All language subtitles for VIETNAM WAR - Secret Footage Revealed - Dodcumentary

I am General Paul D. Hawkins,
commander of the US Military

Assistance Command in Vietnam. Here
today, the US Army, Navy, Air Force,

and Marines are joined together in a
common effort to help this country.

Nowhere in the world today are we more aware
of the inseparability of the problems of a

people involved in fighting a war and building a
nation than in Vietnam. For here is the rendevu

of all the historical forces in this century.
The communists have long sought to take over

in Vietnam and the first phase of struggle after
World War II resulted in the North South petition

directly reflecting our divided world. Now this
young nation remaining on freedom's side is

engaged in a war which is as hidden and stealthy
as it is relentless and exhausting. Responding to

the request of the Republic of Vietnam, the
United States has come to help. As we have

helped and are helping all free people who seek
to defend themselves from the communist scourge.

The US effort to our Vietnamese allies is a vast
and comprehensive one. It involves political,

economic, psychological, and military measures.
All of the armed forces of the US play a part.

Because our efforts here are so comprehensive, the
whole story cannot be told in 30 minutes. Today,

our focus is on the US Army Special Forces,
one important part of our overall effort.

Heat. [Applause] Heat.

[Music]

I'm James Arens. During the next 30 minutes,
you're going to meet a remarkable group of

Americans, members of the United States Army's
special forces on duty in South Vietnam. The

Republic of Vietnam on the eastern edge of the
Indochina Peninsula is about as far from home

as an American can be while still on Earth.
But at 7:00 in the morning here in Saigon at

7:00 the previous night in New York City, Army
special forces were sent to Vietnam because

they're experts, specialists in training men to
fight a special kind of war. It's a dirty war

fought without uniforms on a battlefield without
boundaries. [Applause] A war where the friendly

farmer you pass in a rice patty may become a
murderous enemy the instant the sun goes down.

Sunset is beautiful in South Vietnam. But then
night comes and at night in Vietnam men die.

The communist gerilla lives off the people by
persuasion if possible but if propaganda fails

by terror. Fear and propaganda have turned
the isolated villages of Southeast Asia into

a theater of war. A war which can only be
won or lost by the villagers themselves.

What Americans can do is combat fear
by giving them guns and the training

they need to defend themselves against terrorism.

And we can reply to the propaganda by actions.

we can bring to these remote areas some
tangible proof that the way of life we

propose is a good life worth fighting
for. This is the story of a small group

of Americans who are quietly trying to do that
job now in the swamps and jungles of Vietnam.

[Music]

Wars come in various sizes,
wearing different labels.

But one thing they all have in
common, the innocent suffer.

The guerilla warfare being conducted against the
Republic of Vietnam by the Vietnamese communists,

the Vietkong isn't new. We saw it with minor
variations in China, in Malaya, in Greece,

in the Philippines, in Cuba, in Laos. It's a
kind of war which recognizes no non-combatants.

In Vietnam, the communist gorillas
promised progress. Yet their favorite

targets for assassination are school teachers,
doctors, engineers, anyone trying to do today

what they promise for tomorrow. Life will be
lived on their terms or not at all. [Music]

What happens to Vietnam will depend in the end
on who wins the villages. And the government

of the United States has determined
that it won't be communist guerrillas.

[Music]

This is Major General William B. Rosson. He was
then a brigadier on a recent visit to a strategic

village high in the mountains of central Vietnam.
As special assistant to the chief of staff for

special warfare, he has come to inspect the
village defense system established here by a

12-man special forces team. A handful of Americans
who in a few short months have converted a remote

gorillainfested highland plateau into a major
training center of anti-communist tribesmen.

We asked General Rosson to describe the war
in Vietnam and the role of the special forces

soldier. There are many terms which might be
used to characterize the conflict now occurring

in Vietnam. For the general public, the best known
probably is guerrilla warfare. However we refer to

it, there can be no question that armed insurgency
on a large scale is taking place aimed at the

destruction of a people's national independence.
It is the policy of the United States government

to advise and assist the people of the Republic of
Vietnam in their struggle to defeat the communist

insurgency which strives to eradicate their
freedom. The American soldiers you will see in

this film are part of our assistance effort.
As members of the US Army's special forces,

they are among the most highly trained military
personnel the world has known. Each of them has

been trained in a variety of skills which
in more conventional organizations would be

distributed among two or more individuals. These
soldiers possess the capability of going to remote

primitive regions of the world to live with the
people, eat their food or share their lack of it,

learn their language, their customs and taboos,
and win their confidence and respect. The future

of such areas as Southeast Asia ultimately may
be determined by events taking place in remote

jungle villages which appear on no maps, by acts
of violence occurring only under the cover of

darkness. By wars which can be won or lost before
the world is aware that a war has even begun.

This film documents a small part of what the
armed forces and particularly your army is

doing to asssure that such conflicts,
wherever they may be forced upon us,

can be resisted successfully by
ourselves and our allies. [Music]

I'm Captain Ron Shackleton, detachment
commander of the special forces personnel

in this area. American advisers first began
laying the groundwork for village defense in

this region in September 1961. At that time, the
villagers in this area were almost completely

defenseless against the predatory tactics of the
Vietkong. the Vietnamese communists. Out of fear,

these mountain people were forced to both feed and
house roving Vietkong patrols, and their young men

were often forced into Vietkong activities in
order to protect the lives of their families.

Our effort during the months we have been
here have been to teach the mountaineers

who call themselves the raw day people that
they are capable of defending themselves

against such tactics that they need not be
afraid. We have shown the raw day how to

build stock type fences and how to
maintain 24-hour security. [Music]

This is Master Sergeant John Sllover
who has just returned from observing a

patrol. Through an interpreter, he
will comment on his observations.

Tell the patrol that they
did a very good job today.

There just one point I want to stress.
Some carried their weapon down like this.

Carry the weapon at the ready at all times.

Where their eyes are, so is
the muzzle of their weapon.

Not all our advisers rely on interpreters. Here we

see Sergeant Bill Belch instructing
the carbine in fluent Vietnamese.

gun.

Basic instruction in the care and use of a weapon
familiar to any veteran of the US Army. [Music]

In this class, one of our raw day
instructors is teaching his men a

technique in search and seizure
for arresting Vietkong agents.

Many such agents conceal themselves in friendly
villages disguised as ordinary workmen.

[Music]

These men are from surrounding villages.
They have come to our village seeking

training which will enable them to provide
their own defense against guerilla bands.

[Music] It is not unusual to see 200
or more of these people each week.

Outside the village gate is a sign which says
here no Vietkong need apply for rice or any

other assistance that this is a free village which
is no longer afraid. We have taught our friends

small unit tactics and given them modern
equipment with which to defend themselves.

People who once defended their freedom with
a crossbow are now learning to use rifles,

submachine guns, and grenades.

up now. Hey batwy

[Music]

peoples or in some ways very primitive by American
standards are among the best anti-gorilla fighters

in Southeast Asia. As our program expands,
new special forces teams are moving into

other villages, always with the same goal. To
teach people who value their independence how

to preserve it. Okay, OD, your boys got all your
equipment. You're all set to go just about now,

aren't you? Okay, fine. Well, you know that
we're going to have trouble to the south. When

we first set the circle up here, uh PC didn't
know what we were doing. It took him about a

month to really figure out just what we're about
to do there. So, uh, when we move to the south,

they already know just about what we're going
to do. And once we start building up the same

defensive systems we had up here, they're going
to try and hit us as soon as we start. So,

you're going to have to watch that. Well, OD,
for the past couple of weeks, you and your team

have been here observing my team, work with the
raw day people in village defense. You've been

exposed to some of our training problems, our
logistical problems, and some of the problems

that arise from working through interpreters. If
there are any questions that you or your team have

at this time or any other way that we can help
you, please feel free to ask. Thank you, Ron. Uh

the last two weeks have been very beneficial as
far as we our team is concerned. We've learned a

lot as far as you mentioned the interrogation and
so forth and the uh training with the RA working

through interpreters. The one point that you can
help us with though is on this field headquarters

there you've got set up. uh where we're going,
we'll probably be working decentralized training

rather than centralized. And the results you have
may help us down there. But uh when we go to the

other area, I'm afraid that we're going to have
a few more problems down there that we don't have

here. For example, a different tribe. And plus,
we're working with two different types of groups

of people than the old tribe. And we can take what
you have given us here and then modify it to meet

the situation down there. As far as equipment
wise, I think we pretty well got everything

you had. Uh, how about the lesson plans and uh
training schedule there? Uh, we're okay on that,

but we'll probably have to make some changes as
our situation goes along. Okay, Van, how about

the como situation? It's pretty well in hand.
Well, we'll try the same system they're using

here. If that don't work, we'll change it. The
villages of Southeast Asia were old in the days

of Julius Caesar. Throughout their long history,
they've been regularly conquered, oppressed,

liberated, and invaded again. In the best of
times, lives here are neither long nor easy.

Maybe it's not surprising that the villagers
of Vietnam have simple ideas about what makes

a friend. Friends are people who help. Medics
of a rather special kind are part of a special

forces team to care for their own men. But
in isolated, often disease-ridden hamlets

where no doctor has ever gone, a special forces
medic, but his extensive specialized training,

maybe the only contact with modern
medicine the people will ever have.

Okay, I'll give you this. Write down the
medicine if you can pick it up. [Music]

The use of military personnel to win
friends as well as to fight is gaining

ground in Vietnam. A villager is likely
to be more interested in a new roof for

his house than in the outcome of the
Cold War or the threat of communism.

The training and advising of Vietnamese civic
action teams for work in the villages of Vietnam

may be one of our major contributions to the
defeat of communism in Southeast Asia. [Music]

But if good works are an answer to communist
propaganda, they're not enough to repel the

guerilla terrorism which invariably follows
when propaganda fails. This is the village

of Hookthian near the coast of the South
China Sea. By refusing food and volunteers

to Vietman gerillas, these villagers subjected
themselves to 250 guerilla attacks in 5 years.

That's an average of one a week. They're
about to show an American visitor how they

survived. A typical alert, which here is
more often real than practice. [Music]

The village has been organized into a small
fort. When the alert sounds, every man, woman,

and child has either a place to hide or a
post to defend. They've defended it so well

that guerilla attacks have virtually ceased. The
price of extorting food and supplies have become

too big for the gorillas to pay. And it's worth
remembering that they did this all on their own.

[Music] Americans are now giving them weapons and
technical advice. But in this case, we're only

making a good thing better and maybe making life
a little easier for a town full of brave people.

[Music]

All the bravery in the world won't win a war
from behind a stockade fence. Sooner or later,

you have to take the fight to the enemy.

Whether he's an army or only a band of
gorillas prowling the surrounding jungle.

At a special forces training camp outside Saigon,

volunteers from the village of Hookthian are
training to carry their war outside the gates.

[Music] These training
missions can be interesting.

The jungle is never safe. When you
practice searching for gorillas hiding

in jungle villages, you're always able
to find some. [Music] In this school,

nobody has trouble keeping the students awake.
A moment's carelessness can lead to disaster.

You don't cross a clearing, pass a temple, or walk
through a cemetery without making sure [Music]

[Music]

Natives of the Vietnamese Highlands have
nothing to learn from Americans about jungle.

living. But they do need help
in mastering the tactics and

using the modern weapons which communist
trained gerillas are using against them.

[Music]

Like mountain people everywhere, they
are natural soldiers who learn fast.

These are men of the Nung Chinese training at

a special forces camp near
the town of Daang. [Music]

They're already some of the most experienced
anti-gorilla fighters in Southeast Asia.

In 1954, 25 of these same men turned back an
assault by 1,000 Vietmin soldiers, killing

600 in the process. These are mountain people of
the Katang tribe. They and their US instructors

are drawing rations of dried shrimp and rice for a
week-long jungle patrol. a joint training exercise

with soldiers of the regular Vietnamese army.
It will have the added practical advantage of

making life difficult for a battalion of Vietkong
guerillas who happen to be using the same jungle.

The main problem in taking the fight to the

gorillas in Vietnam or anywhere else
in Southeast Asia is terrain. [Music]

Ordinary means of travel are too slow to counter
the hitand-run tactics of communist guerrillas.

One answer to that problem
is the helicopter. [Music]

Helicopters [Music]

manned by pilots trained to fly at
treetop level can bring troops into

a guerilla occupied area the moment
their presence becomes known. [Music]

The helicopter also increases the staying power
of the anti-gorilla patrols. With fresh supplies

of food and medicine available in the heart of
the jungle itself, patrols like these can cover

a lot of territory. Stay until they find what
they came for. [Music] The communist gorilla

is beginning to learn that there are fewer
places to hide in the jungles of Vietnam.

Some of the Vietkong gorillas are
hardcore communists prepared to die

for a cause in which unfortunately
they sincerely believe. [Music]

But the Vietkong also includes men, many of
them, who only want an alternative. [Music]

Men like this young Rad tribesman
who a few days ago deserted the

gorillas and came to a special
forces team seeking protection.

His name is 22 years old. How
long has he been with the VC?

He has been with VC two months since
January. Why did he join the VC?

He joined VC because VC force him price him
to go in jungle. Why did he desert the VC?

He deserve VC because he does not like
the life of VC and he threat badly many

people still rise and work hard. Why did
he come to our specific training area?

He come here because he know that program in Bern
now is for people and for benefit and he want to

work here to help radi people to have better life.
How large was the group of VC that he was with?

40 people with him. It will be a
long while in Vietnam before any

swords are beaten into plowshares.
But the time will come. What the

people want is peace. Peace and a
chance for a better life. [Music]

The communist Vietkong promises them progress,
but in the meantime creates a world where peaceful

citizens must go armed in fear of their lives.
[Music] What the Vietkong gerilla really wants

is power. What he can't control, he tries to
destroy. In South Vietnam, the old promises

don't work as well as they used to. And so,
the gorilla resorts more and more to terrorism,

is at war with his own people. The Vietnamese
are an ancient race and an independent one.

This is not the first time they've fought
for the right to decide their own destiny.

[Music] For 2,000 years, they've defended
that right against all the emperors of China,

against the cavalry of Kublakan, against
modern armies using machine guns and airplanes.

Given time, they will send today's
would-be oppressors to join the others

in defeat. Our purpose in Vietnam
is to give them that time. [Music]

My fellow Americans, not long ago, I received a
letter from a woman in the Midwest. She wrote,

"Dear Mr. President, in my humble way,
I am writing to you about the crisis in

Vietnam. I have a son who is now in Vietnam.
My husband served in World War II. Our country

was at war, but now this time, it's just
something that I don't understand. Why?

Why Vietnam? [Music] Why Vietnam?

Why Vietnam? [Music]

Munich 1938. German Chancellor Adolf
Hitler arrives for a conference to

be held here with British Prime
Minister Neville Chamberlain.

[Applause] [Music]

This meeting will long be remembered for it
opens the door to the dreams of dictatorship.

We regard the agreement signed last night
and the Anglo-German naval agreement as

symbolic of the desire of our two peoples
never to go to war with one another again.

Peace in our time,

a shortcut to disaster. But even then,

this was no new lesson. It had stared us
in the face with Mussolini in Ethiopia.

[Music]

Ethiopia's emperor highly salassie made
his protest to the League of Nations,

but nothing was done. We'd also seen the Anus
in Austria and nothing was done. Then in 1950,

aggression was again unleashed.
This time across the 38th parallel

in Korea. But free men had begun to learn
the lesson. And something was done. [Music]

The lesson had been learned. And President
Johnson had phrased its meaning well.

Aggression unchallenged is aggression
unleashed. Why must young Americans,

born into a land exalted with hope and with
golden promise, toil and suffer and sometimes

die in such a remote and distant place? The
answer, like the war itself, is not an easy one.

But it echoes clearly from the painful lessons
of half a century. Three times in my lifetime in

two world wars and in Korea, Americans have
gone to foreign lands to fight for freedom.

We have learned at a terrible and a brutal
cost that retreat does not bring safety

and weakness does not bring peace. And it is
this lesson that has brought us to Vietnam.

For the background to our involvement in Vietnam,

we must go back to a shellc
cratered place called Benfu.

Supplied only by air, completely
surrounded by the opposing Vietnamese,

French troops are fighting the last battle
of a long war over what had been called

French Indochina. It's a strange three-c
cornered struggle. non-communist Vietnamese

fighting communist Vietnamese and some
of both fighting the French. [Music]

By 1954, the inevitability of
French defeat has become clear.

Hanoi in 1954 reflects the ravages
of long and bitter warfare.

But for now, the fighting is
over. The French are leaving.

The Red Star flies over Hanoi as the communist
forces move in. At a conference in Geneva,

an agreement has been reached. It
divides Vietnam into North and South,

turns over the North to the Communists,
and marks the end of French colonial rule.

The agreement also provides the machinery
for bringing true peace to Vietnam if the

communists act in good faith. This is a
bright victory for the communist world.

And there are smiles. But not on the faces of
the more than 1 million Vietnamese who desert

their homes and flee southward rather
than live under a communist regime.

From then to now, the basic story
of United States help to Vietnam is

simple. The communists have steadily increased
their pressure on South Vietnam. South Vietnam

has asked for greater support to resist
that pressure and has received it. So,

increasing communist aggression has called
forth increases in the scope of United States

counteraction. But United States policy
has remained the same. We are committed to

helping a free people defend their sovereignty.
Let us trace the history of that commitment.

In 1954, Vietnam is divided at the 17th parallel
as Korea was divided at the 38th. [Music] She

faces the future with an imaginary line running
from border to border symbolizing a separation

which is far from imaginary. [Music] In the north,
Ho Chi Min, communist leader of North Vietnam,

plays the kindly smiling grandfather. But behind
the smile is a mind which is planning a reign of

terror in South Vietnam in which children and
adults alike will be the victims. In South

Vietnam, peace brings a fresh beginning. The
people set about building new homes, new hopes.

Free elections are held in the South alone when
it becomes clear that the communist regime in the

north has no intention of permitting genuinely
free elections in its half of the country.

Also in 1954, President Eisenhower pledges
economic aid to assist the government of

Vietnam in developing and maintaining a
strong, viable state capable of resisting

attempted subversion and aggression
through military means. [Applause]

Land reforms redistribute farmlands in the South

so that farmers own their fields and reap
for themselves the fruit of their toil.

With American economic aid, the South begins to
prosper and the hopes of the people are for peace.

These hopes shared by so many in Southeast
Asia are reinforced in Manila when in 1955

the United States and others sign the Southeast
Asia Collective Defense Treaty forming SETO and

guaranteeing the mutual security of
Southeast Asia from armed aggression.

But even as the people of the South build, North
Vietnam is creating in their villages political

action centers with trained agitators infiltrated
from the north, often in the guise of refugees.

[Music] The communist plan also includes acts of
terror and subversion to disrupt the legitimate

government. [Music] If the South cannot be brought
under Hanoi's control by less forceful means,

a new phase of the communist plan is ready to go
into action. Open guerilla warfare, fertive and

remorseless, aimed at destroying the government
and subjugating the people. It is called by Hanoi

a war of liberation. It does not seem so to the
hundreds of anti-communist leaders, teachers,

and their wives and children who are visited
in the night by Vietkong persuasion squads.

This is the prize the communists are after.
South Vietnam, rich in rice, and standing

at the gateway to the riceerich nations of
Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Burma, and East

Pakistan. [Applause] And the Asian communists have
said a grain of rice is worth a drop of blood.

There are also natural resources,
coal, phosphate, zinc, tin, manganese,

the raw materials on which to base
industrialization or feed a war machine.

Natural rubber. South Vietnam has this too.
and the latex processing facilities which

make of raw rubber, the vitally important
material it is in today's world. This then

is another aspect of the South Vietnam
which the North covets. A nation moving

toward greater industrialization. A rich prize
indeed in the eyes of communist strategists.

At Gettysburg College in 1959, President
Eisenhower clearly recognizes the danger.

We have learned too that the costs of defending
freedom, of defending America must be paid

in many forms and in many places. They are
assessed in all parts of the world in Berlin,

in Vietnam, in the Middle East, here at home.
Unassisted, Vietnam cannot at this time produce

and support the military formations essential
to it. Military as well as economic help is

currently needed in Vietnam. By 1960, every area
of life in the South has become a combat zone.

This is a different kind of war. There are
no marching armies or solemn declarations,

but this is really war. It is guided
by North Vietnam and it is spurred by

communist China. Its goal is to
conquer the south and to extend

the Asiatic dominion of communism. And
there are great stakes in the balance.

No people see this more
clearly than the embattled,

hard-pressed Vietnamese. By 1961,
they send out an urgent call for help.

The answer to that call is prompt in arriving.

America promises substantial
military and technical aid,

machines and equipment to resist
aggression, and the trained men

to teach Vietnamese fighting forces
how to put them into effective use.

[Music]

The American advisers are specialists,

highly trained and motivated, often able
to speak to trainees in their own language.

Instructors and advisers willing and able to
teach. Find men whose freedom is at stake,

eager and quick to learn. At this time,
however, the Americans in Vietnam are there

only as advisers. There are no United States
combat units as such. The adviser's primary

job is to train and encourage the South Vietnamese
fighting men they have come to respect and admire.

This guerilla warfare is the latest tactic in the
global communist plan. Korea showed that the free

world would meet and stop conventional invasion.
And communists efforts to dominate newly emerging

nations through trade, aid, and political
subversion had little success. Now, a new

kind of politically camouflaged invasion must be
faced. The so-called people's war of liberation.

As months go by, the communists lose a lot
of men. But there are many more in the north

who will be sent south to replace them. And
others can be kidnapped and forced to serve.

Meanwhile, in addition to
training Vietnamese fighting men,

American advisor teams are working
constantly to help relieve the

human suffering of remote villages.
[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Under pressure of growing communist aggression,

the flow of American equipment and advisers
is increased. It is the only means of meeting

the rising tide of infiltration and attack
from the north. Especially since aggressive

gorillas with no citizenry to protect can
tie up forces 10 times their own number.

Superior equipment and mobility
are used to full advantage to

carry the fight to the enemy swiftly
wherever his presence becomes known.

[Music] The Vietnamese soldier is quick to
grasp the techniques involved in copter-born

counteraction to guerilla raids on country
villages. And he uses his new knowledge well

[Applause]

even with superior equipment. However, this
is a difficult war to prosecute. There are

no front lines here. The war is everywhere
against an enemy that is seldom clearly seen.

In these scenes of casualty evacuation,
the enemy is not far away, certainly within

shouting distance. The enemy is not seen, but
American and Vietnamese fighting men bear on

their bodies the painful evidence that he is
still here, still determined, still deadly.

[Music]

Throughout this time, the combat capability
of South Vietnam's military forces is growing.

American advisers work to bring the level of
training and combat readiness of these forces

as high as possible. But as North Vietnam
continues to send in fresh cadre, there is a

growing need in South Vietnam for fighting men.
The losses suffered by the South in combat are

crually heavy for a nation whose population is
no larger than that of New York State. [Music]

The fact is in proportion to population,
South Vietnam's losses in combat are 10

times as great as those suffered
by the United States in Korea.

Greater even than our total losses
in World War II. [Music] [Applause]

Then in August of 1964, the communists
again enlarged the scope of the conflict.

Renewed hostile actions against United States
ships on the high seas in the Gulf of Tonkin have

today required me to order the military forces of
the United States to take action in reply. That

reply is being given as I speak to you tonight.
Air action is now in execution. against certain

supporting facilities in North Vietnam which have
been used in these hostile operations. Never until

now have American men and machines struck directly
at communist North Vietnam. Later in August,

Secretary of Defense McNamera sets the record
straight. We wish to emphasize we seek no wider

war. Our response will depend upon the action of
the aggressors, in this case the North Vietnamese.

The key to the situation remains the sessation
of infiltration from the north into the south.

We seek no wider war, but we find ample
evidence that there is no relenting on

the part of the North. In this one captured
shipment of Vietkong arms, there are a million

rounds of small arms ammunition, 3,500 rifles,
submachine guns, and some 4,000 anti-tank and

mortar rounds. And there's no doubt about the
source. The Chinese markings are unmistakable.

In meeting the aggression so clearly evidenced
here. We have sent strength to meet force. But

we have also repeatedly sent word that we are
willing to talk. As Secretary of State Dean

Rusk makes plain. Our war aim in South Vietnam
is peace. President Johnson has directed me to

do everything possible to bring this matter from
the battlefield to the conference table. And so

we've been utilizing all of the existing and
available political machinery for that purpose.

We've attempted to use the machinery of the Geneva
Conferences of 1954 in 1962. Last year, we brought

the Vietnam problem before the Security Council
of the United Nations at the time of the Gulf of

Tan Kenair. But Hanoi refused an invitation to
come to the Security Council to talk about it.

The distinguished secretary general of the United
Nations Utant considered a peace mission himself

to bring about peace but Hano and Ping told him
not to come. Britain has made uh many efforts to

find a path to a settlement. First by working
toward a new conference in Geneva and then

by a visit of one of their senior statesmen, Mr.
Patrick Gordon Walker, but the effort for a Geneva

conference has thus far been blocked and Mr.
Gordon Walker was told that he should stay away

from Hanoi and Ping. The Commonwealth attempted
to send a committee of the Commonwealth to various

capitals to explore the possibilities of peace.
We welcome that initiative, but Hano and Peping

told them not to come. We made a number of efforts
on our own both publicly and privately. President

Johnson at Baltimore, for example, offered
unconditional discussion with the government's

concerned, but Hanoi and Ping call this offer a
hoax. 17 non-aligned nations publicly appealed

for a peaceful solution by negotiations without
preconditions. We welcome this proposal but it was

rejected by Hanoi and Piping. The distinguished
president of India made a constructive suggestion

that there be an end of hostilities and an
Afroasian police force established in Vietnam.

To us, uh, this proposal was full of interest
and hope. But by Hanoi and Red China, it was

rejected as a betrayal. So all of these abrupt
and violent rejections of peaceful settlement

are just what they appear to be, clear proof that
Hanoi is not yet prepared for discussions, unless

it be accepted in advance that South Vietnam be
subjected to communist domination. And so the

record seems very clear to us. Hanoi is presently
resisting the road to peace. Piping even more so.

The declared doctrine and purpose of the Chinese
communists remain clear. The domination of all of

Southeast Asia. And indeed, if we listen to what
they're saying to us, the domination of the great

world beyond. The United States will continue to
make every effort toward reasonable negotiation,

and there can be no doubt as to our intention.
We do not seek the destruction of any government,

nor do we covet 8 aput of any territory, but
we insist, and we will always insist, that

the people of South Vietnam shall have the right
of choice, the right to shape their own destiny

in free elections in the South or throughout
all Vietnam under international supervision.

And they shall not have any government imposed
upon them by force and terror so long as we can

prevent it. We do not want an expanding struggle
with consequences that no one can perceive. Nor

will we bluster or bully or flaunt our power. But
we will not surrender and we will not retreat.

The answer to American offers to move from
the battlefield to the conference table

continues to come in the form of high
explosives aimed at American air bases

and other troop installations in the south,
including the barracks of American servicemen.

But in this war against people, the high
explosives are not only aimed at men who

bear arms. The American embassy in Saigon itself
becomes a grim battleground scene as Vietkong

terrorists single it out for a bomb attack.
It is all part of the carefully planned and

continuing campaign of terror against both
American and South Vietnamese civilians.

[Music]

Increasingly now, Americans are functioning

directly in the fight for freedom in
this far foreign corner of the earth.

[Music] The risks are real just as the
stakes for which they are taken are real.

But Americans risk and sometimes give all that
they have half a world away from home because

they know that once again half a world away has
become our front door. If freedom is to survive

in any American hometown, it must be preserved
in such places as South Vietnam. And as President

Johnson has pointed out, it is up to us. Most
of the non-communist nations of Asia cannot by

themselves and alone resist the growing might
and the grasping ambition of Asian communism.

Because this is true and because we are a
nation which honors its commitments and a

people committed to our honor. We intend
to convince the communists that we cannot

be defeated by force of arms or by superior
power. I have asked the commanding general,

General West Mullen, what more he needs to
meet this mounting aggression. He has told me,

and we will meet his needs. For the first
time, combat units of the United States

Marine Corps arrive in Vietnam, joining other
Marines already there. It is the first time

that Marines in full combat gear have hit the
beach in an active combat zone since Korea.

Army combat units also arrive and the message
of their presence on Vietnamese soil is plain.

Whatever the present or future needs of the
fight for freedom in Vietnam, they will be met.

American forces in Vietnam know that the
communist so-called war of liberation is

no less a form of aggression than was
the conventional attack in Korea. And

they know that this new form of aggression
must be defeated and proven unprofitable

or the communists will be encouraged to try it
elsewhere with greater confidence and resources.

So the war goes on. Clearly, it is the communists

who have made that choice. And
as always, the innocent suffer

[Music]

for the children of Vietnam and of all
Southeast Asia. The future is in the balance.

If they are to realize their heritage as free men
tomorrow, there are for us today hard realities to

be faced. I do not find it easy to send the flower
of our youth, our finest young men into battle.

I have seen them in a thousand streets
of a hundred towns in every state in

this union working and laughing and
building and filled with hope and life.

But as long as there are men who hate and
destroy, we must have the courage to resist.

We did not choose to be the guardians
at the gate. But there is no one else.

Nor would surrender in Vietnam bring peace.
Because we learned from Hitler at Munich that

success only feeds the appetite of aggression.
Moreover, we're in Vietnam to fulfill one of the

most solemn pledges of the American nation.
Three presidents, President Eisenhower,

President Kennedy, and your present president
over 11 years have committed themselves and

have promised to help defend this small and
valiant nation. Strengthened by that promise,

the people of South Vietnam have fought for many
long years. Thousands of them have died. Thousands

more have been crippled and scarred by war. And
we just cannot now dishonor our word or abandon

our commitments or leave those who believed us
and who trusted us to the terror and repression

and murder that would follow. This then, my
fellow Americans, is why we're in Vietnam.

[Music] Heat. [Music] Heat.

[Applause] [Music]

[Music]

For six years, the rivers of South
Vietnam have been stained by the blood

of fallen men. The people's hope
for peace, lost in a fog of war.

The land is part of the reason. In a good year,

the river deltas yield a
surplus of 350,000 tons of rice.

some of the richest earth in Asia.

The envy of their neighbor in the north.

[Music] For centuries, ancestral
tombs have watched over the harvest.

A family works the land of their father's father.

Their

[Music] abundance is a mixed blessing. It has

tempted an enemy with an appetite
for power to invade their land.

Nearly 40,000 trained guerilla soldiers from
the communist north have infiltrated into

South Vietnam. Known as the Vietkong, they have
organized a war of terror against the people.

After six years of war, South Vietnamese soldiers

are still trying to defend their
border against North Vietnam.

Their frontiers are almost impossible to
patrol. If they secure one trail or search

one river crossing, the invader they hunt
may choose any one of a thousand others.

[Applause]

At sea, the South Vietnamese Navy has been forced

to defend a coastline nearly
2,000 kilometers in length.

In February 1965, a ship from North Vietnam
was caught unloading 100 tons of ammunition,

rifles, machine guns, and heavy
weapons on their neighbors coast.

Yet for every ship that can be
stopped, others escape the net.

With her borders open to infiltration, there
is no single line of defense. The young men of

South Vietnam must find and disarm an enemy
who is scattered throughout their country.

The captured weapon is a submachine gun of
communist design. The code of arms for a

new doctrine of aggression. Did you see?
For despite agreements promising peace,

North Vietnam proclaims the right
to make war on its non-communist

neighbor. Their main target has been the
civilian population. In the past 5 years,

the Vietkong have killed and wounded tens
of thousands. Their memory haunts every

village in South Vietnam. [Music] Many of the
victims did not die from the accidents of war.

They were selectively murdered for political
example because he would not join the Vietkong.

Because they chose to ride a bus when the enemy
told them not to. Because her husband worked for

the government. Because her village would not
pay rice for protection. Because the man of

the house taught school. because he was elected
to the village council because they were in the

way. [Music] For 6 years, the people of South
Vietnam have buried the victims of aggression.

Their villages are infected by a network
of terrorist agents. Those who oppose

the Vietkong are reported and murder
squads come by night to kidnap and kill.

[Music]

At times their enemy hides in small units wearing

civilian disguise. At times he assembles in
regular battalions to attack their villages.

In much of the countryside,

the Vietkong have built a wall of terror
between the people and their government.

Though the army can protect most
of the country during the day,

they have not been able to
stop the murders at night.

Yet after 6 years of war, the continuing
surprise is not how many are afraid,

but how many continue to fight.

There are millions with the best of reasons.
A majority of Buddhists who despise the war

but demand the right to be left in peace. A
million Catholics whose families fled from

the communist north. people with small farms
who according to the Vietkong deserve to die.

Men who have had to bury their closest friends.

It isn't easy or pleasant, but they
haven't quit. And the free world is

beginning to understand their cause.
[Music] the American because he can't

see a decent future for his children
if aggression is allowed to succeed.

Technicians from Japan who know that aggressive
war in the atomic age endangers all mankind.

Koreans teaching the art of self-defense,
remembering their own war against communist

invaders. Men from Australia and New
Zealand, their homelands too close for

indifference. Teachers from West Germany
knowing what could happen in Europe if

the free world lacks the courage to defend its
borders. A medical team from the Philippines.

They have seen for themselves what the old
line communists really mean by liberation.

[Music] A bullet for the farmer's son.

A grenade for the student. A landmine
for the 5-year-old child. [Music]

[Music]

In spite of terror, the people
are still trying to secure their

country. They've made mistakes and
there have been failures. But they

have begun to build a frontier they
can defend, one village at a time.

Since the army is not large, enough
to protect every village. They have

tried to teach the people
how to protect themselves.

The amateur soldiers are sometimes
no match for enemy battalions. But

with the lives of their children at
stake, they have never stopped trying.

In spite of war and political upheaval,

the government of South Vietnam
is sending its children to school.

In fact, there are more schools and teachers
now than at any time in their history.

They teach at the risk of
their lives. Their students

are as serious about education as any on earth.

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

In villages where security has been
established, the work of peace begins.

To people in need, the government doctors
are heroes. One reason why the enemy mocks

them for assassination. For the rice
farmers, the government provides cheap

insecticides and fertilizer. Left in peace,
South Vietnam could double its rice harvest.

They have learned the use of modern technology and

keep a set of modern tricks
under their ancestral hats.

[Music] They're a proud and determined people.

Since the war started, they've
built this bridge three times.

[Music]

Okay. Okay. [Music]

In areas that are secure, the people have begun
to use their rights and choose their leaders.

Elections on the village level combine
the traditions of their elders with the

ideas of the free world they would like
to live in. Many of their young men have

paid the price of battle for the right to
make their own choice about the future.

[Music] The candidates have one thing in common.
The Vietkong threatened to kill them both.

[Music] In a land where there are hundreds of
rivers and canals, a sense of personal freedom is

part of their tradition. The people are accustomed
to going where they want to go when they choose.

[Music] Despite efforts by the enemy
to choke their economy with fear,

the people continue to take their goods to market.

They seem determined to move their country
into the mainstream of economic progress.

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

Pineapple on a stick, peanuts in a cone,

food is still plentiful and cheap. And though
life is not easy, very few people go hungry.

Along major roads, the signs of their continuing
progress are obvious. Freshwater projects,

new dams, power lines, and factories.
According to the experts, these people

are on the verge of major economic growth,
provided they are left alone to work in peace.

After 6 years of war, the capital city
of Saigon still has a talent for life.

The markets are full, the factories are
busy. They have built their own wheels

for the Mandarin past. And university students
are still free to study the possibilities of

a peaceful future. Their city is at war,
but they refuse to live in fear. [Music]

Beep beep beep beep beep.

[Music] They have been literate and
cultured people for centuries. And

though they fought colonialism,
the art of modern Europe is part

of their intellectual life. If they are
allowed to make the future as they wish,

it will be a unique mixture of western
thought and their own traditions.

Like the popular theater, where the action is as
universal as human feelings. [Music] [Applause]

East.

[Music] [Applause] [Music]

Once a year, the children of South Vietnam
take the risk of light and laughter. They

celebrate a mythical journey to the moon.
Armed with sugar cakes and paper lanterns,

they defy the terrors of the communist night.

[Music]

When a flare goes off, the moment
of peace hangs on the edge of war.

One night it may be only a practice
alert. Tomorrow it could be an attack.

The night will flame with a signal to
friendly planes. Children will cry at

the sudden noise. Men will
hope they live till morning.

For six years, every village in South
Vietnam has lived with tension and one

fearful question. Will the killers come tonight?

[Music]

With morning, the defenders move to the attack.
Seventh Division has received information that

a regular battalion of Vietkong guerillas has
assembled near the village of Abback. Refugees

say the enemy has automatic weapons, mortars, and
recoilless rifles. They are dug in and heavily

fortified. [Applause] The outcome will depend on
the young men of South Vietnam. Their pay is low,

furlows infrequent, and they have suffered more
than 50,000 casualties in the last 5 years.

On this morning, however, there will
be no substitute for their courage.

[Music] [Laughter] [Music]

You'll be called in by Maverick. I don't
know what's going on. I got the training,

but I got a chance to try out my heart. You got to
be healthy. Right around that big smoke. [Music]

Contact. [Music] Their landing
has caught the enemy by surprise,

but the advance over open ground
will be difficult. [Laughter] [Music]

[Music]

With airborne troops in blocking position,

a force of armored personnel carriers
has come up to make the first assault.

Automatic fire. Heavy. No
chance for the infantry to move.

The enemy has hit one carrier with a recoilless
rifle. The first platoon is pinned down.

No way to advance. The Vietkong
are plowing the field with bullets.

[Music]

Their uniforms blackened by fire and
mud. The young men of South Vietnam

are paying a high price this morning
for their right to be left in peace.

They need support. If they can destroy
some of the enemy's heavy weapons,

maybe they can move. [Music]

Heat. Heat.

[Music]

Heat. [Music]

[Music]

Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]

[Music]

Heat.

Heat.

[Music]

Heat. Heat.

[Music]

They have broken through. The
Vietkong are trying to escape. [Music]

The fight at Abback was a victory for South
Vietnam. The enemy left more than 150 dead

in the battlefield. The reconnaissance company
captured their heaviest weapon. Their civilian

disguise failed to hide them. One Vietkong
battalion has been virtually destroyed. [Music]

By military standards, government casualties were

light. But that's small comfort
to the men who have been hit.

At the cost of pain and sacrifice, they have
won a battle for their people. But so long

as North Vietnam invades their country,
the young men will have to fight. [Music]

The fence still holds. The night has passed
again. If the people have not yet cleared

the road to peace and freedom, they have chosen
to walk the path of courage until they do. The

American people have pledged to walk that road
with him until such time as the aggressors see

fit to join in the unconditional discussions that
could lead to an honorable peace for all. [Music]