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MAJOR SUPPORT FOR "THE VIETNAM WAR"

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WAS PROVIDED BY MEMBERS
OF THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY,

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INCLUDING JONATHAN
AND JEANNIE LAVINE,

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DIANE AND HAL BRIERLEY,

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AMY AND DAVID ABRAMS,

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JOHN AND CATHERINE DEBS,

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THE FULLERTON FAMILY
CHARITABLE FUND,

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THE MONTRONE FAMILY,

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LYNDA AND STEWART RESNICK,

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THE PERRY AND DONNA GOLKIN
FAMILY FOUNDATION,

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THE LYNCH FOUNDATION,

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THE ROGER AND ROSEMARY
ENRICO FOUNDATION,

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AND BY THESE ADDITIONAL FUNDERS.

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MAJOR FUNDING WAS ALSO PROVIDED

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BY DAVID H. KOCH...

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THE BLAVATNIK
FAMILY FOUNDATION...

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THE PARK FOUNDATION,

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THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT
FOR THE HUMANITIES,

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THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS,

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THE JOHN S. AND JAMES L.
KNIGHT FOUNDATION,

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THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION,

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THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS
FOUNDATIONS,

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THE FORD FOUNDATION JUSTFILMS,

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BY THE CORPORATION

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FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING,

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AND BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU.

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THANK YOU.

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BANK OF AMERICA PROUDLY SUPPORTS

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KEN BURNS' AND LYNN NOVICK'S
FILM "THE VIETNAM WAR"

30
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BECAUSE FOSTERING
DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

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AND CIVIL DISCOURSE
AROUND IMPORTANT ISSUES

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FURTHERS PROGRESS, EQUALITY,

33
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AND A MORE CONNECTED SOCIETY.

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GO TO BANKOFAMERICA.
COM/ BETTERCONNECTED TO LEARN MORE.

35
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This is 2-3 arriving.

36
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We have them in sight and
we're engaging at present time.

37
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Roger.

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Helicopters are phenomenal machines.

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You could float in the air.

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You can be like God.

41
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I flew below 500 feet.

42
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Above 500 feet was a kill zone.

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You better be below 200 feet,
the lower the better.

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My job was to get shot at.

45
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My job was to draw enemy fire.

46
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I was a duck, a decoy.

47
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I got shot at a lot.

48
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I engaged the enemy a lot.

49
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You're screaming as loud as you
can to try to cover up the sound

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of the incoming bullets

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because when they pass
by your ear

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you could hear
the popping sound.

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You don't hear the gunshot.

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That a 50-caliber
just opened up on you,

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shooting a half-inch
piece of lead flying at you...

56
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And the aircraft was... vroom!

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You're flying,
you're 90 degrees the other way

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and you're-you're shooting
yourself down

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because the rotor blades
are right in front of you

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and you're trying
to keep the gun from jamming

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because you're running around
like this.

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And if your gun jams,
you're done.

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Vietnam was the first real helicopter war.

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Helicopter pilots flew
more than 36 million sorties.

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Their crews scattered propaganda
leaflets over the enemy

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and poured lethal fire
into their positions;

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carried troops and supplies
and artillery into battle;

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and lifted the wounded off
the battlefield so swiftly

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that most reached a field
hospital within 15 minutes.

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Ron Ferrizzi, a policeman's son

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from the Swampoodle neighborhood
of North Philadelphia,

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got to Vietnam
in November of 1967.

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He was a crew chief
in a scout helicopter

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with the 1st Air Cavalry,

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flying out of Landing Zone Two-
Bits in the Central Highlands.

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One day,
after returning from a combat mission,

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he was approached
by a journalist.

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And there was this...

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there was a beautiful woman.

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You know, round eye woman...
statuesque, round eye woman

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with nice hair
and she looked pretty.

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Wow!

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She said,
"Can I ask you a couple of questions?

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"What was it like out there?

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"How does it feel that
a 50-caliber just opened up

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shooting a half-inch
piece of lead at you?"

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When you...
it's hard to describe.

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It's shitty.

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I mean, isn't it...
isn't it apparent what it's like?

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You want to know what it's like?

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Go look at it.

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Go out there.

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Go see the bodies.

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I was ready to whack her.

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I wanted to blast her.

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I was ready to... whoa!

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"You want to know
what it's like?

98
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"Boom! There it is.

99
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"I'll give it to you right now!

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"You want to feel it?
You want to see it?

101
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"I'll give it to you
if that's what you want.

102
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Is that what you want?"

103
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I don't want to tell you
what it's like

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because I don't want
to remember it.

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That's the insanity
that it brings out.

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The enemy has been defeated in battle after battle.

107
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He continues to hope that
America's will to persevere

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can be broken.

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Well, he is wrong.

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𝄞 Summer...

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1968 would prove to be a watershed year

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in the history of the Vietnam
War and the United States.

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As the year began,

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there were 485,600
American troops in Vietnam

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and American leaders promised

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that victory was finally
in sight,

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that there really was "light
at the end of the tunnel."

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𝄞 Don't you cry...

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But then, North Vietnam would mount a massive offensive

120
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that would result in
a terrible defeat for them,

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that in the long run
would turn out to have been

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a still-greater victory.

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America itself would be
convulsed by assassinations

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and battles in the streets
over the war and civil rights.

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An American president,

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a master politician used
to getting things done,

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would continue to find himself
besieged by problems

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he could not solve.

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𝄞 You're gonna rise...

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Robert Kennedy, the brother of the slain president

131
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who had escalated
American presence in Vietnam,

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wrote an editorial that year
that seemed to speak for many.

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"Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,"
he said,

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quoting the poet
William Butler Yeats.

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"Things fall apart;
the center cannot hold."

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𝄞 No, no, no, don't you cry

137
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𝄞 Cry.

138
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General Westmoreland,
when you said

139
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that you'd never been more
encouraged

140
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in the four years
that you have been in Vietnam,

141
00:08:23,266 --> 00:08:24,699
some critics, on the other hand,

142
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have never been more
discouraged.

143
00:08:27,033 --> 00:08:29,533
I wonder if you could detail
one or two or three things

144
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that cause you
to be so encouraged.

145
00:08:32,365 --> 00:08:35,533
I could quote a number
of meaningful statistics

146
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such as the roads
that are being opened,

147
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increasing number of enemy
that have been killed

148
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and other statistical
information,

149
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which suggests
that we are making progress

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and we are winning.

151
00:08:48,633 --> 00:08:54,232
And I find an attitude of
confidence and growing optimism.

152
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It prevails
all over the country.

153
00:08:56,700 --> 00:08:59,232
And, to me,
this is the most significant evidence

154
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I can give you that constant,
real progress is being made.

155
00:09:13,865 --> 00:09:16,865
On the evening of January 1, 1968,

156
00:09:16,966 --> 00:09:21,232
Ho Chi Minh broadcast
a poem over Radio Hanoi.

157
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HO CHI MINH:

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Communist commanders took this to mean

159
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that the ultimate battle,

160
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the General Offensive
and General Uprising

161
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they had been planning for months,
was imminent.

162
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Party First Secretary Le Duan,

163
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who had insisted
on the offensive

164
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and had purged those opposed,

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believed it would finally
bring about an end to the war.

166
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Viet Cong units supported
by North Vietnamese troops

167
00:09:57,966 --> 00:10:01,332
were to simultaneously
attack cities and bases

168
00:10:01,432 --> 00:10:03,265
all over the South.

169
00:10:03,365 --> 00:10:07,133
Le Duan promised those troops
that when the fighting started,

170
00:10:07,232 --> 00:10:10,466
the people of South Vietnam
would rise up

171
00:10:10,566 --> 00:10:12,966
and overthrow
the Saigon government,

172
00:10:13,066 --> 00:10:16,365
just as the Vietnamese had risen
up against the Japanese

173
00:10:16,466 --> 00:10:19,700
in August of 1945.

174
00:10:19,799 --> 00:10:24,299
With Saigon defeated,
the Americans would have no choice

175
00:10:24,399 --> 00:10:27,299
but to withdraw from Vietnam.

176
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The surprise attacks would begin
at the end of the month,

177
00:10:30,600 --> 00:10:36,832
at the start of the Lunar New
Year celebration called Tet.

178
00:10:37,700 --> 00:10:40,665
HO HUU LAN:

179
00:10:48,832 --> 00:10:51,765
The Viet Cong were already infiltrating

180
00:10:51,865 --> 00:10:54,665
scores of cities and towns.

181
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Tens of thousands
of North Vietnamese troops

182
00:10:57,932 --> 00:11:01,265
were now in place
in South Vietnam.

183
00:11:01,365 --> 00:11:05,700
Tons of smuggled Chinese
and Soviet-made weapons

184
00:11:05,799 --> 00:11:09,865
had been spirited towards
intended targets in sampans

185
00:11:09,966 --> 00:11:12,899
and flower carts and
false-bottomed trucks,

186
00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:18,365
and then buried in paddy fields
and garbage dumps and cemeteries

187
00:11:18,466 --> 00:11:21,399
until the moment came
for them to be retrieved.

188
00:11:22,466 --> 00:11:26,000
LE VAN CHO:

189
00:11:51,932 --> 00:11:54,466
More than 10,000 American military

190
00:11:54,566 --> 00:11:57,033
and civilian intelligence
officers were at work

191
00:11:57,133 --> 00:11:59,365
in South Vietnam,

192
00:11:59,466 --> 00:12:03,100
and here and there,
hints of what was to come

193
00:12:03,200 --> 00:12:05,700
filtered up the chain
of command.

194
00:12:05,799 --> 00:12:09,600
Enemy units were moving around
in inexplicable ways;

195
00:12:09,700 --> 00:12:12,899
captured enemy reports described
coming attacks

196
00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:14,166
on different cities;

197
00:12:14,265 --> 00:12:18,100
11 agents were caught
in the city of Qui Nhon

198
00:12:18,200 --> 00:12:22,166
carrying prerecorded tapes
calling on the local people

199
00:12:22,265 --> 00:12:25,399
to rise up against
the Saigon government.

200
00:12:25,500 --> 00:12:27,732
All of these things
were saying to us,

201
00:12:27,832 --> 00:12:29,332
"Something's going to happen."

202
00:12:29,432 --> 00:12:31,700
But we don't know exactly what.

203
00:12:31,799 --> 00:12:35,700
General Westmoreland thought he knew.

204
00:12:35,799 --> 00:12:37,700
"I believe that the enemy
will attempt

205
00:12:37,799 --> 00:12:41,466
a country-wide show of strength
just prior to Tet,"

206
00:12:41,566 --> 00:12:45,966
he cabled Washington,
"with Khe Sanh being the main event."

207
00:12:47,966 --> 00:12:50,500
Some 30,000 North Vietnamese
troops had gathered

208
00:12:50,600 --> 00:12:55,033
near Khe Sanh,
the westernmost strongpoint below the DMZ

209
00:12:55,133 --> 00:12:58,899
that was being held
by just 6,000 Marines.

210
00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:02,232
Westmoreland believed North
Vietnam wanted to isolate

211
00:13:02,332 --> 00:13:05,332
and annihilate
the U.S. forces there,

212
00:13:05,432 --> 00:13:09,700
just as the Viet Minh had done
to the French at Dien Bien Phu

213
00:13:09,799 --> 00:13:11,899
14 years earlier.

214
00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:16,133
Enemy attacks elsewhere,
Westmoreland was sure,

215
00:13:16,232 --> 00:13:18,466
would only be a diversion.

216
00:13:18,566 --> 00:13:23,232
One American general,
Frederick C. Weyand, was not so sure.

217
00:13:23,332 --> 00:13:27,100
He was able to persuade
Westmoreland to let him pull

218
00:13:27,200 --> 00:13:30,033
half his troops back
from the Cambodian border

219
00:13:30,133 --> 00:13:36,133
to take up defensive positions
outside Saigon just in case.

220
00:13:36,232 --> 00:13:38,633
This is an underground bunker at Khe Sanh,

221
00:13:38,732 --> 00:13:40,533
one of two cement havens left

222
00:13:40,633 --> 00:13:42,000
from the earlier days of the war

223
00:13:42,100 --> 00:13:43,765
when the Special Forces
held this base.

224
00:13:43,865 --> 00:13:46,533
It is dark, dank, dreary.

225
00:13:46,633 --> 00:13:52,600
You feel something in the air,
about the buildup.

226
00:13:52,700 --> 00:13:54,066
I don't know, you could...

227
00:13:54,165 --> 00:13:57,000
you could almost feel them
working around you at night.

228
00:13:57,100 --> 00:13:58,399
Who?

229
00:13:58,500 --> 00:14:00,399
Uh, the NVA.

230
00:14:02,200 --> 00:14:04,000
On January 21,

231
00:14:04,100 --> 00:14:07,166
the North Vietnamese began
shelling Khe Sanh.

232
00:14:15,666 --> 00:14:18,765
CAO XUAN DAI:

233
00:15:12,966 --> 00:15:16,533
When he learned of the attack on Khe Sanh,

234
00:15:16,633 --> 00:15:19,666
Lyndon Johnson made
the Joint Chiefs sign a pledge

235
00:15:19,765 --> 00:15:21,765
that the base would never fall.

236
00:15:21,865 --> 00:15:26,033
"I don't want any damn 'Dinbinphoo,'
" he said.

237
00:15:26,133 --> 00:15:30,299
The president had a scale-model
of the battlefield installed

238
00:15:30,399 --> 00:15:33,700
in the White House so that he
could follow the fighting there

239
00:15:33,799 --> 00:15:36,033
hour by hour.

240
00:15:38,165 --> 00:15:43,732
But Westmoreland's and Johnson's basic assumption was wrong.

241
00:15:43,832 --> 00:15:46,500
Khe Sanh was the sideshow;

242
00:15:46,600 --> 00:15:50,600
the attacks on cities and towns
that were about to begin

243
00:15:50,700 --> 00:15:54,732
throughout South Vietnam
would be the main event.

244
00:16:00,432 --> 00:16:03,700
But First Secretary Le Duan's
basic assumptions

245
00:16:03,799 --> 00:16:06,932
were about to be tested, too.

246
00:16:07,033 --> 00:16:09,299
For the coming offensive
to succeed,

247
00:16:09,399 --> 00:16:13,799
the South Vietnamese Army,
the ARVN, would have to collapse,

248
00:16:13,899 --> 00:16:15,865
and the people of the South

249
00:16:15,966 --> 00:16:18,666
would have to join
the revolution.

250
00:16:20,332 --> 00:16:23,600
LE CONG HUAN:

251
00:16:41,899 --> 00:16:45,799
"All our thinking was focused on finishing off the enemy,"

252
00:16:45,899 --> 00:16:48,566
one North Vietnamese general
remembered.

253
00:16:48,665 --> 00:16:53,232
"We were intoxicated
by that thought."

254
00:16:54,133 --> 00:16:56,466
HUY DUC:

255
00:17:19,833 --> 00:17:22,766
Okay, we've got our three wounded GIs on board.

256
00:17:22,865 --> 00:17:25,965
At least one of them
is hit pretty bad.

257
00:17:26,066 --> 00:17:29,566
Medic's got a busy,
busy few minutes ahead of him

258
00:17:29,665 --> 00:17:31,299
before we get back.

259
00:17:31,400 --> 00:17:35,133
As the date for the Tet Offensive approached,

260
00:17:35,232 --> 00:17:37,932
the war continued for the
hundreds of thousands

261
00:17:38,032 --> 00:17:41,232
of Americans in country.

262
00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:45,732
I did see the reality of war,

263
00:17:45,833 --> 00:17:49,599
a real education
for a young doctor.

264
00:17:51,799 --> 00:17:56,000
The war seemed to be going very
well from our point of view.

265
00:17:58,133 --> 00:18:02,732
The war seemed to be going just fine,
thank you.

266
00:18:02,833 --> 00:18:07,566
Captain Hal Kushner was a 26-year-old recent graduate

267
00:18:07,665 --> 00:18:11,165
of medical school from Danville,
Virginia.

268
00:18:11,266 --> 00:18:13,133
The father of
a three-year-old girl,

269
00:18:13,232 --> 00:18:15,432
with another baby on the way,

270
00:18:15,532 --> 00:18:17,865
he had volunteered to serve
in Vietnam

271
00:18:17,965 --> 00:18:23,099
and became a flight surgeon
with the 1st Air Cavalry.

272
00:18:23,200 --> 00:18:24,900
And I was supposed to give

273
00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:27,865
a lecture on the dangers of night flying,
ironically.

274
00:18:27,965 --> 00:18:28,900
And I did.

275
00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:32,465
We had terrible
weather that night.

276
00:18:32,566 --> 00:18:36,365
And it was dark and it was rainy
and it was windy.

277
00:18:36,465 --> 00:18:37,700
As we were flying

278
00:18:37,799 --> 00:18:41,133
I saw that we had drifted west
of the highway.

279
00:18:41,232 --> 00:18:44,432
And I knew that was wrong.

280
00:18:44,532 --> 00:18:46,432
In the fog and rain,

281
00:18:46,532 --> 00:18:50,432
Kushner's helicopter slammed
into a mountain.

282
00:18:53,165 --> 00:18:55,099
And the next thing I knew

283
00:18:55,200 --> 00:18:58,165
I was hanging upside down
in a burning helicopter.

284
00:18:58,266 --> 00:19:01,165
Major Porcella was dead.

285
00:19:01,266 --> 00:19:03,865
I just jumped away
from the helicopter,

286
00:19:03,965 --> 00:19:08,133
and it just went whoosh,
and it just burned up.

287
00:19:08,232 --> 00:19:11,099
There was an M60 machine gun
on the helicopter

288
00:19:11,200 --> 00:19:15,333
and the rounds had...
cooking off and it was exploding.

289
00:19:15,432 --> 00:19:19,266
And one or several of the rounds
went through my shoulder,

290
00:19:19,365 --> 00:19:20,532
my left shoulder.

291
00:19:22,465 --> 00:19:25,799
On the ground I saw
Warrant Officer Bedworth.

292
00:19:25,900 --> 00:19:28,965
And he was hurt very badly.

293
00:19:29,066 --> 00:19:34,000
I took some branches
and splinted his leg.

294
00:19:34,099 --> 00:19:40,532
So the rule is you wait with the
aircraft until you get rescued.

295
00:19:40,633 --> 00:19:42,099
And we just sat there.

296
00:19:42,200 --> 00:19:44,732
So we waited one day.

297
00:19:44,833 --> 00:19:46,599
We waited two days.

298
00:19:46,700 --> 00:19:50,032
We had no food or water.

299
00:19:50,133 --> 00:19:53,833
On the morning of the third day,
Bedworth died.

300
00:19:53,932 --> 00:19:56,833
And he just slipped away.

301
00:19:56,932 --> 00:19:58,432
It was very, very sad.

302
00:20:00,133 --> 00:20:04,000
And I thought that my best
choice was to leave the aircraft

303
00:20:04,099 --> 00:20:06,500
and try to go down the mountain.

304
00:20:06,599 --> 00:20:09,333
It took the wounded Kushner four hours

305
00:20:09,432 --> 00:20:12,099
to stagger down the hill.

306
00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:15,665
When he finally reached level ground,
he looked back up

307
00:20:15,766 --> 00:20:20,099
and saw two American helicopters
hovering above the crash site.

308
00:20:21,465 --> 00:20:24,432
Their pilots did not see him.

309
00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:30,633
And I saw this peasant working in a rice paddy.

310
00:20:30,732 --> 00:20:32,766
And he saw me.

311
00:20:32,865 --> 00:20:36,500
And I had captain's bars and a Caduceus,
a medical symbol,

312
00:20:36,599 --> 00:20:38,400
on my collar.

313
00:20:38,500 --> 00:20:41,266
And he said

314
00:20:41,365 --> 00:20:43,400
Captain, doctor.

315
00:20:43,500 --> 00:20:49,400
He took me about another mile to a little hooch,
a little house,

316
00:20:49,500 --> 00:20:52,400
and he sat me down
on the front of it

317
00:20:52,500 --> 00:20:55,732
and he brought out a can
of condensed milk.

318
00:20:55,833 --> 00:20:58,299
And as I was eating the stuff-

319
00:20:58,400 --> 00:21:01,333
it was just the best stuff I've
ever eaten in my whole life-

320
00:21:01,432 --> 00:21:06,266
I hear another person say,

321
00:21:06,365 --> 00:21:08,799
"Surrender, no kill."

322
00:21:08,900 --> 00:21:12,232
There was a squad
of Viet Cong there.

323
00:21:12,333 --> 00:21:14,932
And I put my one arm up.

324
00:21:15,032 --> 00:21:18,900
And he shot me
with an M2 carbine.

325
00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:21,000
And I think he was more nervous
than I was.

326
00:21:21,099 --> 00:21:24,633
And he shot me right
where the M60 had shot me.

327
00:21:24,732 --> 00:21:27,833
And it went right through
my neck and came out the back.

328
00:21:27,932 --> 00:21:32,400
And they tied my arms
very tightly in commo wire.

329
00:21:32,500 --> 00:21:36,266
He went through my wallet and he
took my Geneva Convention card,

330
00:21:36,365 --> 00:21:38,566
which was white
with a red cross.

331
00:21:38,665 --> 00:21:40,066
And he tore it up.

332
00:21:40,165 --> 00:21:45,833
And he said, in English,
"No P.O.W.

333
00:21:45,932 --> 00:21:47,865
Criminal.
Criminal."

334
00:21:47,965 --> 00:21:51,432
So then they took my boots.

335
00:21:51,532 --> 00:21:54,965
And we started marching.

336
00:21:55,066 --> 00:21:57,400
And then we walked for a month.

337
00:21:59,599 --> 00:22:04,099
30 days, almost always at night.

338
00:22:04,200 --> 00:22:07,665
And my feet were
just lacerated.

339
00:22:07,766 --> 00:22:11,099
I didn't think
I could possibly survive.

340
00:22:16,465 --> 00:22:19,200
NGUYEN NGOC:

341
00:22:40,165 --> 00:22:41,799
By January 30,

342
00:22:41,900 --> 00:22:46,932
an informal 36-hour truce
for Tet was in effect.

343
00:22:47,032 --> 00:22:51,665
Thousands of ARVN troops had
gone home for the holiday.

344
00:22:54,165 --> 00:22:56,000
The enemy had not.

345
00:22:57,266 --> 00:23:00,465
NGUYEN VAN TONG:

346
00:23:23,432 --> 00:23:26,766
That same day, Marine Corporal Roger Harris

347
00:23:26,865 --> 00:23:30,165
was scheduled
to fly out of Vietnam.

348
00:23:30,266 --> 00:23:33,200
His 13-month tour was over.

349
00:23:33,299 --> 00:23:36,532
But he and his unit were
still hunkered down

350
00:23:36,633 --> 00:23:42,299
under constant shelling at Camp Carroll,
just south of the DMZ.

351
00:23:44,165 --> 00:23:46,000
Well, once I had my orders, you know,

352
00:23:46,099 --> 00:23:48,365
I said goodbye
to all my friends.

353
00:23:48,465 --> 00:23:51,665
And then I went over
to the landing zone.

354
00:23:51,766 --> 00:23:54,700
So when the helicopters come in,

355
00:23:54,799 --> 00:23:57,665
I put the body bags
on the helicopter.

356
00:23:57,766 --> 00:23:59,965
And I got on with the bodies.

357
00:24:02,099 --> 00:24:04,665
We landed in Dong Ha,
which was division headquarters.

358
00:24:04,766 --> 00:24:08,200
And we got about 200 meters
from the airstrip,

359
00:24:08,299 --> 00:24:10,799
the airstrip started
getting hit.

360
00:24:13,232 --> 00:24:16,665
I'm just thinking
personally that God realizes

361
00:24:16,766 --> 00:24:19,400
that he made a mistake because
some of the guys that got killed

362
00:24:19,500 --> 00:24:22,432
that were with me were good
Christians that never had sex,

363
00:24:22,532 --> 00:24:24,333
didn't swear, you know.

364
00:24:24,432 --> 00:24:27,200
And, you know,
I had been this sinner.

365
00:24:27,299 --> 00:24:30,200
And I'm thinking
God realized he made a mistake.

366
00:24:30,299 --> 00:24:33,365
He killed the Christians
and I got away.

367
00:24:33,465 --> 00:24:35,766
And so now
Death is following me.

368
00:24:37,400 --> 00:24:39,099
And they told us
that in another hour or so

369
00:24:39,200 --> 00:24:40,766
a plane was going to come in.

370
00:24:40,865 --> 00:24:44,266
When it came in,
then the artillery started coming in.

371
00:24:44,365 --> 00:24:47,066
And we jumped on and took off.

372
00:24:49,165 --> 00:24:51,099
And it landed in Danang.

373
00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:54,032
And then the sun came up
and we went to the airstrip

374
00:24:54,133 --> 00:24:55,099
and we boarded airplanes.

375
00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:56,932
And we were sitting there.

376
00:24:57,032 --> 00:25:00,165
Everybody's giving each other
pounds and slapping five.

377
00:25:00,266 --> 00:25:01,732
We made it.

378
00:25:01,833 --> 00:25:03,365
And then all of a sudden...

379
00:25:06,665 --> 00:25:12,633
Danang airstrip starts getting hit,
artillery's coming in.

380
00:25:12,732 --> 00:25:16,665
And I'm thinking,
"It's all coming after me."

381
00:25:16,766 --> 00:25:19,465
It's all about me, you know.

382
00:25:19,566 --> 00:25:22,266
God doesn't want me to make it
out of here.

383
00:25:23,900 --> 00:25:29,000
In the early morning hours of January 31, 1968,

384
00:25:29,099 --> 00:25:33,665
84,000 Viet Cong and North
Vietnamese troops attacked

385
00:25:33,766 --> 00:25:38,333
36 of South Vietnam's
44 provincial capitals,

386
00:25:38,432 --> 00:25:41,633
dozens of American and ARVN
military bases

387
00:25:41,732 --> 00:25:44,833
and the six largest cities
in the country,

388
00:25:44,932 --> 00:25:48,165
including Hue, Danang,
and Saigon.

389
00:25:49,865 --> 00:25:52,165
Their goal,
their commanders told them,

390
00:25:52,266 --> 00:25:55,732
was to "crack the sky
and shake the earth."

391
00:26:07,599 --> 00:26:12,165
In Saigon,
General Westmoreland mistook the first explosions

392
00:26:12,266 --> 00:26:13,932
as holiday firecrackers.

393
00:26:17,833 --> 00:26:21,333
His deputy commander,
General Creighton W. Abrams,

394
00:26:21,432 --> 00:26:25,833
was asleep,
and his aides did not bother to wake him.

395
00:26:25,932 --> 00:26:30,266
Not a single top commander was
present at "Pentagon East,"

396
00:26:30,365 --> 00:26:33,932
the sprawling MACV headquarters
at Tan Son Nhut Air Base

397
00:26:34,032 --> 00:26:36,200
on the outskirts of Saigon,

398
00:26:36,299 --> 00:26:40,232
when mortars and rockets began
cratering the runways.

399
00:27:04,833 --> 00:27:06,266
It's moving.

400
00:27:20,833 --> 00:27:25,333
Viet Cong soldiers spread out to attack specific targets

401
00:27:25,432 --> 00:27:27,133
in and around the capital.

402
00:27:27,232 --> 00:27:32,099
The war had come to the streets
of Saigon.

403
00:27:32,200 --> 00:27:36,165
Had General Weyand not insisted
on stationing troops

404
00:27:36,266 --> 00:27:37,500
around the city,

405
00:27:37,599 --> 00:27:41,633
Saigon itself would have been
in far greater danger.

406
00:27:44,566 --> 00:27:47,432
We heard gunfire

407
00:27:47,532 --> 00:27:51,400
and our first reaction was,
"Must be another coup d'Ã©tat."

408
00:27:52,965 --> 00:27:57,266
And then we heard that the
Viet Cong had attacked Saigon

409
00:27:57,365 --> 00:27:58,833
and were still attacking.

410
00:27:58,932 --> 00:28:02,965
It came as a total shock
because we always thought

411
00:28:03,066 --> 00:28:08,066
Saigon was safe,
the safest place in all of South Vietnam.

412
00:28:13,066 --> 00:28:15,532
One Viet Cong squad made it

413
00:28:15,633 --> 00:28:17,400
all the way to the
Presidential Palace,

414
00:28:17,500 --> 00:28:20,700
but was stopped by
South Vietnamese tanks.

415
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:27,333
The survivors holed up in
a building across the street

416
00:28:27,432 --> 00:28:31,665
and were shot by ARVN troops
and American MPs.

417
00:28:35,365 --> 00:28:42,032
All over Saigon,
nothing was going according to plan.

418
00:28:42,133 --> 00:28:46,599
Viet Cong units were taking
heavy losses from U.S. troops

419
00:28:46,700 --> 00:28:49,833
and determined South Vietnamese
forces.

420
00:29:04,732 --> 00:29:06,532
NGUYEN THANH TUNG:

421
00:29:49,599 --> 00:29:51,400
This is the main Vietnamese language radio station

422
00:29:51,500 --> 00:29:52,766
in Saigon.

423
00:29:52,865 --> 00:29:55,900
And right now there are an
undisclosed number of VC inside

424
00:29:56,000 --> 00:29:57,133
occupying the station.

425
00:29:57,232 --> 00:29:59,833
The Viet Cong managed to seize

426
00:29:59,932 --> 00:30:02,665
South Vietnam's national
radio station

427
00:30:02,766 --> 00:30:06,732
and prepared to broadcast a
taped message from Ho Chi Minh

428
00:30:06,833 --> 00:30:09,965
calling upon the people
to rise up.

429
00:30:11,365 --> 00:30:14,566
But a technician radioed
to the transmitting tower

430
00:30:14,665 --> 00:30:18,400
to cut them off and broadcast
Viennese waltzes

431
00:30:18,500 --> 00:30:20,865
and Beatles songs instead.

432
00:30:23,566 --> 00:30:29,133
𝄞 Turn off your mind, relax,
and float downstream 𝄞

433
00:30:29,232 --> 00:30:32,532
𝄞 It is not dying

434
00:30:32,633 --> 00:30:37,465
𝄞 It is not dying

435
00:30:37,566 --> 00:30:44,333
𝄞 But listen to the color
of your dreams 𝄞

436
00:30:44,432 --> 00:30:53,032
𝄞 It is not living,
it is not living 𝄞

437
00:31:02,700 --> 00:31:07,465
The Saigon suburb of Bien Hoa was under attack, too.

438
00:31:07,566 --> 00:31:11,165
Enemy forces were assaulting
both the airbase there

439
00:31:11,266 --> 00:31:12,799
and Long Binh,

440
00:31:12,900 --> 00:31:17,000
the largest American
installation in Vietnam.

441
00:31:19,532 --> 00:31:25,000
There were VC moving on the house, moving everywhere.

442
00:31:25,099 --> 00:31:29,266
A lot of shooting,
a lot of confusion going on.

443
00:31:29,365 --> 00:31:32,032
And we were shooting
out the window.

444
00:31:32,133 --> 00:31:34,900
And my wife was reloading.

445
00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:37,500
When we ran out of ammunition,
we'd sli...

446
00:31:37,599 --> 00:31:41,266
slide the magazine
down the tiles

447
00:31:41,365 --> 00:31:43,165
and she was down there
at the other end

448
00:31:43,266 --> 00:31:45,865
filling 'em up
and sliding 'em back.

449
00:31:47,900 --> 00:31:50,700
Viet Cong commandos managed to slip through the wire

450
00:31:50,799 --> 00:31:55,133
at Long Binh and blow up
a huge ammunition dump.

451
00:31:55,232 --> 00:31:58,865
A mushroom cloud rose above
the airfield,

452
00:31:58,965 --> 00:32:01,566
so vast that some of the
Americans thought there had been

453
00:32:01,665 --> 00:32:03,700
a nuclear explosion.

454
00:32:03,799 --> 00:32:07,266
The blast blew off the door
of Brady's building.

455
00:32:09,865 --> 00:32:14,000
They went up against the wire in Long Binh

456
00:32:14,099 --> 00:32:15,865
and paid a frightful price.

457
00:32:17,700 --> 00:32:19,799
There were just layers
of bodies.

458
00:32:19,900 --> 00:32:22,432
The Americans
just cut them down.

459
00:32:25,032 --> 00:32:26,200
Hi, this is Johnny Carson.

460
00:32:26,299 --> 00:32:27,732
As you know,
this is the usual starting time

461
00:32:27,833 --> 00:32:29,133
for the<i>Tonight Show.</i>

462
00:32:29,232 --> 00:32:32,900
But because of the critical
war situation in Vietnam,

463
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:36,099
especially around Saigon,
NBC, for the next 15 minutes,

464
00:32:36,200 --> 00:32:39,165
is going to bring you a special
news program via satellite.

465
00:32:39,266 --> 00:32:41,133
Just after midnight their time,

466
00:32:41,232 --> 00:32:44,000
a band of Viet Cong raiders
blew up a power installation

467
00:32:44,099 --> 00:32:46,299
and attacked two police stations
in Saigon.

468
00:32:46,400 --> 00:32:49,032
It all amounts to the most
ambitious series

469
00:32:49,133 --> 00:32:50,965
of communist attacks
yet mounted,

470
00:32:51,066 --> 00:32:53,732
spreading violence into at least
ten provincial capitals,

471
00:32:53,833 --> 00:32:56,633
plus American air bases
and civilian installations

472
00:32:56,732 --> 00:32:58,799
stretching the entire
length of the country.

473
00:32:58,900 --> 00:33:01,766
None had greater
psychological impact

474
00:33:01,865 --> 00:33:04,465
than the assault on the
American embassy in Saigon.

475
00:33:07,732 --> 00:33:10,066
In the first few hours of the fighting,

476
00:33:10,165 --> 00:33:14,099
19 specially trained commandos
had blasted their way

477
00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:18,732
into the sprawling compound
of the United States embassy.

478
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:24,465
There's a... there's a rush, they're rushing the embassy.

479
00:33:24,566 --> 00:33:26,865
That's fire coming from the
other side of the street now,

480
00:33:26,965 --> 00:33:28,200
outside the embassy.

481
00:33:28,299 --> 00:33:29,865
They're exchanging
across the street.

482
00:33:29,965 --> 00:33:31,766
You can see the tracer
bullets going past.

483
00:33:34,099 --> 00:33:36,299
That's outside the embassy.

484
00:33:39,799 --> 00:33:41,732
MAN <i>Uh,
this is Waco, roger.</i>

485
00:33:41,833 --> 00:33:44,365
<i>Uh,
can you get in the gates now?</i>

486
00:33:44,465 --> 00:33:46,266
<i>Are the gates open and
can you take a force in there</i>

487
00:33:46,365 --> 00:33:48,333
<i>and clean out
that embassy right now?</i>

488
00:34:04,099 --> 00:34:06,566
Apparently the Viet Cong are trapped in the basement

489
00:34:06,665 --> 00:34:10,900
of this side building,
an incredible situation.

490
00:34:17,333 --> 00:34:20,065
Heavy firing,
incoming and outgoing.

491
00:34:20,166 --> 00:34:24,233
Don North, ABC News,
at the U.S. embassy, in Saigon.

492
00:34:24,333 --> 00:34:29,532
All of the intruders were eventually killed or captured.

493
00:34:30,932 --> 00:34:33,132
What a sight.

494
00:34:33,233 --> 00:34:37,400
A small frog hopping through
a pool of blood

495
00:34:37,500 --> 00:34:41,865
that's issuing from the head
of a Viet Cong,

496
00:34:41,965 --> 00:34:47,965
lying on the green grassy lawn
of the U.S. embassy.

497
00:34:52,432 --> 00:34:55,266
NGUYEN VAN TONG:

498
00:35:10,766 --> 00:35:15,032
An American Marine and four Army MPs were killed

499
00:35:15,132 --> 00:35:16,666
at the embassy.

500
00:35:18,365 --> 00:35:20,800
General, how would you assess

501
00:35:20,900 --> 00:35:22,432
yesterday's activities
and today's?

502
00:35:22,532 --> 00:35:24,465
What is the enemy doing?
Are these major attacks?

503
00:35:24,565 --> 00:35:26,166
Or...

504
00:35:28,065 --> 00:35:33,833
That's E.O.D. setting off a couple of M-79 duds,
I believe.

505
00:35:33,932 --> 00:35:37,699
The enemy, very deceitfully,

506
00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:41,166
has taken advantage
of the Tet truce,

507
00:35:41,266 --> 00:35:48,132
in order to, uh...
create maximum consternation.

508
00:35:48,233 --> 00:35:50,599
In my opinion,
this is diversionary...

509
00:35:50,699 --> 00:35:54,532
Early wire service dispatches reported incorrectly

510
00:35:54,632 --> 00:35:59,199
that the Viet Cong had made it
inside the embassy itself.

511
00:35:59,300 --> 00:36:02,365
Embassy ID cards were found on some of the Viet Cong.

512
00:36:02,465 --> 00:36:04,932
And the first television footage did little

513
00:36:05,032 --> 00:36:09,065
to reassure the American public.

514
00:36:09,166 --> 00:36:10,532
Is Saigon secure right now?

515
00:36:10,632 --> 00:36:13,632
Saigon's secure
as far as I know.

516
00:36:13,733 --> 00:36:15,000
There's no more
fighting in the streets?

517
00:36:15,099 --> 00:36:16,300
There may be some
in the outskirts still.

518
00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:19,233
I'm not sure, don't know.

519
00:36:19,333 --> 00:36:20,699
I'm not sure about that,
no.

520
00:36:22,599 --> 00:36:25,365
Saigon was far from secure.

521
00:36:56,032 --> 00:36:57,932
Viet Cong assassination squads,

522
00:36:58,032 --> 00:37:02,032
some guided by
North Vietnamese spies,

523
00:37:02,132 --> 00:37:06,099
moved through the streets with
orders to kill what they called

524
00:37:06,199 --> 00:37:08,065
"blood" enemies of the people...

525
00:37:10,365 --> 00:37:16,132
bureaucrats, intelligence officers,
ARVN commanders,

526
00:37:16,233 --> 00:37:20,599
and ordinary soldiers home on leave,
and their families.

527
00:37:20,699 --> 00:37:24,965
I went home to visit my parents

528
00:37:25,065 --> 00:37:28,833
and I found them kind of huddled in their house,
the doors shut,

529
00:37:28,932 --> 00:37:31,132
the windows shut, very dark.

530
00:37:31,233 --> 00:37:34,333
They were very afraid because
our house was located

531
00:37:34,432 --> 00:37:36,099
near a slum.

532
00:37:36,199 --> 00:37:39,932
And we always assumed that there
were a lot of Viet Cong agents

533
00:37:40,032 --> 00:37:44,699
living among the poor where
they could hide very easily,

534
00:37:44,800 --> 00:37:47,766
and that they were
going to come out

535
00:37:47,865 --> 00:37:50,766
and look for
government officials,

536
00:37:50,865 --> 00:37:53,932
military personnel to kill.

537
00:37:54,032 --> 00:37:57,099
So my parents were very afraid.

538
00:38:00,400 --> 00:38:04,400
NGUYEN TAI:

539
00:38:35,166 --> 00:38:36,833
On the second day of the fighting,

540
00:38:36,932 --> 00:38:40,599
a Viet Cong agent named
Nguyen Van Lem

541
00:38:40,699 --> 00:38:43,666
was brought before
Nguyen Ngoc Loan,

542
00:38:43,766 --> 00:38:46,965
the head of the South Vietnamese
National Police.

543
00:38:47,065 --> 00:38:51,532
As an AP photographer
and an NBC cameraman watched,

544
00:38:51,632 --> 00:38:55,500
Loan ordered another officer
to shoot the captive.

545
00:38:55,599 --> 00:38:59,465
When he hesitated,
Loan did the job himself.

546
00:39:14,166 --> 00:39:17,365
The Chief of South Vietnam's National Police Force,

547
00:39:17,465 --> 00:39:21,166
Brigadier General Nguyen Ngoc Loan,
was waiting for him.

548
00:39:41,865 --> 00:39:43,965
Good morning, Mr. President.

549
00:39:44,065 --> 00:39:45,699
Hi, Jack.

550
00:39:45,800 --> 00:39:47,666
Uh, we need guidance this morning,
sir.

551
00:39:47,766 --> 00:39:50,333
Guidance?
Uh, is that all you want?

552
00:39:50,432 --> 00:39:51,900
Yes, sir.
No quotation?

553
00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:53,465
That's right.
No attribution.

554
00:39:53,565 --> 00:39:54,599
No connection.

555
00:39:54,699 --> 00:39:56,099
Give it absolutely none.

556
00:39:56,199 --> 00:39:57,666
Absolutely none.

557
00:39:57,766 --> 00:40:00,300
Your press is lying
like drunken sailors every day.

558
00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:05,766
Uh,
first thing I wake up this morning was trying to figure out

559
00:40:05,865 --> 00:40:08,099
after seeing CBS,
watching the networks,

560
00:40:08,199 --> 00:40:11,465
reading the morning papers,
was how can we win-

561
00:40:11,565 --> 00:40:14,032
possibly win-
and survive as a nation

562
00:40:14,132 --> 00:40:15,965
and have to fight
the press's lies.

563
00:40:16,065 --> 00:40:17,365
Yes, sir.

564
00:40:17,465 --> 00:40:18,666
I'm trying
to protect my country,

565
00:40:18,766 --> 00:40:20,032
and they're all whipping me.

566
00:40:20,132 --> 00:40:22,833
Not a son of a bitch said
a word about Ho Chi Minh.

567
00:40:22,932 --> 00:40:25,833
They talk about us bombing,
yet these sons of bitches

568
00:40:25,932 --> 00:40:29,199
come in and bomb our embassy
and 19 of them try a raid on it.

569
00:40:29,300 --> 00:40:33,532
All 19 get killed and
yet they blame the embassy.

570
00:40:34,800 --> 00:40:36,599
I don't understand it.

571
00:40:36,699 --> 00:40:39,400
We think we've killed 20,000;
we think we lost 400.

572
00:40:39,500 --> 00:40:43,266
We think that of course
it's bad to lose anybody,

573
00:40:43,365 --> 00:40:45,032
any one of the 400,

574
00:40:45,132 --> 00:40:47,632
but we think that the Good Lord
has been so good to us

575
00:40:47,733 --> 00:40:51,266
that it is a major,
dramatic victory.

576
00:40:51,365 --> 00:40:53,000
And I think what
would have happened

577
00:40:53,099 --> 00:40:55,199
if I'd lost 20,000
and they'd lost 400?

578
00:40:55,300 --> 00:40:56,166
I ask you that.

579
00:40:56,266 --> 00:40:57,333
Oh,
it would've been terrible.

580
00:40:58,666 --> 00:41:02,599
It appears that a mortar
or a rocket shell came in

581
00:41:02,699 --> 00:41:06,965
and, well,
there's blood on my pants.

582
00:41:07,065 --> 00:41:09,199
And I guess I'm... I'm hit.

583
00:41:09,300 --> 00:41:12,000
Well,
this is the streets of Saigon,

584
00:41:12,099 --> 00:41:15,300
and that's where the war is now.

585
00:41:15,400 --> 00:41:17,032
Howard Tuckner, NBC News.

586
00:41:20,166 --> 00:41:24,233
The American press focused almost entirely

587
00:41:24,333 --> 00:41:26,733
on the fighting in Saigon.

588
00:41:26,833 --> 00:41:30,599
But the Tet Offensive was
happening almost everywhere.

589
00:41:32,733 --> 00:41:35,932
Most assaults were being quickly
beaten back by ARVN

590
00:41:36,032 --> 00:41:38,632
and American forces.

591
00:41:38,733 --> 00:41:43,233
Everywhere the enemy was
suffering terrible losses.

592
00:42:04,733 --> 00:42:07,365
LE VAN CHO:

593
00:42:32,233 --> 00:42:36,532
The Americans called in massive air and artillery firepower

594
00:42:36,632 --> 00:42:40,900
to dislodge a Viet Cong regiment
from the city of Ben Tre

595
00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:43,300
in the Mekong Delta.

596
00:42:43,400 --> 00:42:48,199
Afterwards,
a reporter quoted an American major as having said,

597
00:42:48,300 --> 00:42:54,965
"It became necessary
to destroy the town to save it."

598
00:42:55,065 --> 00:43:01,500
Right now,
the Navy and the Army boats that also bring supplies

599
00:43:01,599 --> 00:43:05,300
up the Perfume River are having
to undergo heavy small arms

600
00:43:05,400 --> 00:43:07,632
and mortar fire as they turn
the bend in the river

601
00:43:07,733 --> 00:43:09,632
here around Hue itself.

602
00:43:09,733 --> 00:43:12,099
And the landing zone on this
the south side of the river

603
00:43:12,199 --> 00:43:15,365
has been under almost constant
mortar and small arms fire.

604
00:43:15,465 --> 00:43:18,733
And today, at any rate,
Hue is cut off.

605
00:43:23,065 --> 00:43:26,266
The longest, bloodiest battle of the Tet Offensive

606
00:43:26,365 --> 00:43:28,300
was being fought in the streets

607
00:43:28,400 --> 00:43:31,166
of one of the country's
loveliest cities,

608
00:43:31,266 --> 00:43:34,965
the former imperial capital Hue.

609
00:43:51,065 --> 00:43:54,266
The Perfume River
divided Hue in two.

610
00:43:54,365 --> 00:43:57,465
The enemy-
North Vietnamese regulars

611
00:43:57,565 --> 00:43:59,365
and Viet Cong guerrillas-

612
00:43:59,465 --> 00:44:02,432
had taken over both sides
of the city.

613
00:44:02,532 --> 00:44:06,365
Only the American advisers'
compound on the south bank

614
00:44:06,465 --> 00:44:08,965
and the 1st ARVN division
headquarters

615
00:44:09,065 --> 00:44:12,300
within the thick-walled Citadel
on the north side

616
00:44:12,400 --> 00:44:14,166
held out against them.

617
00:44:24,400 --> 00:44:27,432
NGUYEN NGOC:

618
00:44:51,432 --> 00:44:55,199
Marine Corporal Bill Ehrhart was at the end of his tour

619
00:44:55,300 --> 00:44:57,532
and was preparing to go home.

620
00:44:57,632 --> 00:44:59,733
But when his company was ordered

621
00:44:59,833 --> 00:45:03,465
to relieve the besieged
American compound in Hue,

622
00:45:03,565 --> 00:45:06,733
he chose to go
with his comrades.

623
00:45:06,833 --> 00:45:10,800
I had spent 12 months in Vietnam looking for somebody to shoot at

624
00:45:10,900 --> 00:45:13,766
and there was nobody there.

625
00:45:13,865 --> 00:45:16,833
And then all of a sudden

626
00:45:16,932 --> 00:45:20,365
it seemed like here's
every NVA in the world

627
00:45:20,465 --> 00:45:23,032
trying to kill me and my pals.

628
00:45:23,132 --> 00:45:27,099
It was an entirely different
kind of fight.

629
00:45:36,965 --> 00:45:40,300
Ehrhart and his unit endured a bloody ambush,

630
00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:44,032
finally fought their way through
to the MACV compound,

631
00:45:44,132 --> 00:45:48,500
and then began days of
brutal block-by-block battle

632
00:45:48,599 --> 00:45:51,233
to retake the surrounding
neighborhoods.

633
00:45:52,400 --> 00:45:54,766
Every house became
a battlefield.

634
00:46:05,233 --> 00:46:08,599
"It was exhilarating,"
Ehrhart remembered.

635
00:46:08,699 --> 00:46:11,833
"I was scared utterly witless,

636
00:46:11,932 --> 00:46:14,365
"but it was the greatest
adrenaline high

637
00:46:14,465 --> 00:46:17,032
I'd ever experienced."

638
00:46:18,532 --> 00:46:21,565
It was ugly, ugly fighting.

639
00:46:21,666 --> 00:46:24,932
You literally have to clear
houses a room at a time,

640
00:46:25,032 --> 00:46:27,800
a floor at a time,
a house at a time.

641
00:46:27,900 --> 00:46:30,932
And then you go to the next one.

642
00:46:32,465 --> 00:46:35,599
NGUYEN THI HOA:

643
00:47:28,900 --> 00:47:32,400
February 5,
I was wounded by a B40 rocket.

644
00:47:34,000 --> 00:47:35,932
I was utterly stone deaf.

645
00:47:39,166 --> 00:47:43,199
Under any other circumstances
I would have been evacuated.

646
00:47:43,300 --> 00:47:47,833
But I could see, I could walk,
and I could shoot.

647
00:47:47,932 --> 00:47:49,132
So I stayed.

648
00:48:18,132 --> 00:48:20,065
The fighting continued.

649
00:48:25,932 --> 00:48:30,599
"We had to blow our way through
every wall of every house,"

650
00:48:30,699 --> 00:48:32,199
one Marine remembered.

651
00:48:32,300 --> 00:48:37,666
"It's a shame we had to damage
such a beautiful city."

652
00:48:39,766 --> 00:48:42,333
Of course, all these civilians have been herded

653
00:48:42,432 --> 00:48:44,266
into the university.

654
00:48:44,365 --> 00:48:47,500
They had all gone there
to get the hell away

655
00:48:47,599 --> 00:48:49,500
from having grenades
thrown in their living rooms.

656
00:48:49,599 --> 00:48:52,132
And one of the guys
comes in and says,

657
00:48:52,233 --> 00:48:58,666
"I found this-this girl who will
fuck us all for C rations."

658
00:48:58,766 --> 00:49:00,300
And I'm thinking,

659
00:49:00,400 --> 00:49:02,532
"Wait,
we're in the middle of this big battle

660
00:49:02,632 --> 00:49:05,800
and I'm gonna go and..."

661
00:49:07,465 --> 00:49:13,599
But I'm 19 years old and my buddies are gonna,
and I just...

662
00:49:13,699 --> 00:49:18,233
I demonstrated to myself how
little courage I actually had.

663
00:49:18,333 --> 00:49:23,099
I've lived with it ever since,
but I-I-I did it

664
00:49:23,199 --> 00:49:24,666
because I wasn't gonna say,

665
00:49:24,766 --> 00:49:28,266
"You guys,
we shouldn't do something like this."

666
00:49:28,365 --> 00:49:32,599
Even more than the killings,

667
00:49:32,699 --> 00:49:35,833
the thing I think I'm most
ashamed of

668
00:49:35,932 --> 00:49:40,400
when I think back on the time
I spent there.

669
00:49:40,500 --> 00:49:48,099
I think it's because my mother's a woman,
my wife's a woman,

670
00:49:48,199 --> 00:49:51,065
my daughter's a woman.

671
00:49:57,965 --> 00:50:01,599
Somebody gets shot,
not a good thing.

672
00:50:01,699 --> 00:50:04,333
You see somebody running away,

673
00:50:04,432 --> 00:50:07,900
I don't know,
it could've been a VC.

674
00:50:08,000 --> 00:50:09,666
But that woman?

675
00:50:11,233 --> 00:50:13,666
Nah.

676
00:50:13,766 --> 00:50:16,465
I had every opportunity
to say no.

677
00:50:19,333 --> 00:50:23,565
The next day, in the midst of still another firefight,

678
00:50:23,666 --> 00:50:27,065
a lieutenant in a jeep pulled up
in front of the building

679
00:50:27,166 --> 00:50:30,599
from which Ehrhart and five
fellow Marines were firing

680
00:50:30,699 --> 00:50:32,132
at the enemy.

681
00:50:32,233 --> 00:50:35,199
"Come on, Ehrhart!" he shouted.

682
00:50:35,300 --> 00:50:37,166
"Chopper's on the LZ right now.

683
00:50:37,266 --> 00:50:39,865
You want to go home or not?"

684
00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:44,965
From the helicopter that lifted
him up and away

685
00:50:45,065 --> 00:50:46,965
from the ruined,
smoking city,

686
00:50:47,065 --> 00:50:49,500
he could see a farmer
and his water buffalo

687
00:50:49,599 --> 00:50:51,965
working a flooded field

688
00:50:52,065 --> 00:50:55,900
and women in conical hats
carrying twin baskets

689
00:50:56,000 --> 00:51:01,000
hurrying along between the
paddies as if there were no war.

690
00:51:04,699 --> 00:51:08,632
Back in Hue,
the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops

691
00:51:08,733 --> 00:51:12,865
now found themselves
trapped inside the city.

692
00:51:13,532 --> 00:51:16,465
NGUYEN NGOC:

693
00:51:34,432 --> 00:51:35,833
It would take two weeks

694
00:51:35,932 --> 00:51:38,632
for the Marines to fight
their way across the river

695
00:51:38,733 --> 00:51:41,365
to support the ARVN,

696
00:51:41,465 --> 00:51:42,865
who had stubbornly
kept the enemy

697
00:51:42,965 --> 00:51:47,365
from overwhelming their division
headquarters in the Citadel.

698
00:52:07,266 --> 00:52:10,233
What's the hardest part of it?

699
00:52:10,333 --> 00:52:12,766
Not knowing where they are,
that's the worst of it.

700
00:52:12,865 --> 00:52:14,766
Riding around and running in the sewers,
in the gutters,

701
00:52:14,865 --> 00:52:15,932
anywhere.

702
00:52:16,032 --> 00:52:17,599
Could be anywhere.

703
00:52:17,699 --> 00:52:19,432
Just hoping to stay alive
and day to day.

704
00:52:19,532 --> 00:52:21,400
Everybody just wants to go back
home and go to school.

705
00:52:21,500 --> 00:52:22,733
That's about it.

706
00:52:22,833 --> 00:52:23,766
Have you lost
any friends?

707
00:52:23,865 --> 00:52:25,000
Quite a few.

708
00:52:25,099 --> 00:52:27,300
We lost one the other day,
good buddy of mine.

709
00:52:27,400 --> 00:52:28,733
The whole thing stinks, really.

710
00:52:43,932 --> 00:52:45,599
HO HUU LAN:

711
00:52:55,300 --> 00:52:56,333
He's still alive.

712
00:53:05,865 --> 00:53:10,632
NGUYEN THI HOA:

713
00:53:29,233 --> 00:53:32,532
After 26 days of bitter, bloody fighting,

714
00:53:32,632 --> 00:53:37,800
the flag of South Vietnam
flew again above the Citadel.

715
00:53:37,900 --> 00:53:41,733
The surviving North Vietnamese
and Viet Cong

716
00:53:41,833 --> 00:53:44,199
were finally permitted
by their commanders

717
00:53:44,300 --> 00:53:46,132
to pull out of the city.

718
00:53:46,233 --> 00:53:50,900
Some 6,000 civilians
had died in the rubble.

719
00:53:51,000 --> 00:53:58,733
Of the city's 135,000 citizens,
110,000 had lost their homes.

720
00:54:02,166 --> 00:54:05,132
All that was left of Hue,
one reporter wrote,

721
00:54:05,233 --> 00:54:08,333
was "ruins divided by a river."

722
00:54:10,632 --> 00:54:12,233
JOHNSON
The biggest fact is

723
00:54:12,333 --> 00:54:16,233
that the stated purposes
of the General Uprising-

724
00:54:16,333 --> 00:54:20,166
a military victory
or a psychological victory-

725
00:54:20,266 --> 00:54:21,733
have failed.

726
00:54:23,199 --> 00:54:24,766
The attack on the radio station

727
00:54:24,865 --> 00:54:26,766
started at 2:30 in the morning.

728
00:54:26,865 --> 00:54:29,900
Night after night for weeks,

729
00:54:30,000 --> 00:54:33,800
American television screens had
been filled with images

730
00:54:33,900 --> 00:54:36,699
of blood and violence
and devastation

731
00:54:36,800 --> 00:54:39,465
the public had
rarely seen before.

732
00:54:39,565 --> 00:54:42,465
The enemy was nowhere and everywhere.

733
00:54:42,565 --> 00:54:46,266
But it was one photograph that for many people

734
00:54:46,365 --> 00:54:49,365
would come to define
the Tet Offensive.

735
00:54:53,766 --> 00:54:57,532
I remember he was wearing a checked shirt.

736
00:54:57,632 --> 00:55:02,233
And the photographer
had come up very close

737
00:55:02,333 --> 00:55:03,766
and had pressed his shutter

738
00:55:03,865 --> 00:55:08,400
just as the officer
pulled his trigger.

739
00:55:08,500 --> 00:55:11,199
So camera and gun
went off together

740
00:55:11,300 --> 00:55:15,065
and you could see the man's head
bulging at the side

741
00:55:15,166 --> 00:55:18,900
where the bullet was
about to come out.

742
00:55:19,000 --> 00:55:22,565
We were there,
face-to-face with this man who was dying,

743
00:55:22,666 --> 00:55:23,932
right now, dead.

744
00:55:24,032 --> 00:55:27,632
It's a devastating thing to see.

745
00:55:27,733 --> 00:55:30,400
And I think many Americans began
to ask themselves,

746
00:55:30,500 --> 00:55:33,432
"Are we supporting
the wrong guys here?"

747
00:55:33,532 --> 00:55:38,333
And it sort of brings home,
I think to, to the dinner table,

748
00:55:38,432 --> 00:55:40,666
or the breakfast table if you
see it in the papers,

749
00:55:40,766 --> 00:55:42,833
the brutality of this war

750
00:55:42,932 --> 00:55:46,000
and the fact that it looks like
it's never going to end.

751
00:55:46,099 --> 00:55:52,266
But what we know is the price that we pay for that picture.

752
00:55:52,365 --> 00:55:54,333
It was the turning point.

753
00:55:54,432 --> 00:55:58,233
Because that put the gov...
Americans to position and say,

754
00:55:58,333 --> 00:56:00,766
"Hey, look,
we want to spend money

755
00:56:00,865 --> 00:56:02,365
"and the lives
of our young people

756
00:56:02,465 --> 00:56:04,400
to protect such a system?"

757
00:56:13,465 --> 00:56:16,900
For a month, Hal Kushner's captors had made him walk

758
00:56:17,000 --> 00:56:20,099
deeper and deeper
into the Central Highlands,

759
00:56:20,199 --> 00:56:21,800
always moving at night

760
00:56:21,900 --> 00:56:24,465
so that they would not be
spotted from the air.

761
00:56:26,532 --> 00:56:30,900
They took me to this place that I assume was a hospital.

762
00:56:31,000 --> 00:56:32,333
It was just a series of caves

763
00:56:32,432 --> 00:56:35,365
but there were a lot
of wounded lying around.

764
00:56:35,465 --> 00:56:43,000
And this female nurse came out
and inspected my wound.

765
00:56:43,099 --> 00:56:47,400
And then she gave me
a bamboo stick to bite on.

766
00:56:47,500 --> 00:56:50,865
She laid me down and she gave me
this bamboo stick to bite on.

767
00:56:50,965 --> 00:56:53,266
And then she took this
rifle-cleaning rod

768
00:56:53,365 --> 00:56:55,932
and she heated it up in a fire
until it was red hot.

769
00:56:57,932 --> 00:56:59,865
And she took it and put it
through my wound

770
00:56:59,965 --> 00:57:01,900
through and through.

771
00:57:02,000 --> 00:57:03,632
And it really hurt.

772
00:57:03,733 --> 00:57:06,632
It really, really, really hurt.

773
00:57:06,733 --> 00:57:09,365
And then she put
Mercurochrome on the wound.

774
00:57:09,465 --> 00:57:13,666
And she gave me
an aspirin tablet.

775
00:57:13,766 --> 00:57:18,565
And I...
I thought, what else can they do to me?

776
00:57:18,666 --> 00:57:23,132
Kushner would eventually arrive at a remote jungle camp,

777
00:57:23,233 --> 00:57:27,432
joining a handful of other
American prisoners.

778
00:57:29,565 --> 00:57:32,132
And this Vietnamese officer
came to me and he spoke English.

779
00:57:32,233 --> 00:57:35,333
And that was the first real
English speaker that I had seen.

780
00:57:35,432 --> 00:57:37,833
And he had a little reel-to-reel
tape recorder,

781
00:57:37,932 --> 00:57:40,465
battery-powered tape recorder.

782
00:57:40,565 --> 00:57:43,333
And he asked me to make
a message to my family

783
00:57:43,432 --> 00:57:46,099
to let them know
that I was safe.

784
00:57:46,199 --> 00:57:48,465
And I could do that if I would
make a statement

785
00:57:48,565 --> 00:57:50,699
against the war.

786
00:57:50,800 --> 00:57:54,233
And I told...
I told him with great bravado

787
00:57:54,333 --> 00:57:56,166
that I would rather die
than make a statement

788
00:57:56,266 --> 00:57:57,766
against my country.

789
00:57:57,865 --> 00:57:59,699
And he said to me,

790
00:57:59,800 --> 00:58:04,733
"You will find
dying is very easy.

791
00:58:04,833 --> 00:58:08,199
"Living will be
the difficult thing.

792
00:58:08,300 --> 00:58:10,733
Living is the difficult thing."

793
00:58:14,132 --> 00:58:19,300
In early March, two weeks after Hue had finally been recaptured,

794
00:58:19,400 --> 00:58:23,400
Second Lieutenant Phil Gioia
of the 82nd Airborne Division

795
00:58:23,500 --> 00:58:27,000
led his platoon
along the Perfume River,

796
00:58:27,099 --> 00:58:29,233
looking for weapons that might
have been buried

797
00:58:29,333 --> 00:58:31,400
by the retreating enemy.

798
00:58:31,500 --> 00:58:35,400
Gioia's sergeant, Reuben Torres,

799
00:58:35,500 --> 00:58:38,365
saw something sticking up
from the sandy soil.

800
00:58:38,465 --> 00:58:42,132
It was an elbow.

801
00:58:42,233 --> 00:58:46,333
So to us it seemed as though
this was going to be a grave

802
00:58:46,432 --> 00:58:49,032
where the enemy had buried
some of his own people

803
00:58:49,132 --> 00:58:50,900
on the withdrawal from Hue.

804
00:58:51,000 --> 00:58:53,965
Sergeant Torres said,
"You know, sir,

805
00:58:54,065 --> 00:58:57,065
I think we better start
to dig here."

806
00:58:57,166 --> 00:59:01,132
We found the first body
and it was a woman.

807
00:59:01,233 --> 00:59:05,199
She was wearing a white blouse
and black trousers.

808
00:59:05,300 --> 00:59:07,300
She had her hands tied
behind her back

809
00:59:07,400 --> 00:59:10,365
and she'd been shot
in the back of the head.

810
00:59:10,465 --> 00:59:13,965
Next to her was a child,
who'd also been shot.

811
00:59:14,065 --> 00:59:19,199
The next person coming up
was another woman.

812
00:59:19,300 --> 00:59:22,532
At that point it was clear
that this-this wasn't

813
00:59:22,632 --> 00:59:24,632
enemy North Vietnamese
or Viet Cong.

814
00:59:26,365 --> 00:59:29,465
NGUYEN NGOC:

815
00:59:49,932 --> 00:59:51,932
Before they abandoned the city,

816
00:59:52,032 --> 00:59:54,932
the communists had
systematically executed

817
00:59:55,032 --> 00:59:59,465
at least 2,800 people
they called "hooligans"

818
00:59:59,565 --> 01:00:02,233
and "reactionaries."

819
01:00:02,333 --> 01:00:03,932
Hanoi would always deny

820
01:00:04,032 --> 01:00:07,365
that any innocent civilians
had been killed.

821
01:00:10,199 --> 01:00:11,865
NGUYEN NGOC:

822
01:00:39,932 --> 01:00:44,400
HO HUU LAN:

823
01:01:13,266 --> 01:01:17,266
President Johnson insisted that the Tet Offensive had been

824
01:01:17,365 --> 01:01:20,632
"a devastating defeat
for the communists."

825
01:01:20,733 --> 01:01:23,500
Militarily, he was right.

826
01:01:23,599 --> 01:01:27,632
The basic assumptions on which
the North Vietnamese mounted

827
01:01:27,733 --> 01:01:31,199
their offensive had all
proved to be wrong.

828
01:01:31,300 --> 01:01:35,166
Hanoi's leaders had assumed
the ARVN would crumble,

829
01:01:35,266 --> 01:01:40,065
that South Vietnamese soldiers
would come over to their side.

830
01:01:40,166 --> 01:01:44,000
Instead,
not a single unit defected.

831
01:01:45,632 --> 01:01:49,599
The civilian populace
Hanoi expected to rise up

832
01:01:49,699 --> 01:01:52,132
may have been unhappy
with their government,

833
01:01:52,233 --> 01:01:56,132
but they had little sympathy
for communism,

834
01:01:56,233 --> 01:02:00,400
and when the fighting began,
they had hidden in their homes

835
01:02:00,500 --> 01:02:04,632
to escape the fury
in the streets.

836
01:02:05,500 --> 01:02:08,766
PHAM DUY TAT:

837
01:02:18,632 --> 01:02:23,132
North Vietnamese general Vo Nguyen Giap,

838
01:02:23,233 --> 01:02:25,900
who had opposed the offensive
from the beginning,

839
01:02:26,000 --> 01:02:29,900
later remembered that Tet
had been a "costly lesson,

840
01:02:30,000 --> 01:02:34,233
paid for in blood and bone."

841
01:02:54,800 --> 01:02:58,500
Of the 84,000 enemy troops who are estimated

842
01:02:58,599 --> 01:03:02,000
to have taken part in the Tet Offensive,
more than half-

843
01:03:02,099 --> 01:03:07,733
as many as 58,000 men and women,
most of them Viet Cong-

844
01:03:07,833 --> 01:03:12,199
are thought to have been killed
or wounded or captured.

845
01:03:14,199 --> 01:03:17,400
The American military command celebrated the Tet Offensive

846
01:03:17,500 --> 01:03:18,932
as a victory.

847
01:03:19,032 --> 01:03:22,132
You know, "They finally came at us,
and we blew them away,"

848
01:03:22,233 --> 01:03:24,632
which was basically true.

849
01:03:24,733 --> 01:03:28,132
But the administration had been
telling the American public

850
01:03:28,233 --> 01:03:32,865
for most of the end of '67 and
for the first month of 1968

851
01:03:32,965 --> 01:03:34,766
that the war was being won;

852
01:03:34,865 --> 01:03:39,865
that the NLF and the North
Vietnamese were ground down

853
01:03:39,965 --> 01:03:42,833
to such an extent that we could
see the end of the war,

854
01:03:42,932 --> 01:03:44,266
a victory.

855
01:03:44,365 --> 01:03:47,865
The Tet Offensive has forced
our generals to re-evaluate...

856
01:03:47,965 --> 01:03:51,865
So when Tet hit,
it contradicted everything

857
01:03:51,965 --> 01:03:54,865
that the administration
and the Saigon country team

858
01:03:54,965 --> 01:03:57,666
had been telling the American
public through its journalists

859
01:03:57,766 --> 01:03:59,865
for the previous
four or five months.

860
01:03:59,965 --> 01:04:02,766
John Laurence, CBS News, Saigon.

861
01:04:04,800 --> 01:04:09,833
It broke the will of the United States to fight that war.

862
01:04:09,932 --> 01:04:15,465
It was such a shock that it
stripped away the last vestiges

863
01:04:15,565 --> 01:04:19,300
of the fiction and fanciful
interpretations

864
01:04:19,400 --> 01:04:23,266
that had led us down this
primrose path into disaster.

865
01:04:23,365 --> 01:04:28,233
After that nobody
could be convinced.

866
01:04:28,333 --> 01:04:32,266
And then the most ferocious
possible argument erupted

867
01:04:32,365 --> 01:04:33,699
inside the U.S. government

868
01:04:33,800 --> 01:04:38,733
because the hawks on the war
were saying,

869
01:04:38,833 --> 01:04:44,166
"Tet was North Vietnam's
last gasp.

870
01:04:44,266 --> 01:04:47,465
"It was their last shot
at winning the war,

871
01:04:47,565 --> 01:04:49,300
"and they failed.

872
01:04:49,400 --> 01:04:53,632
We beat them,
and that's the end of them."

873
01:04:53,733 --> 01:04:58,465
And we said,
"After all these years of war,

874
01:04:58,565 --> 01:05:01,065
"if that's what
they are able to do,

875
01:05:01,166 --> 01:05:05,432
"we ought to learn some lesson
about their commitment

876
01:05:05,532 --> 01:05:08,233
to this war as well
and the cost to us."

877
01:05:08,333 --> 01:05:12,000
On March 10, the<i>New York Times</i> reported

878
01:05:12,099 --> 01:05:16,800
that the Army was requesting
206,000 additional troops

879
01:05:16,900 --> 01:05:18,632
for Vietnam.

880
01:05:18,733 --> 01:05:21,432
But if the United States had
been winning the war,

881
01:05:21,532 --> 01:05:25,699
many Americans asked,
if Tet had in fact been a disaster

882
01:05:25,800 --> 01:05:29,865
for the enemy,
why were still more men needed?

883
01:05:29,965 --> 01:05:33,465
More and more members
of the president's own party

884
01:05:33,565 --> 01:05:37,065
now felt free
to express their doubts.

885
01:05:37,166 --> 01:05:41,132
"Our enemy has finally shattered
the mask of official illusion,"

886
01:05:41,233 --> 01:05:43,632
Senator Robert Kennedy said.

887
01:05:43,733 --> 01:05:46,833
"Unable to defeat him
or break his will,

888
01:05:46,932 --> 01:05:50,865
we must actively seek
a peaceful settlement."

889
01:05:50,965 --> 01:05:52,666
...can cope with its problems.

890
01:05:52,766 --> 01:05:57,300
Walter Cronkite, the respected anchor of the<i>CBS Evening News,</i>

891
01:05:57,400 --> 01:06:00,166
had come home from covering
the Tet Offensive

892
01:06:00,266 --> 01:06:04,333
convinced victory was
no longer possible.

893
01:06:04,432 --> 01:06:07,000
We have been too often
disappointed by the optimism

894
01:06:07,099 --> 01:06:10,233
of the American leaders,
both in Vietnam and Washington,

895
01:06:10,333 --> 01:06:13,666
to have faith any longer
in the silver linings they find

896
01:06:13,766 --> 01:06:15,266
in the darkest clouds.

897
01:06:15,365 --> 01:06:19,565
To say that we are closer to
victory today is to believe,

898
01:06:19,666 --> 01:06:21,099
in the face of the evidence,

899
01:06:21,199 --> 01:06:24,000
the optimists who have been
wrong in the past.

900
01:06:24,099 --> 01:06:26,699
To suggest we are
on the edge of defeat

901
01:06:26,800 --> 01:06:29,833
is to yield
to unreasonable pessimism.

902
01:06:29,932 --> 01:06:32,432
To say that we are mired
in stalemate

903
01:06:32,532 --> 01:06:36,266
seems the only realistic if
unsatisfactory conclusion.

904
01:06:36,365 --> 01:06:39,733
But it is increasingly clear
to this reporter

905
01:06:39,833 --> 01:06:44,266
that the only rational way out
then will be to negotiate,

906
01:06:44,365 --> 01:06:48,666
not as victors,
but as an honorable people who lived up

907
01:06:48,766 --> 01:06:50,699
to their pledge
to defend democracy

908
01:06:50,800 --> 01:06:53,500
and did the best they could.

909
01:06:53,599 --> 01:06:55,233
This is Walter Cronkite.

910
01:06:55,333 --> 01:06:56,733
Goodnight.

911
01:06:56,833 --> 01:06:59,500
EUGENE McCARTHY:
In 1966, in '67,

912
01:06:59,599 --> 01:07:01,632
and again in '68,

913
01:07:01,733 --> 01:07:04,699
most recently we hear the same
hollow claims of progress

914
01:07:04,800 --> 01:07:08,065
and of advance toward victory.

915
01:07:08,166 --> 01:07:11,333
The fact is, however,
as we know from events of recent weeks,

916
01:07:11,432 --> 01:07:14,900
events which one is almost
saddened to report,

917
01:07:15,000 --> 01:07:17,365
that the enemy has become
bolder than ever.

918
01:07:17,465 --> 01:07:20,965
On the evening of March 12,

919
01:07:21,065 --> 01:07:23,666
President Johnson watched
the returns come in

920
01:07:23,766 --> 01:07:27,300
from the New Hampshire
Democratic presidential primary,

921
01:07:27,400 --> 01:07:31,199
where he was facing
an unexpected challenge.

922
01:07:31,300 --> 01:07:33,365
The most recent poll
had suggested

923
01:07:33,465 --> 01:07:36,733
he would beat Eugene McCarthy
two to one.

924
01:07:36,833 --> 01:07:41,532
But Johnson won
just 49.6% of the vote

925
01:07:41,632 --> 01:07:45,266
against 41.9% for his opponent,

926
01:07:45,365 --> 01:07:49,565
even though most of those who
voted against the president

927
01:07:49,666 --> 01:07:54,233
actually wanted him to prosecute
the war more vigorously.

928
01:07:54,333 --> 01:07:57,465
Johnson knew he was in trouble.

929
01:07:57,565 --> 01:07:59,565
<i>...for the presidency of the United States...</i>

930
01:07:59,666 --> 01:08:01,699
And there was more to come.

931
01:08:01,800 --> 01:08:05,432
I do not run for the presidency
merely to oppose any man...

932
01:08:05,532 --> 01:08:08,965
Just four days after the New Hampshire primary,

933
01:08:09,065 --> 01:08:14,565
Robert F. Kennedy declared his
candidacy for the presidency,

934
01:08:14,666 --> 01:08:18,632
and polls suggested he was more
popular than Lyndon Johnson.

935
01:08:18,733 --> 01:08:20,600
...about what must be done.

936
01:08:20,699 --> 01:08:24,300
I run because it is now
unmistakably clear

937
01:08:24,399 --> 01:08:29,699
that we can change these disastrous,
divisive policies

938
01:08:29,800 --> 01:08:33,733
only by changing the men
who are now making them.

939
01:08:42,132 --> 01:08:44,565
I think what we've got to do, too,

940
01:08:44,666 --> 01:08:49,033
is get out of the posture of
just being the war candidate

941
01:08:49,132 --> 01:08:52,166
that McCarthy has put us in,
and Bobby's putting us in,

942
01:08:52,265 --> 01:08:53,365
the kids are putting us in,

943
01:08:53,466 --> 01:08:55,100
and the papers are
putting us in.

944
01:08:55,199 --> 01:08:57,632
We've got to come up
with something.

945
01:08:57,733 --> 01:09:01,000
What it is: we're out to win,

946
01:09:01,100 --> 01:09:03,600
but we're not out to win
the war.

947
01:09:03,699 --> 01:09:04,832
We're out to win the peace.

948
01:09:04,932 --> 01:09:06,233
That's right.

949
01:09:06,332 --> 01:09:07,565
And that's what we give them,

950
01:09:07,666 --> 01:09:09,065
and what our slogan
could very well be-

951
01:09:09,166 --> 01:09:11,466
win the peace with honor.

952
01:09:11,565 --> 01:09:15,765
But we've got to have something new and fresh that goes in there

953
01:09:15,865 --> 01:09:17,966
along with the statement
that we're going to win.

954
01:09:18,065 --> 01:09:19,699
Right.

955
01:09:19,800 --> 01:09:21,699
But we have to be very careful

956
01:09:21,800 --> 01:09:23,500
what it is we say
we're going to win.

957
01:09:23,600 --> 01:09:25,365
That's right.

958
01:09:25,466 --> 01:09:28,065
They think, well hell, that means we're just going

959
01:09:28,166 --> 01:09:30,765
to keep pouring men in
until we win militarily.

960
01:09:30,865 --> 01:09:32,932
And that isn't what we're after,
really.

961
01:09:33,033 --> 01:09:36,000
Uh, we're not going to get these doves,

962
01:09:36,100 --> 01:09:38,233
but we can neutralize
the country;

963
01:09:38,332 --> 01:09:39,365
that way it won't follow them,

964
01:09:39,466 --> 01:09:40,699
if we can come up
with something.

965
01:09:45,365 --> 01:09:50,699
On March 26, the Wise Men, a group of veteran cold warriors

966
01:09:50,800 --> 01:09:53,632
who had earlier urged the
president to hold steady

967
01:09:53,733 --> 01:09:57,765
in Vietnam,
now advised him to change course.

968
01:09:57,865 --> 01:10:01,733
Dean Acheson,
Harry Truman's secretary of state,

969
01:10:01,832 --> 01:10:03,565
spoke for the majority.

970
01:10:03,666 --> 01:10:07,100
"We can no longer do the job
we set out to do

971
01:10:07,199 --> 01:10:09,565
in the time we have left,"
he said,

972
01:10:09,666 --> 01:10:13,800
"and we must begin to take steps
to disengage."

973
01:10:13,899 --> 01:10:20,265
The president agreed to send
just 13,500 more troops,

974
01:10:20,365 --> 01:10:24,765
not the 206,000
the generals had requested,

975
01:10:24,865 --> 01:10:28,432
and decided to recall William
Westmoreland to Washington

976
01:10:28,533 --> 01:10:30,699
as chief of staff of the Army,

977
01:10:30,800 --> 01:10:36,000
replacing him with his deputy,
General Creighton W. Abrams.

978
01:10:37,800 --> 01:10:42,500
His face was a... was a mask of exhaustion and defeat.

979
01:10:42,600 --> 01:10:45,332
It was very sad to see the man.

980
01:10:45,432 --> 01:10:48,765
He-he was broken by it.

981
01:10:50,365 --> 01:10:52,500
On March 30, Gallup reported

982
01:10:52,600 --> 01:10:55,932
that 63% of the public
disapproved

983
01:10:56,033 --> 01:10:58,733
of Johnson's handling
of the war,

984
01:10:58,832 --> 01:11:02,800
the lowest point
of his presidency.

985
01:11:02,899 --> 01:11:07,832
The following evening,
March 31, 1968,

986
01:11:07,932 --> 01:11:12,500
the president asked for time
on all three networks.

987
01:11:13,733 --> 01:11:16,765
Good evening,
my fellow Americans.

988
01:11:16,865 --> 01:11:19,932
Tonight, I want to speak to you

989
01:11:20,033 --> 01:11:23,000
of peace in Vietnam
and Southeast Asia.

990
01:11:25,000 --> 01:11:27,899
Johnson announced that he had decided to stop bombing

991
01:11:28,000 --> 01:11:32,600
the densely populated areas
around Hanoi and Haiphong

992
01:11:32,699 --> 01:11:35,500
in the hope that North Vietnam
would finally be willing

993
01:11:35,600 --> 01:11:38,132
to come to the
negotiating table.

994
01:11:38,233 --> 01:11:40,899
Only the southern half
of the country,

995
01:11:41,000 --> 01:11:43,533
the staging areas
north of the DMZ,

996
01:11:43,632 --> 01:11:47,500
would continue to be targeted.

997
01:11:47,600 --> 01:11:52,033
Then he stunned the country
and the world.

998
01:11:52,132 --> 01:11:57,466
I do not believe that
I should devote an hour

999
01:11:57,565 --> 01:12:03,432
or a day of my time
to any personal partisan causes

1000
01:12:03,533 --> 01:12:11,932
or to any duties other than the
awesome duties of this office,

1001
01:12:12,033 --> 01:12:15,865
the presidency of your country.

1002
01:12:15,966 --> 01:12:24,765
Accordingly, I shall not seek,
and I will not accept,

1003
01:12:24,865 --> 01:12:28,832
the nomination of my party for
another term as your president.

1004
01:12:40,166 --> 01:12:43,699
I land in California and take a plane from California to Boston.

1005
01:12:43,800 --> 01:12:47,399
And I'm feeling good because
I've survived

1006
01:12:47,500 --> 01:12:50,199
and, you know,
I fought for my country.

1007
01:12:50,300 --> 01:12:53,166
I got off the plane at Logan
and I stepped out there

1008
01:12:53,265 --> 01:12:55,132
and I'm just happy to be home.

1009
01:12:55,233 --> 01:13:02,033
And I had my uniform on
and walked out to the curb,

1010
01:13:02,132 --> 01:13:06,899
and the cabs just kept going by me,
kept going by me.

1011
01:13:07,000 --> 01:13:09,865
And there was a state trooper
that was standing there.

1012
01:13:09,966 --> 01:13:12,600
And I didn't realize
what was happening.

1013
01:13:12,699 --> 01:13:16,065
And then he stepped in the
street and he stopped a cab

1014
01:13:16,166 --> 01:13:18,100
and he says,
"You have to take this man.

1015
01:13:18,199 --> 01:13:20,432
You have to take this soldier."

1016
01:13:20,533 --> 01:13:22,565
And the driver looked over
at me and he said,

1017
01:13:22,666 --> 01:13:25,199
"I don't want to go to Roxbury."

1018
01:13:25,300 --> 01:13:27,666
They don't see me as a soldier.

1019
01:13:27,765 --> 01:13:30,565
You know,
they see me as a nigger coming home here

1020
01:13:30,666 --> 01:13:32,365
and I live in Roxbury.

1021
01:13:32,466 --> 01:13:33,565
You know?

1022
01:13:33,666 --> 01:13:35,399
I'm thinking, "I'm a Marine.

1023
01:13:35,500 --> 01:13:36,865
I'm a Marine," you know.

1024
01:13:36,966 --> 01:13:40,300
"I just fought for my country
13 months in the combat zone.

1025
01:13:40,399 --> 01:13:42,500
And I can't get a cab
to get home."

1026
01:13:44,733 --> 01:13:47,533
I have some very sad news for all of you,

1027
01:13:47,632 --> 01:13:52,765
and, I think,
sad news for all of our fellow citizens,

1028
01:13:52,865 --> 01:13:56,832
and people who love peace
all over the world;

1029
01:13:56,932 --> 01:14:00,565
and that is that
Martin Luther King was shot

1030
01:14:00,666 --> 01:14:02,233
and was killed tonight in Memphis,
Tennessee.

1031
01:14:06,332 --> 01:14:08,432
In this difficult day,

1032
01:14:08,533 --> 01:14:12,132
in this difficult time
for the United States,

1033
01:14:12,233 --> 01:14:16,800
it's perhaps well to ask
what kind of a nation we are

1034
01:14:16,899 --> 01:14:19,300
and what direction
we want to move in.

1035
01:14:20,800 --> 01:14:24,300
Over the next week, African Americans-

1036
01:14:24,399 --> 01:14:27,399
grieving, frustrated, angry-

1037
01:14:27,500 --> 01:14:32,399
poured into the streets of more
than 100 towns and cities,

1038
01:14:32,500 --> 01:14:37,065
including New York and Oakland,
Newark and Nashville,

1039
01:14:37,166 --> 01:14:42,233
Chicago and Cincinnati
and Baltimore,

1040
01:14:42,332 --> 01:14:44,800
and in Washington, D.C.,

1041
01:14:44,899 --> 01:14:48,233
where fires came within
two blocks of the White House.

1042
01:14:50,600 --> 01:14:53,565
When they killed Dr. King they just opened up the eyes

1043
01:14:53,666 --> 01:14:56,466
of a lot of black people
who were afraid to pick up guns.

1044
01:14:56,565 --> 01:14:59,332
Now they will pick up
those guns.

1045
01:14:59,432 --> 01:15:01,432
We're living in a sick world.

1046
01:15:01,533 --> 01:15:04,466
This racist society
in which we live

1047
01:15:04,565 --> 01:15:06,199
is that that really
pulled the trigger.

1048
01:15:06,300 --> 01:15:12,065
Violence breeds violence, repression breeds retaliation,

1049
01:15:12,166 --> 01:15:16,632
and only a cleansing
of our whole society

1050
01:15:16,733 --> 01:15:20,466
can remove this sickness
from our souls.

1051
01:15:20,565 --> 01:15:23,966
Tens of thousands of National Guardsmen,

1052
01:15:24,065 --> 01:15:26,899
regular Army troops
and the Marines,

1053
01:15:27,000 --> 01:15:30,832
including Roger Harris's
stateside unit,

1054
01:15:30,932 --> 01:15:33,800
were ordered to patrol
American streets.

1055
01:15:35,632 --> 01:15:37,832
And I was ready to go.

1056
01:15:37,932 --> 01:15:41,100
Until I saw what they
were giving out.

1057
01:15:41,199 --> 01:15:43,166
I thought they were going
to give us billy clubs

1058
01:15:43,265 --> 01:15:45,733
and I thought we were going to
stand in front of buildings,

1059
01:15:45,832 --> 01:15:49,100
you know, and protect,
you know, businesses.

1060
01:15:49,199 --> 01:15:52,800
And they were passing out flak jackets,
helmets,

1061
01:15:52,899 --> 01:15:54,166
M-16s with live ammunition.

1062
01:15:54,265 --> 01:15:58,065
You know,
same things we had in Vietnam.

1063
01:15:58,166 --> 01:16:02,932
And when I saw that I said...
I said, "I'm not going.

1064
01:16:03,033 --> 01:16:04,199
I'm not going."

1065
01:16:04,300 --> 01:16:08,100
I said,
"I got family in Washington, D.C."

1066
01:16:08,199 --> 01:16:11,832
And my company commander said,
"Get on the truck, Marine."

1067
01:16:14,632 --> 01:16:16,199
I said, "I'm not going."

1068
01:16:18,800 --> 01:16:22,132
I didn't make sergeant
because I refused to go.

1069
01:16:23,733 --> 01:16:30,166
Forty-six Americans died, 2,600 were injured,

1070
01:16:30,265 --> 01:16:32,166
20,000 were arrested.

1071
01:16:36,600 --> 01:16:38,033
Later that same month,

1072
01:16:38,132 --> 01:16:41,065
antiwar students seized
several buildings

1073
01:16:41,166 --> 01:16:44,699
at Columbia University
in Manhattan.

1074
01:16:44,800 --> 01:16:48,733
The occupation lasted a week,

1075
01:16:48,832 --> 01:16:51,800
the first time in American
history that students forced

1076
01:16:51,899 --> 01:16:56,100
a major university to shut down.

1077
01:16:56,199 --> 01:16:59,365
Policemen eventually drove
the demonstrators

1078
01:16:59,466 --> 01:17:00,899
out of the buildings

1079
01:17:01,000 --> 01:17:04,800
and sent more than 100 students
to the hospital.

1080
01:17:04,899 --> 01:17:09,166
The United States now appeared
to be more divided

1081
01:17:09,265 --> 01:17:12,500
than at any time
since the Civil War.

1082
01:17:13,966 --> 01:17:19,000
That spring,
protestors also took to the streets of London,

1083
01:17:19,100 --> 01:17:21,265
Paris...

1084
01:17:21,365 --> 01:17:23,199
Berlin...

1085
01:17:23,300 --> 01:17:25,265
Prague...

1086
01:17:25,365 --> 01:17:27,000
Rio...

1087
01:17:27,100 --> 01:17:29,332
Jakarta.

1088
01:17:29,432 --> 01:17:32,466
The world seemed
to be coming apart.

1089
01:17:57,199 --> 01:17:59,800
President Johnson's
partial bombing halt

1090
01:17:59,899 --> 01:18:02,000
had had the desired effect.

1091
01:18:02,100 --> 01:18:08,432
Hanoi agreed, for the first time,
to talk with Washington.

1092
01:18:08,533 --> 01:18:13,932
Negotiators began meeting
at the Hotel Majestic in Paris.

1093
01:18:14,033 --> 01:18:18,033
But the communists had now
adopted a new double policy.

1094
01:18:18,132 --> 01:18:19,565
They called it

1095
01:18:19,666 --> 01:18:23,733
"talking while fighting,
fighting while talking."

1096
01:18:23,832 --> 01:18:27,132
Incoming!

1097
01:18:27,233 --> 01:18:30,865
On May 5, they launched another offensive

1098
01:18:30,966 --> 01:18:33,500
that Le Duan hoped
would somehow achieve

1099
01:18:33,600 --> 01:18:35,800
what the Tet Offensive had not.

1100
01:18:35,899 --> 01:18:42,100
The enemy hit 119 targets in
what came to be called Mini-Tet.

1101
01:18:45,699 --> 01:18:48,365
There was new fighting
in the streets of Saigon.

1102
01:18:52,466 --> 01:18:55,432
Half the city was now leveled.

1103
01:19:04,365 --> 01:19:08,865
But the Viet Cong and the North
Vietnamese Army failed again.

1104
01:19:08,966 --> 01:19:10,966
They were still no closer

1105
01:19:11,065 --> 01:19:13,865
to overthrowing the
South Vietnamese government,

1106
01:19:13,966 --> 01:19:18,632
and they had suffered some
36,000 more casualties.

1107
01:19:22,932 --> 01:19:28,065
For the United States,
May of 1968 proved the bloodiest month

1108
01:19:28,166 --> 01:19:31,100
of the Vietnam War.

1109
01:19:31,199 --> 01:19:36,365
2,416 Americans lost their lives

1110
01:19:36,466 --> 01:19:38,865
in places whose names
Americans back home

1111
01:19:38,966 --> 01:19:42,565
would have a hard time
remembering:

1112
01:19:42,666 --> 01:19:47,100
Dai Do, Phu Lam, Kham Duc,

1113
01:19:47,199 --> 01:19:51,565
Cholon, and the Plain of Reeds.

1114
01:19:53,932 --> 01:19:57,666
A total military victory is not within sight

1115
01:19:57,765 --> 01:19:59,666
and is not around the corner;

1116
01:19:59,765 --> 01:20:03,332
that, in fact,
it is probably beyond our grasp.

1117
01:20:03,432 --> 01:20:05,533
For a time that spring,

1118
01:20:05,632 --> 01:20:07,765
it looked as if Robert Kennedy
might win

1119
01:20:07,865 --> 01:20:11,600
the Democratic nomination
for president.

1120
01:20:11,699 --> 01:20:16,565
He pledged to bring the war
to an end and seemed to embody

1121
01:20:16,666 --> 01:20:19,300
the hope of bridging
the growing gulf

1122
01:20:19,399 --> 01:20:22,332
between black
and white Americans.

1123
01:20:24,932 --> 01:20:28,300
But in June,
after defeating Eugene McCarthy

1124
01:20:28,399 --> 01:20:32,699
in the California primary,
he too was assassinated.

1125
01:20:32,800 --> 01:20:36,265
Oh, God damn! Why?

1126
01:20:50,632 --> 01:20:53,800
People were stunned, and people were scared.

1127
01:20:53,899 --> 01:21:00,166
The people we'd looked up to
were being taken away from us.

1128
01:21:04,332 --> 01:21:09,265
It definitely put those of us
who were heading off on our own

1129
01:21:09,365 --> 01:21:13,233
on a path that felt uncertain.

1130
01:21:19,966 --> 01:21:21,966
When Martin Luther King was assassinated

1131
01:21:22,065 --> 01:21:24,632
and Bobby Kennedy
was assassinated,

1132
01:21:24,733 --> 01:21:28,765
they made a big huge deal
about that.

1133
01:21:28,865 --> 01:21:34,533
They said that was part of the
struggle of the American people

1134
01:21:34,632 --> 01:21:36,399
against their government.

1135
01:21:36,500 --> 01:21:38,500
And that there
were riots in the streets.

1136
01:21:39,832 --> 01:21:41,966
And the camp commander
actually told us,

1137
01:21:42,065 --> 01:21:44,632
"You can kill ten of us
to one of you,

1138
01:21:44,733 --> 01:21:48,733
"but your people will turn
against this.

1139
01:21:48,832 --> 01:21:52,966
"And we will be here for ten
years or 20 years or 30 years,

1140
01:21:53,065 --> 01:21:54,332
"as long as it takes.

1141
01:21:54,432 --> 01:21:56,500
"And unless you kill
every one of us,

1142
01:21:56,600 --> 01:22:00,132
we're gonna win this war."

1143
01:22:04,132 --> 01:22:05,466
And on July the Fourth,

1144
01:22:05,565 --> 01:22:09,233
we recognized it was
July the Fourth.

1145
01:22:09,332 --> 01:22:12,365
And they would not let us sing
patriotic songs.

1146
01:22:12,466 --> 01:22:17,265
But sometimes we would softly
sing at night.

1147
01:22:17,365 --> 01:22:20,899
And...

1148
01:22:22,432 --> 01:22:27,233
we understood that despite
different backgrounds

1149
01:22:27,332 --> 01:22:29,300
and different socioeconomic
backgrounds,

1150
01:22:29,399 --> 01:22:31,533
different races,
different religions,

1151
01:22:31,632 --> 01:22:33,565
that we were Americans.

1152
01:22:39,000 --> 01:22:41,966
The American people would be choosing new leadership

1153
01:22:42,065 --> 01:22:45,199
that fall,
and everyone seemed to agree,

1154
01:22:45,300 --> 01:22:47,199
a British correspondent wrote,

1155
01:22:47,300 --> 01:22:50,832
"that whoever captures the
presidency this November

1156
01:22:50,932 --> 01:22:53,432
"will be obliged
to end the conflict

1157
01:22:53,533 --> 01:22:56,332
"within a matter of months.

1158
01:22:56,432 --> 01:23:00,132
"How this is to be done or
what concessions are to be made

1159
01:23:00,233 --> 01:23:03,699
is very much a matter
of detail."

1160
01:23:03,800 --> 01:23:07,565
Before those details were
finally worked out,

1161
01:23:07,666 --> 01:23:11,199
almost seven more years
would pass.

1162
01:23:11,300 --> 01:23:14,832
And 27,184 more Americans,

1163
01:23:14,932 --> 01:23:19,233
and hundreds of thousands more Laotians,
Cambodians,

1164
01:23:19,332 --> 01:23:24,466
and Vietnamese- North and South-
would have to die.

1165
01:23:25,666 --> 01:23:31,166
𝄞 We skipped
the light fandango 𝄞

1166
01:23:31,265 --> 01:23:35,533
𝄞 Turned cartwheels
'cross the floor 𝄞

1167
01:23:37,899 --> 01:23:44,265
𝄞 I was feeling kinda seasick

1168
01:23:44,365 --> 01:23:48,033
𝄞 But the crowd called out
for more 𝄞

1169
01:23:51,065 --> 01:23:54,365
𝄞 The room was humming harder

1170
01:23:57,300 --> 01:23:59,765
𝄞 As the ceiling flew away

1171
01:24:03,932 --> 01:24:08,166
𝄞 When we called out
for another drink 𝄞

1172
01:24:10,166 --> 01:24:13,399
𝄞 The waiter brought a tray

1173
01:24:13,500 --> 01:24:22,699
𝄞 And so it was that later

1174
01:24:22,800 --> 01:24:29,500
𝄞 As the miller told his tale

1175
01:24:29,600 --> 01:24:33,932
𝄞 That her face,
at first just ghostly 𝄞

1176
01:24:34,033 --> 01:24:40,699
𝄞 Turned a whiter shade
of pale 𝄞

1177
01:25:08,666 --> 01:25:14,932
𝄞 And although
my eyes were open 𝄞

1178
01:25:15,033 --> 01:25:18,565
𝄞 They might just
as well've been closed 𝄞

1179
01:25:18,666 --> 01:25:27,733
𝄞 And so it was that later

1180
01:25:27,832 --> 01:25:34,000
𝄞 As the miller told his tale

1181
01:25:34,100 --> 01:25:39,132
𝄞 That her face,
at first just ghostly 𝄞

1182
01:25:39,233 --> 01:25:44,432
𝄞 Turned a whiter shade of pale.
𝄞

1183
01:26:13,600 --> 01:26:14,600
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FILM

1184
01:26:14,800 --> 01:26:17,466
AND FIND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES AT PBS.
ORG/VIETNAMWAR

1185
01:26:17,666 --> 01:26:21,600
AND JOIN THE CONVERSATION
USING HASHTAG VIETNAMWARPBS.

1186
01:26:21,800 --> 01:26:23,166
"THE VIETNAM WAR" IS AVAILABLE

1187
01:26:23,366 --> 01:26:24,533
ON BLU-RAY
AND DVD.

1188
01:26:24,733 --> 01:26:26,199
THE COMPANION BOOK,
SOUNDTRACK,

1189
01:26:26,399 --> 01:26:27,800
AND ORIGINAL SCORE
FROM THE FILM

1190
01:26:28,000 --> 01:26:28,732
ARE ALSO
AVAILABLE.

1191
01:26:28,932 --> 01:26:31,116
TO ORDER, VISIT SHOPPBS.
ORG

1192
01:26:31,316 --> 01:26:33,300
OR CALL
1-800-PLAY-PBS.

1193
01:26:33,500 --> 01:26:34,666
EPISODES OF
THIS SERIES ALSO

1194
01:26:34,866 --> 01:26:36,033
AVAILABLE
FOR DOWNLOAD

1195
01:26:36,233 --> 01:26:37,132
FROM iTUNES.

1196
01:26:40,399 --> 01:26:42,333
BANK OF AMERICA PROUDLY SUPPORTS

1197
01:26:42,533 --> 01:26:46,082
KEN BURNS' AND LYNN NOVICK'S
FILM "THE VIETNAM WAR"

1198
01:26:46,282 --> 01:26:49,632
BECAUSE FOSTERING
DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

1199
01:26:49,832 --> 01:26:52,432
AND CIVIL DISCOURSE
AROUND IMPORTANT ISSUES

1200
01:26:52,632 --> 01:26:54,533
FURTHERS PROGRESS, EQUALITY,

1201
01:26:54,733 --> 01:26:56,733
AND A MORE CONNECTED SOCIETY.

1202
01:27:01,265 --> 01:27:05,300
GO TO BANKOFAMERICA.
COM/ BETTERCONNECTED TO LEARN MORE.

1203
01:27:08,765 --> 01:27:09,999
MAJOR SUPPORT FOR "THE VIETNAM WAR"

1204
01:27:10,199 --> 01:27:13,699
WAS PROVIDED BY MEMBERS
OF THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY,

1205
01:27:13,899 --> 01:27:17,666
INCLUDING JONATHAN
AND JEANNIE LAVINE,

1206
01:27:17,866 --> 01:27:20,316
DIANE AND HAL BRIERLEY,

1207
01:27:20,516 --> 01:27:22,766
AMY AND DAVID ABRAMS,

1208
01:27:22,966 --> 01:27:25,266
JOHN AND CATHERINE DEBS,

1209
01:27:25,466 --> 01:27:28,365
THE FULLERTON FAMILY
CHARITABLE FUND,

1210
01:27:28,565 --> 01:27:30,232
THE MONTRONE FAMILY,

1211
01:27:30,432 --> 01:27:32,565
LYNDA AND STEWART RESNICK,

1212
01:27:32,765 --> 01:27:35,533
THE PERRY AND DONNA GOLKIN
FAMILY FOUNDATION,

1213
01:27:35,733 --> 01:27:36,333
THE LYNCH FOUNDATION,

1214
01:27:36,533 --> 01:27:39,399
THE ROGER AND ROSEMARY
ENRICO FOUNDATION,

1215
01:27:39,599 --> 01:27:42,066
AND BY THESE ADDITIONAL FUNDERS.

1216
01:27:42,266 --> 01:27:44,733
MAJOR FUNDING WAS ALSO PROVIDED

1217
01:27:44,933 --> 01:27:46,466
BY DAVID H. KOCH...

1218
01:27:48,765 --> 01:27:50,966
THE BLAVATNIK
FAMILY FOUNDATION...

1219
01:27:53,300 --> 01:27:55,533
THE PARK FOUNDATION,

1220
01:27:55,733 --> 01:27:57,899
THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT
FOR THE HUMANITIES,

1221
01:27:58,099 --> 01:27:59,900
THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS,

1222
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THE JOHN S. AND JAMES L.
KNIGHT FOUNDATION,

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THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION,

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THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS
FOUNDATIONS,

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THE FORD FOUNDATION JUSTFILMS,

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BY THE CORPORATION

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FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING,

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AND BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU.

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THANK YOU.