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(people cheering,
turkeys gobbling)

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00:00:08,480 --> 00:00:11,880
("Blues Run the Game" by
Simon and Garfunkel playing)

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♪ Catch a boat to England, baby,
maybe to Spain ♪

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♪ Wherever I have gone

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♪ Wherever I've been and gone

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♪ Wherever I have gone
the blues run the game. ♪

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TIM O'BRIEN:
I grew up in a small
farming community

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in southern Minnesota
called Worthington.

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Small town America--
at least my small town--

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had great virtues.

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It was a safe place to grow up.

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There was Little League baseball
in the summer,

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and there was hockey
in the winter.

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SIMON AND GARFUNKEL:
♪ When I ain't drinkin', baby,
you are on my mind. ♪

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O'BRIEN:
Everybody knows everyone else's
business and their faults

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and what's happening
in their marriages

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and where the kids
have gone wrong.

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It was full of the Kiwanis boys
and the Elks Club

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and the country club set and
the kind of chatty housewives

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and the holier-than-thou
ministers.

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SIMON AND GARFUNKEL:
♪ Wherever I've been
and gone... ♪

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O'BRIEN:
I remember the day
my draft notice arrived.

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It was a summer afternoon,
maybe June of '68.

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And I remember taking
that envelope into the house

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and putting it
on the kitchen table

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where my mom and dad
were having lunch.

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And they didn't even read it.

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They just looked at it
and knew what it was.

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And the silence of that lunch--

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I didn't speak, my mom didn't
speak, my dad didn't speak--

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was just that piece of paper

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lying at the center
of the table.

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It was enough to make me cry
to this day, not for myself,

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but for my mom and dad,

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who both of them had been
in the Navy during World War II,

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had believed in service to one's
country and all those values.

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HOWARD TUCKNER:<i>
...considers all civilians
potential enemies...</i>

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O'BRIEN:
On the one hand I did think
the war was less than righteous.

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On the other hand
I love my country.

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And I valued my life in a small
town and my friends and family.

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And so the summer of '68,
I wrestled with what to do,

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was for me, at least,
more torturous

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and devastating and
emotionally painful

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than anything
that happened in Vietnam.

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00:02:44,080 --> 00:02:48,850
In the end I just capitulated.

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And one day I got on a bus with
other recent graduates,

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and we went over to Sioux Falls
about 60 miles away,

48
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and raised our hands
and got in the Army.

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But it wasn't a decision, it was
a forfeiture of a decision.

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It was letting my body go,

51
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turning a switch
in my conscience,

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just turning it off,

53
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so it wouldn't be barking
at me saying,

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"You're doing a bad and evil and
stupid and unpatriotic thing."

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Last week's casualty figures in
the Vietnam War released today

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showed 299 Americans killed,
the lowest figure in two months.

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("Revolution 1"
by the Beatles playing)

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(music continues,
crowd shouting)

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♪ You say you want
a revolution ♪

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♪ Well, you know

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♪ We all want to change
the world ♪

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♪ You tell me
that it's evolution ♪

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♪ Well, you know

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♪ We all want
to change the world ♪

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♪ But when you talk
about destruction ♪

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♪ Don't you know
that you can count me out, in ♪

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♪ Don't you know
it's gonna be all right ♪

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NARRATOR:
By June of 1968,
the spirit of revolution--

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over the Vietnam War, over
injustice, over human rights--

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seemed to have spread
everywhere.

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The pressure to bring an end
to the war was building.

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President Lyndon Johnson
had already decided

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not to run again,

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assassinations and unrest
had staggered the nation,

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and the country was preparing
to choose a new president.

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00:05:12,520 --> 00:05:16,080
Meanwhile, American and North
Vietnamese diplomats in Paris

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were getting nowhere.

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The communists insisted there
could be

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no substantive negotiations

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until the United States stopped
all bombing of North Vietnam.

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00:05:28,480 --> 00:05:29,950
LENNON:
♪ With minds that hate...

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NARRATOR:
The new secretary of defense,
Clark Clifford,

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who had turned from hawk to dove

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00:05:34,920 --> 00:05:37,180
after just a few months
in office,

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begged the president
to call a total halt.

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"We can only hope for success
at the bargaining table,"

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he told Johnson.

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"We are in a war we cannot win."

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The president refused
to stop the bombing.

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Over the following months,

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there would be reports of
progress on the battlefield

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00:06:02,450 --> 00:06:04,550
and in the countryside.

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But that progress came so slowly
and at so high a cost

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00:06:09,420 --> 00:06:13,150
in human lives that the war
against the war

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00:06:13,250 --> 00:06:15,220
intensified back home,

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00:06:15,310 --> 00:06:19,980
pitting classes and generations
against one another,

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00:06:20,080 --> 00:06:23,920
spreading distrust of political
leaders who seemed unable

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00:06:24,020 --> 00:06:27,280
or unwilling to bring
the fighting to an end.

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00:06:30,980 --> 00:06:33,480
Young men from all over
the country would continue

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00:06:33,580 --> 00:06:35,780
to face questions and choices

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00:06:35,880 --> 00:06:39,280
their fathers and grandfathers
had rarely had to face

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00:06:39,380 --> 00:06:42,020
when asked to fight
in other wars:

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What obligation did a citizen
owe his country?

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What should one do when asked
to fight a war

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in which one did not believe?

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How was a soldier to distinguish
between a shadowy enemy

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and the Vietnamese civilians
he was supposed to be defending?

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LENNON:
♪ Shoo-bee-do-wop

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♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh.

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NARRATOR:
The coming summer of 1968

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00:07:10,520 --> 00:07:12,950
would be one of the most
consequential

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00:07:13,050 --> 00:07:16,480
in American history.

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LENNON:
♪ All right, all right, all
right, all right, all right ♪

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♪ All right, all right

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♪ Shoo-bee-do-wop

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(song fades out)

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Earlier this year,
top U.S. leaders vowed

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that the U.S. Marine outpost
at Khe Sanh,

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then under a 77-day enemy siege,
would be defended at all cost.

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(jet engine roars)

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(explosion)

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MAX CLELAND:
Johnson had said
in the fall of '67,

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and as we went into '68,

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"I don't want no damn
Dien Bien Phu."

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So the whole American military,
from the Joint Chiefs on down,

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00:08:01,380 --> 00:08:05,210
whether they believed in saving
Khe Sanh or not,

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00:08:05,310 --> 00:08:08,380
were hell-bent for leather
to make damn sure

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the siege was broken.

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Now the telltale moment
of that is that a week

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after the siege was broken,

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they plowed the base under
and abandoned it.

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That was Vietnam in a microcosm.

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00:08:26,620 --> 00:08:28,810
(helicopter blades whirring)

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00:08:28,920 --> 00:08:31,350
NARRATOR:
There was a new commander
in Vietnam now,

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General Creighton W. Abrams,
a hero of World War II,

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00:08:36,420 --> 00:08:38,920
a soldier's soldier,
one reporter said,

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00:08:39,020 --> 00:08:42,750
who "could inspire
aggressiveness in a begonia."

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00:08:42,850 --> 00:08:45,120
LEWIS SORLEY:
Some newsman once described him

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as looking like an unmade bed
smoking a cigar.

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00:08:48,850 --> 00:08:50,920
He's gruff.

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00:08:51,020 --> 00:08:52,150
He drank a lot.

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00:08:52,250 --> 00:08:54,680
He's grumpy in the morning.

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Sometimes staff officers would
schedule appointments with him

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in the morning

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00:08:58,980 --> 00:09:00,620
for, with generals who were
causing him trouble.

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00:09:02,350 --> 00:09:05,480
NARRATOR:
Abrams was a welcome new face
for the American war.

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00:09:05,580 --> 00:09:10,310
Reporters found him more frank
and open than his predecessor.

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00:09:10,420 --> 00:09:13,450
"The overall public affairs
policy of this command,"

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00:09:13,550 --> 00:09:15,350
he told his subordinates,

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00:09:15,450 --> 00:09:18,680
"will be to let results speak
for themselves."

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00:09:18,780 --> 00:09:22,550
"Occasionally," one officer
said, "we are allowed

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00:09:22,650 --> 00:09:27,580
to state frankly that we didn't
do a damn thing this month."

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Many soldiers would believe
for the rest of their lives

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00:09:31,250 --> 00:09:33,850
that if Abrams had taken command
sooner,

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the outcome could have been
different.

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VINCENT OKAMOTO:
You're told very succinctly,

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00:09:45,310 --> 00:09:49,280
"We need to rack up as much
body count as we can.

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00:09:49,380 --> 00:09:52,180
How many gooks did you kill
today?"

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00:09:52,280 --> 00:09:54,620
And it was the kill ratio
that determined

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00:09:54,710 --> 00:09:56,810
whether or not you called it
a victory or a loss.

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So if you killed
20 North Vietnamese

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00:10:00,580 --> 00:10:02,680
and lost only two people,

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00:10:02,780 --> 00:10:07,080
they declared a great victory
for that particular firefight.

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00:10:07,180 --> 00:10:12,310
NARRATOR:
Lieutenant Vincent Okamoto was
born during World War II

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00:10:12,420 --> 00:10:15,020
in a Japanese-American
internment camp

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00:10:15,120 --> 00:10:20,520
at Poston, Arizona, the seventh
son of Japanese immigrants.

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00:10:20,620 --> 00:10:23,580
All six of his brothers had
served in uniform--

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00:10:23,680 --> 00:10:27,950
two fought with the celebrated
442nd Regimental Combat Team

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00:10:28,050 --> 00:10:29,850
in Italy and France,

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00:10:29,950 --> 00:10:33,050
the most highly decorated unit
of that war--

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00:10:33,150 --> 00:10:38,180
and so, when Okamoto's country
went to war in Vietnam,

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00:10:38,280 --> 00:10:40,380
he believed he should go, too.

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00:10:42,210 --> 00:10:46,350
He was now a platoon leader with
Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion,

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00:10:46,450 --> 00:10:52,180
27th Regiment, 25th Infantry
Division, based at Cu Chi,

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some 20 miles northwest of
Saigon, an area honeycombed

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with miles of Viet Cong tunnels.

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00:11:02,980 --> 00:11:05,480
OKAMOTO:
My parents are Japanese
immigrants.

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00:11:05,580 --> 00:11:08,480
I had rice literally every day
of my life

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00:11:08,580 --> 00:11:11,780
until I went into the military.

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00:11:13,550 --> 00:11:18,310
So we were conducting a cordon
and search of a village.

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00:11:20,310 --> 00:11:21,710
Didn't find any weapons,

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00:11:21,810 --> 00:11:25,280
didn't find any communist
literature or whatever.

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00:11:25,380 --> 00:11:27,920
So we took a prolonged
lunch break.

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00:11:28,020 --> 00:11:31,350
Everybody wants to get
out of the sun.

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00:11:31,450 --> 00:11:34,650
Well, my RTO, my medic and I

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00:11:34,750 --> 00:11:36,810
went into this particular house,
and there was...

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00:11:36,920 --> 00:11:40,080
there were three women,
and a babe in arms,

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00:11:40,180 --> 00:11:42,780
and a kid about four years old.

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00:11:42,880 --> 00:11:46,850
And she was cooking... rice.

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00:11:46,950 --> 00:11:49,210
Well, here, here's Okamoto,
Mrs. Okamoto's son,

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00:11:49,310 --> 00:11:53,020
that hadn't had rice now-- hot,
steamed rice-- for months.

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00:11:53,120 --> 00:11:55,850
I'm looking at it,
it looks pretty good to me.

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00:11:55,950 --> 00:11:57,880
So I-I get my interpreter.

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00:11:57,980 --> 00:12:02,250
I said, "Hey, tell this woman,
the grandma,

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00:12:02,350 --> 00:12:05,680
"that I'll give her
a pack of cigarettes,

196
00:12:05,780 --> 00:12:09,850
"my C-ration turkey loaf,
and a can of peaches

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00:12:09,950 --> 00:12:12,480
for some of that steamed rice
and that fish and vegetables."

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00:12:14,250 --> 00:12:15,350
It was great.

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00:12:15,450 --> 00:12:17,250
And I asked for seconds.

200
00:12:17,350 --> 00:12:20,380
My RTO says, "Damn, ain't
these people poor enough

201
00:12:20,480 --> 00:12:23,020
without you eating their food?"

202
00:12:23,120 --> 00:12:25,280
I said, "You know, hell,
they got enough rice here

203
00:12:25,380 --> 00:12:27,980
to feed a dozen men."

204
00:12:28,080 --> 00:12:30,210
And then, it just dawned,

205
00:12:30,310 --> 00:12:32,350
they did have enough rice
to feed a dozen men.

206
00:12:32,450 --> 00:12:36,250
So I had my interpreter
ask the woman,

207
00:12:36,350 --> 00:12:38,420
"Who's all this rice for?"

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00:12:38,520 --> 00:12:40,020
(speaking Vietnamese)

209
00:12:40,120 --> 00:12:41,620
"I don't know, I don't know."

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00:12:41,710 --> 00:12:45,310
So we started looking
around again.

211
00:12:45,420 --> 00:12:47,080
We found a tunnel mouth.

212
00:12:48,950 --> 00:12:50,950
I was given a grenade.

213
00:12:54,050 --> 00:12:56,680
After the smoke cleared,
we pulled, I think,

214
00:12:56,780 --> 00:13:01,920
seven or eight bodies
to the town square.

215
00:13:02,020 --> 00:13:07,280
And we wanted to see who would
cry over these people.

216
00:13:07,380 --> 00:13:10,420
And then we'd have more people
to question.

217
00:13:10,520 --> 00:13:14,850
The women that lived
in that house,

218
00:13:14,950 --> 00:13:16,480
and I had eaten their rice,

219
00:13:16,580 --> 00:13:19,250
they're all squatting down,
wailing.

220
00:13:19,350 --> 00:13:20,950
And you couldn't identify these,
these...

221
00:13:21,050 --> 00:13:23,580
they're just charred bodies.

222
00:13:23,680 --> 00:13:25,150
Um...

223
00:13:25,250 --> 00:13:27,250
And I think that was
the first time I knew

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00:13:27,350 --> 00:13:29,980
that I personally
had killed people.

225
00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:34,150
I got an "Attaboy"
from the supervisor.

226
00:13:34,250 --> 00:13:35,650
But, uh...

227
00:13:35,750 --> 00:13:37,980
it wasn't something that you can
say had glory in it,

228
00:13:38,080 --> 00:13:40,420
or you felt a real sense
of accomplishment.

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00:13:43,250 --> 00:13:46,420
NARRATOR:
Over that summer, Okamoto was
wounded two times

230
00:13:46,520 --> 00:13:49,580
and made 22 helicopter assaults,

231
00:13:49,680 --> 00:13:53,210
four of them as commander
of Bravo Company.

232
00:13:53,310 --> 00:13:58,650
On the morning of August 23,
he made his 23rd assault.

233
00:13:58,750 --> 00:14:02,950
Nineteen helicopters ferried
the first and second platoons

234
00:14:03,050 --> 00:14:07,550
to a new landing zone
near Cambodia.

235
00:14:07,650 --> 00:14:10,620
Their task was to dig in,
stay put,

236
00:14:10,710 --> 00:14:14,620
and somehow block a battalion
of North Vietnamese troops,

237
00:14:14,710 --> 00:14:17,920
who were trying to escape
across the border.

238
00:14:18,020 --> 00:14:20,950
Okamoto's unit was reinforced
by a platoon

239
00:14:21,050 --> 00:14:25,650
of mechanized infantry,
three APCs, and a tank,

240
00:14:25,750 --> 00:14:29,850
but they were still
badly outnumbered.

241
00:14:29,950 --> 00:14:33,920
He and the fewer than 150 men
under his command

242
00:14:34,020 --> 00:14:36,980
spent the rest of that day
and all of the next

243
00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:40,250
preparing as best they could
for an attack,

244
00:14:40,350 --> 00:14:42,080
setting Claymore mines

245
00:14:42,180 --> 00:14:45,680
and hanging three coils
of razor wire.

246
00:14:48,750 --> 00:14:51,420
OKAMOTO:
August the 24th,
about 10:00 that night,

247
00:14:51,520 --> 00:14:55,050
we got hit with a very heavy
mortar barrage.

248
00:14:55,150 --> 00:14:56,420
(shouting, explosions)

249
00:14:56,520 --> 00:15:00,020
Within the first
I would say ten seconds,

250
00:15:00,120 --> 00:15:03,650
all three of those armored
personnel carriers and tanks

251
00:15:03,750 --> 00:15:06,150
were knocked out with
rocket-propelled grenades.

252
00:15:09,920 --> 00:15:13,310
NARRATOR:
Trip flares briefly lit up
the landscape.

253
00:15:13,420 --> 00:15:16,050
Scores of enemy troops
were running at them

254
00:15:16,150 --> 00:15:18,150
through the elephant grass.

255
00:15:18,250 --> 00:15:19,420
(gunfire)

256
00:15:19,510 --> 00:15:24,450
VC mortar shells blasted
two gaps in the razor wire.

257
00:15:24,550 --> 00:15:28,210
If Okamoto and his outnumbered
men couldn't plug them,

258
00:15:28,320 --> 00:15:30,780
they were sure to be overrun.

259
00:15:30,880 --> 00:15:34,620
He and the four men closest
to him held their M-16s

260
00:15:34,710 --> 00:15:38,580
above their heads
and fired blindly.

261
00:15:38,680 --> 00:15:41,350
The enemy kept coming.

262
00:15:41,450 --> 00:15:43,080
OKAMOTO:
I had my four people.

263
00:15:43,180 --> 00:15:46,650
And through the light
of the flares, I said,

264
00:15:46,750 --> 00:15:48,620
"A couple you guys go and man
the machine guns

265
00:15:48,710 --> 00:15:50,120
out on those APCs."

266
00:15:50,210 --> 00:15:52,280
Well, the response I
got was, like, uh...

267
00:15:52,380 --> 00:15:54,250
"Fuck you, I ain't going
up there."

268
00:15:55,950 --> 00:16:00,450
So I ran to the first armored
personnel carrier, and I...

269
00:16:00,550 --> 00:16:04,050
pulled the, the gunner out of
the turret, dead.

270
00:16:04,150 --> 00:16:07,620
I jumped in there,
manned the machine gun,

271
00:16:07,710 --> 00:16:10,450
and fired until
it ran out of ammo.

272
00:16:10,550 --> 00:16:14,420
NARRATOR:
Okamoto moved to the second
disabled APC

273
00:16:14,510 --> 00:16:18,380
and then the third,
emptying their guns.

274
00:16:18,480 --> 00:16:21,680
OKAMOTO:
And they were still
coming at us.

275
00:16:21,780 --> 00:16:25,420
So I crawled out there, till I
was about ten meters from 'em.

276
00:16:25,510 --> 00:16:29,080
And I killed 'em
with hand grenades.

277
00:16:29,180 --> 00:16:31,880
NARRATOR:
Two enemy grenades fell near him

278
00:16:31,980 --> 00:16:34,450
and he managed to throw
both back.

279
00:16:34,550 --> 00:16:38,280
But a third landed
just beyond his reach.

280
00:16:38,380 --> 00:16:42,010
Shrapnel fragments peppered
his legs and back.

281
00:16:43,980 --> 00:16:46,950
OKAMOTO:
I just knew for sure
I was going to die.

282
00:16:47,050 --> 00:16:49,080
"Okamoto, you're not going
to make it out of here.

283
00:16:49,180 --> 00:16:50,420
"Mom's going to take it hard,

284
00:16:50,510 --> 00:16:53,710
but, you know, you're not going
to make it out of here."

285
00:16:53,820 --> 00:16:55,150
And that's liberating.

286
00:16:55,250 --> 00:16:57,580
When you know you're going
to die, you don't...

287
00:16:57,680 --> 00:16:59,010
the fear leaves.

288
00:16:59,120 --> 00:17:00,920
At least in my case,
I was no longer afraid.

289
00:17:01,010 --> 00:17:03,010
I was just mad because here are
all these little guys

290
00:17:03,120 --> 00:17:06,150
trying to kill my ass.

291
00:17:06,250 --> 00:17:08,080
And if that's the case,

292
00:17:08,180 --> 00:17:10,980
then I'm going to make it as
tough on them as I possibly can

293
00:17:11,080 --> 00:17:12,050
before I go down.

294
00:17:14,780 --> 00:17:17,650
I killed a lot of brave men
that night.

295
00:17:17,750 --> 00:17:19,880
And I rationalized that
by telling myself,

296
00:17:19,980 --> 00:17:22,820
"Well, maybe what you did--
just maybe--

297
00:17:22,920 --> 00:17:25,380
saved the lives of a couple
of your people."

298
00:17:29,250 --> 00:17:33,080
NARRATOR:
During the night, the enemy had
slipped into Cambodia,

299
00:17:33,180 --> 00:17:36,550
dragging as many of their dead
with them as they could.

300
00:17:39,320 --> 00:17:43,710
A third of Okamoto's company
had been lost.

301
00:17:43,820 --> 00:17:46,150
("The Lord Is in This Place" by
Fairport Convention playing)

302
00:17:46,250 --> 00:17:47,750
For his efforts that day,

303
00:17:47,850 --> 00:17:51,680
Vincent Okamoto received the
Distinguished Service Cross,

304
00:17:51,780 --> 00:17:55,250
the Army's second highest honor.

305
00:17:55,350 --> 00:17:57,750
Before his tour of duty ended,

306
00:17:57,850 --> 00:18:01,750
he would become the most highly
decorated Japanese-American

307
00:18:01,850 --> 00:18:04,550
to survive the Vietnam War.

308
00:18:07,380 --> 00:18:08,980
OKAMOTO:
You know what?

309
00:18:09,080 --> 00:18:10,480
(sighs)

310
00:18:10,580 --> 00:18:12,980
The real heroes
are the men that died.

311
00:18:16,450 --> 00:18:20,050
19-, 20-year-old
high school dropouts.

312
00:18:20,150 --> 00:18:22,480
They didn't have escape routes
that the elite

313
00:18:22,580 --> 00:18:26,250
and the wealthy
and the privileged had.

314
00:18:26,350 --> 00:18:27,280
And that was unfair.

315
00:18:30,420 --> 00:18:33,180
And so they looked upon
military service as...

316
00:18:33,280 --> 00:18:34,950
(sighs)

317
00:18:35,050 --> 00:18:36,620
...like the weather.

318
00:18:36,710 --> 00:18:38,580
You had to go in,
and you'd do it.

319
00:18:40,510 --> 00:18:44,980
But to see these kids,
who had the least to gain,

320
00:18:45,080 --> 00:18:46,420
there wasn't anything
to look forward to;

321
00:18:46,510 --> 00:18:47,880
they weren't going
to be rewarded

322
00:18:47,980 --> 00:18:50,950
for their service in Vietnam.

323
00:18:51,050 --> 00:18:56,680
And yet their infinite patience,
their loyalty to each other,

324
00:18:56,780 --> 00:19:01,180
their courage under fire
was just phenomenal.

325
00:19:02,380 --> 00:19:04,820
And you would ask yourself,

326
00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:08,780
"How does America produce
young men like this?"

327
00:19:20,450 --> 00:19:23,950
HUY DUC:

328
00:19:48,680 --> 00:19:52,680
NARRATOR:
At first, Radio Hanoi had
portrayed the Tet Offensive

329
00:19:52,780 --> 00:19:55,550
as a series of
"tremendous victories"

330
00:19:55,650 --> 00:19:59,150
in which "hundreds of thousands
of people have risen up

331
00:19:59,250 --> 00:20:03,250
and destroyed enemy positions."

332
00:20:03,350 --> 00:20:07,150
"But after a couple of weeks,"
one North Vietnamese remembered,

333
00:20:07,250 --> 00:20:10,050
"we didn't hear any more news.

334
00:20:10,150 --> 00:20:12,420
"The Saigon regime
was still there

335
00:20:12,510 --> 00:20:15,780
"and the U.S. planes
were still bombing.

336
00:20:15,880 --> 00:20:19,580
It was obvious the radio wasn't
telling the truth."

337
00:20:24,080 --> 00:20:26,820
Casualty figures were
never revealed,

338
00:20:26,920 --> 00:20:30,510
but to North Vietnamese citizens
secretly listening to reports

339
00:20:30,620 --> 00:20:33,210
on the BBC and Radio Saigon,

340
00:20:33,320 --> 00:20:36,580
it was clear that they
had been heavy.

341
00:20:36,680 --> 00:20:41,250
PHAM LUC:

342
00:21:11,620 --> 00:21:15,150
HUY DUC:

343
00:21:38,250 --> 00:21:43,680
NARRATOR:
In late August 1968, Le Duan and
the North Vietnamese leadership

344
00:21:43,780 --> 00:21:46,750
launched still another
offensive.

345
00:21:46,850 --> 00:21:50,550
The result was the same
as Tet and Mini-Tet.

346
00:21:52,320 --> 00:21:57,880
They lost 17,000 more men.

347
00:21:57,980 --> 00:22:00,780
Thousands of fresh recruits
had to be ordered south

348
00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:03,050
to replace them.

349
00:22:03,150 --> 00:22:05,750
"The war began to seem
like an open pit,"

350
00:22:05,850 --> 00:22:08,320
one North Vietnamese remembered.

351
00:22:08,420 --> 00:22:12,550
"The more young people were lost
there, the more they sent."

352
00:22:13,950 --> 00:22:16,250
The sons of some party officials

353
00:22:16,350 --> 00:22:20,150
and their friends were sent
abroad to escape the draft.

354
00:22:20,250 --> 00:22:22,480
University students
were exempted.

355
00:22:22,580 --> 00:22:25,150
People with money
bribed recruiters

356
00:22:25,250 --> 00:22:27,510
to overlook their offspring

357
00:22:27,620 --> 00:22:31,380
or paid physicians to declare
them unfit to serve.

358
00:22:32,120 --> 00:22:35,450
HUY DUC:

359
00:22:48,710 --> 00:22:51,550
NARRATOR:
Most draftees were poor people
from the countryside,

360
00:22:51,650 --> 00:22:54,510
especially receptive
to the slogans

361
00:22:54,620 --> 00:22:58,250
and promises of the revolution.

362
00:22:58,350 --> 00:23:00,550
Thousands of replacements made
their way

363
00:23:00,650 --> 00:23:02,510
down the Ho Chi Minh Trail

364
00:23:02,620 --> 00:23:05,950
past burned-out vehicles
and military graveyards,

365
00:23:06,050 --> 00:23:10,210
the stones neatly marked
with the names of the dead

366
00:23:10,320 --> 00:23:12,650
and the date each had died.

367
00:23:14,650 --> 00:23:17,820
They encountered small groups
of wounded men

368
00:23:17,920 --> 00:23:20,250
moving in the other direction.

369
00:23:20,350 --> 00:23:23,050
Those without arms walked.

370
00:23:23,150 --> 00:23:25,950
Legless men rode
in camouflaged trucks.

371
00:23:26,050 --> 00:23:28,480
There were blinded soldiers

372
00:23:28,580 --> 00:23:32,780
and others who had been
hideously burned by napalm.

373
00:23:32,880 --> 00:23:35,380
"You'll see all kinds of
pleasures in the South,"

374
00:23:35,480 --> 00:23:40,010
the weary wounded told the
young men moving toward the war.

375
00:23:40,120 --> 00:23:43,510
"Everyone was frightened,"
a political officer remembered,

376
00:23:43,620 --> 00:23:46,620
"especially when we met
those men.

377
00:23:46,710 --> 00:23:49,850
It was like looking
at our future selves."

378
00:23:53,580 --> 00:23:56,050
The youngest delegate
of the New Jersey delegation

379
00:23:56,150 --> 00:23:58,680
casts his vote for the next
president of the United States,

380
00:23:58,780 --> 00:23:59,820
Richard Nixon.

381
00:23:59,920 --> 00:24:03,580
We've got 18.

382
00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:05,710
David, we doubled it, 18.

383
00:24:05,820 --> 00:24:08,250
NARRATOR:
Richard Nixon had been
a prominent

384
00:24:08,350 --> 00:24:11,280
and controversial figure
in American politics

385
00:24:11,380 --> 00:24:14,280
for more than two decades.

386
00:24:14,380 --> 00:24:16,650
He'd been a congressman
and senator,

387
00:24:16,750 --> 00:24:19,710
best known for his fierce
anticommunism,

388
00:24:19,820 --> 00:24:22,010
then served eight years

389
00:24:22,120 --> 00:24:25,180
as Dwight Eisenhower's
vice president.

390
00:24:25,280 --> 00:24:28,150
He narrowly lost
the presidential race

391
00:24:28,250 --> 00:24:31,010
to John Kennedy in 1960

392
00:24:31,120 --> 00:24:33,280
and was defeated again
two years later

393
00:24:33,380 --> 00:24:36,510
trying to become
governor of California.

394
00:24:36,620 --> 00:24:40,780
His career seemed to be over.

395
00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:44,920
But then, in one of the most
extraordinary comebacks

396
00:24:45,010 --> 00:24:47,150
in U.S. political history,

397
00:24:47,250 --> 00:24:49,580
he had outsmarted
and out-maneuvered

398
00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:51,550
and out-campaigned his rivals

399
00:24:51,650 --> 00:24:56,350
to win the 1968
Republican nomination.

400
00:24:56,450 --> 00:24:58,280
MAN:
Richard M. Nixon...

401
00:24:58,380 --> 00:24:59,880
(cheering and applause)

402
00:25:02,950 --> 00:25:05,820
His pick for vice president
was the tough-talking

403
00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:10,180
but largely unknown governor
of Maryland, Spiro Agnew.

404
00:25:12,250 --> 00:25:14,250
Nixon made the case for himself

405
00:25:14,350 --> 00:25:17,880
as the man who could bring
a fractured America together

406
00:25:17,980 --> 00:25:21,920
and bring an honorable end
to the war.

407
00:25:22,010 --> 00:25:25,650
When the strongest nation
in the world can be tied down

408
00:25:25,750 --> 00:25:29,650
for four years in a war in
Vietnam with no end in sight;

409
00:25:29,750 --> 00:25:31,550
when the richest nation
in the world can't manage

410
00:25:31,650 --> 00:25:33,550
its own economy;

411
00:25:33,650 --> 00:25:35,550
when the nation
with the greatest tradition

412
00:25:35,650 --> 00:25:39,420
of the rule of law is plagued
by unprecedented lawlessness;

413
00:25:39,510 --> 00:25:42,710
when a nation that has been
known for a century

414
00:25:42,820 --> 00:25:44,210
for equality of opportunity

415
00:25:44,320 --> 00:25:47,710
is torn by unprecedented
racial violence;

416
00:25:47,820 --> 00:25:49,880
and when the president
of the United States

417
00:25:49,980 --> 00:25:53,650
cannot travel abroad or
to any major city at home

418
00:25:53,750 --> 00:25:56,350
without fear of a hostile
demonstration,

419
00:25:56,450 --> 00:25:58,820
then it's time
for new leadership

420
00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:00,620
for the United States
of America.

421
00:26:00,710 --> 00:26:02,820
(cheering)

422
00:26:09,550 --> 00:26:11,550
Good evening from Chicago,

423
00:26:11,650 --> 00:26:13,850
where the 35th National
Democratic Convention

424
00:26:13,950 --> 00:26:17,480
opens tomorrow with the promise
of turmoil inside this hall

425
00:26:17,580 --> 00:26:19,450
and a threat of violence
without.

426
00:26:19,550 --> 00:26:23,380
JOHN LAURENCE:
Both sides moved in their troops
on a balmy Sunday morning

427
00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:25,680
for the confrontation
of Chicago.

428
00:26:25,780 --> 00:26:27,750
Some 6,000 crack Army troops,

429
00:26:27,850 --> 00:26:30,650
riot trained and
ready for action...

430
00:26:30,750 --> 00:26:34,280
The Army soldiers moved out to
secret locations around the city

431
00:26:34,380 --> 00:26:36,950
after one of the largest troop
movements in domestic history.

432
00:26:39,620 --> 00:26:43,780
NARRATOR:
Some 15,000 protestors had
gathered in Chicago,

433
00:26:43,880 --> 00:26:47,280
most to register
their anguish over the war...

434
00:26:49,510 --> 00:26:52,510
Some bent on disrupting
the convention.

435
00:26:55,780 --> 00:26:59,550
Richard J. Daley,
the Democratic mayor of Chicago,

436
00:26:59,650 --> 00:27:03,480
was determined that
there be no trouble in his city.

437
00:27:05,250 --> 00:27:09,580
Twelve thousand Chicago
policemen were on alert.

438
00:27:09,680 --> 00:27:13,010
In addition to the
6,000 U.S. Army troops,

439
00:27:13,120 --> 00:27:16,880
there were 6,000 more armed
National Guardsmen

440
00:27:16,980 --> 00:27:20,850
and a thousand intelligence
agents from the FBI,

441
00:27:20,950 --> 00:27:24,080
the CIA, and the military.

442
00:27:25,510 --> 00:27:28,350
Mayor Daley cordoned off
the Chicago Amphitheater

443
00:27:28,450 --> 00:27:29,980
where the convention
was being held

444
00:27:30,080 --> 00:27:33,510
and denied the protestors
permits to march

445
00:27:33,620 --> 00:27:36,210
or to sleep in the city's parks.

446
00:27:37,550 --> 00:27:39,420
INTERVIEWER:
Are you planning to go
without the permit

447
00:27:39,510 --> 00:27:40,650
if you don't get the permit?

448
00:27:40,750 --> 00:27:42,120
RENNIE DAVIS:
Given the fact

449
00:27:42,210 --> 00:27:45,780
that for many months we have
notified this city

450
00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:49,620
and this nation that we wish
to hold a demonstration,

451
00:27:49,710 --> 00:27:51,480
an assembly in Chicago

452
00:27:51,580 --> 00:27:54,080
to register our convictions
about the war,

453
00:27:54,180 --> 00:27:57,580
the tens of thousands of people
coming to the city of Chicago

454
00:27:57,680 --> 00:27:59,450
constitute a permit.

455
00:28:01,510 --> 00:28:03,680
Our fight is with the militarism

456
00:28:03,780 --> 00:28:05,480
that is developing
in this country

457
00:28:05,580 --> 00:28:08,420
in the response to legitimate
political and social grievances

458
00:28:08,510 --> 00:28:10,380
by bringing in troops

459
00:28:10,480 --> 00:28:13,350
rather than dealing with the
real issues and real problems.

460
00:28:16,850 --> 00:28:19,010
CRONKITE:
In the name of security,
freedom of the press,

461
00:28:19,120 --> 00:28:21,350
freedom of movement,
perhaps as far

462
00:28:21,450 --> 00:28:23,480
as the demonstrators themselves
are concerned,

463
00:28:23,580 --> 00:28:27,680
even freedom of speech have
been severely restricted here.

464
00:28:27,780 --> 00:28:32,850
A democratic convention is about
to begin in a police state.

465
00:28:32,950 --> 00:28:35,510
There just doesn't seem to be
any other way to say it.

466
00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:40,120
JOHN BAILEY:
Will the delegates
please be seated.

467
00:28:40,210 --> 00:28:42,150
NARRATOR:
Vice President Hubert Humphrey,

468
00:28:42,250 --> 00:28:45,680
President Johnson's chosen
successor, was the frontrunner.

469
00:28:45,780 --> 00:28:49,920
He had always been a hero
to his party's liberal wing,

470
00:28:50,010 --> 00:28:52,920
but because he had loyally
supported the president

471
00:28:53,010 --> 00:28:56,880
and the war, many delegates,
and most of the demonstrators

472
00:28:56,980 --> 00:29:01,120
outside the convention hall,
backed his antiwar rival,

473
00:29:01,210 --> 00:29:03,980
Senator Eugene McCarthy.

474
00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:07,180
(muffled shouting on megaphone)

475
00:29:07,280 --> 00:29:09,750
On the second night
of the convention,

476
00:29:09,850 --> 00:29:11,920
the police drove hundreds
of demonstrators

477
00:29:12,010 --> 00:29:15,880
out of Lincoln Park
with clubs and tear gas.

478
00:29:15,980 --> 00:29:17,650
(sirens wailing)

479
00:29:21,250 --> 00:29:23,950
JOHN CHANCELLOR:
The delegates wearing bands of
black crepe on their arms...

480
00:29:24,050 --> 00:29:27,210
NARRATOR:
The next afternoon,
the Democrats heatedly debated

481
00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:31,820
a plank in the party platform
calling for an end to the war.

482
00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:35,420
When Humphrey supporters
voted it down,

483
00:29:35,510 --> 00:29:39,180
the antiwar delegates erupted.

484
00:29:39,280 --> 00:29:41,680
CHANCELLOR:
...who have joined New York in
this extraordinary demonstration

485
00:29:41,780 --> 00:29:46,280
of antiwar sentiment
on the convention floor.

486
00:29:46,380 --> 00:29:48,280
("Street Fighting Man"
by the Rolling Stones playing)

487
00:29:48,380 --> 00:29:50,550
DOUGLAS KIKER (on TV):<i>
The demonstrators resisted when
police attempted to arrest</i>

488
00:29:50,650 --> 00:29:52,950
<i>a young man who tried to rip
down an American flag.</i>

489
00:29:53,050 --> 00:29:55,150
PROTESTOR:
Watch... watch these fuckers.

490
00:29:55,250 --> 00:29:57,080
Don't turn your back
on these fuckers!

491
00:29:59,950 --> 00:30:03,820
MICK JAGGER:
♪ Everywhere I hear the sound
of marching... ♪

492
00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:05,180
PHILIP CAPUTO:
The cops were all...

493
00:30:05,280 --> 00:30:06,820
they were guys
from the neighborhoods--

494
00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:10,510
Italians, Polish guys,
Irish guys.

495
00:30:10,620 --> 00:30:12,950
Probably some of them
had been in Vietnam.

496
00:30:13,050 --> 00:30:14,550
And if they hadn't been,

497
00:30:14,650 --> 00:30:18,680
they certainly had cousins
or brothers who were.

498
00:30:18,780 --> 00:30:23,080
NARRATOR:
Philip Caputo, who had fought
with the Marines in Vietnam,

499
00:30:23,180 --> 00:30:24,980
was now a reporter,

500
00:30:25,080 --> 00:30:28,980
assigned to cover the conflict
in American streets.

501
00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:31,880
Get a picture of them
throwing the rocks!

502
00:30:34,010 --> 00:30:35,980
CAPUTO:
So all of a sudden
the streets are filled

503
00:30:36,080 --> 00:30:38,250
with these kids who don't look
like college kids

504
00:30:38,350 --> 00:30:40,850
are supposed to look
in the cops' view.

505
00:30:40,950 --> 00:30:42,750
(protestors shouting,
sirens wailing)

506
00:30:42,850 --> 00:30:44,450
(explosion)

507
00:30:44,550 --> 00:30:46,210
And some of them were
committing vandalism

508
00:30:46,320 --> 00:30:50,010
and yelling obscenities.

509
00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:53,580
And I think a lot of policemen
saw that

510
00:30:53,680 --> 00:30:59,950
as abusing the privileges that
they had and scorning them.

511
00:31:00,050 --> 00:31:01,450
They are provoking us

512
00:31:01,550 --> 00:31:04,480
but we do not want to confront
them now-- move back, please.

513
00:31:04,580 --> 00:31:06,780
JAGGER:
♪ Well, then what can
a poor boy do ♪

514
00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:10,580
♪ Except to sing for
a rock 'n' roll band ♪

515
00:31:10,680 --> 00:31:13,450
♪ 'Cause in sleepy London town

516
00:31:13,550 --> 00:31:16,850
♪ There's just no place
for a street fighting man ♪

517
00:31:16,950 --> 00:31:21,510
(police chanting):
Move back! Move back!

518
00:31:24,320 --> 00:31:26,780
(screaming)

519
00:31:33,250 --> 00:31:38,920
That's a report, on film, from
Grant Park, downtown Chicago.

520
00:31:41,180 --> 00:31:43,550
NARRATOR:
That evening,
thousands of demonstrators,

521
00:31:43,650 --> 00:31:46,750
barred from getting anywhere
near the convention,

522
00:31:46,850 --> 00:31:50,750
were marching toward
Democratic Party headquarters

523
00:31:50,850 --> 00:31:53,980
in the Hilton Hotel
on Michigan Avenue instead.

524
00:31:54,080 --> 00:31:57,480
ALINE SAARINEN:
The marchers seem to have come
from everywhere

525
00:31:57,580 --> 00:32:01,010
and now are coming up south
on Michigan Avenue

526
00:32:01,120 --> 00:32:02,480
back toward the point where

527
00:32:02,580 --> 00:32:06,420
the police were blocking them
before.

528
00:32:08,510 --> 00:32:09,880
NATIONAL GUARDSMAN:
Get your hands up!

529
00:32:09,980 --> 00:32:11,510
Hands up!

530
00:32:11,620 --> 00:32:12,850
Come on!

531
00:32:12,950 --> 00:32:15,820
(shouting)

532
00:32:20,850 --> 00:32:22,680
Come on now!
Go! Go!

533
00:32:22,780 --> 00:32:26,480
I place before you
for the Democratic nomination

534
00:32:26,580 --> 00:32:29,280
as president
of the United States

535
00:32:29,380 --> 00:32:33,650
the name of Senator Eugene J.
McCarthy of Minnesota.

536
00:32:33,750 --> 00:32:37,820
(cheers and applause)

537
00:32:37,920 --> 00:32:42,150
Downtown Chicago at Balbo
and Michigan Avenues,

538
00:32:42,250 --> 00:32:45,920
there has been in progress for
some time a peace demonstration.

539
00:32:46,010 --> 00:32:48,280
The police have come
to put it down.

540
00:32:48,380 --> 00:32:50,880
The National Guard
has been called to help.

541
00:32:50,980 --> 00:32:54,380
(crowd chanting "sieg heil"
at police)

542
00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:05,880
(chanting continues)

543
00:33:05,980 --> 00:33:10,220
(siren wails)

544
00:33:11,550 --> 00:33:16,780
(screaming)

545
00:33:16,880 --> 00:33:18,380
MAN:
Get him!

546
00:33:18,480 --> 00:33:21,010
Get him! Get him!

547
00:33:29,580 --> 00:33:31,510
GABE PRESSMAN:
...people screaming...

548
00:33:31,610 --> 00:33:32,950
JAMES WILLBANKS:
I turned on the television.

549
00:33:33,050 --> 00:33:34,820
I don't think I was
too particularly thoughtful

550
00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:36,220
as a junior in college,

551
00:33:36,320 --> 00:33:39,580
but I thought the country was
coming apart at the seams.

552
00:33:39,680 --> 00:33:41,820
It looked like we were
devolving into madness.

553
00:33:43,580 --> 00:33:47,450
And I couldn't tell, was it
protestors or the police

554
00:33:47,550 --> 00:33:48,510
or was everybody insane?

555
00:33:48,610 --> 00:33:52,450
(crowd chanting)

556
00:33:52,550 --> 00:33:54,250
(gavel pounding)

557
00:33:54,350 --> 00:33:56,980
NARRATOR:
At the convention
there was more confusion.

558
00:33:57,080 --> 00:34:00,080
Some antiwar delegates
once pledged

559
00:34:00,180 --> 00:34:03,380
to the murdered Robert Kennedy
now threw their support

560
00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:05,480
behind yet another candidate,

561
00:34:05,580 --> 00:34:09,180
South Dakota senator
George McGovern.

562
00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:12,510
ABRAHAM RIBICOFF:
And with George McGovern as
president of the United States,

563
00:34:12,610 --> 00:34:16,510
we wouldn't have to have
Gestapo tactics

564
00:34:16,610 --> 00:34:20,380
in the streets of Chicago.

565
00:34:20,480 --> 00:34:27,150
(crowd reacts boisterously)

566
00:34:27,250 --> 00:34:29,580
PRESSMAN:<i>
The persistent chanting
by the crowd,</i>

567
00:34:31,980 --> 00:34:35,180
NARRATOR:
LBJ, watching the chaos
on television,

568
00:34:35,280 --> 00:34:37,150
considered flying to Chicago

569
00:34:37,250 --> 00:34:40,380
and getting back
in the race himself.

570
00:34:40,480 --> 00:34:43,420
Mayor Daley told the president
he'd have enough delegates

571
00:34:43,510 --> 00:34:45,320
to win the nomination,

572
00:34:45,420 --> 00:34:49,720
but the Secret Service warned it
could not guarantee his safety.

573
00:34:54,180 --> 00:34:58,680
RON FERRIZZI:
I got to Australia the last week
of August 1968-- R&R.

574
00:34:58,780 --> 00:35:01,280
I never really wanted
to go on R&R.

575
00:35:01,380 --> 00:35:03,880
I felt that, how can you relax?

576
00:35:03,980 --> 00:35:07,650
So I turn on the TV
and the first scene...

577
00:35:07,750 --> 00:35:09,920
The TV gets bright.

578
00:35:10,010 --> 00:35:12,510
The first scene on...
it was the camera...

579
00:35:12,610 --> 00:35:16,510
was a close-up, was over the
shoulder of this storm trooper

580
00:35:16,610 --> 00:35:18,820
who had a kid by the scruff
of his shirt.

581
00:35:18,920 --> 00:35:21,450
And he smacks him with his bat.

582
00:35:21,550 --> 00:35:24,550
And there's blood and everything
and all this jumble.

583
00:35:24,650 --> 00:35:27,320
And then the camera pans out
and it's far away.

584
00:35:27,420 --> 00:35:28,980
And these riots and
there's fighting going on.

585
00:35:29,080 --> 00:35:30,650
And I go, "Oh, my God,

586
00:35:30,750 --> 00:35:32,450
the Russians invaded
Czechoslovakia."

587
00:35:32,550 --> 00:35:35,450
And then ditto, ditto, ditto,
"Chicago Democratic Convention,

588
00:35:35,550 --> 00:35:37,320
United States of America."

589
00:35:37,420 --> 00:35:39,920
And I said...
you know, at that moment my...

590
00:35:40,010 --> 00:35:41,920
I-I was politicized.

591
00:35:42,010 --> 00:35:44,880
("For What It's Worth" by
Buffalo Springfield playing)

592
00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:56,050
♪ There's somethin'
happenin' here ♪

593
00:35:56,150 --> 00:35:59,280
♪ What it is
ain't exactly clear ♪

594
00:35:59,380 --> 00:36:01,150
FERRIZZI:
At that moment in time,

595
00:36:01,250 --> 00:36:04,320
I realized that anybody who
really cared for America

596
00:36:04,420 --> 00:36:07,680
was sent halfway around the
world chasing some ghost

597
00:36:07,780 --> 00:36:10,680
in the jungle, killing
somebody else's grandmother

598
00:36:10,780 --> 00:36:12,680
for no reason at all.

599
00:36:12,780 --> 00:36:14,850
BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD:
♪ What's that sound, everybody
look what's going down ♪

600
00:36:14,950 --> 00:36:18,580
FERRIZZI:
And, in the meantime, my
country's being torn apart.

601
00:36:18,680 --> 00:36:20,550
So I saw somebody who looked
like my dad

602
00:36:20,650 --> 00:36:22,080
hitting somebody
who looked like me.

603
00:36:22,180 --> 00:36:26,080
Oh, my God,
whose side would I be on?

604
00:36:26,180 --> 00:36:29,510
BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD:
♪ There's battle lines
being drawn ♪

605
00:36:29,610 --> 00:36:35,880
♪ Nobody's right
if everybody's wrong ♪

606
00:36:35,980 --> 00:36:39,750
♪ Young people
speakin' their minds ♪

607
00:36:39,850 --> 00:36:43,820
♪ Getting so much resistance
from behind ♪

608
00:36:43,920 --> 00:36:44,920
♪ It's time we stop

609
00:36:45,010 --> 00:36:46,580
NARRATOR:
In the end,

610
00:36:46,680 --> 00:36:49,650
Humphrey won the nomination
on the first ballot.

611
00:36:49,750 --> 00:36:52,220
He told the press
how pleased he was,

612
00:36:52,320 --> 00:36:56,350
but he confessed to his wife
that the convention had left him

613
00:36:56,450 --> 00:37:00,280
feeling heartbroken, battered,
and beaten,

614
00:37:00,380 --> 00:37:02,510
as if he'd survived a shipwreck.

615
00:37:04,550 --> 00:37:07,150
A presidential commission would
declare what had happened

616
00:37:07,250 --> 00:37:11,480
in Chicago a "police riot,"
but in a Gallup poll,

617
00:37:11,580 --> 00:37:14,920
56% of Americans approved

618
00:37:15,010 --> 00:37:18,650
of the way the police had
handled the demonstrators.

619
00:37:18,750 --> 00:37:22,920
And when Richard Nixon chose
to open his campaign

620
00:37:23,010 --> 00:37:25,180
with a motorcade
through the Chicago Loop,

621
00:37:25,280 --> 00:37:29,820
nearly half a million Chicagoans
turned out to cheer him.

622
00:37:36,980 --> 00:37:38,920
MICHAEL HOLMES (on tape):
Hello, Mom, Pop.

623
00:37:39,010 --> 00:37:41,220
I really can't tell you too much
about this country

624
00:37:41,320 --> 00:37:42,980
except the rice paddies stink.

625
00:37:43,080 --> 00:37:47,350
And it's just miles and miles
of nothing but rice paddies.

626
00:37:47,450 --> 00:37:48,850
And they got dikes in them.

627
00:37:48,950 --> 00:37:49,880
Real cool looking.

628
00:37:49,980 --> 00:37:51,580
We go through them with our APCs

629
00:37:51,680 --> 00:37:54,050
and tear them down
and everything else.

630
00:37:54,150 --> 00:37:58,150
("Road to Marscota"
by Peter Walker playing)

631
00:37:58,250 --> 00:38:02,220
NARRATOR:
On August 29, the day after
police and demonstrators clashed

632
00:38:02,320 --> 00:38:06,080
in Chicago, 20-year-old private
Michael Holmes

633
00:38:06,180 --> 00:38:09,510
arrived in Vietnam.

634
00:38:09,610 --> 00:38:13,550
He was born and brought up in
the tiny town of Williamsville,

635
00:38:13,650 --> 00:38:16,250
in the heart
of the Missouri Ozarks.

636
00:38:16,350 --> 00:38:18,750
His father and mother
ran the general store

637
00:38:18,850 --> 00:38:21,480
where Michael worked
every day after school.

638
00:38:21,580 --> 00:38:25,510
He floated the rivers,
hunted deer and squirrels,

639
00:38:25,610 --> 00:38:28,610
and was going steady
with a girl named Darlene.

640
00:38:28,720 --> 00:38:32,610
He had trouble keeping up
in high school,

641
00:38:32,720 --> 00:38:36,250
did not complete community
college and, as a result,

642
00:38:36,350 --> 00:38:40,280
was immediately drafted
into the Army.

643
00:38:40,380 --> 00:38:45,420
In Vietnam, he was assigned to
F Troop, 17th Armored Cavalry,

644
00:38:45,510 --> 00:38:48,880
196th Light Infantry Brigade,

645
00:38:48,980 --> 00:38:51,550
stationed at an isolated
firebase

646
00:38:51,650 --> 00:38:56,780
22 miles south of Danang
called Baldy.

647
00:38:56,880 --> 00:38:59,320
HOLMES (on tape):
So you ask what the size
of Baldy was.

648
00:38:59,420 --> 00:39:02,220
Well, it's just about
as big as Williamsville

649
00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:05,480
and maybe a little bit bigger.

650
00:39:05,580 --> 00:39:09,780
I sent you a picture of me
and a bunch of the other guys.

651
00:39:13,650 --> 00:39:15,380
It's not really that bad.

652
00:39:15,480 --> 00:39:17,110
It's... in a way I like it.

653
00:39:17,220 --> 00:39:19,250
It's just being away from home

654
00:39:19,350 --> 00:39:21,080
and everything
that I don't like.

655
00:39:24,320 --> 00:39:28,180
NARRATOR:
In Williamsville, family and
friends gathered to listen

656
00:39:28,280 --> 00:39:30,650
to Michael's reports
from Vietnam

657
00:39:30,750 --> 00:39:35,010
and to fill him in on what was
happening back home.

658
00:39:35,110 --> 00:39:38,080
WOMAN (on tape):
We're all down here at your dad
and mother's tonight

659
00:39:38,180 --> 00:39:41,380
and we thought we'd all
say something for you.

660
00:39:41,480 --> 00:39:46,380
And you could hear our voice
and feel like you's back home.

661
00:39:46,480 --> 00:39:47,380
And we're looking forward...

662
00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:48,820
HAROLD (on tape):
Hello, Mike.

663
00:39:48,920 --> 00:39:50,650
I've been doing a lot of
squirrel hunting lately,

664
00:39:50,750 --> 00:39:52,880
and killing quite a few.

665
00:39:52,980 --> 00:39:56,250
Well, the Ozarks really look
beautiful this time of year.

666
00:39:56,350 --> 00:39:57,650
Looking forward to seeing you.

667
00:39:57,750 --> 00:39:59,350
JERRY (on tape):
Uh, this is Jerry, Mike.

668
00:39:59,450 --> 00:40:02,650
I think Ricky and Carol
broke up, Mike.

669
00:40:02,750 --> 00:40:04,550
Ricky, he's really prowling now.

670
00:40:04,650 --> 00:40:07,450
GLENDA (on tape):
Mike, this is Glenda.

671
00:40:07,550 --> 00:40:10,750
Um, I got a boyfriend,
and his name's Danny.

672
00:40:10,850 --> 00:40:12,050
And...

673
00:40:12,150 --> 00:40:13,780
GLEN (on tape):
Mike, this is Glen.

674
00:40:13,880 --> 00:40:16,220
All these other boys been
talking about hunting,

675
00:40:16,320 --> 00:40:18,050
I'm gonna talk about girls.

676
00:40:18,150 --> 00:40:20,980
(chuckling):
Girls and fast cars.

677
00:40:21,080 --> 00:40:24,050
Gene Bilbury got him
a new Bonneville.

678
00:40:24,150 --> 00:40:27,550
MICHAEL'S MOTHER (on tape):
Michael, this is Mother.

679
00:40:27,650 --> 00:40:31,010
The picture you sent us was real
good, it looked just like you.

680
00:40:31,110 --> 00:40:34,980
I even liked that moustache,
and I didn't think I would.

681
00:40:35,080 --> 00:40:36,580
And we miss you a lot.

682
00:40:36,680 --> 00:40:38,550
MICHAEL'S FATHER (on tape):
This is your dad talking.

683
00:40:38,650 --> 00:40:43,450
We think that you'll be okay,
just don't be nosing around

684
00:40:43,550 --> 00:40:46,080
where you don't have
any business

685
00:40:46,180 --> 00:40:49,580
and get hold of a booby trap
or something.

686
00:40:49,680 --> 00:40:53,750
This is about the end of this
tape, so goodbye for now.

687
00:41:02,850 --> 00:41:06,650
HOLMES (on tape):
We burned down a whole lot of
hooches today

688
00:41:06,750 --> 00:41:09,920
of these people who don't
cooperate with us, you know.

689
00:41:10,010 --> 00:41:11,680
Yeah, I don't I don't really
understand it

690
00:41:11,780 --> 00:41:17,010
because if, if they are,
you know, not VC,

691
00:41:17,110 --> 00:41:20,150
and we do that to them,
you know, treat them bad,

692
00:41:20,250 --> 00:41:22,220
then they're gonna turn VC.

693
00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:23,850
The Army does everything
backward.

694
00:41:30,420 --> 00:41:34,550
NARRATOR:
One morning that fall,
several APCs from F Troop

695
00:41:34,650 --> 00:41:37,610
moved cautiously up
Highway One toward Danang.

696
00:41:37,720 --> 00:41:42,110
Michael Holmes rode
in the second vehicle.

697
00:41:42,220 --> 00:41:45,920
(explosion)

698
00:41:50,880 --> 00:41:55,610
His APC hit a 300-pound bomb
buried beneath the road.

699
00:41:55,720 --> 00:41:59,010
Three of his
friends died instantly.

700
00:41:59,110 --> 00:42:01,450
Holmes was thrown clear

701
00:42:01,550 --> 00:42:05,850
and woke up five hours later
in the hospital.

702
00:42:08,980 --> 00:42:11,050
HOLMES (on tape):
Hello, Mom, Pop.

703
00:42:11,150 --> 00:42:12,420
This is me.

704
00:42:12,510 --> 00:42:14,380
Up to this point I didn't know

705
00:42:14,480 --> 00:42:17,750
if there was really
a war going on over here.

706
00:42:17,850 --> 00:42:21,650
I just thought maybe they was
playing a game or something.

707
00:42:21,750 --> 00:42:25,280
But I could've reached out and
touched two of those people.

708
00:42:25,380 --> 00:42:27,420
I knew them real good.

709
00:42:27,510 --> 00:42:29,010
And please don't worry about me
getting hurt

710
00:42:29,110 --> 00:42:32,180
because I'm not hurt
all that bad.

711
00:42:32,280 --> 00:42:35,580
Two more Purple Hearts
and I'm out of the field,

712
00:42:35,680 --> 00:42:39,450
and I think maybe I get to get
out of the country altogether.

713
00:42:44,880 --> 00:42:50,250
NARRATOR:
Six months later, Michael Holmes
was on patrol, walking point,

714
00:42:50,350 --> 00:42:54,510
when he was killed by
a North Vietnamese soldier.

715
00:43:02,950 --> 00:43:05,010
LIZ TROTTA:
This is Long An province.

716
00:43:05,110 --> 00:43:08,450
Since 1962, it has been an
important testing ground

717
00:43:08,550 --> 00:43:10,650
for the pacification program.

718
00:43:10,750 --> 00:43:15,550
Amidst the flat rice fields and
coconut trees lies Loc Tien Mot.

719
00:43:15,650 --> 00:43:19,220
The hamlet chief says only more
troops will make his people safe

720
00:43:19,320 --> 00:43:21,010
from the Viet Cong.

721
00:43:21,110 --> 00:43:22,380
During the night, he adds,

722
00:43:22,480 --> 00:43:25,610
the guerrillas go from house
to house collecting taxes.

723
00:43:25,720 --> 00:43:29,550
The government may have left
its traces of pacification.

724
00:43:29,650 --> 00:43:31,550
The Viet Cong have not left.

725
00:43:31,650 --> 00:43:34,780
Liz Trotta, NBC News,
South Vietnam.

726
00:43:36,420 --> 00:43:39,080
NARRATOR:
Since the Viet Cong had
been so badly weakened

727
00:43:39,180 --> 00:43:42,720
in the Tet Offensive and the two
offensives that followed it,

728
00:43:42,820 --> 00:43:44,580
General Abrams believed

729
00:43:44,680 --> 00:43:47,280
that hundreds of thousands
of ARVN troops

730
00:43:47,380 --> 00:43:50,080
could now be freed
to secure the countryside

731
00:43:50,180 --> 00:43:53,050
and win support for the
government in Saigon.

732
00:43:54,920 --> 00:43:57,880
But permanent security
was not possible

733
00:43:57,980 --> 00:44:01,220
unless the Viet Cong
political infrastructure--

734
00:44:01,320 --> 00:44:04,110
the tax collectors
and village chiefs,

735
00:44:04,220 --> 00:44:07,050
runners and spies
and sympathizers--

736
00:44:07,150 --> 00:44:11,980
were killed, captured,
or persuaded to defect.

737
00:44:12,080 --> 00:44:18,250
To do that, the CIA
had created the Phoenix Program.

738
00:44:18,350 --> 00:44:21,320
RICHARD THRELKELD:
The villagers of Thuy Xuan
have been assembled

739
00:44:21,420 --> 00:44:23,110
in the village schoolyard,

740
00:44:23,220 --> 00:44:26,610
where teams of government
interrogators are trying

741
00:44:26,720 --> 00:44:29,250
to pick out from among them
the members of the Viet Cong

742
00:44:29,350 --> 00:44:31,150
who live here.

743
00:44:31,250 --> 00:44:34,510
This sort of Phoenix exercise
is a weekly event

744
00:44:34,610 --> 00:44:37,480
in districts
throughout South Vietnam.

745
00:44:40,010 --> 00:44:41,850
NARRATOR:
After recovering
from his wounds,

746
00:44:41,950 --> 00:44:45,880
Lieutenant Vincent Okamoto
became an intelligence officer

747
00:44:45,980 --> 00:44:49,180
attached to the program.

748
00:44:49,280 --> 00:44:50,580
The Phoenix Program
was premised on the fact

749
00:44:50,680 --> 00:44:52,820
that the North Vietnamese coming
down the Ho Chi Minh Trail,

750
00:44:52,920 --> 00:44:54,450
when they went
into South Vietnam,

751
00:44:54,550 --> 00:44:56,010
they were strangers,
just like the Americans.

752
00:44:56,110 --> 00:44:59,650
They didn't know the terrain,
they didn't know the people.

753
00:44:59,750 --> 00:45:03,080
So in order for them
to function operationally,

754
00:45:03,180 --> 00:45:05,420
they needed the Viet Cong
infrastructure.

755
00:45:05,510 --> 00:45:09,850
And so the project was
to eliminate those guys.

756
00:45:09,950 --> 00:45:12,580
And I think it made
a great deal of sense.

757
00:45:14,580 --> 00:45:17,780
STUART HERRINGTON:
The communists thought Phoenix
was very effective.

758
00:45:17,880 --> 00:45:20,380
They saw it as
a significant threat

759
00:45:20,480 --> 00:45:22,780
to the viability
of the revolution

760
00:45:22,880 --> 00:45:27,350
because to the extent that you
could take a sharp pointed knife

761
00:45:27,450 --> 00:45:29,150
and carve out the Viet Cong,

762
00:45:29,250 --> 00:45:31,450
the shadow Viet Cong,
the shadow government,

763
00:45:31,550 --> 00:45:34,720
then their means of control
over the civilian population

764
00:45:34,820 --> 00:45:36,880
in the South was dealt
a death blow.

765
00:45:39,180 --> 00:45:42,150
NARRATOR:
The pressure the Phoenix Program
put on the Viet Cong

766
00:45:42,250 --> 00:45:46,450
caused dangerous signs of what
one communist official described

767
00:45:46,550 --> 00:45:50,680
as "wavering" among his
followers in the Mekong Delta--

768
00:45:50,780 --> 00:45:54,480
depression, discouragement,
and widespread drunkenness

769
00:45:54,580 --> 00:45:58,650
even among men
going into battle.

770
00:46:00,110 --> 00:46:04,050
But Phoenix's targeting was only
as good as the intelligence

771
00:46:04,150 --> 00:46:09,510
upon which it was based,
and that varied widely.

772
00:46:09,610 --> 00:46:13,010
DAVID CULHANE:
This film, made by a CBS
stringer cameraman

773
00:46:13,110 --> 00:46:16,220
some weeks ago shows
South Vietnamese forces

774
00:46:16,320 --> 00:46:17,610
interrogating an old man

775
00:46:17,720 --> 00:46:19,950
identified as a minor
VC official.

776
00:46:22,250 --> 00:46:23,420
NARRATOR:
In the Phoenix Program,

777
00:46:23,510 --> 00:46:27,580
Americans served
in an advisory capacity;

778
00:46:27,680 --> 00:46:30,920
most of the day-to-day
enforcement was left to

779
00:46:31,010 --> 00:46:34,420
the South Vietnamese Provincial
Reconnaissance Units--

780
00:46:34,510 --> 00:46:36,450
the PRUs--

781
00:46:36,550 --> 00:46:38,880
who sometimes were
more interested

782
00:46:38,980 --> 00:46:43,510
in settling old scores
than in rooting out communists.

783
00:46:45,380 --> 00:46:48,450
OKAMOTO:
It was scary because it was
subject to abuse,

784
00:46:48,550 --> 00:46:51,820
and was abused.

785
00:46:51,920 --> 00:46:56,580
Again, the geniuses in Saigon
would use their computers

786
00:46:56,680 --> 00:47:00,220
to come up with the blacklists.

787
00:47:02,220 --> 00:47:04,820
You get the list, and you check
with other intelligence officers

788
00:47:04,920 --> 00:47:06,850
in the district.

789
00:47:06,950 --> 00:47:09,720
And you try to pool
that information.

790
00:47:09,820 --> 00:47:11,850
Next night,
or a couple nights later,

791
00:47:11,950 --> 00:47:14,480
a bunch of cowboys from the PRUs
would go out there.

792
00:47:14,580 --> 00:47:18,180
And, you know,
knock on the door,

793
00:47:18,280 --> 00:47:19,580
"April Fool, motherfucker!"

794
00:47:19,680 --> 00:47:20,650
And boom.

795
00:47:22,320 --> 00:47:23,920
There wasn't any
real accountability.

796
00:47:27,180 --> 00:47:29,850
NARRATOR:
Later, the director
of the Phoenix Program

797
00:47:29,950 --> 00:47:33,420
admitted to Congress
that no one knew how many

798
00:47:33,510 --> 00:47:38,110
of the more than 20,000 who had
been killed were innocent.

799
00:47:40,250 --> 00:47:42,480
And although the program
did succeed

800
00:47:42,580 --> 00:47:45,420
in degrading the Viet Cong
infrastructure,

801
00:47:45,510 --> 00:47:48,180
the government of Nguyen
Van Thieu remained

802
00:47:48,280 --> 00:47:50,280
as unpopular as ever.

803
00:47:53,180 --> 00:47:56,550
A poll taken in the Delta
province of Long An

804
00:47:56,650 --> 00:48:00,980
would show 35% of the people
ready to vote for Thieu,

805
00:48:01,080 --> 00:48:05,080
20% favoring
the National Liberation Front,

806
00:48:05,180 --> 00:48:10,010
and 45% backing someone, anyone,

807
00:48:10,110 --> 00:48:12,510
opposed to both the Viet Cong

808
00:48:12,610 --> 00:48:16,480
and the American-backed regime
in Saigon.

809
00:48:21,110 --> 00:48:22,650
MAN:
In Vietnam there's a wound

810
00:48:22,750 --> 00:48:24,850
that does not cease
its bleeding.

811
00:48:24,950 --> 00:48:30,480
I'm talking about the scream
of death and the wound of war.

812
00:48:30,580 --> 00:48:32,550
We did not come to talk
with you, Mr. Humphrey.

813
00:48:32,650 --> 00:48:34,480
We have come to arrest you.

814
00:48:34,580 --> 00:48:36,150
Now you've had equal time.

815
00:48:36,250 --> 00:48:37,080
Shut up!

816
00:48:37,180 --> 00:48:39,080
(mixture of boos and cheers)

817
00:48:39,180 --> 00:48:42,820
NARRATOR:
Hubert Humphrey's presidential
campaign was in trouble.

818
00:48:42,920 --> 00:48:46,320
Richard Nixon was comfortably
ahead in the polls

819
00:48:46,420 --> 00:48:48,280
and refused to debate.

820
00:48:48,380 --> 00:48:50,950
"I've come to the conclusion

821
00:48:51,050 --> 00:48:53,010
that there's no way
to win the war,"

822
00:48:53,110 --> 00:48:56,610
he told three of
his speechwriters in private.

823
00:48:56,720 --> 00:48:58,550
"But we have to say
the opposite,

824
00:48:58,650 --> 00:49:01,750
just to keep some
bargaining leverage."

825
00:49:01,850 --> 00:49:06,150
Compounding Humphrey's problem
was a third-party candidate,

826
00:49:06,250 --> 00:49:07,650
George Wallace,

827
00:49:07,750 --> 00:49:10,820
the segregationist former
governor of Alabama.

828
00:49:10,920 --> 00:49:14,320
He was sure to peel away
some white voters

829
00:49:14,420 --> 00:49:17,750
who normally voted Democratic.

830
00:49:17,850 --> 00:49:21,920
Humphrey had confided his doubts
about the war to Johnson

831
00:49:22,010 --> 00:49:26,220
early on, but had always
remained stubbornly loyal to him

832
00:49:26,320 --> 00:49:27,580
in public.

833
00:49:27,680 --> 00:49:31,480
Now his advisors told him that
if he wanted to win

834
00:49:31,580 --> 00:49:33,780
he had to break
with the president

835
00:49:33,880 --> 00:49:37,550
and make a bold gesture
toward ending the war.

836
00:49:39,380 --> 00:49:42,480
On September 30,
he called for a total halt

837
00:49:42,580 --> 00:49:45,320
to the bombing
of North Vietnam.

838
00:49:45,420 --> 00:49:47,850
HUMPHREY:
I would stop the bombing
of the North

839
00:49:47,950 --> 00:49:51,250
as an acceptable risk for peace

840
00:49:51,350 --> 00:49:55,950
because I believe it could lead
to success in the negotiations

841
00:49:56,050 --> 00:49:57,880
and thereby shorten the war.

842
00:49:57,980 --> 00:50:01,920
This would be the best
protection for our troops.

843
00:50:02,010 --> 00:50:05,350
NARRATOR:
Johnson felt betrayed
and refused to speak

844
00:50:05,450 --> 00:50:07,650
to his own vice president
for a time.

845
00:50:08,980 --> 00:50:12,750
But on October 31, just five
days before the election,

846
00:50:12,850 --> 00:50:16,420
the president himself
made a surprise announcement.

847
00:50:18,550 --> 00:50:22,680
He was stopping all bombing
of North Vietnam.

848
00:50:22,780 --> 00:50:26,380
There had been real progress
in Paris, he said.

849
00:50:26,480 --> 00:50:30,680
Hanoi had agreed for the first
time to talk with Saigon,

850
00:50:30,780 --> 00:50:35,420
and the United States had agreed
to include the Viet Cong.

851
00:50:35,510 --> 00:50:41,080
It suddenly looked as if
peace were possible.

852
00:50:41,180 --> 00:50:42,950
Humphrey was jubilant.

853
00:50:43,050 --> 00:50:45,780
His poll numbers rose overnight.

854
00:50:45,880 --> 00:50:50,250
He was confident he would now
be able to overtake Nixon.

855
00:50:50,350 --> 00:50:53,720
But then, on November 2,

856
00:50:53,820 --> 00:50:57,580
with just three days to go until
Americans went to the polls,

857
00:50:57,680 --> 00:51:00,510
President Thieu
suddenly announced

858
00:51:00,610 --> 00:51:03,780
that the South Vietnamese
government would not attend

859
00:51:03,880 --> 00:51:06,150
the proposed talks after all.

860
00:51:07,980 --> 00:51:10,550
A representative
of the Nixon campaign

861
00:51:10,650 --> 00:51:14,650
at the candidate's personal
direction had secretly contacted

862
00:51:14,750 --> 00:51:16,220
the Saigon government

863
00:51:16,320 --> 00:51:19,150
urging Thieu to stay away
from the talks,

864
00:51:19,250 --> 00:51:21,950
promising that once
Nixon was elected,

865
00:51:22,050 --> 00:51:26,250
he would drive a harder bargain
with Hanoi than Humphrey would.

866
00:51:26,350 --> 00:51:31,720
Thanks to a CIA bug planted
in Thieu's Saigon office

867
00:51:31,820 --> 00:51:35,380
and an FBI wiretap on
the South Vietnamese embassy

868
00:51:35,480 --> 00:51:39,350
in Washington, Johnson got wind
of what had happened

869
00:51:39,450 --> 00:51:41,750
and called his friend
Everett Dirksen,

870
00:51:41,850 --> 00:51:44,250
the Republican Senate
minority leader,

871
00:51:44,350 --> 00:51:49,050
to warn him that the Nixon
people were committing treason.

872
00:51:49,150 --> 00:51:50,950
LYNDON JOHNSON:
I'm reading their hand, Everett.

873
00:51:51,050 --> 00:51:52,920
I don't want to
get this in the campaign.

874
00:51:53,010 --> 00:51:54,320
DIRKSEN:
That's right.

875
00:51:54,420 --> 00:51:55,580
And they oughtn't
to be doing this.

876
00:51:55,680 --> 00:51:56,750
This is treason.
I know.

877
00:51:56,850 --> 00:51:58,950
And I think it would
shock America

878
00:51:59,050 --> 00:52:02,980
if a principal candidate was
playing with a source like this

879
00:52:03,080 --> 00:52:04,480
on a matter
this important.

880
00:52:04,580 --> 00:52:05,720
Yeah.

881
00:52:05,820 --> 00:52:07,050
I know this--

882
00:52:07,150 --> 00:52:09,780
that they're contacting
a foreign power

883
00:52:09,880 --> 00:52:11,110
in the middle of a war.

884
00:52:11,220 --> 00:52:12,250
That's a mistake.

885
00:52:12,350 --> 00:52:13,650
And it's a damn
bad mistake.

886
00:52:16,250 --> 00:52:17,050
RICHARD NIXON:
Mr. President?

887
00:52:17,150 --> 00:52:18,050
JOHNSON:
Yes.

888
00:52:18,150 --> 00:52:19,850
This is Dick Nixon.
Yes, Dick.

889
00:52:19,950 --> 00:52:21,280
I just went on<i>
Meet the Press</i>

890
00:52:21,380 --> 00:52:26,720
and said that I had given you
my personal assurance

891
00:52:26,820 --> 00:52:29,880
that I would do everything
possible to cooperate

892
00:52:29,980 --> 00:52:32,920
both before the election and
if elected, after the election.

893
00:52:33,010 --> 00:52:34,420
I just wanted you to know

894
00:52:34,510 --> 00:52:37,720
that I feel very, very
strongly about this

895
00:52:37,820 --> 00:52:41,320
and any rumblings around

896
00:52:41,420 --> 00:52:45,110
about somebody
trying to sabotage

897
00:52:45,220 --> 00:52:46,720
the Saigon
government's attitude

898
00:52:46,820 --> 00:52:48,110
certainly has no...

899
00:52:48,220 --> 00:52:52,510
absolutely no credibility
as far as I am concerned.

900
00:52:52,610 --> 00:52:53,880
That's, that's...

901
00:52:53,980 --> 00:52:55,450
I'm very happy
to hear that, Dick,

902
00:52:55,550 --> 00:52:58,420
because that is taking place.

903
00:52:58,510 --> 00:53:02,250
My God, I would never do
anything to encourage Saigon

904
00:53:02,350 --> 00:53:03,850
not to come to the table
because basically,

905
00:53:03,950 --> 00:53:06,220
that was what you got.

906
00:53:06,320 --> 00:53:07,450
Well, that's good, Dick.

907
00:53:07,550 --> 00:53:09,510
We've got to get this
goddamned war off the plate,

908
00:53:09,610 --> 00:53:11,920
the quicker the better, and the
hell with the political credit.

909
00:53:12,010 --> 00:53:13,010
Believe me.

910
00:53:13,110 --> 00:53:14,080
Thank you, Dick.

911
00:53:18,320 --> 00:53:21,820
NARRATOR:
Nixon was lying
and Johnson knew it.

912
00:53:21,920 --> 00:53:23,820
But to go public
with the information,

913
00:53:23,920 --> 00:53:26,580
the president would have
to reveal the methods

914
00:53:26,680 --> 00:53:27,820
by which he had learned

915
00:53:27,920 --> 00:53:31,110
of the Republican
candidate's duplicity.

916
00:53:31,220 --> 00:53:33,680
He was unwilling to do so.

917
00:53:33,780 --> 00:53:37,320
Nixon's secret was safe.

918
00:53:37,420 --> 00:53:39,550
The American public
was never told

919
00:53:39,650 --> 00:53:43,920
that the regime for which 35,000
Americans had died

920
00:53:44,010 --> 00:53:46,280
had been willing to boycott
peace talks

921
00:53:46,380 --> 00:53:49,950
to help elect Richard Nixon
or that he had been willing

922
00:53:50,050 --> 00:53:55,650
to delay an end to the bloodshed
in order to get elected.

923
00:53:55,750 --> 00:54:00,180
REPORTER:
At 10:45 this morning,
Eastern Standard Time...

924
00:54:00,280 --> 00:54:05,480
NARRATOR:
On Election Day, Richard Milhous
Nixon won the presidency

925
00:54:05,580 --> 00:54:09,010
with 43.4 percent of the vote.

926
00:54:09,110 --> 00:54:13,220
Hubert Humphrey received
42.7 percent.

927
00:54:17,510 --> 00:54:20,650
The Nixon campaign's secret
maneuvering may have helped him

928
00:54:20,750 --> 00:54:24,180
win the election,
but the president-elect's fear

929
00:54:24,280 --> 00:54:27,450
that that maneuvering might
someday be exposed

930
00:54:27,550 --> 00:54:29,920
would be part of his undoing.

931
00:54:33,580 --> 00:54:36,180
Thieu waited several weeks
after the election

932
00:54:36,280 --> 00:54:41,450
before agreeing to send
a delegation to Paris.

933
00:54:41,550 --> 00:54:46,380
There, everything stalled
over the seating arrangements.

934
00:54:46,480 --> 00:54:51,320
The North Vietnamese had
insisted on a square table,

935
00:54:51,420 --> 00:54:54,850
with separate sides for all
four parties to the talks--

936
00:54:54,950 --> 00:54:59,550
Hanoi, the Viet Cong, Saigon,
and the United States.

937
00:54:59,650 --> 00:55:04,880
Saigon refused to take part
unless Hanoi and the Viet Cong

938
00:55:04,980 --> 00:55:07,350
sat on the same side
of the table.

939
00:55:07,450 --> 00:55:11,380
The standoff went on
for ten weeks.

940
00:55:14,350 --> 00:55:18,320
It was the Soviets who finally
came up with a solution:

941
00:55:18,420 --> 00:55:20,610
a round table.

942
00:55:22,920 --> 00:55:25,850
(gunfire)

943
00:55:25,950 --> 00:55:28,450
RADIO OPERATOR:
Type of injury is urgent,
shrapnel wounds.

944
00:55:28,550 --> 00:55:29,880
(gunfire)

945
00:55:29,980 --> 00:55:31,850
The area is insecure.

946
00:55:35,450 --> 00:55:36,750
MEDIC:
Keep your head down.

947
00:55:38,950 --> 00:55:40,820
RADIO OPERATOR:
Got some fire.

948
00:55:43,780 --> 00:55:47,180
KARL MARLANTES:
You have these 19-year-old
kids with these huge hearts.

949
00:55:47,280 --> 00:55:50,350
They will do what you ask them.

950
00:55:50,450 --> 00:55:54,750
The issue is are you asking them
to do something worthwhile?

951
00:55:54,850 --> 00:55:55,980
That's up to the adults.

952
00:55:56,080 --> 00:55:58,420
And that's where
the failure comes.

953
00:55:58,510 --> 00:56:01,080
The failure isn't the kids
saying, "I'm not gonna do this."

954
00:56:01,180 --> 00:56:03,610
Because that's not the way
they are built.

955
00:56:03,720 --> 00:56:05,950
19-year-olds don't know to take
a raincoat on

956
00:56:06,050 --> 00:56:07,610
when it's raining, all right?

957
00:56:07,720 --> 00:56:10,010
That's-that's why they're
so good at being warriors.

958
00:56:10,110 --> 00:56:11,610
They'll do it.

959
00:56:11,720 --> 00:56:13,110
They won't even ask you
a question.

960
00:56:14,510 --> 00:56:16,980
"All right, we'll do it."

961
00:56:17,080 --> 00:56:19,820
The responsibility is on
the grownups to make sure

962
00:56:19,920 --> 00:56:21,450
they're not being wasted

963
00:56:21,550 --> 00:56:25,550
because they'll do what they're
told, and they'll do it well.

964
00:56:28,450 --> 00:56:32,250
NARRATOR:
Karl Marlantes was born
in Astoria, Oregon,

965
00:56:32,350 --> 00:56:35,580
the son of a veteran
of the Battle of the Bulge.

966
00:56:35,680 --> 00:56:38,610
He had joined the Marine
Reserves the summer before

967
00:56:38,720 --> 00:56:40,650
his freshman year at Yale,

968
00:56:40,750 --> 00:56:44,950
eager to prove himself
and defend his country.

969
00:56:45,050 --> 00:56:46,920
When he became a Rhodes scholar,

970
00:56:47,010 --> 00:56:50,550
the Marines allowed him
to defer going on active duty,

971
00:56:50,650 --> 00:56:54,350
and instead of serving in
Vietnam, he went to Oxford

972
00:56:54,450 --> 00:56:58,750
in the fall of 1967.

973
00:56:58,850 --> 00:57:00,920
A few months after he got there,

974
00:57:01,010 --> 00:57:04,650
he wrote to his parents
back home.

975
00:57:04,750 --> 00:57:06,380
MARLANTES:
"It is with a little
apprehension

976
00:57:06,480 --> 00:57:09,780
"that I write this letter.

977
00:57:09,880 --> 00:57:11,920
"I have given up my scholarship,

978
00:57:12,010 --> 00:57:16,380
"and I will be on active duty
as of May 3.

979
00:57:16,480 --> 00:57:19,920
"As you know, I feel the U.S.
is absolutely wrong

980
00:57:20,010 --> 00:57:21,880
"to be in the war.

981
00:57:21,980 --> 00:57:24,550
"A lot of people are dying
for no good reason.

982
00:57:24,650 --> 00:57:29,180
"I can only feel an
increasing rage and frustration.

983
00:57:29,280 --> 00:57:31,680
And a complete feeling
of helplessness."

984
00:57:33,350 --> 00:57:38,920
"I have, in effect, been hiding,
and I'll not do it anymore.

985
00:57:39,010 --> 00:57:43,950
"I guess I'm about to do
a highly immoral thing.

986
00:57:44,050 --> 00:57:45,110
"I will be taking part

987
00:57:45,220 --> 00:57:47,510
"in one of the greatest crimes
of our century,

988
00:57:47,610 --> 00:57:52,450
"and I will be doing so
out of frustration, bitterness,

989
00:57:52,550 --> 00:57:56,110
"and a sense of the absurd that
I have only come to appreciate

990
00:57:56,220 --> 00:57:58,920
"in its entirety
in the past year.

991
00:57:59,010 --> 00:58:01,820
From now on
my logic will be changed."

992
00:58:03,720 --> 00:58:05,650
"I can do something.

993
00:58:05,750 --> 00:58:08,420
"That is, I can do my very best
to get 40 kids

994
00:58:08,510 --> 00:58:10,850
"out of Vietnam alive,

995
00:58:10,950 --> 00:58:14,350
"and if I have to turn
into an evil machine to do it,

996
00:58:14,450 --> 00:58:16,320
then by God I will."

997
00:58:19,380 --> 00:58:23,350
It was my friends,
guys that I trained with.

998
00:58:23,450 --> 00:58:28,220
I felt like I was going
to let the side down.

999
00:58:28,320 --> 00:58:31,280
That by not joining in
with them and sharing the burden

1000
00:58:31,380 --> 00:58:34,450
that I wouldn't be
a decent person.

1001
00:58:34,550 --> 00:58:37,450
It's a mixed bag because I went
over there and killed people

1002
00:58:37,550 --> 00:58:39,350
for, you know...
is that why I did that?

1003
00:58:41,380 --> 00:58:43,010
O'BRIEN:
Do you go off and kill people

1004
00:58:43,110 --> 00:58:45,080
if you're not
pretty sure it's right?

1005
00:58:45,180 --> 00:58:48,680
And if your nation
isn't pretty sure it's right?

1006
00:58:48,780 --> 00:58:52,920
If there isn't some consensus,
do you do that?

1007
00:58:55,750 --> 00:58:57,250
I was at Fort Lewis,
Washington,

1008
00:58:57,350 --> 00:59:01,280
and Canada was, what,
a 90-minute bus ride away.

1009
00:59:01,380 --> 00:59:03,650
I wrote my mom and dad
and asked for money.

1010
00:59:03,750 --> 00:59:06,820
I asked for my passport.

1011
00:59:06,920 --> 00:59:09,350
And they sent them to me with,
again, no questions.

1012
00:59:09,450 --> 00:59:11,050
Like, "What do you want
the passport for?"

1013
00:59:11,150 --> 00:59:12,750
They just sent it.

1014
00:59:12,850 --> 00:59:14,350
And I kept all this stuff
stashed,

1015
00:59:14,450 --> 00:59:17,220
including civilian clothes
stashed in my footlocker,

1016
00:59:17,320 --> 00:59:19,010
thinking maybe I'll...
maybe I'll do it.

1017
00:59:19,110 --> 00:59:20,920
("Bookends Theme" by
Simon and Garfunkel playing)

1018
00:59:21,010 --> 00:59:23,650
It was this kind of "maybe"
thing going on

1019
00:59:23,750 --> 00:59:27,280
all throughout this training
as Vietnam got closer

1020
00:59:27,380 --> 00:59:29,850
and closer and closer.

1021
00:59:29,950 --> 00:59:33,180
What prevented me from doing it?

1022
00:59:33,280 --> 00:59:36,610
I think it was
pretty simple and stupid.

1023
00:59:36,720 --> 00:59:40,250
It was a fear of embarrassment,

1024
00:59:40,350 --> 00:59:44,780
a fear of ridicule
and humiliation.

1025
00:59:46,450 --> 00:59:48,820
What my girlfriend would have
thought of me

1026
00:59:48,920 --> 00:59:52,420
and the people in the Gobbler
Cafe in downtown Worthington.

1027
00:59:54,010 --> 00:59:56,110
The Kiwanis boys
and the country club boys

1028
00:59:56,220 --> 00:59:58,550
and that small town
I grew up in,

1029
00:59:58,650 --> 01:00:01,010
the things they'd say about me.

1030
01:00:01,110 --> 01:00:07,080
"What a coward and what a sissy
for going to Canada."

1031
01:00:07,180 --> 01:00:10,010
SIMON AND GARFUNKEL:
♪ It was a time of innocence

1032
01:00:10,110 --> 01:00:11,880
O'BRIEN:
And I would imagine
my mom and dad

1033
01:00:11,980 --> 01:00:15,250
overhearing something like that.

1034
01:00:15,350 --> 01:00:18,720
SIMON AND GARFUNKEL:
♪ Long ago it must be

1035
01:00:18,820 --> 01:00:22,320
O'BRIEN:
I couldn't summon the courage
to say no

1036
01:00:22,420 --> 01:00:31,980
to those nameless, faceless
people who really, in essence,

1037
01:00:32,080 --> 01:00:36,050
this was the
United States of America.

1038
01:00:36,150 --> 01:00:39,750
And I couldn't say no to them.

1039
01:00:39,850 --> 01:00:45,650
And I had to live with it now
for, you know, 40 years.

1040
01:00:45,750 --> 01:00:51,450
That's a long time to live with
a failure of conscience

1041
01:00:51,550 --> 01:00:56,550
and a failure of nerve.

1042
01:00:56,650 --> 01:01:00,380
And the nightmare of Vietnam
for me is not the bombs

1043
01:01:00,480 --> 01:01:01,820
and the bullets.

1044
01:01:10,580 --> 01:01:14,420
(voice breaking):
It's that failure of nerve

1045
01:01:14,510 --> 01:01:16,110
that I so regret.

1046
01:01:27,250 --> 01:01:32,150
HAL KUSHNER:
In the fall of 1968 was probably
the toughest time we had.

1047
01:01:35,250 --> 01:01:42,250
Our daily life was a continuing
struggle for survival.

1048
01:01:42,350 --> 01:01:49,720
Our food ration was three cups
of rice per day.

1049
01:01:51,080 --> 01:01:55,220
We slept
on a large bamboo pallet.

1050
01:01:55,320 --> 01:01:59,280
Sometimes there were ten or 12
people on one pallet.

1051
01:01:59,380 --> 01:02:01,680
And we were sick.

1052
01:02:01,780 --> 01:02:03,850
We were very sick.

1053
01:02:03,950 --> 01:02:08,380
Four people died within...

1054
01:02:08,480 --> 01:02:10,010
a month.

1055
01:02:10,110 --> 01:02:12,880
And then two more died
very shortly after that.

1056
01:02:15,580 --> 01:02:17,980
NARRATOR:
Thirteen Americans would die

1057
01:02:18,080 --> 01:02:21,880
during Captain Hal Kushner's
time in jungle prison camps

1058
01:02:21,980 --> 01:02:23,550
in South Vietnam.

1059
01:02:24,920 --> 01:02:27,850
He was a doctor
but had no medications,

1060
01:02:27,950 --> 01:02:30,550
no antibiotics
or saline solution

1061
01:02:30,650 --> 01:02:32,950
with which to treat
his comrades.

1062
01:02:33,050 --> 01:02:37,480
All he could do was bury each
in a bamboo coffin

1063
01:02:37,580 --> 01:02:41,180
and make sure the spot was
marked with a heap of stones

1064
01:02:41,280 --> 01:02:43,950
daubed with Mercurochrome.

1065
01:02:46,080 --> 01:02:48,880
KUSHNER:
We had nothing to eat.

1066
01:02:48,980 --> 01:02:52,750
And I thought
that I was just going insane.

1067
01:02:52,850 --> 01:02:56,110
So we were sitting around
and with this little fire.

1068
01:02:56,220 --> 01:02:58,220
And we saw
the camp commander's cat,

1069
01:02:58,320 --> 01:02:59,880
who had free rein of the camp.

1070
01:02:59,980 --> 01:03:01,320
And he came down to our area.

1071
01:03:01,420 --> 01:03:03,450
And we were starving to death.

1072
01:03:03,550 --> 01:03:06,920
So someone suggested,
"Let's eat the cat."

1073
01:03:09,220 --> 01:03:10,320
So we killed the cat.

1074
01:03:11,920 --> 01:03:15,350
And we cut the head off
and we cut the paws off.

1075
01:03:15,450 --> 01:03:18,750
And we had this little carcass
of about two pounds.

1076
01:03:18,850 --> 01:03:22,920
And one of the guards came down,
and we told him it was a weasel,

1077
01:03:23,010 --> 01:03:25,510
and we threw a rock at it
and killed it.

1078
01:03:25,610 --> 01:03:27,250
And then he looked around

1079
01:03:27,350 --> 01:03:30,680
and someone had neglected
to bury one of the paws.

1080
01:03:30,780 --> 01:03:32,280
And he saw the paw.

1081
01:03:32,380 --> 01:03:35,980
And he knew instantly that
it was the camp commander's cat.

1082
01:03:36,080 --> 01:03:38,550
And things got very serious.

1083
01:03:40,650 --> 01:03:43,750
And they lined us up
and they said, "Who did this?"

1084
01:03:43,850 --> 01:03:45,110
Nobody said anything.

1085
01:03:45,220 --> 01:03:47,050
I thought they were
going to kill us all.

1086
01:03:47,150 --> 01:03:48,950
Just execute us.

1087
01:03:49,050 --> 01:03:54,180
And one of the people
who was a ringleader in this

1088
01:03:54,280 --> 01:03:56,480
said he did it.

1089
01:03:56,580 --> 01:04:00,150
And I said that I did it also.

1090
01:04:00,250 --> 01:04:02,380
And we all said we did it.

1091
01:04:02,480 --> 01:04:04,350
"I am Spartacus," you know?

1092
01:04:04,450 --> 01:04:06,110
It was that.

1093
01:04:06,220 --> 01:04:10,350
So they called that person
and me out.

1094
01:04:10,450 --> 01:04:14,010
And the guard kicked him
and beat him to the ground,

1095
01:04:14,110 --> 01:04:16,180
and just beat him unmercifully.

1096
01:04:17,650 --> 01:04:21,010
And they hit me in the face
with fists and didn't beat me

1097
01:04:21,110 --> 01:04:22,980
as badly as they beat him.

1098
01:04:23,080 --> 01:04:27,010
And then tied me with commo wire
very tightly to a hooch

1099
01:04:27,110 --> 01:04:30,650
and left me for a day.

1100
01:04:30,750 --> 01:04:34,550
And with the carcass of the cat
draped around my neck.

1101
01:04:34,650 --> 01:04:36,180
And I was so crazy I thought,

1102
01:04:36,280 --> 01:04:38,280
"Maybe they're going to let me
eat this cat."

1103
01:04:38,380 --> 01:04:40,920
But I had to bury it.

1104
01:04:41,010 --> 01:04:46,080
So, the fellow that they beat
very badly died two weeks later.

1105
01:04:47,550 --> 01:04:51,420
But to me the tragedy of it
was we didn't get the cat.

1106
01:04:57,280 --> 01:04:59,580
CHARLES COLLINGWOOD:
For the capital
of a nation at war,

1107
01:04:59,680 --> 01:05:03,280
Saigon abounds with a phenomenal
number of young men

1108
01:05:03,380 --> 01:05:06,380
of draft age in sharp,
civilian clothes.

1109
01:05:06,480 --> 01:05:09,820
Saigon cowboys they're called.

1110
01:05:09,920 --> 01:05:13,450
It's a war profiteer's economy,
fanned by the forced draft

1111
01:05:13,550 --> 01:05:14,920
of American money.

1112
01:05:15,010 --> 01:05:16,580
They count it a good year
in Saigon

1113
01:05:16,680 --> 01:05:19,010
when the prices only go up
by 25%.

1114
01:05:23,110 --> 01:05:24,780
NARRATOR:
Years of American presence,

1115
01:05:24,880 --> 01:05:29,150
and the tens of billions of U.S.
dollars that came with it,

1116
01:05:29,250 --> 01:05:31,780
had transformed much
of South Vietnam,

1117
01:05:31,880 --> 01:05:35,550
creating a false economy
that was utterly dependent

1118
01:05:35,650 --> 01:05:39,220
on that presence
becoming perpetual.

1119
01:05:39,320 --> 01:05:42,550
GEORGE LEWIS:
Since the U.S. began its big
buildup in the mid-'60s,

1120
01:05:42,650 --> 01:05:45,110
millions of dollars worth of
goods have entered the country

1121
01:05:45,220 --> 01:05:46,780
each month.

1122
01:05:46,880 --> 01:05:49,820
Some economists say ten percent
or more of the cargo

1123
01:05:49,920 --> 01:05:52,510
is diverted into
black market channels.

1124
01:05:56,280 --> 01:05:58,820
NARRATOR:
With so much money
flowing into the country,

1125
01:05:58,920 --> 01:06:02,180
corruption and crime
inevitably grew.

1126
01:06:04,780 --> 01:06:07,110
Government officials
were on the take.

1127
01:06:07,220 --> 01:06:10,080
So were many ARVN officers.

1128
01:06:10,180 --> 01:06:13,650
Policemen could not be trusted.

1129
01:06:16,820 --> 01:06:20,850
PHAN QUANG TUE:
Who benefit from the financial
aspect of the war?

1130
01:06:21,980 --> 01:06:23,510
Generals.

1131
01:06:23,610 --> 01:06:25,820
Don't deny that.

1132
01:06:25,920 --> 01:06:29,310
Then they get the money,
then they become richer.

1133
01:06:29,420 --> 01:06:34,680
We have a term, and I call it,
they were war profiteers,

1134
01:06:34,780 --> 01:06:38,980
from Thieu and Ky down
to every echelon.

1135
01:06:39,080 --> 01:06:41,550
HERRINGTON:
The Vietnamese had a saying:

1136
01:06:41,650 --> 01:06:44,750
a house leaks from the roof
on down.

1137
01:06:44,850 --> 01:06:47,780
(saying phrase in Vietnamese)

1138
01:06:49,720 --> 01:06:54,520
And that was, of course, their
way to elliptically refer

1139
01:06:54,610 --> 01:06:58,220
to the ever-present, nagging
problem of corruption.

1140
01:06:58,310 --> 01:07:03,720
JOE GALLOWAY:
They were stealing from us
and selling to anybody.

1141
01:07:03,810 --> 01:07:05,480
Two-man helicopter,
you want one of those?

1142
01:07:05,580 --> 01:07:08,520
They got it in a box
in the back.

1143
01:07:08,610 --> 01:07:12,880
Probably get it for 12,000 bucks
if you negotiated strongly.

1144
01:07:14,350 --> 01:07:18,050
The corruption was endemic.

1145
01:07:18,150 --> 01:07:21,280
And we tolerated it.

1146
01:07:21,380 --> 01:07:25,810
NARRATOR:
Tons of American goods piled up
on Saigon's docks.

1147
01:07:25,920 --> 01:07:29,480
Some GIs took advantage, too.

1148
01:07:29,580 --> 01:07:33,450
U.S. products flowed
out the back doors of PXs.

1149
01:07:33,550 --> 01:07:36,580
In just one year,

1150
01:07:36,680 --> 01:07:42,980
the black market cost
the U.S. military $2 billion.

1151
01:07:43,080 --> 01:07:45,880
COLLINGWOOD:
The impact of the war has
disrupted the ancient patterns

1152
01:07:45,980 --> 01:07:47,980
of Vietnamese life.

1153
01:07:48,080 --> 01:07:51,080
The cities are crowded to the
bursting point with people

1154
01:07:51,180 --> 01:07:54,020
uprooted from the land
and the ancestral values

1155
01:07:54,110 --> 01:07:56,450
of a rural-oriented society

1156
01:07:56,550 --> 01:07:59,180
but who have found nothing
to replace them.

1157
01:07:59,280 --> 01:08:02,550
NARRATOR:
Before U.S. troops arrived,

1158
01:08:02,650 --> 01:08:06,680
eight out of ten South
Vietnamese lived in villages.

1159
01:08:06,780 --> 01:08:10,110
By the end of the 1960s,

1160
01:08:10,220 --> 01:08:14,610
almost half would be crowded
into urban areas.

1161
01:08:14,720 --> 01:08:18,750
Saigon's population tripled
to three million.

1162
01:08:18,850 --> 01:08:23,150
Half the refugees had
no permanent shelter.

1163
01:08:25,550 --> 01:08:28,250
Cholera and typhoid
killed thousands.

1164
01:08:30,750 --> 01:08:34,520
Hungry children roamed the
streets, scavenging, begging,

1165
01:08:34,610 --> 01:08:38,920
searching for jobs to do
or pockets to pick.

1166
01:08:39,020 --> 01:08:43,580
Tens of thousands of young women
left their village homes

1167
01:08:43,680 --> 01:08:48,780
and came to Saigon to become
bar girls and prostitutes.

1168
01:08:54,550 --> 01:08:55,950
The communist government
in Hanoi

1169
01:08:56,050 --> 01:08:58,150
tried to make the most of it,

1170
01:08:58,250 --> 01:09:02,810
accusing the United States and
its puppet government in Saigon

1171
01:09:02,920 --> 01:09:06,050
of destroying
Vietnamese culture in the South.

1172
01:09:09,720 --> 01:09:13,310
But the citizens of Saigon
were far freer

1173
01:09:13,420 --> 01:09:14,980
than the North Vietnamese.

1174
01:09:15,080 --> 01:09:19,420
The South Vietnamese people
could express their views,

1175
01:09:19,520 --> 01:09:20,980
for and against
their government,

1176
01:09:21,080 --> 01:09:26,110
in the pages of hundreds
of newspapers and magazines.

1177
01:09:26,220 --> 01:09:29,580
And they held demonstrations
denouncing

1178
01:09:29,680 --> 01:09:33,680
the rampant corruption and
demanding religious freedom

1179
01:09:33,780 --> 01:09:36,220
and better treatment
for veterans.

1180
01:09:40,220 --> 01:09:43,610
For all of its problems,
one man remembered,

1181
01:09:43,720 --> 01:09:48,180
Saigon was "filthy and free."

1182
01:09:48,280 --> 01:09:49,810
(car horn honking)

1183
01:09:56,080 --> 01:09:59,110
NGUYEN NGOC:

1184
01:10:29,950 --> 01:10:31,680
(gunfire)

1185
01:11:20,480 --> 01:11:23,450
NARRATOR:
In the densely populated
Mekong Delta,

1186
01:11:23,550 --> 01:11:28,280
the war in the countryside
suddenly intensified.

1187
01:11:28,380 --> 01:11:30,650
General Abrams assigned
the commander

1188
01:11:30,750 --> 01:11:35,050
of the 9th Infantry Division,
General Julian J. Ewell,

1189
01:11:35,150 --> 01:11:37,950
the job of destroying
the remaining Viet Cong

1190
01:11:38,050 --> 01:11:40,350
south of Saigon.

1191
01:11:40,450 --> 01:11:44,920
His operation was called
Speedy Express.

1192
01:11:46,650 --> 01:11:51,280
"The hearts and minds approach
can be overdone," Ewell said.

1193
01:11:51,380 --> 01:11:55,780
"In the Delta the only way to
overcome VC control and terror

1194
01:11:55,880 --> 01:11:58,950
is by brute force."

1195
01:12:00,450 --> 01:12:03,580
Patrols would pursue the enemy
around the clock.

1196
01:12:03,680 --> 01:12:07,080
The night sky was filled
with helicopters,

1197
01:12:07,180 --> 01:12:09,750
some armed with instruments
that could detect

1198
01:12:09,850 --> 01:12:11,850
traces of carbon and ammonia

1199
01:12:11,950 --> 01:12:14,810
that meant human beings
were below,

1200
01:12:14,920 --> 01:12:18,110
though not which side
they were on.

1201
01:12:18,220 --> 01:12:22,450
In areas designated
"free-fire zones,"

1202
01:12:22,550 --> 01:12:25,250
anyone out after curfew
could be shot.

1203
01:12:27,250 --> 01:12:31,110
During the day, anyone seen
running was targeted.

1204
01:12:33,610 --> 01:12:37,610
Colonel Robert Gard was one
of Ewell's artillery commanders.

1205
01:12:37,720 --> 01:12:42,780
ROBERT GARD:
If someone was told that anyone
who runs away should be assumed

1206
01:12:42,880 --> 01:12:46,610
to be an enemy, I certainly
would disagree with that.

1207
01:12:46,720 --> 01:12:48,520
That's totally improper.

1208
01:12:48,610 --> 01:12:52,250
People run away
because they're afraid.

1209
01:12:52,350 --> 01:12:56,420
I've seen instances of farmers,

1210
01:12:56,520 --> 01:12:59,220
when you descend
in a helicopter suddenly,

1211
01:12:59,310 --> 01:13:02,310
and they freeze, and they're
frightened, and they run.

1212
01:13:02,420 --> 01:13:07,080
You can't just make
a blanket judgment.

1213
01:13:07,180 --> 01:13:11,680
NARRATOR:
General Ewell boasted of his
unit's statistical record--

1214
01:13:11,780 --> 01:13:17,380
10,899 Viet Cong killed
in six months

1215
01:13:17,480 --> 01:13:20,680
with a loss of only
242 Americans,

1216
01:13:20,780 --> 01:13:26,380
an astonishing
kill ratio of 45-to-1.

1217
01:13:28,920 --> 01:13:33,580
GARD:
To say that we killed
only enemy combatants,

1218
01:13:33,680 --> 01:13:37,280
and to talk about ratios
of 40-to-1

1219
01:13:37,380 --> 01:13:40,480
simply defies my imagination.

1220
01:13:42,020 --> 01:13:45,310
NARRATOR:
At Abrams' recommendation,
Ewell was promoted,

1221
01:13:45,420 --> 01:13:49,750
but the Army Inspector General
would eventually estimate

1222
01:13:49,850 --> 01:13:52,920
that more than half
of the roughly 11,000 kills

1223
01:13:53,020 --> 01:13:55,350
claimed by the 9th Infantry

1224
01:13:55,450 --> 01:13:58,450
had been unarmed,
innocent civilians.

1225
01:14:02,180 --> 01:14:05,080
No one was ever held
accountable.

1226
01:14:09,880 --> 01:14:14,720
("Don't Think Twice, It's All
Right" by Bob Dylan playing)

1227
01:14:18,810 --> 01:14:24,150
♪ It ain't no use to sit
and wonder why, babe ♪

1228
01:14:24,250 --> 01:14:27,980
♪ It don't matter, anyhow

1229
01:14:28,080 --> 01:14:33,150
♪ And it ain't no use to sit
and wonder why, babe ♪

1230
01:14:33,250 --> 01:14:37,050
♪ If you don't know by now

1231
01:14:37,150 --> 01:14:41,680
♪ When your rooster crows
at the break of dawn ♪

1232
01:14:41,780 --> 01:14:46,580
♪ Look out your window
and I'll be gone ♪

1233
01:14:46,680 --> 01:14:50,650
♪ You're the reason
I'm travelin' on ♪

1234
01:14:50,750 --> 01:14:54,420
♪ Don't think twice,
it's all right. ♪

1235
01:15:00,650 --> 01:15:05,650
CAROL CROCKER:
I think moving away from
one's family's ideologies

1236
01:15:05,750 --> 01:15:12,520
is a scary balance
on a very tricky precipice

1237
01:15:12,610 --> 01:15:16,380
because they have been
the focal point

1238
01:15:16,480 --> 01:15:17,880
of how we judge how we're doing.

1239
01:15:17,980 --> 01:15:22,650
And I was now trying to judge
my decisions and my actions

1240
01:15:22,750 --> 01:15:26,850
on the basis of my own ideas
and own thoughts.

1241
01:15:26,950 --> 01:15:30,110
NARRATOR:
The war was already
uncomfortably close

1242
01:15:30,220 --> 01:15:32,580
to Carol Crocker.

1243
01:15:32,680 --> 01:15:35,450
Her brother Mogie had
volunteered to fight

1244
01:15:35,550 --> 01:15:40,420
and had been killed in Vietnam
in 1966.

1245
01:15:40,520 --> 01:15:42,180
She was still grieving.

1246
01:15:44,450 --> 01:15:48,310
That fall, Carol had entered
Goucher College in Baltimore,

1247
01:15:48,420 --> 01:15:53,310
an all-women's school with
a long conservative tradition.

1248
01:15:53,420 --> 01:15:55,350
CAROL CROCKER:
We dressed for dinner.

1249
01:15:55,450 --> 01:15:58,520
We had an 11:00 curfew.

1250
01:15:58,610 --> 01:16:03,950
Obviously no boys or men
were allowed in the dorms.

1251
01:16:04,050 --> 01:16:06,020
That was the rule.

1252
01:16:06,110 --> 01:16:08,050
("Piece of My Heart" by Big
Brother and the Holding Company)

1253
01:16:08,150 --> 01:16:11,880
It could not have even been any
later than the beginning

1254
01:16:11,980 --> 01:16:17,750
of the second semester that most
of the rules that were in place

1255
01:16:17,850 --> 01:16:22,720
and had been in place for many,
many years, no longer existed.

1256
01:16:22,810 --> 01:16:28,380
JANIS JOPLIN:
♪ Oh, come on, come on,
come on, come on ♪

1257
01:16:28,480 --> 01:16:29,950
♪ And take it

1258
01:16:30,050 --> 01:16:31,220
♪ Take another little piece...

1259
01:16:31,310 --> 01:16:32,310
CAROL CROCKER:
The challenge

1260
01:16:32,420 --> 01:16:36,520
to campuses countrywide was

1261
01:16:36,610 --> 01:16:38,250
how do we maintain
our student body

1262
01:16:38,350 --> 01:16:43,980
to behave in a civil manner,
and teach them,

1263
01:16:44,080 --> 01:16:46,950
and not have them try
to burn us down?

1264
01:16:47,050 --> 01:16:49,520
If that means not dressing
for dinner, so be it.

1265
01:16:49,610 --> 01:16:51,720
JOPLIN:
♪ If it makes you feel good

1266
01:16:51,810 --> 01:16:53,980
♪ Oh yes it did.

1267
01:16:54,080 --> 01:16:57,020
CAROL CROCKER:
Our guy friends, we were
spending time and talking

1268
01:16:57,110 --> 01:16:58,150
and they were scared.

1269
01:16:58,250 --> 01:17:00,110
And they were worried.

1270
01:17:00,220 --> 01:17:03,310
And they weren't sure
what they were going to do.

1271
01:17:03,420 --> 01:17:07,110
And more discussion was
happening about

1272
01:17:07,220 --> 01:17:11,020
whether this was a valid war.

1273
01:17:11,110 --> 01:17:15,720
And this was really, for me,
the first time I opened my ears

1274
01:17:15,810 --> 01:17:18,220
to the war in a way other than

1275
01:17:18,310 --> 01:17:21,780
that it was about
my brother's death.

1276
01:17:21,880 --> 01:17:24,580
I honored him.

1277
01:17:24,680 --> 01:17:29,110
I respected him
for doing what he believed in.

1278
01:17:29,220 --> 01:17:31,150
But I did not agree with him.

1279
01:17:31,250 --> 01:17:35,880
JOPLIN:
♪ Come on, come on, come on
and take it. ♪

1280
01:17:35,980 --> 01:17:39,480
NARRATOR:
Eva Jefferson was a sophomore
at Northwestern.

1281
01:17:39,580 --> 01:17:42,780
A serviceman's daughter, she had
entered college convinced

1282
01:17:42,880 --> 01:17:46,580
the American government would
never mislead its citizens.

1283
01:17:46,680 --> 01:17:50,420
But for her, too,
things had begun to change.

1284
01:17:50,520 --> 01:17:52,310
Earlier that year,

1285
01:17:52,420 --> 01:17:55,680
when a handful of black
Northwestern students decided

1286
01:17:55,780 --> 01:17:57,950
to occupy the bursar's office

1287
01:17:58,050 --> 01:18:01,520
demanding African-American
studies, she joined them,

1288
01:18:01,610 --> 01:18:05,480
then called her parents
to tell them what she'd done.

1289
01:18:05,580 --> 01:18:08,380
EVA JEFFERSON PATERSON:
And I said, "Mom and Dad,
guess where I am?

1290
01:18:08,480 --> 01:18:10,150
We just took over
the bursar's office."

1291
01:18:10,250 --> 01:18:12,080
They were horrified.

1292
01:18:12,180 --> 01:18:15,250
And upon reflection,
of course they were horrified.

1293
01:18:15,350 --> 01:18:16,720
And they said,
"If you don't get out of there

1294
01:18:16,810 --> 01:18:18,080
we're going to cut off
your money."

1295
01:18:18,180 --> 01:18:20,580
So that was the moment
in my own consciousness

1296
01:18:20,680 --> 01:18:22,720
when I became independent.

1297
01:18:22,810 --> 01:18:25,080
I thought, "Well, they're going
to cut off my money.

1298
01:18:26,920 --> 01:18:31,020
NARRATOR:
"The University met all
our demands in three days,"

1299
01:18:31,110 --> 01:18:32,420
she remembered.

1300
01:18:32,520 --> 01:18:35,220
"If you asked for black studies
on Friday,

1301
01:18:35,310 --> 01:18:37,380
you got it on Monday."

1302
01:18:37,480 --> 01:18:41,780
PATERSON:
It felt like something was
happening that was profound,

1303
01:18:41,880 --> 01:18:43,650
that was irreversible.

1304
01:18:43,750 --> 01:18:45,650
But also you're
18, 19 years old.

1305
01:18:45,750 --> 01:18:46,580
It's exciting.

1306
01:18:48,680 --> 01:18:51,850
I felt as though
a revolution was coming.

1307
01:18:51,950 --> 01:18:55,750
And I thought the revolution
would be won by our side.

1308
01:19:03,420 --> 01:19:07,720
NARRATOR:
Relations between parents and
children, brothers and sisters,

1309
01:19:07,810 --> 01:19:10,980
were changing everywhere.

1310
01:19:11,080 --> 01:19:14,850
ANNE HARRISON BOWMAN:
When I stood in the living room
and I was hugging two brothers,

1311
01:19:14,950 --> 01:19:17,280
it didn't matter to me
about their choices

1312
01:19:17,380 --> 01:19:21,580
or that they were on two
different sides of the fence.

1313
01:19:21,680 --> 01:19:25,720
All I knew was that they were
both my brothers

1314
01:19:25,810 --> 01:19:28,480
and they were both back in the
same room and there we were.

1315
01:19:28,580 --> 01:19:32,680
NARRATOR:
Captain Matt Harrison, Jr.--
Chips--

1316
01:19:32,780 --> 01:19:38,750
had graduated West Point,
served a tour in Vietnam

1317
01:19:38,850 --> 01:19:42,950
and took part in two of the
war's bloodiest battles--

1318
01:19:43,050 --> 01:19:46,680
Hill 1338 and Hill 875.

1319
01:19:48,950 --> 01:19:52,610
He was back stateside
in the autumn of 1968,

1320
01:19:52,720 --> 01:19:56,750
when the family began to worry
about his younger brother, Bob,

1321
01:19:56,850 --> 01:20:00,850
whom his siblings sometimes
called Robin.

1322
01:20:00,950 --> 01:20:05,880
MATT HARRISON:
He and I were just great pals
since we were growing up

1323
01:20:05,980 --> 01:20:09,980
because we moved every year
or two years.

1324
01:20:10,080 --> 01:20:12,180
And, you know,
new set of friends

1325
01:20:12,280 --> 01:20:13,580
but always had my brother.

1326
01:20:15,220 --> 01:20:17,250
BOWMAN:
Bob was in ROTC

1327
01:20:17,350 --> 01:20:21,450
and polished and buffed his
shoes and had short hair

1328
01:20:21,550 --> 01:20:25,420
and said "Yes, sir"
and "Yes, ma'am."

1329
01:20:25,520 --> 01:20:29,750
And then we moved to California
his senior year in high school.

1330
01:20:29,850 --> 01:20:36,280
And he was the consummate blond
surfer boy and cutting school.

1331
01:20:36,380 --> 01:20:38,550
And he was immediately
very popular

1332
01:20:38,650 --> 01:20:41,020
and having a great time.

1333
01:20:44,080 --> 01:20:46,250
NARRATOR:
Robin did not go to West Point,

1334
01:20:46,350 --> 01:20:49,080
entered Marin Junior College
instead,

1335
01:20:49,180 --> 01:20:52,110
and then shocked his family
by signing on

1336
01:20:52,220 --> 01:20:56,020
with the Marine--
not the Army-- Reserves.

1337
01:20:57,750 --> 01:21:01,920
HARRISON:
At some point Robin became
convinced that...

1338
01:21:02,020 --> 01:21:06,180
that the war was wrong, and not
only wrong, it was immoral.

1339
01:21:06,280 --> 01:21:11,450
So he quit going
to the Reserve weekends,

1340
01:21:11,550 --> 01:21:14,580
and because of that
he was activated...

1341
01:21:14,680 --> 01:21:19,750
and was very likely now he was
going to be going to Vietnam

1342
01:21:19,850 --> 01:21:23,080
as a Marine Corps rifleman.

1343
01:21:23,180 --> 01:21:25,480
I didn't think being
a Marine Corps rifleman

1344
01:21:25,580 --> 01:21:28,480
was a very safe occupation.

1345
01:21:28,580 --> 01:21:31,580
And I didn't think Robin
would be a particularly good

1346
01:21:31,680 --> 01:21:33,480
Marine Corps rifleman.

1347
01:21:33,580 --> 01:21:37,950
And so I just thought that this
was a very bad outcome for him

1348
01:21:38,050 --> 01:21:39,520
and for the family.

1349
01:21:43,780 --> 01:21:47,280
NARRATOR:
Matt Harrison knew that under
military regulations,

1350
01:21:47,380 --> 01:21:50,750
if one brother was already
in a combat zone,

1351
01:21:50,850 --> 01:21:54,110
a second brother need not
accept assignment there.

1352
01:21:54,220 --> 01:21:57,750
So to keep Robin out of the war,

1353
01:21:57,850 --> 01:22:02,610
he volunteered for
a second tour in Vietnam.

1354
01:22:02,720 --> 01:22:07,420
HARRISON:
I was back in Vietnam
I think in less than 30 days.

1355
01:22:07,520 --> 01:22:08,980
I was a seasoned veteran.

1356
01:22:09,080 --> 01:22:11,310
I was going to go command
a company.

1357
01:22:11,420 --> 01:22:14,310
My chances of getting hurt were
a lot less than Robin's were.

1358
01:22:14,420 --> 01:22:16,350
And if I did choose to make it
a career,

1359
01:22:16,450 --> 01:22:18,480
the fact that I had had
a second tour

1360
01:22:18,580 --> 01:22:20,610
as a rifle company commander
was going to be good for me.

1361
01:22:20,720 --> 01:22:23,750
And so, you know, it wasn't
entirely selfless.

1362
01:22:23,850 --> 01:22:28,280
I honestly don't remember a
tremendous amount of dialogue

1363
01:22:28,380 --> 01:22:30,310
between my mom and dad.

1364
01:22:30,420 --> 01:22:33,520
I think they felt like
if Bob had gone,

1365
01:22:33,610 --> 01:22:35,450
he would have been killed.

1366
01:22:35,550 --> 01:22:41,020
Whereas I think they felt that
Chips was going to be okay.

1367
01:22:41,110 --> 01:22:45,980
I can't imagine, having
had a son now go to Iraq,

1368
01:22:46,080 --> 01:22:51,480
how my mother could have gotten
through every single day at all,

1369
01:22:51,580 --> 01:22:56,980
without believing very firmly
that he was going to be fine.

1370
01:22:59,810 --> 01:23:02,550
NARRATOR:
Matt Harrison's decision
to serve a second tour

1371
01:23:02,650 --> 01:23:05,920
did not fully
protect his brother Robin.

1372
01:23:06,020 --> 01:23:08,550
He went AWOL,
was court-martialed

1373
01:23:08,650 --> 01:23:11,450
and sentenced to three months
hard labor.

1374
01:23:11,550 --> 01:23:13,880
The sentence was suspended.

1375
01:23:13,980 --> 01:23:15,650
He returned to the Marines,

1376
01:23:15,750 --> 01:23:17,920
served as a chaplain's
assistant,

1377
01:23:18,020 --> 01:23:21,310
applied for conscientious
objector status,

1378
01:23:21,420 --> 01:23:25,780
and then went AWOL again.

1379
01:23:25,880 --> 01:23:28,520
VICTORIA HARRISON:
I remember the FBI coming
and knocking on the door

1380
01:23:28,610 --> 01:23:30,650
and looking for him.

1381
01:23:30,750 --> 01:23:34,480
They asked if Robert Harrison
was there

1382
01:23:34,580 --> 01:23:38,380
and I just knew this wasn't good

1383
01:23:38,480 --> 01:23:41,750
and said "No"
and slammed the door.

1384
01:23:41,850 --> 01:23:46,810
And Bob went out the back

1385
01:23:46,920 --> 01:23:49,250
and ran out to the main street.

1386
01:23:49,350 --> 01:23:54,310
And as I understand it,
got in a car and left

1387
01:23:54,420 --> 01:23:57,420
and that was the last
I saw of him.

1388
01:24:02,180 --> 01:24:05,850
BOWMAN:
I don't think a military mom
at the time would want

1389
01:24:05,950 --> 01:24:07,450
to announce,
"My son has gone AWOL.

1390
01:24:07,550 --> 01:24:09,450
"My son has run to Canada.

1391
01:24:09,550 --> 01:24:12,550
"My son is all the words
that were associated with it,

1392
01:24:12,650 --> 01:24:16,580
a deserter, a coward."

1393
01:24:16,680 --> 01:24:19,080
All of the things
that these guys were called.

1394
01:24:21,380 --> 01:24:24,420
I don't think that's what those
guys thought they were doing.

1395
01:24:24,520 --> 01:24:26,580
I do not think they thought
they were deserting.

1396
01:24:26,680 --> 01:24:28,580
I do not think they thought
they were cowards.

1397
01:24:28,680 --> 01:24:31,680
In fact, I think they thought
they were very brave.

1398
01:24:35,680 --> 01:24:38,480
NARRATOR:
When Matt Harrison assumed
command of Alpha Company,

1399
01:24:38,580 --> 01:24:43,920
2nd Battalion, 14th Regiment
of the 25th Infantry Division,

1400
01:24:44,020 --> 01:24:46,520
his Army had changed.

1401
01:24:49,380 --> 01:24:52,480
HARRISON:
I was commanding a company
of draftees,

1402
01:24:52,580 --> 01:24:54,920
almost none of whom
wanted to be there.

1403
01:24:55,020 --> 01:24:56,680
They didn't want to be
in the Army

1404
01:24:56,780 --> 01:24:58,610
and they certainly didn't
want to be

1405
01:24:58,720 --> 01:25:00,610
an infantryman in Vietnam.

1406
01:25:00,720 --> 01:25:04,080
There were times when it was
very difficult

1407
01:25:04,180 --> 01:25:06,480
to keep the men under control,

1408
01:25:06,580 --> 01:25:08,920
particularly if we had taken
casualties on the way

1409
01:25:09,020 --> 01:25:10,520
into a village.

1410
01:25:12,150 --> 01:25:16,880
One of the things I learned is
the veneer of civilization

1411
01:25:16,980 --> 01:25:19,650
is very thin-- very thin--

1412
01:25:19,750 --> 01:25:24,850
on me, probably on you,
and I think on everybody.

1413
01:25:26,650 --> 01:25:29,050
I just saw over and over again

1414
01:25:29,150 --> 01:25:33,110
some nice young guy
out of Huron, South Dakota,

1415
01:25:33,220 --> 01:25:36,350
who back in Huron helped
old ladies across the street

1416
01:25:36,450 --> 01:25:39,220
and went to church every Sunday.

1417
01:25:39,310 --> 01:25:46,450
It did not take long for that
veneer of civilization to erode.

1418
01:25:46,550 --> 01:25:50,610
And he was now capable
of doing things

1419
01:25:50,720 --> 01:25:53,720
that just simply are inhuman.

1420
01:25:56,080 --> 01:25:59,720
I was not willing to allow it
to happen on my watch

1421
01:25:59,810 --> 01:26:02,310
and I didn't think it was good
for the soldiers

1422
01:26:02,420 --> 01:26:03,850
to do those kinds of things.

1423
01:26:03,950 --> 01:26:08,020
Now, I'm not saying that we
didn't do some horrific things.

1424
01:26:08,110 --> 01:26:09,020
We did.

1425
01:26:11,050 --> 01:26:14,610
But there's a difference
between being spontaneous

1426
01:26:14,720 --> 01:26:17,220
and being premeditated.

1427
01:26:23,580 --> 01:26:27,810
NARRATOR:
Many years later,
Robin Harrison, still adrift,

1428
01:26:27,920 --> 01:26:29,980
got caught up
in the world of drugs

1429
01:26:30,080 --> 01:26:36,480
and died 10,000 miles from home
in a hotel room in Hong Kong,

1430
01:26:36,580 --> 01:26:39,780
another casualty,
his brother Matt believed,

1431
01:26:39,880 --> 01:26:42,610
of the war in Vietnam.

1432
01:26:45,680 --> 01:26:49,310
("Magic Carpet Ride"
by Steppenwolf playing)

1433
01:26:52,310 --> 01:26:54,610
♪ I like to dream

1434
01:26:54,720 --> 01:27:00,780
♪ Yes, yes, right between
my sound machine ♪

1435
01:27:00,880 --> 01:27:03,680
♪ On a cloud of sound
I drift in the night ♪

1436
01:27:03,780 --> 01:27:05,420
♪ Any place it goes is right

1437
01:27:05,520 --> 01:27:09,220
♪ Goes far, flies near,
to the stars away from here ♪

1438
01:27:09,310 --> 01:27:11,450
♪ Well, you don't know...

1439
01:27:11,550 --> 01:27:13,550
MERRILL McPEAK:
I dropped a bomb
one afternoon

1440
01:27:13,650 --> 01:27:16,520
that must have had a broken fin
or something on the bomb.

1441
01:27:16,610 --> 01:27:19,920
It just went crazy, went over
and hit, you know,

1442
01:27:20,020 --> 01:27:22,610
a mile away
from where I was aiming.

1443
01:27:22,720 --> 01:27:29,380
And it started a series
of secondary explosions,

1444
01:27:29,480 --> 01:27:32,610
meaning that I had hit
an ammunition dump,

1445
01:27:32,720 --> 01:27:34,110
or a cache of ammunition
or something.

1446
01:27:34,220 --> 01:27:36,050
So it cooked off for 15 minutes.

1447
01:27:36,150 --> 01:27:39,850
As we were leaving,
the thing was still blowing up.

1448
01:27:39,950 --> 01:27:42,550
The best result I achieved
in a year,

1449
01:27:42,650 --> 01:27:45,880
it was a result of a gross miss
from what I was aiming at.

1450
01:27:45,980 --> 01:27:50,520
Now that's the exact reverse of
how you want to use air power.

1451
01:27:52,280 --> 01:27:55,380
NARRATOR:
Major Merrill McPeak
was a crack fighter pilot

1452
01:27:55,480 --> 01:27:59,550
when he arrived in Vietnam
in late 1968.

1453
01:27:59,650 --> 01:28:03,520
At first, he had helped provide
air support for the Army,

1454
01:28:03,610 --> 01:28:07,980
with a guaranteed number of
sorties per day, he remembered,

1455
01:28:08,080 --> 01:28:11,050
"whether or not they had
anything in front of them

1456
01:28:11,150 --> 01:28:12,450
worth blowing up."

1457
01:28:14,880 --> 01:28:17,920
MERRILL McPEAK:
At the end of any sortie
where we dropped bombs

1458
01:28:18,020 --> 01:28:19,980
on what we called
"trees in contact"

1459
01:28:20,080 --> 01:28:22,650
because there was nothing
important down there,

1460
01:28:22,750 --> 01:28:25,610
we would always get back a list
of bomb damage assessment

1461
01:28:25,720 --> 01:28:27,180
from the forward air controller.

1462
01:28:27,280 --> 01:28:32,380
And it would be, like,
"12 supply sources destroyed,

1463
01:28:32,480 --> 01:28:34,850
two structures collapsed."

1464
01:28:34,950 --> 01:28:36,350
All these metrics.

1465
01:28:36,450 --> 01:28:38,310
It was phony.

1466
01:28:38,420 --> 01:28:39,580
Just a waste of time.

1467
01:28:41,580 --> 01:28:45,020
NARRATOR:
Then, McPeak was assigned
to a top-secret squadron

1468
01:28:45,110 --> 01:28:47,780
seeking to pinpoint men
and supplies

1469
01:28:47,880 --> 01:28:51,110
moving on the Ho Chi Minh Trail
in Laos.

1470
01:28:51,220 --> 01:28:55,220
He and his fellow pilots
called their unit Misty,

1471
01:28:55,310 --> 01:28:58,450
after its radio call sign.

1472
01:28:58,550 --> 01:29:00,180
McPEAK:
I spent four months in Misty.

1473
01:29:00,280 --> 01:29:03,850
And that was the best
four months of the war,

1474
01:29:03,950 --> 01:29:05,350
as far as I'm concerned,

1475
01:29:05,450 --> 01:29:08,850
because what we were doing was
simple, straightforward,

1476
01:29:08,950 --> 01:29:10,350
and made sense.

1477
01:29:10,450 --> 01:29:14,180
We want to stop traffic from
A to B down this dirt road.

1478
01:29:14,280 --> 01:29:17,220
That I can understand.

1479
01:29:17,310 --> 01:29:20,480
Somebody in Saigon
wasn't saying,

1480
01:29:20,580 --> 01:29:23,280
"Go bomb trees at such-and-such
a location."

1481
01:29:23,380 --> 01:29:26,180
We went out and actually found
the target.

1482
01:29:35,550 --> 01:29:37,250
NARRATOR:
It was dangerous work.

1483
01:29:37,350 --> 01:29:42,180
One out of five pilots
was shot down.

1484
01:29:44,550 --> 01:29:45,950
(radio chatter)

1485
01:29:50,610 --> 01:29:54,610
Misty put up seven sorties a day
from dawn to dusk,

1486
01:29:54,720 --> 01:29:57,880
on the lookout for
signs of human activity--

1487
01:29:57,980 --> 01:30:03,180
gardens, encampments, roadside
trees coated with dust,

1488
01:30:03,280 --> 01:30:07,350
or wet roads on either side
of fords

1489
01:30:07,450 --> 01:30:12,450
that signaled a truck convoy
had recently passed through.

1490
01:30:16,480 --> 01:30:19,580
McPEAK:
I have enormous respect
for those truck drivers.

1491
01:30:21,220 --> 01:30:23,150
They left their homes
in the North,

1492
01:30:23,250 --> 01:30:27,110
and they weren't drafted
for a year or two.

1493
01:30:27,220 --> 01:30:28,810
They just left and didn't know

1494
01:30:28,920 --> 01:30:30,880
if they were ever
going to come back.

1495
01:30:32,650 --> 01:30:36,350
NARRATOR:
Although McPeak and his fellow
pilots did not know it,

1496
01:30:36,450 --> 01:30:38,110
among the drivers threading
their way

1497
01:30:38,220 --> 01:30:41,980
down the Ho Chi Minh Trail
by night were hundreds of women.

1498
01:30:44,950 --> 01:30:49,050
NGUYEN NGUYET ANH:

1499
01:31:07,280 --> 01:31:10,880
NARRATOR:
For three years, Nguyen Nguyet
Anh drove her section

1500
01:31:10,980 --> 01:31:17,580
of the Trail, ferrying arms
and supplies south,

1501
01:31:17,680 --> 01:31:22,350
then heading back north
with cargoes of wounded men.

1502
01:31:24,850 --> 01:31:26,650
NGUYEN NGUYET ANH:

1503
01:31:35,550 --> 01:31:37,780
McPEAK:
They drove in stages.

1504
01:31:37,880 --> 01:31:40,810
So they knew 15, 20 clicks
of the road.

1505
01:31:40,920 --> 01:31:43,380
And they drove from A to B
and back to A.

1506
01:31:47,810 --> 01:31:49,610
And then they rested,
during the daytime,

1507
01:31:49,720 --> 01:31:52,720
and then the next night, they
drove from A to B and back to A.

1508
01:31:54,110 --> 01:31:58,580
They had kind of memorized the
road, which was very important,

1509
01:31:58,680 --> 01:32:01,280
because they were running
without lights at night.

1510
01:32:26,680 --> 01:32:27,880
(jet engine roars)

1511
01:32:37,280 --> 01:32:40,850
McPEAK:
One time I stumbled across
a bunch of trucks backed up,

1512
01:32:40,950 --> 01:32:43,280
and that was a great morning
for me.

1513
01:32:43,380 --> 01:32:45,610
Occasionally one of 'em would
break down,

1514
01:32:45,720 --> 01:32:47,520
in a spot where the trucks
behind it

1515
01:32:47,610 --> 01:32:49,480
would get trapped and
couldn't back out of there.

1516
01:32:49,580 --> 01:32:54,610
So you try to strafe the last
truck, so that it can't move.

1517
01:32:57,080 --> 01:32:59,810
And these are one-lane roads.

1518
01:32:59,920 --> 01:33:03,110
So once you get
the back truck disabled,

1519
01:33:03,220 --> 01:33:05,450
then you just call in fighters.

1520
01:33:06,880 --> 01:33:09,220
You're shooting fish
in a barrel.

1521
01:33:13,720 --> 01:33:17,610
NARRATOR:
As she drove the Ho Chi Minh
Trail, Anh thought constantly

1522
01:33:17,720 --> 01:33:20,420
of her fiancé Tran Cong Thang,

1523
01:33:20,520 --> 01:33:25,750
an army engineer she'd fallen
in love with four years earlier.

1524
01:33:25,850 --> 01:33:29,980
He was also stationed
somewhere on the Trail.

1525
01:33:30,080 --> 01:33:33,610
NGUYEN NGUYET ANH:

1526
01:33:47,680 --> 01:33:49,610
TRAN CONG THANG:

1527
01:34:24,780 --> 01:34:29,610
NARRATOR:
Over 20,000 engineers,
soldiers, and truck drivers died

1528
01:34:29,720 --> 01:34:32,880
along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

1529
01:34:32,980 --> 01:34:37,150
72 military cemeteries would
eventually be required

1530
01:34:37,250 --> 01:34:39,520
to hold their remains.

1531
01:34:42,020 --> 01:34:46,350
TRAN CONG THANG:

1532
01:35:00,050 --> 01:35:02,810
McPEAK:
We dropped more tonnage
of munitions

1533
01:35:02,920 --> 01:35:08,080
than the United States dropped
in World War II,

1534
01:35:08,180 --> 01:35:11,050
most of it aimed
at the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

1535
01:35:13,220 --> 01:35:15,610
We did not stop traffic
down the trail.

1536
01:35:15,720 --> 01:35:19,150
And that is
a big disappointment for me.

1537
01:35:19,250 --> 01:35:21,750
To this day, it irritates me.

1538
01:35:23,920 --> 01:35:27,250
The real failures were made
at the policy level.

1539
01:35:29,350 --> 01:35:32,720
We were fighting
on the wrong side.

1540
01:35:32,810 --> 01:35:36,450
The South, the government
in the South was corrupt.

1541
01:35:36,550 --> 01:35:38,780
And its people knew it.

1542
01:35:38,880 --> 01:35:39,780
And we knew it.

1543
01:35:41,310 --> 01:35:42,580
I'll tell you something,

1544
01:35:42,680 --> 01:35:44,980
those truck drivers
fought very well.

1545
01:35:45,080 --> 01:35:49,650
I would have been proud
to fight with them.

1546
01:35:49,750 --> 01:35:52,220
So one of the things you got
to do when you go to war

1547
01:35:52,310 --> 01:35:53,850
is pick the right side, okay.

1548
01:35:53,950 --> 01:35:55,220
Get the right allies.

1549
01:35:59,520 --> 01:36:03,920
NARRATOR:
Merrill McPeak would serve
37 years and retire

1550
01:36:04,020 --> 01:36:06,520
as Air Force chief of staff.

1551
01:36:09,150 --> 01:36:12,980
Nguyen Nguyet Anh and Tran Cong
Thang were reunited

1552
01:36:13,080 --> 01:36:15,750
after the war and married.

1553
01:36:19,920 --> 01:36:23,280
The peace we seek to win

1554
01:36:23,380 --> 01:36:27,950
is not victory over
any other people,

1555
01:36:28,050 --> 01:36:32,420
but the peace that comes
with healing in its wings;

1556
01:36:32,520 --> 01:36:35,380
with compassion for those
who have suffered;

1557
01:36:35,480 --> 01:36:38,380
with understanding for those
who have opposed us;

1558
01:36:38,480 --> 01:36:42,020
with the opportunity for all
the peoples of this earth

1559
01:36:42,110 --> 01:36:43,950
to choose their own destiny.

1560
01:36:44,050 --> 01:36:46,650
("Lonely Road"
by the Sandals playing)

1561
01:36:46,750 --> 01:36:48,180
NARRATOR:
Like Lyndon Johnson,

1562
01:36:48,280 --> 01:36:53,050
Richard Nixon had an ambitious
agenda for his presidency--

1563
01:36:53,150 --> 01:36:57,310
easing a quarter of a century of
tensions with the Soviet Union

1564
01:36:57,420 --> 01:36:59,580
and opening the door to China,

1565
01:36:59,680 --> 01:37:03,480
whose existence the United
States had refused to recognize

1566
01:37:03,580 --> 01:37:07,480
since the communists
took over in 1949.

1567
01:37:07,580 --> 01:37:10,680
But as it had with Johnson,

1568
01:37:10,780 --> 01:37:15,180
the ongoing war in Vietnam
threatened all those plans.

1569
01:37:17,150 --> 01:37:22,480
37,563 Americans had died there

1570
01:37:22,580 --> 01:37:25,280
by the time he took
the oath of office.

1571
01:37:25,380 --> 01:37:29,110
"I'm not going to end up
like LBJ,

1572
01:37:29,220 --> 01:37:31,150
"holed up in the White House,

1573
01:37:31,250 --> 01:37:33,380
afraid to show my face
on the street,"

1574
01:37:33,480 --> 01:37:35,520
Richard Nixon told an aide.

1575
01:37:35,610 --> 01:37:37,480
"I'm going to stop that war.

1576
01:37:37,580 --> 01:37:39,050
Fast."

1577
01:37:39,150 --> 01:37:43,680
Nixon's national security
advisor was Henry Kissinger.

1578
01:37:43,780 --> 01:37:48,110
A refugee from Nazi Germany, he
had taught government at Harvard

1579
01:37:48,220 --> 01:37:51,950
and was already a well-known
advocate of a foreign policy

1580
01:37:52,050 --> 01:37:55,580
based on pragmatism,
not ideology.

1581
01:37:55,680 --> 01:38:00,380
"Give us six months," Kissinger
told a group of Quakers

1582
01:38:00,480 --> 01:38:02,650
demonstrating on
Pennsylvania Avenue,

1583
01:38:02,750 --> 01:38:07,220
"and if we haven't ended the war
by then, you can come back

1584
01:38:07,310 --> 01:38:09,420
and tear down
the White House fence."

1585
01:38:12,350 --> 01:38:18,020
In February of 1969, the North
launched yet another offensive.

1586
01:38:20,610 --> 01:38:25,520
This time, they killed 1,100
Americans in just three weeks.

1587
01:38:29,350 --> 01:38:31,780
Nixon did not feel
he could retaliate

1588
01:38:31,880 --> 01:38:34,220
by resuming the bombing
of the North

1589
01:38:34,310 --> 01:38:38,110
for fear of provoking the
antiwar movement at home.

1590
01:38:38,220 --> 01:38:44,350
So in March, he secretly ordered
B-52s to begin attacking

1591
01:38:44,450 --> 01:38:46,610
the North Vietnamese bases
within Cambodia,

1592
01:38:46,720 --> 01:38:50,980
which had offered sanctuary
to the enemy for years.