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00:00:02,930 --> 00:00:05,260
CROWD (chanting):
No more war! No more war!
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00:00:05,360 --> 00:00:08,930
No more war!
No more war!
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00:00:09,030 --> 00:00:10,600
No more war! No more war!
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00:00:10,690 --> 00:00:12,030
("Get Together" by
the Youngbloods playing)
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No more war! No more war!
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No more war!
No more war!
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No more war!
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CROWD (chanting):
U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
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YOUNGBLOODS:
♪ Love is but a song to sing
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♪ Fear's the way we die
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(crowds shouting, clamoring)
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♪ You can
make the mountains ring ♪
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♪ Or make the angels cry
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(shouting continues)
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♪ Come on, people, now
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♪ Smile on your brother
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♪ Everybody get together
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♪ Try to love one another
right now ♪
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KARL MARLANTES:
My brother picked me up
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at Travis Air Force Base.
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And I remember he had a Valiant,
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an old beat-up Valiant.
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And we met inside the terminal.
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And I was so happy to see him.
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I just love my brother.
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(crowd shouting in distance)
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He said, "Now, I don't
want you to get upset,
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"but we're probably
gonna get some trouble
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when we go outside."
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And I went, "Trouble?
I just got back from Vietnam.
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What are you talking about?"
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I mean, I knew
that there was unrest.
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YOUNGBLOODS:
♪ If you hear the song I sing
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MARLANTES:
But when we got in his car to
drive away from the terminal,
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we had to wind our way
through protesters
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that were pounding on the car
with the ends of their signs
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and were snarling at me
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and pounding on the window
and shouting obscenities at me.
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That was my welcome home
to America.
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(shouting continues)
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I was just stunned.
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YOUNGBLOODS:
♪ Come on, people, now
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I have never felt...
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any anger toward people
that were war protesters.
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It's a legitimate
political stance.
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For people that
descended into that, I...
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I-I think that
they were really wrong.
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YOUNGBLOODS:
♪ Try to love one another
right now ♪
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It was this-this heartbreak
of why are you doing this?
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I mean,
you don't know who I am.
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And it happened over and over.
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YOUNGBLOODS:
♪ Everybody get together
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♪ Try to love one another
right now ♪
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♪ Right now
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♪ Right now.
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(siren wailing)
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NARRATOR:
In the spring of 1970,
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00:02:45,790 --> 00:02:49,060
despite the uproar
over the invasion of Cambodia
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and the killing of four students
at Kent State,
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00:02:52,230 --> 00:02:54,960
President Nixon's hold
on what he called
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"the great silent majority"
seemed secure.
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A Gallup poll showed
that most Americans
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blamed the students,
not the national guardsmen,
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for what had happened.
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(shouting, clamoring)
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At an antiwar demonstration
in Manhattan,
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hundreds of construction
workers in hard hats
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attacked protestors,
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sending 70 to the hospital.
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00:03:24,260 --> 00:03:27,060
And when workers
marched on City Hall
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a few days later,
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Nixon wrote
the president of their union
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to say how pleased he was
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"to see the tremendous
outpouring
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"of support for our country
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demonstrated in your orderly
and most heartening rally."
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How do you feel about
the construction workers
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who attacked the, uh,
demonstrators last Friday?
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Don't say attacked.
Don't say attacked.
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They were provoked.
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They were provoked, man.
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We work for a living.
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Every day we get up,
we're out there in the cold,
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the rain, the snow, right?
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We got to have these dirty s...
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Forget about it, I don't
want to talk about it, man.
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Anybody that can take
a Viet Cong flag and fly it
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and wave it and bring it
up this avenue
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and get away with it--
and get away with it--
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that's unpatriotic to me.
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NARRATOR:
When American troops withdrew
from Cambodia
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at the end of June,
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the White House reported
that they had killed
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11,349 enemy troops,
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captured 22,000 weapons
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and had destroyed 11,688
bunkers and buildings.
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But after so many years
of fighting,
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more and more Americans
were tired of the war,
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wanted to get out
of Southeast Asia,
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00:04:43,460 --> 00:04:48,290
and did not want the president
to expand the conflict further.
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Among their representatives
in Congress,
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antiwar sentiment
had steadily grown.
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As the president searched
for a face-saving way
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to end the war, he continued
to withdraw troops.
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CROWD (chanting):
U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
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But even as American
casualty figures fell,
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00:05:06,600 --> 00:05:10,260
the gulf between Americans
at home widened,
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tearing communities,
neighborhoods,
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even families apart.
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CROWD (chanting):
No more war! No more war!
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Nixon was convinced--
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just as Lyndon Johnson
had been--
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that the antiwar movement
was somehow
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being directed from Hanoi,
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Beijing and Moscow.
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"Within the iron gates
of the White House
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a siege mentality
was settling in,"
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a Nixon aide remembered.
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"It was now us
against them.
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"Gradually, as we drew
the circle closer around us,
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the ranks of them
began to swell."
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(crowd chattering)
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PHIL GIOIA:
I think the Vietnam War
drove a stake
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right into the heart
of America.
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It polarized the country
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as it had probably
never been polarized
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since before the Civil War.
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And unfortunately,
we've never moved
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really far away from that.
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And we never recovered.
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CROWD:
No more war! No more war!
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CROWD:
U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
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CROWD:
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No more war! No more war!
U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
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U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
No more war! No more war!
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No more war! No more war!
No more war!
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(chanting stops)
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♪
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DAVID FROST:
Thank you very much, indeed,
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and welcome to this,
uh, special,
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very special edition
ofThe David Frost Show.
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The vice president himself
wanted to debate with students,
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and we suggested a format
in which he might like to do so.
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Welcome Eva Jefferson
from Northwestern,
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who testified
before the Scranton Commission
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on Campus Unrest and is majoring
in political science.
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Is that right?
Right.
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NARRATOR:
Eva Jefferson,
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whose father
had served in Vietnam,
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was now the student body
president
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at Northwestern University.
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After Kent State,
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she had forcefully stopped
angry protestors
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from burning down the ROTC
building at her school,
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and later testified before
a presidential commission
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looking into the causes
of student unrest.
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She had warned then
that some students
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were becoming so frustrated
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that they felt
they had no choice
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but to engage in violence.
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And right now
it's a privilege to welcome
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the vice president
of the United States,
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Spiro T. Agnew.
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(audience applauding)
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AGNEW:
Let me
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take brief exception
to one thing you've said,
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that the only way
to get the attention
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of the society
is to bomb buildings.
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What I attempted
to do
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before the Scranton Committee
was to explain
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what could motivate someone
to blow up a building.
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I did not say I endorse this,
and if you read my testimony
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00:08:01,330 --> 00:08:03,800
quite carefully,
you'll know that I didn't.
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And it's this type of-of just
picking up on what,
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allegedly, I said instead
of really studying what I said
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that-that really disturbs me.
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(quietly): May I respond?
Because you're
making people
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afraid of their
own children.
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Yet they're your children,
they're my parents' children,
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they're the children
of this country.
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Yet you're making people
afraid of them.
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And I think this
is the greatest disservice.
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There's an honest difference
of agreement on issues,
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but-but when you make people
afraid of each other,
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you-you isolate people,
and maybe this is your goal,
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but I think this is...
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this could only have
a disastrous effect
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on the country.
(applause)
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Let me say first
that isolating people
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is not my goal.
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If that were true I wouldn't be
here tonight.
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And let me take exception
to that
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oft-repeated rationale
that, uh,
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violence is the only way
to get results.
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I was trying to explain to you
the rationale of some students
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who are openly revolutionary.
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You're not listening
to what I'm saying.
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I'm-I'm really distressed.
Just what are...
what are you advocating?
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EVA JEFFERSON PATERSON:
They were trying to politically
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00:09:01,630 --> 00:09:03,930
benefit from
making us out to be
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00:09:04,030 --> 00:09:07,560
these scary, horrible,
violent people.
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00:09:07,660 --> 00:09:10,230
We weren't.
We were against the war.
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00:09:10,330 --> 00:09:11,700
We thought the war was wrong.
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We thought we were lied to.
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And we were in the streets.
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00:09:14,890 --> 00:09:18,760
America has always had
a rich tradition of protests.
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00:09:18,860 --> 00:09:22,360
We were founded
by protesting England.
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So to make people
afraid of their kids,
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00:09:24,800 --> 00:09:26,860
I think, was wrong,
but that's what they were about.
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They were fearmongers.
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00:09:41,630 --> 00:09:44,360
BAO NINH:
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00:10:11,390 --> 00:10:13,930
PHAN QUANG TUE:
It was fratricide.
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00:10:14,030 --> 00:10:16,430
You can say, "Well, but-but
they are communist."
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00:10:16,530 --> 00:10:18,760
Okay, they're communist.
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00:10:18,860 --> 00:10:21,530
"They are the worst Vietnamese
in the entire world.
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00:10:21,630 --> 00:10:23,460
We were the good Vietnamese."
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00:10:23,560 --> 00:10:26,330
But let's face
Vietnamese killing Vietnamese.
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00:10:26,430 --> 00:10:28,560
How-how do you deny that?
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00:10:31,630 --> 00:10:33,330
If you don't
call that fratricide,
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00:10:33,430 --> 00:10:37,060
what do you call that?
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00:10:37,160 --> 00:10:38,600
What do you... how do we...
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00:10:38,700 --> 00:10:40,630
I explain that
to-to my children?
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00:10:45,460 --> 00:10:47,360
NARRATOR:
The Cambodian incursion had
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00:10:47,460 --> 00:10:50,730
at least temporarily reduced
the flow of North Vietnamese
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00:10:50,830 --> 00:10:54,530
men and supplies
through that country,
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00:10:54,630 --> 00:10:56,600
but they were still
streaming down
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00:10:56,700 --> 00:10:59,430
the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos.
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00:10:59,530 --> 00:11:02,330
The White House
wanted them stopped.
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00:11:02,430 --> 00:11:05,990
But this time,
South Vietnamese troops
230
00:11:06,100 --> 00:11:08,700
would have to try
to do the job alone.
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00:11:08,800 --> 00:11:13,730
By the end of 1970,
both houses of Congress
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00:11:13,830 --> 00:11:16,600
had barred
all U.S. ground personnel,
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00:11:16,700 --> 00:11:19,760
even advisors
and special forces,
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00:11:19,860 --> 00:11:21,760
from crossing the border.
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00:11:21,860 --> 00:11:25,660
On February 8, 1971,
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00:11:25,760 --> 00:11:30,060
17,000 ARVN troops
began moving into Laos
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00:11:30,160 --> 00:11:32,930
to destroy
the enemy's jungle bases
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00:11:33,030 --> 00:11:36,700
and to cut off
the Ho Chi Minh trail.
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00:11:36,800 --> 00:11:41,200
The Americans
could only provide air support.
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00:11:41,300 --> 00:11:45,200
Nixon and his
National Security Advisor,
241
00:11:45,300 --> 00:11:48,390
Henry Kissinger, believed that
a successful operation
242
00:11:48,490 --> 00:11:50,630
would boost morale in Saigon
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00:11:50,730 --> 00:11:54,130
and prove to Hanoi
and the American public
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00:11:54,230 --> 00:11:58,130
that the ARVN could fight
and win on their own,
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00:11:58,230 --> 00:12:02,230
that Vietnamization could work.
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00:12:02,330 --> 00:12:06,430
Their target was the
North Vietnamese logistics hub,
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00:12:06,530 --> 00:12:09,800
the abandoned town of Tchepone.
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00:12:09,890 --> 00:12:11,960
U.S. intelligence
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00:12:12,060 --> 00:12:13,860
believed there were no more
250
00:12:13,960 --> 00:12:18,390
than 22,000 North Vietnamese
troops in the area.
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00:12:18,490 --> 00:12:22,530
But there would eventually turn
out to be 60,000,
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00:12:22,630 --> 00:12:26,360
and their commanders knew
there was only one route
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00:12:26,460 --> 00:12:29,560
the ARVN was likely to take.
254
00:12:29,660 --> 00:12:32,560
Harry Hue, who had been fighting
the communists
255
00:12:32,660 --> 00:12:36,200
for eight years,
was in the invasion force.
256
00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:39,160
HUE (speaking English):
257
00:13:03,430 --> 00:13:06,330
(explosion)
258
00:13:06,430 --> 00:13:10,030
NARRATOR:
Although individual ARVN units
fought bravely,
259
00:13:10,130 --> 00:13:12,600
the invasion was a failure.
260
00:13:30,260 --> 00:13:33,930
Almost half
of the 17,000 South Vietnamese
261
00:13:34,030 --> 00:13:35,460
who entered Laos
262
00:13:35,560 --> 00:13:38,700
would be killed,
wounded or captured.
263
00:13:40,300 --> 00:13:43,660
HUE:
264
00:14:15,600 --> 00:14:18,200
BAO NINH:
265
00:14:39,800 --> 00:14:41,430
NARRATOR:
In late March,
266
00:14:41,530 --> 00:14:43,200
as the surviving ARVN forces
267
00:14:43,300 --> 00:14:44,860
straggled back
across the border
268
00:14:44,960 --> 00:14:47,100
into South Vietnam,
269
00:14:47,200 --> 00:14:51,030
crowds of weeping women,
children and old men--
270
00:14:51,130 --> 00:14:54,160
dressed in white,
the color of mourning--
271
00:14:54,260 --> 00:14:57,760
begged for news of the soldiers
who were missing.
272
00:14:57,860 --> 00:15:02,230
In Vietnam, the dead
must receive proper burial
273
00:15:02,330 --> 00:15:06,160
so that their restless souls
can have peace,
274
00:15:06,260 --> 00:15:08,260
and their families
needed to know
275
00:15:08,360 --> 00:15:09,930
the time of their deaths
276
00:15:10,030 --> 00:15:13,060
so that they could honor them
each year.
277
00:15:15,600 --> 00:15:17,600
Even before
the invasion was over,
278
00:15:17,690 --> 00:15:20,100
President Nixon
had told an aide,
279
00:15:20,190 --> 00:15:22,260
"We must claim victory,
280
00:15:22,360 --> 00:15:24,830
whatever the outcome."
281
00:15:59,130 --> 00:16:01,330
Consequently, tonight,
282
00:16:01,430 --> 00:16:05,630
I can report that Vietnamization
has succeeded.
283
00:16:05,730 --> 00:16:07,930
Because of
the increased strength
284
00:16:08,030 --> 00:16:09,390
of the South Vietnamese,
285
00:16:09,500 --> 00:16:12,030
because of the success
of the Cambodian operation,
286
00:16:12,130 --> 00:16:13,330
because of the achievements
287
00:16:13,430 --> 00:16:16,430
of the South Vietnamese
operation in Laos,
288
00:16:16,530 --> 00:16:18,060
I am announcing an increase
289
00:16:18,160 --> 00:16:20,430
in the rate
of American withdrawals.
290
00:16:20,530 --> 00:16:22,930
We have it in our power
to leave Vietnam
291
00:16:23,030 --> 00:16:25,160
in a way
that offers a brave people
292
00:16:25,260 --> 00:16:27,890
a realistic hope of freedom.
293
00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:29,300
We have it in our power
294
00:16:29,390 --> 00:16:31,560
to prove to our friends
in the world
295
00:16:31,660 --> 00:16:34,430
that America's
sense of responsibility
296
00:16:34,530 --> 00:16:37,890
remains the world's
greatest single hope of peace.
297
00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:42,300
And generations in the future
298
00:16:42,390 --> 00:16:45,800
will look back
at this difficult,
299
00:16:45,890 --> 00:16:49,560
trying time
in America's history,
300
00:16:49,660 --> 00:16:52,160
and they will be proud
301
00:16:52,260 --> 00:16:55,460
that we demonstrated
302
00:16:55,560 --> 00:16:58,130
that we had the courage
303
00:16:58,230 --> 00:17:01,600
and the character
of a great people.
304
00:17:01,690 --> 00:17:02,560
OPERATOR:
Dr. Kissinger, sir.
305
00:17:02,660 --> 00:17:04,160
NIXON:
Yeah.
306
00:17:04,260 --> 00:17:05,160
KISSINGER:
Mr. President?
307
00:17:05,260 --> 00:17:06,330
NIXON:
Yeah. Hi, Henry.
308
00:17:06,430 --> 00:17:07,800
KISSINGER:
This was the best speech
you've delivered
309
00:17:07,890 --> 00:17:09,000
since you've been in office.
310
00:17:09,100 --> 00:17:10,100
NIXON:
Yeah.
311
00:17:10,190 --> 00:17:12,560
I'll tell you one thing,
this was, uh...
312
00:17:12,660 --> 00:17:14,760
This little speech
was a work of art.
313
00:17:14,860 --> 00:17:17,500
I mean, I-I know a little
something about speechwriting.
314
00:17:17,600 --> 00:17:19,800
And it was no act,
because no actor could do it.
315
00:17:19,890 --> 00:17:21,830
No actor in Hollywood
could have done that that well.
316
00:17:21,930 --> 00:17:23,230
KISSINGER:
It's the best...
317
00:17:23,330 --> 00:17:24,530
NIXON:
I thought that was
done well, didn't you think?
318
00:17:24,630 --> 00:17:25,930
KISSINGER:
First of all, no actor
could have written it,
319
00:17:26,030 --> 00:17:27,230
to begin with.
320
00:17:27,330 --> 00:17:28,960
You couldn't have done it
unless you had meant it.
321
00:17:29,060 --> 00:17:30,300
NIXON:
Yeah.
322
00:17:30,390 --> 00:17:32,660
And if it doesn't work,
I don't care.
323
00:17:32,760 --> 00:17:34,890
I mean, right now,
if it doesn't work...
324
00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:36,000
Then let me say, though,
325
00:17:36,100 --> 00:17:37,360
I'm going to find out soon,
326
00:17:37,460 --> 00:17:38,690
and then
I'm going to turn right
327
00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:40,390
so goddamn hard
it'll make your head spin.
328
00:17:40,500 --> 00:17:42,000
We'll bomb those bastards
right out of the...
329
00:17:42,100 --> 00:17:44,930
off the earth.
I really mean it.
330
00:17:45,030 --> 00:17:48,030
("We Gotta Get Out of This
Place" by the Animals playing)
331
00:17:52,230 --> 00:17:56,530
♪ In this dirty old part
of the city ♪
332
00:17:56,630 --> 00:18:01,060
♪ Where the sun
refuse to shine ♪
333
00:18:01,160 --> 00:18:04,330
♪ People tell me
there ain't no use in trying ♪
334
00:18:09,100 --> 00:18:10,800
Do you belong
to the same generation
335
00:18:10,890 --> 00:18:12,060
that is protesting
at home?
336
00:18:12,160 --> 00:18:13,330
Do you feel as if you belong
337
00:18:13,430 --> 00:18:15,030
to those people?
Very much.
338
00:18:15,130 --> 00:18:16,330
You do?
Very much.
339
00:18:16,430 --> 00:18:18,690
I wish they'd get us
out of here, I really do.
340
00:18:18,800 --> 00:18:21,890
♪ We gotta get out
of this place ♪
341
00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:25,860
♪ If it's the last thing
we ever do ♪
342
00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:29,100
♪ We gotta get out
of this place ♪
343
00:18:29,190 --> 00:18:30,830
♪ Girl, there's a better life
344
00:18:30,930 --> 00:18:34,100
JAMES GILLAM:
Almost all of us were draftees.
345
00:18:34,190 --> 00:18:37,100
None of us cared a damn
about the war.
346
00:18:37,190 --> 00:18:39,800
We just didn't want
to get blown up.
347
00:18:39,890 --> 00:18:41,890
We just didn't want to die
in the jungle,
348
00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:44,390
holding your guts in.
349
00:18:44,500 --> 00:18:49,960
So the idea is do six months,
maybe eight months,
350
00:18:50,060 --> 00:18:55,300
get an R&R, take a deep breath
and try to finish up,
351
00:18:55,390 --> 00:18:59,130
try to do something that would
get you sent to base camp.
352
00:18:59,230 --> 00:19:03,060
Just don't die
because you're not gonna win.
353
00:19:03,160 --> 00:19:05,230
ANIMALS:
♪ We gotta get out
of this place ♪
354
00:19:05,330 --> 00:19:08,730
♪ If it's the last thing
we ever do ♪
355
00:19:08,830 --> 00:19:11,000
REPORTER:
Chess is the most serious
contest
356
00:19:11,100 --> 00:19:12,800
Glen Hindley will engage in,
357
00:19:12,890 --> 00:19:15,730
for he has not fired a shot
in his nine months
358
00:19:15,830 --> 00:19:17,330
in the field
with Charlie Company.
359
00:19:17,430 --> 00:19:19,100
HINDLEY:
Well, I haven't shot
anybody yet.
360
00:19:19,190 --> 00:19:20,890
I don't plan on it.
361
00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:22,960
I haven't fired my gun
since I been here,
362
00:19:23,060 --> 00:19:25,100
and I like it that way.
363
00:19:25,190 --> 00:19:27,300
REPORTER:
How can you get away with that?
364
00:19:27,390 --> 00:19:28,890
Just don't fire it.
365
00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:30,300
I plan to go across the...
366
00:19:30,390 --> 00:19:31,660
across country when I get back
367
00:19:31,760 --> 00:19:33,630
because I'll see
the people I know over here,
368
00:19:33,730 --> 00:19:35,930
plus I'll be able to talk
to a lot of other people,
369
00:19:36,030 --> 00:19:38,100
maybe convince them
that killing for peace
370
00:19:38,190 --> 00:19:39,390
just doesn't make sense.
371
00:19:39,500 --> 00:19:42,530
ANIMALS:
♪ We gotta get out
of this place ♪
372
00:19:42,630 --> 00:19:47,690
♪ If it's the last thing
we ever do ♪
373
00:19:47,800 --> 00:19:49,600
♪ We gotta get out
of this place. ♪
374
00:19:49,690 --> 00:19:51,760
NARRATOR:
"The morale, discipline,
and battleworthiness
375
00:19:51,860 --> 00:19:55,760
of the U.S. Armed Forces,"
a retired Marine colonel wrote
376
00:19:55,860 --> 00:19:58,160
in the spring of 1971,
377
00:19:58,260 --> 00:20:01,500
"are lower and worse
than at any time,
378
00:20:01,600 --> 00:20:05,800
possibly in the history
of the United States."
379
00:20:05,890 --> 00:20:08,030
An official report had found
380
00:20:08,130 --> 00:20:11,130
that one out of four
enlisted men in Vietnam
381
00:20:11,230 --> 00:20:14,100
had used marijuana regularly--
382
00:20:14,190 --> 00:20:16,800
but almost never in combat.
383
00:20:16,890 --> 00:20:19,160
SOLDIER:
There's, uh, drugs everywhere.
384
00:20:19,260 --> 00:20:20,460
Really, you could, uh...
385
00:20:20,560 --> 00:20:23,030
Well, within...
within ten minutes in country,
386
00:20:23,130 --> 00:20:25,300
I-I had people approaching me
selling scag.
387
00:20:25,390 --> 00:20:26,630
INTERVIEWER:
What's scag?
388
00:20:26,730 --> 00:20:27,860
It's heroin.
389
00:20:27,960 --> 00:20:30,890
NARRATOR:
Heroin was cheap,
390
00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:33,560
pure, and everywhere.
391
00:20:33,660 --> 00:20:36,230
The Pentagon
would eventually acknowledge
392
00:20:36,330 --> 00:20:40,030
that 40,000 American troops
had been addicted to it.
393
00:20:40,130 --> 00:20:43,300
ANIMALS:
♪ We gotta get out
of this place ♪
394
00:20:43,390 --> 00:20:46,830
♪ If it's the last thing
we ever do ♪
395
00:20:46,930 --> 00:20:49,130
♪ We gotta get out
of this place ♪
396
00:20:49,230 --> 00:20:52,530
♪ Girl, there's a better life
397
00:20:52,630 --> 00:20:53,730
(coughs)
398
00:20:53,830 --> 00:20:56,300
♪ For me and you
399
00:20:56,390 --> 00:20:58,300
♪ Ooh, baby
400
00:20:58,390 --> 00:21:02,260
"The rearguard
of a once 500,000-man army,"
401
00:21:02,360 --> 00:21:03,630
an officer wrote,
402
00:21:03,730 --> 00:21:07,500
"is numbly extricating itself
from a nightmare war
403
00:21:07,600 --> 00:21:10,730
"the armed forces feel
they had foisted on them
404
00:21:10,830 --> 00:21:14,300
"by bright civilians
who are now back on campus
405
00:21:14,390 --> 00:21:19,030
writing books
about the folly of it all."
406
00:21:19,130 --> 00:21:21,760
Even General Creighton Abrams,
407
00:21:21,860 --> 00:21:25,000
commander of military operations
in Vietnam,
408
00:21:25,100 --> 00:21:26,890
now admitted privately,
409
00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:30,230
"I need to get this army home
to save it."
410
00:21:30,330 --> 00:21:31,760
ANIMALS:
♪ I know it, too, baby
411
00:21:31,860 --> 00:21:33,800
♪ Oh, yeah.
412
00:21:43,130 --> 00:21:45,500
The telegrams and letters
coming into this courthouse
413
00:21:45,600 --> 00:21:47,760
are from all parts
of the country.
414
00:21:47,860 --> 00:21:50,690
From Baton Rouge, Louisiana,
a man writes,
415
00:21:50,800 --> 00:21:53,330
"Congratulations
to the Calley jurors.
416
00:21:53,430 --> 00:21:55,630
"A courageous and fair decision.
417
00:21:55,730 --> 00:21:57,760
Justice still exists."
418
00:21:57,860 --> 00:22:02,760
NARRATOR:
On March 29, 1971,
419
00:22:02,860 --> 00:22:04,690
at Fort Benning, Georgia,
420
00:22:04,800 --> 00:22:07,830
a military court found
Lieutenant William Calley--
421
00:22:07,930 --> 00:22:10,160
and only Lieutenant Calley--
422
00:22:10,260 --> 00:22:12,830
guilty of murdering
Vietnamese civilians
423
00:22:12,930 --> 00:22:15,930
at My Lai back in 1968.
424
00:22:18,860 --> 00:22:23,160
He was sentenced to life
imprisonment at hard labor.
425
00:22:23,260 --> 00:22:25,890
The commander
of Calley's division,
426
00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:28,060
General Samuel Koster,
427
00:22:28,160 --> 00:22:30,960
who had watched some of
the slaughter from a helicopter
428
00:22:31,060 --> 00:22:33,960
and done nothing to stop it,
was now the superintendent
429
00:22:34,060 --> 00:22:37,260
of the U.S. Military Academy
at West Point.
430
00:22:37,360 --> 00:22:41,160
He was forced to resign.
431
00:22:41,260 --> 00:22:44,260
The other 23 officers and men
432
00:22:44,360 --> 00:22:46,630
who had been indicted
were either acquitted
433
00:22:46,730 --> 00:22:49,390
or had their cases dismissed.
434
00:22:49,500 --> 00:22:52,930
The Calley verdict
proved as controversial
435
00:22:53,030 --> 00:22:55,230
as the war itself.
436
00:22:55,330 --> 00:22:57,390
TROTTA:
A lady in Cheyenne, Wyoming,
says,
437
00:22:57,500 --> 00:22:59,760
"What the jury has
done to Lieutenant Calley
438
00:22:59,860 --> 00:23:01,960
"is a disgrace to this nation.
439
00:23:02,060 --> 00:23:03,930
"The enemy is the enemy,
440
00:23:04,030 --> 00:23:06,730
the enemy is the enemy."
441
00:23:06,830 --> 00:23:09,060
From Bellefontaine, Ohio,
a doctor says,
442
00:23:09,160 --> 00:23:11,830
"Let us not condemn
Lieutenant Calley
443
00:23:11,930 --> 00:23:14,230
"when it is the character
of the war
444
00:23:14,330 --> 00:23:16,960
which is at fault
for such slaughters as My Lai."
445
00:23:17,060 --> 00:23:20,300
What is your initial reaction
to this verdict, sir?
446
00:23:20,390 --> 00:23:22,560
I thought he would be found
not guilty.
447
00:23:22,660 --> 00:23:24,530
'Cause you send in a man
into combat,
448
00:23:24,630 --> 00:23:26,930
you train him
to be a... a killer,
449
00:23:27,030 --> 00:23:29,190
and then, when he does,
why then,
450
00:23:29,300 --> 00:23:31,130
uh, you prosecute him?
451
00:23:33,030 --> 00:23:36,690
NARRATOR:
Some believed everyone involved
should have gone to jail;
452
00:23:36,800 --> 00:23:39,860
others believed that Calley
had been made a scapegoat
453
00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:43,730
for the criminal misdeeds
of his superiors.
454
00:23:43,830 --> 00:23:47,690
And still others felt a systemic
failure of leadership
455
00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:50,060
had occurred
in a chain of command
456
00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:54,800
that stretched all the way up
to the commander in chief.
457
00:23:57,360 --> 00:23:59,130
According to a Gallup poll,
458
00:23:59,230 --> 00:24:04,430
79% of the American public
disagreed with the verdict.
459
00:24:04,530 --> 00:24:07,930
Nixon decided to intervene.
460
00:24:10,300 --> 00:24:13,730
Calley spent just
three days behind bars.
461
00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:17,560
The president
ordered him transferred
462
00:24:17,660 --> 00:24:19,800
from federal prison
to house arrest
463
00:24:19,890 --> 00:24:22,060
at Fort Benning,
pending appeal.
464
00:24:22,160 --> 00:24:24,160
MAN:
Okay, I'm gonna walk
back from each side.
465
00:24:24,260 --> 00:24:26,360
NARRATOR:
Captain Aubrey Daniel,
466
00:24:26,460 --> 00:24:29,000
who had successfully
prosecuted Calley,
467
00:24:29,100 --> 00:24:32,260
wrote Nixon,
accusing him of compromising
468
00:24:32,360 --> 00:24:34,930
"such a fundamental
moral principle
469
00:24:35,030 --> 00:24:37,430
"as the inherent unlawfulness
470
00:24:37,530 --> 00:24:40,630
of the murder
of innocent persons."
471
00:24:40,730 --> 00:24:43,130
A military appeals court
472
00:24:43,230 --> 00:24:46,960
eventually reduced
Calley's term to 20 years,
473
00:24:47,060 --> 00:24:49,930
the secretary of the army
cut it to ten,
474
00:24:50,030 --> 00:24:52,500
and after just
three-and-a-half years
475
00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:55,530
under house arrest,
he was paroled.
476
00:24:59,760 --> 00:25:02,160
TIM O'BRIEN:
Who's responsible?
477
00:25:04,430 --> 00:25:08,730
The human beings who did this...
478
00:25:08,830 --> 00:25:12,260
These are war crimes.
479
00:25:12,360 --> 00:25:16,300
The individual human beings
who put a rifle muzzle
480
00:25:16,390 --> 00:25:17,460
up against a baby's head
481
00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:20,890
and shot the brains
out of that baby--
482
00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:23,760
nothing happened to them.
483
00:25:23,860 --> 00:25:26,130
Nothing!
484
00:25:33,530 --> 00:25:37,330
HAL KUSHNER:
And we walked up
the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
485
00:25:39,500 --> 00:25:42,260
And they said we walked
900 kilometers--
486
00:25:42,360 --> 00:25:48,000
540 miles in 57 days.
487
00:25:48,100 --> 00:25:51,860
And we met all these people
going both ways.
488
00:25:51,960 --> 00:25:55,430
We met civilians coming south.
489
00:25:55,530 --> 00:25:58,260
We met soldiers
going north and south.
490
00:25:58,360 --> 00:26:01,560
We met people humping
artillery rounds.
491
00:26:01,660 --> 00:26:02,930
We met a...
492
00:26:03,030 --> 00:26:04,890
I remember a whole unit,
493
00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:06,930
a company-size unit,
of women.
494
00:26:09,330 --> 00:26:12,300
On the way,
in one of these villages,
495
00:26:12,390 --> 00:26:15,890
I stole a uniform.
496
00:26:17,460 --> 00:26:19,190
Just khaki pants
and khaki shirt.
497
00:26:19,300 --> 00:26:20,530
And I stole it.
498
00:26:20,630 --> 00:26:24,030
And I folded it up
and I put it in my pack.
499
00:26:24,130 --> 00:26:27,360
NARRATOR:
By early 1971,
500
00:26:27,460 --> 00:26:29,330
army doctor Hal Kushner
501
00:26:29,430 --> 00:26:31,190
had been a prisoner
of the Viet Cong
502
00:26:31,300 --> 00:26:34,630
in South Vietnam
for more than three years.
503
00:26:36,600 --> 00:26:40,300
He had survived ill treatment
and a host of illnesses,
504
00:26:40,390 --> 00:26:43,690
and he had buried
13 of his fellow captives,
505
00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:45,630
who had died of starvation
506
00:26:45,730 --> 00:26:49,260
and sickness and despair.
507
00:26:49,360 --> 00:26:53,160
Now, he and the other survivors
from his camp
508
00:26:53,260 --> 00:26:56,890
were being moved
all the way to North Vietnam.
509
00:26:59,330 --> 00:27:00,930
Kushner and his companions
510
00:27:01,030 --> 00:27:03,390
eventually reached
the city of Vinh,
511
00:27:03,500 --> 00:27:06,190
where they boarded
a train to Hanoi.
512
00:27:06,300 --> 00:27:08,330
KUSHNER:
And I put on this fresh uniform,
513
00:27:08,430 --> 00:27:10,190
and when I got off the train
514
00:27:10,300 --> 00:27:14,000
I was met with this officer
in a jeep.
515
00:27:14,100 --> 00:27:15,690
And he just looked at me
and he said,
516
00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:16,890
"You're an officer, aren't you?
517
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:19,130
You come here."
518
00:27:19,230 --> 00:27:21,500
And he just... I felt very proud
that I looked good
519
00:27:21,600 --> 00:27:23,500
when I came off that train.
520
00:27:29,890 --> 00:27:33,190
NARRATOR:
Kushner joined hundreds
of American captives
521
00:27:33,300 --> 00:27:35,800
who were scattered
among five prisons
522
00:27:35,890 --> 00:27:39,000
in and around Hanoi.
523
00:27:39,100 --> 00:27:41,660
KUSHNER:
We hadn't been there long
when the word came down
524
00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:44,500
from the American
senior ranking officer
525
00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:48,890
that nobody would go home
unless everybody went home.
526
00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:51,960
That nobody would cooperate
with the Vietnamese.
527
00:27:52,060 --> 00:27:54,000
(indistinct voice on radio)
528
00:27:57,360 --> 00:28:00,930
But we heard him
on the camp radio once...
529
00:28:01,030 --> 00:28:02,930
(radio transmission continuing)
530
00:28:03,030 --> 00:28:05,960
...telling us that
we should cooperate.
531
00:28:08,190 --> 00:28:11,000
And it was obvious, from
his voice and his inflection,
532
00:28:11,100 --> 00:28:13,130
that he had been
tortured and beaten
533
00:28:13,230 --> 00:28:16,130
and was being made to say that.
534
00:28:16,230 --> 00:28:18,300
And that's what they did.
535
00:28:18,390 --> 00:28:22,800
NARRATOR:
Eventually, Kushner,
like most of the prisoners,
536
00:28:22,890 --> 00:28:25,600
would be forced
to record a statement
537
00:28:25,690 --> 00:28:27,630
against the war.
538
00:28:28,860 --> 00:28:30,390
(light clicks on)
539
00:28:33,190 --> 00:28:35,730
KUSHNER (on recording):
540
00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:03,530
KUSHNER:
They wanted propaganda
statements
541
00:29:03,630 --> 00:29:05,190
to say the war was criminal,
542
00:29:05,300 --> 00:29:07,800
to say that we were criminals.
543
00:29:07,890 --> 00:29:10,100
And they used our weakness
against us.
544
00:29:10,190 --> 00:29:11,600
(light clicks off)
545
00:29:11,690 --> 00:29:14,660
("Gimme Shelter" by
the Rolling Stones playing)
546
00:29:14,760 --> 00:29:18,560
CROWD (chanting):
No more war! No more war!
No more war!
547
00:29:18,660 --> 00:29:22,430
No more war!
No more war!
548
00:29:22,530 --> 00:29:24,530
JOHN MUSGRAVE:
The first time in our history
549
00:29:24,630 --> 00:29:27,100
that veterans came home
from a war and said--
550
00:29:27,190 --> 00:29:28,630
while the war
is still going on--
551
00:29:28,730 --> 00:29:31,730
and said,
"This war's got to stop."
552
00:29:31,830 --> 00:29:34,690
And the American people
553
00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:37,130
might not listen to a bunch
of long-haired hippie kids.
554
00:29:37,230 --> 00:29:39,060
What do they know?
555
00:29:39,160 --> 00:29:41,930
But the working class,
the great "silent majority"--
556
00:29:42,030 --> 00:29:44,460
Richard Nixon always talked
about his "silent majority"
557
00:29:44,560 --> 00:29:47,060
that would back him
by being silent--
558
00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:49,630
we were their kids.
559
00:29:49,730 --> 00:29:52,360
And it finally dawned on me--
560
00:29:52,460 --> 00:29:54,530
and this was a long,
painful process--
561
00:29:54,630 --> 00:29:57,500
that... that I wasn't
helping anybody
562
00:29:57,600 --> 00:30:00,690
by keeping my mouth shut.
563
00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:03,960
NARRATOR:
Less than three weeks after
Lieutenant Calley
564
00:30:04,060 --> 00:30:06,730
was found guilty,
some 2,000 members
565
00:30:06,830 --> 00:30:08,760
of an organization called
566
00:30:08,860 --> 00:30:11,330
Vietnam Veterans
Against the War
567
00:30:11,430 --> 00:30:16,190
and their followers descended
upon Washington, D.C.
568
00:30:16,300 --> 00:30:20,230
MICK JAGGER:
♪ Ooh, storm is threatening
569
00:30:20,330 --> 00:30:23,800
♪ My very life today
570
00:30:23,890 --> 00:30:28,830
♪ If I don't get some shelter
571
00:30:28,930 --> 00:30:32,330
♪ Oh, yeah,
I'm gonna fade away ♪
572
00:30:32,430 --> 00:30:35,930
♪ War, children
573
00:30:36,030 --> 00:30:38,460
♪ It's just a shot away
574
00:30:38,560 --> 00:30:40,560
♪ It's just
a shot away ♪
575
00:30:40,660 --> 00:30:44,000
♪ War, children
576
00:30:44,100 --> 00:30:45,930
♪ It's just a shot away
577
00:30:46,030 --> 00:30:49,600
♪ It's just
a shot away. ♪
578
00:30:49,690 --> 00:30:53,130
VVAW was a-a...
it was great therapy.
579
00:30:53,230 --> 00:30:55,300
We were working it out
ourselves.
580
00:30:55,390 --> 00:30:57,660
Vets taking care of vets.
581
00:30:57,760 --> 00:30:59,460
We were generals
in our own right.
582
00:30:59,560 --> 00:31:01,100
And we didn't join anything.
583
00:31:01,190 --> 00:31:02,760
We became something.
584
00:31:02,860 --> 00:31:04,960
And that, yes, I was a Marine,
585
00:31:05,060 --> 00:31:06,800
but I was first and foremost
586
00:31:06,890 --> 00:31:09,160
a citizen
of the United States of America.
587
00:31:09,260 --> 00:31:13,030
And being a citizen,
I had certain responsibilities.
588
00:31:13,130 --> 00:31:16,190
And the largest
of those responsibilities
589
00:31:16,300 --> 00:31:19,600
is standing up to your
government and saying "no"
590
00:31:19,690 --> 00:31:21,730
when it's doing something
that you think
591
00:31:21,830 --> 00:31:24,530
is not in this nation's
best interest.
592
00:31:24,630 --> 00:31:29,830
That is the most important job
that every citizen has.
593
00:31:29,930 --> 00:31:33,600
ROLLING STONES:
♪ Rape, murder
594
00:31:33,690 --> 00:31:36,830
MUSGRAVE:
I served my country
as honorably,
595
00:31:36,930 --> 00:31:40,030
when I was in Vietnam Veterans
Against the War,
596
00:31:40,130 --> 00:31:43,660
as I did
as a United States Marine.
597
00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:47,100
And, in fact,
I conducted myself as a Marine
598
00:31:47,190 --> 00:31:49,890
the whole time I was in VVAW.
599
00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:51,530
I... My-my whole life,
600
00:31:51,630 --> 00:31:54,360
I conduct myself as a Marine.
601
00:31:54,460 --> 00:31:57,800
NARRATOR:
Navy Lieutenant John Kerry,
602
00:31:57,890 --> 00:32:01,190
who had commanded a swift boat
in the Mekong Delta
603
00:32:01,300 --> 00:32:03,800
and was one of
the organization's leaders,
604
00:32:03,890 --> 00:32:05,230
was invited to address
605
00:32:05,330 --> 00:32:07,460
the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee,
606
00:32:07,560 --> 00:32:10,530
still chaired
by J. William Fulbright.
607
00:32:10,630 --> 00:32:12,030
Thank you.
608
00:32:12,130 --> 00:32:15,560
MUSGRAVE:
I went up for the presentation.
609
00:32:15,660 --> 00:32:17,860
And it was standing room only.
610
00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:21,760
And I was crammed up against
the wall in the very back.
611
00:32:21,860 --> 00:32:24,900
And when John...
612
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:27,790
gave that presentation...
(gavel bangs)
613
00:32:27,900 --> 00:32:30,400
...I felt like
he was speaking for all of us.
614
00:32:30,500 --> 00:32:33,860
KERRY:
We could come back to this
country and we could be quiet.
615
00:32:33,960 --> 00:32:35,460
We could hold our silence.
616
00:32:35,560 --> 00:32:39,030
We could not tell what
went on in Vietnam, but we feel,
617
00:32:39,130 --> 00:32:41,960
because of what threatens
this country,
618
00:32:42,060 --> 00:32:43,830
we have to speak out.
619
00:32:43,930 --> 00:32:45,760
Millions of men
who have been
620
00:32:45,860 --> 00:32:48,930
taught to deal
and to trade in violence
621
00:32:49,030 --> 00:32:51,330
and who were given
the chance to die
622
00:32:51,430 --> 00:32:53,630
for the biggest nothing
in history,
623
00:32:53,730 --> 00:32:57,360
men who have returned
with a sense of anger
624
00:32:57,460 --> 00:32:58,860
and a sense of betrayal
625
00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:01,330
which no one has yet grasped.
626
00:33:01,430 --> 00:33:04,060
We rationalized
destroying villages
627
00:33:04,160 --> 00:33:05,690
in order to save them.
628
00:33:05,790 --> 00:33:07,860
We saw America lose
her sense of morality,
629
00:33:07,960 --> 00:33:10,900
as she accepted very coolly
a My Lai
630
00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:13,400
and refused to give up
the image of American soldiers
631
00:33:13,500 --> 00:33:16,190
that hand out chocolate bars
and chewing gum.
632
00:33:16,290 --> 00:33:18,860
We learnt the meaning
of free-fire zones,
633
00:33:18,960 --> 00:33:21,460
shoot anything that moves,
634
00:33:21,560 --> 00:33:23,730
and we watched while America
placed a cheapness
635
00:33:23,830 --> 00:33:26,000
on the lives of Orientals.
636
00:33:26,100 --> 00:33:30,000
We watched the United States'
falsification of body counts--
637
00:33:30,100 --> 00:33:33,530
in fact, the glorification
of body counts.
638
00:33:33,630 --> 00:33:36,190
We watched
while men charged up hills
639
00:33:36,290 --> 00:33:39,430
because a general said
that hill has to be taken.
640
00:33:39,530 --> 00:33:42,230
And after losing one platoon
or two platoons,
641
00:33:42,330 --> 00:33:43,630
they marched away
642
00:33:43,730 --> 00:33:45,630
to leave the hill
for the reoccupation
643
00:33:45,730 --> 00:33:48,600
of the North Vietnamese.
644
00:33:48,690 --> 00:33:51,260
And we are asking Americans
to think about that.
645
00:33:51,360 --> 00:33:53,530
Because how do you ask a man
646
00:33:53,630 --> 00:33:56,360
to be the last man to die
in Vietnam?
647
00:33:56,460 --> 00:34:01,100
How do you ask a man to be the
last man to die for a mistake?
648
00:34:01,190 --> 00:34:04,230
And so, when,
30 years from now,
649
00:34:04,330 --> 00:34:07,030
our brothers go down the street
without a leg,
650
00:34:07,130 --> 00:34:09,690
without an arm or a face,
651
00:34:09,790 --> 00:34:12,430
and small boys ask why,
652
00:34:12,530 --> 00:34:15,290
we will be able
to say "Vietnam"
653
00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:18,960
and not mean
a filthy, obscene memory
654
00:34:19,060 --> 00:34:24,360
but mean instead the place
where America finally turned
655
00:34:24,460 --> 00:34:29,160
and where soldiers like us
helped it in the turning.
656
00:34:29,260 --> 00:34:31,000
Thank you.
657
00:34:31,100 --> 00:34:33,030
(cheers and applause)
658
00:34:37,530 --> 00:34:40,430
MUSGRAVE:
I thought, "I have never heard
659
00:34:40,530 --> 00:34:43,360
"so... such an incredible speech
660
00:34:43,460 --> 00:34:45,900
that says exactly what
I'm feeling."
661
00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:49,360
You know?
It was extraordinary.
662
00:34:49,460 --> 00:34:51,830
Extraordinary.
663
00:34:51,930 --> 00:34:55,500
NARRATOR:
But some veterans remembered
a different part
664
00:34:55,600 --> 00:34:57,430
of Kerry's testimony,
665
00:34:57,530 --> 00:35:01,160
testimony in which he repeated
accounts of atrocities
666
00:35:01,260 --> 00:35:05,060
he had heard
from other American veterans.
667
00:35:05,160 --> 00:35:08,330
KERRY:
They told the stories of times
668
00:35:08,430 --> 00:35:13,400
that they had personally raped,
cut off ears, cut off heads,
669
00:35:13,500 --> 00:35:17,260
taped wires from portable
telephones to human genitals
670
00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:19,060
and turned up the power,
671
00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:22,500
cut off limbs, blown up bodies,
672
00:35:22,600 --> 00:35:25,160
randomly shot at civilians,
673
00:35:25,260 --> 00:35:29,500
razed villages in fashion
reminiscent of Genghis Khan...
674
00:35:29,600 --> 00:35:32,030
GIOIA:
What I saw in Vietnam
was not the soldier
675
00:35:32,130 --> 00:35:34,030
that Mr. Kerry
or his colleagues
676
00:35:34,130 --> 00:35:36,160
were describing at that time.
677
00:35:36,260 --> 00:35:38,690
There was
no widespread atrocity.
678
00:35:38,790 --> 00:35:40,360
There was...
there were a couple of units
679
00:35:40,460 --> 00:35:42,960
that went right off the rails,
and we can talk about that.
680
00:35:43,060 --> 00:35:45,690
But they were not
out-of-control animals,
681
00:35:45,790 --> 00:35:47,830
which was the way
they were portrayed.
682
00:35:47,930 --> 00:35:51,500
And what was even worse was
they were alluding to the fact
683
00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:52,900
that you would take
ordinary kids
684
00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:55,460
and turn them
into these savages,
685
00:35:55,560 --> 00:35:57,060
war criminals, and the...
686
00:35:57,160 --> 00:35:58,530
that the military
was doing that.
687
00:35:58,630 --> 00:36:01,190
And it didn't.
Didn't happen that way.
688
00:36:01,290 --> 00:36:03,660
I'm still very angry about that.
689
00:36:03,760 --> 00:36:05,600
ROLLING STONES:
♪ War, children
690
00:36:05,690 --> 00:36:07,130
NARRATOR:
The next day,
691
00:36:07,230 --> 00:36:10,400
700 Vietnam Veterans
Against the War
692
00:36:10,500 --> 00:36:12,660
gathered at the Capitol.
693
00:36:12,760 --> 00:36:15,730
MUSGRAVE:
We originally intended to put
our medals in a body bag
694
00:36:15,830 --> 00:36:18,690
and have them delivered
to Congress.
695
00:36:18,790 --> 00:36:22,100
But the Nixon
administration erected
696
00:36:22,190 --> 00:36:27,690
this big wire and wood fence
on the steps of our Capitol
697
00:36:27,790 --> 00:36:31,330
to keep us out.
698
00:36:31,430 --> 00:36:33,330
To keep out
the young men and women
699
00:36:33,430 --> 00:36:36,000
who were fighting that war.
700
00:36:36,100 --> 00:36:38,460
And all that did was piss us off
701
00:36:38,560 --> 00:36:42,460
and give us
the greatest photo opportunity
702
00:36:42,560 --> 00:36:45,230
that we could ever have.
703
00:36:45,330 --> 00:36:46,400
Silver Star.
STEVE SHAW: Purple Heart.
704
00:36:46,500 --> 00:36:48,630
MAN:
Bronze Star.
705
00:36:48,730 --> 00:36:50,460
Cross of Gallantry.
SACHS:
Distinguished Flying Cross.
706
00:36:50,560 --> 00:36:51,930
And everything else!
(cheering)
707
00:36:52,030 --> 00:36:53,730
FERRIZZI:
I don't want these fucking
medals, man!
708
00:36:53,830 --> 00:36:57,060
The Silver Star, the third
highest medal in the country,
709
00:36:57,160 --> 00:36:58,660
it doesn't mean anything!
710
00:36:58,760 --> 00:37:01,060
Bob Smeal died for these medals!
711
00:37:01,160 --> 00:37:03,560
Lieutenant Panamaroff died
so I got a medal!
712
00:37:03,660 --> 00:37:06,000
Sergeant Johns died
so I got a medal!
713
00:37:06,100 --> 00:37:08,000
I got a Silver Star,
a Purple Heart,
714
00:37:08,100 --> 00:37:10,400
Army Commendation Medal,
eight Air Medals,
715
00:37:10,500 --> 00:37:11,860
National Defense,
716
00:37:11,960 --> 00:37:13,030
and the rest of this garbage!
717
00:37:13,130 --> 00:37:14,960
It doesn't mean a thing!
718
00:37:15,060 --> 00:37:16,460
(cheering)
719
00:37:16,560 --> 00:37:20,130
JAGGER:
♪ Mm, the flood is threatening
720
00:37:20,230 --> 00:37:21,660
♪ My very life
721
00:37:21,760 --> 00:37:23,860
FERRIZZI:
Throwing my medals back
was probably harder
722
00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:25,260
than going to the war.
723
00:37:25,360 --> 00:37:27,930
Was actually harder than going
and serving in Vietnam.
724
00:37:28,030 --> 00:37:32,460
JAGGER:
♪ Or I'm gonna fade away
725
00:37:32,560 --> 00:37:34,960
FERRIZZI:
If this medal is so important,
let's make it important.
726
00:37:35,060 --> 00:37:36,660
Here it is.
You can have it back.
727
00:37:36,760 --> 00:37:38,790
End the war in Vietnam.
728
00:37:38,900 --> 00:37:40,430
What else is there?
729
00:37:40,530 --> 00:37:41,790
I... There was nothing else.
730
00:37:41,900 --> 00:37:43,290
I wouldn't put 'em on my wall
for my son.
731
00:37:43,400 --> 00:37:45,530
I never want... that was
the last thing in the world
732
00:37:45,630 --> 00:37:48,230
I would ever want my son
to revere.
733
00:37:48,330 --> 00:37:50,560
(indistinct shouting)
734
00:37:50,660 --> 00:37:53,500
TOM VALLELY:
It was a difficult decision
for me.
735
00:37:53,600 --> 00:37:58,500
I did it out
of a disrespectful loyalty.
736
00:37:58,600 --> 00:38:02,530
I was proud
of my military service.
737
00:38:02,630 --> 00:38:04,860
And I wanted to say,
"You know, I don't think
738
00:38:04,960 --> 00:38:07,660
you guys know that much,"
the American military.
739
00:38:07,760 --> 00:38:10,760
"You know,
I think you should think again
740
00:38:10,860 --> 00:38:12,230
"about this enterprise.
741
00:38:12,330 --> 00:38:14,690
And here you go, pal."
742
00:38:14,790 --> 00:38:16,560
Tim Bagwell
from Sacramento, California,
743
00:38:16,660 --> 00:38:19,560
still on active duty,
and I say get the hell out.
744
00:38:19,660 --> 00:38:20,630
(cheering)
745
00:38:20,730 --> 00:38:23,360
("Gimme Shelter" continues)
746
00:38:32,930 --> 00:38:35,290
MUSGRAVE:
When we threw our medals away,
747
00:38:35,400 --> 00:38:36,900
that got their attention,
748
00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:39,560
because America values
those things.
749
00:38:39,660 --> 00:38:41,000
So do we.
750
00:38:41,100 --> 00:38:43,290
That's why it was so important.
751
00:38:43,400 --> 00:38:46,430
NARRATOR:
The police had been ordered
not to arrest
752
00:38:46,530 --> 00:38:49,030
any of the veterans, because,
753
00:38:49,130 --> 00:38:51,630
Pat Buchanan,
a White House aide, wrote,
754
00:38:51,730 --> 00:38:55,100
they were "being received in
a far more sympathetic fashion
755
00:38:55,190 --> 00:38:57,290
"than other demonstrators.
756
00:38:57,400 --> 00:39:01,030
The 'crazies' will be in town
soon enough," he continued,
757
00:39:01,130 --> 00:39:03,190
"and if we want
a confrontation,
758
00:39:03,290 --> 00:39:05,260
let's have it with them."
759
00:39:05,360 --> 00:39:07,660
He was right.
760
00:39:07,760 --> 00:39:10,000
In the days
immediately following
761
00:39:10,100 --> 00:39:11,460
the veterans' protest,
762
00:39:11,560 --> 00:39:13,600
other groups
of antiwar activists
763
00:39:13,690 --> 00:39:16,690
moved into the capital.
764
00:39:16,790 --> 00:39:20,460
The most radical called itself
the May Day Tribe
765
00:39:20,560 --> 00:39:23,530
and threatened
to close the city down.
766
00:39:23,630 --> 00:39:26,860
For three days,
they staged hit-and-run raids
767
00:39:26,960 --> 00:39:28,730
throughout Washington--
768
00:39:28,830 --> 00:39:31,260
blocking bridges
and traffic circles,
769
00:39:31,360 --> 00:39:32,690
smashing windows,
770
00:39:32,790 --> 00:39:35,190
hurling rocks, burning cars.
771
00:39:35,290 --> 00:39:36,260
(sirens wailing)
772
00:39:36,360 --> 00:39:37,660
RENNIE DAVIS:
If Richard Nixon thought
773
00:39:37,760 --> 00:39:41,060
that this week was something,
wait until the next round.
774
00:39:41,160 --> 00:39:43,730
This is only a warm-up
of what is going to come.
775
00:39:43,830 --> 00:39:46,560
This is going to continue
until the war ends.
776
00:39:46,660 --> 00:39:48,860
NARRATOR:
Some 12,000 were arrested--
777
00:39:48,960 --> 00:39:51,430
7,000 on a single day,
778
00:39:51,530 --> 00:39:55,000
the largest number of arrests
in 24 hours
779
00:39:55,100 --> 00:39:57,500
in United States history.
780
00:39:57,600 --> 00:40:00,960
BILL ZIMMERMAN:
I realized, coming away
from Washington,
781
00:40:01,060 --> 00:40:03,360
that our whole strategy
was wrong
782
00:40:03,460 --> 00:40:07,100
and that we were becoming
more and more militant
783
00:40:07,190 --> 00:40:09,960
at a time
when more and more Americans
784
00:40:10,060 --> 00:40:11,560
were opposing the war
785
00:40:11,660 --> 00:40:14,160
but were turned off
by our militancy.
786
00:40:14,260 --> 00:40:17,160
So we were doing
exactly the wrong thing.
787
00:40:17,260 --> 00:40:20,730
NARRATOR:
The White House was
initially pleased.
788
00:40:20,830 --> 00:40:23,900
Public sympathy for the veterans
was largely forgotten
789
00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:27,930
in the face of days of battle
in the streets.
790
00:40:28,030 --> 00:40:31,060
Polls showed
that most Americans approved
791
00:40:31,160 --> 00:40:32,960
of the arrests.
792
00:40:37,130 --> 00:40:40,160
But those same polls
also showed
793
00:40:40,260 --> 00:40:42,960
that most Americans
no longer believed
794
00:40:43,060 --> 00:40:46,760
they were being told the truth
about Vietnam.
795
00:40:51,730 --> 00:40:54,430
MUSGRAVE:
When I got home, my...
so my dad's pissed off.
796
00:40:54,530 --> 00:40:58,260
'Cause he's-he's
a true believer, you know?
797
00:40:59,790 --> 00:41:02,030
He was already receiving threats
798
00:41:02,130 --> 00:41:05,260
because I'd thrown away
their medals.
799
00:41:07,030 --> 00:41:10,000
And that pissed my dad off then.
800
00:41:10,100 --> 00:41:12,730
And you would've thought
I hadn't done anything wrong.
801
00:41:12,830 --> 00:41:15,860
Because then somebody outside
the family was messing with me.
802
00:41:15,960 --> 00:41:18,000
And he said, "Son, don't worry.
803
00:41:18,100 --> 00:41:20,000
"Those were your medals.
You paid for 'em.
804
00:41:20,100 --> 00:41:21,400
"You can do anything
you want with 'em.
805
00:41:21,500 --> 00:41:23,560
"They want to jack with us,
they'll face us both.
806
00:41:23,660 --> 00:41:25,290
We'll-we'll take 'em on
in the driveway."
807
00:41:25,400 --> 00:41:28,060
You know?
"Yo, Dad."
808
00:41:29,330 --> 00:41:31,260
(applause)
809
00:41:32,960 --> 00:41:35,400
(band playing
"Thank Heaven for Little Girls")
810
00:41:35,500 --> 00:41:38,400
NARRATOR:
On June 12, 1971,
811
00:41:38,500 --> 00:41:40,730
Richard Nixon's daughter,
Tricia,
812
00:41:40,830 --> 00:41:45,360
married Edward Cox
in the White House Rose Garden.
813
00:41:45,460 --> 00:41:49,060
The country watched it all
on television.
814
00:41:52,500 --> 00:41:55,660
The wedding was still news
the next day.
815
00:41:55,760 --> 00:41:59,260
But another story on the front
page of theNew York Times
816
00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:02,160
caught
the president's attention.
817
00:42:02,260 --> 00:42:05,330
The article, by Neil Sheehan,
818
00:42:05,430 --> 00:42:08,130
was the first report
of what came to be called
819
00:42:08,230 --> 00:42:10,000
the Pentagon Papers,
820
00:42:10,100 --> 00:42:13,660
7,000 pages
of highly classified documents
821
00:42:13,760 --> 00:42:15,730
and historical narrative,
822
00:42:15,830 --> 00:42:18,060
compiled secretly at the orders
823
00:42:18,160 --> 00:42:21,930
of former Secretary of Defense
Robert McNamara.
824
00:42:22,030 --> 00:42:25,260
He had hoped a study
of the decision-making process
825
00:42:25,360 --> 00:42:28,860
that had led the United States
to become so deeply involved
826
00:42:28,960 --> 00:42:32,190
in Vietnam would help
future policymakers
827
00:42:32,290 --> 00:42:34,900
avoid similar errors.
828
00:42:36,500 --> 00:42:38,530
SHEEHAN:
I thought I knew a great deal.
829
00:42:38,630 --> 00:42:40,660
I thought I knew most
of what was worth knowing
830
00:42:40,760 --> 00:42:42,000
about the war.
831
00:42:42,100 --> 00:42:45,790
And, suddenly, I didn't.
832
00:42:45,900 --> 00:42:48,860
It wasn't a reporter's version
of an event.
833
00:42:48,960 --> 00:42:50,790
It wasthe ir version
of an event.
834
00:42:50,900 --> 00:42:53,130
It was their telegrams,
their orders,
835
00:42:53,230 --> 00:42:55,060
their memoranda, et cetera.
836
00:43:09,530 --> 00:43:12,600
NARRATOR:
The documents proved
that American presidents
837
00:43:12,690 --> 00:43:14,530
and their closest advisors
838
00:43:14,630 --> 00:43:16,600
had steered the United States
839
00:43:16,690 --> 00:43:19,400
toward deeper involvement
in Vietnam,
840
00:43:19,500 --> 00:43:23,900
despite their own grave doubts
about the chances for victory.
841
00:43:32,760 --> 00:43:35,260
They had known
that the Saigon government
842
00:43:35,360 --> 00:43:37,760
was weak and incompetent...
843
00:43:45,130 --> 00:43:49,060
...that the enemy was
disciplined and resilient...
844
00:43:55,160 --> 00:43:58,930
...and that the bombing
of the North wasn't working.
845
00:44:06,500 --> 00:44:10,560
Yet, they had routinely lied
about all these things
846
00:44:10,660 --> 00:44:13,190
to Congress
and the American people.
847
00:44:37,360 --> 00:44:39,030
(sighs)
848
00:44:39,130 --> 00:44:42,060
I certainly don't endorse
849
00:44:42,160 --> 00:44:47,060
anyone releasing top-secret
material to the press.
850
00:44:48,760 --> 00:44:52,660
Um, on the other hand, uh...
851
00:44:52,760 --> 00:44:55,900
I was very concerned
852
00:44:56,000 --> 00:44:58,430
about the fact that the, uh,
853
00:44:58,530 --> 00:45:03,790
government was not being up
front with the American people
854
00:45:03,900 --> 00:45:07,560
in certain respects
with the Vietnam War.
855
00:45:07,660 --> 00:45:10,830
NARRATOR:
Two copies of the report
had been stored
856
00:45:10,930 --> 00:45:14,260
at the RAND Corporation,
a California think tank,
857
00:45:14,360 --> 00:45:16,330
where Daniel Ellsberg,
858
00:45:16,430 --> 00:45:21,130
one of the study's 36 authors,
worked as an analyst.
859
00:45:21,230 --> 00:45:24,160
Ellsberg had once
supported the war.
860
00:45:24,260 --> 00:45:26,160
He'd served in the Pentagon,
861
00:45:26,260 --> 00:45:28,660
and spent two years working
for the State Department
862
00:45:28,760 --> 00:45:30,900
in Vietnam.
863
00:45:31,000 --> 00:45:35,400
But he had come to see the war
as profoundly immoral,
864
00:45:35,500 --> 00:45:38,000
and hoped
that if Americans understood
865
00:45:38,100 --> 00:45:42,430
how administration after
administration had misled them
866
00:45:42,530 --> 00:45:45,000
about what was being
done in their name,
867
00:45:45,100 --> 00:45:47,630
they might help
bring it to an end.
868
00:45:47,730 --> 00:45:51,460
He and Anthony Russo,
another RAND employee,
869
00:45:51,560 --> 00:45:54,960
secretly copied
most of the report.
870
00:45:55,060 --> 00:45:59,160
Ellsberg offered it to three
leading antiwar senators,
871
00:45:59,260 --> 00:46:03,160
hoping they would be willing
to reveal its contents.
872
00:46:03,260 --> 00:46:05,900
None dared do it.
873
00:46:06,000 --> 00:46:09,500
Meanwhile, Neil Sheehan
of theNew York Times,
874
00:46:09,600 --> 00:46:13,630
who had been reporting
on Vietnam since 1962,
875
00:46:13,730 --> 00:46:17,500
and had already secretly read
some of the documents,
876
00:46:17,600 --> 00:46:21,560
asked Ellsberg
to show him the whole report.
877
00:46:21,660 --> 00:46:24,690
SHEEHAN:
At that point, I was very
passionate about the war.
878
00:46:24,790 --> 00:46:28,230
I felt
that it was really wrong,
879
00:46:28,330 --> 00:46:30,190
because we were getting
a lot of Americans
880
00:46:30,290 --> 00:46:32,530
and a lot of Vietnamese killed
for no purpose.
881
00:46:32,630 --> 00:46:36,360
We were gonna lose this war.
882
00:46:36,460 --> 00:46:40,660
And so I vowed to myself
when I saw this material
883
00:46:40,760 --> 00:46:42,530
that this is never
gonna go back
884
00:46:42,630 --> 00:46:44,190
into a government safe again.
885
00:46:44,290 --> 00:46:45,960
The American public
had paid for it
886
00:46:46,060 --> 00:46:48,730
with the lives of their sons
and with their treasure,
887
00:46:48,830 --> 00:46:50,530
and it's gonna be published.
888
00:46:50,630 --> 00:46:52,190
NIXON:
That piece in theTimes
889
00:46:52,290 --> 00:46:53,500
is, of course,
890
00:46:53,600 --> 00:46:56,660
a massive security leak
from the Pentagon, you know.
891
00:46:56,760 --> 00:46:58,460
ROGERS:
Yeah.
892
00:46:58,560 --> 00:47:01,600
NIXON:
It all relates, of course, to
everything up until we came in.
893
00:47:01,690 --> 00:47:03,290
ROGERS:
Yeah.
894
00:47:03,400 --> 00:47:05,830
NIXON:
And it's, uh, it's ver...
it's hard on Johnson,
895
00:47:05,930 --> 00:47:09,260
it's hard on Kennedy,
it's hard on Lodge.
896
00:47:09,360 --> 00:47:12,760
NARRATOR:
At first, Nixon was not
unduly disturbed
897
00:47:12,860 --> 00:47:15,260
by the newspaper's revelations.
898
00:47:15,360 --> 00:47:18,900
They reflected badly
on his Democratic predecessors,
899
00:47:19,000 --> 00:47:21,360
not on him.
900
00:47:21,460 --> 00:47:24,660
But Henry Kissinger
quickly convinced Nixon
901
00:47:24,760 --> 00:47:26,560
that if theTime s were
permitted
902
00:47:26,660 --> 00:47:30,400
to reveal the classified secrets
of earlier presidents,
903
00:47:30,500 --> 00:47:35,500
it was only a matter of time
until someone leaked his own.
904
00:47:35,600 --> 00:47:39,430
The Justice Department obtained
a temporary court order
905
00:47:39,530 --> 00:47:43,100
forbidding theTi mes from
publishing further installments
906
00:47:43,190 --> 00:47:46,230
on the grounds
of national security.
907
00:47:46,330 --> 00:47:50,030
But soon, both theBoston Globe
908
00:47:50,130 --> 00:47:54,000
and theWashington Pos t were
also printing excerpts.
909
00:47:55,630 --> 00:47:58,160
On June 30, 1971,
910
00:47:58,260 --> 00:48:00,930
the United States
Supreme Court,
911
00:48:01,030 --> 00:48:03,190
citing the First Amendment,
912
00:48:03,290 --> 00:48:06,860
ruled six to three
that theTimes had the right
913
00:48:06,960 --> 00:48:10,430
to publish
the stolen documents.
914
00:48:10,530 --> 00:48:12,630
SHEEHAN:
And I went down
into the basement
915
00:48:12,730 --> 00:48:15,030
to wait for the presses
to start to roll,
916
00:48:15,130 --> 00:48:17,730
and they had these huge
round reams of paper.
917
00:48:17,830 --> 00:48:18,930
(whirring)
918
00:48:19,030 --> 00:48:20,530
And, finally,
the presses started to roll.
919
00:48:20,630 --> 00:48:25,060
And it was just an exquisite
moment of vindication
920
00:48:25,160 --> 00:48:27,290
of the freedom
of the press in this country
921
00:48:27,400 --> 00:48:29,000
and how important it is.
922
00:48:29,100 --> 00:48:31,060
(rhythmic rattling)
923
00:48:31,160 --> 00:48:33,830
KARL MARLANTES:
That changed
924
00:48:33,930 --> 00:48:35,830
our whole attitude
toward government.
925
00:48:35,930 --> 00:48:38,290
Up until then,
the president wouldn't lie.
926
00:48:38,400 --> 00:48:40,530
After then, they always lie.
927
00:48:40,630 --> 00:48:43,100
NARRATOR:
The day the presses began
to roll again,
928
00:48:43,190 --> 00:48:46,430
Nixon ordered
attorney general John Mitchell
929
00:48:46,530 --> 00:48:50,100
to try to discredit
Daniel Ellsberg, who had just
930
00:48:50,190 --> 00:48:52,400
been indicted
by a federal grand jury
931
00:48:52,500 --> 00:48:54,660
for theft and conspiracy
932
00:48:54,760 --> 00:48:58,730
under the Espionage Act
of 1917.
933
00:49:33,690 --> 00:49:37,900
NARRATOR:
Nixon feared Ellsberg possessed
more classified documents
934
00:49:38,000 --> 00:49:40,430
that would show
that he himself had lied
935
00:49:40,530 --> 00:49:44,290
about the secret bombing
of Cambodia and Laos,
936
00:49:44,400 --> 00:49:47,130
and he believed
that Ellsberg had had help
937
00:49:47,230 --> 00:49:50,660
and wanted to know the names
of his co-conspirators.
938
00:49:50,760 --> 00:49:53,100
The president
created a private,
939
00:49:53,190 --> 00:49:56,500
clandestine investigative unit
within the White House.
940
00:49:56,600 --> 00:49:59,500
It came to be called
"The Plumbers."
941
00:49:59,600 --> 00:50:03,130
John Ehrlichman,
one of Nixon's closest aides,
942
00:50:03,230 --> 00:50:06,600
eventually ordered them
to burglarize the office
943
00:50:06,690 --> 00:50:09,630
of Ellsberg's
Los Angeles psychiatrist
944
00:50:09,730 --> 00:50:11,690
in search of material
945
00:50:11,790 --> 00:50:15,500
with which he could be
blackmailed into silence.
946
00:50:15,600 --> 00:50:19,790
Nixon may have privately feared
something else as well.
947
00:50:19,900 --> 00:50:22,690
He was told that the safe
at another think tank,
948
00:50:22,790 --> 00:50:26,400
the Brookings Institution
in Washington, D.C.,
949
00:50:26,500 --> 00:50:30,560
contained files that might
reveal the secret role
950
00:50:30,660 --> 00:50:34,530
his campaign had played
in torpedoing the peace talks
951
00:50:34,630 --> 00:50:37,830
on the eve of his election
three years earlier,
952
00:50:37,930 --> 00:50:42,530
which President Johnson
had then considered treason.
953
00:50:42,630 --> 00:50:46,330
Nixon wanted his "plumbers"
to break into Brookings,
954
00:50:46,430 --> 00:50:50,760
crack the safe,
and remove the files.
955
00:50:50,860 --> 00:50:53,060
None of it was legal.
956
00:50:53,160 --> 00:50:56,290
Nixon did not care.
957
00:51:27,030 --> 00:51:31,260
NARRATOR:
The Brookings break-in
would never take place.
958
00:51:31,360 --> 00:51:33,830
The burglars would be unable
959
00:51:33,930 --> 00:51:37,030
to find Ellsberg's file
in his doctor's office.
960
00:51:37,130 --> 00:51:40,560
But Nixon's obsession
with his enemies
961
00:51:40,660 --> 00:51:44,400
would be the undoing
of his presidency.
962
00:51:45,690 --> 00:51:49,160
("Embryonic Journey"
by Jefferson Airplane playing)
963
00:51:53,130 --> 00:51:55,100
(laughter and chatter)
964
00:52:01,660 --> 00:52:03,600
(indistinct voice of man
speaking French over microphone)
965
00:52:05,000 --> 00:52:07,260
JACK TODD:
Once a month, I have a dream
966
00:52:07,360 --> 00:52:11,900
that I'm... I'm back...
I'm back in basic training.
967
00:52:12,000 --> 00:52:13,430
But I'm the age I am now,
968
00:52:13,530 --> 00:52:15,790
which is way too old
to be in the military.
969
00:52:15,900 --> 00:52:18,260
But, you know,
somehow I've gotten a waiver,
970
00:52:18,360 --> 00:52:19,960
and I'm going
through all the training,
971
00:52:20,060 --> 00:52:22,130
and there's some major war
going on.
972
00:52:22,230 --> 00:52:25,360
And I'm going to get there,
and I'm going to be a hero
973
00:52:25,460 --> 00:52:30,760
and vindicate myself
and be taken back by my country.
974
00:52:30,860 --> 00:52:32,690
(car horn honks)
975
00:52:32,790 --> 00:52:37,030
NARRATOR:
Jack Todd had crossed
into Canada in early 1970,
976
00:52:37,130 --> 00:52:38,860
rather than take part
977
00:52:38,960 --> 00:52:41,600
in what he believed
to be a dishonorable war.
978
00:52:44,000 --> 00:52:47,760
He found himself living
in a strange underground world
979
00:52:47,860 --> 00:52:49,930
of deserters and draft evaders
980
00:52:50,030 --> 00:52:54,330
and the disaffected Canadians
who gathered around them.
981
00:52:54,430 --> 00:52:58,500
In 1971,
he was living in Montreal,
982
00:52:58,600 --> 00:53:00,630
restless and often depressed,
983
00:53:00,730 --> 00:53:04,330
increasingly alienated
from his country,
984
00:53:04,430 --> 00:53:07,560
but also anxious always
for news from home,
985
00:53:07,660 --> 00:53:10,430
and eager to know
how his boyhood friends
986
00:53:10,530 --> 00:53:13,560
from Scottsbluff, Nebraska,
were doing.
987
00:53:13,660 --> 00:53:16,260
One, named Ron Bales,
988
00:53:16,360 --> 00:53:19,430
had lived just down the street.
989
00:53:19,530 --> 00:53:24,290
And, uh...
my mother sent me a letter, um,
990
00:53:24,400 --> 00:53:26,560
and I remember taking
the clipping out of it.
991
00:53:26,660 --> 00:53:30,160
I had walked up to Mount Royal
in Montreal to read the letter.
992
00:53:30,260 --> 00:53:33,130
And the clipping was from
theScottsbluff Star-Herald,
993
00:53:33,230 --> 00:53:36,000
and it was about Ron
being killed in Vietnam.
994
00:53:39,230 --> 00:53:42,190
Why?
Why?
995
00:53:42,290 --> 00:53:46,260
It was long after we knew
how wrong the war was,
996
00:53:46,360 --> 00:53:50,430
and guys like Ron were
still dying, you know.
997
00:53:52,260 --> 00:53:54,190
Why?
998
00:53:55,500 --> 00:53:57,830
The government today
restricted the use
999
00:53:57,930 --> 00:54:00,430
of the weed killer 2,4,5-T
on the ground
1000
00:54:00,530 --> 00:54:02,430
that the chemical has caused
birth defects
1001
00:54:02,530 --> 00:54:05,060
in some laboratory animals.
1002
00:54:06,960 --> 00:54:11,660
NARRATOR:
Since 1962, American
and South Vietnamese forces
1003
00:54:11,760 --> 00:54:15,130
had sprayed some 20 million
gallons of herbicides
1004
00:54:15,230 --> 00:54:19,430
over roughly one quarter
of South Vietnam.
1005
00:54:19,530 --> 00:54:22,690
The idea had been
to reduce casualties
1006
00:54:22,790 --> 00:54:26,260
by clearing areas
around U.S. installations,
1007
00:54:26,360 --> 00:54:30,560
and to deny the enemy crops
and forest cover.
1008
00:54:30,660 --> 00:54:34,730
The most frequently used
defoliant was Agent Orange,
1009
00:54:34,830 --> 00:54:37,730
which contained 2,4,5-T.
1010
00:54:37,830 --> 00:54:39,900
When environmentalists convinced
1011
00:54:40,000 --> 00:54:43,060
the Nixon administration
to ban the weed killer
1012
00:54:43,160 --> 00:54:44,730
on American farms,
1013
00:54:44,830 --> 00:54:47,630
the Pentagon
had reluctantly agreed
1014
00:54:47,730 --> 00:54:51,360
to stop using Agent Orange
in Vietnam.
1015
00:54:51,460 --> 00:54:56,190
The ecological damage defoliants
did was obvious.
1016
00:54:56,290 --> 00:55:00,290
The damage done to soldiers
and civilians
1017
00:55:00,400 --> 00:55:04,600
would be the subject
of angry debate for decades.
1018
00:55:07,900 --> 00:55:10,790
(crowd shouting in Vietnamese)
1019
00:55:10,900 --> 00:55:13,630
TED KOPPEL:
Opposition to the
Saigon government
1020
00:55:13,730 --> 00:55:16,060
is not just Viet Cong.
1021
00:55:16,160 --> 00:55:17,660
TUE:
How many governments
1022
00:55:17,760 --> 00:55:20,760
actually care
for the Vietnamese people?
1023
00:55:20,860 --> 00:55:24,600
KOPPEL:
The student antiwar,
anti-American movement
1024
00:55:24,690 --> 00:55:27,130
is larger than its small
demonstrations indicate.
1025
00:55:27,230 --> 00:55:30,000
TUE:
You don't need military aid...
1026
00:55:32,060 --> 00:55:34,460
...to promote democracy
in Vietnam.
1027
00:55:34,560 --> 00:55:37,830
To return
to the Vietnamese people
1028
00:55:37,930 --> 00:55:40,260
their right that...
1029
00:55:40,360 --> 00:55:42,530
their right to speak freely.
1030
00:55:42,630 --> 00:55:45,290
You don't need even one penny.
1031
00:55:45,400 --> 00:55:48,500
You don't need
to consult the White House,
1032
00:55:48,600 --> 00:55:51,530
you don't need to care
about the American media,
1033
00:55:51,630 --> 00:55:54,130
you don't need French,
you don't need Chinese,
1034
00:55:54,230 --> 00:55:55,790
you don't need Americans.
1035
00:55:55,900 --> 00:56:00,330
If you really care for Vietnam
then you turn back inside.
1036
00:56:00,430 --> 00:56:03,960
NARRATOR:
South Vietnamese president
Nguyen Van Thieu
1037
00:56:04,060 --> 00:56:06,030
was campaigning for reelection.
1038
00:56:06,130 --> 00:56:08,460
The Americans
had insisted on it
1039
00:56:08,560 --> 00:56:11,230
and urged him
not to rig the race,
1040
00:56:11,330 --> 00:56:14,330
for fear it would
resemble too closely
1041
00:56:14,430 --> 00:56:16,860
the fraudulent
communist "elections"
1042
00:56:16,960 --> 00:56:20,360
routinely denounced
by the United States.
1043
00:56:20,460 --> 00:56:22,030
But Thieu made sure
1044
00:56:22,130 --> 00:56:25,030
no serious candidates
ran against him,
1045
00:56:25,130 --> 00:56:28,900
and claimed to have won
94% of the vote.
1046
00:56:29,000 --> 00:56:32,690
It became known
as "the one-man election,"
1047
00:56:32,790 --> 00:56:33,960
and added to the ranks
1048
00:56:34,060 --> 00:56:37,060
of what was called
the "Third Force":
1049
00:56:37,160 --> 00:56:40,930
South Vietnamese hoping
for a negotiated settlement
1050
00:56:41,030 --> 00:56:43,190
and an end to the bloodshed.
1051
00:56:59,930 --> 00:57:02,060
NARRATOR:
By the middle of 1971,
1052
00:57:02,160 --> 00:57:05,060
Nixon and Kissinger
were looking for a way
1053
00:57:05,160 --> 00:57:08,560
to get all U.S. troops
out of Vietnam
1054
00:57:08,660 --> 00:57:11,160
before his
re-election campaign began
1055
00:57:11,260 --> 00:57:13,160
the following year,
1056
00:57:13,260 --> 00:57:15,660
but to do so without causing
1057
00:57:15,760 --> 00:57:18,690
Saigon to fall too soon.
1058
00:57:55,500 --> 00:57:57,900
NARRATOR:
At the secret talks in Paris,
1059
00:57:58,000 --> 00:58:01,060
Kissinger had offered his
North Vietnamese counterpart,
1060
00:58:01,160 --> 00:58:04,360
Le Duc Tho, the most significant
concessions
1061
00:58:04,460 --> 00:58:07,430
the United States had yet made:
1062
00:58:07,530 --> 00:58:11,030
North Vietnam could
keep its troops in the South--
1063
00:58:11,130 --> 00:58:13,030
tens of thousands of them.
1064
00:58:13,130 --> 00:58:17,530
And in exchange for the release
of American prisoners of war,
1065
00:58:17,630 --> 00:58:19,230
all American troops
1066
00:58:19,330 --> 00:58:22,600
would be withdrawn
within seven months.
1067
00:58:24,790 --> 00:58:28,160
Le Duc Tho countered
with a new offer of his own:
1068
00:58:28,260 --> 00:58:30,460
Hanoi would
release the prisoners
1069
00:58:30,560 --> 00:58:34,360
simultaneously with
the departure of U.S. forces.
1070
00:58:34,460 --> 00:58:37,630
But he still insisted
that Washington remove
1071
00:58:37,730 --> 00:58:41,190
President Thieu from power.
1072
00:58:41,290 --> 00:58:44,060
Kissinger was encouraged
that the North Vietnamese
1073
00:58:44,160 --> 00:58:47,930
seemed, for the first time,
to be negotiating seriously.
1074
00:58:48,030 --> 00:58:52,790
He could almost "taste peace,"
he told a friend.
1075
00:58:52,900 --> 00:58:54,460
Thieu knew nothing
1076
00:58:54,560 --> 00:58:57,690
about the new American
concessions to Hanoi.
1077
00:58:57,790 --> 00:59:01,660
He was worried
about something else.
1078
00:59:04,790 --> 00:59:06,730
ANNOUNCER:
NBC News interrupts
regular programming
1079
00:59:06,830 --> 00:59:08,630
to bring you a special report.
1080
00:59:08,730 --> 00:59:11,190
The announcement I shall
now read is being issued
1081
00:59:11,290 --> 00:59:15,960
simultaneously in Peking
and in the United States.
1082
00:59:16,060 --> 00:59:17,730
NARRATOR:
Richard Nixon,
1083
00:59:17,830 --> 00:59:20,930
famous for the ferocity
of his anticommunism,
1084
00:59:21,030 --> 00:59:23,560
astonished the world
by announcing
1085
00:59:23,660 --> 00:59:27,190
that he was planning to restore
relations with China
1086
00:59:27,290 --> 00:59:30,660
that had been severed
for more than two decades.
1087
00:59:30,760 --> 00:59:34,400
The United States
had gone to war in Vietnam
1088
00:59:34,500 --> 00:59:37,530
in part to block
Chinese expansionism.
1089
00:59:37,630 --> 00:59:41,760
What would Nixon's visit mean
for Thieu's future
1090
00:59:41,860 --> 00:59:44,100
or for that of his country?
1091
00:59:44,190 --> 00:59:47,360
Thieu was afraid he knew.
1092
00:59:47,460 --> 00:59:50,100
"America has been
looking for a new mistress,"
1093
00:59:50,190 --> 00:59:51,500
he told an aide,
1094
00:59:51,600 --> 00:59:54,330
"and now Nixon
has discovered China.
1095
00:59:54,430 --> 00:59:58,160
"He does not want to have
the old mistress around.
1096
00:59:58,260 --> 01:00:02,000
Vietnam has become
old and ugly."
1097
01:00:14,690 --> 01:00:18,290
KUSHNER:
I believe it was
in the fall of 1971.
1098
01:00:20,900 --> 01:00:25,000
And they called us out
and they hung a bed sheet
1099
01:00:25,100 --> 01:00:29,760
and they had a projector
and they showed us
1100
01:00:29,860 --> 01:00:33,330
color and
black and white movies
1101
01:00:33,430 --> 01:00:36,730
of these protests
in Washington.
1102
01:00:36,830 --> 01:00:38,760
(shouting)
1103
01:00:41,530 --> 01:00:43,460
And in the same film
1104
01:00:43,560 --> 01:00:45,730
it showed John Kerry.
1105
01:00:45,830 --> 01:00:47,960
And I remember
he was very articulate,
1106
01:00:48,060 --> 01:00:50,230
very, very well spoken,
1107
01:00:50,330 --> 01:00:53,290
very fluent
1108
01:00:53,400 --> 01:00:56,000
and a good spokesman
1109
01:00:56,100 --> 01:00:57,500
for his cause.
1110
01:00:57,600 --> 01:00:59,660
Someone has to die
so that President Nixon
1111
01:00:59,760 --> 01:01:02,360
won't be--
and these are his words--
1112
01:01:02,460 --> 01:01:06,190
"the first president
to lose a war."
1113
01:01:06,290 --> 01:01:07,460
And I remember very well,
1114
01:01:07,560 --> 01:01:10,100
he's sitting
with his fatigue jacket
1115
01:01:10,190 --> 01:01:11,790
and long hair
1116
01:01:11,900 --> 01:01:14,030
and testifying about atrocities
1117
01:01:14,130 --> 01:01:16,060
and war crimes that...
1118
01:01:16,160 --> 01:01:18,160
we perpetrated.
1119
01:01:18,260 --> 01:01:21,230
Cut off limbs, blown up bodies,
1120
01:01:21,330 --> 01:01:23,600
randomly shot at civilians...
1121
01:01:23,690 --> 01:01:25,660
KUSHNER:
But I was shocked
by what he said.
1122
01:01:25,760 --> 01:01:27,500
And I didn't believe it.
1123
01:01:27,600 --> 01:01:30,960
I didn't believe it at all.
1124
01:01:32,690 --> 01:01:35,560
I mean, I'm sophisticated
to know, and I knew then,
1125
01:01:35,660 --> 01:01:38,160
that bad things happen in war
and they happen on both sides,
1126
01:01:38,260 --> 01:01:41,900
and I had seen the evidence
of the other side too, also.
1127
01:01:42,000 --> 01:01:43,290
And I knew it.
1128
01:01:43,400 --> 01:01:45,630
And... but still,
to hear the testimony
1129
01:01:45,730 --> 01:01:50,660
and to hear it used as a weapon
1130
01:01:50,760 --> 01:01:53,290
against our further prosecution
of this war
1131
01:01:53,400 --> 01:01:58,230
that we were suffering for
was very powerful indeed.
1132
01:01:58,330 --> 01:02:00,960
NARRATOR:
A few months later
1133
01:02:01,060 --> 01:02:04,230
Kushner got
an even bigger shock.
1134
01:02:04,330 --> 01:02:06,600
VALERIE KUSHNER (on recording):
My son has no father.
1135
01:02:06,690 --> 01:02:10,290
This Christmas Day we celebrate
the birth of a son to Mary
1136
01:02:10,400 --> 01:02:12,960
and this Christmas Day
some other mother's son
1137
01:02:13,060 --> 01:02:15,400
will die in Vietnam.
1138
01:02:15,500 --> 01:02:18,060
That death takes away
all that was taught to us
1139
01:02:18,160 --> 01:02:20,730
by Christ's birth.
1140
01:02:20,830 --> 01:02:23,130
KUSHNER:
The whole time I was
in the South
1141
01:02:23,230 --> 01:02:25,560
I never got one letter,
one bit of information.
1142
01:02:25,660 --> 01:02:27,690
When I got to North Vietnam
I got no letter,
1143
01:02:27,790 --> 01:02:30,230
no bit of information,
nothing.
1144
01:02:30,330 --> 01:02:35,960
Then, I think it may have been
Christmas of '71,
1145
01:02:36,060 --> 01:02:40,500
my wife wrote an op-ed piece
in theNew York Times.
1146
01:02:40,600 --> 01:02:44,060
She had become
politically active.
1147
01:02:44,160 --> 01:02:46,400
NARRATOR:
The families of POWs
1148
01:02:46,500 --> 01:02:50,160
overwhelmingly supported
the Nixon administration.
1149
01:02:50,260 --> 01:02:53,160
Valerie Kushner did not,
1150
01:02:53,260 --> 01:02:54,900
and the North Vietnamese
were quick
1151
01:02:55,000 --> 01:02:58,230
to exploit her antiwar views.
1152
01:02:58,330 --> 01:03:00,160
They broadcast a message
1153
01:03:00,260 --> 01:03:03,190
they had permitted her husband
to record for her.
1154
01:03:03,290 --> 01:03:06,000
It was the first time
she had heard his voice
1155
01:03:06,100 --> 01:03:08,030
in four years.
1156
01:03:10,360 --> 01:03:13,100
KUSHNER (on recording):
I received the glasses, Val,
1157
01:03:13,190 --> 01:03:15,960
and my eyes
have improved considerably.
1158
01:03:16,060 --> 01:03:18,690
Please let me know
about Brother John.
1159
01:03:18,790 --> 01:03:21,260
He or she is almost four now,
1160
01:03:21,360 --> 01:03:23,930
and he or she is old enough
to understand
1161
01:03:24,030 --> 01:03:27,460
where Daddy is
and that I love him or her
1162
01:03:27,560 --> 01:03:30,830
immeasurably
despite our never meeting.
1163
01:03:30,930 --> 01:03:34,560
I calculate that T-Bird
is now in second grade,
1164
01:03:34,660 --> 01:03:36,690
and I know she is doing well.
1165
01:03:36,790 --> 01:03:38,600
She is a grown-up lady now
1166
01:03:38,690 --> 01:03:42,530
and I hope you have plans for
piano or ballet lessons soon.
1167
01:03:42,630 --> 01:03:45,130
Happy eighth birthday,
dear T-Bird,
1168
01:03:45,230 --> 01:03:46,690
and Merry Christmas.
1169
01:03:46,790 --> 01:03:49,030
When I left you
I promised to come home
1170
01:03:49,130 --> 01:03:50,660
before you were five.
1171
01:03:50,760 --> 01:03:54,500
I didn't fulfill that promise,
but when I do return,
1172
01:03:54,600 --> 01:03:57,160
I will never leave you again.
1173
01:03:57,260 --> 01:03:59,960
His optimism about the whole
situation amazes me.
1174
01:04:00,060 --> 01:04:01,430
I'm just very happy
1175
01:04:01,530 --> 01:04:03,900
that he can't see
this morning's newspaper.
1176
01:04:04,000 --> 01:04:06,960
Because I-I don't
have the same optimism
1177
01:04:07,060 --> 01:04:08,730
or the same confidence
in this government
1178
01:04:08,830 --> 01:04:11,630
that he seems to have.
1179
01:04:15,600 --> 01:04:21,060
NARRATOR:
President Nixon's visit to China
in February of 1972
1180
01:04:21,160 --> 01:04:23,690
not only alarmed
President Thieu,
1181
01:04:23,790 --> 01:04:26,660
it worried Hanoi as well.
1182
01:04:26,760 --> 01:04:29,900
The North Vietnamese
remembered how Ho Chi Minh
1183
01:04:30,000 --> 01:04:32,900
had felt betrayed in 1954
1184
01:04:33,000 --> 01:04:35,600
when Moscow and Beijing
had compelled them
1185
01:04:35,690 --> 01:04:39,830
to sign the Geneva Accords,
dividing Vietnam in two.
1186
01:04:39,930 --> 01:04:43,030
Now, they were concerned
that warmer relations
1187
01:04:43,130 --> 01:04:45,400
between the United States
and China
1188
01:04:45,500 --> 01:04:49,290
might soon mean
less support from Beijing.
1189
01:04:49,400 --> 01:04:53,230
Nixon was also planning
to travel to Moscow
1190
01:04:53,330 --> 01:04:56,790
to meet with Soviet premier
Leonid Brezhnev,
1191
01:04:56,900 --> 01:04:58,690
seeking to ease tensions
1192
01:04:58,790 --> 01:05:02,600
with North Vietnam's
other communist patron.
1193
01:05:02,690 --> 01:05:07,400
Before that summit took place,
First Secretary Le Duan,
1194
01:05:07,500 --> 01:05:10,360
the man who headed
the Politburo in Hanoi,
1195
01:05:10,460 --> 01:05:13,830
decided to undertake
a new kind of offensive.
1196
01:05:13,930 --> 01:05:17,630
It would be conventional warfare
this time,
1197
01:05:17,730 --> 01:05:21,600
and on a scale
he had never before attempted.
1198
01:05:21,690 --> 01:05:24,500
Le Duan had
several goals in mind:
1199
01:05:24,600 --> 01:05:26,930
to strengthen his hand
at the peace talks
1200
01:05:27,030 --> 01:05:29,460
by altering the military balance
of power
1201
01:05:29,560 --> 01:05:31,130
in South Vietnam,
1202
01:05:31,230 --> 01:05:34,630
to show that the ARVN
could not stand on their own,
1203
01:05:34,730 --> 01:05:38,430
and to convince the Soviets
and the Chinese
1204
01:05:38,530 --> 01:05:42,400
his revolution
was still worth supporting.
1205
01:05:46,530 --> 01:05:50,460
The assault began on March 30,
1972.
1206
01:05:50,560 --> 01:05:54,000
14 North Vietnamese
infantry divisions--
1207
01:05:54,100 --> 01:05:56,730
more than 120,000 men--
1208
01:05:56,830 --> 01:05:59,330
now, for the first time,
1209
01:05:59,430 --> 01:06:03,360
supported by hundreds of
Soviet and Chinese-made tanks
1210
01:06:03,460 --> 01:06:08,530
and other armored vehicles,
attacked on three fronts:
1211
01:06:08,630 --> 01:06:12,290
across the demilitarized zone,
1212
01:06:12,400 --> 01:06:16,790
in the Central Highlands
1213
01:06:16,900 --> 01:06:21,360
and west of Saigon.
1214
01:06:21,460 --> 01:06:26,500
Americans would call it
"The Easter Offensive."
1215
01:06:26,600 --> 01:06:29,400
To the South Vietnamese,
1216
01:06:29,490 --> 01:06:33,030
it would be remembered
as "The Summer of Flames."
1217
01:06:33,130 --> 01:06:36,200
REPORTER:
The South Vietnamese Army knew
this day was coming:
1218
01:06:36,290 --> 01:06:37,560
the day without Americans.
1219
01:06:37,660 --> 01:06:38,990
It was to be the big test,
1220
01:06:39,100 --> 01:06:40,330
both for them
1221
01:06:40,430 --> 01:06:43,360
and for President Nixon's
Vietnamization program.
1222
01:06:43,460 --> 01:06:46,330
The results in so far
are not encouraging.
1223
01:06:46,430 --> 01:06:49,400
Whole battalions of
the government's third division
1224
01:06:49,490 --> 01:06:51,790
joined the refugees
on the road south.
1225
01:06:51,900 --> 01:06:55,730
They had been outnumbered,
overpowered, overwhelmed.
1226
01:06:55,830 --> 01:06:58,030
NARRATOR:
An entire ARVN regiment
1227
01:06:58,130 --> 01:07:00,330
surrendered at Camp Carroll.
1228
01:07:00,430 --> 01:07:02,200
North Vietnamese troops
1229
01:07:02,290 --> 01:07:05,100
then swiftly overran
Quang Tri Province,
1230
01:07:05,200 --> 01:07:10,160
driving tens of thousands of
terrified refugees southward.
1231
01:07:10,260 --> 01:07:13,790
They nearly cut South Vietnam
in half
1232
01:07:13,900 --> 01:07:16,630
through the Central Highlands
1233
01:07:16,730 --> 01:07:20,930
and drove toward Saigon,
hoping to seize large areas
1234
01:07:21,030 --> 01:07:23,960
along the Cambodian border.
1235
01:07:24,060 --> 01:07:26,860
It looked as if
it were going to be
1236
01:07:26,960 --> 01:07:29,630
a total defeat for the ARVN.
1237
01:07:29,730 --> 01:07:33,660
There were only 60,000
U.S. military personnel
1238
01:07:33,760 --> 01:07:35,730
left in South Vietnam,
1239
01:07:35,830 --> 01:07:38,830
and very few of them
were combat troops.
1240
01:07:41,360 --> 01:07:44,460
Suddenly, the survival of
everything Nixon and Kissinger
1241
01:07:44,560 --> 01:07:46,790
had worked for was in peril.
1242
01:07:46,900 --> 01:07:51,230
They had to do something--
and fast.
1243
01:08:13,400 --> 01:08:16,830
NARRATOR:
Nixon ordered up
Operation Linebacker--
1244
01:08:16,930 --> 01:08:19,430
massive air attacks
1245
01:08:19,530 --> 01:08:20,930
on the advancing
North Vietnamese.
1246
01:08:22,730 --> 01:08:24,830
"The bastards
have never been bombed
1247
01:08:24,930 --> 01:08:27,860
"like they're going to be
this time," he said.
1248
01:08:31,560 --> 01:08:34,760
The most crucial battle
of the Easter Offensive
1249
01:08:34,860 --> 01:08:36,600
was fought at An Loc,
1250
01:08:36,700 --> 01:08:39,260
a city that commanded Route 13,
1251
01:08:39,360 --> 01:08:42,600
a paved highway
that led directly to Saigon,
1252
01:08:42,700 --> 01:08:44,990
just 60 miles away.
1253
01:08:47,860 --> 01:08:50,200
North Vietnamese artillery fire
1254
01:08:50,290 --> 01:08:52,230
and a massive infantry
and armor attack
1255
01:08:52,330 --> 01:08:54,430
drove the city's ARVN defenders
1256
01:08:54,530 --> 01:08:58,830
into an area
less than a mile square.
1257
01:08:58,930 --> 01:09:04,260
Repeated efforts to reinforce
and resupply them failed.
1258
01:09:04,360 --> 01:09:07,660
The ARVN bravely held out.
1259
01:09:07,760 --> 01:09:10,200
JAMES WILLBANKS:
The number one thing we did
1260
01:09:10,290 --> 01:09:12,900
was coordinate the air strikes.
1261
01:09:12,990 --> 01:09:15,430
General Hollingsworth
went to General Abrams
1262
01:09:15,530 --> 01:09:17,630
and begged
for all the B-52s he could get,
1263
01:09:17,730 --> 01:09:19,560
and on the 10th and 11th of May,
1264
01:09:19,660 --> 01:09:25,360
he planned a B-52 strike
every 50 minutes for 24 hours.
1265
01:09:36,030 --> 01:09:37,260
NARRATOR:
In the end,
1266
01:09:37,360 --> 01:09:41,760
American airpower
made the difference.
1267
01:09:47,290 --> 01:09:49,960
The North Vietnamese
and their armored columns,
1268
01:09:50,060 --> 01:09:51,490
massed in the open,
1269
01:09:51,600 --> 01:09:55,430
proved easy targets
for American pilots.
1270
01:09:55,530 --> 01:09:59,490
"This," one American advisor
said,
1271
01:09:59,600 --> 01:10:03,560
"was the kind of war
we came to fight."
1272
01:10:14,230 --> 01:10:17,200
PHAM LUC:
1273
01:10:55,460 --> 01:10:57,200
(explosion)
1274
01:10:57,290 --> 01:11:00,600
NARRATOR:
The North Vietnamese suffered
10,000 casualties
1275
01:11:00,700 --> 01:11:02,430
at An Loc alone
1276
01:11:02,530 --> 01:11:06,660
and lost most of their tanks
and heavy artillery.
1277
01:11:06,760 --> 01:11:08,260
(explosions continue)
1278
01:11:10,060 --> 01:11:12,490
WILLBANKS:
The bottom line was
that all the air power
1279
01:11:12,600 --> 01:11:14,200
in the world would
not make a difference
1280
01:11:14,290 --> 01:11:15,630
if the ARVN hadn't
stood and fought.
1281
01:11:15,730 --> 01:11:17,160
(people shouting)
1282
01:11:17,260 --> 01:11:20,630
They had held Kon Tum,
they had held An Loc,
1283
01:11:20,730 --> 01:11:22,400
they had re-taken Quang Tri.
1284
01:11:22,490 --> 01:11:24,560
They had taken the best
that the North Vietnamese
1285
01:11:24,660 --> 01:11:26,290
had to throw at them.
1286
01:11:26,400 --> 01:11:29,630
So I thought if we continue
to maintain that support,
1287
01:11:29,730 --> 01:11:30,930
perhaps they had a chance.
1288
01:11:31,030 --> 01:11:34,930
DUONG VAN MAI ELLIOTT:
The Easter Offensive, to me,
1289
01:11:35,030 --> 01:11:38,260
showed that the
South Vietnamese could fight,
1290
01:11:38,360 --> 01:11:41,330
but only up to a certain point.
1291
01:11:41,430 --> 01:11:44,100
So, my question would be,
1292
01:11:44,200 --> 01:11:46,100
what would happen when
the Americans left
1293
01:11:46,200 --> 01:11:48,760
with their B-52s, you know?
1294
01:11:48,860 --> 01:11:50,360
(protestors chanting)
1295
01:11:50,460 --> 01:11:53,530
NARRATOR:
Americans may have approved
of the renewed use
1296
01:11:53,630 --> 01:11:56,900
of American air power
to stop the communist advance
1297
01:11:56,990 --> 01:11:58,360
into the South,
1298
01:11:58,460 --> 01:12:03,030
but Nixon had also ordered
American planes to resume
1299
01:12:03,130 --> 01:12:06,330
sustained bombing
of North Vietnam,
1300
01:12:06,430 --> 01:12:09,990
which had been halted since
the Johnson administration.
1301
01:12:10,100 --> 01:12:13,900
Some saw the new bombing,
which vastly exceeded
1302
01:12:13,990 --> 01:12:15,990
all previous campaigns,
1303
01:12:16,100 --> 01:12:20,830
as evidence that a war Nixon had
promised was winding down
1304
01:12:20,930 --> 01:12:23,700
was once again being escalated.
1305
01:12:23,790 --> 01:12:27,130
(plane soaring)
1306
01:12:27,230 --> 01:12:28,660
LESLIE GELB:
The bombing campaign
1307
01:12:28,760 --> 01:12:30,230
was much more extensive
1308
01:12:30,330 --> 01:12:34,790
than the bombing campaign
under Lyndon Johnson.
1309
01:12:34,900 --> 01:12:35,960
And from a standpoint
1310
01:12:36,060 --> 01:12:38,560
of pressuring them
to make concessions
1311
01:12:38,660 --> 01:12:40,490
at the negotiating table,
1312
01:12:40,600 --> 01:12:42,960
historically,
that's how you did it.
1313
01:12:43,060 --> 01:12:45,290
Only it didn't work
with these guys.
1314
01:12:45,400 --> 01:12:47,230
(bombs exploding)
1315
01:12:47,330 --> 01:12:48,990
They took the pounding.
1316
01:12:51,060 --> 01:12:52,860
(men yelling in Vietnamese)
1317
01:12:56,130 --> 01:12:59,730
NARRATOR:
Le Minh Khue,
who had served four years
1318
01:12:59,830 --> 01:13:03,200
as a Youth Volunteer
on the Ho Chi Minh trail,
1319
01:13:03,290 --> 01:13:05,930
was now back home
in North Vietnam.
1320
01:13:07,230 --> 01:13:10,430
LE MINH KHUE:
1321
01:13:47,990 --> 01:13:50,900
NARRATOR:
Among the thousands
of South Vietnamese
1322
01:13:50,990 --> 01:13:53,700
who lost their lives
in the Easter Offensive
1323
01:13:53,790 --> 01:13:56,960
was the brother
of Phan Quang Tue.
1324
01:13:57,060 --> 01:13:59,600
PHAN QUANG TUE:
I had a brother, Tuan.
1325
01:13:59,700 --> 01:14:03,790
And we were raised together.
1326
01:14:03,900 --> 01:14:07,600
He would have been now 67.
1327
01:14:07,700 --> 01:14:10,430
When his plane was shot down
1328
01:14:10,530 --> 01:14:14,600
and later on they weren't
able to recover him,
1329
01:14:14,700 --> 01:14:17,260
his body, so he disappeared,
1330
01:14:17,360 --> 01:14:21,730
he was missing in action,
he was 26 years old.
1331
01:14:21,830 --> 01:14:25,200
He has his full life
ahead of him.
1332
01:14:25,290 --> 01:14:28,290
(voice breaking):
Tuan never had a chance
to live his life.
1333
01:14:30,400 --> 01:14:34,030
And I can never
overcome the feeling,
1334
01:14:34,130 --> 01:14:38,230
as to himself
1335
01:14:38,330 --> 01:14:40,560
and his generation,
1336
01:14:40,660 --> 01:14:43,900
sacrifice their lives for what?
1337
01:14:45,730 --> 01:14:50,060
And the frustrating thing is
that even Vietnamese themself
1338
01:14:50,160 --> 01:14:52,100
do not seem to value that loss.
1339
01:14:58,400 --> 01:15:01,400
NIXON:
There's only one way
to stop the killing.
1340
01:15:01,490 --> 01:15:05,130
That is to keep the weapons
of war out of the hands
1341
01:15:05,230 --> 01:15:10,960
of the international outlaws
of North Vietnam.
1342
01:15:11,060 --> 01:15:12,290
Throughout the war in Vietnam,
1343
01:15:12,400 --> 01:15:15,160
the United States has
exercised a degree of restraint
1344
01:15:15,260 --> 01:15:17,400
unprecedented
in the annals of war...
1345
01:15:17,490 --> 01:15:18,990
(planes flying overhead)
1346
01:15:19,100 --> 01:15:21,900
NARRATOR:
Le Duan's
Easter Offensive, like Tet,
1347
01:15:21,990 --> 01:15:24,230
had been a great gamble.
1348
01:15:24,330 --> 01:15:27,060
So was Nixon's next move.
1349
01:15:27,160 --> 01:15:30,200
The massive North Vietnamese
assault had failed,
1350
01:15:30,290 --> 01:15:31,700
the president said,
1351
01:15:31,790 --> 01:15:34,830
but it could never have been
mounted in the first place
1352
01:15:34,930 --> 01:15:37,430
without weapons and supplies
provided by China
1353
01:15:37,530 --> 01:15:40,100
and the Soviet Union.
1354
01:15:40,200 --> 01:15:44,360
Accordingly,
he ordered 11,000 mines laid
1355
01:15:44,460 --> 01:15:47,860
in North Vietnamese waters
to block further access
1356
01:15:47,960 --> 01:15:49,630
to Haiphong harbor.
1357
01:15:49,730 --> 01:15:53,460
It was something the Joint
Chiefs had been asking for
1358
01:15:53,560 --> 01:15:55,400
for years.
1359
01:15:55,490 --> 01:15:57,630
The scheduled summit
with the Soviets
1360
01:15:57,730 --> 01:15:59,430
was just two weeks away,
1361
01:15:59,530 --> 01:16:01,730
and some advisors
had urged the president
1362
01:16:01,830 --> 01:16:04,760
not to take any action
that directly threatened
1363
01:16:04,860 --> 01:16:08,630
Soviet ships,
for fear they would cancel it.
1364
01:16:08,730 --> 01:16:11,330
Nixon thought he had
to take the risk.
1365
01:16:11,430 --> 01:16:15,490
And so he spoke
directly to Moscow.
1366
01:16:15,600 --> 01:16:19,030
Let us not slide back
toward the dark shadows
1367
01:16:19,130 --> 01:16:21,960
of a previous age.
1368
01:16:22,060 --> 01:16:26,730
We do not ask you
to sacrifice your principles
1369
01:16:26,830 --> 01:16:28,830
or your friends,
1370
01:16:28,930 --> 01:16:32,260
but neither should you
permit Hanoi's intransigence
1371
01:16:32,360 --> 01:16:34,960
to blot out the prospects
we together
1372
01:16:35,060 --> 01:16:36,430
have so patiently prepared.
1373
01:16:39,260 --> 01:16:41,990
NARRATOR:
Nixon's gamble paid off.
1374
01:16:42,100 --> 01:16:43,660
The Soviets and
the Chinese denounced
1375
01:16:43,760 --> 01:16:49,200
the president's action,
but then did nothing.
1376
01:16:49,290 --> 01:16:54,360
On May 26, the United States
and the Soviet Union signed
1377
01:16:54,460 --> 01:16:58,400
an historic Anti-Ballistic
Missile Treaty,
1378
01:16:58,490 --> 01:17:01,700
the first agreement
to limit nuclear armaments
1379
01:17:01,790 --> 01:17:04,160
since the Cold War began.
1380
01:17:04,260 --> 01:17:07,330
For the Soviet Union,
for China,
1381
01:17:07,430 --> 01:17:09,790
as well
as for the United States,
1382
01:17:09,900 --> 01:17:14,400
Vietnam's significance
was steadily receding.
1383
01:17:50,990 --> 01:17:52,760
NIXON:
I know.
1384
01:18:16,660 --> 01:18:18,600
(camera shutter clicks)
1385
01:18:20,790 --> 01:18:25,360
NARRATOR:
On the morning of June 8, 1972,
1386
01:18:25,460 --> 01:18:29,860
Nick Ut, a 21-year-old
South Vietnamese photographer
1387
01:18:29,960 --> 01:18:32,200
working
for the Associated Press,
1388
01:18:32,290 --> 01:18:35,730
was accompanying ARVN troops
on Highway One,
1389
01:18:35,830 --> 01:18:38,290
moving toward a village
called Trang Bang,
1390
01:18:38,400 --> 01:18:41,160
to dislodge
North Vietnamese forces
1391
01:18:41,260 --> 01:18:45,030
that had occupied it
during the Easter Offensive.
1392
01:18:45,130 --> 01:18:48,290
Ut was beginning
to put his cameras away,
1393
01:18:48,400 --> 01:18:50,330
ready to return to Saigon,
1394
01:18:50,430 --> 01:18:55,160
when he saw a South Vietnamese
fighter suddenly dip down
1395
01:18:55,260 --> 01:18:57,290
toward the fleeing refugees,
1396
01:18:57,400 --> 01:19:00,290
whom the pilot mistook
for the enemy.
1397
01:19:00,400 --> 01:19:04,630
(explosions)
1398
01:19:04,730 --> 01:19:09,530
(camera shutter clicking)
1399
01:19:13,760 --> 01:19:16,990
(speaking English):
1400
01:19:51,200 --> 01:19:52,730
(speaking Vietnamese)
1401
01:20:23,760 --> 01:20:28,790
NARRATOR:
Ut drove the badly burned girl,
Kim Phuc,
1402
01:20:28,900 --> 01:20:31,130
and several other
injured children
1403
01:20:31,230 --> 01:20:33,460
to a hospital in Saigon.
1404
01:20:33,560 --> 01:20:37,930
She had been burned
over 30% of her body.
1405
01:20:38,030 --> 01:20:41,260
Then, Ut raced
to the AP darkroom
1406
01:20:41,360 --> 01:20:44,760
to find out
what he had caught on film.
1407
01:21:02,990 --> 01:21:05,860
NARRATOR:
His photo editor
in Saigon told him
1408
01:21:05,960 --> 01:21:08,930
they could not send the picture
out on the wire,
1409
01:21:09,030 --> 01:21:11,400
because the girl was naked.
1410
01:21:11,490 --> 01:21:13,930
But then Ut's boss,
1411
01:21:14,030 --> 01:21:17,700
the legendary
combat photographer Horst Faas,
1412
01:21:17,790 --> 01:21:19,730
saw the pictures.
1413
01:21:20,200 --> 01:21:21,860
UT:
1414
01:21:31,660 --> 01:21:35,560
NARRATOR:
Nick Ut's photograph appeared
1415
01:21:35,660 --> 01:21:38,460
on front pages around the world
1416
01:21:38,560 --> 01:21:42,490
and won the Pulitzer Prize.
1417
01:21:42,600 --> 01:21:45,490
For many Americans,
1418
01:21:45,600 --> 01:21:48,830
even many of those
who had supported the war,
1419
01:21:48,930 --> 01:21:53,530
the image seemed to signal
that enough was enough.
1420
01:21:57,130 --> 01:21:59,490
Kim Phuc would survive.
1421
01:21:59,600 --> 01:22:05,030
She eventually left Vietnam
and settled outside Toronto.
1422
01:22:10,490 --> 01:22:14,700
(cheers and applause)
1423
01:22:14,790 --> 01:22:16,860
(rhythmic clapping)
1424
01:22:20,460 --> 01:22:24,460
I introduce
Valerie Kushner of Virginia
1425
01:22:24,560 --> 01:22:27,230
to second the nomination
of George McGovern.
1426
01:22:27,330 --> 01:22:29,530
(applause and cheering)
1427
01:22:29,630 --> 01:22:33,230
Mr. Chairman, Democrats,
1428
01:22:33,330 --> 01:22:37,790
my participation
in this convention is a tribute
1429
01:22:37,900 --> 01:22:41,060
to the reforms instituted
by the Democratic Party,
1430
01:22:41,160 --> 01:22:45,100
for I am a woman,
and I am under 30.
1431
01:22:45,200 --> 01:22:48,760
But I also represent
an even smaller minority:
1432
01:22:48,860 --> 01:22:51,600
the wives of Americans
who are missing
1433
01:22:51,700 --> 01:22:54,130
or imprisoned in Southeast Asia.
1434
01:22:54,230 --> 01:22:57,760
(cheers and applause)
1435
01:22:57,860 --> 01:23:00,530
NARRATOR:
Valerie Kushner,
1436
01:23:00,630 --> 01:23:04,100
hoping to get her husband, Hal,
home as soon as possible,
1437
01:23:04,200 --> 01:23:07,130
had become an ardent supporter
of the candidacy
1438
01:23:07,230 --> 01:23:10,830
of Senator George McGovern
of South Dakota.
1439
01:23:10,930 --> 01:23:14,960
A decorated bomber pilot
in World War II,
1440
01:23:15,060 --> 01:23:17,760
McGovern had called
for an early end
1441
01:23:17,860 --> 01:23:19,160
to the bombing of the North,
1442
01:23:19,260 --> 01:23:22,360
a halt to Congressional funding
for the war,
1443
01:23:22,460 --> 01:23:24,360
and immediate withdrawal
1444
01:23:24,460 --> 01:23:29,030
from Vietnam
once the POWs were released.
1445
01:23:29,130 --> 01:23:32,530
I knew that he would bring
my husband home.
1446
01:23:32,630 --> 01:23:35,260
(applause)
1447
01:23:36,790 --> 01:23:41,460
But even more important,
he will bring America home.
1448
01:23:41,560 --> 01:23:44,530
(applause and cheering)
1449
01:23:44,630 --> 01:23:47,630
And it is for that reason
1450
01:23:47,730 --> 01:23:49,990
that I am proud
to second the nomination
1451
01:23:50,100 --> 01:23:54,830
of our next president,
Senator George S. McGovern.
1452
01:23:54,930 --> 01:23:57,860
(applause and cheering)
1453
01:24:00,400 --> 01:24:02,630
NARRATOR:
By the time her candidate
1454
01:24:02,730 --> 01:24:05,130
finally accepted
the nomination,
1455
01:24:05,230 --> 01:24:07,860
it was 2:48 in the morning.
1456
01:24:07,960 --> 01:24:10,900
Most Americans were asleep.
1457
01:24:10,990 --> 01:24:15,830
McGOVERN:
During four administrations
of both parties,
1458
01:24:15,930 --> 01:24:20,900
a terrible war has been
charted behind closed doors.
1459
01:24:20,990 --> 01:24:23,030
(cheers and applause)
1460
01:24:23,130 --> 01:24:25,490
I want those doors opened,
1461
01:24:25,600 --> 01:24:28,600
and I want that war closed.
1462
01:24:28,700 --> 01:24:31,360
(raucous cheers and applause)
1463
01:24:31,460 --> 01:24:32,930
(static)
1464
01:24:33,030 --> 01:24:36,730
NARRATOR:
McGovern's campaign
quickly collapsed.
1465
01:24:36,830 --> 01:24:40,030
He botched the selection
of his running mate,
1466
01:24:40,130 --> 01:24:43,400
and secretly asked an aide
in Paris
1467
01:24:43,490 --> 01:24:46,760
to talk with the
North Vietnamese about POWs,
1468
01:24:46,860 --> 01:24:51,960
and then denied he'd meddled
in the peace process.
1469
01:24:52,060 --> 01:24:54,030
Organized labor,
1470
01:24:54,130 --> 01:24:57,200
traditionally the Democrats'
most reliable ally,
1471
01:24:57,290 --> 01:25:00,130
refused to endorse
the party's candidate
1472
01:25:00,230 --> 01:25:03,760
for the first time in 20 years.
1473
01:25:03,860 --> 01:25:09,600
McGovern's poll numbers eroded
steadily over the summer.
1474
01:25:09,700 --> 01:25:12,630
Still, hoping to find material
1475
01:25:12,730 --> 01:25:15,630
that might be used
to smear the opposition,
1476
01:25:15,730 --> 01:25:19,360
Nixon's aides had already
authorized the Plumbers
1477
01:25:19,460 --> 01:25:21,660
to make another break-in,
1478
01:25:21,760 --> 01:25:25,400
this time at Democratic
National Headquarters
1479
01:25:25,490 --> 01:25:28,290
in the Washington, D.C.,
apartment complex
1480
01:25:28,400 --> 01:25:31,330
called the Watergate.
1481
01:25:31,430 --> 01:25:33,430
They had been caught.
1482
01:25:33,530 --> 01:25:36,160
JOHN CHANCELLOR:
One of the most fascinating
and exotic stories
1483
01:25:36,260 --> 01:25:37,960
ever to come out
of Washington, D.C.,
1484
01:25:38,060 --> 01:25:39,990
is the talk
of the Capitol today.
1485
01:25:40,100 --> 01:25:42,060
Five men were arrested
early Saturday
1486
01:25:42,160 --> 01:25:44,960
while trying to install
eavesdropping equipment
1487
01:25:45,060 --> 01:25:47,160
at the Democratic
National Committee.
1488
01:25:47,260 --> 01:25:49,460
And it turns out
that one of them has an office
1489
01:25:49,560 --> 01:25:51,830
in the headquarters
of the Committee
1490
01:25:51,930 --> 01:25:53,660
for the Re-Election
of the President.
1491
01:25:53,760 --> 01:25:57,060
(camera shutter clicking)
1492
01:26:01,900 --> 01:26:03,990
("Barbarella" by Bob Crewe
and Charles Fox playing)
1493
01:26:04,100 --> 01:26:09,630
♪ It's a wonder,
wonder woman ♪
1494
01:26:09,730 --> 01:26:15,290
♪ You're so wild
and wonderful ♪
1495
01:26:15,400 --> 01:26:20,360
♪ 'Cause it seems whenever
1496
01:26:20,460 --> 01:26:22,860
♪ We're together
1497
01:26:22,960 --> 01:26:24,630
♪ The planets all...
1498
01:26:24,730 --> 01:26:28,200
JOHN MUSGRAVE:
Barbarella--
Jane Fonda was...
1499
01:26:28,290 --> 01:26:32,360
was one of our major fantasies.
1500
01:26:32,460 --> 01:26:36,560
You know?
I mean, major fantasies.
1501
01:26:36,660 --> 01:26:39,900
And, uh, we couldn't believe it
1502
01:26:39,990 --> 01:26:44,330
when that fantasy
went to North Vietnam.
1503
01:26:44,430 --> 01:26:46,990
She was held to a different
standard of conduct
1504
01:26:47,100 --> 01:26:50,960
by being our fantasy,
you know, our dream girl.
1505
01:26:51,060 --> 01:26:54,600
It's like our dream girl
betrayed us.
1506
01:26:54,700 --> 01:26:55,900
("Where Have All the Flowers
Gone" by Joan Baez playing)
1507
01:26:55,990 --> 01:26:58,060
♪ Where have all
the young men gone? ♪
1508
01:26:58,160 --> 01:27:02,430
♪ They are all in uniform
1509
01:27:02,530 --> 01:27:08,030
♪ When will they ever learn?
1510
01:27:08,130 --> 01:27:12,960
♪ When will they
ever learn? ♪
1511
01:27:13,060 --> 01:27:14,930
♪ Where have all...
1512
01:27:15,030 --> 01:27:17,530
NARRATOR:
Over the years, a steady stream
1513
01:27:17,630 --> 01:27:21,130
of Americans opposed to the war
would visit Hanoi,
1514
01:27:21,230 --> 01:27:24,460
including the folk singer
Joan Baez,
1515
01:27:24,560 --> 01:27:28,130
David Dellinger
of the War Resisters League,
1516
01:27:28,230 --> 01:27:31,430
the writer Susan Sontag,
1517
01:27:31,530 --> 01:27:35,900
and Tom Hayden of
the Indochina Peace Campaign.
1518
01:27:35,990 --> 01:27:39,130
But no visitor
made more headlines
1519
01:27:39,230 --> 01:27:41,560
than the actress Jane Fonda.
1520
01:27:41,660 --> 01:27:44,990
During two weeks
in the summer of 1972,
1521
01:27:45,100 --> 01:27:49,330
she broadcast at least
ten times over Radio Hanoi,
1522
01:27:49,430 --> 01:27:51,790
denouncing American POWs
1523
01:27:51,900 --> 01:27:54,260
for having committed
war crimes,
1524
01:27:54,360 --> 01:27:56,860
urging the North Vietnamese
to hold out
1525
01:27:56,960 --> 01:28:00,330
against American imperialism.
1526
01:28:00,430 --> 01:28:03,790
Many Americans
would never forgive her
1527
01:28:03,900 --> 01:28:07,160
for what she did and said.
1528
01:28:07,260 --> 01:28:09,700
FONDA:
According to international law,
1529
01:28:09,790 --> 01:28:12,200
these men are war criminals.
1530
01:28:12,290 --> 01:28:13,760
That's according to law,
1531
01:28:13,860 --> 01:28:15,100
according
to the Nuremberg principles,
1532
01:28:15,200 --> 01:28:17,600
according to the Geneva Accord,
and others.
1533
01:28:17,700 --> 01:28:20,600
They should be tried
in front of a court
1534
01:28:20,700 --> 01:28:23,130
and probably executed
for what they did.
1535
01:28:23,230 --> 01:28:26,790
MUSGRAVE:
She's taken a lot of heat
for what she did.
1536
01:28:26,900 --> 01:28:29,460
And deservedly so.
1537
01:28:29,560 --> 01:28:33,060
She did some things
that were terrible.
1538
01:28:33,160 --> 01:28:35,730
And-and, yes,
1539
01:28:35,830 --> 01:28:38,330
we have a right
to be pissed off at her.
1540
01:28:38,430 --> 01:28:41,330
But, you know,
1541
01:28:41,430 --> 01:28:44,160
she wasn't the only one.
1542
01:28:44,260 --> 01:28:48,760
She's just the only one
we fantasized about.
1543
01:28:49,760 --> 01:28:54,200
(cheers and applause)
1544
01:28:58,960 --> 01:29:01,100
AUDIENCE:
Four more years!
1545
01:29:01,200 --> 01:29:04,030
Four more years!
Four more years!
1546
01:29:04,130 --> 01:29:06,530
NIXON:
We have brought over
half a million men home,
1547
01:29:06,630 --> 01:29:08,530
and more will be coming home.
1548
01:29:08,630 --> 01:29:11,660
We have ended
America's ground combat role.
1549
01:29:11,760 --> 01:29:14,330
No draftees
are being sent to Vietnam.
1550
01:29:14,430 --> 01:29:17,330
We have reduced our casualties
by 98%.
1551
01:29:17,430 --> 01:29:19,230
We've gone the extra mile.
1552
01:29:19,330 --> 01:29:22,030
In fact, we've gone tens
of thousands of miles
1553
01:29:22,130 --> 01:29:24,530
trying to seek a negotiated
settlement of the war.
1554
01:29:24,630 --> 01:29:26,290
(applause)
1555
01:29:26,400 --> 01:29:29,100
There are three things,
however, that we have not
1556
01:29:29,200 --> 01:29:31,230
and that we will not offer.
1557
01:29:31,330 --> 01:29:34,430
We will never abandon
our prisoners of war.
1558
01:29:34,530 --> 01:29:35,930
(cheers and applause)
1559
01:29:41,790 --> 01:29:43,430
And, second,
1560
01:29:43,530 --> 01:29:47,100
we will not join our enemies
1561
01:29:47,200 --> 01:29:50,700
in imposing a communist
government on our ally,
1562
01:29:50,790 --> 01:29:53,130
the 17 million people
of South Vietnam.
1563
01:29:53,230 --> 01:29:55,930
(cheers and applause)
1564
01:29:59,260 --> 01:30:01,160
And we will never stain
the honor
1565
01:30:01,260 --> 01:30:03,330
of the United States of America.
1566
01:30:03,430 --> 01:30:05,360
(cheers)
1567
01:30:46,360 --> 01:30:49,460
NARRATOR:
Back in Paris, Henry Kissinger
was determined
1568
01:30:49,560 --> 01:30:53,990
to hammer out a peace agreement
before Election Day.
1569
01:30:54,100 --> 01:30:57,360
Now Le Duc Tho
made a key concession.
1570
01:30:57,460 --> 01:30:59,660
Hanoi no longer insisted
1571
01:30:59,760 --> 01:31:03,290
that President Thieu had to go.
1572
01:31:03,400 --> 01:31:06,130
JOHN NEGROPONTE:
There was somehow
this compulsion
1573
01:31:06,230 --> 01:31:09,730
to come to some kind
of an agreement.
1574
01:31:09,830 --> 01:31:12,730
I remember Le Duc Tho when
he produced the draft agreement
1575
01:31:12,830 --> 01:31:19,060
in October 8 of '72
to Kissinger, saying,
1576
01:31:19,160 --> 01:31:20,460
"You're in a hurry, aren't you?
1577
01:31:20,560 --> 01:31:22,460
You want to do this quickly."
1578
01:31:22,560 --> 01:31:26,130
And-and the response was, "Yes."
1579
01:31:26,230 --> 01:31:29,660
NARRATOR:
The two sides soon
had a tentative deal,
1580
01:31:29,760 --> 01:31:31,660
a "cease-fire in place"
1581
01:31:31,760 --> 01:31:34,160
to be followed within 60 days
1582
01:31:34,260 --> 01:31:37,160
by a complete withdrawal
of U.S. troops
1583
01:31:37,260 --> 01:31:40,760
and the return
of all American POWs.
1584
01:31:40,860 --> 01:31:45,030
The United States
stopped bombing the North.
1585
01:31:45,130 --> 01:31:50,630
No one had told President Thieu
any of the terms.
1586
01:31:52,260 --> 01:31:55,960
The day before Kissinger was to
arrive in Saigon to brief him,
1587
01:31:56,060 --> 01:31:59,700
Thieu was handed a document
found in an enemy bunker
1588
01:31:59,790 --> 01:32:01,930
in Quang Tin Province.
1589
01:32:02,030 --> 01:32:06,360
It was entitled "General
Instructions for Cease-Fire."
1590
01:32:06,460 --> 01:32:11,130
It meant that communist cadres
in an isolated province
1591
01:32:11,230 --> 01:32:15,560
of his own country already knew
more about what Kissinger
1592
01:32:15,660 --> 01:32:20,600
and Le Duc Tho had agreed to
in Paris than he did.
1593
01:32:20,700 --> 01:32:24,030
NEGROPONTE:
And imagine being given
an agreement
1594
01:32:24,130 --> 01:32:29,490
concerning the fate of your own
country and, uh,
1595
01:32:29,600 --> 01:32:31,260
being told that
you really don't have
1596
01:32:31,360 --> 01:32:34,930
any input in the matter.
1597
01:32:35,030 --> 01:32:38,490
And, oh, by the way,
we didn't even yet have
1598
01:32:38,600 --> 01:32:40,400
the Vietnamese translation,
1599
01:32:40,490 --> 01:32:42,230
because that hadn't been
completed.
1600
01:32:42,330 --> 01:32:45,790
And we gave him
the English version.
1601
01:32:45,900 --> 01:32:49,130
So, I mean,
as a professional diplomat,
1602
01:32:49,230 --> 01:32:52,400
somebody who's been in this
business all my life, uh,
1603
01:32:52,490 --> 01:32:55,160
I've got to tell you,
that just an awful lot
1604
01:32:55,260 --> 01:32:57,960
of diplomatic rules
were broken there.
1605
01:32:58,060 --> 01:33:01,900
NARRATOR:
Thieu refused
to accept the terms.
1606
01:33:01,990 --> 01:33:05,160
Allowing North Vietnamese troops
to remain in the South
1607
01:33:05,260 --> 01:33:08,330
would be the death
of his country.
1608
01:33:08,430 --> 01:33:12,600
Nonetheless,
after Kissinger returned home
1609
01:33:12,700 --> 01:33:15,130
12 days before the election,
1610
01:33:15,230 --> 01:33:19,400
he told the press,
"Peace is at hand."
1611
01:33:19,490 --> 01:33:21,960
("Tail Dragger" by Link Wray
playing)
1612
01:33:25,060 --> 01:33:27,990
On November 7, 1972,
1613
01:33:28,100 --> 01:33:31,160
Richard Nixon won
a stunning victory.
1614
01:33:31,260 --> 01:33:35,990
He was reelected with more
than 60% of the popular vote--
1615
01:33:36,100 --> 01:33:41,990
521 electoral votes
to McGovern's 17.
1616
01:33:42,100 --> 01:33:45,790
He took every single state
except Massachusetts
1617
01:33:45,900 --> 01:33:48,400
and the District of Columbia.
1618
01:33:48,490 --> 01:33:51,600
Now, the president resolved
to rid himself
1619
01:33:51,700 --> 01:33:57,260
of Vietnam completely before
his second inauguration.
1620
01:33:57,360 --> 01:34:00,130
To calm Thieu's fears
of what was to come,
1621
01:34:00,230 --> 01:34:03,060
Nixon launched
another massive airlift
1622
01:34:03,160 --> 01:34:05,990
of military equipment
to South Vietnam.
1623
01:34:06,100 --> 01:34:09,100
"If we had given this aid
to the North Vietnamese,"
1624
01:34:09,200 --> 01:34:10,990
one American general said,
1625
01:34:11,100 --> 01:34:15,400
"they could have fought us
for the rest of the century."
1626
01:34:15,490 --> 01:34:19,360
The Paris peace talks resumed.
1627
01:34:19,460 --> 01:34:22,730
But then, Le Duc Tho
suddenly announced
1628
01:34:22,830 --> 01:34:26,990
he needed to return to Hanoi
for consultation.
1629
01:34:27,100 --> 01:34:28,930
NEGROPONTE:
We could only conclude
that maybe they were
1630
01:34:29,030 --> 01:34:30,490
having some doubts
about whether
1631
01:34:30,600 --> 01:34:32,490
they wanted to go through
with the agreement,
1632
01:34:32,600 --> 01:34:35,200
because we had sent
so many supplies
1633
01:34:35,290 --> 01:34:38,400
to Saigon
in the intervening weeks.
1634
01:34:38,490 --> 01:34:41,100
NARRATOR:
There turned out to be
dissension
1635
01:34:41,200 --> 01:34:43,730
on the communist side as well.
1636
01:34:43,830 --> 01:34:47,290
Hanoi, like Washington,
had not bothered to consult
1637
01:34:47,400 --> 01:34:49,530
with its southern comrades.
1638
01:34:49,630 --> 01:34:52,330
It had dropped the two demands
that meant the most
1639
01:34:52,430 --> 01:34:56,360
to the Viet Cong-- the removal
of Thieu, and the release
1640
01:34:56,460 --> 01:34:59,600
of some 30,000
of their prisoners.
1641
01:34:59,700 --> 01:35:02,660
"Hanoi's message was clear,"
1642
01:35:02,760 --> 01:35:05,130
one bitter
Viet Cong official said.
1643
01:35:05,230 --> 01:35:09,030
"It cared more about
American prisoners of war
1644
01:35:09,130 --> 01:35:11,790
than it did for us."
1645
01:35:11,900 --> 01:35:15,430
Nixon ordered Kissinger
to suspend the talks,
1646
01:35:15,530 --> 01:35:18,460
and then he resumed the bombing
of North Vietnam
1647
01:35:18,560 --> 01:35:20,730
to further punish Hanoi,
1648
01:35:20,830 --> 01:35:23,660
and to signal to both
Hanoi and Saigon
1649
01:35:23,760 --> 01:35:27,330
that the United States
might use its airpower
1650
01:35:27,430 --> 01:35:29,600
to defend South Vietnam
1651
01:35:29,700 --> 01:35:34,100
even after a peace agreement
was signed.
1652
01:35:35,490 --> 01:35:37,330
On December 18,
1653
01:35:37,430 --> 01:35:40,790
Nixon unleashed round-the-clock
air strikes
1654
01:35:40,900 --> 01:35:43,960
that flattened targets
around Hanoi and Haiphong.
1655
01:35:44,060 --> 01:35:45,790
(explosions)
1656
01:35:45,900 --> 01:35:49,060
It would be remembered
as the Christmas Bombing.
1657
01:35:49,160 --> 01:35:52,490
(bombs exploding,
people shouting)
1658
01:35:52,600 --> 01:35:54,360
HAL KUSHNER:
And all of a sudden,
1659
01:35:54,460 --> 01:35:56,460
around Christmastime,
1660
01:35:56,560 --> 01:35:58,860
we hear an Arc Light operation,
1661
01:35:58,960 --> 01:36:01,430
B-52s-- bom-bom-bom-bom-bom.
1662
01:36:01,530 --> 01:36:03,400
And it's all around,
and it is just exploding.
1663
01:36:03,490 --> 01:36:08,290
And everyone knew
they were B-52s.
1664
01:36:08,400 --> 01:36:10,630
And is... in the two years
that I was there,
1665
01:36:10,730 --> 01:36:13,400
that was the first time
I ever heard a bomb.
1666
01:36:13,490 --> 01:36:14,930
And it was close.
1667
01:36:15,030 --> 01:36:17,290
It was really close.
1668
01:36:17,400 --> 01:36:19,530
It was frightening,
but we were still cheering.
1669
01:36:19,630 --> 01:36:23,290
I mean, we were cheering because
something was happening.
1670
01:36:23,400 --> 01:36:25,630
(explosions)
1671
01:36:25,730 --> 01:36:27,530
HUY DUC:
1672
01:36:56,400 --> 01:36:57,760
NARRATOR:
Around the world,
1673
01:36:57,860 --> 01:37:01,100
antiwar demonstrators returned
to the streets.
1674
01:37:01,200 --> 01:37:04,290
The prime minister of Sweden
compared the United States
1675
01:37:04,400 --> 01:37:06,030
to Nazi Germany.
1676
01:37:06,130 --> 01:37:08,230
The Pope called the bombing,
1677
01:37:08,330 --> 01:37:11,030
which killed more than
1,600 civilians,
1678
01:37:11,130 --> 01:37:14,230
"the object of daily grief."
1679
01:37:14,330 --> 01:37:18,630
James Reston of theNew York
Times pronounced the raids
1680
01:37:18,730 --> 01:37:20,530
"war by tantrum."
1681
01:37:20,630 --> 01:37:25,060
Republican Senator
William Saxbe of Ohio said
1682
01:37:25,160 --> 01:37:29,760
the president had taken leave
of his senses.
1683
01:37:29,860 --> 01:37:31,400
(gunfire)
1684
01:37:31,490 --> 01:37:35,460
North Vietnam shot down
15 B-52s,
1685
01:37:35,560 --> 01:37:39,830
along with 11 other aircraft.
1686
01:37:39,930 --> 01:37:43,900
93 crewmen were
reported missing.
1687
01:37:43,990 --> 01:37:48,660
45 new prisoners of war
were locked up in Hanoi,
1688
01:37:48,760 --> 01:37:53,360
one of whom died in captivity.
1689
01:37:53,460 --> 01:37:58,360
Meanwhile, both the Chinese
and the Soviets pressed Hanoi
1690
01:37:58,460 --> 01:38:00,960
to resume negotiations.
1691
01:38:01,060 --> 01:38:04,660
"The most important thing is
to let the Americans leave,"
1692
01:38:04,760 --> 01:38:07,930
Zhou Enlai told
a North Vietnamese official.
1693
01:38:08,030 --> 01:38:12,730
"The situation will change
in six months or a year."
1694
01:38:14,790 --> 01:38:18,860
On December 26, Hanoi signaled
its willingness
1695
01:38:18,960 --> 01:38:21,200
to return to Paris.
1696
01:38:21,290 --> 01:38:25,860
It would take just six days
to reach a final agreement.
1697
01:38:25,960 --> 01:38:32,160
NEGROPONTE:
We bombed them into
accepting our concessions.
1698
01:38:32,260 --> 01:38:36,360
We bombed them into accepting
our concessions.
1699
01:38:36,460 --> 01:38:40,200
And I stand by that statement,
because, in effect,
1700
01:38:40,290 --> 01:38:46,530
what we did was to carry out
this massive bombing campaign
1701
01:38:46,630 --> 01:38:51,430
in order to basically get back
to pretty much exactly
1702
01:38:51,530 --> 01:38:55,160
where we were at the end
of October in '72.
1703
01:38:57,130 --> 01:39:00,060
NARRATOR:
President Thieu still balked
at signing on.
1704
01:39:00,160 --> 01:39:02,430
Nixon was adamant.
1705
01:39:02,530 --> 01:39:05,530
Thieu had to go along with
what Washington and Hanoi
1706
01:39:05,630 --> 01:39:07,200
had worked out.
1707
01:39:07,290 --> 01:39:09,990
But without informing Congress,
1708
01:39:10,100 --> 01:39:12,990
the president assured
Thieu in writing
1709
01:39:13,100 --> 01:39:16,830
that the United States would
"respond with full force"
1710
01:39:16,930 --> 01:39:20,530
if the North ever violated
the agreement.
1711
01:39:20,630 --> 01:39:24,160
"The Americans really leave me
no choice," Thieu said.
1712
01:39:24,260 --> 01:39:28,130
"Either sign
or they will cut off aid.
1713
01:39:28,230 --> 01:39:32,330
"On the other hand, we have an
absolute guarantee from Nixon
1714
01:39:32,430 --> 01:39:34,630
"to defend the country.
1715
01:39:34,730 --> 01:39:39,200
"I am going to agree to sign
and hold him to his word.
1716
01:39:39,290 --> 01:39:42,990
He is an honest man
and I am going to trust him."
1717
01:39:51,660 --> 01:39:55,730
On January 22, 1973,
1718
01:39:55,830 --> 01:39:59,730
at his ranch in the
Hill Country of Texas,
1719
01:39:59,830 --> 01:40:02,760
Lyndon Baines Johnson,
1720
01:40:02,860 --> 01:40:05,460
the president who had committed
the United States
1721
01:40:05,560 --> 01:40:08,430
to a ground war in Vietnam,
1722
01:40:08,530 --> 01:40:12,830
and had seen that war undercut
his domestic social programs
1723
01:40:12,930 --> 01:40:15,930
and end his political career,
1724
01:40:16,030 --> 01:40:18,200
died of congestive
heart failure.
1725
01:40:23,430 --> 01:40:28,230
The following evening, Richard
Nixon spoke to the nation.
1726
01:40:28,330 --> 01:40:30,930
28 years after
the United States
1727
01:40:31,030 --> 01:40:33,830
first became involved
in Vietnam,
1728
01:40:33,930 --> 01:40:36,790
it was finally getting out.
1729
01:40:36,900 --> 01:40:38,330
NIXON:
I have asked for this radio
1730
01:40:38,430 --> 01:40:40,700
and television time tonight
1731
01:40:40,790 --> 01:40:44,260
for the purpose
of announcing that we today
1732
01:40:44,360 --> 01:40:47,630
have concluded an agreement
to end the war
1733
01:40:47,730 --> 01:40:51,730
and bring peace with honor in
Vietnam and in Southeast Asia.
1734
01:40:51,830 --> 01:40:55,230
A cease-fire,
internationally supervised,
1735
01:40:55,330 --> 01:40:59,130
will begin at 7:00 p.m.
this Saturday, January 27,
1736
01:40:59,230 --> 01:41:00,960
Washington time.
1737
01:41:01,060 --> 01:41:03,060
Within 60 days
from this Saturday,
1738
01:41:03,160 --> 01:41:07,400
all Americans held prisoners
of war throughout Indochina
1739
01:41:07,490 --> 01:41:09,930
will be released.
1740
01:41:11,700 --> 01:41:16,530
NARRATOR:
American prisoners of war,
591 of them,
1741
01:41:16,630 --> 01:41:19,830
were to be released
in batches of 40.
1742
01:41:19,930 --> 01:41:22,830
Those who had been
in captivity the longest
1743
01:41:22,930 --> 01:41:25,490
were to come home first.
1744
01:41:25,600 --> 01:41:29,530
Today the largest contingents of
repatriated prisoners so far,
1745
01:41:29,630 --> 01:41:31,400
60 men, were flown from Clark
1746
01:41:31,490 --> 01:41:33,360
to Travis Air Force Base,
California.
1747
01:41:33,460 --> 01:41:35,290
ROGER PETERSON:
Today's most dramatic
moment came
1748
01:41:35,400 --> 01:41:37,990
when Everett Alvarez made
his happy trek down the ramp,
1749
01:41:38,100 --> 01:41:39,200
home at last.
1750
01:41:39,290 --> 01:41:40,630
For almost as long
as most Americans
1751
01:41:40,730 --> 01:41:42,200
have been aware of Vietnam,
1752
01:41:42,290 --> 01:41:46,130
Lieutenant Commander Alvarez
has been a prisoner in Hanoi.
1753
01:41:46,230 --> 01:41:49,060
He was shot down August 5, 1964,
during the first raids flown
1754
01:41:49,160 --> 01:41:52,130
in retaliation for
the Tonkin Gulf incident.
1755
01:41:52,230 --> 01:41:54,030
And finally, today,
he was home.
1756
01:41:54,130 --> 01:41:56,490
For years and years,
1757
01:41:56,600 --> 01:42:02,830
we dreamed of this day,
and we kept faith.
1758
01:42:02,930 --> 01:42:07,630
Faith in God,
in our president,
1759
01:42:07,730 --> 01:42:09,290
and in our country.
1760
01:42:09,400 --> 01:42:12,530
("America the Beautiful"
by Ray Charles playing)
1761
01:42:14,330 --> 01:42:18,860
NARRATOR:
Hal Kushner's turn
came in mid-March.
1762
01:42:18,960 --> 01:42:21,400
CHARLES:
♪ Oh, beautiful
1763
01:42:21,490 --> 01:42:25,530
♪ For heroes proved
1764
01:42:28,100 --> 01:42:31,900
♪ In liberating strife
1765
01:42:31,990 --> 01:42:34,530
KUSHNER:
And they...
then they called our name.
1766
01:42:34,630 --> 01:42:37,160
And I walked out
in the sunlight.
1767
01:42:37,260 --> 01:42:40,100
And the first thing I saw
was a girl in a miniskirt.
1768
01:42:40,200 --> 01:42:42,860
She was a reporter for one
of the news organizations.
1769
01:42:42,960 --> 01:42:44,900
I'd never seen
a real-life miniskirt.
1770
01:42:44,990 --> 01:42:50,600
CHARLES:
♪ And mercy more than life
1771
01:42:50,700 --> 01:42:52,960
KUSHNER:
And there was a table
with the Vietnamese
1772
01:42:53,060 --> 01:42:55,100
and American authorities
on one side,
1773
01:42:55,200 --> 01:42:57,700
and there was a brigadier
general, Air Force general
1774
01:42:57,790 --> 01:43:00,100
in Class A uniform.
1775
01:43:00,200 --> 01:43:03,360
And he looked magnificent.
1776
01:43:03,460 --> 01:43:06,260
And I looked at him...
1777
01:43:06,360 --> 01:43:08,100
(voice breaking):
and he had breadth,
1778
01:43:08,200 --> 01:43:12,200
he had thickness
that we didn't have.
1779
01:43:12,290 --> 01:43:15,460
And his hair was...
he had on a garrison cap.
1780
01:43:15,560 --> 01:43:18,600
And his hair was
plump and moist,
1781
01:43:18,700 --> 01:43:21,200
and our hair
was like straw, you know.
1782
01:43:21,290 --> 01:43:23,490
It was dry and
we were skinny.
1783
01:43:23,600 --> 01:43:24,530
(clears throat)
1784
01:43:25,930 --> 01:43:27,630
And I went out and I saluted,
1785
01:43:27,730 --> 01:43:30,400
which was a courtesy
that had been denied us
1786
01:43:30,490 --> 01:43:33,230
for so many years.
1787
01:43:33,330 --> 01:43:35,730
And he saluted me, and he...
1788
01:43:35,830 --> 01:43:37,790
I shook hands
with him and he hugged me,
1789
01:43:37,900 --> 01:43:39,330
he actually hugged me,
1790
01:43:39,430 --> 01:43:43,030
and he said,
"Welcome home, Major.
1791
01:43:43,130 --> 01:43:44,730
We're glad to see you, doctor."
1792
01:43:44,830 --> 01:43:47,600
And the tears were
streaming down his cheeks.
1793
01:43:47,700 --> 01:43:50,730
And it was just
a-a powerful moment.
1794
01:43:50,830 --> 01:43:55,360
CHARLES:
♪ For purple mountains
1795
01:43:55,460 --> 01:43:56,830
♪ Majesty
1796
01:43:56,930 --> 01:43:59,200
KUSHNER:
And then this liaison officer
they called
1797
01:43:59,290 --> 01:44:02,760
that came out and got me
and escorted me on this C-141.
1798
01:44:02,860 --> 01:44:06,700
It was this beautiful white
airplane with a flag.
1799
01:44:06,790 --> 01:44:10,100
(sighs)
1800
01:44:10,200 --> 01:44:15,330
An American flag
on the tail and USAF.
1801
01:44:15,430 --> 01:44:17,860
CHARLES:
♪ America
1802
01:44:17,960 --> 01:44:19,290
♪ You know
1803
01:44:19,400 --> 01:44:23,860
♪ God done shed
his grace on thee ♪
1804
01:44:23,960 --> 01:44:27,530
KUSHNER:
And they had these real
cute flight nurses on there.
1805
01:44:27,630 --> 01:44:29,560
They were all tall and blonde
and, you know,
1806
01:44:29,660 --> 01:44:31,600
they-they were just gorgeous.
1807
01:44:31,700 --> 01:44:34,030
And we got on this thing
and, and she said,
1808
01:44:34,130 --> 01:44:37,130
this nurse-- we sat in these
seats and she said,
1809
01:44:37,230 --> 01:44:38,790
"We have anything you want,
you know.
1810
01:44:38,900 --> 01:44:39,930
"Do... what do you want?"
1811
01:44:40,030 --> 01:44:42,100
And I-I wanted a Coke
with crushed ice
1812
01:44:42,200 --> 01:44:44,330
and some chewing gum.
1813
01:44:44,430 --> 01:44:47,730
CHARLES:
♪ You know, I wish had somebody
to help me sing this ♪
1814
01:44:47,830 --> 01:44:51,790
♪ America
1815
01:44:51,900 --> 01:44:54,160
♪ America
♪ America
1816
01:44:54,260 --> 01:44:55,600
♪ I love you, America
1817
01:44:55,700 --> 01:44:58,330
♪ God shed
♪ You see
1818
01:44:58,430 --> 01:45:00,600
♪ My God, he done shed
♪ His grace
1819
01:45:00,700 --> 01:45:03,200
♪ His grace on thee
♪ On thee
1820
01:45:03,290 --> 01:45:05,490
♪ And you ought to
love him for it ♪
1821
01:45:05,600 --> 01:45:10,030
♪ 'Cause he, he, he,
he crowned thy good ♪
1822
01:45:10,130 --> 01:45:11,860
♪ He told me he would
1823
01:45:11,960 --> 01:45:15,560
♪ With brotherhood
1824
01:45:15,660 --> 01:45:17,830
♪ From sea
1825
01:45:17,930 --> 01:45:20,060
♪ To shining
1826
01:45:20,160 --> 01:45:22,600
♪ Shining sea
♪ Sea
1827
01:45:22,700 --> 01:45:24,560
♪ Oh, Lord
1828
01:45:24,660 --> 01:45:25,790
♪ Oh, Lord!
1829
01:45:25,900 --> 01:45:28,160
♪ I thank you, Lord
1830
01:45:28,260 --> 01:45:33,790
♪ Shining sea.
1831
01:45:40,400 --> 01:45:42,330
("The Lord Is in This Place" by
Fairport Convention playing)
1832
01:45:45,990 --> 01:45:49,100
NARRATOR:
Within a few days
of Hal Kushner's release,
1833
01:45:49,200 --> 01:45:54,100
the last American combat troops
would leave Vietnam.
1834
01:45:54,200 --> 01:45:58,930
But they would leave behind
many unanswered questions.
1835
01:45:59,030 --> 01:46:03,730
How long could the South
Vietnamese government survive?
1836
01:46:03,830 --> 01:46:07,030
What was the value
of American promises,
1837
01:46:07,130 --> 01:46:09,960
and American sacrifice?
1838
01:46:10,060 --> 01:46:14,230
And how long would it take
for the wounds of war to heal?
1839
01:46:27,330 --> 01:46:29,260
("What's Going On?"
by Marvin Gaye playing)
1840
01:46:30,900 --> 01:46:32,830
(indistinct conversations)
1841
01:46:36,930 --> 01:46:39,460
♪ Mother, mother
1842
01:46:39,560 --> 01:46:43,630
♪ There's too many
of you crying ♪
1843
01:46:46,530 --> 01:46:48,660
♪ Brother, brother, brother
1844
01:46:48,760 --> 01:46:52,760
♪ There's far too many
of you dying ♪
1845
01:46:54,730 --> 01:46:57,860
♪ You know
we've got to find a way ♪
1846
01:46:59,660 --> 01:47:02,560
♪ To bring some
loving here today ♪
1847
01:47:02,660 --> 01:47:05,490
♪ Yeah
1848
01:47:05,600 --> 01:47:07,200
♪ Father, father
1849
01:47:09,030 --> 01:47:11,330
♪ We don't need to escalate
1850
01:47:14,200 --> 01:47:18,360
♪ You see,
war is not the answer ♪
1851
01:47:18,460 --> 01:47:23,100
♪ For only love
can conquer hate ♪
1852
01:47:23,200 --> 01:47:26,060
♪ You know
we've got to find a way ♪
1853
01:47:28,130 --> 01:47:31,330
♪ To bring some
loving here today ♪
1854
01:47:31,430 --> 01:47:33,830
♪ Oh
1855
01:47:33,930 --> 01:47:35,960
♪ Picket lines
♪ Sister
1856
01:47:36,060 --> 01:47:38,360
♪ And picket signs
♪ Sister
1857
01:47:38,460 --> 01:47:40,130
♪ Don't punish me
♪ Sister
1858
01:47:40,230 --> 01:47:43,400
♪ With brutality
♪ Sister
1859
01:47:43,490 --> 01:47:45,330
♪ Talk to me
♪ Sister
1860
01:47:45,430 --> 01:47:47,360
♪ So you can see
♪ Sister
1861
01:47:47,460 --> 01:47:49,860
♪ Oh, what's going on
♪ What's going on
1862
01:47:49,960 --> 01:47:51,930
♪ What's going on
♪ What's going on
1863
01:47:52,030 --> 01:47:54,290
♪ Yeah, what's going on
♪ What's going on
1864
01:47:54,400 --> 01:47:56,560
♪ Ah, what's going on
♪ What's going on
1865
01:47:56,660 --> 01:47:59,430
♪ Ah
♪ Right on
1866
01:47:59,530 --> 01:48:01,160
♪ Whoo! Right on, brother
1867
01:48:01,260 --> 01:48:02,630
(indistinct conversations)
1868
01:48:02,730 --> 01:48:04,660
(scatting)
1869
01:48:06,130 --> 01:48:08,230
MAN: Hey, man, what's your name?
Whoo!
1870
01:48:08,330 --> 01:48:10,060
♪ Right on, baby
1871
01:48:10,160 --> 01:48:11,930
Right on.
♪ Right on
1872
01:48:12,030 --> 01:48:14,960
(scatting)
1873
01:48:27,700 --> 01:48:28,930
Whoo!
♪ Whoo
1874
01:48:29,030 --> 01:48:31,790
♪ Right on, baby
1875
01:48:31,900 --> 01:48:33,830
(scatting)
1876
01:48:46,160 --> 01:48:47,160
Whoo!
1877
01:48:47,260 --> 01:48:48,600
-♪ Right on, baby
-(man whooping)
1878
01:48:48,700 --> 01:48:49,660
♪ Come on
1879
01:48:49,760 --> 01:48:51,060
♪ Right on
1880
01:48:51,160 --> 01:48:53,100
(singer scatting, man whooping)
1881
01:48:56,290 --> 01:48:59,290
♪ Whoo! Right on
1882
01:48:59,400 --> 01:49:00,700
♪ Go slow
1883
01:49:00,790 --> 01:49:02,730
(scatting)
1884
01:49:13,060 --> 01:49:14,330
ANNOUNCER: LEARN MORE
ABOUT THE FILM
1885
01:49:14,330 --> 01:49:17,200
AND FIND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
AT PBS.ORG/VIETNAMWAR
1886
01:49:17,200 --> 01:49:21,130
AND JOIN THE CONVERSATION
USING HASHTAG VIETNAMWARPBS.
1887
01:49:21,130 --> 01:49:22,600
"THE VIETNAM WAR" IS AVAILABLE
1888
01:49:22,600 --> 01:49:24,260
ON BLU-RAY
AND DVD.
1889
01:49:24,260 --> 01:49:25,930
THE COMPANION BOOK,
SOUNDTRACK,
1890
01:49:25,930 --> 01:49:27,330
AND ORIGINAL SCORE
FROM THE FILM
1891
01:49:27,330 --> 01:49:28,460
ARE ALSO
AVAILABLE.
1892
01:49:28,460 --> 01:49:30,560
TO ORDER, VISIT
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1893
01:49:30,560 --> 01:49:33,030
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1894
01:49:33,030 --> 01:49:34,460
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1895
01:49:34,460 --> 01:49:35,560
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1896
01:49:35,560 --> 01:49:36,660
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1897
01:49:39,930 --> 01:49:42,060
ANNOUNCER: BANK OF AMERICA
PROUDLY SUPPORTS
1898
01:49:42,060 --> 01:49:46,960
KEN BURNS' AND LYNN NOVICK'S
FILM "THE VIETNAM WAR"
1899
01:49:46,960 --> 01:49:49,360
BECAUSE FOSTERING
DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
1900
01:49:49,360 --> 01:49:51,960
AND CIVIL DISCOURSE
AROUND IMPORTANT ISSUES
1901
01:49:51,960 --> 01:49:54,260
FURTHERS PROGRESS, EQUALITY,
1902
01:49:54,260 --> 01:49:56,260
AND A MORE CONNECTED SOCIETY.
1903
01:50:00,730 --> 01:50:04,760
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1904
01:50:08,230 --> 01:50:09,660
ANNOUNCER: MAJOR SUPPORT
FOR "THE VIETNAM WAR"
1905
01:50:09,660 --> 01:50:13,160
WAS PROVIDED BY MEMBERS
OF THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY,
1906
01:50:13,160 --> 01:50:17,200
INCLUDING JONATHAN
AND JEANNIE LAVINE,
1907
01:50:17,200 --> 01:50:20,100
DIANE AND HAL BRIERLEY,
1908
01:50:20,100 --> 01:50:22,490
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1909
01:50:22,490 --> 01:50:24,990
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1910
01:50:24,990 --> 01:50:27,900
THE FULLERTON FAMILY
CHARITABLE FUND,
1911
01:50:27,900 --> 01:50:29,960
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1912
01:50:29,960 --> 01:50:32,290
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1913
01:50:32,290 --> 01:50:35,060
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FAMILY FOUNDATION,
1914
01:50:35,060 --> 01:50:36,060
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1915
01:50:36,060 --> 01:50:38,930
THE ROGER AND ROSEMARY
ENRICO FOUNDATION,
1916
01:50:38,930 --> 01:50:42,360
AND BY THESE ADDITIONAL FUNDERS.
1917
01:50:42,360 --> 01:50:44,260
MAJOR FUNDING WAS ALSO PROVIDED
1918
01:50:44,260 --> 01:50:45,990
BY DAVID H. KOCH...
1919
01:50:48,290 --> 01:50:50,490
THE BLAVATNIK
FAMILY FOUNDATION...
1920
01:50:52,830 --> 01:50:55,260
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1921
01:50:55,260 --> 01:50:57,430
THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT
FOR THE HUMANITIES,
1922
01:50:57,430 --> 01:50:59,630
THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS,
1923
01:50:59,630 --> 01:51:02,290
THE JOHN S. AND JAMES L.
KNIGHT FOUNDATION,
1924
01:51:02,290 --> 01:51:05,060
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1925
01:51:05,060 --> 01:51:07,660
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1926
01:51:07,660 --> 01:51:09,860
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1927
01:51:09,860 --> 01:51:11,060
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1928
01:51:11,060 --> 01:51:12,290
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1929
01:51:12,290 --> 01:51:14,330
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1930
01:51:14,330 --> 01:51:15,460
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