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KARL MARLANTES: Coming home from Vietnam
was close to as traumatic as the war itself.
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For years, nobody talked about Vietnam.
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We were friends with a young couple
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and it was only after 12 years that
the two wives were talking.
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Found out that we both had
been Marines in Vietnam.
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Never said a word about
it. Never mentioned it.
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And the whole country was
like that. It was so divisive.
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And it's like living in a family
with an alcoholic father.
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"Shh, we don't talk about that."
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Our country did that with Vietnam. It's
only been very recently that, I think,
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that, you know, the baby boomers are finally
starting to say, "What happened?
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What happened?"
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What we need now in this country is to heal
the wounds and to put Vietnam behind us.
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The killing in this tragic war must stop.
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General Westmoreland's strategy
is producing results.
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The enemy is no longer closer to victory.
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No matter how you measure it, we're better
off than we thought we would be at this time.
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You have been less than candid as to how
deeply we are involved in Vietnam.
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We have increased our assistance
to the government, its logistics.
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We have not sent combat troops there.
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You have a row of dominoes set up
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and you knock over the first one and
the last one, certainly it will go over.
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If aggression is successful in Korea,
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we can expect it to spread throughout
Asia and Europe and to this hemisphere.
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MAX CLELAND: Viktor Frankl,
who survived the death camps
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in World War II, wrote a book called
"Man's Search for Meaning".
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You know, "To live is to suffer. To survive
is to find meaning in suffering".
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And for those of us who suffered because of
Vietnam, that's been our quest ever since.
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NARRATOR: America's involvement
in Vietnam began in secrecy.
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It ended, 30 years later, in failure,
witnessed by the entire world.
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It was begun in good faith by decent people
out of fateful misunderstandings,
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American overconfidence, and
Cold War miscalculation.
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And it was prolonged because it seemed
easier to muddle through
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than admit that it had been
caused by tragic decisions,
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made by five American presidents,
belonging to both political parties.
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Before the war was over, more than
58,000 Americans would be dead.
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At least 250,000 South Vietnamese
troops died in the conflict, as well.
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So did over a million North Vietnamese
soldiers and Viet Cong guerrillas.
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Two million civilians, north and south,
are thought to have perished,
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as well as tens of thousands more in the
neighboring states of Laos and Cambodia.
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For many Vietnamese, it was a brutal civil war;
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for others, the bloody climactic chapter in
a century-old struggle for independence.
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For those Americans who fought in it, and for
those who fought against it back home,
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as well as for those who merely
glimpsed it on the nightly news,
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the Vietnam War was a decade of agony,
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the most divisive period since the Civil War.
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Vietnam seemed to call
everything into question...
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the value of honor and gallantry;
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the qualities of cruelty and mercy;
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the candor of the American government;
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and what it means to be a patriot.
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And those who lived through it have never
been able to erase its memory,
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have never stopped arguing
about what really happened,
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why everything went so badly
wrong, who was to blame,
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and whether it was all worth it.
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BAO NINH:
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BAO NINH:
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on the ancient Vietnamese
port of Danang in 1858.
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It took 50 years to lay claim
to the whole region...
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Laos and Cambodia, as well
as the 1,200-mile-long area
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that would come to be called Vietnam.
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All of it was ruled by a French governor
general from his palace in Hanoi.
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The French largely lived on plantation estates,
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and in cities, like Saigon, made to look as
much as possible like those at home.
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Most did not even bother to learn the
language spoken by their subjects.
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Instead they installed a series of puppet
emperors and employed a network
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of French-speaking Vietnamese
officials... mandarins...
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willing to carry out their wishes.
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The French put their subjects to work building
roads and canals, railroads and bridges.
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BAO NINH:
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just as they had fought against earlier
invasions by the Chinese.
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By the early 20th century...
nationalism was on the rise.
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But anyone who dared resist colonial rule
risked exile, prison, or the guillotine.
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TRAN NGOC TOAN:
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LAM QUANG THI:
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JOHN MUSGRAVE: My hatred for them was pure.
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Pure. I hated them so much.
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And I was so scared of them.
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Sshh... boy, I was terrified of them.
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And the scareder I got, the more I hated them.
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I was an 18-year-old Marine rifleman with the
ink still wet on my high school diploma.
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I didn't want to shame myself
in front of my buddies.
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But I was so scared.
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I felt like I was hanging onto my honor by my
fingernails the whole time I was there.
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NARRATOR: In the spring of 1919,
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as the victorious Allied Powers met in Paris to
rebuild a world shattered by the Great War,
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President Woodrow Wilson headed
the American delegation
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housed in the Hotel Crillon.
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One day, a tall, slender, 29-nine-year-old man
appeared with a petition for the president
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he and other Vietnamese
nationalists had written.
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Inspired by Wilson's declaration
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that the interests of colonial
peoples should be given
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equal weight with those
of their European rulers,
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the man was asking that this principle
be applied to his homeland.
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The president's secretary promised
to show it to Wilson,
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but there is no evidence that he ever did.
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His name was Nguyen Tat Thanh,
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but he was now living under an alias, Nguyen
Ai Quoc... "Nguyen the Patriot."
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During his long, shadowy career, he would
adopt some 70 different pseudonyms,
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finally settling on "the most
enlightened one"...
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Ho Chi Minh.
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DUONG VAN MAI: Ho Chi Minh was a man
who succeeded in projecting an image
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of somebody who was totally
dedicated to freeing
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his country and his people
from foreign domination
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to the point that he sacrificed
his own well-being,
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his own life, not having a family of his own.
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To Vietnamese, that's a big sacrifice because
to us everybody needs a family.
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NARRATOR: Ho Chi Minh was born in 1890,
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the son of a minor official
in the French regime.
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After taking part in a demonstration
against the puppet emperor
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and the Frenchmen who pulled his strings,
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Ho was expelled from school
and marked for arrest.
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He left Vietnam in 1911 and remained
in exile for 30 years.
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He served as a cook's helper
aboard a French liner,
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and visited New York and Boston,
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where he worked for a time as a
pastry chef at the Parker House.
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He shoveled snow in London,
tinted photographs in Paris.
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There, Ho Chi Minh joined
the French Socialist Party.
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But when he discovered the anti
colonial writings of Lenin,
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he became a communist.
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He was invited to Moscow to study, underwent
training as a Soviet agent,
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was sometimes criticized for being a
nationalist first, a communist second,
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and then was dispatched to China to organize
a cell of other Vietnamese exiles
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and help establish the Indochinese
Communist Party.
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Through it all, "He was taut and quivering", a
friend remembered, "with only one thought...
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his country, Vietnam".
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By 1940, much of the world was at war again.
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Germany had seized most of Western Europe,
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including France.
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Imperial Japan threatened many of
the European colonies in Asia,
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and occupied Vietnam, where they permitted
their allies, the collaborationist French,
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to continue to oversee their colony.
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To some Vietnamese, the
coming of the Japanese
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seemed to signal a welcome
end to white colonial rule.
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But Ho Chi Minh, still in exile in China,
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saw the Japanese as alien invaders,
no more welcome than the French.
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They were only interested
in exploiting his country
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and seizing Vietnamese crops
to fill their own rice bowls.
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The time had come, he said, to rally
"patriots of all ages and all types,
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peasants, workers, merchants and soldiers"
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to defeat the Japanese and
the collaborationist French.
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In February of 1941, after three decades
away from his homeland,
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Ho Chi Minh slipped back across
the Chinese border into Vietnam
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and set up headquarters near
the remote village of Pac Bo
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in a limestone cave at the side of a
mountain he named for Karl Marx,
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overlooking a jungle stream he
named for his hero, Lenin.
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There, he founded a revolutionary movement,
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which he called the Vietnam
Independence League...
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the Viet Minh.
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TRAN NGOC TOAN:
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To build and lead a fighting
force for his revolution,
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Ho called upon Vo Nguyen Giap, a one
time teacher of French history
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who had instructed the children of Hanoi's elite.
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Giap was an early convert to communism,
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whose life-long hatred for
the French intensified
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when they beat his wife to death in prison.
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Inspired by Napoleon, Lawrence of Arabia,
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and the communist Chinese
revolutionary Mao Zedong,
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Giap had already begun to develop
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a distinctive theory of warfare
that relied on guerrilla tactics
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until a full-scale conventional
attack could be mounted.
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In the fight for independence which
he believed was coming,
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his armies, Giap said, would be
"everywhere and nowhere".
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DUONG VAN MAI: The reason Vietnamese
had always resort to guerrilla warfare
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was because we were a small country.
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And it was just a way of fight
the weak against the strong.
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Don't fight unless you're sure you can
win, and surprise is a big element.
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Choose your own battle.
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MIKE HEANY: I had about 26
guys that day out of 45.
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We were always somewhat understrength.
And this day we were quite understrength.
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My platoon's on point.
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SOLDIER: Go, go, go, go, go!
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And all of a sudden the very point man,
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the first guy in the column, said,
"VC on the trail, VC on the trail".
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Before I had a chance to digest this, he went
down, shot right through the chest.
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And what was a very well-laid ambush erupted.
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I knew I'd lost a bunch of guys.
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I said a prayer to God saying, basically, "If you
need any more guys from my platoon, take me.
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Don't take any more of my men".
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As soon as I said it, I freaked myself out and
said, "Holy shit. Can I take that prayer back?"
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NARRATOR: By the spring of 1945,
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more than three years after the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor,
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the United States government was looking
for allies behind the lines in Vietnam.
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The Americans were hoping to find a way
to undermine Japanese forces there
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when they were contacted by Ho Chi Minh.
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DONALD GREGG: And so it was decided to drop
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an OSS team in to meet with
the Viet Minh leadership.
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Paul Hoagland was the medic on the team.
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And the first thing he was told
was that he must attend
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to their leader, who was desperately sick.
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So he was taken to a grass shack
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where a bewhiskered, skinny man lay
on a bundle of straw, desperately ill.
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And that was Ho Chi Minh.
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supplied Ho's ragtag guerrillas with arms
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and marveled at how quickly
they learned to handle them.
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Ho Chi Minh began to call his followers
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the "Viet-American Army," and
praised the United States
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as a "champion of democracy" that would
surely help them end colonial rule.
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BUI DIEM:
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Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese
were dying of starvation
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while Japanese storehouses
were filled with rice.
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DUONG VAN MAI: In those days, garbage
was collected by people pushing carts.
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And my mother remembers that...
every morning she would see
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these garbage carts going around
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and people picking up dead bodies
and throwing them on the cart.
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It was incredible, and... and people who
lived through it never... never forgot.
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NARRATOR: Duong Van Mai's father was the
deputy governor of a province east of Hanoi,
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the son and grandson of mandarins
who had all served the French.
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He and his wife had 17 children.
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DUONG VAN MAI: Parents who had children
who were, you know, plump,
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were very afraid of their children
being stolen and killed.
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And it was really like hell on earth.
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The government didn't have a clue
on how to deal with this calamity.
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NARRATOR: But Ho Chi Minh did.
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He directed the Viet Minh to break into the
Japanese storehouses wherever they could
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and distribute the rice to the people.
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They were hailed as saviors.
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When an atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima,
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and three days later a second
one destroyed Nagasaki,
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Japanese surrender seemed imminent.
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Ho Chi Minh called upon all
Vietnamese to rise up
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and take over their own country
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before the Free French could reestablish
their old colonial regime.
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They did, in cities and towns
across the country.
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On September 2, 1945, the same day
the Japanese formally surrendered,
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hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese
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00:24:57,852 --> 00:25:02,743
streamed into Ba Dinh Square in
Hanoi to see for the first time
232
00:25:02,744 --> 00:25:06,073
the mysterious leader of the Viet Minh
233
00:25:06,074 --> 00:25:12,005
and hear him proclaim Vietnam's independence.
234
00:25:15,435 --> 00:25:18,737
With an OSS officer standing nearby,
235
00:25:18,738 --> 00:25:23,118
Ho Chi Minh began with the
words of Thomas Jefferson:
236
00:25:23,119 --> 00:25:26,755
"All men are created equal.
237
00:25:26,756 --> 00:25:31,744
They are endowed by their creator
with certain unalienable rights;
238
00:25:31,745 --> 00:25:38,122
that among these are life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness."
239
00:25:39,313 --> 00:25:44,700
DONG SI NGUYEN:
240
00:25:59,374 --> 00:26:01,682
00:26:06,951
that the U.S. would support the
Vietnam desire for independence,
242
00:26:06,952 --> 00:26:12,867
not necessarily by intervening
but by doing what it could
243
00:26:12,868 --> 00:26:16,601
to support an independence movement.
244
00:26:16,602 --> 00:26:20,821
NARRATOR: Ho Chi Minh's hopes for
American support were calculated
245
00:26:20,822 --> 00:26:23,415
but understandable.
246
00:26:23,416 --> 00:26:27,425
President Franklin Roosevelt had
promised a postwar world
247
00:26:27,426 --> 00:26:30,170
that would "respect the rights of all peoples
248
00:26:30,171 --> 00:26:34,839
to choose the form of government
under which they live".
249
00:26:36,385 --> 00:26:40,300
But Roosevelt was dead now, and
his successor, Harry Truman,
250
00:26:40,301 --> 00:26:44,367
had inherited a very different world.
251
00:26:44,368 --> 00:26:50,523
The alliance with the Soviet Union that had
won the Second World War had collapsed.
252
00:26:50,524 --> 00:26:56,055
The Soviets now occupied the Eastern
European countries they had overrun,
253
00:26:56,056 --> 00:27:03,720
and hoped to spread their influence farther,
into Iran, Turkey, and the Mediterranean.
254
00:27:03,721 --> 00:27:08,107
A new cold war had begun.
255
00:27:08,108 --> 00:27:10,873
French president Charles De Gaulle warned
256
00:27:10,874 --> 00:27:15,734
that if the United States insisted on
independence for her colonies,
257
00:27:15,735 --> 00:27:21,949
France might have no choice but
to "fall into the Russian orbit".
258
00:27:21,950 --> 00:27:28,040
The United States must do nothing to undercut
the restoration of France's empire,
259
00:27:28,041 --> 00:27:31,657
including Vietnam.
260
00:27:34,102 --> 00:27:37,522
GEORGE WICKES: There were hardly any
Americans in Vietnam, you know...
261
00:27:37,523 --> 00:27:43,138
State Department people, consular
officials, a few businessmen.
262
00:27:43,139 --> 00:27:48,089
Hardly anyone from this country knew
where Vietnam was located.
263
00:27:48,090 --> 00:27:51,871
NARRATOR: George Wickes was part
of a seven-man OSS mission
264
00:27:51,872 --> 00:27:56,200
sent to Saigon, the largest city in the south.
265
00:27:56,201 --> 00:27:58,864
The United States was officially neutral,
266
00:27:58,865 --> 00:28:05,283
hoping the French and Viet Minh could reach
some peaceful solution on their own.
267
00:28:05,284 --> 00:28:11,452
Allied leaders had agreed temporarily to
divide Vietnam into two separate zones.
268
00:28:11,453 --> 00:28:15,710
Nationalist Chinese troops were
to handle things in the north.
269
00:28:15,711 --> 00:28:22,574
British colonial troops would try to perform the
same task in the south, where rival factions,
270
00:28:22,575 --> 00:28:29,384
including the French and Viet Minh, were
already fighting in the streets of Saigon.
271
00:28:30,385 --> 00:28:32,740
GEORGE WICKES: No one was in charge.
272
00:28:32,741 --> 00:28:38,606
On both sides, there was brutality
and atrocity and violence.
273
00:28:38,607 --> 00:28:40,632
It wasn't quite a civil war but...
274
00:28:40,633 --> 00:28:45,024
it was getting very close to civil
war in the streets of Saigon.
275
00:28:46,025 --> 00:28:47,870
00:28:54,243
the 28-year-old commander of the OSS
in Saigon, tried to make sense of it all.
277
00:28:54,244 --> 00:28:57,191
GEORGE WICKES: Right from the start
he was in touch with everybody...
278
00:28:57,192 --> 00:28:59,925
not only the French, but very
soon he established
279
00:28:59,926 --> 00:29:03,937
a connection with various Vietnamese groups.
280
00:29:03,938 --> 00:29:09,804
The Viet Minh soon established themselves
as the most successful.
281
00:29:10,405 --> 00:29:12,625
00:29:15,742
brokered talks between a Viet Minh spokesman
283
00:29:15,743 --> 00:29:19,954
and the senior French representative
in the city.
284
00:29:19,955 --> 00:29:24,203
His efforts infuriated British
general Douglas Gracey,
285
00:29:24,204 --> 00:29:27,638
who commanded Allied forces in the south.
286
00:29:27,639 --> 00:29:33,455
Gracey was convinced that French control
should be reimposed as soon as possible.
287
00:29:33,456 --> 00:29:36,571
By conferring with the Viet Minh, Gracey said,
288
00:29:36,572 --> 00:29:42,393
Colonel Dewey had become
a "subversive" force.
289
00:29:42,392 --> 00:29:47,688
The violence in and around Saigon escalated.
290
00:29:47,689 --> 00:29:51,911
Colonel Dewey urgently cabled his superiors:
291
00:29:51,912 --> 00:29:54,725
Vietnam "is burning", he wrote.
292
00:29:54,726 --> 00:29:57,330
"The French and British are finished here
293
00:29:57,331 --> 00:30:03,700
and the United States", he concluded,
"ought to clear out of Southeast Asia".
294
00:30:06,442 --> 00:30:13,477
Two days later, September 26, 1945,
he set out for the airport,
295
00:30:13,478 --> 00:30:18,098
prepared to fly to OSS headquarters.
296
00:30:18,099 --> 00:30:26,326
At a roadblock, the Viet Minh mistook Dewey
for a Frenchman... and opened fire.
297
00:30:26,327 --> 00:30:29,944
He was killed instantly.
298
00:30:30,910 --> 00:30:33,822
GEORGE WICKES: Ho Chi Minh
wrote to the United States
299
00:30:33,823 --> 00:30:38,129
lamenting the death of Dewey,
whom he recognized as a
300
00:30:38,130 --> 00:30:41,672
person sympathetic to his cause.
301
00:30:41,673 --> 00:30:47,087
It seemed a terrible irony that Dewey,
who was doing what he could to help
302
00:30:47,088 --> 00:30:50,136
the Vietnamese independence movement
303
00:30:50,137 --> 00:30:54,725
should have been killed by the
Vietnamese by a mistake.
304
00:31:04,926 --> 00:31:11,286
VINCENT OKAMOTO: An elderly African
American woman answered the door.
305
00:31:14,411 --> 00:31:20,324
I think she knew the instant she
saw us why we were there.
306
00:31:21,477 --> 00:31:23,904
And the padre said, uh,
307
00:31:23,905 --> 00:31:33,692
"I'm... I'm terribly sorry to inform you,
but your son was killed in Vietnam".
308
00:31:33,693 --> 00:31:37,442
And she just sat down. Didn't say a word.
309
00:31:38,488 --> 00:31:42,511
Then the... her husband says,
"No, there's a mistake".
310
00:31:42,512 --> 00:31:46,675
He comes back with this letter.
And he said, "Look, see?
311
00:31:46,676 --> 00:31:52,585
We got it yesterday, my... our
son was still alive yesterday".
312
00:31:53,086 --> 00:31:57,041
And the chaplain looked at the letter
and he said, "It's a week old.
313
00:31:57,042 --> 00:32:02,968
I think your son was killed on
the day he wrote this letter".
314
00:32:09,069 --> 00:32:13,747
NARRATOR: In the fall of 1945, a week
after Colonel Dewey's death,
315
00:32:13,748 --> 00:32:20,831
fresh French troops began arriving in
Saigon, taking over from the British.
316
00:32:20,832 --> 00:32:28,472
They quickly established control of the city
and set out to reoccupy the entire country.
317
00:32:29,191 --> 00:32:34,553
Ho Chi Minh hoped somehow to achieve
independence without a war with France,
318
00:32:34,554 --> 00:32:38,165
and he still hoped the United
States would intervene.
319
00:32:38,166 --> 00:32:42,510
"You never had an empire, never
exploited the Asian peoples",
320
00:32:42,511 --> 00:32:45,439
he would tell a visiting American journalist.
321
00:32:45,440 --> 00:32:50,024
"Do not be blinded by this
issue of communism".
322
00:32:50,025 --> 00:32:55,033
LESLIE GLEB: He did not want to fight
the French as an enemy of America.
323
00:32:55,034 --> 00:33:02,241
And, in fact, I saw the letters he
wrote to President Truman
324
00:33:02,242 --> 00:33:05,570
saying, "We believe in the
same things you believe".
325
00:33:05,571 --> 00:33:14,636
Those letters I saw in the CIA files, they had
never been given to President Truman.
326
00:33:17,593 --> 00:33:22,085
327
00:33:22,086 --> 00:33:24,904
in a fruitless attempt to get
the French to live up
328
00:33:24,905 --> 00:33:30,933
to a promise they had made of increased
autonomy for his country.
329
00:33:30,934 --> 00:33:32,441
While Ho was away,
330
00:33:32,442 --> 00:33:38,275
General Giap began consolidating communist
control of the revolution.
331
00:33:38,276 --> 00:33:43,293
He conducted a merciless purge of members
of rival nationalist parties
332
00:33:43,294 --> 00:33:47,838
and people he called "reactionary saboteurs".
333
00:33:47,839 --> 00:33:52,408
Landlords and moneylenders,
Trotskyites and Catholics,
334
00:33:52,409 --> 00:33:56,477
men and women accused of
collaborating with the French.
335
00:33:56,478 --> 00:34:01,625
Hundreds were shot, drowned, buried alive.
336
00:34:01,626 --> 00:34:05,563
LAM QUANG THI:
337
00:34:14,343 --> 00:34:19,357
NARRATOR: On December 19, 1946,
after months of building tension,
338
00:34:19,358 --> 00:34:25,460
fighting broke out in Hanoi between
the Viet Minh and the French.
339
00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:33,593
The Viet Minh proved no match
for French firepower.
340
00:34:37,155 --> 00:34:41,510
Ho, Giap, and their comrades
slipped out of the city
341
00:34:41,511 --> 00:34:47,470
and returned to their mountain
stronghold far to the north.
342
00:34:47,471 --> 00:34:50,765
"Those who have rifles will use their rifles",
343
00:34:50,766 --> 00:34:56,432
Ho declared in a radio address calling
for a nationwide guerrilla war.
344
00:34:56,433 --> 00:35:00,004
"Those who have swords will use swords;
345
00:35:00,005 --> 00:35:07,436
those who have no swords
will use spades or sticks".
346
00:35:08,663 --> 00:35:13,545
NGUYEN NGOC:
347
00:35:35,129 --> 00:35:41,410
NARRATOR: But the country Ho Chi Minh
hoped to unite was itself bitterly divided.
348
00:35:41,411 --> 00:35:44,193
Families were being torn apart.
349
00:35:44,194 --> 00:35:47,660
Despite her father's position
in the French government,
350
00:35:47,661 --> 00:35:54,655
Duong Van Mai's sister felt compelled
to answer Ho's call.
351
00:35:54,656 --> 00:35:58,378
DUONG VAN MAI: My older sister
Thang was married to, a...
352
00:35:58,379 --> 00:36:02,908
a man who had great sympathy
for the Viet Minh.
353
00:36:02,909 --> 00:36:08,588
And by that time Ho Chi Minh had evacuated
his government to the mountain base.
354
00:36:08,589 --> 00:36:13,851
So my sister and her husband trekked all
the way from Hanoi toward the base
355
00:36:13,852 --> 00:36:18,963
in order to join the resistance
against the French.
356
00:36:19,664 --> 00:36:25,871
So the Vietnam War was really a civil
war down to the family level.
357
00:36:32,511 --> 00:36:36,662
NARRATOR: France poured thousands
of men into Vietnam...
358
00:36:36,662 --> 00:36:39,630
French regulars, European mercenaries,
359
00:36:39,631 --> 00:36:44,992
and colonial troops from Morocco,
Algeria, Tunisia, and Senegal...
360
00:36:44,993 --> 00:36:49,753
who fought alongside an army
of Cambodians, Laotians,
361
00:36:49,754 --> 00:36:54,171
and anti-communist Vietnamese.
362
00:36:56,512 --> 00:37:02,590
French forces managed to occupy most
of the large towns and province capitals
363
00:37:02,591 --> 00:37:07,661
and established hundreds of isolated outposts.
364
00:37:07,662 --> 00:37:12,445
The French also set out to try
to win over rural Vietnamese
365
00:37:12,446 --> 00:37:15,910
through a program they called pacification...
366
00:37:15,911 --> 00:37:17,688
pacification...
367
00:37:17,689 --> 00:37:24,045
building dikes, schools and roads,
and vaccinating children.
368
00:37:25,560 --> 00:37:28,073
DUONG VAN MAI: The French would pacify a village
369
00:37:28,074 --> 00:37:32,328
and during the daytime they could control it.
370
00:37:32,329 --> 00:37:39,951
But at night the Viet Minh would come back.
And so it was never completely secure.
371
00:37:39,952 --> 00:37:45,475
My father would shake his head and said,
you know, "Pacification is really futile
372
00:37:45,476 --> 00:37:51,255
because it's like trying to hold
sand in your fingers".
373
00:37:52,764 --> 00:37:58,159
NARRATOR: The Viet Minh mined roads,
blew up bridges and railroads,
374
00:37:58,160 --> 00:38:04,946
ambushed French patrols,
and then disappeared.
375
00:38:05,679 --> 00:38:09,948
French soldiers sometimes took
revenge on the nearest village,
376
00:38:09,949 --> 00:38:12,483
burning homes, raping women,
377
00:38:12,484 --> 00:38:18,477
executing men suspected
of aiding the Viet Minh.
378
00:38:21,313 --> 00:38:25,218
LE CONG HUAN:
379
00:38:55,455 --> 00:39:00,360
NARRATOR: But the communists proved
every bit as ruthless as the French.
380
00:39:00,361 --> 00:39:05,624
"It is better to kill even those who might
be innocent, one commander said",
381
00:39:05,625 --> 00:39:09,651
"than to let a guilty person go".
382
00:39:09,652 --> 00:39:15,187
And they specifically targeted anyone
who had links to the French.
383
00:39:15,188 --> 00:39:17,915
DUONG VAN MAI: Once my father
started working for the French,
384
00:39:17,916 --> 00:39:24,745
then he was a target, especially the higher
he rose, the bigger target he became.
385
00:39:24,746 --> 00:39:29,912
A Viet Minh agent actually came
in with a pistol to shoot him
386
00:39:29,913 --> 00:39:34,777
but at the last moment decided not to.
387
00:39:35,884 --> 00:39:39,909
TRAN NGOC HUE:
388
00:40:12,528 --> 00:40:16,985
NARRATOR: French casualties
continued to mount.
389
00:40:16,986 --> 00:40:21,419
"There are days when we are so discouraged
that we would like to give it all up",
390
00:40:21,420 --> 00:40:24,044
a French soldier wrote his mother.
391
00:40:24,045 --> 00:40:30,513
"Convoys under attack, roads cut,
firing in all directions every night,
392
00:40:30,514 --> 00:40:34,125
the indifference at home".
393
00:40:42,491 --> 00:40:46,743
ROGER HARRIS: While I was there I had the
opportunity to call my mother, you know.
394
00:40:47,832 --> 00:40:50,161
And I was telling my mother what
was happening over there,
395
00:40:50,162 --> 00:40:52,873
and I was telling her how she shouldn't believe
396
00:40:52,874 --> 00:40:58,755
what she sees in the newspaper and sees on
television because we're losing the war.
397
00:40:58,756 --> 00:41:04,320
I said, "And you'll probably never see me again
because we're the most northern outpost
398
00:41:04,321 --> 00:41:08,560
that the Marines have, you know. We could
literally, could look right into North Vietnam.
399
00:41:08,561 --> 00:41:10,914
We could see the sparks when
the guns fired on us".
400
00:41:10,915 --> 00:41:13,664
And I said, "And everybody in my unit is dying.
401
00:41:13,665 --> 00:41:17,757
I probably won't be coming back". And my
mother said, "No, you're coming back".
402
00:41:17,758 --> 00:41:21,800
She said, "I talk to God every
day and you're special.
403
00:41:21,801 --> 00:41:24,545
You're coming back".
404
00:41:24,546 --> 00:41:28,761
And I said, "Ma, everybody's mother
thinks that they're special.
405
00:41:28,762 --> 00:41:33,693
You know, I'm putting pieces
of special people in bags".
406
00:41:37,830 --> 00:41:39,573
NEWS READER: President Truman's
dramatic announcement
407
00:41:39,574 --> 00:41:41,114
that Russia had the atom secret
408
00:41:41,115 --> 00:41:45,804
caused state departments all over
the world to stir uneasily.
409
00:41:46,471 --> 00:41:49,959
HAL KUSHNER: We were very aware
that there was a Cold War
410
00:41:49,960 --> 00:41:55,853
and that we had an enemy, and that
enemy was the Soviet Union.
411
00:41:55,854 --> 00:42:01,247
The United States stood at one pole and
the Soviet Union stood at the other pole.
412
00:42:01,248 --> 00:42:06,278
It was kind of a Manichean dynamic that
there was evil and there was good.
413
00:42:06,279 --> 00:42:08,892
And we were good, and the other side was evil.
414
00:42:08,893 --> 00:42:12,860
It wasn't morally ambiguous.
415
00:42:14,561 --> 00:42:18,200
NARRATOR: Just a few weeks after
Russia became a nuclear power,
416
00:42:18,201 --> 00:42:20,622
there was more stunning news...
417
00:42:20,623 --> 00:42:27,041
communist forces under Mao Zedong
seized control of China.
418
00:42:27,042 --> 00:42:30,611
Separate communist insurrections
were also underway
419
00:42:30,612 --> 00:42:36,146
in the British colonies of Burma and Malaya.
420
00:42:36,147 --> 00:42:40,208
In January 1950, Mao formally recognized
421
00:42:40,209 --> 00:42:44,324
Ho Chi Minh's insurgency and
agreed to provide the arms,
422
00:42:44,325 --> 00:42:48,632
equipment, and military training
he had been seeking.
423
00:42:48,633 --> 00:42:55,040
The Soviets recognized the Viet Minh
as well, and also offered help.
424
00:42:55,541 --> 00:42:57,816
President Truman, who was being blamed
425
00:42:57,817 --> 00:43:01,644
by his political opponents
for having "lost" China,
426
00:43:01,645 --> 00:43:04,561
and having failed to "contain" communism,
427
00:43:04,562 --> 00:43:11,142
approved a $23 million aid program
for the French in Vietnam.
428
00:43:11,143 --> 00:43:15,858
The United States was no longer neutral.
429
00:43:15,859 --> 00:43:18,587
SAM WILSON: We were caught
on the horns of a dilemma
430
00:43:18,588 --> 00:43:21,123
of how can we maintain our friendship
431
00:43:21,124 --> 00:43:25,410
and our alliance with the French
and support them in Indochina
432
00:43:25,411 --> 00:43:28,895
while we, as a former colony ourselves,
433
00:43:28,896 --> 00:43:35,451
sympathized with the Vietnamese and their
aspirations for freedom and independence?
434
00:43:38,570 --> 00:43:41,357
NEWS READER: A highly trained and
well-equipped North Korean Army
435
00:43:41,358 --> 00:43:46,823
swarmed across the 38th parallel to attack
unprepared South Korean defenders.
436
00:43:47,344 --> 00:43:51,064
NARRATOR: In June of 1950, China's ally,
437
00:43:51,065 --> 00:43:55,851
communist North Korea, invaded South Korea.
438
00:43:56,371 --> 00:43:58,000
President Truman ordered
439
00:43:58,001 --> 00:44:04,185
tens of thousands of American ground
troops onto the Korean Peninsula.
440
00:44:09,012 --> 00:44:15,367
The United States and its allies eventually
pushed the invaders back north.
441
00:44:15,868 --> 00:44:17,958
Meanwhile in southern China,
442
00:44:17,959 --> 00:44:24,633
Mao's military was beginning to turn the
Viet Minh into a modern fighting force,
443
00:44:24,634 --> 00:44:30,441
capable of inflicting a heavy
toll on the French occupiers.
444
00:44:35,862 --> 00:44:40,690
In July, the Truman administration quietly
dispatched transport planes
445
00:44:40,691 --> 00:44:44,073
and a shipload of jeeps to Vietnam.
446
00:44:44,074 --> 00:44:50,855
Thirty-five military advisors went
along to oversee their use.
447
00:44:50,856 --> 00:44:57,962
None of them, and no one in the American
embassy, spoke a word of Vietnamese.
448
00:44:57,963 --> 00:45:03,744
But the United States was
now officially in Vietnam.
449
00:45:04,501 --> 00:45:06,952
In October of 1950,
450
00:45:06,953 --> 00:45:12,411
hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops
began pouring into North Korea,
451
00:45:12,412 --> 00:45:16,525
driving the allies back down the peninsula.
452
00:45:16,526 --> 00:45:18,060
As that fighting raged,
453
00:45:18,061 --> 00:45:25,676
Truman continued to increase military
aid for the French war in Vietnam.
454
00:45:27,598 --> 00:45:29,831
TRUMAN: If aggression is successful in Korea,
455
00:45:29,832 --> 00:45:35,552
we can expect it to spread throughout Asia
and Europe and to this hemisphere.
456
00:45:37,630 --> 00:45:43,388
We are fighting in Korea for our own
national security and survival.
457
00:45:48,559 --> 00:45:53,217
458
00:45:53,218 --> 00:46:01,186
named John F. Kennedy dined at the rooftop
bar of the Hotel Majestic overlooking Saigon.
459
00:46:01,187 --> 00:46:03,309
As he and his party ate,
460
00:46:03,310 --> 00:46:08,224
they could hear the thunder of
guns across the Saigon River.
461
00:46:08,725 --> 00:46:13,568
French commanders assured Kennedy
that with more American support,
462
00:46:13,569 --> 00:46:16,744
French rule would be re-established.
463
00:46:16,745 --> 00:46:22,586
But Kennedy spent two hours with Seymour
Topping, a seasoned American reporter,
464
00:46:22,587 --> 00:46:26,092
who gave him a very different perspective:
465
00:46:26,093 --> 00:46:28,115
the French were losing, he said,
466
00:46:28,116 --> 00:46:31,965
and many Vietnamese, who had
once admired the Americans,
467
00:46:31,966 --> 00:46:36,885
were beginning to despise them
for backing the French.
468
00:46:36,886 --> 00:46:39,543
Kennedy believed the reporter.
469
00:46:39,544 --> 00:46:42,900
Unless the United States could
persuade the Vietnamese
470
00:46:42,901 --> 00:46:48,464
that it was as opposed to "injustice and
inequality" as it was to communism,
471
00:46:48,465 --> 00:46:51,322
he told his constituents when he got home,
472
00:46:51,323 --> 00:46:57,855
the current effort would result
in "foredoomed failure".
473
00:47:05,632 --> 00:47:10,360
In 1952, General Dwight Eisenhower
was elected president,
474
00:47:10,361 --> 00:47:15,811
in part because he promised to take
a tougher stance on communism.
475
00:47:16,420 --> 00:47:21,896
That year, American taxpayers were
footing more than 30% of the bill
476
00:47:21,897 --> 00:47:25,155
for the French war in Vietnam.
477
00:47:25,156 --> 00:47:31,470
Within two years, that number
would rise to nearly 80%.
478
00:47:33,233 --> 00:47:36,396
00:47:40,773
Why is the United States spending
hundreds of millions of dollars
480
00:47:40,774 --> 00:47:48,064
supporting the forces of the French Union in
the fight against communism in Indochina?
481
00:47:48,565 --> 00:47:50,587
I think perhaps if we go over to the map here,
482
00:47:50,588 --> 00:47:54,525
I can indicate to you why
it is so vitally important.
483
00:47:54,526 --> 00:47:58,412
Here's Indochina. If Indochina falls,
484
00:47:58,413 --> 00:48:02,333
Thailand is put in almost impossible position.
485
00:48:02,334 --> 00:48:05,784
The same is true of Malaya
with its rubber and tin.
486
00:48:05,785 --> 00:48:10,046
Now may I say that as far as the
war in Indochina is concerned,
487
00:48:10,047 --> 00:48:15,294
that I was there, right on the
battlefield, or close to it,
488
00:48:15,295 --> 00:48:19,255
and it's a bloody war, and it's a bitter one.
489
00:48:22,812 --> 00:48:27,530
NARRATOR: By 1953, the French had
been fighting for seven years.
490
00:48:27,531 --> 00:48:34,208
They had suffered over 100,000 casualties
and failed to pacify the countryside.
491
00:48:34,209 --> 00:48:37,864
Six commanders had come and gone.
492
00:48:37,865 --> 00:48:40,222
Nevertheless, the seventh commander,
493
00:48:40,223 --> 00:48:45,815
General Henri Navarre, assured his
countrymen that victory was near.
494
00:48:45,816 --> 00:48:53,057
"Now we can see it clearly", he said, "like
the light at the end of the tunnel".
495
00:48:53,758 --> 00:48:58,276
Meanwhile, large parts of the French
population were horrified
496
00:48:58,277 --> 00:49:01,463
by reports of French brutality
497
00:49:01,464 --> 00:49:04,281
and the widespread use of napalm...
498
00:49:04,282 --> 00:49:11,833
gelatinized petroleum that burned
foliage, homes, and human flesh.
499
00:49:13,432 --> 00:49:16,926
When returning French troops
disembarked at Marseilles,
500
00:49:16,927 --> 00:49:22,000
members of the longshoremen's
union pelted them with rocks.
501
00:49:22,001 --> 00:49:29,344
Parisian leftists began to call the conflict
"La Sale Guerre"... "The Dirty War".
502
00:49:36,242 --> 00:49:41,723
RON FERRIZZI: The camera was a close-up,
was over the shoulder of this storm trooper
503
00:49:41,724 --> 00:49:45,844
who had a kid by the scruff of
his shirt and he smacks him.
504
00:49:45,845 --> 00:49:48,501
- People screaming...
- At that moment in time,
505
00:49:48,502 --> 00:49:51,630
I realized that anybody who
really cared for America
506
00:49:51,631 --> 00:49:56,271
was sent halfway around the world
chasing some ghost in a jungle.
507
00:49:56,272 --> 00:49:59,922
In the meantime, my country's being torn apart.
508
00:49:59,923 --> 00:50:04,510
So I saw somebody who looked like my dad
hitting somebody who looked like me.
509
00:50:04,511 --> 00:50:07,341
Whose side would I be on?
510
00:50:13,742 --> 00:50:16,344
NEWS READER: In Korea,
three years of combat end
511
00:50:16,345 --> 00:50:20,498
as United Nations and communist
negotiators at Panmunjom sign a truce.
512
00:50:20,499 --> 00:50:26,833
NARRATOR: In July of 1953, the Korean
War ended in a negotiated settlement
513
00:50:26,834 --> 00:50:29,755
and a still-divided peninsula.
514
00:50:29,756 --> 00:50:35,740
American policymakers saw it as proof that
communism in Asia could be contained.
515
00:50:35,741 --> 00:50:37,588
NEWS READER: And in Washington, a
dramatic evening press conference...
516
00:50:37,589 --> 00:50:40,727
NARRATOR: That fall, the French
indicated their willingness
517
00:50:40,728 --> 00:50:44,795
to begin talks to end the fighting in Vietnam.
518
00:50:44,796 --> 00:50:48,524
Ho Chi Minh agreed to meet.
519
00:50:48,525 --> 00:50:53,040
But before the negotiators
were to convene in Geneva,
520
00:50:53,041 --> 00:50:58,876
each side sought to improve its
position on the battlefield.
521
00:50:58,877 --> 00:51:04,710
General Navarre set up a fortified base in a
remote valley in northwestern Vietnam
522
00:51:04,711 --> 00:51:13,189
called Dien Bien Phu, where he hoped to
lure the Viet Minh into a decisive battle.
523
00:51:13,190 --> 00:51:16,474
Navarre was certain that
superior French firepower
524
00:51:16,475 --> 00:51:21,787
and air support would crush
any attack by the Viet Minh.
525
00:51:21,788 --> 00:51:24,258
He and his commanders saw no need to worry
526
00:51:24,259 --> 00:51:32,982
about the jungle-covered hills that overlooked
his 11,000 men, dug in on the valley floor.
527
00:51:32,983 --> 00:51:36,413
The artillery commander was
so confident of victory,
528
00:51:36,414 --> 00:51:41,681
he complained, "I have more guns than I need".
529
00:51:43,225 --> 00:51:46,249
General Giap saw his chance.
530
00:51:46,250 --> 00:51:51,303
"We decided to wipe out at all
costs the whole enemy force
531
00:51:51,304 --> 00:51:54,960
at Dien Bien Phu," he remembered.
532
00:51:55,722 --> 00:52:01,394
To do it, he pulled off one of the greatest
logistical feats in military history...
533
00:52:01,395 --> 00:52:08,375
a feat that would be restaged in propaganda
films and celebrated for decades.
534
00:52:08,776 --> 00:52:13,481
A quarter of a million civilian porters...
nearly half of them women...
535
00:52:13,482 --> 00:52:18,493
moved everything he needed for
a siege, from sacks of rice
536
00:52:18,494 --> 00:52:24,269
to disassembled artillery pieces,
on foot through the jungle.
537
00:52:24,770 --> 00:52:28,644
Giap surrounded the valley with 50,000 soldiers
538
00:52:28,645 --> 00:52:33,887
and 200 big guns, dug-in
and camouflaged so well
539
00:52:33,888 --> 00:52:39,361
they could not be spotted from the air.
540
00:52:41,000 --> 00:52:46,781
On March 13, 1954, Viet Minh
artillery on the hillsides
541
00:52:46,782 --> 00:52:54,422
began raining down 50 shells a minute
on the French troops huddled below.
542
00:52:55,066 --> 00:52:58,531
The airstrip was destroyed.
543
00:53:00,269 --> 00:53:07,572
The besieged troops could only be reinforced
and resupplied by airdrop.
544
00:53:09,673 --> 00:53:11,386
The French artillery commander,
545
00:53:11,387 --> 00:53:17,133
who had underestimated his
enemy, committed suicide.
546
00:53:17,734 --> 00:53:19,652
NEWS READER: The airlift to
Dien Bien Phu continues...
547
00:53:19,653 --> 00:53:21,945
vital men and supplies for the heroic garrison
548
00:53:21,946 --> 00:53:25,385
that has defied the massed Viet Minh
onslaughts for over six weeks.
549
00:53:25,386 --> 00:53:29,603
Today, Dien Bien Phu is a human dam
trying to stem the red tide
550
00:53:29,604 --> 00:53:33,431
that threatens to engulf Southeast Asia.
551
00:53:33,854 --> 00:53:38,278
NARRATOR: The French government begged
President Eisenhower to intervene.
552
00:53:38,279 --> 00:53:41,496
He refused to act without
Congressional approval
553
00:53:41,497 --> 00:53:44,645
and support from European allies.
554
00:53:44,646 --> 00:53:46,800
Britain said no
555
00:53:46,801 --> 00:53:51,363
and the Congress would not
support unilateral action.
556
00:53:51,364 --> 00:53:54,604
JOHN KENNEDY: The communists under Ho Chi
Minh are able to claim that they are fighting
557
00:53:54,605 --> 00:53:57,332
for independence and the French
appear to be fighting
558
00:53:57,333 --> 00:54:00,007
for a maintain... maintenance of colonial rule.
559
00:54:00,008 --> 00:54:04,418
I therefore believe that before the United
States moves in, in any degree,
560
00:54:04,419 --> 00:54:06,844
that independence must be granted to the people,
561
00:54:06,845 --> 00:54:10,329
that the people must support the struggle.
562
00:54:10,330 --> 00:54:14,351
NARRATOR: "I am convinced",
Eisenhower confided to his diary,
563
00:54:14,352 --> 00:54:19,282
"that no military victory is
possible in this theater".
564
00:54:19,283 --> 00:54:21,940
Still, without consulting Congress,
565
00:54:21,941 --> 00:54:27,063
the president had secretly sent more
American transport planes,
566
00:54:27,064 --> 00:54:31,723
their markings painted over and
flown by civilian contractors,
567
00:54:31,724 --> 00:54:38,146
to help resupply the desperate
French troops at Dien Bien Phu.
568
00:54:40,051 --> 00:54:46,143
LESLIE GLEB: Everyone understood that in and
of itself, Vietnam didn't mean very much.
569
00:54:46,144 --> 00:54:50,379
But they believed, I believed, if we lost it,
570
00:54:50,380 --> 00:54:54,322
that the rest of Asia would
tumble to communism.
571
00:54:54,323 --> 00:54:58,178
EISENHOWER: You have broader
considerations that might follow
572
00:54:58,179 --> 00:55:03,252
what you would call the
falling domino principle.
573
00:55:03,253 --> 00:55:07,433
You have a row of dominoes set up,
and you knock over the first one,
574
00:55:07,434 --> 00:55:15,791
and what will happen to the last one is the
certainty that it will go over very quickly.
575
00:55:35,521 --> 00:55:41,797
NARRATOR: On the afternoon of May
7, 1954, after 55 days of siege,
576
00:55:41,798 --> 00:55:48,270
the exhausted French forces at
Dien Bien Phu surrendered.
577
00:55:49,171 --> 00:55:56,632
They had lost 8,000 men, killed,
wounded, or missing.
578
00:55:58,184 --> 00:56:05,762
General Giap had lost three times as many,
but he had won a great victory.
579
00:56:05,763 --> 00:56:10,209
NGUYEN THOI BUNG:
580
00:56:21,721 --> 00:56:27,682
NARRATOR: Even Duong Van Mai's parents
could not help but be impressed.
581
00:56:27,683 --> 00:56:31,554
DUONG VAN MAI: They were very proud that
the Viet Minh had defeated the French,
582
00:56:31,555 --> 00:56:34,233
this great Western power.
583
00:56:34,234 --> 00:56:39,917
Admiration and respect on the one
hand, but fear on the other hand.
584
00:56:39,918 --> 00:56:43,844
And fear was the stronger emotion.
585
00:56:44,200 --> 00:56:47,570
NARRATOR: "We have been caught
bluffing by our enemies,"
586
00:56:47,571 --> 00:56:50,767
Senate Minority Leader Lyndon Johnson said.
587
00:56:50,768 --> 00:56:55,982
"Today it is Indochina, tomorrow
Asia may be in flames.
588
00:56:55,983 --> 00:57:02,178
And the day after, the Western
Alliance will lie in ruins".
589
00:57:02,179 --> 00:57:05,331
DONALD GREGG: We should have seen
it as the end of the colonial era
590
00:57:05,332 --> 00:57:08,346
in Southeast Asia, which it really was.
591
00:57:08,347 --> 00:57:11,400
But instead we saw it in Cold War terms,
592
00:57:11,401 --> 00:57:18,453
and we saw it as a defeat for the free world
that was related to the rise of China.
593
00:57:18,454 --> 00:57:23,528
And it was a total misreading
of a pivotal event,
594
00:57:23,529 --> 00:57:26,759
which cost us very dearly.
595
00:57:31,170 --> 00:57:33,232
NEWS READER: The former home
of the League of Nations,
596
00:57:33,233 --> 00:57:36,896
Geneva, Switzerland, where East is meeting
West in the international conference
597
00:57:36,897 --> 00:57:41,281
that may decisively affect
the political future of Asia.
598
00:57:41,282 --> 00:57:44,120
599
00:57:44,121 --> 00:57:51,477
diplomats from nine nations gathered in
Geneva to settle the future of Vietnam.
600
00:57:51,478 --> 00:57:56,855
The talks dragged on for nearly
two-and-a-half months.
601
00:57:58,149 --> 00:58:03,464
Despite their victory, Ho Chi Minh and
General Giap could not keep fighting
602
00:58:03,465 --> 00:58:08,715
without more support from China
and the Soviet Union.
603
00:58:08,716 --> 00:58:12,391
But China had lost a million men in Korea
604
00:58:12,392 --> 00:58:17,637
and did not want to become involved
in another war along its border.
605
00:58:17,638 --> 00:58:23,468
The Soviet Union was hoping to
ease tensions with the West.
606
00:58:23,469 --> 00:58:29,690
Both of Ho Chi Minh's communist patrons
urged him to agree to a negotiated settlement,
607
00:58:29,691 --> 00:58:34,815
a partition like the one that
had ended the Korean War.
608
00:58:34,816 --> 00:58:39,460
Ho had no option but to give in.
609
00:58:41,368 --> 00:58:46,184
In the end, no one was satisfied.
610
00:58:46,185 --> 00:58:51,452
Vietnam was temporarily to be
divided at the 17th parallel.
611
00:58:51,452 --> 00:58:58,033
The 130,000 French-led troops stationed in
the North were to withdraw to the South,
612
00:58:58,034 --> 00:59:04,996
and somewhere between 50,000 and 90,000
Viet Minh were to "re-group" to the North.
613
00:59:04,997 --> 00:59:08,982
The two halves would be separated
by a demilitarized zone
614
00:59:08,983 --> 00:59:14,977
until an election could be held to reunify
North and South Vietnam,
615
00:59:14,978 --> 00:59:21,616
an election everyone knew
Ho Chi Minh would win.
616
00:59:21,617 --> 00:59:25,990
NEGUYEN VAN TONG:
617
00:59:36,631 --> 00:59:40,884
NEGUYEN THOI BUNG:
618
00:59:54,300 --> 00:59:55,731
KARL MARLANTES: We had
started walking up and
619
00:59:55,732 --> 00:59:58,120
we had probably gotten about
a third of the way up the hill
620
00:59:58,121 --> 01:00:01,293
and then they unleashed on us.
621
01:00:02,470 --> 01:00:05,402
We were in the middle of this
horrible shit sandwich.
622
01:00:05,403 --> 01:00:08,007
That's what we called it.
623
01:00:11,794 --> 01:00:15,770
One of the things that I learned
in the war is that
624
01:00:15,771 --> 01:00:21,055
we're not the top species on the
planet because we're nice.
625
01:00:22,331 --> 01:00:25,762
People talk a lot about how well
the military turns, you know,
626
01:00:25,763 --> 01:00:28,281
kids into, you know, killing machines and stuff.
627
01:00:28,282 --> 01:00:32,058
And I'll always argue that
it's just finishing school.
628
01:00:39,641 --> 01:00:43,513
629
01:00:43,514 --> 01:00:45,697
thousands of Roman Catholic and Buddhist faith
630
01:00:45,698 --> 01:00:48,462
have found life impossible
under the communists.
631
01:00:48,463 --> 01:00:52,749
For them, it's freedom or nothing.
632
01:00:54,721 --> 01:00:59,773
NARRATOR: Under the Geneva Accords,
civilians living in either half of Vietnam
633
01:00:59,774 --> 01:01:06,146
who wanted to relocate to the other
would have 300 days to do so.
634
01:01:06,147 --> 01:01:09,128
01:01:13,753
and meet my sister Thang again because
they knew Thang would come back.
636
01:01:13,754 --> 01:01:17,015
But on the other hand they...
they couldn't risk that.
637
01:01:17,016 --> 01:01:22,700
They were convinced that when Ho Chi Minh
and his government arrived in Hanoi,
638
01:01:22,701 --> 01:01:30,291
my father would be the first one to be killed
and all of us would be persecuted.
639
01:01:31,433 --> 01:01:33,584
And I remember the day we left.
640
01:01:33,585 --> 01:01:38,535
I looked around and I thought, "I
never come back here again".
641
01:01:39,200 --> 01:01:47,096
It was extremely traumatic. It was like the
ground was suddenly cut from under you.
642
01:01:47,097 --> 01:01:51,338
NARRATOR: In the end, some 900,000 refugees,
643
01:01:51,339 --> 01:01:57,326
including more than half of all the Catholics
living in the North, fled to the South,
644
01:01:57,327 --> 01:02:02,357
many of them aboard American ships.
645
01:02:04,714 --> 01:02:08,185
The United States hoped somehow
to encourage the building
646
01:02:08,186 --> 01:02:11,933
of a legitimate government in the South.
647
01:02:13,748 --> 01:02:17,533
That government was now
headed by Ngo Dinh Diem.
648
01:02:17,534 --> 01:02:22,505
Both a Roman Catholic and a Confucian
in a largely Buddhist country,
649
01:02:22,506 --> 01:02:28,101
he was a celibate bachelor who
had once planned to be a priest.
650
01:02:28,102 --> 01:02:33,819
LESLIE GLEB: The war for us really started
when we became the partner,
651
01:02:33,820 --> 01:02:38,935
or I would say the victim, of President Diem.
652
01:02:38,936 --> 01:02:44,479
We were going to help him turn South
Vietnam into a democracy.
653
01:02:44,480 --> 01:02:47,531
That's what he said he wanted
to do. And we believed him.
654
01:02:47,532 --> 01:02:52,785
NARRATOR: Like Ho Chi Minh, Diem had
spent years abroad seeking support
655
01:02:52,786 --> 01:02:56,493
for his own brand of Vietnamese nationalism.
656
01:02:56,494 --> 01:02:58,315
He was a veteran politician
657
01:02:58,316 --> 01:03:03,861
whose loathing for the French was matcheds
only by his hatred for the communists,
658
01:03:03,862 --> 01:03:10,633
who had imprisoned him and buried alive
his eldest brother and his nephew.
659
01:03:11,200 --> 01:03:17,396
Diem was aloof, autocratic, mistrustful of
anyone much beyond his own family.
660
01:03:17,397 --> 01:03:20,920
He also proved to be shrewd, resourceful,
661
01:03:20,921 --> 01:03:26,047
and skilled at exploiting the
weaknesses of his opponents.
662
01:03:26,048 --> 01:03:31,067
But he faced a daunting task
in creating a new country.
663
01:03:31,068 --> 01:03:38,433
The French, who still had thousands of troops
stationed in the South, detested Diem.
664
01:03:38,434 --> 01:03:44,359
Several provinces were under the sway of
religious sects with armies of their own.
665
01:03:44,360 --> 01:03:48,370
Tens of thousands of Viet Minh
soldiers had gone north,
666
01:03:48,371 --> 01:03:53,911
but several thousand cadre trained and
dedicated Communist Party workers...
667
01:03:53,912 --> 01:03:59,948
had stayed behind to organize
resistance in the countryside.
668
01:03:59,949 --> 01:04:07,596
And Saigon itself was ruled by the Binh Xuyen,
a crime syndicate backed by the French.
669
01:04:07,597 --> 01:04:11,817
RUFUS PHILLIPS: And the French were behind
the Binh Xuyen, sort of supporting them
670
01:04:11,818 --> 01:04:17,836
because they didn't want Diem to succeed.
And that became the central contest.
671
01:04:18,533 --> 01:04:24,600
NARRATOR: Some in the CIA believed that
Diem could be the savior of South Vietnam.
672
01:04:24,601 --> 01:04:26,635
Others were not so sure.
673
01:04:26,636 --> 01:04:32,398
"He is a messiah without a message", one
diplomat reported to Washington.
674
01:04:32,940 --> 01:04:35,685
The U.S. ambassador agreed.
675
01:04:35,686 --> 01:04:41,191
On April 27, 1955, President
Eisenhower decided
676
01:04:41,192 --> 01:04:46,764
to end American support for Diem's regime.
677
01:04:47,565 --> 01:04:53,982
But then Diem made an all-out assault
on the Binh Xuyen syndicate.
678
01:04:55,283 --> 01:04:57,177
DUONG VAN MAI: Suddenly
in the middle of the day
679
01:04:57,178 --> 01:05:04,415
we heard gunfire and then we saw flames
and the neighborhood was burning.
680
01:05:04,416 --> 01:05:06,781
681
01:05:06,782 --> 01:05:10,103
as the street fighting continues
for an entire week.
682
01:05:10,104 --> 01:05:14,431
For the United States, the situation
presents a grave problem.
683
01:05:14,964 --> 01:05:19,780
Diem finally regains control of Saigon.
684
01:05:19,781 --> 01:05:23,647
NARRATOR: In the end, Diem's forces prevailed.
685
01:05:24,748 --> 01:05:30,794
Eisenhower now saw no option
but to stick with Diem.
686
01:05:30,795 --> 01:05:35,367
The French then announced their
intention to withdraw completely
687
01:05:35,368 --> 01:05:41,989
from South Vietnam, ending nearly
a century of occupation.
688
01:05:41,990 --> 01:05:46,662
RUFUS PHILLIPS: Diem became wildly
popular because he seemed to embody
689
01:05:46,663 --> 01:05:50,085
the nationalist cause in the South.
690
01:05:50,086 --> 01:05:54,116
He succeeded in getting the French
out of Vietnam all the way.
691
01:05:54,117 --> 01:05:57,870
And Ho Chi Minh had only got
them out of the northern half.
692
01:05:57,871 --> 01:06:02,783
NARRATOR: Flush with victory, Diem
called for a referendum in the South.
693
01:06:03,584 --> 01:06:09,359
The CIA warned him not to meddle
too much with the returns.
694
01:06:09,360 --> 01:06:18,347
But when the ballots were counted, Diem
claimed to have won 98.2% of the vote.
695
01:06:18,948 --> 01:06:24,580
On October 26, 1955, Ngo
Dinh Diem named himself
696
01:06:24,581 --> 01:06:30,344
the first president of the brand-new
Republic of Vietnam.
697
01:06:31,100 --> 01:06:34,212
The election to reunify the North and South
698
01:06:34,213 --> 01:06:39,055
that had been promised at Geneva
would never be held.
699
01:06:39,679 --> 01:06:46,988
LESLIE GLEB: He became our ally, or rather
our master, because the goal of preventing
700
01:06:46,989 --> 01:06:48,820
the communists from taking over the South
701
01:06:48,821 --> 01:06:55,146
was so strong that we couldn't
afford for him to lose.
702
01:06:55,147 --> 01:07:00,964
So Diem started to boss us around.
And this was a typical relationship.
703
01:07:00,965 --> 01:07:05,970
You need any ally you believe to be the
centerpiece of your foreign policy.
704
01:07:05,971 --> 01:07:08,283
They understand that right away.
705
01:07:08,284 --> 01:07:12,051
And the tail wags the dog.
706
01:07:14,300 --> 01:07:17,068
NEWS READER: From the Far East
comes a distinguished visitor.
707
01:07:17,069 --> 01:07:20,033
President Ngo Dinh Diem of Vietnam is accorded
708
01:07:20,034 --> 01:07:22,885
one of President Eisenhower's
rare airport greetings,
709
01:07:22,886 --> 01:07:25,722
as he arrives for a four-day state visit.
710
01:07:25,723 --> 01:07:29,316
President Diem, one of America's
staunchest allies in Southeast Asia,
711
01:07:29,317 --> 01:07:31,931
will seek an increase in aid
to shore up his country
712
01:07:31,932 --> 01:07:34,152
against increasing communist pressure,
713
01:07:34,153 --> 01:07:39,293
a request to which the president
lends a sympathetic ear.
714
01:07:39,294 --> 01:07:43,335
NARRATOR: Most politicians, Democrats
as well as Republicans,
715
01:07:43,336 --> 01:07:48,178
now seemed to share the changing
views of Senator John F. Kennedy.
716
01:07:48,179 --> 01:07:53,250
South Vietnam is "our offspring", he
said. "We cannot abandon it".
717
01:07:53,251 --> 01:07:57,000
If it fell, the United States
would be "held responsible
718
01:07:57,001 --> 01:08:02,699
and our prestige in Asia
will sink to a new low".
719
01:08:02,700 --> 01:08:06,833
There had never before been
a South Vietnamese nation,
720
01:08:06,834 --> 01:08:10,581
but Americans, who had rebuilt
much of their own country
721
01:08:10,582 --> 01:08:15,993
during the New Deal and had helped rebuild
Western Europe through the Marshall Plan,
722
01:08:15,994 --> 01:08:21,150
were convinced they could
build one nonetheless.
723
01:08:22,745 --> 01:08:26,228
Eisenhower ordered scores of American civilians
724
01:08:26,229 --> 01:08:30,552
to South Vietnam, full of plans
for economic development
725
01:08:30,553 --> 01:08:37,264
meant to win, he hoped, the hearts and
minds of the Vietnamese people.
726
01:08:38,547 --> 01:08:43,436
But those civilians would always be
outnumbered by military advisors,
727
01:08:43,437 --> 01:08:48,051
with orders to modernize, train,
and equip Diem's forces,
728
01:08:48,052 --> 01:08:54,702
now called the Army of the Republic
of Vietnam... the ARVN.
729
01:08:54,703 --> 01:08:59,432
Some ARVN officers found American
methods unsuited
730
01:08:59,433 --> 01:09:04,192
to the guerrilla war they expected
to wage against the communists.
731
01:09:04,193 --> 01:09:09,183
Most American military advisors were
veterans of the war in Korea,
732
01:09:09,184 --> 01:09:12,246
determined to prepare South Vietnamese forces
733
01:09:12,247 --> 01:09:18,664
to slow a conventional invasion from the North.
734
01:09:19,165 --> 01:09:25,814
But no one in North Vietnam was planning
a conventional invasion.
735
01:09:25,815 --> 01:09:29,520
Ho Chi Minh was focused
on rebuilding his country,
736
01:09:29,521 --> 01:09:34,584
devastated by more than a decade of war.
737
01:09:36,100 --> 01:09:41,812
The communists imposed brutal land reforms
modeled on those underway in China
738
01:09:41,813 --> 01:09:45,875
with a ruthlessness that left
thousands of people dead,
739
01:09:45,876 --> 01:09:49,982
including not only landlords who
had sided with the French,
740
01:09:49,983 --> 01:09:55,522
but also many villagers who had
fought with the Viet Minh.
741
01:09:56,583 --> 01:10:00,300
Ho Chi Minh was still determined
to reunite Vietnam.
742
01:10:00,301 --> 01:10:04,691
But he worried that if he took direct
military action against the South,
743
01:10:04,692 --> 01:10:08,967
the United States would be drawn
more deeply into the struggle.
744
01:10:08,968 --> 01:10:12,413
He cautioned his comrades in
the South to put their faith
745
01:10:12,414 --> 01:10:17,354
in political agitation and avoid violence.
746
01:10:19,300 --> 01:10:21,282
But that message rang hollow
747
01:10:21,283 --> 01:10:25,231
among embattled Southern revolutionaries
struggling to survive
748
01:10:25,232 --> 01:10:30,246
under Diem's increasingly harsh regime.
749
01:10:31,247 --> 01:10:34,864
In a campaign he called "Denounce
the Communists",
750
01:10:34,865 --> 01:10:38,377
Diem had imprisoned tens
of thousands of citizens
751
01:10:38,378 --> 01:10:44,821
without trial and ordered the
executions of hundreds more.
752
01:10:44,822 --> 01:10:48,901
Now, the communists took
matters into their own hands
753
01:10:48,902 --> 01:10:53,458
and began attacking South Vietnamese officials.
754
01:10:54,040 --> 01:10:57,496
LE QUAN CONG:
755
01:11:32,988 --> 01:11:36,534
NARRATOR: As violence in
South Vietnam intensified,
756
01:11:36,535 --> 01:11:39,578
new leaders emerged in Hanoi.
757
01:11:39,579 --> 01:11:44,547
Ho Chi Minh would remain the face
of the revolution around the world,
758
01:11:44,548 --> 01:11:46,696
but he now began to share power
759
01:11:46,697 --> 01:11:50,983
with men who were growing
impatient with his caution,
760
01:11:50,984 --> 01:11:55,600
men about whom Americans
knew almost nothing.
761
01:11:56,455 --> 01:11:59,667
The most important proved
to be a carpenter's son
762
01:11:59,668 --> 01:12:05,371
from Quang Tri province in
the South named Le Duan.
763
01:12:05,372 --> 01:12:09,536
He had helped found the Indochinese
Communist Party,
764
01:12:09,537 --> 01:12:12,495
survived nearly ten years in a French prison,
765
01:12:12,496 --> 01:12:15,913
and proved himself a shrewd political infighter
766
01:12:15,914 --> 01:12:20,755
as he rose to become First
Secretary of the party.
767
01:12:21,438 --> 01:12:26,442
01:12:58,381
NARRATOR: By 1959, Le Duan
and his hardline allies
769
01:12:58,382 --> 01:13:02,432
were gaining influence within the
North Vietnamese Politburo
770
01:13:02,433 --> 01:13:05,816
and beginning to change its policy.
771
01:13:06,399 --> 01:13:09,002
They now argued that Hanoi
should do everything
772
01:13:09,003 --> 01:13:15,787
within its power to help Southern
revolutionaries remove Diem by force.
773
01:13:16,819 --> 01:13:21,696
BUI DIEM:
774
01:13:36,200 --> 01:13:40,032
NARRATOR: Now, bands of
40 to 50 armed Viet Minh
775
01:13:40,033 --> 01:13:43,350
began slipping back home into South Vietnam,
776
01:13:43,351 --> 01:13:47,316
following jungle paths hacked
through the Laotian mountains
777
01:13:47,317 --> 01:13:53,222
that the Americans would soon
call the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
778
01:13:57,201 --> 01:14:02,350
Violence against the Diem regime
steadily accelerated.
779
01:14:10,831 --> 01:14:18,291
On the evening of July 8, 1959, at Bien
Hoa, 20 miles northeast of Saigon,
780
01:14:18,292 --> 01:14:24,985
six American military advisors were
watching a movie in their mess hall.
781
01:14:24,986 --> 01:14:29,120
Viet Minh guerrillas, who had crept
silently into the compound,
782
01:14:29,121 --> 01:14:32,603
opened fire through the windows.
783
01:14:36,552 --> 01:14:42,234
Major Dale Buis from Pender, Nebraska,
and Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand
784
01:14:42,235 --> 01:14:46,597
from Copperas Cove, Texas, were killed.
785
01:14:47,248 --> 01:14:55,405
They were the first American soldiers to
die from enemy fire in the Vietnam War.
786
01:14:55,583 --> 01:14:58,367
JOHN F. KENNEDY: We must prove all over again,
787
01:14:58,368 --> 01:15:05,482
to a watching world, as we sit on a most
conspicuous stage, whether this nation,
788
01:15:05,483 --> 01:15:10,038
conceived as it is with its freedom of choice,
789
01:15:10,039 --> 01:15:14,650
its breadth of opportunity,
its range of alternatives,
790
01:15:14,651 --> 01:15:19,882
can compete with the single-minded
advance of the communist system.
791
01:15:19,883 --> 01:15:24,422
NARRATOR: On November 8, 1960, John
Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected
792
01:15:24,423 --> 01:15:27,055
president of the United States.
793
01:15:27,056 --> 01:15:31,678
His vice president was Senator Lyndon Johnson.
794
01:15:31,679 --> 01:15:34,947
They had narrowly beaten Vice
President Richard Nixon
795
01:15:34,948 --> 01:15:39,834
and his running mate, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge.
796
01:15:40,171 --> 01:15:42,799
During the campaign, both Kennedy and Nixon
797
01:15:42,800 --> 01:15:47,215
had pledged to hold the line against
international communism
798
01:15:47,216 --> 01:15:50,633
wherever it seemed to be a threat.
799
01:15:50,634 --> 01:15:58,166
But very few Americans knew or cared
about what was going on in Vietnam.
800
01:15:58,167 --> 01:16:03,533
Six weeks after Kennedy's election, at a
remote jungle village called Tan Lap
801
01:16:03,534 --> 01:16:09,201
near the Cambodian border, representatives
of southern revolutionary groups
802
01:16:09,202 --> 01:16:13,626
met to form a new organization
to replace the Viet Minh,
803
01:16:13,627 --> 01:16:21,472
dedicated to overthrowing Ngo Dinh Diem
and ousting the foreigners supporting him.
804
01:16:21,473 --> 01:16:26,165
Behind the scenes, Le Duan and his
communist comrades in Hanoi
805
01:16:26,166 --> 01:16:30,282
were orchestrating everything.
806
01:16:30,283 --> 01:16:37,950
The new organization would be called the
National Liberation Front... the NLF.
807
01:16:38,504 --> 01:16:43,840
The armed wing of the NLF was called
the People's Liberation Armed Forces,
808
01:16:43,841 --> 01:16:50,519
but its enemies in Saigon and Washington
preferred a more disparaging term.
809
01:16:50,520 --> 01:16:52,986
In their eyes, the revolutionaries were
810
01:16:52,987 --> 01:16:59,911
Communist Traitors to the Vietnamese
Nation... the Viet Cong.
811
01:17:11,351 --> 01:17:16,338
HUY DUC:
812
01:17:48,421 --> 01:17:51,897
JOHN F. KENNEDY: Let every nation know,
813
01:17:51,898 --> 01:17:56,418
whether it wishes us well or ill,
814
01:17:56,419 --> 01:18:03,352
that we shall pay any price, bear any burden,
815
01:18:03,353 --> 01:18:08,402
meet any hardship, support any friend,
816
01:18:08,403 --> 01:18:16,222
oppose any foe, to assure the survival
and the success of liberty.
817
01:18:26,355 --> 01:18:29,323
01:18:34,511
charging enemy bunkers or
standing up under fire.
819
01:18:34,512 --> 01:18:39,732
But just to walk, day after
day from village to village
820
01:18:39,733 --> 01:18:44,971
and through the paddies and
up into the mountains,
821
01:18:44,972 --> 01:18:48,648
just to get up in the morning
and look out at the land
822
01:18:48,649 --> 01:18:52,355
and think, "In a few minutes
I'll be walking out there
823
01:18:52,356 --> 01:18:58,800
and will my corpse be there, over
there? Will I lose a leg out there?"
824
01:18:58,801 --> 01:19:02,685
Just to walk felt incredibly brave.
825
01:19:02,686 --> 01:19:09,581
I would sometimes look at my legs as I
walked, thinking, how am I doing this?
826
01:19:12,232 --> 01:19:17,563
["A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall"
playing by Bob Dylan]
827
01:19:17,870 --> 01:19:24,082
my blue-eyed son?
828
01:19:24,638 --> 01:19:30,217
my darling young one?
829
01:19:31,455 --> 01:19:37,071
twelve misty mountains
830
01:19:37,948 --> 01:19:44,092
on six crooked highways
831
01:19:44,761 --> 01:19:50,662
of seven sad forests
832
01:19:51,386 --> 01:19:57,863
dozen dead oceans
833
01:19:57,864 --> 01:20:04,441
the mouth of a graveyard
834
01:20:04,442 --> 01:20:11,796
it’s a hard, it’s a hard
835
01:20:11,797 --> 01:20:20,894
836
01:20:22,463 --> 01:20:28,605
my blue-eyed son?
837
01:20:29,257 --> 01:20:35,168
darling young one?
838
01:20:35,949 --> 01:20:42,332
wild wolves all around it
839
01:20:42,662 --> 01:20:48,781
with nobody on it
840
01:20:49,477 --> 01:20:55,572
that kept dripping
841
01:20:56,036 --> 01:21:02,233
their hammers a-bleeding
842
01:21:02,684 --> 01:21:08,676
covered with water
843
01:21:09,247 --> 01:21:15,780
tongues were all broken
844
01:21:16,068 --> 01:21:20,911
the hands of young children
845
01:21:20,912 --> 01:21:28,395
a hard, and it’s a hard
846
01:21:28,396 --> 01:21:36,088
847
01:21:36,089 --> 01:21:43,704
a hard, and it’s a hard
848
01:21:43,705 --> 01:21:52,495