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("With God on Our Side"
by Bob Dylan playing)

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DYLAN:
♪ Oh, my name,
it is nothin' ♪

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JEAN-MARIE CROCKER:
Well, I wanted to
name him after his dad,

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Denton Winslow Crocker.

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So that was the name
we chose.

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He was a colicky little baby.

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And, uh, so we were up
night and day with him.

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And my husband was
a wonderful dad

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and very loving and attentive.

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He'd walk the floor with him.

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And then he said one day,
"He's a regular little mogul

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the way he rules our lives."

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So that's where the name
came from.

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We called him Mogie.

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NARRATOR:
Mogie Crocker was born
June 3, 1947,

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the oldest of four children.

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His father was
a biology teacher,

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and Mogie was raised
in college towns:

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Ithaca, Amherst, and finally
Saratoga Springs,

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to which the family moved
in 1960, when he was 13.

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My mother read books
to all of us.

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My brother was
definitely the one

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who probably gravitated
towards them more than I did.

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He really feasted on books.

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NARRATOR:
Mogie was an unusual boy.

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Intelligent, independent-minded,
and too nearsighted

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to do well at team sports,

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he loved books about American
history and American heroes.

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At 12, he started a diary

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in which he kept track
of Cold War events.

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"I hate Reds!" he wrote,

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and he admired most those
who had proved willing

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to sacrifice themselves
for a cause.

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President John F. Kennedy's
call for every American

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to ask what he or she could do
for their country

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had mirrored ideas he'd held
since he was a small boy.

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One evening when
I was reading to Denton

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<i>before he went to sleep,
I chose a passage fromHenry V,</i>

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which is, "He today that sheds
his blood with me

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"shall be my brother.

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"And gentlemen in England
now a-bed

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"shall think themselves
accurs'd

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"they were not here and hold
their manhood cheap

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while any speaks that fought
with us upon St. Crispin's Day."

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(distant bombs echoing)

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DYLAN:
♪ If another war comes...

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JEAN-MARIE CROCKER:
I think that it was
that sort of thing

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that made Denton want to be

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part of something important
and brave.

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DYLAN:
♪ With God on their side.

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("With God on Our Side"
continues)

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LYNDON JOHNSON:
I just stayed awake last night
thinking about this thing.

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The more I think of it,
I don't know what in the hell...

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it looks like to me we're
getting into another Korea.

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It just worries
the hell out of me.

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I don't see what we can ever
hope to get out of there with

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once we're committed.

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I don't think it's worth
fighting for

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and I don't think
we can get out.

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And it's just the biggest
damn mess I ever saw.

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McGEORGE BUNDY:
It is, it's an awful mess.

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JOHNSON:
I just thought about ordering
those kids in there,

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and what in the hell am I
ordering them out there for?

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BUNDY:
One thing that
has occurred to me...

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JOHNSON:
What the hell
is Vietnam worth to me?

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What is it worth
to this country?

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BUNDY:
Yeah, yeah.

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JOHNSON:
Now, of course, if you start
running the communists,

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they may just chase you right
into your own kitchen.

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BUNDY:
Yeah. That's the trouble.

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And that is what the rest of
that half of the world

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is going to think if this thing
comes apart on us.

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LYNDON JOHNSON:
It's damned easy
to get in a war,

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but it's going to be awfully
hard to ever extricate yourself

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if you get in.

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BUNDY:
It's very easy...

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JOHNSON:
I'd like to hear Walter and
McNamara to evaluate this thing.

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BUNDY:
To debate it?

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JOHNSON:
Yeah.

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BUNDY:
All right,
what's a possible time...?

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NARRATOR:
Tragedy had brought Lyndon
Johnson to the presidency

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in November of 1963.

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And he would not feel himself
fully in charge

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until he had faced the voters
the following year.

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But his ambitions for his
country were as great

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as those of his hero,
Franklin Roosevelt.

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During his years
in the White House,

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he would lead the struggle
to win passage

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of more than 200 important
pieces of legislation--

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the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
the Voting Rights Act of 1965,

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federal aid to education,
Head Start, Medicare,

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and a whole series of bills
aimed at ending poverty

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in America,
all intended to create

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what he called
"The Great Society."

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In foreign affairs,
Johnson was less self-assured.

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"Foreigners are not like
the folks I'm used to,"

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he once said.

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To deal with them,
he retained in office

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all of John Kennedy's
top advisors--

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Dean Rusk at State,

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Robert McNamara at Defense,

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McGeorge Bundy as his
National Security Advisor.

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"I need you," he told them,
more than his predecessor had.

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Publicly, Johnson pledged

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that "This nation will keep its
commitments

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from South Vietnam
to West Berlin."

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But privately,
Vietnam filled him with dread.

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"It's going to be
hell in a handbasket out there,"

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his ambassador told him.

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"I want the South Vietnamese
to get off their butts

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"and get out into those jungles

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and whip the hell out of some
communists," the president said.

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"And then I want 'em
to leave me alone,

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"because I've got some
bigger things to do

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right here at home."

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Johnson had opposed the military
coup that had overthrown

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and murdered South Vietnamese
president Ngo Dinh Diem,

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fearing it would make
a bad situation worse.

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It had.

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(gunfire, shouting)

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The National Liberation Front--
the Viet Cong--

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was making coordinated attacks
throughout the countryside,

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some 400 of them
in just two weeks.

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NARRATOR:
An estimated 40% of the South
Vietnamese countryside,

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and more than 50%
of the people,

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were effectively
in the hands of the Viet Cong.

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And the Vietnamese generals who
had overthrown Ngo Dinh Diem

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were bickering among themselves.

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The assassination of Ngo
Dinh Diem set in motion

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a series of coups.

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Each government was less
effective than the one before.

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NARRATOR:
In January 1964,

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with U.S. encouragement,

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General Nguyen Khanh
staged yet another coup.

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In March, Johnson sent McNamara
to Vietnam with instructions

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to show the people that Khanh
was "our boy."

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SAM WILSON:
Johnson said, "Let's get him out
and get him speaking to people,

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"and let McNamara
go with him as well

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"so that people can see
that the United States

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is solidly behind this man."

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We fully support the people
of South Vietnam.

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BUI DIEM (speaking English):

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When Khanh gave a tedious, long,
laborious speech ending up with,

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"Vietnam (speaking Vietnamese),
Vietnam (speaking Vietnamese),

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Vietnam a thousand years."

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McNamara leaned over
to the microphone and said...

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(attempting to repeat
Vietnamese phrase)

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BUI DIEM:

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(McNamara attempting to repeat
Vietnamese phrase)

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What he was saying
was something like,

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"The little duck,
he wants to lie down."

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(attempting to repeat
Vietnamese phrase)

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WILSON:
He wasn't aware
of the tonal difference.

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And McNamara grabbed one fist
and held them up.

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And the crowd practically

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disintegrated on
the cobblestones.

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NARRATOR:
"No more of this coup shit,"

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President Johnson
told his advisors.

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But Khanh, too, lacked
popular legitimacy,

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and other generals
continued to jockey for power.

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Washington turned a deaf ear
to Buddhist calls

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for the genuinely
representative government

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they'd hoped they'd get
when Diem was overthrown.

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Between January 1964
and June of 1965,

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there would be eight
different governments.

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All of their leaders were so
close to the Americans

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that they were seen as puppets.

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(shouting, whistling)

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One weary Johnson aide suggested

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that the national symbol
of South Vietnam

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should be a turnstile.

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MURRAY FROMSON:
These demonstrating students
seem to symbolize

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the kind of anarchy that is
descending on Saigon these days.

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This kind of political
backbiting is having

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serious consequences
in the countryside,

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for until a strong government
begins to function

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here in Saigon,

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the war against the communists
will continue to founder.

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DONG SI NGUYEN:

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NARRATOR:
Ho Chi Minh was still a beloved
figure in North Vietnam,

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still concerned that his country
remained fragile,

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still wary that stepping up
the conflict in the South

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might force the Americans to
take a still more active role.

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But Ho now shared power with
younger, more impatient leaders.

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There had been change and
turmoil in North Vietnam, too,

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just as there had been
in Saigon and Washington,

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though Americans knew
almost nothing about it.

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HUY DUC:

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NARRATOR:
At the Ninth Party Plenum
that began in Hanoi

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on November 22, 1963,

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the day President Kennedy
was killed in Dallas,

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the Politburo had argued over
how best to proceed in the war.

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North Vietnam's
two communist patrons,

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the Soviet Union and China, were
giving them conflicting advice.

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NGUYEN NGOC:

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NARRATOR:
In two weeks of sometimes
bitter debate,

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00:12:03,900 --> 00:12:06,733
Ho Chi Minh, who favored
the Soviet strategy,

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was outmaneuvered by party
First Secretary Le Duan,

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who sided with the Chinese.

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00:12:14,266 --> 00:12:19,866
NGUYEN NGOC:

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NARRATOR:
Le Duan believed
that with Diem gone,

202
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and the Saigon government
in disarray,

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it was time to move quickly
in 1964.

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He proposed a two-phase plan
for victory in South Vietnam.

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00:12:49,233 --> 00:12:51,866
The first phase would destroy
ARVN forces

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00:12:51,966 --> 00:12:54,733
through big,
"decisive battles";

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00:12:54,833 --> 00:12:58,533
the second, an attack on
the cities, Le Duan believed,

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00:12:58,633 --> 00:13:02,433
would then set off
popular revolts within them.

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00:13:02,533 --> 00:13:04,566
Party leaders and others

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00:13:04,666 --> 00:13:07,166
suspected of having opposed
the plan

211
00:13:07,266 --> 00:13:10,566
were denounced
as "revisionists," demoted,

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00:13:10,666 --> 00:13:12,966
dismissed, imprisoned.

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00:13:13,066 --> 00:13:16,633
Hundreds were sent
to "re-education camps."

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00:13:16,733 --> 00:13:21,733
"Uncle Ho wavers," Le Duan said,
"but I have only one goal--

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00:13:21,833 --> 00:13:23,600
final victory."

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00:13:26,066 --> 00:13:27,766
WOMAN:
Secretary McNamara on line 0.

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JOHNSON:
Bob?

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00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:30,500
McNAMARA:
Yes, Mr. President?

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JOHNSON:
I hate to bother you, but...

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McNAMARA:
No trouble at all.

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JOHNSON:
Tell me, have we got anybody

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00:13:34,800 --> 00:13:37,666
that's got a military mind that
can give us some military plans

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00:13:37,766 --> 00:13:39,333
for winning that war?

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Let's get some more
of something, my friend,

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00:13:41,500 --> 00:13:42,933
because I'm going to have
a heart attack

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if you don't get me something.

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00:13:44,233 --> 00:13:46,333
We need somebody over there
that can get us

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00:13:46,433 --> 00:13:47,800
some better plans than we got,

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00:13:47,900 --> 00:13:50,833
because what we got is what
we've had since '54.

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00:13:50,933 --> 00:13:52,433
We're not getting it done.

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00:13:52,533 --> 00:13:53,933
We're-we're losing.

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McNAMARA:
Well, it's one reason
I want to go back.

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00:13:56,133 --> 00:13:57,333
Kick 'em in the tail
a little bit

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00:13:57,433 --> 00:13:58,433
will help here at this point.

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JOHNSON:
Yeah.

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What I want is somebody
to lay up some plans

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00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:04,966
to trap these guys
and whup hell out of 'em.

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00:14:05,066 --> 00:14:06,233
Kill some of 'em.

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00:14:06,333 --> 00:14:07,900
That's what I want to do.

240
00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:10,000
McNAMARA:
I'll try and bring
something back

241
00:14:10,100 --> 00:14:11,033
that will meet
that objective.

242
00:14:11,133 --> 00:14:12,466
JOHNSON:
Okay, Bob.

243
00:14:12,566 --> 00:14:13,600
McNAMARA:
Thank you.

244
00:14:13,700 --> 00:14:14,666
(phone hangs up)

245
00:14:16,366 --> 00:14:19,233
NARRATOR:
When his counselors
urged him to do so,

246
00:14:19,333 --> 00:14:23,533
Johnson increased the number
of American military personnel

247
00:14:23,633 --> 00:14:28,566
from 16,000 to more than 23,000
by the end of the year.

248
00:14:28,666 --> 00:14:31,700
But he wanted his own team
in Saigon.

249
00:14:31,800 --> 00:14:34,233
He replaced Henry Cabot Lodge,

250
00:14:34,333 --> 00:14:37,866
making General Maxwell Taylor
his ambassador,

251
00:14:37,966 --> 00:14:42,666
and selected 49-year-old
General William Westmoreland,

252
00:14:42,766 --> 00:14:46,500
a decorated commander
from WWII and Korea,

253
00:14:46,600 --> 00:14:49,466
to lead the American
military effort.

254
00:14:49,566 --> 00:14:53,800
The president hoped to force
Hanoi to abandon its support

255
00:14:53,900 --> 00:14:55,966
for the guerrilla struggle
in the South

256
00:14:56,066 --> 00:14:59,966
by gradually escalating
military pressure.

257
00:15:00,066 --> 00:15:04,600
He authorized American pilots
to bomb North Vietnamese troops

258
00:15:04,700 --> 00:15:09,300
and installations in the
neighboring country of Laos.

259
00:15:09,400 --> 00:15:11,233
And he directed the military

260
00:15:11,333 --> 00:15:13,500
to oversee South Vietnamese
shelling

261
00:15:13,600 --> 00:15:19,133
of North Vietnamese islands
and raids on coastal bases.

262
00:15:19,233 --> 00:15:22,733
All of it was to be conducted
in secret.

263
00:15:22,833 --> 00:15:25,433
The American people
were not to be told.

264
00:15:25,533 --> 00:15:28,733
It was an election year.

265
00:15:28,833 --> 00:15:32,500
Meanwhile, the Joint Chiefs
of Staff felt strongly

266
00:15:32,600 --> 00:15:34,166
that the United States
was fighting

267
00:15:34,266 --> 00:15:35,966
on the enemy's terms

268
00:15:36,066 --> 00:15:39,866
and urged far more drastic
and dramatic action--

269
00:15:39,966 --> 00:15:44,233
air strikes against "critical
targets" in North Vietnam itself

270
00:15:44,333 --> 00:15:48,533
and the deployment of U.S.
forces in South Vietnam--

271
00:15:48,633 --> 00:15:50,466
boots on the ground.

272
00:15:50,566 --> 00:15:54,733
Johnson refused, fearing
that such aggressive moves

273
00:15:54,833 --> 00:15:57,000
would pull China
into the conflict

274
00:15:57,100 --> 00:16:02,000
just as it had entered
the Korean War in 1950.

275
00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:04,100
JOHNSON:
They say get in or get out.

276
00:16:04,200 --> 00:16:05,066
McGEORGE BUNDY:
Yeah.

277
00:16:05,166 --> 00:16:06,433
JOHNSON:
And I told them,

278
00:16:06,533 --> 00:16:08,633
we haven't got any Congress
that will go with us,

279
00:16:08,733 --> 00:16:11,033
and we haven't got any
mothers that will go with us

280
00:16:11,133 --> 00:16:13,066
in the war, and I got to win
an election

281
00:16:13,166 --> 00:16:17,133
and then you can make
a decision.

282
00:16:17,233 --> 00:16:19,233
(crowd cheering)

283
00:16:19,333 --> 00:16:20,933
NARRATOR:
Polls showed him
with a commanding lead

284
00:16:21,033 --> 00:16:23,133
over his likely
Republican opponent,

285
00:16:23,233 --> 00:16:26,866
Senator Barry F. Goldwater
of Arizona,

286
00:16:26,966 --> 00:16:30,633
a blunt, uncompromising critic
of what he charged

287
00:16:30,733 --> 00:16:32,800
was the administration's
weakness

288
00:16:32,900 --> 00:16:35,500
in the face of
communist aggression.

289
00:16:35,600 --> 00:16:37,766
BARRY GOLDWATER:
Why does he put off
facing the question

290
00:16:37,866 --> 00:16:40,833
of what to do about Vietnam?

291
00:16:40,933 --> 00:16:44,066
Does he hope that he can wait
until after the election

292
00:16:44,166 --> 00:16:46,666
to confront the American public
with the...

293
00:16:46,766 --> 00:16:50,166
BILL EHRHART:
Here were these communists who
were overrunning Southeast Asia

294
00:16:50,266 --> 00:16:53,433
and Johnson's doing nothing
about it.

295
00:16:53,533 --> 00:16:54,700
My opponent has not told you

296
00:16:54,800 --> 00:16:56,266
what he plans to do
about the Cold War.

297
00:16:56,366 --> 00:16:59,600
I rode around the back
of a flatbed truck in Perkasie

298
00:16:59,700 --> 00:17:01,533
with a bunch of my classmates

299
00:17:01,633 --> 00:17:03,900
singing Barry Goldwater
campaign songs

300
00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:07,233
because Lyndon Johnson
was not tough enough

301
00:17:07,333 --> 00:17:08,966
on those communists.

302
00:17:11,333 --> 00:17:14,466
NARRATOR:
Johnson felt he did not
yet have the political capital

303
00:17:14,566 --> 00:17:19,166
to take further action in
Vietnam, but he asked his aide,

304
00:17:19,266 --> 00:17:23,000
William Bundy, to draft
a congressional resolution

305
00:17:23,100 --> 00:17:26,133
authorizing him to use
force if needed

306
00:17:26,233 --> 00:17:29,533
to be sent to Capitol Hill
when the time was right.

307
00:17:33,333 --> 00:17:37,666
On July 30, 1964,
South Vietnamese ships

308
00:17:37,766 --> 00:17:40,400
under the direction
of the U.S. military

309
00:17:40,500 --> 00:17:45,633
shelled two North Vietnamese
islands in the Gulf of Tonkin.

310
00:17:45,733 --> 00:17:50,633
The tiny North Vietnamese Navy
was put on high alert.

311
00:17:50,733 --> 00:17:53,700
What followed was one of the
most controversial

312
00:17:53,800 --> 00:17:57,200
and consequential events
in American history.

313
00:17:57,300 --> 00:18:00,066
On the afternoon of August 2,

314
00:18:00,166 --> 00:18:03,666
<i>the destroyerU.S.S. Maddox
was moving slowly</i>

315
00:18:03,766 --> 00:18:06,066
through international waters
in the gulf

316
00:18:06,166 --> 00:18:09,900
on an intelligence-gathering
mission in support

317
00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:13,866
of further South Vietnamese
action against the North.

318
00:18:13,966 --> 00:18:18,266
The commander of a North
Vietnamese torpedo-boat squadron

319
00:18:18,366 --> 00:18:20,933
<i>moved to attack theMaddox.</i>

320
00:18:21,033 --> 00:18:25,900
The Americans opened fire
and missed.

321
00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:29,866
North Vietnamese
torpedoes also missed.

322
00:18:29,966 --> 00:18:33,733
But carrier-based U.S. planes
damaged

323
00:18:33,833 --> 00:18:35,800
two of the North Vietnamese
boats

324
00:18:35,900 --> 00:18:38,900
and left a third
dead in the water.

325
00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:43,333
Ho Chi Minh was shocked to hear
of his navy's attack

326
00:18:43,433 --> 00:18:46,900
and demanded to know
who had ordered it.

327
00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:49,633
The officer on duty was
officially reprimanded

328
00:18:49,733 --> 00:18:51,633
for impulsiveness.

329
00:18:51,733 --> 00:18:56,333
No one may ever know who gave
the order to attack.

330
00:18:56,433 --> 00:19:00,400
To this day, even the
Vietnamese cannot agree.

331
00:19:00,500 --> 00:19:04,233
But some believe it was Le Duan.

332
00:19:04,333 --> 00:19:07,066
HUY DUC:

333
00:19:49,566 --> 00:19:50,666
NARRATOR:
Back in Washington,

334
00:19:50,766 --> 00:19:53,733
the Joint Chiefs urged
immediate retaliation

335
00:19:53,833 --> 00:19:55,600
against North Vietnam.

336
00:19:55,700 --> 00:19:58,433
The president refused.

337
00:19:58,533 --> 00:20:01,000
Instead, the White House
issued a warning

338
00:20:01,100 --> 00:20:04,100
about the "grave consequences"
that would follow

339
00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:07,900
what it called "any further
unprovoked" attacks--

340
00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:12,100
even though Johnson knew the
attack had been provoked

341
00:20:12,200 --> 00:20:16,900
by the South Vietnamese raids
on North Vietnam's islands.

342
00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:20,800
Both sides were playing
a dangerous game.

343
00:20:20,900 --> 00:20:26,800
On August 4, American radio
operators mistranslated

344
00:20:26,900 --> 00:20:28,566
North Vietnamese radio traffic

345
00:20:28,666 --> 00:20:34,433
and concluded a new military
operation was imminent.

346
00:20:34,533 --> 00:20:36,600
Actually, Hanoi had simply
called upon

347
00:20:36,700 --> 00:20:40,766
torpedo boat commanders
to be ready for a new raid

348
00:20:40,866 --> 00:20:43,233
by the South Vietnamese.

349
00:20:43,333 --> 00:20:47,933
<i>TheMad dox and another
destroyer, theTurner Joy,</i>

350
00:20:48,033 --> 00:20:51,033
braced for a fresh attack.

351
00:20:51,133 --> 00:20:52,766
So did the White House.

352
00:20:52,866 --> 00:20:54,466
LYNDON JOHNSON:
Go ahead, Mac.

353
00:20:54,566 --> 00:20:57,033
McNAMARA:
I-I personally would
recommend to you,

354
00:20:57,133 --> 00:20:59,000
after a second attack
on our ships,

355
00:20:59,100 --> 00:21:02,900
that we do retaliate against
the coast of North Vietnam

356
00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:04,466
some way or other...

357
00:21:04,566 --> 00:21:08,066
JOHNSON:
What I was thinking about
when I was eating breakfast:

358
00:21:08,166 --> 00:21:10,933
when they move on us
and they shoot at us,

359
00:21:11,033 --> 00:21:12,600
I think we not only ought
to shoot at them,

360
00:21:12,700 --> 00:21:15,066
but almost simultaneously
pull one of these things

361
00:21:15,166 --> 00:21:17,133
that you've been doing on one
of their bridges or something.

362
00:21:17,233 --> 00:21:18,333
McNAMARA:
Exactly.

363
00:21:18,433 --> 00:21:20,100
I quite agree with you,
Mr. President.

364
00:21:20,200 --> 00:21:21,766
JOHNSON:
But I wish we could
have something

365
00:21:21,866 --> 00:21:23,700
that we've already picked out,

366
00:21:23,800 --> 00:21:27,266
and just hit about three of them
damn quick, right after.

367
00:21:27,366 --> 00:21:30,700
NARRATOR:
No second attack ever happened,

368
00:21:30,800 --> 00:21:34,933
but at the time,
anxious American sonar operators

369
00:21:35,033 --> 00:21:39,733
<i>aboard theMaddo x andTurner
Joy
convinced themselves one had.</i>

370
00:21:39,833 --> 00:21:44,466
The attack was probable but
not certain, Johnson was told,

371
00:21:44,566 --> 00:21:47,566
and since it had
probably occurred,

372
00:21:47,666 --> 00:21:51,766
the president decided
it should not go unanswered.

373
00:21:54,133 --> 00:21:57,500
JOHNSON:
Aggression by terror
against the peaceful villagers

374
00:21:57,600 --> 00:22:02,100
of South Vietnam has now been
joined by open aggression

375
00:22:02,200 --> 00:22:06,333
on the high seas against
the United States of America.

376
00:22:06,433 --> 00:22:10,200
Yet our response,
for the present,

377
00:22:10,300 --> 00:22:12,766
will be limited and fitting.

378
00:22:12,866 --> 00:22:18,300
We Americans know, although
others appear to forget,

379
00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:21,033
the risk of spreading conflict.

380
00:22:21,133 --> 00:22:26,633
We still seek no wider war.

381
00:22:26,733 --> 00:22:30,100
EVERETT ALVAREZ:
If that came to be where we
would be called upon

382
00:22:30,200 --> 00:22:33,066
to carry out our
responsibilities,

383
00:22:33,166 --> 00:22:35,766
and having been well trained
for this,

384
00:22:35,866 --> 00:22:37,433
I never really gave it much
thought.

385
00:22:37,533 --> 00:22:39,800
It was part of my duty.

386
00:22:39,900 --> 00:22:43,366
NARRATOR:
Lieutenant Everett Alvarez
from Salinas, California,

387
00:22:43,466 --> 00:22:47,000
<i>was aboard the U.S.S. carrier
Constellation.</i>

388
00:22:47,100 --> 00:22:50,666
His squadron of
Skyhawk A-4 planes

389
00:22:50,766 --> 00:22:53,366
was ordered to attack
torpedo boat installations

390
00:22:53,466 --> 00:22:58,000
and oil facilities
near the port of Hon Gai.

391
00:22:58,100 --> 00:23:02,866
For the first time, American
pilots were going to drop bombs

392
00:23:02,966 --> 00:23:05,000
on North Vietnam.

393
00:23:06,266 --> 00:23:07,500
ALVAREZ:
When we approached the target

394
00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:09,233
coming down from altitude,

395
00:23:09,333 --> 00:23:12,433
it was obvious that they could
pick us up on their radar.

396
00:23:12,533 --> 00:23:15,066
I remember my knees shaking.

397
00:23:15,166 --> 00:23:18,066
And I was saying, "Holy smokes,
I'm going into war."

398
00:23:19,933 --> 00:23:22,000
"This is war."

399
00:23:23,100 --> 00:23:24,733
I was a bit scared.

400
00:23:24,833 --> 00:23:29,566
Once we went in
and they started firing at us,

401
00:23:29,666 --> 00:23:31,966
the fear went away.

402
00:23:32,066 --> 00:23:36,733
Everything became smooth,
deathly quiet in the cockpit.

403
00:23:36,833 --> 00:23:39,566
It was sort of like a symphony

404
00:23:39,666 --> 00:23:45,066
in the sense that my plane was
just like a ballet in the sky,

405
00:23:45,166 --> 00:23:48,666
and I was just performing
what I was doing.

406
00:23:50,866 --> 00:23:51,900
And then I got hit.

407
00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:53,066
MAN:
Mayday, Mayday.

408
00:23:53,166 --> 00:23:54,333
(instruments beeping)

409
00:23:54,433 --> 00:23:58,133
NARRATOR:
Coastal militiamen
captured Alvarez

410
00:23:58,233 --> 00:24:00,666
and turned him over to the
North Vietnamese military.

411
00:24:00,766 --> 00:24:06,500
ALVAREZ:
One fella was yelling at me in
Vietnamese and saying something.

412
00:24:06,600 --> 00:24:09,566
I started talking to him
in Spanish.

413
00:24:09,666 --> 00:24:11,533
Don't ask me why.

414
00:24:11,633 --> 00:24:14,733
It seemed like a good idea
at the time.

415
00:24:16,666 --> 00:24:21,800
After when they discovered
U.S.A. on my ID card

416
00:24:21,900 --> 00:24:26,800
and then they started speaking
to me in English.

417
00:24:26,900 --> 00:24:31,000
NARRATOR:
Alvarez assumed he would be
treated as a prisoner of war.

418
00:24:31,100 --> 00:24:33,333
ALVAREZ:
I was sticking
to the code of conduct,

419
00:24:33,433 --> 00:24:35,700
which is giving them name,
rank, service number,

420
00:24:35,800 --> 00:24:37,033
and date of birth.

421
00:24:38,566 --> 00:24:42,566
But they quickly reminded me
that there was no state of war,

422
00:24:42,666 --> 00:24:45,200
no declaration of war.

423
00:24:45,300 --> 00:24:49,033
So I could not be considered
a prisoner of war.

424
00:24:50,566 --> 00:24:51,966
I recall thinking about it,

425
00:24:52,066 --> 00:24:53,666
and I says, "You know what?

426
00:24:53,766 --> 00:24:55,200
They're right."

427
00:24:55,300 --> 00:24:58,566
NARRATOR:
Everett Alvarez was
the first American airman

428
00:24:58,666 --> 00:25:02,033
to be shot out of the sky
over North Vietnam

429
00:25:02,133 --> 00:25:04,833
and the first to be
imprisoned there.

430
00:25:07,366 --> 00:25:09,666
Now, the president sent up
to Capitol Hill

431
00:25:09,766 --> 00:25:13,466
the resolution he had asked
his aide William Bundy to draft

432
00:25:13,566 --> 00:25:16,000
two months earlier.

433
00:25:16,100 --> 00:25:19,933
JAMES WILLBANKS:
Johnson is sort of
prepositioned to move anyway,

434
00:25:20,033 --> 00:25:23,800
and it gives him really
the incident that he needs

435
00:25:23,900 --> 00:25:26,466
to go to Congress
and ask for a resolution

436
00:25:26,566 --> 00:25:28,600
that will allow him to deal
with what he sees

437
00:25:28,700 --> 00:25:30,366
as aggression in Vietnam.

438
00:25:30,466 --> 00:25:32,800
And what he gets is the
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution,

439
00:25:32,900 --> 00:25:36,500
which is, what he says,
like "Grandma's nightshirt"--

440
00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:38,033
it covers everything.

441
00:25:38,133 --> 00:25:42,500
I think what Johnson is looking
for is the opportunity,

442
00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:46,400
the right time to send a message
to North Vietnam

443
00:25:46,500 --> 00:25:50,466
that we're serious about
supporting South Vietnam.

444
00:25:50,566 --> 00:25:52,666
That message is sent,

445
00:25:52,766 --> 00:25:54,500
I think we misread the enemy

446
00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:56,866
because they're just as serious
as we are.

447
00:25:58,266 --> 00:26:01,366
NARRATOR:
On August 7, 1964,

448
00:26:01,466 --> 00:26:05,133
by a vote of 88-2,
the Senate passed

449
00:26:05,233 --> 00:26:09,266
what came to be called
the Tonkin Gulf Resolution.

450
00:26:09,366 --> 00:26:13,633
In the House, not a single
congressman opposed it.

451
00:26:13,733 --> 00:26:17,533
Senator Goldwater could
no longer plausibly claim

452
00:26:17,633 --> 00:26:19,700
Johnson was failing
to fight back

453
00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:23,533
against North Vietnam,
while those voters concerned

454
00:26:23,633 --> 00:26:25,666
that the United States
was in danger

455
00:26:25,766 --> 00:26:28,100
of becoming too deeply involved

456
00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:32,100
admired the president's
measured response.

457
00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:35,933
Support for Johnson's handling
of the war jumped overnight

458
00:26:36,033 --> 00:26:39,500
from 42% to 72%.

459
00:26:39,600 --> 00:26:42,600
The American public believed
their president.

460
00:26:43,700 --> 00:26:47,233
Le Duan and his comrades
in Hanoi did not.

461
00:26:47,333 --> 00:26:49,966
They had little faith
in the president's claim

462
00:26:50,066 --> 00:26:52,100
that he sought no wider war.

463
00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:55,100
They resolved to step up
their efforts

464
00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:56,700
to win the struggle in the South

465
00:26:56,800 --> 00:26:59,833
before the United States
escalated its presence

466
00:26:59,933 --> 00:27:02,266
by sending in combat troops.

467
00:27:03,533 --> 00:27:05,533
For the first time,

468
00:27:05,633 --> 00:27:08,233
Hanoi began sending
North Vietnamese regulars

469
00:27:08,333 --> 00:27:10,966
into the South,
down the network of paths

470
00:27:11,066 --> 00:27:14,300
they had hacked out
of the Laotian jungle--

471
00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:16,400
the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

472
00:27:17,666 --> 00:27:19,433
PETER KALISCHER:
This is Bien Hoa Air Base,

473
00:27:19,533 --> 00:27:21,066
the biggest in South Vietnam,

474
00:27:21,166 --> 00:27:24,833
hours after being hit
by a communist mortar barrage.

475
00:27:24,933 --> 00:27:28,000
NARRATOR:
On November 1,
Viet Cong guerrillas shelled

476
00:27:28,100 --> 00:27:32,166
the American airbase at Bien Hoa
near Saigon.

477
00:27:32,266 --> 00:27:34,566
Five Americans died.

478
00:27:34,666 --> 00:27:36,700
Thirty were wounded.

479
00:27:36,800 --> 00:27:40,966
Five B-57 bombers were destroyed
on the ground

480
00:27:41,066 --> 00:27:42,966
and 15 more were damaged.

481
00:27:43,066 --> 00:27:44,766
PETER KALISCHER:
Mr. Ambassador,

482
00:27:44,866 --> 00:27:46,900
do you think this shows
any new capability

483
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:49,033
that they've got,
the Viet Cong?

484
00:27:49,133 --> 00:27:51,466
Uh, I would simply say
they've never done this before.

485
00:27:54,200 --> 00:27:56,633
NARRATOR:
The Joint Chiefs advised
the president to mount

486
00:27:56,733 --> 00:28:01,233
an immediate all-out air attack
on 94 targets in the North

487
00:28:01,333 --> 00:28:04,566
and to send in regular
Army and Marine units--

488
00:28:04,666 --> 00:28:08,633
not more advisors--
to South Vietnam as well.

489
00:28:08,733 --> 00:28:10,133
He would not do it.

490
00:28:10,233 --> 00:28:12,733
The election was
just two days away.

491
00:28:15,066 --> 00:28:19,200
Lyndon Baines Johnson won the
presidency in his own right,

492
00:28:19,300 --> 00:28:21,300
and he won it by a landslide.

493
00:28:23,133 --> 00:28:25,500
Within a month, the president
would approve

494
00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:28,200
what was called
a "graduated response"--

495
00:28:28,300 --> 00:28:32,200
limited air attacks on
the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos

496
00:28:32,300 --> 00:28:35,266
and "tit for tat"
retaliatory raids

497
00:28:35,366 --> 00:28:38,266
on North Vietnamese targets.

498
00:28:38,366 --> 00:28:42,266
But he refused to undertake
sustained bombing of the North

499
00:28:42,366 --> 00:28:46,366
until the South Vietnamese
got their own house in order.

500
00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:53,300
In private, Johnson doubted that
airpower alone would ever work

501
00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:55,866
and believed that he would
eventually have to send in

502
00:28:55,966 --> 00:28:57,233
ground troops,

503
00:28:57,333 --> 00:29:00,966
though he was not yet willing
publicly to say so.

504
00:29:06,933 --> 00:29:10,700
JEAN-MARIE CROCKER:
In the fall of '64,
Denton was 17

505
00:29:10,800 --> 00:29:15,133
and he was determined
to go into the service.

506
00:29:15,233 --> 00:29:19,100
NARRATOR:
Mogie Crocker had been restless
since the summer.

507
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:22,266
After the Gulf of Tonkin
incident, he had confided

508
00:29:22,366 --> 00:29:24,900
to his sister that he wanted
to join the Navy,

509
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:28,466
but he knew his parents would
not sign the consent form

510
00:29:28,566 --> 00:29:33,066
that would have allowed
a 17-year-old to enlist.

511
00:29:33,166 --> 00:29:36,900
He was talking about
wanting to go into the service

512
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:39,433
and that his attempts
to go underage had failed.

513
00:29:39,533 --> 00:29:42,966
And that he wanted my parents
to support him in that.

514
00:29:43,066 --> 00:29:45,466
NARRATOR:
His parents tried
to persuade him

515
00:29:45,566 --> 00:29:47,633
that he could be more useful
to his country

516
00:29:47,733 --> 00:29:52,300
with a college education
than as just another private.

517
00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:55,166
Mogie was adamant.

518
00:29:55,266 --> 00:29:58,833
JEAN-MARIE CROCKER:
Monday morning he left
for school.

519
00:29:58,933 --> 00:30:01,566
And I watched him leave.

520
00:30:01,666 --> 00:30:03,600
But that night he didn't
come in for supper

521
00:30:03,700 --> 00:30:04,800
and he hadn't called.

522
00:30:04,900 --> 00:30:08,266
The day that my brother
ran away has to be

523
00:30:08,366 --> 00:30:12,666
one of the most bizarre
experiences in my life.

524
00:30:12,766 --> 00:30:15,900
I eventually happened
to look in my piggy bank

525
00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:19,533
and he had taken the money I had
and left a note for me.

526
00:30:19,633 --> 00:30:22,300
He had promised
he would pay me back.

527
00:30:22,400 --> 00:30:25,133
JEAN-MARIE CROCKER:
He was gone about four months

528
00:30:25,233 --> 00:30:28,533
and said that he would not
come home

529
00:30:28,633 --> 00:30:31,066
unless we agreed
to sign for him.

530
00:30:31,166 --> 00:30:35,400
And he wouldn't be 18
until June.

531
00:30:35,500 --> 00:30:38,866
But we did agree
and he did come home.

532
00:30:38,966 --> 00:30:43,466
My husband felt it was
an honor-bound agreement.

533
00:30:43,566 --> 00:30:46,566
I was hoping that
I could change his mind.

534
00:30:49,466 --> 00:30:51,366
("The Marines' Hymn" plays)

535
00:30:51,466 --> 00:30:55,266
PHILIP BRADY:
To my mind, the Marine Corps
represented the very best.

536
00:30:55,366 --> 00:30:56,733
And it does.

537
00:30:56,833 --> 00:30:59,333
They are the best.

538
00:30:59,433 --> 00:31:01,900
And I wanted to be
part of the best.

539
00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:03,666
I was competitive.

540
00:31:03,766 --> 00:31:04,833
I was pugnacious.

541
00:31:04,933 --> 00:31:06,933
But I wanted to get
in the Marine Corps

542
00:31:07,033 --> 00:31:09,633
and go to the first war
I could find.

543
00:31:09,733 --> 00:31:13,000
NARRATOR:
Lieutenant Philip Brady, from
Port Washington, New York,

544
00:31:13,100 --> 00:31:15,866
arrived in Saigon
just a few days

545
00:31:15,966 --> 00:31:18,200
after Lyndon Johnson's election,

546
00:31:18,300 --> 00:31:20,933
one of the new advisors sent
to help shore up

547
00:31:21,033 --> 00:31:23,866
the South Vietnamese military.

548
00:31:23,966 --> 00:31:28,233
We must ensure that women and
children are not injured.

549
00:31:28,333 --> 00:31:31,633
NARRATOR:
General Westmoreland himself
greeted the newcomers.

550
00:31:31,733 --> 00:31:35,600
He was an impressive-looking man
with an impressive record.

551
00:31:35,700 --> 00:31:39,900
Many of the men he'd led in
Tunisia, Sicily, and Normandy

552
00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:43,600
during World War II
called him Superman.

553
00:31:43,700 --> 00:31:45,866
He'd fought with distinction
in Korea,

554
00:31:45,966 --> 00:31:48,700
commanded the 101st Airborne,

555
00:31:48,800 --> 00:31:51,533
served as superintendent
of West Point.

556
00:31:51,633 --> 00:31:52,966
<i>TIME magazine called him</i>

557
00:31:53,066 --> 00:31:57,466
"the sinewy personification
of the American fighting man."

558
00:31:57,566 --> 00:31:58,700
But at the same time,

559
00:31:58,800 --> 00:32:00,900
win the hearts and the minds
of the people.

560
00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:03,666
BRADY:
General Westmoreland told us
that we were down

561
00:32:03,766 --> 00:32:06,433
on the five-yard line and
we just needed a few more

562
00:32:06,533 --> 00:32:10,433
to go get the touchdown.

563
00:32:10,533 --> 00:32:13,533
Then I went out
and then I got on the ground.

564
00:32:13,633 --> 00:32:16,266
And then I found out,
"Don't you realize?

565
00:32:16,366 --> 00:32:18,666
We're losing this war."

566
00:32:18,766 --> 00:32:23,333
NARRATOR:
Lieutenant Brady was assigned
to assist Captain Frank Eller,

567
00:32:23,433 --> 00:32:25,700
senior advisor
to the 4th Battalion

568
00:32:25,800 --> 00:32:28,999
of the Vietnamese Marine Corps,
an elite unit

569
00:32:29,100 --> 00:32:33,333
whose members called themselves
the "Killer Sharks."

570
00:32:33,433 --> 00:32:37,200
You were told that you were
going over there to guide,

571
00:32:37,300 --> 00:32:41,433
educate, and elevate essentially
these "little fellas"

572
00:32:41,533 --> 00:32:43,499
on how to fight a war

573
00:32:43,600 --> 00:32:46,666
when, in fact, they knew exactly
how to fight the war.

574
00:32:46,766 --> 00:32:48,866
You were just an appendage.

575
00:32:48,966 --> 00:32:52,566
You were there simply to guide
assets that they didn't have:

576
00:32:52,666 --> 00:32:56,999
American artillery,
American air strikes.

577
00:32:57,100 --> 00:32:59,700
NARRATOR:
Brady did his best
to get to know

578
00:32:59,800 --> 00:33:02,066
the South Vietnamese
marines in his unit.

579
00:33:03,766 --> 00:33:08,300
TRAN NGOC TOAN
(speaking English):

580
00:33:29,300 --> 00:33:33,066
NARRATOR:
Lieutenant Tran Ngoc Toan,
the son of a trucker,

581
00:33:33,166 --> 00:33:35,500
had escaped life with
a hostile stepmother

582
00:33:35,600 --> 00:33:40,166
by entering the South Vietnamese
Military Academy at Dalat.

583
00:33:40,266 --> 00:33:44,600
He'd been fighting the Viet
Cong for more than two years.

584
00:33:44,700 --> 00:33:46,033
Toan was one of
the junior officers.

585
00:33:46,133 --> 00:33:47,500
I think he was a...

586
00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:48,933
I think he was
a company commander.

587
00:33:49,033 --> 00:33:51,233
I knew him, I liked him.

588
00:33:51,333 --> 00:33:54,400
He was a Dalat graduate,
which is like their West Point.

589
00:33:54,500 --> 00:33:56,300
Very dedicated.

590
00:34:06,366 --> 00:34:10,966
NARRATOR:
Brady, Toan, and the 4th South
Vietnamese Marine Battalion

591
00:34:11,066 --> 00:34:14,266
were stationed near the Bien Hoa
Airbase in reserve,

592
00:34:14,366 --> 00:34:18,233
waiting to be called
into action.

593
00:34:18,333 --> 00:34:20,133
There were new rumors now,

594
00:34:20,233 --> 00:34:24,766
of larger enemy units moving
through the countryside.

595
00:34:24,866 --> 00:34:27,766
Le Duan's plan to win a
quick and decisive victory

596
00:34:27,866 --> 00:34:29,600
was underway.

597
00:34:34,533 --> 00:34:38,133
NGUYEN VAN TONG:

598
00:35:27,966 --> 00:35:30,466
NARRATOR:
Nguyen Van Tong was
a political officer

599
00:35:30,566 --> 00:35:33,633
in the newly created
Viet Cong 9th Division,

600
00:35:33,733 --> 00:35:37,666
one of perhaps 2,000 Viet Cong
and North Vietnamese troops

601
00:35:37,766 --> 00:35:42,533
who had for weeks been quietly
filtering into Phuoc Tuy,

602
00:35:42,633 --> 00:35:44,566
a supposedly "pacified" province

603
00:35:44,666 --> 00:35:48,033
less than 40 miles southeast
of Saigon.

604
00:35:49,800 --> 00:35:52,433
NGUYEN VAN TONG:

605
00:36:09,166 --> 00:36:12,400
NARRATOR:
The target for Tong
and his comrades

606
00:36:12,500 --> 00:36:15,300
was the strategic hamlet
of Binh Gia,

607
00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:19,800
home to some 6,000 Catholic
anticommunist refugees.

608
00:36:21,433 --> 00:36:24,133
Their plan was to seize
the hamlet

609
00:36:24,233 --> 00:36:27,966
and then annihilate the forces
Saigon was sure to send

610
00:36:28,066 --> 00:36:29,566
to retake it.

611
00:36:29,666 --> 00:36:32,033
To ensure success,

612
00:36:32,133 --> 00:36:35,533
tons of heavy weapons
were smuggled onto the coast

613
00:36:35,633 --> 00:36:37,500
under cover of darkness--

614
00:36:37,600 --> 00:36:40,666
mortars, machine guns,
recoilless rifles

615
00:36:40,766 --> 00:36:43,566
capable of blasting tanks.

616
00:36:43,666 --> 00:36:46,266
The communists
had never attempted

617
00:36:46,366 --> 00:36:49,233
anything on this scale before.

618
00:36:49,333 --> 00:36:52,533
Before dawn on December 28,

619
00:36:52,633 --> 00:36:56,733
Viet Cong advance units easily
overwhelmed the village militia

620
00:36:56,833 --> 00:36:58,566
and occupied Binh Gia.

621
00:36:58,666 --> 00:36:59,900
(shouting, gunfire)

622
00:37:01,533 --> 00:37:04,500
When two crack South Vietnamese
Ranger companies

623
00:37:04,600 --> 00:37:06,733
were helicoptered in
the next day,

624
00:37:06,833 --> 00:37:10,800
they were ambushed
and shot to pieces.

625
00:37:10,900 --> 00:37:13,200
On the morning of the 30th,

626
00:37:13,300 --> 00:37:16,566
Philip Brady,
his friend Tran Ngoc Toan,

627
00:37:16,666 --> 00:37:20,500
and the 4th Marine Battalion
were flown in to relieve

628
00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:23,166
and reinforce the Rangers.

629
00:37:23,266 --> 00:37:26,733
The enemy withdrew
east of the village.

630
00:37:31,533 --> 00:37:35,466
NGUYEN VAN TONG:

631
00:37:56,266 --> 00:38:00,733
All of a sudden you could see
the tracers come out

632
00:38:00,833 --> 00:38:04,333
of the plantation,
hit the helicopter, it crashed.

633
00:38:04,433 --> 00:38:07,433
We were ordered to go down
and retrieve the remains

634
00:38:07,533 --> 00:38:09,366
the following morning.

635
00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:13,266
NGUYEN VAN TONG:

636
00:38:43,500 --> 00:38:46,033
BRADY:
The lead company
got to the remains

637
00:38:46,133 --> 00:38:49,966
and then was pounced on
and mauled badly.

638
00:38:50,066 --> 00:38:52,433
(gunfire)

639
00:38:54,266 --> 00:38:57,666
NARRATOR:
Twelve South Vietnamese Marines
from Toan's unit were killed

640
00:38:57,766 --> 00:39:00,266
getting to the downed
helicopter.

641
00:39:00,366 --> 00:39:02,133
Their comrades wrapped them
in ponchos

642
00:39:02,233 --> 00:39:06,433
and laid them out
next to the dead Americans.

643
00:39:06,533 --> 00:39:09,300
An American chopper
dropped into the clearing.

644
00:39:09,400 --> 00:39:11,933
The American crew jumped out
under fire,

645
00:39:12,033 --> 00:39:14,166
picked up the four Americans,

646
00:39:14,266 --> 00:39:17,933
climbed back into their chopper,
and took off again.

647
00:39:18,900 --> 00:39:24,266
TRAN NGOC TOAN:

648
00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:34,200
NARRATOR:
For three hours, Toan and his
men stayed with their own dead

649
00:39:34,300 --> 00:39:38,466
waiting for a helicopter to
carry them off the battlefield.

650
00:39:40,233 --> 00:39:43,466
BRADY:
Meanwhile, I am getting
a little bit antsy

651
00:39:43,566 --> 00:39:45,900
because, first of all,
we're losing light.

652
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:49,633
Second of all, we are now
outside of artillery range.

653
00:39:49,733 --> 00:39:52,066
We've got to get out of there.

654
00:39:52,166 --> 00:39:54,366
TRAN NGOC TOAN:

655
00:40:02,466 --> 00:40:05,533
BRADY:
I went to the Major Nho,
his name was, and I said,

656
00:40:05,633 --> 00:40:08,733
"Major, we have to get
out of here now."

657
00:40:08,833 --> 00:40:13,233
And Nho said, "Don't you forget
I am a major,

658
00:40:13,333 --> 00:40:14,400
and you are a lieutenant,"

659
00:40:14,500 --> 00:40:17,633
turned on his heel
and walked away.

660
00:40:17,733 --> 00:40:23,066
Ten minutes later
all hell broke loose.

661
00:40:25,933 --> 00:40:27,266
TRAN NGOC TOAN:

662
00:40:27,366 --> 00:40:28,766
(man shouts in Vietnamese)

663
00:40:43,200 --> 00:40:46,066
NARRATOR:
The shelling eventually
died down.

664
00:40:46,166 --> 00:40:48,566
But then bugles blew,

665
00:40:48,666 --> 00:40:51,166
and wave after wave
of enemy troops

666
00:40:51,266 --> 00:40:53,433
advanced toward
the badly outnumbered men.

667
00:40:56,766 --> 00:41:00,266
BRADY:
It was as if you turned
a soundtrack of shooting...

668
00:41:03,633 --> 00:41:05,666
And just went
(imitates rapid gunfire).

669
00:41:05,766 --> 00:41:06,833
Just like that.

670
00:41:06,933 --> 00:41:08,633
All of a sudden it
came out of nowhere.

671
00:41:12,266 --> 00:41:15,566
We used what little air strikes
we had left with helicopters,

672
00:41:15,666 --> 00:41:19,900
calling in the strikes on our
position to slow it down.

673
00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:23,066
There was no way.

674
00:41:23,166 --> 00:41:25,100
TRAN NGOC TOAN:

675
00:41:58,300 --> 00:42:00,300
(explosions)

676
00:42:00,400 --> 00:42:03,500
BRADY:
What we did was
we tried to get out.

677
00:42:03,600 --> 00:42:06,533
Twenty-six of us broke through.

678
00:42:06,633 --> 00:42:09,400
Eleven ultimately made it.

679
00:42:09,500 --> 00:42:10,433
(gunfire)

680
00:42:10,533 --> 00:42:11,733
NARRATOR:
All that night,

681
00:42:11,833 --> 00:42:13,933
the Viet Cong moved among
the trees,

682
00:42:14,033 --> 00:42:15,766
carrying away their wounded

683
00:42:15,866 --> 00:42:18,766
and shooting any South
Vietnamese troops

684
00:42:18,866 --> 00:42:21,033
they found alive.

685
00:42:21,133 --> 00:42:22,700
TRAN NGOC TOAN:

686
00:42:47,600 --> 00:42:49,600
NARRATOR:
Cradling his rifle in his arms,

687
00:42:49,700 --> 00:42:53,333
Toan began trying to
crawl toward Binh Gia.

688
00:42:53,433 --> 00:42:56,633
He was not found for three days.

689
00:42:57,933 --> 00:43:02,566
TRAN NGOC TOAN:

690
00:43:29,700 --> 00:43:34,233
NARRATOR:
When it was all over, five
Americans had died at Binh Gia.

691
00:43:34,333 --> 00:43:39,233
Thirty-two Viet Cong bodies had
been left on the battlefield.

692
00:43:39,333 --> 00:43:42,866
200 South Vietnamese
were killed;

693
00:43:42,966 --> 00:43:47,500
200 more were wounded.

694
00:43:47,600 --> 00:43:51,866
NGUYEN VAN TONG:

695
00:44:02,400 --> 00:44:05,100
BRADY:
What it really said was

696
00:44:05,200 --> 00:44:09,500
they were capable of
marshaling this kind of force.

697
00:44:09,600 --> 00:44:11,700
The Vietnamese officers
I talked to in the Marine Corps

698
00:44:11,800 --> 00:44:14,466
figured they had six months
before the end.

699
00:44:14,566 --> 00:44:18,033
NARRATOR:
The big question after Binh Gia,

700
00:44:18,133 --> 00:44:20,433
an American officer
at headquarters said,

701
00:44:20,533 --> 00:44:23,500
is how a thousand or more
enemy troops

702
00:44:23,600 --> 00:44:27,033
"could wander around the
countryside so close to Saigon

703
00:44:27,133 --> 00:44:29,000
"without being discovered.

704
00:44:29,100 --> 00:44:33,933
That tells you something
about this war."

705
00:44:34,033 --> 00:44:36,433
Hanoi was exultant.

706
00:44:36,533 --> 00:44:39,633
Ho Chi Minh called it
"a little Dien Bien Phu."

707
00:44:39,733 --> 00:44:44,100
Le Duan was convinced
his strategy was working.

708
00:44:44,200 --> 00:44:47,466
"The liberation war
of South Vietnam has progressed

709
00:44:47,566 --> 00:44:50,066
by leaps and bounds,"
he said.

710
00:44:50,166 --> 00:44:53,600
"After the battle of Ap Bac
two years ago,

711
00:44:53,700 --> 00:44:57,533
"the enemy knew it would be
difficult to defeat us.

712
00:44:57,633 --> 00:45:00,566
"After Binh Gia,
the enemy realizes

713
00:45:00,666 --> 00:45:05,700
that he is in the process
of being defeated by us."

714
00:45:05,800 --> 00:45:08,500
NGUYEN VAN TONG:

715
00:45:20,333 --> 00:45:21,566
JOHNSON:
I, Lyndon Baines Johnson,

716
00:45:21,666 --> 00:45:23,600
do solemnly swear...

717
00:45:23,700 --> 00:45:26,966
NARRATOR:
Twenty-six days after
the Binh Gia battle ended

718
00:45:27,066 --> 00:45:30,300
and just a week after President
Johnson's inauguration,

719
00:45:30,400 --> 00:45:33,666
McGeorge Bundy handed the
president a memorandum.

720
00:45:33,766 --> 00:45:35,833
I will to the best
of my ability.

721
00:45:35,933 --> 00:45:39,666
NARRATOR:
The current strategy was clearly
not working, it said.

722
00:45:39,766 --> 00:45:43,166
The Viet Cong were on the move
and on the rise,

723
00:45:43,266 --> 00:45:46,633
supplied and now steadily
reinforced

724
00:45:46,733 --> 00:45:49,466
with soldiers
from North Vietnam.

725
00:45:49,566 --> 00:45:54,200
If an independent South Vietnam
was to survive,

726
00:45:54,300 --> 00:45:57,466
the United States needed
to act fast.

727
00:45:57,566 --> 00:46:01,466
The administration faced
two choices, Bundy said.

728
00:46:01,566 --> 00:46:04,033
It could go along
as it had been going

729
00:46:04,133 --> 00:46:08,066
and try to negotiate some kind
of face-saving settlement.

730
00:46:08,166 --> 00:46:12,966
Or they could use still more
American military power

731
00:46:13,066 --> 00:46:16,700
to force the North to abandon
its goal of uniting the country.

732
00:46:16,800 --> 00:46:20,966
Bundy and McNamara favored
that option.

733
00:46:21,066 --> 00:46:23,933
Unless the president chose it,
they said,

734
00:46:24,033 --> 00:46:25,933
South Vietnam would fall.

735
00:46:26,033 --> 00:46:29,700
"I don't think anything,"
Johnson told McNamara,

736
00:46:29,800 --> 00:46:32,600
"is going to be as bad
as losing."

737
00:46:37,466 --> 00:46:39,966
Then, a little over
a week later,

738
00:46:40,066 --> 00:46:43,566
guerrillas struck an American
helicopter base at Pleiku

739
00:46:43,666 --> 00:46:45,366
in the Central Highlands,

740
00:46:45,466 --> 00:46:50,166
killing eight American advisors
and wounding over 100 more.

741
00:46:50,266 --> 00:46:52,200
McNAMARA:
Approximately 24 hours ago,

742
00:46:52,300 --> 00:46:54,700
the first attack in
the Pleiku area...

743
00:46:54,800 --> 00:46:57,400
NARRATOR:
Johnson immediately approved
an air strike

744
00:46:57,500 --> 00:47:00,300
on a North Vietnamese
army barracks.

745
00:47:01,533 --> 00:47:04,933
On February 10, 1965,

746
00:47:05,033 --> 00:47:08,200
the Viet Cong blew up a hotel
in Qui Nhon,

747
00:47:08,300 --> 00:47:14,733
killing 23 Americans and pinning
21 more beneath the rubble.

748
00:47:14,833 --> 00:47:18,200
Johnson ordered
another airstrike.

749
00:47:18,300 --> 00:47:21,700
Anxiety about what
seemed to be happening

750
00:47:21,800 --> 00:47:24,300
spread around the world.

751
00:47:24,400 --> 00:47:27,233
France, which had spent nearly
a century in Vietnam,

752
00:47:27,333 --> 00:47:31,600
now called for an end to all
foreign involvement there.

753
00:47:31,700 --> 00:47:35,233
The British prime minister
urged restraint.

754
00:47:35,333 --> 00:47:38,966
Many leaders of the president's
own party agreed,

755
00:47:39,066 --> 00:47:41,566
though not in public.

756
00:47:41,666 --> 00:47:43,733
In a private memorandum,

757
00:47:43,833 --> 00:47:46,366
Johnson's own vice president,
Hubert Humphrey,

758
00:47:46,466 --> 00:47:49,733
warned him that widening
the war would undercut

759
00:47:49,833 --> 00:47:54,466
the Great Society,
damage America's image overseas,

760
00:47:54,566 --> 00:47:59,000
and end any hope of improving
relations with the Soviet Union.

761
00:48:00,400 --> 00:48:02,700
Johnson never responded.

762
00:48:02,800 --> 00:48:05,833
Instead, on March 2, 1965,

763
00:48:05,933 --> 00:48:09,466
the United States began
a systematic bombardment

764
00:48:09,566 --> 00:48:11,466
of targets in North Vietnam,

765
00:48:11,566 --> 00:48:15,500
code-named
Operation Rolling Thunder.

766
00:48:17,500 --> 00:48:20,566
It was meant to be a "mounting
crescendo" of air raids,

767
00:48:20,666 --> 00:48:22,166
Ambassador Taylor wrote,

768
00:48:22,266 --> 00:48:25,300
intended to bolster morale
in the South

769
00:48:25,400 --> 00:48:30,100
and destroy morale in the North.

770
00:48:30,200 --> 00:48:33,166
WILSON:
The thesis behind
Rolling Thunder,

771
00:48:33,266 --> 00:48:38,866
as I understood it, was that as
we ratcheted up the tempo

772
00:48:38,966 --> 00:48:43,533
and the volume of this effort
against the North Vietnamese,

773
00:48:43,633 --> 00:48:46,500
sooner or later
they would cry uncle.

774
00:48:49,166 --> 00:48:51,866
And there'd be a pause,

775
00:48:51,966 --> 00:48:56,500
and we would begin to negotiate
our way out of this situation.

776
00:48:56,600 --> 00:48:59,400
This became an article of faith.

777
00:48:59,500 --> 00:49:03,266
And this article of faith
was a fallacious assumption.

778
00:49:03,366 --> 00:49:05,800
They weren't going to give up.

779
00:49:05,900 --> 00:49:10,166
They read us better
than we read them.

780
00:49:10,266 --> 00:49:14,200
NARRATOR:
The president insisted
on strict secrecy--

781
00:49:14,300 --> 00:49:17,500
the American people were not
to be told

782
00:49:17,600 --> 00:49:20,900
that the administration had
changed its policy

783
00:49:21,000 --> 00:49:24,833
from retaliatory airstrikes
to systematic bombing;

784
00:49:24,933 --> 00:49:28,166
that he had, in fact,
widened the war.

785
00:49:28,266 --> 00:49:31,866
They jointly agreed that
joint retaliatory action

786
00:49:31,966 --> 00:49:33,466
was required.

787
00:49:33,566 --> 00:49:37,300
NARRATOR:
General Westmoreland,
who had initially been hesitant

788
00:49:37,400 --> 00:49:40,100
about committing ground troops
to Vietnam,

789
00:49:40,200 --> 00:49:44,800
now asked for two battalions
of Marines-- 3,500 men--

790
00:49:44,900 --> 00:49:47,233
to protect the Danang airbase

791
00:49:47,333 --> 00:49:50,800
from which fighter-bombers
were hitting the North.

792
00:49:50,900 --> 00:49:54,833
Ambassador Taylor, who had once
called for ground troops,

793
00:49:54,933 --> 00:49:57,533
now objected to the whole idea.

794
00:49:57,633 --> 00:50:01,066
"Once you put that first soldier
ashore," he wrote,

795
00:50:01,166 --> 00:50:05,066
"you never know how many others
are going to follow him."

796
00:50:05,166 --> 00:50:09,066
But the president felt he had no
choice but to give Westmoreland

797
00:50:09,166 --> 00:50:11,200
what he asked for.

798
00:50:11,300 --> 00:50:16,233
He knew he would be blamed
if more American advisors died.

799
00:50:16,333 --> 00:50:20,300
"I feel like a jackass caught
in a Texas hailstorm,"

800
00:50:20,400 --> 00:50:21,900
he complained.

801
00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:27,133
"I can't run, I can't hide,
and I can't make it stop."

802
00:50:27,233 --> 00:50:28,600
("Hello Vietnam"
by Johnnie Wright playing)

803
00:50:28,700 --> 00:50:30,600
In March of 1965,

804
00:50:30,700 --> 00:50:33,500
Johnson finally took the action
he had managed to avoid

805
00:50:33,600 --> 00:50:35,666
for so long.

806
00:50:35,766 --> 00:50:37,966
WRIGHT:
♪ Kiss me goodbye...

807
00:50:38,066 --> 00:50:41,066
NARRATOR:
He was putting American
ground troops in Vietnam.

808
00:50:43,833 --> 00:50:49,300
WRIGHT:
♪ Goodbye, my sweetheart;
hello, Vietnam ♪

809
00:50:49,400 --> 00:50:53,133
NARRATOR:
The government of South Vietnam
was not even consulted;

810
00:50:53,233 --> 00:50:57,700
the United States of America
had larger considerations.

811
00:50:59,833 --> 00:51:04,300
GARD:
Clearly, we saw it in terms
of the Cold War.

812
00:51:04,400 --> 00:51:08,466
Assistant Secretary of Defense
John McNaughton said...

813
00:51:08,566 --> 00:51:10,066
He said our interests there

814
00:51:10,166 --> 00:51:15,566
were 70% to avoid humiliation,

815
00:51:15,666 --> 00:51:19,400
20% to contain China,

816
00:51:19,500 --> 00:51:22,900
and ten percent to help
the Vietnamese.

817
00:51:25,200 --> 00:51:27,866
NARRATOR:
Johnson quietly told
his good friend,

818
00:51:27,966 --> 00:51:30,166
Senator Richard Russell
of Georgia,

819
00:51:30,266 --> 00:51:32,600
what was about to happen.

820
00:51:32,700 --> 00:51:35,400
JOHNSON:
I guess we got no choice, but it
scares the death out of me.

821
00:51:35,500 --> 00:51:36,766
I think everybody's going
to think,

822
00:51:36,866 --> 00:51:38,333
"We're landing the Marines.

823
00:51:38,433 --> 00:51:40,100
We're off to battle."

824
00:51:40,200 --> 00:51:41,733
Of course,
if they come up there,

825
00:51:41,833 --> 00:51:42,966
they're going to get them
in a fight.

826
00:51:43,066 --> 00:51:44,400
And if they ruin
those airplanes,

827
00:51:44,500 --> 00:51:46,400
everybody is going to give me
hell for not securing them,

828
00:51:46,500 --> 00:51:48,233
just like they did last
time they made a raid.

829
00:51:48,333 --> 00:51:49,633
RUSSELL:
Yeah.

830
00:51:49,733 --> 00:51:50,933
JOHNSON:
What do you...
what do you think?

831
00:51:51,033 --> 00:51:52,700
RUSSELL:
Well, Mr. President,

832
00:51:52,800 --> 00:51:53,866
it scares the life out of me.

833
00:51:53,966 --> 00:51:55,366
But I don't know how
to back up now.

834
00:51:55,466 --> 00:51:57,666
It looks to me like we just got
in this thing,

835
00:51:57,766 --> 00:51:58,866
and there's no way out.

836
00:51:58,966 --> 00:52:00,233
JOHNSON:
I don't know.

837
00:52:00,333 --> 00:52:03,233
Dick, the great trouble
I'm under...

838
00:52:03,333 --> 00:52:06,400
A man can fight
if he can see daylight

839
00:52:06,500 --> 00:52:08,033
down the road somewhere.

840
00:52:08,133 --> 00:52:10,000
But there ain't no daylight
in Vietnam.

841
00:52:10,100 --> 00:52:12,033
There's not a bit.

842
00:52:14,600 --> 00:52:18,400
NARRATOR:
On March 8, 1965,
Dr. Phan Huy Quat,

843
00:52:18,500 --> 00:52:21,533
yet another prime minister
of South Vietnam,

844
00:52:21,633 --> 00:52:25,500
called his chief of staff,
Bui Diem.

845
00:52:25,600 --> 00:52:27,133
BUI DIEM:

846
00:52:59,200 --> 00:53:01,500
NARRATOR:
The Marines were landing
at Danang

847
00:53:01,600 --> 00:53:05,766
on the east coast of South
Vietnam, some 100 miles south

848
00:53:05,866 --> 00:53:07,866
of the demilitarized zone

849
00:53:07,966 --> 00:53:11,000
that divided the North
from the South.

850
00:53:11,100 --> 00:53:14,633
They were prepared to fight
their way ashore.

851
00:53:14,733 --> 00:53:16,700
They did not need to.

852
00:53:18,400 --> 00:53:19,533
PHILIP CAPUTO:
What struck me

853
00:53:19,633 --> 00:53:24,700
was how beautiful
Vietnam was to look at.

854
00:53:26,666 --> 00:53:29,700
There were just
these endless acres

855
00:53:29,800 --> 00:53:32,100
of these jade-green
rice paddies.

856
00:53:32,200 --> 00:53:36,266
And these lovely villages
inside these groves

857
00:53:36,366 --> 00:53:38,933
of bamboo and palm trees.

858
00:53:39,033 --> 00:53:44,133
And way off in the distance
these bluish jungled mountains,

859
00:53:44,233 --> 00:53:47,300
and they looked like Shangri-La.

860
00:53:47,400 --> 00:53:51,500
And I remember seeing this line
of Vietnamese women,

861
00:53:51,600 --> 00:53:53,400
or schoolgirls I think
they were.

862
00:53:53,500 --> 00:53:56,600
They actually looked
like angels come to earth

863
00:53:56,700 --> 00:53:58,000
or something like that.

864
00:53:58,100 --> 00:54:03,433
So it was really quite striking
but a little unsettling

865
00:54:03,533 --> 00:54:04,600
because...

866
00:54:04,700 --> 00:54:06,233
so how can a place like this--

867
00:54:06,333 --> 00:54:09,733
so beautiful and so enchanting--
be at war?

868
00:54:11,133 --> 00:54:13,333
DUONG VAN MAI:
My father was very happy.

869
00:54:13,433 --> 00:54:16,400
We're such a small
and poor country

870
00:54:16,500 --> 00:54:20,966
and the Americans have decided
to come in to save us

871
00:54:21,066 --> 00:54:24,600
not only with their money,
their resources,

872
00:54:24,700 --> 00:54:27,566
but even with their own lives.

873
00:54:27,666 --> 00:54:29,433
We were very grateful.

874
00:54:29,533 --> 00:54:30,833
We thought the...

875
00:54:30,933 --> 00:54:33,833
sure enough with this power,
the Americans are going to win.

876
00:54:33,933 --> 00:54:37,866
NARRATOR:
Seeing foreign troops marching
past his village,

877
00:54:37,966 --> 00:54:43,533
an old man emerged from his home
shouting, "Vivent les Français!"

878
00:54:43,633 --> 00:54:46,666
He thought the French
had returned.

879
00:54:48,033 --> 00:54:49,433
"The problem around here,"

880
00:54:49,533 --> 00:54:53,866
a Marine captain leading
a patrol told a reporter,

881
00:54:53,966 --> 00:54:56,800
"is who the hell is who?"

882
00:54:56,900 --> 00:55:00,766
WILSON:
As a voting member
of Saigon Mission Council,

883
00:55:00,866 --> 00:55:05,333
I was opposed to the entry of
American ground combat forces.

884
00:55:07,400 --> 00:55:11,666
I felt if the Vietnamese
had to beat them off

885
00:55:11,766 --> 00:55:14,966
with a bloody stump,
they had to do it themselves.

886
00:55:15,066 --> 00:55:19,133
We had to do everything
we humanly could to help them,

887
00:55:19,233 --> 00:55:21,933
but we could not
win it for them.

888
00:55:23,566 --> 00:55:27,566
So, I think we crossed
the River Styx at that point.

889
00:55:29,500 --> 00:55:32,966
TRAN NGOC TOAN:

890
00:55:54,733 --> 00:55:57,433
BILL ZIMMERMAN:
The first protest I went to
against the war in Vietnam

891
00:55:57,533 --> 00:56:01,666
was a protest
at a Dow Chemical facility.

892
00:56:04,700 --> 00:56:07,300
Dow was manufacturing napalm.

893
00:56:07,400 --> 00:56:10,400
They were dropping napalm
on villages in Vietnam.

894
00:56:10,500 --> 00:56:13,033
It was a very disappointing
experience

895
00:56:13,133 --> 00:56:16,200
because only 40 people came.

896
00:56:16,300 --> 00:56:18,900
And we seemed very out of place

897
00:56:19,000 --> 00:56:22,066
and very ineffectual, impotent,

898
00:56:22,166 --> 00:56:26,233
standing outside
with 40 people.

899
00:56:26,333 --> 00:56:30,900
NARRATOR:
Most Americans understood
little about Indochina,

900
00:56:31,000 --> 00:56:34,633
rarely knew anyone actually
involved in the fighting,

901
00:56:34,733 --> 00:56:38,033
saw no reason to question
the government's assertion

902
00:56:38,133 --> 00:56:40,866
that the United States had
vital interests

903
00:56:40,966 --> 00:56:43,533
8,000 miles from home.

904
00:56:43,633 --> 00:56:45,133
("I Ain't Marching Anymore"
by Phil Ochs playing)

905
00:56:45,233 --> 00:56:48,266
Still, there was a small
but growing number of people

906
00:56:48,366 --> 00:56:52,233
who had begun to oppose the war
for any number of reasons--

907
00:56:52,333 --> 00:56:56,766
because they thought it
unjust or immoral,

908
00:56:56,866 --> 00:56:59,600
believed it was unconstitutional

909
00:56:59,700 --> 00:57:03,333
or simply not
in the national interest.

910
00:57:03,433 --> 00:57:06,766
OCHS:
♪ Oh I marched to the battle
of New Orleans ♪

911
00:57:06,866 --> 00:57:09,733
NARRATOR:
Two weeks after
the Marines landed at Danang,

912
00:57:09,833 --> 00:57:13,600
members of the University
of Michigan faculty organized

913
00:57:13,700 --> 00:57:16,566
a night-long discussion
between professors

914
00:57:16,666 --> 00:57:22,100
and some 3,000 students about
the escalation of the war.

915
00:57:22,200 --> 00:57:23,866
The demonstration was called
a teach-in

916
00:57:23,966 --> 00:57:25,700
because the idea originated

917
00:57:25,800 --> 00:57:27,500
with a group of university
professors.

918
00:57:27,600 --> 00:57:30,866
What do you hope to accomplish?

919
00:57:30,966 --> 00:57:33,533
DR. ERIC WOLF:
I'd like to open up
communication between people

920
00:57:33,633 --> 00:57:35,800
and the government because
I believe

921
00:57:35,900 --> 00:57:37,800
that they are not telling us
what is going on,

922
00:57:37,900 --> 00:57:40,266
and the people have the right
to know, and we have the right

923
00:57:40,366 --> 00:57:42,100
to tell the government
what we think.

924
00:57:42,200 --> 00:57:47,100
NARRATOR:
Soon, there were teach-ins on
most major university campuses.

925
00:57:47,200 --> 00:57:50,366
There is no morally
wonderful way out.

926
00:57:50,466 --> 00:57:55,400
NARRATOR:
NYU in Manhattan, the University
of Wisconsin in Madison,

927
00:57:55,500 --> 00:58:00,233
the University of
California in Berkeley.

928
00:58:00,333 --> 00:58:03,466
The teach-ins were really
raucous affairs.

929
00:58:03,566 --> 00:58:06,100
A lot of contention.

930
00:58:06,200 --> 00:58:07,533
STUDENT:
We want to discuss

931
00:58:07,633 --> 00:58:10,433
is what's wrong
with the Vietnam War, and...

932
00:58:10,533 --> 00:58:12,366
OCHS:
♪ And so many others

933
00:58:12,466 --> 00:58:14,066
♪ But I ain't marchin' anymore

934
00:58:14,166 --> 00:58:15,566
REPORTER:
Do you endorse

935
00:58:15,666 --> 00:58:17,566
the administration's policy
in South Vietnam?

936
00:58:17,666 --> 00:58:19,266
Whole-heartedly.

937
00:58:19,366 --> 00:58:20,733
ZIMMERMAN:
There were plenty of times

938
00:58:20,833 --> 00:58:22,733
when people who were supportive
of the war

939
00:58:22,833 --> 00:58:24,133
came to these teach-ins

940
00:58:24,233 --> 00:58:27,266
to try to give an alternative
anticommunist point of view.

941
00:58:27,366 --> 00:58:29,566
They were often shouted down.

942
00:58:29,666 --> 00:58:31,533
(crowd booing)

943
00:58:31,633 --> 00:58:35,500
NARRATOR:
The bombing of the North
and the Marines' arrival

944
00:58:35,600 --> 00:58:39,600
also drew protestors
to Washington that spring.

945
00:58:39,700 --> 00:58:41,333
The demonstration was organized

946
00:58:41,433 --> 00:58:46,166
by the Students for a Democratic
Society-- the SDS.

947
00:58:46,266 --> 00:58:51,066
I saw SDS calling for a
demonstration at the White House

948
00:58:51,166 --> 00:58:53,700
in the spring of 1965.

949
00:58:53,800 --> 00:58:56,833
I didn't want to go because
I didn't want to be disappointed

950
00:58:56,933 --> 00:58:58,466
in the same way again
and, you know,

951
00:58:58,566 --> 00:59:00,133
go all the way to Washington

952
00:59:00,233 --> 00:59:01,933
and stand outside the White
House with 40 people.

953
00:59:02,033 --> 00:59:03,566
(crowd cheering)

954
00:59:03,666 --> 00:59:06,633
25,000 people attended
that rally.

955
00:59:09,033 --> 00:59:10,966
And that suddenly told me

956
00:59:11,066 --> 00:59:14,566
and others I was working
with at the time

957
00:59:14,666 --> 00:59:18,366
that it might be possible
to build an antiwar movement.

958
00:59:23,900 --> 00:59:25,800
JEAN-MARIE CROCKER:
It was quite astounding to think

959
00:59:25,900 --> 00:59:28,633
that he had that degree
of commitment.

960
00:59:28,733 --> 00:59:30,866
And it made sense

961
00:59:30,966 --> 00:59:36,200
in what we knew of him,
as drastic as it was.

962
00:59:36,300 --> 00:59:37,700
("It's My Life"
by the Animals playing)

963
00:59:37,800 --> 00:59:40,366
NARRATOR:
Nothing Mogie Crocker's parents
could say or do

964
00:59:40,466 --> 00:59:42,433
since Mogie had come home

965
00:59:42,533 --> 00:59:45,000
shook his determination
to serve,

966
00:59:45,100 --> 00:59:47,033
and recent developments
in Vietnam

967
00:59:47,133 --> 00:59:49,766
had only strengthened
his resolve.

968
00:59:49,866 --> 00:59:54,000
He wanted to become a
paratrooper and get into combat.

969
00:59:54,100 --> 00:59:56,566
His parents finally,
reluctantly,

970
00:59:56,666 --> 00:59:59,533
agreed to let him go,
and on March 15,

971
00:59:59,633 --> 01:00:03,333
a week after the first
Marines landed at Danang,

972
01:00:03,433 --> 01:00:08,600
Denton Crocker, Jr.
entered the United States Army.

973
01:00:08,700 --> 01:00:11,933
JEAN-MARIE CROCKER:
So Denton bounced down the steps
one morning

974
01:00:12,033 --> 01:00:15,233
and was off to Fort Dix.

975
01:00:15,333 --> 01:00:18,933
It was in a way a sort of
relief, actually,

976
01:00:19,033 --> 01:00:21,900
that the conflict
and the anxiety

977
01:00:22,000 --> 01:00:25,300
over whether he would
or would not go was done.

978
01:00:25,400 --> 01:00:26,766
And he was happy.

979
01:00:26,866 --> 01:00:30,300
And we just tried to believe
that this was the right thing

980
01:00:30,400 --> 01:00:32,266
for him to do.

981
01:00:39,700 --> 01:00:43,900
LE MINH KHUE:

982
01:01:22,533 --> 01:01:25,900
NARRATOR:
Le Minh Khue was orphaned
as a small girl,

983
01:01:26,000 --> 01:01:28,933
her parents victims
of the brutal land reforms

984
01:01:29,033 --> 01:01:31,700
the communists had imposed.

985
01:01:31,800 --> 01:01:34,300
She was raised by her aunt
and uncle,

986
01:01:34,400 --> 01:01:38,500
who encouraged her to read
American literature.

987
01:01:38,600 --> 01:01:43,333
She was 16 when
Operation Rolling Thunder began.

988
01:01:43,433 --> 01:01:48,033
LE MINH KHUE:

989
01:02:18,700 --> 01:02:21,266
NARRATOR:
Khue was assigned to
an organization called

990
01:02:21,366 --> 01:02:24,166
the "Youth Shock Brigades
Against the Americans

991
01:02:24,266 --> 01:02:26,200
for National Salvation,"

992
01:02:26,300 --> 01:02:29,666
and along with thousands
of other young people

993
01:02:29,766 --> 01:02:34,000
was sent south to work keeping
open the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

994
01:02:36,200 --> 01:02:39,866
LE MINH KHUE:

995
01:03:13,566 --> 01:03:15,466
NARRATOR:
As Johnson had feared,

996
01:03:15,566 --> 01:03:19,300
it quickly became clear
that the bombing campaign alone

997
01:03:19,400 --> 01:03:21,066
was not working.

998
01:03:21,166 --> 01:03:25,366
Troops and supplies continued
steadily to filter down

999
01:03:25,466 --> 01:03:27,666
the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

1000
01:03:27,766 --> 01:03:30,500
General Westmoreland
and the Joint Chiefs

1001
01:03:30,600 --> 01:03:34,133
called for more men,
tens of thousands of them.

1002
01:03:34,233 --> 01:03:37,466
The president was cautious.

1003
01:03:37,566 --> 01:03:40,300
He wanted to do "enough,
but not too much," he said.

1004
01:03:40,400 --> 01:03:44,300
But he quietly agreed to send
two more Marine battalions

1005
01:03:44,400 --> 01:03:49,866
and changed their mission from
base security to active combat.

1006
01:03:49,966 --> 01:03:51,233
For the first time,

1007
01:03:51,333 --> 01:03:53,766
American troops were being asked

1008
01:03:53,866 --> 01:03:56,966
to fight on their own
in Vietnam.

1009
01:03:57,066 --> 01:04:00,500
Johnson did not want
that fact revealed

1010
01:04:00,600 --> 01:04:03,033
to the American public either.

1011
01:04:03,133 --> 01:04:04,866
But the bombing of the North

1012
01:04:04,966 --> 01:04:07,433
and rumors of harsher measures
to come

1013
01:04:07,533 --> 01:04:10,866
had heightened concern around
the world.

1014
01:04:10,966 --> 01:04:13,766
UN Secretary-General U Thant
had proposed

1015
01:04:13,866 --> 01:04:16,100
a three-month ceasefire.

1016
01:04:16,200 --> 01:04:19,000
Great Britain,
America's closest ally,

1017
01:04:19,100 --> 01:04:22,833
publicly offered to reconvene
the Geneva Talks

1018
01:04:22,933 --> 01:04:25,866
that had divided Vietnam
in 1954,

1019
01:04:25,966 --> 01:04:29,466
with the goal of reuniting it.

1020
01:04:29,566 --> 01:04:32,666
JOHNSON:
The people of South Vietnam
be allowed to guide

1021
01:04:32,766 --> 01:04:34,100
their own country...

1022
01:04:34,200 --> 01:04:37,466
NARRATOR:
On April 7,
at Johns Hopkins University,

1023
01:04:37,566 --> 01:04:39,766
Johnson sought to persuade
the world

1024
01:04:39,866 --> 01:04:42,133
of America's good intentions

1025
01:04:42,233 --> 01:04:46,600
and again to calm American
fears of a wider war.

1026
01:04:48,200 --> 01:04:52,066
In recent months, attacks on
South Vietnam were stepped up.

1027
01:04:52,166 --> 01:04:57,033
Thus, it became necessary for
us to increase our response

1028
01:04:57,133 --> 01:05:00,333
and to make attacks by air.

1029
01:05:00,433 --> 01:05:04,033
This is not a change of purpose.

1030
01:05:04,133 --> 01:05:09,533
It is a change in what we
believe that purpose requires.

1031
01:05:09,633 --> 01:05:13,500
NARRATOR:
Nothing was said about the
new orders sending Marines

1032
01:05:13,600 --> 01:05:16,166
directly into combat.

1033
01:05:16,266 --> 01:05:20,966
Instead, the president called
for "unconditional discussions"

1034
01:05:21,066 --> 01:05:24,400
with Hanoi,
and as an old New Dealer,

1035
01:05:24,500 --> 01:05:27,233
proposed a massive
development program

1036
01:05:27,333 --> 01:05:29,300
for all of Southeast Asia.

1037
01:05:29,400 --> 01:05:32,033
JOHNSON:
The vast Mekong River can
provide

1038
01:05:32,133 --> 01:05:33,700
food and water and power

1039
01:05:33,800 --> 01:05:37,300
on a scale to dwarf
even our own TVA.

1040
01:05:37,400 --> 01:05:39,333
(gunfire)

1041
01:05:39,433 --> 01:05:41,566
BRADY:
I was outside of the village.

1042
01:05:41,666 --> 01:05:43,933
We're getting some fire
from the village.

1043
01:05:44,033 --> 01:05:46,266
I had the little
transistor radio.

1044
01:05:46,366 --> 01:05:49,433
And I'm sitting there
listening to LBJ.

1045
01:05:49,533 --> 01:05:51,400
JOHNSON:
...will use our power
with restraint

1046
01:05:51,500 --> 01:05:53,500
and with all the wisdom...

1047
01:05:53,600 --> 01:05:57,033
At the same time we got to lay
some nape on the village.

1048
01:05:57,133 --> 01:05:58,933
So I'm calling in the nape

1049
01:05:59,033 --> 01:06:02,433
and listening to the president
talk peace.

1050
01:06:02,533 --> 01:06:05,566
JOHNSON:
We will try to keep conflict
from spreading.

1051
01:06:05,666 --> 01:06:08,366
BRADY:
It was surreal.

1052
01:06:08,466 --> 01:06:10,500
JOHNSON:
We have no desire to devastate

1053
01:06:10,600 --> 01:06:14,833
that which the people
of North Vietnam have built

1054
01:06:14,933 --> 01:06:18,100
with toil and sacrifice.

1055
01:06:18,200 --> 01:06:24,233
This war, like most wars,
is filled with terrible irony.

1056
01:06:24,333 --> 01:06:26,033
What do the people
of North Vietnam want?

1057
01:06:26,133 --> 01:06:27,600
(sirens wailing)

1058
01:06:31,033 --> 01:06:35,100
NARRATOR:
Hanoi denounced the president's
offer as a trick.

1059
01:06:35,199 --> 01:06:38,199
Johnson's advisors and
the Joint Chiefs of Staff

1060
01:06:38,300 --> 01:06:42,400
continued to debate how many men
would actually be needed

1061
01:06:42,500 --> 01:06:45,800
and how rapidly
they should be deployed.

1062
01:06:45,900 --> 01:06:50,266
Meanwhile, the president sent
the first Army combat troops

1063
01:06:50,366 --> 01:06:51,566
to the country.

1064
01:06:51,666 --> 01:06:53,866
It was increasingly clear

1065
01:06:53,966 --> 01:06:57,766
that the United States was in it
for the long haul.

1066
01:07:01,633 --> 01:07:08,866
You can't just be a neutral
witness to something like war.

1067
01:07:16,666 --> 01:07:20,600
It crawls down your throat.

1068
01:07:20,699 --> 01:07:25,833
It eats you alive from
the inside and the out.

1069
01:07:30,233 --> 01:07:34,900
It's not something that you can
stand back and be neutral

1070
01:07:35,000 --> 01:07:41,266
and objective and all of those
things we try to be

1071
01:07:41,366 --> 01:07:44,900
as reporters, journalists,
photographers.

1072
01:07:47,500 --> 01:07:50,233
It doesn't work that way.

1073
01:07:52,733 --> 01:07:56,766
MAN (on radio):
...defense and they're real
quick... and check it out...

1074
01:07:56,866 --> 01:08:00,566
NARRATOR:
The growing presence of American
combat troops in Vietnam

1075
01:08:00,666 --> 01:08:04,633
attracted flocks of journalists.

1076
01:08:04,733 --> 01:08:06,833
There was no press censorship,

1077
01:08:06,933 --> 01:08:10,266
as there had been
in World War II.

1078
01:08:10,366 --> 01:08:14,666
Reporters just had to agree
to follow military guidelines

1079
01:08:14,766 --> 01:08:17,100
so as not to compromise
the security

1080
01:08:17,200 --> 01:08:19,466
of ongoing operations.

1081
01:08:19,566 --> 01:08:21,866
It was dangerous work.

1082
01:08:21,966 --> 01:08:26,300
More than 200 journalists
and photographers would die

1083
01:08:26,400 --> 01:08:29,500
covering the fighting
in Southeast Asia.

1084
01:08:29,600 --> 01:08:32,866
Joseph Lee Galloway
was a young UPI reporter

1085
01:08:32,966 --> 01:08:36,266
from Refugio, Texas.

1086
01:08:36,366 --> 01:08:40,100
He stopped in Saigon just long
enough to get his credentials.

1087
01:08:40,200 --> 01:08:43,200
Then he headed for Danang.

1088
01:08:43,300 --> 01:08:46,500
GALLOWAY:
The Marines originally
came ashore there

1089
01:08:46,600 --> 01:08:49,133
to guard the airbase.

1090
01:08:49,233 --> 01:08:55,233
And they quickly figured out
you can't just guard an airbase.

1091
01:08:55,333 --> 01:08:57,066
You've got to spread out

1092
01:08:57,166 --> 01:08:58,433
because they're going
to mortar it,

1093
01:08:58,533 --> 01:09:00,366
they're going to shoot rockets.

1094
01:09:00,466 --> 01:09:04,166
So you've got to reach out
15 or 20 miles.

1095
01:09:04,266 --> 01:09:08,200
That means you've got to run
operations that far out.

1096
01:09:08,300 --> 01:09:09,766
And once you're doing that,

1097
01:09:09,866 --> 01:09:12,166
you're no longer guarding
an airbase...

1098
01:09:12,266 --> 01:09:13,966
(gunfire)

1099
01:09:14,066 --> 01:09:17,266
...you're operating
in hostile territory.

1100
01:09:20,533 --> 01:09:22,133
(soldiers cheering)

1101
01:09:26,366 --> 01:09:28,800
NGUYEN THANH SON:

1102
01:09:47,800 --> 01:09:52,100
CAPUTO:
It wasn't so much the Viet Cong
that were intimidating

1103
01:09:52,200 --> 01:09:55,466
at that point
as it was the terrain.

1104
01:09:55,566 --> 01:10:00,200
Going from Point A to Point B
in the jungle

1105
01:10:00,300 --> 01:10:01,600
was so difficult.

1106
01:10:01,700 --> 01:10:06,033
As it happened to me once,
it took four hours

1107
01:10:06,133 --> 01:10:08,233
to move a half a mile,

1108
01:10:08,333 --> 01:10:11,533
cutting through this bush
with machetes.

1109
01:10:13,800 --> 01:10:19,700
GALLOWAY:
The Viet Cong knew the terrain
far better than the Marines did,

1110
01:10:19,800 --> 01:10:23,500
and ran circles around them.

1111
01:10:23,600 --> 01:10:26,033
(gunfire)

1112
01:10:35,800 --> 01:10:41,133
MOGIE CROCKER (dramatized):
Fort Dix, June 10, 1965.

1113
01:10:41,233 --> 01:10:42,800
Dear Mum,

1114
01:10:42,900 --> 01:10:46,800
Basic is now all over and I am
presently waiting for orders.

1115
01:10:46,900 --> 01:10:49,100
Waiting for orders could be
very dull

1116
01:10:49,200 --> 01:10:50,933
but I have found there are
excellent chances

1117
01:10:51,033 --> 01:10:52,766
to do some reading.

1118
01:10:52,866 --> 01:10:55,033
<i>Recently I have read
Wuthering Heights,</i>

1119
01:10:55,133 --> 01:10:59,900
<i>Animal Farm, Seven Pillars of
Wisdom , andLord Jim.</i>

1120
01:11:00,000 --> 01:11:01,700
I hope you are all well.

1121
01:11:01,800 --> 01:11:03,300
Love, Mogie.

1122
01:11:05,100 --> 01:11:07,733
NARRATOR:
Mogie Crocker was allowed
two weeks at home

1123
01:11:07,833 --> 01:11:10,633
before shipping out to Vietnam.

1124
01:11:12,466 --> 01:11:14,233
JEAN-MARIE CROCKER:
We were at dinner one evening

1125
01:11:14,333 --> 01:11:17,600
just talking, I guess,
in generalities about the war

1126
01:11:17,700 --> 01:11:19,933
and the general situation.

1127
01:11:20,033 --> 01:11:24,733
And Mogie said, "Of course
if I were a Vietnamese,

1128
01:11:24,833 --> 01:11:27,633
I would be on the
side of the Viet Cong."

1129
01:11:27,733 --> 01:11:31,466
That... I puzzled over that.

1130
01:11:31,566 --> 01:11:34,900
I suppose relating like
to our American Revolution

1131
01:11:35,000 --> 01:11:38,466
that he saw their need
for their own freedom.

1132
01:11:38,566 --> 01:11:40,733
But as an American citizen,

1133
01:11:40,833 --> 01:11:45,633
he saw the larger picture
of trying to prevent communism.

1134
01:11:45,733 --> 01:11:48,466
CAROL CROCKER:
I remember one night
in particular

1135
01:11:48,566 --> 01:11:50,233
he and I were up late.

1136
01:11:50,333 --> 01:11:55,400
And he suddenly leaned his head
in his hands.

1137
01:11:55,500 --> 01:11:58,633
And he said,
"I don't want to go back."

1138
01:11:59,866 --> 01:12:02,200
I was dumbstruck.

1139
01:12:02,300 --> 01:12:07,900
And said to him, "But this
is what you want to do."

1140
01:12:08,000 --> 01:12:11,433
It had never occurred to me
that he was torn about this,

1141
01:12:11,533 --> 01:12:15,000
that he was afraid
and yet was determined to go.

1142
01:12:23,100 --> 01:12:25,500
("Play With Fire"
by the Rolling Stones playing)

1143
01:12:25,600 --> 01:12:29,366
NARRATOR:
In South Vietnam, things
were steadily growing worse.

1144
01:12:31,466 --> 01:12:33,966
JAGGER:
♪ Well, you've got
your diamond. ♪

1145
01:12:34,066 --> 01:12:37,133
NARRATOR:
In May, the Viet Cong,

1146
01:12:37,233 --> 01:12:40,933
supported now by four regiments
of North Vietnamese regulars--

1147
01:12:41,033 --> 01:12:43,533
approximately 5,000 men--

1148
01:12:43,633 --> 01:12:47,400
were destroying the equivalent
of a South Vietnamese battalion

1149
01:12:47,500 --> 01:12:49,233
every week.

1150
01:12:49,333 --> 01:12:51,166
JAGGER:
♪ But don't play with me

1151
01:12:51,266 --> 01:12:53,400
♪ Because you're playing
with fire. ♪

1152
01:12:53,500 --> 01:12:58,500
NARRATOR:
South Vietnam now seemed only
weeks from complete collapse.

1153
01:12:58,600 --> 01:13:02,266
Desperate, General Westmoreland
requested

1154
01:13:02,366 --> 01:13:07,333
tens of thousands of more
American troops right away.

1155
01:13:07,433 --> 01:13:10,166
But neither the
continuing bombing

1156
01:13:10,266 --> 01:13:13,966
nor the growing likelihood of
full-scale American intervention

1157
01:13:14,066 --> 01:13:17,366
seemed to intimidate Hanoi.

1158
01:13:17,466 --> 01:13:20,333
Le Duan, having failed
to win the war

1159
01:13:20,433 --> 01:13:23,133
before the United States sent in
ground troops,

1160
01:13:23,233 --> 01:13:26,366
was now persuaded
the American public,

1161
01:13:26,466 --> 01:13:29,900
like the French public before
them, would eventually weary

1162
01:13:30,000 --> 01:13:35,633
of a costly, bloody war being
waged so far from home.

1163
01:13:35,733 --> 01:13:40,800
By contrast, he said, "The North
will not count the cost."

1164
01:13:40,900 --> 01:13:43,466
Le Duan's confidence
was bolstered

1165
01:13:43,566 --> 01:13:46,133
by the help American
intervention had forced

1166
01:13:46,233 --> 01:13:49,800
the Soviet Union and China
to offer him.

1167
01:13:49,900 --> 01:13:54,066
Moscow agreed to supply vast
amounts of modern weaponry

1168
01:13:54,166 --> 01:13:55,533
and materiel.

1169
01:13:55,633 --> 01:14:00,466
Hanoi would eventually become
the most heavily defended city

1170
01:14:00,566 --> 01:14:01,833
on Earth.

1171
01:14:01,933 --> 01:14:05,066
And China agreed to send
support troops,

1172
01:14:05,166 --> 01:14:08,400
freeing North Vietnamese
soldiers for combat

1173
01:14:08,500 --> 01:14:10,066
in the South.

1174
01:14:10,166 --> 01:14:15,366
320,000 Chinese would eventually
serve behind the lines

1175
01:14:15,466 --> 01:14:18,566
in the North.

1176
01:14:18,666 --> 01:14:20,766
"We will fight,"
Le Duan promised,

1177
01:14:20,866 --> 01:14:24,133
"whatever way the
United States wants."

1178
01:14:25,300 --> 01:14:28,533
JOHN NEGROPONTE:
In June of 1965,

1179
01:14:28,633 --> 01:14:31,100
Secretary McNamara,
the Secretary of Defense,

1180
01:14:31,200 --> 01:14:32,466
came out to Saigon.

1181
01:14:32,566 --> 01:14:36,100
There were a lot of captains
and majors and lieutenants.

1182
01:14:36,200 --> 01:14:40,166
And every person said
to Mr. McNamara,

1183
01:14:40,266 --> 01:14:42,666
"The situation is so dire

1184
01:14:42,766 --> 01:14:45,466
we must bring in
United States forces."

1185
01:14:45,566 --> 01:14:48,466
So, whatever doubts
we may have had,

1186
01:14:48,566 --> 01:14:50,366
whatever people may say
after the fact,

1187
01:14:50,466 --> 01:14:53,266
I recall distinctly at the time

1188
01:14:53,366 --> 01:14:56,166
telling the Secretary of
Defense that I thought we needed

1189
01:14:56,266 --> 01:14:57,333
to bring troops in there.

1190
01:14:58,633 --> 01:15:00,000
NARRATOR:
For three weeks,

1191
01:15:00,100 --> 01:15:03,400
the president and his advisors
argued over how to respond

1192
01:15:03,500 --> 01:15:07,100
to Westmoreland's urgent
request for more troops,

1193
01:15:07,200 --> 01:15:11,766
differing mostly over how many
should be sent how fast.

1194
01:15:11,866 --> 01:15:16,366
Undersecretary of State
George Ball made the argument

1195
01:15:16,466 --> 01:15:19,133
against further escalation.

1196
01:15:19,233 --> 01:15:23,200
He told the president
the war could not be won.

1197
01:15:23,300 --> 01:15:26,333
The American people
will grow weary of it.

1198
01:15:26,433 --> 01:15:28,500
Our troops will get bogged down

1199
01:15:28,600 --> 01:15:31,033
"in the jungles and rice
paddies," he warned,

1200
01:15:31,133 --> 01:15:34,700
"while we slowly
blow the country to pieces."

1201
01:15:34,800 --> 01:15:37,166
No one else agreed.

1202
01:15:37,266 --> 01:15:40,366
JAGGER:
♪ But don't play with me...

1203
01:15:40,466 --> 01:15:45,933
NARRATOR:
In the end, Johnson sent
Westmoreland 50,000 men.

1204
01:15:46,033 --> 01:15:51,466
But he pledged another 50,000
by the end of 1965,

1205
01:15:51,566 --> 01:15:54,500
and still more
if they were needed.

1206
01:15:54,600 --> 01:15:56,966
JAGGER:
♪ Because you're playing
with fire. ♪

1207
01:15:58,700 --> 01:16:02,633
SOLDIERS:
♪ Gory, gory, what a hell
of a way to die ♪

1208
01:16:02,733 --> 01:16:06,133
TRAN NGOC TOAN:

1209
01:16:31,266 --> 01:16:33,000
MAN:
Hold your fire!

1210
01:16:33,100 --> 01:16:34,233
Hold your fire.

1211
01:16:35,433 --> 01:16:37,100
JOHN SCALI:
Does the fact

1212
01:16:37,200 --> 01:16:40,133
that you are sending additional
forces to Vietnam

1213
01:16:40,233 --> 01:16:43,166
imply any change in
the existing policy

1214
01:16:43,266 --> 01:16:46,800
of using American forces to
guard American installations

1215
01:16:46,900 --> 01:16:49,066
and to act as an
emergency backup?

1216
01:16:49,166 --> 01:16:52,366
It does not imply any change
in policy whatever.

1217
01:16:52,466 --> 01:16:55,466
It does not imply any change
of objective.

1218
01:16:55,566 --> 01:16:56,666
Uh...

1219
01:16:58,866 --> 01:17:00,766
LOU CIOFFI:
The month of June
saw soldiers here

1220
01:17:00,866 --> 01:17:02,066
taking what appears to be...

1221
01:17:02,166 --> 01:17:04,700
NARRATOR:
Most television reports
from Vietnam

1222
01:17:04,800 --> 01:17:08,133
echoed the newsreels Americans
had flocked to see

1223
01:17:08,233 --> 01:17:12,566
during the Second World War--
enthusiastic, unquestioning,

1224
01:17:12,666 --> 01:17:17,566
good guys fighting
and defeating bad guys.

1225
01:17:17,666 --> 01:17:22,033
But at dinnertime
on August 5, 1965,

1226
01:17:22,133 --> 01:17:24,933
Americans saw another side
of the war.

1227
01:17:26,566 --> 01:17:29,166
MORLEY SAFER:
We're on the outskirts
of the village of Cam Ne

1228
01:17:29,266 --> 01:17:31,033
with elements of the
1st Battalion...

1229
01:17:31,133 --> 01:17:34,600
NARRATOR:
CBS correspondent Morley Safer
and his crew

1230
01:17:34,700 --> 01:17:37,933
went on patrol with Marines
near Danang.

1231
01:17:38,033 --> 01:17:41,133
Their orders were first
to search a cluster

1232
01:17:41,233 --> 01:17:45,133
of four villages for caches
of arms and rice

1233
01:17:45,233 --> 01:17:50,066
meant for the enemy and then
to destroy them all.

1234
01:17:53,433 --> 01:17:56,466
This is what the war
in Vietnam is all about.

1235
01:17:56,566 --> 01:18:00,233
(speaking Vietnamese)

1236
01:18:00,333 --> 01:18:03,766
The old and the very young.

1237
01:18:03,866 --> 01:18:06,633
The Marines have burned

1238
01:18:06,733 --> 01:18:08,633
this old couple's cottage

1239
01:18:08,733 --> 01:18:10,500
because fire was coming
from here.

1240
01:18:10,600 --> 01:18:12,233
And now when you walk
into the village

1241
01:18:12,333 --> 01:18:14,000
you see no young people at all.

1242
01:18:14,100 --> 01:18:18,633
(woman speaking Vietnamese)

1243
01:18:18,733 --> 01:18:21,900
The day's operation burned
down 150 houses,

1244
01:18:22,000 --> 01:18:25,233
wounded three women,
killed one baby,

1245
01:18:25,333 --> 01:18:30,766
wounded one Marine,
and netted these four prisoners.

1246
01:18:30,866 --> 01:18:33,833
Today's operation
is the frustration of Vietnam

1247
01:18:33,933 --> 01:18:35,733
in miniature.

1248
01:18:35,833 --> 01:18:38,166
There is little doubt
that American firepower

1249
01:18:38,266 --> 01:18:40,500
can win a military victory here.

1250
01:18:40,600 --> 01:18:45,366
But to a Vietnamese peasant
whose home is a...

1251
01:18:45,466 --> 01:18:47,700
means a lifetime
of backbreaking labor,

1252
01:18:47,800 --> 01:18:50,600
it will take more than
presidential promises

1253
01:18:50,700 --> 01:18:53,566
to convince him that
we are on his side.

1254
01:18:55,300 --> 01:18:57,166
NARRATOR:
The next morning,
the president called

1255
01:18:57,266 --> 01:19:01,466
his friend Frank Stanton,
the head of CBS.

1256
01:19:01,566 --> 01:19:04,733
"Hello, Frank,
this is your president.

1257
01:19:04,833 --> 01:19:07,000
Are you trying to fuck me?"

1258
01:19:08,433 --> 01:19:11,800
Safer had defaced the
American flag, Johnson said.

1259
01:19:11,900 --> 01:19:16,266
He was probably an agent of
the Kremlin, had to be fired.

1260
01:19:16,366 --> 01:19:20,533
The Marines claimed Safer had
provided a zippo lighter

1261
01:19:20,633 --> 01:19:24,400
and asked the Marines
to burn the hut for the camera.

1262
01:19:24,500 --> 01:19:26,800
A major at the Danang Marine
press office

1263
01:19:26,900 --> 01:19:30,933
called CBS the "Communist
Broadcasting System."

1264
01:19:32,066 --> 01:19:33,466
But after the operation,

1265
01:19:33,566 --> 01:19:38,833
Safer interviewed some of the
Marines who'd burned Cam Ne.

1266
01:19:38,933 --> 01:19:41,166
Do you ever have any
private thoughts,

1267
01:19:41,266 --> 01:19:43,766
any private regrets about
some of these people

1268
01:19:43,866 --> 01:19:45,166
you are leaving homeless?

1269
01:19:45,266 --> 01:19:46,500
I feel no remorse.

1270
01:19:46,600 --> 01:19:47,700
I don't imagine
anybody else does.

1271
01:19:47,800 --> 01:19:49,000
You can't expect to do your job

1272
01:19:49,100 --> 01:19:50,500
and feel pity
for these people.

1273
01:19:52,600 --> 01:19:54,900
NARRATOR:
When some viewers registered
their shock,

1274
01:19:55,000 --> 01:19:59,033
Westmoreland admitted,
"We have a genuine problem

1275
01:19:59,133 --> 01:20:03,000
"which will be with us as long
as we are in Vietnam.

1276
01:20:03,100 --> 01:20:08,133
"Commanders must exercise
restraint unnatural to war

1277
01:20:08,233 --> 01:20:12,100
and judgment not often required
of young men."

1278
01:20:18,300 --> 01:20:21,033
CAPUTO:
You kind of thought at first

1279
01:20:21,133 --> 01:20:23,766
that it was going to be
like the GIs, you know,

1280
01:20:23,866 --> 01:20:26,500
rolling through Paris
after the liberation.

1281
01:20:28,633 --> 01:20:31,400
Well, you know, it sure didn't
work out that way.

1282
01:20:33,533 --> 01:20:35,766
I can remember once going
in this one ville.

1283
01:20:35,866 --> 01:20:39,133
And I remember finding this
entire Vietnamese family

1284
01:20:39,233 --> 01:20:42,000
cowering in a bunker.

1285
01:20:43,300 --> 01:20:45,633
And they were terrified of us.

1286
01:20:49,300 --> 01:20:51,866
And I remember thinking
to myself, I said,

1287
01:20:51,966 --> 01:20:56,133
"Well, I wonder if back
in the colonial days,

1288
01:20:56,233 --> 01:20:59,333
"when the Redcoats barged
into Ipswich, Massachusetts,

1289
01:20:59,433 --> 01:21:00,466
"or wherever,

1290
01:21:00,566 --> 01:21:04,166
"if this is how Americans
must have felt

1291
01:21:04,266 --> 01:21:07,833
looking at these foreign
soldiers coming in here."

1292
01:21:07,933 --> 01:21:09,133
FREDERICK ACKERSON:
The Viet Cong

1293
01:21:09,233 --> 01:21:14,566
have terrorized you,
and have burned your homes.

1294
01:21:14,666 --> 01:21:17,700
We are here to help you.

1295
01:21:17,800 --> 01:21:22,066
To show how much
we are able to protect you,

1296
01:21:22,166 --> 01:21:27,400
we are going to have
the Air Force

1297
01:21:27,500 --> 01:21:32,666
hit some Viet Cong on the other
side of the valley.

1298
01:21:32,766 --> 01:21:34,633
That will be at 10:30.

1299
01:21:34,733 --> 01:21:39,866
(playing "Colonel Bogey" march)

1300
01:21:39,966 --> 01:21:43,033
(distant explosion)

1301
01:21:57,600 --> 01:21:59,666
MOGIE CROCKER (dramatized):
Dear Mum and Dad,

1302
01:21:59,766 --> 01:22:02,833
I am now with the 1st Brigade,
101st Airborne Division

1303
01:22:02,933 --> 01:22:04,733
in Vietnam.

1304
01:22:04,833 --> 01:22:07,666
("The War Drags On"
by Donovan playing)

1305
01:22:10,833 --> 01:22:12,666
What is taking place in America?

1306
01:22:12,766 --> 01:22:15,633
We who are in Vietnam find
these protests

1307
01:22:15,733 --> 01:22:17,400
very hard to comprehend,

1308
01:22:17,500 --> 01:22:21,066
and many people here
are quite bitter about them.

1309
01:22:21,166 --> 01:22:24,533
DONOVAN:
♪ Let me tell you the story
in South Vietnam. ♪

1310
01:22:24,633 --> 01:22:26,200
MOGIE CROCKER (dramatized):
The belief I have
in our present policy

1311
01:22:26,300 --> 01:22:30,166
has been completely confirmed
by what I have seen here.

1312
01:22:30,266 --> 01:22:33,300
My chief worry is that these
pacifist bleatings

1313
01:22:33,400 --> 01:22:36,300
might effect even a small change
in government policy

1314
01:22:36,400 --> 01:22:39,066
at a time when we appear
close to success.

1315
01:22:39,166 --> 01:22:43,766
DONOVAN:
♪ And the war drags on.

1316
01:22:45,900 --> 01:22:50,133
JEAN-MARIE CROCKER:
As Vietnam began to be
more and more chaotic,

1317
01:22:50,233 --> 01:22:54,866
I certainly wondered very much
whether we should be there.

1318
01:22:54,966 --> 01:22:57,366
But I never expressed that
to him.

1319
01:22:57,466 --> 01:23:00,833
That's one of those conflicts
that's just too difficult

1320
01:23:00,933 --> 01:23:03,600
to bring up, or at least
it was for me.

1321
01:23:05,200 --> 01:23:08,400
("Big River" by Johnny Cash
playing)

1322
01:23:09,900 --> 01:23:15,600
CASH:
♪ Now I taught the weeping
willow how to cry ♪

1323
01:23:15,700 --> 01:23:20,600
♪ And I showed the clouds how
to cover up a clear blue sky. ♪

1324
01:23:20,700 --> 01:23:22,633
GALLOWAY:
We were all excited
about the arrival

1325
01:23:22,733 --> 01:23:27,366
of the 1st Cavalry Division,
an experimental unit.

1326
01:23:27,466 --> 01:23:31,666
They've been trained in
air-mobile warfare

1327
01:23:31,766 --> 01:23:38,366
using these helicopters to
the absolute maximum benefit.

1328
01:23:38,466 --> 01:23:44,433
They're moving their artillery
by helicopter, jumping it,

1329
01:23:44,533 --> 01:23:49,433
leapfrogging troops, chasing
the enemy, driving him crazy.

1330
01:23:51,733 --> 01:23:53,733
This is something new,

1331
01:23:53,833 --> 01:23:57,500
and it's going to change
the way we do war.

1332
01:23:57,600 --> 01:24:00,266
CASH:
♪ I found her trail
in Memphis... ♪

1333
01:24:00,366 --> 01:24:02,933
NARRATOR:
In September of 1965,

1334
01:24:03,033 --> 01:24:05,633
the newly created
1st Cavalry Division--

1335
01:24:05,733 --> 01:24:14,100
16,000 men, 1,600 vehicles,
435 helicopters--

1336
01:24:14,200 --> 01:24:19,033
had begun arriving at An Khe,
a massive base carved out

1337
01:24:19,133 --> 01:24:22,000
of the grasslands at the edge
of the Central Highlands.

1338
01:24:23,533 --> 01:24:26,866
Its heliport would come to be
called the "Golf Course."

1339
01:24:30,533 --> 01:24:34,066
As the 1st Cavalry got used
to its new surroundings,

1340
01:24:34,166 --> 01:24:37,933
thousands of North Vietnamese
regulars were slipping south

1341
01:24:38,033 --> 01:24:41,400
into the Highlands
along the Ho Chi Minh Trail,

1342
01:24:41,500 --> 01:24:44,900
joining Viet Cong units
already in place.

1343
01:24:45,000 --> 01:24:48,333
They established their own
base on and around

1344
01:24:48,433 --> 01:24:51,700
a jumble of thickly
forested mountains and ravines

1345
01:24:51,800 --> 01:24:54,533
south of the Ia Drang River.

1346
01:24:54,633 --> 01:24:57,200
On the evening of October 19,

1347
01:24:57,300 --> 01:25:00,466
communist commandos slipped
to within 40 yards

1348
01:25:00,566 --> 01:25:04,133
of the perimeter wire of
the U.S. Special Forces outpost

1349
01:25:04,233 --> 01:25:05,600
at Plei Me,

1350
01:25:05,700 --> 01:25:10,333
which was defended by a 12-man
team of U.S. Green Berets,

1351
01:25:10,433 --> 01:25:16,300
14 ARVN, and some 400
mountain tribesmen.

1352
01:25:22,366 --> 01:25:25,066
Nine of the 12 Green Berets
were hit.

1353
01:25:25,166 --> 01:25:27,900
They managed to hold out
for two days

1354
01:25:28,000 --> 01:25:34,400
before 15 more Green Berets and
160 South Vietnamese Rangers

1355
01:25:34,500 --> 01:25:39,066
were helicoptered in, commanded
by Major Charles Beckwith,

1356
01:25:39,166 --> 01:25:43,166
known to his fellow soldiers
as Chargin' Charlie.

1357
01:25:43,266 --> 01:25:44,166
(explosion)

1358
01:25:44,266 --> 01:25:45,600
The next day,

1359
01:25:45,700 --> 01:25:48,266
Joe Galloway managed to talk
a helicopter pilot

1360
01:25:48,366 --> 01:25:51,766
into flying him
into the besieged camp.

1361
01:25:51,866 --> 01:25:56,666
GALLOWAY:
That's where I met
Major Charles Beckwith.

1362
01:25:56,766 --> 01:26:00,133
He said, "I need everything
in the world.

1363
01:26:00,233 --> 01:26:04,166
"And what has the Army
in its wisdom sent me

1364
01:26:04,266 --> 01:26:07,366
but a godforsaken reporter?"

1365
01:26:07,466 --> 01:26:10,500
He drug me over and showed me

1366
01:26:10,600 --> 01:26:14,366
a 30-caliber air-cooled
machine gun.

1367
01:26:14,466 --> 01:26:17,066
He showed me how to load it,
how to clear a jam.

1368
01:26:17,166 --> 01:26:21,166
NARRATOR:
"You can shoot the little brown
men outside the wire,"

1369
01:26:21,266 --> 01:26:23,166
Beckwith told Galloway.

1370
01:26:23,266 --> 01:26:25,200
"You may not shoot
the little brown men

1371
01:26:25,300 --> 01:26:28,900
inside the wire; they are mine."

1372
01:26:29,000 --> 01:26:30,800
GALLOWAY:
And I'm sitting there thinking,

1373
01:26:30,900 --> 01:26:33,733
"Ah, I'm a
civilian noncombatant."

1374
01:26:33,833 --> 01:26:37,100
I tried that line on Beckwith
and he said,

1375
01:26:37,200 --> 01:26:40,033
"Ain't no such thing in these
mountains, son."

1376
01:26:40,133 --> 01:26:44,233
NARRATOR:
For nearly a week, the North
Vietnamese launched assault

1377
01:26:44,333 --> 01:26:46,966
after assault on Plei Me.

1378
01:26:47,066 --> 01:26:51,166
It was only after American bombs
and napalm

1379
01:26:51,266 --> 01:26:54,366
turned the surrounding terrain
into a moonscape

1380
01:26:54,466 --> 01:26:57,533
that the enemy withdrew.

1381
01:26:57,633 --> 01:27:01,600
JOHN LAURENCE:
What kind of fighters are the
Viet Cong that you met here?

1382
01:27:01,700 --> 01:27:07,433
I would give anything to have
200 of them under my command.

1383
01:27:07,533 --> 01:27:09,433
They're the finest soldiers
I've ever seen.

1384
01:27:09,533 --> 01:27:10,733
The Viet Cong.

1385
01:27:10,833 --> 01:27:12,133
That's right.

1386
01:27:12,233 --> 01:27:13,900
They're dedicated,
and they're good soldiers.

1387
01:27:14,000 --> 01:27:15,433
They're the best
I've ever seen.

1388
01:27:18,400 --> 01:27:21,400
NARRATOR:
Despite the losses his men
had suffered at Plei Me,

1389
01:27:21,500 --> 01:27:24,833
the North Vietnamese commander,
General Chu Huy Man,

1390
01:27:24,933 --> 01:27:26,833
was eager for another
confrontation

1391
01:27:26,933 --> 01:27:28,700
with the Americans.

1392
01:27:28,800 --> 01:27:32,266
He was determined to
learn how to fight them.

1393
01:27:32,366 --> 01:27:35,666
Reinforcements streaming down
the Ho Chi Minh Trail

1394
01:27:35,766 --> 01:27:37,866
to the Ia Drang Valley included

1395
01:27:37,966 --> 01:27:42,100
a newly minted second
lieutenant, Lo Khac Tam,

1396
01:27:42,200 --> 01:27:45,366
who had volunteered to fight
in the South.

1397
01:28:06,900 --> 01:28:09,766
NARRATOR:
On the morning
of November 14, 1965,

1398
01:28:09,866 --> 01:28:14,000
1st Cavalry helicopters
belonging to the 1st Battalion

1399
01:28:14,100 --> 01:28:16,200
of the 7th Regiment--

1400
01:28:16,300 --> 01:28:19,100
George Armstrong Custer's
old outfit--

1401
01:28:19,200 --> 01:28:22,833
flew west along the Ia Drang
toward the Chu Pong Massif,

1402
01:28:22,933 --> 01:28:24,833
looking for the enemy.

1403
01:28:27,000 --> 01:28:30,266
Their commander, Kentucky-born
Korean-War veteran

1404
01:28:30,366 --> 01:28:32,466
Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore,

1405
01:28:32,566 --> 01:28:35,200
had been told there was
a large enemy base camp

1406
01:28:35,300 --> 01:28:37,100
somewhere on its slopes.

1407
01:28:37,200 --> 01:28:40,933
His orders were to take his
understrength outfit--

1408
01:28:41,033 --> 01:28:47,533
29 officers and just 411 men--
find the enemy and kill him.

1409
01:28:47,633 --> 01:28:51,600
There were two clearings large
enough for Moore to bring in

1410
01:28:51,700 --> 01:28:53,600
eight choppers at once.

1411
01:28:53,700 --> 01:28:58,633
He chose the one closest to the
mountain-- Landing Zone X-Ray.

1412
01:29:02,200 --> 01:29:05,600
Moore made a point of leading
from the front.

1413
01:29:05,700 --> 01:29:08,400
He was the first man
off the first chopper.

1414
01:29:12,933 --> 01:29:17,333
He sent four six-man squads
100 yards in every direction.

1415
01:29:17,433 --> 01:29:20,200
The Ia Drang Valley
was so beautiful,

1416
01:29:20,300 --> 01:29:22,333
one soldier remembered,

1417
01:29:22,433 --> 01:29:25,500
it reminded him of
a national park back home.

1418
01:29:25,600 --> 01:29:29,833
Within minutes, Moore's men
captured a deserter.

1419
01:29:29,933 --> 01:29:31,366
Terrified and trembling,

1420
01:29:31,466 --> 01:29:34,266
he said there were three
battalions of soldiers

1421
01:29:34,366 --> 01:29:37,900
on the mountain-- 1,600 men.

1422
01:29:38,000 --> 01:29:40,800
They wanted very much
to kill Americans, he said,

1423
01:29:40,900 --> 01:29:44,566
but so far had been
unable to find any.

1424
01:29:44,666 --> 01:29:47,600
Moore quickly set up
a command post

1425
01:29:47,700 --> 01:29:51,966
behind one of the huge termite
mounds that dotted the clearing.

1426
01:29:52,066 --> 01:29:54,233
It would take until
mid-afternoon

1427
01:29:54,333 --> 01:29:57,766
for all of his
men to be ferried in.

1428
01:29:58,933 --> 01:30:00,833
He had no time to waste.

1429
01:30:00,933 --> 01:30:03,366
"We needed to get off
the landing zone

1430
01:30:03,466 --> 01:30:07,566
and get at them before they
could hit us," Moore remembered.

1431
01:30:07,666 --> 01:30:11,633
He sent two companies up the
slope toward the hidden enemy.

1432
01:30:11,733 --> 01:30:15,433
Most of the North Vietnamese,
like the Americans,

1433
01:30:15,533 --> 01:30:17,166
were new to combat.

1434
01:30:18,633 --> 01:30:20,900
They were ordered
to fix bayonets.

1435
01:30:23,033 --> 01:30:24,733
LO KHAC TAM:

1436
01:30:35,600 --> 01:30:38,400
NARRATOR:
Colonel Moore had no way
of knowing

1437
01:30:38,500 --> 01:30:41,900
that instead of 1,600
enemy soldiers on the mountain,

1438
01:30:42,000 --> 01:30:47,666
there were 3,000--
seven times his strength.

1439
01:31:00,533 --> 01:31:01,833
(gunfire)

1440
01:31:01,933 --> 01:31:04,600
Within minutes,
the Americans found themselves

1441
01:31:04,700 --> 01:31:09,133
under attack from hundreds
of North Vietnamese soldiers.

1442
01:31:09,233 --> 01:31:12,733
In the fighting, an overeager
second lieutenant

1443
01:31:12,833 --> 01:31:15,866
led his platoon of 28 men
too far away

1444
01:31:15,966 --> 01:31:19,366
from the rest of his company
and was surrounded.

1445
01:31:19,466 --> 01:31:20,833
(gunfire, shouting)

1446
01:31:21,966 --> 01:31:23,566
The lieutenant was killed.

1447
01:31:23,666 --> 01:31:27,833
The sergeant who took his place
was shot through the head.

1448
01:31:27,933 --> 01:31:32,466
By late afternoon, only seven
of the trapped platoon's men

1449
01:31:32,566 --> 01:31:35,866
were still capable
of firing back.

1450
01:31:35,966 --> 01:31:39,233
(gunfire, shouting)

1451
01:31:44,500 --> 01:31:49,133
Moore was now engaged in
three simultaneous struggles--

1452
01:31:49,233 --> 01:31:53,233
to defend the landing zone,
attack the North Vietnamese,

1453
01:31:53,333 --> 01:31:57,200
and find a way to rescue
his trapped patrol.

1454
01:32:00,133 --> 01:32:04,266
That night, Joe Galloway again
managed to talk his way

1455
01:32:04,366 --> 01:32:07,100
onto a chopper taking ammunition
and water

1456
01:32:07,200 --> 01:32:09,000
to the besieged Americans.

1457
01:32:09,100 --> 01:32:12,233
As the helicopter approached
the battlefield,

1458
01:32:12,333 --> 01:32:14,866
Galloway was sitting
on a crate of grenades,

1459
01:32:14,966 --> 01:32:18,233
peering out into the darkness.

1460
01:32:18,333 --> 01:32:23,300
GALLOWAY:
And I could see these little
pin pricks of light

1461
01:32:23,400 --> 01:32:25,966
coming down the mountain.

1462
01:32:26,066 --> 01:32:30,866
This was the enemy approaching
for the next day's attacks.

1463
01:32:32,466 --> 01:32:35,233
We flew in there.

1464
01:32:35,333 --> 01:32:39,500
As they pulled on out,
it was dead dark.

1465
01:32:39,600 --> 01:32:42,766
And we're lying there waiting
for someone to come tell us

1466
01:32:42,866 --> 01:32:44,133
what to do.

1467
01:32:47,266 --> 01:32:52,166
And the next morning, all of
a sudden the bottom fell out.

1468
01:32:54,633 --> 01:32:56,400
(gunfire)

1469
01:32:56,500 --> 01:33:00,533
There was an explosion of fire.

1470
01:33:01,966 --> 01:33:06,466
The noise is horrendous,
unimaginable.

1471
01:33:06,566 --> 01:33:09,600
(rapid gunfire,
followed by short bursts)

1472
01:33:13,833 --> 01:33:16,700
(gunfire, shouting)

1473
01:33:18,766 --> 01:33:21,533
And in the middle
of all of this, you know,

1474
01:33:21,633 --> 01:33:24,400
I-I just flattened out
on the ground

1475
01:33:24,500 --> 01:33:28,666
because all that was being fired
seemed to be about two,

1476
01:33:28,766 --> 01:33:32,066
two-and-a-half feet
off the ground.

1477
01:33:32,166 --> 01:33:36,300
(gunfire, whistling)

1478
01:33:39,066 --> 01:33:41,833
NARRATOR:
Hundreds of enemy soldiers
hurled themselves

1479
01:33:41,933 --> 01:33:43,233
at the Americans.

1480
01:33:44,733 --> 01:33:48,500
They wore webbed helmets
camouflaged with grass,

1481
01:33:48,600 --> 01:33:53,433
and as they came,
blowing whistles, screaming,

1482
01:33:53,533 --> 01:33:57,733
they looked like "little trees,"
one American remembered.

1483
01:33:57,833 --> 01:34:00,533
They were trying to overrun us.

1484
01:34:00,633 --> 01:34:02,866
And they came close.

1485
01:34:02,966 --> 01:34:05,166
They came close.

1486
01:34:12,533 --> 01:34:14,900
(gunfire, shouting)

1487
01:34:21,133 --> 01:34:24,500
But we had two things
going for us.

1488
01:34:25,833 --> 01:34:29,233
We had a great commander
and great soldiers.

1489
01:34:29,333 --> 01:34:35,833
And we had air and artillery
support out the yin-yang.

1490
01:34:35,933 --> 01:34:38,600
We had it, and they didn't.

1491
01:34:42,566 --> 01:34:47,300
NARRATOR:
But using that air and artillery
support could be dangerous.

1492
01:34:47,400 --> 01:34:51,333
Each of Moore's units carefully
marked its position with smoke

1493
01:34:51,433 --> 01:34:54,333
to keep from being mistaken
for the enemy

1494
01:34:54,433 --> 01:34:56,700
by American airmen overhead.

1495
01:34:59,633 --> 01:35:01,066
LO KHAC TAM:

1496
01:35:08,233 --> 01:35:12,233
NARRATOR:
Some 18,000 artillery shells
would be called in

1497
01:35:12,333 --> 01:35:13,600
over the course of the battle,

1498
01:35:13,700 --> 01:35:18,666
some of them landing just
25 yards from Moore's own men.

1499
01:35:18,766 --> 01:35:24,233
Helicopter gunships fired 3,000
rockets into the enemy.

1500
01:35:24,333 --> 01:35:26,766
The forward air controller

1501
01:35:26,866 --> 01:35:30,400
called for every available
aircraft in South Vietnam

1502
01:35:30,500 --> 01:35:31,966
to come and help.

1503
01:35:32,066 --> 01:35:37,533
Warplanes, including B-52
long-range strategic bombers,

1504
01:35:37,633 --> 01:35:41,766
were stacked at 1,000-foot
intervals above the battlefield,

1505
01:35:41,866 --> 01:35:45,000
from 7,000 to 35,000 feet,

1506
01:35:45,100 --> 01:35:49,533
impatiently awaiting targets
to strafe or bomb or burn.

1507
01:35:51,866 --> 01:35:56,533
"By God," Moore said, "they sent
us over here to kill communists

1508
01:35:56,633 --> 01:35:58,133
and that's what we're doing."

1509
01:36:04,300 --> 01:36:06,000
I looked up...

1510
01:36:07,866 --> 01:36:15,166
and there were two jets aiming
directly at our command post.

1511
01:36:15,266 --> 01:36:21,400
He's dropped two cans of napalm
and it's coming toward us,

1512
01:36:21,500 --> 01:36:25,433
loblolly, end over end.

1513
01:36:25,533 --> 01:36:30,233
And these kids, two or three
of 'em, plus a sergeant,

1514
01:36:30,333 --> 01:36:34,566
had dug a hole or two
over on the edge.

1515
01:36:34,666 --> 01:36:39,600
And I looked as the thing
exploded...

1516
01:36:43,733 --> 01:36:48,300
And two of them
were dancing in that fire.

1517
01:36:48,400 --> 01:36:52,233
And there's a rush, a roar,

1518
01:36:52,333 --> 01:36:56,400
from the air that's
being consumed

1519
01:36:56,500 --> 01:37:02,433
and drawn in as this-this
hell come to earth

1520
01:37:02,533 --> 01:37:04,200
is burning there.

1521
01:37:04,300 --> 01:37:09,466
And as that dies back a little,
then you can hear the screams.

1522
01:37:11,666 --> 01:37:16,600
And someone yells,
"Get this man's feet."

1523
01:37:16,700 --> 01:37:23,566
And I reach down
and the boots crumble,

1524
01:37:23,666 --> 01:37:27,766
and the flesh is cooked off
of his ankles.

1525
01:37:27,866 --> 01:37:31,966
And I feel those bones
in the palms of my hands.

1526
01:37:32,066 --> 01:37:34,766
I can feel it now.

1527
01:37:36,166 --> 01:37:38,766
He died two days later.

1528
01:37:38,866 --> 01:37:43,200
A kid named Jim Nakayama
out of Rigby, Idaho.

1529
01:37:57,833 --> 01:38:00,400
NARRATOR:
By 10:00 that morning,

1530
01:38:00,500 --> 01:38:04,166
American airpower had beaten
back the enemy assault.

1531
01:38:05,533 --> 01:38:07,666
The survivors
from the trapped platoon

1532
01:38:07,766 --> 01:38:09,800
were rescued that afternoon.

1533
01:38:09,900 --> 01:38:13,666
They had been pinned to the
ground and under fire

1534
01:38:13,766 --> 01:38:16,533
for so long
that they had to be coaxed

1535
01:38:16,633 --> 01:38:18,866
into getting to their feet
again.

1536
01:38:25,500 --> 01:38:27,533
On the morning of the next day,

1537
01:38:27,633 --> 01:38:31,000
enemy soldiers hurled themselves
against the same sector

1538
01:38:31,100 --> 01:38:34,200
of Moore's line four more times

1539
01:38:34,300 --> 01:38:37,700
and were obliterated by
artillery and machine gun fire.

1540
01:38:39,900 --> 01:38:42,666
The surviving North Vietnamese
and Viet Cong

1541
01:38:42,766 --> 01:38:44,766
withdrew into the forest,

1542
01:38:44,866 --> 01:38:47,733
leaving behind a ghastly ring
of their dead

1543
01:38:47,833 --> 01:38:49,633
surrounding the landing zone--

1544
01:38:49,733 --> 01:38:56,066
634 corpses, shot, blasted,
blackened by fire.

1545
01:38:59,633 --> 01:39:03,233
LO KHAC TAM:

1546
01:39:21,766 --> 01:39:24,666
NARRATOR:
After three days
and two nights of combat,

1547
01:39:24,766 --> 01:39:27,933
helicopters began lifting out
the American survivors

1548
01:39:28,033 --> 01:39:30,900
and gathering up the dead.

1549
01:39:31,000 --> 01:39:32,666
SOLDIER:
When you look at them,

1550
01:39:32,766 --> 01:39:35,900
it doesn't even resemble
a human body.

1551
01:39:36,000 --> 01:39:39,166
It just, it looks just like
a mannequin.

1552
01:39:39,266 --> 01:39:42,133
You look at them and say,
"That couldn't happen to me."

1553
01:39:44,966 --> 01:39:47,966
SHEEHAN:
I saw them fight at Ia Drang.

1554
01:39:48,066 --> 01:39:51,066
It always galls me
when I read or hear

1555
01:39:51,166 --> 01:39:53,266
about the World War II
generation

1556
01:39:53,366 --> 01:39:55,166
as the greatest generation.

1557
01:39:55,266 --> 01:39:58,200
These kids were just as gallant
and as courageous

1558
01:39:58,300 --> 01:40:00,500
as anybody who fought
in World War II.

1559
01:40:02,100 --> 01:40:04,900
NARRATOR:
Seventy-nine of Hal Moore's men
lost their lives

1560
01:40:05,000 --> 01:40:08,433
at Landing Zone X-Ray
in the Ia Drang Valley

1561
01:40:08,533 --> 01:40:13,833
and another 121 were wounded.

1562
01:40:13,933 --> 01:40:17,300
Please convey
to the American people

1563
01:40:17,400 --> 01:40:21,533
what a tremendous fighting man
we have here.

1564
01:40:21,633 --> 01:40:27,000
He's courageous,
he's aggressive, and he's kind.

1565
01:40:27,100 --> 01:40:30,866
And he'll go where
you tell him to go.

1566
01:40:30,966 --> 01:40:33,466
And he's got self-discipline.

1567
01:40:33,566 --> 01:40:36,833
And he's got good unit
discipline.

1568
01:40:36,933 --> 01:40:39,133
He's just
an outstanding man.

1569
01:40:39,233 --> 01:40:40,733
And...

1570
01:40:42,233 --> 01:40:45,200
Having commanded this battalion
for 18 months...

1571
01:40:47,900 --> 01:40:49,766
You must excuse my emotion here,

1572
01:40:49,866 --> 01:40:55,400
but when I see some of these men
go out the way they have...

1573
01:41:03,133 --> 01:41:05,166
I haven't...

1574
01:41:05,266 --> 01:41:07,566
I can't tell you how highly
I feel for them.

1575
01:41:07,666 --> 01:41:10,300
They're tremendous.

1576
01:41:10,400 --> 01:41:12,666
NARRATOR:
Hal Moore refused to leave

1577
01:41:12,766 --> 01:41:17,400
until every single man in his
command had been accounted for.

1578
01:41:17,500 --> 01:41:22,600
He had been the first of his men
to step onto Landing Zone X-Ray,

1579
01:41:22,700 --> 01:41:25,966
and he made sure he was
the last to leave it.

1580
01:41:34,000 --> 01:41:39,600
LO KHAC TAM:

1581
01:42:02,900 --> 01:42:05,500
NARRATOR:
The North Vietnamese suffered
terrible losses

1582
01:42:05,600 --> 01:42:07,033
in the Ia Drang Valley

1583
01:42:07,133 --> 01:42:10,800
and many of the survivors
were traumatized.

1584
01:42:10,900 --> 01:42:14,600
"The units were enveloped
in an atmosphere of gloom,"

1585
01:42:14,700 --> 01:42:16,666
a North Vietnamese colonel
remembered.

1586
01:42:16,766 --> 01:42:21,066
Some men would not leave
their rope hammocks.

1587
01:42:21,166 --> 01:42:23,100
Some refused to wash.

1588
01:42:23,200 --> 01:42:28,400
One soldier wrote a poem
expressive of their plight:

1589
01:42:28,500 --> 01:42:31,166
"The crab lies still
on the chopping block

1590
01:42:31,266 --> 01:42:35,300
Never knowing when the knife
will fall."

1591
01:42:41,033 --> 01:42:46,733
GALLOWAY:
In the Ia Drang we killed ten
of them for every one of us.

1592
01:42:48,400 --> 01:42:52,533
That's a ten-to-one kill ratio
is how the military puts that.

1593
01:42:55,933 --> 01:43:02,300
But the enemy, he was fully
prepared to pay that price

1594
01:43:02,400 --> 01:43:06,766
and more for the value
of the lessons he learned.

1595
01:43:08,466 --> 01:43:10,766
LO KHAC TAM:

1596
01:43:22,566 --> 01:43:25,600
JOE GALLOWAY:
Grab 'em by the belt buckle.

1597
01:43:25,700 --> 01:43:29,033
That means you've got to get
so close,

1598
01:43:29,133 --> 01:43:35,666
they can't use the artillery and
the aerial bombardments on you

1599
01:43:35,766 --> 01:43:38,200
for fear of killing their own.

1600
01:43:38,300 --> 01:43:43,133
Get in so close
that it's man-on-man.

1601
01:43:43,233 --> 01:43:46,300
And then everything is even.

1602
01:43:47,533 --> 01:43:50,966
The Vietnamese suffered hundreds
of dead

1603
01:43:51,066 --> 01:43:53,900
attacking Hal Moore's battalion
at LZ X-Ray.

1604
01:43:54,000 --> 01:43:59,733
But then they ambushed another
battalion a couple of days later

1605
01:43:59,833 --> 01:44:03,000
and wiped it out.

1606
01:44:03,100 --> 01:44:05,666
NARRATOR:
In the fighting near
Landing Zone Albany,

1607
01:44:05,766 --> 01:44:09,666
the enemy had gotten too close
for artillery to be called in.

1608
01:44:11,100 --> 01:44:17,400
Out of some 425 Americans
involved, 155 were killed.

1609
01:44:17,500 --> 01:44:22,100
124 more were wounded.

1610
01:44:22,200 --> 01:44:27,033
Both sides claimed victory
in the Ia Drang Valley.

1611
01:44:27,133 --> 01:44:29,866
The Americans talked up
the number of enemy dead

1612
01:44:29,966 --> 01:44:31,566
at Landing Zone X-Ray.

1613
01:44:31,666 --> 01:44:33,800
The ratio of losses
to your kill...

1614
01:44:35,300 --> 01:44:37,333
NARRATOR:
The North Vietnamese
took their lessons

1615
01:44:37,433 --> 01:44:39,566
from Landing Zone Albany.

1616
01:44:46,800 --> 01:44:49,100
WILLIAM WESTMORELAND:
I don't anticipate

1617
01:44:49,200 --> 01:44:54,600
that this conflict will end
any time soon,

1618
01:44:54,700 --> 01:44:59,266
and we could find that we have
more difficult days ahead.

1619
01:44:59,366 --> 01:45:02,166
Certainly we must be
prepared for this.

1620
01:45:09,900 --> 01:45:14,800
EHRHART:
In the fall of my senior year,
November 1965,

1621
01:45:14,900 --> 01:45:18,233
was that huge battle
at the Ia Drang Valley,

1622
01:45:18,333 --> 01:45:21,233
which was the first time
there was actually confirmed

1623
01:45:21,333 --> 01:45:23,733
North Vietnamese regular
soldiers as opposed

1624
01:45:23,833 --> 01:45:25,466
to Viet Cong.

1625
01:45:25,566 --> 01:45:28,466
And of course my way of
interpreting that was,

1626
01:45:28,566 --> 01:45:30,066
"There it is, that's the proof.

1627
01:45:30,166 --> 01:45:32,066
The North Vietnamese
are the aggressors here."

1628
01:45:32,166 --> 01:45:36,566
And that's when I began thinking
in terms of

1629
01:45:36,666 --> 01:45:39,066
maybe I don't want to go
to college right away.

1630
01:45:39,166 --> 01:45:42,366
Maybe I'll join the Marines.

1631
01:45:42,466 --> 01:45:43,533
And it was always the Marines.

1632
01:45:43,633 --> 01:45:45,366
I never...
there was no question.

1633
01:45:45,466 --> 01:45:47,033
The Marine Corps is full
of little guys like me

1634
01:45:47,133 --> 01:45:48,300
with chips on our shoulder.

1635
01:45:48,400 --> 01:45:49,833
("Eve of Destruction
by Barry McGuire plays)

1636
01:45:49,933 --> 01:45:52,266
McGUIRE:
♪ The eastern world,
it is explodin'. ♪

1637
01:45:52,366 --> 01:45:55,266
NARRATOR:
The battles in the Ia Drang
Valley may have been declared

1638
01:45:55,366 --> 01:45:59,533
American victories, but
privately, General Westmoreland

1639
01:45:59,633 --> 01:46:02,800
and the Johnson administration
were worried.

1640
01:46:02,900 --> 01:46:06,400
In spite of the Americans'
new airborne mobility,

1641
01:46:06,500 --> 01:46:08,933
the enemy had been able
to choose

1642
01:46:09,033 --> 01:46:11,733
the place and time of battle.

1643
01:46:11,833 --> 01:46:15,400
The intelligence on which
basic decisions had been made

1644
01:46:15,500 --> 01:46:19,833
in Washington
had been uniformly bad.

1645
01:46:19,933 --> 01:46:22,966
There were now believed to be
12 Viet Cong regiments

1646
01:46:23,066 --> 01:46:25,800
in South Vietnam, not just five;

1647
01:46:25,900 --> 01:46:29,266
nine North Vietnamese regiments,
not three.

1648
01:46:30,466 --> 01:46:32,266
Despite months of bombing,

1649
01:46:32,366 --> 01:46:35,100
three times as many North
Vietnamese regulars

1650
01:46:35,200 --> 01:46:38,733
were now slipping south
of the demilitarized zone

1651
01:46:38,833 --> 01:46:41,166
as originally believed.

1652
01:46:41,266 --> 01:46:45,466
Hanoi seemed to be
escalating, too.

1653
01:46:45,566 --> 01:46:49,666
And American casualties
were climbing.

1654
01:46:49,766 --> 01:46:52,933
When Senator Fritz Hollings
visited Saigon

1655
01:46:53,033 --> 01:46:55,466
shortly after
the Ia Drang battles,

1656
01:46:55,566 --> 01:46:59,233
General Westmoreland told him,
"We're killing these people

1657
01:46:59,333 --> 01:47:01,566
at a rate of ten to one."

1658
01:47:01,666 --> 01:47:03,000
Hollings warned him,

1659
01:47:03,100 --> 01:47:06,666
"Westy, the American people
don't care about the ten.

1660
01:47:06,766 --> 01:47:08,833
They care about the one."

1661
01:47:10,733 --> 01:47:13,466
Westmoreland, who had said
he could win the war

1662
01:47:13,566 --> 01:47:17,600
in three years, now sent an
urgent cable to Washington

1663
01:47:17,700 --> 01:47:20,566
asking for 200,000 more troops.

1664
01:47:20,666 --> 01:47:22,666
McGUIRE:
♪ Yeah, my blood's so mad...

1665
01:47:22,766 --> 01:47:25,333
NARRATOR:
"The message came
as a shattering blow,"

1666
01:47:25,433 --> 01:47:27,566
Robert McNamara remembered.

1667
01:47:27,666 --> 01:47:32,666
Once again, he offered Johnson
two options:

1668
01:47:32,766 --> 01:47:35,966
try to negotiate a compromise
with Hanoi,

1669
01:47:36,066 --> 01:47:39,666
or accede to Westmoreland's
request for more men,

1670
01:47:39,766 --> 01:47:43,033
though the chances of victory,
the secretary of defense said,

1671
01:47:43,133 --> 01:47:47,233
might be no better
than one in three.

1672
01:47:47,333 --> 01:47:49,966
GALLOWAY:
And then they all sat down

1673
01:47:50,066 --> 01:47:52,933
and voted for option two.

1674
01:47:53,033 --> 01:47:54,966
McGUIRE:
♪ Over and over and over...

1675
01:47:55,066 --> 01:47:59,133
KARL MARLANTES:
My bitterness about the
political powers at the time

1676
01:47:59,233 --> 01:48:04,133
was, first of all, the lying.

1677
01:48:04,233 --> 01:48:07,600
I mean, I can understand
a policy error

1678
01:48:07,700 --> 01:48:10,300
that is incredibly,
incredibly painful

1679
01:48:10,400 --> 01:48:12,366
and kills a lot of people
out of a mistake

1680
01:48:12,466 --> 01:48:15,566
if they made that
with noble hearts.

1681
01:48:15,666 --> 01:48:18,033
That was, you know, when
Eisenhower and Kennedy

1682
01:48:18,133 --> 01:48:20,700
were trying to figure
things out.

1683
01:48:20,800 --> 01:48:25,033
And you read that, you know,
McNamara knew by '65--

1684
01:48:25,133 --> 01:48:26,933
it was just three years
before I was there--

1685
01:48:27,033 --> 01:48:28,266
that the war was unwinnable.

1686
01:48:28,366 --> 01:48:30,166
That's what makes me mad.

1687
01:48:30,266 --> 01:48:32,466
Making a mistake,
people can do that.

1688
01:48:32,566 --> 01:48:34,233
But covering up mistakes,

1689
01:48:34,333 --> 01:48:38,500
then you're killing people
for your own ego.

1690
01:48:38,600 --> 01:48:41,766
And that makes me mad.

1691
01:48:43,900 --> 01:48:45,400
NARRATOR:
Tens of thousands
of American troops

1692
01:48:45,500 --> 01:48:49,300
continued to prepare
to deploy to Vietnam

1693
01:48:49,400 --> 01:48:50,500
from all over the country,

1694
01:48:50,600 --> 01:48:54,033
and General Westmoreland
and his commanders

1695
01:48:54,133 --> 01:48:56,233
drew up plans
for major offensives

1696
01:48:56,333 --> 01:48:59,500
in the new year of 1966.

1697
01:49:03,300 --> 01:49:06,800
Meanwhile, hoping the Soviets
might help bring Hanoi

1698
01:49:06,900 --> 01:49:10,766
to the bargaining table,
McNamara urged the president

1699
01:49:10,866 --> 01:49:15,100
to declare a halt to the bombing
of North Vietnam.

1700
01:49:15,200 --> 01:49:17,733
Over the objections
of the military,

1701
01:49:17,833 --> 01:49:20,500
who worried it would give
the enemy time to rebuild

1702
01:49:20,600 --> 01:49:24,866
its defenses, Johnson agreed
to stop the bombing

1703
01:49:24,966 --> 01:49:27,700
on Christmas Eve.

1704
01:49:27,800 --> 01:49:29,933
If it achieved nothing else,
he said,

1705
01:49:30,033 --> 01:49:32,233
it would show the American
people

1706
01:49:32,333 --> 01:49:35,666
that before he committed more
of their sons to battle,

1707
01:49:35,766 --> 01:49:38,800
"We have gone
the last mile."

1708
01:49:38,900 --> 01:49:44,066
("Little Drummer Boy"
by Burl Ives playing)

1709
01:49:44,166 --> 01:49:49,633
JEAN-MARIE CROCKER:
Well, Christmas always meant
a great deal in our family.

1710
01:49:49,733 --> 01:49:54,133
We sent packages to Denton,
of course.

1711
01:49:54,233 --> 01:49:56,300
Then a neighbor mentioned to me

1712
01:49:56,400 --> 01:50:00,833
that she heard a local
television station was offering

1713
01:50:00,933 --> 01:50:04,733
free tapes to be made to send
to a soldier overseas.

1714
01:50:04,833 --> 01:50:09,500
We dressed up for the cameras.

1715
01:50:09,600 --> 01:50:12,333
The idea was that we would each
just say something

1716
01:50:12,433 --> 01:50:15,666
about what we were doing
and wish him well.

1717
01:50:17,833 --> 01:50:20,333
It was a horrible day for me.

1718
01:50:20,433 --> 01:50:25,366
It made it so real that he was
far away.

1719
01:50:25,466 --> 01:50:28,733
Well, Mogie, here we are.

1720
01:50:28,833 --> 01:50:32,533
It's... let's see
what day is today.

1721
01:50:32,633 --> 01:50:33,833
Here it is, Saturday...

1722
01:50:33,933 --> 01:50:34,900
November 13.

1723
01:50:35,000 --> 01:50:37,100
November 13,

1724
01:50:37,200 --> 01:50:42,266
and station WTEN has given
us a chance to talk to you.

1725
01:50:42,366 --> 01:50:44,800
We all wish you
a Merry Christmas

1726
01:50:44,900 --> 01:50:46,133
to start out with.

1727
01:50:47,566 --> 01:50:49,900
Rand, what do you
got to say to Mogie?

1728
01:50:50,000 --> 01:50:51,266
Merry Christmas.

1729
01:50:51,366 --> 01:50:52,400
Merry Christmas.

1730
01:50:54,300 --> 01:50:55,533
Merry Christmas, darling.

1731
01:50:55,633 --> 01:50:56,900
We sent your packages

1732
01:50:57,000 --> 01:50:58,766
and there's one that's waiting
for you at home.

1733
01:50:58,866 --> 01:51:00,466
It's a record of fife
and drum music

1734
01:51:00,566 --> 01:51:03,166
that we got for you
at Williamsburg.

1735
01:51:03,266 --> 01:51:04,066
Candy?

1736
01:51:06,066 --> 01:51:11,800
My teacher isn't very nice,
and she always is crabby,

1737
01:51:11,900 --> 01:51:14,366
and I don't like school at all.

1738
01:51:14,466 --> 01:51:16,400
Now I'm a brownie.

1739
01:51:16,500 --> 01:51:18,066
Merry Christmas.

1740
01:51:19,566 --> 01:51:20,833
Happy Christmas, Mogie.

1741
01:51:20,933 --> 01:51:22,700
I think I'm getting
new skis for Christmas.

1742
01:51:22,800 --> 01:51:24,833
So when you get home,
we can get together sometime.

1743
01:51:24,933 --> 01:51:28,400
We do all wish you
a very Merry Christmas,

1744
01:51:28,500 --> 01:51:30,700
and we'll be thinking
of you on Christmas Day.

1745
01:51:33,600 --> 01:51:35,300
JEAN-MARIE CROCKER:
We miss you, sweetheart.

1746
01:51:37,400 --> 01:51:41,466
IVES:
♪ Me and my drum.

1747
01:51:46,766 --> 01:51:48,200
("Turn! Turn! Turn!"
by the Byrds playing)

1748
01:52:00,800 --> 01:52:05,433
♪ To everything,
turn, turn, turn ♪

1749
01:52:05,533 --> 01:52:10,200
♪ There is a season,
turn, turn, turn ♪

1750
01:52:10,300 --> 01:52:16,366
♪ And a time to every purpose
under heaven ♪

1751
01:52:18,200 --> 01:52:23,033
♪ A time to be born,
a time to die ♪

1752
01:52:23,133 --> 01:52:25,600
♪ A time to plant,
a time to reap ♪

1753
01:52:25,700 --> 01:52:29,466
♪ A time to kill,
a time to heal ♪

1754
01:52:29,566 --> 01:52:36,900
♪ A time to laugh,
a time to weep ♪

1755
01:52:37,000 --> 01:52:42,200
♪ To everything,
turn, turn, turn ♪

1756
01:52:42,300 --> 01:52:47,466
♪ There is a season,
turn, turn, turn ♪

1757
01:52:47,566 --> 01:52:53,100
♪ And a time to every purpose
under heaven ♪

1758
01:52:54,900 --> 01:52:58,600
♪ A time to build up,
a time to break down ♪

1759
01:52:58,700 --> 01:53:03,233
♪ A time to dance,
a time to mourn ♪

1760
01:53:03,333 --> 01:53:06,700
♪ A time to cast away stones

1761
01:53:06,800 --> 01:53:12,633
♪ A time to gather
stones together ♪

1762
01:53:14,433 --> 01:53:19,633
♪ To everything,
turn, turn, turn ♪

1763
01:53:19,733 --> 01:53:24,833
♪ There is a season,
turn, turn, turn ♪

1764
01:53:24,933 --> 01:53:30,433
♪ And a time to every purpose
under heaven ♪

1765
01:53:32,433 --> 01:53:36,033
♪ A time of love,
a time of hate ♪

1766
01:53:36,133 --> 01:53:41,266
♪ A time of war,
a time of peace ♪

1767
01:53:41,366 --> 01:53:44,066
♪ A time you may embrace

1768
01:53:44,166 --> 01:53:50,400
♪ A time to refrain
from embracing ♪

1769
01:53:51,933 --> 01:53:56,700
♪ To everything,
turn, turn, turn ♪

1770
01:53:56,800 --> 01:54:01,866
♪ There is a season,
turn, turn, turn ♪

1771
01:54:01,966 --> 01:54:07,866
♪ And a time to every purpose
under heaven ♪

1772
01:54:10,033 --> 01:54:13,533
♪ A time to gain,
a time to lose ♪

1773
01:54:13,633 --> 01:54:17,600
♪ A time to rend,
a time to sew ♪

1774
01:54:17,700 --> 01:54:21,633
♪ A time for love,
a time for hate ♪

1775
01:54:21,733 --> 01:54:35,266
♪ A time for peace,
I swear it's not too late. ♪