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Major support for "The Vietnam War"

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was provided by members of
The Better Angels Society,

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including Jonathan and Jeannie Lavine,

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Diane and Hal Brierley,

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Amy and David Abrams,

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John and Catherine Debs,

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the Fullerton Family Charitable Fund,

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the Montrone Ffamily,

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Lynda and Stewart Resnick,

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the Perry and Donna
Golkin Family Foundation,

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the Lynch Foundation,

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the Roger and Rosemary
Enrico Foundation,

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and by these additional funders.

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Major funding was also provided

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by David H. Koch...

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The Blavatnik Family Foundation...

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The Park Foundation,

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the National Endowment
for the Humanities,

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the Pew Charitable Trusts,

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the John S. and James
L. Knight Foundation,

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the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,

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the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations,

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the Ford Foundation JustFilms,

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by the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting,

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and by viewers like you.

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Thank you.

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Bank of America proudly supports

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Ken Burns' and Lynn Novick's
film "The Vietnam War"

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because fostering different perspectives

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and civil discourse
around important issues

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furthers progress, equality,

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and a more connected society.

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Go to bankofamerica.com/
betterconnected to learn more.

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Well, I wanted to
name him after his dad,

35
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Denton Winslow Crocker.

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So that was the name we chose.

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He was a colicky little baby.

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And, uh, so we were up
night and day with him.

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And my husband was a wonderful dad

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and very loving and attentive.

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He'd walk the floor with him.

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And then he said one day,
"He's a regular little mogul

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the way he rules our lives."

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So that's where the name came from.

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We called him Mogie.

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Mogie Crocker was born June 3, 1947,

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the oldest of four children.

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His father was a biology teacher,

49
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and Mogie was raised in college towns:

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Ithaca, Amherst, and
finally Saratoga Springs,

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to which the family moved
in 1960, when he was 13.

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My mother read books to all of us.

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My brother was definitely the one

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who probably gravitated
towards them more than I did.

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He really feasted on books.

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Mogie was an unusual boy.

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Intelligent, independent-minded,
and too nearsighted

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to do well at team sports,

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he loved books about American
history and American heroes.

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At 12, he started a diary

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in which he kept track
of Cold War events.

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"I hate Reds!" he wrote,

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and he admired most those
who had proved willing

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to sacrifice themselves for a cause.

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President John F. Kennedy's
call for every American

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to ask what he or she
could do for their country

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had mirrored ideas he'd held
since he was a small boy.

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One evening when I was reading to Denton

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before he went to sleep, I chose
a passage from<i> Henry V,</i>

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which is, "He today that
sheds his blood with me

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shall be my brother.

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And gentlemen in England now a-bed

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shall think themselves accurs'd

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they were not here and
hold their manhood cheap

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while any speaks that fought
with us upon St. Crispin's Day."

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I think that it was that sort of thing

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that made Denton want to be

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part of something important and brave.

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I just stayed awake last night

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thinking about this thing.

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The more I think of it, I
don't know what in the hell...

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it looks like to me we're
getting into another Korea.

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It just worries the hell out of me.

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I don't see what we can ever
hope to get out of there with

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once we're committed.

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I don't think it's worth fighting for

87
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and I don't think we can get out.

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And it's just the biggest
damn mess I ever saw.

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It is, it's an awful mess.

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I just thought about
ordering those kids in there,

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and what in the hell am I
ordering them out there for?

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One thing that has occurred to me...

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What the hell is Vietnam worth to me?

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What is it worth to this country?

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Yeah, yeah.

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Now, of course, if you
start running the communists,

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they may just chase you
right into your own kitchen.

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Yeah. That's the trouble.

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And that is what the rest
of that half of the world

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is going to think if this
thing comes apart on us.

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It's damned easy to get in a war,

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but it's going to be awfully
hard to ever extricate yourself

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if you get in.

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It's very easy...

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I'd like to hear Walter and
McNamara to evaluate this thing.

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To debate it?

107
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Yeah.

108
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All right, what's a possible time... ?

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Tragedy had brought Lyndon
Johnson to the presidency

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in November of 1963.

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And he would not feel
himself fully in charge

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until he had faced the
voters the following year.

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But his ambitions for
his country were as great

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as those of his hero,
Franklin Roosevelt.

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During his years in the White House,

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he would lead the
struggle to win passage

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of more than 200 important
pieces of legislation...

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the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
the Voting Rights Act of 1965,

119
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federal aid to education,
Head Start, Medicare,

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and a whole series of bills
aimed at ending poverty

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in America, all intended to create

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what he called "The Great Society."

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In foreign affairs, Johnson
was less self-assured.

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"Foreigners are not like the
folks I'm used to," he once said.

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To deal with them, he retained in office

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all of John Kennedy's top advisors...

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Dean Rusk at State,

128
00:07:02,220 --> 00:07:04,854
Robert McNamara at Defense,

129
00:07:04,856 --> 00:07:08,890
McGeorge Bundy as his
National Security Advisor.

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00:07:08,892 --> 00:07:14,062
"I need you," he told them,
more than his predecessor had.

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Publicly, Johnson pledged

132
00:07:15,966 --> 00:07:18,467
that "This nation will
keep its commitments

133
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from South Vietnam to West Berlin."

134
00:07:21,672 --> 00:07:25,307
But privately, Vietnam
filled him with dread.

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"It's going to be hell in
a handbasket out there,"

136
00:07:27,745 --> 00:07:30,713
his ambassador told him.

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00:07:30,715 --> 00:07:33,949
"I want the South Vietnamese
to get off their butts

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and get out into those jungles

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00:07:35,753 --> 00:07:40,088
and whip the hell out of some
communists," the president said.

140
00:07:40,090 --> 00:07:42,890
"And then I want 'em to leave me alone,

141
00:07:42,892 --> 00:07:44,992
because I've got some
bigger things to do

142
00:07:44,994 --> 00:07:46,894
right here at home."

143
00:07:48,798 --> 00:07:52,166
Johnson had opposed the
military coup that had overthrown

144
00:07:52,168 --> 00:07:56,471
and murdered South Vietnamese
president Ngo Dinh Diem,

145
00:07:56,473 --> 00:07:59,674
fearing it would make
a bad situation worse.

146
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It had.

147
00:08:07,634 --> 00:08:12,403
The National Liberation
Front... the Viet Cong...

148
00:08:12,405 --> 00:08:15,539
was making coordinated attacks
throughout the countryside,

149
00:08:15,541 --> 00:08:18,808
some 400 of them in just two weeks.

150
00:08:43,768 --> 00:08:46,969
An estimated 40% of the
South Vietnamese countryside,

151
00:08:46,971 --> 00:08:49,539
and more than 50% of the people,

152
00:08:49,541 --> 00:08:53,509
were effectively in the
hands of the Viet Cong.

153
00:08:53,511 --> 00:08:57,246
And the Vietnamese generals
who had overthrown Ngo Dinh Diem

154
00:08:57,248 --> 00:09:01,050
were bickering among themselves.

155
00:09:01,052 --> 00:09:06,155
The assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem
set in motion a series of coups.

156
00:09:06,157 --> 00:09:10,460
Each government was less
effective than the one before.

157
00:09:10,612 --> 00:09:14,078
In January 1964,

158
00:09:14,080 --> 00:09:15,780
with U.S. encouragement,

159
00:09:15,782 --> 00:09:20,585
General Nguyen Khanh
staged yet another coup.

160
00:09:20,587 --> 00:09:25,323
In March, Johnson sent McNamara
to Vietnam with instructions

161
00:09:25,325 --> 00:09:28,460
to show the people that
Khanh was "our boy."

162
00:09:30,264 --> 00:09:31,219
Johnson said,

163
00:09:31,220 --> 00:09:34,098
"Let's get him out and
get him speaking to people,

164
00:09:34,100 --> 00:09:37,802
and let McNamara go with him as well

165
00:09:37,804 --> 00:09:40,272
so that people can see
that the United States

166
00:09:40,274 --> 00:09:41,573
is solidly behind this man."

167
00:09:41,575 --> 00:09:44,909
We fully support the
people of South Vietnam.

168
00:09:56,689 --> 00:10:03,494
When Khanh gave a tedious, long,
laborious speech ending up with,

169
00:10:03,496 --> 00:10:06,297
"Vietnam , Vietnam ,

170
00:10:06,299 --> 00:10:08,032
Vietnam a thousand years."

171
00:10:08,034 --> 00:10:11,402
McNamara leaned over to
the microphone and said...

172
00:10:20,780 --> 00:10:22,279
What he was saying was something like,

173
00:10:22,281 --> 00:10:25,949
"The little duck, he wants to lie down."

174
00:10:27,286 --> 00:10:30,621
He wasn't aware of the tonal difference.

175
00:10:30,623 --> 00:10:36,026
And McNamara grabbed one
fist and held them up.

176
00:10:36,028 --> 00:10:37,394
And the crowd practically

177
00:10:37,396 --> 00:10:39,363
disintegrated on the cobblestones.

178
00:10:41,701 --> 00:10:43,534
"No more of this coup shit,"

179
00:10:43,536 --> 00:10:46,236
President Johnson told his advisors.

180
00:10:46,238 --> 00:10:50,207
But Khanh, too, lacked
popular legitimacy,

181
00:10:50,209 --> 00:10:53,844
and other generals continued
to jockey for power.

182
00:10:53,846 --> 00:10:57,380
Washington turned a deaf
ear to Buddhist calls

183
00:10:57,382 --> 00:11:00,050
for the genuinely
representative government

184
00:11:00,052 --> 00:11:03,920
they'd hoped they'd get
when Diem was overthrown.

185
00:11:03,922 --> 00:11:09,392
Between January 1964 and June of 1965,

186
00:11:09,394 --> 00:11:13,396
there would be eight
different governments.

187
00:11:13,398 --> 00:11:15,899
All of their leaders were
so close to the Americans

188
00:11:15,901 --> 00:11:18,501
that they were seen as puppets.

189
00:11:20,304 --> 00:11:22,504
One weary Johnson aide suggested

190
00:11:22,506 --> 00:11:25,374
that the national
symbol of South Vietnam

191
00:11:25,376 --> 00:11:27,376
should be a turnstile.

192
00:11:27,378 --> 00:11:30,346
These demonstrating
students seem to symbolize

193
00:11:30,348 --> 00:11:34,316
the kind of anarchy that is
descending on Saigon these days.

194
00:11:34,318 --> 00:11:36,886
This kind of political
backbiting is having

195
00:11:36,888 --> 00:11:39,088
serious consequences in the countryside,

196
00:11:39,090 --> 00:11:41,323
for until a strong
government begins to function

197
00:11:41,325 --> 00:11:42,858
here in Saigon,

198
00:11:42,860 --> 00:11:44,994
the war against the communists
will continue to founder.

199
00:12:23,460 --> 00:12:27,695
Ho Chi Minh was still a
beloved figure in North Vietnam,

200
00:12:27,697 --> 00:12:31,632
still concerned that his
country remained fragile,

201
00:12:31,634 --> 00:12:35,203
still wary that stepping
up the conflict in the South

202
00:12:35,205 --> 00:12:39,373
might force the Americans to
take a still more active role.

203
00:12:39,375 --> 00:12:44,679
But Ho now shared power with
younger, more impatient leaders.

204
00:12:44,681 --> 00:12:48,616
There had been change and
turmoil in North Vietnam, too,

205
00:12:48,618 --> 00:12:52,187
just as there had been
in Saigon and Washington,

206
00:12:52,189 --> 00:12:54,923
though Americans knew
almost nothing about it.

207
00:13:10,373 --> 00:13:13,040
At the Ninth Party
Plenum that began in Hanoi

208
00:13:13,042 --> 00:13:16,577
on November 22, 1963,

209
00:13:16,579 --> 00:13:19,613
the day President Kennedy
was killed in Dallas,

210
00:13:19,615 --> 00:13:24,685
the Politburo had argued over
how best to proceed in the war.

211
00:13:24,687 --> 00:13:28,155
North Vietnam's two communist patrons,

212
00:13:28,157 --> 00:13:33,861
the Soviet Union and China, were
giving them conflicting advice.

213
00:13:48,543 --> 00:13:51,378
In two weeks of sometimes bitter debate,

214
00:13:51,380 --> 00:13:54,313
Ho Chi Minh, who favored
the Soviet strategy,

215
00:13:54,315 --> 00:13:58,150
was outmaneuvered by party
First Secretary Le Duan,

216
00:13:58,152 --> 00:14:01,688
who sided with the Chinese.

217
00:14:21,509 --> 00:14:24,710
Le Duan believed that with Diem gone,

218
00:14:24,712 --> 00:14:27,013
and the Saigon government in disarray,

219
00:14:27,015 --> 00:14:31,617
it was time to move quickly in 1964.

220
00:14:31,619 --> 00:14:36,855
He proposed a two-phase plan
for victory in South Vietnam.

221
00:14:36,857 --> 00:14:39,591
The first phase would
destroy ARVN forces

222
00:14:39,593 --> 00:14:42,428
through big, "decisive battles";

223
00:14:42,430 --> 00:14:46,265
the second, an attack on
the cities, Le Duan believed,

224
00:14:46,267 --> 00:14:50,001
would then set off popular
revolts within them.

225
00:14:50,003 --> 00:14:52,203
Party leaders and others

226
00:14:52,205 --> 00:14:54,839
suspected of having opposed the plan

227
00:14:54,841 --> 00:14:58,176
were denounced as
"revisionists," demoted,

228
00:14:58,178 --> 00:15:00,611
dismissed, imprisoned.

229
00:15:00,613 --> 00:15:04,215
Hundreds were sent to
"re-education camps."

230
00:15:04,217 --> 00:15:09,321
"Uncle Ho wavers," Le Duan said,
"but I have only one goal...

231
00:15:09,323 --> 00:15:10,956
final victory."

232
00:15:13,626 --> 00:15:15,393
Secretary McNamara on line 0.

233
00:15:15,395 --> 00:15:16,527
Bob?

234
00:15:16,529 --> 00:15:18,129
Yes, Mr. President?

235
00:15:18,131 --> 00:15:19,564
I hate to bother you, but...

236
00:15:19,566 --> 00:15:20,565
No trouble at all.

237
00:15:20,567 --> 00:15:22,366
Tell me, have we got anybody

238
00:15:22,368 --> 00:15:25,269
that's got a military mind that
can give us some military plans

239
00:15:25,271 --> 00:15:26,971
for winning that war?

240
00:15:26,973 --> 00:15:29,039
Let's get some more of
something, my friend,

241
00:15:29,041 --> 00:15:30,607
because I'm going to have a heart attack

242
00:15:30,609 --> 00:15:31,875
if you don't get me something.

243
00:15:31,877 --> 00:15:34,011
We need somebody over
there that can get us

244
00:15:34,013 --> 00:15:35,545
some better plans than we got,

245
00:15:35,547 --> 00:15:38,515
because what we got is
what we've had since '54.

246
00:15:38,517 --> 00:15:40,150
We're not getting it done.

247
00:15:40,152 --> 00:15:41,751
We're-we're losing.

248
00:15:41,753 --> 00:15:43,820
Well, it's one reason I want to go back.

249
00:15:43,822 --> 00:15:45,055
Kick 'em in the tail a little bit

250
00:15:45,057 --> 00:15:46,190
will help here at this point.

251
00:15:46,192 --> 00:15:47,391
Yeah.

252
00:15:47,393 --> 00:15:49,593
What I want is somebody
to lay up some plans

253
00:15:49,595 --> 00:15:52,596
to trap these guys and
whup hell out of 'em.

254
00:15:52,598 --> 00:15:53,864
Kill some of 'em.

255
00:15:53,866 --> 00:15:55,665
That's what I want to do.

256
00:15:55,667 --> 00:15:57,733
I'll try and bring something back

257
00:15:57,735 --> 00:15:58,734
that will meet that objective.

258
00:15:58,736 --> 00:16:00,169
Okay, Bob.

259
00:16:00,171 --> 00:16:01,170
Thank you.

260
00:16:03,975 --> 00:16:06,909
When his counselors urged him to do so,

261
00:16:06,911 --> 00:16:11,214
Johnson increased the number
of American military personnel

262
00:16:11,216 --> 00:16:16,285
from 16,000 to more than
23,000 by the end of the year.

263
00:16:16,287 --> 00:16:19,355
But he wanted his own team in Saigon.

264
00:16:19,357 --> 00:16:21,957
He replaced Henry Cabot Lodge,

265
00:16:21,959 --> 00:16:25,561
making General Maxwell
Taylor his ambassador,

266
00:16:25,563 --> 00:16:30,465
and selected 49-year-old
General William Westmoreland,

267
00:16:30,467 --> 00:16:34,269
a decorated commander
from WWII and Korea,

268
00:16:34,271 --> 00:16:37,272
to lead the American military effort.

269
00:16:37,274 --> 00:16:41,610
The president hoped to force
Hanoi to abandon its support

270
00:16:41,612 --> 00:16:43,779
for the guerrilla struggle in the South

271
00:16:43,781 --> 00:16:47,816
by gradually escalating
military pressure.

272
00:16:47,818 --> 00:16:52,354
He authorized American pilots
to bomb North Vietnamese troops

273
00:16:52,356 --> 00:16:57,026
and installations in the
neighboring country of Laos.

274
00:16:57,028 --> 00:16:58,994
And he directed the military

275
00:16:58,996 --> 00:17:01,296
to oversee South Vietnamese shelling

276
00:17:01,298 --> 00:17:06,868
of North Vietnamese islands
and raids on coastal bases.

277
00:17:06,870 --> 00:17:10,471
All of it was to be conducted in secret.

278
00:17:10,473 --> 00:17:13,074
The American people were not to be told.

279
00:17:13,076 --> 00:17:16,477
It was an election year.

280
00:17:16,479 --> 00:17:20,281
Meanwhile, the Joint Chiefs
of Staff felt strongly

281
00:17:20,283 --> 00:17:21,883
that the United States was fighting

282
00:17:21,885 --> 00:17:23,751
on the enemy's terms

283
00:17:23,753 --> 00:17:27,622
and urged far more drastic
and dramatic action...

284
00:17:27,624 --> 00:17:32,060
air strikes against "critical
targets" in North Vietnam itself

285
00:17:32,062 --> 00:17:36,330
and the deployment of U.S.
forces in South Vietnam...

286
00:17:36,332 --> 00:17:38,299
boots on the ground.

287
00:17:38,301 --> 00:17:42,536
Johnson refused, fearing
that such aggressive moves

288
00:17:42,538 --> 00:17:44,871
would pull China into the conflict

289
00:17:44,873 --> 00:17:49,510
just as it had entered
the Korean War in 1950.

290
00:17:50,679 --> 00:17:51,912
They say get in or get out.

291
00:17:51,914 --> 00:17:52,846
Yeah.

292
00:17:52,848 --> 00:17:54,281
And I told them,

293
00:17:54,283 --> 00:17:56,484
we haven't got any Congress
that will go with us,

294
00:17:56,486 --> 00:17:58,885
and we haven't got any
mothers that will go with us

295
00:17:58,887 --> 00:18:00,921
in the war, and I got to win an election

296
00:18:00,923 --> 00:18:04,825
and then you can make a decision.

297
00:18:06,909 --> 00:18:08,609
Polls showed him with a commanding lead

298
00:18:08,611 --> 00:18:10,810
over his likely Republican opponent,

299
00:18:10,812 --> 00:18:14,547
Senator Barry F. Goldwater of Arizona,

300
00:18:14,549 --> 00:18:18,251
a blunt, uncompromising
critic of what he charged

301
00:18:18,253 --> 00:18:20,487
was the administration's weakness

302
00:18:20,489 --> 00:18:23,223
in the face of communist aggression.

303
00:18:23,225 --> 00:18:25,392
Why does he put off facing the question

304
00:18:25,394 --> 00:18:28,528
of what to do about Vietnam?

305
00:18:28,530 --> 00:18:31,864
Does he hope that he can
wait until after the election

306
00:18:31,866 --> 00:18:34,534
to confront the American
public with the...

307
00:18:34,536 --> 00:18:35,560
Here were these communists

308
00:18:35,561 --> 00:18:37,937
who were overrunning Southeast Asia

309
00:18:37,939 --> 00:18:41,174
and Johnson's doing nothing about it.

310
00:18:41,176 --> 00:18:42,509
My opponent has not told you

311
00:18:42,511 --> 00:18:44,076
what he plans to do about the Cold War.

312
00:18:44,078 --> 00:18:47,346
I rode around the back of
a flatbed truck in Perkasie

313
00:18:47,348 --> 00:18:49,281
with a bunch of my classmates

314
00:18:49,283 --> 00:18:51,651
singing Barry Goldwater campaign songs

315
00:18:51,653 --> 00:18:54,921
because Lyndon Johnson
was not tough enough

316
00:18:54,923 --> 00:18:56,422
on those communists.

317
00:18:59,027 --> 00:19:02,161
Johnson felt he did not yet
have the political capital

318
00:19:02,163 --> 00:19:06,899
to take further action in
Vietnam, but he asked his aide,

319
00:19:06,901 --> 00:19:10,736
William Bundy, to draft
a Congressional resolution

320
00:19:10,738 --> 00:19:13,839
authorizing him to use force if needed

321
00:19:13,841 --> 00:19:16,976
to be sent to Capitol Hill
when the time was right.

322
00:19:20,948 --> 00:19:25,417
On July 30, 1964, South Vietnamese ships

323
00:19:25,419 --> 00:19:28,153
under the direction of the U.S. military

324
00:19:28,155 --> 00:19:33,492
shelled two North Vietnamese
islands in the Gulf of Tonkin.

325
00:19:33,494 --> 00:19:38,464
The tiny North Vietnamese
Navy was put on high alert.

326
00:19:38,466 --> 00:19:41,533
What followed was one
of the most controversial

327
00:19:41,535 --> 00:19:45,003
and consequential events
in American history.

328
00:19:45,005 --> 00:19:47,939
On the afternoon of August 2,

329
00:19:47,941 --> 00:19:51,477
the destroyer<i> U.S.S.
Maddox</i> was moving slowly

330
00:19:51,479 --> 00:19:53,878
through international waters in the gulf

331
00:19:53,880 --> 00:19:57,682
on an intelligence-gathering
mission in support

332
00:19:57,684 --> 00:20:01,620
of further South Vietnamese
action against the North.

333
00:20:01,622 --> 00:20:06,057
The commander of a North
Vietnamese torpedo-boat squadron

334
00:20:06,059 --> 00:20:08,760
moved to attack the<i> Maddox.</i>

335
00:20:08,762 --> 00:20:13,732
The Americans opened fire and missed.

336
00:20:13,734 --> 00:20:17,736
North Vietnamese torpedoes also missed.

337
00:20:17,738 --> 00:20:21,606
But carrier-based U.S. planes damaged

338
00:20:21,608 --> 00:20:23,642
two of the North Vietnamese boats

339
00:20:23,644 --> 00:20:26,778
and left a third dead in the water.

340
00:20:26,780 --> 00:20:31,282
Ho Chi Minh was shocked to
hear of his navy's attack

341
00:20:31,284 --> 00:20:34,852
and demanded to know who had ordered it.

342
00:20:34,854 --> 00:20:37,522
The officer on duty was
officially reprimanded

343
00:20:37,524 --> 00:20:39,624
for impulsiveness.

344
00:20:39,626 --> 00:20:44,295
No one may ever know who
gave the order to attack.

345
00:20:44,297 --> 00:20:48,232
To this day, even the
Vietnamese cannot agree.

346
00:20:48,234 --> 00:20:52,069
But some believe it was Le Duan.

347
00:21:37,381 --> 00:21:38,614
Back in Washington,

348
00:21:38,616 --> 00:21:41,617
the Joint Chiefs urged
immediate retaliation

349
00:21:41,619 --> 00:21:43,485
against North Vietnam.

350
00:21:43,487 --> 00:21:46,322
The president refused.

351
00:21:46,324 --> 00:21:48,957
Instead, the White
House issued a warning

352
00:21:48,959 --> 00:21:52,094
about the "grave
consequences" that would follow

353
00:21:52,096 --> 00:21:55,864
what it called "any further
unprovoked" attacks...

354
00:21:55,866 --> 00:22:00,102
even though Johnson knew
the attack had been provoked

355
00:22:00,104 --> 00:22:04,806
by the South Vietnamese raids
on North Vietnam's islands.

356
00:22:04,808 --> 00:22:08,744
Both sides were playing
a dangerous game.

357
00:22:08,746 --> 00:22:13,681
On August 4, American radio
operators mistranslated

358
00:22:13,683 --> 00:22:15,516
North Vietnamese radio traffic

359
00:22:15,518 --> 00:22:21,422
and concluded a new military
operation was imminent.

360
00:22:21,424 --> 00:22:23,591
Actually, Hanoi had simply called upon

361
00:22:23,593 --> 00:22:27,662
torpedo boat commanders
to be ready for a new raid

362
00:22:27,664 --> 00:22:30,331
by the South Vietnamese.

363
00:22:30,833 --> 00:22:34,936
The<i> Maddox</i> and another
destroyer, the<i> Turner Joy,</i>

364
00:22:34,938 --> 00:22:38,039
braced for a fresh attack.

365
00:22:38,041 --> 00:22:39,841
So did the White House.

366
00:22:39,843 --> 00:22:41,542
Go ahead, Mac.

367
00:22:41,544 --> 00:22:44,112
I... I personally
would recommend to you,

368
00:22:44,114 --> 00:22:46,080
after a second attack on our ships,

369
00:22:46,082 --> 00:22:49,850
that we do retaliate against
the coast of North Vietnam

370
00:22:49,852 --> 00:22:51,485
some way or other...

371
00:22:51,487 --> 00:22:55,122
What I was thinking about
when I was eating breakfast:

372
00:22:55,124 --> 00:22:57,925
when they move on us
and they shoot at us,

373
00:22:57,927 --> 00:22:59,593
I think we not only
ought to shoot at them,

374
00:22:59,595 --> 00:23:02,062
but almost simultaneously
pull one of these things

375
00:23:02,064 --> 00:23:04,064
that you've been doing on one
of their bridges or something.

376
00:23:04,066 --> 00:23:05,332
Exactly.

377
00:23:05,334 --> 00:23:07,134
I quite agree with you, Mr. President.

378
00:23:07,136 --> 00:23:08,702
But I wish we could have something

379
00:23:08,704 --> 00:23:10,637
that we've already picked out,

380
00:23:10,639 --> 00:23:14,241
and just hit about three of
them damn quick, right after.

381
00:23:14,743 --> 00:23:17,644
No second attack ever happened,

382
00:23:17,646 --> 00:23:22,015
but at the time, anxious
American sonar operators

383
00:23:22,017 --> 00:23:26,787
aboard the<i> Maddox</i> and<i> Turner
Joy</i> convinced themselves one had.

384
00:23:26,789 --> 00:23:31,558
The attack was probable but
not certain, Johnson was told,

385
00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:34,695
and since it had probably occurred,

386
00:23:34,697 --> 00:23:38,598
the president decided it
should not go unanswered.

387
00:23:41,203 --> 00:23:44,604
Aggression by terror against
the peaceful villagers

388
00:23:44,606 --> 00:23:49,142
of South Vietnam has now
been joined by open aggression

389
00:23:49,144 --> 00:23:53,346
on the high seas against
the United States of America.

390
00:23:53,348 --> 00:23:57,216
Yet our response, for the present,

391
00:23:57,218 --> 00:23:59,819
will be limited and fitting.

392
00:23:59,821 --> 00:24:05,290
We Americans know, although
others appear to forget,

393
00:24:05,292 --> 00:24:08,026
the risk of spreading conflict.

394
00:24:08,028 --> 00:24:13,733
We still seek no wider war.

395
00:24:13,735 --> 00:24:17,102
If that came to be where
we would be called upon

396
00:24:17,104 --> 00:24:20,105
to carry out our responsibilities,

397
00:24:20,107 --> 00:24:22,808
and having been well trained for this,

398
00:24:22,810 --> 00:24:24,443
I never really gave it much thought.

399
00:24:24,445 --> 00:24:26,879
It was part of my duty.

400
00:24:26,881 --> 00:24:30,482
Lieutenant Everett Alvarez
from Salinas, California,

401
00:24:30,484 --> 00:24:34,186
was aboard the U.S.S.
carrier <i>Constellation.</i>

402
00:24:34,188 --> 00:24:37,856
His squadron of Skyhawk A-4 planes

403
00:24:37,858 --> 00:24:40,525
was ordered to attack
torpedo boat installations

404
00:24:40,527 --> 00:24:45,197
and oil facilities near
the port of Hon Gai.

405
00:24:45,199 --> 00:24:49,902
For the first time, American
pilots were going to drop bombs

406
00:24:49,904 --> 00:24:51,836
on North Vietnam.

407
00:24:53,274 --> 00:24:54,572
When we approached the target

408
00:24:54,574 --> 00:24:56,375
coming down from altitude,

409
00:24:56,377 --> 00:24:59,511
it was obvious that they could
pick us up on their radar.

410
00:24:59,513 --> 00:25:02,146
I remember my knees shaking.

411
00:25:02,148 --> 00:25:04,848
And I was saying, "Holy
smokes, I'm going into war."

412
00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:08,852
"This is war."

413
00:25:10,089 --> 00:25:11,889
I was a bit scared.

414
00:25:11,891 --> 00:25:16,660
Once we went in and they
started firing at us,

415
00:25:16,662 --> 00:25:19,096
the fear went away.

416
00:25:19,098 --> 00:25:23,834
Everything became smooth,
deathly quiet in the cockpit.

417
00:25:23,836 --> 00:25:26,737
It was sort of like a symphony

418
00:25:26,739 --> 00:25:32,243
in the sense that my plane was
just like a ballet in the sky,

419
00:25:32,245 --> 00:25:35,612
and I was just performing
what I was doing.

420
00:25:37,950 --> 00:25:39,149
And then I got hit.

421
00:25:39,151 --> 00:25:40,283
Mayday, Mayday.

422
00:25:41,770 --> 00:25:45,572
Coastal militiamen captured Alvarez

423
00:25:45,574 --> 00:25:48,108
and turned him over to the
North Vietnamese military.

424
00:25:48,110 --> 00:25:51,476
One fella was yelling at me

425
00:25:51,477 --> 00:25:53,847
in Vietnamese and saying something.

426
00:25:53,849 --> 00:25:56,650
I started talking to him in Spanish.

427
00:25:56,852 --> 00:25:58,919
Don't ask me why.

428
00:25:58,921 --> 00:26:01,755
It seemed like a good idea at the time.

429
00:26:03,632 --> 00:26:08,835
After when they discovered
U.S.A. on my ID card

430
00:26:08,837 --> 00:26:13,939
and then they started
speaking to me in English.

431
00:26:13,941 --> 00:26:18,143
Alvarez assumed he would be
treated as a prisoner of war.

432
00:26:18,145 --> 00:26:20,446
I was sticking to the code of conduct,

433
00:26:20,448 --> 00:26:22,749
which is giving them
name, rank, service number,

434
00:26:22,751 --> 00:26:23,850
and date of birth.

435
00:26:25,587 --> 00:26:29,622
But they quickly reminded me
that there was no state of war,

436
00:26:29,624 --> 00:26:32,392
no declaration of war.

437
00:26:32,394 --> 00:26:35,928
So I could not be
considered a prisoner of war.

438
00:26:37,599 --> 00:26:39,098
I recall thinking about it,

439
00:26:39,100 --> 00:26:40,799
and I says, "You know what?

440
00:26:40,801 --> 00:26:42,401
They're right."

441
00:26:42,703 --> 00:26:45,737
Everett Alvarez was the
first American airman

442
00:26:45,739 --> 00:26:49,173
to be shot out of the
sky over North Vietnam

443
00:26:49,175 --> 00:26:51,710
and the first to be imprisoned there.

444
00:26:54,448 --> 00:26:56,848
Now, the president
sent up to Capitol Hill

445
00:26:56,850 --> 00:27:00,519
the resolution he had asked
his aide William Bundy to draft

446
00:27:00,521 --> 00:27:03,154
two months earlier.

447
00:27:03,156 --> 00:27:07,058
Johnson is sort of
prepositioned to move anyway,

448
00:27:07,060 --> 00:27:10,862
and it gives him really
the incident that he needs

449
00:27:10,864 --> 00:27:13,565
to go to Congress and
ask for a resolution

450
00:27:13,567 --> 00:27:15,634
that will allow him to
deal with what he sees

451
00:27:15,636 --> 00:27:17,501
as aggression in Vietnam.

452
00:27:17,503 --> 00:27:19,937
And what he gets is the
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution,

453
00:27:19,939 --> 00:27:23,607
which is, what he says, like
"Grandma's nightshirt"...

454
00:27:23,609 --> 00:27:25,208
it covers everything.

455
00:27:25,210 --> 00:27:29,613
I think what Johnson is
looking for is the opportunity,

456
00:27:29,615 --> 00:27:33,584
the right time to send a
message to North Vietnam

457
00:27:33,586 --> 00:27:37,655
that we're serious about
supporting South Vietnam.

458
00:27:37,657 --> 00:27:39,857
That message is sent,

459
00:27:39,859 --> 00:27:41,759
I think we misread the enemy

460
00:27:41,761 --> 00:27:43,828
because they're just
as serious as we are.

461
00:27:45,397 --> 00:27:48,532
On August 7, 1964,

462
00:27:48,534 --> 00:27:52,335
by a vote of 88-2, the Senate passed

463
00:27:52,337 --> 00:27:56,506
what came to be called
the Tonkin Gulf Resolution.

464
00:27:56,508 --> 00:28:00,844
In the House, not a single
congressman opposed it.

465
00:28:00,846 --> 00:28:04,714
Senator Goldwater could
no longer plausibly claim

466
00:28:04,716 --> 00:28:06,883
Johnson was failing to fight back

467
00:28:06,885 --> 00:28:10,720
against North Vietnam,
while those voters concerned

468
00:28:10,722 --> 00:28:12,789
that the United States was in danger

469
00:28:12,791 --> 00:28:15,291
of becoming too deeply involved

470
00:28:15,293 --> 00:28:19,295
admired the president's
measured response.

471
00:28:19,297 --> 00:28:23,032
Support for Johnson's handling
of the war jumped overnight

472
00:28:23,034 --> 00:28:26,668
from 42% to 72%.

473
00:28:26,670 --> 00:28:29,505
The American public
believed their president.

474
00:28:30,841 --> 00:28:34,510
Le Duan and his comrades
in Hanoi did not.

475
00:28:34,512 --> 00:28:37,212
They had little faith
in the president's claim

476
00:28:37,214 --> 00:28:39,381
that he sought no wider war.

477
00:28:39,383 --> 00:28:42,317
They resolved to step up their efforts

478
00:28:42,319 --> 00:28:43,986
to win the struggle in the South

479
00:28:43,988 --> 00:28:47,088
before the United States
escalated its presence

480
00:28:47,090 --> 00:28:49,224
by sending in combat troops.

481
00:28:50,628 --> 00:28:52,761
For the first time,

482
00:28:52,763 --> 00:28:55,463
Hanoi began sending
North Vietnamese regulars

483
00:28:55,465 --> 00:28:58,233
into the South, down
the network of paths

484
00:28:58,235 --> 00:29:01,469
they had hacked out of
the Laotian jungle...

485
00:29:01,471 --> 00:29:03,338
the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

486
00:29:04,844 --> 00:29:06,677
This is Bien Hoa Air Base,

487
00:29:06,679 --> 00:29:08,379
the biggest in South Vietnam,

488
00:29:08,381 --> 00:29:12,183
hours after being hit by
a communist mortar barrage.

489
00:29:12,185 --> 00:29:15,286
On November 1, Viet
Cong guerrillas shelled

490
00:29:15,288 --> 00:29:19,424
the American airbase
at Bien Hoa near Saigon.

491
00:29:19,426 --> 00:29:21,826
Five Americans died.

492
00:29:21,828 --> 00:29:23,995
Thirty were wounded.

493
00:29:23,997 --> 00:29:28,198
Five B-57 bombers were
destroyed on the ground

494
00:29:28,200 --> 00:29:30,267
and 15 more were damaged.

495
00:29:30,269 --> 00:29:32,102
Mr. Ambassador,

496
00:29:32,104 --> 00:29:34,271
do you think this
shows any new capability

497
00:29:34,273 --> 00:29:36,473
that they've got, the Viet Cong?

498
00:29:36,475 --> 00:29:38,609
Uh, I would simply say
they've never done this before.

499
00:29:41,547 --> 00:29:44,080
The Joint Chiefs advised
the president to mount

500
00:29:44,082 --> 00:29:48,619
an immediate all-out air attack
on 94 targets in the North

501
00:29:48,621 --> 00:29:51,921
and to send in regular
Army and Marine units...

502
00:29:51,923 --> 00:29:55,959
not more advisors... to
South Vietnam as well.

503
00:29:55,961 --> 00:29:57,494
He would not do it.

504
00:29:57,496 --> 00:29:59,829
The election was just two days away.

505
00:30:02,368 --> 00:30:06,536
Lyndon Baines Johnson won the
presidency in his own right,

506
00:30:06,538 --> 00:30:08,404
and he won it by a landslide.

507
00:30:10,475 --> 00:30:12,908
Within a month, the
president would approve

508
00:30:12,910 --> 00:30:15,645
what was called a
"graduated response"...

509
00:30:15,647 --> 00:30:19,582
limited air attacks on the
Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos

510
00:30:19,584 --> 00:30:22,652
and "tit for tat" retaliatory raids

511
00:30:22,654 --> 00:30:25,721
on North Vietnamese targets.

512
00:30:25,723 --> 00:30:29,725
But he refused to undertake
sustained bombing of the North

513
00:30:29,727 --> 00:30:33,596
until the South Vietnamese
got their own house in order.

514
00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:40,869
In private, Johnson doubted that
airpower alone would ever work

515
00:30:40,871 --> 00:30:44,807
and believed that he would eventually
have to send in ground troops,

516
00:30:44,809 --> 00:30:48,177
though he was not yet
willing publicly to say so.

517
00:30:54,508 --> 00:30:58,310
In the fall of '64, Denton was 17

518
00:30:58,312 --> 00:31:02,681
and he was determined
to go into the service.

519
00:31:02,683 --> 00:31:06,584
Mogie Crocker had been
restless since the summer.

520
00:31:06,586 --> 00:31:09,788
After the Gulf of Tonkin
incident, he had confided

521
00:31:09,790 --> 00:31:12,424
to his sister that he
wanted to join the Navy,

522
00:31:12,426 --> 00:31:16,027
but he knew his parents would
not sign the consent form

523
00:31:16,029 --> 00:31:20,664
that would have allowed
a 17-year-old to enlist.

524
00:31:20,666 --> 00:31:24,501
He was talking about wanting
to go into the service

525
00:31:24,503 --> 00:31:27,038
and that his attempts to
go underage had failed.

526
00:31:27,040 --> 00:31:30,574
And that he wanted my parents
to support him in that.

527
00:31:30,576 --> 00:31:33,077
His parents tried to persuade him

528
00:31:33,079 --> 00:31:35,213
that he could be more
useful to his country

529
00:31:35,215 --> 00:31:39,851
with a college education
than as just another private.

530
00:31:39,853 --> 00:31:42,854
Mogie was adamant.

531
00:31:42,856 --> 00:31:46,357
Monday morning he left for school.

532
00:31:46,359 --> 00:31:49,192
And I watched him leave.

533
00:31:49,194 --> 00:31:51,194
But that night he
didn't come in for supper

534
00:31:51,196 --> 00:31:52,463
and he hadn't called.

535
00:31:52,465 --> 00:31:55,932
The day that my brother
ran away has to be

536
00:31:55,934 --> 00:32:00,303
one of the most bizarre
experiences in my life.

537
00:32:00,305 --> 00:32:03,474
I eventually happened
to look in my piggy bank

538
00:32:03,476 --> 00:32:07,143
and he had taken the money
I had and left a note for me.

539
00:32:07,145 --> 00:32:09,913
He had promised he would pay me back.

540
00:32:09,915 --> 00:32:12,716
He was gone about four months

541
00:32:12,718 --> 00:32:16,086
and said that he would not come home

542
00:32:16,088 --> 00:32:18,689
unless we agreed to sign for him.

543
00:32:18,691 --> 00:32:23,026
And he wouldn't be 18 until June.

544
00:32:23,028 --> 00:32:26,496
But we did agree and he did come home.

545
00:32:26,498 --> 00:32:31,133
My husband felt it was
an honor-bound agreement.

546
00:32:31,135 --> 00:32:34,003
I was hoping that I
could change his mind.

547
00:32:39,176 --> 00:32:42,945
To my mind, the Marine Corps
represented the very best.

548
00:32:42,947 --> 00:32:44,414
And it does.

549
00:32:44,416 --> 00:32:47,049
They are the best.

550
00:32:47,051 --> 00:32:49,519
And I wanted to be part of the best.

551
00:32:49,521 --> 00:32:51,253
I was competitive.

552
00:32:51,255 --> 00:32:52,522
I was pugnacious.

553
00:32:52,524 --> 00:32:54,657
But I wanted to get in the Marine Corps

554
00:32:54,659 --> 00:32:57,393
and go to the first war I could find.

555
00:32:57,395 --> 00:33:00,695
Lieutenant Philip Brady, from
Port Washington, New York,

556
00:33:00,697 --> 00:33:03,432
arrived in Saigon just a few days

557
00:33:03,434 --> 00:33:05,834
after Lyndon Johnson's election,

558
00:33:05,836 --> 00:33:08,537
one of the new advisors
sent to help shore up

559
00:33:08,539 --> 00:33:11,506
the South Vietnamese military.

560
00:33:11,508 --> 00:33:15,945
We must ensure that women
and children are not injured.

561
00:33:15,947 --> 00:33:19,281
General Westmoreland himself
greeted the newcomers.

562
00:33:19,283 --> 00:33:23,285
He was an impressive-looking
man with an impressive record.

563
00:33:23,287 --> 00:33:27,589
Many of the men he'd led in
Tunisia, Sicily, and Normandy

564
00:33:27,591 --> 00:33:31,360
during World War II called him Superman.

565
00:33:31,362 --> 00:33:33,595
He'd fought with distinction in Korea,

566
00:33:33,597 --> 00:33:36,465
commanded the 101st Airborne,

567
00:33:36,467 --> 00:33:39,300
served as superintendent of West Point.

568
00:33:39,302 --> 00:33:40,769
<i>TIME</i> magazine called him

569
00:33:40,771 --> 00:33:45,206
"the sinewy personification
of the American fighting man."

570
00:33:45,208 --> 00:33:46,508
But at the same time,

571
00:33:46,510 --> 00:33:48,677
win the hearts and the
minds of the people.

572
00:33:48,679 --> 00:33:51,346
General Westmoreland
told us that we were down

573
00:33:51,348 --> 00:33:54,082
on the five-yard line and
we just needed a few more

574
00:33:54,084 --> 00:33:58,186
to go get the touchdown.

575
00:33:58,188 --> 00:34:01,289
Then I went out and
then I got on the ground.

576
00:34:01,291 --> 00:34:03,925
And then I found out,
"Don't you realize?

577
00:34:03,927 --> 00:34:06,427
We're losing this war."

578
00:34:06,429 --> 00:34:11,064
Lieutenant Brady was assigned
to assist Captain Frank Eller,

579
00:34:11,066 --> 00:34:13,433
senior advisor to the 4th Battalion

580
00:34:13,435 --> 00:34:16,737
of the Vietnamese Marine
Corps, an elite unit

581
00:34:16,739 --> 00:34:21,074
whose members called
themselves the "Killer Sharks."

582
00:34:21,076 --> 00:34:24,912
You were told that you were
going over there to guide,

583
00:34:24,914 --> 00:34:29,116
educate, and elevate
essentially these "little fellas"

584
00:34:29,118 --> 00:34:31,284
on how to fight a war

585
00:34:31,286 --> 00:34:34,421
when, in fact, they knew
exactly how to fight the war.

586
00:34:34,423 --> 00:34:36,724
You were just an appendage.

587
00:34:36,726 --> 00:34:40,427
You were there simply to guide
assets that they didn't have:

588
00:34:40,429 --> 00:34:44,898
American artillery,
American air strikes.

589
00:34:44,900 --> 00:34:47,567
Brady did his best to get to know

590
00:34:47,569 --> 00:34:49,569
the South Vietnamese
marines in his unit.

591
00:35:17,431 --> 00:35:20,866
Lieutenant Tran Ngoc
Toan, the son of a trucker,

592
00:35:20,868 --> 00:35:23,269
had escaped life with
a hostile stepmother

593
00:35:23,271 --> 00:35:27,973
by entering the South Vietnamese
Military Academy at Dalat.

594
00:35:27,975 --> 00:35:32,478
He'd been fighting the Viet
Cong for more than two years.

595
00:35:32,480 --> 00:35:33,845
Toan was one of the junior officers.

596
00:35:33,847 --> 00:35:35,381
I think he was a...

597
00:35:35,383 --> 00:35:36,715
I think he was a company commander.

598
00:35:36,717 --> 00:35:39,085
I knew him, I liked him.

599
00:35:39,087 --> 00:35:42,254
He was a Dalat graduate,
which is like their West Point.

600
00:35:42,256 --> 00:35:43,922
Very dedicated.

601
00:35:54,167 --> 00:35:58,803
Brady, Toan, and the 4th South
Vietnamese Marine Battalion

602
00:35:58,805 --> 00:36:02,073
were stationed near the
Bien Hoa Airbase in reserve,

603
00:36:02,075 --> 00:36:05,977
waiting to be called into action.

604
00:36:05,979 --> 00:36:07,912
There were new rumors now,

605
00:36:07,914 --> 00:36:12,584
of larger enemy units moving
through the countryside.

606
00:36:12,586 --> 00:36:17,155
Le Duan's plan to win a quick
and decisive victory was underway.

607
00:37:15,781 --> 00:37:18,348
Nguyen Van Tong was a political officer

608
00:37:18,350 --> 00:37:21,518
in the newly created
Viet Cong 9th Division,

609
00:37:21,520 --> 00:37:25,556
one of perhaps 2,000 Viet Cong
and North Vietnamese troops

610
00:37:25,558 --> 00:37:30,359
who had for weeks been quietly
filtering into Phuoc Tuy,

611
00:37:30,361 --> 00:37:32,562
a supposedly "pacified" province

612
00:37:32,564 --> 00:37:35,731
less than 40 miles southeast of Saigon.

613
00:37:57,054 --> 00:38:00,355
The target for Tong and his comrades

614
00:38:00,357 --> 00:38:03,225
was the strategic hamlet of Binh Gia,

615
00:38:03,227 --> 00:38:07,429
home to some 6,000 Catholic
anticommunist refugees.

616
00:38:09,266 --> 00:38:12,066
Their plan was to seize the hamlet

617
00:38:12,068 --> 00:38:15,837
and then annihilate the
forces Saigon was sure to send

618
00:38:15,839 --> 00:38:17,439
to retake it.

619
00:38:17,441 --> 00:38:19,974
To ensure success,

620
00:38:19,976 --> 00:38:23,378
tons of heavy weapons were
smuggled onto the coast

621
00:38:23,380 --> 00:38:25,413
under cover of darkness...

622
00:38:25,415 --> 00:38:28,583
mortars, machine guns, recoilless rifles

623
00:38:28,585 --> 00:38:31,620
capable of blasting tanks.

624
00:38:31,622 --> 00:38:34,255
The communists had never attempted

625
00:38:34,257 --> 00:38:37,224
anything on this scale before.

626
00:38:37,226 --> 00:38:40,594
Before dawn on December 28,

627
00:38:40,596 --> 00:38:44,732
Viet Cong advance units easily
overwhelmed the village militia

628
00:38:44,734 --> 00:38:46,567
and occupied Binh Gia.

629
00:38:49,405 --> 00:38:52,506
When two crack South
Vietnamese Ranger companies

630
00:38:52,508 --> 00:38:54,742
were helicoptered in the next day,

631
00:38:54,744 --> 00:38:58,746
they were ambushed and shot to pieces.

632
00:38:58,748 --> 00:39:01,214
On the morning of the 30th,

633
00:39:01,216 --> 00:39:04,518
Philip Brady, his friend Tran Ngoc Toan,

634
00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:08,421
and the 4th Marine Battalion
were flown in to relieve

635
00:39:08,423 --> 00:39:11,157
and reinforce the Rangers.

636
00:39:11,159 --> 00:39:14,427
The enemy withdrew east of the village.

637
00:39:44,291 --> 00:39:48,794
All of a sudden you could
see the tracers come out

638
00:39:48,796 --> 00:39:52,364
of the plantation, hit
the helicopter, it crashed.

639
00:39:52,366 --> 00:39:55,434
We were ordered to go down
and retrieve the remains

640
00:39:55,436 --> 00:39:57,135
the following morning.

641
00:40:31,637 --> 00:40:34,205
The lead company got to the remains

642
00:40:34,207 --> 00:40:38,076
and then was pounced
on and mauled badly.

643
00:40:42,448 --> 00:40:45,917
Twelve South Vietnamese Marines
from Toan's unit were killed

644
00:40:45,919 --> 00:40:48,452
getting to the downed helicopter.

645
00:40:48,454 --> 00:40:50,287
Their comrades wrapped them in ponchos

646
00:40:50,289 --> 00:40:54,625
and laid them out next
to the dead Americans.

647
00:40:54,627 --> 00:40:57,495
An American chopper
dropped into the clearing.

648
00:40:57,497 --> 00:41:00,063
The American crew jumped out under fire,

649
00:41:00,065 --> 00:41:02,266
picked up the four Americans,

650
00:41:02,268 --> 00:41:05,770
climbed back into their
chopper, and took off again.

651
00:41:17,116 --> 00:41:22,386
For three hours, Toan and his
men stayed with their own dead

652
00:41:22,388 --> 00:41:26,356
waiting for a helicopter to
carry them off the battlefield.

653
00:41:28,427 --> 00:41:31,694
Meanwhile, I am getting
a little bit antsy

654
00:41:31,696 --> 00:41:34,097
because, first of all,
we're losing light.

655
00:41:34,099 --> 00:41:37,801
Second of all, we are now
outside of artillery range.

656
00:41:37,803 --> 00:41:40,237
We've got to get out of there.

657
00:41:50,649 --> 00:41:53,783
I went to the Major Nho,
his name was, and I said,

658
00:41:53,785 --> 00:41:57,019
"Major, we have to get out of here now."

659
00:41:57,021 --> 00:42:01,457
And Nho said, "Don't
you forget I am a major,

660
00:42:01,459 --> 00:42:02,591
and you are a lieutenant,"

661
00:42:02,593 --> 00:42:05,828
turned on his heel and walked away.

662
00:42:05,830 --> 00:42:09,999
Ten minutes later all hell broke loose.

663
00:42:30,421 --> 00:42:33,355
The shelling eventually died down.

664
00:42:33,357 --> 00:42:35,924
But then bugles blew,

665
00:42:35,926 --> 00:42:38,527
and wave after wave of enemy troops

666
00:42:38,529 --> 00:42:40,496
advanced toward the
badly outnumbered men.

667
00:42:44,101 --> 00:42:47,268
It was as if you turned
a soundtrack of shooting...

668
00:42:50,808 --> 00:42:52,908
And just went...

669
00:42:52,910 --> 00:42:54,142
Just like that.

670
00:42:54,144 --> 00:42:55,644
All of a sudden it came out of nowhere.

671
00:42:59,517 --> 00:43:02,817
We used what little air strikes
we had left with helicopters,

672
00:43:02,819 --> 00:43:07,087
calling in the strikes on
our position to slow it down.

673
00:43:07,089 --> 00:43:10,290
There was no way.

674
00:43:47,796 --> 00:43:50,797
What we did was we tried to get out.

675
00:43:50,799 --> 00:43:53,833
Twenty-six of us broke through.

676
00:43:53,835 --> 00:43:56,670
Eleven ultimately made it.

677
00:43:57,773 --> 00:43:59,073
All that night,

678
00:43:59,075 --> 00:44:01,175
the Viet Cong moved among the trees,

679
00:44:01,177 --> 00:44:03,077
carrying away their wounded

680
00:44:03,079 --> 00:44:06,012
and shooting any South Vietnamese troops

681
00:44:06,014 --> 00:44:08,315
they found alive.

682
00:44:34,909 --> 00:44:37,076
Cradling his rifle in his arms,

683
00:44:37,078 --> 00:44:40,713
Toan began trying to
crawl toward Binh Gia.

684
00:44:40,715 --> 00:44:43,816
He was not found for three days.

685
00:45:17,051 --> 00:45:21,653
When it was all over, five
Americans had died at Binh Gia.

686
00:45:21,655 --> 00:45:26,658
Thirty-two Viet Cong bodies had
been left on the battlefield.

687
00:45:26,660 --> 00:45:30,227
200 South Vietnamese were killed;

688
00:45:30,229 --> 00:45:34,899
200 more were wounded.

689
00:45:49,783 --> 00:45:52,583
What it really said was

690
00:45:52,585 --> 00:45:56,987
they were capable of
marshaling this kind of force.

691
00:45:56,989 --> 00:45:59,190
The Vietnamese officers I
talked to in the Marine Corps

692
00:45:59,192 --> 00:46:01,825
figured they had six
months before the end.

693
00:46:01,827 --> 00:46:05,462
The big question after Binh Gia,

694
00:46:05,464 --> 00:46:07,831
an American officer
at headquarters said,

695
00:46:07,833 --> 00:46:10,901
is how a thousand or more enemy troops

696
00:46:10,903 --> 00:46:14,405
could wander around the
countryside so close to Saigon

697
00:46:14,407 --> 00:46:16,407
without being discovered.

698
00:46:16,409 --> 00:46:21,345
That tells you something
about this war."

699
00:46:21,347 --> 00:46:23,880
Hanoi was exultant.

700
00:46:23,882 --> 00:46:27,084
Ho Chi Minh called it
"a little Dien Bien Phu."

701
00:46:27,086 --> 00:46:31,588
Le Duan was convinced
his strategy was working.

702
00:46:31,590 --> 00:46:34,991
"The liberation war of
South Vietnam has progressed

703
00:46:34,993 --> 00:46:37,627
by leaps and bounds," he said.

704
00:46:37,629 --> 00:46:41,164
"After the battle of
Ap Bac two years ago,

705
00:46:41,166 --> 00:46:45,068
the enemy knew it would
be difficult to defeat us.

706
00:46:45,070 --> 00:46:48,071
After Binh Gia, the enemy realizes

707
00:46:48,073 --> 00:46:53,143
that he is in the process
of being defeated by us."

708
00:47:07,658 --> 00:47:08,991
I, Lyndon Baines Johnson,

709
00:47:08,993 --> 00:47:11,093
do solemnly swear...

710
00:47:11,095 --> 00:47:14,463
Twenty-six days after
the Binh Gia battle ended

711
00:47:14,465 --> 00:47:17,767
and just a week after President
Johnson's inauguration,

712
00:47:17,769 --> 00:47:21,170
McGeorge Bundy handed the
president a memorandum.

713
00:47:21,172 --> 00:47:23,372
I will to the best of my ability.

714
00:47:23,374 --> 00:47:27,176
The current strategy was
clearly not working, it said.

715
00:47:27,178 --> 00:47:30,679
The Viet Cong were on
the move and on the rise,

716
00:47:30,681 --> 00:47:34,250
supplied and now steadily reinforced

717
00:47:34,252 --> 00:47:37,086
with soldiers from North Vietnam.

718
00:47:37,088 --> 00:47:41,790
If an independent South
Vietnam was to survive,

719
00:47:41,792 --> 00:47:45,026
the United States needed to act fast.

720
00:47:45,028 --> 00:47:48,997
The administration faced
two choices, Bundy said.

721
00:47:48,999 --> 00:47:51,599
It could go along as it had been going

722
00:47:51,601 --> 00:47:55,636
and try to negotiate some
kind of face-saving settlement.

723
00:47:55,638 --> 00:48:00,541
Or they could use still
more American military power

724
00:48:00,543 --> 00:48:04,245
to force the North to abandon
its goal of uniting the country.

725
00:48:04,247 --> 00:48:08,516
Bundy and McNamara favored that option.

726
00:48:08,518 --> 00:48:11,385
Unless the president
chose it, they said,

727
00:48:11,387 --> 00:48:13,453
South Vietnam would fall.

728
00:48:13,455 --> 00:48:17,257
"I don't think anything,"
Johnson told McNamara,

729
00:48:17,259 --> 00:48:19,860
"is going to be as bad as losing."

730
00:48:24,934 --> 00:48:27,500
Then, a little over a week later,

731
00:48:27,502 --> 00:48:31,071
guerrillas struck an American
helicopter base at Pleiku

732
00:48:31,073 --> 00:48:33,040
in the Central Highlands,

733
00:48:33,042 --> 00:48:37,811
killing eight American advisors
and wounding over 100 more.

734
00:48:37,813 --> 00:48:39,880
Approximately 24 hours ago,

735
00:48:39,882 --> 00:48:42,415
the first attack in the Pleiku area...

736
00:48:42,417 --> 00:48:45,085
Johnson immediately
approved an air strike

737
00:48:45,087 --> 00:48:47,620
on a North Vietnamese army barracks.

738
00:48:48,990 --> 00:48:52,559
On February 10, 1965,

739
00:48:52,561 --> 00:48:55,795
the Viet Cong blew up
a hotel in Qui Nhon,

740
00:48:55,797 --> 00:49:02,301
killing 23 Americans and pinning
21 more beneath the rubble.

741
00:49:02,303 --> 00:49:05,805
Johnson ordered another airstrike.

742
00:49:05,807 --> 00:49:09,208
Anxiety about what
seemed to be happening

743
00:49:09,210 --> 00:49:11,911
spread around the world.

744
00:49:11,913 --> 00:49:14,848
France, which had spent
nearly a century in Vietnam,

745
00:49:14,850 --> 00:49:19,185
now called for an end to all
foreign involvement there.

746
00:49:19,187 --> 00:49:22,821
The British prime
minister urged restraint.

747
00:49:22,823 --> 00:49:26,525
Many leaders of the
president's own party agreed,

748
00:49:26,527 --> 00:49:29,095
though not in public.

749
00:49:29,097 --> 00:49:31,330
In a private memorandum,

750
00:49:31,332 --> 00:49:34,033
Johnson's own vice
president, Hubert Humphrey,

751
00:49:34,035 --> 00:49:37,436
warned him that widening
the war would undercut

752
00:49:37,438 --> 00:49:42,174
the Great Society, damage
America's image overseas,

753
00:49:42,176 --> 00:49:46,445
and end any hope of improving
relations with the Soviet Union.

754
00:49:47,882 --> 00:49:50,316
Johnson never responded.

755
00:49:50,318 --> 00:49:53,485
Instead, on March 2, 1965,

756
00:49:53,487 --> 00:49:57,088
the United States began
a systematic bombardment

757
00:49:57,090 --> 00:49:59,157
of targets in North Vietnam,

758
00:49:59,159 --> 00:50:02,894
code-named Operation Rolling Thunder.

759
00:50:05,065 --> 00:50:08,166
It was meant to be a "mounting
crescendo" of air raids,

760
00:50:08,168 --> 00:50:09,867
Ambassador Taylor wrote,

761
00:50:09,869 --> 00:50:12,938
intended to bolster morale in the South

762
00:50:12,940 --> 00:50:17,842
and destroy morale in the North.

763
00:50:17,844 --> 00:50:20,878
The thesis behind Rolling Thunder,

764
00:50:20,880 --> 00:50:26,617
as I understood it, was that
as we ratcheted up the tempo

765
00:50:26,619 --> 00:50:31,288
and the volume of this effort
against the North Vietnamese,

766
00:50:31,290 --> 00:50:34,024
sooner or later they would cry uncle.

767
00:50:36,829 --> 00:50:39,696
And there'd be a pause,

768
00:50:39,698 --> 00:50:44,268
and we would begin to negotiate
our way out of this situation.

769
00:50:44,270 --> 00:50:47,237
This became an article of faith.

770
00:50:47,239 --> 00:50:51,008
And this article of faith
was a fallacious assumption.

771
00:50:51,010 --> 00:50:53,610
They weren't going to give up.

772
00:50:53,612 --> 00:50:58,015
They read us better than we read them.

773
00:50:58,017 --> 00:51:01,952
The president insisted
on strict secrecy...

774
00:51:01,954 --> 00:51:05,254
the American people were not to be told

775
00:51:05,256 --> 00:51:08,658
that the administration
had changed its policy

776
00:51:08,660 --> 00:51:12,562
from retaliatory airstrikes
to systematic bombing;

777
00:51:12,564 --> 00:51:15,866
that he had, in fact, widened the war.

778
00:51:15,868 --> 00:51:19,603
They jointly agreed that
joint retaliatory action

779
00:51:19,605 --> 00:51:21,304
was required.

780
00:51:21,306 --> 00:51:25,108
General Westmoreland, who
had initially been hesitant

781
00:51:25,110 --> 00:51:27,878
about committing ground
troops to Vietnam,

782
00:51:27,880 --> 00:51:32,549
now asked for two battalions
of Marines... 3,500 men...

783
00:51:32,551 --> 00:51:35,051
to protect the Danang airbase

784
00:51:35,053 --> 00:51:38,588
from which fighter-bombers
were hitting the North.

785
00:51:38,590 --> 00:51:42,591
Ambassador Taylor, who had
once called for ground troops,

786
00:51:42,593 --> 00:51:45,327
now objected to the whole idea.

787
00:51:45,329 --> 00:51:48,864
"Once you put that first
soldier ashore," he wrote,

788
00:51:48,866 --> 00:51:52,902
"you never know how many
others are going to follow him."

789
00:51:52,904 --> 00:51:56,872
But the president felt he had no
choice but to give Westmoreland

790
00:51:56,874 --> 00:51:59,074
what he asked for.

791
00:51:59,076 --> 00:52:04,046
He knew he would be blamed if
more American advisors died.

792
00:52:04,048 --> 00:52:08,050
"I feel like a jackass
caught in a Texas hailstorm,"

793
00:52:08,052 --> 00:52:09,718
he complained.

794
00:52:09,720 --> 00:52:14,924
"I can't run, I can't hide,
and I can't make it stop."

795
00:52:16,325 --> 00:52:18,426
In March of 1965,

796
00:52:18,428 --> 00:52:23,565
Johnson finally took the action he
had managed to avoid for so long.

797
00:52:25,835 --> 00:52:28,636
He was putting American
ground troops in Vietnam.

798
00:52:37,280 --> 00:52:41,082
The government of South
Vietnam was not even consulted;

799
00:52:41,084 --> 00:52:45,352
the United States of America
had larger considerations.

800
00:52:47,724 --> 00:52:52,193
Clearly, we saw it in
terms of the Cold War.

801
00:52:52,195 --> 00:52:56,297
Assistant Secretary of
Defense John McNaughton said...

802
00:52:56,299 --> 00:52:58,232
He said our interests there

803
00:52:58,234 --> 00:53:03,370
were 70% to avoid humiliation,

804
00:53:03,372 --> 00:53:07,274
20% to contain China,

805
00:53:07,276 --> 00:53:10,478
and ten percent to help the Vietnamese.

806
00:53:13,015 --> 00:53:15,749
Johnson quietly told his good friend

807
00:53:15,751 --> 00:53:17,951
Senator Richard Russell of Georgia

808
00:53:17,953 --> 00:53:20,488
what was about to happen.

809
00:53:20,490 --> 00:53:23,223
I guess we got no choice, but
it scares the death out of me.

810
00:53:23,225 --> 00:53:24,591
I think everybody's going to think,

811
00:53:24,593 --> 00:53:26,159
"We're landing the Marines.

812
00:53:26,161 --> 00:53:27,995
We're off to battle."

813
00:53:27,997 --> 00:53:29,596
Of course, if they come up there,

814
00:53:29,598 --> 00:53:30,831
they're going to get them in a fight.

815
00:53:30,833 --> 00:53:32,332
And if they ruin those airplanes,

816
00:53:32,334 --> 00:53:34,400
everybody is going to give
me hell for not securing them,

817
00:53:34,402 --> 00:53:36,202
just like they did last
time they made a raid.

818
00:53:36,204 --> 00:53:37,671
Yeah.

819
00:53:37,673 --> 00:53:38,905
What do you... what do you think?

820
00:53:38,907 --> 00:53:40,641
Well, Mr. President,

821
00:53:40,643 --> 00:53:41,875
it scares the life out of me.

822
00:53:41,877 --> 00:53:43,376
But I don't know how to back up now.

823
00:53:43,378 --> 00:53:45,612
It looks to me like we
just got in this thing,

824
00:53:45,614 --> 00:53:46,847
and there's no way out.

825
00:53:46,849 --> 00:53:48,181
I don't know.

826
00:53:48,183 --> 00:53:51,184
Dick, the great trouble I'm under...

827
00:53:51,186 --> 00:53:54,254
A man can fight if he can see daylight

828
00:53:54,256 --> 00:53:55,989
down the road somewhere.

829
00:53:55,991 --> 00:53:57,890
But there ain't no daylight in Vietnam.

830
00:53:57,892 --> 00:53:59,692
There's not a bit.

831
00:54:02,396 --> 00:54:06,298
On March 8, 1965, Dr. Phan Huy Quat,

832
00:54:06,300 --> 00:54:09,434
yet another prime
minister of South Vietnam,

833
00:54:09,436 --> 00:54:13,338
called his chief of staff, Bui Diem.

834
00:54:47,140 --> 00:54:49,508
The Marines were landing at Danang

835
00:54:49,510 --> 00:54:53,679
on the east coast of South
Vietnam, some 100 miles south

836
00:54:53,681 --> 00:54:55,880
of the demilitarized zone

837
00:54:55,882 --> 00:54:58,983
that divided the North from the South.

838
00:54:58,985 --> 00:55:02,521
They were prepared to
fight their way ashore.

839
00:55:02,523 --> 00:55:04,356
They did not need to.

840
00:55:06,260 --> 00:55:07,458
What struck me

841
00:55:07,460 --> 00:55:12,363
was how beautiful
Vietnam was to look at.

842
00:55:14,567 --> 00:55:17,702
There were just these endless acres

843
00:55:17,704 --> 00:55:20,070
of these jade-green rice paddies.

844
00:55:20,072 --> 00:55:24,174
And these lovely villages
inside these groves

845
00:55:24,176 --> 00:55:26,944
of bamboo and palm trees.

846
00:55:26,946 --> 00:55:32,049
And way off in the distance
these bluish jungled mountains,

847
00:55:32,051 --> 00:55:35,386
and they looked like Shangri-La.

848
00:55:35,388 --> 00:55:39,590
And I remember seeing this
line of Vietnamese women,

849
00:55:39,592 --> 00:55:41,458
or schoolgirls I think they were.

850
00:55:41,460 --> 00:55:44,661
They actually looked
like angels come to earth

851
00:55:44,663 --> 00:55:46,130
or something like that.

852
00:55:46,132 --> 00:55:51,434
So it was really quite
striking but a little unsettling

853
00:55:51,436 --> 00:55:52,602
because...

854
00:55:52,604 --> 00:55:54,271
so how can a place like this...

855
00:55:54,273 --> 00:55:57,507
so beautiful and so
enchanting... be at war?

856
00:55:59,078 --> 00:56:01,378
My father was very happy.

857
00:56:01,380 --> 00:56:04,414
We're such a small and poor country

858
00:56:04,416 --> 00:56:08,952
and the Americans have
decided to come in to save us

859
00:56:08,954 --> 00:56:12,555
not only with their
money, their resources,

860
00:56:12,557 --> 00:56:15,524
but even with their own lives.

861
00:56:15,526 --> 00:56:17,393
We were very grateful.

862
00:56:17,395 --> 00:56:18,895
We thought the...

863
00:56:18,897 --> 00:56:21,898
sure enough with this power,
the Americans are going to win.

864
00:56:21,900 --> 00:56:25,868
Seeing foreign troops
marching past his village,

865
00:56:25,870 --> 00:56:31,607
an old man emerged from his home
shouting, "Vivent Les Français!"

866
00:56:31,609 --> 00:56:34,510
He thought the French had returned.

867
00:56:36,014 --> 00:56:37,513
"The problem around here,"

868
00:56:37,515 --> 00:56:41,918
a Marine captain leading
a patrol told a reporter,

869
00:56:41,920 --> 00:56:45,021
"is who the hell is who?"

870
00:56:45,023 --> 00:56:48,890
As a voting member of
Saigon Mission Council,

871
00:56:48,892 --> 00:56:53,161
I was opposed to the entry of
American ground combat forces.

872
00:56:55,432 --> 00:56:59,835
I felt if the Vietnamese
had to beat them off

873
00:56:59,837 --> 00:57:03,071
with a bloody stump, they
had to do it themselves.

874
00:57:03,073 --> 00:57:07,175
We had to do everything we
humanly could to help them,

875
00:57:07,177 --> 00:57:09,744
but we could not win it for them.

876
00:57:11,581 --> 00:57:15,383
So, I think we crossed the
River Styx at that point.

877
00:57:42,945 --> 00:57:45,679
The first protest I went to
against the war in Vietnam

878
00:57:45,681 --> 00:57:49,549
was a protest at a
Dow Chemical facility.

879
00:57:52,721 --> 00:57:55,455
Dow was manufacturing napalm.

880
00:57:55,457 --> 00:57:58,624
They were dropping napalm
on villages in Vietnam.

881
00:57:58,626 --> 00:58:01,194
It was a very disappointing experience

882
00:58:01,196 --> 00:58:04,297
because only 40 people came.

883
00:58:04,299 --> 00:58:07,000
And we seemed very out of place

884
00:58:07,002 --> 00:58:10,203
and very ineffectual, impotent,

885
00:58:10,205 --> 00:58:14,407
standing outside with 40 people.

886
00:58:14,409 --> 00:58:19,045
Most Americans understood
little about Indochina,

887
00:58:19,047 --> 00:58:22,782
rarely knew anyone actually
involved in the fighting,

888
00:58:22,784 --> 00:58:26,219
saw no reason to question
the government's assertion

889
00:58:26,221 --> 00:58:28,988
that the United States
had vital interests

890
00:58:28,990 --> 00:58:31,757
8,000 miles from home.

891
00:58:33,394 --> 00:58:36,561
Still, there was a small
but growing number of people

892
00:58:36,563 --> 00:58:40,532
who had begun to oppose the
war for any number of reasons...

893
00:58:40,534 --> 00:58:44,970
because they thought
it unjust or immoral,

894
00:58:44,972 --> 00:58:47,872
believed it was unconstitutional

895
00:58:47,874 --> 00:58:51,676
or simply not in the national interest.

896
00:58:55,049 --> 00:58:57,950
Two weeks after the
Marines landed at Danang,

897
00:58:57,952 --> 00:59:01,853
members of the University
of Michigan faculty organized

898
00:59:01,855 --> 00:59:04,789
a night-long discussion
between professors

899
00:59:04,791 --> 00:59:10,328
and some 3,000 students about
the escalation of the war.

900
00:59:10,330 --> 00:59:12,029
The demonstration was called a teach-in

901
00:59:12,031 --> 00:59:13,931
because the idea originated

902
00:59:13,933 --> 00:59:15,666
with a group of university professors.

903
00:59:15,668 --> 00:59:19,170
What do you hope to accomplish?

904
00:59:19,172 --> 00:59:21,738
I'd like to open up
communication between people

905
00:59:21,740 --> 00:59:24,008
and the government because I believe

906
00:59:24,010 --> 00:59:26,043
that they are not telling
us what is going on,

907
00:59:26,045 --> 00:59:28,512
and the people have the right
to know, and we have the right

908
00:59:28,514 --> 00:59:30,381
to tell the government what we think.

909
00:59:30,383 --> 00:59:35,419
Soon, there were teach-ins on
most major university campuses.

910
00:59:35,421 --> 00:59:38,689
There is no morally wonderful way out.

911
00:59:38,691 --> 00:59:43,727
NYU in Manhattan, the University
of Wisconsin in Madison,

912
00:59:43,729 --> 00:59:48,465
the University of
California in Berkeley.

913
00:59:48,467 --> 00:59:51,702
The teach-ins were
really raucous affairs.

914
00:59:51,704 --> 00:59:54,371
A lot of contention.

915
00:59:54,373 --> 00:59:55,839
We want to discuss

916
00:59:55,841 --> 00:59:58,809
is what's wrong with
the Vietnam War, and...

917
01:00:02,347 --> 01:00:03,814
Do you endorse

918
01:00:03,816 --> 01:00:05,782
the administration's
policy in South Vietnam?

919
01:00:05,784 --> 01:00:07,584
Whole-heartedly.

920
01:00:07,586 --> 01:00:09,052
There were plenty of times

921
01:00:09,054 --> 01:00:10,987
when people who were
supportive of the war

922
01:00:10,989 --> 01:00:12,488
came to these teach-ins

923
01:00:12,490 --> 01:00:15,558
to try to give an alternative
anticommunist point of view.

924
01:00:15,560 --> 01:00:17,860
They were often shouted down.

925
01:00:19,864 --> 01:00:23,866
The bombing of the North
and the Marines' arrival

926
01:00:23,868 --> 01:00:27,904
also drew protestors to
Washington that spring.

927
01:00:27,906 --> 01:00:29,672
The demonstration was organized

928
01:00:29,674 --> 01:00:34,577
by the Students for a
Democratic Society... the SDS.

929
01:00:34,579 --> 01:00:39,448
I saw SDS calling for a
demonstration at the White House

930
01:00:39,450 --> 01:00:42,117
in the spring of 1965.

931
01:00:42,119 --> 01:00:45,320
I didn't want to go because I
didn't want to be disappointed

932
01:00:45,322 --> 01:00:46,888
in the same way again and, you know,

933
01:00:46,890 --> 01:00:48,557
go all the way to Washington

934
01:00:48,559 --> 01:00:50,259
and stand outside the
White House with 40 people.

935
01:00:51,995 --> 01:00:54,763
25,000 people attended that rally.

936
01:00:57,268 --> 01:00:59,334
And that suddenly told me

937
01:00:59,336 --> 01:01:02,904
and others I was
working with at the time

938
01:01:02,906 --> 01:01:06,442
that it might be possible
to build an antiwar movement.

939
01:01:11,148 --> 01:01:13,182
It was quite astounding to think

940
01:01:13,184 --> 01:01:15,917
that he had that degree of commitment.

941
01:01:15,919 --> 01:01:18,287
And it made sense

942
01:01:18,289 --> 01:01:23,624
in what we knew of him,
as drastic as it was.

943
01:01:25,161 --> 01:01:27,695
Nothing Mogie Crocker's
parents could say or do

944
01:01:27,697 --> 01:01:29,830
since Mogie had come home

945
01:01:29,832 --> 01:01:32,433
shook his determination to serve,

946
01:01:32,435 --> 01:01:34,469
and recent developments in Vietnam

947
01:01:34,471 --> 01:01:37,171
had only strengthened his resolve.

948
01:01:37,173 --> 01:01:41,442
He wanted to become a
paratrooper and get into combat.

949
01:01:41,444 --> 01:01:43,978
His parents finally, reluctantly,

950
01:01:43,980 --> 01:01:46,947
agreed to let him go, and on March 15,

951
01:01:46,949 --> 01:01:50,784
a week after the first
Marines landed at Danang,

952
01:01:50,786 --> 01:01:56,123
Denton Crocker, Jr. entered
the United States Army.

953
01:01:56,125 --> 01:01:59,326
So Denton bounced down
the steps one morning

954
01:01:59,328 --> 01:02:02,596
and was off to Fort Dix.

955
01:02:02,598 --> 01:02:06,333
It was in a way a sort
of relief, actually,

956
01:02:06,335 --> 01:02:09,302
that the conflict and the anxiety

957
01:02:09,304 --> 01:02:12,639
over whether he would
or would not go was done.

958
01:02:12,641 --> 01:02:14,207
And he was happy.

959
01:02:14,209 --> 01:02:17,677
And we just tried to believe
that this was the right thing

960
01:02:17,679 --> 01:02:19,412
for him to do.

961
01:03:09,897 --> 01:03:13,398
Le Minh Khue was
orphaned as a small girl,

962
01:03:13,400 --> 01:03:16,367
her parents victims of
the brutal land reforms

963
01:03:16,369 --> 01:03:19,204
the communists had imposed.

964
01:03:19,206 --> 01:03:21,807
She was raised by her aunt and uncle,

965
01:03:21,809 --> 01:03:25,977
who encouraged her to
read American literature.

966
01:03:25,979 --> 01:03:30,782
She was 16 when Operation
Rolling Thunder began.

967
01:04:06,185 --> 01:04:08,786
Khue was assigned to
an organization called

968
01:04:08,788 --> 01:04:11,623
the "Youth Shock Brigades
Against the Americans

969
01:04:11,625 --> 01:04:13,724
for National Salvation,"

970
01:04:13,726 --> 01:04:17,228
and along with thousands
of other young people

971
01:04:17,230 --> 01:04:21,265
was sent south to work keeping
open the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

972
01:05:01,072 --> 01:05:03,039
As Johnson had feared,

973
01:05:03,041 --> 01:05:06,777
it quickly became clear that
the bombing campaign alone

974
01:05:06,779 --> 01:05:08,645
was not working.

975
01:05:08,647 --> 01:05:12,916
Troops and supplies continued
steadily to filter down

976
01:05:12,918 --> 01:05:15,285
the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

977
01:05:15,287 --> 01:05:18,121
General Westmoreland
and the Joint Chiefs

978
01:05:18,123 --> 01:05:21,691
called for more men,
tens of thousands of them.

979
01:05:21,693 --> 01:05:25,061
The president was cautious.

980
01:05:25,063 --> 01:05:27,931
He wanted to do "enough,
but not too much," he said.

981
01:05:27,933 --> 01:05:31,935
But he quietly agreed to send
two more Marine battalions

982
01:05:31,937 --> 01:05:37,506
and changed their mission from
base security to active combat.

983
01:05:37,508 --> 01:05:38,842
For the first time,

984
01:05:38,844 --> 01:05:41,477
American troops were being asked

985
01:05:41,479 --> 01:05:44,680
to fight on their own in Vietnam.

986
01:05:44,682 --> 01:05:48,117
Johnson did not want that fact revealed

987
01:05:48,119 --> 01:05:50,653
to the American public either.

988
01:05:50,655 --> 01:05:52,555
But the bombing of the North

989
01:05:52,557 --> 01:05:55,123
and rumors of harsher measures to come

990
01:05:55,125 --> 01:05:58,561
had heightened concern around the world.

991
01:05:58,563 --> 01:06:01,296
UN Secretary-General
U Thant had proposed

992
01:06:01,298 --> 01:06:03,733
a three-month ceasefire.

993
01:06:03,735 --> 01:06:06,602
Great Britain, America's closest ally,

994
01:06:06,604 --> 01:06:10,406
publicly offered to
reconvene the Geneva Talks

995
01:06:10,408 --> 01:06:13,442
that had divided Vietnam in 1954,

996
01:06:13,444 --> 01:06:17,145
with the goal of reuniting it.

997
01:06:17,147 --> 01:06:20,282
The people of South
Vietnam be allowed to guide

998
01:06:20,284 --> 01:06:21,817
their own country...

999
01:06:21,819 --> 01:06:25,119
On April 7, at Johns Hopkins University,

1000
01:06:25,121 --> 01:06:27,389
Johnson sought to persuade the world

1001
01:06:27,391 --> 01:06:29,824
of America's good intentions

1002
01:06:29,826 --> 01:06:34,061
and again to calm American
fears of a wider war.

1003
01:06:35,866 --> 01:06:39,834
In recent months, attacks on
South Vietnam were stepped up.

1004
01:06:39,836 --> 01:06:44,739
Thus, it became necessary for
us to increase our response

1005
01:06:44,741 --> 01:06:47,942
and to make attacks by air.

1006
01:06:47,944 --> 01:06:51,713
This is not a change of purpose.

1007
01:06:51,715 --> 01:06:57,318
It is a change in what we
believe that purpose requires.

1008
01:06:57,320 --> 01:07:01,121
Nothing was said about the
new orders sending Marines

1009
01:07:01,123 --> 01:07:03,857
directly into combat.

1010
01:07:03,859 --> 01:07:08,629
Instead, the president called
for "unconditional discussions"

1011
01:07:08,631 --> 01:07:12,098
with Hanoi, and as an old New Dealer,

1012
01:07:12,100 --> 01:07:14,868
proposed a massive development program

1013
01:07:14,870 --> 01:07:17,003
for all of Southeast Asia.

1014
01:07:17,005 --> 01:07:19,640
The vast Mekong River can provide

1015
01:07:19,642 --> 01:07:21,374
food and water and power

1016
01:07:21,376 --> 01:07:24,912
on a scale to dwarf even our own TVA.

1017
01:07:27,082 --> 01:07:29,282
I was outside of the village.

1018
01:07:29,284 --> 01:07:31,617
We're getting some
fire from the village.

1019
01:07:31,619 --> 01:07:34,053
I had the little transistor radio.

1020
01:07:34,055 --> 01:07:37,289
And I'm sitting there listening to LBJ.

1021
01:07:37,291 --> 01:07:39,158
... will use our power with restraint

1022
01:07:39,160 --> 01:07:41,293
and with all the wisdom...

1023
01:07:41,295 --> 01:07:44,797
At the same time we got to
lay some nape on the village.

1024
01:07:44,799 --> 01:07:46,766
So I'm calling in the nape

1025
01:07:46,768 --> 01:07:50,235
and listening to the
president talk peace.

1026
01:07:50,237 --> 01:07:53,339
We will try to keep
conflict from spreading.

1027
01:07:53,341 --> 01:07:56,108
It was surreal.

1028
01:07:56,110 --> 01:07:58,277
We have no desire to devastate

1029
01:07:58,279 --> 01:08:02,482
that which the people of
North Vietnam have built

1030
01:08:02,484 --> 01:08:05,817
with toil and sacrifice.

1031
01:08:05,819 --> 01:08:11,990
This war, like most wars, is
filled with terrible irony.

1032
01:08:11,992 --> 01:08:13,692
What do the people
of North Vietnam want?

1033
01:08:18,699 --> 01:08:22,834
Hanoi denounced the
president's offer as a trick.

1034
01:08:22,836 --> 01:08:25,904
Johnson's advisors and
the Joint Chiefs of Staff

1035
01:08:25,906 --> 01:08:30,141
continued to debate how many
men would actually be needed

1036
01:08:30,143 --> 01:08:33,678
and how rapidly they should be deployed.

1037
01:08:33,680 --> 01:08:38,082
Meanwhile, the president sent
the first Army combat troops

1038
01:08:38,084 --> 01:08:39,350
to the country.

1039
01:08:39,352 --> 01:08:41,719
It was increasingly clear

1040
01:08:41,721 --> 01:08:45,356
that the United States was
in it for the long haul.

1041
01:08:49,362 --> 01:08:56,401
You can't just be a neutral
witness to something like war.

1042
01:09:04,277 --> 01:09:08,413
It crawls down your throat.

1043
01:09:08,415 --> 01:09:13,351
It eats you alive from
the inside and the out.

1044
01:09:17,924 --> 01:09:22,726
It's not something that you
can stand back and be neutral

1045
01:09:22,728 --> 01:09:29,099
and objective and all of
those things we try to be

1046
01:09:29,101 --> 01:09:32,436
as reporters,
journalists, photographers.

1047
01:09:35,207 --> 01:09:37,841
It doesn't work that way.

1048
01:09:40,646 --> 01:09:41,848
... defense and they're real quick...

1049
01:09:41,849 --> 01:09:44,682
and check it out...

1050
01:09:44,684 --> 01:09:48,351
The growing presence of
American combat troops in Vietnam

1051
01:09:48,353 --> 01:09:52,455
attracted flocks of journalists.

1052
01:09:52,457 --> 01:09:54,657
There was no press censorship,

1053
01:09:54,659 --> 01:09:58,160
as there had been in World War II.

1054
01:09:58,162 --> 01:10:02,565
Reporters just had to agree
to follow military guidelines

1055
01:10:02,567 --> 01:10:04,934
so as not to compromise the security

1056
01:10:04,936 --> 01:10:07,303
of ongoing operations.

1057
01:10:07,305 --> 01:10:09,739
It was dangerous work.

1058
01:10:09,741 --> 01:10:14,243
More than 200 journalists
and photographers would die

1059
01:10:14,245 --> 01:10:17,413
covering the fighting in Southeast Asia.

1060
01:10:17,415 --> 01:10:20,750
Joseph Lee Galloway
was a young UPI reporter

1061
01:10:20,752 --> 01:10:24,219
from Refugio, Texas.

1062
01:10:24,221 --> 01:10:27,990
He stopped in Saigon just long
enough to get his credentials.

1063
01:10:27,992 --> 01:10:31,159
Then he headed for Danang.

1064
01:10:31,161 --> 01:10:34,462
The Marines originally came ashore there

1065
01:10:34,464 --> 01:10:37,132
to guard the airbase.

1066
01:10:37,134 --> 01:10:43,171
And they quickly figured out
you can't just guard an airbase.

1067
01:10:43,173 --> 01:10:45,107
You've got to spread out

1068
01:10:45,109 --> 01:10:46,441
because they're going to mortar it,

1069
01:10:46,443 --> 01:10:48,376
they're going to shoot rockets.

1070
01:10:48,378 --> 01:10:52,147
So you've got to reach
out 15 or 20 miles.

1071
01:10:52,149 --> 01:10:56,151
That means you've got to
run operations that far out.

1072
01:10:56,153 --> 01:10:57,752
And once you're doing that,

1073
01:10:57,754 --> 01:11:00,087
you're no longer guarding an airbase...

1074
01:11:01,924 --> 01:11:04,925
... you're operating
in hostile territory.

1075
01:11:35,791 --> 01:11:40,160
It wasn't so much the Viet
Cong that were intimidating

1076
01:11:40,162 --> 01:11:43,530
at that point as it was the terrain.

1077
01:11:43,532 --> 01:11:48,168
Going from Point A to
Point B in the jungle

1078
01:11:48,170 --> 01:11:49,670
was so difficult.

1079
01:11:49,672 --> 01:11:54,074
As it happened to me
once, it took four hours

1080
01:11:54,076 --> 01:11:56,310
to move a half a mile,

1081
01:11:56,312 --> 01:11:59,346
cutting through this bush with machetes.

1082
01:12:01,816 --> 01:12:04,716
The Viet Cong knew the terrain

1083
01:12:04,717 --> 01:12:07,687
far better than the Marines did,

1084
01:12:07,689 --> 01:12:11,457
and ran circles around them.

1085
01:12:23,738 --> 01:12:29,141
Fort Dix, June 10, 1965.

1086
01:12:29,143 --> 01:12:30,909
Dear Mum,

1087
01:12:30,911 --> 01:12:34,946
Basic is now all over and I am
presently waiting for orders.

1088
01:12:34,948 --> 01:12:37,249
Waiting for orders could be very dull

1089
01:12:37,251 --> 01:12:39,050
but I have found there
are excellent chances

1090
01:12:39,052 --> 01:12:40,985
to do some reading.

1091
01:12:40,987 --> 01:12:43,355
Recently I have read
<i>Wuthering Heights,</i>

1092
01:12:43,357 --> 01:12:47,925
<i>Animal Farm, Seven Pillars of
Wisdom,</i> and<i> Lord Jim.</i>

1093
01:12:47,927 --> 01:12:49,761
I hope you are all well.

1094
01:12:49,763 --> 01:12:51,129
Love, Mogie.

1095
01:12:53,099 --> 01:12:55,800
Mogie Crocker was
allowed two weeks at home

1096
01:12:55,802 --> 01:12:58,470
before shipping out to Vietnam.

1097
01:13:00,540 --> 01:13:02,340
We were at dinner one evening

1098
01:13:02,342 --> 01:13:05,644
just talking, I guess, in
generalities about the war

1099
01:13:05,646 --> 01:13:08,045
and the general situation.

1100
01:13:08,047 --> 01:13:12,817
And Mogie said, "Of course
if I were a Vietnamese,

1101
01:13:12,819 --> 01:13:15,686
I would be on the
side of the Viet Cong."

1102
01:13:15,688 --> 01:13:19,590
That... I puzzled over that.

1103
01:13:19,592 --> 01:13:23,027
I suppose relating like
to our American Revolution

1104
01:13:23,029 --> 01:13:26,530
that he saw their need
for their own freedom.

1105
01:13:26,532 --> 01:13:28,833
But as an American citizen,

1106
01:13:28,835 --> 01:13:33,938
he saw the larger picture of
trying to prevent communism.

1107
01:13:33,940 --> 01:13:36,640
I remember one night in particular

1108
01:13:36,642 --> 01:13:38,475
he and I were up late.

1109
01:13:38,477 --> 01:13:43,647
And he suddenly leaned
his head in his hands.

1110
01:13:43,649 --> 01:13:46,583
And he said, "I don't want to go back."

1111
01:13:47,853 --> 01:13:50,353
I was dumbstruck.

1112
01:13:50,355 --> 01:13:56,092
And said to him, "But this
is what you want to do."

1113
01:13:56,094 --> 01:13:59,629
It had never occurred to me
that he was torn about this,

1114
01:13:59,631 --> 01:14:02,833
that he was afraid and
yet was determined to go.

1115
01:14:13,678 --> 01:14:17,247
In South Vietnam, things
were steadily growing worse.

1116
01:14:22,120 --> 01:14:25,321
In May, the Viet Cong,

1117
01:14:25,323 --> 01:14:29,024
supported now by four regiments
of North Vietnamese regulars...

1118
01:14:29,026 --> 01:14:31,728
approximately 5,000 men...

1119
01:14:31,730 --> 01:14:35,598
were destroying the equivalent
of a South Vietnamese battalion

1120
01:14:35,600 --> 01:14:37,567
every week.

1121
01:14:41,740 --> 01:14:46,776
South Vietnam now seemed only
weeks from complete collapse.

1122
01:14:46,778 --> 01:14:50,480
Desperate, General
Westmoreland requested

1123
01:14:50,482 --> 01:14:55,584
tens of thousands of more
American troops right away.

1124
01:14:55,586 --> 01:14:58,387
But neither the continuing bombing

1125
01:14:58,389 --> 01:15:02,090
nor the growing likelihood of
full-scale American intervention

1126
01:15:02,092 --> 01:15:05,560
seemed to intimidate Hanoi.

1127
01:15:05,562 --> 01:15:08,497
Le Duan, having failed to win the war

1128
01:15:08,499 --> 01:15:11,299
before the United States
sent in ground troops,

1129
01:15:11,301 --> 01:15:14,603
was now persuaded the American public,

1130
01:15:14,605 --> 01:15:18,139
like the French public before
them, would eventually weary

1131
01:15:18,141 --> 01:15:23,812
of a costly, bloody war
being waged so far from home.

1132
01:15:23,814 --> 01:15:29,050
By contrast, he said, "The
North will not count the cost."

1133
01:15:29,052 --> 01:15:31,719
Le Duan's confidence was bolstered

1134
01:15:31,721 --> 01:15:34,455
by the help American
intervention had forced

1135
01:15:34,457 --> 01:15:38,126
the Soviet Union and China to offer him.

1136
01:15:38,128 --> 01:15:42,330
Moscow agreed to supply vast
amounts of modern weaponry

1137
01:15:42,332 --> 01:15:43,864
and materiel.

1138
01:15:43,866 --> 01:15:50,104
Hanoi would eventually become the
most heavily defended city on Earth.

1139
01:15:50,106 --> 01:15:53,341
And China agreed to send support troops,

1140
01:15:53,343 --> 01:15:56,644
freeing North Vietnamese
soldiers for combat

1141
01:15:56,646 --> 01:15:58,346
in the South.

1142
01:15:58,348 --> 01:16:03,551
320,000 Chinese would
eventually serve behind the lines

1143
01:16:03,553 --> 01:16:06,753
in the North.

1144
01:16:06,755 --> 01:16:08,989
"We will fight," Le Duan promised,

1145
01:16:08,991 --> 01:16:12,092
"whatever way the United States wants."

1146
01:16:13,395 --> 01:16:16,763
In June of 1965,

1147
01:16:16,765 --> 01:16:19,299
Secretary McNamara, the
Secretary of Defense,

1148
01:16:19,301 --> 01:16:20,767
came out to Saigon.

1149
01:16:20,769 --> 01:16:24,371
There were a lot of captains
and majors and lieutenants.

1150
01:16:24,373 --> 01:16:28,375
And every person said to Mr. McNamara,

1151
01:16:28,377 --> 01:16:30,944
"The situation is so dire

1152
01:16:30,946 --> 01:16:33,746
we must bring in United States forces."

1153
01:16:33,748 --> 01:16:36,850
So, whatever doubts we may have had,

1154
01:16:36,852 --> 01:16:38,685
whatever people may say after the fact,

1155
01:16:38,687 --> 01:16:41,588
I recall distinctly at the time

1156
01:16:41,590 --> 01:16:44,457
telling the Secretary of
Defense that I thought we needed

1157
01:16:44,459 --> 01:16:45,424
to bring troops in there.

1158
01:16:46,862 --> 01:16:48,394
For three weeks,

1159
01:16:48,396 --> 01:16:51,664
the president and his advisors
argued over how to respond

1160
01:16:51,666 --> 01:16:55,434
to Westmoreland's urgent
request for more troops,

1161
01:16:55,436 --> 01:17:00,139
differing mostly over how
many should be sent how fast.

1162
01:17:00,141 --> 01:17:04,611
Undersecretary of State
George Ball made the argument

1163
01:17:04,613 --> 01:17:07,413
against further escalation.

1164
01:17:07,415 --> 01:17:11,518
He told the president
the war could not be won.

1165
01:17:11,520 --> 01:17:14,586
The American people
will grow weary of it.

1166
01:17:14,588 --> 01:17:16,788
Our troops will get bogged down

1167
01:17:16,790 --> 01:17:19,324
"in the jungles and
rice paddies," he warned,

1168
01:17:19,326 --> 01:17:22,961
"while we slowly blow
the country to pieces."

1169
01:17:22,963 --> 01:17:25,564
No one else agreed.

1170
01:17:28,702 --> 01:17:34,372
In the end, Johnson sent
Westmoreland 50,000 men.

1171
01:17:34,374 --> 01:17:39,912
But he pledged another
50,000 by the end of 1965,

1172
01:17:39,914 --> 01:17:43,048
and still more if they were needed.

1173
01:18:19,553 --> 01:18:21,318
Hold your fire!

1174
01:18:21,320 --> 01:18:22,319
Hold your fire.

1175
01:18:23,722 --> 01:18:25,456
Does the fact

1176
01:18:25,458 --> 01:18:28,525
that you are sending
additional forces to Vietnam

1177
01:18:28,527 --> 01:18:31,562
imply any change in the existing policy

1178
01:18:31,564 --> 01:18:35,232
of using American forces to
guard American installations

1179
01:18:35,234 --> 01:18:37,568
and to act as an emergency backup?

1180
01:18:37,570 --> 01:18:40,870
It does not imply any
change in policy whatever.

1181
01:18:40,872 --> 01:18:43,907
It does not imply any
change of objective.

1182
01:18:43,909 --> 01:18:44,874
Uh...

1183
01:18:47,279 --> 01:18:49,146
The month of June saw soldiers here

1184
01:18:49,148 --> 01:18:50,547
taking what appears to be...

1185
01:18:50,549 --> 01:18:53,150
Most television reports from Vietnam

1186
01:18:53,152 --> 01:18:56,586
echoed the newsreels
Americans had flocked to see

1187
01:18:56,588 --> 01:19:01,023
during the Second World War...
enthusiastic, unquestioning,

1188
01:19:01,025 --> 01:19:05,928
good guys fighting
and defeating bad guys.

1189
01:19:05,930 --> 01:19:10,466
But at dinnertime on August 5, 1965,

1190
01:19:10,468 --> 01:19:13,068
Americans saw another side of the war.

1191
01:19:14,939 --> 01:19:17,573
We're on the outskirts
of the village of Cam Ne

1192
01:19:17,575 --> 01:19:19,509
with elements of the 1st Battalion...

1193
01:19:19,511 --> 01:19:23,045
CBS correspondent
Morley Safer and his crew

1194
01:19:23,047 --> 01:19:26,382
went on patrol with Marines near Danang.

1195
01:19:26,384 --> 01:19:29,552
Their orders were first
to search a cluster

1196
01:19:29,554 --> 01:19:33,588
of four villages for
caches of arms and rice

1197
01:19:33,590 --> 01:19:38,293
meant for the enemy and
then to destroy them all.

1198
01:19:41,832 --> 01:19:44,933
This is what the war
in Vietnam is all about.

1199
01:19:48,673 --> 01:19:52,207
The old and the very young.

1200
01:19:52,209 --> 01:19:55,044
The Marines have burned

1201
01:19:55,046 --> 01:19:57,146
this old couple's cottage

1202
01:19:57,148 --> 01:19:58,981
because fire was coming from here.

1203
01:19:58,983 --> 01:20:00,683
And now when you walk into the village

1204
01:20:00,685 --> 01:20:02,450
you see no young people at all.

1205
01:20:07,123 --> 01:20:10,392
The day's operation
burned down 150 houses,

1206
01:20:10,394 --> 01:20:13,761
wounded three women, killed one baby,

1207
01:20:13,763 --> 01:20:19,301
wounded one Marine, and
netted these four prisoners.

1208
01:20:19,303 --> 01:20:22,337
Today's operation is the
frustration of Vietnam

1209
01:20:22,339 --> 01:20:24,306
in miniature.

1210
01:20:24,308 --> 01:20:26,641
There is little doubt
that American firepower

1211
01:20:26,643 --> 01:20:29,077
can win a military victory here.

1212
01:20:29,079 --> 01:20:33,915
But to a Vietnamese
peasant whose home is a...

1213
01:20:33,917 --> 01:20:36,351
means a lifetime of backbreaking labor,

1214
01:20:36,353 --> 01:20:39,254
it will take more than
presidential promises

1215
01:20:39,256 --> 01:20:41,923
to convince him that we are on his side.

1216
01:20:43,860 --> 01:20:45,760
The next morning, the president called

1217
01:20:45,762 --> 01:20:50,098
his friend Frank
Stanton, the head of CBS.

1218
01:20:50,100 --> 01:20:53,300
"Hello, Frank, this is your president.

1219
01:20:53,302 --> 01:20:55,336
Are you trying to fuck me?"

1220
01:20:56,973 --> 01:21:00,441
Safer had defaced the
American flag, Johnson said.

1221
01:21:00,443 --> 01:21:04,812
He was probably an agent of
the Kremlin, had to be fired.

1222
01:21:04,814 --> 01:21:09,117
The Marines claimed Safer
had provided a zippo lighter

1223
01:21:09,119 --> 01:21:12,987
and asked the Marines to
burn the hut for the camera.

1224
01:21:12,989 --> 01:21:15,356
A major at the Danang
Marine press office

1225
01:21:15,358 --> 01:21:19,226
called CBS the "Communist
Broadcasting System."

1226
01:21:20,495 --> 01:21:22,095
But after the operation,

1227
01:21:22,097 --> 01:21:27,433
Safer interviewed some of the
Marines who'd burned Cam Ne.

1228
01:21:27,435 --> 01:21:29,770
Do you ever have any private thoughts,

1229
01:21:29,772 --> 01:21:32,338
any private regrets
about some of these people

1230
01:21:32,340 --> 01:21:33,740
you are leaving homeless?

1231
01:21:33,742 --> 01:21:35,142
I feel no remorse.

1232
01:21:35,144 --> 01:21:36,276
I don't imagine anybody else does.

1233
01:21:36,278 --> 01:21:37,610
You can't expect to do your job

1234
01:21:37,612 --> 01:21:38,845
and feel pity for these people.

1235
01:21:41,183 --> 01:21:43,549
When some viewers
registered their shock,

1236
01:21:43,551 --> 01:21:47,687
Westmoreland admitted,
"We have a genuine problem

1237
01:21:47,689 --> 01:21:51,624
which will be with us as
long as we are in Vietnam.

1238
01:21:51,626 --> 01:21:56,829
Commanders must exercise
restraint unnatural to war

1239
01:21:56,831 --> 01:22:00,500
and judgment not often
required of young men."

1240
01:22:04,839 --> 01:22:07,674
You kind of thought at first

1241
01:22:07,676 --> 01:22:10,410
that it was going to be
like the GIs, you know,

1242
01:22:10,412 --> 01:22:12,845
rolling through Paris
after the liberation.

1243
01:22:15,183 --> 01:22:17,750
Well, you know, it sure
didn't work out that way.

1244
01:22:20,054 --> 01:22:22,388
I can remember once
going in this one ville.

1245
01:22:22,390 --> 01:22:25,724
And I remember finding this
entire Vietnamese family

1246
01:22:25,726 --> 01:22:28,360
cowering in a bunker.

1247
01:22:29,830 --> 01:22:32,030
And they were terrified of us.

1248
01:22:35,969 --> 01:22:38,637
And I remember thinking
to myself, I said,

1249
01:22:38,639 --> 01:22:42,874
"Well, I wonder if back
in the colonial days,

1250
01:22:42,876 --> 01:22:46,044
when the Redcoats barged
into Ipswich, Massachusetts,

1251
01:22:46,046 --> 01:22:47,212
or wherever,

1252
01:22:47,214 --> 01:22:50,816
if this is how Americans must have felt

1253
01:22:50,818 --> 01:22:54,553
looking at these foreign
soldiers coming in here."

1254
01:22:54,555 --> 01:22:55,854
The Viet Cong

1255
01:22:55,856 --> 01:23:01,159
have terrorized you, and
have burned your homes.

1256
01:23:01,161 --> 01:23:04,362
We are here to help you.

1257
01:23:04,364 --> 01:23:08,766
To show how much we
are able to protect you,

1258
01:23:08,768 --> 01:23:14,105
we are going to have the Air Force

1259
01:23:14,107 --> 01:23:19,310
hit some Viet Cong on the
other side of the valley.

1260
01:23:19,312 --> 01:23:21,279
That will be at 10:30.

1261
01:23:44,303 --> 01:23:46,503
Dear Mum and Dad,

1262
01:23:46,505 --> 01:23:49,539
I am now with the 1st Brigade,
101st Airborne Division

1263
01:23:49,541 --> 01:23:51,508
in Vietnam.

1264
01:23:57,416 --> 01:23:59,449
What is taking place in America?

1265
01:23:59,451 --> 01:24:02,252
We who are in Vietnam
find these protests

1266
01:24:02,254 --> 01:24:04,121
very hard to comprehend,

1267
01:24:04,123 --> 01:24:07,924
and many people here are
quite bitter about them.

1268
01:24:11,329 --> 01:24:12,929
The belief I have in our present policy

1269
01:24:12,931 --> 01:24:16,899
has been completely confirmed
by what I have seen here.

1270
01:24:16,901 --> 01:24:20,036
My chief worry is that
these pacifist bleatings

1271
01:24:20,038 --> 01:24:23,005
might effect even a small
change in government policy

1272
01:24:23,007 --> 01:24:25,841
at a time when we
appear close to success.

1273
01:24:32,650 --> 01:24:36,985
As Vietnam began to be
more and more chaotic,

1274
01:24:36,987 --> 01:24:41,757
I certainly wondered very much
whether we should be there.

1275
01:24:41,759 --> 01:24:44,225
But I never expressed that to him.

1276
01:24:44,227 --> 01:24:47,696
That's one of those conflicts
that's just too difficult

1277
01:24:47,698 --> 01:24:50,131
to bring up, or at least it was for me.

1278
01:25:07,384 --> 01:25:09,417
We were all excited about the arrival

1279
01:25:09,419 --> 01:25:14,155
of the 1st Cavalry Division,
an experimental unit.

1280
01:25:14,157 --> 01:25:18,493
They've been trained
in air-mobile warfare

1281
01:25:18,495 --> 01:25:25,200
using these helicopters to
the absolute maximum benefit.

1282
01:25:25,202 --> 01:25:31,272
They're moving their artillery
by helicopter, jumping it,

1283
01:25:31,274 --> 01:25:36,044
leapfrogging troops, chasing
the enemy, driving him crazy.

1284
01:25:38,482 --> 01:25:40,615
This is something new,

1285
01:25:40,617 --> 01:25:44,552
and it's going to
change the way we do war.

1286
01:25:47,156 --> 01:25:49,790
In September of 1965,

1287
01:25:49,792 --> 01:25:52,493
the newly created 1st
Cavalry Division...

1288
01:25:52,495 --> 01:26:00,902
16,000 men, 1,600
vehicles, 435 helicopters...

1289
01:26:00,904 --> 01:26:05,840
had begun arriving at An
Khe, a massive base carved out

1290
01:26:05,842 --> 01:26:08,543
of the grasslands at the
edge of the Central Highlands.

1291
01:26:10,246 --> 01:26:13,447
Its heliport would come to
be called the "Golf Course."

1292
01:26:17,286 --> 01:26:20,954
As the 1st Cavalry got used
to its new surroundings,

1293
01:26:20,956 --> 01:26:24,858
thousands of North Vietnamese
regulars were slipping south

1294
01:26:24,860 --> 01:26:28,294
into the Highlands along
the Ho Chi Minh Trail,

1295
01:26:28,296 --> 01:26:31,831
joining Viet Cong
units already in place.

1296
01:26:31,833 --> 01:26:35,334
They established their
own base on and around

1297
01:26:35,336 --> 01:26:38,638
a jumble of thickly forested
mountains and ravines

1298
01:26:38,640 --> 01:26:41,474
south of the Ia Drang River.

1299
01:26:41,476 --> 01:26:44,210
On the evening of October 19,

1300
01:26:44,212 --> 01:26:47,447
communist commandos
slipped to within 40 yards

1301
01:26:47,449 --> 01:26:51,017
of the perimeter wire of the
U.S. Special Forces outpost

1302
01:26:51,019 --> 01:26:52,552
at Plei Me,

1303
01:26:52,554 --> 01:26:57,322
which was defended by a 12-man
team of U.S. Green Berets,

1304
01:26:57,324 --> 01:27:02,928
14 ARVN, and some 400
mountain tribesmen.

1305
01:27:09,169 --> 01:27:11,971
Nine of the 12 Green Berets were hit.

1306
01:27:11,973 --> 01:27:14,840
They managed to hold out for two days

1307
01:27:14,842 --> 01:27:21,346
before 15 more Green Berets
and 160 South Vietnamese Rangers

1308
01:27:21,348 --> 01:27:26,018
were helicoptered in, commanded
by Major Charles Beckwith,

1309
01:27:26,020 --> 01:27:30,088
known to his fellow
soldiers as Chargin' Charlie.

1310
01:27:31,091 --> 01:27:32,590
The next day,

1311
01:27:32,592 --> 01:27:35,326
Joe Galloway managed to
talk a helicopter pilot

1312
01:27:35,328 --> 01:27:38,863
into flying him into the besieged camp.

1313
01:27:38,865 --> 01:27:43,735
That's where I met
Major Charles Beckwith.

1314
01:27:43,737 --> 01:27:47,204
He said, "I need
everything in the world.

1315
01:27:47,206 --> 01:27:51,109
"And what has the Army
in its wisdom sent me

1316
01:27:51,111 --> 01:27:54,311
but a godforsaken reporter?"

1317
01:27:54,313 --> 01:27:57,515
He drug me over and showed me

1318
01:27:57,517 --> 01:28:01,318
a 30-caliber air-cooled machine gun.

1319
01:28:01,320 --> 01:28:04,088
He showed me how to load
it, how to clear a jam.

1320
01:28:04,090 --> 01:28:08,091
"You can shoot the little
brown men outside the wire,"

1321
01:28:08,093 --> 01:28:10,160
Beckwith told Galloway.

1322
01:28:10,162 --> 01:28:12,095
"You may not shoot the little brown men

1323
01:28:12,097 --> 01:28:15,866
inside the wire; they are mine."

1324
01:28:15,868 --> 01:28:17,801
And I'm sitting there thinking,

1325
01:28:17,803 --> 01:28:20,737
"Ah, I'm a civilian noncombatant."

1326
01:28:20,739 --> 01:28:24,074
I tried that line on
Beckwith and he said,

1327
01:28:24,076 --> 01:28:27,077
"Ain't no such thing in
these mountains, son."

1328
01:28:27,079 --> 01:28:31,148
For nearly a week, the North
Vietnamese launched assault

1329
01:28:31,150 --> 01:28:33,950
after assault on Plei Me.

1330
01:28:33,952 --> 01:28:38,254
It was only after
American bombs and napalm

1331
01:28:38,256 --> 01:28:41,391
turned the surrounding
terrain into a moonscape

1332
01:28:41,393 --> 01:28:44,627
that the enemy withdrew.

1333
01:28:44,629 --> 01:28:45,754
What kind of fighters

1334
01:28:45,755 --> 01:28:48,231
are the Viet Cong that you met here?

1335
01:28:50,835 --> 01:28:54,504
I would give anything to have
200 of them under my command.

1336
01:28:54,506 --> 01:28:56,406
They're the finest
soldiers I've ever seen.

1337
01:28:56,408 --> 01:28:57,740
The Viet Cong.

1338
01:28:57,742 --> 01:28:59,209
That's right.

1339
01:28:59,211 --> 01:29:00,876
They're dedicated, and
they're good soldiers.

1340
01:29:00,878 --> 01:29:02,144
They're the best I've ever seen.

1341
01:29:05,317 --> 01:29:08,451
Despite the losses his men
had suffered at Plei Me,

1342
01:29:08,453 --> 01:29:11,886
the North Vietnamese
commander, General Chu Huy Man,

1343
01:29:11,888 --> 01:29:13,822
was eager for another confrontation

1344
01:29:13,824 --> 01:29:15,724
with the Americans.

1345
01:29:15,726 --> 01:29:19,328
He was determined to
learn how to fight them.

1346
01:29:19,330 --> 01:29:22,664
Reinforcements streaming
down the Ho Chi Minh Trail

1347
01:29:22,666 --> 01:29:24,899
to the Ia Drang Valley included

1348
01:29:24,901 --> 01:29:29,170
a newly minted second
lieutenant, Lo Khac Tam,

1349
01:29:29,172 --> 01:29:32,140
who had volunteered
to fight in the South.

1350
01:29:53,963 --> 01:29:56,897
On the morning of November 14, 1965,

1351
01:29:56,899 --> 01:30:01,068
1st Cavalry helicopters
belonging to the 1st Battalion

1352
01:30:01,070 --> 01:30:03,304
of the 7th Regiment...

1353
01:30:03,306 --> 01:30:06,240
George Armstrong Custer's old outfit...

1354
01:30:06,242 --> 01:30:09,910
flew west along the Ia Drang
toward the Chu Pong Massif,

1355
01:30:09,912 --> 01:30:11,679
looking for the enemy.

1356
01:30:14,049 --> 01:30:17,384
Their commander, Kentucky-born
Korean-War veteran

1357
01:30:17,386 --> 01:30:19,653
Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore,

1358
01:30:19,655 --> 01:30:22,289
had been told there was
a large enemy base camp

1359
01:30:22,291 --> 01:30:24,291
somewhere on its slopes.

1360
01:30:24,293 --> 01:30:28,128
His orders were to take
his understrength outfit...

1361
01:30:28,130 --> 01:30:34,802
29 officers and just 411 men...
find the enemy and kill him.

1362
01:30:34,804 --> 01:30:38,806
There were two clearings large
enough for Moore to bring in

1363
01:30:38,808 --> 01:30:40,874
eight choppers at once.

1364
01:30:40,876 --> 01:30:45,612
He chose the one closest to the
mountain... Landing Zone X-Ray.

1365
01:30:49,350 --> 01:30:52,852
Moore made a point of
leading from the front.

1366
01:30:52,854 --> 01:30:55,354
He was the first man
off the first chopper.

1367
01:31:00,094 --> 01:31:04,496
He sent four six-man squads
100 yards in every direction.

1368
01:31:04,498 --> 01:31:07,333
The Ia Drang Valley was so beautiful,

1369
01:31:07,335 --> 01:31:09,535
one soldier remembered,

1370
01:31:09,537 --> 01:31:12,705
it reminded him of a
national park back home.

1371
01:31:12,707 --> 01:31:16,943
Within minutes, Moore's
men captured a deserter.

1372
01:31:16,945 --> 01:31:18,544
Terrified and trembling,

1373
01:31:18,546 --> 01:31:21,412
he said there were three
battalions of soldiers

1374
01:31:21,414 --> 01:31:25,150
on the mountain... 1,600 men.

1375
01:31:25,152 --> 01:31:28,053
They wanted very much to
kill Americans, he said,

1376
01:31:28,055 --> 01:31:31,823
but so far had been unable to find any.

1377
01:31:31,825 --> 01:31:34,826
Moore quickly set up a command post

1378
01:31:34,828 --> 01:31:39,231
behind one of the huge termite
mounds that dotted the clearing.

1379
01:31:39,233 --> 01:31:41,499
It would take until mid-afternoon

1380
01:31:41,501 --> 01:31:44,736
for all of his men to be ferried in.

1381
01:31:46,006 --> 01:31:48,073
He had no time to waste.

1382
01:31:48,075 --> 01:31:50,608
"We needed to get off the landing zone

1383
01:31:50,610 --> 01:31:54,845
and get at them before they
could hit us," Moore remembered.

1384
01:31:54,847 --> 01:31:58,949
He sent two companies up the
slope toward the hidden enemy.

1385
01:31:58,951 --> 01:32:02,619
Most of the North Vietnamese,
like the Americans,

1386
01:32:02,621 --> 01:32:04,121
were new to combat.

1387
01:32:05,724 --> 01:32:07,858
They were ordered to fix bayonets.

1388
01:32:22,775 --> 01:32:25,674
Colonel Moore had no way of knowing

1389
01:32:25,676 --> 01:32:29,178
that instead of 1,600 enemy
soldiers on the mountain,

1390
01:32:29,180 --> 01:32:34,750
there were 3,000...
seven times his strength.

1391
01:32:49,167 --> 01:32:51,935
Within minutes, the
Americans found themselves

1392
01:32:51,937 --> 01:32:56,439
under attack from hundreds
of North Vietnamese soldiers.

1393
01:32:56,441 --> 01:33:00,042
In the fighting, an
overeager second lieutenant

1394
01:33:00,044 --> 01:33:03,178
led his platoon of 28 men too far away

1395
01:33:03,180 --> 01:33:06,615
from the rest of his
company and was surrounded.

1396
01:33:09,119 --> 01:33:10,852
The lieutenant was killed.

1397
01:33:10,854 --> 01:33:15,157
The sergeant who took his
place was shot through the head.

1398
01:33:15,159 --> 01:33:19,795
By late afternoon, only seven
of the trapped platoon's men

1399
01:33:19,797 --> 01:33:23,131
were still capable of firing back.

1400
01:33:31,709 --> 01:33:36,578
Moore was now engaged in
three simultaneous struggles...

1401
01:33:36,580 --> 01:33:40,648
to defend the landing zone,
attack the North Vietnamese,

1402
01:33:40,650 --> 01:33:44,352
and find a way to rescue
his trapped patrol.

1403
01:33:47,491 --> 01:33:51,593
That night, Joe Galloway
again managed to talk his way

1404
01:33:51,595 --> 01:33:54,428
onto a chopper taking
ammunition and water

1405
01:33:54,430 --> 01:33:56,364
to the besieged Americans.

1406
01:33:56,366 --> 01:33:59,634
As the helicopter
approached the battlefield,

1407
01:33:59,636 --> 01:34:02,136
Galloway was sitting
on a crate of grenades,

1408
01:34:02,138 --> 01:34:05,607
peering out into the darkness.

1409
01:34:05,609 --> 01:34:10,577
And I could see these
little pin pricks of light

1410
01:34:10,579 --> 01:34:13,347
coming down the mountain.

1411
01:34:13,349 --> 01:34:17,951
This was the enemy approaching
for the next day's attacks.

1412
01:34:19,655 --> 01:34:22,589
We flew in there.

1413
01:34:22,591 --> 01:34:26,894
As they pulled on out, it was dead dark.

1414
01:34:26,896 --> 01:34:30,097
And we're lying there waiting
for someone to come tell us

1415
01:34:30,099 --> 01:34:31,232
what to do.

1416
01:34:34,570 --> 01:34:39,340
And the next morning, all of
a sudden the bottom fell out.

1417
01:34:43,845 --> 01:34:47,680
There was an explosion of fire.

1418
01:34:49,284 --> 01:34:53,886
The noise is horrendous, unimaginable.

1419
01:35:06,000 --> 01:35:08,935
And in the middle of
all of this, you know,

1420
01:35:08,937 --> 01:35:11,771
I-I just flattened out on the ground

1421
01:35:11,773 --> 01:35:16,109
because all that was being
fired seemed to be about two,

1422
01:35:16,111 --> 01:35:19,445
two-and-a-half feet off the ground.

1423
01:35:26,420 --> 01:35:29,188
Hundreds of enemy
soldiers hurled themselves

1424
01:35:29,190 --> 01:35:30,389
at the Americans.

1425
01:35:32,059 --> 01:35:35,994
They wore webbed helmets
camouflaged with grass,

1426
01:35:35,996 --> 01:35:40,899
and as they came, blowing
whistles, screaming,

1427
01:35:40,901 --> 01:35:45,204
they looked like "little
trees," one American remembered.

1428
01:35:45,206 --> 01:35:47,939
They were trying to overrun us.

1429
01:35:47,941 --> 01:35:50,274
And they came close.

1430
01:35:50,276 --> 01:35:52,376
They came close.

1431
01:36:08,495 --> 01:36:11,663
But we had two things going for us.

1432
01:36:13,166 --> 01:36:16,668
We had a great commander
and great soldiers.

1433
01:36:16,670 --> 01:36:23,274
And we had air and artillery
support out the yin-yang.

1434
01:36:23,276 --> 01:36:25,809
We had it, and they didn't.

1435
01:36:29,982 --> 01:36:34,818
But using that air and artillery
support could be dangerous.

1436
01:36:34,820 --> 01:36:38,922
Each of Moore's units carefully
marked its position with smoke

1437
01:36:38,924 --> 01:36:41,859
to keep from being
mistaken for the enemy

1438
01:36:41,861 --> 01:36:43,994
by American airmen overhead.

1439
01:36:55,708 --> 01:36:59,743
Some 18,000 artillery
shells would be called in

1440
01:36:59,745 --> 01:37:01,145
over the course of the battle,

1441
01:37:01,147 --> 01:37:06,183
some of them landing just 25
yards from Moore's own men.

1442
01:37:06,185 --> 01:37:11,689
Helicopter gunships fired
3,000 rockets into the enemy.

1443
01:37:11,691 --> 01:37:14,257
The forward air controller

1444
01:37:14,259 --> 01:37:17,828
called for every available
aircraft in South Vietnam

1445
01:37:17,830 --> 01:37:19,462
to come and help.

1446
01:37:19,464 --> 01:37:25,035
Warplanes, including B-52
long-range strategic bombers,

1447
01:37:25,037 --> 01:37:29,272
were stacked at 1,000-foot
intervals above the battlefield,

1448
01:37:29,274 --> 01:37:32,575
from 7,000 to 35,000 feet,

1449
01:37:32,577 --> 01:37:36,879
impatiently awaiting targets
to strafe or bomb or burn.

1450
01:37:39,383 --> 01:37:44,120
"By God," Moore said, "they sent
us over here to kill communists

1451
01:37:44,122 --> 01:37:45,487
and that's what we're doing."

1452
01:37:51,730 --> 01:37:53,295
I looked up...

1453
01:37:55,366 --> 01:38:02,739
and there were two jets aiming
directly at our command post.

1454
01:38:02,741 --> 01:38:08,910
He's dropped two cans of napalm
and it's coming toward us,

1455
01:38:08,912 --> 01:38:12,981
loblolly, end over end.

1456
01:38:12,983 --> 01:38:17,786
And these kids, two or three
of 'em, plus a sergeant,

1457
01:38:17,788 --> 01:38:22,124
had dug a hole or two over on the edge.

1458
01:38:22,126 --> 01:38:26,895
And I looked as the thing exploded...

1459
01:38:31,235 --> 01:38:35,904
And two of them were
dancing in that fire.

1460
01:38:35,906 --> 01:38:39,941
And there's a rush, a roar,

1461
01:38:39,943 --> 01:38:44,079
from the air that's being consumed

1462
01:38:44,081 --> 01:38:49,985
and drawn in as this-this
hell come to earth

1463
01:38:49,987 --> 01:38:51,853
is burning there.

1464
01:38:51,855 --> 01:38:56,825
And as that dies back a little,
then you can hear the screams.

1465
01:38:59,229 --> 01:39:04,166
And someone yells,
"Get this man's feet."

1466
01:39:04,168 --> 01:39:11,206
And I reach down and the boots crumble,

1467
01:39:11,208 --> 01:39:15,376
and the flesh is cooked
off of his ankles.

1468
01:39:15,378 --> 01:39:19,547
And I feel those bones
in the palms of my hands.

1469
01:39:19,549 --> 01:39:22,116
I can feel it now.

1470
01:39:23,653 --> 01:39:26,387
He died two days later.

1471
01:39:26,389 --> 01:39:30,558
A kid named Jim Nakayama
out of Rigby, Idaho.

1472
01:39:45,475 --> 01:39:48,175
By 10:00 that morning,

1473
01:39:48,177 --> 01:39:51,578
American airpower had beaten
back the enemy assault.

1474
01:39:53,115 --> 01:39:55,316
The survivors from the trapped platoon

1475
01:39:55,318 --> 01:39:57,517
were rescued that afternoon.

1476
01:39:57,519 --> 01:40:01,388
They had been pinned to
the ground and under fire

1477
01:40:01,390 --> 01:40:04,258
for so long that they had to be coaxed

1478
01:40:04,260 --> 01:40:06,293
into getting to their feet again.

1479
01:40:13,069 --> 01:40:15,236
On the morning of the next day,

1480
01:40:15,238 --> 01:40:18,705
enemy soldiers hurled themselves
against the same sector

1481
01:40:18,707 --> 01:40:21,976
of Moore's line four more times

1482
01:40:21,978 --> 01:40:25,212
and were obliterated by
artillery and machine gun fire.

1483
01:40:27,616 --> 01:40:30,384
The surviving North
Vietnamese and Viet Cong

1484
01:40:30,386 --> 01:40:32,586
withdrew into the forest,

1485
01:40:32,588 --> 01:40:35,555
leaving behind a ghastly
ring of their dead

1486
01:40:35,557 --> 01:40:37,524
surrounding the landing zone...

1487
01:40:37,526 --> 01:40:43,663
634 corpses, shot,
blasted, blackened by fire.

1488
01:41:09,457 --> 01:41:12,491
After three days and
two nights of combat,

1489
01:41:12,493 --> 01:41:15,694
helicopters began lifting
out the American survivors

1490
01:41:15,696 --> 01:41:18,697
and gathering up the dead.

1491
01:41:18,699 --> 01:41:20,466
When you look at them,

1492
01:41:20,468 --> 01:41:23,769
it doesn't even resemble a human body.

1493
01:41:23,771 --> 01:41:27,005
It just, it looks just like a mannequin.

1494
01:41:27,007 --> 01:41:29,708
You look at them and say,
"That couldn't happen to me."

1495
01:41:32,713 --> 01:41:35,848
I saw them fight at Ia Drang.

1496
01:41:35,850 --> 01:41:38,951
It always galls me when I read or hear

1497
01:41:38,953 --> 01:41:41,086
about the World War II generation

1498
01:41:41,088 --> 01:41:43,021
as the greatest generation.

1499
01:41:43,023 --> 01:41:46,058
These kids were just as
gallant and as courageous

1500
01:41:46,060 --> 01:41:48,093
as anybody who fought in World War II.

1501
01:41:49,896 --> 01:41:52,797
Seventy-nine of Hal
Moore's men lost their lives

1502
01:41:52,799 --> 01:41:56,268
at Landing Zone X-Ray
in the Ia Drang Valley

1503
01:41:56,270 --> 01:42:01,706
and another 121 were wounded.

1504
01:42:01,708 --> 01:42:05,177
Please convey to the American people

1505
01:42:05,179 --> 01:42:09,381
what a tremendous
fighting man we have here.

1506
01:42:09,383 --> 01:42:14,885
He's courageous, he's
aggressive, and he's kind.

1507
01:42:14,887 --> 01:42:18,689
And he'll go where you tell him to go.

1508
01:42:18,691 --> 01:42:21,359
And he's got self-discipline.

1509
01:42:21,361 --> 01:42:24,695
And he's got good unit discipline.

1510
01:42:24,697 --> 01:42:26,964
He's just an outstanding man.

1511
01:42:26,966 --> 01:42:28,332
And...

1512
01:42:30,036 --> 01:42:32,836
Having commanded this
battalion for 18 months...

1513
01:42:35,708 --> 01:42:37,741
You must excuse my emotion here,

1514
01:42:37,743 --> 01:42:43,114
but when I see some of these
men go out the way they have...

1515
01:42:50,922 --> 01:42:53,089
I haven't...

1516
01:42:53,091 --> 01:42:55,458
I can't tell you how
highly I feel for them.

1517
01:42:55,460 --> 01:42:58,228
They're tremendous.

1518
01:42:58,230 --> 01:43:00,630
Hal Moore refused to leave

1519
01:43:00,632 --> 01:43:05,268
until every single man in his
command had been accounted for.

1520
01:43:05,270 --> 01:43:10,540
He had been the first of his men
to step onto Landing Zone X-Ray,

1521
01:43:10,542 --> 01:43:13,609
and he made sure he was
the last to leave it.

1522
01:43:50,848 --> 01:43:53,449
The North Vietnamese
suffered terrible losses

1523
01:43:53,451 --> 01:43:54,983
in the Ia Drang Valley

1524
01:43:54,985 --> 01:43:58,787
and many of the survivors
were traumatized.

1525
01:43:58,789 --> 01:44:02,557
"The units were enveloped
in an atmosphere of gloom,"

1526
01:44:02,559 --> 01:44:04,593
a North Vietnamese colonel remembered.

1527
01:44:04,595 --> 01:44:08,964
Some men would not leave
their rope hammocks.

1528
01:44:08,966 --> 01:44:11,066
Some refused to wash.

1529
01:44:11,068 --> 01:44:16,404
One soldier wrote a poem
expressive of their plight:

1530
01:44:16,406 --> 01:44:19,173
"The crab lies still
on the chopping block

1531
01:44:19,175 --> 01:44:23,011
Never knowing when the knife will fall."

1532
01:44:28,985 --> 01:44:34,454
In the Ia Drang we killed ten
of them for every one of us.

1533
01:44:36,391 --> 01:44:40,327
That's a ten-to-one kill ratio
is how the military puts that.

1534
01:44:43,966 --> 01:44:50,370
But the enemy, he was fully
prepared to pay that price

1535
01:44:50,372 --> 01:44:54,541
and more for the value
of the lessons he learned.

1536
01:45:10,491 --> 01:45:13,592
Grab 'em by the belt buckle.

1537
01:45:13,594 --> 01:45:17,063
That means you've got to get so close,

1538
01:45:17,065 --> 01:45:23,670
they can't use the artillery and
the aerial bombardments on you

1539
01:45:23,672 --> 01:45:26,272
for fear of killing their own.

1540
01:45:26,274 --> 01:45:31,144
Get in so close that it's man-on-man.

1541
01:45:31,146 --> 01:45:34,080
And then everything is even.

1542
01:45:35,483 --> 01:45:39,117
The Vietnamese suffered hundreds of dead

1543
01:45:39,119 --> 01:45:42,020
attacking Hal Moore's
battalion at LZ X-Ray.

1544
01:45:42,022 --> 01:45:47,726
But then they ambushed another
battalion a couple of days later

1545
01:45:47,728 --> 01:45:51,163
and wiped it out.

1546
01:45:51,165 --> 01:45:53,799
In the fighting near
Landing Zone Albany,

1547
01:45:53,801 --> 01:45:57,503
the enemy had gotten too close
for artillery to be called in.

1548
01:45:59,106 --> 01:46:05,411
Out of some 425 Americans
involved, 155 were killed.

1549
01:46:05,413 --> 01:46:10,182
124 more were wounded.

1550
01:46:10,184 --> 01:46:15,087
Both sides claimed victory
in the Ia Drang Valley.

1551
01:46:15,089 --> 01:46:17,889
The Americans talked up
the number of enemy dead

1552
01:46:17,891 --> 01:46:19,657
at Landing Zone X-Ray.

1553
01:46:19,659 --> 01:46:21,593
The ratio of losses to your kill...

1554
01:46:23,330 --> 01:46:25,363
The North Vietnamese took their lessons

1555
01:46:25,365 --> 01:46:27,398
from Landing Zone Albany.

1556
01:46:34,842 --> 01:46:37,308
I don't anticipate

1557
01:46:37,310 --> 01:46:42,814
that this conflict
will end any time soon,

1558
01:46:42,816 --> 01:46:47,485
and we could find that we
have more difficult days ahead.

1559
01:46:47,487 --> 01:46:50,020
Certainly we must be prepared for this.

1560
01:46:58,030 --> 01:47:02,933
In the fall of my senior
year, November 1965,

1561
01:47:02,935 --> 01:47:06,337
was that huge battle
at the Ia Drang Valley,

1562
01:47:06,339 --> 01:47:09,340
which was the first time
there was actually confirmed

1563
01:47:09,342 --> 01:47:11,809
North Vietnamese regular
soldiers as opposed

1564
01:47:11,811 --> 01:47:13,611
to Viet Cong.

1565
01:47:13,613 --> 01:47:16,546
And of course my way of
interpreting that was,

1566
01:47:16,548 --> 01:47:18,181
"There it is, that's the proof.

1567
01:47:18,183 --> 01:47:20,183
The North Vietnamese
are the aggressors here."

1568
01:47:20,185 --> 01:47:24,721
And that's when I began
thinking in terms of

1569
01:47:24,723 --> 01:47:27,190
maybe I don't want to
go to college right away.

1570
01:47:27,192 --> 01:47:30,494
Maybe I'll join the Marines.

1571
01:47:30,496 --> 01:47:31,762
And it was always the Marines.

1572
01:47:31,764 --> 01:47:33,563
I never... there was no question.

1573
01:47:33,565 --> 01:47:35,198
The Marine Corps is full
of little guys like me

1574
01:47:35,200 --> 01:47:36,600
with chips on our shoulder.

1575
01:47:40,606 --> 01:47:43,573
The battles in the Ia Drang
Valley may have been declared

1576
01:47:43,575 --> 01:47:47,844
American victories, but
privately, General Westmoreland

1577
01:47:47,846 --> 01:47:51,046
and the Johnson
administration were worried.

1578
01:47:51,048 --> 01:47:54,617
In spite of the Americans'
new airborne mobility,

1579
01:47:54,619 --> 01:47:57,119
the enemy had been able to choose

1580
01:47:57,121 --> 01:47:59,955
the place and time of battle.

1581
01:47:59,957 --> 01:48:03,592
The intelligence on which
basic decisions had been made

1582
01:48:03,594 --> 01:48:08,063
in Washington had been uniformly bad.

1583
01:48:08,065 --> 01:48:11,099
There were now believed to
be 12 Viet Cong regiments

1584
01:48:11,101 --> 01:48:14,002
in South Vietnam, not just five;

1585
01:48:14,004 --> 01:48:17,206
nine North Vietnamese
regiments, not three.

1586
01:48:18,543 --> 01:48:20,476
Despite months of bombing,

1587
01:48:20,478 --> 01:48:23,312
three times as many
North Vietnamese regulars

1588
01:48:23,314 --> 01:48:26,915
were now slipping south
of the demilitarized zone

1589
01:48:26,917 --> 01:48:29,384
as originally believed.

1590
01:48:29,386 --> 01:48:33,722
Hanoi seemed to be escalating, too.

1591
01:48:33,724 --> 01:48:38,026
And American casualties were climbing.

1592
01:48:38,028 --> 01:48:41,296
When Senator Fritz
Hollings visited Saigon

1593
01:48:41,298 --> 01:48:43,832
shortly after the Ia Drang battles,

1594
01:48:43,834 --> 01:48:47,502
General Westmoreland told him,
"We're killing these people

1595
01:48:47,504 --> 01:48:49,804
at a rate of ten to one."

1596
01:48:49,806 --> 01:48:51,273
Hollings warned him,

1597
01:48:51,275 --> 01:48:54,877
"Westy, the American people
don't care about the ten.

1598
01:48:54,879 --> 01:48:56,845
They care about the one."

1599
01:48:58,948 --> 01:49:01,783
Westmoreland, who had
said he could win the war

1600
01:49:01,785 --> 01:49:05,787
in three years, now sent an
urgent cable to Washington

1601
01:49:05,789 --> 01:49:08,857
asking for 200,000 more troops.

1602
01:49:10,960 --> 01:49:13,561
"The message came as a shattering blow,"

1603
01:49:13,563 --> 01:49:15,864
Robert McNamara remembered.

1604
01:49:15,866 --> 01:49:20,968
Once again, he offered
Johnson two options:

1605
01:49:20,970 --> 01:49:24,272
try to negotiate a
compromise with Hanoi,

1606
01:49:24,274 --> 01:49:27,975
or accede to Westmoreland's
request for more men,

1607
01:49:27,977 --> 01:49:31,345
though the chances of victory,
the secretary of defense said,

1608
01:49:31,347 --> 01:49:35,516
might be no better than one in three.

1609
01:49:35,518 --> 01:49:38,251
And then they all sat down

1610
01:49:38,253 --> 01:49:41,354
and voted for option two.

1611
01:49:43,426 --> 01:49:47,494
My bitterness about the
political powers at the time

1612
01:49:47,496 --> 01:49:52,466
was, first of all, the lying.

1613
01:49:52,468 --> 01:49:55,969
I mean, I can understand a policy error

1614
01:49:55,971 --> 01:49:58,605
that is incredibly, incredibly painful

1615
01:49:58,607 --> 01:50:00,707
and kills a lot of
people out of a mistake

1616
01:50:00,709 --> 01:50:03,911
if they made that with noble hearts.

1617
01:50:03,913 --> 01:50:06,413
That was, you know, when
Eisenhower and Kennedy

1618
01:50:06,415 --> 01:50:09,082
were trying to figure things out.

1619
01:50:09,084 --> 01:50:13,420
And you read that, you
know, McNamara knew by '65...

1620
01:50:13,422 --> 01:50:15,255
it was just three years
before I was there...

1621
01:50:15,257 --> 01:50:16,556
that the war was unwinnable.

1622
01:50:16,558 --> 01:50:18,558
That's what makes me mad.

1623
01:50:18,560 --> 01:50:20,793
Making a mistake, people can do that.

1624
01:50:20,795 --> 01:50:22,628
But covering up mistakes,

1625
01:50:22,630 --> 01:50:26,866
then you're killing
people for your own ego.

1626
01:50:26,868 --> 01:50:29,902
And that makes me mad.

1627
01:50:32,240 --> 01:50:33,840
Tens of thousands of American troops

1628
01:50:33,842 --> 01:50:37,743
continued to prepare
to deploy to Vietnam

1629
01:50:37,745 --> 01:50:38,979
from all over the country,

1630
01:50:38,981 --> 01:50:42,548
and General Westmoreland
and his commanders

1631
01:50:42,550 --> 01:50:44,649
drew up plans for major offensives

1632
01:50:44,651 --> 01:50:47,652
in the new year of 1966.

1633
01:50:51,692 --> 01:50:55,260
Meanwhile, hoping the
Soviets might help bring Hanoi

1634
01:50:55,262 --> 01:50:59,198
to the bargaining table,
McNamara urged the president

1635
01:50:59,200 --> 01:51:03,502
to declare a halt to the
bombing of North Vietnam.

1636
01:51:03,504 --> 01:51:06,105
Over the objections of the military,

1637
01:51:06,107 --> 01:51:08,940
who worried it would give
the enemy time to rebuild

1638
01:51:08,942 --> 01:51:13,212
its defenses, Johnson
agreed to stop the bombing

1639
01:51:13,214 --> 01:51:16,114
on Christmas Eve.

1640
01:51:16,116 --> 01:51:18,383
If it achieved nothing else, he said,

1641
01:51:18,385 --> 01:51:20,651
it would show the American people

1642
01:51:20,653 --> 01:51:24,122
that before he committed
more of their sons to battle,

1643
01:51:24,124 --> 01:51:27,291
"We have gone the last mile."

1644
01:51:30,630 --> 01:51:32,935
Well, Christmas always meant

1645
01:51:32,936 --> 01:51:36,134
a great deal in our family.

1646
01:51:36,136 --> 01:51:40,571
We sent packages to Denton, of course.

1647
01:51:40,573 --> 01:51:42,806
Then a neighbor mentioned to me

1648
01:51:42,808 --> 01:51:47,345
that she heard a local
television station was offering

1649
01:51:47,347 --> 01:51:51,181
free tapes to be made to
send to a soldier overseas.

1650
01:51:51,183 --> 01:51:56,019
We dressed up for the cameras.

1651
01:51:56,021 --> 01:51:58,855
The idea was that we would
each just say something

1652
01:51:58,857 --> 01:52:01,858
about what we were
doing and wish him well.

1653
01:52:04,163 --> 01:52:06,796
It was a horrible day for me.

1654
01:52:06,798 --> 01:52:11,768
It made it so real that he was far away.

1655
01:52:11,770 --> 01:52:15,205
Well, Mogie, here we are.

1656
01:52:15,207 --> 01:52:18,942
It's... let's see what day is today.

1657
01:52:18,944 --> 01:52:20,277
Here it is, Saturday...

1658
01:52:20,279 --> 01:52:21,344
November 13.

1659
01:52:21,346 --> 01:52:23,547
November 13,

1660
01:52:23,549 --> 01:52:28,785
and station WTEN has given
us a chance to talk to you.

1661
01:52:28,787 --> 01:52:32,388
We all wish you a Merry
Christmas to start out with.

1662
01:52:33,992 --> 01:52:36,425
Rand, what do you got to say to Mogie?

1663
01:52:36,427 --> 01:52:37,794
Merry Christmas.

1664
01:52:37,796 --> 01:52:38,728
Merry Christmas.

1665
01:52:40,732 --> 01:52:42,098
Merry Christmas, darling.

1666
01:52:42,100 --> 01:52:43,499
We sent your packages

1667
01:52:43,501 --> 01:52:45,401
and there's one that's
waiting for you at home.

1668
01:52:45,403 --> 01:52:47,070
It's a record of fife and drum music

1669
01:52:47,072 --> 01:52:49,672
that we got for you at Williamsburg.

1670
01:52:49,674 --> 01:52:50,539
Candy?

1671
01:52:52,510 --> 01:52:58,314
My teacher isn't very nice,
and she always is crabby,

1672
01:52:58,316 --> 01:53:00,816
and I don't like school at all.

1673
01:53:00,818 --> 01:53:02,818
Now I'm a brownie.

1674
01:53:02,820 --> 01:53:04,286
Merry Christmas.

1675
01:53:05,956 --> 01:53:07,389
Happy Christmas, Mogie.

1676
01:53:07,391 --> 01:53:09,258
I think I'm getting
new skis for Christmas.

1677
01:53:09,260 --> 01:53:11,327
So when you get home, we
can get together sometime.

1678
01:53:11,329 --> 01:53:14,896
We do all wish you a
very Merry Christmas,

1679
01:53:14,898 --> 01:53:16,965
and we'll be thinking
of you on Christmas Day.

1680
01:53:20,037 --> 01:53:21,570
We miss you, sweetheart.

1681
01:56:14,439 --> 01:56:19,000
- Synced and corrected by chamallow -
- www.addic7ed.com -

1682
01:56:22,094 --> 01:56:23,621
Learn more about the film

1683
01:56:23,694 --> 01:56:27,721
and find additional resources
at PBS.org/vietnamwar

1684
01:56:27,761 --> 01:56:31,694
and join the conversation
using

1685
01:56:31,694 --> 01:56:34,827
"The Vietnam War" is
available on Blu-ray and DVD.

1686
01:56:34,827 --> 01:56:36,493
The companion book, soundtrack,

1687
01:56:36,493 --> 01:56:39,093
and original score from
the film are also available.

1688
01:56:39,093 --> 01:56:41,194
To order, visit shoppbs.org

1689
01:56:41,194 --> 01:56:43,661
or call 1-800-play-PBS.

1690
01:56:43,661 --> 01:56:47,293
Episodes of this series also
available for download from iTunes.

1691
01:56:50,560 --> 01:56:52,694
Bank of
America proudly supports

1692
01:56:52,694 --> 01:56:57,593
Ken Burns' and Lynn Novick's
film "The Vietnam War"

1693
01:56:57,593 --> 01:56:59,993
because fostering different perspectives

1694
01:56:59,993 --> 01:57:02,593
and civil discourse
around important issues

1695
01:57:02,593 --> 01:57:04,894
furthers progress, equality,

1696
01:57:04,894 --> 01:57:06,894
and a more connected society.

1697
01:57:11,360 --> 01:57:15,394
Go to bankofamerica.com/
betterconnected to learn more.

1698
01:57:18,860 --> 01:57:20,293
Major support
for "The Vietnam War"

1699
01:57:20,293 --> 01:57:23,793
was provided by members of
the Better Angels Society,

1700
01:57:23,793 --> 01:57:27,761
including Jonathan and Jeannie Lavine,

1701
01:57:27,761 --> 01:57:30,661
Diane and Hal Brierley,

1702
01:57:30,661 --> 01:57:33,060
Amy and David Abrams,

1703
01:57:33,060 --> 01:57:35,560
John and Catherine Debs,

1704
01:57:35,560 --> 01:57:38,526
the Fullerton Family Charitable Fund,

1705
01:57:38,526 --> 01:57:40,593
the Montrone Family,

1706
01:57:40,593 --> 01:57:42,926
Lynda and Stewart Resnick,

1707
01:57:42,926 --> 01:57:45,694
the Perry and Donna
Golkin Family Foundation,

1708
01:57:45,694 --> 01:57:46,694
the Lynch Foundation,

1709
01:57:46,694 --> 01:57:49,560
the Roger and Rosemary
Enrico Foundation,

1710
01:57:49,560 --> 01:57:52,993
and by these additional funders.

1711
01:57:52,993 --> 01:57:56,627
Major funding was also
provided by David H. Koch...

1712
01:57:58,926 --> 01:58:01,127
The Blavatnik Family Foundation...

1713
01:58:03,461 --> 01:58:05,894
The Park Foundation,

1714
01:58:05,894 --> 01:58:08,060
the National Endowment
for the Humanities,

1715
01:58:08,060 --> 01:58:10,261
the Pew Charitable Trusts,

1716
01:58:10,261 --> 01:58:12,926
the John S. and James
L. Knight Foundation,

1717
01:58:12,926 --> 01:58:15,694
the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,

1718
01:58:15,694 --> 01:58:18,293
the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations,

1719
01:58:18,293 --> 01:58:20,493
the Ford Foundation JustFilms,

1720
01:58:20,493 --> 01:58:22,926
by the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting,

1721
01:58:22,926 --> 01:58:24,894
and by viewers like you.

1722
01:58:24,894 --> 01:58:26,026
Thank you.