0:00:02 > 0:00:06This programme contains very strong language and scenes which some viewers may find upsetting
0:00:13 > 0:00:16# Catch a boat to England, baby
0:00:16 > 0:00:18# Maybe to Spain
0:00:18 > 0:00:21# Wherever I have gone
0:00:21 > 0:00:25# Wherever I've been and gone
0:00:25 > 0:00:27# Wherever I've gone
0:00:27 > 0:00:29# The blues run the game... #
0:00:31 > 0:00:37I grew up in a small farming community in southern Minnesota, called Worthington.
0:00:39 > 0:00:40Everybody knows everyone else.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42Their business, their faults, and
0:00:42 > 0:00:46what's happening in their marriages, and where the kids have gone wrong.
0:00:49 > 0:00:54I remember the day my draft notice arrived. It was a summer afternoon.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57Maybe June of '68.
0:00:58 > 0:01:01And I remember taking that envelope into the house,
0:01:01 > 0:01:03and putting it on the kitchen table,
0:01:03 > 0:01:05where my mom and dad were having lunch.
0:01:06 > 0:01:07They didn't even read it.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10They just looked at it, they knew what it was.
0:01:10 > 0:01:14And the silence of that lunch, I didn't speak, my mom didn't speak,
0:01:14 > 0:01:16my dad didn't speak.
0:01:16 > 0:01:19There was just that piece of paper, lying at the centre of the table.
0:01:19 > 0:01:21It was enough to make me cry, to this day.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25Not for myself, but for my mom and dad.
0:01:25 > 0:01:29Both of them had been in the Navy during World War II,
0:01:29 > 0:01:32had believed in service to one's country, and all those values.
0:01:32 > 0:01:37Consider all civilians potential enemies.
0:01:37 > 0:01:42On the one hand, I did think the war was less than righteous.
0:01:44 > 0:01:48On the other hand, I loved my country, and I valued
0:01:48 > 0:01:53my life in a small town, and my friends and family.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57And so the summer of '68, when I wrestled with what to do, was,
0:01:57 > 0:02:03for me at least, more torturous and devastating, and emotionally
0:02:03 > 0:02:06painful than anything that happened in Vietnam.
0:02:09 > 0:02:11In the end, I just capitulated.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16But it wasn't a decision, it was a forfeiture of a decision.
0:02:17 > 0:02:22Turning a switch in my conscience, just turning it off.
0:02:22 > 0:02:28So it wouldn't keep barking at me, saying you're doing a bad, and evil,
0:02:28 > 0:02:32and stupid, and unpatriotic thing.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44Last week's casualty figures in the Vietnam War released today
0:02:44 > 0:02:47showed 299 Americans killed, the lowest...
0:02:49 > 0:02:52MUSIC: Revolution 1 by The Beatles
0:02:59 > 0:03:02# You say you want a revolution
0:03:02 > 0:03:07# Well, you know
0:03:09 > 0:03:12# We all want to change the world
0:03:16 > 0:03:20# You tell me that it's evolution
0:03:20 > 0:03:23# Well, you know
0:03:25 > 0:03:29# We all want to change the world
0:03:33 > 0:03:37# But when you talk about destruction
0:03:37 > 0:03:41# Don't you know that you can count me out? #
0:03:48 > 0:03:53By June of 1968, the spirit of revolution,
0:03:53 > 0:03:55over the Vietnam War,
0:03:55 > 0:04:02over injustice, over human rights, seemed to have spread everywhere.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08The pressure to bring an end to the war was building.
0:04:08 > 0:04:13President Lyndon Johnson had already decided not to run again.
0:04:13 > 0:04:17Assassinations and unrest had staggered the nation,
0:04:17 > 0:04:21and the country was preparing to choose a new president.
0:04:23 > 0:04:28Meanwhile, American and North Vietnamese diplomats in Paris were getting nowhere.
0:04:28 > 0:04:34The Communists insisted there could be no substantive negotiations until
0:04:34 > 0:04:38the United States stopped all bombing of North Vietnam.
0:04:41 > 0:04:43The new secretary of defence, Clark Clifford,
0:04:43 > 0:04:47begged the President to call a total halt.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51"We can only hope for success at the bargaining table," he told Johnson.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54"We are in a war we cannot win."
0:04:55 > 0:04:58The President refused to stop the bombing.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04Over the following months, the war against the war intensified back home...
0:05:06 > 0:05:10..pitting classes and generations against one another,
0:05:10 > 0:05:14spreading distrust of political leaders who seemed unable,
0:05:14 > 0:05:16or unwilling to bring the fighting to an end.
0:05:19 > 0:05:25The coming summer of 1968 would be one of the most consequential in American history.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49We were told very succinctly,
0:05:49 > 0:05:51we need to rack up as much body count as we can.
0:05:53 > 0:05:55How many gooks did you kill today?
0:05:57 > 0:05:59And the kill ratio determined whether or not
0:05:59 > 0:06:01you called it a victory or a loss.
0:06:01 > 0:06:07So, if you killed 20 North Vietnamese and lost only two people,
0:06:07 > 0:06:10you declared a great victory for that particular firefight.
0:06:12 > 0:06:16Lieutenant Vincent Okamoto was born during World War II in
0:06:16 > 0:06:21a Japanese-American internment camp at Poston, Arizona.
0:06:21 > 0:06:23The seventh son of Japanese immigrants.
0:06:25 > 0:06:30He was a platoon leader with Bravo Company 2nd Battalion 27th Regiment,
0:06:30 > 0:06:3425th Infantry Division, based at Cu Chi,
0:06:34 > 0:06:38some 20 miles north-west of Saigon,
0:06:38 > 0:06:42an area honeycombed with miles of Vietcong tunnels.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49I had rice, literally, every day of my life
0:06:49 > 0:06:51until I went into the military.
0:06:53 > 0:06:58So we were conducting a cordon and search of a village.
0:07:00 > 0:07:04Didn't find any weapons, didn't find any communist literature,
0:07:04 > 0:07:07or whatever, and my RTO, my medic, and I,
0:07:07 > 0:07:10went into this particular house,
0:07:10 > 0:07:14and there were three women, and a babe in arms, and a kid,
0:07:14 > 0:07:15about four years old.
0:07:16 > 0:07:20And she was cooking rice.
0:07:20 > 0:07:24Here's Okamoto. This is Okamoto's son that hasn't had rice now,
0:07:24 > 0:07:26hot steamed rice for months.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29I'm looking at it and I say, "That looks pretty good to me."
0:07:29 > 0:07:36So I get my interpreter and say, "Hey, tell this woman, the grandma,
0:07:36 > 0:07:40"that I'll give her a pack of cigarettes, my C ration,
0:07:40 > 0:07:43"turkey loaf, and a can of peaches
0:07:43 > 0:07:47"for some of that steamed rice and fish and vegetables."
0:07:47 > 0:07:50It was great. I asked for seconds.
0:07:50 > 0:07:56My RTO says, "Damn, ain't these people poor enough without you eating their food?"
0:07:56 > 0:07:59I said, "You know, hell, they've got enough rice here
0:07:59 > 0:08:00"to feed a dozen men."
0:08:02 > 0:08:05And then it just dawned, they DID have enough rice
0:08:05 > 0:08:06to feed a dozen men.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11So I had my interpreter ask the woman, who is all this rice for?
0:08:12 > 0:08:16"I don't know. I don't know."
0:08:16 > 0:08:20So we started looking around again, and we found a tunnel mouth.
0:08:22 > 0:08:24I was given a grenade...
0:08:27 > 0:08:30After the smoke cleared we pulled, I think,
0:08:30 > 0:08:36seven or eight bodies to the town square.
0:08:36 > 0:08:40And we wanted to see who would cry over these people,
0:08:40 > 0:08:42and then we had more people to question.
0:08:44 > 0:08:46The women,
0:08:46 > 0:08:50that lived in that house, I had eaten their rice,
0:08:50 > 0:08:53they were all squatting down, wailing.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56You couldn't identify these, they were just charred bodies.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02I think that was the first time I knew that I, personally,
0:09:02 > 0:09:03had killed people.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08It wasn't something that you could say had glory in it,
0:09:08 > 0:09:10or you felt a real sense of accomplishment.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16Over that summer, Okamoto was wounded two times,
0:09:16 > 0:09:19and made 22 helicopter assaults,
0:09:19 > 0:09:22four of them as commander of Bravo Company.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32I just knew for sure I was going to die.
0:09:32 > 0:09:34Okamoto was not going to make it out of here.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39And that's liberating. When you know you're going to die, you don't...
0:09:39 > 0:09:40The fear leaves.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42At least in my case, I was no longer afraid.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45I was just mad. Because, all of these little guys,
0:09:45 > 0:09:48trying to kill my ass,
0:09:48 > 0:09:49and if that's the case...
0:09:49 > 0:09:52then I'm going to make it as tough on them as I possibly can
0:09:52 > 0:09:54before I go down.
0:09:56 > 0:10:00Before his tour of duty ended he would become the most
0:10:00 > 0:10:04highly decorated Japanese-American to survive the Vietnam War.
0:10:08 > 0:10:09You know what...
0:10:10 > 0:10:12..the real heroes are the men that died.
0:10:16 > 0:10:1919, 20-year-old high school dropouts.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22They didn't have escape routes that
0:10:22 > 0:10:25the elite and the wealthy and the privileged had.
0:10:26 > 0:10:28And that was unfair.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33And so they looked upon military service as...
0:10:34 > 0:10:38..like the weather, you had to go in, and you do it.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44But to see these kids who had the least to gain...
0:10:45 > 0:10:47..there wasn't anything to look forward to.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50Never going to be rewarded for their service in Vietnam...
0:10:51 > 0:10:57..and yet, their infinite patience, their loyalty to each other,
0:10:57 > 0:10:58their courage under fire...
0:11:00 > 0:11:02..was just phenomenal.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04And you would ask yourself...
0:11:05 > 0:11:08..how does America produce young men like this?
0:12:49 > 0:12:54At first, Radio Hanoi had portrayed the Tet Offensive as a series of
0:12:54 > 0:12:56tremendous victories,
0:12:56 > 0:13:00in which hundreds of thousands of people have risen up
0:13:00 > 0:13:02and destroyed enemy positions.
0:13:04 > 0:13:08"But after a couple of weeks," one North Vietnamese remembered,
0:13:08 > 0:13:11"We didn't hear any more news.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14"The Saigon regime was still there,
0:13:14 > 0:13:16"and the US planes were still bombing.
0:13:16 > 0:13:20"It was obvious the radio wasn't telling the truth."
0:13:23 > 0:13:26Casualty figures were never revealed,
0:13:26 > 0:13:31but to North Vietnamese citizens secretly listening to reports on
0:13:31 > 0:13:35the BBC and Radio Saigon it was clear that they had been heavy.
0:14:06 > 0:14:12In late August 1968, Le Duan and the North Vietnamese leadership launched
0:14:12 > 0:14:13still another offensive.
0:14:15 > 0:14:18The result was the same as Tet and Mini-Tet.
0:14:20 > 0:14:22They lost 17,000 more men.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29Thousands of fresh recruits had to be ordered south to replace them.
0:14:31 > 0:14:33"The war began to seem like an open pit,"
0:14:33 > 0:14:36one North Vietnamese remembered.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39"The more young people were lost there, the more they sent."
0:14:41 > 0:14:45The sons of some party officials and their friends were sent abroad
0:14:45 > 0:14:48to escape the draft.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50University students were exempted.
0:14:50 > 0:14:55People with money bribed recruiters to overlook their offspring,
0:14:55 > 0:14:58or paid physicians to declare them unfit to serve.
0:15:16 > 0:15:20Most draftees were poor people from the countryside,
0:15:20 > 0:15:24especially receptive to the slogans and promises of the revolution.
0:15:26 > 0:15:31Thousands of replacements made their way down the Ho Chi Minh Trail,
0:15:31 > 0:15:34past burned-out vehicles and military graveyards.
0:15:34 > 0:15:38The stones neatly marked with the names of the dead,
0:15:38 > 0:15:40and the date each had died.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45They encountered small groups of wounded men
0:15:45 > 0:15:47moving in the other direction.
0:15:47 > 0:15:49"Everyone was frightened,"
0:15:49 > 0:15:51a political officer remembered.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54"Especially when we met those men.
0:15:54 > 0:15:58"It was like looking at our future selves."
0:16:03 > 0:16:07When the strongest nation in the world can be tied down for
0:16:07 > 0:16:10four years in a war in Vietnam, with no end in sight...
0:16:10 > 0:16:14Republican presidential nominee Richard Nixon had been a prominent,
0:16:14 > 0:16:20and controversial figure in American politics for more than two decades.
0:16:20 > 0:16:22He'd been a congressman and senator,
0:16:22 > 0:16:25best known for his fierce anti-communism.
0:16:27 > 0:16:31Nixon made the case for himself as the man who could bring a fractured
0:16:31 > 0:16:35America together and bring an honourable end to the war.
0:16:35 > 0:16:39And when the President of the United States cannot travel abroad,
0:16:39 > 0:16:44or to any major city at home without fear of a hostile demonstration,
0:16:44 > 0:16:49then it's time for new leadership for the United States of America.
0:16:49 > 0:16:50CHEERING
0:16:58 > 0:16:59Good evening from Chicago,
0:16:59 > 0:17:02where the 35th National Democratic Convention opens tomorrow
0:17:02 > 0:17:06with the promise of turmoil inside this hall,
0:17:06 > 0:17:08and a threat of violence without.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12Both sides moved in their troops on a balmy Sunday morning for
0:17:12 > 0:17:14the confrontation of Chicago.
0:17:14 > 0:17:18Some 6,000 crack Army troops, riot trained and ready for action.
0:17:18 > 0:17:20The army soldiers moved out to
0:17:20 > 0:17:23secret locations around the city after one
0:17:23 > 0:17:25of the largest troop movements in domestic history.
0:17:27 > 0:17:32Some 15,000 protesters had gathered in Chicago,
0:17:32 > 0:17:35most to register their anguish over the war.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40Some bent on disrupting the convention.
0:17:44 > 0:17:4712,000 Chicago policemen were on alert.
0:17:49 > 0:17:52In addition to the 6,000 US Army troops
0:17:52 > 0:17:55there were 6,000 more armed National Guardsmen
0:17:55 > 0:18:01and 1,000 intelligence agents from the FBI, the CIA,
0:18:01 > 0:18:03and the military.
0:18:04 > 0:18:08Mayor Richard J Daly cordoned off the Chicago Amphitheatre,
0:18:08 > 0:18:10where the convention was being held,
0:18:10 > 0:18:16and denied the protesters permits to march or to sleep in the city's parks.
0:18:17 > 0:18:20In the name of security, the freedom of the press,
0:18:20 > 0:18:23freedom of movement, perhaps as far as the demonstrators themselves are
0:18:23 > 0:18:27concerned, even freedom of speech, have been severely restricted here.
0:18:28 > 0:18:34A Democratic convention is about to begin in a police state.
0:18:34 > 0:18:36There just doesn't seem to be any other way to say it.
0:18:39 > 0:18:41Will the delegates please be seated.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44Vice President Hubert Humphrey was the front runner.
0:18:45 > 0:18:46But many delegates,
0:18:46 > 0:18:50and most of the demonstrators outside the convention hall backed
0:18:50 > 0:18:53his anti-war rival, Senator Eugene McCarthy.
0:18:53 > 0:18:57The delegates wearing bands of black crepe on their arms,
0:18:57 > 0:19:02have joined New York in this extraordinary demonstration of
0:19:02 > 0:19:04anti-war sentiment on the convention floor.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10The demonstrators resisted when police attempted to arrest
0:19:10 > 0:19:13a young man who tried to rip down an American flag.
0:19:14 > 0:19:16Don't turn your back on these fuckers!
0:19:24 > 0:19:28The cops were all, they were guys from the neighbourhoods, Italians,
0:19:28 > 0:19:29Polish guys, Irish guys.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34Probably, some of them had been in Vietnam and if they hadn't been,
0:19:34 > 0:19:37they certainly had cousins or brothers who were.
0:19:39 > 0:19:41INDISTINCT SHOUTING
0:19:42 > 0:19:44So, all of a sudden,
0:19:44 > 0:19:47the streets are filled with these kids who don't look like
0:19:47 > 0:19:49college kids are supposed to look, in the cops' view.
0:19:54 > 0:19:58And some of them were committing vandalism, and yelling obscenities.
0:20:00 > 0:20:06And I think a lot of policemen saw that as abusing the privileges that
0:20:06 > 0:20:08they had, and scorning them.
0:20:08 > 0:20:10They are provoking us.
0:20:10 > 0:20:14But we do not want to confront them now. Move back, please.
0:20:14 > 0:20:15CHANTING
0:20:33 > 0:20:37That's a report on film, from Grand Park, downtown Chicago.
0:20:40 > 0:20:41Thousands of demonstrators,
0:20:41 > 0:20:45barred from getting anywhere near the convention,
0:20:45 > 0:20:48were marching towards Democratic party headquarters
0:20:48 > 0:20:51in the Hilton hotel on Michigan Avenue instead.
0:20:53 > 0:20:58I turned on the TV, there was a close up,
0:20:58 > 0:21:01it was over the shoulder of this storm trooper
0:21:01 > 0:21:03who had a kid by the scruff of his shirt,
0:21:03 > 0:21:06and he smacks him with his bat.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09There's blood, and everything, and all this jumble.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12And then the camera pans out, and it's far away, and there's
0:21:12 > 0:21:14riots, and fighting going on.
0:21:14 > 0:21:15And I thought, "Oh, my God,
0:21:15 > 0:21:17"the Russians have invaded Czechoslovakia."
0:21:17 > 0:21:20And then ditto, ditto, ditto, Chicago Democratic convention,
0:21:20 > 0:21:22United States of America.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26And I said, you know what, at that moment, I was politicised.
0:21:37 > 0:21:39# There's something happening here
0:21:41 > 0:21:44# What it is ain't exactly clear... #
0:21:44 > 0:21:48At that moment in time I realised that anybody who really cared for
0:21:48 > 0:21:54America was halfway around the world chasing some ghost in the jungle.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57Killing somebody else's grandmother for no reason at all.
0:21:59 > 0:22:03And in the meantime, my country is being torn apart.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06So I saw somebody who looked like my dad hitting somebody who
0:22:06 > 0:22:09looked like me. Oh, my God. Whose side would I be on?
0:22:11 > 0:22:14# There's battle lines being drawn
0:22:14 > 0:22:18# And nobody's right if everybody's wrong
0:22:21 > 0:22:23# Young people speaking their minds
0:22:25 > 0:22:28# Getting so much resistance from behind
0:22:28 > 0:22:30# It's time we stop... #
0:22:30 > 0:22:34In the end, Humphrey won the nomination on the first ballot.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38But in a Gallup poll,
0:22:38 > 0:22:4056% of Americans approved of
0:22:40 > 0:22:44the way the police had handled the demonstrators.
0:22:45 > 0:22:50And when Richard Nixon chose to open his campaign with a motorcade
0:22:50 > 0:22:52through the Chicago Loop,
0:22:52 > 0:22:55nearly half a million Chicagoans turned out to cheer him.
0:23:02 > 0:23:07The villagers have been assembled in the village school yard
0:23:07 > 0:23:11where teams of government interrogators are trying to pick out
0:23:11 > 0:23:15from among them the members of the Vietcong who live here.
0:23:15 > 0:23:20This sort of Phoenix exercise is a weekly event in districts throughout South Vietnam.
0:23:22 > 0:23:23The Phoenix programme was premised
0:23:23 > 0:23:25on the fact that the North Vietnamese
0:23:25 > 0:23:28coming down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, when they went into South Vietnam,
0:23:28 > 0:23:30they were strangers just like the Americans.
0:23:30 > 0:23:33They didn't know the terrain, they didn't know the people.
0:23:33 > 0:23:37So in order for them to function operationally,
0:23:37 > 0:23:39they needed the Vietcong infrastructure.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43And so the project was to eliminate those guys,
0:23:43 > 0:23:46and I think it made a great deal of sense.
0:23:48 > 0:23:50After being wounded, Lieutenant Vincent Okamoto
0:23:50 > 0:23:55became an intelligence officer in the Phoenix programme,
0:23:55 > 0:24:01created by the CIA to eradicate the Vietcong power base in the countryside.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05Americans served in an advisory capacity,
0:24:05 > 0:24:10most of the day-to-day enforcement was left to the South Vietnamese
0:24:10 > 0:24:15provincial reconnaissance units, the PRUs,
0:24:15 > 0:24:19who sometimes were more interested in settling old scores
0:24:19 > 0:24:21than in rooting out communists.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27It was scary because it was subject to abuse, and was abused.
0:24:30 > 0:24:35Again, the geniuses in Saigon would use their computers
0:24:35 > 0:24:37to come up with a blacklist.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44You get the list, and you check with other intelligence officers
0:24:44 > 0:24:47in the district, and you try to pool that information.
0:24:48 > 0:24:50Next night or a couple of nights later,
0:24:50 > 0:24:54a bunch of cowboys from the PRUs would go out there, and, you know,
0:24:54 > 0:24:55knock on the door.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59"April fool, motherfucker," and boom.
0:25:00 > 0:25:02There wasn't any real accountability.
0:25:05 > 0:25:10Later, the director of the Phoenix programme admitted to Congress that
0:25:10 > 0:25:16no-one knew how many of the more than 20,000 who had been killed were innocent.
0:25:21 > 0:25:23I would stop the bombing of the North,
0:25:23 > 0:25:26as an acceptable risk for peace.
0:25:27 > 0:25:31Because I believe it could lead to success in the negotiations,
0:25:31 > 0:25:34and thereby shorten the war.
0:25:34 > 0:25:39This would be the best protection for our troops.
0:25:39 > 0:25:45On September 30th, Hubert Humphrey broke with Johnson and called for
0:25:45 > 0:25:47a total halt to the bombing of North Vietnam.
0:25:49 > 0:25:54Then, on October 31st, just five days before the election,
0:25:54 > 0:25:57the President himself made a surprise announcement.
0:25:59 > 0:26:03He was stopping all bombing of North Vietnam.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06There had been real progress in Paris, he said.
0:26:07 > 0:26:12Hanoi had agreed for the first time to talk with Saigon,
0:26:12 > 0:26:16and the United States had agreed to include the Vietcong.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20It suddenly looked as if peace were possible.
0:26:22 > 0:26:24Humphrey was jubilant.
0:26:24 > 0:26:27His poll numbers rose overnight,
0:26:27 > 0:26:30he was confident he would now be able to overtake Nixon.
0:26:32 > 0:26:34But then, on November 2nd,
0:26:34 > 0:26:39with just three days to go until Americans went to the polls,
0:26:39 > 0:26:43President Thieu suddenly announced that the South Vietnamese government
0:26:43 > 0:26:47would not attend the proposed talks after all.
0:26:49 > 0:26:54Hoping to throw a monkey wrench into the peace process, Richard Nixon had
0:26:54 > 0:26:58instructed an intermediary to secretly contact Thieu
0:26:58 > 0:27:02and urge him to stay away from the talks,
0:27:02 > 0:27:05promising Saigon that, if elected,
0:27:05 > 0:27:09Nixon would drive a harder bargain with Hanoi than Humphrey.
0:27:10 > 0:27:14Thanks to a CIA bug planted in Thieu's Saigon office,
0:27:14 > 0:27:19and an FBI wiretap on the South Vietnamese embassy in Washington,
0:27:19 > 0:27:22Johnson got wind of what had happened.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25I'm reading their hand, Everett.
0:27:25 > 0:27:27I don't want to get this in the campaign.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30- That's right.- And they oughtn't to be doing this.
0:27:30 > 0:27:33- This is treason.- I know. - I know this.
0:27:39 > 0:27:40And it's a damn bad mistake.
0:27:42 > 0:27:46- Mr President?- Yes. - This is Dick Nixon.- Yes, Dick.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49I just wanted you to know that I feel very, very
0:27:49 > 0:27:56strongly about this and any rumblings around about somebody
0:27:56 > 0:27:58trying to sabotage the Saigon government's attitude,
0:27:58 > 0:28:02certainly has absolutely no credibility
0:28:02 > 0:28:05as far as I am concerned.
0:28:05 > 0:28:11I'm very happy to hear that, Dick. Because that is taking place.
0:28:11 > 0:28:16My God, I would never do anything to encourage Saigon
0:28:16 > 0:28:17not to come to the table.
0:28:17 > 0:28:19Because, basically, that was what you got.
0:28:19 > 0:28:21Well, that's good, Dick...
0:28:21 > 0:28:23We got to get this goddamned war off the plate.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26The quicker the better and the hell with the political credit.
0:28:26 > 0:28:27- Believe me.- Thank you, Dick.
0:28:31 > 0:28:34Nixon was lying and Johnson knew it.
0:28:34 > 0:28:38But he was unwilling to reveal the methods by which he had learned of
0:28:38 > 0:28:40the Republican candidate's duplicity.
0:28:43 > 0:28:45Nixon's secret was safe.
0:28:45 > 0:28:50The American public was never told that the regime for which 35,000
0:28:50 > 0:28:56Americans had died had been willing to boycott peace talks to help elect
0:28:56 > 0:28:59Richard Nixon, or that he had been willing to delay,
0:28:59 > 0:29:03an end to the bloodshed, in order to get elected.
0:29:04 > 0:29:07At 10.45 this morning, Eastern Standard Time....
0:29:09 > 0:29:13On election day, Richard Milhous Nixon
0:29:13 > 0:29:17won the presidency with 43.4% of the vote.
0:29:17 > 0:29:21Hubert Humphrey received 42.7%.
0:29:26 > 0:29:29The Nixon campaign's secret manoeuvring may have helped him win
0:29:29 > 0:29:32the election, but the President-elect's fear
0:29:32 > 0:29:36that that manoeuvring might someday be exposed
0:29:36 > 0:29:38would be part of his undoing.
0:29:49 > 0:29:54In the fall of 1968, that was probably the toughest time we had.
0:29:56 > 0:29:58Four people died within...
0:30:00 > 0:30:05..a month. And then two more died very shortly after that.
0:30:07 > 0:30:1113 Americans would die during Captain Hal Kushner's
0:30:11 > 0:30:15time in jungle prison camps in South Vietnam.
0:30:16 > 0:30:19He was a doctor, but had no medications,
0:30:19 > 0:30:24no antibiotics or saline solution with which to treat his comrades.
0:30:25 > 0:30:29All he could do was bury each in a bamboo coffin,
0:30:29 > 0:30:35and make sure the spot was marked with a heap of stones daubed with Mercurochrome.
0:30:38 > 0:30:39We had nothing to eat.
0:30:40 > 0:30:43And I thought that I was just going insane.
0:30:44 > 0:30:49And we saw the camp commander's cat, who had free rein of the camp.
0:30:49 > 0:30:50And we were starving to death.
0:30:50 > 0:30:54So someone suggested, let's eat the cat.
0:30:56 > 0:30:58So we killed the cat.
0:30:58 > 0:31:02And we cut the head off, and we cut the paws off,
0:31:02 > 0:31:04and we had this little carcass of about 2lb.
0:31:06 > 0:31:09And one of the guards came down,
0:31:09 > 0:31:12and then he looked around, and someone had neglected to bury one of
0:31:12 > 0:31:15the paws. He saw the paw,
0:31:15 > 0:31:18and he knew instantly that it was the camp commander's cat.
0:31:19 > 0:31:22And things got very serious.
0:31:23 > 0:31:25They lined us up, and they said, "Who did this?"
0:31:26 > 0:31:28Nobody said anything.
0:31:28 > 0:31:31I thought they were going to kill us all, just execute us.
0:31:32 > 0:31:38And one of the people who was the ringleader in this said he did it.
0:31:40 > 0:31:45And I said that I did it, also, and we all said we did it.
0:31:46 > 0:31:47I am Spartacus, you know.
0:31:49 > 0:31:55So they called that person and me out, and the guard kicked him,
0:31:55 > 0:31:58and beat him to the ground, and just beat him unmercifully.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03And they hit me in the face with fists,
0:32:03 > 0:32:05and didn't beat me as badly as they beat him.
0:32:05 > 0:32:10And then tied me with wire, very tightly to a hooch,
0:32:10 > 0:32:12and left me for a day.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16And with the carcass of the cat draped around my neck.
0:32:17 > 0:32:19And I was so crazy I thought,
0:32:19 > 0:32:21maybe they're going to let me eat this cat.
0:32:21 > 0:32:22But I had to bury it.
0:32:24 > 0:32:28So the fellow that they beat very badly died two weeks later.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33But, to me, the tragedy of it was we didn't get the cat.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43For the capital of a nation at war
0:32:43 > 0:32:45Saigon abounds with a phenomenal number
0:32:45 > 0:32:49of young men of draft age in sharp civilian clothes.
0:32:49 > 0:32:51Saigon Cowboys, they are called.
0:32:52 > 0:32:54It's a war profiteer's economy,
0:32:54 > 0:32:57fanned by the forced draught of American money.
0:32:57 > 0:33:02They count it a good year in Saigon when the prices only go up by 25%.
0:33:06 > 0:33:11Years of American presence and the tens of billions of US dollars that
0:33:11 > 0:33:15came with it had transformed much of South Vietnam,
0:33:15 > 0:33:21creating a false economy that was utterly dependent on that presence becoming perpetual.
0:33:23 > 0:33:26Who benefits from the financial aspects of the war?
0:33:27 > 0:33:29Generals.
0:33:29 > 0:33:30Don't deny that!
0:33:31 > 0:33:33Then they get the money,
0:33:33 > 0:33:36then they become richer.
0:33:36 > 0:33:38We have a term, and I call it,
0:33:38 > 0:33:40war profiteers.
0:33:40 > 0:33:43From Thieu and Ky, down to every level.
0:33:45 > 0:33:49The Vietnamese had a saying, "A house leaks from the roof on down."
0:33:51 > 0:33:54HE SPEAKS VIETNAMESE
0:33:55 > 0:34:00And that was, of course, their way to elliptically refer to
0:34:00 > 0:34:04the ever-present, nagging problem of corruption.
0:34:05 > 0:34:10In just one year, the black market cost the US military 2 billion.
0:34:13 > 0:34:17The impact of the war has disrupted the ancient patterns of Vietnamese
0:34:17 > 0:34:22life, the cities are crowded to bursting point with people uprooted
0:34:22 > 0:34:27from the land and the ancestral values of a rural-oriented society,
0:34:27 > 0:34:29but who have found nothing to replace them.
0:34:31 > 0:34:33Before US troops arrived,
0:34:33 > 0:34:37eight out of ten South Vietnamese lived in villages.
0:34:38 > 0:34:44By the end of the 1960s, almost half would be crowded into urban areas.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48Saigon's population tripled to three million.
0:34:50 > 0:34:53Half the refugees had no permanent shelter.
0:34:56 > 0:34:59Cholera and typhoid killed thousands.
0:35:01 > 0:35:05Hungry children roamed the streets, scavenging, begging,
0:35:05 > 0:35:08searching for jobs to do, or pockets to pick.
0:35:10 > 0:35:15Tens of thousands of young women left their village homes and came
0:35:15 > 0:35:19to Saigon to become bar girls and prostitutes.
0:35:21 > 0:35:26But the citizens of Saigon were far freer than the North Vietnamese.
0:35:27 > 0:35:32And they held demonstrations denouncing the rampant corruption,
0:35:32 > 0:35:36and demanding religious freedom, and better treatment for veterans.
0:35:40 > 0:35:44"For all of its problems," one man remembered,
0:35:44 > 0:35:47"Saigon was filthy and free."
0:37:21 > 0:37:24In the densely populated Mekong Delta,
0:37:24 > 0:37:27the commander of the 9th Infantry Division,
0:37:27 > 0:37:32General Julian J Ewell, had the job of destroying the remaining Vietcong
0:37:32 > 0:37:34south of Saigon.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39His operation was called Speedy Express.
0:37:41 > 0:37:44"The hearts and minds approach can be overdone," Ewell said,
0:37:44 > 0:37:50"In the delta, the only way to overcome VC control and terror
0:37:50 > 0:37:53"is by brute force."
0:37:54 > 0:37:58Patrols would pursue the enemy around the clock.
0:37:58 > 0:38:02The night sky was filled with Cobra gunships.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05In areas designated free fire zones,
0:38:05 > 0:38:08anyone out after curfew could be shot.
0:38:10 > 0:38:14During the day, anyone seen running was targeted.
0:38:16 > 0:38:20Colonel Robert Gard was one of Ewell's artillery commanders.
0:38:22 > 0:38:27If someone was told that anyone who runs away should be assumed to be
0:38:27 > 0:38:30an enemy, I certainly would disagree with that.
0:38:30 > 0:38:32That's totally improper.
0:38:32 > 0:38:34People run away because they're afraid.
0:38:36 > 0:38:42I've seen instances of farmers, when you descend in a helicopter,
0:38:42 > 0:38:46suddenly, and they freeze, and they're frightened, and they run.
0:38:46 > 0:38:49You can't just make a blanket judgment.
0:38:51 > 0:38:55General Ewell boasted of his unit's statistical record.
0:38:55 > 0:39:0010,899 Vietcong killed, in six months,
0:39:00 > 0:39:04with a loss of only 242 Americans.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08An astonishing kill ratio of 45 to one.
0:39:11 > 0:39:16To say that we killed only enemy combatants
0:39:16 > 0:39:23and to talk about ratios of 40 to one, simply defies my imagination.
0:39:24 > 0:39:29The army inspector general would eventually estimate that more than
0:39:29 > 0:39:31half of the roughly 11,000 kills
0:39:31 > 0:39:37claimed by the 9th Infantry had been unarmed, innocent civilians.
0:39:40 > 0:39:43No-one was ever held accountable.
0:39:50 > 0:39:52MUSIC: Magic Carpet Ride by Steppenwolf
0:39:56 > 0:39:58# I like to dream
0:39:58 > 0:40:02# Yes, yes, right between my sound machine
0:40:05 > 0:40:07# On a cloud of sound I drift in the night
0:40:07 > 0:40:09# Any place it goes is right
0:40:09 > 0:40:13# Goes far, flies near, to the stars away from here... #
0:40:15 > 0:40:19I dropped a bomb one afternoon that must have had a broken fin,
0:40:19 > 0:40:23or something, on the bottom. It just went crazy, went over and hit,
0:40:23 > 0:40:26you know, a mile away from where I was aiming.
0:40:27 > 0:40:31And it started a series of secondary explosions...
0:40:34 > 0:40:36..meaning that I had hit an ammunition dump,
0:40:36 > 0:40:38or a cache of ammunition or something,
0:40:38 > 0:40:40so it cooked off for 15 minutes.
0:40:40 > 0:40:44As we were leaving, the thing was still blowing up.
0:40:44 > 0:40:46The best result I achieved in a year,
0:40:46 > 0:40:49it was the result of a gross miss from what I was aiming at.
0:40:50 > 0:40:54That's the exact reverse of how you want to use air power.
0:40:56 > 0:40:59Major Merrill McPeak was a crack fighter pilot
0:40:59 > 0:41:04when he arrived in Vietnam in late 1968.
0:41:04 > 0:41:08At first, he had helped provide air support for the Army,
0:41:08 > 0:41:12with a guaranteed number of sorties per day, he remembered,
0:41:12 > 0:41:16whether or not they had anything in front of them worth blowing up.
0:41:19 > 0:41:23Then McPeak was assigned to a top secret squadron,
0:41:23 > 0:41:26seeking to pinpoint men and supplies
0:41:26 > 0:41:30moving on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos.
0:41:30 > 0:41:33He and his fellow pilots called their unit
0:41:33 > 0:41:36Misty, after its radio call sign.
0:41:36 > 0:41:38I spent four months with Misty.
0:41:38 > 0:41:43And that was the best four months of the war, as far as I'm concerned,
0:41:43 > 0:41:47because what we were doing was simple, straightforward,
0:41:47 > 0:41:48and made sense.
0:41:48 > 0:41:53We've got to stop traffic, from A to B, down this dirt road.
0:41:53 > 0:41:54That, I can understand.
0:41:55 > 0:41:59Somebody in Saigon wasn't saying go bomb trees at such-and-such
0:41:59 > 0:42:03a location, we went out and actually found the target.
0:42:12 > 0:42:14It was dangerous work.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18One out of five pilots was shot down.
0:42:28 > 0:42:32Misty put up seven sorties a day from dawn to dusk,
0:42:32 > 0:42:37on the lookout for signs of human activity, gardens, encampments,
0:42:37 > 0:42:40roadside trees coated with dust,
0:42:40 > 0:42:47or wet roads on either side of fords that signalled a truck convoy had
0:42:47 > 0:42:48recently passed through.
0:42:53 > 0:42:56I have enormous respect for those truck drivers.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01They left their homes in the North,
0:43:01 > 0:43:04and they weren't drafted for a year or two.
0:43:04 > 0:43:07They just left, and didn't know if they were ever going to come back.
0:43:09 > 0:43:13Although McPeak and his fellow pilots did not know it,
0:43:13 > 0:43:17among the drivers threading their way down the Ho Chi Minh Trail
0:43:17 > 0:43:19by night were hundreds of women.
0:43:44 > 0:43:49For three years, Nguyen Nguyet Anh drove her section of the Trail.
0:43:50 > 0:43:53Ferrying arms and supplies south...
0:43:55 > 0:43:59..then heading back north with cargoes of wounded men.
0:44:12 > 0:44:15They drove in stages.
0:44:15 > 0:44:19So they knew 15, 20 klicks of the road and they drove from A to B,
0:44:19 > 0:44:20and back to A.
0:44:24 > 0:44:27Then they rested during the daytime, and then the next night,
0:44:27 > 0:44:29they drove from A to B, and back to A.
0:44:31 > 0:44:34They had, kind of, memorised the road,
0:44:34 > 0:44:38which was very important, because they were running without lights at night.
0:45:14 > 0:45:18One time I stumbled across a bunch of trucks backed up,
0:45:18 > 0:45:19and that was a great morning for me.
0:45:21 > 0:45:24Occasionally, one of them would break down in a spot where the
0:45:24 > 0:45:28trucks behind it would get trapped, and couldn't back out of there.
0:45:28 > 0:45:31So you'd try to strafe the last truck, so that it can't move.
0:45:34 > 0:45:35These are one-lane roads.
0:45:37 > 0:45:40So once you get the back truck disabled,
0:45:40 > 0:45:42then you just call in fighters...
0:45:44 > 0:45:46..who are shooting fish in a barrel.
0:46:01 > 0:46:03Over 20,000 engineers,
0:46:03 > 0:46:07soldiers and truck drivers died along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
0:46:09 > 0:46:1372 military cemeteries would eventually be required
0:46:13 > 0:46:15to hold their remains.
0:46:19 > 0:46:25We dropped more tonnage of munitions than the United States dropped in
0:46:25 > 0:46:27World War II,
0:46:27 > 0:46:29most of it aimed at the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
0:46:32 > 0:46:34We did not stop traffic down the Trail,
0:46:34 > 0:46:38and that is a big disappointment for me.
0:46:38 > 0:46:40To this day, it irritates me.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46The real failures were made at the policy level.
0:46:48 > 0:46:50We were fighting on the wrong side.
0:46:52 > 0:46:56The South, the government in the south, was corrupt.
0:46:56 > 0:46:58And its people knew it.
0:46:58 > 0:46:59And we knew it.
0:47:00 > 0:47:04I'll tell you something. Those truck drivers fought very well.
0:47:04 > 0:47:08I would have been proud to fight with them.
0:47:09 > 0:47:11So one of the things you've got to do when you go to war,
0:47:11 > 0:47:15is pick the right side, OK? Get the right allies.
0:47:20 > 0:47:22The peace we seek to win...
0:47:24 > 0:47:27..is not victory over any other people...
0:47:28 > 0:47:33..but the peace that comes with healing in its wings,
0:47:33 > 0:47:36with compassion for those who have suffered,
0:47:36 > 0:47:39with understanding for those who have opposed it,
0:47:39 > 0:47:43with the opportunity for all the peoples of this earth
0:47:43 > 0:47:45to choose their own destiny.
0:47:47 > 0:47:49Like Lyndon Johnson,
0:47:49 > 0:47:54Richard Nixon had an ambitious agenda for his presidency.
0:47:54 > 0:47:58Easing a quarter of a century of tensions with the Soviet Union,
0:47:58 > 0:48:00and opening the door to China,
0:48:00 > 0:48:04whose existence the United States had refused to recognise since
0:48:04 > 0:48:07the Communists took over in 1949.
0:48:09 > 0:48:11But, as it had with Johnson,
0:48:11 > 0:48:16the ongoing war in Vietnam threatened all those plans.
0:48:17 > 0:48:2537,563 Americans had died there by the time he took the oath of office.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31"I'm not going to end up like LBJ, holed up in the White House,
0:48:31 > 0:48:36"afraid to show my face on the street," Richard Nixon told an aide,
0:48:36 > 0:48:39"I'm going to stop that war, fast."
0:48:40 > 0:48:44Nixon's National Security adviser was Henry Kissinger.
0:48:44 > 0:48:49A refugee from Nazi Germany, he had taught government at Harvard,
0:48:49 > 0:48:51and was already a well-known advocate
0:48:51 > 0:48:56of a foreign policy based on pragmatism, not ideology.
0:48:58 > 0:49:03In February of 1969, the North launched yet another offensive.
0:49:05 > 0:49:10This time, they killed 1,100 Americans in just three weeks.
0:49:14 > 0:49:18Nixon did not feel he could retaliate by resuming the bombing of
0:49:18 > 0:49:22the North, for fear of provoking the anti-war movement at home.
0:49:24 > 0:49:29So in March, he secretly ordered B-52s to begin attacking
0:49:29 > 0:49:32the North Vietnamese bases within Cambodia,
0:49:32 > 0:49:36which had offered sanctuary to the enemy for years.
0:49:38 > 0:49:41The American public was told nothing about the bombing.
0:49:41 > 0:49:44Congress was kept in the dark as well.
0:49:48 > 0:49:52When the New York Times finally discovered what was happening,
0:49:52 > 0:49:56the White House denied any bombing was taking place,
0:49:56 > 0:50:01and ordered that illegal wiretaps be placed on the telephones of
0:50:01 > 0:50:0317 reporters and government officials
0:50:03 > 0:50:07in an effort to find out who had leaked the story.
0:50:08 > 0:50:10The war went on.
0:50:23 > 0:50:25Keep your head down.
0:50:28 > 0:50:29And fire.
0:50:31 > 0:50:33It was this, kind of,
0:50:33 > 0:50:36maybe thing going on all throughout this training
0:50:36 > 0:50:39as Vietnam got closer, closer and closer.
0:50:41 > 0:50:44Do you go off and kill people if you're not pretty sure it's right?
0:50:46 > 0:50:49And if your nation isn't pretty sure it's right,
0:50:49 > 0:50:51if there isn't some consensus?
0:50:51 > 0:50:52Do you do that?
0:50:55 > 0:50:58I was at Fort Lewis, Washington, and Canada was, what,
0:50:58 > 0:51:00a 90-minute bus ride away?
0:51:03 > 0:51:05What prevented me from doing it?
0:51:06 > 0:51:09I think it was pretty simple and stupid,
0:51:09 > 0:51:13it was a fear of embarrassment,
0:51:13 > 0:51:16a fear of ridicule and...
0:51:16 > 0:51:17humiliation.
0:51:19 > 0:51:21What my girlfriend would have thought of me, and, you know,
0:51:21 > 0:51:24people in the Gobbler Cafe, and downtown Worthington.
0:51:26 > 0:51:29The boys, and the country club boys,
0:51:29 > 0:51:31in that small town I grew up in,
0:51:31 > 0:51:33the things they'd say about me.
0:51:35 > 0:51:37"What a coward." And, "What a sissy."
0:51:38 > 0:51:39"Going to Canada."
0:51:42 > 0:51:46And I would imagine my mom and dad overhearing something like that.
0:51:51 > 0:51:56I couldn't summon the courage to say no to those
0:51:56 > 0:51:58nameless, faceless people...
0:52:00 > 0:52:03..who, really,
0:52:03 > 0:52:04in essence,
0:52:04 > 0:52:08this was the United States of America,
0:52:08 > 0:52:11and I couldn't say no to them.
0:52:12 > 0:52:15And I've had to live with it now for...
0:52:16 > 0:52:18..40 years.
0:52:18 > 0:52:23That's a long time to live with a failure of...conscience,
0:52:23 > 0:52:26and a failure of nerve.
0:52:30 > 0:52:32And the nightmare of Vietnam, for me,
0:52:32 > 0:52:34is not the bombs and the bullets...
0:52:43 > 0:52:48..it's that failure of nerve that I so regret.
0:52:56 > 0:52:57# Tell the truth
0:53:01 > 0:53:04# Tell the truth, girl, now
0:53:06 > 0:53:09# You know you got me goin'
0:53:09 > 0:53:12# Everything crazy that you want me to do
0:53:12 > 0:53:15# Yes, you have, girl
0:53:15 > 0:53:21# Don't you, don't you, don't you know you gotta tell the truth, yeah
0:53:21 > 0:53:24# Baby, baby, baby, why don't you tell me the truth now? #