439 01:22:25,432 --> 01:22:28,666 Then, Ut raced to the AP darkroom 1440 01:22:28,765 --> 01:22:32,166 to find out what he had caught on film. 1441 01:22:50,399 --> 01:22:53,265 NARRATOR: His photo editor in Saigon told him 1442 01:22:53,365 --> 01:22:56,332 they could not send the picture out on the wire, 1443 01:22:56,432 --> 01:22:58,800 because the girl was naked. 1444 01:22:58,899 --> 01:23:01,332 But then Ut's boss, 1445 01:23:01,432 --> 01:23:05,100 the legendary combat photographer Horst Faas, 1446 01:23:05,199 --> 01:23:07,132 saw the pictures. 1447 01:23:07,600 --> 01:23:09,265 UT: 1448 01:23:19,065 --> 01:23:22,966 NARRATOR: Nick Ut's photograph appeared 1449 01:23:23,065 --> 01:23:25,865 on front pages around the world 1450 01:23:25,966 --> 01:23:29,899 and won the Pulitzer Prize. 1451 01:23:30,000 --> 01:23:32,899 For many Americans, 1452 01:23:33,000 --> 01:23:36,233 even many of those who had supported the war, 1453 01:23:36,332 --> 01:23:40,932 the image seemed to signal that enough was enough. 1454 01:23:44,533 --> 01:23:46,899 Kim Phuc would survive. 1455 01:23:47,000 --> 01:23:52,432 She eventually left Vietnam and settled outside Toronto. 1456 01:23:57,899 --> 01:24:02,100 (cheers and applause) 1457 01:24:02,199 --> 01:24:04,265 (rhythmic clapping) 1458 01:24:07,865 --> 01:24:11,865 I introduce Valerie Kushner of Virginia 1459 01:24:11,966 --> 01:24:14,632 to second the nomination of George McGovern. 1460 01:24:14,733 --> 01:24:16,932 (applause and cheering) 1461 01:24:17,033 --> 01:24:20,632 Mr. Chairman, Democrats, 1462 01:24:20,733 --> 01:24:25,199 my participation in this convention is a tribute 1463 01:24:25,300 --> 01:24:28,466 to the reforms instituted by the Democratic Party, 1464 01:24:28,565 --> 01:24:32,500 for I am a woman, and I am under 30. 1465 01:24:32,600 --> 01:24:36,166 But I also represent an even smaller minority: 1466 01:24:36,265 --> 01:24:39,000 the wives of Americans who are missing 1467 01:24:39,100 --> 01:24:41,533 or imprisoned in Southeast Asia. 1468 01:24:41,632 --> 01:24:45,166 (cheers and applause) 1469 01:24:45,265 --> 01:24:47,932 NARRATOR: Valerie Kushner, 1470 01:24:48,033 --> 01:24:51,500 hoping to get her husband, Hal, home as soon as possible, 1471 01:24:51,600 --> 01:24:54,533 had become an ardent supporter of the candidacy 1472 01:24:54,632 --> 01:24:58,233 of Senator George McGovern of South Dakota. 1473 01:24:58,332 --> 01:25:02,365 A decorated bomber pilot in World War II, 1474 01:25:02,466 --> 01:25:05,166 McGovern had called for an early end 1475 01:25:05,265 --> 01:25:06,565 to the bombing of the North, 1476 01:25:06,666 --> 01:25:09,765 a halt to Congressional funding for the war, 1477 01:25:09,865 --> 01:25:11,765 and immediate withdrawal 1478 01:25:11,865 --> 01:25:16,432 from Vietnam once the POWs were released. 1479 01:25:16,533 --> 01:25:19,932 I knew that he would bring my husband home. 1480 01:25:20,033 --> 01:25:22,666 (applause) 1481 01:25:24,199 --> 01:25:28,865 But even more important, he will bring America home. 1482 01:25:28,966 --> 01:25:31,932 (applause and cheering) 1483 01:25:32,033 --> 01:25:35,033 And it is for that reason 1484 01:25:35,132 --> 01:25:37,399 that I am proud to second the nomination 1485 01:25:37,500 --> 01:25:42,233 of our next president, Senator George S. McGovern. 1486 01:25:42,332 --> 01:25:45,265 (applause and cheering) 1487 01:25:47,800 --> 01:25:50,033 NARRATOR: By the time her candidate 1488 01:25:50,132 --> 01:25:52,533 finally accepted the nomination, 1489 01:25:52,632 --> 01:25:55,265 it was 2:48 in the morning. 1490 01:25:55,365 --> 01:25:58,300 Most Americans were asleep. 1491 01:25:58,399 --> 01:26:03,233 McGOVERN: During four administrations of both parties, 1492 01:26:03,332 --> 01:26:08,300 a terrible war has been charted behind closed doors. 1493 01:26:08,399 --> 01:26:10,432 (cheers and applause) 1494 01:26:10,533 --> 01:26:12,899 I want those doors opened, 1495 01:26:13,000 --> 01:26:16,000 and I want that war closed. 1496 01:26:16,100 --> 01:26:18,765 (raucous cheers and applause) 1497 01:26:18,865 --> 01:26:20,332 (static) 1498 01:26:20,432 --> 01:26:24,132 NARRATOR: McGovern's campaign quickly collapsed. 1499 01:26:24,233 --> 01:26:27,432 He botched the selection of his running mate, 1500 01:26:27,533 --> 01:26:30,800 and secretly asked an aide in Paris 1501 01:26:30,899 --> 01:26:34,166 to talk with the North Vietnamese about POWs, 1502 01:26:34,265 --> 01:26:39,365 and then denied he'd meddled in the peace process. 1503 01:26:39,466 --> 01:26:41,432 Organized labor, 1504 01:26:41,533 --> 01:26:44,600 traditionally the Democrats' most reliable ally, 1505 01:26:44,699 --> 01:26:47,533 refused to endorse the party's candidate 1506 01:26:47,632 --> 01:26:51,166 for the first time in 20 years. 1507 01:26:51,265 --> 01:26:57,000 McGovern's poll numbers eroded steadily over the summer. 1508 01:26:57,100 --> 01:27:00,033 Still, hoping to find material 1509 01:27:00,132 --> 01:27:03,033 that might be used to smear the opposition, 1510 01:27:03,132 --> 01:27:06,765 Nixon's aides had already authorized the Plumbers 1511 01:27:06,865 --> 01:27:09,065 to make another break-in, 1512 01:27:09,166 --> 01:27:12,800 this time at Democratic National Headquarters 1513 01:27:12,899 --> 01:27:15,699 in the Washington, D.C., apartment complex 1514 01:27:15,800 --> 01:27:18,733 called the Watergate. 1515 01:27:18,832 --> 01:27:20,832 They had been caught. 1516 01:27:20,932 --> 01:27:23,565 JOHN CHANCELLOR: One of the most fascinating and exotic stories 1517 01:27:23,666 --> 01:27:25,365 ever to come out of Washington, D.C., 1518 01:27:25,466 --> 01:27:27,399 is the talk of the Capitol today. 1519 01:27:27,500 --> 01:27:29,466 Five men were arrested early Saturday 1520 01:27:29,565 --> 01:27:32,365 while trying to install eavesdropping equipment 1521 01:27:32,466 --> 01:27:34,565 at the Democratic National Committee. 1522 01:27:34,666 --> 01:27:36,865 And it turns out that one of them has an office 1523 01:27:36,966 --> 01:27:39,233 in the headquarters of the Committee 1524 01:27:39,332 --> 01:27:41,065 for the Re-Election of the President. 1525 01:27:41,166 --> 01:27:44,466 (camera shutter clicking) 1526 01:27:49,300 --> 01:27:51,399 ("Barbarella" by Bob Crewe and Charles Fox playing) 1527 01:27:51,500 --> 01:27:57,033 ♪ It's a wonder, wonder woman ♪ 1528 01:27:57,132 --> 01:28:02,699 ♪ You're so wild and wonderful ♪ 1529 01:28:02,800 --> 01:28:07,765 ♪ 'Cause it seems whenever 1530 01:28:07,865 --> 01:28:10,265 ♪ We're together 1531 01:28:10,365 --> 01:28:12,033 ♪ The planets all... 1532 01:28:12,132 --> 01:28:15,600 JOHN MUSGRAVE: Barbarella-- Jane Fonda was... 1533 01:28:15,699 --> 01:28:19,765 was one of our major fantasies. 1534 01:28:19,865 --> 01:28:23,966 You know? I mean, major fantasies. 1535 01:28:24,065 --> 01:28:27,300 And, uh, we couldn't believe it 1536 01:28:27,399 --> 01:28:31,733 when that fantasy went to North Vietnam. 1537 01:28:31,832 --> 01:28:34,399 She was held to a different standard of conduct 1538 01:28:34,500 --> 01:28:38,365 by being our fantasy, you know, our dream girl. 1539 01:28:38,466 --> 01:28:42,000 It's like our dream girl betrayed us. 1540 01:28:42,100 --> 01:28:43,300 ("Where Have All the Flowers Gone" by Joan Baez playing) 1541 01:28:43,399 --> 01:28:45,466 ♪ Where have all the young men gone? ♪ 1542 01:28:45,565 --> 01:28:49,832 ♪ They are all in uniform 1543 01:28:49,932 --> 01:28:55,432 ♪ When will they ever learn? 1544 01:28:55,533 --> 01:29:00,365 ♪ When will they ever learn? ♪ 1545 01:29:00,466 --> 01:29:02,332 ♪ Where have all... 1546 01:29:02,432 --> 01:29:04,932 NARRATOR: Over the years, a steady stream 1547 01:29:05,033 --> 01:29:08,533 of Americans opposed to the war would visit Hanoi, 1548 01:29:08,632 --> 01:29:11,865 including the folk singer Joan Baez, 1549 01:29:11,966 --> 01:29:15,533 David Dellinger of the War Resisters League, 1550 01:29:15,632 --> 01:29:18,832 the writer Susan Sontag, 1551 01:29:18,932 --> 01:29:23,300 and Tom Hayden of the Indochina Peace Campaign. 1552 01:29:23,399 --> 01:29:26,533 But no visitor made more headlines 1553 01:29:26,632 --> 01:29:28,966 than the actress Jane Fonda. 1554 01:29:29,065 --> 01:29:32,399 During two weeks in the summer of 1972, 1555 01:29:32,500 --> 01:29:36,733 she broadcast at least ten times over Radio Hanoi, 1556 01:29:36,832 --> 01:29:39,199 denouncing American POWs 1557 01:29:39,300 --> 01:29:41,666 for having committed war crimes, 1558 01:29:41,765 --> 01:29:44,265 urging the North Vietnamese to hold out 1559 01:29:44,365 --> 01:29:47,733 against American imperialism. 1560 01:29:47,832 --> 01:29:51,199 Many Americans would never forgive her 1561 01:29:51,300 --> 01:29:54,565 for what she did and said. 1562 01:29:54,666 --> 01:29:57,100 FONDA: According to international law, 1563 01:29:57,199 --> 01:29:59,600 these men are war criminals. 1564 01:29:59,699 --> 01:30:01,166 That's according to law, 1565 01:30:01,265 --> 01:30:02,500 according to the Nuremberg principles, 1566 01:30:02,600 --> 01:30:05,000 according to the Geneva Accord, and others. 1567 01:30:05,100 --> 01:30:08,000 They should be tried in front of a court 1568 01:30:08,100 --> 01:30:10,533 and probably executed for what they did. 1569 01:30:10,632 --> 01:30:14,199 MUSGRAVE: She's taken a lot of heat for what she did. 1570 01:30:14,300 --> 01:30:16,865 And deservedly so. 1571 01:30:16,966 --> 01:30:20,466 She did some things that were terrible. 1572 01:30:20,565 --> 01:30:23,132 And-and, yes, 1573 01:30:23,233 --> 01:30:25,733 we have a right to be pissed off at her. 1574 01:30:25,832 --> 01:30:28,733 But, you know, 1575 01:30:28,832 --> 01:30:31,565 she wasn't the only one. 1576 01:30:31,666 --> 01:30:36,166 She's just the only one we fantasized about. 1577 01:30:37,166 --> 01:30:41,600 (cheers and applause) 1578 01:30:46,365 --> 01:30:48,500 AUDIENCE: Four more years! 1579 01:30:48,600 --> 01:30:51,432 Four more years! Four more years! 1580 01:30:51,533 --> 01:30:53,932 NIXON: We have brought over half a million men home, 1581 01:30:54,033 --> 01:30:55,932 and more will be coming home. 1582 01:30:56,033 --> 01:30:59,065 We have ended America's ground combat role. 1583 01:30:59,166 --> 01:31:01,733 No draftees are being sent to Vietnam. 1584 01:31:01,832 --> 01:31:04,733 We have reduced our casualties by 98%. 1585 01:31:04,832 --> 01:31:06,632 We've gone the extra mile. 1586 01:31:06,733 --> 01:31:09,432 In fact, we've gone tens of thousands of miles 1587 01:31:09,533 --> 01:31:11,932 trying to seek a negotiated settlement of the war. 1588 01:31:12,033 --> 01:31:13,699 (applause) 1589 01:31:13,800 --> 01:31:16,500 There are three things, however, that we have not 1590 01:31:16,600 --> 01:31:18,632 and that we will not offer. 1591 01:31:18,733 --> 01:31:21,832 We will never abandon our prisoners of war. 1592 01:31:21,932 --> 01:31:23,332 (cheers and applause) 1593 01:31:29,199 --> 01:31:30,832 And, second, 1594 01:31:30,932 --> 01:31:34,500 we will not join our enemies 1595 01:31:34,600 --> 01:31:38,100 in imposing a communist government on our ally, 1596 01:31:38,199 --> 01:31:40,533 the 17 million people of South Vietnam. 1597 01:31:40,632 --> 01:31:43,332 (cheers and applause) 1598 01:31:46,666 --> 01:31:48,565 And we will never stain the honor 1599 01:31:48,666 --> 01:31:50,733 of the United States of America. 1600 01:31:50,832 --> 01:31:52,765 (cheers) 1601 01:32:33,765 --> 01:32:36,865 NARRATOR: Back in Paris, Henry Kissinger was determined 1602 01:32:36,966 --> 01:32:41,399 to hammer out a peace agreement before Election Day. 1603 01:32:41,500 --> 01:32:44,765 Now Le Duc Tho made a key concession. 1604 01:32:44,865 --> 01:32:47,065 Hanoi no longer insisted 1605 01:32:47,166 --> 01:32:50,699 that President Thieu had to go. 1606 01:32:50,800 --> 01:32:53,533 JOHN NEGROPONTE: There was somehow this compulsion 1607 01:32:53,632 --> 01:32:57,132 to come to some kind of an agreement. 1608 01:32:57,233 --> 01:33:00,132 I remember Le Duc Tho when he produced the draft agreement 1609 01:33:00,233 --> 01:33:06,466 in October 8 of '72 to Kissinger, saying, 1610 01:33:06,565 --> 01:33:07,865 "You're in a hurry, aren't you? 1611 01:33:07,966 --> 01:33:09,865 You want to do this quickly." 1612 01:33:09,966 --> 01:33:13,533 And-and the response was, "Yes." 1613 01:33:13,632 --> 01:33:17,065 NARRATOR: The two sides soon had a tentative deal, 1614 01:33:17,166 --> 01:33:19,065 a "cease-fire in place" 1615 01:33:19,166 --> 01:33:21,565 to be followed within 60 days 1616 01:33:21,666 --> 01:33:24,565 by a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops 1617 01:33:24,666 --> 01:33:28,166 and the return of all American POWs. 1618 01:33:28,265 --> 01:33:32,432 The United States stopped bombing the North. 1619 01:33:32,533 --> 01:33:38,033 No one had told President Thieu any of the terms. 1620 01:33:39,666 --> 01:33:43,365 The day before Kissinger was to arrive in Saigon to brief him, 1621 01:33:43,466 --> 01:33:47,100 Thieu was handed a document found in an enemy bunker 1622 01:33:47,199 --> 01:33:49,332 in Quang Tin Province. 1623 01:33:49,432 --> 01:33:53,765 It was entitled "General Instructions for Cease-Fire." 1624 01:33:53,865 --> 01:33:58,533 It meant that communist cadres in an isolated province 1625 01:33:58,632 --> 01:34:02,966 of his own country already knew more about what Kissinger 1626 01:34:03,065 --> 01:34:08,000 and Le Duc Tho had agreed to in Paris than he did. 1627 01:34:08,100 --> 01:34:11,432 NEGROPONTE: And imagine being given an agreement 1628 01:34:11,533 --> 01:34:16,899 concerning the fate of your own country and, uh, 1629 01:34:17,000 --> 01:34:18,666 being told that you really don't have 1630 01:34:18,765 --> 01:34:22,332 any input in the matter. 1631 01:34:22,432 --> 01:34:25,899 And, oh, by the way, we didn't even yet have 1632 01:34:26,000 --> 01:34:27,800 the Vietnamese translation, 1633 01:34:27,899 --> 01:34:29,632 because that hadn't been completed. 1634 01:34:29,733 --> 01:34:33,199 And we gave him the English version. 1635 01:34:33,300 --> 01:34:36,533 So, I mean, as a professional diplomat, 1636 01:34:36,632 --> 01:34:39,800 somebody who's been in this business all my life, uh, 1637 01:34:39,899 --> 01:34:42,565 I've got to tell you, that just an awful lot 1638 01:34:42,666 --> 01:34:45,365 of diplomatic rules were broken there. 1639 01:34:45,466 --> 01:34:49,300 NARRATOR: Thieu refused to accept the terms. 1640 01:34:49,399 --> 01:34:52,565 Allowing North Vietnamese troops to remain in the South 1641 01:34:52,666 --> 01:34:55,733 would be the death of his country. 1642 01:34:55,832 --> 01:35:00,000 Nonetheless, after Kissinger returned home 1643 01:35:00,100 --> 01:35:02,533 12 days before the election, 1644 01:35:02,632 --> 01:35:06,800 he told the press, "Peace is at hand." 1645 01:35:06,899 --> 01:35:09,365 ("Tail Dragger" by Link Wray playing) 1646 01:35:12,466 --> 01:35:15,399 On November 7, 1972, 1647 01:35:15,500 --> 01:35:18,565 Richard Nixon won a stunning victory. 1648 01:35:18,666 --> 01:35:23,399 He was reelected with more than 60% of the popular vote-- 1649 01:35:23,500 --> 01:35:29,399 521 electoral votes to McGovern's 17. 1650 01:35:29,500 --> 01:35:33,199 He took every single state except Massachusetts 1651 01:35:33,300 --> 01:35:35,800 and the District of Columbia. 1652 01:35:35,899 --> 01:35:39,000 Now, the president resolved to rid himself 1653 01:35:39,100 --> 01:35:44,666 of Vietnam completely before his second inauguration. 1654 01:35:44,765 --> 01:35:47,533 To calm Thieu's fears of what was to come, 1655 01:35:47,632 --> 01:35:50,466 Nixon launched another massive airlift 1656 01:35:50,565 --> 01:35:53,399 of military equipment to South Vietnam. 1657 01:35:53,500 --> 01:35:56,500 "If we had given this aid to the North Vietnamese," 1658 01:35:56,600 --> 01:35:58,399 one American general said, 1659 01:35:58,500 --> 01:36:02,800 "they could have fought us for the rest of the century." 1660 01:36:02,899 --> 01:36:06,765 The Paris peace talks resumed. 1661 01:36:06,865 --> 01:36:10,132 But then, Le Duc Tho suddenly announced 1662 01:36:10,233 --> 01:36:14,399 he needed to return to Hanoi for consultation. 1663 01:36:14,500 --> 01:36:16,332 NEGROPONTE: We could only conclude that maybe they were 1664 01:36:16,432 --> 01:36:17,899 having some doubts about whether 1665 01:36:18,000 --> 01:36:19,899 they wanted to go through with the agreement, 1666 01:36:20,000 --> 01:36:22,600 because we had sent so many supplies 1667 01:36:22,699 --> 01:36:25,800 to Saigon in the intervening weeks. 1668 01:36:25,899 --> 01:36:28,500 NARRATOR: There turned out to be dissension 1669 01:36:28,600 --> 01:36:31,132 on the communist side as well. 1670 01:36:31,233 --> 01:36:34,699 Hanoi, like Washington, had not bothered to consult 1671 01:36:34,800 --> 01:36:36,932 with its southern comrades. 1672 01:36:37,033 --> 01:36:39,733 It had dropped the two demands that meant the most 1673 01:36:39,832 --> 01:36:43,765 to the Viet Cong-- the removal of Thieu, and the release 1674 01:36:43,865 --> 01:36:47,000 of some 30,000 of their prisoners. 1675 01:36:47,100 --> 01:36:50,065 "Hanoi's message was clear," 1676 01:36:50,166 --> 01:36:52,533 one bitter Viet Cong official said. 1677 01:36:52,632 --> 01:36:56,432 "It cared more about American prisoners of war 1678 01:36:56,533 --> 01:36:59,199 than it did for us." 1679 01:36:59,300 --> 01:37:02,832 Nixon ordered Kissinger to suspend the talks, 1680 01:37:02,932 --> 01:37:05,865 and then he resumed the bombing of North Vietnam 1681 01:37:05,966 --> 01:37:08,132 to further punish Hanoi, 1682 01:37:08,233 --> 01:37:11,065 and to signal to both Hanoi and Saigon 1683 01:37:11,166 --> 01:37:14,733 that the United States might use its airpower 1684 01:37:14,832 --> 01:37:17,000 to defend South Vietnam 1685 01:37:17,100 --> 01:37:21,500 even after a peace agreement was signed. 1686 01:37:22,899 --> 01:37:24,733 On December 18, 1687 01:37:24,832 --> 01:37:28,199 Nixon unleashed round-the-clock air strikes 1688 01:37:28,300 --> 01:37:31,365 that flattened targets around Hanoi and Haiphong. 1689 01:37:31,466 --> 01:37:33,199 (explosions) 1690 01:37:33,300 --> 01:37:36,466 It would be remembered as the Christmas Bombing. 1691 01:37:36,565 --> 01:37:39,899 (bombs exploding, people shouting) 1692 01:37:40,000 --> 01:37:41,765 HAL KUSHNER: And all of a sudden, 1693 01:37:41,865 --> 01:37:43,865 around Christmastime, 1694 01:37:43,966 --> 01:37:46,265 we hear an Arc Light operation, 1695 01:37:46,365 --> 01:37:48,832 B-52s-- bom-bom-bom-bom-bom. 1696 01:37:48,932 --> 01:37:50,800 And it's all around, and it is just exploding. 1697 01:37:50,899 --> 01:37:55,699 And everyone knew they were B-52s. 1698 01:37:55,800 --> 01:37:58,033 And is... in the two years that I was there, 1699 01:37:58,132 --> 01:38:00,800 that was the first time I ever heard a bomb. 1700 01:38:00,899 --> 01:38:02,332 And it was close. 1701 01:38:02,432 --> 01:38:04,699 It was really close. 1702 01:38:04,800 --> 01:38:06,932 It was frightening, but we were still cheering. 1703 01:38:07,033 --> 01:38:10,699 I mean, we were cheering because something was happening. 1704 01:38:10,800 --> 01:38:13,033 (explosions) 1705 01:38:13,132 --> 01:38:14,932 HUY DUC: 1706 01:38:43,800 --> 01:38:45,166 NARRATOR: Around the world, 1707 01:38:45,265 --> 01:38:48,500 antiwar demonstrators returned to the streets. 1708 01:38:48,600 --> 01:38:51,699 The prime minister of Sweden compared the United States 1709 01:38:51,800 --> 01:38:53,432 to Nazi Germany. 1710 01:38:53,533 --> 01:38:55,632 The Pope called the bombing, 1711 01:38:55,733 --> 01:38:58,432 which killed more than 1,600 civilians, 1712 01:38:58,533 --> 01:39:01,632 "the object of daily grief." 1713 01:39:01,733 --> 01:39:06,033 James Reston of theNew York Times pronounced the raids 1714 01:39:06,132 --> 01:39:07,932 "war by tantrum." 1715 01:39:08,033 --> 01:39:12,466 Republican Senator William Saxbe of Ohio said 1716 01:39:12,565 --> 01:39:17,166 the president had taken leave of his senses. 1717 01:39:17,265 --> 01:39:18,800 (gunfire) 1718 01:39:18,899 --> 01:39:22,865 North Vietnam shot down 15 B-52s, 1719 01:39:22,966 --> 01:39:27,233 along with 11 other aircraft. 1720 01:39:27,332 --> 01:39:31,300 93 crewmen were reported missing. 1721 01:39:31,399 --> 01:39:36,065 45 new prisoners of war were locked up in Hanoi, 1722 01:39:36,166 --> 01:39:40,765 one of whom died in captivity. 1723 01:39:40,865 --> 01:39:45,765 Meanwhile, both the Chinese and the Soviets pressed Hanoi 1724 01:39:45,865 --> 01:39:48,365 to resume negotiations. 1725 01:39:48,466 --> 01:39:52,065 "The most important thing is to let the Americans leave," 1726 01:39:52,166 --> 01:39:55,332 Zhou Enlai told a North Vietnamese official. 1727 01:39:55,432 --> 01:40:00,132 "The situation will change in six months or a year." 1728 01:40:02,199 --> 01:40:06,265 On December 26, Hanoi signaled its willingness 1729 01:40:06,365 --> 01:40:08,600 to return to Paris. 1730 01:40:08,699 --> 01:40:13,265 It would take just six days to reach a final agreement. 1731 01:40:13,365 --> 01:40:19,565 NEGROPONTE: We bombed them into accepting our concessions. 1732 01:40:19,666 --> 01:40:23,765 We bombed them into accepting our concessions. 1733 01:40:23,865 --> 01:40:27,600 And I stand by that statement, because, in effect, 1734 01:40:27,699 --> 01:40:33,932 what we did was to carry out this massive bombing campaign 1735 01:40:34,033 --> 01:40:38,832 in order to basically get back to pretty much exactly 1736 01:40:38,932 --> 01:40:42,565 where we were at the end of October in '72. 1737 01:40:44,533 --> 01:40:47,466 NARRATOR: President Thieu still balked at signing on. 1738 01:40:47,565 --> 01:40:49,832 Nixon was adamant. 1739 01:40:49,932 --> 01:40:52,932 Thieu had to go along with what Washington and Hanoi 1740 01:40:53,033 --> 01:40:54,600 had worked out. 1741 01:40:54,699 --> 01:40:57,399 But without informing Congress, 1742 01:40:57,500 --> 01:41:00,399 the president assured Thieu in writing 1743 01:41:00,500 --> 01:41:04,233 that the United States would "respond with full force" 1744 01:41:04,332 --> 01:41:07,932 if the North ever violated the agreement. 1745 01:41:08,033 --> 01:41:11,565 "The Americans really leave me no choice," Thieu said. 1746 01:41:11,666 --> 01:41:15,533 "Either sign or they will cut off aid. 1747 01:41:15,632 --> 01:41:19,733 "On the other hand, we have an absolute guarantee from Nixon 1748 01:41:19,832 --> 01:41:22,033 "to defend the country. 1749 01:41:22,132 --> 01:41:26,600 "I am going to agree to sign and hold him to his word. 1750 01:41:26,699 --> 01:41:30,399 He is an honest man and I am going to trust him." 1751 01:41:39,065 --> 01:41:43,132 On January 22, 1973, 1752 01:41:43,233 --> 01:41:47,132 at his ranch in the Hill Country of Texas, 1753 01:41:47,233 --> 01:41:50,166 Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1754 01:41:50,265 --> 01:41:52,865 the president who had committed the United States 1755 01:41:52,966 --> 01:41:55,832 to a ground war in Vietnam, 1756 01:41:55,932 --> 01:42:00,233 and had seen that war undercut his domestic social programs 1757 01:42:00,332 --> 01:42:03,332 and end his political career, 1758 01:42:03,432 --> 01:42:05,600 died of congestive heart failure. 1759 01:42:10,832 --> 01:42:15,632 The following evening, Richard Nixon spoke to the nation. 1760 01:42:15,733 --> 01:42:18,332 28 years after the United States 1761 01:42:18,432 --> 01:42:21,233 first became involved in Vietnam, 1762 01:42:21,332 --> 01:42:24,199 it was finally getting out. 1763 01:42:24,300 --> 01:42:25,733 NIXON: I have asked for this radio 1764 01:42:25,832 --> 01:42:28,100 and television time tonight 1765 01:42:28,199 --> 01:42:31,666 for the purpose of announcing that we today 1766 01:42:31,765 --> 01:42:35,033 have concluded an agreement to end the war 1767 01:42:35,132 --> 01:42:39,132 and bring peace with honor in Vietnam and in Southeast Asia. 1768 01:42:39,233 --> 01:42:42,632 A cease-fire, internationally supervised, 1769 01:42:42,733 --> 01:42:46,533 will begin at 7:00 p.m. this Saturday, January 27, 1770 01:42:46,632 --> 01:42:48,365 Washington time. 1771 01:42:48,466 --> 01:42:50,466 Within 60 days from this Saturday, 1772 01:42:50,565 --> 01:42:54,800 all Americans held prisoners of war throughout Indochina 1773 01:42:54,899 --> 01:42:57,332 will be released. 1774 01:42:59,100 --> 01:43:03,932 NARRATOR: American prisoners of war, 591 of them, 1775 01:43:04,033 --> 01:43:07,233 were to be released in batches of 40. 1776 01:43:07,332 --> 01:43:10,233 Those who had been in captivity the longest 1777 01:43:10,332 --> 01:43:12,899 were to come home first. 1778 01:43:13,000 --> 01:43:16,932 Today the largest contingents of repatriated prisoners so far, 1779 01:43:17,033 --> 01:43:18,800 60 men, were flown from Clark 1780 01:43:18,899 --> 01:43:20,765 to Travis Air Force Base, California. 1781 01:43:20,865 --> 01:43:22,699 ROGER PETERSON: Today's most dramatic moment came 1782 01:43:22,800 --> 01:43:25,399 when Everett Alvarez made his happy trek down the ramp, 1783 01:43:25,500 --> 01:43:26,600 home at last. 1784 01:43:26,699 --> 01:43:28,033 For almost as long as most Americans 1785 01:43:28,132 --> 01:43:29,600 have been aware of Vietnam, 1786 01:43:29,699 --> 01:43:33,533 Lieutenant Commander Alvarez has been a prisoner in Hanoi. 1787 01:43:33,632 --> 01:43:36,466 He was shot down August 5, 1964, during the first raids flown 1788 01:43:36,565 --> 01:43:39,533 in retaliation for the Tonkin Gulf incident. 1789 01:43:39,632 --> 01:43:41,432 And finally, today, he was home. 1790 01:43:41,533 --> 01:43:43,899 For years and years, 1791 01:43:44,000 --> 01:43:50,233 we dreamed of this day, and we kept faith. 1792 01:43:50,332 --> 01:43:55,033 Faith in God, in our president, 1793 01:43:55,132 --> 01:43:56,699 and in our country. 1794 01:43:56,800 --> 01:43:59,932 ("America the Beautiful" by Ray Charles playing) 1795 01:44:01,733 --> 01:44:06,265 NARRATOR: Hal Kushner's turn came in mid-March. 1796 01:44:06,365 --> 01:44:08,800 CHARLES: ♪ Oh, beautiful 1797 01:44:08,899 --> 01:44:12,932 ♪ For heroes proved 1798 01:44:15,500 --> 01:44:19,300 ♪ In liberating strife 1799 01:44:19,399 --> 01:44:21,932 KUSHNER: And they... then they called our name. 1800 01:44:22,033 --> 01:44:24,565 And I walked out in the sunlight. 1801 01:44:24,666 --> 01:44:27,500 And the first thing I saw was a girl in a miniskirt. 1802 01:44:27,600 --> 01:44:30,265 She was a reporter for one of the news organizations. 1803 01:44:30,365 --> 01:44:32,300 I'd never seen a real-life miniskirt. 1804 01:44:32,399 --> 01:44:38,000 CHARLES: ♪ And mercy more than life 1805 01:44:38,100 --> 01:44:40,365 KUSHNER: And there was a table with the Vietnamese 1806 01:44:40,466 --> 01:44:42,500 and American authorities on one side, 1807 01:44:42,600 --> 01:44:45,100 and there was a brigadier general, Air Force general 1808 01:44:45,199 --> 01:44:47,500 in Class A uniform. 1809 01:44:47,600 --> 01:44:50,765 And he looked magnificent. 1810 01:44:50,865 --> 01:44:53,666 And I looked at him... 1811 01:44:53,765 --> 01:44:55,500 (voice breaking): and he had breadth, 1812 01:44:55,600 --> 01:44:59,600 he had thickness that we didn't have. 1813 01:44:59,699 --> 01:45:02,865 And his hair was... he had on a garrison cap. 1814 01:45:02,966 --> 01:45:06,000 And his hair was plump and moist, 1815 01:45:06,100 --> 01:45:08,600 and our hair was like straw, you know. 1816 01:45:08,699 --> 01:45:10,899 It was dry and we were skinny. 1817 01:45:11,000 --> 01:45:11,932 (clears throat) 1818 01:45:13,332 --> 01:45:15,033 And I went out and I saluted, 1819 01:45:15,132 --> 01:45:17,800 which was a courtesy that had been denied us 1820 01:45:17,899 --> 01:45:20,632 for so many years. 1821 01:45:20,733 --> 01:45:23,132 And he saluted me, and he... 1822 01:45:23,233 --> 01:45:25,199 I shook hands with him and he hugged me, 1823 01:45:25,300 --> 01:45:26,733 he actually hugged me, 1824 01:45:26,832 --> 01:45:30,432 and he said, "Welcome home, Major. 1825 01:45:30,533 --> 01:45:32,132 We're glad to see you, doctor." 1826 01:45:32,233 --> 01:45:35,000 And the tears were streaming down his cheeks. 1827 01:45:35,100 --> 01:45:38,132 And it was just a-a powerful moment. 1828 01:45:38,233 --> 01:45:42,765 CHARLES: ♪ For purple mountains 1829 01:45:42,865 --> 01:45:44,233 ♪ Majesty 1830 01:45:44,332 --> 01:45:46,600 KUSHNER: And then this liaison officer they called 1831 01:45:46,699 --> 01:45:50,166 that came out and got me and escorted me on this C-141. 1832 01:45:50,265 --> 01:45:54,100 It was this beautiful white airplane with a flag. 1833 01:45:54,199 --> 01:45:57,500 (sighs) 1834 01:45:57,600 --> 01:46:02,733 An American flag on the tail and USAF. 1835 01:46:02,832 --> 01:46:05,265 CHARLES: ♪ America 1836 01:46:05,365 --> 01:46:06,699 ♪ You know 1837 01:46:06,800 --> 01:46:11,265 ♪ God done shed his grace on thee ♪ 1838 01:46:11,365 --> 01:46:14,932 KUSHNER: And they had these real cute flight nurses on there. 1839 01:46:15,033 --> 01:46:16,966 They were all tall and blonde and, you know, 1840 01:46:17,065 --> 01:46:19,000 they-they were just gorgeous. 1841 01:46:19,100 --> 01:46:21,432 And we got on this thing and, and she said, 1842 01:46:21,533 --> 01:46:24,533 this nurse-- we sat in these seats and she said, 1843 01:46:24,632 --> 01:46:26,199 "We have anything you want, you know. 1844 01:46:26,300 --> 01:46:27,332 "Do... what do you want?" 1845 01:46:27,432 --> 01:46:29,500 And I-I wanted a Coke with crushed ice 1846 01:46:29,600 --> 01:46:31,733 and some chewing gum. 1847 01:46:31,832 --> 01:46:35,132 CHARLES: ♪ You know, I wish had somebody to help me sing this ♪ 1848 01:46:35,233 --> 01:46:39,199 ♪ America 1849 01:46:39,300 --> 01:46:41,565 ♪ America ♪ America 1850 01:46:41,666 --> 01:46:43,000 ♪ I love you, America 1851 01:46:43,100 --> 01:46:45,733 ♪ God shed ♪ You see 1852 01:46:45,832 --> 01:46:48,000 ♪ My God, he done shed ♪ His grace 1853 01:46:48,100 --> 01:46:50,600 ♪ His grace on thee ♪ On thee 1854 01:46:50,699 --> 01:46:52,899 ♪ And you ought to love him for it ♪ 1855 01:46:53,000 --> 01:46:57,432 ♪ 'Cause he, he, he, he crowned thy good ♪ 1856 01:46:57,533 --> 01:46:59,265 ♪ He told me he would 1857 01:46:59,365 --> 01:47:02,966 ♪ With brotherhood 1858 01:47:03,065 --> 01:47:05,233 ♪ From sea 1859 01:47:05,332 --> 01:47:07,466 ♪ To shining 1860 01:47:07,565 --> 01:47:10,000 ♪ Shining sea ♪ Sea 1861 01:47:10,100 --> 01:47:11,966 ♪ Oh, Lord 1862 01:47:12,065 --> 01:47:13,199 ♪ Oh, Lord! 1863 01:47:13,300 --> 01:47:15,565 ♪ I thank you, Lord 1864 01:47:15,666 --> 01:47:21,199 ♪ Shining sea. 1865 01:47:27,800 --> 01:47:29,733 ("The Lord Is in This Place" by Fairport Convention playing) 1866 01:47:33,399 --> 01:47:36,500 NARRATOR: Within a few days of Hal Kushner's release, 1867 01:47:36,600 --> 01:47:41,500 the last American combat troops would leave Vietnam. 1868 01:47:41,600 --> 01:47:46,332 But they would leave behind many unanswered questions. 1869 01:47:46,432 --> 01:47:51,132 How long could the South Vietnamese government survive? 1870 01:47:51,233 --> 01:47:54,432 What was the value of American promises, 1871 01:47:54,533 --> 01:47:57,365 and American sacrifice? 1872 01:47:57,466 --> 01:48:01,632 And how long would it take for the wounds of war to heal? 1873 01:48:14,733 --> 01:48:16,666 ("What's Going On?" by Marvin Gaye playing) 1874 01:48:18,300 --> 01:48:20,233 (indistinct conversations) 1875 01:48:24,332 --> 01:48:26,865 ♪ Mother, mother 1876 01:48:26,966 --> 01:48:31,033 ♪ There's too many of you crying ♪ 1877 01:48:33,932 --> 01:48:36,065 ♪ Brother, brother, brother 1878 01:48:36,166 --> 01:48:40,166 ♪ There's far too many of you dying ♪ 1879 01:48:42,132 --> 01:48:45,265 ♪ You know we've got to find a way ♪ 1880 01:48:47,065 --> 01:48:49,966 ♪ To bring some loving here today ♪ 1881 01:48:50,065 --> 01:48:52,899 ♪ Yeah 1882 01:48:53,000 --> 01:48:54,600 ♪ Father, father 1883 01:48:56,432 --> 01:48:58,733 ♪ We don't need to escalate 1884 01:49:01,600 --> 01:49:05,765 ♪ You see, war is not the answer ♪ 1885 01:49:05,865 --> 01:49:10,500 ♪ For only love can conquer hate ♪ 1886 01:49:10,600 --> 01:49:13,466 ♪ You know we've got to find a way ♪ 1887 01:49:15,533 --> 01:49:18,733 ♪ To bring some loving here today ♪ 1888 01:49:18,832 --> 01:49:21,233 ♪ Oh 1889 01:49:21,332 --> 01:49:23,365 ♪ Picket lines ♪ Sister 1890 01:49:23,466 --> 01:49:25,765 ♪ And picket signs ♪ Sister 1891 01:49:25,865 --> 01:49:27,533 ♪ Don't punish me ♪ Sister 1892 01:49:27,632 --> 01:49:30,800 ♪ With brutality ♪ Sister 1893 01:49:30,899 --> 01:49:32,733 ♪ Talk to me ♪ Sister 1894 01:49:32,832 --> 01:49:34,765 ♪ So you can see ♪ Sister 1895 01:49:34,865 --> 01:49:37,265 ♪ Oh, what's going on ♪ What's going on 1896 01:49:37,365 --> 01:49:39,332 ♪ What's going on ♪ What's going on 1897 01:49:39,432 --> 01:49:41,699 ♪ Yeah, what's going on ♪ What's going on 1898 01:49:41,800 --> 01:49:43,966 ♪ Ah, what's going on ♪ What's going on 1899 01:49:44,065 --> 01:49:46,832 ♪ Ah ♪ Right on 1900 01:49:46,932 --> 01:49:48,565 ♪ Whoo! Right on, brother 1901 01:49:48,666 --> 01:49:50,033 (indistinct conversations) 1902 01:49:50,132 --> 01:49:52,065 (scatting) 1903 01:49:53,533 --> 01:49:55,632 MAN: Hey, man, what's your name? Whoo! 1904 01:49:55,733 --> 01:49:57,466 ♪ Right on, baby 1905 01:49:57,565 --> 01:49:59,332 Right on. ♪ Right on 1906 01:49:59,432 --> 01:50:02,365 (scatting) 1907 01:50:15,100 --> 01:50:16,332 Whoo! ♪ Whoo 1908 01:50:16,432 --> 01:50:19,199 ♪ Right on, baby 1909 01:50:19,300 --> 01:50:21,233 (scatting) 1910 01:50:33,565 --> 01:50:34,565 Whoo! 1911 01:50:34,666 --> 01:50:36,000 -♪ Right on, baby -(man whooping) 1912 01:50:36,100 --> 01:50:37,065 ♪ Come on 1913 01:50:37,166 --> 01:50:38,466 ♪ Right on 1914 01:50:38,565 --> 01:50:40,500 (singer scatting, man whooping) 1915 01:50:43,699 --> 01:50:46,699 ♪ Whoo! Right on 1916 01:50:46,800 --> 01:50:48,100 ♪ Go slow 1917 01:50:48,199 --> 01:50:50,132 (scatting) 1918 01:51:00,466 --> 01:51:01,733 ANNOUNCER: LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FILM 1919 01:51:01,733 --> 01:51:04,600 AND FIND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES AT PBS.ORG/VIETNAMWAR 1920 01:51:04,600 --> 01:51:08,533 AND JOIN THE CONVERSATION USING HASHTAG VIETNAMWARPBS. 1921 01:51:08,533 --> 01:51:10,000 "THE VIETNAM WAR" IS AVAILABLE 1922 01:51:10,000 --> 01:51:11,666 ON BLU-RAY AND DVD. 1923 01:51:11,666 --> 01:51:13,332 THE COMPANION BOOK, SOUNDTRACK, 1924 01:51:13,332 --> 01:51:14,733 AND ORIGINAL SCORE FROM THE FILM 1925 01:51:14,733 --> 01:51:15,865 ARE ALSO AVAILABLE. 1926 01:51:15,865 --> 01:51:17,966 TO ORDER, VISIT SHOPPBS.ORG 1927 01:51:17,966 --> 01:51:20,432 OR CALL 1-800-PLAY-PBS. 1928 01:51:20,432 --> 01:51:21,865 EPISODES OF THIS SERIES ALSO 1929 01:51:21,865 --> 01:51:22,966 AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD 1930 01:51:22,966 --> 01:51:24,065 FROM iTUNES. 1931 01:51:27,332 --> 01:51:29,466 ANNOUNCER: BANK OF AMERICA PROUDLY SUPPORTS 1932 01:51:29,466 --> 01:51:34,365 KEN BURNS' AND LYNN NOVICK'S FILM "THE VIETNAM WAR" 1933 01:51:34,365 --> 01:51:36,765 BECAUSE FOSTERING DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES 1934 01:51:36,765 --> 01:51:39,365 AND CIVIL DISCOURSE AROUND IMPORTANT ISSUES 1935 01:51:39,365 --> 01:51:41,666 FURTHERS PROGRESS, EQUALITY, 1936 01:51:41,666 --> 01:51:43,666 AND A MORE CONNECTED SOCIETY. 1937 01:51:48,132 --> 01:51:52,166 GO TO BANKOFAMERICA.COM/ BETTERCONNECTED TO LEARN MORE. 1938 01:51:55,632 --> 01:51:57,065 ANNOUNCER: MAJOR SUPPORT FOR "THE VIETNAM WAR" 1939 01:51:57,065 --> 01:52:00,565 WAS PROVIDED BY MEMBERS OF THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY, 1940 01:52:00,565 --> 01:52:04,600 INCLUDING JONATHAN AND JEANNIE LAVINE, 1941 01:52:04,600 --> 01:52:07,500 DIANE AND HAL BRIERLEY, 1942 01:52:07,500 --> 01:52:09,899 AMY AND DAVID ABRAMS, 1943 01:52:09,899 --> 01:52:12,399 JOHN AND CATHERINE DEBS, 1944 01:52:12,399 --> 01:52:15,300 THE FULLERTON FAMILY CHARITABLE FUND, 1945 01:52:15,300 --> 01:52:17,365 THE MONTRONE FAMILY, 1946 01:52:17,365 --> 01:52:19,699 LYNDA AND STEWART RESNICK, 1947 01:52:19,699 --> 01:52:22,466 THE PERRY AND DONNA GOLKIN FAMILY FOUNDATION, 1948 01:52:22,466 --> 01:52:23,466 THE LYNCH FOUNDATION, 1949 01:52:23,466 --> 01:52:26,332 THE ROGER AND ROSEMARY ENRICO FOUNDATION, 1950 01:52:26,332 --> 01:52:29,765 AND BY THESE ADDITIONAL FUNDERS. 1951 01:52:29,765 --> 01:52:31,666 MAJOR FUNDING WAS ALSO PROVIDED 1952 01:52:31,666 --> 01:52:33,399 BY DAVID H. KOCH... 1953 01:52:35,699 --> 01:52:37,899 THE BLAVATNIK FAMILY FOUNDATION... 1954 01:52:40,233 --> 01:52:42,666 THE PARK FOUNDATION, 1955 01:52:42,666 --> 01:52:44,832 THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES, 1956 01:52:44,832 --> 01:52:47,033 THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS, 1957 01:52:47,033 --> 01:52:49,699 THE JOHN S. AND JAMES L. KNIGHT FOUNDATION, 1958 01:52:49,699 --> 01:52:52,466 THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION, 1959 01:52:52,466 --> 01:52:55,065 THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS FOUNDATIONS, 1960 01:52:55,065 --> 01:52:57,265 THE FORD FOUNDATION JUSTFILMS, 1961 01:52:57,265 --> 01:52:58,466 BY THE CORPORATION 1962 01:52:58,466 --> 01:52:59,699 FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING, 1963 01:52:59,699 --> 01:53:01,733 AND BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU. 1964 01:53:01,733 --> 01:53:02,865 THANK YOU. 252780