Original subtitles

January

1968 the opening Salos of the most

widely debated Battle of the Vietnam

War the Communist Target is an American

Base called

[Music]

kesan The Defenders are told to dig in

there will be no retreat

as the battle for quesan begins War

explodes in every South Vietnamese

City Pet the Vietnamese New Year holiday

becomes a spectacular and bloody

[Music]

offensive in America television brings

home unpreceded precedented War

scenes and brings

[Music]

doubt

uh this is B moose I'd also like to get

one strike on that right flank to the

Southwest at your right flank in that

clump of trees because I think you can

get flanked in bad trouble if we don't

hit it in there

over by January 68 2 and 1/2 years after

American ground troops went to Vietnam

US forces number almost half a

million aggressive Search and Destroy

operations have pushed North Vietnamese

forces back into bord

sanctuaries American field commanders

insist their tactics are winning the war

the public is told that the worst is

over but not everyone believes defense

secretary Robert mcnamar is turning

against the war to replace mcnamar

president Lyndon Johnson names a new

defense secretary Clark Clifford

Clifford is a Washington lawyer a close

Johnson associate who at first fully

supports the war policy in

1967 the reports coming back from

Vietnam was that we were finally

prevailing the expression that was being

used was that parties could see the

light at the end of the tunnel

and returning visitors would comment on

when we might be able to get our men

back from Vietnam there was quite a lot

of euphoria by the end of 1967 it looked

like we were ultimately prevailing and

we were nearing the end of this sorry

sorry

Enterprise but in July 67 the North

Vietnamese decide on a new strategy the

Communist military Commander general

bone [ __ ] prepares to attack South

Vietnam

cities his objective to destroy

government structure and American

[Music]

confidence the switch to an open

offensive is a huge risk and the North

Vietnamese proceed it with a peace bid

and with the dramatic Siege

[Music]

kesan December 1967 a large North

Vietnamese buildup is observed in the

hills around

Quan according to American intelligence

the Communist battle plan is to surround

then overwhelm the

[Music]

position the target an air strip on a

small Plateau kesan until now a little

known name in America's three years of

combat

involvement kesan is located in the

remote northwest corner where South

Vietnam borders la and North

Vietnam to hold quesan its Defenders

must control several nearby Hills key

Hills like 861 and 881 were held by

Marines after intensive combat 7 months

earlier now these same Hills will be

pivotal throughout the coming

battle in command of World War II

veteran Marine Colonel David E LS he he

understands the critical importance to

both sides of owning The High Ground

their plan to uh take the hills was what

I would have done in other words if I

were on the other side of the fence and

and my commander said to me I want that

air strip you take it then my first step

would be to get you off the hills to

take away your

eyes since the mid 1960s Search and

Destroy operations have been mounted in

this Northern sect

kesan is a forward patrol base

attempting to block North Vietnamese

infiltration routes the tactics and

terrain are the choice of General

William West Morland I was influenced by

a desire to fight the enemy away from

the populated

area if we could fight them in the

hinderland there in the rugged uh hilan

mountainous area along the LA

border our fars wouldn't be inhibit IED

by the proximity of

civilians but now 3500 Marines are

pinned inside their own barbed wire

they're encircled and outnumbered at

least four to

one an operational base becomes a

fortress

besieged January 21st communist

longrange artillery spearheads the

opening

attack

on this first day a direct hit on the

ammo

[Music]

D there will be 11 more weeks of

Siege when people are hit it uh comes

home very rapidly and uh you know you

feel it very deeply we had a man that

that caught an artillery round he had

jumped in a hole and we had a shell come

in right into the in the to the man's

hole and you know what you could uh what

they had to send home would probably fit

inside of a handkerchief they they just

sh the hell out of us up there that was

one of the

uh guess I was one of the most conly

bombed areas in history of

warfare Quan's only about a quarter mile

wide and about half mile long I think on

the first day alone they dropped 300

rounds in there it was just a lot of

death and destruction up

there 18 Marines die the first

day number one fire for every incoming

sh the Marines shoot several back but

they are the more visible more

concentrated

[Music]

Target the early plight of kon's

Defenders draws press and public

attention it quickly becomes the major

war story press analyst Peter brop it

was Mel drama at its purest and no such

prolonged confrontation between the

Americans and the North Vietnamese had

taken place up until that point in the

war so you had visions of Jen ban Fu in

your head the surrounded Marines and you

had this unending but never climactic

story to

cover press comparisons to dbm Fu

disturb the American

command this battle lost by the French

14 years before is the symbol of Western

military failure in

Vietnam D mm Fu like kesan was an

isolated base that had to be supplied by

air here too the Communist had a

superior encircling

Force artillery bombardment devastated

the MBM

Fu the Victor at the MBM Fu General bone

wi [ __ ] has planned the siege of

quesan the similarities are irresistible

to the Press every new reporter who came

up said well try to equate it to den Ben

Fu and

uh and I kept trying to tell him and

I'll tell you today that the comparison

is not not

good unlike the French the American

Defenders at quesan heavily outgunned

the Communists and the American command

is confident it can hold the surrounding

Hills which the French did not at kesan

the US has total air

superiority but visions of the dmbm fu

defeat haunt president lyen B Johnson he

fears America's Vietnam policy May

shatter if quesan

falls the president Demands a formal

paper from The Joint Chiefs of Staff

signed in blood as he put it that K Sun

can be held the White House pressure

descends on West mland well because of

the

visibility uh given in the United States

by by the media and particularly by by

television it was great consternation in

Washington president and his advisers

were very much influenced by television

accounts and by press accounts because

they would receive that information

before they W our official

reports and Mr Johnson his advisers were

concerned to the point where they

over

evaluated the importance of that battle

and the prospect of our being defeated

there reflecting National concern over

kesan the president person ly sees off

marine

reinforcements this is a decisive time

in

Vietnam the eyes of the nation and the

eyes of the entire

world the eyes of all of history

itself are on that little Brave band of

Defenders who hold the past at

quesan and the area that is around

it the reinforcements arrive at the

height of the siege troop strength is

now 6,000 including a battalion of South

Vietnamese

Rangers I made the decision to hold

quesan and we reinforced it with the

Marines and with a battalion of

Vietnamese Rangers the force was the

minimum force that I thought could be

supplied if necessary by

air on orders from Johnson West Morland

himself reports daily to the president

his chief logistic concerns are the

condition of the runway and getting in

supplies by

air despite his Supply problems West

Morland decides against opening the

highway under the base his troops are

spread too

thin quesan must continue to depend

solely on air

supplies a C130 spews gasoline from a

damaged Wing a MTAR round just misses

the

plane the air strip is the main

communist Target and needs constant

repair Pilots Brave anti-aircraft fire

to dump their loads over the small

Target

below for the Marines Under Siege their

isolation finds words in a soldier's

song composed and sung in

Vietnam here am

I oh away over

here

10,000 miles away from

home away from you my

dear here am

I so homick and

blue I need so many many

things but most of all I need

you we shed our bunker with large rats

that uh control they actually own kesan

we was just rumors there I saw rats in

New York from being from New York but I

never seen them as big as what I saw out

there and they told us how to sleep now

that was something you unique to me you

took a blanket and you tucked your feet

so you in a cocoon and you slept like

that if you didn't uh the first night

there a guy showed us what would happen

he refused to sleep with his face

covered and a rat jumped and bit a hunk

out of his face the very first night so

they never had to tell me about sleeping

like that

again the Marines and Elite attacking

Force are under presidential orders to

defend they dig in

deeper as communist shelling continues

the Ted offensive

erupts Communist forces overrun every

major town and

City the Marines at quesan fear they

will be next we expected a a massive

Invasion we know there were anywhere

from uh 20 to 80,000 people out there a

bunch of us got together and we swore

Oaths up and down that none of us would

ever leave the trench alive and kind of

heroic kind of nonsense I guess but we

all believed it and we really felt U

this is it you know we're going to all

pull our grenades out and let them up in

our trench and just started

waiting the B good Defenders can only

sit and wait anxiously for the expected

big

[Music]

push

January 31st

1968 the Communist main offensive is

timed to the traditional ceasefire at T

the Vietnamese New

Year with us attention fully on the

siege of quesan the Ted attack is

largely

unsuspected in saigan guerillas

infiltrate with the pre- holiday

traffic

[Music]

suddenly nowhere in Vietnam is

safe nearly 880,000 troops are committed

to the first wave of

attacks most are southern guillas of the

National Liberation Front known as the

Viet

Kong

the Communists drank 100 towns and

cities 36 provincial capitals and 64

District

capitals they attacked the American

Embassy in saigan and occupy the grounds

capturing World

attention a Counterattack forms on the

streets outside American MPS prepare to

storm the

compound

know

we we right in front of

us heavy fire comes from the assault

group of 17

[Music]

Commandos a gun battle erupts in the

embassy grounds where a commander is

barricaded in a frame

house in the fighting five Americans and

15 gorillas are

killed the Communist assault fails

militarily but has strong psychological

impact Ambassador Ellsworth bunker no I

was in my residence when it happened and

was awakened about 1:00 in the morning I

think when it started by the Marine

guards I I was surprised that there had

been as much infiltration into the city

itself as there had been and um

surprised that they had gotten into the

embassy itself but felt that the enemy

had been repulsed they been pretty well

driven out things were quiet at that

time and uh the reports I had from

General West Morland were that

militarily the situation was under

control I felt that this was a

relatively small

incident was a group of sappers that

blew a hole in the wall and crawled in

and they were all killed and the bodies

were laying around and that we shouldn't

be deceived by this instant the enemy

had attack and he had attacked in force

and he was going to be defeated but the

Press was unbelieving and reported it in

an unbelieving sense in general for

several weeks the character of The Press

reports were Bloom and

[Music]

doom the Communist attack Saigon's

airport the military headquarters and

the presidential Palace fighting is

heaviest in cholan the Chinese suburb

where over a thousand INF infiltrators

are dug

in in Saigon as elsewhere half the

Vietnamese Army is on holiday in all

some 4,000 Viet Kong have managed to

penetrate the inner

city the fighting goes on from Street to

Street for

days each evening an American living

rooms the war is replayed on

television the Tet Offensive was such a

shocking event to the public and to the

administration it was so unexpected and

in the early days of the Ted offensive

it was eminently successful it looked

like the bottom was dropping

in American armored units move into

Saigon to join the battle five American

battalions are in action at the end of

the first

day in this back alley hunt for snipers

there is little cover and casualties

mount with no sign of communist

withdrawal the Americans call in air

strikes against pockets of

infiltrators

targets are difficult to pinpoint in

densely crowded Saigon and

sholan the city is soon burning its

firemen desperately fighting to contain

the damage inflicted by both

sides

civilians are caught in the crossfire

thousands of citizens are arrested

suspected of aiding the Viet

Kong in Kanto and Mito smaller cities

near Saigon air strikes leave a

devastated landscape at Ben tree an

American Officer says we had to destroy

it to save it for many Americans this

statement becomes a symbol for the many

paradoxes of the

war until now the war has bypassed the

cities now civilians are killed and

wounded in unprecedented numbers the

Communists make important psychological

gains South Vietnam's chief of

pacification Colonel NN B it was very

successful for the Communist to saw to

the people that the Communist can come

everywhere even in the big cities with

the big American base or big government

base they can come in and Destroy and

kill anybody who act against

them Dawn January 31st in their most

concentrated t attack the Communist

assault way they send 12,000 troops into

battle a major Target is the Citadel a

thick w old fortress once used by

Vietnamese

Emperors whey is an important Target

psychologically for all vietnames it

embodies centuries of history and

cultural

values and wayy is militarily vital

halfway on the Supply route from Danang

to the Allied Forces near the partition

line for the first time Communist forces

become a target for prolonged

conventional battle

[Music]

at kesan the Communists also become a

concentrated Target American Air power

takes full

advantage tactical air strikes soon

average 400 a

[Music]

day

[Music]

the US claims only two fighter bombers

lost to the fierce anti-aircraft

fire for communist troops caught on the

move the air power is lethal but they're

experts at entrenchment those dug in

evidently withstand the air strikes and

so prolong The

Siege intelligence analysts working from

Mariel photographs Det determine likely

North Vietnamese troop

routes and there are new devices to

enhance air power sensors shaped like

small trees are dropped to form a

warning system around

kesan acoustic sensors pick up sounds of

trucks or human voices seismic sensors

transmit Earth vibrations of passing

troops R control we have a JFC 12 Change

on

604 has been ordered by oms2 control

number

081 down to the South your all inate

target is against troop concentration

your primary target is against kesan

area where there is a large confirmed

troop concentration build up in storage

area the toughest punch comes from The

B-52s they take off from Far East bases

Around the

Clock okay pilot 2990 have a correction

of plus one 299 Z

Zero 4 3 2 one

go daily now three bombers are over Quon

every 90

minutes the rain of bombs 1,800 tons a

day has a code name operation Niagara

[Music]

AR light raids B52 raids uh really

tremendous tremendous raids you didn't

even see the airplanes all you saw was

the air being ripped apart and ground

thundering underneath you and you're

bouncing in the air you're not

even aware that where the planes could

even have

been February 7th the Communist attacked

the American Special Forces camp at Lang

just 6 miles west of quesan

communist tanks appear for the first

time in the Vietnam War a new alarm for

the American High

command Lang has just 24 American

Defenders backed by 900 Mountain

tribesmen The Defenders desperately call

for help from kesan the Marines make an

agonizing decision they do not attempt

the rescue because of the risk of Ambush

only a handful of Lang B Defenders

Escape Colonel LS reinforces the hill

positions but were the hills important

yes they were uh they were vitally

important as far as I'm concerned

because you got to see you can't fight

if you can't see in other words if he

could come in and and get that key

terrain and put his observers up there

then then the effectiveness of his his

rocket and mortors and everything else

becomes 100% more valuable and also it

denies us the privilege of of spotting

on his people that are trying to move in

towards the

base February 8th 18 days into the siege

communist reinforcements launched the

first daylight

attack they storm up hill 64 just 500 yd

from The quesan

Wire in Savage hand toand fighting the

Western half of the Hill Outpost

Falls the Marines Counterattack and

retake the hill the fate of the Marines

is a daily concern of the US

public at way the last T battle for the

cities becomes another bloody Siege

the North Vietnamese capture way within

24 hours then dig in the Marines begin a

bitter counter offensive Lieutenant

Colonel Robert Christmas I can remember

a very weird feeling and we went up

route one and we passed you know a lot

of Devastation that but nothing nothing

we got into the city nothing nothing we

were about two blocks off of the MC

compound and then boom uh a major ambush

hit

us we literally ran an entire company

across the bridge just a double time got

into the other side of the bridge and of

course quickly took up position were

able to drive what was over there off

about a square block and then hold

it frankly that was probably the worst

evening I spent in the city because I

was very scared and I don't think there

was anyone else in the uh with us that

wasn't

the Americans struggle to regain whe

block by block picking their way across

old Courtyards and down narrow

[Applause]

streets on February 6th the week end of

the offens

five Marine companies recapture some key

buildings the hospital the jail and

provincial

headquarters more than 100 US Marines

are dead morale is seriously

tested not knowing where they are at the

worst R around the running the sewers

and the gutters anywhere be anywhere

just hope you stay alive day to daybody

just want to go back home and go to

school that it you lost any friends

quite a few we lost one the other

day I think

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

stink after 10 days the Communists still

hold the main Northern sector The

Citadel now the Marines begin crossing

the perfume River the main bridges are

out blown up by the Comm

two Marine companies have fed across to

attack the Citadel from the East the

American and South Vietnamese High

command agree that casualties are

becoming

prohibitive they decide to bomb the old

city until now spared because of its

historical

significance

outside way American reinforcements

begin closing in to cut off communist

supply

lines as the battle rages

an inspiring moment for the

Marines mystically from somewhere

appears this American

flag well first of all the old gunny

looked up and just literally burst into

tears but I I think the the even greater

phenomena was here bullets are still

cracking and these all sorts of things

are going on and out of the windows of

this capital building where Marines are

still clearing room by room and uh and

then comes this tremendous cheer you

know that you can hear over the sounds

of the battle and everything

else in the battle for way the South

Vietnamese placed their losses at 400

and claimed 5,000 communist troops

killed the Americans lose 142 Marines

another 857 are seriously wounded among

them Lieutenant Colonel Chrismas and I

let them lay me down but this is

something I'll I'll take with me all of

my life the mortars started to come in

and there was nothing I could do I

couldn't move and the mors were walking

just like that and I get hit a couple

times but then on top of me my radio

operator and my Gunnery so just Dove on

top of me and laid on top of me as these

mortars you know went through and again

uh I took a few more wounds fortunately

they weren't wounded but I will take

that with me all my

[Music]

life

[Music]

[Music]

now there is only the Old Fort the

Citadel left to

reoccupy supporting the advance tanks

Fire Point Blank at the walls and garden

of the

Citadel the Marines seize the southeast

gate of the

Citadel February 25th

1968 the battle for wayi is over South

Vietnamese troops celebrate but the

Communist forces also claim victory

North Vietnamese Diplomat havan la

we considered the victory of the Ted

offensive to be a strategic one for

us as to the actual losses of human life

or material on our side I don't recall

the exact figures but it was only

natural that we did lose man and

material that was the price we had to

pay to win this strategic

Victory the shattered once grand city is

a grim Monument to what the victory cost

General West Morland claims that the war

could now have been won this was uh the

turning point of the war it could have

been a turning point for success but it

was the turning point for

failure by virtue of the early reporting

of the war which was was gloom and

doom and which gave the American people

impression that uh Americans were being

defeated on the

battlefield

uh swaye public opinion to the point

that uh political

Authority made the decision to withdraw

from the

battlefield at the kesan base a direct

ground attack is now expected day 33

brings a record Inc coming 1,300

[Applause]

rounds at night the Marines hear the

Communist digging toward them some

trenches come as close as 200 yards each

day Napal scorches The

Trenches bad weather and the shelling

hamper the aerial Supply Lifeline but

thousands of tons of fuel ammo and food

are parachuted

in there's only also an efficient but

risky ground delivery system the planes

skim the runway while the cargo

jettisons the system also requires

courage for those Marines rotating out

you have to understand that the planes

because the base was constantly being

shelled did not stop and park on a

Runway and they would unload what they

had by throwing it out the back and you

would wait in a line and as the plane

went by you would run after it and jump

in and the first plane was a mail plane

that I tried to get out on and I didn't

make the plane and uh the plane did not

make it out it was just lifting off and

it got blown away at the end of the

runway halfway through the siege after

40 days only the wounded are regularly

getting out some of the guys wanted out

bad enough that they would uh jump in

the hle into the trench line and have

their feet above the trench line hoping

that they would get a piece of strap

metal to cut their leg or their foot to

go home from they want it out that

[Music]

bad for the American public the battle

conditions and purpose are increasingly

questioned for the Marines the

challenges to keep up morau however they

[Music]

can bad weather continually closes in on

kesan but zero visibility hardly affects

air

operations ground controllers using

radar and computers guide the bombing

this technology is perhaps one decisive

factor in terminating the

battle

in mid-march the Marines realize that

like a quietly receding tide the North

Vietnamese are leaving

kesan the time has come to lift The

Siege starting April 1st helicopter

assaults are made against pockets of

remaining communist

infantry within a few days air Cavalry

units link up with the

Defenders on the ground lead elements

push West meeting Little Resistance

distance starting April 6th the relief

forces move into

quesan the 77-day siege is over the

evaluation

begins an officer at kesan Max Cleland

when our relief forces landed within 2

miles of

quan we found that the two miles between

us and the base had been literally

leveled uh by B-52s

despite Quan's relief the military must

still deal with comparisons to dmbm PO

we had the superior Firepower we had the

superior air air support and we had the

superior

mobility H at at quesan and ultimately

that made the

difference although the benden food

didn't

materialize they the operation was given

such visibility in the United States did

play into the hands of the uh of the

enemy psychologically now I think it

should be recognized

that the strategy of the enemy was to

defeat us politically at home I think

they were smart enough to realize they

could not defeat us on the

[Music]

battlefield the cas on Siege turns many

Americans against the war as the battle

ends a Gallop poll shows that one in

five Americans switch from support to

opposition in North Vietnam the public

has shown scenes of anti-war unrest in

the United States they are told the war

is being won in the

sou at quesan the Marines claim a body

count of, 1600 North Vietnamese and

possibly many more from the air

strikes Marine losses are given us 205

killed 800 wounded but US public opinion

questions the cost and results the

Marines held kesan told to abandon it

only the press and public debated was it

worth it I'm a

marine I still am I'm retired but I'm

I'm a marine and Marines have one funny

habit and and uh that is that they do

what the hell they're told to

do uh if the decision is made by people

above me that that is not that that was

not required I'm you know I I don't have

any feeling going way I was told to go

there I was told to stay there I went

there I stayed there when they told me

to come out I came out the same thing

with the troops that were there I did it

only because I had the young men that

could do it and after all they're the

ones that really won the Battle of Quan

the US command abandons kesan and

gradually their tactic of Search and

Destroy military experts wonder if the

North Vietnamese use kesan as a faint to

draw attention away from the Ted

offensive launched about the same time

President Johnson answers the critics as

he presents unit citations to The

Defenders some have asked what the

gallantry of these marines and Airmen

accomplished why did we choose to pay

the price to defend those dreary Hills

by pinning down and by decimating two

North Vietnamese

divisions the few thousand Marines and

their Gallant South Vietnamese

allies prevented those divisions from

entering other major

battles I believe that our initiative

toward talks with North Vietnam was

greatly

strengthened by what these men did de at

kesan for they vividly demonstrated to

the

enemy the utter futility of his attempts

to win a military victory in the

south in the battles of tet and quesan

the US military claims complete Victory

but the nature of the combat not its

outcome proves decisive in way alone the

civilian dead number 5,000 half of them

allegedly executed by the Communists the

war of attrition seems unending and

indecisive the horrific media images of

the war continue to haunt Americans in

Saigon after the police chief publicly

executes a captured

prisoner this television war is

instantly transmitted to American living

rooms despite their losses the

Communists gain a psychological Victory

public doubts are reinforced by the

soldiers who often question the cost and

purpose awful sick of it I'll be so glad

to go

home I don't know just it's the worst

area we've been in since I've been in

Vietnam do you think it's worth it yeah

I don't know they they say we're

fighting or something I don't know okay

still okay got hit Vietnam was the first

war fought without news censorship

former Secretary of State Dean Rus this

was the first struggle fought on

television in everybody's living room

every day what would have happened in

World War II if gule canal and the anzio

beach head and the Battle of the Bulge

or the Deep raid were on television and

the other side was not doing the same

thing whether Ordinary People can uh

sustain a war effort under that kind of

daily hammering is a very large

question as the four-week T offense EV

ends clarkk Clifford takes office he was

named Secretary of Defense before tet

when he fully supported President

Johnson's Vietnam

policy a month of study has changed him

well I swear to you it was a revelation

to me I spent four days for instance

down in the tank that's the situation

room in the Pentagon where you're in

touch with

every Us location in the world and I

tried to get answers to questions that

had been raised I would ask questions

like

how long in your opinion you're the

military experts do you think the war

will last I could get no satisfactory

answer now if we send 200,000 more men

will that be the end or must we send

more well we really don't know well are

we actually prevailing in the war well

it all depends on how you look at it I

could not get sound and solid answers I

finally and ask the ultimate question

and that is what is the plan for the

United States to win the war it was

startling to me to find out that we had

no military plan to win the war at at

the end of this rather lengthy inquiry I

then reported my personal views to

President Johnson and I said it was very

clear to me that the one course of

action that the United States should

take is to get out of Vietnam it was a

real loser

Clifford convinces President Johnson the

war shows no sign of ending soon Vietnam

is destroying his

[Music]

presidency President Johnson bows at the

adverse public reaction after T the

president who first committed American

combat troops now sees Vietnam dividing

America he decides to freeze troop

levels limit the air war and seek peace

and not seek reelection

good evening my fellow

Americans tonight I want to speak to

you of Peace in Vietnam and Southeast

Asia with Americans sons in the field

far

away with America's future under

challenge right here at

home with our hopes and the world's

hopes for peace and the balance every

day I do not believe

believe that I should devote an hour or

a day of my time to any personal

partisan causes or to any duties

other than the awesome

duties of this office the

presidency of your country

accordingly I shall not

see and I will not accept

the nomination of my party for another

term as your

[Music]

president