Original subtitles

This film documents the Vietnam War

in the words of Americans who served there.

It features home movie and rare archival footage

collected during a worldwide search

and now presented in high definition.

Many scenes are graphic in nature

and viewer discretion is advised.

We are all hit!

We are all hit!

We're Taking Fire! Taking Fire!

What do we want freedom? Yes!

What do we want Equiality? Yes!

I know what it's about.

I was in Word War II, fella,

and I served for years. I know it's about.

What have you been doing?

I have a son that's gonna go into the army.

Over Ten Years

We fight because we must figth

if we are to live in a world

where every country can shape its own destiny.

�Vietnam is not our war...

- we must say no!. - �We will not be defeated!.

Go! Go!

It's not the war you know.

It's the war they fought.

We today have concluded an agreement

to end the war and bring peace with honor in Vietnam.

Get down! Get down!

We hope that peace will come swiftly,

but that is in the hands of others,

and we must be prepared for a long, continued conflict.

The Beginning 1964 - 1965

====================

You know, they say the World War II guys

were the best generation.

Well, those who fought every war since then

were the best of their generation.

They went. They served.

They sacrificed,

and they fought like tigers.

They were noble.

Spring 1964.

Less than 50% of Americans have heard of Vietnam.

Right before school let out,

all my teachers wanted to talk about

was the battle betwewn comunism and democracy

taking place in vietnam.

Most of us had barely heard of the place before.

I may not know much about Vietnam,

but communism is something else.

Growing up during the Red Scares of the '50,

we've all heard about the horrible things

that happen in communist countries,

especially kids like me.

I was raised...

a very strict Catholic.

I was an altar boy at eight,

and 12 years at Catholic school.

Part of Catolic school was

readind anti-comunist books.

They would talk about how the communist

would go into villages

and shop the tongues of the priest out

so that they couldn't teach the Our Father.

So with that kind of stuff going on in Vietnam,

I can see why they want to kick the communist out.

I suppose it's a threat, all right,

but at the same time, to be honest,

it feels kind of far away.

Even for me, it's hard to imagine

how something on the other side of the world

could really affect any of us in San Bernadino.

America's involvement in Vietnam began in 1954,

when a political treaty divides the country in two.

Communist China and the Soviet Union

support the North,

while the United States backs the South.

Fearing the spread of the communism throughout the region,

presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson

provide South Vietnam

with military and financial assistance.

By the spring of 1964,

Vietnam is becoming a hot spot in the Cold War.

More than 16.000 U.S. advisors

and training South Vietnam's army

to battle a home grown guerrilla force

known as the Viet Cong or V.C.

With the support of the North,

the V.C. are working to overthrow

the South Vietnamese goverment

and reunite the country under communist rule,

but what has been primarily a civil war

is about to change.

AUGUST 2, 1964.

USS MADDOX IS ATTACKED BY THREE NORTH VIETNAMESE TOPEDO

BOATS IN THE GULF OF TONKIN.

AUGUST 4, 1964

A SECOND ATTACK IS REPORTED.

MANY SEE THIS AS AN ACT OF WAR BY THE NORTH VIETNAMESE.

AUGUST 5, 1964

US PLANES RETALIATE, STRIKING NORTH VIETNAMESE COASTAL FACILITIES.

AUGUST 7, 1964

CONGRESS PASSES GULF OF TONKIN RESOLUTION

AUTHORIZING PRESIDENT JOHNSON TO

TAKE ALL STEPS NECESSARY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA.

The first time I came out here,

it was almost hard to believe that

such a pristine landscape could really be hiding

tens of thousands of enemy infiltrators.

Only my South Vietnamess counterparts

were quick to remind me of the truth...

that they'd been fighting and dying in these jungles

for almost 10 years, struggling to stop

the north vietnamese and Viet Cong

from taking over their country.

24 years old liutenant Bob Clewell

is serving as a military advisor to the ARVN,

South Vietnam's army.

Our orders are to accompany the ARVN units

we're assigned to in field operations.

Primary purpose for being there was not to engage the enemy.

Primary purpose for being there was

to advise the friendly nation or force

and let them engage the enemy.

That's how it kind of got started.

By the fall of 1964,

the south vietnamese goverment

is a political disarray,

while its military is crumbling under the advances of

nearly 150.000 Viet Cong soldiers,

who control nearly half

of the South vietnamese countryside.

Supplied with weapons and reinforcements from the North,

the Viet Cong are farmers by day,

and fighters by night

capable of launching hit-and-run attacks

and them melting back into the jungle, undetected.

Both the Viet Cong and the north Vietnamese

view the Gulf of Tonkin resolution

as a declaration of war by the Americans,

and they intend to fight.

BIEN HOA AIRBASE November 1, 1964.

In the pre-dawn hours of november 1, 1964,

the Viet Cong launch a surprise attack

on one of the four U.S. airbase in South Vietnam.

it is their first direct assault

against U.S. pesonnel inside the country.

Four Americans are killed.

We had advisors and militay assets

in south Vietnam for years.

The Viet Vong have never intentionally

tried to destroy them.

23 years old Joe Galloway

is a correspondent for United Press International.

For yars, he's been closely follwing America's

growing involvement in Vietnam.

We were getting more deeply involved in that situation

and that it was going to become America's war,

my generation's war,

and I'd always said to myself

that if a war came along during my time,

I wanted to cover it.

I started driving my bosses absolutely crazy,

demanding, begging, pleading for a transfer

to get get in position for the war I was sure was coming.

PLEIKU AIRBASE February 7, 1965.

On February 7, 1965

Vieet Cong forces strike a second US airbase.

8 Americans are killed and another 126 wounded.

Weeks after the Pleiku attack,

President Johnson autothrizes a large scale bombing campaing

inside North Vietnam.

Code name operation, "Rolling Thunder",

the strategy is twofold...

cripple the North Vietnamese war effort

by destroying military and industrial targets

and crush their will to fight

by demonstrating the aweosome extent

of american power.

U.S. comand belivies both objetives

can be accomplished in just 8 weeks.

This operation may be only scheduled to last 8 weeks,

but I intend to get in as much flight time

as I can before it's over.

31 years old Captain Keith Connolly

is flaying an F-100 Super Cobra

with the 416th Tactical Fighter Scuadron

as part of Operation Rolling Thunder.

I had never been to war.

In fact, I didn't understand what war was all about.

So, abviously, we were very, very apprehensive about this,

but everybody thought in the back of their mind

that the war was going to be over.

It wouldn't take long for us to show up

with our aweosome firepower

and do the things that we had demostrated out

in our training ranges

that would bring the enemy to his knees.

They weren't going to be able to sustain themselves

with this awesome capability of the American forces.

But the start of Rolling Thunder

has brought an unexpected problem.

The America pilots and planes

stationed insde South Vietnam

are vulnerable to Viet Cong atack.

So to protect them, US commanders

want ground troops sent to Vietnam

for the first time.

They ask President johnson to approve.

Johnson knows that the ground troops

will be seen by the American public

as well as North Vietnam,

as a step towards a larger war.

Every night before I turn out the lights to sleep,

I ask myself this question:

�Have I dome everything I can

to help unite the world,

to try to bring peace and hope

to all the people of the world?

Have I done enough?

On March 8, 1965, at 8:15 a.m.,

3.500 Marines

with the Ninth Expeditionary Brigade

land in South Vietnam.

For the first time since the Korean war,

battle ready American ground troops

are setting foot on the Asian mainland.

OUTSIDE DA NANG AIRBASE March 1965.

Half of these guys never even heard of Vietnam

before they got here.

Now they're getting one heck of a tour.

United Press International

correspondent Joe Galloway

is with a platoon of 40 marines

patrolling outside US airbase at Da Nang.

Their orders are strictly defensive.

Soldier: We see you, babe.

I nagged the hell aout of my bosses

to get here and cover this conflict,

but now that I'm here,

the V.C. dont't really seem like that much of a threat.

I don't think any one of these marine

has even seen a communist yet.

I know I sure as hell haven't.

The again, the V.C. and guerilla fighters.

They know how to hide in plain sight.

DA NANG AIRBASE

Back at base, guys are hanging out in each other's hooches,

screwing around, and listening to music.

Feels more like a college dorm room

than barracks in a war zone.

A lot of guys keep coming up to me

wanting to tell me their names and hometowns so,

hopefully, I'll mention them in an article

and their folks back in the States will see it.

I think it's kind of cool.

Sort of makes me feel like Ernie Pyle.

He won a Puliter for reporting on the grunt's eye view

in World War II.

I had read Ernie Pyle 's columns, and I thought...

Well, if you're gonna cover a war,

that's the way to do it.

I was very impressed with how

he covered his generation's war,

and I wanted to do it the same way,

covering the soldiers as far forwad as you can get.

These guys all full expect to get te job done

and be home in a couple of months,

although, for my stake

I kind of hope it doesn't end too quickly,

before I get a chance to write about some real action.

NORTH VIETNAMESE AIRSPACE

When first left for this assignment,

I told my wife I'd be home before the summer's over.

Figured there was no way a little third world country

would even come close to competing with our firepower.

Now I'm starting to see how wrong I was.

Captain Keith Connolly and his fellow pilots

are three weeks into operation Rollig Thunder,

the 8 week long air campaing

intended to bomb North Vietnam

into submission.

So far, the results are falling short

of expectations.

Pilot: 0-6, I'm taking fire out on the backup.

Doesn't seem to matter how much destruction we inflict.

The NV rebuild everything.

Then we get sent back up here to hit it again.

There's a frustration level...

on behalf of the pilots.

Sometimes wed'd be going back

to the same areas,

hitting the same targets repeatedly,

and not understanding why we were being targeted

into the same areas over and over.

And it dawned upon us that

this war was not going to be over

in a short few months.

SAIGON March 30, 1965.

An armed force of more than 8.000 men

today tightened its hold on a...

On March 30, 1965,

the VC explode a car bomb

in front of the US embassy in Saigon.

22 people are killed, and 183 more are injured.

Over the next three months,

V.C. forces continue to attack US

and South Vietnamese intallations throughout the country,

while the South Vietnamese army

proves powerless to stop them.

With South Vietnam nearing collapse

the head of US operations in Vietnam,

General William Westmreland

makes a momentus request.

He ask President Johnson

for permission to take the offensive

and, for the first time,

use US ground troops to seek out the enemy

and drive them out of the south.

WASHINGTON, DC July 28, 1965.

On July 28, 1965,

in a press conference televised to the nation,

Johnson announces his decision.

I have asked the commanding general,

General Westmoreland,

what more he needs

to meet this mounting aggression.

He has told me,

and we will meet his needs.

I have today ordered to Vietnam

the Air Mobile Division and certain other forces,

which will raise our fighting strength

from 75.000 to 125.000 men

almost immediatly.

Additional forces will be needed later,

and they will be sent as requested.

This will make it necessary

to increase our active fighting forces

by raising the monthly draft call

from 17.000 over a period of time

to 35.000 per month.

SPARTANBURG, SC 30 draftees.

DADE COUNTY, FL 230 draftees.

ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PA 1.300 draftees.

COOK COUNTY IL 1.600 draftees.

By the fall of 1965,

150.000 american soldiers

have descended upon South Vietnam.

250.000 North Vietnamese and Viet cong

are poises to meet them.

The newly arriving americans

are about to get more than they bargained for.

BRIGADE HQ November 14, 1965.

Now you can feel the excitement building.

We've finally got intelligence

that 200 NVA soldiers are in the hills

of the Chu pong mountain.

Upi reporter joe galloway

has joined up with the first cavalry,

one of the army's new airmobile assault units.

After months of fighting small, frustrating skirmishes,

us forces are preparing to launch

their first major assault

against 200 north vietnamese soldiers

using an experimental new tactic, air mobility.

Equipped with UH-1 Hueys,

the first cavalry is designed

to insert soldiers into combat

using helicopters.

for this encounter,

they will make their first attempt

at inserting a force of 450 americans

to figth the 200 NVA,

but as the men prepare for battle,

a potentially serius problem

weighs on the mind of the commanding officer,

colonel Hal Moore.

The spot where they will land,

a small clearing designated landed zone X-ray,

was chosen because of its close proximity

to the enemy.

Its is too small however,

to land more than eight helicopters at a time.

With reach chopper able to carry only about 6 men,

it will take several hours to get all 450 soldiers

on the ground.

Any commander's fear in a case like that,

if you land and yo've only got a few of your troops,

less than 100,

and the enemy comes on you, you're in a bind.

If you go down and the LZ,

the landing zone , is cosed,

and whoever is in ther dies.

FIRE FALCON Ia Drang Valley.

At 10:19 a.m., firebase falcon,

five miles from the landing zone,

lets loose a vicious barrage of artillery

into the enemy positions.

The 28 minute onslaught is meant to clear the LZ

so the helicopters can land safely.

At 10:35 a.m., the first us choppers lift off

and begin the 13 minute flight to the landing zone.

Four miles outside of LZ X-ray,

the choppers rop to treetop level.

In front of the lays a landscape of smoke

and exploding US ordinance.

The barrage is intricately timed

to stop just one minute

before the soldiers hit the ground.

If the timing if off by even few seconds,

they will risk being hit whit their own artillery.

I was staying close to the tent

where the radios were at brigade headquarters

so that I could hear if anything started happening.

This is 6-5. Got negative contact.

All the birds have flown...

Bravo company is sweeping the area around the LZ.

So far, all is quiet.

Already the choppers are delivering

the second load of soldiers.

Everything seems to be going according to plan...

until 11:15 a.m.

Bravos's first platoon

captures a single unarmed NVA soldier.

He's immediately taken to the command center

for interrogation.

At 11:20, the priosener makes an incredible revelation.

He tells the interpreter

there are three full battalions

of North Vietnamese soldiers on the mountain

and that all of them

want very much to kill americans.

It's unbelievable. Three battalions.

That's almost 1.600 soldiers.

No one can believe what they're hearing.

We've got less than 200 men on the ground,

meaning we're outnumbered 8 to 1.

Roger. Say again.

45 MINUTES LATER.

Within minutes, US and North Vietnamese forces

are locked in vicious combat.

While the men on the ground

desperately attemp to keep the North Vietnamese

from overrunning the LZ,

the pilots of the First Cavalry

continue to ferry in the remainder of the 450 men

amind a vicious torrent of enemy bulltes and rockets.

There are things aout battle

that movies cannot teach you,

and that is the true horrendous

noise of battle.

The bullets cracking, the bombs landing,

artillery shells exploding...

People screaming.

It's just a cacophony that's almost deafening.

After neraly eight hours of battle,

casulities are mounting,

and supplies are running low.

But with night fast approaching,

all further landings must be called off until dawn.

The 450 battered americans are on their own

and will have to survive the night

in the face of an overwhelming enemy.

IA DRANG VALLEY Day two of battle.

Last night, the enemy launched

several small attacks against our lines.

The dead still lay where they were killed.

It's too dangerous to try and move them.

Joe Galloway is the only corespondent

at landing zone X-ray.

OF the 450 soldiers on the battelfield,

85 are already dead or wounded.

Those still alive are desperately

is need of ammunition and supplies.

Word is that reinforcements

are going to try and land a few miles away

and try to fight their way over to us.

God, I hope they make it.

At the base of the Chu Pong mountain

are nearly 1.600 enemy soldiers.

A few hundred yards in front of them,

stands ony a thin line of americans,

pounded and exhausted from nearly 24 hours

of constant fighting.

the enemy's sporadic attacks during the night

were to determinate the most vulnerable points

in the US lines.

Now they know the best way to breach them,

and they preparing to put this knowledge to use.

Go! Go! Go!

Radio Soldier: Put the chopper down. We're ready to roll.

Pilot: Okay.

At 6:50 a.m., 200 NVA soldiers

hit "C" company's first and seconds platoons.

Company commander Bob Edwards

is shot through the shoulder

leading his men in a counterattack.

His XO, Lieutenant Arringon, runs up to assist,

but within minutes, he is also shot

right through the chest.

The enemy is within 75 yards of their lines.

Some of the men are down to hand to hand combat.

Come on.

This way. This way.

At 7:15, NVA soldiers hit Delta Company

right where they connect with Charlie Company.

The line is starting to break down.

Enemy's bullets are passing

right through the command area...

where we were sitting...

and I just fell over on my belly

and got as flat as I could...

And finally Colonel Moore

loocket at the air force liaison,

lieutenant Charlie Hastings.

Moore looks at him and says:

"Call Broken Arrow".

Broken Arrow was a code at that time

meant that an american unit

was in dire danger

of being overrun and wiped out,

and when that call was given,

every available fighter bomber in Vietnam

diverted to that place

to deliver their bombs.

He's going in now.

Shipment at 9 o'clock, burning.

It was about then

that I head colonel moore yelling,

"Get him off of us, Charlie.

"Get him off of us. Call that S.O.B. off".

And I looked up, and there were two F-100 Super saber jets

like this... they're coming directly at us.

The lead plene has already punched the pickle switch

and turned loose canisters of napalm.

Hal was trying to stop the second guy

from dumping his on us.

But unfortunately

for two or three engineer demolition guys,

they were right in the path.

In that flame, I could see these two men dancing...

and screaming...

and someone yelled, "Get this man's feet",

and I reached down and picked him up

and, his boots crumbled.

The flesh on his ankles...

just peeled off.

I could feel the ankle bone in the palm of my hands.

And we carried him over to where the wounded were.

It was a young specialist

named Jim Nokayama

out of Rigby, Idaho, married.

Wife had a baby that week.

He died two days later.

That boy is my nightmare.

IA DRANG VALLEY Day three of battle.

Need a medevac.

we got a one live we got a one live

Chop-40, 39 just pulled out.

Roger.

Medevac 2-5, Medevac 2-5.

I'm sitting here,

watching the last grisle moments of his battle.

UPI reporter Joe Galloway

is surveying the aftermath at landing one X-ray

in the Ia Drang valley.

A young specialist named Arthut Viera

is bleeding from wounds all over his body.

The most serious is a bullet hole

right through his throat.

The battalion surgeon, Captain Carrera,

perfoms an emergency tracheotomy.

A few yards away is Clinton Poley,

a farm boy from Iowa.

He took grenade shrapnel and gunshot wounds

but never left his post at one of the M-60's

that kept the second platoon alive.

There are some of the bravest,

most dedicated soldiers I have ever seen.

Despite the friendly fire incident,

the close-in bombing support from US aircraft

suceeded in pushing the enemy back

and allowed the americans to regain the offensive.

American's first major battle with the North Vietnamese

has ended in victory.

One soldier pulls a small American flag from his pack

and hangs it on a shattered, blown-up tree stump.

He looks at his buddies and grins.

"Just like Iwo Jima", he says.

"Another battle won for the UE".

You`re damn right.

These men have accomplished something extraordinary.

Just like their fathers on the beaches

of Tarawa or Normandy,

they fought an incredible battle

against incredible odds

and come out on top.

Now I've seen for myself what war is really about.

It's about how a farm boy from Iowa

hangs on to a machine gun for eight hours

so he can protect his injured buddies,

even when he himself is wounded and bleeding...

or how an African-american boy from Charlotte

and white boy from Houston

decide they'd rather die together

than abandon the other in the midst of battle.

War is about men who love their country...

but even more than that,

love one another.

I left that landing zone X-ray...

battlefield knowing

that young americans had laid down

their live so that I might live.

They had sacrificed themselves

for me and their buddies.

What I was learning was that

there's some events that are so overwhelming

that you can't simply be a witnees.

You can't be above it.

You can't be neutral.

You can't be untouched by it.

Simpled as that.

You see it, you live it,

you experince it,

and it will be with you all of yours days.

Over the following two days,

additional battles will be fought in the Ia Drang valley

engaging even more NVA soldiers.

But the time the fighting ends,

a total of 234 Americans lay dead.

With enemy deaths estimated at nearly 3.000,

Us commanders come up with a new strategy.

The lopsided 12-to-1 kill ratio convinces them

that, in this war without a front,

body count wil be the measure of sucess.

And the helicopters wich has proven capable of operating

in the midst of intense battle,

will be an important weapon in executing this strategy.

US commanders now believe they have found the blueprint

for total victory in Vietnam.

==========================