All language subtitles for Turning Point The Vietnam War S01 E01_track3_[eng]

From a political standpoint,

we could've flushed it
down the drain three years ago.

Blame Johnson and Kennedy.

This is essentially a political war,

because it's a war for men's minds.

And, uh, if we lose the minds

of these people,

we lose the minds of the officer corps
and of the civil servants,

we will have lost the war.

There are increasing reports, uh,

in Saigon and in Huế, as well,

that students are talking
of moving over to the Việt Cộng side.

While I can report, Mr. President,

definite progress and increasing strength
in the government forces,

the progress is slow.

And it's very, very slow,

slower than we would like to see.

I think that the most urgent

is to decide not to be intoxicated anymore

by the propaganda, uh, plot

directed by the Communists.

Ngô Đình Nhu, who is a policeman,

only thing in his mind
is torture and kill.

When the South Vietnamese
came in our village,

they put a big Ngô Đình Diệm photo
and a cross

right inside our temple, or our altar.

They made us bow to Ngô Đình Diệm,

and they talking about him
as just like a god.

Like he is somebody
that's so important to us.

We don't care.
We just want to be peaceful.

We want to worship our ancestors,
hang up the Buddhist flag.

But the next thing we know that,
everybody's killed.

They killed the leaders
in the village.

They killed the monks.
They buried them alive.

So they killed

whoever they think that's Việt Cộng.

And so, more them doing that,

the more our family
and 90% of the villagers,

yeah, we join the Việt Cộng,
we stand up and we fight.

And so daytime,
we praise the Ngô Đình Diệm.

The nighttime, we praise Hồ Chí Minh.

One Buddhist monk died

to figure out how could he help
to save the people.

Only way he can do is to give himself up.

What have the Buddhist leaders
done comparatively?

The only thing they have done,

they have, uh, barbecued
one of their monks,

uh, whom they have intoxicated,

whom they have abused the confidence.

And even that barbecuing was done, uh,

not even with self-sufficient means.

Because they-- they used,
uh, imported, uh, gasoline.

The heart of the matter is

that they've established a police state,

and that they're interfering
with the liberties of the people,

and that you have resentments

born of that.

- Right, yeah.
- Right?

President Diệm,
from my standpoint,

was the person who rebuilt the country.

But at his side,
Ngô Đinh Nhu brought about events

which made Diệm look bad.

Dissent began to brew
from within the military ranks.

You have to assume

that Diệm has felt that there's going
to be a coup against him

for probably the last couple of months.

They sent a convoy
to Cha Tam Church to pick up Mr. President

and Mr. Advisor to bring them back.

Captain Nhung was Lieutenant General
Dương Văn Minh's closest bodyguard.

Later, it was learned
that while sitting in the armored vehicle,

he used a dagger blade

to stab Ngô Đình Nhu once,
causing him to collapse on his seat.

He was about to stab once more,
but he saw Ngô Đình Diệm on the side

slightly leaning toward him,
so he stabbed him once instead.

He stabbed them one more time each,

then shot them with his pistol.

That is what's called a "mercy shot."

Treason does not pay.

And nobody can rule Vietnam,

can rule Vietnam
with just money and puppets.

And all those whom some of the Americans
intend to settle and to tutor,

for how long will they hold power

if they ever hold power?

I, uh, feel that we must bear

a good deal of responsibility for it,

beginning with our cable of early August

I was, uh, shocked
by the death of Diệm and Nhu.

I met Diệm with Justice Douglas
many years ago.

He was a... an extraordinary character.

While he... became increasingly difficult
in the last months,

nevertheless, over a ten-year period,
he held his country together,

maintained its independence
under very adverse conditions.

He...

The way he was killed
made it particularly... abhorrent.

When President Ngô Đình Diệm
got assassinated, my father came home.

He said that, "It not gonna be
a good time anymore."

"It can be a lot of chaos."

"Nobody can deal with Hồ Chí Minh,

can deal with the Communists,
like President Ngô Đình Diệm."

I would like to have, for this period
when everybody is asking me,

something in my own words.

I can say, "Well, here are--
here are the alternatives,

and here's our theory,
and here's what we're basing it on."

I do think, Mr. President,

that it would be wise for you
to say as little as possible.

The frank answer is,
we don't know what's going on out there.

The signs I see coming through the cables

are-- are disturbing signs.

They fired at us.
We responded immediately.

And we took out one of their boats,
put the other two running.

We kept... We're putting our boats
right there. We're not running--

Our instructions
are to destroy--

That's right.

Now I want to leave an impression
on the people we talk to over here

that we're gonna be firm as hell.

We oughtn't do anything

that the national interest
doesn't require,

but we sure ought
to always leave the impression

that if you shoot at us,
you're going to get hit.

Mr. President,
we, uh, just got a, uh, report

from the commander
of that task force out there

that they have sighted
two unidentified vessels

and three unidentified prop aircraft
in the vicinity of the destroyers.

Uh, what else
do we have out there?

We have ample forces to respond

not only to these attacks
on the destroyers

but also to retaliate,

should you wish to do so,
against targets on the land.

I think I might get, uh, Dean Rusk
and Mac Bundy, have 'em come over here,

and we'll go over
these retaliatory actions.

It's going to be difficult for us
to, very long, prosecute effectively

a war that far away from home.

To the West, it's just a movie.

A John Wayne movie.

But to the village, it's real.

It's just so sad and suffering,

the people who have nothing to do
with the politics.

Everybody killing everybody.