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MAJOR SUPPORT FOR "THE VIETNAM WAR"

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WAS PROVIDED BY MEMBERS
OF THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY,

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INCLUDING JONATHAN
AND JEANNIE LAVINE,

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DIANE AND HAL BRIERLEY,

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AMY AND DAVID ABRAMS,

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JOHN AND CATHERINE DEBS,

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THE FULLERTON FAMILY
CHARITABLE FUND,

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THE MONTRONE FAMILY,

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LYNDA AND STEWART RESNICK,

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THE PERRY AND DONNA GOLKIN
FAMILY FOUNDATION,

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THE LYNCH FOUNDATION,

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THE ROGER AND ROSEMARY
ENRICO FOUNDATION,

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AND BY THESE ADDITIONAL FUNDERS.

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MAJOR FUNDING WAS ALSO PROVIDED

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BY DAVID H. KOCH...

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THE BLAVATNIK
FAMILY FOUNDATION...

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THE PARK FOUNDATION,

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THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT
FOR THE HUMANITIES,

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THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS,

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THE JOHN S. AND JAMES L.
KNIGHT FOUNDATION,

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THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION,

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THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS
FOUNDATIONS,

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THE FORD FOUNDATION JUSTFILMS,

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BY THE CORPORATION

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FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING,

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AND BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU.

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THANK YOU.

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BANK OF AMERICA PROUDLY SUPPORTS

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KEN BURNS' AND LYNN NOVICK'S
FILM "THE VIETNAM WAR"

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BECAUSE FOSTERING
DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

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AND CIVIL DISCOURSE
AROUND IMPORTANT ISSUES

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FURTHERS PROGRESS, EQUALITY,

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AND A MORE CONNECTED SOCIETY.

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GO TO BANKOFAMERICA.
COM/ BETTERCONNECTED TO LEARN MORE.

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𝄞

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...you got through!
Did you pass Chee on the road?

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No.
Where are the children?

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Kansas found
a shelter for them.

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Get down, everybody!

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My older sister and I one time

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uh,
we're watching the movie<i> So Proudly We Ha</i> il on TV.

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Listen,
we still have a few minutes!

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That's a story about the nurses

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who were trapped on Bataan and
Corregidor during World War II.

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It was the first, probably,
time in my life that...

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I, uh...

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I realized that women could do
brave and courageous things.

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It wasn't just something
men could do.

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𝄞

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Second Lieutenant Joan Furey

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had wanted to be a nurse ever
since she was a small child.

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She attended nursing school,

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and,
when a high school classmate was killed during Tet,

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joined the Army to do
what she could for the wounded.

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Furey was assigned
to the 71st Evacuation Hospital

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at Pleiku,
in the heart of the Central Highlands.

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Nothing had prepared her
for what she saw and did

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over the next 12 months.

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Wounded men were choppered in

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at all times
of the day and night.

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So were Viet Cong
and NVA soldiers,

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who sometimes spat
at the medical personnel

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trying to save
their limbs or lives.

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Whenever the hospital
came under mortar fire,

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Furey stayed with
the most seriously wounded men

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in the ICU.

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We had flak vests and helmets,

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and we crawled
around on the floor.

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I mean, you really,

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you just could not leave them
unattended.

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We just kind of had to swallow
your own fear.

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A triage officer made the grim decisions

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as to who might be saved

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and those for whom
there was no hope.

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One of the things that initially was so difficult

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was what we called
"expected" patients.

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And these were patients
that would be brought in

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from the battlefield
and it was determined

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they had no chance to survive.

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But they weren't dead yet.

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They brought in a...

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a young soldier
who had a head injury,

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and they said, "He's expected."

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I kind of freaked out, uh,

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and I decided that,
no, they were wrong,

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and I was gonna take care
of this patient.

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I told the corpsman
to get me blood.

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And he's saying,
"Well, Lieutenant,

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the patient is expected."

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I said, "Get me blood."

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So, I take off the dressing,
and...

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the whole back of his head
had been gone.

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When that happened,

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all the blood
I had been giving him came out.

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A friend of mine who came over
just walked me out of there.

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And a few minutes later,
you walk right back in...

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...and you get back
to doing it.

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𝄞 Been dazed and confused

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𝄞 For so long, it's not true...
𝄞

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Richard Nixon had taken office as president

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in January of 1969,

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pledged to restore
law and order

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and end the war with honor.

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Things were calmer at home,

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but in Vietnam,
peace was no closer.

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American soldiers still died
pursuing guerrillas

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who appeared and disappeared
like phantoms.

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Americans still died
capturing hills

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only to give them up and have
to take them back again.

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Men and materiel were
still flowing into the south

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despite the controversial
bombing of Cambodia.

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Through it all,
Hanoi remained immovable.

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The communists insisted
there could be no peace

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until the Saigon government
was replaced

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and the United States withdrew
from Vietnam.

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Meanwhile,
the American public was losing patience.

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𝄞

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Privately,
Nixon knew that military victory was impossible,

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that things would have
to be settled

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at the bargaining table
in Paris.

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He had to find a way

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to extricate Americans
from Vietnam

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without seeming to surrender.

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Nixon also believed

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his reputation
as an implacable anti-communist

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could work to his advantage
with Hanoi.

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"We'll just slip the word to them,"
he said,

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"you know,
'Nixon's obsessed about communism.

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"'We can't restrain him
when he's angry,

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"and he has his hand
on the nuclear button,'

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"and Ho Chi Minh
will be in Paris in two days

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begging for peace."

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But Ho Chi Minh
was old and ailing now.

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And Le Duan and the other men

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who had been calling the shots
in Hanoi for years

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had no intention
of giving up their goal

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of uniting their country
under communist control.

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Richard Nixon,
having promised a swift end to the war,

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would,
like all the presidents who came before him,

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end up widening it.

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In the process,
he would re-ignite opposition to the war

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on American campuses

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that threatened to tear
the country apart again.

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𝄞 I look at you all

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𝄞 See the love there
that's sleeping 𝄞

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𝄞 While my guitar

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𝄞 Gently weeps

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𝄞 I look at the floor...

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MERRILL McPEAK:
The late '60s

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were a kind of confluence
of several rivulets.

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𝄞 Still my guitar...

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McPEAK: There was the antiwar movement itself...

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𝄞

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...the whole movement
towards racial equality,

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the environment...

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the role of women.

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And the anthems
for that counterculture

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were provided by the most
brilliant rock-and-roll music

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that you can imagine.

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𝄞 And I notice...

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I don't know how we
could exist today as a country

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without that experience.

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With all of its warts
and ups and downs,

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that produced
the America we have today,

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and we are better for it.

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𝄞 Surely be learning...

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McPEAK:
And I felt that way in Vietnam.

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𝄞 Still my guitar...

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McPEAK: I turned the volume up on all that stuff.

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That represented
what I was trying to defend.

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𝄞

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𝄞 Oh, oh

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𝄞 Ooh, ooh, oh, oh...

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I never prayed

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the whole time
I was in the P.O.W. camp,

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but I had, like, a mantra.

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Every night
when I went to sleep,

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after a certain point,
I would say,

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"I'll be here
when the morning comes."

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And I felt if I could just live
one more day,

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then I could live one more day,
and then one more day.

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At the peace talks in Paris,

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the Nixon administration
had introduced a new demand-

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U.S. troops would not withdraw

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until all American prisoners
had come home

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and Hanoi had provided
a strict accounting

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of those missing in action.

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No one knew
how many prisoners there were.

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Most were airmen
held in or around Hanoi,

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but a handful of others,
like Hal Kushner,

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were struggling to survive
in makeshift jungle camps

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in South Vietnam.

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Hanoi would not reveal
the names of the men they held,

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because they still insisted
they were not prisoners of war,

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00:11:08,332 --> 00:11:10,432
but war criminals.

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They subjected many
to brutal torture,

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extracted "confessions,"

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00:11:16,066 --> 00:11:18,232
and refused
to permit inspections

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00:11:18,332 --> 00:11:21,265
by the International Red Cross.

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The Johnson administration had
generally downplayed the issue,

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hoping quiet diplomacy
might bring the men home.

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The Nixon administration

203
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launched a "go public"
campaign instead,

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meant to put the plight
of American prisoners

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and those missing in action

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at the center of things.

207
00:11:41,165 --> 00:11:43,265
It also provided a rebuke

208
00:11:43,365 --> 00:11:45,432
to those
in the antiwar movement

209
00:11:45,533 --> 00:11:47,600
who seemed more sympathetic

210
00:11:47,700 --> 00:11:50,832
to North Vietnamese civilians
who had been bombed

211
00:11:50,932 --> 00:11:52,600
than they were to U.S. airmen

212
00:11:52,700 --> 00:11:56,232
who had been shot down
doing that bombing.

213
00:11:56,332 --> 00:12:00,832
Sybil Stockdale, whose husband,
Commander James Stockdale,

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00:12:00,932 --> 00:12:03,700
was the highest-ranking prisoner
in Hanoi,

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00:12:03,799 --> 00:12:06,100
formed the National League
of Families

216
00:12:06,200 --> 00:12:09,600
of Prisoners and Missing
in Southeast Asia,

217
00:12:09,700 --> 00:12:12,332
and led delegations of wives
to Paris

218
00:12:12,432 --> 00:12:15,832
to confront
North Vietnamese negotiators.

219
00:12:15,932 --> 00:12:20,533
Five million Americans began
wearing tin or copper bracelets

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00:12:20,633 --> 00:12:23,166
engraved
with a missing man's name

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00:12:23,265 --> 00:12:25,666
and date of loss.

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00:12:25,765 --> 00:12:29,932
More than 50 million
P.O.W./M.I.A. bumper stickers

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00:12:30,033 --> 00:12:33,633
would be sold
over the next four years.

224
00:12:33,732 --> 00:12:36,066
Despite what their jailers
had told them,

225
00:12:36,165 --> 00:12:40,365
the prisoners had not been
forgotten by their country.

226
00:12:40,466 --> 00:12:42,865
Eventually,
one journalist wrote,

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00:12:42,966 --> 00:12:45,133
many "people began to speak

228
00:12:45,232 --> 00:12:49,299
"as though the North Vietnamese
had kidnapped 400 Americans

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00:12:49,399 --> 00:12:53,832
and the United States had gone
to war to retrieve them."

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00:12:53,932 --> 00:12:58,399
At the same time,
the Saigon government of Nguyen Van Thieu

231
00:12:58,500 --> 00:13:01,799
was holding prisoners
of its own.

232
00:13:01,899 --> 00:13:03,732
There would eventually be

233
00:13:03,832 --> 00:13:07,600
some 40,000 North Vietnamese
and Viet Cong soldiers

234
00:13:07,700 --> 00:13:09,633
in four crowded camps.

235
00:13:09,732 --> 00:13:13,666
Another 200,000
South Vietnamese civilians

236
00:13:13,765 --> 00:13:17,666
would also be held,
many without trial.

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NGUYEN TAI:

238
00:14:38,899 --> 00:14:41,899
There are certain rules to tunnel warfare.

239
00:14:44,133 --> 00:14:46,832
Don't turn on the light

240
00:14:46,932 --> 00:14:50,000
unless you're really, really,
really sure you're alone.

241
00:14:50,100 --> 00:14:53,700
Use your senses.

242
00:14:53,799 --> 00:14:56,899
Do your first killing
as quietly as you can.

243
00:14:57,000 --> 00:14:59,066
That means don't shoot.

244
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I chased somebody
into a tunnel,

245
00:15:03,232 --> 00:15:08,500
met them at a bend in the corner,
in the dark.

246
00:15:08,600 --> 00:15:10,100
I thought I was alone

247
00:15:10,200 --> 00:15:13,399
and then I smelled
their breath.

248
00:15:13,500 --> 00:15:19,500
And we had a wrestling match
in the dark.

249
00:15:19,600 --> 00:15:21,966
And I got the upper hand

250
00:15:22,066 --> 00:15:25,299
and crushed
this person's trachea,

251
00:15:25,399 --> 00:15:28,033
held him down while he died...

252
00:15:29,666 --> 00:15:31,566
...and then got out.

253
00:15:34,299 --> 00:15:37,000
I beat and strangled
someone to death

254
00:15:37,100 --> 00:15:38,899
in a tunnel

255
00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:40,966
in the dark.

256
00:15:41,066 --> 00:15:42,665
Um...

257
00:15:42,765 --> 00:15:45,200
But that wasn't
the only casualty.

258
00:15:45,299 --> 00:15:49,633
The other casualty was
the civilized version of me.

259
00:16:10,166 --> 00:16:13,066
April 1969

260
00:16:13,166 --> 00:16:16,133
marked the high point
of American military commitment

261
00:16:16,232 --> 00:16:17,666
to South Vietnam.

262
00:16:17,765 --> 00:16:25,133
543,482 men and women
were now in country,

263
00:16:25,232 --> 00:16:29,265
and tens of thousands more
were stationed

264
00:16:29,365 --> 00:16:32,299
at airbases and aboard ships
beyond its borders.

265
00:16:33,600 --> 00:16:38,265
40,794 had died.

266
00:16:38,365 --> 00:16:43,299
And more than $70 billion
had been spent.

267
00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:49,399
That spring, a new battle

268
00:16:49,500 --> 00:16:51,600
caught the attention
of the American public,

269
00:16:51,700 --> 00:16:56,399
a struggle to take still
another numbered hill-

270
00:16:56,500 --> 00:17:00,133
Hill 937 on military maps.

271
00:17:00,232 --> 00:17:02,200
<i>For nine days,</i>

272
00:17:02,299 --> 00:17:04,165
American and South Vietnamese
troops have been trying

273
00:17:04,266 --> 00:17:06,200
to take a mountain
near the Laotian border,

274
00:17:06,299 --> 00:17:09,133
and ten times
they have been thrown back.

275
00:17:33,633 --> 00:17:36,232
<i>The casualties
have been so high-</i>

276
00:17:36,333 --> 00:17:39,599
50 Americans and
250 North Vietnamese killed-

277
00:17:39,700 --> 00:17:42,333
that the mountain has come
to be known as "Hamburger Hill."

278
00:17:42,432 --> 00:17:46,066
Today,
another 600 allied troops were thrown into the battle.

279
00:17:57,865 --> 00:18:00,165
A weary G.I. told a reporter

280
00:18:00,266 --> 00:18:02,365
that his battalion commander

281
00:18:02,465 --> 00:18:07,333
"won't stop until he kills
every damn one of us."

282
00:18:13,700 --> 00:18:15,965
After 11 days of fighting,

283
00:18:16,066 --> 00:18:18,766
the Battle for Hamburger Hill
ended.

284
00:18:20,232 --> 00:18:22,932
56 Americans died.

285
00:18:23,032 --> 00:18:27,333
420 more were wounded.

286
00:18:27,432 --> 00:18:30,965
A week later,
the Americans abandoned the hill,

287
00:18:31,066 --> 00:18:33,965
just as they had abandoned
so many other hills

288
00:18:34,066 --> 00:18:38,599
they had taken at great cost
over the years in Vietnam.

289
00:18:40,732 --> 00:18:43,633
General,
could you explain for us again the strategy involved

290
00:18:43,732 --> 00:18:46,732
in the decision to
withdraw American troops

291
00:18:46,833 --> 00:18:50,032
after they had taken Hill 937,
or Hamburger Hill?

292
00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:56,099
No piece of ground, as such,

293
00:18:56,200 --> 00:18:58,599
is important to us.

294
00:18:58,700 --> 00:19:00,432
<i>In the United States Senate,</i>

295
00:19:00,532 --> 00:19:02,333
<i>Senator Kennedy
of Massachusetts delivered</i>

296
00:19:02,432 --> 00:19:04,232
<i>a brief speech
criticizing what he called</i>

297
00:19:04,333 --> 00:19:07,266
<i>a "senseless and
irresponsible military pride</i>

298
00:19:07,365 --> 00:19:09,766
<i>"in which American men
are sent to their deaths</i>

299
00:19:09,865 --> 00:19:12,599
<i>in pointless battles like
this one for Hamburger Hill."</i>

300
00:19:12,700 --> 00:19:14,799
Kennedy called
upon President Nixon

301
00:19:14,900 --> 00:19:17,032
to issue new orders
to commanders in Vietnam

302
00:19:17,133 --> 00:19:18,665
to halt such actions

303
00:19:18,766 --> 00:19:20,566
and he charged
that they contradict

304
00:19:20,665 --> 00:19:22,000
the president's
stated intentions

305
00:19:22,099 --> 00:19:23,799
of seeking a negotiated peace.

306
00:19:26,633 --> 00:19:29,900
There had been more deadly weeks during the war,

307
00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:34,365
costlier battles,
larger numbers of casualties.

308
00:19:34,465 --> 00:19:40,665
But more and more Americans
seemed to have had enough.

309
00:19:40,766 --> 00:19:43,133
The following month,
<i>Li</i> fe magazine

310
00:19:43,232 --> 00:19:45,266
published the names
and photographs

311
00:19:45,365 --> 00:19:48,165
of all 242 Americans

312
00:19:48,266 --> 00:19:52,133
who had died in combat
in just one week.

313
00:19:52,232 --> 00:19:56,066
For the first time,
in a national publication,

314
00:19:56,165 --> 00:20:00,032
casualty statistics
came with human faces.

315
00:20:02,932 --> 00:20:05,665
The only way they could
measure success in Vietnam

316
00:20:05,766 --> 00:20:07,865
was, was was kill ratios-

317
00:20:07,965 --> 00:20:10,133
how many of them
versus how many of us.

318
00:20:10,232 --> 00:20:12,400
Well,
the only thing that's important

319
00:20:12,500 --> 00:20:14,799
to the American people
is the "us."

320
00:20:14,900 --> 00:20:18,465
You know, if there's three us dead,
that's the number.

321
00:20:18,566 --> 00:20:21,700
Not 30, you know,
Vietnamese dead.

322
00:20:21,799 --> 00:20:24,865
And, so, politically,
an attrition strategy

323
00:20:24,965 --> 00:20:27,133
just can't last very long.

324
00:20:27,232 --> 00:20:28,665
We don't care
what the ratio is,

325
00:20:28,766 --> 00:20:29,932
we just want
the absolute number

326
00:20:30,032 --> 00:20:32,665
of how many American kids died.

327
00:20:32,766 --> 00:20:36,032
A Gallup poll now found that most Americans

328
00:20:36,133 --> 00:20:39,900
believed Vietnam
had been a mistake.

329
00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:42,965
Richard Nixon knew he needed
to signal to the public

330
00:20:43,066 --> 00:20:45,299
that an end was in sight.

331
00:20:47,165 --> 00:20:50,633
The National Security Council
had warned Nixon

332
00:20:50,732 --> 00:20:52,766
that the Joint Chiefs of Staff,

333
00:20:52,865 --> 00:20:55,532
the secretaries of state
and defense,

334
00:20:55,633 --> 00:21:00,566
the C.I.A.,
and the U.S. Embassy in Saigon

335
00:21:00,665 --> 00:21:03,732
all privately agreed that
without U.S. combat troops,

336
00:21:03,833 --> 00:21:05,432
the South Vietnamese

337
00:21:05,532 --> 00:21:10,099
"cannot now,
or in the foreseeable future,

338
00:21:10,200 --> 00:21:12,299
"stand up to both Viet Cong

339
00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:16,032
and sizeable
North Vietnamese forces."

340
00:21:16,133 --> 00:21:18,066
Nonetheless,

341
00:21:18,165 --> 00:21:21,232
Secretary of Defense
Melvin Laird said,

342
00:21:21,333 --> 00:21:24,766
the war was now
to be "Vietnamized."

343
00:21:24,865 --> 00:21:28,500
Saigon's troops would gradually
take over responsibility

344
00:21:28,599 --> 00:21:31,133
for engaging the enemy.

345
00:21:31,232 --> 00:21:34,333
It would be General Creighton Abrams'
task

346
00:21:34,432 --> 00:21:36,700
to ready the ARVN
for that role,

347
00:21:36,799 --> 00:21:39,500
and to make sure
that American casualties

348
00:21:39,599 --> 00:21:41,732
were held down in the interim.

349
00:21:45,299 --> 00:21:50,500
Meanwhile,
American troops would start to go home.

350
00:21:50,599 --> 00:21:53,432
𝄞 Gimme a ticket
for an aeroplane 𝄞

351
00:21:53,532 --> 00:21:55,799
𝄞 Ain't got time
to take a fast train 𝄞

352
00:21:55,900 --> 00:21:57,465
When Nixon came in

353
00:21:57,566 --> 00:22:01,400
and he announced
the phase withdrawal,

354
00:22:01,500 --> 00:22:03,932
turning over the fighting
to the Vietnamese,

355
00:22:04,032 --> 00:22:06,465
which was something
the French had tried before.

356
00:22:06,566 --> 00:22:08,333
They call it<i>jaunissement-</i>

357
00:22:08,432 --> 00:22:11,700
yellowizing the war.

358
00:22:11,799 --> 00:22:17,833
We knew that the Vietnamese Army
was not up to fighting this war.

359
00:22:17,932 --> 00:22:20,400
If they couldn't do it
with the Americans,

360
00:22:20,500 --> 00:22:23,566
how were they going
to do it without the Americans?

361
00:22:23,665 --> 00:22:26,732
𝄞 Lonely days are gone

362
00:22:26,833 --> 00:22:29,665
Although Washington planned to vastly increase

363
00:22:29,766 --> 00:22:32,633
military support
of the South Vietnamese Army,

364
00:22:32,732 --> 00:22:35,932
General Abrams knew
that Vietnamization alone

365
00:22:36,032 --> 00:22:38,333
could never defeat the enemy.

366
00:22:38,432 --> 00:22:40,865
But he had his orders.

367
00:22:40,965 --> 00:22:43,633
McPEAK: The reason I was ordered home early

368
00:22:43,732 --> 00:22:45,566
was because Nixon...
President Nixon

369
00:22:45,665 --> 00:22:49,032
announced the policy
of Vietnamization.

370
00:22:49,133 --> 00:22:53,232
Now, Vietnamization was a lie,

371
00:22:53,333 --> 00:22:57,200
but it had
an element of truth in it.

372
00:22:57,299 --> 00:22:59,566
We were leaving, okay?

373
00:22:59,665 --> 00:23:01,566
And that sealed
the South's fate.

374
00:23:01,665 --> 00:23:03,066
I knew it.

375
00:23:03,165 --> 00:23:06,099
And I think anybody
who was conscious

376
00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:07,932
and could see
what was going on

377
00:23:08,032 --> 00:23:09,232
knew it.

378
00:23:09,333 --> 00:23:11,833
Nixon then flew to Midway Island

379
00:23:11,932 --> 00:23:15,500
to meet with South Vietnamese
President Nguyen Van Thieu.

380
00:23:15,599 --> 00:23:18,700
He had not dared
invite Thieu to Washington

381
00:23:18,799 --> 00:23:21,700
for fear of sparking
mass demonstrations.

382
00:23:21,799 --> 00:23:23,165
𝄞 Lonely days are gone

383
00:23:23,266 --> 00:23:25,365
President Thieu informed me

384
00:23:25,465 --> 00:23:29,266
that the progress
of the training program

385
00:23:29,365 --> 00:23:30,965
and the equipping program

386
00:23:31,066 --> 00:23:33,266
for South Vietnamese forces

387
00:23:33,365 --> 00:23:38,400
had been so successful, uh,
that he could now recommend

388
00:23:38,500 --> 00:23:41,799
that the United States
begin to replace

389
00:23:41,900 --> 00:23:46,200
U.S. combat forces
with Vietnamese forces.

390
00:23:51,500 --> 00:23:53,900
Thieu had said no such thing

391
00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:56,532
but felt he had to go along.

392
00:23:56,633 --> 00:23:59,333
"There is nothing I can do,"
he told a friend.

393
00:23:59,432 --> 00:24:01,833
"Just as we could
do nothing about it

394
00:24:01,932 --> 00:24:04,532
"when Eisenhower,
Kennedy, and Johnson

395
00:24:04,633 --> 00:24:07,599
decided to come in."

396
00:24:07,700 --> 00:24:10,665
"We were clearly
on the way out of Vietnam,"

397
00:24:10,766 --> 00:24:13,900
National Security Advisor
Henry Kissinger remembered,

398
00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:16,732
"by negotiation if possible,

399
00:24:16,833 --> 00:24:20,633
by unilateral withdrawal
if necessary."

400
00:24:20,732 --> 00:24:23,665
He and the president
were redefining

401
00:24:23,766 --> 00:24:26,633
what victory would look like.

402
00:24:26,732 --> 00:24:29,665
Nixon and Kissinger...

403
00:24:29,766 --> 00:24:31,732
They...

404
00:24:31,833 --> 00:24:34,099
Their job is to clean up.

405
00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:35,799
They're, they're...

406
00:24:35,900 --> 00:24:37,833
The war's over, okay?

407
00:24:37,932 --> 00:24:41,400
When Nixon and Kissinger,
when they come, they're...

408
00:24:41,500 --> 00:24:42,865
they're not gonna win the war.

409
00:24:42,965 --> 00:24:45,299
So they develop

410
00:24:45,400 --> 00:24:47,066
a secret strategy.

411
00:24:47,165 --> 00:24:51,099
They surrender without saying
they surrendered.

412
00:24:53,566 --> 00:24:56,766
This is not a bad strategy,
this is the only strategy.

413
00:25:05,099 --> 00:25:08,633
As American soldiers began leaving South Vietnam,

414
00:25:08,732 --> 00:25:11,932
American weaponry
and materiel poured in.

415
00:25:13,500 --> 00:25:15,599
𝄞 Circle for a landing

416
00:25:15,700 --> 00:25:17,900
𝄞 Get your feet
back on the ground 𝄞

417
00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:21,000
More than a million
M16 rifles,

418
00:25:21,099 --> 00:25:27,032
40,000 grenade launchers,
thousands of wheeled vehicles-

419
00:25:27,133 --> 00:25:28,766
so many,
one congressman complained,

420
00:25:28,865 --> 00:25:31,965
that it seemed as if
the United States taxpayer

421
00:25:32,066 --> 00:25:36,266
was being asked to "put every
South Vietnamese soldier

422
00:25:36,365 --> 00:25:38,766
behind the wheel."

423
00:25:38,865 --> 00:25:41,032
It didn't make any sense, of course,

424
00:25:41,133 --> 00:25:44,032
because we tried that
in 1962 and '63.

425
00:25:44,133 --> 00:25:45,932
The people hadn't changed.

426
00:25:46,032 --> 00:25:47,732
They were just
giving 'em more furniture.

427
00:25:49,932 --> 00:25:52,932
NGUYEN THOI BUNG:

428
00:26:10,799 --> 00:26:14,633
South Vietnamese armed forces were expanded

429
00:26:14,732 --> 00:26:19,000
from 850,000 men
to over a million.

430
00:26:19,099 --> 00:26:21,032
But nothing could alter
the fact

431
00:26:21,133 --> 00:26:22,599
that rampant corruption

432
00:26:22,700 --> 00:26:26,133
continually eroded
their effectiveness.

433
00:26:26,232 --> 00:26:28,333
The way it works is this:

434
00:26:28,432 --> 00:26:30,799
a man makes a deal
with his commanding officer,

435
00:26:30,900 --> 00:26:33,532
perhaps to pay the officer
his full salary.

436
00:26:33,633 --> 00:26:36,599
In exchange,
you never have to show up for duty,

437
00:26:36,700 --> 00:26:39,165
except perhaps once a week
at the ceremony.

438
00:26:39,266 --> 00:26:41,299
So while you're theoretically
in the Army,

439
00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:43,799
you can hold
a full-time civilian job.

440
00:26:45,066 --> 00:26:48,000
LAM QUANG THI:

441
00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:07,599
Many ARVN units did fight well.

442
00:27:10,665 --> 00:27:12,700
They had borne the brunt
of the fighting

443
00:27:12,799 --> 00:27:14,232
during the Tet Offensive,

444
00:27:14,333 --> 00:27:17,165
and, by the middle of 1969,

445
00:27:17,266 --> 00:27:21,865
90,000 of them
had been killed in combat.

446
00:27:21,965 --> 00:27:27,365
Their bravery was
often overlooked by Americans.

447
00:27:27,465 --> 00:27:31,032
We were disdainful of them.

448
00:27:31,133 --> 00:27:34,099
We overstated their incompetence

449
00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:37,932
because we wanted
to overstate our importance.

450
00:27:49,965 --> 00:27:55,133
Part of going to war in Vietnam I,
I enjoyed.

451
00:27:55,232 --> 00:28:00,000
If you survive it,
it's, it's quite thrilling.

452
00:28:00,099 --> 00:28:03,066
It's the history of the world.

453
00:28:04,532 --> 00:28:05,932
It's hard to survive.

454
00:28:06,032 --> 00:28:07,965
I mean, in, where I was,
survival is an issue.

455
00:28:08,066 --> 00:28:12,165
I would have loved to have been
in the National Guard.

456
00:28:14,365 --> 00:28:15,665
Period.

457
00:28:17,299 --> 00:28:20,099
I knew the core issue

458
00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:23,032
of what was acceptable in war
and what wasn't.

459
00:28:23,133 --> 00:28:24,432
I knew that.

460
00:28:24,532 --> 00:28:27,299
I didn't need to get that
from the Marine Corps.

461
00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:30,766
I got that from Sunday school.

462
00:28:30,865 --> 00:28:33,766
Thomas John Vallely was born in Boston,

463
00:28:33,865 --> 00:28:35,232
the son of a judge,

464
00:28:35,333 --> 00:28:38,200
and brought up
in the suburb of Newton.

465
00:28:38,299 --> 00:28:43,700
Undiagnosed dyslexia kept him
from doing well in school.

466
00:28:43,799 --> 00:28:45,833
By 1969,

467
00:28:45,932 --> 00:28:49,599
Vallely was a radio operator
in the Marine Corps,

468
00:28:49,700 --> 00:28:52,732
part of a massive
search-and-destroy mission

469
00:28:52,833 --> 00:28:57,000
in Quang Nam Province in the
northern part of South Vietnam.

470
00:28:58,799 --> 00:29:00,432
On August 13,

471
00:29:00,532 --> 00:29:02,299
his company was ambushed

472
00:29:02,400 --> 00:29:05,900
and came
under heavy machine gun fire.

473
00:29:13,299 --> 00:29:17,432
It was a "grab 'em by the belt" type of situation.

474
00:29:17,532 --> 00:29:20,432
And we lost a lot of people.

475
00:29:21,965 --> 00:29:23,299
So did they.

476
00:29:25,133 --> 00:29:27,200
Lot of people laying around.

477
00:29:29,833 --> 00:29:32,099
Vallely radioed for reinforcements.

478
00:29:32,200 --> 00:29:35,732
Then he picked up a rifle
and ammunition

479
00:29:35,833 --> 00:29:38,232
from a wounded Marine,

480
00:29:38,333 --> 00:29:40,365
and, firing as he went,
took up a position

481
00:29:40,465 --> 00:29:43,299
just ten feet
from an enemy machine gun.

482
00:29:43,400 --> 00:29:48,900
He hurled a smoke grenade
to mark their position.

483
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:52,900
And then,
as enemy fire swept back and forth

484
00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:55,165
across the field,

485
00:29:55,266 --> 00:29:56,833
he moved from Marine to Marine,

486
00:29:56,932 --> 00:29:58,566
pointing out targets
among the trees

487
00:29:58,665 --> 00:30:01,432
and encouraging his comrades.

488
00:30:07,432 --> 00:30:10,333
For his conspicuous gallantry,

489
00:30:10,432 --> 00:30:14,200
Tom Vallely was awarded
the Silver Star.

490
00:30:14,299 --> 00:30:16,532
You want to tell your grandchildren

491
00:30:16,633 --> 00:30:19,766
it has a lot to do
with courage,

492
00:30:19,865 --> 00:30:23,365
uh, but it,
it's really quite reactive.

493
00:30:23,465 --> 00:30:25,766
It's survival.

494
00:30:25,865 --> 00:30:27,965
Either you're...

495
00:30:28,066 --> 00:30:30,566
It's, it's...

496
00:30:30,665 --> 00:30:33,000
There's no choice here.

497
00:30:33,099 --> 00:30:37,133
You react or you're not gonna
have grandchildren.

498
00:30:39,965 --> 00:30:41,200
COUNTRY JOE McDONALD:
Give me an "F"!

499
00:30:41,299 --> 00:30:42,200
"F"!

500
00:30:42,299 --> 00:30:43,532
McDONALD:
Give me a "U"!

501
00:30:43,633 --> 00:30:44,532
"U"!

502
00:30:44,633 --> 00:30:45,732
McDONALD:
Give me a "C"!

503
00:30:45,833 --> 00:30:47,700
"C"!
Give me a "K"!

504
00:30:47,799 --> 00:30:48,700
"K"!

505
00:30:48,799 --> 00:30:50,032
What's that spell?!

506
00:30:50,133 --> 00:30:52,032
Two days after the battle

507
00:30:52,133 --> 00:30:54,299
in which Tom Vallely
distinguished himself,

508
00:30:54,400 --> 00:30:56,099
and while
half a million Americans

509
00:30:56,200 --> 00:30:58,500
were still in Vietnam,

510
00:30:58,599 --> 00:31:00,500
half a million Americans
gathered

511
00:31:00,599 --> 00:31:03,465
on a dairy farm
in upstate New York

512
00:31:03,566 --> 00:31:06,766
for a music festival: Woodstock.

513
00:31:06,865 --> 00:31:09,200
𝄞 Way down yonder in Vietnam

514
00:31:09,299 --> 00:31:11,400
𝄞 Put down your books
and pick up a gun 𝄞

515
00:31:11,500 --> 00:31:12,665
𝄞 We're gonna have a whole lot
of fun 𝄞

516
00:31:12,766 --> 00:31:17,266
𝄞 And it's one, two, three, what are we fighting for?
𝄞

517
00:31:17,365 --> 00:31:19,700
𝄞 Don't ask me,
I don't give a damn 𝄞

518
00:31:19,799 --> 00:31:22,165
𝄞 The next stop is Vietnam

519
00:31:22,266 --> 00:31:24,432
𝄞 And it's five, six, seven

520
00:31:24,532 --> 00:31:26,665
𝄞 Open up the pearly gates

521
00:31:26,766 --> 00:31:29,833
𝄞 Well, there ain't no time to wonder why,
whoopee 𝄞

522
00:31:29,932 --> 00:31:31,932
𝄞 We're all gonna die

523
00:31:57,700 --> 00:31:59,032
𝄞

524
00:32:26,333 --> 00:32:30,566
Ladies and gentlemen, Santana!

525
00:32:30,665 --> 00:32:33,400
You've been told once,
you've been told twice.

526
00:32:33,500 --> 00:32:35,066
That's all-
spread it out!

527
00:32:37,165 --> 00:32:38,465
𝄞 What's your name?

528
00:32:38,566 --> 00:32:40,633
This guy from Arkansas

529
00:32:40,732 --> 00:32:45,032
told me he would not carry
the radio for me.

530
00:32:45,133 --> 00:32:50,099
He said,
"I will not follow you like Cheetah follows Tarzan.

531
00:32:50,200 --> 00:32:52,333
It's not gonna happen, Sarge."

532
00:32:52,432 --> 00:32:57,165
And I thought, "Oh,
this is gonna be a really long year."

533
00:32:57,266 --> 00:32:59,333
I've got people
down there sweeping,

534
00:32:59,432 --> 00:33:00,732
so get 'em down there.

535
00:33:00,833 --> 00:33:02,500
𝄞 It's the time

536
00:33:02,599 --> 00:33:05,766
He evolved a little bit.

537
00:33:05,865 --> 00:33:08,566
You know,
he, he kind of got the idea

538
00:33:08,665 --> 00:33:11,732
that the enemy's bullets
are colorblind.

539
00:33:11,833 --> 00:33:15,133
They would shoot anybody,
not just me.

540
00:33:17,700 --> 00:33:21,432
African-Americans had served in every American war

541
00:33:21,532 --> 00:33:23,932
since the revolution.

542
00:33:24,032 --> 00:33:26,400
In the early years
of the Vietnam War,

543
00:33:26,500 --> 00:33:28,865
they suffered
a disproportionate number

544
00:33:28,965 --> 00:33:30,865
of combat deaths.

545
00:33:30,965 --> 00:33:34,133
When civil rights leaders
complained,

546
00:33:34,232 --> 00:33:37,066
the Defense Department
made a concerted effort

547
00:33:37,165 --> 00:33:39,232
to right that balance,

548
00:33:39,333 --> 00:33:42,833
and by 1969, it had succeeded.

549
00:33:42,932 --> 00:33:44,833
But behind the lines,

550
00:33:44,932 --> 00:33:48,566
African-American soldiers
were still treated differently

551
00:33:48,665 --> 00:33:50,932
from their white counterparts.

552
00:34:01,766 --> 00:34:03,932
And here there's all, all these beast motherfuckers

553
00:34:04,032 --> 00:34:05,165
walking around here
with their hair

554
00:34:05,266 --> 00:34:07,732
looking like goddamn girls,

555
00:34:07,833 --> 00:34:09,065
and we can't wear our hair

556
00:34:09,166 --> 00:34:10,800
motherfucking
three inches long.

557
00:34:10,900 --> 00:34:13,166
The motherfucking regulation
is three inches.

558
00:34:13,266 --> 00:34:15,932
And most of the brothers
can wear a afro,

559
00:34:16,032 --> 00:34:17,865
the hair gonna be
motherfucking two inches.

560
00:34:17,965 --> 00:34:19,599
And why we got to get
our hair cut?

561
00:34:19,699 --> 00:34:21,099
That's what I want to know.

562
00:34:21,199 --> 00:34:23,099
𝄞 Yeah, man, ooh, yeah

563
00:34:23,199 --> 00:34:26,065
Vietnam was a microcosm.

564
00:34:26,166 --> 00:34:27,932
Everything that was happening
in America

565
00:34:28,032 --> 00:34:29,800
was happening in Vietnam,
really,

566
00:34:29,900 --> 00:34:31,965
in one way, shape, or form.

567
00:34:32,065 --> 00:34:33,900
In the rear,

568
00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:37,500
there were Confederate flags
flying.

569
00:34:37,599 --> 00:34:40,666
I mean, of all things to have over here, man,

570
00:34:40,766 --> 00:34:43,000
why a Confederate flag?

571
00:34:43,099 --> 00:34:45,266
As a matter of fact,
I think there ought to be

572
00:34:45,365 --> 00:34:49,333
some goddamn law to fucking outlaw them goddamn flags,
man.

573
00:34:49,432 --> 00:34:53,565
The fucking Confederacy is gone,
man.

574
00:34:53,666 --> 00:34:56,065
When one is in an environment

575
00:34:56,166 --> 00:35:00,800
where everyone has a gun,
automatic weapon,

576
00:35:00,900 --> 00:35:03,599
I'll be goddamned if someone's
gonna call me a nigger

577
00:35:03,699 --> 00:35:05,666
or give me a bullshit order.

578
00:35:05,766 --> 00:35:09,666
I mean, that was the attitude,
to risk my life for what?

579
00:35:09,766 --> 00:35:11,199
𝄞 Sweeter than honey

580
00:35:11,300 --> 00:35:14,199
There was all kind of craziness happening,

581
00:35:14,300 --> 00:35:17,532
because white people were still calling,
you know, us niggers,

582
00:35:17,632 --> 00:35:20,532
and then there were some black
people calling us Uncle Toms.

583
00:35:20,632 --> 00:35:22,065
There were the antiwar folks

584
00:35:22,166 --> 00:35:24,400
who were calling us baby killers,
say...

585
00:35:24,500 --> 00:35:26,400
You know, you can say what you want,
but you can say it

586
00:35:26,500 --> 00:35:28,132
from over there
because if you get in range,

587
00:35:28,233 --> 00:35:32,032
you're gonna get serious damage
done to you.

588
00:35:32,132 --> 00:35:33,699
Say what you want
from a distance,

589
00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:35,865
but if you get close to me,
I'm gonna rip your throat out.

590
00:35:35,965 --> 00:35:37,532
You know?

591
00:35:37,632 --> 00:35:41,199
But when we walked outside that wire,

592
00:35:41,300 --> 00:35:44,233
we went out into the bush,
we were tight.

593
00:35:44,333 --> 00:35:46,565
Even with our differences.

594
00:35:46,666 --> 00:35:48,733
Maybe we had threatened
each other,

595
00:35:48,833 --> 00:35:51,900
we'd had a fight back
in the base,

596
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:54,666
but when we were out there,
you know,

597
00:35:54,766 --> 00:35:58,333
we, we were a, a fighting unit.

598
00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:03,699
And it's almost like
an identity crisis.

599
00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:07,800
I was born here,
and my parents were born here.

600
00:36:07,900 --> 00:36:10,132
I felt, in a way,

601
00:36:10,233 --> 00:36:13,300
more American than Mexican.

602
00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:14,965
...hand and repeat after me...

603
00:36:15,065 --> 00:36:19,365
The U.S. military did not officially count Hispanics,

604
00:36:19,465 --> 00:36:24,099
but an estimated 170,000
would serve in Vietnam

605
00:36:24,199 --> 00:36:28,233
and more than 3,000
lost their lives.

606
00:36:28,333 --> 00:36:30,900
Like their fathers
and grandfathers,

607
00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:35,032
many saw military service
as both a patriotic duty

608
00:36:35,132 --> 00:36:37,900
and an opportunity to advance
their standing

609
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:40,500
in the United States.

610
00:36:40,599 --> 00:36:43,699
But as casualties mounted

611
00:36:43,800 --> 00:36:45,833
and with a burgeoning
Chicano identity movement

612
00:36:45,932 --> 00:36:48,365
among farm workers
and college students,

613
00:36:48,465 --> 00:36:53,132
anti-war sentiment
in Hispanic communities grew.

614
00:36:53,233 --> 00:36:56,865
We're protesting against
the discriminatory draft laws

615
00:36:56,965 --> 00:36:59,032
that give deferments

616
00:36:59,132 --> 00:37:02,365
to all the Anglo middle-class
people of this country

617
00:37:02,465 --> 00:37:05,465
and make the heaviest burdens
of the war

618
00:37:05,565 --> 00:37:08,632
fall on the poor,
fall on the<i>Mexicano.</i>

619
00:37:08,733 --> 00:37:11,000
I had learned

620
00:37:11,099 --> 00:37:15,000
about my sister and my mother's
antiwar activities

621
00:37:15,099 --> 00:37:17,000
while I was still in Vietnam.

622
00:37:17,099 --> 00:37:19,266
In fact,
my sister wrote and said,

623
00:37:19,365 --> 00:37:21,800
"I hope you're okay with this."

624
00:37:21,900 --> 00:37:23,532
And she was honest with me.

625
00:37:23,632 --> 00:37:25,532
She told me
what they were doing.

626
00:37:25,632 --> 00:37:28,766
She says, "I'm doing it for you,
'cause I want you to come home."

627
00:37:37,099 --> 00:37:40,333
In line with our policy
of taking a stand

628
00:37:40,432 --> 00:37:42,166
on the pressing issues
of the day,

629
00:37:42,266 --> 00:37:45,166
we now present another in our
continuing series of editorials.

630
00:37:45,266 --> 00:37:46,132
The subject:

631
00:37:46,233 --> 00:37:49,132
are our draft laws unfair?

632
00:37:49,233 --> 00:37:51,300
Here again,
speaking for our program,

633
00:37:51,400 --> 00:37:53,965
is Mr. Patrick Paulsen,
vice president.

634
00:37:55,800 --> 00:37:58,099
Now,
we don't claim the draft is perfect,

635
00:37:58,199 --> 00:38:00,266
and we do have
a constructive proposal

636
00:38:00,365 --> 00:38:02,465
for a workable alternative.

637
00:38:02,565 --> 00:38:04,599
We propose a draft lottery

638
00:38:04,699 --> 00:38:07,065
in which the names
of all eligible males

639
00:38:07,166 --> 00:38:08,733
will be put into a hat,

640
00:38:08,833 --> 00:38:12,400
and the men will be drafted
according to their head sizes.

641
00:38:12,500 --> 00:38:16,032
The tiny heads will go
into the military service

642
00:38:16,132 --> 00:38:20,465
and the fat heads
will go into government.

643
00:38:20,565 --> 00:38:22,465
SOLDIER
<i>Roger, 3-1 is on his way.</i>

644
00:38:22,565 --> 00:38:25,199
SOLDIER
<i>5-8-1.</i>

645
00:38:25,300 --> 00:38:29,333
A 19-year-old high school dropout says,

646
00:38:29,432 --> 00:38:32,199
"Why are we here?"

647
00:38:32,300 --> 00:38:34,065
And the, the standard response,

648
00:38:34,166 --> 00:38:36,099
at least on an official level,
was,

649
00:38:36,199 --> 00:38:39,065
to prevent
international communism

650
00:38:39,166 --> 00:38:42,065
from conquering the world.

651
00:38:42,166 --> 00:38:45,965
The men say, "Hey,
that, that's bullshit."

652
00:38:48,266 --> 00:38:49,800
So the other reason put forth,

653
00:38:49,900 --> 00:38:51,932
at least in the latter days
of the war,

654
00:38:52,032 --> 00:38:54,400
was to maintain America's
international credibility

655
00:38:54,500 --> 00:38:57,065
with our allies,
and our enemies.

656
00:38:57,166 --> 00:39:01,300
Uh,
no 19, 20-year-old kid wants to die to maintain

657
00:39:01,400 --> 00:39:04,599
the credibility of
Lyndon Johnson or Richard Nixon.

658
00:39:04,699 --> 00:39:08,099
And so,
within a relatively short time,

659
00:39:08,199 --> 00:39:10,333
the guys were saying,

660
00:39:10,432 --> 00:39:13,199
"Look, we shouldn't be here,
but we are.

661
00:39:13,300 --> 00:39:15,199
"So my only function in life

662
00:39:15,300 --> 00:39:18,465
"is to try and keep you alive,
buddy,

663
00:39:18,565 --> 00:39:21,632
"and to keep my precious ass
from being killed.

664
00:39:21,733 --> 00:39:25,400
And then to go home
and forget about this."

665
00:39:27,833 --> 00:39:30,432
The grunts, uh,

666
00:39:30,532 --> 00:39:33,666
don't always do what the captain says,
you know.

667
00:39:33,766 --> 00:39:37,233
We got,
uh- the captain will stay back,

668
00:39:37,333 --> 00:39:39,233
he'll tell the platoon
or something

669
00:39:39,333 --> 00:39:42,032
to go out so many hundred meters,
you know.

670
00:39:42,132 --> 00:39:43,865
We don't do it.

671
00:39:43,965 --> 00:39:45,766
We only go as far
as we get out of sight,

672
00:39:45,865 --> 00:39:47,300
sit down, and come back in.

673
00:39:47,400 --> 00:39:49,233
What happens to an unpopular officer

674
00:39:49,333 --> 00:39:51,365
out in the field?

675
00:39:51,465 --> 00:39:54,400
Mostly unpopular officers,
from what I've heard,

676
00:39:54,500 --> 00:39:57,132
if they,
if they mess with a grunt too much,

677
00:39:57,233 --> 00:40:00,099
they get shot at.

678
00:40:00,199 --> 00:40:03,599
It had always been a part of war.

679
00:40:03,699 --> 00:40:06,733
In Vietnam,
it was called "fragging,"

680
00:40:06,833 --> 00:40:11,065
after the fragmentation grenades
most often used.

681
00:40:11,166 --> 00:40:16,233
Beginning in
the summer of 1969,

682
00:40:16,333 --> 00:40:20,199
as thousands of American troops
began going home,

683
00:40:20,300 --> 00:40:23,865
the number of reports of the
murder or attempted murder

684
00:40:23,965 --> 00:40:26,000
by enlisted men
of their superiors

685
00:40:26,099 --> 00:40:29,132
increased alarmingly.

686
00:40:29,233 --> 00:40:34,266
The Army would investigate
nearly 800 cases.

687
00:40:34,365 --> 00:40:36,333
Most took place
far from the fighting,

688
00:40:36,432 --> 00:40:39,132
usually the violent outcome
of arguments over race

689
00:40:39,233 --> 00:40:41,400
or women or drugs

690
00:40:41,500 --> 00:40:44,500
rather than the war itself.

691
00:40:44,599 --> 00:40:47,166
But there were exceptions.

692
00:40:47,266 --> 00:40:49,233
It's a totally different army

693
00:40:49,333 --> 00:40:53,166
than what we sent
to Vietnam in 1965.

694
00:40:53,266 --> 00:40:57,300
And the new lieutenant comes in,
all gung-ho for body count.

695
00:40:57,400 --> 00:41:00,932
He wants contact,
he goes crazy, and says,

696
00:41:01,032 --> 00:41:03,333
"I want a volunteer for this."

697
00:41:06,132 --> 00:41:11,865
That new gung-ho officer
was a clear and present danger

698
00:41:11,965 --> 00:41:15,666
to the life and limb
of the grunts.

699
00:41:15,766 --> 00:41:18,333
They'd have subtle hints,
like a little note saying,

700
00:41:18,432 --> 00:41:21,065
"We're gonna kill your ass
if you keep this up."

701
00:41:21,166 --> 00:41:24,132
Or instead
of a fragmentation grenade,

702
00:41:24,233 --> 00:41:27,965
they may throw a smoke grenade
in an officer's hooch or bunker.

703
00:41:28,065 --> 00:41:32,032
And if they didn't correct
their behavior and outlook,

704
00:41:32,132 --> 00:41:35,532
yeah, they would frag them.

705
00:41:35,632 --> 00:41:39,300
I saw it happen in a very, uh,
strange way.

706
00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:47,500
We were in a base and a Marine
started running towards me.

707
00:41:47,599 --> 00:41:49,666
I didn't realize that what he...

708
00:41:49,766 --> 00:41:51,900
what he was doing back
in the dark over there

709
00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:54,166
was actually
throw a hand grenade

710
00:41:54,266 --> 00:41:57,733
underneath the space
that is underneath a hooch.

711
00:41:59,233 --> 00:42:01,599
And when it exploded,
I went, "Holy shit."

712
00:42:01,699 --> 00:42:05,032
And I knew right away
what he had done.

713
00:42:05,132 --> 00:42:08,400
And he was
an African-American Marine.

714
00:42:08,500 --> 00:42:10,400
African-Americans were treated

715
00:42:10,500 --> 00:42:12,865
with disrespect
by their superiors.

716
00:42:12,965 --> 00:42:16,800
This was not uncommon.

717
00:42:16,900 --> 00:42:21,800
So in a ways,
as bad as this sounds,

718
00:42:21,900 --> 00:42:24,300
maybe that guy
had it coming to him.

719
00:42:24,400 --> 00:42:25,865
I don't know.

720
00:42:29,099 --> 00:42:31,865
In Paris,
the 29th session of the so-called peace talks

721
00:42:31,965 --> 00:42:32,865
took place.

722
00:42:32,965 --> 00:42:34,766
There was no progress.

723
00:42:34,865 --> 00:42:38,199
In Vietnam,
it was announced that 139 Americans

724
00:42:38,300 --> 00:42:39,800
lost their lives last week,

725
00:42:39,900 --> 00:42:42,500
bringing total deaths
in our longest war...

726
00:42:42,599 --> 00:42:45,500
The four-way peace talks in Paris

727
00:42:45,599 --> 00:42:48,166
continued to go nowhere.

728
00:42:48,266 --> 00:42:51,900
To break the logjam,
Nixon directed Henry Kissinger

729
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:54,666
to begin secret talks,

730
00:42:54,766 --> 00:42:57,400
the first in a series
of clandestine meetings

731
00:42:57,500 --> 00:43:00,266
with the North Vietnamese alone.

732
00:43:00,365 --> 00:43:02,666
They first met
in an apartment building

733
00:43:02,766 --> 00:43:04,800
on the Rue de Rivoli.

734
00:43:04,900 --> 00:43:07,833
The Viet Cong and the
South Vietnamese government

735
00:43:07,932 --> 00:43:10,632
were not included.

736
00:43:10,733 --> 00:43:13,666
Hanoi remained immovable.

737
00:43:13,766 --> 00:43:17,532
They would not even admit they
had troops in South Vietnam,

738
00:43:17,632 --> 00:43:21,532
let alone discuss
withdrawing them.

739
00:43:21,632 --> 00:43:23,400
Now Kissinger warned

740
00:43:23,500 --> 00:43:26,699
that if there were no change
in their position by November 1,

741
00:43:26,800 --> 00:43:28,733
the one-year anniversary

742
00:43:28,833 --> 00:43:31,166
of President Johnson's
bombing halt,

743
00:43:31,266 --> 00:43:32,900
President Nixon

744
00:43:33,000 --> 00:43:35,900
would "consider steps
of grave consequence."

745
00:43:48,500 --> 00:43:52,000
September 2, 1969,

746
00:43:52,099 --> 00:43:54,333
was the 24th anniversary

747
00:43:54,432 --> 00:43:58,233
of Ho Chi Minh's declaration
of Vietnamese independence

748
00:43:58,333 --> 00:44:00,766
in Hanoi's Ba Dinh Square.

749
00:44:02,766 --> 00:44:07,565
At 9:45 that morning, Ho died.

750
00:44:07,666 --> 00:44:12,300
He was said to be 79,
but like so much about him,

751
00:44:12,400 --> 00:44:17,699
the precise date of his birth
was shrouded in mystery.

752
00:44:17,800 --> 00:44:20,400
He had been "Uncle Ho"
for decades,

753
00:44:20,500 --> 00:44:23,800
the living embodiment of the
struggle against the Japanese,

754
00:44:23,900 --> 00:44:26,800
the French,
the Saigon government,

755
00:44:26,900 --> 00:44:29,733
and then the Americans.

756
00:44:29,833 --> 00:44:31,766
𝄞

757
00:44:31,865 --> 00:44:34,632
In a speech
to the National Assembly,

758
00:44:34,733 --> 00:44:39,166
Le Duan,
the First Secretary of the Communist Party,

759
00:44:39,266 --> 00:44:40,565
who had been the architect

760
00:44:40,666 --> 00:44:43,233
of North Vietnamese
military policy

761
00:44:43,333 --> 00:44:44,599
for a decade,

762
00:44:44,699 --> 00:44:48,766
promised to fulfill
what he said was Ho's vision:

763
00:44:48,865 --> 00:44:54,733
the reunification of the country
on communist terms.

764
00:44:56,300 --> 00:44:58,965
Nothing had changed.

765
00:44:59,065 --> 00:45:00,833
Hanoi has given the false impression

766
00:45:00,932 --> 00:45:04,233
that all is wine and roses
and it isn't so.

767
00:45:04,333 --> 00:45:06,699
The same day Ho Chi Minh died,

768
00:45:06,800 --> 00:45:09,365
an unusual press conference
was held

769
00:45:09,465 --> 00:45:12,365
at the Bethesda Naval
Medical Center.

770
00:45:12,465 --> 00:45:15,132
Two ailing prisoners of war,

771
00:45:15,233 --> 00:45:18,699
Robert Frishman
and Douglas Hegdahl,

772
00:45:18,800 --> 00:45:21,065
who had recently been released
by the North Vietnamese,

773
00:45:21,166 --> 00:45:23,300
spoke in public
for the first time

774
00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:25,199
about the severe treatment

775
00:45:25,300 --> 00:45:28,666
they and their fellow prisoners
had received.

776
00:45:28,766 --> 00:45:31,233
I don't think
solitary confinement,

777
00:45:31,333 --> 00:45:35,032
forced statements,
living in a cage for three years,

778
00:45:35,132 --> 00:45:38,965
being put in straps,
not being allowed to sleep or eat,

779
00:45:39,065 --> 00:45:42,532
removal of fingernails,
being hung from a ceiling,

780
00:45:42,632 --> 00:45:44,900
having an infected arm
which was almost lost,

781
00:45:45,000 --> 00:45:47,233
not receiving medical care,

782
00:45:47,333 --> 00:45:49,565
being dragged along the ground
with a broken leg,

783
00:45:49,666 --> 00:45:52,599
or not allowing exchange of mail
to prisoners of war

784
00:45:52,699 --> 00:45:54,032
are humane.

785
00:45:54,132 --> 00:45:58,333
Douglas Hegdahl was quiet, self-effacing,

786
00:45:58,432 --> 00:46:01,065
and so apparently clueless,

787
00:46:01,166 --> 00:46:03,233
his North Vietnamese guards

788
00:46:03,333 --> 00:46:06,065
had called him
the "stupid one."

789
00:46:06,166 --> 00:46:07,632
But once released,

790
00:46:07,733 --> 00:46:10,900
he was a gold mine
of information.

791
00:46:11,000 --> 00:46:14,900
He had memorized the names
of more than 200 prisoners

792
00:46:15,000 --> 00:46:18,632
to the tune of
"Old McDonald Had a Farm."

793
00:46:18,733 --> 00:46:21,565
Thanks to him,
scores of American families

794
00:46:21,666 --> 00:46:23,766
would find out
for the first time

795
00:46:23,865 --> 00:46:29,032
that their sons and husbands
and fathers were still alive.

796
00:46:29,132 --> 00:46:32,565
Within a few days
of the press conference,

797
00:46:32,666 --> 00:46:36,432
Hanoi's treatment of the
prisoners began to improve.

798
00:46:36,532 --> 00:46:40,400
"A lot less brutality,"
one captive remembered,

799
00:46:40,500 --> 00:46:43,032
"and larger bowls of rice."

800
00:46:57,833 --> 00:46:59,166
All right, who's wounded?

801
00:46:59,266 --> 00:47:01,965
All right, give me some cover!

802
00:47:02,065 --> 00:47:04,733
Devallier is the lone medic in the platoon.

803
00:47:04,833 --> 00:47:06,000
He's scared,

804
00:47:06,099 --> 00:47:08,432
scared from the moment
he gets out of the chopper

805
00:47:08,532 --> 00:47:09,965
to the moment
it picks him up.

806
00:47:10,065 --> 00:47:12,965
Scared that someday
he's going to get killed

807
00:47:13,065 --> 00:47:16,032
picking up a wounded buddy.

808
00:47:19,766 --> 00:47:21,965
I was the replacement

809
00:47:22,065 --> 00:47:25,666
for a medic
who had been killed.

810
00:47:25,766 --> 00:47:29,333
First time out,
we were assigned to do a patrol.

811
00:47:29,432 --> 00:47:32,766
Remember to stop the bleeding!

812
00:47:32,865 --> 00:47:38,465
And we stumbled actually into an ambush.

813
00:47:41,300 --> 00:47:44,666
And it was incredibly
terrifying.

814
00:47:44,766 --> 00:47:47,065
Guys were screaming and yelling.

815
00:47:47,166 --> 00:47:49,465
There was shooting everywhere.

816
00:47:49,565 --> 00:47:53,532
That first firefight,
I remember praying to God,

817
00:47:53,632 --> 00:47:59,766
if He got me through this
that I would make a difference.

818
00:47:59,865 --> 00:48:04,233
That I really would make
a difference.

819
00:48:04,333 --> 00:48:07,400
Sometimes their lives depend on you, I mean;

820
00:48:07,500 --> 00:48:10,432
you hold it in your hands,
as a medic.

821
00:48:10,532 --> 00:48:13,400
It's just hard to say
but right then,

822
00:48:13,500 --> 00:48:15,733
you hold life and death
in your hand.

823
00:48:15,833 --> 00:48:19,532
In Vietnam, medics and navy corpsmen

824
00:48:19,632 --> 00:48:22,065
accompanied infantry units
on patrols,

825
00:48:22,166 --> 00:48:24,032
search and destroy missions,

826
00:48:24,132 --> 00:48:27,632
and large-scale
combat operations.

827
00:48:27,733 --> 00:48:31,500
Nearly 2,000
would lose their lives.

828
00:48:35,199 --> 00:48:37,766
Unlike in previous wars,

829
00:48:37,865 --> 00:48:41,166
many medics in Vietnam chose
to carry weapons,

830
00:48:41,266 --> 00:48:43,666
and when the shooting started,

831
00:48:43,766 --> 00:48:46,465
were willing to use them
to protect themselves

832
00:48:46,565 --> 00:48:49,500
and their wounded comrades.

833
00:48:49,599 --> 00:48:53,000
I carried an M16,

834
00:48:53,099 --> 00:48:56,132
but I did not know
if I could kill.

835
00:48:56,233 --> 00:48:59,833
Part of being a medic
was to save lives.

836
00:48:59,932 --> 00:49:06,233
I wondered,
if the scenario presented itself, would I?

837
00:49:06,333 --> 00:49:10,965
I did participate
in shooting at the enemy.

838
00:49:11,065 --> 00:49:13,500
We killed a lot of people.

839
00:49:13,599 --> 00:49:16,865
I feel that responsibility.

840
00:49:18,300 --> 00:49:21,166
I feel blood on my hands.

841
00:49:26,532 --> 00:49:31,132
When you kill someone
for your country,

842
00:49:31,233 --> 00:49:34,099
all things change.

843
00:49:37,199 --> 00:49:39,632
𝄞 Come ye

844
00:49:42,032 --> 00:49:45,432
𝄞 Ye who would have peace...

845
00:49:45,532 --> 00:49:46,932
<i>We believed it's possible</i>

846
00:49:47,032 --> 00:49:49,166
<i>to create a substantial
majority in this country</i>

847
00:49:49,266 --> 00:49:50,865
<i>for withdrawal from Vietnam,</i>

848
00:49:50,965 --> 00:49:52,733
<i>and that's what we're about
in the long run.</i>

849
00:49:52,833 --> 00:49:54,699
<i>In November,
we'll be back again,</i>

850
00:49:54,800 --> 00:49:56,300
<i>in December,
we'll be back again.</i>

851
00:49:56,400 --> 00:49:58,266
And we intend to build
the movement,

852
00:49:58,365 --> 00:50:00,666
which will make it imperative

853
00:50:00,766 --> 00:50:03,032
that the United States
withdraw from Vietnam.

854
00:50:03,132 --> 00:50:06,000
The organizers of the moratorium do not aim

855
00:50:06,099 --> 00:50:08,733
at confrontation
or scuffles with the police.

856
00:50:08,833 --> 00:50:11,800
Instead,
they want to involve the most people possible

857
00:50:11,900 --> 00:50:14,833
in some gesture of protest,
however modest,

858
00:50:14,932 --> 00:50:18,465
so as to show the administration
that a large bloc of Americans

859
00:50:18,565 --> 00:50:21,065
care not about winning
or losing the war,

860
00:50:21,166 --> 00:50:23,365
but only about ending it.

861
00:50:23,465 --> 00:50:26,699
𝄞 Ye who have no fear

862
00:50:26,800 --> 00:50:27,965
Thank you.

863
00:50:28,065 --> 00:50:30,300
Now, I understand

864
00:50:30,400 --> 00:50:32,599
that there has been
and continues to be

865
00:50:32,699 --> 00:50:35,532
opposition to the war
in Vietnam on the campuses

866
00:50:35,632 --> 00:50:38,532
and also in the nation.

867
00:50:38,632 --> 00:50:39,666
Uh, we expect it.

868
00:50:39,766 --> 00:50:41,666
However, under no circumstances

869
00:50:41,766 --> 00:50:44,932
will I be affected whatever
by it.

870
00:50:45,032 --> 00:50:48,932
Hoping to undercut support for the moratorium,

871
00:50:49,032 --> 00:50:51,233
Nixon canceled the draft calls

872
00:50:51,333 --> 00:50:55,099
for the months
of November and December 1969.

873
00:50:55,199 --> 00:50:58,500
And he instituted
a random lottery system

874
00:50:58,599 --> 00:51:01,432
based on the date
of a young man's birth,

875
00:51:01,532 --> 00:51:04,432
intended
to treat rich and poor alike

876
00:51:04,532 --> 00:51:08,199
and do away
with unfair deferments.

877
00:51:08,300 --> 00:51:11,800
It was good policy and
a brilliant political maneuver.

878
00:51:13,300 --> 00:51:14,666
On the line,
brothers and sisters.

879
00:51:14,766 --> 00:51:16,166
On the line now.

880
00:51:17,932 --> 00:51:20,065
As people across the country organized

881
00:51:20,166 --> 00:51:22,000
for the peaceful moratorium,

882
00:51:22,099 --> 00:51:24,065
members of a radical faction

883
00:51:24,166 --> 00:51:26,900
of the Students
for a Democratic Society-

884
00:51:27,000 --> 00:51:28,199
the "Weathermen"-

885
00:51:28,300 --> 00:51:29,400
took more direct action.

886
00:51:29,500 --> 00:51:30,800
𝄞 The man in a trench coat

887
00:51:30,900 --> 00:51:33,500
Less interested in ending the war

888
00:51:33,599 --> 00:51:36,099
than in sparking
a violent revolution,

889
00:51:36,199 --> 00:51:40,932
they staged what they called
four "Days of Rage" in Chicago.

890
00:51:41,032 --> 00:51:43,099
𝄞 You better duck down the alleyway 𝄞

891
00:51:43,199 --> 00:51:46,266
We no longer simply resist the pigs.

892
00:51:46,365 --> 00:51:48,333
We no longer trap ourselves

893
00:51:48,432 --> 00:51:49,965
so that
the only possible motion

894
00:51:50,065 --> 00:51:52,132
is in response to pig attacks.

895
00:51:52,233 --> 00:51:54,465
We have gone on the offensive.

896
00:51:54,565 --> 00:51:56,465
It is we who call the shots now.

897
00:51:56,565 --> 00:51:58,733
"Kill all the rich people,"

898
00:51:58,833 --> 00:52:00,065
one of their leaders said.

899
00:52:00,166 --> 00:52:03,199
"Break up
their cars and apartments.

900
00:52:03,300 --> 00:52:05,432
"Bring the revolution home.

901
00:52:05,532 --> 00:52:07,065
"Kill your parents.

902
00:52:07,166 --> 00:52:10,333
That's really where it's at."

903
00:52:10,432 --> 00:52:12,333
Weathermen takes its name from a line

904
00:52:12,432 --> 00:52:14,099
in a Bob Dylan song which says,

905
00:52:14,199 --> 00:52:15,932
"You don't need a weatherman

906
00:52:16,032 --> 00:52:17,465
to know the way
the wind blows."

907
00:52:17,565 --> 00:52:19,099
𝄞 Wash the plain clothes

908
00:52:19,199 --> 00:52:20,599
𝄞 You don't need a weatherman

909
00:52:20,699 --> 00:52:24,333
𝄞 To know which way
the wind blows 𝄞

910
00:52:24,432 --> 00:52:26,733
The Weathermen assumed

911
00:52:26,833 --> 00:52:29,500
thousands would rally
to their cause.

912
00:52:29,599 --> 00:52:32,565
Only 600 did.

913
00:52:32,666 --> 00:52:36,166
They blew up a statue
honoring slain policemen,

914
00:52:36,266 --> 00:52:39,500
ran through the streets
wielding chains and pipes,

915
00:52:39,599 --> 00:52:41,733
smashing windows
and windshields

916
00:52:41,833 --> 00:52:45,365
and charging police barriers.

917
00:52:45,465 --> 00:52:47,132
Six were shot.

918
00:52:47,233 --> 00:52:50,032
250 were jailed.

919
00:52:50,132 --> 00:52:53,365
75 policemen were injured;

920
00:52:53,465 --> 00:52:56,532
a city attorney
was paralyzed for life.

921
00:52:58,699 --> 00:53:02,166
The Black Panthers
denounced the Weathermen

922
00:53:02,266 --> 00:53:05,266
as "anarchistic,
opportunistic...

923
00:53:05,365 --> 00:53:08,865
Custeristic."

924
00:53:08,965 --> 00:53:12,032
Probably 1969 was the year

925
00:53:12,132 --> 00:53:14,300
in which most of us
were more alienated

926
00:53:14,400 --> 00:53:18,233
and felt
more like revolutionaries.

927
00:53:18,333 --> 00:53:23,000
And it led
to a lot of crazy responses.

928
00:53:23,099 --> 00:53:26,965
I wanted the country to undergo
a radical transformation,

929
00:53:27,065 --> 00:53:29,965
a redistribution
of wealth and power.

930
00:53:30,065 --> 00:53:32,266
But to try to bring that about

931
00:53:32,365 --> 00:53:35,099
through armed struggle
in the United States

932
00:53:35,199 --> 00:53:37,166
was insane.

933
00:53:37,266 --> 00:53:39,632
These were all
infantile fantasies

934
00:53:39,733 --> 00:53:42,532
that people came to
out of the frustration

935
00:53:42,632 --> 00:53:45,266
of not having
a workable strategy

936
00:53:45,365 --> 00:53:48,699
for ending the war.

937
00:53:48,800 --> 00:53:50,300
What do you think people ought to do, governor,

938
00:53:50,400 --> 00:53:52,233
who are genuinely opposed
to the war

939
00:53:52,333 --> 00:53:54,500
but not in favor
of the Viet Cong?

940
00:53:54,599 --> 00:53:58,932
Well, I think that we have had...
experiences before

941
00:53:59,032 --> 00:54:01,599
of people who have been
opposed to wars,

942
00:54:01,699 --> 00:54:04,565
and I think they deal through
their own representatives,

943
00:54:04,666 --> 00:54:07,065
and it's dealt with
in government channels.

944
00:54:07,166 --> 00:54:09,599
But once the killing starts,

945
00:54:09,699 --> 00:54:11,565
the very difficult thing then
is,

946
00:54:11,666 --> 00:54:15,500
how do you register
these protests

947
00:54:15,599 --> 00:54:17,565
without lending comfort
and aid to the enemy,

948
00:54:17,666 --> 00:54:19,565
without strengthening
his resistance

949
00:54:19,666 --> 00:54:20,766
and his will to fight

950
00:54:20,865 --> 00:54:23,400
and thus
killing more of our men?

951
00:54:23,500 --> 00:54:27,599
And most Americans in the past
have always respected it.

952
00:54:27,699 --> 00:54:29,233
You see,
the people in this country

953
00:54:29,333 --> 00:54:31,300
aren't fighting
a Vietnam War.

954
00:54:31,400 --> 00:54:32,800
The government's fighting it.

955
00:54:32,900 --> 00:54:34,000
Well, the government is, uh,

956
00:54:34,099 --> 00:54:36,233
the government is the people, supposedly, No.

957
00:54:36,333 --> 00:54:38,500
but in this instance, it is not.
Not anymore, it's not.

958
00:54:38,599 --> 00:54:40,032
No, I agree with you,
it is not.

959
00:54:40,132 --> 00:54:41,465
Not in this situation,
it's not.

960
00:54:41,565 --> 00:54:43,000
Shouldn't I
let my government know

961
00:54:43,099 --> 00:54:44,233
that I think they're crazy?

962
00:54:44,333 --> 00:54:45,800
I think they are insane, really.

963
00:54:45,900 --> 00:54:47,932
This is an insane thing
we're doing.

964
00:54:48,032 --> 00:54:49,500
As a matter of fact,

965
00:54:49,599 --> 00:54:51,666
Nixon said
he will not listen to us

966
00:54:51,766 --> 00:54:53,365
and that he will not
be dictated to

967
00:54:53,465 --> 00:54:55,266
from the people in the streets.

968
00:54:55,365 --> 00:54:59,199
The people in the streets
are me.

969
00:55:02,333 --> 00:55:06,599
The moratorium on October 15,

970
00:55:06,699 --> 00:55:08,199
held all across the country,

971
00:55:08,300 --> 00:55:11,132
was the largest outpouring
of public dissent

972
00:55:11,233 --> 00:55:12,666
in American history.

973
00:55:16,733 --> 00:55:21,432
𝄞 Blackbird singing
in the dead of night 𝄞

974
00:55:21,532 --> 00:55:26,766
𝄞 Take these broken wings
and learn to fly 𝄞

975
00:55:26,865 --> 00:55:30,699
𝄞 All your life

976
00:55:30,800 --> 00:55:35,333
𝄞 You were only waiting
for this moment to arise 𝄞

977
00:55:35,432 --> 00:55:38,166
It was peaceful, middle-class,

978
00:55:38,266 --> 00:55:41,266
carefully focused
on ending the war.

979
00:55:41,365 --> 00:55:43,766
"It's nice," one marcher said,

980
00:55:43,865 --> 00:55:45,599
"to go to a demonstration

981
00:55:45,699 --> 00:55:50,632
without having to swear
allegiance to Chairman Mao."

982
00:55:50,733 --> 00:55:52,166
𝄞 All your life

983
00:55:52,266 --> 00:55:54,800
FRANK McGEE: Surely this is a day unique in our history.

984
00:55:54,900 --> 00:55:57,865
Never have
so many of our people publicly

985
00:55:57,965 --> 00:56:00,300
and collectively
manifested opposition

986
00:56:00,400 --> 00:56:03,532
to this country's involvement
in a war.

987
00:56:03,632 --> 00:56:06,565
It is unlikely
we will remain unchanged.

988
00:56:06,666 --> 00:56:09,500
Hundreds and hundreds
of thousands

989
00:56:09,599 --> 00:56:11,699
in cities from New York,
with its eight million people,

990
00:56:11,800 --> 00:56:15,099
to Dubois, Wyoming,
with its 800 people,

991
00:56:15,199 --> 00:56:17,432
have sought to impress
upon the president

992
00:56:17,532 --> 00:56:19,599
their opposition to the war.

993
00:56:22,099 --> 00:56:28,900
The first large protest march I went to was in Baltimore.

994
00:56:29,000 --> 00:56:32,500
I'd never been with that many
people at one time.

995
00:56:32,599 --> 00:56:38,666
Just the energy of the crowd
itself was tremendous.

996
00:56:38,766 --> 00:56:41,065
I wondered
if everybody was in it

997
00:56:41,166 --> 00:56:43,132
for the right reasons.

998
00:56:43,233 --> 00:56:47,865
I wasn't there to drink
or smoke pot.

999
00:56:47,965 --> 00:56:50,199
Not in those situations.

1000
00:56:50,300 --> 00:56:53,833
These, to me,
were serious business.

1001
00:56:53,932 --> 00:56:57,400
This was the business
of living life.

1002
00:56:57,500 --> 00:56:58,833
This was not a party.

1003
00:56:58,932 --> 00:57:01,666
I didn't just want
to be with the crowd.

1004
00:57:01,766 --> 00:57:03,766
I didn't just want
to make noise.

1005
00:57:03,865 --> 00:57:05,900
I wanted to make a difference.

1006
00:57:06,000 --> 00:57:10,465
And I in no way
wanted to dishonor my brother.

1007
00:57:10,565 --> 00:57:12,099
𝄞 For this moment to arrive

1008
00:57:12,199 --> 00:57:14,199
For most of the government today,

1009
00:57:14,300 --> 00:57:15,733
it was business as usual.

1010
00:57:15,833 --> 00:57:17,565
But at noon
on the Capitol steps,

1011
00:57:17,666 --> 00:57:20,065
a thousand young
congressional staff employees

1012
00:57:20,166 --> 00:57:22,800
stood in silence
for 45 minutes.

1013
00:57:22,900 --> 00:57:27,465
𝄞 Blackbird singing
in the dead of night 𝄞

1014
00:57:27,565 --> 00:57:30,965
The children of several of the president's closest aides

1015
00:57:31,065 --> 00:57:32,400
and cabinet members

1016
00:57:32,500 --> 00:57:35,166
took part
in the national moratorium.

1017
00:57:35,266 --> 00:57:38,565
Vice President Agnew's
14-year-old daughter

1018
00:57:38,666 --> 00:57:40,300
wanted to march,

1019
00:57:40,400 --> 00:57:41,932
but he wouldn't let her.

1020
00:57:42,032 --> 00:57:44,032
Coretta Scott King,

1021
00:57:44,132 --> 00:57:47,000
the widow of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.,

1022
00:57:47,099 --> 00:57:49,833
led thousands
of silent demonstrators

1023
00:57:49,932 --> 00:57:53,699
streaming past the White House,
where Nixon sat alone,

1024
00:57:53,800 --> 00:57:57,132
writing notes to himself
on a yellow pad.

1025
00:57:57,233 --> 00:57:59,132
"Don't get rattled.
Don't waver.

1026
00:57:59,233 --> 00:58:01,865
Don't react."

1027
00:58:04,465 --> 00:58:06,266
On November 3,

1028
00:58:06,365 --> 00:58:09,733
the president sought
to seize back the initiative.

1029
00:58:09,833 --> 00:58:11,632
Good evening,
my fellow Americans.

1030
00:58:11,733 --> 00:58:15,599
He went on national television and called for patience

1031
00:58:15,699 --> 00:58:18,932
and asked Americans
to rally behind him.

1032
00:58:19,032 --> 00:58:20,865
To you,

1033
00:58:20,965 --> 00:58:25,233
the great silent majority
of my fellow Americans,

1034
00:58:25,333 --> 00:58:27,233
I ask for your support.

1035
00:58:27,333 --> 00:58:30,300
I pledged in my campaign
for the presidency

1036
00:58:30,400 --> 00:58:31,865
to end the war

1037
00:58:31,965 --> 00:58:34,932
in a way
that we could win the peace.

1038
00:58:35,032 --> 00:58:38,699
The more support I can have
from the American people,

1039
00:58:38,800 --> 00:58:40,833
the sooner that pledge
can be redeemed;

1040
00:58:40,932 --> 00:58:44,365
for the more divided we are
at home,

1041
00:58:44,465 --> 00:58:48,166
the less likely the enemy
is to negotiate at Paris.

1042
00:58:49,599 --> 00:58:51,965
Let us be united for peace.

1043
00:58:52,065 --> 00:58:56,300
𝄞 We don't smoke marijuana
in Muskogee 𝄞

1044
00:58:56,400 --> 00:58:58,532
The speech was a triumph.

1045
00:58:58,632 --> 00:59:02,599
Nixon's approval rate
soared to 68%.

1046
00:59:04,900 --> 00:59:07,266
All that's in the news

1047
00:59:07,365 --> 00:59:09,500
is the fact that
the moratoriums are meeting,

1048
00:59:09,599 --> 00:59:11,565
that our country's sick...

1049
00:59:11,666 --> 00:59:13,432
sick of this and sick of that.

1050
00:59:13,532 --> 00:59:16,166
It's young people are all
the ones that are standing up.

1051
00:59:16,266 --> 00:59:19,632
And there is a silent majority,
which is no longer silent.

1052
00:59:19,733 --> 00:59:22,965
We're the people
who are wanting to show

1053
00:59:23,065 --> 00:59:25,965
that man deserves freedom
no matter where he is.

1054
00:59:26,065 --> 00:59:28,266
𝄞 A place where even squares
can have a ball 𝄞

1055
00:59:28,365 --> 00:59:30,900
Many brave men died in
this country to make it free...

1056
00:59:31,000 --> 00:59:32,599
I believe that.

1057
00:59:32,699 --> 00:59:34,900
and let you...
and let you have everything.

1058
00:59:35,000 --> 00:59:38,233
Senator Fulbright said some months ago

1059
00:59:38,333 --> 00:59:40,833
that if the Vietnam War
went on much longer,

1060
00:59:40,932 --> 00:59:44,766
the best of our young people
would be in Canada.

1061
00:59:44,865 --> 00:59:47,733
Indeed, as for these deserters,

1062
00:59:47,833 --> 00:59:51,800
malcontents, radicals,
incendiaries,

1063
00:59:51,900 --> 00:59:54,233
the civil
and the uncivil disobedience

1064
00:59:54,333 --> 00:59:56,199
among our young,

1065
00:59:56,300 --> 00:59:58,166
SDS, PLP,

1066
00:59:58,266 --> 00:59:59,400
Weatherman one, Weatherman two,

1067
00:59:59,500 --> 01:00:01,699
the Revolutionary
Action Movement,

1068
01:00:01,800 --> 01:00:03,900
Panthers, lions, hippies,

1069
01:00:04,000 --> 01:00:06,800
yippies, tigers alike.

1070
01:00:06,900 --> 01:00:09,365
I'd rather swap
the whole damn zoo

1071
01:00:09,465 --> 01:00:11,932
for a single platoon
of the kind of young Americans

1072
01:00:12,032 --> 01:00:13,333
I saw in Vietnam.

1073
01:00:16,400 --> 01:00:19,599
"We've got the liberal bastards on the run now,"

1074
01:00:19,699 --> 01:00:22,233
Nixon told his aides,

1075
01:00:22,333 --> 01:00:26,465
"and we're going to keep them
on the run."

1076
01:00:36,632 --> 01:00:40,865
𝄞 My son, my son

1077
01:00:40,965 --> 01:00:42,932
My doorbell rang,

1078
01:00:43,032 --> 01:00:45,199
and it was this guy
standing there,

1079
01:00:45,300 --> 01:00:48,465
and he said, "Ms.
Howard, we're marching in Memphis

1080
01:00:48,565 --> 01:00:51,400
in protest of the Vietnam War."

1081
01:00:51,500 --> 01:00:53,465
I said, "Really?"

1082
01:00:53,565 --> 01:00:57,000
He said,
"And we figured in view of what happened..."

1083
01:00:57,099 --> 01:01:00,266
I said, "Yeah, my son's death."

1084
01:01:00,365 --> 01:01:03,199
He said, "Well,
we thought you'd like to join us."

1085
01:01:03,300 --> 01:01:05,565
I said,
"One of the reasons he died

1086
01:01:05,666 --> 01:01:07,065
"was so you have the right.

1087
01:01:07,166 --> 01:01:09,932
"In this country,
you have a right.

1088
01:01:10,032 --> 01:01:12,099
"Go right ahead and demonstrate.

1089
01:01:12,199 --> 01:01:14,166
Have at it."

1090
01:01:14,266 --> 01:01:16,632
I said, "But no,
I won't be joining you."

1091
01:01:16,733 --> 01:01:18,365
I said, "But I'll tell you what.

1092
01:01:18,465 --> 01:01:20,199
"If you ever
ring my doorbell again,

1093
01:01:20,300 --> 01:01:23,300
I will blow your damn head off
with a .357 Magnum."

1094
01:01:33,632 --> 01:01:35,900
Well, I was stationed in Vietnam

1095
01:01:36,000 --> 01:01:39,400
at a province
called Quang Ngai.

1096
01:01:39,500 --> 01:01:41,032
Even back during the time
of the French,

1097
01:01:41,132 --> 01:01:45,099
it was a very heavily
Viet Minh area,

1098
01:01:45,199 --> 01:01:47,666
and, when I arrived,
heavily Viet Cong.

1099
01:01:50,333 --> 01:01:53,900
No province suffered more during the American war

1100
01:01:54,000 --> 01:01:56,365
than the coastal province
of Quang Ngai.

1101
01:01:58,532 --> 01:02:03,333
More than 70% of its villages
had been shelled by Navy ships,

1102
01:02:03,432 --> 01:02:07,266
bombed, bulldozed,
or burned to the ground,

1103
01:02:07,365 --> 01:02:09,733
and more than 40% of its people

1104
01:02:09,833 --> 01:02:12,400
had been forced
into refugee camps

1105
01:02:12,500 --> 01:02:15,965
before Tim O'Brien from Worthington,
Minnesota,

1106
01:02:16,065 --> 01:02:18,465
got there in 1969.

1107
01:02:20,500 --> 01:02:22,166
It was a province that was viewed

1108
01:02:22,266 --> 01:02:24,632
much as I guess
many Americans might view,

1109
01:02:24,733 --> 01:02:26,965
you know,
sort of redneck America.

1110
01:02:27,065 --> 01:02:30,432
Sort of country bumpkins.

1111
01:02:30,532 --> 01:02:31,833
And they may have been
country bumpkins,

1112
01:02:31,932 --> 01:02:34,333
but they were
fiercely independent.

1113
01:02:34,432 --> 01:02:37,800
Private O'Brien served in Alpha Company,

1114
01:02:37,900 --> 01:02:42,500
3rd Platoon, 5th Battalion,
23rd Americal Division,

1115
01:02:42,599 --> 01:02:45,733
headquartered
at a landing zone called Gator,

1116
01:02:45,833 --> 01:02:49,099
"30 or 40 acres
of almost-America,"

1117
01:02:49,199 --> 01:02:50,833
O'Brien remembered,

1118
01:02:50,932 --> 01:02:54,166
with hot showers and cold beer.

1119
01:02:55,865 --> 01:02:57,565
There was no sense of mission.

1120
01:02:57,666 --> 01:02:59,199
There was no sense
of daily purpose.

1121
01:02:59,300 --> 01:03:01,432
We didn't know
why we were in a village

1122
01:03:01,532 --> 01:03:03,666
or what we were supposed
to accomplish.

1123
01:03:03,766 --> 01:03:05,932
So we'd kick around
jugs of rice

1124
01:03:06,032 --> 01:03:08,900
and search houses
and frisk people,

1125
01:03:09,000 --> 01:03:11,333
and not knowing
what we were looking for

1126
01:03:11,432 --> 01:03:14,833
and rarely finding anything.

1127
01:03:14,932 --> 01:03:16,166
And somebody might die,

1128
01:03:16,266 --> 01:03:18,065
one of our guys,
and somebody might not.

1129
01:03:18,166 --> 01:03:20,532
Then we'd come back to
the same village a week later

1130
01:03:20,632 --> 01:03:22,865
or two weeks later,
do it all over again.

1131
01:03:22,965 --> 01:03:25,733
It was like chasing ghosts.

1132
01:03:29,800 --> 01:03:31,599
An American APC

1133
01:03:31,699 --> 01:03:35,166
accidentally crushed one man
from O'Brien's company.

1134
01:03:35,266 --> 01:03:39,465
An enemy grenade skittered off
O'Brien's helmet and exploded,

1135
01:03:39,565 --> 01:03:42,965
wounding a G.I. standing
a few feet away.

1136
01:03:45,900 --> 01:03:49,900
But mines and booby traps
were the greatest menace.

1137
01:03:56,400 --> 01:03:58,900
Somewhere around 80% of our casualties

1138
01:03:59,000 --> 01:04:01,465
came from land mines
of all sorts.

1139
01:04:03,166 --> 01:04:06,099
In Vietnam, for me,
just to get up in the morning

1140
01:04:06,199 --> 01:04:09,400
and look out at the land
and think,

1141
01:04:09,500 --> 01:04:12,300
"In a few minutes
I'll be walking out there,

1142
01:04:12,400 --> 01:04:15,266
"and will my corpse
be there or there?

1143
01:04:15,365 --> 01:04:18,565
Will I lose a leg out there?"

1144
01:04:18,666 --> 01:04:22,900
I'd always thought of courage
as charging enemy bunkers

1145
01:04:23,000 --> 01:04:25,266
or standing up under fire.

1146
01:04:25,365 --> 01:04:28,699
But just to walk
through Quang Ngai,

1147
01:04:28,800 --> 01:04:31,065
day after day,
from village to village,

1148
01:04:31,166 --> 01:04:35,432
and through the paddies
and up into the mountains,

1149
01:04:35,532 --> 01:04:39,065
just to make your legs move
was an act of courage

1150
01:04:39,166 --> 01:04:41,833
that if, say,
you were living in Sioux City,

1151
01:04:41,932 --> 01:04:43,565
it wouldn't be courageous

1152
01:04:43,666 --> 01:04:46,166
to walk to the grocery store
or down Main Street,

1153
01:04:46,266 --> 01:04:48,865
you know,
just to have your legs go back and forth.

1154
01:04:48,965 --> 01:04:50,599
But in Vietnam, for me,

1155
01:04:50,699 --> 01:04:52,800
just to walk felt
incredibly brave.

1156
01:04:52,900 --> 01:04:55,365
I would sometimes look
at my legs as I walked,

1157
01:04:55,465 --> 01:04:57,432
thinking, "How am I doing this?"

1158
01:05:00,233 --> 01:05:02,132
BAO NINH:

1159
01:05:29,766 --> 01:05:32,000
Bao Ninh was 17

1160
01:05:32,099 --> 01:05:34,900
when he was drafted
into the North Vietnamese Army

1161
01:05:35,000 --> 01:05:36,099
to fight the Americans,

1162
01:05:36,199 --> 01:05:39,465
just as his father
had fought the French.

1163
01:05:39,565 --> 01:05:42,800
His war would take place
in the Central Highlands

1164
01:05:42,900 --> 01:05:45,032
of South Vietnam.

1165
01:05:45,132 --> 01:05:47,233
It was American firepower

1166
01:05:47,333 --> 01:05:51,932
that Bao Ninh and his fellow
soldiers feared the most.

1167
01:05:52,800 --> 01:05:54,733
BAO NINH:

1168
01:08:17,332 --> 01:08:19,399
Back in the spring,

1169
01:08:19,500 --> 01:08:22,932
Tim O'Brien's outfit had been
sent into an area of operations

1170
01:08:23,033 --> 01:08:25,800
the Americans called
"Pinkville,"

1171
01:08:25,899 --> 01:08:27,733
clusters of villages

1172
01:08:27,832 --> 01:08:31,199
that included a hamlet
they called My Lai.

1173
01:08:33,065 --> 01:08:35,199
We hated going there.

1174
01:08:35,300 --> 01:08:38,065
When we'd get the word,
"You're headed for Pinkville,"

1175
01:08:38,166 --> 01:08:40,100
one guy would say to another,
"Somebody's gonna die,"

1176
01:08:40,199 --> 01:08:41,533
or,
"Somebody's gonna lose a leg."

1177
01:08:41,632 --> 01:08:43,632
We were terrified of the place.

1178
01:08:43,733 --> 01:08:47,166
It was littered
with land mines.

1179
01:08:47,265 --> 01:08:49,166
The villagers were...

1180
01:08:49,265 --> 01:08:51,065
The expressions on their faces,

1181
01:08:51,166 --> 01:08:55,466
including the children of,
say, six or five years old,

1182
01:08:55,565 --> 01:09:00,733
had a mixture of hostility
and terror.

1183
01:09:03,033 --> 01:09:04,500
I can't say
many of the villagers

1184
01:09:04,600 --> 01:09:06,632
came with open arms to us,

1185
01:09:06,733 --> 01:09:08,765
but this place was special.

1186
01:09:08,865 --> 01:09:10,865
And I remember talking
to fellow soldiers,

1187
01:09:10,966 --> 01:09:13,233
thinking,
"What is it with this place?"

1188
01:09:14,600 --> 01:09:16,632
And then about three-quarters
of the way

1189
01:09:16,733 --> 01:09:18,365
through my tour in Vietnam,

1190
01:09:18,466 --> 01:09:21,666
the story of the My Lai Massacre
broke in the States.

1191
01:09:22,966 --> 01:09:25,966
On November 12, 1969,

1192
01:09:26,065 --> 01:09:28,600
the Dispatch News Service
in Washington

1193
01:09:28,699 --> 01:09:32,733
moved a story by investigative
journalist Seymour Hersh.

1194
01:09:34,033 --> 01:09:36,265
It was soon followed
by the publication

1195
01:09:36,365 --> 01:09:41,332
of graphic photos taken by Army
photographer Ronald Haeberle.

1196
01:09:42,800 --> 01:09:46,632
The story and the pictures
stunned the country.

1197
01:09:46,733 --> 01:09:48,365
<i>Charges have been made</i>

1198
01:09:48,466 --> 01:09:51,199
that troops
of the Americal Division

1199
01:09:51,300 --> 01:09:54,733
killed as many as
567 South Vietnamese civilians

1200
01:09:54,832 --> 01:09:58,000
during a sweep in March 1968.

1201
01:09:59,265 --> 01:10:01,233
20 months earlier,

1202
01:10:01,332 --> 01:10:04,800
on the morning
of March 16, 1968,

1203
01:10:04,899 --> 01:10:07,500
105 men from a rifle company

1204
01:10:07,600 --> 01:10:09,765
belonging
to the Americal Division,

1205
01:10:09,865 --> 01:10:11,966
and led
by Captain Ernest Medina

1206
01:10:12,065 --> 01:10:14,199
and Lieutenant William Calley,

1207
01:10:14,300 --> 01:10:18,399
had been ordered to helicopter
into the village of My Lai 4.

1208
01:10:19,733 --> 01:10:22,966
Since arriving in Vietnam,
they had lost 28 men

1209
01:10:23,065 --> 01:10:27,932
to mines and booby traps
and unseen snipers.

1210
01:10:28,033 --> 01:10:32,832
Two days earlier,
a popular squad leader had been killed.

1211
01:10:32,932 --> 01:10:36,600
They had been told
a unit of main-force Viet Cong

1212
01:10:36,699 --> 01:10:38,365
was waiting for them,

1213
01:10:38,466 --> 01:10:41,233
and they were eager
for revenge.

1214
01:10:42,500 --> 01:10:45,000
But they received
no hostile fire,

1215
01:10:45,100 --> 01:10:49,966
encountered no enemy soldiers.

1216
01:10:51,432 --> 01:10:54,733
Instead,
over the next four hours,

1217
01:10:54,832 --> 01:10:57,666
Medina, Calley,
and their men murdered

1218
01:10:57,765 --> 01:11:05,500
407 defenseless old men,
women, children, and infants.

1219
01:11:15,466 --> 01:11:18,132
Many of the women and girls
were raped

1220
01:11:18,233 --> 01:11:20,533
before they were shot.

1221
01:11:23,600 --> 01:11:25,899
There would have been
still more slaughter

1222
01:11:26,000 --> 01:11:30,166
had a helicopter pilot named Hugh Thompson, Jr.
, not landed

1223
01:11:30,265 --> 01:11:33,666
between the men and some
of their intended targets

1224
01:11:33,765 --> 01:11:37,399
and ordered his crew to open
fire on their fellow Americans

1225
01:11:37,500 --> 01:11:40,765
if they did not stop
shooting civilians.

1226
01:11:44,000 --> 01:11:47,533
At the same time,
just a mile or so away,

1227
01:11:47,632 --> 01:11:52,332
another company murdered
97 more villagers.

1228
01:11:54,332 --> 01:11:57,365
And suddenly it was like a window shade going up,

1229
01:11:57,466 --> 01:11:58,899
and then there's light,

1230
01:11:59,000 --> 01:12:01,065
and we understood
what had engendered

1231
01:12:01,166 --> 01:12:04,500
this horror in these kids' faces

1232
01:12:04,600 --> 01:12:07,332
and fear and the...
and the hatred.

1233
01:12:07,432 --> 01:12:10,966
Hundred and some American
soldiers in four hours or so

1234
01:12:11,065 --> 01:12:13,733
butchering innocent people,

1235
01:12:13,832 --> 01:12:15,899
in all kinds of ways-
machine-gunning them

1236
01:12:16,000 --> 01:12:18,300
and throwing them in wells
and scalping them

1237
01:12:18,399 --> 01:12:20,265
and killing them in ditches

1238
01:12:20,365 --> 01:12:22,966
and taking a lunch break
and then doing it some more.

1239
01:12:24,100 --> 01:12:26,233
Systematic homicide.

1240
01:12:26,332 --> 01:12:27,865
What kind of people?

1241
01:12:27,966 --> 01:12:28,966
Men, women, children?

1242
01:12:29,065 --> 01:12:30,500
Men, women, children.

1243
01:12:30,600 --> 01:12:32,300
Babies?
Babies.

1244
01:12:32,399 --> 01:12:34,233
Uh,
Lieutenant Calley came over and said,

1245
01:12:34,332 --> 01:12:36,233
"You know what to do with them,
don't you?"

1246
01:12:36,332 --> 01:12:37,832
And, uh, I said, "Yes."

1247
01:12:37,932 --> 01:12:41,932
So l took it for granted that
he just wanted us to watch them.

1248
01:12:42,033 --> 01:12:43,800
And he left and came back

1249
01:12:43,899 --> 01:12:46,466
about ten or...
ten or 15 minutes later,

1250
01:12:46,565 --> 01:12:50,800
and said, "How come you ain't,
uh, killed them yet?"

1251
01:12:50,899 --> 01:12:52,466
You killed how many
at that time?

1252
01:12:52,565 --> 01:12:55,065
Well, I fired my automatic,
so, uh...

1253
01:12:55,166 --> 01:12:57,800
you can't, uh...
you just spray the area on them,

1254
01:12:57,899 --> 01:13:00,265
so you really can't know
how many you killed

1255
01:13:00,365 --> 01:13:03,166
because it comes out
so doggone fast.

1256
01:13:03,265 --> 01:13:07,500
So I, I might've killed about,
uh, ten or 15 of them.

1257
01:13:08,632 --> 01:13:10,132
Men, women,
and children?

1258
01:13:10,233 --> 01:13:11,800
Men, women, and children.

1259
01:13:11,899 --> 01:13:13,966
And babies?
And babies.

1260
01:13:15,432 --> 01:13:17,332
Why did I do it?

1261
01:13:17,432 --> 01:13:20,233
Because I felt like
I was ordered to do it.

1262
01:13:20,332 --> 01:13:22,899
And it seemed like, uh...

1263
01:13:25,600 --> 01:13:29,533
Well, at the time,
I felt like I was doing the right thing.

1264
01:13:29,632 --> 01:13:31,533
I really did.

1265
01:13:31,632 --> 01:13:34,699
Because, uh, like I said,
I lost buddies,

1266
01:13:34,800 --> 01:13:36,699
I lost... I lost a good...

1267
01:13:36,800 --> 01:13:41,166
damn good buddy-
Bobby Wilson-

1268
01:13:41,265 --> 01:13:44,932
and it was on my conscience,
and it was on...

1269
01:13:45,033 --> 01:13:47,000
So after I done it, I felt good.

1270
01:13:47,100 --> 01:13:51,332
But later on that day,
it was getting to me.

1271
01:13:51,432 --> 01:13:54,500
It's so hard, I think,
for a good many Americans

1272
01:13:54,600 --> 01:13:57,632
to understand that young,
capable,

1273
01:13:57,733 --> 01:14:01,000
brave American boys

1274
01:14:01,100 --> 01:14:04,033
could line up

1275
01:14:04,132 --> 01:14:08,733
old men, women,
children, and babies

1276
01:14:08,832 --> 01:14:11,565
and shoot them down
in cold blood.

1277
01:14:16,300 --> 01:14:18,533
How do you explain that?

1278
01:14:18,632 --> 01:14:20,565
I wouldn't know.

1279
01:14:30,666 --> 01:14:34,733
The killing of civilians has happened in every war.

1280
01:14:34,832 --> 01:14:39,132
In Vietnam,
it was not policy or routine,

1281
01:14:39,233 --> 01:14:41,865
but it was not an aberration,
either.

1282
01:14:43,432 --> 01:14:48,332
Still,
the scale and deliberateness and intimacy

1283
01:14:48,432 --> 01:14:50,565
of what happened at My Lai

1284
01:14:50,666 --> 01:14:51,966
was different.

1285
01:14:52,065 --> 01:14:53,699
It was different

1286
01:14:53,800 --> 01:14:56,533
because they were killing
Vietnamese point-blank

1287
01:14:56,632 --> 01:14:58,000
with rifles and grenades.

1288
01:14:58,100 --> 01:15:00,432
They were murdering them
directly.

1289
01:15:00,533 --> 01:15:02,800
They weren't doing it
with bombs and artillery.

1290
01:15:02,899 --> 01:15:04,332
If they'd been doing it
with bombs and artillery,

1291
01:15:04,432 --> 01:15:05,500
nobody would have said a word,

1292
01:15:05,600 --> 01:15:06,600
because it was going on
all the time.

1293
01:15:08,033 --> 01:15:09,332
Not every soldier

1294
01:15:09,432 --> 01:15:11,166
participated in the killings
that day.

1295
01:15:11,265 --> 01:15:14,800
Some led villagers away
to safety.

1296
01:15:14,899 --> 01:15:17,666
But a failure
of military leadership

1297
01:15:17,765 --> 01:15:20,865
at nearly every level had
created the conditions

1298
01:15:20,966 --> 01:15:24,365
that made the massacre possible.

1299
01:15:24,466 --> 01:15:28,699
The My Lai story might have
shocked the American public,

1300
01:15:28,800 --> 01:15:31,000
but it was not news
to the Army.

1301
01:15:31,100 --> 01:15:34,199
It had occurred
almost two years before,

1302
01:15:34,300 --> 01:15:37,365
just after the Tet Offensive.

1303
01:15:37,466 --> 01:15:39,832
Hugh Thompson,
the helicopter pilot

1304
01:15:39,932 --> 01:15:42,000
who had tried
to stop the massacre,

1305
01:15:42,100 --> 01:15:44,932
reported what he had seen,

1306
01:15:45,033 --> 01:15:46,932
but no one
in the chain of command

1307
01:15:47,033 --> 01:15:48,265
was willing to act.

1308
01:15:48,365 --> 01:15:52,000
The slaughter was covered up.

1309
01:15:52,100 --> 01:15:55,865
Later,
an ex-corporal named Ronald Ridenhour,

1310
01:15:55,966 --> 01:15:57,632
who had heard
about what had happened

1311
01:15:57,733 --> 01:15:59,666
from several men
who had been there,

1312
01:15:59,765 --> 01:16:03,233
wrote letters to the
president of the United States,

1313
01:16:03,332 --> 01:16:05,132
the secretary of defense,

1314
01:16:05,233 --> 01:16:09,132
and more than two dozen other
high-ranking officials.

1315
01:16:09,233 --> 01:16:12,399
Personally, what decision-making process

1316
01:16:12,500 --> 01:16:15,300
did you go through before
you decided to take your action?

1317
01:16:15,399 --> 01:16:19,065
I guess I just wrestled
with my own conscience

1318
01:16:19,166 --> 01:16:21,432
to try to decide
what action to take.

1319
01:16:21,533 --> 01:16:23,565
I felt that I had
to take some action.

1320
01:16:23,666 --> 01:16:25,033
I had to do something.

1321
01:16:25,132 --> 01:16:26,365
I couldn't just...

1322
01:16:26,466 --> 01:16:29,000
just rest with this knowledge
for the rest of my life

1323
01:16:29,100 --> 01:16:31,932
that I couldn't...
I couldn't live with myself if I did.

1324
01:16:32,033 --> 01:16:34,932
President Nixon's first reaction

1325
01:16:35,033 --> 01:16:39,166
was to investigate those
who reported the slaughter.

1326
01:16:39,265 --> 01:16:41,966
"It's those dirty rotten Jews
from New York

1327
01:16:42,065 --> 01:16:43,332
who are behind it,"

1328
01:16:43,432 --> 01:16:44,865
he told an aide.

1329
01:16:44,966 --> 01:16:49,300
Eventually,
Lieutenant General William R. Peers,

1330
01:16:49,399 --> 01:16:53,233
a veteran of 30 months as
a troop commander in Vietnam,

1331
01:16:53,332 --> 01:16:55,033
was assigned to head a panel

1332
01:16:55,132 --> 01:16:57,932
to look into
what had really happened.

1333
01:16:58,033 --> 01:17:01,166
Peers found that 30 persons,

1334
01:17:01,265 --> 01:17:03,600
including
the division commander,

1335
01:17:03,699 --> 01:17:05,932
General Samuel W. Koster,

1336
01:17:06,033 --> 01:17:08,332
had either committed atrocities

1337
01:17:08,432 --> 01:17:12,399
or had conspired
to cover them up.

1338
01:17:16,399 --> 01:17:20,132
Peers had wanted to call My Lai
a "massacre."

1339
01:17:20,233 --> 01:17:23,500
His superiors
made him use the phrase,

1340
01:17:23,600 --> 01:17:27,632
"a tragedy
of major proportions."

1341
01:17:27,733 --> 01:17:33,166
In the end,
the Army indicted 25 officers and men,

1342
01:17:33,265 --> 01:17:38,432
including the platoon leader,
Lieutenant William Calley.

1343
01:17:41,000 --> 01:17:43,000
Calley's a killer.

1344
01:17:43,100 --> 01:17:45,033
Calley's a murderer

1345
01:17:45,132 --> 01:17:47,399
and a... a sick person.

1346
01:17:49,500 --> 01:17:52,533
I'm not gonna be in any,
you know, uh,

1347
01:17:52,632 --> 01:17:55,065
propaganda movie for
the United States Marine Corps,

1348
01:17:55,166 --> 01:17:57,100
but we didn't have that guy.

1349
01:17:59,365 --> 01:18:01,865
We had individuals who, who...

1350
01:18:01,966 --> 01:18:03,932
who committed war crimes,
of course.

1351
01:18:04,033 --> 01:18:08,000
And, um, you know,
I wanted to kill them.

1352
01:18:08,100 --> 01:18:10,600
I sometimes wish
I did kill 'em.

1353
01:18:13,432 --> 01:18:17,199
But... I was afraid to kill 'em.

1354
01:18:19,600 --> 01:18:21,533
𝄞 Two, one, two, three, four

1355
01:18:27,033 --> 01:18:28,565
𝄞 Everybody's talking about...

1356
01:18:28,666 --> 01:18:31,800
I never considered the Vietnamese our enemy.

1357
01:18:31,899 --> 01:18:33,500
They had never done anything

1358
01:18:33,600 --> 01:18:36,166
to threaten the security
of the United States.

1359
01:18:36,265 --> 01:18:39,000
They were off
10,000 miles away,

1360
01:18:39,100 --> 01:18:40,832
minding their own business,

1361
01:18:40,932 --> 01:18:43,300
and we went there
to their country,

1362
01:18:43,399 --> 01:18:44,865
told them
what kind of government

1363
01:18:44,966 --> 01:18:47,233
we wanted them to have.

1364
01:18:47,332 --> 01:18:51,533
Well, when I see the war protesters,

1365
01:18:51,632 --> 01:18:53,399
I react on a couple of levels.

1366
01:18:53,500 --> 01:18:56,033
Intellectually,
I certainly understand their right

1367
01:18:56,132 --> 01:18:57,832
to the freedom of speech.

1368
01:18:57,932 --> 01:18:59,332
But I will tell you

1369
01:18:59,432 --> 01:19:02,399
that when I see them
waving NLF flags,

1370
01:19:02,500 --> 01:19:05,733
the enemy that I and my friends
had to fight,

1371
01:19:05,832 --> 01:19:09,033
and some of my friends
had to die fighting,

1372
01:19:09,132 --> 01:19:10,765
that doesn't sit very well
with me.

1373
01:19:10,865 --> 01:19:14,000
𝄞 All we are saying...

1374
01:19:14,100 --> 01:19:17,033
On November 15, 1969,

1375
01:19:17,132 --> 01:19:19,365
half a million citizens
turned out

1376
01:19:19,466 --> 01:19:22,000
against the war in Washington,
again.

1377
01:19:22,100 --> 01:19:24,399
𝄞 Everybody's talking about revolution...
𝄞

1378
01:19:24,500 --> 01:19:27,733
This time, buses provided an impenetrable wall

1379
01:19:27,832 --> 01:19:30,033
around the White House.

1380
01:19:30,132 --> 01:19:32,500
President Nixon claimed
he was too busy

1381
01:19:32,600 --> 01:19:34,666
watching football on television

1382
01:19:34,765 --> 01:19:36,000
to pay attention,

1383
01:19:36,100 --> 01:19:40,533
but he did suggest that
Army helicopters might be used

1384
01:19:40,632 --> 01:19:42,533
to blow out the marchers'
candles.

1385
01:19:42,632 --> 01:19:44,632
𝄞 All we are saying...

1386
01:19:46,265 --> 01:19:48,300
Hundreds of thousands of others demonstrated

1387
01:19:48,399 --> 01:19:51,899
in San Francisco and New York.

1388
01:19:59,166 --> 01:20:01,533
The most striking
antiwar protest

1389
01:20:01,632 --> 01:20:02,865
of this Thanksgiving Day

1390
01:20:02,966 --> 01:20:05,432
occurred not in this country,
but in Vietnam,

1391
01:20:05,533 --> 01:20:07,932
though its form was
uniquely American.

1392
01:20:08,033 --> 01:20:10,132
About 100 American soldiers

1393
01:20:10,233 --> 01:20:12,632
stationed at a hospital
in Pleiku

1394
01:20:12,733 --> 01:20:15,300
refused to eat their traditional
turkey dinner.

1395
01:20:15,399 --> 01:20:19,365
They described their fast as a
passive protest against the war.

1396
01:20:28,132 --> 01:20:29,800
The Army did what the Army does.

1397
01:20:29,899 --> 01:20:31,365
Every year, you know,
for Thanksgiving,

1398
01:20:31,466 --> 01:20:32,632
they make a big deal.

1399
01:20:32,733 --> 01:20:33,832
They're gonna bring in turkey,

1400
01:20:33,932 --> 01:20:35,300
they're gonna bring in
mashed potatoes,

1401
01:20:35,399 --> 01:20:37,733
and apple pie and whatever.

1402
01:20:37,832 --> 01:20:39,733
And by this point, I think,

1403
01:20:39,832 --> 01:20:42,765
a lot of us were very,
very cynical about the war

1404
01:20:42,865 --> 01:20:44,699
and what was going on.

1405
01:20:44,800 --> 01:20:48,265
But we weren't gonna make
a big deal about it.

1406
01:20:48,365 --> 01:20:50,932
We knew there were gonna be
TV people there.

1407
01:20:51,033 --> 01:20:54,166
And a couple of the organizers
were looking for people to talk.

1408
01:20:54,265 --> 01:20:55,899
They came to me, I said, "No."

1409
01:20:56,000 --> 01:20:58,332
I said, "Look,
I'm gonna fast and do my thing."

1410
01:20:58,432 --> 01:21:00,300
I said,
"But I, I really don't want

1411
01:21:00,399 --> 01:21:02,800
to be involved
with any media thing."

1412
01:21:02,899 --> 01:21:07,300
That Thanksgiving Day, Lieutenant Furey was on duty

1413
01:21:07,399 --> 01:21:11,466
when one of her patients took
a sudden turn for the worse.

1414
01:21:11,565 --> 01:21:14,565
Some patients, they just get into your heart.

1415
01:21:14,666 --> 01:21:16,265
And this kid,
I think he was 18.

1416
01:21:16,365 --> 01:21:17,800
His name was Timmy.

1417
01:21:17,899 --> 01:21:22,332
It was unlikely
he was gonna survive.

1418
01:21:22,432 --> 01:21:25,899
And I just got so angry.

1419
01:21:26,000 --> 01:21:29,432
I just lost it.

1420
01:21:29,533 --> 01:21:31,632
I remember walking out
of the O.R.,

1421
01:21:31,733 --> 01:21:33,533
I ripped off the gown,
and I ripped off the mask,

1422
01:21:33,632 --> 01:21:36,899
I walked outside, I said,
"Where are those reporters?"

1423
01:21:50,033 --> 01:21:52,100
I mean, you know,
you don't demonstrate against the war

1424
01:21:52,199 --> 01:21:53,332
in a war zone.

1425
01:21:53,432 --> 01:21:56,332
By that time, of course,
you, you had the attitude,

1426
01:21:56,432 --> 01:21:58,265
"What are they gonna do?

1427
01:21:58,365 --> 01:22:00,332
Send me to Vietnam?"

1428
01:22:10,265 --> 01:22:13,199
Let's just say that being a Marine combat veteran

1429
01:22:13,300 --> 01:22:17,265
on a college campus
in 1969 and 1970-

1430
01:22:17,365 --> 01:22:19,132
it wasn't a real good thing
to be

1431
01:22:19,233 --> 01:22:21,300
if you wanted to get dates
and be popular.

1432
01:22:24,065 --> 01:22:27,533
When I came home,
it seemed like

1433
01:22:27,632 --> 01:22:30,966
I didn't have anything
to give to anybody else.

1434
01:22:34,332 --> 01:22:38,365
Marine Corporal John Musgrave had very nearly died

1435
01:22:38,466 --> 01:22:43,100
in combat below the DMZ
in the autumn of 1967.

1436
01:22:43,199 --> 01:22:46,000
Wounded in the jaw
and shoulder,

1437
01:22:46,100 --> 01:22:49,865
his ribs shattered,
lung pierced, nerves cut,

1438
01:22:49,966 --> 01:22:54,300
he had spent 17 months
in Navy hospitals.

1439
01:22:54,399 --> 01:22:57,432
He was now studying
at Baker University

1440
01:22:57,533 --> 01:23:00,300
in Baldwin City, Kansas.

1441
01:23:02,800 --> 01:23:07,199
But wherever he went,
the war was never far away.

1442
01:23:09,432 --> 01:23:13,765
And the peace movement, for a while, got real nasty,

1443
01:23:13,865 --> 01:23:15,865
calling veterans baby killers.

1444
01:23:17,932 --> 01:23:19,765
It did more than piss us off.

1445
01:23:19,865 --> 01:23:21,699
It broke our hearts.

1446
01:23:21,800 --> 01:23:24,065
What were they thinking?

1447
01:23:24,166 --> 01:23:29,432
You don't turn your backs
on your warriors.

1448
01:23:29,533 --> 01:23:32,065
I didn't trust anybody anymore.

1449
01:23:33,533 --> 01:23:35,765
Just my family.

1450
01:23:35,865 --> 01:23:38,332
Musgrave was so hurt

1451
01:23:38,432 --> 01:23:40,432
by the way
some people treated him

1452
01:23:40,533 --> 01:23:43,865
that he volunteered
to return to Vietnam.

1453
01:23:43,966 --> 01:23:47,600
Because of his injuries,
the Marines turned him down,

1454
01:23:47,699 --> 01:23:51,632
and asked him
to help recruit men instead.

1455
01:23:51,733 --> 01:23:53,666
He did for a time,

1456
01:23:53,765 --> 01:23:56,765
but when students asked him
questions about the war

1457
01:23:56,865 --> 01:23:58,632
he couldn't answer,

1458
01:23:58,733 --> 01:23:59,832
he also began to read

1459
01:23:59,932 --> 01:24:04,265
about how and why
it was being fought.

1460
01:24:04,365 --> 01:24:08,033
I had friends in country on a second tour,

1461
01:24:08,132 --> 01:24:11,233
and, you know, I, I was still...
considered myself a Marine.

1462
01:24:11,332 --> 01:24:14,132
and... and the more I read,

1463
01:24:14,233 --> 01:24:19,466
the less I found to be able
to defend our presence there.

1464
01:24:19,565 --> 01:24:23,600
So then, I,
I just stopped talking to everybody.

1465
01:24:25,832 --> 01:24:29,800
Musgrave gradually felt as if he were being torn in two.

1466
01:24:29,899 --> 01:24:33,733
And he was still haunted
by the memory of those Marines

1467
01:24:33,832 --> 01:24:38,399
who had died while he had lived.

1468
01:24:38,500 --> 01:24:41,632
I was dating my .45 in those years, you know.

1469
01:24:41,733 --> 01:24:44,432
Coming home at night
after drinking,

1470
01:24:44,533 --> 01:24:46,565
and pressing it up
against my temple,

1471
01:24:46,666 --> 01:24:49,565
or putting it under my chin,

1472
01:24:49,666 --> 01:24:51,966
wondering if this was gonna be
the night

1473
01:24:52,065 --> 01:24:54,065
I was gonna have the guts
to do it.

1474
01:24:55,800 --> 01:24:57,865
I'd had a round chambered,
and I'd taken the safety off.

1475
01:24:57,966 --> 01:25:00,265
Same kind of pistol
I carried in Vietnam.

1476
01:25:02,865 --> 01:25:06,199
And I thought,
"I'm really gonna do it tonight."

1477
01:25:06,300 --> 01:25:10,100
You know, like, "Whew,
I'm really gonna do it," you know.

1478
01:25:10,199 --> 01:25:12,132
And my dogs...
I'd let my dogs out.

1479
01:25:12,233 --> 01:25:13,765
I had two dogs.

1480
01:25:13,865 --> 01:25:15,399
And they jumped
on the front door

1481
01:25:15,500 --> 01:25:16,800
and scratched on the front door.

1482
01:25:16,899 --> 01:25:18,666
They wanted in.

1483
01:25:18,765 --> 01:25:19,865
And I put the safety
back on the pistol

1484
01:25:19,966 --> 01:25:21,733
and set it down
and went and let 'em in.

1485
01:25:23,565 --> 01:25:26,233
And they were so open
in their love for me

1486
01:25:26,332 --> 01:25:28,000
that I literally said out loud,

1487
01:25:28,100 --> 01:25:33,265
"Whoa, if I really want to do this,
I can do this tomorrow."

1488
01:25:33,365 --> 01:25:34,666
And I went back in the room,

1489
01:25:34,765 --> 01:25:36,632
and I put the pistol in the drawer,
and...

1490
01:25:36,733 --> 01:25:39,666
and I...
I think that was the closest I came.

1491
01:25:39,765 --> 01:25:41,399
I think maybe
I would have killed...

1492
01:25:41,500 --> 01:25:43,733
k-k-killed myself that night.

1493
01:25:43,832 --> 01:25:45,199
But something as simple

1494
01:25:45,300 --> 01:25:47,800
as my dogs wanting back in...

1495
01:25:47,899 --> 01:25:51,166
stopped that thought, you know.

1496
01:25:53,899 --> 01:25:56,899
I'm really glad
that it didn't happen.

1497
01:25:57,000 --> 01:26:00,233
But at the time,
it just made so much sense.

1498
01:26:05,100 --> 01:26:07,033
Richard Nixon's troop withdrawals

1499
01:26:07,132 --> 01:26:10,332
finally turned Musgrave
against the war.

1500
01:26:10,432 --> 01:26:13,166
"If it ain't worth winning,"
he said,

1501
01:26:13,265 --> 01:26:15,565
"it ain't worth dying for."

1502
01:26:15,666 --> 01:26:18,265
His loyalty to the Marines

1503
01:26:18,365 --> 01:26:21,233
would not yet let him
openly say that,

1504
01:26:21,332 --> 01:26:23,800
but he told a campus
antiwar meeting

1505
01:26:23,899 --> 01:26:26,733
that they should stop acting
as if they didn't give a damn

1506
01:26:26,832 --> 01:26:29,632
about the men
who had been asked to fight,

1507
01:26:29,733 --> 01:26:32,065
and received
a standing ovation.

1508
01:26:36,300 --> 01:26:38,632
The turning point for me, I think,

1509
01:26:38,733 --> 01:26:41,733
was one evening I spent
with my friend Sonny Walter,

1510
01:26:41,832 --> 01:26:44,365
who had been, uh...
just been discharged from the Army,

1511
01:26:44,466 --> 01:26:47,033
and had come home
and spent an evening

1512
01:26:47,132 --> 01:26:49,733
before I went in
pleading with me not to go.

1513
01:26:49,832 --> 01:26:52,399
He even offered
to drive me to Canada.

1514
01:26:52,500 --> 01:26:55,065
He was showing me some
horrible pictures of Vietnam

1515
01:26:55,166 --> 01:26:56,899
from his own service there.

1516
01:26:58,800 --> 01:27:00,800
I think everything
that happened after it

1517
01:27:00,899 --> 01:27:02,432
had its seeds in that evening.

1518
01:27:04,632 --> 01:27:07,932
While attending the University of Nebraska,

1519
01:27:08,033 --> 01:27:11,832
Jack Todd had undergone
Marine officer training,

1520
01:27:11,932 --> 01:27:15,332
but bad knees
had forced him to drop out

1521
01:27:15,432 --> 01:27:17,500
and he believed
that exempted him

1522
01:27:17,600 --> 01:27:20,166
from having to take part
in a war

1523
01:27:20,265 --> 01:27:22,832
he had come to see as immoral.

1524
01:27:22,932 --> 01:27:27,000
He began work as a reporter
on<i>The Miami Herald.</i>

1525
01:27:27,100 --> 01:27:31,733
But in the autumn of 1969
he received a draft notice

1526
01:27:31,832 --> 01:27:34,100
from the Army anyway.

1527
01:27:34,199 --> 01:27:35,565
𝄞 The thrill is gone

1528
01:27:35,666 --> 01:27:37,033
So I went into my physical

1529
01:27:37,132 --> 01:27:39,166
and I showed them my discharge
from the Marine Corps

1530
01:27:39,265 --> 01:27:40,966
and I actually remember
a sergeant,

1531
01:27:41,065 --> 01:27:42,399
or whoever I was talking to,
saying,

1532
01:27:42,500 --> 01:27:44,666
"But, uh,
you were discharged from an officer program.

1533
01:27:44,765 --> 01:27:46,233
We're drafting you
as a private."

1534
01:27:48,500 --> 01:27:50,932
In late November 1969,

1535
01:27:51,033 --> 01:27:55,365
Todd reported for basic training at Fort Lewis,
Washington.

1536
01:27:55,466 --> 01:27:57,399
𝄞 You know you done me wrong

1537
01:27:57,500 --> 01:27:59,466
Morale just could not have been worse.

1538
01:27:59,565 --> 01:28:01,432
And-and it seemed to include

1539
01:28:01,533 --> 01:28:04,365
even the sergeants
and the officers.

1540
01:28:04,466 --> 01:28:08,365
Nobody wanted to go.
Nobody wanted to go.

1541
01:28:08,466 --> 01:28:11,800
America just seemed to have
shifted from the Woodstock high

1542
01:28:11,899 --> 01:28:13,000
of the summer to this...

1543
01:28:13,100 --> 01:28:16,265
this sort of bitter
Nixonian low.

1544
01:28:16,365 --> 01:28:19,733
Jack Todd and another member of his unit

1545
01:28:19,832 --> 01:28:22,800
began to talk at night
about what it meant

1546
01:28:22,899 --> 01:28:24,466
to be true to one's conscience.

1547
01:28:28,699 --> 01:28:31,100
Some 170,000 men

1548
01:28:31,199 --> 01:28:33,533
were granted
conscientious objector status

1549
01:28:33,632 --> 01:28:36,132
during the Vietnam era.

1550
01:28:36,233 --> 01:28:37,932
But because Jack Todd

1551
01:28:38,033 --> 01:28:40,233
questioned
the existence of God,

1552
01:28:40,332 --> 01:28:44,000
that avenue was closed to him.

1553
01:28:44,100 --> 01:28:45,365
There were really two choices.

1554
01:28:45,466 --> 01:28:47,233
It was go to jail
or go to Canada.

1555
01:28:47,332 --> 01:28:49,865
And, for me,
going to jail was just...

1556
01:28:49,966 --> 01:28:51,865
That one, I couldn't face.

1557
01:28:51,966 --> 01:28:53,865
So I went to Canada.

1558
01:28:53,966 --> 01:28:57,666
𝄞 Farewell, Angelina

1559
01:28:57,765 --> 01:29:01,699
𝄞 The bells of the crown

1560
01:29:01,800 --> 01:29:03,966
I remember that last beautiful drive,

1561
01:29:04,065 --> 01:29:06,600
from Seattle to Vancouver,

1562
01:29:06,699 --> 01:29:11,233
all the towering Douglas firs
along the road.

1563
01:29:11,332 --> 01:29:13,533
And I remember,
after we crossed the border-

1564
01:29:13,632 --> 01:29:16,132
it was a breeze,
they just sort of waved us through-

1565
01:29:16,233 --> 01:29:18,365
and just looking in the rearview mirror,
thinking,

1566
01:29:18,466 --> 01:29:19,733
"Man, there goes my country.

1567
01:29:19,832 --> 01:29:22,865
I'll never see it again."

1568
01:29:22,966 --> 01:29:26,065
𝄞 But farewell, Angelina

1569
01:29:26,166 --> 01:29:29,399
𝄞 The night is on fire

1570
01:29:29,500 --> 01:29:31,399
𝄞 And I must go

1571
01:29:33,800 --> 01:29:36,432
I get called a coward
all the time.

1572
01:29:36,533 --> 01:29:39,632
It took me a long time

1573
01:29:39,733 --> 01:29:42,199
not to feel
that what I had done

1574
01:29:42,300 --> 01:29:44,899
was-was cowardly,
because I still had

1575
01:29:45,000 --> 01:29:48,466
that military ingrained
feeling inside.

1576
01:29:50,065 --> 01:29:53,166
That was the bravest thing
I ever did.

1577
01:29:53,265 --> 01:29:55,265
It was
the bravest thing I ever did.

1578
01:29:58,033 --> 01:30:01,632
Jack Todd eventually found work as a reporter,

1579
01:30:01,733 --> 01:30:04,733
which allowed him to gain
"landed immigrant status,"

1580
01:30:04,832 --> 01:30:08,166
a step toward
Canadian citizenship.

1581
01:30:08,265 --> 01:30:12,765
Only a quarter of the estimated
30,000 Americans

1582
01:30:12,865 --> 01:30:15,699
who crossed into Canada
managed to do so.

1583
01:30:15,800 --> 01:30:18,033
𝄞 The sky is erupting

1584
01:30:18,132 --> 01:30:21,832
𝄞 And I must go where it is quiet.
𝄞

1585
01:30:21,932 --> 01:30:25,132
At the same time, some 30,000 Canadians

1586
01:30:25,233 --> 01:30:28,699
would volunteer to fight
in Vietnam.

1587
01:30:47,533 --> 01:30:50,832
I thought about...

1588
01:30:50,932 --> 01:30:52,899
my parents and my siblings

1589
01:30:53,000 --> 01:30:56,632
and my wife and my little girl.

1590
01:30:56,733 --> 01:31:00,166
And one of the things that bothered me,
is that I...

1591
01:31:00,265 --> 01:31:04,966
I couldn't really remember what
they looked like after a while.

1592
01:31:05,065 --> 01:31:07,432
I remembered what
their pictures looked like.

1593
01:31:07,533 --> 01:31:11,932
And when I imaged them
in my mind's eye

1594
01:31:12,033 --> 01:31:15,500
I would image a picture,
a photograph.

1595
01:31:18,166 --> 01:31:19,466
Valerie Kushner arrived on the...

1596
01:31:19,565 --> 01:31:21,666
Hal Kushner's wife, Valerie,

1597
01:31:21,765 --> 01:31:23,865
had heard virtually nothing
of her husband

1598
01:31:23,966 --> 01:31:27,666
since his capture
by the Viet Cong in 1967,

1599
01:31:27,765 --> 01:31:30,399
and she had traveled
to the Far East

1600
01:31:30,500 --> 01:31:32,865
to try to improve
conditions for him.

1601
01:31:32,966 --> 01:31:36,265
I think my period
of greatest frustration

1602
01:31:36,365 --> 01:31:39,265
was just before and just after
the birth of our son.

1603
01:31:39,365 --> 01:31:41,932
He was born in April of 1968

1604
01:31:42,033 --> 01:31:45,899
and my husband was captured
in November of 1967.

1605
01:31:46,000 --> 01:31:49,832
So my husband does not yet
know of his birth.

1606
01:31:49,932 --> 01:31:52,100
With their father gone, the Kushner children

1607
01:31:52,199 --> 01:31:55,300
rely heavily on their
mother and their grandparents.

1608
01:31:55,399 --> 01:31:56,865
Young Mike has never
seen his father,

1609
01:31:56,966 --> 01:31:59,300
but six-year-old
Toni-Jean remembers.

1610
01:31:59,399 --> 01:32:00,932
And the remembrances
of Major Kushner

1611
01:32:01,033 --> 01:32:02,699
are everywhere in their house.

1612
01:32:02,800 --> 01:32:04,899
Toni, however,
knows only that he's away,

1613
01:32:05,000 --> 01:32:06,632
that he's been captured,
that grandfather fills in

1614
01:32:06,733 --> 01:32:08,000
until Dad comes home.

1615
01:32:08,100 --> 01:32:11,966
The Kushners worry,
but they do not grieve.

1616
01:32:12,065 --> 01:32:14,033
Don Farmer,
ABC News, reporting.

1617
01:32:20,932 --> 01:32:23,033
In February 1970,

1618
01:32:23,132 --> 01:32:26,265
in a house in an industrial
suburb of Paris,

1619
01:32:26,365 --> 01:32:28,865
Henry Kissinger
began a new series

1620
01:32:28,966 --> 01:32:32,432
of secret negotiations-
talks so secret

1621
01:32:32,533 --> 01:32:36,699
even the secretary of state
was not told about them.

1622
01:32:36,800 --> 01:32:38,832
His negotiating partner

1623
01:32:38,932 --> 01:32:42,666
would be Le Duan's close political ally,
Le Duc Tho,

1624
01:32:42,765 --> 01:32:46,300
a veteran of 40 years
of revolutionary warfare

1625
01:32:46,399 --> 01:32:50,233
and party intrigue- shrewd,
implacable,

1626
01:32:50,332 --> 01:32:54,033
and openly scornful
of Vietnamization.

1627
01:32:54,132 --> 01:32:56,800
If the United States
could not win

1628
01:32:56,899 --> 01:33:00,100
with half a million of its own troops,
he asked Kissinger,

1629
01:33:00,199 --> 01:33:02,865
"How can you succeed
when you let your puppet troops

1630
01:33:02,966 --> 01:33:05,265
do the fighting?"

1631
01:33:05,365 --> 01:33:08,565
The American admitted
he had no answer.

1632
01:33:14,332 --> 01:33:16,533
Despite the impasse in Paris,

1633
01:33:16,632 --> 01:33:20,233
Nixon's first year
had been a triumph.

1634
01:33:20,332 --> 01:33:26,399
He had withdrawn
115,000 troops from Vietnam.

1635
01:33:27,733 --> 01:33:30,932
American casualty figures
were down.

1636
01:33:31,033 --> 01:33:33,600
Reduced draft calls

1637
01:33:33,699 --> 01:33:35,832
and the president's
new lottery system

1638
01:33:35,932 --> 01:33:39,000
had blunted some opposition
to the war.

1639
01:33:41,865 --> 01:33:44,332
And the violent actions
of some revolutionaries

1640
01:33:44,432 --> 01:33:48,033
were tarnishing
the antiwar cause itself.

1641
01:33:48,132 --> 01:33:52,000
Between September 1969
and May 1970,

1642
01:33:52,100 --> 01:33:54,699
there would be
hundreds of bombings-

1643
01:33:54,800 --> 01:33:56,632
banks and courthouses,

1644
01:33:56,733 --> 01:33:59,899
induction centers
and ROTC buildings.

1645
01:34:01,966 --> 01:34:03,865
One police officer was killed.

1646
01:34:05,100 --> 01:34:06,500
Three would-be bombers

1647
01:34:06,600 --> 01:34:10,300
accidentally blew themselves up
in Greenwich Village.

1648
01:34:10,399 --> 01:34:12,565
𝄞 Well, well

1649
01:34:12,666 --> 01:34:16,600
The antiwar movement split apart.

1650
01:34:16,699 --> 01:34:19,466
And there were people who felt
that the only way

1651
01:34:19,565 --> 01:34:23,300
we were ever gonna end the war
was by becoming more violent.

1652
01:34:23,399 --> 01:34:26,233
You know,
that we had to match violence with violence.

1653
01:34:26,332 --> 01:34:31,065
How that was gonna happen
wasn't spoken about openly.

1654
01:34:31,166 --> 01:34:33,800
But there was just
this undercurrent.

1655
01:34:33,899 --> 01:34:36,166
This is a plumbing pipe

1656
01:34:36,265 --> 01:34:39,699
completely full of gunpowder.

1657
01:34:39,800 --> 01:34:41,932
𝄞 Music so high you can't get over it 𝄞

1658
01:34:42,033 --> 01:34:44,432
My fellow Americans,

1659
01:34:44,533 --> 01:34:47,100
we live in an age of anarchy,

1660
01:34:47,199 --> 01:34:49,733
both abroad and at home.

1661
01:34:51,233 --> 01:34:56,199
We see mindless attacks
on all the great institutions,

1662
01:34:56,300 --> 01:34:58,666
which have been created
by free civilizations

1663
01:34:58,765 --> 01:35:01,432
in the last 500 years.

1664
01:35:02,800 --> 01:35:04,932
Even here in the United States,

1665
01:35:05,033 --> 01:35:08,632
great universities are being
systematically destroyed.

1666
01:35:12,666 --> 01:35:15,399
If, when the chips are down,

1667
01:35:15,500 --> 01:35:18,000
the world's
most powerful nation,

1668
01:35:18,100 --> 01:35:19,800
the United States of America,

1669
01:35:19,899 --> 01:35:24,765
acts like a pitiful,
helpless giant,

1670
01:35:24,865 --> 01:35:28,565
the forces of totalitarianism
and anarchy

1671
01:35:28,666 --> 01:35:31,332
will threaten free nations
and free institutions

1672
01:35:31,432 --> 01:35:33,000
throughout the world.

1673
01:35:33,100 --> 01:35:37,065
On April 30, 1970,

1674
01:35:37,166 --> 01:35:38,932
President Nixon
shocked the world

1675
01:35:39,033 --> 01:35:42,100
by announcing that he had sent
30,000 American troops

1676
01:35:42,199 --> 01:35:45,832
storming into Cambodia.

1677
01:35:45,932 --> 01:35:49,000
The previous month,
Prince Norodom Sihanouk

1678
01:35:49,100 --> 01:35:51,300
had been overthrown in a coup.

1679
01:35:51,399 --> 01:35:53,733
For years,
he had allowed the North Vietnamese

1680
01:35:53,832 --> 01:35:56,399
to keep sanctuaries
in his country,

1681
01:35:56,500 --> 01:35:58,432
but he had not protested

1682
01:35:58,533 --> 01:36:02,033
when American planes
bombed them.

1683
01:36:02,132 --> 01:36:04,733
The new president, Lon Nol,

1684
01:36:04,832 --> 01:36:08,699
was an anticommunist,
backed by the United States.

1685
01:36:08,800 --> 01:36:11,100
Nixon now felt he could do

1686
01:36:11,199 --> 01:36:14,832
what American generals had been
wanting to do for years-

1687
01:36:14,932 --> 01:36:18,699
pursue the enemy beyond
the borders of South Vietnam.

1688
01:36:20,199 --> 01:36:23,033
The 30,000 American troops

1689
01:36:23,132 --> 01:36:28,300
were joined by 50,000
ARVN soldiers.

1690
01:36:28,399 --> 01:36:30,332
The objective was to attack

1691
01:36:30,432 --> 01:36:33,100
North Vietnamese
base camps and supply lines

1692
01:36:33,199 --> 01:36:36,399
and to buy time
for the South Vietnamese Army

1693
01:36:36,500 --> 01:36:38,899
as it got ready to fight
on its own.

1694
01:36:40,899 --> 01:36:43,166
Nixon told the public

1695
01:36:43,265 --> 01:36:46,832
he had ordered an "incursion,"
not an "invasion,"

1696
01:36:46,932 --> 01:36:51,466
intended only to protect
American boys in South Vietnam

1697
01:36:51,565 --> 01:36:55,733
and in response to North
Vietnamese "aggression."

1698
01:36:58,632 --> 01:37:02,500
I wasn't worried about political conflict.

1699
01:37:02,600 --> 01:37:05,233
I was worried about,
"Am I gonna be alive

1700
01:37:05,332 --> 01:37:06,800
in the next ten minutes?"

1701
01:37:08,399 --> 01:37:11,733
We were on the Western edge
of the invasion.

1702
01:37:11,832 --> 01:37:15,100
We went as far
as anybody went in Cambodia.

1703
01:37:16,466 --> 01:37:17,865
And it was a hot LZ.

1704
01:37:17,966 --> 01:37:22,666
I got holes shot in my backpack.

1705
01:37:22,765 --> 01:37:24,166
I was laying on my face

1706
01:37:24,265 --> 01:37:26,399
and they were shooting holes
in my backpack,

1707
01:37:26,500 --> 01:37:29,466
which means they missed my head
by maybe four inches.

1708
01:37:31,365 --> 01:37:34,699
I really didn't think I would
see the end of that week.

1709
01:37:41,100 --> 01:37:44,632
The sight of American troops crossing the border

1710
01:37:44,733 --> 01:37:48,666
into Cambodia reignited
the antiwar movement.

1711
01:37:48,765 --> 01:37:49,966
Come on, let's go!

1712
01:37:50,065 --> 01:37:52,166
If the troops were coming home,

1713
01:37:52,265 --> 01:37:54,300
if the war was winding down,

1714
01:37:54,399 --> 01:37:58,300
why had Nixon decided
to widen it?

1715
01:37:58,399 --> 01:38:01,199
How could invading
another country

1716
01:38:01,300 --> 01:38:05,166
help bring peace
to Southeast Asia?

1717
01:38:05,265 --> 01:38:06,966
The reaction on the campuses

1718
01:38:07,065 --> 01:38:08,565
was swift and predictable.

1719
01:38:08,666 --> 01:38:10,265
The students
and many of their teachers

1720
01:38:10,365 --> 01:38:11,865
were against the president.

1721
01:38:11,966 --> 01:38:15,132
Princeton students called
for a nationwide student strike.

1722
01:38:15,233 --> 01:38:18,932
Antiwar rallies were planned at Harvard,
MIT, Indiana,

1723
01:38:19,033 --> 01:38:21,166
Purdue Universities
and other colleges.

1724
01:38:26,432 --> 01:38:29,666
On Monday morning, May 4, 1970,

1725
01:38:29,765 --> 01:38:32,265
some 2,000 students
gathered on the commons

1726
01:38:32,365 --> 01:38:36,132
at Kent State University in Kent,
Ohio.

1727
01:38:36,233 --> 01:38:39,966
Some were simply
moving from class to class.

1728
01:38:40,065 --> 01:38:43,466
Others planned to attend
a rally called to protest

1729
01:38:43,565 --> 01:38:46,166
Nixon's widening of the war

1730
01:38:46,265 --> 01:38:52,033
and the presence of the Ohio
National Guard on campus.

1731
01:38:52,132 --> 01:38:55,166
Governor James Rhodes
had called in the guardsmen

1732
01:38:55,265 --> 01:38:56,632
two days earlier

1733
01:38:56,733 --> 01:39:02,199
after a mob set the old wooden
ROTC building on fire

1734
01:39:02,300 --> 01:39:04,199
and then prevented
the fire department

1735
01:39:04,300 --> 01:39:06,666
from putting out the flames.

1736
01:39:09,632 --> 01:39:13,666
Rhodes had compared protestors
to Nazi brownshirts

1737
01:39:13,765 --> 01:39:17,199
and promised to use
"every weapon to eradicate

1738
01:39:17,300 --> 01:39:21,533
the worst sort of people
we harbor in America."

1739
01:39:26,166 --> 01:39:31,399
The guardsmen's weapons were
loaded with live ammunition,

1740
01:39:31,500 --> 01:39:33,233
though no one in the crowd
knew it.

1741
01:39:33,332 --> 01:39:36,500
Why do you have to have a gun?! I don't understand!

1742
01:39:36,600 --> 01:39:39,466
MAN
Leave this area immediately!

1743
01:39:39,565 --> 01:39:43,332
The students were ordered to disperse.

1744
01:39:43,432 --> 01:39:45,065
They stood their ground.

1745
01:39:51,166 --> 01:39:54,332
Tear gas scattered some
of them.

1746
01:40:13,600 --> 01:40:17,466
The guardsmen seemed
to fall back.

1747
01:40:17,565 --> 01:40:21,666
But then members of Troop G
wheeled around and opened fire

1748
01:40:21,765 --> 01:40:25,800
on students gathered in
and around a parking lot.

1749
01:40:57,265 --> 01:40:59,432
Somebody call for an ambulance!

1750
01:41:01,199 --> 01:41:04,166
There's people dying down here!
Get an ambulance up here!

1751
01:41:10,832 --> 01:41:14,199
67 rounds in 13 seconds

1752
01:41:14,300 --> 01:41:18,699
killed two young women
and two young men...

1753
01:41:21,600 --> 01:41:24,765
Including
an ROTC scholarship student

1754
01:41:24,865 --> 01:41:27,332
who had simply been
an onlooker.

1755
01:41:33,033 --> 01:41:37,733
That dead child on the ground

1756
01:41:37,832 --> 01:41:41,132
was one of ours.

1757
01:41:41,233 --> 01:41:44,533
If we could kill
our own students,

1758
01:41:44,632 --> 01:41:49,733
uh,
what had happened to our country?

1759
01:41:51,832 --> 01:41:54,699
Nine more students were wounded,

1760
01:41:54,800 --> 01:41:58,765
one of whom
was permanently paralyzed.

1761
01:42:11,132 --> 01:42:15,500
Several hundred angry,
grieving students sat down

1762
01:42:15,600 --> 01:42:17,632
and demanded to know
why the guardsmen

1763
01:42:17,733 --> 01:42:19,632
had fired on their friends.

1764
01:42:23,132 --> 01:42:25,966
Sir, you've got a couple hundred students...

1765
01:42:26,065 --> 01:42:27,432
An officer ordered them

1766
01:42:27,533 --> 01:42:29,300
to "disperse
or we will shoot again."

1767
01:42:29,399 --> 01:42:32,300
How long will you give us?
You've got five minutes.

1768
01:42:32,399 --> 01:42:35,300
Please listen to me right now!

1769
01:42:35,399 --> 01:42:37,899
Only the anguished pleas

1770
01:42:38,000 --> 01:42:42,565
of geology professor Glenn Frank
averted further tragedy.

1771
01:42:42,666 --> 01:42:44,365
Talk, Dr.
Frank. Talk.

1772
01:43:09,765 --> 01:43:12,600
That just symbolized for me

1773
01:43:12,699 --> 01:43:16,565
what this war was doing
to our culture.

1774
01:43:16,666 --> 01:43:18,432
These were kids on both sides,

1775
01:43:18,533 --> 01:43:21,300
young National Guard boys

1776
01:43:21,399 --> 01:43:24,666
who had very little training
and probably scared,

1777
01:43:24,765 --> 01:43:26,899
and not well led

1778
01:43:27,000 --> 01:43:28,765
and-and young men and women
on the other side

1779
01:43:28,865 --> 01:43:30,365
protesting the war out there

1780
01:43:30,466 --> 01:43:32,699
for, you know,
idealistic reasons.

1781
01:43:32,800 --> 01:43:35,332
And look at what happens

1782
01:43:35,432 --> 01:43:41,466
when we let things get as bad
as they got.

1783
01:43:43,300 --> 01:43:45,865
According to one national poll,

1784
01:43:45,966 --> 01:43:48,733
58% of the American people

1785
01:43:48,832 --> 01:43:51,666
thought the killings justified.

1786
01:43:54,632 --> 01:43:57,865
The parents
of the dead ROTC student

1787
01:43:57,966 --> 01:44:00,600
received a flood of hate mail,

1788
01:44:00,699 --> 01:44:04,065
suggesting that they should be
grateful their boy was dead

1789
01:44:04,166 --> 01:44:08,733
since he'd been
"just another communist."

1790
01:44:13,932 --> 01:44:17,432
During the days that followed,
all across the country,

1791
01:44:17,533 --> 01:44:20,100
more than four million
college students

1792
01:44:20,199 --> 01:44:22,100
demonstrated against the war

1793
01:44:22,199 --> 01:44:25,132
and what had happened
at Kent State.

1794
01:44:27,666 --> 01:44:31,632
𝄞 I came upon a child of God

1795
01:44:31,733 --> 01:44:36,233
𝄞 He was walking
along the road 𝄞

1796
01:44:36,332 --> 01:44:38,199
𝄞 And I asked him

1797
01:44:38,300 --> 01:44:40,500
𝄞 Where are you going?

1798
01:44:40,600 --> 01:44:44,466
𝄞 And this he told me

1799
01:44:44,565 --> 01:44:49,233
448 campuses closed down,

1800
01:44:49,332 --> 01:44:54,899
and the National Guard
was called out in 16 states.

1801
01:44:55,000 --> 01:44:56,233
𝄞 Band

1802
01:44:56,332 --> 01:44:58,365
𝄞 I'm gonna camp out

1803
01:44:58,466 --> 01:45:02,033
At Jackson State University in Mississippi,

1804
01:45:02,132 --> 01:45:06,300
state police opened fire
on a dormitory.

1805
01:45:06,399 --> 01:45:08,233
Two students died.

1806
01:45:08,332 --> 01:45:11,233
12 more were wounded.

1807
01:45:13,233 --> 01:45:15,265
Jackson State,
those were my people.

1808
01:45:15,365 --> 01:45:17,199
Those were black kids.

1809
01:45:17,300 --> 01:45:19,533
And they died.

1810
01:45:19,632 --> 01:45:23,033
𝄞 Back to the garden

1811
01:45:23,132 --> 01:45:25,432
Army private Tim O'Brien

1812
01:45:25,533 --> 01:45:29,233
was now back home in Minnesota.

1813
01:45:29,332 --> 01:45:32,800
There was a huge march

1814
01:45:32,899 --> 01:45:34,699
after the Kent State shootings in St.
Paul,

1815
01:45:34,800 --> 01:45:37,065
and I joined the march.

1816
01:45:37,166 --> 01:45:42,332
I just wanted to put my body
amidst these 100,000 people,

1817
01:45:42,432 --> 01:45:45,600
that word "no" being uttered by my body,
if not by my mouth,

1818
01:45:45,699 --> 01:45:47,100
by just making that march.

1819
01:45:47,199 --> 01:45:50,699
That same march
I was doing in Vietnam

1820
01:45:50,800 --> 01:45:53,065
that seemed senseless
and purposeless

1821
01:45:53,166 --> 01:45:54,300
and without direction,

1822
01:45:54,399 --> 01:45:57,233
here it felt sensible
and purposeful

1823
01:45:57,332 --> 01:46:00,666
and with direction,
heading for that state capital

1824
01:46:00,765 --> 01:46:04,065
to say no.

1825
01:46:04,166 --> 01:46:07,365
And, boy, did it feel good.

1826
01:46:12,300 --> 01:46:14,132
Marine Corporal Bill Ehrhart

1827
01:46:14,233 --> 01:46:16,666
was a student
at Swarthmore College

1828
01:46:16,765 --> 01:46:20,832
near his hometown
in eastern Pennsylvania.

1829
01:46:20,932 --> 01:46:25,365
And here's this very famous photograph.

1830
01:46:25,466 --> 01:46:28,300
And I just looked
at this thing.

1831
01:46:32,565 --> 01:46:34,065
And I came unglued.

1832
01:46:36,332 --> 01:46:39,699
I don't know
how long I sat down on the curb,

1833
01:46:39,800 --> 01:46:43,233
and I don't know
if I was there for 15 minutes

1834
01:46:43,332 --> 01:46:44,765
or an hour and a half.

1835
01:46:44,865 --> 01:46:47,100
Just had a breakdown.

1836
01:46:47,199 --> 01:46:50,865
Just crying,
sobbing uncontrollably.

1837
01:46:50,966 --> 01:46:52,733
All I could think was,
"It's not enough to send us

1838
01:46:52,832 --> 01:46:55,166
"halfway around
the world to die.

1839
01:46:55,265 --> 01:46:58,033
"Now they're killing us in
the streets of our own country.

1840
01:46:58,132 --> 01:46:59,500
I have to do something."

1841
01:47:01,533 --> 01:47:02,666
And I finally...

1842
01:47:02,765 --> 01:47:04,565
whenever
I finally cried myself out,

1843
01:47:04,666 --> 01:47:07,132
I got up and I joined
the antiwar movement.

1844
01:47:10,399 --> 01:47:14,765
I remember when the kids were killed at Kent State,

1845
01:47:14,865 --> 01:47:17,565
and I thought,

1846
01:47:17,666 --> 01:47:20,832
"My God,
we're killing our own children now.

1847
01:47:20,932 --> 01:47:22,666
We've really gone mad."

1848
01:47:22,765 --> 01:47:24,065
And I wasn't...

1849
01:47:24,166 --> 01:47:27,065
That's when I was hiding
from things.

1850
01:47:27,166 --> 01:47:29,100
I wasn't
in anybody's movement then.

1851
01:47:29,199 --> 01:47:30,865
I was just drinking.

1852
01:47:32,966 --> 01:47:38,300
But that was one of the things
that told me

1853
01:47:38,399 --> 01:47:40,699
America needed a wake-up call.

1854
01:48:13,932 --> 01:48:16,765
𝄞 Tin soldiers
and Nixon's coming 𝄞

1855
01:48:16,865 --> 01:48:19,733
𝄞 We're finally on our own

1856
01:48:19,832 --> 01:48:23,166
𝄞 This summer
I hear the drumming 𝄞

1857
01:48:23,265 --> 01:48:26,932
𝄞 Four dead in Ohio

1858
01:48:27,033 --> 01:48:29,733
𝄞 Got to get down to it

1859
01:48:29,832 --> 01:48:33,132
𝄞 Soldiers are cutting us down

1860
01:48:33,233 --> 01:48:36,865
𝄞 Should have been done
long ago 𝄞

1861
01:48:39,399 --> 01:48:40,966
𝄞 What if you knew her

1862
01:48:41,065 --> 01:48:44,699
𝄞 And found her dead on the ground?
𝄞

1863
01:48:44,800 --> 01:48:48,899
𝄞 How can you run when you know?
𝄞

1864
01:48:49,000 --> 01:48:50,899
𝄞

1865
01:49:09,932 --> 01:49:12,332
𝄞 La la-la-la,
la la la la 𝄞

1866
01:49:12,432 --> 01:49:16,199
𝄞 La la-la-la,
la la la 𝄞

1867
01:49:16,300 --> 01:49:19,300
𝄞 La la-la-la,
la la la la 𝄞

1868
01:49:19,399 --> 01:49:22,699
𝄞 La la-la-la,
la la la 𝄞

1869
01:49:22,800 --> 01:49:25,199
𝄞 Got to get down to it

1870
01:49:25,300 --> 01:49:28,832
𝄞 Soldiers are cutting us down

1871
01:49:28,932 --> 01:49:32,699
𝄞 Should have been done
long ago 𝄞

1872
01:49:35,100 --> 01:49:37,100
𝄞 What if you knew her

1873
01:49:37,199 --> 01:49:41,166
𝄞 And found her dead on the ground?
𝄞

1874
01:49:41,265 --> 01:49:44,899
𝄞 How can you run when you know?
𝄞

1875
01:49:45,000 --> 01:49:46,899
𝄞

1876
01:50:05,132 --> 01:50:08,000
𝄞 Tin soldiers
and Nixon's coming 𝄞

1877
01:50:08,100 --> 01:50:11,199
𝄞 We're finally on our own

1878
01:50:11,300 --> 01:50:14,199
𝄞 This summer
I hear the drumming 𝄞

1879
01:50:14,300 --> 01:50:16,666
𝄞 Four dead in Ohio

1880
01:50:16,765 --> 01:50:19,832
𝄞 Four dead in Ohio
𝄞 Four

1881
01:50:19,932 --> 01:50:22,100
𝄞 Four dead in Ohio

1882
01:50:22,199 --> 01:50:25,033
𝄞 Four
𝄞 Four dead in Ohio

1883
01:50:25,132 --> 01:50:27,699
𝄞 How could they?
𝄞 Four dead in Ohio

1884
01:50:27,800 --> 01:50:30,899
𝄞 How many more?
𝄞 Four dead in Ohio

1885
01:50:31,000 --> 01:50:35,466
𝄞 Why?
𝄞 Four dead in...

1886
01:50:36,533 --> 01:50:37,533
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FILM

1887
01:50:37,733 --> 01:50:40,400
AND FIND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES AT PBS.
ORG/VIETNAMWAR

1888
01:50:40,600 --> 01:50:44,533
AND JOIN THE CONVERSATION
USING HASHTAG VIETNAMWARPBS.

1889
01:50:44,733 --> 01:50:46,099
"THE VIETNAM WAR" IS AVAILABLE

1890
01:50:46,299 --> 01:50:47,466
ON BLU-RAY
AND DVD.

1891
01:50:47,666 --> 01:50:49,132
THE COMPANION BOOK,
SOUNDTRACK,

1892
01:50:49,332 --> 01:50:50,733
AND ORIGINAL SCORE
FROM THE FILM

1893
01:50:50,933 --> 01:50:51,665
ARE ALSO
AVAILABLE.

1894
01:50:51,865 --> 01:50:54,048
TO ORDER, VISIT SHOPPBS.
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1895
01:50:54,248 --> 01:50:56,232
OR CALL
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1896
01:50:56,432 --> 01:50:57,599
EPISODES OF
THIS SERIES ALSO

1897
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AVAILABLE
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1898
01:50:59,166 --> 01:51:00,132
FROM iTUNES.

1899
01:51:03,399 --> 01:51:05,333
BANK OF AMERICA PROUDLY SUPPORTS

1900
01:51:05,533 --> 01:51:09,082
KEN BURNS' AND LYNN NOVICK'S
FILM "THE VIETNAM WAR"

1901
01:51:09,282 --> 01:51:12,632
BECAUSE FOSTERING
DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

1902
01:51:12,832 --> 01:51:15,432
AND CIVIL DISCOURSE
AROUND IMPORTANT ISSUES

1903
01:51:15,632 --> 01:51:17,533
FURTHERS PROGRESS, EQUALITY,

1904
01:51:17,733 --> 01:51:19,733
AND A MORE CONNECTED SOCIETY.

1905
01:51:24,199 --> 01:51:28,233
GO TO BANKOFAMERICA.
COM/ BETTERCONNECTED TO LEARN MORE.

1906
01:51:31,699 --> 01:51:32,932
MAJOR SUPPORT FOR "THE VIETNAM WAR"

1907
01:51:33,132 --> 01:51:36,632
WAS PROVIDED BY MEMBERS
OF THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY,

1908
01:51:36,832 --> 01:51:40,600
INCLUDING JONATHAN
AND JEANNIE LAVINE,

1909
01:51:40,800 --> 01:51:43,249
DIANE AND HAL BRIERLEY,

1910
01:51:43,449 --> 01:51:45,699
AMY AND DAVID ABRAMS,

1911
01:51:45,899 --> 01:51:48,199
JOHN AND CATHERINE DEBS,

1912
01:51:48,399 --> 01:51:51,300
THE FULLERTON FAMILY
CHARITABLE FUND,

1913
01:51:51,500 --> 01:51:53,165
THE MONTRONE FAMILY,

1914
01:51:53,365 --> 01:51:55,499
LYNDA AND STEWART RESNICK,

1915
01:51:55,699 --> 01:51:58,466
THE PERRY AND DONNA GOLKIN
FAMILY FOUNDATION,

1916
01:51:58,666 --> 01:51:59,266
THE LYNCH FOUNDATION,

1917
01:51:59,466 --> 01:52:02,399
THE ROGER AND ROSEMARY
ENRICO FOUNDATION,

1918
01:52:02,599 --> 01:52:05,066
AND BY THESE ADDITIONAL FUNDERS.

1919
01:52:05,266 --> 01:52:07,733
MAJOR FUNDING WAS ALSO PROVIDED

1920
01:52:07,933 --> 01:52:09,466
BY DAVID H. KOCH...

1921
01:52:11,765 --> 01:52:13,966
THE BLAVATNIK
FAMILY FOUNDATION...

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01:52:16,300 --> 01:52:18,533
THE PARK FOUNDATION,

1923
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THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT
FOR THE HUMANITIES,

1924
01:52:21,099 --> 01:52:22,900
THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS,

1925
01:52:23,100 --> 01:52:25,765
THE JOHN S. AND JAMES L.
KNIGHT FOUNDATION,

1926
01:52:25,965 --> 01:52:28,333
THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION,

1927
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THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS
FOUNDATIONS,

1928
01:52:31,032 --> 01:52:33,332
THE FORD FOUNDATION JUSTFILMS,

1929
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BY THE CORPORATION

1930
01:52:34,533 --> 01:52:36,033
FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING,

1931
01:52:36,233 --> 01:52:37,733
AND BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU.

1932
01:52:37,933 --> 01:52:38,865
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