0:00:02 > 0:00:05MUSIC: With God On Our Side by Bob Dylan
0:00:11 > 0:00:15# Oh, my name, it ain't nothin'... #
0:00:15 > 0:00:20Well, I wanted to name him after his dad, Denton Winslow Crocker.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24So, that was the name we chose.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27He was a colicky little baby
0:00:27 > 0:00:30and so we were up night and day with him...
0:00:32 > 0:00:35..and my husband was a wonderful dad and very loving and attentive,
0:00:35 > 0:00:38and he'd walk the floor with him,
0:00:38 > 0:00:41and then he said one day, he is a regular little mogul,
0:00:41 > 0:00:44the way he rules our lives.
0:00:45 > 0:00:47So, that's where the name came from.
0:00:47 > 0:00:49We called him Mogie.
0:00:49 > 0:00:54Mogie Crocker was born June 3rd, 1947,
0:00:54 > 0:00:56the oldest of four children.
0:00:56 > 0:00:58His father was a biology teacher,
0:00:58 > 0:01:01and Mogie was raised in college towns.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05Ithaca, Amherst, and finally Saratoga Springs,
0:01:05 > 0:01:10to which the family moved in 1960 when he was 13.
0:01:10 > 0:01:14My mother read books to all of us.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18My brother was definitely the one who probably gravitated towards that
0:01:18 > 0:01:22more than I did. He really feasted on books.
0:01:22 > 0:01:24Mogie was an unusual boy -
0:01:24 > 0:01:26intelligent, independent-minded
0:01:26 > 0:01:30and too near-sighted to do well at team sports.
0:01:30 > 0:01:34He loved books about American history and American heroes.
0:01:34 > 0:01:40At 12, he started a diary in which he kept track of Cold War events -
0:01:40 > 0:01:42"I hate Reds," he wrote -
0:01:42 > 0:01:46and he admired most those who proved willing to sacrifice themselves
0:01:46 > 0:01:48for a cause.
0:01:48 > 0:01:53One evening, when I was reading to Denton before he went to sleep,
0:01:53 > 0:01:56I chose a passage from Henry V.
0:01:58 > 0:02:03Which is, "He today that sheds his blood with me,
0:02:03 > 0:02:04"Shall be my brother...
0:02:04 > 0:02:10"And gentlemen in England now abed
0:02:10 > 0:02:14"Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
0:02:14 > 0:02:18"And hold their manhood cheap while any speaks
0:02:18 > 0:02:22"That fought with us upon St Crispin's Day."
0:02:26 > 0:02:29I think that it was that sort of thing
0:02:29 > 0:02:33that made Denton want to be part of something important...
0:02:35 > 0:02:36..and brave.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55I just stayed awake last night thinking about this thing.
0:02:55 > 0:02:57It's just worries the hell out of me.
0:02:57 > 0:02:59I don't see what we can ever hope to get out of there with
0:02:59 > 0:03:01once we're committed.
0:03:01 > 0:03:02I don't think it's worth fighting for,
0:03:02 > 0:03:06and I don't think we can get out and it's just the biggest damn mess.
0:03:06 > 0:03:07It is. It's an awful mess.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10I just thought about ordering all those kids in there,
0:03:10 > 0:03:12and what in the hell am I ordering them out there for?
0:03:21 > 0:03:22It damned easy to get in a war
0:03:22 > 0:03:26but it's going to be awfully hard to ever extricate yourself.
0:03:26 > 0:03:28- It's very easy...- I'd like to hear Walter and McNamara
0:03:28 > 0:03:31- evaluate this thing.- All right.
0:03:31 > 0:03:33What's a possible time?
0:03:34 > 0:03:37Tragedy had brought Lyndon Johnson to the presidency
0:03:37 > 0:03:41in November of 1963,
0:03:41 > 0:03:43and he would not feel himself fully in charge
0:03:43 > 0:03:48until he had faced the voters the following year.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50Publicly, Johnson pledged
0:03:50 > 0:03:52that, "This nation will keep its commitments
0:03:52 > 0:03:55"from South Vietnam to West Berlin,"
0:03:55 > 0:03:59but, privately, Vietnam filled him with dread.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02"It's going to be hell in a handbasket out there,"
0:04:02 > 0:04:03his ambassador told him.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08"I want the South Vietnamese to get off their butts
0:04:08 > 0:04:10"and get out into those jungles
0:04:10 > 0:04:14"and whip the hell out of some communists," the President said,
0:04:14 > 0:04:17"and then I want 'em to leave me alone
0:04:17 > 0:04:20"because I've got some bigger things to do right here at home."
0:04:23 > 0:04:26Johnson had opposed the military coup that had overthrown
0:04:26 > 0:04:30and murdered South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem,
0:04:30 > 0:04:33fearing it would make a bad situation worse.
0:04:35 > 0:04:36It had.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45The National Liberation Front, the Vietcong,
0:04:45 > 0:04:50was making coordinated attacks throughout the countryside -
0:04:50 > 0:04:53some 400 of them in just two weeks.
0:05:17 > 0:05:21An estimated 40% of the South Vietnamese countryside,
0:05:21 > 0:05:24and more than 50% of the people,
0:05:24 > 0:05:26were effectively in the hands of the Vietcong.
0:05:28 > 0:05:33Between January 1964 and June of 1965,
0:05:33 > 0:05:36there would be eight different governments.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40All of their leaders were so close to the Americans
0:05:40 > 0:05:43that they were seen as puppets.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46One weary Johnson aide suggested
0:05:46 > 0:05:49that the national symbol of South Vietnam
0:05:49 > 0:05:50should be a turnstile.
0:06:07 > 0:06:13At the ninth party plenum that began in Hanoi on November 22nd, 1963,
0:06:13 > 0:06:17the day President Kennedy was killed in Dallas,
0:06:17 > 0:06:22the politburo had argued over how best to proceed in the war.
0:06:22 > 0:06:28North Vietnam's two Communist patrons, the Soviet Union and China,
0:06:28 > 0:06:31were giving them conflicting advice.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49In two weeks of sometimes bitter debate, Ho Chi Minh,
0:06:49 > 0:06:51who favoured the Soviet strategy,
0:06:51 > 0:06:55was outmanoeuvred by party First Secretary Le Duan,
0:06:55 > 0:06:57who sided with the Chinese.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23Le Duan believed that it was time to move quickly in 1964.
0:07:24 > 0:07:29He proposed a two-phase plan for victory in South Vietnam.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32The first phase would destroy Arvin forces
0:07:32 > 0:07:35through big, decisive battles.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39The second, an attack on the cities, Le Duan believed,
0:07:39 > 0:07:42would then set off popular revolts within them.
0:07:43 > 0:07:48Party leaders and others suspected of having opposed the plan
0:07:48 > 0:07:53were denounced as revisionists, demoted, dismissed, imprisoned.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56Hundreds were sent to re-education camps.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00"Uncle Ho wavers," Le Duan said,
0:08:00 > 0:08:03"but I have only one goal - final victory."
0:08:06 > 0:08:09- RECEPTIONIST: - Secretary McNamara on 9-0.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12- Bob...- Yes, Mr President.- ..I hate to bother you...- No trouble at all.
0:08:12 > 0:08:15..but tell me, have we got anybody that has got a military mind
0:08:15 > 0:08:20that can give us some military plans of winning that war?
0:08:20 > 0:08:22Let's get some more of something, my friend,
0:08:22 > 0:08:24because I'm going to have a heart attack
0:08:24 > 0:08:26- if you don't get me something. - We're losing.
0:08:26 > 0:08:30What I want is somebody to lay out some plans to trap these guys
0:08:30 > 0:08:33and whup hell out of them. Kill some of them.
0:08:33 > 0:08:35That's what I want to do.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38I'll try and bring something back that will meet that objective.
0:08:38 > 0:08:40OK, Bob.
0:08:44 > 0:08:46Johnson increased the number
0:08:46 > 0:08:48of American military personnel
0:08:48 > 0:08:54from 16,000 to more than 23,000 by the end of the year.
0:08:54 > 0:08:56He replaced Henry Cabot Lodge,
0:08:56 > 0:09:00making General Maxwell Taylor his ambassador,
0:09:00 > 0:09:04and selected 49-year-old General William Westmoreland,
0:09:04 > 0:09:08a decorated commander from World War II and Korea
0:09:08 > 0:09:12to lead the American military effort.
0:09:12 > 0:09:15The President hoped to force Hanoi to abandon its support
0:09:15 > 0:09:18for the guerrilla struggle in the South
0:09:18 > 0:09:20by gradually escalating military pressure.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26He authorised American pilots to bomb North Vietnamese troops
0:09:26 > 0:09:30and installations in the neighbouring country of Laos...
0:09:31 > 0:09:35..and he directed the military to oversee South Vietnamese shelling
0:09:35 > 0:09:39of North Vietnamese islands and raids on coastal bases.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44All of it was to be conducted in secret.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46The American people were not to be told.
0:09:48 > 0:09:49It was an election year.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56Johnson felt he did not yet have the political capital
0:09:56 > 0:09:59to take further action in Vietnam -
0:09:59 > 0:10:01but he asked his aide, William Bundy,
0:10:01 > 0:10:04to draft a congressional resolution
0:10:04 > 0:10:07authorising him to use force if needed
0:10:07 > 0:10:10to be sent to Capitol Hill when the time was right.
0:10:15 > 0:10:19On July 30th, 1964, South Vietnamese ships,
0:10:19 > 0:10:22under the direction of the US military,
0:10:22 > 0:10:26shelled two North Vietnamese islands in the Gulf of Tonkin.
0:10:27 > 0:10:32The tiny North Vietnamese navy was put on high alert.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35On August 2nd, the destroyer USS Maddox
0:10:35 > 0:10:39was moving slowly through international waters in the Gulf
0:10:39 > 0:10:42on an intelligence-gathering mission.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46The commander of the North Vietnamese torpedo boat squadron
0:10:46 > 0:10:48moved to attack the Maddox.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53The Americans opened fire and missed.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57North Vietnamese torpedoes also missed...
0:10:58 > 0:11:01..but carrier-based US planes
0:11:01 > 0:11:03damaged two of the North Vietnamese boats
0:11:03 > 0:11:06and left a third dead in the water.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11Back in Washington, the White House issued a warning
0:11:11 > 0:11:15about the grave consequences that would follow
0:11:15 > 0:11:18what it called "any further unprovoked attacks",
0:11:18 > 0:11:23even though Johnson knew the attack had been provoked
0:11:23 > 0:11:27by the South Vietnamese raids on North Vietnam's islands.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30Both sides were playing a dangerous game.
0:11:32 > 0:11:35On August 4th, American radio operators
0:11:35 > 0:11:38mistranslated North Vietnamese radio traffic,
0:11:38 > 0:11:42and concluded a new military operation was imminent.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47No second attack ever happened -
0:11:47 > 0:11:51but at the time, anxious American sonar operators
0:11:51 > 0:11:53aboard the Maddox and Turner Joy,
0:11:53 > 0:11:56convinced themselves one had.
0:11:56 > 0:12:01The attack was, "probable but not certain", Johnson was told,
0:12:01 > 0:12:04and since it had probably occurred,
0:12:04 > 0:12:07the President decided it should not go unanswered.
0:12:10 > 0:12:15"Aggression by terror against the peaceful villagers of South Vietnam
0:12:15 > 0:12:19"Has now been joined by open aggression on the high seas...
0:12:20 > 0:12:24"..against the United States of America.
0:12:24 > 0:12:26"Yet our response, for the present,
0:12:26 > 0:12:29"will be limited and fitting.
0:12:30 > 0:12:33"We still seek no wider war."
0:12:35 > 0:12:38If that came to be where we would be called upon
0:12:38 > 0:12:41to carry out our responsibilities,
0:12:41 > 0:12:44and having been well-trained for this,
0:12:44 > 0:12:46I never really gave it much thought.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48It was part of my duty.
0:12:48 > 0:12:52Lieutenant Everett Alvarez, from Salinas, California,
0:12:52 > 0:12:54was aboard the USS carrier Constellation.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58His squadron of Skyhawk A-4 planes
0:12:58 > 0:13:04was ordered to attack torpedo boat installations and oil facilities
0:13:04 > 0:13:05near the port of Hon Gai.
0:13:07 > 0:13:09For the first time, American pilots
0:13:09 > 0:13:12were going to drop bombs on North Vietnam.
0:13:14 > 0:13:16I remember my knees shaking
0:13:16 > 0:13:19and I was saying. "Holy smokes, I'm going into war."
0:13:20 > 0:13:22"This is war."
0:13:23 > 0:13:25I was a bit scared.
0:13:26 > 0:13:29Once we went in and they started firing at us...
0:13:31 > 0:13:32..the fear went away.
0:13:32 > 0:13:37Everything became smooth, deathly quiet in the cockpit...
0:13:40 > 0:13:42..and then I got hit.
0:13:44 > 0:13:46Coastal militiamen captured Alvarez
0:13:46 > 0:13:50and turned him over to the North Vietnamese military.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54He assumed he would be treated as a prisoner of war.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58They quickly reminded me that there was no state of war,
0:13:58 > 0:14:01no declaration of war...
0:14:02 > 0:14:06..so I could not be considered a prisoner of war.
0:14:07 > 0:14:10I recall thinking about it and I says, "You know what?
0:14:10 > 0:14:12"They're right."
0:14:12 > 0:14:15Everett Alvarez was the first American airman
0:14:15 > 0:14:18to be shot out of the sky over North Vietnam,
0:14:18 > 0:14:21and the first to be imprisoned there.
0:14:24 > 0:14:27Now the President sent up to Capitol Hill the resolution
0:14:27 > 0:14:31he had asked his aide William Bundy to draft two months earlier.
0:14:34 > 0:14:39On August 7th, 1964, by a vote of 88 to two,
0:14:39 > 0:14:44the Senate passed what came to be called the Tonkin Gulf Resolution.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49In the house, not a single congressman opposed it.
0:14:50 > 0:14:56Support for Johnson's handling of the war jumped overnight
0:14:56 > 0:14:57from 42% to 72%.
0:14:57 > 0:15:02Le Duan and his comrades in Hanoi resolved to step up their efforts
0:15:02 > 0:15:06to win the struggle in the South before the United States
0:15:06 > 0:15:10escalated its presence by sending in combat troops.
0:15:11 > 0:15:13For the first time,
0:15:13 > 0:15:17Hanoi began sending North Vietnamese regulars into the South,
0:15:17 > 0:15:22down the network of paths they had hacked out of the Laotian jungle -
0:15:22 > 0:15:24the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29On election day, Lyndon Baines Johnson
0:15:29 > 0:15:31won the presidency in his own right,
0:15:31 > 0:15:33and he won it by a landslide.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38Within a month, the President would approve
0:15:38 > 0:15:41what was called a graduated response.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45Limited air attacks on the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos,
0:15:45 > 0:15:49and tit-for-tat retaliatory raids on North Vietnamese targets.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56In private, Johnson doubted that air power alone would ever work,
0:15:56 > 0:16:00and believed that he would eventually have to
0:16:00 > 0:16:01send in ground troops -
0:16:01 > 0:16:05though he was not yet willing publicly to say so.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15In the fall of '64, Denton was 17,
0:16:15 > 0:16:18and he was determined to go into the service.
0:16:19 > 0:16:23Mogie Crocker had been restless since the summer.
0:16:23 > 0:16:25After the Gulf of Tonkin incident,
0:16:25 > 0:16:29he had confided to his sister that he wanted to join the Navy,
0:16:29 > 0:16:32but he knew his parents would not sign the consent form
0:16:32 > 0:16:35that would've allowed a 17-year-old to enlist.
0:16:37 > 0:16:42Monday morning he left for school and I watched him leave...
0:16:43 > 0:16:46..but that night he didn't come in for supper and he hadn't called.
0:16:46 > 0:16:51The day that my brother ran away has to be one of the most...
0:16:51 > 0:16:54..bizarre experiences of my life.
0:16:54 > 0:16:57I eventually happened to look in my piggy bank,
0:16:57 > 0:17:00and he had taken the money I had and left a note for me.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04He had promised he would pay me back.
0:17:04 > 0:17:07He was gone about four months
0:17:07 > 0:17:12and said that he would not come home unless we agreed to sign for him...
0:17:13 > 0:17:15..and he wouldn't be 18 until June.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19But we did agree, and he did come home.
0:17:20 > 0:17:25My husband felt it was an honour-bound agreement.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28I was hoping that I could change his mind.
0:18:20 > 0:18:22Nguyen Van Tong was a political officer
0:18:22 > 0:18:25in the newly-created Vietcong 9th division,
0:18:25 > 0:18:30one of perhaps 2,000 Vietcong and North Vietnamese troops
0:18:30 > 0:18:34who had for weeks been quietly filtering into Phuoc Tuy,
0:18:34 > 0:18:40a supposedly pacified province less than 40 miles south-east of Saigon.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05The target for Tong and his comrades
0:19:05 > 0:19:07was the strategic hamlet of Binh Gia,
0:19:07 > 0:19:12home to some 6,000 Catholic anti-Communist refugees.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18Their plan was to seize the hamlet and then annihilate the forces
0:19:18 > 0:19:22Saigon was sure to send to retake it.
0:19:24 > 0:19:28Before dawn, on December 28th, Vietcong advance units
0:19:28 > 0:19:33easily overwhelm the village militia and occupy Binh Gia.
0:19:35 > 0:19:39When two crack South Vietnamese Ranger companies
0:19:39 > 0:19:41were helicoptered in the next day,
0:19:41 > 0:19:44they were ambushed and shot to pieces.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49On the morning of the 30th, Philip Brady,
0:19:49 > 0:19:53his friend, Tran Ngoc Toan, and the 4th Marine battalion
0:19:53 > 0:19:57were flown in to relieve and reinforce the Rangers.
0:19:59 > 0:20:04It was as if you'd turned a soundtrack of shooting.
0:20:07 > 0:20:09It just went... "Raaa."
0:20:09 > 0:20:12Just like that. All of a sudden, it came out of nowhere.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18We used what little air strikes we had left,
0:20:18 > 0:20:21with helicopters calling in the strikes on our position...
0:20:22 > 0:20:23..to slow it down.
0:20:23 > 0:20:25There was no way.
0:21:03 > 0:21:05What we did was we tried to get out.
0:21:07 > 0:21:1126 of us broke through, 11 ultimately made it.
0:21:13 > 0:21:18When it was all over, five Americans had died at Binh Gia.
0:21:18 > 0:21:2232 Vietcong bodies had been left on the battlefield.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26200 South Vietnamese were killed.
0:21:27 > 0:21:29200 more were wounded.
0:21:46 > 0:21:48What it really said
0:21:48 > 0:21:52was they were capable of marshalling this kind of force.
0:21:53 > 0:21:56The Vietnamese officers I talked to in the Marine Corps
0:21:56 > 0:21:58figured they had six months...before the end.
0:21:59 > 0:22:01Hanoi was exultant.
0:22:01 > 0:22:05Ho Chi Minh called it a little Dien Bien Phu.
0:22:05 > 0:22:09Le Duan was convinced his strategy was working.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13"After the Battle Of Ap Bac two years ago,
0:22:13 > 0:22:17"the enemy knew it would be difficult to defeat us," he said.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20"After Binh Gia, the enemy realises
0:22:20 > 0:22:24"that he is in the process of being defeated by us."
0:22:41 > 0:22:47On February 10th, 1965, the Vietcong blew up a hotel in Quy Nhon,
0:22:47 > 0:22:53Killing 23 Americans and pinning 21 more beneath the rubble.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57Johnson immediately approved an air strike.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01Anxiety about what seemed to be happening spread around the world.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06France, which had spent nearly a century in Vietnam,
0:23:06 > 0:23:10now called for an end to all foreign involvement there.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14The British Prime Minister urged restraint.
0:23:16 > 0:23:18On March 2nd, 1965,
0:23:18 > 0:23:22the United States began a systematic bombardment
0:23:22 > 0:23:24of targets in North Vietnam,
0:23:24 > 0:23:27codenamed Operation Rolling Thunder.
0:23:29 > 0:23:33"It was meant to be a mounting crescendo of air raids,"
0:23:33 > 0:23:34Ambassador Taylor wrote,
0:23:34 > 0:23:37"intended to bolster morale in the South
0:23:37 > 0:23:40and destroy morale in the North."
0:23:42 > 0:23:47The thesis behind Rolling Thunder, as I understood it,
0:23:47 > 0:23:52was that as we ratcheted up the tempo and the volume
0:23:52 > 0:23:56of this effort against the North Vietnamese,
0:23:56 > 0:23:59sooner or later, they would cry uncle...
0:24:02 > 0:24:04..and there'd be a pause
0:24:04 > 0:24:08and we'd begin to negotiate our way out of the situation.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12This became an article of faith...
0:24:12 > 0:24:15..and this article of faith was a fallacious assumption.
0:24:16 > 0:24:18They weren't going to give up.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21They read us better than we read them.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26The President insisted on strict secrecy.
0:24:27 > 0:24:31The American people were not to be told that the administration
0:24:31 > 0:24:35had changed its policy from retaliatory air strikes
0:24:35 > 0:24:41to systematic bombing - that he had, in fact, widened the war.
0:24:41 > 0:24:46They jointly agreed that joint retaliatory action was required...
0:24:46 > 0:24:50General Westmoreland asked for two battalions of Marines,
0:24:50 > 0:24:553,500 men, to protect the Da Nang Air Base,
0:24:55 > 0:24:58from which fighter-bombers were hitting the North.
0:25:00 > 0:25:02In March of 1965,
0:25:02 > 0:25:06Johnson finally took the action he had managed to avoid for so long.
0:25:09 > 0:25:13He was putting American ground troops in Vietnam.
0:25:21 > 0:25:25The Government of South Vietnam was not even consulted.
0:25:25 > 0:25:30The United States of America had larger considerations.
0:25:31 > 0:25:35Clearly we saw it in terms of the Cold War.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40Assistant Secretary Of Defense John McNaughton said...
0:25:40 > 0:25:47he said our interests there were 70% to avoid humiliation,
0:25:47 > 0:25:5120% to contain China
0:25:51 > 0:25:54and 10% to help the Vietnamese.
0:25:57 > 0:25:58I guess we've got no choice,
0:25:58 > 0:26:00but it scares the death out of me.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03I think everybody's going to think we're landing the Marines,
0:26:03 > 0:26:05we're off to battle.
0:26:05 > 0:26:06What do you think?
0:26:06 > 0:26:10Well, it scares the life out of me, but I don't know how to back up now.
0:26:10 > 0:26:12It looks to me like we just got in this thing
0:26:12 > 0:26:14- and there's no way out. - I don't know.
0:26:14 > 0:26:16The great trouble I'm under -
0:26:16 > 0:26:21a man can fight if he can see daylight down the road somewhere,
0:26:21 > 0:26:24but there ain't no daylight in Vietnam. There's not a bit.
0:26:27 > 0:26:29On March 8th, 1965,
0:26:29 > 0:26:31Dr Phan Huy Quat,
0:26:31 > 0:26:37Prime Minister of South Vietnam, called his Chief Of Staff, Bui Diem.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01They were prepared to fight their way ashore.
0:27:02 > 0:27:04They did not need to.
0:27:05 > 0:27:11What struck me was how beautiful Vietnam was to look at.
0:27:14 > 0:27:19There were just these endless acres of these jade green rice paddies,
0:27:19 > 0:27:21and these lovely villages
0:27:21 > 0:27:25inside these groves of bamboo and palm trees...
0:27:27 > 0:27:31..and way off in the distance these bluish jungle mountains -
0:27:31 > 0:27:33and it looked like Shangri-La.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38So, it was really quite striking,
0:27:38 > 0:27:42but a little unsettling, cos how could a place like this,
0:27:42 > 0:27:46so beautiful and so enchanting, be at war?
0:28:16 > 0:28:19The first protest I went to against the war in Vietnam
0:28:19 > 0:28:23was a protest at a Dow Chemical facility.
0:28:24 > 0:28:27Dow was manufacturing napalm,
0:28:27 > 0:28:30they were dropping napalm on villages in Vietnam.
0:28:30 > 0:28:32It was a very disappointing experience
0:28:32 > 0:28:36because only 40 people came
0:28:36 > 0:28:41and we seemed very out of place and very ineffectual,
0:28:41 > 0:28:45impotent, standing outside with 40 people.
0:28:47 > 0:28:50Most Americans understood little about Indochina,
0:28:50 > 0:28:54rarely knew anyone actually involved in the fighting,
0:28:54 > 0:28:58saw no reason to question the Government's assertion
0:28:58 > 0:29:03that the United States had vital interests 8,000 miles from home.
0:29:04 > 0:29:08Still, there was a small but growing number of people
0:29:08 > 0:29:11who had begun to oppose the war for any number of reasons...
0:29:13 > 0:29:16..because they thought it unjust or immoral,
0:29:16 > 0:29:19believed it was unconstitutional
0:29:19 > 0:29:23or simply not in the national interest.
0:29:23 > 0:29:26The demonstrations is called a "teach-in",
0:29:26 > 0:29:29because the idea originated with a group of university professors.
0:29:29 > 0:29:34There were teach-ins on most major university campuses.
0:29:35 > 0:29:39The teach-ins were really raucous affairs.
0:29:39 > 0:29:41A lot of contention.
0:29:41 > 0:29:45..we want to discuss is wrong with the Vietnam War...
0:29:45 > 0:29:49The bombing of the North and the Marines' arrival
0:29:49 > 0:29:53also drew protesters to Washington that spring.
0:29:53 > 0:29:56I didn't want to go, because I didn't want to be disappointed
0:29:56 > 0:29:59in the same way again - and go all the way to Washington
0:29:59 > 0:30:03and stand outside the White House with 40 people.
0:30:03 > 0:30:0625,000 people attended that rally...
0:30:08 > 0:30:10..and that suddenly told me
0:30:10 > 0:30:13and others I was working with at the time
0:30:13 > 0:30:17that it might be possible to build an anti-war movement.
0:30:22 > 0:30:24It was quite astounding
0:30:24 > 0:30:27to think that he had that degree of commitment,
0:30:27 > 0:30:33and it made sense in what we knew of him, as drastic as it was.
0:30:35 > 0:30:38Mogie wanted to become a paratrooper and get into combat.
0:30:40 > 0:30:44His parents finally, reluctantly, agreed to let him go,
0:30:44 > 0:30:49and on March 15th, a week after the first Marines landed at Da Nang,
0:30:49 > 0:30:53Denton Crocker Jr entered the United States Army.
0:30:54 > 0:30:59So, Denton bounced down the steps one morning and was off to Fort Dix.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04It was, in a way, a sort of relief, actually,
0:31:04 > 0:31:07that the conflict and the anxiety
0:31:07 > 0:31:11over whether he would or would not go was done,
0:31:11 > 0:31:14and he was happy, and we just tried to believe
0:31:14 > 0:31:17that this was the right thing for him to do.
0:31:52 > 0:31:56Le Minh Khue was orphaned as a small girl -
0:31:56 > 0:31:59her parents victims of the brutal land reforms
0:31:59 > 0:32:02the Communists had imposed.
0:32:02 > 0:32:05She was raised by her aunt and uncle,
0:32:05 > 0:32:08who encouraged her to read American literature.
0:32:09 > 0:32:13She was 16 when Operation Rolling Thunder began.
0:32:49 > 0:32:51Khue was assigned to an organisation called
0:32:51 > 0:32:57the Youth Shock Brigades Against The Americans For National Salvation
0:32:57 > 0:33:00and, along with thousands of other young people,
0:33:00 > 0:33:05was sent south to work, keeping open the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47As Johnson had feared, it quickly became clear
0:33:47 > 0:33:51that the bombing campaign alone was not working.
0:33:52 > 0:33:56Troops and supplies continued steadily to filter down
0:33:56 > 0:33:58the Ho Chi Minh trail.
0:34:01 > 0:34:04You can't just be a neutral witness
0:34:04 > 0:34:07to something like war.
0:34:15 > 0:34:17It crawls down your throat.
0:34:20 > 0:34:25It eats you alive, from the inside and the out.
0:34:29 > 0:34:32It's not something that you can stand back
0:34:32 > 0:34:35and be neutral and objective.
0:34:36 > 0:34:37It doesn't work that way.
0:34:45 > 0:34:49The growing presence of American combat troops in Vietnam
0:34:49 > 0:34:51attracted flocks of journalists.
0:34:53 > 0:34:54It was dangerous work.
0:34:55 > 0:34:59More than 200 journalists and photographers would die
0:34:59 > 0:35:02covering the fighting in Southeast Asia.
0:35:12 > 0:35:15In South Vietnam, things were steadily growing worse.
0:35:20 > 0:35:22In May, the Vietcong,
0:35:22 > 0:35:27supported now by four regiments of North Vietnamese regulars -
0:35:27 > 0:35:29approximately 5,000 men -
0:35:29 > 0:35:31were destroying the equivalent
0:35:31 > 0:35:34of a South Vietnamese battalion every week.
0:35:34 > 0:35:39# Don't play with me cause you're playing with fire... #
0:35:39 > 0:35:43South Vietnam now seemed only weeks from complete collapse.
0:35:45 > 0:35:49Desperate, General Westmoreland requested tens of thousands
0:35:49 > 0:35:51of more American troops right away...
0:35:53 > 0:35:57..but neither the continuing bombing nor the growing likelihood
0:35:57 > 0:36:03of full-scale American intervention seemed to intimidate Hanoi.
0:36:03 > 0:36:06Le Duan, having failed to win the war
0:36:06 > 0:36:09before the United States sent in ground troops,
0:36:09 > 0:36:12was now persuaded the American public,
0:36:12 > 0:36:14like the French public before them,
0:36:14 > 0:36:17would eventually weary of a costly, bloody war
0:36:17 > 0:36:20being waged so far from home.
0:36:21 > 0:36:25"By contrast," he said, "the North will not count the cost."
0:36:28 > 0:36:30"We will fight," Le Duan promised,
0:36:30 > 0:36:33"whatever way the United States wants."
0:36:35 > 0:36:38In June of 1965...
0:36:39 > 0:36:43..Secretary McNamara, the Secretary of Defense, came out to Saigon.
0:36:43 > 0:36:46There were a lot of captains and majors and lieutenants...
0:36:47 > 0:36:50..and every person said to Mr McNamara,
0:36:50 > 0:36:53"The situation is so dire.
0:36:53 > 0:36:56"We must bring in United States forces."
0:36:56 > 0:36:58So whatever doubts we may have had,
0:36:58 > 0:37:01whatever people may say after the fact,
0:37:01 > 0:37:04I recall distinctly, at the time,
0:37:04 > 0:37:06telling the Secretary Of Defense that I thought we needed
0:37:06 > 0:37:09to bring troops in there.
0:37:09 > 0:37:12For three weeks, the President and his advisers
0:37:12 > 0:37:13argued over how to respond
0:37:13 > 0:37:17to Westmorland's urgent request for more troops.
0:37:17 > 0:37:21Differing mostly over how many should be sent, how fast.
0:37:25 > 0:37:29In the end, Johnson sent Westmoreland 50,000 men...
0:37:31 > 0:37:36..but he pledged another 50,000 by the end of 1965 -
0:37:36 > 0:37:39and still more, if they were needed.
0:37:43 > 0:37:45We're on the outskirts of the village of Cam Ne
0:37:45 > 0:37:47with elements of the 1st Battalion...
0:37:47 > 0:37:50CBS correspondent Morley Safer and his crew
0:37:50 > 0:37:54went on patrol with Marines near Da Nang.
0:37:56 > 0:37:59Their orders were first to search a cluster of four villages
0:37:59 > 0:38:03for caches of arms and rice meant for the enemy...
0:38:04 > 0:38:06..and then to destroy them all.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13This is what the war in Vietnam is all about.
0:38:17 > 0:38:20The old and the very young,
0:38:20 > 0:38:24the Marines have burned this old couple's cottage
0:38:24 > 0:38:27because fire was coming from here.
0:38:31 > 0:38:35The day's operation burned down 150 houses,
0:38:35 > 0:38:38wounded three women, killed one baby,
0:38:38 > 0:38:44wounded one Marine and netted these four prisoners.
0:38:44 > 0:38:48Today's operation is the frustration of Vietnam in miniature.
0:38:48 > 0:38:51There is little doubt that American firepower
0:38:51 > 0:38:54can win a military victory here -
0:38:54 > 0:38:56but to a Vietnamese peasant
0:38:56 > 0:39:00whose home...means a lifetime of backbreaking labour,
0:39:00 > 0:39:04it will take more than presidential promises to convince him
0:39:04 > 0:39:06that we are on his side.
0:39:08 > 0:39:09After the operation,
0:39:09 > 0:39:14Safer interviewed some of the Marines who had burned Cam Ne.
0:39:15 > 0:39:17Do you ever have any private thoughts about,
0:39:17 > 0:39:19any private regrets about,
0:39:19 > 0:39:21some of these people who you are leaving homeless?
0:39:21 > 0:39:22I feel no remorse.
0:39:22 > 0:39:24I don't imagine anybody else does.
0:39:24 > 0:39:27You can't expect to do your job and feel pity for these people.
0:39:32 > 0:39:33"Dear Mum and Dad.
0:39:38 > 0:39:40"What is taking place in America?
0:39:41 > 0:39:46"We who are in Vietnam find these protests very hard to comprehend,
0:39:46 > 0:39:48"and many people here are quite bitter about them.
0:39:52 > 0:39:55"The belief I have in our present policy has been completely confirmed
0:39:55 > 0:39:57"by what I have seen here.
0:39:58 > 0:40:01"My chief worry is that these pacifist bleatings
0:40:01 > 0:40:04"might affect even a small change in Government policy
0:40:04 > 0:40:06"at a time when we appear close to success."
0:40:09 > 0:40:13CLAMOUR, WHISTLE BLOWS
0:40:14 > 0:40:16As Vietnam began to be more and more chaotic...
0:40:19 > 0:40:23..I certainly wondered very much whether we should be there -
0:40:23 > 0:40:25but I never expressed that to him.
0:40:25 > 0:40:29That is one of those conflicts that is just too difficult to bring up.
0:40:29 > 0:40:31Or at least it was for me.
0:40:48 > 0:40:51We were all excited about the arrival
0:40:51 > 0:40:53of the 1st Cavalry Division.
0:40:54 > 0:40:58They were moving their artillery by helicopter,
0:40:58 > 0:41:02jumping it, leapfrogging troops.
0:41:02 > 0:41:05Chasing the enemy, driving him crazy.
0:41:07 > 0:41:09This is something new,
0:41:09 > 0:41:12and it's going to change the way we do war.
0:41:18 > 0:41:21On the morning of November 14th, 1965,
0:41:21 > 0:41:251st Cavalry helicopters belonging to the 1st Battalion
0:41:25 > 0:41:27of the 7th Regiment,
0:41:27 > 0:41:30George Armstrong Custer's old outfit,
0:41:30 > 0:41:34flew west along the Ia Drang towards the Chu Pong massif,
0:41:34 > 0:41:35looking for the enemy.
0:41:38 > 0:41:41Their commander, Kentucky-born Korean War veteran
0:41:41 > 0:41:43Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore,
0:41:43 > 0:41:47had been told there was a large enemy base camp
0:41:47 > 0:41:48somewhere on its slopes.
0:41:48 > 0:41:52His orders were to take his understrength outfit,
0:41:52 > 0:41:5829 officers and just 411 men, find the enemy and kill him.
0:42:00 > 0:42:04Within minutes, Moore's men captured a deserter.
0:42:04 > 0:42:06Terrified and trembling,
0:42:06 > 0:42:09he said there were three battalions of soldiers on the mountains.
0:42:09 > 0:42:121,600 men.
0:42:12 > 0:42:15They wanted very much to kill Americans, he said,
0:42:15 > 0:42:18but so far had been unable to find any.
0:42:19 > 0:42:21Moore quickly set up a command post
0:42:21 > 0:42:24behind one of the huge termite mounds
0:42:24 > 0:42:26that dotted the clearing.
0:42:26 > 0:42:31It would take until mid-afternoon for all of his men to be ferried in.
0:42:33 > 0:42:37That night, Joe Galloway managed to talk his way onto a chopper
0:42:37 > 0:42:41taking ammunition and water to the besieged Americans.
0:42:42 > 0:42:47And I could see these little pinpricks of light
0:42:47 > 0:42:49coming down the mountain...
0:42:51 > 0:42:56..and the next morning, all of a sudden, the bottom fell out.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01RAPID GUNFIRE
0:43:01 > 0:43:04The noise is horrendous.
0:43:04 > 0:43:06Unimaginable.
0:43:19 > 0:43:21They were trying to overrun us...
0:43:22 > 0:43:26..and they came close. They came close.
0:43:33 > 0:43:36RAPID GUNFIRE CONTINUES
0:43:42 > 0:43:47But we had two things going for us.
0:43:47 > 0:43:51We had a great commander and great soldiers,
0:43:51 > 0:43:57and we had air and artillery support out the ying-yang.
0:43:57 > 0:43:59We had it, and they didn't.
0:44:03 > 0:44:07But using that air and artillery support could be dangerous.
0:44:09 > 0:44:13Each of Moore's units carefully marked its position with smoke
0:44:13 > 0:44:17to keep from being mistaken for the enemy by American airmen overhead.
0:44:35 > 0:44:39The forward air controller called for every available aircraft
0:44:39 > 0:44:41in South Vietnam to come and help.
0:44:42 > 0:44:47Warplanes, including B-52 long-range strategic bombers,
0:44:47 > 0:44:52were stacked at 1,000 foot intervals above the battlefield
0:44:52 > 0:44:55from 7,000 to 35,000 feet,
0:44:55 > 0:44:59impatiently awaiting targets to strafe or bomb or burn.
0:45:01 > 0:45:04"By God," Moore said,
0:45:04 > 0:45:06"they sent us over here to kill communists
0:45:06 > 0:45:08"and that's what we're doing."
0:45:14 > 0:45:21I looked up and there were two jets
0:45:21 > 0:45:24aiming directly at our command post.
0:45:25 > 0:45:29He's dropped two cans of napalm
0:45:29 > 0:45:34and it's coming toward us - loblolly - end over end...
0:45:36 > 0:45:41..and these kids, two or three of them, plus a sergeant,
0:45:41 > 0:45:47had dug a hole or two over on the edge, and I looked...
0:45:47 > 0:45:49..as the thing exploded...
0:45:54 > 0:45:57..and two of them were dancing in that fire...
0:45:58 > 0:46:01..and there's a rush, a roar...
0:46:03 > 0:46:07..from the air that's being consumed and drawn in...
0:46:08 > 0:46:10..as this-this...
0:46:11 > 0:46:14..hell come to earth is burning there...
0:46:15 > 0:46:19..and as that dies back a little, then you can hear the screams...
0:46:22 > 0:46:26..and someone yells, "Get this man's feet!"
0:46:26 > 0:46:29And I reach down and...
0:46:31 > 0:46:32..the boots crumble...
0:46:33 > 0:46:38..and the flesh is cooked off of his ankles,
0:46:38 > 0:46:42and I feel those bones in the palms of my hands.
0:46:42 > 0:46:43I can feel it now.
0:46:46 > 0:46:47He died two days later.
0:46:49 > 0:46:53Kid named Jim Nakayama, out of Rigby, Idaho.
0:47:08 > 0:47:10By ten o'clock that morning,
0:47:10 > 0:47:14American air power had beaten back the enemy assault.
0:47:19 > 0:47:21On the morning of the next day,
0:47:21 > 0:47:24enemy soldiers hurled themselves
0:47:24 > 0:47:27against the same sector of Moore's line four more times
0:47:27 > 0:47:31and were obliterated by artillery and machinegun fire.
0:47:34 > 0:47:39The surviving North Vietnamese and Vietcong withdrew into the forest,
0:47:39 > 0:47:41leaving behind a ghastly ring of their dead
0:47:41 > 0:47:43surrounding the landing zone.
0:47:44 > 0:47:50634 corpses - shot, blasted, blackened by fire.
0:48:15 > 0:48:17Please convey to the American people
0:48:17 > 0:48:22what a tremendous fighting man we have here.
0:48:22 > 0:48:26He's courageous, he's aggressive, and he's kind.
0:48:28 > 0:48:30You must excuse my emotions, here,
0:48:30 > 0:48:34but when I see some of these men go out,
0:48:34 > 0:48:36the way they have...
0:48:43 > 0:48:44I haven't...
0:48:45 > 0:48:48I can't tell you how highly I feel for them.
0:48:50 > 0:48:56Hal Moore had been the first of his men to step onto landing zone X-ray,
0:48:56 > 0:49:00and he made sure he was the last to leave it.
0:50:23 > 0:50:26The North Vietnamese suffered terrible losses
0:50:26 > 0:50:28in the Ia Drang Valley,
0:50:28 > 0:50:30and many of the survivors were traumatised.
0:50:31 > 0:50:34The units were enveloped in an atmosphere of gloom,
0:50:34 > 0:50:37a North Vietnamese colonel remembered.
0:50:37 > 0:50:41Some men would not leave their rope hammocks.
0:50:41 > 0:50:43Some refused to wash.
0:50:44 > 0:50:48One soldier wrote a poem expressive of their plight.
0:50:48 > 0:50:52"The crab lies still on the chopping block
0:50:52 > 0:50:54"Never knowing when the knife will fall."
0:50:57 > 0:50:59I don't anticipate that
0:50:59 > 0:51:02this conflict will end any time soon...
0:51:05 > 0:51:08..and we could find that we have more difficult days ahead.
0:51:10 > 0:51:13Certainly, we must be prepared for this.
0:51:13 > 0:51:18# The eastern world it is explodin'... #
0:51:19 > 0:51:21When Senator Fritz Hollings visited Saigon
0:51:21 > 0:51:26shortly after the Ia Drang battles, General Westmoreland told him,
0:51:26 > 0:51:30"We're killing these people at a rate of ten to one."
0:51:30 > 0:51:31Hollings warned him,
0:51:31 > 0:51:35"Westy, the American people don't care about the ten,
0:51:35 > 0:51:37"they care about the one."
0:51:39 > 0:51:43Westmoreland, who had said he could win the war in three years,
0:51:43 > 0:51:46now sent an urgent cable to Washington
0:51:46 > 0:51:49asking for 200,000 more troops.
0:51:51 > 0:51:56The message came as a shattering blow, Robert McNamara remembered.
0:51:56 > 0:52:00He offered Johnson two options.
0:52:00 > 0:52:03Try to negotiate a compromise with Hanoi
0:52:03 > 0:52:06or accede to Westmoreland's request for more men,
0:52:06 > 0:52:10though the chances of victory, the Secretary of Defense said,
0:52:10 > 0:52:13might be no better than one in three.
0:52:14 > 0:52:20And then they all sat down and voted for option two.
0:52:22 > 0:52:25You read that, you know, McNamara knew by '65,
0:52:25 > 0:52:27that was just three years before I was there,
0:52:27 > 0:52:28that the war was unwinnable.
0:52:28 > 0:52:30That's what makes me mad.
0:52:30 > 0:52:33Making a mistake, people can do that -
0:52:33 > 0:52:35but covering up mistakes,
0:52:35 > 0:52:39then you're killing people for your own ego.
0:52:39 > 0:52:42And that makes me mad.
0:52:44 > 0:52:48Tens of thousands of American troops continued to prepare to deploy
0:52:48 > 0:52:52to Vietnam from all over the country,
0:52:52 > 0:52:56and General Westmoreland and his commanders drew up plans
0:52:56 > 0:53:00for major offences in the new year of 1966.
0:53:03 > 0:53:08Meanwhile, Johnson agreed to stop the bombing on Christmas Eve.
0:53:09 > 0:53:12"If it achieved nothing else," he said,
0:53:12 > 0:53:14"it would show the American people
0:53:14 > 0:53:18"that before he committed more of their sons to battle,
0:53:18 > 0:53:20"we have gone the last mile."
0:53:24 > 0:53:27Well, Christmas always meant a great deal in our family.
0:53:30 > 0:53:32Then a neighbour mentioned to me
0:53:32 > 0:53:34that she heard a local television station
0:53:34 > 0:53:40was offering free tapes to be made to send to a soldier overseas.
0:53:40 > 0:53:43The idea was that we would each just say something
0:53:43 > 0:53:45about what we were doing and wish him well.
0:53:48 > 0:53:49It was a horrible day for me.
0:53:51 > 0:53:55It made it so real that he was far away.
0:53:56 > 0:53:58Well, here we are.
0:53:58 > 0:54:01It's...
0:54:01 > 0:54:03Let's see, what day is today?
0:54:03 > 0:54:05- Here it is. Saturday.- November 13.
0:54:05 > 0:54:07November 13 -
0:54:07 > 0:54:13and station WTEN's given us a chance to talk to you.
0:54:13 > 0:54:17We all wish you merry Christmas, to start out with.
0:54:17 > 0:54:18Merry Christmas, darling.
0:54:18 > 0:54:21We've sent your packages and there's one that's waiting for you at home.
0:54:21 > 0:54:26It's a record of fife and drum music that we got for you at Williamsburg.
0:54:26 > 0:54:27Mandy?
0:54:28 > 0:54:34My teacher isn't very nice and she always is crabby,
0:54:34 > 0:54:37and I don't like school at all.
0:54:37 > 0:54:38Now I'm a Brownie.
0:54:40 > 0:54:42Merry Christmas.
0:54:42 > 0:54:45Happy Christmas, Mogie. I think I'm getting new skis for Christmas,
0:54:45 > 0:54:48so when you get home, let's get together sometime.
0:54:48 > 0:54:50We do all wish you a very merry Christmas,
0:54:50 > 0:54:53and we'll be thinking of you on Christmas Day.
0:54:56 > 0:54:58We miss you, sweetheart.
0:55:01 > 0:55:05# Me and my drum. #
0:55:14 > 0:55:18MUSIC: Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season) by The Byrds