0:00:02 > 0:00:05..We have been sighted, we're unaided at the present time....
0:00:05 > 0:00:06Roger.
0:00:06 > 0:00:08ROTOR BLADES SLOW
0:00:08 > 0:00:10Good job. I saw you splatter one right in the middle...
0:00:10 > 0:00:13Helicopters are phenomenal machines.
0:00:14 > 0:00:15You can float in the air.
0:00:17 > 0:00:18You can be like God.
0:00:18 > 0:00:25This programme contains some violent scenes, and scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.
0:00:25 > 0:00:27I flew below 500 feet.
0:00:29 > 0:00:30Above 500 feet was a kill zone.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35You'd better be below 200 feet. The lower the better.
0:00:38 > 0:00:39My job was to get shot at.
0:00:39 > 0:00:41My job was to draw enemy fire.
0:00:41 > 0:00:43I was a duck, a decoy.
0:00:44 > 0:00:46I got shot at a lot.
0:00:46 > 0:00:48I engaged the enemy a lot.
0:00:52 > 0:00:54GUNFIRE
0:00:54 > 0:00:57You're just screaming as loud as you can
0:00:57 > 0:00:59to try to cover up the sound of the incoming bullets.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05Because when they pass by your ear, you can hear the popping sound.
0:01:05 > 0:01:06You don't hear the gunshot.
0:01:07 > 0:01:09You've got a 50 calibre just opened up on you,
0:01:09 > 0:01:13shooting a half-inch piece of lead, flying at you, and there you are...
0:01:15 > 0:01:17You're flying. You're 90 degrees the other way,
0:01:17 > 0:01:19and you're shooting yourself down.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22You've got the rotor blades right in front of you.
0:01:22 > 0:01:24You're trying to keep your gun from jamming.
0:01:24 > 0:01:26You're running around like this...
0:01:26 > 0:01:28Then, if your gun jams, you're done.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39Vietnam was the first real helicopter war.
0:01:40 > 0:01:45Helicopter pilots flew more than 36 million sorties.
0:01:45 > 0:01:50Their crews scattered propaganda leaflets over the enemy
0:01:50 > 0:01:52and poured lethal fire into their positions.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57Carried troops and supplies and artillery into battle...
0:01:58 > 0:02:02..and lifted the wounded off the battlefield so swiftly
0:02:02 > 0:02:06that most reached a field hospital within 15 minutes.
0:02:13 > 0:02:17Ron Ferrizzi, a policeman's son from North Philadelphia,
0:02:17 > 0:02:20got to Vietnam in November of 1967.
0:02:22 > 0:02:24He was a crew chief in a scout helicopter
0:02:24 > 0:02:26with the 1st Air Cavalry,
0:02:26 > 0:02:30flying out of Landing Zone Two Bits in the Central Highlands.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35One day, after returning from a combat mission,
0:02:35 > 0:02:37he was approached by a journalist.
0:02:39 > 0:02:40There was this, uh...
0:02:42 > 0:02:46There was a beautiful woman, you know, round-eyed woman, statuesque,
0:02:46 > 0:02:48round-eyed woman with nice hair.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50And she looked...pretty.
0:02:52 > 0:02:56"Well," she said. "Can I ask you a couple of questions?
0:02:56 > 0:02:58"What was it like out there?"
0:02:59 > 0:03:02How does it feel that a 50 calibre just opened up,
0:03:02 > 0:03:05shooting a half-inch piece of lead at you?!
0:03:07 > 0:03:09It's hard to...describe.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11It's shitty.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16I mean, isn't it apparent what it's like?
0:03:17 > 0:03:20You want to know what it's like? Go look at it.
0:03:20 > 0:03:22Go out there, go see the bodies.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25And I was ready to whack her.
0:03:25 > 0:03:27I wanted to blast her. I was ready... Whoa!
0:03:27 > 0:03:28You want to know what it's like?
0:03:28 > 0:03:30BOOM! There it is! I'll give it to you, right now.
0:03:30 > 0:03:32You want to feel it? You want to see it?
0:03:32 > 0:03:34I'll give it to you! That's what you want?
0:03:34 > 0:03:36Is that what you want?
0:03:36 > 0:03:40I don't want to tell you what it's like, because I don't want to remember it.
0:03:40 > 0:03:42That's the insanity that it brings out.
0:03:59 > 0:04:01MUSIC: Summertime by Big Brother & The Holding Company
0:04:12 > 0:04:15The enemy has been defeated in battle after battle.
0:04:17 > 0:04:22He continues to hope that America's will to persevere can be broken.
0:04:24 > 0:04:26Well,
0:04:26 > 0:04:27he is wrong.
0:04:31 > 0:04:341968 would prove to be a watershed year
0:04:34 > 0:04:38in the history of the Vietnam War, and the world.
0:04:40 > 0:04:47As the year began, there were 485,600 American troops in Vietnam
0:04:47 > 0:04:51and American leaders promised that victory was finally in sight.
0:04:52 > 0:04:56That there really was light at the end of the tunnel.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05But then North Vietnam would mount a massive offensive
0:05:05 > 0:05:08that would result in a terrible defeat for them that,
0:05:08 > 0:05:12in the long run, would turn out to have been a still greater victory.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18America itself would be convulsed by assassinations
0:05:18 > 0:05:22and battles in the streets over the war and civil rights.
0:05:25 > 0:05:26An American president,
0:05:26 > 0:05:30a master politician used to getting things done,
0:05:30 > 0:05:32would continue to find himself
0:05:32 > 0:05:35besieged by problems he could not solve.
0:05:38 > 0:05:41Robert Kennedy, the brother of the slain president
0:05:41 > 0:05:45who had escalated American presence in Vietnam
0:05:45 > 0:05:49wrote an editorial that year that seemed to speak for many.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54"Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world," he said,
0:05:54 > 0:05:57quoting the poet William Butler Yeats.
0:05:58 > 0:05:59"Things fall apart.
0:06:00 > 0:06:02"The centre cannot hold."
0:06:19 > 0:06:22General Westmoreland, when you said that you've never been
0:06:22 > 0:06:25more encouraged in the four years you've been in Vietnam,
0:06:25 > 0:06:29some critics, on the other hand, have never been more DIScouraged.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32I wonder if you could detail one or two, or three things
0:06:32 > 0:06:35that cause you to be so encouraged.
0:06:35 > 0:06:40I find an attitude of confidence and growing optimism.
0:06:40 > 0:06:42It prevails all over the country.
0:06:42 > 0:06:47And, to me, this is the most significant evidence I can give you
0:06:47 > 0:06:50that constant, real progress, is being made...
0:06:52 > 0:06:54INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER
0:06:55 > 0:06:57MAN SPEAKING VIETNAMESE
0:06:57 > 0:06:59TAPE CLICKS
0:06:59 > 0:07:04On the evening of January 1st 1968,
0:07:04 > 0:07:07Ho Chi Minh broadcast a poem over Radio Hanoi.
0:07:16 > 0:07:20Communist commanders took this to mean that the ultimate battle,
0:07:20 > 0:07:22the general offensive and general uprising
0:07:22 > 0:07:26they had been planning for months, was imminent.
0:07:28 > 0:07:33Party First Secretary Le Duan, who had insisted on the offensive
0:07:33 > 0:07:35and had purged those opposed,
0:07:35 > 0:07:39believed it would finally bring about an end to the war.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44Vietcong units supported by North Vietnamese troops
0:07:44 > 0:07:49were to simultaneously attack cities and bases all over the South.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53Le Duan promised those troops that when the fighting started
0:07:53 > 0:07:56the people of South Vietnam would rise up
0:07:56 > 0:07:58and overthrow the Saigon government,
0:07:58 > 0:08:01just as the Vietnamese had risen up
0:08:01 > 0:08:05against the Japanese in August of 1945.
0:08:06 > 0:08:08With Saigon defeated,
0:08:08 > 0:08:12the Americans would have no choice but to withdraw from Vietnam.
0:08:13 > 0:08:17The surprise attacks would begin at the end of the month,
0:08:17 > 0:08:22at the start of the lunar New Year celebration called Tet.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38The Vietcong were already infiltrating
0:08:38 > 0:08:41scores of cities and towns.
0:08:41 > 0:08:46Tens of thousands of North Vietnamese troops were now in place
0:08:46 > 0:08:48in South Vietnam.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51Tonnes of smuggled Chinese and Soviet-made weapons
0:08:51 > 0:08:55had been spirited towards intended targets
0:08:55 > 0:08:58in sampans and flower carts and false-bottomed trucks.
0:09:30 > 0:09:35More than 10,000 American military and civilian intelligence officers
0:09:35 > 0:09:37were at work in South Vietnam.
0:09:38 > 0:09:39And here and there,
0:09:39 > 0:09:43hints of what was to come filtered up the chain of command.
0:09:44 > 0:09:49Captured enemy reports described coming attacks on different cities.
0:09:49 > 0:09:5211 agents were caught in the city of Qui Nhon,
0:09:52 > 0:09:55carrying pre-recorded tapes
0:09:55 > 0:10:00calling on the local people to rise up against the Saigon government.
0:10:00 > 0:10:04All of these things were saying to us, something's going to happen,
0:10:04 > 0:10:06but we don't know exactly what.
0:10:07 > 0:10:09General Westmoreland thought he knew.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12"I believe that the enemy will attempt
0:10:12 > 0:10:17"a countrywide show of strength just prior to Tet," he cabled Washington,
0:10:17 > 0:10:20"with Khe Sanh being the main event."
0:10:21 > 0:10:26Some 30,000 North Vietnamese troops had gathered near Khe Sanh,
0:10:26 > 0:10:29the westernmost strong point below the DMZ
0:10:29 > 0:10:34that was being held by just 6,000 Marines.
0:10:34 > 0:10:40Westmoreland believed North Vietnam wanted to isolate and annihilate the US forces there,
0:10:40 > 0:10:44just as the Viet Minh had done to the French at Dien Bien Phu
0:10:44 > 0:10:4614 years earlier.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49Enemy attacks elsewhere,
0:10:49 > 0:10:50Westmoreland was sure,
0:10:50 > 0:10:52would only be a diversion.
0:10:54 > 0:10:56On January 21st,
0:10:56 > 0:10:59the North Vietnamese began shelling Khe Sanh.
0:11:02 > 0:11:03EXPLOSIONS
0:11:58 > 0:12:01When he learned of the attack on Khe Sanh, Lyndon Johnson made
0:12:01 > 0:12:06the Joint Chiefs sign a pledge that the base would never fall.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10"I don't want any damn Dien Bien Phu," he said.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14The President had a scale model of the battlefield
0:12:14 > 0:12:16installed in the White House,
0:12:16 > 0:12:19so that he could follow the fighting there, hour by hour.
0:12:23 > 0:12:28But Westmoreland and Johnson's basic assumption was wrong.
0:12:28 > 0:12:30Khe Sanh was the sideshow.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35The attacks on cities and towns that were about to begin
0:12:35 > 0:12:38throughout South Vietnam would be the main event.
0:12:44 > 0:12:48But First Secretary Le Duan's basic assumptions
0:12:48 > 0:12:51were about to be tested, too.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53For the coming offensive to succeed,
0:12:53 > 0:12:55the South Vietnamese army,
0:12:55 > 0:12:58the ARVN, would have to collapse
0:12:58 > 0:13:02and the people of the South would have to join the revolution.
0:13:30 > 0:13:36By January 30th, an informal 36-hour truce for Tet was in effect.
0:13:37 > 0:13:40Thousands of ARVN troops had gone home for the holidays.
0:13:43 > 0:13:45The enemy had not.
0:14:12 > 0:14:14That same day,
0:14:14 > 0:14:20Marine Corporal Roger Harris was scheduled to fly out of Vietnam.
0:14:20 > 0:14:22His 13-month tour was over.
0:14:23 > 0:14:26But he and his unit were still hunkered down
0:14:26 > 0:14:28under constant shelling at
0:14:28 > 0:14:31Camp Carroll, just south of the DMZ.
0:14:33 > 0:14:37When I got my orders, you know, I said goodbye to all my friends and...
0:14:39 > 0:14:44I went over to the landing zone until the helicopters came in.
0:14:44 > 0:14:48And we put the body bags on helicopter
0:14:48 > 0:14:49and I got on with the bodies.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54We landed in Dong Hoa, which was the division headquarters...
0:14:54 > 0:14:56..and about 200 metres from the air strip...
0:14:58 > 0:15:00..the air strip started getting hit.
0:15:03 > 0:15:07I'm just thinking, personally, that God realises that he made a mistake,
0:15:07 > 0:15:11because some of the guys that got killed with me were good Christians,
0:15:11 > 0:15:13that never had sex, didn't swear...
0:15:15 > 0:15:17..you know, I'd been a sinner.
0:15:17 > 0:15:19And I'm thinking God realises he's made a mistake,
0:15:19 > 0:15:21and killed the Christians,
0:15:21 > 0:15:23and I got away.
0:15:23 > 0:15:25And so now death is following me.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29Then they told us that in another hour or so
0:15:29 > 0:15:30a plane was going to come in.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33When it came in, then the artillery started coming in.
0:15:34 > 0:15:36We jumped on and took off.
0:15:38 > 0:15:41And it landed in the night, and then the sun came up,
0:15:41 > 0:15:43and we went to the airstrip,
0:15:43 > 0:15:46and we boarded aeroplanes, we were sitting there,
0:15:46 > 0:15:50everybody was giving each other pounds, slapping thighs, we made it.
0:15:51 > 0:15:55- And then, all of a sudden... - HE IMITATES SHELLFIRE
0:15:56 > 0:15:59..Da Nang airstrip starts getting hit.
0:15:59 > 0:16:00The artillery's coming in.
0:16:02 > 0:16:04And I'm thinking,
0:16:04 > 0:16:06"It's all coming after me.
0:16:06 > 0:16:07"It's all about me."
0:16:07 > 0:16:11You know, God doesn't want me to make it out of here.
0:16:13 > 0:16:18In the early morning hours of January 31st, 1968,
0:16:18 > 0:16:2584,000 Vietcong and North Vietnamese troops attack 36 of South Vietnam's
0:16:25 > 0:16:3144 provincial capitals, dozens of American and ARVN military bases,
0:16:31 > 0:16:36and the six largest cities in the country, including Hue, Da Nang,
0:16:36 > 0:16:37and Saigon.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42Their goal, their commanders told them,
0:16:42 > 0:16:45was to crack the sky and shake the earth.
0:16:53 > 0:16:58Vietcong soldiers spread out to attack specific targets
0:16:58 > 0:17:00in and around the capital.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04The war had come to the streets of Saigon.
0:17:06 > 0:17:07We heard gunfire...
0:17:08 > 0:17:12..and our first reaction was, it must be another coup d'etat.
0:17:14 > 0:17:18And then we heard that the Vietcong had attacked Saigon,
0:17:18 > 0:17:20and were still attacking.
0:17:20 > 0:17:25It came as a total shock, because we always thought Saigon was safe.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29The safest place in all of South Vietnam.
0:17:34 > 0:17:39One Vietcong squad made it all the way to the presidential palace,
0:17:39 > 0:17:42but was stopped by South Vietnamese tanks.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49The survivors holed up in a building across the street,
0:17:49 > 0:17:53and were shot by ARVN troops and American MPs.
0:17:57 > 0:18:01All over Saigon, nothing was going according to plan.
0:18:04 > 0:18:08Vietcong units were taking heavy losses from US troops
0:18:08 > 0:18:11and determined South Vietnamese forces.
0:18:13 > 0:18:14GUNFIRE AND SHOUTING
0:19:11 > 0:19:14This is the main Vietnamese-language radio station in Saigon.
0:19:14 > 0:19:17Right now there are an undisclosed number of VC inside,
0:19:17 > 0:19:19occupying the station.
0:19:19 > 0:19:24The Vietcong managed to seize South Vietnam's national radio station
0:19:24 > 0:19:28and prepared to broadcast a taped message from Ho Chi Minh,
0:19:28 > 0:19:31calling upon the people to rise up.
0:19:33 > 0:19:37But a technician radioed to the transmitting tower to cut them off,
0:19:37 > 0:19:42and broadcast Viennese waltzes and Beatles songs instead.
0:19:43 > 0:19:45MUSIC: Tomorrow Never Knows by The Beatles
0:19:45 > 0:19:50# Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream
0:19:51 > 0:19:54# It is not dying
0:19:54 > 0:19:58# It is not dying
0:20:00 > 0:20:05# But listen to the colour of your dreams
0:20:06 > 0:20:10# It is not living
0:20:10 > 0:20:14# It is not living... #
0:20:23 > 0:20:24EXPLOSION
0:20:24 > 0:20:26In the first few hours of the fighting,
0:20:26 > 0:20:3019 specially-trained commandos had blasted their way into
0:20:30 > 0:20:35the sprawling compound of the United States embassy.
0:20:37 > 0:20:39There's a rush, they are rushing the embassy.
0:20:41 > 0:20:43That's fire coming from the other side of the street now.
0:20:43 > 0:20:44Outside the embassy.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48It's across the street, you can see the tracer bullets going past.
0:20:50 > 0:20:55It's the side of the embassy.
0:20:57 > 0:21:01Roger, can you get in the gates now?
0:21:01 > 0:21:02The gate's open.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05Can you take a force in there and clean out that embassy right now?
0:21:21 > 0:21:25Apparently, the Vietcong are trapped in the basement of this side building.
0:21:25 > 0:21:27An incredible situation.
0:21:34 > 0:21:35Incoming and outgoing.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37EXPLOSION
0:21:37 > 0:21:40This is ABC News at the US Embassy in Saigon.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45All of the intruders were eventually killed or captured.
0:21:47 > 0:21:48What a sight.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54A small frog hopping through a pool of blood that's issuing
0:21:54 > 0:21:58from the head of a Vietcong,
0:21:58 > 0:22:04lying on the green grassy lawn of the US Embassy.
0:22:27 > 0:22:32An American Marine and four Army MPs were killed at the embassy.
0:22:35 > 0:22:39General, how would you assess yesterday's activities and today's?
0:22:39 > 0:22:42What is the enemy doing? Are these major attacks or...?
0:22:42 > 0:22:44EXPLOSION
0:22:44 > 0:22:49That's EOD, setting off a couple of N79 duds, I believe.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53The enemy, very deceitfully,
0:22:53 > 0:22:57has taken advantage of the Tet truce...
0:22:57 > 0:22:58..in order to...
0:23:00 > 0:23:01...uh...
0:23:02 > 0:23:04..create max...maximum consternation.
0:23:05 > 0:23:08In my opinion, this is diversionary...
0:23:08 > 0:23:11Early wire service dispatches reported incorrectly
0:23:11 > 0:23:15that the Vietcong had made it inside the embassy itself...
0:23:15 > 0:23:19Embassy ID cards were found on some of the Vietcong.
0:23:19 > 0:23:21..and the first television footage
0:23:21 > 0:23:23did little to reassure the American public.
0:23:25 > 0:23:27Is Saigon secure right now?
0:23:27 > 0:23:30Saigon is secure as far as I know.
0:23:30 > 0:23:31There's no more fighting?
0:23:31 > 0:23:34There may be some on the outskirts, still, I'm not sure.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37I can't be sure of that, no.
0:23:39 > 0:23:41Saigon was far from secure.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15Vietcong assassination squads,
0:24:15 > 0:24:18some guided by North Vietnamese spies,
0:24:18 > 0:24:21moved through the streets with orders to kill
0:24:21 > 0:24:25what they called "blood enemies of the people".
0:24:25 > 0:24:27SCREAMING
0:24:27 > 0:24:29Bureaucrats,
0:24:29 > 0:24:31intelligence officers,
0:24:31 > 0:24:32ARVN commanders,
0:24:32 > 0:24:35and ordinary soldiers home on leave
0:24:35 > 0:24:37and their families.
0:24:59 > 0:25:05On the second day of the fighting, a Vietcong agent named Nguyen Van Lem
0:25:05 > 0:25:07was brought before Nguyen Ngoc Loan,
0:25:07 > 0:25:10the head of the South Vietnamese national police.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15As an AP photographer and an NBC cameraman watched,
0:25:15 > 0:25:19Loan ordered another officer to shoot the captive.
0:25:20 > 0:25:24When he hesitated, Loan did the job himself.
0:25:40 > 0:25:42The chief of South Vietnam's national police force,
0:25:42 > 0:25:45Brigadier General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, was waiting for him.
0:26:06 > 0:26:07Good morning, Mr President.
0:26:07 > 0:26:09Hi, Jack.
0:26:09 > 0:26:11We need guidance this morning, Sir.
0:26:11 > 0:26:14Guidance, is that all you want?
0:26:14 > 0:26:18Yes, sure. Your press is lying like drunken sailors every day.
0:26:18 > 0:26:21First thing I wake up this morning,
0:26:21 > 0:26:25was trying to figure out after seeing CBS, watching the networks,
0:26:25 > 0:26:29reading the morning papers, was how can we win,
0:26:29 > 0:26:34possibly win and survive as a nation and have to fight the press' lies?
0:26:34 > 0:26:37I'm trying to protect my country, and they're all whipping me.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40Not a son of a bitch said a word about Ho Chi Minh.
0:26:40 > 0:26:42They're talking about us bombing.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45Yet, these sons of bitches come in and bomb our embassy,
0:26:45 > 0:26:48and 19 of them tried to raid on, all 19 get killed.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51And yet they blame the embassy!
0:26:52 > 0:26:54I don't understand it.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57We think we've killed 20,000, we think we've lost 400.
0:26:57 > 0:27:02We think, of course, it's bad, to lose anybody, any one of the 400,
0:27:02 > 0:27:06but we think that the good Lord has been so good to us
0:27:06 > 0:27:08that it is a major dramatic victory.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11I think, what would have happened if I'd have lost 20,000,
0:27:11 > 0:27:14and they'd lost 400? I ask you that.
0:27:14 > 0:27:16That would have been terrible.
0:27:16 > 0:27:20It appears that mortar or rocket shells came in.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23And all this blood on my pants...
0:27:25 > 0:27:27..I guess I'm...I'm hit.
0:27:27 > 0:27:33This is the streets of Saigon, and that's where the war is now.
0:27:33 > 0:27:36This is Howard Tucker, NBC News.
0:27:38 > 0:27:45The American press focused almost entirely on the fighting in Saigon.
0:27:45 > 0:27:48But the Tet Offensive was happening almost everywhere.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53Most assaults were being quickly beaten back
0:27:53 > 0:27:55by ARVN and American forces.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01Everywhere, the enemy was suffering terrible losses.
0:28:30 > 0:28:35The Americans called in massive air and artillery firepower
0:28:35 > 0:28:39to dislodge a Vietcong regiment from the city of Ben Tre
0:28:39 > 0:28:40in the Mekong Delta.
0:28:41 > 0:28:46Afterwards, a reporter quoted an American major as having said,
0:28:46 > 0:28:50"It became necessary to destroy the town to save it."
0:28:52 > 0:28:54The landing zone on this, the south side of the river,
0:28:54 > 0:28:58has been under almost constant mortar and small-arms fire.
0:28:58 > 0:29:01And today, at any rate, Hue is cut-off.
0:29:05 > 0:29:09The longest, bloodiest battle of the Tet Offensive
0:29:09 > 0:29:14was being fought in the streets of the former imperial capital, Hue,
0:29:14 > 0:29:17where North Vietnamese regulars and Vietcong guerrillas
0:29:17 > 0:29:20had taken over both sides of the city.
0:30:08 > 0:30:12It would take two weeks for the Marines to fight their way
0:30:12 > 0:30:14across the river to support the ARVN,
0:30:14 > 0:30:17who had stubbornly kept the enemy from overwhelming
0:30:17 > 0:30:21their division headquarters in the citadel.
0:30:41 > 0:30:43What's the hardest part of it?
0:30:44 > 0:30:46Not knowing where they are. That's the worst of it.
0:30:46 > 0:30:49They run into the sewers, the gutters, anywhere.
0:30:49 > 0:30:51Could be anywhere.
0:30:51 > 0:30:53You're just hoping to stay alive, day-to-day.
0:30:53 > 0:30:55I just want to go back home, and go to school. That's about it.
0:30:55 > 0:30:57Have you lost any friends?
0:30:57 > 0:31:00Quite a few. We lost one the other day, didn't we?
0:31:00 > 0:31:02Plenty of them. The whole thing stinks, really.
0:31:04 > 0:31:06SHOUTING AND GUNFIRE
0:32:01 > 0:32:05After 26 days of bitter, bloody fighting,
0:32:05 > 0:32:09the flag of South Vietnam flew again above the citadel.
0:32:11 > 0:32:15The surviving North Vietnamese and Vietcong were finally permitted
0:32:15 > 0:32:18by their commanders to pull out of the city.
0:32:18 > 0:32:23Some 6,000 civilians had died in the rubble.
0:32:24 > 0:32:28Of the city's 135,000 citizens,
0:32:28 > 0:32:31110,000 had lost their homes.
0:32:34 > 0:32:38All that was left of Hue, one reporter wrote,
0:32:38 > 0:32:40was ruins divided by a river.
0:32:43 > 0:32:48The biggest fact is that the stated purposes of the general uprising,
0:32:48 > 0:32:53a military victory, or a psychological victory, have failed.
0:32:56 > 0:33:00The attack on the radio station started at 2:30 in the morning.
0:33:00 > 0:33:02Night after night for weeks,
0:33:02 > 0:33:05American television screens had been filled
0:33:05 > 0:33:09with images of blood and violence and devastation
0:33:09 > 0:33:12the public had rarely seen before.
0:33:15 > 0:33:19But it was one photograph that, for many people,
0:33:19 > 0:33:22would come to define the Tet Offensive.
0:33:26 > 0:33:29It's a devastating thing to see.
0:33:29 > 0:33:31I think many Americans began to ask themselves,
0:33:31 > 0:33:35are we supporting the wrong guys here?
0:33:35 > 0:33:38It's sort of brings home, I think, to the dinner table...
0:33:39 > 0:33:42..or the breakfast table if you see it in the papers,
0:33:42 > 0:33:43the brutality of this war,
0:33:43 > 0:33:47and the fact it looks like it's never going to end.
0:33:47 > 0:33:51But what we know is the price we pay for that picture.
0:33:53 > 0:33:56It was a turning point.
0:33:56 > 0:34:00Because that put the Americans to a position to say, hey, look,
0:34:00 > 0:34:03we want to spend money and the lives of our young people,
0:34:03 > 0:34:05to protect such a system?
0:34:12 > 0:34:16In early March, after Hue had finally been recaptured,
0:34:16 > 0:34:21Second Lieutenant Phil Gioia of the 82nd Airborne Division
0:34:21 > 0:34:24led his platoon along the Perfume River
0:34:24 > 0:34:28looking for weapons that might have been buried by the retreating enemy.
0:34:30 > 0:34:32Gioia's Sergeant, Reuben Torres,
0:34:32 > 0:34:35saw something sticking up from the sandy soil.
0:34:36 > 0:34:38It was an elbow.
0:34:40 > 0:34:43So, to us, it seemed as though this was going to be a grave,
0:34:43 > 0:34:46where the enemy had buried some of his own people
0:34:46 > 0:34:48on withdrawal from Hue.
0:34:50 > 0:34:53We found the first body. It was a woman.
0:34:54 > 0:34:58She was wearing a white blouse and black trousers.
0:34:58 > 0:35:00She had her hands tied behind her back
0:35:00 > 0:35:03and she'd been shot in the back of the head.
0:35:04 > 0:35:06Next to her was a child, who had also been shot.
0:35:08 > 0:35:10The next person coming up was another woman.
0:35:13 > 0:35:15At that point it was clear that this wasn't
0:35:15 > 0:35:17enemy North Vietnamese or Vietcong.
0:35:42 > 0:35:45Before they abandoned the city,
0:35:45 > 0:35:48the Communists had systematically executed
0:35:48 > 0:35:54at least 2,800 people they called hooligans and reactionaries.
0:35:56 > 0:36:00Hanoi would always deny that any innocent civilians had been killed.
0:36:02 > 0:36:03WAILING
0:36:41 > 0:36:46President Johnson insisted that the Tet Offensive had been a devastating
0:36:46 > 0:36:48defeat for the Communists.
0:36:49 > 0:36:51Militarily, he was right.
0:36:52 > 0:36:56The basic assumptions on which the North Vietnamese mounted their
0:36:56 > 0:36:58offensive had all proved to be wrong.
0:37:00 > 0:37:03Hanoi's leaders had assumed the ARVN would crumble,
0:37:03 > 0:37:07that South Vietnamese soldiers would come over to their side.
0:37:08 > 0:37:11Instead, not a single unit defected.
0:37:14 > 0:37:17The civilian populace Hanoi expected to rise up
0:37:17 > 0:37:20may have been unhappy with their Government,
0:37:20 > 0:37:23but they had little sympathy for communism.
0:37:25 > 0:37:26And when the fighting began,
0:37:26 > 0:37:31they had hidden in their homes to escape the fury in the streets.
0:37:48 > 0:37:51North Vietnamese general Vo Nguyen Giap,
0:37:51 > 0:37:54who had opposed the offensive from the beginning,
0:37:54 > 0:37:57later remembered that Tet had been
0:37:57 > 0:38:01"a costly lesson, paid for in blood and bone".
0:38:03 > 0:38:09Of the 84,000 enemy troops who are estimated to have taken part
0:38:09 > 0:38:12in the Tet Offensive, more than half -
0:38:12 > 0:38:17as many as 58,000 men and women, most of them Vietcong -
0:38:17 > 0:38:21are thought to have been killed or wounded, or captured.
0:38:23 > 0:38:25The American military command
0:38:25 > 0:38:27celebrated the Tet Offensive as a victory.
0:38:27 > 0:38:31You know, they finally came at us, and we blew them away,
0:38:31 > 0:38:33which was basically true.
0:38:33 > 0:38:38But the administration had been telling the American public
0:38:38 > 0:38:41for most of the end of '67 and for the first month of 1968,
0:38:41 > 0:38:43that the war was being won.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47The Tet Offensive has forced our generals to re-evaluate.
0:38:47 > 0:38:49So when Tet hit,
0:38:49 > 0:38:51it contradicted everything that the administration
0:38:51 > 0:38:54and the Saigon country team
0:38:54 > 0:38:56had been telling the American public
0:38:56 > 0:38:59through its journalists for the previous four or five months.
0:38:59 > 0:39:04John Laurence, CBS News, Saigon.
0:39:04 > 0:39:09And then, the most ferocious possible argument erupted
0:39:09 > 0:39:12inside the US government.
0:39:12 > 0:39:17Because the hawks on the war were saying
0:39:17 > 0:39:21Tet was North Vietnam's last gasp.
0:39:22 > 0:39:26It was their last shot at winning the war, and they failed.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30We beat them, and that's the end of them.
0:39:31 > 0:39:35And we said, after all these years of war,
0:39:35 > 0:39:38if that's what they're able to do,
0:39:38 > 0:39:42we ought to learn some lessons about their commitment
0:39:42 > 0:39:46to this war, as well, and the cost to us.
0:39:46 > 0:39:50On March 10th, The New York Times reported that
0:39:50 > 0:39:53the army was requesting 206,000
0:39:53 > 0:39:55additional troops for Vietnam.
0:39:57 > 0:40:02Walter Cronkite, the respected anchor of the CBS evening news,
0:40:02 > 0:40:05had come home from covering the Tet Offensive
0:40:05 > 0:40:09convinced victory was no longer possible.
0:40:09 > 0:40:11To say that we are closer to victory today
0:40:11 > 0:40:14is to believe, in the face of the evidence,
0:40:14 > 0:40:17the optimists who have been wrong in the past.
0:40:17 > 0:40:19To suggest we are on the edge of defeat
0:40:19 > 0:40:22is to yield to unreasonable pessimism.
0:40:22 > 0:40:25To say that we are mired in stalemate
0:40:25 > 0:40:30seems the only realistic yet unsatisfactory conclusion.
0:40:30 > 0:40:33But it is increasingly clear to this reporter
0:40:33 > 0:40:37that the only rational way out then would be to negotiate -
0:40:37 > 0:40:40not as victors, but as an honourable people
0:40:40 > 0:40:43who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy
0:40:43 > 0:40:47and did the best they could.
0:40:47 > 0:40:49This is Walter Cronkite. Goodnight.
0:40:54 > 0:40:58President Johnson was facing an unexpected challenge
0:40:58 > 0:41:01in the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary.
0:41:02 > 0:41:05The most recent poll has suggested
0:41:05 > 0:41:08he would beat Eugene McCarthy two to one.
0:41:08 > 0:41:13But Johnson won just 49.6% of the vote,
0:41:13 > 0:41:16against 41.9% for his opponent.
0:41:18 > 0:41:20Johnson knew he was in trouble.
0:41:20 > 0:41:22..for the presidency of the United States...
0:41:22 > 0:41:23And there was more to come.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28I do not run for the presidency merely to oppose any man...
0:41:28 > 0:41:31Just four days after the New Hampshire Primary
0:41:31 > 0:41:35Robert F Kennedy declared HIS candidacy for the presidency...
0:41:35 > 0:41:37The country is on a perilous course...
0:41:37 > 0:41:42..and polls suggested he was more popular than Lyndon Johnson.
0:41:42 > 0:41:44I run because it is now unmistakably clear...
0:41:45 > 0:41:50..that we could change these disastrous, divisive policies,
0:41:50 > 0:41:54only by changing the men who are now making them.
0:42:03 > 0:42:10President Johnson ultimately agreed to send just 13,500 more troops -
0:42:10 > 0:42:14not the 206,000 the generals had requested -
0:42:14 > 0:42:18and decided to recall William Westmoreland to Washington
0:42:18 > 0:42:20as Chief of Staff of the Army,
0:42:20 > 0:42:25replacing him with his deputy, General Creighton W Abrams.
0:42:27 > 0:42:32His face was a mask of exhaustion and defeat.
0:42:32 > 0:42:34It was very sad to see the man.
0:42:36 > 0:42:38He was broken by it.
0:42:40 > 0:42:45On March 30th, Gallup reported that 63% of the public disapproved
0:42:45 > 0:42:51of Johnson's handling of the war - the lowest point of his presidency.
0:42:53 > 0:42:55Good evening, my fellow Americans.
0:42:56 > 0:42:58Tonight I want to speak to you...
0:43:00 > 0:43:02..of peace in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.
0:43:04 > 0:43:07Johnson announced that he had decided to stop bombing
0:43:07 > 0:43:11the densely populated areas around Hanoi and Haiphong
0:43:11 > 0:43:14in the hope that North Vietnam
0:43:14 > 0:43:17would finally be willing to come to the negotiating table.
0:43:18 > 0:43:20Only the southern half of the country
0:43:20 > 0:43:22would continue to be targeted.
0:43:24 > 0:43:28Then, he stunned the country, and the world.
0:43:30 > 0:43:31I do not believe...
0:43:32 > 0:43:37..that I should devote an hour or day of my time
0:43:37 > 0:43:40to any personal partisan causes,
0:43:40 > 0:43:42or to any duties other...
0:43:44 > 0:43:46..than the awesome duties...
0:43:47 > 0:43:49..of this office.
0:43:49 > 0:43:50The presidency...
0:43:51 > 0:43:53..of your country.
0:43:53 > 0:43:54Accordingly...
0:43:55 > 0:43:57..I shall not seek...
0:43:59 > 0:44:01..and I will not accept...
0:44:02 > 0:44:05..the nomination of my party for another term as your president.
0:44:16 > 0:44:18I land in Boston,
0:44:18 > 0:44:20and I'm feeling good.
0:44:20 > 0:44:24Because I survived and, you know, I fought for my country.
0:44:24 > 0:44:26And I got off the plane, I stepped out there,
0:44:26 > 0:44:28and I'm just happy to be home.
0:44:29 > 0:44:31And, um, I had my uniform on.
0:44:32 > 0:44:37And I walked up to the kerb, and the cabs just kept going by me.
0:44:38 > 0:44:39Kept going by me.
0:44:40 > 0:44:44And there was a state trooper that was standing there, and
0:44:44 > 0:44:47I didn't realise what was happening.
0:44:47 > 0:44:50He stopped the cab, and he says, you have to take this man.
0:44:51 > 0:44:53You have to take this soldier.
0:44:53 > 0:44:55And the driver looked over at me, and he said,
0:44:55 > 0:44:56I don't want to go to Roxbury.
0:44:58 > 0:45:01They don't see me as a soldier, you know, they see me as a nigger.
0:45:01 > 0:45:04And I live in Roxbury.
0:45:04 > 0:45:06You know.
0:45:06 > 0:45:07I'm thinking, I'm a Marine.
0:45:07 > 0:45:09I'm a Marine. You know,
0:45:09 > 0:45:13I fought for my country, 13 months in a combat zone.
0:45:13 > 0:45:14And I can't get a cab to get home.
0:45:16 > 0:45:20I have some very sad news for all of you,
0:45:20 > 0:45:24and I think sad news for all of our fellow citizens,
0:45:24 > 0:45:28and people who love peace all over the world.
0:45:29 > 0:45:34And that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight.
0:45:34 > 0:45:35SCREAMING
0:45:38 > 0:45:39In this difficult day...
0:45:41 > 0:45:44..in this difficult time for the United States,
0:45:44 > 0:45:47it's perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are...
0:45:49 > 0:45:51..and what direction we want to move in.
0:45:53 > 0:45:56Over the next week, African Americans,
0:45:56 > 0:46:00grieving, frustrated, angry,
0:46:00 > 0:46:03poured into the streets of more than 100 towns and cities...
0:46:05 > 0:46:07..including New York and Oakland,
0:46:07 > 0:46:09Newark and Nashville,
0:46:09 > 0:46:12Chicago and Cincinnati,
0:46:12 > 0:46:13and Baltimore.
0:46:14 > 0:46:16And in Washington, DC,
0:46:16 > 0:46:20where fires came within two blocks of the White House.
0:46:22 > 0:46:25When they killed Dr King, they just opened up our eyes, and thought,
0:46:25 > 0:46:29the amount of black people who were afraid to pick up guns.
0:46:29 > 0:46:32Now they will pick up those guns.
0:46:32 > 0:46:36We are living in a sick world, this racist society in which we live,
0:46:36 > 0:46:38is that that really pulled the trigger.
0:46:39 > 0:46:41Violence breeds violence.
0:46:41 > 0:46:45Repression breeds retaliation.
0:46:45 > 0:46:47And only a cleansing
0:46:47 > 0:46:48of our whole society...
0:46:49 > 0:46:50..can remove this sickness...
0:46:52 > 0:46:53..from ourselves.
0:46:53 > 0:46:58Tens of thousands of National Guardsmen, regular army troops,
0:46:58 > 0:47:02and the Marines - including Roger Harris's Stateside unit -
0:47:02 > 0:47:06were ordered to patrol American streets.
0:47:08 > 0:47:10You know, I was ready to go.
0:47:10 > 0:47:12Until I saw what they were giving out.
0:47:13 > 0:47:17They were passing out flak jackets, helmets, M16s with live ammunition.
0:47:18 > 0:47:20The same things we had in Vietnam.
0:47:22 > 0:47:23And when I saw that, I...
0:47:24 > 0:47:26..I said, ah, I said I'm not going.
0:47:26 > 0:47:28I'm not going.
0:47:28 > 0:47:30I said I've got a family in Washington, DC...
0:47:31 > 0:47:33..and my company commander said,
0:47:33 > 0:47:34"Get on the truck, Marine."
0:47:37 > 0:47:39I said, I'm not going.
0:47:41 > 0:47:44I didn't make Sergeant because I refused to go.
0:47:46 > 0:47:4946 Americans died,
0:47:49 > 0:47:522,600 were injured.
0:47:52 > 0:47:5520,000 were arrested.
0:47:59 > 0:48:01Later that same month,
0:48:01 > 0:48:04anti-war students seized several buildings
0:48:04 > 0:48:06at Columbia University in Manhattan.
0:48:08 > 0:48:11The occupation lasted a week -
0:48:11 > 0:48:13the first time in American history
0:48:13 > 0:48:17that students forced a major university to shut down.
0:48:19 > 0:48:23Policemen eventually drove the demonstrators out of the buildings,
0:48:23 > 0:48:27and sent more than 100 students to the hospital.
0:48:28 > 0:48:32The United States now appeared to be more divided
0:48:32 > 0:48:35than at any time since the Civil War.
0:48:37 > 0:48:41That spring, protesters also took to the streets of London...
0:48:42 > 0:48:44..Paris,
0:48:44 > 0:48:45..Berlin...
0:48:46 > 0:48:50..Prague, Rio,
0:48:50 > 0:48:51Jakarta.
0:48:52 > 0:48:56The world seemed to be coming apart.
0:49:01 > 0:49:05For a time that Spring it looked as if Robert Kennedy might win
0:49:05 > 0:49:08the Democratic nomination for president.
0:49:10 > 0:49:13He pledged to bring the war to an end,
0:49:13 > 0:49:16and seemed to embody the hope of bridging the growing gulf
0:49:16 > 0:49:19between black and white Americans.
0:49:22 > 0:49:28But in June, after defeating Eugene McCarthy in the California Primary,
0:49:28 > 0:49:29he, too, was assassinated.
0:49:32 > 0:49:34SOBBING
0:49:48 > 0:49:50People were stunned. People were scared.
0:49:53 > 0:49:55The people we've looked up to were...
0:49:56 > 0:49:57..being taken away from us.
0:50:01 > 0:50:06It definitely put those of us who were heading off on our own...
0:50:07 > 0:50:10..on a path that felt...uncertain.
0:50:15 > 0:50:17MUSIC: A Whiter Shade Of Pale by Procol Harum
0:50:42 > 0:50:46# We skipped a light fandango... #