1
00:01:09,423 --> 00:01:15,023
I was assigned a listening
post at Con Thien in the fall.

2
00:01:15,123 --> 00:01:19,023
That was like getting
a death sentence at a trial.

3
00:01:19,123 --> 00:01:21,456
Because that's just three
Marines out there with a radio.

4
00:01:22,923 --> 00:01:24,556
And that's the scariest thing
I did.

5
00:01:24,656 --> 00:01:27,356
You're listening for the enemy.

6
00:01:27,456 --> 00:01:30,490
They call you on the radio
every hour,

7
00:01:30,590 --> 00:01:31,923
"Delta, Lima, Papa,
Three, Bravo,

8
00:01:32,023 --> 00:01:35,323
"Delta, Lima, Papa, Three,
Bravo, this is Delta Three.

9
00:01:35,423 --> 00:01:38,490
"If your sit rep is alpha
sierra, key your handset twice.

10
00:01:39,956 --> 00:01:41,556
"If your situation report
is all secure,

11
00:01:41,656 --> 00:01:43,256
break squelch twice
on the handset."

12
00:01:45,356 --> 00:01:47,356
And if it's not, they keep
thinking you're asleep

13
00:01:47,456 --> 00:01:49,990
so they keep asking you, "If
your sit rep is alpha sierra,"

14
00:01:50,090 --> 00:01:51,423
and then it finally
dawns on them

15
00:01:51,523 --> 00:01:54,056
maybe there's somebody too close
for you to say anything.

16
00:01:54,156 --> 00:01:57,090
So then they say, "If your sit
rep is negative alpha sierra,

17
00:01:57,190 --> 00:01:58,556
key your handset once,"

18
00:01:58,656 --> 00:02:00,523
and you damn near squeeze
the handle off the, you know,

19
00:02:00,623 --> 00:02:03,756
and two on the radio
because they're so close

20
00:02:03,856 --> 00:02:05,890
that you can hear them
whispering to one another.

21
00:02:08,323 --> 00:02:09,723
And that's scary stuff.

22
00:02:09,823 --> 00:02:10,990
That's real scary stuff.

23
00:02:11,090 --> 00:02:14,723
And I'm scared of the dark,
still.

24
00:02:14,823 --> 00:02:17,656
I still got a night light.

25
00:02:17,756 --> 00:02:20,956
When my kids were growing up,

26
00:02:21,056 --> 00:02:24,690
that's the first time
they really found out

27
00:02:24,790 --> 00:02:26,856
that Daddy'd been in a war
when they said,

28
00:02:26,956 --> 00:02:29,423
"Well, why do we need to outgrow
our night lights?

29
00:02:29,523 --> 00:02:30,890
Daddy's still got one."

30
00:02:37,856 --> 00:02:41,956
Let the word go forth
from this time and place,

31
00:02:42,056 --> 00:02:44,890
to friend and foe alike,

32
00:02:44,990 --> 00:02:49,090
that the torch has been passed
to a new generation

33
00:02:49,190 --> 00:02:55,856
of Americans born in this
century, tempered by war,

34
00:02:55,956 --> 00:02:59,556
disciplined by a hard
and bitter peace,

35
00:02:59,656 --> 00:03:01,023
proud of our...

36
00:03:01,123 --> 00:03:02,890
I still believed, very much,

37
00:03:02,990 --> 00:03:07,656
in this concept
of an heroic America,

38
00:03:07,756 --> 00:03:10,390
America being a really
special country,

39
00:03:10,490 --> 00:03:13,656
the best country in the world,
the best democracy,

40
00:03:13,756 --> 00:03:17,690
all the things that
we believe about it, which...

41
00:03:17,790 --> 00:03:19,890
and I didn't really see anything
wrong with that.

42
00:03:22,623 --> 00:03:27,123
I was sure that we were right
to be in Vietnam.

43
00:03:27,223 --> 00:03:29,356
You know, because it started
under Kennedy

44
00:03:29,456 --> 00:03:31,890
and, to me, JFK was God.

45
00:03:31,990 --> 00:03:35,356
Anything that he thought was
right, I thought was right.

46
00:03:37,623 --> 00:03:41,723
At 43, John Fitzgerald Kennedy
was the youngest man

47
00:03:41,823 --> 00:03:45,356
ever elected president
of the United States.

48
00:03:45,456 --> 00:03:47,823
He had promised bold
new leadership,

49
00:03:47,923 --> 00:03:51,256
and to his supporters his
inauguration seemed to signal

50
00:03:51,356 --> 00:03:54,090
a new day.

51
00:03:54,190 --> 00:03:57,123
To those new states
whom we welcome

52
00:03:57,223 --> 00:04:00,023
to the ranks of the free,

53
00:04:00,123 --> 00:04:06,056
we pledge our word that one form
of colonial control

54
00:04:06,156 --> 00:04:08,590
shall not have passed away

55
00:04:08,690 --> 00:04:13,823
merely to be replaced
by a far more iron tyranny.

56
00:04:13,923 --> 00:04:19,023
We shall not always expect to
find them supporting our view.

57
00:04:19,123 --> 00:04:23,556
But we shall always hope to find
them strongly supporting

58
00:04:23,656 --> 00:04:29,023
their own freedom and to
remember that, in the past,

59
00:04:29,123 --> 00:04:32,490
those who foolishly
sought power

60
00:04:32,590 --> 00:04:36,856
by riding the back of the tiger
ended up inside.

61
00:04:45,223 --> 00:04:47,490
The new president gathered
around him

62
00:04:47,590 --> 00:04:51,390
an extraordinary set of advisors
who shared his determination

63
00:04:51,490 --> 00:04:56,490
to confront communism, including
Secretary of State Dean Rusk,

64
00:04:56,590 --> 00:05:00,323
National Security Advisor
McGeorge Bundy,

65
00:05:00,423 --> 00:05:03,056
his deputy Walt Rostow,

66
00:05:03,156 --> 00:05:07,523
special military advisor
General Maxwell Taylor,

67
00:05:07,623 --> 00:05:11,156
and Secretary of Defense
Robert McNamara,

68
00:05:11,256 --> 00:05:12,823
who had given up his post

69
00:05:12,923 --> 00:05:16,856
as president of the Ford Motor
Company to serve his country.

70
00:05:16,956 --> 00:05:22,956
He was a pioneer in the field
of systems analysis.

71
00:05:23,056 --> 00:05:25,856
Like the president
who picked them,

72
00:05:25,956 --> 00:05:30,056
all of Kennedy's men had served
during World War II.

73
00:05:30,156 --> 00:05:32,390
Each had absorbed what
they all believed

74
00:05:32,490 --> 00:05:34,356
was its central lesson:

75
00:05:34,456 --> 00:05:38,456
ambitious dictatorships needed
to be halted in their tracks

76
00:05:38,556 --> 00:05:41,723
before they constituted
a serious danger

77
00:05:41,823 --> 00:05:43,856
to the peace of the world.

78
00:05:43,956 --> 00:05:47,123
Meanwhile, in South Vietnam,

79
00:05:47,223 --> 00:05:49,223
the National Liberation Front—

80
00:05:49,323 --> 00:05:52,190
labeled by its enemies
the Viet Cong—

81
00:05:52,290 --> 00:05:54,556
was determined to overthrow

82
00:05:54,656 --> 00:05:57,723
the anticommunist and
increasingly autocratic

83
00:05:57,823 --> 00:06:01,023
government of Ngo Dinh Diem.

84
00:06:01,123 --> 00:06:05,190
In North Vietnam,
unbeknownst to Washington,

85
00:06:05,290 --> 00:06:09,190
Ho Chi Minh, the father
of Vietnamese independence,

86
00:06:09,290 --> 00:06:12,490
was now sharing power
with a more aggressive leader,

87
00:06:12,590 --> 00:06:15,490
Le Duan, who was even
more impatient

88
00:06:15,590 --> 00:06:17,990
to reunify his country.

89
00:06:38,256 --> 00:06:41,756
None of us knew anything
about Vietnam.

90
00:06:41,856 --> 00:06:45,956
Vietnam in those days was
a piece on a chessboard,

91
00:06:46,056 --> 00:06:48,123
a strategic chessboard,

92
00:06:48,223 --> 00:06:52,090
not a place with a culture
and a history

93
00:06:52,190 --> 00:06:57,656
that we would have
an impossible time changing,

94
00:06:57,756 --> 00:07:00,623
even with the mighty force
of the United States.

95
00:07:00,723 --> 00:07:05,323
Over the next three years,
the United States would struggle

96
00:07:05,423 --> 00:07:09,823
to understand the complicated
country it had come to save,

97
00:07:09,923 --> 00:07:12,990
fail to appreciate
the enemy's resolve,

98
00:07:13,090 --> 00:07:16,723
and misread how the South
Vietnamese people really felt

99
00:07:16,823 --> 00:07:18,790
about their government.

100
00:07:20,690 --> 00:07:22,890
The new president
would find himself caught

101
00:07:22,990 --> 00:07:27,556
between the momentum of war
and the desire for peace,

102
00:07:27,656 --> 00:07:30,623
between humility and hubris,

103
00:07:30,723 --> 00:07:37,089
between idealism and expediency,
between the truth and a lie.

104
00:07:57,323 --> 00:08:00,490
And so, my fellow Americans,

105
00:08:00,590 --> 00:08:05,656
ask not what your country
can do for you,

106
00:08:05,756 --> 00:08:08,056
ask what you can do
for your country.

107
00:08:14,890 --> 00:08:18,756
I grew up in Missouri,
near Kansas City,

108
00:08:18,856 --> 00:08:21,923
a little community
called Fairmount.

109
00:08:22,023 --> 00:08:23,456
I was born in 1948.

110
00:08:23,556 --> 00:08:26,056
And there were lots of kids
being born in those days

111
00:08:26,156 --> 00:08:27,690
from the guys who were lucky
enough to come home

112
00:08:27,790 --> 00:08:28,756
from World War II.

113
00:08:30,023 --> 00:08:33,356
My dad was a pilot
in the Army Air Corps.

114
00:08:33,456 --> 00:08:36,156
And all of dad's friends

115
00:08:36,256 --> 00:08:39,290
were World War II vets
or Korean vets.

116
00:08:39,390 --> 00:08:41,990
And all of my male teachers
were veterans.

117
00:08:42,090 --> 00:08:44,490
And even my pastor
had been a chaplain.

118
00:08:46,023 --> 00:08:50,823
Well, they were my heroes,
and I wanted to be like them.

119
00:08:57,856 --> 00:09:00,723
For all of John Kennedy's
soaring rhetoric,

120
00:09:00,823 --> 00:09:03,390
for all the talent
he gathered around him,

121
00:09:03,490 --> 00:09:06,723
the first months of his
presidency did not go well.

122
00:09:06,823 --> 00:09:11,156
He approved a CIA-sponsored
invasion of Cuba

123
00:09:11,256 --> 00:09:15,723
at the Bay of Pigs
that ended in disaster.

124
00:09:15,823 --> 00:09:17,623
He felt he'd been bullied

125
00:09:17,723 --> 00:09:20,056
by Soviet premier
Nikita Khrushchev

126
00:09:20,156 --> 00:09:22,423
at a summit meeting in Vienna.

127
00:09:22,523 --> 00:09:24,790
He was unable
to keep the Soviets

128
00:09:24,890 --> 00:09:27,156
from building the Berlin Wall.

129
00:09:27,256 --> 00:09:31,390
And in Southeast Asia,
he refused to intervene

130
00:09:31,490 --> 00:09:34,623
against a communist
insurrection in Laos.

131
00:09:34,723 --> 00:09:39,256
Critics accused him of being
immature, indecisive,

132
00:09:39,356 --> 00:09:42,956
inadequate to the task of
combating what seemed to be

133
00:09:43,056 --> 00:09:45,456
a mounting communist threat.

134
00:09:45,556 --> 00:09:48,990
"There are just so many
concessions that we can make

135
00:09:49,090 --> 00:09:51,490
in one year and
survive politically,"

136
00:09:51,590 --> 00:09:56,256
he confided to an aide
in the spring of 1961.

137
00:09:56,356 --> 00:10:01,590
In South Vietnam,
Kennedy felt he had to act.

138
00:10:01,690 --> 00:10:04,356
After the president received
reports

139
00:10:04,456 --> 00:10:06,923
that the Viet Cong
might be in control

140
00:10:07,023 --> 00:10:10,956
of more than half the densely
populated Mekong Delta,

141
00:10:11,056 --> 00:10:15,056
he dispatched General
Maxwell Taylor and Walt Rostow

142
00:10:15,156 --> 00:10:17,223
to Vietnam.

143
00:10:17,323 --> 00:10:21,056
They urged him to commit
American ground troops.

144
00:10:21,156 --> 00:10:22,723
Kennedy refused.

145
00:10:22,823 --> 00:10:26,456
It would be like taking
a first drink, he said—

146
00:10:26,556 --> 00:10:29,623
the effect would soon wear off
and there would be demands

147
00:10:29,723 --> 00:10:33,056
for another
and another and another.

148
00:10:33,156 --> 00:10:36,523
Instead, in the midst
of a cold war,

149
00:10:36,623 --> 00:10:39,790
with its constant risk
of nuclear confrontation,

150
00:10:39,890 --> 00:10:43,123
the president supported
a new "flexible" way

151
00:10:43,223 --> 00:10:48,690
to confront and contain
limited war.

152
00:10:48,790 --> 00:10:53,490
This is another type of warfare,
new in its intensity,

153
00:10:53,590 --> 00:10:56,123
ancient in its origin—

154
00:10:56,223 --> 00:11:01,056
war by guerrillas, subversives,
insurgents, assassins;

155
00:11:01,156 --> 00:11:05,556
war by ambush
instead of by combat;

156
00:11:05,656 --> 00:11:08,190
by infiltration
instead of aggression.

157
00:11:09,923 --> 00:11:12,323
To fight his "limited wars,"

158
00:11:12,423 --> 00:11:15,290
Kennedy hoped to use
the elite Green Berets,

159
00:11:15,390 --> 00:11:18,856
special forces trained
in guerrilla warfare,

160
00:11:18,956 --> 00:11:21,490
counterinsurgency.

161
00:11:21,590 --> 00:11:26,290
They were meant to be dispatched
to hotspots around the world.

162
00:11:26,390 --> 00:11:29,123
Khrushchev said, "We're
not going to destroy you

163
00:11:29,223 --> 00:11:30,623
with nuclear weapons,

164
00:11:30,723 --> 00:11:33,756
we're going to destroy you with
wars of national liberation."

165
00:11:33,856 --> 00:11:35,756
Everybody talked about
the fact

166
00:11:35,856 --> 00:11:40,523
that communism was spreading
and it had to be stopped.

167
00:11:40,623 --> 00:11:43,290
You went to Command and
General Staff College

168
00:11:43,390 --> 00:11:46,890
and you were playing
on maps with nuclear weapons

169
00:11:46,990 --> 00:11:48,590
and so forth.

170
00:11:48,690 --> 00:11:53,556
And I escaped from that by
getting into Special Forces.

171
00:11:53,656 --> 00:11:56,290
So that instead of planning
what we were going to do

172
00:11:56,390 --> 00:12:01,323
if World War III broke out,
we were actually doing stuff.

173
00:12:02,856 --> 00:12:06,290
And Vietnam was a place where
we were going to draw the line.

174
00:12:07,956 --> 00:12:09,656
Kennedy sent the Green Berets

175
00:12:09,756 --> 00:12:11,990
to the Central Highlands
of Vietnam

176
00:12:12,090 --> 00:12:15,656
to organize mountain tribes
to fight the Viet Cong

177
00:12:15,756 --> 00:12:20,423
and to undertake covert missions
to sabotage their supply bases

178
00:12:20,523 --> 00:12:23,523
in Laos and Cambodia.

179
00:12:23,623 --> 00:12:28,056
But Kennedy understood
that counterinsurgency alone

180
00:12:28,156 --> 00:12:29,223
would never be enough,

181
00:12:29,323 --> 00:12:32,756
so he doubled funding
for South Vietnam's army,

182
00:12:32,856 --> 00:12:38,123
dispatched helicopters and APCs,
armored personnel carriers.

183
00:12:41,123 --> 00:12:44,856
Kennedy also authorized
the use of napalm

184
00:12:44,956 --> 00:12:49,390
and the spraying of defoliants
to deny cover to the Viet Cong

185
00:12:49,490 --> 00:12:53,356
and destroy the crops
that fed them.

186
00:12:53,456 --> 00:12:56,523
A whole array of chemicals
was used,

187
00:12:56,623 --> 00:12:59,990
including one named
for the color of the stripes

188
00:13:00,090 --> 00:13:06,090
on the 55-gallon drums in which
it came— "Agent Orange."

189
00:13:06,190 --> 00:13:09,690
And the president quietly
continued to increase

190
00:13:09,790 --> 00:13:12,656
the number of American
military advisors.

191
00:13:12,756 --> 00:13:18,023
Within two years, the number
he had inherited would grow

192
00:13:18,123 --> 00:13:21,323
to 11,300,

193
00:13:21,423 --> 00:13:23,890
empowered not only to teach

194
00:13:23,990 --> 00:13:26,923
the Army of the Republic
of Vietnam— the ARVN—

195
00:13:27,023 --> 00:13:28,990
to fight a conventional war,

196
00:13:29,090 --> 00:13:31,256
but to accompany them
into battle,

197
00:13:31,356 --> 00:13:34,790
a violation of the agreement
that had divided Vietnam

198
00:13:34,890 --> 00:13:35,856
back in 1954.

199
00:13:39,623 --> 00:13:43,590
The administration did its best
to hide from the American people

200
00:13:43,690 --> 00:13:46,023
the scale of the buildup
that was taking place

201
00:13:46,123 --> 00:13:47,890
on the other side of the world,

202
00:13:47,990 --> 00:13:50,823
fearful that the public
would not support

203
00:13:50,923 --> 00:13:57,756
the more active role advisors
had begun to play in combat.

204
00:13:57,856 --> 00:14:00,456
Mr. President, a Republican
National Committee publication

205
00:14:00,556 --> 00:14:03,856
has said that you are...
have been less than candid

206
00:14:03,956 --> 00:14:07,790
with the American people as
to how deeply we are involved

207
00:14:07,890 --> 00:14:09,690
in Vietnam.

208
00:14:09,790 --> 00:14:12,290
Could you throw
any more light on that?

209
00:14:12,390 --> 00:14:14,390
We have increased our assistance
to the government,

210
00:14:14,490 --> 00:14:16,223
its logistics.

211
00:14:16,323 --> 00:14:18,190
We have not sent combat troops
there.

212
00:14:18,290 --> 00:14:21,456
Though the training missions
that we have there

213
00:14:21,556 --> 00:14:24,323
have been instructed if
they are fired upon to...

214
00:14:24,423 --> 00:14:27,290
they are, would of course, fire
back, to protect themselves.

215
00:14:27,390 --> 00:14:29,123
But we have not sent
combat troops

216
00:14:29,223 --> 00:14:31,490
in the generally understood
sense of the word.

217
00:14:31,590 --> 00:14:37,190
So that I-I feel that we are
being as frank as the...

218
00:14:37,290 --> 00:14:38,456
as we can be.

219
00:14:38,556 --> 00:14:40,090
I think we...
what I have said to you

220
00:14:40,190 --> 00:14:43,256
is a description
of our activity there.

221
00:14:47,823 --> 00:14:51,256
I was a child of the Cold War.

222
00:14:51,356 --> 00:14:54,823
When I got off the plane in
Saigon on a humid evening

223
00:14:54,923 --> 00:14:56,756
in April 1962,

224
00:14:56,856 --> 00:15:00,723
I really believed in all
the ideology of the Cold War.

225
00:15:00,823 --> 00:15:01,856
On...

226
00:15:01,956 --> 00:15:04,523
That if we lost South Vietnam,

227
00:15:04,623 --> 00:15:06,990
that the rest of Southeast Asia
would fall to the communists.

228
00:15:07,090 --> 00:15:10,890
There was an international
communist conspiracy.

229
00:15:10,990 --> 00:15:13,423
We believed fervently
in this stuff.

230
00:15:13,523 --> 00:15:17,390
Neil Sheehan was
a 25-year-old reporter

231
00:15:17,490 --> 00:15:20,790
for United Press International,
UPI.

232
00:15:20,890 --> 00:15:24,956
He had served three years
in the Army in Korea and Japan

233
00:15:25,056 --> 00:15:27,790
before deciding to become
a newspaperman.

234
00:15:27,890 --> 00:15:32,090
Vietnam was his first full-time
overseas assignment,

235
00:15:32,190 --> 00:15:34,023
and his only worry,
he remembered,

236
00:15:34,123 --> 00:15:36,790
was that he would get there
too late and miss out

237
00:15:36,890 --> 00:15:38,856
on the big story.

238
00:15:38,956 --> 00:15:43,090
Sheehan and other reporters rode
along as the ARVN mounted

239
00:15:43,190 --> 00:15:46,690
a series of helicopter assaults
on enemy strongholds

240
00:15:46,790 --> 00:15:49,123
in the Mekong Delta
and elsewhere

241
00:15:49,223 --> 00:15:52,656
and brought terror
to the Viet Cong.

242
00:15:52,756 --> 00:15:55,756
American pilots were
at the controls.

243
00:15:55,856 --> 00:16:00,256
It was a crusade
and it was thrilling.

244
00:16:00,356 --> 00:16:02,856
And you'd climb aboard
the helicopters

245
00:16:02,956 --> 00:16:06,290
with the Vietnamese soldiers who
were being taken out to battle.

246
00:16:06,390 --> 00:16:07,956
And they'd take off.

247
00:16:08,056 --> 00:16:10,690
And they'd contour-fly, they'd
skim across the rice paddies

248
00:16:10,790 --> 00:16:12,956
at about three or four feet
above the paddies,

249
00:16:13,056 --> 00:16:16,923
and then pop up over the tree
lines that lined the fields.

250
00:16:17,023 --> 00:16:18,190
It was thrilling.

251
00:16:18,290 --> 00:16:19,523
I mean it was absolutely
thrilling.

252
00:16:19,623 --> 00:16:22,623
And you believed
in what was happening.

253
00:16:22,723 --> 00:16:24,790
I mean you had the sense
that we're fighting here

254
00:16:24,889 --> 00:16:28,690
and some day we'll win, and
this country will be a better,

255
00:16:28,790 --> 00:16:29,823
better country for our coming.

256
00:16:31,790 --> 00:16:34,590
The new M-113 armored
personnel carriers

257
00:16:34,690 --> 00:16:38,356
were capable of churning across
rivers and rice paddies

258
00:16:38,456 --> 00:16:40,223
and right through
the earthen dikes

259
00:16:40,323 --> 00:16:42,623
that separated one field
from the next.

260
00:16:44,056 --> 00:16:49,056
The Viet Cong had nothing
with which to stop them.

261
00:16:49,156 --> 00:16:54,890
We were just overwhelming them
with force, with firepower.

262
00:16:54,990 --> 00:16:58,290
And the firefights would be over
in a pretty short time.

263
00:16:58,390 --> 00:17:01,056
We have some people
running along the dikes.

264
00:17:01,156 --> 00:17:04,090
Actually, the canal
is perpendicular

265
00:17:04,190 --> 00:17:05,590
to the one you're attacking now.

266
00:17:05,690 --> 00:17:09,556
They have on black uniforms, and
I estimate approximately 3-0.

267
00:17:09,656 --> 00:17:12,223
Do you have them in sight?
Over.

268
00:17:12,323 --> 00:17:14,523
That's what was causing us
to win, see.

269
00:17:14,623 --> 00:17:17,756
And we were winning
one after the other.

270
00:17:17,856 --> 00:17:21,423
And we were not meeting
a heck of a lot of resistance.

271
00:17:21,523 --> 00:17:25,256
Captain James Scanlon had been
stationed in West Germany

272
00:17:25,356 --> 00:17:28,456
and had seen for himself
the brutality with which

273
00:17:28,556 --> 00:17:31,090
the communist East Germans
dealt with anyone

274
00:17:31,190 --> 00:17:34,590
who dared try to escape
to the West.

275
00:17:34,690 --> 00:17:36,923
He was now in the Mekong Delta,

276
00:17:37,023 --> 00:17:39,990
an advisor to the 7th Division
of the ARVN:

277
00:17:40,090 --> 00:17:44,790
and had begun to see evidence
of Viet Cong brutality as well.

278
00:17:48,023 --> 00:17:51,690
Those of us who talked to the
people who fled East Germany,

279
00:17:51,790 --> 00:17:55,790
we saw the need to stop
the growth of communism,

280
00:17:55,890 --> 00:17:59,290
to stop the dominoes
from being tumbled.

281
00:17:59,390 --> 00:18:01,923
That was a worthy cause.

282
00:18:03,423 --> 00:18:07,190
As the ARVN and their advisors
pursued the Viet Cong,

283
00:18:07,290 --> 00:18:09,923
the government of Ngo Dinh Diem
had launched

284
00:18:10,023 --> 00:18:14,323
an ambitious program meant to
gain control of the countryside

285
00:18:14,423 --> 00:18:17,090
by concentrating
the rural population

286
00:18:17,190 --> 00:18:19,756
into thousands of fortified
settlements,

287
00:18:19,856 --> 00:18:24,190
ringed with barbed wire
and moats and bamboo spikes

288
00:18:24,290 --> 00:18:26,956
meant to keep out the Viet Cong.

289
00:18:27,056 --> 00:18:31,390
They were called strategic
hamlets, part of the effort

290
00:18:31,490 --> 00:18:34,556
to win the hearts and minds,
and loyalty,

291
00:18:34,656 --> 00:18:36,056
of the Vietnamese people.

292
00:18:36,156 --> 00:18:40,756
The French had tried something
like it a decade before.

293
00:18:40,856 --> 00:18:44,790
They had called it pacification.

294
00:18:44,890 --> 00:18:47,456
President Diem's strategic
hamlet program

295
00:18:47,556 --> 00:18:49,990
is making substantial progress.

296
00:18:50,090 --> 00:18:54,723
About 1,600
of the some 14,000 hamlets

297
00:18:54,823 --> 00:18:58,390
have been fortified to date.

298
00:18:58,490 --> 00:19:00,690
By the summer of 1962,

299
00:19:00,790 --> 00:19:04,123
news from South Vietnam
seemed so promising

300
00:19:04,223 --> 00:19:07,956
that Defense Secretary
Robert McNamara made sure

301
00:19:08,056 --> 00:19:11,123
the Pentagon was prepared
to implement a plan

302
00:19:11,223 --> 00:19:14,690
for a gradual withdrawal
of American advisors

303
00:19:14,790 --> 00:19:17,356
to be completed by 1965.

304
00:19:17,456 --> 00:19:20,990
So far as most Americans knew,

305
00:19:21,090 --> 00:19:23,923
the United States was achieving
its goal:

306
00:19:24,023 --> 00:19:27,290
a stable, independent,
anticommunist state

307
00:19:27,390 --> 00:19:29,490
in South Vietnam.

308
00:19:29,590 --> 00:19:33,956
It was "a struggle this country
cannot shirk,"

309
00:19:34,056 --> 00:19:35,823
theNew York Tim es said,

310
00:19:35,923 --> 00:19:40,323
and the United States seemed
to be winning it.

311
00:19:41,990 --> 00:19:45,856
But that same summer,
Ho Chi Minh traveled to Beijing

312
00:19:45,956 --> 00:19:49,456
in search of more help
from the Chinese.

313
00:19:49,556 --> 00:19:52,890
The American buildup in
South Vietnam had alarmed him

314
00:19:52,990 --> 00:19:55,190
and the other leaders in Hanoi.

315
00:19:55,290 --> 00:19:58,556
Ho told the Chinese
that American attacks

316
00:19:58,656 --> 00:20:04,523
on North Vietnam itself now
seemed only a matter of time.

317
00:20:04,623 --> 00:20:08,623
The Chinese promised to equip
and arm tens of thousands

318
00:20:08,723 --> 00:20:11,690
of Vietnamese soldiers.

319
00:20:11,790 --> 00:20:15,290
Meanwhile, the Politburo
in Hanoi had directed

320
00:20:15,390 --> 00:20:18,656
that every able-bodied
North Vietnamese man

321
00:20:18,756 --> 00:20:23,590
be required to serve
in the armed forces.

322
00:20:30,556 --> 00:20:32,790
Inspired by their
president's call,

323
00:20:32,890 --> 00:20:36,090
thousands of young Americans
would join the Peace Corps

324
00:20:36,190 --> 00:20:40,023
and other organizations to help
project American ideals

325
00:20:40,123 --> 00:20:42,490
and goodwill around the world.

326
00:20:55,390 --> 00:21:00,090
We were not only there in
Vietnam to stop communism,

327
00:21:00,190 --> 00:21:04,023
but there had to be
something positive.

328
00:21:04,123 --> 00:21:07,356
We're trying to find out what
the Vietnamese people want

329
00:21:07,456 --> 00:21:10,056
and to help them get it.

330
00:21:10,156 --> 00:21:11,390
And that was very simple

331
00:21:11,490 --> 00:21:13,523
but, if you think about it,
also very complex.

332
00:21:13,623 --> 00:21:15,990
But it went to the heart,
I thought,

333
00:21:16,090 --> 00:21:18,456
of what we were trying to do.

334
00:21:20,456 --> 00:21:23,690
Pete Hunting, a 22-year-old
from Oklahoma City,

335
00:21:23,790 --> 00:21:27,356
would go to Vietnam right after
college to do what he could

336
00:21:27,456 --> 00:21:30,690
to help poor villagers
in the countryside.

337
00:21:30,790 --> 00:21:33,156
♪ I was a soldier in the fight

338
00:21:39,756 --> 00:21:41,556
Dear Margo,

339
00:21:41,656 --> 00:21:44,056
I finally finished up my work
in Phan Rang last week.

340
00:21:44,156 --> 00:21:46,023
Had spent a month
working on a windmill

341
00:21:46,123 --> 00:21:48,123
I'd promised the people
of one hamlet.

342
00:21:48,223 --> 00:21:52,790
Cost a lot of money, too, which
I paid out of my own pocket.

343
00:21:56,756 --> 00:21:58,856
I'm in soaring spirits today

344
00:21:58,956 --> 00:22:02,123
despite all the natural
disasters, political intrigues,

345
00:22:02,223 --> 00:22:04,290
and subversive activities.

346
00:22:04,390 --> 00:22:06,790
Pete Hunting worked

347
00:22:06,890 --> 00:22:09,690
for the International
Voluntary Services,

348
00:22:09,790 --> 00:22:13,523
a nonprofit organization
committed to improving

349
00:22:13,623 --> 00:22:16,723
agriculture, education,
and public health.

350
00:22:16,823 --> 00:22:19,990
He was one of hundreds
of dedicated aid workers

351
00:22:20,090 --> 00:22:22,623
in South Vietnam.

352
00:22:22,723 --> 00:22:26,456
♪ My hoe is my gun.

353
00:22:26,556 --> 00:22:28,723
Latest news on this side
of the world

354
00:22:28,823 --> 00:22:30,823
is that I'll almost definitely
be extending over here

355
00:22:30,923 --> 00:22:32,790
for another two years,

356
00:22:32,890 --> 00:22:35,023
providing the country stays
in one piece that long.

357
00:22:38,090 --> 00:22:40,223
Two years after he arrived,

358
00:22:40,323 --> 00:22:42,723
Pete Hunting was driving
in the Mekong Delta

359
00:22:42,823 --> 00:22:45,623
when he ran into
a Viet Cong ambush.

360
00:22:45,723 --> 00:22:49,190
He was shot five times
in the head...

361
00:22:50,990 --> 00:22:52,956
the first American
civilian volunteer

362
00:22:53,056 --> 00:22:55,723
to be killed in Vietnam.

363
00:23:24,223 --> 00:23:26,523
People used to joke in Vietnam

364
00:23:26,623 --> 00:23:28,256
about winning the hearts
and minds.

365
00:23:28,356 --> 00:23:31,890
And you hear that expression,
but that should not be a joke.

366
00:23:31,990 --> 00:23:34,090
It's a serious, serious problem.

367
00:23:34,190 --> 00:23:36,623
If you pull off
a military operation,

368
00:23:36,723 --> 00:23:40,323
and it may be successful
on the military basis,

369
00:23:40,423 --> 00:23:43,290
but you destroy a village,

370
00:23:43,390 --> 00:23:47,123
then you've created
a village of resistance.

371
00:23:47,223 --> 00:23:51,090
Few advisors understood
the unique challenges

372
00:23:51,190 --> 00:23:53,923
of fighting
an insurgency in Vietnam

373
00:23:54,023 --> 00:23:57,923
better than Lieutenant
Colonel John Paul Vann.

374
00:23:58,023 --> 00:24:00,656
A career soldier from Virginia,

375
00:24:00,756 --> 00:24:02,923
he was the senior
American advisor

376
00:24:03,023 --> 00:24:07,023
to the 7th ARVN Division
in the Mekong Delta.

377
00:24:07,123 --> 00:24:11,590
Small, wiry and abrasive,
John Paul Vann was convinced

378
00:24:11,690 --> 00:24:15,790
he knew how to defeat
the Viet Cong.

379
00:24:15,890 --> 00:24:20,423
John Paul Vann was simply
the most remarkable soldier

380
00:24:20,523 --> 00:24:21,590
I ever met.

381
00:24:21,690 --> 00:24:23,556
Period.

382
00:24:23,656 --> 00:24:28,390
The biggest challenge
of John Paul Vann's life

383
00:24:28,490 --> 00:24:34,290
was somehow saving Vietnam,
winning.

384
00:24:34,390 --> 00:24:37,290
That, to him,
was the ultimate challenge.

385
00:24:39,856 --> 00:24:41,423
When it became clear to Vann

386
00:24:41,523 --> 00:24:44,390
that the tactics the Americans
had taught the ARVN

387
00:24:44,490 --> 00:24:47,590
were beginning to make more
enemies than friends,

388
00:24:47,690 --> 00:24:52,356
he sought out newspapermen
to spread the word.

389
00:24:52,456 --> 00:24:56,323
He was able to explain to us
what was going on.

390
00:24:56,423 --> 00:24:59,723
The important thing was not
to alienate the population.

391
00:24:59,823 --> 00:25:02,690
That if you got sniper fire
from a hamlet,

392
00:25:02,790 --> 00:25:05,156
you sent in riflemen
to take out the sniper.

393
00:25:05,256 --> 00:25:07,523
You didn't shell the place,
because you were going to kill

394
00:25:07,623 --> 00:25:09,923
women and kids
and destroy houses

395
00:25:10,023 --> 00:25:12,490
and you were going to turn
the population against you.

396
00:25:14,723 --> 00:25:17,990
Most press coverage
of Vietnam was upbeat

397
00:25:18,090 --> 00:25:20,756
in the tradition
of previous wars.

398
00:25:20,856 --> 00:25:25,656
But a handful of young reporters
including Neil Sheehan,

399
00:25:25,756 --> 00:25:28,223
David Halberstam
of theNew York Times,

400
00:25:28,323 --> 00:25:30,856
and Malcolm Browne
of the Associated Press,

401
00:25:30,956 --> 00:25:34,656
who spent time in the field
with officers like Vann,

402
00:25:34,756 --> 00:25:38,790
were beginning to see that
from the Vietnamese countryside,

403
00:25:38,890 --> 00:25:41,056
things looked very different
than they did

404
00:25:41,156 --> 00:25:44,956
from the press offices
in Washington or Saigon.

405
00:25:45,056 --> 00:25:49,223
So it was terribly important
that we not only win the war

406
00:25:49,323 --> 00:25:52,156
but that we as reporters report
the truth

407
00:25:52,256 --> 00:25:55,090
that would help to win the war.

408
00:25:55,190 --> 00:25:58,223
We were very fervent in wanting
to report the truth

409
00:25:58,323 --> 00:26:01,390
because it was very important
to the welfare of our country

410
00:26:01,490 --> 00:26:02,890
and to the welfare of the world.

411
00:26:05,023 --> 00:26:08,456
Sheehan and his colleagues began
asking tough questions

412
00:26:08,556 --> 00:26:13,490
about what constituted progress,
what victory would look like,

413
00:26:13,590 --> 00:26:15,890
and if the people
in the countryside,

414
00:26:15,990 --> 00:26:19,590
where 80% of South Vietnam's
population lived,

415
00:26:19,690 --> 00:26:24,456
could ever trust the government
in Saigon.

416
00:26:24,556 --> 00:26:27,556
I remember going, during one
of Robert McNamara's visits,

417
00:26:27,656 --> 00:26:30,623
out to one of these hamlets.

418
00:26:30,723 --> 00:26:32,156
The Vietnamese general
who commanded the area

419
00:26:32,256 --> 00:26:33,690
was telling McNamara what
a wonderful thing this was.

420
00:26:33,790 --> 00:26:36,290
And the-the... some of these
farmers were down

421
00:26:36,390 --> 00:26:40,023
digging a ditch around the...
around the hamlet.

422
00:26:40,123 --> 00:26:43,456
And I looked at their faces
and they were really angry.

423
00:26:45,223 --> 00:26:46,790
I mean it was very obvious to me

424
00:26:46,890 --> 00:26:49,723
that if these people could,
they'd cut our throats.

425
00:26:54,056 --> 00:26:58,023
Farmers resented being forced
to abandon their homes

426
00:26:58,123 --> 00:27:00,556
and move to strategic hamlets.

427
00:27:00,656 --> 00:27:04,723
Corrupt officials
siphoned off funds.

428
00:27:04,823 --> 00:27:07,223
And villagers blamed
the Diem regime

429
00:27:07,323 --> 00:27:11,190
for failing to protect them
from guerrilla attacks.

430
00:27:11,290 --> 00:27:16,456
As the people's anger grew, so
did the ranks of the Viet Cong.

431
00:27:16,556 --> 00:27:20,856
It turned out that the Viet Cong
were recruiting men

432
00:27:20,956 --> 00:27:24,390
right out of those strategic...
so-called strategic hamlets.

433
00:27:24,490 --> 00:27:26,490
And then the whole program
fell apart.

434
00:27:50,256 --> 00:27:54,123
Nguyen Ngoc's father was
a postal clerk south of Danang.

435
00:27:54,223 --> 00:27:58,690
His brothers and sisters taught
in South Vietnamese schools.

436
00:27:58,790 --> 00:28:02,456
But he joined the revolution,
and as a political officer,

437
00:28:02,556 --> 00:28:06,490
wrote poems, songs, and slogans
to inspire the people

438
00:28:06,590 --> 00:28:11,090
in the countryside
to support the Viet Cong.

439
00:28:11,190 --> 00:28:15,723
The Viet Cong cadre would come
in and talk to them

440
00:28:15,823 --> 00:28:20,590
and their message is usually
,

441
00:28:20,690 --> 00:28:23,190
which means "turn your grief
into action.

442
00:28:23,290 --> 00:28:25,690
"Do something about it.

443
00:28:25,790 --> 00:28:27,723
"Join us.

444
00:28:27,823 --> 00:28:29,190
"We'll fight together.

445
00:28:29,290 --> 00:28:33,690
"We'll liberate the country from
this corrupt, unjust government.

446
00:28:33,790 --> 00:28:35,690
"We'll throw out the foreigners.

447
00:28:35,790 --> 00:28:37,490
"We'll reunify the country.

448
00:28:37,590 --> 00:28:40,656
"And we'll bring in
this great regime

449
00:28:40,756 --> 00:28:42,290
"that will take care of you

450
00:28:42,390 --> 00:28:44,190
and bring economic
and social justice."

451
00:28:46,290 --> 00:28:49,390
The Viet Cong ran rival
local governments,

452
00:28:49,490 --> 00:28:53,290
complete with their own tax
collectors and school teachers,

453
00:28:53,390 --> 00:28:57,790
spies and propagandists,
and province chiefs.

454
00:29:00,390 --> 00:29:02,590
To make matters worse,

455
00:29:02,690 --> 00:29:06,423
ARVN troops and American
advisors now found themselves

456
00:29:06,523 --> 00:29:09,423
confronted by a new threat:

457
00:29:09,523 --> 00:29:12,690
battalions of well-armed
Viet Cong soldiers,

458
00:29:12,790 --> 00:29:15,956
as well as by local guerrillas.

459
00:29:16,056 --> 00:29:18,256
We'd armed them.

460
00:29:18,356 --> 00:29:21,690
You could hear the arming
of the Viet Cong.

461
00:29:21,790 --> 00:29:25,223
Back in early '62, they only had
one machine gun per battalion.

462
00:29:26,490 --> 00:29:27,956
It was sporadic fire.

463
00:29:28,056 --> 00:29:31,956
Then, as they captured more and
more of these American arms,

464
00:29:32,056 --> 00:29:33,790
when you made contact, it fi...

465
00:29:33,890 --> 00:29:36,123
it would build up into
a drumfire of automatic

466
00:29:36,223 --> 00:29:37,656
and semi-automatic weapons.

467
00:29:45,390 --> 00:29:48,490
Secretary McNamara decided
that he would draw up

468
00:29:48,590 --> 00:29:51,423
some kind of a chart
to determine

469
00:29:51,523 --> 00:29:54,356
whether we were winning or not.

470
00:29:54,456 --> 00:29:57,056
And he was putting things in

471
00:29:57,156 --> 00:29:59,923
like numbers of weapons
recovered,

472
00:30:00,023 --> 00:30:02,290
numbers of Viet Cong killed.

473
00:30:02,390 --> 00:30:04,790
Very statistical.

474
00:30:07,356 --> 00:30:09,756
And he asked Edward Lansdale,

475
00:30:09,856 --> 00:30:13,556
who was then in the Pentagon
as head of Special Operations,

476
00:30:13,656 --> 00:30:15,656
to come down and look at this.

477
00:30:15,756 --> 00:30:19,890
And so Lansdale did and he said,
"There's something missing."

478
00:30:19,990 --> 00:30:23,190
And McNamara said, "What?"

479
00:30:23,290 --> 00:30:26,823
And Lansdale said, "The feelings
of the Vietnamese people."

480
00:30:26,923 --> 00:30:30,756
You couldn't reduce this
to a statistic.

481
00:30:30,856 --> 00:30:35,423
Robert McNamara had vowed
to make America's military

482
00:30:35,523 --> 00:30:36,890
"cost-effective."

483
00:30:36,990 --> 00:30:40,690
He demanded that everything
be quantified.

484
00:30:40,790 --> 00:30:44,590
In Saigon,
General Paul D. Harkins,

485
00:30:44,690 --> 00:30:47,956
head of the Military Assistance
Command, Vietnam,

486
00:30:48,056 --> 00:30:51,290
known as MACV:
dutifully complied.

487
00:30:51,390 --> 00:30:55,990
He and his staff generated
mountains of daily, weekly,

488
00:30:56,090 --> 00:30:58,256
monthly, and quarterly data

489
00:30:58,356 --> 00:31:01,356
on more than a hundred
separate indicators,

490
00:31:01,456 --> 00:31:05,956
far more data than could ever be
adequately analyzed.

491
00:31:09,423 --> 00:31:12,223
General Harkins had little use
for skeptical reporters

492
00:31:12,323 --> 00:31:13,856
like Neil Sheehan.

493
00:31:13,956 --> 00:31:16,423
Bad news was to be buried.

494
00:31:16,523 --> 00:31:20,623
Harkins ignored the alarming
after action reports

495
00:31:20,723 --> 00:31:24,290
John Paul Vann and other
officers were sending in

496
00:31:24,390 --> 00:31:26,356
from the field.

497
00:31:26,456 --> 00:31:29,423
I was going to be made head
of the Vietnam desk

498
00:31:29,523 --> 00:31:31,490
at CIA headquarters.

499
00:31:31,590 --> 00:31:34,823
And the first person of
importance that I met

500
00:31:34,923 --> 00:31:37,123
was General Harkins.

501
00:31:37,223 --> 00:31:39,656
And he started out by saying,

502
00:31:39,756 --> 00:31:42,523
"Mr. Gregg, I don't care what
you hear from anybody else,

503
00:31:42,623 --> 00:31:44,923
"I can tell you without a doubt
we're going to be out of here

504
00:31:45,023 --> 00:31:46,823
with a military victory
in six months."

505
00:31:48,323 --> 00:31:50,256
The country's 12 million
peasants

506
00:31:50,356 --> 00:31:52,956
can scarcely remember
what peace was like.

507
00:31:53,056 --> 00:31:54,890
They're caught between
the predatory guerrillas

508
00:31:54,990 --> 00:31:57,490
and the almost equally
demanding soldiery.

509
00:31:57,590 --> 00:31:59,890
Their lives are lived in a state
of permanent uncertainty,

510
00:31:59,990 --> 00:32:02,590
punctuated by bouts of violence

511
00:32:02,690 --> 00:32:04,123
as government forces come
to grips

512
00:32:04,223 --> 00:32:06,456
with the black-clad
communist rebel forces

513
00:32:06,556 --> 00:32:07,890
called the Viet Cong.

514
00:34:05,856 --> 00:34:10,090
On our side we were
not as committed

515
00:34:10,190 --> 00:34:12,023
and we were...

516
00:34:12,123 --> 00:34:15,356
our leaders were corrupt
and incompetent.

517
00:34:15,456 --> 00:34:20,423
And so deep down
we'll always have this fear,

518
00:34:20,523 --> 00:34:26,090
this suspicion that in the end
it'll be the communists who won.

519
00:34:26,190 --> 00:34:29,656
When John Kennedy assembled

520
00:34:29,756 --> 00:34:31,790
what he thinks is the best
and the brightest,

521
00:34:31,890 --> 00:34:38,056
20 years before that in
a cave in the northern part

522
00:34:38,156 --> 00:34:40,723
of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh
also put together

523
00:34:40,823 --> 00:34:42,223
his best and the brightest.

524
00:34:42,323 --> 00:34:45,390
And these guys are at it
for a while.

525
00:34:45,490 --> 00:34:49,023
And when we show up,
they were far along

526
00:34:49,123 --> 00:34:54,990
to consolidating their victory
over this inevitable conflict

527
00:34:55,090 --> 00:34:59,623
between Ho Chi Minh
and John F. Kennedy's vision.

528
00:34:59,723 --> 00:35:04,790
The more you think about
the American strategy,

529
00:35:04,890 --> 00:35:08,490
the more you know

530
00:35:08,590 --> 00:35:11,356
that it was never going to work
out particularly well.

531
00:35:26,223 --> 00:35:31,890
I was at my top of my
game when I was in combat.

532
00:35:36,856 --> 00:35:39,923
You don't have the luxury
to indulge your fear

533
00:35:40,023 --> 00:35:41,990
because other people's lives
depend upon

534
00:35:42,090 --> 00:35:43,390
you keeping your head cold.

535
00:35:52,156 --> 00:35:55,123
You know, when something
goes wrong,

536
00:35:55,223 --> 00:35:56,523
they call it emotional numbing.

537
00:35:56,623 --> 00:35:58,890
It's not very good
in civilian life,

538
00:35:58,990 --> 00:36:01,190
but it's pretty useful
in combat.

539
00:36:12,890 --> 00:36:15,490
To be able to get absolutely
very cold

540
00:36:15,590 --> 00:36:20,756
about what needs to be done
and to stick with it.

541
00:36:26,590 --> 00:36:29,523
To me it's, it's a little bit
distressing to realize

542
00:36:29,623 --> 00:36:31,290
that I was at my best

543
00:36:31,390 --> 00:36:34,056
doing something as terrible
as war.

544
00:36:43,456 --> 00:36:45,990
President Kennedy has staked
his reputation in Asia

545
00:36:46,090 --> 00:36:48,923
on saving South Vietnam
from communism.

546
00:36:49,023 --> 00:36:51,423
As the army makes the sweep
towards the village

547
00:36:51,523 --> 00:36:53,323
suspected of harboring
Viet Cong,

548
00:36:53,423 --> 00:36:56,523
it can't tell whether it will
meet resistance.

549
00:37:02,756 --> 00:37:04,956
The troops round up all the
young men they can find,

550
00:37:05,056 --> 00:37:08,123
since they can't tell who is
a communist just by looking.

551
00:37:10,623 --> 00:37:13,290
Those who try to run for it
are shot

552
00:37:13,390 --> 00:37:15,323
on the assumption
they have something to hide.

553
00:38:06,990 --> 00:38:11,856
Each of South Vietnam's
44 provinces had its own chief.

554
00:38:11,956 --> 00:38:14,756
Some were simply political
appointees,

555
00:38:14,856 --> 00:38:17,623
corrupt allies of
President Diem.

556
00:38:17,723 --> 00:38:23,356
Tran Ngoc Chau, province chief
of Kien Hoa, was different.

557
00:38:23,456 --> 00:38:28,290
A privileged judge's son from
the old imperial city of Hue,

558
00:38:28,390 --> 00:38:31,356
he and two of his brothers
had fought against the French

559
00:38:31,456 --> 00:38:32,823
with the Viet Minh.

560
00:38:32,923 --> 00:38:36,923
But he had refused to join
the Communist Party;

561
00:38:37,023 --> 00:38:39,956
he admired their dedication,
but disliked the way

562
00:38:40,056 --> 00:38:43,190
they punished those who dared
differ with them.

563
00:38:43,290 --> 00:38:46,256
Instead, he left the Viet Minh,

564
00:38:46,356 --> 00:38:49,490
became a major in the army
fighting against them,

565
00:38:49,590 --> 00:38:53,456
and eventually so impressed Diem
with his insider's knowledge

566
00:38:53,556 --> 00:38:57,390
of communist tactics that
he was promoted to colonel

567
00:38:57,490 --> 00:39:03,323
and made chief of Kien Hoa,
a Viet Cong stronghold.

568
00:39:03,423 --> 00:39:07,090
He was absolutely incorruptible.

569
00:39:07,190 --> 00:39:12,156
And people came to really
understand that here's a guy

570
00:39:12,256 --> 00:39:15,256
who's, even though it's not
an elected system,

571
00:39:15,356 --> 00:39:18,190
who never... nevertheless
really represents us.

572
00:39:19,890 --> 00:39:21,790
"Give me a budget that equals
the cost

573
00:39:21,890 --> 00:39:26,090
of one American helicopter,"
Chau liked to say,

574
00:39:26,190 --> 00:39:28,823
"and I'll give you
a pacified province.

575
00:39:28,923 --> 00:39:32,990
"With that much money, I can
raise the standard of living

576
00:39:33,090 --> 00:39:34,590
"of the rice farmers,

577
00:39:34,690 --> 00:39:36,390
"and government officials
can be paid enough

578
00:39:36,490 --> 00:39:41,190
so they won't think it necessary
to steal."

579
00:39:41,290 --> 00:39:43,756
Rather than hunt down
the Viet Cong,

580
00:39:43,856 --> 00:39:46,523
he sought to persuade them.

581
00:40:41,923 --> 00:40:45,523
Back home, Americans were paying
little attention

582
00:40:45,623 --> 00:40:47,790
to what was happening
in Vietnam.

583
00:40:47,890 --> 00:40:50,623
They were watching
The Beverly Hillbillies

584
00:40:50,723 --> 00:40:52,823
andGunsm oke on TV,

585
00:40:52,923 --> 00:40:55,856
were interested in whether
the Yankees would win

586
00:40:55,956 --> 00:40:57,356
the World Series again

587
00:40:57,456 --> 00:41:01,590
and in the recent death
of Marilyn Monroe.

588
00:41:04,890 --> 00:41:07,290
But some Americans had been
growing impatient

589
00:41:07,390 --> 00:41:10,656
with the slow pace
of social change.

590
00:41:10,756 --> 00:41:12,390
We were told in the '50s

591
00:41:12,490 --> 00:41:15,190
that we lived in the best
country in the world.

592
00:41:15,290 --> 00:41:18,690
In the middle of, you know,
trying to figure out

593
00:41:18,790 --> 00:41:21,023
what it meant to be a citizen
of the...

594
00:41:21,123 --> 00:41:23,456
of this best country
in the world,

595
00:41:23,556 --> 00:41:25,356
suddenly the civil rights
movement exploded

596
00:41:25,456 --> 00:41:27,390
into our consciousness.

597
00:41:27,490 --> 00:41:33,623
♪ When the night has come...

598
00:41:33,723 --> 00:41:35,556
We didn't think
we had any power.

599
00:41:35,656 --> 00:41:38,790
We didn't think we could be
actors in history,

600
00:41:38,890 --> 00:41:41,490
that we could affect things.

601
00:41:43,723 --> 00:41:46,790
♪ No, I won't be afraid

602
00:41:48,823 --> 00:41:50,556
And suddenly, you know,

603
00:41:50,656 --> 00:41:52,556
these young black students
in the South

604
00:41:52,656 --> 00:41:54,256
were doing exactly that.

605
00:41:54,356 --> 00:41:57,423
And it just blew the tops
of our heads off.

606
00:42:18,590 --> 00:42:21,990
Other Americans were concerned
about the proliferation

607
00:42:22,090 --> 00:42:25,323
of nuclear weapons in the world.

608
00:42:25,423 --> 00:42:29,323
Perhaps it would be a good thing
to put Khrushchev and Kennedy

609
00:42:29,423 --> 00:42:33,223
on an island and not let either
one of them off

610
00:42:33,323 --> 00:42:35,590
until they came to an agreement.

611
00:42:35,690 --> 00:42:38,056
♪ Stand by me

612
00:42:58,356 --> 00:43:01,490
And if you were in a cafe when
Diem was giving a speech,

613
00:43:01,590 --> 00:43:03,356
somebody would get up
and shut the radio off,

614
00:43:03,456 --> 00:43:05,223
it would be coming in
over the radio.

615
00:43:05,323 --> 00:43:07,623
Somebody would get up and
they'd just shut the radio off.

616
00:43:07,723 --> 00:43:11,890
I mean, he was not connected
with... to his own population.

617
00:43:14,856 --> 00:43:19,756
Diem was simply the opposite
of what democracy was.

618
00:43:19,856 --> 00:43:23,623
South Vietnam, in the
competition against the North,

619
00:43:23,723 --> 00:43:28,790
that should been, should have
been a golden opportunity

620
00:43:28,890 --> 00:43:34,190
to have that society open
with the free press,

621
00:43:34,290 --> 00:43:36,290
free expression.

622
00:43:36,390 --> 00:43:39,123
But there was not much choice

623
00:43:39,223 --> 00:43:43,623
if the two system are
structurally dictator

624
00:43:43,723 --> 00:43:45,023
and oppressive systems—

625
00:43:45,123 --> 00:43:51,456
one under the Communist
Party, one under a family.

626
00:44:08,390 --> 00:44:11,990
Diem's brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu,
had been the architect

627
00:44:12,090 --> 00:44:14,490
of the strategic hamlet program,

628
00:44:14,590 --> 00:44:18,723
ran a personal political party
that mirrored the techniques

629
00:44:18,823 --> 00:44:21,290
and the ruthlessness
of the communists,

630
00:44:21,390 --> 00:44:25,556
and supervised a host of
internal security units

631
00:44:25,656 --> 00:44:29,790
that spied on and seized enemies
of the regime.

632
00:44:31,656 --> 00:44:33,756
Some reporters
who probed too deeply

633
00:44:33,856 --> 00:44:36,256
into what Diem and Nhu
were doing

634
00:44:36,356 --> 00:44:38,523
were ordered out of the country.

635
00:44:39,656 --> 00:44:42,056
When an American journalist
objected,

636
00:44:42,156 --> 00:44:46,223
Nhu's sharp-tongued wife told
him Vietnam had no use

637
00:44:46,323 --> 00:44:48,956
for "your crazy freedoms."

638
00:44:50,423 --> 00:44:52,290
Meanwhile,
out in the countryside,

639
00:44:52,390 --> 00:44:56,556
John Paul Vann and other
advisors had begun to notice

640
00:44:56,656 --> 00:45:00,390
that the corruption within
Diem's regime had filtered down

641
00:45:00,490 --> 00:45:02,423
to the commanders in the field.

642
00:45:02,523 --> 00:45:07,523
Troops, who had once been
willing to engage the enemy,

643
00:45:07,623 --> 00:45:11,656
now seemed strangely reluctant.

644
00:45:11,756 --> 00:45:16,556
God, I was told so many
times,"

645
00:45:16,656 --> 00:45:18,556
You know, "Scanlon,

646
00:45:18,656 --> 00:45:19,756
Um...

647
00:45:19,856 --> 00:45:25,056
very dangerous, you know,
going out there.

648
00:45:25,156 --> 00:45:27,890
John Vann would go out
with them at night.

649
00:45:27,990 --> 00:45:32,090
And he noticed that somebody
would always cough

650
00:45:32,190 --> 00:45:35,523
or make some other
slight noise when it turned out

651
00:45:35,623 --> 00:45:38,023
that the Viet Cong were heading
into the ambush site.

652
00:45:38,123 --> 00:45:39,856
They did not want to get
in a fight.

653
00:45:39,956 --> 00:45:43,156
South Vietnamese officers
were chosen

654
00:45:43,256 --> 00:45:46,723
less for their combat skill
than for their loyalty

655
00:45:46,823 --> 00:45:50,790
to President Diem,
and their men knew it.

656
00:45:52,090 --> 00:45:53,423
What we should've done is

657
00:45:53,523 --> 00:45:58,090
either forced the Vietnamese—
I mean really forced them—

658
00:45:58,190 --> 00:46:00,290
to clean up their act.

659
00:46:00,390 --> 00:46:02,423
And if they wouldn't clean up
their act to say,

660
00:46:02,523 --> 00:46:04,923
"We're out of here.

661
00:46:05,023 --> 00:46:07,823
"Because we don't bet
on losing horses.

662
00:46:07,923 --> 00:46:10,323
"This is a losing horse.

663
00:46:10,423 --> 00:46:12,690
You are not going to win
this insurgency."

664
00:46:12,790 --> 00:46:15,523
We, as Americans, should have
understood the desire

665
00:46:15,623 --> 00:46:19,090
of the Vietnamese people
to have their own country.

666
00:46:19,190 --> 00:46:22,190
I mean we did the same thing
to the Brits.

667
00:46:27,823 --> 00:46:32,656
In October of 1962, the United
States and the Soviet Union

668
00:46:32,756 --> 00:46:35,523
came closer than they would ever
come again

669
00:46:35,623 --> 00:46:38,290
to mutually assured destruction.

670
00:46:38,390 --> 00:46:41,390
Good evening,
my fellow citizens.

671
00:46:41,490 --> 00:46:45,456
This government,
as promised, has maintained

672
00:46:45,556 --> 00:46:49,390
the closest surveillance of
the Soviet military buildup

673
00:46:49,490 --> 00:46:51,290
on the island of Cuba.

674
00:46:52,290 --> 00:46:54,323
Within the past week,

675
00:46:54,423 --> 00:46:57,723
unmistakable evidence
has established the fact

676
00:46:57,823 --> 00:47:01,223
that a series of offensive
missile sites

677
00:47:01,323 --> 00:47:06,356
is now in preparation
on that imprisoned island.

678
00:47:06,456 --> 00:47:09,656
The Soviets had secretly placed
nuclear missiles

679
00:47:09,756 --> 00:47:12,790
90 miles
from the United States.

680
00:47:12,890 --> 00:47:17,790
The Joint Chiefs of Staff urged
President Kennedy to bomb Cuba.

681
00:47:17,890 --> 00:47:22,023
He resisted and instead ordered
a naval blockade

682
00:47:22,123 --> 00:47:26,523
to stop Soviet ships
from resupplying the island.

683
00:47:28,090 --> 00:47:33,490
For 13 excruciating days,
the world held its breath.

684
00:47:36,890 --> 00:47:40,123
Finally, in exchange
for a private pledge

685
00:47:40,223 --> 00:47:42,923
to remove American missiles
from Turkey,

686
00:47:43,023 --> 00:47:46,623
Khrushchev agreed to remove
his missiles from Cuba.

687
00:47:49,456 --> 00:47:52,456
Neither the United States
nor the Soviet Union

688
00:47:52,556 --> 00:47:56,590
wanted so direct
a confrontation ever again.

689
00:47:56,690 --> 00:47:59,090
From now on, limited wars,

690
00:47:59,190 --> 00:48:01,690
like the growing conflict
in Vietnam,

691
00:48:01,790 --> 00:48:05,290
would assume
still greater importance.

692
00:48:08,590 --> 00:48:13,090
I'd grown up in the shadow
of the mushroom cloud.

693
00:48:13,190 --> 00:48:17,223
And I remember the...
watching President Kennedy speak

694
00:48:17,323 --> 00:48:18,890
during the Cuban Missile Crisis

695
00:48:18,990 --> 00:48:21,190
and wondering if I was
ever gonna kiss a girl.

696
00:48:21,290 --> 00:48:24,156
And so this was just continuing
that battle

697
00:48:24,256 --> 00:48:26,023
against the Russians.

698
00:48:26,123 --> 00:48:29,656
Only we were fighting,
you know, their, their proxies,

699
00:48:29,756 --> 00:48:33,190
the Vietnamese there—
but it was monolithic communism.

700
00:48:34,556 --> 00:48:37,423
It didn't matter to me
where it was, I was going to go

701
00:48:37,523 --> 00:48:41,590
if my government said
we needed to be there.

702
00:48:41,690 --> 00:48:44,623
We were probably the last kids
of any generation

703
00:48:44,723 --> 00:48:45,956
that actually believed

704
00:48:46,056 --> 00:48:47,790
our government
would never lie to us.

705
00:48:53,123 --> 00:48:55,423
We had been writing stories
about all the flaws

706
00:48:55,523 --> 00:48:58,356
on the Saigon side—
about how they wouldn't fight,

707
00:48:58,456 --> 00:49:01,190
about the corruption,
they wouldn't obey orders,

708
00:49:01,290 --> 00:49:02,823
the disorganization.

709
00:49:04,756 --> 00:49:09,290
And then all of a sudden the
Viet Cong, for the first time,

710
00:49:09,390 --> 00:49:10,756
the "raggedy-ass
little bastards"

711
00:49:10,856 --> 00:49:13,656
as the Harkins's people
in Saigon called them,

712
00:49:13,756 --> 00:49:15,290
stood and fought.

713
00:49:15,390 --> 00:49:17,656
And suddenly all the flaws
on the Saigon side

714
00:49:17,756 --> 00:49:20,056
were illuminated by this.

715
00:49:20,156 --> 00:49:23,356
Like a star shell, it
illuminated the battlefield.

716
00:49:23,456 --> 00:49:24,923
Everything came out.

717
00:49:26,190 --> 00:49:29,490
A few days after Christmas 1962,

718
00:49:29,590 --> 00:49:33,056
the 7th ARVN Division got
orders to capture

719
00:49:33,156 --> 00:49:35,256
a Viet Cong radio transmitter

720
00:49:35,356 --> 00:49:39,990
broadcasting from a spot some
40 miles southwest of Saigon

721
00:49:40,090 --> 00:49:43,056
in a village called Tan Thoi.

722
00:49:43,156 --> 00:49:45,890
The village was surrounded
by rice paddies.

723
00:49:45,990 --> 00:49:51,990
An irrigation dike linked it to
a neighboring hamlet— Ap Bac.

724
00:49:52,090 --> 00:49:56,423
Intelligence suggested
no more than 120 guerrillas

725
00:49:56,523 --> 00:49:58,856
were guarding the transmitter.

726
00:49:58,956 --> 00:50:02,290
John Paul Vann helped draw up
what seemed to be

727
00:50:02,390 --> 00:50:04,823
a foolproof plan of attack.

728
00:50:04,923 --> 00:50:09,156
Supported by helicopters and
armored personnel carriers,

729
00:50:09,256 --> 00:50:13,123
some 1,200 South Vietnamese
troops would attack the village

730
00:50:13,223 --> 00:50:15,056
from three sides.

731
00:50:15,156 --> 00:50:18,023
When the surviving Viet Cong
tried to flee through the gap

732
00:50:18,123 --> 00:50:22,056
left open for them, as they
always had whenever outnumbered

733
00:50:22,156 --> 00:50:24,356
and confronted
by modern weapons,

734
00:50:24,456 --> 00:50:27,956
artillery and airstrikes
would destroy them.

735
00:50:28,056 --> 00:50:32,523
Vann would observe the fighting
from a spotter plane.

736
00:50:32,623 --> 00:50:38,223
But the intelligence underlying
it all turned out to be wrong.

737
00:50:38,323 --> 00:50:43,856
There were more than 340 Viet
Cong, not 120, in the area.

738
00:50:43,956 --> 00:50:46,890
Communist spies
had tipped them off

739
00:50:46,990 --> 00:50:49,090
that they were soon to be
attacked.

740
00:50:49,190 --> 00:50:53,256
And this time they would not
flee without a fight.

741
00:50:55,723 --> 00:50:58,456
Among them was Le Quan Cong,

742
00:50:58,556 --> 00:51:02,990
who had been a guerrilla fighter
since 1951, when he was 12.

743
00:51:17,456 --> 00:51:22,523
At 6:35 in the morning
on January 2, 1963,

744
00:51:22,623 --> 00:51:25,923
ten American helicopters ferried
an ARVN company

745
00:51:26,023 --> 00:51:29,390
to a spot just north
of Tan Thoi.

746
00:51:32,290 --> 00:51:35,290
They met no resistance.

747
00:51:35,390 --> 00:51:38,956
Meanwhile, two South Vietnamese
Civil Guard battalions

748
00:51:39,056 --> 00:51:42,356
approached Ap Bac
from the South on foot.

749
00:51:45,356 --> 00:51:49,023
The Viet Cong commander let the
Civil Guards get within 100 feet

750
00:51:49,123 --> 00:51:51,690
before giving the order to fire.

751
00:51:54,190 --> 00:51:56,956
Several South Vietnamese
soldiers were killed.

752
00:52:00,923 --> 00:52:03,990
Survivors hid behind a dike.

753
00:52:06,923 --> 00:52:08,756
Ten more helicopters,

754
00:52:08,856 --> 00:52:12,556
filled with troops and escorted
by five helicopter gunships,

755
00:52:12,656 --> 00:52:13,923
roared in to help.

756
00:52:40,756 --> 00:52:45,056
Viet Cong machine guns hit
14 of the 15 aircraft.

757
00:52:45,156 --> 00:52:50,523
Five would be destroyed, killing
and wounding American crewmen.

758
00:53:00,223 --> 00:53:02,590
The enemy concentrated
their fire on the ARVN

759
00:53:02,690 --> 00:53:05,756
struggling to get out
of the downed helicopters.

760
00:53:05,856 --> 00:53:08,823
"It was like shooting ducks
for the Viet Cong,"

761
00:53:08,923 --> 00:53:10,856
an American crewman remembered.

762
00:53:13,190 --> 00:53:16,190
Colonel Vann circled
helplessly overhead.

763
00:53:16,290 --> 00:53:18,690
He radioed the ARVN commander,

764
00:53:18,790 --> 00:53:22,890
urging him to send an APC unit
to rescue the men.

765
00:53:24,223 --> 00:53:26,790
I got the word from John Vann

766
00:53:26,890 --> 00:53:29,690
that American helicopters
were down.

767
00:53:29,790 --> 00:53:32,156
They were right in front
of the Viet Cong positions.

768
00:53:32,256 --> 00:53:35,556
We had Americans killed
and wounded

769
00:53:35,656 --> 00:53:37,723
and we had to get over there
right away.

770
00:53:37,823 --> 00:53:41,723
Like Vann, Captain Scanlon
was only an advisor.

771
00:53:41,823 --> 00:53:45,256
Captain Ly Tong Ba,
his ARVN counterpart,

772
00:53:45,356 --> 00:53:48,056
would have to give the order
to advance.

773
00:53:48,156 --> 00:53:51,390
Scanlon liked and admired him.

774
00:53:51,490 --> 00:53:53,923
I turned to Ba and said,

775
00:53:54,023 --> 00:53:56,690
"Hey, you know, you got to get
over there right away."

776
00:53:56,790 --> 00:54:01,290
And Ba said to me,
"I'm not going."

777
00:54:01,390 --> 00:54:04,756
Ba's superiors within the ARVN,
far from the battlefield,

778
00:54:04,856 --> 00:54:07,923
had told him to stay put.

779
00:54:08,023 --> 00:54:11,956
And John Vann, my boss, was,
uh, screaming at me over the...

780
00:54:12,056 --> 00:54:15,356
over the radio to get them
over there.

781
00:54:15,456 --> 00:54:19,790
It took Scanlon an hour
to convince Captain Ba to move.

782
00:54:19,890 --> 00:54:22,290
Another two hours were lost

783
00:54:22,390 --> 00:54:25,390
before the APCs could make
their way through the paddies

784
00:54:25,490 --> 00:54:27,690
toward the trapped men.

785
00:54:29,656 --> 00:54:31,923
The firing had died down.

786
00:54:32,023 --> 00:54:33,923
Everything was quiet.

787
00:54:34,023 --> 00:54:36,723
You could see the open
expanse of rice fields.

788
00:54:36,823 --> 00:54:40,123
And my reaction was,
hey, it was all over.

789
00:54:40,223 --> 00:54:43,423
The first two APCs
dropped their ramps.

790
00:54:43,523 --> 00:54:45,890
Infantry squads stepped out,

791
00:54:45,990 --> 00:54:48,956
prepared to spray the tree line
with automatic fire

792
00:54:49,056 --> 00:54:50,256
as they advanced.

793
00:54:50,356 --> 00:54:53,056
In the past,
that had been enough

794
00:54:53,156 --> 00:54:56,490
to make the Viet Cong
scurry away.

795
00:54:56,590 --> 00:54:58,856
This time was different.

796
00:55:02,556 --> 00:55:04,556
Eight of the APCs
came under attack.

797
00:55:04,656 --> 00:55:08,023
Within minutes, six of their
gunners had been killed,

798
00:55:08,123 --> 00:55:09,356
shot through the head.

799
00:55:10,756 --> 00:55:12,856
And boy, we got raked.

800
00:55:12,956 --> 00:55:14,690
So it was like a pool table.

801
00:55:14,790 --> 00:55:16,156
We were on the green

802
00:55:16,256 --> 00:55:18,490
and they were in the pockets
shooting at us.

803
00:55:18,590 --> 00:55:21,356
When Captain Ba managed
to convince

804
00:55:21,456 --> 00:55:24,023
a few more APCs to advance,

805
00:55:24,123 --> 00:55:27,090
guerrillas leapt
from their foxholes

806
00:55:27,190 --> 00:55:29,223
and hurled hand grenades
at them.

807
00:55:34,223 --> 00:55:36,623
None did any real damage,

808
00:55:36,723 --> 00:55:40,290
but the drivers were so
demoralized that they halted,

809
00:55:40,390 --> 00:55:45,323
turned around, and withdrew
behind the wrecked helicopters.

810
00:55:45,423 --> 00:55:47,323
From his spotter plane,

811
00:55:47,423 --> 00:55:51,556
Vann begged the ARVN to make
a simultaneous assault

812
00:55:51,656 --> 00:55:55,023
on the enemy by all the
remaining ground forces.

813
00:55:56,156 --> 00:55:59,156
ARVN commanders refused.

814
00:56:01,556 --> 00:56:04,523
That night,
the Viet Cong melted away,

815
00:56:04,623 --> 00:56:08,023
carrying most of their dead
and wounded with them.

816
00:56:10,156 --> 00:56:14,223
At least 80 South Vietnamese
soldiers had been killed.

817
00:56:14,323 --> 00:56:19,690
So had three American advisors,
including Captain Ken Good,

818
00:56:19,790 --> 00:56:20,923
a friend of Scanlon's.

819
00:56:24,823 --> 00:56:28,723
We stacked the armored personnel
carriers with bodies,

820
00:56:28,823 --> 00:56:30,523
stacked them up on top
till they...

821
00:56:30,623 --> 00:56:32,456
we couldn't stack anymore.

822
00:56:32,556 --> 00:56:38,656
And, um, I wouldn't let the
Vietnamese touch the Americans.

823
00:56:38,756 --> 00:56:41,523
So I carried Americans out.

824
00:56:41,623 --> 00:56:43,890
And, um...

825
00:56:43,990 --> 00:56:46,190
And I was... I was exhausted.

826
00:56:46,290 --> 00:56:52,156
They told me about
Ken Good getting killed.

827
00:56:52,256 --> 00:56:56,490
And Ken and I had worked so hard
with our two battalions.

828
00:56:56,590 --> 00:57:02,390
And to hear that...
he got killed hurt.

829
00:57:02,490 --> 00:57:04,123
Great guy.

830
00:57:05,556 --> 00:57:07,756
Reporters arrived from Saigon

831
00:57:07,856 --> 00:57:11,790
before all of the ARVN dead
could be removed.

832
00:57:11,890 --> 00:57:16,090
They were horrified at what they
saw and tried to find out

833
00:57:16,190 --> 00:57:18,856
what had really happened.

834
00:57:18,956 --> 00:57:23,390
John Paul Vann took Neil Sheehan
and David Halberstam aside

835
00:57:23,490 --> 00:57:25,423
and told them.

836
00:57:25,523 --> 00:57:27,290
The Battle of Ap Bac had been

837
00:57:27,390 --> 00:57:30,123
"a miserable goddamn
performance."

838
00:57:30,223 --> 00:57:32,356
"The ARVN won't listen,"
he said.

839
00:57:32,456 --> 00:57:35,390
"They make the same mistakes
over and over again

840
00:57:35,490 --> 00:57:37,523
in the same way."

841
00:57:39,190 --> 00:57:40,690
But back in Saigon,

842
00:57:40,790 --> 00:57:44,490
General Harkins immediately
declared victory.

843
00:57:44,590 --> 00:57:47,590
"The ARVN forces had
an objective," he said.

844
00:57:47,690 --> 00:57:49,123
"We took that objective.

845
00:57:49,223 --> 00:57:52,723
"The VC left and their
casualties were greater

846
00:57:52,823 --> 00:57:55,390
"than those of
the government forces.

847
00:57:55,490 --> 00:57:57,123
What more do you want?"

848
00:57:58,590 --> 00:58:00,923
When Halberstam and Sheehan
reported

849
00:58:01,023 --> 00:58:03,923
that Ap Bac had in fact
been a defeat,

850
00:58:04,023 --> 00:58:08,090
the U.S. Commander
in the Pacific denied it all

851
00:58:08,190 --> 00:58:13,723
and urged the reporters
to "get on the team."

852
00:58:13,823 --> 00:58:15,856
Ap Bac was terribly important.

853
00:58:15,956 --> 00:58:18,123
They had shot down five
helicopters,

854
00:58:18,223 --> 00:58:20,623
which they previously had been
terrified of.

855
00:58:20,723 --> 00:58:24,790
They'd stopped the armored
personnel carriers.

856
00:58:24,890 --> 00:58:26,890
They demonstrated
to their own people

857
00:58:26,990 --> 00:58:30,056
that you could resist
the Americans and win.

858
00:58:49,723 --> 00:58:53,490
In Hanoi, the Battle of Ap Bac
was seen

859
00:58:53,590 --> 00:58:58,190
by Party First Secretary Le Duan
and his Politburo allies

860
00:58:58,290 --> 00:59:00,490
as evidence
of the inherent weakness

861
00:59:00,590 --> 00:59:03,556
of the South Vietnamese regime.

862
00:59:03,656 --> 00:59:07,390
Even when faced with American
advisors and weaponry,

863
00:59:07,490 --> 00:59:11,256
the Viet Cong had learned
how to inflict heavy casualties

864
00:59:11,356 --> 00:59:15,156
on Saigon's forces,
and get away again.

865
00:59:16,656 --> 00:59:20,456
In Saigon, President Diem
claimed the ARVN were winning,

866
00:59:20,556 --> 00:59:21,790
not losing.

867
00:59:21,890 --> 00:59:25,156
Ap Bac had only been
a momentary setback.

868
00:59:25,256 --> 00:59:27,056
And he resented Americans
telling him

869
00:59:27,156 --> 00:59:30,756
how to fight his battles
or run his country.

870
00:59:30,856 --> 00:59:35,856
The president's sister-in-law,
Madame Nhu, went further.

871
00:59:35,956 --> 00:59:40,356
She denounced the Americans
as "false brothers."

872
00:59:41,823 --> 00:59:44,623
"We don't have a prayer
of staying in Vietnam,"

873
00:59:44,723 --> 00:59:48,790
President Kennedy privately told
a friend that spring.

874
00:59:48,890 --> 00:59:50,956
"These people hate us.

875
00:59:51,056 --> 00:59:54,390
"But I can't give up a piece
of territory like that

876
00:59:54,490 --> 00:59:58,990
to the communists and then get
the people to reelect me."

877
01:00:05,723 --> 01:00:07,256
Buddhist monks and nuns
are joined

878
01:00:07,356 --> 01:00:08,756
by thousands of sympathizers

879
01:00:08,856 --> 01:00:10,523
to protest
the government's restrictions

880
01:00:10,623 --> 01:00:13,556
on the practice of
their religion in South Vietnam.

881
01:00:15,156 --> 01:00:18,723
Diem began by alienating
the rural population.

882
01:00:18,823 --> 01:00:21,390
And that started the Viet Cong.

883
01:00:21,490 --> 01:00:24,323
And now he was alienating
the urban population.

884
01:00:24,423 --> 01:00:26,956
Seventy percent of the
population is Buddhist

885
01:00:27,056 --> 01:00:28,556
and the demonstrators clashed
with the police

886
01:00:28,656 --> 01:00:32,823
during the week-long series
of incidents like this.

887
01:00:32,923 --> 01:00:36,323
In the months that followed
the Battle of Ap Bac,

888
01:00:36,423 --> 01:00:41,090
South Vietnam plunged into civil
strife that had little to do

889
01:00:41,190 --> 01:00:43,990
with the Viet Cong.

890
01:00:44,090 --> 01:00:48,056
Religion and nationalism
were at its heart.

891
01:00:48,156 --> 01:00:51,890
A Catholic minority had for
years dominated the government

892
01:00:51,990 --> 01:00:54,823
of an overwhelmingly
Buddhist country.

893
01:00:56,423 --> 01:00:58,823
That spring in the city of Hue,

894
01:00:58,923 --> 01:01:01,856
Christian flags had been
flown to celebrate

895
01:01:01,956 --> 01:01:05,090
the 25th anniversary
of the ordination

896
01:01:05,190 --> 01:01:07,990
of Diem's older brother
as a Catholic bishop.

897
01:01:11,123 --> 01:01:14,456
But when the Buddhists
of the city flew their flags

898
01:01:14,556 --> 01:01:19,890
to celebrate the 2,527th
birthday of Lord Buddha,

899
01:01:19,990 --> 01:01:22,823
police tore them down.

900
01:01:22,923 --> 01:01:25,556
Protesters took to the streets.

901
01:01:27,656 --> 01:01:31,456
The Catholic deputy province
chief sent security forces

902
01:01:31,556 --> 01:01:34,356
to suppress the demonstration.

903
01:01:34,456 --> 01:01:36,023
The soldiers opened fire.

904
01:01:37,123 --> 01:01:40,056
Eight protesters died.

905
01:01:40,156 --> 01:01:46,023
The youngest was 12;
the oldest was 20.

906
01:01:46,123 --> 01:01:49,990
The Diem regime blamed
the Viet Cong.

907
01:01:51,590 --> 01:01:55,390
Monks throughout the country
demanded an apology.

908
01:02:04,256 --> 01:02:06,556
They also called for an end
to discrimination

909
01:02:06,656 --> 01:02:08,923
by Catholic officials.

910
01:02:09,023 --> 01:02:12,190
Many Buddhists had come to see
Diem's policies

911
01:02:12,290 --> 01:02:15,556
as a direct threat
to their religious beliefs.

912
01:02:18,356 --> 01:02:21,990
My family was against
what Diem was doing.

913
01:02:22,090 --> 01:02:24,656
My mother was convinced

914
01:02:24,756 --> 01:02:28,690
that Diem was destroying
the Buddhist faith.

915
01:02:28,790 --> 01:02:32,956
She would go to the pagodas and
listen to the monks' speeches.

916
01:02:33,056 --> 01:02:36,423
And she was just
extremely upset.

917
01:02:37,790 --> 01:02:38,990
She was not alone.

918
01:02:39,090 --> 01:02:41,890
There was a lot of people
like her.

919
01:02:41,990 --> 01:02:45,923
American officials urged Diem
and his brother Nhu

920
01:02:46,023 --> 01:02:49,323
to make meaningful concessions
to the Buddhists,

921
01:02:49,423 --> 01:02:51,456
for the sake
of maintaining unity

922
01:02:51,556 --> 01:02:54,090
in the struggle
against communism.

923
01:02:54,190 --> 01:02:55,823
They refused.

924
01:02:58,356 --> 01:03:03,323
On June 10, 1963, Malcolm Browne
of the Associated Press

925
01:03:03,423 --> 01:03:06,290
received an anonymous tip:

926
01:03:06,390 --> 01:03:09,556
something important was going
to happen the next day

927
01:03:09,656 --> 01:03:13,056
at a major intersection
in Saigon.

928
01:03:13,156 --> 01:03:15,090
He took his camera.

929
01:03:22,623 --> 01:03:25,990
To protest the Diem regime's
repression,

930
01:03:26,090 --> 01:03:32,490
a 73-year-old monk named
Quang Duc set himself on fire.

931
01:03:50,090 --> 01:03:55,223
As a large, hushed crowd watched
him burn to death,

932
01:03:55,323 --> 01:03:58,756
another monk repeated
over and over again

933
01:03:58,856 --> 01:04:01,790
in English and Vietnamese,

934
01:04:01,890 --> 01:04:04,823
"A Buddhist monk becomes
a martyr.

935
01:04:04,923 --> 01:04:07,556
A Buddhist monk
becomes a martyr."

936
01:04:14,356 --> 01:04:17,223
I remember they held the ashes

937
01:04:17,323 --> 01:04:19,823
of the monk who burned himself
to death

938
01:04:19,923 --> 01:04:22,923
where it was kept in one
of the main pagodas.

939
01:04:23,023 --> 01:04:29,123
And lines of people came to pass
by, and I saw these women,

940
01:04:29,223 --> 01:04:32,190
not rich women, ordinary
Vietnamese women,

941
01:04:32,290 --> 01:04:35,256
take off the one piece of gold
they had on, their wedding ring,

942
01:04:35,356 --> 01:04:40,256
and drop it in the bottle
to contribute to the struggle.

943
01:04:40,356 --> 01:04:44,190
And I thought to myself,
"This regime is over.

944
01:04:44,290 --> 01:04:45,356
It's the end."

945
01:04:49,456 --> 01:04:52,056
Soon other monks
would become martyrs.

946
01:04:55,323 --> 01:05:00,856
Fresh outbursts by Madame Nhu
only made things worse.

947
01:05:00,956 --> 01:05:04,423
Burning monks made her clap
her hands, she said.

948
01:05:04,523 --> 01:05:07,090
If more monks wanted
to burn themselves,

949
01:05:07,190 --> 01:05:10,290
she would provide the matches.

950
01:05:10,390 --> 01:05:12,256
The only thing they have done,

951
01:05:12,356 --> 01:05:18,056
they have barbecued
one of their monks,

952
01:05:18,156 --> 01:05:23,690
whom they have intoxicated, whom
they have abused the confidence.

953
01:05:23,790 --> 01:05:28,090
And even that barbecuing
was done

954
01:05:28,190 --> 01:05:30,423
not even with self-sufficient
means

955
01:05:30,523 --> 01:05:33,556
because they-they used
imported gasoline.

956
01:05:35,256 --> 01:05:37,890
They thought she was arrogant,

957
01:05:37,990 --> 01:05:39,456
she was power hungry.

958
01:05:39,556 --> 01:05:42,823
They suspected her and her
husband of being corrupt.

959
01:05:42,923 --> 01:05:49,190
Nhu ran the secret police, which
arrested and tortured people.

960
01:05:49,290 --> 01:05:52,490
People feared the Diem regime.

961
01:05:52,590 --> 01:05:56,156
Perhaps more than they feared
it, they really hated it.

962
01:05:58,423 --> 01:06:01,056
Students, including
many Catholics,

963
01:06:01,156 --> 01:06:03,623
rallied to the Buddhist cause.

964
01:06:03,723 --> 01:06:06,923
So did some army officers.

965
01:06:07,023 --> 01:06:11,290
People among the military
had to ask the question,

966
01:06:11,390 --> 01:06:14,690
"Can we continue this kind
of situation like that

967
01:06:14,790 --> 01:06:18,190
"when the whole country,
country was almost burning

968
01:06:18,290 --> 01:06:19,923
with the kind of protest
from the Buddhists?"

969
01:06:20,023 --> 01:06:20,956
You see?

970
01:06:24,623 --> 01:06:28,556
I first became aware of Vietnam
because of a burning monk.

971
01:06:31,090 --> 01:06:35,890
We had watched the civil rights
movement in the South

972
01:06:35,990 --> 01:06:38,890
and it had set the standard
for us

973
01:06:38,990 --> 01:06:45,323
to stand up against injustice,
allow yourself to be beaten up,

974
01:06:45,423 --> 01:06:47,723
allow yourself to be attacked
by a dog

975
01:06:47,823 --> 01:06:50,156
or hit by a police truncheon.

976
01:06:50,256 --> 01:06:52,123
And we had enormous respect

977
01:06:52,223 --> 01:06:55,356
for people who were willing
to go that far.

978
01:06:59,756 --> 01:07:02,656
And then one day in 1963,

979
01:07:02,756 --> 01:07:07,190
we saw on television
a picture of a monk in Saigon.

980
01:07:08,623 --> 01:07:10,756
This was an extraordinary act.

981
01:07:13,156 --> 01:07:15,956
Why was a Buddhist monk
burning himself

982
01:07:16,056 --> 01:07:18,790
on the streets of Saigon?

983
01:07:21,523 --> 01:07:23,923
The protests continued.

984
01:07:24,023 --> 01:07:28,856
Tensions between Washington
and Saigon steadily worsened.

985
01:07:28,956 --> 01:07:32,856
The more the Kennedy
Administration demanded change,

986
01:07:32,956 --> 01:07:36,923
the more Diem and his brother
Nhu seemed to resist.

987
01:07:38,590 --> 01:07:41,323
The White House announced that
a new American ambassador,

988
01:07:41,423 --> 01:07:46,556
former senator Henry Cabot
Lodge, was being sent to Saigon,

989
01:07:46,656 --> 01:07:49,123
a man eminent enough,
the president hoped,

990
01:07:49,223 --> 01:07:54,290
to make Diem listen more closely
to American advice.

991
01:07:54,390 --> 01:07:58,156
Diem professed to be
unimpressed.

992
01:07:58,256 --> 01:08:00,890
"They can send ten Lodges,"
he said,

993
01:08:00,990 --> 01:08:04,923
"but I will not let myself
or my country be humiliated,

994
01:08:05,023 --> 01:08:08,790
not if they train their
artillery on this palace."

995
01:08:08,890 --> 01:08:13,456
He did promise the outgoing
ambassador, Frederick Nolting,

996
01:08:13,556 --> 01:08:16,290
that he would take no further
repressive steps

997
01:08:16,390 --> 01:08:17,956
against the Buddhists.

998
01:08:19,723 --> 01:08:24,956
Then, a few minutes after
midnight on August 21, 1963,

999
01:08:25,056 --> 01:08:28,523
with Nolting gone and
Henry Cabot Lodge's arrival

1000
01:08:28,623 --> 01:08:32,156
still one day away,
Diem cut the phone lines

1001
01:08:32,256 --> 01:08:35,590
of all the senior American
officials in Saigon

1002
01:08:35,689 --> 01:08:39,223
and sent hundreds
of his Special Forces

1003
01:08:39,323 --> 01:08:43,123
storming into Buddhist pagodas
in Saigon, Hue,

1004
01:08:43,223 --> 01:08:46,423
and several other
South Vietnamese cities.

1005
01:08:46,523 --> 01:08:49,290
Some 1,400 monks and nuns,

1006
01:08:49,390 --> 01:08:54,990
students and ordinary citizens
were rounded up and taken away.

1007
01:09:02,823 --> 01:09:07,256
Martial law was imposed,
public meetings were forbidden,

1008
01:09:07,356 --> 01:09:11,756
troops were authorized to shoot
anyone found on the streets

1009
01:09:11,856 --> 01:09:13,490
after 9:00.

1010
01:09:13,590 --> 01:09:16,890
Tanks guard a pagoda in Saigon

1011
01:09:16,990 --> 01:09:19,656
during South Vietnam's
bafflingly complicated crisis

1012
01:09:19,756 --> 01:09:22,756
that has the government of
President Ngo Dinh Diem,

1013
01:09:22,856 --> 01:09:26,590
students, and Buddhists,
and the United States government

1014
01:09:26,690 --> 01:09:30,290
all trying to guess one
another's next move.

1015
01:09:30,390 --> 01:09:34,190
When college students protested
in support of the monks,

1016
01:09:34,290 --> 01:09:37,823
Diem closed Vietnam's
universities.

1017
01:09:37,923 --> 01:09:41,690
High school students
then poured into the streets.

1018
01:09:41,790 --> 01:09:44,356
He shut down
all the high schools

1019
01:09:44,456 --> 01:09:45,623
and the grammar schools, too,

1020
01:09:45,723 --> 01:09:48,956
and arrested thousands
of school children,

1021
01:09:49,056 --> 01:09:51,923
including the sons and daughters
of officials

1022
01:09:52,023 --> 01:09:53,990
in his own government.

1023
01:09:54,090 --> 01:09:57,156
I participated
in the demonstrations.

1024
01:09:57,256 --> 01:10:04,123
I strongly believed that that
government has to be overthrown

1025
01:10:04,223 --> 01:10:06,323
because it's a dictator
government.

1026
01:10:06,423 --> 01:10:08,390
We couldn't stand it anymore

1027
01:10:08,490 --> 01:10:12,156
and this is an opportunity
to rise against it.

1028
01:10:12,256 --> 01:10:16,223
Phan Quang Tue was a law student
that summer.

1029
01:10:16,323 --> 01:10:20,223
His father was a prominent
nationalist whom Diem had jailed

1030
01:10:20,323 --> 01:10:23,556
for calling for
greater democracy.

1031
01:10:23,656 --> 01:10:27,156
I was and I'm still a Catholic,

1032
01:10:27,256 --> 01:10:29,490
not a very good Catholic.

1033
01:10:29,590 --> 01:10:31,423
I don't practice religiously.

1034
01:10:31,523 --> 01:10:33,423
But I'm a Catholic.

1035
01:10:34,923 --> 01:10:36,356
I was rightly arrested

1036
01:10:36,456 --> 01:10:39,523
because I did participate
in demonstration.

1037
01:10:39,623 --> 01:10:42,523
And I was interrogated

1038
01:10:42,623 --> 01:10:45,690
and briefly tortured,
beaten a little bit.

1039
01:10:49,990 --> 01:10:52,790
Henry Cabot Lodge took over
as U.S. ambassador

1040
01:10:52,890 --> 01:10:54,356
in the midst of the turmoil.

1041
01:10:54,456 --> 01:10:55,790
And he has reported
to have demanded

1042
01:10:55,890 --> 01:10:58,056
that President Diem's brother
Nhu be ousted

1043
01:10:58,156 --> 01:11:00,523
or U.S. aid to Vietnam
will be cut.

1044
01:11:03,890 --> 01:11:05,790
In the wake of the pagoda raids,

1045
01:11:05,890 --> 01:11:08,256
a small group of South
Vietnamese generals

1046
01:11:08,356 --> 01:11:11,923
contacted the CIA in Saigon.

1047
01:11:12,023 --> 01:11:15,456
Diem's brother Nhu was now
largely in control

1048
01:11:15,556 --> 01:11:17,523
of the government, they said.

1049
01:11:17,623 --> 01:11:22,256
What would Washington's reaction
be if they mounted a coup?

1050
01:11:22,356 --> 01:11:25,356
President Kennedy
and his senior advisors

1051
01:11:25,456 --> 01:11:30,256
happened to be out of town,
so Roger Hilsman, Jr.,

1052
01:11:30,356 --> 01:11:33,823
assistant secretary of state
for Far Eastern affairs

1053
01:11:33,923 --> 01:11:36,223
and a critic of the Diem regime,

1054
01:11:36,323 --> 01:11:40,356
took it upon himself to draft
a cable with new instructions

1055
01:11:40,456 --> 01:11:43,290
for Ambassador Lodge.

1056
01:11:43,390 --> 01:11:47,256
The U.S. government could
no longer tolerate a situation

1057
01:11:47,356 --> 01:11:51,523
in which power lay in Nhu's
hands, it said.

1058
01:11:51,623 --> 01:11:54,856
Diem should be given a chance
to rid himself of his brother.

1059
01:11:56,290 --> 01:11:59,823
If he refused, Lodge was
to tell the generals,

1060
01:11:59,923 --> 01:12:03,423
"then we must face the
possibility that Diem himself

1061
01:12:03,523 --> 01:12:07,290
cannot be preserved."

1062
01:12:07,390 --> 01:12:11,023
The president was vacationing at
Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.

1063
01:12:11,123 --> 01:12:14,990
Undersecretary of State George
Ball read part of the cable

1064
01:12:15,090 --> 01:12:18,156
to him over the phone.

1065
01:12:18,256 --> 01:12:20,423
Since the early 1950s,

1066
01:12:20,523 --> 01:12:22,090
the United States government
had encouraged

1067
01:12:22,190 --> 01:12:28,423
and even orchestrated other Cold
War coups in Iran, Guatemala,

1068
01:12:28,523 --> 01:12:32,923
the Congo, and elsewhere.

1069
01:12:33,023 --> 01:12:36,856
Kennedy decided to approve
Hilsman's cable

1070
01:12:36,956 --> 01:12:40,090
in part because he thought
his top advisors

1071
01:12:40,190 --> 01:12:42,223
had already endorsed it.

1072
01:12:42,323 --> 01:12:45,123
They had not.

1073
01:12:45,223 --> 01:12:50,323
And somehow, because of a cable
that came out from Washington,

1074
01:12:50,423 --> 01:12:53,723
Lodge decided that the only
solution was to get rid

1075
01:12:53,823 --> 01:12:57,523
of not just Ngo Dinh Nhu,
the bad brother,

1076
01:12:57,623 --> 01:13:00,056
but also of Diem himself.

1077
01:13:00,156 --> 01:13:02,223
And that started us
on this whole business

1078
01:13:02,323 --> 01:13:05,090
of promoting a coup.

1079
01:13:05,190 --> 01:13:08,556
And it was not a good idea.

1080
01:13:08,656 --> 01:13:11,423
I just had a feeling
of impending disaster.

1081
01:13:12,623 --> 01:13:15,223
On September 2, 1963,

1082
01:13:15,323 --> 01:13:18,956
Labor Day, Walter Cronkite
of CBS News

1083
01:13:19,056 --> 01:13:21,556
interviewed President Kennedy.

1084
01:13:21,656 --> 01:13:25,656
The president used the
opportunity to deliver a message

1085
01:13:25,756 --> 01:13:27,523
to President Diem.

1086
01:13:27,623 --> 01:13:31,356
Mr. President, the only hot war
we've got running at the moment

1087
01:13:31,456 --> 01:13:33,923
is of course the one in Vietnam,

1088
01:13:34,023 --> 01:13:36,856
and we've got our difficulties
there, quite obviously.

1089
01:13:36,956 --> 01:13:41,456
I don't think that unless
a greater effort is made

1090
01:13:41,556 --> 01:13:43,423
by the government to win
popular support

1091
01:13:43,523 --> 01:13:44,890
that the war can be won
out there.

1092
01:13:44,990 --> 01:13:46,856
In the final analysis,
it's their war.

1093
01:13:46,956 --> 01:13:50,823
Hasn't every indication
from Saigon been

1094
01:13:50,923 --> 01:13:52,956
that President Diem
has no intention

1095
01:13:53,056 --> 01:13:53,956
of changing his pattern?

1096
01:13:54,056 --> 01:13:54,956
If he doesn't change it,

1097
01:13:55,056 --> 01:13:56,890
of course, that's his decision.

1098
01:13:56,990 --> 01:13:58,990
He has been there ten years
and, as I say,

1099
01:13:59,090 --> 01:14:00,356
he has carried this burden

1100
01:14:00,456 --> 01:14:01,790
when he has been counted out
on a number of occasions.

1101
01:14:01,890 --> 01:14:02,890
Our best judgment is

1102
01:14:02,990 --> 01:14:05,490
that he can't be
successful in this basis.

1103
01:14:05,590 --> 01:14:08,156
But I don't agree with those
who say we should withdraw.

1104
01:14:08,256 --> 01:14:09,423
That would be a great mistake.

1105
01:14:09,523 --> 01:14:10,790
That'd be
a great mistake.

1106
01:14:10,890 --> 01:14:12,756
I know people don't like
Americans to be engaged

1107
01:14:12,856 --> 01:14:13,856
in this kind of an effort.

1108
01:14:13,956 --> 01:14:16,323
47 Americans have been killed.

1109
01:14:16,423 --> 01:14:18,323
We're in a very

1110
01:14:18,423 --> 01:14:21,190
desperate struggle
against the communist system.

1111
01:14:21,290 --> 01:14:24,523
And I don't want Asia to pass
into the control of the Chinese.

1112
01:14:24,623 --> 01:14:26,756
Do you think that this
government still has time

1113
01:14:26,856 --> 01:14:29,290
to-to regain the support
of the people?

1114
01:14:29,390 --> 01:14:31,823
I do.

1115
01:14:31,923 --> 01:14:34,623
With changes in policy
and perhaps in personnel,

1116
01:14:34,723 --> 01:14:36,156
I think it can.

1117
01:14:36,256 --> 01:14:39,523
If it doesn't make
those changes,

1118
01:14:39,623 --> 01:14:41,823
I would think that
the chances of winning it

1119
01:14:41,923 --> 01:14:43,590
would not be very good.

1120
01:14:45,323 --> 01:14:48,123
Despite the cable,
Kennedy and his advisors

1121
01:14:48,223 --> 01:14:51,556
were sharply
divided about a coup.

1122
01:14:51,656 --> 01:14:56,923
Robert McNamara, Maxwell Taylor,
Vice President Lyndon Johnson,

1123
01:14:57,023 --> 01:15:01,356
and the head of the CIA
all cautioned against it,

1124
01:15:01,456 --> 01:15:04,856
because, while none of them
especially admired Diem,

1125
01:15:04,956 --> 01:15:09,523
they did not believe there was
any viable alternative.

1126
01:15:09,623 --> 01:15:12,590
Fritz Nolting was called in.

1127
01:15:12,690 --> 01:15:15,123
And he said, "As difficult
as they are to deal with,

1128
01:15:15,223 --> 01:15:20,156
"there is nobody with the guts
and sangfroid in Vietnam

1129
01:15:20,256 --> 01:15:21,956
"of Diem and his brother Nhu.

1130
01:15:22,056 --> 01:15:25,423
"And if we let them go
we will be saddled

1131
01:15:25,523 --> 01:15:29,390
by a descending cycle
of mediocre generals."

1132
01:15:29,490 --> 01:15:31,456
And he was absolutely correct.

1133
01:15:33,123 --> 01:15:35,956
But several State Department
officials believed

1134
01:15:36,056 --> 01:15:40,790
that without fresh leadership,
South Vietnam could not survive.

1135
01:15:40,890 --> 01:15:44,156
The debate intensified.

1136
01:15:45,323 --> 01:15:47,190
"My God," the president said,

1137
01:15:47,290 --> 01:15:50,623
"my administration
is coming apart."

1138
01:15:50,723 --> 01:15:54,056
In the end,
Kennedy instructed Lodge

1139
01:15:54,156 --> 01:15:56,456
to tell the renegade generals

1140
01:15:56,556 --> 01:15:58,856
that while the United States
does not wish

1141
01:15:58,956 --> 01:16:03,023
to stimulate a coup,
it would not thwart one either.

1142
01:16:04,523 --> 01:16:07,556
The generals laid their plans.

1143
01:16:13,890 --> 01:16:19,490
On November 1, 1963,
troops loyal to the plotters

1144
01:16:19,590 --> 01:16:21,690
seized key installations
in Saigon

1145
01:16:21,790 --> 01:16:25,256
and demanded Diem and Nhu
surrender.

1146
01:16:27,790 --> 01:16:30,223
The battle for the city
went on for 18 hours

1147
01:16:30,323 --> 01:16:33,556
and most of it was centered
on the presidential palace.

1148
01:16:33,656 --> 01:16:37,123
Just after 6:30 in the morning
Saturday, the shooting ceased.

1149
01:16:46,056 --> 01:16:51,356
Diem and Nhu escaped,
took sanctuary in a church,

1150
01:16:51,456 --> 01:16:54,423
and agreed to surrender
to the rebels in exchange

1151
01:16:54,523 --> 01:16:58,256
for the promise of safe
passage out of the country.

1152
01:16:58,356 --> 01:17:01,823
They were picked up in an
armored personnel carrier...

1153
01:17:03,923 --> 01:17:08,023
And murdered soon
after they climbed inside.

1154
01:17:12,823 --> 01:17:16,190
Madame Nhu survived the coup.

1155
01:17:16,290 --> 01:17:19,556
She was on a goodwill tour
in the United States.

1156
01:17:24,790 --> 01:17:27,323
The system was overthrown
on November 1.

1157
01:17:27,423 --> 01:17:30,023
I was released November 4.

1158
01:17:30,123 --> 01:17:36,223
And it was the most exciting
moment in the life of Saigon.

1159
01:17:38,056 --> 01:17:43,323
The excitement,
you could feel it in the air.

1160
01:17:43,423 --> 01:17:47,856
I was thinking that,
yeah, it's a good thing.

1161
01:17:47,956 --> 01:17:51,590
Diem was making it impossible
to win the war

1162
01:17:51,690 --> 01:17:55,156
because people were
so against him

1163
01:17:55,256 --> 01:17:59,756
that the war would be lost
if he stayed in power.

1164
01:18:01,390 --> 01:18:03,456
My father was a bit worried

1165
01:18:03,556 --> 01:18:05,656
because he didn't know
who was going to replace Diem.

1166
01:18:08,456 --> 01:18:10,990
Ambassador Lodge reported
to Washington

1167
01:18:11,090 --> 01:18:15,623
that "every Vietnamese has
a smile on his face today."

1168
01:18:15,723 --> 01:18:19,323
"The prospects are now for
a shorter war," he said,

1169
01:18:19,423 --> 01:18:22,290
"provided the generals
stay together.

1170
01:18:22,390 --> 01:18:25,123
"Certainly officers
and soldiers

1171
01:18:25,223 --> 01:18:28,323
who can pull off an operation
like this," he continued,

1172
01:18:28,423 --> 01:18:31,756
"should be able to do
very well on the battlefield

1173
01:18:31,856 --> 01:18:34,323
if their hearts are in it."

1174
01:18:37,090 --> 01:18:40,223
President Kennedy was
not so sure.

1175
01:18:40,323 --> 01:18:44,556
He was appalled that Diem
and Nhu had been killed.

1176
01:18:44,656 --> 01:18:48,256
Three days later, he dictated
his own rueful account

1177
01:18:48,356 --> 01:18:52,490
of the coup and his
concerns for the future.

1178
01:18:54,090 --> 01:18:57,890
Monday, November 4, 1963.

1179
01:18:57,990 --> 01:19:00,923
Over the weekend the
coup in Saigon took place.

1180
01:19:01,023 --> 01:19:03,790
It culminated three months
of conversation,

1181
01:19:03,890 --> 01:19:09,056
which divided the government
here and in Saigon.

1182
01:19:09,156 --> 01:19:14,256
I feel that we must bear a good
deal of responsibility for it,

1183
01:19:14,356 --> 01:19:17,290
beginning
with our cable of August

1184
01:19:17,390 --> 01:19:19,990
in which we suggested the coup.

1185
01:19:20,090 --> 01:19:22,890
I should not have given
my consent to it

1186
01:19:22,990 --> 01:19:25,256
without a roundtable conference.

1187
01:19:27,290 --> 01:19:32,656
I was shocked by the death
of Diem and Nhu.

1188
01:19:32,756 --> 01:19:36,790
The way he was killed made it
particularly abhorrent.

1189
01:19:36,890 --> 01:19:39,423
The question now is whether
the generals can stay together

1190
01:19:39,523 --> 01:19:43,290
and build a stable government or
whether public opinion in Saigon

1191
01:19:43,390 --> 01:19:47,056
will turn on this government
as repressive and undemocratic

1192
01:19:47,156 --> 01:19:49,090
in the not-too-distant future.

1193
01:19:54,123 --> 01:19:56,423
Kennedy would not live
to see the answer

1194
01:19:56,523 --> 01:19:59,023
to the question he had asked.

1195
01:19:59,123 --> 01:20:03,523
He was murdered in Dallas
18 days later.

1196
01:20:03,623 --> 01:20:08,590
There were now 16,000 American
advisors in South Vietnam.

1197
01:20:08,690 --> 01:20:14,023
Their fate and the fate of
that embattled country rested

1198
01:20:14,123 --> 01:20:19,290
with another American president,
Lyndon Baines Johnson.

1199
01:20:36,790 --> 01:20:38,923
We thought we were the
exceptions to history,

1200
01:20:39,023 --> 01:20:40,490
we Americans.

1201
01:20:40,590 --> 01:20:43,223
History didn't apply to us.

1202
01:20:43,323 --> 01:20:45,456
We could never fight a bad war.

1203
01:20:45,556 --> 01:20:47,423
We could never represent
the wrong cause.

1204
01:20:47,523 --> 01:20:48,656
We were Americans.

1205
01:20:49,856 --> 01:20:51,090
Well, in Vietnam it proved

1206
01:20:51,190 --> 01:20:53,690
that we were not
an exception to history.