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ANNOUNCER: MAJOR SUPPORT
FOR "THE VIETNAM WAR"

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WAS PROVIDED BY MEMBERS OF
THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY,

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INCLUDING JONATHAN AND JEANNIE LAVINE,

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DIANE AND HAL BRIERLEY,

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AMY AND DAVID ABRAMS,

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JOHN AND CATHERINE DEBS,

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THE FULLERTON FAMILY CHARITABLE FUND,

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THE MONTRONE FAMILY,

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LYNDA AND STEWART RESNICK,

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THE PERRY AND DONNA
GOLKIN FAMILY FOUNDATION,

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THE LYNCH FOUNDATION,

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THE ROGER AND ROSEMARY ENRICO FOUNDATION,

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AND BY THESE ADDITIONAL FUNDERS.

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MAJOR FUNDING WAS ALSO PROVIDED

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BY DAVID H. KOCH...

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THE BLAVATNIK FAMILY FOUNDATION...

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THE PARK FOUNDATION,

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THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES,

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THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS,

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THE JOHN S. AND JAMES L. KNIGHT FOUNDATION,

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THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION,

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THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS FOUNDATIONS,

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THE FORD FOUNDATION JUSTFILMS,

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BY THE CORPORATION

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FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING,

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AND BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU.

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THANK YOU.

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ANNOUNCER: BANK OF AMERICA PROUDLY SUPPORTS

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KEN BURNS' AND LYNN NOVICK'S
FILM "THE VIETNAM WAR"

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BECAUSE FOSTERING DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

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AND CIVIL DISCOURSE AROUND IMPORTANT ISSUES

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FURTHERS PROGRESS, EQUALITY,

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AND A MORE CONNECTED SOCIETY.

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GO TO BANKOFAMERICA.COM/
BETTERCONNECTED TO LEARN MORE.

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(helicopter blades beating, growing louder)

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(helicopter blades stop beating)

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(wind whipping, bullet whizzing)

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(gunfire)

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(explosion)

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(helicopter blades beating,
indistinct voices)

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(gunfire, distorted screaming)

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(distorted Marine Corps Hymn playing)

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(electronic hum)

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(Marine Corps Hymn playing, crowd cheering)

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KARL MARLANTES: Coming home from Vietnam

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was close to as traumatic
as the war itself.

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For years, nobody talked about Vietnam.

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(gunfire)

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(marching band playing)

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We were friends with a young couple

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and it was only after 12 years
that the two wives were talking.

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Found out that we both had
been Marines in Vietnam.

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Never said a word about it.

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Never mentioned it.

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And the whole country was like that.

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It was so divisive.

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And it's like living in a family
with an alcoholic father.

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(whispering): "Shh, we
don't talk about that."

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(gunfire)

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Our country did that with Vietnam.

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It's only been very recently that, I think,

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that, you know, the baby boomers
are finally starting to say,

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"What happened?

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What happened?"

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("A Familiar Taste" by Trent
Reznor and Atticus Ross playing)

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HENRY KISSINGER: What we
need now in this country

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is to heal the wounds and
to put Vietnam behind us.

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("A Familiar Taste" continues)

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RICHARD NIXON: The killing

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in this tragic war must stop.

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("A Familiar Taste" continues)

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LYNDON JOHNSON: General
Westmoreland's strategy

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is producing results.

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The enemy is no longer closer to victory.

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("A Familiar Taste" continues)

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ROBERT McNAMARA: No matter
how you measure it,

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we're better off than we thought
we would be at this time.

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REPORTER: You have been less than candid

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as to how deeply we are
involved in Vietnam.

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We have increased our assistance

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to the government, its logistics.

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We have not sent combat troops there.

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DWIGHT EISENHOWER: You have
a row of dominoes set up

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and you knock over the first one

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and the last one, certainly
it will go over.

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HARRY TRUMAN: If aggression
is successful in Korea,

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we can expect it to spread
throughout Asia and Europe

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and to this hemisphere.

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("A Familiar Taste" continues)

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("A Hard Rain's A-Gonna
Fall" by Bob Dylan playing)

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♪ Oh where have you been,
my blue-eyed son? ♪

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♪ And where have you been,
my darling young one? ♪

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MAX CLELAND: Viktor Frankl, who survived
the death camps in World War II,

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wrote a book called Man's
Search for Meaning.

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DYLAN: ♪ I've walked and
I've crawled on six... ♪

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CLELAND: You know, "To live is to suffer.

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To survive is to find
meaning in suffering."

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And for those of us who
suffered because of Vietnam,

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that's been our quest ever since.

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DYLAN: ♪ And it's a hard,
it's a hard, it's a hard ♪

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♪ It's a hard

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♪ It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall ♪

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NARRATOR: America's involvement
in Vietnam began in secrecy.

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It ended, 30 years later, in failure,

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witnessed by the entire world.

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DYLAN: ♪ And what did you
see, my darling young one? ♪

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NARRATOR: It was begun in
good faith by decent people

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out of fateful misunderstandings,

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American overconfidence, and
Cold War miscalculation.

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And it was prolonged because it
seemed easier to muddle through

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than admit that it had been
caused by tragic decisions,

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made by five American presidents,

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belonging to both political parties.

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DYLAN: ♪ I saw a room full of men
with their hammers a-bleeding ♪

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NARRATOR: Before the war was over,

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more than 58,000 Americans would be dead.

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At least 250,000 South
Vietnamese troops died

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in the conflict, as well.

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So did over a million
North Vietnamese soldiers

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and Viet Cong guerrillas.

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DYLAN: ♪ Sharp swords in the
hands of young children ♪

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♪ And it's a hard...

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NARRATOR: Two million
civilians, north and south,

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are thought to have perished,

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as well as tens of thousands
more in the neighboring states

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of Laos and Cambodia.

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(helicopter blades whirring)

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For many Vietnamese, it
was a brutal civil war;

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for others, the bloody climactic chapter

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in a century-old struggle for independence.

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DYLAN: ♪ And what'll you do
now, my blue-eyed son? ♪

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NARRATOR: For those
Americans who fought in it,

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and for those who fought
against it back home,

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as well as for those who merely
glimpsed it on the nightly news,

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the Vietnam War was a decade of agony,

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the most divisive period
since the Civil War.

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Vietnam seemed to call
everything into question...

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the value of honor and gallantry;

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the qualities of cruelty and mercy;

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the candor of the American government;

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and what it means to be a patriot.

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DYLAN: ♪ Where hunger is ugly,
where the souls are forgotten ♪

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NARRATOR: And those who lived through it

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have never been able to erase its memory,

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have never stopped arguing
about what really happened,

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why everything went so badly
wrong, who was to blame,

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and whether it was all worth it.

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BAO NINH:

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DYLAN: ♪ And it's a hard

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♪ It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall ♪

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(song ends)

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(Silk Road Ensemble playing
"People and Fighters Unite")

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BAO NINH:

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NARRATOR: The French conquest of
Indochina began with an attack

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on the ancient Vietnamese
port of Danang in 1858.

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It took 50 years to lay
claim to the whole region...

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Laos and Cambodia, as well
as the 1,200-mile-long area

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that would come to be called Vietnam.

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All of it was ruled by a
French governor-general

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from his palace in Hanoi.

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The French largely lived
on plantation estates,

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and in cities, like Saigon, made
to look as much as possible

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like those at home.

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Most did not even bother
to learn the language

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spoken by their subjects.

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Instead they installed a
series of puppet emperors

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and employed a network

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of French-speaking Vietnamese
officials... mandarins...

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willing to carry out their wishes.

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The French put their subjects to
work building roads and canals,

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railroads and bridges.

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BAO NINH:

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NARRATOR: The Vietnamese
people did not take easily

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to French occupation,

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just as they had fought
against earlier invasions

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by the Chinese.

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By the early 20th century,
nationalism was on the rise.

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But anyone who dared resist
colonial rule risked exile,

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prison, or the guillotine.

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TRAN NGOC TOAN (speaking English):

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LAM QUANG THI:

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(helicopter blades whirring)

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JOHN MUSGRAVE: My hatred for them was pure.

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Pure.

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I hated them so much.

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And I was so scared of them.

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(gunfire)

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Boy, I was terrified of them.

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And the scareder I got,
the more I hated them.

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I was an 18-year-old Marine
rifleman with the ink still wet

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on my high school diploma.

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00:13:51,700 --> 00:13:54,133
I didn't want to shame myself
in front of my buddies.

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But I was so scared.

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I felt like I was hanging onto
my honor by my fingernails

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00:14:01,166 --> 00:14:02,800
the whole time I was there.

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00:14:07,932 --> 00:14:10,999
("La Marseillaise" playing)

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00:14:13,365 --> 00:14:15,666
(crowd cheering)

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00:14:17,566 --> 00:14:19,700
NARRATOR: In the spring of 1919,

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00:14:19,800 --> 00:14:22,899
as the victorious Allied
Powers met in Paris

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00:14:22,999 --> 00:14:26,700
to rebuild a world shattered
by the Great War,

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00:14:26,800 --> 00:14:30,499
President Woodrow Wilson
headed the American delegation

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00:14:30,600 --> 00:14:32,999
housed in the Hotel Crillon.

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00:14:35,865 --> 00:14:39,666
One day, a tall, slender,
29-nine-year-old man

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00:14:39,765 --> 00:14:42,233
appeared with a petition for the president

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00:14:42,332 --> 00:14:46,265
he and other Vietnamese
nationalists had written.

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00:14:46,365 --> 00:14:49,832
Inspired by Wilson's declaration

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00:14:49,932 --> 00:14:52,800
that the interests of colonial
peoples should be given

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00:14:52,899 --> 00:14:56,166
equal weight with those
of their European rulers,

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00:14:56,266 --> 00:14:59,766
the man was asking that
this principle be applied

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00:14:59,865 --> 00:15:01,566
to his homeland.

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00:15:01,666 --> 00:15:06,399
The president's secretary
promised to show it to Wilson,

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00:15:06,499 --> 00:15:10,066
but there is no evidence that he ever did.

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00:15:10,166 --> 00:15:12,666
His name was Nguyen Tat Thanh,

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00:15:12,766 --> 00:15:16,666
but he was now living under
an alias, Nguyen Ai Quoc...

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00:15:16,766 --> 00:15:19,332
"Nguyen the Patriot."

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00:15:20,633 --> 00:15:22,800
During his long, shadowy career,

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00:15:22,899 --> 00:15:26,600
he would adopt some 70
different pseudonyms,

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00:15:26,700 --> 00:15:29,765
finally settling on "the
most enlightened one"...

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00:15:29,865 --> 00:15:33,200
Ho Chi Minh.

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00:15:33,300 --> 00:15:38,499
DUONG VAN MAI: Ho Chi Minh was a man
who succeeded in projecting an image

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00:15:38,600 --> 00:15:42,600
of somebody who was totally
dedicated to freeing

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00:15:42,700 --> 00:15:47,066
his country and his people
from foreign domination

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00:15:47,166 --> 00:15:51,133
to the point that he
sacrificed his own well-being,

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00:15:51,233 --> 00:15:55,166
his own life, not having
a family of his own.

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To Vietnamese, that's a big sacrifice

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00:15:59,166 --> 00:16:01,899
because to us everybody needs a family.

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00:16:03,865 --> 00:16:06,600
NARRATOR: Ho Chi Minh was born in 1890,

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00:16:06,700 --> 00:16:09,566
the son of a minor official
in the French regime.

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00:16:09,666 --> 00:16:12,566
After taking part in a demonstration

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00:16:12,666 --> 00:16:14,233
against the puppet emperor

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00:16:14,332 --> 00:16:16,166
and the Frenchmen who pulled his strings,

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00:16:16,266 --> 00:16:20,332
Ho was expelled from school
and marked for arrest.

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00:16:22,432 --> 00:16:27,733
He left Vietnam in 1911 and
remained in exile for 30 years.

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00:16:29,300 --> 00:16:32,499
He served as a cook's helper
aboard a French liner,

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00:16:32,600 --> 00:16:35,332
and visited New York and Boston,

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00:16:35,432 --> 00:16:40,499
where he worked for a time as a
pastry chef at the Parker House.

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00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:45,865
He shoveled snow in London,
tinted photographs in Paris.

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00:16:47,332 --> 00:16:51,532
There, Ho Chi Minh joined
the French Socialist Party.

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00:16:51,633 --> 00:16:55,100
But when he discovered the
anti-colonial writings of Lenin,

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00:16:55,200 --> 00:16:57,198
he became a communist.

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00:16:58,733 --> 00:17:00,632
He was invited to Moscow to study,

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00:17:00,733 --> 00:17:03,698
underwent training as a Soviet agent,

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00:17:03,800 --> 00:17:07,166
was sometimes criticized for
being a nationalist first,

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00:17:07,265 --> 00:17:09,100
a communist second,

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00:17:09,198 --> 00:17:12,132
and then was dispatched to China

246
00:17:12,233 --> 00:17:15,399
to organize a cell of
other Vietnamese exiles

247
00:17:15,500 --> 00:17:20,065
and help establish the
Indochinese Communist Party.

248
00:17:20,166 --> 00:17:23,800
Through it all, "He was
taut and quivering,"

249
00:17:23,899 --> 00:17:27,132
a friend remembered,
"with only one thought...

250
00:17:27,233 --> 00:17:30,065
his country, Vietnam."

251
00:17:31,332 --> 00:17:34,166
(air raid siren blaring)

252
00:17:34,265 --> 00:17:35,465
(bombs whistling, exploding)

253
00:17:35,565 --> 00:17:36,765
(shouting)

254
00:17:39,800 --> 00:17:43,832
(gunfire, explosions)

255
00:17:43,933 --> 00:17:50,332
NARRATOR: By 1940, much of
the world was at war again.

256
00:17:56,733 --> 00:18:00,600
Germany had seized most of Western Europe,

257
00:18:00,699 --> 00:18:02,600
including France.

258
00:18:06,100 --> 00:18:07,832
Imperial Japan threatened

259
00:18:07,933 --> 00:18:09,965
many of the European colonies in Asia,

260
00:18:10,065 --> 00:18:13,899
and occupied Vietnam, where
they permitted their allies,

261
00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:15,565
the collaborationist French,

262
00:18:15,666 --> 00:18:18,366
to continue to oversee their colony.

263
00:18:21,532 --> 00:18:25,032
To some Vietnamese, the
coming of the Japanese

264
00:18:25,132 --> 00:18:29,666
seemed to signal a welcome
end to white colonial rule.

265
00:18:29,765 --> 00:18:33,032
But Ho Chi Minh, still in exile in China,

266
00:18:33,132 --> 00:18:36,500
saw the Japanese as alien invaders,

267
00:18:36,600 --> 00:18:39,032
no more welcome than the French.

268
00:18:39,132 --> 00:18:42,366
They were only interested
in exploiting his country

269
00:18:42,465 --> 00:18:48,132
and seizing Vietnamese crops
to fill their own rice bowls.

270
00:18:48,233 --> 00:18:50,565
The time had come, he said,

271
00:18:50,666 --> 00:18:54,300
to rally "patriots of
all ages and all types,

272
00:18:54,399 --> 00:18:58,465
peasants, workers, merchants and soldiers"

273
00:18:58,565 --> 00:19:02,265
to defeat the Japanese and
the collaborationist French.

274
00:19:06,032 --> 00:19:11,565
In February of 1941, after three
decades away from his homeland,

275
00:19:11,666 --> 00:19:15,699
Ho Chi Minh slipped back across
the Chinese border into Vietnam

276
00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:20,065
and set up headquarters near
the remote village of Pac Bo

277
00:19:20,166 --> 00:19:22,933
in a limestone cave at
the side of a mountain

278
00:19:23,032 --> 00:19:25,733
he named for Karl Marx,

279
00:19:25,832 --> 00:19:31,300
overlooking a jungle stream
he named for his hero, Lenin.

280
00:19:33,666 --> 00:19:36,300
There, he founded a revolutionary movement,

281
00:19:36,399 --> 00:19:40,132
which he called the Vietnam
Independence League...

282
00:19:40,233 --> 00:19:42,866
the Viet Minh.

283
00:19:44,032 --> 00:19:46,433
TRAN NGOC TOAN (speaking English):

284
00:19:55,532 --> 00:19:58,699
NARRATOR: To build and lead a
fighting force for his revolution,

285
00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:01,433
Ho called upon Vo Nguyen Giap,

286
00:20:01,532 --> 00:20:03,933
a one-time teacher of French history

287
00:20:04,032 --> 00:20:07,699
who had instructed the
children of Hanoi's elite.

288
00:20:07,800 --> 00:20:11,366
Giap was an early convert to communism,

289
00:20:11,465 --> 00:20:14,832
whose life-long hatred for
the French intensified

290
00:20:14,933 --> 00:20:18,233
when they beat his wife to death in prison.

291
00:20:18,332 --> 00:20:22,532
Inspired by Napoleon, Lawrence of Arabia,

292
00:20:22,632 --> 00:20:26,199
and the communist Chinese
revolutionary Mao Zedong,

293
00:20:26,300 --> 00:20:28,600
Giap had already begun to develop

294
00:20:28,699 --> 00:20:32,965
a distinctive theory of warfare
that relied on guerrilla tactics

295
00:20:33,065 --> 00:20:38,065
until a full-scale conventional
attack could be mounted.

296
00:20:38,166 --> 00:20:42,199
In the fight for independence
which he believed was coming,

297
00:20:42,300 --> 00:20:48,965
his armies, Giap said, would
be "everywhere and nowhere."

298
00:20:49,065 --> 00:20:52,899
DUONG VAN MAI: The reason Vietnamese
had always resort to guerrilla warfare

299
00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:55,565
was because we were a small country.

300
00:20:55,666 --> 00:21:00,899
And it was just a way of fight
the weak against the strong.

301
00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:04,565
Don't fight unless you're sure you can win,

302
00:21:04,666 --> 00:21:08,000
and surprise is a big element.

303
00:21:09,800 --> 00:21:12,366
Choose your own battle.

304
00:21:18,065 --> 00:21:22,233
MIKE HEANEY: I had about 26
guys that day out of 45.

305
00:21:22,332 --> 00:21:24,666
We were always somewhat understrength.

306
00:21:24,765 --> 00:21:27,065
And this day we were quite understrength.

307
00:21:28,699 --> 00:21:30,600
My platoon's on point.

308
00:21:35,666 --> 00:21:37,332
MAN: Go, go, go, go, go!

309
00:21:37,433 --> 00:21:40,199
HEANEY: And all of a
sudden the very point man,

310
00:21:40,300 --> 00:21:43,765
the first guy in the column,
said, "VC on the trail.

311
00:21:43,866 --> 00:21:45,132
VC on the trail."

312
00:21:47,100 --> 00:21:49,433
Before I had a chance to digest this...

313
00:21:49,532 --> 00:21:50,632
(gunshot)

314
00:21:50,733 --> 00:21:52,375
...he went down, shot
right through the chest.

315
00:21:52,399 --> 00:21:54,699
(gunfire)

316
00:21:54,800 --> 00:21:58,366
And what was a very
well-laid ambush erupted.

317
00:21:58,465 --> 00:22:01,832
(explosion, gunfire)

318
00:22:07,399 --> 00:22:09,399
(gunfire, shouting)

319
00:22:09,500 --> 00:22:11,699
I knew I'd lost a bunch of guys.

320
00:22:11,800 --> 00:22:16,000
I said a prayer to God saying, basically,

321
00:22:16,100 --> 00:22:18,532
"If you need any more guys
from my platoon, take me.

322
00:22:18,632 --> 00:22:20,500
Don't take any more of my men."

323
00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:23,965
As soon as I said it, I
freaked myself out and said,

324
00:22:24,065 --> 00:22:25,465
"Holy shit.

325
00:22:25,565 --> 00:22:28,132
Can I take that prayer back?"

326
00:22:30,465 --> 00:22:32,965
(gunfire, plane engine roaring)

327
00:22:34,465 --> 00:22:38,132
(explosion, alarm ringing)

328
00:22:38,233 --> 00:22:41,666
NARRATOR: By the spring of 1945,

329
00:22:41,765 --> 00:22:47,100
more than three years after the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor,

330
00:22:47,199 --> 00:22:50,332
the United States government
was looking for allies

331
00:22:50,433 --> 00:22:52,500
behind the lines in Vietnam.

332
00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:54,699
The Americans were hoping to find a way

333
00:22:54,800 --> 00:22:58,065
to undermine Japanese forces there

334
00:22:58,166 --> 00:23:01,332
when they were contacted by Ho Chi Minh.

335
00:23:01,433 --> 00:23:03,233
DONALD GREGG: And so it was decided to drop

336
00:23:03,332 --> 00:23:08,332
an OSS team in to meet with
the Viet Minh leadership.

337
00:23:10,765 --> 00:23:14,000
Paul Hoagland was the medic on the team.

338
00:23:14,100 --> 00:23:17,699
And the first thing he was
told was that he must attend

339
00:23:17,800 --> 00:23:19,632
to their leader, who was desperately sick.

340
00:23:19,733 --> 00:23:22,699
So he was taken to a grass shack

341
00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:27,132
where a bewhiskered, skinny
man lay on a bundle of straw,

342
00:23:27,233 --> 00:23:28,765
desperately ill.

343
00:23:28,866 --> 00:23:30,500
And that was Ho Chi Minh.

344
00:23:32,933 --> 00:23:37,565
NARRATOR: The OSS, the secret
wartime precursor of the CIA,

345
00:23:37,666 --> 00:23:40,832
supplied Ho's ragtag guerrillas with arms

346
00:23:40,933 --> 00:23:45,733
and marveled at how quickly
they learned to handle them.

347
00:23:45,832 --> 00:23:48,532
Ho Chi Minh began to call his followers

348
00:23:48,632 --> 00:23:52,832
the "Viet-American Army," and
praised the United States

349
00:23:52,933 --> 00:23:54,832
as a "champion of democracy"

350
00:23:54,933 --> 00:23:58,100
that would surely help
them end colonial rule.

351
00:23:59,366 --> 00:24:02,532
BUI DIEM (speaking English):

352
00:24:16,366 --> 00:24:20,933
NARRATOR: Meanwhile, famine gripped
the northern part of the country.

353
00:24:21,032 --> 00:24:22,933
Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese

354
00:24:23,032 --> 00:24:25,000
were dying of starvation

355
00:24:25,100 --> 00:24:28,332
while Japanese storehouses
were filled with rice.

356
00:24:31,366 --> 00:24:33,406
DUONG VAN MAI: In those
days, garbage was collected

357
00:24:33,465 --> 00:24:35,600
by people pushing carts.

358
00:24:35,699 --> 00:24:40,300
And my mother remembers that
every morning she would see

359
00:24:40,399 --> 00:24:42,300
these garbage carts going around

360
00:24:42,399 --> 00:24:44,765
and people picking up dead
bodies and throwing them

361
00:24:44,866 --> 00:24:46,366
on the cart.

362
00:24:46,465 --> 00:24:48,000
It was incredible.

363
00:24:48,100 --> 00:24:51,632
And people who lived through
it never, never forgot.

364
00:24:51,733 --> 00:24:56,199
NARRATOR: Duong Van Mai's
father was the deputy governor

365
00:24:56,300 --> 00:24:58,465
of a province east of Hanoi,

366
00:24:58,565 --> 00:25:01,000
the son and grandson of mandarins

367
00:25:01,100 --> 00:25:03,733
who had all served the French.

368
00:25:03,832 --> 00:25:07,166
He and his wife had 17 children.

369
00:25:07,265 --> 00:25:12,000
DUONG VAN MAI: Parents who had
children who were, you know, plump,

370
00:25:12,100 --> 00:25:14,532
were very afraid of their
children being stolen

371
00:25:14,632 --> 00:25:17,065
and killed.

372
00:25:17,166 --> 00:25:20,265
And it was really like hell on earth.

373
00:25:20,366 --> 00:25:23,832
The government didn't have
a clue on how to deal

374
00:25:23,933 --> 00:25:26,032
with this calamity.

375
00:25:27,600 --> 00:25:28,899
NARRATOR: But Ho Chi Minh did.

376
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:31,233
He directed the Viet Minh

377
00:25:31,332 --> 00:25:34,600
to break into the Japanese
storehouses wherever they could

378
00:25:34,699 --> 00:25:38,832
and distribute the rice to the people.

379
00:25:38,933 --> 00:25:41,500
They were hailed as saviors.

380
00:25:44,032 --> 00:25:45,632
(engine starts)

381
00:25:52,666 --> 00:25:53,800
(explosion)

382
00:25:56,366 --> 00:25:59,532
NARRATOR: When an atomic
bomb destroyed Hiroshima,

383
00:25:59,632 --> 00:26:03,166
and three days later a second
one destroyed Nagasaki,

384
00:26:03,265 --> 00:26:06,300
Japanese surrender seemed imminent.

385
00:26:08,332 --> 00:26:11,899
Ho Chi Minh called upon
all Vietnamese to rise up

386
00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:13,933
and take over their own country

387
00:26:14,032 --> 00:26:16,399
before the Free French could reestablish

388
00:26:16,500 --> 00:26:19,000
their old colonial regime.

389
00:26:19,100 --> 00:26:24,199
They did, in cities and
towns across the country.

390
00:26:27,733 --> 00:26:30,632
On September 2, 1945,

391
00:26:30,733 --> 00:26:33,500
the same day the Japanese
formally surrendered,

392
00:26:33,600 --> 00:26:36,500
hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese

393
00:26:36,600 --> 00:26:41,399
streamed into Ba Dinh Square in
Hanoi to see for the first time

394
00:26:41,500 --> 00:26:44,733
the mysterious leader of the Viet Minh

395
00:26:44,832 --> 00:26:49,465
and hear him proclaim
Vietnam's independence.

396
00:26:49,565 --> 00:26:53,000
(Ho Chi Minh speaking Vietnamese)

397
00:26:53,100 --> 00:26:57,699
NARRATOR: With an OSS
officer standing nearby,

398
00:26:57,800 --> 00:27:01,765
Ho Chi Minh began with the
words of Thomas Jefferson:

399
00:27:01,866 --> 00:27:04,399
"All men are created equal.

400
00:27:04,500 --> 00:27:07,300
"They are endowed by their creator

401
00:27:07,399 --> 00:27:10,500
"with certain unalienable rights;

402
00:27:10,600 --> 00:27:13,265
"that among these are life, liberty

403
00:27:13,366 --> 00:27:15,565
and the pursuit of happiness."

404
00:27:18,265 --> 00:27:21,132
DONG SI NGUYEN:

405
00:27:38,032 --> 00:27:40,332
GEORGE WICKES: Ho Chi Minh had great hopes

406
00:27:40,433 --> 00:27:45,800
that the U.S. would support the
Vietnam desire for independence,

407
00:27:45,899 --> 00:27:47,666
not necessarily by intervening

408
00:27:47,765 --> 00:27:51,532
but by doing what it could

409
00:27:51,632 --> 00:27:55,265
to support an independence movement.

410
00:27:55,366 --> 00:27:59,065
NARRATOR: Ho Chi Minh's hopes for
American support were calculated

411
00:27:59,166 --> 00:28:02,065
but understandable.

412
00:28:02,166 --> 00:28:06,065
President Franklin Roosevelt
had promised a postwar world

413
00:28:06,166 --> 00:28:09,233
that would "respect the
rights of all peoples

414
00:28:09,332 --> 00:28:12,300
to choose the form of government
under which they live."

415
00:28:15,132 --> 00:28:18,965
But Roosevelt was dead now, and
his successor, Harry Truman,

416
00:28:19,065 --> 00:28:22,832
had inherited a very different world.

417
00:28:22,933 --> 00:28:25,265
The alliance with the Soviet Union

418
00:28:25,366 --> 00:28:29,166
that had won the Second
World War had collapsed.

419
00:28:29,265 --> 00:28:32,899
The Soviets now occupied the
Eastern European countries

420
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:37,565
they had overrun, and hoped to
spread their influence farther,

421
00:28:37,666 --> 00:28:42,366
into Iran, Turkey, and the Mediterranean.

422
00:28:42,465 --> 00:28:46,765
A new cold war had begun.

423
00:28:46,866 --> 00:28:49,433
French president Charles De Gaulle warned

424
00:28:49,532 --> 00:28:52,600
that if the United States
insisted on independence

425
00:28:52,699 --> 00:28:56,366
for her colonies, France
might have no choice

426
00:28:56,465 --> 00:28:59,800
but to "fall into the Russian orbit."

427
00:28:59,899 --> 00:29:03,300
The United States must
do nothing to undercut

428
00:29:03,399 --> 00:29:08,800
the restoration of France's
empire, including Vietnam.

429
00:29:12,866 --> 00:29:16,366
WICKES: There were hardly any
Americans in Vietnam, you know...

430
00:29:16,465 --> 00:29:19,399
State Department people,
consular officials,

431
00:29:19,500 --> 00:29:21,699
a few businessmen.

432
00:29:21,800 --> 00:29:23,765
Hardly anyone from this country

433
00:29:23,866 --> 00:29:25,632
knew where Vietnam was located.

434
00:29:25,733 --> 00:29:30,433
NARRATOR: George Wickes was
part of a seven-man OSS mission

435
00:29:30,532 --> 00:29:33,866
sent to Saigon, the largest
city in the south.

436
00:29:33,965 --> 00:29:37,433
The United States was officially neutral,

437
00:29:37,532 --> 00:29:40,300
hoping the French and Viet Minh could reach

438
00:29:40,399 --> 00:29:43,933
some peaceful solution on their own.

439
00:29:44,032 --> 00:29:47,532
Allied leaders had agreed
temporarily to divide Vietnam

440
00:29:47,632 --> 00:29:50,100
into two separate zones.

441
00:29:50,199 --> 00:29:54,366
Nationalist Chinese troops were
to handle things in the north.

442
00:29:54,465 --> 00:29:57,933
British colonial troops would
try to perform the same task

443
00:29:58,032 --> 00:30:00,832
in the south, where rival factions,

444
00:30:00,933 --> 00:30:05,032
including the French and Viet
Minh, were already fighting

445
00:30:05,132 --> 00:30:08,032
in the streets of Saigon.

446
00:30:08,132 --> 00:30:10,500
WICKES: No one was in charge.

447
00:30:10,600 --> 00:30:14,765
On both sides, there was
brutality and atrocity

448
00:30:14,866 --> 00:30:16,366
and violence.

449
00:30:16,465 --> 00:30:19,000
It wasn't quite a civil war

450
00:30:19,100 --> 00:30:20,965
but it was getting very close to civil war

451
00:30:21,065 --> 00:30:23,300
in the streets of Saigon.

452
00:30:23,399 --> 00:30:26,366
NARRATOR: Lieutenant Colonel Peter Dewey,

453
00:30:26,465 --> 00:30:29,832
the 28-year-old commander
of the OSS in Saigon,

454
00:30:29,933 --> 00:30:32,532
tried to make sense of it all.

455
00:30:32,632 --> 00:30:35,366
WICKES: Right from the start he
was in touch with everybody...

456
00:30:35,465 --> 00:30:38,199
not only the French, but
very soon he established

457
00:30:38,300 --> 00:30:42,465
a connection with various
Vietnamese groups.

458
00:30:42,565 --> 00:30:45,565
The Viet Minh soon established themselves

459
00:30:45,666 --> 00:30:48,100
as the most successful.

460
00:30:48,199 --> 00:30:51,000
NARRATOR: Dewey, who spoke fluent French,

461
00:30:51,100 --> 00:30:54,032
brokered talks between
a Viet Minh spokesman

462
00:30:54,132 --> 00:30:57,832
and the senior French
representative in the city.

463
00:30:57,933 --> 00:31:02,699
His efforts infuriated British
general Douglas Gracey,

464
00:31:02,800 --> 00:31:05,733
who commanded Allied forces in the south.

465
00:31:05,832 --> 00:31:08,699
Gracey was convinced that French control

466
00:31:08,800 --> 00:31:11,632
should be reimposed as soon as possible.

467
00:31:11,733 --> 00:31:15,065
By conferring with the
Viet Minh, Gracey said,

468
00:31:15,166 --> 00:31:19,632
Colonel Dewey had become
a "subversive" force.

469
00:31:19,733 --> 00:31:21,065
(gunfire)

470
00:31:21,166 --> 00:31:24,666
The violence in and
around Saigon escalated.

471
00:31:26,666 --> 00:31:29,399
Colonel Dewey urgently
cabled his superiors:

472
00:31:29,500 --> 00:31:33,000
Vietnam "is burning," he wrote.

473
00:31:33,100 --> 00:31:35,600
"The French and British are finished here

474
00:31:35,699 --> 00:31:38,233
and the United States," he concluded,

475
00:31:38,332 --> 00:31:40,500
"ought to clear out of Southeast Asia."

476
00:31:40,600 --> 00:31:42,199
(gunfire)

477
00:31:44,832 --> 00:31:49,265
Two days later, September 26, 1945,

478
00:31:49,366 --> 00:31:50,866
he set out for the airport,

479
00:31:50,965 --> 00:31:55,866
prepared to fly to OSS headquarters.

480
00:31:55,965 --> 00:32:00,965
At a roadblock, the Viet Minh
mistook Dewey for a Frenchman

481
00:32:01,065 --> 00:32:03,100
and opened fire.

482
00:32:03,199 --> 00:32:04,600
(gunfire)

483
00:32:04,699 --> 00:32:07,899
He was killed instantly.

484
00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:11,800
WICKES: Ho Chi Minh wrote
to the United States

485
00:32:11,899 --> 00:32:15,899
lamenting the death of
Dewey, whom he recognized

486
00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:19,866
as a person sympathetic to his cause.

487
00:32:19,965 --> 00:32:22,699
It seemed a terrible irony that Dewey,

488
00:32:22,800 --> 00:32:25,366
who was doing what he could to help

489
00:32:25,465 --> 00:32:29,132
the Vietnamese independence
movement should have been killed

490
00:32:29,233 --> 00:32:31,500
by the Vietnamese by a mistake.

491
00:32:36,933 --> 00:32:39,433
(electronic buzzing, muted
helicopter blades beating)

492
00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:47,765
An elderly African-American
woman answered the door.

493
00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:56,800
I think she knew the instant
she saw us why we were there.

494
00:32:59,765 --> 00:33:01,899
And the padre said, uh,

495
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:06,600
"I'm... I'm terribly sorry to inform you,

496
00:33:06,699 --> 00:33:11,866
but your son was killed in Vietnam."

497
00:33:11,965 --> 00:33:12,965
And she just sat down.

498
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:14,632
Didn't say a word.

499
00:33:16,965 --> 00:33:20,699
Then the... her husband says,
"No, there's a mistake."

500
00:33:20,800 --> 00:33:22,500
He comes back with this letter.

501
00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:24,866
And he said, "Look, see?

502
00:33:24,965 --> 00:33:29,866
We got it yesterday, my... our
son was still alive yesterday."

503
00:33:29,965 --> 00:33:32,933
And the chaplain looked at the letter

504
00:33:33,032 --> 00:33:35,233
and he said, "It's a week old.

505
00:33:35,332 --> 00:33:39,765
I think your son was killed on
the day he wrote this letter."

506
00:33:41,800 --> 00:33:45,699
("La Marseillaise" playing)

507
00:33:47,565 --> 00:33:51,765
NARRATOR: In the fall of 1945, a
week after Colonel Dewey's death,

508
00:33:51,866 --> 00:33:54,832
fresh French troops began
arriving in Saigon,

509
00:33:54,933 --> 00:33:58,800
taking over from the British.

510
00:33:58,899 --> 00:34:00,065
They quickly established

511
00:34:00,166 --> 00:34:01,965
control of the city

512
00:34:02,065 --> 00:34:03,366
and set out to reoccupy

513
00:34:03,465 --> 00:34:05,266
the entire country.

514
00:34:07,165 --> 00:34:10,900
Ho Chi Minh hoped somehow
to achieve independence

515
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:13,000
without a war with France,

516
00:34:13,100 --> 00:34:16,500
and he still hoped the United
States would intervene.

517
00:34:16,600 --> 00:34:20,500
"You never had an empire, never
exploited the Asian peoples,"

518
00:34:20,600 --> 00:34:23,632
he would tell a visiting
American journalist.

519
00:34:23,732 --> 00:34:27,799
"Do not be blinded by
this issue of communism."

520
00:34:27,900 --> 00:34:33,032
LESLIE GELB: He did not want to fight
the French as an enemy of America.

521
00:34:33,132 --> 00:34:39,333
And, in fact, I saw the letters
he wrote to President Truman

522
00:34:39,433 --> 00:34:43,866
saying, "We believe in the
same things you believe."

523
00:34:43,965 --> 00:34:47,232
Those letters I saw in the CIA files,

524
00:34:47,333 --> 00:34:51,199
they had never been given
to President Truman.

525
00:34:52,665 --> 00:34:55,366
(children shouting)

526
00:34:55,465 --> 00:35:00,065
NARRATOR: In June of 1946, Ho
Chi Minh returned to Paris

527
00:35:00,165 --> 00:35:03,100
in a fruitless attempt to
get the French to live up

528
00:35:03,199 --> 00:35:06,400
to a promise they had made
of increased autonomy

529
00:35:06,500 --> 00:35:08,732
for his country.

530
00:35:08,833 --> 00:35:10,632
While Ho was away,

531
00:35:10,732 --> 00:35:14,100
General Giap began consolidating
communist control

532
00:35:14,199 --> 00:35:15,565
of the revolution.

533
00:35:15,665 --> 00:35:18,433
He conducted a merciless purge

534
00:35:18,532 --> 00:35:21,465
of members of rival nationalist parties

535
00:35:21,565 --> 00:35:24,833
and people he called
"reactionary saboteurs"...

536
00:35:24,933 --> 00:35:30,199
landlords and moneylenders,
Trotskyites and Catholics,

537
00:35:30,299 --> 00:35:34,665
men and women accused of
collaborating with the French.

538
00:35:34,766 --> 00:35:39,100
Hundreds were shot, drowned, buried alive.

539
00:35:39,199 --> 00:35:41,100
LAM QUANG THI:

540
00:35:52,232 --> 00:35:57,132
NARRATOR: On December 19, 1946,
after months of building tension,

541
00:35:57,232 --> 00:35:59,433
fighting broke out in Hanoi

542
00:35:59,532 --> 00:36:02,433
between the Viet Minh and the French.

543
00:36:02,532 --> 00:36:04,299
(gunfire)

544
00:36:06,699 --> 00:36:09,866
The Viet Minh proved no
match for French firepower.

545
00:36:14,433 --> 00:36:20,299
Ho, Giap, and their comrades
slipped out of the city

546
00:36:20,400 --> 00:36:24,333
and returned to their mountain
stronghold far to the north.

547
00:36:26,565 --> 00:36:29,699
"Those who have rifles
will use their rifles,"

548
00:36:29,799 --> 00:36:31,799
Ho declared in a radio address

549
00:36:31,900 --> 00:36:34,732
calling for a nationwide guerrilla war.

550
00:36:34,833 --> 00:36:38,699
"Those who have swords will use swords;

551
00:36:38,799 --> 00:36:44,032
those who have no swords
will use spades or sticks."

552
00:36:47,766 --> 00:36:52,766
NGUYEN NGOC:

553
00:37:14,433 --> 00:37:17,032
NARRATOR: But the country
Ho Chi Minh hoped to unite

554
00:37:17,132 --> 00:37:20,366
was itself bitterly divided.

555
00:37:20,465 --> 00:37:22,766
Families were being torn apart.

556
00:37:22,866 --> 00:37:26,632
Despite her father's position
in the French government,

557
00:37:26,732 --> 00:37:31,665
Duong Van Mai's sister felt
compelled to answer Ho's call.

558
00:37:33,333 --> 00:37:36,933
DUONG VAN MAI: My older
sister Thang was married

559
00:37:37,032 --> 00:37:42,065
to a man who had great
sympathy for the Viet Minh.

560
00:37:42,165 --> 00:37:45,165
And by that time Ho Chi Minh
had evacuated his government

561
00:37:45,266 --> 00:37:46,565
to the mountain base.

562
00:37:46,665 --> 00:37:50,299
So my sister and her husband
trekked all the way

563
00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:52,632
from Hanoi toward the base

564
00:37:52,732 --> 00:37:56,333
in order to join the
resistance against the French.

565
00:37:59,032 --> 00:38:01,500
So the Vietnam War was really a civil war

566
00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:03,232
down to the family level.

567
00:38:11,565 --> 00:38:15,165
NARRATOR: France poured
thousands of men into Vietnam...

568
00:38:15,266 --> 00:38:19,600
French regulars, European
mercenaries, and colonial troops

569
00:38:19,699 --> 00:38:23,565
from Morocco, Algeria,
Tunisia, and Senegal...

570
00:38:23,665 --> 00:38:28,532
who fought alongside an army
of Cambodians, Laotians,

571
00:38:28,632 --> 00:38:31,532
and anti-communist Vietnamese.

572
00:38:35,366 --> 00:38:39,665
French forces managed to
occupy most of the large towns

573
00:38:39,766 --> 00:38:41,165
and province capitals

574
00:38:41,266 --> 00:38:46,232
and established hundreds
of isolated outposts.

575
00:38:46,333 --> 00:38:51,000
The French also set out to try
to win over rural Vietnamese

576
00:38:51,100 --> 00:38:54,465
through a program they calledpacification...

577
00:38:54,565 --> 00:38:56,665
pacification...

578
00:38:56,766 --> 00:39:01,400
building dikes, schools and
roads, and vaccinating children.

579
00:39:04,232 --> 00:39:06,632
DUONG VAN MAI: The French
would pacify a village

580
00:39:06,732 --> 00:39:10,900
and during the daytime
they could control it.

581
00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:14,500
But at night the Viet Minh would come back.

582
00:39:14,600 --> 00:39:18,732
And so it was never completely secure.

583
00:39:18,833 --> 00:39:22,266
My father would shake his
head and said, you know,

584
00:39:22,366 --> 00:39:23,833
"Pacification is really futile

585
00:39:23,933 --> 00:39:28,165
because it's like trying to
hold sand in your fingers."

586
00:39:31,632 --> 00:39:36,732
NARRATOR: The Viet Minh mined roads,
blew up bridges and railroads,

587
00:39:36,833 --> 00:39:42,000
ambushed French patrols,
and then disappeared.

588
00:39:44,333 --> 00:39:48,532
French soldiers sometimes took
revenge on the nearest village,

589
00:39:48,632 --> 00:39:51,032
burning homes, raping women,

590
00:39:51,132 --> 00:39:55,333
executing men suspected
of aiding the Viet Minh.

591
00:40:00,199 --> 00:40:02,366
LE CONG HUAN:

592
00:40:34,132 --> 00:40:38,933
NARRATOR: But the communists proved
every bit as ruthless as the French.

593
00:40:39,032 --> 00:40:42,199
"It is better to kill even
those who might be innocent,"

594
00:40:42,299 --> 00:40:48,032
one commander said, "than
to let a guilty person go."

595
00:40:48,132 --> 00:40:50,400
And they specifically targeted

596
00:40:50,500 --> 00:40:53,766
anyone who had links to the French.

597
00:40:53,866 --> 00:40:57,600
DUONG VAN MAI: Once my father started
working for the French, then he was

598
00:40:57,699 --> 00:41:00,333
a target, especially the higher he rose,

599
00:41:00,433 --> 00:41:02,299
the bigger target he became.

600
00:41:02,400 --> 00:41:08,465
A Viet Minh agent actually came
in with a pistol to shoot him

601
00:41:08,565 --> 00:41:12,132
but at the last moment decided not to.

602
00:41:14,500 --> 00:41:17,132
TRANG NGOC ("HARRY") HUE:

603
00:41:46,665 --> 00:41:48,232
(gunfire)

604
00:41:51,100 --> 00:41:54,465
NARRATOR: French casualties
continued to mount.

605
00:41:54,565 --> 00:41:57,400
"There are days when we are so discouraged

606
00:41:57,500 --> 00:42:00,100
that we would like to give it all up,"

607
00:42:00,199 --> 00:42:02,299
a French soldier wrote his mother.

608
00:42:02,400 --> 00:42:05,565
"Convoys under attack, roads cut,

609
00:42:05,665 --> 00:42:08,766
"firing in all directions every night,

610
00:42:08,866 --> 00:42:10,799
the indifference at home."

611
00:42:20,465 --> 00:42:23,141
ROGER HARRIS: While I was there I had
the opportunity to call my mother,

612
00:42:23,165 --> 00:42:25,299
you know.

613
00:42:25,400 --> 00:42:28,433
And I was telling my mother
what was happening over there,

614
00:42:28,532 --> 00:42:31,632
and I was telling her how
she shouldn't believe

615
00:42:31,732 --> 00:42:34,600
what she sees in the newspaper
and sees on television

616
00:42:34,699 --> 00:42:37,333
because we're losing the war.

617
00:42:37,433 --> 00:42:40,199
I said, "And you'll
probably never see me again

618
00:42:40,299 --> 00:42:43,900
"because we're the most northern
outpost that the Marines have,

619
00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:45,299
you know."

620
00:42:45,400 --> 00:42:47,409
We could literally... could
look right into North Vietnam.

621
00:42:47,433 --> 00:42:49,433
We could see the sparks
when the guns fired on us.

622
00:42:49,465 --> 00:42:51,632
And I said, "And everybody
in my unit is dying.

623
00:42:51,732 --> 00:42:54,400
I probably won't be coming back."

624
00:42:54,500 --> 00:42:56,532
And my mother said, "No,
you're coming back."

625
00:42:56,632 --> 00:43:00,366
She said, "I talk to God every
day and you're special.

626
00:43:00,465 --> 00:43:02,299
You're coming back."

627
00:43:02,400 --> 00:43:04,632
And I said, "Ma, everybody's mother thinks

628
00:43:04,732 --> 00:43:06,933
"that they're special.

629
00:43:07,032 --> 00:43:11,065
You know, I'm putting pieces
of special people in bags."

630
00:43:12,433 --> 00:43:14,100
(explosion)

631
00:43:16,500 --> 00:43:18,208
ED HERLIHY: President Truman's
dramatic announcement

632
00:43:18,232 --> 00:43:19,665
that Russia had the atom secret

633
00:43:19,766 --> 00:43:21,409
caused state departments all over the world

634
00:43:21,433 --> 00:43:24,100
to stir uneasily.

635
00:43:24,199 --> 00:43:28,232
HAL KUSHNER: We were very aware
that there was a Cold War

636
00:43:28,333 --> 00:43:30,199
and that we had an enemy,

637
00:43:30,299 --> 00:43:34,333
and that enemy was the Soviet Union.

638
00:43:34,433 --> 00:43:37,500
The United States stood at one pole

639
00:43:37,600 --> 00:43:39,799
and the Soviet Union
stood at the other pole.

640
00:43:39,900 --> 00:43:42,866
It was kind of a Manichean dynamic

641
00:43:42,965 --> 00:43:44,732
that there was evil and there was good.

642
00:43:44,833 --> 00:43:46,766
And we were good, and the
other side was evil.

643
00:43:46,866 --> 00:43:49,933
It wasn't morally ambiguous.

644
00:43:52,732 --> 00:43:56,965
NARRATOR: Just a few weeks after
Russia became a nuclear power,

645
00:43:57,065 --> 00:43:58,900
there was more stunning news...

646
00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:02,600
communist forces under Mao
Zedong seized control

647
00:44:02,699 --> 00:44:05,299
of China.

648
00:44:05,400 --> 00:44:09,266
Separate communist insurrections
were also underway

649
00:44:09,366 --> 00:44:14,900
in the British colonies
of Burma and Malaya.

650
00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:18,665
In January 1950, Mao formally recognized

651
00:44:18,766 --> 00:44:22,799
Ho Chi Minh's insurgency and
agreed to provide the arms,

652
00:44:22,900 --> 00:44:26,799
equipment, and military
training he had been seeking.

653
00:44:26,900 --> 00:44:30,900
The Soviets recognized
the Viet Minh as well,

654
00:44:31,000 --> 00:44:32,799
and also offered help.

655
00:44:32,900 --> 00:44:36,465
President Truman, who was being blamed

656
00:44:36,565 --> 00:44:40,400
by his political opponents
for having "lost" China,

657
00:44:40,500 --> 00:44:42,833
and having failed to "contain" communism,

658
00:44:42,933 --> 00:44:46,366
approved a $23 million aid program

659
00:44:46,465 --> 00:44:49,199
for the French in Vietnam.

660
00:44:49,299 --> 00:44:54,132
The United States was no longer neutral.

661
00:44:54,232 --> 00:44:57,065
SAM WILSON: We were caught
on the horns of a dilemma

662
00:44:57,165 --> 00:44:59,799
of how can we maintain our friendship

663
00:44:59,900 --> 00:45:03,632
and our alliance with the French
and support them in Indochina

664
00:45:03,732 --> 00:45:07,366
while we, as a former colony ourselves,

665
00:45:07,465 --> 00:45:10,433
sympathized with the Vietnamese
and their aspirations

666
00:45:10,532 --> 00:45:12,465
for freedom and independence?

667
00:45:17,299 --> 00:45:19,708
ED HERLIHY: A highly trained and
well-equipped North Korean Army

668
00:45:19,732 --> 00:45:21,866
swarmed across the 38th parallel

669
00:45:21,965 --> 00:45:23,933
to attack unprepared
South Korean defenders.

670
00:45:24,032 --> 00:45:25,600
(explosion)

671
00:45:25,699 --> 00:45:29,333
NARRATOR: In June of 1950, China's ally,

672
00:45:29,433 --> 00:45:32,933
communist North Korea, invaded South Korea.

673
00:45:33,032 --> 00:45:34,465
(gunfire)

674
00:45:34,565 --> 00:45:36,465
President Truman ordered

675
00:45:36,565 --> 00:45:38,833
tens of thousands of American ground troops

676
00:45:38,933 --> 00:45:40,799
onto the Korean Peninsula.

677
00:45:47,766 --> 00:45:49,665
The United States and its allies

678
00:45:49,766 --> 00:45:54,132
eventually pushed the invaders back north.

679
00:45:54,232 --> 00:45:56,532
Meanwhile in southern China,

680
00:45:56,632 --> 00:45:59,000
Mao's military was beginning
to turn the Viet Minh

681
00:45:59,100 --> 00:46:02,900
into a modern fighting force,

682
00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:07,065
capable of inflicting a heavy
toll on the French occupiers.

683
00:46:14,433 --> 00:46:16,199
In July, the Truman administration

684
00:46:16,299 --> 00:46:19,165
quietly dispatched transport planes

685
00:46:19,266 --> 00:46:21,833
and a shipload of jeeps to Vietnam.

686
00:46:21,933 --> 00:46:27,600
Thirty-five military advisors
went along to oversee their use.

687
00:46:29,433 --> 00:46:32,333
None of them, and no one
in the American embassy,

688
00:46:32,433 --> 00:46:36,433
spoke a word of Vietnamese.

689
00:46:36,532 --> 00:46:40,833
But the United States was
now officially in Vietnam.

690
00:46:43,065 --> 00:46:45,232
In October of 1950,

691
00:46:45,333 --> 00:46:48,400
hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops

692
00:46:48,500 --> 00:46:50,665
began pouring into North Korea,

693
00:46:50,766 --> 00:46:54,799
driving the allies back down the peninsula.

694
00:46:54,900 --> 00:46:56,532
As that fighting raged,

695
00:46:56,632 --> 00:46:59,833
Truman continued to increase military aid

696
00:46:59,933 --> 00:47:02,732
for the French war in Vietnam.

697
00:47:06,465 --> 00:47:08,175
HARRY TRUMAN: If aggression
is successful in Korea,

698
00:47:08,199 --> 00:47:11,433
we can expect it to spread
throughout Asia and Europe

699
00:47:11,532 --> 00:47:12,766
and to this hemisphere.

700
00:47:12,866 --> 00:47:15,299
(mortar fire)

701
00:47:15,400 --> 00:47:17,866
We are fighting in Korea

702
00:47:17,965 --> 00:47:20,565
for our own national security and survival.

703
00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:27,232
("Mean Old World" by T-Bone Walker playing)

704
00:47:27,333 --> 00:47:29,433
NARRATOR: In the autumn of 1951,

705
00:47:29,532 --> 00:47:31,665
a young Massachusetts congressman

706
00:47:31,766 --> 00:47:35,632
named John F. Kennedy
dined at the rooftop bar

707
00:47:35,732 --> 00:47:38,366
of the Hotel Majestic overlooking Saigon.

708
00:47:38,465 --> 00:47:39,665
(distant gun fire)

709
00:47:39,766 --> 00:47:41,766
As he and his party ate,

710
00:47:41,866 --> 00:47:46,199
they could hear the thunder of
guns across the Saigon River.

711
00:47:46,299 --> 00:47:49,333
French commanders assured Kennedy

712
00:47:49,433 --> 00:47:51,933
that with more American support,

713
00:47:52,032 --> 00:47:55,199
French rule would be re-established.

714
00:47:55,299 --> 00:47:58,866
But Kennedy spent two hours
with Seymour Topping,

715
00:47:58,965 --> 00:48:01,065
a seasoned American reporter,

716
00:48:01,165 --> 00:48:03,766
who gave him a very different perspective:

717
00:48:03,866 --> 00:48:06,565
the French were losing, he said,

718
00:48:06,665 --> 00:48:10,433
and many Vietnamese, who had
once admired the Americans,

719
00:48:10,532 --> 00:48:14,665
were beginning to despise
them for backing the French.

720
00:48:14,766 --> 00:48:18,000
Kennedy believed the reporter.

721
00:48:18,100 --> 00:48:21,366
Unless the United States could
persuade the Vietnamese

722
00:48:21,465 --> 00:48:25,032
that it was as opposed to
"injustice and inequality"

723
00:48:25,132 --> 00:48:26,632
as it was to communism,

724
00:48:26,732 --> 00:48:29,699
he told his constituents when he got home,

725
00:48:29,799 --> 00:48:35,065
the current effort would result
in "foredoomed failure."

726
00:48:35,165 --> 00:48:38,000
(Rosemary Clooney singing
"Come On-a My House")

727
00:48:38,100 --> 00:48:43,500
♪ Come on-a my house, my house,
I'm gonna give you candy ♪

728
00:48:43,600 --> 00:48:45,465
NARRATOR: In 1952,

729
00:48:45,565 --> 00:48:48,833
General Dwight Eisenhower
was elected president,

730
00:48:48,933 --> 00:48:51,732
in part because he promised
to take a tougher stance

731
00:48:51,833 --> 00:48:53,866
on communism.

732
00:48:53,965 --> 00:48:57,266
That year, American taxpayers

733
00:48:57,366 --> 00:48:59,799
were footing more than 30% of the bill

734
00:48:59,900 --> 00:49:02,833
for the French war in Vietnam.

735
00:49:02,933 --> 00:49:05,032
Within two years,

736
00:49:05,132 --> 00:49:08,465
that number would rise to nearly 80%.

737
00:49:08,565 --> 00:49:11,799
CLOONEY: ♪ Everything,
everything, everything ♪

738
00:49:11,900 --> 00:49:14,165
RICHARD NIXON: And many
of you ask this question:

739
00:49:14,266 --> 00:49:16,532
Why is the United States spending

740
00:49:16,632 --> 00:49:18,433
hundreds of millions of dollars

741
00:49:18,532 --> 00:49:22,632
supporting the forces of the French Union

742
00:49:22,732 --> 00:49:26,232
in the fight against
communism in Indochina?

743
00:49:26,333 --> 00:49:28,565
I think perhaps if we go
over to the map here,

744
00:49:28,665 --> 00:49:33,000
I can indicate to you why
it is so vitally important.

745
00:49:33,100 --> 00:49:35,433
Here's Indochina.

746
00:49:35,532 --> 00:49:36,866
If Indochina falls,

747
00:49:36,965 --> 00:49:40,199
Thailand is put in almost
impossible position.

748
00:49:40,299 --> 00:49:43,366
The same is true of Malaya
with its rubber and tin.

749
00:49:43,465 --> 00:49:48,500
Now may I say that as far as the
war in Indochina is concerned,

750
00:49:48,600 --> 00:49:53,165
that I was there, right on the
battlefield, or close to it,

751
00:49:53,266 --> 00:49:55,866
and it's a bloody war,
and it's a bitter one.

752
00:49:55,965 --> 00:50:01,165
(explosions)

753
00:50:01,266 --> 00:50:06,000
NARRATOR: By 1953, the French had
been fighting for seven years.

754
00:50:06,100 --> 00:50:09,333
They had suffered over 100,000 casualties

755
00:50:09,433 --> 00:50:12,565
and failed to pacify the countryside.

756
00:50:12,665 --> 00:50:16,333
Six commanders had come and gone.

757
00:50:16,433 --> 00:50:18,600
Nevertheless, the seventh commander,

758
00:50:18,699 --> 00:50:21,732
General Henri Navarre,
assured his countrymen

759
00:50:21,833 --> 00:50:23,266
that victory was near.

760
00:50:23,366 --> 00:50:26,400
"Now we can see it clearly," he said,

761
00:50:26,500 --> 00:50:30,333
"like the light at the end of the tunnel."

762
00:50:32,333 --> 00:50:36,232
Meanwhile, large parts of the
French population were horrified

763
00:50:36,333 --> 00:50:38,933
by reports of French brutality

764
00:50:39,032 --> 00:50:41,732
and the widespread use of napalm...

765
00:50:41,833 --> 00:50:46,500
gelatinized petroleum that burned foliage,

766
00:50:46,600 --> 00:50:49,065
homes, and human flesh.

767
00:50:52,000 --> 00:50:55,400
When returning French troops
disembarked at Marseilles,

768
00:50:55,500 --> 00:50:59,866
members of the longshoremen's
union pelted them with rocks.

769
00:50:59,965 --> 00:51:03,032
Parisian leftists began
to call the conflict

770
00:51:03,132 --> 00:51:06,266
"La Sale Guerre"... "The Dirty War."

771
00:51:09,965 --> 00:51:13,400
(police sirens wailing, people chanting)

772
00:51:14,632 --> 00:51:16,933
RON FERRIZZI: The camera was a close-up,

773
00:51:17,032 --> 00:51:20,100
was over the shoulder of this storm trooper

774
00:51:20,199 --> 00:51:23,732
who had a kid by the scruff of
his shirt and he smacks him.

775
00:51:23,833 --> 00:51:24,993
REPORTER: People screaming...

776
00:51:25,032 --> 00:51:27,100
FERRIZZI: At that moment in time,

777
00:51:27,199 --> 00:51:29,799
I realized that anybody who
really cared for America

778
00:51:29,900 --> 00:51:31,366
was sent halfway around the world

779
00:51:31,465 --> 00:51:34,866
chasing some ghost in a jungle.

780
00:51:34,965 --> 00:51:38,000
In the meantime, my
country's being torn apart.

781
00:51:38,100 --> 00:51:40,299
So I saw somebody who looked like my dad

782
00:51:40,400 --> 00:51:41,900
hitting somebody who looked like me.

783
00:51:42,000 --> 00:51:43,833
Whose side would I be on?

784
00:51:51,933 --> 00:51:54,433
ED HERLIHY: In Korea,
three years of combat end

785
00:51:54,532 --> 00:51:57,400
as United Nations and communist
negotiators at Panmunjom

786
00:51:57,500 --> 00:51:58,532
sign a truce.

787
00:51:58,632 --> 00:52:01,600
NARRATOR: In July of 1953,

788
00:52:01,699 --> 00:52:05,065
the Korean War ended in
a negotiated settlement

789
00:52:05,165 --> 00:52:07,100
and a still-divided peninsula.

790
00:52:07,199 --> 00:52:10,500
American policymakers saw it as proof

791
00:52:10,600 --> 00:52:13,900
that communism in Asia could be contained.

792
00:52:14,000 --> 00:52:15,809
HERLIHY: And in Washington, a
dramatic evening press conference...

793
00:52:15,833 --> 00:52:18,866
NARRATOR: That fall, the French
indicated their willingness

794
00:52:18,965 --> 00:52:22,933
to begin talks to end the
fighting in Vietnam.

795
00:52:23,032 --> 00:52:26,465
Ho Chi Minh agreed to meet.

796
00:52:26,565 --> 00:52:30,433
But before the negotiators
were to convene in Geneva,

797
00:52:30,532 --> 00:52:35,532
each side sought to improve its
position on the battlefield.

798
00:52:37,132 --> 00:52:39,699
General Navarre set up a fortified base

799
00:52:39,799 --> 00:52:42,665
in a remote valley in northwestern Vietnam

800
00:52:42,766 --> 00:52:47,232
called Dien Bien Phu, where he
hoped to lure the Viet Minh

801
00:52:47,333 --> 00:52:49,333
into a decisive battle.

802
00:52:51,433 --> 00:52:54,632
Navarre was certain that
superior French firepower

803
00:52:54,732 --> 00:52:59,732
and air support would crush
any attack by the Viet Minh.

804
00:52:59,833 --> 00:53:02,400
He and his commanders saw no need to worry

805
00:53:02,500 --> 00:53:06,933
about the jungle-covered hills
that overlooked his 11,000 men,

806
00:53:07,032 --> 00:53:09,933
dug in on the valley floor.

807
00:53:10,032 --> 00:53:14,266
The artillery commander was
so confident of victory,

808
00:53:14,366 --> 00:53:18,400
he complained, "I have
more guns than I need."

809
00:53:21,465 --> 00:53:24,100
General Giap saw his chance.

810
00:53:24,199 --> 00:53:28,665
"We decided to wipe out at all
costs the whole enemy force

811
00:53:28,766 --> 00:53:31,699
at Dien Bien Phu," he remembered.

812
00:53:33,766 --> 00:53:37,500
To do it, he pulled off one of
the greatest logistical feats

813
00:53:37,600 --> 00:53:39,532
in military history...

814
00:53:39,632 --> 00:53:42,732
a feat that would be
restaged in propaganda films

815
00:53:42,833 --> 00:53:46,032
and celebrated for decades.

816
00:53:46,132 --> 00:53:50,000
A quarter of a million civilian porters...

817
00:53:50,100 --> 00:53:51,433
nearly half of them women...

818
00:53:51,532 --> 00:53:56,333
moved everything he needed for
a siege, from sacks of rice

819
00:53:56,433 --> 00:53:58,600
to disassembled artillery pieces,

820
00:53:58,699 --> 00:54:01,732
on foot through the jungle.

821
00:54:01,833 --> 00:54:06,600
Giap surrounded the valley
with 50,000 soldiers

822
00:54:06,699 --> 00:54:11,833
and 200 big guns, dug-in
and camouflaged so well

823
00:54:11,933 --> 00:54:16,500
they could not be spotted from the air.

824
00:54:18,199 --> 00:54:22,032
On March 13, 1954,

825
00:54:22,132 --> 00:54:24,366
Viet Minh artillery on the hillsides

826
00:54:24,465 --> 00:54:27,732
began raining down 50 shells a minute

827
00:54:27,833 --> 00:54:30,799
on the French troops huddled below.

828
00:54:30,900 --> 00:54:33,065
(explosions)

829
00:54:33,165 --> 00:54:34,900
The airstrip was destroyed.

830
00:54:37,965 --> 00:54:41,032
The besieged troops could
only be reinforced

831
00:54:41,132 --> 00:54:43,965
and resupplied by airdrop.

832
00:54:47,565 --> 00:54:49,266
The French artillery commander,

833
00:54:49,366 --> 00:54:54,333
who had underestimated his
enemy, committed suicide.

834
00:54:54,433 --> 00:54:57,433
NEWSREEL NARRATOR: The airlift
to Dien Bien Phu continues...

835
00:54:57,532 --> 00:54:59,965
vital men and supplies
for the heroic garrison

836
00:55:00,065 --> 00:55:01,708
that has defied the massed
Viet Minh onslaughts

837
00:55:01,732 --> 00:55:02,799
for over six weeks.

838
00:55:02,900 --> 00:55:05,900
Today, Dien Bien Phu is a human dam

839
00:55:06,000 --> 00:55:07,900
trying to stem the red tide

840
00:55:08,000 --> 00:55:10,100
that threatens to engulf Southeast Asia.

841
00:55:11,766 --> 00:55:14,500
NARRATOR: The French government
begged President Eisenhower

842
00:55:14,600 --> 00:55:16,100
to intervene.

843
00:55:16,199 --> 00:55:19,500
He refused to act without
Congressional approval

844
00:55:19,600 --> 00:55:22,465
and support from European allies.

845
00:55:22,565 --> 00:55:24,600
Britain said no

846
00:55:24,699 --> 00:55:28,465
and the Congress would not
support unilateral action.

847
00:55:28,565 --> 00:55:29,833
JOHN F. KENNEDY: The communists

848
00:55:29,933 --> 00:55:32,500
under Ho Chi Minh are able to
claim that they are fighting

849
00:55:32,600 --> 00:55:35,132
for independence and the
French appear to be fighting

850
00:55:35,232 --> 00:55:37,500
for a maintain... maintenance
of colonial rule.

851
00:55:37,600 --> 00:55:38,933
I therefore believe

852
00:55:39,032 --> 00:55:42,232
that before the United States
moves in, in any degree,

853
00:55:42,333 --> 00:55:44,866
that independence must be
granted to the people,

854
00:55:44,965 --> 00:55:46,645
that the people must support the struggle.

855
00:55:48,433 --> 00:55:52,366
NARRATOR: "I am convinced,"
Eisenhower confided to his diary,

856
00:55:52,465 --> 00:55:57,299
"that no military victory is
possible in this theater."

857
00:55:57,400 --> 00:56:00,032
Still, without consulting Congress,

858
00:56:00,132 --> 00:56:03,965
the president had secretly sent
more American transport planes,

859
00:56:04,065 --> 00:56:09,732
their markings painted over and
flown by civilian contractors,

860
00:56:09,833 --> 00:56:14,400
to help resupply the desperate
French troops at Dien Bien Phu.

861
00:56:18,165 --> 00:56:20,333
GELB: Everyone understood
that in and of itself,

862
00:56:20,433 --> 00:56:23,965
Vietnam didn't mean very much.

863
00:56:24,065 --> 00:56:28,199
But they believed, I
believed, if we lost it,

864
00:56:28,299 --> 00:56:31,132
that the rest of Asia would
tumble to communism.

865
00:56:31,232 --> 00:56:36,032
EISENHOWER: You have broader
considerations that might follow

866
00:56:36,132 --> 00:56:40,900
what you would call the
falling domino principle.

867
00:56:41,000 --> 00:56:43,532
You have a row of dominoes set up,

868
00:56:43,632 --> 00:56:45,400
and you knock over the first one,

869
00:56:45,500 --> 00:56:49,366
and what will happen to the
last one is the certainty

870
00:56:49,465 --> 00:56:52,366
that it will go over very quickly.

871
00:56:54,232 --> 00:56:56,299
(explosion)

872
00:57:00,333 --> 00:57:03,266
(muted gunfire)

873
00:57:13,565 --> 00:57:19,600
NARRATOR: On the afternoon of May
7, 1954, after 55 days of siege,

874
00:57:19,699 --> 00:57:24,833
the exhausted French forces
at Dien Bien Phu surrendered.

875
00:57:27,433 --> 00:57:32,165
They had lost 8,000 men,
killed, wounded, or missing.

876
00:57:35,032 --> 00:57:39,400
General Giap had lost three times as many,

877
00:57:39,500 --> 00:57:42,632
but he had won a great victory.

878
00:57:43,665 --> 00:57:47,500
NGUYEN THOI BUNG:

879
00:57:59,766 --> 00:58:04,632
NARRATOR: Even Duong Van Mai's parents
could not help but be impressed.

880
00:58:04,732 --> 00:58:06,766
DUONG VAN MAI: They were very proud

881
00:58:06,866 --> 00:58:09,500
that the Viet Minh had defeated the French,

882
00:58:09,600 --> 00:58:11,500
this great Western power.

883
00:58:11,600 --> 00:58:15,433
Admiration and respect on the one hand,

884
00:58:15,532 --> 00:58:17,766
but fear on the other hand.

885
00:58:17,866 --> 00:58:20,565
And fear was the stronger emotion.

886
00:58:22,266 --> 00:58:24,933
NARRATOR: "We have been caught
bluffing by our enemies,"

887
00:58:25,032 --> 00:58:28,732
Senate Minority Leader Lyndon Johnson said.

888
00:58:28,833 --> 00:58:33,833
"Today it is Indochina,
tomorrow Asia may be in flames.

889
00:58:33,933 --> 00:58:40,032
And the day after, the Western
Alliance will lie in ruins."

890
00:58:40,132 --> 00:58:43,100
DONALD GREGG: We should have seen
it as the end of the colonial era

891
00:58:43,199 --> 00:58:46,299
in Southeast Asia, which it really was.

892
00:58:46,400 --> 00:58:48,766
But instead we saw it in Cold War terms,

893
00:58:48,866 --> 00:58:53,532
and we saw it as a defeat
for the free world

894
00:58:53,632 --> 00:58:55,400
that was related to the rise of China.

895
00:58:55,500 --> 00:59:00,500
And it was a total misreading
of a pivotal event,

896
00:59:00,600 --> 00:59:03,199
which cost us very dearly.

897
00:59:03,299 --> 00:59:05,299
(chanting)

898
00:59:05,400 --> 00:59:09,132
(newsreel music playing)

899
00:59:09,232 --> 00:59:11,275
JACK TOBIN: The former home
of the League of Nations,

900
00:59:11,299 --> 00:59:13,465
Geneva, Switzerland, where
East is meeting West

901
00:59:13,565 --> 00:59:14,866
in the international conference

902
00:59:14,965 --> 00:59:19,433
that may decisively affect the
political future of Asia.

903
00:59:19,532 --> 00:59:22,799
NARRATOR: The day after the
fall of Dien Bien Phu,

904
00:59:22,900 --> 00:59:26,565
diplomats from nine nations
gathered in Geneva

905
00:59:26,665 --> 00:59:29,433
to settle the future of Vietnam.

906
00:59:29,532 --> 00:59:33,565
The talks dragged on for
nearly two-and-a-half months.

907
00:59:36,600 --> 00:59:38,366
Despite their victory,

908
00:59:38,465 --> 00:59:42,132
Ho Chi Minh and General Giap
could not keep fighting

909
00:59:42,232 --> 00:59:47,366
without more support from
China and the Soviet Union.

910
00:59:47,465 --> 00:59:50,866
But China had lost a million men in Korea

911
00:59:50,965 --> 00:59:53,933
and did not want to become
involved in another war

912
00:59:54,032 --> 00:59:55,600
along its border.

913
00:59:55,699 --> 01:00:01,433
The Soviet Union was hoping to
ease tensions with the West.

914
01:00:01,532 --> 01:00:06,400
Both of Ho Chi Minh's communist
patrons urged him to agree

915
01:00:06,500 --> 01:00:08,366
to a negotiated settlement,

916
01:00:08,465 --> 01:00:12,766
a partition like the one that
had ended the Korean War.

917
01:00:12,866 --> 01:00:16,199
Ho had no option but to give in.

918
01:00:20,132 --> 01:00:22,900
In the end, no one was satisfied.

919
01:00:24,933 --> 01:00:29,900
Vietnam was temporarily to be
divided at the 17th parallel.

920
01:00:30,000 --> 01:00:34,433
The 130,000 French-led troops
stationed in the North

921
01:00:34,532 --> 01:00:36,600
were to withdraw to the South,

922
01:00:36,699 --> 01:00:40,600
and somewhere between
50,000 and 90,000 Viet Minh

923
01:00:40,699 --> 01:00:43,366
were to "re-group" to the North.

924
01:00:43,465 --> 01:00:45,232
The two halves would be separated

925
01:00:45,333 --> 01:00:49,632
by a demilitarized zone until
an election could be held

926
01:00:49,732 --> 01:00:52,933
to reunify North and South Vietnam,

927
01:00:53,032 --> 01:00:58,165
an election everyone knew
Ho Chi Minh would win.

928
01:01:00,632 --> 01:01:05,100
NGUYEN VAN TONG:

929
01:01:13,632 --> 01:01:15,000
(cheering)

930
01:01:15,100 --> 01:01:17,632
NGUYEN THOI BUNG:

931
01:01:33,165 --> 01:01:34,775
KARL MARLANTES: We had started walking up

932
01:01:34,799 --> 01:01:36,742
and we had probably gotten about
a third of the way up the hill

933
01:01:36,766 --> 01:01:38,266
and then they unleashed on us.

934
01:01:38,366 --> 01:01:41,032
(explosion, gunfire)

935
01:01:41,132 --> 01:01:43,266
We were in the middle of
this horrible shit sandwich.

936
01:01:43,366 --> 01:01:45,366
That's what we called it.

937
01:01:47,100 --> 01:01:50,366
(explosion, gunfire)

938
01:01:50,465 --> 01:01:54,333
One of the things that I
learned in the war is that

939
01:01:54,433 --> 01:01:58,032
we're not the top species on
the planet because we're nice.

940
01:02:00,900 --> 01:02:04,032
People talk a lot about how well
the military turns, you know,

941
01:02:04,132 --> 01:02:06,833
kids into, you know, killing
machines and stuff.

942
01:02:06,933 --> 01:02:09,433
And I'll always argue that
it's just finishing school.

943
01:02:09,532 --> 01:02:11,299
(gunfire)

944
01:02:11,400 --> 01:02:15,532
(shouting)

945
01:02:18,100 --> 01:02:21,766
NEWSREEL NARRATOR: Braving the dangers
of the open sea in tiny, rickety craft,

946
01:02:21,866 --> 01:02:24,266
thousands of Roman Catholic
and Buddhist faith

947
01:02:24,366 --> 01:02:26,632
have found life impossible
under the communists.

948
01:02:26,732 --> 01:02:30,199
For them, it's freedom or nothing.

949
01:02:33,366 --> 01:02:35,333
NARRATOR: Under the Geneva Accords,

950
01:02:35,433 --> 01:02:38,266
civilians living in either half of Vietnam

951
01:02:38,366 --> 01:02:40,600
who wanted to relocate to the other

952
01:02:40,699 --> 01:02:43,699
would have 300 days to do so.

953
01:02:43,799 --> 01:02:47,699
DUONG VAN MAI: My mother
and father wanted to stay

954
01:02:47,799 --> 01:02:49,799
and meet my sister Thang again

955
01:02:49,900 --> 01:02:52,232
because they knew Thang would come back.

956
01:02:52,333 --> 01:02:54,565
But on the other hand
they couldn't risk that.

957
01:02:54,665 --> 01:02:59,532
They were convinced that when
Ho Chi Minh and his government

958
01:02:59,632 --> 01:03:01,766
arrived in Hanoi,

959
01:03:01,866 --> 01:03:05,400
my father would be the
first one to be killed

960
01:03:05,500 --> 01:03:07,366
and all of us would be persecuted.

961
01:03:10,100 --> 01:03:12,132
And I remember the day we left.

962
01:03:12,232 --> 01:03:15,500
I looked around and I thought,
"I never come back here again."

963
01:03:17,866 --> 01:03:19,766
It was extremely traumatic.

964
01:03:19,866 --> 01:03:24,465
It was like the ground was
suddenly cut from under you.

965
01:03:24,565 --> 01:03:30,032
NARRATOR: In the end,
some 900,000 refugees,

966
01:03:30,132 --> 01:03:32,366
including more than half
of all the Catholics

967
01:03:32,465 --> 01:03:33,732
living in the North,

968
01:03:33,833 --> 01:03:39,000
fled to the South, many of
them aboard American ships.

969
01:03:43,366 --> 01:03:46,933
The United States hoped somehow
to encourage the building

970
01:03:47,032 --> 01:03:49,266
of a legitimate government in the South.

971
01:03:51,400 --> 01:03:56,100
That government was now
headed by Ngo Dinh Diem.

972
01:03:56,199 --> 01:03:58,866
Both a Roman Catholic and a Confucian

973
01:03:58,965 --> 01:04:01,065
in a largely Buddhist country,

974
01:04:01,165 --> 01:04:06,065
he was a celibate bachelor who
had once planned to be a priest.

975
01:04:06,165 --> 01:04:12,266
GELB: The war for us really started
when we became the partner,

976
01:04:12,366 --> 01:04:17,400
or I would say the victim,
of President Diem.

977
01:04:17,500 --> 01:04:22,433
We were going to help him turn
South Vietnam into a democracy.

978
01:04:22,532 --> 01:04:24,032
That's what he said he wanted to do.

979
01:04:24,132 --> 01:04:25,132
And we believed him.

980
01:04:25,199 --> 01:04:27,532
NARRATOR: Like Ho Chi Minh,

981
01:04:27,632 --> 01:04:31,199
Diem had spent years abroad seeking support

982
01:04:31,299 --> 01:04:34,965
for his own brand of
Vietnamese nationalism.

983
01:04:35,065 --> 01:04:38,465
He was a veteran politician
whose loathing for the French

984
01:04:38,565 --> 01:04:42,333
was matched only by his
hatred for the communists,

985
01:04:42,433 --> 01:04:46,100
who had imprisoned him and
buried alive his eldest brother

986
01:04:46,199 --> 01:04:48,565
and his nephew.

987
01:04:48,665 --> 01:04:52,000
Diem was aloof, autocratic,

988
01:04:52,100 --> 01:04:55,366
mistrustful of anyone much
beyond his own family.

989
01:04:55,465 --> 01:04:59,366
He also proved to be shrewd, resourceful,

990
01:04:59,465 --> 01:05:03,500
and skilled at exploiting the
weaknesses of his opponents.

991
01:05:03,600 --> 01:05:09,532
But he faced a daunting task
in creating a new country.

992
01:05:09,632 --> 01:05:12,632
The French, who still
had thousands of troops

993
01:05:12,732 --> 01:05:16,199
stationed in the South, detested Diem.

994
01:05:16,299 --> 01:05:20,065
Several provinces were under
the sway of religious sects

995
01:05:20,165 --> 01:05:22,532
with armies of their own.

996
01:05:22,632 --> 01:05:26,732
Tens of thousands of Viet
Minh soldiers had gone north,

997
01:05:26,833 --> 01:05:28,933
but several thousand cadre...

998
01:05:29,032 --> 01:05:32,366
trained and dedicated
Communist Party workers...

999
01:05:32,465 --> 01:05:38,400
had stayed behind to organize
resistance in the countryside.

1000
01:05:38,500 --> 01:05:42,565
And Saigon itself was
ruled by the Binh Xuyen,

1001
01:05:42,665 --> 01:05:46,065
a crime syndicate backed by the French.

1002
01:05:46,165 --> 01:05:48,441
RUFUS PHILLIPS: And the French
were behind the Binh Xuyen,

1003
01:05:48,465 --> 01:05:49,866
sort of supporting them

1004
01:05:49,965 --> 01:05:53,032
because they didn't want Diem to succeed.

1005
01:05:53,132 --> 01:05:55,065
And that became the central contest.

1006
01:05:57,100 --> 01:06:00,965
NARRATOR: Some in the CIA believed
that Diem could be the savior

1007
01:06:01,065 --> 01:06:03,065
of South Vietnam.

1008
01:06:03,165 --> 01:06:05,100
Others were not so sure.

1009
01:06:05,199 --> 01:06:07,333
"He is a messiah without a message,"

1010
01:06:07,433 --> 01:06:10,366
one diplomat reported to Washington.

1011
01:06:10,465 --> 01:06:13,933
The U.S. ambassador agreed.

1012
01:06:14,032 --> 01:06:17,333
On April 27, 1955,

1013
01:06:17,433 --> 01:06:21,500
President Eisenhower decided
to end American support

1014
01:06:21,600 --> 01:06:24,165
for Diem's regime.

1015
01:06:24,266 --> 01:06:25,266
(gunfire)

1016
01:06:25,333 --> 01:06:28,532
But then Diem made an all-out assault

1017
01:06:28,632 --> 01:06:30,933
on the Binh Xuyen syndicate.

1018
01:06:31,032 --> 01:06:33,232
(sirens blaring, gunfire)

1019
01:06:33,333 --> 01:06:35,208
DUONG VAN MAI: Suddenly
in the middle of the day

1020
01:06:35,232 --> 01:06:39,732
we heard gunfire and then we saw flames

1021
01:06:39,833 --> 01:06:42,165
and the neighborhood was burning.

1022
01:06:42,266 --> 01:06:45,141
MICHAEL FITZMAURICE: There are hundreds
of dead and wounded on both sides

1023
01:06:45,165 --> 01:06:48,065
as the street fighting
continues for an entire week.

1024
01:06:48,165 --> 01:06:50,132
For the United States,
the situation presents

1025
01:06:50,232 --> 01:06:51,400
a grave problem.

1026
01:06:53,333 --> 01:06:56,299
Diem finally regains control of Saigon.

1027
01:06:58,032 --> 01:07:02,299
NARRATOR: In the end,
Diem's forces prevailed.

1028
01:07:02,400 --> 01:07:08,266
Eisenhower now saw no option
but to stick with Diem.

1029
01:07:08,366 --> 01:07:13,732
The French then announced their
intention to withdraw completely

1030
01:07:13,833 --> 01:07:19,965
from South Vietnam, ending
nearly a century of occupation.

1031
01:07:20,065 --> 01:07:25,032
PHILLIPS: Diem became wildly popular
because he seemed to embody

1032
01:07:25,132 --> 01:07:27,632
the nationalist cause in the South.

1033
01:07:27,732 --> 01:07:29,632
He succeeded in getting the French

1034
01:07:29,732 --> 01:07:31,665
out of Vietnam all the way.

1035
01:07:31,766 --> 01:07:35,232
And Ho Chi Minh had only got
them out of the northern half.

1036
01:07:35,333 --> 01:07:41,132
NARRATOR: Flush with victory, Diem
called for a referendum in the South.

1037
01:07:41,232 --> 01:07:46,632
The CIA warned him not to meddle
too much with the returns.

1038
01:07:47,833 --> 01:07:49,632
But when the ballots were counted,

1039
01:07:49,732 --> 01:07:55,500
Diem claimed to have won 98.2% of the vote.

1040
01:07:57,400 --> 01:08:02,933
On October 26, 1955, Ngo
Dinh Diem named himself

1041
01:08:03,032 --> 01:08:08,665
the first president of the
brand-new Republic of Vietnam.

1042
01:08:08,766 --> 01:08:12,566
The election to reunify the North and South

1043
01:08:12,665 --> 01:08:16,232
that had been promised at
Geneva would never be held.

1044
01:08:16,333 --> 01:08:22,365
GELB: He became our ally,
or rather our master,

1045
01:08:22,465 --> 01:08:24,965
because the goal of preventing

1046
01:08:25,066 --> 01:08:27,165
the communists from taking over the South

1047
01:08:27,266 --> 01:08:33,799
was so strong that we couldn't
afford for him to lose.

1048
01:08:33,900 --> 01:08:36,633
So Diem started to boss us around.

1049
01:08:36,732 --> 01:08:38,732
And this was a typical relationship.

1050
01:08:38,833 --> 01:08:41,200
You need any ally you believe

1051
01:08:41,299 --> 01:08:44,232
to be the centerpiece
of your foreign policy.

1052
01:08:44,333 --> 01:08:45,833
They understand that right away.

1053
01:08:45,932 --> 01:08:48,600
And the tail wags the dog.

1054
01:08:53,066 --> 01:08:55,408
ED HERLIHY: From the Far East
comes a distinguished visitor.

1055
01:08:55,432 --> 01:08:58,100
President Ngo Dinh Diem
of Vietnam is accorded

1056
01:08:58,200 --> 01:09:01,133
one of President Eisenhower's
rare airport greetings,

1057
01:09:01,232 --> 01:09:03,633
as he arrives for a four-day state visit.

1058
01:09:03,732 --> 01:09:06,165
President Diem, one of
America's staunchest allies

1059
01:09:06,266 --> 01:09:07,465
in Southeast Asia,

1060
01:09:07,566 --> 01:09:10,200
will seek an increase in aid
to shore up his country

1061
01:09:10,299 --> 01:09:12,100
against increasing communist pressure,

1062
01:09:12,200 --> 01:09:17,665
a request to which the president
lends a sympathetic ear.

1063
01:09:17,766 --> 01:09:21,700
NARRATOR: Most politicians,
Democrats as well as Republicans,

1064
01:09:21,799 --> 01:09:23,700
now seemed to share the changing views

1065
01:09:23,799 --> 01:09:25,633
of Senator John F. Kennedy.

1066
01:09:25,732 --> 01:09:29,299
South Vietnam is "our offspring," he said.

1067
01:09:29,400 --> 01:09:30,999
"We cannot abandon it."

1068
01:09:31,100 --> 01:09:35,365
If it fell, the United States
would be "held responsible

1069
01:09:35,465 --> 01:09:39,766
and our prestige in Asia
will sink to a new low."

1070
01:09:39,865 --> 01:09:45,200
There had never before been
a South Vietnamese nation,

1071
01:09:45,299 --> 01:09:48,532
but Americans, who had rebuilt
much of their own country

1072
01:09:48,633 --> 01:09:52,232
during the New Deal and had
helped rebuild Western Europe

1073
01:09:52,333 --> 01:09:53,566
through the Marshall Plan,

1074
01:09:53,665 --> 01:09:58,333
were convinced they could
build one nonetheless.

1075
01:09:58,432 --> 01:10:00,400
(blows whistle)

1076
01:10:00,499 --> 01:10:04,400
Eisenhower ordered scores
of American civilians

1077
01:10:04,499 --> 01:10:08,200
to South Vietnam, full of plans
for economic development

1078
01:10:08,299 --> 01:10:12,032
meant to win, he hoped,
the hearts and minds

1079
01:10:12,133 --> 01:10:13,833
of the Vietnamese people.

1080
01:10:16,799 --> 01:10:19,900
But those civilians would
always be outnumbered

1081
01:10:19,999 --> 01:10:21,499
by military advisors,

1082
01:10:21,600 --> 01:10:25,999
with orders to modernize,
train, and equip Diem's forces,

1083
01:10:26,100 --> 01:10:31,865
now called the Army of the
Republic of Vietnam... the ARVN.

1084
01:10:31,965 --> 01:10:37,400
Some ARVN officers found
American methods unsuited

1085
01:10:37,499 --> 01:10:40,133
to the guerrilla war they expected to wage

1086
01:10:40,232 --> 01:10:42,365
against the communists.

1087
01:10:42,465 --> 01:10:45,133
Most American military
advisors were veterans

1088
01:10:45,232 --> 01:10:46,532
of the war in Korea,

1089
01:10:46,633 --> 01:10:50,299
determined to prepare
South Vietnamese forces

1090
01:10:50,400 --> 01:10:55,833
to slow a conventional
invasion from the North.

1091
01:10:55,932 --> 01:10:59,532
But no one in North Vietnam

1092
01:10:59,633 --> 01:11:03,165
was planning a conventional invasion.

1093
01:11:03,266 --> 01:11:07,165
Ho Chi Minh was focused on
rebuilding his country,

1094
01:11:07,266 --> 01:11:11,133
devastated by more than a decade of war.

1095
01:11:13,665 --> 01:11:17,200
The communists imposed brutal land reforms

1096
01:11:17,299 --> 01:11:19,465
modeled on those underway in China

1097
01:11:19,566 --> 01:11:24,232
with a ruthlessness that left
thousands of people dead,

1098
01:11:24,333 --> 01:11:27,700
including not only landlords
who had sided with the French,

1099
01:11:27,799 --> 01:11:32,066
but also many villagers who had
fought with the Viet Minh.

1100
01:11:34,732 --> 01:11:38,465
Ho Chi Minh was still
determined to reunite Vietnam.

1101
01:11:38,566 --> 01:11:41,165
But he worried that if he
took direct military action

1102
01:11:41,266 --> 01:11:42,766
against the South,

1103
01:11:42,865 --> 01:11:46,932
the United States would be drawn
more deeply into the struggle.

1104
01:11:47,032 --> 01:11:50,465
He cautioned his comrades in
the South to put their faith

1105
01:11:50,566 --> 01:11:54,333
in political agitation and avoid violence.

1106
01:11:56,766 --> 01:11:58,732
But that message rang hollow

1107
01:11:58,833 --> 01:12:01,600
among embattled Southern revolutionaries

1108
01:12:01,700 --> 01:12:03,400
struggling to survive

1109
01:12:03,499 --> 01:12:08,400
under Diem's increasingly harsh regime.

1110
01:12:08,499 --> 01:12:13,032
In a campaign he called
"Denounce the Communists,"

1111
01:12:13,133 --> 01:12:16,432
Diem had imprisoned tens
of thousands of citizens

1112
01:12:16,532 --> 01:12:22,665
without trial and ordered the
executions of hundreds more.

1113
01:12:22,766 --> 01:12:26,665
Now, the communists took
matters into their own hands

1114
01:12:26,766 --> 01:12:30,432
and began attacking South
Vietnamese officials.

1115
01:12:31,865 --> 01:12:36,799
LE QUAN CONG:

1116
01:13:10,133 --> 01:13:14,200
NARRATOR: As violence in
South Vietnam intensified,

1117
01:13:14,299 --> 01:13:16,932
new leaders emerged in Hanoi.

1118
01:13:17,032 --> 01:13:20,400
Ho Chi Minh would remain
the face of the revolution

1119
01:13:20,499 --> 01:13:24,365
around the world, but he
now began to share power

1120
01:13:24,465 --> 01:13:27,633
with men who were growing
impatient with his caution,

1121
01:13:27,732 --> 01:13:32,266
men about whom Americans
knew almost nothing.

1122
01:13:34,400 --> 01:13:37,333
The most important proved
to be a carpenter's son

1123
01:13:37,432 --> 01:13:43,532
from Quang Tri province in
the South named Le Duan.

1124
01:13:43,633 --> 01:13:47,100
He had helped found the
Indochinese Communist Party,

1125
01:13:47,200 --> 01:13:50,665
survived nearly ten years
in a French prison,

1126
01:13:50,766 --> 01:13:53,865
and proved himself a
shrewd political infighter

1127
01:13:53,965 --> 01:13:57,400
as he rose to become First
Secretary of the party.

1128
01:13:59,299 --> 01:14:03,299
NGUYEN NGOC:

1129
01:14:32,165 --> 01:14:36,232
NARRATOR: By 1959, Le Duan
and his hardline allies

1130
01:14:36,333 --> 01:14:40,266
were gaining influence within
the North Vietnamese Politburo

1131
01:14:40,365 --> 01:14:42,965
and beginning to change its policy.

1132
01:14:43,066 --> 01:14:46,833
They now argued that Hanoi
should do everything

1133
01:14:46,932 --> 01:14:50,032
within its power to help
Southern revolutionaries

1134
01:14:50,133 --> 01:14:52,432
remove Diem by force.

1135
01:14:54,532 --> 01:14:58,766
BUI DIEM (speaking English):

1136
01:15:14,066 --> 01:15:17,600
NARRATOR: Now, bands of
40 to 50 armed Viet Minh

1137
01:15:17,700 --> 01:15:20,999
began slipping back home
into South Vietnam,

1138
01:15:21,100 --> 01:15:24,865
following jungle paths hacked
through the Laotian mountains

1139
01:15:24,965 --> 01:15:29,465
that the Americans would soon
call the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

1140
01:15:35,465 --> 01:15:38,665
Violence against the Diem
regime steadily accelerated.

1141
01:15:38,766 --> 01:15:40,400
(gunfire)

1142
01:15:40,499 --> 01:15:42,465
(siren blaring)

1143
01:15:48,600 --> 01:15:53,732
On the evening of July
8, 1959, at Bien Hoa,

1144
01:15:53,833 --> 01:15:55,665
20 miles northeast of Saigon,

1145
01:15:55,766 --> 01:15:59,900
six American military advisors
were watching a movie

1146
01:15:59,999 --> 01:16:01,532
in their mess hall.

1147
01:16:03,232 --> 01:16:05,266
Viet Minh guerrillas,
who had crept silently

1148
01:16:05,365 --> 01:16:08,932
into the compound, opened
fire through the windows.

1149
01:16:09,032 --> 01:16:11,633
(rapid gunfire)

1150
01:16:14,600 --> 01:16:17,499
Major Dale Buis from Pender, Nebraska,

1151
01:16:17,600 --> 01:16:19,700
and Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand

1152
01:16:19,799 --> 01:16:23,200
from Copperas Cove, Texas, were killed.

1153
01:16:25,400 --> 01:16:29,700
They were the first American
soldiers to die from enemy fire

1154
01:16:29,799 --> 01:16:31,700
in the Vietnam War.

1155
01:16:33,232 --> 01:16:35,799
JOHN KENNEDY: We must prove all over again,

1156
01:16:35,900 --> 01:16:41,633
to a watching world, as we sit
on a most conspicuous stage,

1157
01:16:41,732 --> 01:16:43,333
whether this nation,

1158
01:16:43,432 --> 01:16:47,532
conceived as it is with
its freedom of choice,

1159
01:16:47,633 --> 01:16:52,200
its breadth of opportunity,
its range of alternatives,

1160
01:16:52,299 --> 01:16:54,665
can compete with the single-minded advance

1161
01:16:54,766 --> 01:16:56,432
of the communist system.

1162
01:16:56,532 --> 01:17:02,165
NARRATOR: On November 8, 1960, John
Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected

1163
01:17:02,266 --> 01:17:04,900
president of the United States.

1164
01:17:04,999 --> 01:17:08,732
His vice president was
Senator Lyndon Johnson.

1165
01:17:08,833 --> 01:17:12,799
They had narrowly beaten
Vice President Richard Nixon

1166
01:17:12,900 --> 01:17:16,133
and his running mate,
Senator Henry Cabot Lodge.

1167
01:17:17,600 --> 01:17:20,532
During the campaign, both Kennedy and Nixon

1168
01:17:20,633 --> 01:17:25,066
had pledged to hold the line
against international communism

1169
01:17:25,165 --> 01:17:27,766
wherever it seemed to be a threat.

1170
01:17:27,865 --> 01:17:31,766
But very few Americans knew or cared about

1171
01:17:31,865 --> 01:17:34,200
what was going on in Vietnam.

1172
01:17:35,965 --> 01:17:38,165
Six weeks after Kennedy's election,

1173
01:17:38,266 --> 01:17:41,232
at a remote jungle village called Tan Lap

1174
01:17:41,333 --> 01:17:43,165
near the Cambodian border,

1175
01:17:43,266 --> 01:17:47,100
representatives of southern
revolutionary groups

1176
01:17:47,200 --> 01:17:51,299
met to form a new organization
to replace the Viet Minh,

1177
01:17:51,400 --> 01:17:54,266
dedicated to overthrowing Ngo Dinh Diem

1178
01:17:54,365 --> 01:17:58,266
and ousting the foreigners supporting him.

1179
01:17:58,365 --> 01:18:03,865
Behind the scenes, Le Duan and
his communist comrades in Hanoi

1180
01:18:03,965 --> 01:18:07,965
were orchestrating everything.

1181
01:18:08,066 --> 01:18:09,766
The new organization would be called

1182
01:18:09,865 --> 01:18:14,100
the National Liberation Front... the NLF.

1183
01:18:15,700 --> 01:18:18,766
The armed wing of the NLF was called

1184
01:18:18,865 --> 01:18:21,532
the People's Liberation Armed Forces,

1185
01:18:21,633 --> 01:18:25,066
but its enemies in Saigon
and Washington preferred

1186
01:18:25,165 --> 01:18:27,200
a more disparaging term.

1187
01:18:27,299 --> 01:18:30,665
In their eyes, the revolutionaries were

1188
01:18:30,766 --> 01:18:34,165
Communist Traitors to
the Vietnamese Nation...

1189
01:18:34,266 --> 01:18:35,766
the Viet Cong.

1190
01:18:41,732 --> 01:18:46,499
(muted shouting)

1191
01:18:48,932 --> 01:18:53,665
HUY DUC:

1192
01:19:25,900 --> 01:19:28,299
JOHN KENNEDY: Let every nation know,

1193
01:19:28,400 --> 01:19:33,999
whether it wishes us well or ill,

1194
01:19:34,100 --> 01:19:40,133
that we shall pay any
price, bear any burden,

1195
01:19:40,232 --> 01:19:45,100
meet any hardship, support any friend,

1196
01:19:45,200 --> 01:19:50,200
oppose any foe, to assure the survival

1197
01:19:50,299 --> 01:19:51,665
and the success of liberty.

1198
01:20:04,032 --> 01:20:06,499
TIM O'BRIEN: For me, I'd
always thought of courage

1199
01:20:06,600 --> 01:20:11,100
as charging enemy bunkers
or standing up under fire.

1200
01:20:11,200 --> 01:20:17,133
But just to walk, day after
day from village to village

1201
01:20:17,232 --> 01:20:21,766
and through the paddies and
up into the mountains,

1202
01:20:21,865 --> 01:20:26,032
just to get up in the morning
and look out at the land

1203
01:20:26,133 --> 01:20:29,732
and think, "In a few minutes
I'll be walking out there

1204
01:20:29,833 --> 01:20:32,965
"and will my corpse be there, over there?

1205
01:20:33,066 --> 01:20:34,499
Will I lose a leg out there?"

1206
01:20:36,299 --> 01:20:40,066
Just to walk felt incredibly brave.

1207
01:20:40,165 --> 01:20:42,932
I would sometimes look
at my legs as I walked,

1208
01:20:43,032 --> 01:20:45,432
thinking, how am I doing this?

1209
01:20:49,465 --> 01:20:55,600
("A Hard Rain's A-Gonna
Fall" by Bob Dylan playing)

1210
01:20:55,700 --> 01:20:59,432
♪ Oh, where have you been,
my blue-eyed son? ♪

1211
01:21:01,932 --> 01:21:06,133
♪ And where have you been,
my darling young one? ♪

1212
01:21:08,932 --> 01:21:12,700
♪ I've stumbled on the side
of 12 misty mountains ♪

1213
01:21:15,732 --> 01:21:19,865
♪ I've walked and I've crawled
on six crooked highways ♪

1214
01:21:22,299 --> 01:21:26,333
♪ I've stepped in the middle
of seven sad forests ♪

1215
01:21:28,732 --> 01:21:33,200
♪ I've been out in front
of a dozen dead oceans ♪

1216
01:21:35,299 --> 01:21:39,833
♪ I've been ten thousand miles
in the mouth of a graveyard ♪

1217
01:21:42,032 --> 01:21:45,266
♪ And it's a hard, it's a hard ♪

1218
01:21:45,365 --> 01:21:49,400
♪ It's a hard, it's a hard ♪

1219
01:21:49,499 --> 01:21:54,732
♪ It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall ♪

1220
01:22:00,100 --> 01:22:04,232
♪ Oh, what did you see,
my blue-eyed son? ♪

1221
01:22:06,833 --> 01:22:10,600
♪ And what did you see,
my darling young one? ♪

1222
01:22:13,465 --> 01:22:17,900
♪ I saw a newborn baby with
wild wolves all around it ♪

1223
01:22:20,165 --> 01:22:23,900
♪ I saw a highway of
diamonds with nobody on it ♪

1224
01:22:26,865 --> 01:22:30,833
♪ I saw a black branch with
blood that kept drippin' ♪

1225
01:22:33,465 --> 01:22:37,465
♪ I saw a room full of men with
their hammers a-bleedin' ♪

1226
01:22:40,266 --> 01:22:43,865
♪ I saw a white ladder
all covered with water ♪

1227
01:22:46,799 --> 01:22:50,665
♪ I saw 10,000 talkers whose
tongues were all broken ♪

1228
01:22:53,532 --> 01:22:58,365
♪ I saw guns with sharp swords
in the hands of young children ♪

1229
01:22:58,465 --> 01:23:01,700
♪ And it's a hard, it's a hard ♪

1230
01:23:01,799 --> 01:23:05,665
♪ It's a hard, and it's a hard ♪

1231
01:23:05,766 --> 01:23:11,232
♪ It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall ♪

1232
01:23:13,600 --> 01:23:17,032
♪ And it's a hard, it's a hard ♪

1233
01:23:17,133 --> 01:23:20,600
♪ It's a hard, and it's a hard ♪

1234
01:23:20,700 --> 01:23:25,865
♪ It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall. ♪

1235
01:23:32,100 --> 01:23:38,066
Captioned by Media Access Group
at WGBH, access.wgbh.org

1236
01:23:39,133 --> 01:23:40,332
ANNOUNCER: LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FILM

1237
01:23:40,333 --> 01:23:43,199
AND FIND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
AT PBS.ORG/VIETNAMWAR

1238
01:23:43,200 --> 01:23:47,132
AND JOIN THE CONVERSATION
USING HASHTAG VIETNAMWARPBS.

1239
01:23:47,133 --> 01:23:48,599
"THE VIETNAM WAR" IS AVAILABLE

1240
01:23:48,600 --> 01:23:50,265
ON BLU-RAY AND DVD.

1241
01:23:50,266 --> 01:23:51,931
THE COMPANION BOOK, SOUNDTRACK,

1242
01:23:51,932 --> 01:23:53,399
AND ORIGINAL SCORE FROM THE FILM

1243
01:23:53,400 --> 01:23:54,531
ARE ALSO AVAILABLE.

1244
01:23:54,532 --> 01:23:56,632
TO ORDER, VISIT SHOPPBS.ORG

1245
01:23:56,633 --> 01:23:59,099
OR CALL 1-800-PLAY-PBS.

1246
01:23:59,100 --> 01:24:00,531
EPISODES OF THIS SERIES ALSO

1247
01:24:00,532 --> 01:24:01,632
AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD

1248
01:24:01,633 --> 01:24:02,732
FROM iTUNES.

1249
01:24:05,999 --> 01:24:08,132
ANNOUNCER: BANK OF AMERICA PROUDLY SUPPORTS

1250
01:24:08,133 --> 01:24:13,031
KEN BURNS' AND LYNN NOVICK'S
FILM "THE VIETNAM WAR"

1251
01:24:13,032 --> 01:24:15,431
BECAUSE FOSTERING DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

1252
01:24:15,432 --> 01:24:18,031
AND CIVIL DISCOURSE AROUND IMPORTANT ISSUES

1253
01:24:18,032 --> 01:24:20,332
FURTHERS PROGRESS, EQUALITY,

1254
01:24:20,333 --> 01:24:22,333
AND A MORE CONNECTED SOCIETY.

1255
01:24:26,799 --> 01:24:30,833
GO TO BANKOFAMERICA.COM/
BETTERCONNECTED TO LEARN MORE.

1256
01:24:34,299 --> 01:24:35,731
ANNOUNCER: MAJOR SUPPORT
FOR "THE VIETNAM WAR"

1257
01:24:35,732 --> 01:24:39,231
WAS PROVIDED BY MEMBERS OF
THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY,

1258
01:24:39,232 --> 01:24:43,199
INCLUDING JONATHAN AND JEANNIE LAVINE,

1259
01:24:43,200 --> 01:24:46,099
DIANE AND HAL BRIERLEY,

1260
01:24:46,100 --> 01:24:48,498
AMY AND DAVID ABRAMS,

1261
01:24:48,499 --> 01:24:50,998
JOHN AND CATHERINE DEBS,

1262
01:24:50,999 --> 01:24:53,964
THE FULLERTON FAMILY CHARITABLE FUND,

1263
01:24:53,965 --> 01:24:56,031
THE MONTRONE FAMILY,

1264
01:24:56,032 --> 01:24:58,364
LYNDA AND STEWART RESNICK,

1265
01:24:58,365 --> 01:25:01,132
THE PERRY AND DONNA
GOLKIN FAMILY FOUNDATION,

1266
01:25:01,133 --> 01:25:02,133
THE LYNCH FOUNDATION,

1267
01:25:02,134 --> 01:25:04,998
THE ROGER AND ROSEMARY ENRICO FOUNDATION,

1268
01:25:04,999 --> 01:25:08,431
AND BY THESE ADDITIONAL FUNDERS.

1269
01:25:08,432 --> 01:25:10,332
MAJOR FUNDING WAS ALSO PROVIDED

1270
01:25:10,333 --> 01:25:12,066
BY DAVID H. KOCH...

1271
01:25:14,365 --> 01:25:16,566
THE BLAVATNIK FAMILY FOUNDATION...

1272
01:25:18,900 --> 01:25:21,332
THE PARK FOUNDATION,

1273
01:25:21,333 --> 01:25:23,498
THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES,

1274
01:25:23,499 --> 01:25:25,699
THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS,

1275
01:25:25,700 --> 01:25:28,364
THE JOHN S. AND JAMES L. KNIGHT FOUNDATION,

1276
01:25:28,365 --> 01:25:31,132
THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION,

1277
01:25:31,133 --> 01:25:33,731
THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS FOUNDATIONS,

1278
01:25:33,732 --> 01:25:35,931
THE FORD FOUNDATION JUSTFILMS,

1279
01:25:35,932 --> 01:25:37,132
BY THE CORPORATION

1280
01:25:37,133 --> 01:25:38,364
FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING,

1281
01:25:38,365 --> 01:25:40,332
AND BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU.

1282
01:25:40,333 --> 01:25:41,465
THANK YOU.