1 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:10,000 - Original file by KamikazeDude - - Resynced by Ornlu Wofljarl - 2 00:00:21,500 --> 00:00:23,841 JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: Well, I wanted to name him after his dad, 3 00:00:23,865 --> 00:00:26,666 Denton Winslow Crocker. 4 00:00:26,766 --> 00:00:30,399 So that was the name we chose. 5 00:00:30,500 --> 00:00:32,766 He was a colicky little baby. 6 00:00:32,865 --> 00:00:36,766 And, uh, so we were up night and day with him. 7 00:00:36,865 --> 00:00:40,132 And my husband was a wonderful dad 8 00:00:40,233 --> 00:00:42,399 and very loving and attentive. 9 00:00:42,500 --> 00:00:44,365 He'd walk the floor with him. 10 00:00:44,465 --> 00:00:48,266 And then he said one day, "He's a regular little mogul 11 00:00:48,365 --> 00:00:51,399 the way he rules our lives." 12 00:00:51,500 --> 00:00:53,700 So that's where the name came from. 13 00:00:53,799 --> 00:00:55,266 We called him Mogie. 14 00:00:55,365 --> 00:00:59,965 NARRATOR: Mogie Crocker was born June 3, 1947, 15 00:01:00,065 --> 00:01:02,433 the oldest of four children. 16 00:01:02,532 --> 00:01:04,333 His father was a biology teacher, 17 00:01:04,433 --> 00:01:07,565 and Mogie was raised in college towns: 18 00:01:07,666 --> 00:01:11,965 Ithaca, Amherst, and finally Saratoga Springs, 19 00:01:12,066 --> 00:01:16,766 to which the family moved in 1960, when he was 13. 20 00:01:16,865 --> 00:01:20,732 My mother read books to all of us. 21 00:01:20,833 --> 00:01:23,065 My brother was definitely the one 22 00:01:23,166 --> 00:01:25,833 who probably gravitated towards them more than I did. 23 00:01:25,933 --> 00:01:28,032 He really feasted on books. 24 00:01:28,132 --> 00:01:30,865 NARRATOR: Mogie was an unusual boy. 25 00:01:30,965 --> 00:01:34,333 Intelligent, independent-minded, and too nearsighted 26 00:01:34,433 --> 00:01:36,465 to do well at team sports, 27 00:01:36,565 --> 00:01:40,433 he loved books about American history and American heroes. 28 00:01:40,532 --> 00:01:42,865 At 12, he started a diary 29 00:01:42,965 --> 00:01:46,100 in which he kept track of Cold War events. 30 00:01:46,200 --> 00:01:48,465 "l hate Reds!" he wrote, 31 00:01:48,565 --> 00:01:51,233 and he admired most those who had proved willing 32 00:01:51,333 --> 00:01:55,166 to sacrifice themselves for a cause. 33 00:01:55,266 --> 00:01:58,166 President John F. Kennedy's call for every American 34 00:01:58,266 --> 00:02:01,965 to ask what he or she could do for their country 35 00:02:02,065 --> 00:02:06,632 had mirrored ideas he'd held since he was a small boy. 36 00:02:06,733 --> 00:02:09,733 One evening when I was reading to Denton 37 00:02:09,833 --> 00:02:15,632 before he went to sleep, I chose a passage fromHenry V, 38 00:02:15,732 --> 00:02:21,000 which is, "He today that sheds his blood with me 39 00:02:21,100 --> 00:02:23,232 "shall be my brother. 40 00:02:23,333 --> 00:02:28,166 "And gentlemen in England now a-bed 41 00:02:28,265 --> 00:02:30,765 "shall think themselves accurs'd 42 00:02:30,865 --> 00:02:35,000 "they were not here and hold their manhood cheap 43 00:02:35,099 --> 00:02:40,000 while any speaks that fought with us upon St. Crispin's Day." 44 00:02:41,399 --> 00:02:44,766 DYLAN: ? If another war comes... 45 00:02:44,865 --> 00:02:47,200 JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: I think that it was that sort of thing 46 00:02:47,300 --> 00:02:49,166 that made Denton want to be 47 00:02:49,266 --> 00:02:54,800 part of something important and brave. 48 00:02:54,899 --> 00:02:57,899 DYLAN: ? With God on their side. 49 00:03:11,032 --> 00:03:13,741 LYNDON JOHNSON: I just stayed awake last night thinking about this thing. 50 00:03:13,765 --> 00:03:17,365 The more I think of it, I don't know what in the hell... 51 00:03:17,466 --> 00:03:19,765 it looks like to me we're getting into another Korea. 52 00:03:19,865 --> 00:03:21,565 It just worries the hell out of me. 53 00:03:21,666 --> 00:03:24,233 I don't see what we can ever hope to get out of there with 54 00:03:24,332 --> 00:03:25,500 once we're committed. 55 00:03:25,599 --> 00:03:27,632 I don't think it's worth fighting for 56 00:03:27,733 --> 00:03:29,166 and I don't think we can get out. 57 00:03:29,265 --> 00:03:30,909 And it's just the biggest damn mess I ever saw. 58 00:03:30,933 --> 00:03:32,541 McGEORGE BUNDY: It is, it's an awful mess. 59 00:03:32,565 --> 00:03:35,399 JOHNSON: I just thought about ordering those kids in there, 60 00:03:35,500 --> 00:03:37,209 and what in the hell am I ordering them out there for? 61 00:03:37,233 --> 00:03:38,676 BUNDY: One thing that has occurred to me... 62 00:03:38,700 --> 00:03:40,176 JOHNSON: What the hell is Vietnam worth to me? 63 00:03:40,200 --> 00:03:41,832 What is it worth to this country? 64 00:03:41,933 --> 00:03:43,300 BUNDY: Yeah, yeah. 65 00:03:43,399 --> 00:03:45,608 JOHNSON: Now, of course, if you start running the communists, 66 00:03:45,632 --> 00:03:47,608 they may just chase you right into your own kitchen. 67 00:03:47,632 --> 00:03:50,233 BUNDY: Yeah. That's the trouble. 68 00:03:50,332 --> 00:03:53,200 And that is what the rest of that half of the world 69 00:03:53,300 --> 00:03:56,733 is going to think if this thing comes apart on us. 70 00:03:56,832 --> 00:03:58,341 LYNDON JOHNSON: It's damned easy to get in a war, 71 00:03:58,365 --> 00:04:00,075 but it's going to be awfully hard to ever extricate yourself 72 00:04:00,099 --> 00:04:01,132 if you get in. 73 00:04:01,233 --> 00:04:02,599 BUNDY: It's very easy... 74 00:04:02,700 --> 00:04:04,209 JOHNSON: I'd like to hear Walter and McNamara to evaluate this thing. 75 00:04:04,233 --> 00:04:05,233 BUNDY: To debate it? 76 00:04:05,266 --> 00:04:06,532 JOHNSON: Yeah. 77 00:04:06,632 --> 00:04:08,392 BUNDY: All right, what's a possible time...? 78 00:04:10,032 --> 00:04:13,099 NARRATOR: Tragedy had brought Lyndon Johnson to the presidency 79 00:04:13,200 --> 00:04:16,332 in November of 1963. 80 00:04:16,433 --> 00:04:19,099 And he would not feel himself fully in charge 81 00:04:19,200 --> 00:04:23,099 until he had faced the voters the following year. 82 00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:26,565 But his ambitions for his country were as great 83 00:04:26,666 --> 00:04:29,966 as those of his hero, Franklin Roosevelt. 84 00:04:30,065 --> 00:04:32,032 During his years in the White House, 85 00:04:32,132 --> 00:04:34,332 he would lead the struggle to win passage 86 00:04:34,433 --> 00:04:38,500 of more than 200 important pieces of legislation... 87 00:04:38,599 --> 00:04:44,065 the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 88 00:04:44,166 --> 00:04:48,532 federal aid to education, Head Start, Medicare, 89 00:04:48,632 --> 00:04:51,832 and a whole series of bills aimed at ending poverty 90 00:04:51,933 --> 00:04:54,966 in America, all intended to create 91 00:04:55,065 --> 00:04:57,865 what he called "The Great Society." 92 00:04:57,966 --> 00:05:02,632 In foreign affairs, Johnson was less self-assured. 93 00:05:02,733 --> 00:05:04,899 "Foreigners are not like the folks I'm used to," 94 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:06,599 He once said. 95 00:05:06,700 --> 00:05:09,300 To deal with them, he retained in office 96 00:05:09,399 --> 00:05:12,099 all of John Kennedy's top advisors... 97 00:05:12,200 --> 00:05:14,233 Dean Rusk at State, 98 00:05:14,332 --> 00:05:16,800 Robert McNamara at Defense, 99 00:05:16,899 --> 00:05:20,832 McGeorge Bundy as his National Security Advisor. 100 00:05:20,933 --> 00:05:26,099 "l need you," he told them, more than his predecessor had. 101 00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:27,899 Publicly, Johnson pledged 102 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:30,399 that "This nation will keep its commitments 103 00:05:30,500 --> 00:05:33,565 from South Vietnam to West Berlin." 104 00:05:33,666 --> 00:05:37,265 But privately, Vietnam filled him with dread. 105 00:05:37,365 --> 00:05:39,733 "lt's going to be hell in a handbasket out there," 106 00:05:39,832 --> 00:05:42,532 His ambassador told him. 107 00:05:42,632 --> 00:05:45,832 "l want the South Vietnamese to get off their butts 108 00:05:45,933 --> 00:05:47,599 "and get out into those jungles 109 00:05:47,700 --> 00:05:51,899 and whip the hell out of some communists," the president said. 110 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:54,700 "And then I want 'em to leave me alone, 111 00:05:54,800 --> 00:05:56,865 "because I've got some bigger things to do 112 00:05:56,966 --> 00:05:59,000 right here at home." 113 00:06:00,832 --> 00:06:04,032 Johnson had opposed the military coup that had overthrown 114 00:06:04,132 --> 00:06:08,300 and murdered South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem, 115 00:06:08,399 --> 00:06:11,865 fearing it would make a bad situation worse. 116 00:06:13,565 --> 00:06:15,166 It had. 117 00:06:19,466 --> 00:06:24,132 The National Liberation Front... the Viet Cong... 118 00:06:24,233 --> 00:06:27,300 was making coordinated attacks throughout the countryside, 119 00:06:27,399 --> 00:06:30,832 some 400 of them in just two weeks. 120 00:06:55,400 --> 00:06:58,565 NARRATOR: An estimated 40% of the South Vietnamese countryside, 121 00:06:58,666 --> 00:07:01,200 and more than 50% of the people, 122 00:07:01,300 --> 00:07:05,132 were effectively in the hands of the Viet Cong. 123 00:07:05,233 --> 00:07:08,965 And the Vietnamese generals who had overthrown Ngo Dinh Diem 124 00:07:09,065 --> 00:07:12,666 were bickering among themselves. 125 00:07:12,766 --> 00:07:15,800 The assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem set in motion 126 00:07:15,900 --> 00:07:17,833 a series of coups. 127 00:07:17,932 --> 00:07:22,166 Each government was less effective than the one before. 128 00:07:22,266 --> 00:07:25,666 NARRATOR: In January 1964, 129 00:07:25,766 --> 00:07:27,300 with U.S. encouragement, 130 00:07:27,400 --> 00:07:32,065 General Nguyen Khanh staged yet another coup. 131 00:07:32,166 --> 00:07:36,800 In March, Johnson sent McNamara to Vietnam with instructions 132 00:07:36,900 --> 00:07:40,233 to show the people that Khanh was "our boy." 133 00:07:42,132 --> 00:07:45,499 SAM WILSON: Johnson said, "Let's get him out and get him speaking to people, 134 00:07:45,599 --> 00:07:49,166 "and let McNamara go with him as well 135 00:07:49,266 --> 00:07:51,700 "so that people can see that the United States 136 00:07:51,800 --> 00:07:52,965 is solidly behind this man." 137 00:07:53,065 --> 00:07:56,333 We fully support the people of South Vietnam. 138 00:08:08,266 --> 00:08:14,900 When Khanh gave a tedious, long, laborious speech ending up with, 139 00:08:17,833 --> 00:08:19,400 Vietnam a thousand years." 140 00:08:19,499 --> 00:08:22,766 McNamara leaned over to the microphone and said... 141 00:08:30,965 --> 00:08:32,209 [McNamara attempting to repeat Vietnamese phrase] 142 00:08:32,233 --> 00:08:33,742 What he was saying was something like, 143 00:08:33,766 --> 00:08:37,300 "The little duck, he wants to lie down." 144 00:08:38,700 --> 00:08:41,932 WILSON: He wasn't aware of the tonal difference. 145 00:08:42,032 --> 00:08:47,400 And McNamara grabbed one fist and held them up. 146 00:08:47,499 --> 00:08:48,733 And the crowd practically 147 00:08:48,833 --> 00:08:50,932 disintegrated on the cobblestones. 148 00:08:53,065 --> 00:08:54,800 NARRATOR: "No more of this coup shit," 149 00:08:54,900 --> 00:08:57,465 President Johnson told his advisors. 150 00:08:57,565 --> 00:09:01,499 But Khanh, too, lacked popular legitimacy, 151 00:09:01,599 --> 00:09:05,166 and other generals continued to jockey for power. 152 00:09:05,266 --> 00:09:08,733 Washington turned a deaf ear to Buddhist calls 153 00:09:08,833 --> 00:09:11,365 for the genuinely representative government 154 00:09:11,465 --> 00:09:15,300 they'd hoped they'd get when Diem was overthrown. 155 00:09:15,400 --> 00:09:20,733 Between January 1964 and June of 1965, 156 00:09:20,833 --> 00:09:24,700 there would be eight different governments. 157 00:09:24,800 --> 00:09:27,266 All of their leaders were so close to the Americans 158 00:09:27,366 --> 00:09:29,866 that they were seen as puppets. 159 00:09:31,800 --> 00:09:33,866 One weary Johnson aide suggested 160 00:09:33,965 --> 00:09:36,733 that the national symbol of South Vietnam 161 00:09:36,833 --> 00:09:38,632 should be a turnstile. 162 00:09:38,733 --> 00:09:41,666 MURRAY FROMSON: These demonstrating students seem to symbolize 163 00:09:41,766 --> 00:09:45,599 the kind of anarchy that is descending on Saigon these days. 164 00:09:45,700 --> 00:09:48,166 This kind of political backbiting is having 165 00:09:48,266 --> 00:09:50,365 serious consequences in the countryside, 166 00:09:50,465 --> 00:09:52,666 for until a strong government begins to function 167 00:09:52,766 --> 00:09:54,166 here in Saigon, 168 00:09:54,266 --> 00:09:56,565 the war against the communists will continue to founder. 169 00:10:34,932 --> 00:10:39,132 NARRATOR: Ho Chi Minh was still a beloved figure in North Vietnam, 170 00:10:39,233 --> 00:10:42,965 still concerned that his country remained fragile, 171 00:10:43,065 --> 00:10:46,499 still wary that stepping up the conflict in the South 172 00:10:46,599 --> 00:10:50,700 might force the Americans to take a still more active role. 173 00:10:50,800 --> 00:10:55,999 But Ho now shared power with younger, more impatient leaders. 174 00:10:56,099 --> 00:10:59,999 There had been change and turmoil in North Vietnam, too, 175 00:11:00,099 --> 00:11:03,532 just as there had been in Saigon and Washington, 176 00:11:03,632 --> 00:11:06,532 though Americans knew almost nothing about it. 177 00:11:21,833 --> 00:11:24,465 NARRATOR: At the Ninth Party Plenum that began in Hanoi 178 00:11:24,565 --> 00:11:27,965 on November 22, 1963, 179 00:11:28,065 --> 00:11:30,965 the day President Kennedy was killed in Dallas, 180 00:11:31,065 --> 00:11:36,032 the Politburo had argued over how best to proceed in the war. 181 00:11:36,132 --> 00:11:39,499 North Vietnam's two communist patrons, 182 00:11:39,599 --> 00:11:45,166 the Soviet Union and China, were giving them conflicting advice. 183 00:11:59,932 --> 00:12:02,700 NARRATOR: In two weeks of sometimes bitter debate, 184 00:12:02,800 --> 00:12:05,632 Ho Chi Minh, who favored the Soviet strategy, 185 00:12:05,733 --> 00:12:09,499 was outmaneuvered by party First Secretary Le Duan, 186 00:12:09,599 --> 00:12:13,065 who sided with the Chinese. 187 00:12:32,900 --> 00:12:36,032 NARRATOR: Le Duan believed that with Diem gone, 188 00:12:36,132 --> 00:12:38,333 and the Saigon government in disarray, 189 00:12:38,432 --> 00:12:42,833 it was time to move quickly in 1964. 190 00:12:42,932 --> 00:12:48,032 He proposed a two-phase plan for victory in South Vietnam. 191 00:12:48,132 --> 00:12:50,766 The first phase would destroy ARVN forces 192 00:12:50,865 --> 00:12:53,632 through big, "decisive battles"; 193 00:12:53,733 --> 00:12:57,432 The second, an attack on the cities, Le Duan believed, 194 00:12:57,532 --> 00:13:01,333 would then set off popular revolts within them. 195 00:13:01,432 --> 00:13:03,465 Party leaders and others 196 00:13:03,565 --> 00:13:06,065 suspected of having opposed the plan 197 00:13:06,166 --> 00:13:09,465 were denounced as "revisionists," demoted, 198 00:13:09,565 --> 00:13:11,866 dismissed, imprisoned. 199 00:13:11,965 --> 00:13:15,532 Hundreds were sent to "re-education camps." 200 00:13:15,632 --> 00:13:20,632 "Uncle Ho wavers," Le Duan said, "but I have only one goal... 201 00:13:20,733 --> 00:13:22,499 final victory." 202 00:13:24,965 --> 00:13:26,666 WOMAN: Secretary McNamara on line 0. 203 00:13:26,766 --> 00:13:27,800 JOHNSON: Bob? 204 00:13:27,900 --> 00:13:29,400 McNAMARA: Yes, Mr. President? 205 00:13:29,499 --> 00:13:30,908 JOHNSON: I hate to bother you, but... 206 00:13:30,932 --> 00:13:31,833 McNAMARA: No trouble at all. 207 00:13:31,932 --> 00:13:33,599 JOHNSON: Tell me, have we got anybody 208 00:13:33,700 --> 00:13:36,565 that's got a military mind that can give us some military plans 209 00:13:36,666 --> 00:13:38,233 for winning that war? 210 00:13:38,333 --> 00:13:40,300 Let's get some more of something, my friend, 211 00:13:40,400 --> 00:13:41,908 because I'm going to have a heart attack 212 00:13:41,932 --> 00:13:43,108 if you don't get me something. 213 00:13:43,132 --> 00:13:45,233 We need somebody over there that can get us 214 00:13:45,333 --> 00:13:46,700 some better plans than we got, 215 00:13:46,800 --> 00:13:49,733 because what we got is what we've had since '54. 216 00:13:49,833 --> 00:13:51,333 We're not getting it done. 217 00:13:51,432 --> 00:13:52,833 We're-we're losing. 218 00:13:52,932 --> 00:13:54,932 McNAMARA: Well, it's one reason I want to go back. 219 00:13:55,032 --> 00:13:56,309 Kick 'em in the tail a little bit 220 00:13:56,333 --> 00:13:57,408 will help here at this point. 221 00:13:57,432 --> 00:13:58,465 JOHNSON: Yeah. 222 00:13:58,565 --> 00:14:00,800 What I want is somebody to lay up some plans 223 00:14:00,900 --> 00:14:03,865 to trap these guys and whup hell out of 'em. 224 00:14:03,965 --> 00:14:05,132 Kill some of 'em. 225 00:14:05,233 --> 00:14:06,800 That's what I want to do. 226 00:14:06,900 --> 00:14:08,900 McNAMARA: I'll try and bring something back 227 00:14:08,999 --> 00:14:10,008 that will meet that objective. 228 00:14:10,032 --> 00:14:11,365 JOHNSON: Okay, Bob. 229 00:14:11,465 --> 00:14:12,499 McNAMARA: Thank you. 230 00:14:15,266 --> 00:14:18,132 NARRATOR: When his counselors urged him to do so, 231 00:14:18,233 --> 00:14:22,432 Johnson increased the number of American military personnel 232 00:14:22,532 --> 00:14:27,465 from 16,000 to more than 23,000 by the end of the year. 233 00:14:27,565 --> 00:14:30,599 But he wanted his own team in Saigon. 234 00:14:30,700 --> 00:14:33,132 He replaced Henry Cabot Lodge, 235 00:14:33,233 --> 00:14:36,766 making General Maxwell Taylor his ambassador, 236 00:14:36,866 --> 00:14:41,565 and selected 49-year-old General William Westmoreland, 237 00:14:41,666 --> 00:14:45,400 a decorated commander from WWll and Korea, 238 00:14:45,499 --> 00:14:48,365 to lead the American military effort. 239 00:14:48,465 --> 00:14:52,700 The president hoped to force Hanoi to abandon its support 240 00:14:52,800 --> 00:14:54,865 for the guerrilla struggle in the South 241 00:14:54,965 --> 00:14:58,865 by gradually escalating military pressure. 242 00:14:58,965 --> 00:15:03,499 He authorized American pilots to bomb North Vietnamese troops 243 00:15:03,599 --> 00:15:08,200 and installations in the neighboring country of Laos. 244 00:15:08,300 --> 00:15:10,132 And he directed the military 245 00:15:10,233 --> 00:15:12,400 to oversee South Vietnamese shelling 246 00:15:12,499 --> 00:15:18,033 of North Vietnamese islands and raids on coastal bases. 247 00:15:18,132 --> 00:15:21,632 All of it was to be conducted in secret. 248 00:15:21,732 --> 00:15:24,333 The American people were not to be told. 249 00:15:24,432 --> 00:15:27,632 It was an election year. 250 00:15:27,732 --> 00:15:31,400 Meanwhile, the Joint Chiefs of Staff felt strongly 251 00:15:31,499 --> 00:15:33,065 that the United States was fighting 252 00:15:33,165 --> 00:15:34,865 on the enemy's terms 253 00:15:34,966 --> 00:15:38,766 and urged far more drastic and dramatic action... 254 00:15:38,865 --> 00:15:43,132 air strikes against "critical targets" in North Vietnam itself 255 00:15:43,232 --> 00:15:47,432 and the deployment of U.S. forces in South Vietnam... 256 00:15:47,533 --> 00:15:49,365 boots on the ground. 257 00:15:49,466 --> 00:15:53,632 Johnson refused, fearing that such aggressive moves 258 00:15:53,732 --> 00:15:55,900 would pull China into the conflict 259 00:15:55,999 --> 00:16:00,900 just as it had entered the Korean War in 1950. 260 00:16:01,900 --> 00:16:03,076 JOHNSON: They say get in or get out. 261 00:16:03,100 --> 00:16:03,966 McGEORGE BUNDY: Yeah. 262 00:16:04,065 --> 00:16:05,333 JOHNSON: And I told them, 263 00:16:05,432 --> 00:16:07,533 we haven't got any Congress that will go with us, 264 00:16:07,632 --> 00:16:09,932 and we haven't got any mothers that will go with us 265 00:16:10,033 --> 00:16:11,966 in the war, and I got to win an election 266 00:16:12,065 --> 00:16:16,033 and then you can make a decision. 267 00:16:18,232 --> 00:16:19,908 NARRATOR: Polls showed him with a commanding lead 268 00:16:19,932 --> 00:16:22,033 over his likely Republican opponent, 269 00:16:22,132 --> 00:16:25,766 Senator Barry F. Goldwater of Arizona, 270 00:16:25,865 --> 00:16:29,533 a blunt, uncompromising critic of what he charged 271 00:16:29,632 --> 00:16:31,700 was the administration's weakness 272 00:16:31,799 --> 00:16:34,400 in the face of communist aggression. 273 00:16:34,499 --> 00:16:36,739 BARRY GOLDWATER: Why does he put off facing the question 274 00:16:36,766 --> 00:16:39,732 of what to do about Vietnam? 275 00:16:39,833 --> 00:16:42,966 Does he hope that he can wait until after the election 276 00:16:43,065 --> 00:16:45,565 to confront the American public with the... 277 00:16:45,665 --> 00:16:49,065 BILL EHRHART: Here were these communists who were overrunning Southeast Asia 278 00:16:49,165 --> 00:16:52,333 and Johnson's doing nothing about it. 279 00:16:52,432 --> 00:16:53,600 My opponent has not told you 280 00:16:53,700 --> 00:16:55,242 what he plans to do about the Cold War. 281 00:16:55,266 --> 00:16:58,499 I rode around the back of a flatbed truck in Perkasie 282 00:16:58,600 --> 00:17:00,432 with a bunch of my classmates 283 00:17:00,533 --> 00:17:02,799 singing Barry Goldwater campaign songs 284 00:17:02,900 --> 00:17:06,132 because Lyndon Johnson was not tough enough 285 00:17:06,232 --> 00:17:07,865 on those communists. 286 00:17:10,232 --> 00:17:13,365 NARRATOR: Johnson felt he did not yet have the political capital 287 00:17:13,466 --> 00:17:18,065 to take further action in Vietnam, but he asked his aide, 288 00:17:18,165 --> 00:17:21,900 William Bundy, to draft a congressional resolution 289 00:17:21,999 --> 00:17:25,033 authorizing him to use force if needed 290 00:17:25,132 --> 00:17:28,432 to be sent to Capitol Hill when the time was right. 291 00:17:32,232 --> 00:17:36,565 On July 30, 1964, South Vietnamese ships 292 00:17:36,665 --> 00:17:39,299 under the direction of the U.S. military 293 00:17:39,400 --> 00:17:44,533 shelled two North Vietnamese islands in the Gulf of Tonkin. 294 00:17:44,632 --> 00:17:49,533 The tiny North Vietnamese Navy was put on high alert. 295 00:17:49,632 --> 00:17:52,600 What followed was one of the most controversial 296 00:17:52,700 --> 00:17:56,100 and consequential events in American history. 297 00:17:56,200 --> 00:17:58,966 On the afternoon of August 2, 298 00:17:59,065 --> 00:18:02,565 the destroyerU.S.S. Maddox was moving slowly 299 00:18:02,665 --> 00:18:04,966 through international waters in the gulf 300 00:18:05,065 --> 00:18:08,799 on an intelligence-gathering mission in support 301 00:18:08,900 --> 00:18:12,766 of further South Vietnamese action against the North. 302 00:18:12,865 --> 00:18:17,165 The commander of a North Vietnamese torpedo-boat squadron 303 00:18:17,266 --> 00:18:19,833 moved to attack theMaddox. 304 00:18:19,932 --> 00:18:24,799 The Americans opened fire and missed. 305 00:18:24,900 --> 00:18:28,766 North Vietnamese torpedoes also missed. 306 00:18:28,865 --> 00:18:32,632 But carrier-based U.S. planes damaged 307 00:18:32,732 --> 00:18:34,700 two of the North Vietnamese boats 308 00:18:34,799 --> 00:18:37,799 and left a third dead in the water. 309 00:18:37,900 --> 00:18:42,232 Ho Chi Minh was shocked to hear of his navy's attack 310 00:18:42,333 --> 00:18:45,799 and demanded to know who had ordered it. 311 00:18:45,900 --> 00:18:48,533 The officer on duty was officially reprimanded 312 00:18:48,632 --> 00:18:50,533 for impulsiveness. 313 00:18:50,632 --> 00:18:55,232 No one may ever know who gave the order to attack. 314 00:18:55,333 --> 00:18:59,299 To this day, even the Vietnamese cannot agree. 315 00:18:59,400 --> 00:19:03,132 But some believe it was Le Duan. 316 00:19:48,466 --> 00:19:49,626 NARRATOR: Back in Washington, 317 00:19:49,665 --> 00:19:52,632 the Joint Chiefs urged immediate retaliation 318 00:19:52,732 --> 00:19:54,499 against North Vietnam. 319 00:19:54,600 --> 00:19:57,333 The president refused. 320 00:19:57,432 --> 00:19:59,900 Instead, the White House issued a warning 321 00:19:59,999 --> 00:20:02,999 about the "grave consequences" that would follow 322 00:20:03,100 --> 00:20:06,799 what it called "any further unprovoked" attacks... 323 00:20:06,900 --> 00:20:10,999 even though Johnson knew the attack had been provoked 324 00:20:11,100 --> 00:20:15,799 by the South Vietnamese raids on North Vietnam's islands. 325 00:20:15,900 --> 00:20:19,700 Both sides were playing a dangerous game. 326 00:20:19,799 --> 00:20:25,700 On August 4, American radio operators mistranslated 327 00:20:25,799 --> 00:20:27,466 North Vietnamese radio traffic 328 00:20:27,565 --> 00:20:33,333 and concluded a new military operation was imminent. 329 00:20:33,432 --> 00:20:35,499 Actually, Hanoi had simply called upon 330 00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:39,665 torpedo boat commanders to be ready for a new raid 331 00:20:39,766 --> 00:20:42,132 by the South Vietnamese. 332 00:20:42,232 --> 00:20:46,833 TheMad dox and another destroyer, theTurner Joy, 333 00:20:46,932 --> 00:20:49,932 braced for a fresh attack. 334 00:20:50,033 --> 00:20:51,665 So did the White House. 335 00:20:51,766 --> 00:20:53,365 LYNDON JOHNSON: Go ahead, Mac. 336 00:20:53,466 --> 00:20:55,932 McNAMARA: I-l personally would recommend to you, 337 00:20:56,033 --> 00:20:57,900 after a second attack on our ships, 338 00:20:57,999 --> 00:21:01,799 that we do retaliate against the coast of North Vietnam 339 00:21:01,900 --> 00:21:03,365 some way or other... 340 00:21:03,466 --> 00:21:06,966 JOHNSON: What I was thinking about when I was eating breakfast: 341 00:21:07,065 --> 00:21:09,833 When they move on us and they shoot at us, 342 00:21:09,932 --> 00:21:11,576 I think we not only ought to shoot at them, 343 00:21:11,600 --> 00:21:13,966 but almost simultaneously pull one of these things 344 00:21:14,065 --> 00:21:16,108 that you've been doing on one of their bridges or something. 345 00:21:16,132 --> 00:21:17,232 McNAMARA: Exactly. 346 00:21:17,333 --> 00:21:18,999 I quite agree with you, Mr. President. 347 00:21:19,100 --> 00:21:20,742 JOHNSON: But I wish we could have something 348 00:21:20,766 --> 00:21:22,600 that we've already picked out, 349 00:21:22,700 --> 00:21:26,165 and just hit about three of them damn quick, right after. 350 00:21:26,266 --> 00:21:29,600 NARRATOR: No second attack ever happened, 351 00:21:29,700 --> 00:21:33,833 but at the time, anxious American sonar operators 352 00:21:33,932 --> 00:21:38,632 aboard theMaddo x andTurner Joy convinced themselves one had. 353 00:21:38,732 --> 00:21:43,365 The attack was probable but not certain, Johnson was told, 354 00:21:43,466 --> 00:21:46,466 and since it had probably occurred, 355 00:21:46,565 --> 00:21:50,665 the president decided it should not go unanswered. 356 00:21:53,033 --> 00:21:56,400 JOHNSON: Aggression by terror against the peaceful villagers 357 00:21:56,499 --> 00:22:00,999 of South Vietnam has now been joined by open aggression 358 00:22:01,100 --> 00:22:05,232 on the high seas against the United States of America. 359 00:22:05,333 --> 00:22:09,100 Yet our response, for the present, 360 00:22:09,200 --> 00:22:11,665 will be limited and fitting. 361 00:22:11,766 --> 00:22:17,200 We Americans know, although others appear to forget, 362 00:22:17,299 --> 00:22:19,932 the risk of spreading conflict. 363 00:22:20,033 --> 00:22:25,533 We still seek no wider war. 364 00:22:25,632 --> 00:22:28,999 EVERETT ALVAREZ: If that came to be where we would be called upon 365 00:22:29,100 --> 00:22:31,966 to carry out our responsibilities, 366 00:22:32,065 --> 00:22:34,665 and having been well trained for this, 367 00:22:34,766 --> 00:22:36,333 I never really gave it much thought. 368 00:22:36,432 --> 00:22:38,700 It was part of my duty. 369 00:22:38,799 --> 00:22:42,266 NARRATOR: Lieutenant Everett Alvarez from Salinas, California, 370 00:22:42,365 --> 00:22:45,900 was aboard the U.S.S. carrier Constellation. 371 00:22:45,999 --> 00:22:49,565 His squadron of Skyhawk A-4 planes 372 00:22:49,665 --> 00:22:52,266 was ordered to attack torpedo boat installations 373 00:22:52,365 --> 00:22:56,900 and oil facilities near the port of Hon Gai. 374 00:22:56,999 --> 00:23:01,766 For the first time, American pilots were going to drop bombs 375 00:23:01,865 --> 00:23:03,900 on North Vietnam. 376 00:23:05,165 --> 00:23:06,475 ALVAREZ: When we approached the target 377 00:23:06,499 --> 00:23:08,132 coming down from altitude, 378 00:23:08,232 --> 00:23:11,333 it was obvious that they could pick us up on their radar. 379 00:23:11,432 --> 00:23:13,966 I remember my knees shaking. 380 00:23:14,065 --> 00:23:16,966 And I was saying, "Holy smokes, I'm going into war." 381 00:23:18,833 --> 00:23:20,900 "This is war." 382 00:23:21,999 --> 00:23:23,632 I was a bit scared. 383 00:23:23,732 --> 00:23:28,466 Once we went in and they started firing at us, 384 00:23:28,565 --> 00:23:30,865 the fear went away. 385 00:23:30,966 --> 00:23:35,632 Everything became smooth, deathly quiet in the cockpit. 386 00:23:35,732 --> 00:23:38,466 It was sort of like a symphony 387 00:23:38,565 --> 00:23:43,966 in the sense that my plane was just like a ballet in the sky, 388 00:23:44,065 --> 00:23:47,565 and I was just performing what I was doing. 389 00:23:49,766 --> 00:23:50,799 And then I got hit. 390 00:23:50,900 --> 00:23:51,966 MAN: Mayday, Mayday. 391 00:23:53,333 --> 00:23:57,033 NARRATOR: Coastal militiamen captured Alvarez 392 00:23:57,132 --> 00:23:59,565 and turned him over to the North Vietnamese military. 393 00:23:59,665 --> 00:24:05,400 ALVAREZ: One fella was yelling at me in Vietnamese and saying something. 394 00:24:05,499 --> 00:24:08,466 I started talking to him in Spanish. 395 00:24:08,565 --> 00:24:10,432 Don't ask me why. 396 00:24:10,533 --> 00:24:13,632 It seemed like a good idea at the time. 397 00:24:15,565 --> 00:24:20,700 After when they discovered U.S.A. on my ID card 398 00:24:20,799 --> 00:24:25,700 and then they started speaking to me in English. 399 00:24:25,799 --> 00:24:29,900 NARRATOR: Alvarez assumed he would be treated as a prisoner of war. 400 00:24:29,999 --> 00:24:32,232 ALVAREZ: I was sticking to the code of conduct, 401 00:24:32,333 --> 00:24:34,600 which is giving them name, rank, service number, 402 00:24:34,700 --> 00:24:35,932 and date of birth. 403 00:24:37,466 --> 00:24:41,466 But they quickly reminded me that there was no state of war, 404 00:24:41,565 --> 00:24:44,100 no declaration of war. 405 00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:47,932 So I could not be considered a prisoner of war. 406 00:24:49,466 --> 00:24:50,865 I recall thinking about it, 407 00:24:50,966 --> 00:24:52,565 and I says, "You know what? 408 00:24:52,665 --> 00:24:54,100 They're right." 409 00:24:54,200 --> 00:24:57,466 NARRATOR: Everett Alvarez was the first American airman 410 00:24:57,565 --> 00:25:00,932 to be shot out of the sky over North Vietnam 411 00:25:01,033 --> 00:25:03,732 and the first to be imprisoned there. 412 00:25:06,266 --> 00:25:08,565 Now, the president sent up to Capitol Hill 413 00:25:08,665 --> 00:25:12,365 the resolution he had asked his aide William Bundy to draft 414 00:25:12,466 --> 00:25:14,900 two months earlier. 415 00:25:14,999 --> 00:25:18,833 JAMES WILLBANKS: Johnson is sort of prepositioned to move anyway, 416 00:25:18,932 --> 00:25:22,700 and it gives him really the incident that he needs 417 00:25:22,799 --> 00:25:25,365 to go to Congress and ask for a resolution 418 00:25:25,466 --> 00:25:27,499 that will allow him to deal with what he sees 419 00:25:27,600 --> 00:25:29,266 as aggression in Vietnam. 420 00:25:29,365 --> 00:25:31,700 And what he gets is the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, 421 00:25:31,799 --> 00:25:35,400 which is, what he says, like "Grandma's nightshirt"... 422 00:25:35,499 --> 00:25:36,932 it covers everything. 423 00:25:37,033 --> 00:25:41,400 I think what Johnson is looking for is the opportunity, 424 00:25:41,499 --> 00:25:45,299 the right time to send a message to North Vietnam 425 00:25:45,400 --> 00:25:49,365 that we're serious about supporting South Vietnam. 426 00:25:49,466 --> 00:25:51,565 That message is sent, 427 00:25:51,665 --> 00:25:53,400 I think we misread the enemy 428 00:25:53,499 --> 00:25:55,766 because they're just as serious as we are. 429 00:25:57,165 --> 00:26:00,266 NARRATOR: On August 7, 1964, 430 00:26:00,365 --> 00:26:04,033 by a vote of 88-2, the Senate passed 431 00:26:04,132 --> 00:26:08,165 what came to be called the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. 432 00:26:08,266 --> 00:26:12,533 In the House, not a single congressman opposed it. 433 00:26:12,632 --> 00:26:16,432 Senator Goldwater could no longer plausibly claim 434 00:26:16,533 --> 00:26:18,600 Johnson was failing to fight back 435 00:26:18,700 --> 00:26:22,432 against North Vietnam, while those voters concerned 436 00:26:22,533 --> 00:26:24,565 that the United States was in danger 437 00:26:24,665 --> 00:26:26,999 of becoming too deeply involved 438 00:26:27,100 --> 00:26:30,999 admired the president's measured response. 439 00:26:31,100 --> 00:26:34,833 Support for Johnson's handling of the war jumped overnight 440 00:26:34,932 --> 00:26:38,400 from 42% to 72%. 441 00:26:38,499 --> 00:26:41,499 The American public believed their president. 442 00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:46,132 Le Duan and his comrades in Hanoi did not. 443 00:26:46,232 --> 00:26:48,865 They had little faith in the president's claim 444 00:26:48,966 --> 00:26:50,999 that he sought no wider war. 445 00:26:51,100 --> 00:26:53,999 They resolved to step up their efforts 446 00:26:54,100 --> 00:26:55,600 to win the struggle in the South 447 00:26:55,700 --> 00:26:58,732 before the United States escalated its presence 448 00:26:58,833 --> 00:27:01,165 by sending in combat troops. 449 00:27:02,432 --> 00:27:04,432 For the first time, 450 00:27:04,533 --> 00:27:07,132 Hanoi began sending North Vietnamese regulars 451 00:27:07,232 --> 00:27:09,865 into the South, down the network of paths 452 00:27:09,966 --> 00:27:13,200 they had hacked out of the Laotian jungle... 453 00:27:13,299 --> 00:27:15,299 the Ho Chi Minh Trail. 454 00:27:16,565 --> 00:27:18,333 PETER KALISCHER: This is Bien Hoa Air Base, 455 00:27:18,432 --> 00:27:19,966 the biggest in South Vietnam, 456 00:27:20,065 --> 00:27:23,732 hours after being hit by a communist mortar barrage. 457 00:27:23,833 --> 00:27:26,900 NARRATOR: On November 1, Viet Cong guerrillas shelled 458 00:27:26,999 --> 00:27:31,065 the American airbase at Bien Hoa near Saigon. 459 00:27:31,165 --> 00:27:33,466 Five Americans died. 460 00:27:33,565 --> 00:27:35,600 Thirty were wounded. 461 00:27:35,700 --> 00:27:39,865 Five B-57 bombers were destroyed on the ground 462 00:27:39,966 --> 00:27:41,865 and 15 more were damaged. 463 00:27:41,966 --> 00:27:43,665 PETER KALISCHER: Mr. Ambassador, 464 00:27:43,766 --> 00:27:45,799 do you think this shows any new capability 465 00:27:45,900 --> 00:27:47,932 that they've got, the Viet Cong? 466 00:27:48,033 --> 00:27:50,365 Uh, I would simply say they've never done this before. 467 00:27:53,100 --> 00:27:55,533 NARRATOR: The Joint Chiefs advised the president to mount 468 00:27:55,632 --> 00:28:00,132 an immediate all-out air attack on 94 targets in the North 469 00:28:00,232 --> 00:28:03,466 and to send in regular Army and Marine units... 470 00:28:03,565 --> 00:28:07,533 not more advisors... to South Vietnam as well. 471 00:28:07,632 --> 00:28:09,033 He would not do it. 472 00:28:09,132 --> 00:28:11,632 The election was just two days away. 473 00:28:13,966 --> 00:28:18,100 Lyndon Baines Johnson won the presidency in his own right, 474 00:28:18,200 --> 00:28:20,200 and he won it by a landslide. 475 00:28:22,033 --> 00:28:24,400 Within a month, the president would approve 476 00:28:24,499 --> 00:28:27,100 what was called a "graduated response"... 477 00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:31,100 limited air attacks on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos 478 00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:34,165 and "tit for tat" retaliatory raids 479 00:28:34,266 --> 00:28:37,165 on North Vietnamese targets. 480 00:28:37,266 --> 00:28:41,165 But he refused to undertake sustained bombing of the North 481 00:28:41,266 --> 00:28:45,266 until the South Vietnamese got their own house in order. 482 00:28:47,100 --> 00:28:52,200 In private, Johnson doubted that airpower alone would ever work 483 00:28:52,299 --> 00:28:54,766 and believed that he would eventually have to send in 484 00:28:54,865 --> 00:28:56,132 ground troops, 485 00:28:56,232 --> 00:28:59,865 though he was not yet willing publicly to say so. 486 00:29:05,833 --> 00:29:09,600 JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: In the fall of '64, Denton was 17 487 00:29:09,700 --> 00:29:14,033 And he was determined to go into the service. 488 00:29:14,132 --> 00:29:17,999 NARRATOR: Mogie Crocker had been restless since the summer. 489 00:29:18,100 --> 00:29:21,165 After the Gulf of Tonkin incident, he had confided 490 00:29:21,266 --> 00:29:23,799 to his sister that he wanted to join the Navy, 491 00:29:23,900 --> 00:29:27,365 but he knew his parents would not sign the consent form 492 00:29:27,466 --> 00:29:31,966 that would have allowed a 17-year-old to enlist. 493 00:29:32,065 --> 00:29:35,799 He was talking about wanting to go into the service 494 00:29:35,900 --> 00:29:38,333 and that his attempts to go underage had failed. 495 00:29:38,432 --> 00:29:41,865 And that he wanted my parents to support him in that. 496 00:29:41,966 --> 00:29:44,365 NARRATOR: His parents tried to persuade him 497 00:29:44,466 --> 00:29:46,533 that he could be more useful to his country 498 00:29:46,632 --> 00:29:51,200 with a college education than as just another private. 499 00:29:51,299 --> 00:29:54,065 Mogie was adamant. 500 00:29:54,165 --> 00:29:57,732 JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: Monday morning he left for school. 501 00:29:57,833 --> 00:30:00,466 And I watched him leave. 502 00:30:00,565 --> 00:30:02,499 But that night he didn't come in for supper 503 00:30:02,600 --> 00:30:03,700 and he hadn't called. 504 00:30:03,799 --> 00:30:07,165 The day that my brother ran away has to be 505 00:30:07,266 --> 00:30:11,565 one of the most bizarre experiences in my life. 506 00:30:11,665 --> 00:30:14,799 I eventually happened to look in my piggy bank 507 00:30:14,900 --> 00:30:18,432 and he had taken the money I had and left a note for me. 508 00:30:18,533 --> 00:30:21,200 He had promised he would pay me back. 509 00:30:21,299 --> 00:30:24,033 JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: He was gone about four months 510 00:30:24,132 --> 00:30:27,432 and said that he would not come home 511 00:30:27,533 --> 00:30:29,966 unless we agreed to sign for him. 512 00:30:30,065 --> 00:30:34,299 And he wouldn't be 18 until June. 513 00:30:34,400 --> 00:30:37,766 But we did agree and he did come home. 514 00:30:37,865 --> 00:30:42,365 My husband felt it was an honor-bound agreement. 515 00:30:42,466 --> 00:30:45,466 I was hoping that I could change his mind. 516 00:30:50,365 --> 00:30:54,165 PHILIP BRADY: To my mind, the Marine Corps represented the very best. 517 00:30:54,266 --> 00:30:55,632 And it does. 518 00:30:55,732 --> 00:30:58,232 They are the best. 519 00:30:58,333 --> 00:31:00,799 And I wanted to be part of the best. 520 00:31:00,900 --> 00:31:02,565 I was competitive. 521 00:31:02,665 --> 00:31:03,732 I was pugnacious. 522 00:31:03,833 --> 00:31:05,833 But I wanted to get in the Marine Corps 523 00:31:05,932 --> 00:31:08,533 and go to the first war I could find. 524 00:31:08,632 --> 00:31:11,900 NARRATOR: Lieutenant Philip Brady, from Port Washington, New York, 525 00:31:11,999 --> 00:31:14,766 arrived in Saigon just a few days 526 00:31:14,865 --> 00:31:17,100 after Lyndon Johnson's election, 527 00:31:17,200 --> 00:31:19,833 one of the new advisors sent to help shore up 528 00:31:19,932 --> 00:31:22,766 the South Vietnamese military. 529 00:31:22,865 --> 00:31:27,132 We must ensure that women and children are not injured. 530 00:31:27,232 --> 00:31:30,533 NARRATOR: General Westmoreland himself greeted the newcomers. 531 00:31:30,632 --> 00:31:34,499 He was an impressive-looking man with an impressive record. 532 00:31:34,600 --> 00:31:38,799 Many of the men he'd led in Tunisia, Sicily, and Normandy 533 00:31:38,900 --> 00:31:42,499 during World War Il called him Superman. 534 00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:44,766 He'd fought with distinction in Korea, 535 00:31:44,865 --> 00:31:47,600 commanded the 101st Airborne, 536 00:31:47,700 --> 00:31:50,432 served as superintendent of West Point. 537 00:31:50,533 --> 00:31:51,865 TIME magazine called him 538 00:31:51,966 --> 00:31:56,365 "the sinewy personification of the American fighting man." 539 00:31:56,466 --> 00:31:57,600 But at the same time, 540 00:31:57,700 --> 00:31:59,799 win the hearts and the minds of the people. 541 00:31:59,900 --> 00:32:02,565 BRADY: General Westmoreland told us that we were down 542 00:32:02,665 --> 00:32:05,333 on the five-yard line and we just needed a few more 543 00:32:05,432 --> 00:32:09,333 to go get the touchdown. 544 00:32:09,432 --> 00:32:12,432 Then I went out and then l got on the ground. 545 00:32:12,533 --> 00:32:15,165 And then I found out, "Don't you realize? 546 00:32:15,266 --> 00:32:17,565 We're losing this war." 547 00:32:17,665 --> 00:32:22,232 NARRATOR: Lieutenant Brady was assigned to assist Captain Frank Eller, 548 00:32:22,332 --> 00:32:24,600 senior advisor to the 4th Battalion 549 00:32:24,700 --> 00:32:27,899 of the Vietnamese Marine Corps, an elite unit 550 00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:32,232 whose members called themselves the "Killer Sharks." 551 00:32:32,332 --> 00:32:36,100 You were told that you were going over there to guide, 552 00:32:36,200 --> 00:32:40,332 educate, and elevate essentially these "little fellas" 553 00:32:40,433 --> 00:32:42,399 On how to fight a war 554 00:32:42,500 --> 00:32:45,565 when, in fact, they knew exactly how to fight the war. 555 00:32:45,665 --> 00:32:47,765 You were just an appendage. 556 00:32:47,866 --> 00:32:51,466 You were there simply to guide assets that they didn't have: 557 00:32:51,565 --> 00:32:55,899 American artillery, American air strikes. 558 00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:58,600 NARRATOR: Brady did his best to get to know 559 00:32:58,700 --> 00:33:00,966 the South Vietnamese marines in his unit. 560 00:33:28,200 --> 00:33:31,966 NARRATOR: Lieutenant Tran Ngoc Toan, the son of a trucker, 561 00:33:32,065 --> 00:33:34,399 had escaped life with a hostile stepmother 562 00:33:34,500 --> 00:33:39,065 by entering the South Vietnamese Military Academy at Dalat. 563 00:33:39,165 --> 00:33:43,500 He'd been fighting the Viet Cong for more than two years. 564 00:33:43,600 --> 00:33:45,009 Toan was one of the junior officers. 565 00:33:45,033 --> 00:33:46,399 I think he was a... 566 00:33:46,500 --> 00:33:47,900 I think he was a company commander. 567 00:33:47,933 --> 00:33:50,132 I knew him, I liked him. 568 00:33:50,232 --> 00:33:53,299 He was a Dalat graduate, which is like their West Point. 569 00:33:53,399 --> 00:33:55,200 Very dedicated. 570 00:34:05,265 --> 00:34:09,866 NARRATOR: Brady, Toan, and the 4th South Vietnamese Marine Battalion 571 00:34:09,966 --> 00:34:13,165 were stationed near the Bien Hoa Airbase in reserve, 572 00:34:13,265 --> 00:34:17,132 waiting to be called into action. 573 00:34:17,232 --> 00:34:19,033 There were new rumors now, 574 00:34:19,132 --> 00:34:23,665 of larger enemy units moving through the countryside. 575 00:34:23,765 --> 00:34:26,665 Le Duan's plan to win a quick and decisive victory 576 00:34:26,765 --> 00:34:28,500 was underway. 577 00:35:26,866 --> 00:35:29,366 NARRATOR: Nguyen Van Tong was a political officer 578 00:35:29,466 --> 00:35:32,533 in the newly created Viet Cong 9th Division, 579 00:35:32,632 --> 00:35:36,565 one of perhaps 2,000 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops 580 00:35:36,665 --> 00:35:41,433 who had for weeks been quietly filtering into Phuoc Tuy, 581 00:35:41,533 --> 00:35:43,466 a supposedly "pacified" province 582 00:35:43,565 --> 00:35:46,933 less than 40 miles southeast of Saigon. 583 00:36:08,065 --> 00:36:11,299 NARRATOR: The target for Tong and his comrades 584 00:36:11,399 --> 00:36:14,200 was the strategic hamlet of Binh Gia, 585 00:36:14,299 --> 00:36:18,700 home to some 6,000 Catholic anticommunist refugees. 586 00:36:20,332 --> 00:36:23,033 Their plan was to seize the hamlet 587 00:36:23,132 --> 00:36:26,866 and then annihilate the forces Saigon was sure to send 588 00:36:26,966 --> 00:36:28,466 to retake it. 589 00:36:28,565 --> 00:36:30,933 To ensure success, 590 00:36:31,033 --> 00:36:34,433 tons of heavy weapons were smuggled onto the coast 591 00:36:34,533 --> 00:36:36,399 under cover of darkness... 592 00:36:36,500 --> 00:36:39,565 mortars, machine guns, recoilless rifles 593 00:36:39,665 --> 00:36:42,466 capable of blasting tanks. 594 00:36:42,565 --> 00:36:45,165 The communists had never attempted 595 00:36:45,265 --> 00:36:48,132 anything on this scale before. 596 00:36:48,232 --> 00:36:51,433 Before dawn on December 28, 597 00:36:51,533 --> 00:36:55,632 Viet Cong advance units easily overwhelmed the village militia 598 00:36:55,732 --> 00:36:57,466 and occupied Binh Gia. 599 00:37:00,433 --> 00:37:03,399 When two crack South Vietnamese Ranger companies 600 00:37:03,500 --> 00:37:05,632 were helicoptered in the next day, 601 00:37:05,732 --> 00:37:09,700 they were ambushed and shot to pieces. 602 00:37:09,799 --> 00:37:12,100 On the morning of the 30th, 603 00:37:12,200 --> 00:37:15,466 Philip Brady, his friend Tran Ngoc Toan, 604 00:37:15,565 --> 00:37:19,399 and the 4th Marine Battalion were flown in to relieve 605 00:37:19,500 --> 00:37:22,065 and reinforce the Rangers. 606 00:37:22,165 --> 00:37:25,632 The enemy withdrew east of the village. 607 00:37:55,165 --> 00:37:59,632 All of a sudden you could see the tracers come out 608 00:37:59,732 --> 00:38:03,232 of the plantation, hit the helicopter, it crashed. 609 00:38:03,332 --> 00:38:06,332 We were ordered to go down and retrieve the remains 610 00:38:06,433 --> 00:38:08,265 the following morning. 611 00:38:42,399 --> 00:38:44,933 BRADY: The lead company got to the remains 612 00:38:45,033 --> 00:38:48,866 and then was pounced on and mauled badly. 613 00:38:53,165 --> 00:38:56,565 NARRATOR: Twelve South Vietnamese Marines from Toan's unit were killed 614 00:38:56,665 --> 00:38:59,165 getting to the downed helicopter. 615 00:38:59,265 --> 00:39:01,033 Their comrades wrapped them in ponchos 616 00:39:01,132 --> 00:39:05,332 and laid them out next to the dead Americans. 617 00:39:05,433 --> 00:39:08,200 An American chopper dropped into the clearing. 618 00:39:08,299 --> 00:39:10,832 The American crew jumped out under fire, 619 00:39:10,933 --> 00:39:13,065 picked up the four Americans, 620 00:39:13,165 --> 00:39:16,832 climbed back into their chopper, and took off again. 621 00:39:27,899 --> 00:39:33,100 NARRATOR: For three hours, Toan and his men stayed with their own dead 622 00:39:33,200 --> 00:39:37,366 waiting for a helicopter to carry them off the battlefield. 623 00:39:39,132 --> 00:39:42,366 BRADY: Meanwhile, I am getting a little bit antsy 624 00:39:42,466 --> 00:39:44,799 because, first of all, we're losing light. 625 00:39:44,899 --> 00:39:48,533 Second of all, we are now outside of artillery range. 626 00:39:48,632 --> 00:39:50,966 We've got to get out of there. 627 00:40:01,366 --> 00:40:04,433 BRADY: I went to the Major Nho, his name was, and I said, 628 00:40:04,533 --> 00:40:07,632 "Major, we have to get out of here now." 629 00:40:07,732 --> 00:40:12,132 And Nho said, "Don't you forget I am a major, 630 00:40:12,232 --> 00:40:13,299 and you are a lieutenant," 631 00:40:13,399 --> 00:40:16,533 Turned on his heel and walked away. 632 00:40:16,632 --> 00:40:21,966 Ten minutes later all hell broke loose. 633 00:40:42,100 --> 00:40:44,966 NARRATOR: The shelling eventually died down. 634 00:40:45,065 --> 00:40:47,466 But then bugles blew, 635 00:40:47,565 --> 00:40:50,065 and wave after wave of enemy troops 636 00:40:50,165 --> 00:40:52,332 advanced toward the badly outnumbered men. 637 00:40:55,665 --> 00:40:59,165 BRADY: It was as if you turned a soundtrack of shooting... 638 00:41:04,665 --> 00:41:05,732 Just like that. 639 00:41:05,832 --> 00:41:07,533 All of a sudden it came out of nowhere. 640 00:41:11,165 --> 00:41:14,466 We used what little air strikes we had left with helicopters, 641 00:41:14,565 --> 00:41:18,799 calling in the strikes on our position to slow it down. 642 00:41:18,899 --> 00:41:21,966 There was no way. 643 00:41:59,299 --> 00:42:02,399 BRADY: What we did was we tried to get out. 644 00:42:02,500 --> 00:42:05,433 Twenty-six of us broke through. 645 00:42:05,533 --> 00:42:08,299 Eleven ultimately made it. 646 00:42:09,433 --> 00:42:10,632 NARRATOR: All that night, 647 00:42:10,732 --> 00:42:12,832 the Viet Cong moved among the trees, 648 00:42:12,933 --> 00:42:14,665 carrying away their wounded 649 00:42:14,765 --> 00:42:17,665 and shooting any South Vietnamese troops 650 00:42:17,765 --> 00:42:19,933 they found alive. 651 00:42:46,500 --> 00:42:48,500 NARRATOR: Cradling his rifle in his arms, 652 00:42:48,600 --> 00:42:52,232 Toan began trying to crawl toward Binh Gia. 653 00:42:52,332 --> 00:42:55,533 He was not found for three days. 654 00:43:28,600 --> 00:43:33,132 NARRATOR: When it was all over, five Americans had died at Binh Gia. 655 00:43:33,232 --> 00:43:38,132 Thirty-two Viet Cong bodies had been left on the battlefield. 656 00:43:38,232 --> 00:43:41,765 200 South Vietnamese were killed; 657 00:43:41,866 --> 00:43:46,399 200 more were wounded. 658 00:44:01,299 --> 00:44:04,000 BRADY: What it really said was 659 00:44:04,100 --> 00:44:08,399 they were capable of marshaling this kind of force. 660 00:44:08,500 --> 00:44:10,676 The Vietnamese officers I talked to in the Marine Corps 661 00:44:10,700 --> 00:44:13,366 figured they had six months before the end. 662 00:44:13,466 --> 00:44:16,933 NARRATOR: The big question after Binh Gia, 663 00:44:17,033 --> 00:44:19,332 an American officer at headquarters said, 664 00:44:19,433 --> 00:44:22,399 is how a thousand or more enemy troops 665 00:44:22,500 --> 00:44:25,933 "could wander around the countryside so close to Saigon 666 00:44:26,033 --> 00:44:27,899 "without being discovered. 667 00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:32,832 That tells you something about this war." 668 00:44:32,933 --> 00:44:35,332 Hanoi was exultant. 669 00:44:35,433 --> 00:44:38,533 Ho Chi Minh called it "a little Dien Bien Phu." 670 00:44:38,632 --> 00:44:43,000 Le Duan was convinced his strategy was working. 671 00:44:43,100 --> 00:44:46,366 "The liberation war of South Vietnam has progressed 672 00:44:46,466 --> 00:44:48,966 by leaps and bounds," he said. 673 00:44:49,065 --> 00:44:52,500 "After the battle of Ap Bac two years ago, 674 00:44:52,600 --> 00:44:56,433 "the enemy knew it would be difficult to defeat us. 675 00:44:56,533 --> 00:44:59,466 "After Binh Gia, the enemy realizes 676 00:44:59,565 --> 00:45:04,600 that he is in the process of being defeated by us." 677 00:45:19,232 --> 00:45:20,541 JOHNSON: I, Lyndon Baines Johnson, 678 00:45:20,565 --> 00:45:22,500 do solemnly swear... 679 00:45:22,600 --> 00:45:25,866 NARRATOR: Twenty-six days after the Binh Gia battle ended 680 00:45:25,966 --> 00:45:29,200 and just a week after President Johnson's inauguration, 681 00:45:29,299 --> 00:45:32,565 McGeorge Bundy handed the president a memorandum. 682 00:45:32,665 --> 00:45:34,732 I will to the best of my ability. 683 00:45:34,832 --> 00:45:38,565 NARRATOR: The current strategy was clearly not working, it said. 684 00:45:38,665 --> 00:45:42,065 The Viet Cong were on the move and on the rise, 685 00:45:42,165 --> 00:45:45,533 supplied and now steadily reinforced 686 00:45:45,632 --> 00:45:48,366 with soldiers from North Vietnam. 687 00:45:48,466 --> 00:45:53,100 If an independent South Vietnam was to survive, 688 00:45:53,200 --> 00:45:56,366 the United States needed to act fast. 689 00:45:56,466 --> 00:46:00,366 The administration faced two choices, Bundy said. 690 00:46:00,466 --> 00:46:02,933 It could go along as it had been going 691 00:46:03,033 --> 00:46:06,966 and try to negotiate some kind of face-saving settlement. 692 00:46:07,065 --> 00:46:11,866 Or they could use still more American military power 693 00:46:11,966 --> 00:46:15,600 to force the North to abandon its goal of uniting the country. 694 00:46:15,700 --> 00:46:19,866 Bundy and McNamara favored that option. 695 00:46:19,966 --> 00:46:22,832 Unless the president chose it, they said, 696 00:46:22,933 --> 00:46:24,832 South Vietnam would fall. 697 00:46:24,933 --> 00:46:28,600 "l don't think anything," Johnson told McNamara, 698 00:46:28,700 --> 00:46:31,500 "is going to be as bad as losing." 699 00:46:36,366 --> 00:46:38,866 Then, a little over a week later, 700 00:46:38,966 --> 00:46:42,466 guerrillas struck an American helicopter base at Pleiku 701 00:46:42,565 --> 00:46:44,265 in the Central Highlands, 702 00:46:44,366 --> 00:46:49,065 killing eight American advisors and wounding over 100 more. 703 00:46:49,165 --> 00:46:51,100 McNAMARA: Approximately 24 hours ago, 704 00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:53,600 the first attack in the Pleiku area... 705 00:46:53,700 --> 00:46:56,299 NARRATOR: Johnson immediately approved an air strike 706 00:46:56,399 --> 00:46:59,200 on a North Vietnamese army barracks. 707 00:47:00,433 --> 00:47:03,832 On February 10, 1965, 708 00:47:03,933 --> 00:47:07,100 the Viet Cong blew up a hotel in Qui Nhon, 709 00:47:07,200 --> 00:47:13,632 killing 23 Americans and pinning 21 more beneath the rubble. 710 00:47:13,732 --> 00:47:17,100 Johnson ordered another airstrike. 711 00:47:17,200 --> 00:47:20,600 Anxiety about what seemed to be happening 712 00:47:20,700 --> 00:47:23,200 spread around the world. 713 00:47:23,299 --> 00:47:26,132 France, which had spent nearly a century in Vietnam, 714 00:47:26,232 --> 00:47:30,500 now called for an end to all foreign involvement there. 715 00:47:30,600 --> 00:47:34,132 The British prime minister urged restraint. 716 00:47:34,232 --> 00:47:37,866 Many leaders of the president's own party agreed, 717 00:47:37,966 --> 00:47:40,466 though not in public. 718 00:47:40,565 --> 00:47:42,632 In a private memorandum, 719 00:47:42,732 --> 00:47:45,265 Johnson's own vice president, Hubert Humphrey, 720 00:47:45,366 --> 00:47:48,632 warned him that widening the war would undercut 721 00:47:48,732 --> 00:47:53,366 the Great Society, damage America's image overseas, 722 00:47:53,466 --> 00:47:57,899 and end any hope of improving relations with the Soviet Union. 723 00:47:59,299 --> 00:48:01,600 Johnson never responded. 724 00:48:01,700 --> 00:48:04,732 Instead, on March 2, 1965, 725 00:48:04,832 --> 00:48:08,366 the United States began a systematic bombardment 726 00:48:08,466 --> 00:48:10,366 of targets in North Vietnam, 727 00:48:10,466 --> 00:48:14,399 code-named Operation Rolling Thunder. 728 00:48:16,399 --> 00:48:19,466 It was meant to be a "mounting crescendo" of air raids, 729 00:48:19,565 --> 00:48:21,065 Ambassador Taylor wrote, 730 00:48:21,165 --> 00:48:24,200 intended to bolster morale in the South 731 00:48:24,299 --> 00:48:29,000 and destroy morale in the North. 732 00:48:29,100 --> 00:48:32,065 WILSON: The thesis behind Rolling Thunder, 733 00:48:32,165 --> 00:48:37,765 as I understood it, was that as we ratcheted up the tempo 734 00:48:37,866 --> 00:48:42,433 and the volume of this effort against the North Vietnamese, 735 00:48:42,533 --> 00:48:45,399 sooner or later they would cry uncle. 736 00:48:48,065 --> 00:48:50,765 And there'd be a pause, 737 00:48:50,866 --> 00:48:55,399 and we would begin to negotiate our way out of this situation. 738 00:48:55,500 --> 00:48:58,299 This became an article of faith. 739 00:48:58,399 --> 00:49:02,165 And this article of faith was a fallacious assumption. 740 00:49:02,265 --> 00:49:04,700 They weren't going to give up. 741 00:49:04,799 --> 00:49:09,065 They read us better than we read them. 742 00:49:09,165 --> 00:49:13,100 NARRATOR: The president insisted on strict secrecy... 743 00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:16,399 the American people were not to be told 744 00:49:16,500 --> 00:49:19,799 that the administration had changed its policy 745 00:49:19,899 --> 00:49:23,732 from retaliatory airstrikes to systematic bombing; 746 00:49:23,832 --> 00:49:27,065 That he had, in fact, widened the war. 747 00:49:27,165 --> 00:49:30,765 They jointly agreed that joint retaliatory action 748 00:49:30,866 --> 00:49:32,366 was required. 749 00:49:32,466 --> 00:49:36,200 NARRATOR: General Westmoreland, who had initially been hesitant 750 00:49:36,299 --> 00:49:39,000 about committing ground troops to Vietnam, 751 00:49:39,100 --> 00:49:43,700 now asked for two battalions of Marines... 3,500 men... 752 00:49:43,799 --> 00:49:46,132 to protect the Danang airbase 753 00:49:46,232 --> 00:49:49,700 from which fighter-bombers were hitting the North. 754 00:49:49,799 --> 00:49:53,732 Ambassador Taylor, who had once called for ground troops, 755 00:49:53,832 --> 00:49:56,433 now objected to the whole idea. 756 00:49:56,533 --> 00:49:59,966 "Once you put that first soldier ashore," he wrote, 757 00:50:00,065 --> 00:50:03,966 "you never know how many others are going to follow him." 758 00:50:04,065 --> 00:50:07,966 But the president felt he had no choice but to give Westmoreland 759 00:50:08,065 --> 00:50:10,100 what he asked for. 760 00:50:10,200 --> 00:50:15,132 He knew he would be blamed if more American advisors died. 761 00:50:15,232 --> 00:50:19,200 "l feel like a jackass caught in a Texas hailstorm," 762 00:50:19,299 --> 00:50:20,799 He complained. 763 00:50:20,899 --> 00:50:26,033 "l can't run, I can't hide, and I can't make it stop." 764 00:50:27,600 --> 00:50:29,500 In March of 1965, 765 00:50:29,600 --> 00:50:32,399 Johnson finally took the action he had managed to avoid 766 00:50:32,500 --> 00:50:34,565 for so long. 767 00:50:34,665 --> 00:50:36,866 WRIGHT: ? Kiss me goodbye... 768 00:50:36,966 --> 00:50:39,966 NARRATOR: He was putting American ground troops in Vietnam. 769 00:50:42,732 --> 00:50:48,200 WRIGHT: ? Goodbye, my sweetheart; hello, Vietnam ? 770 00:50:48,299 --> 00:50:52,033 NARRATOR: The government of South Vietnam was not even consulted; 771 00:50:52,132 --> 00:50:56,600 The United States of America had larger considerations. 772 00:50:58,732 --> 00:51:03,200 GARD: Clearly, we saw it in terms of the Cold War. 773 00:51:03,299 --> 00:51:07,366 Assistant Secretary of Defense John McNaughton said... 774 00:51:07,466 --> 00:51:08,966 He said our interests there 775 00:51:09,065 --> 00:51:14,466 were 70% to avoid humiliation, 776 00:51:14,565 --> 00:51:18,299 20% to contain China, 777 00:51:18,399 --> 00:51:21,799 and ten percent to help the Vietnamese. 778 00:51:24,100 --> 00:51:26,765 NARRATOR: Johnson quietly told his good friend, 779 00:51:26,866 --> 00:51:29,065 Senator Richard Russell of Georgia, 780 00:51:29,165 --> 00:51:31,500 what was about to happen. 781 00:51:31,600 --> 00:51:34,361 JOHNSON: I guess we got no choice, but it scares the death out of me. 782 00:51:34,399 --> 00:51:35,741 I think everybody's going to think, 783 00:51:35,765 --> 00:51:37,232 "We're landing the Marines. 784 00:51:37,332 --> 00:51:39,000 We're off to battle." 785 00:51:39,100 --> 00:51:40,632 Of course, if they come up there, 786 00:51:40,732 --> 00:51:41,942 they're going to get them in a fight. 787 00:51:41,966 --> 00:51:43,299 And if they ruin those airplanes, 788 00:51:43,399 --> 00:51:45,375 everybody is going to give me hell for not securing them, 789 00:51:45,399 --> 00:51:47,208 just like they did last time they made a raid. 790 00:51:47,232 --> 00:51:48,533 RUSSELL: Yeah. 791 00:51:48,632 --> 00:51:49,909 JOHNSON: What do you... what do you think? 792 00:51:49,933 --> 00:51:51,600 RUSSELL: Well, Mr. President, 793 00:51:51,700 --> 00:51:52,842 it scares the life out of me. 794 00:51:52,866 --> 00:51:54,306 But I don't know how to back up now. 795 00:51:54,366 --> 00:51:56,565 It looks to me like we just got in this thing, 796 00:51:56,665 --> 00:51:57,765 and there's no way out. 797 00:51:57,866 --> 00:51:59,132 JOHNSON: I don't know. 798 00:51:59,232 --> 00:52:02,132 Dick, the great trouble I'm under... 799 00:52:02,232 --> 00:52:05,299 A man can fight if he can see daylight 800 00:52:05,399 --> 00:52:06,933 down the road somewhere. 801 00:52:07,033 --> 00:52:08,899 But there ain't no daylight in Vietnam. 802 00:52:09,000 --> 00:52:10,933 There's not a bit. 803 00:52:13,500 --> 00:52:17,299 NARRATOR: On March 8, 1965, Dr. Phan Huy Quat, 804 00:52:17,399 --> 00:52:20,433 yet another prime minister of South Vietnam, 805 00:52:20,533 --> 00:52:24,399 called his chief of staff, Bui Diem. 806 00:52:58,100 --> 00:53:00,399 NARRATOR: The Marines were landing at Danang 807 00:53:00,500 --> 00:53:04,665 on the east coast of South Vietnam, some 100 miles south 808 00:53:04,765 --> 00:53:06,765 of the demilitarized zone 809 00:53:06,866 --> 00:53:09,899 that divided the North from the South. 810 00:53:10,000 --> 00:53:13,533 They were prepared to fight their way ashore. 811 00:53:13,632 --> 00:53:15,600 They did not need to. 812 00:53:17,299 --> 00:53:18,459 PHILIP CAPUTO: What struck me 813 00:53:18,533 --> 00:53:23,600 was how beautiful Vietnam was to look at. 814 00:53:25,565 --> 00:53:28,600 There were just these endless acres 815 00:53:28,700 --> 00:53:31,000 of these jade-green rice paddies. 816 00:53:31,100 --> 00:53:35,165 And these lovely villages inside these groves 817 00:53:35,265 --> 00:53:37,832 of bamboo and palm trees. 818 00:53:37,933 --> 00:53:43,033 And way off in the distance these bluish jungled mountains, 819 00:53:43,132 --> 00:53:46,200 and they looked like Shangri-La. 820 00:53:46,299 --> 00:53:50,399 And I remember seeing this line of Vietnamese women, 821 00:53:50,500 --> 00:53:52,299 or schoolgirls I think they were. 822 00:53:52,399 --> 00:53:55,500 They actually looked like angels come to earth 823 00:53:55,600 --> 00:53:56,899 or something like that. 824 00:53:57,000 --> 00:54:02,332 So it was really quite striking but a little unsettling 825 00:54:02,433 --> 00:54:03,500 because... 826 00:54:03,600 --> 00:54:05,132 so how can a place like this... 827 00:54:05,232 --> 00:54:08,632 so beautiful and so enchanting... be at war? 828 00:54:10,033 --> 00:54:12,232 DUONG VAN MAl: My father was very happy. 829 00:54:12,332 --> 00:54:15,299 We're such a small and poor country 830 00:54:15,399 --> 00:54:19,866 and the Americans have decided to come in to save us 831 00:54:19,966 --> 00:54:23,500 not only with their money, their resources, 832 00:54:23,600 --> 00:54:26,466 but even with their own lives. 833 00:54:26,565 --> 00:54:28,332 We were very grateful. 834 00:54:28,433 --> 00:54:29,732 We thought the... 835 00:54:29,832 --> 00:54:32,732 sure enough with this power, the Americans are going to win. 836 00:54:32,832 --> 00:54:36,765 NARRATOR: Seeing foreign troops marching past his village, 837 00:54:36,866 --> 00:54:42,433 an old man emerged from his home shouting, "Vivent les Franà ais!" 838 00:54:42,533 --> 00:54:45,565 He thought the French had returned. 839 00:54:46,933 --> 00:54:48,332 "The problem around here," 840 00:54:48,433 --> 00:54:52,765 A Marine captain leading a patrol told a reporter, 841 00:54:52,866 --> 00:54:55,700 "is who the hell is who?" 842 00:54:55,799 --> 00:54:59,665 WILSON: As a voting member of Saigon Mission Council, 843 00:54:59,765 --> 00:55:04,232 I was opposed to the entry of American ground combat forces. 844 00:55:06,299 --> 00:55:10,565 I felt if the Vietnamese had to beat them off 845 00:55:10,665 --> 00:55:13,866 with a bloody stump, they had to do it themselves. 846 00:55:13,966 --> 00:55:18,033 We had to do everything we humanly could to help them, 847 00:55:18,132 --> 00:55:20,832 but we could not win it for them. 848 00:55:22,466 --> 00:55:26,466 So, I think we crossed the River Styx at that point. 849 00:55:53,632 --> 00:55:56,409 BILL ZIMMERMAN: The first protest I went to against the war in Vietnam 850 00:55:56,433 --> 00:56:00,565 was a protest at a Dow Chemical facility. 851 00:56:03,600 --> 00:56:06,200 Dow was manufacturing napalm. 852 00:56:06,299 --> 00:56:09,299 They were dropping napalm on villages in Vietnam. 853 00:56:09,399 --> 00:56:11,933 It was a very disappointing experience 854 00:56:12,033 --> 00:56:15,100 because only 40 people came. 855 00:56:15,200 --> 00:56:17,799 And we seemed very out of place 856 00:56:17,899 --> 00:56:20,966 and very ineffectual, impotent, 857 00:56:21,065 --> 00:56:25,132 standing outside with 40 people. 858 00:56:25,232 --> 00:56:29,799 NARRATOR: Most Americans understood little about Indochina, 859 00:56:29,899 --> 00:56:33,533 rarely knew anyone actually involved in the fighting, 860 00:56:33,632 --> 00:56:36,933 saw no reason to question the government's assertion 861 00:56:37,033 --> 00:56:39,765 that the United States had vital interests 862 00:56:39,866 --> 00:56:42,433 8,000 miles from home. 863 00:56:42,533 --> 00:56:44,108 ["I Ain't Marching Anymore" by Phil Ochs playing] 864 00:56:44,132 --> 00:56:47,165 Still, there was a small but growing number of people 865 00:56:47,265 --> 00:56:51,132 who had begun to oppose the war for any number of reasons... 866 00:56:51,232 --> 00:56:55,665 because they thought it unjust or immoral, 867 00:56:55,765 --> 00:56:58,500 believed it was unconstitutional 868 00:56:58,600 --> 00:57:02,232 or simply not in the national interest. 869 00:57:02,332 --> 00:57:05,665 OCHS: ? Oh I marched to the battle of New Orleans ? 870 00:57:05,765 --> 00:57:08,632 NARRATOR: Two weeks after the Marines landed at Danang, 871 00:57:08,732 --> 00:57:12,500 members of the University of Michigan faculty organized 872 00:57:12,600 --> 00:57:15,466 a night-long discussion between professors 873 00:57:15,565 --> 00:57:21,000 and some 3,000 students about the escalation of the war. 874 00:57:21,100 --> 00:57:22,765 The demonstration was called a teach-in 875 00:57:22,866 --> 00:57:24,600 because the idea originated 876 00:57:24,700 --> 00:57:26,399 with a group of university professors. 877 00:57:26,500 --> 00:57:29,765 What do you hope to accomplish? 878 00:57:29,866 --> 00:57:32,433 DR. ERIC WOLF: I'd like to open up communication between people 879 00:57:32,533 --> 00:57:34,700 and the government because I believe 880 00:57:34,799 --> 00:57:36,700 that they are not telling us what is going on, 881 00:57:36,799 --> 00:57:39,199 and the people have the right to know, and we have the right 882 00:57:39,265 --> 00:57:41,000 to tell the government what we think. 883 00:57:41,100 --> 00:57:46,000 NARRATOR: Soon, there were teach-ins on most major university campuses. 884 00:57:46,100 --> 00:57:49,265 There is no morally wonderful way out. 885 00:57:49,366 --> 00:57:54,299 NARRATOR: NYU in Manhattan, the University of Wisconsin in Madison, 886 00:57:54,399 --> 00:57:59,132 the University of California in Berkeley. 887 00:57:59,232 --> 00:58:02,366 The teach-ins were really raucous affairs. 888 00:58:02,466 --> 00:58:05,000 A lot of contention. 889 00:58:05,100 --> 00:58:06,433 STUDENT: We want to discuss 890 00:58:06,533 --> 00:58:09,332 is what's wrong with the Vietnam War, and... 891 00:58:09,433 --> 00:58:11,265 OCHS: ? And so many others 892 00:58:11,366 --> 00:58:12,966 ? But I ain't marchin' anymore 893 00:58:13,065 --> 00:58:14,466 REPORTER: Do you endorse 894 00:58:14,565 --> 00:58:16,466 the administration's policy in South Vietnam? 895 00:58:16,565 --> 00:58:18,165 Whole-heartedly. 896 00:58:18,265 --> 00:58:19,708 ZIMMERMAN: There were plenty of times 897 00:58:19,732 --> 00:58:21,632 when people who were supportive of the war 898 00:58:21,732 --> 00:58:23,033 came to these teach-ins 899 00:58:23,132 --> 00:58:26,165 to try to give an alternative anticommunist point of view. 900 00:58:26,265 --> 00:58:28,466 They were often shouted down. 901 00:58:30,533 --> 00:58:34,399 NARRATOR: The bombing of the North and the Marines' arrival 902 00:58:34,500 --> 00:58:38,500 also drew protestors to Washington that spring. 903 00:58:38,600 --> 00:58:40,232 The demonstration was organized 904 00:58:40,332 --> 00:58:45,065 by the Students for a Democratic Society... the SDS. 905 00:58:45,165 --> 00:58:49,966 I saw SDS calling for a demonstration at the White House 906 00:58:50,065 --> 00:58:52,600 in the spring of 1965. 907 00:58:52,700 --> 00:58:55,732 I didn't want to go because I didn't want to be disappointed 908 00:58:55,832 --> 00:58:57,366 in the same way again and, you know, 909 00:58:57,466 --> 00:58:59,033 go all the way to Washington 910 00:58:59,132 --> 00:59:00,909 and stand outside the White House with 40 people. 911 00:59:02,565 --> 00:59:05,533 25,000 people attended that rally. 912 00:59:07,933 --> 00:59:09,866 And that suddenly told me 913 00:59:09,966 --> 00:59:13,466 and others I was working with at the time 914 00:59:13,565 --> 00:59:17,265 that it might be possible to build an antiwar movement. 915 00:59:22,799 --> 00:59:24,775 JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: It was quite astounding to think 916 00:59:24,799 --> 00:59:27,533 that he had that degree of commitment. 917 00:59:27,632 --> 00:59:29,765 And it made sense 918 00:59:29,866 --> 00:59:35,100 in what we knew of him, as drastic as it was. 919 00:59:36,700 --> 00:59:39,265 NARRATOR: Nothing Mogie Crocker's parents could say or do 920 00:59:39,366 --> 00:59:41,332 since Mogie had come home 921 00:59:41,433 --> 00:59:43,899 shook his determination to serve, 922 00:59:44,000 --> 00:59:45,933 and recent developments in Vietnam 923 00:59:46,033 --> 00:59:48,665 had only strengthened his resolve. 924 00:59:48,765 --> 00:59:52,899 He wanted to become a paratrooper and get into combat. 925 00:59:53,000 --> 00:59:55,466 His parents finally, reluctantly, 926 00:59:55,565 --> 00:59:58,433 agreed to let him go, and on March 15, 927 00:59:58,533 --> 01:00:02,232 a week after the first Marines landed at Danang, 928 01:00:02,332 --> 01:00:07,500 Denton Crocker, Jr. entered the United States Army. 929 01:00:07,600 --> 01:00:10,832 JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: So Denton bounced down the steps one morning 930 01:00:10,933 --> 01:00:14,132 and was off to Fort Dix. 931 01:00:14,232 --> 01:00:17,832 It was in a way a sort of relief, actually, 932 01:00:17,933 --> 01:00:20,799 that the conflict and the anxiety 933 01:00:20,899 --> 01:00:24,200 over whether he would or would not go was done. 934 01:00:24,299 --> 01:00:25,665 And he was happy. 935 01:00:25,765 --> 01:00:29,200 And we just tried to believe that this was the right thing 936 01:00:29,299 --> 01:00:31,165 for him to do. 937 01:01:21,433 --> 01:01:24,799 NARRATOR: Le Minh Khue was orphaned as a small girl, 938 01:01:24,899 --> 01:01:27,832 her parents victims of the brutal land reforms 939 01:01:27,933 --> 01:01:30,600 the communists had imposed. 940 01:01:30,700 --> 01:01:33,200 She was raised by her aunt and uncle, 941 01:01:33,299 --> 01:01:37,399 who encouraged her to read American literature. 942 01:01:37,500 --> 01:01:42,232 She was 16 when Operation Rolling Thunder began. 943 01:02:17,600 --> 01:02:20,165 NARRATOR: Khue was assigned to an organization called 944 01:02:20,265 --> 01:02:23,065 the "Youth Shock Brigades Against the Americans 945 01:02:23,165 --> 01:02:25,100 for National Salvation," 946 01:02:25,200 --> 01:02:28,565 And along with thousands of other young people 947 01:02:28,665 --> 01:02:32,899 was sent south to work keeping open the Ho Chi Minh Trail. 948 01:03:12,466 --> 01:03:14,366 NARRATOR: As Johnson had feared, 949 01:03:14,466 --> 01:03:18,200 it quickly became clear that the bombing campaign alone 950 01:03:18,299 --> 01:03:19,966 was not working. 951 01:03:20,065 --> 01:03:24,265 Troops and supplies continued steadily to filter down 952 01:03:24,366 --> 01:03:26,565 the Ho Chi Minh Trail. 953 01:03:26,665 --> 01:03:29,399 General Westmoreland and the Joint Chiefs 954 01:03:29,500 --> 01:03:33,033 called for more men, tens of thousands of them. 955 01:03:33,132 --> 01:03:36,366 The president was cautious. 956 01:03:36,466 --> 01:03:39,200 He wanted to do "enough, but not too much," he said. 957 01:03:39,299 --> 01:03:43,200 But he quietly agreed to send two more Marine battalions 958 01:03:43,299 --> 01:03:48,765 and changed their mission from base security to active combat. 959 01:03:48,866 --> 01:03:50,132 For the first time, 960 01:03:50,232 --> 01:03:52,665 American troops were being asked 961 01:03:52,765 --> 01:03:55,866 to fight on their own in Vietnam. 962 01:03:55,966 --> 01:03:59,399 Johnson did not want that fact revealed 963 01:03:59,500 --> 01:04:01,933 to the American public either. 964 01:04:02,033 --> 01:04:03,765 But the bombing of the North 965 01:04:03,866 --> 01:04:06,332 and rumors of harsher measures to come 966 01:04:06,433 --> 01:04:09,765 had heightened concern around the world. 967 01:04:09,866 --> 01:04:12,665 UN Secretary-General U Thant had proposed 968 01:04:12,765 --> 01:04:15,000 a three-month ceasefire. 969 01:04:15,100 --> 01:04:17,899 Great Britain, America's closest ally, 970 01:04:18,000 --> 01:04:21,732 publicly offered to reconvene the Geneva Talks 971 01:04:21,832 --> 01:04:24,765 that had divided Vietnam in 1954, 972 01:04:24,866 --> 01:04:28,366 with the goal of reuniting it. 973 01:04:28,466 --> 01:04:31,565 JOHNSON: The people of South Vietnam be allowed to guide 974 01:04:31,665 --> 01:04:33,000 their own country... 975 01:04:33,100 --> 01:04:36,366 NARRATOR: On April 7, at Johns Hopkins University, 976 01:04:36,466 --> 01:04:38,665 Johnson sought to persuade the world 977 01:04:38,765 --> 01:04:41,033 of America's good intentions 978 01:04:41,132 --> 01:04:45,500 and again to calm American fears of a wider war. 979 01:04:47,100 --> 01:04:50,966 In recent months, attacks on South Vietnam were stepped up. 980 01:04:51,065 --> 01:04:55,933 Thus, it became necessary for us to increase our response 981 01:04:56,033 --> 01:04:59,232 and to make attacks by air. 982 01:04:59,332 --> 01:05:02,933 This is not a change of purpose. 983 01:05:03,033 --> 01:05:08,433 It is a change in what we believe that purpose requires. 984 01:05:08,533 --> 01:05:12,399 NARRATOR: Nothing was said about the new orders sending Marines 985 01:05:12,500 --> 01:05:15,065 directly into combat. 986 01:05:15,165 --> 01:05:19,866 Instead, the president called for "unconditional discussions" 987 01:05:19,966 --> 01:05:23,299 With Hanoi, and as an old New Dealer, 988 01:05:23,399 --> 01:05:26,132 proposed a massive development program 989 01:05:26,232 --> 01:05:28,200 for all of Southeast Asia. 990 01:05:28,299 --> 01:05:30,933 JOHNSON: The vast Mekong River can provide 991 01:05:31,033 --> 01:05:32,600 food and water and power 992 01:05:32,700 --> 01:05:36,200 on a scale to dwarf even our own TVA. 993 01:05:38,332 --> 01:05:40,466 BRADY: I was outside of the village. 994 01:05:40,565 --> 01:05:42,832 We're getting some fire from the village. 995 01:05:42,933 --> 01:05:45,165 I had the little transistor radio. 996 01:05:45,265 --> 01:05:48,332 And I'm sitting there listening to LBJ. 997 01:05:48,433 --> 01:05:50,299 JOHNSON:... will use our power with restraint 998 01:05:50,399 --> 01:05:52,399 and with all the wisdom... 999 01:05:52,500 --> 01:05:55,933 At the same time we got to lay some nape on the village. 1000 01:05:56,033 --> 01:05:57,832 So I'm calling in the nape 1001 01:05:57,933 --> 01:06:01,332 and listening to the president talk peace. 1002 01:06:01,433 --> 01:06:04,466 JOHNSON: We will try to keep conflict from spreading. 1003 01:06:04,565 --> 01:06:07,265 BRADY: It was surreal. 1004 01:06:07,366 --> 01:06:09,399 JOHNSON: We have no desire to devastate 1005 01:06:09,500 --> 01:06:13,732 that which the people of North Vietnam have built 1006 01:06:13,832 --> 01:06:17,000 with toil and sacrifice. 1007 01:06:17,100 --> 01:06:23,132 This war, like most wars, is filled with terrible irony. 1008 01:06:23,232 --> 01:06:24,933 What do the people of North Vietnam want? 1009 01:06:29,933 --> 01:06:34,000 NARRATOR: Hanoi denounced the president's offer as a trick. 1010 01:06:34,099 --> 01:06:37,099 Johnson's advisors and the Joint Chiefs of Staff 1011 01:06:37,200 --> 01:06:41,300 continued to debate how many men would actually be needed 1012 01:06:41,399 --> 01:06:44,700 and how rapidly they should be deployed. 1013 01:06:44,800 --> 01:06:49,166 Meanwhile, the president sent the first Army combat troops 1014 01:06:49,265 --> 01:06:50,465 to the country. 1015 01:06:50,565 --> 01:06:52,765 It was increasingly clear 1016 01:06:52,866 --> 01:06:56,666 that the United States was in it for the long haul. 1017 01:07:00,532 --> 01:07:07,765 You can't just be a neutral witness to something like war. 1018 01:07:15,565 --> 01:07:19,500 It crawls down your throat. 1019 01:07:19,599 --> 01:07:24,733 It eats you alive from the inside and the out. 1020 01:07:29,132 --> 01:07:33,800 It's not something that you can stand back and be neutral 1021 01:07:33,899 --> 01:07:40,166 and objective and all of those things we try to be 1022 01:07:40,265 --> 01:07:43,800 as reporters, journalists, photographers. 1023 01:07:46,399 --> 01:07:49,132 It doesn't work that way. 1024 01:07:51,632 --> 01:07:55,666 Real quick... and check it out... 1025 01:07:55,765 --> 01:07:59,465 NARRATOR: The growing presence of American combat troops in Vietnam 1026 01:07:59,565 --> 01:08:03,532 attracted flocks of journalists. 1027 01:08:03,632 --> 01:08:05,733 There was no press censorship, 1028 01:08:05,832 --> 01:08:09,166 as there had been in World War II. 1029 01:08:09,265 --> 01:08:13,565 Reporters just had to agree to follow military guidelines 1030 01:08:13,666 --> 01:08:16,000 so as not to compromise the security 1031 01:08:16,099 --> 01:08:18,366 of ongoing operations. 1032 01:08:18,465 --> 01:08:20,765 It was dangerous work. 1033 01:08:20,866 --> 01:08:25,200 More than 200 journalists and photographers would die 1034 01:08:25,300 --> 01:08:28,399 covering the fighting in Southeast Asia. 1035 01:08:28,500 --> 01:08:31,765 Joseph Lee Galloway was a young UPl reporter 1036 01:08:31,866 --> 01:08:35,166 from Refugio, Texas. 1037 01:08:35,265 --> 01:08:39,000 He stopped in Saigon just long enough to get his credentials. 1038 01:08:39,099 --> 01:08:42,099 Then he headed for Danang. 1039 01:08:42,200 --> 01:08:45,399 GALLOWAY: The Marines originally came ashore there 1040 01:08:45,500 --> 01:08:48,032 to guard the airbase. 1041 01:08:48,132 --> 01:08:54,132 And they quickly figured out you can't just guard an airbase. 1042 01:08:54,233 --> 01:08:55,965 You've got to spread out 1043 01:08:56,065 --> 01:08:57,409 because they're going to mortar it, 1044 01:08:57,433 --> 01:08:59,265 they're going to shoot rockets. 1045 01:08:59,366 --> 01:09:03,065 So you've got to reach out 15 or 20 miles. 1046 01:09:03,166 --> 01:09:07,099 That means you've got to run operations that far out. 1047 01:09:07,200 --> 01:09:08,666 And once you're doing that, 1048 01:09:08,765 --> 01:09:11,065 you're no longer guarding an airbase... 1049 01:09:12,965 --> 01:09:16,166 ...you're operating in hostile territory. 1050 01:09:46,700 --> 01:09:51,000 CAPUTO: It wasn't so much the Viet Cong that were intimidating 1051 01:09:51,099 --> 01:09:54,366 at that point as it was the terrain. 1052 01:09:54,465 --> 01:09:59,099 Going from Point A to Point B in the jungle 1053 01:09:59,200 --> 01:10:00,500 was so difficult. 1054 01:10:00,599 --> 01:10:04,933 As it happened to me once, it took four hours 1055 01:10:05,032 --> 01:10:07,132 to move a half a mile, 1056 01:10:07,233 --> 01:10:10,433 cutting through this bush with machetes. 1057 01:10:12,700 --> 01:10:18,599 GALLOWAY: The Viet Cong knew the terrain far better than the Marines did, 1058 01:10:18,700 --> 01:10:22,399 and ran circles around them. 1059 01:10:34,700 --> 01:10:40,032 Fort Dix, June 10, 1965. 1060 01:10:40,132 --> 01:10:41,700 Dear Mum, 1061 01:10:41,800 --> 01:10:45,700 Basic is now all over and I am presently waiting for orders. 1062 01:10:45,800 --> 01:10:48,000 Waiting for orders could be very dull 1063 01:10:48,099 --> 01:10:49,859 but I have found there are excellent chances 1064 01:10:49,933 --> 01:10:51,666 to do some reading. 1065 01:10:51,765 --> 01:10:53,933 Recently I have read Wuthering Heights, 1066 01:10:54,032 --> 01:10:58,800 Animal Farm, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, andLord Jim. 1067 01:10:58,899 --> 01:11:00,599 I hope you are all well. 1068 01:11:00,700 --> 01:11:02,200 Love, Mogie. 1069 01:11:04,000 --> 01:11:06,632 NARRATOR: Mogie Crocker was allowed two weeks at home 1070 01:11:06,733 --> 01:11:09,532 before shipping out to Vietnam. 1071 01:11:11,366 --> 01:11:13,209 JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: We were at dinner one evening 1072 01:11:13,233 --> 01:11:16,500 just talking, I guess, in generalities about the war 1073 01:11:16,599 --> 01:11:18,832 and the general situation. 1074 01:11:18,933 --> 01:11:23,632 And Mogie said, "Of course if I were a Vietnamese, 1075 01:11:23,733 --> 01:11:26,532 I would be on the side of the Viet Cong." 1076 01:11:26,632 --> 01:11:30,366 That... I puzzled over that. 1077 01:11:30,465 --> 01:11:33,800 I suppose relating like to our American Revolution 1078 01:11:33,899 --> 01:11:37,366 that he saw their need for their own freedom. 1079 01:11:37,465 --> 01:11:39,632 But as an American citizen, 1080 01:11:39,733 --> 01:11:44,532 he saw the larger picture of trying to prevent communism. 1081 01:11:44,632 --> 01:11:47,366 CAROL CROCKER: I remember one night in particular 1082 01:11:47,465 --> 01:11:49,132 he and I were up late. 1083 01:11:49,233 --> 01:11:54,300 And he suddenly leaned his head in his hands. 1084 01:11:54,399 --> 01:11:57,532 And he said, "I don't want to go back." 1085 01:11:58,765 --> 01:12:01,099 I was dumbstruck. 1086 01:12:01,200 --> 01:12:06,800 And said to him, "But this is what you want to do." 1087 01:12:06,899 --> 01:12:10,332 It had never occurred to me that he was torn about this, 1088 01:12:10,433 --> 01:12:13,899 that he was afraid and yet was determined to go. 1089 01:12:22,000 --> 01:12:24,399 ["Play With Fire" by the Rolling Stones playing] 1090 01:12:24,500 --> 01:12:28,265 NARRATOR: In South Vietnam, things were steadily growing worse. 1091 01:12:30,366 --> 01:12:32,866 JAGGER: ? Well, you've got your diamond. ? 1092 01:12:32,965 --> 01:12:36,032 NARRATOR: In May, the Viet Cong, 1093 01:12:36,132 --> 01:12:39,832 supported now by four regiments of North Vietnamese regulars... 1094 01:12:39,933 --> 01:12:42,433 approximately 5,000 men... 1095 01:12:42,532 --> 01:12:46,300 were destroying the equivalent of a South Vietnamese battalion 1096 01:12:46,399 --> 01:12:48,132 every week. 1097 01:12:48,233 --> 01:12:50,065 JAGGER: ? But don't play with me 1098 01:12:50,166 --> 01:12:52,300 ? Because you're playing with fire. ? 1099 01:12:52,399 --> 01:12:57,399 NARRATOR: South Vietnam now seemed only weeks from complete collapse. 1100 01:12:57,500 --> 01:13:01,166 Desperate, General Westmoreland requested 1101 01:13:01,265 --> 01:13:06,233 tens of thousands of more American troops right away. 1102 01:13:06,332 --> 01:13:09,065 But neither the continuing bombing 1103 01:13:09,166 --> 01:13:12,866 nor the growing likelihood of full-scale American intervention 1104 01:13:12,965 --> 01:13:16,265 seemed to intimidate Hanoi. 1105 01:13:16,366 --> 01:13:19,233 Le Duan, having failed to win the war 1106 01:13:19,332 --> 01:13:22,032 before the United States sent in ground troops, 1107 01:13:22,132 --> 01:13:25,265 was now persuaded the American public, 1108 01:13:25,366 --> 01:13:28,800 like the French public before them, would eventually weary 1109 01:13:28,899 --> 01:13:34,532 of a costly, bloody war being waged so far from home. 1110 01:13:34,632 --> 01:13:39,700 By contrast, he said, "The North will not count the cost." 1111 01:13:39,800 --> 01:13:42,366 Le Duan's confidence was bolstered 1112 01:13:42,465 --> 01:13:45,032 by the help American intervention had forced 1113 01:13:45,132 --> 01:13:48,700 the Soviet Union and China to offer him. 1114 01:13:48,800 --> 01:13:52,965 Moscow agreed to supply vast amounts of modern weaponry 1115 01:13:53,065 --> 01:13:54,433 and materiel. 1116 01:13:54,532 --> 01:13:59,366 Hanoi would eventually become the most heavily defended city 1117 01:13:59,465 --> 01:14:00,733 on Earth. 1118 01:14:00,832 --> 01:14:03,965 And China agreed to send support troops, 1119 01:14:04,065 --> 01:14:07,300 freeing North Vietnamese soldiers for combat 1120 01:14:07,399 --> 01:14:08,965 in the South. 1121 01:14:09,065 --> 01:14:14,265 320,000 Chinese would eventually serve behind the lines 1122 01:14:14,366 --> 01:14:17,465 in the North. 1123 01:14:17,565 --> 01:14:19,666 "We will fight," Le Duan promised, 1124 01:14:19,765 --> 01:14:23,032 "whatever way the United States wants." 1125 01:14:24,200 --> 01:14:27,433 JOHN NEGROPONTE: In June of 1965, 1126 01:14:27,532 --> 01:14:30,000 Secretary McNamara, the Secretary of Defense, 1127 01:14:30,099 --> 01:14:31,366 came out to Saigon. 1128 01:14:31,465 --> 01:14:35,000 There were a lot of captains and majors and lieutenants. 1129 01:14:35,099 --> 01:14:39,065 And every person said to Mr. McNamara, 1130 01:14:39,166 --> 01:14:41,565 "The situation is so dire 1131 01:14:41,666 --> 01:14:44,366 we must bring in United States forces." 1132 01:14:44,465 --> 01:14:47,366 So, whatever doubts we may have had, 1133 01:14:47,465 --> 01:14:49,265 whatever people may say after the fact, 1134 01:14:49,366 --> 01:14:52,166 I recall distinctly at the time 1135 01:14:52,265 --> 01:14:55,065 telling the Secretary of Defense that I thought we needed 1136 01:14:55,166 --> 01:14:56,233 to bring troops in there. 1137 01:14:57,532 --> 01:14:58,899 NARRATOR: For three weeks, 1138 01:14:59,000 --> 01:15:02,300 the president and his advisors argued over how to respond 1139 01:15:02,399 --> 01:15:06,000 to Westmoreland's urgent request for more troops, 1140 01:15:06,099 --> 01:15:10,666 differing mostly over how many should be sent how fast. 1141 01:15:10,765 --> 01:15:15,265 Undersecretary of State George Ball made the argument 1142 01:15:15,366 --> 01:15:18,032 against further escalation. 1143 01:15:18,132 --> 01:15:22,099 He told the president the war could not be won. 1144 01:15:22,200 --> 01:15:25,233 The American people will grow weary of it. 1145 01:15:25,332 --> 01:15:27,399 Our troops will get bogged down 1146 01:15:27,500 --> 01:15:29,933 "in the jungles and rice paddies," he warned, 1147 01:15:30,032 --> 01:15:33,599 "while we slowly blow the country to pieces." 1148 01:15:33,700 --> 01:15:36,065 No one else agreed. 1149 01:15:36,166 --> 01:15:39,265 JAGGER: ? But don't play with me... 1150 01:15:39,366 --> 01:15:44,832 NARRATOR: In the end, Johnson sent Westmoreland 50,000 men. 1151 01:15:44,933 --> 01:15:50,366 But he pledged another 50,000 by the end of 1965, 1152 01:15:50,465 --> 01:15:53,399 and still more if they were needed. 1153 01:15:53,500 --> 01:15:55,866 JAGGER: ? Because you're playing with fire. ? 1154 01:15:57,599 --> 01:16:01,532 SOLDIERS: ? Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die ? 1155 01:16:30,166 --> 01:16:31,899 MAN: Hold your fire! 1156 01:16:32,000 --> 01:16:33,132 Hold your fire. 1157 01:16:34,332 --> 01:16:36,000 JOHN SCALl: Does the fact 1158 01:16:36,099 --> 01:16:39,032 that you are sending additional forces to Vietnam 1159 01:16:39,132 --> 01:16:42,065 imply any change in the existing policy 1160 01:16:42,166 --> 01:16:45,700 of using American forces to guard American installations 1161 01:16:45,800 --> 01:16:47,965 and to act as an emergency backup? 1162 01:16:48,065 --> 01:16:51,265 It does not imply any change in policy whatever. 1163 01:16:51,366 --> 01:16:54,366 It does not imply any change of objective. 1164 01:16:54,465 --> 01:16:55,565 Uh... 1165 01:16:57,765 --> 01:16:59,666 LOU CIOFFl: The month of June saw soldiers here 1166 01:16:59,765 --> 01:17:00,965 taking what appears to be... 1167 01:17:01,065 --> 01:17:03,599 NARRATOR: Most television reports from Vietnam 1168 01:17:03,700 --> 01:17:07,032 echoed the newsreels Americans had flocked to see 1169 01:17:07,132 --> 01:17:11,465 during the Second World War... enthusiastic, unquestioning, 1170 01:17:11,565 --> 01:17:16,465 good guys fighting and defeating bad guys. 1171 01:17:16,565 --> 01:17:20,933 But at dinnertime on August 5, 1965, 1172 01:17:21,032 --> 01:17:23,832 Americans saw another side of the war. 1173 01:17:25,465 --> 01:17:28,065 MORLEY SAFER: We're on the outskirts of the village of Cam Ne 1174 01:17:28,166 --> 01:17:29,933 with elements of the 1st Battalion... 1175 01:17:30,032 --> 01:17:33,500 NARRATOR: CBS correspondent Morley Safer and his crew 1176 01:17:33,599 --> 01:17:36,832 went on patrol with Marines near Danang. 1177 01:17:36,933 --> 01:17:40,032 Their orders were first to search a cluster 1178 01:17:40,132 --> 01:17:44,032 of four villages for caches of arms and rice 1179 01:17:44,132 --> 01:17:48,965 meant for the enemy and then to destroy them all. 1180 01:17:52,332 --> 01:17:55,366 This is what the war in Vietnam is all about. 1181 01:17:59,233 --> 01:18:02,666 The old and the very young. 1182 01:18:02,765 --> 01:18:05,532 The Marines have burned 1183 01:18:05,632 --> 01:18:07,532 this old couple's cottage 1184 01:18:07,632 --> 01:18:09,399 because fire was coming from here. 1185 01:18:09,500 --> 01:18:11,132 And now when you walk into the village 1186 01:18:11,233 --> 01:18:12,899 you see no young people at all. 1187 01:18:17,632 --> 01:18:20,800 The day's operation burned down 150 houses, 1188 01:18:20,899 --> 01:18:24,132 wounded three women, killed one baby, 1189 01:18:24,233 --> 01:18:29,666 wounded one Marine, and netted these four prisoners. 1190 01:18:29,765 --> 01:18:32,733 Today's operation is the frustration of Vietnam 1191 01:18:32,832 --> 01:18:34,632 in miniature. 1192 01:18:34,733 --> 01:18:37,065 There is little doubt that American firepower 1193 01:18:37,166 --> 01:18:39,399 can win a military victory here. 1194 01:18:39,500 --> 01:18:44,265 But to a Vietnamese peasant whose home is a... 1195 01:18:44,366 --> 01:18:46,599 means a lifetime of backbreaking labor, 1196 01:18:46,700 --> 01:18:49,500 it will take more than presidential promises 1197 01:18:49,599 --> 01:18:52,465 to convince him that we are on his side. 1198 01:18:54,200 --> 01:18:56,120 NARRATOR: The next morning, the president called 1199 01:18:56,166 --> 01:19:00,366 his friend Frank Stanton, the head of CBS. 1200 01:19:00,465 --> 01:19:03,632 "Hello, Frank, this is your president. 1201 01:19:03,733 --> 01:19:05,899 Are you trying to fuck me?" 1202 01:19:07,332 --> 01:19:10,700 Safer had defaced the American flag, Johnson said. 1203 01:19:10,800 --> 01:19:15,166 He was probably an agent of the Kremlin, had to be fired. 1204 01:19:15,265 --> 01:19:19,433 The Marines claimed Safer had provided a zippo lighter 1205 01:19:19,532 --> 01:19:23,300 and asked the Marines to burn the hut for the camera. 1206 01:19:23,399 --> 01:19:25,700 A major at the Danang Marine press office 1207 01:19:25,800 --> 01:19:29,832 called CBS the "Communist Broadcasting System." 1208 01:19:30,965 --> 01:19:32,366 But after the operation, 1209 01:19:32,465 --> 01:19:37,733 Safer interviewed some of the Marines who'd burned Cam Ne. 1210 01:19:37,832 --> 01:19:40,065 Do you ever have any private thoughts, 1211 01:19:40,166 --> 01:19:42,666 any private regrets about some of these people 1212 01:19:42,765 --> 01:19:44,065 you are leaving homeless? 1213 01:19:44,166 --> 01:19:45,399 I feel no remorse. 1214 01:19:45,500 --> 01:19:46,676 I don't imagine anybody else does. 1215 01:19:46,700 --> 01:19:47,940 You can't expect to do your job 1216 01:19:48,000 --> 01:19:49,399 and feel pity for these people. 1217 01:19:51,500 --> 01:19:53,800 NARRATOR: When some viewers registered their shock, 1218 01:19:53,899 --> 01:19:57,933 Westmoreland admitted, "We have a genuine problem 1219 01:19:58,032 --> 01:20:01,899 "which will be with us as long as we are in Vietnam. 1220 01:20:02,000 --> 01:20:07,032 "Commanders must exercise restraint unnatural to war 1221 01:20:07,132 --> 01:20:11,000 and judgment not often required of young men." 1222 01:20:17,200 --> 01:20:19,933 CAPUTO: You kind of thought at first 1223 01:20:20,032 --> 01:20:22,666 that it was going to be like the Gis, you know, 1224 01:20:22,765 --> 01:20:25,399 rolling through Paris after the liberation. 1225 01:20:27,532 --> 01:20:30,300 Well, you know, it sure didn't work out that way. 1226 01:20:32,433 --> 01:20:34,666 I can remember once going in this one ville. 1227 01:20:34,765 --> 01:20:38,032 And I remember finding this entire Vietnamese family 1228 01:20:38,132 --> 01:20:40,899 cowering in a bunker. 1229 01:20:42,200 --> 01:20:44,532 And they were terrified of us. 1230 01:20:48,200 --> 01:20:50,765 And I remember thinking to myself, I said, 1231 01:20:50,866 --> 01:20:55,032 "Well, I wonder if back in the colonial days, 1232 01:20:55,132 --> 01:20:58,233 "when the Redcoats barged into Ipswich, Massachusetts, 1233 01:20:58,332 --> 01:20:59,366 "or wherever, 1234 01:20:59,465 --> 01:21:03,065 "if this is how Americans must have felt 1235 01:21:03,166 --> 01:21:06,733 looking at these foreign soldiers coming in here." 1236 01:21:06,832 --> 01:21:08,108 FREDERICK ACKERSON: The Viet Cong 1237 01:21:08,132 --> 01:21:13,465 have terrorized you, and have burned your homes. 1238 01:21:13,565 --> 01:21:16,599 We are here to help you. 1239 01:21:16,700 --> 01:21:20,965 To show how much we are able to protect you, 1240 01:21:21,065 --> 01:21:26,300 we are going to have the Air Force 1241 01:21:26,399 --> 01:21:31,565 hit some Viet Cong on the other side of the valley. 1242 01:21:31,666 --> 01:21:33,532 That will be at 10:30. 1243 01:21:56,500 --> 01:21:58,565 Dear Mum and Dad, 1244 01:21:58,666 --> 01:22:01,733 I am now with the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division 1245 01:22:01,832 --> 01:22:03,632 in Vietnam. 1246 01:22:09,733 --> 01:22:11,565 What is taking place in America? 1247 01:22:11,666 --> 01:22:14,532 We who are in Vietnam find these protests 1248 01:22:14,632 --> 01:22:16,300 very hard to comprehend, 1249 01:22:16,399 --> 01:22:19,965 and many people here are quite bitter about them. 1250 01:22:20,065 --> 01:22:23,433 DONOVAN: ? Let me tell you the story in South Vietnam. ? 1251 01:22:23,532 --> 01:22:25,176 Belief I have in our present policy 1252 01:22:25,200 --> 01:22:29,065 has been completely confirmed by what I have seen here. 1253 01:22:29,166 --> 01:22:32,200 My chief worry is that these pacifist bleatings 1254 01:22:32,300 --> 01:22:35,200 might effect even a small change in government policy 1255 01:22:35,300 --> 01:22:37,965 at a time when we appear close to success. 1256 01:22:38,065 --> 01:22:42,666 DONOVAN: ? And the war drags on. 1257 01:22:44,800 --> 01:22:49,032 JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: As Vietnam began to be more and more chaotic, 1258 01:22:49,132 --> 01:22:53,765 I certainly wondered very much whether we should be there. 1259 01:22:53,866 --> 01:22:56,265 But I never expressed that to him. 1260 01:22:56,366 --> 01:22:59,733 That's one of those conflicts that's just too difficult 1261 01:22:59,832 --> 01:23:02,500 to bring up, or at least it was for me. 1262 01:23:08,800 --> 01:23:14,500 CASH: ? Now I taught the weeping willow how to cry ? 1263 01:23:14,599 --> 01:23:19,500 ? And I showed the clouds how to cover up a clear blue sky. ? 1264 01:23:19,599 --> 01:23:21,532 GALLOWAY: We were all excited about the arrival 1265 01:23:21,632 --> 01:23:26,265 of the 1st Cavalry Division, an experimental unit. 1266 01:23:26,366 --> 01:23:30,565 They've been trained in air-mobile warfare 1267 01:23:30,666 --> 01:23:37,265 using these helicopters to the absolute maximum benefit. 1268 01:23:37,366 --> 01:23:43,332 They're moving their artillery by helicopter, jumping it, 1269 01:23:43,433 --> 01:23:48,332 leapfrogging troops, chasing the enemy, driving him crazy. 1270 01:23:50,632 --> 01:23:52,632 This is something new, 1271 01:23:52,733 --> 01:23:56,399 and it's going to change the way we do war. 1272 01:23:56,500 --> 01:23:59,166 CASH: ? I found her trail in Memphis... ? 1273 01:23:59,265 --> 01:24:01,832 NARRATOR: In September of 1965, 1274 01:24:01,933 --> 01:24:04,532 the newly created 1st Cavalry Division... 1275 01:24:04,632 --> 01:24:12,632 16,000 men, 1,600 vehicles, 435 helicopters... 1276 01:24:13,099 --> 01:24:17,933 had begun arriving at An Khe, a massive base carved out 1277 01:24:18,032 --> 01:24:20,899 of the grasslands at the edge of the Central Highlands. 1278 01:24:22,433 --> 01:24:25,765 Its heliport would come to be called the "Golf Course." 1279 01:24:29,433 --> 01:24:32,965 As the 1st Cavalry got used to its new surroundings, 1280 01:24:33,065 --> 01:24:36,832 thousands of North Vietnamese regulars were slipping south 1281 01:24:36,933 --> 01:24:40,300 into the Highlands along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, 1282 01:24:40,399 --> 01:24:43,800 joining Viet Cong units already in place. 1283 01:24:43,899 --> 01:24:47,233 They established their own base on and around 1284 01:24:47,332 --> 01:24:50,599 a jumble of thickly forested mountains and ravines 1285 01:24:50,700 --> 01:24:53,433 south of the la Drang River. 1286 01:24:53,532 --> 01:24:56,099 On the evening of October 19, 1287 01:24:56,200 --> 01:24:59,366 communist commandos slipped to within 40 yards 1288 01:24:59,465 --> 01:25:03,032 of the perimeter wire of the U.S. Special Forces outpost 1289 01:25:03,132 --> 01:25:04,500 at Plei Me, 1290 01:25:04,599 --> 01:25:09,233 which was defended by a 12-man team of U.S. Green Berets, 1291 01:25:09,332 --> 01:25:15,200 14 ARVN, and some 400 mountain tribesmen. 1292 01:25:21,265 --> 01:25:23,965 Nine of the 12 Green Berets were hit. 1293 01:25:24,065 --> 01:25:26,800 They managed to hold out for two days 1294 01:25:26,899 --> 01:25:33,300 before 15 more Green Berets and 160 South Vietnamese Rangers 1295 01:25:33,399 --> 01:25:37,965 were helicoptered in, commanded by Major Charles Beckwith, 1296 01:25:38,065 --> 01:25:42,065 known to his fellow soldiers as Chargin' Charlie. 1297 01:25:43,166 --> 01:25:44,500 The next day, 1298 01:25:44,599 --> 01:25:47,166 Joe Galloway managed to talk a helicopter pilot 1299 01:25:47,265 --> 01:25:50,666 into flying him into the besieged camp. 1300 01:25:50,765 --> 01:25:55,565 GALLOWAY: That's where I met Major Charles Beckwith. 1301 01:25:55,666 --> 01:25:59,032 He said, "I need everything in the world. 1302 01:25:59,132 --> 01:26:03,065 "And what has the Army in its wisdom sent me 1303 01:26:03,166 --> 01:26:06,265 but a godforsaken reporter?" 1304 01:26:06,366 --> 01:26:09,399 He drug me over and showed me 1305 01:26:09,500 --> 01:26:13,265 a 30-caliber air-cooled machine gun. 1306 01:26:13,366 --> 01:26:15,965 He showed me how to load it, how to clear a jam. 1307 01:26:16,065 --> 01:26:20,065 NARRATOR: "You can shoot the little brown men outside the wire," 1308 01:26:20,166 --> 01:26:22,065 Beckwith told Galloway. 1309 01:26:22,166 --> 01:26:24,099 "You may not shoot the little brown men 1310 01:26:24,200 --> 01:26:27,800 inside the wire; they are mine." 1311 01:26:27,899 --> 01:26:29,700 GALLOWAY: And I'm sitting there thinking, 1312 01:26:29,800 --> 01:26:32,632 "Ah, I'm a civilian noncombatant." 1313 01:26:32,733 --> 01:26:36,000 I tried that line on Beckwith and he said, 1314 01:26:36,099 --> 01:26:38,933 "Ain't no such thing in these mountains, son." 1315 01:26:39,032 --> 01:26:43,132 NARRATOR: For nearly a week, the North Vietnamese launched assault 1316 01:26:43,233 --> 01:26:45,866 after assault on Plei Me. 1317 01:26:45,965 --> 01:26:50,065 It was only after American bombs and napalm 1318 01:26:50,166 --> 01:26:53,265 turned the surrounding terrain into a moonscape 1319 01:26:53,366 --> 01:26:56,433 that the enemy withdrew. 1320 01:26:56,532 --> 01:27:00,500 JOHN LAURENCE: What kind of fighters are the Viet Cong that you met here? 1321 01:27:00,599 --> 01:27:06,332 I would give anything to have 200 of them under my command. 1322 01:27:06,433 --> 01:27:08,332 They're the finest soldiers I've ever seen. 1323 01:27:08,433 --> 01:27:09,632 The Viet Cong. 1324 01:27:09,733 --> 01:27:11,032 That's right. 1325 01:27:11,132 --> 01:27:12,875 They're dedicated, and they're good soldiers. 1326 01:27:12,899 --> 01:27:14,332 They're the best I've ever seen. 1327 01:27:17,300 --> 01:27:20,300 NARRATOR: Despite the losses his men had suffered at Plei Me, 1328 01:27:20,399 --> 01:27:23,733 the North Vietnamese commander, General Chu Huy Man, 1329 01:27:23,832 --> 01:27:25,733 was eager for another confrontation 1330 01:27:25,832 --> 01:27:27,599 with the Americans. 1331 01:27:27,700 --> 01:27:31,166 He was determined to learn how to fight them. 1332 01:27:31,265 --> 01:27:34,565 Reinforcements streaming down the Ho Chi Minh Trail 1333 01:27:34,666 --> 01:27:36,765 to the la Drang Valley included 1334 01:27:36,866 --> 01:27:41,000 a newly minted second lieutenant, Lo Khac Tam, 1335 01:27:41,099 --> 01:27:44,265 who had volunteered to fight in the South. 1336 01:28:05,800 --> 01:28:08,666 NARRATOR: On the morning of November 14, 1965, 1337 01:28:08,765 --> 01:28:12,899 1st Cavalry helicopters belonging to the 1st Battalion 1338 01:28:13,000 --> 01:28:15,099 of the 7th Regiment... 1339 01:28:15,200 --> 01:28:18,000 George Armstrong Custer's old outfit... 1340 01:28:18,099 --> 01:28:21,733 flew west along the la Drang toward the Chu Pong Massif, 1341 01:28:21,832 --> 01:28:23,733 looking for the enemy. 1342 01:28:25,899 --> 01:28:29,166 Their commander, Kentucky-born Korean-War veteran 1343 01:28:29,265 --> 01:28:31,366 Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore, 1344 01:28:31,465 --> 01:28:34,099 had been told there was a large enemy base camp 1345 01:28:34,200 --> 01:28:36,000 somewhere on its slopes. 1346 01:28:36,099 --> 01:28:39,832 His orders were to take his understrength outfit... 1347 01:28:39,933 --> 01:28:46,433 29 officers and just 411 men... find the enemy and kill him. 1348 01:28:46,532 --> 01:28:50,500 There were two clearings large enough for Moore to bring in 1349 01:28:50,599 --> 01:28:52,500 eight choppers at once. 1350 01:28:52,599 --> 01:28:57,532 He chose the one closest to the mountain... Landing Zone X-Ray. 1351 01:29:01,099 --> 01:29:04,500 Moore made a point of leading from the front. 1352 01:29:04,599 --> 01:29:07,300 He was the first man off the first chopper. 1353 01:29:11,832 --> 01:29:16,233 He sent four six-man squads 100 yards in every direction. 1354 01:29:16,332 --> 01:29:19,099 The la Drang Valley was so beautiful, 1355 01:29:19,200 --> 01:29:21,233 one soldier remembered, 1356 01:29:21,332 --> 01:29:24,399 it reminded him of a national park back home. 1357 01:29:24,500 --> 01:29:28,733 Within minutes, Moore's men captured a deserter. 1358 01:29:28,832 --> 01:29:30,265 Terrified and trembling, 1359 01:29:30,366 --> 01:29:33,166 he said there were three battalions of soldiers 1360 01:29:33,265 --> 01:29:36,800 on the mountain... 1,600 men. 1361 01:29:36,899 --> 01:29:39,700 They wanted very much to kill Americans, he said, 1362 01:29:39,800 --> 01:29:43,465 but so far had been unable to find any. 1363 01:29:43,565 --> 01:29:46,500 Moore quickly set up a command post 1364 01:29:46,599 --> 01:29:50,866 behind one of the huge termite mounds that dotted the clearing. 1365 01:29:50,965 --> 01:29:53,132 It would take until mid-afternoon 1366 01:29:53,233 --> 01:29:56,666 for all of his men to be ferried in. 1367 01:29:57,832 --> 01:29:59,733 He had no time to waste. 1368 01:29:59,832 --> 01:30:02,265 "We needed to get off the landing zone 1369 01:30:02,366 --> 01:30:06,465 and get at them before they could hit us," Moore remembered. 1370 01:30:06,565 --> 01:30:10,532 He sent two companies up the slope toward the hidden enemy. 1371 01:30:10,632 --> 01:30:14,332 Most of the North Vietnamese, like the Americans, 1372 01:30:14,433 --> 01:30:16,065 were new to combat. 1373 01:30:17,532 --> 01:30:19,800 They were ordered to fix bayonets. 1374 01:30:34,500 --> 01:30:37,300 NARRATOR: Colonel Moore had no way of knowing 1375 01:30:37,399 --> 01:30:40,800 that instead of 1,600 enemy soldiers on the mountain, 1376 01:30:40,899 --> 01:30:46,565 there were 3,000... seven times his strength. 1377 01:31:00,832 --> 01:31:03,500 Within minutes, the Americans found themselves 1378 01:31:03,599 --> 01:31:08,032 under attack from hundreds of North Vietnamese soldiers. 1379 01:31:08,132 --> 01:31:11,632 In the fighting, an overeager second lieutenant 1380 01:31:11,733 --> 01:31:14,765 led his platoon of 28 men too far away 1381 01:31:14,866 --> 01:31:18,265 from the rest of his company and was surrounded. 1382 01:31:20,866 --> 01:31:22,465 The lieutenant was killed. 1383 01:31:22,565 --> 01:31:26,733 The sergeant who took his place was shot through the head. 1384 01:31:26,832 --> 01:31:31,366 By late afternoon, only seven of the trapped platoon's men 1385 01:31:31,465 --> 01:31:34,765 were still capable of firing back. 1386 01:31:43,399 --> 01:31:48,032 Moore was now engaged in three simultaneous struggles... 1387 01:31:48,132 --> 01:31:52,132 to defend the landing zone, attack the North Vietnamese, 1388 01:31:52,233 --> 01:31:56,099 and find a way to rescue his trapped patrol. 1389 01:31:59,032 --> 01:32:03,166 That night, Joe Galloway again managed to talk his way 1390 01:32:03,265 --> 01:32:06,000 onto a chopper taking ammunition and water 1391 01:32:06,099 --> 01:32:07,899 to the besieged Americans. 1392 01:32:08,000 --> 01:32:11,132 As the helicopter approached the battlefield, 1393 01:32:11,233 --> 01:32:13,765 Galloway was sitting on a crate of grenades, 1394 01:32:13,866 --> 01:32:17,132 peering out into the darkness. 1395 01:32:17,233 --> 01:32:22,200 GALLOWAY: And I could see these little pin pricks of light 1396 01:32:22,300 --> 01:32:24,866 coming down the mountain. 1397 01:32:24,965 --> 01:32:29,765 This was the enemy approaching for the next day's attacks. 1398 01:32:31,366 --> 01:32:34,132 We flew in there. 1399 01:32:34,233 --> 01:32:38,399 As they pulled on out, it was dead dark. 1400 01:32:38,500 --> 01:32:41,666 And we're lying there waiting for someone to come tell us 1401 01:32:41,765 --> 01:32:43,032 what to do. 1402 01:32:46,166 --> 01:32:51,065 And the next morning, all of a sudden the bottom fell out. 1403 01:32:55,399 --> 01:32:59,433 There was an explosion of fire. 1404 01:33:00,866 --> 01:33:05,366 The noise is horrendous, unimaginable. 1405 01:33:17,666 --> 01:33:20,433 And in the middle of all of this, you know, 1406 01:33:20,532 --> 01:33:23,300 I-l just flattened out on the ground 1407 01:33:23,399 --> 01:33:27,565 because all that was being fired seemed to be about two, 1408 01:33:27,666 --> 01:33:30,965 two-and-a-half feet off the ground. 1409 01:33:37,965 --> 01:33:40,733 NARRATOR: Hundreds of enemy soldiers hurled themselves 1410 01:33:40,832 --> 01:33:42,132 at the Americans. 1411 01:33:43,632 --> 01:33:47,399 They wore webbed helmets camouflaged with grass, 1412 01:33:47,500 --> 01:33:52,332 and as they came, blowing whistles, screaming, 1413 01:33:52,433 --> 01:33:56,632 they looked like "little trees," one American remembered. 1414 01:33:56,733 --> 01:33:59,433 They were trying to overrun us. 1415 01:33:59,532 --> 01:34:01,765 And they came close. 1416 01:34:01,866 --> 01:34:04,065 They came close. 1417 01:34:20,032 --> 01:34:23,399 But we had two things going for us. 1418 01:34:24,733 --> 01:34:28,132 We had a great commander and great soldiers. 1419 01:34:28,233 --> 01:34:34,733 And we had air and artillery support out the yin-yang. 1420 01:34:34,832 --> 01:34:37,500 We had it, and they didn't. 1421 01:34:41,465 --> 01:34:46,200 NARRATOR: But using that air and artillery support could be dangerous. 1422 01:34:46,300 --> 01:34:50,233 Each of Moore's units carefully marked its position with smoke 1423 01:34:50,332 --> 01:34:53,233 to keep from being mistaken for the enemy 1424 01:34:53,332 --> 01:34:55,599 by American airmen overhead. 1425 01:35:07,132 --> 01:35:11,132 NARRATOR: Some 18,000 artillery shells would be called in 1426 01:35:11,233 --> 01:35:12,500 over the course of the battle, 1427 01:35:12,599 --> 01:35:17,565 some of them landing just 25 yards from Moore's own men. 1428 01:35:17,666 --> 01:35:23,132 Helicopter gunships fired 3,000 rockets into the enemy. 1429 01:35:23,233 --> 01:35:25,666 The forward air controller 1430 01:35:25,765 --> 01:35:29,300 called for every available aircraft in South Vietnam 1431 01:35:29,399 --> 01:35:30,866 to come and help. 1432 01:35:30,965 --> 01:35:36,433 Warplanes, including B-52 long-range strategic bombers, 1433 01:35:36,532 --> 01:35:40,666 were stacked at 1,000-foot intervals above the battlefield, 1434 01:35:40,765 --> 01:35:43,899 from 7,000 to 35,000 feet, 1435 01:35:44,000 --> 01:35:48,433 impatiently awaiting targets to strafe or bomb or burn. 1436 01:35:50,765 --> 01:35:55,433 "By God," Moore said, "they sent us over here to kill communists 1437 01:35:55,532 --> 01:35:57,032 and that's what we're doing." 1438 01:36:03,200 --> 01:36:04,899 I looked up... 1439 01:36:06,765 --> 01:36:14,065 and there were two jets aiming directly at our command post. 1440 01:36:14,166 --> 01:36:20,300 He's dropped two cans of napalm and it's coming toward us, 1441 01:36:20,399 --> 01:36:24,332 loblolly, end over end. 1442 01:36:24,433 --> 01:36:29,132 And these kids, two or three of 'em, plus a sergeant, 1443 01:36:29,233 --> 01:36:33,465 had dug a hole or two over on the edge. 1444 01:36:33,565 --> 01:36:38,500 And I looked as the thing exploded... 1445 01:36:42,632 --> 01:36:47,200 And two of them were dancing in that fire. 1446 01:36:47,300 --> 01:36:51,132 And there's a rush, a roar, 1447 01:36:51,233 --> 01:36:55,300 from the air that's being consumed 1448 01:36:55,399 --> 01:37:01,332 and drawn in as this-this hell come to earth 1449 01:37:01,433 --> 01:37:03,099 is burning there. 1450 01:37:03,200 --> 01:37:08,366 And as that dies back a little, then you can hear the screams. 1451 01:37:10,565 --> 01:37:15,500 And someone yells, "Get this man's feet." 1452 01:37:15,599 --> 01:37:22,465 And I reach down and the boots crumble, 1453 01:37:22,565 --> 01:37:26,666 and the flesh is cooked off of his ankles. 1454 01:37:26,765 --> 01:37:30,866 And I feel those bones in the palms of my hands. 1455 01:37:30,965 --> 01:37:33,666 I can feel it now. 1456 01:37:35,065 --> 01:37:37,666 He died two days later. 1457 01:37:37,765 --> 01:37:42,099 A kid named Jim Nakayama out of Rigby, Idaho. 1458 01:37:56,733 --> 01:37:59,300 NARRATOR: By 10:00 that morning, 1459 01:37:59,399 --> 01:38:03,065 American airpower had beaten back the enemy assault. 1460 01:38:04,433 --> 01:38:06,565 The survivors from the trapped platoon 1461 01:38:06,666 --> 01:38:08,700 were rescued that afternoon. 1462 01:38:08,800 --> 01:38:12,565 They had been pinned to the ground and under fire 1463 01:38:12,666 --> 01:38:15,433 for so long that they had to be coaxed 1464 01:38:15,532 --> 01:38:17,765 into getting to their feet again. 1465 01:38:24,399 --> 01:38:26,433 On the morning of the next day, 1466 01:38:26,532 --> 01:38:29,899 enemy soldiers hurled themselves against the same sector 1467 01:38:30,000 --> 01:38:33,099 of Moore's line four more times 1468 01:38:33,200 --> 01:38:36,599 and were obliterated by artillery and machine gun fire. 1469 01:38:38,800 --> 01:38:41,565 The surviving North Vietnamese and Viet Cong 1470 01:38:41,666 --> 01:38:43,666 withdrew into the forest, 1471 01:38:43,765 --> 01:38:46,632 leaving behind a ghastly ring of their dead 1472 01:38:46,733 --> 01:38:48,532 surrounding the landing zone... 1473 01:38:48,632 --> 01:38:54,965 634 corpses, shot, blasted, blackened by fire. 1474 01:39:20,666 --> 01:39:23,565 NARRATOR: After three days and two nights of combat, 1475 01:39:23,666 --> 01:39:26,832 helicopters began lifting out the American survivors 1476 01:39:26,933 --> 01:39:29,800 and gathering up the dead. 1477 01:39:29,899 --> 01:39:31,565 SOLDIER: When you look at them, 1478 01:39:31,666 --> 01:39:34,800 it doesn't even resemble a human body. 1479 01:39:34,899 --> 01:39:38,065 It just, it looks just like a mannequin. 1480 01:39:38,166 --> 01:39:41,032 You look at them and say, "That couldn't happen to me." 1481 01:39:43,866 --> 01:39:46,866 SHEEHAN: I saw them fight at la Drang. 1482 01:39:46,965 --> 01:39:49,965 It always galls me when I read or hear 1483 01:39:50,065 --> 01:39:52,166 about the World War Il generation 1484 01:39:52,265 --> 01:39:54,065 as the greatest generation. 1485 01:39:54,166 --> 01:39:57,099 These kids were just as gallant and as courageous 1486 01:39:57,200 --> 01:39:59,399 as anybody who fought in World War II. 1487 01:40:01,000 --> 01:40:03,800 NARRATOR: Seventy-nine of Hal Moore's men lost their lives 1488 01:40:03,899 --> 01:40:07,332 at Landing Zone X-Ray in the la Drang Valley 1489 01:40:07,433 --> 01:40:12,733 and another 121 were wounded. 1490 01:40:12,832 --> 01:40:16,200 Please convey to the American people 1491 01:40:16,300 --> 01:40:20,433 what a tremendous fighting man we have here. 1492 01:40:20,532 --> 01:40:25,899 He's courageous, he's aggressive, and he's kind. 1493 01:40:26,000 --> 01:40:29,765 And he'll go where you tell him to go. 1494 01:40:29,866 --> 01:40:32,366 And he's got self-discipline. 1495 01:40:32,465 --> 01:40:35,733 And he's got good unit discipline. 1496 01:40:35,832 --> 01:40:38,032 He's just an outstanding man. 1497 01:40:38,132 --> 01:40:39,632 And... 1498 01:40:41,132 --> 01:40:44,099 Having commanded this battalion for 18 months... 1499 01:40:46,800 --> 01:40:48,666 You must excuse my emotion here, 1500 01:40:48,765 --> 01:40:54,300 but when I see some of these men go out the way they have... 1501 01:41:02,032 --> 01:41:04,065 I haven't... 1502 01:41:04,166 --> 01:41:06,465 I can't tell you how highly I feel for them. 1503 01:41:06,565 --> 01:41:09,200 They're tremendous. 1504 01:41:09,300 --> 01:41:11,565 NARRATOR: Hal Moore refused to leave 1505 01:41:11,666 --> 01:41:16,300 until every single man in his command had been accounted for. 1506 01:41:16,399 --> 01:41:21,500 He had been the first of his men to step onto Landing Zone X-Ray, 1507 01:41:21,599 --> 01:41:24,866 and he made sure he was the last to leave it. 1508 01:42:01,800 --> 01:42:04,399 NARRATOR: The North Vietnamese suffered terrible losses 1509 01:42:04,500 --> 01:42:05,933 in the la Drang Valley 1510 01:42:06,032 --> 01:42:09,700 and many of the survivors were traumatized. 1511 01:42:09,800 --> 01:42:13,500 "The units were enveloped in an atmosphere of gloom," 1512 01:42:13,599 --> 01:42:15,565 A North Vietnamese colonel remembered. 1513 01:42:15,666 --> 01:42:19,965 Some men would not leave their rope hammocks. 1514 01:42:20,065 --> 01:42:22,000 Some refused to wash. 1515 01:42:22,099 --> 01:42:27,300 One soldier wrote a poem expressive of their plight: 1516 01:42:27,399 --> 01:42:30,065 "The crab lies still on the chopping block 1517 01:42:30,166 --> 01:42:34,200 Never knowing when the knife will fall." 1518 01:42:39,933 --> 01:42:45,632 GALLOWAY: In the la Drang we killed ten of them for every one of us. 1519 01:42:47,300 --> 01:42:51,433 That's a ten-to-one kill ratio is how the military puts that. 1520 01:42:54,832 --> 01:43:01,200 But the enemy, he was fully prepared to pay that price 1521 01:43:01,300 --> 01:43:05,666 and more for the value of the lessons he learned. 1522 01:43:21,465 --> 01:43:24,500 JOE GALLOWAY: Grab 'em by the belt buckle. 1523 01:43:24,599 --> 01:43:27,933 That means you've got to get so close, 1524 01:43:28,032 --> 01:43:34,565 they can't use the artillery and the aerial bombardments on you 1525 01:43:34,666 --> 01:43:37,099 for fear of killing their own. 1526 01:43:37,200 --> 01:43:42,032 Get in so close that it's man-on-man. 1527 01:43:42,132 --> 01:43:45,200 And then everything is even. 1528 01:43:46,433 --> 01:43:49,866 The Vietnamese suffered hundreds of dead 1529 01:43:49,965 --> 01:43:52,800 attacking Hal Moore's battalion at LZ X-Ray. 1530 01:43:52,899 --> 01:43:58,632 But then they ambushed another battalion a couple of days later 1531 01:43:58,733 --> 01:44:01,899 and wiped it out. 1532 01:44:02,000 --> 01:44:04,565 NARRATOR: In the fighting near Landing Zone Albany, 1533 01:44:04,666 --> 01:44:08,565 the enemy had gotten too close for artillery to be called in. 1534 01:44:10,000 --> 01:44:16,300 Out of some 425 Americans involved, 155 were killed. 1535 01:44:16,399 --> 01:44:21,000 124 more were wounded. 1536 01:44:21,099 --> 01:44:25,933 Both sides claimed victory in the la Drang Valley. 1537 01:44:26,032 --> 01:44:28,765 The Americans talked up the number of enemy dead 1538 01:44:28,866 --> 01:44:30,465 at Landing Zone X-Ray. 1539 01:44:30,565 --> 01:44:32,700 The ratio of losses to your kill... 1540 01:44:34,200 --> 01:44:36,233 NARRATOR: The North Vietnamese took their lessons 1541 01:44:36,332 --> 01:44:38,465 from Landing Zone Albany. 1542 01:44:45,700 --> 01:44:48,000 WILLIAM WESTMORELAND: I don't anticipate 1543 01:44:48,099 --> 01:44:53,500 that this conflict will end any time soon, 1544 01:44:53,599 --> 01:44:58,166 and we could find that we have more difficult days ahead. 1545 01:44:58,265 --> 01:45:01,065 Certainly we must be prepared for this. 1546 01:45:08,800 --> 01:45:13,700 EHRHART: In the fall of my senior year, November 1965, 1547 01:45:13,800 --> 01:45:17,132 was that huge battle at the la Drang Valley, 1548 01:45:17,233 --> 01:45:20,132 which was the first time there was actually confirmed 1549 01:45:20,233 --> 01:45:22,632 North Vietnamese regular soldiers as opposed 1550 01:45:22,733 --> 01:45:24,366 to Viet Cong. 1551 01:45:24,465 --> 01:45:27,366 And of course my way of interpreting that was, 1552 01:45:27,465 --> 01:45:28,965 "There it is, that's the proof. 1553 01:45:29,065 --> 01:45:30,965 The North Vietnamese are the aggressors here." 1554 01:45:31,065 --> 01:45:35,465 And that's when I began thinking in terms of 1555 01:45:35,565 --> 01:45:37,965 maybe I don't want to go to college right away. 1556 01:45:38,065 --> 01:45:41,265 Maybe I'll join the Marines. 1557 01:45:41,366 --> 01:45:42,508 And it was always the Marines. 1558 01:45:42,532 --> 01:45:44,265 I never... there was no question. 1559 01:45:44,366 --> 01:45:46,008 The Marine Corps is full of little guys like me 1560 01:45:46,032 --> 01:45:47,200 with chips on our shoulder. 1561 01:45:47,300 --> 01:45:48,808 ["Eve of Destruction by Barry McGuire plays] 1562 01:45:48,832 --> 01:45:51,166 McGUIRE: ? The eastern world, it is explodin'. ? 1563 01:45:51,265 --> 01:45:54,166 NARRATOR: The battles in the la Drang Valley may have been declared 1564 01:45:54,265 --> 01:45:58,433 American victories, but privately, General Westmoreland 1565 01:45:58,532 --> 01:46:01,700 and the Johnson administration were worried. 1566 01:46:01,800 --> 01:46:05,300 In spite of the Americans' new airborne mobility, 1567 01:46:05,399 --> 01:46:07,832 the enemy had been able to choose 1568 01:46:07,933 --> 01:46:10,632 the place and time of battle. 1569 01:46:10,733 --> 01:46:14,300 The intelligence on which basic decisions had been made 1570 01:46:14,399 --> 01:46:18,733 in Washington had been uniformly bad. 1571 01:46:18,832 --> 01:46:21,866 There were now believed to be 12 Viet Cong regiments 1572 01:46:21,965 --> 01:46:24,700 in South Vietnam, not just five; 1573 01:46:24,800 --> 01:46:28,166 Nine North Vietnamese regiments, not three. 1574 01:46:29,366 --> 01:46:31,166 Despite months of bombing, 1575 01:46:31,265 --> 01:46:34,000 three times as many North Vietnamese regulars 1576 01:46:34,099 --> 01:46:37,632 were now slipping south of the demilitarized zone 1577 01:46:37,733 --> 01:46:40,065 as originally believed. 1578 01:46:40,166 --> 01:46:44,366 Hanoi seemed to be escalating, too. 1579 01:46:44,465 --> 01:46:48,565 And American casualties were climbing. 1580 01:46:48,666 --> 01:46:51,832 When Senator Fritz Hollings visited Saigon 1581 01:46:51,933 --> 01:46:54,366 shortly after the la Drang battles, 1582 01:46:54,465 --> 01:46:58,132 General Westmoreland told him, "We're killing these people 1583 01:46:58,233 --> 01:47:00,465 at a rate of ten to one." 1584 01:47:00,565 --> 01:47:01,899 Hollings warned him, 1585 01:47:02,000 --> 01:47:05,565 "Westy, the American people don't care about the ten. 1586 01:47:05,666 --> 01:47:07,733 They care about the one." 1587 01:47:09,632 --> 01:47:12,366 Westmoreland, who had said he could win the war 1588 01:47:12,465 --> 01:47:16,500 in three years, now sent an urgent cable to Washington 1589 01:47:16,599 --> 01:47:19,465 asking for 200,000 more troops. 1590 01:47:19,565 --> 01:47:21,565 McGUIRE: ? Yeah, my blood's so mad... 1591 01:47:21,666 --> 01:47:24,233 NARRATOR: "The message came as a shattering blow," 1592 01:47:24,332 --> 01:47:26,465 Robert McNamara remembered. 1593 01:47:26,565 --> 01:47:31,565 Once again, he offered Johnson two options: 1594 01:47:31,666 --> 01:47:34,866 Try to negotiate a compromise with Hanoi, 1595 01:47:34,965 --> 01:47:38,565 or accede to Westmoreland's request for more men, 1596 01:47:38,666 --> 01:47:41,933 though the chances of victory, the secretary of defense said, 1597 01:47:42,032 --> 01:47:46,132 might be no better than one in three. 1598 01:47:46,233 --> 01:47:48,866 GALLOWAY: And then they all sat down 1599 01:47:48,965 --> 01:47:51,832 and voted for option two. 1600 01:47:51,933 --> 01:47:53,866 McGUIRE: ? Over and over and over... 1601 01:47:53,965 --> 01:47:58,032 KARL MARLANTES: My bitterness about the political powers at the time 1602 01:47:58,132 --> 01:48:03,032 was, first of all, the lying. 1603 01:48:03,132 --> 01:48:06,500 I mean, I can understand a policy error 1604 01:48:06,599 --> 01:48:09,200 that is incredibly, incredibly painful 1605 01:48:09,300 --> 01:48:11,265 and kills a lot of people out of a mistake 1606 01:48:11,366 --> 01:48:14,465 if they made that with noble hearts. 1607 01:48:14,565 --> 01:48:16,933 That was, you know, when Eisenhower and Kennedy 1608 01:48:17,032 --> 01:48:19,599 were trying to figure things out. 1609 01:48:19,700 --> 01:48:23,933 And you read that, you know, McNamara knew by '65... 1610 01:48:24,032 --> 01:48:25,832 it was just three years before I was there... 1611 01:48:25,933 --> 01:48:27,166 that the war was unwinnable. 1612 01:48:27,265 --> 01:48:29,065 That's what makes me mad. 1613 01:48:29,166 --> 01:48:31,366 Making a mistake, people can do that. 1614 01:48:31,465 --> 01:48:33,132 But covering up mistakes, 1615 01:48:33,233 --> 01:48:37,399 then you're killing people for your own ego. 1616 01:48:37,500 --> 01:48:40,666 And that makes me mad. 1617 01:48:42,800 --> 01:48:44,375 NARRATOR: Tens of thousands of American troops 1618 01:48:44,399 --> 01:48:48,200 continued to prepare to deploy to Vietnam 1619 01:48:48,300 --> 01:48:49,399 from all over the country, 1620 01:48:49,500 --> 01:48:52,933 and General Westmoreland and his commanders 1621 01:48:53,032 --> 01:48:55,132 drew up plans for major offensives 1622 01:48:55,233 --> 01:48:58,399 in the new year of 1966. 1623 01:49:02,200 --> 01:49:05,700 Meanwhile, hoping the Soviets might help bring Hanoi 1624 01:49:05,800 --> 01:49:09,666 to the bargaining table, McNamara urged the president 1625 01:49:09,765 --> 01:49:14,000 to declare a halt to the bombing of North Vietnam. 1626 01:49:14,099 --> 01:49:16,632 Over the objections of the military, 1627 01:49:16,733 --> 01:49:19,399 who worried it would give the enemy time to rebuild 1628 01:49:19,500 --> 01:49:23,765 its defenses, Johnson agreed to stop the bombing 1629 01:49:23,866 --> 01:49:26,599 on Christmas Eve. 1630 01:49:26,700 --> 01:49:28,832 If it achieved nothing else, he said, 1631 01:49:28,933 --> 01:49:31,132 it would show the American people 1632 01:49:31,233 --> 01:49:34,565 that before he committed more of their sons to battle, 1633 01:49:34,666 --> 01:49:37,700 "We have gone the last mile." 1634 01:49:43,065 --> 01:49:48,532 JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: Well, Christmas always meant a great deal in our family. 1635 01:49:48,632 --> 01:49:53,032 We sent packages to Denton, of course. 1636 01:49:53,132 --> 01:49:55,200 Then a neighbor mentioned to me 1637 01:49:55,300 --> 01:49:59,733 that she heard a local television station was offering 1638 01:49:59,832 --> 01:50:03,632 free tapes to be made to send to a soldier overseas. 1639 01:50:03,733 --> 01:50:08,399 We dressed up for the cameras. 1640 01:50:08,500 --> 01:50:11,233 The idea was that we would each just say something 1641 01:50:11,332 --> 01:50:14,565 about what we were doing and wish him well. 1642 01:50:16,733 --> 01:50:19,233 It was a horrible day for me. 1643 01:50:19,332 --> 01:50:24,265 It made it so real that he was far away. 1644 01:50:24,366 --> 01:50:27,632 Well, Mogie, here we are. 1645 01:50:27,733 --> 01:50:31,433 It's... let's see what day is today. 1646 01:50:31,532 --> 01:50:32,733 Here it is, Saturday... 1647 01:50:32,832 --> 01:50:33,832 November 13. 1648 01:50:33,899 --> 01:50:36,000 November 13, 1649 01:50:36,099 --> 01:50:41,166 and station WTEN has given us a chance to talk to you. 1650 01:50:41,265 --> 01:50:43,700 We all wish you a Merry Christmas 1651 01:50:43,800 --> 01:50:45,032 to start out with. 1652 01:50:46,465 --> 01:50:48,800 Rand, what do you got to say to Mogie? 1653 01:50:48,899 --> 01:50:50,166 Merry Christmas. 1654 01:50:50,265 --> 01:50:51,300 Merry Christmas. 1655 01:50:53,200 --> 01:50:54,433 Merry Christmas, darling. 1656 01:50:54,532 --> 01:50:55,800 We sent your packages 1657 01:50:55,899 --> 01:50:57,741 and there's one that's waiting for you at home. 1658 01:50:57,765 --> 01:50:59,366 It's a record of fife and drum music 1659 01:50:59,465 --> 01:51:02,065 that we got for you at Williamsburg. 1660 01:51:02,166 --> 01:51:03,166 Candy? 1661 01:51:04,965 --> 01:51:10,700 My teacher isn't very nice, and she always is crabby, 1662 01:51:10,800 --> 01:51:13,265 and I don't like school at all. 1663 01:51:13,366 --> 01:51:15,300 Now I'm a brownie. 1664 01:51:15,399 --> 01:51:16,965 Merry Christmas. 1665 01:51:18,465 --> 01:51:19,733 Happy Christmas, Mogie. 1666 01:51:19,832 --> 01:51:21,599 I think I'm getting new skis for Christmas. 1667 01:51:21,700 --> 01:51:23,740 So when you get home, we can get together sometime. 1668 01:51:23,832 --> 01:51:27,300 We do all wish you a very Merry Christmas, 1669 01:51:27,399 --> 01:51:29,599 and we'll be thinking of you on Christmas Day. 1670 01:51:32,500 --> 01:51:34,260 JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: We miss you, sweetheart. 1671 01:51:36,300 --> 01:51:40,366 IVES: ? Me and my drum. 1672 01:51:59,700 --> 01:52:04,332 ? To everything, turn, turn, turn ? 1673 01:52:04,433 --> 01:52:09,099 ? There is a season, turn, turn, turn ? 1674 01:52:09,200 --> 01:52:15,265 ? And a time to every purpose under heaven ? 1675 01:52:17,099 --> 01:52:21,933 ? A time to be born, a time to die ? 1676 01:52:22,032 --> 01:52:24,500 ? A time to plant, a time to reap ? 1677 01:52:24,599 --> 01:52:28,366 ? A time to kill, a time to heal ? 1678 01:52:28,465 --> 01:52:35,800 ? A time to laugh, a time to weep ? 1679 01:52:35,899 --> 01:52:41,099 ? To everything, turn, turn, turn ? 1680 01:52:41,200 --> 01:52:46,366 ? There is a season, turn, turn, turn ? 1681 01:52:46,465 --> 01:52:52,000 ? And a time to every purpose under heaven ? 1682 01:52:53,800 --> 01:52:57,500 ? A time to build up, a time to break down ? 1683 01:52:57,599 --> 01:53:02,132 ? A time to dance, a time to mourn ? 1684 01:53:02,233 --> 01:53:05,599 ? A time to cast away stones 1685 01:53:05,700 --> 01:53:11,532 ? A time to gather stones together ? 1686 01:53:13,332 --> 01:53:18,532 ? To everything, turn, turn, turn ? 1687 01:53:18,632 --> 01:53:23,733 ? There is a season, turn, turn, turn ? 1688 01:53:23,832 --> 01:53:29,332 ? And a time to every purpose under heaven ? 1689 01:53:31,332 --> 01:53:34,933 ? A time of love, a time of hate ? 1690 01:53:35,032 --> 01:53:40,166 ? A time of war, a time of peace ? 1691 01:53:40,265 --> 01:53:42,965 ? A time you may embrace 1692 01:53:43,065 --> 01:53:49,300 ? A time to refrain from embracing ? 1693 01:53:50,832 --> 01:53:55,599 ? To everything, turn, turn, turn ? 1694 01:53:55,700 --> 01:54:00,765 ? There is a season, turn, turn, turn ? 1695 01:54:00,866 --> 01:54:06,765 ? And a time to every purpose under heaven ? 1696 01:54:08,933 --> 01:54:12,433 ? A time to gain, a time to lose ? 1697 01:54:12,532 --> 01:54:16,500 ? A time to rend, a time to sew ? 1698 01:54:16,599 --> 01:54:20,532 ? A time for love, a time for hate ? 1699 01:54:20,632 --> 01:54:28,632 ? A time for peace, I swear it's not too late. ?