1
00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:10,000
- Original file by chamallow for addic7ed.com -
- Resynced by Ornlu Wolfjarl -

2
00:00:19,604 --> 00:00:25,241
I was assigned a listening
post at Con Thien in the fall.

3
00:00:25,243 --> 00:00:29,245
That was like getting a
death sentence in a trial.

4
00:00:29,247 --> 00:00:31,414
Because that's just three
Marines out there with a radio.

5
00:00:33,084 --> 00:00:34,750
And that's the scariest thing I did.

6
00:00:34,752 --> 00:00:37,620
You're listening for the enemy.

7
00:00:37,622 --> 00:00:40,756
They call you on the radio every hour,

8
00:00:40,758 --> 00:00:42,191
"Delta, Lima, Papa, Three, Bravo,

9
00:00:42,193 --> 00:00:45,628
Delta, Lima, Papa, Three,
Bravo, this is Delta Three.

10
00:00:45,630 --> 00:00:48,764
If your sit rep is alpha
sierra, key your handset twice.

11
00:00:50,167 --> 00:00:51,866
"If your situation report is all secure,

12
00:00:51,868 --> 00:00:53,535
break squelch twice on the handset."

13
00:00:55,606 --> 00:00:57,705
And if it's not, they
keep thinking you're asleep

14
00:00:57,707 --> 00:01:00,342
so they keep asking you, "If
your sit rep is alpha sierra,"

15
00:01:00,344 --> 00:01:01,643
and then it finally dawns on them,

16
00:01:01,645 --> 00:01:04,379
maybe there's somebody too
close for you to say anything.

17
00:01:04,381 --> 00:01:07,349
So then they say, "If your sit
rep is negative alpha sierra,

18
00:01:07,351 --> 00:01:08,850
key your handset once,"

19
00:01:08,852 --> 00:01:10,818
and you damn near squeeze
the handle off the, you know,

20
00:01:10,820 --> 00:01:14,088
and two on the radio
because they're so close

21
00:01:14,090 --> 00:01:15,857
that you can hear them
whispering to one another.

22
00:01:18,428 --> 00:01:19,894
And that's scary stuff.

23
00:01:19,896 --> 00:01:21,263
That's real scary stuff.

24
00:01:21,265 --> 00:01:24,932
And I'm scared of the dark, still.

25
00:01:24,934 --> 00:01:27,869
I still got a night light.

26
00:01:27,871 --> 00:01:31,238
When my kids were growing up,

27
00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:34,976
that's the first time
they really found out

28
00:01:34,978 --> 00:01:37,111
that Daddy'd been in
a war when they said,

29
00:01:37,113 --> 00:01:39,681
"Well, why do we need to
outgrow our night lights?

30
00:01:39,683 --> 00:01:40,915
Daddy's still got one."

31
00:01:48,091 --> 00:01:52,159
Let the word go forth
from this time and place,

32
00:01:52,161 --> 00:01:55,196
to friend and foe alike,

33
00:01:55,198 --> 00:01:59,332
that the torch has been
passed to a new generation

34
00:01:59,334 --> 00:02:06,073
of Americans born in this
century, tempered by war,

35
00:02:06,075 --> 00:02:09,776
disciplined by a hard and bitter peace,

36
00:02:09,778 --> 00:02:13,179
- proud of our...
- I still believed, very much,

37
00:02:13,181 --> 00:02:17,851
in this concept of an heroic America,

38
00:02:17,853 --> 00:02:20,621
America being a really special country,

39
00:02:20,623 --> 00:02:23,890
the best country in the
world, the best democracy,

40
00:02:23,892 --> 00:02:27,860
all the things that we
believe about it, which...

41
00:02:27,862 --> 00:02:29,829
and I didn't really see
anything wrong with that.

42
00:02:32,734 --> 00:02:37,370
I was sure that we were
right to be in Vietnam.

43
00:02:37,372 --> 00:02:39,506
You know, because it
started under Kennedy

44
00:02:39,508 --> 00:02:42,175
and, to me, JFK was God.

45
00:02:42,177 --> 00:02:45,411
Anything that he thought was
right, I thought was right.

46
00:02:47,915 --> 00:02:52,084
At 43, John Fitzgerald
Kennedy was the youngest man

47
00:02:52,086 --> 00:02:55,721
ever elected president
of the United States.

48
00:02:55,723 --> 00:02:58,158
He had promised bold new leadership,

49
00:02:58,160 --> 00:03:04,396
and to his supporters his inauguration
seemed to signal a new day.

50
00:03:04,398 --> 00:03:07,332
To those new states whom we welcome

51
00:03:07,334 --> 00:03:10,302
to the ranks of the free,

52
00:03:10,304 --> 00:03:16,275
we pledge our word that
one form of colonial control

53
00:03:16,277 --> 00:03:18,877
shall not have passed away

54
00:03:18,879 --> 00:03:24,115
merely to be replaced by
a far more iron tyranny.

55
00:03:24,117 --> 00:03:29,253
We shall not always expect to
find them supporting our view.

56
00:03:29,255 --> 00:03:33,824
But we shall always hope to
find them strongly supporting

57
00:03:33,826 --> 00:03:39,330
their own freedom and to
remember that, in the past,

58
00:03:39,332 --> 00:03:42,833
those who foolishly sought power

59
00:03:42,835 --> 00:03:46,937
by riding the back of
the tiger ended up inside.

60
00:03:55,382 --> 00:03:57,681
The new president gathered around him

61
00:03:57,683 --> 00:04:01,519
an extraordinary set of advisors
who shared his determination

62
00:04:01,521 --> 00:04:06,624
to confront communism, including
Secretary of State Dean Rusk,

63
00:04:06,626 --> 00:04:10,427
National Security
Advisor McGeorge Bundy,

64
00:04:10,429 --> 00:04:13,196
his deputy Walt Rostow,

65
00:04:13,198 --> 00:04:17,568
special military advisor
General Maxwell Taylor,

66
00:04:17,570 --> 00:04:21,171
and Secretary of
Defense Robert McNamara,

67
00:04:21,173 --> 00:04:22,973
who had given up his post

68
00:04:22,975 --> 00:04:27,011
as president of the Ford Motor
Company to serve his country.

69
00:04:27,013 --> 00:04:33,083
He was a pioneer in the
field of systems analysis.

70
00:04:33,085 --> 00:04:36,019
Like the president who picked them,

71
00:04:36,021 --> 00:04:40,189
all of Kennedy's men had
served during World War II.

72
00:04:40,191 --> 00:04:42,559
Each had absorbed what they all believed

73
00:04:42,561 --> 00:04:44,594
was its central lesson:

74
00:04:44,596 --> 00:04:48,665
ambitious dictatorships needed
to be halted in their tracks

75
00:04:48,667 --> 00:04:51,901
before they constituted a serious danger

76
00:04:51,903 --> 00:04:54,037
to the peace of the world.

77
00:04:54,039 --> 00:04:57,339
Meanwhile, in South Vietnam,

78
00:04:57,341 --> 00:04:59,508
the National Liberation Front...

79
00:04:59,510 --> 00:05:02,378
labeled by its enemies the Viet Cong...

80
00:05:02,380 --> 00:05:05,848
was determined to
overthrow the anticommunist

81
00:05:05,850 --> 00:05:11,220
and increasingly autocratic
government of Ngo Dinh Diem.

82
00:05:11,222 --> 00:05:15,357
In North Vietnam,
unbeknownst to Washington,

83
00:05:15,359 --> 00:05:19,361
Ho Chi Minh, the father
of Vietnamese independence,

84
00:05:19,363 --> 00:05:22,664
was now sharing power with
a more aggressive leader,

85
00:05:22,666 --> 00:05:25,601
Le Duan, who was even more impatient

86
00:05:25,603 --> 00:05:27,869
to reunify his country.

87
00:05:48,582 --> 00:05:52,084
None of us knew anything about Vietnam.

88
00:05:52,086 --> 00:05:56,287
Vietnam in those days was
a piece on a chessboard,

89
00:05:56,289 --> 00:05:58,523
a strategic chessboard,

90
00:05:58,525 --> 00:06:02,460
not a place with a culture and a history

91
00:06:02,462 --> 00:06:08,033
that we would have an
impossible time changing,

92
00:06:08,035 --> 00:06:11,002
even with the mighty
force of the United States.

93
00:06:11,004 --> 00:06:15,640
Over the next three years, the
United States would struggle

94
00:06:15,642 --> 00:06:20,144
to understand the complicated
country it had come to save,

95
00:06:20,146 --> 00:06:23,280
fail to appreciate the enemy's resolve,

96
00:06:23,282 --> 00:06:26,984
and misread how the South
Vietnamese people really felt

97
00:06:26,986 --> 00:06:28,819
about their government.

98
00:06:30,857 --> 00:06:33,190
The new president would
find himself caught

99
00:06:33,192 --> 00:06:37,862
between the momentum of war
and the desire for peace,

100
00:06:37,864 --> 00:06:40,965
between humility and hubris,

101
00:06:40,967 --> 00:06:47,238
between idealism and expediency,
between the truth and a lie.

102
00:07:07,673 --> 00:07:10,974
And so, my fellow Americans,

103
00:07:10,976 --> 00:07:16,079
ask not what your
country can do for you,

104
00:07:16,081 --> 00:07:18,214
ask what you can do for your country.

105
00:07:25,257 --> 00:07:29,192
I grew up in Missouri, near Kansas City,

106
00:07:29,194 --> 00:07:32,295
a little community called Fairmount.

107
00:07:32,297 --> 00:07:33,897
I was born in 1948.

108
00:07:33,899 --> 00:07:36,532
And there were lots of kids
being born in those days

109
00:07:36,534 --> 00:07:38,101
from the guys who were
lucky enough to come home

110
00:07:38,103 --> 00:07:38,968
from World War II.

111
00:07:40,405 --> 00:07:43,839
My dad was a pilot
in the Army Air Corps.

112
00:07:43,841 --> 00:07:46,742
And all of dad's friends

113
00:07:46,744 --> 00:07:49,879
were World War II vets or Korean vets.

114
00:07:49,881 --> 00:07:52,581
And all of my male
teachers were veterans.

115
00:07:52,583 --> 00:07:54,784
And even my pastor had been a chaplain.

116
00:07:56,521 --> 00:08:01,056
Well, they were my heroes,
and I wanted to be like them.

117
00:08:08,265 --> 00:08:11,266
For all of John Kennedy's
soaring rhetoric,

118
00:08:11,268 --> 00:08:13,936
for all the talent he
gathered around him,

119
00:08:13,938 --> 00:08:17,272
the first months of his
presidency did not go well.

120
00:08:17,274 --> 00:08:21,744
He approved a CIA-sponsored
invasion of Cuba

121
00:08:21,746 --> 00:08:26,213
at the Bay of Pigs
that ended in disaster.

122
00:08:26,215 --> 00:08:28,149
He felt he'd been bullied

123
00:08:28,151 --> 00:08:30,585
by Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev

124
00:08:30,587 --> 00:08:33,020
at a summit meeting in Vienna.

125
00:08:33,022 --> 00:08:35,323
He was unable to keep the Soviets

126
00:08:35,325 --> 00:08:37,759
from building the Berlin Wall.

127
00:08:37,761 --> 00:08:41,996
And in Southeast Asia,
he refused to intervene

128
00:08:41,998 --> 00:08:45,299
against a communist
insurrection in Laos.

129
00:08:45,301 --> 00:08:49,938
Critics accused him of
being immature, indecisive,

130
00:08:49,940 --> 00:08:53,608
inadequate to the task of
combating what seemed to be

131
00:08:53,610 --> 00:08:56,177
a mounting communist threat.

132
00:08:56,179 --> 00:08:59,714
"There are just so many
concessions that we can make

133
00:08:59,716 --> 00:09:02,148
in one year and survive politically,"

134
00:09:02,150 --> 00:09:06,887
he confided to an aide
in the spring of 1961.

135
00:09:06,889 --> 00:09:12,258
In South Vietnam, Kennedy
felt he had to act.

136
00:09:12,260 --> 00:09:14,962
After the president received reports

137
00:09:14,964 --> 00:09:17,531
that the Viet Cong might be in control

138
00:09:17,533 --> 00:09:21,568
of more than half the densely
populated Mekong Delta,

139
00:09:21,570 --> 00:09:25,639
he dispatched General
Maxwell Taylor and Walt Rostow

140
00:09:25,641 --> 00:09:27,841
to Vietnam.

141
00:09:27,843 --> 00:09:31,612
They urged him to commit
American ground troops.

142
00:09:31,614 --> 00:09:33,346
Kennedy refused.

143
00:09:33,348 --> 00:09:37,117
It would be like taking
a first drink, he said...

144
00:09:37,119 --> 00:09:40,253
the effect would soon wear
off and there would be demands

145
00:09:40,255 --> 00:09:43,723
for another and another and another.

146
00:09:43,725 --> 00:09:47,193
Instead, in the midst of a cold war,

147
00:09:47,195 --> 00:09:50,497
with its constant risk
of nuclear confrontation,

148
00:09:50,499 --> 00:09:53,833
the president supported
a new "flexible" way

149
00:09:53,835 --> 00:09:59,406
to confront and contain
communism: limited war.

150
00:09:59,408 --> 00:10:04,177
This is another type of
warfare, new in its intensity,

151
00:10:04,179 --> 00:10:06,879
ancient in its origin...

152
00:10:06,881 --> 00:10:11,816
war by guerrillas, subversives,
insurgents, assassins;

153
00:10:11,818 --> 00:10:16,255
war by ambush instead of by combat;

154
00:10:16,257 --> 00:10:18,590
by infiltration instead of aggression.

155
00:10:20,494 --> 00:10:23,028
To fight his "limited wars,"

156
00:10:23,030 --> 00:10:25,997
Kennedy hoped to use
the elite Green Berets,

157
00:10:25,999 --> 00:10:29,535
special forces trained
in guerrilla warfare,

158
00:10:29,537 --> 00:10:32,204
counterinsurgency.

159
00:10:32,206 --> 00:10:37,076
They were meant to be dispatched
to hotspots around the world.

160
00:10:37,578 --> 00:10:39,811
Khrushchev said, "We're
not going to destroy you

161
00:10:39,813 --> 00:10:41,379
with nuclear weapons,

162
00:10:41,381 --> 00:10:44,149
we're going to destroy you with
wars of national liberation."

163
00:10:44,551 --> 00:10:46,551
Everybody talked about the fact

164
00:10:46,553 --> 00:10:51,355
that communism was spreading
and it had to be stopped.

165
00:10:51,357 --> 00:10:54,125
You went to Command and
General Staff College

166
00:10:54,127 --> 00:10:57,661
and you were playing on
maps with nuclear weapons

167
00:10:57,663 --> 00:10:59,430
and so forth.

168
00:10:59,432 --> 00:11:04,335
And I escaped from that by
getting into Special Forces.

169
00:11:04,337 --> 00:11:07,105
So that instead of planning
what we were going to do

170
00:11:07,107 --> 00:11:11,842
if World War III broke out,
we were actually doing stuff.

171
00:11:13,580 --> 00:11:16,746
And Vietnam was a place where
we were going to draw the line.

172
00:11:18,584 --> 00:11:20,383
Kennedy sent the Green Berets

173
00:11:20,385 --> 00:11:22,752
to the Central Highlands of Vietnam

174
00:11:22,754 --> 00:11:26,389
to organize mountain tribes
to fight the Viet Cong

175
00:11:26,391 --> 00:11:31,128
and to undertake covert missions
to sabotage their supply bases

176
00:11:31,130 --> 00:11:34,297
in Laos and Cambodia.

177
00:11:34,299 --> 00:11:38,801
But Kennedy understood
that counterinsurgency alone

178
00:11:38,803 --> 00:11:40,003
would never be enough,

179
00:11:40,005 --> 00:11:43,607
so he doubled funding
for South Vietnam's army,

180
00:11:43,609 --> 00:11:48,710
dispatched helicopters and
APCs, armored personnel carriers.

181
00:11:51,882 --> 00:11:55,751
Kennedy also authorized
the use of napalm

182
00:11:55,753 --> 00:12:00,289
and the spraying of defoliants
to deny cover to the Viet Cong

183
00:12:00,291 --> 00:12:04,160
and destroy the crops that fed them.

184
00:12:04,162 --> 00:12:07,363
A whole array of chemicals was used,

185
00:12:07,365 --> 00:12:10,832
including one named for
the color of the stripes

186
00:12:10,834 --> 00:12:16,872
on the 55-gallon drums in
which it came... "Agent Orange."

187
00:12:16,874 --> 00:12:20,509
And the president quietly
continued to increase

188
00:12:20,511 --> 00:12:23,478
the number of American
military advisors.

189
00:12:23,480 --> 00:12:32,086
Within two years, the number he
had inherited would grow to 11,300,

190
00:12:32,088 --> 00:12:34,689
empowered not only to teach

191
00:12:34,691 --> 00:12:37,692
the Army of the Republic
of Vietnam... the ARVN...

192
00:12:37,694 --> 00:12:39,827
to fight a conventional war,

193
00:12:39,829 --> 00:12:42,063
but to accompany them into battle,

194
00:12:42,065 --> 00:12:46,701
a violation of the agreement that
had divided Vietnam back in 1954.

195
00:12:50,440 --> 00:12:54,509
The administration did its best
to hide from the American people

196
00:12:54,511 --> 00:12:56,911
the scale of the buildup
that was taking place

197
00:12:56,913 --> 00:12:58,813
on the other side of the world,

198
00:12:58,815 --> 00:13:01,716
fearful that the
public would not support

199
00:13:01,718 --> 00:13:08,655
the more active role advisors
had begun to play in combat.

200
00:13:08,657 --> 00:13:11,325
Mr. President, a Republican
National Committee publication

201
00:13:11,327 --> 00:13:14,762
has said that you are...
have been less than candid

202
00:13:14,764 --> 00:13:18,599
with the American people as
to how deeply we are involved

203
00:13:18,601 --> 00:13:20,567
in Vietnam.

204
00:13:20,569 --> 00:13:23,137
Could you throw any more light on that?

205
00:13:23,139 --> 00:13:25,206
We have increased our
assistance to the government,

206
00:13:25,208 --> 00:13:27,108
its logistics.

207
00:13:27,110 --> 00:13:29,076
We have not sent combat troops there.

208
00:13:29,078 --> 00:13:32,312
Though the training
missions that we have there

209
00:13:32,314 --> 00:13:35,215
have been instructed if
they are fired upon to...

210
00:13:35,217 --> 00:13:38,184
they are, would of course, fire
back, to protect themselves.

211
00:13:38,186 --> 00:13:40,019
But we have not sent combat troops

212
00:13:40,021 --> 00:13:42,356
in the generally understood
sense of the word.

213
00:13:42,358 --> 00:13:48,094
So that I... I feel that we
are being as frank as the...

214
00:13:48,096 --> 00:13:49,463
as we can be.

215
00:13:49,465 --> 00:13:51,064
I think we... what I have said to you

216
00:13:51,066 --> 00:13:53,967
is a description of our activity there.

217
00:13:58,741 --> 00:14:02,175
I was a child of the Cold War.

218
00:14:02,177 --> 00:14:07,680
When I got off the plane in Saigon
on a humid evening in April 1962,

219
00:14:07,682 --> 00:14:11,617
I really believed in all
the ideology of the Cold War.

220
00:14:11,619 --> 00:14:12,752
On...

221
00:14:12,754 --> 00:14:15,421
That if we lost South Vietnam,

222
00:14:15,423 --> 00:14:17,891
that the rest of Southeast Asia
would fall to the communists.

223
00:14:17,893 --> 00:14:21,795
There was an international
communist conspiracy.

224
00:14:21,797 --> 00:14:24,363
We believed fervently in this stuff.

225
00:14:25,265 --> 00:14:28,334
Neil Sheehan was a
25-year-old reporter

226
00:14:28,336 --> 00:14:31,704
for United Press International, UPI.

227
00:14:31,706 --> 00:14:35,874
He had served three years in
the Army in Korea and Japan

228
00:14:35,876 --> 00:14:38,743
before deciding to
become a newspaperman.

229
00:14:38,745 --> 00:14:43,048
Vietnam was his first
full-time overseas assignment,

230
00:14:43,050 --> 00:14:45,050
and his only worry, he remembered,

231
00:14:45,052 --> 00:14:49,822
was that he would get there too
late and miss out on the big story.

232
00:14:49,824 --> 00:14:54,126
Sheehan and other reporters
rode along as the ARVN mounted

233
00:14:54,128 --> 00:14:57,762
a series of helicopter
assaults on enemy strongholds

234
00:14:57,764 --> 00:15:00,165
in the Mekong Delta and elsewhere

235
00:15:00,167 --> 00:15:03,635
and brought terror to the Viet Cong.

236
00:15:03,637 --> 00:15:06,771
American pilots were at the controls.

237
00:15:07,973 --> 00:15:11,575
It was a crusade and it was thrilling.

238
00:15:11,577 --> 00:15:14,145
And you'd climb aboard the helicopters

239
00:15:14,147 --> 00:15:17,481
with the Vietnamese soldiers who
were being taken out to battle.

240
00:15:17,483 --> 00:15:19,216
And they'd take off.

241
00:15:19,218 --> 00:15:21,952
And they'd contour-fly, they'd
skim across the rice paddies

242
00:15:21,954 --> 00:15:24,221
at about three or four
feet above the paddies,

243
00:15:24,223 --> 00:15:28,091
and then pop up over the tree
lines that lined the fields.

244
00:15:28,093 --> 00:15:29,460
It was thrilling.

245
00:15:29,462 --> 00:15:30,794
I mean it was absolutely thrilling.

246
00:15:30,796 --> 00:15:33,864
And you believed in what was happening.

247
00:15:33,866 --> 00:15:36,099
I mean you had the sense
that we're fighting here

248
00:15:36,101 --> 00:15:39,936
and some day we'll win, and
this country will be a better,

249
00:15:39,938 --> 00:15:40,837
better country for our coming.

250
00:15:42,842 --> 00:15:45,775
The new M-113 armored
personnel carriers

251
00:15:45,777 --> 00:15:49,479
were capable of churning
across rivers and rice paddies

252
00:15:49,481 --> 00:15:51,381
and right through the earthen dikes

253
00:15:51,383 --> 00:15:53,516
that separated one field from the next.

254
00:15:55,087 --> 00:16:00,323
The Viet Cong had nothing
with which to stop them.

255
00:16:00,325 --> 00:16:03,717
We were just overwhelming
them with force,

256
00:16:04,218 --> 00:16:05,500
with firepower.

257
00:16:06,031 --> 00:16:09,499
And the firefights would be
over in a pretty short time.

258
00:16:09,501 --> 00:16:12,202
We have some people
running along the dikes.

259
00:16:12,204 --> 00:16:15,105
Actually, the canal is perpendicular

260
00:16:15,107 --> 00:16:16,672
to the one you're attacking now.

261
00:16:16,674 --> 00:16:20,676
They have on black uniforms,
and I estimate approximately 3-0.

262
00:16:20,678 --> 00:16:23,379
Do you have them in sight? Over.

263
00:16:23,381 --> 00:16:25,648
That's what was causing us to win, see.

264
00:16:25,650 --> 00:16:28,885
And we were winning one after the other.

265
00:16:28,887 --> 00:16:32,555
And we were not meeting a
heck of a lot of resistance.

266
00:16:32,557 --> 00:16:36,358
Captain James Scanlon had
been stationed in West Germany

267
00:16:36,360 --> 00:16:39,595
and had seen for himself
the brutality with which

268
00:16:39,597 --> 00:16:42,264
the communist East
Germans dealt with anyone

269
00:16:42,266 --> 00:16:45,768
who dared try to escape to the West.

270
00:16:45,770 --> 00:16:48,170
He was now in the Mekong Delta,

271
00:16:48,172 --> 00:16:51,240
an advisor to the 7th
Division of the ARVN,

272
00:16:51,242 --> 00:16:55,744
and had begun to see evidence
of Viet Cong brutality as well.

273
00:16:59,215 --> 00:17:02,851
Those of us who talked to the
people who fled East Germany,

274
00:17:02,853 --> 00:17:06,988
we saw the need to stop
the growth of communism,

275
00:17:06,990 --> 00:17:10,425
to stop the dominoes from being tumbled.

276
00:17:10,427 --> 00:17:12,861
That was a worthy cause.

277
00:17:14,598 --> 00:17:18,366
As the ARVN and their
advisors pursued the Viet Cong,

278
00:17:18,368 --> 00:17:21,102
the government of Ngo
Dinh Diem had launched

279
00:17:21,104 --> 00:17:25,473
an ambitious program meant to
gain control of the countryside

280
00:17:25,475 --> 00:17:28,275
by concentrating the rural population

281
00:17:28,277 --> 00:17:30,945
into thousands of fortified settlements,

282
00:17:30,947 --> 00:17:35,282
ringed with barbed wire
and moats and bamboo spikes

283
00:17:35,284 --> 00:17:38,151
meant to keep out the Viet Cong.

284
00:17:38,153 --> 00:17:42,623
They were called strategic
hamlets, part of the effort

285
00:17:42,625 --> 00:17:45,759
to win the hearts and
minds, and loyalty,

286
00:17:45,761 --> 00:17:47,327
of the Vietnamese people.

287
00:17:47,329 --> 00:17:51,966
The French had tried something
like it a decade before.

288
00:17:51,968 --> 00:17:56,136
They had called it pacification.

289
00:17:56,138 --> 00:17:58,706
President Diem's
strategic hamlet program

290
00:17:58,708 --> 00:18:01,240
is making substantial progress.

291
00:18:01,242 --> 00:18:05,912
About 1,600 of the some 14,000 hamlets

292
00:18:05,914 --> 00:18:09,616
have been fortified to date.

293
00:18:09,618 --> 00:18:11,951
By the summer of 1962,

294
00:18:11,953 --> 00:18:15,354
news from South Vietnam
seemed so promising

295
00:18:15,356 --> 00:18:19,225
that Defense Secretary
Robert McNamara made sure

296
00:18:19,227 --> 00:18:22,394
the Pentagon was prepared
to implement a plan

297
00:18:22,396 --> 00:18:25,898
for a gradual withdrawal
of American advisors

298
00:18:25,900 --> 00:18:28,601
to be completed by 1965.

299
00:18:28,603 --> 00:18:32,271
So far as most Americans knew,

300
00:18:32,273 --> 00:18:35,241
the United States was
achieving its goal:

301
00:18:35,243 --> 00:18:40,812
a stable, independent,
anticommunist state in South Vietnam.

302
00:18:42,014 --> 00:18:45,317
It was "a struggle this
country cannot shirk,"

303
00:18:45,319 --> 00:18:47,186
the<i> New York Times</i> said,

304
00:18:47,188 --> 00:18:51,423
and the United States
seemed to be winning it.

305
00:18:53,327 --> 00:18:57,263
But that same summer, Ho
Chi Minh traveled to Beijing

306
00:18:57,265 --> 00:19:00,899
in search of more help from the Chinese.

307
00:19:00,901 --> 00:19:04,203
The American buildup in
South Vietnam had alarmed him

308
00:19:04,205 --> 00:19:06,572
and the other leaders in Hanoi.

309
00:19:06,574 --> 00:19:09,940
Ho told the Chinese
that American attacks

310
00:19:09,942 --> 00:19:15,813
on North Vietnam itself now
seemed only a matter of time.

311
00:19:15,815 --> 00:19:19,884
The Chinese promised to equip
and arm tens of thousands

312
00:19:19,886 --> 00:19:23,020
of Vietnamese soldiers.

313
00:19:23,022 --> 00:19:26,658
Meanwhile, the Politburo
in Hanoi had directed

314
00:19:26,660 --> 00:19:30,027
that every able-bodied
North Vietnamese man

315
00:19:30,029 --> 00:19:34,932
be required to serve
in the armed forces.

316
00:19:41,808 --> 00:19:44,175
Inspired by their president's call,

317
00:19:44,177 --> 00:19:47,477
thousands of young Americans
would join the Peace Corps

318
00:19:47,479 --> 00:19:51,348
and other organizations to
help project American ideals

319
00:19:51,350 --> 00:19:53,584
and goodwill around the world.

320
00:20:05,765 --> 00:20:10,534
We were not only there in
Vietnam to stop communism,

321
00:20:10,536 --> 00:20:14,404
but there had to be something positive.

322
00:20:14,406 --> 00:20:17,641
We're trying to find out what
the Vietnamese people want

323
00:20:17,643 --> 00:20:20,344
and to help them get it.

324
00:20:20,346 --> 00:20:21,778
And that was very simple

325
00:20:21,780 --> 00:20:23,880
but, if you think about
it, also very complex.

326
00:20:23,882 --> 00:20:26,316
But it went to the heart, I thought,

327
00:20:26,318 --> 00:20:28,785
of what we were trying to do.

328
00:20:30,322 --> 00:20:34,124
Pete Hunting, a 22-year-old
from Oklahoma City,

329
00:20:34,126 --> 00:20:37,794
would go to Vietnam right after
college to do what he could

330
00:20:37,796 --> 00:20:41,164
to help poor villagers
in the countryside.

331
00:20:50,175 --> 00:20:52,075
Dear Margo,

332
00:20:52,077 --> 00:20:54,543
I finally finished up my
work in Phan Rang last week.

333
00:20:54,545 --> 00:20:56,545
Had spent a month working on a windmill

334
00:20:56,547 --> 00:20:58,648
I'd promised the people of one hamlet.

335
00:20:58,650 --> 00:21:03,352
Cost a lot of money, too, which
I paid out of my own pocket.

336
00:21:07,159 --> 00:21:09,358
I'm in soaring spirits today

337
00:21:09,360 --> 00:21:12,561
despite all the natural
disasters, political intrigues,

338
00:21:12,563 --> 00:21:14,697
and subversive activities.

339
00:21:14,699 --> 00:21:17,233
Pete Hunting worked

340
00:21:17,235 --> 00:21:20,103
for the International
Voluntary Services,

341
00:21:20,105 --> 00:21:23,973
a nonprofit organization
committed to improving

342
00:21:23,975 --> 00:21:27,142
agriculture, education,
and public health.

343
00:21:27,144 --> 00:21:30,345
He was one of hundreds
of dedicated aid workers

344
00:21:30,347 --> 00:21:33,115
in South Vietnam.

345
00:21:36,987 --> 00:21:39,221
Latest news on this side of the world

346
00:21:39,223 --> 00:21:41,256
is that I'll almost definitely
be extending over here

347
00:21:41,258 --> 00:21:43,292
for another two years,

348
00:21:43,294 --> 00:21:45,294
providing the country stays
in one piece that long.

349
00:21:48,532 --> 00:21:50,765
Two years after he arrived,

350
00:21:50,767 --> 00:21:53,268
Pete Hunting was driving
in the Mekong Delta

351
00:21:53,270 --> 00:21:56,205
when he ran into a Viet Cong ambush.

352
00:21:56,207 --> 00:21:59,674
He was shot five times in the head...

353
00:22:01,411 --> 00:22:03,378
the first American civilian volunteer

354
00:22:03,380 --> 00:22:05,947
to be killed in Vietnam.

355
00:22:34,577 --> 00:22:37,011
People used to joke in Vietnam

356
00:22:37,013 --> 00:22:38,779
about winning the hearts and minds.

357
00:22:38,781 --> 00:22:42,316
And you hear that expression,
but that should not be a joke.

358
00:22:42,318 --> 00:22:44,718
It's a serious, serious problem.

359
00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:47,221
If you pull off a military operation,

360
00:22:47,223 --> 00:22:50,892
and it may be successful
on the military basis,

361
00:22:50,894 --> 00:22:53,895
but you destroy a village,

362
00:22:53,897 --> 00:22:57,798
then you've created a
village of resistance.

363
00:22:57,800 --> 00:23:01,635
Few advisors understood
the unique challenges

364
00:23:01,637 --> 00:23:04,505
of fighting an insurgency in Vietnam

365
00:23:04,507 --> 00:23:08,442
better than Lieutenant
Colonel John Paul Vann.

366
00:23:08,444 --> 00:23:11,177
A career soldier from Virginia,

367
00:23:11,179 --> 00:23:13,479
he was the senior American advisor

368
00:23:13,481 --> 00:23:17,550
to the 7th ARVN Division
in the Mekong Delta.

369
00:23:17,552 --> 00:23:22,155
Small, wiry and abrasive,
John Paul Vann was convinced

370
00:23:22,157 --> 00:23:26,393
he knew how to defeat the Viet Cong.

371
00:23:26,395 --> 00:23:30,931
John Paul Vann was simply
the most remarkable soldier

372
00:23:30,933 --> 00:23:32,098
I ever met.

373
00:23:32,100 --> 00:23:34,100
Period.

374
00:23:34,102 --> 00:23:38,939
The biggest challenge
of John Paul Vann's life

375
00:23:38,941 --> 00:23:44,978
was somehow saving Vietnam, winning.

376
00:23:44,980 --> 00:23:47,913
That, to him, was the
ultimate challenge.

377
00:23:50,451 --> 00:23:52,151
When it became clear to Vann

378
00:23:52,153 --> 00:23:55,120
that the tactics the
Americans had taught the ARVN

379
00:23:55,122 --> 00:23:58,324
were beginning to make
more enemies than friends,

380
00:23:58,326 --> 00:24:03,095
he sought out newspapermen
to spread the word.

381
00:24:03,097 --> 00:24:06,999
He was able to explain
to us what was going on.

382
00:24:07,001 --> 00:24:10,402
The important thing was not
to alienate the population.

383
00:24:10,404 --> 00:24:13,372
That if you got sniper
fire from a hamlet,

384
00:24:13,374 --> 00:24:15,774
you sent in riflemen
to take out the sniper.

385
00:24:15,776 --> 00:24:18,143
You didn't shell the place,
because you were going to kill

386
00:24:18,145 --> 00:24:20,544
women and kids and destroy houses

387
00:24:20,546 --> 00:24:22,813
and you were going to turn
the population against you.

388
00:24:25,318 --> 00:24:28,586
Most press coverage
of Vietnam was upbeat

389
00:24:28,588 --> 00:24:31,389
in the tradition of previous wars.

390
00:24:31,391 --> 00:24:36,327
But a handful of young
reporters including Neil Sheehan,

391
00:24:36,329 --> 00:24:38,863
David Halberstam of
the<i> New York Times,</i>

392
00:24:38,865 --> 00:24:41,499
and Malcolm Browne of
the Associated Press,

393
00:24:41,501 --> 00:24:45,370
who spent time in the field
with officers like Vann,

394
00:24:45,372 --> 00:24:49,540
were beginning to see that
from the Vietnamese countryside,

395
00:24:49,542 --> 00:24:51,775
things looked very
different than they did

396
00:24:51,777 --> 00:24:55,745
from the press offices
in Washington or Saigon.

397
00:24:55,747 --> 00:24:59,983
So it was terribly important
that we not only win the war

398
00:24:59,985 --> 00:25:02,819
but that we as reporters
report the truth

399
00:25:02,821 --> 00:25:05,822
that would help to win the war.

400
00:25:05,824 --> 00:25:08,958
We were very fervent in
wanting to report the truth

401
00:25:08,960 --> 00:25:12,029
because it was very important
to the welfare of our country

402
00:25:12,031 --> 00:25:13,263
and to the welfare of the world.

403
00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:19,102
Sheehan and his colleagues
began asking tough questions

404
00:25:19,104 --> 00:25:24,141
about what constituted progress,
what victory would look like,

405
00:25:24,143 --> 00:25:26,543
and if the people in the countryside,

406
00:25:26,545 --> 00:25:30,312
where 80% of South
Vietnam's population lived,

407
00:25:30,314 --> 00:25:35,217
could ever trust the
government in Saigon.

408
00:25:35,219 --> 00:25:38,220
I remember going, during one
of Robert McNamara's visits,

409
00:25:38,222 --> 00:25:41,357
out to one of these hamlets.

410
00:25:41,359 --> 00:25:42,859
The Vietnamese general
who commanded the area

411
00:25:42,861 --> 00:25:44,460
was telling McNamara what
a wonderful thing this was.

412
00:25:44,462 --> 00:25:47,096
And the... the... some
of these farmers were down

413
00:25:47,098 --> 00:25:50,833
digging a ditch around
the... around the hamlet.

414
00:25:50,835 --> 00:25:53,970
And I looked at their faces
and they were really angry.

415
00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:57,607
I mean it was very obvious to me

416
00:25:57,609 --> 00:26:00,176
that if these people could,
they'd cut our throats.

417
00:26:04,782 --> 00:26:08,750
Farmers resented being
forced to abandon their homes

418
00:26:08,752 --> 00:26:11,320
and move to strategic hamlets.

419
00:26:11,322 --> 00:26:15,458
Corrupt officials siphoned off funds.

420
00:26:15,460 --> 00:26:17,960
And villagers blamed the Diem regime

421
00:26:17,962 --> 00:26:21,930
for failing to protect
them from guerrilla attacks.

422
00:26:21,932 --> 00:26:27,203
As the people's anger grew, so
did the ranks of the Viet Cong.

423
00:26:27,205 --> 00:26:31,607
It turned out that the Viet
Cong were recruiting men

424
00:26:31,609 --> 00:26:35,144
right out of those strategic...
so-called strategic hamlets.

425
00:26:35,146 --> 00:26:36,945
And then the whole program fell apart.

426
00:27:01,038 --> 00:27:04,940
Nguyen Ngoc's father was a
postal clerk south of Danang.

427
00:27:04,942 --> 00:27:09,544
His brothers and sisters taught
in South Vietnamese schools.

428
00:27:09,546 --> 00:27:13,313
But he joined the revolution,
and as a political officer,

429
00:27:13,315 --> 00:27:17,251
wrote poems, songs, and
slogans to inspire the people

430
00:27:17,253 --> 00:27:21,956
in the countryside to
support the Viet Cong.

431
00:27:21,958 --> 00:27:26,527
The Viet Cong cadre would
come in and talk to them

432
00:27:26,529 --> 00:27:31,398
and their message is usually ,

433
00:27:31,400 --> 00:27:33,934
which means "turn
your grief into action.

434
00:27:33,936 --> 00:27:36,403
"Do something about it.

435
00:27:36,405 --> 00:27:38,472
"Join us.

436
00:27:38,474 --> 00:27:39,940
"We'll fight together.

437
00:27:39,942 --> 00:27:44,510
"We'll liberate the country from
this corrupt, unjust government.

438
00:27:44,512 --> 00:27:46,546
"We'll throw out the foreigners.

439
00:27:46,548 --> 00:27:48,381
"We'll reunify the country.

440
00:27:48,383 --> 00:27:51,517
"And we'll bring in this great regime

441
00:27:51,519 --> 00:27:53,219
"that will take care of you

442
00:27:53,221 --> 00:27:54,821
and bring economic and social justice."

443
00:27:57,159 --> 00:28:00,326
The Viet Cong ran
rival local governments,

444
00:28:00,328 --> 00:28:04,130
complete with their own tax
collectors and school teachers,

445
00:28:04,132 --> 00:28:08,367
spies and propagandists,
and province chiefs.

446
00:28:11,106 --> 00:28:13,439
To make matters worse,

447
00:28:13,441 --> 00:28:17,275
ARVN troops and American
advisors now found themselves

448
00:28:17,277 --> 00:28:20,312
confronted by a new threat:

449
00:28:20,314 --> 00:28:23,548
battalions of well-armed
Viet Cong soldiers,

450
00:28:23,550 --> 00:28:26,819
as well as by local guerrillas.

451
00:28:26,821 --> 00:28:29,121
We'd armed them.

452
00:28:29,123 --> 00:28:32,591
You could hear the
arming of the Viet Cong.

453
00:28:32,593 --> 00:28:36,095
Back in early '62, they only had
one machine gun per battalion.

454
00:28:37,264 --> 00:28:38,897
It was sporadic fire.

455
00:28:38,899 --> 00:28:42,835
Then, as they captured more
and more of these American arms,

456
00:28:42,837 --> 00:28:44,803
when you made contact, it fi...

457
00:28:44,805 --> 00:28:47,072
it would build up into
a drumfire of automatic

458
00:28:47,074 --> 00:28:48,607
and semi-automatic weapons.

459
00:28:55,414 --> 00:28:58,549
Secretary McNamara decided
that he would draw up

460
00:28:58,551 --> 00:29:01,352
some kind of a chart to determine

461
00:29:01,354 --> 00:29:04,288
whether we were winning or not.

462
00:29:04,290 --> 00:29:07,058
And he was putting things in

463
00:29:07,060 --> 00:29:09,861
like numbers of weapons recovered,

464
00:29:09,863 --> 00:29:12,196
numbers of Viet Cong killed.

465
00:29:12,198 --> 00:29:14,431
Very statistical.

466
00:29:17,137 --> 00:29:19,703
And he asked Edward Lansdale,

467
00:29:19,705 --> 00:29:23,474
who was then in the Pentagon
as head of Special Operations,

468
00:29:23,476 --> 00:29:25,609
to come down and look at this.

469
00:29:25,611 --> 00:29:29,813
And so Lansdale did and he said,
"There's something missing."

470
00:29:29,815 --> 00:29:33,150
And McNamara said, "What?"

471
00:29:33,152 --> 00:29:36,787
And Lansdale said, "The feelings
of the Vietnamese people."

472
00:29:36,789 --> 00:29:40,758
You couldn't reduce this to a statistic.

473
00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:45,329
Robert McNamara had vowed
to make America's military

474
00:29:45,331 --> 00:29:46,897
"cost-effective."

475
00:29:46,899 --> 00:29:50,668
He demanded that
everything be quantified.

476
00:29:50,670 --> 00:29:54,571
In Saigon, General Paul D. Harkins,

477
00:29:54,573 --> 00:29:58,007
head of the Military
Assistance Command, Vietnam,

478
00:29:58,009 --> 00:30:01,344
known as MACV, dutifully complied.

479
00:30:01,346 --> 00:30:05,981
He and his staff generated
mountains of daily, weekly,

480
00:30:05,983 --> 00:30:08,318
monthly, and quarterly data

481
00:30:08,320 --> 00:30:11,387
on more than a hundred
separate indicators,

482
00:30:11,389 --> 00:30:15,891
far more data than could
ever be adequately analyzed.

483
00:30:19,331 --> 00:30:22,164
General Harkins had little
use for skeptical reporters

484
00:30:22,166 --> 00:30:23,800
like Neil Sheehan.

485
00:30:23,802 --> 00:30:26,436
Bad news was to be buried.

486
00:30:26,438 --> 00:30:30,605
Harkins ignored the
alarming after action reports

487
00:30:30,607 --> 00:30:34,276
John Paul Vann and other
officers were sending in

488
00:30:34,278 --> 00:30:36,478
from the field.

489
00:30:36,480 --> 00:30:39,414
I was going to be made
head of the Vietnam desk

490
00:30:39,416 --> 00:30:41,550
at CIA headquarters.

491
00:30:41,552 --> 00:30:44,887
And the first person
of importance that I met

492
00:30:44,889 --> 00:30:47,189
was General Harkins.

493
00:30:47,191 --> 00:30:49,791
And he started out by saying,

494
00:30:49,793 --> 00:30:52,661
"Mr. Gregg, I don't care what
you hear from anybody else,

495
00:30:52,663 --> 00:30:55,064
"I can tell you without a doubt
we're going to be out of here

496
00:30:55,066 --> 00:30:56,665
with a military victory in six months."

497
00:30:58,369 --> 00:31:00,402
The country's 12 million peasants

498
00:31:00,404 --> 00:31:03,038
can scarcely remember
what peace was like.

499
00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:05,006
They're caught between
the predatory guerrillas

500
00:31:05,008 --> 00:31:07,541
and the almost equally
demanding soldiery.

501
00:31:07,543 --> 00:31:09,944
Their lives are lived in a
state of permanent uncertainty,

502
00:31:09,946 --> 00:31:12,646
punctuated by bouts of violence

503
00:31:12,648 --> 00:31:14,182
as government forces come to grips

504
00:31:14,184 --> 00:31:16,450
with the black-clad
communist rebel forces

505
00:31:16,452 --> 00:31:17,651
called the Viet Cong.

506
00:33:15,870 --> 00:33:20,205
On our side we were not as committed

507
00:33:20,207 --> 00:33:22,140
and we were...

508
00:33:22,142 --> 00:33:25,510
our leaders were
corrupt and incompetent.

509
00:33:25,512 --> 00:33:30,581
And so deep down we'll
always have this fear,

510
00:33:30,583 --> 00:33:36,287
this suspicion that in the end
it'll be the communists who won.

511
00:33:36,289 --> 00:33:39,857
When John Kennedy assembled

512
00:33:39,859 --> 00:33:41,993
what he thinks is the
best and the brightest,

513
00:33:41,995 --> 00:33:48,299
20 years before that in a
cave in the northern part

514
00:33:48,301 --> 00:33:50,968
of Vietnam, Ho Chi
Minh also put together

515
00:33:50,970 --> 00:33:52,504
his best and the brightest.

516
00:33:52,506 --> 00:33:55,706
And these guys are at it for a while.

517
00:33:55,708 --> 00:33:59,343
And when we show up, they were far along

518
00:33:59,345 --> 00:34:05,249
to consolidating their victory
over this inevitable conflict

519
00:34:05,251 --> 00:34:09,854
between Ho Chi Minh and
John F. Kennedy's vision.

520
00:34:09,856 --> 00:34:14,892
The more you think about
the American strategy,

521
00:34:14,894 --> 00:34:18,696
the more you know

522
00:34:18,698 --> 00:34:21,265
that it was never going to
work out particularly well.

523
00:34:36,415 --> 00:34:41,851
I was at my top of my
game when I was in combat.

524
00:34:47,059 --> 00:34:50,260
You don't have the luxury
to indulge your fear

525
00:34:50,262 --> 00:34:52,262
because other people's lives depend upon

526
00:34:52,264 --> 00:34:53,430
you keeping your head cold.

527
00:35:02,340 --> 00:35:05,374
You know, when something goes wrong,

528
00:35:05,376 --> 00:35:06,809
they call it emotional numbing.

529
00:35:06,811 --> 00:35:09,212
It's not very good in civilian life,

530
00:35:09,214 --> 00:35:11,214
but it's pretty useful in combat.

531
00:35:23,027 --> 00:35:25,761
To be able to get absolutely very cold

532
00:35:25,763 --> 00:35:30,733
about what needs to be
done and to stick with it.

533
00:35:36,806 --> 00:35:39,774
To me it's, it's a little
bit distressing to realize

534
00:35:39,776 --> 00:35:41,610
that I was at my best

535
00:35:41,612 --> 00:35:44,078
doing something as terrible as war.

536
00:35:53,790 --> 00:35:56,391
President Kennedy has
staked his reputation in Asia

537
00:35:56,393 --> 00:35:59,327
on saving South Vietnam from communism.

538
00:35:59,329 --> 00:36:01,763
As the army makes the
sweep towards the village

539
00:36:01,765 --> 00:36:03,665
suspected of harboring Viet Cong,

540
00:36:03,667 --> 00:36:06,601
it can't tell whether
it will meet resistance.

541
00:38:06,606 --> 00:38:11,542
Each of South Vietnam's 44
provinces had its own chief.

542
00:38:11,544 --> 00:38:14,411
Some were simply political appointees,

543
00:38:14,413 --> 00:38:17,313
corrupt allies of President Diem.

544
00:38:17,315 --> 00:38:23,054
Tran Ngoc Chau, province chief
of Kien Hoa, was different.

545
00:38:23,056 --> 00:38:27,992
A privileged judge's son from
the old imperial city of Hue,

546
00:38:27,994 --> 00:38:30,995
he and two of his brothers
had fought against the French

547
00:38:30,997 --> 00:38:32,564
with the Viet Minh.

548
00:38:32,566 --> 00:38:36,734
But he had refused to
join the Communist Party;

549
00:38:36,736 --> 00:38:39,737
he admired their dedication,
but disliked the way

550
00:38:39,739 --> 00:38:42,941
they punished those who
dared differ with them.

551
00:38:42,943 --> 00:38:46,077
Instead, he left the Viet Minh,

552
00:38:46,079 --> 00:38:49,280
became a major in the
army fighting against them,

553
00:38:49,282 --> 00:38:53,184
and eventually so impressed
Diem with his insider's knowledge

554
00:38:53,186 --> 00:38:57,154
of communist tactics that
he was promoted to colonel

555
00:38:57,156 --> 00:39:03,027
and made chief of Kien
Hoa, a Viet Cong stronghold.

556
00:39:03,029 --> 00:39:06,864
He was absolutely incorruptible.

557
00:39:06,866 --> 00:39:12,004
And people came to really
understand that here's a guy

558
00:39:12,006 --> 00:39:15,074
who's, even though it's
not an elected system,

559
00:39:15,076 --> 00:39:17,743
who never... nevertheless
really represents us.

560
00:39:19,647 --> 00:39:21,646
"Give me a budget that equals the cost

561
00:39:21,648 --> 00:39:25,950
of one American helicopter,"
Chau liked to say,

562
00:39:25,952 --> 00:39:28,686
"and I'll give you a pacified province.

563
00:39:28,688 --> 00:39:32,790
"With that much money, I can
raise the standard of living

564
00:39:32,792 --> 00:39:34,493
"of the rice farmers,

565
00:39:34,495 --> 00:39:36,294
"and government officials
can be paid enough

566
00:39:36,296 --> 00:39:41,167
so they won't think
it necessary to steal."

567
00:39:41,169 --> 00:39:43,669
Rather than hunt down the Viet Cong,

568
00:39:43,671 --> 00:39:46,205
he sought to persuade them.

569
00:40:41,730 --> 00:40:45,464
Back home, Americans were
paying little attention

570
00:40:45,466 --> 00:40:47,767
to what was happening in Vietnam.

571
00:40:47,769 --> 00:40:50,603
They were watching <i>The
Beverly Hillbillies</i>

572
00:40:50,605 --> 00:40:52,806
and<i> Gunsmoke</i> on TV,

573
00:40:52,808 --> 00:40:55,776
were interested in whether
the Yankees would win

574
00:40:55,778 --> 00:40:57,344
the World Series again

575
00:40:57,346 --> 00:41:01,581
and in the recent
death of Marilyn Monroe.

576
00:41:04,686 --> 00:41:07,187
But some Americans had
been growing impatient

577
00:41:07,189 --> 00:41:10,556
with the slow pace of social change.

578
00:41:10,558 --> 00:41:12,291
We were told in the '50s

579
00:41:12,293 --> 00:41:15,128
that we lived in the
best country in the world.

580
00:41:15,130 --> 00:41:18,598
In the middle of, you
know, trying to figure out

581
00:41:18,600 --> 00:41:21,001
what it meant to be a citizen of the...

582
00:41:21,003 --> 00:41:23,370
of this best country in the world,

583
00:41:23,372 --> 00:41:25,272
suddenly the civil
rights movement exploded

584
00:41:25,274 --> 00:41:27,441
into our consciousness.

585
00:41:33,649 --> 00:41:35,615
We didn't think we had any power.

586
00:41:35,617 --> 00:41:38,785
We didn't think we could
be actors in history,

587
00:41:38,787 --> 00:41:41,254
that we could affect things.

588
00:41:48,798 --> 00:41:50,564
And suddenly, you know,

589
00:41:50,566 --> 00:41:52,499
these young black students in the South

590
00:41:52,501 --> 00:41:54,235
were doing exactly that.

591
00:41:54,237 --> 00:41:57,604
And it just blew the
tops of our heads off.

592
00:42:18,528 --> 00:42:21,896
Other Americans were concerned
about the proliferation

593
00:42:21,898 --> 00:42:25,300
of nuclear weapons in the world.

594
00:42:25,302 --> 00:42:29,337
Perhaps it would be a good thing
to put Khrushchev and Kennedy

595
00:42:29,339 --> 00:42:33,174
on an island and not let
either one of them off

596
00:42:33,176 --> 00:42:35,777
until they came to an agreement.

597
00:42:58,335 --> 00:43:01,603
And if you were in a café
when Diem was giving a speech,

598
00:43:01,605 --> 00:43:03,472
somebody would get up
and shut the radio off,

599
00:43:03,474 --> 00:43:05,240
it would be coming in over the radio.

600
00:43:05,242 --> 00:43:07,676
Somebody would get up and
they'd just shut the radio off.

601
00:43:07,678 --> 00:43:11,646
I mean, he was not connected
with... to his own population.

602
00:43:14,885 --> 00:43:19,821
Diem was simply the opposite
of what democracy was.

603
00:43:19,823 --> 00:43:23,658
South Vietnam, in the
competition against the North,

604
00:43:23,660 --> 00:43:28,831
that should been, should
have been a golden opportunity

605
00:43:28,833 --> 00:43:34,270
to have that society
open with the free press,

606
00:43:34,272 --> 00:43:36,405
free expression.

607
00:43:36,407 --> 00:43:39,308
But there was not much choice

608
00:43:39,310 --> 00:43:43,712
if the two system are
structurally dictator

609
00:43:43,714 --> 00:43:45,213
and oppressive systems...

610
00:43:45,215 --> 00:43:51,286
one under the Communist
Party, one under a family.

611
00:44:08,440 --> 00:44:12,008
Diem's brother, Ngo Dinh
Nhu, had been the architect

612
00:44:12,010 --> 00:44:14,611
of the strategic hamlet program,

613
00:44:14,613 --> 00:44:18,848
ran a personal political party
that mirrored the techniques

614
00:44:18,850 --> 00:44:21,384
and the ruthlessness of the communists,

615
00:44:21,386 --> 00:44:25,655
and supervised a host of
internal security units

616
00:44:25,657 --> 00:44:29,592
that spied on and seized
enemies of the regime.

617
00:44:31,696 --> 00:44:33,897
Some reporters who probed too deeply

618
00:44:33,899 --> 00:44:36,365
into what Diem and Nhu were doing

619
00:44:36,367 --> 00:44:38,635
were ordered out of the country.

620
00:44:39,771 --> 00:44:42,305
When an American journalist objected,

621
00:44:42,307 --> 00:44:46,410
Nhu's sharp-tongued wife
told him Vietnam had no use

622
00:44:46,412 --> 00:44:48,913
for "your crazy freedoms."

623
00:44:50,516 --> 00:44:52,450
Meanwhile, out in the countryside,

624
00:44:52,452 --> 00:44:56,753
John Paul Vann and other
advisors had begun to notice

625
00:44:56,755 --> 00:45:00,523
that the corruption within
Diem's regime had filtered down

626
00:45:00,525 --> 00:45:02,592
to the commanders in the field.

627
00:45:02,594 --> 00:45:07,597
Troops, who had once been
willing to engage the enemy,

628
00:45:07,599 --> 00:45:11,802
now seemed strangely reluctant.

629
00:45:11,804 --> 00:45:16,740
God, I was told so many times...

630
00:45:16,742 --> 00:45:18,676
You know, "Scanlon... "

631
00:45:18,678 --> 00:45:19,877
Um...

632
00:45:19,879 --> 00:45:25,315
very dangerous, you
know, going out there.

633
00:45:25,317 --> 00:45:28,085
John Vann would go
out with them at night.

634
00:45:28,087 --> 00:45:32,288
And he noticed that
somebody would always cough

635
00:45:32,290 --> 00:45:35,793
or make some other slight
noise when it turned out

636
00:45:35,795 --> 00:45:38,261
that the Viet Cong were
heading into the ambush site.

637
00:45:38,263 --> 00:45:40,130
They did not want to get in a fight.

638
00:45:40,132 --> 00:45:43,433
South Vietnamese officers were chosen

639
00:45:43,435 --> 00:45:47,037
less for their combat
skill than for their loyalty

640
00:45:47,039 --> 00:45:50,741
to President Diem,
and their men knew it.

641
00:45:52,211 --> 00:45:53,677
What we should have done is

642
00:45:53,679 --> 00:45:58,281
either forced the Vietnamese...
I mean really forced them...

643
00:45:58,283 --> 00:46:00,518
to clean up their act.

644
00:46:00,520 --> 00:46:02,621
And if they wouldn't
clean up their act to say,

645
00:46:02,623 --> 00:46:05,089
"We're out of here.

646
00:46:05,091 --> 00:46:07,925
"Because we don't bet on losing horses.

647
00:46:07,927 --> 00:46:10,461
"This is a losing horse.

648
00:46:10,463 --> 00:46:12,897
You are not going to
win this insurgency."

649
00:46:12,899 --> 00:46:15,699
We, as Americans, should
have understood the desire

650
00:46:15,701 --> 00:46:19,337
of the Vietnamese people
to have their own country.

651
00:46:19,339 --> 00:46:22,140
I mean we did the same
thing to the Brits.

652
00:46:28,015 --> 00:46:32,918
In October of 1962, the United
States and the Soviet Union

653
00:46:32,920 --> 00:46:35,754
came closer than they
would ever come again

654
00:46:35,756 --> 00:46:38,623
to mutually assured destruction.

655
00:46:38,625 --> 00:46:41,693
Good evening, my fellow citizens.

656
00:46:41,695 --> 00:46:45,797
This government, as
promised, has maintained

657
00:46:45,799 --> 00:46:49,668
the closest surveillance of
the Soviet military buildup

658
00:46:49,670 --> 00:46:51,269
on the island of Cuba.

659
00:46:52,506 --> 00:46:54,607
Within the past week,

660
00:46:54,609 --> 00:46:58,044
unmistakable evidence
has established the fact

661
00:46:58,046 --> 00:47:01,547
that a series of offensive missile sites

662
00:47:01,549 --> 00:47:06,619
is now in preparation on
that imprisoned island.

663
00:47:06,621 --> 00:47:09,888
The Soviets had secretly
placed nuclear missiles

664
00:47:09,890 --> 00:47:13,058
90 miles from the United States.

665
00:47:13,060 --> 00:47:18,029
The Joint Chiefs of Staff urged
President Kennedy to bomb Cuba.

666
00:47:18,031 --> 00:47:22,301
He resisted and instead
ordered a naval blockade

667
00:47:22,303 --> 00:47:26,505
to stop Soviet ships from
resupplying the island.

668
00:47:28,275 --> 00:47:33,512
For 13 excruciating days,
the world held its breath.

669
00:47:37,184 --> 00:47:40,519
Finally, in exchange
for a private pledge

670
00:47:40,521 --> 00:47:43,322
to remove American missiles from Turkey,

671
00:47:43,324 --> 00:47:46,726
Khrushchev agreed to remove
his missiles from Cuba.

672
00:47:49,731 --> 00:47:52,765
Neither the United States
nor the Soviet Union

673
00:47:52,767 --> 00:47:56,869
wanted so direct a
confrontation ever again.

674
00:47:56,871 --> 00:47:59,438
From now on, limited wars,

675
00:47:59,440 --> 00:48:02,041
like the growing conflict in Vietnam,

676
00:48:02,043 --> 00:48:05,310
would assume still greater importance.

677
00:48:08,850 --> 00:48:13,386
I'd grown up in the shadow
of the mushroom cloud.

678
00:48:13,388 --> 00:48:17,490
And I remember the... watching
President Kennedy speak

679
00:48:17,492 --> 00:48:19,225
during the Cuban Missile Crisis

680
00:48:19,227 --> 00:48:21,528
and wondering if I was
ever gonna kiss a girl.

681
00:48:21,530 --> 00:48:24,430
And so this was just
continuing that battle

682
00:48:24,432 --> 00:48:26,366
against the Russians.

683
00:48:26,368 --> 00:48:29,969
Only we were fighting, you
know, their, their proxies,

684
00:48:29,971 --> 00:48:33,239
the Vietnamese there... but
it was monolithic communism.

685
00:48:34,909 --> 00:48:37,878
It didn't matter to me where
it was, I was going to go

686
00:48:37,880 --> 00:48:42,015
if my government said
we needed to be there.

687
00:48:42,017 --> 00:48:45,018
We were probably the last
kids of any generation

688
00:48:45,020 --> 00:48:46,420
that actually believed

689
00:48:46,422 --> 00:48:47,954
our government would never lie to us.

690
00:48:53,461 --> 00:48:55,828
We had been writing
stories about all the flaws

691
00:48:55,830 --> 00:48:58,764
on the Saigon side... about
how they wouldn't fight,

692
00:48:58,766 --> 00:49:01,535
about the corruption,
they wouldn't obey orders,

693
00:49:01,537 --> 00:49:02,936
the disorganization.

694
00:49:05,074 --> 00:49:09,677
And then all of a sudden the
Viet Cong, for the first time,

695
00:49:09,679 --> 00:49:11,212
the "raggedy-ass little bastards"

696
00:49:11,214 --> 00:49:14,014
as the Harkins's people
in Saigon called them,

697
00:49:14,016 --> 00:49:15,749
stood and fought.

698
00:49:15,751 --> 00:49:18,018
And suddenly all the
flaws on the Saigon side

699
00:49:18,020 --> 00:49:20,521
were illuminated by this.

700
00:49:20,523 --> 00:49:23,757
Like a star shell, it
illuminated the battlefield.

701
00:49:23,759 --> 00:49:25,092
Everything came out.

702
00:49:26,496 --> 00:49:29,897
A few days after Christmas 1962,

703
00:49:29,899 --> 00:49:33,467
the 7th ARVN Division
got orders to capture

704
00:49:33,469 --> 00:49:35,803
a Viet Cong radio transmitter

705
00:49:35,805 --> 00:49:40,507
broadcasting from a spot some
40 miles southwest of Saigon

706
00:49:40,509 --> 00:49:43,611
in a village called Tan Thoi.

707
00:49:43,613 --> 00:49:46,480
The village was
surrounded by rice paddies.

708
00:49:46,482 --> 00:49:52,520
An irrigation dike linked it to
a neighboring hamlet... Ap Bac.

709
00:49:52,522 --> 00:49:56,892
Intelligence suggested no
more than 120 guerrillas

710
00:49:56,894 --> 00:49:59,361
were guarding the transmitter.

711
00:49:59,363 --> 00:50:02,764
John Paul Vann helped
draw up what seemed to be

712
00:50:02,766 --> 00:50:05,299
a foolproof plan of attack.

713
00:50:05,301 --> 00:50:09,637
Supported by helicopters and
armored personnel carriers,

714
00:50:09,639 --> 00:50:13,540
some 1,200 South Vietnamese
troops would attack the village

715
00:50:13,542 --> 00:50:15,576
from three sides.

716
00:50:15,578 --> 00:50:18,546
When the surviving Viet Cong
tried to flee through the gap

717
00:50:18,548 --> 00:50:22,584
left open for them, as they
always had whenever outnumbered

718
00:50:22,586 --> 00:50:24,853
and confronted by modern weapons,

719
00:50:24,855 --> 00:50:28,490
artillery and airstrikes
would destroy them.

720
00:50:28,492 --> 00:50:33,061
Vann would observe the
fighting from a spotter plane.

721
00:50:33,063 --> 00:50:38,767
But the intelligence underlying
it all turned out to be wrong.

722
00:50:38,769 --> 00:50:44,407
There were more than 340 Viet
Cong, not 120, in the area.

723
00:50:44,409 --> 00:50:47,410
Communist spies had tipped them off

724
00:50:47,412 --> 00:50:49,679
that they were soon to be attacked.

725
00:50:49,681 --> 00:50:53,549
And this time they would
not flee without a fight.

726
00:50:55,152 --> 00:50:58,020
Among them was Le Quan Cong,

727
00:50:58,022 --> 00:51:02,224
who had been a guerrilla fighter
since 1951, when he was 12.

728
00:51:16,941 --> 00:51:22,077
At 6:35 in the morning
on January 2, 1963,

729
00:51:22,079 --> 00:51:25,514
ten American helicopters
ferried an ARVN company

730
00:51:25,516 --> 00:51:28,684
to a spot just north of Tan Thoi.

731
00:51:31,723 --> 00:51:34,958
They met no resistance.

732
00:51:34,960 --> 00:51:38,595
Meanwhile, two South Vietnamese
Civil Guard battalions

733
00:51:38,597 --> 00:51:41,732
approached Ap Bac
from the South on foot.

734
00:51:44,903 --> 00:51:48,604
The Viet Cong commander let the
Civil Guards get within 100 feet

735
00:51:48,606 --> 00:51:51,007
before giving the order to fire.

736
00:51:53,711 --> 00:51:56,312
Several South Vietnamese
soldiers were killed.

737
00:52:00,419 --> 00:52:03,487
Survivors hid behind a dike.

738
00:52:06,359 --> 00:52:08,359
Ten more helicopters,

739
00:52:08,361 --> 00:52:12,096
filled with troops and escorted
by five helicopter gunships,

740
00:52:12,098 --> 00:52:13,230
roared in to help.

741
00:52:40,426 --> 00:52:44,761
Viet Cong machine guns
hit 14 of the 15 aircraft.

742
00:52:44,763 --> 00:52:49,900
Five would be destroyed, killing
and wounding American crewmen.

743
00:52:59,879 --> 00:53:02,313
The enemy concentrated
their fire on the ARVN

744
00:53:02,315 --> 00:53:05,416
struggling to get out of
the downed helicopters.

745
00:53:05,418 --> 00:53:08,419
"It was like shooting
ducks for the Viet Cong,"

746
00:53:08,421 --> 00:53:10,220
an American crewman remembered.

747
00:53:12,759 --> 00:53:15,793
Colonel Vann circled
helplessly overhead.

748
00:53:15,795 --> 00:53:18,363
He radioed the ARVN commander,

749
00:53:18,365 --> 00:53:22,267
urging him to send an APC
unit to rescue the men.

750
00:53:23,771 --> 00:53:26,437
I got the word from John Vann

751
00:53:26,439 --> 00:53:29,340
that American helicopters were down.

752
00:53:29,342 --> 00:53:31,843
They were right in front
of the Viet Cong positions.

753
00:53:31,845 --> 00:53:35,346
We had Americans killed and wounded

754
00:53:35,348 --> 00:53:37,548
and we had to get over there right away.

755
00:53:37,550 --> 00:53:41,519
Like Vann, Captain Scanlon
was only an advisor.

756
00:53:41,521 --> 00:53:45,056
Captain Ly Tong Ba,
his ARVN counterpart,

757
00:53:45,058 --> 00:53:47,793
would have to give the order to advance.

758
00:53:47,795 --> 00:53:51,062
Scanlon liked and admired him.

759
00:53:51,064 --> 00:53:53,665
I turned to Ba and said,

760
00:53:53,667 --> 00:53:56,401
"Hey, you know, you got to
get over there right away."

761
00:53:56,403 --> 00:54:01,039
And Ba said to me, "I'm not going."

762
00:54:01,041 --> 00:54:04,342
Ba's superiors within the
ARVN, far from the battlefield,

763
00:54:04,344 --> 00:54:07,645
had told him to stay put.

764
00:54:07,647 --> 00:54:11,683
And John Vann, my boss, was,
uh, screaming at me over the...

765
00:54:11,685 --> 00:54:15,121
over the radio to get them over there.

766
00:54:15,123 --> 00:54:19,458
It took Scanlon an hour to
convince Captain Ba to move.

767
00:54:19,460 --> 00:54:22,028
Another two hours were lost

768
00:54:22,030 --> 00:54:25,064
before the APCs could make
their way through the paddies

769
00:54:25,066 --> 00:54:27,133
toward the trapped men.

770
00:54:29,203 --> 00:54:31,637
The firing had died down.

771
00:54:31,639 --> 00:54:33,672
Everything was quiet.

772
00:54:33,674 --> 00:54:36,542
You could see the open
expanse of rice fields.

773
00:54:36,544 --> 00:54:40,046
And my reaction was,
hey, it was all over.

774
00:54:40,048 --> 00:54:43,249
The first two APCs dropped their ramps.

775
00:54:43,251 --> 00:54:45,784
Infantry squads stepped out,

776
00:54:45,786 --> 00:54:48,754
prepared to spray the tree
line with automatic fire

777
00:54:48,756 --> 00:54:50,156
as they advanced.

778
00:54:50,158 --> 00:54:52,891
In the past, that had been enough

779
00:54:52,893 --> 00:54:56,228
to make the Viet Cong scurry away.

780
00:54:56,230 --> 00:54:58,397
This time was different.

781
00:55:02,271 --> 00:55:04,304
Eight of the APCs came under attack.

782
00:55:04,306 --> 00:55:07,739
Within minutes, six of their
gunners had been killed,

783
00:55:07,741 --> 00:55:08,840
shot through the head.

784
00:55:10,411 --> 00:55:12,578
And boy, we got raked.

785
00:55:12,580 --> 00:55:14,447
So it was like a pool table.

786
00:55:14,449 --> 00:55:15,981
We were on the green

787
00:55:15,983 --> 00:55:18,350
and they were in the
pockets shooting at us.

788
00:55:18,352 --> 00:55:21,120
When Captain Ba managed to convince

789
00:55:21,122 --> 00:55:23,822
a few more APCs to advance,

790
00:55:23,824 --> 00:55:26,859
guerrillas leapt from their foxholes

791
00:55:26,861 --> 00:55:28,761
and hurled hand grenades at them.

792
00:55:33,868 --> 00:55:36,536
None did any real damage,

793
00:55:36,538 --> 00:55:40,206
but the drivers were so
demoralized that they halted,

794
00:55:40,208 --> 00:55:45,177
turned around, and withdrew
behind the wrecked helicopters.

795
00:55:45,179 --> 00:55:47,279
From his spotter plane,

796
00:55:47,281 --> 00:55:51,418
Vann begged the ARVN to
make a simultaneous assault

797
00:55:51,420 --> 00:55:54,622
on the enemy by all the
remaining ground forces.

798
00:55:55,858 --> 00:55:58,759
ARVN commanders refused.

799
00:56:01,363 --> 00:56:04,364
That night, the Viet Cong melted away,

800
00:56:04,366 --> 00:56:07,567
carrying most of their
dead and wounded with them.

801
00:56:09,872 --> 00:56:14,073
At least 80 South Vietnamese
soldiers had been killed.

802
00:56:14,075 --> 00:56:19,514
So had three American advisors,
including Captain Ken Good,

803
00:56:19,516 --> 00:56:20,515
a friend of Scanlon's.

804
00:56:24,621 --> 00:56:28,623
We stacked the armored
personnel carriers with bodies,

805
00:56:28,625 --> 00:56:30,358
stacked them up on top till they...

806
00:56:30,360 --> 00:56:32,360
we couldn't stack any more.

807
00:56:32,362 --> 00:56:38,566
And, um, I wouldn't let the
Vietnamese touch the Americans.

808
00:56:38,568 --> 00:56:41,435
So I carried the Americans out.

809
00:56:41,437 --> 00:56:43,805
And, um...

810
00:56:43,807 --> 00:56:46,141
And I was... I was exhausted.

811
00:56:46,143 --> 00:56:52,013
They told me about Ken
Good getting killed.

812
00:56:52,015 --> 00:56:56,450
And Ken and I had worked so
hard with our two battalions.

813
00:56:56,452 --> 00:57:02,323
And to hear that... he got killed hurt.

814
00:57:02,325 --> 00:57:03,725
Great guy.

815
00:57:05,328 --> 00:57:07,628
Reporters arrived from Saigon

816
00:57:07,630 --> 00:57:11,633
before all of the ARVN
dead could be removed.

817
00:57:11,635 --> 00:57:15,905
They were horrified at what
they saw and tried to find out

818
00:57:15,907 --> 00:57:18,741
what had really happened.

819
00:57:18,743 --> 00:57:23,245
John Paul Vann took Neil Sheehan
and David Halberstam aside

820
00:57:23,247 --> 00:57:25,280
and told them.

821
00:57:25,282 --> 00:57:27,249
The Battle of Ap Bac had been

822
00:57:27,251 --> 00:57:30,018
"a miserable goddamn performance."

823
00:57:30,020 --> 00:57:32,321
"The ARVN won't listen," he said.

824
00:57:32,323 --> 00:57:35,325
"They make the same
mistakes over and over again

825
00:57:35,327 --> 00:57:37,260
in the same way."

826
00:57:39,063 --> 00:57:40,697
But back in Saigon,

827
00:57:40,699 --> 00:57:44,534
General Harkins immediately
declared victory.

828
00:57:44,536 --> 00:57:47,537
"The ARVN forces had
an objective," he said.

829
00:57:47,539 --> 00:57:49,171
"We took that objective.

830
00:57:49,173 --> 00:57:52,709
"The VC left and their
casualties were greater

831
00:57:52,711 --> 00:57:55,311
"than those of the government forces.

832
00:57:55,313 --> 00:57:56,812
What more do you want?"

833
00:57:58,450 --> 00:58:00,951
When Halberstam and Sheehan reported

834
00:58:00,953 --> 00:58:03,887
that Ap Bac had in fact been a defeat,

835
00:58:03,889 --> 00:58:08,058
the U.S. Commander in
the Pacific denied it all

836
00:58:08,060 --> 00:58:11,194
and urged the reporters
to "get on the team."

837
00:58:13,665 --> 00:58:15,799
Ap Bac was terribly important.

838
00:58:15,801 --> 00:58:18,101
They had shot down five helicopters,

839
00:58:18,103 --> 00:58:20,603
which they previously
had been terrified of.

840
00:58:20,605 --> 00:58:24,741
They'd stopped the
armored personnel carriers.

841
00:58:24,743 --> 00:58:26,878
They demonstrated to their own people

842
00:58:26,880 --> 00:58:29,747
that you could resist
the Americans and win.

843
00:58:49,734 --> 00:58:53,470
In Hanoi, the Battle of Ap Bac was seen

844
00:58:53,472 --> 00:58:58,209
by Party First Secretary Le
Duan and his Politburo allies

845
00:58:58,211 --> 00:59:00,477
as evidence of the inherent weakness

846
00:59:00,479 --> 00:59:03,614
of the South Vietnamese regime.

847
00:59:03,616 --> 00:59:07,450
Even when faced with American
advisors and weaponry,

848
00:59:07,452 --> 00:59:11,354
the Viet Cong had learned how
to inflict heavy casualties

849
00:59:11,356 --> 00:59:14,958
on Saigon's forces, and get away again.

850
00:59:16,629 --> 00:59:20,497
In Saigon, President Diem
claimed the ARVN were winning,

851
00:59:20,499 --> 00:59:21,899
not losing.

852
00:59:21,901 --> 00:59:25,236
Ap Bac had only been
a momentary setback.

853
00:59:25,238 --> 00:59:27,138
And he resented Americans telling him

854
00:59:27,140 --> 00:59:30,842
how to fight his battles
or run his country.

855
00:59:30,844 --> 00:59:36,047
The president's sister-in-law,
Madame Nhu, went further.

856
00:59:36,049 --> 00:59:40,251
She denounced the Americans
as "false brothers."

857
00:59:41,955 --> 00:59:44,822
"We don't have a prayer
of staying in Vietnam,"

858
00:59:44,824 --> 00:59:48,960
President Kennedy privately
told a friend that spring.

859
00:59:48,962 --> 00:59:51,128
"These people hate us.

860
00:59:51,130 --> 00:59:54,565
"But I can't give up a
piece of territory like that

861
00:59:54,567 --> 00:59:58,870
to the communists and then
get the people to reelect me."

862
01:00:05,811 --> 01:00:07,311
Buddhist monks and nuns are joined

863
01:00:07,313 --> 01:00:08,881
by thousands of sympathizers

864
01:00:08,883 --> 01:00:10,615
to protest the government's restrictions

865
01:00:10,617 --> 01:00:13,385
on the practice of their
religion in South Vietnam.

866
01:00:15,222 --> 01:00:18,822
Diem began by alienating
the rural population.

867
01:00:18,824 --> 01:00:21,558
And that started the Viet Cong.

868
01:00:21,560 --> 01:00:24,528
Now he was alienating
the urban population.

869
01:00:24,530 --> 01:00:27,131
Seventy percent of the
population is Buddhist

870
01:00:27,133 --> 01:00:28,732
and the demonstrators
clashed with the police

871
01:00:28,734 --> 01:00:33,037
during the week-long series
of incidents like this.

872
01:00:33,039 --> 01:00:36,474
In the months that followed
the Battle of Ap Bac,

873
01:00:36,476 --> 01:00:41,213
South Vietnam plunged into civil
strife that had little to do

874
01:00:41,215 --> 01:00:44,149
with the Viet Cong.

875
01:00:44,151 --> 01:00:48,286
Religion and nationalism
were at its heart.

876
01:00:48,288 --> 01:00:52,089
A Catholic minority had for
years dominated the government

877
01:00:52,091 --> 01:00:54,759
of an overwhelmingly Buddhist country.

878
01:00:56,496 --> 01:00:59,031
That spring in the city of Hue,

879
01:00:59,033 --> 01:01:02,067
Christian flags had
been flown to celebrate

880
01:01:02,069 --> 01:01:05,270
the 25th anniversary of the ordination

881
01:01:05,272 --> 01:01:07,873
of Diem's older brother
as a Catholic bishop.

882
01:01:11,211 --> 01:01:14,580
But when the Buddhists of
the city flew their flags

883
01:01:14,582 --> 01:01:20,051
to celebrate the 2,527th
birthday of Lord Buddha,

884
01:01:20,053 --> 01:01:22,987
police tore them down.

885
01:01:22,989 --> 01:01:25,491
Protesters took to the streets.

886
01:01:27,795 --> 01:01:31,630
The Catholic deputy province
chief sent security forces

887
01:01:31,632 --> 01:01:34,500
to suppress the demonstration.

888
01:01:34,502 --> 01:01:36,268
The soldiers opened fire.

889
01:01:37,271 --> 01:01:40,372
Eight protesters died.

890
01:01:40,374 --> 01:01:46,345
The youngest was 12; the oldest was 20.

891
01:01:46,347 --> 01:01:49,949
The Diem regime blamed the Viet Cong.

892
01:01:51,753 --> 01:01:55,354
Monks throughout the
country demanded an apology.

893
01:02:04,365 --> 01:02:06,732
They also called for
an end to discrimination

894
01:02:06,734 --> 01:02:09,167
by Catholic officials.

895
01:02:09,169 --> 01:02:12,437
Many Buddhists had come
to see Diem's policies

896
01:02:12,439 --> 01:02:15,508
as a direct threat to
their religious beliefs.

897
01:02:18,580 --> 01:02:22,181
My family was against
what Diem was doing.

898
01:02:22,183 --> 01:02:24,885
My mother was convinced

899
01:02:24,887 --> 01:02:28,988
that Diem was destroying
the Buddhist faith.

900
01:02:28,990 --> 01:02:33,192
She would go to the pagodas and
listen to the monks' speeches.

901
01:02:33,194 --> 01:02:36,496
And she was just extremely upset.

902
01:02:37,999 --> 01:02:39,298
She was not alone.

903
01:02:39,300 --> 01:02:42,302
There was a lot of people like her.

904
01:02:42,304 --> 01:02:46,273
American officials urged
Diem and his brother Nhu

905
01:02:46,275 --> 01:02:49,709
to make meaningful
concessions to the Buddhists,

906
01:02:49,711 --> 01:02:51,778
for the sake of maintaining unity

907
01:02:51,780 --> 01:02:54,348
in the struggle against communism.

908
01:02:54,350 --> 01:02:55,849
They refused.

909
01:02:58,554 --> 01:03:03,622
On June 10, 1963, Malcolm
Browne of the Associated Press

910
01:03:03,624 --> 01:03:06,592
received an anonymous tip:

911
01:03:06,594 --> 01:03:09,863
something important was
going to happen the next day

912
01:03:09,865 --> 01:03:13,300
at a major intersection in Saigon.

913
01:03:13,302 --> 01:03:15,102
He took his camera.

914
01:03:22,844 --> 01:03:26,280
To protest the Diem regime's repression,

915
01:03:26,282 --> 01:03:32,519
a 73-year-old monk named
Quang Duc set himself on fire.

916
01:03:50,406 --> 01:03:55,610
As a large, hushed crowd
watched him burn to death,

917
01:03:55,612 --> 01:03:59,081
another monk repeated
over and over again

918
01:03:59,083 --> 01:04:02,117
in English and Vietnamese,

919
01:04:02,119 --> 01:04:05,153
"A Buddhist monk becomes a martyr.

920
01:04:05,155 --> 01:04:07,589
A Buddhist monk becomes a martyr."

921
01:04:14,598 --> 01:04:17,565
I remember they held the ashes

922
01:04:17,567 --> 01:04:20,168
of the monk who burned himself to death

923
01:04:20,170 --> 01:04:23,271
where it was kept in
one of the main pagodas.

924
01:04:23,273 --> 01:04:29,445
And lines of people came to
pass by, and I saw these women,

925
01:04:29,447 --> 01:04:32,548
not rich women, ordinary
Vietnamese women,

926
01:04:32,550 --> 01:04:35,684
take off the one piece of gold
they had on, their wedding ring,

927
01:04:35,686 --> 01:04:40,722
and drop it in the bottle to
contribute to the struggle.

928
01:04:40,724 --> 01:04:44,626
And I thought to myself,
"This regime is over.

929
01:04:44,628 --> 01:04:45,560
It's the end."

930
01:04:49,868 --> 01:04:52,201
Soon other monks would become martyrs.

931
01:04:55,674 --> 01:05:01,310
Fresh outbursts by Madame
Nhu only made things worse.

932
01:05:01,312 --> 01:05:04,814
Burning monks made her
clap her hands, she said.

933
01:05:04,816 --> 01:05:07,416
If more monks wanted to burn themselves,

934
01:05:07,418 --> 01:05:10,619
she would provide the matches.

935
01:05:10,621 --> 01:05:12,655
The only thing they have done,

936
01:05:12,657 --> 01:05:18,428
they have barbecued one of their monks,

937
01:05:18,430 --> 01:05:24,067
whom they have intoxicated, whom
they have abused the confidence.

938
01:05:24,069 --> 01:05:28,537
And even that barbecuing was done

939
01:05:28,539 --> 01:05:30,873
not even with self-sufficient means

940
01:05:30,875 --> 01:05:33,710
because they... they
used imported gasoline.

941
01:05:35,646 --> 01:05:38,347
They thought she was arrogant,

942
01:05:38,349 --> 01:05:39,949
she was power hungry.

943
01:05:39,951 --> 01:05:43,320
They suspected her and her
husband of being corrupt.

944
01:05:43,322 --> 01:05:49,693
Nhu ran the secret police, which
arrested and tortured people.

945
01:05:49,695 --> 01:05:52,963
People feared the Diem regime.

946
01:05:52,965 --> 01:05:56,365
Perhaps more than they feared
it, they really hated it.

947
01:05:58,870 --> 01:06:01,503
Students, including many Catholics,

948
01:06:01,505 --> 01:06:04,006
rallied to the Buddhist cause.

949
01:06:04,008 --> 01:06:07,310
So did some army officers.

950
01:06:07,312 --> 01:06:11,749
People among the military
had to ask the question,

951
01:06:11,751 --> 01:06:15,119
"Can we continue this
kind of situation like that

952
01:06:15,121 --> 01:06:18,622
"when the whole country,
country was almost burning

953
01:06:18,624 --> 01:06:20,323
with the kind of protest
from the Buddhists?"

954
01:06:20,325 --> 01:06:21,225
You see?

955
01:06:25,097 --> 01:06:28,765
I first became aware of Vietnam
because of a burning monk.

956
01:06:31,503 --> 01:06:36,474
We had watched the civil
rights movement in the South

957
01:06:36,476 --> 01:06:39,477
and it had set the standard for us

958
01:06:39,479 --> 01:06:45,883
to stand up against injustice,
allow yourself to be beaten up,

959
01:06:45,885 --> 01:06:48,252
allow yourself to be attacked by a dog

960
01:06:48,254 --> 01:06:50,621
or hit by a police truncheon.

961
01:06:50,623 --> 01:06:52,657
And we had enormous respect

962
01:06:52,659 --> 01:06:55,593
for people who were
willing to go that far.

963
01:07:00,133 --> 01:07:03,234
And then one day in 1963,

964
01:07:03,236 --> 01:07:07,405
we saw on television a
picture of a monk in Saigon.

965
01:07:08,975 --> 01:07:10,975
This was an extraordinary act.

966
01:07:13,579 --> 01:07:16,380
Why was a Buddhist monk burning himself

967
01:07:16,382 --> 01:07:19,017
on the streets of Saigon?

968
01:07:21,922 --> 01:07:24,456
The protests continued.

969
01:07:24,458 --> 01:07:29,428
Tensions between Washington
and Saigon steadily worsened.

970
01:07:29,430 --> 01:07:33,432
The more the Kennedy
Administration demanded change,

971
01:07:33,434 --> 01:07:37,268
the more Diem and his
brother Nhu seemed to resist.

972
01:07:39,139 --> 01:07:41,940
The White House announced
that a new American ambassador,

973
01:07:41,942 --> 01:07:47,212
former senator Henry Cabot
Lodge, was being sent to Saigon,

974
01:07:47,214 --> 01:07:49,748
a man eminent enough,
the president hoped,

975
01:07:49,750 --> 01:07:54,887
to make Diem listen more
closely to American advice.

976
01:07:54,889 --> 01:07:58,724
Diem professed to be unimpressed.

977
01:07:58,726 --> 01:08:01,526
"They can send ten Lodges," he said,

978
01:08:01,528 --> 01:08:05,497
"but I will not let myself
or my country be humiliated,

979
01:08:05,499 --> 01:08:09,368
not if they train their
artillery on this palace."

980
01:08:09,370 --> 01:08:14,005
He did promise the outgoing
ambassador, Frederick Nolting,

981
01:08:14,007 --> 01:08:16,809
that he would take no
further repressive steps

982
01:08:16,811 --> 01:08:18,244
against the Buddhists.

983
01:08:20,181 --> 01:08:25,551
Then, a few minutes after
midnight on August 21, 1963,

984
01:08:25,553 --> 01:08:29,088
with Nolting gone and
Henry Cabot Lodge's arrival

985
01:08:29,090 --> 01:08:32,759
still one day away,
Diem cut the phone lines

986
01:08:32,761 --> 01:08:36,262
of all the senior American
officials in Saigon

987
01:08:36,264 --> 01:08:39,932
and sent hundreds of his Special Forces

988
01:08:39,934 --> 01:08:43,771
storming into Buddhist
pagodas in Saigon, Hue,

989
01:08:43,773 --> 01:08:47,072
and several other
South Vietnamese cities.

990
01:08:47,074 --> 01:08:50,009
Some 1,400 monks and nuns,

991
01:08:50,011 --> 01:08:55,581
students and ordinary citizens
were rounded up and taken away.

992
01:09:03,357 --> 01:09:07,961
Martial law was imposed,
public meetings were forbidden,

993
01:09:07,963 --> 01:09:12,399
troops were authorized to shoot
anyone found on the streets

994
01:09:12,401 --> 01:09:14,200
after 9:00.

995
01:09:14,202 --> 01:09:17,603
Tanks guard a pagoda in Saigon

996
01:09:17,605 --> 01:09:20,373
during South Vietnam's
bafflingly complicated crisis

997
01:09:20,375 --> 01:09:23,410
that has the government
of President Ngo Dinh Diem,

998
01:09:23,412 --> 01:09:27,280
students, and Buddhists, and
the United States government

999
01:09:27,282 --> 01:09:31,017
all trying to guess
one another's next move.

1000
01:09:31,019 --> 01:09:34,922
When college students protested
in support of the monks,

1001
01:09:34,924 --> 01:09:38,625
Diem closed Vietnam's universities.

1002
01:09:38,627 --> 01:09:42,529
High school students then
poured into the streets.

1003
01:09:42,531 --> 01:09:45,132
He shut down all the high schools

1004
01:09:45,134 --> 01:09:46,467
and the grammar schools, too,

1005
01:09:46,469 --> 01:09:49,770
and arrested thousands
of school children,

1006
01:09:49,772 --> 01:09:52,639
including the sons and
daughters of officials

1007
01:09:52,641 --> 01:09:54,842
in his own government.

1008
01:09:54,844 --> 01:09:57,946
I participated in the demonstrations.

1009
01:09:57,948 --> 01:10:04,853
I strongly believed that that
government has to be overthrown

1010
01:10:04,855 --> 01:10:06,988
because it's a dictator government.

1011
01:10:06,990 --> 01:10:09,123
We couldn't stand it anymore

1012
01:10:09,125 --> 01:10:12,927
and this is an opportunity
to rise against it.

1013
01:10:12,929 --> 01:10:16,965
Phan Quang Tue was a
law student that summer.

1014
01:10:16,967 --> 01:10:21,002
His father was a prominent
nationalist whom Diem had jailed

1015
01:10:21,004 --> 01:10:24,338
for calling for greater democracy.

1016
01:10:24,340 --> 01:10:27,842
I was and I'm still a Catholic,

1017
01:10:27,844 --> 01:10:30,211
not a very good Catholic.

1018
01:10:30,213 --> 01:10:32,146
I don't practice religiously.

1019
01:10:32,148 --> 01:10:33,915
But I'm a Catholic.

1020
01:10:35,552 --> 01:10:37,084
I was rightly arrested

1021
01:10:37,086 --> 01:10:40,254
because I did participate
in demonstration.

1022
01:10:40,256 --> 01:10:43,357
And I was interrogated

1023
01:10:43,359 --> 01:10:46,227
and briefly tortured,
beaten a little bit.

1024
01:10:49,800 --> 01:10:52,601
Henry Cabot Lodge took
over as U.S. ambassador

1025
01:10:52,603 --> 01:10:54,202
in the midst of the turmoil.

1026
01:10:54,204 --> 01:10:55,671
And he has reported to have demanded

1027
01:10:55,673 --> 01:10:57,939
that President Diem's
brother Nhu be ousted

1028
01:10:57,941 --> 01:11:00,107
or U.S. aid to Vietnam will be cut.

1029
01:11:03,547 --> 01:11:05,613
In the wake of the pagoda raids,

1030
01:11:05,615 --> 01:11:08,016
a small group of South
Vietnamese generals

1031
01:11:08,018 --> 01:11:11,753
contacted the CIA in Saigon.

1032
01:11:11,755 --> 01:11:15,223
Diem's brother Nhu was
now largely in control

1033
01:11:15,225 --> 01:11:17,325
of the government, they said.

1034
01:11:17,327 --> 01:11:22,097
What would Washington's reaction
be if they mounted a coup?

1035
01:11:22,099 --> 01:11:25,233
President Kennedy and
his senior advisors

1036
01:11:25,235 --> 01:11:30,138
happened to be out of
town, so Roger Hilsman, Jr.,

1037
01:11:30,140 --> 01:11:33,608
assistant secretary of
state for Far Eastern affairs

1038
01:11:33,610 --> 01:11:36,177
and a critic of the Diem regime,

1039
01:11:36,179 --> 01:11:40,248
took it upon himself to draft
a cable with new instructions

1040
01:11:40,250 --> 01:11:43,218
for Ambassador Lodge.

1041
01:11:43,220 --> 01:11:47,189
The U.S. government could no
longer tolerate a situation

1042
01:11:47,191 --> 01:11:51,426
in which power lay in
Nhu's hands, it said.

1043
01:11:51,428 --> 01:11:54,463
Diem should be given a chance
to rid himself of his brother.

1044
01:11:56,100 --> 01:11:59,768
If he refused, Lodge
was to tell the generals,

1045
01:11:59,770 --> 01:12:03,238
"then we must face the
possibility that Diem himself

1046
01:12:03,240 --> 01:12:07,175
cannot be preserved."

1047
01:12:07,177 --> 01:12:10,913
The president was vacationing
at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.

1048
01:12:10,915 --> 01:12:14,817
Undersecretary of State George
Ball read part of the cable

1049
01:12:14,819 --> 01:12:17,987
to him over the phone.

1050
01:12:17,989 --> 01:12:20,322
Since the early 1950s,

1051
01:12:20,324 --> 01:12:22,858
the United States
government had encouraged

1052
01:12:22,860 --> 01:12:28,263
and even orchestrated other Cold
War coups in Iran, Guatemala,

1053
01:12:28,265 --> 01:12:32,869
the Congo, and elsewhere.

1054
01:12:32,871 --> 01:12:36,840
Kennedy decided to
approve Hilsman's cable

1055
01:12:36,842 --> 01:12:40,009
in part because he
thought his top advisors

1056
01:12:40,011 --> 01:12:42,178
had already endorsed it.

1057
01:12:42,180 --> 01:12:45,148
They had not.

1058
01:12:45,150 --> 01:12:50,353
And somehow, because of a cable
that came out from Washington,

1059
01:12:50,355 --> 01:12:53,623
Lodge decided that the
only solution was to get rid

1060
01:12:53,625 --> 01:12:57,394
of not just Ngo Dinh
Nhu, the bad brother,

1061
01:12:57,396 --> 01:13:00,063
but also of Diem himself.

1062
01:13:00,065 --> 01:13:02,166
And that started us
on this whole business

1063
01:13:02,168 --> 01:13:04,968
of promoting a coup.

1064
01:13:04,970 --> 01:13:08,505
And it was not a good idea.

1065
01:13:08,507 --> 01:13:11,074
I just had a feeling
of impending disaster.

1066
01:13:12,444 --> 01:13:15,178
On September 2, 1963,

1067
01:13:15,180 --> 01:13:18,848
Labor Day, Walter Cronkite of CBS News

1068
01:13:18,850 --> 01:13:21,484
interviewed President Kennedy.

1069
01:13:21,486 --> 01:13:25,556
The president used the
opportunity to deliver a message

1070
01:13:25,558 --> 01:13:27,491
to President Diem.

1071
01:13:27,493 --> 01:13:31,228
Mr. President, the only hot war
we've got running at the moment

1072
01:13:31,230 --> 01:13:33,931
is of course the one in Vietnam,

1073
01:13:33,933 --> 01:13:36,867
and we've got our difficulties
there, quite obviously.

1074
01:13:36,869 --> 01:13:41,505
I don't think that unless
a greater effort is made

1075
01:13:41,507 --> 01:13:43,507
by the government to win popular support

1076
01:13:43,509 --> 01:13:44,975
that the war can be won out there.

1077
01:13:44,977 --> 01:13:46,877
In the final analysis, it's their war.

1078
01:13:46,879 --> 01:13:50,781
Hasn't every indication from Saigon been

1079
01:13:50,783 --> 01:13:52,883
that President Diem has no intention

1080
01:13:52,885 --> 01:13:53,884
of changing his pattern?

1081
01:13:53,886 --> 01:13:54,919
If he doesn't change it,

1082
01:13:54,921 --> 01:13:56,921
of course, that's his decision.

1083
01:13:56,923 --> 01:13:58,956
He has been there ten
years and, as I say,

1084
01:13:58,958 --> 01:14:00,358
he has carried this burden

1085
01:14:00,360 --> 01:14:01,759
when he has been counted
out on a number of occasions.

1086
01:14:01,761 --> 01:14:02,893
Our best judgment is

1087
01:14:02,895 --> 01:14:05,430
that he can't be
successful in this basis.

1088
01:14:05,432 --> 01:14:08,099
But I don't agree with those
who say we should withdraw.

1089
01:14:08,101 --> 01:14:09,367
That would be a great mistake.

1090
01:14:09,369 --> 01:14:10,768
That'd be a great mistake.

1091
01:14:10,770 --> 01:14:12,704
I know people don't like
Americans to be engaged

1092
01:14:12,706 --> 01:14:13,804
in this kind of an effort.

1093
01:14:13,806 --> 01:14:16,275
47 Americans have been killed.

1094
01:14:16,277 --> 01:14:18,344
We're in a very

1095
01:14:18,346 --> 01:14:21,179
desperate struggle against
the communist system.

1096
01:14:21,181 --> 01:14:24,482
And I don't want Asia to pass
into the control of the Chinese.

1097
01:14:24,484 --> 01:14:26,718
Do you think that this
government still has time

1098
01:14:26,720 --> 01:14:29,254
to... to regain the
support of the people?

1099
01:14:29,256 --> 01:14:31,289
I do, I do.

1100
01:14:31,291 --> 01:14:34,592
With changes in policy
and perhaps in personnel,

1101
01:14:34,594 --> 01:14:36,261
I think it can.

1102
01:14:36,263 --> 01:14:39,831
If it doesn't make those changes,

1103
01:14:39,833 --> 01:14:41,900
I would think that the
chances of winning it

1104
01:14:41,902 --> 01:14:43,435
would not be very good.

1105
01:14:45,373 --> 01:14:48,274
Despite the cable,
Kennedy and his advisors

1106
01:14:48,276 --> 01:14:51,610
were sharply divided about a coup.

1107
01:14:51,612 --> 01:14:56,982
Robert McNamara, Maxwell Taylor,
Vice President Lyndon Johnson,

1108
01:14:56,984 --> 01:15:01,419
and the head of the CIA
all cautioned against it,

1109
01:15:01,421 --> 01:15:04,890
because, while none of them
especially admired Diem,

1110
01:15:04,892 --> 01:15:09,561
they did not believe there
was any viable alternative.

1111
01:15:09,563 --> 01:15:12,598
Fritz Nolting was called in.

1112
01:15:12,600 --> 01:15:15,168
And he said, "As difficult
as they are to deal with,

1113
01:15:15,170 --> 01:15:20,173
"there is nobody with the
guts and sangfroid in Vietnam

1114
01:15:20,175 --> 01:15:22,041
"of Diem and his brother Nhu.

1115
01:15:22,043 --> 01:15:25,511
"And if we let them
go, we will be saddled

1116
01:15:25,513 --> 01:15:29,415
by a descending cycle
of mediocre generals."

1117
01:15:29,417 --> 01:15:31,251
And he was absolutely correct.

1118
01:15:33,155 --> 01:15:36,022
But several State
Department officials believed

1119
01:15:36,024 --> 01:15:40,893
that without fresh leadership,
South Vietnam could not survive.

1120
01:15:40,895 --> 01:15:44,030
The debate intensified.

1121
01:15:45,333 --> 01:15:47,366
"My God," the president said,

1122
01:15:47,368 --> 01:15:50,736
"my administration is coming apart."

1123
01:15:50,738 --> 01:15:54,140
In the end, Kennedy instructed Lodge

1124
01:15:54,142 --> 01:15:56,609
to tell the renegade generals

1125
01:15:56,611 --> 01:15:59,012
that while the United
States does not wish

1126
01:15:59,014 --> 01:16:02,816
to stimulate a coup, it
would not thwart one either.

1127
01:16:04,453 --> 01:16:07,554
The generals laid their plans.

1128
01:16:13,895 --> 01:16:19,532
On November 1, 1963,
troops loyal to the plotters

1129
01:16:19,534 --> 01:16:21,801
seized key installations in Saigon

1130
01:16:21,803 --> 01:16:25,105
and demanded Diem and Nhu surrender.

1131
01:16:27,877 --> 01:16:30,378
The battle for the city
went on for 18 hours

1132
01:16:30,380 --> 01:16:33,714
and most of it was centered
on the presidential palace.

1133
01:16:33,716 --> 01:16:37,050
Just after 6:30 in the morning
Saturday, the shooting ceased.

1134
01:16:46,227 --> 01:16:51,499
Diem and Nhu escaped,
took sanctuary in a church,

1135
01:16:51,501 --> 01:16:54,635
and agreed to surrender
to the rebels in exchange

1136
01:16:54,637 --> 01:16:58,439
for the promise of safe
passage out of the country.

1137
01:16:58,441 --> 01:17:01,942
They were picked up in an
armored personnel carrier...

1138
01:17:03,946 --> 01:17:08,081
And murdered soon after
they climbed inside.

1139
01:17:12,822 --> 01:17:16,357
Madame Nhu survived the coup.

1140
01:17:16,359 --> 01:17:19,428
She was on a goodwill
tour in the United States.

1141
01:17:24,901 --> 01:17:27,468
The system was overthrown on November 1.

1142
01:17:27,470 --> 01:17:30,238
I was released November 4.

1143
01:17:30,240 --> 01:17:36,210
And it was the most exciting
moment in the life of Saigon.

1144
01:17:38,248 --> 01:17:43,652
The excitement, you
could feel it in the air.

1145
01:17:43,654 --> 01:17:48,157
I was thinking that,
yeah, it's a good thing.

1146
01:17:48,159 --> 01:17:51,826
Diem was making it
impossible to win the war

1147
01:17:51,828 --> 01:17:55,396
because people were so against him

1148
01:17:55,398 --> 01:17:59,700
that the war would be
lost if he stayed in power.

1149
01:18:01,504 --> 01:18:03,737
My father was a bit worried

1150
01:18:03,739 --> 01:18:05,574
because he didn't know who
was going to replace Diem.

1151
01:18:08,579 --> 01:18:11,213
Ambassador Lodge reported to Washington

1152
01:18:11,215 --> 01:18:15,817
that "every Vietnamese has
a smile on his face today."

1153
01:18:15,819 --> 01:18:19,554
"The prospects are now for
a shorter war," he said,

1154
01:18:19,556 --> 01:18:22,524
"provided the generals stay together.

1155
01:18:22,526 --> 01:18:25,327
"Certainly officers and soldiers

1156
01:18:25,329 --> 01:18:28,563
who can pull off an operation
like this," he continued,

1157
01:18:28,565 --> 01:18:31,934
"should be able to do very
well on the battlefield

1158
01:18:31,936 --> 01:18:34,269
if their hearts are in it."

1159
01:18:37,341 --> 01:18:40,510
President Kennedy was not so sure.

1160
01:18:40,512 --> 01:18:44,914
He was appalled that Diem
and Nhu had been killed.

1161
01:18:44,916 --> 01:18:48,584
Three days later, he dictated
his own rueful account

1162
01:18:48,586 --> 01:18:52,488
of the coup and his
concerns for the future.

1163
01:18:54,225 --> 01:18:58,194
Monday, November 4, 1963.

1164
01:18:58,196 --> 01:19:01,196
Over the weekend the
coup in Saigon took place.

1165
01:19:01,198 --> 01:19:04,099
It culminated three
months of conversation,

1166
01:19:04,101 --> 01:19:09,405
which divided the government
here and in Saigon.

1167
01:19:09,407 --> 01:19:14,544
I feel that we must bear a good
deal of responsibility for it,

1168
01:19:14,546 --> 01:19:17,580
beginning with our cable of August

1169
01:19:17,582 --> 01:19:20,315
in which we suggested the coup.

1170
01:19:20,317 --> 01:19:23,153
I should not have given my consent to it

1171
01:19:23,155 --> 01:19:25,321
without a roundtable conference.

1172
01:19:27,526 --> 01:19:33,030
I was shocked by the
death of Diem and Nhu.

1173
01:19:33,032 --> 01:19:37,232
The way he was killed made
it particularly abhorrent.

1174
01:19:37,234 --> 01:19:39,802
The question now is whether
the generals can stay together

1175
01:19:39,804 --> 01:19:43,773
and build a stable government or
whether public opinion in Saigon

1176
01:19:43,775 --> 01:19:47,477
will turn on this government
as repressive and undemocratic

1177
01:19:47,479 --> 01:19:49,279
in the not-too-distant future.

1178
01:19:54,453 --> 01:19:56,787
Kennedy would not live to see the answer

1179
01:19:56,789 --> 01:19:59,422
to the question he had asked.

1180
01:19:59,424 --> 01:20:03,961
He was murdered in Dallas 18 days later.

1181
01:20:03,963 --> 01:20:08,966
There were now 16,000 American
advisors in South Vietnam.

1182
01:20:08,968 --> 01:20:14,405
Their fate and the fate of
that embattled country rested

1183
01:20:14,407 --> 01:20:19,643
with another American
president, Lyndon Baines Johnson.

1184
01:20:37,163 --> 01:20:39,297
We thought we were the
exceptions to history,

1185
01:20:39,299 --> 01:20:40,865
we Americans.

1186
01:20:40,867 --> 01:20:43,602
History didn't apply to us.

1187
01:20:43,604 --> 01:20:45,836
We could never fight a bad war.

1188
01:20:45,838 --> 01:20:47,838
We could never represent
the wrong cause.

1189
01:20:47,840 --> 01:20:48,839
We were Americans.

1190
01:20:50,176 --> 01:20:51,509
Well, in Vietnam it proved

1191
01:20:51,511 --> 01:20:53,877
that we were not an
exception to history.