Vietnam War

Name: Vietnam War
Uploaded: 2024-03-26T00:12:15+00:00
Duration: 1 h 22 min 18 s
Channel: Free Movie
Description: Vietnam War VS USA

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6 months ago

Vietnam War VS USA

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00:00:53Coming home from Vietnam

00:00:56was close to as traumatic

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with a young couple

and it was only after 12 years that the two wives were talking.

00:01:14Found out that we both had been

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

with an alcoholic father.

"Shh

Our country did that with Vietnam.

00:01:40It's only been very recently

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and to put Vietnam behind us.

The killing

in this tragic war must stop.

General Westmoreland's strategy

is producing results.

The enemy is no longer closer to victory.

00:02:47No matter how you measure it,

00:02:49we're better off than we thought

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its logistics.

We have not sent combat troops there.

00:03:10You have

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is successful in Korea

we can expect it to spread throughout Asia and Europe

00:03:22and to this hemisphere.

00:03:46# Oh where have you been,

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the death camps in World War II

wrote a book called Man's Search for Meaning.

00:04:06# I've walked and

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because of Vietnam

that's been our quest ever since.

00:04:24# And it's a hard,

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in Vietnam began in secrecy.

It endedin failure,

00:04:47witnessed by the entire world.

00:04:50# And what did you

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misunderstandings

American overconfidenceand Cold War miscalculation.

00:05:04And it was prolonged because it

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presidents

belonging to both political parties.

00:05:18# I saw a room full of men

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South Vietnamese troops died

in the conflict

So did over a million North Vietnamese soldiers

00:05:38and Viet Cong guerrillas.

00:05:39# Sharp swords in the

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more in the neighboring states

of Laos and Cambodia.

For many Vietnameseit was a brutal civil war;

00:06:02for others, the bloody

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

now

For those Americans who fought in it,

00:06:16and for those who fought against

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was a decade of agony

the most divisive period since the Civil War.

00:06:32Vietnam seemed to call

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and mercy;

the candor of the American government;

00:06:51and what it means

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to erase its memory

have never stopped arguing about what really happened,

00:07:10why everything went so badly

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Indochina began with an attack

on the ancient Vietnamese port of Danang in 1858.

00:09:05It took 50 years to lay claim

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100

Vietnam.

All of it was ruled by a French governor-general

00:09:22from his palace in Hanoi.

00:09:26The French largely lived

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106

to learn the language

spoken by their subjects.

Instead they installed a series of puppet emperors

00:09:46and employed a network

00:09:48of French-speaking Vietnamese

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work building roads and canals

railroads and bridges.

The Vietnamese people did not take easily

00:10:23to French occupation,

00:10:25just as they had fought

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colonial rule risked exile

prison

LAM QUANG THY.

My hatred for them was pure.

Pure.

I hated them so much.

And I was so scared of them.

Boy

And the scareder I gotthe more I hated them.

00:12:06I was an 18-year-old Marine

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132

my honor by my fingernails

the whole time I was there.

In the spring of 1919

as the victorious Allied Powers met in Paris

00:12:43to rebuild a world shattered

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139

29-nine-year-old man

appeared with a petition for the president

00:13:03he and other Vietnamese

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144

of their European rulers

the man was asking that this principle be applied

00:13:20to his homeland.

00:13:22The president's secretary

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150

an alias

"Nguyen the Patriot."

During his long

he would adopt some 70 different pseudonyms,

00:13:47finally settling on

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157

dedicated to freeing

his country and his people from foreign domination

00:14:07to the point that he

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that's a big sacrifice

because to us everybody needs a family.

00:14:24Ho Chi Minh was born in 1890,

00:14:27the son of a minor official

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who pulled his strings

Ho was expelled from school and marked for arrest.

00:14:43He left Vietnam in 1911 and

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pastry chef at the Parker House.

He shoveled snow in Londontinted photographs in Paris.

00:15:08There, Ho Chi Minh joined

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177

to Moscow to study

underwent training as a Soviet agent,

00:15:24was sometimes criticized

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the Indochinese Communist Party.

Through it all"He was taut and quivering,"

00:15:44a friend remembered,

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of Western Europe

including France.

Imperial Japan threatened

many of the European colonies in Asia,

00:16:30and occupied Vietnam, where

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the coming of the Japanese

seemed to signal a welcome end to white colonial rule.

00:16:50But Ho Chi Minh,

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200

exploiting his country

and seizing Vietnamese crops to fill their own rice bowls.

00:17:09The time had come, he said,

00:17:11to rally "patriots of all ages

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the collaborationist French.

In February of 1941decades away from his homeland,

00:17:32Ho Chi Minh slipped back across

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209

at the side of a mountain

he named for Karl Marx

overlooking a jungle stream he named for his hero, Lenin.

00:17:54There, he founded

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215

Fighting force for his revolution

Ho called upon Vo Nguyen Giap

a one-time teacher of French history

00:18:25who had instructed

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for the French intensified

when they beat his wife to death in prison.

00:18:39Inspired by Napoleon,

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to develop

a distinctive theory of warfare that relied on guerrilla tactics

00:18:54until a full-scale conventional

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"everywhere and nowhere."

The reason Vietnamese had always resort to guerrilla warfare

00:19:14was because we were

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sure you can win

and surprise is a big element.

Choose your own battle.

I had about 26 guys that clay out of 45.

00:19:43We were always

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239

240

sudden the very point man

the first guy in the columnsaid, “VC on the trail.

00:20:04VC on the trail."

00:20:08Before I had a chance

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245

well-laid ambush erupted.

I knew I'd lost a bunch of guys.

I said a prayer to God sayingbasically,

00:20:37"If you need any more guys

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252

253

254

Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

the United States government was looking for allies

00:21:11behind the lines in Vietnam.

00:21:13The Americans were hoping

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by Ho Chi Minh.

And so it was decided to drop

an OSS team in to meet with the Viet Minh leadership.

00:21:31Paul Hoagland was

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desperately sick.

So he was taken to a grass shack

where a bewhiskeredlay on a bundle of straw,

00:21:48desperately ill.

00:21:50And that was Ho Chi Minh.

00:21:54The OSS, the secret

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271

they learned to handle them.

Ho Chi Minh began to call his followers

00:22:09the “Viet-American Army,"

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the northern part of the country.

Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese

00:22:44were dying of starvation

00:22:46while Japanese storehouses

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282

every morning she would see

these garbage carts going around

and people picking up dead bodies and throwing them

00:23:06on the cart.

00:23:07It was incredible.

00:23:09And people who lived through it

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290

of mandarins

who had all served the French.

He and his wife had 17 children.

Parents who had children who were, you know, plump,

00:23:33were very afraid of their

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297

a clue on how to deal

with this calamity.

But Ho Chi Minh did.

He directed the Viet Minh

to break into the Japanese storehouses wherever they could

00:23:56and distribute the rice

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one destroyed Nagasaki

Japanese surrender seemed imminent.

00:24:29Ho Chi Minh called upon

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311

across the country.

On September 2

the same day the Japanese formally surrendered,

00:24:55hundreds of thousands

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of the Viet Minh

and hear him proclaim Vietnam's independence.

00:25:14With an OSS

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321

by their creator

"with certain unalienable rights;

00:25:31"that among these are life,

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328

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independence movement.

Ho Chi Minh's hopes for American support were calculated

00:26:20but understandable.

00:26:23President Franklin Roosevelt had

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under which they live."

But Roosevelt was dead nowand his successor, Harry Truman,

00:26:40had inherited

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338

Second World War had collapsed.

The Soviets now occupied the Eastern European countries

00:26:54they had overrun, and hoped to

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343

Charles De Gaulle warned

that if the United States insisted on independence

00:27:14for her colonies,

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nothing to undercut

the restoration of France's empire, including Vietnam.

00:27:34There were hardly any

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352

353

354

part of a seven-man OSS mission

sent to Saigonthe largest city in the south.

00:27:55The United States

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358

on their own.

Allied leaders had agreed temporarily to divide Vietnam

00:28:09into two separate zones.

00:28:11Nationalist Chinese troops were

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where rival factions

including the French and Viet Minh, were already fighting

00:28:26in the streets of Saigon.

00:28:29No one was in charge.

00:28:32On both sides, there was

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373

of the OSS in Saigon

tried to make sense of it all.

Right from the start he was in touch with everybody...

00:28:57not only the French,

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378

established themselves

as the most successful.

Dewey

brokered talks between a Viet Minh spokesman

00:29:15and the senior French

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384

Allied forces in the south.

Gracey was convinced that French control

00:29:30should be reimposed

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388

a "subversive" force.

The violence in and around Saigon escalated.

00:29:48Colonel Dewey urgently

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he concluded

"ought to clear out of Southeast Asia."

00:30:06Two days later,

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mistook Dewey for a Frenchman

and opened fire.

He was killed instantly.

Ho Chi Minh wrote to the United States

00:30:33lamenting the death of Dewey,

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

404

that Dewey

who was doing what he could to help

00:30:47the Vietnamese independence

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409

she saw us why we were there.

And the padre said

"I'm... I'm terribly sorry to inform you,

00:31:28but your son was killed

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416

417

418

son was still alive yesterday."

And the chaplain looked at the letter

00:31:54and he said, "It's a week old.

00:31:57I think your son was killed on

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began arriving in Saigon

taking over from the British.

They quickly established

control of the city

and set out to reoccupy

the entire country.

Ho Chi Minh hoped somehow to achieve independence

00:32:32without a war with France,

00:32:34and he still hoped the

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433

American journalist.

"Do not be blinded by this issue of communism."

00:32:49He did not want to fight

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

437

things you believe."

Those letters I saw in the CIA files,

00:33:09they had never been given

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

441

the French to live up

to a promise they had made of increased autonomy

00:33:28for his country.

00:33:30While Ho was away,

00:33:32General Giap began consolidating

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

449

"reactionary saboteurs"-

landlords and moneylendersTrotskyites and Catholics,

00:33:52men and women accused of

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454

after months of building tension

fighting broke out in Hanoi

between the Viet Minh and the French.

00:34:28The Viet Minh proved no match

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459

stronghold far to the north.

"Those who have rifles will use their rifles,"

00:34:50Ho declared in a radio address

00:34:52calling for a nationwide

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464

will use spades or sticks."

But the country Ho Chi Minh hoped to unite

00:35:38was itself bitterly divided.

00:35:41Families were being torn apart.

00:35:43Despite her father's position

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470

sister Thang was married

to a man who had great sympathy for the Viet Minh.

00:36:03And by that time Ho Chi Minh

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476

against the French.

So the Vietnam War was really a civil war

00:36:22down to the family level.

00:36:32France poured

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481

Tunisia

who fought alongside an army of Cambodians, Laotians,

00:36:49and anti-communist Vietnamese.

00:36:56French forces managed to occupy

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

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to win over rural Vietnamese

through a program they called pacification-

00:37:15pacification-

00:37:17building dikes, schools and

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492

they could control it.

But at night the Viet Minh would come back.

00:37:35And so it was never

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497

sand in your fingers."

The Viet Minh mined roadsblew up bridges and railroads,

00:37:58ambushed French patrols,

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

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502

of aiding the Viet Minh.

But the communists proved every bit as ruthless as the French.

00:39:00"It is better to kill even

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506

507

to the French.

Once my father started working for the French, then he was

00:39:18a target, especially

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decided not to.

French casualties continued to mount.

00:40:15“There are days

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wrote his mother.

"Convoys under attackroads cut,

00:40:27"firing in all directions

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522

what was happening over there

and I was telling her how she shouldn't believe

00:40:53what she sees in the newspaper

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527

outpost that the Marines have

you know."

We could literally... could look right into North Vietnam.

00:41:08We could see the sparks

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532

coming back."

And my mother said"No, you're coming back."

00:41:17She said, "I talk to God

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537

538

of special people in bags."

President Truman's dramatic announcement

00:41:39that Russia had the atom secret

00:41:41caused state departments

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

544

545

the Soviet Union.

The United States stood at one pole

00:41:59and the Soviet Union stood

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549

and there was good.

And we were goodand the other side was evil.

00:42:08It wasn't morally ambiguous.

00:42:14Just a few weeks after

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

555

556

were also underway

in the British colonies of Burma and Malaya.

00:42:36In January 1950,

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he had been seeking.

The Soviets recognized the Viet Minh as well,

00:42:52and also offered help.

00:42:54President Truman,

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565

communism

approved a $23 million aid program

00:43:07for the French in Vietnam.

00:43:10The United States

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570

our friendship

and our alliance with the French and support them in Indochina

00:43:25while we, as a former

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575

well-equipped North Korean Army

swarmed across the 38th parallel

to attack unprepared South Korean defenders.

00:43:47In June of 1950, China's ally,

00:43:51communist North Korea,

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582

583

584

back north.

Meanwhile in southern China

Mao's military was beginning to turn the Viet Minh

00:44:20into a modern fighting force,

00:44:24capable of inflicting a heavy

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590

transport planes

and a shipload of jeeps to Vietnam.

00:44:43Thirty-five military advisors

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595

officially in Vietnam.

In October of 1950

hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops

00:45:10began pouring into North Korea,

00:45:12driving the allies

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

602

603

is successful in Korea

we can expect it to spread throughout Asia and Europe

00:45:33and to this hemisphere.

00:45:36We are fighting in Korea

00:45:39for our own national security

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

610

at the rooftop bar

of the Hotel Majestic overlooking Saigon.

00:46:01As he and his party ate,

00:46:03they could hear the thunder of

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

615

616

re-established.

But Kennedy spent two hours with Seymour Topping,

00:46:20a seasoned American reporter,

00:46:22who gave him a very

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

622

for backing the French.

Kennedy believed the reporter.

Unless the United States could persuade the Vietnamese

00:46:43that it was as opposed to

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

628

in "foredoomed failure."

# Come on-a my houseI'm gonna give you candy #

00:47:05In 1952,

00:47:07General Dwight Eisenhower

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

633

634

635

30% of the bill

for the French war in Vietnam.

Within two years

that number would rise to nearly 80%.

00:47:30# Everything,

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641

spending

hundreds of millions of dollars

supporting the forces of the French Union

00:47:44in the fight against communism

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

646

it is so vitally important.

Here's Indochina.

If Indochina falls

Thailand is put in almost impossible position.

00:48:02The same is true of Malaya

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652

battlefield

and it's a bloody warand it's a bitter one.

00:48:23By 1953, the French had

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

656

the countryside.

Six commanders had come and gone.

00:48:38Nevertheless,

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

660

661

he said

"like the light at the end of the tunnel."

00:48:54Meanwhile, large parts of the

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

666

that burned foliage

homes

When returning French troops disembarked at Marseilles,

00:49:17members of the longshoremen's

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

671

"The Dirty War."

The camera was a close-up

was over the shoulder of this storm trooper

00:49:42who had a kid by the scruff

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

678

around the world

chasing some ghost in a jungle.

In the meantimemy country's being torn apart.

00:50:00So I saw somebody

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684

three years of combat end

as United Nations and communist negotiators at Panmunjom

00:50:19sign a truce.

00:50:20In July of 1953,

00:50:23the Korean War ended

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691

could be contained.

And in Washingtondramatic evening press conference...

00:50:37That fall, the French

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

695

696

were to convene in Geneva

each side sought to improve its position on the battlefield.

00:50:59General Navarre set up

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700

he hoped to lure the Viet Minh

into a decisive battle.

Navarre was certain that superior French firepower

00:51:16and air support would crush

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

705

that overlooked his 11

dug in on the valley floor.

The artillery commander was so confident of victory,

00:51:36he complained, "I have more guns

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

711

he remembered.

To do itof the greatest logistical feats

00:51:59in military history...

00:52:01a feat that would be restaged

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

717

718

for a siege

to disassembled artillery pieces,

00:52:20on foot through the jungle.

00:52:23Giap surrounded the valley

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

723

from the air.

On March 13

Viet Minh artillery on the hillsides

00:52:46began raining down 50 shells

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

728

729

be reinforced

and resupplied by airdrop.

The French artillery commander

who had underestimated his enemy, committed suicide.

00:53:16The airlift

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

735

Viet Minh onslaughts

for over six weeks.

Todayis a human dam

00:53:28trying to stem the red tide

00:53:30that threatens to engulf

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

741

742

Congressional approval

and support from European allies.

00:53:44Britain said no

00:53:46and the Congress would not

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

748

appear to be fighting

for a maintain... maintenance of colonial rule.

00:53:59I therefore believe

00:54:01that before the United States

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

753

the struggle.

"I am convincedEisenhower confided to his diary,

00:54:14"that no military victory is

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

757

more American transport planes

their markings painted over and flown by civilian contractors,

00:54:31to help resupply the desperate

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

761

762

if we lost it

that the rest of Asia would tumble to communism.

00:54:53You have broader

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

766

set up

and you knock over the first one,

00:55:07and what will happen to the

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

770

the exhausted French forces at Dien Bien Phu surrendered.

00:55:49They had lost 8,000 men,

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

774

775

776

could not help but be impressed.

They were very proud

that the Viet Minh had defeated the French,

00:56:31this great Western power.

00:56:33Admiration and respect

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

783

bluffing by our enemies

Senate Minority Leader Lyndon Johnson said.

00:56:51"Today it is Indochina,

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

787

it as the end of the colonial era

in Southeast Asiawhich it really was.

00:57:08But instead we saw it

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

791

of China.

And it was a total misreading of a pivotal event,

00:57:22which cost us very dearly.

00:57:31The former home

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

796

797

the political future of Asia.

The day after the fall of Dien Bien Phu,

00:57:44diplomats from nine nations

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

802

803

could not keep fighting

without more support from China and the Soviet Union.

00:58:08But China had lost a million men

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

807

808

to ease tensions with the West.

Both of Ho Chi Minh's communist patrons urged him to agree

00:58:27to a negotiated settlement,

00:58:29a partition like the one

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

814

divided at the 17th parallel.

The 130stationed in the North

00:58:56were to withdraw to the South,

00:58:58and somewhere between

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

820

until an election could be held

to reunify North and South Vietnam,

00:59:14an election everyone knew

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

826

827

horrible shit sandwich.

That's what we called it.

One of the things that I learned in the war is that

01:00:15we're not the top species on

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

832

killing machines and stuff.

And I'll always argue that it's just finishing school.

01:00:39Braving the dangers

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

836

under the communists.

For themor nothing.

01:00:54Under the Geneva Accords,

01:00:57civilians living in either

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

841

842

and father wanted to stay

and meet my sister Thang again

because they knew Thang would come back.

01:01:13But on the other hand

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

847

848

to be killed

and all of us would be persecuted.

01:01:31And I remember the day we left.

01:01:33I looked around and I thought,

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

854

some 900

including more than half of all the Catholics

01:01:54living in the North,

01:01:55fled to the South, many of them

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

859

in the South.

That government was now headed by Ngo Dinh Diem.

01:02:17Both a Roman Catholic

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

864

when we became the partner

or I would say the victimof President Diem.

01:02:39We were going to help him turn

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

868

869

870

seeking support

for his own brand of Vietnamese nationalism.

01:02:56He was a veteran politician

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

874

buried alive his eldest brother

and his nephew.

Diem was aloof

mistrustful of anyone much beyond his own family.

01:03:17He also proved to be shrewd,

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

880

in creating a new country.

The Frenchthousands of troops

01:03:34stationed in the South,

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

884

885

soldiers had gone north

but several thousand cadre-

trained and dedicated Communist Party workers...

01:03:54had stayed behind to organize

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

890

backed by the French.

And the French were behind the Binh Xuyen,

01:04:10sort of supporting them

01:04:11because they didn't want

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

895

that Diem could be the savior

of South Vietnam.

Others were not so sure.

“He is a messiah without a message,"

01:04:29one diplomat reported

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

903

904

an all-out assault

on the Binh Xuyen syndicate.

Suddenly in the middle of the day

01:04:57we heard gunfire

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

909

of dead and wounded on both sides

as the street fighting continues for an entire week.

01:05:09For the United States,

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

914

some 900

Eisenhower now saw no option but to stick with Diem.

01:05:30The French then announced their

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

918

because he seemed to embody

the nationalist cause in the South.

01:05:49He succeeded in getting

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

923

called for a referendum in the South.

The CIA warned him not to meddle too much with the returns.

01:06:09But when the ballots

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

927

Ngo Dinh Diem named himself

the first president of the brand-new Republic of Vietnam.

01:06:30The election to reunify

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

931

or rather our master

because the goal of preventing

the communists from taking over the South

01:06:49was so strong that we couldn't

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

936

relationship.

You need any ally you believe

to be the centerpiece of your foreign policy.

01:07:06They understand that right away.

01:07:07And the tail wags the dog.

01:07:14From the Far East

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

943

rare airport greetings

as he arrives for a four-day state visit.

01:07:25President Diem, one of America's

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

948

communist pressure

a request to which the president lends a sympathetic ear.

01:07:39Most politicians,

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

952

953

"our offspring

"We cannot abandon it."

If it fellwould be "held responsible

01:07:57and our prestige in Asia

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

958

much of their own country

during the New Deal and had helped rebuild Western Europe

01:08:14through the Marshall Plan,

01:08:15were convinced they

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

963

plans for economic development

meant to winthe hearts and minds

01:08:34of the Vietnamese people.

01:08:38But those civilians would always

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

969

Republic of Vietnam-the ARVN.

Some ARVN officers found American methods unsuited

01:08:59to the guerrilla war they

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

974

975

South Vietnamese forces

to slow a conventional invasion from the North.

01:09:17But no one in North Vietnam

01:09:21was planning

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

980

than a decade of war.

The communists imposed brutal land reforms

01:09:39modeled on those underway

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

984

who had sided with the French

but also many villagers who had fought with the Viet Minh.

01:09:56Ho Chi Minh was still determined

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

988

989

more deeply into the struggle.

He cautioned his comrades in the South to put their faith

01:10:12in political agitation

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

994

995

harsh regime.

In a campaign he called "Denounce the Communists,"

01:10:35Diem had imprisoned tens of

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

999

into their own hands

and began attacking South Vietnamese officials.

01:11:32As violence in

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

1004

but he now began to share power

with men who were growing impatient with his caution,

01:11:50men about whom Americans

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

1008

in the South named Le Duan.

He had helped found the Indochinese Communist Party,

01:12:09survived nearly ten years

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

1012

First Secretary of the party.

By 1959and his hardline allies

01:12:58were gaining influence within

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

1016

should do everything

within its power to help Southern revolutionaries

01:13:12remove Diem by force.

01:13:36Now, bands of

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

1021

through the Laotian mountains

that the Americans would soon call the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

01:13:57Violence against the Diem regime

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

1025

1026

were watching a movie

in their mess hall.

Viet Minh guerrillaswho had crept silently

01:14:27into the compound,

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

1031

Chester Ovnand

from Copper-as Covewere killed.

01:14:47They were the first American

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

1037

1038

with its freedom of choice

its breadth of opportunityits range of alternatives,

01:15:14can compete with the

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

1043

1044

was Senator Lyndon Johnson.

They had narrowly beaten Vice President Richard Nixon

01:15:35and his running mate,

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

1048

against international communism

wherever it seemed to be a threat.

01:15:50But very few Americans knew

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

1053

called Tan Lap

near the Cambodian border

representatives of southern revolutionary groups

01:16:09met to form a new organization

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

1058

foreigners supporting him.

Behind the sceneshis communist comrades in Hanoi

01:16:26were orchestrating everything.

01:16:30The new organization

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

1063

of the NLF was called

the People's Liberation Armed Forces,

01:16:44but its enemies in Saigon

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

1068

to the Vietnamese Nation-

the Viet Cong.

Let every nation know

whether it wishes us well or ill,

01:17:56that we shall pay any price,

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

1074

to assure the survival

and the success of liberty.

For mealways thought of courage

01:18:29as charging enemy bunkers

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

1079

and up into the mountains

just to get up in the morning and look out at the land

01:18:48and think, "In a few minutes

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

1083

1084

incredibly brave.

I would sometimes look at my legs as I walked,

01:19:05thinking, how am I doing this?

01:19:18# Oh, where have you been,

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

of 12 misty mountains #

# I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways #

01:19:44# I've stepped in the middle

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

1093

in the mouth of a graveyard #

# And it's a hard

# It's a hard

# It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall #

01:20:22# Oh, what did you see,

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

with wild wolves all around it #

# I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it #

01:20:49# I saw a black branch with

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

1103

all covered with water #

# I saw 10tongues were all broken #

01:21:16# I saw guns with sharp swords

3 00:01:01,687 --> 00:01:04,657

1110

1111

a-gonna fall. #

Vietnam War

Transcript

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