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ANNOUNCER: MAJOR SUPPORT
FOR "THE VIETNAM WAR"

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WAS PROVIDED BY MEMBERS OF
THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY,

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INCLUDING JONATHAN AND JEANNIE LAVINE,

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DIANE AND HAL BRIERLEY,

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AMY AND DAVID ABRAMS,

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JOHN AND CATHERINE DEBS,

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THE FULLERTON FAMILY CHARITABLE FUND,

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THE MONTRONE FAMILY,

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LYNDA AND STEWART RESNICK,

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THE PERRY AND DONNA
GOLKIN FAMILY FOUNDATION,

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THE LYNCH FOUNDATION,

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THE ROGER AND ROSEMARY ENRICO FOUNDATION,

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AND BY THESE ADDITIONAL FUNDERS.

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MAJOR FUNDING WAS ALSO PROVIDED

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BY DAVID H. KOCH...

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THE BLAVATNIK FAMILY FOUNDATION...

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THE PARK FOUNDATION,

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THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES,

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THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION,

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AND BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU.

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ANNOUNCER: BANK OF AMERICA PROUDLY SUPPORTS

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KEN BURNS' AND LYNN NOVICK'S
FILM "THE VIETNAM WAR"

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BECAUSE FOSTERING DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

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AND CIVIL DISCOURSE AROUND IMPORTANT ISSUES

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FURTHERS PROGRESS, EQUALITY,

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

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DYLAN: ♪ Oh, my name, it is nothin' ♪

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

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Denton Winslow Crocker.

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So that was the name we chose.

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He was a colicky little baby.

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

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And my husband was a wonderful dad

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and very loving and attentive.

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He'd walk the floor with him.

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

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the way he rules our lives."

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So that's where the name came from.

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We called him Mogie.

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NARRATOR: Mogie Crocker
was born June 3, 1947,

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the oldest of four children.

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His father was a biology teacher,

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and Mogie was raised in college towns:

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Ithaca, Amherst, and
finally Saratoga Springs,

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

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My mother read books to all of us.

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My brother was definitely the one

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who probably gravitated
towards them more than I did.

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He really feasted on books.

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NARRATOR: Mogie was an unusual boy.

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Intelligent, independent-minded,
and too nearsighted

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to do well at team sports,

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he loved books about American
history and American heroes.

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At 12, he started a diary

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in which he kept track of Cold War events.

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"I hate Reds!" he wrote,

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and he admired most those
who had proved willing

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to sacrifice themselves for a cause.

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President John F. Kennedy's
call for every American

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to ask what he or she could
do for their country

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

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One evening when I was reading to Denton

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before he went to sleep, I
chose a passage fromHenry V,

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

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"shall be my brother.

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"And gentlemen in England now a-bed

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"shall think themselves accurs'd

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"they were not here and
hold their manhood cheap

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

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(distant bombs echoing)

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DYLAN: ♪ If another war comes...

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

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that made Denton want to be

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part of something important and brave.

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DYLAN: ♪ With God on their side.

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("With God on Our Side" continues)

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

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

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

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It just worries the hell out of me.

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

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once we're committed.

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I don't think it's worth fighting for

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and I don't think we can get out.

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

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

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

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

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

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JOHNSON: What the hell
is Vietnam worth to me?

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What is it worth to this country?

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BUNDY: Yeah, yeah.

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

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they may just chase you right
into your own kitchen.

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BUNDY: Yeah. That's the trouble.

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

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

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

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

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if you get in.

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BUNDY: It's very easy...

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

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BUNDY: To debate it?

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JOHNSON: Yeah.

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

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NARRATOR: Tragedy had brought
Lyndon Johnson to the presidency

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in November of 1963.

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And he would not feel
himself fully in charge

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until he had faced the
voters the following year.

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But his ambitions for his
country were as great

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as those of his hero, Franklin Roosevelt.

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During his years in the White House,

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he would lead the struggle to win passage

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of more than 200 important
pieces of legislation...

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

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federal aid to education,
Head Start, Medicare,

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and a whole series of bills
aimed at ending poverty

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in America, all intended to create

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what he called "The Great Society."

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In foreign affairs, Johnson
was less self-assured.

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

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he once said.

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To deal with them, he retained in office

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all of John Kennedy's top advisors...

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Dean Rusk at State,

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Robert McNamara at Defense,

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McGeorge Bundy as his
National Security Advisor.

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

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Publicly, Johnson pledged

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that "This nation will keep its commitments

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from South Vietnam to West Berlin."

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But privately, Vietnam
filled him with dread.

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

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his ambassador told him.

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"I want the South Vietnamese
to get off their butts

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"and get out into those jungles

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

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

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"because I've got some bigger things to do

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right here at home."

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Johnson had opposed the military
coup that had overthrown

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and murdered South Vietnamese
president Ngo Dinh Diem,

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fearing it would make a
bad situation worse.

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It had.

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(gunfire, shouting)

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The National Liberation
Front... the Viet Cong...

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was making coordinated attacks
throughout the countryside,

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some 400 of them in just two weeks.

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

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and more than 50% of the people,

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were effectively in the
hands of the Viet Cong.

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And the Vietnamese generals who
had overthrown Ngo Dinh Diem

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were bickering among themselves.

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The assassination of Ngo
Dinh Diem set in motion

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a series of coups.

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Each government was less
effective than the one before.

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NARRATOR: In January 1964,

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with U.S. encouragement,

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General Nguyen Khanh
staged yet another coup.

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In March, Johnson sent McNamara
to Vietnam with instructions

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

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

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"and let McNamara go with him as well

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"so that people can see
that the United States

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is solidly behind this man."

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We fully support the
people of South Vietnam.

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BUI DIEM (speaking English):

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

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

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Vietnam a thousand years."

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McNamara leaned over to the
microphone and said...

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(attempting to repeat Vietnamese phrase)

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BUI DIEM:

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(McNamara attempting to
repeat Vietnamese phrase)

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What he was saying was something like,

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

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(attempting to repeat Vietnamese phrase)

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

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And McNamara grabbed one
fist and held them up.

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And the crowd practically

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disintegrated on the cobblestones.

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NARRATOR: "No more of this coup shit,"

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President Johnson told his advisors.

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But Khanh, too, lacked popular legitimacy,

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and other generals continued
to jockey for power.

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Washington turned a deaf
ear to Buddhist calls

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for the genuinely representative government

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

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Between January 1964 and June of 1965,

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there would be eight different governments.

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All of their leaders were
so close to the Americans

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that they were seen as puppets.

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00:11:11,265 --> 00:11:13,000
(shouting, whistling)

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One weary Johnson aide suggested

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that the national symbol of South Vietnam

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should be a turnstile.

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MURRAY FROMSON: These demonstrating
students seem to symbolize

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

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This kind of political backbiting is having

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serious consequences in the countryside,

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for until a strong government
begins to function

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here in Saigon,

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the war against the communists
will continue to founder.

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DONG SI NGUYEN:

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

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still concerned that his
country remained fragile,

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still wary that stepping up
the conflict in the South

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

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

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

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just as there had been in
Saigon and Washington,

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though Americans knew
almost nothing about it.

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HUY DUC:

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NARRATOR: At the Ninth Party
Plenum that began in Hanoi

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on November 22, 1963,

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the day President Kennedy
was killed in Dallas,

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

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North Vietnam's two communist patrons,

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

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NGUYEN NGOC:

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NARRATOR: In two weeks of
sometimes bitter debate,

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Ho Chi Minh, who favored
the Soviet strategy,

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was outmaneuvered by party
First Secretary Le Duan,

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who sided with the Chinese.

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NGUYEN NGOC:

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NARRATOR: Le Duan believed
that with Diem gone,

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and the Saigon government in disarray,

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00:14:19,732 --> 00:14:24,133
it was time to move quickly in 1964.

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

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The first phase would destroy ARVN forces

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through big, "decisive battles";

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the second, an attack on the
cities, Le Duan believed,

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would then set off popular
revolts within them.

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00:14:42,732 --> 00:14:44,765
Party leaders and others

244
00:14:44,865 --> 00:14:47,365
suspected of having opposed the plan

245
00:14:47,466 --> 00:14:50,765
were denounced as "revisionists," demoted,

246
00:14:50,865 --> 00:14:53,166
dismissed, imprisoned.

247
00:14:53,265 --> 00:14:56,832
Hundreds were sent to "re-education camps."

248
00:14:56,932 --> 00:15:01,932
"Uncle Ho wavers," Le Duan said,
"but I have only one goal...

249
00:15:02,033 --> 00:15:03,799
final victory."

250
00:15:06,265 --> 00:15:07,966
WOMAN: Secretary McNamara on line 0.

251
00:15:08,066 --> 00:15:09,100
JOHNSON: Bob?

252
00:15:09,200 --> 00:15:10,700
McNAMARA: Yes, Mr. President?

253
00:15:10,799 --> 00:15:12,208
JOHNSON: I hate to bother you, but...

254
00:15:12,232 --> 00:15:13,133
McNAMARA: No trouble at all.

255
00:15:13,232 --> 00:15:14,899
JOHNSON: Tell me, have we got anybody

256
00:15:15,000 --> 00:15:17,865
that's got a military mind that
can give us some military plans

257
00:15:17,966 --> 00:15:19,533
for winning that war?

258
00:15:19,633 --> 00:15:21,600
Let's get some more of
something, my friend,

259
00:15:21,700 --> 00:15:23,208
because I'm going to have a heart attack

260
00:15:23,232 --> 00:15:24,408
if you don't get me something.

261
00:15:24,432 --> 00:15:26,533
We need somebody over there that can get us

262
00:15:26,633 --> 00:15:28,000
some better plans than we got,

263
00:15:28,100 --> 00:15:31,033
because what we got is
what we've had since '54.

264
00:15:31,133 --> 00:15:32,633
We're not getting it done.

265
00:15:32,732 --> 00:15:34,133
We're-we're losing.

266
00:15:34,232 --> 00:15:36,232
McNAMARA: Well, it's one
reason I want to go back.

267
00:15:36,332 --> 00:15:37,609
Kick 'em in the tail a little bit

268
00:15:37,633 --> 00:15:38,708
will help here at this point.

269
00:15:38,732 --> 00:15:39,765
JOHNSON: Yeah.

270
00:15:39,865 --> 00:15:42,100
What I want is somebody
to lay up some plans

271
00:15:42,200 --> 00:15:45,165
to trap these guys and
whup hell out of 'em.

272
00:15:45,265 --> 00:15:46,432
Kill some of 'em.

273
00:15:46,533 --> 00:15:48,100
That's what I want to do.

274
00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:50,200
McNAMARA: I'll try and bring something back

275
00:15:50,299 --> 00:15:51,308
that will meet that objective.

276
00:15:51,332 --> 00:15:52,665
JOHNSON: Okay, Bob.

277
00:15:52,765 --> 00:15:53,799
McNAMARA: Thank you.

278
00:15:53,899 --> 00:15:54,899
(phone hangs up)

279
00:15:56,566 --> 00:15:59,432
NARRATOR: When his counselors
urged him to do so,

280
00:15:59,533 --> 00:16:03,732
Johnson increased the number
of American military personnel

281
00:16:03,832 --> 00:16:08,765
from 16,000 to more than
23,000 by the end of the year.

282
00:16:08,865 --> 00:16:11,899
But he wanted his own team in Saigon.

283
00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:14,432
He replaced Henry Cabot Lodge,

284
00:16:14,533 --> 00:16:18,066
making General Maxwell
Taylor his ambassador,

285
00:16:18,166 --> 00:16:22,865
and selected 49-year-old
General William Westmoreland,

286
00:16:22,966 --> 00:16:26,700
a decorated commander from WWII and Korea,

287
00:16:26,799 --> 00:16:29,665
to lead the American military effort.

288
00:16:29,765 --> 00:16:34,000
The president hoped to force
Hanoi to abandon its support

289
00:16:34,100 --> 00:16:36,165
for the guerrilla struggle in the South

290
00:16:36,265 --> 00:16:40,165
by gradually escalating military pressure.

291
00:16:40,265 --> 00:16:44,799
He authorized American pilots
to bomb North Vietnamese troops

292
00:16:44,899 --> 00:16:49,500
and installations in the
neighboring country of Laos.

293
00:16:49,600 --> 00:16:51,432
And he directed the military

294
00:16:51,533 --> 00:16:53,700
to oversee South Vietnamese shelling

295
00:16:53,799 --> 00:16:59,333
of North Vietnamese islands
and raids on coastal bases.

296
00:16:59,432 --> 00:17:02,932
All of it was to be conducted in secret.

297
00:17:03,032 --> 00:17:05,633
The American people were not to be told.

298
00:17:05,732 --> 00:17:08,932
It was an election year.

299
00:17:09,032 --> 00:17:12,700
Meanwhile, the Joint Chiefs
of Staff felt strongly

300
00:17:12,799 --> 00:17:14,365
that the United States was fighting

301
00:17:14,465 --> 00:17:16,165
on the enemy's terms

302
00:17:16,266 --> 00:17:20,066
and urged far more drastic
and dramatic action...

303
00:17:20,165 --> 00:17:24,432
air strikes against "critical
targets" in North Vietnam itself

304
00:17:24,532 --> 00:17:28,732
and the deployment of U.S.
forces in South Vietnam...

305
00:17:28,833 --> 00:17:30,665
boots on the ground.

306
00:17:30,766 --> 00:17:34,932
Johnson refused, fearing
that such aggressive moves

307
00:17:35,032 --> 00:17:37,200
would pull China into the conflict

308
00:17:37,299 --> 00:17:42,200
just as it had entered
the Korean War in 1950.

309
00:17:43,200 --> 00:17:44,376
JOHNSON: They say get in or get out.

310
00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:45,266
McGEORGE BUNDY: Yeah.

311
00:17:45,365 --> 00:17:46,633
JOHNSON: And I told them,

312
00:17:46,732 --> 00:17:48,833
we haven't got any Congress
that will go with us,

313
00:17:48,932 --> 00:17:51,232
and we haven't got any
mothers that will go with us

314
00:17:51,333 --> 00:17:53,266
in the war, and I got to win an election

315
00:17:53,365 --> 00:17:57,333
and then you can make a decision.

316
00:17:57,432 --> 00:17:59,432
(crowd cheering)

317
00:17:59,532 --> 00:18:01,208
NARRATOR: Polls showed him
with a commanding lead

318
00:18:01,232 --> 00:18:03,333
over his likely Republican opponent,

319
00:18:03,432 --> 00:18:07,066
Senator Barry F. Goldwater of Arizona,

320
00:18:07,165 --> 00:18:10,833
a blunt, uncompromising
critic of what he charged

321
00:18:10,932 --> 00:18:13,000
was the administration's weakness

322
00:18:13,099 --> 00:18:15,700
in the face of communist aggression.

323
00:18:15,799 --> 00:18:18,039
BARRY GOLDWATER: Why does he
put off facing the question

324
00:18:18,066 --> 00:18:21,032
of what to do about Vietnam?

325
00:18:21,133 --> 00:18:24,266
Does he hope that he can wait
until after the election

326
00:18:24,365 --> 00:18:26,865
to confront the American public with the...

327
00:18:26,965 --> 00:18:30,365
BILL EHRHART: Here were these communists
who were overrunning Southeast Asia

328
00:18:30,465 --> 00:18:33,633
and Johnson's doing nothing about it.

329
00:18:33,732 --> 00:18:34,900
My opponent has not told you

330
00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:36,542
what he plans to do about the Cold War.

331
00:18:36,566 --> 00:18:39,799
I rode around the back of a
flatbed truck in Perkasie

332
00:18:39,900 --> 00:18:41,732
with a bunch of my classmates

333
00:18:41,833 --> 00:18:44,099
singing Barry Goldwater campaign songs

334
00:18:44,200 --> 00:18:47,432
because Lyndon Johnson was not tough enough

335
00:18:47,532 --> 00:18:49,165
on those communists.

336
00:18:51,532 --> 00:18:54,665
NARRATOR: Johnson felt he did not
yet have the political capital

337
00:18:54,766 --> 00:18:59,365
to take further action in
Vietnam, but he asked his aide,

338
00:18:59,465 --> 00:19:03,200
William Bundy, to draft a
congressional resolution

339
00:19:03,299 --> 00:19:06,333
authorizing him to use force if needed

340
00:19:06,432 --> 00:19:09,732
to be sent to Capitol Hill
when the time was right.

341
00:19:13,532 --> 00:19:17,865
On July 30, 1964, South Vietnamese ships

342
00:19:17,965 --> 00:19:20,599
under the direction of the U.S. military

343
00:19:20,700 --> 00:19:25,833
shelled two North Vietnamese
islands in the Gulf of Tonkin.

344
00:19:25,932 --> 00:19:30,833
The tiny North Vietnamese
Navy was put on high alert.

345
00:19:30,932 --> 00:19:33,900
What followed was one of
the most controversial

346
00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:37,400
and consequential events
in American history.

347
00:19:37,500 --> 00:19:40,266
On the afternoon of August 2,

348
00:19:40,365 --> 00:19:43,865
the destroyerU.S.S.
Maddox was moving slowly

349
00:19:43,965 --> 00:19:46,266
through international waters in the gulf

350
00:19:46,365 --> 00:19:50,099
on an intelligence-gathering
mission in support

351
00:19:50,200 --> 00:19:54,066
of further South Vietnamese
action against the North.

352
00:19:54,165 --> 00:19:58,465
The commander of a North
Vietnamese torpedo-boat squadron

353
00:19:58,566 --> 00:20:01,133
moved to attack theMaddox.

354
00:20:01,232 --> 00:20:06,099
The Americans opened fire and missed.

355
00:20:06,200 --> 00:20:10,066
North Vietnamese torpedoes also missed.

356
00:20:10,165 --> 00:20:13,932
But carrier-based U.S. planes damaged

357
00:20:14,032 --> 00:20:16,000
two of the North Vietnamese boats

358
00:20:16,099 --> 00:20:19,099
and left a third dead in the water.

359
00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:23,532
Ho Chi Minh was shocked to
hear of his navy's attack

360
00:20:23,633 --> 00:20:27,099
and demanded to know who had ordered it.

361
00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:29,833
The officer on duty was
officially reprimanded

362
00:20:29,932 --> 00:20:31,833
for impulsiveness.

363
00:20:31,932 --> 00:20:36,532
No one may ever know who
gave the order to attack.

364
00:20:36,633 --> 00:20:40,599
To this day, even the
Vietnamese cannot agree.

365
00:20:40,700 --> 00:20:44,432
But some believe it was Le Duan.

366
00:20:44,532 --> 00:20:47,266
HUY DUC:

367
00:21:29,766 --> 00:21:30,926
NARRATOR: Back in Washington,

368
00:21:30,965 --> 00:21:33,932
the Joint Chiefs urged
immediate retaliation

369
00:21:34,032 --> 00:21:35,799
against North Vietnam.

370
00:21:35,900 --> 00:21:38,633
The president refused.

371
00:21:38,732 --> 00:21:41,200
Instead, the White House issued a warning

372
00:21:41,299 --> 00:21:44,299
about the "grave consequences"
that would follow

373
00:21:44,400 --> 00:21:48,099
what it called "any further
unprovoked" attacks...

374
00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:52,299
even though Johnson knew the
attack had been provoked

375
00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:57,099
by the South Vietnamese raids
on North Vietnam's islands.

376
00:21:57,200 --> 00:22:01,000
Both sides were playing a dangerous game.

377
00:22:01,099 --> 00:22:07,000
On August 4, American radio
operators mistranslated

378
00:22:07,099 --> 00:22:08,766
North Vietnamese radio traffic

379
00:22:08,865 --> 00:22:14,633
and concluded a new military
operation was imminent.

380
00:22:14,732 --> 00:22:16,799
Actually, Hanoi had simply called upon

381
00:22:16,900 --> 00:22:20,965
torpedo boat commanders to
be ready for a new raid

382
00:22:21,066 --> 00:22:23,432
by the South Vietnamese.

383
00:22:23,532 --> 00:22:28,133
TheMad dox and another
destroyer, theTurner Joy,

384
00:22:28,232 --> 00:22:31,232
braced for a fresh attack.

385
00:22:31,333 --> 00:22:32,965
So did the White House.

386
00:22:33,066 --> 00:22:34,665
LYNDON JOHNSON: Go ahead, Mac.

387
00:22:34,766 --> 00:22:37,232
McNAMARA: I-I personally
would recommend to you,

388
00:22:37,333 --> 00:22:39,200
after a second attack on our ships,

389
00:22:39,299 --> 00:22:43,099
that we do retaliate against
the coast of North Vietnam

390
00:22:43,200 --> 00:22:44,665
some way or other...

391
00:22:44,766 --> 00:22:48,266
JOHNSON: What I was thinking about
when I was eating breakfast:

392
00:22:48,365 --> 00:22:51,133
when they move on us and they shoot at us,

393
00:22:51,232 --> 00:22:52,876
I think we not only ought to shoot at them,

394
00:22:52,900 --> 00:22:55,266
but almost simultaneously
pull one of these things

395
00:22:55,365 --> 00:22:57,408
that you've been doing on one
of their bridges or something.

396
00:22:57,432 --> 00:22:58,532
McNAMARA: Exactly.

397
00:22:58,633 --> 00:23:00,299
I quite agree with you, Mr. President.

398
00:23:00,400 --> 00:23:02,042
JOHNSON: But I wish we could have something

399
00:23:02,066 --> 00:23:03,900
that we've already picked out,

400
00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:07,465
and just hit about three of
them damn quick, right after.

401
00:23:07,566 --> 00:23:10,900
NARRATOR: No second attack ever happened,

402
00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:15,133
but at the time, anxious
American sonar operators

403
00:23:15,232 --> 00:23:19,932
aboard theMaddo x andTurner Joy
convinced themselves one had.

404
00:23:20,032 --> 00:23:24,665
The attack was probable but not
certain, Johnson was told,

405
00:23:24,766 --> 00:23:27,766
and since it had probably occurred,

406
00:23:27,865 --> 00:23:31,965
the president decided it
should not go unanswered.

407
00:23:34,333 --> 00:23:37,700
JOHNSON: Aggression by terror
against the peaceful villagers

408
00:23:37,799 --> 00:23:42,299
of South Vietnam has now been
joined by open aggression

409
00:23:42,400 --> 00:23:46,532
on the high seas against the
United States of America.

410
00:23:46,633 --> 00:23:50,400
Yet our response, for the present,

411
00:23:50,500 --> 00:23:52,965
will be limited and fitting.

412
00:23:53,066 --> 00:23:58,500
We Americans know, although
others appear to forget,

413
00:23:58,599 --> 00:24:01,232
the risk of spreading conflict.

414
00:24:01,333 --> 00:24:06,833
We still seek no wider war.

415
00:24:06,932 --> 00:24:10,299
EVERETT ALVAREZ: If that came to
be where we would be called upon

416
00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:13,266
to carry out our responsibilities,

417
00:24:13,365 --> 00:24:15,965
and having been well trained for this,

418
00:24:16,066 --> 00:24:17,633
I never really gave it much thought.

419
00:24:17,732 --> 00:24:20,000
It was part of my duty.

420
00:24:20,099 --> 00:24:23,566
NARRATOR: Lieutenant Everett
Alvarez from Salinas, California,

421
00:24:23,665 --> 00:24:27,200
was aboard the U.S.S.
carrier Constellation.

422
00:24:27,299 --> 00:24:30,865
His squadron of Skyhawk A-4 planes

423
00:24:30,965 --> 00:24:33,566
was ordered to attack
torpedo boat installations

424
00:24:33,665 --> 00:24:38,200
and oil facilities near
the port of Hon Gai.

425
00:24:38,299 --> 00:24:43,066
For the first time, American
pilots were going to drop bombs

426
00:24:43,165 --> 00:24:45,200
on North Vietnam.

427
00:24:46,465 --> 00:24:47,775
ALVAREZ: When we approached the target

428
00:24:47,799 --> 00:24:49,432
coming down from altitude,

429
00:24:49,532 --> 00:24:52,633
it was obvious that they could
pick us up on their radar.

430
00:24:52,732 --> 00:24:55,266
I remember my knees shaking.

431
00:24:55,365 --> 00:24:58,266
And I was saying, "Holy
smokes, I'm going into war."

432
00:25:00,133 --> 00:25:02,200
"This is war."

433
00:25:03,299 --> 00:25:04,932
I was a bit scared.

434
00:25:05,032 --> 00:25:09,766
Once we went in and they
started firing at us,

435
00:25:09,865 --> 00:25:12,165
the fear went away.

436
00:25:12,266 --> 00:25:16,932
Everything became smooth,
deathly quiet in the cockpit.

437
00:25:17,032 --> 00:25:19,766
It was sort of like a symphony

438
00:25:19,865 --> 00:25:25,266
in the sense that my plane was
just like a ballet in the sky,

439
00:25:25,365 --> 00:25:28,865
and I was just performing what I was doing.

440
00:25:31,066 --> 00:25:32,099
And then I got hit.

441
00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:33,266
MAN: Mayday, Mayday.

442
00:25:33,365 --> 00:25:34,532
(instruments beeping)

443
00:25:34,633 --> 00:25:38,333
NARRATOR: Coastal
militiamen captured Alvarez

444
00:25:38,432 --> 00:25:40,865
and turned him over to the
North Vietnamese military.

445
00:25:40,965 --> 00:25:46,700
ALVAREZ: One fella was yelling at me
in Vietnamese and saying something.

446
00:25:46,799 --> 00:25:49,766
I started talking to him in Spanish.

447
00:25:49,865 --> 00:25:51,732
Don't ask me why.

448
00:25:51,833 --> 00:25:54,932
It seemed like a good idea at the time.

449
00:25:56,865 --> 00:26:02,000
After when they discovered U.S.A.
on my ID card

450
00:26:02,099 --> 00:26:07,000
and then they started
speaking to me in English.

451
00:26:07,099 --> 00:26:11,200
NARRATOR: Alvarez assumed he would
be treated as a prisoner of war.

452
00:26:11,299 --> 00:26:13,532
ALVAREZ: I was sticking
to the code of conduct,

453
00:26:13,633 --> 00:26:15,900
which is giving them name,
rank, service number,

454
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:17,232
and date of birth.

455
00:26:18,766 --> 00:26:22,766
But they quickly reminded me
that there was no state of war,

456
00:26:22,865 --> 00:26:25,400
no declaration of war.

457
00:26:25,500 --> 00:26:29,232
So I could not be considered
a prisoner of war.

458
00:26:30,766 --> 00:26:32,165
I recall thinking about it,

459
00:26:32,266 --> 00:26:33,865
and I says, "You know what?

460
00:26:33,965 --> 00:26:35,400
They're right."

461
00:26:35,500 --> 00:26:38,766
NARRATOR: Everett Alvarez was
the first American airman

462
00:26:38,865 --> 00:26:42,232
to be shot out of the
sky over North Vietnam

463
00:26:42,333 --> 00:26:45,032
and the first to be imprisoned there.

464
00:26:47,566 --> 00:26:49,865
Now, the president sent up to Capitol Hill

465
00:26:49,965 --> 00:26:53,665
the resolution he had asked his
aide William Bundy to draft

466
00:26:53,766 --> 00:26:56,200
two months earlier.

467
00:26:56,299 --> 00:27:00,133
JAMES WILLBANKS: Johnson is sort
of prepositioned to move anyway,

468
00:27:00,232 --> 00:27:04,000
and it gives him really the
incident that he needs

469
00:27:04,099 --> 00:27:06,665
to go to Congress and ask for a resolution

470
00:27:06,766 --> 00:27:08,799
that will allow him to
deal with what he sees

471
00:27:08,900 --> 00:27:10,566
as aggression in Vietnam.

472
00:27:10,665 --> 00:27:13,000
And what he gets is the
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution,

473
00:27:13,099 --> 00:27:16,700
which is, what he says, like
"Grandma's nightshirt"...

474
00:27:16,799 --> 00:27:18,232
it covers everything.

475
00:27:18,333 --> 00:27:22,700
I think what Johnson is looking
for is the opportunity,

476
00:27:22,799 --> 00:27:26,599
the right time to send a
message to North Vietnam

477
00:27:26,700 --> 00:27:30,665
that we're serious about
supporting South Vietnam.

478
00:27:30,766 --> 00:27:32,865
That message is sent,

479
00:27:32,965 --> 00:27:34,700
I think we misread the enemy

480
00:27:34,799 --> 00:27:37,066
because they're just as serious as we are.

481
00:27:38,465 --> 00:27:41,566
NARRATOR: On August 7, 1964,

482
00:27:41,665 --> 00:27:45,333
by a vote of 88-2, the Senate passed

483
00:27:45,432 --> 00:27:49,465
what came to be called the
Tonkin Gulf Resolution.

484
00:27:49,566 --> 00:27:53,833
In the House, not a single
congressman opposed it.

485
00:27:53,932 --> 00:27:57,732
Senator Goldwater could
no longer plausibly claim

486
00:27:57,833 --> 00:27:59,900
Johnson was failing to fight back

487
00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:03,732
against North Vietnam, while
those voters concerned

488
00:28:03,833 --> 00:28:05,865
that the United States was in danger

489
00:28:05,965 --> 00:28:08,299
of becoming too deeply involved

490
00:28:08,400 --> 00:28:12,299
admired the president's measured response.

491
00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:16,133
Support for Johnson's handling
of the war jumped overnight

492
00:28:16,232 --> 00:28:19,700
from 42% to 72%.

493
00:28:19,799 --> 00:28:22,799
The American public
believed their president.

494
00:28:23,900 --> 00:28:27,432
Le Duan and his comrades in Hanoi did not.

495
00:28:27,532 --> 00:28:30,165
They had little faith in
the president's claim

496
00:28:30,266 --> 00:28:32,299
that he sought no wider war.

497
00:28:32,400 --> 00:28:35,299
They resolved to step up their efforts

498
00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:36,900
to win the struggle in the South

499
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:40,032
before the United States
escalated its presence

500
00:28:40,133 --> 00:28:42,465
by sending in combat troops.

501
00:28:43,732 --> 00:28:45,732
For the first time,

502
00:28:45,833 --> 00:28:48,432
Hanoi began sending North
Vietnamese regulars

503
00:28:48,532 --> 00:28:51,165
into the South, down the network of paths

504
00:28:51,266 --> 00:28:54,500
they had hacked out of the Laotian jungle...

505
00:28:54,599 --> 00:28:56,599
the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

506
00:28:57,865 --> 00:28:59,633
PETER KALISCHER: This is Bien Hoa Air Base,

507
00:28:59,732 --> 00:29:01,266
the biggest in South Vietnam,

508
00:29:01,365 --> 00:29:05,032
hours after being hit by a
communist mortar barrage.

509
00:29:05,133 --> 00:29:08,200
NARRATOR: On November 1,
Viet Cong guerrillas shelled

510
00:29:08,299 --> 00:29:12,365
the American airbase at
Bien Hoa near Saigon.

511
00:29:12,465 --> 00:29:14,766
Five Americans died.

512
00:29:14,865 --> 00:29:16,900
Thirty were wounded.

513
00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:21,165
Five B-57 bombers were
destroyed on the ground

514
00:29:21,266 --> 00:29:23,165
and 15 more were damaged.

515
00:29:23,266 --> 00:29:24,965
PETER KALISCHER: Mr. Ambassador,

516
00:29:25,066 --> 00:29:27,099
do you think this shows any new capability

517
00:29:27,200 --> 00:29:29,232
that they've got, the Viet Cong?

518
00:29:29,333 --> 00:29:31,665
Uh, I would simply say they've
never done this before.

519
00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:36,833
NARRATOR: The Joint Chiefs
advised the president to mount

520
00:29:36,932 --> 00:29:41,432
an immediate all-out air attack
on 94 targets in the North

521
00:29:41,532 --> 00:29:44,766
and to send in regular
Army and Marine units...

522
00:29:44,865 --> 00:29:48,833
not more advisors... to
South Vietnam as well.

523
00:29:48,932 --> 00:29:50,333
He would not do it.

524
00:29:50,432 --> 00:29:52,932
The election was just two days away.

525
00:29:55,266 --> 00:29:59,400
Lyndon Baines Johnson won the
presidency in his own right,

526
00:29:59,500 --> 00:30:01,500
and he won it by a landslide.

527
00:30:03,333 --> 00:30:05,700
Within a month, the president would approve

528
00:30:05,799 --> 00:30:08,400
what was called a "graduated response"...

529
00:30:08,500 --> 00:30:12,400
limited air attacks on the
Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos

530
00:30:12,500 --> 00:30:15,465
and "tit for tat" retaliatory raids

531
00:30:15,566 --> 00:30:18,465
on North Vietnamese targets.

532
00:30:18,566 --> 00:30:22,465
But he refused to undertake
sustained bombing of the North

533
00:30:22,566 --> 00:30:26,566
until the South Vietnamese got
their own house in order.

534
00:30:28,400 --> 00:30:33,500
In private, Johnson doubted that
airpower alone would ever work

535
00:30:33,599 --> 00:30:36,066
and believed that he would
eventually have to send in

536
00:30:36,165 --> 00:30:37,432
ground troops,

537
00:30:37,532 --> 00:30:41,165
though he was not yet
willing publicly to say so.

538
00:30:47,133 --> 00:30:50,900
JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: In the
fall of '64, Denton was 17

539
00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:55,333
and he was determined
to go into the service.

540
00:30:55,432 --> 00:30:59,299
NARRATOR: Mogie Crocker had
been restless since the summer.

541
00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:02,465
After the Gulf of Tonkin
incident, he had confided

542
00:31:02,566 --> 00:31:05,099
to his sister that he
wanted to join the Navy,

543
00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:08,665
but he knew his parents would
not sign the consent form

544
00:31:08,766 --> 00:31:13,266
that would have allowed a
17-year-old to enlist.

545
00:31:13,365 --> 00:31:17,099
He was talking about wanting
to go into the service

546
00:31:17,200 --> 00:31:19,633
and that his attempts to
go underage had failed.

547
00:31:19,732 --> 00:31:23,165
And that he wanted my parents
to support him in that.

548
00:31:23,266 --> 00:31:25,665
NARRATOR: His parents tried to persuade him

549
00:31:25,766 --> 00:31:27,833
that he could be more useful to his country

550
00:31:27,932 --> 00:31:32,500
with a college education than
as just another private.

551
00:31:32,599 --> 00:31:35,365
Mogie was adamant.

552
00:31:35,465 --> 00:31:39,032
JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: Monday
morning he left for school.

553
00:31:39,133 --> 00:31:41,766
And I watched him leave.

554
00:31:41,865 --> 00:31:43,799
But that night he didn't come in for supper

555
00:31:43,900 --> 00:31:45,000
and he hadn't called.

556
00:31:45,099 --> 00:31:48,465
The day that my brother ran away has to be

557
00:31:48,566 --> 00:31:52,865
one of the most bizarre
experiences in my life.

558
00:31:52,965 --> 00:31:56,099
I eventually happened to
look in my piggy bank

559
00:31:56,200 --> 00:31:59,732
and he had taken the money I
had and left a note for me.

560
00:31:59,833 --> 00:32:02,500
He had promised he would pay me back.

561
00:32:02,599 --> 00:32:05,333
JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: He was
gone about four months

562
00:32:05,432 --> 00:32:08,732
and said that he would not come home

563
00:32:08,833 --> 00:32:11,266
unless we agreed to sign for him.

564
00:32:11,365 --> 00:32:15,599
And he wouldn't be 18 until June.

565
00:32:15,700 --> 00:32:19,066
But we did agree and he did come home.

566
00:32:19,165 --> 00:32:23,665
My husband felt it was an
honor-bound agreement.

567
00:32:23,766 --> 00:32:26,766
I was hoping that I could change his mind.

568
00:32:29,665 --> 00:32:31,566
("The Marines' Hymn" plays)

569
00:32:31,665 --> 00:32:35,465
PHILIP BRADY: To my mind, the Marine
Corps represented the very best.

570
00:32:35,566 --> 00:32:36,932
And it does.

571
00:32:37,032 --> 00:32:39,532
They are the best.

572
00:32:39,633 --> 00:32:42,099
And I wanted to be part of the best.

573
00:32:42,200 --> 00:32:43,865
I was competitive.

574
00:32:43,965 --> 00:32:45,032
I was pugnacious.

575
00:32:45,133 --> 00:32:47,133
But I wanted to get in the Marine Corps

576
00:32:47,232 --> 00:32:49,833
and go to the first war I could find.

577
00:32:49,932 --> 00:32:53,200
NARRATOR: Lieutenant Philip Brady,
from Port Washington, New York,

578
00:32:53,299 --> 00:32:56,066
arrived in Saigon just a few days

579
00:32:56,165 --> 00:32:58,400
after Lyndon Johnson's election,

580
00:32:58,500 --> 00:33:01,133
one of the new advisors
sent to help shore up

581
00:33:01,232 --> 00:33:04,066
the South Vietnamese military.

582
00:33:04,165 --> 00:33:08,432
We must ensure that women and
children are not injured.

583
00:33:08,532 --> 00:33:11,833
NARRATOR: General Westmoreland
himself greeted the newcomers.

584
00:33:11,932 --> 00:33:15,799
He was an impressive-looking
man with an impressive record.

585
00:33:15,900 --> 00:33:20,099
Many of the men he'd led in
Tunisia, Sicily, and Normandy

586
00:33:20,200 --> 00:33:23,799
during World War II called him Superman.

587
00:33:23,900 --> 00:33:26,066
He'd fought with distinction in Korea,

588
00:33:26,165 --> 00:33:28,900
commanded the 101st Airborne,

589
00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:31,732
served as superintendent of West Point.

590
00:33:31,833 --> 00:33:33,165
TIME magazine called him

591
00:33:33,266 --> 00:33:37,665
"the sinewy personification of
the American fighting man."

592
00:33:37,766 --> 00:33:38,900
But at the same time,

593
00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:41,099
win the hearts and the minds of the people.

594
00:33:41,200 --> 00:33:43,865
BRADY: General Westmoreland
told us that we were down

595
00:33:43,965 --> 00:33:46,633
on the five-yard line and
we just needed a few more

596
00:33:46,732 --> 00:33:50,633
to go get the touchdown.

597
00:33:50,732 --> 00:33:53,732
Then I went out and then
I got on the ground.

598
00:33:53,833 --> 00:33:56,465
And then I found out, "Don't you realize?

599
00:33:56,566 --> 00:33:58,865
We're losing this war."

600
00:33:58,965 --> 00:34:03,532
NARRATOR: Lieutenant Brady was assigned
to assist Captain Frank Eller,

601
00:34:03,632 --> 00:34:05,900
senior advisor to the 4th Battalion

602
00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:09,199
of the Vietnamese Marine
Corps, an elite unit

603
00:34:09,300 --> 00:34:13,532
whose members called themselves
the "Killer Sharks."

604
00:34:13,632 --> 00:34:17,400
You were told that you were
going over there to guide,

605
00:34:17,500 --> 00:34:21,632
educate, and elevate essentially
these "little fellas"

606
00:34:21,733 --> 00:34:23,699
on how to fight a war

607
00:34:23,800 --> 00:34:26,865
when, in fact, they knew
exactly how to fight the war.

608
00:34:26,965 --> 00:34:29,065
You were just an appendage.

609
00:34:29,166 --> 00:34:32,766
You were there simply to guide
assets that they didn't have:

610
00:34:32,865 --> 00:34:37,199
American artillery, American air strikes.

611
00:34:37,300 --> 00:34:39,900
NARRATOR: Brady did his best to get to know

612
00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:42,266
the South Vietnamese marines in his unit.

613
00:34:43,965 --> 00:34:48,500
TRAN NGOC TOAN (speaking English):

614
00:35:09,500 --> 00:35:13,266
NARRATOR: Lieutenant Tran Ngoc
Toan, the son of a trucker,

615
00:35:13,365 --> 00:35:15,699
had escaped life with a hostile stepmother

616
00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:20,365
by entering the South Vietnamese
Military Academy at Dalat.

617
00:35:20,465 --> 00:35:24,800
He'd been fighting the Viet
Cong for more than two years.

618
00:35:24,900 --> 00:35:26,309
Toan was one of the junior officers.

619
00:35:26,333 --> 00:35:27,699
I think he was a...

620
00:35:27,800 --> 00:35:29,200
I think he was a company commander.

621
00:35:29,233 --> 00:35:31,432
I knew him, I liked him.

622
00:35:31,532 --> 00:35:34,599
He was a Dalat graduate, which
is like their West Point.

623
00:35:34,699 --> 00:35:36,500
Very dedicated.

624
00:35:46,565 --> 00:35:51,166
NARRATOR: Brady, Toan, and the 4th
South Vietnamese Marine Battalion

625
00:35:51,266 --> 00:35:54,465
were stationed near the Bien
Hoa Airbase in reserve,

626
00:35:54,565 --> 00:35:58,432
waiting to be called into action.

627
00:35:58,532 --> 00:36:00,333
There were new rumors now,

628
00:36:00,432 --> 00:36:04,965
of larger enemy units moving
through the countryside.

629
00:36:05,065 --> 00:36:07,965
Le Duan's plan to win a
quick and decisive victory

630
00:36:08,065 --> 00:36:09,800
was underway.

631
00:36:14,733 --> 00:36:18,333
NGUYEN VAN TONG:

632
00:37:08,166 --> 00:37:10,666
NARRATOR: Nguyen Van Tong
was a political officer

633
00:37:10,766 --> 00:37:13,833
in the newly created
Viet Cong 9th Division,

634
00:37:13,932 --> 00:37:17,865
one of perhaps 2,000 Viet Cong
and North Vietnamese troops

635
00:37:17,965 --> 00:37:22,733
who had for weeks been quietly
filtering into Phuoc Tuy,

636
00:37:22,833 --> 00:37:24,766
a supposedly "pacified" province

637
00:37:24,865 --> 00:37:28,233
less than 40 miles southeast of Saigon.

638
00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:32,632
NGUYEN VAN TONG:

639
00:37:49,365 --> 00:37:52,599
NARRATOR: The target for
Tong and his comrades

640
00:37:52,699 --> 00:37:55,500
was the strategic hamlet of Binh Gia,

641
00:37:55,599 --> 00:38:00,000
home to some 6,000 Catholic
anticommunist refugees.

642
00:38:01,632 --> 00:38:04,333
Their plan was to seize the hamlet

643
00:38:04,432 --> 00:38:08,166
and then annihilate the forces
Saigon was sure to send

644
00:38:08,266 --> 00:38:09,766
to retake it.

645
00:38:09,865 --> 00:38:12,233
To ensure success,

646
00:38:12,333 --> 00:38:15,733
tons of heavy weapons were
smuggled onto the coast

647
00:38:15,833 --> 00:38:17,699
under cover of darkness...

648
00:38:17,800 --> 00:38:20,865
mortars, machine guns, recoilless rifles

649
00:38:20,965 --> 00:38:23,766
capable of blasting tanks.

650
00:38:23,865 --> 00:38:26,465
The communists had never attempted

651
00:38:26,565 --> 00:38:29,432
anything on this scale before.

652
00:38:29,532 --> 00:38:32,733
Before dawn on December 28,

653
00:38:32,833 --> 00:38:36,932
Viet Cong advance units easily
overwhelmed the village militia

654
00:38:37,032 --> 00:38:38,766
and occupied Binh Gia.

655
00:38:38,865 --> 00:38:40,099
(shouting, gunfire)

656
00:38:41,733 --> 00:38:44,699
When two crack South
Vietnamese Ranger companies

657
00:38:44,800 --> 00:38:46,932
were helicoptered in the next day,

658
00:38:47,032 --> 00:38:51,000
they were ambushed and shot to pieces.

659
00:38:51,099 --> 00:38:53,400
On the morning of the 30th,

660
00:38:53,500 --> 00:38:56,766
Philip Brady, his friend Tran Ngoc Toan,

661
00:38:56,865 --> 00:39:00,699
and the 4th Marine Battalion
were flown in to relieve

662
00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:03,365
and reinforce the Rangers.

663
00:39:03,465 --> 00:39:06,932
The enemy withdrew east of the village.

664
00:39:11,733 --> 00:39:15,666
NGUYEN VAN TONG:

665
00:39:36,465 --> 00:39:40,932
All of a sudden you could
see the tracers come out

666
00:39:41,032 --> 00:39:44,532
of the plantation, hit the
helicopter, it crashed.

667
00:39:44,632 --> 00:39:47,632
We were ordered to go down
and retrieve the remains

668
00:39:47,733 --> 00:39:49,565
the following morning.

669
00:39:51,000 --> 00:39:53,465
NGUYEN VAN TONG:

670
00:40:23,699 --> 00:40:26,233
BRADY: The lead company got to the remains

671
00:40:26,333 --> 00:40:30,166
and then was pounced on and mauled badly.

672
00:40:30,266 --> 00:40:32,632
(gunfire)

673
00:40:34,465 --> 00:40:37,865
NARRATOR: Twelve South Vietnamese
Marines from Toan's unit were killed

674
00:40:37,965 --> 00:40:40,465
getting to the downed helicopter.

675
00:40:40,565 --> 00:40:42,333
Their comrades wrapped them in ponchos

676
00:40:42,432 --> 00:40:46,632
and laid them out next
to the dead Americans.

677
00:40:46,733 --> 00:40:49,500
An American chopper dropped
into the clearing.

678
00:40:49,599 --> 00:40:52,132
The American crew jumped out under fire,

679
00:40:52,233 --> 00:40:54,365
picked up the four Americans,

680
00:40:54,465 --> 00:40:58,132
climbed back into their
chopper, and took off again.

681
00:40:59,099 --> 00:41:04,465
TRAN NGOC TOAN:

682
00:41:09,199 --> 00:41:14,400
NARRATOR: For three hours, Toan and
his men stayed with their own dead

683
00:41:14,500 --> 00:41:18,666
waiting for a helicopter to
carry them off the battlefield.

684
00:41:20,432 --> 00:41:23,666
BRADY: Meanwhile, I am
getting a little bit antsy

685
00:41:23,766 --> 00:41:26,099
because, first of all, we're losing light.

686
00:41:26,199 --> 00:41:29,833
Second of all, we are now
outside of artillery range.

687
00:41:29,932 --> 00:41:32,266
We've got to get out of there.

688
00:41:32,365 --> 00:41:34,565
TRAN NGOC TOAN:

689
00:41:42,666 --> 00:41:45,733
BRADY: I went to the Major
Nho, his name was, and I said,

690
00:41:45,833 --> 00:41:48,932
"Major, we have to get out of here now."

691
00:41:49,032 --> 00:41:53,432
And Nho said, "Don't you
forget I am a major,

692
00:41:53,532 --> 00:41:54,599
and you are a lieutenant,"

693
00:41:54,699 --> 00:41:57,833
turned on his heel and walked away.

694
00:41:57,932 --> 00:42:03,266
Ten minutes later all hell broke loose.

695
00:42:06,132 --> 00:42:07,465
TRAN NGOC TOAN:

696
00:42:07,565 --> 00:42:08,965
(man shouts in Vietnamese)

697
00:42:23,400 --> 00:42:26,266
NARRATOR: The shelling
eventually died down.

698
00:42:26,365 --> 00:42:28,766
But then bugles blew,

699
00:42:28,865 --> 00:42:31,365
and wave after wave of enemy troops

700
00:42:31,465 --> 00:42:33,632
advanced toward the badly outnumbered men.

701
00:42:36,965 --> 00:42:40,465
BRADY: It was as if you turned
a soundtrack of shooting...

702
00:42:43,833 --> 00:42:45,865
And just went (imitates rapid gunfire).

703
00:42:45,965 --> 00:42:47,032
Just like that.

704
00:42:47,132 --> 00:42:48,833
All of a sudden it came out of nowhere.

705
00:42:52,465 --> 00:42:55,766
We used what little air strikes
we had left with helicopters,

706
00:42:55,865 --> 00:43:00,099
calling in the strikes on our
position to slow it down.

707
00:43:00,199 --> 00:43:03,266
There was no way.

708
00:43:03,365 --> 00:43:05,300
TRAN NGOC TOAN:

709
00:43:38,500 --> 00:43:40,500
(explosions)

710
00:43:40,599 --> 00:43:43,699
BRADY: What we did was we tried to get out.

711
00:43:43,800 --> 00:43:46,733
Twenty-six of us broke through.

712
00:43:46,833 --> 00:43:49,599
Eleven ultimately made it.

713
00:43:49,699 --> 00:43:50,699
(gunfire)

714
00:43:50,733 --> 00:43:51,932
NARRATOR: All that night,

715
00:43:52,032 --> 00:43:54,132
the Viet Cong moved among the trees,

716
00:43:54,233 --> 00:43:55,965
carrying away their wounded

717
00:43:56,065 --> 00:43:58,965
and shooting any South Vietnamese troops

718
00:43:59,065 --> 00:44:01,233
they found alive.

719
00:44:01,333 --> 00:44:02,900
TRAN NGOC TOAN:

720
00:44:27,800 --> 00:44:29,800
NARRATOR: Cradling his rifle in his arms,

721
00:44:29,900 --> 00:44:33,532
Toan began trying to crawl toward Binh Gia.

722
00:44:33,632 --> 00:44:36,833
He was not found for three days.

723
00:44:38,132 --> 00:44:42,766
TRAN NGOC TOAN:

724
00:45:09,900 --> 00:45:14,432
NARRATOR: When it was all over, five
Americans had died at Binh Gia.

725
00:45:14,532 --> 00:45:19,432
Thirty-two Viet Cong bodies had
been left on the battlefield.

726
00:45:19,532 --> 00:45:23,065
200 South Vietnamese were killed;

727
00:45:23,166 --> 00:45:27,699
200 more were wounded.

728
00:45:27,800 --> 00:45:32,065
NGUYEN VAN TONG:

729
00:45:42,599 --> 00:45:45,300
BRADY: What it really said was

730
00:45:45,400 --> 00:45:49,699
they were capable of
marshaling this kind of force.

731
00:45:49,800 --> 00:45:51,976
The Vietnamese officers I
talked to in the Marine Corps

732
00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:54,666
figured they had six months before the end.

733
00:45:54,766 --> 00:45:58,233
NARRATOR: The big question after Binh Gia,

734
00:45:58,333 --> 00:46:00,632
an American officer at headquarters said,

735
00:46:00,733 --> 00:46:03,699
is how a thousand or more enemy troops

736
00:46:03,800 --> 00:46:07,233
"could wander around the
countryside so close to Saigon

737
00:46:07,333 --> 00:46:09,199
"without being discovered.

738
00:46:09,300 --> 00:46:14,132
That tells you something about this war."

739
00:46:14,233 --> 00:46:16,632
Hanoi was exultant.

740
00:46:16,733 --> 00:46:19,833
Ho Chi Minh called it "a
little Dien Bien Phu."

741
00:46:19,932 --> 00:46:24,300
Le Duan was convinced his
strategy was working.

742
00:46:24,400 --> 00:46:27,666
"The liberation war of South
Vietnam has progressed

743
00:46:27,766 --> 00:46:30,266
by leaps and bounds," he said.

744
00:46:30,365 --> 00:46:33,800
"After the battle of Ap Bac two years ago,

745
00:46:33,900 --> 00:46:37,733
"the enemy knew it would
be difficult to defeat us.

746
00:46:37,833 --> 00:46:40,766
"After Binh Gia, the enemy realizes

747
00:46:40,865 --> 00:46:45,900
that he is in the process
of being defeated by us."

748
00:46:46,000 --> 00:46:48,699
NGUYEN VAN TONG:

749
00:47:00,532 --> 00:47:01,841
JOHNSON: I, Lyndon Baines Johnson,

750
00:47:01,865 --> 00:47:03,800
do solemnly swear...

751
00:47:03,900 --> 00:47:07,166
NARRATOR: Twenty-six days after
the Binh Gia battle ended

752
00:47:07,266 --> 00:47:10,500
and just a week after President
Johnson's inauguration,

753
00:47:10,599 --> 00:47:13,865
McGeorge Bundy handed the
president a memorandum.

754
00:47:13,965 --> 00:47:16,032
I will to the best of my ability.

755
00:47:16,132 --> 00:47:19,865
NARRATOR: The current strategy was
clearly not working, it said.

756
00:47:19,965 --> 00:47:23,365
The Viet Cong were on the
move and on the rise,

757
00:47:23,465 --> 00:47:26,833
supplied and now steadily reinforced

758
00:47:26,932 --> 00:47:29,666
with soldiers from North Vietnam.

759
00:47:29,766 --> 00:47:34,400
If an independent South
Vietnam was to survive,

760
00:47:34,500 --> 00:47:37,666
the United States needed to act fast.

761
00:47:37,766 --> 00:47:41,666
The administration faced
two choices, Bundy said.

762
00:47:41,766 --> 00:47:44,233
It could go along as it had been going

763
00:47:44,333 --> 00:47:48,266
and try to negotiate some kind
of face-saving settlement.

764
00:47:48,365 --> 00:47:53,166
Or they could use still more
American military power

765
00:47:53,266 --> 00:47:56,900
to force the North to abandon its
goal of uniting the country.

766
00:47:57,000 --> 00:48:01,166
Bundy and McNamara favored that option.

767
00:48:01,266 --> 00:48:04,132
Unless the president chose it, they said,

768
00:48:04,233 --> 00:48:06,132
South Vietnam would fall.

769
00:48:06,233 --> 00:48:09,900
"I don't think anything,"
Johnson told McNamara,

770
00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:12,800
"is going to be as bad as losing."

771
00:48:17,666 --> 00:48:20,166
Then, a little over a week later,

772
00:48:20,266 --> 00:48:23,766
guerrillas struck an American
helicopter base at Pleiku

773
00:48:23,865 --> 00:48:25,565
in the Central Highlands,

774
00:48:25,666 --> 00:48:30,365
killing eight American advisors
and wounding over 100 more.

775
00:48:30,465 --> 00:48:32,400
McNAMARA: Approximately 24 hours ago,

776
00:48:32,500 --> 00:48:34,900
the first attack in the Pleiku area...

777
00:48:35,000 --> 00:48:37,599
NARRATOR: Johnson immediately
approved an air strike

778
00:48:37,699 --> 00:48:40,500
on a North Vietnamese army barracks.

779
00:48:41,733 --> 00:48:45,132
On February 10, 1965,

780
00:48:45,233 --> 00:48:48,400
the Viet Cong blew up a hotel in Qui Nhon,

781
00:48:48,500 --> 00:48:54,932
killing 23 Americans and pinning
21 more beneath the rubble.

782
00:48:55,032 --> 00:48:58,400
Johnson ordered another airstrike.

783
00:48:58,500 --> 00:49:01,900
Anxiety about what seemed to be happening

784
00:49:02,000 --> 00:49:04,500
spread around the world.

785
00:49:04,599 --> 00:49:07,432
France, which had spent
nearly a century in Vietnam,

786
00:49:07,532 --> 00:49:11,800
now called for an end to all
foreign involvement there.

787
00:49:11,900 --> 00:49:15,432
The British prime minister urged restraint.

788
00:49:15,532 --> 00:49:19,166
Many leaders of the
president's own party agreed,

789
00:49:19,266 --> 00:49:21,766
though not in public.

790
00:49:21,865 --> 00:49:23,932
In a private memorandum,

791
00:49:24,032 --> 00:49:26,565
Johnson's own vice
president, Hubert Humphrey,

792
00:49:26,666 --> 00:49:29,932
warned him that widening
the war would undercut

793
00:49:30,032 --> 00:49:34,666
the Great Society, damage
America's image overseas,

794
00:49:34,766 --> 00:49:39,199
and end any hope of improving
relations with the Soviet Union.

795
00:49:40,599 --> 00:49:42,900
Johnson never responded.

796
00:49:43,000 --> 00:49:46,032
Instead, on March 2, 1965,

797
00:49:46,132 --> 00:49:49,666
the United States began a
systematic bombardment

798
00:49:49,766 --> 00:49:51,666
of targets in North Vietnam,

799
00:49:51,766 --> 00:49:55,699
code-named Operation Rolling Thunder.

800
00:49:57,699 --> 00:50:00,766
It was meant to be a "mounting
crescendo" of air raids,

801
00:50:00,865 --> 00:50:02,365
Ambassador Taylor wrote,

802
00:50:02,465 --> 00:50:05,500
intended to bolster morale in the South

803
00:50:05,599 --> 00:50:10,300
and destroy morale in the North.

804
00:50:10,400 --> 00:50:13,365
WILSON: The thesis behind Rolling Thunder,

805
00:50:13,465 --> 00:50:19,065
as I understood it, was that
as we ratcheted up the tempo

806
00:50:19,166 --> 00:50:23,733
and the volume of this effort
against the North Vietnamese,

807
00:50:23,833 --> 00:50:26,699
sooner or later they would cry uncle.

808
00:50:29,365 --> 00:50:32,065
And there'd be a pause,

809
00:50:32,166 --> 00:50:36,699
and we would begin to negotiate
our way out of this situation.

810
00:50:36,800 --> 00:50:39,599
This became an article of faith.

811
00:50:39,699 --> 00:50:43,465
And this article of faith was
a fallacious assumption.

812
00:50:43,565 --> 00:50:46,000
They weren't going to give up.

813
00:50:46,099 --> 00:50:50,365
They read us better than we read them.

814
00:50:50,465 --> 00:50:54,400
NARRATOR: The president
insisted on strict secrecy...

815
00:50:54,500 --> 00:50:57,699
the American people were not to be told

816
00:50:57,800 --> 00:51:01,099
that the administration
had changed its policy

817
00:51:01,199 --> 00:51:05,032
from retaliatory airstrikes
to systematic bombing;

818
00:51:05,132 --> 00:51:08,365
that he had, in fact, widened the war.

819
00:51:08,465 --> 00:51:12,065
They jointly agreed that
joint retaliatory action

820
00:51:12,166 --> 00:51:13,666
was required.

821
00:51:13,766 --> 00:51:17,500
NARRATOR: General Westmoreland,
who had initially been hesitant

822
00:51:17,599 --> 00:51:20,300
about committing ground troops to Vietnam,

823
00:51:20,400 --> 00:51:25,000
now asked for two battalions
of Marines... 3,500 men...

824
00:51:25,099 --> 00:51:27,432
to protect the Danang airbase

825
00:51:27,532 --> 00:51:31,000
from which fighter-bombers
were hitting the North.

826
00:51:31,099 --> 00:51:35,032
Ambassador Taylor, who had
once called for ground troops,

827
00:51:35,132 --> 00:51:37,733
now objected to the whole idea.

828
00:51:37,833 --> 00:51:41,266
"Once you put that first
soldier ashore," he wrote,

829
00:51:41,365 --> 00:51:45,266
"you never know how many others
are going to follow him."

830
00:51:45,365 --> 00:51:49,266
But the president felt he had no
choice but to give Westmoreland

831
00:51:49,365 --> 00:51:51,400
what he asked for.

832
00:51:51,500 --> 00:51:56,432
He knew he would be blamed if
more American advisors died.

833
00:51:56,532 --> 00:52:00,500
"I feel like a jackass caught
in a Texas hailstorm,"

834
00:52:00,599 --> 00:52:02,099
he complained.

835
00:52:02,199 --> 00:52:07,333
"I can't run, I can't hide,
and I can't make it stop."

836
00:52:07,432 --> 00:52:08,876
("Hello Vietnam" by Johnnie Wright playing)

837
00:52:08,900 --> 00:52:10,800
In March of 1965,

838
00:52:10,900 --> 00:52:13,699
Johnson finally took the
action he had managed to avoid

839
00:52:13,800 --> 00:52:15,865
for so long.

840
00:52:15,965 --> 00:52:18,166
WRIGHT: ♪ Kiss me goodbye...

841
00:52:18,266 --> 00:52:21,266
NARRATOR: He was putting American
ground troops in Vietnam.

842
00:52:24,032 --> 00:52:29,500
WRIGHT: ♪ Goodbye, my
sweetheart; hello, Vietnam ♪

843
00:52:29,599 --> 00:52:33,333
NARRATOR: The government of South
Vietnam was not even consulted;

844
00:52:33,432 --> 00:52:37,900
the United States of America
had larger considerations.

845
00:52:40,032 --> 00:52:44,500
GARD: Clearly, we saw it
in terms of the Cold War.

846
00:52:44,599 --> 00:52:48,666
Assistant Secretary of Defense
John McNaughton said...

847
00:52:48,766 --> 00:52:50,266
He said our interests there

848
00:52:50,365 --> 00:52:55,766
were 70% to avoid humiliation,

849
00:52:55,865 --> 00:52:59,599
20% to contain China,

850
00:52:59,699 --> 00:53:03,099
and ten percent to help the Vietnamese.

851
00:53:05,400 --> 00:53:08,065
NARRATOR: Johnson quietly
told his good friend,

852
00:53:08,166 --> 00:53:10,365
Senator Richard Russell of Georgia,

853
00:53:10,465 --> 00:53:12,800
what was about to happen.

854
00:53:12,900 --> 00:53:15,661
JOHNSON: I guess we got no choice,
but it scares the death out of me.

855
00:53:15,699 --> 00:53:17,041
I think everybody's going to think,

856
00:53:17,065 --> 00:53:18,532
"We're landing the Marines.

857
00:53:18,632 --> 00:53:20,300
We're off to battle."

858
00:53:20,400 --> 00:53:21,932
Of course, if they come up there,

859
00:53:22,032 --> 00:53:23,242
they're going to get them in a fight.

860
00:53:23,266 --> 00:53:24,599
And if they ruin those airplanes,

861
00:53:24,699 --> 00:53:26,675
everybody is going to give me
hell for not securing them,

862
00:53:26,699 --> 00:53:28,508
just like they did last
time they made a raid.

863
00:53:28,532 --> 00:53:29,833
RUSSELL: Yeah.

864
00:53:29,932 --> 00:53:31,209
JOHNSON: What do you... what do you think?

865
00:53:31,233 --> 00:53:32,900
RUSSELL: Well, Mr. President,

866
00:53:33,000 --> 00:53:34,142
it scares the life out of me.

867
00:53:34,166 --> 00:53:35,606
But I don't know how to back up now.

868
00:53:35,666 --> 00:53:37,865
It looks to me like we
just got in this thing,

869
00:53:37,965 --> 00:53:39,065
and there's no way out.

870
00:53:39,166 --> 00:53:40,432
JOHNSON: I don't know.

871
00:53:40,532 --> 00:53:43,432
Dick, the great trouble I'm under...

872
00:53:43,532 --> 00:53:46,599
A man can fight if he can see daylight

873
00:53:46,699 --> 00:53:48,233
down the road somewhere.

874
00:53:48,333 --> 00:53:50,199
But there ain't no daylight in Vietnam.

875
00:53:50,300 --> 00:53:52,233
There's not a bit.

876
00:53:54,800 --> 00:53:58,599
NARRATOR: On March 8, 1965, Dr.
Phan Huy Quat,

877
00:53:58,699 --> 00:54:01,733
yet another prime minister
of South Vietnam,

878
00:54:01,833 --> 00:54:05,699
called his chief of staff, Bui Diem.

879
00:54:05,800 --> 00:54:07,333
BUI DIEM:

880
00:54:39,400 --> 00:54:41,699
NARRATOR: The Marines
were landing at Danang

881
00:54:41,800 --> 00:54:45,965
on the east coast of South
Vietnam, some 100 miles south

882
00:54:46,065 --> 00:54:48,065
of the demilitarized zone

883
00:54:48,166 --> 00:54:51,199
that divided the North from the South.

884
00:54:51,300 --> 00:54:54,833
They were prepared to
fight their way ashore.

885
00:54:54,932 --> 00:54:56,900
They did not need to.

886
00:54:58,599 --> 00:54:59,759
PHILIP CAPUTO: What struck me

887
00:54:59,833 --> 00:55:04,900
was how beautiful Vietnam was to look at.

888
00:55:06,865 --> 00:55:09,900
There were just these endless acres

889
00:55:10,000 --> 00:55:12,300
of these jade-green rice paddies.

890
00:55:12,400 --> 00:55:16,465
And these lovely villages
inside these groves

891
00:55:16,565 --> 00:55:19,132
of bamboo and palm trees.

892
00:55:19,233 --> 00:55:24,333
And way off in the distance
these bluish jungled mountains,

893
00:55:24,432 --> 00:55:27,500
and they looked like Shangri-La.

894
00:55:27,599 --> 00:55:31,699
And I remember seeing this
line of Vietnamese women,

895
00:55:31,800 --> 00:55:33,599
or schoolgirls I think they were.

896
00:55:33,699 --> 00:55:36,800
They actually looked like
angels come to earth

897
00:55:36,900 --> 00:55:38,199
or something like that.

898
00:55:38,300 --> 00:55:43,632
So it was really quite striking
but a little unsettling

899
00:55:43,733 --> 00:55:44,800
because...

900
00:55:44,900 --> 00:55:46,432
so how can a place like this...

901
00:55:46,532 --> 00:55:49,932
so beautiful and so enchanting... be at war?

902
00:55:51,333 --> 00:55:53,532
DUONG VAN MAI: My father was very happy.

903
00:55:53,632 --> 00:55:56,599
We're such a small and poor country

904
00:55:56,699 --> 00:56:01,166
and the Americans have decided
to come in to save us

905
00:56:01,266 --> 00:56:04,800
not only with their money, their resources,

906
00:56:04,900 --> 00:56:07,766
but even with their own lives.

907
00:56:07,865 --> 00:56:09,632
We were very grateful.

908
00:56:09,733 --> 00:56:11,032
We thought the...

909
00:56:11,132 --> 00:56:14,032
sure enough with this power, the
Americans are going to win.

910
00:56:14,132 --> 00:56:18,065
NARRATOR: Seeing foreign troops
marching past his village,

911
00:56:18,166 --> 00:56:23,733
an old man emerged from his home
shouting, "Vivent les Français!"

912
00:56:23,833 --> 00:56:26,865
He thought the French had returned.

913
00:56:28,233 --> 00:56:29,632
"The problem around here,"

914
00:56:29,733 --> 00:56:34,065
a Marine captain leading a
patrol told a reporter,

915
00:56:34,166 --> 00:56:37,000
"is who the hell is who?"

916
00:56:37,099 --> 00:56:40,965
WILSON: As a voting member
of Saigon Mission Council,

917
00:56:41,065 --> 00:56:45,532
I was opposed to the entry of
American ground combat forces.

918
00:56:47,599 --> 00:56:51,865
I felt if the Vietnamese
had to beat them off

919
00:56:51,965 --> 00:56:55,166
with a bloody stump, they
had to do it themselves.

920
00:56:55,266 --> 00:56:59,333
We had to do everything we
humanly could to help them,

921
00:56:59,432 --> 00:57:02,132
but we could not win it for them.

922
00:57:03,766 --> 00:57:07,766
So, I think we crossed the
River Styx at that point.

923
00:57:09,699 --> 00:57:13,166
TRAN NGOC TOAN:

924
00:57:34,932 --> 00:57:37,709
BILL ZIMMERMAN: The first protest I
went to against the war in Vietnam

925
00:57:37,733 --> 00:57:41,865
was a protest at a Dow Chemical facility.

926
00:57:44,900 --> 00:57:47,500
Dow was manufacturing napalm.

927
00:57:47,599 --> 00:57:50,599
They were dropping napalm
on villages in Vietnam.

928
00:57:50,699 --> 00:57:53,233
It was a very disappointing experience

929
00:57:53,333 --> 00:57:56,400
because only 40 people came.

930
00:57:56,500 --> 00:57:59,099
And we seemed very out of place

931
00:57:59,199 --> 00:58:02,266
and very ineffectual, impotent,

932
00:58:02,365 --> 00:58:06,432
standing outside with 40 people.

933
00:58:06,532 --> 00:58:11,099
NARRATOR: Most Americans
understood little about Indochina,

934
00:58:11,199 --> 00:58:14,833
rarely knew anyone actually
involved in the fighting,

935
00:58:14,932 --> 00:58:18,233
saw no reason to question
the government's assertion

936
00:58:18,333 --> 00:58:21,065
that the United States had vital interests

937
00:58:21,166 --> 00:58:23,733
8,000 miles from home.

938
00:58:23,833 --> 00:58:25,408
("I Ain't Marching Anymore"
by Phil Ochs playing)

939
00:58:25,432 --> 00:58:28,465
Still, there was a small but
growing number of people

940
00:58:28,565 --> 00:58:32,432
who had begun to oppose the war
for any number of reasons...

941
00:58:32,532 --> 00:58:36,965
because they thought it unjust or immoral,

942
00:58:37,065 --> 00:58:39,800
believed it was unconstitutional

943
00:58:39,900 --> 00:58:43,532
or simply not in the national interest.

944
00:58:43,632 --> 00:58:46,965
OCHS: ♪ Oh I marched to the
battle of New Orleans ♪

945
00:58:47,065 --> 00:58:49,932
NARRATOR: Two weeks after the
Marines landed at Danang,

946
00:58:50,032 --> 00:58:53,800
members of the University of
Michigan faculty organized

947
00:58:53,900 --> 00:58:56,766
a night-long discussion between professors

948
00:58:56,865 --> 00:59:02,300
and some 3,000 students about
the escalation of the war.

949
00:59:02,400 --> 00:59:04,065
The demonstration was called a teach-in

950
00:59:04,166 --> 00:59:05,900
because the idea originated

951
00:59:06,000 --> 00:59:07,699
with a group of university professors.

952
00:59:07,800 --> 00:59:11,065
What do you hope to accomplish?

953
00:59:11,166 --> 00:59:13,733
DR. ERIC WOLF: I'd like to open
up communication between people

954
00:59:13,833 --> 00:59:16,000
and the government because I believe

955
00:59:16,099 --> 00:59:18,000
that they are not telling
us what is going on,

956
00:59:18,099 --> 00:59:20,499
and the people have the right
to know, and we have the right

957
00:59:20,565 --> 00:59:22,300
to tell the government what we think.

958
00:59:22,400 --> 00:59:27,300
NARRATOR: Soon, there were teach-ins
on most major university campuses.

959
00:59:27,400 --> 00:59:30,565
There is no morally wonderful way out.

960
00:59:30,666 --> 00:59:35,599
NARRATOR: NYU in Manhattan, the
University of Wisconsin in Madison,

961
00:59:35,699 --> 00:59:40,432
the University of California in Berkeley.

962
00:59:40,532 --> 00:59:43,666
The teach-ins were really raucous affairs.

963
00:59:43,766 --> 00:59:46,300
A lot of contention.

964
00:59:46,400 --> 00:59:47,733
STUDENT: We want to discuss

965
00:59:47,833 --> 00:59:50,632
is what's wrong with the
Vietnam War, and...

966
00:59:50,733 --> 00:59:52,565
OCHS: ♪ And so many others

967
00:59:52,666 --> 00:59:54,266
♪ But I ain't marchin' anymore

968
00:59:54,365 --> 00:59:55,766
REPORTER: Do you endorse

969
00:59:55,865 --> 00:59:57,766
the administration's
policy in South Vietnam?

970
00:59:57,865 --> 00:59:59,465
Whole-heartedly.

971
00:59:59,565 --> 01:00:01,008
ZIMMERMAN: There were plenty of times

972
01:00:01,032 --> 01:00:02,932
when people who were supportive of the war

973
01:00:03,032 --> 01:00:04,333
came to these teach-ins

974
01:00:04,432 --> 01:00:07,465
to try to give an alternative
anticommunist point of view.

975
01:00:07,565 --> 01:00:09,766
They were often shouted down.

976
01:00:09,865 --> 01:00:11,733
(crowd booing)

977
01:00:11,833 --> 01:00:15,699
NARRATOR: The bombing of the
North and the Marines' arrival

978
01:00:15,800 --> 01:00:19,800
also drew protestors to
Washington that spring.

979
01:00:19,900 --> 01:00:21,532
The demonstration was organized

980
01:00:21,632 --> 01:00:26,365
by the Students for a
Democratic Society... the SDS.

981
01:00:26,465 --> 01:00:31,266
I saw SDS calling for a
demonstration at the White House

982
01:00:31,365 --> 01:00:33,900
in the spring of 1965.

983
01:00:34,000 --> 01:00:37,032
I didn't want to go because I
didn't want to be disappointed

984
01:00:37,132 --> 01:00:38,666
in the same way again and, you know,

985
01:00:38,766 --> 01:00:40,333
go all the way to Washington

986
01:00:40,432 --> 01:00:42,209
and stand outside the White
House with 40 people.

987
01:00:42,233 --> 01:00:43,766
(crowd cheering)

988
01:00:43,865 --> 01:00:46,833
25,000 people attended that rally.

989
01:00:49,233 --> 01:00:51,166
And that suddenly told me

990
01:00:51,266 --> 01:00:54,766
and others I was working with at the time

991
01:00:54,865 --> 01:00:58,565
that it might be possible to
build an antiwar movement.

992
01:01:04,099 --> 01:01:06,075
JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: It was
quite astounding to think

993
01:01:06,099 --> 01:01:08,833
that he had that degree of commitment.

994
01:01:08,932 --> 01:01:11,065
And it made sense

995
01:01:11,166 --> 01:01:16,400
in what we knew of him,
as drastic as it was.

996
01:01:16,500 --> 01:01:17,976
("It's My Life" by the Animals playing)

997
01:01:18,000 --> 01:01:20,565
NARRATOR: Nothing Mogie Crocker's
parents could say or do

998
01:01:20,666 --> 01:01:22,632
since Mogie had come home

999
01:01:22,733 --> 01:01:25,199
shook his determination to serve,

1000
01:01:25,300 --> 01:01:27,233
and recent developments in Vietnam

1001
01:01:27,333 --> 01:01:29,965
had only strengthened his resolve.

1002
01:01:30,065 --> 01:01:34,199
He wanted to become a paratrooper
and get into combat.

1003
01:01:34,300 --> 01:01:36,766
His parents finally, reluctantly,

1004
01:01:36,865 --> 01:01:39,733
agreed to let him go, and on March 15,

1005
01:01:39,833 --> 01:01:43,532
a week after the first
Marines landed at Danang,

1006
01:01:43,632 --> 01:01:48,800
Denton Crocker, Jr. entered
the United States Army.

1007
01:01:48,900 --> 01:01:52,132
JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: So Denton
bounced down the steps one morning

1008
01:01:52,233 --> 01:01:55,432
and was off to Fort Dix.

1009
01:01:55,532 --> 01:01:59,132
It was in a way a sort of relief, actually,

1010
01:01:59,233 --> 01:02:02,099
that the conflict and the anxiety

1011
01:02:02,199 --> 01:02:05,500
over whether he would or
would not go was done.

1012
01:02:05,599 --> 01:02:06,965
And he was happy.

1013
01:02:07,065 --> 01:02:10,500
And we just tried to believe
that this was the right thing

1014
01:02:10,599 --> 01:02:12,465
for him to do.

1015
01:02:19,900 --> 01:02:24,099
LE MINH KHUE:

1016
01:03:02,733 --> 01:03:06,099
NARRATOR: Le Minh Khue was
orphaned as a small girl,

1017
01:03:06,199 --> 01:03:09,132
her parents victims of
the brutal land reforms

1018
01:03:09,233 --> 01:03:11,900
the communists had imposed.

1019
01:03:12,000 --> 01:03:14,500
She was raised by her aunt and uncle,

1020
01:03:14,599 --> 01:03:18,699
who encouraged her to
read American literature.

1021
01:03:18,800 --> 01:03:23,532
She was 16 when Operation
Rolling Thunder began.

1022
01:03:23,632 --> 01:03:28,233
LE MINH KHUE:

1023
01:03:58,900 --> 01:04:01,465
NARRATOR: Khue was assigned
to an organization called

1024
01:04:01,565 --> 01:04:04,365
the "Youth Shock Brigades
Against the Americans

1025
01:04:04,465 --> 01:04:06,400
for National Salvation,"

1026
01:04:06,500 --> 01:04:09,865
and along with thousands
of other young people

1027
01:04:09,965 --> 01:04:14,199
was sent south to work keeping
open the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

1028
01:04:16,400 --> 01:04:20,065
LE MINH KHUE:

1029
01:04:53,766 --> 01:04:55,666
NARRATOR: As Johnson had feared,

1030
01:04:55,766 --> 01:04:59,500
it quickly became clear that
the bombing campaign alone

1031
01:04:59,599 --> 01:05:01,266
was not working.

1032
01:05:01,365 --> 01:05:05,565
Troops and supplies continued
steadily to filter down

1033
01:05:05,666 --> 01:05:07,865
the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

1034
01:05:07,965 --> 01:05:10,699
General Westmoreland and the Joint Chiefs

1035
01:05:10,800 --> 01:05:14,333
called for more men, tens
of thousands of them.

1036
01:05:14,432 --> 01:05:17,666
The president was cautious.

1037
01:05:17,766 --> 01:05:20,500
He wanted to do "enough, but
not too much," he said.

1038
01:05:20,599 --> 01:05:24,500
But he quietly agreed to send
two more Marine battalions

1039
01:05:24,599 --> 01:05:30,065
and changed their mission from
base security to active combat.

1040
01:05:30,166 --> 01:05:31,432
For the first time,

1041
01:05:31,532 --> 01:05:33,965
American troops were being asked

1042
01:05:34,065 --> 01:05:37,166
to fight on their own in Vietnam.

1043
01:05:37,266 --> 01:05:40,699
Johnson did not want that fact revealed

1044
01:05:40,800 --> 01:05:43,233
to the American public either.

1045
01:05:43,333 --> 01:05:45,065
But the bombing of the North

1046
01:05:45,166 --> 01:05:47,632
and rumors of harsher measures to come

1047
01:05:47,733 --> 01:05:51,065
had heightened concern around the world.

1048
01:05:51,166 --> 01:05:53,965
UN Secretary-General U Thant had proposed

1049
01:05:54,065 --> 01:05:56,300
a three-month ceasefire.

1050
01:05:56,400 --> 01:05:59,199
Great Britain, America's closest ally,

1051
01:05:59,300 --> 01:06:03,032
publicly offered to
reconvene the Geneva Talks

1052
01:06:03,132 --> 01:06:06,065
that had divided Vietnam in 1954,

1053
01:06:06,166 --> 01:06:09,666
with the goal of reuniting it.

1054
01:06:09,766 --> 01:06:12,865
JOHNSON: The people of South
Vietnam be allowed to guide

1055
01:06:12,965 --> 01:06:14,300
their own country...

1056
01:06:14,400 --> 01:06:17,666
NARRATOR: On April 7, at
Johns Hopkins University,

1057
01:06:17,766 --> 01:06:19,965
Johnson sought to persuade the world

1058
01:06:20,065 --> 01:06:22,333
of America's good intentions

1059
01:06:22,432 --> 01:06:26,800
and again to calm American
fears of a wider war.

1060
01:06:28,400 --> 01:06:32,266
In recent months, attacks on
South Vietnam were stepped up.

1061
01:06:32,365 --> 01:06:37,233
Thus, it became necessary for
us to increase our response

1062
01:06:37,333 --> 01:06:40,532
and to make attacks by air.

1063
01:06:40,632 --> 01:06:44,233
This is not a change of purpose.

1064
01:06:44,333 --> 01:06:49,733
It is a change in what we
believe that purpose requires.

1065
01:06:49,833 --> 01:06:53,699
NARRATOR: Nothing was said about
the new orders sending Marines

1066
01:06:53,800 --> 01:06:56,365
directly into combat.

1067
01:06:56,465 --> 01:07:01,166
Instead, the president called
for "unconditional discussions"

1068
01:07:01,266 --> 01:07:04,599
with Hanoi, and as an old New Dealer,

1069
01:07:04,699 --> 01:07:07,432
proposed a massive development program

1070
01:07:07,532 --> 01:07:09,500
for all of Southeast Asia.

1071
01:07:09,599 --> 01:07:12,233
JOHNSON: The vast Mekong River can provide

1072
01:07:12,333 --> 01:07:13,900
food and water and power

1073
01:07:14,000 --> 01:07:17,500
on a scale to dwarf even our own TVA.

1074
01:07:17,599 --> 01:07:19,532
(gunfire)

1075
01:07:19,632 --> 01:07:21,766
BRADY: I was outside of the village.

1076
01:07:21,865 --> 01:07:24,132
We're getting some fire from the village.

1077
01:07:24,233 --> 01:07:26,465
I had the little transistor radio.

1078
01:07:26,565 --> 01:07:29,632
And I'm sitting there listening to LBJ.

1079
01:07:29,733 --> 01:07:31,599
JOHNSON: ...will use our
power with restraint

1080
01:07:31,699 --> 01:07:33,699
and with all the wisdom...

1081
01:07:33,800 --> 01:07:37,233
At the same time we got to lay
some nape on the village.

1082
01:07:37,333 --> 01:07:39,132
So I'm calling in the nape

1083
01:07:39,233 --> 01:07:42,632
and listening to the president talk peace.

1084
01:07:42,733 --> 01:07:45,766
JOHNSON: We will try to keep
conflict from spreading.

1085
01:07:45,865 --> 01:07:48,565
BRADY: It was surreal.

1086
01:07:48,666 --> 01:07:50,699
JOHNSON: We have no desire to devastate

1087
01:07:50,800 --> 01:07:55,032
that which the people of
North Vietnam have built

1088
01:07:55,132 --> 01:07:58,300
with toil and sacrifice.

1089
01:07:58,400 --> 01:08:04,432
This war, like most wars, is
filled with terrible irony.

1090
01:08:04,532 --> 01:08:06,233
What do the people of North Vietnam want?

1091
01:08:06,333 --> 01:08:07,800
(sirens wailing)

1092
01:08:11,233 --> 01:08:15,300
NARRATOR: Hanoi denounced the
president's offer as a trick.

1093
01:08:15,399 --> 01:08:18,399
Johnson's advisors and the
Joint Chiefs of Staff

1094
01:08:18,500 --> 01:08:22,600
continued to debate how many
men would actually be needed

1095
01:08:22,699 --> 01:08:26,000
and how rapidly they should be deployed.

1096
01:08:26,100 --> 01:08:30,466
Meanwhile, the president sent
the first Army combat troops

1097
01:08:30,565 --> 01:08:31,765
to the country.

1098
01:08:31,865 --> 01:08:34,065
It was increasingly clear

1099
01:08:34,166 --> 01:08:37,966
that the United States was
in it for the long haul.

1100
01:08:41,832 --> 01:08:49,065
You can't just be a neutral
witness to something like war.

1101
01:08:56,865 --> 01:09:00,800
It crawls down your throat.

1102
01:09:00,899 --> 01:09:06,033
It eats you alive from
the inside and the out.

1103
01:09:10,432 --> 01:09:15,100
It's not something that you
can stand back and be neutral

1104
01:09:15,199 --> 01:09:21,466
and objective and all of
those things we try to be

1105
01:09:21,565 --> 01:09:25,100
as reporters, journalists, photographers.

1106
01:09:27,699 --> 01:09:30,432
It doesn't work that way.

1107
01:09:32,932 --> 01:09:36,966
MAN (on radio): ...defense and they're
real quick... and check it out...

1108
01:09:37,065 --> 01:09:40,765
NARRATOR: The growing presence of
American combat troops in Vietnam

1109
01:09:40,865 --> 01:09:44,832
attracted flocks of journalists.

1110
01:09:44,932 --> 01:09:47,033
There was no press censorship,

1111
01:09:47,132 --> 01:09:50,466
as there had been in World War II.

1112
01:09:50,565 --> 01:09:54,865
Reporters just had to agree
to follow military guidelines

1113
01:09:54,966 --> 01:09:57,300
so as not to compromise the security

1114
01:09:57,399 --> 01:09:59,666
of ongoing operations.

1115
01:09:59,765 --> 01:10:02,065
It was dangerous work.

1116
01:10:02,166 --> 01:10:06,500
More than 200 journalists
and photographers would die

1117
01:10:06,600 --> 01:10:09,699
covering the fighting in Southeast Asia.

1118
01:10:09,800 --> 01:10:13,065
Joseph Lee Galloway was
a young UPI reporter

1119
01:10:13,166 --> 01:10:16,466
from Refugio, Texas.

1120
01:10:16,565 --> 01:10:20,300
He stopped in Saigon just long
enough to get his credentials.

1121
01:10:20,399 --> 01:10:23,399
Then he headed for Danang.

1122
01:10:23,500 --> 01:10:26,699
GALLOWAY: The Marines
originally came ashore there

1123
01:10:26,800 --> 01:10:29,332
to guard the airbase.

1124
01:10:29,432 --> 01:10:35,432
And they quickly figured out you
can't just guard an airbase.

1125
01:10:35,533 --> 01:10:37,265
You've got to spread out

1126
01:10:37,365 --> 01:10:38,709
because they're going to mortar it,

1127
01:10:38,733 --> 01:10:40,565
they're going to shoot rockets.

1128
01:10:40,666 --> 01:10:44,365
So you've got to reach out 15 or 20 miles.

1129
01:10:44,466 --> 01:10:48,399
That means you've got to run
operations that far out.

1130
01:10:48,500 --> 01:10:49,966
And once you're doing that,

1131
01:10:50,065 --> 01:10:52,365
you're no longer guarding an airbase...

1132
01:10:52,466 --> 01:10:54,166
(gunfire)

1133
01:10:54,265 --> 01:10:57,466
...you're operating in hostile territory.

1134
01:11:00,733 --> 01:11:02,332
(soldiers cheering)

1135
01:11:06,565 --> 01:11:09,000
NGUYEN THANH SON:

1136
01:11:28,000 --> 01:11:32,300
CAPUTO: It wasn't so much the
Viet Cong that were intimidating

1137
01:11:32,399 --> 01:11:35,666
at that point as it was the terrain.

1138
01:11:35,765 --> 01:11:40,399
Going from Point A to Point B in the jungle

1139
01:11:40,500 --> 01:11:41,800
was so difficult.

1140
01:11:41,899 --> 01:11:46,233
As it happened to me
once, it took four hours

1141
01:11:46,332 --> 01:11:48,432
to move a half a mile,

1142
01:11:48,533 --> 01:11:51,733
cutting through this bush with machetes.

1143
01:11:54,000 --> 01:11:59,899
GALLOWAY: The Viet Cong knew the terrain
far better than the Marines did,

1144
01:12:00,000 --> 01:12:03,699
and ran circles around them.

1145
01:12:03,800 --> 01:12:06,233
(gunfire)

1146
01:12:16,000 --> 01:12:21,332
MOGIE CROCKER (dramatized):
Fort Dix, June 10, 1965.

1147
01:12:21,432 --> 01:12:23,000
Dear Mum,

1148
01:12:23,100 --> 01:12:27,000
Basic is now all over and I am
presently waiting for orders.

1149
01:12:27,100 --> 01:12:29,300
Waiting for orders could be very dull

1150
01:12:29,399 --> 01:12:31,159
but I have found there
are excellent chances

1151
01:12:31,233 --> 01:12:32,966
to do some reading.

1152
01:12:33,065 --> 01:12:35,233
Recently I have read Wuthering Heights,

1153
01:12:35,332 --> 01:12:40,100
Animal Farm, Seven Pillars
of Wisdom, andLord Jim.

1154
01:12:40,199 --> 01:12:41,899
I hope you are all well.

1155
01:12:42,000 --> 01:12:43,500
Love, Mogie.

1156
01:12:45,300 --> 01:12:47,932
NARRATOR: Mogie Crocker was
allowed two weeks at home

1157
01:12:48,033 --> 01:12:50,832
before shipping out to Vietnam.

1158
01:12:52,666 --> 01:12:54,509
JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: We
were at dinner one evening

1159
01:12:54,533 --> 01:12:57,800
just talking, I guess, in
generalities about the war

1160
01:12:57,899 --> 01:13:00,132
and the general situation.

1161
01:13:00,233 --> 01:13:04,932
And Mogie said, "Of course
if I were a Vietnamese,

1162
01:13:05,033 --> 01:13:07,832
I would be on the side of the Viet Cong."

1163
01:13:07,932 --> 01:13:11,666
That... I puzzled over that.

1164
01:13:11,765 --> 01:13:15,100
I suppose relating like to
our American Revolution

1165
01:13:15,199 --> 01:13:18,666
that he saw their need
for their own freedom.

1166
01:13:18,765 --> 01:13:20,932
But as an American citizen,

1167
01:13:21,033 --> 01:13:25,832
he saw the larger picture of
trying to prevent communism.

1168
01:13:25,932 --> 01:13:28,666
CAROL CROCKER: I remember
one night in particular

1169
01:13:28,765 --> 01:13:30,432
he and I were up late.

1170
01:13:30,533 --> 01:13:35,600
And he suddenly leaned
his head in his hands.

1171
01:13:35,699 --> 01:13:38,832
And he said, "I don't want to go back."

1172
01:13:40,065 --> 01:13:42,399
I was dumbstruck.

1173
01:13:42,500 --> 01:13:48,100
And said to him, "But this
is what you want to do."

1174
01:13:48,199 --> 01:13:51,632
It had never occurred to me
that he was torn about this,

1175
01:13:51,733 --> 01:13:55,199
that he was afraid and yet
was determined to go.

1176
01:14:03,300 --> 01:14:05,699
("Play With Fire" by the
Rolling Stones playing)

1177
01:14:05,800 --> 01:14:09,565
NARRATOR: In South Vietnam, things
were steadily growing worse.

1178
01:14:11,666 --> 01:14:14,166
JAGGER: ♪ Well, you've
got your diamond. ♪

1179
01:14:14,265 --> 01:14:17,332
NARRATOR: In May, the Viet Cong,

1180
01:14:17,432 --> 01:14:21,132
supported now by four regiments
of North Vietnamese regulars...

1181
01:14:21,233 --> 01:14:23,733
approximately 5,000 men...

1182
01:14:23,832 --> 01:14:27,600
were destroying the equivalent
of a South Vietnamese battalion

1183
01:14:27,699 --> 01:14:29,432
every week.

1184
01:14:29,533 --> 01:14:31,365
JAGGER: ♪ But don't play with me

1185
01:14:31,466 --> 01:14:33,600
♪ Because you're playing with fire. ♪

1186
01:14:33,699 --> 01:14:38,699
NARRATOR: South Vietnam now seemed
only weeks from complete collapse.

1187
01:14:38,800 --> 01:14:42,466
Desperate, General Westmoreland requested

1188
01:14:42,565 --> 01:14:47,533
tens of thousands of more
American troops right away.

1189
01:14:47,632 --> 01:14:50,365
But neither the continuing bombing

1190
01:14:50,466 --> 01:14:54,166
nor the growing likelihood of
full-scale American intervention

1191
01:14:54,265 --> 01:14:57,565
seemed to intimidate Hanoi.

1192
01:14:57,666 --> 01:15:00,533
Le Duan, having failed to win the war

1193
01:15:00,632 --> 01:15:03,332
before the United States
sent in ground troops,

1194
01:15:03,432 --> 01:15:06,565
was now persuaded the American public,

1195
01:15:06,666 --> 01:15:10,100
like the French public before
them, would eventually weary

1196
01:15:10,199 --> 01:15:15,832
of a costly, bloody war being
waged so far from home.

1197
01:15:15,932 --> 01:15:21,000
By contrast, he said, "The North
will not count the cost."

1198
01:15:21,100 --> 01:15:23,666
Le Duan's confidence was bolstered

1199
01:15:23,765 --> 01:15:26,332
by the help American
intervention had forced

1200
01:15:26,432 --> 01:15:30,000
the Soviet Union and China to offer him.

1201
01:15:30,100 --> 01:15:34,265
Moscow agreed to supply vast
amounts of modern weaponry

1202
01:15:34,365 --> 01:15:35,733
and materiel.

1203
01:15:35,832 --> 01:15:40,666
Hanoi would eventually become
the most heavily defended city

1204
01:15:40,765 --> 01:15:42,033
on Earth.

1205
01:15:42,132 --> 01:15:45,265
And China agreed to send support troops,

1206
01:15:45,365 --> 01:15:48,600
freeing North Vietnamese
soldiers for combat

1207
01:15:48,699 --> 01:15:50,265
in the South.

1208
01:15:50,365 --> 01:15:55,565
320,000 Chinese would eventually
serve behind the lines

1209
01:15:55,666 --> 01:15:58,765
in the North.

1210
01:15:58,865 --> 01:16:00,966
"We will fight," Le Duan promised,

1211
01:16:01,065 --> 01:16:04,332
"whatever way the United States wants."

1212
01:16:05,500 --> 01:16:08,733
JOHN NEGROPONTE: In June of 1965,

1213
01:16:08,832 --> 01:16:11,300
Secretary McNamara, the
Secretary of Defense,

1214
01:16:11,399 --> 01:16:12,666
came out to Saigon.

1215
01:16:12,765 --> 01:16:16,300
There were a lot of captains
and majors and lieutenants.

1216
01:16:16,399 --> 01:16:20,365
And every person said to Mr. McNamara,

1217
01:16:20,466 --> 01:16:22,865
"The situation is so dire

1218
01:16:22,966 --> 01:16:25,666
we must bring in United States forces."

1219
01:16:25,765 --> 01:16:28,666
So, whatever doubts we may have had,

1220
01:16:28,765 --> 01:16:30,565
whatever people may say after the fact,

1221
01:16:30,666 --> 01:16:33,466
I recall distinctly at the time

1222
01:16:33,565 --> 01:16:36,365
telling the Secretary of Defense
that I thought we needed

1223
01:16:36,466 --> 01:16:37,533
to bring troops in there.

1224
01:16:38,832 --> 01:16:40,199
NARRATOR: For three weeks,

1225
01:16:40,300 --> 01:16:43,600
the president and his advisors
argued over how to respond

1226
01:16:43,699 --> 01:16:47,300
to Westmoreland's urgent
request for more troops,

1227
01:16:47,399 --> 01:16:51,966
differing mostly over how
many should be sent how fast.

1228
01:16:52,065 --> 01:16:56,565
Undersecretary of State
George Ball made the argument

1229
01:16:56,666 --> 01:16:59,332
against further escalation.

1230
01:16:59,432 --> 01:17:03,399
He told the president the
war could not be won.

1231
01:17:03,500 --> 01:17:06,533
The American people will grow weary of it.

1232
01:17:06,632 --> 01:17:08,699
Our troops will get bogged down

1233
01:17:08,800 --> 01:17:11,233
"in the jungles and rice
paddies," he warned,

1234
01:17:11,332 --> 01:17:14,899
"while we slowly blow
the country to pieces."

1235
01:17:15,000 --> 01:17:17,365
No one else agreed.

1236
01:17:17,466 --> 01:17:20,565
JAGGER: ♪ But don't play with me...

1237
01:17:20,666 --> 01:17:26,132
NARRATOR: In the end, Johnson
sent Westmoreland 50,000 men.

1238
01:17:26,233 --> 01:17:31,666
But he pledged another
50,000 by the end of 1965,

1239
01:17:31,765 --> 01:17:34,699
and still more if they were needed.

1240
01:17:34,800 --> 01:17:37,166
JAGGER: ♪ Because you're
playing with fire. ♪

1241
01:17:38,899 --> 01:17:42,832
SOLDIERS: ♪ Gory, gory, what
a hell of a way to die ♪

1242
01:17:42,932 --> 01:17:46,332
TRAN NGOC TOAN:

1243
01:18:11,466 --> 01:18:13,199
MAN: Hold your fire!

1244
01:18:13,300 --> 01:18:14,432
Hold your fire.

1245
01:18:15,632 --> 01:18:17,300
JOHN SCALI: Does the fact

1246
01:18:17,399 --> 01:18:20,332
that you are sending
additional forces to Vietnam

1247
01:18:20,432 --> 01:18:23,365
imply any change in the existing policy

1248
01:18:23,466 --> 01:18:27,000
of using American forces to
guard American installations

1249
01:18:27,100 --> 01:18:29,265
and to act as an emergency backup?

1250
01:18:29,365 --> 01:18:32,565
It does not imply any
change in policy whatever.

1251
01:18:32,666 --> 01:18:35,666
It does not imply any change of objective.

1252
01:18:35,765 --> 01:18:36,865
Uh...

1253
01:18:39,065 --> 01:18:40,966
LOU CIOFFI: The month of
June saw soldiers here

1254
01:18:41,065 --> 01:18:42,265
taking what appears to be...

1255
01:18:42,365 --> 01:18:44,899
NARRATOR: Most television
reports from Vietnam

1256
01:18:45,000 --> 01:18:48,332
echoed the newsreels
Americans had flocked to see

1257
01:18:48,432 --> 01:18:52,765
during the Second World War...
enthusiastic, unquestioning,

1258
01:18:52,865 --> 01:18:57,765
good guys fighting and defeating bad guys.

1259
01:18:57,865 --> 01:19:02,233
But at dinnertime on August 5, 1965,

1260
01:19:02,332 --> 01:19:05,132
Americans saw another side of the war.

1261
01:19:06,765 --> 01:19:09,365
MORLEY SAFER: We're on the
outskirts of the village of Cam Ne

1262
01:19:09,466 --> 01:19:11,233
with elements of the 1st Battalion...

1263
01:19:11,332 --> 01:19:14,800
NARRATOR: CBS correspondent
Morley Safer and his crew

1264
01:19:14,899 --> 01:19:18,132
went on patrol with Marines near Danang.

1265
01:19:18,233 --> 01:19:21,332
Their orders were first to search a cluster

1266
01:19:21,432 --> 01:19:25,332
of four villages for
caches of arms and rice

1267
01:19:25,432 --> 01:19:30,265
meant for the enemy and
then to destroy them all.

1268
01:19:33,632 --> 01:19:36,666
This is what the war in
Vietnam is all about.

1269
01:19:36,765 --> 01:19:40,432
(speaking Vietnamese)

1270
01:19:40,533 --> 01:19:43,966
The old and the very young.

1271
01:19:44,065 --> 01:19:46,832
The Marines have burned

1272
01:19:46,932 --> 01:19:48,832
this old couple's cottage

1273
01:19:48,932 --> 01:19:50,699
because fire was coming from here.

1274
01:19:50,800 --> 01:19:52,432
And now when you walk into the village

1275
01:19:52,533 --> 01:19:54,199
you see no young people at all.

1276
01:19:54,300 --> 01:19:58,832
(woman speaking Vietnamese)

1277
01:19:58,932 --> 01:20:02,100
The day's operation burned down 150 houses,

1278
01:20:02,199 --> 01:20:05,432
wounded three women, killed one baby,

1279
01:20:05,533 --> 01:20:10,966
wounded one Marine, and
netted these four prisoners.

1280
01:20:11,065 --> 01:20:14,033
Today's operation is the
frustration of Vietnam

1281
01:20:14,132 --> 01:20:15,932
in miniature.

1282
01:20:16,033 --> 01:20:18,365
There is little doubt
that American firepower

1283
01:20:18,466 --> 01:20:20,699
can win a military victory here.

1284
01:20:20,800 --> 01:20:25,565
But to a Vietnamese peasant
whose home is a...

1285
01:20:25,666 --> 01:20:27,899
means a lifetime of backbreaking labor,

1286
01:20:28,000 --> 01:20:30,800
it will take more than
presidential promises

1287
01:20:30,899 --> 01:20:33,765
to convince him that we are on his side.

1288
01:20:35,500 --> 01:20:37,420
NARRATOR: The next morning,
the president called

1289
01:20:37,466 --> 01:20:41,666
his friend Frank Stanton, the head of CBS.

1290
01:20:41,765 --> 01:20:44,932
"Hello, Frank, this is your president.

1291
01:20:45,033 --> 01:20:47,199
Are you trying to fuck me?"

1292
01:20:48,632 --> 01:20:52,000
Safer had defaced the
American flag, Johnson said.

1293
01:20:52,100 --> 01:20:56,466
He was probably an agent of
the Kremlin, had to be fired.

1294
01:20:56,565 --> 01:21:00,733
The Marines claimed Safer had
provided a zippo lighter

1295
01:21:00,832 --> 01:21:04,600
and asked the Marines to
burn the hut for the camera.

1296
01:21:04,699 --> 01:21:07,000
A major at the Danang Marine press office

1297
01:21:07,100 --> 01:21:11,132
called CBS the "Communist
Broadcasting System."

1298
01:21:12,265 --> 01:21:13,666
But after the operation,

1299
01:21:13,765 --> 01:21:19,033
Safer interviewed some of the
Marines who'd burned Cam Ne.

1300
01:21:19,132 --> 01:21:21,365
Do you ever have any private thoughts,

1301
01:21:21,466 --> 01:21:23,966
any private regrets about
some of these people

1302
01:21:24,065 --> 01:21:25,365
you are leaving homeless?

1303
01:21:25,466 --> 01:21:26,699
I feel no remorse.

1304
01:21:26,800 --> 01:21:27,976
I don't imagine anybody else does.

1305
01:21:28,000 --> 01:21:29,240
You can't expect to do your job

1306
01:21:29,300 --> 01:21:30,699
and feel pity for these people.

1307
01:21:32,800 --> 01:21:35,100
NARRATOR: When some viewers
registered their shock,

1308
01:21:35,199 --> 01:21:39,233
Westmoreland admitted, "We
have a genuine problem

1309
01:21:39,332 --> 01:21:43,199
"which will be with us as
long as we are in Vietnam.

1310
01:21:43,300 --> 01:21:48,332
"Commanders must exercise
restraint unnatural to war

1311
01:21:48,432 --> 01:21:52,300
and judgment not often
required of young men."

1312
01:21:58,500 --> 01:22:01,233
CAPUTO: You kind of thought at first

1313
01:22:01,332 --> 01:22:03,966
that it was going to be
like the Gis, you know,

1314
01:22:04,065 --> 01:22:06,699
rolling through Paris after the liberation.

1315
01:22:08,832 --> 01:22:11,600
Well, you know, it sure
didn't work out that way.

1316
01:22:13,733 --> 01:22:15,966
I can remember once going
in this one ville.

1317
01:22:16,065 --> 01:22:19,332
And I remember finding this
entire Vietnamese family

1318
01:22:19,432 --> 01:22:22,199
cowering in a bunker.

1319
01:22:23,500 --> 01:22:25,832
And they were terrified of us.

1320
01:22:29,500 --> 01:22:32,065
And I remember thinking to myself, I said,

1321
01:22:32,166 --> 01:22:36,332
"Well, I wonder if back
in the colonial days,

1322
01:22:36,432 --> 01:22:39,533
"when the Redcoats barged
into Ipswich, Massachusetts,

1323
01:22:39,632 --> 01:22:40,666
"or wherever,

1324
01:22:40,765 --> 01:22:44,365
"if this is how Americans must have felt

1325
01:22:44,466 --> 01:22:48,033
looking at these foreign
soldiers coming in here."

1326
01:22:48,132 --> 01:22:49,408
FREDERICK ACKERSON: The Viet Cong

1327
01:22:49,432 --> 01:22:54,765
have terrorized you, and
have burned your homes.

1328
01:22:54,865 --> 01:22:57,899
We are here to help you.

1329
01:22:58,000 --> 01:23:02,265
To show how much we are
able to protect you,

1330
01:23:02,365 --> 01:23:07,600
we are going to have the Air Force

1331
01:23:07,699 --> 01:23:12,865
hit some Viet Cong on the
other side of the valley.

1332
01:23:12,966 --> 01:23:14,832
That will be at 10:30.

1333
01:23:14,932 --> 01:23:20,065
(playing "Colonel Bogey" march)

1334
01:23:20,166 --> 01:23:23,233
(distant explosion)

1335
01:23:37,800 --> 01:23:39,865
MOGIE CROCKER (dramatized):
Dear Mum and Dad,

1336
01:23:39,966 --> 01:23:43,033
I am now with the 1st Brigade,
101st Airborne Division

1337
01:23:43,132 --> 01:23:44,932
in Vietnam.

1338
01:23:45,033 --> 01:23:47,865
("The War Drags On" by Donovan playing)

1339
01:23:51,033 --> 01:23:52,865
What is taking place in America?

1340
01:23:52,966 --> 01:23:55,832
We who are in Vietnam find these protests

1341
01:23:55,932 --> 01:23:57,600
very hard to comprehend,

1342
01:23:57,699 --> 01:24:01,265
and many people here are
quite bitter about them.

1343
01:24:01,365 --> 01:24:04,733
DONOVAN: ♪ Let me tell you the
story in South Vietnam. ♪

1344
01:24:04,832 --> 01:24:06,476
MOGIE CROCKER (dramatized): The
belief I have in our present policy

1345
01:24:06,500 --> 01:24:10,365
has been completely confirmed
by what I have seen here.

1346
01:24:10,466 --> 01:24:13,500
My chief worry is that
these pacifist bleatings

1347
01:24:13,600 --> 01:24:16,500
might effect even a small
change in government policy

1348
01:24:16,600 --> 01:24:19,265
at a time when we appear close to success.

1349
01:24:19,365 --> 01:24:23,966
DONOVAN: ♪ And the war drags on.

1350
01:24:26,100 --> 01:24:30,332
JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: As Vietnam
began to be more and more chaotic,

1351
01:24:30,432 --> 01:24:35,065
I certainly wondered very much
whether we should be there.

1352
01:24:35,166 --> 01:24:37,565
But I never expressed that to him.

1353
01:24:37,666 --> 01:24:41,033
That's one of those conflicts
that's just too difficult

1354
01:24:41,132 --> 01:24:43,800
to bring up, or at least it was for me.

1355
01:24:45,399 --> 01:24:48,600
("Big River" by Johnny Cash playing)

1356
01:24:50,100 --> 01:24:55,800
CASH: ♪ Now I taught the
weeping willow how to cry ♪

1357
01:24:55,899 --> 01:25:00,800
♪ And I showed the clouds how
to cover up a clear blue sky. ♪

1358
01:25:00,899 --> 01:25:02,832
GALLOWAY: We were all
excited about the arrival

1359
01:25:02,932 --> 01:25:07,565
of the 1st Cavalry Division,
an experimental unit.

1360
01:25:07,666 --> 01:25:11,865
They've been trained in air-mobile warfare

1361
01:25:11,966 --> 01:25:18,565
using these helicopters to the
absolute maximum benefit.

1362
01:25:18,666 --> 01:25:24,632
They're moving their artillery
by helicopter, jumping it,

1363
01:25:24,733 --> 01:25:29,632
leapfrogging troops, chasing
the enemy, driving him crazy.

1364
01:25:31,932 --> 01:25:33,932
This is something new,

1365
01:25:34,033 --> 01:25:37,699
and it's going to change the way we do war.

1366
01:25:37,800 --> 01:25:40,466
CASH: ♪ I found her
trail in Memphis... ♪

1367
01:25:40,565 --> 01:25:43,132
NARRATOR: In September of 1965,

1368
01:25:43,233 --> 01:25:45,832
the newly created 1st Cavalry Division...

1369
01:25:45,932 --> 01:25:53,932
16,000 men, 1,600 vehicles,
435 helicopters...

1370
01:25:54,399 --> 01:25:59,233
had begun arriving at An Khe,
a massive base carved out

1371
01:25:59,332 --> 01:26:02,199
of the grasslands at the edge
of the Central Highlands.

1372
01:26:03,733 --> 01:26:07,065
Its heliport would come to
be called the "Golf Course."

1373
01:26:10,733 --> 01:26:14,265
As the 1st Cavalry got used
to its new surroundings,

1374
01:26:14,365 --> 01:26:18,132
thousands of North Vietnamese
regulars were slipping south

1375
01:26:18,233 --> 01:26:21,600
into the Highlands along
the Ho Chi Minh Trail,

1376
01:26:21,699 --> 01:26:25,100
joining Viet Cong units already in place.

1377
01:26:25,199 --> 01:26:28,533
They established their
own base on and around

1378
01:26:28,632 --> 01:26:31,899
a jumble of thickly forested
mountains and ravines

1379
01:26:32,000 --> 01:26:34,733
south of the la Drang River.

1380
01:26:34,832 --> 01:26:37,399
On the evening of October 19,

1381
01:26:37,500 --> 01:26:40,666
communist commandos slipped
to within 40 yards

1382
01:26:40,765 --> 01:26:44,332
of the perimeter wire of the U.S.
Special Forces outpost

1383
01:26:44,432 --> 01:26:45,800
at Plei Me,

1384
01:26:45,899 --> 01:26:50,533
which was defended by a 12-man team of U.S.
Green Berets,

1385
01:26:50,632 --> 01:26:56,500
14 ARVN, and some 400 mountain tribesmen.

1386
01:27:02,565 --> 01:27:05,265
Nine of the 12 Green Berets were hit.

1387
01:27:05,365 --> 01:27:08,100
They managed to hold out for two days

1388
01:27:08,199 --> 01:27:14,600
before 15 more Green Berets and
160 South Vietnamese Rangers

1389
01:27:14,699 --> 01:27:19,265
were helicoptered in, commanded
by Major Charles Beckwith,

1390
01:27:19,365 --> 01:27:23,365
known to his fellow soldiers
as Chargin' Charlie.

1391
01:27:23,466 --> 01:27:24,365
(explosion)

1392
01:27:24,466 --> 01:27:25,800
The next day,

1393
01:27:25,899 --> 01:27:28,466
Joe Galloway managed to
talk a helicopter pilot

1394
01:27:28,565 --> 01:27:31,966
into flying him into the besieged camp.

1395
01:27:32,065 --> 01:27:36,865
GALLOWAY: That's where I met
Major Charles Beckwith.

1396
01:27:36,966 --> 01:27:40,332
He said, "I need everything in the world.

1397
01:27:40,432 --> 01:27:44,365
"And what has the Army
in its wisdom sent me

1398
01:27:44,466 --> 01:27:47,565
but a godforsaken reporter?"

1399
01:27:47,666 --> 01:27:50,699
He drug me over and showed me

1400
01:27:50,800 --> 01:27:54,565
a 30-caliber air-cooled machine gun.

1401
01:27:54,666 --> 01:27:57,265
He showed me how to load
it, how to clear a jam.

1402
01:27:57,365 --> 01:28:01,365
NARRATOR: "You can shoot the little
brown men outside the wire,"

1403
01:28:01,466 --> 01:28:03,365
Beckwith told Galloway.

1404
01:28:03,466 --> 01:28:05,399
"You may not shoot the little brown men

1405
01:28:05,500 --> 01:28:09,100
inside the wire; they are mine."

1406
01:28:09,199 --> 01:28:11,000
GALLOWAY: And I'm sitting there thinking,

1407
01:28:11,100 --> 01:28:13,932
"Ah, I'm a civilian noncombatant."

1408
01:28:14,033 --> 01:28:17,300
I tried that line on Beckwith and he said,

1409
01:28:17,399 --> 01:28:20,233
"Ain't no such thing in
these mountains, son."

1410
01:28:20,332 --> 01:28:24,432
NARRATOR: For nearly a week, the
North Vietnamese launched assault

1411
01:28:24,533 --> 01:28:27,166
after assault on Plei Me.

1412
01:28:27,265 --> 01:28:31,365
It was only after American bombs and napalm

1413
01:28:31,466 --> 01:28:34,565
turned the surrounding
terrain into a moonscape

1414
01:28:34,666 --> 01:28:37,733
that the enemy withdrew.

1415
01:28:37,832 --> 01:28:41,800
JOHN LAURENCE: What kind of fighters
are the Viet Cong that you met here?

1416
01:28:41,899 --> 01:28:47,632
I would give anything to have
200 of them under my command.

1417
01:28:47,733 --> 01:28:49,632
They're the finest soldiers I've ever seen.

1418
01:28:49,733 --> 01:28:50,932
The Viet Cong.

1419
01:28:51,033 --> 01:28:52,332
That's right.

1420
01:28:52,432 --> 01:28:54,175
They're dedicated, and
they're good soldiers.

1421
01:28:54,199 --> 01:28:55,632
They're the best I've ever seen.

1422
01:28:58,600 --> 01:29:01,600
NARRATOR: Despite the losses his
men had suffered at Plei Me,

1423
01:29:01,699 --> 01:29:05,033
the North Vietnamese commander,
General Chu Huy Man,

1424
01:29:05,132 --> 01:29:07,033
was eager for another confrontation

1425
01:29:07,132 --> 01:29:08,899
with the Americans.

1426
01:29:09,000 --> 01:29:12,466
He was determined to
learn how to fight them.

1427
01:29:12,565 --> 01:29:15,865
Reinforcements streaming
down the Ho Chi Minh Trail

1428
01:29:15,966 --> 01:29:18,065
to the la Drang Valley included

1429
01:29:18,166 --> 01:29:22,300
a newly minted second
lieutenant, Lo Khac Tam,

1430
01:29:22,399 --> 01:29:25,565
who had volunteered to fight in the South.

1431
01:29:47,100 --> 01:29:49,966
NARRATOR: On the morning
of November 14, 1965,

1432
01:29:50,065 --> 01:29:54,199
1st Cavalry helicopters
belonging to the 1st Battalion

1433
01:29:54,300 --> 01:29:56,399
of the 7th Regiment...

1434
01:29:56,500 --> 01:29:59,300
George Armstrong Custer's old outfit...

1435
01:29:59,399 --> 01:30:03,033
flew west along the la Drang
toward the Chu Pong Massif,

1436
01:30:03,132 --> 01:30:05,033
looking for the enemy.

1437
01:30:07,199 --> 01:30:10,466
Their commander, Kentucky-born
Korean-War veteran

1438
01:30:10,565 --> 01:30:12,666
Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore,

1439
01:30:12,765 --> 01:30:15,399
had been told there was
a large enemy base camp

1440
01:30:15,500 --> 01:30:17,300
somewhere on its slopes.

1441
01:30:17,399 --> 01:30:21,132
His orders were to take his
understrength outfit...

1442
01:30:21,233 --> 01:30:27,733
29 officers and just 411 men...
find the enemy and kill him.

1443
01:30:27,832 --> 01:30:31,800
There were two clearings large
enough for Moore to bring in

1444
01:30:31,899 --> 01:30:33,800
eight choppers at once.

1445
01:30:33,899 --> 01:30:38,832
He chose the one closest to the
mountain... Landing Zone X-Ray.

1446
01:30:42,399 --> 01:30:45,800
Moore made a point of
leading from the front.

1447
01:30:45,899 --> 01:30:48,600
He was the first man off the first chopper.

1448
01:30:53,132 --> 01:30:57,533
He sent four six-man squads
100 yards in every direction.

1449
01:30:57,632 --> 01:31:00,399
The la Drang Valley was so beautiful,

1450
01:31:00,500 --> 01:31:02,533
one soldier remembered,

1451
01:31:02,632 --> 01:31:05,699
it reminded him of a
national park back home.

1452
01:31:05,800 --> 01:31:10,033
Within minutes, Moore's
men captured a deserter.

1453
01:31:10,132 --> 01:31:11,565
Terrified and trembling,

1454
01:31:11,666 --> 01:31:14,466
he said there were three
battalions of soldiers

1455
01:31:14,565 --> 01:31:18,100
on the mountain... 1,600 men.

1456
01:31:18,199 --> 01:31:21,000
They wanted very much to
kill Americans, he said,

1457
01:31:21,100 --> 01:31:24,765
but so far had been unable to find any.

1458
01:31:24,865 --> 01:31:27,800
Moore quickly set up a command post

1459
01:31:27,899 --> 01:31:32,166
behind one of the huge termite
mounds that dotted the clearing.

1460
01:31:32,265 --> 01:31:34,432
It would take until mid-afternoon

1461
01:31:34,533 --> 01:31:37,966
for all of his men to be ferried in.

1462
01:31:39,132 --> 01:31:41,033
He had no time to waste.

1463
01:31:41,132 --> 01:31:43,565
"We needed to get off the landing zone

1464
01:31:43,666 --> 01:31:47,765
and get at them before they could
hit us," Moore remembered.

1465
01:31:47,865 --> 01:31:51,832
He sent two companies up the
slope toward the hidden enemy.

1466
01:31:51,932 --> 01:31:55,632
Most of the North Vietnamese,
like the Americans,

1467
01:31:55,733 --> 01:31:57,365
were new to combat.

1468
01:31:58,832 --> 01:32:01,100
They were ordered to fix bayonets.

1469
01:32:03,233 --> 01:32:04,932
LO KHAC TAM:

1470
01:32:15,800 --> 01:32:18,600
NARRATOR: Colonel Moore
had no way of knowing

1471
01:32:18,699 --> 01:32:22,100
that instead of 1,600 enemy
soldiers on the mountain,

1472
01:32:22,199 --> 01:32:27,865
there were 3,000... seven
times his strength.

1473
01:32:40,733 --> 01:32:42,033
(gunfire)

1474
01:32:42,132 --> 01:32:44,800
Within minutes, the
Americans found themselves

1475
01:32:44,899 --> 01:32:49,332
under attack from hundreds of
North Vietnamese soldiers.

1476
01:32:49,432 --> 01:32:52,932
In the fighting, an
overeager second lieutenant

1477
01:32:53,033 --> 01:32:56,065
led his platoon of 28 men too far away

1478
01:32:56,166 --> 01:32:59,565
from the rest of his company
and was surrounded.

1479
01:32:59,666 --> 01:33:01,033
(gunfire, shouting)

1480
01:33:02,166 --> 01:33:03,765
The lieutenant was killed.

1481
01:33:03,865 --> 01:33:08,033
The sergeant who took his place
was shot through the head.

1482
01:33:08,132 --> 01:33:12,666
By late afternoon, only seven
of the trapped platoon's men

1483
01:33:12,765 --> 01:33:16,065
were still capable of firing back.

1484
01:33:16,166 --> 01:33:19,432
(gunfire, shouting)

1485
01:33:24,699 --> 01:33:29,332
Moore was now engaged in three
simultaneous struggles...

1486
01:33:29,432 --> 01:33:33,432
to defend the landing zone,
attack the North Vietnamese,

1487
01:33:33,533 --> 01:33:37,399
and find a way to rescue
his trapped patrol.

1488
01:33:40,332 --> 01:33:44,466
That night, Joe Galloway again
managed to talk his way

1489
01:33:44,565 --> 01:33:47,300
onto a chopper taking ammunition and water

1490
01:33:47,399 --> 01:33:49,199
to the besieged Americans.

1491
01:33:49,300 --> 01:33:52,432
As the helicopter
approached the battlefield,

1492
01:33:52,533 --> 01:33:55,065
Galloway was sitting on
a crate of grenades,

1493
01:33:55,166 --> 01:33:58,432
peering out into the darkness.

1494
01:33:58,533 --> 01:34:03,500
GALLOWAY: And I could see these
little pin pricks of light

1495
01:34:03,600 --> 01:34:06,166
coming down the mountain.

1496
01:34:06,265 --> 01:34:11,065
This was the enemy approaching
for the next day's attacks.

1497
01:34:12,666 --> 01:34:15,432
We flew in there.

1498
01:34:15,533 --> 01:34:19,699
As they pulled on out, it was dead dark.

1499
01:34:19,800 --> 01:34:22,966
And we're lying there waiting
for someone to come tell us

1500
01:34:23,065 --> 01:34:24,332
what to do.

1501
01:34:27,466 --> 01:34:32,365
And the next morning, all of a
sudden the bottom fell out.

1502
01:34:34,832 --> 01:34:36,600
(gunfire)

1503
01:34:36,699 --> 01:34:40,733
There was an explosion of fire.

1504
01:34:42,166 --> 01:34:46,666
The noise is horrendous, unimaginable.

1505
01:34:46,765 --> 01:34:49,800
(rapid gunfire, followed by short bursts)

1506
01:34:54,033 --> 01:34:56,899
(gunfire, shouting)

1507
01:34:58,966 --> 01:35:01,733
And in the middle of all of this, you know,

1508
01:35:01,832 --> 01:35:04,600
I-I just flattened out on the ground

1509
01:35:04,699 --> 01:35:08,865
because all that was being
fired seemed to be about two,

1510
01:35:08,966 --> 01:35:12,265
two-and-a-half feet off the ground.

1511
01:35:12,365 --> 01:35:16,500
(gunfire, whistling)

1512
01:35:19,265 --> 01:35:22,033
NARRATOR: Hundreds of enemy
soldiers hurled themselves

1513
01:35:22,132 --> 01:35:23,432
at the Americans.

1514
01:35:24,932 --> 01:35:28,699
They wore webbed helmets
camouflaged with grass,

1515
01:35:28,800 --> 01:35:33,632
and as they came, blowing
whistles, screaming,

1516
01:35:33,733 --> 01:35:37,932
they looked like "little trees,"
one American remembered.

1517
01:35:38,033 --> 01:35:40,733
They were trying to overrun us.

1518
01:35:40,832 --> 01:35:43,065
And they came close.

1519
01:35:43,166 --> 01:35:45,365
They came close.

1520
01:35:52,733 --> 01:35:55,100
(gunfire, shouting)

1521
01:36:01,332 --> 01:36:04,699
But we had two things going for us.

1522
01:36:06,033 --> 01:36:09,432
We had a great commander
and great soldiers.

1523
01:36:09,533 --> 01:36:16,033
And we had air and artillery
support out the yin-yang.

1524
01:36:16,132 --> 01:36:18,800
We had it, and they didn't.

1525
01:36:22,765 --> 01:36:27,500
NARRATOR: But using that air and
artillery support could be dangerous.

1526
01:36:27,600 --> 01:36:31,533
Each of Moore's units carefully
marked its position with smoke

1527
01:36:31,632 --> 01:36:34,533
to keep from being mistaken for the enemy

1528
01:36:34,632 --> 01:36:36,899
by American airmen overhead.

1529
01:36:39,832 --> 01:36:41,265
LO KHAC TAM:

1530
01:36:48,432 --> 01:36:52,432
NARRATOR: Some 18,000 artillery
shells would be called in

1531
01:36:52,533 --> 01:36:53,800
over the course of the battle,

1532
01:36:53,899 --> 01:36:58,865
some of them landing just 25
yards from Moore's own men.

1533
01:36:58,966 --> 01:37:04,432
Helicopter gunships fired
3,000 rockets into the enemy.

1534
01:37:04,533 --> 01:37:06,966
The forward air controller

1535
01:37:07,065 --> 01:37:10,600
called for every available
aircraft in South Vietnam

1536
01:37:10,699 --> 01:37:12,166
to come and help.

1537
01:37:12,265 --> 01:37:17,733
Warplanes, including B-52
long-range strategic bombers,

1538
01:37:17,832 --> 01:37:21,966
were stacked at 1,000-foot
intervals above the battlefield,

1539
01:37:22,065 --> 01:37:25,199
from 7,000 to 35,000 feet,

1540
01:37:25,300 --> 01:37:29,733
impatiently awaiting targets
to strafe or bomb or burn.

1541
01:37:32,065 --> 01:37:36,733
"By God," Moore said, "they sent
us over here to kill communists

1542
01:37:36,832 --> 01:37:38,332
and that's what we're doing."

1543
01:37:44,500 --> 01:37:46,199
I looked up...

1544
01:37:48,065 --> 01:37:55,365
and there were two jets aiming
directly at our command post.

1545
01:37:55,466 --> 01:38:01,600
He's dropped two cans of napalm
and it's coming toward us,

1546
01:38:01,699 --> 01:38:05,632
loblolly, end over end.

1547
01:38:05,733 --> 01:38:10,432
And these kids, two or three
of 'em, plus a sergeant,

1548
01:38:10,533 --> 01:38:14,765
had dug a hole or two over on the edge.

1549
01:38:14,865 --> 01:38:19,800
And I looked as the thing exploded...

1550
01:38:23,932 --> 01:38:28,500
And two of them were dancing in that fire.

1551
01:38:28,600 --> 01:38:32,432
And there's a rush, a roar,

1552
01:38:32,533 --> 01:38:36,600
from the air that's being consumed

1553
01:38:36,699 --> 01:38:42,632
and drawn in as this-this
hell come to earth

1554
01:38:42,733 --> 01:38:44,399
is burning there.

1555
01:38:44,500 --> 01:38:49,666
And as that dies back a little,
then you can hear the screams.

1556
01:38:51,865 --> 01:38:56,800
And someone yells, "Get this man's feet."

1557
01:38:56,899 --> 01:39:03,765
And I reach down and the boots crumble,

1558
01:39:03,865 --> 01:39:07,966
and the flesh is cooked off of his ankles.

1559
01:39:08,065 --> 01:39:12,166
And I feel those bones in
the palms of my hands.

1560
01:39:12,265 --> 01:39:14,966
I can feel it now.

1561
01:39:16,365 --> 01:39:18,966
He died two days later.

1562
01:39:19,065 --> 01:39:23,399
A kid named Jim Nakayama
out of Rigby, Idaho.

1563
01:39:38,033 --> 01:39:40,600
NARRATOR: By 10:00 that morning,

1564
01:39:40,699 --> 01:39:44,365
American airpower had beaten
back the enemy assault.

1565
01:39:45,733 --> 01:39:47,865
The survivors from the trapped platoon

1566
01:39:47,966 --> 01:39:50,000
were rescued that afternoon.

1567
01:39:50,100 --> 01:39:53,865
They had been pinned to
the ground and under fire

1568
01:39:53,966 --> 01:39:56,733
for so long that they had to be coaxed

1569
01:39:56,832 --> 01:39:59,065
into getting to their feet again.

1570
01:40:05,699 --> 01:40:07,733
On the morning of the next day,

1571
01:40:07,832 --> 01:40:11,199
enemy soldiers hurled themselves
against the same sector

1572
01:40:11,300 --> 01:40:14,399
of Moore's line four more times

1573
01:40:14,500 --> 01:40:17,899
and were obliterated by
artillery and machine gun fire.

1574
01:40:20,100 --> 01:40:22,865
The surviving North
Vietnamese and Viet Cong

1575
01:40:22,966 --> 01:40:24,966
withdrew into the forest,

1576
01:40:25,065 --> 01:40:27,932
leaving behind a ghastly ring of their dead

1577
01:40:28,033 --> 01:40:29,832
surrounding the landing zone...

1578
01:40:29,932 --> 01:40:36,265
634 corpses, shot, blasted,
blackened by fire.

1579
01:40:39,832 --> 01:40:43,432
LO KHAC TAM:

1580
01:41:01,966 --> 01:41:04,865
NARRATOR: After three days
and two nights of combat,

1581
01:41:04,966 --> 01:41:08,132
helicopters began lifting
out the American survivors

1582
01:41:08,233 --> 01:41:11,100
and gathering up the dead.

1583
01:41:11,199 --> 01:41:12,865
SOLDIER: When you look at them,

1584
01:41:12,966 --> 01:41:16,100
it doesn't even resemble a human body.

1585
01:41:16,199 --> 01:41:19,365
It just, it looks just like a mannequin.

1586
01:41:19,466 --> 01:41:22,332
You look at them and say,
"That couldn't happen to me."

1587
01:41:25,166 --> 01:41:28,166
SHEEHAN: I saw them fight at la Drang.

1588
01:41:28,265 --> 01:41:31,265
It always galls me when I read or hear

1589
01:41:31,365 --> 01:41:33,466
about the World War II generation

1590
01:41:33,565 --> 01:41:35,365
as the greatest generation.

1591
01:41:35,466 --> 01:41:38,399
These kids were just as
gallant and as courageous

1592
01:41:38,500 --> 01:41:40,699
as anybody who fought in World War II.

1593
01:41:42,300 --> 01:41:45,100
NARRATOR: Seventy-nine of Hal
Moore's men lost their lives

1594
01:41:45,199 --> 01:41:48,632
at Landing Zone X-Ray
in the la Drang Valley

1595
01:41:48,733 --> 01:41:54,033
and another 121 were wounded.

1596
01:41:54,132 --> 01:41:57,500
Please convey to the American people

1597
01:41:57,600 --> 01:42:01,733
what a tremendous fighting
man we have here.

1598
01:42:01,832 --> 01:42:07,199
He's courageous, he's
aggressive, and he's kind.

1599
01:42:07,300 --> 01:42:11,065
And he'll go where you tell him to go.

1600
01:42:11,166 --> 01:42:13,666
And he's got self-discipline.

1601
01:42:13,765 --> 01:42:17,033
And he's got good unit discipline.

1602
01:42:17,132 --> 01:42:19,332
He's just an outstanding man.

1603
01:42:19,432 --> 01:42:20,932
And...

1604
01:42:22,432 --> 01:42:25,399
Having commanded this
battalion for 18 months...

1605
01:42:28,100 --> 01:42:29,966
You must excuse my emotion here,

1606
01:42:30,065 --> 01:42:35,600
but when I see some of these men
go out the way they have...

1607
01:42:43,332 --> 01:42:45,365
I haven't...

1608
01:42:45,466 --> 01:42:47,765
I can't tell you how
highly I feel for them.

1609
01:42:47,865 --> 01:42:50,500
They're tremendous.

1610
01:42:50,600 --> 01:42:52,865
NARRATOR: Hal Moore refused to leave

1611
01:42:52,966 --> 01:42:57,600
until every single man in his
command had been accounted for.

1612
01:42:57,699 --> 01:43:02,800
He had been the first of his men
to step onto Landing Zone X-Ray,

1613
01:43:02,899 --> 01:43:06,166
and he made sure he was
the last to leave it.

1614
01:43:14,199 --> 01:43:19,800
LO KHAC TAM:

1615
01:43:43,100 --> 01:43:45,699
NARRATOR: The North Vietnamese
suffered terrible losses

1616
01:43:45,800 --> 01:43:47,233
in the la Drang Valley

1617
01:43:47,332 --> 01:43:51,000
and many of the survivors were traumatized.

1618
01:43:51,100 --> 01:43:54,800
"The units were enveloped
in an atmosphere of gloom,"

1619
01:43:54,899 --> 01:43:56,865
a North Vietnamese colonel remembered.

1620
01:43:56,966 --> 01:44:01,265
Some men would not leave
their rope hammocks.

1621
01:44:01,365 --> 01:44:03,300
Some refused to wash.

1622
01:44:03,399 --> 01:44:08,600
One soldier wrote a poem
expressive of their plight:

1623
01:44:08,699 --> 01:44:11,365
"The crab lies still on the chopping block

1624
01:44:11,466 --> 01:44:15,500
Never knowing when the knife will fall."

1625
01:44:21,233 --> 01:44:26,932
GALLOWAY: In the la Drang we killed
ten of them for every one of us.

1626
01:44:28,600 --> 01:44:32,733
That's a ten-to-one kill ratio
is how the military puts that.

1627
01:44:36,132 --> 01:44:42,500
But the enemy, he was fully
prepared to pay that price

1628
01:44:42,600 --> 01:44:46,966
and more for the value of
the lessons he learned.

1629
01:44:48,666 --> 01:44:50,966
LO KHAC TAM:

1630
01:45:02,765 --> 01:45:05,800
JOE GALLOWAY: Grab 'em by the belt buckle.

1631
01:45:05,899 --> 01:45:09,233
That means you've got to get so close,

1632
01:45:09,332 --> 01:45:15,865
they can't use the artillery and
the aerial bombardments on you

1633
01:45:15,966 --> 01:45:18,399
for fear of killing their own.

1634
01:45:18,500 --> 01:45:23,332
Get in so close that it's man-on-man.

1635
01:45:23,432 --> 01:45:26,500
And then everything is even.

1636
01:45:27,733 --> 01:45:31,166
The Vietnamese suffered hundreds of dead

1637
01:45:31,265 --> 01:45:34,100
attacking Hal Moore's
battalion at LZ X-Ray.

1638
01:45:34,199 --> 01:45:39,932
But then they ambushed another
battalion a couple of days later

1639
01:45:40,033 --> 01:45:43,199
and wiped it out.

1640
01:45:43,300 --> 01:45:45,865
NARRATOR: In the fighting
near Landing Zone Albany,

1641
01:45:45,966 --> 01:45:49,865
the enemy had gotten too close
for artillery to be called in.

1642
01:45:51,300 --> 01:45:57,600
Out of some 425 Americans
involved, 155 were killed.

1643
01:45:57,699 --> 01:46:02,300
124 more were wounded.

1644
01:46:02,399 --> 01:46:07,233
Both sides claimed victory
in the la Drang Valley.

1645
01:46:07,332 --> 01:46:10,065
The Americans talked up
the number of enemy dead

1646
01:46:10,166 --> 01:46:11,765
at Landing Zone X-Ray.

1647
01:46:11,865 --> 01:46:14,000
The ratio of losses to your kill...

1648
01:46:15,500 --> 01:46:17,533
NARRATOR: The North
Vietnamese took their lessons

1649
01:46:17,632 --> 01:46:19,765
from Landing Zone Albany.

1650
01:46:27,000 --> 01:46:29,300
WILLIAM WESTMORELAND: I don't anticipate

1651
01:46:29,399 --> 01:46:34,800
that this conflict will end any time soon,

1652
01:46:34,899 --> 01:46:39,466
and we could find that we have
more difficult days ahead.

1653
01:46:39,565 --> 01:46:42,365
Certainly we must be prepared for this.

1654
01:46:50,100 --> 01:46:55,000
EHRHART: In the fall of my
senior year, November 1965,

1655
01:46:55,100 --> 01:46:58,432
was that huge battle at
the la Drang Valley,

1656
01:46:58,533 --> 01:47:01,432
which was the first time
there was actually confirmed

1657
01:47:01,533 --> 01:47:03,932
North Vietnamese regular
soldiers as opposed

1658
01:47:04,033 --> 01:47:05,666
to Viet Cong.

1659
01:47:05,765 --> 01:47:08,666
And of course my way of
interpreting that was,

1660
01:47:08,765 --> 01:47:10,265
"There it is, that's the proof.

1661
01:47:10,365 --> 01:47:12,265
The North Vietnamese are
the aggressors here."

1662
01:47:12,365 --> 01:47:16,765
And that's when I began
thinking in terms of

1663
01:47:16,865 --> 01:47:19,265
maybe I don't want to go
to college right away.

1664
01:47:19,365 --> 01:47:22,565
Maybe I'll join the Marines.

1665
01:47:22,666 --> 01:47:23,808
And it was always the Marines.

1666
01:47:23,832 --> 01:47:25,565
I never... there was no question.

1667
01:47:25,666 --> 01:47:27,308
The Marine Corps is full
of little guys like me

1668
01:47:27,332 --> 01:47:28,500
with chips on our shoulder.

1669
01:47:28,600 --> 01:47:30,108
("Eve of Destruction by
Barry McGuire plays)

1670
01:47:30,132 --> 01:47:32,466
McGUIRE: ♪ The eastern
world, it is explodin'. ♪

1671
01:47:32,565 --> 01:47:35,466
NARRATOR: The battles in the la
Drang Valley may have been declared

1672
01:47:35,565 --> 01:47:39,733
American victories, but
privately, General Westmoreland

1673
01:47:39,832 --> 01:47:43,000
and the Johnson
administration were worried.

1674
01:47:43,100 --> 01:47:46,600
In spite of the Americans'
new airborne mobility,

1675
01:47:46,699 --> 01:47:49,132
the enemy had been able to choose

1676
01:47:49,233 --> 01:47:51,932
the place and time of battle.

1677
01:47:52,033 --> 01:47:55,600
The intelligence on which
basic decisions had been made

1678
01:47:55,699 --> 01:48:00,033
in Washington had been uniformly bad.

1679
01:48:00,132 --> 01:48:03,166
There were now believed to
be 12 Viet Cong regiments

1680
01:48:03,265 --> 01:48:06,000
in South Vietnam, not just five;

1681
01:48:06,100 --> 01:48:09,466
nine North Vietnamese regiments, not three.

1682
01:48:10,666 --> 01:48:12,466
Despite months of bombing,

1683
01:48:12,565 --> 01:48:15,300
three times as many North
Vietnamese regulars

1684
01:48:15,399 --> 01:48:18,932
were now slipping south
of the demilitarized zone

1685
01:48:19,033 --> 01:48:21,365
as originally believed.

1686
01:48:21,466 --> 01:48:25,666
Hanoi seemed to be escalating, too.

1687
01:48:25,765 --> 01:48:29,865
And American casualties were climbing.

1688
01:48:29,966 --> 01:48:33,132
When Senator Fritz Hollings visited Saigon

1689
01:48:33,233 --> 01:48:35,666
shortly after the la Drang battles,

1690
01:48:35,765 --> 01:48:39,432
General Westmoreland told him,
"We're killing these people

1691
01:48:39,533 --> 01:48:41,765
at a rate of ten to one."

1692
01:48:41,865 --> 01:48:43,199
Hollings warned him,

1693
01:48:43,300 --> 01:48:46,865
"Westy, the American people
don't care about the ten.

1694
01:48:46,966 --> 01:48:49,033
They care about the one."

1695
01:48:50,932 --> 01:48:53,666
Westmoreland, who had
said he could win the war

1696
01:48:53,765 --> 01:48:57,800
in three years, now sent an
urgent cable to Washington

1697
01:48:57,899 --> 01:49:00,765
asking for 200,000 more troops.

1698
01:49:00,865 --> 01:49:02,865
McGUIRE: ♪ Yeah, my blood's so mad...

1699
01:49:02,966 --> 01:49:05,533
NARRATOR: "The message came
as a shattering blow,"

1700
01:49:05,632 --> 01:49:07,765
Robert McNamara remembered.

1701
01:49:07,865 --> 01:49:12,865
Once again, he offered Johnson two options:

1702
01:49:12,966 --> 01:49:16,166
try to negotiate a compromise with Hanoi,

1703
01:49:16,265 --> 01:49:19,865
or accede to Westmoreland's
request for more men,

1704
01:49:19,966 --> 01:49:23,233
though the chances of victory,
the secretary of defense said,

1705
01:49:23,332 --> 01:49:27,432
might be no better than one in three.

1706
01:49:27,533 --> 01:49:30,166
GALLOWAY: And then they all sat down

1707
01:49:30,265 --> 01:49:33,132
and voted for option two.

1708
01:49:33,233 --> 01:49:35,166
McGUIRE: ♪ Over and over and over...

1709
01:49:35,265 --> 01:49:39,332
KARL MARLANTES: My bitterness about
the political powers at the time

1710
01:49:39,432 --> 01:49:44,332
was, first of all, the lying.

1711
01:49:44,432 --> 01:49:47,800
I mean, I can understand a policy error

1712
01:49:47,899 --> 01:49:50,500
that is incredibly, incredibly painful

1713
01:49:50,600 --> 01:49:52,565
and kills a lot of people out of a mistake

1714
01:49:52,666 --> 01:49:55,765
if they made that with noble hearts.

1715
01:49:55,865 --> 01:49:58,233
That was, you know, when
Eisenhower and Kennedy

1716
01:49:58,332 --> 01:50:00,899
were trying to figure things out.

1717
01:50:01,000 --> 01:50:05,233
And you read that, you know,
McNamara knew by '65...

1718
01:50:05,332 --> 01:50:07,132
it was just three years
before I was there...

1719
01:50:07,233 --> 01:50:08,466
that the war was unwinnable.

1720
01:50:08,565 --> 01:50:10,365
That's what makes me mad.

1721
01:50:10,466 --> 01:50:12,666
Making a mistake, people can do that.

1722
01:50:12,765 --> 01:50:14,432
But covering up mistakes,

1723
01:50:14,533 --> 01:50:18,699
then you're killing
people for your own ego.

1724
01:50:18,800 --> 01:50:21,966
And that makes me mad.

1725
01:50:24,100 --> 01:50:25,675
NARRATOR: Tens of thousands
of American troops

1726
01:50:25,699 --> 01:50:29,500
continued to prepare to deploy to Vietnam

1727
01:50:29,600 --> 01:50:30,699
from all over the country,

1728
01:50:30,800 --> 01:50:34,233
and General Westmoreland and his commanders

1729
01:50:34,332 --> 01:50:36,432
drew up plans for major offensives

1730
01:50:36,533 --> 01:50:39,699
in the new year of 1966.

1731
01:50:43,500 --> 01:50:47,000
Meanwhile, hoping the Soviets
might help bring Hanoi

1732
01:50:47,100 --> 01:50:50,966
to the bargaining table,
McNamara urged the president

1733
01:50:51,065 --> 01:50:55,300
to declare a halt to the
bombing of North Vietnam.

1734
01:50:55,399 --> 01:50:57,932
Over the objections of the military,

1735
01:50:58,033 --> 01:51:00,699
who worried it would give
the enemy time to rebuild

1736
01:51:00,800 --> 01:51:05,065
its defenses, Johnson
agreed to stop the bombing

1737
01:51:05,166 --> 01:51:07,899
on Christmas Eve.

1738
01:51:08,000 --> 01:51:10,132
If it achieved nothing else, he said,

1739
01:51:10,233 --> 01:51:12,432
it would show the American people

1740
01:51:12,533 --> 01:51:15,865
that before he committed more
of their sons to battle,

1741
01:51:15,966 --> 01:51:19,000
"We have gone the last mile."

1742
01:51:19,100 --> 01:51:24,265
("Little Drummer Boy" by Burl Ives playing)

1743
01:51:24,365 --> 01:51:29,832
JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: Well, Christmas
always meant a great deal in our family.

1744
01:51:29,932 --> 01:51:34,332
We sent packages to Denton, of course.

1745
01:51:34,432 --> 01:51:36,500
Then a neighbor mentioned to me

1746
01:51:36,600 --> 01:51:41,033
that she heard a local
television station was offering

1747
01:51:41,132 --> 01:51:44,932
free tapes to be made to
send to a soldier overseas.

1748
01:51:45,033 --> 01:51:49,699
We dressed up for the cameras.

1749
01:51:49,800 --> 01:51:52,533
The idea was that we would
each just say something

1750
01:51:52,632 --> 01:51:55,865
about what we were doing and wish him well.

1751
01:51:58,033 --> 01:52:00,533
It was a horrible day for me.

1752
01:52:00,632 --> 01:52:05,565
It made it so real that he was far away.

1753
01:52:05,666 --> 01:52:08,932
Well, Mogie, here we are.

1754
01:52:09,033 --> 01:52:12,733
It's... let's see what day is today.

1755
01:52:12,832 --> 01:52:14,033
Here it is, Saturday...

1756
01:52:14,132 --> 01:52:15,132
November 13.

1757
01:52:15,199 --> 01:52:17,300
November 13,

1758
01:52:17,399 --> 01:52:22,466
and station WTEN has given
us a chance to talk to you.

1759
01:52:22,565 --> 01:52:25,000
We all wish you a Merry Christmas

1760
01:52:25,100 --> 01:52:26,332
to start out with.

1761
01:52:27,765 --> 01:52:30,100
Rand, what do you got to say to Mogie?

1762
01:52:30,199 --> 01:52:31,466
Merry Christmas.

1763
01:52:31,565 --> 01:52:32,600
Merry Christmas.

1764
01:52:34,500 --> 01:52:35,733
Merry Christmas, darling.

1765
01:52:35,832 --> 01:52:37,100
We sent your packages

1766
01:52:37,199 --> 01:52:39,041
and there's one that's
waiting for you at home.

1767
01:52:39,065 --> 01:52:40,666
It's a record of fife and drum music

1768
01:52:40,765 --> 01:52:43,365
that we got for you at Williamsburg.

1769
01:52:43,466 --> 01:52:44,466
Candy?

1770
01:52:46,265 --> 01:52:52,000
My teacher isn't very nice,
and she always is crabby,

1771
01:52:52,100 --> 01:52:54,565
and I don't like school at all.

1772
01:52:54,666 --> 01:52:56,600
Now I'm a brownie.

1773
01:52:56,699 --> 01:52:58,265
Merry Christmas.

1774
01:52:59,765 --> 01:53:01,033
Happy Christmas, Mogie.

1775
01:53:01,132 --> 01:53:02,899
I think I'm getting new skis for Christmas.

1776
01:53:03,000 --> 01:53:05,040
So when you get home, we
can get together sometime.

1777
01:53:05,132 --> 01:53:08,600
We do all wish you a very Merry Christmas,

1778
01:53:08,699 --> 01:53:10,899
and we'll be thinking of
you on Christmas Day.

1779
01:53:13,800 --> 01:53:15,560
JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: We
miss you, sweetheart.

1780
01:53:17,600 --> 01:53:21,666
IVES: ♪ Me and my drum.

1781
01:53:26,966 --> 01:53:28,646
("Turn! Turn! Turn!" by the Byrds playing)

1782
01:53:41,000 --> 01:53:45,632
♪ To everything, turn, turn, turn ♪

1783
01:53:45,733 --> 01:53:50,399
♪ There is a season, turn, turn, turn ♪

1784
01:53:50,500 --> 01:53:56,565
♪ And a time to every
purpose under heaven ♪

1785
01:53:58,399 --> 01:54:03,233
♪ A time to be born, a time to die ♪

1786
01:54:03,332 --> 01:54:05,800
♪ A time to plant, a time to reap ♪

1787
01:54:05,899 --> 01:54:09,666
♪ A time to kill, a time to heal ♪

1788
01:54:09,765 --> 01:54:17,100
♪ A time to laugh, a time to weep ♪

1789
01:54:17,199 --> 01:54:22,399
♪ To everything, turn, turn, turn ♪

1790
01:54:22,500 --> 01:54:27,666
♪ There is a season, turn, turn, turn ♪

1791
01:54:27,765 --> 01:54:33,300
♪ And a time to every
purpose under heaven ♪

1792
01:54:35,100 --> 01:54:38,800
♪ A time to build up, a
time to break down ♪

1793
01:54:38,899 --> 01:54:43,432
♪ A time to dance, a time to mourn ♪

1794
01:54:43,533 --> 01:54:46,899
♪ A time to cast away stones

1795
01:54:47,000 --> 01:54:52,832
♪ A time to gather stones together ♪

1796
01:54:54,632 --> 01:54:59,832
♪ To everything, turn, turn, turn ♪

1797
01:54:59,932 --> 01:55:05,033
♪ There is a season, turn, turn, turn ♪

1798
01:55:05,132 --> 01:55:10,632
♪ And a time to every
purpose under heaven ♪

1799
01:55:12,632 --> 01:55:16,233
♪ A time of love, a time of hate ♪

1800
01:55:16,332 --> 01:55:21,466
♪ A time of war, a time of peace ♪

1801
01:55:21,565 --> 01:55:24,265
♪ A time you may embrace

1802
01:55:24,365 --> 01:55:30,600
♪ A time to refrain from embracing ♪

1803
01:55:32,132 --> 01:55:36,899
♪ To everything, turn, turn, turn ♪

1804
01:55:37,000 --> 01:55:42,065
♪ There is a season, turn, turn, turn ♪

1805
01:55:42,166 --> 01:55:48,065
♪ And a time to every
purpose under heaven ♪

1806
01:55:50,233 --> 01:55:53,733
♪ A time to gain, a time to lose ♪

1807
01:55:53,832 --> 01:55:57,800
♪ A time to rend, a time to sew ♪

1808
01:55:57,899 --> 01:56:01,832
♪ A time for love, a time for hate ♪

1809
01:56:01,932 --> 01:56:09,932
♪ A time for peace, I swear
it's not too late. ♪

1810
01:56:16,533 --> 01:56:17,732
ANNOUNCER: LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FILM

1811
01:56:17,733 --> 01:56:20,599
AND FIND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
AT PBS.ORG/VIETNAMWAR

1812
01:56:20,600 --> 01:56:24,532
AND JOIN THE CONVERSATION
USING HASHTAG VIETNAMWARPBS.

1813
01:56:24,533 --> 01:56:25,999
"THE VIETNAM WAR" IS AVAILABLE

1814
01:56:26,000 --> 01:56:27,665
ON BLU-RAY AND DVD.

1815
01:56:27,666 --> 01:56:29,331
THE COMPANION BOOK, SOUNDTRACK,

1816
01:56:29,332 --> 01:56:30,732
AND ORIGINAL SCORE FROM THE FILM

1817
01:56:30,733 --> 01:56:31,864
ARE ALSO AVAILABLE.

1818
01:56:31,865 --> 01:56:33,965
TO ORDER, VISIT SHOPPBS.ORG

1819
01:56:33,966 --> 01:56:36,431
OR CALL 1-800-PLAY-PBS.

1820
01:56:36,432 --> 01:56:37,864
EPISODES OF THIS SERIES ALSO

1821
01:56:37,865 --> 01:56:38,965
AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD

1822
01:56:38,966 --> 01:56:40,065
FROM iTUNES.

1823
01:56:43,332 --> 01:56:45,465
ANNOUNCER: BANK OF AMERICA PROUDLY SUPPORTS

1824
01:56:45,466 --> 01:56:50,364
KEN BURNS' AND LYNN NOVICK'S
FILM "THE VIETNAM WAR"

1825
01:56:50,365 --> 01:56:52,764
BECAUSE FOSTERING DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

1826
01:56:52,765 --> 01:56:55,431
AND CIVIL DISCOURSE AROUND IMPORTANT ISSUES

1827
01:56:55,432 --> 01:56:57,732
FURTHERS PROGRESS, EQUALITY,

1828
01:56:57,733 --> 01:56:59,733
AND A MORE CONNECTED SOCIETY.

1829
01:57:04,199 --> 01:57:08,233
GO TO BANKOFAMERICA.COM/
BETTERCONNECTED TO LEARN MORE.

1830
01:57:11,699 --> 01:57:13,131
ANNOUNCER: MAJOR SUPPORT
FOR "THE VIETNAM WAR"

1831
01:57:13,132 --> 01:57:16,631
WAS PROVIDED BY MEMBERS OF
THE BETTER ANGELS SOCIETY,

1832
01:57:16,632 --> 01:57:20,599
INCLUDING JONATHAN AND JEANNIE LAVINE,

1833
01:57:20,600 --> 01:57:23,499
DIANE AND HAL BRIERLEY,

1834
01:57:23,500 --> 01:57:25,898
AMY AND DAVID ABRAMS,

1835
01:57:25,899 --> 01:57:28,398
JOHN AND CATHERINE DEBS,

1836
01:57:28,399 --> 01:57:31,299
THE FULLERTON FAMILY CHARITABLE FUND,

1837
01:57:31,300 --> 01:57:33,364
THE MONTRONE FAMILY,

1838
01:57:33,365 --> 01:57:35,698
LYNDA AND STEWART RESNICK,

1839
01:57:35,699 --> 01:57:38,465
THE PERRY AND DONNA
GOLKIN FAMILY FOUNDATION,

1840
01:57:38,466 --> 01:57:39,466
THE LYNCH FOUNDATION,

1841
01:57:39,467 --> 01:57:42,331
THE ROGER AND ROSEMARY ENRICO FOUNDATION,

1842
01:57:42,332 --> 01:57:45,764
AND BY THESE ADDITIONAL FUNDERS.

1843
01:57:45,765 --> 01:57:47,665
MAJOR FUNDING WAS ALSO PROVIDED

1844
01:57:47,666 --> 01:57:49,399
BY DAVID H. KOCH...

1845
01:57:51,699 --> 01:57:53,966
THE BLAVATNIK FAMILY FOUNDATION...

1846
01:57:56,300 --> 01:57:58,732
THE PARK FOUNDATION,

1847
01:57:58,733 --> 01:58:00,898
THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES,

1848
01:58:00,899 --> 01:58:03,099
THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS,

1849
01:58:03,100 --> 01:58:05,764
THE JOHN S. AND JAMES L. KNIGHT FOUNDATION,

1850
01:58:05,765 --> 01:58:08,532
THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION,

1851
01:58:08,533 --> 01:58:11,131
THE ARTHUR VINING DAVIS FOUNDATIONS,

1852
01:58:11,132 --> 01:58:13,331
THE FORD FOUNDATION JUSTFILMS,

1853
01:58:13,332 --> 01:58:14,532
BY THE CORPORATION

1854
01:58:14,533 --> 01:58:15,764
FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING,

1855
01:58:15,765 --> 01:58:17,732
AND BY VIEWERS LIKE YOU.

1856
01:58:17,733 --> 01:58:18,865
THANK YOU.