1 00:00:54,385 --> 00:00:57,117 KARL MARLANTES: Coming home from Vietnam 2 00:00:57,217 --> 00:01:01,018 was close to as traumatic as the war itself. 3 00:01:02,951 --> 00:01:05,918 For years, nobody talked about Vietnam. 4 00:01:09,085 --> 00:01:10,618 We were friends with a young couple 5 00:01:10,717 --> 00:01:15,419 and it was only after 12 years that the two wives were talking. 6 00:01:15,517 --> 00:01:18,885 Found out that we both had been Marines in Vietnam. 7 00:01:18,985 --> 00:01:21,486 Never said a word about it. 8 00:01:21,585 --> 00:01:23,285 Never mentioned it. 9 00:01:23,384 --> 00:01:25,451 And the whole country was like that. 10 00:01:27,051 --> 00:01:29,784 It was so divisive. 11 00:01:29,885 --> 00:01:34,818 And it's like living in a family with an alcoholic father. 12 00:01:34,918 --> 00:01:37,252 : "Shh, we don't talk about that." 13 00:01:39,717 --> 00:01:41,618 Our country did that with Vietnam. 14 00:01:41,717 --> 00:01:44,452 It's only been very recently that, I think, 15 00:01:44,551 --> 00:01:47,218 that, you know, the baby boomers are finally starting to say, 16 00:01:47,318 --> 00:01:48,585 "What happened? 17 00:01:48,684 --> 00:01:50,017 What happened?" 18 00:01:59,752 --> 00:02:01,717 HENRY KISSINGER: What we need now in this country 19 00:02:01,818 --> 00:02:06,117 is to heal the wounds and to put Vietnam behind us. 20 00:02:18,318 --> 00:02:19,585 RICHARD NIXON: The killing 21 00:02:19,684 --> 00:02:21,485 in this tragic war must stop. 22 00:02:32,152 --> 00:02:34,784 LYNDON JOHNSON: General Westmoreland's strategy 23 00:02:34,886 --> 00:02:36,552 is producing results. 24 00:02:36,652 --> 00:02:40,818 The enemy is no longer closer to victory. 25 00:02:48,152 --> 00:02:50,051 ROBERT McNAMARA: No matter how you measure it, 26 00:02:50,153 --> 00:02:53,017 we're better off than we thought we would be at this time. 27 00:02:58,452 --> 00:03:01,217 REPORTER: You have been less than candid 28 00:03:01,318 --> 00:03:04,918 as to how deeply we are involved in Vietnam. 29 00:03:05,017 --> 00:03:06,618 We have increased our assistance 30 00:03:06,717 --> 00:03:08,751 to the government, its logistics. 31 00:03:08,852 --> 00:03:11,217 We have not sent combat troops there. 32 00:03:11,319 --> 00:03:14,984 DWIGHT EISENHOWER: You have a row 33 00:03:15,085 --> 00:03:17,185 and you knock over the first one 34 00:03:17,284 --> 00:03:19,119 and the last one, certainly it will go over. 35 00:03:19,217 --> 00:03:21,386 HARRY TRUMAN: If aggression is successful 36 00:03:21,485 --> 00:03:23,952 we can expect it to spread throughout Asia and Europe 37 00:03:24,051 --> 00:03:25,252 and to this hemisphere. 38 00:03:47,353 --> 00:03:53,819 ♪ Oh where have you been, my blue-eyed son? ♪ 39 00:03:53,918 --> 00:03:58,052 ♪ And where have you been, my darling young one? ♪ 40 00:04:00,017 --> 00:04:04,353 MAX CLELAND: Viktor Frankl, who survived 41 00:04:04,452 --> 00:04:07,385 wrote a book called Man's Search for Meaning. 42 00:04:07,484 --> 00:04:09,818 DYLAN: ♪ I've walked 43 00:04:09,918 --> 00:04:12,551 CLELAND: You know, 44 00:04:12,652 --> 00:04:17,118 To survive is to find meaning in suffering." 45 00:04:17,217 --> 00:04:21,653 And for those of us who suffered because of Vietnam, 46 00:04:21,752 --> 00:04:25,985 that's been our quest ever since. 47 00:04:26,085 --> 00:04:32,618 DYLAN: ♪ And it's a hard, 48 00:04:32,717 --> 00:04:34,684 ♪ It's a hard 49 00:04:34,784 --> 00:04:39,251 ♪ It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall ♪ 50 00:04:39,352 --> 00:04:43,386 NARRATOR: America's involvement in Vietnam 51 00:04:43,484 --> 00:04:48,385 It ended, 30 years later, in failure, 52 00:04:48,484 --> 00:04:51,718 witnessed by the entire world. 53 00:04:51,818 --> 00:04:54,652 DYLAN: ♪ And what did you see, 54 00:04:54,751 --> 00:04:57,918 NARRATOR: It was begun in good faith 55 00:04:58,018 --> 00:05:00,585 out of fateful misunderstandings, 56 00:05:00,685 --> 00:05:05,118 American overconfidence, and Cold War miscalculation. 57 00:05:05,217 --> 00:05:10,551 And it was prolonged because it seemed easier to muddle through 58 00:05:10,652 --> 00:05:13,685 than admit that it had been caused by tragic decisions, 59 00:05:13,784 --> 00:05:16,819 made by five American presidents, 60 00:05:16,917 --> 00:05:19,751 belonging to both political parties. 61 00:05:19,852 --> 00:05:21,751 DYLAN: ♪ I saw a room full of men 62 00:05:21,853 --> 00:05:23,652 NARRATOR: Before the war was over, 63 00:05:23,752 --> 00:05:27,417 more than 58,000 Americans would be dead. 64 00:05:27,518 --> 00:05:32,319 At least 250,000 South Vietnamese troops died 65 00:05:32,417 --> 00:05:34,918 in the conflict, as well. 66 00:05:35,017 --> 00:05:38,952 So did over a million North Vietnamese soldiers 67 00:05:39,051 --> 00:05:40,517 and Viet Cong guerrillas. 68 00:05:40,618 --> 00:05:43,517 DYLAN: ♪ Sharp swords in the hands 69 00:05:43,618 --> 00:05:45,818 ♪ And it's a hard... 70 00:05:45,918 --> 00:05:48,952 NARRATOR: Two million civilians, 71 00:05:49,051 --> 00:05:50,918 are thought to have perished, 72 00:05:51,017 --> 00:05:54,452 as well as tens of thousands more in the neighboring states 73 00:05:54,551 --> 00:05:56,352 of Laos and Cambodia. 74 00:05:59,017 --> 00:06:03,153 For many Vietnamese, it was a brutal civil war; 75 00:06:03,252 --> 00:06:06,619 for others, the bloody climactic chapter 76 00:06:06,718 --> 00:06:10,217 in a century-old struggle for independence. 77 00:06:10,319 --> 00:06:15,385 DYLAN: ♪ And what'll you do now, 78 00:06:15,484 --> 00:06:17,818 NARRATOR: For those Americans 79 00:06:17,917 --> 00:06:20,785 and for those who fought against it back home, 80 00:06:20,885 --> 00:06:24,385 as well as for those who merely glimpsed it on the nightly news, 81 00:06:24,485 --> 00:06:28,186 the Vietnam War was a decade of agony, 82 00:06:28,284 --> 00:06:33,784 the most divisive period since the Civil War. 83 00:06:33,885 --> 00:06:38,751 Vietnam seemed to call everything into question-- 84 00:06:38,852 --> 00:06:43,285 the value of honor and gallantry; 85 00:06:43,385 --> 00:06:47,918 the qualities of cruelty and mercy; 86 00:06:48,018 --> 00:06:52,485 the candor of the American government; 87 00:06:52,585 --> 00:06:56,353 and what it means to be a patriot. 88 00:06:58,217 --> 00:07:02,784 DYLAN: ♪ Where hunger is ugly, 89 00:07:02,886 --> 00:07:05,018 NARRATOR: And those who lived through it 90 00:07:05,117 --> 00:07:08,017 have never been able to erase its memory, 91 00:07:08,117 --> 00:07:11,184 have never stopped arguing about what really happened, 92 00:07:11,284 --> 00:07:16,852 why everything went so badly wrong, who was to blame, 93 00:07:16,952 --> 00:07:19,652 and whether it was all worth it. 94 00:07:23,251 --> 00:07:25,319 BAO NINH: 95 00:08:02,986 --> 00:08:04,852 DYLAN: ♪ And it's a hard 96 00:08:04,953 --> 00:08:09,919 ♪ It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall ♪ 97 00:08:45,818 --> 00:08:49,118 BAO NINH: 98 00:08:56,684 --> 00:09:00,118 NARRATOR: The French conquest of Indochina 99 00:09:00,217 --> 00:09:05,818 on the ancient Vietnamese port of Danang in 1858. 100 00:09:05,918 --> 00:09:09,352 It took 50 years to lay claim to the whole region-- 101 00:09:09,452 --> 00:09:14,018 Laos and Cambodia, as well as the 1,200-mile-long area 102 00:09:14,118 --> 00:09:17,385 that would come to be called Vietnam. 103 00:09:20,151 --> 00:09:23,151 All of it was ruled by a French governor-general 104 00:09:23,252 --> 00:09:25,552 from his palace in Hanoi. 105 00:09:27,251 --> 00:09:30,584 The French largely lived on plantation estates, 106 00:09:30,684 --> 00:09:34,918 and in cities, like Saigon, made to look as much as possible 107 00:09:35,018 --> 00:09:37,117 like those at home. 108 00:09:38,452 --> 00:09:41,617 Most did not even bother to learn the language 109 00:09:41,717 --> 00:09:43,651 spoken by their subjects. 110 00:09:43,751 --> 00:09:47,385 Instead they installed a series of puppet emperors 111 00:09:47,486 --> 00:09:49,053 and employed a network 112 00:09:49,151 --> 00:09:52,952 of French-speaking Vietnamese officials-- mandarins-- 113 00:09:53,052 --> 00:09:55,118 willing to carry out their wishes. 114 00:09:58,517 --> 00:10:02,885 The French put their subjects to work building roads and canals, 115 00:10:02,986 --> 00:10:05,485 railroads and bridges. 116 00:10:06,818 --> 00:10:09,184 BAO NINH: 117 00:10:21,785 --> 00:10:24,485 NARRATOR: The Vietnamese people 118 00:10:24,584 --> 00:10:26,018 to French occupation, 119 00:10:26,118 --> 00:10:28,885 just as they had fought against earlier invasions 120 00:10:28,985 --> 00:10:30,584 by the Chinese. 121 00:10:30,685 --> 00:10:34,785 By the early 20th century, nationalism was on the rise. 122 00:10:34,885 --> 00:10:40,184 But anyone who dared resist colonial rule risked exile, 123 00:10:40,285 --> 00:10:42,718 prison, or the guillotine. 124 00:10:45,217 --> 00:10:46,751 TRAN NGOC TOAN : 125 00:11:13,617 --> 00:11:17,385 LAM QUANG THI: 126 00:11:36,618 --> 00:11:39,751 JOHN MUSGRAVE: My hatred for them was pure. 127 00:11:39,853 --> 00:11:41,684 Pure. 128 00:11:41,784 --> 00:11:44,818 I hated them so much. 129 00:11:44,918 --> 00:11:46,318 And I was so scared of them. 130 00:11:50,818 --> 00:11:53,053 Boy, I was terrified of them. 131 00:12:01,617 --> 00:12:04,517 And the scareder I got, the more I hated them. 132 00:12:07,453 --> 00:12:10,685 I was an 18-year-old Marine rifleman with the ink still wet 133 00:12:10,784 --> 00:12:12,852 on my high school diploma. 134 00:12:12,952 --> 00:12:15,385 I didn't want to shame myself in front of my buddies. 135 00:12:17,518 --> 00:12:19,419 But I was so scared. 136 00:12:19,518 --> 00:12:22,318 I felt like I was hanging onto my honor by my fingernails 137 00:12:22,419 --> 00:12:24,053 the whole time I was there. 138 00:12:38,818 --> 00:12:40,952 NARRATOR: In the spring of 1919, 139 00:12:41,053 --> 00:12:44,151 as the victorious Allied Powers met in Paris 140 00:12:44,251 --> 00:12:47,952 to rebuild a world shattered by the Great War, 141 00:12:48,053 --> 00:12:51,752 President Woodrow Wilson headed the American delegation 142 00:12:51,852 --> 00:12:54,251 housed in the Hotel Crillon. 143 00:12:57,118 --> 00:13:00,918 One day, a tall, slender, 29-nine-year-old man 144 00:13:01,017 --> 00:13:03,486 appeared with a petition for the president 145 00:13:03,584 --> 00:13:07,517 he and other Vietnamese nationalists had written. 146 00:13:07,617 --> 00:13:11,084 Inspired by Wilson's declaration 147 00:13:11,184 --> 00:13:14,052 that the interests of colonial peoples should be given 148 00:13:14,151 --> 00:13:17,419 equal weight with those of their European rulers, 149 00:13:17,518 --> 00:13:21,018 the man was asking that this principle be applied 150 00:13:21,118 --> 00:13:22,818 to his homeland. 151 00:13:22,919 --> 00:13:27,651 The president's secretary promised to show it to Wilson, 152 00:13:27,751 --> 00:13:31,318 but there is no evidence that he ever did. 153 00:13:31,419 --> 00:13:33,918 His name was Nguyen Tat Thanh, 154 00:13:34,019 --> 00:13:37,918 but he was now living under an alias, Nguyen Ai Quoc-- 155 00:13:38,019 --> 00:13:40,584 "Nguyen the Patriot." 156 00:13:41,886 --> 00:13:44,052 During his long, shadowy career, 157 00:13:44,151 --> 00:13:47,853 he would adopt some 70 different pseudonyms, 158 00:13:47,952 --> 00:13:51,018 finally settling on "the most enlightened one"-- 159 00:13:51,117 --> 00:13:54,452 Ho Chi Minh. 160 00:13:54,553 --> 00:13:59,752 DUONG VAN MAI: Ho Chi Minh was a man who 161 00:13:59,852 --> 00:14:03,852 of somebody who was totally dedicated to freeing 162 00:14:03,952 --> 00:14:08,319 his country and his people from foreign domination 163 00:14:08,418 --> 00:14:12,385 to the point that he sacrificed his own well-being, 164 00:14:12,486 --> 00:14:16,419 his own life, not having a family of his own. 165 00:14:17,818 --> 00:14:20,318 To Vietnamese, that's a big sacrifice 166 00:14:20,418 --> 00:14:23,151 because to us everybody needs a family. 167 00:14:25,117 --> 00:14:27,852 NARRATOR: Ho Chi Minh was born in 1890, 168 00:14:27,952 --> 00:14:30,819 the son of a minor official in the French regime. 169 00:14:30,918 --> 00:14:33,819 After taking part in a demonstration 170 00:14:33,918 --> 00:14:35,485 against the puppet emperor 171 00:14:35,584 --> 00:14:37,418 and the Frenchmen who pulled his strings, 172 00:14:37,519 --> 00:14:41,584 Ho was expelled from school and marked for arrest. 173 00:14:43,684 --> 00:14:48,986 He left Vietnam in 1911 and remained in exile for 30 years. 174 00:14:50,552 --> 00:14:53,751 He served as a cook's helper aboard a French liner, 175 00:14:53,852 --> 00:14:56,584 and visited New York and Boston, 176 00:14:56,684 --> 00:15:01,752 where he worked for a time as a pastry chef at the Parker House. 177 00:15:01,852 --> 00:15:07,117 He shoveled snow in London, tinted photographs in Paris. 178 00:15:08,585 --> 00:15:12,784 There, Ho Chi Minh joined the French Socialist Party. 179 00:15:12,885 --> 00:15:16,352 But when he discovered the anti-colonial writings of Lenin, 180 00:15:16,453 --> 00:15:18,450 he became a communist. 181 00:15:19,986 --> 00:15:21,885 He was invited to Moscow to study, 182 00:15:21,985 --> 00:15:24,951 underwent training as a Soviet agent, 183 00:15:25,052 --> 00:15:28,419 was sometimes criticized for being a nationalist first, 184 00:15:28,517 --> 00:15:30,352 a communist second, 185 00:15:30,450 --> 00:15:33,385 and then was dispatched to China 186 00:15:33,485 --> 00:15:36,651 to organize a cell of other Vietnamese exiles 187 00:15:36,753 --> 00:15:41,318 and help establish the Indochinese Communist Party. 188 00:15:41,418 --> 00:15:45,052 Through it all, "He was taut and quivering," 189 00:15:45,151 --> 00:15:48,384 a friend remembered, "with only one thought-- 190 00:15:48,486 --> 00:15:51,318 his country, Vietnam." 191 00:16:05,185 --> 00:16:11,584 NARRATOR: By 1940, much of the world 192 00:16:17,986 --> 00:16:21,852 Germany had seized most of Western Europe, 193 00:16:21,951 --> 00:16:23,852 including France. 194 00:16:27,353 --> 00:16:29,085 Imperial Japan threatened 195 00:16:29,185 --> 00:16:31,218 many of the European colonies in Asia, 196 00:16:31,317 --> 00:16:35,151 and occupied Vietnam, where they permitted their allies, 197 00:16:35,252 --> 00:16:36,817 the collaborationist French, 198 00:16:36,918 --> 00:16:39,619 to continue to oversee their colony. 199 00:16:42,784 --> 00:16:46,284 To some Vietnamese, the coming of the Japanese 200 00:16:46,385 --> 00:16:50,918 seemed to signal a welcome end to white colonial rule. 201 00:16:51,017 --> 00:16:54,284 But Ho Chi Minh, still in exile in China, 202 00:16:54,384 --> 00:16:57,752 saw the Japanese as alien invaders, 203 00:16:57,852 --> 00:17:00,284 no more welcome than the French. 204 00:17:00,384 --> 00:17:03,619 They were only interested in exploiting his country 205 00:17:03,717 --> 00:17:09,384 and seizing Vietnamese crops to fill their own rice bowls. 206 00:17:09,485 --> 00:17:11,818 The time had come, he said, 207 00:17:11,918 --> 00:17:15,552 to rally "patriots of all ages and all types, 208 00:17:15,652 --> 00:17:19,717 peasants, workers, merchants and soldiers" 209 00:17:19,817 --> 00:17:23,517 to defeat the Japanese and the collaborationist French. 210 00:17:27,284 --> 00:17:32,818 In February of 1941, after three decades away from his homeland, 211 00:17:32,918 --> 00:17:36,951 Ho Chi Minh slipped back across the Chinese border into Vietnam 212 00:17:37,053 --> 00:17:41,318 and set up headquarters near the remote village of Pac Bo 213 00:17:41,418 --> 00:17:44,185 in a limestone cave at the side of a mountain 214 00:17:44,284 --> 00:17:46,986 he named for Karl Marx, 215 00:17:47,084 --> 00:17:52,553 overlooking a jungle stream he named for his hero, Lenin. 216 00:17:54,919 --> 00:17:57,552 There, he founded a revolutionary movement, 217 00:17:57,651 --> 00:18:01,385 which he called the Vietnam Independence League-- 218 00:18:01,485 --> 00:18:04,119 the Viet Minh. 219 00:18:05,284 --> 00:18:07,685 TRAN NGOC TOAN : 220 00:18:16,784 --> 00:18:19,952 NARRATOR: To build and lead a fighting 221 00:18:20,052 --> 00:18:22,686 Ho called upon Vo Nguyen Giap, 222 00:18:22,785 --> 00:18:25,185 a one-time teacher of French history 223 00:18:25,285 --> 00:18:28,951 who had instructed the children of Hanoi's elite. 224 00:18:29,052 --> 00:18:32,619 Giap was an early convert to communism, 225 00:18:32,717 --> 00:18:36,085 whose life-long hatred for the French intensified 226 00:18:36,185 --> 00:18:39,485 when they beat his wife to death in prison. 227 00:18:39,584 --> 00:18:43,785 Inspired by Napoleon, Lawrence of Arabia, 228 00:18:43,884 --> 00:18:47,451 and the communist Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong, 229 00:18:47,553 --> 00:18:49,852 Giap had already begun to develop 230 00:18:49,951 --> 00:18:54,217 a distinctive theory of warfare that relied on guerrilla tactics 231 00:18:54,317 --> 00:18:59,317 until a full-scale conventional attack could be mounted. 232 00:18:59,418 --> 00:19:03,452 In the fight for independence which he believed was coming, 233 00:19:03,552 --> 00:19:10,218 his armies, Giap said, would be "everywhere and nowhere." 234 00:19:10,317 --> 00:19:14,152 DUONG VAN MAI: The reason Vietnamese had always 235 00:19:14,252 --> 00:19:16,817 was because we were a small country. 236 00:19:16,919 --> 00:19:22,151 And it was just a way of fight the weak against the strong. 237 00:19:22,253 --> 00:19:25,817 Don't fight unless you're sure you can win, 238 00:19:25,918 --> 00:19:29,253 and surprise is a big element. 239 00:19:31,052 --> 00:19:33,618 Choose your own battle. 240 00:19:39,317 --> 00:19:43,485 MIKE HEANEY: I had about 26 guys that day 241 00:19:43,585 --> 00:19:45,918 We were always somewhat understrength. 242 00:19:46,018 --> 00:19:48,317 And this day we were quite understrength. 243 00:19:49,952 --> 00:19:51,853 My platoon's on point. 244 00:19:56,918 --> 00:19:58,584 MAN: Go, go, go, go, go! 245 00:19:58,686 --> 00:20:01,452 HEANEY: And all of a sudden 246 00:20:01,552 --> 00:20:05,017 the first guy in the column, said, "VC on the trail. 247 00:20:05,118 --> 00:20:06,384 VC on the trail." 248 00:20:08,352 --> 00:20:10,685 Before I had a chance to digest this... 249 00:20:11,986 --> 00:20:13,553 ...he went down, shot right through the chest. 250 00:20:16,052 --> 00:20:19,619 And what was a very well-laid ambush erupted. 251 00:20:30,752 --> 00:20:32,951 I knew I'd lost a bunch of guys. 252 00:20:33,052 --> 00:20:37,253 I said a prayer to God saying, basically, 253 00:20:37,352 --> 00:20:39,784 "If you need any more guys from my platoon, take me. 254 00:20:39,884 --> 00:20:41,752 Don't take any more of my men." 255 00:20:41,852 --> 00:20:45,217 As soon as I said it, I freaked myself out and said, 256 00:20:45,317 --> 00:20:46,717 "Holy shit. 257 00:20:46,817 --> 00:20:49,384 Can I take that prayer back?" 258 00:20:59,485 --> 00:21:02,918 NARRATOR: By the spring of 1945, 259 00:21:03,017 --> 00:21:08,352 more than three years after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 260 00:21:08,451 --> 00:21:11,584 the United States government was looking for allies 261 00:21:11,685 --> 00:21:13,753 behind the lines in Vietnam. 262 00:21:13,852 --> 00:21:15,952 The Americans were hoping to find a way 263 00:21:16,052 --> 00:21:19,317 to undermine Japanese forces there 264 00:21:19,419 --> 00:21:22,584 when they were contacted by Ho Chi Minh. 265 00:21:22,685 --> 00:21:24,485 DONALD GREGG: And so it was decided to drop 266 00:21:24,584 --> 00:21:29,584 an OSS team in to meet with the Viet Minh leadership. 267 00:21:32,018 --> 00:21:35,252 Paul Hoagland was the medic on the team. 268 00:21:35,352 --> 00:21:38,951 And the first thing he was told was that he must attend 269 00:21:39,052 --> 00:21:40,884 to their leader, who was desperately sick. 270 00:21:40,986 --> 00:21:43,951 So he was taken to a grass shack 271 00:21:44,053 --> 00:21:48,385 where a bewhiskered, skinny man lay on a bundle of straw, 272 00:21:48,485 --> 00:21:50,018 desperately ill. 273 00:21:50,118 --> 00:21:51,753 And that was Ho Chi Minh. 274 00:21:54,186 --> 00:21:58,817 NARRATOR: The OSS, the secret wartime 275 00:21:58,919 --> 00:22:02,084 supplied Ho's ragtag guerrillas with arms 276 00:22:02,185 --> 00:22:06,985 and marveled at how quickly they learned to handle them. 277 00:22:07,084 --> 00:22:09,785 Ho Chi Minh began to call his followers 278 00:22:09,884 --> 00:22:14,084 the "Viet-American Army," and praised the United States 279 00:22:14,186 --> 00:22:16,084 as a "champion of democracy" 280 00:22:16,185 --> 00:22:19,352 that would surely help them end colonial rule. 281 00:22:20,618 --> 00:22:23,785 BUI DIEM : 282 00:22:37,619 --> 00:22:42,186 NARRATOR: Meanwhile, famine gripped the 283 00:22:42,284 --> 00:22:44,185 Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese 284 00:22:44,284 --> 00:22:46,252 were dying of starvation 285 00:22:46,353 --> 00:22:49,585 while Japanese storehouses were filled with rice. 286 00:22:52,618 --> 00:22:54,619 DUONG VAN MAI: In those days, 287 00:22:54,717 --> 00:22:56,852 by people pushing carts. 288 00:22:56,951 --> 00:23:01,553 And my mother remembers that every morning she would see 289 00:23:01,651 --> 00:23:03,552 these garbage carts going around 290 00:23:03,651 --> 00:23:06,017 and people picking up dead bodies and throwing them 291 00:23:05,159 --> 00:23:07,618 on the cart. 292 00:23:07,717 --> 00:23:09,253 It was incredible. 293 00:23:09,352 --> 00:23:12,885 And people who lived through it never, never forgot. 294 00:23:12,985 --> 00:23:17,452 NARRATOR: Duong Van Mai's father 295 00:23:17,552 --> 00:23:19,718 of a province east of Hanoi, 296 00:23:19,817 --> 00:23:22,252 the son and grandson of mandarins 297 00:23:22,352 --> 00:23:24,986 who had all served the French. 298 00:23:25,085 --> 00:23:28,418 He and his wife had 17 children. 299 00:23:28,517 --> 00:23:33,253 DUONG VAN MAI: Parents who had children 300 00:23:33,352 --> 00:23:35,785 were very afraid of their children being stolen 301 00:23:35,884 --> 00:23:38,317 and killed. 302 00:23:38,418 --> 00:23:41,518 And it was really like hell on earth. 303 00:23:41,618 --> 00:23:45,084 The government didn't have a clue on how to deal 304 00:23:45,185 --> 00:23:47,284 with this calamity. 305 00:23:48,852 --> 00:23:50,151 NARRATOR: But Ho Chi Minh did. 306 00:23:50,253 --> 00:23:52,485 He directed the Viet Minh 307 00:23:52,584 --> 00:23:55,852 to break into the Japanese storehouses wherever they could 308 00:23:55,951 --> 00:24:00,085 and distribute the rice to the people. 309 00:24:00,185 --> 00:24:02,753 They were hailed as saviors. 310 00:24:17,618 --> 00:24:20,785 NARRATOR: When an atomic bomb 311 00:24:20,884 --> 00:24:24,418 and three days later a second one destroyed Nagasaki, 312 00:24:24,517 --> 00:24:27,553 Japanese surrender seemed imminent. 313 00:24:29,585 --> 00:24:33,151 Ho Chi Minh called upon all Vietnamese to rise up 314 00:24:33,252 --> 00:24:35,186 and take over their own country 315 00:24:35,284 --> 00:24:37,651 before the Free French could reestablish 316 00:24:37,752 --> 00:24:40,252 their old colonial regime. 317 00:24:40,352 --> 00:24:45,451 They did, in cities and towns across the country. 318 00:24:48,985 --> 00:24:51,884 On September 2, 1945, 319 00:24:51,985 --> 00:24:54,752 the same day the Japanese formally surrendered, 320 00:24:54,853 --> 00:24:57,753 hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese 321 00:24:57,852 --> 00:25:02,651 streamed into Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi to see for the first time 322 00:25:02,752 --> 00:25:05,985 the mysterious leader of the Viet Minh 323 00:25:06,084 --> 00:25:10,717 and hear him proclaim Vietnam's independence. 324 00:25:14,353 --> 00:25:18,951 NARRATOR: With an OSS officer 325 00:25:19,052 --> 00:25:23,018 Ho Chi Minh began with the words of Thomas Jefferson: 326 00:25:23,118 --> 00:25:25,651 "All men are created equal. 327 00:25:25,752 --> 00:25:28,552 "They are endowed by their creator 328 00:25:28,651 --> 00:25:31,753 "with certain unalienable rights; 329 00:25:31,852 --> 00:25:34,518 "that among these are life, liberty 330 00:25:34,618 --> 00:25:36,817 and the pursuit of happiness." 331 00:25:39,517 --> 00:25:42,385 DONG SI NGUYEN: 332 00:25:59,285 --> 00:26:01,584 GEORGE WICKES: Ho Chi Minh had great hopes 333 00:26:01,685 --> 00:26:07,052 that the U.S. would support the Vietnam desire for independence, 334 00:26:07,152 --> 00:26:08,918 not necessarily by intervening 335 00:26:09,017 --> 00:26:12,784 but by doing what it could 336 00:26:12,884 --> 00:26:16,518 to support an independence movement. 337 00:26:16,618 --> 00:26:20,317 NARRATOR: Ho Chi Minh's hopes for American 338 00:26:20,418 --> 00:26:23,317 but understandable. 339 00:26:23,418 --> 00:26:27,317 President Franklin Roosevelt had promised a postwar world 340 00:26:27,418 --> 00:26:30,485 that would "respect the rights of all peoples 341 00:26:30,584 --> 00:26:33,552 to choose the form of government under which they live." 342 00:26:36,384 --> 00:26:40,217 But Roosevelt was dead now, and his successor, Harry Truman, 343 00:26:40,317 --> 00:26:44,084 had inherited a very different world. 344 00:26:44,185 --> 00:26:46,517 The alliance with the Soviet Union 345 00:26:46,618 --> 00:26:50,418 that had won the Second World War had collapsed. 346 00:26:50,518 --> 00:26:54,151 The Soviets now occupied the Eastern European countries 347 00:26:54,252 --> 00:26:58,817 they had overrun, and hoped to spread their influence farther, 348 00:26:58,918 --> 00:27:03,618 into Iran, Turkey, and the Mediterranean. 349 00:27:03,717 --> 00:27:08,017 A new cold war had begun. 350 00:27:08,118 --> 00:27:10,685 French president Charles De Gaulle warned 351 00:27:10,784 --> 00:27:13,852 that if the United States insisted on independence 352 00:27:13,952 --> 00:27:17,618 for her colonies, France might have no choice 353 00:27:17,717 --> 00:27:21,052 but to "fall into the Russian orbit." 354 00:27:21,151 --> 00:27:24,552 The United States must do nothing to undercut 355 00:27:24,652 --> 00:27:30,052 the restoration of France's empire, including Vietnam. 356 00:27:34,118 --> 00:27:37,618 WICKES: There were hardly any Americans 357 00:27:37,718 --> 00:27:40,651 State Department people, consular officials, 358 00:27:40,752 --> 00:27:42,951 a few businessmen. 359 00:27:43,052 --> 00:27:45,017 Hardly anyone from this country 360 00:27:45,119 --> 00:27:46,884 knew where Vietnam was located. 361 00:27:46,985 --> 00:27:51,685 NARRATOR: George Wickes was part 362 00:27:51,784 --> 00:27:55,119 sent to Saigon, the largest city in the south. 363 00:27:55,217 --> 00:27:58,685 The United States was officially neutral, 364 00:27:58,784 --> 00:28:01,553 hoping the French and Viet Minh could reach 365 00:28:01,651 --> 00:28:05,186 some peaceful solution on their own. 366 00:28:05,284 --> 00:28:08,784 Allied leaders had agreed temporarily to divide Vietnam 367 00:28:08,885 --> 00:28:11,352 into two separate zones. 368 00:28:11,451 --> 00:28:15,618 Nationalist Chinese troops were to handle things in the north. 369 00:28:15,718 --> 00:28:19,186 British colonial troops would try to perform the same task 370 00:28:19,284 --> 00:28:22,084 in the south, where rival factions, 371 00:28:22,186 --> 00:28:26,284 including the French and Viet Minh, were already fighting 372 00:28:26,384 --> 00:28:29,284 in the streets of Saigon. 373 00:28:29,384 --> 00:28:31,752 WICKES: No one was in charge. 374 00:28:31,853 --> 00:28:36,018 On both sides, there was brutality and atrocity 375 00:28:36,118 --> 00:28:37,618 and violence. 376 00:28:37,717 --> 00:28:40,252 It wasn't quite a civil war 377 00:28:40,353 --> 00:28:42,217 but it was getting very close to civil war 378 00:28:42,318 --> 00:28:44,552 in the streets of Saigon. 379 00:28:44,651 --> 00:28:47,618 NARRATOR: Lieutenant Colonel Peter Dewey, 380 00:28:47,717 --> 00:28:51,084 the 28-year-old commander of the OSS in Saigon, 381 00:28:51,185 --> 00:28:53,784 tried to make sense of it all. 382 00:28:53,885 --> 00:28:56,618 WICKES: Right from the start he was 383 00:28:56,718 --> 00:28:59,451 not only the French, but very soon he established 384 00:28:59,553 --> 00:29:03,718 a connection with various Vietnamese groups. 385 00:29:03,817 --> 00:29:06,817 The Viet Minh soon established themselves 386 00:29:06,918 --> 00:29:09,352 as the most successful. 387 00:29:09,451 --> 00:29:12,252 NARRATOR: Dewey, who spoke fluent French, 388 00:29:12,352 --> 00:29:15,285 brokered talks between a Viet Minh spokesman 389 00:29:15,384 --> 00:29:19,084 and the senior French representative in the city. 390 00:29:19,185 --> 00:29:23,952 His efforts infuriated British general Douglas Gracey, 391 00:29:24,052 --> 00:29:26,985 who commanded Allied forces in the south. 392 00:29:27,085 --> 00:29:29,951 Gracey was convinced that French control 393 00:29:30,052 --> 00:29:32,884 should be reimposed as soon as possible. 394 00:29:32,986 --> 00:29:36,317 By conferring with the Viet Minh, Gracey said, 395 00:29:36,418 --> 00:29:40,884 Colonel Dewey had become a "subversive" force. 396 00:29:42,418 --> 00:29:45,918 The violence in and around Saigon escalated. 397 00:29:47,918 --> 00:29:50,651 Colonel Dewey urgently cabled his superiors: 398 00:29:50,752 --> 00:29:54,252 Vietnam "is burning," he wrote. 399 00:29:54,352 --> 00:29:56,852 "The French and British are finished here 400 00:29:56,951 --> 00:29:59,485 and the United States," he concluded, 401 00:29:59,585 --> 00:30:01,752 "ought to clear out of Southeast Asia." 402 00:30:06,084 --> 00:30:10,518 Two days later, September 26, 1945, 403 00:30:10,618 --> 00:30:12,118 he set out for the airport, 404 00:30:12,217 --> 00:30:17,118 prepared to fly to OSS headquarters. 405 00:30:17,218 --> 00:30:22,217 At a roadblock, the Viet Minh mistook Dewey for a Frenchman 406 00:30:22,318 --> 00:30:24,352 and opened fire. 407 00:30:25,952 --> 00:30:29,151 He was killed instantly. 408 00:30:29,253 --> 00:30:33,052 WICKES: Ho Chi Minh wrote 409 00:30:33,151 --> 00:30:37,151 lamenting the death of Dewey, whom he recognized 410 00:30:37,252 --> 00:30:41,119 as a person sympathetic to his cause. 411 00:30:41,218 --> 00:30:43,952 It seemed a terrible irony that Dewey, 412 00:30:44,052 --> 00:30:46,618 who was doing what he could to help 413 00:30:46,718 --> 00:30:50,384 the Vietnamese independence movement should have been killed 414 00:30:50,486 --> 00:30:52,752 by the Vietnamese by a mistake. 415 00:31:04,253 --> 00:31:09,017 An elderly African-American woman answered the door. 416 00:31:14,052 --> 00:31:18,052 I think she knew the instant she saw us why we were there. 417 00:31:21,018 --> 00:31:23,152 And the padre said, uh, 418 00:31:23,252 --> 00:31:27,852 "I'm... I'm terribly sorry to inform you, 419 00:31:27,952 --> 00:31:33,118 but your son was killed in Vietnam." 420 00:31:33,218 --> 00:31:34,152 And she just sat down. 421 00:31:34,252 --> 00:31:35,885 Didn't say a word. 422 00:31:38,217 --> 00:31:41,952 Then the... her husband says, "No, there's a mistake." 423 00:31:42,052 --> 00:31:43,753 He comes back with this letter. 424 00:31:43,852 --> 00:31:46,119 And he said, "Look, see? 425 00:31:46,217 --> 00:31:51,118 We got it yesterday, my... our son was still alive yesterday." 426 00:31:51,217 --> 00:31:54,185 And the chaplain looked at the letter 427 00:31:54,284 --> 00:31:56,485 and he said, "It's a week old. 428 00:31:56,585 --> 00:32:01,017 I think your son was killed on the day he wrote this letter." 429 00:32:08,817 --> 00:32:13,017 NARRATOR: In the fall of 1945, a week 430 00:32:13,119 --> 00:32:16,084 fresh French troops began arriving in Saigon, 431 00:32:16,186 --> 00:32:20,052 taking over from the British. 432 00:32:20,151 --> 00:32:21,317 They quickly established 433 00:32:21,418 --> 00:32:23,217 control of the city 434 00:32:23,317 --> 00:32:24,618 and set out to reoccupy 435 00:32:24,717 --> 00:32:26,518 the entire country. 436 00:32:28,417 --> 00:32:32,153 Ho Chi Minh hoped somehow to achieve independence 437 00:32:32,252 --> 00:32:34,252 without a war with France, 438 00:32:34,353 --> 00:32:37,752 and he still hoped the United States would intervene. 439 00:32:37,852 --> 00:32:41,753 "You never had an empire, never exploited the Asian peoples," 440 00:32:41,852 --> 00:32:44,884 he would tell a visiting American journalist. 441 00:32:44,985 --> 00:32:49,051 "Do not be blinded by this issue of communism." 442 00:32:49,153 --> 00:32:54,284 LESLIE GELB: He did not want to fight the 443 00:32:54,384 --> 00:33:00,585 And, in fact, I saw the letters he wrote to President Truman 444 00:33:00,685 --> 00:33:05,119 saying, "We believe in the same things you believe." 445 00:33:05,217 --> 00:33:08,484 Those letters I saw in the CIA files, 446 00:33:08,586 --> 00:33:12,451 they had never been given to President Truman. 447 00:33:16,717 --> 00:33:21,318 NARRATOR: In June of 1946, 448 00:33:21,417 --> 00:33:24,352 in a fruitless attempt to get the French to live up 449 00:33:24,451 --> 00:33:27,652 to a promise they had made of increased autonomy 450 00:33:27,752 --> 00:33:29,985 for his country. 451 00:33:30,085 --> 00:33:31,884 While Ho was away, 452 00:33:31,984 --> 00:33:35,352 General Giap began consolidating communist control 453 00:33:35,451 --> 00:33:36,818 of the revolution. 454 00:33:36,917 --> 00:33:39,685 He conducted a merciless purge 455 00:33:39,784 --> 00:33:42,717 of members of rival nationalist parties 456 00:33:42,818 --> 00:33:46,085 and people he called "reactionary saboteurs"-- 457 00:33:46,186 --> 00:33:51,452 landlords and moneylenders, Trotskyites and Catholics, 458 00:33:51,551 --> 00:33:55,917 men and women accused of collaborating with the French. 459 00:33:56,019 --> 00:34:00,353 Hundreds were shot, drowned, buried alive. 460 00:34:00,451 --> 00:34:02,352 LAM QUANG THI: 461 00:34:13,485 --> 00:34:18,384 NARRATOR: On December 19, 1946, after 462 00:34:18,484 --> 00:34:20,685 fighting broke out in Hanoi 463 00:34:20,784 --> 00:34:23,685 between the Viet Minh and the French. 464 00:34:27,951 --> 00:34:31,119 The Viet Minh proved no match for French firepower. 465 00:34:35,686 --> 00:34:41,551 Ho, Giap, and their comrades slipped out of the city 466 00:34:41,653 --> 00:34:45,586 and returned to their mountain stronghold far to the north. 467 00:34:47,817 --> 00:34:50,952 "Those who have rifles will use their rifles," 468 00:34:51,051 --> 00:34:53,051 Ho declared in a radio address 469 00:34:53,153 --> 00:34:55,985 calling for a nationwide guerrilla war. 470 00:34:56,085 --> 00:34:59,951 "Those who have swords will use swords; 471 00:35:00,051 --> 00:35:05,284 those who have no swords will use spades or sticks." 472 00:35:09,018 --> 00:35:14,018 NGUYEN NGOC: 473 00:35:35,685 --> 00:35:38,284 NARRATOR: But the country Ho Chi Minh 474 00:35:38,385 --> 00:35:41,619 was itself bitterly divided. 475 00:35:41,717 --> 00:35:44,018 Families were being torn apart. 476 00:35:44,118 --> 00:35:47,884 Despite her father's position in the French government, 477 00:35:47,985 --> 00:35:52,917 Duong Van Mai's sister felt compelled to answer Ho's call. 478 00:35:54,585 --> 00:35:58,185 DUONG VAN MAI: My older sister Thang 479 00:35:58,284 --> 00:36:03,317 to a man who had great sympathy for the Viet Minh. 480 00:36:03,418 --> 00:36:06,417 And by that time Ho Chi Minh had evacuated his government 481 00:36:06,518 --> 00:36:07,818 to the mountain base. 482 00:36:07,917 --> 00:36:11,551 So my sister and her husband trekked all the way 483 00:36:11,652 --> 00:36:13,885 from Hanoi toward the base 484 00:36:13,984 --> 00:36:17,585 in order to join the resistance against the French. 485 00:36:20,284 --> 00:36:22,752 So the Vietnam War was really a civil war 486 00:36:22,853 --> 00:36:24,484 down to the family level. 487 00:36:32,817 --> 00:36:36,417 NARRATOR: France poured thousands of men 488 00:36:36,518 --> 00:36:40,853 French regulars, European mercenaries, and colonial troops 489 00:36:40,952 --> 00:36:44,817 from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Senegal-- 490 00:36:44,917 --> 00:36:49,784 who fought alongside an army of Cambodians, Laotians, 491 00:36:49,884 --> 00:36:52,784 and anti-communist Vietnamese. 492 00:36:56,618 --> 00:37:00,917 French forces managed to occupy most of the large towns 493 00:37:01,018 --> 00:37:02,418 and province capitals 494 00:37:02,518 --> 00:37:07,484 and established hundreds of isolated outposts. 495 00:37:07,585 --> 00:37:12,253 The French also set out to try to win over rural Vietnamese 496 00:37:12,352 --> 00:37:15,718 through a program they calledpacification-- 497 00:37:15,817 --> 00:37:17,918 pacification-- 498 00:37:18,018 --> 00:37:22,652 building dikes, schools and roads, and vaccinating children. 499 00:37:25,485 --> 00:37:27,884 DUONG VAN MAI: The French would pacify 500 00:37:27,985 --> 00:37:32,153 and during the daytime they could control it. 501 00:37:32,252 --> 00:37:35,752 But at night the Viet Minh would come back. 502 00:37:35,853 --> 00:37:39,984 And so it was never completely secure. 503 00:37:40,085 --> 00:37:43,518 My father would shake his head and said, you know, 504 00:37:43,618 --> 00:37:45,085 "Pacification is really futile 505 00:37:45,185 --> 00:37:49,417 because it's like trying to hold sand in your fingers." 506 00:37:52,884 --> 00:37:57,984 NARRATOR: The Viet Minh mined roads, 507 00:37:58,085 --> 00:38:03,252 ambushed French patrols, and then disappeared. 508 00:38:05,585 --> 00:38:09,785 French soldiers sometimes took revenge on the nearest village, 509 00:38:09,884 --> 00:38:12,285 burning homes, raping women, 510 00:38:12,384 --> 00:38:16,585 executing men suspected of aiding the Viet Minh. 511 00:38:21,451 --> 00:38:23,619 LE CONG HUAN: 512 00:38:55,384 --> 00:39:00,185 NARRATOR: But the communists proved every 513 00:39:00,285 --> 00:39:03,451 "It is better to kill even those who might be innocent," 514 00:39:03,551 --> 00:39:09,284 one commander said, "than to let a guilty person go." 515 00:39:09,384 --> 00:39:11,652 And they specifically targeted 516 00:39:11,752 --> 00:39:15,018 anyone who had links to the French. 517 00:39:15,118 --> 00:39:18,853 DUONG VAN MAI: Once my father started working 518 00:39:18,951 --> 00:39:21,585 a target, especially the higher he rose, 519 00:39:21,686 --> 00:39:23,551 the bigger target he became. 520 00:39:23,653 --> 00:39:29,718 A Viet Minh agent actually came in with a pistol to shoot him 521 00:39:29,817 --> 00:39:33,384 but at the last moment decided not to. 522 00:39:35,752 --> 00:39:38,384 TRANG NGOC HUE: 523 00:40:12,353 --> 00:40:15,717 NARRATOR: French casualties 524 00:40:15,818 --> 00:40:18,653 "There are days when we are so discouraged 525 00:40:18,752 --> 00:40:21,352 that we would like to give it all up," 526 00:40:21,451 --> 00:40:23,551 a French soldier wrote his mother. 527 00:40:23,652 --> 00:40:26,817 "Convoys under attack, roads cut, 528 00:40:26,918 --> 00:40:30,018 "firing in all directions every night, 529 00:40:30,118 --> 00:40:32,051 the indifference at home." 530 00:40:41,718 --> 00:40:44,318 ROGER HARRIS: While I was there I had the 531 00:40:44,417 --> 00:40:46,551 you know. 532 00:40:46,652 --> 00:40:49,685 And I was telling my mother what was happening over there, 533 00:40:49,784 --> 00:40:52,885 and I was telling her how she shouldn't believe 534 00:40:52,984 --> 00:40:55,852 what she sees in the newspaper and sees on television 535 00:40:55,952 --> 00:40:58,585 because we're losing the war. 536 00:40:58,685 --> 00:41:01,452 I said, "And you'll probably never see me again 537 00:41:01,551 --> 00:41:05,153 "because we're the most northern outpost that the Marines have, 538 00:41:05,252 --> 00:41:06,551 you know." 539 00:41:06,653 --> 00:41:08,585 We could literally... could look right into North Vietnam. 540 00:41:08,686 --> 00:41:10,618 We could see the sparks when the guns fired on us. 541 00:41:10,717 --> 00:41:12,884 And I said, "And everybody in my unit is dying. 542 00:41:12,984 --> 00:41:15,652 I probably won't be coming back." 543 00:41:15,752 --> 00:41:17,784 And my mother said, "No, you're coming back." 544 00:41:17,884 --> 00:41:21,618 She said, "I talk to God every day and you're special. 545 00:41:21,717 --> 00:41:23,551 You're coming back." 546 00:41:23,653 --> 00:41:25,884 And I said, "Ma, everybody's mother thinks 547 00:41:25,984 --> 00:41:28,185 "that they're special. 548 00:41:28,285 --> 00:41:32,317 You know, I'm putting pieces of special people in bags." 549 00:41:37,752 --> 00:41:39,385 ED HERLIHY: President Truman's dramatic 550 00:41:39,484 --> 00:41:40,917 that Russia had the atom secret 551 00:41:41,018 --> 00:41:42,585 caused state departments all over the world 552 00:41:42,686 --> 00:41:45,353 to stir uneasily. 553 00:41:45,452 --> 00:41:49,484 HAL KUSHNER: We were very aware 554 00:41:49,585 --> 00:41:51,451 and that we had an enemy, 555 00:41:51,551 --> 00:41:55,586 and that enemy was the Soviet Union. 556 00:41:55,685 --> 00:41:58,752 The United States stood at one pole 557 00:41:58,852 --> 00:42:01,051 and the Soviet Union stood at the other pole. 558 00:42:01,152 --> 00:42:04,118 It was kind of a Manichean dynamic 559 00:42:04,217 --> 00:42:05,985 that there was evil and there was good. 560 00:42:06,085 --> 00:42:08,019 And we were good, and the other side was evil. 561 00:42:08,118 --> 00:42:11,185 It wasn't morally ambiguous. 562 00:42:13,984 --> 00:42:18,217 NARRATOR: Just a few weeks after Russia 563 00:42:18,317 --> 00:42:20,152 there was more stunning news-- 564 00:42:20,252 --> 00:42:23,852 communist forces under Mao Zedong seized control 565 00:42:23,951 --> 00:42:26,551 of China. 566 00:42:26,652 --> 00:42:30,519 Separate communist insurrections were also underway 567 00:42:30,618 --> 00:42:36,152 in the British colonies of Burma and Malaya. 568 00:42:36,252 --> 00:42:39,917 In January 1950, Mao formally recognized 569 00:42:40,018 --> 00:42:44,052 Ho Chi Minh's insurgency and agreed to provide the arms, 570 00:42:44,152 --> 00:42:48,051 equipment, and military training he had been seeking. 571 00:42:48,153 --> 00:42:52,153 The Soviets recognized the Viet Minh as well, 572 00:42:52,252 --> 00:42:54,052 and also offered help. 573 00:42:54,152 --> 00:42:57,717 President Truman, who was being blamed 574 00:42:57,817 --> 00:43:01,652 by his political opponents for having "lost" China, 575 00:43:01,753 --> 00:43:04,085 and having failed to "contain" communism, 576 00:43:04,185 --> 00:43:07,618 approved a $23 million aid program 577 00:43:07,717 --> 00:43:10,451 for the French in Vietnam. 578 00:43:10,551 --> 00:43:15,385 The United States was no longer neutral. 579 00:43:15,484 --> 00:43:18,317 SAM WILSON: We were caught on the horns 580 00:43:18,417 --> 00:43:21,051 of how can we maintain our friendship 581 00:43:21,152 --> 00:43:24,884 and our alliance with the French and support them in Indochina 582 00:43:24,985 --> 00:43:28,618 while we, as a former colony ourselves, 583 00:43:28,717 --> 00:43:31,685 sympathized with the Vietnamese and their aspirations 584 00:43:31,784 --> 00:43:33,718 for freedom and independence? 585 00:43:38,551 --> 00:43:40,884 ED HERLIHY: A highly trained and 586 00:43:40,984 --> 00:43:43,118 swarmed across the 38th parallel 587 00:43:43,217 --> 00:43:45,186 to attack unprepared South Korean defenders. 588 00:43:46,951 --> 00:43:50,585 NARRATOR: In June of 1950, China's ally, 589 00:43:50,685 --> 00:43:54,185 communist North Korea, invaded South Korea. 590 00:43:55,818 --> 00:43:57,718 President Truman ordered 591 00:43:57,817 --> 00:44:00,085 tens of thousands of American ground troops 592 00:44:00,185 --> 00:44:02,051 onto the Korean Peninsula. 593 00:44:09,018 --> 00:44:10,918 The United States and its allies 594 00:44:11,018 --> 00:44:15,384 eventually pushed the invaders back north. 595 00:44:15,485 --> 00:44:17,784 Meanwhile in southern China, 596 00:44:17,884 --> 00:44:20,252 Mao's military was beginning to turn the Viet Minh 597 00:44:20,352 --> 00:44:24,152 into a modern fighting force, 598 00:44:24,252 --> 00:44:28,318 capable of inflicting a heavy toll on the French occupiers. 599 00:44:35,685 --> 00:44:37,452 In July, the Truman administration 600 00:44:37,551 --> 00:44:40,417 quietly dispatched transport planes 601 00:44:40,519 --> 00:44:43,085 and a shipload of jeeps to Vietnam. 602 00:44:43,186 --> 00:44:48,853 Thirty-five military advisors went along to oversee their use. 603 00:44:50,685 --> 00:44:53,585 None of them, and no one in the American embassy, 604 00:44:53,685 --> 00:44:57,685 spoke a word of Vietnamese. 605 00:44:57,784 --> 00:45:02,085 But the United States was now officially in Vietnam. 606 00:45:04,317 --> 00:45:06,485 In October of 1950, 607 00:45:06,585 --> 00:45:09,652 hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops 608 00:45:09,752 --> 00:45:11,917 began pouring into North Korea, 609 00:45:12,018 --> 00:45:16,051 driving the allies back down the peninsula. 610 00:45:16,153 --> 00:45:17,784 As that fighting raged, 611 00:45:17,885 --> 00:45:21,085 Truman continued to increase military aid 612 00:45:21,186 --> 00:45:23,984 for the French war in Vietnam. 613 00:45:27,718 --> 00:45:29,352 HARRY TRUMAN: If aggression is successful 614 00:45:29,452 --> 00:45:32,685 we can expect it to spread throughout Asia and Europe 615 00:45:32,784 --> 00:45:34,019 and to this hemisphere. 616 00:45:36,652 --> 00:45:39,119 We are fighting in Korea 617 00:45:39,218 --> 00:45:41,817 for our own national security and survival. 618 00:45:48,585 --> 00:45:50,686 NARRATOR: In the autumn of 1951, 619 00:45:50,784 --> 00:45:52,917 a young Massachusetts congressman 620 00:45:53,018 --> 00:45:56,884 named John F. Kennedy dined at the rooftop bar 621 00:45:56,985 --> 00:45:59,618 of the Hotel Majestic overlooking Saigon. 622 00:46:01,018 --> 00:46:03,018 As he and his party ate, 623 00:46:03,119 --> 00:46:07,452 they could hear the thunder of guns across the Saigon River. 624 00:46:07,551 --> 00:46:10,585 French commanders assured Kennedy 625 00:46:10,686 --> 00:46:13,186 that with more American support, 626 00:46:13,285 --> 00:46:16,451 French rule would be re-established. 627 00:46:16,551 --> 00:46:20,119 But Kennedy spent two hours with Seymour Topping, 628 00:46:20,217 --> 00:46:22,318 a seasoned American reporter, 629 00:46:22,417 --> 00:46:25,018 who gave him a very different perspective: 630 00:46:25,118 --> 00:46:27,817 the French were losing, he said, 631 00:46:27,918 --> 00:46:31,686 and many Vietnamese, who had once admired the Americans, 632 00:46:31,784 --> 00:46:35,917 were beginning to despise them for backing the French. 633 00:46:36,019 --> 00:46:39,252 Kennedy believed the reporter. 634 00:46:39,352 --> 00:46:42,619 Unless the United States could persuade the Vietnamese 635 00:46:42,717 --> 00:46:46,284 that it was as opposed to "injustice and inequality" 636 00:46:46,384 --> 00:46:47,884 as it was to communism, 637 00:46:47,985 --> 00:46:50,951 he told his constituents when he got home, 638 00:46:51,052 --> 00:46:56,318 the current effort would result in "foredoomed failure." 639 00:46:59,352 --> 00:47:04,752 ♪ Come on-a my house, my house, I'm gonna give you candy ♪ 640 00:47:04,852 --> 00:47:06,717 NARRATOR: In 1952, 641 00:47:06,817 --> 00:47:10,086 General Dwight Eisenhower was elected president, 642 00:47:10,185 --> 00:47:12,984 in part because he promised to take a tougher stance 643 00:47:13,085 --> 00:47:15,119 on communism. 644 00:47:15,217 --> 00:47:18,518 That year, American taxpayers 645 00:47:18,618 --> 00:47:21,051 were footing more than 30% of the bill 646 00:47:21,152 --> 00:47:24,086 for the French war in Vietnam. 647 00:47:24,185 --> 00:47:26,285 Within two years, 648 00:47:26,384 --> 00:47:29,717 that number would rise to nearly 80%. 649 00:47:29,817 --> 00:47:33,052 CLOONEY: ♪ Everything, everything, 650 00:47:33,152 --> 00:47:35,418 RICHARD NIXON: And many of you ask this 651 00:47:35,518 --> 00:47:37,785 Why is the United States spending 652 00:47:37,884 --> 00:47:39,685 hundreds of millions of dollars 653 00:47:39,784 --> 00:47:43,884 supporting the forces of the French Union 654 00:47:43,984 --> 00:47:47,484 in the fight against communism in Indochina? 655 00:47:47,585 --> 00:47:49,818 I think perhaps if we go over to the map here, 656 00:47:49,917 --> 00:47:54,252 I can indicate to you why it is so vitally important. 657 00:47:54,352 --> 00:47:56,685 Here's Indochina. 658 00:47:56,784 --> 00:47:58,118 If Indochina falls, 659 00:47:58,217 --> 00:48:01,451 Thailand is put in almost impossible position. 660 00:48:01,552 --> 00:48:04,619 The same is true of Malaya with its rubber and tin. 661 00:48:04,717 --> 00:48:09,752 Now may I say that as far as the war in Indochina is concerned, 662 00:48:09,852 --> 00:48:14,417 that I was there, right on the battlefield, or close to it, 663 00:48:14,519 --> 00:48:17,119 and it's a bloody war, and it's a bitter one. 664 00:48:22,518 --> 00:48:27,252 NARRATOR: By 1953, the French had been 665 00:48:27,353 --> 00:48:30,585 They had suffered over 100,000 casualties 666 00:48:30,685 --> 00:48:33,817 and failed to pacify the countryside. 667 00:48:33,917 --> 00:48:37,586 Six commanders had come and gone. 668 00:48:37,685 --> 00:48:39,853 Nevertheless, the seventh commander, 669 00:48:39,951 --> 00:48:42,984 General Henri Navarre, assured his countrymen 670 00:48:43,086 --> 00:48:44,518 that victory was near. 671 00:48:44,618 --> 00:48:47,653 "Now we can see it clearly," he said, 672 00:48:47,752 --> 00:48:51,586 "like the light at the end of the tunnel." 673 00:48:53,585 --> 00:48:57,485 Meanwhile, large parts of the French population were horrified 674 00:48:57,585 --> 00:49:00,185 by reports of French brutality 675 00:49:00,284 --> 00:49:02,985 and the widespread use of napalm-- 676 00:49:03,085 --> 00:49:07,752 gelatinized petroleum that burned foliage, 677 00:49:07,852 --> 00:49:10,318 homes, and human flesh. 678 00:49:13,252 --> 00:49:16,652 When returning French troops disembarked at Marseilles, 679 00:49:16,753 --> 00:49:21,118 members of the longshoremen's union pelted them with rocks. 680 00:49:21,217 --> 00:49:24,284 Parisian leftists began to call the conflict 681 00:49:24,385 --> 00:49:27,518 "La Sale Guerre"-- "The Dirty War." 682 00:49:35,885 --> 00:49:38,185 RON FERRIZZI: The camera was a close-up, 683 00:49:38,284 --> 00:49:41,352 was over the shoulder of this storm trooper 684 00:49:41,451 --> 00:49:44,984 who had a kid by the scruff of his shirt and he smacks him. 685 00:49:45,086 --> 00:49:46,186 REPORTER: People screaming... 686 00:49:46,284 --> 00:49:48,352 FERRIZZI: At that moment in time, 687 00:49:48,451 --> 00:49:51,051 I realized that anybody who really cared for America 688 00:49:51,153 --> 00:49:52,618 was sent halfway around the world 689 00:49:52,718 --> 00:49:56,118 chasing some ghost in a jungle. 690 00:49:56,217 --> 00:49:59,253 In the meantime, my country's being torn apart. 691 00:49:59,352 --> 00:50:01,551 So I saw somebody who looked like my dad 692 00:50:01,652 --> 00:50:03,152 hitting somebody who looked like me. 693 00:50:03,253 --> 00:50:05,085 Whose side would I be on? 694 00:50:13,186 --> 00:50:15,686 ED HERLIHY: In Korea, three years 695 00:50:15,785 --> 00:50:18,652 as United Nations and communist negotiators at Panmunjom 696 00:50:18,753 --> 00:50:19,785 sign a truce. 697 00:50:19,884 --> 00:50:22,853 NARRATOR: In July of 1953, 698 00:50:22,951 --> 00:50:26,318 the Korean War ended in a negotiated settlement 699 00:50:26,417 --> 00:50:28,353 and a still-divided peninsula. 700 00:50:28,452 --> 00:50:31,753 American policymakers saw it as proof 701 00:50:31,852 --> 00:50:35,152 that communism in Asia could be contained. 702 00:50:35,252 --> 00:50:36,984 HERLIHY: And in Washington, a dramatic 703 00:50:37,086 --> 00:50:40,118 NARRATOR: That fall, the French indicated 704 00:50:40,217 --> 00:50:44,186 to begin talks to end the fighting in Vietnam. 705 00:50:44,284 --> 00:50:47,718 Ho Chi Minh agreed to meet. 706 00:50:47,817 --> 00:50:51,685 But before the negotiators were to convene in Geneva, 707 00:50:51,784 --> 00:50:56,784 each side sought to improve its position on the battlefield. 708 00:50:58,384 --> 00:51:00,951 General Navarre set up a fortified base 709 00:51:01,051 --> 00:51:03,917 in a remote valley in northwestern Vietnam 710 00:51:04,018 --> 00:51:08,485 called Dien Bien Phu, where he hoped to lure the Viet Minh 711 00:51:08,585 --> 00:51:10,585 into a decisive battle. 712 00:51:12,685 --> 00:51:15,885 Navarre was certain that superior French firepower 713 00:51:15,984 --> 00:51:20,984 and air support would crush any attack by the Viet Minh. 714 00:51:21,086 --> 00:51:23,652 He and his commanders saw no need to worry 715 00:51:23,753 --> 00:51:28,185 about the jungle-covered hills that overlooked his 11,000 men, 716 00:51:28,284 --> 00:51:31,185 dug in on the valley floor. 717 00:51:31,284 --> 00:51:35,518 The artillery commander was so confident of victory, 718 00:51:35,618 --> 00:51:39,653 he complained, "I have more guns than I need." 719 00:51:42,718 --> 00:51:45,352 General Giap saw his chance. 720 00:51:45,451 --> 00:51:49,917 "We decided to wipe out at all costs the whole enemy force 721 00:51:50,018 --> 00:51:52,952 at Dien Bien Phu," he remembered. 722 00:51:55,018 --> 00:51:58,752 To do it, he pulled off one of the greatest logistical feats 723 00:51:58,853 --> 00:52:00,784 in military history-- 724 00:52:00,885 --> 00:52:03,984 a feat that would be restaged in propaganda films 725 00:52:04,085 --> 00:52:07,284 and celebrated for decades. 726 00:52:07,384 --> 00:52:11,252 A quarter of a million civilian porters-- 727 00:52:11,353 --> 00:52:12,686 nearly half of them women-- 728 00:52:12,785 --> 00:52:17,585 moved everything he needed for a siege, from sacks of rice 729 00:52:17,685 --> 00:52:19,853 to disassembled artillery pieces, 730 00:52:19,951 --> 00:52:22,984 on foot through the jungle. 731 00:52:23,086 --> 00:52:27,852 Giap surrounded the valley with 50,000 soldiers 732 00:52:27,952 --> 00:52:33,085 and 200 big guns, dug-in and camouflaged so well 733 00:52:33,185 --> 00:52:37,752 they could not be spotted from the air. 734 00:52:39,452 --> 00:52:43,284 On March 13, 1954, 735 00:52:43,385 --> 00:52:45,618 Viet Minh artillery on the hillsides 736 00:52:45,717 --> 00:52:48,984 began raining down 50 shells a minute 737 00:52:49,085 --> 00:52:52,051 on the French troops huddled below. 738 00:52:54,417 --> 00:52:56,152 The airstrip was destroyed. 739 00:52:59,217 --> 00:53:02,284 The besieged troops could only be reinforced 740 00:53:02,384 --> 00:53:05,217 and resupplied by airdrop. 741 00:53:08,817 --> 00:53:10,519 The French artillery commander, 742 00:53:10,618 --> 00:53:15,585 who had underestimated his enemy, committed suicide. 743 00:53:15,685 --> 00:53:18,685 NEWSREEL NARRATOR: The airlift to Dien Bien Phu 744 00:53:18,785 --> 00:53:21,217 vital men and supplies for the heroic garrison 745 00:53:21,318 --> 00:53:22,885 that has defied the massed Viet Minh onslaughts 746 00:53:22,984 --> 00:53:24,052 for over six weeks. 747 00:53:24,152 --> 00:53:27,152 Today, Dien Bien Phu is a human dam 748 00:53:27,252 --> 00:53:29,152 trying to stem the red tide 749 00:53:29,253 --> 00:53:31,352 that threatens to engulf Southeast Asia. 750 00:53:33,019 --> 00:53:35,752 NARRATOR: The French government begged 751 00:53:35,853 --> 00:53:37,353 to intervene. 752 00:53:37,451 --> 00:53:40,752 He refused to act without Congressional approval 753 00:53:40,852 --> 00:53:43,717 and support from European allies. 754 00:53:43,818 --> 00:53:45,853 Britain said no 755 00:53:45,951 --> 00:53:49,718 and the Congress would not support unilateral action. 756 00:53:49,817 --> 00:53:51,085 JOHN F. KENNEDY: The communists 757 00:53:51,185 --> 00:53:53,752 under Ho Chi Minh are able to claim that they are fighting 758 00:53:53,852 --> 00:53:56,384 for independence and the French appear to be fighting 759 00:53:56,485 --> 00:53:58,753 for a maintain... maintenance of colonial rule. 760 00:53:58,852 --> 00:54:00,185 I therefore believe 761 00:54:00,284 --> 00:54:03,485 that before the United States moves in, in any degree, 762 00:54:03,585 --> 00:54:06,118 that independence must be granted to the people, 763 00:54:06,217 --> 00:54:07,885 that the people must support the struggle. 764 00:54:09,686 --> 00:54:13,619 NARRATOR: "I am convinced," Eisenhower 765 00:54:13,718 --> 00:54:18,551 "that no military victory is possible in this theater." 766 00:54:18,653 --> 00:54:21,284 Still, without consulting Congress, 767 00:54:21,384 --> 00:54:25,217 the president had secretly sent more American transport planes, 768 00:54:25,317 --> 00:54:30,984 their markings painted over and flown by civilian contractors, 769 00:54:31,086 --> 00:54:35,653 to help resupply the desperate French troops at Dien Bien Phu. 770 00:54:39,417 --> 00:54:41,585 GELB: Everyone understood 771 00:54:41,685 --> 00:54:45,217 Vietnam didn't mean very much. 772 00:54:45,317 --> 00:54:49,451 But they believed, I believed, if we lost it, 773 00:54:49,551 --> 00:54:52,384 that the rest of Asia would tumble to communism. 774 00:54:52,484 --> 00:54:57,284 EISENHOWER: You have broader considerations 775 00:54:57,385 --> 00:55:02,152 what you would call the falling domino principle. 776 00:55:02,253 --> 00:55:04,785 You have a row of dominoes set up, 777 00:55:04,884 --> 00:55:06,653 and you knock over the first one, 778 00:55:06,752 --> 00:55:10,618 and what will happen to the last one is the certainty 779 00:55:10,717 --> 00:55:13,618 that it will go over very quickly. 780 00:55:34,817 --> 00:55:40,852 NARRATOR: On the afternoon of May 7, 1954, 781 00:55:40,951 --> 00:55:46,086 the exhausted French forces at Dien Bien Phu surrendered. 782 00:55:48,686 --> 00:55:53,417 They had lost 8,000 men, killed, wounded, or missing. 783 00:55:56,284 --> 00:56:00,652 General Giap had lost three times as many, 784 00:56:00,752 --> 00:56:03,884 but he had won a great victory. 785 00:56:04,917 --> 00:56:08,752 NGUYEN THOI BUNG: 786 00:56:21,019 --> 00:56:25,885 NARRATOR: Even Duong Van Mai's parents 787 00:56:25,985 --> 00:56:28,019 DUONG VAN MAI: They were very proud 788 00:56:28,118 --> 00:56:30,752 that the Viet Minh had defeated the French, 789 00:56:30,853 --> 00:56:32,752 this great Western power. 790 00:56:32,852 --> 00:56:36,685 Admiration and respect on the one hand, 791 00:56:36,784 --> 00:56:39,018 but fear on the other hand. 792 00:56:39,119 --> 00:56:41,817 And fear was the stronger emotion. 793 00:56:43,519 --> 00:56:46,186 NARRATOR: "We have been caught 794 00:56:46,285 --> 00:56:49,984 Senate Minority Leader Lyndon Johnson said. 795 00:56:50,085 --> 00:56:55,086 "Today it is Indochina, tomorrow Asia may be in flames. 796 00:56:55,185 --> 00:57:01,284 And the day after, the Western Alliance will lie in ruins." 797 00:57:01,385 --> 00:57:04,352 DONALD GREGG: We should have seen it as 798 00:57:04,452 --> 00:57:07,551 in Southeast Asia, which it really was. 799 00:57:07,652 --> 00:57:10,018 But instead we saw it in Cold War terms, 800 00:57:10,119 --> 00:57:14,784 and we saw it as a defeat for the free world 801 00:57:14,884 --> 00:57:16,653 that was related to the rise of China. 802 00:57:16,752 --> 00:57:21,753 And it was a total misreading of a pivotal event, 803 00:57:21,852 --> 00:57:24,451 which cost us very dearly. 804 00:57:30,485 --> 00:57:32,452 JACK TOBIN: The former home of 805 00:57:32,551 --> 00:57:34,717 Geneva, Switzerland, where East is meeting West 806 00:57:34,818 --> 00:57:36,118 in the international conference 807 00:57:36,217 --> 00:57:40,685 that may decisively affect the political future of Asia. 808 00:57:40,784 --> 00:57:44,051 NARRATOR: The day after the fall 809 00:57:44,152 --> 00:57:47,817 diplomats from nine nations gathered in Geneva 810 00:57:47,917 --> 00:57:50,685 to settle the future of Vietnam. 811 00:57:50,785 --> 00:57:54,817 The talks dragged on for nearly two-and-a-half months. 812 00:57:57,852 --> 00:57:59,618 Despite their victory, 813 00:57:59,717 --> 00:58:03,385 Ho Chi Minh and General Giap could not keep fighting 814 00:58:03,484 --> 00:58:08,618 without more support from China and the Soviet Union. 815 00:58:08,717 --> 00:58:12,119 But China had lost a million men in Korea 816 00:58:12,217 --> 00:58:15,186 and did not want to become involved in another war 817 00:58:15,284 --> 00:58:16,852 along its border. 818 00:58:16,951 --> 00:58:22,685 The Soviet Union was hoping to ease tensions with the West. 819 00:58:22,784 --> 00:58:27,652 Both of Ho Chi Minh's communist patrons urged him to agree 820 00:58:27,752 --> 00:58:29,618 to a negotiated settlement, 821 00:58:29,717 --> 00:58:34,018 a partition like the one that had ended the Korean War. 822 00:58:34,118 --> 00:58:37,452 Ho had no option but to give in. 823 00:58:41,385 --> 00:58:44,152 In the end, no one was satisfied. 824 00:58:46,186 --> 00:58:51,152 Vietnam was temporarily to be divided at the 17th parallel. 825 00:58:51,252 --> 00:58:55,685 The 130,000 French-led troops stationed in the North 826 00:58:55,785 --> 00:58:57,852 were to withdraw to the South, 827 00:58:57,951 --> 00:59:01,852 and somewhere between 50,000 and 90,000 Viet Minh 828 00:59:01,951 --> 00:59:04,618 were to "re-group" to the North. 829 00:59:04,717 --> 00:59:06,485 The two halves would be separated 830 00:59:06,585 --> 00:59:10,885 by a demilitarized zone until an election could be held 831 00:59:10,984 --> 00:59:14,186 to reunify North and South Vietnam, 832 00:59:14,285 --> 00:59:19,417 an election everyone knew Ho Chi Minh would win. 833 00:59:21,884 --> 00:59:26,352 NGUYEN VAN TONG: 834 00:59:36,352 --> 00:59:38,884 NGUYEN THOI BUNG: 835 00:59:54,417 --> 00:59:55,951 KARL MARLANTES: We had started walking up 836 00:59:56,052 --> 00:59:57,917 and we had probably gotten about a third of the way up the hill 837 00:59:58,019 --> 00:59:59,519 and then they unleashed on us. 838 01:00:02,384 --> 01:00:04,518 We were in the middle of this horrible shit sandwich. 839 01:00:04,619 --> 01:00:06,618 That's what we called it. 840 01:00:11,718 --> 01:00:15,585 One of the things that I learned in the war is that 841 01:00:15,685 --> 01:00:19,284 we're not the top species on the planet because we're nice. 842 01:00:22,152 --> 01:00:25,284 People talk a lot about how well the military turns, you know, 843 01:00:25,384 --> 01:00:28,086 kids into, you know, killing machines and stuff. 844 01:00:28,185 --> 01:00:30,685 And I'll always argue that it's just finishing school. 845 01:00:39,352 --> 01:00:43,019 NEWSREEL NARRATOR: Braving the dangers of the open 846 01:00:43,118 --> 01:00:45,518 thousands of Roman Catholic and Buddhist faith 847 01:00:45,619 --> 01:00:47,884 have found life impossible under the communists. 848 01:00:47,985 --> 01:00:51,452 For them, it's freedom or nothing. 849 01:00:54,618 --> 01:00:56,585 NARRATOR: Under the Geneva Accords, 850 01:00:56,685 --> 01:00:59,518 civilians living in either half of Vietnam 851 01:00:59,619 --> 01:01:01,852 who wanted to relocate to the other 852 01:01:01,951 --> 01:01:04,951 would have 300 days to do so. 853 01:01:05,052 --> 01:01:08,951 DUONG VAN MAI: My mother and father 854 01:01:09,051 --> 01:01:11,051 and meet my sister Thang again 855 01:01:11,152 --> 01:01:13,485 because they knew Thang would come back. 856 01:01:13,585 --> 01:01:15,817 But on the other hand they couldn't risk that. 857 01:01:15,918 --> 01:01:20,785 They were convinced that when Ho Chi Minh and his government 858 01:01:20,885 --> 01:01:23,018 arrived in Hanoi, 859 01:01:23,118 --> 01:01:26,652 my father would be the first one to be killed 860 01:01:26,752 --> 01:01:28,618 and all of us would be persecuted. 861 01:01:31,352 --> 01:01:33,385 And I remember the day we left. 862 01:01:33,484 --> 01:01:36,752 I looked around and I thought, "I never come back here again." 863 01:01:39,119 --> 01:01:41,019 It was extremely traumatic. 864 01:01:41,118 --> 01:01:45,717 It was like the ground was suddenly cut from under you. 865 01:01:45,818 --> 01:01:51,284 NARRATOR: In the end, 866 01:01:51,384 --> 01:01:53,618 including more than half of all the Catholics 867 01:01:53,717 --> 01:01:54,984 living in the North, 868 01:01:55,085 --> 01:02:00,252 fled to the South, many of them aboard American ships. 869 01:02:04,619 --> 01:02:08,185 The United States hoped somehow to encourage the building 870 01:02:08,284 --> 01:02:10,519 of a legitimate government in the South. 871 01:02:12,653 --> 01:02:17,352 That government was now headed by Ngo Dinh Diem. 872 01:02:17,452 --> 01:02:20,119 Both a Roman Catholic and a Confucian 873 01:02:20,217 --> 01:02:22,318 in a largely Buddhist country, 874 01:02:22,417 --> 01:02:27,317 he was a celibate bachelor who had once planned to be a priest. 875 01:02:27,417 --> 01:02:33,518 GELB: The war for us really started 876 01:02:33,618 --> 01:02:38,652 or I would say the victim, of President Diem. 877 01:02:38,752 --> 01:02:43,685 We were going to help him turn South Vietnam into a democracy. 878 01:02:43,784 --> 01:02:45,284 That's what he said he wanted to do. 879 01:02:45,385 --> 01:02:46,352 And we believed him. 880 01:02:46,451 --> 01:02:48,784 NARRATOR: Like Ho Chi Minh, 881 01:02:48,884 --> 01:02:52,452 Diem had spent years abroad seeking support 882 01:02:52,551 --> 01:02:56,217 for his own brand of Vietnamese nationalism. 883 01:02:56,318 --> 01:02:59,717 He was a veteran politician whose loathing for the French 884 01:02:59,817 --> 01:03:03,585 was matched only by his hatred for the communists, 885 01:03:03,685 --> 01:03:07,352 who had imprisoned him and buried alive his eldest brother 886 01:03:07,451 --> 01:03:09,817 and his nephew. 887 01:03:09,918 --> 01:03:13,252 Diem was aloof, autocratic, 888 01:03:13,352 --> 01:03:16,619 mistrustful of anyone much beyond his own family. 889 01:03:16,717 --> 01:03:20,619 He also proved to be shrewd, resourceful, 890 01:03:20,718 --> 01:03:24,752 and skilled at exploiting the weaknesses of his opponents. 891 01:03:24,852 --> 01:03:30,785 But he faced a daunting task in creating a new country. 892 01:03:30,884 --> 01:03:33,884 The French, who still had thousands of troops 893 01:03:33,984 --> 01:03:37,451 stationed in the South, detested Diem. 894 01:03:37,552 --> 01:03:41,318 Several provinces were under the sway of religious sects 895 01:03:41,417 --> 01:03:43,784 with armies of their own. 896 01:03:43,884 --> 01:03:47,984 Tens of thousands of Viet Minh soldiers had gone north, 897 01:03:48,086 --> 01:03:50,185 but several thousand cadre-- 898 01:03:50,285 --> 01:03:53,618 trained and dedicated Communist Party workers-- 899 01:03:53,717 --> 01:03:59,653 had stayed behind to organize resistance in the countryside. 900 01:03:59,752 --> 01:04:03,818 And Saigon itself was ruled by the Binh Xuyen, 901 01:04:03,917 --> 01:04:07,317 a crime syndicate backed by the French. 902 01:04:07,417 --> 01:04:09,618 RUFUS PHILLIPS: And the French were behind 903 01:04:09,718 --> 01:04:11,118 sort of supporting them 904 01:04:11,218 --> 01:04:14,285 because they didn't want Diem to succeed. 905 01:04:14,384 --> 01:04:16,317 And that became the central contest. 906 01:04:18,352 --> 01:04:22,217 NARRATOR: Some in the CIA believed that 907 01:04:22,318 --> 01:04:24,317 of South Vietnam. 908 01:04:24,417 --> 01:04:26,352 Others were not so sure. 909 01:04:26,451 --> 01:04:28,585 "He is a messiah without a message," 910 01:04:28,686 --> 01:04:31,618 one diplomat reported to Washington. 911 01:04:31,717 --> 01:04:35,185 The U.S. ambassador agreed. 912 01:04:35,284 --> 01:04:38,585 On April 27, 1955, 913 01:04:38,686 --> 01:04:42,752 President Eisenhower decided to end American support 914 01:04:42,853 --> 01:04:45,417 for Diem's regime. 915 01:04:46,585 --> 01:04:49,785 But then Diem made an all-out assault 916 01:04:49,884 --> 01:04:52,185 on the Binh Xuyen syndicate. 917 01:04:54,585 --> 01:04:56,385 DUONG VAN MAI: Suddenly in the middle 918 01:04:56,484 --> 01:05:00,984 we heard gunfire and then we saw flames 919 01:05:01,085 --> 01:05:03,417 and the neighborhood was burning. 920 01:05:03,518 --> 01:05:06,317 MICHAEL FITZMAURICE: There are hundreds of dead 921 01:05:06,417 --> 01:05:09,317 as the street fighting continues for an entire week. 922 01:05:09,417 --> 01:05:11,384 For the United States, the situation presents 923 01:05:11,485 --> 01:05:12,652 a grave problem. 924 01:05:14,585 --> 01:05:17,552 Diem finally regains control of Saigon. 925 01:05:19,285 --> 01:05:23,551 NARRATOR: In the end, 926 01:05:23,652 --> 01:05:29,519 Eisenhower now saw no option but to stick with Diem. 927 01:05:29,618 --> 01:05:34,984 The French then announced their intention to withdraw completely 928 01:05:35,086 --> 01:05:41,217 from South Vietnam, ending nearly a century of occupation. 929 01:05:41,318 --> 01:05:46,284 PHILLIPS: Diem became wildly popular 930 01:05:46,384 --> 01:05:48,884 the nationalist cause in the South. 931 01:05:48,984 --> 01:05:50,884 He succeeded in getting the French 932 01:05:50,985 --> 01:05:52,917 out of Vietnam all the way. 933 01:05:53,018 --> 01:05:56,484 And Ho Chi Minh had only got them out of the northern half. 934 01:05:56,585 --> 01:06:02,384 NARRATOR: Flush with victory, Diem called 935 01:06:02,485 --> 01:06:07,884 The CIA warned him not to meddle too much with the returns. 936 01:06:09,086 --> 01:06:10,884 But when the ballots were counted, 937 01:06:10,985 --> 01:06:16,752 Diem claimed to have won 98.2% of the vote. 938 01:06:18,652 --> 01:06:24,186 On October 26, 1955, Ngo Dinh Diem named himself 939 01:06:24,284 --> 01:06:29,917 the first president of the brand-new Republic of Vietnam. 940 01:06:30,019 --> 01:06:33,818 The election to reunify the North and South 941 01:06:33,917 --> 01:06:37,485 that had been promised at Geneva would never be held. 942 01:06:37,585 --> 01:06:43,617 GELB: He became our ally, 943 01:06:43,718 --> 01:06:46,218 because the goal of preventing 944 01:06:46,318 --> 01:06:48,418 the communists from taking over the South 945 01:06:48,518 --> 01:06:55,051 was so strong that we couldn't afford for him to lose. 946 01:06:55,152 --> 01:06:57,885 So Diem started to boss us around. 947 01:06:57,984 --> 01:06:59,985 And this was a typical relationship. 948 01:07:00,085 --> 01:07:02,452 You need any ally you believe 949 01:07:02,551 --> 01:07:05,484 to be the centerpiece of your foreign policy. 950 01:07:05,586 --> 01:07:07,085 They understand that right away. 951 01:07:07,184 --> 01:07:09,852 And the tail wags the dog. 952 01:07:14,319 --> 01:07:16,586 ED HERLIHY: From the Far East comes 953 01:07:16,685 --> 01:07:19,353 President Ngo Dinh Diem of Vietnam is accorded 954 01:07:19,452 --> 01:07:22,385 one of President Eisenhower's rare airport greetings, 955 01:07:22,484 --> 01:07:24,885 as he arrives for a four-day state visit. 956 01:07:24,984 --> 01:07:27,417 President Diem, one of America's staunchest allies 957 01:07:27,518 --> 01:07:28,718 in Southeast Asia, 958 01:07:28,818 --> 01:07:31,453 will seek an increase in aid to shore up his country 959 01:07:31,552 --> 01:07:33,353 against increasing communist pressure, 960 01:07:33,452 --> 01:07:38,917 a request to which the president lends a sympathetic ear. 961 01:07:39,019 --> 01:07:42,953 NARRATOR: Most politicians, Democrats 962 01:07:43,051 --> 01:07:44,952 now seemed to share the changing views 963 01:07:45,051 --> 01:07:46,886 of Senator John F. Kennedy. 964 01:07:46,984 --> 01:07:50,551 South Vietnam is "our offspring," he said. 965 01:07:50,653 --> 01:07:52,251 "We cannot abandon it." 966 01:07:52,352 --> 01:07:56,617 If it fell, the United States would be "held responsible 967 01:07:56,718 --> 01:08:01,018 and our prestige in Asia will sink to a new low." 968 01:08:01,117 --> 01:08:06,452 There had never before been a South Vietnamese nation, 969 01:08:06,552 --> 01:08:09,785 but Americans, who had rebuilt much of their own country 970 01:08:09,885 --> 01:08:13,485 during the New Deal and had helped rebuild Western Europe 971 01:08:13,585 --> 01:08:14,819 through the Marshall Plan, 972 01:08:14,917 --> 01:08:19,585 were convinced they could build one nonetheless. 973 01:08:21,752 --> 01:08:25,652 Eisenhower ordered scores of American civilians 974 01:08:25,752 --> 01:08:29,453 to South Vietnam, full of plans for economic development 975 01:08:29,551 --> 01:08:33,284 meant to win, he hoped, the hearts and minds 976 01:08:33,386 --> 01:08:35,085 of the Vietnamese people. 977 01:08:38,051 --> 01:08:41,152 But those civilians would always be outnumbered 978 01:08:41,252 --> 01:08:42,752 by military advisors, 979 01:08:42,852 --> 01:08:47,251 with orders to modernize, train, and equip Diem's forces, 980 01:08:47,352 --> 01:08:53,117 now called the Army of the Republic of Vietnam-- the ARVN. 981 01:08:53,218 --> 01:08:58,653 Some ARVN officers found American methods unsuited 982 01:08:58,751 --> 01:09:01,385 to the guerrilla war they expected to wage 983 01:09:01,485 --> 01:09:03,617 against the communists. 984 01:09:03,717 --> 01:09:06,385 Most American military advisors were veterans 985 01:09:06,484 --> 01:09:07,784 of the war in Korea, 986 01:09:07,885 --> 01:09:11,552 determined to prepare South Vietnamese forces 987 01:09:11,652 --> 01:09:17,085 to slow a conventional invasion from the North. 988 01:09:17,184 --> 01:09:20,784 But no one in North Vietnam 989 01:09:20,885 --> 01:09:24,417 was planning a conventional invasion. 990 01:09:24,518 --> 01:09:28,417 Ho Chi Minh was focused on rebuilding his country, 991 01:09:28,518 --> 01:09:32,385 devastated by more than a decade of war. 992 01:09:34,918 --> 01:09:38,453 The communists imposed brutal land reforms 993 01:09:38,551 --> 01:09:40,717 modeled on those underway in China 994 01:09:40,819 --> 01:09:45,484 with a ruthlessness that left thousands of people dead, 995 01:09:45,585 --> 01:09:48,952 including not only landlords who had sided with the French, 996 01:09:49,051 --> 01:09:53,319 but also many villagers who had fought with the Viet Minh. 997 01:09:55,984 --> 01:09:59,717 Ho Chi Minh was still determined to reunite Vietnam. 998 01:09:59,818 --> 01:10:02,417 But he worried that if he took direct military action 999 01:10:02,518 --> 01:10:04,019 against the South, 1000 01:10:04,118 --> 01:10:08,184 the United States would be drawn more deeply into the struggle. 1001 01:10:08,285 --> 01:10:11,717 He cautioned his comrades in the South to put their faith 1002 01:10:11,819 --> 01:10:15,586 in political agitation and avoid violence. 1003 01:10:18,018 --> 01:10:19,984 But that message rang hollow 1004 01:10:20,086 --> 01:10:22,852 among embattled Southern revolutionaries 1005 01:10:22,952 --> 01:10:24,653 struggling to survive 1006 01:10:24,751 --> 01:10:29,652 under Diem's increasingly harsh regime. 1007 01:10:29,752 --> 01:10:34,284 In a campaign he called "Denounce the Communists," 1008 01:10:34,385 --> 01:10:37,684 Diem had imprisoned tens of thousands of citizens 1009 01:10:37,785 --> 01:10:43,918 without trial and ordered the executions of hundreds more. 1010 01:10:44,018 --> 01:10:47,917 Now, the communists took matters into their own hands 1011 01:10:48,019 --> 01:10:51,684 and began attacking South Vietnamese officials. 1012 01:10:53,117 --> 01:10:58,051 LE QUAN CONG: 1013 01:11:31,385 --> 01:11:35,453 NARRATOR: As violence in South Vietnam 1014 01:11:35,551 --> 01:11:38,184 new leaders emerged in Hanoi. 1015 01:11:38,285 --> 01:11:41,652 Ho Chi Minh would remain the face of the revolution 1016 01:11:41,752 --> 01:11:45,618 around the world, but he now began to share power 1017 01:11:45,717 --> 01:11:48,885 with men who were growing impatient with his caution, 1018 01:11:48,985 --> 01:11:53,518 men about whom Americans knew almost nothing. 1019 01:11:55,652 --> 01:11:58,586 The most important proved to be a carpenter's son 1020 01:11:58,684 --> 01:12:04,784 from Quang Tri province in the South named Le Duan. 1021 01:12:04,886 --> 01:12:08,353 He had helped found the Indochinese Communist Party, 1022 01:12:08,452 --> 01:12:11,917 survived nearly ten years in a French prison, 1023 01:12:12,018 --> 01:12:15,118 and proved himself a shrewd political infighter 1024 01:12:15,217 --> 01:12:18,653 as he rose to become First Secretary of the party. 1025 01:12:20,552 --> 01:12:24,552 NGUYEN NGOC: 1026 01:12:53,417 --> 01:12:57,484 NARRATOR: By 1959, Le Duan 1027 01:12:57,585 --> 01:13:01,518 were gaining influence within the North Vietnamese Politburo 1028 01:13:01,618 --> 01:13:04,218 and beginning to change its policy. 1029 01:13:04,318 --> 01:13:08,085 They now argued that Hanoi should do everything 1030 01:13:08,184 --> 01:13:11,285 within its power to help Southern revolutionaries 1031 01:13:11,385 --> 01:13:13,684 remove Diem by force. 1032 01:13:15,785 --> 01:13:20,019 BUI DIEM : 1033 01:13:35,318 --> 01:13:38,852 NARRATOR: Now, bands of 40 to 50 1034 01:13:38,952 --> 01:13:42,251 began slipping back home into South Vietnam, 1035 01:13:42,352 --> 01:13:46,117 following jungle paths hacked through the Laotian mountains 1036 01:13:46,217 --> 01:13:50,718 that the Americans would soon call the Ho Chi Minh Trail. 1037 01:13:56,717 --> 01:13:59,918 Violence against the Diem regime steadily accelerated. 1038 01:14:09,852 --> 01:14:14,984 On the evening of July 8, 1959, at Bien Hoa, 1039 01:14:15,085 --> 01:14:16,918 20 miles northeast of Saigon, 1040 01:14:17,018 --> 01:14:21,153 six American military advisors were watching a movie 1041 01:14:21,252 --> 01:14:22,784 in their mess hall. 1042 01:14:24,484 --> 01:14:26,519 Viet Minh guerrillas, who had crept silently 1043 01:14:26,617 --> 01:14:30,184 into the compound, opened fire through the windows. 1044 01:14:35,852 --> 01:14:38,751 Major Dale Buis from Pender, Nebraska, 1045 01:14:38,852 --> 01:14:40,952 and Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand 1046 01:14:41,051 --> 01:14:44,453 from Copperas Cove, Texas, were killed. 1047 01:14:46,653 --> 01:14:50,952 They were the first American soldiers to die from enemy fire 1048 01:14:51,052 --> 01:14:52,953 in the Vietnam War. 1049 01:14:54,484 --> 01:14:57,052 JOHN KENNEDY: We must prove all over again, 1050 01:14:57,152 --> 01:15:02,885 to a watching world, as we sit on a most conspicuous stage, 1051 01:15:02,984 --> 01:15:04,586 whether this nation, 1052 01:15:04,685 --> 01:15:08,784 conceived as it is with its freedom of choice, 1053 01:15:08,885 --> 01:15:13,452 its breadth of opportunity, its range of alternatives, 1054 01:15:13,551 --> 01:15:15,918 can compete with the single-minded advance 1055 01:15:16,018 --> 01:15:17,684 of the communist system. 1056 01:15:17,784 --> 01:15:23,417 NARRATOR: On November 8, 1960, John 1057 01:15:23,518 --> 01:15:26,153 president of the United States. 1058 01:15:26,251 --> 01:15:29,984 His vice president was Senator Lyndon Johnson. 1059 01:15:30,086 --> 01:15:34,051 They had narrowly beaten Vice President Richard Nixon 1060 01:15:34,152 --> 01:15:37,385 and his running mate, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. 1061 01:15:38,852 --> 01:15:41,784 During the campaign, both Kennedy and Nixon 1062 01:15:41,886 --> 01:15:46,318 had pledged to hold the line against international communism 1063 01:15:46,417 --> 01:15:49,018 wherever it seemed to be a threat. 1064 01:15:49,117 --> 01:15:53,018 But very few Americans knew or cared about 1065 01:15:53,117 --> 01:15:55,452 what was going on in Vietnam. 1066 01:15:57,217 --> 01:15:59,417 Six weeks after Kennedy's election, 1067 01:15:59,519 --> 01:16:02,484 at a remote jungle village called Tan Lap 1068 01:16:02,586 --> 01:16:04,417 near the Cambodian border, 1069 01:16:04,518 --> 01:16:08,352 representatives of southern revolutionary groups 1070 01:16:08,452 --> 01:16:12,551 met to form a new organization to replace the Viet Minh, 1071 01:16:12,653 --> 01:16:15,518 dedicated to overthrowing Ngo Dinh Diem 1072 01:16:15,617 --> 01:16:19,518 and ousting the foreigners supporting him. 1073 01:16:19,617 --> 01:16:25,117 Behind the scenes, Le Duan and his communist comrades in Hanoi 1074 01:16:25,217 --> 01:16:29,217 were orchestrating everything. 1075 01:16:29,318 --> 01:16:31,018 The new organization would be called 1076 01:16:31,117 --> 01:16:35,352 the National Liberation Front-- the NLF. 1077 01:16:36,952 --> 01:16:40,018 The armed wing of the NLF was called 1078 01:16:40,118 --> 01:16:42,785 the People's Liberation Armed Forces, 1079 01:16:42,885 --> 01:16:46,318 but its enemies in Saigon and Washington preferred 1080 01:16:46,418 --> 01:16:48,453 a more disparaging term. 1081 01:16:48,551 --> 01:16:51,918 In their eyes, the revolutionaries were 1082 01:16:52,018 --> 01:16:55,417 Communist Traitors to the Vietnamese Nation-- 1083 01:16:55,518 --> 01:16:57,018 the Viet Cong. 1084 01:17:10,184 --> 01:17:14,917 HUY DUC: 1085 01:17:47,153 --> 01:17:49,551 JOHN KENNEDY: Let every nation know, 1086 01:17:49,652 --> 01:17:55,252 whether it wishes us well or ill, 1087 01:17:55,352 --> 01:18:01,386 that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, 1088 01:18:01,485 --> 01:18:06,353 meet any hardship, support any friend, 1089 01:18:06,452 --> 01:18:11,453 oppose any foe, to assure the survival 1090 01:18:11,552 --> 01:18:12,917 and the success of liberty. 1091 01:18:25,284 --> 01:18:27,752 TIM O'BRIEN: For me, I'd always 1092 01:18:27,852 --> 01:18:32,352 as charging enemy bunkers or standing up under fire. 1093 01:18:32,452 --> 01:18:38,385 But just to walk, day after day from village to village 1094 01:18:38,484 --> 01:18:43,019 and through the paddies and up into the mountains, 1095 01:18:43,117 --> 01:18:47,284 just to get up in the morning and look out at the land 1096 01:18:47,385 --> 01:18:50,984 and think, "In a few minutes I'll be walking out there 1097 01:18:51,085 --> 01:18:54,217 "and will my corpse be there, over there? 1098 01:18:54,318 --> 01:18:55,751 Will I lose a leg out there?" 1099 01:18:57,551 --> 01:19:01,318 Just to walk felt incredibly brave. 1100 01:19:01,417 --> 01:19:04,185 I would sometimes look at my legs as I walked, 1101 01:19:04,284 --> 01:19:06,684 thinking, how am I doing this? 1102 01:19:16,952 --> 01:19:20,684 ♪ Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son? ♪ 1103 01:19:23,184 --> 01:19:27,386 ♪ And where have you been, my darling young one? ♪ 1104 01:19:30,184 --> 01:19:33,952 ♪ I've stumbled on the side of 12 misty mountains ♪ 1105 01:19:36,985 --> 01:19:41,117 ♪ I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways ♪ 1106 01:19:43,551 --> 01:19:47,585 ♪ I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests ♪ 1107 01:19:49,985 --> 01:19:54,453 ♪ I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans ♪ 1108 01:19:56,551 --> 01:20:01,085 ♪ I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard ♪ 1109 01:20:03,285 --> 01:20:06,518 ♪ And it's a hard, it's a hard ♪ 1110 01:20:06,617 --> 01:20:10,652 ♪ It's a hard, it's a hard ♪ 1111 01:20:10,752 --> 01:20:15,984 ♪ It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall ♪ 1112 01:20:21,352 --> 01:20:25,484 ♪ Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son? ♪ 1113 01:20:28,085 --> 01:20:31,852 ♪ And what did you see, my darling young one? ♪ 1114 01:20:34,717 --> 01:20:39,153 ♪ I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it ♪ 1115 01:20:41,417 --> 01:20:45,152 ♪ I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it ♪ 1116 01:20:48,118 --> 01:20:52,085 ♪ I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin' ♪ 1117 01:20:54,717 --> 01:20:58,717 ♪ I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin' ♪ 1118 01:21:01,518 --> 01:21:05,118 ♪ I saw a white ladder all covered with water ♪ 1119 01:21:08,051 --> 01:21:11,917 ♪ I saw 10,000 talkers whose tongues were all broken ♪ 1120 01:21:14,784 --> 01:21:19,617 ♪ I saw guns with sharp swords in the hands of young children ♪ 1121 01:21:19,717 --> 01:21:22,952 ♪ And it's a hard, it's a hard ♪ 1122 01:21:23,052 --> 01:21:26,918 ♪ It's a hard, and it's a hard ♪ 1123 01:21:27,018 --> 01:21:32,484 ♪ It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall ♪ 1124 01:21:34,853 --> 01:21:38,284 ♪ And it's a hard, it's a hard ♪ 1125 01:21:38,385 --> 01:21:41,853 ♪ It's a hard, and it's a hard ♪ 1126 01:21:41,952 --> 01:21:47,117 ♪ It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall. ♪ 1127 01:21:53,353 --> 01:21:59,319 Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH, access.wgbh.org 1128 01:22:00,385 --> 01:22:01,585 ANNOUNCER: LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FILM 1129 01:22:01,585 --> 01:22:04,452 AND FIND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES AT PBS.ORG/VIETNAMWAR 1130 01:22:04,452 --> 01:22:08,386 AND JOIN THE CONVERSATION USING HASHTAG VIETNAMWARPBS. 1131 01:22:08,386 --> 01:22:09,852 "THE VIETNAM WAR" IS AVAILABLE 1132 01:22:09,852 --> 01:22:11,519 ON BLU-RAY AND DVD. 1133 01:22:11,519 --> 01:22:13,185 THE COMPANION BOOK, SOUNDTRACK, 1134 01:22:13,185 --> 01:22:14,652 AND ORIGINAL SCORE FROM THE FILM 1135 01:22:14,652 --> 01:22:15,785 ARE ALSO AVAILABLE. 1136 01:22:15,785 --> 01:22:17,886 TO ORDER, VISIT SHOPPBS.ORG 1137 01:22:17,886 --> 01:22:20,352 OR CALL 1-800-PLAY-PBS. 1138 01:22:20,352 --> 01:22:21,784 EPISODES OF THIS SERIES ALSO 1139 01:22:21,784 --> 01:22:22,885 AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD 1140 01:22:22,885 --> 01:22:23,984 FROM iTUNES. 1141 01:22:27,252 --> 01:22:29,386 ANNOUNCER: BANK OF AMERICA PROUDLY SUPPORTS 1142 01:22:29,386 --> 01:22:34,284 KEN BURNS' AND LYNN NOVICK'S FILM "THE VIETNAM WAR" 1143 01:22:34,284 --> 01:22:36,684 BECAUSE FOSTERING DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES 1144 01:22:36,684 --> 01:22:39,284 AND CIVIL DISCOURSE AROUND IMPORTANT ISSUES 1145 01:22:39,284 --> 01:22:41,586 FURTHERS PROGRESS, EQUALITY, 1146 01:22:41,586 --> 01:22:43,585 AND A MORE CONNECTED SOCIETY. 1147 01:22:48,051 --> 01:22:52,085 GO TO BANKOFAMERICA.COM/ BETTERCONNECTED TO LEARN MORE. 1148 01:22:55,551 --> 01:22:56,984 ANNOUNCER: MAJOR SUPPORT FOR "THE VIETNAM WAR" 1149 01:22:56,984 --> 01:23:00,484 WAS PROVIDED BY MEMBERS OF THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY, 1150 01:23:00,484 --> 01:23:04,452 INCLUDING JONATHAN AND JEANNIE LAVINE, 1151 01:23:04,452 --> 01:23:07,352 DIANE AND HAL BRIERLEY, 1152 01:23:07,352 --> 01:23:09,752 AMY AND DAVID ABRAMS, 1153 01:23:09,752 --> 01:23:12,251 JOHN AND CATHERINE DEBS, 1154 01:23:12,251 --> 01:23:15,217 THE FULLERTON FAMILY CHARITABLE FUND, 1155 01:23:15,217 --> 01:23:17,284 THE MONTRONE FAMILY, 1156 01:23:17,284 --> 01:23:19,617 LYNDA AND STEWART RESNICK, 1157 01:23:19,617 --> 01:23:22,385 THE PERRY AND DONNA GOLKIN FAMILY FOUNDATION, 1158 01:23:22,385 --> 01:23:23,385 THE LYNCH FOUNDATION, 1159 01:23:23,385 --> 01:23:26,251 THE ROGER AND ROSEMARY ENRICO FOUNDATION, 1160 01:23:26,251 --> 01:23:29,684 AND BY THESE ADDITIONAL FUNDERS. 1161 01:23:29,684 --> 01:23:31,585 MAJOR FUNDING WAS ALSO PROVIDED 1162 01:23:31,585 --> 01:23:33,318 BY DAVID H. KOCH... 1163 01:23:35,617 --> 01:23:37,818 THE BLAVATNIK FAMILY FOUNDATION... 1164 01:23:40,152 --> 01:23:42,585 THE PARK FOUNDATION, 1165 01:23:42,585 --> 01:23:44,751 THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES, 1166 01:23:44,751 --> 01:23:46,952 THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS, 1167 01:23:46,952 --> 01:23:49,617 THE JOHN S. AND JAMES L. KNIGHT FOUNDATION, 1168 01:23:49,617 --> 01:23:52,386 THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION, 1169 01:23:52,386 --> 01:23:54,985 THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS FOUNDATIONS, 1170 01:23:54,985 --> 01:23:57,185 THE FORD FOUNDATION JUSTFILMS, 1171 01:23:57,185 --> 01:23:58,385 BY THE CORPORATION 1172 01:23:58,385 --> 01:23:59,617 FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING, 1173 01:23:59,617 --> 01:24:01,585 AND BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU. 1174 01:24:01,585 --> 01:24:02,717 THANK YOU.