Original subtitles

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]