1
00:00:01,566 --> 00:00:03,000
ANNOUNCER: MAJOR SUPPORT
FOR "THE VIETNAM WAR"
2
00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:06,500
WAS PROVIDED BY MEMBERS
OF THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY,
3
00:00:06,500 --> 00:00:10,465
INCLUDING JONATHAN
AND JEANNIE LAVINE,
4
00:00:10,465 --> 00:00:13,365
DIANE AND HAL BRIERLEY,
5
00:00:13,365 --> 00:00:15,766
AMY AND DAVID ABRAMS,
undefined
6
00:00:15,766 --> 00:00:18,265
JOHN AND CATHERINE DEBS,
7
00:00:18,265 --> 00:00:21,166
THE FULLERTON FAMILY
CHARITABLE FUND,
8
00:00:21,166 --> 00:00:23,233
THE MONTRONE FAMILY,
9
00:00:23,233 --> 00:00:25,565
LYNDA AND STEWART RESNICK,
10
00:00:25,565 --> 00:00:28,332
THE PERRY AND DONNA GOLKIN
FAMILY FOUNDATION,
11
00:00:28,332 --> 00:00:29,332
THE LYNCH FOUNDATION,
12
00:00:29,332 --> 00:00:32,200
THE ROGER AND ROSEMARY
ENRICO FOUNDATION,
13
00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:35,633
AND BY THESE ADDITIONAL FUNDERS.
14
00:00:35,633 --> 00:00:37,533
MAJOR FUNDING WAS ALSO PROVIDED
15
00:00:37,533 --> 00:00:39,265
BY DAVID H. KOCH...
16
00:00:41,566 --> 00:00:43,765
THE BLAVATNIK
FAMILY FOUNDATION...
17
00:00:46,100 --> 00:00:48,533
THE PARK FOUNDATION,
18
00:00:48,533 --> 00:00:50,700
THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT
FOR THE HUMANITIES,
19
00:00:50,700 --> 00:00:52,899
THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS,
20
00:00:52,899 --> 00:00:55,566
THE JOHN S. AND JAMES L.
KNIGHT FOUNDATION,
21
00:00:55,566 --> 00:00:58,332
THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION,
22
00:00:58,332 --> 00:01:01,000
THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS
FOUNDATIONS,
23
00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:03,200
THE FORD FOUNDATION JUSTFILMS,
24
00:01:03,200 --> 00:01:04,400
BY THE CORPORATION
25
00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:05,632
FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING,
26
00:01:05,632 --> 00:01:07,599
AND BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU.
27
00:01:07,599 --> 00:01:08,733
THANK YOU.
28
00:01:13,266 --> 00:01:15,400
ANNOUNCER: BANK OF AMERICA
PROUDLY SUPPORTS
29
00:01:15,400 --> 00:01:20,299
KEN BURNS' AND LYNN NOVICK'S
FILM "THE VIETNAM WAR"
30
00:01:20,299 --> 00:01:22,700
BECAUSE FOSTERING
DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
31
00:01:22,700 --> 00:01:25,299
AND CIVIL DISCOURSE
AROUND IMPORTANT ISSUES
32
00:01:25,299 --> 00:01:27,599
FURTHERS PROGRESS, EQUALITY,
33
00:01:27,599 --> 00:01:29,599
AND A MORE CONNECTED SOCIETY.
34
00:01:34,066 --> 00:01:38,099
GO TO BANKOFAMERICA.COM/
BETTERCONNECTED TO LEARN MORE.
35
00:01:50,332 --> 00:01:52,665
CROWD (chanting):
No more war! No more war!
36
00:01:52,765 --> 00:01:56,332
No more war!
No more war!
37
00:01:56,432 --> 00:01:58,000
No more war! No more war!
38
00:01:58,099 --> 00:01:59,432
("Get Together" by
the Youngbloods playing)
39
00:01:59,533 --> 00:02:02,900
No more war! No more war!
40
00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:05,766
No more war!
No more war!
41
00:02:05,865 --> 00:02:06,965
No more war!
42
00:02:07,066 --> 00:02:10,633
CROWD (chanting):
U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
43
00:02:10,733 --> 00:02:13,865
YOUNGBLOODS:
♪ Love is but a song to sing
44
00:02:13,966 --> 00:02:17,599
♪ Fear's the way we die
45
00:02:17,699 --> 00:02:19,699
(crowds shouting, clamoring)
46
00:02:22,466 --> 00:02:25,765
♪ You can
make the mountains ring ♪
47
00:02:25,865 --> 00:02:28,800
♪ Or make the angels cry
48
00:02:31,400 --> 00:02:32,900
(shouting continues)
49
00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:35,165
♪ Come on, people, now
50
00:02:35,265 --> 00:02:36,800
♪ Smile on your brother
51
00:02:36,900 --> 00:02:38,633
♪ Everybody get together
52
00:02:38,733 --> 00:02:42,633
♪ Try to love one another
right now ♪
53
00:02:45,865 --> 00:02:47,765
KARL MARLANTES:
My brother picked me up
54
00:02:47,865 --> 00:02:51,000
at Travis Air Force Base.
55
00:02:51,099 --> 00:02:53,199
And I remember he had a Valiant,
56
00:02:53,300 --> 00:02:55,165
an old beat-up Valiant.
57
00:02:55,265 --> 00:02:56,566
And we met inside the terminal.
58
00:02:56,665 --> 00:02:58,265
And I was so happy to see him.
59
00:02:58,365 --> 00:02:59,566
I just love my brother.
60
00:02:59,665 --> 00:03:01,165
(crowd shouting in distance)
61
00:03:01,265 --> 00:03:03,265
He said, "Now, I don't
want you to get upset,
62
00:03:03,366 --> 00:03:05,133
"but we're probably
gonna get some trouble
63
00:03:05,233 --> 00:03:08,699
when we go outside."
64
00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:11,133
And I went, "Trouble?
I just got back from Vietnam.
65
00:03:11,233 --> 00:03:12,665
What are you talking about?"
66
00:03:12,765 --> 00:03:14,699
I mean, I knew
that there was unrest.
67
00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:16,566
YOUNGBLOODS:
♪ If you hear the song I sing
68
00:03:16,665 --> 00:03:20,300
MARLANTES:
But when we got in his car to
drive away from the terminal,
69
00:03:20,400 --> 00:03:24,265
we had to wind our way
through protesters
70
00:03:24,365 --> 00:03:27,665
that were pounding on the car
with the ends of their signs
71
00:03:27,765 --> 00:03:29,765
and were snarling at me
72
00:03:29,865 --> 00:03:33,265
and pounding on the window
and shouting obscenities at me.
73
00:03:34,432 --> 00:03:36,900
That was my welcome home
to America.
74
00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:38,699
(shouting continues)
75
00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:40,533
I was just stunned.
76
00:03:40,633 --> 00:03:41,966
YOUNGBLOODS:
♪ Come on, people, now
77
00:03:42,066 --> 00:03:44,432
I have never felt...
78
00:03:44,533 --> 00:03:48,000
any anger toward people
that were war protesters.
79
00:03:48,099 --> 00:03:51,633
It's a legitimate
political stance.
80
00:03:51,733 --> 00:03:55,865
For people that
descended into that, I...
81
00:03:55,966 --> 00:03:59,566
I-I think that
they were really wrong.
82
00:03:59,665 --> 00:04:02,066
YOUNGBLOODS:
♪ Try to love one another
right now ♪
83
00:04:02,165 --> 00:04:05,665
It was this-this heartbreak
of why are you doing this?
84
00:04:05,765 --> 00:04:08,365
I mean,
you don't know who I am.
85
00:04:08,466 --> 00:04:11,233
And it happened over and over.
86
00:04:11,332 --> 00:04:13,233
YOUNGBLOODS:
♪ Everybody get together
87
00:04:13,332 --> 00:04:16,966
♪ Try to love one another
right now ♪
88
00:04:17,065 --> 00:04:19,533
♪ Right now
89
00:04:19,632 --> 00:04:23,533
♪ Right now.
90
00:04:29,665 --> 00:04:30,932
(siren wailing)
91
00:04:31,033 --> 00:04:33,100
NARRATOR:
In the spring of 1970,
92
00:04:33,199 --> 00:04:36,466
despite the uproar
over the invasion of Cambodia
93
00:04:36,566 --> 00:04:39,533
and the killing of four students
at Kent State,
94
00:04:39,632 --> 00:04:42,365
President Nixon's hold
on what he called
95
00:04:42,466 --> 00:04:46,266
"the great silent majority"
seemed secure.
96
00:04:46,365 --> 00:04:50,033
A Gallup poll showed
that most Americans
97
00:04:50,132 --> 00:04:52,832
blamed the students,
not the national guardsmen,
98
00:04:52,932 --> 00:04:54,000
for what had happened.
99
00:04:54,100 --> 00:04:57,165
(shouting, clamoring)
100
00:04:57,266 --> 00:05:00,466
At an antiwar demonstration
in Manhattan,
101
00:05:00,565 --> 00:05:03,565
hundreds of construction
workers in hard hats
102
00:05:03,665 --> 00:05:05,932
attacked protestors,
103
00:05:06,033 --> 00:05:08,833
sending 70 to the hospital.
104
00:05:11,665 --> 00:05:14,466
And when workers
marched on City Hall
105
00:05:14,565 --> 00:05:16,466
a few days later,
106
00:05:16,565 --> 00:05:19,665
Nixon wrote
the president of their union
107
00:05:19,766 --> 00:05:21,665
to say how pleased he was
108
00:05:21,766 --> 00:05:23,266
"to see the tremendous
outpouring
109
00:05:23,365 --> 00:05:25,565
"of support for our country
110
00:05:25,665 --> 00:05:30,165
demonstrated in your orderly
and most heartening rally."
111
00:05:30,266 --> 00:05:32,033
How do you feel about
the construction workers
112
00:05:32,132 --> 00:05:33,966
who attacked the, uh,
demonstrators last Friday?
113
00:05:34,066 --> 00:05:36,233
Don't say attacked.
Don't say attacked.
114
00:05:36,332 --> 00:05:37,865
They were provoked.
115
00:05:37,966 --> 00:05:39,800
They were provoked, man.
116
00:05:39,899 --> 00:05:41,199
We work for a living.
117
00:05:41,300 --> 00:05:43,365
Every day we get up,
we're out there in the cold,
118
00:05:43,466 --> 00:05:44,466
the rain, the snow, right?
119
00:05:44,566 --> 00:05:46,533
We got to have these dirty s...
120
00:05:46,632 --> 00:05:48,899
Forget about it, I don't
want to talk about it, man.
121
00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:51,266
Anybody that can take
a Viet Cong flag and fly it
122
00:05:51,365 --> 00:05:54,600
and wave it and bring it
up this avenue
123
00:05:54,699 --> 00:05:57,566
and get away with it--
and get away with it--
124
00:05:57,665 --> 00:05:59,865
that's unpatriotic to me.
125
00:05:59,966 --> 00:06:04,500
NARRATOR:
When American troops withdrew
from Cambodia
126
00:06:04,600 --> 00:06:06,165
at the end of June,
127
00:06:06,266 --> 00:06:08,432
the White House reported
that they had killed
128
00:06:08,533 --> 00:06:12,365
11,349 enemy troops,
129
00:06:12,466 --> 00:06:14,966
captured 22,000 weapons
130
00:06:15,065 --> 00:06:21,699
and had destroyed 11,688
bunkers and buildings.
131
00:06:21,800 --> 00:06:24,865
But after so many years
of fighting,
132
00:06:24,966 --> 00:06:28,365
more and more Americans
were tired of the war,
133
00:06:28,466 --> 00:06:30,766
wanted to get out
of Southeast Asia,
134
00:06:30,865 --> 00:06:35,699
and did not want the president
to expand the conflict further.
135
00:06:35,800 --> 00:06:38,699
Among their representatives
in Congress,
136
00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:42,365
antiwar sentiment
had steadily grown.
137
00:06:42,466 --> 00:06:45,399
As the president searched
for a face-saving way
138
00:06:45,500 --> 00:06:48,365
to end the war, he continued
to withdraw troops.
139
00:06:48,466 --> 00:06:50,033
CROWD (chanting):
U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
140
00:06:50,132 --> 00:06:53,899
But even as American
casualty figures fell,
141
00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:57,665
the gulf between Americans
at home widened,
142
00:06:57,766 --> 00:07:00,333
tearing communities,
neighborhoods,
143
00:07:00,432 --> 00:07:02,865
even families apart.
144
00:07:02,966 --> 00:07:06,033
CROWD (chanting):
No more war! No more war!
145
00:07:06,132 --> 00:07:07,766
Nixon was convinced--
146
00:07:07,865 --> 00:07:10,000
just as Lyndon Johnson
had been--
147
00:07:10,100 --> 00:07:12,500
that the antiwar movement
was somehow
148
00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:14,632
being directed from Hanoi,
149
00:07:14,733 --> 00:07:17,432
Beijing and Moscow.
150
00:07:17,533 --> 00:07:19,966
"Within the iron gates
of the White House
151
00:07:20,065 --> 00:07:22,565
a siege mentality
was settling in,"
152
00:07:22,665 --> 00:07:25,266
a Nixon aide remembered.
153
00:07:25,365 --> 00:07:28,766
"It was now us
against them.
154
00:07:28,865 --> 00:07:31,966
"Gradually, as we drew
the circle closer around us,
155
00:07:32,066 --> 00:07:35,632
the ranks of them
began to swell."
156
00:07:35,733 --> 00:07:39,000
(crowd chattering)
157
00:07:39,100 --> 00:07:42,432
PHIL GIOIA:
I think the Vietnam War
drove a stake
158
00:07:42,533 --> 00:07:45,932
right into the heart
of America.
159
00:07:46,033 --> 00:07:47,865
It polarized the country
160
00:07:47,966 --> 00:07:50,533
as it had probably
never been polarized
161
00:07:50,632 --> 00:07:52,233
since before the Civil War.
162
00:07:52,332 --> 00:07:54,600
And unfortunately,
we've never moved
163
00:07:54,699 --> 00:07:56,566
really far away from that.
164
00:07:56,665 --> 00:07:59,266
And we never recovered.
165
00:07:59,365 --> 00:08:01,266
CROWD:
No more war! No more war!
166
00:08:01,365 --> 00:08:03,432
CROWD:
U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
167
00:08:03,533 --> 00:08:05,365
CROWD:
168
00:08:05,466 --> 00:08:08,199
No more war! No more war!
U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
169
00:08:08,300 --> 00:08:10,800
U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
No more war! No more war!
170
00:08:10,899 --> 00:08:14,632
No more war! No more war!
No more war!
171
00:08:14,733 --> 00:08:17,533
(chanting stops)
172
00:08:17,632 --> 00:08:20,100
♪
173
00:08:21,733 --> 00:08:23,365
DAVID FROST:
Thank you very much, indeed,
174
00:08:23,466 --> 00:08:25,432
and welcome to this,
uh, special,
175
00:08:25,533 --> 00:08:27,899
very special edition
ofThe David Frost Show.
176
00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:31,800
The vice president himself
wanted to debate with students,
177
00:08:31,899 --> 00:08:35,665
and we suggested a format
in which he might like to do so.
178
00:08:35,765 --> 00:08:38,200
Welcome Eva Jefferson
from Northwestern,
179
00:08:38,298 --> 00:08:40,899
who testified
before the Scranton Commission
180
00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:44,000
on Campus Unrest and is majoring
in political science.
181
00:08:44,100 --> 00:08:45,566
Is that right?
Right.
182
00:08:45,665 --> 00:08:47,533
NARRATOR:
Eva Jefferson,
183
00:08:47,633 --> 00:08:50,133
whose father
had served in Vietnam,
184
00:08:50,232 --> 00:08:52,033
was now the student body
president
185
00:08:52,133 --> 00:08:54,432
at Northwestern University.
186
00:08:54,533 --> 00:08:56,133
After Kent State,
187
00:08:56,232 --> 00:08:59,232
she had forcefully stopped
angry protestors
188
00:08:59,332 --> 00:09:03,133
from burning down the ROTC
building at her school,
189
00:09:03,232 --> 00:09:07,133
and later testified before
a presidential commission
190
00:09:07,232 --> 00:09:11,133
looking into the causes
of student unrest.
191
00:09:11,232 --> 00:09:14,033
She had warned then
that some students
192
00:09:14,133 --> 00:09:15,966
were becoming so frustrated
193
00:09:16,066 --> 00:09:17,966
that they felt
they had no choice
194
00:09:18,066 --> 00:09:21,265
but to engage in violence.
195
00:09:21,365 --> 00:09:23,633
And right now
it's a privilege to welcome
196
00:09:23,732 --> 00:09:25,432
the vice president
of the United States,
197
00:09:25,533 --> 00:09:27,700
Spiro T. Agnew.
198
00:09:27,799 --> 00:09:31,133
(audience applauding)
199
00:09:31,232 --> 00:09:32,633
AGNEW:
Let me
200
00:09:32,732 --> 00:09:35,665
take brief exception
to one thing you've said,
201
00:09:35,765 --> 00:09:37,000
that the only way
to get the attention
202
00:09:37,100 --> 00:09:39,100
of the society
is to bomb buildings.
203
00:09:39,200 --> 00:09:41,033
What I attempted
to do
204
00:09:41,133 --> 00:09:43,000
before the Scranton Committee
was to explain
205
00:09:43,100 --> 00:09:45,665
what could motivate someone
to blow up a building.
206
00:09:45,765 --> 00:09:48,633
I did not say I endorse this,
and if you read my testimony
207
00:09:48,732 --> 00:09:51,200
quite carefully,
you'll know that I didn't.
208
00:09:51,299 --> 00:09:54,033
And it's this type of-of just
picking up on what,
209
00:09:54,133 --> 00:09:56,932
allegedly, I said instead
of really studying what I said
210
00:09:57,033 --> 00:09:58,500
that-that really disturbs me.
211
00:09:58,600 --> 00:10:00,166
(quietly): May I respond?
Because you're
making people
212
00:10:00,265 --> 00:10:02,432
afraid of their
own children.
213
00:10:02,533 --> 00:10:04,533
Yet they're your children,
they're my parents' children,
214
00:10:04,633 --> 00:10:05,832
they're the children
of this country.
215
00:10:05,932 --> 00:10:07,932
Yet you're making people
afraid of them.
216
00:10:08,033 --> 00:10:09,966
And I think this
is the greatest disservice.
217
00:10:10,066 --> 00:10:12,666
There's an honest difference
of agreement on issues,
218
00:10:12,765 --> 00:10:15,232
but-but when you make people
afraid of each other,
219
00:10:15,332 --> 00:10:18,200
you-you isolate people,
and maybe this is your goal,
220
00:10:18,299 --> 00:10:19,500
but I think this is...
221
00:10:19,600 --> 00:10:21,466
this could only have
a disastrous effect
222
00:10:21,566 --> 00:10:23,700
on the country.
(applause)
223
00:10:23,799 --> 00:10:26,633
Let me say first
that isolating people
224
00:10:26,732 --> 00:10:27,832
is not my goal.
225
00:10:27,932 --> 00:10:30,765
If that were true I wouldn't be
here tonight.
226
00:10:30,865 --> 00:10:32,799
And let me take exception
to that
227
00:10:32,899 --> 00:10:35,765
oft-repeated rationale
that, uh,
228
00:10:35,865 --> 00:10:38,200
violence is the only way
to get results.
229
00:10:38,299 --> 00:10:40,799
I was trying to explain to you
the rationale of some students
230
00:10:40,899 --> 00:10:42,066
who are openly revolutionary.
231
00:10:42,165 --> 00:10:44,432
You're not listening
to what I'm saying.
232
00:10:44,533 --> 00:10:46,899
I'm-I'm really distressed.
Just what are...
what are you advocating?
233
00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:48,932
EVA JEFFERSON PATERSON:
They were trying to politically
234
00:10:49,033 --> 00:10:51,332
benefit from
making us out to be
235
00:10:51,432 --> 00:10:54,966
these scary, horrible,
violent people.
236
00:10:55,066 --> 00:10:57,633
We weren't.
We were against the war.
237
00:10:57,732 --> 00:10:59,100
We thought the war was wrong.
238
00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:00,533
We thought we were lied to.
239
00:11:00,633 --> 00:11:02,200
And we were in the streets.
240
00:11:02,299 --> 00:11:06,166
America has always had
a rich tradition of protests.
241
00:11:06,265 --> 00:11:09,765
We were founded
by protesting England.
242
00:11:09,865 --> 00:11:12,100
So to make people
afraid of their kids,
243
00:11:12,200 --> 00:11:14,265
I think, was wrong,
but that's what they were about.
244
00:11:14,365 --> 00:11:16,533
They were fearmongers.
245
00:11:29,033 --> 00:11:31,765
BAO NINH:
246
00:11:58,799 --> 00:12:01,332
PHAN QUANG TUE:
It was fratricide.
247
00:12:01,432 --> 00:12:03,832
You can say, "Well, but-but
they are communist."
248
00:12:03,932 --> 00:12:06,166
Okay, they're communist.
249
00:12:06,265 --> 00:12:08,932
"They are the worst Vietnamese
in the entire world.
250
00:12:09,033 --> 00:12:10,865
We were the good Vietnamese."
251
00:12:10,966 --> 00:12:13,732
But let's face
Vietnamese killing Vietnamese.
252
00:12:13,832 --> 00:12:15,966
How-how do you deny that?
253
00:12:19,033 --> 00:12:20,732
If you don't
call that fratricide,
254
00:12:20,832 --> 00:12:24,466
what do you call that?
255
00:12:24,566 --> 00:12:26,000
What do you... how do we...
256
00:12:26,100 --> 00:12:28,033
I explain that
to-to my children?
257
00:12:32,865 --> 00:12:34,765
NARRATOR:
The Cambodian incursion had
258
00:12:34,865 --> 00:12:38,133
at least temporarily reduced
the flow of North Vietnamese
259
00:12:38,232 --> 00:12:41,932
men and supplies
through that country,
260
00:12:42,033 --> 00:12:44,000
but they were still
streaming down
261
00:12:44,100 --> 00:12:46,832
the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos.
262
00:12:46,932 --> 00:12:49,732
The White House
wanted them stopped.
263
00:12:49,832 --> 00:12:53,399
But this time,
South Vietnamese troops
264
00:12:53,500 --> 00:12:56,100
would have to try
to do the job alone.
265
00:12:56,200 --> 00:13:01,133
By the end of 1970,
both houses of Congress
266
00:13:01,232 --> 00:13:04,000
had barred
all U.S. ground personnel,
267
00:13:04,100 --> 00:13:07,166
even advisors
and special forces,
268
00:13:07,265 --> 00:13:09,166
from crossing the border.
269
00:13:09,265 --> 00:13:13,066
On February 8, 1971,
270
00:13:13,166 --> 00:13:17,466
17,000 ARVN troops
began moving into Laos
271
00:13:17,566 --> 00:13:20,332
to destroy
the enemy's jungle bases
272
00:13:20,432 --> 00:13:24,100
and to cut off
the Ho Chi Minh trail.
273
00:13:24,200 --> 00:13:28,600
The Americans
could only provide air support.
274
00:13:28,700 --> 00:13:32,600
Nixon and his
National Security Advisor,
275
00:13:32,700 --> 00:13:35,799
Henry Kissinger, believed that
a successful operation
276
00:13:35,899 --> 00:13:38,033
would boost morale in Saigon
277
00:13:38,133 --> 00:13:41,533
and prove to Hanoi
and the American public
278
00:13:41,633 --> 00:13:45,533
that the ARVN could fight
and win on their own,
279
00:13:45,633 --> 00:13:49,633
that Vietnamization could work.
280
00:13:49,732 --> 00:13:53,832
Their target was the
North Vietnamese logistics hub,
281
00:13:53,932 --> 00:13:57,200
the abandoned town of Tchepone.
282
00:13:57,299 --> 00:13:59,365
U.S. intelligence
283
00:13:59,466 --> 00:14:01,265
believed there were no more
284
00:14:01,365 --> 00:14:05,799
than 22,000 North Vietnamese
troops in the area.
285
00:14:05,899 --> 00:14:09,932
But there would eventually turn
out to be 60,000,
286
00:14:10,033 --> 00:14:13,765
and their commanders knew
there was only one route
287
00:14:13,865 --> 00:14:16,966
the ARVN was likely to take.
288
00:14:17,066 --> 00:14:19,966
Harry Hue, who had been fighting
the communists
289
00:14:20,066 --> 00:14:23,600
for eight years,
was in the invasion force.
290
00:14:24,600 --> 00:14:26,566
HUE (speaking English):
291
00:14:50,832 --> 00:14:53,732
(explosion)
292
00:14:53,832 --> 00:14:57,432
NARRATOR:
Although individual ARVN units
fought bravely,
293
00:14:57,533 --> 00:15:00,000
the invasion was a failure.
294
00:15:17,666 --> 00:15:21,332
Almost half
of the 17,000 South Vietnamese
295
00:15:21,432 --> 00:15:22,865
who entered Laos
296
00:15:22,966 --> 00:15:26,100
would be killed,
wounded or captured.
297
00:15:27,700 --> 00:15:31,066
HUE:
298
00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:05,600
BAO NINH:
299
00:16:27,200 --> 00:16:28,832
NARRATOR:
In late March,
300
00:16:28,932 --> 00:16:30,600
as the surviving ARVN forces
301
00:16:30,700 --> 00:16:32,265
straggled back
across the border
302
00:16:32,365 --> 00:16:34,500
into South Vietnam,
303
00:16:34,600 --> 00:16:38,432
crowds of weeping women,
children and old men--
304
00:16:38,533 --> 00:16:41,566
dressed in white,
the color of mourning--
305
00:16:41,665 --> 00:16:45,165
begged for news of the soldiers
who were missing.
306
00:16:45,265 --> 00:16:49,633
In Vietnam, the dead
must receive proper burial
307
00:16:49,732 --> 00:16:53,566
so that their restless souls
can have peace,
308
00:16:53,665 --> 00:16:55,665
and their families
needed to know
309
00:16:55,765 --> 00:16:57,332
the time of their deaths
310
00:16:57,432 --> 00:17:00,466
so that they could honor them
each year.
311
00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:05,000
Even before
the invasion was over,
312
00:17:05,098 --> 00:17:07,500
President Nixon
had told an aide,
313
00:17:07,598 --> 00:17:09,665
"We must claim victory,
314
00:17:09,766 --> 00:17:12,232
whatever the outcome."
315
00:17:46,532 --> 00:17:48,732
Consequently, tonight,
316
00:17:48,833 --> 00:17:53,032
I can report that Vietnamization
has succeeded.
317
00:17:53,133 --> 00:17:55,333
Because of
the increased strength
318
00:17:55,432 --> 00:17:56,799
of the South Vietnamese,
319
00:17:56,900 --> 00:17:59,432
because of the success
of the Cambodian operation,
320
00:17:59,532 --> 00:18:00,732
because of the achievements
321
00:18:00,833 --> 00:18:03,833
of the South Vietnamese
operation in Laos,
322
00:18:03,932 --> 00:18:05,465
I am announcing an increase
323
00:18:05,566 --> 00:18:07,833
in the rate
of American withdrawals.
324
00:18:07,932 --> 00:18:10,333
We have it in our power
to leave Vietnam
325
00:18:10,432 --> 00:18:12,566
in a way
that offers a brave people
326
00:18:12,665 --> 00:18:15,299
a realistic hope of freedom.
327
00:18:15,400 --> 00:18:16,700
We have it in our power
328
00:18:16,799 --> 00:18:18,965
to prove to our friends
in the world
329
00:18:19,066 --> 00:18:21,833
that America's
sense of responsibility
330
00:18:21,932 --> 00:18:25,299
remains the world's
greatest single hope of peace.
331
00:18:25,400 --> 00:18:29,700
And generations in the future
332
00:18:29,799 --> 00:18:33,200
will look back
at this difficult,
333
00:18:33,299 --> 00:18:36,965
trying time
in America's history,
334
00:18:37,066 --> 00:18:39,566
and they will be proud
335
00:18:39,665 --> 00:18:42,865
that we demonstrated
336
00:18:42,965 --> 00:18:45,532
that we had the courage
337
00:18:45,633 --> 00:18:49,000
and the character
of a great people.
338
00:18:49,099 --> 00:18:49,965
OPERATOR:
Dr. Kissinger, sir.
339
00:18:50,066 --> 00:18:51,566
NIXON:
Yeah.
340
00:18:51,665 --> 00:18:52,566
KISSINGER:
Mr. President?
341
00:18:52,665 --> 00:18:53,732
NIXON:
Yeah. Hi, Henry.
342
00:18:53,833 --> 00:18:55,200
KISSINGER:
This was the best speech
you've delivered
343
00:18:55,299 --> 00:18:56,400
since you've been in office.
344
00:18:56,500 --> 00:18:57,500
NIXON:
Yeah.
345
00:18:57,599 --> 00:18:59,965
I'll tell you one thing,
this was, uh...
346
00:19:00,066 --> 00:19:02,165
This little speech
was a work of art.
347
00:19:02,266 --> 00:19:04,900
I mean, I-I know a little
something about speechwriting.
348
00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:07,200
And it was no act,
because no actor could do it.
349
00:19:07,299 --> 00:19:09,232
No actor in Hollywood
could have done that that well.
350
00:19:09,333 --> 00:19:10,633
KISSINGER:
It's the best...
351
00:19:10,732 --> 00:19:11,932
NIXON:
I thought that was
done well, didn't you think?
352
00:19:12,032 --> 00:19:13,333
KISSINGER:
First of all, no actor
could have written it,
353
00:19:13,432 --> 00:19:14,633
to begin with.
354
00:19:14,732 --> 00:19:16,365
You couldn't have done it
unless you had meant it.
355
00:19:16,465 --> 00:19:17,700
NIXON:
Yeah.
356
00:19:17,799 --> 00:19:20,066
And if it doesn't work,
I don't care.
357
00:19:20,165 --> 00:19:22,299
I mean, right now,
if it doesn't work...
358
00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:23,400
Then let me say, though,
359
00:19:23,500 --> 00:19:24,766
I'm going to find out soon,
360
00:19:24,865 --> 00:19:26,099
and then
I'm going to turn right
361
00:19:26,200 --> 00:19:27,799
so goddamn hard
it'll make your head spin.
362
00:19:27,900 --> 00:19:29,400
We'll bomb those bastards
right out of the...
363
00:19:29,500 --> 00:19:32,333
off the earth.
I really mean it.
364
00:19:32,432 --> 00:19:35,432
("We Gotta Get Out of This
Place" by the Animals playing)
365
00:19:39,633 --> 00:19:43,932
♪ In this dirty old part
of the city ♪
366
00:19:44,032 --> 00:19:48,465
♪ Where the sun
refuse to shine ♪
367
00:19:48,566 --> 00:19:51,732
♪ People tell me
there ain't no use in trying ♪
368
00:19:56,500 --> 00:19:58,200
Do you belong
to the same generation
369
00:19:58,299 --> 00:19:59,465
that is protesting
at home?
370
00:19:59,566 --> 00:20:00,732
Do you feel as if you belong
371
00:20:00,833 --> 00:20:02,432
to those people?
Very much.
372
00:20:02,532 --> 00:20:03,732
You do?
Very much.
373
00:20:03,833 --> 00:20:06,099
I wish they'd get us
out of here, I really do.
374
00:20:06,200 --> 00:20:09,299
♪ We gotta get out
of this place ♪
375
00:20:09,400 --> 00:20:13,266
♪ If it's the last thing
we ever do ♪
376
00:20:13,365 --> 00:20:16,500
♪ We gotta get out
of this place ♪
377
00:20:16,599 --> 00:20:18,232
♪ Girl, there's a better life
378
00:20:18,333 --> 00:20:21,500
JAMES GILLAM:
Almost all of us were draftees.
379
00:20:21,599 --> 00:20:24,500
None of us cared a damn
about the war.
380
00:20:24,599 --> 00:20:27,200
We just didn't want
to get blown up.
381
00:20:27,299 --> 00:20:29,299
We just didn't want to die
in the jungle,
382
00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:31,799
holding your guts in.
383
00:20:31,900 --> 00:20:37,365
So the idea is do six months,
maybe eight months,
384
00:20:37,465 --> 00:20:42,700
get an RandR, take a deep breath
and try to finish up,
385
00:20:42,799 --> 00:20:46,532
try to do something that would
get you sent to base camp.
386
00:20:46,633 --> 00:20:50,465
Just don't die
because you're not gonna win.
387
00:20:50,566 --> 00:20:52,633
ANIMALS:
♪ We gotta get out
of this place ♪
388
00:20:52,732 --> 00:20:56,133
♪ If it's the last thing
we ever do ♪
389
00:20:56,232 --> 00:20:58,400
REPORTER:
Chess is the most serious
contest
390
00:20:58,500 --> 00:21:00,200
Glen Hindley will engage in,
391
00:21:00,299 --> 00:21:03,133
for he has not fired a shot
in his nine months
392
00:21:03,232 --> 00:21:04,732
in the field
with Charlie Company.
393
00:21:04,833 --> 00:21:06,500
HINDLEY:
Well, I haven't shot
anybody yet.
394
00:21:06,599 --> 00:21:08,299
I don't plan on it.
395
00:21:08,400 --> 00:21:10,365
I haven't fired my gun
since I been here,
396
00:21:10,465 --> 00:21:12,500
and I like it that way.
397
00:21:12,599 --> 00:21:14,700
REPORTER:
How can you get away with that?
398
00:21:14,799 --> 00:21:16,299
Just don't fire it.
399
00:21:16,400 --> 00:21:17,700
I plan to go across the...
400
00:21:17,799 --> 00:21:19,066
across country when I get back
401
00:21:19,165 --> 00:21:21,032
because I'll see
the people I know over here,
402
00:21:21,133 --> 00:21:23,333
plus I'll be able to talk
to a lot of other people,
403
00:21:23,432 --> 00:21:25,500
maybe convince them
that killing for peace
404
00:21:25,599 --> 00:21:26,799
just doesn't make sense.
405
00:21:26,900 --> 00:21:29,932
ANIMALS:
♪ We gotta get out
of this place ♪
406
00:21:30,032 --> 00:21:35,099
♪ If it's the last thing
we ever do ♪
407
00:21:35,200 --> 00:21:37,000
♪ We gotta get out
of this place. ♪
408
00:21:37,099 --> 00:21:39,165
NARRATOR:
"The morale, discipline,
and battleworthiness
409
00:21:39,266 --> 00:21:43,165
of the U.S. Armed Forces,"
a retired Marine colonel wrote
410
00:21:43,266 --> 00:21:45,566
in the spring of 1971,
411
00:21:45,665 --> 00:21:48,900
"are lower and worse
than at any time,
412
00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:53,200
possibly in the history
of the United States."
413
00:21:53,299 --> 00:21:55,432
An official report had found
414
00:21:55,532 --> 00:21:58,532
that one out of four
enlisted men in Vietnam
415
00:21:58,633 --> 00:22:01,500
had used marijuana regularly--
416
00:22:01,599 --> 00:22:04,200
but almost never in combat.
417
00:22:04,299 --> 00:22:06,566
SOLDIER:
There's, uh, drugs everywhere.
418
00:22:06,665 --> 00:22:07,865
Really, you could, uh...
419
00:22:07,965 --> 00:22:10,432
Well, within...
within ten minutes in country,
420
00:22:10,532 --> 00:22:12,700
I-I had people approaching me
selling scag.
421
00:22:12,799 --> 00:22:14,032
INTERVIEWER:
What's scag?
422
00:22:14,133 --> 00:22:15,266
It's heroin.
423
00:22:15,365 --> 00:22:18,299
NARRATOR:
Heroin was cheap,
424
00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:20,965
pure, and everywhere.
425
00:22:21,066 --> 00:22:23,633
The Pentagon
would eventually acknowledge
426
00:22:23,732 --> 00:22:27,432
that 40,000 American troops
had been addicted to it.
427
00:22:27,532 --> 00:22:30,700
ANIMALS:
♪ We gotta get out
of this place ♪
428
00:22:30,799 --> 00:22:34,232
♪ If it's the last thing
we ever do ♪
429
00:22:34,333 --> 00:22:36,532
♪ We gotta get out
of this place ♪
430
00:22:36,633 --> 00:22:39,932
♪ Girl, there's a better life
431
00:22:40,032 --> 00:22:41,133
(coughs)
432
00:22:41,232 --> 00:22:43,700
♪ For me and you
433
00:22:43,799 --> 00:22:45,700
♪ Ooh, baby
434
00:22:45,799 --> 00:22:49,665
"The rearguard
of a once 500,000-man army,"
435
00:22:49,766 --> 00:22:51,032
an officer wrote,
436
00:22:51,133 --> 00:22:54,900
"is numbly extricating itself
from a nightmare war
437
00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:58,133
"the armed forces feel
they had foisted on them
438
00:22:58,232 --> 00:23:01,700
"by bright civilians
who are now back on campus
439
00:23:01,799 --> 00:23:06,432
writing books
about the folly of it all."
440
00:23:06,532 --> 00:23:09,165
Even General Creighton Abrams,
441
00:23:09,266 --> 00:23:12,400
commander of military operations
in Vietnam,
442
00:23:12,500 --> 00:23:14,299
now admitted privately,
443
00:23:14,400 --> 00:23:17,633
"I need to get this army home
to save it."
444
00:23:17,732 --> 00:23:19,165
ANIMALS:
♪ I know it, too, baby
445
00:23:19,266 --> 00:23:21,200
♪ Oh, yeah.
446
00:23:30,532 --> 00:23:32,900
The telegrams and letters
coming into this courthouse
447
00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:35,165
are from all parts
of the country.
448
00:23:35,266 --> 00:23:38,099
From Baton Rouge, Louisiana,
a man writes,
449
00:23:38,200 --> 00:23:40,732
"Congratulations
to the Calley jurors.
450
00:23:40,833 --> 00:23:43,032
"A courageous and fair decision.
451
00:23:43,133 --> 00:23:45,165
Justice still exists."
452
00:23:45,266 --> 00:23:50,165
NARRATOR:
On March 29, 1971,
453
00:23:50,266 --> 00:23:52,099
at Fort Benning, Georgia,
454
00:23:52,200 --> 00:23:55,232
a military court found
Lieutenant William Calley--
455
00:23:55,333 --> 00:23:57,566
and only Lieutenant Calley--
456
00:23:57,665 --> 00:24:00,232
guilty of murdering
Vietnamese civilians
457
00:24:00,333 --> 00:24:03,333
at My Lai back in 1968.
458
00:24:06,266 --> 00:24:10,566
He was sentenced to life
imprisonment at hard labor.
459
00:24:10,665 --> 00:24:13,299
The commander
of Calley's division,
460
00:24:13,400 --> 00:24:15,465
General Samuel Koster,
461
00:24:15,566 --> 00:24:18,365
who had watched some of
the slaughter from a helicopter
462
00:24:18,465 --> 00:24:21,365
and done nothing to stop it,
was now the superintendent
463
00:24:21,465 --> 00:24:24,665
of the U.S. Military Academy
at West Point.
464
00:24:24,766 --> 00:24:28,566
He was forced to resign.
465
00:24:28,665 --> 00:24:31,665
The other 23 officers and men
466
00:24:31,766 --> 00:24:34,032
who had been indicted
were either acquitted
467
00:24:34,133 --> 00:24:36,799
or had their cases dismissed.
468
00:24:36,900 --> 00:24:40,333
The Calley verdict
proved as controversial
469
00:24:40,432 --> 00:24:42,633
as the war itself.
470
00:24:42,732 --> 00:24:44,799
TROT:
A lady in Cheyenne, Wyoming,
says,
471
00:24:44,900 --> 00:24:47,165
"What the jury has
done to Lieutenant Calley
472
00:24:47,266 --> 00:24:49,365
"is a disgrace to this nation.
473
00:24:49,465 --> 00:24:51,333
"The enemy is the enemy,
474
00:24:51,432 --> 00:24:54,133
the enemy is the enemy."
475
00:24:54,232 --> 00:24:56,465
From Bellefontaine, Ohio,
a doctor says,
476
00:24:56,566 --> 00:24:59,232
"Let us not condemn
Lieutenant Calley
477
00:24:59,333 --> 00:25:01,633
"when it is the character
of the war
478
00:25:01,732 --> 00:25:04,365
which is at fault
for such slaughters as My Lai."
479
00:25:04,465 --> 00:25:07,700
What is your initial reaction
to this verdict, sir?
480
00:25:07,799 --> 00:25:09,965
I thought he would be found
not guilty.
481
00:25:10,066 --> 00:25:11,932
'Cause you send in a man
into combat,
482
00:25:12,032 --> 00:25:14,333
you train him
to be a... a killer,
483
00:25:14,432 --> 00:25:16,599
and then, when he does,
why then,
484
00:25:16,700 --> 00:25:18,532
uh, you prosecute him?
485
00:25:20,432 --> 00:25:24,099
NARRATOR:
Some believed everyone involved
should have gone to jail;
486
00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:27,266
others believed that Calley
had been made a scapegoat
487
00:25:27,365 --> 00:25:31,133
for the criminal misdeeds
of his superiors.
488
00:25:31,232 --> 00:25:35,099
And still others felt a systemic
failure of leadership
489
00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:37,465
had occurred
in a chain of command
490
00:25:37,566 --> 00:25:42,200
that stretched all the way up
to the commander in chief.
491
00:25:44,766 --> 00:25:46,532
According to a Gallup poll,
492
00:25:46,633 --> 00:25:51,833
79% of the American public
disagreed with the verdict.
493
00:25:51,932 --> 00:25:55,333
Nixon decided to intervene.
494
00:25:57,700 --> 00:26:01,133
Calley spent just
three days behind bars.
495
00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:04,965
The president
ordered him transferred
496
00:26:05,066 --> 00:26:07,200
from federal prison
to house arrest
497
00:26:07,299 --> 00:26:09,465
at Fort Benning,
pending appeal.
498
00:26:09,566 --> 00:26:11,566
MAN:
Okay, I'm gonna walk
back from each side.
499
00:26:11,665 --> 00:26:13,766
NARRATOR:
Captain Aubrey Daniel,
500
00:26:13,865 --> 00:26:16,400
who had successfully
prosecuted Calley,
501
00:26:16,500 --> 00:26:19,665
wrote Nixon,
accusing him of compromising
502
00:26:19,766 --> 00:26:22,333
"such a fundamental
moral principle
503
00:26:22,432 --> 00:26:24,833
"as the inherent unlawfulness
504
00:26:24,932 --> 00:26:28,032
of the murder
of innocent persons."
505
00:26:28,133 --> 00:26:30,532
A military appeals court
506
00:26:30,633 --> 00:26:34,365
eventually reduced
Calley's term to 20 years,
507
00:26:34,465 --> 00:26:37,333
the secretary of the army
cut it to ten,
508
00:26:37,432 --> 00:26:39,900
and after just
three-and-a-half years
509
00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:42,932
under house arrest,
he was paroled.
510
00:26:47,165 --> 00:26:49,566
TIM O'BRIEN:
Who's responsible?
511
00:26:51,833 --> 00:26:56,133
The human beings who did this...
512
00:26:56,232 --> 00:26:59,665
These are war crimes.
513
00:26:59,766 --> 00:27:03,700
The individual human beings
who put a rifle muzzle
514
00:27:03,799 --> 00:27:04,865
up against a baby's head
515
00:27:04,965 --> 00:27:08,299
and shot the brains
out of that baby--
516
00:27:08,400 --> 00:27:11,165
nothing happened to them.
517
00:27:11,266 --> 00:27:13,532
Nothing!
518
00:27:20,932 --> 00:27:24,732
HAL KUSHNER:
And we walked up
the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
519
00:27:26,900 --> 00:27:29,665
And they said we walked
900 kilometers--
520
00:27:29,766 --> 00:27:35,400
540 miles in 57 days.
521
00:27:35,500 --> 00:27:39,266
And we met all these people
going both ways.
522
00:27:39,365 --> 00:27:42,833
We met civilians coming south.
523
00:27:42,932 --> 00:27:45,665
We met soldiers
going north and south.
524
00:27:45,766 --> 00:27:48,965
We met people humping
artillery rounds.
525
00:27:49,066 --> 00:27:50,333
We met a...
526
00:27:50,432 --> 00:27:52,299
I remember a whole unit,
527
00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:54,333
a company-size unit,
of women.
528
00:27:56,732 --> 00:27:59,700
On the way,
in one of these villages,
529
00:27:59,799 --> 00:28:03,299
I stole a uniform.
530
00:28:04,865 --> 00:28:06,599
Just khaki pants
and khaki shirt.
531
00:28:06,700 --> 00:28:07,932
And I stole it.
532
00:28:08,032 --> 00:28:11,432
And I folded it up
and I put it in my pack.
533
00:28:11,532 --> 00:28:14,766
NARRATOR:
By early 1971,
534
00:28:14,865 --> 00:28:16,732
army doctor Hal Kushner
535
00:28:16,833 --> 00:28:18,599
had been a prisoner
of the Viet Cong
536
00:28:18,700 --> 00:28:22,032
in South Vietnam
for more than three years.
537
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:27,700
He had survived ill treatment
and a host of illnesses,
538
00:28:27,799 --> 00:28:31,099
and he had buried
13 of his fellow captives,
539
00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:33,032
who had died of starvation
540
00:28:33,133 --> 00:28:36,665
and sickness and despair.
541
00:28:36,766 --> 00:28:40,566
Now, he and the other survivors
from his camp
542
00:28:40,665 --> 00:28:44,299
were being moved
all the way to North Vietnam.
543
00:28:46,732 --> 00:28:48,333
Kushner and his companions
544
00:28:48,432 --> 00:28:50,799
eventually reached
the city of Vinh,
545
00:28:50,900 --> 00:28:53,599
where they boarded
a train to Hanoi.
546
00:28:53,700 --> 00:28:55,732
KUSHNER:
And I put on this fresh uniform,
547
00:28:55,833 --> 00:28:57,599
and when I got off the train
548
00:28:57,700 --> 00:29:01,400
I was met with this officer
in a jeep.
549
00:29:01,500 --> 00:29:03,099
And he just looked at me
and he said,
550
00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:04,299
"You're an officer, aren't you?
551
00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:06,532
You come here."
552
00:29:06,633 --> 00:29:08,900
And he just... I felt very proud
that I looked good
553
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:10,900
when I came off that train.
554
00:29:17,299 --> 00:29:20,599
NARRATOR:
Kushner joined hundreds
of American captives
555
00:29:20,700 --> 00:29:23,200
who were scattered
among five prisons
556
00:29:23,299 --> 00:29:26,400
in and around Hanoi.
557
00:29:26,500 --> 00:29:29,066
KUSHNER:
We hadn't been there long
when the word came down
558
00:29:29,165 --> 00:29:31,900
from the American
senior ranking officer
559
00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:36,299
that nobody would go home
unless everybody went home.
560
00:29:36,400 --> 00:29:39,365
That nobody would cooperate
with the Vietnamese.
561
00:29:39,465 --> 00:29:41,400
(indistinct voice on radio)
562
00:29:44,766 --> 00:29:48,333
But we heard him
on the camp radio once...
563
00:29:48,432 --> 00:29:50,333
(radio transmission continuing)
564
00:29:50,432 --> 00:29:53,365
...telling us that
we should cooperate.
565
00:29:55,599 --> 00:29:58,400
And it was obvious, from
his voice and his inflection,
566
00:29:58,500 --> 00:30:00,532
that he had been
tortured and beaten
567
00:30:00,633 --> 00:30:03,532
and was being made to say that.
568
00:30:03,633 --> 00:30:05,700
And that's what they did.
569
00:30:05,799 --> 00:30:10,200
NARRATOR:
Eventually, Kushner,
like most of the prisoners,
570
00:30:10,299 --> 00:30:13,000
would be forced
to record a statement
571
00:30:13,099 --> 00:30:15,032
against the war.
572
00:30:16,266 --> 00:30:17,799
(light clicks on)
573
00:30:20,599 --> 00:30:23,133
KUSHNER (on recording):
574
00:30:49,365 --> 00:30:50,932
KUSHNER:
They wanted propaganda
statements
575
00:30:51,032 --> 00:30:52,599
to say the war was criminal,
576
00:30:52,700 --> 00:30:55,200
to say that we were criminals.
577
00:30:55,299 --> 00:30:57,500
And they used our weakness
against us.
578
00:30:57,599 --> 00:30:59,000
(light clicks off)
579
00:30:59,099 --> 00:31:02,066
("Gimme Shelter" by
the Rolling Stones playing)
580
00:31:02,165 --> 00:31:05,965
CROWD (chanting):
No more war! No more war!
No more war!
581
00:31:06,066 --> 00:31:09,833
No more war!
No more war!
582
00:31:09,932 --> 00:31:11,932
JOHN MUSGRAVE:
The first time in our history
583
00:31:12,032 --> 00:31:14,500
that veterans came home
from a war and said--
584
00:31:14,599 --> 00:31:16,032
while the war
is still going on--
585
00:31:16,133 --> 00:31:19,133
and said,
"This war's got to stop."
586
00:31:19,232 --> 00:31:22,099
And the American people
587
00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:24,532
might not listen to a bunch
of long-haired hippie kids.
588
00:31:24,633 --> 00:31:26,465
What do they know?
589
00:31:26,566 --> 00:31:29,333
But the working class,
the great "silent majority"--
590
00:31:29,432 --> 00:31:31,865
Richard Nixon always talked
about his "silent majority"
591
00:31:31,965 --> 00:31:34,465
that would back him
by being silent--
592
00:31:34,566 --> 00:31:37,032
we were their kids.
593
00:31:37,133 --> 00:31:39,766
And it finally dawned on me--
594
00:31:39,865 --> 00:31:41,932
and this was a long,
painful process--
595
00:31:42,032 --> 00:31:44,900
that... that I wasn't
helping anybody
596
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:48,099
by keeping my mouth shut.
597
00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:51,365
NARRATOR:
Less than three weeks after
Lieutenant Calley
598
00:31:51,465 --> 00:31:54,133
was found guilty,
some 2,000 members
599
00:31:54,232 --> 00:31:56,165
of an organization called
600
00:31:56,266 --> 00:31:58,732
Vietnam Veterans
Against the War
601
00:31:58,833 --> 00:32:03,599
and their followers descended
upon Washington, D.C.
602
00:32:03,700 --> 00:32:07,633
MICK JAGGER:
♪ Ooh, storm is threatening
603
00:32:07,732 --> 00:32:11,200
♪ My very life today
604
00:32:11,299 --> 00:32:16,232
♪ If I don't get some shelter
605
00:32:16,333 --> 00:32:19,732
♪ Oh, yeah,
I'm gonna fade away ♪
606
00:32:19,833 --> 00:32:23,333
♪ War, children
607
00:32:23,432 --> 00:32:25,865
♪ It's just a shot away
608
00:32:25,965 --> 00:32:27,965
♪ It's just
a shot away ♪
609
00:32:28,066 --> 00:32:31,400
♪ War, children
610
00:32:31,500 --> 00:32:33,333
♪ It's just a shot away
611
00:32:33,432 --> 00:32:37,000
♪ It's just
a shot away. ♪
612
00:32:37,099 --> 00:32:40,532
VVAW was a-a...
it was great therapy.
613
00:32:40,633 --> 00:32:42,700
We were working it out
ourselves.
614
00:32:42,799 --> 00:32:45,066
Vets taking care of vets.
615
00:32:45,165 --> 00:32:46,865
We were generals
in our own right.
616
00:32:46,965 --> 00:32:48,500
And we didn't join anything.
617
00:32:48,599 --> 00:32:50,165
We became something.
618
00:32:50,266 --> 00:32:52,365
And that, yes, I was a Marine,
619
00:32:52,465 --> 00:32:54,200
but I was first and foremost
620
00:32:54,299 --> 00:32:56,566
a citizen
of the United States of America.
621
00:32:56,665 --> 00:33:00,432
And being a citizen,
I had certain responsibilities.
622
00:33:00,532 --> 00:33:03,599
And the largest
of those responsibilities
623
00:33:03,700 --> 00:33:07,000
is standing up to your
government and saying "no"
624
00:33:07,099 --> 00:33:09,133
when it's doing something
that you think
625
00:33:09,232 --> 00:33:11,932
is not in this nation's
best interest.
626
00:33:12,032 --> 00:33:17,232
That is the most important job
that every citizen has.
627
00:33:17,333 --> 00:33:21,000
ROLLING STONES:
♪ Rape, murder
628
00:33:21,099 --> 00:33:24,232
MUSGRAVE:
I served my country
as honorably,
629
00:33:24,333 --> 00:33:27,432
when I was in Vietnam Veterans
Against the War,
630
00:33:27,532 --> 00:33:31,066
as I did
as a United States Marine.
631
00:33:31,165 --> 00:33:34,500
And, in fact,
I conducted myself as a Marine
632
00:33:34,599 --> 00:33:37,299
the whole time I was in VVAW.
633
00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:38,932
I... My-my whole life,
634
00:33:39,032 --> 00:33:41,766
I conduct myself as a Marine.
635
00:33:41,865 --> 00:33:45,200
NARRATOR:
Navy Lieutenant John Kerry,
636
00:33:45,299 --> 00:33:48,599
who had commanded a swift boat
in the Mekong Delta
637
00:33:48,700 --> 00:33:51,200
and was one of
the organization's leaders,
638
00:33:51,299 --> 00:33:52,633
was invited to address
639
00:33:52,732 --> 00:33:54,865
the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee,
640
00:33:54,965 --> 00:33:57,932
still chaired
by J. William Fulbright.
641
00:33:58,032 --> 00:33:59,432
Thank you.
642
00:33:59,532 --> 00:34:02,965
MUSGRAVE:
I went up for the presentation.
643
00:34:03,066 --> 00:34:05,266
And it was standing room only.
644
00:34:05,365 --> 00:34:09,166
And I was crammed up against
the wall in the very back.
645
00:34:09,266 --> 00:34:12,300
And when John...
646
00:34:12,400 --> 00:34:15,199
gave that presentation...
(gavel bangs)
647
00:34:15,300 --> 00:34:17,800
...I felt like
he was speaking for all of us.
648
00:34:17,900 --> 00:34:21,266
KERRY:
We could come back to this
country and we could be quiet.
649
00:34:21,365 --> 00:34:22,865
We could hold our silence.
650
00:34:22,965 --> 00:34:26,432
We could not tell what
went on in Vietnam, but we feel,
651
00:34:26,532 --> 00:34:29,365
because of what threatens
this country,
652
00:34:29,465 --> 00:34:31,233
we have to speak out.
653
00:34:31,333 --> 00:34:33,166
Millions of men
who have been
654
00:34:33,266 --> 00:34:36,333
taught to deal
and to trade in violence
655
00:34:36,432 --> 00:34:38,733
and who were given
the chance to die
656
00:34:38,833 --> 00:34:41,032
for the biggest nothing
in history,
657
00:34:41,132 --> 00:34:44,766
men who have returned
with a sense of anger
658
00:34:44,865 --> 00:34:46,266
and a sense of betrayal
659
00:34:46,365 --> 00:34:48,733
which no one has yet grasped.
660
00:34:48,833 --> 00:34:51,465
We rationalized
destroying villages
661
00:34:51,565 --> 00:34:53,099
in order to save them.
662
00:34:53,199 --> 00:34:55,266
We saw America lose
her sense of morality,
663
00:34:55,365 --> 00:34:58,300
as she accepted very coolly
and My Lai
664
00:34:58,400 --> 00:35:00,800
and refused to give up
the image of American soldiers
665
00:35:00,900 --> 00:35:03,599
that hand out chocolate bars
and chewing gum.
666
00:35:03,699 --> 00:35:06,266
We learnt the meaning
of free-fire zones,
667
00:35:06,365 --> 00:35:08,865
shoot anything that moves,
668
00:35:08,965 --> 00:35:11,132
and we watched while America
placed a cheapness
669
00:35:11,233 --> 00:35:13,400
on the lives of Orientals.
670
00:35:13,500 --> 00:35:17,400
We watched the United States'
falsification of body counts--
671
00:35:17,500 --> 00:35:20,932
in fact, the glorification
of body counts.
672
00:35:21,032 --> 00:35:23,599
We watched
while men charged up hills
673
00:35:23,699 --> 00:35:26,833
because a general said
that hill has to be taken.
674
00:35:26,932 --> 00:35:29,632
And after losing one platoon
or two platoons,
675
00:35:29,733 --> 00:35:31,032
they marched away
676
00:35:31,132 --> 00:35:33,032
to leave the hill
for the reoccupation
677
00:35:33,132 --> 00:35:36,000
of the North Vietnamese.
678
00:35:36,099 --> 00:35:38,666
And we are asking Americans
to think about that.
679
00:35:38,766 --> 00:35:40,932
Because how do you ask a man
680
00:35:41,032 --> 00:35:43,766
to be the last man to die
in Vietnam?
681
00:35:43,865 --> 00:35:48,500
How do you ask a man to be the
last man to die for a mistake?
682
00:35:48,599 --> 00:35:51,632
And so, when,
30 years from now,
683
00:35:51,733 --> 00:35:54,432
our brothers go down the street
without a leg,
684
00:35:54,532 --> 00:35:57,099
without an arm or a face,
685
00:35:57,199 --> 00:35:59,833
and small boys ask why,
686
00:35:59,932 --> 00:36:02,699
we will be able
to say "Vietnam"
687
00:36:02,800 --> 00:36:06,365
and not mean
a filthy, obscene memory
688
00:36:06,465 --> 00:36:11,766
but mean instead the place
where America finally turned
689
00:36:11,865 --> 00:36:16,565
and where soldiers like us
helped it in the turning.
690
00:36:16,666 --> 00:36:18,400
Thank you.
691
00:36:18,500 --> 00:36:20,432
(cheers and applause)
692
00:36:24,932 --> 00:36:27,833
MUSGRAVE:
I thought, "I have never heard
693
00:36:27,932 --> 00:36:30,766
"so... such an incredible speech
694
00:36:30,865 --> 00:36:33,300
that says exactly what
I'm feeling."
695
00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:36,766
You know?
It was extraordinary.
696
00:36:36,865 --> 00:36:39,233
Extraordinary.
697
00:36:39,333 --> 00:36:42,900
NARRATOR:
But some veterans remembered
a different part
698
00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:44,833
of Kerry's testimony,
699
00:36:44,932 --> 00:36:48,565
testimony in which he repeated
accounts of atrocities
700
00:36:48,666 --> 00:36:52,465
he had heard
from other American veterans.
701
00:36:52,565 --> 00:36:55,733
KERRY:
They told the stories of times
702
00:36:55,833 --> 00:37:00,800
that they had personally raped,
cut off ears, cut off heads,
703
00:37:00,900 --> 00:37:04,666
taped wires from portable
telephones to human genitals
704
00:37:04,766 --> 00:37:06,465
and turned up the power,
705
00:37:06,565 --> 00:37:09,900
cut off limbs, blown up bodies,
706
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:12,565
randomly shot at civilians,
707
00:37:12,666 --> 00:37:16,900
razed villages in fashion
reminiscent of Genghis Khan...
708
00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:19,432
GIOIA:
What I saw in Vietnam
was not the soldier
709
00:37:19,532 --> 00:37:21,432
that Mr. Kerry
or his colleagues
710
00:37:21,532 --> 00:37:23,565
were describing at that time.
711
00:37:23,666 --> 00:37:26,099
There was
no widespread atrocity.
712
00:37:26,199 --> 00:37:27,766
There was...
there were a couple of units
713
00:37:27,865 --> 00:37:30,365
that went right off the rails,
and we can talk about that.
714
00:37:30,465 --> 00:37:33,099
But they were not
out-of-control animals,
715
00:37:33,199 --> 00:37:35,233
which was the way
they were portrayed.
716
00:37:35,333 --> 00:37:38,900
And what was even worse was
they were alluding to the fact
717
00:37:39,000 --> 00:37:40,300
that you would take
ordinary kids
718
00:37:40,400 --> 00:37:42,865
and turn them
into these savages,
719
00:37:42,965 --> 00:37:44,465
war criminals, and the...
720
00:37:44,565 --> 00:37:45,932
that the military
was doing that.
721
00:37:46,032 --> 00:37:48,599
And it didn't.
Didn't happen that way.
722
00:37:48,699 --> 00:37:51,065
I'm still very angry about that.
723
00:37:51,166 --> 00:37:53,000
ROLLING STONES:
♪ War, children
724
00:37:53,099 --> 00:37:54,532
NARRATOR:
The next day,
725
00:37:54,632 --> 00:37:57,800
700 Vietnam Veterans
Against the War
726
00:37:57,900 --> 00:38:00,065
gathered at the Capitol.
727
00:38:00,166 --> 00:38:03,132
MUSGRAVE:
We originally intended to put
our medals in a body bag
728
00:38:03,233 --> 00:38:06,099
and have them delivered
to Congress.
729
00:38:06,199 --> 00:38:09,500
But the Nixon
administration erected
730
00:38:09,599 --> 00:38:15,099
this big wire and wood fence
on the steps of our Capitol
731
00:38:15,199 --> 00:38:18,733
to keep us out.
732
00:38:18,833 --> 00:38:20,733
To keep out
the young men and women
733
00:38:20,833 --> 00:38:23,400
who were fighting that war.
734
00:38:23,500 --> 00:38:25,865
And all that did was piss us off
735
00:38:25,965 --> 00:38:29,865
and give us
the greatest photo opportunity
736
00:38:29,965 --> 00:38:32,632
that we could ever have.
737
00:38:32,733 --> 00:38:33,800
Silver Star.
STEVE SHAW: Purple Heart.
738
00:38:33,900 --> 00:38:36,032
MAN:
Bronze Star.
739
00:38:36,132 --> 00:38:37,865
Cross of Gallantry.
SACHS:
Distinguished Flying Cross.
740
00:38:37,965 --> 00:38:39,333
And everything else!
(cheering)
741
00:38:39,432 --> 00:38:41,132
FERRIZZI:
I don't want these fucking
medals, man!
742
00:38:41,233 --> 00:38:44,465
The Silver Star, the third
highest medal in the country,
743
00:38:44,565 --> 00:38:46,065
it doesn't mean anything!
744
00:38:46,166 --> 00:38:48,465
Bob Smeal died for these medals!
745
00:38:48,565 --> 00:38:50,965
Lieutenant Panamaroff died
so I got a medal!
746
00:38:51,065 --> 00:38:53,400
Sergeant Johns died
so I got a medal!
747
00:38:53,500 --> 00:38:55,400
I got a Silver Star,
a Purple Heart,
748
00:38:55,500 --> 00:38:57,800
Army Commendation Medal,
eight Air Medals,
749
00:38:57,900 --> 00:38:59,266
National Defense,
750
00:38:59,365 --> 00:39:00,432
and the rest of this garbage!
751
00:39:00,532 --> 00:39:02,365
It doesn't mean a thing!
752
00:39:02,465 --> 00:39:03,865
(cheering)
753
00:39:03,965 --> 00:39:07,532
JAGGER:
♪ Mm, the flood is threatening
754
00:39:07,632 --> 00:39:09,065
♪ My very life
755
00:39:09,166 --> 00:39:11,266
FERRIZZI:
Throwing my medals back
was probably harder
756
00:39:11,365 --> 00:39:12,666
than going to the war.
757
00:39:12,766 --> 00:39:15,333
Was actually harder than going
and serving in Vietnam.
758
00:39:15,432 --> 00:39:19,865
JAGGER:
♪ Or I'm gonna fade away
759
00:39:19,965 --> 00:39:22,365
FERRIZZI:
If this medal is so important,
let's make it important.
760
00:39:22,465 --> 00:39:24,065
Here it is.
You can have it back.
761
00:39:24,166 --> 00:39:26,199
End the war in Vietnam.
762
00:39:26,300 --> 00:39:27,833
What else is there?
763
00:39:27,932 --> 00:39:29,199
I... There was nothing else.
764
00:39:29,300 --> 00:39:30,699
I wouldn't put 'em on my wall
for my son.
765
00:39:30,800 --> 00:39:32,932
I never want... that was
the last thing in the world
766
00:39:33,032 --> 00:39:35,632
I would ever want my son
to revere.
767
00:39:35,733 --> 00:39:37,965
(indistinct shouting)
768
00:39:38,065 --> 00:39:40,900
TOM VALLELY:
It was a difficult decision
for me.
769
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:45,900
I did it out
of a disrespectful loyalty.
770
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:49,932
I was proud
of my military service.
771
00:39:50,032 --> 00:39:52,266
And I wanted to say,
"You know, I don't think
772
00:39:52,365 --> 00:39:55,065
you guys know that much,"
the American military.
773
00:39:55,166 --> 00:39:58,166
"You know,
I think you should think again
774
00:39:58,266 --> 00:39:59,632
"about this enterprise.
775
00:39:59,733 --> 00:40:02,099
And here you go, pal."
776
00:40:02,199 --> 00:40:03,965
Tim Bagwell
from Sacramento, California,
777
00:40:04,065 --> 00:40:06,965
still on active duty,
and I say get the hell out.
778
00:40:07,065 --> 00:40:08,032
(cheering)
779
00:40:08,132 --> 00:40:10,766
("Gimme Shelter" continues)
780
00:40:20,333 --> 00:40:22,699
MUSGRAVE:
When we threw our medals away,
781
00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:24,300
that got their attention,
782
00:40:24,400 --> 00:40:26,965
because America values
those things.
783
00:40:27,065 --> 00:40:28,400
So do we.
784
00:40:28,500 --> 00:40:30,699
That's why it was so important.
785
00:40:30,800 --> 00:40:33,833
NARRATOR:
The police had been ordered
not to arrest
786
00:40:33,932 --> 00:40:36,432
any of the veterans, because,
787
00:40:36,532 --> 00:40:39,032
Pat Buchanan,
a White House aide, wrote,
788
00:40:39,132 --> 00:40:42,500
they were "being received in
a far more sympathetic fashion
789
00:40:42,599 --> 00:40:44,699
"than other demonstrators.
790
00:40:44,800 --> 00:40:48,432
The 'crazies' will be in town
soon enough," he continued,
791
00:40:48,532 --> 00:40:50,599
"and if we want
a confrontation,
792
00:40:50,699 --> 00:40:52,666
let's have it with them."
793
00:40:52,766 --> 00:40:55,065
He was right.
794
00:40:55,166 --> 00:40:57,400
In the days
immediately following
795
00:40:57,500 --> 00:40:58,865
the veterans' protest,
796
00:40:58,965 --> 00:41:01,000
other groups
of antiwar activists
797
00:41:01,099 --> 00:41:04,099
moved into the capital.
798
00:41:04,199 --> 00:41:07,865
The most radical called itself
the May Day Tribe
799
00:41:07,965 --> 00:41:10,932
and threatened
to close the city down.
800
00:41:11,032 --> 00:41:14,266
For three days,
they staged hit-and-run raids
801
00:41:14,365 --> 00:41:16,132
throughout Washington--
802
00:41:16,233 --> 00:41:18,666
blocking bridges
and traffic circles,
803
00:41:18,766 --> 00:41:20,099
smashing windows,
804
00:41:20,199 --> 00:41:22,599
hurling rocks, burning cars.
805
00:41:22,699 --> 00:41:23,666
(sirens wailing)
806
00:41:23,766 --> 00:41:25,065
RENNIE DAVIS:
If Richard Nixon thought
807
00:41:25,166 --> 00:41:28,465
that this week was something,
wait until the next round.
808
00:41:28,565 --> 00:41:31,132
This is only a warm-up
of what is going to come.
809
00:41:31,233 --> 00:41:33,965
This is going to continue
until the war ends.
810
00:41:34,065 --> 00:41:36,266
NARRATOR:
Some 12,000 were arrested--
811
00:41:36,365 --> 00:41:38,833
7,000 on a single day,
812
00:41:38,932 --> 00:41:42,400
the largest number of arrests
in 24 hours
813
00:41:42,500 --> 00:41:44,900
in United States history.
814
00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:48,365
BILL ZIMMERMAN:
I realized, coming away
from Washington,
815
00:41:48,465 --> 00:41:50,766
that our whole strategy
was wrong
816
00:41:50,865 --> 00:41:54,500
and that we were becoming
more and more militant
817
00:41:54,599 --> 00:41:57,365
at a time
when more and more Americans
818
00:41:57,465 --> 00:41:58,965
were opposing the war
819
00:41:59,065 --> 00:42:01,565
but were turned off
by our militancy.
820
00:42:01,666 --> 00:42:04,565
So we were doing
exactly the wrong thing.
821
00:42:04,666 --> 00:42:08,132
NARRATOR:
The White House was
initially pleased.
822
00:42:08,233 --> 00:42:11,300
Public sympathy for the veterans
was largely forgotten
823
00:42:11,400 --> 00:42:15,333
in the face of days of battle
in the streets.
824
00:42:15,432 --> 00:42:18,465
Polls showed
that most Americans approved
825
00:42:18,565 --> 00:42:20,365
of the arrests.
826
00:42:24,532 --> 00:42:27,565
But those same polls
also showed
827
00:42:27,666 --> 00:42:30,365
that most Americans
no longer believed
828
00:42:30,465 --> 00:42:34,166
they were being told the truth
about Vietnam.
829
00:42:39,132 --> 00:42:41,833
MUSGRAVE:
When I got home, my...
so my dad's pissed off.
830
00:42:41,932 --> 00:42:45,666
'Cause he's-he's
a true believer, you know?
831
00:42:47,199 --> 00:42:49,432
He was already receiving threats
832
00:42:49,532 --> 00:42:52,666
because I'd thrown away
their medals.
833
00:42:54,432 --> 00:42:57,400
And that pissed my dad off then.
834
00:42:57,500 --> 00:43:00,132
And you would've thought
I hadn't done anything wrong.
835
00:43:00,233 --> 00:43:03,266
Because then somebody outside
the family was messing with me.
836
00:43:03,365 --> 00:43:05,400
And he said, "Son, don't worry.
837
00:43:05,500 --> 00:43:07,400
"Those were your medals.
You paid for 'em.
838
00:43:07,500 --> 00:43:08,800
"You can do anything
you want with 'em.
839
00:43:08,900 --> 00:43:10,965
"They want to jack with us,
they'll face us both.
840
00:43:11,065 --> 00:43:12,699
We'll-we'll take 'em on
in the driveway."
841
00:43:12,800 --> 00:43:15,465
You know?
"Yo, Dad."
842
00:43:16,733 --> 00:43:18,666
(applause)
843
00:43:20,365 --> 00:43:22,800
(band playing
"Thank Heaven for Little Girls")
844
00:43:22,900 --> 00:43:25,800
NARRATOR:
On June 12, 1971,
845
00:43:25,900 --> 00:43:28,132
Richard Nixon's daughter,
Tricia,
846
00:43:28,233 --> 00:43:32,766
married Edward Cox
in the White House Rose Garden.
847
00:43:32,865 --> 00:43:36,465
The country watched it all
on television.
848
00:43:39,900 --> 00:43:43,065
The wedding was still news
the next day.
849
00:43:43,166 --> 00:43:46,666
But another story on the front
page of theNew York Times
850
00:43:46,766 --> 00:43:49,565
caught
the president's attention.
851
00:43:49,666 --> 00:43:52,733
The article, by Neil Sheehan,
852
00:43:52,833 --> 00:43:55,532
was the first report
of what came to be called
853
00:43:55,632 --> 00:43:57,400
the Pentagon Papers,
854
00:43:57,500 --> 00:44:01,065
7,000 pages
of highly classified documents
855
00:44:01,166 --> 00:44:03,132
and historical narrative,
856
00:44:03,233 --> 00:44:05,465
compiled secretly at the orders
857
00:44:05,565 --> 00:44:09,333
of former Secretary of Defense
Robert McNamara.
858
00:44:09,432 --> 00:44:12,666
He had hoped a study
of the decision-making process
859
00:44:12,766 --> 00:44:16,266
that had led the United States
to become so deeply involved
860
00:44:16,365 --> 00:44:19,599
in Vietnam would help
future policymakers
861
00:44:19,699 --> 00:44:22,300
avoid similar errors.
862
00:44:23,900 --> 00:44:25,932
SHEEHAN:
I thought I knew a great deal.
863
00:44:26,032 --> 00:44:28,065
I thought I knew most
of what was worth knowing
864
00:44:28,166 --> 00:44:29,400
about the war.
865
00:44:29,500 --> 00:44:33,199
And, suddenly, I didn't.
866
00:44:33,300 --> 00:44:36,266
It wasn't a reporter's version
of an event.
867
00:44:36,365 --> 00:44:38,199
It wasthe ir version
of an event.
868
00:44:38,300 --> 00:44:40,532
It was their telegrams,
their orders,
869
00:44:40,632 --> 00:44:42,465
their to be remembered, and so on.
870
00:44:56,932 --> 00:45:00,000
NARRATOR:
The documents proved
that American presidents
871
00:45:00,099 --> 00:45:01,932
and their closest advisors
872
00:45:02,032 --> 00:45:04,000
had steered the United States
873
00:45:04,099 --> 00:45:06,800
toward deeper involvement
in Vietnam,
874
00:45:06,900 --> 00:45:11,300
despite their own grave doubts
about the chances for victory.
875
00:45:20,166 --> 00:45:22,666
They had known
that the Saigon government
876
00:45:22,766 --> 00:45:25,166
was weak and incompetent...
877
00:45:32,532 --> 00:45:36,465
...that the enemy was
disciplined and resilient...
878
00:45:42,565 --> 00:45:46,333
...and that the bombing
of the North wasn't working.
879
00:45:53,900 --> 00:45:57,965
Yet, they had routinely lied
about all these things
880
00:45:58,065 --> 00:46:00,599
to Congress
and the American people.
881
00:46:24,766 --> 00:46:26,432
(sighs)
882
00:46:26,532 --> 00:46:29,465
I certainly don't endorse
883
00:46:29,565 --> 00:46:34,465
anyone releasing top-secret
material to the press.
884
00:46:36,166 --> 00:46:40,065
Um, on the other hand, uh...
885
00:46:40,166 --> 00:46:43,300
I was very concerned
886
00:46:43,400 --> 00:46:45,833
about the fact that the, uh,
887
00:46:45,932 --> 00:46:51,199
government was not being up
front with the American people
888
00:46:51,300 --> 00:46:54,965
in certain respects
with the Vietnam War.
889
00:46:55,065 --> 00:46:58,233
NARRATOR:
Two copies of the report
had been stored
890
00:46:58,333 --> 00:47:01,666
at the RAND Corporation,
a California think tank,
891
00:47:01,766 --> 00:47:03,733
where Daniel Ellsberg,
892
00:47:03,833 --> 00:47:08,532
one of the study's 36 authors,
worked as an analyst.
893
00:47:08,632 --> 00:47:11,565
Ellsberg had once
supported the war.
894
00:47:11,666 --> 00:47:13,565
He'd served in the Pentagon,
895
00:47:13,666 --> 00:47:16,065
and spent two years working
for the State Department
896
00:47:16,166 --> 00:47:18,300
in Vietnam.
897
00:47:18,400 --> 00:47:22,800
But he had come to see the war
as profoundly immoral,
898
00:47:22,900 --> 00:47:25,400
and hoped
that if Americans understood
899
00:47:25,500 --> 00:47:29,833
how administration after
administration had misled them
900
00:47:29,932 --> 00:47:32,400
about what was being
done in their name,
901
00:47:32,500 --> 00:47:35,032
they might help
bring it to an end.
902
00:47:35,132 --> 00:47:38,865
He and Anthony Russo,
another RAND employee,
903
00:47:38,965 --> 00:47:42,365
secretly copied
most of the report.
904
00:47:42,465 --> 00:47:46,565
Ellsberg offered it to three
leading antiwar senators,
905
00:47:46,666 --> 00:47:50,565
hoping they would be willing
to reveal its contents.
906
00:47:50,666 --> 00:47:53,300
None dared do it.
907
00:47:53,400 --> 00:47:56,900
Meanwhile, Neil Sheehan
of theNew York Times,
908
00:47:57,000 --> 00:48:01,032
who had been reporting
on Vietnam since 1962,
909
00:48:01,132 --> 00:48:04,900
and had already secretly read
some of the documents,
910
00:48:05,000 --> 00:48:08,965
asked Ellsberg
to show him the whole report.
911
00:48:09,065 --> 00:48:12,099
SHEEHAN:
At that point, I was very
passionate about the war.
912
00:48:12,199 --> 00:48:15,632
I felt
that it was really wrong,
913
00:48:15,733 --> 00:48:17,599
because we were getting
a lot of Americans
914
00:48:17,699 --> 00:48:19,932
and a lot of Vietnamese killed
for no purpose.
915
00:48:20,032 --> 00:48:23,766
We were gonna lose this war.
916
00:48:23,865 --> 00:48:28,065
And so I vowed to myself
when I saw this material
917
00:48:28,166 --> 00:48:29,932
that this is never
gonna go back
918
00:48:30,032 --> 00:48:31,599
into a government safe again.
919
00:48:31,699 --> 00:48:33,365
The American public
had paid for it
920
00:48:33,465 --> 00:48:36,132
with the lives of their sons
and with their treasure,
921
00:48:36,233 --> 00:48:37,932
and it's gonna be published.
922
00:48:38,032 --> 00:48:39,599
NIXON:
That piece in theTimes
923
00:48:39,699 --> 00:48:40,900
is, of course,
924
00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:44,065
a massive security leak
from the Pentagon, you know.
925
00:48:44,166 --> 00:48:45,865
ROGERS:
Yeah.
926
00:48:45,965 --> 00:48:49,000
NIXON:
It all relates, of course, to
everything up until we came in.
927
00:48:49,099 --> 00:48:50,699
ROGERS:
Yeah.
928
00:48:50,800 --> 00:48:53,233
NIXON:
And it's, uh, it's ver...
it's hard on Johnson,
929
00:48:53,333 --> 00:48:56,666
it's hard on Kennedy,
it's hard on Lodge.
930
00:48:56,766 --> 00:49:00,166
NARRATOR:
At first, Nixon was not
unduly disturbed
931
00:49:00,266 --> 00:49:02,666
by the newspaper's revelations.
932
00:49:02,766 --> 00:49:06,300
They reflected badly
on his Democratic predecessors,
933
00:49:06,400 --> 00:49:08,766
not on him.
934
00:49:08,865 --> 00:49:12,065
But Henry Kissinger
quickly convinced Nixon
935
00:49:12,166 --> 00:49:13,965
that if theTime s were
permitted
936
00:49:14,065 --> 00:49:17,800
to reveal the classified secrets
of earlier presidents,
937
00:49:17,900 --> 00:49:22,900
it was only a matter of time
until someone leaked his own.
938
00:49:23,000 --> 00:49:26,833
The Justice Department obtained
a temporary court order
939
00:49:26,932 --> 00:49:30,500
forbidding theTi mes from
publishing further installments
940
00:49:30,599 --> 00:49:33,632
on the grounds
of national security.
941
00:49:33,733 --> 00:49:37,432
But soon, both theBoston Globe
942
00:49:37,532 --> 00:49:41,400
and theWashington Pos t were
also printing excerpts.
943
00:49:43,032 --> 00:49:45,565
On June 30, 1971,
944
00:49:45,666 --> 00:49:48,333
the United States
Supreme Court,
945
00:49:48,432 --> 00:49:50,599
citing the First Amendment,
946
00:49:50,699 --> 00:49:54,266
ruled six to three
that theTimes had the right
947
00:49:54,365 --> 00:49:57,833
to publish
the stolen documents.
948
00:49:57,932 --> 00:50:00,032
SHEEHAN:
And I went down
into the basement
949
00:50:00,132 --> 00:50:02,432
to wait for the presses
to start to roll,
950
00:50:02,532 --> 00:50:05,132
and they had these huge
round reams of paper.
951
00:50:05,233 --> 00:50:06,333
(whirring)
952
00:50:06,432 --> 00:50:07,932
And, finally,
the presses started to roll.
953
00:50:08,032 --> 00:50:12,465
And it was just an exquisite
moment of vindication
954
00:50:12,565 --> 00:50:14,699
of the freedom
of the press in this country
955
00:50:14,800 --> 00:50:16,400
and how important it is.
956
00:50:16,500 --> 00:50:18,465
(rhythmic rattling)
957
00:50:18,565 --> 00:50:21,233
KARL MARLANTES:
That changed
958
00:50:21,333 --> 00:50:23,233
our whole attitude
toward government.
959
00:50:23,333 --> 00:50:25,699
Up until then,
the president wouldn't lie.
960
00:50:25,800 --> 00:50:27,932
After then, they always lie.
961
00:50:28,032 --> 00:50:30,500
NARRATOR:
The day the presses began
to roll again,
962
00:50:30,599 --> 00:50:33,833
Nixon ordered
attorney general John Mitchell
963
00:50:33,932 --> 00:50:37,500
to try to discredit
Daniel Ellsberg, who had just
964
00:50:37,599 --> 00:50:39,800
been indicted
by a federal grand jury
965
00:50:39,900 --> 00:50:42,065
for theft and conspiracy
966
00:50:42,166 --> 00:50:46,132
under the Espionage Act
of 1917.
967
00:51:21,099 --> 00:51:25,300
NARRATOR:
Nixon feared Ellsberg possessed
more classified documents
968
00:51:25,400 --> 00:51:27,833
that would show
that he himself had lied
969
00:51:27,932 --> 00:51:31,699
about the secret bombing
of Cambodia and Laos,
970
00:51:31,800 --> 00:51:34,532
and he believed
that Ellsberg had had help
971
00:51:34,632 --> 00:51:38,065
and wanted to know the names
of his co-conspirators.
972
00:51:38,166 --> 00:51:40,500
The president
created a private,
973
00:51:40,599 --> 00:51:43,900
clandestine investigative unit
within the White House.
974
00:51:44,000 --> 00:51:46,900
It came to be called
"The Plumbers."
975
00:51:47,000 --> 00:51:50,532
John Ehrlichman,
one of Nixon's closest aides,
976
00:51:50,632 --> 00:51:54,000
eventually ordered them
to burglarize the office
977
00:51:54,099 --> 00:51:57,032
of Ellsberg's
Los Angeles psychiatrist
978
00:51:57,132 --> 00:51:59,099
in search of material
979
00:51:59,199 --> 00:52:02,900
with which he could be
blackmailed into silence.
980
00:52:03,000 --> 00:52:07,199
Nixon may have privately feared
something else as well.
981
00:52:07,300 --> 00:52:10,099
He was told that the safe
at another think tank,
982
00:52:10,199 --> 00:52:13,800
the Brookings Institution
in Washington, D.C.,
983
00:52:13,900 --> 00:52:17,965
contained files that might
reveal the secret role
984
00:52:18,065 --> 00:52:21,932
his campaign had played
in torpedoing the peace talks
985
00:52:22,032 --> 00:52:25,233
on the eve of his election
three years earlier,
986
00:52:25,333 --> 00:52:29,932
which President Johnson
had then considered treason.
987
00:52:30,032 --> 00:52:33,733
Nixon wanted his "plumbers"
to break into Brookings,
988
00:52:33,833 --> 00:52:38,166
crack the safe,
and remove the files.
989
00:52:38,266 --> 00:52:40,465
None of it was legal.
990
00:52:40,565 --> 00:52:43,699
Nixon did not care.
991
00:53:14,432 --> 00:53:18,666
NARRATOR:
The Brookings break-in
would never take place.
992
00:53:18,766 --> 00:53:21,233
The burglars would be unable
993
00:53:21,333 --> 00:53:24,432
to find Ellsberg's file
in his doctor's office.
994
00:53:24,532 --> 00:53:27,965
But Nixon's obsession
with his enemies
995
00:53:28,065 --> 00:53:31,800
would be the undoing
of his presidency.
996
00:53:33,099 --> 00:53:36,565
("Embryonic Journey"
by Jefferson Airplane playing)
997
00:53:40,532 --> 00:53:42,500
(laughter and chatter)
998
00:53:49,065 --> 00:53:51,000
(indistinct voice of man
speaking French over microphone)
999
00:53:52,400 --> 00:53:54,666
JACK TODD:
Once a month, I have a dream
1000
00:53:54,766 --> 00:53:59,300
that I'm... I'm back...
I'm back in basic training.
1001
00:53:59,400 --> 00:54:00,833
But I'm the age I am now,
1002
00:54:00,932 --> 00:54:03,199
which is way too old
to be in the military.
1003
00:54:03,300 --> 00:54:05,666
But, you know,
somehow I've gotten a waiver,
1004
00:54:05,766 --> 00:54:07,365
and I'm going
through all the training,
1005
00:54:07,465 --> 00:54:09,532
and there's some major war
going on.
1006
00:54:09,632 --> 00:54:12,766
And I'm going to get there,
and I'm going to be a hero
1007
00:54:12,865 --> 00:54:18,166
and vindicate myself
and be taken back by my country.
1008
00:54:18,266 --> 00:54:20,099
(car horn honks)
1009
00:54:20,199 --> 00:54:24,432
NARRATOR:
Jack Todd had crossed
into Canada in early 1970,
1010
00:54:24,532 --> 00:54:26,266
rather than take part
1011
00:54:26,365 --> 00:54:29,000
in what he believed
to be a dishonorable war.
1012
00:54:31,400 --> 00:54:35,166
He found himself living
in a strange underground world
1013
00:54:35,266 --> 00:54:37,333
of deserters and draft evaders
1014
00:54:37,432 --> 00:54:41,733
and the disaffected Canadians
who gathered around them.
1015
00:54:41,833 --> 00:54:45,900
In 1971,
he was living in Montreal,
1016
00:54:46,000 --> 00:54:48,032
restless and often depressed,
1017
00:54:48,132 --> 00:54:51,733
increasingly alienated
from his country,
1018
00:54:51,833 --> 00:54:54,965
but also anxious always
for news from home,
1019
00:54:55,065 --> 00:54:57,833
and eager to know
how his boyhood friends
1020
00:54:57,932 --> 00:55:00,965
from Scottsbluff, Nebraska,
were doing.
1021
00:55:01,065 --> 00:55:03,666
One, named Ron Bales,
1022
00:55:03,766 --> 00:55:06,833
had lived just down the street.
1023
00:55:06,932 --> 00:55:11,699
And, uh...
my mother sent me a letter, um,
1024
00:55:11,800 --> 00:55:13,965
and I remember taking
the clipping out of it.
1025
00:55:14,065 --> 00:55:17,565
I had walked up to Mount Royal
in Montreal to read the letter.
1026
00:55:17,666 --> 00:55:20,532
And the clipping was from
theScottsbluff Star-Herald,
1027
00:55:20,632 --> 00:55:23,400
and it was about Ron
being killed in Vietnam.
1028
00:55:26,632 --> 00:55:29,599
Why?
Why?
1029
00:55:29,699 --> 00:55:33,666
It was long after we knew
how wrong the war was,
1030
00:55:33,766 --> 00:55:37,833
and guys like Ron were
still dying, you know.
1031
00:55:39,666 --> 00:55:41,599
Why?
1032
00:55:42,900 --> 00:55:45,233
The government today
restricted the use
1033
00:55:45,333 --> 00:55:47,833
of the weed killer 2,4,5-T
on the ground
1034
00:55:47,932 --> 00:55:49,833
that the chemical has caused
birth defects
1035
00:55:49,932 --> 00:55:52,465
in some laboratory animals.
1036
00:55:54,365 --> 00:55:59,065
NARRATOR:
Since 1962, American
and South Vietnamese forces
1037
00:55:59,166 --> 00:56:02,532
had sprayed some 20 million
gallons of herbicides
1038
00:56:02,632 --> 00:56:06,833
over roughly one quarter
of South Vietnam.
1039
00:56:06,932 --> 00:56:10,099
The idea had been
to reduce casualties
1040
00:56:10,199 --> 00:56:13,666
by clearing areas
around U.S. installations,
1041
00:56:13,766 --> 00:56:17,965
and to deny the enemy crops
and forest cover.
1042
00:56:18,065 --> 00:56:22,132
The most frequently used
defoliant was Agent Orange,
1043
00:56:22,233 --> 00:56:25,132
which contained 2,4,5-T.
1044
00:56:25,233 --> 00:56:27,300
When environmentalists convinced
1045
00:56:27,400 --> 00:56:30,465
the Nixon administration
to ban the weed killer
1046
00:56:30,565 --> 00:56:32,132
on American farms,
1047
00:56:32,233 --> 00:56:35,032
the Pentagon
had reluctantly agreed
1048
00:56:35,132 --> 00:56:38,766
to stop using Agent Orange
in Vietnam.
1049
00:56:38,865 --> 00:56:43,599
The ecological damage defoliants
did was obvious.
1050
00:56:43,699 --> 00:56:47,699
The damage done to soldiers
and civilians
1051
00:56:47,800 --> 00:56:52,000
would be the subject
of angry debate for decades.
1052
00:56:55,300 --> 00:56:58,199
(crowd shouting in Vietnamese)
1053
00:56:58,300 --> 00:57:01,032
TED KOPPEL:
Opposition to the
Saigon government
1054
00:57:01,132 --> 00:57:03,465
is not just Viet Cong.
1055
00:57:03,565 --> 00:57:05,065
TUE:
How many governments
1056
00:57:05,166 --> 00:57:08,166
actually care
for the Vietnamese people?
1057
00:57:08,266 --> 00:57:12,000
KOPPEL:
The student antiwar,
anti-American movement
1058
00:57:12,099 --> 00:57:14,532
is larger than its small
demonstrations indicate.
1059
00:57:14,632 --> 00:57:17,400
TUE:
You don't need military aid...
1060
00:57:19,465 --> 00:57:21,865
...to promote democracy
in Vietnam.
1061
00:57:21,965 --> 00:57:25,233
To return
to the Vietnamese people
1062
00:57:25,333 --> 00:57:27,666
their right that...
1063
00:57:27,766 --> 00:57:29,932
their right to speak freely.
1064
00:57:30,032 --> 00:57:32,699
You don't need even one penny.
1065
00:57:32,800 --> 00:57:35,900
You don't need
to consult the White House,
1066
00:57:36,000 --> 00:57:38,932
you don't need to care
about the American media,
1067
00:57:39,032 --> 00:57:41,532
you don't need French,
you don't need Chinese,
1068
00:57:41,632 --> 00:57:43,199
you don't need Americans.
1069
00:57:43,300 --> 00:57:47,733
If you really care for Vietnam
then you turn back inside.
1070
00:57:47,833 --> 00:57:51,365
NARRATOR:
South Vietnamese president
Nguyen Van Thieu
1071
00:57:51,465 --> 00:57:53,432
was campaigning for reelection.
1072
00:57:53,532 --> 00:57:55,865
The Americans
had insisted on it
1073
00:57:55,965 --> 00:57:58,632
and urged him
not to rig the race,
1074
00:57:58,733 --> 00:58:01,733
for fear it would
resemble too closely
1075
00:58:01,833 --> 00:58:04,266
the fraudulent
communist "elections"
1076
00:58:04,365 --> 00:58:07,766
routinely denounced
by the United States.
1077
00:58:07,865 --> 00:58:09,432
But Thieu made sure
1078
00:58:09,532 --> 00:58:12,432
no serious candidates
ran against him,
1079
00:58:12,532 --> 00:58:16,300
and claimed to have won
94% of the vote.
1080
00:58:16,400 --> 00:58:20,099
It became known
as "the one-man election,"
1081
00:58:20,199 --> 00:58:21,365
and added to the ranks
1082
00:58:21,465 --> 00:58:24,465
of what was called
the "Third Force":
1083
00:58:24,565 --> 00:58:28,333
South Vietnamese hoping
for a negotiated settlement
1084
00:58:28,432 --> 00:58:30,599
and an end to the bloodshed.
1085
00:58:47,333 --> 00:58:49,465
NARRATOR:
By the middle of 1971,
1086
00:58:49,565 --> 00:58:52,465
Nixon and Kissinger
were looking for a way
1087
00:58:52,565 --> 00:58:55,965
to get all U.S. troops
out of Vietnam
1088
00:58:56,065 --> 00:58:58,565
before his
re-election campaign began
1089
00:58:58,666 --> 00:59:00,565
the following year,
1090
00:59:00,666 --> 00:59:03,065
but to do so without causing
1091
00:59:03,166 --> 00:59:06,099
Saigon to fall too soon.
1092
00:59:42,900 --> 00:59:45,300
NARRATOR:
At the secret talks in Paris,
1093
00:59:45,400 --> 00:59:48,465
Kissinger had offered his
North Vietnamese counterpart,
1094
00:59:48,565 --> 00:59:51,766
Le Duc Tho, the most significant
concessions
1095
00:59:51,865 --> 00:59:54,833
the United States had yet made:
1096
00:59:54,932 --> 00:59:58,432
North Vietnam could
keep its troops in the South--
1097
00:59:58,532 --> 01:00:00,432
tens of thousands of them.
1098
01:00:00,532 --> 01:00:04,932
And in exchange for the release
of American prisoners of war,
1099
01:00:05,032 --> 01:00:06,632
all American troops
1100
01:00:06,733 --> 01:00:10,000
would be withdrawn
within seven months.
1101
01:00:12,199 --> 01:00:15,565
Le Duc Tho countered
with a new offer of his own:
1102
01:00:15,666 --> 01:00:17,865
Hanoi would
release the prisoners
1103
01:00:17,965 --> 01:00:21,766
simultaneously with
the departure of U.S. forces.
1104
01:00:21,865 --> 01:00:25,032
But he still insisted
that Washington remove
1105
01:00:25,132 --> 01:00:28,599
President Thieu from power.
1106
01:00:28,699 --> 01:00:31,465
Kissinger was encouraged
that the North Vietnamese
1107
01:00:31,565 --> 01:00:35,333
seemed, for the first time,
to be negotiating seriously.
1108
01:00:35,432 --> 01:00:40,199
He could almost "taste peace,"
he told a friend.
1109
01:00:40,300 --> 01:00:41,865
Thieu knew nothing
1110
01:00:41,965 --> 01:00:45,099
about the new American
concessions to Hanoi.
1111
01:00:45,199 --> 01:00:49,065
He was worried
about something else.
1112
01:00:52,199 --> 01:00:54,132
ANNOUNCER:
NBC News interrupts
regular programming
1113
01:00:54,233 --> 01:00:56,032
to bring you a special report.
1114
01:00:56,132 --> 01:00:58,599
The announcement I shall
now read is being issued
1115
01:00:58,699 --> 01:01:03,365
simultaneously in Peking
and in the United States.
1116
01:01:03,465 --> 01:01:05,132
NARRATOR:
Richard Nixon,
1117
01:01:05,233 --> 01:01:08,333
famous for the ferocity
of his anticommunism,
1118
01:01:08,432 --> 01:01:10,965
astonished the world
by announcing
1119
01:01:11,065 --> 01:01:14,599
that he was planning to restore
relations with China
1120
01:01:14,699 --> 01:01:18,065
that had been severed
for more than two decades.
1121
01:01:18,166 --> 01:01:21,800
The United States
had gone to war in Vietnam
1122
01:01:21,900 --> 01:01:24,932
in part to block
Chinese expansionism.
1123
01:01:25,032 --> 01:01:29,166
What would Nixon's visit mean
for Thieu's future
1124
01:01:29,266 --> 01:01:31,500
or for that of his country?
1125
01:01:31,599 --> 01:01:34,766
Thieu was afraid he knew.
1126
01:01:34,865 --> 01:01:37,500
"America has been
looking for a new mistress,"
1127
01:01:37,599 --> 01:01:38,900
he told an aide,
1128
01:01:39,000 --> 01:01:41,733
"and now Nixon
has discovered China.
1129
01:01:41,833 --> 01:01:45,565
"He does not want to have
the old mistress around.
1130
01:01:45,666 --> 01:01:49,400
Vietnam has become
old and ugly."
1131
01:02:02,099 --> 01:02:05,699
KUSHNER:
I believe it was
in the fall of 1971.
1132
01:02:08,300 --> 01:02:12,400
And they called us out
and they hung a bed sheet
1133
01:02:12,500 --> 01:02:17,166
and they had a projector
and they showed us
1134
01:02:17,266 --> 01:02:20,733
color and
black and white movies
1135
01:02:20,833 --> 01:02:24,132
of these protests
in Washington.
1136
01:02:24,233 --> 01:02:26,166
(shouting)
1137
01:02:28,932 --> 01:02:30,865
And in the same film
1138
01:02:30,965 --> 01:02:33,132
it showed John Kerry.
1139
01:02:33,233 --> 01:02:35,365
And I remember
he was very articulate,
1140
01:02:35,465 --> 01:02:37,632
very, very well spoken,
1141
01:02:37,733 --> 01:02:40,699
very fluent
1142
01:02:40,800 --> 01:02:43,400
and a good spokesman
1143
01:02:43,500 --> 01:02:44,900
for his cause.
1144
01:02:45,000 --> 01:02:47,065
Someone has to die
so that President Nixon
1145
01:02:47,166 --> 01:02:49,766
won't be--
and these are his words--
1146
01:02:49,865 --> 01:02:53,599
"the first president
to lose a war."
1147
01:02:53,699 --> 01:02:54,865
And I remember very well,
1148
01:02:54,965 --> 01:02:57,500
he's sitting
with his fatigue jacket
1149
01:02:57,599 --> 01:02:59,199
and long hair
1150
01:02:59,300 --> 01:03:01,432
and testifying about atrocities
1151
01:03:01,532 --> 01:03:03,465
and war crimes that...
1152
01:03:03,565 --> 01:03:05,565
we perpetrated.
1153
01:03:05,666 --> 01:03:08,632
Cut off limbs, blown up bodies,
1154
01:03:08,733 --> 01:03:11,000
randomly shot at civilians...
1155
01:03:11,099 --> 01:03:13,065
KUSHNER:
But I was shocked
by what he said.
1156
01:03:13,166 --> 01:03:14,900
And I didn't believe it.
1157
01:03:15,000 --> 01:03:18,365
I didn't believe it at all.
1158
01:03:20,099 --> 01:03:22,965
I mean, I'm sophisticated
to know, and I knew then,
1159
01:03:23,065 --> 01:03:25,565
that bad things happen in war
and they happen on both sides,
1160
01:03:25,666 --> 01:03:29,300
and I had seen the evidence
of the other side too, also.
1161
01:03:29,400 --> 01:03:30,699
And I knew it.
1162
01:03:30,800 --> 01:03:33,032
And... but still,
to hear the testimony
1163
01:03:33,132 --> 01:03:38,065
and to hear it used as a weapon
1164
01:03:38,166 --> 01:03:40,699
against our further prosecution
of this war
1165
01:03:40,800 --> 01:03:45,632
that we were suffering for
was very powerful indeed.
1166
01:03:45,733 --> 01:03:48,365
NARRATOR:
A few months later
1167
01:03:48,465 --> 01:03:51,632
Kushner got
an even bigger shock.
1168
01:03:51,733 --> 01:03:54,000
VALERIE KUSHNER (on recording):
My son has no father.
1169
01:03:54,099 --> 01:03:57,699
This Christmas Day we celebrate
the birth of a son to Mary
1170
01:03:57,800 --> 01:04:00,365
and this Christmas Day
some other mother's son
1171
01:04:00,465 --> 01:04:02,800
will die in Vietnam.
1172
01:04:02,900 --> 01:04:05,465
That death takes away
all that was taught to us
1173
01:04:05,565 --> 01:04:08,132
by Christ's birth.
1174
01:04:08,233 --> 01:04:10,532
KUSHNER:
The whole time I was
in the South
1175
01:04:10,632 --> 01:04:12,965
I never got one letter,
one bit of information.
1176
01:04:13,065 --> 01:04:15,099
When I got to North Vietnam
I got no letter,
1177
01:04:15,199 --> 01:04:17,632
no bit of information,
nothing.
1178
01:04:17,733 --> 01:04:23,365
Then, I think it may have been
Christmas of '71,
1179
01:04:23,465 --> 01:04:27,900
my wife wrote an op-ed piece
in theNew York Times.
1180
01:04:28,000 --> 01:04:31,465
She had become
politically active.
1181
01:04:31,565 --> 01:04:33,800
NARRATOR:
The families of POWs
1182
01:04:33,900 --> 01:04:37,565
overwhelmingly supported
the Nixon administration.
1183
01:04:37,666 --> 01:04:40,565
Valerie Kushner did not,
1184
01:04:40,666 --> 01:04:42,300
and the North Vietnamese
were quick
1185
01:04:42,400 --> 01:04:45,632
to exploit her antiwar views.
1186
01:04:45,733 --> 01:04:47,565
They broadcast a message
1187
01:04:47,666 --> 01:04:50,599
they had permitted her husband
to record for her.
1188
01:04:50,699 --> 01:04:53,400
It was the first time
she had heard his voice
1189
01:04:53,500 --> 01:04:55,432
in four years.
1190
01:04:57,766 --> 01:05:00,500
KUSHNER (on recording):
I received the glasses, Val,
1191
01:05:00,599 --> 01:05:03,365
and my eyes
have improved considerably.
1192
01:05:03,465 --> 01:05:06,099
Please let me know
about Brother John.
1193
01:05:06,199 --> 01:05:08,666
He or she is almost four now,
1194
01:05:08,766 --> 01:05:11,333
and he or she is old enough
to understand
1195
01:05:11,432 --> 01:05:14,865
where Daddy is
and that I love him or her
1196
01:05:14,965 --> 01:05:18,233
immeasurably
despite our never meeting.
1197
01:05:18,333 --> 01:05:21,965
I calculate that T-Bird
is now in second grade,
1198
01:05:22,065 --> 01:05:24,099
and I know she is doing well.
1199
01:05:24,199 --> 01:05:26,000
She is a grown-up lady now
1200
01:05:26,099 --> 01:05:29,932
and I hope you have plans for
piano or ballet lessons soon.
1201
01:05:30,032 --> 01:05:32,532
Happy eighth birthday,
dear T-Bird,
1202
01:05:32,632 --> 01:05:34,099
and Merry Christmas.
1203
01:05:34,199 --> 01:05:36,432
When I left you
I promised to come home
1204
01:05:36,532 --> 01:05:38,065
before you were five.
1205
01:05:38,166 --> 01:05:41,900
I didn't fulfill that promise,
but when I do return,
1206
01:05:42,000 --> 01:05:44,565
I will never leave you again.
1207
01:05:44,666 --> 01:05:47,365
His optimism about the whole
situation amazes me.
1208
01:05:47,465 --> 01:05:48,833
I'm just very happy
1209
01:05:48,932 --> 01:05:51,300
that he can't see
this morning's newspaper.
1210
01:05:51,400 --> 01:05:54,365
Because I-I don't
have the same optimism
1211
01:05:54,465 --> 01:05:56,132
or the same confidence
in this government
1212
01:05:56,233 --> 01:05:59,032
that he seems to have.
1213
01:06:03,000 --> 01:06:08,465
NARRATOR:
President Nixon's visit to China
in February of 1972
1214
01:06:08,565 --> 01:06:11,099
not only alarmed
President Thieu,
1215
01:06:11,199 --> 01:06:14,065
it worried Hanoi as well.
1216
01:06:14,166 --> 01:06:17,300
The North Vietnamese
remembered how Ho Chi Minh
1217
01:06:17,400 --> 01:06:20,300
had felt betrayed in 1954
1218
01:06:20,400 --> 01:06:23,000
when Moscow and Beijing
had compelled them
1219
01:06:23,099 --> 01:06:27,233
to sign the Geneva Accords,
dividing Vietnam in two.
1220
01:06:27,333 --> 01:06:30,432
Now, they were concerned
that warmer relations
1221
01:06:30,532 --> 01:06:32,800
between the United States
and China
1222
01:06:32,900 --> 01:06:36,699
might soon mean
less support from Beijing.
1223
01:06:36,800 --> 01:06:40,632
Nixon was also planning
to travel to Moscow
1224
01:06:40,733 --> 01:06:44,199
to meet with Soviet premier
Leonid Brezhnev,
1225
01:06:44,300 --> 01:06:46,099
seeking to ease tensions
1226
01:06:46,199 --> 01:06:50,000
with North Vietnam's
other communist patron.
1227
01:06:50,099 --> 01:06:54,800
Before that summit took place,
First Secretary Le Duan,
1228
01:06:54,900 --> 01:06:57,766
the man who headed
the Politburo in Hanoi,
1229
01:06:57,865 --> 01:07:01,233
decided to undertake
a new kind of offensive.
1230
01:07:01,333 --> 01:07:05,032
It would be conventional warfare
this time,
1231
01:07:05,132 --> 01:07:09,000
and on a scale
he had never before attempted.
1232
01:07:09,099 --> 01:07:11,900
Le Duan had
several goals in mind:
1233
01:07:12,000 --> 01:07:14,333
to strengthen his hand
at the peace talks
1234
01:07:14,432 --> 01:07:16,865
by altering the military balance
of power
1235
01:07:16,965 --> 01:07:18,532
in South Vietnam,
1236
01:07:18,632 --> 01:07:22,032
to show that the ARVN
could not stand on their own,
1237
01:07:22,132 --> 01:07:25,833
and to convince the Soviets
and the Chinese
1238
01:07:25,932 --> 01:07:29,800
his revolution
was still worth supporting.
1239
01:07:33,932 --> 01:07:37,865
The assault began on March 30,
1972.
1240
01:07:37,965 --> 01:07:41,400
14 North Vietnamese
infantry divisions--
1241
01:07:41,500 --> 01:07:44,132
more than 120,000 men--
1242
01:07:44,233 --> 01:07:46,733
now, for the first time,
1243
01:07:46,833 --> 01:07:50,766
supported by hundreds of
Soviet and Chinese-made tanks
1244
01:07:50,865 --> 01:07:55,932
and other armored vehicles,
attacked on three fronts:
1245
01:07:56,032 --> 01:07:59,699
across the demilitarized zone,
1246
01:07:59,800 --> 01:08:04,199
in the Central Highlands
1247
01:08:04,300 --> 01:08:08,766
and west of Saigon.
1248
01:08:08,865 --> 01:08:13,900
Americans would call it
"The Easter Offensive."
1249
01:08:14,000 --> 01:08:16,800
To the South Vietnamese,
1250
01:08:16,899 --> 01:08:20,432
it would be remembered
as "The Summer of Flames."
1251
01:08:20,533 --> 01:08:23,600
REPORTER:
The South Vietnamese Army knew
this day was coming:
1252
01:08:23,699 --> 01:08:24,966
the day without Americans.
1253
01:08:25,065 --> 01:08:26,399
It was to be the big test,
1254
01:08:26,500 --> 01:08:27,733
both for them
1255
01:08:27,832 --> 01:08:30,765
and for President Nixon's
Vietnamization program.
1256
01:08:30,865 --> 01:08:33,733
The results in so far
are not encouraging.
1257
01:08:33,832 --> 01:08:36,800
Whole battalions of
the government's third division
1258
01:08:36,899 --> 01:08:39,199
joined the refugees
on the road south.
1259
01:08:39,300 --> 01:08:43,132
They had been outnumbered,
overpowered, overwhelmed.
1260
01:08:43,233 --> 01:08:45,432
NARRATOR:
An entire ARVN regiment
1261
01:08:45,533 --> 01:08:47,733
surrendered at Camp Carroll.
1262
01:08:47,832 --> 01:08:49,600
North Vietnamese troops
1263
01:08:49,699 --> 01:08:52,500
then swiftly overran
Quang Tri Province,
1264
01:08:52,600 --> 01:08:57,565
driving tens of thousands of
terrified refugees southward.
1265
01:08:57,666 --> 01:09:01,199
They nearly cut South Vietnam
in half
1266
01:09:01,300 --> 01:09:04,033
through the Central Highlands
1267
01:09:04,132 --> 01:09:08,332
and drove toward Saigon,
hoping to seize large areas
1268
01:09:08,432 --> 01:09:11,365
along the Cambodian border.
1269
01:09:11,466 --> 01:09:14,265
It looked as if
it were going to be
1270
01:09:14,365 --> 01:09:17,033
a total defeat for the ARVN.
1271
01:09:17,132 --> 01:09:21,065
There were only 60,000
U.S. military personnel
1272
01:09:21,166 --> 01:09:23,132
left in South Vietnam,
1273
01:09:23,233 --> 01:09:26,233
and very few of them
were combat troops.
1274
01:09:28,765 --> 01:09:31,865
Suddenly, the survival of
everything Nixon and Kissinger
1275
01:09:31,966 --> 01:09:34,199
had worked for was in peril.
1276
01:09:34,300 --> 01:09:38,632
They had to do something--
and fast.
1277
01:10:00,800 --> 01:10:04,233
NARRATOR:
Nixon ordered up
Operation Linebacker--
1278
01:10:04,332 --> 01:10:06,832
massive air attacks
1279
01:10:06,932 --> 01:10:08,332
on the advancing
North Vietnamese.
1280
01:10:10,132 --> 01:10:12,233
"The bastards
have never been bombed
1281
01:10:12,332 --> 01:10:15,265
"like they're going to be
this time," he said.
1282
01:10:18,966 --> 01:10:22,166
The most crucial battle
of the Easter Offensive
1283
01:10:22,265 --> 01:10:24,000
was fought at An Loc,
1284
01:10:24,100 --> 01:10:26,666
a city that commanded Route 13,
1285
01:10:26,765 --> 01:10:30,000
a paved highway
that led directly to Saigon,
1286
01:10:30,100 --> 01:10:32,399
just 60 miles away.
1287
01:10:35,265 --> 01:10:37,600
North Vietnamese artillery fire
1288
01:10:37,699 --> 01:10:39,632
and a massive infantry
and armor attack
1289
01:10:39,733 --> 01:10:41,832
drove the city's ARVN defenders
1290
01:10:41,932 --> 01:10:46,233
into an area
less than a mile square.
1291
01:10:46,332 --> 01:10:51,666
Repeated efforts to reinforce
and resupply them failed.
1292
01:10:51,765 --> 01:10:55,065
The ARVN bravely held out.
1293
01:10:55,166 --> 01:10:57,600
JAMES WILLBANKS:
The number one thing we did
1294
01:10:57,699 --> 01:11:00,300
was coordinate the air strikes.
1295
01:11:00,399 --> 01:11:02,832
General Hollingsworth
went to General Abrams
1296
01:11:02,932 --> 01:11:05,033
and begged
for all the B-52s he could get,
1297
01:11:05,132 --> 01:11:06,966
and on the 10th and 11th of May,
1298
01:11:07,065 --> 01:11:12,765
he planned a B-52 strike
every 50 minutes for 24 hours.
1299
01:11:23,432 --> 01:11:24,666
NARRATOR:
In the end,
1300
01:11:24,765 --> 01:11:29,166
American airpower
made the difference.
1301
01:11:34,699 --> 01:11:37,365
The North Vietnamese
and their armored columns,
1302
01:11:37,466 --> 01:11:38,899
massed in the open,
1303
01:11:39,000 --> 01:11:42,832
proved easy targets
for American pilots.
1304
01:11:42,932 --> 01:11:46,899
"This," one American advisor
said,
1305
01:11:47,000 --> 01:11:50,966
"was the kind of war
we came to fight."
1306
01:12:01,632 --> 01:12:04,600
PHAM LUC:
1307
01:12:42,865 --> 01:12:44,600
(explosion)
1308
01:12:44,699 --> 01:12:48,000
NARRATOR:
The North Vietnamese suffered
10,000 casualties
1309
01:12:48,100 --> 01:12:49,832
at An Loc alone
1310
01:12:49,932 --> 01:12:54,065
and lost most of their tanks
and heavy artillery.
1311
01:12:54,166 --> 01:12:55,666
(explosions continue)
1312
01:12:57,466 --> 01:12:59,899
WILLBANKS:
The bottom line was
that all the air power
1313
01:13:00,000 --> 01:13:01,600
in the world would
not make a difference
1314
01:13:01,699 --> 01:13:03,033
if the ARVN hadn't
stood and fought.
1315
01:13:03,132 --> 01:13:04,565
(people shouting)
1316
01:13:04,666 --> 01:13:08,033
They had held Kon Tum,
they had held An Loc,
1317
01:13:08,132 --> 01:13:09,800
they had re-taken Quang Tri.
1318
01:13:09,899 --> 01:13:11,966
They had taken the best
that the North Vietnamese
1319
01:13:12,065 --> 01:13:13,699
had to throw at them.
1320
01:13:13,800 --> 01:13:17,033
So I thought if we continue
to maintain that support,
1321
01:13:17,132 --> 01:13:18,332
perhaps they had a chance.
1322
01:13:18,432 --> 01:13:22,332
DUONG VAN MAI ELLIOTT:
The Easter Offensive, to me,
1323
01:13:22,432 --> 01:13:25,666
showed that the
South Vietnamese could fight,
1324
01:13:25,765 --> 01:13:28,733
but only up to a certain point.
1325
01:13:28,832 --> 01:13:31,500
So, my question would be,
1326
01:13:31,600 --> 01:13:33,500
what would happen when
the Americans left
1327
01:13:33,600 --> 01:13:36,166
with their B-52s, you know?
1328
01:13:36,265 --> 01:13:37,765
(protestors chanting)
1329
01:13:37,865 --> 01:13:40,932
NARRATOR:
Americans may have approved
of the renewed use
1330
01:13:41,033 --> 01:13:44,300
of American air power
to stop the communist advance
1331
01:13:44,399 --> 01:13:45,765
into the South,
1332
01:13:45,865 --> 01:13:50,432
but Nixon had also ordered
American planes to resume
1333
01:13:50,533 --> 01:13:53,733
sustained bombing
of North Vietnam,
1334
01:13:53,832 --> 01:13:57,399
which had been halted since
the Johnson administration.
1335
01:13:57,500 --> 01:14:01,300
Some saw the new bombing,
which vastly exceeded
1336
01:14:01,399 --> 01:14:03,399
all previous campaigns,
1337
01:14:03,500 --> 01:14:08,233
as evidence that a war Nixon had
promised was winding down
1338
01:14:08,332 --> 01:14:11,100
was once again being escalated.
1339
01:14:11,199 --> 01:14:14,533
(plane soaring)
1340
01:14:14,632 --> 01:14:16,065
LESLIE GELB:
The bombing campaign
1341
01:14:16,166 --> 01:14:17,632
was much more extensive
1342
01:14:17,733 --> 01:14:22,199
than the bombing campaign
under Lyndon Johnson.
1343
01:14:22,300 --> 01:14:23,365
And from a standpoint
1344
01:14:23,466 --> 01:14:25,966
of pressuring them
to make concessions
1345
01:14:26,065 --> 01:14:27,899
at the negotiating table,
1346
01:14:28,000 --> 01:14:30,365
historically,
that's how you did it.
1347
01:14:30,466 --> 01:14:32,699
Only it didn't work
with these guys.
1348
01:14:32,800 --> 01:14:34,632
(bombs exploding)
1349
01:14:34,733 --> 01:14:36,399
They took the pounding.
1350
01:14:38,466 --> 01:14:40,265
(men yelling in Vietnamese)
1351
01:14:43,533 --> 01:14:47,132
NARRATOR:
Le Minh Khue,
who had served four years
1352
01:14:47,233 --> 01:14:50,600
as a Youth Volunteer
on the Ho Chi Minh trail,
1353
01:14:50,699 --> 01:14:53,332
was now back home
in North Vietnam.
1354
01:14:54,632 --> 01:14:57,832
LE MINH KHUE:
1355
01:15:35,399 --> 01:15:38,300
NARRATOR:
Among the thousands
of South Vietnamese
1356
01:15:38,399 --> 01:15:41,100
who lost their lives
in the Easter Offensive
1357
01:15:41,199 --> 01:15:44,365
was the brother
of Phan Quang Tue.
1358
01:15:44,466 --> 01:15:47,000
PHAN QUANG TUE:
I had a brother, Tuan.
1359
01:15:47,100 --> 01:15:51,199
And we were raised together.
1360
01:15:51,300 --> 01:15:55,000
He would have been now 67.
1361
01:15:55,100 --> 01:15:57,832
When his plane was shot down
1362
01:15:57,932 --> 01:16:02,000
and later on they weren't
able to recover him,
1363
01:16:02,100 --> 01:16:04,666
his body, so he disappeared,
1364
01:16:04,765 --> 01:16:09,132
he was missing in action,
he was 26 years old.
1365
01:16:09,233 --> 01:16:12,600
He has his full life
ahead of him.
1366
01:16:12,699 --> 01:16:15,699
(voice breaking):
Tuan never had a chance
to live his life.
1367
01:16:17,800 --> 01:16:21,432
And I can never
overcome the feeling,
1368
01:16:21,533 --> 01:16:25,632
as to himself
1369
01:16:25,733 --> 01:16:27,966
and his generation,
1370
01:16:28,065 --> 01:16:31,300
sacrifice their lives for what?
1371
01:16:33,132 --> 01:16:37,466
And the frustrating thing is
that even Vietnamese themself
1372
01:16:37,565 --> 01:16:39,500
do not seem to value that loss.
1373
01:16:45,800 --> 01:16:48,800
NIXON:
There's only one way
to stop the killing.
1374
01:16:48,899 --> 01:16:52,533
That is to keep the weapons
of war out of the hands
1375
01:16:52,632 --> 01:16:58,365
of the international outlaws
of North Vietnam.
1376
01:16:58,466 --> 01:16:59,699
Throughout the war in Vietnam,
1377
01:16:59,800 --> 01:17:02,565
the United States has
exercised a degree of restraint
1378
01:17:02,666 --> 01:17:04,800
unprecedented
in the annals of war...
1379
01:17:04,899 --> 01:17:06,399
(planes flying overhead)
1380
01:17:06,500 --> 01:17:09,300
NARRATOR:
Le Duan's
Easter Offensive, like Tet,
1381
01:17:09,399 --> 01:17:11,632
had been a great gamble.
1382
01:17:11,733 --> 01:17:14,466
So was Nixon's next move.
1383
01:17:14,565 --> 01:17:17,600
The massive North Vietnamese
assault had failed,
1384
01:17:17,699 --> 01:17:19,100
the president said,
1385
01:17:19,199 --> 01:17:22,233
but it could never have been
mounted in the first place
1386
01:17:22,332 --> 01:17:24,832
without weapons and supplies
provided by China
1387
01:17:24,932 --> 01:17:27,500
and the Soviet Union.
1388
01:17:27,600 --> 01:17:31,765
Accordingly,
he ordered 11,000 mines laid
1389
01:17:31,865 --> 01:17:35,265
in North Vietnamese waters
to block further access
1390
01:17:35,365 --> 01:17:37,033
to Haiphong harbor.
1391
01:17:37,132 --> 01:17:40,865
It was something the Joint
Chiefs had been asking for
1392
01:17:40,966 --> 01:17:42,800
for years.
1393
01:17:42,899 --> 01:17:45,033
The scheduled summit
with the Soviets
1394
01:17:45,132 --> 01:17:46,832
was just two weeks away,
1395
01:17:46,932 --> 01:17:49,132
and some advisors
had urged the president
1396
01:17:49,233 --> 01:17:52,166
not to take any action
that directly threatened
1397
01:17:52,265 --> 01:17:56,033
Soviet ships,
for fear they would cancel it.
1398
01:17:56,132 --> 01:17:58,733
Nixon thought he had
to take the risk.
1399
01:17:58,832 --> 01:18:02,899
And so he spoke
directly to Moscow.
1400
01:18:03,000 --> 01:18:06,432
Let us not slide back
toward the dark shadows
1401
01:18:06,533 --> 01:18:09,365
of a previous age.
1402
01:18:09,466 --> 01:18:14,132
We do not ask you
to sacrifice your principles
1403
01:18:14,233 --> 01:18:16,233
or your friends,
1404
01:18:16,332 --> 01:18:19,666
but neither should you
permit Hanoi's intransigence
1405
01:18:19,765 --> 01:18:22,365
to blot out the prospects
we together
1406
01:18:22,466 --> 01:18:23,832
have so patiently prepared.
1407
01:18:26,666 --> 01:18:29,399
NARRATOR:
Nixon's gamble paid off.
1408
01:18:29,500 --> 01:18:31,065
The Soviets and
the Chinese denounced
1409
01:18:31,166 --> 01:18:36,600
the president's action,
but then did nothing.
1410
01:18:36,699 --> 01:18:41,765
On May 26, the United States
and the Soviet Union signed
1411
01:18:41,865 --> 01:18:45,800
an historic Anti-Ballistic
Missile Treaty,
1412
01:18:45,899 --> 01:18:49,100
the first agreement
to limit nuclear armaments
1413
01:18:49,199 --> 01:18:51,565
since the Cold War began.
1414
01:18:51,666 --> 01:18:54,733
For the Soviet Union,
for China,
1415
01:18:54,832 --> 01:18:57,199
as well
as for the United States,
1416
01:18:57,300 --> 01:19:01,800
Vietnam's significance
was steadily receding.
1417
01:19:38,399 --> 01:19:40,166
NIXON:
I know.
1418
01:20:04,065 --> 01:20:06,000
(camera shutter clicks)
1419
01:20:08,199 --> 01:20:12,765
NARRATOR:
On the morning of June 8, 1972,
1420
01:20:12,865 --> 01:20:17,265
Nick Ut, a 21-year-old
South Vietnamese photographer
1421
01:20:17,365 --> 01:20:19,600
working
for the Associated Press,
1422
01:20:19,699 --> 01:20:23,132
was accompanying ARVN troops
on Highway One,
1423
01:20:23,233 --> 01:20:25,699
moving toward a village
called Trang Bang,
1424
01:20:25,800 --> 01:20:28,565
to dislodge
North Vietnamese forces
1425
01:20:28,666 --> 01:20:32,432
that had occupied it
during the Easter Offensive.
1426
01:20:32,533 --> 01:20:35,699
Ut was beginning
to put his cameras away,
1427
01:20:35,800 --> 01:20:37,733
ready to return to Saigon,
1428
01:20:37,832 --> 01:20:42,565
when he saw a South Vietnamese
fighter suddenly dip down
1429
01:20:42,666 --> 01:20:44,699
toward the fleeing refugees,
1430
01:20:44,800 --> 01:20:47,699
whom the pilot mistook
for the enemy.
1431
01:20:47,800 --> 01:20:52,033
(explosions)
1432
01:20:52,132 --> 01:20:56,932
(camera shutter clicking)
1433
01:21:01,166 --> 01:21:04,399
(speaking English):
1434
01:21:38,600 --> 01:21:40,132
(speaking Vietnamese)
1435
01:22:11,166 --> 01:22:16,199
NARRATOR:
Ut drove the badly burned girl,
Kim Phuc,
1436
01:22:16,300 --> 01:22:18,533
and several other
injured children
1437
01:22:18,632 --> 01:22:20,865
to a hospital in Saigon.
1438
01:22:20,966 --> 01:22:25,332
She had been burned
over 30% of her body.
1439
01:22:25,432 --> 01:22:28,666
Then, Ut raced
to the AP darkroom
1440
01:22:28,765 --> 01:22:32,166
to find out
what he had caught on film.
1441
01:22:50,399 --> 01:22:53,265
NARRATOR:
His photo editor
in Saigon told him
1442
01:22:53,365 --> 01:22:56,332
they could not send the picture
out on the wire,
1443
01:22:56,432 --> 01:22:58,800
because the girl was naked.
1444
01:22:58,899 --> 01:23:01,332
But then Ut's boss,
1445
01:23:01,432 --> 01:23:05,100
the legendary
combat photographer Horst Faas,
1446
01:23:05,199 --> 01:23:07,132
saw the pictures.
1447
01:23:07,600 --> 01:23:09,265
UT:
1448
01:23:19,065 --> 01:23:22,966
NARRATOR:
Nick Ut's photograph appeared
1449
01:23:23,065 --> 01:23:25,865
on front pages around the world
1450
01:23:25,966 --> 01:23:29,899
and won the Pulitzer Prize.
1451
01:23:30,000 --> 01:23:32,899
For many Americans,
1452
01:23:33,000 --> 01:23:36,233
even many of those
who had supported the war,
1453
01:23:36,332 --> 01:23:40,932
the image seemed to signal
that enough was enough.
1454
01:23:44,533 --> 01:23:46,899
Kim Phuc would survive.
1455
01:23:47,000 --> 01:23:52,432
She eventually left Vietnam
and settled outside Toronto.
1456
01:23:57,899 --> 01:24:02,100
(cheers and applause)
1457
01:24:02,199 --> 01:24:04,265
(rhythmic clapping)
1458
01:24:07,865 --> 01:24:11,865
I introduce
Valerie Kushner of Virginia
1459
01:24:11,966 --> 01:24:14,632
to second the nomination
of George McGovern.
1460
01:24:14,733 --> 01:24:16,932
(applause and cheering)
1461
01:24:17,033 --> 01:24:20,632
Mr. Chairman, Democrats,
1462
01:24:20,733 --> 01:24:25,199
my participation
in this convention is a tribute
1463
01:24:25,300 --> 01:24:28,466
to the reforms instituted
by the Democratic Party,
1464
01:24:28,565 --> 01:24:32,500
for I am a woman,
and I am under 30.
1465
01:24:32,600 --> 01:24:36,166
But I also represent
an even smaller minority:
1466
01:24:36,265 --> 01:24:39,000
the wives of Americans
who are missing
1467
01:24:39,100 --> 01:24:41,533
or imprisoned in Southeast Asia.
1468
01:24:41,632 --> 01:24:45,166
(cheers and applause)
1469
01:24:45,265 --> 01:24:47,932
NARRATOR:
Valerie Kushner,
1470
01:24:48,033 --> 01:24:51,500
hoping to get her husband, Hal,
home as soon as possible,
1471
01:24:51,600 --> 01:24:54,533
had become an ardent supporter
of the candidacy
1472
01:24:54,632 --> 01:24:58,233
of Senator George McGovern
of South Dakota.
1473
01:24:58,332 --> 01:25:02,365
A decorated bomber pilot
in World War II,
1474
01:25:02,466 --> 01:25:05,166
McGovern had called
for an early end
1475
01:25:05,265 --> 01:25:06,565
to the bombing of the North,
1476
01:25:06,666 --> 01:25:09,765
a halt to Congressional funding
for the war,
1477
01:25:09,865 --> 01:25:11,765
and immediate withdrawal
1478
01:25:11,865 --> 01:25:16,432
from Vietnam
once the POWs were released.
1479
01:25:16,533 --> 01:25:19,932
I knew that he would bring
my husband home.
1480
01:25:20,033 --> 01:25:22,666
(applause)
1481
01:25:24,199 --> 01:25:28,865
But even more important,
he will bring America home.
1482
01:25:28,966 --> 01:25:31,932
(applause and cheering)
1483
01:25:32,033 --> 01:25:35,033
And it is for that reason
1484
01:25:35,132 --> 01:25:37,399
that I am proud
to second the nomination
1485
01:25:37,500 --> 01:25:42,233
of our next president,
Senator George S. McGovern.
1486
01:25:42,332 --> 01:25:45,265
(applause and cheering)
1487
01:25:47,800 --> 01:25:50,033
NARRATOR:
By the time her candidate
1488
01:25:50,132 --> 01:25:52,533
finally accepted
the nomination,
1489
01:25:52,632 --> 01:25:55,265
it was 2:48 in the morning.
1490
01:25:55,365 --> 01:25:58,300
Most Americans were asleep.
1491
01:25:58,399 --> 01:26:03,233
McGOVERN:
During four administrations
of both parties,
1492
01:26:03,332 --> 01:26:08,300
a terrible war has been
charted behind closed doors.
1493
01:26:08,399 --> 01:26:10,432
(cheers and applause)
1494
01:26:10,533 --> 01:26:12,899
I want those doors opened,
1495
01:26:13,000 --> 01:26:16,000
and I want that war closed.
1496
01:26:16,100 --> 01:26:18,765
(raucous cheers and applause)
1497
01:26:18,865 --> 01:26:20,332
(static)
1498
01:26:20,432 --> 01:26:24,132
NARRATOR:
McGovern's campaign
quickly collapsed.
1499
01:26:24,233 --> 01:26:27,432
He botched the selection
of his running mate,
1500
01:26:27,533 --> 01:26:30,800
and secretly asked an aide
in Paris
1501
01:26:30,899 --> 01:26:34,166
to talk with the
North Vietnamese about POWs,
1502
01:26:34,265 --> 01:26:39,365
and then denied he'd meddled
in the peace process.
1503
01:26:39,466 --> 01:26:41,432
Organized labor,
1504
01:26:41,533 --> 01:26:44,600
traditionally the Democrats'
most reliable ally,
1505
01:26:44,699 --> 01:26:47,533
refused to endorse
the party's candidate
1506
01:26:47,632 --> 01:26:51,166
for the first time in 20 years.
1507
01:26:51,265 --> 01:26:57,000
McGovern's poll numbers eroded
steadily over the summer.
1508
01:26:57,100 --> 01:27:00,033
Still, hoping to find material
1509
01:27:00,132 --> 01:27:03,033
that might be used
to smear the opposition,
1510
01:27:03,132 --> 01:27:06,765
Nixon's aides had already
authorized the Plumbers
1511
01:27:06,865 --> 01:27:09,065
to make another break-in,
1512
01:27:09,166 --> 01:27:12,800
this time at Democratic
National Headquarters
1513
01:27:12,899 --> 01:27:15,699
in the Washington, D.C.,
apartment complex
1514
01:27:15,800 --> 01:27:18,733
called the Watergate.
1515
01:27:18,832 --> 01:27:20,832
They had been caught.
1516
01:27:20,932 --> 01:27:23,565
JOHN CHANCELLOR:
One of the most fascinating
and exotic stories
1517
01:27:23,666 --> 01:27:25,365
ever to come out
of Washington, D.C.,
1518
01:27:25,466 --> 01:27:27,399
is the talk
of the Capitol today.
1519
01:27:27,500 --> 01:27:29,466
Five men were arrested
early Saturday
1520
01:27:29,565 --> 01:27:32,365
while trying to install
eavesdropping equipment
1521
01:27:32,466 --> 01:27:34,565
at the Democratic
National Committee.
1522
01:27:34,666 --> 01:27:36,865
And it turns out
that one of them has an office
1523
01:27:36,966 --> 01:27:39,233
in the headquarters
of the Committee
1524
01:27:39,332 --> 01:27:41,065
for the Re-Election
of the President.
1525
01:27:41,166 --> 01:27:44,466
(camera shutter clicking)
1526
01:27:49,300 --> 01:27:51,399
("Barbarella" by Bob Crewe
and Charles Fox playing)
1527
01:27:51,500 --> 01:27:57,033
♪ It's a wonder,
wonder woman ♪
1528
01:27:57,132 --> 01:28:02,699
♪ You're so wild
and wonderful ♪
1529
01:28:02,800 --> 01:28:07,765
♪ 'Cause it seems whenever
1530
01:28:07,865 --> 01:28:10,265
♪ We're together
1531
01:28:10,365 --> 01:28:12,033
♪ The planets all...
1532
01:28:12,132 --> 01:28:15,600
JOHN MUSGRAVE:
Barbarella--
Jane Fonda was...
1533
01:28:15,699 --> 01:28:19,765
was one of our major fantasies.
1534
01:28:19,865 --> 01:28:23,966
You know?
I mean, major fantasies.
1535
01:28:24,065 --> 01:28:27,300
And, uh, we couldn't believe it
1536
01:28:27,399 --> 01:28:31,733
when that fantasy
went to North Vietnam.
1537
01:28:31,832 --> 01:28:34,399
She was held to a different
standard of conduct
1538
01:28:34,500 --> 01:28:38,365
by being our fantasy,
you know, our dream girl.
1539
01:28:38,466 --> 01:28:42,000
It's like our dream girl
betrayed us.
1540
01:28:42,100 --> 01:28:43,300
("Where Have All the Flowers
Gone" by Joan Baez playing)
1541
01:28:43,399 --> 01:28:45,466
♪ Where have all
the young men gone? ♪
1542
01:28:45,565 --> 01:28:49,832
♪ They are all in uniform
1543
01:28:49,932 --> 01:28:55,432
♪ When will they ever learn?
1544
01:28:55,533 --> 01:29:00,365
♪ When will they
ever learn? ♪
1545
01:29:00,466 --> 01:29:02,332
♪ Where have all...
1546
01:29:02,432 --> 01:29:04,932
NARRATOR:
Over the years, a steady stream
1547
01:29:05,033 --> 01:29:08,533
of Americans opposed to the war
would visit Hanoi,
1548
01:29:08,632 --> 01:29:11,865
including the folk singer
Joan Baez
1549
01:29:11,966 --> 01:29:15,533
David Dellinger
of the War Resisters League,
1550
01:29:15,632 --> 01:29:18,832
the writer Susan Sontag,
1551
01:29:18,932 --> 01:29:23,300
and Tom Hayden of
the Indochina Peace Campaign.
1552
01:29:23,399 --> 01:29:26,533
But no visitor
made more headlines
1553
01:29:26,632 --> 01:29:28,966
than the actress Jane Fonda.
1554
01:29:29,065 --> 01:29:32,399
During two weeks
in the summer of 1972,
1555
01:29:32,500 --> 01:29:36,733
she broadcast at least
ten times over Radio Hanoi,
1556
01:29:36,832 --> 01:29:39,199
denouncing American POWs
1557
01:29:39,300 --> 01:29:41,666
for having committed
war crimes,
1558
01:29:41,765 --> 01:29:44,265
urging the North Vietnamese
to hold out
1559
01:29:44,365 --> 01:29:47,733
against American imperialism.
1560
01:29:47,832 --> 01:29:51,199
Many Americans
would never forgive her
1561
01:29:51,300 --> 01:29:54,565
for what she did and said.
1562
01:29:54,666 --> 01:29:57,100
FONDA:
According to international law,
1563
01:29:57,199 --> 01:29:59,600
these men are war criminals.
1564
01:29:59,699 --> 01:30:01,166
That's according to law,
1565
01:30:01,265 --> 01:30:02,500
according
to the Nuremberg principles,
1566
01:30:02,600 --> 01:30:05,000
according to the Geneva Accord,
and others.
1567
01:30:05,100 --> 01:30:08,000
They should be tried
in front of a court
1568
01:30:08,100 --> 01:30:10,533
and probably executed
for what they did.
1569
01:30:10,632 --> 01:30:14,199
MUSGRAVE:
She's taken a lot of heat
for what she did.
1570
01:30:14,300 --> 01:30:16,865
And deservedly so.
1571
01:30:16,966 --> 01:30:20,466
She did some things
that were terrible.
1572
01:30:20,565 --> 01:30:23,132
And-and, yes,
1573
01:30:23,233 --> 01:30:25,733
we have a right
to be pissed off at her.
1574
01:30:25,832 --> 01:30:28,733
But, you know,
1575
01:30:28,832 --> 01:30:31,565
she wasn't the only one.
1576
01:30:31,666 --> 01:30:36,166
She's just the only one
we fantasized about.
1577
01:30:37,166 --> 01:30:41,600
(cheers and applause)
1578
01:30:46,365 --> 01:30:48,500
AUDIENCE:
Four more years!
1579
01:30:48,600 --> 01:30:51,432
Four more years!
Four more years!
1580
01:30:51,533 --> 01:30:53,932
NIXON:
We have brought over
half a million men home,
1581
01:30:54,033 --> 01:30:55,932
and more will be coming home.
1582
01:30:56,033 --> 01:30:59,065
We have ended
America's ground combat role.
1583
01:30:59,166 --> 01:31:01,733
No draftees
are being sent to Vietnam.
1584
01:31:01,832 --> 01:31:04,733
We have reduced our casualties
by 98%.
1585
01:31:04,832 --> 01:31:06,632
We've gone the extra mile.
1586
01:31:06,733 --> 01:31:09,432
In fact, we've gone tens
of thousands of miles
1587
01:31:09,533 --> 01:31:11,932
trying to seek a negotiated
settlement of the war.
1588
01:31:12,033 --> 01:31:13,699
(applause)
1589
01:31:13,800 --> 01:31:16,500
There are three things,
however, that we have not
1590
01:31:16,600 --> 01:31:18,632
and that we will not offer.
1591
01:31:18,733 --> 01:31:21,832
We will never abandon
our prisoners of war.
1592
01:31:21,932 --> 01:31:23,332
(cheers and applause)
1593
01:31:29,199 --> 01:31:30,832
And, second,
1594
01:31:30,932 --> 01:31:34,500
we will not join our enemies
1595
01:31:34,600 --> 01:31:38,100
in imposing a communist
government on our ally,
1596
01:31:38,199 --> 01:31:40,533
the 17 million people
of South Vietnam.
1597
01:31:40,632 --> 01:31:43,332
(cheers and applause)
1598
01:31:46,666 --> 01:31:48,565
And we will never stain
the honor
1599
01:31:48,666 --> 01:31:50,733
of the United States of America.
1600
01:31:50,832 --> 01:31:52,765
(cheers)
1601
01:32:33,765 --> 01:32:36,865
NARRATOR:
Back in Paris, Henry Kissinger
was determined
1602
01:32:36,966 --> 01:32:41,399
to hammer out a peace agreement
before Election Day.
1603
01:32:41,500 --> 01:32:44,765
Now Le Duc Tho
made a key concession.
1604
01:32:44,865 --> 01:32:47,065
Hanoi no longer insisted
1605
01:32:47,166 --> 01:32:50,699
that President Thieu had to go.
1606
01:32:50,800 --> 01:32:53,533
JOHN NEGROPONTE:
There was somehow
this compulsion
1607
01:32:53,632 --> 01:32:57,132
to come to some kind
of an agreement.
1608
01:32:57,233 --> 01:33:00,132
I remember Le Duc Tho when
he produced the draft agreement
1609
01:33:00,233 --> 01:33:06,466
in October 8 of '72
to Kissinger, saying,
1610
01:33:06,565 --> 01:33:07,865
"You're in a hurry, aren't you?
1611
01:33:07,966 --> 01:33:09,865
You want to do this quickly."
1612
01:33:09,966 --> 01:33:13,533
And-and the response was, "Yes."
1613
01:33:13,632 --> 01:33:17,065
NARRATOR:
The two sides soon
had a tentative deal,
1614
01:33:17,166 --> 01:33:19,065
a "cease-fire in place"
1615
01:33:19,166 --> 01:33:21,565
to be followed within 60 days
1616
01:33:21,666 --> 01:33:24,565
by a complete withdrawal
of U.S. troops
1617
01:33:24,666 --> 01:33:28,166
and the return
of all American POWs.
1618
01:33:28,265 --> 01:33:32,432
The United States
stopped bombing the North.
1619
01:33:32,533 --> 01:33:38,033
No one had told President Thieu
any of the terms.
1620
01:33:39,666 --> 01:33:43,365
The day before Kissinger was to
arrive in Saigon to brief him,
1621
01:33:43,466 --> 01:33:47,100
Thieu was handed a document
found in an enemy bunker
1622
01:33:47,199 --> 01:33:49,332
in Quang Tin Province.
1623
01:33:49,432 --> 01:33:53,765
It was entitled "General
Instructions for Cease-Fire."
1624
01:33:53,865 --> 01:33:58,533
It meant that communist cadres
in an isolated province
1625
01:33:58,632 --> 01:34:02,966
of his own country already knew
more about what Kissinger
1626
01:34:03,065 --> 01:34:08,000
and Le Duc Tho had agreed to
in Paris than he did.
1627
01:34:08,100 --> 01:34:11,432
NEGROPONTE:
And imagine being given
an agreement
1628
01:34:11,533 --> 01:34:16,899
concerning the fate of your own
country and, uh,
1629
01:34:17,000 --> 01:34:18,666
being told that
you really don't have
1630
01:34:18,765 --> 01:34:22,332
any input in the matter.
1631
01:34:22,432 --> 01:34:25,899
And, oh, by the way,
we didn't even yet have
1632
01:34:26,000 --> 01:34:27,800
the Vietnamese translation,
1633
01:34:27,899 --> 01:34:29,632
because that hadn't been
completed.
1634
01:34:29,733 --> 01:34:33,199
And we gave him
the English version.
1635
01:34:33,300 --> 01:34:36,533
So, I mean,
as a professional diplomat,
1636
01:34:36,632 --> 01:34:39,800
somebody who's been in this
business all my life, uh,
1637
01:34:39,899 --> 01:34:42,565
I've got to tell you,
that just an awful lot
1638
01:34:42,666 --> 01:34:45,365
of diplomatic rules
were broken there.
1639
01:34:45,466 --> 01:34:49,300
NARRATOR:
Thieu refused
to accept the terms.
1640
01:34:49,399 --> 01:34:52,565
Allowing North Vietnamese troops
to remain in the South
1641
01:34:52,666 --> 01:34:55,733
would be the death
of his country.
1642
01:34:55,832 --> 01:35:00,000
Nonetheless,
after Kissinger returned home
1643
01:35:00,100 --> 01:35:02,533
12 days before the election,
1644
01:35:02,632 --> 01:35:06,800
he told the press,
"Peace is at hand."
1645
01:35:06,899 --> 01:35:09,365
("Tail Dragger" by Link Wray
playing)
1646
01:35:12,466 --> 01:35:15,399
On November 7, 1972,
1647
01:35:15,500 --> 01:35:18,565
Richard Nixon won
a stunning victory.
1648
01:35:18,666 --> 01:35:23,399
He was reelected with more
than 60% of the popular vote--
1649
01:35:23,500 --> 01:35:29,399
521 electoral votes
to McGovern's 17.
1650
01:35:29,500 --> 01:35:33,199
He took every single state
except Massachusetts
1651
01:35:33,300 --> 01:35:35,800
and the District of Columbia.
1652
01:35:35,899 --> 01:35:39,000
Now, the president resolved
to rid himself
1653
01:35:39,100 --> 01:35:44,666
of Vietnam completely before
his second inauguration.
1654
01:35:44,765 --> 01:35:47,533
To calm Thieu's fears
of what was to come,
1655
01:35:47,632 --> 01:35:50,466
Nixon launched
another massive airlift
1656
01:35:50,565 --> 01:35:53,399
of military equipment
to South Vietnam.
1657
01:35:53,500 --> 01:35:56,500
"If we had given this aid
to the North Vietnamese,"
1658
01:35:56,600 --> 01:35:58,399
one American general said,
1659
01:35:58,500 --> 01:36:02,800
"they could have fought us
for the rest of the century."
1660
01:36:02,899 --> 01:36:06,765
The Paris peace talks resumed.
1661
01:36:06,865 --> 01:36:10,132
But then, Le Duc Tho
suddenly announced
1662
01:36:10,233 --> 01:36:14,399
he needed to return to Hanoi
for consultation.
1663
01:36:14,500 --> 01:36:16,332
NEGROPONTE:
We could only conclude
that maybe they were
1664
01:36:16,432 --> 01:36:17,899
having some doubts
about whether
1665
01:36:18,000 --> 01:36:19,899
they wanted to go through
with the agreement,
1666
01:36:20,000 --> 01:36:22,600
because we had sent
so many supplies
1667
01:36:22,699 --> 01:36:25,800
to Saigon
in the intervening weeks.
1668
01:36:25,899 --> 01:36:28,500
NARRATOR:
There turned out to be
dissension
1669
01:36:28,600 --> 01:36:31,132
on the communist side as well.
1670
01:36:31,233 --> 01:36:34,699
Hanoi, like Washington,
had not bothered to consult
1671
01:36:34,800 --> 01:36:36,932
with its southern comrades.
1672
01:36:37,033 --> 01:36:39,733
It had dropped the two demands
that meant the most
1673
01:36:39,832 --> 01:36:43,765
to the Viet Cong-- the removal
of Thieu, and the release
1674
01:36:43,865 --> 01:36:47,000
of some 30,000
of their prisoners.
1675
01:36:47,100 --> 01:36:50,065
"Hanoi's message was clear,"
1676
01:36:50,166 --> 01:36:52,533
one bitter
Viet Cong official said.
1677
01:36:52,632 --> 01:36:56,432
"It cared more about
American prisoners of war
1678
01:36:56,533 --> 01:36:59,199
than it did for us."
1679
01:36:59,300 --> 01:37:02,832
Nixon ordered Kissinger
to suspend the talks,
1680
01:37:02,932 --> 01:37:05,865
and then he resumed the bombing
of North Vietnam
1681
01:37:05,966 --> 01:37:08,132
to further punish Hanoi,
1682
01:37:08,233 --> 01:37:11,065
and to signal to both
Hanoi and Saigon
1683
01:37:11,166 --> 01:37:14,733
that the United States
might use its airpower
1684
01:37:14,832 --> 01:37:17,000
to defend South Vietnam
1685
01:37:17,100 --> 01:37:21,500
even after a peace agreement
was signed.
1686
01:37:22,899 --> 01:37:24,733
On December 18,
1687
01:37:24,832 --> 01:37:28,199
Nixon unleashed round-the-clock
air strikes
1688
01:37:28,300 --> 01:37:31,365
that flattened targets
around Hanoi and Haiphong.
1689
01:37:31,466 --> 01:37:33,199
(explosions)
1690
01:37:33,300 --> 01:37:36,466
It would be remembered
as the Christmas Bombing.
1691
01:37:36,565 --> 01:37:39,899
(bombs exploding,
people shouting)
1692
01:37:40,000 --> 01:37:41,765
HAL KUSHNER:
And all of a sudden,
1693
01:37:41,865 --> 01:37:43,865
around Christmastime,
1694
01:37:43,966 --> 01:37:46,265
we hear an Arc Light operation,
1695
01:37:46,365 --> 01:37:48,832
B-52s-- good-good-good-good-good.
1696
01:37:48,932 --> 01:37:50,800
And it's all around,
and it is just exploding.
1697
01:37:50,899 --> 01:37:55,699
And everyone knew
they were B-52s.
1698
01:37:55,800 --> 01:37:58,033
And is... in the two years
that I was there,
1699
01:37:58,132 --> 01:38:00,800
that was the first time
I ever heard a bomb.
1700
01:38:00,899 --> 01:38:02,332
And it was close.
1701
01:38:02,432 --> 01:38:04,699
It was really close.
1702
01:38:04,800 --> 01:38:06,932
It was frightening,
but we were still cheering.
1703
01:38:07,033 --> 01:38:10,699
I mean, we were cheering because
something was happening.
1704
01:38:10,800 --> 01:38:13,033
(explosions)
1705
01:38:13,132 --> 01:38:14,932
HUY DUC:
1706
01:38:43,800 --> 01:38:45,166
NARRATOR:
Around the world,
1707
01:38:45,265 --> 01:38:48,500
antiwar demonstrators returned
to the streets.
1708
01:38:48,600 --> 01:38:51,699
The prime minister of Sweden
compared the United States
1709
01:38:51,800 --> 01:38:53,432
to Nazi Germany.
1710
01:38:53,533 --> 01:38:55,632
The Pope called the bombing,
1711
01:38:55,733 --> 01:38:58,432
which killed more than
1,600 civilians,
1712
01:38:58,533 --> 01:39:01,632
"the object of daily grief."
1713
01:39:01,733 --> 01:39:06,033
James Reston of theNew York
Times pronounced the raids
1714
01:39:06,132 --> 01:39:07,932
"war by tantrum."
1715
01:39:08,033 --> 01:39:12,466
Republican Senator
William Saxbe of Ohio said
1716
01:39:12,565 --> 01:39:17,166
the president had taken leave
of his senses.
1717
01:39:17,265 --> 01:39:18,800
(gunfire)
1718
01:39:18,899 --> 01:39:22,865
North Vietnam shot down
15 B-52s,
1719
01:39:22,966 --> 01:39:27,233
along with 11 other aircraft.
1720
01:39:27,332 --> 01:39:31,300
93 crewmen were
reported missing.
1721
01:39:31,399 --> 01:39:36,065
45 new prisoners of war
were locked up in Hanoi,
1722
01:39:36,166 --> 01:39:40,765
one of whom died in captivity.
1723
01:39:40,865 --> 01:39:45,765
Meanwhile, both the Chinese
and the Soviets pressed Hanoi
1724
01:39:45,865 --> 01:39:48,365
to resume negotiations.
1725
01:39:48,466 --> 01:39:52,065
"The most important thing is
to let the Americans leave,"
1726
01:39:52,166 --> 01:39:55,332
Zhou Enlai told
a North Vietnamese official.
1727
01:39:55,432 --> 01:40:00,132
"The situation will change
in six months or a year."
1728
01:40:02,199 --> 01:40:06,265
On December 26, Hanoi signaled
its willingness
1729
01:40:06,365 --> 01:40:08,600
to return to Paris.
1730
01:40:08,699 --> 01:40:13,265
It would take just six days
to reach a final agreement.
1731
01:40:13,365 --> 01:40:19,565
NEGROPONTE:
We bombed them into
accepting our concessions.
1732
01:40:19,666 --> 01:40:23,765
We bombed them into accepting
our concessions.
1733
01:40:23,865 --> 01:40:27,600
And I stand by that statement,
because, in effect,
1734
01:40:27,699 --> 01:40:33,932
what we did was to carry out
this massive bombing campaign
1735
01:40:34,033 --> 01:40:38,832
in order to basically get back
to pretty much exactly
1736
01:40:38,932 --> 01:40:42,565
where we were at the end
of October in '72.
1737
01:40:44,533 --> 01:40:47,466
NARRATOR:
President Thieu still balked
at signing on.
1738
01:40:47,565 --> 01:40:49,832
Nixon was adamant.
1739
01:40:49,932 --> 01:40:52,932
Thieu had to go along with
what Washington and Hanoi
1740
01:40:53,033 --> 01:40:54,600
had worked out.
1741
01:40:54,699 --> 01:40:57,399
But without informing Congress,
1742
01:40:57,500 --> 01:41:00,399
the president assured
Thieu in writing
1743
01:41:00,500 --> 01:41:04,233
that the United States would
"respond with full force"
1744
01:41:04,332 --> 01:41:07,932
if the North ever violated
the agreement.
1745
01:41:08,033 --> 01:41:11,565
"The Americans really leave me
no choice," Thieu said.
1746
01:41:11,666 --> 01:41:15,533
"Either sign
or they will cut off aid.
1747
01:41:15,632 --> 01:41:19,733
"On the other hand, we have an
absolute guarantee from Nixon
1748
01:41:19,832 --> 01:41:22,033
"to defend the country.
1749
01:41:22,132 --> 01:41:26,600
"I am going to agree to sign
and hold him to his word.
1750
01:41:26,699 --> 01:41:30,399
He is an honest man
and I am going to trust him."
1751
01:41:39,065 --> 01:41:43,132
On January 22, 1973,
1752
01:41:43,233 --> 01:41:47,132
at his ranch in the
Hill Country of Texas,
1753
01:41:47,233 --> 01:41:50,166
Lyndon Baines Johnson,
1754
01:41:50,265 --> 01:41:52,865
the president who had committed
the United States
1755
01:41:52,966 --> 01:41:55,832
to a ground war in Vietnam,
1756
01:41:55,932 --> 01:42:00,233
and had seen that war undercut
his domestic social programs
1757
01:42:00,332 --> 01:42:03,332
and end his political career,
1758
01:42:03,432 --> 01:42:05,600
died of congestive
heart failure.
1759
01:42:10,832 --> 01:42:15,632
The following evening, Richard
Nixon spoke to the nation.
1760
01:42:15,733 --> 01:42:18,332
28 years after
the United States
1761
01:42:18,432 --> 01:42:21,233
first became involved
in Vietnam,
1762
01:42:21,332 --> 01:42:24,199
it was finally getting out.
1763
01:42:24,300 --> 01:42:25,733
NIXON:
I have asked for this radio
1764
01:42:25,832 --> 01:42:28,100
and television time tonight
1765
01:42:28,199 --> 01:42:31,666
for the purpose
of announcing that we today
1766
01:42:31,765 --> 01:42:35,033
have concluded an agreement
to end the war
1767
01:42:35,132 --> 01:42:39,132
and bring peace with honor in
Vietnam and in Southeast Asia.
1768
01:42:39,233 --> 01:42:42,632
A cease-fire,
internationally supervised,
1769
01:42:42,733 --> 01:42:46,533
will begin at 7:00 p.m.
this Saturday, January 27,
1770
01:42:46,632 --> 01:42:48,365
Washington time.
1771
01:42:48,466 --> 01:42:50,466
Within 60 days
from this Saturday,
1772
01:42:50,565 --> 01:42:54,800
all Americans held prisoners
of war throughout Indochina
1773
01:42:54,899 --> 01:42:57,332
will be released.
1774
01:42:59,100 --> 01:43:03,932
NARRATOR:
American prisoners of war,
591 of them,
1775
01:43:04,033 --> 01:43:07,233
were to be released
in batches of 40.
1776
01:43:07,332 --> 01:43:10,233
Those who had been
in captivity the longest
1777
01:43:10,332 --> 01:43:12,899
were to come home first.
1778
01:43:13,000 --> 01:43:16,932
Today the largest contingents of
repatriated prisoners so far,
1779
01:43:17,033 --> 01:43:18,800
60 men, were flown from Clark
1780
01:43:18,899 --> 01:43:20,765
to Travis Air Force Base,
California.
1781
01:43:20,865 --> 01:43:22,699
ROGER PETERSON:
Today's most dramatic
moment came
1782
01:43:22,800 --> 01:43:25,399
when Everett Alvarez made
his happy trek down the ramp,
1783
01:43:25,500 --> 01:43:26,600
home at last.
1784
01:43:26,699 --> 01:43:28,033
For almost as long
as most Americans
1785
01:43:28,132 --> 01:43:29,600
have been aware of Vietnam,
1786
01:43:29,699 --> 01:43:33,533
Lieutenant Commander Alvarez
has been a prisoner in Hanoi.
1787
01:43:33,632 --> 01:43:36,466
He was shot down August 5, 1964,
during the first raids flown
1788
01:43:36,565 --> 01:43:39,533
in retaliation for
the Tonkin Gulf incident.
1789
01:43:39,632 --> 01:43:41,432
And finally, today,
he was home.
1790
01:43:41,533 --> 01:43:43,899
For years and years,
1791
01:43:44,000 --> 01:43:50,233
we dreamed of this day,
and we kept faith.
1792
01:43:50,332 --> 01:43:55,033
Faith in God,
in our president,
1793
01:43:55,132 --> 01:43:56,699
and in our country.
1794
01:43:56,800 --> 01:43:59,932
("America the Beautiful"
by Ray Charles playing)
1795
01:44:01,733 --> 01:44:06,265
NARRATOR:
Hal Kushner's turn
came in mid-March.
1796
01:44:06,365 --> 01:44:08,800
CHARLES:
♪ Oh, beautiful
1797
01:44:08,899 --> 01:44:12,932
♪ For heroes proved
1798
01:44:15,500 --> 01:44:19,300
♪ In liberating strife
1799
01:44:19,399 --> 01:44:21,932
KUSHNER:
And they...
then they called our name.
1800
01:44:22,033 --> 01:44:24,565
And I walked out
in the sunlight.
1801
01:44:24,666 --> 01:44:27,500
And the first thing I saw
was a girl in a miniskirt.
1802
01:44:27,600 --> 01:44:30,265
She was a reporter for one
of the news organizations.
1803
01:44:30,365 --> 01:44:32,300
I'd never seen
a real-life miniskirt.
1804
01:44:32,399 --> 01:44:38,000
CHARLES:
♪ And mercy more than life
1805
01:44:38,100 --> 01:44:40,365
KUSHNER:
And there was a table
with the Vietnamese
1806
01:44:40,466 --> 01:44:42,500
and American authorities
on one side,
1807
01:44:42,600 --> 01:44:45,100
and there was a brigadier
general, Air Force general
1808
01:44:45,199 --> 01:44:47,500
in Class A uniform.
1809
01:44:47,600 --> 01:44:50,765
And he looked magnificent.
1810
01:44:50,865 --> 01:44:53,666
And I looked at him...
1811
01:44:53,765 --> 01:44:55,500
(voice breaking):
and he had breadth,
1812
01:44:55,600 --> 01:44:59,600
he had thickness
that we didn't have.
1813
01:44:59,699 --> 01:45:02,865
And his hair was...
he had on a garrison cap.
1814
01:45:02,966 --> 01:45:06,000
And his hair was
plump and moist,
1815
01:45:06,100 --> 01:45:08,600
and our hair
was like straw, you know.
1816
01:45:08,699 --> 01:45:10,899
It was dry and
we were skinny.
1817
01:45:11,000 --> 01:45:11,932
(clears throat)
1818
01:45:13,332 --> 01:45:15,033
And I went out and I saluted,
1819
01:45:15,132 --> 01:45:17,800
which was a courtesy
that had been denied us
1820
01:45:17,899 --> 01:45:20,632
for so many years.
1821
01:45:20,733 --> 01:45:23,132
And he saluted me, and he...
1822
01:45:23,233 --> 01:45:25,199
I shook hands
with him and he hugged me,
1823
01:45:25,300 --> 01:45:26,733
he actually hugged me,
1824
01:45:26,832 --> 01:45:30,432
and he said,
"Welcome home, Major.
1825
01:45:30,533 --> 01:45:32,132
We're glad to see you, doctor."
1826
01:45:32,233 --> 01:45:35,000
And the tears were
streaming down his cheeks.
1827
01:45:35,100 --> 01:45:38,132
And it was just
a-a powerful moment.
1828
01:45:38,233 --> 01:45:42,765
CHARLES:
♪ For purple mountains
1829
01:45:42,865 --> 01:45:44,233
♪ Majesty
1830
01:45:44,332 --> 01:45:46,600
KUSHNER:
And then this liaison officer
they called
1831
01:45:46,699 --> 01:45:50,166
that came out and got me
and escorted me on this C-141.
1832
01:45:50,265 --> 01:45:54,100
It was this beautiful white
airplane with a flag.
1833
01:45:54,199 --> 01:45:57,500
(sighs)
1834
01:45:57,600 --> 01:46:02,733
An American flag
on the tail and USAF.
1835
01:46:02,832 --> 01:46:05,265
CHARLES:
America
1836
01:46:05,365 --> 01:46:06,699
♪ You know
1837
01:46:06,800 --> 01:46:11,265
♪ God done shed
his grace on thee ♪
1838
01:46:11,365 --> 01:46:14,932
KUSHNER:
And they had these real
cute flight nurses on there.
1839
01:46:15,033 --> 01:46:16,966
They were all tall and blonde
and, you know,
1840
01:46:17,065 --> 01:46:19,000
they-they were just gorgeous.
1841
01:46:19,100 --> 01:46:21,432
And we got on this thing
and, and she said,
1842
01:46:21,533 --> 01:46:24,533
this nurse-- we sat in these
seats and she said,
1843
01:46:24,632 --> 01:46:26,199
"We have anything you want,
you know.
1844
01:46:26,300 --> 01:46:27,332
"Do... what do you want?"
1845
01:46:27,432 --> 01:46:29,500
And I-I wanted a Coke
with crushed ice
1846
01:46:29,600 --> 01:46:31,733
and some chewing gum.
1847
01:46:31,832 --> 01:46:35,132
CHARLES:
♪ You know, I wish had somebody
to help me sing this ♪
1848
01:46:35,233 --> 01:46:39,199
America
1849
01:46:39,300 --> 01:46:41,565
America
America
1850
01:46:41,666 --> 01:46:43,000
♪ I love you, America
1851
01:46:43,100 --> 01:46:45,733
♪ God shed
♪ You see
1852
01:46:45,832 --> 01:46:48,000
♪ My God, he done shed
♪ His grace
1853
01:46:48,100 --> 01:46:50,600
♪ His grace on thee
♪ On thee
1854
01:46:50,699 --> 01:46:52,899
♪ And you ought to
love him for it ♪
1855
01:46:53,000 --> 01:46:57,432
♪ 'Cause he, he, he,
he crowned thy good ♪
1856
01:46:57,533 --> 01:46:59,265
♪ He told me he would
1857
01:46:59,365 --> 01:47:02,966
♪ With brotherhood
1858
01:47:03,065 --> 01:47:05,233
♪ From sea
1859
01:47:05,332 --> 01:47:07,466
♪ To shining
1860
01:47:07,565 --> 01:47:10,000
♪ Shining sea
♪ Sea
1861
01:47:10,100 --> 01:47:11,966
♪ Oh, Lord
1862
01:47:12,065 --> 01:47:13,199
♪ Oh, Lord!
1863
01:47:13,300 --> 01:47:15,565
♪ I thank you, Lord
1864
01:47:15,666 --> 01:47:21,199
♪ Shining sea.
1865
01:47:27,800 --> 01:47:29,733
("The Lord Is in This Place" by
Fairport Convention playing)
1866
01:47:33,399 --> 01:47:36,500
NARRATOR:
Within a few days
of Hal Kushner's release,
1867
01:47:36,600 --> 01:47:41,500
the last American combat troops
would leave Vietnam.
1868
01:47:41,600 --> 01:47:46,332
But they would leave behind
many unanswered questions.
1869
01:47:46,432 --> 01:47:51,132
How long could the South
Vietnamese government survive?
1870
01:47:51,233 --> 01:47:54,432
What was the value
of American promises,
1871
01:47:54,533 --> 01:47:57,365
and American sacrifice?
1872
01:47:57,466 --> 01:48:01,632
And how long would it take
for the wounds of war to heal?
1873
01:48:14,733 --> 01:48:16,666
("What's Going On?"
by Marvin Gaye playing)
1874
01:48:18,300 --> 01:48:20,233
(indistinct conversations)
1875
01:48:24,332 --> 01:48:26,865
♪ Mother, mother
1876
01:48:26,966 --> 01:48:31,033
♪ There's too many
of you crying ♪
1877
01:48:33,932 --> 01:48:36,065
♪ Brother, brother, brother
1878
01:48:36,166 --> 01:48:40,166
♪ There's far too many
of you dying ♪
1879
01:48:42,132 --> 01:48:45,265
♪ You know
we've got to find a way ♪
1880
01:48:47,065 --> 01:48:49,966
♪ To bring some
loving here today ♪
1881
01:48:50,065 --> 01:48:52,899
♪ Yeah
1882
01:48:53,000 --> 01:48:54,600
♪ Father, father
1883
01:48:56,432 --> 01:48:58,733
♪ We don't need to escalate
1884
01:49:01,600 --> 01:49:05,765
♪ You see,
war is not the answer ♪
1885
01:49:05,865 --> 01:49:10,500
♪ For only love
can conquer hate ♪
1886
01:49:10,600 --> 01:49:13,466
♪ You know
we've got to find a way ♪
1887
01:49:15,533 --> 01:49:18,733
♪ To bring some
loving here today ♪
1888
01:49:18,832 --> 01:49:21,233
♪ Oh
1889
01:49:21,332 --> 01:49:23,365
♪ Picket lines
♪ Sister
1890
01:49:23,466 --> 01:49:25,765
♪ And picket signs
♪ Sister
1891
01:49:25,865 --> 01:49:27,533
♪ Don't punish me
♪ Sister
1892
01:49:27,632 --> 01:49:30,800
♪ With brutality
♪ Sister
1893
01:49:30,899 --> 01:49:32,733
♪ Talk to me
♪ Sister
1894
01:49:32,832 --> 01:49:34,765
♪ So you can see
♪ Sister
1895
01:49:34,865 --> 01:49:37,265
♪ Oh, what's going on
♪ What's going on
1896
01:49:37,365 --> 01:49:39,332
♪ What's going on
♪ What's going on
1897
01:49:39,432 --> 01:49:41,699
♪ Yeah, what's going on
♪ What's going on
1898
01:49:41,800 --> 01:49:43,966
♪ Ah, what's going on
♪ What's going on
1899
01:49:44,065 --> 01:49:46,832
♪ Ah
♪ Right on
1900
01:49:46,932 --> 01:49:48,565
♪ Whoo! Right on, brother
1901
01:49:48,666 --> 01:49:50,033
(indistinct conversations)
1902
01:49:50,132 --> 01:49:52,065
(scatting)
1903
01:49:53,533 --> 01:49:55,632
MAN: Hey, man, what's your name?
Whoo!
1904
01:49:55,733 --> 01:49:57,466
♪ Right on, baby
1905
01:49:57,565 --> 01:49:59,332
Right on.
♪ Right on
1906
01:49:59,432 --> 01:50:02,365
(scatting)
1907
01:50:15,100 --> 01:50:16,332
Whoo!
♪ Whoo
1908
01:50:16,432 --> 01:50:19,199
♪ Right on, baby
1909
01:50:19,300 --> 01:50:21,233
(scatting)
1910
01:50:33,565 --> 01:50:34,565
Whoo!
1911
01:50:34,666 --> 01:50:36,000
-♪ Right on, baby
-(man whooping)
1912
01:50:36,100 --> 01:50:37,065
♪ Come on
1913
01:50:37,166 --> 01:50:38,466
♪ Right on
1914
01:50:38,565 --> 01:50:40,500
(singer scatting, man whooping)
1915
01:50:43,699 --> 01:50:46,699
♪ Whoo! Right on
1916
01:50:46,800 --> 01:50:48,100
♪ Go slow
1917
01:50:48,199 --> 01:50:50,132
(scatting)
1918
01:51:00,466 --> 01:51:01,733
ANNOUNCER: LEARN MORE
ABOUT THE FILM
1919
01:51:01,733 --> 01:51:04,600
AND FIND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
AT PBS.ORG/VIETNAMWAR
1920
01:51:04,600 --> 01:51:08,533
AND JOIN THE CONVERSATION
USING HASHTAG VIETNAMWARPBS.
1921
01:51:08,533 --> 01:51:10,000
"THE VIETNAM WAR" IS AVAILABLE
1922
01:51:10,000 --> 01:51:11,666
ON BLU-RAY
AND DVD.
1923
01:51:11,666 --> 01:51:13,332
THE COMPANION BOOK,
SOUNDTRACK,
1924
01:51:13,332 --> 01:51:14,733
AND ORIGINAL SCORE
FROM THE FILM
1925
01:51:14,733 --> 01:51:15,865
ARE ALSO
AVAILABLE.
1926
01:51:15,865 --> 01:51:17,966
TO ORDER, VISIT
SHOPPBS.ORG
1927
01:51:17,966 --> 01:51:20,432
OR CALL
1-800-PLAY-PBS.
1928
01:51:20,432 --> 01:51:21,865
EPISODES OF
THIS SERIES ALSO
1929
01:51:21,865 --> 01:51:22,966
AVAILABLE
FOR DOWNLOAD
1930
01:51:22,966 --> 01:51:24,065
FROM iTUNES.
1931
01:51:27,332 --> 01:51:29,466
ANNOUNCER: BANK OF AMERICA
PROUDLY SUPPORTS
1932
01:51:29,466 --> 01:51:34,365
KEN BURNS' AND LYNN NOVICK'S
FILM "THE VIETNAM WAR"
1933
01:51:34,365 --> 01:51:36,765
BECAUSE FOSTERING
DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
1934
01:51:36,765 --> 01:51:39,365
AND CIVIL DISCOURSE
AROUND IMPORTANT ISSUES
1935
01:51:39,365 --> 01:51:41,666
FURTHERS PROGRESS, EQUALITY,
1936
01:51:41,666 --> 01:51:43,666
AND A MORE CONNECTED SOCIETY.
1937
01:51:48,132 --> 01:51:52,166
GO TO BANKOFAMERICA.COM/
BETTERCONNECTED TO LEARN MORE.
1938
01:51:55,632 --> 01:51:57,065
ANNOUNCER: MAJOR SUPPORT
FOR "THE VIETNAM WAR"
1939
01:51:57,065 --> 01:52:00,565
WAS PROVIDED BY MEMBERS
OF THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY,
1940
01:52:00,565 --> 01:52:04,600
INCLUDING JONATHAN
AND JEANNIE LAVINE,
1941
01:52:04,600 --> 01:52:07,500
DIANE AND HAL BRIERLEY,
1942
01:52:07,500 --> 01:52:09,899
AMY AND DAVID ABRAMS,
1943
01:52:09,899 --> 01:52:12,399
JOHN AND CATHERINE DEBS,
1944
01:52:12,399 --> 01:52:15,300
THE FULLERTON FAMILY
CHARITABLE FUND,
1945
01:52:15,300 --> 01:52:17,365
THE MONTRONE FAMILY,
1946
01:52:17,365 --> 01:52:19,699
LYNDA AND STEWART RESNICK,
1947
01:52:19,699 --> 01:52:22,466
THE PERRY AND DONNA GOLKIN
FAMILY FOUNDATION,
1948
01:52:22,466 --> 01:52:23,466
THE LYNCH FOUNDATION,
1949
01:52:23,466 --> 01:52:26,332
THE ROGER AND ROSEMARY
ENRICO FOUNDATION,
1950
01:52:26,332 --> 01:52:29,765
AND BY THESE ADDITIONAL FUNDERS.
1951
01:52:29,765 --> 01:52:31,666
MAJOR FUNDING WAS ALSO PROVIDED
1952
01:52:31,666 --> 01:52:33,399
BY DAVID H. KOCH...
1953
01:52:35,699 --> 01:52:37,899
THE BLAVATNIK
FAMILY FOUNDATION...
1954
01:52:40,233 --> 01:52:42,666
THE PARK FOUNDATION,
1955
01:52:42,666 --> 01:52:44,832
THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT
FOR THE HUMANITIES,
1956
01:52:44,832 --> 01:52:47,033
THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS,
1957
01:52:47,033 --> 01:52:49,699
THE JOHN S. AND JAMES L.
KNIGHT FOUNDATION,
1958
01:52:49,699 --> 01:52:52,466
THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION,
1959
01:52:52,466 --> 01:52:55,065
THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS
FOUNDATIONS,
1960
01:52:55,065 --> 01:52:57,265
THE FORD FOUNDATION JUSTFILMS,
1961
01:52:57,265 --> 01:52:58,466
BY THE CORPORATION
1962
01:52:58,466 --> 01:52:59,699
FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING,
1963
01:52:59,699 --> 01:53:01,733
AND BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU.
1964
01:53:01,733 --> 01:53:02,865
THANK YOU.