1
00:00:01,566 --> 00:00:02,999
ANNOUNCER: MAJOR SUPPORT
FOR "THE VIETNAM WAR"

2
00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:06,499
WAS PROVIDED BY MEMBERS OF
THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY,

3
00:00:06,500 --> 00:00:10,464
INCLUDING JONATHAN AND JEANNIE LAVINE,

4
00:00:10,465 --> 00:00:13,364
DIANE AND HAL BRIERLEY,

5
00:00:13,365 --> 00:00:15,765
AMY AND DAVID ABRAMS,

6
00:00:15,766 --> 00:00:18,264
JOHN AND CATHERINE DEBS,

7
00:00:18,265 --> 00:00:21,165
THE FULLERTON FAMILY CHARITABLE FUND,

8
00:00:21,166 --> 00:00:23,232
THE MONTRONE FAMILY,

9
00:00:23,233 --> 00:00:25,564
LYNDA AND STEWART RESNICK,

10
00:00:25,565 --> 00:00:28,331
THE PERRY AND DONNA
GOLKIN FAMILY FOUNDATION,

11
00:00:28,332 --> 00:00:29,332
THE LYNCH FOUNDATION,

12
00:00:29,333 --> 00:00:32,199
THE ROGER AND ROSEMARY ENRICO FOUNDATION,

13
00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:35,632
AND BY THESE ADDITIONAL FUNDERS.

14
00:00:35,633 --> 00:00:37,532
MAJOR FUNDING WAS ALSO PROVIDED

15
00:00:37,533 --> 00:00:39,265
BY DAVID H. KOCH...

16
00:00:41,566 --> 00:00:43,765
THE BLAVATNIK FAMILY FOUNDATION...

17
00:00:46,100 --> 00:00:48,532
THE PARK FOUNDATION,

18
00:00:48,533 --> 00:00:50,699
THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES,

19
00:00:50,700 --> 00:00:52,898
THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS,

20
00:00:52,899 --> 00:00:55,565
THE JOHN S. AND JAMES L. KNIGHT FOUNDATION,

21
00:00:55,566 --> 00:00:58,331
THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION,

22
00:00:58,332 --> 00:01:00,999
THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS FOUNDATIONS,

23
00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:03,199
THE FORD FOUNDATION JUSTFILMS,

24
00:01:03,200 --> 00:01:04,399
BY THE CORPORATION

25
00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:05,631
FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING,

26
00:01:05,632 --> 00:01:07,598
AND BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU.

27
00:01:07,599 --> 00:01:08,733
THANK YOU.

28
00:01:13,266 --> 00:01:15,399
ANNOUNCER: BANK OF AMERICA PROUDLY SUPPORTS

29
00:01:15,400 --> 00:01:20,298
KEN BURNS' AND LYNN NOVICK'S
FILM "THE VIETNAM WAR"

30
00:01:20,299 --> 00:01:22,699
BECAUSE FOSTERING DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

31
00:01:22,700 --> 00:01:25,298
AND CIVIL DISCOURSE AROUND IMPORTANT ISSUES

32
00:01:25,299 --> 00:01:27,598
FURTHERS PROGRESS, EQUALITY,

33
00:01:27,599 --> 00:01:29,599
AND A MORE CONNECTED SOCIETY.

34
00:01:34,066 --> 00:01:38,099
GO TO BANKOFAMERICA.COM/
BETTERCONNECTED TO LEARN MORE.

35
00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:55,400
(distant helicopter blades beating)

36
00:01:55,500 --> 00:01:57,165
(radio feedback)

37
00:01:59,632 --> 00:02:05,233
JOHN MUSGRAVE: I was assigned a listening
post at Con Thien in the fall.

38
00:02:05,332 --> 00:02:09,233
That was like getting a
death sentence at a trial.

39
00:02:09,332 --> 00:02:11,665
Because that's just three
Marines out there with a radio.

40
00:02:13,133 --> 00:02:14,765
And that's the scariest thing I did.

41
00:02:14,865 --> 00:02:17,566
You're listening for the enemy.

42
00:02:17,665 --> 00:02:20,699
They call you on the radio every hour,

43
00:02:20,800 --> 00:02:22,133
"Delta, Lima, Papa, Three, Bravo,

44
00:02:22,233 --> 00:02:25,533
"Delta, Lima, Papa, Three,
Bravo, this is Delta Three.

45
00:02:25,633 --> 00:02:28,699
"If your sit rep is alpha
sierra, key your handset twice.

46
00:02:28,800 --> 00:02:30,066
(two blips of static)

47
00:02:30,165 --> 00:02:31,765
"If your situation report is all secure,

48
00:02:31,865 --> 00:02:33,466
break squelch twice on the handset."

49
00:02:33,566 --> 00:02:35,466
(two lower-toned blips of static)

50
00:02:35,566 --> 00:02:37,566
And if it's not, they keep
thinking you're asleep

51
00:02:37,665 --> 00:02:40,199
so they keep asking you, "If
your sit rep is alpha sierra,"

52
00:02:40,300 --> 00:02:41,633
and then it finally dawns on them

53
00:02:41,733 --> 00:02:44,265
maybe there's somebody too
close for you to say anything.

54
00:02:44,365 --> 00:02:47,300
So then they say, "If your sit
rep is negative alpha sierra,

55
00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:48,765
key your handset once,"

56
00:02:48,865 --> 00:02:50,808
and you damn near squeeze the
handle off the, you know,

57
00:02:50,832 --> 00:02:53,966
and two on the radio
because they're so close

58
00:02:54,066 --> 00:02:56,099
that you can hear them
whispering to one another.

59
00:02:58,532 --> 00:02:59,932
And that's scary stuff.

60
00:03:00,032 --> 00:03:01,199
That's real scary stuff.

61
00:03:01,300 --> 00:03:04,932
And I'm scared of the dark, still.

62
00:03:05,032 --> 00:03:07,865
I still got a night light.

63
00:03:07,966 --> 00:03:11,165
When my kids were growing up,

64
00:03:11,265 --> 00:03:14,900
that's the first time they really found out

65
00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:17,066
that Daddy'd been in a war when they said,

66
00:03:17,165 --> 00:03:19,633
"Well, why do we need to
outgrow our night lights?

67
00:03:19,733 --> 00:03:21,099
Daddy's still got one."

68
00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:27,966
("So What" by Miles Davis playing)

69
00:03:28,066 --> 00:03:32,165
JOHN KENNEDY: Let the word go
forth from this time and place,

70
00:03:32,265 --> 00:03:35,099
to friend and foe alike,

71
00:03:35,199 --> 00:03:39,300
that the torch has been
passed to a new generation

72
00:03:39,400 --> 00:03:46,066
of Americans born in this
century, tempered by war,

73
00:03:46,165 --> 00:03:49,765
disciplined by a hard and bitter peace,

74
00:03:49,865 --> 00:03:51,233
proud of our...

75
00:03:51,332 --> 00:03:53,099
JACK TODD: I still believed, very much,

76
00:03:53,199 --> 00:03:57,865
in this concept of an heroic America,

77
00:03:57,966 --> 00:04:00,599
America being a really special country,

78
00:04:00,699 --> 00:04:03,865
the best country in the
world, the best democracy,

79
00:04:03,966 --> 00:04:07,900
all the things that we
believe about it, which...

80
00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:10,100
and I didn't really see
anything wrong with that.

81
00:04:12,832 --> 00:04:17,332
I was sure that we were
right to be in Vietnam.

82
00:04:17,432 --> 00:04:19,565
You know, because it started under Kennedy

83
00:04:19,665 --> 00:04:22,100
and, to me, JFK was God.

84
00:04:22,199 --> 00:04:25,566
Anything that he thought was
right, I thought was right.

85
00:04:27,832 --> 00:04:31,932
NARRATOR: At 43, John Fitzgerald
Kennedy was the youngest man

86
00:04:32,033 --> 00:04:35,566
ever elected president
of the United States.

87
00:04:35,665 --> 00:04:38,033
He had promised bold new leadership,

88
00:04:38,132 --> 00:04:41,466
and to his supporters his
inauguration seemed to signal

89
00:04:41,566 --> 00:04:44,300
a new day.

90
00:04:44,399 --> 00:04:47,332
To those new states whom we welcome

91
00:04:47,432 --> 00:04:50,233
to the ranks of the free,

92
00:04:50,332 --> 00:04:56,266
we pledge our word that one
form of colonial control

93
00:04:56,365 --> 00:04:58,800
shall not have passed away

94
00:04:58,899 --> 00:05:04,033
merely to be replaced by
a far more iron tyranny.

95
00:05:04,132 --> 00:05:09,233
We shall not always expect to
find them supporting our view.

96
00:05:09,332 --> 00:05:13,766
But we shall always hope to
find them strongly supporting

97
00:05:13,865 --> 00:05:19,233
their own freedom and to
remember that, in the past,

98
00:05:19,332 --> 00:05:22,699
those who foolishly sought power

99
00:05:22,800 --> 00:05:27,066
by riding the back of the
tiger ended up inside.

100
00:05:30,899 --> 00:05:33,233
(cheers and applause)

101
00:05:35,432 --> 00:05:37,699
NARRATOR: The new president
gathered around him

102
00:05:37,800 --> 00:05:41,600
an extraordinary set of advisors
who shared his determination

103
00:05:41,699 --> 00:05:46,699
to confront communism, including
Secretary of State Dean Rusk,

104
00:05:46,800 --> 00:05:50,533
National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy,

105
00:05:50,632 --> 00:05:53,266
his deputy Walt Rostow,

106
00:05:53,365 --> 00:05:57,733
special military advisor
General Maxwell Taylor,

107
00:05:57,833 --> 00:06:01,365
and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara,

108
00:06:01,466 --> 00:06:03,033
who had given up his post

109
00:06:03,132 --> 00:06:07,065
as president of the Ford Motor
Company to serve his country.

110
00:06:07,165 --> 00:06:13,165
He was a pioneer in the
field of systems analysis.

111
00:06:13,266 --> 00:06:16,065
Like the president who picked them,

112
00:06:16,165 --> 00:06:20,266
all of Kennedy's men had
served during World War II.

113
00:06:20,365 --> 00:06:22,600
Each had absorbed what they all believed

114
00:06:22,699 --> 00:06:24,565
was its central lesson:

115
00:06:24,665 --> 00:06:28,665
ambitious dictatorships needed
to be halted in their tracks

116
00:06:28,766 --> 00:06:31,932
before they constituted a serious danger

117
00:06:32,033 --> 00:06:34,066
to the peace of the world.

118
00:06:34,165 --> 00:06:37,332
Meanwhile, in South Vietnam,

119
00:06:37,432 --> 00:06:39,432
the National Liberation Front...

120
00:06:39,533 --> 00:06:42,399
labeled by its enemies the Viet Cong...

121
00:06:42,500 --> 00:06:44,766
was determined to overthrow

122
00:06:44,865 --> 00:06:47,932
the anticommunist and
increasingly autocratic

123
00:06:48,033 --> 00:06:51,233
government of Ngo Dinh Diem.

124
00:06:51,332 --> 00:06:55,399
In North Vietnam,
unbeknownst to Washington,

125
00:06:55,500 --> 00:06:59,399
Ho Chi Minh, the father of
Vietnamese independence,

126
00:06:59,500 --> 00:07:02,699
was now sharing power with
a more aggressive leader,

127
00:07:02,800 --> 00:07:05,699
Le Duan, who was even more impatient

128
00:07:05,800 --> 00:07:08,199
to reunify his country.

129
00:07:09,632 --> 00:07:11,266
BAO NINH:

130
00:07:28,466 --> 00:07:31,966
LESLIE GELB: None of us knew
anything about Vietnam.

131
00:07:32,066 --> 00:07:36,165
Vietnam in those days was
a piece on a chessboard,

132
00:07:36,266 --> 00:07:38,332
a strategic chessboard,

133
00:07:38,432 --> 00:07:42,300
not a place with a culture and a history

134
00:07:42,399 --> 00:07:47,865
that we would have an
impossible time changing,

135
00:07:47,966 --> 00:07:50,832
even with the mighty force
of the United States.

136
00:07:50,932 --> 00:07:55,533
NARRATOR: Over the next three years,
the United States would struggle

137
00:07:55,632 --> 00:08:00,033
to understand the complicated
country it had come to save,

138
00:08:00,132 --> 00:08:03,199
fail to appreciate the enemy's resolve,

139
00:08:03,300 --> 00:08:06,932
and misread how the South
Vietnamese people really felt

140
00:08:07,033 --> 00:08:09,000
about their government.

141
00:08:10,899 --> 00:08:13,100
The new president would find himself caught

142
00:08:13,199 --> 00:08:17,766
between the momentum of war
and the desire for peace,

143
00:08:17,865 --> 00:08:20,832
between humility and hubris,

144
00:08:20,932 --> 00:08:27,298
between idealism and expediency,
between the truth and a lie.

145
00:08:38,932 --> 00:08:44,133
("My Country 'Tis of Thee" playing)

146
00:08:47,533 --> 00:08:50,700
KENNEDY: And so, my fellow Americans,

147
00:08:50,799 --> 00:08:55,865
ask not what your country can do for you,

148
00:08:55,966 --> 00:08:58,265
ask what you can do for your country.

149
00:09:05,100 --> 00:09:08,966
MUSGRAVE: I grew up in
Missouri, near Kansas City,

150
00:09:09,066 --> 00:09:12,133
a little community called Fairmount.

151
00:09:12,232 --> 00:09:13,666
I was born in 1948.

152
00:09:13,765 --> 00:09:16,265
And there were lots of kids
being born in those days

153
00:09:16,365 --> 00:09:17,976
from the guys who were
lucky enough to come home

154
00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:19,000
from World War II.

155
00:09:20,232 --> 00:09:23,566
My dad was a pilot in the Army Air Corps.

156
00:09:23,666 --> 00:09:26,365
And all of dad's friends

157
00:09:26,466 --> 00:09:29,500
were World War II vets or Korean vets.

158
00:09:29,600 --> 00:09:32,200
And all of my male teachers were veterans.

159
00:09:32,299 --> 00:09:34,700
And even my pastor had been a chaplain.

160
00:09:36,232 --> 00:09:41,033
Well, they were my heroes, and
I wanted to be like them.

161
00:09:48,066 --> 00:09:50,932
NARRATOR: For all of John
Kennedy's soaring rhetoric,

162
00:09:51,033 --> 00:09:53,600
for all the talent he gathered around him,

163
00:09:53,700 --> 00:09:56,932
the first months of his
presidency did not go well.

164
00:09:57,033 --> 00:10:01,365
He approved a CIA-sponsored
invasion of Cuba

165
00:10:01,466 --> 00:10:05,932
at the Bay of Pigs that ended in disaster.

166
00:10:06,033 --> 00:10:07,832
He felt he'd been bullied

167
00:10:07,932 --> 00:10:10,265
by Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev

168
00:10:10,365 --> 00:10:12,633
at a summit meeting in Vienna.

169
00:10:12,732 --> 00:10:15,000
He was unable to keep the Soviets

170
00:10:15,100 --> 00:10:17,365
from building the Berlin Wall.

171
00:10:17,466 --> 00:10:21,600
And in Southeast Asia,
he refused to intervene

172
00:10:21,700 --> 00:10:24,832
against a communist insurrection in Laos.

173
00:10:24,932 --> 00:10:29,466
Critics accused him of being
immature, indecisive,

174
00:10:29,566 --> 00:10:33,165
inadequate to the task of
combating what seemed to be

175
00:10:33,265 --> 00:10:35,665
a mounting communist threat.

176
00:10:35,765 --> 00:10:39,200
"There are just so many
concessions that we can make

177
00:10:39,299 --> 00:10:41,700
in one year and survive politically,"

178
00:10:41,799 --> 00:10:46,466
he confided to an aide
in the spring of 1961.

179
00:10:46,566 --> 00:10:51,799
In South Vietnam, Kennedy
felt he had to act.

180
00:10:51,899 --> 00:10:54,566
After the president received reports

181
00:10:54,666 --> 00:10:57,133
that the Viet Cong might be in control

182
00:10:57,232 --> 00:11:01,166
of more than half the densely
populated Mekong Delta,

183
00:11:01,265 --> 00:11:05,265
he dispatched General Maxwell
Taylor and Walt Rostow

184
00:11:05,365 --> 00:11:07,432
to Vietnam.

185
00:11:07,533 --> 00:11:11,265
They urged him to commit
American ground troops.

186
00:11:11,365 --> 00:11:12,932
Kennedy refused.

187
00:11:13,033 --> 00:11:16,666
It would be like taking a
first drink, he said...

188
00:11:16,765 --> 00:11:19,832
the effect would soon wear off
and there would be demands

189
00:11:19,932 --> 00:11:23,265
for another and another and another.

190
00:11:23,365 --> 00:11:26,732
Instead, in the midst of a cold war,

191
00:11:26,832 --> 00:11:30,000
with its constant risk of
nuclear confrontation,

192
00:11:30,100 --> 00:11:33,332
the president supported
a new "flexible" way

193
00:11:33,432 --> 00:11:38,899
to confront and contain
communism: limited war.

194
00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:43,700
This is another type of
warfare, new in its intensity,

195
00:11:43,799 --> 00:11:46,332
ancient in its origin...

196
00:11:46,432 --> 00:11:51,265
war by guerrillas, subversives,
insurgents, assassins;

197
00:11:51,365 --> 00:11:55,765
war by ambush instead of by combat;

198
00:11:55,865 --> 00:11:58,399
by infiltration instead of aggression.

199
00:12:00,133 --> 00:12:02,533
NARRATOR: To fight his "limited wars,"

200
00:12:02,633 --> 00:12:05,500
Kennedy hoped to use the
elite Green Berets,

201
00:12:05,600 --> 00:12:09,066
special forces trained
in guerrilla warfare,

202
00:12:09,166 --> 00:12:11,700
counterinsurgency.

203
00:12:11,799 --> 00:12:16,500
They were meant to be dispatched
to hotspots around the world.

204
00:12:16,600 --> 00:12:19,332
ROBERT RHEAULT: Khrushchev said,
"We're not going to destroy you

205
00:12:19,432 --> 00:12:20,832
with nuclear weapons,

206
00:12:20,932 --> 00:12:23,966
we're going to destroy you with
wars of national liberation."

207
00:12:24,066 --> 00:12:25,966
Everybody talked about the fact

208
00:12:26,066 --> 00:12:30,732
that communism was spreading
and it had to be stopped.

209
00:12:30,832 --> 00:12:33,500
You went to Command and
General Staff College

210
00:12:33,600 --> 00:12:37,100
and you were playing on
maps with nuclear weapons

211
00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:38,799
and so forth.

212
00:12:38,899 --> 00:12:43,765
And I escaped from that by
getting into Special Forces.

213
00:12:43,865 --> 00:12:46,500
So that instead of planning
what we were going to do

214
00:12:46,600 --> 00:12:51,533
if World War III broke out,
we were actually doing stuff.

215
00:12:53,066 --> 00:12:56,500
And Vietnam was a place where
we were going to draw the line.

216
00:12:58,166 --> 00:12:59,865
NARRATOR: Kennedy sent the Green Berets

217
00:12:59,966 --> 00:13:02,200
to the Central Highlands of Vietnam

218
00:13:02,299 --> 00:13:05,865
to organize mountain tribes
to fight the Viet Cong

219
00:13:05,966 --> 00:13:10,633
and to undertake covert missions
to sabotage their supply bases

220
00:13:10,732 --> 00:13:13,732
in Laos and Cambodia.

221
00:13:13,832 --> 00:13:18,265
But Kennedy understood that
counterinsurgency alone

222
00:13:18,365 --> 00:13:19,432
would never be enough,

223
00:13:19,533 --> 00:13:22,966
so he doubled funding for
South Vietnam's army,

224
00:13:23,066 --> 00:13:28,332
dispatched helicopters and APCs,
armored personnel carriers.

225
00:13:31,332 --> 00:13:35,066
Kennedy also authorized the use of napalm

226
00:13:35,165 --> 00:13:39,600
and the spraying of defoliants
to deny cover to the Viet Cong

227
00:13:39,700 --> 00:13:43,566
and destroy the crops that fed them.

228
00:13:43,665 --> 00:13:46,732
A whole array of chemicals was used,

229
00:13:46,832 --> 00:13:50,200
including one named for
the color of the stripes

230
00:13:50,299 --> 00:13:56,299
on the 55-gallon drums in which
it came... "Agent Orange."

231
00:13:56,399 --> 00:13:59,899
And the president quietly
continued to increase

232
00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:02,865
the number of American military advisors.

233
00:14:02,966 --> 00:14:08,232
Within two years, the number
he had inherited would grow

234
00:14:08,332 --> 00:14:11,533
to 11,300,

235
00:14:11,633 --> 00:14:14,100
empowered not only to teach

236
00:14:14,200 --> 00:14:17,133
the Army of the Republic
of Vietnam... the ARVN...

237
00:14:17,232 --> 00:14:19,200
to fight a conventional war,

238
00:14:19,299 --> 00:14:21,466
but to accompany them into battle,

239
00:14:21,566 --> 00:14:25,000
a violation of the agreement
that had divided Vietnam

240
00:14:25,100 --> 00:14:26,100
back in 1954.

241
00:14:26,165 --> 00:14:29,732
(gunfire)

242
00:14:29,832 --> 00:14:33,799
The administration did its best
to hide from the American people

243
00:14:33,899 --> 00:14:36,232
the scale of the buildup
that was taking place

244
00:14:36,332 --> 00:14:38,100
on the other side of the world,

245
00:14:38,200 --> 00:14:41,033
fearful that the public would not support

246
00:14:41,133 --> 00:14:47,966
the more active role advisors
had begun to play in combat.

247
00:14:48,066 --> 00:14:50,665
Mr. President, a Republican
National Committee publication

248
00:14:50,765 --> 00:14:54,066
has said that you are...
have been less than candid

249
00:14:54,166 --> 00:14:58,000
with the American people as
to how deeply we are involved

250
00:14:58,100 --> 00:14:59,899
in Vietnam.

251
00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:02,500
Could you throw any more light on that?

252
00:15:02,600 --> 00:15:04,640
We have increased our
assistance to the government,

253
00:15:04,700 --> 00:15:06,432
its logistics.

254
00:15:06,533 --> 00:15:08,399
We have not sent combat troops there.

255
00:15:08,500 --> 00:15:11,666
Though the training
missions that we have there

256
00:15:11,765 --> 00:15:14,533
have been instructed if
they are fired upon to...

257
00:15:14,633 --> 00:15:17,500
they are, would of course, fire
back, to protect themselves.

258
00:15:17,600 --> 00:15:19,332
But we have not sent combat troops

259
00:15:19,432 --> 00:15:21,700
in the generally understood
sense of the word.

260
00:15:21,799 --> 00:15:27,399
So that I-I feel that we are
being as frank as the...

261
00:15:27,500 --> 00:15:28,665
as we can be.

262
00:15:28,765 --> 00:15:30,299
I think we... what I have said to you

263
00:15:30,399 --> 00:15:33,466
is a description of our activity there.

264
00:15:38,033 --> 00:15:41,466
NEIL SHEEHAN: I was a
child of the Cold War.

265
00:15:41,566 --> 00:15:45,033
When I got off the plane in
Saigon on a humid evening

266
00:15:45,133 --> 00:15:46,966
in April 1962,

267
00:15:47,066 --> 00:15:50,932
I really believed in all the
ideology of the Cold War.

268
00:15:51,033 --> 00:15:52,066
On...

269
00:15:52,165 --> 00:15:54,732
That if we lost South Vietnam,

270
00:15:54,832 --> 00:15:57,272
that the rest of Southeast Asia
would fall to the communists.

271
00:15:57,299 --> 00:16:01,100
There was an international
communist conspiracy.

272
00:16:01,200 --> 00:16:03,633
We believed fervently in this stuff.

273
00:16:03,732 --> 00:16:07,600
NARRATOR: Neil Sheehan was
a 25-year-old reporter

274
00:16:07,700 --> 00:16:11,000
for United Press International, UPI.

275
00:16:11,100 --> 00:16:15,166
He had served three years in
the Army in Korea and Japan

276
00:16:15,265 --> 00:16:18,000
before deciding to become a newspaperman.

277
00:16:18,100 --> 00:16:22,299
Vietnam was his first full-time
overseas assignment,

278
00:16:22,399 --> 00:16:24,232
and his only worry, he remembered,

279
00:16:24,332 --> 00:16:27,000
was that he would get there
too late and miss out

280
00:16:27,100 --> 00:16:29,066
on the big story.

281
00:16:29,165 --> 00:16:33,299
Sheehan and other reporters
rode along as the ARVN mounted

282
00:16:33,399 --> 00:16:36,899
a series of helicopter
assaults on enemy strongholds

283
00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:39,332
in the Mekong Delta and elsewhere

284
00:16:39,432 --> 00:16:42,865
and brought terror to the Viet Cong.

285
00:16:42,966 --> 00:16:45,966
American pilots were at the controls.

286
00:16:46,066 --> 00:16:50,466
SHEEHAN: It was a crusade
and it was thrilling.

287
00:16:50,566 --> 00:16:53,066
And you'd climb aboard the helicopters

288
00:16:53,166 --> 00:16:56,500
with the Vietnamese soldiers who
were being taken out to battle.

289
00:16:56,600 --> 00:16:58,165
And they'd take off.

290
00:16:58,266 --> 00:17:00,900
And they'd contour-fly, they'd
skim across the rice paddies

291
00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:03,165
at about three or four
feet above the paddies,

292
00:17:03,266 --> 00:17:07,133
and then pop up over the tree
lines that lined the fields.

293
00:17:07,232 --> 00:17:08,400
It was thrilling.

294
00:17:08,500 --> 00:17:09,809
I mean it was absolutely thrilling.

295
00:17:09,833 --> 00:17:12,833
And you believed in what was happening.

296
00:17:12,932 --> 00:17:15,000
I mean you had the sense
that we're fighting here

297
00:17:15,098 --> 00:17:18,900
and some day we'll win, and
this country will be a better,

298
00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:20,200
better country for our coming.

299
00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:24,799
NARRATOR: The new M-113
armored personnel carriers

300
00:17:24,900 --> 00:17:28,566
were capable of churning
across rivers and rice paddies

301
00:17:28,665 --> 00:17:30,432
and right through the earthen dikes

302
00:17:30,532 --> 00:17:32,833
that separated one field from the next.

303
00:17:34,266 --> 00:17:39,266
The Viet Cong had nothing
with which to stop them.

304
00:17:39,365 --> 00:17:45,099
JAMES SCANLON: We were just overwhelming
them with force, with firepower.

305
00:17:45,200 --> 00:17:48,500
And the firefights would be
over in a pretty short time.

306
00:17:48,599 --> 00:17:51,266
MAN ON RADIO: We have some
people running along the dikes.

307
00:17:51,365 --> 00:17:54,299
Actually, the canal is perpendicular

308
00:17:54,400 --> 00:17:55,799
to the one you're attacking now.

309
00:17:55,900 --> 00:17:59,766
They have on black uniforms, and
I estimate approximately 3-0.

310
00:17:59,865 --> 00:18:02,432
Do you have them in sight? Over.

311
00:18:02,532 --> 00:18:04,732
SCANLON: That's what was
causing us to win, see.

312
00:18:04,833 --> 00:18:07,965
And we were winning one after the other.

313
00:18:08,066 --> 00:18:11,633
And we were not meeting a
heck of a lot of resistance.

314
00:18:11,732 --> 00:18:15,465
NARRATOR: Captain James Scanlon had
been stationed in West Germany

315
00:18:15,566 --> 00:18:18,665
and had seen for himself
the brutality with which

316
00:18:18,766 --> 00:18:21,299
the communist East Germans
dealt with anyone

317
00:18:21,400 --> 00:18:24,799
who dared try to escape to the West.

318
00:18:24,900 --> 00:18:27,133
He was now in the Mekong Delta,

319
00:18:27,232 --> 00:18:30,200
an advisor to the 7th Division of the ARVN,

320
00:18:30,299 --> 00:18:35,000
and had begun to see evidence
of Viet Cong brutality as well.

321
00:18:38,232 --> 00:18:41,900
SCANLON: Those of us who talked to
the people who fled East Germany,

322
00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:46,000
we saw the need to stop
the growth of communism,

323
00:18:46,099 --> 00:18:49,500
to stop the dominoes from being tumbled.

324
00:18:49,599 --> 00:18:52,133
That was a worthy cause.

325
00:18:53,633 --> 00:18:57,400
NARRATOR: As the ARVN and their
advisors pursued the Viet Cong,

326
00:18:57,500 --> 00:19:00,133
the government of Ngo
Dinh Diem had launched

327
00:19:00,232 --> 00:19:04,532
an ambitious program meant to
gain control of the countryside

328
00:19:04,633 --> 00:19:07,299
by concentrating the rural population

329
00:19:07,400 --> 00:19:09,965
into thousands of fortified settlements,

330
00:19:10,066 --> 00:19:14,400
ringed with barbed wire and
moats and bamboo spikes

331
00:19:14,500 --> 00:19:17,165
meant to keep out the Viet Cong.

332
00:19:17,266 --> 00:19:21,599
They were called strategic
hamlets, part of the effort

333
00:19:21,700 --> 00:19:24,766
to win the hearts and minds, and loyalty,

334
00:19:24,865 --> 00:19:26,266
of the Vietnamese people.

335
00:19:26,365 --> 00:19:30,965
The French had tried something
like it a decade before.

336
00:19:31,066 --> 00:19:35,000
They had called it pacification.

337
00:19:35,099 --> 00:19:37,665
ROBERT McNAMARA: President
Diem's strategic hamlet program

338
00:19:37,766 --> 00:19:40,200
is making substantial progress.

339
00:19:40,299 --> 00:19:44,932
About 1,600 of the some 14,000 hamlets

340
00:19:45,032 --> 00:19:48,599
have been fortified to date.

341
00:19:48,700 --> 00:19:50,900
NARRATOR: By the summer of 1962,

342
00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:54,333
news from South Vietnam seemed so promising

343
00:19:54,432 --> 00:19:58,165
that Defense Secretary
Robert McNamara made sure

344
00:19:58,266 --> 00:20:01,333
the Pentagon was prepared
to implement a plan

345
00:20:01,432 --> 00:20:04,900
for a gradual withdrawal
of American advisors

346
00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:07,566
to be completed by 1965.

347
00:20:07,665 --> 00:20:11,200
So far as most Americans knew,

348
00:20:11,299 --> 00:20:14,133
the United States was achieving its goal:

349
00:20:14,232 --> 00:20:17,500
a stable, independent, anticommunist state

350
00:20:17,599 --> 00:20:19,700
in South Vietnam.

351
00:20:19,799 --> 00:20:24,165
It was "a struggle this
country cannot shirk,"

352
00:20:24,266 --> 00:20:26,032
theNew York Tim es said,

353
00:20:26,133 --> 00:20:30,532
and the United States
seemed to be winning it.

354
00:20:32,200 --> 00:20:36,066
But that same summer, Ho Chi
Minh traveled to Beijing

355
00:20:36,165 --> 00:20:39,665
in search of more help from the Chinese.

356
00:20:39,766 --> 00:20:43,099
The American buildup in South
Vietnam had alarmed him

357
00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:45,400
and the other leaders in Hanoi.

358
00:20:45,500 --> 00:20:48,766
Ho told the Chinese that American attacks

359
00:20:48,865 --> 00:20:54,732
on North Vietnam itself now
seemed only a matter of time.

360
00:20:54,833 --> 00:20:58,833
The Chinese promised to equip
and arm tens of thousands

361
00:20:58,932 --> 00:21:01,900
of Vietnamese soldiers.

362
00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:05,500
Meanwhile, the Politburo
in Hanoi had directed

363
00:21:05,599 --> 00:21:08,865
that every able-bodied North Vietnamese man

364
00:21:08,965 --> 00:21:13,799
be required to serve in the armed forces.

365
00:21:13,900 --> 00:21:17,066
("Honky Tonk Pt. 1" by
Bill Doggett playing)

366
00:21:20,766 --> 00:21:23,000
NARRATOR: Inspired by
their president's call,

367
00:21:23,099 --> 00:21:26,299
thousands of young Americans
would join the Peace Corps

368
00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:30,232
and other organizations to
help project American ideals

369
00:21:30,333 --> 00:21:32,700
and goodwill around the world.

370
00:21:33,799 --> 00:21:39,799
("Honky Tonk Pt. 1" continues)

371
00:21:45,599 --> 00:21:50,299
RUFUS PHILLIPS: We were not only
there in Vietnam to stop communism,

372
00:21:50,400 --> 00:21:54,232
but there had to be something positive.

373
00:21:54,333 --> 00:21:57,566
We're trying to find out what
the Vietnamese people want

374
00:21:57,665 --> 00:22:00,266
and to help them get it.

375
00:22:00,365 --> 00:22:01,599
And that was very simple

376
00:22:01,700 --> 00:22:03,732
but, if you think about
it, also very complex.

377
00:22:03,833 --> 00:22:06,200
But it went to the heart, I thought,

378
00:22:06,299 --> 00:22:08,665
of what we were trying to do.

379
00:22:08,766 --> 00:22:10,566
("Dirty Overalls" by Woody Guthrie playing)

380
00:22:10,665 --> 00:22:13,900
NARRATOR: Pete Hunting, a
22-year-old from Oklahoma City,

381
00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:17,566
would go to Vietnam right after
college to do what he could

382
00:22:17,665 --> 00:22:20,900
to help poor villagers in the countryside.

383
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:23,365
WOODY GUTHRIE: ♪ I was
a soldier in the fight

384
00:22:23,465 --> 00:22:25,700
♪ And I fought till we won

385
00:22:25,799 --> 00:22:29,865
♪ My uniform's my dirty overhauls. ♪

386
00:22:29,965 --> 00:22:31,766
HUNTING (dramatized): Dear Margo,

387
00:22:31,865 --> 00:22:34,266
I finally finished up my
work in Phan Rang last week.

388
00:22:34,365 --> 00:22:36,232
Had spent a month working on a windmill

389
00:22:36,333 --> 00:22:38,333
I'd promised the people of one hamlet.

390
00:22:38,432 --> 00:22:43,000
Cost a lot of money, too, which
I paid out of my own pocket.

391
00:22:43,099 --> 00:22:46,865
GUTHRIE: ♪ Well, I'll give you my
sweat, I'll give you my blood. ♪

392
00:22:46,965 --> 00:22:49,066
HUNTING (dramatized): I'm
in soaring spirits today

393
00:22:49,165 --> 00:22:52,333
despite all the natural
disasters, political intrigues,

394
00:22:52,432 --> 00:22:54,500
and subversive activities.

395
00:22:54,599 --> 00:22:57,000
NARRATOR: Pete Hunting worked

396
00:22:57,099 --> 00:22:59,900
for the International Voluntary Services,

397
00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:03,732
a nonprofit organization
committed to improving

398
00:23:03,833 --> 00:23:06,932
agriculture, education, and public health.

399
00:23:07,032 --> 00:23:10,200
He was one of hundreds
of dedicated aid workers

400
00:23:10,299 --> 00:23:12,833
in South Vietnam.

401
00:23:12,932 --> 00:23:16,665
GUTHRIE: ♪ My hoe is my gun.

402
00:23:16,766 --> 00:23:19,008
HUNTING (dramatized): Latest
news on this side of the world

403
00:23:19,032 --> 00:23:21,109
is that I'll almost definitely
be extending over here

404
00:23:21,133 --> 00:23:23,000
for another two years,

405
00:23:23,099 --> 00:23:25,232
providing the country stays
in one piece that long.

406
00:23:28,299 --> 00:23:30,432
NARRATOR: Two years after he arrived,

407
00:23:30,532 --> 00:23:32,932
Pete Hunting was driving
in the Mekong Delta

408
00:23:33,032 --> 00:23:35,833
when he ran into a Viet Cong ambush.

409
00:23:35,932 --> 00:23:39,400
He was shot five times in the head...

410
00:23:39,500 --> 00:23:41,099
(gunshot)

411
00:23:41,200 --> 00:23:43,165
the first American civilian volunteer

412
00:23:43,266 --> 00:23:45,932
to be killed in Vietnam.

413
00:23:50,566 --> 00:23:58,566
(helicopter blades
beating, voices on radio)

414
00:24:01,266 --> 00:24:06,833
(distorted sound of gunfire, explosion)

415
00:24:14,432 --> 00:24:16,732
People used to joke in Vietnam

416
00:24:16,833 --> 00:24:18,465
about winning the hearts and minds.

417
00:24:18,566 --> 00:24:22,099
And you hear that expression,
but that should not be a joke.

418
00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:24,299
It's a serious, serious problem.

419
00:24:24,400 --> 00:24:26,833
If you pull off a military operation,

420
00:24:26,932 --> 00:24:30,532
and it may be successful
on the military basis,

421
00:24:30,633 --> 00:24:33,500
but you destroy a village,

422
00:24:33,599 --> 00:24:37,333
then you've created a
village of resistance.

423
00:24:37,432 --> 00:24:41,299
NARRATOR: Few advisors
understood the unique challenges

424
00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:44,133
of fighting an insurgency in Vietnam

425
00:24:44,232 --> 00:24:48,133
better than Lieutenant
Colonel John Paul Vann.

426
00:24:48,232 --> 00:24:50,865
A career soldier from Virginia,

427
00:24:50,965 --> 00:24:53,133
he was the senior American advisor

428
00:24:53,232 --> 00:24:57,232
to the 7th ARVN Division
in the Mekong Delta.

429
00:24:57,333 --> 00:25:01,799
Small, wiry and abrasive,
John Paul Vann was convinced

430
00:25:01,900 --> 00:25:06,000
he knew how to defeat the Viet Cong.

431
00:25:06,099 --> 00:25:10,633
PHILIP BRADY: John Paul Vann was
simply the most remarkable soldier

432
00:25:10,732 --> 00:25:11,799
I ever met.

433
00:25:11,900 --> 00:25:13,766
Period.

434
00:25:13,865 --> 00:25:18,599
The biggest challenge of
John Paul Vann's life

435
00:25:18,700 --> 00:25:24,500
was somehow saving Vietnam, winning.

436
00:25:24,599 --> 00:25:27,500
That, to him, was the ultimate challenge.

437
00:25:27,599 --> 00:25:29,965
(explosion)

438
00:25:30,066 --> 00:25:31,633
NARRATOR: When it became clear to Vann

439
00:25:31,732 --> 00:25:34,599
that the tactics the Americans
had taught the ARVN

440
00:25:34,700 --> 00:25:37,799
were beginning to make
more enemies than friends,

441
00:25:37,900 --> 00:25:42,566
he sought out newspapermen
to spread the word.

442
00:25:42,665 --> 00:25:46,532
NEIL SHEEHAN: He was able to
explain to us what was going on.

443
00:25:46,633 --> 00:25:49,932
The important thing was not
to alienate the population.

444
00:25:50,032 --> 00:25:52,900
That if you got sniper fire from a hamlet,

445
00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:55,365
you sent in riflemen to
take out the sniper.

446
00:25:55,465 --> 00:25:57,785
You didn't shell the place,
because you were going to kill

447
00:25:57,833 --> 00:26:00,133
women and kids and destroy houses

448
00:26:00,232 --> 00:26:02,700
and you were going to turn
the population against you.

449
00:26:04,932 --> 00:26:08,200
NARRATOR: Most press coverage
of Vietnam was upbeat

450
00:26:08,299 --> 00:26:10,965
in the tradition of previous wars.

451
00:26:11,066 --> 00:26:15,865
But a handful of young reporters
including Neil Sheehan,

452
00:26:15,965 --> 00:26:18,432
David Halberstam of theNew York Times,

453
00:26:18,532 --> 00:26:21,066
and Malcolm Browne of the Associated Press,

454
00:26:21,165 --> 00:26:24,865
who spent time in the field
with officers like Vann,

455
00:26:24,965 --> 00:26:29,000
were beginning to see that from
the Vietnamese countryside,

456
00:26:29,099 --> 00:26:31,266
things looked very different than they did

457
00:26:31,365 --> 00:26:35,165
from the press offices
in Washington or Saigon.

458
00:26:35,266 --> 00:26:39,432
SHEEHAN: So it was terribly important
that we not only win the war

459
00:26:39,532 --> 00:26:42,365
but that we as reporters report the truth

460
00:26:42,465 --> 00:26:45,299
that would help to win the war.

461
00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:48,432
We were very fervent in
wanting to report the truth

462
00:26:48,532 --> 00:26:51,599
because it was very important
to the welfare of our country

463
00:26:51,700 --> 00:26:53,099
and to the welfare of the world.

464
00:26:55,232 --> 00:26:58,665
NARRATOR: Sheehan and his colleagues
began asking tough questions

465
00:26:58,766 --> 00:27:03,700
about what constituted progress,
what victory would look like,

466
00:27:03,799 --> 00:27:06,099
and if the people in the countryside,

467
00:27:06,200 --> 00:27:09,799
where 80% of South Vietnam's
population lived,

468
00:27:09,900 --> 00:27:14,665
could ever trust the government in Saigon.

469
00:27:14,766 --> 00:27:17,766
SHEEHAN: I remember going, during
one of Robert McNamara's visits,

470
00:27:17,865 --> 00:27:20,833
out to one of these hamlets.

471
00:27:20,932 --> 00:27:22,441
The Vietnamese general
who commanded the area

472
00:27:22,465 --> 00:27:23,976
was telling McNamara what a
wonderful thing this was.

473
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:26,500
And the-the... some of
these farmers were down

474
00:27:26,599 --> 00:27:30,232
digging a ditch around the...
around the hamlet.

475
00:27:30,333 --> 00:27:33,665
And I looked at their faces
and they were really angry.

476
00:27:35,432 --> 00:27:37,000
I mean it was very obvious to me

477
00:27:37,099 --> 00:27:39,932
that if these people could,
they'd cut our throats.

478
00:27:44,266 --> 00:27:48,232
NARRATOR: Farmers resented being
forced to abandon their homes

479
00:27:48,333 --> 00:27:50,766
and move to strategic hamlets.

480
00:27:50,865 --> 00:27:54,932
Corrupt officials siphoned off funds.

481
00:27:55,032 --> 00:27:57,432
And villagers blamed the Diem regime

482
00:27:57,532 --> 00:28:01,400
for failing to protect them
from guerrilla attacks.

483
00:28:01,500 --> 00:28:06,665
As the people's anger grew, so
did the ranks of the Viet Cong.

484
00:28:06,766 --> 00:28:11,066
SHEEHAN: It turned out that the
Viet Cong were recruiting men

485
00:28:11,165 --> 00:28:14,599
right out of those strategic...
so-called strategic hamlets.

486
00:28:14,700 --> 00:28:16,700
And then the whole program fell apart.

487
00:28:17,900 --> 00:28:19,500
NGUYEN NGOC:

488
00:28:40,465 --> 00:28:44,333
NARRATOR: Nguyen Ngoc's father was
a postal clerk south of Danang.

489
00:28:44,432 --> 00:28:48,900
His brothers and sisters taught
in South Vietnamese schools.

490
00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:52,665
But he joined the revolution,
and as a political officer,

491
00:28:52,766 --> 00:28:56,700
wrote poems, songs, and
slogans to inspire the people

492
00:28:56,799 --> 00:29:01,299
in the countryside to
support the Viet Cong.

493
00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:05,932
DUONG VAN MAI: The Viet Cong cadre
would come in and talk to them

494
00:29:06,032 --> 00:29:10,799
and their message is usually
(speaking Vietnamese),

495
00:29:10,900 --> 00:29:13,400
which means "turn your grief into action.

496
00:29:13,500 --> 00:29:15,900
"Do something about it.

497
00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:17,932
"Join us.

498
00:29:18,032 --> 00:29:19,400
"We'll fight together.

499
00:29:19,500 --> 00:29:23,900
"We'll liberate the country from
this corrupt, unjust government.

500
00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:25,900
"We'll throw out the foreigners.

501
00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:27,700
"We'll reunify the country.

502
00:29:27,799 --> 00:29:30,865
"And we'll bring in this great regime

503
00:29:30,965 --> 00:29:32,500
"that will take care of you

504
00:29:32,599 --> 00:29:34,400
and bring economic and social justice."

505
00:29:36,500 --> 00:29:39,599
NARRATOR: The Viet Cong ran
rival local governments,

506
00:29:39,700 --> 00:29:43,500
complete with their own tax
collectors and school teachers,

507
00:29:43,599 --> 00:29:48,000
spies and propagandists,
and province chiefs.

508
00:29:50,599 --> 00:29:52,799
To make matters worse,

509
00:29:52,900 --> 00:29:56,633
ARVN troops and American
advisors now found themselves

510
00:29:56,732 --> 00:29:59,633
confronted by a new threat:

511
00:29:59,732 --> 00:30:02,900
battalions of well-armed
Viet Cong soldiers,

512
00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:06,165
as well as by local guerrillas.

513
00:30:06,266 --> 00:30:08,465
SHEEHAN: We'd armed them.

514
00:30:08,566 --> 00:30:11,900
You could hear the arming of the Viet Cong.

515
00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:15,432
Back in early '62, they only had
one machine gun per battalion.

516
00:30:15,532 --> 00:30:16,599
(single gunfire burst)

517
00:30:16,700 --> 00:30:18,165
It was sporadic fire.

518
00:30:18,266 --> 00:30:22,165
Then, as they captured more and
more of these American arms,

519
00:30:22,266 --> 00:30:24,000
when you made contact, it fi...

520
00:30:24,099 --> 00:30:26,333
it would build up into a
drumfire of automatic

521
00:30:26,432 --> 00:30:27,865
and semi-automatic weapons.

522
00:30:27,965 --> 00:30:30,865
(cacophony of gunfire bursts)

523
00:30:35,599 --> 00:30:38,700
RUFUS PHILLIPS: Secretary McNamara
decided that he would draw up

524
00:30:38,799 --> 00:30:41,633
some kind of a chart to determine

525
00:30:41,732 --> 00:30:44,566
whether we were winning or not.

526
00:30:44,665 --> 00:30:47,266
And he was putting things in

527
00:30:47,365 --> 00:30:50,133
like numbers of weapons recovered,

528
00:30:50,232 --> 00:30:52,500
numbers of Viet Cong killed.

529
00:30:52,599 --> 00:30:55,000
Very statistical.

530
00:30:57,566 --> 00:30:59,965
And he asked Edward Lansdale,

531
00:31:00,066 --> 00:31:03,766
who was then in the Pentagon
as head of Special Operations,

532
00:31:03,865 --> 00:31:05,865
to come down and look at this.

533
00:31:05,965 --> 00:31:10,099
And so Lansdale did and he said,
"There's something missing."

534
00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:13,400
And McNamara said, "What?"

535
00:31:13,500 --> 00:31:17,032
And Lansdale said, "The feelings
of the Vietnamese people."

536
00:31:17,133 --> 00:31:20,965
You couldn't reduce this to a statistic.

537
00:31:21,066 --> 00:31:25,633
NARRATOR: Robert McNamara had
vowed to make America's military

538
00:31:25,732 --> 00:31:27,099
"cost-effective."

539
00:31:27,200 --> 00:31:30,900
He demanded that everything be quantified.

540
00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:34,799
In Saigon, General Paul D. Harkins,

541
00:31:34,900 --> 00:31:38,165
head of the Military
Assistance Command, Vietnam,

542
00:31:38,266 --> 00:31:41,500
known as MACV, dutifully complied.

543
00:31:41,599 --> 00:31:46,200
He and his staff generated
mountains of daily, weekly,

544
00:31:46,299 --> 00:31:48,465
monthly, and quarterly data

545
00:31:48,566 --> 00:31:51,566
on more than a hundred separate indicators,

546
00:31:51,665 --> 00:31:56,165
far more data than could
ever be adequately analyzed.

547
00:31:56,266 --> 00:31:59,532
(typewriter keys clacking)

548
00:31:59,633 --> 00:32:02,432
General Harkins had little
use for skeptical reporters

549
00:32:02,532 --> 00:32:04,066
like Neil Sheehan.

550
00:32:04,165 --> 00:32:06,633
Bad news was to be buried.

551
00:32:06,732 --> 00:32:10,833
Harkins ignored the alarming
after action reports

552
00:32:10,932 --> 00:32:14,500
John Paul Vann and other
officers were sending in

553
00:32:14,599 --> 00:32:16,566
from the field.

554
00:32:16,665 --> 00:32:19,633
DONALD GREGG: I was going to be
made head of the Vietnam desk

555
00:32:19,732 --> 00:32:21,700
at CIA headquarters.

556
00:32:21,799 --> 00:32:25,032
And the first person of
importance that I met

557
00:32:25,133 --> 00:32:27,333
was General Harkins.

558
00:32:27,432 --> 00:32:29,865
And he started out by saying,

559
00:32:29,965 --> 00:32:32,732
"Mr. Gregg, I don't care what
you hear from anybody else,

560
00:32:32,833 --> 00:32:35,208
"I can tell you without a doubt
we're going to be out of here

561
00:32:35,232 --> 00:32:37,032
with a military victory in six months."

562
00:32:38,532 --> 00:32:40,465
JAMES MOSSMAN: The country's
12 million peasants

563
00:32:40,566 --> 00:32:43,165
can scarcely remember what peace was like.

564
00:32:43,266 --> 00:32:45,146
They're caught between
the predatory guerrillas

565
00:32:45,200 --> 00:32:47,700
and the almost equally demanding soldiery.

566
00:32:47,799 --> 00:32:50,119
Their lives are lived in a state
of permanent uncertainty,

567
00:32:50,200 --> 00:32:52,799
punctuated by bouts of violence

568
00:32:52,900 --> 00:32:54,333
as government forces come to grips

569
00:32:54,432 --> 00:32:56,665
with the black-clad communist rebel forces

570
00:32:56,766 --> 00:32:58,099
called the Viet Cong.

571
00:33:02,833 --> 00:33:05,333
HUY DUC:

572
00:33:44,232 --> 00:33:47,599
NGUYEN NGOC:

573
00:34:30,032 --> 00:34:32,733
CAO XUAN DAI:

574
00:34:56,065 --> 00:35:00,300
On our side we were not as committed

575
00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:02,233
and we were...

576
00:35:02,333 --> 00:35:05,565
our leaders were corrupt and incompetent.

577
00:35:05,666 --> 00:35:10,632
And so deep down we'll
always have this fear,

578
00:35:10,733 --> 00:35:16,300
this suspicion that in the end
it'll be the communists who won.

579
00:35:16,400 --> 00:35:19,865
TOM VALLELY: When John Kennedy assembled

580
00:35:19,965 --> 00:35:22,000
what he thinks is the
best and the brightest,

581
00:35:22,099 --> 00:35:28,266
20 years before that in a
cave in the northern part

582
00:35:28,365 --> 00:35:30,932
of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh also put together

583
00:35:31,032 --> 00:35:32,432
his best and the brightest.

584
00:35:32,532 --> 00:35:35,599
And these guys are at it for a while.

585
00:35:35,699 --> 00:35:39,233
And when we show up, they were far along

586
00:35:39,333 --> 00:35:45,199
to consolidating their victory
over this inevitable conflict

587
00:35:45,300 --> 00:35:49,833
between Ho Chi Minh and John F.
Kennedy's vision.

588
00:35:49,932 --> 00:35:55,000
The more you think about
the American strategy,

589
00:35:55,099 --> 00:35:58,699
the more you know

590
00:35:58,800 --> 00:36:01,565
that it was never going to
work out particularly well.

591
00:36:16,432 --> 00:36:22,099
RHEAULT: I was at my top of
my game when I was in combat.

592
00:36:27,065 --> 00:36:30,132
You don't have the luxury
to indulge your fear

593
00:36:30,233 --> 00:36:32,199
because other people's lives depend upon

594
00:36:32,300 --> 00:36:33,599
you keeping your head cold.

595
00:36:42,365 --> 00:36:45,333
You know, when something goes wrong,

596
00:36:45,432 --> 00:36:46,733
they call it emotional numbing.

597
00:36:46,833 --> 00:36:49,099
It's not very good in civilian life,

598
00:36:49,199 --> 00:36:51,400
but it's pretty useful in combat.

599
00:37:03,099 --> 00:37:05,699
To be able to get absolutely very cold

600
00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:10,965
about what needs to be
done and to stick with it.

601
00:37:16,800 --> 00:37:19,733
To me it's, it's a little
bit distressing to realize

602
00:37:19,833 --> 00:37:21,500
that I was at my best

603
00:37:21,599 --> 00:37:24,266
doing something as terrible as war.

604
00:37:33,666 --> 00:37:36,199
MOSSMAN: President Kennedy has
staked his reputation in Asia

605
00:37:36,300 --> 00:37:39,132
on saving South Vietnam from communism.

606
00:37:39,233 --> 00:37:41,632
As the army makes the
sweep towards the village

607
00:37:41,733 --> 00:37:43,532
suspected of harboring Viet Cong,

608
00:37:43,632 --> 00:37:46,733
it can't tell whether it
will meet resistance.

609
00:37:52,965 --> 00:37:55,166
The troops round up all the
young men they can find,

610
00:37:55,266 --> 00:37:58,333
since they can't tell who is
a communist just by looking.

611
00:38:00,833 --> 00:38:03,500
Those who try to run for it are shot

612
00:38:03,599 --> 00:38:05,532
on the assumption they
have something to hide.

613
00:38:10,565 --> 00:38:14,199
TRAN NGOC CHAU (in English):

614
00:38:57,199 --> 00:39:02,065
NARRATOR: Each of South Vietnam's
44 provinces had its own chief.

615
00:39:02,166 --> 00:39:04,965
Some were simply political appointees,

616
00:39:05,065 --> 00:39:07,833
corrupt allies of President Diem.

617
00:39:07,932 --> 00:39:13,565
Tran Ngoc Chau, province chief
of Kien Hoa, was different.

618
00:39:13,666 --> 00:39:18,500
A privileged judge's son from
the old imperial city of Hue,

619
00:39:18,599 --> 00:39:21,565
he and two of his brothers had
fought against the French

620
00:39:21,666 --> 00:39:23,032
with the Viet Minh.

621
00:39:23,132 --> 00:39:27,132
But he had refused to
join the Communist Party;

622
00:39:27,233 --> 00:39:30,166
he admired their dedication,
but disliked the way

623
00:39:30,266 --> 00:39:33,400
they punished those who
dared differ with them.

624
00:39:33,500 --> 00:39:36,465
Instead, he left the Viet Minh,

625
00:39:36,565 --> 00:39:39,699
became a major in the army
fighting against them,

626
00:39:39,800 --> 00:39:43,666
and eventually so impressed Diem
with his insider's knowledge

627
00:39:43,766 --> 00:39:47,599
of communist tactics that
he was promoted to colonel

628
00:39:47,699 --> 00:39:53,532
and made chief of Kien Hoa,
a Viet Cong stronghold.

629
00:39:53,632 --> 00:39:57,300
PHILLIPS: He was absolutely incorruptible.

630
00:39:57,400 --> 00:40:02,365
And people came to really
understand that here's a guy

631
00:40:02,465 --> 00:40:05,465
who's, even though it's
not an elected system,

632
00:40:05,565 --> 00:40:08,400
who never... nevertheless
really represents us.

633
00:40:10,099 --> 00:40:12,019
NARRATOR: "Give me a budget
that equals the cost

634
00:40:12,099 --> 00:40:16,300
of one American helicopter,"
Chau liked to say,

635
00:40:16,400 --> 00:40:19,032
"and I'll give you a pacified province.

636
00:40:19,132 --> 00:40:23,199
"With that much money, I can
raise the standard of living

637
00:40:23,300 --> 00:40:24,800
"of the rice farmers,

638
00:40:24,900 --> 00:40:26,660
"and government officials
can be paid enough

639
00:40:26,699 --> 00:40:31,400
so they won't think it necessary to steal."

640
00:40:31,500 --> 00:40:33,965
Rather than hunt down the Viet Cong,

641
00:40:34,065 --> 00:40:36,733
he sought to persuade them.

642
00:40:38,099 --> 00:40:41,300
TRAN NGOC CHAU (in English):

643
00:41:27,932 --> 00:41:32,032
("Walk, Don't Run" by the Ventures playing)

644
00:41:32,132 --> 00:41:35,733
NARRATOR: Back home, Americans
were paying little attention

645
00:41:35,833 --> 00:41:38,000
to what was happening in Vietnam.

646
00:41:38,099 --> 00:41:40,833
They were watching The Beverly Hillbillies

647
00:41:40,932 --> 00:41:43,032
andGunsm oke on TV,

648
00:41:43,132 --> 00:41:46,065
were interested in whether
the Yankees would win

649
00:41:46,166 --> 00:41:47,565
the World Series again

650
00:41:47,666 --> 00:41:51,800
and in the recent death of Marilyn Monroe.

651
00:41:51,900 --> 00:41:55,000
("Stand By Me" by Ben E. King playing)

652
00:41:55,099 --> 00:41:57,500
But some Americans had
been growing impatient

653
00:41:57,599 --> 00:42:00,865
with the slow pace of social change.

654
00:42:00,965 --> 00:42:02,599
BILL ZIMMERMAN: We were told in the '50s

655
00:42:02,699 --> 00:42:05,400
that we lived in the best
country in the world.

656
00:42:05,500 --> 00:42:08,900
In the middle of, you know,
trying to figure out

657
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:11,233
what it meant to be a citizen of the...

658
00:42:11,333 --> 00:42:13,666
of this best country in the world,

659
00:42:13,766 --> 00:42:15,565
suddenly the civil rights movement exploded

660
00:42:15,666 --> 00:42:17,599
into our consciousness.

661
00:42:17,699 --> 00:42:23,833
BEN E. KING: ♪ When the night has come...

662
00:42:23,932 --> 00:42:25,766
ZIMMERMAN: We didn't
think we had any power.

663
00:42:25,865 --> 00:42:29,000
We didn't think we could
be actors in history,

664
00:42:29,099 --> 00:42:31,699
that we could affect things.

665
00:42:33,932 --> 00:42:37,000
KING: ♪ No, I won't be afraid

666
00:42:37,099 --> 00:42:38,932
♪ Oh, I won't...

667
00:42:39,032 --> 00:42:40,766
ZIMMERMAN: And suddenly, you know,

668
00:42:40,865 --> 00:42:42,766
these young black students in the South

669
00:42:42,865 --> 00:42:44,465
were doing exactly that.

670
00:42:44,565 --> 00:42:47,632
And it just blew the tops of our heads off.

671
00:42:47,733 --> 00:42:53,365
KING: ♪ So darling,
darling, stand by me ♪

672
00:42:53,465 --> 00:42:57,800
♪ Oh, stand by me

673
00:42:57,900 --> 00:43:03,065
♪ Oh, stand, stand by me

674
00:43:03,166 --> 00:43:05,932
♪ Stand by me

675
00:43:06,032 --> 00:43:08,699
♪ If the sky that we look upon... ♪

676
00:43:08,800 --> 00:43:12,199
NARRATOR: Other Americans were
concerned about the proliferation

677
00:43:12,300 --> 00:43:15,532
of nuclear weapons in the world.

678
00:43:15,632 --> 00:43:19,532
Perhaps it would be a good thing
to put Khrushchev and Kennedy

679
00:43:19,632 --> 00:43:23,432
on an island and not let
either one of them off

680
00:43:23,532 --> 00:43:25,800
until they came to an agreement.

681
00:43:25,900 --> 00:43:28,266
KING: ♪ Stand by me

682
00:43:28,365 --> 00:43:33,199
♪ And darling, darling, stand by me. ♪

683
00:43:37,400 --> 00:43:40,833
(bicycle bells ring, motors rumble)

684
00:43:48,565 --> 00:43:51,699
SHEEHAN: And if you were in a cafe
when Diem was giving a speech,

685
00:43:51,800 --> 00:43:53,600
somebody would get up
and shut the radio off,

686
00:43:53,666 --> 00:43:55,432
it would be coming in over the radio.

687
00:43:55,532 --> 00:43:57,833
Somebody would get up and
they'd just shut the radio off.

688
00:43:57,932 --> 00:44:02,099
I mean, he was not connected with...
to his own population.

689
00:44:05,065 --> 00:44:09,965
PHAN QUANG TUE: Diem was simply the
opposite of what democracy was.

690
00:44:10,065 --> 00:44:13,833
South Vietnam, in the
competition against the North,

691
00:44:13,932 --> 00:44:19,000
that should been, should have
been a golden opportunity

692
00:44:19,099 --> 00:44:24,400
to have that society open
with the free press,

693
00:44:24,500 --> 00:44:26,500
free expression.

694
00:44:26,599 --> 00:44:29,333
But there was not much choice

695
00:44:29,432 --> 00:44:33,833
if the two system are structurally dictator

696
00:44:33,932 --> 00:44:35,233
and oppressive systems...

697
00:44:35,333 --> 00:44:41,666
one under the Communist
Party, one under a family.

698
00:44:42,766 --> 00:44:45,300
CHAU (speaking English):

699
00:44:58,599 --> 00:45:02,199
NARRATOR: Diem's brother, Ngo
Dinh Nhu, had been the architect

700
00:45:02,300 --> 00:45:04,699
of the strategic hamlet program,

701
00:45:04,800 --> 00:45:08,932
ran a personal political party
that mirrored the techniques

702
00:45:09,032 --> 00:45:11,500
and the ruthlessness of the communists,

703
00:45:11,599 --> 00:45:15,766
and supervised a host of
internal security units

704
00:45:15,865 --> 00:45:20,000
that spied on and seized
enemies of the regime.

705
00:45:21,865 --> 00:45:23,965
Some reporters who probed too deeply

706
00:45:24,065 --> 00:45:26,465
into what Diem and Nhu were doing

707
00:45:26,565 --> 00:45:28,733
were ordered out of the country.

708
00:45:28,833 --> 00:45:29,833
(gunshot)

709
00:45:29,865 --> 00:45:32,266
When an American journalist objected,

710
00:45:32,365 --> 00:45:36,432
Nhu's sharp-tongued wife
told him Vietnam had no use

711
00:45:36,532 --> 00:45:39,166
for "your crazy freedoms."

712
00:45:40,632 --> 00:45:42,500
Meanwhile, out in the countryside,

713
00:45:42,599 --> 00:45:46,766
John Paul Vann and other
advisors had begun to notice

714
00:45:46,865 --> 00:45:50,599
that the corruption within
Diem's regime had filtered down

715
00:45:50,699 --> 00:45:52,632
to the commanders in the field.

716
00:45:52,733 --> 00:45:57,733
Troops, who had once been
willing to engage the enemy,

717
00:45:57,833 --> 00:46:01,865
now seemed strangely reluctant.

718
00:46:01,965 --> 00:46:06,766
God, I was told so many times,
"(speaking Vietnamese)."

719
00:46:06,865 --> 00:46:08,766
You know, "Scanlon, (speaking Vietnamese)."

720
00:46:08,865 --> 00:46:09,965
Um...

721
00:46:10,065 --> 00:46:15,266
very dangerous, you know, going out there.

722
00:46:15,365 --> 00:46:18,099
NEIL SHEEHAN: John Vann would
go out with them at night.

723
00:46:18,199 --> 00:46:22,300
And he noticed that
somebody would always cough

724
00:46:22,400 --> 00:46:25,733
or make some other slight
noise when it turned out

725
00:46:25,833 --> 00:46:28,233
that the Viet Cong were
heading into the ambush site.

726
00:46:28,333 --> 00:46:30,065
They did not want to get in a fight.

727
00:46:30,166 --> 00:46:33,365
NARRATOR: South Vietnamese
officers were chosen

728
00:46:33,465 --> 00:46:36,932
less for their combat skill
than for their loyalty

729
00:46:37,032 --> 00:46:41,000
to President Diem, and their men knew it.

730
00:46:42,300 --> 00:46:43,660
RHEAULT: What we should've done is

731
00:46:43,733 --> 00:46:48,300
either forced the Vietnamese...
I mean really forced them...

732
00:46:48,400 --> 00:46:50,500
to clean up their act.

733
00:46:50,599 --> 00:46:52,632
And if they wouldn't clean
up their act to say,

734
00:46:52,733 --> 00:46:55,132
"We're out of here.

735
00:46:55,233 --> 00:46:58,032
"Because we don't bet on losing horses.

736
00:46:58,132 --> 00:47:00,532
"This is a losing horse.

737
00:47:00,632 --> 00:47:02,900
You are not going to win this insurgency."

738
00:47:03,000 --> 00:47:05,733
We, as Americans, should
have understood the desire

739
00:47:05,833 --> 00:47:09,300
of the Vietnamese people
to have their own country.

740
00:47:09,400 --> 00:47:12,400
I mean we did the same thing to the Brits.

741
00:47:18,032 --> 00:47:22,865
NARRATOR: In October of 1962, the
United States and the Soviet Union

742
00:47:22,965 --> 00:47:25,733
came closer than they would ever come again

743
00:47:25,833 --> 00:47:28,500
to mutually assured destruction.

744
00:47:28,599 --> 00:47:31,599
Good evening, my fellow citizens.

745
00:47:31,699 --> 00:47:35,666
This government, as
promised, has maintained

746
00:47:35,766 --> 00:47:39,599
the closest surveillance of
the Soviet military buildup

747
00:47:39,699 --> 00:47:41,500
on the island of Cuba.

748
00:47:42,500 --> 00:47:44,532
Within the past week,

749
00:47:44,632 --> 00:47:47,932
unmistakable evidence has
established the fact

750
00:47:48,032 --> 00:47:51,432
that a series of offensive missile sites

751
00:47:51,532 --> 00:47:56,565
is now in preparation on
that imprisoned island.

752
00:47:56,666 --> 00:47:59,865
NARRATOR: The Soviets had
secretly placed nuclear missiles

753
00:47:59,965 --> 00:48:03,000
90 miles from the United States.

754
00:48:03,099 --> 00:48:08,000
The Joint Chiefs of Staff urged
President Kennedy to bomb Cuba.

755
00:48:08,099 --> 00:48:12,233
He resisted and instead
ordered a naval blockade

756
00:48:12,333 --> 00:48:16,733
to stop Soviet ships from
resupplying the island.

757
00:48:18,300 --> 00:48:23,699
For 13 excruciating days,
the world held its breath.

758
00:48:27,099 --> 00:48:30,333
Finally, in exchange for a private pledge

759
00:48:30,432 --> 00:48:33,132
to remove American missiles from Turkey,

760
00:48:33,233 --> 00:48:36,833
Khrushchev agreed to remove
his missiles from Cuba.

761
00:48:39,666 --> 00:48:42,666
Neither the United States
nor the Soviet Union

762
00:48:42,766 --> 00:48:46,800
wanted so direct a
confrontation ever again.

763
00:48:46,900 --> 00:48:49,300
From now on, limited wars,

764
00:48:49,400 --> 00:48:51,900
like the growing conflict in Vietnam,

765
00:48:52,000 --> 00:48:55,500
would assume still greater importance.

766
00:48:58,800 --> 00:49:03,300
MUSGRAVE: I'd grown up in the
shadow of the mushroom cloud.

767
00:49:03,400 --> 00:49:07,432
And I remember the... watching
President Kennedy speak

768
00:49:07,532 --> 00:49:09,099
during the Cuban Missile Crisis

769
00:49:09,199 --> 00:49:11,400
and wondering if I was
ever gonna kiss a girl.

770
00:49:11,500 --> 00:49:14,365
And so this was just continuing that battle

771
00:49:14,465 --> 00:49:16,233
against the Russians.

772
00:49:16,333 --> 00:49:19,865
Only we were fighting, you
know, their, their proxies,

773
00:49:19,965 --> 00:49:23,400
the Vietnamese there... but
it was monolithic communism.

774
00:49:24,766 --> 00:49:27,632
It didn't matter to me where
it was, I was going to go

775
00:49:27,733 --> 00:49:31,800
if my government said
we needed to be there.

776
00:49:31,900 --> 00:49:34,833
We were probably the last
kids of any generation

777
00:49:34,932 --> 00:49:36,166
that actually believed

778
00:49:36,266 --> 00:49:38,000
our government would never lie to us.

779
00:49:43,333 --> 00:49:45,632
SHEEHAN: We had been writing
stories about all the flaws

780
00:49:45,733 --> 00:49:48,565
on the Saigon side... about
how they wouldn't fight,

781
00:49:48,666 --> 00:49:51,400
about the corruption, they
wouldn't obey orders,

782
00:49:51,500 --> 00:49:53,032
the disorganization.

783
00:49:54,965 --> 00:49:59,500
And then all of a sudden the
Viet Cong, for the first time,

784
00:49:59,599 --> 00:50:00,965
the "raggedy-ass little bastards"

785
00:50:01,065 --> 00:50:03,865
as the Harkins's people
in Saigon called them,

786
00:50:03,965 --> 00:50:05,500
stood and fought.

787
00:50:05,599 --> 00:50:07,865
And suddenly all the
flaws on the Saigon side

788
00:50:07,965 --> 00:50:10,266
were illuminated by this.

789
00:50:10,365 --> 00:50:13,565
Like a star shell, it
illuminated the battlefield.

790
00:50:13,666 --> 00:50:15,132
Everything came out.

791
00:50:16,400 --> 00:50:19,699
NARRATOR: A few days after Christmas 1962,

792
00:50:19,800 --> 00:50:23,266
the 7th ARVN Division got orders to capture

793
00:50:23,365 --> 00:50:25,465
a Viet Cong radio transmitter

794
00:50:25,565 --> 00:50:30,199
broadcasting from a spot some
40 miles southwest of Saigon

795
00:50:30,300 --> 00:50:33,266
in a village called Tan Thoi.

796
00:50:33,365 --> 00:50:36,099
The village was surrounded by rice paddies.

797
00:50:36,199 --> 00:50:42,199
An irrigation dike linked it to
a neighboring hamlet... Ap Bac.

798
00:50:42,300 --> 00:50:46,632
Intelligence suggested no
more than 120 guerrillas

799
00:50:46,733 --> 00:50:49,065
were guarding the transmitter.

800
00:50:49,166 --> 00:50:52,500
John Paul Vann helped
draw up what seemed to be

801
00:50:52,599 --> 00:50:55,032
a foolproof plan of attack.

802
00:50:55,132 --> 00:50:59,365
Supported by helicopters and
armored personnel carriers,

803
00:50:59,465 --> 00:51:03,333
some 1,200 South Vietnamese
troops would attack the village

804
00:51:03,432 --> 00:51:05,266
from three sides.

805
00:51:05,365 --> 00:51:08,233
When the surviving Viet Cong
tried to flee through the gap

806
00:51:08,333 --> 00:51:12,266
left open for them, as they
always had whenever outnumbered

807
00:51:12,365 --> 00:51:14,565
and confronted by modern weapons,

808
00:51:14,666 --> 00:51:18,166
artillery and airstrikes
would destroy them.

809
00:51:18,266 --> 00:51:22,733
Vann would observe the
fighting from a spotter plane.

810
00:51:22,833 --> 00:51:28,432
But the intelligence underlying
it all turned out to be wrong.

811
00:51:28,532 --> 00:51:34,065
There were more than 340 Viet
Cong, not 120, in the area.

812
00:51:34,166 --> 00:51:37,099
Communist spies had tipped them off

813
00:51:37,199 --> 00:51:39,300
that they were soon to be attacked.

814
00:51:39,400 --> 00:51:43,465
And this time they would
not flee without a fight.

815
00:51:45,932 --> 00:51:48,666
Among them was Le Quan Cong,

816
00:51:48,766 --> 00:51:53,199
who had been a guerrilla fighter
since 1951, when he was 12.

817
00:52:07,666 --> 00:52:12,733
NARRATOR: At 6:35 in the
morning on January 2, 1963,

818
00:52:12,833 --> 00:52:16,132
ten American helicopters
ferried an ARVN company

819
00:52:16,233 --> 00:52:19,599
to a spot just north of Tan Thoi.

820
00:52:22,500 --> 00:52:25,500
They met no resistance.

821
00:52:25,599 --> 00:52:29,166
Meanwhile, two South Vietnamese
Civil Guard battalions

822
00:52:29,266 --> 00:52:32,565
approached Ap Bac from the South on foot.

823
00:52:35,565 --> 00:52:39,233
The Viet Cong commander let the
Civil Guards get within 100 feet

824
00:52:39,333 --> 00:52:41,900
before giving the order to fire.

825
00:52:44,400 --> 00:52:47,166
Several South Vietnamese
soldiers were killed.

826
00:52:51,132 --> 00:52:54,199
Survivors hid behind a dike.

827
00:52:54,300 --> 00:52:57,032
(gunfire)

828
00:52:57,132 --> 00:52:58,965
Ten more helicopters,

829
00:52:59,065 --> 00:53:02,766
filled with troops and escorted
by five helicopter gunships,

830
00:53:02,865 --> 00:53:04,132
roared in to help.

831
00:53:05,666 --> 00:53:07,632
LE QUAN CONG:

832
00:53:30,965 --> 00:53:35,266
NARRATOR: Viet Cong machine
guns hit 14 of the 15 aircraft.

833
00:53:35,365 --> 00:53:40,733
Five would be destroyed, killing
and wounding American crewmen.

834
00:53:42,199 --> 00:53:44,365
LE QUAN CONG:

835
00:53:50,432 --> 00:53:52,800
NARRATOR: The enemy concentrated
their fire on the ARVN

836
00:53:52,900 --> 00:53:55,965
struggling to get out of
the downed helicopters.

837
00:53:56,065 --> 00:53:59,032
"It was like shooting
ducks for the Viet Cong,"

838
00:53:59,132 --> 00:54:01,065
an American crewman remembered.

839
00:54:03,400 --> 00:54:06,400
Colonel Vann circled helplessly overhead.

840
00:54:06,500 --> 00:54:08,900
He radioed the ARVN commander,

841
00:54:09,000 --> 00:54:13,099
urging him to send an APC
unit to rescue the men.

842
00:54:14,432 --> 00:54:17,000
SCANLON: I got the word from John Vann

843
00:54:17,099 --> 00:54:19,900
that American helicopters were down.

844
00:54:20,000 --> 00:54:22,365
They were right in front of
the Viet Cong positions.

845
00:54:22,465 --> 00:54:25,766
We had Americans killed and wounded

846
00:54:25,865 --> 00:54:27,932
and we had to get over there right away.

847
00:54:28,032 --> 00:54:31,932
NARRATOR: Like Vann, Captain
Scanlon was only an advisor.

848
00:54:32,032 --> 00:54:35,465
Captain Ly Tong Ba, his ARVN counterpart,

849
00:54:35,565 --> 00:54:38,266
would have to give the order to advance.

850
00:54:38,365 --> 00:54:41,599
Scanlon liked and admired him.

851
00:54:41,699 --> 00:54:44,132
SCANLON: I turned to Ba and said,

852
00:54:44,233 --> 00:54:46,900
"Hey, you know, you got to
get over there right away."

853
00:54:47,000 --> 00:54:51,500
And Ba said to me, "I'm not going."

854
00:54:51,599 --> 00:54:54,965
NARRATOR: Ba's superiors within the
ARVN, far from the battlefield,

855
00:54:55,065 --> 00:54:58,132
had told him to stay put.

856
00:54:58,233 --> 00:55:02,166
And John Vann, my boss, was, uh,
screaming at me over the...

857
00:55:02,266 --> 00:55:05,565
over the radio to get them over there.

858
00:55:05,666 --> 00:55:10,000
NARRATOR: It took Scanlon an hour
to convince Captain Ba to move.

859
00:55:10,099 --> 00:55:12,500
Another two hours were lost

860
00:55:12,599 --> 00:55:15,599
before the APCs could make
their way through the paddies

861
00:55:15,699 --> 00:55:17,900
toward the trapped men.

862
00:55:19,865 --> 00:55:22,132
The firing had died down.

863
00:55:22,233 --> 00:55:24,132
SCANLON: Everything was quiet.

864
00:55:24,233 --> 00:55:26,932
You could see the open
expanse of rice fields.

865
00:55:27,032 --> 00:55:30,333
And my reaction was, hey, it was all over.

866
00:55:30,432 --> 00:55:33,632
NARRATOR: The first two
APCs dropped their ramps.

867
00:55:33,733 --> 00:55:36,099
Infantry squads stepped out,

868
00:55:36,199 --> 00:55:39,166
prepared to spray the tree
line with automatic fire

869
00:55:39,266 --> 00:55:40,465
as they advanced.

870
00:55:40,565 --> 00:55:43,266
In the past, that had been enough

871
00:55:43,365 --> 00:55:46,699
to make the Viet Cong scurry away.

872
00:55:46,800 --> 00:55:49,065
This time was different.

873
00:55:52,766 --> 00:55:54,766
Eight of the APCs came under attack.

874
00:55:54,865 --> 00:55:58,233
Within minutes, six of their
gunners had been killed,

875
00:55:58,333 --> 00:55:59,565
shot through the head.

876
00:56:00,965 --> 00:56:03,065
SCANLON: And boy, we got raked.

877
00:56:03,166 --> 00:56:04,900
So it was like a pool table.

878
00:56:05,000 --> 00:56:06,365
We were on the green

879
00:56:06,465 --> 00:56:08,699
and they were in the
pockets shooting at us.

880
00:56:08,800 --> 00:56:11,565
NARRATOR: When Captain
Ba managed to convince

881
00:56:11,666 --> 00:56:14,233
a few more APCs to advance,

882
00:56:14,333 --> 00:56:17,300
guerrillas leapt from their foxholes

883
00:56:17,400 --> 00:56:19,432
and hurled hand grenades at them.

884
00:56:24,432 --> 00:56:26,833
None did any real damage,

885
00:56:26,932 --> 00:56:30,500
but the drivers were so
demoralized that they halted,

886
00:56:30,599 --> 00:56:35,532
turned around, and withdrew
behind the wrecked helicopters.

887
00:56:35,632 --> 00:56:37,532
From his spotter plane,

888
00:56:37,632 --> 00:56:41,766
Vann begged the ARVN to
make a simultaneous assault

889
00:56:41,865 --> 00:56:45,233
on the enemy by all the
remaining ground forces.

890
00:56:46,365 --> 00:56:49,365
ARVN commanders refused.

891
00:56:51,766 --> 00:56:54,733
That night, the Viet Cong melted away,

892
00:56:54,833 --> 00:56:58,233
carrying most of their dead
and wounded with them.

893
00:57:00,365 --> 00:57:04,432
At least 80 South Vietnamese
soldiers had been killed.

894
00:57:04,532 --> 00:57:09,900
So had three American advisors,
including Captain Ken Good,

895
00:57:10,000 --> 00:57:11,132
a friend of Scanlon's.

896
00:57:15,032 --> 00:57:18,932
SCANLON: We stacked the armored
personnel carriers with bodies,

897
00:57:19,032 --> 00:57:20,733
stacked them up on top till they...

898
00:57:20,833 --> 00:57:22,666
we couldn't stack anymore.

899
00:57:22,766 --> 00:57:28,865
And, um, I wouldn't let the
Vietnamese touch the Americans.

900
00:57:28,965 --> 00:57:31,733
So I carried Americans out.

901
00:57:31,833 --> 00:57:34,099
And, um...

902
00:57:34,199 --> 00:57:36,400
And I was... I was exhausted.

903
00:57:36,500 --> 00:57:42,365
They told me about Ken Good getting killed.

904
00:57:42,465 --> 00:57:46,699
And Ken and I had worked so
hard with our two battalions.

905
00:57:46,800 --> 00:57:52,599
And to hear that... he got killed hurt.

906
00:57:52,699 --> 00:57:54,333
(voice breaking): Great guy.

907
00:57:55,766 --> 00:57:57,965
NARRATOR: Reporters arrived from Saigon

908
00:57:58,065 --> 00:58:02,000
before all of the ARVN
dead could be removed.

909
00:58:02,099 --> 00:58:06,300
They were horrified at what
they saw and tried to find out

910
00:58:06,400 --> 00:58:09,065
what had really happened.

911
00:58:09,166 --> 00:58:13,599
John Paul Vann took Neil Sheehan
and David Halberstam aside

912
00:58:13,699 --> 00:58:15,632
and told them.

913
00:58:15,733 --> 00:58:17,500
The Battle of Ap Bac had been

914
00:58:17,599 --> 00:58:20,333
"a miserable goddamn performance."

915
00:58:20,432 --> 00:58:22,565
"The ARVN won't listen," he said.

916
00:58:22,666 --> 00:58:25,599
"They make the same mistakes
over and over again

917
00:58:25,699 --> 00:58:27,733
in the same way."

918
00:58:29,400 --> 00:58:30,900
But back in Saigon,

919
00:58:31,000 --> 00:58:34,699
General Harkins immediately
declared victory.

920
00:58:34,800 --> 00:58:37,800
"The ARVN forces had an
objective," he said.

921
00:58:37,900 --> 00:58:39,333
"We took that objective.

922
00:58:39,432 --> 00:58:42,932
"The VC left and their
casualties were greater

923
00:58:43,032 --> 00:58:45,599
"than those of the government forces.

924
00:58:45,699 --> 00:58:47,333
What more do you want?"

925
00:58:48,800 --> 00:58:51,132
When Halberstam and Sheehan reported

926
00:58:51,233 --> 00:58:54,132
that Ap Bac had in fact been a defeat,

927
00:58:54,233 --> 00:58:58,300
the U.S. Commander in the
Pacific denied it all

928
00:58:58,400 --> 00:59:03,932
and urged the reporters
to "get on the team."

929
00:59:04,032 --> 00:59:06,065
SHEEHAN: Ap Bac was terribly important.

930
00:59:06,166 --> 00:59:08,333
They had shot down five helicopters,

931
00:59:08,432 --> 00:59:10,833
which they previously
had been terrified of.

932
00:59:10,932 --> 00:59:15,000
They'd stopped the armored
personnel carriers.

933
00:59:15,099 --> 00:59:17,099
They demonstrated to their own people

934
00:59:17,199 --> 00:59:20,266
that you could resist
the Americans and win.

935
00:59:23,965 --> 00:59:26,199
LE QUAN CONG:

936
00:59:39,932 --> 00:59:43,699
NARRATOR: In Hanoi, the
Battle of Ap Bac was seen

937
00:59:43,800 --> 00:59:48,400
by Party First Secretary Le
Duan and his Politburo allies

938
00:59:48,500 --> 00:59:50,699
as evidence of the inherent weakness

939
00:59:50,800 --> 00:59:53,766
of the South Vietnamese regime.

940
00:59:53,865 --> 00:59:57,599
Even when faced with American
advisors and weaponry,

941
00:59:57,699 --> 01:00:01,465
the Viet Cong had learned how
to inflict heavy casualties

942
01:00:01,565 --> 01:00:05,365
on Saigon's forces, and get away again.

943
01:00:06,865 --> 01:00:10,666
In Saigon, President Diem
claimed the ARVN were winning,

944
01:00:10,766 --> 01:00:12,000
not losing.

945
01:00:12,099 --> 01:00:15,365
Ap Bac had only been a momentary setback.

946
01:00:15,465 --> 01:00:17,266
And he resented Americans telling him

947
01:00:17,365 --> 01:00:20,965
how to fight his battles
or run his country.

948
01:00:21,065 --> 01:00:26,065
The president's sister-in-law,
Madame Nhu, went further.

949
01:00:26,166 --> 01:00:30,565
She denounced the Americans
as "false brothers."

950
01:00:32,032 --> 01:00:34,833
"We don't have a prayer
of staying in Vietnam,"

951
01:00:34,932 --> 01:00:39,000
President Kennedy privately
told a friend that spring.

952
01:00:39,099 --> 01:00:41,166
"These people hate us.

953
01:00:41,266 --> 01:00:44,599
"But I can't give up a piece
of territory like that

954
01:00:44,699 --> 01:00:49,199
to the communists and then get
the people to reelect me."

955
01:00:53,300 --> 01:00:55,833
(loud commotion)

956
01:00:55,932 --> 01:00:57,541
ED HERLIHY: Buddhist monks
and nuns are joined

957
01:00:57,565 --> 01:00:58,965
by thousands of sympathizers

958
01:00:59,065 --> 01:01:00,733
to protest the government's restrictions

959
01:01:00,833 --> 01:01:03,766
on the practice of their
religion in South Vietnam.

960
01:01:05,365 --> 01:01:08,932
SHEEHAN: Diem began by
alienating the rural population.

961
01:01:09,032 --> 01:01:11,599
And that started the Viet Cong.

962
01:01:11,699 --> 01:01:14,532
And now he was alienating
the urban population.

963
01:01:14,632 --> 01:01:17,166
HERLIHY: Seventy percent of
the population is Buddhist

964
01:01:17,266 --> 01:01:18,841
and the demonstrators
clashed with the police

965
01:01:18,865 --> 01:01:23,032
during the week-long series
of incidents like this.

966
01:01:23,132 --> 01:01:26,532
NARRATOR: In the months that
followed the Battle of Ap Bac,

967
01:01:26,632 --> 01:01:31,300
South Vietnam plunged into civil
strife that had little to do

968
01:01:31,400 --> 01:01:34,199
with the Viet Cong.

969
01:01:34,300 --> 01:01:38,266
Religion and nationalism were at its heart.

970
01:01:38,365 --> 01:01:42,099
A Catholic minority had for
years dominated the government

971
01:01:42,199 --> 01:01:45,032
of an overwhelmingly Buddhist country.

972
01:01:46,632 --> 01:01:49,032
That spring in the city of Hue,

973
01:01:49,132 --> 01:01:52,065
Christian flags had been flown to celebrate

974
01:01:52,166 --> 01:01:55,300
the 25th anniversary of the ordination

975
01:01:55,400 --> 01:01:58,199
of Diem's older brother
as a Catholic bishop.

976
01:02:01,333 --> 01:02:04,666
But when the Buddhists of
the city flew their flags

977
01:02:04,766 --> 01:02:10,099
to celebrate the 2,527th
birthday of Lord Buddha,

978
01:02:10,199 --> 01:02:13,032
police tore them down.

979
01:02:13,132 --> 01:02:15,766
Protesters took to the streets.

980
01:02:17,865 --> 01:02:21,666
The Catholic deputy province
chief sent security forces

981
01:02:21,766 --> 01:02:24,565
to suppress the demonstration.

982
01:02:24,666 --> 01:02:26,233
The soldiers opened fire.

983
01:02:26,333 --> 01:02:27,233
(two gunshots)

984
01:02:27,333 --> 01:02:30,266
Eight protesters died.

985
01:02:30,365 --> 01:02:36,233
The youngest was 12; the oldest was 20.

986
01:02:36,333 --> 01:02:40,199
The Diem regime blamed the Viet Cong.

987
01:02:41,800 --> 01:02:45,599
Monks throughout the country
demanded an apology.

988
01:02:54,465 --> 01:02:56,766
They also called for an
end to discrimination

989
01:02:56,865 --> 01:02:59,132
by Catholic officials.

990
01:02:59,233 --> 01:03:02,400
Many Buddhists had come
to see Diem's policies

991
01:03:02,500 --> 01:03:05,766
as a direct threat to
their religious beliefs.

992
01:03:08,565 --> 01:03:12,199
DUONG VAN MAI: My family was
against what Diem was doing.

993
01:03:12,300 --> 01:03:14,865
My mother was convinced

994
01:03:14,965 --> 01:03:18,900
that Diem was destroying
the Buddhist faith.

995
01:03:19,000 --> 01:03:23,166
She would go to the pagodas and
listen to the monks' speeches.

996
01:03:23,266 --> 01:03:26,632
And she was just extremely upset.

997
01:03:28,000 --> 01:03:29,199
She was not alone.

998
01:03:29,300 --> 01:03:32,099
There was a lot of people like her.

999
01:03:32,199 --> 01:03:36,132
NARRATOR: American officials
urged Diem and his brother Nhu

1000
01:03:36,233 --> 01:03:39,532
to make meaningful concessions
to the Buddhists,

1001
01:03:39,632 --> 01:03:41,666
for the sake of maintaining unity

1002
01:03:41,766 --> 01:03:44,300
in the struggle against communism.

1003
01:03:44,400 --> 01:03:46,032
They refused.

1004
01:03:48,565 --> 01:03:53,532
On June 10, 1963, Malcolm
Browne of the Associated Press

1005
01:03:53,632 --> 01:03:56,500
received an anonymous tip:

1006
01:03:56,599 --> 01:03:59,766
something important was going
to happen the next day

1007
01:03:59,865 --> 01:04:03,266
at a major intersection in Saigon.

1008
01:04:03,365 --> 01:04:05,300
He took his camera.

1009
01:04:12,833 --> 01:04:16,199
To protest the Diem regime's repression,

1010
01:04:16,300 --> 01:04:22,699
a 73-year-old monk named Quang
Duc set himself on fire.

1011
01:04:40,300 --> 01:04:45,432
As a large, hushed crowd
watched him burn to death,

1012
01:04:45,532 --> 01:04:48,965
another monk repeated over and over again

1013
01:04:49,065 --> 01:04:52,000
in English and Vietnamese,

1014
01:04:52,099 --> 01:04:55,032
"A Buddhist monk becomes a martyr.

1015
01:04:55,132 --> 01:04:57,766
A Buddhist monk becomes a martyr."

1016
01:05:04,565 --> 01:05:07,432
SHEEHAN: I remember they held the ashes

1017
01:05:07,532 --> 01:05:10,032
of the monk who burned himself to death

1018
01:05:10,132 --> 01:05:13,132
where it was kept in one
of the main pagodas.

1019
01:05:13,233 --> 01:05:19,333
And lines of people came to
pass by, and I saw these women,

1020
01:05:19,432 --> 01:05:22,400
not rich women, ordinary Vietnamese women,

1021
01:05:22,500 --> 01:05:25,465
take off the one piece of gold
they had on, their wedding ring,

1022
01:05:25,565 --> 01:05:30,465
and drop it in the bottle to
contribute to the struggle.

1023
01:05:30,565 --> 01:05:34,400
And I thought to myself,
"This regime is over.

1024
01:05:34,500 --> 01:05:35,565
It's the end."

1025
01:05:39,666 --> 01:05:42,266
NARRATOR: Soon other monks
would become martyrs.

1026
01:05:45,532 --> 01:05:51,065
Fresh outbursts by Madame
Nhu only made things worse.

1027
01:05:51,166 --> 01:05:54,632
Burning monks made her
clap her hands, she said.

1028
01:05:54,733 --> 01:05:57,300
If more monks wanted to burn themselves,

1029
01:05:57,400 --> 01:06:00,500
she would provide the matches.

1030
01:06:00,599 --> 01:06:02,465
The only thing they have done,

1031
01:06:02,565 --> 01:06:08,266
they have barbecued one of their monks,

1032
01:06:08,365 --> 01:06:13,900
whom they have intoxicated, whom
they have abused the confidence.

1033
01:06:14,000 --> 01:06:18,300
And even that barbecuing was done

1034
01:06:18,400 --> 01:06:20,632
not even with self-sufficient means

1035
01:06:20,733 --> 01:06:23,766
because they-they used imported gasoline.

1036
01:06:25,465 --> 01:06:28,099
DUONG VAN MAI: They
thought she was arrogant,

1037
01:06:28,199 --> 01:06:29,666
she was power hungry.

1038
01:06:29,766 --> 01:06:33,032
They suspected her and her
husband of being corrupt.

1039
01:06:33,132 --> 01:06:39,400
Nhu ran the secret police, which
arrested and tortured people.

1040
01:06:39,500 --> 01:06:42,699
People feared the Diem regime.

1041
01:06:42,800 --> 01:06:46,365
Perhaps more than they feared
it, they really hated it.

1042
01:06:48,632 --> 01:06:51,266
NARRATOR: Students,
including many Catholics,

1043
01:06:51,365 --> 01:06:53,833
rallied to the Buddhist cause.

1044
01:06:53,932 --> 01:06:57,132
So did some army officers.

1045
01:06:57,233 --> 01:07:01,500
People among the military
had to ask the question,

1046
01:07:01,599 --> 01:07:04,900
"Can we continue this kind
of situation like that

1047
01:07:05,000 --> 01:07:08,400
"when the whole country,
country was almost burning

1048
01:07:08,500 --> 01:07:10,209
with the kind of protest
from the Buddhists?"

1049
01:07:10,233 --> 01:07:11,233
You see?

1050
01:07:14,833 --> 01:07:18,766
ZIMMERMAN: I first became aware of
Vietnam because of a burning monk.

1051
01:07:21,300 --> 01:07:26,099
We had watched the civil
rights movement in the South

1052
01:07:26,199 --> 01:07:29,099
and it had set the standard for us

1053
01:07:29,199 --> 01:07:35,532
to stand up against injustice,
allow yourself to be beaten up,

1054
01:07:35,632 --> 01:07:37,932
allow yourself to be attacked by a dog

1055
01:07:38,032 --> 01:07:40,365
or hit by a police truncheon.

1056
01:07:40,465 --> 01:07:42,333
And we had enormous respect

1057
01:07:42,432 --> 01:07:45,565
for people who were willing to go that far.

1058
01:07:49,965 --> 01:07:52,865
And then one day in 1963,

1059
01:07:52,965 --> 01:07:57,400
we saw on television a
picture of a monk in Saigon.

1060
01:07:58,833 --> 01:08:00,965
This was an extraordinary act.

1061
01:08:03,365 --> 01:08:06,166
Why was a Buddhist monk burning himself

1062
01:08:06,266 --> 01:08:09,000
on the streets of Saigon?

1063
01:08:11,733 --> 01:08:14,132
NARRATOR: The protests continued.

1064
01:08:14,233 --> 01:08:19,065
Tensions between Washington
and Saigon steadily worsened.

1065
01:08:19,166 --> 01:08:23,065
The more the Kennedy
Administration demanded change,

1066
01:08:23,166 --> 01:08:27,132
the more Diem and his brother
Nhu seemed to resist.

1067
01:08:28,800 --> 01:08:31,533
The White House announced that
a new American ambassador,

1068
01:08:31,632 --> 01:08:36,765
former senator Henry Cabot
Lodge, was being sent to Saigon,

1069
01:08:36,865 --> 01:08:39,332
a man eminent enough, the president hoped,

1070
01:08:39,432 --> 01:08:44,500
to make Diem listen more
closely to American advice.

1071
01:08:44,600 --> 01:08:48,365
Diem professed to be unimpressed.

1072
01:08:48,466 --> 01:08:51,100
"They can send ten Lodges," he said,

1073
01:08:51,199 --> 01:08:55,132
"but I will not let myself
or my country be humiliated,

1074
01:08:55,233 --> 01:08:59,000
not if they train their
artillery on this palace."

1075
01:08:59,100 --> 01:09:03,666
He did promise the outgoing
ambassador, Frederick Nolting,

1076
01:09:03,765 --> 01:09:06,500
that he would take no
further repressive steps

1077
01:09:06,600 --> 01:09:08,166
against the Buddhists.

1078
01:09:09,932 --> 01:09:15,166
Then, a few minutes after
midnight on August 21, 1963,

1079
01:09:15,265 --> 01:09:18,733
with Nolting gone and Henry
Cabot Lodge's arrival

1080
01:09:18,832 --> 01:09:22,365
still one day away, Diem
cut the phone lines

1081
01:09:22,466 --> 01:09:25,800
of all the senior American
officials in Saigon

1082
01:09:25,899 --> 01:09:29,432
and sent hundreds of his Special Forces

1083
01:09:29,533 --> 01:09:33,332
storming into Buddhist
pagodas in Saigon, Hue,

1084
01:09:33,432 --> 01:09:36,632
and several other South Vietnamese cities.

1085
01:09:36,733 --> 01:09:39,500
Some 1,400 monks and nuns,

1086
01:09:39,600 --> 01:09:45,199
students and ordinary citizens
were rounded up and taken away.

1087
01:09:45,300 --> 01:09:48,865
(shouting)

1088
01:09:53,033 --> 01:09:57,466
Martial law was imposed, public
meetings were forbidden,

1089
01:09:57,565 --> 01:10:01,966
troops were authorized to shoot
anyone found on the streets

1090
01:10:02,065 --> 01:10:03,699
after 9:00.

1091
01:10:03,800 --> 01:10:07,100
PETER ROBERTS: Tanks
guard a pagoda in Saigon

1092
01:10:07,199 --> 01:10:09,865
during South Vietnam's
bafflingly complicated crisis

1093
01:10:09,966 --> 01:10:12,966
that has the government of
President Ngo Dinh Diem,

1094
01:10:13,065 --> 01:10:16,800
students, and Buddhists, and
the United States government

1095
01:10:16,899 --> 01:10:20,500
all trying to guess one
another's next move.

1096
01:10:20,600 --> 01:10:24,399
NARRATOR: When college students
protested in support of the monks,

1097
01:10:24,500 --> 01:10:28,033
Diem closed Vietnam's universities.

1098
01:10:28,132 --> 01:10:31,899
High school students then
poured into the streets.

1099
01:10:32,000 --> 01:10:34,565
He shut down all the high schools

1100
01:10:34,666 --> 01:10:35,832
and the grammar schools, too,

1101
01:10:35,932 --> 01:10:39,166
and arrested thousands of school children,

1102
01:10:39,265 --> 01:10:42,132
including the sons and
daughters of officials

1103
01:10:42,233 --> 01:10:44,199
in his own government.

1104
01:10:44,300 --> 01:10:47,365
PHAN QUANG TUE: I participated
in the demonstrations.

1105
01:10:47,466 --> 01:10:54,332
I strongly believed that that
government has to be overthrown

1106
01:10:54,432 --> 01:10:56,533
because it's a dictator government.

1107
01:10:56,632 --> 01:10:58,600
We couldn't stand it anymore

1108
01:10:58,699 --> 01:11:02,365
and this is an opportunity
to rise against it.

1109
01:11:02,466 --> 01:11:06,432
NARRATOR: Phan Quang Tue was
a law student that summer.

1110
01:11:06,533 --> 01:11:10,432
His father was a prominent
nationalist whom Diem had jailed

1111
01:11:10,533 --> 01:11:13,765
for calling for greater democracy.

1112
01:11:13,865 --> 01:11:17,365
PHAN QUANG TUE: I was and
I'm still a Catholic,

1113
01:11:17,466 --> 01:11:19,699
not a very good Catholic.

1114
01:11:19,800 --> 01:11:21,632
I don't practice religiously.

1115
01:11:21,733 --> 01:11:23,632
But I'm a Catholic.

1116
01:11:25,132 --> 01:11:26,565
I was rightly arrested

1117
01:11:26,666 --> 01:11:29,733
because I did participate in demonstration.

1118
01:11:29,832 --> 01:11:32,733
And I was interrogated

1119
01:11:32,832 --> 01:11:35,899
and briefly tortured, beaten a little bit.

1120
01:11:40,199 --> 01:11:43,000
HERLIHY: Henry Cabot Lodge
took over as U.S. ambassador

1121
01:11:43,100 --> 01:11:44,565
in the midst of the turmoil.

1122
01:11:44,666 --> 01:11:46,076
And he has reported to have demanded

1123
01:11:46,100 --> 01:11:48,265
that President Diem's brother Nhu be ousted

1124
01:11:48,365 --> 01:11:50,733
or U.S. aid to Vietnam will be cut.

1125
01:11:54,100 --> 01:11:56,000
NARRATOR: In the wake of the pagoda raids,

1126
01:11:56,100 --> 01:11:58,466
a small group of South Vietnamese generals

1127
01:11:58,565 --> 01:12:02,132
contacted the CIA in Saigon.

1128
01:12:02,233 --> 01:12:05,666
Diem's brother Nhu was
now largely in control

1129
01:12:05,765 --> 01:12:07,733
of the government, they said.

1130
01:12:07,832 --> 01:12:12,466
What would Washington's reaction
be if they mounted a coup?

1131
01:12:12,565 --> 01:12:15,565
President Kennedy and his senior advisors

1132
01:12:15,666 --> 01:12:20,466
happened to be out of town,
so Roger Hilsman, Jr.,

1133
01:12:20,565 --> 01:12:24,033
assistant secretary of state
for Far Eastern affairs

1134
01:12:24,132 --> 01:12:26,432
and a critic of the Diem regime,

1135
01:12:26,533 --> 01:12:30,565
took it upon himself to draft
a cable with new instructions

1136
01:12:30,666 --> 01:12:33,500
for Ambassador Lodge.

1137
01:12:33,600 --> 01:12:37,466
The U.S. government could no
longer tolerate a situation

1138
01:12:37,565 --> 01:12:41,733
in which power lay in Nhu's hands, it said.

1139
01:12:41,832 --> 01:12:45,065
Diem should be given a chance
to rid himself of his brother.

1140
01:12:46,500 --> 01:12:50,033
If he refused, Lodge was
to tell the generals,

1141
01:12:50,132 --> 01:12:53,632
"then we must face the
possibility that Diem himself

1142
01:12:53,733 --> 01:12:57,500
cannot be preserved."

1143
01:12:57,600 --> 01:13:01,233
The president was vacationing
at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.

1144
01:13:01,332 --> 01:13:05,199
Undersecretary of State George
Ball read part of the cable

1145
01:13:05,300 --> 01:13:08,365
to him over the phone.

1146
01:13:08,466 --> 01:13:10,632
Since the early 1950s,

1147
01:13:10,733 --> 01:13:12,375
the United States government had encouraged

1148
01:13:12,399 --> 01:13:18,632
and even orchestrated other Cold
War coups in Iran, Guatemala,

1149
01:13:18,733 --> 01:13:23,132
the Congo, and elsewhere.

1150
01:13:23,233 --> 01:13:27,065
Kennedy decided to approve Hilsman's cable

1151
01:13:27,166 --> 01:13:30,300
in part because he thought his top advisors

1152
01:13:30,399 --> 01:13:32,432
had already endorsed it.

1153
01:13:32,533 --> 01:13:35,332
They had not.

1154
01:13:35,432 --> 01:13:40,533
And somehow, because of a cable
that came out from Washington,

1155
01:13:40,632 --> 01:13:43,932
Lodge decided that the only
solution was to get rid

1156
01:13:44,033 --> 01:13:47,733
of not just Ngo Dinh Nhu, the bad brother,

1157
01:13:47,832 --> 01:13:50,265
but also of Diem himself.

1158
01:13:50,365 --> 01:13:52,432
And that started us on this whole business

1159
01:13:52,533 --> 01:13:55,300
of promoting a coup.

1160
01:13:55,399 --> 01:13:58,765
And it was not a good idea.

1161
01:13:58,865 --> 01:14:01,632
I just had a feeling of impending disaster.

1162
01:14:02,832 --> 01:14:05,432
NARRATOR: On September 2, 1963,

1163
01:14:05,533 --> 01:14:09,166
Labor Day, Walter Cronkite of CBS News

1164
01:14:09,265 --> 01:14:11,765
interviewed President Kennedy.

1165
01:14:11,865 --> 01:14:15,865
The president used the
opportunity to deliver a message

1166
01:14:15,966 --> 01:14:17,733
to President Diem.

1167
01:14:17,832 --> 01:14:21,565
Mr. President, the only hot war
we've got running at the moment

1168
01:14:21,666 --> 01:14:24,132
is of course the one in Vietnam,

1169
01:14:24,233 --> 01:14:27,065
and we've got our difficulties
there, quite obviously.

1170
01:14:27,166 --> 01:14:31,666
I don't think that unless
a greater effort is made

1171
01:14:31,765 --> 01:14:33,632
by the government to win popular support

1172
01:14:33,733 --> 01:14:35,100
that the war can be won out there.

1173
01:14:35,199 --> 01:14:37,065
In the final analysis, it's their war.

1174
01:14:37,166 --> 01:14:41,033
Hasn't every indication from Saigon been

1175
01:14:41,132 --> 01:14:43,166
that President Diem has no intention

1176
01:14:43,265 --> 01:14:44,166
of changing his pattern?

1177
01:14:44,265 --> 01:14:45,166
If he doesn't change it,

1178
01:14:45,265 --> 01:14:47,100
of course, that's his decision.

1179
01:14:47,199 --> 01:14:49,199
He has been there ten years and, as I say,

1180
01:14:49,300 --> 01:14:50,565
he has carried this burden

1181
01:14:50,666 --> 01:14:52,076
when he has been counted out
on a number of occasions.

1182
01:14:52,100 --> 01:14:53,100
Our best judgment is

1183
01:14:53,199 --> 01:14:55,699
that he can't be successful in this basis.

1184
01:14:55,800 --> 01:14:58,365
But I don't agree with those
who say we should withdraw.

1185
01:14:58,466 --> 01:14:59,666
That would be a great mistake.

1186
01:14:59,733 --> 01:15:01,000
That'd be a great mistake.

1187
01:15:01,100 --> 01:15:03,020
I know people don't like
Americans to be engaged

1188
01:15:03,065 --> 01:15:04,105
in this kind of an effort.

1189
01:15:04,166 --> 01:15:06,533
47 Americans have been killed.

1190
01:15:06,632 --> 01:15:08,533
We're in a very

1191
01:15:08,632 --> 01:15:11,399
desperate struggle against
the communist system.

1192
01:15:11,500 --> 01:15:14,733
And I don't want Asia to pass
into the control of the Chinese.

1193
01:15:14,832 --> 01:15:16,966
Do you think that this
government still has time

1194
01:15:17,065 --> 01:15:19,500
to-to regain the support of the people?

1195
01:15:19,600 --> 01:15:22,033
I do.

1196
01:15:22,132 --> 01:15:24,832
With changes in policy and
perhaps in personnel,

1197
01:15:24,932 --> 01:15:26,365
I think it can.

1198
01:15:26,466 --> 01:15:29,733
If it doesn't make those changes,

1199
01:15:29,832 --> 01:15:32,033
I would think that the
chances of winning it

1200
01:15:32,132 --> 01:15:33,800
would not be very good.

1201
01:15:35,533 --> 01:15:38,332
NARRATOR: Despite the cable,
Kennedy and his advisors

1202
01:15:38,432 --> 01:15:41,765
were sharply divided about a coup.

1203
01:15:41,865 --> 01:15:47,132
Robert McNamara, Maxwell Taylor,
Vice President Lyndon Johnson,

1204
01:15:47,233 --> 01:15:51,565
and the head of the CIA
all cautioned against it,

1205
01:15:51,666 --> 01:15:55,065
because, while none of them
especially admired Diem,

1206
01:15:55,166 --> 01:15:59,733
they did not believe there
was any viable alternative.

1207
01:15:59,832 --> 01:16:02,800
GREGG: Fritz Nolting was called in.

1208
01:16:02,899 --> 01:16:05,332
And he said, "As difficult
as they are to deal with,

1209
01:16:05,432 --> 01:16:10,365
"there is nobody with the
guts and sangfroid in Vietnam

1210
01:16:10,466 --> 01:16:12,166
"of Diem and his brother Nhu.

1211
01:16:12,265 --> 01:16:15,632
"And if we let them go we will be saddled

1212
01:16:15,733 --> 01:16:19,600
by a descending cycle
of mediocre generals."

1213
01:16:19,699 --> 01:16:21,666
And he was absolutely correct.

1214
01:16:23,332 --> 01:16:26,166
NARRATOR: But several State
Department officials believed

1215
01:16:26,265 --> 01:16:31,000
that without fresh leadership,
South Vietnam could not survive.

1216
01:16:31,100 --> 01:16:34,365
The debate intensified.

1217
01:16:35,533 --> 01:16:37,399
"My God," the president said,

1218
01:16:37,500 --> 01:16:40,832
"my administration is coming apart."

1219
01:16:40,932 --> 01:16:44,265
In the end, Kennedy instructed Lodge

1220
01:16:44,365 --> 01:16:46,666
to tell the renegade generals

1221
01:16:46,765 --> 01:16:49,065
that while the United States does not wish

1222
01:16:49,166 --> 01:16:53,233
to stimulate a coup, it would
not thwart one either.

1223
01:16:54,733 --> 01:16:57,765
The generals laid their plans.

1224
01:16:57,865 --> 01:17:00,365
(gunfire)

1225
01:17:04,100 --> 01:17:09,699
On November 1, 1963, troops
loyal to the plotters

1226
01:17:09,800 --> 01:17:11,899
seized key installations in Saigon

1227
01:17:12,000 --> 01:17:15,466
and demanded Diem and Nhu surrender.

1228
01:17:18,000 --> 01:17:20,432
REPORTER: The battle for the
city went on for 18 hours

1229
01:17:20,533 --> 01:17:23,765
and most of it was centered
on the presidential palace.

1230
01:17:23,865 --> 01:17:27,332
Just after 6:30 in the morning
Saturday, the shooting ceased.

1231
01:17:29,666 --> 01:17:31,533
(people cheering)

1232
01:17:36,265 --> 01:17:41,565
NARRATOR: Diem and Nhu escaped,
took sanctuary in a church,

1233
01:17:41,666 --> 01:17:44,632
and agreed to surrender
to the rebels in exchange

1234
01:17:44,733 --> 01:17:48,466
for the promise of safe
passage out of the country.

1235
01:17:48,565 --> 01:17:52,033
They were picked up in an
armored personnel carrier...

1236
01:17:52,132 --> 01:17:54,033
(gunshot)

1237
01:17:54,132 --> 01:17:58,233
And murdered soon after
they climbed inside.

1238
01:17:58,332 --> 01:17:59,666
(gunshot)

1239
01:18:03,033 --> 01:18:06,399
Madame Nhu survived the coup.

1240
01:18:06,500 --> 01:18:09,765
She was on a goodwill tour
in the United States.

1241
01:18:15,000 --> 01:18:17,533
PHAN QUANG TUE: The system was
overthrown on November 1.

1242
01:18:17,632 --> 01:18:20,233
I was released November 4.

1243
01:18:20,332 --> 01:18:26,432
And it was the most exciting
moment in the life of Saigon.

1244
01:18:28,265 --> 01:18:33,533
The excitement, you could
feel it in the air.

1245
01:18:33,632 --> 01:18:38,065
DUONG VAN MAI: I was thinking
that, yeah, it's a good thing.

1246
01:18:38,166 --> 01:18:41,800
Diem was making it
impossible to win the war

1247
01:18:41,899 --> 01:18:45,365
because people were so against him

1248
01:18:45,466 --> 01:18:49,966
that the war would be lost
if he stayed in power.

1249
01:18:51,600 --> 01:18:53,666
My father was a bit worried

1250
01:18:53,765 --> 01:18:55,885
because he didn't know who
was going to replace Diem.

1251
01:18:58,666 --> 01:19:01,199
NARRATOR: Ambassador Lodge
reported to Washington

1252
01:19:01,300 --> 01:19:05,832
that "every Vietnamese has a
smile on his face today."

1253
01:19:05,932 --> 01:19:09,533
"The prospects are now for
a shorter war," he said,

1254
01:19:09,632 --> 01:19:12,500
"provided the generals stay together.

1255
01:19:12,600 --> 01:19:15,332
"Certainly officers and soldiers

1256
01:19:15,432 --> 01:19:18,533
who can pull off an operation
like this," he continued,

1257
01:19:18,632 --> 01:19:21,966
"should be able to do very
well on the battlefield

1258
01:19:22,065 --> 01:19:24,533
if their hearts are in it."

1259
01:19:27,300 --> 01:19:30,432
President Kennedy was not so sure.

1260
01:19:30,533 --> 01:19:34,765
He was appalled that Diem
and Nhu had been killed.

1261
01:19:34,865 --> 01:19:38,466
Three days later, he dictated
his own rueful account

1262
01:19:38,565 --> 01:19:42,699
of the coup and his
concerns for the future.

1263
01:19:44,300 --> 01:19:48,100
KENNEDY: Monday, November 4, 1963.

1264
01:19:48,199 --> 01:19:51,132
Over the weekend the coup
in Saigon took place.

1265
01:19:51,233 --> 01:19:54,000
It culminated three months of conversation,

1266
01:19:54,100 --> 01:19:59,265
which divided the government
here and in Saigon.

1267
01:19:59,365 --> 01:20:04,466
I feel that we must bear a good
deal of responsibility for it,

1268
01:20:04,565 --> 01:20:07,500
beginning with our cable of August

1269
01:20:07,600 --> 01:20:10,199
in which we suggested the coup.

1270
01:20:10,300 --> 01:20:13,100
I should not have given my consent to it

1271
01:20:13,199 --> 01:20:15,466
without a roundtable conference.

1272
01:20:17,500 --> 01:20:22,865
I was shocked by the death of Diem and Nhu.

1273
01:20:22,966 --> 01:20:27,000
The way he was killed made
it particularly abhorrent.

1274
01:20:27,100 --> 01:20:29,632
The question now is whether the
generals can stay together

1275
01:20:29,733 --> 01:20:33,500
and build a stable government or
whether public opinion in Saigon

1276
01:20:33,600 --> 01:20:37,265
will turn on this government
as repressive and undemocratic

1277
01:20:37,365 --> 01:20:39,300
in the not-too-distant future.

1278
01:20:44,332 --> 01:20:46,632
NARRATOR: Kennedy would not
live to see the answer

1279
01:20:46,733 --> 01:20:49,233
to the question he had asked.

1280
01:20:49,332 --> 01:20:53,733
He was murdered in Dallas 18 days later.

1281
01:20:53,832 --> 01:20:58,800
There were now 16,000 American
advisors in South Vietnam.

1282
01:20:58,899 --> 01:21:04,233
Their fate and the fate of
that embattled country rested

1283
01:21:04,332 --> 01:21:09,500
with another American president,
Lyndon Baines Johnson.

1284
01:21:09,600 --> 01:21:13,565
(distorted rock music playing)

1285
01:21:27,000 --> 01:21:29,160
SHEEHAN: We thought we were
the exceptions to history,

1286
01:21:29,233 --> 01:21:30,699
we Americans.

1287
01:21:30,800 --> 01:21:33,432
History didn't apply to us.

1288
01:21:33,533 --> 01:21:35,666
We could never fight a bad war.

1289
01:21:35,765 --> 01:21:37,632
We could never represent the wrong cause.

1290
01:21:37,733 --> 01:21:38,865
We were Americans.

1291
01:21:40,065 --> 01:21:41,300
Well, in Vietnam it proved

1292
01:21:41,399 --> 01:21:43,899
that we were not an exception to history.

1293
01:21:45,132 --> 01:21:47,432
(distorted rock music continues)

1294
01:21:56,399 --> 01:21:58,800
("Mean Old World" by Sam Cooke playing)

1295
01:22:03,100 --> 01:22:11,100
♪ This is a mean old world
to live in all by yourself ♪

1296
01:22:16,600 --> 01:22:22,832
♪ This is a mean old world to live in ♪

1297
01:22:22,932 --> 01:22:25,632
♪ All by yourself

1298
01:22:29,466 --> 01:22:36,500
♪ This is a mean world to be alone ♪

1299
01:22:36,600 --> 01:22:42,533
♪ Without someone to call your own ♪

1300
01:22:42,632 --> 01:22:48,632
♪ This is a mean old world
to try and live in ♪

1301
01:22:48,733 --> 01:22:51,199
♪ All by yourself

1302
01:22:55,432 --> 01:23:01,533
♪ I wish I had someone, someone ♪

1303
01:23:01,632 --> 01:23:03,865
♪ Who'd love me true

1304
01:23:08,300 --> 01:23:16,300
♪ I wish I had someone
who loved me true ♪

1305
01:23:21,132 --> 01:23:27,500
♪ If I had someone who loved me true ♪

1306
01:23:27,600 --> 01:23:34,100
♪ Then I know I wouldn't be so blue ♪

1307
01:23:34,199 --> 01:23:40,765
♪ This is a mean old world
to try and live in ♪

1308
01:23:40,865 --> 01:23:43,365
♪ All by yourself

1309
01:23:45,632 --> 01:23:53,632
♪ Lord, I find myself dreaming

1310
01:23:53,899 --> 01:23:56,132
♪ I found a love

1311
01:23:59,533 --> 01:24:06,800
♪ Sometimes I find myself dreaming ♪

1312
01:24:06,899 --> 01:24:10,199
♪ I found a love

1313
01:24:12,600 --> 01:24:20,500
♪ Sometimes I dream I've
really found a love ♪

1314
01:24:20,600 --> 01:24:26,533
♪ Someone who loved me
true as the stars above ♪

1315
01:24:26,632 --> 01:24:32,100
♪ For this is a mean old
world to try and live in ♪

1316
01:24:32,199 --> 01:24:36,399
♪ All by yourself.

1317
01:24:39,865 --> 01:24:46,399
Captioned by Media Access Group
at WGBH, access.wgbh.org

1318
01:24:47,466 --> 01:24:48,665
ANNOUNCER: LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FILM

1319
01:24:48,666 --> 01:24:51,532
AND FIND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
AT PBS.ORG/VIETNAMWAR

1320
01:24:51,533 --> 01:24:55,532
AND JOIN THE CONVERSATION
USING HASHTAG VIETNAMWARPBS.

1321
01:24:55,533 --> 01:24:56,999
"THE VIETNAM WAR" IS AVAILABLE

1322
01:24:57,000 --> 01:24:58,665
ON BLU-RAY AND DVD.

1323
01:24:58,666 --> 01:25:00,331
THE COMPANION BOOK, SOUNDTRACK,

1324
01:25:00,332 --> 01:25:01,732
AND ORIGINAL SCORE FROM THE FILM

1325
01:25:01,733 --> 01:25:02,864
ARE ALSO AVAILABLE.

1326
01:25:02,865 --> 01:25:04,965
TO ORDER, VISIT SHOPPBS.ORG

1327
01:25:04,966 --> 01:25:07,431
OR CALL 1-800-PLAY-PBS.

1328
01:25:07,432 --> 01:25:08,864
EPISODES OF THIS SERIES ALSO

1329
01:25:08,865 --> 01:25:09,965
AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD

1330
01:25:09,966 --> 01:25:11,065
FROM iTUNES.

1331
01:25:14,332 --> 01:25:16,465
ANNOUNCER: BANK OF AMERICA PROUDLY SUPPORTS

1332
01:25:16,466 --> 01:25:21,364
KEN BURNS' AND LYNN NOVICK'S
FILM "THE VIETNAM WAR"

1333
01:25:21,365 --> 01:25:23,764
BECAUSE FOSTERING DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

1334
01:25:23,765 --> 01:25:26,364
AND CIVIL DISCOURSE AROUND IMPORTANT ISSUES

1335
01:25:26,365 --> 01:25:28,665
FURTHERS PROGRESS, EQUALITY,

1336
01:25:28,666 --> 01:25:30,666
AND A MORE CONNECTED SOCIETY.

1337
01:25:35,132 --> 01:25:39,166
GO TO BANKOFAMERICA.COM/
BETTERCONNECTED TO LEARN MORE.

1338
01:25:42,632 --> 01:25:44,064
ANNOUNCER: MAJOR SUPPORT
FOR "THE VIETNAM WAR"

1339
01:25:44,065 --> 01:25:47,564
WAS PROVIDED BY MEMBERS OF
THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY,

1340
01:25:47,565 --> 01:25:51,532
INCLUDING JONATHAN AND JEANNIE LAVINE,

1341
01:25:51,533 --> 01:25:54,499
DIANE AND HAL BRIERLEY,

1342
01:25:54,500 --> 01:25:56,898
AMY AND DAVID ABRAMS,

1343
01:25:56,899 --> 01:25:59,398
JOHN AND CATHERINE DEBS,

1344
01:25:59,399 --> 01:26:02,299
THE FULLERTON FAMILY CHARITABLE FUND,

1345
01:26:02,300 --> 01:26:04,364
THE MONTRONE FAMILY,

1346
01:26:04,365 --> 01:26:06,698
LYNDA AND STEWART RESNICK,

1347
01:26:06,699 --> 01:26:09,465
THE PERRY AND DONNA
GOLKIN FAMILY FOUNDATION,

1348
01:26:09,466 --> 01:26:10,466
THE LYNCH FOUNDATION,

1349
01:26:10,467 --> 01:26:13,331
THE ROGER AND ROSEMARY ENRICO FOUNDATION,

1350
01:26:13,332 --> 01:26:16,764
AND BY THESE ADDITIONAL FUNDERS.

1351
01:26:16,765 --> 01:26:18,665
MAJOR FUNDING WAS ALSO PROVIDED

1352
01:26:18,666 --> 01:26:20,399
BY DAVID H. KOCH...

1353
01:26:22,699 --> 01:26:24,899
THE BLAVATNIK FAMILY FOUNDATION...

1354
01:26:27,233 --> 01:26:29,665
THE PARK FOUNDATION,

1355
01:26:29,666 --> 01:26:31,831
THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES,

1356
01:26:31,832 --> 01:26:34,032
THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS,

1357
01:26:34,033 --> 01:26:36,698
THE JOHN S. AND JAMES L. KNIGHT FOUNDATION,

1358
01:26:36,699 --> 01:26:39,465
THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION,

1359
01:26:39,466 --> 01:26:42,064
THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS FOUNDATIONS,

1360
01:26:42,065 --> 01:26:44,264
THE FORD FOUNDATION JUSTFILMS,

1361
01:26:44,265 --> 01:26:45,465
BY THE CORPORATION

1362
01:26:45,466 --> 01:26:46,698
FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING,

1363
01:26:46,699 --> 01:26:48,665
AND BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU.

1364
01:26:48,666 --> 01:26:49,800
THANK YOU.