0:00:02 > 0:00:03This programme contains some strong language
0:00:03 > 0:00:07This programme contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting
0:00:07 > 0:00:09Soldiers adapt. You go over there with one mind-set, you know,
0:00:09 > 0:00:11and then you adapt. You adapt to the atrocities of war,
0:00:11 > 0:00:14you adapt to killing, dying.
0:00:14 > 0:00:17You know?
0:00:17 > 0:00:19After a while it doesn't bother you.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25Let's just say, it doesn't bother you as much.
0:00:25 > 0:00:31When I first arrived in Vietnam there were some interesting things
0:00:31 > 0:00:35that happened and I questioned some of the Marines.
0:00:35 > 0:00:40I was made to realise that this is war and this is what we do.
0:00:40 > 0:00:45And that stuck in my head. "This is war, this is what we do."
0:00:46 > 0:00:50And after a while, you embrace that.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08GUNFIRE
0:01:08 > 0:01:11This evening, I came here to speak to you about Vietnam.
0:01:13 > 0:01:16There is progress in the war itself.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20Rather dramatic progress considering the situation that actually
0:01:20 > 0:01:24prevailed when we sent our troops there in 1965.
0:01:24 > 0:01:29The grip of the Vietcong on the people is being broken.
0:01:29 > 0:01:34# If you can just get your mind together
0:01:35 > 0:01:38# Then come on across to me... #
0:01:40 > 0:01:45NARRATOR: In the summer of 1967, the men overseeing the war
0:01:45 > 0:01:48in Vietnam remained outwardly optimistic,
0:01:48 > 0:01:50whatever private doubts they may have held.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56# But first Are you experienced? #
0:01:56 > 0:01:59EXPLOSION
0:01:59 > 0:02:04# Have you ever been experienced? Well, I have... #
0:02:04 > 0:02:08The American military command in Vietnam, MACV,
0:02:08 > 0:02:12claimed to have killed 200,000 enemy troops
0:02:12 > 0:02:17and had told the President that the all-important crossover point,
0:02:17 > 0:02:21the moment when US and ARVN forces were killing more Vietcong and North
0:02:21 > 0:02:25Vietnamese troops than the enemy could replace,
0:02:25 > 0:02:29appeared to have been reached in almost all of South Vietnam.
0:02:30 > 0:02:36But the United States had suffered nearly 75,000 casualties.
0:02:36 > 0:02:42By July 4th, 14,624 Americans had died.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47And off the record, many officers were much less sanguine
0:02:47 > 0:02:49than their commanders.
0:02:49 > 0:02:56From Saigon, RW Apple of the New York Times summarised their views.
0:02:56 > 0:02:59"Victory is not close at hand," he wrote.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02"In fact, it may be beyond reach."
0:03:09 > 0:03:14President Johnson had been forced to raise taxes to meet the war's
0:03:14 > 0:03:16ever-climbing cost.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19His ambitious social programme, his
0:03:19 > 0:03:21war on poverty, was in retreat.
0:03:25 > 0:03:28# Maybe now you can't hear them... #
0:03:28 > 0:03:32That summer, racial unrest would grip American cities.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35# If you just take hold of my hand... #
0:03:38 > 0:03:44The President would have to send the army into Detroit to end five days
0:03:44 > 0:03:49of rioting that left 43 dead and hundreds of buildings razed.
0:03:51 > 0:03:5626 more died in Newark, Jersey, demonstrating yet again
0:03:56 > 0:04:00how wide a gap remained between black and white Americans.
0:04:02 > 0:04:07Only a third of the country saw any sign of progress in Vietnam.
0:04:07 > 0:04:12And half of the country now disapproved of the President's
0:04:12 > 0:04:14handling of the war.
0:04:30 > 0:04:35South Vietnam had been divided into four tactical zones.
0:04:35 > 0:04:41By the summer of 1967, American troops were fighting in all four of them.
0:04:43 > 0:04:48In IV Corps, the Brown Water Navy patrolled the rivers and canals
0:04:48 > 0:04:53and marshes of the densely populated Mekong Delta,
0:04:53 > 0:04:54searching for the enemy.
0:04:56 > 0:04:58In III Corps,
0:04:58 > 0:05:02the army continued to sweep the thick jungles of the Iron Triangle,
0:05:02 > 0:05:06the Vietcong's sanctuary near Saigon that was supposed to have been
0:05:06 > 0:05:12permanently denied to the enemy by big American operations earlier in
0:05:12 > 0:05:13the year.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18In II Corps, a series of bloody battles in the central highlands
0:05:18 > 0:05:24around Dak To temporarily drove north Vietnamese troops back into
0:05:24 > 0:05:25Cambodia and Laos.
0:05:27 > 0:05:33But some of the most intense combat would take place in I Corps,
0:05:33 > 0:05:37made up of the five northernmost provinces of South Vietnam,
0:05:37 > 0:05:40where the Marines would bear the brunt of the fighting.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45More than two and a half million people lived there -
0:05:45 > 0:05:50all but 2% of them within the narrow rice-growing river valleys along the
0:05:50 > 0:05:52South China Sea.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56The Marines wanted to eradicate the Vietcong there
0:05:56 > 0:06:00and provide security to the people, village by village,
0:06:00 > 0:06:02hamlet by hamlet.
0:06:02 > 0:06:04The vast, largely empty highlands
0:06:04 > 0:06:08that stretched westward all the way to Laos, the Marines argued,
0:06:08 > 0:06:10could be left to the enemy.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14The real war is among the people,
0:06:14 > 0:06:17said Marine Lieutenant General Victor Krulak,
0:06:17 > 0:06:19and not among the mountains.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24But General William Westmoreland, the American commander,
0:06:24 > 0:06:29feared that thousands of North Vietnamese Army regulars, the NVA,
0:06:29 > 0:06:32were planning to seize the two northernmost provinces.
0:06:33 > 0:06:38Finding and destroying them remained his first goal.
0:06:40 > 0:06:45He insisted the third Marine division move north to meet
0:06:45 > 0:06:48that challenge, establish a base at Dong Ha
0:06:48 > 0:06:52and man strong points at Gio Lihn, Con Thien,
0:06:52 > 0:06:58Cam Lo, Camp Carroll, The Rockpile and Khe Sanh.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01Khe Sanh overlooked route nine,
0:07:01 > 0:07:05the east-west highway that Westmoreland hoped would one day
0:07:05 > 0:07:09carry American troops across the border into Laos,
0:07:09 > 0:07:13where North Vietnamese men and supplies were streaming south
0:07:13 > 0:07:15on the Ho Chi Minh trail.
0:07:15 > 0:07:17EXPLOSION
0:07:17 > 0:07:21But the thousands of Marines monitoring the border would find themselves
0:07:21 > 0:07:26within range of highly accurate North Vietnamese artillery and
0:07:26 > 0:07:30rocket launchers hidden within the DMZ.
0:07:30 > 0:07:32MUSIC: I'm A Man by Spencer Davis Group
0:07:38 > 0:07:41Tell me, you came here full strength?
0:07:41 > 0:07:42I had 13 men when I came here.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45And it's four days later now, how many are still here?
0:07:45 > 0:07:46Six.
0:07:52 > 0:07:56The rifles have been jamming, the mud has slowed everything down.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59The artillery comes in everywhere.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02It just gets pretty futile and frustrating sometimes.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09I can't say that I'm scared stiff, but I'm scared.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12I mean, after a while, you know it's going to come
0:08:12 > 0:08:13and you can't do nothing about it.
0:08:13 > 0:08:15And you just look to God.
0:08:15 > 0:08:19# Well, my pad is very messy And there's whiskers on my chin... #
0:08:19 > 0:08:23Private First Class John Musgrave of Fairmount, Missouri,
0:08:23 > 0:08:27who had volunteered to join the 3rd Marine Division, was sent to
0:08:27 > 0:08:30the battle-scarred countryside around Con Thien,
0:08:30 > 0:08:33a few kilometres south of the DMZ.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37EXPLOSION
0:08:37 > 0:08:40For the Marines in northern I Corps in the 3rd Marine Division,
0:08:40 > 0:08:45in the spring and summer of 1967, we called the DMZ the dead marine zone.
0:08:46 > 0:08:51Musgrave's 1st Battalion had already suffered so many casualties in a
0:08:51 > 0:08:56series of bloody sweeps that it was believed to be a hard-luck outfit.
0:08:57 > 0:09:00They were called the walking dead.
0:09:03 > 0:09:06I joined the Marine Corps to be in the Varsity...
0:09:07 > 0:09:10..and I felt like I wasn't varsity
0:09:10 > 0:09:13unless I was up North fighting the NVA.
0:09:13 > 0:09:15I have never regretted that decision.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19There were times when we were under artillery fire...
0:09:20 > 0:09:23..where I thought, you know, "What were you thinking?"
0:09:27 > 0:09:30Every major contact I remember with the NVA was initiated by them
0:09:30 > 0:09:32ambushing us.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35They wouldn't hit us unless they outnumbered us.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37And we were fighting in their yard.
0:09:39 > 0:09:41They knew the ground, we didn't.
0:09:45 > 0:09:46They were just really good.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09The North Vietnamese carried Soviet-made
0:10:09 > 0:10:12seemingly indestructible AK-47s.
0:10:13 > 0:10:18The Marines had to fight with newly issued M16 rifles that had,
0:10:18 > 0:10:23for a time, a potentially fatal design flaw.
0:10:23 > 0:10:25They needed constant cleaning
0:10:25 > 0:10:28and often jammed in the middle of firefights.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32Their rifles worked, ours didn't.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34The M16 was a piece of shit.
0:10:35 > 0:10:39You can't throw your bullets at the enemy and have them be effective.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42And that rifle malfunctioned on us repeatedly.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49GUNFIRE AND EXPLOSIONS
0:11:08 > 0:11:10My hatred for them was pure.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15Pure. I hated them so much.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19And I was so scared of them.
0:11:19 > 0:11:20Boy, I was terrified of them.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24And the scareder I got, the more I hated them.
0:11:51 > 0:11:52I only killed one human being in Vietnam.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56And that was the first man that I ever killed.
0:11:57 > 0:11:59I was sick with guilt...
0:12:00 > 0:12:01..about killing that guy and
0:12:01 > 0:12:04thinking I'm going to have to do this for the next 13 months
0:12:04 > 0:12:06and I'm going to go crazy.
0:12:08 > 0:12:10Then I saw a Marine step on a Bouncing Betty mine...
0:12:11 > 0:12:16..and that's when I made my deal with the devil, in that I said,
0:12:16 > 0:12:20"I will never kill another human being as long as I'm in Vietnam.
0:12:20 > 0:12:25"However, I will waste as many gooks as I can find.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28"I'll wax as many dinks as I can find,
0:12:28 > 0:12:31"I'll smoke as many zips as I can find,
0:12:31 > 0:12:34"but I ain't going to kill anybody".
0:12:34 > 0:12:35You know?
0:12:35 > 0:12:38Turn the subject into an object.
0:12:38 > 0:12:40Racism 101.
0:12:40 > 0:12:44It turns out to be a very necessary tool when you have children fighting
0:12:44 > 0:12:48your wars, for them to stay sane doing their work.
0:12:48 > 0:12:50GUNFIRE
0:12:55 > 0:12:59The disillusionment for me began when I was going back to fight
0:12:59 > 0:13:01at places we'd already fought before.
0:13:02 > 0:13:07We had fought, captured, and then left and the NVA came right back.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12You don't like getting wounded in places you've already been before.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16War is a real-estate business.
0:13:17 > 0:13:19We're supposed to take real estate away from the enemy
0:13:19 > 0:13:22and then deny the enemy access to that real estate.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28NARRATOR: On the morning of July 2nd 1967,
0:13:28 > 0:13:33the First Battalion launched yet another sweep of the area north-east
0:13:33 > 0:13:35of Con Thien.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38When they reached a crossroads called the Marketplace,
0:13:38 > 0:13:42barely a mile and a quarter from their base, they were ambushed.
0:13:43 > 0:13:45One company was virtually annihilated.
0:13:50 > 0:13:54John Musgrave's company rushed to rescue the survivors,
0:13:54 > 0:13:56only to be pinned down there, as well.
0:14:00 > 0:14:05It was one of the worst days the Marine Corps endured in Vietnam.
0:14:05 > 0:14:1053 dead and 190 wounded were carried off the battlefield.
0:14:12 > 0:14:1534 more dead had to be left behind.
0:14:16 > 0:14:20And when Marines fought their way back two days later to retrieve
0:14:20 > 0:14:25their bodies, they found that a number had died because their M16s
0:14:25 > 0:14:28had jammed as the enemy closed in.
0:14:29 > 0:14:30Many had been executed,
0:14:30 > 0:14:34shot in the face or back of the head at close range.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39Some bodies had been booby-trapped, others mutilated.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46Marine Amphibious Force headquarters was so desperate to get
0:14:46 > 0:14:47North Vietnamese prisoners.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52Good luck, you know?
0:14:52 > 0:14:54Don't you know what we're doing up here?
0:14:54 > 0:14:56Do you know we're fighting?
0:14:58 > 0:15:01I want to make this clear. We did not torture prisoners.
0:15:01 > 0:15:02And we did not mutilate them.
0:15:09 > 0:15:11But to be a prisoner, you had to make it to the rear, you know?
0:15:13 > 0:15:18If he fell into our hands, he was just one sorry fucker.
0:15:29 > 0:15:31I don't know how to explain it that it would make sense.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37This is Bao Cu, the day of voting in Vietnam,
0:15:37 > 0:15:41and it's a solemn day in the village of Huong Tho Phu and in other
0:15:41 > 0:15:43villages throughout the country.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46And these people have dressed up in their Sunday best for it.
0:15:48 > 0:15:52NARRATOR: South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky had crushed
0:15:52 > 0:15:56his Buddhist opponents in 1966.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00But he had been forced by the Americans and his political rivals
0:16:00 > 0:16:03to make at least tentative moves towards democracy,
0:16:03 > 0:16:07election of a National Assembly, a new constitution
0:16:07 > 0:16:11and the promise of elections for president and vice president.
0:16:13 > 0:16:15But when Ky's old adversary,
0:16:15 > 0:16:20Nguyen Van Thieu, declared he wanted to challenge Ky for the top spot,
0:16:20 > 0:16:23things in Saigon had threatened to come apart again.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28We were watching the rivalry between Thieu and Ky.
0:16:28 > 0:16:29And that was a game.
0:16:30 > 0:16:36In Vietnam, the country was watching like we were watching a movie.
0:16:36 > 0:16:40And Thieu and Ky was watching as to not whoever had the support of the
0:16:40 > 0:16:46people, but who had the support of the Americans and the White House.
0:16:46 > 0:16:51Thieu emerged on top. He was unassuming and unflappable,
0:16:51 > 0:16:56interested largely in accumulating power and personal wealth,
0:16:56 > 0:16:59and was thought unlikely ever to embarrass Washington.
0:17:00 > 0:17:02Ky would be his vice president.
0:17:04 > 0:17:09Some South Vietnamese did believe that a measure of stability had
0:17:09 > 0:17:11finally been achieved.
0:17:11 > 0:17:13Others were not so sure.
0:17:16 > 0:17:20In terms of corruption, yes, they were corrupt.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23Both Thieu and Ky, they abused their position.
0:17:25 > 0:17:31We pay a very high price for having leaders like Ky and Thieu.
0:17:31 > 0:17:33And we continue to pay the price.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42My father was in the United States air force.
0:17:43 > 0:17:48I grew up out of the country in desegregated settings.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51I was usually the only little black girl in the class.
0:17:51 > 0:17:53If you look at my class pictures,
0:17:53 > 0:17:56I look like the little chocolate chip in the vanilla ice cream.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00I was always a good student.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03I remember people saying, "Oh, you speak so well."
0:18:03 > 0:18:06And the unstated part is "for a black girl" - probably a Negro girl,
0:18:06 > 0:18:08or a coloured girl at that point.
0:18:08 > 0:18:13Eva Jefferson's father had served a year on air bases in Vietnam
0:18:13 > 0:18:19and returned home convinced the United States had no business being there.
0:18:19 > 0:18:23But when his daughter entered Northwestern University in the Chicago
0:18:23 > 0:18:29suburb of Evanston in September 1967, the war was not uppermost in
0:18:29 > 0:18:31students' minds.
0:18:33 > 0:18:35The war was not really an issue.
0:18:35 > 0:18:39It's like, well, no, the President has our best interests at heart.
0:18:39 > 0:18:43He, of course, would only prosecute a war that made sense.
0:18:43 > 0:18:45And I think most of America felt that way.
0:18:48 > 0:18:52At the University of Nebraska, Jack Todd also supported the war.
0:18:52 > 0:18:58He had felt so strongly about it in 1966 that he had signed up for
0:18:58 > 0:18:59Marine officer training.
0:19:00 > 0:19:02I went into the Marine Corps...
0:19:03 > 0:19:05..thinking this was all I wanted to do.
0:19:05 > 0:19:09I mean, my goal was to be commander, a platoon commander, in Vietnam.
0:19:10 > 0:19:14But as time went by, and the war went on,
0:19:14 > 0:19:18Todd and many of his fellow students began to change their minds.
0:19:20 > 0:19:22All young people go through changes.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25But we were going through astronomical changes
0:19:25 > 0:19:27at such a rapid rate.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32All the music, the culture, everything that we'd listen to,
0:19:32 > 0:19:35everything that we thought was transforming.
0:19:35 > 0:19:38And the core of it all was Vietnam, Vietnam, Vietnam.
0:19:40 > 0:19:45Todd attended officer training school at Camp Upshur in Quantico, Virginia.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48But doubts about the war followed him there, too.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54I guess the emotional things that were happening on the ground,
0:19:54 > 0:19:55the photographs that we saw,
0:19:55 > 0:19:59the news images and the fact that there was no discernible progress,
0:19:59 > 0:20:02it really started to eat away at what we thought.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05In the summer of '67 I was at Camp Upshur, you know,
0:20:05 > 0:20:08wanting to go kill Vietnamese people.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12And in October I was completely against the war.
0:20:15 > 0:20:20Westmorland came in last night to me and he says that he has
0:20:20 > 0:20:25concentrated more firepower in bombing in the last week
0:20:25 > 0:20:30on the DMZ, and they've concentrated more on us, than has ever been
0:20:30 > 0:20:34concentrated in any equivalent period in the history of warfare.
0:20:34 > 0:20:38And it would just be suicide if we stopped the bombing, as these idiots
0:20:38 > 0:20:43are talking about. If we stop bombing, without any reciprocity
0:20:43 > 0:20:47- on their part, it just means we kill more Americans. That's all.- Yeah.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58Neither the ongoing bombing of the North,
0:20:58 > 0:21:01nor the concentrated bombing around the DMZ,
0:21:01 > 0:21:03nor the behind-the-scenes offers
0:21:03 > 0:21:06made by President Johnson to stop it,
0:21:06 > 0:21:09had any discernible effect on Le Duan
0:21:09 > 0:21:11and the other men who ran North Vietnam.
0:21:13 > 0:21:17But many North Vietnamese civilians were weary of the war
0:21:17 > 0:21:20and of the bombing that had disrupted their lives
0:21:20 > 0:21:22and destroyed so much of their infrastructure.
0:21:24 > 0:21:26The country's most revered figures,
0:21:26 > 0:21:31Ho Chi Minh and Vo Nguyen Giap, were urging patience.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34Continuing to wage a war of attrition
0:21:34 > 0:21:37they still believed would pay off in the end.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42To silence his critics and break the stalemate,
0:21:42 > 0:21:47Le Duan began to devise and promote a new and riskier version
0:21:47 > 0:21:51of the plan for victory he had tried in 1964.
0:21:52 > 0:21:56He called it the General Offensive, General Uprising.
0:21:58 > 0:22:03North Vietnamese and Vietcong units would launch scores of coordinated
0:22:03 > 0:22:08attacks on South Vietnamese cities and towns and military bases.
0:22:09 > 0:22:11That offensive, Le Duan believed,
0:22:11 > 0:22:14would ignite a mass civilian uprising.
0:22:15 > 0:22:20These simultaneous blows would destroy the Saigon regime
0:22:20 > 0:22:23and leave Washington with no choice but to withdraw.
0:23:14 > 0:23:16We talk about our own hubris,
0:23:16 > 0:23:18there's some hubris on their side, as well.
0:23:18 > 0:23:22And once they had convinced themselves that this was going to be
0:23:22 > 0:23:25a great success, it is what some wags have called
0:23:25 > 0:23:27drinking your own bath water.
0:23:27 > 0:23:29They decided it's going to be a victory,
0:23:29 > 0:23:31even though there are people in the south saying,
0:23:31 > 0:23:33"Hey, this is not a great idea."
0:23:33 > 0:23:37But these people are charged with subjectivism
0:23:37 > 0:23:40and basically are told to shut up and keep rolling.
0:23:40 > 0:23:44Le Duan neutralised those who opposed his plan.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47Members of General Giap's staff were arrested,
0:23:47 > 0:23:49so was Ho Chi Minh's secretary.
0:24:06 > 0:24:11Hundreds of less prominent figures - journalists, students,
0:24:11 > 0:24:16even highly decorated heroes of the French war - were also rounded up.
0:24:17 > 0:24:19Many were locked up in the old
0:24:19 > 0:24:22French prison that the American POWs,
0:24:22 > 0:24:24also confined there, called the Hanoi Hilton.
0:24:27 > 0:24:34The date eventually chosen for the attack would be January 31st 1968,
0:24:34 > 0:24:37the first day of the Vietnamese lunar New Year celebration,
0:24:37 > 0:24:39known as Tet.
0:24:41 > 0:24:46Hundreds, then thousands, of North Vietnamese regulars in civilian clothes
0:24:46 > 0:24:53began slipping southwards to join tens of thousands of Vietcong already in place.
0:25:30 > 0:25:32In preparation for the coming offensive,
0:25:32 > 0:25:37the North Vietnamese hoped to lure American and South Vietnamese forces
0:25:37 > 0:25:40away from cities and big military bases.
0:25:41 > 0:25:46To do that, they would mount a series of assaults on remote outposts near
0:25:46 > 0:25:49Cambodia, Laos and the DMZ.
0:25:50 > 0:25:53Con Thien would be the first.
0:25:53 > 0:25:55EXPLOSIONS
0:26:01 > 0:26:05The big question really seems to be whether or not the North Vietnamese
0:26:05 > 0:26:08intend to overrun Con Thien.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11The Marines have tripled the number of troops guarding the outpost
0:26:11 > 0:26:16and they've moved up more battalions to be ready to reinforce.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19You spend your day filling up sandbags, trying to create barriers,
0:26:19 > 0:26:22and you just put another layer on, put another layer on.
0:26:24 > 0:26:25A lot of mud, blood...
0:26:27 > 0:26:30..and artillery.
0:26:30 > 0:26:33It's just red clay up there. And it's real sticky and it could
0:26:33 > 0:26:35just grab on to you and pull your boots off.
0:26:36 > 0:26:38It's hard to run in that stuff and running -
0:26:38 > 0:26:41when you're in a place where they're firing heavy artillery at you -
0:26:41 > 0:26:42running's pretty important.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45EXPLOSIONS
0:26:50 > 0:26:53Like almost, like, every hour, there'd be a barrage.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58People getting blown to bits, literally blown to bits.
0:26:59 > 0:27:05You'd find a boot with a leg in it and so, is the leg white or black?
0:27:05 > 0:27:07So who was the white Marine that was here?
0:27:07 > 0:27:12Who was the black? So then you try to remember and you tag it and put that in a green bag
0:27:12 > 0:27:18and that's what goes back, you know, as Marine Lance Corporal so-and-so,
0:27:18 > 0:27:19but sometimes you're not even sure
0:27:19 > 0:27:21because the body has literally been blown to bits
0:27:21 > 0:27:23and the only thing that's left is a foot.
0:27:23 > 0:27:25Or a piece of an arm.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30I carried a wall calendar from Clifford Forlow Insurance.
0:27:30 > 0:27:34He was my dad's insurance agent, and I marked off each of the days
0:27:34 > 0:27:40religiously, and then in October, we went up to Con Thien again.
0:27:41 > 0:27:43I just stopped. Because I thought...
0:27:44 > 0:27:47.."This is pointless. I'm not going to go home.
0:27:47 > 0:27:49"I'm not going to make it home.
0:27:50 > 0:27:52"What's the point?" So I just quit marking them off.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57I had the opportunity to call my mother.
0:27:57 > 0:27:59I said, "You'll probably never see me again
0:27:59 > 0:28:02"because we're the most northern outpost that the Marines have.
0:28:02 > 0:28:04"Everybody in my unit's dying.
0:28:04 > 0:28:05"I probably won't be coming back."
0:28:05 > 0:28:08And my mother said, "No, you're coming back."
0:28:08 > 0:28:12She said, "I talk to God every day and you're special.
0:28:12 > 0:28:14"You're coming back."
0:28:14 > 0:28:17And I said, "Ma, everybody's mother thinks that they're special."
0:28:17 > 0:28:19You know, I'm putting pieces of special people in bags.
0:28:21 > 0:28:23And I was feeling that my mother's in denial.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26She just doesn't want to face the fact that her only son is going to
0:28:26 > 0:28:27die in Vietnam.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30And she said, "You're not going to die. You're not going to die."
0:28:32 > 0:28:36The last thing she said to me was, "God has a plan for you."
0:28:36 > 0:28:38And I said, "Yeah, right." And I hung up.
0:28:38 > 0:28:41EXPLOSION
0:28:43 > 0:28:46Mr Stout, during what period of time were you in Vietnam?
0:28:46 > 0:28:51I was in Vietnam from September 1966 to September 1967.
0:28:51 > 0:28:55- And with what unit?- With the 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58During the time that you were in Vietnam, did you personally witness
0:28:58 > 0:29:00any atrocities on the part of American troops?
0:29:01 > 0:29:02Yes, I did.
0:29:03 > 0:29:09Dennis Stout from Phoenix, Arizona had enlisted in the Army at 20
0:29:09 > 0:29:12and served nine months in combat.
0:29:12 > 0:29:16Wounded three times, he became an Army reporter covering the
0:29:16 > 0:29:20327th Regiment of the 101st Airborne.
0:29:22 > 0:29:26He would spend most of his time with a unique commando platoon called
0:29:26 > 0:29:28Tiger Force -
0:29:28 > 0:29:32small, hand-picked teams capable of remaining in the jungle
0:29:32 > 0:29:34for weeks at a time.
0:29:34 > 0:29:36Fast-moving and deadly.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39Intended to out-guerrilla the guerrillas.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44Tiger Force fought in six different provinces,
0:29:44 > 0:29:47repeatedly suffering heavy losses.
0:29:49 > 0:29:52In the summer of 1967, Tiger Force
0:29:52 > 0:29:55was sent to the fertile Song Ve Valley.
0:29:56 > 0:30:00The valley had officially been declared a free-fire zone.
0:30:00 > 0:30:03And Tiger Force's officers took that literally.
0:30:04 > 0:30:08"There are no friendlies," one Lieutenant told his men.
0:30:08 > 0:30:10"Shoot anything that moves."
0:30:14 > 0:30:19Over a seven-month period, they killed scores of unarmed civilians.
0:30:20 > 0:30:26These atrocities were committed by soldiers of units I was assigned to
0:30:26 > 0:30:28as a reporter for the Army newspapers.
0:30:30 > 0:30:32Tiger Force was not the only platoon
0:30:32 > 0:30:35Dennis Stout covered that crossed the line.
0:30:36 > 0:30:41One such incident was the rape and killing of a Vietnamese girl.
0:30:41 > 0:30:44She was captured, kept for interrogation.
0:30:46 > 0:30:50Over a two-day period she was raped, then on the morning of the
0:30:50 > 0:30:53- third day she was killed.- Was she raped by more than one person?
0:30:54 > 0:30:58Yes, all but the medic and myself
0:30:58 > 0:31:00and possibly one other man from the platoon.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03Did you protest? Did you try in any way to have them stopped?
0:31:03 > 0:31:06Yes, after the rape incident I complained
0:31:06 > 0:31:09to the battalion Sergeant Major
0:31:09 > 0:31:13and his response was that this type of thing happens in all wars
0:31:13 > 0:31:16and that I was not to mention it - it was a common occurrence.
0:31:16 > 0:31:18And then he told me to keep quiet,
0:31:18 > 0:31:21that I did not have to return for the next operation.
0:31:23 > 0:31:28Years later, another soldier came forward with more allegations of war
0:31:28 > 0:31:34crimes. And an army investigation would find probable cause to try 18
0:31:34 > 0:31:38members of Tiger Force for murder or assault.
0:31:39 > 0:31:41But no charges were ever brought.
0:31:41 > 0:31:45The official records were buried in the archives.
0:31:46 > 0:31:48They should have all gone to jail.
0:31:48 > 0:31:50They were guilty of murder. Period.
0:31:52 > 0:31:55At the same time, I felt like that incident,
0:31:55 > 0:31:58which I think was an aberration, not the norm,
0:31:58 > 0:32:02tarred all veterans and there are hundreds of thousands of veterans
0:32:02 > 0:32:05who went and did their duty, as honourable as they possibly could,
0:32:05 > 0:32:07and they were tarred with the same brush.
0:32:10 > 0:32:14One of the things that I learned in the war is that we're not the top
0:32:14 > 0:32:16species on the planet because we're nice.
0:32:18 > 0:32:21We are a very aggressive species.
0:32:21 > 0:32:26It is in us and people talk a lot about how the military
0:32:26 > 0:32:30turns kids into, you know, killing machines and stuff
0:32:30 > 0:32:33and I'll always argue that it's just finishing school.
0:32:34 > 0:32:39What we do with civilisation is that we learn to inhibit and
0:32:39 > 0:32:42rope in these aggressive tendencies.
0:32:42 > 0:32:44And we have to recognise them.
0:32:44 > 0:32:48I worry about a whole country that doesn't recognise it
0:32:48 > 0:32:51because I think of how many times we get ourselves in scrapes
0:32:51 > 0:32:54as a nation because we're always the good guys.
0:32:54 > 0:32:57Sometimes I think if we thought that we weren't always the good guys,
0:32:57 > 0:32:59we might actually get in less wars.
0:33:03 > 0:33:07Mr Rubin, how do you realistically expect to shut down the Pentagon?
0:33:07 > 0:33:12The Pentagon represents the murder of people throughout the world
0:33:12 > 0:33:15and the American people have no control over what their government
0:33:15 > 0:33:18is doing. The only thing to do with the Pentagon is to shut it down.
0:33:21 > 0:33:26# It was back in 1942, I was a member of a good platoon
0:33:26 > 0:33:31# We were on manoeuvres in Louisiana one night by the light of the moon... #
0:33:32 > 0:33:37There was a major demonstration, either in New York or in Washington,
0:33:37 > 0:33:39every fall and every spring.
0:33:40 > 0:33:45We decided that we would try to do something more militant than simply
0:33:45 > 0:33:48stand around and make speeches opposing the war,
0:33:48 > 0:33:50which is what these demonstrations had become.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55And when the time came to lead people away
0:33:55 > 0:33:57from the Lincoln Memorial
0:33:57 > 0:34:01toward the Pentagon, 50,000 people marched.
0:34:03 > 0:34:06# We were neck deep in the Big Muddy
0:34:06 > 0:34:08# The big fool says to push on. #
0:34:10 > 0:34:14Bill Zimmerman, now an assistant professor of psychology at Brooklyn
0:34:14 > 0:34:17College, had been against the war since the beginning.
0:34:19 > 0:34:23And we found, when we got there, concentric defence perimeters
0:34:23 > 0:34:25that had been set up around the Pentagon
0:34:25 > 0:34:28to keep us at a distance from the building.
0:34:28 > 0:34:31We pushed against them, we tore down their fences.
0:34:36 > 0:34:38I was working that weekend day.
0:34:39 > 0:34:43The secretaries who were working in my area were frightened to hell...
0:34:45 > 0:34:47..what these Vietnam protesters would do.
0:34:47 > 0:34:51They thought they were going to come into the building and rape them.
0:34:51 > 0:34:53Some of them actually came over the walls.
0:34:54 > 0:34:57It was a sense of revolution.
0:34:58 > 0:35:01# Waist deep in the Big Muddy
0:35:01 > 0:35:03# The big fool says to push on
0:35:03 > 0:35:05# Waist deep in the Big Muddy
0:35:05 > 0:35:08# The big fool says to push on. #
0:35:09 > 0:35:13God knows what we were going to do when we got in the building.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16Some people wanted to commit vandalism in the building,
0:35:16 > 0:35:19other people wanted to distribute anti-war literature in the building.
0:35:19 > 0:35:21Talk to people.
0:35:21 > 0:35:24Just the idea of getting into the headquarters
0:35:24 > 0:35:26of the United States military.
0:35:28 > 0:35:33It was the first time that anti-war demonstrators had confronted
0:35:33 > 0:35:35active duty and military personnel.
0:35:36 > 0:35:38We didn't consider them the enemy.
0:35:38 > 0:35:41We considered them victims of the war.
0:35:42 > 0:35:44But we began to see our own government...
0:35:46 > 0:35:47..as the enemy.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50# When the truth is found
0:35:50 > 0:35:55# To be lies
0:35:55 > 0:35:57# And all the joy
0:35:57 > 0:36:01# Within you dies
0:36:01 > 0:36:04# Don't you want somebody to love
0:36:04 > 0:36:06# Don't you need somebody... #
0:36:06 > 0:36:08I didn't hear the word hippie until I was at Con Thien
0:36:08 > 0:36:10and we got a Playboy in the mail,
0:36:10 > 0:36:12which was obviously very important to us.
0:36:13 > 0:36:15And there was an article on Haight-Ashbury
0:36:15 > 0:36:18and pictures of the girls running around without their tops, you know,
0:36:18 > 0:36:20free love, and they were hippies.
0:36:20 > 0:36:22And we thought it was hip-pie because it had two Ps.
0:36:22 > 0:36:25You know, I'm going to go and be one of these hip-pies
0:36:25 > 0:36:28because the girls don't wear no clothes, you know,
0:36:28 > 0:36:32and they'll go to bed with anybody, you know, even I could score!
0:36:33 > 0:36:36But the only information I had of the peace movement came from
0:36:36 > 0:36:41Stars And Stripes. And that wasn't a real objective newspaper.
0:36:41 > 0:36:45So I hated them before I ever even knew anything about them.
0:36:53 > 0:36:56NARRATOR: The monsoon rains continued to make life miserable
0:36:56 > 0:37:00for John Musgrave and the other Marines at Con Thien.
0:37:00 > 0:37:04But by early November, the worst of the shelling had ended.
0:37:04 > 0:37:09American air strikes, artillery and Navy fire had taken a fearful toll
0:37:09 > 0:37:11on the besieging enemy.
0:37:13 > 0:37:16Before dawn on November 7th,
0:37:16 > 0:37:20two companies of Musgrave's outfit were sent half a mile into
0:37:20 > 0:37:24the countryside north-west of the base to sweep the area again.
0:37:25 > 0:37:29In the clear area, we had three NVA show themselves and start, just,
0:37:29 > 0:37:34spraying 30 rounds out of their AKs and then bookin'.
0:37:34 > 0:37:37The company commander himself said,
0:37:37 > 0:37:40"I want their bodies, bring me their bodies.
0:37:40 > 0:37:42"Everything's about body count.
0:37:42 > 0:37:43"Right?"
0:37:43 > 0:37:46We said, "Man, this is as old as Custer.
0:37:46 > 0:37:50"These guys are showing themselves to draw us into an ambush.
0:37:50 > 0:37:52"Lieutenant, don't do this."
0:37:52 > 0:37:56You know? "Please, these guys are bait."
0:37:57 > 0:38:00The skipper says, "We've got to go. We've got to go."
0:38:01 > 0:38:02And...
0:38:03 > 0:38:05..we went.
0:38:07 > 0:38:10And I can't tell you a whole lot about the ambush.
0:38:10 > 0:38:12I was one of the first people to be shot.
0:38:12 > 0:38:14One round put me down.
0:38:15 > 0:38:19And my grenadier was down and we were trying to get him back and...
0:38:20 > 0:38:23..Marines, from the first day in boot Camp,
0:38:23 > 0:38:26you learn that Marines don't leave their dead.
0:38:26 > 0:38:29And they never, never leave their wounded.
0:38:31 > 0:38:32And that's why I'm alive today.
0:38:34 > 0:38:38The first guy that came for me, I was lying on my face.
0:38:39 > 0:38:44He reached down and stuck his arms under my shoulders and lifted me up
0:38:44 > 0:38:47and the machine gun wasn't very far, it was maybe...
0:38:49 > 0:38:52..nine feet, ten feet at the most away from me.
0:38:52 > 0:38:54This is a very intimate ambush, it's a brawl.
0:38:56 > 0:39:02And he fired a burst into my chest, it blew me out of the Marine's
0:39:02 > 0:39:04arms that was holding me and then he was shot.
0:39:07 > 0:39:10Another very brave, young Marine, this 18-year-old...
0:39:12 > 0:39:16..from Louisiana, his first firefight, had seen what happened,
0:39:16 > 0:39:17and still came for me.
0:39:19 > 0:39:22And he reached for me and he was shot, I think, in the forearm.
0:39:24 > 0:39:27And he was laying beside me
0:39:27 > 0:39:31and I've got a hole in my chest big enough to stick your fist through.
0:39:31 > 0:39:33And I'm dying and I know it.
0:39:34 > 0:39:37And I heard this horrible screaming going on
0:39:37 > 0:39:38and I was trying to figure out...
0:39:39 > 0:39:42..who was screaming like that because it sounded so...
0:39:48 > 0:39:49And then I realised it was me.
0:39:52 > 0:39:57And they flew me to Delta Med at Dong Ha and I thought, OK, I've made it this far.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02And this doctor comes over and looks at me and I'm conscious.
0:40:02 > 0:40:04I'm lucid.
0:40:04 > 0:40:07And he checks a couple of things and I've got this huge hole
0:40:07 > 0:40:09and he looks at me right in the eye and he says,
0:40:09 > 0:40:13"What's your religion, Marine?" I said, "Well, I'm a Protestant."
0:40:13 > 0:40:16He says, "Let's get a chaplain over here, I can't help this man."
0:40:16 > 0:40:17And then he walked away.
0:40:18 > 0:40:20Another surgeon walks by...
0:40:22 > 0:40:24..and he looked at me and I was raised to be...
0:40:25 > 0:40:27..to always be nice to people.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30And when he looked at me, I smiled at him and nodded.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34And he said, "Why isn't somebody helping this man?"
0:40:36 > 0:40:39And inside, I'm going, "Yeah, why isn't somebody helping this man?"
0:40:41 > 0:40:44When they put me to sleep, I thought, boy, this is really it.
0:40:46 > 0:40:48You know and it was, kind of,
0:40:48 > 0:40:51"OK, God, into your hands I deliver my spirit."
0:40:53 > 0:40:54And I thought that was it.
0:40:57 > 0:40:59And when I woke up in the surgical intensive care ward,
0:40:59 > 0:41:03which was a hut, I thought, holy mackerel!
0:41:04 > 0:41:06I just couldn't... I couldn't believe it.
0:41:12 > 0:41:15Yesterday, over Hanoi, three American planes were shot down
0:41:15 > 0:41:18and at least two of their pilots captured.
0:41:18 > 0:41:22One of them was Lieutenant Commander John McCain III,
0:41:22 > 0:41:25the son of the US Naval Commander in Europe.
0:42:03 > 0:42:06NARRATOR: Hanoi was so pleased to have captured the son
0:42:06 > 0:42:08of an American Admiral that
0:42:08 > 0:42:12they allowed a French journalist to interview McCain in the hospital.
0:42:12 > 0:42:15He had just had his broken bones set
0:42:15 > 0:42:18without even an aspirin for the pain.
0:42:18 > 0:42:23- What is your name? - Lieutenant Commander John McCain.
0:42:23 > 0:42:27In which circumstances have you been shot down?
0:42:27 > 0:42:31I was on a flight over the city of Hanoi...
0:42:32 > 0:42:35..and I was bombing
0:42:35 > 0:42:40and it was hit by either a missile or aircraft fire.
0:42:40 > 0:42:42I'm not sure which.
0:42:42 > 0:42:46And the plane continued straight down.
0:42:48 > 0:42:49I ejected...
0:42:50 > 0:42:52..and broke...
0:42:53 > 0:42:57..my leg and both arms.
0:42:57 > 0:42:59And went into a lake...
0:43:00 > 0:43:02..parachuted into a lake.
0:43:03 > 0:43:07And I was picked up by some North Vietnamese.
0:43:08 > 0:43:10And taken to the hospital.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14Where I almost died.
0:43:15 > 0:43:16I would just like to tell...
0:43:21 > 0:43:22..my wife...
0:43:24 > 0:43:27..I-I'm going to get well...
0:43:30 > 0:43:31..and I love her.
0:43:33 > 0:43:35I hope to see her soon.
0:43:37 > 0:43:39After the interview,
0:43:39 > 0:43:44McCain was beaten for not expressing sufficient gratitude to his captors.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56All through the fall of 1967,
0:43:56 > 0:44:00the North Vietnamese and the Vietcong continued their series of
0:44:00 > 0:44:03border battles in preparation for their surprise offensive,
0:44:03 > 0:44:05still months away.
0:44:07 > 0:44:12In early November, reports reached MACV that five North Vietnamese
0:44:12 > 0:44:17regiments and a Vietcong Battalion - some 7,000 men in all -
0:44:17 > 0:44:20had begun massing in the Central Highlands
0:44:20 > 0:44:23around the US Special Forces camp at Dak To.
0:44:25 > 0:44:29Among the North Vietnamese regulars was Nguyen Thanh Son,
0:44:29 > 0:44:33who had been so eager to fight that he, too, had filled his pockets
0:44:33 > 0:44:35with rocks to pass his physical.
0:44:51 > 0:44:57As the NVA deployed their troops, Westmoreland sent his to Dak To -
0:44:57 > 0:45:00exactly what the enemy wanted him to do.
0:45:01 > 0:45:06Among the Americans were the men of the elite 173rd Airborne.
0:45:06 > 0:45:09Westmorland's Fire Brigade.
0:45:33 > 0:45:37On Sunday morning, November 19th 1967,
0:45:37 > 0:45:44the men of the elite 173rd Airborne were ordered to take Hill 875.
0:45:45 > 0:45:48Matt Harrison had been wounded in an earlier fight
0:45:48 > 0:45:50and was not permitted to accompany his men.
0:45:51 > 0:45:54He anxiously followed their progress over the radio.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59Back home, the battle led the nightly news.
0:46:01 > 0:46:04The battle of Dak To is now in its 19th day
0:46:04 > 0:46:07and it already ranks amongst the bloodiest campaigns
0:46:07 > 0:46:10of the Vietnam War. There's no sign yet of any let-up.
0:46:10 > 0:46:13Over the weekend, the three companies of the 173rd Airborne
0:46:13 > 0:46:16Brigade moved down this river valley,
0:46:16 > 0:46:19up which North Vietnamese normally infiltrate,
0:46:19 > 0:46:22until they got down here by Hill 875.
0:46:22 > 0:46:24Then they came under heavy fire from the hill,
0:46:24 > 0:46:26two of the three companies charged the hill,
0:46:26 > 0:46:28the others stayed back as a rear-guard.
0:46:30 > 0:46:35By early afternoon, the three companies had basically been decapitated.
0:46:35 > 0:46:37The company commanders were dead.
0:46:37 > 0:46:40Most of the officers and most of the NCOs were dead.
0:46:41 > 0:46:47American bombs and napalm pounded enemy positions until it grew almost
0:46:47 > 0:46:48too dark to see.
0:47:17 > 0:47:21The following day, Matt Harrison was able to chopper in.
0:47:22 > 0:47:25It was chaos.
0:47:25 > 0:47:30It was collections of guys who had tunnelled and dug down behind trees.
0:47:30 > 0:47:34And then all around were bodies.
0:47:34 > 0:47:37Guys who had been shot and blown up.
0:47:38 > 0:47:40It was the third circle of hell.
0:47:42 > 0:47:47On November 23rd, two fresh battalions of the 173rd
0:47:47 > 0:47:50finally made it to the top of the hill.
0:47:50 > 0:47:54But the night before, the surviving North Vietnamese troops
0:47:54 > 0:47:56had slipped down the other side
0:47:56 > 0:47:59and disappeared into Cambodia and Laos.
0:48:02 > 0:48:07107 Americans had died taking Hill 875.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10Another 282 were wounded.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13Ten more were missing.
0:48:13 > 0:48:16The number of North Vietnamese casualties is unknown,
0:48:16 > 0:48:19but their losses are thought to have been staggering.
0:48:22 > 0:48:26The battle for Hill 875 was, in my thinking today,
0:48:26 > 0:48:31a microcosm of what we were doing and what went wrong in Vietnam.
0:48:32 > 0:48:34There was no reason to take that hill.
0:48:36 > 0:48:43We literally got to the top of the hill about midday on November 23rd
0:48:43 > 0:48:48and sat there for, I don't know, half an hour, an hour,
0:48:48 > 0:48:52and I doubt that there's been an American on Hill 875
0:48:52 > 0:48:56since November 23rd. We accomplished nothing.
0:48:58 > 0:49:02As Matt Harrison and his men fought for Hill 875,
0:49:02 > 0:49:07the Johnson administration was in the midst of a PR campaign aimed at
0:49:07 > 0:49:11shoring up support for the war and the way it was being waged.
0:49:12 > 0:49:16MACV released a new - and surprisingly low -
0:49:16 > 0:49:18estimate of enemy forces
0:49:18 > 0:49:22to show how much damage the United States had done to them.
0:49:22 > 0:49:26It was only two thirds of the total suggested by the CIA
0:49:26 > 0:49:30because, after a bitter and prolonged debate behind the scenes,
0:49:30 > 0:49:35Westmoreland had chosen to exclude from it the part-time guerrillas,
0:49:35 > 0:49:41farmers, old men, women, even children who helped place the mines,
0:49:41 > 0:49:45grenades and booby traps that accounted for more than a third of
0:49:45 > 0:49:47all American casualties.
0:49:48 > 0:49:51Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker joined the chorus,
0:49:51 > 0:49:57using a metaphor first used 13 years earlier by the French commander in
0:49:57 > 0:50:01Vietnam, not long before their great defeat at Dien Bien Phu.
0:50:04 > 0:50:07Now beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel.
0:50:07 > 0:50:08Mr Ambassador, you talk about...
0:50:08 > 0:50:11LBJ's PR campaign succeeded.
0:50:13 > 0:50:17The number of Americans who believed the United States was making real
0:50:17 > 0:50:19progress in the war grew.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24Secretary of defence Robert McNamara
0:50:24 > 0:50:27did not take part in the public-relations campaign.
0:50:28 > 0:50:33He had become so disillusioned with the war he'd done so much to plan
0:50:33 > 0:50:37and prosecute that he wrote another secret memo to the President,
0:50:37 > 0:50:41advising Johnson to freeze American troop levels,
0:50:41 > 0:50:45turn over ground operations to the South Vietnamese
0:50:45 > 0:50:48and halt the bombing of North Vietnam in order to bring about
0:50:48 > 0:50:49negotiations.
0:50:51 > 0:50:54"There was no reason to believe," McNamara wrote,
0:50:54 > 0:50:58"that the prolonged infliction of grievous casualties,
0:50:58 > 0:51:02"or the heavy punishment of air bombardment, will suffice to break
0:51:02 > 0:51:05"the will of the North Vietnamese and Vietcong.
0:51:06 > 0:51:10"The continuation of our present course of action in Southeast Asia
0:51:10 > 0:51:13"would be dangerous, costly in lives,
0:51:13 > 0:51:16"and unsatisfactory for the American people."
0:51:18 > 0:51:20Johnson never responded.
0:51:20 > 0:51:23Instead, he arranged for McNamara
0:51:23 > 0:51:26to become the President of the World Bank.
0:51:26 > 0:51:30McNamara would keep silent about the doubts he had harboured since
0:51:30 > 0:51:34the beginning of the ground war for the next 28 years.
0:51:37 > 0:51:41His successor as Defence Secretary would be Clark Clifford,
0:51:41 > 0:51:45a prominent Washington lawyer and trusted counsellor to Democratic
0:51:45 > 0:51:49presidents, whom Johnson was sure would be supportive of the war.
0:51:52 > 0:51:59By the end of 1967, 20,057 Americans had died in Vietnam.
0:52:01 > 0:52:04The time had come, General Westmorland said,
0:52:04 > 0:52:07for an all-out offensive on all fronts.
0:52:11 > 0:52:14But the enemy was just a month away
0:52:14 > 0:52:18from launching an all-out offensive of its own.
0:52:19 > 0:52:22MUSIC: Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones
0:52:33 > 0:52:35# I see a red door
0:52:35 > 0:52:39# And I want it painted black
0:52:39 > 0:52:41# No colours any more
0:52:41 > 0:52:44# I want them to turn black
0:52:45 > 0:52:50# I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
0:52:51 > 0:52:56# I have to turn my head until my darkness goes... #