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- Original file by zfeet -
- Resynced by Ornlu Wolfjarl -

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...you got through! Did you
pass Chee on the road?

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No. Where are the children?

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Kansas found a shelter for them.

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Get down, everybody!

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JOAN FUREY: My older sister and I one time

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uh, we're watching the movie
So Proudly We Ha il on TV.

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Listen, we still have a few minutes!

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FUREY: That's a story about the nurses

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who were trapped on Bataan and
Corregidor during World War II.

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(explosion)

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It was the first, probably,
time in my life that...

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I, uh...

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I realized that women could do
brave and courageous things.

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It wasn't just something men could do.

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(helicopter blades whirring)

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♪

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NARRATOR: Second Lieutenant Joan Furey

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had wanted to be a nurse ever
since she was a small child.

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She attended nursing school,

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and, when a high school classmate
was killed during Tet,

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joined the Army to do what
she could for the wounded.

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Furey was assigned to the
71st Evacuation Hospital

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at Pleiku, in the heart
of the Central Highlands.

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Nothing had prepared her
for what she saw and did

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over the next 12 months.

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(indistinct chatter)

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(grunts)

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Wounded men were choppered in

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at all times of the day and night.

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So were Viet Cong and NVA soldiers,

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who sometimes spat at the medical personnel

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trying to save their limbs or lives.

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(explosions)

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Whenever the hospital
came under mortar fire,

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Furey stayed with the most
seriously wounded men

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in the ICU.

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(distant explosions)

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We had flak vests and helmets,

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and we crawled around on the floor.

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(explosion, clattering, men shouting)

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I mean, you really,

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you just could not leave them unattended.

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(explosion)

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We just kind of had to
swallow your own fear.

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NARRATOR: A triage officer
made the grim decisions

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as to who might be saved

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and those for whom there was no hope.

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FUREY: One of the things that
initially was so difficult

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was what we called "expected" patients.

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And these were patients
that would be brought in

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from the battlefield and it was determined

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they had no chance to survive.

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But they weren't dead yet.

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They brought in a...

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a young soldier who had a head injury,

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and they said, "He's expected."

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I kind of freaked out, uh,

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and I decided that, no, they were wrong,

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and I was gonna take care of this patient.

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I told the corpsman to get me blood.

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And he's saying, "Well, Lieutenant,

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the patient is expected."

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I said, "Get me blood."

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So, I take off the dressing, and...

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the whole back of his head had been gone.

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When that happened,

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all the blood I had been
giving him came out.

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A friend of mine who came over
just walked me out of there.

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And a few minutes later,
you walk right back in...

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...and you get back to doing it.

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(amplified heartbeat)

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("Dazed and Confused" by
Led Zeppelin playing)

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♪ Been dazed and confused

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♪ For so long, it's not true... ♪

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NARRATOR: Richard Nixon had
taken office as president

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in January of 1969,

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pledged to restore law and order

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and end the war with honor.

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(gunfire) Things were calmer at home,

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but in Vietnam, peace was no closer.

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("Dazed and Confused" continues)

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American soldiers still
died pursuing guerrillas

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who appeared and disappeared like phantoms.

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Americans still died capturing hills

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only to give them up and have
to take them back again.

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Men and materiel were still
flowing into the south

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despite the controversial
bombing of Cambodia.

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Through it all, Hanoi remained immovable.

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The communists insisted
there could be no peace

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until the Saigon government was replaced

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and the United States
withdrew from Vietnam.

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Meanwhile, the American
public was losing patience.

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♪

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(men shouting)

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(gunfire fades)

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Privately, Nixon knew that
military victory was impossible,

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that things would have to be settled

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at the bargaining table in Paris.

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He had to find a way

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to extricate Americans from Vietnam

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without seeming to surrender.

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Nixon also believed

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his reputation as an
implacable anti-communist

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could work to his advantage with Hanoi.

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"We'll just slip the
word to them," he said,

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"you know, 'Nixon's
obsessed about communism.

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"'We can't restrain him when he's angry,

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"and he has his hand on
the nuclear button, '

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"and Ho Chi Minh will
be in Paris in two days

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begging for peace."

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But Ho Chi Minh was old and ailing now.

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And Le Duan and the other men

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who had been calling the
shots in Hanoi for years

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had no intention of giving up their goal

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of uniting their country
under communist control.

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("While My Guitar Gently
Weeps" by the Beatles playing)

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Richard Nixon, having promised
a swift end to the war,

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would, like all the presidents
who came before him,

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end up widening it.

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In the process, he would
re-ignite opposition to the war

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on American campuses

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that threatened to tear
the country apart again.

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♪ I look at you all

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♪ See the love there that's sleeping ♪

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(crowd clamoring)

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♪ While my guitar

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♪ Gently weeps

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♪ I look at the floor...

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MERRILL McPEAK: The late '60s

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were a kind of confluence
of several rivulets.

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BEATLES: ♪ Still my guitar...

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McPEAK: There was the
antiwar movement itself...

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♪

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...the whole movement
towards racial equality,

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the environment...

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the role of women.

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And the anthems for that counterculture

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were provided by the most
brilliant rock-and-roll music

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that you can imagine.

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BEATLES: ♪ And I notice...

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I don't know how we could
exist today as a country

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without that experience.

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With all of its warts and ups and downs,

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that produced the America we have today,

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and we are better for it.

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(gunfire) ♪ Surely be learning...

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McPEAK: And I felt that way in Vietnam.

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♪ Still my guitar...

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McPEAK: I turned the volume
up on all that stuff.

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That represented what I
was trying to defend.

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♪

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(gunfire, artillery fire, shouting)

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(explosion)

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♪ Oh, oh

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(fading): ♪ Ooh, ooh, oh, oh...

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HAL KUSHNER: I never prayed

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the whole time I was in the P.O.W. camp,

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but I had, like, a mantra.

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Every night when I went to sleep,

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after a certain point, I would say,

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"I'll be here when the morning comes."

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And I felt if I could
just live one more day,

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then I could live one more
day, and then one more day.

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NARRATOR: At the peace talks in Paris,

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the Nixon administration had
introduced a new demand...

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U.S. troops would not withdraw

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until all American prisoners had come home

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and Hanoi had provided a strict accounting

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of those missing in action.

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No one knew how many prisoners there were.

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Most were airmen held in or around Hanoi,

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but a handful of others, like Hal Kushner,

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were struggling to survive
in makeshift jungle camps

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in South Vietnam.

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Hanoi would not reveal the
names of the men they held,

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because they still insisted
they were not prisoners of war,

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but war criminals.

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They subjected many to brutal torture,

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extracted "confessions,"

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and refused to permit inspections

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by the International Red Cross.

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The Johnson administration had
generally downplayed the issue,

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hoping quiet diplomacy
might bring the men home.

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The Nixon administration

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launched a "go public" campaign instead,

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meant to put the plight
of American prisoners

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and those missing in action

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at the center of things.

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It also provided a rebuke

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to those in the antiwar movement

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who seemed more sympathetic

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to North Vietnamese civilians
who had been bombed

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than they were to U.S. airmen

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who had been shot down doing that bombing.

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Sybil Stockdale, whose husband,
Commander James Stockdale,

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was the highest-ranking prisoner in Hanoi,

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formed the National League of Families

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of Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia,

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and led delegations of wives to Paris

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to confront North Vietnamese negotiators.

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Five million Americans began
wearing tin or copper bracelets

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engraved with a missing man's name

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and date of loss.

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More than 50 million P.O.W./M.I.A.
bumper stickers

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would be sold over the next four years.

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Despite what their jailers had told them,

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the prisoners had not been
forgotten by their country.

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Eventually, one journalist wrote,

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many "people began to speak

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"as though the North Vietnamese
had kidnapped 400 Americans

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and the United States had gone
to war to retrieve them."

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At the same time, the Saigon
government of Nguyen Van Thieu

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was holding prisoners of its own.

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There would eventually be

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some 40,000 North Vietnamese
and Viet Cong soldiers

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in four crowded camps.

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Another 200,000 South Vietnamese civilians

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would also be held, many without trial.

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JAMES GILLAM: There are certain
rules to tunnel warfare.

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Don't turn on the light

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unless you're really, really,
really sure you're alone.

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Use your senses.

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Do your first killing
as quietly as you can.

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That means don't shoot.

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I chased somebody into a tunnel,

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met them at a bend in the
corner, in the dark.

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I thought I was alone

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and then I smelled their breath.

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And we had a wrestling match in the dark.

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And I got the upper hand

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and crushed this person's trachea,

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held him down while he died...

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...and then got out.

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I beat and strangled someone to death

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in a tunnel

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in the dark.

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Um...

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But that wasn't the only casualty.

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The other casualty was the
civilized version of me.

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(gunfire)

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(gunfire continuing)

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(shouting)

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NARRATOR: April 1969

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marked the high point of
American military commitment

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to South Vietnam.

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543,482 men and women were now in country,

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and tens of thousands more were stationed

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at airbases and aboard
ships beyond its borders.

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40,794 had died.

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And more than $70 billion had been spent.

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(explosion in distance)

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That spring, a new battle

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caught the attention of
the American public,

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a struggle to take still
another numbered hill...

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Hill 937 on military maps.

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CHET HUNTLEY: For nine days,

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American and South Vietnamese
troops have been trying

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to take a mountain near the Laotian border,

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and ten times they have been thrown back.

261
00:15:21,660 --> 00:15:22,928
(booming, shouting)

262
00:15:25,828 --> 00:15:26,893
(gunfire)

263
00:15:36,961 --> 00:15:39,161
(shouting over radio)

264
00:15:46,062 --> 00:15:48,661
The casualties have been so high...

265
00:15:48,762 --> 00:15:52,028
50 Americans and 250 North
Vietnamese killed...

266
00:15:52,129 --> 00:15:54,762
that the mountain has come to
be known as "Hamburger Hill."

267
00:15:54,861 --> 00:15:58,495
Today, another 600 allied troops
were thrown into the battle.

268
00:15:58,594 --> 00:16:01,161
(helicopter blades whirring)

269
00:16:01,262 --> 00:16:03,629
(gunfire)

270
00:16:03,728 --> 00:16:06,429
(explosion, screaming)

271
00:16:10,295 --> 00:16:12,595
NARRATOR: A weary G.I. told a reporter

272
00:16:12,696 --> 00:16:14,795
that his battalion commander

273
00:16:14,895 --> 00:16:19,763
"won't stop until he kills
every damn one of us."

274
00:16:19,862 --> 00:16:21,162
(explosion, gunfire)

275
00:16:26,130 --> 00:16:28,395
After 11 days of fighting,

276
00:16:28,496 --> 00:16:31,196
the Battle for Hamburger Hill ended.

277
00:16:32,662 --> 00:16:35,362
56 Americans died.

278
00:16:35,462 --> 00:16:39,763
420 more were wounded.

279
00:16:39,862 --> 00:16:43,396
A week later, the Americans
abandoned the hill,

280
00:16:43,497 --> 00:16:46,396
just as they had abandoned
so many other hills

281
00:16:46,497 --> 00:16:51,030
they had taken at great cost
over the years in Vietnam.

282
00:16:53,163 --> 00:16:56,064
General, could you explain for
us again the strategy involved

283
00:16:56,163 --> 00:16:59,163
in the decision to withdraw American troops

284
00:16:59,264 --> 00:17:02,463
after they had taken Hill
937, or Hamburger Hill?

285
00:17:04,631 --> 00:17:08,530
No piece of ground, as such,

286
00:17:08,631 --> 00:17:11,030
is important to us.

287
00:17:11,131 --> 00:17:12,863
HUNTLEY: In the United States Senate,

288
00:17:12,963 --> 00:17:14,765
Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts delivered

289
00:17:14,864 --> 00:17:16,664
a brief speech criticizing what he called

290
00:17:16,765 --> 00:17:19,698
a "senseless and
irresponsible military pride

291
00:17:19,797 --> 00:17:22,198
"in which American men
are sent to their deaths

292
00:17:22,297 --> 00:17:25,031
in pointless battles like
this one for Hamburger Hill."

293
00:17:25,132 --> 00:17:27,231
Kennedy called upon President Nixon

294
00:17:27,332 --> 00:17:29,464
to issue new orders to
commanders in Vietnam

295
00:17:29,565 --> 00:17:31,097
to halt such actions

296
00:17:31,198 --> 00:17:32,998
and he charged that they contradict

297
00:17:33,097 --> 00:17:34,432
the president's stated intentions

298
00:17:34,531 --> 00:17:36,231
of seeking a negotiated peace.

299
00:17:39,065 --> 00:17:42,332
NARRATOR: There had been more
deadly weeks during the war,

300
00:17:42,432 --> 00:17:46,798
costlier battles, larger
numbers of casualties.

301
00:17:46,898 --> 00:17:53,098
But more and more Americans
seemed to have had enough.

302
00:17:53,199 --> 00:17:55,566
The following month, Li fe magazine

303
00:17:55,665 --> 00:17:57,699
published the names and photographs

304
00:17:57,798 --> 00:18:00,598
of all 242 Americans

305
00:18:00,699 --> 00:18:04,566
who had died in combat in just one week.

306
00:18:04,665 --> 00:18:08,499
For the first time, in a
national publication,

307
00:18:08,598 --> 00:18:12,465
casualty statistics came with human faces.

308
00:18:15,365 --> 00:18:18,098
The only way they could
measure success in Vietnam

309
00:18:18,199 --> 00:18:20,299
was, was was kill ratios...

310
00:18:20,399 --> 00:18:22,567
how many of them versus how many of us.

311
00:18:22,666 --> 00:18:24,834
Well, the only thing that's important

312
00:18:24,934 --> 00:18:27,233
to the American people is the "us."

313
00:18:27,334 --> 00:18:30,899
You know, if there's three
us dead, that's the number.

314
00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:34,134
Not 30, you know, Vietnamese dead.

315
00:18:34,233 --> 00:18:37,299
And, so, politically, an attrition strategy

316
00:18:37,399 --> 00:18:39,567
just can't last very long.

317
00:18:39,666 --> 00:18:41,099
We don't care what the ratio is,

318
00:18:41,200 --> 00:18:42,442
we just want the absolute number

319
00:18:42,466 --> 00:18:45,099
of how many American kids died.

320
00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:48,466
NARRATOR: A Gallup poll now
found that most Americans

321
00:18:48,567 --> 00:18:52,335
believed Vietnam had been a mistake.

322
00:18:52,435 --> 00:18:55,400
Richard Nixon knew he needed
to signal to the public

323
00:18:55,501 --> 00:18:57,734
that an end was in sight.

324
00:18:59,600 --> 00:19:03,068
The National Security
Council had warned Nixon

325
00:19:03,167 --> 00:19:05,201
that the Joint Chiefs of Staff,

326
00:19:05,300 --> 00:19:07,967
the secretaries of state and defense,

327
00:19:08,068 --> 00:19:13,001
the C.I.A., and the U.S. Embassy in Saigon

328
00:19:13,100 --> 00:19:16,167
all privately agreed that without U.S.
combat troops,

329
00:19:16,268 --> 00:19:17,867
the South Vietnamese

330
00:19:17,967 --> 00:19:22,534
"cannot now, or in the foreseeable future,

331
00:19:22,635 --> 00:19:24,735
"stand up to both Viet Cong

332
00:19:24,836 --> 00:19:28,468
and sizeable North Vietnamese forces."

333
00:19:28,569 --> 00:19:30,502
Nonetheless,

334
00:19:30,601 --> 00:19:33,668
Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird said,

335
00:19:33,769 --> 00:19:37,202
the war was now to be "Vietnamized."

336
00:19:37,301 --> 00:19:40,936
Saigon's troops would gradually
take over responsibility

337
00:19:41,035 --> 00:19:43,569
for engaging the enemy.

338
00:19:43,668 --> 00:19:46,769
It would be General Creighton Abrams' task

339
00:19:46,868 --> 00:19:49,136
to ready the ARVN for that role,

340
00:19:49,235 --> 00:19:51,936
and to make sure that American casualties

341
00:19:52,035 --> 00:19:54,168
were held down in the interim.

342
00:19:54,269 --> 00:19:57,637
("The Letter" by The Box
Tops starts playing)

343
00:19:57,736 --> 00:20:02,937
Meanwhile, American troops
would start to go home.

344
00:20:03,036 --> 00:20:05,869
♪ Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane ♪

345
00:20:05,969 --> 00:20:08,236
♪ Ain't got time to take a fast train ♪

346
00:20:08,337 --> 00:20:09,977
DUONG VAN MAI ELLIOTT: When Nixon came in

347
00:20:10,003 --> 00:20:13,837
and he announced the phase withdrawal,

348
00:20:13,937 --> 00:20:16,369
turning over the fighting
to the Vietnamese,

349
00:20:16,469 --> 00:20:18,902
which was something the
French had tried before.

350
00:20:19,003 --> 00:20:20,770
They call itjaunissement...

351
00:20:20,869 --> 00:20:24,137
yellowizing the war.

352
00:20:24,236 --> 00:20:30,271
We knew that the Vietnamese Army
was not up to fighting this war.

353
00:20:30,370 --> 00:20:32,838
If they couldn't do it with the Americans,

354
00:20:32,938 --> 00:20:36,004
how were they going to do
it without the Americans?

355
00:20:36,103 --> 00:20:39,170
♪ Lonely days are gone

356
00:20:39,271 --> 00:20:42,103
NARRATOR: Although Washington
planned to vastly increase

357
00:20:42,204 --> 00:20:45,071
military support of the
South Vietnamese Army,

358
00:20:45,170 --> 00:20:48,370
General Abrams knew that
Vietnamization alone

359
00:20:48,470 --> 00:20:50,771
could never defeat the enemy.

360
00:20:50,870 --> 00:20:53,303
But he had his orders.

361
00:20:53,403 --> 00:20:56,071
McPEAK: The reason I was ordered home early

362
00:20:56,170 --> 00:20:58,004
was because Nixon... President Nixon

363
00:20:58,103 --> 00:21:01,471
announced the policy of Vietnamization.

364
00:21:01,572 --> 00:21:05,671
Now, Vietnamization was a lie,

365
00:21:05,772 --> 00:21:09,639
but it had an element of truth in it.

366
00:21:09,738 --> 00:21:12,005
We were leaving, okay?

367
00:21:12,104 --> 00:21:14,005
And that sealed the South's fate.

368
00:21:14,104 --> 00:21:15,505
I knew it.

369
00:21:15,604 --> 00:21:18,538
And I think anybody who was conscious

370
00:21:18,639 --> 00:21:20,371
and could see what was going on

371
00:21:20,471 --> 00:21:21,671
knew it.

372
00:21:21,772 --> 00:21:24,272
NARRATOR: Nixon then flew to Midway Island

373
00:21:24,371 --> 00:21:27,939
to meet with South Vietnamese
President Nguyen Van Thieu.

374
00:21:28,038 --> 00:21:31,139
He had not dared invite Thieu to Washington

375
00:21:31,238 --> 00:21:34,140
for fear of sparking mass demonstrations.

376
00:21:34,239 --> 00:21:35,605
♪ Lonely days are gone

377
00:21:35,706 --> 00:21:37,805
President Thieu informed me

378
00:21:37,905 --> 00:21:41,706
that the progress of the training program

379
00:21:41,805 --> 00:21:43,405
and the equipping program

380
00:21:43,506 --> 00:21:45,706
for South Vietnamese forces

381
00:21:45,805 --> 00:21:50,840
had been so successful, uh,
that he could now recommend

382
00:21:50,940 --> 00:21:54,239
that the United States begin to replace

383
00:21:54,340 --> 00:21:58,640
U.S. combat forces with Vietnamese forces.

384
00:21:58,739 --> 00:22:01,372
(speaking Vietnamese)

385
00:22:03,940 --> 00:22:06,340
NARRATOR: Thieu had said no such thing

386
00:22:06,441 --> 00:22:08,973
but felt he had to go along.

387
00:22:09,074 --> 00:22:11,774
"There is nothing I can
do," he told a friend.

388
00:22:11,873 --> 00:22:14,274
"Just as we could do nothing about it

389
00:22:14,373 --> 00:22:16,973
"when Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson

390
00:22:17,074 --> 00:22:20,040
decided to come in."

391
00:22:20,141 --> 00:22:23,106
"We were clearly on the
way out of Vietnam,"

392
00:22:23,207 --> 00:22:26,341
National Security Advisor
Henry Kissinger remembered,

393
00:22:26,441 --> 00:22:29,173
"by negotiation if possible,

394
00:22:29,274 --> 00:22:33,074
by unilateral withdrawal if necessary."

395
00:22:33,173 --> 00:22:36,106
He and the president were redefining

396
00:22:36,207 --> 00:22:39,075
what victory would look like.

397
00:22:39,174 --> 00:22:42,107
TOM VALLELY: Nixon and Kissinger...

398
00:22:42,208 --> 00:22:44,174
They...

399
00:22:44,275 --> 00:22:46,541
Their job is to clean up.

400
00:22:46,642 --> 00:22:48,241
They're, they're...

401
00:22:48,342 --> 00:22:50,275
The war's over, okay?

402
00:22:50,374 --> 00:22:53,842
When Nixon and Kissinger,
when they come, they're...

403
00:22:53,942 --> 00:22:55,307
they're not gonna win the war.

404
00:22:55,407 --> 00:22:57,741
("Taps" playing) So they develop

405
00:22:57,842 --> 00:22:59,508
a secret strategy.

406
00:22:59,607 --> 00:23:03,541
They surrender without
saying they surrendered.

407
00:23:06,008 --> 00:23:09,208
This is not a bad strategy,
this is the only strategy.

408
00:23:09,307 --> 00:23:13,143
("Circle for a Landing" by Three
Dog Night starts playing)

409
00:23:13,242 --> 00:23:15,709
(indistinct announcement over P.A.)

410
00:23:17,542 --> 00:23:21,076
NARRATOR: As American soldiers
began leaving South Vietnam,

411
00:23:21,175 --> 00:23:24,375
American weaponry and materiel poured in.

412
00:23:25,943 --> 00:23:28,042
♪ Circle for a landing

413
00:23:28,143 --> 00:23:30,343
♪ Get your feet back on the ground ♪

414
00:23:30,443 --> 00:23:33,443
More than a million M16 rifles,

415
00:23:33,542 --> 00:23:39,475
40,000 grenade launchers,
thousands of wheeled vehicles...

416
00:23:39,576 --> 00:23:41,209
so many, one congressman complained,

417
00:23:41,308 --> 00:23:44,409
that it seemed as if the
United States taxpayer

418
00:23:44,510 --> 00:23:48,710
was being asked to "put every
South Vietnamese soldier

419
00:23:48,809 --> 00:23:51,210
behind the wheel."

420
00:23:51,309 --> 00:23:53,476
NEIL SHEEHAN: It didn't
make any sense, of course,

421
00:23:53,577 --> 00:23:56,476
because we tried that in 1962 and '63.

422
00:23:56,577 --> 00:23:58,376
The people hadn't changed.

423
00:23:58,476 --> 00:24:00,176
They were just giving 'em more furniture.

424
00:24:02,376 --> 00:24:05,376
NGUYEN THOI BUNG:

425
00:24:23,244 --> 00:24:27,078
NARRATOR: South Vietnamese
armed forces were expanded

426
00:24:27,177 --> 00:24:31,445
from 850,000 men to over a million.

427
00:24:31,544 --> 00:24:33,477
But nothing could alter the fact

428
00:24:33,578 --> 00:24:35,044
that rampant corruption

429
00:24:35,145 --> 00:24:38,578
continually eroded their effectiveness.

430
00:24:38,677 --> 00:24:40,778
DON WEBSTER: The way it works is this:

431
00:24:40,877 --> 00:24:43,244
a man makes a deal with
his commanding officer,

432
00:24:43,345 --> 00:24:45,977
perhaps to pay the officer his full salary.

433
00:24:46,078 --> 00:24:49,044
In exchange, you never
have to show up for duty,

434
00:24:49,145 --> 00:24:51,611
except perhaps once a week at the ceremony.

435
00:24:51,712 --> 00:24:53,745
So while you're theoretically in the Army,

436
00:24:53,846 --> 00:24:56,245
you can hold a full-time civilian job.

437
00:24:57,512 --> 00:25:00,446
LAM QUANG THI:

438
00:25:13,279 --> 00:25:16,346
(gunfire)

439
00:25:16,446 --> 00:25:20,045
NARRATOR: Many ARVN units did fight well.

440
00:25:23,112 --> 00:25:25,147
They had borne the brunt of the fighting

441
00:25:25,246 --> 00:25:26,679
during the Tet Offensive,

442
00:25:26,780 --> 00:25:29,612
and, by the middle of 1969,

443
00:25:29,713 --> 00:25:34,312
90,000 of them had been killed in combat.

444
00:25:34,412 --> 00:25:39,812
Their bravery was often
overlooked by Americans.

445
00:25:39,912 --> 00:25:43,479
VALLELY: We were disdainful of them.

446
00:25:43,580 --> 00:25:46,546
We overstated their incompetence

447
00:25:46,647 --> 00:25:50,379
because we wanted to
overstate our importance.

448
00:25:50,479 --> 00:25:52,312
(booming in distance)

449
00:25:52,412 --> 00:25:55,547
(men shouting, gunfire)

450
00:26:02,413 --> 00:26:07,581
Part of going to war in
Vietnam I, I enjoyed.

451
00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:12,448
If you survive it, it's,
it's quite thrilling.

452
00:26:12,547 --> 00:26:15,514
It's the history of the world.

453
00:26:16,980 --> 00:26:18,380
It's hard to survive.

454
00:26:18,480 --> 00:26:20,413
I mean, in, where I was,
survival is an issue.

455
00:26:20,514 --> 00:26:24,613
I would have loved to have
been in the National Guard.

456
00:26:26,813 --> 00:26:28,114
Period.

457
00:26:28,215 --> 00:26:29,724
("Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence
Clearwater Revival playing)

458
00:26:29,748 --> 00:26:32,548
I knew the core issue

459
00:26:32,649 --> 00:26:35,481
of what was acceptable
in war and what wasn't.

460
00:26:35,582 --> 00:26:36,881
I knew that.

461
00:26:36,981 --> 00:26:39,748
I didn't need to get that
from the Marine Corps.

462
00:26:39,849 --> 00:26:43,215
I got that from Sunday school.

463
00:26:43,314 --> 00:26:46,215
NARRATOR: Thomas John
Vallely was born in Boston,

464
00:26:46,314 --> 00:26:47,681
the son of a judge,

465
00:26:47,782 --> 00:26:50,649
and brought up in the suburb of Newton.

466
00:26:50,748 --> 00:26:56,149
Undiagnosed dyslexia kept him
from doing well in school.

467
00:26:56,248 --> 00:26:58,282
By 1969,

468
00:26:58,381 --> 00:27:02,049
Vallely was a radio operator
in the Marine Corps,

469
00:27:02,150 --> 00:27:05,182
part of a massive
search-and-destroy mission

470
00:27:05,283 --> 00:27:09,450
in Quang Nam Province in the
northern part of South Vietnam.

471
00:27:09,549 --> 00:27:11,150
(men shouting, gunfire)

472
00:27:11,249 --> 00:27:12,882
On August 13,

473
00:27:12,982 --> 00:27:14,749
his company was ambushed

474
00:27:14,850 --> 00:27:18,350
and came under heavy machine gun fire.

475
00:27:18,450 --> 00:27:19,850
(gunfire)

476
00:27:25,749 --> 00:27:29,882
VALLELY: It was a "grab 'em by
the belt" type of situation.

477
00:27:29,982 --> 00:27:32,883
And we lost a lot of people.

478
00:27:34,416 --> 00:27:35,750
So did they.

479
00:27:37,584 --> 00:27:39,651
Lot of people laying around.

480
00:27:39,750 --> 00:27:42,183
(gunfire, explosion)

481
00:27:42,284 --> 00:27:44,550
NARRATOR: Vallely radioed
for reinforcements.

482
00:27:44,651 --> 00:27:48,183
Then he picked up a rifle and ammunition

483
00:27:48,284 --> 00:27:50,683
from a wounded Marine,

484
00:27:50,784 --> 00:27:52,816
and, firing as he went, took up a position

485
00:27:52,916 --> 00:27:55,750
just ten feet from an enemy machine gun.

486
00:27:55,851 --> 00:28:01,351
He hurled a smoke grenade
to mark their position.

487
00:28:01,451 --> 00:28:05,352
And then, as enemy fire
swept back and forth

488
00:28:05,452 --> 00:28:07,617
across the field,

489
00:28:07,718 --> 00:28:09,285
he moved from Marine to Marine,

490
00:28:09,384 --> 00:28:11,018
pointing out targets among the trees

491
00:28:11,117 --> 00:28:13,884
and encouraging his comrades.

492
00:28:19,884 --> 00:28:22,785
For his conspicuous gallantry,

493
00:28:22,884 --> 00:28:26,652
Tom Vallely was awarded the Silver Star.

494
00:28:26,751 --> 00:28:28,984
VALLELY: You want to
tell your grandchildren

495
00:28:29,085 --> 00:28:32,218
it has a lot to do with courage,

496
00:28:32,317 --> 00:28:35,817
uh, but it, it's really quite reactive.

497
00:28:35,917 --> 00:28:38,219
It's survival.

498
00:28:38,318 --> 00:28:40,418
Either you're...

499
00:28:40,519 --> 00:28:43,019
It's, it's...

500
00:28:43,118 --> 00:28:45,453
There's no choice here.

501
00:28:45,552 --> 00:28:49,586
You react or you're not
gonna have grandchildren.

502
00:28:52,418 --> 00:28:53,728
COUNTRY JOE McDONALD: Give me an "F"!

503
00:28:53,752 --> 00:28:54,653
CROWD: "F"!

504
00:28:54,752 --> 00:28:55,985
McDONALD: Give me a "U"!

505
00:28:56,086 --> 00:28:56,985
CROWD: "U"!

506
00:28:57,086 --> 00:28:58,185
McDONALD: Give me a "C"!

507
00:28:58,286 --> 00:29:00,153
"C"! Give me a "K"!

508
00:29:00,252 --> 00:29:01,153
"K"!

509
00:29:01,252 --> 00:29:02,485
What's that spell?!

510
00:29:02,586 --> 00:29:04,485
NARRATOR: Two days after the battle

511
00:29:04,586 --> 00:29:06,752
in which Tom Vallely distinguished himself,

512
00:29:06,853 --> 00:29:08,552
and while half a million Americans

513
00:29:08,653 --> 00:29:10,954
were still in Vietnam,

514
00:29:11,053 --> 00:29:12,954
half a million Americans gathered

515
00:29:13,053 --> 00:29:15,919
on a dairy farm in upstate New York

516
00:29:16,020 --> 00:29:19,220
for a music festival: Woodstock.

517
00:29:19,319 --> 00:29:21,654
♪ Way down yonder in Vietnam

518
00:29:21,753 --> 00:29:23,854
♪ Put down your books
and pick up a gun ♪

519
00:29:23,954 --> 00:29:25,196
♪ We're gonna have a whole lot of fun ♪

520
00:29:25,220 --> 00:29:29,720
♪ And it's one, two, three,
what are we fighting for? ♪

521
00:29:29,819 --> 00:29:32,154
♪ Don't ask me, I don't give a damn ♪

522
00:29:32,253 --> 00:29:34,619
♪ The next stop is Vietnam

523
00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:36,886
♪ And it's five, six, seven

524
00:29:36,986 --> 00:29:39,119
♪ Open up the pearly gates

525
00:29:39,220 --> 00:29:42,287
♪ Well, there ain't no time
to wonder why, whoopee ♪

526
00:29:42,386 --> 00:29:44,387
♪ We're all gonna die

527
00:29:44,487 --> 00:29:47,620
("Soul Sacrifice" by Santana playing)

528
00:30:10,155 --> 00:30:11,487
♪

529
00:30:37,456 --> 00:30:38,688
(song ends, crowd cheering)

530
00:30:38,789 --> 00:30:43,022
MAN: Ladies and gentlemen, Santana!

531
00:30:43,121 --> 00:30:45,856
You've been told once,
you've been told twice.

532
00:30:45,956 --> 00:30:47,522
That's all... spread it out!

533
00:30:47,621 --> 00:30:49,523
("Time of the Season"
by the Zombies playing)

534
00:30:49,622 --> 00:30:50,922
♪ What's your name?

535
00:30:51,023 --> 00:30:53,090
GILLAM: This guy from Arkansas

536
00:30:53,189 --> 00:30:57,489
told me he would not
carry the radio for me.

537
00:30:57,590 --> 00:31:02,556
He said, "I will not follow you
like Cheetah follows Tarzan.

538
00:31:02,657 --> 00:31:04,790
It's not gonna happen, Sarge."

539
00:31:04,889 --> 00:31:09,622
And I thought, "Oh, this is
gonna be a really long year."

540
00:31:09,723 --> 00:31:11,790
I've got people down there sweeping,

541
00:31:11,889 --> 00:31:13,189
so get 'em down there.

542
00:31:13,290 --> 00:31:14,957
♪ It's the time

543
00:31:15,056 --> 00:31:18,223
GILLAM: He evolved a little bit.

544
00:31:18,322 --> 00:31:21,024
You know, he, he kind of got the idea

545
00:31:21,123 --> 00:31:24,190
that the enemy's bullets are colorblind.

546
00:31:24,291 --> 00:31:27,591
They would shoot anybody, not just me.

547
00:31:30,158 --> 00:31:33,890
NARRATOR: African-Americans had
served in every American war

548
00:31:33,990 --> 00:31:36,390
since the revolution.

549
00:31:36,490 --> 00:31:38,858
In the early years of the Vietnam War,

550
00:31:38,958 --> 00:31:41,323
they suffered a disproportionate number

551
00:31:41,423 --> 00:31:43,323
of combat deaths.

552
00:31:43,423 --> 00:31:46,591
When civil rights leaders complained,

553
00:31:46,690 --> 00:31:49,524
the Defense Department
made a concerted effort

554
00:31:49,623 --> 00:31:51,690
to right that balance,

555
00:31:51,791 --> 00:31:55,292
and by 1969, it had succeeded.

556
00:31:55,391 --> 00:31:57,292
But behind the lines,

557
00:31:57,391 --> 00:32:01,025
African-American soldiers were
still treated differently

558
00:32:01,124 --> 00:32:03,391
from their white counterparts.

559
00:32:03,491 --> 00:32:05,391
("Respect" by Otis Redding playing)

560
00:32:14,225 --> 00:32:16,467
SOLDIER: And here there's all,
all these beast motherfuckers

561
00:32:16,491 --> 00:32:17,701
walking around here with their hair

562
00:32:17,725 --> 00:32:20,191
looking like goddamn girls,

563
00:32:20,292 --> 00:32:21,524
and we can't wear our hair

564
00:32:21,625 --> 00:32:23,259
motherfucking three inches long.

565
00:32:23,359 --> 00:32:25,626
The motherfucking
regulation is three inches.

566
00:32:25,726 --> 00:32:28,392
And most of the brothers can wear a afro,

567
00:32:28,492 --> 00:32:30,325
the hair gonna be motherfucking two inches.

568
00:32:30,425 --> 00:32:32,059
And why we got to get our hair cut?

569
00:32:32,159 --> 00:32:33,559
That's what I want to know.

570
00:32:33,659 --> 00:32:35,559
♪ Yeah, man, ooh, yeah

571
00:32:35,659 --> 00:32:38,525
WAYNE SMITH: Vietnam was a microcosm.

572
00:32:38,626 --> 00:32:40,392
Everything that was happening in America

573
00:32:40,492 --> 00:32:42,260
was happening in Vietnam, really,

574
00:32:42,360 --> 00:32:44,425
in one way, shape, or form.

575
00:32:44,525 --> 00:32:46,360
In the rear,

576
00:32:46,460 --> 00:32:49,960
there were Confederate flags flying.

577
00:32:50,059 --> 00:32:53,126
SOLDIER 2: I mean, of all
things to have over here, man,

578
00:32:53,226 --> 00:32:55,460
why a Confederate flag?

579
00:32:55,559 --> 00:32:57,726
As a matter of fact, I
think there ought to be

580
00:32:57,825 --> 00:33:01,794
some goddamn law to fucking
outlaw them goddamn flags, man.

581
00:33:01,893 --> 00:33:06,026
The fucking Confederacy is gone, man.

582
00:33:06,127 --> 00:33:08,526
SMITH: When one is in an environment

583
00:33:08,627 --> 00:33:13,261
where everyone has a gun, automatic weapon,

584
00:33:13,361 --> 00:33:16,060
I'll be goddamned if someone's
gonna call me a nigger

585
00:33:16,160 --> 00:33:18,127
or give me a bullshit order.

586
00:33:18,227 --> 00:33:22,127
I mean, that was the attitude,
to risk my life for what?

587
00:33:22,227 --> 00:33:23,660
REDDING: ♪ Sweeter than honey

588
00:33:23,761 --> 00:33:26,660
ROGER HARRIS: There was all
kind of craziness happening,

589
00:33:26,761 --> 00:33:29,993
because white people were still
calling, you know, us niggers,

590
00:33:30,093 --> 00:33:32,994
and then there were some black
people calling us Uncle Toms.

591
00:33:33,094 --> 00:33:34,527
There were the antiwar folks

592
00:33:34,628 --> 00:33:36,862
who were calling us baby killers, say...

593
00:33:36,962 --> 00:33:38,938
You know, you can say what
you want, but you can say it

594
00:33:38,962 --> 00:33:40,671
from over there because
if you get in range,

595
00:33:40,695 --> 00:33:44,494
you're gonna get serious
damage done to you.

596
00:33:44,594 --> 00:33:46,161
Say what you want from a distance,

597
00:33:46,262 --> 00:33:48,403
but if you get close to me, I'm
gonna rip your throat out.

598
00:33:48,427 --> 00:33:49,994
You know?

599
00:33:50,094 --> 00:33:53,661
JUAN RAMIREZ: But when we
walked outside that wire,

600
00:33:53,762 --> 00:33:56,695
we went out into the bush, we were tight.

601
00:33:56,795 --> 00:33:59,027
Even with our differences.

602
00:33:59,128 --> 00:34:01,195
Maybe we had threatened each other,

603
00:34:01,295 --> 00:34:04,363
we'd had a fight back in the base,

604
00:34:04,463 --> 00:34:07,129
but when we were out there, you know,

605
00:34:07,229 --> 00:34:10,796
we, we were a, a fighting unit.

606
00:34:12,263 --> 00:34:16,162
And it's almost like an identity crisis.

607
00:34:16,263 --> 00:34:20,263
I was born here, and my
parents were born here.

608
00:34:20,363 --> 00:34:22,595
I felt, in a way,

609
00:34:22,696 --> 00:34:25,763
more American than Mexican.

610
00:34:25,863 --> 00:34:27,428
MAN: ...hand and repeat after me...

611
00:34:27,528 --> 00:34:31,828
NARRATOR: The U.S. military did
not officially count Hispanics,

612
00:34:31,928 --> 00:34:36,563
but an estimated 170,000
would serve in Vietnam

613
00:34:36,663 --> 00:34:40,697
and more than 3,000 lost their lives.

614
00:34:40,797 --> 00:34:43,364
Like their fathers and grandfathers,

615
00:34:43,464 --> 00:34:47,496
many saw military service
as both a patriotic duty

616
00:34:47,596 --> 00:34:50,364
and an opportunity to
advance their standing

617
00:34:50,464 --> 00:34:52,964
in the United States.

618
00:34:53,063 --> 00:34:56,163
But as casualties mounted

619
00:34:56,264 --> 00:34:58,297
and with a burgeoning
Chicano identity movement

620
00:34:58,396 --> 00:35:00,829
among farm workers and college students,

621
00:35:00,929 --> 00:35:05,596
anti-war sentiment in
Hispanic communities grew.

622
00:35:05,697 --> 00:35:09,330
We're protesting against the
discriminatory draft laws

623
00:35:09,430 --> 00:35:11,497
that give deferments

624
00:35:11,597 --> 00:35:14,830
to all the Anglo middle-class
people of this country

625
00:35:14,930 --> 00:35:17,930
and make the heaviest burdens of the war

626
00:35:18,030 --> 00:35:21,097
fall on the poor, fall on theMexicano.

627
00:35:21,198 --> 00:35:23,465
RAMIREZ: I had learned

628
00:35:23,564 --> 00:35:27,465
about my sister and my
mother's antiwar activities

629
00:35:27,564 --> 00:35:29,465
while I was still in Vietnam.

630
00:35:29,564 --> 00:35:31,731
In fact, my sister wrote and said,

631
00:35:31,830 --> 00:35:34,265
"I hope you're okay with this."

632
00:35:34,365 --> 00:35:35,997
And she was honest with me.

633
00:35:36,097 --> 00:35:37,997
She told me what they were doing.

634
00:35:38,097 --> 00:35:41,232
She says, "I'm doing it for you,
'cause I want you to come home."

635
00:35:41,331 --> 00:35:43,165
(indistinct chanting)

636
00:35:48,398 --> 00:35:49,466
(TV clicks on)

637
00:35:49,565 --> 00:35:52,799
In line with our policy of taking a stand

638
00:35:52,898 --> 00:35:54,632
on the pressing issues of the day,

639
00:35:54,732 --> 00:35:57,632
we now present another in our
continuing series of editorials.

640
00:35:57,732 --> 00:35:58,598
The subject:

641
00:35:58,699 --> 00:36:01,598
are our draft laws unfair?

642
00:36:01,699 --> 00:36:03,766
Here again, speaking for our program,

643
00:36:03,866 --> 00:36:06,431
is Mr. Patrick Paulsen, vice president.

644
00:36:06,531 --> 00:36:08,165
(applause)

645
00:36:08,266 --> 00:36:10,565
Now, we don't claim the draft is perfect,

646
00:36:10,665 --> 00:36:12,732
and we do have a constructive proposal

647
00:36:12,831 --> 00:36:14,932
for a workable alternative.

648
00:36:15,032 --> 00:36:17,066
We propose a draft lottery

649
00:36:17,166 --> 00:36:19,532
in which the names of all eligible males

650
00:36:19,633 --> 00:36:21,200
will be put into a hat,

651
00:36:21,300 --> 00:36:24,867
and the men will be drafted
according to their head sizes.

652
00:36:24,967 --> 00:36:28,499
The tiny heads will go
into the military service

653
00:36:28,599 --> 00:36:32,932
and the fat heads will go into government.

654
00:36:33,032 --> 00:36:34,932
SOLDIER (on radio):
Roger, 3-1 is on his way.

655
00:36:35,032 --> 00:36:37,666
SOLDIER (over radio): 5-8-1.

656
00:36:37,767 --> 00:36:41,800
VINCENT OKAMOTO: A 19-year-old
high school dropout says,

657
00:36:41,899 --> 00:36:44,666
"Why are we here?"

658
00:36:44,767 --> 00:36:46,533
And the, the standard response,

659
00:36:46,634 --> 00:36:48,567
at least on an official level, was,

660
00:36:48,667 --> 00:36:51,533
to prevent international communism

661
00:36:51,634 --> 00:36:54,533
from conquering the world.

662
00:36:54,634 --> 00:36:58,433
The men say, "Hey, that, that's bullshit."

663
00:37:00,734 --> 00:37:02,268
So the other reason put forth,

664
00:37:02,368 --> 00:37:04,400
at least in the latter days of the war,

665
00:37:04,500 --> 00:37:06,868
was to maintain America's
international credibility

666
00:37:06,968 --> 00:37:09,533
with our allies, and our enemies.

667
00:37:09,634 --> 00:37:13,768
Uh, no 19, 20-year-old kid
wants to die to maintain

668
00:37:13,868 --> 00:37:17,067
the credibility of Lyndon
Johnson or Richard Nixon.

669
00:37:17,167 --> 00:37:20,568
And so, within a relatively short time,

670
00:37:20,668 --> 00:37:22,802
the guys were saying,

671
00:37:22,901 --> 00:37:25,668
"Look, we shouldn't be here, but we are.

672
00:37:25,769 --> 00:37:27,668
"So my only function in life

673
00:37:27,769 --> 00:37:30,934
"is to try and keep you alive, buddy,

674
00:37:31,034 --> 00:37:34,101
"and to keep my precious
ass from being killed.

675
00:37:34,202 --> 00:37:37,869
And then to go home and forget about this."

676
00:37:40,302 --> 00:37:42,901
SOLDIER: The grunts, uh,

677
00:37:43,001 --> 00:37:46,135
don't always do what the
captain says, you know.

678
00:37:46,235 --> 00:37:49,702
We got, uh... the captain will stay back,

679
00:37:49,802 --> 00:37:51,703
he'll tell the platoon or something

680
00:37:51,803 --> 00:37:54,502
to go out so many hundred meters, you know.

681
00:37:54,602 --> 00:37:56,335
We don't do it.

682
00:37:56,435 --> 00:37:58,236
We only go as far as we get out of sight,

683
00:37:58,335 --> 00:37:59,770
sit down, and come back in.

684
00:37:59,870 --> 00:38:01,779
JOHN PILGER: What happens
to an unpopular officer

685
00:38:01,803 --> 00:38:03,835
out in the field?

686
00:38:03,935 --> 00:38:06,870
Mostly unpopular officers,
from what I've heard,

687
00:38:06,970 --> 00:38:09,602
if they, if they mess
with a grunt too much,

688
00:38:09,703 --> 00:38:12,569
they get shot at.

689
00:38:12,669 --> 00:38:16,069
NARRATOR: It had always been a part of war.

690
00:38:16,169 --> 00:38:19,203
In Vietnam, it was called "fragging,"

691
00:38:19,303 --> 00:38:23,535
after the fragmentation
grenades most often used.

692
00:38:23,636 --> 00:38:28,704
Beginning in the summer of 1969,

693
00:38:28,804 --> 00:38:32,670
as thousands of American
troops began going home,

694
00:38:32,771 --> 00:38:36,336
the number of reports of the
murder or attempted murder

695
00:38:36,436 --> 00:38:38,471
by enlisted men of their superiors

696
00:38:38,570 --> 00:38:41,603
increased alarmingly.

697
00:38:41,704 --> 00:38:46,737
The Army would investigate
nearly 800 cases.

698
00:38:46,836 --> 00:38:48,804
Most took place far from the fighting,

699
00:38:48,903 --> 00:38:51,603
usually the violent outcome
of arguments over race

700
00:38:51,704 --> 00:38:53,871
or women or drugs

701
00:38:53,971 --> 00:38:56,972
rather than the war itself.

702
00:38:57,071 --> 00:38:59,638
But there were exceptions.

703
00:38:59,738 --> 00:39:01,705
OKAMOTO: It's a totally different army

704
00:39:01,805 --> 00:39:05,638
than what we sent to Vietnam in 1965.

705
00:39:05,738 --> 00:39:09,772
And the new lieutenant comes in,
all gung-ho for body count.

706
00:39:09,872 --> 00:39:13,404
He wants contact, he goes crazy, and says,

707
00:39:13,504 --> 00:39:15,805
"I want a volunteer for this."

708
00:39:15,904 --> 00:39:18,504
(rapid gunfire)

709
00:39:18,604 --> 00:39:24,337
That new gung-ho officer was
a clear and present danger

710
00:39:24,437 --> 00:39:28,138
to the life and limb of the grunts.

711
00:39:28,238 --> 00:39:30,806
They'd have subtle hints,
like a little note saying,

712
00:39:30,905 --> 00:39:33,538
"We're gonna kill your ass
if you keep this up."

713
00:39:33,639 --> 00:39:36,605
Or instead of a fragmentation grenade,

714
00:39:36,706 --> 00:39:40,438
they may throw a smoke grenade
in an officer's hooch or bunker.

715
00:39:40,538 --> 00:39:44,505
And if they didn't correct
their behavior and outlook,

716
00:39:44,605 --> 00:39:48,005
yeah, they would frag them.

717
00:39:48,105 --> 00:39:51,773
I saw it happen in a very, uh, strange way.

718
00:39:51,873 --> 00:39:59,873
We were in a base and a Marine
started running towards me.

719
00:40:00,072 --> 00:40:02,140
I didn't realize that what he...

720
00:40:02,240 --> 00:40:04,374
what he was doing back
in the dark over there

721
00:40:04,474 --> 00:40:06,640
was actually throw a hand grenade

722
00:40:06,740 --> 00:40:10,207
underneath the space that
is underneath a hooch.

723
00:40:10,307 --> 00:40:11,606
(explosion)

724
00:40:11,707 --> 00:40:14,073
And when it exploded, I went, "Holy shit."

725
00:40:14,173 --> 00:40:17,506
And I knew right away what he had done.

726
00:40:17,606 --> 00:40:20,874
And he was an African-American Marine.

727
00:40:20,974 --> 00:40:22,874
African-Americans were treated

728
00:40:22,974 --> 00:40:25,339
with disrespect by their superiors.

729
00:40:25,439 --> 00:40:29,274
This was not uncommon.

730
00:40:29,374 --> 00:40:34,275
So in a ways, as bad as this sounds,

731
00:40:34,375 --> 00:40:36,775
maybe that guy had it coming to him.

732
00:40:36,875 --> 00:40:38,340
I don't know.

733
00:40:41,574 --> 00:40:44,340
In Paris, the 29th session
of the so-called peace talks

734
00:40:44,440 --> 00:40:45,340
took place.

735
00:40:45,440 --> 00:40:47,241
There was no progress.

736
00:40:47,340 --> 00:40:50,674
In Vietnam, it was announced
that 139 Americans

737
00:40:50,775 --> 00:40:52,275
lost their lives last week,

738
00:40:52,375 --> 00:40:54,975
bringing total deaths in our longest war...

739
00:40:55,074 --> 00:40:57,975
NARRATOR: The four-way peace talks in Paris

740
00:40:58,074 --> 00:41:00,641
continued to go nowhere.

741
00:41:00,741 --> 00:41:04,375
To break the logjam, Nixon
directed Henry Kissinger

742
00:41:04,475 --> 00:41:07,142
to begin secret talks,

743
00:41:07,242 --> 00:41:09,876
the first in a series
of clandestine meetings

744
00:41:09,976 --> 00:41:12,742
with the North Vietnamese alone.

745
00:41:12,841 --> 00:41:15,142
They first met in an apartment building

746
00:41:15,242 --> 00:41:17,276
on the Rue de Rivoli.

747
00:41:17,376 --> 00:41:20,309
The Viet Cong and the South
Vietnamese government

748
00:41:20,408 --> 00:41:23,108
were not included.

749
00:41:23,209 --> 00:41:26,142
Hanoi remained immovable.

750
00:41:26,242 --> 00:41:30,008
They would not even admit they
had troops in South Vietnam,

751
00:41:30,108 --> 00:41:34,008
let alone discuss withdrawing them.

752
00:41:34,108 --> 00:41:35,876
Now Kissinger warned

753
00:41:35,976 --> 00:41:39,175
that if there were no change in
their position by November 1,

754
00:41:39,276 --> 00:41:41,210
the one-year anniversary

755
00:41:41,310 --> 00:41:43,643
of President Johnson's bombing halt,

756
00:41:43,743 --> 00:41:45,377
President Nixon

757
00:41:45,477 --> 00:41:48,377
would "consider steps
of grave consequence."

758
00:42:00,977 --> 00:42:04,477
September 2, 1969,

759
00:42:04,576 --> 00:42:06,810
was the 24th anniversary

760
00:42:06,909 --> 00:42:10,710
of Ho Chi Minh's declaration
of Vietnamese independence

761
00:42:10,810 --> 00:42:13,244
in Hanoi's Ba Dinh Square.

762
00:42:15,244 --> 00:42:20,043
At 9:45 that morning, Ho died.

763
00:42:20,144 --> 00:42:24,778
He was said to be 79, but
like so much about him,

764
00:42:24,878 --> 00:42:30,177
the precise date of his birth
was shrouded in mystery.

765
00:42:30,278 --> 00:42:32,878
He had been "Uncle Ho" for decades,

766
00:42:32,978 --> 00:42:36,278
the living embodiment of the
struggle against the Japanese,

767
00:42:36,378 --> 00:42:39,278
the French, the Saigon government,

768
00:42:39,378 --> 00:42:42,211
and then the Americans.

769
00:42:42,311 --> 00:42:44,244
♪

770
00:42:44,343 --> 00:42:47,111
In a speech to the National Assembly,

771
00:42:47,212 --> 00:42:51,645
Le Duan, the First Secretary
of the Communist Party,

772
00:42:51,745 --> 00:42:53,044
who had been the architect

773
00:42:53,145 --> 00:42:55,712
of North Vietnamese military policy

774
00:42:55,812 --> 00:42:57,078
for a decade,

775
00:42:57,178 --> 00:43:01,245
promised to fulfill what
he said was Ho's vision:

776
00:43:01,344 --> 00:43:07,212
the reunification of the
country on communist terms.

777
00:43:08,779 --> 00:43:11,444
Nothing had changed.

778
00:43:11,544 --> 00:43:13,387
ROBERT FRISHMAN: Hanoi has
given the false impression

779
00:43:13,411 --> 00:43:16,712
that all is wine and roses and it isn't so.

780
00:43:16,812 --> 00:43:19,179
NARRATOR: The same day Ho Chi Minh died,

781
00:43:19,280 --> 00:43:21,845
an unusual press conference was held

782
00:43:21,945 --> 00:43:24,845
at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center.

783
00:43:24,945 --> 00:43:27,612
Two ailing prisoners of war,

784
00:43:27,713 --> 00:43:31,179
Robert Frishman and Douglas Hegdahl,

785
00:43:31,280 --> 00:43:33,545
who had recently been released
by the North Vietnamese,

786
00:43:33,646 --> 00:43:35,780
spoke in public for the first time

787
00:43:35,880 --> 00:43:37,679
about the severe treatment

788
00:43:37,780 --> 00:43:41,146
they and their fellow
prisoners had received.

789
00:43:41,246 --> 00:43:43,713
I don't think solitary confinement,

790
00:43:43,813 --> 00:43:47,512
forced statements, living
in a cage for three years,

791
00:43:47,612 --> 00:43:51,446
being put in straps, not being
allowed to sleep or eat,

792
00:43:51,546 --> 00:43:55,013
removal of fingernails,
being hung from a ceiling,

793
00:43:55,113 --> 00:43:57,381
having an infected arm
which was almost lost,

794
00:43:57,481 --> 00:43:59,714
not receiving medical care,

795
00:43:59,814 --> 00:44:02,046
being dragged along the
ground with a broken leg,

796
00:44:02,147 --> 00:44:05,080
or not allowing exchange of
mail to prisoners of war

797
00:44:05,180 --> 00:44:06,513
are humane.

798
00:44:06,613 --> 00:44:10,814
NARRATOR: Douglas Hegdahl
was quiet, self-effacing,

799
00:44:10,913 --> 00:44:13,546
and so apparently clueless,

800
00:44:13,647 --> 00:44:15,714
his North Vietnamese guards

801
00:44:15,814 --> 00:44:18,546
had called him the "stupid one."

802
00:44:18,647 --> 00:44:20,113
But once released,

803
00:44:20,214 --> 00:44:23,382
he was a gold mine of information.

804
00:44:23,482 --> 00:44:27,382
He had memorized the names
of more than 200 prisoners

805
00:44:27,482 --> 00:44:31,114
to the tune of "Old McDonald Had a Farm."

806
00:44:31,215 --> 00:44:34,047
Thanks to him, scores of American families

807
00:44:34,148 --> 00:44:36,248
would find out for the first time

808
00:44:36,347 --> 00:44:41,514
that their sons and husbands
and fathers were still alive.

809
00:44:41,614 --> 00:44:45,047
Within a few days of the press conference,

810
00:44:45,148 --> 00:44:48,914
Hanoi's treatment of the
prisoners began to improve.

811
00:44:49,014 --> 00:44:52,882
"A lot less brutality,"
one captive remembered,

812
00:44:52,982 --> 00:44:55,515
"and larger bowls of rice."

813
00:44:58,115 --> 00:45:00,283
(explosion)

814
00:45:00,383 --> 00:45:01,948
(men yelling)

815
00:45:02,048 --> 00:45:03,948
(rapid gunfire)

816
00:45:10,316 --> 00:45:11,725
DEVALLIER: All right, who's wounded?

817
00:45:11,749 --> 00:45:14,448
All right, give me some cover!

818
00:45:14,548 --> 00:45:17,216
RICHARD THRELKELD: Devallier is
the lone medic in the platoon.

819
00:45:17,316 --> 00:45:18,483
He's scared,

820
00:45:18,582 --> 00:45:20,915
scared from the moment he
gets out of the chopper

821
00:45:21,015 --> 00:45:22,448
to the moment it picks him up.

822
00:45:22,548 --> 00:45:25,448
Scared that someday he's
going to get killed

823
00:45:25,548 --> 00:45:28,516
picking up a wounded buddy.

824
00:45:28,616 --> 00:45:30,516
(rapid gunfire, men yelling)

825
00:45:32,250 --> 00:45:34,449
WAYNE SMITH: I was the replacement

826
00:45:34,549 --> 00:45:38,150
for a medic who had been killed.

827
00:45:38,250 --> 00:45:41,817
First time out, we were
assigned to do a patrol.

828
00:45:41,916 --> 00:45:45,250
MAN: Remember to stop the bleeding!

829
00:45:45,349 --> 00:45:50,949
SMITH: And we stumbled
actually into an ambush.

830
00:45:51,049 --> 00:45:53,683
(explosion)

831
00:45:53,784 --> 00:45:57,150
And it was incredibly terrifying.

832
00:45:57,250 --> 00:45:59,549
Guys were screaming and yelling.

833
00:45:59,650 --> 00:46:01,950
There was shooting everywhere.

834
00:46:02,050 --> 00:46:06,017
That first firefight, I
remember praying to God,

835
00:46:06,117 --> 00:46:12,251
if He got me through this that
I would make a difference.

836
00:46:12,350 --> 00:46:16,718
That I really would make a difference.

837
00:46:16,818 --> 00:46:19,885
MEDIC: Sometimes their lives
depend on you, I mean;

838
00:46:19,985 --> 00:46:22,917
you hold it in your hands, as a medic.

839
00:46:23,017 --> 00:46:25,885
It's just hard to say but right then,

840
00:46:25,985 --> 00:46:28,218
you hold life and death in your hand.

841
00:46:28,318 --> 00:46:32,017
NARRATOR: In Vietnam,
medics and navy corpsmen

842
00:46:32,117 --> 00:46:34,551
accompanied infantry units on patrols,

843
00:46:34,652 --> 00:46:36,518
search and destroy missions,

844
00:46:36,618 --> 00:46:40,118
and large-scale combat operations.

845
00:46:40,219 --> 00:46:43,986
Nearly 2,000 would lose their lives.

846
00:46:44,085 --> 00:46:45,918
(helicopter whirring)

847
00:46:47,685 --> 00:46:50,252
Unlike in previous wars,

848
00:46:50,351 --> 00:46:53,652
many medics in Vietnam
chose to carry weapons,

849
00:46:53,752 --> 00:46:56,152
and when the shooting started,

850
00:46:56,252 --> 00:46:58,951
were willing to use them
to protect themselves

851
00:46:59,051 --> 00:47:01,986
and their wounded comrades.

852
00:47:02,085 --> 00:47:05,487
SMITH: I carried an M16,

853
00:47:05,586 --> 00:47:08,619
but I did not know if I could kill.

854
00:47:08,720 --> 00:47:12,320
Part of being a medic was to save lives.

855
00:47:12,419 --> 00:47:18,720
I wondered, if the scenario
presented itself, would I?

856
00:47:18,820 --> 00:47:23,452
I did participate in shooting at the enemy.

857
00:47:23,552 --> 00:47:25,987
We killed a lot of people.

858
00:47:26,086 --> 00:47:29,352
I feel that responsibility.

859
00:47:30,787 --> 00:47:33,653
I feel blood on my hands.

860
00:47:39,020 --> 00:47:43,620
When you kill someone for your country,

861
00:47:43,721 --> 00:47:46,587
all things change.

862
00:47:48,221 --> 00:47:49,587
("Come Ye" by Nina Simone playing)

863
00:47:49,687 --> 00:47:52,120
♪ Come ye

864
00:47:54,520 --> 00:47:57,920
♪ Ye who would have peace...

865
00:47:58,020 --> 00:47:59,460
SAM BROWN: We believed it's possible

866
00:47:59,520 --> 00:48:01,654
to create a substantial
majority in this country

867
00:48:01,754 --> 00:48:03,353
for withdrawal from Vietnam,

868
00:48:03,453 --> 00:48:05,221
and that's what we're
about in the long run.

869
00:48:05,321 --> 00:48:07,187
In November, we'll be back again,

870
00:48:07,288 --> 00:48:08,788
in December, we'll be back again.

871
00:48:08,888 --> 00:48:10,755
And we intend to build the movement,

872
00:48:10,854 --> 00:48:13,155
which will make it imperative

873
00:48:13,255 --> 00:48:15,521
that the United States
withdraw from Vietnam.

874
00:48:15,621 --> 00:48:18,489
REPORTER: The organizers of
the moratorium do not aim

875
00:48:18,588 --> 00:48:21,222
at confrontation or
scuffles with the police.

876
00:48:21,322 --> 00:48:24,289
Instead, they want to involve
the most people possible

877
00:48:24,389 --> 00:48:27,322
in some gesture of protest, however modest,

878
00:48:27,421 --> 00:48:30,954
so as to show the administration
that a large bloc of Americans

879
00:48:31,054 --> 00:48:33,554
care not about winning or losing the war,

880
00:48:33,655 --> 00:48:35,854
but only about ending it.

881
00:48:35,954 --> 00:48:39,188
♪ Ye who have no fear

882
00:48:39,289 --> 00:48:40,454
Thank you.

883
00:48:40,554 --> 00:48:42,789
NIXON: Now, I understand

884
00:48:42,889 --> 00:48:45,089
that there has been and continues to be

885
00:48:45,189 --> 00:48:48,022
opposition to the war in
Vietnam on the campuses

886
00:48:48,122 --> 00:48:51,022
and also in the nation.

887
00:48:51,122 --> 00:48:52,156
Uh, we expect it.

888
00:48:52,256 --> 00:48:54,156
However, under no circumstances

889
00:48:54,256 --> 00:48:57,422
will I be affected whatever by it.

890
00:48:57,522 --> 00:49:01,422
NARRATOR: Hoping to undercut
support for the moratorium,

891
00:49:01,522 --> 00:49:03,723
Nixon canceled the draft calls

892
00:49:03,823 --> 00:49:07,589
for the months of November
and December 1969.

893
00:49:07,689 --> 00:49:10,990
And he instituted a random lottery system

894
00:49:11,089 --> 00:49:13,922
based on the date of a young man's birth,

895
00:49:14,022 --> 00:49:16,923
intended to treat rich and poor alike

896
00:49:17,023 --> 00:49:20,690
and do away with unfair deferments.

897
00:49:20,791 --> 00:49:24,291
It was good policy and a
brilliant political maneuver.

898
00:49:24,391 --> 00:49:25,690
(siren wails)

899
00:49:25,791 --> 00:49:27,157
On the line, brothers and sisters.

900
00:49:27,257 --> 00:49:28,657
On the line now.

901
00:49:28,757 --> 00:49:30,399
("Subterranean Homesick
Blues" by Bob Dylan playing)

902
00:49:30,423 --> 00:49:32,556
NARRATOR: As people across
the country organized

903
00:49:32,657 --> 00:49:34,491
for the peaceful moratorium,

904
00:49:34,590 --> 00:49:36,556
members of a radical faction

905
00:49:36,657 --> 00:49:39,391
of the Students for a Democratic Society...

906
00:49:39,491 --> 00:49:40,690
the "Weathermen"...

907
00:49:40,791 --> 00:49:41,891
took more direct action.

908
00:49:41,991 --> 00:49:43,291
♪ The man in a trench coat

909
00:49:43,391 --> 00:49:45,991
NARRATOR: Less interested in ending the war

910
00:49:46,090 --> 00:49:48,591
than in sparking a violent revolution,

911
00:49:48,691 --> 00:49:53,424
they staged what they called
four "Days of Rage" in Chicago.

912
00:49:53,524 --> 00:49:55,591
DYLAN: ♪ You better duck
down the alleyway ♪

913
00:49:55,691 --> 00:49:58,758
MAN: We no longer simply resist the pigs.

914
00:49:58,857 --> 00:50:00,825
We no longer trap ourselves

915
00:50:00,924 --> 00:50:02,457
so that the only possible motion

916
00:50:02,557 --> 00:50:04,624
is in response to pig attacks.

917
00:50:04,725 --> 00:50:06,957
We have gone on the offensive.

918
00:50:07,057 --> 00:50:08,957
It is we who call the shots now.

919
00:50:09,057 --> 00:50:11,225
NARRATOR: "Kill all the rich people,"

920
00:50:11,325 --> 00:50:12,557
one of their leaders said.

921
00:50:12,658 --> 00:50:15,691
"Break up their cars and apartments.

922
00:50:15,792 --> 00:50:17,924
"Bring the revolution home.

923
00:50:18,024 --> 00:50:19,557
"Kill your parents.

924
00:50:19,658 --> 00:50:22,826
That's really where it's at."

925
00:50:22,925 --> 00:50:24,826
MAN: Weathermen takes its name from a line

926
00:50:24,925 --> 00:50:26,592
in a Bob Dylan song which says,

927
00:50:26,692 --> 00:50:28,425
"You don't need a weatherman

928
00:50:28,525 --> 00:50:29,958
to know the way the wind blows."

929
00:50:30,058 --> 00:50:31,592
DYLAN: ♪ Wash the plain clothes

930
00:50:31,692 --> 00:50:33,092
♪ You don't need a weatherman

931
00:50:33,192 --> 00:50:36,826
♪ To know which way the wind blows ♪

932
00:50:36,925 --> 00:50:39,226
NARRATOR: The Weathermen assumed

933
00:50:39,326 --> 00:50:41,993
thousands would rally to their cause.

934
00:50:42,092 --> 00:50:45,058
Only 600 did.

935
00:50:45,159 --> 00:50:48,659
They blew up a statue
honoring slain policemen,

936
00:50:48,759 --> 00:50:51,993
ran through the streets
wielding chains and pipes,

937
00:50:52,092 --> 00:50:54,227
smashing windows and windshields

938
00:50:54,327 --> 00:50:57,859
and charging police barriers.

939
00:50:57,959 --> 00:50:59,626
Six were shot.

940
00:50:59,727 --> 00:51:02,526
250 were jailed.

941
00:51:02,626 --> 00:51:05,859
75 policemen were injured;

942
00:51:05,959 --> 00:51:09,026
a city attorney was paralyzed for life.

943
00:51:09,126 --> 00:51:11,093
(siren wails)

944
00:51:11,193 --> 00:51:14,660
The Black Panthers denounced the Weathermen

945
00:51:14,760 --> 00:51:17,760
as "anarchistic, opportunistic...

946
00:51:17,859 --> 00:51:21,359
Custeristic."

947
00:51:21,459 --> 00:51:24,526
BILL ZIMMERMAN: Probably 1969 was the year

948
00:51:24,626 --> 00:51:26,795
in which most of us were more alienated

949
00:51:26,895 --> 00:51:30,728
and felt more like revolutionaries.

950
00:51:30,828 --> 00:51:35,495
And it led to a lot of crazy responses.

951
00:51:35,594 --> 00:51:39,460
I wanted the country to undergo
a radical transformation,

952
00:51:39,560 --> 00:51:42,460
a redistribution of wealth and power.

953
00:51:42,560 --> 00:51:44,761
But to try to bring that about

954
00:51:44,860 --> 00:51:47,594
through armed struggle in the United States

955
00:51:47,694 --> 00:51:49,661
was insane.

956
00:51:49,761 --> 00:51:52,127
These were all infantile fantasies

957
00:51:52,228 --> 00:51:55,027
that people came to out of the frustration

958
00:51:55,127 --> 00:51:57,761
of not having a workable strategy

959
00:51:57,860 --> 00:52:01,195
for ending the war.

960
00:52:01,296 --> 00:52:02,872
REPORTER: What do you think
people ought to do, governor,

961
00:52:02,896 --> 00:52:04,729
who are genuinely opposed to the war

962
00:52:04,829 --> 00:52:06,996
but not in favor of the Viet Cong?

963
00:52:07,095 --> 00:52:11,428
Well, I think that we have had...
experiences before

964
00:52:11,528 --> 00:52:14,095
of people who have been opposed to wars,

965
00:52:14,195 --> 00:52:17,061
and I think they deal through
their own representatives,

966
00:52:17,162 --> 00:52:19,561
and it's dealt with in government channels.

967
00:52:19,662 --> 00:52:22,095
But once the killing starts,

968
00:52:22,195 --> 00:52:24,061
the very difficult thing then is,

969
00:52:24,162 --> 00:52:27,996
how do you register these protests

970
00:52:28,095 --> 00:52:30,061
without lending comfort
and aid to the enemy,

971
00:52:30,162 --> 00:52:32,062
without strengthening his resistance

972
00:52:32,163 --> 00:52:33,263
and his will to fight

973
00:52:33,362 --> 00:52:35,897
and thus killing more of our men?

974
00:52:35,997 --> 00:52:40,096
And most Americans in the past
have always respected it.

975
00:52:40,196 --> 00:52:41,730
You see, the people in this country

976
00:52:41,830 --> 00:52:43,797
aren't fighting a Vietnam War.

977
00:52:43,897 --> 00:52:45,297
The government's fighting it.

978
00:52:45,397 --> 00:52:46,517
Well, the government is, uh,

979
00:52:46,596 --> 00:52:48,730
the government is the
people, supposedly, No.

980
00:52:48,830 --> 00:52:51,030
but in this instance, it is not.
Not anymore, it's not.

981
00:52:51,096 --> 00:52:52,529
No, I agree with you, it is not.

982
00:52:52,629 --> 00:52:53,962
Not in this situation, it's not.

983
00:52:54,062 --> 00:52:55,497
Shouldn't I let my government know

984
00:52:55,596 --> 00:52:56,730
that I think they're crazy?

985
00:52:56,830 --> 00:52:58,297
I think they are insane, really.

986
00:52:58,397 --> 00:53:00,429
This is an insane thing we're doing.

987
00:53:00,529 --> 00:53:01,997
As a matter of fact,

988
00:53:02,096 --> 00:53:04,164
Nixon said he will not listen to us

989
00:53:04,264 --> 00:53:05,863
and that he will not be dictated to

990
00:53:05,963 --> 00:53:07,764
from the people in the streets.

991
00:53:07,863 --> 00:53:11,697
The people in the streets are me.

992
00:53:11,798 --> 00:53:14,731
(chanting "peace now")

993
00:53:14,831 --> 00:53:19,097
NARRATOR: The moratorium on October 15,

994
00:53:19,197 --> 00:53:20,697
held all across the country,

995
00:53:20,798 --> 00:53:23,630
was the largest outpouring
of public dissent

996
00:53:23,731 --> 00:53:25,164
in American history.

997
00:53:25,264 --> 00:53:29,130
("Blackbird" by the Beatles playing)

998
00:53:29,231 --> 00:53:33,930
♪ Blackbird singing in
the dead of night ♪

999
00:53:34,030 --> 00:53:39,265
♪ Take these broken wings
and learn to fly ♪

1000
00:53:39,364 --> 00:53:43,198
♪ All your life

1001
00:53:43,299 --> 00:53:47,832
♪ You were only waiting for
this moment to arise ♪

1002
00:53:47,931 --> 00:53:50,665
NARRATOR: It was peaceful, middle-class,

1003
00:53:50,765 --> 00:53:53,765
carefully focused on ending the war.

1004
00:53:53,864 --> 00:53:56,265
"It's nice," one marcher said,

1005
00:53:56,364 --> 00:53:58,098
"to go to a demonstration

1006
00:53:58,198 --> 00:54:03,131
without having to swear
allegiance to Chairman Mao."

1007
00:54:03,232 --> 00:54:04,665
♪ All your life

1008
00:54:04,765 --> 00:54:07,299
FRANK McGEE: Surely this is a
day unique in our history.

1009
00:54:07,399 --> 00:54:10,365
Never have so many of our people publicly

1010
00:54:10,465 --> 00:54:12,800
and collectively manifested opposition

1011
00:54:12,900 --> 00:54:16,032
to this country's involvement in a war.

1012
00:54:16,132 --> 00:54:19,065
It is unlikely we will remain unchanged.

1013
00:54:19,166 --> 00:54:22,000
Hundreds and hundreds of thousands

1014
00:54:22,099 --> 00:54:24,276
in cities from New York, with
its eight million people,

1015
00:54:24,300 --> 00:54:27,599
to Dubois, Wyoming, with its 800 people,

1016
00:54:27,699 --> 00:54:29,932
have sought to impress upon the president

1017
00:54:30,032 --> 00:54:32,099
their opposition to the war.

1018
00:54:32,199 --> 00:54:34,500
(bell rings)

1019
00:54:34,599 --> 00:54:41,400
CAROL CROCKER: The first large protest
march I went to was in Baltimore.

1020
00:54:41,501 --> 00:54:45,001
I'd never been with that
many people at one time.

1021
00:54:45,100 --> 00:54:51,167
Just the energy of the crowd
itself was tremendous.

1022
00:54:51,267 --> 00:54:53,566
I wondered if everybody was in it

1023
00:54:53,667 --> 00:54:55,633
for the right reasons.

1024
00:54:55,734 --> 00:55:00,366
I wasn't there to drink or smoke pot.

1025
00:55:00,466 --> 00:55:02,700
Not in those situations.

1026
00:55:02,801 --> 00:55:06,334
These, to me, were serious business.

1027
00:55:06,433 --> 00:55:09,901
This was the business of living life.

1028
00:55:10,001 --> 00:55:11,334
This was not a party.

1029
00:55:11,433 --> 00:55:14,168
I didn't just want to be with the crowd.

1030
00:55:14,268 --> 00:55:16,268
I didn't just want to make noise.

1031
00:55:16,367 --> 00:55:18,402
I wanted to make a difference.

1032
00:55:18,502 --> 00:55:22,967
And I in no way wanted
to dishonor my brother.

1033
00:55:23,067 --> 00:55:24,601
♪ For this moment to arrive

1034
00:55:24,701 --> 00:55:26,701
QUINN: For most of the government today,

1035
00:55:26,802 --> 00:55:28,235
it was business as usual.

1036
00:55:28,335 --> 00:55:30,067
But at noon on the Capitol steps,

1037
00:55:30,168 --> 00:55:32,567
a thousand young congressional
staff employees

1038
00:55:32,668 --> 00:55:35,302
stood in silence for 45 minutes.

1039
00:55:35,402 --> 00:55:39,967
♪ Blackbird singing in
the dead of night ♪

1040
00:55:40,067 --> 00:55:43,467
NARRATOR: The children of several
of the president's closest aides

1041
00:55:43,567 --> 00:55:44,902
and cabinet members

1042
00:55:45,002 --> 00:55:47,669
took part in the national moratorium.

1043
00:55:47,769 --> 00:55:51,068
Vice President Agnew's 14-year-old daughter

1044
00:55:51,169 --> 00:55:52,803
wanted to march,

1045
00:55:52,903 --> 00:55:54,435
but he wouldn't let her.

1046
00:55:54,535 --> 00:55:56,535
Coretta Scott King,

1047
00:55:56,635 --> 00:55:59,503
the widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,

1048
00:55:59,602 --> 00:56:02,336
led thousands of silent demonstrators

1049
00:56:02,435 --> 00:56:06,202
streaming past the White
House, where Nixon sat alone,

1050
00:56:06,303 --> 00:56:09,635
writing notes to himself on a yellow pad.

1051
00:56:09,736 --> 00:56:11,635
"Don't get rattled. Don't waver.

1052
00:56:11,736 --> 00:56:14,368
Don't react."

1053
00:56:16,968 --> 00:56:18,769
On November 3,

1054
00:56:18,868 --> 00:56:22,237
the president sought to
seize back the initiative.

1055
00:56:22,337 --> 00:56:24,136
Good evening, my fellow Americans.

1056
00:56:24,237 --> 00:56:28,103
NARRATOR: He went on national
television and called for patience

1057
00:56:28,203 --> 00:56:31,436
and asked Americans to rally behind him.

1058
00:56:31,536 --> 00:56:33,369
NIXON: To you,

1059
00:56:33,469 --> 00:56:37,737
the great silent majority
of my fellow Americans,

1060
00:56:37,837 --> 00:56:39,737
I ask for your support.

1061
00:56:39,837 --> 00:56:42,804
I pledged in my campaign for the presidency

1062
00:56:42,904 --> 00:56:44,369
to end the war

1063
00:56:44,469 --> 00:56:47,436
in a way that we could win the peace.

1064
00:56:47,536 --> 00:56:51,203
The more support I can have
from the American people,

1065
00:56:51,304 --> 00:56:53,338
the sooner that pledge can be redeemed;

1066
00:56:53,437 --> 00:56:56,870
for the more divided we are at home,

1067
00:56:56,970 --> 00:57:00,671
the less likely the enemy
is to negotiate at Paris.

1068
00:57:00,771 --> 00:57:02,080
("Okie From Muskogee" by
Merle Haggard playing)

1069
00:57:02,104 --> 00:57:04,470
Let us be united for peace.

1070
00:57:04,570 --> 00:57:08,805
♪ We don't smoke
marijuana in Muskogee ♪

1071
00:57:08,905 --> 00:57:11,037
NARRATOR: The speech was a triumph.

1072
00:57:11,137 --> 00:57:15,104
Nixon's approval rate soared to 68%.

1073
00:57:17,405 --> 00:57:19,771
MAN: All that's in the news

1074
00:57:19,870 --> 00:57:22,005
is the fact that the
moratoriums are meeting,

1075
00:57:22,104 --> 00:57:24,070
that our country's sick...

1076
00:57:24,171 --> 00:57:25,938
sick of this and sick of that.

1077
00:57:26,038 --> 00:57:28,672
It's young people are all the
ones that are standing up.

1078
00:57:28,772 --> 00:57:32,138
And there is a silent majority,
which is no longer silent.

1079
00:57:32,239 --> 00:57:35,471
We're the people who are wanting to show

1080
00:57:35,571 --> 00:57:38,471
that man deserves freedom
no matter where he is.

1081
00:57:38,571 --> 00:57:40,772
♪ A place where even
squares can have a ball ♪

1082
00:57:40,871 --> 00:57:43,406
Many brave men died in this
country to make it free...

1083
00:57:43,506 --> 00:57:45,105
I believe that.

1084
00:57:45,205 --> 00:57:47,406
and let you... and let you have everything.

1085
00:57:47,506 --> 00:57:50,739
SPIRO AGNEW: Senator Fulbright
said some months ago

1086
00:57:50,839 --> 00:57:53,339
that if the Vietnam War
went on much longer,

1087
00:57:53,438 --> 00:57:57,273
the best of our young
people would be in Canada.

1088
00:57:57,372 --> 00:58:00,240
Indeed, as for these deserters,

1089
00:58:00,340 --> 00:58:04,307
malcontents, radicals, incendiaries,

1090
00:58:04,407 --> 00:58:06,740
the civil and the uncivil disobedience

1091
00:58:06,840 --> 00:58:08,706
among our young,

1092
00:58:08,807 --> 00:58:10,673
SDS, PLP,

1093
00:58:10,773 --> 00:58:11,983
Weatherman one, Weatherman two,

1094
00:58:12,007 --> 00:58:14,206
the Revolutionary Action Movement,

1095
00:58:14,307 --> 00:58:16,407
Panthers, lions, hippies,

1096
00:58:16,507 --> 00:58:19,307
yippies, tigers alike.

1097
00:58:19,407 --> 00:58:21,872
I'd rather swap the whole damn zoo

1098
00:58:21,972 --> 00:58:24,439
for a single platoon of the
kind of young Americans

1099
00:58:24,539 --> 00:58:25,840
I saw in Vietnam.

1100
00:58:25,939 --> 00:58:28,807
(applause)

1101
00:58:28,907 --> 00:58:32,107
NARRATOR: "We've got the liberal
bastards on the run now,"

1102
00:58:32,207 --> 00:58:34,741
Nixon told his aides,

1103
00:58:34,841 --> 00:58:38,973
"and we're going to keep them on the run."

1104
00:58:39,073 --> 00:58:40,841
("My Son" by Jan Howard playing)

1105
00:58:49,140 --> 00:58:53,373
♪ My son, my son

1106
00:58:53,473 --> 00:58:55,440
JAN HOWARD: My doorbell rang,

1107
00:58:55,540 --> 00:58:57,707
and it was this guy standing there,

1108
00:58:57,808 --> 00:59:00,973
and he said, "Ms. Howard,
we're marching in Memphis

1109
00:59:01,073 --> 00:59:03,909
in protest of the Vietnam War."

1110
00:59:04,009 --> 00:59:05,974
I said, "Really?"

1111
00:59:06,074 --> 00:59:09,509
He said, "And we figured in
view of what happened..."

1112
00:59:09,608 --> 00:59:12,775
I said, "Yeah, my son's death."

1113
00:59:12,874 --> 00:59:15,708
He said, "Well, we thought
you'd like to join us."

1114
00:59:15,809 --> 00:59:18,074
I said, "One of the reasons he died

1115
00:59:18,175 --> 00:59:19,574
"was so you have the right.

1116
00:59:19,675 --> 00:59:22,441
"In this country, you have a right.

1117
00:59:22,541 --> 00:59:24,608
"Go right ahead and demonstrate.

1118
00:59:24,708 --> 00:59:26,675
Have at it."

1119
00:59:26,775 --> 00:59:29,141
I said, "But no, I won't be joining you."

1120
00:59:29,242 --> 00:59:30,874
I said, "But I'll tell you what.

1121
00:59:30,974 --> 00:59:32,708
"If you ever ring my doorbell again,

1122
00:59:32,809 --> 00:59:35,810
I will blow your damn head
off with a .357 Magnum."

1123
00:59:46,142 --> 00:59:48,410
TIM O'BRIEN: Well, I was
stationed in Vietnam

1124
00:59:48,510 --> 00:59:51,910
at a province called Quang Ngai.

1125
00:59:52,010 --> 00:59:53,610
Even back during the time of the French,

1126
00:59:53,642 --> 00:59:57,609
it was a very heavily Viet Minh area,

1127
00:59:57,709 --> 01:00:00,176
and, when I arrived, heavily Viet Cong.

1128
01:00:02,843 --> 01:00:06,410
NARRATOR: No province suffered
more during the American war

1129
01:00:06,510 --> 01:00:08,876
than the coastal province of Quang Ngai.

1130
01:00:08,976 --> 01:00:10,943
(artillery fire)

1131
01:00:11,043 --> 01:00:15,844
More than 70% of its villages
had been shelled by Navy ships,

1132
01:00:15,943 --> 01:00:19,777
bombed, bulldozed, or burned to the ground,

1133
01:00:19,876 --> 01:00:22,244
and more than 40% of its people

1134
01:00:22,344 --> 01:00:24,911
had been forced into refugee camps

1135
01:00:25,011 --> 01:00:28,476
before Tim O'Brien from
Worthington, Minnesota,

1136
01:00:28,576 --> 01:00:30,976
got there in 1969.

1137
01:00:33,011 --> 01:00:34,691
O'BRIEN: It was a province that was viewed

1138
01:00:34,777 --> 01:00:37,143
much as I guess many Americans might view,

1139
01:00:37,244 --> 01:00:39,476
you know, sort of redneck America.

1140
01:00:39,576 --> 01:00:42,944
Sort of country bumpkins.

1141
01:00:43,044 --> 01:00:44,420
And they may have been country bumpkins,

1142
01:00:44,444 --> 01:00:46,845
but they were fiercely independent.

1143
01:00:46,944 --> 01:00:50,312
NARRATOR: Private O'Brien
served in Alpha Company,

1144
01:00:50,412 --> 01:00:55,012
3rd Platoon, 5th Battalion,
23rd Americal Division,

1145
01:00:55,111 --> 01:00:58,245
headquartered at a landing
zone called Gator,

1146
01:00:58,345 --> 01:01:01,611
"30 or 40 acres of almost-America,"

1147
01:01:01,711 --> 01:01:03,345
O'Brien remembered,

1148
01:01:03,444 --> 01:01:06,678
with hot showers and cold beer.

1149
01:01:08,377 --> 01:01:10,077
O'BRIEN: There was no sense of mission.

1150
01:01:10,178 --> 01:01:11,711
There was no sense of daily purpose.

1151
01:01:11,812 --> 01:01:13,945
We didn't know why we were in a village

1152
01:01:14,045 --> 01:01:16,179
or what we were supposed to accomplish.

1153
01:01:16,279 --> 01:01:18,445
So we'd kick around jugs of rice

1154
01:01:18,545 --> 01:01:21,413
and search houses and frisk people,

1155
01:01:21,513 --> 01:01:23,846
and not knowing what we were looking for

1156
01:01:23,945 --> 01:01:27,346
and rarely finding anything.

1157
01:01:27,445 --> 01:01:28,679
And somebody might die,

1158
01:01:28,779 --> 01:01:30,578
one of our guys, and somebody might not.

1159
01:01:30,679 --> 01:01:33,045
Then we'd come back to the
same village a week later

1160
01:01:33,145 --> 01:01:35,378
or two weeks later, do it all over again.

1161
01:01:35,478 --> 01:01:38,246
It was like chasing ghosts.

1162
01:01:38,346 --> 01:01:40,645
(helicopter blades whirring)

1163
01:01:42,313 --> 01:01:44,112
NARRATOR: An American APC

1164
01:01:44,212 --> 01:01:47,680
accidentally crushed one man
from O'Brien's company.

1165
01:01:47,780 --> 01:01:51,979
An enemy grenade skittered off
O'Brien's helmet and exploded,

1166
01:01:52,079 --> 01:01:55,479
wounding a G.I. standing a few feet away.

1167
01:01:58,414 --> 01:02:02,414
But mines and booby traps
were the greatest menace.

1168
01:02:08,914 --> 01:02:11,414
O'BRIEN: Somewhere around
80% of our casualties

1169
01:02:11,514 --> 01:02:13,979
came from land mines of all sorts.

1170
01:02:15,680 --> 01:02:18,614
In Vietnam, for me, just
to get up in the morning

1171
01:02:18,714 --> 01:02:21,915
and look out at the land and think,

1172
01:02:22,015 --> 01:02:24,815
"In a few minutes I'll
be walking out there,

1173
01:02:24,915 --> 01:02:27,781
"and will my corpse be there or there?

1174
01:02:27,880 --> 01:02:31,080
Will I lose a leg out there?"

1175
01:02:31,181 --> 01:02:35,415
I'd always thought of courage
as charging enemy bunkers

1176
01:02:35,515 --> 01:02:37,781
or standing up under fire.

1177
01:02:37,880 --> 01:02:41,214
But just to walk through Quang Ngai,

1178
01:02:41,315 --> 01:02:43,580
day after day, from village to village,

1179
01:02:43,681 --> 01:02:47,947
and through the paddies and
up into the mountains,

1180
01:02:48,047 --> 01:02:51,581
just to make your legs
move was an act of courage

1181
01:02:51,682 --> 01:02:54,349
that if, say, you were
living in Sioux City,

1182
01:02:54,448 --> 01:02:56,081
it wouldn't be courageous

1183
01:02:56,182 --> 01:02:58,682
to walk to the grocery
store or down Main Street,

1184
01:02:58,782 --> 01:03:01,381
you know, just to have your
legs go back and forth.

1185
01:03:01,481 --> 01:03:03,115
But in Vietnam, for me,

1186
01:03:03,215 --> 01:03:05,316
just to walk felt incredibly brave.

1187
01:03:05,416 --> 01:03:07,881
I would sometimes look
at my legs as I walked,

1188
01:03:07,981 --> 01:03:09,948
thinking, "How am I doing this?"

1189
01:03:42,283 --> 01:03:44,517
NARRATOR: Bao Ninh was 17

1190
01:03:44,616 --> 01:03:47,417
when he was drafted into
the North Vietnamese Army

1191
01:03:47,517 --> 01:03:48,616
to fight the Americans,

1192
01:03:48,716 --> 01:03:51,982
just as his father had fought the French.

1193
01:03:52,082 --> 01:03:55,317
His war would take place
in the Central Highlands

1194
01:03:55,418 --> 01:03:57,550
of South Vietnam.

1195
01:03:57,650 --> 01:03:59,751
It was American firepower

1196
01:03:59,851 --> 01:04:04,450
that Bao Ninh and his fellow
soldiers feared the most.

1197
01:04:04,550 --> 01:04:05,217
(explosion)

1198
01:05:32,652 --> 01:05:34,021
(explosion)

1199
01:06:23,822 --> 01:06:26,221
(birds chirping, squawking)

1200
01:06:29,854 --> 01:06:31,921
NARRATOR: Back in the spring,

1201
01:06:32,022 --> 01:06:35,454
Tim O'Brien's outfit had been
sent into an area of operations

1202
01:06:35,555 --> 01:06:38,323
the Americans called "Pinkville,"

1203
01:06:38,422 --> 01:06:40,256
clusters of villages

1204
01:06:40,355 --> 01:06:43,722
that included a hamlet they called My Lai.

1205
01:06:45,588 --> 01:06:47,722
O'BRIEN: We hated going there.

1206
01:06:47,823 --> 01:06:50,588
When we'd get the word, "You're
headed for Pinkville,"

1207
01:06:50,689 --> 01:06:52,698
one guy would say to another,
"Somebody's gonna die,"

1208
01:06:52,722 --> 01:06:54,082
or, "Somebody's gonna lose a leg."

1209
01:06:54,155 --> 01:06:56,155
We were terrified of the place.

1210
01:06:56,256 --> 01:06:59,689
It was littered with land mines.

1211
01:06:59,788 --> 01:07:01,689
The villagers were...

1212
01:07:01,788 --> 01:07:03,588
The expressions on their faces,

1213
01:07:03,689 --> 01:07:07,989
including the children of,
say, six or five years old,

1214
01:07:08,088 --> 01:07:13,257
had a mixture of hostility and terror.

1215
01:07:15,557 --> 01:07:17,024
I can't say many of the villagers

1216
01:07:17,124 --> 01:07:19,156
came with open arms to us,

1217
01:07:19,257 --> 01:07:21,289
but this place was special.

1218
01:07:21,389 --> 01:07:23,389
And I remember talking to fellow soldiers,

1219
01:07:23,490 --> 01:07:25,757
thinking, "What is it with this place?"

1220
01:07:27,124 --> 01:07:29,156
And then about three-quarters of the way

1221
01:07:29,257 --> 01:07:30,889
through my tour in Vietnam,

1222
01:07:30,990 --> 01:07:34,190
the story of the My Lai
Massacre broke in the States.

1223
01:07:35,490 --> 01:07:38,490
NARRATOR: On November 12, 1969,

1224
01:07:38,589 --> 01:07:41,124
the Dispatch News Service in Washington

1225
01:07:41,223 --> 01:07:45,258
moved a story by investigative
journalist Seymour Hersh.

1226
01:07:46,558 --> 01:07:48,790
It was soon followed by the publication

1227
01:07:48,890 --> 01:07:53,857
of graphic photos taken by Army
photographer Ronald Haeberle.

1228
01:07:55,325 --> 01:07:59,157
The story and the pictures
stunned the country.

1229
01:07:59,258 --> 01:08:00,890
HUNTLEY: Charges have been made

1230
01:08:00,991 --> 01:08:03,724
that troops of the Americal Division

1231
01:08:03,825 --> 01:08:07,258
killed as many as 567 South
Vietnamese civilians

1232
01:08:07,357 --> 01:08:10,525
during a sweep in March 1968.

1233
01:08:11,790 --> 01:08:13,758
NARRATOR: 20 months earlier,

1234
01:08:13,857 --> 01:08:17,326
on the morning of March 16, 1968,

1235
01:08:17,425 --> 01:08:20,026
105 men from a rifle company

1236
01:08:20,126 --> 01:08:22,291
belonging to the Americal Division,

1237
01:08:22,391 --> 01:08:24,492
and led by Captain Ernest Medina

1238
01:08:24,591 --> 01:08:26,725
and Lieutenant William Calley,

1239
01:08:26,826 --> 01:08:30,925
had been ordered to helicopter
into the village of My Lai 4.

1240
01:08:32,259 --> 01:08:35,492
Since arriving in Vietnam,
they had lost 28 men

1241
01:08:35,591 --> 01:08:40,458
to mines and booby traps
and unseen snipers.

1242
01:08:40,559 --> 01:08:45,358
Two days earlier, a popular
squad leader had been killed.

1243
01:08:45,458 --> 01:08:49,127
They had been told a unit
of main-force Viet Cong

1244
01:08:49,226 --> 01:08:50,892
was waiting for them,

1245
01:08:50,993 --> 01:08:53,760
and they were eager for revenge.

1246
01:08:55,027 --> 01:08:57,527
But they received no hostile fire,

1247
01:08:57,627 --> 01:09:02,493
encountered no enemy soldiers.

1248
01:09:03,959 --> 01:09:07,260
Instead, over the next four hours,

1249
01:09:07,359 --> 01:09:10,193
Medina, Calley, and their men murdered

1250
01:09:10,292 --> 01:09:18,027
407 defenseless old men,
women, children, and infants.

1251
01:09:27,994 --> 01:09:30,660
Many of the women and girls were raped

1252
01:09:30,761 --> 01:09:33,061
before they were shot.

1253
01:09:36,128 --> 01:09:38,427
There would have been still more slaughter

1254
01:09:38,528 --> 01:09:42,694
had a helicopter pilot named
Hugh Thompson, Jr., not landed

1255
01:09:42,793 --> 01:09:46,194
between the men and some
of their intended targets

1256
01:09:46,293 --> 01:09:49,927
and ordered his crew to open
fire on their fellow Americans

1257
01:09:50,028 --> 01:09:53,293
if they did not stop shooting civilians.

1258
01:09:56,529 --> 01:10:00,062
At the same time, just a mile or so away,

1259
01:10:00,161 --> 01:10:04,861
another company murdered 97 more villagers.

1260
01:10:06,861 --> 01:10:09,894
O'BRIEN: And suddenly it was
like a window shade going up,

1261
01:10:09,995 --> 01:10:11,428
and then there's light,

1262
01:10:11,529 --> 01:10:13,594
and we understood what had engendered

1263
01:10:13,695 --> 01:10:17,029
this horror in these kids' faces

1264
01:10:17,129 --> 01:10:19,861
and fear and the... and the hatred.

1265
01:10:19,961 --> 01:10:23,495
Hundred and some American
soldiers in four hours or so

1266
01:10:23,594 --> 01:10:26,262
butchering innocent people,

1267
01:10:26,361 --> 01:10:28,429
in all kinds of ways...
machine-gunning them

1268
01:10:28,530 --> 01:10:30,830
and throwing them in
wells and scalping them

1269
01:10:30,929 --> 01:10:32,795
and killing them in ditches

1270
01:10:32,895 --> 01:10:35,496
and taking a lunch break and
then doing it some more.

1271
01:10:36,630 --> 01:10:38,763
Systematic homicide.

1272
01:10:38,862 --> 01:10:40,395
MIKE WALLACE: What kind of people?

1273
01:10:40,496 --> 01:10:41,496
Men, women, children?

1274
01:10:41,595 --> 01:10:43,030
PAUL MEADLO: Men, women, children.

1275
01:10:43,130 --> 01:10:44,830
WALLACE: Babies? MEADLO: Babies.

1276
01:10:44,929 --> 01:10:46,763
Uh, Lieutenant Calley came over and said,

1277
01:10:46,862 --> 01:10:48,763
"You know what to do with them, don't you?"

1278
01:10:48,862 --> 01:10:50,362
And, uh, I said, "Yes."

1279
01:10:50,462 --> 01:10:54,462
So l took it for granted that he
just wanted us to watch them.

1280
01:10:54,563 --> 01:10:56,330
And he left and came back

1281
01:10:56,429 --> 01:10:58,997
about ten or... ten or 15 minutes later,

1282
01:10:59,096 --> 01:11:03,331
and said, "How come you
ain't, uh, killed them yet?"

1283
01:11:03,430 --> 01:11:04,997
You killed how many at that time?

1284
01:11:05,096 --> 01:11:07,596
Well, I fired my automatic, so, uh...

1285
01:11:07,697 --> 01:11:10,331
you can't, uh... you just
spray the area on them,

1286
01:11:10,430 --> 01:11:12,796
so you really can't know
how many you killed

1287
01:11:12,896 --> 01:11:15,697
because it comes out so doggone fast.

1288
01:11:15,796 --> 01:11:20,031
So I, I might've killed
about, uh, ten or 15 of them.

1289
01:11:21,163 --> 01:11:22,663
Men, women, and children?

1290
01:11:22,764 --> 01:11:24,331
Men, women, and children.

1291
01:11:24,430 --> 01:11:26,497
And babies? And babies.

1292
01:11:27,963 --> 01:11:29,863
Why did I do it?

1293
01:11:29,963 --> 01:11:32,765
Because I felt like I was ordered to do it.

1294
01:11:32,864 --> 01:11:35,431
And it seemed like, uh...

1295
01:11:38,132 --> 01:11:42,065
Well, at the time, I felt like
I was doing the right thing.

1296
01:11:42,164 --> 01:11:44,065
I really did.

1297
01:11:44,164 --> 01:11:47,231
Because, uh, like I said, I lost buddies,

1298
01:11:47,332 --> 01:11:49,231
I lost... I lost a good...

1299
01:11:49,332 --> 01:11:53,698
damn good buddy... Bobby Wilson...

1300
01:11:53,797 --> 01:11:57,464
and it was on my conscience,
and it was on...

1301
01:11:57,565 --> 01:11:59,532
So after I done it, I felt good.

1302
01:11:59,632 --> 01:12:03,864
But later on that day,
it was getting to me.

1303
01:12:03,964 --> 01:12:07,033
It's so hard, I think, for
a good many Americans

1304
01:12:07,133 --> 01:12:10,165
to understand that young, capable,

1305
01:12:10,266 --> 01:12:13,533
brave American boys

1306
01:12:13,633 --> 01:12:16,566
could line up

1307
01:12:16,665 --> 01:12:21,266
old men, women, children, and babies

1308
01:12:21,365 --> 01:12:24,098
and shoot them down in cold blood.

1309
01:12:28,833 --> 01:12:31,066
How do you explain that?

1310
01:12:31,165 --> 01:12:33,098
I wouldn't know.

1311
01:12:39,034 --> 01:12:40,933
(low, distant chatter)

1312
01:12:43,200 --> 01:12:47,267
NARRATOR: The killing of civilians
has happened in every war.

1313
01:12:47,366 --> 01:12:51,666
In Vietnam, it was not policy or routine,

1314
01:12:51,767 --> 01:12:54,399
but it was not an aberration, either.

1315
01:12:55,966 --> 01:13:00,866
Still, the scale and
deliberateness and intimacy

1316
01:13:00,966 --> 01:13:03,099
of what happened at My Lai

1317
01:13:03,200 --> 01:13:04,500
was different.

1318
01:13:04,599 --> 01:13:06,233
SHEEHAN: It was different

1319
01:13:06,334 --> 01:13:09,067
because they were killing
Vietnamese point-blank

1320
01:13:09,166 --> 01:13:10,535
with rifles and grenades.

1321
01:13:10,635 --> 01:13:12,967
They were murdering them directly.

1322
01:13:13,068 --> 01:13:15,335
They weren't doing it
with bombs and artillery.

1323
01:13:15,434 --> 01:13:16,943
If they'd been doing it
with bombs and artillery,

1324
01:13:16,967 --> 01:13:18,111
nobody would have said a word,

1325
01:13:18,135 --> 01:13:19,615
because it was going on all the time.

1326
01:13:20,568 --> 01:13:21,867
NARRATOR: Not every soldier

1327
01:13:21,967 --> 01:13:23,701
participated in the killings that day.

1328
01:13:23,800 --> 01:13:27,335
Some led villagers away to safety.

1329
01:13:27,434 --> 01:13:30,201
But a failure of military leadership

1330
01:13:30,300 --> 01:13:33,400
at nearly every level had
created the conditions

1331
01:13:33,501 --> 01:13:36,900
that made the massacre possible.

1332
01:13:37,001 --> 01:13:41,234
The My Lai story might have
shocked the American public,

1333
01:13:41,335 --> 01:13:43,536
but it was not news to the Army.

1334
01:13:43,636 --> 01:13:46,735
It had occurred almost two years before,

1335
01:13:46,836 --> 01:13:49,901
just after the Tet Offensive.

1336
01:13:50,002 --> 01:13:52,368
Hugh Thompson, the helicopter pilot

1337
01:13:52,468 --> 01:13:54,536
who had tried to stop the massacre,

1338
01:13:54,636 --> 01:13:57,468
reported what he had seen,

1339
01:13:57,569 --> 01:13:59,468
but no one in the chain of command

1340
01:13:59,569 --> 01:14:00,801
was willing to act.

1341
01:14:00,901 --> 01:14:04,536
The slaughter was covered up.

1342
01:14:04,636 --> 01:14:08,401
Later, an ex-corporal
named Ronald Ridenhour,

1343
01:14:08,502 --> 01:14:10,168
who had heard about what had happened

1344
01:14:10,269 --> 01:14:12,202
from several men who had been there,

1345
01:14:12,301 --> 01:14:15,770
wrote letters to the president
of the United States,

1346
01:14:15,869 --> 01:14:17,669
the secretary of defense,

1347
01:14:17,770 --> 01:14:21,669
and more than two dozen other
high-ranking officials.

1348
01:14:21,770 --> 01:14:24,936
STAN ATKINSON: Personally,
what decision-making process

1349
01:14:25,037 --> 01:14:27,837
did you go through before you
decided to take your action?

1350
01:14:27,936 --> 01:14:31,602
I guess I just wrestled
with my own conscience

1351
01:14:31,703 --> 01:14:33,969
to try to decide what action to take.

1352
01:14:34,070 --> 01:14:36,102
I felt that I had to take some action.

1353
01:14:36,203 --> 01:14:37,570
I had to do something.

1354
01:14:37,669 --> 01:14:38,902
I couldn't just...

1355
01:14:39,003 --> 01:14:41,537
just rest with this knowledge
for the rest of my life

1356
01:14:41,637 --> 01:14:44,469
that I couldn't... I couldn't
live with myself if I did.

1357
01:14:44,570 --> 01:14:47,470
NARRATOR: President Nixon's first reaction

1358
01:14:47,571 --> 01:14:51,704
was to investigate those who
reported the slaughter.

1359
01:14:51,803 --> 01:14:54,504
"It's those dirty rotten Jews from New York

1360
01:14:54,603 --> 01:14:55,870
who are behind it,"

1361
01:14:55,970 --> 01:14:57,403
he told an aide.

1362
01:14:57,504 --> 01:15:01,838
Eventually, Lieutenant
General William R. Peers,

1363
01:15:01,937 --> 01:15:05,771
a veteran of 30 months as a
troop commander in Vietnam,

1364
01:15:05,870 --> 01:15:07,571
was assigned to head a panel

1365
01:15:07,670 --> 01:15:10,470
to look into what had really happened.

1366
01:15:10,571 --> 01:15:13,704
Peers found that 30 persons,

1367
01:15:13,803 --> 01:15:16,138
including the division commander,

1368
01:15:16,237 --> 01:15:18,470
General Samuel W. Koster,

1369
01:15:18,571 --> 01:15:20,871
had either committed atrocities

1370
01:15:20,971 --> 01:15:24,938
or had conspired to cover them up.

1371
01:15:28,938 --> 01:15:32,671
Peers had wanted to call
My Lai a "massacre."

1372
01:15:32,772 --> 01:15:36,039
His superiors made him use the phrase,

1373
01:15:36,139 --> 01:15:40,171
"a tragedy of major proportions."

1374
01:15:40,272 --> 01:15:45,705
In the end, the Army indicted
25 officers and men,

1375
01:15:45,804 --> 01:15:50,971
including the platoon leader,
Lieutenant William Calley.

1376
01:15:53,540 --> 01:15:55,540
VALLELY: Calley's a killer.

1377
01:15:55,640 --> 01:15:57,573
Calley's a murderer

1378
01:15:57,672 --> 01:15:59,939
and a... a sick person.

1379
01:16:02,040 --> 01:16:05,073
I'm not gonna be in any, you know, uh,

1380
01:16:05,172 --> 01:16:07,605
propaganda movie for the
United States Marine Corps,

1381
01:16:07,706 --> 01:16:09,640
but we didn't have that guy.

1382
01:16:11,905 --> 01:16:14,405
We had individuals who, who...

1383
01:16:14,506 --> 01:16:16,472
who committed war crimes, of course.

1384
01:16:16,573 --> 01:16:20,540
And, um, you know, I wanted to kill them.

1385
01:16:20,640 --> 01:16:23,140
I sometimes wish I did kill 'em.

1386
01:16:25,973 --> 01:16:29,740
But... I was afraid to kill 'em.

1387
01:16:32,141 --> 01:16:34,074
♪ Two, one, two, three, four

1388
01:16:34,173 --> 01:16:36,873
("Give Peace a Chance" by
The Plastic Ono Band plays)

1389
01:16:36,973 --> 01:16:39,473
(loud crowd chatter)

1390
01:16:39,574 --> 01:16:41,106
♪ Everybody's talking about...

1391
01:16:41,207 --> 01:16:44,341
ZIMMERMAN: I never considered
the Vietnamese our enemy.

1392
01:16:44,440 --> 01:16:46,041
They had never done anything

1393
01:16:46,141 --> 01:16:48,707
to threaten the security
of the United States.

1394
01:16:48,806 --> 01:16:51,541
They were off 10,000 miles away,

1395
01:16:51,641 --> 01:16:53,373
minding their own business,

1396
01:16:53,473 --> 01:16:55,841
and we went there to their country,

1397
01:16:55,940 --> 01:16:57,407
told them what kind of government

1398
01:16:57,508 --> 01:16:59,775
we wanted them to have.

1399
01:16:59,874 --> 01:17:04,075
JAMES WILLBANKS: Well, when
I see the war protesters,

1400
01:17:04,174 --> 01:17:05,941
I react on a couple of levels.

1401
01:17:06,042 --> 01:17:08,575
Intellectually, I certainly
understand their right

1402
01:17:08,674 --> 01:17:10,374
to the freedom of speech.

1403
01:17:10,474 --> 01:17:11,874
But I will tell you

1404
01:17:11,974 --> 01:17:14,941
that when I see them waving NLF flags,

1405
01:17:15,042 --> 01:17:18,275
the enemy that I and my
friends had to fight,

1406
01:17:18,374 --> 01:17:21,575
and some of my friends had to die fighting,

1407
01:17:21,674 --> 01:17:23,307
that doesn't sit very well with me.

1408
01:17:23,407 --> 01:17:26,542
♪ All we are saying...

1409
01:17:26,642 --> 01:17:29,575
NARRATOR: On November 15, 1969,

1410
01:17:29,674 --> 01:17:31,908
half a million citizens turned out

1411
01:17:32,009 --> 01:17:34,543
against the war in Washington, again.

1412
01:17:34,643 --> 01:17:36,942
♪ Everybody's talking
about revolution... ♪

1413
01:17:37,043 --> 01:17:40,276
NARRATOR: This time, buses
provided an impenetrable wall

1414
01:17:40,375 --> 01:17:42,576
around the White House.

1415
01:17:42,675 --> 01:17:45,043
President Nixon claimed he was too busy

1416
01:17:45,143 --> 01:17:47,209
watching football on television

1417
01:17:47,308 --> 01:17:48,543
to pay attention,

1418
01:17:48,643 --> 01:17:53,076
but he did suggest that Army
helicopters might be used

1419
01:17:53,175 --> 01:17:55,076
to blow out the marchers' candles.

1420
01:17:55,175 --> 01:17:57,175
♪ All we are saying...

1421
01:17:57,276 --> 01:17:58,709
(car horns honking)

1422
01:17:58,808 --> 01:18:00,918
NARRATOR: Hundreds of thousands
of others demonstrated

1423
01:18:00,942 --> 01:18:04,443
in San Francisco and New York.

1424
01:18:04,544 --> 01:18:06,176
(indistinct shouting)

1425
01:18:06,277 --> 01:18:09,176
(cheering and whistling,
indistinct shouting)

1426
01:18:11,710 --> 01:18:14,077
The most striking antiwar protest

1427
01:18:14,176 --> 01:18:15,409
of this Thanksgiving Day

1428
01:18:15,510 --> 01:18:17,976
occurred not in this
country, but in Vietnam,

1429
01:18:18,077 --> 01:18:20,476
though its form was uniquely American.

1430
01:18:20,577 --> 01:18:22,676
About 100 American soldiers

1431
01:18:22,777 --> 01:18:25,176
stationed at a hospital in Pleiku

1432
01:18:25,277 --> 01:18:27,844
refused to eat their
traditional turkey dinner.

1433
01:18:27,943 --> 01:18:31,909
They described their fast as a
passive protest against the war.

1434
01:18:33,710 --> 01:18:36,145
("Born Under a Bad Sign" by Booker T.
and the M.G.'s plays)

1435
01:18:40,677 --> 01:18:42,345
The Army did what the Army does.

1436
01:18:42,444 --> 01:18:43,987
Every year, you know, for Thanksgiving,

1437
01:18:44,011 --> 01:18:45,177
they make a big deal.

1438
01:18:45,278 --> 01:18:46,453
They're gonna bring in turkey,

1439
01:18:46,477 --> 01:18:47,920
they're gonna bring in mashed potatoes,

1440
01:18:47,944 --> 01:18:50,278
and apple pie and whatever.

1441
01:18:50,377 --> 01:18:52,278
And by this point, I think,

1442
01:18:52,377 --> 01:18:55,310
a lot of us were very,
very cynical about the war

1443
01:18:55,410 --> 01:18:57,244
and what was going on.

1444
01:18:57,345 --> 01:19:00,810
But we weren't gonna make
a big deal about it.

1445
01:19:00,910 --> 01:19:03,477
We knew there were gonna
be TV people there.

1446
01:19:03,578 --> 01:19:06,711
And a couple of the organizers
were looking for people to talk.

1447
01:19:06,810 --> 01:19:08,445
They came to me, I said, "No."

1448
01:19:08,546 --> 01:19:10,878
I said, "Look, I'm gonna
fast and do my thing."

1449
01:19:10,978 --> 01:19:12,846
I said, "But I, I really don't want

1450
01:19:12,945 --> 01:19:15,346
to be involved with any media thing."

1451
01:19:15,445 --> 01:19:19,846
NARRATOR: That Thanksgiving Day,
Lieutenant Furey was on duty

1452
01:19:19,945 --> 01:19:24,012
when one of her patients took
a sudden turn for the worse.

1453
01:19:24,111 --> 01:19:27,111
FUREY: Some patients, they
just get into your heart.

1454
01:19:27,212 --> 01:19:28,811
And this kid, I think he was 18.

1455
01:19:28,911 --> 01:19:30,346
His name was Timmy.

1456
01:19:30,445 --> 01:19:34,878
It was unlikely he was gonna survive.

1457
01:19:34,978 --> 01:19:38,445
And I just got so angry.

1458
01:19:38,546 --> 01:19:41,979
I just lost it.

1459
01:19:42,080 --> 01:19:44,179
I remember walking out of the O.R.,

1460
01:19:44,280 --> 01:19:46,155
I ripped off the gown, and
I ripped off the mask,

1461
01:19:46,179 --> 01:19:49,446
I walked outside, I said,
"Where are those reporters?"

1462
01:20:02,580 --> 01:20:04,722
I mean, you know, you don't
demonstrate against the war

1463
01:20:04,746 --> 01:20:05,879
in a war zone.

1464
01:20:05,979 --> 01:20:08,879
By that time, of course,
you, you had the attitude,

1465
01:20:08,979 --> 01:20:10,812
"What are they gonna do?

1466
01:20:10,912 --> 01:20:12,879
Send me to Vietnam?"

1467
01:20:16,348 --> 01:20:19,880
(loud, overlapping chatter and shouting)

1468
01:20:19,980 --> 01:20:22,714
(indistinct chanting)

1469
01:20:22,813 --> 01:20:25,747
JOHN MUSGRAVE: Let's just say that
being a Marine combat veteran

1470
01:20:25,848 --> 01:20:29,813
on a college campus in 1969 and 1970...

1471
01:20:29,913 --> 01:20:31,680
it wasn't a real good thing to be

1472
01:20:31,781 --> 01:20:33,848
if you wanted to get dates and be popular.

1473
01:20:36,613 --> 01:20:40,081
When I came home, it seemed like

1474
01:20:40,180 --> 01:20:43,514
I didn't have anything
to give to anybody else.

1475
01:20:46,881 --> 01:20:50,914
NARRATOR: Marine Corporal John
Musgrave had very nearly died

1476
01:20:51,015 --> 01:20:55,649
in combat below the DMZ
in the autumn of 1967.

1477
01:20:55,748 --> 01:20:58,549
Wounded in the jaw and shoulder,

1478
01:20:58,649 --> 01:21:02,414
his ribs shattered, lung
pierced, nerves cut,

1479
01:21:02,515 --> 01:21:06,849
he had spent 17 months in Navy hospitals.

1480
01:21:06,948 --> 01:21:09,981
He was now studying at Baker University

1481
01:21:10,082 --> 01:21:12,849
in Baldwin City, Kansas.

1482
01:21:12,948 --> 01:21:15,248
(indistinct chanting and shouting)

1483
01:21:15,349 --> 01:21:19,749
But wherever he went, the
war was never far away.

1484
01:21:21,982 --> 01:21:26,315
MUSGRAVE: And the peace movement,
for a while, got real nasty,

1485
01:21:26,415 --> 01:21:28,415
calling veterans baby killers.

1486
01:21:30,482 --> 01:21:32,315
It did more than piss us off.

1487
01:21:32,415 --> 01:21:34,249
It broke our hearts.

1488
01:21:34,350 --> 01:21:36,615
What were they thinking?

1489
01:21:36,716 --> 01:21:41,982
You don't turn your backs on your warriors.

1490
01:21:42,083 --> 01:21:44,615
I didn't trust anybody anymore.

1491
01:21:46,083 --> 01:21:48,315
Just my family.

1492
01:21:48,415 --> 01:21:50,883
NARRATOR: Musgrave was so hurt

1493
01:21:50,983 --> 01:21:52,983
by the way some people treated him

1494
01:21:53,084 --> 01:21:56,416
that he volunteered to return to Vietnam.

1495
01:21:56,517 --> 01:22:00,151
Because of his injuries, the
Marines turned him down,

1496
01:22:00,250 --> 01:22:04,183
and asked him to help recruit men instead.

1497
01:22:04,284 --> 01:22:06,217
He did for a time,

1498
01:22:06,316 --> 01:22:09,316
but when students asked him
questions about the war

1499
01:22:09,416 --> 01:22:11,183
he couldn't answer,

1500
01:22:11,284 --> 01:22:12,383
he also began to read

1501
01:22:12,483 --> 01:22:16,816
about how and why it was being fought.

1502
01:22:16,916 --> 01:22:20,584
MUSGRAVE: I had friends in
country on a second tour,

1503
01:22:20,683 --> 01:22:23,785
and, you know, I, I was still...
considered myself a Marine.

1504
01:22:23,884 --> 01:22:26,684
and... and the more I read,

1505
01:22:26,785 --> 01:22:32,018
the less I found to be able
to defend our presence there.

1506
01:22:32,117 --> 01:22:36,152
So then, I, I just stopped
talking to everybody.

1507
01:22:36,251 --> 01:22:38,285
(dog barking)

1508
01:22:38,384 --> 01:22:42,352
NARRATOR: Musgrave gradually felt
as if he were being torn in two.

1509
01:22:42,451 --> 01:22:46,285
And he was still haunted by
the memory of those Marines

1510
01:22:46,384 --> 01:22:50,951
who had died while he had lived.

1511
01:22:51,052 --> 01:22:54,184
MUSGRAVE: I was dating my .45
in those years, you know.

1512
01:22:54,285 --> 01:22:56,985
Coming home at night after drinking,

1513
01:22:57,086 --> 01:22:59,118
and pressing it up against my temple,

1514
01:22:59,219 --> 01:23:02,118
or putting it under my chin,

1515
01:23:02,219 --> 01:23:04,519
wondering if this was gonna be the night

1516
01:23:04,618 --> 01:23:06,618
I was gonna have the guts to do it.

1517
01:23:08,353 --> 01:23:10,495
I'd had a round chambered, and
I'd taken the safety off.

1518
01:23:10,519 --> 01:23:12,818
Same kind of pistol I carried in Vietnam.

1519
01:23:15,418 --> 01:23:18,752
And I thought, "I'm really
gonna do it tonight."

1520
01:23:18,853 --> 01:23:22,653
You know, like, "Whew, I'm
really gonna do it," you know.

1521
01:23:22,752 --> 01:23:24,685
And my dogs... I'd let my dogs out.

1522
01:23:24,786 --> 01:23:26,318
I had two dogs.

1523
01:23:26,418 --> 01:23:27,952
And they jumped on the front door

1524
01:23:28,053 --> 01:23:29,354
and scratched on the front door.

1525
01:23:29,453 --> 01:23:31,220
They wanted in.

1526
01:23:31,319 --> 01:23:32,496
And I put the safety back on the pistol

1527
01:23:32,520 --> 01:23:34,287
and set it down and went and let 'em in.

1528
01:23:36,119 --> 01:23:38,787
And they were so open in their love for me

1529
01:23:38,886 --> 01:23:40,554
that I literally said out loud,

1530
01:23:40,654 --> 01:23:45,819
"Whoa, if I really want to do
this, I can do this tomorrow."

1531
01:23:45,919 --> 01:23:47,220
And I went back in the room,

1532
01:23:47,319 --> 01:23:49,186
and I put the pistol in the drawer, and...

1533
01:23:49,287 --> 01:23:52,220
and I... I think that
was the closest I came.

1534
01:23:52,319 --> 01:23:53,953
I think maybe I would have killed...

1535
01:23:54,054 --> 01:23:56,287
k-k-killed myself that night.

1536
01:23:56,386 --> 01:23:57,753
But something as simple

1537
01:23:57,854 --> 01:24:00,354
as my dogs wanting back in...

1538
01:24:00,453 --> 01:24:03,721
stopped that thought, you know.

1539
01:24:06,454 --> 01:24:09,454
I'm really glad that it didn't happen.

1540
01:24:09,555 --> 01:24:12,788
But at the time, it just
made so much sense.

1541
01:24:17,655 --> 01:24:19,588
NARRATOR: Richard Nixon's troop withdrawals

1542
01:24:19,687 --> 01:24:22,887
finally turned Musgrave against the war.

1543
01:24:22,987 --> 01:24:25,721
"If it ain't worth winning," he said,

1544
01:24:25,820 --> 01:24:28,120
"it ain't worth dying for."

1545
01:24:28,221 --> 01:24:30,820
His loyalty to the Marines

1546
01:24:30,920 --> 01:24:33,789
would not yet let him openly say that,

1547
01:24:33,888 --> 01:24:36,356
but he told a campus antiwar meeting

1548
01:24:36,455 --> 01:24:39,289
that they should stop acting
as if they didn't give a damn

1549
01:24:39,388 --> 01:24:42,188
about the men who had been asked to fight,

1550
01:24:42,289 --> 01:24:44,621
and received a standing ovation.

1551
01:24:48,856 --> 01:24:51,188
JACK TODD: The turning
point for me, I think,

1552
01:24:51,289 --> 01:24:54,289
was one evening I spent with
my friend Sonny Walter,

1553
01:24:54,388 --> 01:24:56,921
who had been, uh... just been
discharged from the Army,

1554
01:24:57,022 --> 01:24:59,589
and had come home and spent an evening

1555
01:24:59,688 --> 01:25:02,289
before I went in pleading
with me not to go.

1556
01:25:02,388 --> 01:25:04,955
He even offered to drive me to Canada.

1557
01:25:05,056 --> 01:25:07,622
He was showing me some
horrible pictures of Vietnam

1558
01:25:07,723 --> 01:25:09,456
from his own service there.

1559
01:25:11,357 --> 01:25:13,357
I think everything that happened after it

1560
01:25:13,456 --> 01:25:14,989
had its seeds in that evening.

1561
01:25:15,090 --> 01:25:17,090
("The Thrill is Gone" by B.B. King playing)

1562
01:25:17,189 --> 01:25:20,489
NARRATOR: While attending
the University of Nebraska,

1563
01:25:20,590 --> 01:25:24,389
Jack Todd had undergone
Marine officer training,

1564
01:25:24,489 --> 01:25:27,889
but bad knees had forced him to drop out

1565
01:25:27,989 --> 01:25:30,057
and he believed that exempted him

1566
01:25:30,157 --> 01:25:32,723
from having to take part in a war

1567
01:25:32,822 --> 01:25:35,389
he had come to see as immoral.

1568
01:25:35,489 --> 01:25:39,558
He began work as a reporter
onThe Miami Herald.

1569
01:25:39,658 --> 01:25:44,291
But in the autumn of 1969
he received a draft notice

1570
01:25:44,390 --> 01:25:46,658
from the Army anyway.

1571
01:25:46,757 --> 01:25:48,123
KING: ♪ The thrill is gone

1572
01:25:48,224 --> 01:25:49,591
TODD: So I went into my physical

1573
01:25:49,690 --> 01:25:51,770
and I showed them my discharge
from the Marine Corps

1574
01:25:51,823 --> 01:25:53,524
and I actually remember a sergeant,

1575
01:25:53,623 --> 01:25:55,034
or whoever I was talking to, saying,

1576
01:25:55,058 --> 01:25:57,224
"But, uh, you were discharged
from an officer program.

1577
01:25:57,323 --> 01:25:58,791
We're drafting you as a private."

1578
01:25:58,890 --> 01:26:00,957
(electric buzzing)

1579
01:26:01,058 --> 01:26:03,490
NARRATOR: In late November 1969,

1580
01:26:03,591 --> 01:26:07,923
Todd reported for basic training
at Fort Lewis, Washington.

1581
01:26:08,024 --> 01:26:09,957
KING: ♪ You know you done me wrong

1582
01:26:10,058 --> 01:26:12,025
TODD: Morale just could
not have been worse.

1583
01:26:12,124 --> 01:26:13,991
And-and it seemed to include

1584
01:26:14,092 --> 01:26:16,924
even the sergeants and the officers.

1585
01:26:17,025 --> 01:26:20,924
Nobody wanted to go. Nobody wanted to go.

1586
01:26:21,025 --> 01:26:24,359
America just seemed to have
shifted from the Woodstock high

1587
01:26:24,458 --> 01:26:25,559
of the summer to this...

1588
01:26:25,659 --> 01:26:28,824
this sort of bitter Nixonian low.

1589
01:26:28,924 --> 01:26:32,292
NARRATOR: Jack Todd and
another member of his unit

1590
01:26:32,391 --> 01:26:35,359
began to talk at night about what it meant

1591
01:26:35,458 --> 01:26:37,025
to be true to one's conscience.

1592
01:26:37,124 --> 01:26:39,025
("Farewell, Angelina" by Bob Dylan playing)

1593
01:26:41,258 --> 01:26:43,659
Some 170,000 men

1594
01:26:43,758 --> 01:26:46,093
were granted conscientious objector status

1595
01:26:46,192 --> 01:26:48,692
during the Vietnam era.

1596
01:26:48,793 --> 01:26:50,492
But because Jack Todd

1597
01:26:50,593 --> 01:26:52,793
questioned the existence of God,

1598
01:26:52,892 --> 01:26:56,560
that avenue was closed to him.

1599
01:26:56,660 --> 01:26:57,925
There were really two choices.

1600
01:26:58,026 --> 01:26:59,793
It was go to jail or go to Canada.

1601
01:26:59,892 --> 01:27:02,425
And, for me, going to jail was just...

1602
01:27:02,526 --> 01:27:04,425
That one, I couldn't face.

1603
01:27:04,526 --> 01:27:06,425
So I went to Canada.

1604
01:27:06,526 --> 01:27:10,226
DYLAN: ♪ Farewell, Angelina

1605
01:27:10,325 --> 01:27:14,259
♪ The bells of the crown

1606
01:27:14,360 --> 01:27:16,527
TODD: I remember that last beautiful drive,

1607
01:27:16,626 --> 01:27:19,161
from Seattle to Vancouver,

1608
01:27:19,260 --> 01:27:23,794
all the towering Douglas
firs along the road.

1609
01:27:23,893 --> 01:27:26,094
And I remember, after
we crossed the border...

1610
01:27:26,193 --> 01:27:28,693
it was a breeze, they just
sort of waved us through...

1611
01:27:28,794 --> 01:27:30,926
and just looking in the
rearview mirror, thinking,

1612
01:27:31,027 --> 01:27:32,294
"Man, there goes my country.

1613
01:27:32,393 --> 01:27:35,426
I'll never see it again."

1614
01:27:35,527 --> 01:27:38,626
DYLAN: ♪ But farewell, Angelina

1615
01:27:38,727 --> 01:27:41,960
♪ The night is on fire

1616
01:27:42,061 --> 01:27:43,960
♪ And I must go

1617
01:27:46,361 --> 01:27:48,993
I get called a coward all the time.

1618
01:27:49,095 --> 01:27:52,194
It took me a long time

1619
01:27:52,295 --> 01:27:54,761
not to feel that what I had done

1620
01:27:54,862 --> 01:27:57,461
was-was cowardly, because I still had

1621
01:27:57,562 --> 01:28:01,028
that military ingrained feeling inside.

1622
01:28:02,627 --> 01:28:05,728
That was the bravest thing I ever did.

1623
01:28:05,827 --> 01:28:07,827
It was the bravest thing I ever did.

1624
01:28:10,595 --> 01:28:14,194
NARRATOR: Jack Todd eventually
found work as a reporter,

1625
01:28:14,295 --> 01:28:17,295
which allowed him to gain
"landed immigrant status,"

1626
01:28:17,394 --> 01:28:20,728
a step toward Canadian citizenship.

1627
01:28:20,827 --> 01:28:25,328
Only a quarter of the
estimated 30,000 Americans

1628
01:28:25,428 --> 01:28:28,262
who crossed into Canada managed to do so.

1629
01:28:28,363 --> 01:28:30,596
DYLAN: ♪ The sky is erupting

1630
01:28:30,695 --> 01:28:34,395
♪ And I must go where it is quiet. ♪

1631
01:28:34,495 --> 01:28:37,695
NARRATOR: At the same time,
some 30,000 Canadians

1632
01:28:37,796 --> 01:28:41,262
would volunteer to fight in Vietnam.

1633
01:28:54,763 --> 01:28:56,329
(birds chirping in distance)

1634
01:29:00,097 --> 01:29:03,396
KUSHNER: I thought about...

1635
01:29:03,496 --> 01:29:05,463
my parents and my siblings

1636
01:29:05,564 --> 01:29:09,196
and my wife and my little girl.

1637
01:29:09,297 --> 01:29:12,730
And one of the things that
bothered me, is that I...

1638
01:29:12,829 --> 01:29:17,530
I couldn't really remember what
they looked like after a while.

1639
01:29:17,629 --> 01:29:19,996
I remembered what their
pictures looked like.

1640
01:29:20,097 --> 01:29:24,496
And when I imaged them in my mind's eye

1641
01:29:24,597 --> 01:29:28,065
I would image a picture, a photograph.

1642
01:29:30,731 --> 01:29:32,106
REPORTER: Valerie Kushner arrived on the...

1643
01:29:32,130 --> 01:29:34,231
NARRATOR: Hal Kushner's wife, Valerie,

1644
01:29:34,330 --> 01:29:36,430
had heard virtually nothing of her husband

1645
01:29:36,531 --> 01:29:40,231
since his capture by the Viet Cong in 1967,

1646
01:29:40,330 --> 01:29:42,964
and she had traveled to the Far East

1647
01:29:43,065 --> 01:29:45,430
to try to improve conditions for him.

1648
01:29:45,531 --> 01:29:48,830
I think my period of greatest frustration

1649
01:29:48,930 --> 01:29:51,830
was just before and just
after the birth of our son.

1650
01:29:51,930 --> 01:29:54,497
He was born in April of 1968

1651
01:29:54,598 --> 01:29:58,464
and my husband was captured
in November of 1967.

1652
01:29:58,565 --> 01:30:02,398
So my husband does not
yet know of his birth.

1653
01:30:02,498 --> 01:30:04,738
DON FARMER: With their father
gone, the Kushner children

1654
01:30:04,765 --> 01:30:07,866
rely heavily on their mother
and their grandparents.

1655
01:30:07,965 --> 01:30:09,445
Young Mike has never seen his father,

1656
01:30:09,532 --> 01:30:11,866
but six-year-old Toni-Jean remembers.

1657
01:30:11,965 --> 01:30:13,498
And the remembrances of Major Kushner

1658
01:30:13,599 --> 01:30:15,265
are everywhere in their house.

1659
01:30:15,366 --> 01:30:17,465
Toni, however, knows only that he's away,

1660
01:30:17,566 --> 01:30:19,275
that he's been captured,
that grandfather fills in

1661
01:30:19,299 --> 01:30:20,566
until Dad comes home.

1662
01:30:20,666 --> 01:30:24,532
The Kushners worry, but they do not grieve.

1663
01:30:24,631 --> 01:30:26,599
Don Farmer, ABC News, reporting.

1664
01:30:29,465 --> 01:30:31,366
(siren wailing in distance)

1665
01:30:33,499 --> 01:30:35,600
NARRATOR: In February 1970,

1666
01:30:35,699 --> 01:30:38,832
in a house in an industrial
suburb of Paris,

1667
01:30:38,932 --> 01:30:41,432
Henry Kissinger began a new series

1668
01:30:41,533 --> 01:30:44,999
of secret negotiations... talks so secret

1669
01:30:45,100 --> 01:30:49,266
even the secretary of state
was not told about them.

1670
01:30:49,367 --> 01:30:51,399
His negotiating partner

1671
01:30:51,499 --> 01:30:55,233
would be Le Duan's close
political ally, Le Duc Tho,

1672
01:30:55,332 --> 01:30:58,867
a veteran of 40 years of
revolutionary warfare

1673
01:30:58,966 --> 01:31:02,800
and party intrigue... shrewd, implacable,

1674
01:31:02,899 --> 01:31:06,601
and openly scornful of Vietnamization.

1675
01:31:06,700 --> 01:31:09,368
If the United States could not win

1676
01:31:09,467 --> 01:31:12,668
with half a million of its own
troops, he asked Kissinger,

1677
01:31:12,767 --> 01:31:15,433
"How can you succeed when
you let your puppet troops

1678
01:31:15,534 --> 01:31:17,833
do the fighting?"

1679
01:31:17,933 --> 01:31:21,133
The American admitted he had no answer.

1680
01:31:26,900 --> 01:31:29,101
Despite the impasse in Paris,

1681
01:31:29,200 --> 01:31:32,801
Nixon's first year had been a triumph.

1682
01:31:32,900 --> 01:31:38,968
He had withdrawn 115,000
troops from Vietnam.

1683
01:31:40,302 --> 01:31:43,501
American casualty figures were down.

1684
01:31:43,602 --> 01:31:46,169
Reduced draft calls

1685
01:31:46,268 --> 01:31:48,401
and the president's new lottery system

1686
01:31:48,501 --> 01:31:51,569
had blunted some opposition to the war.

1687
01:31:54,434 --> 01:31:56,901
And the violent actions
of some revolutionaries

1688
01:31:57,001 --> 01:32:00,602
were tarnishing the antiwar cause itself.

1689
01:32:00,701 --> 01:32:04,569
Between September 1969 and May 1970,

1690
01:32:04,669 --> 01:32:07,268
there would be hundreds of bombings...

1691
01:32:07,369 --> 01:32:09,201
banks and courthouses,

1692
01:32:09,302 --> 01:32:12,469
induction centers and ROTC buildings.

1693
01:32:12,570 --> 01:32:14,512
("Psychedelic Shack" by The
Temptations starts playing)

1694
01:32:14,536 --> 01:32:16,435
One police officer was killed.

1695
01:32:17,670 --> 01:32:19,070
Three would-be bombers

1696
01:32:19,170 --> 01:32:22,870
accidentally blew themselves
up in Greenwich Village.

1697
01:32:22,969 --> 01:32:25,135
TEMPTATIONS: ♪ Well, well

1698
01:32:25,236 --> 01:32:29,170
NANCY BIBERMAN: The antiwar
movement split apart.

1699
01:32:29,269 --> 01:32:32,036
And there were people who
felt that the only way

1700
01:32:32,135 --> 01:32:35,870
we were ever gonna end the war
was by becoming more violent.

1701
01:32:35,969 --> 01:32:38,803
You know, that we had to match
violence with violence.

1702
01:32:38,902 --> 01:32:43,636
How that was gonna happen
wasn't spoken about openly.

1703
01:32:43,737 --> 01:32:46,371
But there was just this undercurrent.

1704
01:32:46,470 --> 01:32:48,737
This is a plumbing pipe

1705
01:32:48,836 --> 01:32:52,270
completely full of gunpowder.

1706
01:32:52,371 --> 01:32:54,580
TEMPTATIONS: ♪ Music so high
you can't get over it ♪

1707
01:32:54,604 --> 01:32:57,003
NIXON: My fellow Americans,

1708
01:32:57,104 --> 01:32:59,671
we live in an age of anarchy,

1709
01:32:59,770 --> 01:33:02,304
both abroad and at home.

1710
01:33:03,804 --> 01:33:08,770
We see mindless attacks on
all the great institutions,

1711
01:33:08,871 --> 01:33:11,237
which have been created
by free civilizations

1712
01:33:11,336 --> 01:33:14,003
in the last 500 years.

1713
01:33:15,372 --> 01:33:17,504
Even here in the United States,

1714
01:33:17,605 --> 01:33:21,204
great universities are being
systematically destroyed.

1715
01:33:25,238 --> 01:33:27,971
If, when the chips are down,

1716
01:33:28,072 --> 01:33:30,572
the world's most powerful nation,

1717
01:33:30,672 --> 01:33:32,372
the United States of America,

1718
01:33:32,471 --> 01:33:37,337
acts like a pitiful, helpless giant,

1719
01:33:37,437 --> 01:33:41,137
the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy

1720
01:33:41,238 --> 01:33:43,904
will threaten free nations
and free institutions

1721
01:33:44,004 --> 01:33:45,572
throughout the world.

1722
01:33:45,672 --> 01:33:49,638
NARRATOR: On April 30, 1970,

1723
01:33:49,739 --> 01:33:51,505
President Nixon shocked the world

1724
01:33:51,606 --> 01:33:54,673
by announcing that he had
sent 30,000 American troops

1725
01:33:54,772 --> 01:33:58,405
storming into Cambodia.

1726
01:33:58,505 --> 01:34:01,573
The previous month, Prince Norodom Sihanouk

1727
01:34:01,673 --> 01:34:03,873
had been overthrown in a coup.

1728
01:34:03,972 --> 01:34:06,306
For years, he had allowed
the North Vietnamese

1729
01:34:06,405 --> 01:34:08,972
to keep sanctuaries in his country,

1730
01:34:09,073 --> 01:34:11,005
but he had not protested

1731
01:34:11,106 --> 01:34:14,606
when American planes bombed them.

1732
01:34:14,705 --> 01:34:17,306
The new president, Lon Nol,

1733
01:34:17,405 --> 01:34:21,273
was an anticommunist, backed
by the United States.

1734
01:34:21,374 --> 01:34:23,674
Nixon now felt he could do

1735
01:34:23,773 --> 01:34:27,406
what American generals had
been wanting to do for years...

1736
01:34:27,506 --> 01:34:31,273
pursue the enemy beyond the
borders of South Vietnam.

1737
01:34:32,773 --> 01:34:35,607
The 30,000 American troops

1738
01:34:35,706 --> 01:34:40,874
were joined by 50,000 ARVN soldiers.

1739
01:34:40,973 --> 01:34:42,906
The objective was to attack

1740
01:34:43,006 --> 01:34:45,674
North Vietnamese base
camps and supply lines

1741
01:34:45,773 --> 01:34:48,973
and to buy time for the
South Vietnamese Army

1742
01:34:49,074 --> 01:34:51,473
as it got ready to fight on its own.

1743
01:34:53,474 --> 01:34:55,741
Nixon told the public

1744
01:34:55,840 --> 01:34:59,407
he had ordered an "incursion,"
not an "invasion,"

1745
01:34:59,507 --> 01:35:04,041
intended only to protect
American boys in South Vietnam

1746
01:35:04,140 --> 01:35:08,308
and in response to North
Vietnamese "aggression."

1747
01:35:11,207 --> 01:35:15,075
GILLAM: I wasn't worried
about political conflict.

1748
01:35:15,175 --> 01:35:17,808
I was worried about, "Am I gonna be alive

1749
01:35:17,907 --> 01:35:19,375
in the next ten minutes?"

1750
01:35:20,974 --> 01:35:24,308
We were on the Western
edge of the invasion.

1751
01:35:24,407 --> 01:35:27,676
We went as far as anybody went in Cambodia.

1752
01:35:27,775 --> 01:35:28,941
(gunfire)

1753
01:35:29,042 --> 01:35:30,441
And it was a hot LZ.

1754
01:35:30,542 --> 01:35:35,242
I got holes shot in my backpack.

1755
01:35:35,341 --> 01:35:36,742
I was laying on my face

1756
01:35:36,841 --> 01:35:38,975
and they were shooting
holes in my backpack,

1757
01:35:39,076 --> 01:35:42,042
which means they missed my
head by maybe four inches.

1758
01:35:43,941 --> 01:35:47,275
I really didn't think I would
see the end of that week.

1759
01:35:47,376 --> 01:35:49,542
(gunfire)

1760
01:35:49,641 --> 01:35:51,542
(indistinct chatter on radio)

1761
01:35:53,676 --> 01:35:57,208
NARRATOR: The sight of American
troops crossing the border

1762
01:35:57,309 --> 01:36:01,243
into Cambodia reignited
the antiwar movement.

1763
01:36:01,342 --> 01:36:02,543
Come on, let's go!

1764
01:36:02,642 --> 01:36:04,743
NARRATOR: If the troops were coming home,

1765
01:36:04,842 --> 01:36:06,877
if the war was winding down,

1766
01:36:06,976 --> 01:36:10,877
why had Nixon decided to widen it?

1767
01:36:10,976 --> 01:36:13,776
How could invading another country

1768
01:36:13,877 --> 01:36:17,743
help bring peace to Southeast Asia?

1769
01:36:17,842 --> 01:36:19,543
HUNTLEY: The reaction on the campuses

1770
01:36:19,642 --> 01:36:21,142
was swift and predictable.

1771
01:36:21,243 --> 01:36:22,842
The students and many of their teachers

1772
01:36:22,942 --> 01:36:24,442
were against the president.

1773
01:36:24,543 --> 01:36:27,709
Princeton students called for
a nationwide student strike.

1774
01:36:27,810 --> 01:36:31,510
Antiwar rallies were planned
at Harvard, MIT, Indiana,

1775
01:36:31,611 --> 01:36:33,744
Purdue Universities and other colleges.

1776
01:36:39,010 --> 01:36:42,244
NARRATOR: On Monday morning, May 4, 1970,

1777
01:36:42,343 --> 01:36:44,843
some 2,000 students gathered on the commons

1778
01:36:44,943 --> 01:36:48,710
at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.

1779
01:36:48,811 --> 01:36:52,544
Some were simply moving
from class to class.

1780
01:36:52,643 --> 01:36:56,044
Others planned to attend a
rally called to protest

1781
01:36:56,143 --> 01:36:58,744
Nixon's widening of the war

1782
01:36:58,843 --> 01:37:04,612
and the presence of the Ohio
National Guard on campus.

1783
01:37:04,711 --> 01:37:07,745
Governor James Rhodes had
called in the guardsmen

1784
01:37:07,844 --> 01:37:09,211
two days earlier

1785
01:37:09,312 --> 01:37:14,778
after a mob set the old
wooden ROTC building on fire

1786
01:37:14,879 --> 01:37:16,778
and then prevented the fire department

1787
01:37:16,879 --> 01:37:19,245
from putting out the flames.

1788
01:37:22,211 --> 01:37:26,245
Rhodes had compared protestors
to Nazi brownshirts

1789
01:37:26,344 --> 01:37:29,778
and promised to use "every
weapon to eradicate

1790
01:37:29,879 --> 01:37:34,112
the worst sort of people
we harbor in America."

1791
01:37:34,211 --> 01:37:36,113
(bell clanging)

1792
01:37:38,746 --> 01:37:43,979
The guardsmen's weapons were
loaded with live ammunition,

1793
01:37:44,080 --> 01:37:45,813
though no one in the crowd knew it.

1794
01:37:45,912 --> 01:37:49,080
MAN: Why do you have to have a gun?!
I don't understand!

1795
01:37:49,180 --> 01:37:52,046
MAN (on megaphone): Leave
this area immediately!

1796
01:37:52,145 --> 01:37:55,912
NARRATOR: The students
were ordered to disperse.

1797
01:37:56,012 --> 01:37:57,645
They stood their ground.

1798
01:37:57,746 --> 01:37:59,645
(shouting)

1799
01:38:03,746 --> 01:38:06,912
Tear gas scattered some of them.

1800
01:38:07,012 --> 01:38:08,913
(shouting)

1801
01:38:26,181 --> 01:38:30,047
The guardsmen seemed to fall back.

1802
01:38:30,146 --> 01:38:34,247
But then members of Troop G
wheeled around and opened fire

1803
01:38:34,346 --> 01:38:38,381
on students gathered in
and around a parking lot.

1804
01:38:40,381 --> 01:38:43,182
(distorted gunshots echoing)

1805
01:39:09,847 --> 01:39:12,014
PROTESTOR: Somebody call for an ambulance!

1806
01:39:12,115 --> 01:39:13,683
(others shouting)

1807
01:39:13,782 --> 01:39:16,749
There's people dying down here!
Get an ambulance up here!

1808
01:39:16,848 --> 01:39:18,749
(indistinct shouting)

1809
01:39:23,415 --> 01:39:26,782
NARRATOR: 67 rounds in 13 seconds

1810
01:39:26,883 --> 01:39:31,282
killed two young women and two young men...

1811
01:39:34,183 --> 01:39:37,348
Including an ROTC scholarship student

1812
01:39:37,448 --> 01:39:39,915
who had simply been an onlooker.

1813
01:39:45,616 --> 01:39:50,317
SAM HYNES: That dead child on the ground

1814
01:39:50,416 --> 01:39:53,716
was one of ours.

1815
01:39:53,817 --> 01:39:57,117
If we could kill our own students,

1816
01:39:57,216 --> 01:40:02,317
uh, what had happened to our country?

1817
01:40:04,416 --> 01:40:07,283
NARRATOR: Nine more students were wounded,

1818
01:40:07,384 --> 01:40:11,349
one of whom was permanently paralyzed.

1819
01:40:23,717 --> 01:40:28,085
Several hundred angry,
grieving students sat down

1820
01:40:28,185 --> 01:40:30,217
and demanded to know why the guardsmen

1821
01:40:30,318 --> 01:40:32,217
had fired on their friends.

1822
01:40:35,717 --> 01:40:38,551
MAN: Sir, you've got a
couple hundred students...

1823
01:40:38,650 --> 01:40:40,017
NARRATOR: An officer ordered them

1824
01:40:40,118 --> 01:40:41,885
to "disperse or we will shoot again."

1825
01:40:41,984 --> 01:40:44,885
How long will you give us?
You've got five minutes.

1826
01:40:44,984 --> 01:40:47,885
GLENN FRANK: Please listen to me right now!

1827
01:40:47,984 --> 01:40:50,484
NARRATOR: Only the anguished pleas

1828
01:40:50,585 --> 01:40:55,151
of geology professor Glenn
Frank averted further tragedy.

1829
01:40:55,252 --> 01:40:56,951
STUDENT: Talk, Dr. Frank. Talk.

1830
01:41:14,485 --> 01:41:17,619
(indistinct voices)

1831
01:41:22,351 --> 01:41:25,187
MIKE HEANEY: That just symbolized for me

1832
01:41:25,286 --> 01:41:29,152
what this war was doing to our culture.

1833
01:41:29,253 --> 01:41:31,019
These were kids on both sides,

1834
01:41:31,120 --> 01:41:33,887
young National Guard boys

1835
01:41:33,986 --> 01:41:37,253
who had very little training
and probably scared,

1836
01:41:37,352 --> 01:41:39,486
and not well led

1837
01:41:39,587 --> 01:41:41,387
and-and young men and
women on the other side

1838
01:41:41,452 --> 01:41:42,952
protesting the war out there

1839
01:41:43,053 --> 01:41:45,286
for, you know, idealistic reasons.

1840
01:41:45,387 --> 01:41:47,919
And look at what happens

1841
01:41:48,019 --> 01:41:54,053
when we let things get as bad as they got.

1842
01:41:54,152 --> 01:41:55,786
("Woodstock" by Joni Mitchell playing)

1843
01:41:55,887 --> 01:41:58,453
NARRATOR: According to one national poll,

1844
01:41:58,554 --> 01:42:01,321
58% of the American people

1845
01:42:01,420 --> 01:42:04,254
thought the killings justified.

1846
01:42:07,220 --> 01:42:10,453
The parents of the dead ROTC student

1847
01:42:10,554 --> 01:42:13,188
received a flood of hate mail,

1848
01:42:13,287 --> 01:42:16,653
suggesting that they should be
grateful their boy was dead

1849
01:42:16,754 --> 01:42:21,321
since he'd been "just another communist."

1850
01:42:22,453 --> 01:42:26,420
(man speaking indistinctly over megaphone)

1851
01:42:26,520 --> 01:42:30,021
During the days that followed,
all across the country,

1852
01:42:30,122 --> 01:42:32,689
more than four million college students

1853
01:42:32,788 --> 01:42:34,689
demonstrated against the war

1854
01:42:34,788 --> 01:42:37,721
and what had happened at Kent State.

1855
01:42:40,255 --> 01:42:44,221
MITCHELL: ♪ I came upon a child of God

1856
01:42:44,322 --> 01:42:48,822
♪ He was walking along the road ♪

1857
01:42:48,921 --> 01:42:50,788
♪ And I asked him

1858
01:42:50,889 --> 01:42:53,089
♪ Where are you going?

1859
01:42:53,189 --> 01:42:57,055
♪ And this he told me

1860
01:42:57,154 --> 01:43:01,823
NARRATOR: 448 campuses closed down,

1861
01:43:01,922 --> 01:43:07,489
and the National Guard was
called out in 16 states.

1862
01:43:07,590 --> 01:43:08,823
MITCHELL: ♪ Band

1863
01:43:08,922 --> 01:43:10,955
♪ I'm gonna camp out

1864
01:43:11,056 --> 01:43:14,623
NARRATOR: At Jackson State
University in Mississippi,

1865
01:43:14,722 --> 01:43:18,890
state police opened fire on a dormitory.

1866
01:43:18,989 --> 01:43:20,823
Two students died.

1867
01:43:20,922 --> 01:43:23,823
12 more were wounded.

1868
01:43:25,823 --> 01:43:27,855
Jackson State, those were my people.

1869
01:43:27,955 --> 01:43:29,789
Those were black kids.

1870
01:43:29,890 --> 01:43:32,123
And they died.

1871
01:43:32,222 --> 01:43:35,624
MITCHELL: ♪ Back to the garden

1872
01:43:35,723 --> 01:43:38,023
NARRATOR: Army private Tim O'Brien

1873
01:43:38,124 --> 01:43:41,824
was now back home in Minnesota.

1874
01:43:41,923 --> 01:43:45,391
O'BRIEN: There was a huge march

1875
01:43:45,490 --> 01:43:47,290
after the Kent State shootings in St. Paul,

1876
01:43:47,391 --> 01:43:49,656
and I joined the march.

1877
01:43:49,757 --> 01:43:54,923
I just wanted to put my body
amidst these 100,000 people,

1878
01:43:55,023 --> 01:43:58,191
that word "no" being uttered by
my body, if not by my mouth,

1879
01:43:58,290 --> 01:43:59,691
by just making that march.

1880
01:43:59,790 --> 01:44:03,290
That same march I was doing in Vietnam

1881
01:44:03,391 --> 01:44:05,656
that seemed senseless and purposeless

1882
01:44:05,757 --> 01:44:06,892
and without direction,

1883
01:44:06,991 --> 01:44:09,825
here it felt sensible and purposeful

1884
01:44:09,924 --> 01:44:13,258
and with direction, heading
for that state capital

1885
01:44:13,357 --> 01:44:16,657
to say no.

1886
01:44:16,758 --> 01:44:19,957
And, boy, did it feel good.

1887
01:44:20,058 --> 01:44:21,957
(chanting "Peace now")

1888
01:44:24,892 --> 01:44:26,724
NARRATOR: Marine Corporal Bill Ehrhart

1889
01:44:26,825 --> 01:44:29,258
was a student at Swarthmore College

1890
01:44:29,357 --> 01:44:33,424
near his hometown in eastern Pennsylvania.

1891
01:44:33,524 --> 01:44:37,957
EHRHART: And here's this
very famous photograph.

1892
01:44:38,058 --> 01:44:40,893
And I just looked at this thing.

1893
01:44:45,158 --> 01:44:46,658
And I came unglued.

1894
01:44:48,925 --> 01:44:52,292
I don't know how long I
sat down on the curb,

1895
01:44:52,393 --> 01:44:55,826
and I don't know if I was
there for 15 minutes

1896
01:44:55,925 --> 01:44:57,358
or an hour and a half.

1897
01:44:57,458 --> 01:44:59,693
Just had a breakdown.

1898
01:44:59,792 --> 01:45:03,458
Just crying, sobbing uncontrollably.

1899
01:45:03,559 --> 01:45:05,401
All I could think was, "It's
not enough to send us

1900
01:45:05,425 --> 01:45:07,759
"halfway around the world to die.

1901
01:45:07,858 --> 01:45:10,626
"Now they're killing us in the
streets of our own country.

1902
01:45:10,725 --> 01:45:12,094
I have to do something."

1903
01:45:14,127 --> 01:45:15,260
And I finally...

1904
01:45:15,359 --> 01:45:17,159
whenever I finally cried myself out,

1905
01:45:17,260 --> 01:45:19,726
I got up and I joined the antiwar movement.

1906
01:45:22,993 --> 01:45:27,359
MUSGRAVE: I remember when the
kids were killed at Kent State,

1907
01:45:27,459 --> 01:45:30,159
and I thought,

1908
01:45:30,260 --> 01:45:33,426
"My God, we're killing
our own children now.

1909
01:45:33,526 --> 01:45:35,260
We've really gone mad."

1910
01:45:35,359 --> 01:45:36,659
And I wasn't...

1911
01:45:36,760 --> 01:45:39,659
That's when I was hiding from things.

1912
01:45:39,760 --> 01:45:41,694
I wasn't in anybody's movement then.

1913
01:45:41,793 --> 01:45:43,459
I was just drinking.

1914
01:45:45,561 --> 01:45:50,895
But that was one of the things that told me

1915
01:45:50,994 --> 01:45:53,294
America needed a wake-up call.

1916
01:46:00,328 --> 01:46:03,460
("Ohio" by Crosby, Stills,
Nash and Young playing)

1917
01:46:26,528 --> 01:46:29,361
♪ Tin soldiers and Nixon's coming ♪

1918
01:46:29,461 --> 01:46:32,329
♪ We're finally on our own

1919
01:46:32,428 --> 01:46:35,762
♪ This summer I hear the drumming ♪

1920
01:46:35,861 --> 01:46:39,528
♪ Four dead in Ohio

1921
01:46:39,629 --> 01:46:42,329
♪ Got to get down to it

1922
01:46:42,428 --> 01:46:45,728
♪ Soldiers are cutting us down

1923
01:46:45,829 --> 01:46:49,461
♪ Should have been done long ago ♪

1924
01:46:51,996 --> 01:46:53,563
♪ What if you knew her

1925
01:46:53,662 --> 01:46:57,296
♪ And found her dead on the ground? ♪

1926
01:46:57,397 --> 01:47:01,496
♪ How can you run when you know? ♪

1927
01:47:01,597 --> 01:47:03,496
♪

1928
01:47:22,530 --> 01:47:24,930
♪ La la-la-la, la la la la ♪

1929
01:47:25,030 --> 01:47:28,797
♪ La la-la-la, la la la ♪

1930
01:47:28,898 --> 01:47:31,898
♪ La la-la-la, la la la la ♪

1931
01:47:31,997 --> 01:47:35,297
♪ La la-la-la, la la la ♪

1932
01:47:35,398 --> 01:47:37,797
♪ Got to get down to it

1933
01:47:37,898 --> 01:47:41,430
♪ Soldiers are cutting us down

1934
01:47:41,530 --> 01:47:45,297
♪ Should have been done long ago ♪

1935
01:47:47,698 --> 01:47:49,698
♪ What if you knew her

1936
01:47:49,797 --> 01:47:53,764
♪ And found her dead on the ground? ♪

1937
01:47:53,863 --> 01:47:57,498
♪ How can you run when you know? ♪

1938
01:47:57,599 --> 01:47:59,498
♪

1939
01:48:17,731 --> 01:48:20,599
♪ Tin soldiers and Nixon's coming ♪

1940
01:48:20,699 --> 01:48:23,798
♪ We're finally on our own

1941
01:48:23,899 --> 01:48:26,798
♪ This summer I hear the drumming ♪

1942
01:48:26,899 --> 01:48:29,266
♪ Four dead in Ohio

1943
01:48:29,365 --> 01:48:32,432
♪ Four dead in Ohio ♪ Four

1944
01:48:32,532 --> 01:48:34,700
♪ Four dead in Ohio

1945
01:48:34,799 --> 01:48:37,633
♪ Four ♪ Four dead in Ohio

1946
01:48:37,732 --> 01:48:40,299
♪ How could they? ♪ Four dead in Ohio

1947
01:48:40,400 --> 01:48:43,499
♪ How many more? ♪ Four dead in Ohio

1948
01:48:43,600 --> 01:48:48,066
♪ Why? ♪ Four dead in...