"Thousands of square miles were laid waste." "Billions of dollars were spent." "Over 3 million died as the Cold War moved to Vietnam." "Dien Bien Phu, 1954." "One of the defining battles of the Cold War." "Despite substantial American backing, the French finally lost control of their Vietnamese colony." "They were defeated by the communist-led army of General Giap." "The Dien Bien Phu campaign was a huge victory." "It was the first time a poor feudal nation had beaten a great colonial power that had a modern industry and a massive army." "The victory meant a lot, not just to us, but to people all over the world." "There was a new regime in Vietnam." "It was nationalist." "But it was also communist." "After Dien Bien Phu, the French left Vietnam for good." "An International Peace Conference temporarily divided Vietnam into North and South, and agreed that countrywide elections would be held in 1956." "America opposed the elections." "They never took place." "It was felt that the elections could not be free in the North in particular." "I would say that was part of it." "Er, the other was that, er... a sense that... even if, er, free elections were held, they probably would be, er, dominated by the Communists and the Communists would gain control." "Ho Chi Minh, North Vietnam's leader, had lived in France and trained in Moscow." "To many Vietnamese he was a national hero, but Washington saw him as an instrument of the communist bloc." "The North Vietnamese embarked on radical land reforms." "Landowners and so-called rich peasants were persecuted, pilloried and imprisoned." "The party's cruel policies helped aggravate a refugee crisis." "By 1955, close to a million people, some encouraged by American agents, had fled south." "In South Vietnam, the United States underwrote the regime of President Diem, an anti-communist, determined to resist Hanoi." "Ruthless and autocratic, Diem was intolerant of any opposition." "In 1960, to fight Diem and to unite the country under Hanoi, the Communists created the National Liberation Front, known to its opponents as the Viet Cong." "Such movements were encouraged by Moscow." ""Let every nation know... whether it wishes us well or ill," "that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe... to assure the survival and the success of liberty."" "Within a year of his election, after suffering the Bay of Pigs fiasco in Cuba and a crisis in Berlin," "President Kennedy set out to show strength in Asia." "The objective was to prevent the dominoes from falling." "The loss of Vietnam would trigger... the loss of Southeast Asia, and conceivably even the loss of India, and would strengthen the Chinese and the Soviet position across the world." "Village leaders in the South who supported Diem were being assassinated by the National Liberation Front, or Viet Cong." "In 1961 alone an estimated 4,000 Diem officials were killed." "To isolate the peasants from Viet Cong control," "Diem's troops burned entire villages to the ground." "The inhabitants were moved into fortified "strategic hamlets,"" "built under the supervision of American advisers." "These upheavals were extremely unpopular and won new recruits for the Viet Cong." "Advisers from the United States trained the South Vietnamese army in counterinsurgency." "Violence was routine." "The... er.. actions of the ruler, President Diem, have been declared autocratic and perhaps his personal actions are to some degree, but one realizes the chaos he faced, the complete anarchy that existed there, it's conceivable that autocratic methods within a democratic framework were required to restore order."" "The regime of Mr. Diem did create a kind of framework, a kind of government with all... the structures for governing the country." "Of course, his policy provoked a lot of discontent among the intellectuals." "Summer 1963." "Saigon witnessed horrifying scenes." "Buddhist monks burnt themselves to death, in protest at Diem's religious intolerance." "South Vietnamese protesters organized a wave of demonstrations." "A group of generals plotted a coup against Diem and sounded out America's support." "You get cables like that from some part of the country or the world or the other almost every week and as a kind of standard reply, you... you... you say the United States cannot participate in anything like this," "we cannot aid it, we cannot do anything to be involved and we will examine any new government on its own merits." "But Washington did nothing to stop the coup." "President Kennedy was receiving mixed messages." "Some officials even said America's Vietnam policy was succeeding." "They expected to withdraw... the force of 16,000 military advisers by the end of '65, and that the first unit of withdrawal would be completed within 90 days, by the end of..." "December 1963." "Events overtook the plan to withdraw." "On November 1, 1963, a group of generals attacked the Presidential Palace, believing that they had, or would have American support." "By the next day the government was overthrown." "Diem and his brother were murdered by their own soldiers after they had earlier taken refuge in a church." "At first, the people of Saigon responded with enthusiasm to Diem's overthrow." "But it left the country with no clear leader." "Within three weeks of Diem's murder," "President Kennedy was himself assassinated." "As Kennedy was buried in Arlington Cemetery," "America remained committed to South Vietnam." ""We are going to build a great society;" "where no man or woman... are the victim of fear, or poverty or hatred." "Where every man and woman has a chance for fulfillment, and prosperity and hope."" "Lyndon Johnson had vast ambitions at home." "But, like Kennedy, he was determined not to lose Vietnam to the communists." "Johnson sent McNamara to repledge America to South Vietnam's cause." "The strategy was unchanged, the promises more spectacular." ""We'll stay for as long as it takes." "We shall provide whatever help is required to win the battle against the communist insurgents."" "Gen. William Westmoreland, a veteran of Korea and World War II, took charge as President Johnson began to increase the American war effort." "This was the type of war that... we'd had no experience with before," "and we were on a learning curve..." "And er... some of our policies were kind of trial and error... in character." "In August 1964, an American destroyer, the USS Maddox, on patrol in the Gulf of Tonkin, exchanged fire with North Vietnamese torpedo boats." ""The president has asked that the destroyer force be doubled and that an "air cap" - a combat air patrol be available at all times on call to it, and as I think you know, he's issued instructions that" "in the event of a further attack upon our vessels in international waters we are to respond with the objective of destroying the attackers."" "Two days later, the ship's captain thought he was again coming under attack." "One of the pilots was not so sure." "Well, I was over that... those destroyers for over an hour and a half, below a thousand feet, lights off, watching everything they did." "I could hear 'em chit-chatting on the radio, the Maddox and the Joy, they seemed to have some, er, intermittent radar targets." "I took it upon myself to get out there where they thought the boat was and try to kill it if they didn't." "But it was... it was fruitless... and I'd go down there and there was nothing." "Ignoring the conflicting evidence, the Pentagon insisted there had been a second attack." ""In retaliation for this unprovoked attack on the high seas, our forces have struck the bases... used by the North Vietnamese patrol craft."" "Johnson used the incident to push the Tonkin Gulf resolution through Congress." "It would allow the president to wage war in Vietnam." "In South Vietnam, the Viet Cong were stepping up operations." "They now had 170,000 men and women in the field." "They could move and operate throughout most of the country." "They repeatedly launched attacks in the heart of Saigon." "People were fighting back." "We would establish contacts with them," "The protest movement of students and intellectuals, including Catholics and Buddhists, was widespread." "When people saw that our methods were effective, they would join us." "Saigon was in a constant state of crisis." "Ministers came and went, with each regime as unpopular and corrupt as the last." "Johnson was exasperated." "I was sitting with him one day when he got news that there was another coup in Vietnam and another general has ascended to the power platform and he, frustrated, said, 'Hot-damn, I'm getting sick and tired" "of this goddamn coup shit in Vietnam it's got to stop.'" "Johnson was in the throes of the 1964 election campaign." "The Great Society he hoped to build was the central issue." "But communism and the Cold War were - as ever - near the top of the agenda." ""One Two Three Four Five Seven..." "Johnson played up Cold War fears in his election commercials, painting his Republican adversary as a trigger-happy warmonger." ""Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, zero..."" ""These are the stakes." "To make a world in which all of God's children can live." "Or to go into the dark." "We must either love each other, or we must die."" "Johnson won by a landslide." "North Vietnam was a peasant society with virtually no industry." "Ho Chi Minh sought aid from China and the Soviet Union." "In February 1965 Hanoi gave Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin a warm welcome." "He agreed to increase military aid to the North Vietnamese." "We used to say, 'When Vietnam is reunited, it will be a wonderful example for the other nations of Southeast Asia!" "'" "It was all in the context of an ideological struggle - the Cold War." "The argument was about which system would last, which one was progressive." "'Here was a good example,' people said. 'Look at Vietnam.'" "While Soviet Premier Kosygin was still in Hanoi, the Viet Cong launched an attack on Pleiku airbase." "Eight Americans were killed." "A hundred more were wounded." "Johnson responded with air power." "He launched Rolling Thunder, a campaign of bombing against the North." "He hoped it would boost Southern morale and get Ho Chi Minh to the negotiating table." "The North did not respond." "It became more and more clear that..." "President Johnson was going to have to choose between losing South Vietnam or... trying to save it by introducing U.S. military force and taking over a major part of the combat mission." "The first American ground troops landed at Da Nang in March 1965." "I can remember one of my squad leaders when we were leaving Okinawa and he... he said hot-damn, Vietnam." "Er, we were all kind of hot to go, er, hot to get into something, do something that was other than train and drill... and, um, there was a kind of a feeling, I don't know if anybody ever said this" "a sort of feeling that being U.S. Marines, our mere presence... in Vietnam was going to terrify the enemy into quitting." "The United States had embarked on what would be the longest military war in its history." "Three weeks after the marines landed, the Viet Cong bombed the American Embassy in Saigon." "Johnson believed communist China lay behind such attacks." ""Their target is not merely South Vietnam it is Asia." "Their objective... is not the fulfillment of Vietnamese nationalism, it is to erode and to discredit..." "America's ability to help prevent Chinese domination over all of Asia."" "In fact China was now supplying less aid than the Soviet Union." "Although they got few aircraft," "North Vietnamese pilots were being trained in the Soviet Union." "Our position was clear:" "Vietnam was defending its independence." "It was fighting against the Americans, so we had to help them, and I must say that in the Soviet Union, this point of view was fully supported." "The situation in South Vietnam worsened as Viet Cong attacks continued." "In June, a military outpost at Dong Suay was destroyed." "An elite South Vietnamese regiment was decimated, and there were many civilian casualties." "McNamara returned to Vietnam to reassess the war." "He looked for the statistics that would help him manage the conflict." "But somehow Mr. McNamara came and, er... he never let the Vietnamese general ask him the question one way or the other and he came out like a machine gun asking a lot of statistics like that and with his yellow pad," "he put down all the indications and as soon as, er... the... the answers were given, he took up and left." "He was not interested... that much about the opinion of the Vietnamese at all." "President Johnson was now convinced that without the support of a massive American army," "South Vietnam was doomed." ""I have today ordered to Vietnam the Air Mobile Division, and certain other forces which will raise our fighting strength from 75,000 to... 125,000 men almost immediately." "Additional forces will be needed later, and they will be sent as requested."" "Vietnam was a television war." ""Come on, let's move in with those other guys..." "This is what the war in Vietnam is all about." "The old and the very young." "The Marines have burned this old couple's cottage because fire was coming from here."" ""A hundred and fifty homes were leveled in retaliation for a burst of gunfire." "In Vietnam, like everywhere else in Asia, property, a home, is everything." "A man lives with his family on ancestral land." "His parents are buried nearby." "Their spirit is part of his holding." "If there were Viet Cong in the hamlets, they were long gone." "The women and the old men who remained will never forget that August afternoon."" "The Viet Cong kept fighting." "But in response to the American troop buildup," "Hanoi was preparing to send thousands of North Vietnamese to join the fighters in the South." "Westmoreland feared that South Vietnam would be cut in two." "In the Ia Drang valley in the Central Highlands, the armies would meet head-on in the first major battle of the war." "The battle at Ia Drang was our first big victory." "We concluded that we could fight the Americans and win." "The key thing was to force the Americans to fight the way we wanted that is, hand to hand." "Although the Americans defeated the North Vietnamese at Ia Drang, casualties were heavy:" "2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers were killed;" "300 elite American infantry died in the battle." "The attitude of the enemy was, er... was not... comparable to what our attitude would have been under the circumstances." "He was ready, willing and able to pay a far greater price... than I would say we Caucasians would." "My casualties in my company were relatively light and I say relatively light;" "I lost 17 killed and about 43 wounded, so the unit was almost combat ineffective with those kind of casualties, but fortunately we were able to... weather that particular piece of the battle." "The GIs had gone to South Vietnam to fight communism." "But often they met hostility from those they thought they were helping." "American troops found it impossible to tell which Vietnamese were friends and which were foes." "How do you distinguish a civilian from a Viet Cong?" "Well of course he shoots at you or he's armed." "But, er, how about, um... what happens after a firefight and you find bodies out there, but no weapons?" "And... we were told this is... well, if it's dead and Vietnamese, it's VC." "That was the exact words." "You would go out, you would secure a piece of terrain during the daylight hours and you'd surrender that... and I mean literally surrender, not be forced off, well maybe surrender's probably not a good word," "but... but you'd give it up, because you... the helicopters would come in and pick you up at night and fly you back to the security of your base camp." "Instead of trying to hold territory, the Americans used their superior mobility to launch search and destroy missions." "The attempt to save South Vietnam was destroying it." "Viet Cong operations continued." "At 8 o'clock in the morning of March 23rd, we hit them." "Our artillery destroyed aircraft." "We killed not only some guards, but also the American quartermaster." "Our commando unit also attacked the police training school." "We killed many trainee police officers whilst they were watching a movie." "In another attempt to encourage the North Vietnamese to negotiate," "Johnson stopped Rolling Thunder." "Then started it again." "The tactic failed." "The Communists' vital supply route was the Ho Chi Minh Trail." "It was a network of tracks linking the North with the South via the jungles of Central Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia." "The enemies assumed we dared not drive during the day." "In fact we drove both day and night." "We had to keep changing our tactics to keep ahead of the enemy." "Their plan of attacking the trail was very malicious and changed all the time." "But we outmaneuvered them." "One night we counted 14 cannons firing, reddening and lightening the whole sky with explosions." "It was like fireworks night in Hanoi." "We were constantly driving through bullets and smoke." "The trail wove through theoretically neutral Laos and Cambodia." "Both suffered heavy American bombing." "Over the years Cambodia, the border area of Cambodia, and, er... and Laos, were used freely by the enemy, but, er, our... by... by virtue of the policy of my government," "we could not fight the overt war or deploy troops overtly, er... military troops, er..." "into those countries." "On one or two occasions, the chiefs recommended... er..." "U.S. military intervention in North Vietnam and stated that they recognized this might lead to Chinese and/or Soviet military response, in which case, they said," "We might have to consider the use of nuclear weapons.'" "The president was worried about China and Russia." "He didn't know in Korea nobody thought the Chinese were going to cross the Yalu with a million men, and we were caught by surprise." "And I remember time after time, when the military would suggest mining Haiphong or having er... sending in war planes to bomb Haiphong, he said, 'Hell no,' he said, 'some damn aviator will drop a bomb down a Russian smokestack and then I've got World War III on my hands.'" "The scale of Soviet aid to North Vietnam was affected by growing tensions between the Soviet Union and China." "The Chinese demanded that we hand over all military equipment for Vietnam on the Soviet-Chinese border and that China in its turn would pass it on to the Vietnamese." "We discovered later that the Chinese weren't handing everything over." "Some of the equipment they unloaded for themselves." "What surprised me... was that we could send the newest anti-aircraft missiles to Egypt, a capitalist country, but not to Vietnam." "Our commanders used to say... that it was because there was a danger they would fall into the hands of the Chinese." "Moscow sent missiles to North Vietnam." "And more than a thousand Soviet advisers worked on air defenses against the Americans." "When they entered our target zone, we saw six planes on our screen." "With the first missile we shot a plane." "We fired a second ahead of the plane and the plane flew into the missile." "None of the pilots survived." "Each year the American casualty rate increased." "I would go in the president's bedroom, at 7 o'clock in the morning." "Every morning, he'd be on the phone, with a 12-hour time difference, checking the casualties... of the day before. 'Mr. President... er, we lost 18 men yesterday, Mr. President, we lost 160 men," "we had 400 casualties' morning after morning after morning." "At the beginning of 1967, the Americans used B-52s to bomb communist bases near the South Vietnamese capital, Saigon." "They were trying to clear the area of Viet Cong." "The savagery and apparent futility of the war aroused increasing dissent back home." ""This confused war has played havoc with our domestic destinies." "Despite feeble protestations to the contrary, the promises of the great society have been shot down on the battlefields of Vietnam." "The pursuit of this widened war has narrowed the promised dimensions of the domestic welfare programs, making the poor... white and Negro - bear the heaviest burdens both at the front and at home." "Desperate to put more pressure on Hanoi, in August Johnson extended the bombing of the North to within 10 miles of the Chinese border." ""First I would like to make it clear that these air strikes are... not intended as any threat to communist China, and they do not in fact... pose any threat to that country." "We believe that Peking knows that... the United States does not seek to widen the war in Vietnam."" "Johnson was weakened by the growth of the anti-war movement in America." ""Come on, mothers, throughout the land Pack your boys off to Vietnam" "Come on, fathers, don't hesitate Send your sons off before it's too late" "Be the first one on your block To have your boy come home in a box!" "And it's 1, 2, 3, what are we fighting for?" "Don't ask me, I don't give a damn." "Next stop is Vietnam." "And it's 5, 6, 7, open up the Pearly Gates" "Yeah, there ain't no time to wonder why Whoopee!" "We're all gonna die!"" "When you turned on AFN and you saw riots in the streets, and whatever, and guys were saying." ""Wait a minute..." "Why am I fighting here when these guys at home are saying this is the wrong thing to do?"" "In public Johnson staged a show of optimism and support for General Westmoreland and his troops." ""The enemy is not beaten but he knows that he has met... his master in the field." "He is trying to buy time, hoping that our nation's will does not match his will."" "In 1968, in the fields and on the rivers, massive preparations were being made by the communists for concerted attacks throughout South Vietnam." "Weapons, ammunition and supplies were moved to the South for an offensive planned for the Vietnamese new year, Tet." "The communists hoped to spark a general uprising across the country." "Taxis carried chrysanthemums into Saigon for the Tet market." "Hidden underneath them were AK-47s." "The people supported the revolution." "They helped us we were able to penetrate the security in the city." "We changed our clothes and carried fake identity documents." "The people of Saigon hid us in their houses." "I didn't want the enemy to know that I knew what was going to happen." "I did know." "I made a mistake in not making that known to the American public, because they were caught by surprise." "The strength of the Tet offensive came as a shock to Westmoreland and the American public." "On television they saw their South Vietnamese allies fighting the Viet Cong in the streets of Saigon itself." "Worse still, they saw the American Embassy penetrated by Viet Cong commandos." "Now CIA men and MPs have gone into the embassy and are trying to get the snipers out by themselves." "With the Tet Offensive at its height, leading American politicians were turning on the president." ""It is said the Viet Cong will not be able to hold the cities, and that is probably true." "But they have demonstrated that despite all of our reports of progress, of government strength, and of enemy weakness, that half a million American soldiers, with 700,000 Vietnamese allies, with total command of the air," "total command of the sea, backed by the huge resources and the most modern weapons, that we are unable to secure even a single city from the attacks of an enemy whose total strength is about 250,000." "The fiercest battle was to recapture the ancient city of Hue." ""How long do you think it's going to take you to get through this city?"" ""We'll be here another few weeks anyway, cleaning it out it'll take a little while to get out of here."" ""You lost any friends?"" ""Quite a few." "We lost one the other day - good body of mine" "The whole thing stinks really!"" "When Hue was eventually retaken, the Americans found that thousands of civilians had been murdered by the communists." "Tet was a major defeat for the Viet Cong." "Their main objective - to inspire a nationwide uprising - had failed." "But Johnson had been stunned by the scale of the offensive." "Disillusioned, Secretary of Defense McNamara was leaving office." "Johnson replaced him with Clark Clifford." "I'd ask questions like, when is the war going to end?" "Well, we don't know." "How many more men do you think we're going to lose?" "Well, we really don't know." "Then I finally got down to it and said," "'What is our plan to win the war in Vietnam?" "'" "Turned out there wasn't any." "The plan was just to stay with it and ultimately... hoping that the enemy would finally give up." "Johnson was persuaded that the war could not be won on the battlefield, and that he must negotiate." ""I renew the offer I made last August to stop the bombardment of North Vietnam." "We ask that talks begin promptly, hat they be serious talks on the substance of peace."" "What he said next surprised the world." ""I shall not seek, and I will not accept," "the nomination of my party for another term as your president."" "In May 1968, peace negotiations began in Paris." "They were soon deadlocked." "The communists were determined to rule a united Vietnam." "But the United States was not prepared to abandon the South." "As the difficult negotiations continued, the Republicans were campaigning for the presidency." "In public, Richard Nixon supported Johnson's peace efforts." ""I have pointed out time and again, that at the time the president of the United States has the responsibility and is trying to negotiate in Paris for an honorable end to the war, that we should give him every chance to bring that war to a conclusion" "before this election and before his term ends, and that certainly no candidate for president and certainly I will not make any statement that might pull the rug out from under him, and that might destroy the chance to bring the war to a conclusion."" "In fact, Nixon's campaign team was having secret talks with the South Vietnamese government." "I was in touch with the Republicans, with the entourage of Mr. Nixon and the Republican urge us to stand firm." "The worst point... was... at least for Lyndon Johnson was, when he realized that negotiations were stalled... and I do know this, that he heard" "close to the election time in '68, that Nixon or one of Nixon's emissaries was telling the South Vietnamese, don't make a deal - you'll get a better deal under Nixon." "America's war in Vietnam was to last another four years." "Subtitles by Juan Claudio Epsteyn"