All language subtitles for Hearts.and.Minds.

When the second world war was over,
we were the one great power in the world.

The Soviets had a substantial
military machine...

But they could not touch us in power.

We had this enormous force
that had been built up.

We had the greatest fleet in the world.

We'd come through the
war economically sound.

And I think that, in addition to feeling
a sense of responsibility...

We also began to feel...

The-the sense of a world power...

That possibly we could control
the future of the world.

J“ dressed up to win
we're dressed up to win j“

j“ dressed up for victory j“

j“ we are just beginning,
and we won't stop winning j“

j“ till the world is free j“

j“ this time,
we will all make certain j“

j“ that this time is the last time j“

j“ this time,
we will not say curtains j“

j“ till we bring it down
in their own hometown j“

j“ for this time,
we are out to finish j“

j“ the job we started then j“

j“ clean it up for all times
this time j“

j“ 80 we won't have to do it again j“j“

our vision of progress is not
limited to our own country.

We extend it to all the
peoples of the world.

M/iita/y action in indooh/na.

French regulars land along the coast in
search of ro ving communist bands.

For France, it represents
a tremendous sacrifice...

Of manpo wer and financial resources.

I/I/ithout American help,
the burden would be too great.

I do not expect that there is going
to be a communist victory in indochina.

I affirm that senator — secretary Dulles...

Offered me two atomic bombs.

Two, uh...

Neither one. Neither three.

Two.

If indochina goes...

Several things happen right away.

The ca peninsula...

The last little bit of end
hanging on down there...

Would be scarcely defensible.

The tin and the tungsten...

That we so greatly value
from that area would cease coming.

We don't see the end of the tunnel,
but, uh, I must say...

I don't think it's darker
than it was a year ago.

In some ways lighter. Yes?

So we must be ready to fight in Vietnam...

But the ultimate victory
will depend upon the hearts...

And the minds of the people
who actually live out there.

Throughout the war in Vietnam...

The United States has exercised
a degree of restraint...

Unprecedented in the annals of war.

J“j“

J“j“

There was just one thing...

One small word,
that enabled myself and my buddies...

To stay alive those many years.

That one thing was faith...

Faith in my family,
my god and my country.

I remembered high school.
I remembered playing sports there.

And I can remember my coach saying...

“When the going gets tough,
the tough get going.

Because winners never quit,
and quitters never win.”

Why did I go to Vietnam?

I will have to go back to 1965
when I was 22 years old.

At that time,
communism was once again...

Trying to muscle its
way into a free country.

I know of no communist analysis
or noncommunist analysis...

That would assert that there's a majority
of people in that country...

That want to be communist.

Why do they need us then?

Because they were subjected to, uh...

Military attack from outside.

Uh, the, uh...

Are you really asking me
this goddamn silly question?

- You really want me to go into this, Mr. Davis?
- Yes.

I mean, you know, we really
got to go back to...

You want me to just go back to
the origins of this thing then?

All right, I'll do it...

But this is pretty pedestrian stuff,
I must say...

At this late stage of the game.

Honestly, it is.

I'll do it. All right.

- There's a lot of disagreement about the origins.
- No, there's not.

No, there's not. There's no doubt.

All right, well, now I'll answer your
question, you can throw away that tape.

Uh, I didn't really expect to have to go
back to this kind of sophomoric stuff...

But I'll do it.

The problem, uh, began, uh...

In its present phase, after the sputnik...

The launch of the sputnik in 1957, October.

This opened a phase
of not well-coordinated...

But universally optimistic
and hopeful communist enterprise...

In many parts of the world.

Renewed hostile actions...

Against United States ships
on the high seas in the Gulf of tonkin...

Have today required me to order
the military forces of the United States...

To take action in reply.

We always hesitate in public
to use the dirty word “lies.”

But a lie is a lie.

I mean, it's a misrepresentation of fact.

And it's supposed to be a criminal act...

If it's done under oath.

Mr. Johnson didn't say it under oath.
He just said it.

We don't usually have
the president under oath.

There are those who ask
why this responsibility should be ours.

The answer, I think, is simple.

There is no one else who can do the job.

If necessary, I am ready to go back.

We all must be ready.

You must have the political, economic
and philosophical courage to send me...

Or do whatever you think is necessary.

I must be ready to go.

If I did well...

It is only because linden did well
in bringing me up...

And making me into a man.

If I served the military well...

It is only because the military trained me
to be a good officer.

If I am a good American...

It is only because america brought me up...

To be a good American.

In three, two, one...

It was a sight to touch
the heart of the most callous in the crowd

lieutenant George coker was back in linden,
New Jersey — the hero of the day.

3, 000 people turned out to greet him.

Schools were closed
and streets were blocked...

As the young former prisoner of war...

Walked on a red carpet
to the steps of city hall

Mike is still open. Two, one...

I'm from Duncan, Oklahoma,
which is about 90 miles south of here.

And, uh, and I lived
around several places...

Uh, Missouri, Chicago,
Detroit, uh, Germany...

By the time I got out of high school,
I was very conservative.

We have, in Duncan high school —
We bought...

The high school had bought a, uh...

Excuse me —
A John birch package on communism.

So we studied communism
via the John birch society.

And with the big red map with the
flowing out of the disease and so forth...

And-and learned how Karl Marx
was a very cruel man...

And used to, uh,
make his family suffer and so forth.

Uh, so when I got out of high school...

I thought basically that, um...

Teddy Roosevelt's what
this country needed...

And f.D.R. Had kind of sold us
down the drain to the commies.

The communist conspiracy is a deliberate...

And predictable plan of action
to subvert the world.

Mos/nee, Wisconsin,
in a unique may day object lesson...

Shows what could happen here
if communism took over.

The unyielding chief of police
is liquidated...

By American legionnaires
portrayrng red tnggermen.

A grrm demonstration
of what sub version could lead to...

Mos/nee's may day serves as a sharp warning
to all Democratic communities.

It's an international, criminal conspiracy.

Before we know it, we're gonna
turn our backs around someday...

The whole United States, we're gonna turn
around and see nothing but v.C.

Or not v.C., but communism. We're gonna
turn around and say, “what happened?”

People are just walking in
with riots, drugs — you name it.

They're tearing us
down from the inside out.

In 1917, when the communists overthrew
the Russian government...

There was one communist...

For every 2,277 persons in Russia.

In the United States today,
there is one communist...

For every 1,814 persons in this country.

If we lose indochina, Mr. Jenkins...

We will lose the pacific...

And we'll be an island in a communist sea.

- Go ahead. How does it go?
- — oh, mother.

I swear that I am not now or ever have been
a member of the communist party.

Feel better?

Of course, when it gets
down to communism, uh...

I've been fighting communism
since 1951 actually.

I always looked at, you know,
the American fighting man...

As being, uh, you know,
like a warrior of sorts...

You know, due to my background,
the way my mother brought me up.

She always spoke
of the warrior societies of our tribe...

And of the different tribes around us...

And how that these
men always had to work...

To gain the respect
of the people around them...

And how they had to live,
uh, more or less a life...

Dictated to them by the society
that they belonged to...

And it was extremely hard.

I looked around, and from listening
to my uncles and a lot of my relations...

They had been in the marine corps —
And they always told me...

That the marine corps was the hardest
service to cope with physically and mentally.

And I naturally wanted to be
the best at that time...

And I looked at the marine corps
as being the elite of the elite...

The warrior society in the United States.

Now it might sound
cliché-ish to say that...

“My country, may it always be right.

But right or wrong — my country.”

But that's how I felt back in '67.

And during my senior year...

I said I've got an obligation to serve.

I've got to fulfill it.

There's no reason physically
why I would be exempted...

And, therefore, I'm gonna enlist.

- What you got there?
- Picture.

Picture? How much picture?

- — 3,000?
- I go beaucoup hungry. I sell you 3,000.

Beaucoup money.
You go here, too much money.

I buy watch for 1,500.

No, you sell to me?
You lie. You lie, you die.

- You give massage? What else you give?
- Yes.

Huh?

- I buy you one beer, okay?
- You-you buy me one beer?

No, no. No money. Go home mama-San.

Please, go home mama-San.

No. Go home mama-San.

No. Go home mama-San.
Okay? No. Go home mama-San.

- You will like. — no.

Huh?

- — How much?
- 1,000.

You? Ah, it's too much.
It's beaucoup.

Yeah, for sure. No, no good.

I if you miss the train I'm on f

- I you will know that / am gone I
— no. No.

- I you can hear the whistle blow./'
- no. Go home mama-San.

./'a hundred miles I

j'lord, I'm one lord, I'm two I

j'lord, I'm three
lord, I'm fourf

./' lord, I'm five hundred miles I

I from my home I

./' five hundred miles
five hundred miles I

./' five hundred miles
five hundred miles I

./' lord, I'm five hundred miles I

I from my home if

we thought of ourselves, I think...

As trying to defeat communists.

Defeat —
Accepting a view of, uh...

The Walt rostow kind of view...

Of covert aggression of some kind.

The kind of view that enabled you
to think of the conflict...

In, really, world war ii terms.

That was an unquestioned assumption.

It had an idealistic flavor to it...

But it was the underpinning
of an imperial policy basically.

I shared the assumption, very easily...

And felt it as an idealistic one really.

We were doing something for them.

I recall that I was
in the New York area at the time...

And I stopped by to
see general MacArthur...

Who I had known for several years.

Uh, when he greeted me,
he made, uh, quite a prophetic statement.

He said, “westmoreland,
I-I see you have a new job.”

He says, “I hope you appreciate
that this new assignment...

Is filled with opportunities,
but fraught with hazards.”

And indeed, uh,
this was a prophetic statement.

It can be described much like, uh...

A — a singer doing an Aria...

You know, that's totally
into what he's doing, totally feeling it.

He knows the Aria,
and he's experiencing the Aria.

And he knows his limits, and he knows
whether he's doing it and doing it well.

Flying an aircraft can be
a great deal like that.

What's a race driver feel like?

Why does a guy want to drive in the
Indianapolis 500 and go charging around there?

I guess, perhaps, the risk of dying...

Being killed is part of it
that makes it thrilling.

I can tell when
the aircraft feels just right.

I can tell when it's about to stall.

I can tell when I can't pull
another fraction of a pound...

Or the airplane will stall,
flip out and spin on me.

If I would follow a little pathway on
something like a TV screen in front of me...

That would direct me
right, left or center...

Follow the steering,
keep the steering symbol, uh, centered.

Uh, I'd see a little attack light
when we stepped into attack.

I could pull the “commit” switch
on my stick...

And the computer took over.

A computer figured out the ballistics...

The airspeed, the slant range...

And dropped the bombs when we got to
the appropriate point...

In whichever kind of
attack we'd selected...

Whether it'd be flying straight and level
or tossing our bombs out.

So it was very much of a —
A technical expertise thing.

I was a good pilot, you know.
I had, uh...

I had a lot of pride in my ability to fly.

You're up there doing something that, uh...

Mankind has only dreamed of...

The flying, especially at night,
in an all-weather aircraft.

The a-6 is one of the few
that can really do it the way we did it.

A world war ii aviator would not even dream
of doing the things we did.

It's definitely the ultimate in aviation.

Almost everybody has
blown off firecrackers.

The thrill you get when you
see something explode, as a child...

Or even as an adult almost.

You put something in the can and watch
the can blow up or blow up in the air.

And the excitement,
the sense of excitement...

Especially if you're getting shot at,
is just incredible.

You get in there and have a real
good mission, hit your target right on...

Find out later your target
was totally destroyed.

It wasn't one of these misses or almost,
you got it. Bang — it's down.

And come back and make a night carrier
landing recovery. Uh, that's fantastic.

To say it's thrilling,
yes, it's deeply satisfying.

The planes again.

Are they American or I/ietnamese?

I don't know whose they are.

Just airplanes.

What was this here?

I used to raise prgs here, right in there.

Where was the kitchen?

The kitchen was here.
They burlt it with bricks.

This was the floor.
And this was for the heat.

What's that?

That is the bomb crater.

The bombs dropped there
and destroyed everything lhad

An older sister died ..

And / 've another older sister left.

Yes, there were just the three of us.
But then one died

and I'm supposed to live
in a house over there.

But now it's just a heap of rubble.

How old was your sister?

Se vent y-erght.

What did she die of?

Bombs.
Bombs were dropped here the other day...

And they killed her.

I am so unhappy.

My sister died, and I've got no home left.

I've mo ved m with my sister here.

I've been wounded

I can't do an ythrng for a living now
I'm old and weak.

I've got nothing to sell, nothing to do.

You really just don't have time
for personal thoughts...

When you're up there flying around
at 500, 600 miles an hour.

You might call it
an electronic war in a certain way.

I didn't have time to think
about anything else.

If you wanted to later, you might.

But it was all business.
It's, um, just strictly professionalism.

We had a job to do.
We went out, and we did it.

Never could see the people.
You never could see...

Occasionally you saw the houses
when you were bombing around a village...

Or bombing in a village.

Uh, you never heard the explosion.

You never saw any blood or any screams.
It was very clean.

You're doing a job.

You're an expert at what you do.

I was a technician.

Everything just collapsed under the bombs.

Everything just ca ved in.

It's like a bird and its nest.

The way things are
with the house in the rubble...

The bird comes home and finds no nest.

Where am / to find a place to sit
and work for something to eat?

Even a bird needs a nest
it can go back to...

Crawl into for sleep and food.

Look, the y're focusing on us now

first they bomb as much as they please.

Then they film.

We fought
against the chrnese for 72 centuries.

We fought against the French for 700 years.

And finally, when the war was lost
by the French in 7954...

At the battle of dien bien phu...

The Vietnamese were lrberated
fiom forergn oppression.

But it was at that precise moment
that the Americans came to Vietnam.

Little by little at first.
Then more and more as an invasion...

An m vasion of the American army.

500,000 of them in Vietnam.

And this war became a war of genocide.

The people of north Vietnam
and south Vietnam...

Fight only for fieedom,
rndependence and national unity.

This war is a war
against the American imperialists.

This is our war for independence.

J“j“

What we are trying to put across here
this afternoon is to get you to realize...

That these weren't mythical,
hazy people from the past.

These were very real people.

When they Rose up against
the most powerful army in the world...

They were actually putting everything
on the line that they had...

Their homes, their wealth,
their past and their future.

“We hold these truths to be self-e vident.

That all men are created equal

that they are endowed by their creator
with certain unalienable rrghts.

That among these are life,
lrberty and the pursuit of happiness. ”

And when you judge the revolution
and the problems and the success we had...

It was a two-way street.

A good many of the citizens
at the time of the revolution...

Actually stayed and
fought with the British.

It was close to being
a civil war in many areas.

You actually split many —
Many families.

Thomas Jefferson said,
“the tree of revolution is”...

Or “the tree of Liberty is...

Watered by the blood
of revolution every generation.”

And I think that's a little exaggerated...

But there's some truth to that.

The war had come to Westchester county...

But so, too, had independence
and a new responsibility

men are getting killed,
men are killing. That's the parallel.

As far as politics, are you kidding?

Oriental politics?
Don't put me on, man.

Fire!

We haven't found his weapon yet.
We're still looking for it. Over.

- You got a weapon?
- — no, sir.

He had one, man. This guy's got ammo.

I'm planning to medevac this guy.

The people who are living in the jungle...

Under the bombs, without pay,
without their families...

Are doing so because they're
fighting for independence.

Because they're fighting,
in this case, for unification...

And they're fighting for revolution.

Of course, the name for a conflict...

In which you're opposing a revolution
is “counterrevolution.”

And this is something
we never admitted to ourselves at all.

It's—it's what we were really doing.

The letters and the reports we had...

On ho chi minh's attitude back in 1946...

He wrote I think it was seven letters
to this government...

And received no reply.

The-the-the pathos, almost, the sadness...

Here's a man who felt
and believed the United States...

Would be sympathetic to his purpose...

Of gaining his independence
from a colonial power.

And then to find we —
You know, this is what he'd read.

He'd been here. He'd read our constitution
and our declaration of independence.

He thought surely the United States
would be interested.

We had testimony in the committee
that his one worry...

Was that it was so insignificant...

Vietnam was so far away and so insignificant
— we would never bother about it.

It's too small to ever
attract the attention of the United States.

He was sure in his own mind...

That if we ever put our minds
in focus upon it, we would be for him.

How different history
would have been for us and for them...

If we had felt a common interest...

In a colonial province like Vietnam...

Seeking its independence of France.

The ho chi minh of '56...

I don't think could have
got elected dogcatcher in south Vietnam.

Ho chi minh, uh, dead...

Could beat any candidate
we've ever put up in Vietnam.

You asked me about my oldest son — bing.

He was a graduate of Harvard, 1965.

And he was not a soldier in heart.

Uh, but he realized, I'm sure,
there's no question...

He realized that he was part
of a big job that had to be done...

And he was gonna do it the way
he did everything — full out.

And he went out on this mission —
Minh river...

And it was a big assault mission
bringing elements...

To this area just south
of da nang along the railroad line.

And they encountered heavy,
sustained, uh, automatic weapons fire.

And the helicopter ahead of him,
ibefieve_.

Was, uh —
Uh, destr — was shot down.

And then he went in...

And his helicopter was, uh — uh...

He was actually killed in flight.
That's what they...

And the airplane crashed,
and he and his co — he was killed.

His copilot was very badly injured.

And I think there were 12 out
of 15 or 16 of the people aboard...

Were either killed or badly hurt.

Many bombs, many cofiins.

These are for children.

800 or 900 a week.

I ha ve lost se ven children myself

Many ha ve died here.

Though it's nothing
like in the countryside.

Many more have died there.

In the countryside, there are no cofiins.

There's no money to buy them.

How did all the chrldren die?

Poison. Poison, you know

these planes keep spouting
and spraying the stuff ..

And so many people have died

it seems to destroy their intestrnes.

With this spraying and bombrng,
so many ha ve died

Each day, rrght on time,
the bomb craters appear.

Hundreds of tons are dropped each day.

And we can't talk about it.
We can't talk about it...

Because we are afiaid of the government.

Come on.

- You look nice.
- How do you feel?

What'd you do?

Uh, shaved.

I liked it better long.

So what you been doing?

In little more than a week...

I'll be going back to the military.

You what?

- Why? — well...

After what they've done to you?

Well, it's...

It's a choice between that...

Or, uh, Canada again.

Or, uh, staying underground.

Which is, uh, as you know, impossible...

- Have you been in contact with them?
- — no.

No. But I've got a lot of support.

You'll get the same deal Mike's getting.

It's going to be a different type thing.
I'm going back publicly.

- We're having ad hoc
congressional hearings. — yeah?

It's really been building up
over the past couple of months now.

And —
- am I going to be able to be there?

Of course you're going to be there.
I'm going to try to get Ronnie there too.

'Cause you know what I feel about the army.

All these people
holding their heads high...

Because they lost a son
in Vietnam or something.

I don't think that's much to be proud of.

They've lost more than they'll ever gain
for the rest of their life.

I wanted them. I wanted them.

And I remember I was sitting
at the base of the hill...

And I was on one of the tanks.

And I had an m—16,
and I had stacks of magazines.

And there were two guys, you know...

That were going through,
like, some grass — and bam!

I dinged in on one of 'em,
and I nailed him, you know.

And the aussie with me confirmed,
you know, that I dinged him.

And I felt good. And I wanted more.

And it wasn't that I wanted more...

For politics or anything like that.

No. I couldn't of cared
if they were whatever.

I just wanted them because they were
the opposition. They were the enemy.

Stinking little savages!
Wipe 'em out, I say.

Wipe 'em out.
Wipe 'em off the face of the earth!

Will we ever understand
these eastern races?

Hit me, poon soon.

You hideous yellow monster!

I wanted to go out and kill some gooks,
you know?

I—I really — I—I don't know.

I guess I had been totally brainwashed.

Because I could remember when people used
to call me “blanket ass” or “chief.”

And they still did, you know?

I think my name was, uh,
ira Hayes in boot camp.

Either ira Hayes or “squaw,” depending on
what type of mood the drill instructor was in.

But there I was, you know,
saying I want to go kill some gooks.

They were instructed
to remove the eyes of the individual...

And place them in a hole
in the middle of the back...

And that would say to the Vietnamese,
you have to understand...

Uh, that whoever did that was ubiquitous.

In other words, the eye being
the symbol of ubiquity...

Uh, or of all-present, all-powerfulness
on the part of the Saigon government.

Which is an easy message
for the local villagers to get.

In fact, the American advisers didn't have
that much of a stomach for the thing.

So they used to use CBS, uh, logos.

You know, the eye of CBS?

And they would kill the individual
and then they would leave him...

With a kind of a calling card on him.

At one point, I was invited to go along
on an airborne interrogation...

In a helicopter with the marines
northwest of da nang.

And they took along two Vietnamese.

And one was already reduced
by beatings with a rubber hose...

And some other methods
of, uh, beating and torture...

To the point where he couldn't talk,
he couldn't respond.

And as an example to the one they wanted
to question, they would say, uh...

“If you don't tell us
what we want to know...

We're gonna throw you
out of the helicopter.”

And, uh, he couldn't respond.
He didn't understand.

They were using, uh, pidgin Vietnamese,
which he didn't understand.

It was more English than Vietnamese.

They'd run him up to the helicopter—
Two hefty e.M. Were along...

And they would take him by each elbow, and
they'd run him up to the door of the helicopter.

They'd do this three or four times. And
he was reduced to whimpering and crying.

And they finally, um —
Uh, told him that this was the last run.

He still responded the same way, and
they just winged him out of the helicopter.

The second fellow immediately
started to babble.

Anything he could tell them.

Any kind of information
he could give them — for one goal.

And that was to reach
the ground alive again.

I just can't see in my mind,
like you said...

Somebody throwing somebody
out of a helicopter.

I don't — I don't believe this kind of
stuff happened. Maybe it did. I don't know.

I never saw it, put it that way.

I've seen g.I.S get mad and, uh...

Uh, rather than shoot one of these dinks...

Uh, just punch him right out,
yeah, with his hands.

Americans say
the Vietnamese are just slant-eyed savages.

The Vietnamese have 5, 000 years
of history.

We fight against the in vaders.

It is not we who are the savages.

I don't know where they are.
That's the worst thing.

They run around. They run into the sewers
in the gutters, anywhere.

They can be anywhere. Just hope
you can stay alive from day to day.

Everybodyjust wants to go back home
and go to school. That's about it.

- Have you lost any friends?
- Quite a few.

We lost one the other day.
The whole thing stinks really.

The dude in the foxhole with me,
he was dead.

And, like, here come the jets.

And everybody's, “yay, jets!
Do it to 'em.” and all this shit.

“Get these motherfuckers
off our ass.” you know.

'Cause they were diggin'
in our behind real good.

And, like, the jet came in
and, “yay, jet, get 'em.”

And you see 'em swoopin' all around.
“Yay, jet, get 'em.”

And he came over that way
and let it go, and you say, “uh-oh.”

And you could see it's a napalm canister,
because you can tell 'em.

They spin asshole over head. You know,
backwards as they're tumbling through the air.

Like a big silver dollar.

And the thing is just tumbling down.
You know it's coming right at you.

You know. And, like, wow.
The napalm hit, I grabbed this dude...

Just put him up over my head
in the hole like that.

Fuckin' napalm went down the whole line,
man. Just creamed everybody in the line.

Thirty-five dudes, man, just burnt.
Post-toasty to the bitter, you dig?

And that napalm was just drippin' on
both sides of this dude.

He's dead, you know. I'm just
holdin' him up, using him as a shield.

I just chunked this dude off of me
and just sprung out of the hole.

I didn't know which way I was going
outside of back, you dig?

And just ran through. Burned my pants off.

Spent the rest of the battle
running around with no drawers...

My stuffjust hanging
out all over the place.

You ever try to fight a battle
without any drawers on, man?

Awful sick of it.
I'll be so glad to go home.

I don't know.

It's the worst area we've been in
since I've been in Vietnam.

You think it's worth it?

Yeah. I — I don't know. They say we're
fighting for something. I don't know.

I was at a very kind
of sobering thing last night...

A memorial service for four men in the second
squadron who were killed the other day.

One of them being a medic.

And, uh, the place was just packed.

And we sang three hymns
and had a nice prayer.

I turned around and looked
at their faces, and they were...

I was just proud.
My—my, uh, feeling for america...

Just soared because of their...

The way they looked.
They looked determined...

And-and-and reverent at the same time.

But still they're a bloody
good bunch of killers.

“When you go forth to war
against your enemies...

And see horses and chariots
in an army larger than your own...

You shall not be afraid.”

Well, let's not anybody
be so naive as to think we're here...

In any way, to worship football.

Nor are we here,
as I'm sure many people believe...

To pray for a victory.

We believe in victory.

We believe it will come to the team
that's best prepared.

This is serious business
that we're involved in.

And that's religious, and god cares.

There are going to be men made tonight.

And that's religious,
and god cares about that.

We're concerned about the big game.

But we're also concerned
about the bigger game...

The biggest game of all that surrounds us —
The game of life.

May you be winners.

Winners in the big game.

But even more importantly,
winners in the biggest game of all...

Which we all play.

Let us pray.

J“j“

That's a touchdown.

Because we got our kids
geared to crack like hell.

One, two!

[Man on P.A. I Malone y, 37.

We're number one!

J“j“

You gotta tell them
they're number one, no matter what happens.

- You're number one.
- — Toyhoy.

Wow. Why don't you just say “wow”?

Say what? — toyhoy means “wow.”

- Toyhoy? What you mean? — yeah.

Like, toyhoy means,
like, wow, you know?

You should check out the hickeys
I gave this chick, man.

You gave her hickeys?

Yeah. — I can imagine. Where?

Uh, one on each side.

- It's a place where she can't hide 'em.
- — oh, really?

See, this one right
here? I gave her this one.

And this one,
this is the first one right there.

It came out kind of nasty, you know.

- — And — no can do, I know.
- Maybe he's dead.

- He's not dead. Wake him up.
- No can wakey up.

Why?

Wakey him up. He no hard.
— huh? Why he's no hard?

- Uh-huh.
- 'Cause you no wake him up.

Hey, Charles.
You getting anything out of yours?

What do you mean?

This one's, uh, starting
to go kind of sour on me, you know? Uh...

- — Well, keep her going, man.
- Huh?

Keep her going.

I'm trying to. — well, try.

You know what it is
about these chicks down here...

You know, like, they're, uh...

Well, what would you want to do...

Except for, you know,
have a ball with them.

- And, uh — right?
- Right.

You're number one.

This one's got a set of knockers, man.

This one does, too,
but she won't take her goddamn bra off.

Take it off for her.

Take it off for her?

- That's the name of the game.
- Here, you don't want this.

I know. I number one.

- Hey. Hey, Charles. Charles.
- What?

Yeah? It's about time.

Ah, you don't be mad at me,
okay?

It took you long enough, you know that?

- Oh, yeah. Check it out, baby.
- Check it out later, man.

Check it out later? Mmm!

You know, if my chick at home
could see this now, man, she'd flip.

One more. Yeah, this man here.

- Where does it lead to?
- He says it goes back on either side.

Hurry up down that tunnel.

Just make a quick check and let's go.

Okay, well, hurry it up
and check it out. Quickly.

Some people enjoy it, some don't.

Some just go out and do it as a job.

It's a daily grind.

What is it for you?
— I enjoy it.

Now I know that he will have a very
important message for each one of us...

So I want you all
to listen very attentively...

To what he has to say to you.

- Lieutenant coker.
- If you ever have to go to a war...

And unfortunately, someday you probably
will have to fight a war...

You'll find out that life
becomes very simple.

Because the only thing
you're concerned about is living and dying.

Everything else is unimportant...

Because suddenly your life is at stake.

And that's what it's like to be
when you become a prisoner...

Particularly if it's a prisoner of war.

Because the thing that got us through
were the things that we learned...

Before we were 10 years old.

I'd like to open up to questions now.

Just raise your hand or yell it out. You can
ask any question you want about anything.

I'll do the best I can to answer them.

How did you feel when
the Vietnam war was over?

How did I feel when the war was over?

I felt real good. Real good.

It was a long war
and a very difficult war to understand.

But the reason we went there
was to win this war.

I volunteered to go.
I would go again if! Had to.

And we wanted to win.
That was our number one ambition.

That's what we really wanted,
was to win this war.

And it took us a long time.
So when it's finally over...

When we knew that we had won,
we felt great.

We really felt great.

What did Vietnam look like?
— what did Vietnam look like.

Well, if it wasn't for the people,
it was very pretty.

Uh, the people over there
are very backward and very primitive.

And they just make a mess
out of everything.

How did you — how did you, um...

What do you feel
about the people that, um...

Went and burned their draft cards
and went into Canada?

We don't agree with them.
I think these people were legally wrong.

I think sometimes they were cowards.

If they wanted to leave and go to Canada,
that's okay.

But they can't come back, though,
because they have disagreed.

They say, “we don't like your country.
We don't like your people.”

They're saying that to you and me.
“I don't like you, so I'm leaving.”

Well, fine, that's okay.
There's no reason to hate a guy for that.

'Cause that's also his right,
but he can't come back.

Instead of helping and aiding
the Vietnamese people...

I saw that we were party to their
deliberate and systematic destruction.

The Vietnamese were considered, all
considered, less than humans, inferiors.

H h
we called them “gooks, slopes.”

Their lives weren't worth anything to us
because we'd been taught to believe...

That they were all fanatical
and that they were all v.C...

Or v.C. Sympathizers, even the children.

Many of us, however,
began to understand...

Through our personal
experiences in Vietnam...

The depth of the lies
and deceptions practiced upon us...

And the American people
by our country's leaders.

It was they who trained us
to kill without question...

And to hate our enemy —
The Vietnamese.

They concocted such phrases
as “kill ratios,” “search and destroy”...

“Free fire zones,”
“secure areas,” and so on...

To mask the reality
of their combat policy in Vietnam.

I make no apology for
this act of resistance.

I could do nothing else at the time.

But underground life
has become intolerable to me.

So I'm here today to draw attention
to the true facts concerning my case...

And the cases of tens
of thousands just like me.

We are not criminals
to be hunted and imprisoned.

Over a half million of us
have deserted the military since 1965.

Most of us have already
returned to the military...

To be punished with jail
and bad discharges...

That will be carried around
for the rest of our lives.

And it is a supreme irony
to be prosecuted by the very same men...

Who planned and executed
a genocidal war in indochina.

Now, inside this hearing room...

Eddie sowders has surrendered himself.

Urged on, he says,
by a hand-to-mouth underground existence...

That still nags at many
of his fellow deserters...

Who continue to look over their shoulders.

Paul udell, nbc news, Washington.

- How was your sound?
- —One more time.

Let me respectfully
tell the American people...

That this is their
dirtiest and longest war.

The Vietnamese fight only in self-defense.

Ultrmately, the
Americans will see the fight.

If not, they will defeat themselves.

You know, Vietnam, uh,
reminded me of a — of a child...

The developing of a child.

The laws of nature control
the development of this child.

A child has to sit up before it crawls.

It has to crawl before it walks.

It has to walk before it runs.

No matter how
many decades america fights...

It wrl/ ne ver conquer I/ietnam — ne ver.

I'm tel/rng you so that you wrl/ go back
and repeat it to president Nixon.

Over here, as long as there is rice to eat,
we'll keep fighting.

And if the rice runs out,
then we'll plow the fields and fight again.

I know very little about it
over there, I'll tell ya.

And the less I know,
the better off I'll be.

It has not affected me a whole lot.

I mean, the American —
The way of life is still here.

And if you work for it,
it's there for you.

We're taught that we're
to obey our government...

And I would have to go
if I was instructed to.

Once in a while, I think about it...

But I like to think about the things
that are happening right now to me.

I don't it's affected mine at all.

I don't even know who we're fighting
for over there, to be real honest with you.

I think we're fighting
for the north Vietnamese, ain't we?

Lfied fiom dau
tieng to go live in suoi dua.

Then / was allowed to go back...

And / went back and stayed in Ben chua.

Whrle / was in Ben chua,
trouble broke out again.

Sol was taken up to c0 tach.

I was picked up again
and sent to Ben chua...

To be lumped together with the others.

My house burned down whrle / was away

once more, / got sent to c0 tach.

I've fied five, six,
at least seven times already.

The lives of m y countrymen
are worth no more than that of a fly.

You take it and SWAT it dead...

Just like that.

Ladies, let me tell you.

There once were some women
amusing themselves...

And one pushed the other onto a table.

The lady's falsies broke the table in two.

If a table breaks,
think of what would happen to a man's face.

Watch
it. They're filmrng. Don't make jokes.

People in america
wrl/ think we 're ridiculous.

We have about 15 companies now...

Including an insurance company
and a tractor company.

We are in the hotel business,
in the travel agency business.

We are the exclusive dealer
for Ford in the country, Ford cars.

Oh, many, many other things...

Like, uh, an oil company in the forming.

We, uh, have a bottling company.
In other words, uh, we greatly...

We greatly believe
in the future of this country...

And, uh, we think there's
a great future for Vietnam.

And, uh, we think
that Vietnam will be liveable...

Will not go communist...

Because otherwise,
all these companies will go to waste.

And the way we work is
we take a calculated risk.

If we don't lose south Vietnam
within the next three to five years...

Then nobody can catch up with us.

I'm a Johnny-come-lately
as far as war profiteering is concerned.

Uh, the reason why I...

Uh, organized this group of companies...

Is because when I,
you know, was in Paris...

I saw that peace was coming,
whether we liked it or not.

Therefore, I got home
in order to prepare for peace.

All these companies have been organized
in order to prepare for peace...

And prepare for the economic takeoff
that will come with peace.

Like we have the infrastructure of hotels,
of travel agencies and things like that.

But, of course, there are no tourists
in Vietnam now. But there will be.

And, uh, we are getting ready
for that sort of thing.

Does it feel comfortable?

F there's a star-spangled bannerf

./' wa vrng somewhere I

- It was worth the trouble, right?
- F in a distant land I

I so far across the sea f

./' it's wa vrng for the ones I

f who fought and died there I

./'and for those
who only wanted to be fiee f

I only uncle Sam's
great heroes f

I get to go there I

- stand up.
- I now don't say that it's not rrght f

j“ for there to be I

Keep it flat.
Just like you do with your good leg.

- Now try to walk.
- F 'cause it's wa vrng there I

- j“ for you and for me if
— not high enough?

Well, it really isn't that much.
We were just walking and...

We were walking on a patrol
and, uh, we ran into an ambush.

About six, seven guys really got hurt.

Ran into a battalion ambush,
they said it was.

And it was supposed to be one
of the ambushes of tet season...

One of the biggest.

And we called in two or three medevacs...

And they got hit.

So, finally, the last one
came in and got us out.

And from that, I never saw any
of the other guys I was with...

Except for one or two.

And that was about it.

Most of the guys that I keep in touch with
are guys in the hospital.

They usually have a reunion once a year.

That's about it.
There's really not that much to talk about.

And here we are
for one thing that we said...

And I don't give a shit now.

I don't care about the football game now.

I don't care about anything now.

The one thing that we wanna
show these bastards was masillon pride...

Is that we come down and show 'em
a great masillon effort.

And what the piss you doing? What are ya
doing? Get going! Goddamn it, Tony!

Don't let 'em beat us!
Don't let 'em beat us!

Let's go! Show 'em masillon pride.

- Come on!
- Go!

Go, go, go, go!

Uh-huh. It hurts.

Get him! Get him!

J“ defense, defense j“

j“ defense, defense, defense j“j“

make no mistake about it.

I don't want a man in here...

To go back home thinking otherwise.

We are going to win.

Go, motherfucker! Go!

Since the lunar new year...

The I/ietcong and north Vietnamese
ha ve pro ved they are capable...

Of bold and rmpressive military mo ves...

That Americans here
ne ver dreamed could be achie ved

whether the I/ietcong can sustain
this onslaught for long remains to be seen.

But whate ver turn this war now takes...

The capture of the us. Embassy
rn sargon for seven hours...

Will be a story to rally
and rnspire the I/ietcong.

Don north, abc news,
at the us. Embassy in sargon.

I know that, as was the case in the
battle of the bulge in world war ii...

That after the enemy exposed himself,
we would defeat him.

He would be weakened,
and we could follow that up.

Through the use of, uh...

The maximum military force
that we could bring to bear on him...

Through the bombing,
through the mining of the harbors...

Through the cutting
of his lines of communication...

By moving in and cleaning out
his sanctuaries...

The enemy would have no choice...

But to come to some accommodation.

In the beginning of 1968...

General westmoreland
needed 206,000 more troops.

We met hour after hour
after hour in the Pentagon.

And I started in and asked
the joint chiefs of staff...

“How long do you think
that we'll still be in the war?”

None of them knew.

“Uh, do you think that the
206,000 men will be enough?”

Nobody knew.

“Well, uh, might we have to send more men?”
“well, possibly.”

“Well, in six months?”
“we don't know.”

“A year? Eighteen months?”
I couldn't get answers to these questions.

By the end of that
four-day interrogation...

I was getting down — by the end of it —
Into very serious questions...

Like, “do any of you men,
as you look at it objectively...

Do you find any diminution
in the will of the enemy to fight?”

Well, they said,
“no, we guess we don't.”

“Are they sending the same number
of men down through the ho chi minh trail?”

“Well, yes, and even
they might be a little more.”

“And how about our bombing?
We've placed great reliance on our bombing.

Is our bombing stopping them?”
“no.”

“Well, what is the amount of attrition
that our bombing's causing?”

“Well, maybe 10 to 15 percent.”

So I remember asking one question.

“If a north Vietnamese field commander
in south Vietnam needed a thousand men”...

They said, “yes.”

“If he asked for, say, 1,200 men...

A thousand would get through?”
“well, that's right.”

“Then he'd have the thousand that he
really 5! It needed. Well, yes. That's so.”

Well, this type of interrogation...

Finally, by the end of four or five days...

I must say that my thinking...

Had undergone a very
substantial revolution.

J“ all we are saying j“

j“ ls give peace a chance j“

j“ all we are saying j“

j“ ls give peace a chance j“

Come on, everybody!

J“ all we are saying j“

j“ ls give peace a chance j“j“

Power to the people! Stop the war!

Power to the people! Stop the war!

As long as the American president...

Is commander and chief ..

Of the brggest war machine
in human history...

With bases on every cont/nent...

We are gorng to get into trouble.

Our enemy is the growrng
mrlitan'zation of American life.

Our enemy is American imperialism.

And there is an awakening.

The enemy was on the ropes
after the tet offensive was over.

And it's like two boxers in the ring.

One boxer has the other one on the ropes...

But the man who is
about to be the Victor...

Has his second throw the towel in.

Accordingly...

I shall not seek...

And I will not accept...

The nomination of my party
for another term as your president.

I don't think we helped 'em one bit.

All I think we've done
is destroyed their country, laid it waste.

No. I don't think we helped 'em.

As fellow human beings, I don't
think they should be there doing that.

Certainly a mature person can say they
made a mistake. Why can't a government?

You let us all go off to war and said,
“yay, team.” you know. “Fight in Vietnam”...

And all this kinda shit
in 1965 through 1968.

Now 1968 comes along and “boo,
team. Come on home,” and all this shit.

“And don't say nothin' about it,
'cause we don't want to hear about it...

'Cause it's upsetting around dinnertime.”

Well, goddamn.
It upset me for a whole goddamn year.

It upset a lot of people to the point where
they're fuckin' dead, you know?

All this shit. You don't wanna hear
about it? I'll tell you about it every day.

Make you sit out
and puke on your dinner, you dig?

Because you got me over there,
and now you done brought me back here...

And you wanna forget it so somebody else
can go do it somewhere else.

Hell, no. Uh—uh. You gonna hear it all.

Every day as long as you live, because, hey,
it's gonna be with me as long as I live.

When I get up in the morning, when John gets
up, when a lot of dudes sitting here get up...

Man, their gut hurts
because they got shot there.

I gotta put on an arm and a leg,
'cause it ain't there no more, you dig?

Now, there's my man. He's got a hole in
his stomach. He can't work right, you know?

You do something about that.
You know, make that all disappear, you dig?

Make it all go away with the 6:00 news.

Turn it off or switch it to another channel
and all that shit. Uh-uh.

The hell with that, you dig?
It's here and it's for real.

And it's gonna happen again unless
these folks just get up off their ass...

And realize it has happened.

Power to the people!

Power to the people!

The country is ready to pass
a reasoned judgment on this war.

The people have judged, I think,
that it's unwise and immoral...

And not in the national interest
of this country...

And that, therefore,
it must be brought to an end.

For 20 years, first the French,
and then the United States...

Had been predicting victory in Vietnam.

In 1961 and in 1962...

As well as 1966 and 1967...

We have been told
that the tide is turning...

There is a light at the
end of the tunnel...

We can soon bring our troops home...

Victory is near, the enemy is tiring.

Once, in 1962...

I participated in such a prediction myself.

But for 20 years, we have been wrong.

The history of conflict among nations...

Does not record another such lengthy
and consistent chronicle of error...

As we have shown in Vietnam.

I had just given the policy line...

Stayed up all night
with Adam walinsky and Peter edelman...

Helping on a speech for Robert Kennedy...

Which proved to be his last speech given
in San Francisco here...

To a businessman's luncheon on Vietnam.

Uh, I went up with some
corrections last thing in the morning...

And shook hands with him
in his bathrobe as he stood there.

And then he came down from the
ambassador hotel and got into a car.

We were struck with how easy
it was to get onto that floor...

And approach him at that point.

At the conference on lessons of Vietnam...

Of course, in the morning I learned
that Robert Kennedy had died.

Well...

So...

So, uh...

Well, that was a way
for a lot of people to feel powerless.

So, um...

It began to look as though there was no way
to change this country.

We'd been going down this road
for so many years...

And I had felt so strongly before
that this was the right policy...

That it was difficult for me to change.

I know now that the domino theory
was a false theory.

I know now that we should not
have become involved.

As far as I'm concerned today...

I have no hesitancy whatsoever...

In saying
I could not have been more wrong...

In my attitude toward Vietnam.

Ground combat...

Vietnamese cross of gallantry
with silver star...

Gallantry in ground combat...

Four air medals, an “I was there” ribbon.

And I got a colonel that's flying upstairs,
and he's gettin' down on me...

And he's saying, “take the hill,
take the hill, take the hill.”

So I got together with
the tank commander...

And I said,
“look, let's take three tanks...

And we'll walk the a.R.V.N.
Up the hill, you know?

And we'll lay down
a base of fire as we're going.”

He said, “okay.” I got with the a.R.V.N.
And I said, “let's fly.”

So I popped up behind the lead tank...

And, uh, started to go up the hill.

And everything was cool,
until we started taking fire.

And, uh, the a.R.V.N. Started to split.

And that's when I got it.

I said, “oh, my god. I'm hit.”

I couldn't believe it, you know?
“I can't believe it. I'm really hit.”

And my first, first thought...

Was Kay, my girl, you know?

It's gonna sound stupid...

But I'm —
But my thought was “she'll kill me.”

You know, here I was dying, and I
was worried that she was gonna kill me.

But then I realized that I didn't have
to worry because I was dying.

It's all over.
And for what, you know?

My last —
My last conscious thought...

Was “I can't believe it. I'm dying.

On this shitty piece
of ground, I'm dying...

And I can't fuckin' believe it.”

Bobby was a surfer, he was a wrestler...

He was a long-distance runner.

We danced.
He was active. Active, active.

Our whole life was active.

And now they're telling me
that he's paralyzed.

He couldn't believe it,
and I couldn't believe it. Right now...

Bobby's not a boyfriend.
He's not a husband. He's not a brother.

It-it's very...

It's very hard.

What hurts the most...

And this is a purely
personal thing, you know?

Right, wrong or indifferent,
that's how I feel.

When I was in the marine corps...

I remember I was down in the
marine corps barracks in Washington...

They call it 8th & I.

And they had the marine corps
drill team there.

And I was standing at attention
in my uniform...

And they were playing
the “marine corps hymn.”

And then they played
the “star-spangled banner.”

And I actually started to cry.

I cried because I was so proud
to be an American, you know?

And I was so proud to be a marine...

And in uniform,
standing there at attention.

That-that represented so much to me...

In the way of life and...

That's gone, you know?

And that hurt. That hurts.

That's what I'm bitter about.

F Johnny, get your gun,
get your gun, get your gun I

I take it on the run,
on the run, on the run I

I hear them cal/rng you and me I

.f' every son of Liberty f

f over there, 0 ver there I

f send the word
send the word over there I

I that the yanks are coming,
the yanks are coming I

f the drums rum-tumming everywhere I

I so prepare, say a prayer I

f send the word
send the word to be ware f

I we'll be over
we 're comrng over./'

./'and we won't come back
till it's 0 ver 0 ver there I

Ha! Didn't think we were here,
did you, you dirty rotten rats!

We're still here! We'll always be here!

I so prepare, say a prayer I

f send the word
send the word to be ware f

I we'll be over
we 're comrng over./'

./'and we won't come back
till it's 0 ver 0 ver there if

Truman lied from 1950 on...

On the nature and purposes
of the French involvement...

The colonial reconquest of Vietnam...

That we were financing and encouraging.

Eisenhower lied about the reasons for...

And the nature
of our involvement with diem...

And the fact
that he was in power, essentially...

Because of American support,
American money...

And for no other reason.

Kennedy lied about...

The type of involvement
we were doing there...

Our own combat involvement...

And about the recommendations that were
being made to him for greater involvement.

President Kennedy lied about the degree of
our participation in the overthrow of diem.

The, um — Johnson, of course,
lied and lied and lied...

About our provocations
against the north Vietnamese...

Prior to and after
the tonkin Gulf incidents...

About the plans
for bombing north Vietnam...

And the nature of the buildup...

Of American troops in Vietnam.

Nixon, as we now know...

Misled and lied to the American public...

For the first months of his office in terms
of our bombing of Cambodia...

And of Laos, ground operations in Laos...

The reasons for our invasion
of Cambodia and of Laos...

And the prospects
for the mining of haiphong...

That finally came about in 1972...

But was envisioned as early as 1969.

The American public
was lied to month by month...

By each of these five administrations.

As I say, it's a tribute
to the American public...

That their leaders perceived
that they had to be lied to.

It's no tribute to us...

That it was so easy to fool the public.

We have adopted a plan...

Which we have worked out in cooperation
with the south Vietnamese...

For the complete withdrawal
of all us. Combat ground forces...

And their replacement
by south Vietnamese forces...

On an orderly, scheduled timetable.

This withdrawal will be made from strength
and not from weakness.

As south Vietnamese forces
become stronger...

The rate of American withdrawal
can become greater.

Congratulations to battalion 332...

On your recent victories
o ver the communists.

We ask ourselves, “when will peace come?”

And / tell you, if you chase
the communists back to the north...

There won't be any war in this Hamlet.

Help rebuild the houses.

Help the people.

Rid the Hamlet of all I/ c...

So there wrl/ be no more
sufferrng and destruction...

For ourselves and our compatriots.

Oh, my friend.

- How you doing? Good to see you again.
- You just get back?

- Just got back. Yeah. How you doing, men?
- Very good to see you.

How you doing?
Trung, good seeing you.

- Good to see you, sir.
- — how you doing? Fine.

Just came in this afternoon, sir.
Been very quiet?

- Except last time, when the, uh —
- When the rockets went off?

Yeah.

Very nice.
I read about it in stars and strrpes.

Mmm. Mm—hmm.

That's one of our success stories here,
this battalion is.

We had a real, uh —
A lot of trouble with it.

We just gave, uh, four bronze stars...

And five arcoms
with “v” device this week...

To the battalion commander and
three of his officers and five soldiers.

And we have six n—pac awards...

Pending for last
Saturday night's action...

Where we killed six v.C.
And captured nine weapons.

Good grief.

He had been the recon company
commander of the, uh, 263rd...

And he'd done a real tremendous job
just as recon company commander.

And then they moved him over here.

In a 10-day period or maybe a
two-week period, he completely reversed it.

They had the battalion here under a
very poor major — commanding officer.

They had it to the point
where the company commanders...

Were throwing down their weapons
and crying — or at least one of them did.

Ten days later,
they had a big contact with the v.C...

And in three days killed 42,
lost none of their own.

He does it with a fairly limited staff.

Although some of his people,
like that young major there, major yuk...

Tremendous guy.

He just heard his name over there.
Hey.

It's no surprise
that in a very poor country...

You can find people
who will wear foreign uniforms.

What has always surprised us, what we've
never been willing to predict or understand...

Is that the Vietnamese
communist leadership...

Can find enough people
to live in the tunnels...

Fight for nothing wearing ragged shorts...

Year after year under the American bombs.

A war in which one side
is entirely financed...

And equipped and supported by foreigners...

Is not a civil war.

The only foreigners in that country...

Were the foreigners we financed
in the first part of the war...

And the foreigners we were
in the second half of the war.

Basically, we didn't want to acknowledge...

The scale of our involvement there.

We didn't want to realize
that it was our war...

Because that would have been
to say that every casualty on both sides...

Was a casualty caused by our policy.

The question used to be
“might it be possible...

That we were on the wrong side
in the Vietnamese war?”

We weren't on the wrong side.

We are the wrong side.

You have exemplified,
in your corner of the world...

Patriotism of the highest order.

You have brought to your great task
of organizing your country...

The greatest of courage,
the greatest of statesmanship.

Lhad two possrbi/ities.

Either/ could submit
to washrngton's politics...

Every morning, “yes, sir.”

Or/ would have to res/gn.

You can be sure that as a soldier
I only submit very rarely

and, in fact, never.

I chose the second solution,
that of res/gning.

On the Vietnamese side,
I would say the most encouraging factor...

Is the promise offered
by general khanh's government.

Through the means of a security service...

In the president's ofiice...

We taped all communications
with the outside.

All telephone communications.

And fortunately, among these
taped telephone communications...

Lstrl/ have the tape
fiom which we can hear precisely...

General Taylor...

Statrng precisely that he wants me,
general khanh...

To leave I/ietnam.

Can you let us hear it?

Certarnly. Lhope it works.

- General Taylor.
- Uh, this is general khanh speaking.

How are you? Glad to hear you.

Uh, uh, may / speak rn French?

Thank you.

Mr. President and ladies and gentlemen...

As ourjoint communique indicates...

President thieu and I have
had very constructive talks...

With regard to how we shall work together
in the years ahead...

Working for the program of peace...

Which we now hope will all
be the wave of the future...

Not only for the republic of Vietnam...

But for all of the countries in indochina.

What kind of freedom
could you preserve here...

When you put so many
of our compatriots into prison...

Without any charge,
without any reason why?

Just because you want us
to have freedom?

What kind of freedom could you give us?

We know that we only have freedom
if we fight for it.

But here we fight for what?

We fight for prisons?

People can be arrested
at any moment by any organization.

And then tortured in inhuman ways
in all the prisons...

And, above all, in police stations.

And then imprisoned
for years and years without trial.

Their only crime is lo vrng their country.

They had the courage to tell the truth.

They asked for the liberation
of political prisoners.

They asked for an end to the war.

They asked for peace,
for national reconciliation.

And all that is considered a crime
by the government of thieu.

I was arrested in 7968.

I was at home
when the security police came.

They took me to headquarters
for a few questions...

And kept me.

You can't imagrne how bad/y/ was beaten.

Mostly on the head
my eyes are bad now

after/ was arrested,
I was beaten so badly...

Even now / sometrmes have headaches...

And nosebleeds and ear-bleeds.

In those days, all we were
gettrng to eat was rotten fish...

So we asked for some vegetables.

But when we complained,
we were beaten and chained...

And lime powder was thrown on us.

And they poured water on us,
and we had nowhere to run.

Our cells were this brg...

And we could do nothing
but stand where we were...

And get the water
and the lime all 0 ver us.

Some of us lost our teeth and our hair.

And when the lime got wet,
it just boiled up, bubbling all over us.

Our hair fell out and our skin
became covered with sores.

They said that if we were innocent...

They would beat us untrl we were guilty...

And that if we were guilty...

They would beat us untrl we repent.

In a country where the people
don't hold national sovereignty...

In a country where the government...

Has proven itself
to be the enemy of the people...

The prisoners are the patriots.

And no matter how badly treated we are...

Still we are proud...

Because at least we are free,
instead of enslaved...

As so many of the so-called
government officials.

And so, you see...

When a Vietnamese works
for peace and for Liberty ..

He is considered a communist.

It is an honor for the communists
to have to work for peace and justice.

So it is the government which
gives validity to being a communist...

Because they continue to say...

That the people who work
for justice and for peace are communists.

You see?

We were learning
to be good soldiers...

Back when you're three, four,
five, six years old.

That's when good ol' mom is telling you
to obey the local camp regulations.

In this case, it's the house.

And you start to learn
to respect authority.

And so, finally, lo and behold,
at 20, 22 years old...

You find yourself in service and you maybe
take that last and final step...

Where you become quite regimented...

In a military form of discipline.

Like, say that stuff isn't worth the paper
it's written on if the basis isn't there.

You need that cornerstone that goes back when
you're a kid, and who's teaching it to you...

The good old moms, women like yourselves.

It's terrifying. It's true, when you're facing
a torture session with a bunch of gooks...

It's gonna be pretty darn miserable.
No doubt about it.

You're scared. You're really petrified.

But at the other side, you have a bunch
of women back there that know...

They're telling you,
“you better do something,” you know?

That's the wrath of god, boy. You don't want
a hundred women climbing down your back.

So you figure maybe
the gooks aren't so bad.

So you press on.

In many respects,
the destiny of our country...

And more personally, the destiny of me...

Your men, your children...

Is in your hands.

If you are proud of the p.O.W.S
and personally of me...

Then you should be proud of yourselves...

Because I was what you made me to be.

As for my own view...

Uh, I thought through as best I could...

The meaning of Southeast Asia
to the United States in the 1950s...

Looking backward and looking foward...

In terms of what I know
about the dynamics of societies and so on.

And on balance —
It is an on-balance judgment...

I came to the judgment that it's
of vital interest to the United States.

I've never had any reason
to change that judgment.

And, uh, therefore, I, uh...

I do believe that what we have done
is generally right...

Although I would have preferred
to have seen a different...

More decisive military strategy.

Certainly, to me, the
day that you can say...

That a sacrifice such as that
is not worthwhile...

Is the day that you've destroyed
all your real values...

Of what is worthwhile and what isn't.

And there's no question in my mind...

That he and everybody else
that did what he did...

There's no sacrifice that is in vain.

Absolutely none. Down the line, that's
the price that you pay for freedom...

And that's the price that you pay
for the kind of stature that we have...

And it's the kind of risk you take...

To preserve the ideals that we have.

He had just a tremendous sense of humor...

And just an amazing, instinctive sense...

Of what was important and what wasn't.

I remember when I was getting ready
for our oldest daughter's wedding...

And I was upset because
something or other wasn't going well...

And he called up from pensacola
and he said, “how are things going?”

And I said, “fine, bing,
but such-and-such has happened.”

He said, “oh, mom,
don't sweat the small stuff.”

You know,
it just made all the difference.

I thought, “gee. That really
is small stuff, you know?”

And it was. Yeah.

And it made the whole thing much easier.

And, of course, I came up in a tradition
where military service was...

In world war ii, there was no question
everybody was part of it.

There was not the kind
of dissension and so forth...

That there has been
surrounding the Vietnam thing.

But I think that most
of the people of this country...

Are too busy to get involved deeply...

In, uh—uh...

On, uh, the kind of things
that the dissenters do.

In other words, I think that really
the strength of our system...

And I think it's a terrific system...

Is that you do rely on somebody
like president Nixon for leadership.

I think his team of people
with him are outstanding...

And, to me,
the leadership that he has shown...

And decisions that he has made...

Uh, really have —
They're the kind of decisions...

I would expect from the president
of this country.

And the action he has taken...

Is the action I'd expect
from the president of this country.

I think the whole executive...

Legislative and judicial system
that we have is superb.

It has worked many, many — far better
than any other system I'm aware of...

And brought us to our state of power...

And, uh, really, of
international stature...

That we have a responsibility
to stay with and to uphold.

What did your son want to become?

I suspect he would have gone
into the newspaper.

He actually had just got a job
with the New York times...

When he went into the, uh, o.C.S.

And he'd worked
for newspapers in the summer...

While he was at college.

I suppose that it's like any pain.

You don't remember
pain too well... afterwards.

J“j“

Thank you very much. Thank you very much,
Mr. President, dear people.

I'm thrilled to be here with you guys.
This is what I like — a captive audience.

It is always the custom
at a dinner at the white house...

To have a toast to the honored guest.

The difficulty tonight
is that there are so many honored guests...

That we would be drinking
all night and into the day.

Somebody just said,
“what's wrong with that?”

The most difficult decision
that I have made since being president...

Was on December the 18th of last year.

And...

And there were many occasions in that
10-day period after the decision was made...

When I wondered
whether this country really supported it.

But I can tell you this.

After having met each one
of our honored guests this evening...

And after having talked to them...

I think that all of us...

Would like to join in a round
of applause...

For the brave men
that took those b-52s in and did the job.

My erght-year-old daughter was killed

and my three-year-old son.

A son, three years old, killed.

Nixon, murderer of civrlians.

What ha ve / done to Nixon
so that he comes here to bomb my country?

My daughter died rrght here.

She was feedrng the prgs.

She was so sweet.

She is dead. The prgs are alive.

My mother and my
children took shelter here.

Here they died

the planes came fiom over there.

No targets here.

Only rice fields and houses.

Ill give you my daughter's beautiful shirt.

Take it back to the United States.

Tell them what happened here.

My daughter is dead.

She wrl/ ne ver wear the shirt again.

Throw the shirt in Nixon's face.

Tell them she was only a little schoolgirl.

J“j“

Well, the oriental...

Doesn't put the same
high price on life as does a westerner.

Life is plentiful,
life is cheap in the orient.

And, uh, as the, uh...

Philosophy of the, uh,
of the orient, uh...

Uh, expresses it, uh...

Uh, life is, uh...

Is not important.

During the missions, after the missions...

The result of what I was doing...

The result of this-this game...

This, uh, exercise
of my technical expertise...

Never really dawned on me.

That reality of the screams
or the people being blown away...

Or their homeland being destroyed...

Uh, just was not a part
of what I thought about.

Uh, we, as Americans,
have never experienced that.

We've never experienced
any kind of devastation.

When I was there, I never saw a child
that got burned by napalm.

I didn't drop napalm,
but I dropped other things just as bad.

I dropped c.B.U.S...

Which can't destroy anything.

It's meant for people.
It's an antipersonnel weapon.

We used to drop canister upon canister
of these things...

With 200 tumbling little balls in there
about this big around...

With something like
600 pellets in each ball...

That would blow out
as soon as it hit the ground...

Uh, and shred people to pieces.

They couldn't be gotten out in many cases.

The people would suffer. They would live,
but they would suffer, you know?

Then often they would die afterwards.

This would cause people
to have to take care of them, you know?

But I look at my children now...

And, uh_.

I don't know what would happen if, uh...

Uh, what I would think about
if someone napalmed them.

Do you think we've learned
anything from all this?

I think we're trying not to.

I think I'm trying not to sometimes.

I can't even cry easily.

From my, uh, my manhood image.

I think Americans have tried...

We've all tried very hard...

To escape what we've learned in Vietnam...

To not come to the logical conclusions
of what's happened there.

You know, the military does the same thing.

They don't realize that, um...

People fighting for their own freedom...

Uh, are not gonna be stopped...

By just changing your tactics...

Adding a little more
sophisticated technology over here...

Improving the tactics we used last time...

Not making quite the same mistakes.

Uh, you know, I think history operates
a little different than that.

And I think that those kind of forces
are not gonna be stopped.

I think Americans
have worked extremely hard...

Not to see, uh, the criminality...

Uh, that their officials
and their policy makers...

Uh, have exhibited.

J“j“

J“j“

J“j“

Number one! Number one!

Vets need jobs, not parades!

J“j“

We are marine cadets!

We are marine cadets!

Vets need jobs, not parades!

It's your country,
not a toilet, you bastards!

They oughta go to Cuba.
That's where they belong. Or Russia.

U.s.a. All the way!

Vets need jobs, not parades!

_

You motherfuckers!

Man, let me talk to somebody.
I was in Vietnam.

I was a platoon leader over there.

What is this? What the hell is this?

We were the ones that got shot.

You guys were over there too
with your damn cameras.

J“j“

Holy — you made my day!

Come on, smile a little bit!

Come on! Smile! Smile!

Be happy! Smile! Everything isn't bad!

Smile, people! Smile!