Original subtitles

This film documents the Vietnam War

in the words of Americans who served there.

it features home movies and rare archival footage

collected during a worldwide search

and now presented in high definition.

Many scenes are graphic in nature and your discretion is advised.

What do we want Equiality?

I was in Word War II, fella,

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

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

OVER TEN YEARS

OVER 2.5 MILLION AMERICANS SERVED IN VIETNAM

IT'S NOT THE WAR YOU KNOW

IT'S THE WAR THEY FOUGHT

www.TUSUBTITULO.com -DIFUNDE LA CULTURA-

THE TET OFFENSIVE 1968

At the start of 1968,

three years after U.S ground forces first landed in vietnam,

there are nearly half a million americans in country,

fighting an estimated force of nearly 300.000

NV regulars and VC guerillas.

US military strategy is a combination of bombing key industrial

and supply sites in the north...

while launching massive search and destroy operations in the south.

Dead enemy bodies, not terriory, is the measure of succes.

SINCE THE INTRODUCTION OF US GROUND COMBAT TROOPS IN 1965

AN ESTIMATED 186.000 ENEMY HAVE BEEN KILLED.

16.250 AMERICANS HAVE BEEN KILLED.

With the numbers tipping firmly in american's favor,

President Johnson and his top military advisors,

including overall commander General William Westmoreland,

assure the american people that victory is within reach.

It is only a matter of time,

before the NVA and VC succumb to their losses.

The vietnamese, however,

have sucessfully battled foreing powers for over 1.000 years,

and with a population of over 16 million,

the north is prepared and willing to replace their casualties.

For US troops in the field,

this means they keep doing the same thing day in and day out

under the constant threar of an enemy that is anywhere and everywhere.

OUTSIDE TAM KY FIREBASE 354 MILES NORTH OF SAIGON

Out here, the tension just builds and builds

until you feeel like you're gonna explode.

Most of these guys would give anything

for an excuse to squeeze off a couple rounds.

19 years old Second Liutenant Barry Romo

has been in Vietnam for six months.

He spent most of that time leading seachar and destroy missions.

Guys will do anything to break the tension.

It's some of the blackest humor I've ever seen.

Guys play mumbly peg with bayonets,

throwing them at each another's feet,

moving the closer and closer together.

And I told them, I said: "Well, if you injure yourself,

you're gonna be walking around here with that".

They didnt's care. That whole question of... of...

just dealing with the incredible tension and stuff,

and jokes and dirty humor and, and when you're in rear area,

prostitutes and drugs and other things, that was real.

While Romo and his men cope with the rhythm of the war,

tens of millions of people throughout Vietnam

prepare for the country's most important holiday:

the vietnamese Lunar New Year, or Tet.

The maks the arrival of spring, a time to pay tribute to ancestors

and look forwar to good fortunes in the new year.

Since the start of the war, is has also marked a time of peace

when all sides observe a two day cease fire.

EN ROUTE TO TAM KY JANUARY 30, 1968

A lot of south vietnamese soldiers have already headed home now.

But these past couple days,

command has been trying to call everyone back.

Apparently, we've gotten wind of the NVA's build around some of the cities.

That was the fist time I had heard about a planned offensive,

and people in I-Corps,

some of the intelligence people, anyway,

the ones I dealt with believed it was gonna happen.

Not everyone is taking it so seriously, though.

Some guys are saying there's no way the communists

can launch anything major.

They're already all tapped out.

But I'm not so sure about that.

From what I've seen fighting these bastards in the bush,

they're smart as hell, and they don't give up.

But as the sun sets on january 30, 1968,

many expect this year wil be like every other,

a night of peaceful festivities.

GENERAL WESTMORELAND'S HEADQUARTERS AT TAN SON NHUT AIRBASE

SUDDENLY COME UNDER ATTACK BY NVA MORTAR AND ROCKET FIRE.

NINETEEN VIET CONG COMMANDOS SUDDENLY BREACH THE WALL

SURROUNDING THE US EMBASSY IN SAIGON.

HUNDREDS OF NVA TROOPS ATTACK AND BURN THE SOUTH VIETNAMESE

GOVERNMENTAL HEADQUARTERS IN THE ANCIENT TOWN OF HOI AN.

8.000 ENEMY TROOPS MASS UPON THE CITY OF HUE

WHILE VIET VONG COMMANDOS BEGIN EXECUTING GOVERMENT OFFICIALS IN THEIR HOMES.

Affirmative, now people that are laying down there,

we don's know if they're dead or wunded or not...

All of a sudden, the radios start going crazy.

Guys are calling in attacks from all over the place.

Nobody Knows what the hell os going on, but you can tell

it's something different, that it wasn't isolated,

all these places getting hit at exactly the same time.

You sit there and listen.

It's like listening to a radio program, except that it's... it's reality.

As the sun rises on january 31, the confused actions of the night

give way to a grim realization.

Over 120 citites, towns and military bases,

including the capital of almost every province in south Vietnam,

are under attack by an estimated 84.000 north vietnamese and Viet Cong.

It is the largest coordinated military action of the war to date.

Unlnown to the Americans,

the enemy had spent the past seven months

slowly moving hundreds of thounsands of mortars,

artillery shells, small arms, hand granadas,

and the explosive into the south via the Ho hi Minh trail.

Under the guise of the Tet celebations, they hid these weapons

inside truckloads of rice and cats of flowers,

and carefully moved them into position for their assault.

The incredible scope of the Tet Offensive caches the Americans by surprise,

but it doesn't take long before they begin to fight back.

At the embassy in Saigon, military police and marine guards

begin clearing out the Viet Cong.

Just outside the city, at Tan Son Nhut airbase,

905 U.S. ground troops engage in close queartes combat with 1.200 NVA.

While Americans pilots lift off under enemy fire

to support foghting elsewhere in the country.

400 miles to the north, mortar and rocket fire rain down

on the 6000 americans marines at Khe Sanh.

An estimated force of at least 20.000 NVA

have the base surronded.

Completely cut off by ground,

they are running low on supplies...

while the marines on the outer edge of the perimeter

resort to hand to hand combat.

We are... we are hit!

To the east, in the ancient imperial capital of Hue,

a few hundred US and South Vietnamise troops

are tenaciously holdng what little ground they can

against the advancing 8000 NVA,

who are determined to wipe them out.

EN ROUTE TO HUE JANUARY 31, 1968

Nobody says a word, lthough I'm literally about t bust,

I've hot so many questions.

Medical Corpsman Raymond Torres

and his company from the 26th Marine regiment

are packed inside a C-130 en route to Hue.

Less than 24 hours into the Tet Ofensive,

US trops are launching counterattacks

aimed ar reversing the wave of the enemy advances.

How bad is the figthing at Hue? How many wounded are there?

What do I do when we land, ask for instructions

or just run to the nearest casualty and start working?

But nobodu pays any attention to a hyper medic.

They've all got their game faces on.

After all. Marines don't ask questions.

They just do.

RIght at that moment, the pilot comes on the radio

and says we're not going to land at Hue.

Our orders have been changed.

Then dead air.

They don't tell the marines anything until it actually happens.

We were just anticipating go to the Hue city,

and you didn't have time to think about it because

you didn't know until the plane was ready to land.

that we were landing at Khe Sanh.

That was our mind-set, but either way, we had no choice.

The pilost pops on the intercom to tell us that Khe Sanh is taking heavy fire.

He won't be able to stopo the plane

because they're taking mortar from every direction.

So once we touch the ground, he's just gonna slow down a bit,

and we'll have to bail ot and head for the trenches.

Bail out? What the hell does that mean?

Feels like the whole plane is about to attle apart.

Plain is dropping fast.

Everybody is grabbing a hold of something,

getting ready to get the hell out.

We're about to make one hell of an entrance.

Go! Go!

KHE SANH MARINE BASE FEBRUARY 1, 1968 - DAY TWO OF TET OFENSIVE

The entire base is under siege.

Everything has been shot to hell by enemy mortars and artillery.

We're lucky we made it in here alive.

Hey, get behing something now. We got to reserve 200 meters...

After landing under intense enemy fire,

maine corpsman Raymond Torres is in the thick of the battle at Khe Sanh.

Two days into the Tet offensive,

the 6000 american marines are entirely cut of by ground,

surrounded by at least 20000 north vietnamese,

who are mercilessly pounding them

with mortar, rocket and artillery fire.

I'm returning to Khe San.

600 FET ABOVE KHE SANH

Their main protection against being overrun

is the precision flying of american pilots

and their accuracy in dropping one of the most destructive weapons

of the Vietnam war, napalm.

Here it comes. Incoming!

The NVA is so dam close,

our pilots are dropping napalm right outside the perimeter.

Get out of the way!

The canisters fall like balsas wood.

It kind of flutters and it drops a little differently

than a cnvetional bomb and when it hits,

it' just a big explosion and just a ball of fire,

and it just keeps traveling and just burning everything in its path.

NAPALM BURNS AT UP TO 3.660 DEGREES FAHERENHEIT HOT ENOUGH TO MELT STEEL

THE FLAMES ALSO GENERATE A DEADLY CONCENTRATION OF CARBON MONOXIDE.

- Yep. - Like two or three we need up here.

Torres and his company of 150 men immediately move out

to one of the small hilltop outpost that ring Khe Sanh.

Only a few thousand yards from enemy positions,

these outposts are the lst line of defense

against the advancing NVA,

and have been the ste of bitter fighting since the start of the battle.

Our orders are to hike our asses up the top of hill 861A

to reinforces the company that's up there.

Everyone is nervous as hell.

There's no tellig how bad the situation really is,

but rumor has it that most of the guys up there

got their throats slit with knives,

or their guts spilled out by bayonets.

The smell is sickening.

It's all I can do to keep from retching right on the spot.

Dead north vietnamese are strwn everywhere,

shot dead only a few feet outside the perimeter.

No one says a word... but they donn't have to.

The look on their faces says it all.

it was something you're not really prepared to see.

And that's when it sink in that, how did get here,

and what are we doing here, you know,

and is this for real?

And it sinks in that, yes, this is for real.

Yes. Go, boys. Let's go.

While Torres joins the struggle at Khen Sanh,

throughout south Vietnam, US and AVRN forces

are launching a series of counter offensives.

Hey, hey, we're already shooting all the ammo.

Although the initial surprise of the Tet Offensive

resulted in quick victories for the enemy,

within days, the NVA and VC are being driven out

of almost every major city hit during the attack.

But while the american military begins to triumph,

the real cost of the Tet offensive is becoming clear.

One, possibily two, armored personnel carriers

that preceded us in here have been blown.

Unlike WW II, news coverage of Vietnam

is not subject to goverment censorchip.

So as hundreds of war correspondents cover the battle,

the images are broadcast into the homes of millions of Americans.

The infantery will move back into the tree line,

hoping to are reestablish contact with the Viet Cong.

Vietnam gives the american public

their first unrestricred view of the graphic images of war.

DURING THE TET OFFENSIVE 90%

OF THE EVENING NEWS IS DEVOTED TO THE VIETNAM WAR.

FIFTY MILLION AMERICANS TUNE IN NIGHTLY.

On february 1, 1968, an NBC cameraman is filming

South Vietnam's chief of national police in Saigon

when a Vietn Cong prisioner is brought to him.

The ensuing image become a symbol of the war's brutality.

- Who? - Daddy.

- Mummy. - Daddy.

Yeah... good.

Did you hear that, honey?

Now say, "Daddy".

Daddy.

"Come home"

Quick. Quick.

This past week, the children and I recorded

seven audio letters to send to Ben.

It seems to be the best way to keep their minds off

what's happening in Vietnam...

keep them away from all the coverage on TV.

Anne Purcell's husband Ben desployed to Vietnam seven month ago.

She's at home with her five children

as graphic news coverage of the Tet Offensive fills the airwaves.

There was a lot of coverage of actual battles

and seeing the men wounded and that kind of thing,

and we watched TV,

but when that started happening, we didn't watch TV very much.

Our son, second son that was is second gade,

he started havig a lot of stomachaches and this kind of thing,

and the doctorr finally determined that it was his nerves

because he told me one day after he had watched TV,

he said: "Mother, I'm afraid dad won't ever come home".

Everywhere we go school, church, even out shopping,

all anyone want to tlk about is the war.

I'm just so grateful that in a few weeks,

we're gonna take atrip to Hawaii to see Ben on R&R.

"Hi, darling.

I can't wait until we meet in Hawaii.

Take care of yourself.

Remember that I love you with all my heart.

I miss you with all my heart.

I'll be so glad when this tour is over,

and I hope we never have to be separated again".

HILL 861A - FEBRUARY 5, 1968 DAY SIX OF TET OFFENSIVE

The ground never stopped shaking.

The mortars and artillery are constant.

Everyone is exhausted.

It's not even so much the physical work

as the mental train of it all.

Medical corpsma Raymond Torres and his compay of 150 marines

are at the defensive outpost atop hill 861A

on the outer perimeter of Khe Sanh.

Below them, enemy mortars and rockets

continue to pound the base's airstrip,

making it increasingly difficult to land planes.

More and more, the marine are forced to rely upon

aerial drops for food, fuel, and most importantly, ammunition.

For the pilots and crews of cargo planes,

the normally routine operation is suddenly transformed

into one of the most dangerous missions of the entire war.

600 feet above Khen Sanh,

the planes como under intense enemy fire.

While the pilot attempt to hold steady,

a crewman inside the belly of the aircraft

crawls within feet of the open door and realeses the supplies.

For the marines at Khe Sanh,

the pilots and crews of these cargo planes

are the unsung heroes of the battle.

Nightfall is even worse than the chaos of the day,

because out here, where it gets so dark

that you can't even see a hand in front of your face,

Charlie owns the night,

and he'll slip up on you and slit your throat

before you even have a chance to scream.

At night, the frontline marines are at their most vulnerable.

Supporting air and artillery fire is less effective in the dark.

All around us, I hear marines screaming and rapid firing.

NVA is trying to break line,

only nobody knows where they're coming from,

and nobody cloud see a thing.

Mortars and genades are exploding right outside the trenches.

I scramble toward the screams of a wounded marine.

Just as I'm hunching over him, trying to stop his bleeding,

something hits the dirt a few feet away.

It's a grenade...

and in that short amount of time...

everything just seemed to flash through my mind.

I started backing away, and when Ibaked away,

I put my hand up to my face to protect my face,

and the grenade exploted.

For a moment,

everything goes silent from the concussion...

and I realize that now I'm the one...

who needs to be saved.

71st EVACUATION HOSPITAL

200 miles to the south, at the american base at Pleiku,

the nurses and doctors of the 71st evacuation hospital

are rallyng to save the lives of critically wounded troops

from battles all over South Vietnam.

Among them is captain Elizabeth Allen,

a 26 year old nurse stationed in the trauma intensive care unit.

The first time I heard the hum of chopper coming in low,

I thought it was the most soothing sound in the world,

but now...

standing on the medevac pad of an army hospital,

that same sound makes my heart race

and my stomach tighten up.

Sinse the start of the Tet offensive,

the number of wounded Americans in need of hospitalization

has nearly doubled from that of a month earlier.

It's the pace of it all that really wears you down.

Back home, massive trauma and multiple amputees are rare,

but out here, it's run of the mill.

The only way to deal with it,

it is to go into sort of like robotic mode.

You take the first one and you fix it,

and then you go to the second one,

and you fix it and you keep going until that's over.

You learn to use all of your senses.

If it smells bad, it's infected.

If it's bleeding, you stop it,

and you do the best you can with that,

because you don't have another choice,

except to crumbe...

and I have to tell you, crumling ain't my style.

DURING THE VIETNAM WAR 153.329 AMERICANS ARE HOSPITALIZED FOR WOUNDS

99% OF THOSE WHO LIVE THROUGH THE FIRST 24 HOURS SURVIVE

Honey, I wish you a belated happy birthday.

And have many, many more happy birthdays,

and I'll be there for your next one.

PURCELL RESIDENCE FEBRUARY 1968

All weel long, we've been replaying Ben's latest letter.

Haring the sound of his voice...

it's the only thing keeping us sane amidst the horrible news of Tet.

Ane Purcell is awaiting news from her husband Ben.

She continues to send him audio letters,

but for the first time, he is not writing back.

Our best distraction is always church.

Being there among friends is comforting.

After the service is over I saw the pastor...

standing in the hall with major Jim Statler,

and I knew that ther had something to tell me

that I probably didn't want to know.

Our pastor said: "Anne, come int omy study",

and we all walked in, and he closed the door,

and mayor Statler said: "Anne, Ben is missing in action".

All of these horrible thoughts started racing through my mind.

Is he dead?

Is he wounded?

Is he out there in the jungle all alone,

or is he being held prisioner somewhere,

beaten and tortured at this very moment?

The Tet offensive made it clear

that the communists had changed their tactics,

but they didn's do it overnight.

Despite optimistic reports to the contrary,

it's been changing for a long time.

US and vietnamese troops...

Three weeks after the January 31 surprise Tet offensive began,

US and the south vietnamese forces

have successfully driven the NVA and VC

out of almost every major city hit during the attack.

Khe Sanh still remains embattled,

but for the most part, the U.S. military is returning

to its strategy of search and destroy,

chaing the retreating enemy into the countryside.

OUTSIDE CHU LAI

Sexond Lieutenant Barry Romo is back in the field,

outside Chu Lai, where it is believed

that several hundred enemy soldiers who fled the city are now hiding.

Go, go!

- You okay? - Yea.

All of a sudden, I hear a huge explosion behind me.

Everyone hits the ground.

Okay. Let's go.

When I look up,

I see my platoon sergeant laying in a pool of blood.

He stepped on a mine.

We here just headed to LZ for pick up.

Another 15 minutes,

and we would have all made it out of here just fine.

As we're getting loaded, one of my men tells me

there's someone looking for me.

I head over to the chopper he ponts towards,

and as I get close, I see this major hold up a sign.

He had written: "Your nephew Robert has been killed.

Your brother Harold requests that you scort the body home.

Will you escort the body home?"

And he didn't say, "I'm sorry".

He didn't verbally say it to me.

He didn't have the decency of a human connection.

He had to write it down.

I can barely process what just happened.

My brother had written to tell me

that Bobby got drafted, and was sent over here,

but I was never able to see him,

and now he's dead.

When we get back to base,

a staff sergeant comes up to me...

told me how Bobby had been killed.

He'd been in a major operation in a place called Hon Ha,

where they were working with the marines.

A friend had been shot, and just like in the movies,

he had stood up and ran to help his friend,

and he got shot in the throat, drowned in his own blood.

As the news skinks in, I start to realize something else.

I'm leaving Vietnam,

and I'm never gonna see any of my guys again.

What's gonna happen to them when I'm not here?

Who's gonna take care of them

and make sure they get through this thing alive?

After everything I've been through,

after everything all of us have been through,

it kills me to know that, I'm leaving them behind.

When I went to Vietnam, we thought we could win.

Anyone who goes now, after the Tet Offensive,

knows that they are gonna fight for a lost cause.

The Tet Offensive becomes a turning point not only for the U.S. military,

but for journalists covering the war.

On febreary 27, CBS anchor Walter Cronkite,

known as "the nost trusted man in America",

returns from a week long trip to Vietnam

and steps out of his role as reporter

to offer his personal view on the war.

To say that we are closer to victory today

is to believe, in the face of the evidence,

the optimists who have been wrong in the past.

To suggest we are on the edge of defeat

is to yield to unreasonable pessimism.

To say that we are mired in stalemate

seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion,

but it is increasingly clear to this reporter

that the only rational way out, then,

will be to negociate not as victors,

but as an honorable people

who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy

and did the best they could.

WASHINGTON, DC FEBRUARY 29, 1968

Two days after Walter Cronkite's somber analysis of the war,

Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara,

one of the Johnson administration's key architects for the Vietnam war...

-Mr. President. - Steps down.

I cannot find words to...

express what lies in my heart today.

Although he had announced his intented resignation theree months earlier,

McNamara's departure in the wake of Tet

is seen by many as confirmation

that the administration's Vietnam policy is failing.

How will this help end the war?

Well, this, hopefully, is a democracy.

What becomes known as the "credibility gap"

is vastly widened,

as many american people see a strikingly different view

of the war than the optimistic pronouncements

of the Johnson administration.

All the statements are very diferrent,

and it's very hard to believe.

One says this way. The other one says the other way,

and I don't know what to believe.

I have a brother that just came back from Vietnam,

and he talked about it, and it's a lot rougher than what they said.

National politiciands seize the opportunity

and openly speak out against the war.

The senator from Minnesota, Eugene McCarthy,

challenges President Johnson, his fellow democrat,

for the party's nomination for the coming election,

and nearly defeats him in the New Hampshire Primary.

Our history of this war in Vietnam, no matter what we call it,

has been one of continued error and of misjudgment.

And many of us in the Congress followed patienly the words...

With his administration in turmoil,

and public support for the war at just 41%,

Johnson addresses the nation.

God evening my fellow Americans.

Tonight, I want to speak to you

of peace in Vietnam and Southeast Asia...

He orders a halt to the bombing of North Vietnam

in the area where 90% of the population resides,

and announces an effort to start peace talks to settle the war.

He then drops a political bombshell.

With America's sons in the field far away,

with America's future under challenge right here at home,

with our hopes and the world's hopes

for peace in the balance every day,

I do not belive

than I should devote an hour or day of my time

to any personal partisan causes,

or to any duties other

than the aweosome duties of this office:

the presidency of your country.

Accordingly,

I shall not seek, and I will not accept,

the nomination of my party for another term

as your president.

KHE SANH MARINE BASE APRIL 8, 1968

Eight days adter Johnson's stunning annoucement,

the siege at Khe Sanh,

the final remaining batlle of the Tet Offensive,

afficially ends.

The Air Force's relentless bombing

succeeded in finally forcing the NVA to pull back,

and eventually openend the way for soldiers

from the first air cavalry to break through to the base.

The 77 day long battle

is the longest ever fought by US troops during the Vietnam War,

and one of the costliest.

Of the 6.000 americans at Khe Sanh,

274 have been killed and another 2.500 wounded.

Of the estimated 20.000 NVA

who originally encircled the base, 12.000 are dead.

I suppose part of me is still in shock.

I thought for sure I was gonna die up on that hill...

but somehow, we held off the attack.

Medical Corpsman Raymond Torres

sufferes shrapnel wound to his face, torso and legs.

They always say: "No marine left behind",

and they really mean it.

Those marines hauled my ass to safety.

They were there for me when I was so hurt,

I couldn't do a thing for them.

I suppose that's the hardest part of it all,

the fact hat I lived when so many of them died.

I was the medic.

I was the guy that was supposed to take care of them.

They weren's supposed to take care of me.

It's just... very hard on you emotionally,

because you do everything that you can

and it's not enough, you know,

and that's always weighed on me throughout my whole life.

In their final analysis, the US military reports

that 69% of the 84.000 NVA and viet cong troops

who fought during the Tet Offensive are killed.

The VC guerillas suffer such devastating losses,

both in numbers and to their command structure,

that they are essentially wiped out

as an affective fighting unit.

Militarily, Tet is an unquestionable american victory,

but for much of the american public,

it will be the graphic images of death and destruction

that continue to resonate the loudest.

Tet has changed the war.

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