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(radio chatter)

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(distant helicopter blades
beating)

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ROGER HARRIS:
Soldiers adapt.

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You go over there
with one mindset, you know,

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and then you adapt.

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You adapt to the atrocities
of war.

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You adapt to...

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...killing and dying, you know.

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After a while
it doesn't bother you.

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Well, I should say it doesn't
bother you as much.

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When I first arrived in Vietnam,
there were some...

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(sighs)

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there were some interesting
things that happened

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and I questioned
some of the Marines.

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I was made to realize that this
is war, and this is what we do.

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And that stuck in my head.

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This is war.

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This is what we do.

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And after a while
you embrace that.

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This is war.

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This is what we do.

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("Are You Experienced?" by the
Jimi Hendrix Experience playing)

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This evening I came here
to speak to you about Vietnam.

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There is progress
in the war itself,

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rather dramatic progress
considering the situation

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that actually prevailed when we
sent our troops there in 1965.

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The grip of the Viet Cong
on the people is being broken.

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HENDRIX:
♪ If you can just
get your mind together ♪

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(rapid gunfire)

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♪ Then come across to me

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NARRATOR:
In the summer of 1967,

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the men overseeing the war
in Vietnam

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remained outwardly optimistic--

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whatever private doubts
they may have held.

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HENDRIX:
♪ But first

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♪ Are you experienced?

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(airplane flying overhead)

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(explosion)

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♪ Have you ever been
experienced? ♪

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NARRATOR:
The American military command
in Vietnam, MACV,

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claimed to have killed
200,000 enemy troops

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and had told the president

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that the all-important
"crossover point"--

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the moment when U.S. and ARVN
forces were killing

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more Viet Cong
and North Vietnamese troops

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than the enemy could replace--
appeared to have been reached

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in almost all of South Vietnam.

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But the United States
had suffered

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nearly 75,000 casualties.

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By July 4,
14,624 Americans had died,

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and, off the record,

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many officers were much less
sanguine than their commanders.

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<i>From Saigon, R.W. Apple
of theNew York Time s
summarized</i>

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their views: "Victory is not
close at hand," he wrote.

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In fact,
"It may be beyond reach."

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("Are You Experienced?" by the
Jimi Hendrix Experience playing)

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(rapid gunfire)

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It was true that the enemy
rarely won a battle

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in the traditional military
sense that they drove

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the Americans from the field.

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But it was also true
that no American victory

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seemed to matter.

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Battered enemy units were
quickly reinforced and rearmed.

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Pacification--
winning the hearts and minds

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of the South Vietnamese people--
was not working.

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Saigon still controlled
only a fraction of a country

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roughly the size of Florida,

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and its government remained

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unpopular and riddled
with corruption.

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President Johnson had been
forced to raise taxes

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to meet the war's
ever-climbing cost.

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His ambitious social program--
his War on Poverty--

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was in retreat.

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HENDRIX:
♪ Trumpets and violins
I can hear in the distance ♪

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NARRATOR:
That summer, racial unrest
would grip American cities.

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HENDRIX:
♪ Maybe now
you can't hear them ♪

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♪ But you will

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NARRATOR:
The president would have to send
the Army into Detroit

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to end five days of rioting

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that left 43 dead and hundreds
of buildings razed.

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Twenty-six more died
in Newark, New Jersey,

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demonstrating yet again
how wide a gap

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remained between black
and white Americans.

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Only a third of the country saw
any sign of progress in Vietnam,

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and half of the country
now disapproved

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of the president's handling
of the war.

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Meanwhile,
Le Duan and his comrades

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who ran things in Hanoi,
were secretly planning

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a new offensive that they
believed would destroy

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what they called the puppet
government in Saigon

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and convince the United States
the war could never be won

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on the battlefield.

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JAMES WILLBANKS:
There's the old apocryphal story
that, in 1967,

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they went to the basement
of the Pentagon

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when the mainframe computers
took up the whole basement,

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and they put on the old
punch cards everything

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you could quantify--
numbers of ships,

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numbers of airplanes, numbers of
tanks, numbers of helicopters,

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artillery, machine gun, ammo--
everything you could quantify,

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put it in the hopper and said,
"When will we win in Vietnam?"

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Went away on Friday.

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The thing ground away
all weekend.

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Came back on Monday and there
was one card in the output tray

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and it said, "You won in 1965."

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The only problem
is the enemy gets a vote

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and they weren't
on the punch cards.

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NARRATOR:
There were nearly half a million
American soldiers in Vietnam

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by the middle of 1967,

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with thousands more on the way.

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Only 20% would ever
be in combat.

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The rest served
in support units.

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None of them had been taught
very much about the people

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against whom-- and for whom--
they had been asked to fight.

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Troops called the Vietnamese
"gooks"--

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a term first used
by U.S. Marines to refer

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to the people of Haiti
and Nicaragua

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during the American occupation
of those countries,

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and then applied
to the Asian enemy in Korea.

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Or "slopes," an epithet for the
Japanese during the Pacific War,

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or "dinks," an Australian term
for the Chinese.

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And so in basic training
they taught you

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that you were going to be
fighting gooks.

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It was part of the song
that you sang

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as you jogged down the road.

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As you went through
bayonet training,

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you were not talking about
Vietnamese.

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You were always
talking about gooks.

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Vietnamese might be people,
but gooks are-are...

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are close to being animals.

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NARRATOR:
GIs called Vietnamese homes
"hooches"--

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a corruption of the Japanese
word for dwelling places

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that they had learned during
the battle for Okinawa

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in the Second World War.

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Soldiers referred to older
Vietnamese women as "mama sans,"

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the term they used for women
who ran whorehouses

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in occupied Japan.

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The Viet Cong
and the North Vietnamese

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called GIs "invaders,"
"imperialists,"

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and (speaking Vietnamese)--

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"American bandits."

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South Vietnam had been divided
into four tactical zones.

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By the summer of 1967,
American troops were fighting

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in all four of them.

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In IV Corps,
the "Brown Water Navy"

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patrolled the rivers
and canals and marshes

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of the densely populated
Mekong Delta,

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searching for the enemy.

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In III Corps, the Army continued
to sweep the thick jungles

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of the Iron Triangle,
the Viet Cong sanctuary

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near Saigon that was supposed
to have been permanently denied

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to the enemy by big American
operations earlier in the year.

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In II Corps,
a series of bloody battles

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in the Central Highlands
around Dak To temporarily drove

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North Vietnamese troops
back into Cambodia and Laos.

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But some of the most intense
combat would take place

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in I Corps-- made up of the
five northernmost provinces

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of South Vietnam--
where the Marines would bear

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the brunt of the fighting.

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More than two-and-a-half million
people lived there,

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all but 2% of them within

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the narrow rice-growing
river valleys

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along the South China Sea.

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The Marines wanted to eradicate
the Viet Cong there,

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and provide security
to the people,

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village by village,
hamlet by hamlet.

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The vast, largely empty
highlands that stretched

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westward all the way to Laos,
the Marines argued,

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could be left to the enemy.

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"The real war is among
the people,"

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said Marine lieutenant
general Victor Krulak,

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00:10:01,949 --> 00:10:04,583
"and not among the mountains."

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But General William
Westmoreland,

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the American commander,
feared that thousands

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of North Vietnamese Army
regulars-- the NVA--

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were planning to seize
the two northernmost provinces.

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Finding and destroying them
remained his first goal.

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(helicopter blades beating)

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He insisted
the Third Marine Division

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move north to meet
that challenge,

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establish a base at Dong Ha and
man strongpoints at Gio Linh,

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Con Thien, Cam Lo, Camp Carroll,
the Rockpile and Khe Sanh.

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Khe Sanh overlooked Route 9,
the East-West highway

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that Westmoreland hoped would
one day carry American troops

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across the border into Laos,
where North Vietnamese men

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and supplies were streaming
south on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

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But the thousands of Marines
monitoring the border

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would find themselves within
range of highly accurate

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North Vietnamese artillery
and rocket launchers

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hidden within the DMZ.

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("I'm a Man" by The Spencer
Davis Group playing"

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00:11:16,293 --> 00:11:21,427
(explosions)

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JOHN LAURENCE:
Tell me...

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You came here at full strength?

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I had 13 men when I came.

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And it's four days later now
and how many are still here?

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00:11:29,928 --> 00:11:30,828
Six.

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00:11:30,928 --> 00:11:34,361
("I'm a Man" continues)

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The rifles have been jamming,
the mud's been...

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00:11:40,029 --> 00:11:41,529
it slowed everything down.

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00:11:41,629 --> 00:11:43,163
And the artillery comes in
everywhere.

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And, ah, it just gets
pretty futile

202
00:11:45,797 --> 00:11:47,063
and frustrating sometimes.

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00:11:47,163 --> 00:11:49,163
("I'm a Man" continues)

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00:11:51,164 --> 00:11:53,931
I can't say that I'm scared
stiff, but I'm scared.

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00:11:54,031 --> 00:11:57,132
I mean, after a while,
you know it's going to come.

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00:11:57,232 --> 00:11:58,532
And you can't do nothing
about it.

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00:11:58,632 --> 00:11:59,932
And you just look to God.

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00:12:00,032 --> 00:12:01,665
SPENCER DAVIS GROUP:
♪ Well, my pad is very messy

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00:12:01,765 --> 00:12:03,365
♪ And there's whiskers
on my chin. ♪

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00:12:03,465 --> 00:12:06,433
NARRATOR:
Private First Class
John Musgrave

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00:12:06,533 --> 00:12:09,200
of Fairmount, Missouri,
who had volunteered to join

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00:12:09,300 --> 00:12:11,101
the 3rd Marine Division,

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00:12:11,201 --> 00:12:15,101
was sent to the battle-scarred
countryside around Con Thien,

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00:12:15,201 --> 00:12:18,602
a few kilometers south
of the DMZ.

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00:12:18,702 --> 00:12:21,235
(explosion)

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00:12:21,335 --> 00:12:25,002
JOHN MUSGRAVE:
For the Marines in northern I
Corps in the 3rd Marine Division

217
00:12:25,102 --> 00:12:28,736
in the spring and summer of 1967
we called the DMZ

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00:12:28,836 --> 00:12:30,269
the "Dead Marine Zone."

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00:12:30,369 --> 00:12:34,170
NARRATOR:
Musgrave's 1st Battalion
had already suffered

220
00:12:34,270 --> 00:12:37,804
so many casualties in a series
of bloody sweeps

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00:12:37,904 --> 00:12:41,538
that it was believed to be
a hard-luck outfit.

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00:12:41,638 --> 00:12:45,105
They were called
the "Walking Dead."

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SPENCER DAVIS GROUP:
♪ I'm a man, yes I am,
and I can't... ♪

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MUSGRAVE:
I joined the Marine Corps
to be in the varsity.

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00:12:52,006 --> 00:12:55,473
And I felt like I wasn't varsity
unless I was up north

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00:12:55,573 --> 00:12:56,873
fighting the NVA.

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00:12:56,973 --> 00:13:00,107
I have never regretted
that decision.

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00:13:00,207 --> 00:13:04,608
There were times when
we were under artillery fire,

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00:13:04,708 --> 00:13:08,274
where I thought, you know,
"What-what were you thinking?"

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00:13:08,374 --> 00:13:14,075
Here it is in a nutshell:
if I lived to be 63 years old,

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00:13:14,175 --> 00:13:16,276
I didn't want to look
in the mirror some morning

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00:13:16,376 --> 00:13:18,743
and have a guy looking back at
me that hadn't done everything

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00:13:18,843 --> 00:13:20,643
for what he believed,

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00:13:20,743 --> 00:13:24,511
that let somebody else
do the harder part.

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00:13:29,211 --> 00:13:32,178
Every major contact I remember
with the NVA was initiated

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00:13:32,278 --> 00:13:33,812
by them ambushing us.

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00:13:33,912 --> 00:13:37,245
They wouldn't hit us
unless they outnumbered us.

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00:13:37,345 --> 00:13:39,246
And we were fighting
in their yard.

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00:13:42,246 --> 00:13:43,579
They knew the ground; we didn't.

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00:13:47,414 --> 00:13:49,347
They were just really good.

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00:13:59,682 --> 00:14:01,649
LE VAN CHO:

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00:14:08,050 --> 00:14:10,983
NARRATOR:
The North Vietnamese
carried Soviet-made,

243
00:14:11,083 --> 00:14:14,051
seemingly indestructible AK-47s.

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00:14:15,451 --> 00:14:20,351
The Marines had to fight
with newly issued M-16 rifles

245
00:14:20,451 --> 00:14:24,652
that had for a time
a potentially fatal design flaw:

246
00:14:24,752 --> 00:14:27,485
they needed constant cleaning

247
00:14:27,585 --> 00:14:30,720
and often jammed
in the middle of firefights.

248
00:14:30,820 --> 00:14:33,886
MUSGRAVE:
Their rifles worked;
ours didn't.

249
00:14:33,986 --> 00:14:37,387
The M-16 was a piece of shit.

250
00:14:37,487 --> 00:14:39,087
You can't throw
your bullets at the enemy

251
00:14:39,187 --> 00:14:40,487
and have them be effective.

252
00:14:40,587 --> 00:14:45,022
And that rifle
malfunctioned on us repeatedly.

253
00:14:51,123 --> 00:14:54,023
(gunfire)

254
00:14:57,089 --> 00:14:59,557
HO HUU LAN:

255
00:15:10,658 --> 00:15:13,759
My hatred for them
was pure.

256
00:15:13,859 --> 00:15:15,459
Pure.

257
00:15:15,559 --> 00:15:17,459
I hated them so much.

258
00:15:18,792 --> 00:15:20,160
And I was so scared of them.

259
00:15:21,260 --> 00:15:23,560
Boy, I was terrified of them.

260
00:15:23,660 --> 00:15:25,993
And the scareder I got,
the more I hated them.

261
00:15:52,931 --> 00:15:56,232
MUSGRAVE:
I only killed one human being
in Vietnam.

262
00:15:56,332 --> 00:15:59,598
And that was the first man
that I ever killed.

263
00:15:59,698 --> 00:16:03,733
And I was sick with guilt
about killing that guy

264
00:16:03,833 --> 00:16:05,866
and thinking I'm going
to have to do this

265
00:16:05,966 --> 00:16:07,133
for the next 13 months.

266
00:16:07,233 --> 00:16:09,699
I'm-I'm going to go crazy.

267
00:16:09,799 --> 00:16:12,600
And I saw a Marine step
on a bouncing Betty mine,

268
00:16:12,700 --> 00:16:15,900
and that's when I made
my deal with the devil

269
00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:19,735
and that I said, "I will never
kill another human being

270
00:16:19,835 --> 00:16:22,068
"as long as I'm in Vietnam.

271
00:16:22,168 --> 00:16:27,269
"However, I will waste
as many gooks as I can find.

272
00:16:27,369 --> 00:16:30,736
"I'll wax as many dinks
as I can find.

273
00:16:30,836 --> 00:16:33,870
"I'll smoke as many zips
as I can find.

274
00:16:33,970 --> 00:16:37,037
But I ain't gonna kill anybody,"
you know?

275
00:16:37,137 --> 00:16:40,471
Turn the subject into an object.

276
00:16:40,571 --> 00:16:42,571
It's Racism 101.

277
00:16:42,671 --> 00:16:44,771
It turns out to be
a very necessary tool

278
00:16:44,871 --> 00:16:47,439
when you have children
fighting your wars,

279
00:16:47,539 --> 00:16:50,272
for them to stay sane
doing their work.

280
00:16:56,673 --> 00:16:59,240
NARRATOR:
On one early patrol,
Musgrave watched

281
00:16:59,340 --> 00:17:04,007
an American fighter swoop down
to drop napalm on enemy troops

282
00:17:04,107 --> 00:17:06,441
hidden behind a hedgerow.

283
00:17:06,541 --> 00:17:10,242
He could hear their AK-47s
firing at the plane

284
00:17:10,342 --> 00:17:14,008
until the instant
they were engulfed in flames.

285
00:17:14,108 --> 00:17:17,843
"If the enemy is willing to die
like that," he thought,

286
00:17:17,943 --> 00:17:20,843
"this is going to be
one very long war."

287
00:17:23,344 --> 00:17:25,577
MUSGRAVE:
They knew if they would pop
the ambush close

288
00:17:25,677 --> 00:17:27,277
and then get amongst you,

289
00:17:27,377 --> 00:17:30,911
we couldn't or would hesitate
to call in air on ourselves.

290
00:17:34,011 --> 00:17:38,179
So that... firefights
like that we called brawls.

291
00:17:38,279 --> 00:17:40,146
They were very intimate.

292
00:17:40,246 --> 00:17:41,746
And they were very deadly.

293
00:17:41,846 --> 00:17:44,680
And they were
absolutely terrifying.

294
00:17:48,713 --> 00:17:52,914
NARRATOR:
The Marines were spread too thin
to hold any of the territory

295
00:17:53,014 --> 00:17:55,481
they fought so hard to take.

296
00:17:55,581 --> 00:18:00,082
Again and again, they were sent
out from one stronghold

297
00:18:00,182 --> 00:18:04,282
or another along the DMZ,
looking for enemy soldiers.

298
00:18:04,382 --> 00:18:08,016
MUSGRAVE:
The disillusionment for me began
when I was going back

299
00:18:08,116 --> 00:18:11,183
to fight at places
we'd already fought before.

300
00:18:11,283 --> 00:18:14,817
We had fought, captured,
and then left

301
00:18:14,917 --> 00:18:16,984
and the NVA came right back.

302
00:18:17,084 --> 00:18:19,251
You don't like getting wounded

303
00:18:19,351 --> 00:18:21,085
in places you've already
been before.

304
00:18:23,352 --> 00:18:25,685
War is a real estate
business.

305
00:18:25,785 --> 00:18:28,653
We're supposed to take
real estate away from the enemy

306
00:18:28,753 --> 00:18:32,619
and then deny the enemy access
to that real estate.

307
00:18:32,719 --> 00:18:38,920
NARRATOR:
On the morning of July 2, 1967,
the 1st Battalion launched

308
00:18:39,020 --> 00:18:43,321
yet another sweep of the area
northeast of Con Thien.

309
00:18:43,421 --> 00:18:47,188
When they reached a crossroads
called "The Marketplace,"

310
00:18:47,288 --> 00:18:51,656
barely a mile and quarter from
their base, they were ambushed.

311
00:18:51,756 --> 00:18:55,156
One company
was virtually annihilated.

312
00:18:58,823 --> 00:19:03,691
John Musgrave's company
rushed to rescue the survivors,

313
00:19:03,791 --> 00:19:06,691
only to be pinned down there
as well.

314
00:19:09,458 --> 00:19:14,292
It was one of the worst days the
Marine Corps endured in Vietnam:

315
00:19:14,392 --> 00:19:20,593
53 dead and 190 wounded were
carried off the battlefield.

316
00:19:20,693 --> 00:19:24,760
Thirty-four more dead
had to be left behind,

317
00:19:24,860 --> 00:19:28,594
and when Marines fought
their way back two days later

318
00:19:28,694 --> 00:19:31,527
to retrieve their bodies,
they found that a number

319
00:19:31,627 --> 00:19:37,695
had died because their M-16s had
jammed as the enemy closed in.

320
00:19:37,795 --> 00:19:40,996
Many had been executed,
shot in the face

321
00:19:41,096 --> 00:19:43,896
or back of the head
at close range.

322
00:19:43,996 --> 00:19:46,929
Some bodies had been
booby-trapped,

323
00:19:47,029 --> 00:19:49,897
others mutilated.

324
00:19:49,997 --> 00:19:53,230
MUSGRAVE:
Marine amphibious force
headquarters

325
00:19:53,330 --> 00:19:57,098
was so desperate to get
North Vietnamese prisoners,

326
00:19:57,198 --> 00:20:00,398
that they offered us
three day in-country R&R

327
00:20:00,498 --> 00:20:02,599
if we'd bring a prisoner in.

328
00:20:02,699 --> 00:20:04,066
Yeah, good luck.

329
00:20:04,166 --> 00:20:05,566
You know?

330
00:20:05,666 --> 00:20:07,966
Don't you know who...
what we're doing up here?

331
00:20:08,066 --> 00:20:09,767
Do you know who we're fighting?

332
00:20:11,533 --> 00:20:14,133
I want to make this clear,
we did not torture prisoners

333
00:20:14,233 --> 00:20:17,134
and we did not mutilate them.

334
00:20:23,602 --> 00:20:27,169
But to be a prisoner you had to
make it to the rear, you know.

335
00:20:27,269 --> 00:20:30,603
If he was with...
fell into our hands

336
00:20:30,703 --> 00:20:32,603
he was just one sorry fucker.

337
00:20:43,404 --> 00:20:45,738
I don't know how to explain it
that it would make sense.

338
00:20:47,338 --> 00:20:50,638
("Green Onions" by
Booker T. & the M.G.s playing)

339
00:20:53,839 --> 00:20:54,973
HARRIS:
Roxbury, where I grew up,

340
00:20:55,073 --> 00:20:56,806
was the African-American
neighborhood,

341
00:20:56,906 --> 00:21:00,740
and South Boston was
the Irish-Catholic bastion.

342
00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:02,640
You know,
there was a lot of hate.

343
00:21:02,740 --> 00:21:06,374
South Boston folks hated us,
we hated them.

344
00:21:06,474 --> 00:21:07,741
And ironically, um...

345
00:21:07,841 --> 00:21:10,308
(sighs)

346
00:21:10,408 --> 00:21:12,141
You know, you end up in a war.

347
00:21:13,976 --> 00:21:16,209
And the Vietnamese didn't care

348
00:21:16,309 --> 00:21:18,042
whether you were from
Roxbury or South Boston.

349
00:21:18,142 --> 00:21:20,142
They saw you as American.

350
00:21:20,242 --> 00:21:23,477
And they wanted to kill you
because you're American.

351
00:21:23,577 --> 00:21:27,877
NARRATOR:
Private Roger Harris had joined
the Marines in part, he said,

352
00:21:27,977 --> 00:21:30,344
because he wanted to be
"a gladiator,"

353
00:21:30,444 --> 00:21:33,578
a killer of his country's
enemies.

354
00:21:33,678 --> 00:21:36,912
On July 28, two weeks after

355
00:21:37,012 --> 00:21:41,079
John Musgrave's badly mangled
1st Battalion was pulled back

356
00:21:41,179 --> 00:21:42,913
to rest and recover,

357
00:21:43,013 --> 00:21:47,046
Roger Harris and the 2nd
Battalion moved out of Con Thien

358
00:21:47,146 --> 00:21:50,914
and into the southern half of
the Demilitarized Zone itself.

359
00:21:53,081 --> 00:21:54,614
HARRIS:
We wanted the
North Vietnamese Army

360
00:21:54,714 --> 00:21:57,047
to expose themselves.

361
00:21:57,147 --> 00:22:00,082
So, basically,
you put the bait out there,

362
00:22:00,182 --> 00:22:04,515
and then we could call in
and rain hell on them.

363
00:22:04,616 --> 00:22:08,949
NARRATOR:
Roger Harris's battalion
advanced into the DMZ

364
00:22:09,049 --> 00:22:13,550
along a rough cart track
that led to the Ben Hai River.

365
00:22:13,650 --> 00:22:17,884
But planners had failed to see
that a concrete bridge

366
00:22:17,984 --> 00:22:19,885
over an impassable stream

367
00:22:19,985 --> 00:22:24,385
was too narrow and too weak
to carry armored vehicles.

368
00:22:24,485 --> 00:22:29,252
Now the Marines had no choice
but to violate a cardinal rule

369
00:22:29,352 --> 00:22:30,886
of infantry tactics--

370
00:22:30,986 --> 00:22:36,020
turn around and try to go back
the way they had come.

371
00:22:36,120 --> 00:22:39,253
The enemy was waiting.

372
00:22:39,353 --> 00:22:42,054
(explosion, rapid gunfire)

373
00:22:45,321 --> 00:22:48,155
Massive ambushes and...

374
00:22:48,255 --> 00:22:49,722
(gunfire, shouting)

375
00:22:49,822 --> 00:22:53,789
...and, um, a lot of death.

376
00:22:53,889 --> 00:22:55,790
And...

377
00:22:57,290 --> 00:22:58,956
...craziness.

378
00:22:59,056 --> 00:23:03,957
NARRATOR:
The Marines were forced to run
a bloody gauntlet of mortars,

379
00:23:04,057 --> 00:23:07,891
machine gun fire and
rocket-propelled grenades.

380
00:23:07,991 --> 00:23:12,692
HARRIS:
I had the utmost respect for the
North Vietnamese Army soldiers.

381
00:23:12,792 --> 00:23:19,059
When you see someone jump out
and confront a tank, you know,

382
00:23:19,159 --> 00:23:21,293
with a big 50-caliber
machine gun on it

383
00:23:21,393 --> 00:23:24,327
and a 90-millimeter cannon
on it,

384
00:23:24,427 --> 00:23:28,627
and an individual takes on
the tank,

385
00:23:28,727 --> 00:23:30,360
I think that says something.

386
00:23:31,995 --> 00:23:34,795
NARRATOR:
Roger Harris's company
held up the rear,

387
00:23:34,895 --> 00:23:38,762
hounded by enemy
soldiers on all sides.

388
00:23:41,062 --> 00:23:44,362
The Marines staggered back
out of the DMZ

389
00:23:44,462 --> 00:23:47,563
alongside the battered
armored vehicles

390
00:23:47,663 --> 00:23:51,463
heaped with dead
and wounded Americans.

391
00:23:51,563 --> 00:23:54,464
The battalion suffered
214 casualties.

392
00:23:57,598 --> 00:24:01,065
HARRIS:
Wasn't a good day
for Marines at all.

393
00:24:01,165 --> 00:24:02,432
A lot of people died.

394
00:24:02,532 --> 00:24:03,732
People got their legs shot off.

395
00:24:03,832 --> 00:24:05,732
People got run over by tanks.

396
00:24:08,366 --> 00:24:11,266
I don't want to talk about it
because it's...

397
00:24:14,500 --> 00:24:17,001
it's not a good day,
wasn't a good day.

398
00:24:24,602 --> 00:24:26,502
LO KHAC TAM:

399
00:25:25,810 --> 00:25:29,177
This is "bau cu",
the day of voting in Vietnam,

400
00:25:29,277 --> 00:25:32,177
and it's a solemn day
in the village of Hung Thao Phu

401
00:25:32,277 --> 00:25:34,912
and in other villages
throughout the country.

402
00:25:35,012 --> 00:25:37,478
And these people have dressed up
in their Sunday best for it.

403
00:25:40,345 --> 00:25:43,346
NARRATOR:
South Vietnamese prime minister
Nguyen Cao Ky

404
00:25:43,446 --> 00:25:47,346
had crushed
his Buddhist opponents in 1966,

405
00:25:47,446 --> 00:25:49,847
but he had been forced
by the Americans

406
00:25:49,947 --> 00:25:53,280
and his political rivals
to make at least tentative moves

407
00:25:53,380 --> 00:25:57,048
toward democracy--
election of a national assembly,

408
00:25:57,148 --> 00:26:00,315
a new constitution,
and a promise of elections

409
00:26:00,415 --> 00:26:03,616
for president
and vice president.

410
00:26:03,716 --> 00:26:08,516
But when Ky's old adversary
Nguyen Van Thieu declared

411
00:26:08,616 --> 00:26:11,417
he wanted to challenge Ky
for the top spot,

412
00:26:11,517 --> 00:26:14,683
things in Saigon had threatened
to come apart again.

413
00:26:17,117 --> 00:26:19,684
PHAN QUANG TUE:
We were watching the rivalry
between Thieu and Ky.

414
00:26:19,784 --> 00:26:21,851
And that was a game.

415
00:26:21,951 --> 00:26:24,851
In Vietnam, the country
was watching like a...

416
00:26:24,951 --> 00:26:27,719
we were watch...
watching a movie.

417
00:26:27,819 --> 00:26:30,019
And Thieu and Ky
was watching as to,

418
00:26:30,119 --> 00:26:32,920
not whoever had the support
of the people,

419
00:26:33,020 --> 00:26:37,353
but who had the support of the
Americans and the White House.

420
00:26:37,453 --> 00:26:40,787
NARRATOR:
Ellsworth Bunker,
the American ambassador,

421
00:26:40,887 --> 00:26:44,354
called both men to his residence
and warned that

422
00:26:44,454 --> 00:26:48,222
the United States would not
tolerate another power struggle:

423
00:26:48,322 --> 00:26:51,888
Thieu and Ky needed to meet
with their fellow generals

424
00:26:51,988 --> 00:26:54,489
and decide who would run
for president

425
00:26:54,589 --> 00:26:57,123
and who would be
his running mate.

426
00:26:57,223 --> 00:26:59,656
Thieu emerged on top.

427
00:26:59,756 --> 00:27:02,724
He was unassuming
and unflappable,

428
00:27:02,824 --> 00:27:05,390
interested largely
in accumulating power

429
00:27:05,490 --> 00:27:08,624
and personal wealth
and was thought unlikely

430
00:27:08,725 --> 00:27:11,458
ever to embarrass Washington.

431
00:27:11,558 --> 00:27:15,025
Ky would be his vice president.

432
00:27:15,125 --> 00:27:20,092
Together, they won with only
35% of the vote.

433
00:27:20,192 --> 00:27:23,293
No one who had called
for an end to the war

434
00:27:23,393 --> 00:27:25,627
had been allowed to run.

435
00:27:25,727 --> 00:27:28,260
Many Buddhists had boycotted
the election,

436
00:27:28,360 --> 00:27:33,461
and Viet Cong intimidation had
kept many more from the polls.

437
00:27:33,561 --> 00:27:36,528
But the State Department
immediately declared

438
00:27:36,628 --> 00:27:39,529
the election
an important "step forward."

439
00:27:41,429 --> 00:27:44,862
Some South Vietnamese
did believe that a measure

440
00:27:44,963 --> 00:27:48,096
of stability had finally
been achieved.

441
00:27:48,196 --> 00:27:51,230
Others were not so sure.

442
00:27:52,797 --> 00:27:57,031
TUE:
In terms of corruption,
yes, they were corrupt.

443
00:27:57,131 --> 00:28:01,798
Both Thieu and Ky,
they abused their position.

444
00:28:01,898 --> 00:28:05,765
We pay a very high price
for having leaders

445
00:28:05,865 --> 00:28:08,533
like a Ky and Thieu.

446
00:28:08,633 --> 00:28:11,033
And we continue
to pay the price.

447
00:28:12,799 --> 00:28:16,267
("Soul Dressing" by
Booker T. & The M.G.s playing)

448
00:28:16,367 --> 00:28:19,200
EVA JEFFERSON PATERSON:
My father was in
the United States Army.

449
00:28:19,300 --> 00:28:21,935
And then when the Air Force
came about he switched over

450
00:28:22,035 --> 00:28:24,368
to the Air Force.

451
00:28:24,468 --> 00:28:29,269
I grew up out of the country in
desegregated settings.

452
00:28:29,369 --> 00:28:32,236
I was usually the only
little black girl in the class.

453
00:28:32,336 --> 00:28:34,336
If you look
at my class pictures I look

454
00:28:34,436 --> 00:28:38,037
like the little chocolate chip
in the vanilla ice cream.

455
00:28:38,137 --> 00:28:41,037
I was always a good student.

456
00:28:41,137 --> 00:28:43,871
I remember people saying,
"Oh, you speak so well."

457
00:28:43,971 --> 00:28:45,838
And the unstated part
is "for a black girl,"

458
00:28:45,938 --> 00:28:48,638
probably a Negro girl
or colored girl, at that point.

459
00:28:48,738 --> 00:28:53,372
NARRATOR:
Eva Jefferson's father
had served a year on airbases

460
00:28:53,472 --> 00:28:57,072
in Vietnam and returned home
convinced the United States

461
00:28:57,172 --> 00:28:59,706
had no business being there.

462
00:28:59,806 --> 00:29:03,406
But when his daughter entered
Northwestern University

463
00:29:03,506 --> 00:29:08,574
in the Chicago suburb
of Evanston in September 1967,

464
00:29:08,674 --> 00:29:12,975
the war was not uppermost
in students' minds.

465
00:29:13,075 --> 00:29:16,375
PATERSON:
The war was not really an issue.

466
00:29:16,475 --> 00:29:18,308
It's like,
"Well, no, the president has

467
00:29:18,408 --> 00:29:20,376
"our best interests at heart.

468
00:29:20,476 --> 00:29:22,276
"He, of course,
would only prosecute a war

469
00:29:22,376 --> 00:29:23,743
that made sense."

470
00:29:23,843 --> 00:29:26,610
And I think most of America
felt that way.

471
00:29:26,710 --> 00:29:28,677
("Strange Brew"
by Cream playing)

472
00:29:28,777 --> 00:29:30,810
NARRATOR:
At the University of Nebraska,

473
00:29:30,910 --> 00:29:33,845
Jack Todd also supported
the war.

474
00:29:33,945 --> 00:29:38,311
He had felt so strongly about it
in 1966 that he had signed up

475
00:29:38,411 --> 00:29:41,379
for Marine officer training.

476
00:29:41,479 --> 00:29:44,079
I went into the Marine Corps

477
00:29:44,179 --> 00:29:46,479
thinking this was
all I wanted to do.

478
00:29:46,579 --> 00:29:48,513
I mean my...
my goal was to be commander,

479
00:29:48,613 --> 00:29:49,913
a platoon commander in Vietnam.

480
00:29:51,447 --> 00:29:54,780
NARRATOR:
But as time went by
and the war went on,

481
00:29:54,880 --> 00:29:57,248
Todd and many of his
fellow students

482
00:29:57,348 --> 00:29:59,014
began to change their minds.

483
00:30:00,348 --> 00:30:02,782
TODD:
All young people
go through changes.

484
00:30:02,882 --> 00:30:05,715
But we were going through
astronomical changes

485
00:30:05,815 --> 00:30:08,049
at such a rapid rate.

486
00:30:09,950 --> 00:30:13,616
All the music, the culture,
everything that we listened to,

487
00:30:13,716 --> 00:30:15,816
everything that we thought
was transforming

488
00:30:15,916 --> 00:30:19,717
and the core of it all
was Vietnam, Vietnam, Vietnam.

489
00:30:19,817 --> 00:30:21,651
It just kept going
in the background.

490
00:30:21,751 --> 00:30:23,451
First, it was kind of like
a background noise

491
00:30:23,551 --> 00:30:25,418
and then it got to be
the elephant in the room.

492
00:30:25,518 --> 00:30:27,485
And then it was the elephant
sitting on your head

493
00:30:27,585 --> 00:30:29,218
and we...
we couldn't escape this.

494
00:30:29,318 --> 00:30:32,653
NARRATOR:
Todd attended
officer training school

495
00:30:32,753 --> 00:30:35,453
at Camp Upshur
in Quantico, Virginia.

496
00:30:35,553 --> 00:30:38,453
But doubts about the war
followed him there, too.

497
00:30:41,520 --> 00:30:43,287
TODD:
I guess the emotional things
that were happening

498
00:30:43,387 --> 00:30:45,887
on the ground, the photographs
that we saw, the news images,

499
00:30:45,988 --> 00:30:48,955
and the fact that there
was no discernible progress,

500
00:30:49,055 --> 00:30:52,388
that really started to eat away
at what we thought.

501
00:30:52,488 --> 00:30:55,589
In the summer of '67,
I was at Camp Upshur, you know,

502
00:30:55,689 --> 00:30:58,089
wanting to go
kill Vietnamese people.

503
00:30:58,189 --> 00:31:02,557
And in October, I was
completely against the war.

504
00:31:05,857 --> 00:31:08,424
JOHNSON:
Westmoreland came in
last night to me...

505
00:31:08,524 --> 00:31:12,558
And he says that he has
concentrated more firepower

506
00:31:12,658 --> 00:31:16,225
and bombing in the last week
on the DMZ

507
00:31:16,325 --> 00:31:20,159
and they've concentrated more
on us than has ever been

508
00:31:20,259 --> 00:31:22,360
concentrated
in any equivalent period

509
00:31:22,460 --> 00:31:23,993
in the history of warfare...

510
00:31:24,093 --> 00:31:25,260
EVERETT DIRKSEN:
Yeah.

511
00:31:25,360 --> 00:31:26,526
JOHNSON:
...much more than was ever
poured on

512
00:31:26,626 --> 00:31:27,960
Berlin or Tokyo,

513
00:31:28,060 --> 00:31:32,461
and that his only defense
of the DMZ to stop

514
00:31:32,561 --> 00:31:35,461
this aggression up there
with the North Vietnamese

515
00:31:35,561 --> 00:31:39,228
trying to come in
is bombing their gun positions.

516
00:31:39,328 --> 00:31:40,795
DIRKSEN:
Yeah.

517
00:31:40,895 --> 00:31:42,695
JOHNSON:
And it would just be suicide
if we stopped the bombing

518
00:31:42,795 --> 00:31:45,029
as these idiots talking about.

519
00:31:45,129 --> 00:31:46,796
When you say stop the bombing

520
00:31:46,896 --> 00:31:49,663
you say,
"Kill more American Marines."

521
00:31:49,763 --> 00:31:50,663
That's all it means.

522
00:31:50,763 --> 00:31:52,030
DIRKSEN:
Yeah.

523
00:31:52,130 --> 00:31:55,364
JOHNSON:
Now if we stop bombing,
without their talking

524
00:31:55,464 --> 00:31:58,230
and without any reciprocity
on their part,

525
00:31:58,331 --> 00:32:00,398
it just means we kill more
Americans, that's all

526
00:32:00,498 --> 00:32:01,431
DIRKSEN:
Yeah.

527
00:32:08,532 --> 00:32:12,099
NARRATOR:
Neither the ongoing bombing
of the North,

528
00:32:12,199 --> 00:32:15,633
nor the concentrated bombing
around the DMZ,

529
00:32:15,733 --> 00:32:17,667
nor the behind-the-scenes offers

530
00:32:17,767 --> 00:32:20,368
made by President Johnson
to stop it

531
00:32:20,468 --> 00:32:23,401
had any discernible effect
on Le Duan

532
00:32:23,501 --> 00:32:26,868
and the other men
who ran North Vietnam.

533
00:32:26,968 --> 00:32:29,935
But Le Duan,
like Lyndon Johnson,

534
00:32:30,035 --> 00:32:32,002
was in trouble that summer.

535
00:32:32,102 --> 00:32:34,970
The war with the Americans
had produced little more

536
00:32:35,070 --> 00:32:37,003
than a bloody stalemate.

537
00:32:37,103 --> 00:32:40,070
Some Viet Cong commanders
in the South

538
00:32:40,170 --> 00:32:44,437
resented Hanoi's insistence
on directing their tactics.

539
00:32:44,537 --> 00:32:48,737
Many North Vietnamese civilians
were weary of the war

540
00:32:48,837 --> 00:32:51,738
and of the bombing
that had disrupted their lives

541
00:32:51,838 --> 00:32:55,372
and destroyed so much
of their infrastructure.

542
00:32:55,472 --> 00:32:58,039
The country's most revered
figures,

543
00:32:58,139 --> 00:33:02,639
Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Giap,
were urging patience,

544
00:33:02,739 --> 00:33:06,807
continuing to wage a war of
attrition, they still believed,

545
00:33:06,907 --> 00:33:10,007
would pay off in the end.

546
00:33:10,107 --> 00:33:13,641
Hanoi's Soviet and Chinese
patrons offered

547
00:33:13,741 --> 00:33:16,641
conflicting advice, as well.

548
00:33:16,741 --> 00:33:20,976
To silence his critics
and break the stalemate,

549
00:33:21,076 --> 00:33:23,542
Le Duan began to devise
and promote

550
00:33:23,642 --> 00:33:27,010
a new and riskier version
of the plan for victory

551
00:33:27,110 --> 00:33:30,577
he had tried in 1964.

552
00:33:30,677 --> 00:33:36,144
He called it the "General
Offensive, General Uprising."

553
00:33:36,244 --> 00:33:39,979
North Vietnamese and Viet Cong
units would launch

554
00:33:40,079 --> 00:33:44,312
scores of coordinated attacks
on South Vietnamese cities

555
00:33:44,412 --> 00:33:47,546
and towns and military bases.

556
00:33:47,646 --> 00:33:49,880
That offensive,
Le Duan believed,

557
00:33:49,980 --> 00:33:53,513
would ignite
a mass civilian uprising.

558
00:33:53,613 --> 00:33:58,081
These simultaneous blows
would destroy the Saigon regime

559
00:33:58,181 --> 00:34:02,115
and leave Washington with
no choice but to withdraw.

560
00:34:53,222 --> 00:34:54,755
WILLBANKS:
We talk about our own hubris.

561
00:34:54,855 --> 00:34:56,989
There's some hubris
on their side as well.

562
00:34:57,089 --> 00:34:58,955
And once they had
convinced themselves

563
00:34:59,055 --> 00:35:01,790
that this was going to be
a great success,

564
00:35:01,890 --> 00:35:04,890
it is what some wags have called
drinking your own bathwater.

565
00:35:06,323 --> 00:35:07,624
They decided it's going to be
a victory,

566
00:35:07,724 --> 00:35:09,724
even though there are people
in the South saying,

567
00:35:09,824 --> 00:35:11,257
"Hey, this is not a great idea."

568
00:35:11,357 --> 00:35:15,125
But these people are charged
with subjectivism

569
00:35:15,225 --> 00:35:17,858
and basically are told
to shut up and keep rolling.

570
00:35:17,958 --> 00:35:22,259
NARRATOR:
Le Duan neutralized those
who opposed his plan.

571
00:35:22,359 --> 00:35:25,493
Members of General Giap's staff
were arrested.

572
00:35:25,593 --> 00:35:28,159
So was Ho Chi Minh's secretary.

573
00:35:29,927 --> 00:35:31,927
HUY DUC:

574
00:35:44,829 --> 00:35:49,529
NARRATOR:
Hundreds of less prominent
figures-- journalists, students,

575
00:35:49,629 --> 00:35:52,863
even highly decorated heroes
of the French War--

576
00:35:52,963 --> 00:35:55,097
were also rounded up.

577
00:35:55,197 --> 00:35:58,031
Many were locked up
in the old French prison

578
00:35:58,131 --> 00:36:01,831
that the American POWs
also confined there called

579
00:36:01,931 --> 00:36:04,398
the "Hanoi Hilton."

580
00:36:04,499 --> 00:36:08,232
The date eventually chosen
for the attack would be

581
00:36:08,332 --> 00:36:11,900
January 31, 1968,

582
00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:16,033
the first day of the Vietnamese
Lunar New Year celebration,

583
00:36:16,133 --> 00:36:19,001
known as Tet.

584
00:36:19,101 --> 00:36:23,067
Hundreds, then thousands,
of North Vietnamese regulars

585
00:36:23,167 --> 00:36:26,268
in civilian clothes
began slipping southward

586
00:36:26,368 --> 00:36:31,002
to join tens of thousands
of Viet Cong already in place.

587
00:36:32,702 --> 00:36:34,136
HO HUU LAN:

588
00:36:55,806 --> 00:36:59,472
HUY DUC:

589
00:37:41,978 --> 00:37:44,245
NARRATOR:
In preparation
for the coming offensive,

590
00:37:44,345 --> 00:37:47,046
the North Vietnamese hoped
to lure American

591
00:37:47,146 --> 00:37:50,313
and South Vietnamese forces
away from cities

592
00:37:50,413 --> 00:37:52,679
and big military bases.

593
00:37:52,779 --> 00:37:56,214
To do that, they would mount
a series of assaults

594
00:37:56,314 --> 00:38:01,848
on remote outposts near
Cambodia, Laos, and the DMZ.

595
00:38:01,948 --> 00:38:06,915
These preliminary attacks became
known as the "Border Battles."

596
00:38:07,015 --> 00:38:10,349
Con Thien would be the first.

597
00:38:13,616 --> 00:38:15,817
In September and October,

598
00:38:15,917 --> 00:38:18,917
John Musgrave's
and Roger Harris's outfits

599
00:38:19,017 --> 00:38:21,483
took turns defending Con Thien

600
00:38:21,583 --> 00:38:25,484
as the North Vietnamese
tightened the noose around them.

601
00:38:25,584 --> 00:38:29,218
The only way in or out
was by helicopter.

602
00:38:31,519 --> 00:38:35,852
Con Thien in Vietnamese means
"Hill of Angels."

603
00:38:35,952 --> 00:38:37,920
(explosion)

604
00:38:38,020 --> 00:38:41,486
MUSGRAVE:
Time at Con Thien
was time in the barrel.

605
00:38:41,586 --> 00:38:45,721
(multiple explosions)

606
00:38:45,821 --> 00:38:48,854
We were the fish,
they had the shotguns,

607
00:38:48,954 --> 00:38:51,022
they stuck in the barrel
and blasted away.

608
00:38:51,122 --> 00:38:53,822
And they were gonna hit
something every shot.

609
00:38:53,922 --> 00:38:56,922
Because Con Thien
was such a small area,

610
00:38:57,022 --> 00:38:58,956
and they pounded it
with that artillery

611
00:38:59,056 --> 00:39:01,056
from North Vietnam,
they couldn't miss.

612
00:39:02,189 --> 00:39:04,023
HO HUU LAN:

613
00:39:08,024 --> 00:39:12,224
I've never been, uh, as afraid.

614
00:39:12,324 --> 00:39:14,591
In fact that's why I'm not
afraid of anything now.

615
00:39:14,691 --> 00:39:17,058
I mean...

616
00:39:17,158 --> 00:39:18,491
there's nothing you can do.

617
00:39:18,591 --> 00:39:22,259
You just listen to the sounds
of the rockets coming over.

618
00:39:22,359 --> 00:39:25,892
And you just pray
that they don't land on you.

619
00:39:25,992 --> 00:39:28,627
The big question really seems
to be whether or not

620
00:39:28,727 --> 00:39:31,993
the North Vietnamese
intend to overrun Con Thien.

621
00:39:32,093 --> 00:39:34,928
The Marines have tripled
the number of troops

622
00:39:35,028 --> 00:39:36,361
guarding the outpost,

623
00:39:36,461 --> 00:39:37,961
and they've moved up more
battalions to be ready

624
00:39:38,061 --> 00:39:39,628
to reinforce.

625
00:39:39,728 --> 00:39:41,662
MUSGRAVE:
I sat in water.

626
00:39:41,762 --> 00:39:43,562
I slept in water.

627
00:39:43,662 --> 00:39:47,329
I ate in water,
because our holes were full.

628
00:39:47,429 --> 00:39:49,596
I mean a flooded foxhole
could drown a wounded man.

629
00:39:49,696 --> 00:39:52,296
HARRIS:
Spend your day
filling up sand bags,

630
00:39:52,396 --> 00:39:56,063
trying to create barriers that
you just put another layer on,

631
00:39:56,164 --> 00:39:57,831
put another layer on.

632
00:39:57,931 --> 00:40:02,397
A lot of mud, blood, uh...

633
00:40:02,497 --> 00:40:03,698
and artillery.

634
00:40:04,865 --> 00:40:06,165
MUSGRAVE:
It's red clay up there.

635
00:40:06,265 --> 00:40:08,898
And it's real sticky
and it could just grab onto you

636
00:40:08,998 --> 00:40:10,799
and pull your boots off.

637
00:40:10,899 --> 00:40:12,266
It's hard to run in that stuff.

638
00:40:12,366 --> 00:40:14,066
And running,
when you're at a place

639
00:40:14,166 --> 00:40:15,699
where they're firing
heavy artillery at you,

640
00:40:15,799 --> 00:40:16,999
running's pretty important.

641
00:40:19,767 --> 00:40:21,834
During the siege
in the fall of 1967,

642
00:40:21,934 --> 00:40:24,067
we were getting newspaper
articles in the mail

643
00:40:24,167 --> 00:40:27,501
from our families and we were
being called the Alamo.

644
00:40:27,601 --> 00:40:30,468
You know, hey,
we knew what the Alamo was.

645
00:40:30,568 --> 00:40:32,636
We knew what happened there.

646
00:40:32,736 --> 00:40:36,336
(explosions)

647
00:40:36,436 --> 00:40:38,336
(men shouting)

648
00:40:38,436 --> 00:40:40,537
(explosions continue)

649
00:40:40,637 --> 00:40:43,537
HARRIS:
Like almost like every hour
there'd be a barrage.

650
00:40:45,603 --> 00:40:49,271
People get blown to bits,
literally blown to bits.

651
00:40:49,371 --> 00:40:53,071
You find a...
a boot with a leg in it, right.

652
00:40:53,171 --> 00:40:55,572
And so is the leg
white or black?

653
00:40:55,672 --> 00:40:57,605
So who... who was
the white Marine that was here?

654
00:40:57,705 --> 00:40:58,772
Who was the black?

655
00:40:58,872 --> 00:41:00,972
So then you try to remember
and you tag it

656
00:41:01,072 --> 00:41:02,440
and put that in the green bag.

657
00:41:02,540 --> 00:41:05,206
And that's what goes back,
you know,

658
00:41:05,306 --> 00:41:07,573
as Marine Lance Corporal
so and so.

659
00:41:07,673 --> 00:41:10,707
And so, but sometimes you're not
even sure because the body

660
00:41:10,807 --> 00:41:12,807
has literally been blown
to bits, and the only thing

661
00:41:12,907 --> 00:41:15,474
that's left is a foot
or a piece of an arm.

662
00:41:15,574 --> 00:41:20,142
MUSGRAVE:
I carried a wallet calendar
from Clifford Forlow Insurance.

663
00:41:20,242 --> 00:41:22,375
He was my dad's insurance agent.

664
00:41:22,475 --> 00:41:26,009
And I marked off
each of the days religiously.

665
00:41:26,109 --> 00:41:30,677
And then in October,
we went up to Con Thien again.

666
00:41:30,777 --> 00:41:35,644
I just stopped, because
I thought, "This is pointless.

667
00:41:35,744 --> 00:41:37,878
"I'm not getting...
I'm not gonna go home.

668
00:41:37,978 --> 00:41:39,378
"I'm not gonna make it home.

669
00:41:39,478 --> 00:41:41,411
What...
you know, what's the point?"

670
00:41:41,511 --> 00:41:43,411
So I just quit marking them off.

671
00:41:45,012 --> 00:41:47,212
HARRIS:
I had the opportunity
to call my mother, you know.

672
00:41:47,312 --> 00:41:49,879
And I was telling my mother
what was happening over there

673
00:41:49,979 --> 00:41:52,113
and I was telling her
how she shouldn't believe

674
00:41:52,213 --> 00:41:56,013
what she sees in the newspaper
and-and sees on television

675
00:41:56,113 --> 00:41:58,313
because we're losing the war.

676
00:41:58,413 --> 00:42:00,914
And I said, "You'll probably
never see me again

677
00:42:01,014 --> 00:42:04,281
"because we're the most northern
outpost that the Marines have,

678
00:42:04,381 --> 00:42:05,781
"you know.

679
00:42:05,881 --> 00:42:08,015
"We could literally could look
right into North Vietnam.

680
00:42:08,115 --> 00:42:10,582
We could see the sparks
when the guns fired on us."

681
00:42:10,682 --> 00:42:13,950
And I said, "And everybody
in my unit is dying, you know.

682
00:42:14,050 --> 00:42:15,916
And I probably won't be
coming back."

683
00:42:16,016 --> 00:42:18,116
And my mother said,
"No, you're coming back."

684
00:42:18,216 --> 00:42:21,051
She said, "I talk to God
every day and you're special.

685
00:42:21,151 --> 00:42:23,384
You're coming back."

686
00:42:23,484 --> 00:42:25,851
And I said, "Ma, everybody's
mother thinks that

687
00:42:25,951 --> 00:42:27,551
"they're special, you know.

688
00:42:27,651 --> 00:42:29,618
I'm putting pieces
of special people in bags."

689
00:42:31,718 --> 00:42:33,518
And I was feeling
that my mother's in denial.

690
00:42:33,618 --> 00:42:35,886
She just doesn't want to face
the fact that her only son

691
00:42:35,986 --> 00:42:37,919
is gonna die in Vietnam.

692
00:42:38,019 --> 00:42:39,519
And I said,
"Ma, this isn't a joke."

693
00:42:39,619 --> 00:42:41,219
I said, "Everybody's dying
over here, you know.

694
00:42:41,319 --> 00:42:42,386
Everybody's dying."

695
00:42:42,486 --> 00:42:44,020
And she said,
"You're not gonna die.

696
00:42:44,120 --> 00:42:45,520
You're not gonna die."

697
00:42:45,620 --> 00:42:47,854
And, uh, the last thing
she said to me was,

698
00:42:47,954 --> 00:42:50,021
"God has a plan for you."

699
00:42:50,121 --> 00:42:51,255
And I said, "Yeah, right."

700
00:42:51,355 --> 00:42:52,355
And I hung up.

701
00:42:53,288 --> 00:42:54,955
(explosion)

702
00:42:57,222 --> 00:42:59,956
Mr. Stout, during what period
of time were you in Vietnam?

703
00:43:00,056 --> 00:43:03,222
I was in Vietnam
from September of 1966

704
00:43:03,322 --> 00:43:05,523
to September of 1967,
one year.

705
00:43:05,623 --> 00:43:06,990
And with what unit?

706
00:43:07,090 --> 00:43:08,857
With the 1st Brigade
of the 101st Airborne.

707
00:43:08,957 --> 00:43:11,323
During the time
that you were in Vietnam,

708
00:43:11,423 --> 00:43:13,458
did you personally witness
any atrocities

709
00:43:13,558 --> 00:43:15,491
on the part
of American troops?

710
00:43:15,591 --> 00:43:16,491
Yes, I did.

711
00:43:18,158 --> 00:43:21,559
NARRATOR:
Dennis Stout from
Phoenix, Arizona, had enlisted

712
00:43:21,659 --> 00:43:26,460
in the Army at 20, and
served nine months in combat.

713
00:43:26,560 --> 00:43:30,060
Wounded three times,
he became an Army reporter

714
00:43:30,160 --> 00:43:35,927
covering the 327th Regiment
of the 101st Airborne.

715
00:43:36,027 --> 00:43:40,361
He would spend most of his time
with a unique commando platoon

716
00:43:40,461 --> 00:43:41,862
called "Tiger Force"--

717
00:43:41,962 --> 00:43:45,195
small, handpicked teams,
capable of remaining

718
00:43:45,295 --> 00:43:48,029
in the jungle
for weeks at a time,

719
00:43:48,129 --> 00:43:50,763
fast-moving and deadly,

720
00:43:50,863 --> 00:43:54,629
intended to
"out-guerrilla the guerrillas."

721
00:43:55,964 --> 00:43:58,664
Tiger Force fought in six
different provinces,

722
00:43:58,764 --> 00:44:01,864
repeatedly suffering
heavy losses.

723
00:44:01,964 --> 00:44:03,298
(rapid gunfire)

724
00:44:05,098 --> 00:44:08,365
RION CAUSEY:
If you've lost your best friend
and you want revenge,

725
00:44:08,465 --> 00:44:11,699
it's the officers who say,
"No, you can't do that."

726
00:44:11,799 --> 00:44:14,899
And if you do it,
then there's consequences.

727
00:44:14,999 --> 00:44:17,733
But when the officers, and
it includes the platoon leader

728
00:44:17,833 --> 00:44:20,767
and the battalion commander,
are telling you that this is

729
00:44:20,867 --> 00:44:25,501
what you're supposed to do, then
it gets completely out of hand.

730
00:44:25,601 --> 00:44:29,601
NARRATOR:
Some at MACV worried that such
a freewheeling outfit,

731
00:44:29,701 --> 00:44:33,469
operating on its own,
would be difficult to control.

732
00:44:33,569 --> 00:44:35,169
(gunfire)

733
00:44:35,269 --> 00:44:38,803
But General Westmoreland
and commanders in the field

734
00:44:38,903 --> 00:44:43,436
admired Tiger Force
for its reliable ferocity.

735
00:44:43,536 --> 00:44:47,571
In the summer of 1967,
Tiger Force was sent

736
00:44:47,671 --> 00:44:50,171
to the fertile Song Ve Valley.

737
00:44:50,271 --> 00:44:53,205
The entire population
had already been herded

738
00:44:53,305 --> 00:44:57,872
from their homes and crowded
into a refugee camp.

739
00:44:57,972 --> 00:45:01,206
But some had come back
to resume the farming

740
00:45:01,306 --> 00:45:03,573
they had always done.

741
00:45:05,073 --> 00:45:08,240
The valley had officially been
declared a free-fire zone,

742
00:45:08,340 --> 00:45:12,440
and Tiger Force's
officers took that literally.

743
00:45:12,540 --> 00:45:16,408
"There are no friendlies,"
one lieutenant told his men.

744
00:45:16,508 --> 00:45:19,341
"Shoot anything that moves."

745
00:45:22,842 --> 00:45:25,809
Over a seven-month period,
they killed scores

746
00:45:25,909 --> 00:45:28,409
of unarmed civilians.

747
00:45:28,509 --> 00:45:32,010
Among their victims
were two blind brothers;

748
00:45:32,110 --> 00:45:36,611
an elderly Buddhist monk;
women, children, and old people

749
00:45:36,711 --> 00:45:38,878
hiding in underground shelters;

750
00:45:38,978 --> 00:45:42,244
and three farmers
trying to plant rice.

751
00:45:42,344 --> 00:45:46,745
All were reported as
"enemy-- killed in action."

752
00:45:49,612 --> 00:45:53,546
STOUT:
These atrocities were
committed by soldiers

753
00:45:53,646 --> 00:45:55,880
of units I was assigned to
as a reporter

754
00:45:55,980 --> 00:45:57,813
for the Army newspapers,
such as...

755
00:45:57,913 --> 00:46:01,381
NARRATOR:
Tiger Force was not
the only platoon

756
00:46:01,481 --> 00:46:05,047
Dennis Stout covered
that crossed the line.

757
00:46:05,147 --> 00:46:08,215
One such incident was
the rape and killing

758
00:46:08,315 --> 00:46:10,115
of a Vietnamese girl.

759
00:46:10,215 --> 00:46:15,016
She was captured,
kept for interrogation.

760
00:46:15,116 --> 00:46:17,983
Over a two-day period,
she was raped, then,

761
00:46:18,083 --> 00:46:19,816
on the morning of the third day,
she was killed.

762
00:46:19,917 --> 00:46:23,317
Was she raped
by more than one person?

763
00:46:23,417 --> 00:46:26,984
Yes, all but the medic
and myself,

764
00:46:27,084 --> 00:46:28,818
and possibly one other man
from the platoon.

765
00:46:28,918 --> 00:46:29,918
Did you protest?

766
00:46:30,018 --> 00:46:32,085
Did you try in any way
to have them stopped?

767
00:46:32,185 --> 00:46:35,452
Yes. After the rape incident,
I complained

768
00:46:35,552 --> 00:46:39,952
to the battalion sergeant major,
and his response was that

769
00:46:40,052 --> 00:46:42,320
this type of thing happens
in all wars,

770
00:46:42,420 --> 00:46:45,720
and that I was not to mention
it; it was a common occurrence.

771
00:46:45,820 --> 00:46:50,121
Then later, I went to
the chaplain, told him about it,

772
00:46:50,221 --> 00:46:52,454
he made
an investigation himself,

773
00:46:52,554 --> 00:46:54,821
found that this was true,
went with me

774
00:46:54,921 --> 00:46:56,355
to the sergeant major.

775
00:46:56,455 --> 00:47:00,522
The sergeant major then
said that...

776
00:47:00,622 --> 00:47:02,489
well, he told the chaplain
to stick to religion,

777
00:47:02,589 --> 00:47:06,123
sent him away, and then
he told me to keep quiet,

778
00:47:06,223 --> 00:47:09,890
<i>that I did nothave t o return
from the next operation.</i>

779
00:47:11,424 --> 00:47:14,491
NARRATOR:
Years later, another soldier
came forward

780
00:47:14,591 --> 00:47:17,291
with more allegations
of war crimes,

781
00:47:17,391 --> 00:47:20,858
and an Army investigation
would find probable cause

782
00:47:20,958 --> 00:47:25,859
to try 18 members of Tiger Force
for murder or assault.

783
00:47:26,959 --> 00:47:29,459
But no charges
were ever brought.

784
00:47:29,559 --> 00:47:32,694
The official records were buried
in the archives.

785
00:47:34,594 --> 00:47:36,494
WILLBANKS:
They should have all
gone to jail.

786
00:47:36,594 --> 00:47:38,060
They were guilty of murder.

787
00:47:38,160 --> 00:47:39,528
Period.

788
00:47:39,628 --> 00:47:43,061
At the same time,
I felt like that incident,

789
00:47:43,161 --> 00:47:46,328
which I think was an aberration,
not the norm,

790
00:47:46,428 --> 00:47:49,029
tarred all veterans, and
there are hundreds of thousands

791
00:47:49,129 --> 00:47:50,896
of veterans who went
and did their duty,

792
00:47:50,996 --> 00:47:53,429
and as honorable
as they possibly could,

793
00:47:53,529 --> 00:47:55,297
and they're tarred
with the same brush.

794
00:47:57,397 --> 00:48:00,663
KARL MARLANTES:
One of the things that I learned
in the war is that

795
00:48:00,763 --> 00:48:05,398
we're not the top species on
the planet because we're nice.

796
00:48:05,498 --> 00:48:08,665
We are a very aggressive
species.

797
00:48:08,765 --> 00:48:10,432
It is in us.

798
00:48:10,532 --> 00:48:13,865
And people talk a lot about
how, "Well, the military turns

799
00:48:13,965 --> 00:48:16,933
kids into killing machines"
and stuff.

800
00:48:18,533 --> 00:48:21,266
And I'll always argue that
it's just finishing school.

801
00:48:21,366 --> 00:48:26,001
What we do with civilization
is that we learn to inhibit

802
00:48:26,101 --> 00:48:29,434
and rope in these
aggressive tendencies.

803
00:48:29,534 --> 00:48:31,868
And we have to recognize them.

804
00:48:31,968 --> 00:48:35,768
I worry about a whole country
that doesn't recognize it.

805
00:48:35,868 --> 00:48:37,736
'Cause you think of how
many times we get ourselves

806
00:48:37,836 --> 00:48:41,169
in scrapes as a nation because
we're always the good guys.

807
00:48:41,269 --> 00:48:44,136
Sometimes, I think if we thought
that we weren't always

808
00:48:44,236 --> 00:48:46,570
the good guys, we might actually
get in less wars.

809
00:48:49,904 --> 00:48:50,904
(static humming)

810
00:48:51,004 --> 00:48:52,271
REPORTER:
Mr. Rubin,

811
00:48:52,371 --> 00:48:55,105
how do you realistically expect
to shut down the Pentagon?

812
00:48:55,205 --> 00:48:58,305
The Pentagon represents
the murder of people

813
00:48:58,405 --> 00:48:59,672
throughout the world.

814
00:48:59,772 --> 00:49:01,906
And the American people
have no control

815
00:49:02,006 --> 00:49:03,406
of what their government's
doing.

816
00:49:03,506 --> 00:49:06,973
And so we're going to go there
in the scores of thousands,

817
00:49:07,073 --> 00:49:10,140
and block doors
and fill hallways,

818
00:49:10,240 --> 00:49:12,273
so the work
of the Pentagon stops.

819
00:49:12,373 --> 00:49:14,508
Because the work
of the Pentagon should stop.

820
00:49:14,608 --> 00:49:16,808
The only thing to do with
the Pentagon is to shut it down.

821
00:49:16,908 --> 00:49:19,508
("Waist Deep in the Big Muddy"
by Pete Seeger playing)

822
00:49:19,608 --> 00:49:22,275
♪ It was back in 1942

823
00:49:22,375 --> 00:49:24,642
♪ I was a member
of a good platoon ♪

824
00:49:24,742 --> 00:49:27,975
♪ We were on maneuvers
in Louisiana ♪

825
00:49:28,075 --> 00:49:29,976
♪ One night
by the light of the moon ♪

826
00:49:30,076 --> 00:49:33,643
♪ The captain told us
to ford a river ♪

827
00:49:33,743 --> 00:49:36,344
♪ That's how it all begun

828
00:49:36,444 --> 00:49:38,877
♪ We were knee deep
in the Big Muddy ♪

829
00:49:38,977 --> 00:49:41,744
♪ The big fool says to push on

830
00:49:41,844 --> 00:49:45,512
BILL ZIMMERMAN:
There was a major demonstration
either in New York

831
00:49:45,612 --> 00:49:50,179
or in Washington
every fall and every spring.

832
00:49:50,279 --> 00:49:53,313
We decided that we would go to
the demonstration

833
00:49:53,413 --> 00:49:56,979
in Washington at the Lincoln
Memorial in the fall of '67,

834
00:49:57,080 --> 00:49:59,680
but we would take as many
people out of that demonstration

835
00:49:59,780 --> 00:50:03,580
as we could and lead them
to the Pentagon.

836
00:50:03,680 --> 00:50:08,148
And at the Pentagon, try to do
something more militant

837
00:50:08,248 --> 00:50:11,882
than simply stand around and
make speeches opposing the war,

838
00:50:11,982 --> 00:50:14,949
which is what these
demonstrations had become.

839
00:50:15,049 --> 00:50:16,449
SEEGER:
♪ No man will be able to swim.

840
00:50:16,549 --> 00:50:19,850
ZIMMERMAN:
And when the time came
to lead people away

841
00:50:19,950 --> 00:50:22,117
from the Lincoln Memorial
toward the Pentagon,

842
00:50:22,217 --> 00:50:24,783
50,000 people marched.

843
00:50:24,883 --> 00:50:27,184
SEEGER:
♪ Men, follow me, I'll lead on

844
00:50:27,284 --> 00:50:30,218
♪ We were neck deep
in the Big Muddy ♪

845
00:50:30,318 --> 00:50:33,319
♪ The big fool says
to push on. ♪

846
00:50:33,419 --> 00:50:37,219
NARRATOR:
Bill Zimmerman, now an assistant
professor of psychology

847
00:50:37,319 --> 00:50:39,952
at Brooklyn College,
had been against the war

848
00:50:40,052 --> 00:50:41,886
since the beginning.

849
00:50:41,986 --> 00:50:46,420
ZIMMERMAN:
Then we found when we got there
concentric defense perimeters

850
00:50:46,520 --> 00:50:49,621
that had been set up
around the Pentagon to keep us

851
00:50:49,721 --> 00:50:51,321
at a distance from the building.

852
00:50:51,421 --> 00:50:55,822
We pushed against them,
we tore down their fences.

853
00:50:55,922 --> 00:50:57,788
SEEGER:
♪ With the captain
dead and gone ♪

854
00:50:57,888 --> 00:50:59,488
♪ We stripped and dived
and found his body. ♪

855
00:50:59,588 --> 00:51:02,389
LESLIE GELB:
I was working that weekend day.

856
00:51:02,489 --> 00:51:06,756
The secretaries who were working
in my area were frightened

857
00:51:06,856 --> 00:51:11,390
to hell what these
Vietnam protesters would do.

858
00:51:11,490 --> 00:51:12,824
They thought they were
going to come into the building

859
00:51:12,924 --> 00:51:14,057
and rape them.

860
00:51:14,157 --> 00:51:16,524
Some of them actually
came over the walls.

861
00:51:16,624 --> 00:51:18,558
SEEGER:
♪ The big fool said
to push on. ♪

862
00:51:18,658 --> 00:51:22,058
GELB:
It was a sense of revolution.

863
00:51:22,158 --> 00:51:23,158
(crowd yelling)

864
00:51:23,258 --> 00:51:25,092
SEEGER:
♪ Waist deep in the Big Muddy

865
00:51:25,192 --> 00:51:27,059
♪ The big fool says to push on

866
00:51:27,159 --> 00:51:29,992
♪ Waist deep in the Big Muddy

867
00:51:30,092 --> 00:51:32,127
♪ The big fool says
to push on. ♪

868
00:51:32,227 --> 00:51:36,460
ZIMMERMAN:
God knows what we were going to
do when we got in the building.

869
00:51:36,560 --> 00:51:38,494
Some people, the hippies,

870
00:51:38,594 --> 00:51:40,428
said they were going
to levitate the building.

871
00:51:40,528 --> 00:51:43,894
Other people wanted to commit
vandalism in the building.

872
00:51:43,994 --> 00:51:46,362
Other people wanted to
distribute antiwar literature

873
00:51:46,462 --> 00:51:48,729
in the building, talk to people.

874
00:51:48,829 --> 00:51:52,229
Just the idea of getting
into the headquarters

875
00:51:52,329 --> 00:51:54,396
of the United States military...

876
00:51:56,196 --> 00:51:59,496
It was the first time
that antiwar demonstrators

877
00:51:59,596 --> 00:52:03,997
had confronted active-duty
military personnel.

878
00:52:04,097 --> 00:52:06,697
We didn't consider them
the enemy.

879
00:52:06,797 --> 00:52:10,265
We considered them
victims of the war.

880
00:52:10,365 --> 00:52:15,466
But we began to see our own
government as the enemy.

881
00:52:15,566 --> 00:52:19,833
NARRATOR:
President Johnson believed
that international communism

882
00:52:19,933 --> 00:52:22,434
was somehow behind
the demonstration.

883
00:52:22,534 --> 00:52:25,900
He had directed the CIA
to come up with the evidence,

884
00:52:26,000 --> 00:52:29,768
and was furious
when it found none.

885
00:52:32,035 --> 00:52:32,935
DWIGHT EISENHOWER:
Mr. President?

886
00:52:33,035 --> 00:52:33,901
LYNDON JOHNSON:
Yes.

887
00:52:34,001 --> 00:52:34,901
This is
General Eisenhower.

888
00:52:35,001 --> 00:52:36,135
How've you been,
Mr. President?

889
00:52:36,235 --> 00:52:39,169
I'm doing fine
under the circumstances.

890
00:52:39,269 --> 00:52:41,902
But we just had hell,
and these college students,

891
00:52:42,002 --> 00:52:43,870
I've had Hoover in after them.

892
00:52:43,970 --> 00:52:47,403
They came marched here,
and we arrested 600 of them,

893
00:52:47,503 --> 00:52:50,603
and we gave 29 of them
pretty tough times.

894
00:52:50,703 --> 00:52:54,038
We found most of them
really were mentally diseased.

895
00:52:54,138 --> 00:52:58,205
Hoover's taken 256 that turned
in supposedly their draft cards.

896
00:52:58,305 --> 00:53:00,672
So, you're dealing
with mental problems,

897
00:53:00,772 --> 00:53:02,905
I think that we talk
too damn much

898
00:53:03,005 --> 00:53:05,205
about civil liberties
and constitutional rights

899
00:53:05,306 --> 00:53:06,773
of the individual
and not enough

900
00:53:06,873 --> 00:53:08,306
about the rights
of the masses.

901
00:53:08,406 --> 00:53:09,673
EISENHOWER:
That's why we have it.

902
00:53:09,773 --> 00:53:11,740
We have freely elected people
and we've got to

903
00:53:11,840 --> 00:53:13,241
stand behind them.

904
00:53:13,341 --> 00:53:15,807
JOHNSON:
I think your government's
in trouble, General.

905
00:53:15,907 --> 00:53:17,774
I think it's in...
I don't want to say this.

906
00:53:17,874 --> 00:53:19,574
But I think we're in
more danger

907
00:53:19,674 --> 00:53:21,575
from these
left-wing influences now

908
00:53:21,675 --> 00:53:24,542
than we've ever been
in 37 years I've been here.

909
00:53:24,642 --> 00:53:27,676
And they're working
in my party from within.

910
00:53:27,776 --> 00:53:30,343
And Bobby thinks he's going
to get the nomination.

911
00:53:30,443 --> 00:53:34,677
NARRATOR:
Allard Lowenstein, a 38-year-old
attorney from New York,

912
00:53:34,777 --> 00:53:37,810
shared the antiwar fervor
of the protestors,

913
00:53:37,910 --> 00:53:39,710
but he believed
the most effective way

914
00:53:39,810 --> 00:53:43,511
to end the fighting was to work
within the political system,

915
00:53:43,611 --> 00:53:45,411
not outside it.

916
00:53:45,511 --> 00:53:48,245
The answer, he said,
was to stop Lyndon Johnson

917
00:53:48,345 --> 00:53:51,912
from getting
a second full term as president.

918
00:53:52,012 --> 00:53:56,180
He had traveled the country
all year in search of someone

919
00:53:56,280 --> 00:53:58,913
willing to challenge
the president in the upcoming

920
00:53:59,013 --> 00:54:00,947
Democratic primaries.

921
00:54:01,047 --> 00:54:04,248
He asked Senator Robert Kennedy
of New York,

922
00:54:04,348 --> 00:54:07,348
who had begun to criticize
the Johnson administration

923
00:54:07,448 --> 00:54:08,848
over the war.

924
00:54:08,948 --> 00:54:12,249
He asked
Lieutenant General James Gavin.

925
00:54:12,349 --> 00:54:16,315
He asked Senator George McGovern
of South Dakota.

926
00:54:16,415 --> 00:54:18,550
They all turned him down.

927
00:54:18,650 --> 00:54:22,283
Lowenstein kept looking.

928
00:54:27,284 --> 00:54:32,385
At Fort Sill, Oklahoma,
on November 17, 1967,

929
00:54:32,485 --> 00:54:35,718
friends and family
of a fallen soldier gathered

930
00:54:35,818 --> 00:54:39,285
for a funeral,
one of five military funerals

931
00:54:39,385 --> 00:54:41,786
held there that month.

932
00:54:41,886 --> 00:54:46,619
First Sergeant Pascal Cleatus
Poolaw had been killed

933
00:54:46,720 --> 00:54:49,220
as he tried to drag
one of his wounded men

934
00:54:49,320 --> 00:54:54,088
off the battlefield near
the village of Loc Ninh.

935
00:54:54,188 --> 00:54:59,321
He was a remarkable soldier,
had been awarded one Silver Star

936
00:54:59,421 --> 00:55:04,889
in World War II, two more in
Korea, and was awarded a fourth,

937
00:55:04,989 --> 00:55:09,223
posthumously,
for his gallantry in Vietnam.

938
00:55:09,323 --> 00:55:12,390
He was a Kiowa Indian.

939
00:55:12,490 --> 00:55:15,357
He and three of his sons
were among

940
00:55:15,457 --> 00:55:20,458
the 42,000 Native Americans
who would serve in Vietnam,

941
00:55:20,558 --> 00:55:24,259
the highest per capita
service rate of any ethnic group

942
00:55:24,359 --> 00:55:26,525
in the United States.

943
00:55:26,625 --> 00:55:31,560
Pascal Poolaw's widow spoke
at the ceremony.

944
00:55:31,660 --> 00:55:35,293
"He has followed the trail
of the great chiefs," she said.

945
00:55:35,393 --> 00:55:40,594
"His people hold him in honor
and highest esteem.

946
00:55:40,694 --> 00:55:44,895
"He has given his life
for the people and the country

947
00:55:44,995 --> 00:55:49,162
he loved so much."

948
00:55:52,529 --> 00:55:53,796
("Somebody to Love" by
Jefferson Airplane playing)

949
00:55:53,896 --> 00:55:55,196
♪ When the truth is found

950
00:55:55,296 --> 00:55:59,330
♪ To be lies

951
00:55:59,430 --> 00:56:02,264
♪ And all the joy

952
00:56:02,364 --> 00:56:06,698
♪ Within you dies

953
00:56:06,798 --> 00:56:09,165
♪ Don't you want somebody
to love? ♪

954
00:56:09,265 --> 00:56:12,765
♪ Don't you need somebody
to love? ♪

955
00:56:12,865 --> 00:56:16,532
♪ Wouldn't you love somebody
to love? ♪

956
00:56:16,632 --> 00:56:21,000
♪ You better find somebody
to love ♪

957
00:56:21,100 --> 00:56:22,933
♪ Love.

958
00:56:27,667 --> 00:56:30,601
MUSGRAVE:
I didn't hear the word "hippie"
until I was at Con Thien

959
00:56:30,701 --> 00:56:32,034
<i>and we got aPlaybo y, somebody
got aPlayboy in the mail,</i>

960
00:56:32,134 --> 00:56:35,034
which was obviously very
important to us.

961
00:56:35,134 --> 00:56:37,235
And there was an article
on Haight-Ashbury

962
00:56:37,335 --> 00:56:38,902
and pictures of the girls
running around

963
00:56:39,002 --> 00:56:40,635
without their tops,
you know, free love.

964
00:56:40,735 --> 00:56:42,135
And they were hippies.

965
00:56:42,235 --> 00:56:44,736
And we thought it was
"hip pie" cause it had two Ps.

966
00:56:44,836 --> 00:56:46,603
You know,
"Hey, I'm gonna go home

967
00:56:46,703 --> 00:56:48,036
"and be one of these hip pies

968
00:56:48,136 --> 00:56:49,636
"because the girls
don't wear no clothes.

969
00:56:49,736 --> 00:56:52,137
You know, and they'll
go to bed with anybody."

970
00:56:52,237 --> 00:56:53,504
You know, even I could score.

971
00:56:53,604 --> 00:56:57,538
But the only information I had
of the peace movement

972
00:56:57,638 --> 00:56:59,272
<i>came fromStars and Stripes.</i>

973
00:56:59,372 --> 00:57:02,905
And that wasn't
a real objective newspaper.

974
00:57:03,005 --> 00:57:05,339
And so I hated them

975
00:57:05,439 --> 00:57:07,339
before I ever even knew
anything about them.

976
00:57:07,439 --> 00:57:10,006
("Somebody to Love" continues)

977
00:57:13,640 --> 00:57:17,740
NARRATOR:
The monsoon rains continued
to make life miserable

978
00:57:17,840 --> 00:57:21,241
for John Musgrave and
the other Marines at Con Thien.

979
00:57:21,341 --> 00:57:25,341
But by early November, the
worst of the shelling had ended.

980
00:57:25,441 --> 00:57:28,942
American airstrikes,
artillery, and Navy fire

981
00:57:29,042 --> 00:57:32,342
had taken a fearful toll
on the besieging enemy.

982
00:57:34,143 --> 00:57:39,610
Before dawn on November 7, two
companies of Musgrave's outfit

983
00:57:39,710 --> 00:57:42,444
were sent half a mile
into the countryside

984
00:57:42,544 --> 00:57:45,844
northwest of the base
to sweep the area again.

985
00:57:47,712 --> 00:57:51,345
MUSGRAVE:
We got into an area
that was old hedgerows

986
00:57:51,445 --> 00:57:53,545
that's grown over with jungle.

987
00:57:53,645 --> 00:57:56,013
Very difficult to see very far.

988
00:57:56,113 --> 00:57:59,180
In the clear area, we had three
NVA show themselves

989
00:57:59,280 --> 00:58:02,781
and start just spraying
30 rounds out of their AKs

990
00:58:02,881 --> 00:58:03,881
and then booking.

991
00:58:03,981 --> 00:58:05,181
(gunfire)

992
00:58:05,281 --> 00:58:09,147
The company commander himself
said, "I want their bodies.

993
00:58:09,247 --> 00:58:10,682
Bring me their bodies."

994
00:58:10,782 --> 00:58:14,048
Everything's about body count,
right?

995
00:58:14,148 --> 00:58:17,149
We said, "Man, this is as
old as Custer.

996
00:58:17,249 --> 00:58:19,649
"These guys are showing
themselves to draw us

997
00:58:19,749 --> 00:58:20,883
"into an ambush.

998
00:58:20,983 --> 00:58:23,516
"Lieutenant, don't do this,"
you know.

999
00:58:23,616 --> 00:58:27,217
"Please, these guys are bait."

1000
00:58:27,317 --> 00:58:29,517
Well, the skipper says,
"We got to go.

1001
00:58:29,617 --> 00:58:31,651
We got to go."

1002
00:58:31,751 --> 00:58:35,051
And... we went.

1003
00:58:36,185 --> 00:58:37,885
(gunfire)

1004
00:58:37,985 --> 00:58:40,352
And I can't tell you
a whole lot about the ambush.

1005
00:58:40,452 --> 00:58:42,486
I was one of the first people
to be shot.

1006
00:58:42,586 --> 00:58:44,386
One round put me down.

1007
00:58:44,486 --> 00:58:46,020
(gunfire)

1008
00:58:46,120 --> 00:58:49,587
And my grenadier was down, and
we were trying to get him back.

1009
00:58:49,687 --> 00:58:53,788
And Marines, from the first day
in boot camp,

1010
00:58:53,888 --> 00:58:56,388
you learn that Marines
don't leave their dead,

1011
00:58:56,488 --> 00:59:00,021
and they never,
never leave their wounded.

1012
00:59:01,455 --> 00:59:04,155
And that's why I'm alive today.

1013
00:59:04,255 --> 00:59:08,523
First guy that came for me--
I was lying on my face...

1014
00:59:08,623 --> 00:59:10,023
(gunfire)

1015
00:59:10,123 --> 00:59:12,556
he reached down and stuck his
arms under my shoulders

1016
00:59:12,656 --> 00:59:17,024
and lifted me up and the machine
gun wasn't any far,

1017
00:59:17,124 --> 00:59:22,725
was maybe nine feet, ten feet
at the most, away from me.

1018
00:59:22,825 --> 00:59:24,358
This is a very
intimate ambush.

1019
00:59:24,458 --> 00:59:25,458
It's a brawl.

1020
00:59:25,558 --> 00:59:26,958
(gunfire)

1021
00:59:27,058 --> 00:59:31,126
And he fired a burst into my
chest that blew me out

1022
00:59:31,226 --> 00:59:34,759
of the Marine's arms that was
holding me and then he was shot.

1023
00:59:34,859 --> 00:59:37,327
(gunfire)

1024
00:59:37,427 --> 00:59:43,661
Another very brave young Marine,
this 18-year-old from Louisiana,

1025
00:59:43,761 --> 00:59:46,795
his first firefight,
had seen what happened

1026
00:59:46,895 --> 00:59:50,061
and still came for me.

1027
00:59:50,161 --> 00:59:54,829
And he reached for me, and he
was shot I think in the forearm.

1028
00:59:54,929 --> 00:59:57,729
And he was laying beside me.

1029
00:59:57,829 --> 00:59:59,597
Now, I've got a hole
through my chest big enough

1030
00:59:59,697 --> 01:00:01,263
to stick your fist through.

1031
01:00:02,230 --> 01:00:03,430
I'm dying and I know it.

1032
01:00:03,530 --> 01:00:04,663
(gunfire)

1033
01:00:04,763 --> 01:00:07,364
And I heard this horrible
screaming going on,

1034
01:00:07,464 --> 01:00:11,131
and I was trying to figure out
who was screaming like that,

1035
01:00:11,231 --> 01:00:12,499
because it sounded so...

1036
01:00:12,599 --> 01:00:15,565
(distant gunfire)

1037
01:00:19,465 --> 01:00:21,133
And then I realized it was me.

1038
01:00:23,866 --> 01:00:26,300
When they began to drag us out,
they were being pursued

1039
01:00:26,400 --> 01:00:30,201
by the North Vietnamese,
and they would drop us

1040
01:00:30,301 --> 01:00:31,967
and lay on top of us.

1041
01:00:32,067 --> 01:00:33,401
They knew... we were both dying.

1042
01:00:33,501 --> 01:00:36,835
The grenadier had been shot
in the right side of his chest.

1043
01:00:36,935 --> 01:00:39,035
They knew... we were both dead.

1044
01:00:39,135 --> 01:00:41,803
But we were still alive.

1045
01:00:41,903 --> 01:00:43,436
So, they weren't gonna leave us.

1046
01:00:43,536 --> 01:00:45,636
They would die before
they would leave us.

1047
01:00:45,736 --> 01:00:47,703
And they covered us with their
bodies and fired back

1048
01:00:47,803 --> 01:00:51,037
at the NVA and then they'd jump
up and drag us a little farther

1049
01:00:51,137 --> 01:00:53,470
and then drop us and
lay back on top of us.

1050
01:00:53,570 --> 01:00:56,438
And I kept telling them
to leave me.

1051
01:00:56,538 --> 01:00:58,171
And I meant it.
I meant it.

1052
01:00:58,271 --> 01:01:02,405
But all of a sudden I got scared
that they might really leave me.

1053
01:01:03,772 --> 01:01:04,772
(distant gunfire)

1054
01:01:04,872 --> 01:01:07,339
I was triaged three times.

1055
01:01:07,439 --> 01:01:10,272
And the senior corpsman said,

1056
01:01:10,372 --> 01:01:12,007
"He's either shot through
the heart or the lungs.

1057
01:01:12,107 --> 01:01:13,240
There's nothing
I can do for him."

1058
01:01:13,340 --> 01:01:15,007
And he just turned away.

1059
01:01:15,107 --> 01:01:17,207
I went, "Well, okay."

1060
01:01:18,174 --> 01:01:21,841
And then, a helicopter came in.

1061
01:01:21,941 --> 01:01:23,508
And they threw me into the bird.

1062
01:01:23,608 --> 01:01:25,909
(distant helicopter blades
humming)

1063
01:01:26,009 --> 01:01:29,242
And the corpsman on the bird
straddled me, stood over me,

1064
01:01:29,342 --> 01:01:32,343
and looked down at me, and then
looked up at the door gunner

1065
01:01:32,443 --> 01:01:36,243
and went...
get me out of the way

1066
01:01:36,343 --> 01:01:37,343
because he couldn't work on me.

1067
01:01:37,443 --> 01:01:38,976
I was a dead man.

1068
01:01:39,076 --> 01:01:40,944
(muted helicopter blades
beating)

1069
01:01:41,044 --> 01:01:42,944
And they flew me
to Delta Med at Dong Ha.

1070
01:01:43,044 --> 01:01:47,078
And I thought,
"Okay, I made it this far."

1071
01:01:47,178 --> 01:01:48,812
And this doctor comes
over and looks at me

1072
01:01:48,912 --> 01:01:50,478
and I'm conscious.

1073
01:01:50,578 --> 01:01:52,812
I'm lucid.

1074
01:01:52,912 --> 01:01:54,313
And he checks
a couple of things.

1075
01:01:54,413 --> 01:01:55,613
And I've got this huge hole
in me.

1076
01:01:55,713 --> 01:01:57,179
And he looks at me
right in the eye, and he says,

1077
01:01:57,279 --> 01:01:59,046
"What's your religion, Marine?"

1078
01:01:59,146 --> 01:02:01,214
And I said,
"Well, I'm a Protestant."

1079
01:02:01,314 --> 01:02:02,380
And he says,
"Get a chaplain over here.

1080
01:02:02,480 --> 01:02:04,080
I can't help this man."

1081
01:02:04,180 --> 01:02:05,080
And then he walked away.

1082
01:02:06,547 --> 01:02:11,815
Another surgeon walks by,
and he looked at me,

1083
01:02:11,915 --> 01:02:16,016
and I was raised
to always be nice to people.

1084
01:02:16,116 --> 01:02:19,916
And when he looked at me,
I smiled at him and nodded.

1085
01:02:20,016 --> 01:02:24,183
And he said, "Why isn't
somebody helping this man?"

1086
01:02:24,283 --> 01:02:25,583
And inside I'm going,

1087
01:02:25,683 --> 01:02:27,317
"Yeah, why isn't somebody
helping this man?"

1088
01:02:28,517 --> 01:02:31,451
When they put me to sleep,
I thought,

1089
01:02:31,551 --> 01:02:34,584
"Boy, this is really it,"
you know.

1090
01:02:34,684 --> 01:02:37,285
And it was kind of,
"Okay, God,

1091
01:02:37,385 --> 01:02:39,985
into your hands,
I deliver my spirit."

1092
01:02:41,185 --> 01:02:43,052
And I thought that was it.

1093
01:02:45,053 --> 01:02:47,253
And when I woke up in the
surgical intensive care ward,

1094
01:02:47,353 --> 01:02:49,753
which was a Quonset hut,

1095
01:02:49,853 --> 01:02:52,387
I thought, "Holy mackerel."

1096
01:02:52,487 --> 01:02:56,521
I just couldn't...
I couldn't believe it.

1097
01:03:00,222 --> 01:03:01,722
Yesterday over Hanoi,

1098
01:03:01,822 --> 01:03:03,588
three American planes
were shot down

1099
01:03:03,688 --> 01:03:06,323
and at least two
of their pilots captured.

1100
01:03:06,423 --> 01:03:09,956
One of them was Lieutenant
Commander John McCain III,

1101
01:03:10,056 --> 01:03:13,223
the son of the U.S. Naval
commander in Europe.

1102
01:03:14,557 --> 01:03:16,990
BAO NINH:

1103
01:03:50,762 --> 01:03:54,329
NARRATOR:
Hanoi was so pleased to have
captured the son

1104
01:03:54,429 --> 01:03:57,830
of an American admiral that they
allowed a French journalist

1105
01:03:57,930 --> 01:04:00,463
to interview McCain
in the hospital.

1106
01:04:00,563 --> 01:04:04,864
He had just had his broken bones
set without even an aspirin

1107
01:04:04,964 --> 01:04:06,397
for the pain.

1108
01:04:06,497 --> 01:04:07,697
INTERVIEWER:
What is your name?

1109
01:04:07,797 --> 01:04:10,864
Lieutenant Commander
John McCain.

1110
01:04:10,964 --> 01:04:14,032
How many raids have you done
until the last one?

1111
01:04:14,132 --> 01:04:15,898
About 23.

1112
01:04:15,998 --> 01:04:20,699
In which circumstances
have you been shot down?

1113
01:04:20,799 --> 01:04:25,566
I was on a flight
over the city of Hanoi,

1114
01:04:25,666 --> 01:04:32,767
and I was bombing and I was hit
by either a missile

1115
01:04:32,867 --> 01:04:34,568
or anti-aircraft fire.

1116
01:04:34,668 --> 01:04:41,669
I'm not sure which, and the
plane continued straight down,

1117
01:04:41,769 --> 01:04:50,337
and I ejected
and broke my leg and both arms

1118
01:04:50,437 --> 01:04:57,204
and went into a lake;
parachuted into a lake.

1119
01:04:57,304 --> 01:05:02,172
And I was picked up by some
North Vietnamese

1120
01:05:02,272 --> 01:05:08,339
and taken to the hospital,
where I almost died.

1121
01:05:08,439 --> 01:05:10,706
I would just like to tell...

1122
01:05:15,073 --> 01:05:17,507
...my wife...

1123
01:05:18,307 --> 01:05:20,874
...I will get well...

1124
01:05:23,407 --> 01:05:30,142
...and I love her
and I hope to see her soon.

1125
01:05:31,643 --> 01:05:34,243
NARRATOR:
After the interview,
McCain was beaten

1126
01:05:34,343 --> 01:05:38,410
for not expressing sufficient
gratitude to his captors.

1127
01:05:44,444 --> 01:05:46,111
(soldiers conversing)

1128
01:05:46,211 --> 01:05:50,645
NARRATOR:
All through the fall of 1967,
the North Vietnamese

1129
01:05:50,745 --> 01:05:54,479
and the Viet Cong continued
their series of "Border Battles"

1130
01:05:54,579 --> 01:05:57,112
in preparation
for their surprise offensive,

1131
01:05:57,212 --> 01:05:59,146
still months away.

1132
01:05:59,246 --> 01:06:03,047
Con Thien, where John Musgrave
was wounded,

1133
01:06:03,147 --> 01:06:04,613
had been the first.

1134
01:06:04,713 --> 01:06:08,448
Then came the ARVN base
at Song Be.

1135
01:06:08,548 --> 01:06:11,014
The South Vietnamese outpost
adjacent to

1136
01:06:11,114 --> 01:06:14,248
the provincial capital
of Loc Ninh was next.

1137
01:06:14,348 --> 01:06:17,282
There, large units of
North Vietnamese

1138
01:06:17,382 --> 01:06:21,182
and Viet Cong regulars
mounted a coordinated attack,

1139
01:06:21,282 --> 01:06:24,650
and then fought for five days
to hold on to the ground

1140
01:06:24,750 --> 01:06:28,616
they'd gained, something they
had never done before.

1141
01:06:28,716 --> 01:06:32,317
American commanders
were puzzled.

1142
01:06:32,417 --> 01:06:37,052
Then, in early November,
reports reached MACV

1143
01:06:37,152 --> 01:06:39,418
that five North Vietnamese
regiments

1144
01:06:39,518 --> 01:06:43,819
and a Viet Cong battalion--
some 7,000 men in all--

1145
01:06:43,919 --> 01:06:46,519
had begun massing
in the Central Highlands

1146
01:06:46,619 --> 01:06:51,287
around the U.S. Special Forces
camp at Dak To again.

1147
01:06:51,387 --> 01:06:56,020
Among the North Vietnamese
regulars was Nguyen Thanh Son,

1148
01:06:56,120 --> 01:06:59,421
who had been so eager to fight
that he too had filled

1149
01:06:59,521 --> 01:07:03,621
his pockets with rocks
to pass his physical.

1150
01:07:04,788 --> 01:07:07,522
NGUYEN THANH SON:

1151
01:07:17,756 --> 01:07:21,224
NARRATOR:
As the NVA deployed
their troops,

1152
01:07:21,324 --> 01:07:24,257
Westmoreland sent his to Dak To,

1153
01:07:24,358 --> 01:07:27,925
exactly what
the enemy wanted him to do.

1154
01:07:28,025 --> 01:07:33,258
Among the Americans were the
men of the elite 173rd Airborne,

1155
01:07:33,359 --> 01:07:36,960
Westmoreland's Fire Brigade.

1156
01:07:41,361 --> 01:07:45,561
MATT HARRISON:
We all knew in a general sense
that we wouldn't be brought back

1157
01:07:45,661 --> 01:07:48,595
if there wasn't something big
going on.

1158
01:07:48,695 --> 01:07:54,128
You just knew that the area was
crawling with North Vietnamese,

1159
01:07:54,228 --> 01:07:58,762
and that they were there
not to avoid contact with us,

1160
01:07:58,863 --> 01:08:01,596
but they were there
to have contact with us.

1161
01:08:02,996 --> 01:08:05,263
NARRATOR:
First Lieutenant
Matthew Harrison was now

1162
01:08:05,364 --> 01:08:08,130
with Alpha Company
of the 2nd Battalion,

1163
01:08:08,230 --> 01:08:10,765
the same rifle company
that had been ambushed

1164
01:08:10,865 --> 01:08:16,098
and so badly shattered back in
June on the slopes of Hill 1338,

1165
01:08:16,198 --> 01:08:18,866
just 14 miles to the east.

1166
01:08:18,966 --> 01:08:22,599
HARRISON:
This wasn't like the Viet Cong
where if you could find them,

1167
01:08:22,699 --> 01:08:23,966
you could kill them.

1168
01:08:24,066 --> 01:08:25,367
Our problem wasn't finding them.

1169
01:08:25,467 --> 01:08:27,700
Our problem was what to do
with them once you found them.

1170
01:08:27,800 --> 01:08:32,968
NARRATOR:
The 174th NVA Regiment
was waiting.

1171
01:08:33,068 --> 01:08:36,868
Nguyen Thanh Son and his men
were already dug in

1172
01:08:36,968 --> 01:08:40,035
on the high ground they knew
the Americans would want

1173
01:08:40,135 --> 01:08:44,869
to command: Hill 875.

1174
01:08:44,969 --> 01:08:47,070
NGUYEN THANH SON:

1175
01:09:06,038 --> 01:09:11,273
NARRATOR:
On Sunday morning,
November 19, 1967,

1176
01:09:11,373 --> 01:09:14,873
Alpha, Charlie, and
Delta Companies were ordered

1177
01:09:14,973 --> 01:09:17,874
to take Hill 875.

1178
01:09:17,974 --> 01:09:21,440
Matt Harrison had been wounded
in an earlier fight

1179
01:09:21,540 --> 01:09:24,375
and was not permitted
to accompany his men.

1180
01:09:24,475 --> 01:09:28,775
He anxiously followed
their progress over the radio.

1181
01:09:28,875 --> 01:09:33,576
Heavy artillery and flights
of F-100s blasted the hillside

1182
01:09:33,676 --> 01:09:37,510
ahead of them, meant to
knock out enemy positions

1183
01:09:37,610 --> 01:09:40,810
before the paratroopers
ever got within range.

1184
01:09:42,443 --> 01:09:44,611
NGUYEN THANH SON:

1185
01:09:57,679 --> 01:10:00,080
NARRATOR:
The three companies
moved up the slope,

1186
01:10:00,180 --> 01:10:02,613
Charlie and Delta in the lead,

1187
01:10:02,713 --> 01:10:05,913
Alpha bringing up the rear.

1188
01:10:06,013 --> 01:10:09,481
The paratroopers stepped warily
into a clearing

1189
01:10:09,581 --> 01:10:12,814
filled with fallen trees
from the morning's bombardment

1190
01:10:12,914 --> 01:10:17,715
and only a little over 300 yards
from the summit.

1191
01:10:18,482 --> 01:10:21,683
NGUYEN THANH SON:

1192
01:10:31,150 --> 01:10:32,817
(gunfire)

1193
01:10:32,917 --> 01:10:35,918
NARRATOR:
Thousands of automatic weapon
rounds ripped through the air.

1194
01:10:36,018 --> 01:10:39,085
Chinese-made grenades came
rolling and bumping

1195
01:10:39,185 --> 01:10:40,585
down the slopes.

1196
01:10:40,685 --> 01:10:44,919
The Americans sought cover where
they could behind fallen trees,

1197
01:10:45,019 --> 01:10:47,619
scrabbled at the earth
with their helmets,

1198
01:10:47,719 --> 01:10:49,920
trying to dig fighting holes.

1199
01:10:50,020 --> 01:10:52,753
(gunfire)

1200
01:10:52,853 --> 01:10:54,220
(soldiers yelling)

1201
01:10:54,320 --> 01:10:56,620
(rapid gunfire)

1202
01:10:56,720 --> 01:10:59,621
Charlie and Delta companies
were pinned down

1203
01:10:59,721 --> 01:11:02,621
and being torn to pieces.

1204
01:11:02,721 --> 01:11:03,954
(gunfire)

1205
01:11:04,054 --> 01:11:05,889
Meanwhile,
near the foot of the hill,

1206
01:11:05,989 --> 01:11:09,089
other North Vietnamese troops
surprised Alpha Company

1207
01:11:09,189 --> 01:11:10,522
from behind.

1208
01:11:10,622 --> 01:11:13,690
They were first spotted
moving up through the trees

1209
01:11:13,790 --> 01:11:17,490
by a private from the Bronx
named Carlos Lozada.

1210
01:11:17,590 --> 01:11:20,757
As the men of his
company scrambled up the slope,

1211
01:11:20,857 --> 01:11:22,657
dragging their wounded
with them,

1212
01:11:22,757 --> 01:11:25,324
Lozada provided
what cover he could,

1213
01:11:25,424 --> 01:11:28,192
firing his M-60 machine gun
from his hip--

1214
01:11:28,292 --> 01:11:31,025
before a bullet
hit him in the head.

1215
01:11:32,392 --> 01:11:37,226
He would be awarded
a posthumous Medal of Honor.

1216
01:11:37,326 --> 01:11:41,227
Back home, the battle led
the nightly news.

1217
01:11:41,327 --> 01:11:42,927
(helicopter humming)

1218
01:11:43,027 --> 01:11:45,927
WALTER CRONKITE:
The Battle of Dak To is now on
its 19th day,

1219
01:11:46,027 --> 01:11:48,328
and already ranks
among the bloodiest campaigns

1220
01:11:48,428 --> 01:11:49,861
of the Vietnam War.

1221
01:11:49,961 --> 01:11:51,595
There's no sign yet
of any let-up.

1222
01:11:51,695 --> 01:11:53,228
Over the weekend,
three companies

1223
01:11:53,328 --> 01:11:57,329
of the 173rd Airborne Brigade
moved down this river valley,

1224
01:11:57,429 --> 01:12:00,329
up which North Vietnamese
normally infiltrate,

1225
01:12:00,429 --> 01:12:03,497
until they got down here
by Hill 875.

1226
01:12:03,597 --> 01:12:05,930
Then, they came under heavy fire
from the hill.

1227
01:12:06,030 --> 01:12:08,130
Two of the three companies
charged the hill,

1228
01:12:08,230 --> 01:12:10,098
the other stayed back
as a rear guard.

1229
01:12:10,198 --> 01:12:11,531
They found a...

1230
01:12:11,631 --> 01:12:14,764
HARRISON:
By early afternoon,
the three companies

1231
01:12:14,864 --> 01:12:17,132
had basically been decapitated.

1232
01:12:17,232 --> 01:12:19,032
The company commanders
were dead;

1233
01:12:19,132 --> 01:12:22,199
most of the officers and
most of the NCOs were dead.

1234
01:12:22,299 --> 01:12:24,000
(soldiers yelling)

1235
01:12:24,100 --> 01:12:26,800
NARRATOR:
The survivors from all three
companies clustered

1236
01:12:26,900 --> 01:12:29,600
in the clearing
and did their best to set up

1237
01:12:29,700 --> 01:12:31,367
a defensive circle.

1238
01:12:31,467 --> 01:12:36,101
American bombs and napalm
pounded enemy positions

1239
01:12:36,201 --> 01:12:39,702
until it grew
almost too dark to see.

1240
01:12:40,668 --> 01:12:42,568
NGUYEN THANH SON:

1241
01:13:07,972 --> 01:13:12,806
NARRATOR:
Then, another American plane
roared in and dropped two bombs.

1242
01:13:12,906 --> 01:13:15,907
One landed among
the hidden enemy troops.

1243
01:13:17,140 --> 01:13:21,708
The other fell directly
on the Americans.

1244
01:13:21,808 --> 01:13:26,608
In a fraction of a second,
42 were killed.

1245
01:13:26,708 --> 01:13:30,642
A badly hit lieutenant managed
to find a working radio.

1246
01:13:30,742 --> 01:13:34,175
"No more fucking planes,"
he shouted into it.

1247
01:13:34,275 --> 01:13:37,010
<i>"You're killingus up here."</i>

1248
01:13:37,110 --> 01:13:38,476
(explosion)

1249
01:13:38,576 --> 01:13:40,843
The fighting
on the hillside continued.

1250
01:13:40,943 --> 01:13:45,377
The men ran out of water,
began to run out of ammunition.

1251
01:13:45,477 --> 01:13:50,211
Helicopters that tried to ferry
in supplies were shot down.

1252
01:13:51,578 --> 01:13:58,679
The following day, Matt Harrison
was able to chopper in.

1253
01:13:58,779 --> 01:14:00,379
HARRISON:
It was chaos.

1254
01:14:00,479 --> 01:14:03,279
It was collections of guys
who had who had tunneled

1255
01:14:03,379 --> 01:14:05,580
and dug down behind trees.

1256
01:14:05,680 --> 01:14:09,114
These were guys who had gone
without water in that heat

1257
01:14:09,214 --> 01:14:10,714
for two days.

1258
01:14:10,814 --> 01:14:14,815
And almost every one of them
was wounded.

1259
01:14:14,915 --> 01:14:18,948
And then all around were bodies,

1260
01:14:19,048 --> 01:14:23,349
guys who had been shot
and blown up.

1261
01:14:23,449 --> 01:14:25,082
It was the third circle of hell.

1262
01:14:27,850 --> 01:14:32,317
NARRATOR:
On November 23, two fresh
battalions of the 173rd

1263
01:14:32,417 --> 01:14:34,951
finally made it
to the top of the hill,

1264
01:14:35,051 --> 01:14:37,884
for which so many had died.

1265
01:14:37,984 --> 01:14:39,751
But the night before,

1266
01:14:39,851 --> 01:14:42,752
the surviving North Vietnamese
troops had slipped down

1267
01:14:42,852 --> 01:14:49,086
the other side and disappeared
into Cambodia and Laos.

1268
01:14:49,186 --> 01:14:51,820
The powers that be
decided it would be important

1269
01:14:51,920 --> 01:14:56,387
to our morale for us to be in on
the taking the top of the hill.

1270
01:14:56,487 --> 01:15:01,721
I had 26 guys left out of a
company that started out of 140,

1271
01:15:01,821 --> 01:15:04,488
and all 26 had been wounded.

1272
01:15:04,588 --> 01:15:08,888
NARRATOR:
Then Harrison and his exhausted
men were helicoptered

1273
01:15:08,988 --> 01:15:10,756
to the top of yet another hill.

1274
01:15:10,856 --> 01:15:12,556
(helicopter blades whirring)

1275
01:15:16,489 --> 01:15:18,724
It was Thanksgiving.

1276
01:15:18,824 --> 01:15:22,090
Chinook helicopters clattered
down out of the sky,

1277
01:15:22,190 --> 01:15:25,825
carrying huge containers of
hot turkey and mashed potatoes

1278
01:15:25,925 --> 01:15:30,425
and cranberry sauce so that
the 173rd could have

1279
01:15:30,525 --> 01:15:32,459
their Thanksgiving dinner.

1280
01:15:32,559 --> 01:15:35,126
If there are any more remote
or dangerous spots

1281
01:15:35,226 --> 01:15:37,192
to spend Thanksgiving Day
in Vietnam than this one,

1282
01:15:37,292 --> 01:15:39,427
then most of these men
have never seen them.

1283
01:15:39,527 --> 01:15:42,927
HARRISON:
There was a TV cameraman
and reporter off to the side

1284
01:15:43,027 --> 01:15:44,627
using us as a backdrop.

1285
01:15:44,727 --> 01:15:47,428
And I remember hearing
the reporter intone,

1286
01:15:47,528 --> 01:15:50,594
"Today is November 23,
Thanksgiving Day,"

1287
01:15:50,694 --> 01:15:54,462
and I was really angry.

1288
01:15:54,562 --> 01:15:58,462
It's as though
we were entertainers.

1289
01:15:59,962 --> 01:16:05,763
NARRATOR:
107 Americans had died
taking Hill 875;

1290
01:16:05,863 --> 01:16:08,731
another 282 were wounded.

1291
01:16:08,831 --> 01:16:10,564
Ten more were missing.

1292
01:16:10,664 --> 01:16:14,497
The number of North Vietnamese
casualties is unknown,

1293
01:16:14,597 --> 01:16:18,565
but their losses are thought
to have been staggering.

1294
01:16:20,132 --> 01:16:24,499
Back in June, Matt Harrison had
lost two West Point classmates

1295
01:16:24,599 --> 01:16:27,233
on Hill 1338.

1296
01:16:27,333 --> 01:16:30,367
He lost two more on Hill 875.

1297
01:16:30,467 --> 01:16:34,100
Of the eight with whom he had
served in the 2nd Battalion,

1298
01:16:34,200 --> 01:16:38,501
four were now dead
and two had been wounded.

1299
01:16:41,068 --> 01:16:44,536
HARRISON:
To take tops of mountains
in a triple canopy jungle

1300
01:16:44,636 --> 01:16:47,769
along the Cambodian-Laotian
border accomplished nothing

1301
01:16:47,869 --> 01:16:50,036
of any importance.

1302
01:16:51,770 --> 01:16:56,337
The Battle for Hill 875 was,
in my thinking today,

1303
01:16:56,437 --> 01:16:59,804
a microcosm of what we were
doing and what went wrong

1304
01:16:59,904 --> 01:17:01,338
in Vietnam.

1305
01:17:01,438 --> 01:17:05,171
There was no reason to take
that hill.

1306
01:17:05,271 --> 01:17:08,972
We literally got to the top
of the hill

1307
01:17:09,072 --> 01:17:15,840
about mid-day on November 23
and sat there for,

1308
01:17:15,940 --> 01:17:17,773
I don't know,
half an hour, an hour,

1309
01:17:17,873 --> 01:17:21,841
just kind of gathering ourselves
and everything together.

1310
01:17:21,941 --> 01:17:25,207
Chinooks came in,
took us off the hill.

1311
01:17:25,307 --> 01:17:29,175
And I doubt that there's been
an American on Hill 875

1312
01:17:29,275 --> 01:17:31,342
since November 23.

1313
01:17:31,442 --> 01:17:33,708
We accomplished nothing.

1314
01:17:33,808 --> 01:17:37,343
WILLIAM WESTMORELAND:
A new phase is now starting.

1315
01:17:37,443 --> 01:17:40,376
We have reached an important
point when the end

1316
01:17:40,476 --> 01:17:42,744
begins to come into view.

1317
01:17:44,444 --> 01:17:48,010
NARRATOR:
As Matt Harrison and his men
fought for Hill 875,

1318
01:17:48,110 --> 01:17:50,745
the Johnson administration
was in the midst

1319
01:17:50,845 --> 01:17:52,645
of a "Success Offensive,"

1320
01:17:52,745 --> 01:17:57,612
a PR campaign aimed at
shoring up support for the war

1321
01:17:57,712 --> 01:18:00,212
and the way it was being waged.

1322
01:18:00,312 --> 01:18:04,613
MACV released a new and
surprisingly low estimate

1323
01:18:04,713 --> 01:18:08,647
of enemy forces to show how much
damage the United States

1324
01:18:08,747 --> 01:18:10,113
had done to them.

1325
01:18:10,213 --> 01:18:14,581
It was only two-thirds of the
total suggested by the CIA,

1326
01:18:14,681 --> 01:18:17,114
because, after a bitter
and prolonged debate

1327
01:18:17,214 --> 01:18:20,082
behind the scenes,
Westmoreland had chosen

1328
01:18:20,182 --> 01:18:23,249
to exclude from it
the part-time guerrillas--

1329
01:18:23,349 --> 01:18:27,383
farmers, old men, women,
even children--

1330
01:18:27,483 --> 01:18:31,216
who helped place the mines,
grenades, and booby traps

1331
01:18:31,316 --> 01:18:33,384
that accounted
for more than a third

1332
01:18:33,484 --> 01:18:36,017
of all American casualties.

1333
01:18:36,117 --> 01:18:39,151
General Westmoreland
also told the press

1334
01:18:39,251 --> 01:18:42,785
that the impressive body counts
his commanders reported

1335
01:18:42,885 --> 01:18:45,485
were "very, very conservative."

1336
01:18:45,585 --> 01:18:48,053
It probably represented,
he said,

1337
01:18:48,153 --> 01:18:52,719
"50 percent or even less of the
enemy that has been killed."

1338
01:18:52,819 --> 01:18:56,520
Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker
joined the chorus,

1339
01:18:56,620 --> 01:19:00,320
using a metaphor first used
13 years earlier

1340
01:19:00,420 --> 01:19:02,955
by the French commander
in Vietnam,

1341
01:19:03,055 --> 01:19:07,621
not long before their great
defeat at Dien Bien Phu.

1342
01:19:07,721 --> 01:19:10,956
And I think we're now
beginning to see light

1343
01:19:11,056 --> 01:19:12,422
at the end
of the tunnel.

1344
01:19:12,522 --> 01:19:15,656
Mr. Ambassador, you talk about
light at the end of the tunnel.

1345
01:19:15,756 --> 01:19:17,290
How long is this tunnel?

1346
01:19:17,390 --> 01:19:19,957
Well, I don't think that
you can put it

1347
01:19:20,057 --> 01:19:25,858
into any particular timeframe,
a situation like this.

1348
01:19:27,391 --> 01:19:31,725
NARRATOR:
LBJ's Success Offensive
succeeded.

1349
01:19:31,825 --> 01:19:35,159
The number of Americans
who believed the United States

1350
01:19:35,259 --> 01:19:39,926
was making real progress
in the war grew.

1351
01:19:40,026 --> 01:19:43,360
Secretary of Defense
Robert McNamara

1352
01:19:43,460 --> 01:19:47,527
did not take part in
the public relations campaign.

1353
01:19:47,627 --> 01:19:51,261
He had become so disillusioned
with the war he'd done so much

1354
01:19:51,361 --> 01:19:53,862
to plan and prosecute
that he wrote

1355
01:19:53,962 --> 01:19:56,295
another secret memo
to the president,

1356
01:19:56,395 --> 01:20:00,329
advising Johnson to freeze
American troop levels,

1357
01:20:00,429 --> 01:20:04,063
turn over ground operations
to the South Vietnamese,

1358
01:20:04,163 --> 01:20:06,563
and halt the bombing
of North Vietnam

1359
01:20:06,663 --> 01:20:09,664
"in order to bring about
negotiations."

1360
01:20:09,764 --> 01:20:13,397
There was no reason to believe,
McNamara wrote,

1361
01:20:13,497 --> 01:20:17,198
that the prolonged "infliction
of grievous casualties,

1362
01:20:17,298 --> 01:20:19,965
"or the heavy punishment
of air bombardment,

1363
01:20:20,065 --> 01:20:23,032
"will suffice to break the will
of the North Vietnamese

1364
01:20:23,132 --> 01:20:24,566
"and Viet Cong.

1365
01:20:24,666 --> 01:20:27,799
"The continuation of our
present course of action

1366
01:20:27,899 --> 01:20:32,767
"in Southeast Asia would be
dangerous, costly in lives,

1367
01:20:32,867 --> 01:20:36,101
and unsatisfactory
to the American people."

1368
01:20:36,201 --> 01:20:39,401
Johnson never responded.

1369
01:20:39,501 --> 01:20:42,534
Instead, he arranged
for McNamara to become

1370
01:20:42,634 --> 01:20:45,569
the president of the World Bank.

1371
01:20:45,669 --> 01:20:49,502
McNamara would keep silent
about the doubts he had harbored

1372
01:20:49,602 --> 01:20:51,703
since the beginning
of the ground war

1373
01:20:51,803 --> 01:20:55,303
for the next 28 years.

1374
01:20:55,403 --> 01:20:58,404
His successor as
defense secretary would be

1375
01:20:58,504 --> 01:20:59,737
Clark Clifford,

1376
01:20:59,837 --> 01:21:03,404
a prominent Washington lawyer
and trusted counselor

1377
01:21:03,504 --> 01:21:06,972
to Democratic presidents,
whom Johnson was sure would be

1378
01:21:07,072 --> 01:21:08,805
supportive of the war.

1379
01:21:08,905 --> 01:21:10,972
Students of Harvard...

1380
01:21:11,072 --> 01:21:14,373
NARRATOR:
Meanwhile, Allard Lowenstein's
yearlong search

1381
01:21:14,473 --> 01:21:16,906
for a Democratic challenger
to the president

1382
01:21:17,006 --> 01:21:19,039
had finally succeeded.

1383
01:21:19,139 --> 01:21:25,107
On November 30, 1967, Minnesota
senator Eugene McCarthy

1384
01:21:25,207 --> 01:21:27,075
announced that he would run.

1385
01:21:27,175 --> 01:21:29,808
This is an issue
which has to be taken

1386
01:21:29,908 --> 01:21:33,341
to the people of the country
in the campaign of 1968.

1387
01:21:33,441 --> 01:21:34,476
(crowd cheers)

1388
01:21:36,542 --> 01:21:39,542
NARRATOR:
By the end of 1967,

1389
01:21:39,642 --> 01:21:45,110
20,057 Americans
had died in Vietnam.

1390
01:21:45,210 --> 01:21:48,478
The time had come,
General Westmoreland said,

1391
01:21:48,578 --> 01:21:52,444
for an "all-out offensive
on all fronts."

1392
01:21:56,079 --> 01:21:59,712
But the enemy was just a month
away from launching

1393
01:21:59,812 --> 01:22:02,845
an all-out offensive
of its own.

1394
01:22:04,280 --> 01:22:06,180
("Paint in Black"
by the Rolling Stones playing)

1395
01:22:17,948 --> 01:22:23,848
♪ I see a red door
and I want it painted black ♪

1396
01:22:23,948 --> 01:22:29,849
♪ No colors anymore,
I want them to turn black ♪

1397
01:22:29,949 --> 01:22:32,150
♪ I see the girls walk by

1398
01:22:32,250 --> 01:22:35,950
♪ Dressed in
their summer clothes ♪

1399
01:22:36,050 --> 01:22:42,151
♪ I have to turn my head
until my darkness goes ♪

1400
01:22:42,251 --> 01:22:47,952
♪ I see a line of cars
and they're all painted black ♪

1401
01:22:48,052 --> 01:22:53,953
♪ With flowers and my love,
both never to come back ♪

1402
01:22:54,053 --> 01:23:00,020
♪ I see people turn their heads
and quickly look away ♪

1403
01:23:00,120 --> 01:23:06,188
♪ Like a newborn baby,
it just happens every day ♪

1404
01:23:06,288 --> 01:23:12,189
♪ I look inside myself
and see my heart is black ♪

1405
01:23:12,289 --> 01:23:18,190
♪ I see my red door and
must have it painted black ♪

1406
01:23:18,290 --> 01:23:24,224
♪ Maybe then I'll fade away
and not have to face the facts ♪

1407
01:23:24,324 --> 01:23:30,425
♪ It's not easy facing up
when your whole world is black ♪

1408
01:23:30,525 --> 01:23:36,658
♪ No more will my green sea
go turn a deeper blue ♪

1409
01:23:36,758 --> 01:23:42,893
♪ I could not foresee
this thing happening to you ♪

1410
01:23:42,993 --> 01:23:48,794
♪ If I look hard enough
into the setting sun ♪

1411
01:23:48,894 --> 01:23:54,861
♪ My love will laugh with me
before the morning comes ♪

1412
01:23:54,961 --> 01:24:00,929
♪ I see a red door
and I want it painted black ♪

1413
01:24:01,029 --> 01:24:06,963
♪ No colors anymore,
I want them to turn black ♪

1414
01:24:07,063 --> 01:24:09,097
♪ I see the girls walk by

1415
01:24:09,197 --> 01:24:13,030
♪ Dressed in
their summer clothes ♪

1416
01:24:13,130 --> 01:24:19,131
♪ I have to turn my head
until my darkness goes ♪

1417
01:24:19,231 --> 01:24:23,965
(humming)

1418
01:24:24,065 --> 01:24:25,432
♪ I wanna see it painted

1419
01:24:25,532 --> 01:24:29,233
♪ Painted, painted,
painted black ♪

1420
01:24:29,333 --> 01:24:31,233
♪ Yeah.

1421
01:24:31,333 --> 01:24:55,536
(humming)