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ANNOUNCER: Major support
for "The Vietnam War"
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00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:06,500
was provided by members of
The Better Angels Society,
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including Jonathan and Jeannie Lavine,
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Diane and Hal Brierley,
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Amy and David Abrams,
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John and Catherine Debs,
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the Fullerton Family Charitable Fund,
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00:00:21,166 --> 00:00:23,233
the Montrone Ffamily,
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00:00:23,233 --> 00:00:25,565
Lynda and Stewart Resnick,
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00:00:25,565 --> 00:00:28,332
the Perry and Donna
Golkin Family Foundation,
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the Lynch Foundation,
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the Roger and Rosemary
Enrico Foundation,
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and by these additional funders.
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Major funding was also provided
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by David H. Koch...
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The Blavatnik Family Foundation...
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The Park Foundation,
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the National Endowment
for the Humanities,
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the Pew Charitable Trusts,
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the John S. and James
L. Knight Foundation,
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the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,
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the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations,
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the Ford Foundation JustFilms,
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by the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting,
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and by viewers like you.
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Thank you.
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ANNOUNCER: Bank of
America proudly supports
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Ken Burns' and Lynn Novick's
film "The Vietnam War"
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because fostering different perspectives
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and civil discourse
around important issues
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furthers progress, equality,
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and a more connected society.
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Go to bankofamerica.com/
betterconnected to learn more.
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(HELICOPTER BLADES
BEATING, GROWING LOUDER)
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(HELICOPTER BLADES STOP BEATING)
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(WIND WHIPPING, BULLET WHIZZING)
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(GUNFIRE)
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(EXPLOSION)
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(HELICOPTER BLADES
BEATING, INDISTINCT VOICES)
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(GUNFIRE, DISTORTED SCREAMING)
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(DISTORTED MARINE CORPS HYMN PLAYING)
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(ELECTRONIC HUM)
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(MARINE CORPS HYMN
PLAYING, CROWD CHEERING)
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KARL MARLANTES: Coming home from Vietnam
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was close to as traumatic
as the war itself.
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For years, nobody talked about Vietnam.
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(GUNFIRE)
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(MARCHING BAND PLAYING)
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We were friends with a young couple
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and it was only after 12 years
that the two wives were talking.
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Found out that we both had
been Marines in Vietnam.
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Never said a word about it.
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Never mentioned it.
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And the whole country was like that.
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It was so divisive.
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And it's like living in a
family with an alcoholic father.
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(WHISPERING): "Shh, we
don't talk about that."
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(GUNFIRE)
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Our country did that with Vietnam.
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It's only been very
recently that, I think,
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that, you know, the baby boomers
are finally starting to say,
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"What happened?
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What happened?"
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("A FAMILIAR TASTE" BY TRENT
REZNOR & ATTICUS ROSS PLAYING)
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HENRY KISSINGER: What we
need now in this country
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is to heal the wounds and
to put Vietnam behind us.
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("A FAMILIAR TASTE" CONTINUES)
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RICHARD NIXON: The killing
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in this tragic war must stop.
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("A FAMILIAR TASTE" CONTINUES)
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LYNDON JOHNSON: General
Westmoreland's strategy
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is producing results.
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The enemy is no longer
closer to victory.
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("A FAMILIAR TASTE" CONTINUES)
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ROBERT MCNAMARA: No
matter how you measure it,
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we're better off than we
thought we would be at this time.
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REPORTER: You have been less than candid
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as to how deeply we
are involved in Vietnam.
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We have increased our assistance
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to the government, its logistics.
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We have not sent combat troops there.
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DWIGHT EISENHOWER: You have
a row of dominoes set up
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and you knock over the first one
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and the last one,
certainly it will go over.
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HARRY TRUMAN: If aggression
is successful in Korea,
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we can expect it to spread
throughout Asia and Europe
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and to this hemisphere.
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("A FAMILIAR TASTE" CONTINUES)
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("A HARD RAIN'S A-GONNA
FALL" BY BOB DYLAN PLAYING)
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♪ Oh where have you
been, my blue-eyed son? ♪
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♪ And where have you been,
my darling young one? ♪
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MAX CLELAND: Viktor Frankl,
who survived the death camps
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in World War II, wrote a book called
Man's Search for Meaning.
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DYLAN: ♪ I've walked and
I've crawled on six... ♪
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CLELAND: You know,
"To live is to suffer.
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To survive is to find
meaning in suffering."
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And for those of us who
suffered because of Vietnam,
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that's been our quest ever since.
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DYLAN: ♪ And it's a hard,
it's a hard, it's a hard ♪
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♪ It's a hard ♪
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♪ It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall ♪
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NARRATOR: America's involvement
in Vietnam began in secrecy.
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It ended, 30 years later, in failure,
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witnessed by the entire world.
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DYLAN: ♪ And what did you
see, my darling young one? ♪
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NARRATOR: It was begun in
good faith by decent people
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out of fateful misunderstandings,
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American overconfidence,
and Cold War miscalculation.
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And it was prolonged because it
seemed easier to muddle through
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than admit that it had been
caused by tragic decisions,
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made by five American presidents,
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belonging to both political parties.
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DYLAN: ♪ I saw a room full of men
with their hammers a-bleeding ♪
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NARRATOR: Before the war was over,
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more than 58,000
Americans would be dead.
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At least 250,000 South
Vietnamese troops died
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in the conflict, as well.
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So did over a million
North Vietnamese soldiers
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and Viet Cong guerrillas.
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DYLAN: ♪ Sharp swords in
the hands of young children ♪
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♪ And it's a hard... ♪
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NARRATOR: Two million
civilians, north and south,
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are thought to have perished,
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as well as tens of thousands
more in the neighboring states
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of Laos and Cambodia.
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(HELICOPTER BLADES WHIRRING)
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For many Vietnamese, it
was a brutal civil war;
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for others, the bloody climactic chapter
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in a century-old
struggle for independence.
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DYLAN: ♪ And what'll you
do now, my blue-eyed son? ♪
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NARRATOR: For those
Americans who fought in it,
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and for those who fought
against it back home,
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as well as for those who merely
glimpsed it on the nightly news,
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the Vietnam War was a decade of agony,
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the most divisive period
since the Civil War.
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Vietnam seemed to call
everything into question...
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the value of honor and gallantry;
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the qualities of cruelty and mercy;
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the candor of the American government;
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and what it means to be a patriot.
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DYLAN: ♪ Where hunger is ugly,
where the souls are forgotten ♪
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NARRATOR: And those who lived through it
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have never been able
to erase its memory,
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have never stopped arguing
about what really happened,
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why everything went so badly
wrong, who was to blame,
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and whether it was all worth it.
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BAO NINH:
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DYLAN: ♪ And it's a hard ♪
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♪ It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall ♪
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(SONG ENDS)
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(SILK ROAD ENSEMBLE PLAYING
"PEOPLE AND FIGHTERS UNITE")
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BAO NINH:
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NARRATOR: The French conquest
of Indochina began with an attack
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on the ancient Vietnamese
port of Danang in 1858.
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It took 50 years to lay
claim to the whole region...
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Laos and Cambodia, as well
as the 1,200-mile-long area
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that would come to be called Vietnam.
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All of it was ruled by
a French governor-general
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from his palace in Hanoi.
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00:11:12,389 --> 00:11:15,722
The French largely lived
on plantation estates,
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00:11:15,822 --> 00:11:20,056
and in cities, like Saigon,
made to look as much as possible
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like those at home.
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Most did not even bother
to learn the language
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spoken by their subjects.
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Instead they installed a
series of puppet emperors
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00:11:32,623 --> 00:11:34,190
and employed a network
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of French-speaking Vietnamese
officials... mandarins...
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willing to carry out their wishes.
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00:11:43,655 --> 00:11:48,023
The French put their subjects to
work building roads and canals,
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railroads and bridges.
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BAO NINH:
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NARRATOR: The Vietnamese
people did not take easily
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to French occupation,
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just as they had fought
against earlier invasions
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00:12:14,123 --> 00:12:15,722
by the Chinese.
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00:12:15,822 --> 00:12:19,922
By the early 20th century,
nationalism was on the rise.
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But anyone who dared resist
colonial rule risked exile,
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prison, or the guillotine.
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TRAN NGOC TOAN (SPEAKING ENGLISH):
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LAM QUANG THI:
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(HELICOPTER BLADES WHIRRING)
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JOHN MUSGRAVE: My
hatred for them was pure.
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Pure.
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I hated them so much.
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And I was so scared of them.
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(GUNFIRE)
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Boy, I was terrified of them.
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And the scareder I got,
the more I hated them.
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I was an 18-year-old Marine
rifleman with the ink still wet
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on my high school diploma.
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I didn't want to shame
myself in front of my buddies.
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00:14:02,656 --> 00:14:04,556
But I was so scared.
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00:14:04,656 --> 00:14:07,456
I felt like I was hanging
onto my honor by my fingernails
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00:14:07,556 --> 00:14:09,190
the whole time I was there.
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00:14:14,322 --> 00:14:17,389
("LA MARSEILLAISE" PLAYING)
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00:14:19,755 --> 00:14:22,056
(CROWD CHEERING)
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NARRATOR: In the spring of 1919,
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00:14:26,190 --> 00:14:29,289
as the victorious Allied
Powers met in Paris
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00:14:29,389 --> 00:14:33,090
to rebuild a world
shattered by the Great War,
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00:14:33,190 --> 00:14:36,889
President Woodrow Wilson
headed the American delegation
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00:14:36,990 --> 00:14:39,389
housed in the Hotel Crillon.
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00:14:42,255 --> 00:14:46,056
One day, a tall, slender,
29-nine-year-old man
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00:14:46,155 --> 00:14:48,623
appeared with a petition
for the president
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00:14:48,722 --> 00:14:52,655
he and other Vietnamese
nationalists had written.
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00:14:52,755 --> 00:14:56,222
Inspired by Wilson's declaration
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00:14:56,322 --> 00:14:59,190
that the interests of colonial
peoples should be given
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00:14:59,289 --> 00:15:02,556
equal weight with those
of their European rulers,
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00:15:02,656 --> 00:15:07,956
the man was asking that this
principle be applied to his homeland.
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00:15:08,176 --> 00:15:12,909
The president's secretary
promised to show it to Wilson,
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00:15:13,009 --> 00:15:16,576
but there is no evidence
that he ever did.
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00:15:16,676 --> 00:15:19,176
His name was Nguyen Tat Thanh,
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00:15:19,276 --> 00:15:23,176
but he was now living under
an alias, Nguyen Ai Quoc...
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00:15:23,276 --> 00:15:25,842
"Nguyen the Patriot."
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00:15:27,143 --> 00:15:29,310
During his long, shadowy career,
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00:15:29,409 --> 00:15:33,110
he would adopt some 70
different pseudonyms,
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00:15:33,210 --> 00:15:36,275
finally settling on "the
most enlightened one"...
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00:15:36,375 --> 00:15:39,710
Ho Chi Minh.
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00:15:39,810 --> 00:15:42,586
DUONG VAN MAI: Ho Chi Minh was a man
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00:15:42,587 --> 00:15:45,009
who succeeded in projecting an image
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00:15:45,110 --> 00:15:49,110
of somebody who was
totally dedicated to freeing
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00:15:49,210 --> 00:15:53,576
his country and his people
from foreign domination
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00:15:53,676 --> 00:15:57,643
to the point that he
sacrificed his own well-being,
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00:15:57,743 --> 00:16:01,676
his own life, not having
a family of his own.
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00:16:03,076 --> 00:16:05,576
To Vietnamese, that's a big sacrifice
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00:16:05,676 --> 00:16:08,409
because to us everybody needs a family.
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00:16:10,375 --> 00:16:13,110
NARRATOR: Ho Chi Minh was born in 1890,
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00:16:13,210 --> 00:16:16,076
the son of a minor official
in the French regime.
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00:16:16,176 --> 00:16:19,076
After taking part in a demonstration
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00:16:19,176 --> 00:16:20,743
against the puppet emperor
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00:16:20,842 --> 00:16:22,676
and the Frenchmen who
pulled his strings,
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00:16:22,776 --> 00:16:26,842
Ho was expelled from school
and marked for arrest.
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00:16:28,942 --> 00:16:34,243
He left Vietnam in 1911 and
remained in exile for 30 years.
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00:16:35,810 --> 00:16:39,009
He served as a cook's
helper aboard a French liner,
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00:16:39,110 --> 00:16:41,842
and visited New York and Boston,
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00:16:41,942 --> 00:16:47,009
where he worked for a time as a
pastry chef at the Parker House.
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00:16:47,110 --> 00:16:52,375
He shoveled snow in London,
tinted photographs in Paris.
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00:16:53,842 --> 00:16:58,042
There, Ho Chi Minh joined
the French Socialist Party.
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00:16:58,143 --> 00:17:01,610
But when he discovered the
anti-colonial writings of Lenin,
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00:17:01,710 --> 00:17:03,708
he became a communist.
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00:17:05,243 --> 00:17:07,142
He was invited to Moscow to study,
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00:17:07,243 --> 00:17:10,208
underwent training as a Soviet agent,
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00:17:10,310 --> 00:17:13,676
was sometimes criticized for
being a nationalist first,
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00:17:13,775 --> 00:17:15,610
a communist second,
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00:17:15,708 --> 00:17:18,642
and then was dispatched to China
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00:17:18,743 --> 00:17:21,909
to organize a cell of
other Vietnamese exiles
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00:17:22,010 --> 00:17:26,575
and help establish the
Indochinese Communist Party.
247
00:17:26,676 --> 00:17:30,310
Through it all, "He
was taut and quivering,"
248
00:17:30,409 --> 00:17:33,642
a friend remembered,
"with only one thought...
249
00:17:33,743 --> 00:17:36,575
his country, Vietnam."
250
00:17:37,842 --> 00:17:40,676
(AIR RAID SIREN BLARING)
251
00:17:40,775 --> 00:17:41,975
(BOMBS WHISTLING, EXPLODING)
252
00:17:42,075 --> 00:17:43,275
(SHOUTING)
253
00:17:46,310 --> 00:17:50,342
(GUNFIRE, EXPLOSIONS)
254
00:17:50,533 --> 00:17:56,932
NARRATOR: By 1940, much of
the world was at war again.
255
00:18:03,333 --> 00:18:07,200
Germany had seized
most of Western Europe,
256
00:18:07,299 --> 00:18:09,200
including France.
257
00:18:12,700 --> 00:18:14,432
Imperial Japan threatened
258
00:18:14,533 --> 00:18:16,565
many of the European colonies in Asia,
259
00:18:16,665 --> 00:18:20,499
and occupied Vietnam, where
they permitted their allies,
260
00:18:20,600 --> 00:18:22,165
the collaborationist French,
261
00:18:22,266 --> 00:18:24,966
to continue to oversee their colony.
262
00:18:28,132 --> 00:18:31,632
To some Vietnamese, the
coming of the Japanese
263
00:18:31,732 --> 00:18:36,266
seemed to signal a welcome
end to white colonial rule.
264
00:18:36,365 --> 00:18:39,632
But Ho Chi Minh, still
in exile in China,
265
00:18:39,732 --> 00:18:43,100
saw the Japanese as alien invaders,
266
00:18:43,200 --> 00:18:45,632
no more welcome than the French.
267
00:18:45,732 --> 00:18:48,966
They were only interested
in exploiting his country
268
00:18:49,065 --> 00:18:54,732
and seizing Vietnamese crops
to fill their own rice bowls.
269
00:18:54,833 --> 00:18:57,165
The time had come, he said,
270
00:18:57,266 --> 00:19:00,900
to rally "patriots of
all ages and all types,
271
00:19:00,999 --> 00:19:05,065
peasants, workers,
merchants and soldiers"
272
00:19:05,165 --> 00:19:08,865
to defeat the Japanese and
the collaborationist French.
273
00:19:12,632 --> 00:19:18,165
In February of 1941, after three
decades away from his homeland,
274
00:19:18,266 --> 00:19:22,299
Ho Chi Minh slipped back across
the Chinese border into Vietnam
275
00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:26,665
and set up headquarters near
the remote village of Pac Bo
276
00:19:26,766 --> 00:19:29,533
in a limestone cave at
the side of a mountain
277
00:19:29,632 --> 00:19:32,333
he named for Karl Marx,
278
00:19:32,432 --> 00:19:37,900
overlooking a jungle stream
he named for his hero, Lenin.
279
00:19:40,266 --> 00:19:42,900
There, he founded a
revolutionary movement,
280
00:19:42,999 --> 00:19:46,732
which he called the Vietnam
Independence League...
281
00:19:46,833 --> 00:19:49,466
the Viet Minh.
282
00:19:50,632 --> 00:19:54,155
TRAN NGOC TOAN (SPEAKING ENGLISH):
283
00:20:02,132 --> 00:20:05,299
NARRATOR: To build and lead a
fighting force for his revolution,
284
00:20:05,400 --> 00:20:08,033
Ho called upon Vo Nguyen Giap,
285
00:20:08,132 --> 00:20:10,533
a one-time teacher of French history
286
00:20:10,632 --> 00:20:14,299
who had instructed the
children of Hanoi's elite.
287
00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:17,966
Giap was an early convert to communism,
288
00:20:18,065 --> 00:20:21,432
whose life-long hatred
for the French intensified
289
00:20:21,533 --> 00:20:24,833
when they beat his
wife to death in prison.
290
00:20:24,932 --> 00:20:29,132
Inspired by Napoleon,
Lawrence of Arabia,
291
00:20:29,232 --> 00:20:32,799
and the communist Chinese
revolutionary Mao Zedong,
292
00:20:32,900 --> 00:20:35,200
Giap had already begun to develop
293
00:20:35,299 --> 00:20:39,565
a distinctive theory of warfare
that relied on guerrilla tactics
294
00:20:39,665 --> 00:20:44,665
until a full-scale conventional
attack could be mounted.
295
00:20:44,766 --> 00:20:48,799
In the fight for independence
which he believed was coming,
296
00:20:48,900 --> 00:20:55,565
his armies, Giap said, would
be "everywhere and nowhere."
297
00:20:56,265 --> 00:20:57,832
DUONG VAN MAI: The reason Vietnamese
298
00:20:57,833 --> 00:20:59,500
had always resort to guerrilla warfare
299
00:20:59,600 --> 00:21:02,165
was because we were a small country.
300
00:21:02,266 --> 00:21:07,499
And it was just a way of fight
the weak against the strong.
301
00:21:07,600 --> 00:21:11,165
Don't fight unless
you're sure you can win,
302
00:21:11,266 --> 00:21:14,600
and surprise is a big element.
303
00:21:16,400 --> 00:21:18,966
Choose your own battle.
304
00:21:24,665 --> 00:21:28,833
MIKE HEANEY: I had about
26 guys that day out of 45.
305
00:21:28,932 --> 00:21:31,266
We were always somewhat understrength.
306
00:21:31,365 --> 00:21:33,665
And this day we were
quite understrength.
307
00:21:35,299 --> 00:21:37,200
My platoon's on point.
308
00:21:42,266 --> 00:21:43,932
MAN: Go, go, go, go, go!
309
00:21:44,033 --> 00:21:46,799
HEANEY: And all of a
sudden the very point man,
310
00:21:46,900 --> 00:21:50,365
the first guy in the column,
said, "VC on the trail.
311
00:21:50,466 --> 00:21:51,732
VC on the trail."
312
00:21:53,900 --> 00:21:57,232
- Before I had a chance to digest this...
- (GUNSHOT)
313
00:21:57,333 --> 00:21:58,900
... he went down, shot
right through the chest.
314
00:21:58,999 --> 00:22:01,299
(GUNFIRE)
315
00:22:01,400 --> 00:22:04,966
And what was a very
well-laid ambush erupted.
316
00:22:05,065 --> 00:22:08,432
(EXPLOSION, GUNFIRE)
317
00:22:13,999 --> 00:22:15,999
(GUNFIRE, SHOUTING)
318
00:22:16,270 --> 00:22:18,469
I knew I'd lost a bunch of guys.
319
00:22:18,570 --> 00:22:22,770
I said a prayer to
God saying, basically,
320
00:22:22,870 --> 00:22:25,302
"If you need any more guys
from my platoon, take me.
321
00:22:25,402 --> 00:22:27,270
Don't take any more of my men."
322
00:22:27,370 --> 00:22:30,735
As soon as I said it, I
freaked myself out and said,
323
00:22:30,835 --> 00:22:34,902
"Holy shit. Can I
take that prayer back?"
324
00:22:37,235 --> 00:22:39,735
(GUNFIRE, PLANE ENGINE ROARING)
325
00:22:41,235 --> 00:22:44,902
(EXPLOSION, ALARM RINGING)
326
00:22:45,303 --> 00:22:48,736
NARRATOR: By the spring of 1945,
327
00:22:48,835 --> 00:22:54,170
more than three years after the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor,
328
00:22:54,269 --> 00:22:57,402
the United States government
was looking for allies
329
00:22:57,503 --> 00:22:59,570
behind the lines in Vietnam.
330
00:22:59,670 --> 00:23:01,769
The Americans were hoping to find a way
331
00:23:01,870 --> 00:23:05,135
to undermine Japanese forces there
332
00:23:05,236 --> 00:23:08,402
when they were contacted by Ho Chi Minh.
333
00:23:08,503 --> 00:23:10,303
DONALD GREGG: And so
it was decided to drop
334
00:23:10,402 --> 00:23:15,402
an OSS team in to meet with
the Viet Minh leadership.
335
00:23:17,835 --> 00:23:21,070
Paul Hoagland was the medic on the team.
336
00:23:21,170 --> 00:23:24,769
And the first thing he was
told was that he must attend
337
00:23:24,870 --> 00:23:26,702
to their leader, who
was desperately sick.
338
00:23:26,803 --> 00:23:29,769
So he was taken to a grass shack
339
00:23:29,870 --> 00:23:34,202
where a bewhiskered, skinny
man lay on a bundle of straw,
340
00:23:34,303 --> 00:23:35,835
desperately ill.
341
00:23:35,936 --> 00:23:37,570
And that was Ho Chi Minh.
342
00:23:40,003 --> 00:23:44,635
NARRATOR: The OSS, the secret
wartime precursor of the CIA,
343
00:23:44,736 --> 00:23:47,902
supplied Ho's ragtag
guerrillas with arms
344
00:23:48,003 --> 00:23:52,803
and marveled at how quickly
they learned to handle them.
345
00:23:52,902 --> 00:23:55,602
Ho Chi Minh began to call his followers
346
00:23:55,702 --> 00:23:59,902
the "Viet-American Army,"
and praised the United States
347
00:24:00,003 --> 00:24:01,902
as a "champion of democracy"
348
00:24:02,003 --> 00:24:05,170
that would surely help
them end colonial rule.
349
00:24:06,436 --> 00:24:09,900
BUI DIEM (SPEAKING ENGLISH):
350
00:24:23,436 --> 00:24:28,003
NARRATOR: Meanwhile, famine gripped
the northern part of the country.
351
00:24:28,102 --> 00:24:30,003
Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese
352
00:24:30,102 --> 00:24:32,070
were dying of starvation
353
00:24:32,170 --> 00:24:35,402
while Japanese storehouses
were filled with rice.
354
00:24:38,436 --> 00:24:40,436
DUONG VAN MAI: In those
days, garbage was collected
355
00:24:40,535 --> 00:24:42,670
by people pushing carts.
356
00:24:42,769 --> 00:24:47,370
And my mother remembers that
every morning she would see
357
00:24:47,469 --> 00:24:49,370
these garbage carts going around
358
00:24:49,469 --> 00:24:53,436
and people picking up dead bodies
and throwing them on the cart.
359
00:24:53,535 --> 00:24:55,070
It was incredible.
360
00:24:55,170 --> 00:24:58,702
And people who lived through
it never, never forgot.
361
00:24:58,983 --> 00:25:03,449
NARRATOR: Duong Van Mai's
father was the deputy governor
362
00:25:03,550 --> 00:25:05,715
of a province east of Hanoi,
363
00:25:05,815 --> 00:25:08,250
the son and grandson of mandarins
364
00:25:08,350 --> 00:25:10,983
who had all served the French.
365
00:25:11,082 --> 00:25:14,416
He and his wife had 17 children.
366
00:25:14,515 --> 00:25:19,250
DUONG VAN MAI: Parents who had
children who were, you know, plump,
367
00:25:19,350 --> 00:25:21,782
were very afraid of their
children being stolen
368
00:25:21,882 --> 00:25:24,315
and killed.
369
00:25:24,416 --> 00:25:27,515
And it was really like hell on earth.
370
00:25:27,616 --> 00:25:31,082
The government didn't
have a clue on how to deal
371
00:25:31,183 --> 00:25:33,282
with this calamity.
372
00:25:34,850 --> 00:25:36,149
NARRATOR: But Ho Chi Minh did.
373
00:25:36,250 --> 00:25:38,483
He directed the Viet Minh
374
00:25:38,582 --> 00:25:41,850
to break into the Japanese
storehouses wherever they could
375
00:25:41,949 --> 00:25:46,082
and distribute the rice to the people.
376
00:25:46,183 --> 00:25:48,750
They were hailed as saviors.
377
00:25:51,282 --> 00:25:52,882
(ENGINE STARTS)
378
00:25:59,916 --> 00:26:01,050
(EXPLOSION)
379
00:26:03,616 --> 00:26:06,782
NARRATOR: When an atomic
bomb destroyed Hiroshima,
380
00:26:06,882 --> 00:26:10,416
and three days later a
second one destroyed Nagasaki,
381
00:26:10,515 --> 00:26:13,550
Japanese surrender seemed imminent.
382
00:26:15,582 --> 00:26:19,149
Ho Chi Minh called upon
all Vietnamese to rise up
383
00:26:19,250 --> 00:26:21,183
and take over their own country
384
00:26:21,282 --> 00:26:23,649
before the Free French could reestablish
385
00:26:23,750 --> 00:26:26,250
their old colonial regime.
386
00:26:26,350 --> 00:26:31,449
They did, in cities and
towns across the country.
387
00:26:34,983 --> 00:26:37,882
On September 2, 1945,
388
00:26:37,983 --> 00:26:40,750
the same day the Japanese
formally surrendered,
389
00:26:40,850 --> 00:26:43,750
hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese
390
00:26:43,850 --> 00:26:48,649
streamed into Ba Dinh Square in
Hanoi to see for the first time
391
00:26:48,750 --> 00:26:51,983
the mysterious leader of the Viet Minh
392
00:26:52,082 --> 00:26:56,715
and hear him proclaim
Vietnam's independence.
393
00:26:56,815 --> 00:27:00,250
(HO CHI MINH SPEAKING VIETNAMESE)
394
00:27:00,350 --> 00:27:04,949
NARRATOR: With an OSS
officer standing nearby,
395
00:27:05,050 --> 00:27:09,015
Ho Chi Minh began with the
words of Thomas Jefferson:
396
00:27:09,116 --> 00:27:11,649
"All men are created equal.
397
00:27:11,750 --> 00:27:14,550
They are endowed by their creator
398
00:27:14,649 --> 00:27:17,750
with certain unalienable rights;
399
00:27:17,850 --> 00:27:20,515
that among these are life, liberty
400
00:27:20,616 --> 00:27:22,815
and the pursuit of happiness."
401
00:27:25,515 --> 00:27:29,171
DONG SI NGUYEN:
402
00:27:45,282 --> 00:27:47,582
GEORGE WICKES: Ho Chi
Minh had great hopes
403
00:27:47,683 --> 00:27:53,050
that the U.S. would support the
Vietnam desire for independence,
404
00:27:53,149 --> 00:27:54,916
not necessarily by intervening
405
00:27:55,015 --> 00:27:58,782
but by doing what it could
406
00:27:58,882 --> 00:28:02,515
to support an independence movement.
407
00:28:02,616 --> 00:28:06,315
NARRATOR: Ho Chi Minh's hopes for
American support were calculated
408
00:28:06,416 --> 00:28:09,315
but understandable.
409
00:28:09,416 --> 00:28:13,315
President Franklin Roosevelt
had promised a postwar world
410
00:28:13,416 --> 00:28:16,483
that would "respect the
rights of all peoples
411
00:28:16,582 --> 00:28:19,550
to choose the form of government
under which they live."
412
00:28:22,382 --> 00:28:26,215
But Roosevelt was dead now,
and his successor, Harry Truman,
413
00:28:26,315 --> 00:28:30,082
had inherited a very different world.
414
00:28:30,183 --> 00:28:32,515
The alliance with the Soviet Union
415
00:28:32,616 --> 00:28:36,416
that had won the Second
World War had collapsed.
416
00:28:36,515 --> 00:28:40,149
The Soviets now occupied the
Eastern European countries
417
00:28:40,250 --> 00:28:44,815
they had overrun, and hoped to
spread their influence farther,
418
00:28:44,916 --> 00:28:49,616
into Iran, Turkey,
and the Mediterranean.
419
00:28:49,715 --> 00:28:54,015
A new cold war had begun.
420
00:28:54,116 --> 00:28:56,683
French president
Charles De Gaulle warned
421
00:28:56,782 --> 00:28:59,850
that if the United States
insisted on independence
422
00:28:59,949 --> 00:29:03,616
for her colonies, France
might have no choice
423
00:29:03,715 --> 00:29:07,050
but to "fall into the Russian orbit."
424
00:29:07,149 --> 00:29:10,550
The United States must
do nothing to undercut
425
00:29:10,649 --> 00:29:16,050
the restoration of France's
empire, including Vietnam.
426
00:29:20,116 --> 00:29:23,616
WICKES: There were hardly any
Americans in Vietnam, you know...
427
00:29:23,715 --> 00:29:26,649
State Department people,
consular officials,
428
00:29:26,750 --> 00:29:28,949
a few businessmen.
429
00:29:29,050 --> 00:29:31,015
Hardly anyone from this country
430
00:29:31,116 --> 00:29:32,882
knew where Vietnam was located.
431
00:29:32,983 --> 00:29:37,683
NARRATOR: George Wickes was
part of a seven-man OSS mission
432
00:29:37,782 --> 00:29:41,116
sent to Saigon, the
largest city in the south.
433
00:29:41,215 --> 00:29:44,683
The United States was
officially neutral,
434
00:29:44,782 --> 00:29:47,550
hoping the French and
Viet Minh could reach
435
00:29:47,649 --> 00:29:51,183
some peaceful solution on their own.
436
00:29:51,282 --> 00:29:54,782
Allied leaders had agreed
temporarily to divide Vietnam
437
00:29:54,882 --> 00:29:57,350
into two separate zones.
438
00:29:57,449 --> 00:30:01,616
Nationalist Chinese troops were
to handle things in the north.
439
00:30:01,715 --> 00:30:05,183
British colonial troops would
try to perform the same task
440
00:30:05,282 --> 00:30:08,082
in the south, where rival factions,
441
00:30:08,183 --> 00:30:12,282
including the French and Viet
Minh, were already fighting
442
00:30:12,382 --> 00:30:15,282
in the streets of Saigon.
443
00:30:15,382 --> 00:30:17,750
WICKES: No one was in charge.
444
00:30:17,850 --> 00:30:23,616
On both sides, there was brutality
and atrocity and violence.
445
00:30:23,715 --> 00:30:26,250
It wasn't quite a civil war
446
00:30:26,350 --> 00:30:28,215
but it was getting
very close to civil war
447
00:30:28,315 --> 00:30:30,550
in the streets of Saigon.
448
00:30:31,019 --> 00:30:33,986
NARRATOR: Lieutenant
Colonel Peter Dewey,
449
00:30:34,085 --> 00:30:37,452
the 28-year-old commander
of the OSS in Saigon,
450
00:30:37,553 --> 00:30:40,152
tried to make sense of it all.
451
00:30:40,252 --> 00:30:42,986
WICKES: Right from the start
he was in touch with everybody...
452
00:30:43,085 --> 00:30:45,819
not only the French, but
very soon he established
453
00:30:45,920 --> 00:30:50,085
a connection with
various Vietnamese groups.
454
00:30:50,185 --> 00:30:53,185
The Viet Minh soon
established themselves
455
00:30:53,286 --> 00:30:55,720
as the most successful.
456
00:30:55,819 --> 00:30:58,620
NARRATOR: Dewey, who
spoke fluent French,
457
00:30:58,720 --> 00:31:01,652
brokered talks between
a Viet Minh spokesman
458
00:31:01,752 --> 00:31:05,452
and the senior French
representative in the city.
459
00:31:05,553 --> 00:31:10,319
His efforts infuriated
British general Douglas Gracey,
460
00:31:10,420 --> 00:31:13,353
who commanded Allied
forces in the south.
461
00:31:13,452 --> 00:31:16,319
Gracey was convinced that French control
462
00:31:16,420 --> 00:31:19,252
should be reimposed as soon as possible.
463
00:31:19,353 --> 00:31:22,685
By conferring with the
Viet Minh, Gracey said,
464
00:31:22,786 --> 00:31:27,252
Colonel Dewey had become
a "subversive" force.
465
00:31:27,353 --> 00:31:28,685
(GUNFIRE)
466
00:31:28,786 --> 00:31:32,286
The violence in and
around Saigon escalated.
467
00:31:34,286 --> 00:31:37,019
Colonel Dewey urgently
cabled his superiors:
468
00:31:37,120 --> 00:31:40,620
Vietnam "is burning," he wrote.
469
00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:43,220
"The French and British
are finished here
470
00:31:43,319 --> 00:31:45,853
and the United States," he concluded,
471
00:31:45,952 --> 00:31:48,120
"ought to clear out of Southeast Asia."
472
00:31:48,220 --> 00:31:49,819
(GUNFIRE)
473
00:31:52,452 --> 00:31:56,885
Two days later, September 26, 1945,
474
00:31:56,986 --> 00:31:58,486
he set out for the airport,
475
00:31:58,585 --> 00:32:03,486
prepared to fly to OSS headquarters.
476
00:32:03,585 --> 00:32:08,585
At a roadblock, the Viet Minh
mistook Dewey for a Frenchman
477
00:32:08,685 --> 00:32:10,720
and opened fire.
478
00:32:10,819 --> 00:32:12,220
(GUNFIRE)
479
00:32:12,319 --> 00:32:15,519
He was killed instantly.
480
00:32:15,920 --> 00:32:19,720
WICKES: Ho Chi Minh
wrote to the United States
481
00:32:19,819 --> 00:32:23,819
lamenting the death of
Dewey, whom he recognized
482
00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:27,786
as a person sympathetic to his cause.
483
00:32:27,885 --> 00:32:30,619
It seemed a terrible irony that Dewey,
484
00:32:30,720 --> 00:32:33,286
who was doing what he could to help
485
00:32:33,385 --> 00:32:37,052
the Vietnamese independence
movement should have been killed
486
00:32:37,153 --> 00:32:39,420
by the Vietnamese by a mistake.
487
00:32:44,853 --> 00:32:47,353
(ELECTRONIC BUZZING, MUTED
HELICOPTER BLADES BEATING)
488
00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:55,685
An elderly African-American
woman answered the door.
489
00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:04,720
I think she knew the instant
she saw us why we were there.
490
00:33:07,685 --> 00:33:09,819
And the padre said, uh,
491
00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:14,520
"I'm... I'm terribly
sorry to inform you,
492
00:33:14,619 --> 00:33:19,786
but your son was killed in Vietnam."
493
00:33:19,885 --> 00:33:20,819
And she just sat down.
494
00:33:20,920 --> 00:33:22,552
Didn't say a word.
495
00:33:24,885 --> 00:33:28,619
Then the... her husband
says, "No, there's a mistake."
496
00:33:28,720 --> 00:33:30,420
He comes back with this letter.
497
00:33:30,520 --> 00:33:32,786
And he said, "Look, see?
498
00:33:32,885 --> 00:33:37,786
We got it yesterday, my... our
son was still alive yesterday."
499
00:33:37,885 --> 00:33:40,853
And the chaplain looked at the letter
500
00:33:40,952 --> 00:33:43,153
and he said, "It's a week old.
501
00:33:43,252 --> 00:33:47,685
I think your son was killed on
the day he wrote this letter."
502
00:33:49,720 --> 00:33:53,619
("LA MARSEILLAISE" PLAYING)
503
00:33:55,485 --> 00:33:59,685
NARRATOR: In the fall of 1945, a
week after Colonel Dewey's death,
504
00:33:59,786 --> 00:34:02,752
fresh French troops
began arriving in Saigon,
505
00:34:02,853 --> 00:34:06,720
taking over from the British.
506
00:34:06,819 --> 00:34:07,985
They quickly established
507
00:34:08,086 --> 00:34:09,885
control of the city
508
00:34:09,985 --> 00:34:11,286
and set out to reoccupy
509
00:34:11,385 --> 00:34:13,186
the entire country.
510
00:34:15,085 --> 00:34:18,820
Ho Chi Minh hoped somehow
to achieve independence
511
00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:20,920
without a war with France,
512
00:34:21,020 --> 00:34:24,420
and he still hoped the
United States would intervene.
513
00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:28,420
"You never had an empire, never
exploited the Asian peoples,"
514
00:34:28,520 --> 00:34:31,552
he would tell a visiting
American journalist.
515
00:34:31,652 --> 00:34:35,719
"Do not be blinded by
this issue of communism."
516
00:34:36,020 --> 00:34:41,152
LESLIE GELB: He did not want to fight
the French as an enemy of America.
517
00:34:41,252 --> 00:34:47,453
And, in fact, I saw the letters
he wrote to President Truman
518
00:34:47,553 --> 00:34:51,986
saying, "We believe in the
same things you believe."
519
00:34:52,085 --> 00:34:55,352
Those letters I saw in the CIA files,
520
00:34:55,453 --> 00:34:59,319
they had never been
given to President Truman.
521
00:35:00,785 --> 00:35:03,486
(CHILDREN SHOUTING)
522
00:35:03,585 --> 00:35:08,185
NARRATOR: In June of 1946,
Ho Chi Minh returned to Paris
523
00:35:08,285 --> 00:35:11,220
in a fruitless attempt to
get the French to live up
524
00:35:11,319 --> 00:35:14,520
to a promise they had
made of increased autonomy
525
00:35:14,620 --> 00:35:16,852
for his country.
526
00:35:16,953 --> 00:35:18,752
While Ho was away,
527
00:35:18,852 --> 00:35:22,220
General Giap began
consolidating communist control
528
00:35:22,319 --> 00:35:23,685
of the revolution.
529
00:35:23,785 --> 00:35:26,553
He conducted a merciless purge
530
00:35:26,652 --> 00:35:29,585
of members of rival nationalist parties
531
00:35:29,685 --> 00:35:32,953
and people he called
"reactionary saboteurs"...
532
00:35:33,053 --> 00:35:38,319
landlords and moneylenders,
Trotskyites and Catholics,
533
00:35:38,419 --> 00:35:42,785
men and women accused of
collaborating with the French.
534
00:35:42,886 --> 00:35:47,220
Hundreds were shot,
drowned, buried alive.
535
00:35:47,319 --> 00:35:51,705
LAM QUANG THI:
536
00:36:00,352 --> 00:36:05,252
NARRATOR: On December 19, 1946,
after months of building tension,
537
00:36:05,352 --> 00:36:07,553
fighting broke out in Hanoi
538
00:36:07,652 --> 00:36:10,553
between the Viet Minh and the French.
539
00:36:10,652 --> 00:36:12,419
(GUNFIRE)
540
00:36:14,819 --> 00:36:17,986
The Viet Minh proved no
match for French firepower.
541
00:36:22,553 --> 00:36:28,419
Ho, Giap, and their comrades
slipped out of the city
542
00:36:28,520 --> 00:36:32,453
and returned to their mountain
stronghold far to the north.
543
00:36:34,685 --> 00:36:37,819
"Those who have rifles
will use their rifles,"
544
00:36:37,919 --> 00:36:39,919
Ho declared in a radio address
545
00:36:40,020 --> 00:36:42,852
calling for a nationwide guerrilla war.
546
00:36:42,953 --> 00:36:46,819
"Those who have swords will use swords;
547
00:36:46,919 --> 00:36:52,152
those who have no swords
will use spades or sticks."
548
00:36:55,886 --> 00:37:00,630
NGUYEN NGOC:
549
00:37:21,773 --> 00:37:24,372
NARRATOR: But the country
Ho Chi Minh hoped to unite
550
00:37:24,472 --> 00:37:27,706
was itself bitterly divided.
551
00:37:27,805 --> 00:37:30,106
Families were being torn apart.
552
00:37:30,206 --> 00:37:33,972
Despite her father's position
in the French government,
553
00:37:34,072 --> 00:37:39,005
Duong Van Mai's sister felt
compelled to answer Ho's call.
554
00:37:40,673 --> 00:37:44,273
DUONG VAN MAI: My older
sister Thang was married
555
00:37:44,372 --> 00:37:49,405
to a man who had great
sympathy for the Viet Minh.
556
00:37:49,505 --> 00:37:52,505
And by that time Ho Chi Minh
had evacuated his government
557
00:37:52,606 --> 00:37:53,905
to the mountain base.
558
00:37:54,005 --> 00:37:57,639
So my sister and her
husband trekked all the way
559
00:37:57,740 --> 00:37:59,972
from Hanoi toward the base
560
00:38:00,072 --> 00:38:03,673
in order to join the
resistance against the French.
561
00:38:06,372 --> 00:38:08,840
So the Vietnam War
was really a civil war
562
00:38:08,940 --> 00:38:10,572
down to the family level.
563
00:38:18,905 --> 00:38:22,505
NARRATOR: France poured
thousands of men into Vietnam...
564
00:38:22,606 --> 00:38:26,940
French regulars, European
mercenaries, and colonial troops
565
00:38:27,039 --> 00:38:30,905
from Morocco, Algeria,
Tunisia, and Senegal...
566
00:38:31,005 --> 00:38:35,872
who fought alongside an
army of Cambodians, Laotians,
567
00:38:35,972 --> 00:38:38,872
and anti-communist Vietnamese.
568
00:38:42,706 --> 00:38:47,005
French forces managed to
occupy most of the large towns
569
00:38:47,106 --> 00:38:48,505
and province capitals
570
00:38:48,606 --> 00:38:53,572
and established hundreds
of isolated outposts.
571
00:38:53,673 --> 00:38:58,340
The French also set out to try
to win over rural Vietnamese
572
00:38:58,440 --> 00:39:01,805
through a program they
called pacification...
573
00:39:01,905 --> 00:39:04,005
pacification...
574
00:39:04,106 --> 00:39:08,740
building dikes, schools and
roads, and vaccinating children.
575
00:39:11,572 --> 00:39:13,972
DUONG VAN MAI: The French
would pacify a village
576
00:39:14,072 --> 00:39:18,240
and during the daytime
they could control it.
577
00:39:18,340 --> 00:39:21,840
But at night the Viet
Minh would come back.
578
00:39:21,940 --> 00:39:26,072
And so it was never completely secure.
579
00:39:26,173 --> 00:39:29,606
My father would shake his
head and said, you know,
580
00:39:29,706 --> 00:39:31,173
"Pacification is really futile
581
00:39:31,273 --> 00:39:35,505
because it's like trying to
hold sand in your fingers."
582
00:39:38,972 --> 00:39:44,072
NARRATOR: The Viet Minh mined
roads, blew up bridges and railroads,
583
00:39:44,173 --> 00:39:49,340
ambushed French patrols,
and then disappeared.
584
00:39:51,673 --> 00:39:55,872
French soldiers sometimes took
revenge on the nearest village,
585
00:39:55,972 --> 00:39:58,372
burning homes, raping women,
586
00:39:58,472 --> 00:40:02,673
executing men suspected
of aiding the Viet Minh.
587
00:40:07,539 --> 00:40:10,300
LE CONG HUAN:
588
00:40:41,472 --> 00:40:43,575
NARRATOR: But the communists proved
589
00:40:43,576 --> 00:40:46,273
every bit as ruthless as the French.
590
00:40:46,372 --> 00:40:49,539
"It is better to kill even
those who might be innocent,"
591
00:40:49,639 --> 00:40:55,372
one commander said, "than
to let a guilty person go."
592
00:40:55,472 --> 00:40:57,740
And they specifically targeted
593
00:40:57,840 --> 00:41:01,106
anyone who had links to the French.
594
00:41:01,206 --> 00:41:04,300
DUONG VAN MAI: Once my father
started working for the French,
595
00:41:04,310 --> 00:41:07,673
then he was a target,
especially the higher he rose,
596
00:41:07,773 --> 00:41:09,639
the bigger target he became.
597
00:41:09,740 --> 00:41:15,805
A Viet Minh agent actually came
in with a pistol to shoot him
598
00:41:15,905 --> 00:41:19,472
but at the last moment decided not to.
599
00:41:21,840 --> 00:41:25,772
TRANG NGOC ("HARRY") HUE:
600
00:41:54,005 --> 00:41:55,572
(GUNFIRE)
601
00:41:58,740 --> 00:42:02,105
NARRATOR: French casualties
continued to mount.
602
00:42:02,205 --> 00:42:05,040
"There are days when
we are so discouraged
603
00:42:05,140 --> 00:42:07,740
that we would like to give it all up,"
604
00:42:07,839 --> 00:42:09,939
a French soldier wrote his mother.
605
00:42:10,040 --> 00:42:13,205
"Convoys under attack, roads cut,
606
00:42:13,305 --> 00:42:16,406
"firing in all directions every night,
607
00:42:16,506 --> 00:42:18,439
the indifference at home."
608
00:42:28,105 --> 00:42:30,000
ROGER HARRIS: While I was
there I had the opportunity
609
00:42:30,001 --> 00:42:32,939
to call my mother, you know.
610
00:42:33,040 --> 00:42:36,073
And I was telling my mother
what was happening over there,
611
00:42:36,172 --> 00:42:39,272
and I was telling her
how she shouldn't believe
612
00:42:39,372 --> 00:42:42,240
what she sees in the newspaper
and sees on television
613
00:42:42,339 --> 00:42:44,973
because we're losing the war.
614
00:42:45,073 --> 00:42:47,839
I said, "And you'll
probably never see me again
615
00:42:47,939 --> 00:42:50,612
because we're the most northern outpost
616
00:42:50,613 --> 00:42:52,939
that the Marines have, you know."
617
00:42:53,040 --> 00:42:54,973
We could literally... could
look right into North Vietnam.
618
00:42:55,073 --> 00:42:57,006
We could see the sparks
when the guns fired on us.
619
00:42:57,105 --> 00:42:59,272
And I said, "And everybody
in my unit is dying.
620
00:42:59,372 --> 00:43:02,040
I probably won't be coming back."
621
00:43:02,140 --> 00:43:04,172
And my mother said,
"No, you're coming back."
622
00:43:04,272 --> 00:43:08,006
She said, "I talk to God
every day and you're special.
623
00:43:08,105 --> 00:43:09,939
You're coming back."
624
00:43:10,040 --> 00:43:12,272
And I said, "Ma,
everybody's mother thinks
625
00:43:12,372 --> 00:43:14,573
that they're special.
626
00:43:14,672 --> 00:43:18,705
You know, I'm putting pieces
of special people in bags."
627
00:43:20,073 --> 00:43:21,740
(EXPLOSION)
628
00:43:24,140 --> 00:43:25,772
ED HERLIHY: President
Truman's dramatic announcement
629
00:43:25,872 --> 00:43:27,305
that Russia had the atom secret
630
00:43:27,406 --> 00:43:31,740
caused state departments all
over the world to stir uneasily.
631
00:43:32,139 --> 00:43:36,172
HAL KUSHNER: We were very
aware that there was a Cold War
632
00:43:36,273 --> 00:43:38,139
and that we had an enemy,
633
00:43:38,239 --> 00:43:42,273
and that enemy was the Soviet Union.
634
00:43:42,373 --> 00:43:45,440
The United States stood at one pole
635
00:43:45,540 --> 00:43:47,739
and the Soviet Union
stood at the other pole.
636
00:43:47,840 --> 00:43:50,806
It was kind of a Manichean dynamic
637
00:43:50,905 --> 00:43:52,672
that there was evil and there was good.
638
00:43:52,773 --> 00:43:54,706
And we were good, and
the other side was evil.
639
00:43:54,806 --> 00:43:57,873
It wasn't morally ambiguous.
640
00:44:00,672 --> 00:44:04,905
NARRATOR: Just a few weeks after
Russia became a nuclear power,
641
00:44:05,005 --> 00:44:06,840
there was more stunning news...
642
00:44:06,940 --> 00:44:13,239
communist forces under Mao
Zedong seized control of China.
643
00:44:13,340 --> 00:44:17,206
Separate communist
insurrections were also underway
644
00:44:17,306 --> 00:44:22,840
in the British colonies
of Burma and Malaya.
645
00:44:22,940 --> 00:44:26,605
In January 1950, Mao formally recognized
646
00:44:26,706 --> 00:44:30,739
Ho Chi Minh's insurgency and
agreed to provide the arms,
647
00:44:30,840 --> 00:44:34,739
equipment, and military
training he had been seeking.
648
00:44:34,840 --> 00:44:38,840
The Soviets recognized
the Viet Minh as well,
649
00:44:38,940 --> 00:44:40,739
and also offered help.
650
00:44:40,840 --> 00:44:44,405
President Truman, who was being blamed
651
00:44:44,505 --> 00:44:48,340
by his political opponents
for having "lost" China,
652
00:44:48,440 --> 00:44:50,773
and having failed to
"contain" communism,
653
00:44:50,873 --> 00:44:54,306
approved a $23 million aid program
654
00:44:54,405 --> 00:44:57,139
for the French in Vietnam.
655
00:44:57,239 --> 00:45:02,072
The United States was no longer neutral.
656
00:45:02,172 --> 00:45:05,005
SAM WILSON: We were caught
on the horns of a dilemma
657
00:45:05,105 --> 00:45:07,739
of how can we maintain our friendship
658
00:45:07,840 --> 00:45:11,572
and our alliance with the French
and support them in Indochina
659
00:45:11,672 --> 00:45:15,306
while we, as a former colony ourselves,
660
00:45:15,405 --> 00:45:18,373
sympathized with the
Vietnamese and their aspirations
661
00:45:18,472 --> 00:45:20,405
for freedom and independence?
662
00:45:25,239 --> 00:45:27,572
ED HERLIHY: A highly trained and
well-equipped North Korean Army
663
00:45:27,672 --> 00:45:29,806
swarmed across the 38th parallel
664
00:45:29,905 --> 00:45:31,873
to attack unprepared
South Korean defenders.
665
00:45:31,972 --> 00:45:33,540
(EXPLOSION)
666
00:45:33,639 --> 00:45:37,273
NARRATOR: In June of 1950, China's ally,
667
00:45:37,373 --> 00:45:40,873
communist North Korea,
invaded South Korea.
668
00:45:40,972 --> 00:45:42,405
(GUNFIRE)
669
00:45:42,505 --> 00:45:44,405
President Truman ordered
670
00:45:44,505 --> 00:45:46,773
tens of thousands of
American ground troops
671
00:45:46,873 --> 00:45:48,739
onto the Korean Peninsula.
672
00:45:55,706 --> 00:45:57,605
The United States and its allies
673
00:45:57,706 --> 00:46:02,072
eventually pushed the
invaders back north.
674
00:46:02,172 --> 00:46:04,472
Meanwhile in southern China,
675
00:46:04,572 --> 00:46:06,940
Mao's military was beginning
to turn the Viet Minh
676
00:46:07,040 --> 00:46:10,840
into a modern fighting force,
677
00:46:10,940 --> 00:46:15,005
capable of inflicting a heavy
toll on the French occupiers.
678
00:46:22,373 --> 00:46:24,139
In July, the Truman administration
679
00:46:24,239 --> 00:46:27,105
quietly dispatched transport planes
680
00:46:27,206 --> 00:46:29,773
and a shipload of jeeps to Vietnam.
681
00:46:29,873 --> 00:46:35,540
Thirty-five military advisors
went along to oversee their use.
682
00:46:37,373 --> 00:46:40,273
None of them, and no one
in the American embassy,
683
00:46:40,373 --> 00:46:44,373
spoke a word of Vietnamese.
684
00:46:44,472 --> 00:46:48,773
But the United States was
now officially in Vietnam.
685
00:46:51,005 --> 00:46:53,172
In October of 1950,
686
00:46:53,273 --> 00:46:56,340
hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops
687
00:46:56,440 --> 00:46:58,605
began pouring into North Korea,
688
00:46:58,706 --> 00:47:02,739
driving the allies
back down the peninsula.
689
00:47:02,840 --> 00:47:04,472
As that fighting raged,
690
00:47:04,572 --> 00:47:07,773
Truman continued to
increase military aid
691
00:47:07,873 --> 00:47:10,672
for the French war in Vietnam.
692
00:47:13,905 --> 00:47:15,840
HARRY TRUMAN: If aggression
is successful in Korea,
693
00:47:15,939 --> 00:47:19,173
we can expect it to spread
throughout Asia and Europe
694
00:47:19,272 --> 00:47:20,506
and to this hemisphere.
695
00:47:20,606 --> 00:47:23,039
(MORTAR FIRE)
696
00:47:23,140 --> 00:47:25,606
We are fighting in Korea
697
00:47:25,705 --> 00:47:28,305
for our own national
security and survival.
698
00:47:31,740 --> 00:47:34,972
("MEAN OLD WORLD" BY
T-BONE WALKER PLAYING)
699
00:47:35,073 --> 00:47:37,173
NARRATOR: In the autumn of 1951,
700
00:47:37,272 --> 00:47:39,405
a young Massachusetts congressman
701
00:47:39,506 --> 00:47:43,372
named John F. Kennedy
dined at the rooftop bar
702
00:47:43,472 --> 00:47:46,106
of the Hotel Majestic
overlooking Saigon.
703
00:47:46,205 --> 00:47:47,405
(DISTANT GUN FIRE)
704
00:47:47,506 --> 00:47:49,506
As he and his party ate,
705
00:47:49,606 --> 00:47:53,939
they could hear the thunder of
guns across the Saigon River.
706
00:47:54,039 --> 00:47:57,073
French commanders assured Kennedy
707
00:47:57,173 --> 00:47:59,673
that with more American support,
708
00:47:59,772 --> 00:48:02,939
French rule would be re-established.
709
00:48:03,039 --> 00:48:06,606
But Kennedy spent two
hours with Seymour Topping,
710
00:48:06,705 --> 00:48:08,805
a seasoned American reporter,
711
00:48:08,905 --> 00:48:11,506
who gave him a very
different perspective:
712
00:48:11,606 --> 00:48:14,305
the French were losing, he said,
713
00:48:14,405 --> 00:48:18,173
and many Vietnamese, who had
once admired the Americans,
714
00:48:18,272 --> 00:48:22,405
were beginning to despise
them for backing the French.
715
00:48:22,506 --> 00:48:25,740
Kennedy believed the reporter.
716
00:48:25,840 --> 00:48:29,106
Unless the United States
could persuade the Vietnamese
717
00:48:29,205 --> 00:48:32,772
that it was as opposed to
"injustice and inequality"
718
00:48:32,872 --> 00:48:34,372
as it was to communism,
719
00:48:34,472 --> 00:48:37,439
he told his constituents
when he got home,
720
00:48:37,539 --> 00:48:42,805
the current effort would
result in "foredoomed failure."
721
00:48:42,905 --> 00:48:45,740
(ROSEMARY CLOONEY SINGING
"COME ON-A MY HOUSE")
722
00:48:45,840 --> 00:48:51,240
♪ Come on-a my house, my house,
I'm gonna give you candy ♪
723
00:48:51,340 --> 00:48:53,205
NARRATOR: In 1952,
724
00:48:53,305 --> 00:48:56,573
General Dwight Eisenhower
was elected president,
725
00:48:56,673 --> 00:48:59,472
in part because he promised
to take a tougher stance
726
00:48:59,573 --> 00:49:01,606
on communism.
727
00:49:01,705 --> 00:49:05,006
That year, American taxpayers
728
00:49:05,106 --> 00:49:07,539
were footing more than 30% of the bill
729
00:49:07,640 --> 00:49:10,573
for the French war in Vietnam.
730
00:49:10,673 --> 00:49:12,772
Within two years,
731
00:49:12,872 --> 00:49:16,205
that number would rise to nearly 80%.
732
00:49:16,305 --> 00:49:19,539
CLOONEY: ♪ Everything,
everything, everything ♪
733
00:49:19,640 --> 00:49:21,905
RICHARD NIXON: And many
of you ask this question:
734
00:49:22,006 --> 00:49:24,272
Why is the United States spending
735
00:49:24,372 --> 00:49:26,173
hundreds of millions of dollars
736
00:49:26,272 --> 00:49:30,372
supporting the forces
of the French Union
737
00:49:30,472 --> 00:49:33,972
in the fight against
communism in Indochina?
738
00:49:34,073 --> 00:49:36,305
I think perhaps if we
go over to the map here,
739
00:49:36,405 --> 00:49:40,740
I can indicate to you why
it is so vitally important.
740
00:49:40,840 --> 00:49:43,173
Here's Indochina.
741
00:49:43,272 --> 00:49:44,606
If Indochina falls,
742
00:49:44,705 --> 00:49:47,939
Thailand is put in almost
impossible position.
743
00:49:48,039 --> 00:49:51,106
The same is true of Malaya
with its rubber and tin.
744
00:49:51,205 --> 00:49:56,240
Now may I say that as far as the
war in Indochina is concerned,
745
00:49:56,340 --> 00:50:00,905
that I was there, right on the
battlefield, or close to it,
746
00:50:01,006 --> 00:50:03,606
and it's a bloody war,
and it's a bitter one.
747
00:50:03,705 --> 00:50:08,905
(EXPLOSIONS)
748
00:50:09,006 --> 00:50:13,740
NARRATOR: By 1953, the French
had been fighting for seven years.
749
00:50:13,840 --> 00:50:17,073
They had suffered
over 100,000 casualties
750
00:50:17,173 --> 00:50:20,305
and failed to pacify the countryside.
751
00:50:20,405 --> 00:50:24,073
Six commanders had come and gone.
752
00:50:24,173 --> 00:50:26,340
Nevertheless, the seventh commander,
753
00:50:26,439 --> 00:50:29,472
General Henri Navarre,
assured his countrymen
754
00:50:29,573 --> 00:50:31,006
that victory was near.
755
00:50:31,106 --> 00:50:34,140
"Now we can see it clearly," he said,
756
00:50:34,240 --> 00:50:38,073
"like the light at
the end of the tunnel."
757
00:50:40,073 --> 00:50:43,972
Meanwhile, large parts of the
French population were horrified
758
00:50:44,073 --> 00:50:46,673
by reports of French brutality
759
00:50:46,772 --> 00:50:49,472
and the widespread use of napalm...
760
00:50:49,573 --> 00:50:54,240
gelatinized petroleum
that burned foliage,
761
00:50:54,340 --> 00:50:56,805
homes, and human flesh.
762
00:50:59,740 --> 00:51:03,140
When returning French troops
disembarked at Marseilles,
763
00:51:03,240 --> 00:51:07,606
members of the longshoremen's
union pelted them with rocks.
764
00:51:07,705 --> 00:51:10,772
Parisian leftists began
to call the conflict
765
00:51:10,872 --> 00:51:14,006
"La Sale Guerre"... "The Dirty War."
766
00:51:17,705 --> 00:51:21,140
(POLICE SIRENS WAILING, PEOPLE CHANTING)
767
00:51:22,452 --> 00:51:24,753
RON FERRIZZI: The
camera was a close-up,
768
00:51:24,852 --> 00:51:27,920
was over the shoulder
of this storm trooper
769
00:51:28,019 --> 00:51:31,552
who had a kid by the scruff
of his shirt and he smacks him.
770
00:51:31,653 --> 00:51:32,753
REPORTER: People screaming...
771
00:51:32,852 --> 00:51:34,920
FERRIZZI: At that moment in time,
772
00:51:35,019 --> 00:51:37,619
I realized that anybody
who really cared for America
773
00:51:37,720 --> 00:51:39,186
was sent halfway around the world
774
00:51:39,285 --> 00:51:42,686
chasing some ghost in a jungle.
775
00:51:42,785 --> 00:51:45,820
In the meantime, my
country's being torn apart.
776
00:51:45,920 --> 00:51:48,119
So I saw somebody who looked like my dad
777
00:51:48,220 --> 00:51:49,720
hitting somebody who looked like me.
778
00:51:49,820 --> 00:51:51,653
Whose side would I be on?
779
00:51:59,753 --> 00:52:02,253
ED HERLIHY: In Korea,
three years of combat end
780
00:52:02,352 --> 00:52:06,352
as United Nations and communist
negotiators at Panmunjom sign a truce.
781
00:52:06,512 --> 00:52:09,480
NARRATOR: In July of 1953,
782
00:52:09,579 --> 00:52:12,945
the Korean War ended in
a negotiated settlement
783
00:52:13,045 --> 00:52:14,980
and a still-divided peninsula.
784
00:52:15,154 --> 00:52:18,455
American policymakers saw it as proof
785
00:52:18,555 --> 00:52:21,855
that communism in Asia
could be contained.
786
00:52:21,955 --> 00:52:23,687
HERLIHY: And in Washington, a
dramatic evening press conference...
787
00:52:23,788 --> 00:52:26,821
NARRATOR: That fall, the French
indicated their willingness
788
00:52:26,920 --> 00:52:30,888
to begin talks to end
the fighting in Vietnam.
789
00:52:30,987 --> 00:52:34,420
Ho Chi Minh agreed to meet.
790
00:52:34,520 --> 00:52:38,388
But before the negotiators
were to convene in Geneva,
791
00:52:38,487 --> 00:52:43,487
each side sought to improve
its position on the battlefield.
792
00:52:45,087 --> 00:52:47,654
General Navarre set up a fortified base
793
00:52:47,754 --> 00:52:50,620
in a remote valley in
northwestern Vietnam
794
00:52:50,721 --> 00:52:55,187
called Dien Bien Phu, where
he hoped to lure the Viet Minh
795
00:52:55,288 --> 00:52:57,288
into a decisive battle.
796
00:52:59,388 --> 00:53:02,587
Navarre was certain that
superior French firepower
797
00:53:02,687 --> 00:53:07,687
and air support would crush
any attack by the Viet Minh.
798
00:53:07,788 --> 00:53:10,355
He and his commanders
saw no need to worry
799
00:53:10,455 --> 00:53:14,888
about the jungle-covered hills
that overlooked his 11,000 men,
800
00:53:14,987 --> 00:53:17,888
dug in on the valley floor.
801
00:53:17,987 --> 00:53:22,221
The artillery commander
was so confident of victory,
802
00:53:22,321 --> 00:53:26,355
he complained, "I have
more guns than I need."
803
00:53:29,420 --> 00:53:32,055
General Giap saw his chance.
804
00:53:32,154 --> 00:53:36,620
"We decided to wipe out at
all costs the whole enemy force
805
00:53:36,721 --> 00:53:39,654
at Dien Bien Phu," he remembered.
806
00:53:41,721 --> 00:53:45,387
To do it, he pulled off one of
the greatest logistical feats
807
00:53:45,555 --> 00:53:47,487
in military history...
808
00:53:47,587 --> 00:53:50,687
a feat that would be
restaged in propaganda films
809
00:53:50,788 --> 00:53:53,987
and celebrated for decades.
810
00:53:54,087 --> 00:53:57,955
A quarter of a million
civilian porters...
811
00:53:58,055 --> 00:53:59,388
nearly half of them women...
812
00:53:59,487 --> 00:54:04,288
moved everything he needed
for a siege, from sacks of rice
813
00:54:04,388 --> 00:54:06,555
to disassembled artillery pieces,
814
00:54:06,654 --> 00:54:09,687
on foot through the jungle.
815
00:54:09,788 --> 00:54:14,555
Giap surrounded the
valley with 50,000 soldiers
816
00:54:14,654 --> 00:54:19,788
and 200 big guns, dug-in
and camouflaged so well
817
00:54:19,888 --> 00:54:24,455
they could not be spotted from the air.
818
00:54:26,514 --> 00:54:30,347
On March 13, 1954,
819
00:54:30,447 --> 00:54:32,681
Viet Minh artillery on the hillsides
820
00:54:32,780 --> 00:54:36,047
began raining down 50 shells a minute
821
00:54:36,148 --> 00:54:39,114
on the French troops huddled below.
822
00:54:39,215 --> 00:54:41,380
(EXPLOSIONS)
823
00:54:41,480 --> 00:54:43,215
The airstrip was destroyed.
824
00:54:46,280 --> 00:54:49,347
The besieged troops
could only be reinforced
825
00:54:49,447 --> 00:54:52,280
and resupplied by airdrop.
826
00:54:55,880 --> 00:54:57,581
The French artillery commander,
827
00:54:57,681 --> 00:55:02,648
who had underestimated his
enemy, committed suicide.
828
00:55:02,828 --> 00:55:05,828
NEWSREEL NARRATOR: The airlift
to Dien Bien Phu continues...
829
00:55:05,927 --> 00:55:08,360
vital men and supplies
for the heroic garrison
830
00:55:08,460 --> 00:55:11,194
that has defied the massed Viet
Minh onslaughts for over six weeks.
831
00:55:11,295 --> 00:55:14,295
Today, Dien Bien Phu is a human dam
832
00:55:14,395 --> 00:55:16,295
trying to stem the red tide
833
00:55:16,395 --> 00:55:18,495
that threatens to engulf Southeast Asia.
834
00:55:20,161 --> 00:55:21,104
NARRATOR: The French government
835
00:55:21,105 --> 00:55:24,495
begged President
Eisenhower to intervene.
836
00:55:24,594 --> 00:55:27,895
He refused to act without
Congressional approval
837
00:55:27,995 --> 00:55:30,860
and support from European allies.
838
00:55:30,960 --> 00:55:32,995
Britain said no
839
00:55:33,094 --> 00:55:36,860
and the Congress would not
support unilateral action.
840
00:55:36,960 --> 00:55:38,228
JOHN F. KENNEDY: The communists
841
00:55:38,328 --> 00:55:40,895
under Ho Chi Minh are able to
claim that they are fighting
842
00:55:40,995 --> 00:55:43,527
for independence and the
French appear to be fighting
843
00:55:43,627 --> 00:55:45,895
for a maintain...
maintenance of colonial rule.
844
00:55:45,995 --> 00:55:47,328
I therefore believe
845
00:55:47,427 --> 00:55:50,627
that before the United States
moves in, in any degree,
846
00:55:50,728 --> 00:55:53,261
that independence must
be granted to the people,
847
00:55:53,360 --> 00:55:55,027
that the people must
support the struggle.
848
00:55:56,828 --> 00:56:00,761
NARRATOR: "I am convinced,"
Eisenhower confided to his diary,
849
00:56:00,860 --> 00:56:05,694
"that no military victory
is possible in this theater."
850
00:56:05,795 --> 00:56:08,427
Still, without consulting Congress,
851
00:56:08,527 --> 00:56:12,360
the president had secretly sent
more American transport planes,
852
00:56:12,460 --> 00:56:18,127
their markings painted over and
flown by civilian contractors,
853
00:56:18,228 --> 00:56:22,795
to help resupply the desperate
French troops at Dien Bien Phu.
854
00:56:26,560 --> 00:56:28,728
GELB: Everyone understood
that in and of itself,
855
00:56:28,828 --> 00:56:32,360
Vietnam didn't mean very much.
856
00:56:32,460 --> 00:56:36,594
But they believed, I
believed, if we lost it,
857
00:56:36,694 --> 00:56:39,527
that the rest of Asia
would tumble to communism.
858
00:56:39,677 --> 00:56:44,477
EISENHOWER: You have broader
considerations that might follow
859
00:56:44,577 --> 00:56:49,345
what you would call the
falling domino principle.
860
00:56:49,445 --> 00:56:51,977
You have a row of dominoes set up,
861
00:56:52,077 --> 00:56:53,845
and you knock over the first one,
862
00:56:53,945 --> 00:56:57,811
and what will happen to the
last one is the certainty
863
00:56:57,910 --> 00:57:00,811
that it will go over very quickly.
864
00:57:02,677 --> 00:57:04,744
(EXPLOSION)
865
00:57:08,778 --> 00:57:11,711
(MUTED GUNFIRE)
866
00:57:22,010 --> 00:57:28,045
NARRATOR: On the afternoon of May
7, 1954, after 55 days of siege,
867
00:57:28,144 --> 00:57:33,278
the exhausted French forces
at Dien Bien Phu surrendered.
868
00:57:35,878 --> 00:57:40,610
They had lost 8,000 men,
killed, wounded, or missing.
869
00:57:43,477 --> 00:57:47,845
General Giap had lost
three times as many,
870
00:57:47,945 --> 00:57:51,077
but he had won a great victory.
871
00:57:52,110 --> 00:57:56,533
NGUYEN THOI BUNG:
872
00:58:08,211 --> 00:58:13,077
NARRATOR: Even Duong Van Mai's parents
could not help but be impressed.
873
00:58:13,177 --> 00:58:15,211
DUONG VAN MAI: They were very proud
874
00:58:15,311 --> 00:58:17,945
that the Viet Minh had
defeated the French,
875
00:58:18,045 --> 00:58:19,945
this great Western power.
876
00:58:20,045 --> 00:58:23,878
Admiration and respect on the one hand,
877
00:58:23,977 --> 00:58:26,211
but fear on the other hand.
878
00:58:26,311 --> 00:58:29,010
And fear was the stronger emotion.
879
00:58:30,711 --> 00:58:33,378
NARRATOR: "We have been caught
bluffing by our enemies,"
880
00:58:33,477 --> 00:58:37,177
Senate Minority Leader
Lyndon Johnson said.
881
00:58:37,278 --> 00:58:42,278
"Today it is Indochina,
tomorrow Asia may be in flames.
882
00:58:42,378 --> 00:58:48,477
And the day after, the Western
Alliance will lie in ruins."
883
00:58:48,577 --> 00:58:51,545
DONALD GREGG: We should have seen
it as the end of the colonial era
884
00:58:51,644 --> 00:58:54,744
in Southeast Asia, which it really was.
885
00:58:54,845 --> 00:58:57,211
But instead we saw it in Cold War terms,
886
00:58:57,311 --> 00:59:01,977
and we saw it as a
defeat for the free world
887
00:59:02,077 --> 00:59:03,845
that was related to the rise of China.
888
00:59:03,945 --> 00:59:08,945
And it was a total
misreading of a pivotal event,
889
00:59:09,045 --> 00:59:11,644
which cost us very dearly.
890
00:59:11,744 --> 00:59:13,744
(CHANTING)
891
00:59:13,845 --> 00:59:17,577
(NEWSREEL MUSIC PLAYING)
892
00:59:17,677 --> 00:59:19,644
JACK TOBIN: The former home
of the League of Nations,
893
00:59:19,744 --> 00:59:21,910
Geneva, Switzerland,
where East is meeting West
894
00:59:22,010 --> 00:59:23,311
in the international conference
895
00:59:23,410 --> 00:59:27,878
that may decisively affect
the political future of Asia.
896
00:59:27,977 --> 00:59:31,244
NARRATOR: The day after
the fall of Dien Bien Phu,
897
00:59:31,345 --> 00:59:35,010
diplomats from nine
nations gathered in Geneva
898
00:59:35,110 --> 00:59:37,878
to settle the future of Vietnam.
899
00:59:37,977 --> 00:59:42,010
The talks dragged on for
nearly two-and-a-half months.
900
00:59:45,045 --> 00:59:46,811
Despite their victory,
901
00:59:46,910 --> 00:59:50,577
Ho Chi Minh and General
Giap could not keep fighting
902
00:59:50,677 --> 00:59:55,811
without more support from
China and the Soviet Union.
903
00:59:55,910 --> 00:59:59,311
But China had lost a
million men in Korea
904
00:59:59,410 --> 01:00:02,378
and did not want to become
involved in another war
905
01:00:02,477 --> 01:00:04,045
along its border.
906
01:00:04,144 --> 01:00:09,878
The Soviet Union was hoping
to ease tensions with the West.
907
01:00:09,977 --> 01:00:14,845
Both of Ho Chi Minh's communist
patrons urged him to agree
908
01:00:14,945 --> 01:00:16,811
to a negotiated settlement,
909
01:00:16,910 --> 01:00:21,211
a partition like the one
that had ended the Korean War.
910
01:00:21,311 --> 01:00:24,644
Ho had no option but to give in.
911
01:00:28,577 --> 01:00:31,345
In the end, no one was satisfied.
912
01:00:33,378 --> 01:00:38,345
Vietnam was temporarily to be
divided at the 17th parallel.
913
01:00:38,445 --> 01:00:42,878
The 130,000 French-led
troops stationed in the North
914
01:00:42,977 --> 01:00:45,045
were to withdraw to the South,
915
01:00:45,144 --> 01:00:49,045
and somewhere between
50,000 and 90,000 Viet Minh
916
01:00:49,144 --> 01:00:51,811
were to "re-group" to the North.
917
01:00:51,910 --> 01:00:53,677
The two halves would be separated
918
01:00:53,778 --> 01:00:58,077
by a demilitarized zone until
an election could be held
919
01:00:58,177 --> 01:01:01,378
to reunify North and South Vietnam,
920
01:01:01,477 --> 01:01:06,610
an election everyone knew
Ho Chi Minh would win.
921
01:01:08,177 --> 01:01:11,250
NGUYEN VAN TONG:
922
01:01:22,077 --> 01:01:23,445
(CHEERING)
923
01:01:23,545 --> 01:01:28,359
NGUYEN THOI BUNG:
924
01:01:41,010 --> 01:01:42,544
KARL MARLANTES: We
had started walking up
925
01:01:42,644 --> 01:01:44,510
and we had probably gotten about
a third of the way up the hill
926
01:01:44,611 --> 01:01:46,111
and then they unleashed on us.
927
01:01:46,211 --> 01:01:48,877
(EXPLOSION, GUNFIRE)
928
01:01:48,977 --> 01:01:51,111
We were in the middle of
this horrible shit sandwich.
929
01:01:51,211 --> 01:01:53,211
That's what we called it.
930
01:01:54,945 --> 01:01:58,211
(EXPLOSION, GUNFIRE)
931
01:01:58,310 --> 01:02:02,178
One of the things that I
learned in the war is that
932
01:02:02,278 --> 01:02:05,877
we're not the top species on
the planet because we're nice.
933
01:02:08,745 --> 01:02:11,877
People talk a lot about how well
the military turns, you know,
934
01:02:11,977 --> 01:02:14,678
kids into, you know,
killing machines and stuff.
935
01:02:14,778 --> 01:02:17,278
And I'll always argue that
it's just finishing school.
936
01:02:17,377 --> 01:02:19,144
(GUNFIRE)
937
01:02:19,245 --> 01:02:23,377
(SHOUTING)
938
01:02:25,945 --> 01:02:27,211
NEWSREEL NARRATOR: Braving the dangers
939
01:02:27,212 --> 01:02:29,611
of the open sea in tiny, rickety craft,
940
01:02:29,711 --> 01:02:32,111
thousands of Roman
Catholic and Buddhist faith
941
01:02:32,211 --> 01:02:34,477
have found life impossible
under the communists.
942
01:02:34,577 --> 01:02:38,044
For them, it's freedom or nothing.
943
01:02:41,211 --> 01:02:43,178
NARRATOR: Under the Geneva Accords,
944
01:02:43,278 --> 01:02:46,111
civilians living in
either half of Vietnam
945
01:02:46,211 --> 01:02:48,445
who wanted to relocate to the other
946
01:02:48,544 --> 01:02:51,544
would have 300 days to do so.
947
01:02:51,644 --> 01:02:55,544
DUONG VAN MAI: My mother
and father wanted to stay
948
01:02:55,644 --> 01:02:57,644
and meet my sister Thang again
949
01:02:57,745 --> 01:03:00,077
because they knew Thang would come back.
950
01:03:00,178 --> 01:03:02,410
But on the other hand
they couldn't risk that.
951
01:03:02,510 --> 01:03:07,377
They were convinced that when
Ho Chi Minh and his government
952
01:03:07,477 --> 01:03:09,611
arrived in Hanoi,
953
01:03:09,711 --> 01:03:13,245
my father would be the
first one to be killed
954
01:03:13,345 --> 01:03:15,211
and all of us would be persecuted.
955
01:03:17,945 --> 01:03:19,977
And I remember the day we left.
956
01:03:20,077 --> 01:03:23,345
I looked around and I thought,
"I never come back here again."
957
01:03:25,711 --> 01:03:27,611
It was extremely traumatic.
958
01:03:27,711 --> 01:03:32,310
It was like the ground was
suddenly cut from under you.
959
01:03:32,410 --> 01:03:37,877
NARRATOR: In the end,
some 900,000 refugees,
960
01:03:37,977 --> 01:03:41,577
including more than half of all
the Catholics living in the North,
961
01:03:41,678 --> 01:03:46,845
fled to the South, many of
them aboard American ships.
962
01:03:51,211 --> 01:03:54,778
The United States hoped somehow
to encourage the building
963
01:03:54,877 --> 01:03:57,111
of a legitimate government in the South.
964
01:03:59,245 --> 01:04:03,945
That government was now
headed by Ngo Dinh Diem.
965
01:04:04,044 --> 01:04:06,711
Both a Roman Catholic and a Confucian
966
01:04:06,810 --> 01:04:08,910
in a largely Buddhist country,
967
01:04:09,010 --> 01:04:13,910
he was a celibate bachelor who
had once planned to be a priest.
968
01:04:14,110 --> 01:04:20,211
GELB: The war for us really
started when we became the partner,
969
01:04:20,311 --> 01:04:25,345
or I would say the
victim, of President Diem.
970
01:04:25,445 --> 01:04:30,378
We were going to help him turn
South Vietnam into a democracy.
971
01:04:30,477 --> 01:04:31,977
That's what he said he wanted to do.
972
01:04:32,077 --> 01:04:33,045
And we believed him.
973
01:04:33,744 --> 01:04:35,477
NARRATOR: Like Ho Chi Minh,
974
01:04:35,577 --> 01:04:39,144
Diem had spent years
abroad seeking support
975
01:04:39,244 --> 01:04:42,910
for his own brand of
Vietnamese nationalism.
976
01:04:43,010 --> 01:04:46,410
He was a veteran politician
whose loathing for the French
977
01:04:46,510 --> 01:04:50,278
was matched only by his
hatred for the communists,
978
01:04:50,378 --> 01:04:54,045
who had imprisoned him and
buried alive his eldest brother
979
01:04:54,144 --> 01:04:56,510
and his nephew.
980
01:04:56,610 --> 01:04:59,945
Diem was aloof, autocratic,
981
01:05:00,045 --> 01:05:03,311
mistrustful of anyone
much beyond his own family.
982
01:05:03,410 --> 01:05:07,311
He also proved to be
shrewd, resourceful,
983
01:05:07,410 --> 01:05:11,445
and skilled at exploiting the
weaknesses of his opponents.
984
01:05:11,545 --> 01:05:17,477
But he faced a daunting task
in creating a new country.
985
01:05:17,577 --> 01:05:20,577
The French, who still
had thousands of troops
986
01:05:20,677 --> 01:05:24,144
stationed in the South, detested Diem.
987
01:05:24,244 --> 01:05:28,010
Several provinces were under
the sway of religious sects
988
01:05:28,110 --> 01:05:30,477
with armies of their own.
989
01:05:30,577 --> 01:05:34,677
Tens of thousands of Viet
Minh soldiers had gone north,
990
01:05:34,778 --> 01:05:36,878
but several thousand cadre...
991
01:05:36,977 --> 01:05:40,311
trained and dedicated
Communist Party workers...
992
01:05:40,410 --> 01:05:46,345
had stayed behind to organize
resistance in the countryside.
993
01:05:46,445 --> 01:05:50,510
And Saigon itself was
ruled by the Binh Xuyen,
994
01:05:50,610 --> 01:05:54,010
a crime syndicate backed by the French.
995
01:05:54,110 --> 01:05:56,311
RUFUS PHILLIPS: And the French
were behind the Binh Xuyen,
996
01:05:56,410 --> 01:05:57,811
sort of supporting them
997
01:05:57,910 --> 01:06:00,977
because they didn't
want Diem to succeed.
998
01:06:01,077 --> 01:06:03,010
And that became the central contest.
999
01:06:05,045 --> 01:06:07,055
NARRATOR: Some in the CIA believed
1000
01:06:07,056 --> 01:06:11,010
that Diem could be the
savior of South Vietnam.
1001
01:06:11,110 --> 01:06:13,045
Others were not so sure.
1002
01:06:13,144 --> 01:06:15,278
"He is a messiah without a message,"
1003
01:06:15,378 --> 01:06:18,311
one diplomat reported to Washington.
1004
01:06:18,410 --> 01:06:21,878
The U.S. ambassador agreed.
1005
01:06:21,977 --> 01:06:25,278
On April 27, 1955,
1006
01:06:25,378 --> 01:06:27,700
President Eisenhower decided
1007
01:06:27,701 --> 01:06:32,110
to end American support
for Diem's regime.
1008
01:06:32,211 --> 01:06:33,177
(GUNFIRE)
1009
01:06:33,278 --> 01:06:36,477
But then Diem made an all-out assault
1010
01:06:36,577 --> 01:06:38,878
on the Binh Xuyen syndicate.
1011
01:06:38,977 --> 01:06:41,177
(SIRENS BLARING, GUNFIRE)
1012
01:06:41,278 --> 01:06:43,077
DUONG VAN MAI: Suddenly
in the middle of the day
1013
01:06:43,177 --> 01:06:47,677
we heard gunfire and then we saw flames
1014
01:06:47,778 --> 01:06:50,110
and the neighborhood was burning.
1015
01:06:50,211 --> 01:06:52,395
MICHAEL FITZMAURICE: There are
hundreds of dead and wounded
1016
01:06:52,396 --> 01:06:56,010
on both sides as the street fighting
continues for an entire week.
1017
01:06:56,110 --> 01:06:59,345
For the United States, the
situation presents a grave problem.
1018
01:07:01,278 --> 01:07:04,244
Diem finally regains control of Saigon.
1019
01:07:05,977 --> 01:07:10,244
NARRATOR: In the end,
Diem's forces prevailed.
1020
01:07:10,345 --> 01:07:16,211
Eisenhower now saw no option
but to stick with Diem.
1021
01:07:16,311 --> 01:07:21,677
The French then announced their
intention to withdraw completely
1022
01:07:21,778 --> 01:07:27,910
from South Vietnam, ending
nearly a century of occupation.
1023
01:07:28,110 --> 01:07:33,077
PHILLIPS: Diem became wildly
popular because he seemed to embody
1024
01:07:33,177 --> 01:07:35,677
the nationalist cause in the South.
1025
01:07:35,777 --> 01:07:37,677
He succeeded in getting the French
1026
01:07:37,777 --> 01:07:39,710
out of Vietnam all the way.
1027
01:07:39,811 --> 01:07:43,277
And Ho Chi Minh had only got
them out of the northern half.
1028
01:07:43,378 --> 01:07:45,633
NARRATOR: Flush with victory,
1029
01:07:45,634 --> 01:07:48,634
Diem called for a
referendum in the South.
1030
01:07:49,277 --> 01:07:54,677
The CIA warned him not to
meddle too much with the returns.
1031
01:07:55,878 --> 01:07:57,677
But when the ballots were counted,
1032
01:07:57,777 --> 01:08:03,545
Diem claimed to have
won 98.2% of the vote.
1033
01:08:05,445 --> 01:08:10,978
On October 26, 1955, Ngo
Dinh Diem named himself
1034
01:08:11,077 --> 01:08:16,710
the first president of the
brand-new Republic of Vietnam.
1035
01:08:16,811 --> 01:08:20,611
The election to reunify
the North and South
1036
01:08:20,710 --> 01:08:24,277
that had been promised at
Geneva would never be held.
1037
01:08:26,378 --> 01:08:30,410
GELB: He became our ally,
or rather our master,
1038
01:08:30,510 --> 01:08:33,010
because the goal of preventing
1039
01:08:33,111 --> 01:08:35,210
the communists from
taking over the South
1040
01:08:35,311 --> 01:08:41,844
was so strong that we couldn't
afford for him to lose.
1041
01:08:41,945 --> 01:08:44,678
So Diem started to boss us around.
1042
01:08:44,777 --> 01:08:46,777
And this was a typical relationship.
1043
01:08:46,878 --> 01:08:49,245
You need any ally you believe
1044
01:08:49,344 --> 01:08:52,277
to be the centerpiece
of your foreign policy.
1045
01:08:52,378 --> 01:08:53,878
They understand that right away.
1046
01:08:53,977 --> 01:08:56,645
And the tail wags the dog.
1047
01:09:00,811 --> 01:09:03,378
ED HERLIHY: From the Far East
comes a distinguished visitor.
1048
01:09:03,477 --> 01:09:06,145
President Ngo Dinh Diem
of Vietnam is accorded
1049
01:09:06,245 --> 01:09:09,178
one of President Eisenhower's
rare airport greetings,
1050
01:09:09,277 --> 01:09:11,678
as he arrives for a
four-day state visit.
1051
01:09:11,777 --> 01:09:15,510
President Diem, one of America's
staunchest allies in Southeast Asia,
1052
01:09:15,611 --> 01:09:18,245
will seek an increase in
aid to shore up his country
1053
01:09:18,344 --> 01:09:20,145
against increasing communist pressure,
1054
01:09:20,245 --> 01:09:25,710
a request to which the president
lends a sympathetic ear.
1055
01:09:25,811 --> 01:09:29,745
NARRATOR: Most politicians,
Democrats as well as Republicans,
1056
01:09:29,844 --> 01:09:31,745
now seemed to share the changing views
1057
01:09:31,844 --> 01:09:33,678
of Senator John F. Kennedy.
1058
01:09:33,777 --> 01:09:37,344
South Vietnam is "our
offspring," he said.
1059
01:09:37,445 --> 01:09:39,044
"We cannot abandon it."
1060
01:09:39,145 --> 01:09:43,410
If it fell, the United States
would be "held responsible
1061
01:09:43,510 --> 01:09:47,811
and our prestige in Asia
will sink to a new low."
1062
01:09:47,910 --> 01:09:53,245
There had never before been
a South Vietnamese nation,
1063
01:09:53,344 --> 01:09:56,577
but Americans, who had rebuilt
much of their own country
1064
01:09:56,678 --> 01:10:00,277
during the New Deal and had
helped rebuild Western Europe
1065
01:10:00,378 --> 01:10:01,611
through the Marshall Plan,
1066
01:10:01,710 --> 01:10:06,378
were convinced they could
build one nonetheless.
1067
01:10:06,477 --> 01:10:08,445
(BLOWS WHISTLE)
1068
01:10:08,544 --> 01:10:12,445
Eisenhower ordered scores
of American civilians
1069
01:10:12,544 --> 01:10:16,245
to South Vietnam, full of
plans for economic development
1070
01:10:16,344 --> 01:10:20,077
meant to win, he hoped,
the hearts and minds
1071
01:10:20,178 --> 01:10:21,878
of the Vietnamese people.
1072
01:10:24,844 --> 01:10:27,945
But those civilians would
always be outnumbered
1073
01:10:28,044 --> 01:10:29,544
by military advisors,
1074
01:10:29,645 --> 01:10:34,044
with orders to modernize,
train, and equip Diem's forces,
1075
01:10:34,145 --> 01:10:39,910
now called the Army of the
Republic of Vietnam... the ARVN.
1076
01:10:40,010 --> 01:10:45,445
Some ARVN officers found
American methods unsuited
1077
01:10:45,544 --> 01:10:48,178
to the guerrilla war
they expected to wage
1078
01:10:48,277 --> 01:10:50,410
against the communists.
1079
01:10:50,510 --> 01:10:53,178
Most American military
advisors were veterans
1080
01:10:53,277 --> 01:10:54,577
of the war in Korea,
1081
01:10:54,678 --> 01:10:58,344
determined to prepare
South Vietnamese forces
1082
01:10:58,445 --> 01:11:03,878
to slow a conventional
invasion from the North.
1083
01:11:03,977 --> 01:11:07,577
But no one in North Vietnam
1084
01:11:07,678 --> 01:11:11,210
was planning a conventional invasion.
1085
01:11:11,311 --> 01:11:15,210
Ho Chi Minh was focused
on rebuilding his country,
1086
01:11:15,311 --> 01:11:19,178
devastated by more than a decade of war.
1087
01:11:21,710 --> 01:11:25,245
The communists imposed
brutal land reforms
1088
01:11:25,344 --> 01:11:27,510
modeled on those underway in China
1089
01:11:27,611 --> 01:11:32,277
with a ruthlessness that
left thousands of people dead,
1090
01:11:32,378 --> 01:11:35,745
including not only landlords
who had sided with the French,
1091
01:11:35,844 --> 01:11:40,111
but also many villagers who
had fought with the Viet Minh.
1092
01:11:42,777 --> 01:11:46,510
Ho Chi Minh was still
determined to reunite Vietnam.
1093
01:11:46,611 --> 01:11:50,811
But he worried that if he took direct
military action against the South,
1094
01:11:50,910 --> 01:11:54,977
the United States would be drawn
more deeply into the struggle.
1095
01:11:55,077 --> 01:11:58,510
He cautioned his comrades in
the South to put their faith
1096
01:11:58,611 --> 01:12:02,378
in political agitation
and avoid violence.
1097
01:12:04,811 --> 01:12:06,777
But that message rang hollow
1098
01:12:06,878 --> 01:12:11,445
among embattled Southern
revolutionaries struggling to survive
1099
01:12:11,544 --> 01:12:16,445
under Diem's increasingly harsh regime.
1100
01:12:16,544 --> 01:12:21,077
In a campaign he called
"Denounce the Communists,"
1101
01:12:21,178 --> 01:12:24,477
Diem had imprisoned tens
of thousands of citizens
1102
01:12:24,577 --> 01:12:30,710
without trial and ordered the
executions of hundreds more.
1103
01:12:30,811 --> 01:12:34,710
Now, the communists took
matters into their own hands
1104
01:12:34,811 --> 01:12:38,477
and began attacking South
Vietnamese officials.
1105
01:12:39,510 --> 01:12:42,465
LE QUAN CONG:
1106
01:13:18,178 --> 01:13:22,245
NARRATOR: As violence in
South Vietnam intensified,
1107
01:13:22,344 --> 01:13:24,977
new leaders emerged in Hanoi.
1108
01:13:25,077 --> 01:13:28,445
Ho Chi Minh would remain
the face of the revolution
1109
01:13:28,544 --> 01:13:32,410
around the world, but he
now began to share power
1110
01:13:32,510 --> 01:13:35,678
with men who were growing
impatient with his caution,
1111
01:13:35,777 --> 01:13:40,311
men about whom Americans
knew almost nothing.
1112
01:13:42,445 --> 01:13:45,378
The most important proved
to be a carpenter's son
1113
01:13:45,477 --> 01:13:51,577
from Quang Tri province
in the South named Le Duan.
1114
01:13:51,678 --> 01:13:55,145
He had helped found the
Indochinese Communist Party,
1115
01:13:55,245 --> 01:13:58,710
survived nearly ten
years in a French prison,
1116
01:13:58,811 --> 01:14:01,910
and proved himself a
shrewd political infighter
1117
01:14:02,010 --> 01:14:05,445
as he rose to become First
Secretary of the party.
1118
01:14:07,344 --> 01:14:12,300
NGUYEN NGOC:
1119
01:14:40,210 --> 01:14:44,277
NARRATOR: By 1959, Le Duan
and his hardline allies
1120
01:14:44,378 --> 01:14:48,311
were gaining influence within
the North Vietnamese Politburo
1121
01:14:48,410 --> 01:14:51,010
and beginning to change its policy.
1122
01:14:51,111 --> 01:14:54,878
They now argued that
Hanoi should do everything
1123
01:14:54,977 --> 01:14:58,077
within its power to help
Southern revolutionaries
1124
01:14:58,178 --> 01:15:00,477
remove Diem by force.
1125
01:15:02,577 --> 01:15:07,800
BUI DIEM (SPEAKING ENGLISH):
1126
01:15:22,111 --> 01:15:25,645
NARRATOR: Now, bands of
40 to 50 armed Viet Minh
1127
01:15:25,745 --> 01:15:29,044
began slipping back
home into South Vietnam,
1128
01:15:29,145 --> 01:15:32,910
following jungle paths hacked
through the Laotian mountains
1129
01:15:33,010 --> 01:15:37,510
that the Americans would soon
call the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
1130
01:15:43,510 --> 01:15:46,710
Violence against the Diem
regime steadily accelerated.
1131
01:15:46,811 --> 01:15:48,445
(GUNFIRE)
1132
01:15:48,544 --> 01:15:50,510
(SIREN BLARING)
1133
01:15:56,645 --> 01:16:01,777
On the evening of July
8, 1959, at Bien Hoa,
1134
01:16:01,878 --> 01:16:03,710
20 miles northeast of Saigon,
1135
01:16:03,811 --> 01:16:07,945
six American military
advisors were watching a movie
1136
01:16:08,044 --> 01:16:09,577
in their mess hall.
1137
01:16:11,277 --> 01:16:13,311
Viet Minh guerrillas,
who had crept silently
1138
01:16:13,410 --> 01:16:16,977
into the compound, opened
fire through the windows.
1139
01:16:17,077 --> 01:16:19,678
(RAPID GUNFIRE)
1140
01:16:22,645 --> 01:16:25,544
Major Dale Buis from Pender, Nebraska,
1141
01:16:25,645 --> 01:16:27,745
and Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand
1142
01:16:27,844 --> 01:16:31,245
from Copperas Cove, Texas, were killed.
1143
01:16:33,445 --> 01:16:37,745
They were the first American
soldiers to die from enemy fire
1144
01:16:37,844 --> 01:16:39,745
in the Vietnam War.
1145
01:16:41,397 --> 01:16:43,964
JOHN KENNEDY: We must
prove all over again,
1146
01:16:44,065 --> 01:16:49,798
to a watching world, as we sit
on a most conspicuous stage,
1147
01:16:49,897 --> 01:16:51,498
whether this nation,
1148
01:16:51,597 --> 01:16:55,697
conceived as it is with
its freedom of choice,
1149
01:16:55,798 --> 01:17:00,365
its breadth of opportunity,
its range of alternatives,
1150
01:17:00,464 --> 01:17:02,830
can compete with the
single-minded advance
1151
01:17:02,931 --> 01:17:04,597
of the communist system.
1152
01:17:04,897 --> 01:17:10,530
NARRATOR: On November 8, 1960,
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected
1153
01:17:10,631 --> 01:17:13,265
president of the United States.
1154
01:17:13,364 --> 01:17:17,097
His vice president was
Senator Lyndon Johnson.
1155
01:17:17,198 --> 01:17:21,164
They had narrowly beaten
Vice President Richard Nixon
1156
01:17:21,265 --> 01:17:24,498
and his running mate,
Senator Henry Cabot Lodge.
1157
01:17:25,965 --> 01:17:28,897
During the campaign,
both Kennedy and Nixon
1158
01:17:28,998 --> 01:17:33,431
had pledged to hold the line
against international communism
1159
01:17:33,530 --> 01:17:36,131
wherever it seemed to be a threat.
1160
01:17:36,230 --> 01:17:40,131
But very few Americans
knew or cared about
1161
01:17:40,230 --> 01:17:42,565
what was going on in Vietnam.
1162
01:17:44,480 --> 01:17:46,680
Six weeks after Kennedy's election,
1163
01:17:46,781 --> 01:17:49,747
at a remote jungle
village called Tan Lap
1164
01:17:49,848 --> 01:17:51,680
near the Cambodian border,
1165
01:17:51,781 --> 01:17:55,615
representatives of southern
revolutionary groups
1166
01:17:55,715 --> 01:17:59,814
met to form a new organization
to replace the Viet Minh,
1167
01:17:59,915 --> 01:18:02,781
dedicated to overthrowing Ngo Dinh Diem
1168
01:18:02,880 --> 01:18:06,781
and ousting the
foreigners supporting him.
1169
01:18:06,880 --> 01:18:12,380
Behind the scenes, Le Duan and
his communist comrades in Hanoi
1170
01:18:12,480 --> 01:18:16,480
were orchestrating everything.
1171
01:18:16,581 --> 01:18:18,281
The new organization would be called
1172
01:18:18,380 --> 01:18:22,615
the National Liberation
Front... the NLF.
1173
01:18:24,215 --> 01:18:27,281
The armed wing of the NLF was called
1174
01:18:27,380 --> 01:18:30,047
the People's Liberation Armed Forces,
1175
01:18:30,148 --> 01:18:33,581
but its enemies in Saigon
and Washington preferred
1176
01:18:33,680 --> 01:18:35,715
a more disparaging term.
1177
01:18:35,814 --> 01:18:39,180
In their eyes, the revolutionaries were
1178
01:18:39,281 --> 01:18:42,680
Communist Traitors to
the Vietnamese Nation...
1179
01:18:42,781 --> 01:18:44,281
the Viet Cong.
1180
01:18:50,247 --> 01:18:55,014
(MUTED SHOUTING)
1181
01:18:57,447 --> 01:19:02,538
HUY DUC:
1182
01:19:34,715 --> 01:19:37,114
JOHN KENNEDY: Let every nation know,
1183
01:19:37,215 --> 01:19:42,814
whether it wishes us well or ill,
1184
01:19:42,915 --> 01:19:48,948
that we shall pay any
price, bear any burden,
1185
01:19:49,047 --> 01:19:53,915
meet any hardship, support any friend,
1186
01:19:54,015 --> 01:19:59,015
oppose any foe, to assure the survival
1187
01:19:59,114 --> 01:20:00,480
and the success of liberty.
1188
01:20:12,847 --> 01:20:15,314
TIM O'BRIEN: For me, I'd
always thought of courage
1189
01:20:15,415 --> 01:20:19,915
as charging enemy bunkers
or standing up under fire.
1190
01:20:20,015 --> 01:20:25,948
But just to walk, day after
day from village to village
1191
01:20:26,047 --> 01:20:30,581
and through the paddies
and up into the mountains,
1192
01:20:30,680 --> 01:20:34,847
just to get up in the morning
and look out at the land
1193
01:20:34,948 --> 01:20:38,547
and think, "In a few minutes
I'll be walking out there
1194
01:20:38,648 --> 01:20:41,780
and will my corpse
be there, over there?
1195
01:20:41,881 --> 01:20:43,314
Will I lose a leg out there?"
1196
01:20:45,114 --> 01:20:48,881
Just to walk felt incredibly brave.
1197
01:20:48,980 --> 01:20:51,747
I would sometimes look
at my legs as I walked,
1198
01:20:51,847 --> 01:20:54,247
thinking, how am I doing this?
1199
01:20:58,280 --> 01:21:04,415
("A HARD RAIN'S A-GONNA
FALL" BY BOB DYLAN PLAYING)
1200
01:21:04,515 --> 01:21:08,247
♪ Oh, where have you
been, my blue-eyed son? ♪
1201
01:21:10,747 --> 01:21:14,948
♪ And where have you been,
my darling young one? ♪
1202
01:21:17,747 --> 01:21:21,515
♪ I've stumbled on the
side of 12 misty mountains ♪
1203
01:21:24,547 --> 01:21:28,680
♪ I've walked and I've crawled
on six crooked highways ♪
1204
01:21:31,114 --> 01:21:35,148
♪ I've stepped in the
middle of seven sad forests ♪
1205
01:21:37,547 --> 01:21:42,015
♪ I've been out in front
of a dozen dead oceans ♪
1206
01:21:44,114 --> 01:21:48,648
♪ I've been ten thousand miles
in the mouth of a graveyard ♪
1207
01:21:50,847 --> 01:21:54,081
♪ And it's a hard, it's a hard ♪
1208
01:21:54,180 --> 01:21:58,215
♪ It's a hard, it's a hard ♪
1209
01:21:58,314 --> 01:22:03,547
♪ It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall ♪
1210
01:22:08,915 --> 01:22:13,047
♪ Oh, what did you
see, my blue-eyed son? ♪
1211
01:22:15,648 --> 01:22:19,415
♪ And what did you see,
my darling young one? ♪
1212
01:22:22,280 --> 01:22:26,715
♪ I saw a newborn baby with
wild wolves all around it ♪
1213
01:22:28,980 --> 01:22:32,715
♪ I saw a highway of
diamonds with nobody on it ♪
1214
01:22:35,680 --> 01:22:39,648
♪ I saw a black branch with
blood that kept drippin' ♪
1215
01:22:42,280 --> 01:22:46,280
♪ I saw a room full of men
with their hammers a-bleedin' ♪
1216
01:22:49,081 --> 01:22:52,680
♪ I saw a white ladder
all covered with water ♪
1217
01:22:55,614 --> 01:22:59,480
♪ I saw 10,000 talkers whose
tongues were all broken ♪
1218
01:23:02,347 --> 01:23:07,180
♪ I saw guns with sharp swords
in the hands of young children ♪
1219
01:23:07,280 --> 01:23:10,515
♪ And it's a hard, it's a hard ♪
1220
01:23:10,614 --> 01:23:14,480
♪ It's a hard, and it's a hard ♪
1221
01:23:14,581 --> 01:23:20,047
♪ It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall ♪
1222
01:23:22,415 --> 01:23:25,847
♪ And it's a hard, it's a hard ♪
1223
01:23:25,948 --> 01:23:29,415
♪ It's a hard, and it's a hard ♪
1224
01:23:29,515 --> 01:23:34,680
♪ It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall. ♪
1225
01:23:34,681 --> 01:23:41,681
- Synced and corrected by chamallow -
- www.addic7ed.com -
1226
01:23:45,173 --> 01:23:46,700
ANNOUNCER: Learn more about the film
1227
01:23:46,773 --> 01:23:50,800
and find additional resources
at PBS.org/vietnamwar
1228
01:23:50,840 --> 01:23:54,773
and join the conversation
using #VietnamWarPBS.
1229
01:23:54,773 --> 01:23:57,906
"The Vietnam War" is
available on Blu-ray and DVD.
1230
01:23:57,906 --> 01:23:59,572
The companion book, soundtrack,
1231
01:23:59,572 --> 01:24:02,172
and original score from
the film are also available.
1232
01:24:02,172 --> 01:24:04,273
To order, visit shoppbs.org
1233
01:24:04,273 --> 01:24:06,740
or call 1-800-play-PBS.
1234
01:24:06,740 --> 01:24:10,372
Episodes of this series also
available for download from iTunes.
1235
01:24:13,639 --> 01:24:15,773
ANNOUNCER: Bank of
America proudly supports
1236
01:24:15,773 --> 01:24:20,672
Ken Burns' and Lynn Novick's
film "The Vietnam War"
1237
01:24:20,672 --> 01:24:23,072
because fostering different perspectives
1238
01:24:23,072 --> 01:24:25,672
and civil discourse
around important issues
1239
01:24:25,672 --> 01:24:27,973
furthers progress, equality,
1240
01:24:27,973 --> 01:24:29,973
and a more connected society.
1241
01:24:34,439 --> 01:24:38,473
Go to bankofamerica.com/
betterconnected to learn more.
1242
01:24:41,939 --> 01:24:43,372
ANNOUNCER: Major support
for "The Vietnam War"
1243
01:24:43,372 --> 01:24:46,872
was provided by members of
the Better Angels Society,
1244
01:24:46,872 --> 01:24:50,840
including Jonathan and Jeannie Lavine,
1245
01:24:50,840 --> 01:24:53,740
Diane and Hal Brierley,
1246
01:24:53,740 --> 01:24:56,139
Amy and David Abrams,
1247
01:24:56,139 --> 01:24:58,639
John and Catherine Debs,
1248
01:24:58,639 --> 01:25:01,605
the Fullerton Family Charitable Fund,
1249
01:25:01,605 --> 01:25:03,672
the Montrone Family,
1250
01:25:03,672 --> 01:25:06,005
Lynda and Stewart Resnick,
1251
01:25:06,005 --> 01:25:08,773
the Perry and Donna
Golkin Family Foundation,
1252
01:25:08,773 --> 01:25:09,773
the Lynch Foundation,
1253
01:25:09,773 --> 01:25:12,639
the Roger and Rosemary
Enrico Foundation,
1254
01:25:12,639 --> 01:25:16,072
and by these additional funders.
1255
01:25:16,072 --> 01:25:19,706
Major funding was also
provided by David H. Koch...
1256
01:25:22,005 --> 01:25:24,206
The Blavatnik Family Foundation...
1257
01:25:26,540 --> 01:25:28,973
The Park Foundation,
1258
01:25:28,973 --> 01:25:31,139
the National Endowment
for the Humanities,
1259
01:25:31,139 --> 01:25:33,340
the Pew Charitable Trusts,
1260
01:25:33,340 --> 01:25:36,005
the John S. and James
L. Knight Foundation,
1261
01:25:36,005 --> 01:25:38,773
the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,
1262
01:25:38,773 --> 01:25:41,372
the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations,
1263
01:25:41,372 --> 01:25:43,572
the Ford Foundation JustFilms,
1264
01:25:43,572 --> 01:25:46,005
by the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting,
1265
01:25:46,005 --> 01:25:47,973
and by viewers like you.
1266
01:25:47,973 --> 01:25:49,105
Thank you.
102885
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