1 00:00:00,010 --> 00:00:05,010 - Original file by zfeet - - Resynced by Ornlu Wolfjarl - 2 00:00:05,061 --> 00:00:08,628 No more war! No more war! 3 00:00:08,728 --> 00:00:10,296 No more war! No more war! 4 00:00:10,395 --> 00:00:11,805 ("Get Together" by the Youngbloods playing) 5 00:00:11,829 --> 00:00:15,196 No more war! No more war! 6 00:00:15,296 --> 00:00:18,063 No more war! No more war! 7 00:00:18,162 --> 00:00:19,262 No more war! 8 00:00:19,363 --> 00:00:22,930 CROWD (chanting): U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! 9 00:00:23,030 --> 00:00:26,162 YOUNGBLOODS: ♪ Love is but a song to sing 10 00:00:26,263 --> 00:00:29,897 ♪ Fear's the way we die 11 00:00:29,997 --> 00:00:31,997 (crowds shouting, clamoring) 12 00:00:34,764 --> 00:00:38,063 ♪ You can make the mountains ring ♪ 13 00:00:38,163 --> 00:00:41,099 ♪ Or make the angels cry 14 00:00:43,699 --> 00:00:45,199 (shouting continues) 15 00:00:45,299 --> 00:00:47,464 ♪ Come on, people, now 16 00:00:47,564 --> 00:00:49,099 ♪ Smile on your brother 17 00:00:49,199 --> 00:00:50,932 ♪ Everybody get together 18 00:00:51,032 --> 00:00:54,933 ♪ Try to love one another right now ♪ 19 00:00:58,165 --> 00:01:00,065 KARL MARLANTES: My brother picked me up 20 00:01:00,165 --> 00:01:03,300 at Travis Air Force Base. 21 00:01:03,399 --> 00:01:05,500 And I remember he had a Valiant, 22 00:01:05,601 --> 00:01:07,466 an old beat-up Valiant. 23 00:01:07,566 --> 00:01:08,867 And we met inside the terminal. 24 00:01:08,966 --> 00:01:10,566 And I was so happy to see him. 25 00:01:10,666 --> 00:01:11,867 I just love my brother. 26 00:01:11,966 --> 00:01:13,466 (crowd shouting in distance) 27 00:01:13,566 --> 00:01:15,566 He said, "Now, I don't want you to get upset, 28 00:01:15,667 --> 00:01:17,435 "but we're probably gonna get some trouble 29 00:01:17,535 --> 00:01:21,001 when we go outside." 30 00:01:21,102 --> 00:01:23,435 And I went, "Trouble? I just got back from Vietnam. 31 00:01:23,535 --> 00:01:24,967 What are you talking about?" 32 00:01:25,067 --> 00:01:27,001 I mean, I knew that there was unrest. 33 00:01:27,102 --> 00:01:28,869 YOUNGBLOODS: ♪ If you hear the song I sing 34 00:01:28,968 --> 00:01:32,603 MARLANTES: But when we got in his car to drive away from the terminal, 35 00:01:32,703 --> 00:01:36,568 we had to wind our way through protesters 36 00:01:36,668 --> 00:01:39,969 that were pounding on the car with the ends of their signs 37 00:01:40,069 --> 00:01:42,069 and were snarling at me 38 00:01:42,169 --> 00:01:45,569 and pounding on the window and shouting obscenities at me. 39 00:01:46,736 --> 00:01:49,204 That was my welcome home to America. 40 00:01:49,304 --> 00:01:51,003 (shouting continues) 41 00:01:51,104 --> 00:01:52,838 I was just stunned. 42 00:01:52,938 --> 00:01:54,347 YOUNGBLOODS: ♪ Come on, people, now 43 00:01:54,371 --> 00:01:56,737 I have never felt... 44 00:01:56,838 --> 00:02:00,305 any anger toward people that were war protesters. 45 00:02:00,404 --> 00:02:03,939 It's a legitimate political stance. 46 00:02:04,039 --> 00:02:08,171 For people that descended into that, I... 47 00:02:08,272 --> 00:02:11,872 I-I think that they were really wrong. 48 00:02:11,971 --> 00:02:14,372 YOUNGBLOODS: ♪ Try to love one another right now ♪ 49 00:02:14,471 --> 00:02:17,972 It was this-this heartbreak of why are you doing this? 50 00:02:18,072 --> 00:02:20,672 I mean, you don't know who I am. 51 00:02:20,773 --> 00:02:23,540 And it happened over and over. 52 00:02:23,639 --> 00:02:25,540 YOUNGBLOODS: ♪ Everybody get together 53 00:02:25,639 --> 00:02:29,274 ♪ Try to love one another right now ♪ 54 00:02:29,373 --> 00:02:31,841 ♪ Right now 55 00:02:31,940 --> 00:02:35,841 ♪ Right now. 56 00:02:41,974 --> 00:02:43,241 (siren wailing) 57 00:02:43,342 --> 00:02:45,409 NARRATOR: In the spring of 1970, 58 00:02:45,508 --> 00:02:48,775 despite the uproar over the invasion of Cambodia 59 00:02:48,875 --> 00:02:51,843 and the killing of four students at Kent State, 60 00:02:51,942 --> 00:02:54,675 President Nixon's hold on what he called 61 00:02:54,776 --> 00:02:58,576 "the great silent majority" seemed secure. 62 00:02:58,675 --> 00:03:02,344 A Gallup poll showed that most Americans 63 00:03:02,443 --> 00:03:05,143 blamed the students, not the national guardsmen, 64 00:03:05,243 --> 00:03:06,311 for what had happened. 65 00:03:06,411 --> 00:03:09,476 (shouting, clamoring) 66 00:03:09,577 --> 00:03:12,777 At an antiwar demonstration in Manhattan, 67 00:03:12,876 --> 00:03:15,877 hundreds of construction workers in hard hats 68 00:03:15,977 --> 00:03:18,244 attacked protestors, 69 00:03:18,345 --> 00:03:21,145 sending 70 to the hospital. 70 00:03:23,977 --> 00:03:26,779 And when workers marched on City Hall 71 00:03:26,878 --> 00:03:28,779 a few days later, 72 00:03:28,878 --> 00:03:31,978 Nixon wrote the president of their union 73 00:03:32,079 --> 00:03:33,978 to say how pleased he was 74 00:03:34,079 --> 00:03:35,579 "to see the tremendous outpouring 75 00:03:35,678 --> 00:03:37,879 "of support for our country 76 00:03:37,979 --> 00:03:42,479 demonstrated in your orderly and most heartening rally." 77 00:03:42,580 --> 00:03:44,420 How do you feel about the construction workers 78 00:03:44,446 --> 00:03:46,356 who attacked the, uh, demonstrators last Friday? 79 00:03:46,380 --> 00:03:48,547 Don't say attacked. Don't say attacked. 80 00:03:48,646 --> 00:03:50,180 They were provoked. 81 00:03:50,281 --> 00:03:52,115 They were provoked, man. 82 00:03:52,214 --> 00:03:53,514 We work for a living. 83 00:03:53,615 --> 00:03:55,680 Every day we get up, we're out there in the cold, 84 00:03:55,781 --> 00:03:56,821 the rain, the snow, right? 85 00:03:56,881 --> 00:03:58,848 We got to have these dirty s... 86 00:03:58,947 --> 00:04:01,214 Forget about it, I don't want to talk about it, man. 87 00:04:01,315 --> 00:04:03,582 Anybody that can take a Viet Cong flag and fly it 88 00:04:03,681 --> 00:04:06,916 and wave it and bring it up this avenue 89 00:04:07,015 --> 00:04:09,882 and get away with it... and get away with it... 90 00:04:09,981 --> 00:04:12,181 that's unpatriotic to me. 91 00:04:12,282 --> 00:04:16,817 NARRATOR: When American troops withdrew from Cambodia 92 00:04:16,917 --> 00:04:18,482 at the end of June, 93 00:04:18,583 --> 00:04:20,749 the White House reported that they had killed 94 00:04:20,850 --> 00:04:24,682 11,349 enemy troops, 95 00:04:24,783 --> 00:04:27,284 captured 22,000 weapons 96 00:04:27,383 --> 00:04:34,017 and had destroyed 11,688 bunkers and buildings. 97 00:04:34,118 --> 00:04:37,184 But after so many years of fighting, 98 00:04:37,285 --> 00:04:40,684 more and more Americans were tired of the war, 99 00:04:40,785 --> 00:04:43,085 wanted to get out of Southeast Asia, 100 00:04:43,184 --> 00:04:48,018 and did not want the president to expand the conflict further. 101 00:04:48,119 --> 00:04:51,019 Among their representatives in Congress, 102 00:04:51,120 --> 00:04:54,685 antiwar sentiment had steadily grown. 103 00:04:54,786 --> 00:04:57,719 As the president searched for a face-saving way 104 00:04:57,820 --> 00:05:00,686 to end the war, he continued to withdraw troops. 105 00:05:00,787 --> 00:05:02,354 CROWD (chanting): U.S.A.! U.S.A.! 106 00:05:02,453 --> 00:05:06,220 But even as American casualty figures fell, 107 00:05:06,321 --> 00:05:09,986 the gulf between Americans at home widened, 108 00:05:10,087 --> 00:05:12,655 tearing communities, neighborhoods, 109 00:05:12,754 --> 00:05:15,187 even families apart. 110 00:05:15,288 --> 00:05:18,355 CROWD (chanting): No more war! No more war! 111 00:05:18,454 --> 00:05:20,088 Nixon was convinced... 112 00:05:20,187 --> 00:05:22,322 just as Lyndon Johnson had been... 113 00:05:22,422 --> 00:05:24,823 that the antiwar movement was somehow 114 00:05:24,923 --> 00:05:26,955 being directed from Hanoi, 115 00:05:27,056 --> 00:05:29,755 Beijing and Moscow. 116 00:05:29,856 --> 00:05:32,289 "Within the iron gates of the White House 117 00:05:32,388 --> 00:05:34,888 a siege mentality was settling in," 118 00:05:34,988 --> 00:05:37,590 a Nixon aide remembered. 119 00:05:37,689 --> 00:05:41,090 "It was now us against them. 120 00:05:41,189 --> 00:05:44,290 "Gradually, as we drew the circle closer around us, 121 00:05:44,390 --> 00:05:47,957 the ranks of them began to swell." 122 00:05:48,058 --> 00:05:51,325 (crowd chattering) 123 00:05:51,425 --> 00:05:54,757 PHIL GIOIA: I think the Vietnam War drove a stake 124 00:05:54,858 --> 00:05:58,257 right into the heart of America. 125 00:05:58,358 --> 00:06:00,191 It polarized the country 126 00:06:00,292 --> 00:06:02,859 as it had probably never been polarized 127 00:06:02,958 --> 00:06:04,559 since before the Civil War. 128 00:06:04,658 --> 00:06:06,926 And unfortunately, we've never moved 129 00:06:07,025 --> 00:06:08,892 really far away from that. 130 00:06:08,991 --> 00:06:11,593 And we never recovered. 131 00:06:11,692 --> 00:06:13,593 CROWD: No more war! No more war! 132 00:06:13,692 --> 00:06:15,759 CROWD: U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! 133 00:06:15,860 --> 00:06:17,692 CROWD: No more war! No more war! 134 00:06:17,793 --> 00:06:20,526 No more war! No more war! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! 135 00:06:20,627 --> 00:06:23,127 U.S.A.! U.S.A.! No more war! No more war! 136 00:06:23,226 --> 00:06:26,960 No more war! No more war! No more war! 137 00:06:27,061 --> 00:06:29,861 (chanting stops) 138 00:06:29,960 --> 00:06:32,428 ♪ 139 00:06:34,061 --> 00:06:35,702 DAVID FROST: Thank you very much, indeed, 140 00:06:35,795 --> 00:06:37,761 and welcome to this, uh, special, 141 00:06:37,862 --> 00:06:40,228 very special edition ofThe David Frost Show. 142 00:06:40,329 --> 00:06:44,129 The vice president himself wanted to debate with students, 143 00:06:44,228 --> 00:06:47,995 and we suggested a format in which he might like to do so. 144 00:06:48,095 --> 00:06:50,530 Welcome Eva Jefferson from Northwestern, 145 00:06:50,628 --> 00:06:53,229 who testified before the Scranton Commission 146 00:06:53,330 --> 00:06:56,330 on Campus Unrest and is majoring in political science. 147 00:06:56,430 --> 00:06:57,896 Is that right? Right. 148 00:06:57,995 --> 00:06:59,864 NARRATOR: Eva Jefferson, 149 00:06:59,964 --> 00:07:02,464 whose father had served in Vietnam, 150 00:07:02,563 --> 00:07:04,364 was now the student body president 151 00:07:04,464 --> 00:07:06,763 at Northwestern University. 152 00:07:06,864 --> 00:07:08,464 After Kent State, 153 00:07:08,563 --> 00:07:11,564 she had forcefully stopped angry protestors 154 00:07:11,664 --> 00:07:15,465 from burning down the ROTC building at her school, 155 00:07:15,564 --> 00:07:19,465 and later testified before a presidential commission 156 00:07:19,564 --> 00:07:23,466 looking into the causes of student unrest. 157 00:07:23,565 --> 00:07:26,366 She had warned then that some students 158 00:07:26,466 --> 00:07:28,299 were becoming so frustrated 159 00:07:28,399 --> 00:07:30,299 that they felt they had no choice 160 00:07:30,399 --> 00:07:33,598 but to engage in violence. 161 00:07:33,698 --> 00:07:35,967 And right now it's a privilege to welcome 162 00:07:36,066 --> 00:07:37,766 the vice president of the United States, 163 00:07:37,867 --> 00:07:40,034 Spiro T. Agnew. 164 00:07:40,133 --> 00:07:43,467 (audience applauding) 165 00:07:43,566 --> 00:07:44,967 AGNEW: Let me 166 00:07:45,066 --> 00:07:48,000 take brief exception to one thing you've said, 167 00:07:48,100 --> 00:07:49,411 that the only way to get the attention 168 00:07:49,435 --> 00:07:51,435 of the society is to bomb buildings. 169 00:07:51,535 --> 00:07:53,368 What I attempted to do 170 00:07:53,468 --> 00:07:55,335 before the Scranton Committee was to explain 171 00:07:55,435 --> 00:07:58,001 what could motivate someone to blow up a building. 172 00:07:58,101 --> 00:08:00,969 I did not say I endorse this, and if you read my testimony 173 00:08:01,068 --> 00:08:03,536 quite carefully, you'll know that I didn't. 174 00:08:03,635 --> 00:08:06,369 And it's this type of-of just picking up on what, 175 00:08:06,469 --> 00:08:09,268 allegedly, I said instead of really studying what I said 176 00:08:09,369 --> 00:08:10,837 that-that really disturbs me. 177 00:08:10,937 --> 00:08:12,578 (quietly): May I respond? Because you're making people 178 00:08:12,602 --> 00:08:14,769 afraid of their own children. 179 00:08:14,870 --> 00:08:16,946 Yet they're your children, they're my parents' children, 180 00:08:16,970 --> 00:08:18,245 they're the children of this country. 181 00:08:18,269 --> 00:08:20,269 Yet you're making people afraid of them. 182 00:08:20,370 --> 00:08:22,304 And I think this is the greatest disservice. 183 00:08:22,404 --> 00:08:25,004 There's an honest difference of agreement on issues, 184 00:08:25,103 --> 00:08:27,570 but-but when you make people afraid of each other, 185 00:08:27,670 --> 00:08:30,538 you-you isolate people, and maybe this is your goal, 186 00:08:30,637 --> 00:08:31,838 but I think this is... 187 00:08:31,938 --> 00:08:33,805 this could only have a disastrous effect 188 00:08:33,905 --> 00:08:36,039 on the country. (applause) 189 00:08:36,138 --> 00:08:38,972 Let me say first that isolating people 190 00:08:39,071 --> 00:08:40,171 is not my goal. 191 00:08:40,271 --> 00:08:43,104 If that were true I wouldn't be here tonight. 192 00:08:43,204 --> 00:08:45,139 And let me take exception to that 193 00:08:45,239 --> 00:08:48,105 oft-repeated rationale that, uh, 194 00:08:48,205 --> 00:08:50,540 violence is the only way to get results. 195 00:08:50,639 --> 00:08:53,139 I was trying to explain to you the rationale of some students 196 00:08:53,239 --> 00:08:54,406 who are openly revolutionary. 197 00:08:54,505 --> 00:08:56,772 You're not listening to what I'm saying. 198 00:08:56,873 --> 00:08:59,317 I'm-I'm really distressed. Just what are... what are you advocating? 199 00:08:59,341 --> 00:09:01,350 EVA JEFFERSON PATERSON: They were trying to politically 200 00:09:01,374 --> 00:09:03,673 benefit from making us out to be 201 00:09:03,773 --> 00:09:07,307 these scary, horrible, violent people. 202 00:09:07,407 --> 00:09:09,975 We weren't. We were against the war. 203 00:09:10,074 --> 00:09:11,442 We thought the war was wrong. 204 00:09:11,542 --> 00:09:12,875 We thought we were lied to. 205 00:09:12,975 --> 00:09:14,542 And we were in the streets. 206 00:09:14,641 --> 00:09:18,508 America has always had a rich tradition of protests. 207 00:09:18,607 --> 00:09:22,108 We were founded by protesting England. 208 00:09:22,208 --> 00:09:24,443 So to make people afraid of their kids, 209 00:09:24,543 --> 00:09:26,623 I think, was wrong, but that's what they were about. 210 00:09:26,708 --> 00:09:28,876 They were fearmongers. 211 00:10:11,146 --> 00:10:13,679 PHAN QUANG TUE: It was fratricide. 212 00:10:13,779 --> 00:10:16,179 You can say, "Well, but-but they are communist." 213 00:10:16,279 --> 00:10:18,513 Okay, they're communist. 214 00:10:18,612 --> 00:10:21,280 "They are the worst Vietnamese in the entire world. 215 00:10:21,381 --> 00:10:23,213 We were the good Vietnamese." 216 00:10:23,314 --> 00:10:26,080 But let's face Vietnamese killing Vietnamese. 217 00:10:26,180 --> 00:10:28,314 How-how do you deny that? 218 00:10:31,381 --> 00:10:33,081 If you don't call that fratricide, 219 00:10:33,181 --> 00:10:36,815 what do you call that? 220 00:10:36,915 --> 00:10:38,349 What do you... how do we... 221 00:10:38,449 --> 00:10:40,382 I explain that to-to my children? 222 00:10:45,215 --> 00:10:47,115 NARRATOR: The Cambodian incursion had 223 00:10:47,215 --> 00:10:50,483 at least temporarily reduced the flow of North Vietnamese 224 00:10:50,582 --> 00:10:54,282 men and supplies through that country, 225 00:10:54,383 --> 00:10:56,351 but they were still streaming down 226 00:10:56,451 --> 00:10:59,183 the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos. 227 00:10:59,283 --> 00:11:02,083 The White House wanted them stopped. 228 00:11:02,183 --> 00:11:05,750 But this time, South Vietnamese troops 229 00:11:05,851 --> 00:11:08,452 would have to try to do the job alone. 230 00:11:08,552 --> 00:11:13,485 By the end of 1970, both houses of Congress 231 00:11:13,584 --> 00:11:16,352 had barred all U.S. ground personnel, 232 00:11:16,452 --> 00:11:19,519 even advisors and special forces, 233 00:11:19,618 --> 00:11:21,519 from crossing the border. 234 00:11:21,618 --> 00:11:25,419 On February 8, 1971, 235 00:11:25,519 --> 00:11:29,819 17,000 ARVN troops began moving into Laos 236 00:11:29,919 --> 00:11:32,686 to destroy the enemy's jungle bases 237 00:11:32,786 --> 00:11:36,454 and to cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail. 238 00:11:36,554 --> 00:11:40,954 The Americans could only provide air support. 239 00:11:41,054 --> 00:11:44,955 Nixon and his National Security Advisor, 240 00:11:45,055 --> 00:11:48,154 Henry Kissinger, believed that a successful operation 241 00:11:48,254 --> 00:11:50,388 would boost morale in Saigon 242 00:11:50,488 --> 00:11:53,888 and prove to Hanoi and the American public 243 00:11:53,988 --> 00:11:57,889 that the ARVN could fight and win on their own, 244 00:11:57,989 --> 00:12:01,989 that Vietnamization could work. 245 00:12:02,088 --> 00:12:06,189 Their target was the North Vietnamese logistics hub, 246 00:12:06,289 --> 00:12:09,557 the abandoned town of Tchepone. 247 00:12:09,656 --> 00:12:11,722 U.S. intelligence 248 00:12:11,823 --> 00:12:13,622 believed there were no more 249 00:12:13,722 --> 00:12:18,157 than 22,000 North Vietnamese troops in the area. 250 00:12:18,257 --> 00:12:22,290 But there would eventually turn out to be 60,000, 251 00:12:22,391 --> 00:12:26,123 and their commanders knew there was only one route 252 00:12:26,223 --> 00:12:29,324 the ARVN was likely to take. 253 00:12:29,424 --> 00:12:32,325 Harry Hue, who had been fighting the communists 254 00:12:32,425 --> 00:12:35,959 for eight years, was in the invasion force. 255 00:12:36,959 --> 00:12:38,925 HUE (speaking English): 256 00:13:03,193 --> 00:13:06,094 (explosion) 257 00:13:06,194 --> 00:13:09,794 NARRATOR: Although individual ARVN units fought bravely, 258 00:13:09,895 --> 00:13:12,362 the invasion was a failure. 259 00:13:30,030 --> 00:13:33,696 Almost half of the 17,000 South Vietnamese 260 00:13:33,796 --> 00:13:35,229 who entered Laos 261 00:13:35,330 --> 00:13:38,464 would be killed, wounded or captured. 262 00:14:39,569 --> 00:14:41,202 NARRATOR: In late March, 263 00:14:41,302 --> 00:14:42,970 as the surviving ARVN forces 264 00:14:43,070 --> 00:14:44,635 straggled back across the border 265 00:14:44,735 --> 00:14:46,870 into South Vietnam, 266 00:14:46,970 --> 00:14:50,802 crowds of weeping women, children and old men... 267 00:14:50,903 --> 00:14:53,937 dressed in white, the color of mourning... 268 00:14:54,036 --> 00:14:57,536 begged for news of the soldiers who were missing. 269 00:14:57,636 --> 00:15:02,004 In Vietnam, the dead must receive proper burial 270 00:15:02,103 --> 00:15:05,938 so that their restless souls can have peace, 271 00:15:06,037 --> 00:15:08,037 and their families needed to know 272 00:15:08,137 --> 00:15:09,704 the time of their deaths 273 00:15:09,804 --> 00:15:12,838 so that they could honor them each year. 274 00:15:15,373 --> 00:15:17,373 Even before the invasion was over, 275 00:15:17,471 --> 00:15:19,873 President Nixon had told an aide, 276 00:15:19,971 --> 00:15:22,038 "We must claim victory, 277 00:15:22,139 --> 00:15:24,605 whatever the outcome." 278 00:15:58,908 --> 00:16:01,108 Consequently, tonight, 279 00:16:01,209 --> 00:16:05,409 I can report that Vietnamization has succeeded. 280 00:16:05,510 --> 00:16:07,710 Because of the increased strength 281 00:16:07,809 --> 00:16:09,176 of the South Vietnamese, 282 00:16:09,277 --> 00:16:11,809 because of the success of the Cambodian operation, 283 00:16:11,909 --> 00:16:13,109 because of the achievements 284 00:16:13,210 --> 00:16:16,211 of the South Vietnamese operation in Laos, 285 00:16:16,310 --> 00:16:17,843 I am announcing an increase 286 00:16:17,944 --> 00:16:20,211 in the rate of American withdrawals. 287 00:16:20,310 --> 00:16:22,711 We have it in our power to leave Vietnam 288 00:16:22,810 --> 00:16:24,944 in a way that offers a brave people 289 00:16:25,043 --> 00:16:27,678 a realistic hope of freedom. 290 00:16:27,779 --> 00:16:29,079 We have it in our power 291 00:16:29,178 --> 00:16:31,344 to prove to our friends in the world 292 00:16:31,445 --> 00:16:34,212 that America's sense of responsibility 293 00:16:34,311 --> 00:16:37,678 remains the world's greatest single hope of peace. 294 00:16:37,779 --> 00:16:42,080 And generations in the future 295 00:16:42,179 --> 00:16:45,580 will look back at this difficult, 296 00:16:45,679 --> 00:16:49,345 trying time in America's history, 297 00:16:49,446 --> 00:16:51,947 and they will be proud 298 00:16:52,046 --> 00:16:55,246 that we demonstrated 299 00:16:55,346 --> 00:16:57,913 that we had the courage 300 00:16:58,014 --> 00:17:01,381 and the character of a great people. 301 00:17:01,480 --> 00:17:02,347 OPERATOR: Dr. Kissinger, sir. 302 00:17:02,448 --> 00:17:03,948 NIXON: Yeah. 303 00:17:04,047 --> 00:17:04,948 KISSINGER: Mr. President? 304 00:17:05,047 --> 00:17:06,114 NIXON: Yeah. Hi, Henry. 305 00:17:06,215 --> 00:17:07,657 KISSINGER: This was the best speech you've delivered 306 00:17:07,681 --> 00:17:08,801 since you've been in office. 307 00:17:08,882 --> 00:17:09,882 NIXON: Yeah. 308 00:17:09,981 --> 00:17:12,347 I'll tell you one thing, this was, uh... 309 00:17:12,448 --> 00:17:14,548 This little speech was a work of art. 310 00:17:14,649 --> 00:17:17,283 I mean, I-I know a little something about speechwriting. 311 00:17:17,383 --> 00:17:19,583 And it was no act, because no actor could do it. 312 00:17:19,682 --> 00:17:21,692 No actor in Hollywood could have done that that well. 313 00:17:21,716 --> 00:17:23,016 KISSINGER: It's the best... 314 00:17:23,115 --> 00:17:24,391 NIXON: I thought that was done well, didn't you think? 315 00:17:24,415 --> 00:17:25,792 KISSINGER: First of all, no actor could have written it, 316 00:17:25,816 --> 00:17:27,017 to begin with. 317 00:17:27,116 --> 00:17:28,825 You couldn't have done it unless you had meant it. 318 00:17:28,849 --> 00:17:30,084 NIXON: Yeah. 319 00:17:30,183 --> 00:17:32,450 And if it doesn't work, I don't care. 320 00:17:32,549 --> 00:17:34,683 I mean, right now, if it doesn't work... 321 00:17:34,784 --> 00:17:35,784 Then let me say, though, 322 00:17:35,884 --> 00:17:37,151 I'm going to find out soon, 323 00:17:37,250 --> 00:17:38,530 and then I'm going to turn right 324 00:17:38,585 --> 00:17:40,261 so goddamn hard it'll make your head spin. 325 00:17:40,285 --> 00:17:41,861 We'll bomb those bastards right out of the... 326 00:17:41,885 --> 00:17:44,718 off the earth. I really mean it. 327 00:17:44,817 --> 00:17:47,817 ("We Gotta Get Out of This Place" by the Animals playing) 328 00:17:52,019 --> 00:17:56,318 ♪ In this dirty old part of the city ♪ 329 00:17:56,418 --> 00:18:00,852 ♪ Where the sun refuse to shine ♪ 330 00:18:00,953 --> 00:18:04,119 ♪ People tell me there ain't no use in trying ♪ 331 00:18:08,887 --> 00:18:10,587 Do you belong to the same generation 332 00:18:10,686 --> 00:18:11,852 that is protesting at home? 333 00:18:11,953 --> 00:18:13,120 Do you feel as if you belong 334 00:18:13,221 --> 00:18:14,820 to those people? Very much. 335 00:18:14,920 --> 00:18:16,120 You do? Very much. 336 00:18:16,221 --> 00:18:18,487 I wish they'd get us out of here, I really do. 337 00:18:18,588 --> 00:18:21,687 ♪ We gotta get out of this place ♪ 338 00:18:21,788 --> 00:18:25,655 ♪ If it's the last thing we ever do ♪ 339 00:18:25,754 --> 00:18:28,889 ♪ We gotta get out of this place ♪ 340 00:18:28,988 --> 00:18:30,621 ♪ Girl, there's a better life 341 00:18:30,722 --> 00:18:33,889 JAMES GILLAM: Almost all of us were draftees. 342 00:18:33,988 --> 00:18:36,890 None of us cared a damn about the war. 343 00:18:36,989 --> 00:18:39,590 We just didn't want to get blown up. 344 00:18:39,689 --> 00:18:41,689 We just didn't want to die in the jungle, 345 00:18:41,790 --> 00:18:44,189 holding your guts in. 346 00:18:44,290 --> 00:18:49,756 So the idea is do six months, maybe eight months, 347 00:18:49,856 --> 00:18:55,091 get an R&R, take a deep breath and try to finish up, 348 00:18:55,190 --> 00:18:58,923 try to do something that would get you sent to base camp. 349 00:18:59,024 --> 00:19:02,857 Just don't die because you're not gonna win. 350 00:19:02,958 --> 00:19:05,025 ANIMALS: ♪ We gotta get out of this place ♪ 351 00:19:05,124 --> 00:19:08,525 ♪ If it's the last thing we ever do ♪ 352 00:19:08,624 --> 00:19:10,792 REPORTER: Chess is the most serious contest 353 00:19:10,892 --> 00:19:12,593 Glen Hindley will engage in, 354 00:19:12,692 --> 00:19:15,526 for he has not fired a shot in his nine months 355 00:19:15,625 --> 00:19:17,125 in the field with Charlie Company. 356 00:19:17,226 --> 00:19:18,906 HINDLEY: Well, I haven't shot anybody yet. 357 00:19:18,992 --> 00:19:20,692 I don't plan on it. 358 00:19:20,793 --> 00:19:22,758 I haven't fired my gun since I been here, 359 00:19:22,858 --> 00:19:24,894 and I like it that way. 360 00:19:24,993 --> 00:19:27,094 REPORTER: How can you get away with that? 361 00:19:27,193 --> 00:19:28,693 Just don't fire it. 362 00:19:28,794 --> 00:19:30,094 I plan to go across the... 363 00:19:30,193 --> 00:19:31,460 across country when I get back 364 00:19:31,559 --> 00:19:33,426 because I'll see the people I know over here, 365 00:19:33,527 --> 00:19:35,728 plus I'll be able to talk to a lot of other people, 366 00:19:35,827 --> 00:19:37,895 maybe convince them that killing for peace 367 00:19:37,994 --> 00:19:39,194 just doesn't make sense. 368 00:19:39,295 --> 00:19:42,327 ANIMALS: ♪ We gotta get out of this place ♪ 369 00:19:42,427 --> 00:19:47,495 ♪ If it's the last thing we ever do ♪ 370 00:19:47,596 --> 00:19:49,396 ♪ We gotta get out of this place. ♪ 371 00:19:49,495 --> 00:19:51,638 NARRATOR: "The morale, discipline, and battleworthiness 372 00:19:51,662 --> 00:19:55,561 of the U.S. Armed Forces," a retired Marine colonel wrote 373 00:19:55,662 --> 00:19:57,962 in the spring of 1971, 374 00:19:58,061 --> 00:20:01,297 "are lower and worse than at any time, 375 00:20:01,397 --> 00:20:05,597 possibly in the history of the United States." 376 00:20:05,696 --> 00:20:07,829 An official report had found 377 00:20:07,929 --> 00:20:10,930 that one out of four enlisted men in Vietnam 378 00:20:11,031 --> 00:20:13,898 had used marijuana regularly... 379 00:20:13,997 --> 00:20:16,598 but almost never in combat. 380 00:20:16,697 --> 00:20:18,964 SOLDIER: There's, uh, drugs everywhere. 381 00:20:19,063 --> 00:20:20,263 Really, you could, uh... 382 00:20:20,363 --> 00:20:22,831 Well, within... within ten minutes in country, 383 00:20:22,931 --> 00:20:25,099 I-I had people approaching me selling scag. 384 00:20:25,198 --> 00:20:26,431 INTERVIEWER: What's scag? 385 00:20:26,532 --> 00:20:27,665 It's heroin. 386 00:20:27,764 --> 00:20:30,698 NARRATOR: Heroin was cheap, 387 00:20:30,799 --> 00:20:33,364 pure, and everywhere. 388 00:20:33,465 --> 00:20:36,033 The Pentagon would eventually acknowledge 389 00:20:36,132 --> 00:20:39,832 that 40,000 American troops had been addicted to it. 390 00:20:39,932 --> 00:20:43,100 ANIMALS: ♪ We gotta get out of this place ♪ 391 00:20:43,199 --> 00:20:46,633 ♪ If it's the last thing we ever do ♪ 392 00:20:46,734 --> 00:20:48,933 ♪ We gotta get out of this place ♪ 393 00:20:49,034 --> 00:20:52,333 ♪ Girl, there's a better life 394 00:20:52,433 --> 00:20:53,534 (coughs) 395 00:20:53,633 --> 00:20:56,101 ♪ For me and you 396 00:20:56,200 --> 00:20:58,102 ♪ Ooh, baby 397 00:20:58,201 --> 00:21:02,067 "The rearguard of a once 500,000-man army," 398 00:21:02,168 --> 00:21:03,434 an officer wrote, 399 00:21:03,535 --> 00:21:07,302 "is numbly extricating itself from a nightmare war 400 00:21:07,402 --> 00:21:10,536 "the armed forces feel they had foisted on them 401 00:21:10,635 --> 00:21:14,103 "by bright civilians who are now back on campus 402 00:21:14,202 --> 00:21:18,835 writing books about the folly of it all." 403 00:21:18,935 --> 00:21:21,568 Even General Creighton Abrams, 404 00:21:21,670 --> 00:21:24,804 commander of military operations in Vietnam, 405 00:21:24,904 --> 00:21:26,703 now admitted privately, 406 00:21:26,804 --> 00:21:30,037 "I need to get this army home to save it." 407 00:21:30,136 --> 00:21:31,569 ANIMALS: ♪ I know it, too, baby 408 00:21:31,670 --> 00:21:33,605 ♪ Oh, yeah. 409 00:21:42,937 --> 00:21:45,306 The telegrams and letters coming into this courthouse 410 00:21:45,406 --> 00:21:47,571 are from all parts of the country. 411 00:21:47,672 --> 00:21:50,505 From Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a man writes, 412 00:21:50,606 --> 00:21:53,138 "Congratulations to the Calley jurors. 413 00:21:53,239 --> 00:21:55,438 "A courageous and fair decision. 414 00:21:55,539 --> 00:21:57,572 Justice still exists." 415 00:21:57,673 --> 00:22:02,572 NARRATOR: On March 29, 1971, 416 00:22:02,673 --> 00:22:04,506 at Fort Benning, Georgia, 417 00:22:04,607 --> 00:22:07,639 a military court found Lieutenant William Calley... 418 00:22:07,740 --> 00:22:09,974 and only Lieutenant Calley... 419 00:22:10,073 --> 00:22:12,640 guilty of murdering Vietnamese civilians 420 00:22:12,741 --> 00:22:15,741 at My Lai back in 1968. 421 00:22:18,674 --> 00:22:22,975 He was sentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor. 422 00:22:23,074 --> 00:22:25,708 The commander of Calley's division, 423 00:22:25,809 --> 00:22:27,874 General Samuel Koster, 424 00:22:27,975 --> 00:22:30,774 who had watched some of the slaughter from a helicopter 425 00:22:30,874 --> 00:22:33,775 and done nothing to stop it, was now the superintendent 426 00:22:33,875 --> 00:22:37,075 of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. 427 00:22:37,176 --> 00:22:40,976 He was forced to resign. 428 00:22:41,075 --> 00:22:44,075 The other 23 officers and men 429 00:22:44,176 --> 00:22:46,443 who had been indicted were either acquitted 430 00:22:46,544 --> 00:22:49,210 or had their cases dismissed. 431 00:22:49,311 --> 00:22:52,744 The Calley verdict proved as controversial 432 00:22:52,843 --> 00:22:55,044 as the war itself. 433 00:22:55,143 --> 00:22:57,211 TROTTA: A lady in Cheyenne, Wyoming, says, 434 00:22:57,312 --> 00:22:59,577 "What the jury has done to Lieutenant Calley 435 00:22:59,678 --> 00:23:01,777 "is a disgrace to this nation. 436 00:23:01,877 --> 00:23:03,745 "The enemy is the enemy, 437 00:23:03,844 --> 00:23:06,545 the enemy is the enemy." 438 00:23:06,644 --> 00:23:08,878 From Bellefontaine, Ohio, a doctor says, 439 00:23:08,979 --> 00:23:11,645 "Let us not condemn Lieutenant Calley 440 00:23:11,746 --> 00:23:14,046 "when it is the character of the war 441 00:23:14,145 --> 00:23:16,778 which is at fault for such slaughters as My Lai." 442 00:23:16,878 --> 00:23:20,114 What is your initial reaction to this verdict, sir? 443 00:23:20,213 --> 00:23:22,379 I thought he would be found not guilty. 444 00:23:22,480 --> 00:23:24,346 'Cause you send in a man into combat, 445 00:23:24,446 --> 00:23:26,747 you train him to be a... a killer, 446 00:23:26,846 --> 00:23:29,013 and then, when he does, why then, 447 00:23:29,114 --> 00:23:30,946 uh, you prosecute him? 448 00:23:32,847 --> 00:23:36,514 NARRATOR: Some believed everyone involved should have gone to jail; 449 00:23:36,615 --> 00:23:39,681 others believed that Calley had been made a scapegoat 450 00:23:39,780 --> 00:23:43,549 for the criminal misdeeds of his superiors. 451 00:23:43,648 --> 00:23:47,515 And still others felt a systemic failure of leadership 452 00:23:47,616 --> 00:23:49,881 had occurred in a chain of command 453 00:23:49,982 --> 00:23:54,616 that stretched all the way up to the commander in chief. 454 00:23:57,183 --> 00:23:58,949 According to a Gallup poll, 455 00:23:59,050 --> 00:24:04,250 79% of the American public disagreed with the verdict. 456 00:24:04,349 --> 00:24:07,751 Nixon decided to intervene. 457 00:24:10,118 --> 00:24:13,551 Calley spent just three days behind bars. 458 00:24:14,818 --> 00:24:17,383 The president ordered him transferred 459 00:24:17,484 --> 00:24:19,619 from federal prison to house arrest 460 00:24:19,718 --> 00:24:21,884 at Fort Benning, pending appeal. 461 00:24:21,985 --> 00:24:23,985 MAN: Okay, I'm gonna walk back from each side. 462 00:24:24,084 --> 00:24:26,185 NARRATOR: Captain Aubrey Daniel, 463 00:24:26,284 --> 00:24:28,819 who had successfully prosecuted Calley, 464 00:24:28,919 --> 00:24:32,085 wrote Nixon, accusing him of compromising 465 00:24:32,186 --> 00:24:34,753 "such a fundamental moral principle 466 00:24:34,852 --> 00:24:37,253 "as the inherent unlawfulness 467 00:24:37,352 --> 00:24:40,452 of the murder of innocent persons." 468 00:24:40,553 --> 00:24:42,953 A military appeals court 469 00:24:43,054 --> 00:24:46,786 eventually reduced Calley's term to 20 years, 470 00:24:46,886 --> 00:24:49,754 the secretary of the army cut it to ten, 471 00:24:49,853 --> 00:24:52,321 and after just three-and-a-half years 472 00:24:52,421 --> 00:24:55,354 under house arrest, he was paroled. 473 00:24:59,587 --> 00:25:01,988 TIM O'BRIEN: Who's responsible? 474 00:25:04,255 --> 00:25:08,556 The human beings who did this... 475 00:25:08,655 --> 00:25:12,088 These are war crimes. 476 00:25:12,189 --> 00:25:16,123 The individual human beings who put a rifle muzzle 477 00:25:16,222 --> 00:25:17,288 up against a baby's head 478 00:25:17,388 --> 00:25:20,723 and shot the brains out of that baby... 479 00:25:20,824 --> 00:25:23,589 nothing happened to them. 480 00:25:23,690 --> 00:25:25,956 Nothing! 481 00:25:33,357 --> 00:25:37,157 HAL KUSHNER: And we walked up the Ho Chi Minh Trail. 482 00:25:39,325 --> 00:25:42,091 And they said we walked 900 kilometers... 483 00:25:42,192 --> 00:25:47,826 540 miles in 57 days. 484 00:25:47,926 --> 00:25:51,692 And we met all these people going both ways. 485 00:25:51,791 --> 00:25:55,260 We met civilians coming south. 486 00:25:55,359 --> 00:25:58,092 We met soldiers going north and south. 487 00:25:58,193 --> 00:26:01,392 We met people humping artillery rounds. 488 00:26:01,493 --> 00:26:02,760 We met a... 489 00:26:02,859 --> 00:26:04,726 I remember a whole unit, 490 00:26:04,827 --> 00:26:06,761 a company-size unit, of women. 491 00:26:09,160 --> 00:26:12,128 On the way, in one of these villages, 492 00:26:12,227 --> 00:26:15,727 I stole a uniform. 493 00:26:17,294 --> 00:26:19,028 Just khaki pants and khaki shirt. 494 00:26:19,129 --> 00:26:20,361 And I stole it. 495 00:26:20,461 --> 00:26:23,861 And I folded it up and I put it in my pack. 496 00:26:23,961 --> 00:26:27,195 NARRATOR: By early 1971, 497 00:26:27,294 --> 00:26:29,162 army doctor Hal Kushner 498 00:26:29,263 --> 00:26:31,029 had been a prisoner of the Viet Cong 499 00:26:31,130 --> 00:26:34,462 in South Vietnam for more than three years. 500 00:26:36,430 --> 00:26:40,130 He had survived ill treatment and a host of illnesses, 501 00:26:40,229 --> 00:26:43,530 and he had buried 13 of his fellow captives, 502 00:26:43,631 --> 00:26:45,463 who had died of starvation 503 00:26:45,564 --> 00:26:49,096 and sickness and despair. 504 00:26:49,197 --> 00:26:52,998 Now, he and the other survivors from his camp 505 00:26:53,097 --> 00:26:56,731 were being moved all the way to North Vietnam. 506 00:26:59,164 --> 00:27:00,765 Kushner and his companions 507 00:27:00,864 --> 00:27:03,231 eventually reached the city of Vinh, 508 00:27:03,332 --> 00:27:06,032 where they boarded a train to Hanoi. 509 00:27:06,133 --> 00:27:08,165 KUSHNER: And I put on this fresh uniform, 510 00:27:08,266 --> 00:27:10,032 and when I got off the train 511 00:27:10,133 --> 00:27:13,833 I was met with this officer in a jeep. 512 00:27:13,933 --> 00:27:15,532 And he just looked at me and he said, 513 00:27:15,633 --> 00:27:16,810 "You're an officer, aren't you? 514 00:27:16,834 --> 00:27:18,966 You come here." 515 00:27:19,067 --> 00:27:21,334 And he just... I felt very proud that I looked good 516 00:27:21,434 --> 00:27:23,334 when I came off that train. 517 00:27:29,734 --> 00:27:33,034 NARRATOR: Kushner joined hundreds of American captives 518 00:27:33,135 --> 00:27:35,635 who were scattered among five prisons 519 00:27:35,734 --> 00:27:38,835 in and around Hanoi. 520 00:27:38,935 --> 00:27:41,502 KUSHNER: We hadn't been there long when the word came down 521 00:27:41,601 --> 00:27:44,336 from the American senior ranking officer 522 00:27:44,436 --> 00:27:48,735 that nobody would go home unless everybody went home. 523 00:27:48,836 --> 00:27:51,802 That nobody would cooperate with the Vietnamese. 524 00:27:51,902 --> 00:27:53,837 (indistinct voice on radio) 525 00:27:57,203 --> 00:28:00,770 But we heard him on the camp radio once... 526 00:28:00,869 --> 00:28:02,770 (radio transmission continuing) 527 00:28:02,869 --> 00:28:05,803 ...telling us that we should cooperate. 528 00:28:08,037 --> 00:28:10,838 And it was obvious, from his voice and his inflection, 529 00:28:10,938 --> 00:28:12,970 that he had been tortured and beaten 530 00:28:13,071 --> 00:28:15,971 and was being made to say that. 531 00:28:16,072 --> 00:28:18,139 And that's what they did. 532 00:28:18,238 --> 00:28:22,639 NARRATOR: Eventually, Kushner, like most of the prisoners, 533 00:28:22,738 --> 00:28:25,439 would be forced to record a statement 534 00:28:25,538 --> 00:28:27,472 against the war. 535 00:28:28,706 --> 00:28:30,239 (light clicks on) 536 00:28:33,039 --> 00:28:35,573 KUSHNER (on recording): 537 00:29:01,807 --> 00:29:03,451 KUSHNER: They wanted propaganda statements 538 00:29:03,475 --> 00:29:05,042 to say the war was criminal, 539 00:29:05,143 --> 00:29:07,643 to say that we were criminals. 540 00:29:07,742 --> 00:29:09,943 And they used our weakness against us. 541 00:29:10,042 --> 00:29:11,443 (light clicks off) 542 00:29:11,542 --> 00:29:14,510 ("Gimme Shelter" by the Rolling Stones playing) 543 00:29:14,609 --> 00:29:18,409 CROWD (chanting): No more war! No more war! No more war! 544 00:29:18,510 --> 00:29:22,277 No more war! No more war! 545 00:29:22,376 --> 00:29:24,376 JOHN MUSGRAVE: The first time in our history 546 00:29:24,476 --> 00:29:26,945 that veterans came home from a war and said... 547 00:29:27,044 --> 00:29:28,477 while the war is still going on... 548 00:29:28,578 --> 00:29:31,578 and said, "This war's got to stop." 549 00:29:31,677 --> 00:29:34,544 And the American people 550 00:29:34,645 --> 00:29:36,977 might not listen to a bunch of long-haired hippie kids. 551 00:29:37,078 --> 00:29:38,911 What do they know? 552 00:29:39,012 --> 00:29:41,779 But the working class, the great "silent majority"... 553 00:29:41,878 --> 00:29:44,311 Richard Nixon always talked about his "silent majority" 554 00:29:44,411 --> 00:29:46,911 that would back him by being silent... 555 00:29:47,012 --> 00:29:49,478 we were their kids. 556 00:29:49,579 --> 00:29:52,213 And it finally dawned on me... 557 00:29:52,312 --> 00:29:54,379 and this was a long, painful process... 558 00:29:54,479 --> 00:29:57,347 that... that I wasn't helping anybody 559 00:29:57,447 --> 00:30:00,546 by keeping my mouth shut. 560 00:30:00,647 --> 00:30:03,813 NARRATOR: Less than three weeks after Lieutenant Calley 561 00:30:03,913 --> 00:30:06,581 was found guilty, some 2,000 members 562 00:30:06,680 --> 00:30:08,613 of an organization called 563 00:30:08,714 --> 00:30:11,180 Vietnam Veterans Against the War 564 00:30:11,281 --> 00:30:16,048 and their followers descended upon Washington, D.C. 565 00:30:16,149 --> 00:30:20,082 MICK JAGGER: ♪ Ooh, storm is threatening 566 00:30:20,181 --> 00:30:23,649 ♪ My very life today 567 00:30:23,748 --> 00:30:28,682 ♪ If I don't get some shelter 568 00:30:28,783 --> 00:30:32,182 ♪ Oh, yeah, I'm gonna fade away ♪ 569 00:30:32,283 --> 00:30:35,783 ♪ War, children 570 00:30:35,882 --> 00:30:38,316 ♪ It's just a shot away 571 00:30:38,416 --> 00:30:40,416 ♪ It's just a shot away ♪ 572 00:30:40,517 --> 00:30:43,851 ♪ War, children 573 00:30:43,951 --> 00:30:45,784 ♪ It's just a shot away 574 00:30:45,883 --> 00:30:49,452 ♪ It's just a shot away. ♪ 575 00:30:49,551 --> 00:30:52,984 VVAW was a-a... it was great therapy. 576 00:30:53,085 --> 00:30:55,152 We were working it out ourselves. 577 00:30:55,251 --> 00:30:57,518 Vets taking care of vets. 578 00:30:57,617 --> 00:30:59,317 We were generals in our own right. 579 00:30:59,417 --> 00:31:00,953 And we didn't join anything. 580 00:31:01,052 --> 00:31:02,618 We became something. 581 00:31:02,719 --> 00:31:04,818 And that, yes, I was a Marine, 582 00:31:04,918 --> 00:31:06,653 but I was first and foremost 583 00:31:06,752 --> 00:31:09,019 a citizen of the United States of America. 584 00:31:09,118 --> 00:31:12,886 And being a citizen, I had certain responsibilities. 585 00:31:12,986 --> 00:31:16,053 And the largest of those responsibilities 586 00:31:16,154 --> 00:31:19,454 is standing up to your government and saying "no" 587 00:31:19,553 --> 00:31:21,587 when it's doing something that you think 588 00:31:21,686 --> 00:31:24,386 is not in this nation's best interest. 589 00:31:24,487 --> 00:31:29,687 That is the most important job that every citizen has. 590 00:31:29,788 --> 00:31:33,455 ROLLING STONES: ♪ Rape, murder 591 00:31:33,554 --> 00:31:36,688 MUSGRAVE: I served my country as honorably, 592 00:31:36,789 --> 00:31:39,888 when I was in Vietnam Veterans Against the War, 593 00:31:39,988 --> 00:31:43,522 as I did as a United States Marine. 594 00:31:43,621 --> 00:31:46,956 And, in fact, I conducted myself as a Marine 595 00:31:47,055 --> 00:31:49,756 the whole time I was in VVAW. 596 00:31:49,857 --> 00:31:51,389 I... My-my whole life, 597 00:31:51,489 --> 00:31:54,223 I conduct myself as a Marine. 598 00:31:54,322 --> 00:31:57,657 NARRATOR: Navy Lieutenant John Kerry, 599 00:31:57,756 --> 00:32:01,057 who had commanded a swift boat in the Mekong Delta 600 00:32:01,158 --> 00:32:03,658 and was one of the organization's leaders, 601 00:32:03,757 --> 00:32:05,091 was invited to address 602 00:32:05,190 --> 00:32:07,323 the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 603 00:32:07,423 --> 00:32:10,390 still chaired by J. William Fulbright. 604 00:32:10,490 --> 00:32:11,891 Thank you. 605 00:32:11,991 --> 00:32:15,424 MUSGRAVE: I went up for the presentation. 606 00:32:15,525 --> 00:32:17,725 And it was standing room only. 607 00:32:17,824 --> 00:32:21,625 And I was crammed up against the wall in the very back. 608 00:32:21,725 --> 00:32:24,760 And when John... 609 00:32:24,860 --> 00:32:27,659 gave that presentation... (gavel bangs) 610 00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:30,260 ...I felt like he was speaking for all of us. 611 00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:33,726 KERRY: We could come back to this country and we could be quiet. 612 00:32:33,825 --> 00:32:35,325 We could hold our silence. 613 00:32:35,426 --> 00:32:38,893 We could not tell what went on in Vietnam, but we feel, 614 00:32:38,993 --> 00:32:41,826 because of what threatens this country, 615 00:32:41,926 --> 00:32:43,694 we have to speak out. 616 00:32:43,794 --> 00:32:45,627 Millions of men who have been 617 00:32:45,727 --> 00:32:48,795 taught to deal and to trade in violence 618 00:32:48,894 --> 00:32:51,195 and who were given the chance to die 619 00:32:51,295 --> 00:32:53,494 for the biggest nothing in history, 620 00:32:53,594 --> 00:32:57,228 men who have returned with a sense of anger 621 00:32:57,327 --> 00:32:58,728 and a sense of betrayal 622 00:32:58,827 --> 00:33:01,196 which no one has yet grasped. 623 00:33:01,296 --> 00:33:03,928 We rationalized destroying villages 624 00:33:04,028 --> 00:33:05,562 in order to save them. 625 00:33:05,662 --> 00:33:07,729 We saw America lose her sense of morality, 626 00:33:07,828 --> 00:33:10,763 as she accepted very coolly a My Lai 627 00:33:10,864 --> 00:33:13,264 and refused to give up the image of American soldiers 628 00:33:13,364 --> 00:33:16,063 that hand out chocolate bars and chewing gum. 629 00:33:16,163 --> 00:33:18,730 We learnt the meaning of free-fire zones, 630 00:33:18,829 --> 00:33:21,329 shoot anything that moves, 631 00:33:21,429 --> 00:33:23,597 and we watched while America placed a cheapness 632 00:33:23,698 --> 00:33:25,865 on the lives of Orientals. 633 00:33:25,965 --> 00:33:29,865 We watched the United States' falsification of body counts... 634 00:33:29,965 --> 00:33:33,397 in fact, the glorification of body counts. 635 00:33:33,497 --> 00:33:36,065 We watched while men charged up hills 636 00:33:36,165 --> 00:33:39,299 because a general said that hill has to be taken. 637 00:33:39,398 --> 00:33:42,098 And after losing one platoon or two platoons, 638 00:33:42,199 --> 00:33:43,498 they marched away 639 00:33:43,598 --> 00:33:45,498 to leave the hill for the reoccupation 640 00:33:45,598 --> 00:33:48,467 of the North Vietnamese. 641 00:33:48,566 --> 00:33:51,133 And we are asking Americans to think about that. 642 00:33:51,233 --> 00:33:53,399 Because how do you ask a man 643 00:33:53,499 --> 00:33:56,233 to be the last man to die in Vietnam? 644 00:33:56,332 --> 00:34:00,968 How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake? 645 00:34:01,067 --> 00:34:04,100 And so, when, 30 years from now, 646 00:34:04,201 --> 00:34:06,900 our brothers go down the street without a leg, 647 00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:09,567 without an arm or a face, 648 00:34:09,667 --> 00:34:12,302 and small boys ask why, 649 00:34:12,401 --> 00:34:15,168 we will be able to say "Vietnam" 650 00:34:15,269 --> 00:34:18,834 and not mean a filthy, obscene memory 651 00:34:18,934 --> 00:34:24,236 but mean instead the place where America finally turned 652 00:34:24,335 --> 00:34:29,035 and where soldiers like us helped it in the turning. 653 00:34:29,136 --> 00:34:30,870 Thank you. 654 00:34:30,970 --> 00:34:32,902 (cheers and applause) 655 00:34:37,403 --> 00:34:40,304 MUSGRAVE: I thought, "I have never heard 656 00:34:40,403 --> 00:34:43,237 "so... such an incredible speech 657 00:34:43,336 --> 00:34:45,772 that says exactly what I'm feeling." 658 00:34:45,872 --> 00:34:49,238 You know? It was extraordinary. 659 00:34:49,337 --> 00:34:51,705 Extraordinary. 660 00:34:51,805 --> 00:34:55,372 NARRATOR: But some veterans remembered a different part 661 00:34:55,472 --> 00:34:57,306 of Kerry's testimony, 662 00:34:57,405 --> 00:35:01,038 testimony in which he repeated accounts of atrocities 663 00:35:01,139 --> 00:35:04,938 he had heard from other American veterans. 664 00:35:05,038 --> 00:35:08,206 KERRY: They told the stories of times 665 00:35:08,306 --> 00:35:13,274 that they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, 666 00:35:13,374 --> 00:35:17,140 taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals 667 00:35:17,240 --> 00:35:18,939 and turned up the power, 668 00:35:19,039 --> 00:35:22,375 cut off limbs, blown up bodies, 669 00:35:22,475 --> 00:35:25,040 randomly shot at civilians, 670 00:35:25,141 --> 00:35:29,375 razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan... 671 00:35:29,475 --> 00:35:31,907 GIOIA: What I saw in Vietnam was not the soldier 672 00:35:32,007 --> 00:35:33,908 that Mr. Kerry or his colleagues 673 00:35:34,008 --> 00:35:36,041 were describing at that time. 674 00:35:36,142 --> 00:35:38,575 There was no widespread atrocity. 675 00:35:38,675 --> 00:35:40,315 There was... there were a couple of units 676 00:35:40,341 --> 00:35:42,841 that went right off the rails, and we can talk about that. 677 00:35:42,941 --> 00:35:45,576 But they were not out-of-control animals, 678 00:35:45,676 --> 00:35:47,710 which was the way they were portrayed. 679 00:35:47,810 --> 00:35:51,377 And what was even worse was they were alluding to the fact 680 00:35:51,477 --> 00:35:52,797 that you would take ordinary kids 681 00:35:52,877 --> 00:35:55,342 and turn them into these savages, 682 00:35:55,442 --> 00:35:56,943 war criminals, and the... 683 00:35:57,043 --> 00:35:58,410 that the military was doing that. 684 00:35:58,510 --> 00:36:01,077 And it didn't. Didn't happen that way. 685 00:36:01,177 --> 00:36:03,543 I'm still very angry about that. 686 00:36:03,644 --> 00:36:05,478 ROLLING STONES: ♪ War, children 687 00:36:05,577 --> 00:36:07,010 NARRATOR: The next day, 688 00:36:07,110 --> 00:36:10,279 700 Vietnam Veterans Against the War 689 00:36:10,379 --> 00:36:12,544 gathered at the Capitol. 690 00:36:12,645 --> 00:36:15,611 MUSGRAVE: We originally intended to put our medals in a body bag 691 00:36:15,712 --> 00:36:18,578 and have them delivered to Congress. 692 00:36:18,678 --> 00:36:21,980 But the Nixon administration erected 693 00:36:22,079 --> 00:36:27,579 this big wire and wood fence on the steps of our Capitol 694 00:36:27,679 --> 00:36:31,213 to keep us out. 695 00:36:31,313 --> 00:36:33,214 To keep out the young men and women 696 00:36:33,314 --> 00:36:35,881 who were fighting that war. 697 00:36:35,981 --> 00:36:38,346 And all that did was piss us off 698 00:36:38,446 --> 00:36:42,346 and give us the greatest photo opportunity 699 00:36:42,446 --> 00:36:45,114 that we could ever have. 700 00:36:45,215 --> 00:36:46,358 Silver Star. STEVE SHAW: Purple Heart. 701 00:36:46,382 --> 00:36:48,514 MAN: Bronze Star. 702 00:36:48,614 --> 00:36:50,423 Cross of Gallantry. SACHS: Distinguished Flying Cross. 703 00:36:50,447 --> 00:36:51,815 And everything else! (cheering) 704 00:36:51,914 --> 00:36:53,691 FERRIZZI: I don't want these fucking medals, man! 705 00:36:53,715 --> 00:36:56,948 The Silver Star, the third highest medal in the country, 706 00:36:57,048 --> 00:36:58,548 it doesn't mean anything! 707 00:36:58,649 --> 00:37:00,948 Bob Smeal died for these medals! 708 00:37:01,048 --> 00:37:03,448 Lieutenant Panamaroff died so I got a medal! 709 00:37:03,548 --> 00:37:05,883 Sergeant Johns died so I got a medal! 710 00:37:05,983 --> 00:37:07,884 I got a Silver Star, a Purple Heart, 711 00:37:07,984 --> 00:37:10,284 Army Commendation Medal, eight Air Medals, 712 00:37:10,384 --> 00:37:11,750 National Defense, 713 00:37:11,849 --> 00:37:12,992 and the rest of this garbage! 714 00:37:13,016 --> 00:37:14,849 It doesn't mean a thing! 715 00:37:14,949 --> 00:37:16,349 (cheering) 716 00:37:16,449 --> 00:37:20,017 JAGGER: ♪ Mm, the flood is threatening 717 00:37:20,117 --> 00:37:21,550 ♪ My very life 718 00:37:21,651 --> 00:37:23,771 FERRIZZI: Throwing my medals back was probably harder 719 00:37:23,850 --> 00:37:25,151 than going to the war. 720 00:37:25,251 --> 00:37:27,818 Was actually harder than going and serving in Vietnam. 721 00:37:27,917 --> 00:37:32,351 JAGGER: ♪ Or I'm gonna fade away 722 00:37:32,451 --> 00:37:34,927 FERRIZZI: If this medal is so important, let's make it important. 723 00:37:34,951 --> 00:37:36,551 Here it is. You can have it back. 724 00:37:36,652 --> 00:37:38,685 End the war in Vietnam. 725 00:37:38,786 --> 00:37:40,319 What else is there? 726 00:37:40,418 --> 00:37:41,685 I... There was nothing else. 727 00:37:41,786 --> 00:37:43,263 I wouldn't put 'em on my wall for my son. 728 00:37:43,287 --> 00:37:45,419 I never want... that was the last thing in the world 729 00:37:45,519 --> 00:37:48,119 I would ever want my son to revere. 730 00:37:48,220 --> 00:37:50,452 (indistinct shouting) 731 00:37:50,552 --> 00:37:53,387 TOM VALLELY: It was a difficult decision for me. 732 00:37:53,487 --> 00:37:58,388 I did it out of a disrespectful loyalty. 733 00:37:58,488 --> 00:38:02,420 I was proud of my military service. 734 00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:04,754 And I wanted to say, "You know, I don't think 735 00:38:04,853 --> 00:38:07,554 you guys know that much," the American military. 736 00:38:07,655 --> 00:38:10,655 "You know, I think you should think again 737 00:38:10,755 --> 00:38:12,121 "about this enterprise. 738 00:38:12,222 --> 00:38:14,588 And here you go, pal." 739 00:38:14,688 --> 00:38:16,454 Tim Bagwell from Sacramento, California, 740 00:38:16,554 --> 00:38:19,455 still on active duty, and I say get the hell out. 741 00:38:19,555 --> 00:38:20,555 (cheering) 742 00:38:20,622 --> 00:38:23,256 ("Gimme Shelter" continues) 743 00:38:32,824 --> 00:38:35,190 MUSGRAVE: When we threw our medals away, 744 00:38:35,291 --> 00:38:36,791 that got their attention, 745 00:38:36,891 --> 00:38:39,456 because America values those things. 746 00:38:39,556 --> 00:38:40,891 So do we. 747 00:38:40,991 --> 00:38:43,191 That's why it was so important. 748 00:38:43,292 --> 00:38:46,325 NARRATOR: The police had been ordered not to arrest 749 00:38:46,424 --> 00:38:48,924 any of the veterans, because, 750 00:38:49,024 --> 00:38:51,524 Pat Buchanan, a White House aide, wrote, 751 00:38:51,624 --> 00:38:54,993 they were "being received in a far more sympathetic fashion 752 00:38:55,092 --> 00:38:57,192 "than other demonstrators. 753 00:38:57,293 --> 00:39:00,925 The 'crazies' will be in town soon enough," he continued, 754 00:39:01,025 --> 00:39:03,092 "and if we want a confrontation, 755 00:39:03,192 --> 00:39:05,159 let's have it with them." 756 00:39:05,259 --> 00:39:07,559 He was right. 757 00:39:07,660 --> 00:39:09,894 In the days immediately following 758 00:39:09,994 --> 00:39:11,359 the veterans' protest, 759 00:39:11,459 --> 00:39:13,494 other groups of antiwar activists 760 00:39:13,593 --> 00:39:16,593 moved into the capital. 761 00:39:16,693 --> 00:39:20,360 The most radical called itself the May Day Tribe 762 00:39:20,460 --> 00:39:23,427 and threatened to close the city down. 763 00:39:23,527 --> 00:39:26,761 For three days, they staged hit-and-run raids 764 00:39:26,860 --> 00:39:28,627 throughout Washington... 765 00:39:28,728 --> 00:39:31,162 blocking bridges and traffic circles, 766 00:39:31,262 --> 00:39:32,595 smashing windows, 767 00:39:32,695 --> 00:39:35,095 hurling rocks, burning cars. 768 00:39:35,195 --> 00:39:36,195 (sirens wailing) 769 00:39:36,262 --> 00:39:37,638 RENNIE DAVIS: If Richard Nixon thought 770 00:39:37,662 --> 00:39:40,962 that this week was something, wait until the next round. 771 00:39:41,062 --> 00:39:43,629 This is only a warm-up of what is going to come. 772 00:39:43,730 --> 00:39:46,462 This is going to continue until the war ends. 773 00:39:46,562 --> 00:39:48,763 NARRATOR: Some 12,000 were arrested... 774 00:39:48,862 --> 00:39:51,330 7,000 on a single day, 775 00:39:51,429 --> 00:39:54,898 the largest number of arrests in 24 hours 776 00:39:54,998 --> 00:39:57,398 in United States history. 777 00:39:57,498 --> 00:40:00,863 BILL ZIMMERMAN: I realized, coming away from Washington, 778 00:40:00,963 --> 00:40:03,264 that our whole strategy was wrong 779 00:40:03,363 --> 00:40:06,999 and that we were becoming more and more militant 780 00:40:07,098 --> 00:40:09,864 at a time when more and more Americans 781 00:40:09,964 --> 00:40:11,464 were opposing the war 782 00:40:11,564 --> 00:40:14,064 but were turned off by our militancy. 783 00:40:14,165 --> 00:40:17,065 So we were doing exactly the wrong thing. 784 00:40:17,166 --> 00:40:20,632 NARRATOR: The White House was initially pleased. 785 00:40:20,733 --> 00:40:23,800 Public sympathy for the veterans was largely forgotten 786 00:40:23,900 --> 00:40:27,833 in the face of days of battle in the streets. 787 00:40:27,932 --> 00:40:30,966 Polls showed that most Americans approved 788 00:40:31,066 --> 00:40:32,866 of the arrests. 789 00:40:37,033 --> 00:40:40,067 But those same polls also showed 790 00:40:40,168 --> 00:40:42,867 that most Americans no longer believed 791 00:40:42,967 --> 00:40:46,668 they were being told the truth about Vietnam. 792 00:40:51,634 --> 00:40:54,336 MUSGRAVE: When I got home, my... so my dad's pissed off. 793 00:40:54,435 --> 00:40:58,169 'Cause he's-he's a true believer, you know? 794 00:40:59,702 --> 00:41:01,935 He was already receiving threats 795 00:41:02,035 --> 00:41:05,170 because I'd thrown away their medals. 796 00:41:06,936 --> 00:41:09,904 And that pissed my dad off then. 797 00:41:10,004 --> 00:41:12,636 And you would've thought I hadn't done anything wrong. 798 00:41:12,737 --> 00:41:15,771 Because then somebody outside the family was messing with me. 799 00:41:15,870 --> 00:41:17,905 And he said, "Son, don't worry. 800 00:41:18,005 --> 00:41:19,905 "Those were your medals. You paid for 'em. 801 00:41:20,005 --> 00:41:21,381 "You can do anything you want with 'em. 802 00:41:21,405 --> 00:41:23,470 "They want to jack with us, they'll face us both. 803 00:41:23,570 --> 00:41:25,210 We'll-we'll take 'em on in the driveway." 804 00:41:25,305 --> 00:41:27,971 You know? "Yo, Dad." 805 00:41:29,239 --> 00:41:31,172 (applause) 806 00:41:32,871 --> 00:41:35,306 (band playing "Thank Heaven for Little Girls") 807 00:41:35,406 --> 00:41:38,306 NARRATOR: On June 12, 1971, 808 00:41:38,406 --> 00:41:40,639 Richard Nixon's daughter, Tricia, 809 00:41:40,740 --> 00:41:45,273 married Edward Cox in the White House Rose Garden. 810 00:41:45,372 --> 00:41:48,972 The country watched it all on television. 811 00:41:52,408 --> 00:41:55,573 The wedding was still news the next day. 812 00:41:55,674 --> 00:41:59,174 But another story on the front page of theNew York Times 813 00:41:59,274 --> 00:42:02,073 caught the president's attention. 814 00:42:02,174 --> 00:42:05,242 The article, by Neil Sheehan, 815 00:42:05,342 --> 00:42:08,041 was the first report of what came to be called 816 00:42:08,141 --> 00:42:09,909 the Pentagon Papers, 817 00:42:10,009 --> 00:42:13,574 7,000 pages of highly classified documents 818 00:42:13,675 --> 00:42:15,642 and historical narrative, 819 00:42:15,743 --> 00:42:17,975 compiled secretly at the orders 820 00:42:18,075 --> 00:42:21,843 of former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. 821 00:42:21,942 --> 00:42:25,176 He had hoped a study of the decision-making process 822 00:42:25,276 --> 00:42:28,777 that had led the United States to become so deeply involved 823 00:42:28,876 --> 00:42:32,110 in Vietnam would help future policymakers 824 00:42:32,210 --> 00:42:34,811 avoid similar errors. 825 00:42:36,411 --> 00:42:38,444 SHEEHAN: I thought I knew a great deal. 826 00:42:38,544 --> 00:42:40,577 I thought I knew most of what was worth knowing 827 00:42:40,678 --> 00:42:41,912 about the war. 828 00:42:42,012 --> 00:42:45,711 And, suddenly, I didn't. 829 00:42:45,812 --> 00:42:48,778 It wasn't a reporter's version of an event. 830 00:42:48,877 --> 00:42:50,712 It wasthe ir version of an event. 831 00:42:50,813 --> 00:42:53,045 It was their telegrams, their orders, 832 00:42:53,145 --> 00:42:54,978 their memoranda, et cetera. 833 00:43:09,446 --> 00:43:12,514 NARRATOR: The documents proved that American presidents 834 00:43:12,613 --> 00:43:14,447 and their closest advisors 835 00:43:14,547 --> 00:43:16,515 had steered the United States 836 00:43:16,614 --> 00:43:19,315 toward deeper involvement in Vietnam, 837 00:43:19,415 --> 00:43:23,815 despite their own grave doubts about the chances for victory. 838 00:43:32,682 --> 00:43:35,182 They had known that the Saigon government 839 00:43:35,282 --> 00:43:37,683 was weak and incompetent... 840 00:43:45,049 --> 00:43:48,982 ...that the enemy was disciplined and resilient... 841 00:43:55,083 --> 00:43:58,851 ...and that the bombing of the North wasn't working. 842 00:44:06,419 --> 00:44:10,484 Yet, they had routinely lied about all these things 843 00:44:10,584 --> 00:44:13,119 to Congress and the American people. 844 00:44:37,288 --> 00:44:38,954 (sighs) 845 00:44:39,054 --> 00:44:41,987 I certainly don't endorse 846 00:44:42,087 --> 00:44:46,987 anyone releasing top-secret material to the press. 847 00:44:48,689 --> 00:44:52,588 Um, on the other hand, uh... 848 00:44:52,689 --> 00:44:55,823 I was very concerned 849 00:44:55,923 --> 00:44:58,356 about the fact that the, uh, 850 00:44:58,455 --> 00:45:03,723 government was not being up front with the American people 851 00:45:03,824 --> 00:45:07,489 in certain respects with the Vietnam War. 852 00:45:07,589 --> 00:45:10,757 NARRATOR: Two copies of the report had been stored 853 00:45:10,857 --> 00:45:14,191 at the RAND Corporation, a California think tank, 854 00:45:14,291 --> 00:45:16,258 where Daniel Ellsberg, 855 00:45:16,358 --> 00:45:21,057 one of the study's 36 authors, worked as an analyst. 856 00:45:21,157 --> 00:45:24,091 Ellsberg had once supported the war. 857 00:45:24,192 --> 00:45:26,091 He'd served in the Pentagon, 858 00:45:26,192 --> 00:45:28,591 and spent two years working for the State Department 859 00:45:28,692 --> 00:45:30,826 in Vietnam. 860 00:45:30,926 --> 00:45:35,326 But he had come to see the war as profoundly immoral, 861 00:45:35,426 --> 00:45:37,927 and hoped that if Americans understood 862 00:45:38,027 --> 00:45:42,360 how administration after administration had misled them 863 00:45:42,459 --> 00:45:44,927 about what was being done in their name, 864 00:45:45,027 --> 00:45:47,560 they might help bring it to an end. 865 00:45:47,660 --> 00:45:51,393 He and Anthony Russo, another RAND employee, 866 00:45:51,493 --> 00:45:54,893 secretly copied most of the report. 867 00:45:54,993 --> 00:45:59,093 Ellsberg offered it to three leading antiwar senators, 868 00:45:59,195 --> 00:46:03,094 hoping they would be willing to reveal its contents. 869 00:46:03,195 --> 00:46:05,829 None dared do it. 870 00:46:05,929 --> 00:46:09,429 Meanwhile, Neil Sheehan of theNew York Times, 871 00:46:09,529 --> 00:46:13,562 who had been reporting on Vietnam since 1962, 872 00:46:13,662 --> 00:46:17,430 and had already secretly read some of the documents, 873 00:46:17,530 --> 00:46:21,495 asked Ellsberg to show him the whole report. 874 00:46:21,595 --> 00:46:24,630 SHEEHAN: At that point, I was very passionate about the war. 875 00:46:24,730 --> 00:46:28,163 I felt that it was really wrong, 876 00:46:28,264 --> 00:46:30,130 because we were getting a lot of Americans 877 00:46:30,230 --> 00:46:32,463 and a lot of Vietnamese killed for no purpose. 878 00:46:32,563 --> 00:46:36,298 We were gonna lose this war. 879 00:46:36,397 --> 00:46:40,597 And so I vowed to myself when I saw this material 880 00:46:40,698 --> 00:46:42,464 that this is never gonna go back 881 00:46:42,564 --> 00:46:44,131 into a government safe again. 882 00:46:44,231 --> 00:46:45,897 The American public had paid for it 883 00:46:45,997 --> 00:46:48,665 with the lives of their sons and with their treasure, 884 00:46:48,766 --> 00:46:50,465 and it's gonna be published. 885 00:46:50,565 --> 00:46:52,132 NIXON: That piece in theTimes 886 00:46:52,232 --> 00:46:53,433 is, of course, 887 00:46:53,533 --> 00:46:56,598 a massive security leak from the Pentagon, you know. 888 00:46:56,699 --> 00:46:58,399 ROGERS: Yeah. 889 00:46:58,499 --> 00:47:01,534 NIXON: It all relates, of course, to everything up until we came in. 890 00:47:01,633 --> 00:47:03,233 ROGERS: Yeah. 891 00:47:03,334 --> 00:47:05,767 NIXON: And it's, uh, it's ver... it's hard on Johnson, 892 00:47:05,867 --> 00:47:09,200 it's hard on Kennedy, it's hard on Lodge. 893 00:47:09,300 --> 00:47:12,701 NARRATOR: At first, Nixon was not unduly disturbed 894 00:47:12,801 --> 00:47:15,201 by the newspaper's revelations. 895 00:47:15,301 --> 00:47:18,835 They reflected badly on his Democratic predecessors, 896 00:47:18,935 --> 00:47:21,301 not on him. 897 00:47:21,400 --> 00:47:24,601 But Henry Kissinger quickly convinced Nixon 898 00:47:24,702 --> 00:47:26,501 that if theTime s were permitted 899 00:47:26,601 --> 00:47:30,336 to reveal the classified secrets of earlier presidents, 900 00:47:30,436 --> 00:47:35,437 it was only a matter of time until someone leaked his own. 901 00:47:35,537 --> 00:47:39,370 The Justice Department obtained a temporary court order 902 00:47:39,469 --> 00:47:43,037 forbidding theTi mes from publishing further installments 903 00:47:43,136 --> 00:47:46,170 on the grounds of national security. 904 00:47:46,271 --> 00:47:49,970 But soon, both theBoston Globe 905 00:47:50,070 --> 00:47:53,938 and theWashington Pos t were also printing excerpts. 906 00:47:55,570 --> 00:47:58,104 On June 30, 1971, 907 00:47:58,205 --> 00:48:00,872 the United States Supreme Court, 908 00:48:00,971 --> 00:48:03,138 citing the First Amendment, 909 00:48:03,238 --> 00:48:06,805 ruled six to three that theTimes had the right 910 00:48:06,904 --> 00:48:10,373 to publish the stolen documents. 911 00:48:10,472 --> 00:48:12,572 SHEEHAN: And I went down into the basement 912 00:48:12,672 --> 00:48:14,972 to wait for the presses to start to roll, 913 00:48:15,072 --> 00:48:17,672 and they had these huge round reams of paper. 914 00:48:17,773 --> 00:48:18,873 (whirring) 915 00:48:18,972 --> 00:48:20,548 And, finally, the presses started to roll. 916 00:48:20,572 --> 00:48:25,006 And it was just an exquisite moment of vindication 917 00:48:25,106 --> 00:48:27,240 of the freedom of the press in this country 918 00:48:27,341 --> 00:48:28,941 and how important it is. 919 00:48:29,041 --> 00:48:31,006 (rhythmic rattling) 920 00:48:31,106 --> 00:48:33,775 KARL MARLANTES: That changed 921 00:48:33,875 --> 00:48:35,775 our whole attitude toward government. 922 00:48:35,875 --> 00:48:38,241 Up until then, the president wouldn't lie. 923 00:48:38,342 --> 00:48:40,474 After then, they always lie. 924 00:48:40,574 --> 00:48:43,042 NARRATOR: The day the presses began to roll again, 925 00:48:43,141 --> 00:48:46,376 Nixon ordered attorney general John Mitchell 926 00:48:46,475 --> 00:48:50,043 to try to discredit Daniel Ellsberg, who had just 927 00:48:50,142 --> 00:48:52,343 been indicted by a federal grand jury 928 00:48:52,443 --> 00:48:54,608 for theft and conspiracy 929 00:48:54,709 --> 00:48:58,676 under the Espionage Act of 1917. 930 00:49:33,646 --> 00:49:37,847 NARRATOR: Nixon feared Ellsberg possessed more classified documents 931 00:49:37,947 --> 00:49:40,380 that would show that he himself had lied 932 00:49:40,479 --> 00:49:44,247 about the secret bombing of Cambodia and Laos, 933 00:49:44,348 --> 00:49:47,080 and he believed that Ellsberg had had help 934 00:49:47,180 --> 00:49:50,613 and wanted to know the names of his co-conspirators. 935 00:49:50,714 --> 00:49:53,048 The president created a private, 936 00:49:53,147 --> 00:49:56,449 clandestine investigative unit within the White House. 937 00:49:56,549 --> 00:49:59,449 It came to be called "The Plumbers." 938 00:49:59,549 --> 00:50:03,081 John Ehrlichman, one of Nixon's closest aides, 939 00:50:03,181 --> 00:50:06,549 eventually ordered them to burglarize the office 940 00:50:06,648 --> 00:50:09,582 of Ellsberg's Los Angeles psychiatrist 941 00:50:09,682 --> 00:50:11,649 in search of material 942 00:50:11,749 --> 00:50:15,450 with which he could be blackmailed into silence. 943 00:50:15,550 --> 00:50:19,750 Nixon may have privately feared something else as well. 944 00:50:19,851 --> 00:50:22,650 He was told that the safe at another think tank, 945 00:50:22,750 --> 00:50:26,351 the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., 946 00:50:26,451 --> 00:50:30,516 contained files that might reveal the secret role 947 00:50:30,616 --> 00:50:34,484 his campaign had played in torpedoing the peace talks 948 00:50:34,584 --> 00:50:37,785 on the eve of his election three years earlier, 949 00:50:37,885 --> 00:50:42,484 which President Johnson had then considered treason. 950 00:50:42,584 --> 00:50:46,286 Nixon wanted his "plumbers" to break into Brookings, 951 00:50:46,386 --> 00:50:50,719 crack the safe, and remove the files. 952 00:50:50,819 --> 00:50:53,018 None of it was legal. 953 00:50:53,118 --> 00:50:56,253 Nixon did not care. 954 00:51:26,988 --> 00:51:31,223 NARRATOR: The Brookings break-in would never take place. 955 00:51:31,323 --> 00:51:33,790 The burglars would be unable 956 00:51:33,890 --> 00:51:36,989 to find Ellsberg's file in his doctor's office. 957 00:51:37,089 --> 00:51:40,522 But Nixon's obsession with his enemies 958 00:51:40,622 --> 00:51:44,358 would be the undoing of his presidency. 959 00:51:45,657 --> 00:51:49,123 ("Embryonic Journey" by Jefferson Airplane playing) 960 00:51:53,090 --> 00:51:55,059 (laughter and chatter) 961 00:52:01,624 --> 00:52:03,905 (indistinct voice of man speaking French over microphone) 962 00:52:04,959 --> 00:52:07,226 JACK TODD: Once a month, I have a dream 963 00:52:07,326 --> 00:52:11,860 that I'm... I'm back... I'm back in basic training. 964 00:52:11,960 --> 00:52:13,393 But I'm the age I am now, 965 00:52:13,492 --> 00:52:15,759 which is way too old to be in the military. 966 00:52:15,860 --> 00:52:18,227 But, you know, somehow I've gotten a waiver, 967 00:52:18,327 --> 00:52:19,926 and I'm going through all the training, 968 00:52:20,026 --> 00:52:22,093 and there's some major war going on. 969 00:52:22,193 --> 00:52:25,327 And I'm going to get there, and I'm going to be a hero 970 00:52:25,426 --> 00:52:30,728 and vindicate myself and be taken back by my country. 971 00:52:30,828 --> 00:52:32,661 (car horn honks) 972 00:52:32,761 --> 00:52:36,994 NARRATOR: Jack Todd had crossed into Canada in early 1970, 973 00:52:37,094 --> 00:52:38,828 rather than take part 974 00:52:38,927 --> 00:52:41,563 in what he believed to be a dishonorable war. 975 00:52:43,963 --> 00:52:47,729 He found himself living in a strange underground world 976 00:52:47,829 --> 00:52:49,896 of deserters and draft evaders 977 00:52:49,995 --> 00:52:54,297 and the disaffected Canadians who gathered around them. 978 00:52:54,397 --> 00:52:58,464 In 1971, he was living in Montreal, 979 00:52:58,564 --> 00:53:00,596 restless and often depressed, 980 00:53:00,696 --> 00:53:04,297 increasingly alienated from his country, 981 00:53:04,397 --> 00:53:07,530 but also anxious always for news from home, 982 00:53:07,630 --> 00:53:10,398 and eager to know how his boyhood friends 983 00:53:10,497 --> 00:53:13,530 from Scottsbluff, Nebraska, were doing. 984 00:53:13,630 --> 00:53:16,231 One, named Ron Bales, 985 00:53:16,331 --> 00:53:19,399 had lived just down the street. 986 00:53:19,498 --> 00:53:24,265 And, uh... my mother sent me a letter, um, 987 00:53:24,366 --> 00:53:26,531 and I remember taking the clipping out of it. 988 00:53:26,631 --> 00:53:30,132 I had walked up to Mount Royal in Montreal to read the letter. 989 00:53:30,233 --> 00:53:33,099 And the clipping was from theScottsbluff Star-Herald, 990 00:53:33,199 --> 00:53:35,967 and it was about Ron being killed in Vietnam. 991 00:53:39,199 --> 00:53:42,167 Why? Why? 992 00:53:42,267 --> 00:53:46,234 It was long after we knew how wrong the war was, 993 00:53:46,334 --> 00:53:50,401 and guys like Ron were still dying, you know. 994 00:53:52,235 --> 00:53:54,168 Why? 995 00:53:55,469 --> 00:53:57,802 The government today restricted the use 996 00:53:57,902 --> 00:54:00,402 of the weed killer 2,4,5-T on the ground 997 00:54:00,501 --> 00:54:02,402 that the chemical has caused birth defects 998 00:54:02,501 --> 00:54:05,035 in some laboratory animals. 999 00:54:06,935 --> 00:54:11,635 NARRATOR: Since 1962, American and South Vietnamese forces 1000 00:54:11,736 --> 00:54:15,102 had sprayed some 20 million gallons of herbicides 1001 00:54:15,202 --> 00:54:19,404 over roughly one quarter of South Vietnam. 1002 00:54:19,503 --> 00:54:22,670 The idea had been to reduce casualties 1003 00:54:22,770 --> 00:54:26,237 by clearing areas around U.S. installations, 1004 00:54:26,337 --> 00:54:30,537 and to deny the enemy crops and forest cover. 1005 00:54:30,637 --> 00:54:34,704 The most frequently used defoliant was Agent Orange, 1006 00:54:34,805 --> 00:54:37,704 which contained 2,4,5-T. 1007 00:54:37,805 --> 00:54:39,873 When environmentalists convinced 1008 00:54:39,973 --> 00:54:43,038 the Nixon administration to ban the weed killer 1009 00:54:43,138 --> 00:54:44,705 on American farms, 1010 00:54:44,806 --> 00:54:47,605 the Pentagon had reluctantly agreed 1011 00:54:47,705 --> 00:54:51,340 to stop using Agent Orange in Vietnam. 1012 00:54:51,439 --> 00:54:56,173 The ecological damage defoliants did was obvious. 1013 00:54:56,273 --> 00:55:00,273 The damage done to soldiers and civilians 1014 00:55:00,374 --> 00:55:04,575 would be the subject of angry debate for decades. 1015 00:55:07,875 --> 00:55:10,774 (crowd shouting in Vietnamese) 1016 00:55:10,875 --> 00:55:13,607 TED KOPPEL: Opposition to the Saigon government 1017 00:55:13,707 --> 00:55:16,041 is not just Viet Cong. 1018 00:55:16,141 --> 00:55:17,641 TUE: How many governments 1019 00:55:17,742 --> 00:55:20,742 actually care for the Vietnamese people? 1020 00:55:20,842 --> 00:55:24,576 KOPPEL: The student antiwar, anti-American movement 1021 00:55:24,675 --> 00:55:27,109 is larger than its small demonstrations indicate. 1022 00:55:27,209 --> 00:55:29,977 TUE: You don't need military aid... 1023 00:55:32,042 --> 00:55:34,442 ...to promote democracy in Vietnam. 1024 00:55:34,542 --> 00:55:37,810 To return to the Vietnamese people 1025 00:55:37,910 --> 00:55:40,244 their right that... 1026 00:55:40,344 --> 00:55:42,510 their right to speak freely. 1027 00:55:42,610 --> 00:55:45,277 You don't need even one penny. 1028 00:55:45,378 --> 00:55:48,478 You don't need to consult the White House, 1029 00:55:48,578 --> 00:55:51,511 you don't need to care about the American media, 1030 00:55:51,611 --> 00:55:54,111 you don't need French, you don't need Chinese, 1031 00:55:54,211 --> 00:55:55,778 you don't need Americans. 1032 00:55:55,879 --> 00:56:00,312 If you really care for Vietnam then you turn back inside. 1033 00:56:00,412 --> 00:56:03,945 NARRATOR: South Vietnamese president Nguyen Van Thieu 1034 00:56:04,045 --> 00:56:06,012 was campaigning for reelection. 1035 00:56:06,112 --> 00:56:08,445 The Americans had insisted on it 1036 00:56:08,545 --> 00:56:11,212 and urged him not to rig the race, 1037 00:56:11,313 --> 00:56:14,314 for fear it would resemble too closely 1038 00:56:14,414 --> 00:56:16,847 the fraudulent communist "elections" 1039 00:56:16,946 --> 00:56:20,347 routinely denounced by the United States. 1040 00:56:20,446 --> 00:56:22,013 But Thieu made sure 1041 00:56:22,113 --> 00:56:25,013 no serious candidates ran against him, 1042 00:56:25,113 --> 00:56:28,882 and claimed to have won 94% of the vote. 1043 00:56:28,982 --> 00:56:32,681 It became known as "the one-man election," 1044 00:56:32,781 --> 00:56:33,947 and added to the ranks 1045 00:56:34,047 --> 00:56:37,047 of what was called the "Third Force": 1046 00:56:37,147 --> 00:56:40,916 South Vietnamese hoping for a negotiated settlement 1047 00:56:41,015 --> 00:56:43,182 and an end to the bloodshed. 1048 00:56:59,917 --> 00:57:02,050 NARRATOR: By the middle of 1971, 1049 00:57:02,150 --> 00:57:05,050 Nixon and Kissinger were looking for a way 1050 00:57:05,150 --> 00:57:08,550 to get all U.S. troops out of Vietnam 1051 00:57:08,650 --> 00:57:11,150 before his re-election campaign began 1052 00:57:11,251 --> 00:57:13,151 the following year, 1053 00:57:13,252 --> 00:57:15,651 but to do so without causing 1054 00:57:15,752 --> 00:57:18,685 Saigon to fall too soon. 1055 00:57:55,489 --> 00:57:57,889 NARRATOR: At the secret talks in Paris, 1056 00:57:57,989 --> 00:58:01,055 Kissinger had offered his North Vietnamese counterpart, 1057 00:58:01,155 --> 00:58:04,356 Le Duc Tho, the most significant concessions 1058 00:58:04,455 --> 00:58:07,423 the United States had yet made: 1059 00:58:07,522 --> 00:58:11,022 North Vietnam could keep its troops in the South... 1060 00:58:11,122 --> 00:58:13,023 tens of thousands of them. 1061 00:58:13,123 --> 00:58:17,523 And in exchange for the release of American prisoners of war, 1062 00:58:17,623 --> 00:58:19,223 all American troops 1063 00:58:19,324 --> 00:58:22,591 would be withdrawn within seven months. 1064 00:58:24,791 --> 00:58:28,157 Le Duc Tho countered with a new offer of his own: 1065 00:58:28,258 --> 00:58:30,457 Hanoi would release the prisoners 1066 00:58:30,557 --> 00:58:34,358 simultaneously with the departure of U.S. forces. 1067 00:58:34,457 --> 00:58:37,625 But he still insisted that Washington remove 1068 00:58:37,725 --> 00:58:41,192 President Thieu from power. 1069 00:58:41,292 --> 00:58:44,058 Kissinger was encouraged that the North Vietnamese 1070 00:58:44,158 --> 00:58:47,927 seemed, for the first time, to be negotiating seriously. 1071 00:58:48,026 --> 00:58:52,793 He could almost "taste peace," he told a friend. 1072 00:58:52,894 --> 00:58:54,459 Thieu knew nothing 1073 00:58:54,559 --> 00:58:57,693 about the new American concessions to Hanoi. 1074 00:58:57,793 --> 00:59:01,660 He was worried about something else. 1075 00:59:04,794 --> 00:59:06,794 ANNOUNCER: NBC News interrupts regular programming 1076 00:59:06,828 --> 00:59:08,627 to bring you a special report. 1077 00:59:08,727 --> 00:59:11,195 The announcement I shall now read is being issued 1078 00:59:11,295 --> 00:59:15,961 simultaneously in Peking and in the United States. 1079 00:59:16,061 --> 00:59:17,728 NARRATOR: Richard Nixon, 1080 00:59:17,829 --> 00:59:20,929 famous for the ferocity of his anticommunism, 1081 00:59:21,028 --> 00:59:23,562 astonished the world by announcing 1082 00:59:23,662 --> 00:59:27,196 that he was planning to restore relations with China 1083 00:59:27,296 --> 00:59:30,662 that had been severed for more than two decades. 1084 00:59:30,763 --> 00:59:34,397 The United States had gone to war in Vietnam 1085 00:59:34,497 --> 00:59:37,530 in part to block Chinese expansionism. 1086 00:59:37,630 --> 00:59:41,764 What would Nixon's visit mean for Thieu's future 1087 00:59:41,864 --> 00:59:44,098 or for that of his country? 1088 00:59:44,197 --> 00:59:47,365 Thieu was afraid he knew. 1089 00:59:47,464 --> 00:59:50,099 "America has been looking for a new mistress," 1090 00:59:50,198 --> 00:59:51,499 he told an aide, 1091 00:59:51,599 --> 00:59:54,332 "and now Nixon has discovered China. 1092 00:59:54,432 --> 00:59:58,164 "He does not want to have the old mistress around. 1093 00:59:58,265 --> 01:00:02,000 Vietnam has become old and ugly." 1094 01:00:14,700 --> 01:00:18,300 KUSHNER: I believe it was in the fall of 1971. 1095 01:00:20,901 --> 01:00:25,002 And they called us out and they hung a bed sheet 1096 01:00:25,102 --> 01:00:29,768 and they had a projector and they showed us 1097 01:00:29,868 --> 01:00:33,335 color and black and white movies 1098 01:00:33,435 --> 01:00:36,735 of these protests in Washington. 1099 01:00:36,836 --> 01:00:38,769 (shouting) 1100 01:00:41,535 --> 01:00:43,468 And in the same film 1101 01:00:43,568 --> 01:00:45,736 it showed John Kerry. 1102 01:00:45,837 --> 01:00:47,969 And I remember he was very articulate, 1103 01:00:48,069 --> 01:00:50,236 very, very well spoken, 1104 01:00:50,337 --> 01:00:53,303 very fluent 1105 01:00:53,404 --> 01:00:56,004 and a good spokesman 1106 01:00:56,104 --> 01:00:57,505 for his cause. 1107 01:00:57,605 --> 01:00:59,670 Someone has to die so that President Nixon 1108 01:00:59,771 --> 01:01:02,371 won't be... and these are his words... 1109 01:01:02,470 --> 01:01:06,204 "the first president to lose a war." 1110 01:01:06,304 --> 01:01:07,470 And I remember very well, 1111 01:01:07,570 --> 01:01:10,106 he's sitting with his fatigue jacket 1112 01:01:10,205 --> 01:01:11,805 and long hair 1113 01:01:11,906 --> 01:01:14,038 and testifying about atrocities 1114 01:01:14,138 --> 01:01:16,071 and war crimes that... 1115 01:01:16,171 --> 01:01:18,171 we perpetrated. 1116 01:01:18,272 --> 01:01:21,239 Cut off limbs, blown up bodies, 1117 01:01:21,340 --> 01:01:23,607 randomly shot at civilians... 1118 01:01:23,706 --> 01:01:25,672 KUSHNER: But I was shocked by what he said. 1119 01:01:25,773 --> 01:01:27,507 And I didn't believe it. 1120 01:01:27,607 --> 01:01:30,972 I didn't believe it at all. 1121 01:01:32,706 --> 01:01:35,573 I mean, I'm sophisticated to know, and I knew then, 1122 01:01:35,673 --> 01:01:38,173 that bad things happen in war and they happen on both sides, 1123 01:01:38,274 --> 01:01:41,908 and I had seen the evidence of the other side too, also. 1124 01:01:42,008 --> 01:01:43,307 And I knew it. 1125 01:01:43,408 --> 01:01:45,641 And... but still, to hear the testimony 1126 01:01:45,741 --> 01:01:50,674 and to hear it used as a weapon 1127 01:01:50,775 --> 01:01:53,308 against our further prosecution of this war 1128 01:01:53,409 --> 01:01:58,242 that we were suffering for was very powerful indeed. 1129 01:01:58,343 --> 01:02:00,975 NARRATOR: A few months later 1130 01:02:01,075 --> 01:02:04,242 Kushner got an even bigger shock. 1131 01:02:04,343 --> 01:02:06,610 VALERIE KUSHNER (on recording): My son has no father. 1132 01:02:06,709 --> 01:02:10,310 This Christmas Day we celebrate the birth of a son to Mary 1133 01:02:10,411 --> 01:02:12,976 and this Christmas Day some other mother's son 1134 01:02:13,076 --> 01:02:15,411 will die in Vietnam. 1135 01:02:15,511 --> 01:02:18,076 That death takes away all that was taught to us 1136 01:02:18,176 --> 01:02:20,744 by Christ's birth. 1137 01:02:20,845 --> 01:02:23,144 KUSHNER: The whole time I was in the South 1138 01:02:23,244 --> 01:02:25,577 I never got one letter, one bit of information. 1139 01:02:25,677 --> 01:02:27,711 When I got to North Vietnam I got no letter, 1140 01:02:27,811 --> 01:02:30,244 no bit of information, nothing. 1141 01:02:30,345 --> 01:02:35,978 Then, I think it may have been Christmas of '71, 1142 01:02:36,078 --> 01:02:40,513 my wife wrote an op-ed piece in theNew York Times. 1143 01:02:40,613 --> 01:02:44,079 She had become politically active. 1144 01:02:44,179 --> 01:02:46,414 NARRATOR: The families of POWs 1145 01:02:46,514 --> 01:02:50,179 overwhelmingly supported the Nixon administration. 1146 01:02:50,280 --> 01:02:53,179 Valerie Kushner did not, 1147 01:02:53,280 --> 01:02:54,914 and the North Vietnamese were quick 1148 01:02:55,014 --> 01:02:58,247 to exploit her antiwar views. 1149 01:02:58,348 --> 01:03:00,180 They broadcast a message 1150 01:03:00,281 --> 01:03:03,214 they had permitted her husband to record for her. 1151 01:03:03,314 --> 01:03:06,015 It was the first time she had heard his voice 1152 01:03:06,115 --> 01:03:08,048 in four years. 1153 01:03:10,382 --> 01:03:13,116 KUSHNER (on recording): I received the glasses, Val, 1154 01:03:13,215 --> 01:03:15,981 and my eyes have improved considerably. 1155 01:03:16,081 --> 01:03:18,715 Please let me know about Brother John. 1156 01:03:18,815 --> 01:03:21,283 He or she is almost four now, 1157 01:03:21,383 --> 01:03:23,950 and he or she is old enough to understand 1158 01:03:24,049 --> 01:03:27,482 where Daddy is and that I love him or her 1159 01:03:27,582 --> 01:03:30,850 immeasurably despite our never meeting. 1160 01:03:30,950 --> 01:03:34,583 I calculate that T-Bird is now in second grade, 1161 01:03:34,683 --> 01:03:36,717 and I know she is doing well. 1162 01:03:36,817 --> 01:03:38,618 She is a grown-up lady now 1163 01:03:38,717 --> 01:03:42,550 and I hope you have plans for piano or ballet lessons soon. 1164 01:03:42,650 --> 01:03:45,151 Happy eighth birthday, dear T-Bird, 1165 01:03:45,251 --> 01:03:46,718 and Merry Christmas. 1166 01:03:46,818 --> 01:03:49,051 When I left you I promised to come home 1167 01:03:49,151 --> 01:03:50,684 before you were five. 1168 01:03:50,785 --> 01:03:54,519 I didn't fulfill that promise, but when I do return, 1169 01:03:54,619 --> 01:03:57,185 I will never leave you again. 1170 01:03:57,286 --> 01:03:59,985 His optimism about the whole situation amazes me. 1171 01:04:00,085 --> 01:04:01,453 I'm just very happy 1172 01:04:01,552 --> 01:04:03,920 that he can't see this morning's newspaper. 1173 01:04:04,020 --> 01:04:06,986 Because I-I don't have the same optimism 1174 01:04:07,086 --> 01:04:08,753 or the same confidence in this government 1175 01:04:08,854 --> 01:04:11,653 that he seems to have. 1176 01:04:15,621 --> 01:04:21,087 NARRATOR: President Nixon's visit to China in February of 1972 1177 01:04:21,187 --> 01:04:23,721 not only alarmed President Thieu, 1178 01:04:23,821 --> 01:04:26,687 it worried Hanoi as well. 1179 01:04:26,788 --> 01:04:29,922 The North Vietnamese remembered how Ho Chi Minh 1180 01:04:30,022 --> 01:04:32,923 had felt betrayed in 1954 1181 01:04:33,023 --> 01:04:35,623 when Moscow and Beijing had compelled them 1182 01:04:35,722 --> 01:04:39,856 to sign the Geneva Accords, dividing Vietnam in two. 1183 01:04:39,956 --> 01:04:43,056 Now, they were concerned that warmer relations 1184 01:04:43,156 --> 01:04:45,424 between the United States and China 1185 01:04:45,524 --> 01:04:49,323 might soon mean less support from Beijing. 1186 01:04:49,424 --> 01:04:53,256 Nixon was also planning to travel to Moscow 1187 01:04:53,357 --> 01:04:56,824 to meet with Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev, 1188 01:04:56,925 --> 01:04:58,724 seeking to ease tensions 1189 01:04:58,824 --> 01:05:02,625 with North Vietnam's other communist patron. 1190 01:05:02,724 --> 01:05:07,426 Before that summit took place, First Secretary Le Duan, 1191 01:05:07,526 --> 01:05:10,392 the man who headed the Politburo in Hanoi, 1192 01:05:10,491 --> 01:05:13,859 decided to undertake a new kind of offensive. 1193 01:05:13,959 --> 01:05:17,659 It would be conventional warfare this time, 1194 01:05:17,759 --> 01:05:21,627 and on a scale he had never before attempted. 1195 01:05:21,726 --> 01:05:24,527 Le Duan had several goals in mind: 1196 01:05:24,627 --> 01:05:26,960 to strengthen his hand at the peace talks 1197 01:05:27,059 --> 01:05:29,493 by altering the military balance of power 1198 01:05:29,593 --> 01:05:31,160 in South Vietnam, 1199 01:05:31,260 --> 01:05:34,660 to show that the ARVN could not stand on their own, 1200 01:05:34,760 --> 01:05:38,461 and to convince the Soviets and the Chinese 1201 01:05:38,560 --> 01:05:42,429 his revolution was still worth supporting. 1202 01:05:46,561 --> 01:05:50,494 The assault began on March 30, 1972. 1203 01:05:50,594 --> 01:05:54,030 14 North Vietnamese infantry divisions... 1204 01:05:54,130 --> 01:05:56,762 more than 120,000 men... 1205 01:05:56,863 --> 01:05:59,363 now, for the first time, 1206 01:05:59,463 --> 01:06:03,396 supported by hundreds of Soviet and Chinese-made tanks 1207 01:06:03,495 --> 01:06:08,563 and other armored vehicles, attacked on three fronts: 1208 01:06:08,663 --> 01:06:12,330 across the demilitarized zone, 1209 01:06:12,431 --> 01:06:16,831 in the Central Highlands 1210 01:06:16,932 --> 01:06:21,398 and west of Saigon. 1211 01:06:21,497 --> 01:06:26,532 Americans would call it "The Easter Offensive." 1212 01:06:26,632 --> 01:06:29,433 To the South Vietnamese, 1213 01:06:29,532 --> 01:06:33,065 it would be remembered as "The Summer of Flames." 1214 01:06:33,166 --> 01:06:36,233 REPORTER: The South Vietnamese Army knew this day was coming: 1215 01:06:36,332 --> 01:06:37,599 the day without Americans. 1216 01:06:37,698 --> 01:06:39,032 It was to be the big test, 1217 01:06:39,133 --> 01:06:40,367 both for them 1218 01:06:40,466 --> 01:06:43,399 and for President Nixon's Vietnamization program. 1219 01:06:43,499 --> 01:06:46,367 The results in so far are not encouraging. 1220 01:06:46,466 --> 01:06:49,434 Whole battalions of the government's third division 1221 01:06:49,533 --> 01:06:51,833 joined the refugees on the road south. 1222 01:06:51,934 --> 01:06:55,767 They had been outnumbered, overpowered, overwhelmed. 1223 01:06:55,868 --> 01:06:58,067 NARRATOR: An entire ARVN regiment 1224 01:06:58,168 --> 01:07:00,368 surrendered at Camp Carroll. 1225 01:07:00,467 --> 01:07:02,235 North Vietnamese troops 1226 01:07:02,334 --> 01:07:05,136 then swiftly overran Quang Tri Province, 1227 01:07:05,236 --> 01:07:10,201 driving tens of thousands of terrified refugees southward. 1228 01:07:10,302 --> 01:07:13,835 They nearly cut South Vietnam in half 1229 01:07:13,936 --> 01:07:16,670 through the Central Highlands 1230 01:07:16,769 --> 01:07:20,969 and drove toward Saigon, hoping to seize large areas 1231 01:07:21,069 --> 01:07:24,002 along the Cambodian border. 1232 01:07:24,103 --> 01:07:26,902 It looked as if it were going to be 1233 01:07:27,002 --> 01:07:29,671 a total defeat for the ARVN. 1234 01:07:29,770 --> 01:07:33,703 There were only 60,000 U.S. military personnel 1235 01:07:33,804 --> 01:07:35,770 left in South Vietnam, 1236 01:07:35,871 --> 01:07:38,871 and very few of them were combat troops. 1237 01:07:41,404 --> 01:07:44,504 Suddenly, the survival of everything Nixon and Kissinger 1238 01:07:44,605 --> 01:07:46,838 had worked for was in peril. 1239 01:07:46,939 --> 01:07:51,272 They had to do something... and fast. 1240 01:08:13,441 --> 01:08:16,875 NARRATOR: Nixon ordered up Operation Linebacker... 1241 01:08:16,974 --> 01:08:19,474 massive air attacks 1242 01:08:19,574 --> 01:08:20,974 on the advancing North Vietnamese. 1243 01:08:22,774 --> 01:08:24,875 "The bastards have never been bombed 1244 01:08:24,974 --> 01:08:27,908 "like they're going to be this time," he said. 1245 01:08:31,609 --> 01:08:34,809 The most crucial battle of the Easter Offensive 1246 01:08:34,908 --> 01:08:36,643 was fought at An Loc, 1247 01:08:36,743 --> 01:08:39,310 a city that commanded Route 13, 1248 01:08:39,409 --> 01:08:42,644 a paved highway that led directly to Saigon, 1249 01:08:42,744 --> 01:08:45,043 just 60 miles away. 1250 01:08:47,909 --> 01:08:50,244 North Vietnamese artillery fire 1251 01:08:50,344 --> 01:08:52,277 and a massive infantry and armor attack 1252 01:08:52,378 --> 01:08:54,477 drove the city's ARVN defenders 1253 01:08:54,577 --> 01:08:58,878 into an area less than a mile square. 1254 01:08:58,977 --> 01:09:04,312 Repeated efforts to reinforce and resupply them failed. 1255 01:09:04,411 --> 01:09:07,711 The ARVN bravely held out. 1256 01:09:07,812 --> 01:09:10,246 JAMES WILLBANKS: The number one thing we did 1257 01:09:10,345 --> 01:09:12,946 was coordinate the air strikes. 1258 01:09:13,045 --> 01:09:15,479 General Hollingsworth went to General Abrams 1259 01:09:15,579 --> 01:09:17,680 and begged for all the B-52s he could get, 1260 01:09:17,779 --> 01:09:19,613 and on the 10th and 11th of May, 1261 01:09:19,712 --> 01:09:25,412 he planned a B-52 strike every 50 minutes for 24 hours. 1262 01:09:36,080 --> 01:09:37,314 NARRATOR: In the end, 1263 01:09:37,413 --> 01:09:41,815 American airpower made the difference. 1264 01:09:47,348 --> 01:09:50,015 The North Vietnamese and their armored columns, 1265 01:09:50,116 --> 01:09:51,549 massed in the open, 1266 01:09:51,650 --> 01:09:55,482 proved easy targets for American pilots. 1267 01:09:55,582 --> 01:09:59,549 "This," one American advisor said, 1268 01:09:59,650 --> 01:10:03,617 "was the kind of war we came to fight." 1269 01:10:55,520 --> 01:10:57,255 (explosion) 1270 01:10:57,354 --> 01:11:00,656 NARRATOR: The North Vietnamese suffered 10,000 casualties 1271 01:11:00,756 --> 01:11:02,488 at An Loc alone 1272 01:11:02,588 --> 01:11:06,721 and lost most of their tanks and heavy artillery. 1273 01:11:06,822 --> 01:11:08,322 (explosions continue) 1274 01:11:10,122 --> 01:11:12,556 WILLBANKS: The bottom line was that all the air power 1275 01:11:12,657 --> 01:11:14,257 in the world would not make a difference 1276 01:11:14,356 --> 01:11:15,765 if the ARVN hadn't stood and fought. 1277 01:11:15,789 --> 01:11:17,222 (people shouting) 1278 01:11:17,323 --> 01:11:20,690 They had held Kon Tum, they had held An Loc, 1279 01:11:20,789 --> 01:11:22,457 they had re-taken Quang Tri. 1280 01:11:22,556 --> 01:11:24,624 They had taken the best that the North Vietnamese 1281 01:11:24,723 --> 01:11:26,357 had to throw at them. 1282 01:11:26,458 --> 01:11:29,691 So I thought if we continue to maintain that support, 1283 01:11:29,790 --> 01:11:30,990 perhaps they had a chance. 1284 01:11:31,090 --> 01:11:34,990 DUONG VAN MAI ELLIOTT: The Easter Offensive, to me, 1285 01:11:35,090 --> 01:11:38,325 showed that the South Vietnamese could fight, 1286 01:11:38,424 --> 01:11:41,392 but only up to a certain point. 1287 01:11:41,491 --> 01:11:44,159 So, my question would be, 1288 01:11:44,259 --> 01:11:46,159 what would happen when the Americans left 1289 01:11:46,259 --> 01:11:48,826 with their B-52s, you know? 1290 01:11:48,925 --> 01:11:50,425 (protestors chanting) 1291 01:11:50,525 --> 01:11:53,592 NARRATOR: Americans may have approved of the renewed use 1292 01:11:53,693 --> 01:11:56,960 of American air power to stop the communist advance 1293 01:11:57,059 --> 01:11:58,425 into the South, 1294 01:11:58,525 --> 01:12:03,093 but Nixon had also ordered American planes to resume 1295 01:12:03,194 --> 01:12:06,394 sustained bombing of North Vietnam, 1296 01:12:06,493 --> 01:12:10,060 which had been halted since the Johnson administration. 1297 01:12:10,161 --> 01:12:13,962 Some saw the new bombing, which vastly exceeded 1298 01:12:14,061 --> 01:12:16,061 all previous campaigns, 1299 01:12:16,162 --> 01:12:20,895 as evidence that a war Nixon had promised was winding down 1300 01:12:20,994 --> 01:12:23,763 was once again being escalated. 1301 01:12:23,862 --> 01:12:27,196 (plane soaring) 1302 01:12:27,295 --> 01:12:28,728 LESLIE GELB: The bombing campaign 1303 01:12:28,829 --> 01:12:30,295 was much more extensive 1304 01:12:30,396 --> 01:12:34,862 than the bombing campaign under Lyndon Johnson. 1305 01:12:34,964 --> 01:12:36,029 And from a standpoint 1306 01:12:36,130 --> 01:12:38,630 of pressuring them to make concessions 1307 01:12:38,729 --> 01:12:40,563 at the negotiating table, 1308 01:12:40,664 --> 01:12:43,029 historically, that's how you did it. 1309 01:12:43,130 --> 01:12:45,363 Only it didn't work with these guys. 1310 01:12:45,464 --> 01:12:47,297 (bombs exploding) 1311 01:12:47,398 --> 01:12:49,064 They took the pounding. 1312 01:12:51,131 --> 01:12:52,930 (men yelling in Vietnamese) 1313 01:12:56,198 --> 01:12:59,798 NARRATOR: Le Minh Khue, who had served four years 1314 01:12:59,899 --> 01:13:03,266 as a Youth Volunteer on the Ho Chi Minh trail, 1315 01:13:03,365 --> 01:13:05,998 was now back home in North Vietnam. 1316 01:13:48,069 --> 01:13:50,970 NARRATOR: Among the thousands of South Vietnamese 1317 01:13:51,069 --> 01:13:53,770 who lost their lives in the Easter Offensive 1318 01:13:53,869 --> 01:13:57,035 was the brother of Phan Quang Tue. 1319 01:13:57,136 --> 01:13:59,671 PHAN QUANG TUE: I had a brother, Tuan. 1320 01:13:59,771 --> 01:14:03,870 And we were raised together. 1321 01:14:03,971 --> 01:14:07,671 He would have been now 67. 1322 01:14:07,771 --> 01:14:10,504 When his plane was shot down 1323 01:14:10,604 --> 01:14:14,672 and later on they weren't able to recover him, 1324 01:14:14,772 --> 01:14:17,338 his body, so he disappeared, 1325 01:14:17,437 --> 01:14:21,805 he was missing in action, he was 26 years old. 1326 01:14:21,906 --> 01:14:25,273 He has his full life ahead of him. 1327 01:14:25,372 --> 01:14:28,372 (voice breaking): Tuan never had a chance to live his life. 1328 01:14:30,473 --> 01:14:34,106 And I can never overcome the feeling, 1329 01:14:34,207 --> 01:14:38,306 as to himself 1330 01:14:38,407 --> 01:14:40,640 and his generation, 1331 01:14:40,739 --> 01:14:43,974 sacrifice their lives for what? 1332 01:14:45,807 --> 01:14:50,141 And the frustrating thing is that even Vietnamese themself 1333 01:14:50,240 --> 01:14:52,175 do not seem to value that loss. 1334 01:14:58,476 --> 01:15:01,476 NIXON: There's only one way to stop the killing. 1335 01:15:01,575 --> 01:15:05,209 That is to keep the weapons of war out of the hands 1336 01:15:05,308 --> 01:15:11,042 of the international outlaws of North Vietnam. 1337 01:15:11,143 --> 01:15:12,376 Throughout the war in Vietnam, 1338 01:15:12,477 --> 01:15:15,242 the United States has exercised a degree of restraint 1339 01:15:15,343 --> 01:15:17,477 unprecedented in the annals of war... 1340 01:15:17,576 --> 01:15:19,076 (planes flying overhead) 1341 01:15:19,177 --> 01:15:21,978 NARRATOR: Le Duan's Easter Offensive, like Tet, 1342 01:15:22,077 --> 01:15:24,310 had been a great gamble. 1343 01:15:24,411 --> 01:15:27,144 So was Nixon's next move. 1344 01:15:27,243 --> 01:15:30,278 The massive North Vietnamese assault had failed, 1345 01:15:30,377 --> 01:15:31,778 the president said, 1346 01:15:31,877 --> 01:15:34,912 but it could never have been mounted in the first place 1347 01:15:35,011 --> 01:15:37,511 without weapons and supplies provided by China 1348 01:15:37,611 --> 01:15:40,179 and the Soviet Union. 1349 01:15:40,279 --> 01:15:44,445 Accordingly, he ordered 11,000 mines laid 1350 01:15:44,545 --> 01:15:47,945 in North Vietnamese waters to block further access 1351 01:15:48,045 --> 01:15:49,713 to Haiphong harbor. 1352 01:15:49,812 --> 01:15:53,545 It was something the Joint Chiefs had been asking for 1353 01:15:53,646 --> 01:15:55,480 for years. 1354 01:15:55,579 --> 01:15:57,714 The scheduled summit with the Soviets 1355 01:15:57,813 --> 01:15:59,513 was just two weeks away, 1356 01:15:59,613 --> 01:16:01,813 and some advisors had urged the president 1357 01:16:01,914 --> 01:16:04,847 not to take any action that directly threatened 1358 01:16:04,946 --> 01:16:08,715 Soviet ships, for fear they would cancel it. 1359 01:16:08,814 --> 01:16:11,415 Nixon thought he had to take the risk. 1360 01:16:11,514 --> 01:16:15,581 And so he spoke directly to Moscow. 1361 01:16:15,682 --> 01:16:19,114 Let us not slide back toward the dark shadows 1362 01:16:19,215 --> 01:16:22,048 of a previous age. 1363 01:16:22,149 --> 01:16:26,815 We do not ask you to sacrifice your principles 1364 01:16:26,916 --> 01:16:28,916 or your friends, 1365 01:16:29,015 --> 01:16:32,350 but neither should you permit Hanoi's intransigence 1366 01:16:32,449 --> 01:16:35,049 to blot out the prospects we together 1367 01:16:35,150 --> 01:16:36,516 have so patiently prepared. 1368 01:16:39,350 --> 01:16:42,083 NARRATOR: Nixon's gamble paid off. 1369 01:16:42,184 --> 01:16:43,750 The Soviets and the Chinese denounced 1370 01:16:43,851 --> 01:16:49,285 the president's action, but then did nothing. 1371 01:16:49,384 --> 01:16:54,450 On May 26, the United States and the Soviet Union signed 1372 01:16:54,550 --> 01:16:58,486 an historic Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, 1373 01:16:58,585 --> 01:17:01,786 the first agreement to limit nuclear armaments 1374 01:17:01,885 --> 01:17:04,251 since the Cold War began. 1375 01:17:04,352 --> 01:17:07,420 For the Soviet Union, for China, 1376 01:17:07,519 --> 01:17:09,886 as well as for the United States, 1377 01:17:09,987 --> 01:17:14,487 Vietnam's significance was steadily receding. 1378 01:17:51,089 --> 01:17:52,856 NIXON: I know. 1379 01:18:16,757 --> 01:18:18,693 (camera shutter clicks) 1380 01:18:20,892 --> 01:18:25,458 NARRATOR: On the morning of June 8, 1972, 1381 01:18:25,558 --> 01:18:29,959 Nick Ut, a 21-year-old South Vietnamese photographer 1382 01:18:30,059 --> 01:18:32,294 working for the Associated Press, 1383 01:18:32,393 --> 01:18:35,826 was accompanying ARVN troops on Highway One, 1384 01:18:35,927 --> 01:18:38,393 moving toward a village called Trang Bang, 1385 01:18:38,494 --> 01:18:41,259 to dislodge North Vietnamese forces 1386 01:18:41,361 --> 01:18:45,127 that had occupied it during the Easter Offensive. 1387 01:18:45,228 --> 01:18:48,394 Ut was beginning to put his cameras away, 1388 01:18:48,495 --> 01:18:50,428 ready to return to Saigon, 1389 01:18:50,527 --> 01:18:55,261 when he saw a South Vietnamese fighter suddenly dip down 1390 01:18:55,362 --> 01:18:57,395 toward the fleeing refugees, 1391 01:18:57,496 --> 01:19:00,395 whom the pilot mistook for the enemy. 1392 01:19:00,496 --> 01:19:04,729 (explosions) 1393 01:19:04,828 --> 01:19:09,629 (camera shutter clicking) 1394 01:19:13,863 --> 01:19:17,097 (speaking English): 1395 01:19:51,300 --> 01:19:52,833 (speaking Vietnamese) 1396 01:20:23,869 --> 01:20:28,903 NARRATOR: Ut drove the badly burned girl, Kim Phuc, 1397 01:20:29,004 --> 01:20:31,237 and several other injured children 1398 01:20:31,336 --> 01:20:33,569 to a hospital in Saigon. 1399 01:20:33,670 --> 01:20:38,036 She had been burned over 30% of her body. 1400 01:20:38,136 --> 01:20:41,371 Then, Ut raced to the AP darkroom 1401 01:20:41,470 --> 01:20:44,871 to find out what he had caught on film. 1402 01:21:03,105 --> 01:21:05,972 NARRATOR: His photo editor in Saigon told him 1403 01:21:06,072 --> 01:21:09,039 they could not send the picture out on the wire, 1404 01:21:09,139 --> 01:21:11,507 because the girl was naked. 1405 01:21:11,606 --> 01:21:14,039 But then Ut's boss, 1406 01:21:14,139 --> 01:21:17,808 the legendary combat photographer Horst Faas, 1407 01:21:17,907 --> 01:21:19,840 saw the pictures. 1408 01:21:31,774 --> 01:21:35,675 NARRATOR: Nick Ut's photograph appeared 1409 01:21:35,774 --> 01:21:38,574 on front pages around the world 1410 01:21:38,676 --> 01:21:42,609 and won the Pulitzer Prize. 1411 01:21:42,710 --> 01:21:45,609 For many Americans, 1412 01:21:45,710 --> 01:21:48,943 even many of those who had supported the war, 1413 01:21:49,042 --> 01:21:53,643 the image seemed to signal that enough was enough. 1414 01:21:57,244 --> 01:21:59,610 Kim Phuc would survive. 1415 01:21:59,711 --> 01:22:05,144 She eventually left Vietnam and settled outside Toronto. 1416 01:22:10,611 --> 01:22:14,813 (cheers and applause) 1417 01:22:14,912 --> 01:22:16,978 (rhythmic clapping) 1418 01:22:20,578 --> 01:22:24,578 I introduce Valerie Kushner of Virginia 1419 01:22:24,679 --> 01:22:27,346 to second the nomination of George McGovern. 1420 01:22:27,447 --> 01:22:29,646 (applause and cheering) 1421 01:22:29,747 --> 01:22:33,346 Mr. Chairman, Democrats, 1422 01:22:33,447 --> 01:22:37,914 my participation in this convention is a tribute 1423 01:22:38,015 --> 01:22:41,181 to the reforms instituted by the Democratic Party, 1424 01:22:41,280 --> 01:22:45,215 for I am a woman, and I am under 30. 1425 01:22:45,315 --> 01:22:48,881 But I also represent an even smaller minority: 1426 01:22:48,980 --> 01:22:51,716 the wives of Americans who are missing 1427 01:22:51,816 --> 01:22:54,249 or imprisoned in Southeast Asia. 1428 01:22:54,348 --> 01:22:57,882 (cheers and applause) 1429 01:22:57,981 --> 01:23:00,648 NARRATOR: Valerie Kushner, 1430 01:23:00,749 --> 01:23:04,217 hoping to get her husband, Hal, home as soon as possible, 1431 01:23:04,317 --> 01:23:07,250 had become an ardent supporter of the candidacy 1432 01:23:07,349 --> 01:23:10,950 of Senator George McGovern of South Dakota. 1433 01:23:11,049 --> 01:23:15,083 A decorated bomber pilot in World War II, 1434 01:23:15,184 --> 01:23:17,884 McGovern had called for an early end 1435 01:23:17,983 --> 01:23:19,283 to the bombing of the North, 1436 01:23:19,384 --> 01:23:22,483 a halt to Congressional funding for the war, 1437 01:23:22,583 --> 01:23:24,483 and immediate withdrawal 1438 01:23:24,583 --> 01:23:29,151 from Vietnam once the POWs were released. 1439 01:23:29,252 --> 01:23:32,651 I knew that he would bring my husband home. 1440 01:23:32,752 --> 01:23:35,385 (applause) 1441 01:23:36,919 --> 01:23:41,585 But even more important, he will bring America home. 1442 01:23:41,686 --> 01:23:44,652 (applause and cheering) 1443 01:23:44,753 --> 01:23:47,753 And it is for that reason 1444 01:23:47,852 --> 01:23:50,120 that I am proud to second the nomination 1445 01:23:50,221 --> 01:23:54,954 of our next president, Senator George S. McGovern. 1446 01:23:55,053 --> 01:23:57,986 (applause and cheering) 1447 01:24:00,522 --> 01:24:02,755 NARRATOR: By the time her candidate 1448 01:24:02,854 --> 01:24:05,255 finally accepted the nomination, 1449 01:24:05,354 --> 01:24:07,987 it was 2:48 in the morning. 1450 01:24:08,087 --> 01:24:11,022 Most Americans were asleep. 1451 01:24:11,121 --> 01:24:15,956 McGOVERN: During four administrations of both parties, 1452 01:24:16,055 --> 01:24:21,023 a terrible war has been charted behind closed doors. 1453 01:24:21,122 --> 01:24:23,155 (cheers and applause) 1454 01:24:23,256 --> 01:24:25,623 I want those doors opened, 1455 01:24:25,724 --> 01:24:28,724 and I want that war closed. 1456 01:24:28,824 --> 01:24:31,489 (raucous cheers and applause) 1457 01:24:31,589 --> 01:24:33,056 (static) 1458 01:24:33,156 --> 01:24:36,857 NARRATOR: McGovern's campaign quickly collapsed. 1459 01:24:36,958 --> 01:24:40,157 He botched the selection of his running mate, 1460 01:24:40,258 --> 01:24:43,525 and secretly asked an aide in Paris 1461 01:24:43,624 --> 01:24:46,891 to talk with the North Vietnamese about POWs, 1462 01:24:46,990 --> 01:24:52,091 and then denied he'd meddled in the peace process. 1463 01:24:52,192 --> 01:24:54,158 Organized labor, 1464 01:24:54,259 --> 01:24:57,326 traditionally the Democrats' most reliable ally, 1465 01:24:57,425 --> 01:25:00,260 refused to endorse the party's candidate 1466 01:25:00,359 --> 01:25:03,893 for the first time in 20 years. 1467 01:25:03,992 --> 01:25:09,727 McGovern's poll numbers eroded steadily over the summer. 1468 01:25:09,827 --> 01:25:12,761 Still, hoping to find material 1469 01:25:12,860 --> 01:25:15,761 that might be used to smear the opposition, 1470 01:25:15,860 --> 01:25:19,493 Nixon's aides had already authorized the Plumbers 1471 01:25:19,593 --> 01:25:21,793 to make another break-in, 1472 01:25:21,894 --> 01:25:25,529 this time at Democratic National Headquarters 1473 01:25:25,628 --> 01:25:28,428 in the Washington, D.C., apartment complex 1474 01:25:28,529 --> 01:25:31,462 called the Watergate. 1475 01:25:31,561 --> 01:25:33,561 They had been caught. 1476 01:25:33,661 --> 01:25:36,295 JOHN CHANCELLOR: One of the most fascinating and exotic stories 1477 01:25:36,396 --> 01:25:38,095 ever to come out of Washington, D.C., 1478 01:25:38,196 --> 01:25:40,129 is the talk of the Capitol today. 1479 01:25:40,230 --> 01:25:42,196 Five men were arrested early Saturday 1480 01:25:42,295 --> 01:25:45,095 while trying to install eavesdropping equipment 1481 01:25:45,196 --> 01:25:47,296 at the Democratic National Committee. 1482 01:25:47,397 --> 01:25:49,596 And it turns out that one of them has an office 1483 01:25:49,697 --> 01:25:51,964 in the headquarters of the Committee 1484 01:25:52,063 --> 01:25:53,796 for the Re-Election of the President. 1485 01:25:53,897 --> 01:25:57,197 (camera shutter clicking) 1486 01:26:02,032 --> 01:26:04,131 ("Barbarella" by Bob Crewe and Charles Fox playing) 1487 01:26:04,232 --> 01:26:09,765 ♪ It's a wonder, wonder woman ♪ 1488 01:26:09,864 --> 01:26:15,432 ♪ You're so wild and wonderful ♪ 1489 01:26:15,533 --> 01:26:20,498 ♪ 'Cause it seems whenever 1490 01:26:20,598 --> 01:26:22,999 ♪ We're together 1491 01:26:23,099 --> 01:26:24,767 ♪ The planets all... 1492 01:26:24,866 --> 01:26:28,334 JOHN MUSGRAVE: Barbarella... Jane Fonda was... 1493 01:26:28,433 --> 01:26:32,499 was one of our major fantasies. 1494 01:26:32,599 --> 01:26:36,701 You know? I mean, major fantasies. 1495 01:26:36,800 --> 01:26:40,035 And, uh, we couldn't believe it 1496 01:26:40,134 --> 01:26:44,468 when that fantasy went to North Vietnam. 1497 01:26:44,567 --> 01:26:47,135 She was held to a different standard of conduct 1498 01:26:47,236 --> 01:26:51,101 by being our fantasy, you know, our dream girl. 1499 01:26:51,202 --> 01:26:54,736 It's like our dream girl betrayed us. 1500 01:26:54,836 --> 01:26:56,111 ("Where Have All the Flowers Gone" by Joan Baez playing) 1501 01:26:56,135 --> 01:26:58,203 ♪ Where have all the young men gone? ♪ 1502 01:26:58,302 --> 01:27:02,569 ♪ They are all in uniform 1503 01:27:02,669 --> 01:27:08,169 ♪ When will they ever learn? 1504 01:27:08,270 --> 01:27:13,103 ♪ When will they ever learn? ♪ 1505 01:27:13,204 --> 01:27:15,070 ♪ Where have all... 1506 01:27:15,170 --> 01:27:17,670 NARRATOR: Over the years, a steady stream 1507 01:27:17,771 --> 01:27:21,271 of Americans opposed to the war would visit Hanoi, 1508 01:27:21,370 --> 01:27:24,604 including the folk singer Joan Baez, 1509 01:27:24,705 --> 01:27:28,272 David Dellinger of the War Resisters League, 1510 01:27:28,371 --> 01:27:31,571 the writer Susan Sontag, 1511 01:27:31,671 --> 01:27:36,040 and Tom Hayden of the Indochina Peace Campaign. 1512 01:27:36,139 --> 01:27:39,273 But no visitor made more headlines 1513 01:27:39,372 --> 01:27:41,706 than the actress Jane Fonda. 1514 01:27:41,805 --> 01:27:45,140 During two weeks in the summer of 1972, 1515 01:27:45,241 --> 01:27:49,474 she broadcast at least ten times over Radio Hanoi, 1516 01:27:49,573 --> 01:27:51,940 denouncing American POWs 1517 01:27:52,041 --> 01:27:54,407 for having committed war crimes, 1518 01:27:54,506 --> 01:27:57,007 urging the North Vietnamese to hold out 1519 01:27:57,107 --> 01:28:00,475 against American imperialism. 1520 01:28:00,574 --> 01:28:03,941 Many Americans would never forgive her 1521 01:28:04,042 --> 01:28:07,307 for what she did and said. 1522 01:28:07,408 --> 01:28:09,843 FONDA: According to international law, 1523 01:28:09,942 --> 01:28:12,343 these men are war criminals. 1524 01:28:12,442 --> 01:28:13,909 That's according to law, 1525 01:28:14,008 --> 01:28:15,319 according to the Nuremberg principles, 1526 01:28:15,343 --> 01:28:17,743 according to the Geneva Accord, and others. 1527 01:28:17,843 --> 01:28:20,744 They should be tried in front of a court 1528 01:28:20,844 --> 01:28:23,277 and probably executed for what they did. 1529 01:28:23,376 --> 01:28:26,943 MUSGRAVE: She's taken a lot of heat for what she did. 1530 01:28:27,044 --> 01:28:29,609 And deservedly so. 1531 01:28:29,710 --> 01:28:33,211 She did some things that were terrible. 1532 01:28:33,310 --> 01:28:35,877 And-and, yes, 1533 01:28:35,978 --> 01:28:38,478 we have a right to be pissed off at her. 1534 01:28:38,577 --> 01:28:41,478 But, you know, 1535 01:28:41,577 --> 01:28:44,311 she wasn't the only one. 1536 01:28:44,412 --> 01:28:48,912 She's just the only one we fantasized about. 1537 01:28:49,912 --> 01:28:54,346 (cheers and applause) 1538 01:28:59,112 --> 01:29:01,247 AUDIENCE: Four more years! 1539 01:29:01,347 --> 01:29:04,179 Four more years! Four more years! 1540 01:29:04,280 --> 01:29:06,679 NIXON: We have brought over half a million men home, 1541 01:29:06,780 --> 01:29:08,680 and more will be coming home. 1542 01:29:08,781 --> 01:29:11,813 We have ended America's ground combat role. 1543 01:29:11,914 --> 01:29:14,481 No draftees are being sent to Vietnam. 1544 01:29:14,580 --> 01:29:17,481 We have reduced our casualties by 98%. 1545 01:29:17,580 --> 01:29:19,380 We've gone the extra mile. 1546 01:29:19,481 --> 01:29:22,181 In fact, we've gone tens of thousands of miles 1547 01:29:22,282 --> 01:29:24,681 trying to seek a negotiated settlement of the war. 1548 01:29:24,782 --> 01:29:26,448 (applause) 1549 01:29:26,549 --> 01:29:29,249 There are three things, however, that we have not 1550 01:29:29,349 --> 01:29:31,381 and that we will not offer. 1551 01:29:31,483 --> 01:29:34,582 We will never abandon our prisoners of war. 1552 01:29:34,682 --> 01:29:36,082 (cheers and applause) 1553 01:29:41,949 --> 01:29:43,583 And, second, 1554 01:29:43,683 --> 01:29:47,251 we will not join our enemies 1555 01:29:47,351 --> 01:29:50,851 in imposing a communist government on our ally, 1556 01:29:50,950 --> 01:29:53,284 the 17 million people of South Vietnam. 1557 01:29:53,383 --> 01:29:56,084 (cheers and applause) 1558 01:29:59,418 --> 01:30:01,317 And we will never stain the honor 1559 01:30:01,418 --> 01:30:03,485 of the United States of America. 1560 01:30:03,584 --> 01:30:05,517 (cheers) 1561 01:30:46,521 --> 01:30:49,621 NARRATOR: Back in Paris, Henry Kissinger was determined 1562 01:30:49,722 --> 01:30:54,155 to hammer out a peace agreement before Election Day. 1563 01:30:54,257 --> 01:30:57,522 Now Le Duc Tho made a key concession. 1564 01:30:57,622 --> 01:30:59,822 Hanoi no longer insisted 1565 01:30:59,923 --> 01:31:03,456 that President Thieu had to go. 1566 01:31:03,557 --> 01:31:06,291 JOHN NEGROPONTE: There was somehow this compulsion 1567 01:31:06,390 --> 01:31:09,890 to come to some kind of an agreement. 1568 01:31:09,991 --> 01:31:12,890 I remember Le Duc Tho when he produced the draft agreement 1569 01:31:12,991 --> 01:31:19,225 in October 8 of '72 to Kissinger, saying, 1570 01:31:19,324 --> 01:31:20,624 "You're in a hurry, aren't you? 1571 01:31:20,725 --> 01:31:22,624 You want to do this quickly." 1572 01:31:22,725 --> 01:31:26,292 And-and the response was, "Yes." 1573 01:31:26,391 --> 01:31:29,825 NARRATOR: The two sides soon had a tentative deal, 1574 01:31:29,926 --> 01:31:31,825 a "cease-fire in place" 1575 01:31:31,926 --> 01:31:34,325 to be followed within 60 days 1576 01:31:34,426 --> 01:31:37,325 by a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops 1577 01:31:37,426 --> 01:31:40,926 and the return of all American POWs. 1578 01:31:41,025 --> 01:31:45,193 The United States stopped bombing the North. 1579 01:31:45,294 --> 01:31:50,794 No one had told President Thieu any of the terms. 1580 01:31:52,427 --> 01:31:56,127 The day before Kissinger was to arrive in Saigon to brief him, 1581 01:31:56,228 --> 01:31:59,862 Thieu was handed a document found in an enemy bunker 1582 01:31:59,961 --> 01:32:02,094 in Quang Tin Province. 1583 01:32:02,194 --> 01:32:06,528 It was entitled "General Instructions for Cease-Fire." 1584 01:32:06,628 --> 01:32:11,296 It meant that communist cadres in an isolated province 1585 01:32:11,395 --> 01:32:15,729 of his own country already knew more about what Kissinger 1586 01:32:15,828 --> 01:32:20,764 and Le Duc Tho had agreed to in Paris than he did. 1587 01:32:20,864 --> 01:32:24,196 NEGROPONTE: And imagine being given an agreement 1588 01:32:24,297 --> 01:32:29,664 concerning the fate of your own country and, uh, 1589 01:32:29,765 --> 01:32:31,431 being told that you really don't have 1590 01:32:31,530 --> 01:32:35,097 any input in the matter. 1591 01:32:35,197 --> 01:32:38,664 And, oh, by the way, we didn't even yet have 1592 01:32:38,765 --> 01:32:40,565 the Vietnamese translation, 1593 01:32:40,665 --> 01:32:42,398 because that hadn't been completed. 1594 01:32:42,499 --> 01:32:45,965 And we gave him the English version. 1595 01:32:46,066 --> 01:32:49,299 So, I mean, as a professional diplomat, 1596 01:32:49,398 --> 01:32:52,567 somebody who's been in this business all my life, uh, 1597 01:32:52,666 --> 01:32:55,332 I've got to tell you, that just an awful lot 1598 01:32:55,433 --> 01:32:58,132 of diplomatic rules were broken there. 1599 01:32:58,233 --> 01:33:02,067 NARRATOR: Thieu refused to accept the terms. 1600 01:33:02,166 --> 01:33:05,333 Allowing North Vietnamese troops to remain in the South 1601 01:33:05,434 --> 01:33:08,501 would be the death of his country. 1602 01:33:08,600 --> 01:33:12,768 Nonetheless, after Kissinger returned home 1603 01:33:12,868 --> 01:33:15,301 12 days before the election, 1604 01:33:15,400 --> 01:33:19,569 he told the press, "Peace is at hand." 1605 01:33:19,668 --> 01:33:22,134 ("Tail Dragger" by Link Wray playing) 1606 01:33:25,235 --> 01:33:28,169 On November 7, 1972, 1607 01:33:28,270 --> 01:33:31,335 Richard Nixon won a stunning victory. 1608 01:33:31,436 --> 01:33:36,169 He was reelected with more than 60% of the popular vote... 1609 01:33:36,270 --> 01:33:42,170 521 electoral votes to McGovern's 17. 1610 01:33:42,271 --> 01:33:45,970 He took every single state except Massachusetts 1611 01:33:46,071 --> 01:33:48,571 and the District of Columbia. 1612 01:33:48,670 --> 01:33:51,772 Now, the president resolved to rid himself 1613 01:33:51,872 --> 01:33:57,438 of Vietnam completely before his second inauguration. 1614 01:33:57,537 --> 01:34:00,305 To calm Thieu's fears of what was to come, 1615 01:34:00,404 --> 01:34:03,238 Nixon launched another massive airlift 1616 01:34:03,337 --> 01:34:06,172 of military equipment to South Vietnam. 1617 01:34:06,273 --> 01:34:09,273 "If we had given this aid to the North Vietnamese," 1618 01:34:09,373 --> 01:34:11,172 one American general said, 1619 01:34:11,273 --> 01:34:15,574 "they could have fought us for the rest of the century." 1620 01:34:15,673 --> 01:34:19,539 The Paris peace talks resumed. 1621 01:34:19,639 --> 01:34:22,906 But then, Le Duc Tho suddenly announced 1622 01:34:23,007 --> 01:34:27,174 he needed to return to Hanoi for consultation. 1623 01:34:27,275 --> 01:34:29,183 NEGROPONTE: We could only conclude that maybe they were 1624 01:34:29,207 --> 01:34:30,674 having some doubts about whether 1625 01:34:30,775 --> 01:34:32,674 they wanted to go through with the agreement, 1626 01:34:32,775 --> 01:34:35,375 because we had sent so many supplies 1627 01:34:35,474 --> 01:34:38,575 to Saigon in the intervening weeks. 1628 01:34:38,674 --> 01:34:41,276 NARRATOR: There turned out to be dissension 1629 01:34:41,376 --> 01:34:43,908 on the communist side as well. 1630 01:34:44,009 --> 01:34:47,475 Hanoi, like Washington, had not bothered to consult 1631 01:34:47,576 --> 01:34:49,708 with its southern comrades. 1632 01:34:49,809 --> 01:34:52,510 It had dropped the two demands that meant the most 1633 01:34:52,609 --> 01:34:56,542 to the Viet Cong... the removal of Thieu, and the release 1634 01:34:56,642 --> 01:34:59,777 of some 30,000 of their prisoners. 1635 01:34:59,877 --> 01:35:02,843 "Hanoi's message was clear," 1636 01:35:02,944 --> 01:35:05,311 one bitter Viet Cong official said. 1637 01:35:05,410 --> 01:35:09,210 "It cared more about American prisoners of war 1638 01:35:09,311 --> 01:35:11,977 than it did for us." 1639 01:35:12,078 --> 01:35:15,611 Nixon ordered Kissinger to suspend the talks, 1640 01:35:15,711 --> 01:35:18,644 and then he resumed the bombing of North Vietnam 1641 01:35:18,745 --> 01:35:20,911 to further punish Hanoi, 1642 01:35:21,012 --> 01:35:23,844 and to signal to both Hanoi and Saigon 1643 01:35:23,945 --> 01:35:27,513 that the United States might use its airpower 1644 01:35:27,612 --> 01:35:29,780 to defend South Vietnam 1645 01:35:29,880 --> 01:35:34,280 even after a peace agreement was signed. 1646 01:35:35,679 --> 01:35:37,513 On December 18, 1647 01:35:37,612 --> 01:35:40,980 Nixon unleashed round-the-clock air strikes 1648 01:35:41,081 --> 01:35:44,146 that flattened targets around Hanoi and Haiphong. 1649 01:35:44,247 --> 01:35:45,980 (explosions) 1650 01:35:46,081 --> 01:35:49,247 It would be remembered as the Christmas Bombing. 1651 01:35:49,346 --> 01:35:52,681 (bombs exploding, people shouting) 1652 01:35:52,782 --> 01:35:54,547 HAL KUSHNER: And all of a sudden, 1653 01:35:54,647 --> 01:35:56,647 around Christmastime, 1654 01:35:56,748 --> 01:35:59,047 we hear an Arc Light operation, 1655 01:35:59,147 --> 01:36:01,615 B-52s... bom-bom-bom-bom-bom. 1656 01:36:01,715 --> 01:36:03,583 And it's all around, and it is just exploding. 1657 01:36:03,682 --> 01:36:08,482 And everyone knew they were B-52s. 1658 01:36:08,583 --> 01:36:10,816 And is... in the two years that I was there, 1659 01:36:10,915 --> 01:36:13,584 that was the first time I ever heard a bomb. 1660 01:36:13,683 --> 01:36:15,116 And it was close. 1661 01:36:15,216 --> 01:36:17,483 It was really close. 1662 01:36:17,584 --> 01:36:19,716 It was frightening, but we were still cheering. 1663 01:36:19,817 --> 01:36:23,483 I mean, we were cheering because something was happening. 1664 01:36:23,584 --> 01:36:25,818 (explosions) 1665 01:36:56,587 --> 01:36:57,953 NARRATOR: Around the world, 1666 01:36:58,052 --> 01:37:01,288 antiwar demonstrators returned to the streets. 1667 01:37:01,388 --> 01:37:04,487 The prime minister of Sweden compared the United States 1668 01:37:04,588 --> 01:37:06,220 to Nazi Germany. 1669 01:37:06,321 --> 01:37:08,420 The Pope called the bombing, 1670 01:37:08,521 --> 01:37:11,220 which killed more than 1,600 civilians, 1671 01:37:11,321 --> 01:37:14,421 "the object of daily grief." 1672 01:37:14,522 --> 01:37:18,822 James Reston of theNew York Times pronounced the raids 1673 01:37:18,921 --> 01:37:20,721 "war by tantrum." 1674 01:37:20,822 --> 01:37:25,256 Republican Senator William Saxbe of Ohio said 1675 01:37:25,355 --> 01:37:29,956 the president had taken leave of his senses. 1676 01:37:30,055 --> 01:37:31,590 (gunfire) 1677 01:37:31,689 --> 01:37:35,655 North Vietnam shot down 15 B-52s, 1678 01:37:35,756 --> 01:37:40,024 along with 11 other aircraft. 1679 01:37:40,123 --> 01:37:44,091 93 crewmen were reported missing. 1680 01:37:44,190 --> 01:37:48,857 45 new prisoners of war were locked up in Hanoi, 1681 01:37:48,958 --> 01:37:53,557 one of whom died in captivity. 1682 01:37:53,657 --> 01:37:58,557 Meanwhile, both the Chinese and the Soviets pressed Hanoi 1683 01:37:58,657 --> 01:38:01,158 to resume negotiations. 1684 01:38:01,259 --> 01:38:04,858 "The most important thing is to let the Americans leave," 1685 01:38:04,959 --> 01:38:08,125 Zhou Enlai told a North Vietnamese official. 1686 01:38:08,225 --> 01:38:12,926 "The situation will change in six months or a year." 1687 01:38:14,993 --> 01:38:19,059 On December 26, Hanoi signaled its willingness 1688 01:38:19,159 --> 01:38:21,394 to return to Paris. 1689 01:38:21,493 --> 01:38:26,060 It would take just six days to reach a final agreement. 1690 01:38:26,160 --> 01:38:32,360 NEGROPONTE: We bombed them into accepting our concessions. 1691 01:38:32,461 --> 01:38:36,561 We bombed them into accepting our concessions. 1692 01:38:36,661 --> 01:38:40,396 And I stand by that statement, because, in effect, 1693 01:38:40,495 --> 01:38:46,728 what we did was to carry out this massive bombing campaign 1694 01:38:46,829 --> 01:38:51,629 in order to basically get back to pretty much exactly 1695 01:38:51,729 --> 01:38:55,362 where we were at the end of October in '72. 1696 01:38:57,330 --> 01:39:00,264 NARRATOR: President Thieu still balked at signing on. 1697 01:39:00,363 --> 01:39:02,630 Nixon was adamant. 1698 01:39:02,730 --> 01:39:05,730 Thieu had to go along with what Washington and Hanoi 1699 01:39:05,831 --> 01:39:07,398 had worked out. 1700 01:39:07,497 --> 01:39:10,197 But without informing Congress, 1701 01:39:10,298 --> 01:39:13,198 the president assured Thieu in writing 1702 01:39:13,299 --> 01:39:17,032 that the United States would "respond with full force" 1703 01:39:17,131 --> 01:39:20,731 if the North ever violated the agreement. 1704 01:39:20,832 --> 01:39:24,365 "The Americans really leave me no choice," Thieu said. 1705 01:39:24,466 --> 01:39:28,333 "Either sign or they will cut off aid. 1706 01:39:28,432 --> 01:39:32,533 "On the other hand, we have an absolute guarantee from Nixon 1707 01:39:32,632 --> 01:39:34,834 "to defend the country. 1708 01:39:34,933 --> 01:39:39,401 "I am going to agree to sign and hold him to his word. 1709 01:39:39,500 --> 01:39:43,200 He is an honest man and I am going to trust him." 1710 01:39:51,867 --> 01:39:55,934 On January 22, 1973, 1711 01:39:56,035 --> 01:39:59,935 at his ranch in the Hill Country of Texas, 1712 01:40:00,036 --> 01:40:02,969 Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1713 01:40:03,068 --> 01:40:05,668 the president who had committed the United States 1714 01:40:05,769 --> 01:40:08,635 to a ground war in Vietnam, 1715 01:40:08,735 --> 01:40:13,037 and had seen that war undercut his domestic social programs 1716 01:40:13,136 --> 01:40:16,136 and end his political career, 1717 01:40:16,236 --> 01:40:18,404 died of congestive heart failure. 1718 01:40:23,637 --> 01:40:28,437 The following evening, Richard Nixon spoke to the nation. 1719 01:40:28,538 --> 01:40:31,137 28 years after the United States 1720 01:40:31,237 --> 01:40:34,039 first became involved in Vietnam, 1721 01:40:34,138 --> 01:40:37,005 it was finally getting out. 1722 01:40:37,106 --> 01:40:38,539 NIXON: I have asked for this radio 1723 01:40:38,638 --> 01:40:40,906 and television time tonight 1724 01:40:41,005 --> 01:40:44,472 for the purpose of announcing that we today 1725 01:40:44,571 --> 01:40:47,840 have concluded an agreement to end the war 1726 01:40:47,939 --> 01:40:51,939 and bring peace with honor in Vietnam and in Southeast Asia. 1727 01:40:52,040 --> 01:40:55,439 A cease-fire, internationally supervised, 1728 01:40:55,540 --> 01:40:59,341 will begin at 7:00 p.m. this Saturday, January 27, 1729 01:40:59,440 --> 01:41:01,173 Washington time. 1730 01:41:01,274 --> 01:41:03,274 Within 60 days from this Saturday, 1731 01:41:03,373 --> 01:41:07,608 all Americans held prisoners of war throughout Indochina 1732 01:41:07,707 --> 01:41:10,141 will be released. 1733 01:41:11,909 --> 01:41:16,741 NARRATOR: American prisoners of war, 591 of them, 1734 01:41:16,842 --> 01:41:20,042 were to be released in batches of 40. 1735 01:41:20,141 --> 01:41:23,043 Those who had been in captivity the longest 1736 01:41:23,142 --> 01:41:25,709 were to come home first. 1737 01:41:25,810 --> 01:41:29,742 Today the largest contingents of repatriated prisoners so far, 1738 01:41:29,843 --> 01:41:31,610 60 men, were flown from Clark 1739 01:41:31,709 --> 01:41:33,576 to Travis Air Force Base, California. 1740 01:41:33,676 --> 01:41:35,587 ROGER PETERSON: Today's most dramatic moment came 1741 01:41:35,611 --> 01:41:38,210 when Everett Alvarez made his happy trek down the ramp, 1742 01:41:38,311 --> 01:41:39,411 home at last. 1743 01:41:39,510 --> 01:41:40,919 For almost as long as most Americans 1744 01:41:40,943 --> 01:41:42,411 have been aware of Vietnam, 1745 01:41:42,510 --> 01:41:46,345 Lieutenant Commander Alvarez has been a prisoner in Hanoi. 1746 01:41:46,444 --> 01:41:49,278 He was shot down August 5, 1964, during the first raids flown 1747 01:41:49,377 --> 01:41:52,345 in retaliation for the Tonkin Gulf incident. 1748 01:41:52,444 --> 01:41:54,244 And finally, today, he was home. 1749 01:41:54,345 --> 01:41:56,712 For years and years, 1750 01:41:56,813 --> 01:42:03,046 we dreamed of this day, and we kept faith. 1751 01:42:03,145 --> 01:42:07,846 Faith in God, in our president, 1752 01:42:07,945 --> 01:42:09,513 and in our country. 1753 01:42:09,614 --> 01:42:12,746 ("America the Beautiful" by Ray Charles playing) 1754 01:42:14,547 --> 01:42:19,079 NARRATOR: Hal Kushner's turn came in mid-March. 1755 01:42:19,179 --> 01:42:21,615 CHARLES: ♪ Oh, beautiful 1756 01:42:21,714 --> 01:42:25,747 ♪ For heroes proved 1757 01:42:28,315 --> 01:42:32,116 ♪ In liberating strife 1758 01:42:32,215 --> 01:42:34,748 KUSHNER: And they... then they called our name. 1759 01:42:34,849 --> 01:42:37,381 And I walked out in the sunlight. 1760 01:42:37,482 --> 01:42:40,316 And the first thing I saw was a girl in a miniskirt. 1761 01:42:40,416 --> 01:42:43,081 She was a reporter for one of the news organizations. 1762 01:42:43,181 --> 01:42:45,117 I'd never seen a real-life miniskirt. 1763 01:42:45,216 --> 01:42:50,817 CHARLES: ♪ And mercy more than life 1764 01:42:50,917 --> 01:42:53,182 KUSHNER: And there was a table with the Vietnamese 1765 01:42:53,283 --> 01:42:55,318 and American authorities on one side, 1766 01:42:55,418 --> 01:42:57,918 and there was a brigadier general, Air Force general 1767 01:42:58,017 --> 01:43:00,318 in Class A uniform. 1768 01:43:00,418 --> 01:43:03,583 And he looked magnificent. 1769 01:43:03,683 --> 01:43:06,484 And I looked at him... 1770 01:43:06,583 --> 01:43:08,319 (voice breaking): and he had breadth, 1771 01:43:08,419 --> 01:43:12,419 he had thickness that we didn't have. 1772 01:43:12,518 --> 01:43:15,684 And his hair was... he had on a garrison cap. 1773 01:43:15,785 --> 01:43:18,819 And his hair was plump and moist, 1774 01:43:18,920 --> 01:43:21,420 and our hair was like straw, you know. 1775 01:43:21,519 --> 01:43:23,719 It was dry and we were skinny. 1776 01:43:23,820 --> 01:43:24,820 (clears throat) 1777 01:43:26,152 --> 01:43:27,853 And I went out and I saluted, 1778 01:43:27,952 --> 01:43:30,620 which was a courtesy that had been denied us 1779 01:43:30,719 --> 01:43:33,453 for so many years. 1780 01:43:33,554 --> 01:43:35,953 And he saluted me, and he... 1781 01:43:36,054 --> 01:43:38,020 I shook hands with him and he hugged me, 1782 01:43:38,121 --> 01:43:39,554 he actually hugged me, 1783 01:43:39,653 --> 01:43:43,254 and he said, "Welcome home, Major. 1784 01:43:43,355 --> 01:43:44,954 We're glad to see you, doctor." 1785 01:43:45,055 --> 01:43:47,822 And the tears were streaming down his cheeks. 1786 01:43:47,922 --> 01:43:50,954 And it was just a-a powerful moment. 1787 01:43:51,055 --> 01:43:55,588 CHARLES: ♪ For purple mountains 1788 01:43:55,688 --> 01:43:57,056 ♪ Majesty 1789 01:43:57,155 --> 01:43:59,423 KUSHNER: And then this liaison officer they called 1790 01:43:59,522 --> 01:44:02,989 that came out and got me and escorted me on this C-141. 1791 01:44:03,088 --> 01:44:06,924 It was this beautiful white airplane with a flag. 1792 01:44:07,023 --> 01:44:10,324 (sighs) 1793 01:44:10,424 --> 01:44:15,557 An American flag on the tail and USAF. 1794 01:44:15,656 --> 01:44:18,090 CHARLES: ♪ America 1795 01:44:18,190 --> 01:44:19,524 ♪ You know 1796 01:44:19,625 --> 01:44:24,090 ♪ God done shed his grace on thee ♪ 1797 01:44:24,190 --> 01:44:27,757 KUSHNER: And they had these real cute flight nurses on there. 1798 01:44:27,858 --> 01:44:29,791 They were all tall and blonde and, you know, 1799 01:44:29,891 --> 01:44:31,826 they-they were just gorgeous. 1800 01:44:31,926 --> 01:44:34,258 And we got on this thing and, and she said, 1801 01:44:34,359 --> 01:44:37,359 this nurse... we sat in these seats and she said, 1802 01:44:37,458 --> 01:44:39,025 "We have anything you want, you know. 1803 01:44:39,126 --> 01:44:40,158 "Do... what do you want?" 1804 01:44:40,258 --> 01:44:42,327 And I-I wanted a Coke with crushed ice 1805 01:44:42,427 --> 01:44:44,560 and some chewing gum. 1806 01:44:44,659 --> 01:44:47,959 CHARLES: ♪ You know, I wish had somebody to help me sing this ♪ 1807 01:44:48,060 --> 01:44:52,026 ♪ America 1808 01:44:52,127 --> 01:44:54,393 ♪ America ♪ America 1809 01:44:54,494 --> 01:44:55,828 ♪ I love you, America 1810 01:44:55,928 --> 01:44:58,561 ♪ God shed ♪ You see 1811 01:44:58,660 --> 01:45:00,828 ♪ My God, he done shed ♪ His grace 1812 01:45:00,928 --> 01:45:03,428 ♪ His grace on thee ♪ On thee 1813 01:45:03,527 --> 01:45:05,728 ♪ And you ought to love him for it ♪ 1814 01:45:05,829 --> 01:45:10,261 ♪ 'Cause he, he, he, he crowned thy good ♪ 1815 01:45:10,362 --> 01:45:12,094 ♪ He told me he would 1816 01:45:12,194 --> 01:45:15,795 ♪ With brotherhood 1817 01:45:15,894 --> 01:45:18,063 ♪ From sea 1818 01:45:18,162 --> 01:45:20,296 ♪ To shining 1819 01:45:20,395 --> 01:45:22,830 ♪ Shining sea ♪ Sea 1820 01:45:22,930 --> 01:45:24,796 ♪ Oh, Lord 1821 01:45:24,895 --> 01:45:26,029 ♪ Oh, Lord! 1822 01:45:26,130 --> 01:45:28,395 ♪ I thank you, Lord 1823 01:45:28,496 --> 01:45:34,030 ♪ Shining sea. 1824 01:45:40,631 --> 01:45:43,032 ("The Lord Is in This Place" by Fairport Convention playing) 1825 01:45:46,231 --> 01:45:49,332 NARRATOR: Within a few days of Hal Kushner's release, 1826 01:45:49,432 --> 01:45:54,333 the last American combat troops would leave Vietnam. 1827 01:45:54,433 --> 01:45:59,165 But they would leave behind many unanswered questions. 1828 01:45:59,265 --> 01:46:03,965 How long could the South Vietnamese government survive? 1829 01:46:04,066 --> 01:46:07,266 What was the value of American promises, 1830 01:46:07,367 --> 01:46:10,199 and American sacrifice? 1831 01:46:10,300 --> 01:46:14,466 And how long would it take for the wounds of war to heal? 1832 01:46:27,568 --> 01:46:29,502 ("What's Going On?" by Marvin Gaye playing) 1833 01:46:31,136 --> 01:46:33,069 (indistinct conversations) 1834 01:46:37,168 --> 01:46:39,701 ♪ Mother, mother 1835 01:46:39,802 --> 01:46:43,870 ♪ There's too many of you crying ♪ 1836 01:46:46,769 --> 01:46:48,902 ♪ Brother, brother, brother 1837 01:46:49,003 --> 01:46:53,004 ♪ There's far too many of you dying ♪ 1838 01:46:54,970 --> 01:46:58,103 ♪ You know we've got to find a way ♪ 1839 01:46:59,903 --> 01:47:02,804 ♪ To bring some loving here today ♪ 1840 01:47:02,903 --> 01:47:05,738 ♪ Yeah 1841 01:47:05,839 --> 01:47:07,439 ♪ Father, father 1842 01:47:09,271 --> 01:47:11,572 ♪ We don't need to escalate 1843 01:47:14,439 --> 01:47:18,605 ♪ You see, war is not the answer ♪ 1844 01:47:18,705 --> 01:47:23,340 ♪ For only love can conquer hate ♪ 1845 01:47:23,440 --> 01:47:26,306 ♪ You know we've got to find a way ♪ 1846 01:47:28,374 --> 01:47:31,574 ♪ To bring some loving here today ♪ 1847 01:47:31,673 --> 01:47:34,074 ♪ Oh 1848 01:47:34,173 --> 01:47:36,206 ♪ Picket lines ♪ Sister 1849 01:47:36,307 --> 01:47:38,606 ♪ And picket signs ♪ Sister 1850 01:47:38,706 --> 01:47:40,375 ♪ Don't punish me ♪ Sister 1851 01:47:40,474 --> 01:47:43,642 ♪ With brutality ♪ Sister 1852 01:47:43,741 --> 01:47:45,575 ♪ Talk to me ♪ Sister 1853 01:47:45,674 --> 01:47:47,607 ♪ So you can see ♪ Sister 1854 01:47:47,707 --> 01:47:50,107 ♪ Oh, what's going on ♪ What's going on 1855 01:47:50,207 --> 01:47:52,175 ♪ What's going on ♪ What's going on 1856 01:47:52,275 --> 01:47:54,542 ♪ Yeah, what's going on ♪ What's going on 1857 01:47:54,643 --> 01:47:56,809 ♪ Ah, what's going on ♪ What's going on 1858 01:47:56,908 --> 01:47:59,675 ♪ Ah ♪ Right on 1859 01:47:59,775 --> 01:48:01,408 ♪ Whoo! Right on, brother 1860 01:48:01,509 --> 01:48:02,877 (indistinct conversations) 1861 01:48:02,976 --> 01:48:04,909 (scatting) 1862 01:48:06,377 --> 01:48:08,476 MAN: Hey, man, what's your name? Whoo! 1863 01:48:08,577 --> 01:48:10,310 ♪ Right on, baby 1864 01:48:10,409 --> 01:48:12,176 Right on. ♪ Right on 1865 01:48:12,276 --> 01:48:15,210 (scatting) 1866 01:48:27,946 --> 01:48:29,178 Whoo! ♪ Whoo 1867 01:48:29,278 --> 01:48:32,045 ♪ Right on, baby 1868 01:48:32,146 --> 01:48:34,079 (scatting) 1869 01:48:46,412 --> 01:48:47,412 Whoo! 1870 01:48:47,513 --> 01:48:48,913 -♪ Right on, baby -(man whooping) 1871 01:48:48,947 --> 01:48:49,948 ♪ Come on 1872 01:48:50,014 --> 01:48:51,314 ♪ Right on 1873 01:48:51,413 --> 01:48:53,348 (singer scatting, man whooping) 1874 01:48:56,547 --> 01:48:59,547 ♪ Whoo! Right on 1875 01:48:59,648 --> 01:49:00,948 ♪ Go slow 1876 01:49:01,047 --> 01:49:02,981 (scatting)