All language subtitles for VIETNAM - Ten Thousand Day War - 8 - Documentary (1980)

[Applause]

as the war in Vietnam escalates so does

protest against it

much of the anger is focused on

President Lyndon Johnson it becomes the

most violent descent in America since

the Civil War

President Johnson steps down but public

bitterness spreads

May 1970

on a Small Town campus the Vietnam War

comes home to America

at Kent State University National

Guardsmen open fire on protesters

four students die

during the Nixon presidency America is

divided over Vietnam as never before

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

October 67 the march on the Pentagon

culminates a year of rising protest over

Vietnam

more than 50,000 Gathering

it is the first of many anti-war marches

against the federal government

and it brings together the diverse

elements of the peace movement pacifists

Communists black militants students and

professors their only point of agreement

stop the war in Vietnam

[Applause]

the Pentagon protest has two main

factions the pacifists and the student

activists led by Jerry Rubin we had to

create the image of a massive outpouring

of public reaction against the war aimed

at the Pentagon I believe the Pentagon

demonstration was the turning point in

the antiw Warford I believe was the most

important demonstration that took place

in the entire decade against the war

including Chicago I believed it it

captured the imagination of young people

and my idea was that the anti-war

movement had to be daring had to be bold

had to be confrontational had to had had

how to really grab the imagination of

the country and so we said we're going

to close down the Pentagon no halfway

measures

as the huge protest March Begins the

pacifist group tries to keep order

it's been peaceful so far not keep it

that way it's for our Trad that it's

peaceful now stop here

the militants however are prepared for

violence Jerry Ruben the only way this

war is going to end it is if we have war

in the streets and when people see

there's going to be war in the streets

of America then they're going to stop

dropping bombs on Vietnam 10,000 miles

away to stop the war at home

[Applause]

I hope to build a mass movement that

that would reach into every level of

American society that would use use

Vietnam as a model for understanding

what social changes are needed at home

so I saw the anti-war struggle as a

moral crusade to wake up the the the the

slumbering morality that exists in all

of us and that exists in this country if

the Vietnam war did not exist we would

have had to create it

have no fear of escalation I am trying

everyone to be

10,000 police national Guardsmen and

soldiers assembled to protect the

Pentagon

the troops carry tear gas and heavy

trunions but their rifles are not loaded

going

[Applause]

the demonstrators are beaten back from

the pentagon's main entrance

[Applause]

close to a thousand are arrested during

the weekend confrontation

the Johnson Administration seized the

peace movement as prolonging the war

Secretary of State Dean Rusk if we had

seen 50,000 people demonstrating around

the headquarters in Hanoi calling for

peace we would have thought the war was

over and we would have been right but

they could see 50,000 people

demonstrating around the Pentagon in

Washington so what conclusions would

they draw from that I think there were

those who persuaded them not to come to

the conference table not to try to find

a peaceful solution but to persist and

win politically what they could not win

militarily and in that judgment it

turned out they were right

the fear of domestic violence rallies

the public behind President Johnson

pacifist leader David delinger is

disappointed at that time there was a

crisis of confidence within the movement

we didn't shut down the Pentagon

uh the war was continuing and a lot of

people began to think we didn't have the

power that that uh we should have

by late 67 nearly half a million US

troops are in Vietnam

16,000 Americans have died in combat

the US increases pressure on North

Vietnam and now bombs industrial targets

close to the cities delinger visits

North Vietnam the theory was that they

were bombing only steel and concrete

that were there were was a surgical war

that they were uh you know maintaining

humanitarian standards when I got over

there I found out that churches schools

hospitals houses

uh entire Villages were being wiped out

people just discovered that the United

States was fighting an entirely

different kind of War than claimed and

it was violating all of the

international laws of War President

Johnson responds

I understand the feelings of those who

regret that we must undertake our

attacks I share those feelings

we have carefully limited those raids

they've been directed at concrete and

steel and not human lives

I brought back for example an

anti-personnel bomb

each of them released these little

pellets which were absolutely useless

against steel and concrete to use

Johnson's phrase and were only good

against people

prominent anti-war activists are invited

to North Vietnam their accounts of

Civilian destruction fueled the growing

anti-war movement

this is part of hano's strategy

North Vietnamese Diplomat haran la

we considered the anti-war movement in

the United States to be one of the

important factors

which helped us to win the Victory and

end the war

America's traditional allies turn

against it over Vietnam the British

labor government is mildly critical but

militants Riot outside the US Embassy

[Applause]

in France both government and public

strongly oppose a war they abandoned 13

years earlier

December 67 President Johnson visits

Australia which has 8,000 combat troops

in Vietnam

but anti-war feeling confronts Johnson

wherever he goes internationally the war

is seen as a David and Goliath struggle

with the world cheering David

the hostility of its friends sharpens

America's internal divisions

in Congress the influential chairman of

the Foreign Relations Committee urges

peace Senator William Fulbright well I

made up my mind a good while ago that I

do not think that the vital interest of

the United States is involved in Vietnam

and that the wise course for this

country to take is to seek a political

settlement

the president is increasingly intolerant

of opposition and moves advisers who

question his policies Fulbright is

shunned the president of course made

public speeches I was there one day out

at the Armory when I wasn't any farther

from here am to you and that was when he

used the phrase the nervous Nellies and

the Sunshine Patriots and no one stand

up to support the president and

everybody hoops and hollered and you you

were made to to look like a a uh

you know a a

traitor in effect

[Applause]

parades to support the war become as

frequent as the protests

most Americans fear that the anti-war

movement May encourage much wider racial

and social unrest

[Applause]

[Music]

the war divides the churches two

Catholic priests the baragan brothers

become National anti-war leaders father

Daniel bargan we are ready for more jail

and more trials and more conspiracy

indictments

and this not because we are grown

cynical or interiorly violent ourselves

but because we look upon Caesar

with a skeptical and temperate and

mature eye of the Christian

leaders swing the powerful civil rights

movement against the war they charge

that black soldiers are fighting and

dying in disproportionate numbers

militant stokeley carival there is no

need to go to Vietnam and shoot somebody

who a honky says is your enemy we going

to shoot the cops who are shooting our

black Brothers in the back in this

country that's where we going

but when I die I'm going die with my

boots on and it's going to be in this

country is going to be fighting for what

I know is right the liberation of black

people nothing else nothing else and

what we going to say across this country

from Muhammad Ali to the little black

boy in cordoza high school hell no we

won't go

[Music]

1968

Vietnam's distant battles reach closer

to America

the US command land in Vietnam want

670,000 troops and wants mobilization of

Civilian reserves

anti-war protest increases as more and

more Young Americans are personally

affected by the draft

the callup reaches into small towns for

younger men

in Westchester California 19-year-old

Larry Francis has returned his draft

card as a protest

the Army then speeds his callup

this is the day he is supposed to report

for induction his friends gather to

encourage him

[Applause]

he is supported by his parents

[Music]

Larry Francis tells his local draft

board that he won't go to Vietnam

thousands choose prison rather than

register for service

world

and the way we're messing ourselves up

shows in many ways

it shows in the fact that at this very

moment 500,000

of our friends and our brothers are

killing and dying in a jungle 10,000

miles away

and it shows in those cards we all carry

in our pockets

well I'm finished I'm a free man today

but I ain't marching anymore

it's always the old who lead us to the

wars always the young to fall

but I ain't a Martin anymore

no I ain't a Martin any

a celebrity who successfully fights the

draft on religious terms boxing champion

Muhammad Ali I rather face machine gun

fire before uh deviate from the

teachings of almighty God and the

religion of Islam I would die Ali says

he would go down fighting rather than go

to Vietnam or to jail I'm not saying

where I will go I'm just letting you

know that I'm going to stick 1,000% to

my religious beliefs even if it means

die you figure out the rest

men attending University cannot be

called into the military so American

Universities at the heart of the

anti-war cause

some who join the campus protesters

bring World attention Joan buers with

their songs husband David Harris by

going to jail it was grossly unfair and

and if the if America was going to fight

Wars you know uh uh white college kids

ought to fight them every bit as much as

as as blacks and chos

so my First Act was to refuse to accept

a student deferment and uh failing all

other things to have left the country

but my feeling was it was my country

country and that if anybody ought to

leave I thought Lyndon Johnson should be

the one leaving not me Harris serves 20

months of a 2-year sentence

well I did more time than any of the

Watergate people except Howard hunt and

Gordon ly you know and uh you know I uh

the real criminals of that period never

did any time

40,000 draft Dodgers and deserters leave

America

30,000 go to Canada where many will stay

on years after the war

by 1968 American combat deaths exceed

1,000 a month a senior Democrat decides

to oppose President Johnson and seek the

presidency on an anti-war ticket Senator

Eugene McCarthy I said that the that the

opposition to the war would begin to

develop when they when they were sending

bodies back not to Louisville Kentucky

and Memphis and New York but when they

begin to come back into towns of five or

10,000 or smaller communities that these

are historic events in a town of that

size and so and so the sun has been

brought back dead and been buried here

as the death rate and the injury rate

grew there was I think a very gradual

growth of opposition

and um then the media sort of began to

cover it life began to print whole pages

of of pictures of the people who had

died in Vietnam and you say be 100 or

200 I forgotten how many on a page that

um the public began to look at what was

happening to persons and I concluded

that the only way you could could do

anything about it was to really take it

to the public and I said well really the

only way you can do it is to challenge

Johnson

McCarthy enters the primaries with the

polls giving him only a few perc of the

vote Johnson appears invulnerable

then the war takes a dramatic turn

January 68 the Communist Ted offensive

sweeps across Vietnam

television brings the month-long fight

for the cities of Vietnam into the

living rooms of America and brings the

first widespread doubts

even President Johnson's close AIDS at

advise him to get out of Vietnam

except for secure military bases Johnson

faces hostile crowds almost everywhere

he travels

McCarthy's presidential campaign is now

galvanized by voter discontent over the

war McCarthy's primary victories

encourage Robert Kennedy to enter the

presidential race on an anti-war tickets

or the 1950s opinion polls show that 63%

of the public oppose President Johnson's

Vietnam commitment

Lyndon Johnson took America to war in

Vietnam but those close to him see him

as the president reluctantly drawn into

war Secretary of State Dean Rusk except

for the men who carried the battle and

their families no one agonized over

Vietnam more than Lyndon Johnson did

there was so much that he wanted to

accomplish in such time as he had and so

many things were barred to him by the

problems of Vietnam so um I think that

this was the inherited burden which he

had to carry which uh he would have been

glad to do without

Johnson is also portrayed as a leader

who became overly influenced by his

advisor and by his need for public

approval his biographer Doris Kerns

simply put at the bottom of everything

Johnson needed needed to be liked by

people you could see it in his face when

he walked in a room despite that

overbearing dominance there was that

sense of please like me I'm going to

give you a gift and he did he gave gifts

of the Great Society the civil rights

laws even in Vietnam he thought he could

couple with all the bombing and the

damage to the fabric of that country he

really assumed that somehow he'd bring

this massive foreign aid program over

there and he'd rebuild Vietnam

[Music]

but just have to remember Johnson's

perception of his own past always he'd

been the master of the behind the door

bargainer and obviously he was

misestimating what happens during a war

number one and the whole nature of

modern media those television cameras

were over there every day when people

saw that war happening in their screens

every night they weren't going to forget

it the way he had hoped they would

in the Oval Office as in American Homes

Vietnam becomes a living room war and

increasingly the public demands and end

good evening my fellow Americans March

31st 1968

Johnson tells a stunned Nation he is

stepping down accordingly

I shall not see

and I will not accept

the nomination of my party for another

term as your president so when LBJ came

on and shocked all of us by saying a

sham not run for re-election uh we knew

then that we were in the driver's seat

that we were in the 60s the driving

force in society and that we were going

to drive home the point that you cannot

treat poor people blacks Vietnamese

without any humanity and have a safe and

secure home yourself

spring 1968 first Martin Luther King is

assassinated then Robert Kennedy the

violent deaths of the two leading

anti-war moderates is followed by

political Chaos on a scale unknown since

the Civil War

the black ghettos erupt Across America

the anti-war protests are larger and

more violent one Washington protest is

contained by 15,000 troops more than are

engaged in any battle in Vietnam

[Applause]

August 68 10,000 anti-war demonstrators

Converge on Chicago go for the

Democratic Convention

half are supporters of presidential

candidate McCarthy but a milit infection

announces it will disrupt the convention

26,000 police troops and National

Guardsmen two for each demonstrator are

assembled by Chicago's mayor daily this

Administration our Administration and

the people of Chicago have never and

will condone brutality at any time but

they they will never permit a lawless

violent group of terrorists to Menace

the lives of millions of people destroy

the purpose of this National Convention

and take over the streets of Chicago

but first we rallied in Grant Park in

Chicago and uh early in the rally a uh

blooded beaten up demonstrator

shinny shinnied up the flag pole and

replace the American flag with his

bloody shirt he said that let let the

world see that that is what's happening

in Chicago when that happened that

became a signal for the police to charge

the crowd

and uh I shall never forget them

they're a pitiful handful they have

almost no support but by goly they get

the cooperation of the news media

they're built into something really big

they're referred to as kids they're

referred to as yippies gentlemen the

hardcore leadership of this group are

communist by forcing the government to

overreact at home we were in a sense

spotlighting to the American people the

overreaction of America overseas Chicago

was an education for the American people

about Vietnam and about oppression in

the ghettos and about just the whole use

ofl physical Force to solve social

problems

the anti-war movement has no

presidential candidate Robert Kennedy is

dead McCarthy lacks popular support the

Chicago protest is to express

frustration

[Applause]

as the Marchers move through downtown

Chicago the police charge a government

report later describes the event as a

police Riot

[Applause]

television scenes con the sense of a

Nation destroying itself

[Applause]

800 demonstrators are injured some

seriously there was no proportion

between numbers and no proportion

between what the police and the military

did and what what the threat to them was

it was sort of uh waiting to charge and

when there was no provocation they

charged anyway and uh we set up the

hospital just to bring these people in

and SE them up trying to fend off some

of the blows I came back up and they

said get out of here I Tred and I said

I'm trying to in which case they hit me

again and hit me again so that was sort

of the whole mood of the convention

unjustifiable unnecessary violence and

oppression and abuse by the by the

police the National Guard with vice

president Hubert Humphrey nominated

McCarthy delegates hold a candlelight

requium

as one delegate put it this convention

tonight elected Richard Nixon

the Vietnam War will last four more

years

an historian later said in 1968 America

lived through more history than it could

digest

I Richard billhouse Nixon do solemnly

swear that you will fa January 1969

Richard M Nixon is sworn in as America's

37

president of the United States a

president of the United States and will

to the best of your ability Nixon's

promise to achieve peace in Vietnam has

helped him win office but it takes four

years with ever increasing conflict in

America the Constitution of the United

States the Constitution of the United

States so help you God so help me God

Lyndon Johnson leaves the framework for

withdrawal he has initiated peace talks

Nixon describes his policy as Peace With

Honor but he does not reveal his plans

Nixon inherits serious domestic dissent

this now increases

Nixon's Vietnam policy is to get not

make concessions his senior domestic Aid

John erckman

well his his position was that he had

been elected as the um individual under

the constitutional system responsible

for the conduct of foreign policy and

the waging of War if you please and that

foreign policy just couldn't be made in

the streets

the popular media begins to question the

war

but Nixon will not be hurried

he scorns the demonstrators calling them

mindless rioter and professional

malcontents

he reacted he recoiled he he um resisted

but beyond that he deliberately set

about to build a consensus in the

country in support of his foreign policy

and his uh conduct of the war and and

this was not just a political thing but

he had people like Charles Coulson out

organizing hard hats and organizing

labor unions and organizing U American

Legion posts to come to the president

say Mr President we support you

Nixon believes he can win consensus and

peace on his terms

he relies on strong presidential image

he sees himself defending American Honor

and what he calls the square virtues

peace must not smack of defeat having

stood firm at home he now secretly

applies the same pressure on North

Vietnam

hano's leaders pursue the same talk

fight strategy

as the peace negotiations drag out the

North Vietnamese increase troop

infiltration through neighboring

Cambodia

March 69

Nixon retaliates he extends the bombing

to Cambodia

to avoid more public criticism Nixon

orders that the bombing be kept secret

South Vietnam's president NN van has

long been advocating this action oh

frankly if we have had enough means

to destroy the war potential of North

Vietnamese communist in Laos and in

Cambodia

I would have done that because it would

help to shorten the war and to economize

the blood and the human life

almost half a million bombs are dropped

the Communist Supply sanctuaries along

the Cambodian border shelter an

estimated 40,000 North Vietnamese troops

the US attacks are Justified says

defense secretary Melvin L

well I I was for hitting the sanctuaries

at that time in cam in Cambodia the

sanctuaries that were completely

controlled by the North Vietnamese my

disagreement with secretary Kissinger

and the president of the United States

was over the fact that they insisted on

keeping these strikes secret I said with

16,000 people involved you could not

keep them Secret

news of the bombing brings public uproar

but Nixon is prepared

May 69

Nixon proposes withdrawal of American

and Communist forces within one year of

a peace treaty but there is no agreement

[Music]

ano wants the us to stop supporting

president U both sides begin to ignore

the formal peace talk

I I believe that uh secretary Kissinger

and President Nixon felt that there was

an opportunity to work out a peaceful

Accord between the North and the South I

think that uh they were somewhat

disillusioned as negotiations uh

progressed but I believe they entered

into uh these negotiations with uh a

great deal of confidence that they could

have some sort of success

June 69 Nixon meets president Chu on

Midway iseland

after talks Nixon announces the gradual

withdrawal of US troops

he assures too that South Vietnam will

be safeguarded

I trust completely on him

uh as he could support for a long time

the the the cause freedom of the

Vietnamese people

in a letter to hoi Nixon proposes secret

negotiations he sets a 4month deadline

for a settlement under the threat of

more bombing

hoi men's response is called a cold

rebuff

a few weeks later ho dies and oi remains

confident the US will Tire of the war

first

summer 69

new anti-war protest by Vietnam veterans

angers Nixon he sees it destroying his

credibility with Hanoi

the pressure increases

the anti-war movement announces a

national demonstration for October 15th

coinciding with Nixon's secret deadline

to Hanoi

[Applause]

anoi maintains silence

but in a letter to demonstration

organizers prime minister fam van dong

says may your fall offensive succeed

splendidly

as October 15th approaches Nixon is

confident the majority of Americans

support him

his response to that inhouse was to say

look that's a tiny fraction of the

American people out there it's on all

the television the media are killing us

with it but we know that the vast

majority of Americans are with us and so

we can't let that uh rule or govern uh

uh what we do for Nixon as for

presidents Kennedy and Johnson Vietnam

is a test of American credibility he

often said you know it would be the

easiest thing in the world for me simply

to order our troops out of there but if

I did then none of our allies could ever

count on the United States word again

February 1970 Nixon promises durable

peace

we are making progress toward that goal

the prospects for peace are far greater

today than they were a year ago

the North Vietnamese continue to use

Cambodia as their main staging area for

attacks on the south

Nixon now decides on the most dramatic

step since us combat involvement and

invasion of Cambodia

South Vietnamese forces will advance

west of Saigon into the parot beak a US

lead force will strike at a sanctuary

called The Fish Hook

15,000 American troops Assemble

Nixon has said it would be his policy to

issue a warning only once he has now

warned Hanoi

he tells the public that the United

States must act or seem like a helpless

giant he chooses Mayday the traditional

communist holiday

The Fish Hook jungle is believed to

contain the Communist Regional

headquarters

the Americans begin a prolonged search

but do not find it

the American thrust extends 20 mil but

the Communists slip away

the operation is a disappointment but

the military claims it is hindered by

political restrictions

Nixon's Chief of Staff General Alexander

heg if I were to be critical of it I

would say that there were too many

definitive limitations applied in the

conduct of the announcement of the

decision to go in there both in terms of

duration and and scope of American

activity on the ground in Cambodia

the South Vietnamese Advance extends

into populated areas

the bombing and fighting even estimated

200,000 refugees

in Washington Nixon anticipates a

violent political reaction would there

be demonstrations in Washington would

there be all this in the street he said

if there were pointing to me he said

you're going to have to handle it he

said I cannot be distracted by that

during the period of time so he said I

want you to think through what you might

have to do in terms of police and

National Guard and and all that sort of

thing we didn't anticipate Kent State

obviously

May 2 1970 as the troops Advance into

Cambodia American campuses explode in

protest at Kent State University in Ohio

National Guardsmen fire into a crowd the

Guardsman marched back up on on top of

the hill and um Turned and just you know

and then yelled their live bullets

because you know there's a car window

shattered and this guy you know my God

this girl shot and he picks her up and

she has this you know bloody spot on her

jacket and there's blood coming out of

her mouth

and it just sort of ran I felt I should

have stayed in Heth but I was afraid 11

students are wounded four killed Nixon's

reaction look I can't let this effect

how I conduct this thing and the reasons

were in Cambodia are that this was a

sanctuary and the North Vietnamese were

beating up our people and and we had to

get in there and root them out and so on

1971 the war closes in on Nixon US

troops continue to withdraw even though

Saigon's troops are being methodically

defeated

then comes military disgrace Lieutenant

William C is found guilty of the mass

murder of Vietnamese civilians

Nixon tries to save image and honor in a

speech at West Point

through a long and bitter struggle in

Vietnam American fighting men have

served the cause of Freedom

magnificently

and the American people have stood

behind our commitment to the the people

of South Vietnam in the face of great

Temptations to turn aside

[Music]

in 1971 former State Department official

Daniel ellsburg releases a Secret

Pentagon analysis of the war

I had the feeling that America was

eating its young was destroying some of

its most dedicated most patriotic most

concerned citizens Young Americans

subject to the draft and uh that it was

up to older people like me who had been

participants not to let that burden fall

entirely on their children and on that

that generation

the Pentagon papers reveal seeming

deception even lying by government

officials although the papers deal

mainly with the actions of presidents

Kennedy and Johnson it is Nixon who must

live with the disclosures

[Applause]

Ray conif and his uh very famous Carl

group will now entertain us and at the

music is square it's because I like it

Square

[Applause]

events close in even at the White House

President Nixon stop bombing human

beings animals and vegetation you go to

church on Sundays and pray to Jesus

Christ if Jesus Christ were here tonight

you would not dare drop another bomb

bless the barans and bless Daniel

ellsburg

[Music]

[Music]

he's

breaking my heart

I'm beside him Mercy let hisence guide

him

he to me

my

every minute he gets older now he's

leaning on my shoulder

he's kissing me

[Music]

could be be Indina

[Music]

Jane Fonda tours GI bases Nixon is

telling us one thing and he's doing

something else he is trying to create an

unseen War that's what Vietnamization is

all about you know Ellsworth bunker

calls it changing the color of the

corpses he thinks that as long as he can

remove the the war from the minds of the

American people while it's inflicting

more damage on the bodies of the

Vietnamese people that we can be

pacified

she visits Hanoi to denounce the war

more American celebrities follow her

including Joan bz who sings during the

bombing

the children

[Music]

sa the children

spring 72 Hanoi challenges Nixon as

never before it invades across the

partition line

it is North Vietnam's largest

conventional attack

Nixon's secret peace talks have lasted 3

years only 100,000 US troops remain in

Vietnam

Yoda's massive B-52 bombing of the North

the US mines North Vietnam's ports but

Hanoi still refuses concessions

[Music]

North Vietnamese troops press South

capturing the Border region

the American field commander cables that

South Vietnam is crumbling but US Air

power halts the Communist Advance

July 72 Kissinger's secret negotiations

are ra ping the clock

Nixon wants a peace agreement before the

November election

the Breakthrough comes in mid- October

Nixon concedes that 150,000 communist

troops already in the South can remain

Hanoi stops insisting T Must Go

Nixon and Kissinger have four weeks left

to sell the deal to TU Kissinger leaves

immediately for Saigon president H now

hears the peace terms for the first time

he angrily rejects them but Kissinger

nevertheless proclaims peace is at hand

in the US Nixon's campaign rides with

the peace fever

just back from Moscow he proclaims the

Cold War is Over

[Applause]

Nixon wins in a landslide

Days Later Kissinger and hano's chief

negotiator to meet in Paris Kissinger

has overcome Saigon's objections but now

Hanoi delays on technical details the

talks break down Nixon decides on

maximum Force to end the war

December 1972

for the first time Hanoi is bombed

continuously

Hanoi vilifies Nixon

a peace settlement follows the

controversial bombing

Nixon's Defenders say the peace brings a

new international stability

President Nixon's Vietnam decisions are

linked to a wider foreign policy his

whole Vietnam

um uh experience has to be evaluated in

relation to

Russia and China and America's allies

um everything relates to everything else

in this

and uh while negotiations were going on

with China while negotiations were going

on with the Russians over salt and these

other things Vietnam was a kind of a

stage where America's bonafides our

intentions our motives were being acted

out uh we were being loyal to an ally we

were committed to a a consistent foreign

policy um these things all meant things

to the French they meant things to the

Japanese they meant things to obviously

to the Vietnamese but they particularly

meant things to the Russians and the

Chinese

and when Henry would talk to those

people or when the president would talk

to them Vietnam was always a subject of

conversation and it was always discussed

in the larger context in that in that

sort of global context rather than in

the rather narrow contexts in which

sometimes the debate raged in this

country

[Applause]

through through the Johnson Nixon years

Americans have differing interpretations

of patriotism

activists believe they contribute to a

better Society

joery rubben in the year 2000 without a

doubt we're going to look back at the

60s and say that the people who

represented George Washington and Thomas

Payne and the real patriotism of America

were the people who were opposing the

war because the war was against

America's interest it hurt America it

was not in America's interest to go to

Vietnam so I felt throughout the whole

War period that I was a patriot a

nationalist fighting for America had

America been able to win the war in

Vietnam America would have stomped in

there and conquered that country and the

American people would have gone behind

the war but because fortunately America

could not win the soul of America got

challenged and America had to really

face its own soul and come to terms with

defeat how many men must die to justify

what did happen I think was that the

people running the war were left without

any moral justification there' be a long

long time before a president will assume

automatically

as they did in the past that they both

had the right to this kind of moral

support for a war in Congress and out uh

or that they would get it

and that may be the the most significant

historical result of the whole anti-war

movement

I think the real decision to bring this

to an end was not made on college

campuses are in the streets but when

people at the Grassroots

maybe the first half of 1968

came to the conclusion that if we could

not tell them when this struggle was

going to be over we might as well Chuck

it

in Vietnam to a unique extent the troops

and public are influenced by each

other's doubts and confusion

here today

but I don't understand understand the

things you say

you tell me there are people marching in

our streets

the signs they carry say that we don't

fight for peace

there's not a soldier in this foreign

land who likes this war

oh Mama tell tell them what we're

fighting for

[Music]