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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:58,033 (helicopter blades beating, growing louder) 2 00:02:02,165 --> 00:02:03,865 (helicopter blades stop beating) 3 00:02:04,766 --> 00:02:06,365 (wind whipping, bullet whizzing) 4 00:02:09,800 --> 00:02:10,865 (gunfire) 5 00:02:10,966 --> 00:02:12,599 (explosion) 6 00:02:14,300 --> 00:02:16,033 (helicopter blades beating, indistinct voices) 7 00:02:18,699 --> 00:02:20,932 (gunfire, distorted screaming) 8 00:02:23,500 --> 00:02:26,265 (distorted Marine Corps Hymn playing) 9 00:02:27,432 --> 00:02:28,900 (electronic hum) 10 00:02:31,365 --> 00:02:39,300 (Marine Corps Hymn playing, crowd cheering) 11 00:02:40,533 --> 00:02:43,265 KARL MARLANTES: Coming home from Vietnam 12 00:02:43,365 --> 00:02:47,165 was close to as traumatic as the war itself. 13 00:02:49,099 --> 00:02:52,066 For years, nobody talked about Vietnam. 14 00:02:52,165 --> 00:02:53,365 (gunfire) 15 00:02:53,466 --> 00:02:55,133 (marching band playing) 16 00:02:55,233 --> 00:02:56,765 We were friends with a young couple 17 00:02:56,865 --> 00:03:01,566 and it was only after 12 years that the two wives were talking. 18 00:03:01,665 --> 00:03:05,032 Found out that we both had been Marines in Vietnam. 19 00:03:05,133 --> 00:03:07,633 Never said a word about it. 20 00:03:07,733 --> 00:03:09,432 Never mentioned it. 21 00:03:09,532 --> 00:03:11,599 And the whole country was like that. 22 00:03:13,199 --> 00:03:15,932 It was so divisive. 23 00:03:16,033 --> 00:03:20,966 And it's like living in a family with an alcoholic father. 24 00:03:21,066 --> 00:03:23,400 (whispering): "Shh, we don't talk about that." 25 00:03:23,500 --> 00:03:25,765 (gunfire) 26 00:03:25,865 --> 00:03:27,765 Our country did that with Vietnam. 27 00:03:27,865 --> 00:03:30,599 It's only been very recently that, I think, 28 00:03:30,699 --> 00:03:33,365 that, you know, the baby boomers are finally starting to say, 29 00:03:33,466 --> 00:03:34,733 "What happened? 30 00:03:34,832 --> 00:03:36,165 What happened?" 31 00:03:36,265 --> 00:03:39,500 ("A Familiar Taste" by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross playing) 32 00:03:45,900 --> 00:03:47,865 HENRY KISSINGER: What we need now in this country 33 00:03:47,966 --> 00:03:52,265 is to heal the wounds and to put Vietnam behind us. 34 00:03:52,365 --> 00:03:55,500 ("A Familiar Taste" continues) 35 00:04:04,466 --> 00:04:05,733 RICHARD NIXON: The killing 36 00:04:05,832 --> 00:04:07,633 in this tragic war must stop. 37 00:04:09,832 --> 00:04:11,099 ("A Familiar Taste" continues) 38 00:04:18,300 --> 00:04:20,932 LYNDON JOHNSON: General Westmoreland's strategy 39 00:04:21,033 --> 00:04:22,699 is producing results. 40 00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:26,966 The enemy is no longer closer to victory. 41 00:04:28,966 --> 00:04:30,966 ("A Familiar Taste" continues) 42 00:04:34,300 --> 00:04:36,199 ROBERT McNAMARA: No matter how you measure it, 43 00:04:36,300 --> 00:04:39,165 we're better off than we thought we would be at this time. 44 00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:47,365 REPORTER: You have been less than candid 45 00:04:47,466 --> 00:04:51,066 as to how deeply we are involved in Vietnam. 46 00:04:51,165 --> 00:04:52,766 We have increased our assistance 47 00:04:52,865 --> 00:04:54,899 to the government, its logistics. 48 00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:57,365 We have not sent combat troops there. 49 00:04:57,466 --> 00:05:01,132 DWIGHT EISENHOWER: You have a row of dominoes set up 50 00:05:01,233 --> 00:05:03,333 and you knock over the first one 51 00:05:03,432 --> 00:05:05,266 and the last one, certainly it will go over. 52 00:05:05,365 --> 00:05:07,533 HARRY TRUMAN: If aggression is successful in Korea, 53 00:05:07,632 --> 00:05:10,100 we can expect it to spread throughout Asia and Europe 54 00:05:10,199 --> 00:05:11,399 and to this hemisphere. 55 00:05:13,800 --> 00:05:17,533 ("A Familiar Taste" continues) 56 00:05:27,399 --> 00:05:30,165 ("A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" by Bob Dylan playing) 57 00:05:33,500 --> 00:05:39,966 ♪ Oh where have you been, my blue-eyed son? ♪ 58 00:05:40,066 --> 00:05:44,199 ♪ And where have you been, my darling young one? ♪ 59 00:05:46,165 --> 00:05:50,500 MAX CLELAND: Viktor Frankl, who survived the death camps in World War II, 60 00:05:50,600 --> 00:05:53,533 wrote a book called Man's Search for Meaning. 61 00:05:53,632 --> 00:05:55,966 DYLAN: ♪ I've walked and I've crawled on six... ♪ 62 00:05:56,066 --> 00:05:58,699 CLELAND: You know, "To live is to suffer. 63 00:05:58,800 --> 00:06:03,266 To survive is to find meaning in suffering." 64 00:06:03,365 --> 00:06:07,800 And for those of us who suffered because of Vietnam, 65 00:06:07,899 --> 00:06:12,132 that's been our quest ever since. 66 00:06:12,233 --> 00:06:18,766 DYLAN: ♪ And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard ♪ 67 00:06:18,865 --> 00:06:20,832 ♪ It's a hard 68 00:06:20,932 --> 00:06:25,399 ♪ It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall ♪ 69 00:06:25,500 --> 00:06:29,533 NARRATOR: America's involvement in Vietnam began in secrecy. 70 00:06:29,632 --> 00:06:34,533 It ended, 30 years later, in failure, 71 00:06:34,632 --> 00:06:37,865 witnessed by the entire world. 72 00:06:37,966 --> 00:06:40,800 DYLAN: ♪ And what did you see, my darling young one? ♪ 73 00:06:40,899 --> 00:06:44,066 NARRATOR: It was begun in good faith by decent people 74 00:06:44,165 --> 00:06:46,733 out of fateful misunderstandings, 75 00:06:46,832 --> 00:06:51,266 American overconfidence, and Cold War miscalculation. 76 00:06:51,365 --> 00:06:56,699 And it was prolonged because it seemed easier to muddle through 77 00:06:56,800 --> 00:06:59,832 than admit that it had been caused by tragic decisions, 78 00:06:59,932 --> 00:07:02,966 made by five American presidents, 79 00:07:03,065 --> 00:07:05,899 belonging to both political parties. 80 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:07,899 DYLAN: ♪ I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleeding ♪ 81 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:09,800 NARRATOR: Before the war was over, 82 00:07:09,899 --> 00:07:13,565 more than 58,000 Americans would be dead. 83 00:07:13,665 --> 00:07:18,466 At least 250,000 South Vietnamese troops died 84 00:07:18,565 --> 00:07:21,065 in the conflict, as well. 85 00:07:21,165 --> 00:07:25,100 So did over a million North Vietnamese soldiers 86 00:07:25,199 --> 00:07:26,665 and Viet Cong guerrillas. 87 00:07:26,766 --> 00:07:29,665 DYLAN: ♪ Sharp swords in the hands of young children ♪ 88 00:07:29,766 --> 00:07:31,966 ♪ And it's a hard... 89 00:07:32,066 --> 00:07:35,100 NARRATOR: Two million civilians, north and south, 90 00:07:35,199 --> 00:07:37,066 are thought to have perished, 91 00:07:37,165 --> 00:07:40,600 as well as tens of thousands more in the neighboring states 92 00:07:40,699 --> 00:07:42,500 of Laos and Cambodia. 93 00:07:42,600 --> 00:07:45,066 (helicopter blades whirring) 94 00:07:45,165 --> 00:07:49,300 For many Vietnamese, it was a brutal civil war; 95 00:07:49,399 --> 00:07:52,766 for others, the bloody climactic chapter 96 00:07:52,865 --> 00:07:56,365 in a century-old struggle for independence. 97 00:07:56,466 --> 00:08:01,533 DYLAN: ♪ And what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son? ♪ 98 00:08:01,632 --> 00:08:03,966 NARRATOR: For those Americans who fought in it, 99 00:08:04,065 --> 00:08:06,932 and for those who fought against it back home, 100 00:08:07,033 --> 00:08:10,533 as well as for those who merely glimpsed it on the nightly news, 101 00:08:10,632 --> 00:08:14,333 the Vietnam War was a decade of agony, 102 00:08:14,432 --> 00:08:19,932 the most divisive period since the Civil War. 103 00:08:20,033 --> 00:08:24,899 Vietnam seemed to call everything into question-- 104 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:29,432 the value of honor and gallantry; 105 00:08:29,533 --> 00:08:34,066 the qualities of cruelty and mercy; 106 00:08:34,165 --> 00:08:38,633 the candor of the American government; 107 00:08:38,732 --> 00:08:42,500 and what it means to be a patriot. 108 00:08:44,365 --> 00:08:48,932 DYLAN: ♪ Where hunger is ugly, where the souls are forgotten ♪ 109 00:08:49,033 --> 00:08:51,165 NARRATOR: And those who lived through it 110 00:08:51,265 --> 00:08:54,165 have never been able to erase its memory, 111 00:08:54,265 --> 00:08:57,332 have never stopped arguing about what really happened, 112 00:08:57,432 --> 00:09:03,000 why everything went so badly wrong, who was to blame, 113 00:09:03,100 --> 00:09:05,799 and whether it was all worth it. 114 00:09:09,399 --> 00:09:11,466 BAO NINH: 115 00:09:49,133 --> 00:09:51,000 DYLAN: ♪ And it's a hard 116 00:09:51,100 --> 00:09:56,066 ♪ It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall ♪ 117 00:10:01,666 --> 00:10:03,133 (song ends) 118 00:10:07,865 --> 00:10:12,932 (Silk Road Ensemble playing "People and Fighters Unite") 119 00:10:31,966 --> 00:10:35,265 BAO NINH: 120 00:10:42,832 --> 00:10:46,265 NARRATOR: The French conquest of Indochina began with an attack 121 00:10:46,365 --> 00:10:51,966 on the ancient Vietnamese port of Danang in 1858. 122 00:10:52,066 --> 00:10:55,500 It took 50 years to lay claim to the whole region-- 123 00:10:55,600 --> 00:11:00,166 Laos and Cambodia, as well as the 1,200-mile-long area 124 00:11:00,265 --> 00:11:03,533 that would come to be called Vietnam. 125 00:11:06,299 --> 00:11:09,299 All of it was ruled by a French governor-general 126 00:11:09,399 --> 00:11:11,700 from his palace in Hanoi. 127 00:11:13,399 --> 00:11:16,732 The French largely lived on plantation estates, 128 00:11:16,832 --> 00:11:21,066 and in cities, like Saigon, made to look as much as possible 129 00:11:21,166 --> 00:11:23,265 like those at home. 130 00:11:24,600 --> 00:11:27,765 Most did not even bother to learn the language 131 00:11:27,865 --> 00:11:29,799 spoken by their subjects. 132 00:11:29,899 --> 00:11:33,533 Instead they installed a series of puppet emperors 133 00:11:33,633 --> 00:11:35,200 and employed a network 134 00:11:35,299 --> 00:11:39,100 of French-speaking Vietnamese officials-- mandarins-- 135 00:11:39,200 --> 00:11:41,265 willing to carry out their wishes. 136 00:11:44,665 --> 00:11:49,033 The French put their subjects to work building roads and canals, 137 00:11:49,133 --> 00:11:51,633 railroads and bridges. 138 00:11:52,966 --> 00:11:55,332 BAO NINH: 139 00:12:07,932 --> 00:12:10,633 NARRATOR: The Vietnamese people did not take easily 140 00:12:10,732 --> 00:12:12,166 to French occupation, 141 00:12:12,265 --> 00:12:15,033 just as they had fought against earlier invasions 142 00:12:15,133 --> 00:12:16,732 by the Chinese. 143 00:12:16,832 --> 00:12:20,932 By the early 20th century, nationalism was on the rise. 144 00:12:21,033 --> 00:12:26,332 But anyone who dared resist colonial rule risked exile, 145 00:12:26,432 --> 00:12:28,865 prison, or the guillotine. 146 00:12:31,365 --> 00:12:32,899 TRAN NGOC TOAN (speaking English): 147 00:12:59,765 --> 00:13:03,533 LAM QUANG THI: 148 00:13:18,399 --> 00:13:20,332 (helicopter blades whirring) 149 00:13:22,765 --> 00:13:25,899 JOHN MUSGRAVE: My hatred for them was pure. 150 00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:27,832 Pure. 151 00:13:27,932 --> 00:13:30,966 I hated them so much. 152 00:13:31,066 --> 00:13:32,466 And I was so scared of them. 153 00:13:32,566 --> 00:13:34,600 (gunfire) 154 00:13:36,966 --> 00:13:39,200 Boy, I was terrified of them. 155 00:13:47,765 --> 00:13:50,665 And the scareder I got, the more I hated them. 156 00:13:53,600 --> 00:13:56,832 I was an 18-year-old Marine rifleman with the ink still wet 157 00:13:56,932 --> 00:13:59,000 on my high school diploma. 158 00:13:59,100 --> 00:14:01,533 I didn't want to shame myself in front of my buddies. 159 00:14:03,666 --> 00:14:05,566 But I was so scared. 160 00:14:05,666 --> 00:14:08,466 I felt like I was hanging onto my honor by my fingernails 161 00:14:08,566 --> 00:14:10,200 the whole time I was there. 162 00:14:15,332 --> 00:14:18,399 ("La Marseillaise" playing) 163 00:14:20,765 --> 00:14:23,066 (crowd cheering) 164 00:14:24,966 --> 00:14:27,100 NARRATOR: In the spring of 1919, 165 00:14:27,200 --> 00:14:30,299 as the victorious Allied Powers met in Paris 166 00:14:30,399 --> 00:14:34,100 to rebuild a world shattered by the Great War, 167 00:14:34,200 --> 00:14:37,899 President Woodrow Wilson headed the American delegation 168 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:40,399 housed in the Hotel Crillon. 169 00:14:43,265 --> 00:14:47,066 One day, a tall, slender, 29-nine-year-old man 170 00:14:47,165 --> 00:14:49,633 appeared with a petition for the president 171 00:14:49,732 --> 00:14:53,665 he and other Vietnamese nationalists had written. 172 00:14:53,765 --> 00:14:57,232 Inspired by Wilson's declaration 173 00:14:57,332 --> 00:15:00,200 that the interests of colonial peoples should be given 174 00:15:00,299 --> 00:15:03,566 equal weight with those of their European rulers, 175 00:15:03,666 --> 00:15:07,166 the man was asking that this principle be applied 176 00:15:07,265 --> 00:15:08,966 to his homeland. 177 00:15:09,066 --> 00:15:13,799 The president's secretary promised to show it to Wilson, 178 00:15:13,899 --> 00:15:17,466 but there is no evidence that he ever did. 179 00:15:17,566 --> 00:15:20,066 His name was Nguyen Tat Thanh, 180 00:15:20,166 --> 00:15:24,066 but he was now living under an alias, Nguyen Ai Quoc-- 181 00:15:24,166 --> 00:15:26,732 "Nguyen the Patriot." 182 00:15:28,033 --> 00:15:30,200 During his long, shadowy career, 183 00:15:30,299 --> 00:15:34,000 he would adopt some 70 different pseudonyms, 184 00:15:34,100 --> 00:15:37,165 finally settling on "the most enlightened one"-- 185 00:15:37,265 --> 00:15:40,600 Ho Chi Minh. 186 00:15:40,700 --> 00:15:45,899 DUONG VAN MAI: Ho Chi Minh was a man who succeeded in projecting an image 187 00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:50,000 of somebody who was totally dedicated to freeing 188 00:15:50,100 --> 00:15:54,466 his country and his people from foreign domination 189 00:15:54,566 --> 00:15:58,533 to the point that he sacrificed his own well-being, 190 00:15:58,633 --> 00:16:02,566 his own life, not having a family of his own. 191 00:16:03,966 --> 00:16:06,466 To Vietnamese, that's a big sacrifice 192 00:16:06,566 --> 00:16:09,299 because to us everybody needs a family. 193 00:16:11,265 --> 00:16:14,000 NARRATOR: Ho Chi Minh was born in 1890, 194 00:16:14,100 --> 00:16:16,966 the son of a minor official in the French regime. 195 00:16:17,066 --> 00:16:19,966 After taking part in a demonstration 196 00:16:20,066 --> 00:16:21,633 against the puppet emperor 197 00:16:21,732 --> 00:16:23,566 and the Frenchmen who pulled his strings, 198 00:16:23,666 --> 00:16:27,732 Ho was expelled from school and marked for arrest. 199 00:16:29,832 --> 00:16:35,133 He left Vietnam in 1911 and remained in exile for 30 years. 200 00:16:36,700 --> 00:16:39,899 He served as a cook's helper aboard a French liner, 201 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:42,732 and visited New York and Boston, 202 00:16:42,832 --> 00:16:47,899 where he worked for a time as a pastry chef at the Parker House. 203 00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:53,265 He shoveled snow in London, tinted photographs in Paris. 204 00:16:54,732 --> 00:16:58,932 There, Ho Chi Minh joined the French Socialist Party. 205 00:16:59,033 --> 00:17:02,500 But when he discovered the anti-colonial writings of Lenin, 206 00:17:02,600 --> 00:17:04,598 he became a communist. 207 00:17:06,133 --> 00:17:08,032 He was invited to Moscow to study, 208 00:17:08,133 --> 00:17:11,098 underwent training as a Soviet agent, 209 00:17:11,200 --> 00:17:14,566 was sometimes criticized for being a nationalist first, 210 00:17:14,665 --> 00:17:16,500 a communist second, 211 00:17:16,598 --> 00:17:19,532 and then was dispatched to China 212 00:17:19,633 --> 00:17:22,799 to organize a cell of other Vietnamese exiles 213 00:17:22,900 --> 00:17:27,465 and help establish the Indochinese Communist Party. 214 00:17:27,566 --> 00:17:31,200 Through it all, "He was taut and quivering," 215 00:17:31,299 --> 00:17:34,532 a friend remembered, "with only one thought-- 216 00:17:34,633 --> 00:17:37,465 his country, Vietnam." 217 00:17:38,732 --> 00:17:41,566 (air raid siren blaring) 218 00:17:41,665 --> 00:17:42,865 (bombs whistling, exploding) 219 00:17:42,965 --> 00:17:44,165 (shouting) 220 00:17:47,200 --> 00:17:51,232 (gunfire, explosions) 221 00:17:51,333 --> 00:17:57,732 NARRATOR: By 1940, much of the world was at war again. 222 00:18:04,133 --> 00:18:08,000 Germany had seized most of Western Europe, 223 00:18:08,099 --> 00:18:10,000 including France. 224 00:18:13,500 --> 00:18:15,232 Imperial Japan threatened 225 00:18:15,333 --> 00:18:17,365 many of the European colonies in Asia, 226 00:18:17,465 --> 00:18:21,299 and occupied Vietnam, where they permitted their allies, 227 00:18:21,400 --> 00:18:22,965 the collaborationist French, 228 00:18:23,066 --> 00:18:25,766 to continue to oversee their colony. 229 00:18:28,932 --> 00:18:32,432 To some Vietnamese, the coming of the Japanese 230 00:18:32,532 --> 00:18:37,066 seemed to signal a welcome end to white colonial rule. 231 00:18:37,165 --> 00:18:40,432 But Ho Chi Minh, still in exile in China, 232 00:18:40,532 --> 00:18:43,900 saw the Japanese as alien invaders, 233 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:46,432 no more welcome than the French. 234 00:18:46,532 --> 00:18:49,766 They were only interested in exploiting his country 235 00:18:49,865 --> 00:18:55,532 and seizing Vietnamese crops to fill their own rice bowls. 236 00:18:55,633 --> 00:18:57,965 The time had come, he said, 237 00:18:58,066 --> 00:19:01,700 to rally "patriots of all ages and all types, 238 00:19:01,799 --> 00:19:05,865 peasants, workers, merchants and soldiers" 239 00:19:05,965 --> 00:19:09,665 to defeat the Japanese and the collaborationist French. 240 00:19:13,432 --> 00:19:18,965 In February of 1941, after three decades away from his homeland, 241 00:19:19,066 --> 00:19:23,099 Ho Chi Minh slipped back across the Chinese border into Vietnam 242 00:19:23,200 --> 00:19:27,465 and set up headquarters near the remote village of Pac Bo 243 00:19:27,566 --> 00:19:30,333 in a limestone cave at the side of a mountain 244 00:19:30,432 --> 00:19:33,133 he named for Karl Marx, 245 00:19:33,232 --> 00:19:38,700 overlooking a jungle stream he named for his hero, Lenin. 246 00:19:41,066 --> 00:19:43,700 There, he founded a revolutionary movement, 247 00:19:43,799 --> 00:19:47,532 which he called the Vietnam Independence League-- 248 00:19:47,633 --> 00:19:50,266 the Viet Minh. 249 00:19:51,432 --> 00:19:53,833 TRAN NGOC TOAN (speaking English): 250 00:20:02,932 --> 00:20:06,099 NARRATOR: To build and lead a fighting force for his revolution, 251 00:20:06,200 --> 00:20:08,833 Ho called upon Vo Nguyen Giap, 252 00:20:08,932 --> 00:20:11,333 a one-time teacher of French history 253 00:20:11,432 --> 00:20:15,099 who had instructed the children of Hanoi's elite. 254 00:20:15,200 --> 00:20:18,766 Giap was an early convert to communism, 255 00:20:18,865 --> 00:20:22,232 whose life-long hatred for the French intensified 256 00:20:22,333 --> 00:20:25,633 when they beat his wife to death in prison. 257 00:20:25,732 --> 00:20:29,932 Inspired by Napoleon, Lawrence of Arabia, 258 00:20:30,032 --> 00:20:33,599 and the communist Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong, 259 00:20:33,700 --> 00:20:36,000 Giap had already begun to develop 260 00:20:36,099 --> 00:20:40,365 a distinctive theory of warfare that relied on guerrilla tactics 261 00:20:40,465 --> 00:20:45,465 until a full-scale conventional attack could be mounted. 262 00:20:45,566 --> 00:20:49,599 In the fight for independence which he believed was coming, 263 00:20:49,700 --> 00:20:56,365 his armies, Giap said, would be "everywhere and nowhere." 264 00:20:56,465 --> 00:21:00,299 DUONG VAN MAI: The reason Vietnamese had always resort to guerrilla warfare 265 00:21:00,400 --> 00:21:02,965 was because we were a small country. 266 00:21:03,066 --> 00:21:08,299 And it was just a way of fight the weak against the strong. 267 00:21:08,400 --> 00:21:11,965 Don't fight unless you're sure you can win, 268 00:21:12,066 --> 00:21:15,400 and surprise is a big element. 269 00:21:17,200 --> 00:21:19,766 Choose your own battle. 270 00:21:25,465 --> 00:21:29,633 MIKE HEANEY: I had about 26 guys that day out of 45. 271 00:21:29,732 --> 00:21:32,066 We were always somewhat understrength. 272 00:21:32,165 --> 00:21:34,465 And this day we were quite understrength. 273 00:21:36,099 --> 00:21:38,000 My platoon's on point. 274 00:21:43,066 --> 00:21:44,732 MAN: Go, go, go, go, go! 275 00:21:44,833 --> 00:21:47,599 HEANEY: And all of a sudden the very point man, 276 00:21:47,700 --> 00:21:51,165 the first guy in the column, said, "VC on the trail. 277 00:21:51,266 --> 00:21:52,532 VC on the trail." 278 00:21:54,500 --> 00:21:56,833 Before I had a chance to digest this... 279 00:21:56,932 --> 00:21:58,032 (gunshot) 280 00:21:58,133 --> 00:21:59,700 ...he went down, shot right through the chest. 281 00:21:59,799 --> 00:22:02,099 (gunfire) 282 00:22:02,200 --> 00:22:05,766 And what was a very well-laid ambush erupted. 283 00:22:05,865 --> 00:22:09,232 (explosion, gunfire) 284 00:22:14,799 --> 00:22:16,799 (gunfire, shouting) 285 00:22:16,900 --> 00:22:19,099 I knew I'd lost a bunch of guys. 286 00:22:19,200 --> 00:22:23,400 I said a prayer to God saying, basically, 287 00:22:23,500 --> 00:22:25,932 "If you need any more guys from my platoon, take me. 288 00:22:26,032 --> 00:22:27,900 Don't take any more of my men." 289 00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:31,365 As soon as I said it, I freaked myself out and said, 290 00:22:31,465 --> 00:22:32,865 "Holy shit. 291 00:22:32,965 --> 00:22:35,532 Can I take that prayer back?" 292 00:22:37,865 --> 00:22:40,365 (gunfire, plane engine roaring) 293 00:22:41,865 --> 00:22:45,532 (explosion, alarm ringing) 294 00:22:45,633 --> 00:22:49,066 NARRATOR: By the spring of 1945, 295 00:22:49,165 --> 00:22:54,500 more than three years after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 296 00:22:54,599 --> 00:22:57,732 the United States government was looking for allies 297 00:22:57,833 --> 00:22:59,900 behind the lines in Vietnam. 298 00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:02,099 The Americans were hoping to find a way 299 00:23:02,200 --> 00:23:05,465 to undermine Japanese forces there 300 00:23:05,566 --> 00:23:08,732 when they were contacted by Ho Chi Minh. 301 00:23:08,833 --> 00:23:10,633 DONALD GREGG: And so it was decided to drop 302 00:23:10,732 --> 00:23:15,732 an OSS team in to meet with the Viet Minh leadership. 303 00:23:18,165 --> 00:23:21,400 Paul Hoagland was the medic on the team. 304 00:23:21,500 --> 00:23:25,099 And the first thing he was told was that he must attend 305 00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:27,032 to their leader, who was desperately sick. 306 00:23:27,133 --> 00:23:30,099 So he was taken to a grass shack 307 00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:34,532 where a bewhiskered, skinny man lay on a bundle of straw, 308 00:23:34,633 --> 00:23:36,165 desperately ill. 309 00:23:36,266 --> 00:23:37,900 And that was Ho Chi Minh. 310 00:23:40,333 --> 00:23:44,965 NARRATOR: The OSS, the secret wartime precursor of the CIA, 311 00:23:45,066 --> 00:23:48,232 supplied Ho's ragtag guerrillas with arms 312 00:23:48,333 --> 00:23:53,133 and marveled at how quickly they learned to handle them. 313 00:23:53,232 --> 00:23:55,932 Ho Chi Minh began to call his followers 314 00:23:56,032 --> 00:24:00,232 the "Viet-American Army," and praised the United States 315 00:24:00,333 --> 00:24:02,232 as a "champion of democracy" 316 00:24:02,333 --> 00:24:05,500 that would surely help them end colonial rule. 317 00:24:06,766 --> 00:24:09,932 BUI DIEM (speaking English): 318 00:24:23,766 --> 00:24:28,333 NARRATOR: Meanwhile, famine gripped the northern part of the country. 319 00:24:28,432 --> 00:24:30,333 Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese 320 00:24:30,432 --> 00:24:32,400 were dying of starvation 321 00:24:32,500 --> 00:24:35,732 while Japanese storehouses were filled with rice. 322 00:24:38,766 --> 00:24:40,766 DUONG VAN MAI: In those days, garbage was collected 323 00:24:40,865 --> 00:24:43,000 by people pushing carts. 324 00:24:43,099 --> 00:24:47,700 And my mother remembers that every morning she would see 325 00:24:47,799 --> 00:24:49,700 these garbage carts going around 326 00:24:49,799 --> 00:24:52,165 and people picking up dead bodies and throwing them 327 00:24:52,266 --> 00:24:53,766 on the cart. 328 00:24:53,865 --> 00:24:55,400 It was incredible. 329 00:24:55,500 --> 00:24:59,032 And people who lived through it never, never forgot. 330 00:24:59,133 --> 00:25:03,599 NARRATOR: Duong Van Mai's father was the deputy governor 331 00:25:03,700 --> 00:25:05,865 of a province east of Hanoi, 332 00:25:05,965 --> 00:25:08,400 the son and grandson of mandarins 333 00:25:08,500 --> 00:25:11,133 who had all served the French. 334 00:25:11,232 --> 00:25:14,566 He and his wife had 17 children. 335 00:25:14,665 --> 00:25:19,400 DUONG VAN MAI: Parents who had children who were, you know, plump, 336 00:25:19,500 --> 00:25:21,932 were very afraid of their children being stolen 337 00:25:22,032 --> 00:25:24,465 and killed. 338 00:25:24,566 --> 00:25:27,665 And it was really like hell on earth. 339 00:25:27,766 --> 00:25:31,232 The government didn't have a clue on how to deal 340 00:25:31,333 --> 00:25:33,432 with this calamity. 341 00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:36,299 NARRATOR: But Ho Chi Minh did. 342 00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:38,633 He directed the Viet Minh 343 00:25:38,732 --> 00:25:42,000 to break into the Japanese storehouses wherever they could 344 00:25:42,099 --> 00:25:46,232 and distribute the rice to the people. 345 00:25:46,333 --> 00:25:48,900 They were hailed as saviors. 346 00:25:51,432 --> 00:25:53,032 (engine starts) 347 00:26:00,066 --> 00:26:01,200 (explosion) 348 00:26:03,766 --> 00:26:06,932 NARRATOR: When an atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima, 349 00:26:07,032 --> 00:26:10,566 and three days later a second one destroyed Nagasaki, 350 00:26:10,665 --> 00:26:13,700 Japanese surrender seemed imminent. 351 00:26:15,732 --> 00:26:19,299 Ho Chi Minh called upon all Vietnamese to rise up 352 00:26:19,400 --> 00:26:21,333 and take over their own country 353 00:26:21,432 --> 00:26:23,799 before the Free French could reestablish 354 00:26:23,900 --> 00:26:26,400 their old colonial regime. 355 00:26:26,500 --> 00:26:31,599 They did, in cities and towns across the country. 356 00:26:35,133 --> 00:26:38,032 On September 2, 1945, 357 00:26:38,133 --> 00:26:40,900 the same day the Japanese formally surrendered, 358 00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:43,900 hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese 359 00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:48,799 streamed into Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi to see for the first time 360 00:26:48,900 --> 00:26:52,133 the mysterious leader of the Viet Minh 361 00:26:52,232 --> 00:26:56,865 and hear him proclaim Vietnam's independence. 362 00:26:56,965 --> 00:27:00,400 (Ho Chi Minh speaking Vietnamese) 363 00:27:00,500 --> 00:27:05,099 NARRATOR: With an OSS officer standing nearby, 364 00:27:05,200 --> 00:27:09,165 Ho Chi Minh began with the words of Thomas Jefferson: 365 00:27:09,266 --> 00:27:11,799 "All men are created equal. 366 00:27:11,900 --> 00:27:14,700 "They are endowed by their creator 367 00:27:14,799 --> 00:27:17,900 "with certain unalienable rights; 368 00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:20,665 "that among these are life, liberty 369 00:27:20,766 --> 00:27:22,965 and the pursuit of happiness." 370 00:27:25,665 --> 00:27:28,532 DONG SI NGUYEN: 371 00:27:45,432 --> 00:27:47,732 GEORGE WICKES: Ho Chi Minh had great hopes 372 00:27:47,833 --> 00:27:53,200 that the U.S. would support the Vietnam desire for independence, 373 00:27:53,299 --> 00:27:55,066 not necessarily by intervening 374 00:27:55,165 --> 00:27:58,932 but by doing what it could 375 00:27:59,032 --> 00:28:02,665 to support an independence movement. 376 00:28:02,766 --> 00:28:06,465 NARRATOR: Ho Chi Minh's hopes for American support were calculated 377 00:28:06,566 --> 00:28:09,465 but understandable. 378 00:28:09,566 --> 00:28:13,465 President Franklin Roosevelt had promised a postwar world 379 00:28:13,566 --> 00:28:16,633 that would "respect the rights of all peoples 380 00:28:16,732 --> 00:28:19,700 to choose the form of government under which they live." 381 00:28:22,532 --> 00:28:26,365 But Roosevelt was dead now, and his successor, Harry Truman, 382 00:28:26,465 --> 00:28:30,232 had inherited a very different world. 383 00:28:30,333 --> 00:28:32,665 The alliance with the Soviet Union 384 00:28:32,766 --> 00:28:36,566 that had won the Second World War had collapsed. 385 00:28:36,665 --> 00:28:40,299 The Soviets now occupied the Eastern European countries 386 00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:44,965 they had overrun, and hoped to spread their influence farther, 387 00:28:45,066 --> 00:28:49,766 into Iran, Turkey, and the Mediterranean. 388 00:28:49,865 --> 00:28:54,165 A new cold war had begun. 389 00:28:54,266 --> 00:28:56,833 French president Charles De Gaulle warned 390 00:28:56,932 --> 00:29:00,000 that if the United States insisted on independence 391 00:29:00,099 --> 00:29:03,766 for her colonies, France might have no choice 392 00:29:03,865 --> 00:29:07,200 but to "fall into the Russian orbit." 393 00:29:07,299 --> 00:29:10,700 The United States must do nothing to undercut 394 00:29:10,799 --> 00:29:16,200 the restoration of France's empire, including Vietnam. 395 00:29:20,266 --> 00:29:23,766 WICKES: There were hardly any Americans in Vietnam, you know-- 396 00:29:23,865 --> 00:29:26,799 State Department people, consular officials, 397 00:29:26,900 --> 00:29:29,099 a few businessmen. 398 00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:31,165 Hardly anyone from this country 399 00:29:31,266 --> 00:29:33,032 knew where Vietnam was located. 400 00:29:33,133 --> 00:29:37,833 NARRATOR: George Wickes was part of a seven-man OSS mission 401 00:29:37,932 --> 00:29:41,266 sent to Saigon, the largest city in the south. 402 00:29:41,365 --> 00:29:44,833 The United States was officially neutral, 403 00:29:44,932 --> 00:29:47,700 hoping the French and Viet Minh could reach 404 00:29:47,799 --> 00:29:51,333 some peaceful solution on their own. 405 00:29:51,432 --> 00:29:54,932 Allied leaders had agreed temporarily to divide Vietnam 406 00:29:55,032 --> 00:29:57,500 into two separate zones. 407 00:29:57,599 --> 00:30:01,766 Nationalist Chinese troops were to handle things in the north. 408 00:30:01,865 --> 00:30:05,333 British colonial troops would try to perform the same task 409 00:30:05,432 --> 00:30:08,232 in the south, where rival factions, 410 00:30:08,333 --> 00:30:12,432 including the French and Viet Minh, were already fighting 411 00:30:12,532 --> 00:30:15,432 in the streets of Saigon. 412 00:30:15,532 --> 00:30:17,900 WICKES: No one was in charge. 413 00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:22,165 On both sides, there was brutality and atrocity 414 00:30:22,266 --> 00:30:23,766 and violence. 415 00:30:23,865 --> 00:30:26,400 It wasn't quite a civil war 416 00:30:26,500 --> 00:30:28,365 but it was getting very close to civil war 417 00:30:28,465 --> 00:30:30,700 in the streets of Saigon. 418 00:30:30,799 --> 00:30:33,766 NARRATOR: Lieutenant Colonel Peter Dewey, 419 00:30:33,865 --> 00:30:37,232 the 28-year-old commander of the OSS in Saigon, 420 00:30:37,333 --> 00:30:39,932 tried to make sense of it all. 421 00:30:40,032 --> 00:30:42,766 WICKES: Right from the start he was in touch with everybody-- 422 00:30:42,865 --> 00:30:45,599 not only the French, but very soon he established 423 00:30:45,700 --> 00:30:49,865 a connection with various Vietnamese groups. 424 00:30:49,965 --> 00:30:52,965 The Viet Minh soon established themselves 425 00:30:53,066 --> 00:30:55,500 as the most successful. 426 00:30:55,599 --> 00:30:58,400 NARRATOR: Dewey, who spoke fluent French, 427 00:30:58,500 --> 00:31:01,432 brokered talks between a Viet Minh spokesman 428 00:31:01,532 --> 00:31:05,232 and the senior French representative in the city. 429 00:31:05,333 --> 00:31:10,099 His efforts infuriated British general Douglas Gracey, 430 00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:13,133 who commanded Allied forces in the south. 431 00:31:13,232 --> 00:31:16,099 Gracey was convinced that French control 432 00:31:16,200 --> 00:31:19,032 should be reimposed as soon as possible. 433 00:31:19,133 --> 00:31:22,465 By conferring with the Viet Minh, Gracey said, 434 00:31:22,566 --> 00:31:27,032 Colonel Dewey had become a "subversive" force. 435 00:31:27,133 --> 00:31:28,465 (gunfire) 436 00:31:28,566 --> 00:31:32,066 The violence in and around Saigon escalated. 437 00:31:34,066 --> 00:31:36,799 Colonel Dewey urgently cabled his superiors: 438 00:31:36,900 --> 00:31:40,400 Vietnam "is burning," he wrote. 439 00:31:40,500 --> 00:31:43,000 "The French and British are finished here 440 00:31:43,099 --> 00:31:45,633 and the United States," he concluded, 441 00:31:45,732 --> 00:31:47,900 "ought to clear out of Southeast Asia." 442 00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:49,599 (gunfire) 443 00:31:52,232 --> 00:31:56,665 Two days later, September 26, 1945, 444 00:31:56,766 --> 00:31:58,266 he set out for the airport, 445 00:31:58,365 --> 00:32:03,266 prepared to fly to OSS headquarters. 446 00:32:03,365 --> 00:32:08,365 At a roadblock, the Viet Minh mistook Dewey for a Frenchman 447 00:32:08,465 --> 00:32:10,500 and opened fire. 448 00:32:10,599 --> 00:32:12,000 (gunfire) 449 00:32:12,099 --> 00:32:15,299 He was killed instantly. 450 00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:19,200 WICKES: Ho Chi Minh wrote to the United States 451 00:32:19,299 --> 00:32:23,299 lamenting the death of Dewey, whom he recognized 452 00:32:23,400 --> 00:32:27,266 as a person sympathetic to his cause. 453 00:32:27,365 --> 00:32:30,099 It seemed a terrible irony that Dewey, 454 00:32:30,200 --> 00:32:32,766 who was doing what he could to help 455 00:32:32,865 --> 00:32:36,532 the Vietnamese independence movement should have been killed 456 00:32:36,633 --> 00:32:38,900 by the Vietnamese by a mistake. 457 00:32:44,333 --> 00:32:46,833 (electronic buzzing, muted helicopter blades beating) 458 00:32:50,400 --> 00:32:55,165 An elderly African-American woman answered the door. 459 00:33:00,200 --> 00:33:04,200 I think she knew the instant she saw us why we were there. 460 00:33:07,165 --> 00:33:09,299 And the padre said, uh, 461 00:33:09,400 --> 00:33:14,000 "I'm... I'm terribly sorry to inform you, 462 00:33:14,099 --> 00:33:19,266 but your son was killed in Vietnam." 463 00:33:19,365 --> 00:33:20,299 And she just sat down. 464 00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:22,032 Didn't say a word. 465 00:33:24,365 --> 00:33:28,099 Then the... her husband says, "No, there's a mistake." 466 00:33:28,200 --> 00:33:29,900 He comes back with this letter. 467 00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:32,266 And he said, "Look, see? 468 00:33:32,365 --> 00:33:37,266 We got it yesterday, my... our son was still alive yesterday." 469 00:33:37,365 --> 00:33:40,333 And the chaplain looked at the letter 470 00:33:40,432 --> 00:33:42,633 and he said, "It's a week old. 471 00:33:42,732 --> 00:33:47,165 I think your son was killed on the day he wrote this letter." 472 00:33:49,200 --> 00:33:53,099 ("La Marseillaise" playing) 473 00:33:54,965 --> 00:33:59,165 NARRATOR: In the fall of 1945, a week after Colonel Dewey's death, 474 00:33:59,266 --> 00:34:02,232 fresh French troops began arriving in Saigon, 475 00:34:02,333 --> 00:34:06,200 taking over from the British. 476 00:34:06,299 --> 00:34:07,465 They quickly established 477 00:34:07,566 --> 00:34:09,365 control of the city 478 00:34:09,465 --> 00:34:10,766 and set out to reoccupy 479 00:34:10,865 --> 00:34:12,666 the entire country. 480 00:34:14,565 --> 00:34:18,300 Ho Chi Minh hoped somehow to achieve independence 481 00:34:18,400 --> 00:34:20,400 without a war with France, 482 00:34:20,500 --> 00:34:23,900 and he still hoped the United States would intervene. 483 00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:27,900 "You never had an empire, never exploited the Asian peoples," 484 00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:31,032 he would tell a visiting American journalist. 485 00:34:31,132 --> 00:34:35,199 "Do not be blinded by this issue of communism." 486 00:34:35,300 --> 00:34:40,432 LESLIE GELB: He did not want to fight the French as an enemy of America. 487 00:34:40,532 --> 00:34:46,733 And, in fact, I saw the letters he wrote to President Truman 488 00:34:46,833 --> 00:34:51,266 saying, "We believe in the same things you believe." 489 00:34:51,365 --> 00:34:54,632 Those letters I saw in the CIA files, 490 00:34:54,733 --> 00:34:58,599 they had never been given to President Truman. 491 00:35:00,065 --> 00:35:02,766 (children shouting) 492 00:35:02,865 --> 00:35:07,465 NARRATOR: In June of 1946, Ho Chi Minh returned to Paris 493 00:35:07,565 --> 00:35:10,500 in a fruitless attempt to get the French to live up 494 00:35:10,599 --> 00:35:13,800 to a promise they had made of increased autonomy 495 00:35:13,900 --> 00:35:16,132 for his country. 496 00:35:16,233 --> 00:35:18,032 While Ho was away, 497 00:35:18,132 --> 00:35:21,500 General Giap began consolidating communist control 498 00:35:21,599 --> 00:35:22,965 of the revolution. 499 00:35:23,065 --> 00:35:25,833 He conducted a merciless purge 500 00:35:25,932 --> 00:35:28,865 of members of rival nationalist parties 501 00:35:28,965 --> 00:35:32,233 and people he called "reactionary saboteurs"-- 502 00:35:32,333 --> 00:35:37,599 landlords and moneylenders, Trotskyites and Catholics, 503 00:35:37,699 --> 00:35:42,065 men and women accused of collaborating with the French. 504 00:35:42,166 --> 00:35:46,500 Hundreds were shot, drowned, buried alive. 505 00:35:46,599 --> 00:35:48,500 LAM QUANG THI: 506 00:35:59,632 --> 00:36:04,532 NARRATOR: On December 19, 1946, after months of building tension, 507 00:36:04,632 --> 00:36:06,833 fighting broke out in Hanoi 508 00:36:06,932 --> 00:36:09,833 between the Viet Minh and the French. 509 00:36:09,932 --> 00:36:11,699 (gunfire) 510 00:36:14,099 --> 00:36:17,266 The Viet Minh proved no match for French firepower. 511 00:36:21,833 --> 00:36:27,699 Ho, Giap, and their comrades slipped out of the city 512 00:36:27,800 --> 00:36:31,733 and returned to their mountain stronghold far to the north. 513 00:36:33,965 --> 00:36:37,099 "Those who have rifles will use their rifles," 514 00:36:37,199 --> 00:36:39,199 Ho declared in a radio address 515 00:36:39,300 --> 00:36:42,132 calling for a nationwide guerrilla war. 516 00:36:42,233 --> 00:36:46,099 "Those who have swords will use swords; 517 00:36:46,199 --> 00:36:51,432 those who have no swords will use spades or sticks." 518 00:36:55,166 --> 00:37:00,166 NGUYEN NGOC: 519 00:37:21,833 --> 00:37:24,432 NARRATOR: But the country Ho Chi Minh hoped to unite 520 00:37:24,532 --> 00:37:27,766 was itself bitterly divided. 521 00:37:27,865 --> 00:37:30,166 Families were being torn apart. 522 00:37:30,266 --> 00:37:34,032 Despite her father's position in the French government, 523 00:37:34,132 --> 00:37:39,065 Duong Van Mai's sister felt compelled to answer Ho's call. 524 00:37:40,733 --> 00:37:44,333 DUONG VAN MAI: My older sister Thang was married 525 00:37:44,432 --> 00:37:49,465 to a man who had great sympathy for the Viet Minh. 526 00:37:49,565 --> 00:37:52,565 And by that time Ho Chi Minh had evacuated his government 527 00:37:52,666 --> 00:37:53,965 to the mountain base. 528 00:37:54,065 --> 00:37:57,699 So my sister and her husband trekked all the way 529 00:37:57,800 --> 00:38:00,032 from Hanoi toward the base 530 00:38:00,132 --> 00:38:03,733 in order to join the resistance against the French. 531 00:38:06,432 --> 00:38:08,900 So the Vietnam War was really a civil war 532 00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:10,632 down to the family level. 533 00:38:18,965 --> 00:38:22,565 NARRATOR: France poured thousands of men into Vietnam-- 534 00:38:22,666 --> 00:38:27,000 French regulars, European mercenaries, and colonial troops 535 00:38:27,099 --> 00:38:30,965 from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Senegal-- 536 00:38:31,065 --> 00:38:35,932 who fought alongside an army of Cambodians, Laotians, 537 00:38:36,032 --> 00:38:38,932 and anti-communist Vietnamese. 538 00:38:42,766 --> 00:38:47,065 French forces managed to occupy most of the large towns 539 00:38:47,166 --> 00:38:48,565 and province capitals 540 00:38:48,666 --> 00:38:53,632 and established hundreds of isolated outposts. 541 00:38:53,733 --> 00:38:58,400 The French also set out to try to win over rural Vietnamese 542 00:38:58,500 --> 00:39:01,865 through a program they calledpacification-- 543 00:39:01,965 --> 00:39:04,065 pacification-- 544 00:39:04,166 --> 00:39:08,800 building dikes, schools and roads, and vaccinating children. 545 00:39:11,632 --> 00:39:14,032 DUONG VAN MAI: The French would pacify a village 546 00:39:14,132 --> 00:39:18,300 and during the daytime they could control it. 547 00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:21,900 But at night the Viet Minh would come back. 548 00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:26,132 And so it was never completely secure. 549 00:39:26,233 --> 00:39:29,666 My father would shake his head and said, you know, 550 00:39:29,766 --> 00:39:31,233 "Pacification is really futile 551 00:39:31,333 --> 00:39:35,565 because it's like trying to hold sand in your fingers." 552 00:39:39,032 --> 00:39:44,132 NARRATOR: The Viet Minh mined roads, blew up bridges and railroads, 553 00:39:44,233 --> 00:39:49,400 ambushed French patrols, and then disappeared. 554 00:39:51,733 --> 00:39:55,932 French soldiers sometimes took revenge on the nearest village, 555 00:39:56,032 --> 00:39:58,432 burning homes, raping women, 556 00:39:58,532 --> 00:40:02,733 executing men suspected of aiding the Viet Minh. 557 00:40:07,599 --> 00:40:09,766 LE CONG HUAN: 558 00:40:41,532 --> 00:40:46,333 NARRATOR: But the communists proved every bit as ruthless as the French. 559 00:40:46,432 --> 00:40:49,599 "It is better to kill even those who might be innocent," 560 00:40:49,699 --> 00:40:55,432 one commander said, "than to let a guilty person go." 561 00:40:55,532 --> 00:40:57,800 And they specifically targeted 562 00:40:57,900 --> 00:41:01,166 anyone who had links to the French. 563 00:41:01,266 --> 00:41:05,000 DUONG VAN MAI: Once my father started working for the French, then he was 564 00:41:05,099 --> 00:41:07,733 a target, especially the higher he rose, 565 00:41:07,833 --> 00:41:09,699 the bigger target he became. 566 00:41:09,800 --> 00:41:15,865 A Viet Minh agent actually came in with a pistol to shoot him 567 00:41:15,965 --> 00:41:19,532 but at the last moment decided not to. 568 00:41:21,900 --> 00:41:24,532 TRANG NGOC ("HARRY") HUE: 569 00:41:54,065 --> 00:41:55,632 (gunfire) 570 00:41:58,500 --> 00:42:01,865 NARRATOR: French casualties continued to mount. 571 00:42:01,965 --> 00:42:04,800 "There are days when we are so discouraged 572 00:42:04,900 --> 00:42:07,500 that we would like to give it all up," 573 00:42:07,599 --> 00:42:09,699 a French soldier wrote his mother. 574 00:42:09,800 --> 00:42:12,965 "Convoys under attack, roads cut, 575 00:42:13,065 --> 00:42:16,166 "firing in all directions every night, 576 00:42:16,266 --> 00:42:18,199 the indifference at home." 577 00:42:27,865 --> 00:42:30,465 ROGER HARRIS: While I was there I had the opportunity to call my mother, 578 00:42:30,565 --> 00:42:32,699 you know. 579 00:42:32,800 --> 00:42:35,833 And I was telling my mother what was happening over there, 580 00:42:35,932 --> 00:42:39,032 and I was telling her how she shouldn't believe 581 00:42:39,132 --> 00:42:42,000 what she sees in the newspaper and sees on television 582 00:42:42,099 --> 00:42:44,733 because we're losing the war. 583 00:42:44,833 --> 00:42:47,599 I said, "And you'll probably never see me again 584 00:42:47,699 --> 00:42:51,300 "because we're the most northern outpost that the Marines have, 585 00:42:51,400 --> 00:42:52,699 you know." 586 00:42:52,800 --> 00:42:54,733 We could literally... could look right into North Vietnam. 587 00:42:54,833 --> 00:42:56,766 We could see the sparks when the guns fired on us. 588 00:42:56,865 --> 00:42:59,032 And I said, "And everybody in my unit is dying. 589 00:42:59,132 --> 00:43:01,800 I probably won't be coming back." 590 00:43:01,900 --> 00:43:03,932 And my mother said, "No, you're coming back." 591 00:43:04,032 --> 00:43:07,766 She said, "I talk to God every day and you're special. 592 00:43:07,865 --> 00:43:09,699 You're coming back." 593 00:43:09,800 --> 00:43:12,032 And I said, "Ma, everybody's mother thinks 594 00:43:12,132 --> 00:43:14,333 "that they're special. 595 00:43:14,432 --> 00:43:18,465 You know, I'm putting pieces of special people in bags." 596 00:43:19,833 --> 00:43:21,500 (explosion) 597 00:43:23,900 --> 00:43:25,532 ED HERLIHY: President Truman's dramatic announcement 598 00:43:25,632 --> 00:43:27,065 that Russia had the atom secret 599 00:43:27,166 --> 00:43:28,733 caused state departments all over the world 600 00:43:28,833 --> 00:43:31,500 to stir uneasily. 601 00:43:31,599 --> 00:43:35,632 HAL KUSHNER: We were very aware that there was a Cold War 602 00:43:35,733 --> 00:43:37,599 and that we had an enemy, 603 00:43:37,699 --> 00:43:41,733 and that enemy was the Soviet Union. 604 00:43:41,833 --> 00:43:44,900 The United States stood at one pole 605 00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:47,199 and the Soviet Union stood at the other pole. 606 00:43:47,300 --> 00:43:50,266 It was kind of a Manichean dynamic 607 00:43:50,365 --> 00:43:52,132 that there was evil and there was good. 608 00:43:52,233 --> 00:43:54,166 And we were good, and the other side was evil. 609 00:43:54,266 --> 00:43:57,333 It wasn't morally ambiguous. 610 00:44:00,132 --> 00:44:04,365 NARRATOR: Just a few weeks after Russia became a nuclear power, 611 00:44:04,465 --> 00:44:06,300 there was more stunning news-- 612 00:44:06,400 --> 00:44:10,000 communist forces under Mao Zedong seized control 613 00:44:10,099 --> 00:44:12,699 of China. 614 00:44:12,800 --> 00:44:16,666 Separate communist insurrections were also underway 615 00:44:16,766 --> 00:44:22,300 in the British colonies of Burma and Malaya. 616 00:44:22,400 --> 00:44:26,065 In January 1950, Mao formally recognized 617 00:44:26,166 --> 00:44:30,199 Ho Chi Minh's insurgency and agreed to provide the arms, 618 00:44:30,300 --> 00:44:34,199 equipment, and military training he had been seeking. 619 00:44:34,300 --> 00:44:38,300 The Soviets recognized the Viet Minh as well, 620 00:44:38,400 --> 00:44:40,199 and also offered help. 621 00:44:40,300 --> 00:44:43,865 President Truman, who was being blamed 622 00:44:43,965 --> 00:44:47,800 by his political opponents for having "lost" China, 623 00:44:47,900 --> 00:44:50,233 and having failed to "contain" communism, 624 00:44:50,333 --> 00:44:53,766 approved a $23 million aid program 625 00:44:53,865 --> 00:44:56,599 for the French in Vietnam. 626 00:44:56,699 --> 00:45:01,532 The United States was no longer neutral. 627 00:45:01,632 --> 00:45:04,465 SAM WILSON: We were caught on the horns of a dilemma 628 00:45:04,565 --> 00:45:07,199 of how can we maintain our friendship 629 00:45:07,300 --> 00:45:11,032 and our alliance with the French and support them in Indochina 630 00:45:11,132 --> 00:45:14,766 while we, as a former colony ourselves, 631 00:45:14,865 --> 00:45:17,833 sympathized with the Vietnamese and their aspirations 632 00:45:17,932 --> 00:45:19,865 for freedom and independence? 633 00:45:24,699 --> 00:45:27,032 ED HERLIHY: A highly trained and well-equipped North Korean Army 634 00:45:27,132 --> 00:45:29,266 swarmed across the 38th parallel 635 00:45:29,365 --> 00:45:31,333 to attack unprepared South Korean defenders. 636 00:45:31,432 --> 00:45:33,000 (explosion) 637 00:45:33,099 --> 00:45:36,733 NARRATOR: In June of 1950, China's ally, 638 00:45:36,833 --> 00:45:40,333 communist North Korea, invaded South Korea. 639 00:45:40,432 --> 00:45:41,865 (gunfire) 640 00:45:41,965 --> 00:45:43,865 President Truman ordered 641 00:45:43,965 --> 00:45:46,233 tens of thousands of American ground troops 642 00:45:46,333 --> 00:45:48,199 onto the Korean Peninsula. 643 00:45:55,166 --> 00:45:57,065 The United States and its allies 644 00:45:57,166 --> 00:46:01,532 eventually pushed the invaders back north. 645 00:46:01,632 --> 00:46:03,932 Meanwhile in southern China, 646 00:46:04,032 --> 00:46:06,400 Mao's military was beginning to turn the Viet Minh 647 00:46:06,500 --> 00:46:10,300 into a modern fighting force, 648 00:46:10,400 --> 00:46:14,465 capable of inflicting a heavy toll on the French occupiers. 649 00:46:21,833 --> 00:46:23,599 In July, the Truman administration 650 00:46:23,699 --> 00:46:26,565 quietly dispatched transport planes 651 00:46:26,666 --> 00:46:29,233 and a shipload of jeeps to Vietnam. 652 00:46:29,333 --> 00:46:35,000 Thirty-five military advisors went along to oversee their use. 653 00:46:36,833 --> 00:46:39,733 None of them, and no one in the American embassy, 654 00:46:39,833 --> 00:46:43,833 spoke a word of Vietnamese. 655 00:46:43,932 --> 00:46:48,233 But the United States was now officially in Vietnam. 656 00:46:50,465 --> 00:46:52,632 In October of 1950, 657 00:46:52,733 --> 00:46:55,800 hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops 658 00:46:55,900 --> 00:46:58,065 began pouring into North Korea, 659 00:46:58,166 --> 00:47:02,199 driving the allies back down the peninsula. 660 00:47:02,300 --> 00:47:03,932 As that fighting raged, 661 00:47:04,032 --> 00:47:07,233 Truman continued to increase military aid 662 00:47:07,333 --> 00:47:10,132 for the French war in Vietnam. 663 00:47:13,865 --> 00:47:15,500 HARRY TRUMAN: If aggression is successful in Korea, 664 00:47:15,599 --> 00:47:18,833 we can expect it to spread throughout Asia and Europe 665 00:47:18,932 --> 00:47:20,166 and to this hemisphere. 666 00:47:20,266 --> 00:47:22,699 (mortar fire) 667 00:47:22,800 --> 00:47:25,266 We are fighting in Korea 668 00:47:25,365 --> 00:47:27,965 for our own national security and survival. 669 00:47:31,400 --> 00:47:34,632 ("Mean Old World" by T-Bone Walker playing) 670 00:47:34,733 --> 00:47:36,833 NARRATOR: In the autumn of 1951, 671 00:47:36,932 --> 00:47:39,065 a young Massachusetts congressman 672 00:47:39,166 --> 00:47:43,032 named John F. Kennedy dined at the rooftop bar 673 00:47:43,132 --> 00:47:45,766 of the Hotel Majestic overlooking Saigon. 674 00:47:45,865 --> 00:47:47,065 (distant gun fire) 675 00:47:47,166 --> 00:47:49,166 As he and his party ate, 676 00:47:49,266 --> 00:47:53,599 they could hear the thunder of guns across the Saigon River. 677 00:47:53,699 --> 00:47:56,733 French commanders assured Kennedy 678 00:47:56,833 --> 00:47:59,333 that with more American support, 679 00:47:59,432 --> 00:48:02,599 French rule would be re-established. 680 00:48:02,699 --> 00:48:06,266 But Kennedy spent two hours with Seymour Topping, 681 00:48:06,365 --> 00:48:08,465 a seasoned American reporter, 682 00:48:08,565 --> 00:48:11,166 who gave him a very different perspective: 683 00:48:11,266 --> 00:48:13,965 the French were losing, he said, 684 00:48:14,065 --> 00:48:17,833 and many Vietnamese, who had once admired the Americans, 685 00:48:17,932 --> 00:48:22,065 were beginning to despise them for backing the French. 686 00:48:22,166 --> 00:48:25,400 Kennedy believed the reporter. 687 00:48:25,500 --> 00:48:28,766 Unless the United States could persuade the Vietnamese 688 00:48:28,865 --> 00:48:32,432 that it was as opposed to "injustice and inequality" 689 00:48:32,532 --> 00:48:34,032 as it was to communism, 690 00:48:34,132 --> 00:48:37,099 he told his constituents when he got home, 691 00:48:37,199 --> 00:48:42,465 the current effort would result in "foredoomed failure." 692 00:48:42,565 --> 00:48:45,400 (Rosemary Clooney singing "Come On-a My House") 693 00:48:45,500 --> 00:48:50,900 ♪ Come on-a my house, my house, I'm gonna give you candy ♪ 694 00:48:51,000 --> 00:48:52,865 NARRATOR: In 1952, 695 00:48:52,965 --> 00:48:56,233 General Dwight Eisenhower was elected president, 696 00:48:56,333 --> 00:48:59,132 in part because he promised to take a tougher stance 697 00:48:59,233 --> 00:49:01,266 on communism. 698 00:49:01,365 --> 00:49:04,666 That year, American taxpayers 699 00:49:04,766 --> 00:49:07,199 were footing more than 30% of the bill 700 00:49:07,300 --> 00:49:10,233 for the French war in Vietnam. 701 00:49:10,333 --> 00:49:12,432 Within two years, 702 00:49:12,532 --> 00:49:15,865 that number would rise to nearly 80%. 703 00:49:15,965 --> 00:49:19,199 CLOONEY: ♪ Everything, everything, everything ♪ 704 00:49:19,300 --> 00:49:21,565 RICHARD NIXON: And many of you ask this question: 705 00:49:21,666 --> 00:49:23,932 Why is the United States spending 706 00:49:24,032 --> 00:49:25,833 hundreds of millions of dollars 707 00:49:25,932 --> 00:49:30,032 supporting the forces of the French Union 708 00:49:30,132 --> 00:49:33,632 in the fight against communism in Indochina? 709 00:49:33,733 --> 00:49:35,965 I think perhaps if we go over to the map here, 710 00:49:36,065 --> 00:49:40,400 I can indicate to you why it is so vitally important. 711 00:49:40,500 --> 00:49:42,833 Here's Indochina. 712 00:49:42,932 --> 00:49:44,266 If Indochina falls, 713 00:49:44,365 --> 00:49:47,599 Thailand is put in almost impossible position. 714 00:49:47,699 --> 00:49:50,766 The same is true of Malaya with its rubber and tin. 715 00:49:50,865 --> 00:49:55,900 Now may I say that as far as the war in Indochina is concerned, 716 00:49:56,000 --> 00:50:00,565 that I was there, right on the battlefield, or close to it, 717 00:50:00,666 --> 00:50:03,266 and it's a bloody war, and it's a bitter one. 718 00:50:03,365 --> 00:50:08,565 (explosions) 719 00:50:08,666 --> 00:50:13,400 NARRATOR: By 1953, the French had been fighting for seven years. 720 00:50:13,500 --> 00:50:16,733 They had suffered over 100,000 casualties 721 00:50:16,833 --> 00:50:19,965 and failed to pacify the countryside. 722 00:50:20,065 --> 00:50:23,733 Six commanders had come and gone. 723 00:50:23,833 --> 00:50:26,000 Nevertheless, the seventh commander, 724 00:50:26,099 --> 00:50:29,132 General Henri Navarre, assured his countrymen 725 00:50:29,233 --> 00:50:30,666 that victory was near. 726 00:50:30,766 --> 00:50:33,800 "Now we can see it clearly," he said, 727 00:50:33,900 --> 00:50:37,733 "like the light at the end of the tunnel." 728 00:50:39,733 --> 00:50:43,632 Meanwhile, large parts of the French population were horrified 729 00:50:43,733 --> 00:50:46,333 by reports of French brutality 730 00:50:46,432 --> 00:50:49,132 and the widespread use of napalm-- 731 00:50:49,233 --> 00:50:53,900 gelatinized petroleum that burned foliage, 732 00:50:54,000 --> 00:50:56,465 homes, and human flesh. 733 00:50:59,400 --> 00:51:02,800 When returning French troops disembarked at Marseilles, 734 00:51:02,900 --> 00:51:07,266 members of the longshoremen's union pelted them with rocks. 735 00:51:07,365 --> 00:51:10,432 Parisian leftists began to call the conflict 736 00:51:10,532 --> 00:51:13,666 "La Sale Guerre"-- "The Dirty War." 737 00:51:17,365 --> 00:51:20,800 (police sirens wailing, people chanting) 738 00:51:22,032 --> 00:51:24,333 RON FERRIZZI: The camera was a close-up, 739 00:51:24,432 --> 00:51:27,500 was over the shoulder of this storm trooper 740 00:51:27,599 --> 00:51:31,132 who had a kid by the scruff of his shirt and he smacks him. 741 00:51:31,233 --> 00:51:32,333 REPORTER: People screaming... 742 00:51:32,432 --> 00:51:34,500 FERRIZZI: At that moment in time, 743 00:51:34,599 --> 00:51:37,199 I realized that anybody who really cared for America 744 00:51:37,300 --> 00:51:38,766 was sent halfway around the world 745 00:51:38,865 --> 00:51:42,266 chasing some ghost in a jungle. 746 00:51:42,365 --> 00:51:45,400 In the meantime, my country's being torn apart. 747 00:51:45,500 --> 00:51:47,699 So I saw somebody who looked like my dad 748 00:51:47,800 --> 00:51:49,300 hitting somebody who looked like me. 749 00:51:49,400 --> 00:51:51,233 Whose side would I be on? 750 00:51:59,333 --> 00:52:01,833 ED HERLIHY: In Korea, three years of combat end 751 00:52:01,932 --> 00:52:04,800 as United Nations and communist negotiators at Panmunjom 752 00:52:04,900 --> 00:52:05,932 sign a truce. 753 00:52:06,032 --> 00:52:09,000 NARRATOR: In July of 1953, 754 00:52:09,099 --> 00:52:12,465 the Korean War ended in a negotiated settlement 755 00:52:12,565 --> 00:52:14,500 and a still-divided peninsula. 756 00:52:14,599 --> 00:52:17,900 American policymakers saw it as proof 757 00:52:18,000 --> 00:52:21,300 that communism in Asia could be contained. 758 00:52:21,400 --> 00:52:23,132 HERLIHY: And in Washington, a dramatic evening press conference... 759 00:52:23,233 --> 00:52:26,266 NARRATOR: That fall, the French indicated their willingness 760 00:52:26,365 --> 00:52:30,333 to begin talks to end the fighting in Vietnam. 761 00:52:30,432 --> 00:52:33,865 Ho Chi Minh agreed to meet. 762 00:52:33,965 --> 00:52:37,833 But before the negotiators were to convene in Geneva, 763 00:52:37,932 --> 00:52:42,932 each side sought to improve its position on the battlefield. 764 00:52:44,532 --> 00:52:47,099 General Navarre set up a fortified base 765 00:52:47,199 --> 00:52:50,065 in a remote valley in northwestern Vietnam 766 00:52:50,166 --> 00:52:54,632 called Dien Bien Phu, where he hoped to lure the Viet Minh 767 00:52:54,733 --> 00:52:56,733 into a decisive battle. 768 00:52:58,833 --> 00:53:02,032 Navarre was certain that superior French firepower 769 00:53:02,132 --> 00:53:07,132 and air support would crush any attack by the Viet Minh. 770 00:53:07,233 --> 00:53:09,800 He and his commanders saw no need to worry 771 00:53:09,900 --> 00:53:14,333 about the jungle-covered hills that overlooked his 11,000 men, 772 00:53:14,432 --> 00:53:17,333 dug in on the valley floor. 773 00:53:17,432 --> 00:53:21,666 The artillery commander was so confident of victory, 774 00:53:21,766 --> 00:53:25,800 he complained, "I have more guns than I need." 775 00:53:28,865 --> 00:53:31,500 General Giap saw his chance. 776 00:53:31,599 --> 00:53:36,065 "We decided to wipe out at all costs the whole enemy force 777 00:53:36,166 --> 00:53:39,099 at Dien Bien Phu," he remembered. 778 00:53:41,166 --> 00:53:44,900 To do it, he pulled off one of the greatest logistical feats 779 00:53:45,000 --> 00:53:46,932 in military history-- 780 00:53:47,032 --> 00:53:50,132 a feat that would be restaged in propaganda films 781 00:53:50,233 --> 00:53:53,432 and celebrated for decades. 782 00:53:53,532 --> 00:53:57,400 A quarter of a million civilian porters-- 783 00:53:57,500 --> 00:53:58,833 nearly half of them women-- 784 00:53:58,932 --> 00:54:03,733 moved everything he needed for a siege, from sacks of rice 785 00:54:03,833 --> 00:54:06,000 to disassembled artillery pieces, 786 00:54:06,099 --> 00:54:09,132 on foot through the jungle. 787 00:54:09,233 --> 00:54:14,000 Giap surrounded the valley with 50,000 soldiers 788 00:54:14,099 --> 00:54:19,233 and 200 big guns, dug-in and camouflaged so well 789 00:54:19,333 --> 00:54:23,900 they could not be spotted from the air. 790 00:54:25,599 --> 00:54:29,432 On March 13, 1954, 791 00:54:29,532 --> 00:54:31,766 Viet Minh artillery on the hillsides 792 00:54:31,865 --> 00:54:35,132 began raining down 50 shells a minute 793 00:54:35,233 --> 00:54:38,199 on the French troops huddled below. 794 00:54:38,300 --> 00:54:40,465 (explosions) 795 00:54:40,565 --> 00:54:42,300 The airstrip was destroyed. 796 00:54:45,365 --> 00:54:48,432 The besieged troops could only be reinforced 797 00:54:48,532 --> 00:54:51,365 and resupplied by airdrop. 798 00:54:54,965 --> 00:54:56,666 The French artillery commander, 799 00:54:56,766 --> 00:55:01,733 who had underestimated his enemy, committed suicide. 800 00:55:01,833 --> 00:55:04,833 NEWSREEL NARRATOR: The airlift to Dien Bien Phu continues-- 801 00:55:04,932 --> 00:55:07,365 vital men and supplies for the heroic garrison 802 00:55:07,465 --> 00:55:09,032 that has defied the massed Viet Minh onslaughts 803 00:55:09,132 --> 00:55:10,199 for over six weeks. 804 00:55:10,300 --> 00:55:13,300 Today, Dien Bien Phu is a human dam 805 00:55:13,400 --> 00:55:15,300 trying to stem the red tide 806 00:55:15,400 --> 00:55:17,500 that threatens to engulf Southeast Asia. 807 00:55:19,166 --> 00:55:21,900 NARRATOR: The French government begged President Eisenhower 808 00:55:22,000 --> 00:55:23,500 to intervene. 809 00:55:23,599 --> 00:55:26,900 He refused to act without Congressional approval 810 00:55:27,000 --> 00:55:29,865 and support from European allies. 811 00:55:29,965 --> 00:55:32,000 Britain said no 812 00:55:32,099 --> 00:55:35,865 and the Congress would not support unilateral action. 813 00:55:35,965 --> 00:55:37,233 JOHN F. KENNEDY: The communists 814 00:55:37,333 --> 00:55:39,900 under Ho Chi Minh are able to claim that they are fighting 815 00:55:40,000 --> 00:55:42,532 for independence and the French appear to be fighting 816 00:55:42,632 --> 00:55:44,900 for a maintain... maintenance of colonial rule. 817 00:55:45,000 --> 00:55:46,333 I therefore believe 818 00:55:46,432 --> 00:55:49,632 that before the United States moves in, in any degree, 819 00:55:49,733 --> 00:55:52,266 that independence must be granted to the people, 820 00:55:52,365 --> 00:55:54,032 that the people must support the struggle. 821 00:55:55,833 --> 00:55:59,766 NARRATOR: "I am convinced," Eisenhower confided to his diary, 822 00:55:59,865 --> 00:56:04,699 "that no military victory is possible in this theater." 823 00:56:04,800 --> 00:56:07,432 Still, without consulting Congress, 824 00:56:07,532 --> 00:56:11,365 the president had secretly sent more American transport planes, 825 00:56:11,465 --> 00:56:17,132 their markings painted over and flown by civilian contractors, 826 00:56:17,233 --> 00:56:21,800 to help resupply the desperate French troops at Dien Bien Phu. 827 00:56:25,565 --> 00:56:27,733 GELB: Everyone understood that in and of itself, 828 00:56:27,833 --> 00:56:31,365 Vietnam didn't mean very much. 829 00:56:31,465 --> 00:56:35,599 But they believed, I believed, if we lost it, 830 00:56:35,699 --> 00:56:38,532 that the rest of Asia would tumble to communism. 831 00:56:38,632 --> 00:56:43,432 EISENHOWER: You have broader considerations that might follow 832 00:56:43,532 --> 00:56:48,300 what you would call the falling domino principle. 833 00:56:48,400 --> 00:56:50,932 You have a row of dominoes set up, 834 00:56:51,032 --> 00:56:52,800 and you knock over the first one, 835 00:56:52,900 --> 00:56:56,766 and what will happen to the last one is the certainty 836 00:56:56,865 --> 00:56:59,766 that it will go over very quickly. 837 00:57:01,632 --> 00:57:03,699 (explosion) 838 00:57:07,733 --> 00:57:10,666 (muted gunfire) 839 00:57:20,965 --> 00:57:27,000 NARRATOR: On the afternoon of May 7, 1954, after 55 days of siege, 840 00:57:27,099 --> 00:57:32,233 the exhausted French forces at Dien Bien Phu surrendered. 841 00:57:34,833 --> 00:57:39,565 They had lost 8,000 men, killed, wounded, or missing. 842 00:57:42,432 --> 00:57:46,800 General Giap had lost three times as many, 843 00:57:46,900 --> 00:57:50,032 but he had won a great victory. 844 00:57:51,065 --> 00:57:54,900 NGUYEN THOI BUNG: 845 00:58:07,166 --> 00:58:12,032 NARRATOR: Even Duong Van Mai's parents could not help but be impressed. 846 00:58:12,132 --> 00:58:14,166 DUONG VAN MAI: They were very proud 847 00:58:14,266 --> 00:58:16,900 that the Viet Minh had defeated the French, 848 00:58:17,000 --> 00:58:18,900 this great Western power. 849 00:58:19,000 --> 00:58:22,833 Admiration and respect on the one hand, 850 00:58:22,932 --> 00:58:25,166 but fear on the other hand. 851 00:58:25,266 --> 00:58:27,965 And fear was the stronger emotion. 852 00:58:29,666 --> 00:58:32,333 NARRATOR: "We have been caught bluffing by our enemies," 853 00:58:32,432 --> 00:58:36,132 Senate Minority Leader Lyndon Johnson said. 854 00:58:36,233 --> 00:58:41,233 "Today it is Indochina, tomorrow Asia may be in flames. 855 00:58:41,333 --> 00:58:47,432 And the day after, the Western Alliance will lie in ruins." 856 00:58:47,532 --> 00:58:50,500 DONALD GREGG: We should have seen it as the end of the colonial era 857 00:58:50,599 --> 00:58:53,699 in Southeast Asia, which it really was. 858 00:58:53,800 --> 00:58:56,166 But instead we saw it in Cold War terms, 859 00:58:56,266 --> 00:59:00,932 and we saw it as a defeat for the free world 860 00:59:01,032 --> 00:59:02,800 that was related to the rise of China. 861 00:59:02,900 --> 00:59:07,900 And it was a total misreading of a pivotal event, 862 00:59:08,000 --> 00:59:10,599 which cost us very dearly. 863 00:59:10,699 --> 00:59:12,699 (chanting) 864 00:59:12,800 --> 00:59:16,532 (newsreel music playing) 865 00:59:16,632 --> 00:59:18,599 JACK TOBIN: The former home of the League of Nations, 866 00:59:18,699 --> 00:59:20,865 Geneva, Switzerland, where East is meeting West 867 00:59:20,965 --> 00:59:22,266 in the international conference 868 00:59:22,365 --> 00:59:26,833 that may decisively affect the political future of Asia. 869 00:59:26,932 --> 00:59:30,199 NARRATOR: The day after the fall of Dien Bien Phu, 870 00:59:30,300 --> 00:59:33,965 diplomats from nine nations gathered in Geneva 871 00:59:34,065 --> 00:59:36,833 to settle the future of Vietnam. 872 00:59:36,932 --> 00:59:40,965 The talks dragged on for nearly two-and-a-half months. 873 00:59:44,000 --> 00:59:45,766 Despite their victory, 874 00:59:45,865 --> 00:59:49,532 Ho Chi Minh and General Giap could not keep fighting 875 00:59:49,632 --> 00:59:54,766 without more support from China and the Soviet Union. 876 00:59:54,865 --> 00:59:58,266 But China had lost a million men in Korea 877 00:59:58,365 --> 01:00:01,333 and did not want to become involved in another war 878 01:00:01,432 --> 01:00:03,000 along its border. 879 01:00:03,099 --> 01:00:08,833 The Soviet Union was hoping to ease tensions with the West. 880 01:00:08,932 --> 01:00:13,800 Both of Ho Chi Minh's communist patrons urged him to agree 881 01:00:13,900 --> 01:00:15,766 to a negotiated settlement, 882 01:00:15,865 --> 01:00:20,166 a partition like the one that had ended the Korean War. 883 01:00:20,266 --> 01:00:23,599 Ho had no option but to give in. 884 01:00:27,532 --> 01:00:30,300 In the end, no one was satisfied. 885 01:00:32,333 --> 01:00:37,300 Vietnam was temporarily to be divided at the 17th parallel. 886 01:00:37,400 --> 01:00:41,833 The 130,000 French-led troops stationed in the North 887 01:00:41,932 --> 01:00:44,000 were to withdraw to the South, 888 01:00:44,099 --> 01:00:48,000 and somewhere between 50,000 and 90,000 Viet Minh 889 01:00:48,099 --> 01:00:50,766 were to "re-group" to the North. 890 01:00:50,865 --> 01:00:52,632 The two halves would be separated 891 01:00:52,733 --> 01:00:57,032 by a demilitarized zone until an election could be held 892 01:00:57,132 --> 01:01:00,333 to reunify North and South Vietnam, 893 01:01:00,432 --> 01:01:05,565 an election everyone knew Ho Chi Minh would win. 894 01:01:08,032 --> 01:01:12,500 NGUYEN VAN TONG: 895 01:01:21,032 --> 01:01:22,400 (cheering) 896 01:01:22,500 --> 01:01:25,032 NGUYEN THOI BUNG: 897 01:01:40,565 --> 01:01:42,099 KARL MARLANTES: We had started walking up 898 01:01:42,199 --> 01:01:44,065 and we had probably gotten about a third of the way up the hill 899 01:01:44,166 --> 01:01:45,666 and then they unleashed on us. 900 01:01:45,766 --> 01:01:48,432 (explosion, gunfire) 901 01:01:48,532 --> 01:01:50,666 We were in the middle of this horrible shit sandwich. 902 01:01:50,766 --> 01:01:52,766 That's what we called it. 903 01:01:54,500 --> 01:01:57,766 (explosion, gunfire) 904 01:01:57,865 --> 01:02:01,733 One of the things that I learned in the war is that 905 01:02:01,833 --> 01:02:05,432 we're not the top species on the planet because we're nice. 906 01:02:08,300 --> 01:02:11,432 People talk a lot about how well the military turns, you know, 907 01:02:11,532 --> 01:02:14,233 kids into, you know, killing machines and stuff. 908 01:02:14,333 --> 01:02:16,833 And I'll always argue that it's just finishing school. 909 01:02:16,932 --> 01:02:18,699 (gunfire) 910 01:02:18,800 --> 01:02:22,932 (shouting) 911 01:02:25,500 --> 01:02:29,166 NEWSREEL NARRATOR: Braving the dangers of the open sea in tiny, rickety craft, 912 01:02:29,266 --> 01:02:31,666 thousands of Roman Catholic and Buddhist faith 913 01:02:31,766 --> 01:02:34,032 have found life impossible under the communists. 914 01:02:34,132 --> 01:02:37,599 For them, it's freedom or nothing. 915 01:02:40,766 --> 01:02:42,733 NARRATOR: Under the Geneva Accords, 916 01:02:42,833 --> 01:02:45,666 civilians living in either half of Vietnam 917 01:02:45,766 --> 01:02:48,000 who wanted to relocate to the other 918 01:02:48,099 --> 01:02:51,099 would have 300 days to do so. 919 01:02:51,199 --> 01:02:55,099 DUONG VAN MAI: My mother and father wanted to stay 920 01:02:55,199 --> 01:02:57,199 and meet my sister Thang again 921 01:02:57,300 --> 01:02:59,632 because they knew Thang would come back. 922 01:02:59,733 --> 01:03:01,965 But on the other hand they couldn't risk that. 923 01:03:02,065 --> 01:03:06,932 They were convinced that when Ho Chi Minh and his government 924 01:03:07,032 --> 01:03:09,166 arrived in Hanoi, 925 01:03:09,266 --> 01:03:12,800 my father would be the first one to be killed 926 01:03:12,900 --> 01:03:14,766 and all of us would be persecuted. 927 01:03:17,500 --> 01:03:19,532 And I remember the day we left. 928 01:03:19,632 --> 01:03:22,900 I looked around and I thought, "I never come back here again." 929 01:03:25,266 --> 01:03:27,166 It was extremely traumatic. 930 01:03:27,266 --> 01:03:31,865 It was like the ground was suddenly cut from under you. 931 01:03:31,965 --> 01:03:37,432 NARRATOR: In the end, some 900,000 refugees, 932 01:03:37,532 --> 01:03:39,766 including more than half of all the Catholics 933 01:03:39,865 --> 01:03:41,132 living in the North, 934 01:03:41,233 --> 01:03:46,400 fled to the South, many of them aboard American ships. 935 01:03:50,766 --> 01:03:54,333 The United States hoped somehow to encourage the building 936 01:03:54,432 --> 01:03:56,666 of a legitimate government in the South. 937 01:03:58,800 --> 01:04:03,500 That government was now headed by Ngo Dinh Diem. 938 01:04:03,599 --> 01:04:06,266 Both a Roman Catholic and a Confucian 939 01:04:06,365 --> 01:04:08,465 in a largely Buddhist country, 940 01:04:08,565 --> 01:04:13,465 he was a celibate bachelor who had once planned to be a priest. 941 01:04:13,565 --> 01:04:19,666 GELB: The war for us really started when we became the partner, 942 01:04:19,766 --> 01:04:24,800 or I would say the victim, of President Diem. 943 01:04:24,900 --> 01:04:29,833 We were going to help him turn South Vietnam into a democracy. 944 01:04:29,932 --> 01:04:31,432 That's what he said he wanted to do. 945 01:04:31,532 --> 01:04:32,500 And we believed him. 946 01:04:32,599 --> 01:04:34,932 NARRATOR: Like Ho Chi Minh, 947 01:04:35,032 --> 01:04:38,599 Diem had spent years abroad seeking support 948 01:04:38,699 --> 01:04:42,365 for his own brand of Vietnamese nationalism. 949 01:04:42,465 --> 01:04:45,865 He was a veteran politician whose loathing for the French 950 01:04:45,965 --> 01:04:49,733 was matched only by his hatred for the communists, 951 01:04:49,833 --> 01:04:53,500 who had imprisoned him and buried alive his eldest brother 952 01:04:53,599 --> 01:04:55,965 and his nephew. 953 01:04:56,065 --> 01:04:59,400 Diem was aloof, autocratic, 954 01:04:59,500 --> 01:05:02,766 mistrustful of anyone much beyond his own family. 955 01:05:02,865 --> 01:05:06,766 He also proved to be shrewd, resourceful, 956 01:05:06,865 --> 01:05:10,900 and skilled at exploiting the weaknesses of his opponents. 957 01:05:11,000 --> 01:05:16,932 But he faced a daunting task in creating a new country. 958 01:05:17,032 --> 01:05:20,032 The French, who still had thousands of troops 959 01:05:20,132 --> 01:05:23,599 stationed in the South, detested Diem. 960 01:05:23,699 --> 01:05:27,465 Several provinces were under the sway of religious sects 961 01:05:27,565 --> 01:05:29,932 with armies of their own. 962 01:05:30,032 --> 01:05:34,132 Tens of thousands of Viet Minh soldiers had gone north, 963 01:05:34,233 --> 01:05:36,333 but several thousand cadre-- 964 01:05:36,432 --> 01:05:39,766 trained and dedicated Communist Party workers-- 965 01:05:39,865 --> 01:05:45,800 had stayed behind to organize resistance in the countryside. 966 01:05:45,900 --> 01:05:49,965 And Saigon itself was ruled by the Binh Xuyen, 967 01:05:50,065 --> 01:05:53,465 a crime syndicate backed by the French. 968 01:05:53,565 --> 01:05:55,766 RUFUS PHILLIPS: And the French were behind the Binh Xuyen, 969 01:05:55,865 --> 01:05:57,266 sort of supporting them 970 01:05:57,365 --> 01:06:00,432 because they didn't want Diem to succeed. 971 01:06:00,532 --> 01:06:02,465 And that became the central contest. 972 01:06:04,500 --> 01:06:08,365 NARRATOR: Some in the CIA believed that Diem could be the savior 973 01:06:08,465 --> 01:06:10,465 of South Vietnam. 974 01:06:10,565 --> 01:06:12,500 Others were not so sure. 975 01:06:12,599 --> 01:06:14,733 "He is a messiah without a message," 976 01:06:14,833 --> 01:06:17,766 one diplomat reported to Washington. 977 01:06:17,865 --> 01:06:21,333 The U.S. ambassador agreed. 978 01:06:21,432 --> 01:06:24,733 On April 27, 1955, 979 01:06:24,833 --> 01:06:28,900 President Eisenhower decided to end American support 980 01:06:29,000 --> 01:06:31,565 for Diem's regime. 981 01:06:31,666 --> 01:06:32,632 (gunfire) 982 01:06:32,733 --> 01:06:35,932 But then Diem made an all-out assault 983 01:06:36,032 --> 01:06:38,333 on the Binh Xuyen syndicate. 984 01:06:38,432 --> 01:06:40,632 (sirens blaring, gunfire) 985 01:06:40,733 --> 01:06:42,532 DUONG VAN MAI: Suddenly in the middle of the day 986 01:06:42,632 --> 01:06:47,132 we heard gunfire and then we saw flames 987 01:06:47,233 --> 01:06:49,565 and the neighborhood was burning. 988 01:06:49,666 --> 01:06:52,465 MICHAEL FITZMAURICE: There are hundreds of dead and wounded on both sides 989 01:06:52,565 --> 01:06:55,465 as the street fighting continues for an entire week. 990 01:06:55,565 --> 01:06:57,532 For the United States, the situation presents 991 01:06:57,632 --> 01:06:58,800 a grave problem. 992 01:07:00,733 --> 01:07:03,699 Diem finally regains control of Saigon. 993 01:07:05,432 --> 01:07:09,699 NARRATOR: In the end, Diem's forces prevailed. 994 01:07:09,800 --> 01:07:15,666 Eisenhower now saw no option but to stick with Diem. 995 01:07:15,766 --> 01:07:21,132 The French then announced their intention to withdraw completely 996 01:07:21,233 --> 01:07:27,365 from South Vietnam, ending nearly a century of occupation. 997 01:07:27,465 --> 01:07:32,432 PHILLIPS: Diem became wildly popular because he seemed to embody 998 01:07:32,532 --> 01:07:35,032 the nationalist cause in the South. 999 01:07:35,132 --> 01:07:37,032 He succeeded in getting the French 1000 01:07:37,132 --> 01:07:39,065 out of Vietnam all the way. 1001 01:07:39,166 --> 01:07:42,632 And Ho Chi Minh had only got them out of the northern half. 1002 01:07:42,733 --> 01:07:48,532 NARRATOR: Flush with victory, Diem called for a referendum in the South. 1003 01:07:48,632 --> 01:07:54,032 The CIA warned him not to meddle too much with the returns. 1004 01:07:55,233 --> 01:07:57,032 But when the ballots were counted, 1005 01:07:57,132 --> 01:08:02,900 Diem claimed to have won 98.2% of the vote. 1006 01:08:04,800 --> 01:08:10,333 On October 26, 1955, Ngo Dinh Diem named himself 1007 01:08:10,432 --> 01:08:16,065 the first president of the brand-new Republic of Vietnam. 1008 01:08:16,166 --> 01:08:19,966 The election to reunify the North and South 1009 01:08:20,065 --> 01:08:23,632 that had been promised at Geneva would never be held. 1010 01:08:23,733 --> 01:08:29,765 GELB: He became our ally, or rather our master, 1011 01:08:29,865 --> 01:08:32,365 because the goal of preventing 1012 01:08:32,466 --> 01:08:34,565 the communists from taking over the South 1013 01:08:34,666 --> 01:08:41,199 was so strong that we couldn't afford for him to lose. 1014 01:08:41,300 --> 01:08:44,033 So Diem started to boss us around. 1015 01:08:44,132 --> 01:08:46,132 And this was a typical relationship. 1016 01:08:46,233 --> 01:08:48,600 You need any ally you believe 1017 01:08:48,699 --> 01:08:51,632 to be the centerpiece of your foreign policy. 1018 01:08:51,733 --> 01:08:53,233 They understand that right away. 1019 01:08:53,332 --> 01:08:56,000 And the tail wags the dog. 1020 01:09:00,466 --> 01:09:02,733 ED HERLIHY: From the Far East comes a distinguished visitor. 1021 01:09:02,832 --> 01:09:05,500 President Ngo Dinh Diem of Vietnam is accorded 1022 01:09:05,600 --> 01:09:08,533 one of President Eisenhower's rare airport greetings, 1023 01:09:08,632 --> 01:09:11,033 as he arrives for a four-day state visit. 1024 01:09:11,132 --> 01:09:13,565 President Diem, one of America's staunchest allies 1025 01:09:13,666 --> 01:09:14,865 in Southeast Asia, 1026 01:09:14,966 --> 01:09:17,600 will seek an increase in aid to shore up his country 1027 01:09:17,699 --> 01:09:19,500 against increasing communist pressure, 1028 01:09:19,600 --> 01:09:25,065 a request to which the president lends a sympathetic ear. 1029 01:09:25,166 --> 01:09:29,100 NARRATOR: Most politicians, Democrats as well as Republicans, 1030 01:09:29,199 --> 01:09:31,100 now seemed to share the changing views 1031 01:09:31,199 --> 01:09:33,033 of Senator John F. Kennedy. 1032 01:09:33,132 --> 01:09:36,699 South Vietnam is "our offspring," he said. 1033 01:09:36,800 --> 01:09:38,399 "We cannot abandon it." 1034 01:09:38,500 --> 01:09:42,765 If it fell, the United States would be "held responsible 1035 01:09:42,865 --> 01:09:47,166 and our prestige in Asia will sink to a new low." 1036 01:09:47,265 --> 01:09:52,600 There had never before been a South Vietnamese nation, 1037 01:09:52,699 --> 01:09:55,932 but Americans, who had rebuilt much of their own country 1038 01:09:56,033 --> 01:09:59,632 during the New Deal and had helped rebuild Western Europe 1039 01:09:59,733 --> 01:10:00,966 through the Marshall Plan, 1040 01:10:01,065 --> 01:10:05,733 were convinced they could build one nonetheless. 1041 01:10:05,832 --> 01:10:07,800 (blows whistle) 1042 01:10:07,899 --> 01:10:11,800 Eisenhower ordered scores of American civilians 1043 01:10:11,899 --> 01:10:15,600 to South Vietnam, full of plans for economic development 1044 01:10:15,699 --> 01:10:19,432 meant to win, he hoped, the hearts and minds 1045 01:10:19,533 --> 01:10:21,233 of the Vietnamese people. 1046 01:10:24,199 --> 01:10:27,300 But those civilians would always be outnumbered 1047 01:10:27,399 --> 01:10:28,899 by military advisors, 1048 01:10:29,000 --> 01:10:33,399 with orders to modernize, train, and equip Diem's forces, 1049 01:10:33,500 --> 01:10:39,265 now called the Army of the Republic of Vietnam-- the ARVN. 1050 01:10:39,365 --> 01:10:44,800 Some ARVN officers found American methods unsuited 1051 01:10:44,899 --> 01:10:47,533 to the guerrilla war they expected to wage 1052 01:10:47,632 --> 01:10:49,765 against the communists. 1053 01:10:49,865 --> 01:10:52,533 Most American military advisors were veterans 1054 01:10:52,632 --> 01:10:53,932 of the war in Korea, 1055 01:10:54,033 --> 01:10:57,699 determined to prepare South Vietnamese forces 1056 01:10:57,800 --> 01:11:03,233 to slow a conventional invasion from the North. 1057 01:11:03,332 --> 01:11:06,932 But no one in North Vietnam 1058 01:11:07,033 --> 01:11:10,565 was planning a conventional invasion. 1059 01:11:10,666 --> 01:11:14,565 Ho Chi Minh was focused on rebuilding his country, 1060 01:11:14,666 --> 01:11:18,533 devastated by more than a decade of war. 1061 01:11:21,065 --> 01:11:24,600 The communists imposed brutal land reforms 1062 01:11:24,699 --> 01:11:26,865 modeled on those underway in China 1063 01:11:26,966 --> 01:11:31,632 with a ruthlessness that left thousands of people dead, 1064 01:11:31,733 --> 01:11:35,100 including not only landlords who had sided with the French, 1065 01:11:35,199 --> 01:11:39,466 but also many villagers who had fought with the Viet Minh. 1066 01:11:42,132 --> 01:11:45,865 Ho Chi Minh was still determined to reunite Vietnam. 1067 01:11:45,966 --> 01:11:48,565 But he worried that if he took direct military action 1068 01:11:48,666 --> 01:11:50,166 against the South, 1069 01:11:50,265 --> 01:11:54,332 the United States would be drawn more deeply into the struggle. 1070 01:11:54,432 --> 01:11:57,865 He cautioned his comrades in the South to put their faith 1071 01:11:57,966 --> 01:12:01,733 in political agitation and avoid violence. 1072 01:12:04,166 --> 01:12:06,132 But that message rang hollow 1073 01:12:06,233 --> 01:12:09,000 among embattled Southern revolutionaries 1074 01:12:09,100 --> 01:12:10,800 struggling to survive 1075 01:12:10,899 --> 01:12:15,800 under Diem's increasingly harsh regime. 1076 01:12:15,899 --> 01:12:20,432 In a campaign he called "Denounce the Communists," 1077 01:12:20,533 --> 01:12:23,832 Diem had imprisoned tens of thousands of citizens 1078 01:12:23,932 --> 01:12:30,065 without trial and ordered the executions of hundreds more. 1079 01:12:30,166 --> 01:12:34,065 Now, the communists took matters into their own hands 1080 01:12:34,166 --> 01:12:37,832 and began attacking South Vietnamese officials. 1081 01:12:39,265 --> 01:12:44,199 LE QUAN CONG: 1082 01:13:17,533 --> 01:13:21,600 NARRATOR: As violence in South Vietnam intensified, 1083 01:13:21,699 --> 01:13:24,332 new leaders emerged in Hanoi. 1084 01:13:24,432 --> 01:13:27,800 Ho Chi Minh would remain the face of the revolution 1085 01:13:27,899 --> 01:13:31,765 around the world, but he now began to share power 1086 01:13:31,865 --> 01:13:35,033 with men who were growing impatient with his caution, 1087 01:13:35,132 --> 01:13:39,666 men about whom Americans knew almost nothing. 1088 01:13:41,800 --> 01:13:44,733 The most important proved to be a carpenter's son 1089 01:13:44,832 --> 01:13:50,932 from Quang Tri province in the South named Le Duan. 1090 01:13:51,033 --> 01:13:54,500 He had helped found the Indochinese Communist Party, 1091 01:13:54,600 --> 01:13:58,065 survived nearly ten years in a French prison, 1092 01:13:58,166 --> 01:14:01,265 and proved himself a shrewd political infighter 1093 01:14:01,365 --> 01:14:04,800 as he rose to become First Secretary of the party. 1094 01:14:06,699 --> 01:14:10,699 NGUYEN NGOC: 1095 01:14:39,565 --> 01:14:43,632 NARRATOR: By 1959, Le Duan and his hardline allies 1096 01:14:43,733 --> 01:14:47,666 were gaining influence within the North Vietnamese Politburo 1097 01:14:47,765 --> 01:14:50,365 and beginning to change its policy. 1098 01:14:50,466 --> 01:14:54,233 They now argued that Hanoi should do everything 1099 01:14:54,332 --> 01:14:57,432 within its power to help Southern revolutionaries 1100 01:14:57,533 --> 01:14:59,832 remove Diem by force. 1101 01:15:01,932 --> 01:15:06,166 BUI DIEM (speaking English): 1102 01:15:21,466 --> 01:15:25,000 NARRATOR: Now, bands of 40 to 50 armed Viet Minh 1103 01:15:25,100 --> 01:15:28,399 began slipping back home into South Vietnam, 1104 01:15:28,500 --> 01:15:32,265 following jungle paths hacked through the Laotian mountains 1105 01:15:32,365 --> 01:15:36,865 that the Americans would soon call the Ho Chi Minh Trail. 1106 01:15:42,865 --> 01:15:46,065 Violence against the Diem regime steadily accelerated. 1107 01:15:46,166 --> 01:15:47,800 (gunfire) 1108 01:15:47,899 --> 01:15:49,865 (siren blaring) 1109 01:15:56,000 --> 01:16:01,132 On the evening of July 8, 1959, at Bien Hoa, 1110 01:16:01,233 --> 01:16:03,065 20 miles northeast of Saigon, 1111 01:16:03,166 --> 01:16:07,300 six American military advisors were watching a movie 1112 01:16:07,399 --> 01:16:08,932 in their mess hall. 1113 01:16:10,632 --> 01:16:12,666 Viet Minh guerrillas, who had crept silently 1114 01:16:12,765 --> 01:16:16,332 into the compound, opened fire through the windows. 1115 01:16:16,432 --> 01:16:19,033 (rapid gunfire) 1116 01:16:22,000 --> 01:16:24,899 Major Dale Buis from Pender, Nebraska, 1117 01:16:25,000 --> 01:16:27,100 and Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand 1118 01:16:27,199 --> 01:16:30,600 from Copperas Cove, Texas, were killed. 1119 01:16:32,800 --> 01:16:37,100 They were the first American soldiers to die from enemy fire 1120 01:16:37,199 --> 01:16:39,100 in the Vietnam War. 1121 01:16:40,632 --> 01:16:43,199 JOHN KENNEDY: We must prove all over again, 1122 01:16:43,300 --> 01:16:49,033 to a watching world, as we sit on a most conspicuous stage, 1123 01:16:49,132 --> 01:16:50,733 whether this nation, 1124 01:16:50,832 --> 01:16:54,932 conceived as it is with its freedom of choice, 1125 01:16:55,033 --> 01:16:59,600 its breadth of opportunity, its range of alternatives, 1126 01:16:59,699 --> 01:17:02,065 can compete with the single-minded advance 1127 01:17:02,166 --> 01:17:03,832 of the communist system. 1128 01:17:03,932 --> 01:17:09,565 NARRATOR: On November 8, 1960, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected 1129 01:17:09,666 --> 01:17:12,300 president of the United States. 1130 01:17:12,399 --> 01:17:16,132 His vice president was Senator Lyndon Johnson. 1131 01:17:16,233 --> 01:17:20,199 They had narrowly beaten Vice President Richard Nixon 1132 01:17:20,300 --> 01:17:23,533 and his running mate, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. 1133 01:17:25,000 --> 01:17:27,932 During the campaign, both Kennedy and Nixon 1134 01:17:28,033 --> 01:17:32,466 had pledged to hold the line against international communism 1135 01:17:32,565 --> 01:17:35,166 wherever it seemed to be a threat. 1136 01:17:35,265 --> 01:17:39,166 But very few Americans knew or cared about 1137 01:17:39,265 --> 01:17:41,600 what was going on in Vietnam. 1138 01:17:43,365 --> 01:17:45,565 Six weeks after Kennedy's election, 1139 01:17:45,666 --> 01:17:48,632 at a remote jungle village called Tan Lap 1140 01:17:48,733 --> 01:17:50,565 near the Cambodian border, 1141 01:17:50,666 --> 01:17:54,500 representatives of southern revolutionary groups 1142 01:17:54,600 --> 01:17:58,699 met to form a new organization to replace the Viet Minh, 1143 01:17:58,800 --> 01:18:01,666 dedicated to overthrowing Ngo Dinh Diem 1144 01:18:01,765 --> 01:18:05,666 and ousting the foreigners supporting him. 1145 01:18:05,765 --> 01:18:11,265 Behind the scenes, Le Duan and his communist comrades in Hanoi 1146 01:18:11,365 --> 01:18:15,365 were orchestrating everything. 1147 01:18:15,466 --> 01:18:17,166 The new organization would be called 1148 01:18:17,265 --> 01:18:21,500 the National Liberation Front-- the NLF. 1149 01:18:23,100 --> 01:18:26,166 The armed wing of the NLF was called 1150 01:18:26,265 --> 01:18:28,932 the People's Liberation Armed Forces, 1151 01:18:29,033 --> 01:18:32,466 but its enemies in Saigon and Washington preferred 1152 01:18:32,565 --> 01:18:34,600 a more disparaging term. 1153 01:18:34,699 --> 01:18:38,065 In their eyes, the revolutionaries were 1154 01:18:38,166 --> 01:18:41,565 Communist Traitors to the Vietnamese Nation-- 1155 01:18:41,666 --> 01:18:43,166 the Viet Cong. 1156 01:18:49,132 --> 01:18:53,899 (muted shouting) 1157 01:18:56,332 --> 01:19:01,065 HUY DUC: 1158 01:19:33,300 --> 01:19:35,699 JOHN KENNEDY: Let every nation know, 1159 01:19:35,800 --> 01:19:41,399 whether it wishes us well or ill, 1160 01:19:41,500 --> 01:19:47,533 that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, 1161 01:19:47,632 --> 01:19:52,500 meet any hardship, support any friend, 1162 01:19:52,600 --> 01:19:57,600 oppose any foe, to assure the survival 1163 01:19:57,699 --> 01:19:59,065 and the success of liberty. 1164 01:20:11,432 --> 01:20:13,899 TIM O'BRIEN: For me, I'd always thought of courage 1165 01:20:14,000 --> 01:20:18,500 as charging enemy bunkers or standing up under fire. 1166 01:20:18,600 --> 01:20:24,533 But just to walk, day after day from village to village 1167 01:20:24,632 --> 01:20:29,166 and through the paddies and up into the mountains, 1168 01:20:29,265 --> 01:20:33,432 just to get up in the morning and look out at the land 1169 01:20:33,533 --> 01:20:37,132 and think, "In a few minutes I'll be walking out there 1170 01:20:37,233 --> 01:20:40,365 "and will my corpse be there, over there? 1171 01:20:40,466 --> 01:20:41,899 Will I lose a leg out there?" 1172 01:20:43,699 --> 01:20:47,466 Just to walk felt incredibly brave. 1173 01:20:47,565 --> 01:20:50,332 I would sometimes look at my legs as I walked, 1174 01:20:50,432 --> 01:20:52,832 thinking, how am I doing this? 1175 01:20:56,865 --> 01:21:03,000 ("A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" by Bob Dylan playing) 1176 01:21:03,100 --> 01:21:06,832 ♪ Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son? ♪ 1177 01:21:09,332 --> 01:21:13,533 ♪ And where have you been, my darling young one? ♪ 1178 01:21:16,332 --> 01:21:20,100 ♪ I've stumbled on the side of 12 misty mountains ♪ 1179 01:21:23,132 --> 01:21:27,265 ♪ I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways ♪ 1180 01:21:29,699 --> 01:21:33,733 ♪ I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests ♪ 1181 01:21:36,132 --> 01:21:40,600 ♪ I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans ♪ 1182 01:21:42,699 --> 01:21:47,233 ♪ I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard ♪ 1183 01:21:49,432 --> 01:21:52,666 ♪ And it's a hard, it's a hard ♪ 1184 01:21:52,765 --> 01:21:56,800 ♪ It's a hard, it's a hard ♪ 1185 01:21:56,899 --> 01:22:02,132 ♪ It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall ♪ 1186 01:22:07,500 --> 01:22:11,632 ♪ Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son? ♪ 1187 01:22:14,233 --> 01:22:18,000 ♪ And what did you see, my darling young one? ♪ 1188 01:22:20,865 --> 01:22:25,300 ♪ I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it ♪ 1189 01:22:27,565 --> 01:22:31,300 ♪ I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it ♪ 1190 01:22:34,265 --> 01:22:38,233 ♪ I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin' ♪ 1191 01:22:40,865 --> 01:22:44,865 ♪ I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin' ♪ 1192 01:22:47,666 --> 01:22:51,265 ♪ I saw a white ladder all covered with water ♪ 1193 01:22:54,199 --> 01:22:58,065 ♪ I saw 10,000 talkers whose tongues were all broken ♪ 1194 01:23:00,932 --> 01:23:05,765 ♪ I saw guns with sharp swords in the hands of young children ♪ 1195 01:23:05,865 --> 01:23:09,100 ♪ And it's a hard, it's a hard ♪ 1196 01:23:09,199 --> 01:23:13,065 ♪ It's a hard, and it's a hard ♪ 1197 01:23:13,166 --> 01:23:18,632 ♪ It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall ♪ 1198 01:23:21,000 --> 01:23:24,432 ♪ And it's a hard, it's a hard ♪ 1199 01:23:24,533 --> 01:23:28,000 ♪ It's a hard, and it's a hard ♪ 1200 01:23:28,100 --> 01:23:33,265 ♪ It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall. ♪ 1201 01:23:39,500 --> 01:23:45,466 Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH, access.wgbh.org 1202 01:23:46,533 --> 01:23:47,733 ANNOUNCER: LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FILM 1203 01:23:47,733 --> 01:23:50,600 AND FIND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES AT PBS.ORG/VIETNAMWAR 1204 01:23:50,600 --> 01:23:54,533 AND JOIN THE CONVERSATION USING HASHTAG VIETNAMWARPBS. 1205 01:23:54,533 --> 01:23:56,000 "THE VIETNAM WAR" IS AVAILABLE 1206 01:23:56,000 --> 01:23:57,666 ON BLU-RAY AND DVD. 1207 01:23:57,666 --> 01:23:59,332 THE COMPANION BOOK, SOUNDTRACK, 1208 01:23:59,332 --> 01:24:00,800 AND ORIGINAL SCORE FROM THE FILM 1209 01:24:00,800 --> 01:24:01,932 ARE ALSO AVAILABLE. 1210 01:24:01,932 --> 01:24:04,033 TO ORDER, VISIT SHOPPBS.ORG 1211 01:24:04,033 --> 01:24:06,500 OR CALL 1-800-PLAY-PBS. 1212 01:24:06,500 --> 01:24:07,932 EPISODES OF THIS SERIES ALSO 1213 01:24:07,932 --> 01:24:09,033 AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD 1214 01:24:09,033 --> 01:24:10,132 FROM iTUNES. 1215 01:24:13,399 --> 01:24:15,533 ANNOUNCER: BANK OF AMERICA PROUDLY SUPPORTS 1216 01:24:15,533 --> 01:24:20,432 KEN BURNS' AND LYNN NOVICK'S FILM "THE VIETNAM WAR" 1217 01:24:20,432 --> 01:24:22,832 BECAUSE FOSTERING DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES 1218 01:24:22,832 --> 01:24:25,432 AND CIVIL DISCOURSE AROUND IMPORTANT ISSUES 1219 01:24:25,432 --> 01:24:27,733 FURTHERS PROGRESS, EQUALITY, 1220 01:24:27,733 --> 01:24:29,733 AND A MORE CONNECTED SOCIETY. 1221 01:24:34,199 --> 01:24:38,233 GO TO BANKOFAMERICA.COM/ BETTERCONNECTED TO LEARN MORE. 1222 01:24:41,699 --> 01:24:43,132 ANNOUNCER: MAJOR SUPPORT FOR "THE VIETNAM WAR" 1223 01:24:43,132 --> 01:24:46,632 WAS PROVIDED BY MEMBERS OF THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY, 1224 01:24:46,632 --> 01:24:50,600 INCLUDING JONATHAN AND JEANNIE LAVINE, 1225 01:24:50,600 --> 01:24:53,500 DIANE AND HAL BRIERLEY, 1226 01:24:53,500 --> 01:24:55,899 AMY AND DAVID ABRAMS, 1227 01:24:55,899 --> 01:24:58,399 JOHN AND CATHERINE DEBS, 1228 01:24:58,399 --> 01:25:01,365 THE FULLERTON FAMILY CHARITABLE FUND, 1229 01:25:01,365 --> 01:25:03,432 THE MONTRONE FAMILY, 1230 01:25:03,432 --> 01:25:05,765 LYNDA AND STEWART RESNICK, 1231 01:25:05,765 --> 01:25:08,533 THE PERRY AND DONNA GOLKIN FAMILY FOUNDATION, 1232 01:25:08,533 --> 01:25:09,533 THE LYNCH FOUNDATION, 1233 01:25:09,533 --> 01:25:12,399 THE ROGER AND ROSEMARY ENRICO FOUNDATION, 1234 01:25:12,399 --> 01:25:15,832 AND BY THESE ADDITIONAL FUNDERS. 1235 01:25:15,832 --> 01:25:17,733 MAJOR FUNDING WAS ALSO PROVIDED 1236 01:25:17,733 --> 01:25:19,466 BY DAVID H. 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