1 00:03:08,020 --> 00:03:09,640 It's very much to their advantage 2 00:03:09,640 --> 00:03:11,810 to have a negotiation to get us the hell out 3 00:03:11,810 --> 00:03:13,400 and-- and give us those prisoners. 4 00:03:13,400 --> 00:03:14,560 That's right. 5 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:17,360 If they'll make that kind of a deal, we'll make that 6 00:03:17,360 --> 00:03:18,610 any time they're ready. 7 00:03:18,610 --> 00:03:21,450 Well, we've got to get enough time to get out. 8 00:03:21,450 --> 00:03:25,620 We can't have it knocked over brutal-- to put it brutally, before the election. 9 00:03:25,620 --> 00:03:26,910 That's right. 10 00:04:20,130 --> 00:04:21,710 If a year or two years from now, 11 00:04:21,710 --> 00:04:23,760 North Vietnam gobbles up South Vietnam, 12 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:25,680 we can have a viable foreign policy 13 00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:28,180 if it looks as if it's the result 14 00:04:28,180 --> 00:04:29,930 of South Vietnamese incompetence... 15 00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:32,980 So we've got to find some formula... 16 00:04:34,890 --> 00:04:37,770 that holds the thing together a year or two, 17 00:04:37,770 --> 00:04:41,400 after which, after a year, Mr. President, 18 00:04:41,400 --> 00:04:43,440 Vietnam will be a backwater. 19 00:04:44,030 --> 00:04:49,200 If we settle it, say, this October, by January '74, no one will give a damn. 20 00:07:20,230 --> 00:07:23,060 Our spirit was high then. 21 00:07:23,860 --> 00:07:28,690 We lost a lot of people, but not as much as the other side. 22 00:09:41,830 --> 00:09:45,080 Kissinger was so... confident 23 00:09:45,080 --> 00:09:50,000 that he could shove down our throat that draft agreement. 24 00:09:51,540 --> 00:09:53,960 But, the big contention issue was 25 00:09:53,960 --> 00:09:57,800 the North Vietnamese troops still remain in Vietnam. 26 00:09:59,050 --> 00:10:01,430 I was able to tell my boss, "Hey, man, that guy, he's--" 27 00:10:01,430 --> 00:10:03,640 "He's full of something, okay?" 28 00:10:05,980 --> 00:10:11,770 I reaffirm again that the whole people of South Vietnam will resist again 29 00:10:12,270 --> 00:10:16,190 any peace which demands rendition of South Vietnam 30 00:10:16,190 --> 00:10:20,030 and which will give South Vietnam to the Communist aggressors. 31 00:12:54,350 --> 00:12:57,520 There was at some point that, you know, we could not negotiate anymore. 32 00:12:57,520 --> 00:12:59,770 Nixon at that time basically said, 33 00:12:59,770 --> 00:13:02,860 "If you guys don't sign, we're going to go alone." 34 00:13:03,360 --> 00:13:08,200 That means the end of help and assistance to South Vietnam. 35 00:13:09,490 --> 00:13:15,080 So we said to ourselves, "Okay, the Americans promised to help us." 36 00:13:15,790 --> 00:13:19,380 "We believe that the US will be on our side to execute it." 37 00:13:26,680 --> 00:13:29,800 They started bombing us on December 18th, 38 00:13:29,800 --> 00:13:32,720 and in January 1973, the Paris Peace Accords were signed. 39 00:20:12,080 --> 00:20:14,540 And after the treaty was signed, 40 00:20:15,040 --> 00:20:20,090 the whole, if you will, political climate in the US has changed. 41 00:20:21,470 --> 00:20:24,180 Nixon, at that time, was consumed by Watergate. 42 00:22:26,800 --> 00:22:28,920 As a-- a student of American government, 43 00:22:28,930 --> 00:22:32,260 I understood the executive's totally powerless now. 44 00:22:33,100 --> 00:22:36,770 After being embroiled in the Watergate, Nixon had no power. 45 00:25:30,070 --> 00:25:34,990 Ambassador Martin thinks that he can save South Vietnam, 46 00:25:34,990 --> 00:25:37,110 in spite of all the odds. 47 00:25:38,070 --> 00:25:39,990 I don't want to use the word "delusional," 48 00:25:39,990 --> 00:25:42,870 because he should have seen the writing on the wall. 49 00:37:53,720 --> 00:37:59,230 We searched and destroyed. We were strongly determined to kill them. 50 00:37:59,230 --> 00:38:02,480 That's how our spirit of intense fighting spread further south. 51 00:38:02,480 --> 00:38:04,940 We killed them along the withdrawal route. 52 00:38:05,530 --> 00:38:08,740 They withdrew in chaos. 53 00:38:18,960 --> 00:38:20,960 Our vehicles ran over them. 54 00:38:20,960 --> 00:38:24,210 We drove ahead of them, and no one shot anyone. 55 00:38:24,210 --> 00:38:27,720 When they heard us honk, they scattered. 56 00:41:50,090 --> 00:41:52,000 The Americans fought a war here 57 00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:54,260 without success and went home. 58 00:41:55,880 --> 00:41:57,630 They promised if the Communists invaded again, 59 00:41:57,640 --> 00:41:59,890 there'd be action taken. But there's been no reaction. 60 00:42:00,600 --> 00:42:02,890 Therefore, the least they can do is to send us more support, 61 00:42:02,890 --> 00:42:04,350 but they have not sent it. 62 00:42:06,560 --> 00:42:08,350 What does this amount to? 63 00:42:08,350 --> 00:42:12,150 Breaching promises, unfairness, a lack of righteousness, 64 00:42:13,690 --> 00:42:17,490 inhumane treatment towards an ally that is suffering, 65 00:42:18,860 --> 00:42:21,660 the shirking of responsibility of a superpower. 66 00:56:52,570 --> 00:56:55,240 With the evacuation, I think, 67 00:56:55,240 --> 00:56:59,870 as far as the, um, performance of the, um, Navy 68 00:56:59,870 --> 00:57:02,290 was absolutely, totally superb. 69 00:57:17,640 --> 00:57:19,470 I work for the American staff. 70 00:57:29,320 --> 00:57:30,360 Yes, I know that. 71 00:57:30,360 --> 00:57:33,320 But I must come in case-- just in case. 72 00:57:38,160 --> 00:57:39,530 Can you help, uh, us? 73 00:58:12,690 --> 00:58:16,570 I was standing in front of the Presidential Palace in Saigon. 74 00:58:16,570 --> 00:58:22,410 We saw the tanks from North Vietnam moving into the palace. 75 00:58:23,040 --> 00:58:25,910 It looked like a bad dream, like a nightmare. 76 00:58:27,210 --> 00:58:30,880 That palace is a symbol of freedom, 77 00:58:30,880 --> 00:58:33,380 of the goodness that we've been fighting for. 78 00:58:38,260 --> 00:58:40,970 I photographed tanks that entered the Independence Palace. 79 00:58:44,430 --> 00:58:46,350 As it pertains to photography, 80 00:58:46,350 --> 00:58:49,980 this image is now considered a symbol of the 1975 victory. 81 00:58:54,360 --> 00:58:56,860 When the tanks bulldozed through the gates 82 00:58:56,860 --> 00:58:58,530 of the Independence Palace, 83 00:58:58,530 --> 00:59:04,240 my heart was filled with extreme joy but also full of immense pain. 84 00:59:04,950 --> 00:59:08,460 Happiness that there was peace again, 85 00:59:08,460 --> 00:59:12,460 but remember my comrades and my brothers 86 00:59:12,460 --> 00:59:16,460 who sacrificed their lives all over Saigon. 87 00:59:16,460 --> 00:59:19,800 I will never forget it for a second, even a minute. 88 00:59:32,610 --> 00:59:35,360 I replied, "The South is liberated, the South is liberated!" 89 00:59:35,360 --> 00:59:37,900 Everyone was baffled. No one believed it. 90 00:59:42,280 --> 00:59:45,580 The feeling was indescribable. 91 00:59:48,120 --> 00:59:51,370 How do you feel if you win the match? 92 00:59:51,960 --> 00:59:54,540 We rejoiced that day. 93 00:59:57,920 --> 01:00:02,180 When Saigon fell, I assessed 100% that the Americans lost. 94 01:00:02,180 --> 01:00:04,760 And this was the last battle. 95 01:00:06,680 --> 01:00:09,680 We said that, "Now the liberation soldiers 96 01:00:10,640 --> 01:00:14,900 have returned to Saigon, 'Hồ Chí Minh City.'" 97 01:00:16,520 --> 01:00:22,280 The American newspaper Time published a large cover photo of Hồ Chí Minh 98 01:00:25,370 --> 01:00:29,540 and a mark for Saigon declaring "Hồ Chí Minh City." 99 01:01:09,620 --> 01:01:12,830 Everything we hoped for, everything we're fighting for, 100 01:01:12,830 --> 01:01:14,870 disappeared in front of me. 101 01:08:06,410 --> 01:08:09,290 After the "War of Peace," the reconstruction, 102 01:08:09,290 --> 01:08:12,920 the Communist Party paid attention and took care of my family and me. 103 01:08:12,920 --> 01:08:17,670 We were given a house and were able to build a metal roof. 104 01:08:17,670 --> 01:08:21,840 Before, we could never afford a metal roof. 105 01:11:47,300 --> 01:11:50,550 We could not contain the pain of millions of Vietnamese mothers 106 01:11:50,550 --> 01:11:52,010 whose children died in Vietnam, 107 01:11:52,010 --> 01:11:56,850 nor could America contain the pain of 50,000 families. 108 01:11:57,930 --> 01:12:04,020 So, we must understand the past to build the future. 109 01:19:01,150 --> 01:19:03,570 Even though we hear that a lot, "Thank you for your service," 110 01:19:03,570 --> 01:19:05,610 you can't say that to them. 111 01:19:05,610 --> 01:19:07,240 I'd really like to say, 112 01:19:08,490 --> 01:19:09,490 "I'm sorry."