0:00:03 > 0:00:09This programme contains very strong language and scenes which some viewers may find disturbing.
0:00:15 > 0:00:17There are certain rules to tunnel warfare.
0:00:20 > 0:00:22Don't turn on the light,
0:00:22 > 0:00:25unless you're really, really, really sure you're alone.
0:00:27 > 0:00:29Use your senses.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33Do your first killing as quietly as you can. That means, don't shoot.
0:00:35 > 0:00:37I chased somebody into a tunnel.
0:00:39 > 0:00:42I thought I was alone, and then I smelled their breath.
0:00:44 > 0:00:50And we had a wrestling match in the dark.
0:00:50 > 0:00:54And I got the upper hand and crushed this person's trachea...
0:00:56 > 0:00:58..held him down while he died...
0:01:00 > 0:01:01..and then got out.
0:01:05 > 0:01:09I beat and strangled someone to death in a tunnel..
0:01:09 > 0:01:10in the dark.
0:01:13 > 0:01:15But that wasn't the only casualty.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19The other casualty was the civilised version of me.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26MUSIC: Dazed And Confused by Led Zeppelin
0:01:43 > 0:01:49Richard Nixon had taken office as President in January of 1969,
0:01:49 > 0:01:54pledged to restore law and order and end the war with honour.
0:01:54 > 0:01:58Things were calmer at home, but in Vietnam, peace was no closer.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06American soldiers still died pursuing guerrillas
0:02:06 > 0:02:09who appeared and disappeared like phantoms.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13Americans still died capturing hills,
0:02:13 > 0:02:16only to give them up and have to take them back again.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21Men and material were still flowing into the South,
0:02:21 > 0:02:24despite the controversial bombing of Cambodia.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29Through it all, Hanoi remained immovable.
0:02:29 > 0:02:33The Communists insisted there could be no peace until
0:02:33 > 0:02:37the Saigon government was replaced, and the United States withdrew
0:02:37 > 0:02:38from Vietnam.
0:02:40 > 0:02:43Meanwhile, the American public was losing patience.
0:02:54 > 0:02:59Privately, Nixon knew that military victory was impossible,
0:02:59 > 0:03:03that things would have to be settled at the bargaining table in Paris.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08He had to find a way to extricate Americans from Vietnam,
0:03:08 > 0:03:09without seeming to surrender.
0:03:11 > 0:03:14Nixon also believed his reputation as an implacable,
0:03:14 > 0:03:19anti-Communist could work to his advantage with Hanoi.
0:03:19 > 0:03:21"We'll just slip the word to them," he said.
0:03:21 > 0:03:25"You know, Nixon's obsessed about Communism.
0:03:25 > 0:03:27"We can't restrain him when he's angry,
0:03:27 > 0:03:29"and he has his hand on the nuclear button."
0:03:30 > 0:03:35"And Ho Chi Minh will be in Paris in two days, begging for peace."
0:03:37 > 0:03:41But Ho Chi Minh was old and ailing now,
0:03:41 > 0:03:45and Le Duan and the other men who had been calling the shots in Hanoi
0:03:45 > 0:03:49for years had no intention of giving up their goal of uniting
0:03:49 > 0:03:52their country under Communist control.
0:03:54 > 0:03:58Richard Nixon, having promised a swift end to the war, would,
0:03:58 > 0:04:03like all the presidents who came before him, end up widening it.
0:04:04 > 0:04:08In the process, he would reignite opposition to the war
0:04:08 > 0:04:12on American campuses that threatened to tear the country apart again.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16MUSIC: While My Guitar Gently Weeps by The Beatles
0:04:33 > 0:04:39The late '60s were a kind of confluence of several rivulets.
0:04:41 > 0:04:43There was the anti-war movement itself...
0:04:48 > 0:04:50..the whole movement towards racial equality...
0:04:52 > 0:04:53..the environment...
0:04:55 > 0:04:57..the role of women,
0:04:57 > 0:05:01and the anthems for that counterculture were provided
0:05:01 > 0:05:05by the most brilliant rock and roll music that you can imagine.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13I don't know how we could exist today as a country,
0:05:13 > 0:05:15without that experience.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20With all of its warts and ups and downs,
0:05:20 > 0:05:25THAT produced the America we have today, and we are better for it.
0:05:25 > 0:05:27GUNFIRE
0:05:27 > 0:05:29And I felt that way in Vietnam.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34I turned the volume up on all that stuff.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39That represented what I was trying to defend.
0:05:44 > 0:05:46GUNFIRE
0:05:50 > 0:05:52LOUD EXPLOSIONS
0:06:04 > 0:06:07I never prayed, the whole time I was in a POW camp.
0:06:08 > 0:06:12But every night when I went to sleep, I would say,
0:06:12 > 0:06:14"I'll be here when the morning comes."
0:06:16 > 0:06:18I felt if I could just live one more day,
0:06:18 > 0:06:21then I could live one more day, and then one more day.
0:06:23 > 0:06:25At the peace talks in Paris,
0:06:25 > 0:06:29the Nixon administration had introduced a new demand -
0:06:29 > 0:06:35US troops would not withdraw until all American prisoners had come home
0:06:35 > 0:06:38and Hanoi had provided a strict accounting
0:06:38 > 0:06:39of those missing in action.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45The North Vietnamese would not reveal the names of the men
0:06:45 > 0:06:48they held, because they still insisted they were not
0:06:48 > 0:06:51prisoners of war, but war criminals.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55They subjected many to brutal torture,
0:06:55 > 0:06:57extracted confessions,
0:06:57 > 0:07:01and refused to permit inspections by the International Red Cross.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07The Johnson administration had generally downplayed the issue,
0:07:07 > 0:07:10hoping quiet diplomacy might bring the men home.
0:07:11 > 0:07:15The Nixon administration launched a go public campaign instead,
0:07:15 > 0:07:18meant to put the plight of American prisoners
0:07:18 > 0:07:21and those missing in action at the centre of things.
0:07:22 > 0:07:26It also provided a rebuke to those in the anti-war movement,
0:07:26 > 0:07:30who seemed more sympathetic to North Vietnamese civilians
0:07:30 > 0:07:34who had been bombed, than they were to US airmen
0:07:34 > 0:07:36who had been shot down doing that bombing.
0:07:38 > 0:07:42At the same time, the Saigon government of Nguyen Van Thieu
0:07:42 > 0:07:45was holding prisoners of its own.
0:07:45 > 0:07:50There would eventually be some 40,000 North Vietnamese and Vietcong
0:07:50 > 0:07:53soldiers in four crowded camps.
0:07:53 > 0:07:59Another 200,000 South Vietnamese civilians would also be held,
0:07:59 > 0:08:01many without trial.
0:08:03 > 0:08:05HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE
0:09:15 > 0:09:20April 1969 marked the high point of American military commitment
0:09:20 > 0:09:22to South Vietnam.
0:09:22 > 0:09:28543,482 men and women were now in country...
0:09:30 > 0:09:33..and tens of thousands more were stationed at air bases
0:09:33 > 0:09:35and aboard ships beyond its borders.
0:09:38 > 0:09:4140,794 had died.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45And more than 70 billion had been spent.
0:09:48 > 0:09:52A Gallup poll now found that most Americans believed Vietnam
0:09:52 > 0:09:53had been a mistake.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57Richard Nixon knew he needed to signal to the public
0:09:57 > 0:09:59that an end was in sight.
0:10:01 > 0:10:03The National Security Council had warned Nixon
0:10:03 > 0:10:08that the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the secretaries of state and defence,
0:10:08 > 0:10:14the CIA, and the US Embassy in Saigon all privately agreed
0:10:14 > 0:10:20that without US combat troops the South Vietnamese cannot now,
0:10:20 > 0:10:22or in the foreseeable future,
0:10:22 > 0:10:26stand up to both Vietcong and sizeable North Vietnamese forces.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34Nonetheless, Secretary of Defence Melvin Laird said
0:10:34 > 0:10:38the war was now to be "Vietnamized".
0:10:38 > 0:10:41Saigon's troops would gradually take over responsibility
0:10:41 > 0:10:44for engaging the enemy.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50Meanwhile, American troops would start to go home.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53MUSIC: The Letter by The Box Tops
0:10:57 > 0:11:01When Nixon came in and he announced the phased withdrawal...
0:11:02 > 0:11:05..turning over the fighting to the Vietnamese,
0:11:05 > 0:11:07which was something the French had tried before,
0:11:07 > 0:11:09they called it jaunissement.
0:11:09 > 0:11:11"Yellowising" the war.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17We knew that the Vietnamese army was not up to fighting this war.
0:11:19 > 0:11:21If they couldn't do it with the Americans,
0:11:21 > 0:11:25how were they going to do it without the Americans?
0:11:25 > 0:11:28The reason I was ordered home early was because
0:11:28 > 0:11:33Nixon, President Nixon, announced the policy of Vietnamization.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36Now, Vietnamization was a lie.
0:11:38 > 0:11:39But it had an element of truth in it.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43We were leaving, OK.
0:11:43 > 0:11:45And that sealed the South's fate.
0:11:45 > 0:11:47I knew it.
0:11:47 > 0:11:49And I think anybody who was conscious
0:11:49 > 0:11:52and could see what was going on knew it.
0:11:53 > 0:11:54Nixon and Kissinger...
0:11:56 > 0:11:59..they... Their job is to clean up.
0:12:02 > 0:12:03The war's over.
0:12:03 > 0:12:05"LAST POST" PLAYS ON TRUMPET
0:12:05 > 0:12:07OK? Nixon and Kissinger, when they come,
0:12:07 > 0:12:10they're not going to win the war.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13So they develop a secret strategy.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16They surrender without saying they surrender.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23This is not a bad strategy. This is the only strategy.
0:12:23 > 0:12:27MUSIC: Circle For A Landing by Three Dog Night
0:12:31 > 0:12:35As American soldiers began leaving South Vietnam,
0:12:35 > 0:12:38American weaponry and material poured in.
0:12:44 > 0:12:50More than a million M-16 rifles, 40,000 grenade launchers,
0:12:50 > 0:12:53thousands of wheeled vehicles.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56"So many," one congressman complained,
0:12:56 > 0:13:00"that it seemed as if the United States taxpayer was being asked
0:13:00 > 0:13:03"to put every South Vietnamese soldier behind the wheel."
0:13:06 > 0:13:09It didn't make any sense, of course, because we tried that
0:13:09 > 0:13:12in 1962 and '63. The people hadn't changed.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14We were just giving them more furniture.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE
0:13:39 > 0:13:42You've been told once, you've been told twice, that's all.
0:13:42 > 0:13:43Spread it out!
0:13:43 > 0:13:46MUSIC: Time Of The Season by The Zombies
0:13:46 > 0:13:50This guy from Arkansas told me he would not carry the radio for me.
0:13:53 > 0:13:58He said, "I will not follow you like cheetah follows Tarzan.
0:13:58 > 0:14:00"It's not going to happen, Sarge."
0:14:00 > 0:14:05And I thought, "Oh, this is going to be a really long year."
0:14:05 > 0:14:08I've got people down there. Get them down there.
0:14:10 > 0:14:12He evolved a little bit.
0:14:13 > 0:14:18You know, he kind of got the idea that the enemy's bullets
0:14:18 > 0:14:22are colour-blind. They would shoot anybody, not just me.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29African-Americans had served in every American war
0:14:29 > 0:14:30since the Revolution.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34In the early years of the Vietnam War,
0:14:34 > 0:14:37they suffered a disproportionate number of combat deaths.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43When civil rights leaders complained, the defence department
0:14:43 > 0:14:46made a concerted effort to right that balance,
0:14:46 > 0:14:49and by 1969, it had succeeded.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54But behind the lines, African-American soldiers
0:14:54 > 0:14:58were still treated differently from their white counterparts.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01MUSIC: Respect by Otis Redding
0:15:09 > 0:15:11I hear there's all these beast motherfuckers,
0:15:11 > 0:15:15walking around here with their hair looking like goddamn girls,
0:15:15 > 0:15:18and we can't wear our hair motherfucking three inches long.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21The motherfucking regulation is three inches.
0:15:21 > 0:15:23And most of us, we can wear an Afro,
0:15:23 > 0:15:25the hair going to be motherfucking two inches.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28Why we got to get our hair cut? That's what I want to know.
0:15:31 > 0:15:33Vietnam was a microcosm.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36Everything that was happening in America was happening
0:15:36 > 0:15:39in Vietnam, really, in one way, shape or form.
0:15:41 > 0:15:43There was all kinds of craziness happening.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47White people were still calling us niggers
0:15:47 > 0:15:50and then there was some black people calling us Uncle Toms.
0:15:50 > 0:15:54Whatever the anti-war folks were calling us, baby killers.
0:15:54 > 0:15:56So, you know, you say what you want, but you say it
0:15:56 > 0:15:58from over there, because if you get in range,
0:15:58 > 0:16:02you're going to get serious damage done to you.
0:16:02 > 0:16:04Say what you want from a distance, but if you get close to me,
0:16:04 > 0:16:06I'm going to rip your throat out. You know?
0:16:15 > 0:16:19A 19-year-old high school dropout says, "Why are we here?"
0:16:21 > 0:16:25And the standard response, at least on an official level, was,
0:16:25 > 0:16:28"To prevent international Communism from conquering the world."
0:16:31 > 0:16:33The men say, "Hey, that's bullshit."
0:16:35 > 0:16:39So, the other reason put forth, at least in the latter days
0:16:39 > 0:16:43of the war, was to maintain America's international credibility
0:16:43 > 0:16:45with our allies and our enemies.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51No 19, 20-year-old kid wants to die to maintain the credibility
0:16:51 > 0:16:53of Lyndon Johnson or Richard Nixon.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58So, within a relatively short time the guys are saying,
0:16:58 > 0:17:01"Look, we shouldn't be here, but we are.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06"So, my only function in life is to try and keep you alive, buddy...
0:17:07 > 0:17:10"..and to keep my precious ass from being killed.
0:17:11 > 0:17:14"And then to go home, and forget about this."
0:17:19 > 0:17:24Beginning in the summer of 1969, as thousands of American troops
0:17:24 > 0:17:28began going home, the number of reports of the murder
0:17:28 > 0:17:31or attempted murder by enlisted men
0:17:31 > 0:17:33of their superiors increased alarmingly.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39What happens to an unpopular officer, out in the field?
0:17:39 > 0:17:42Mostly, an unpopular officer, from what I heard,
0:17:42 > 0:17:45if they mess with a grunt too much, they get shot after that.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59In Paris, the 29th session of the so-called peace talks took place.
0:17:59 > 0:18:01There was no progress.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05In Vietnam, it was announced that 139 Americans lost their lives
0:18:05 > 0:18:07last week, bringing total deaths...
0:18:09 > 0:18:13The four-way peace talks in Paris continued to go nowhere.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18To break the logjam, Nixon directed Henry Kissinger
0:18:18 > 0:18:21to begin secret talks,
0:18:21 > 0:18:23the first in a series of clandestine meetings
0:18:23 > 0:18:25with the North Vietnamese alone.
0:18:27 > 0:18:31They first met in an apartment building on the Rue de Rivoli.
0:18:31 > 0:18:34The Vietcong and the South Vietnamese government
0:18:34 > 0:18:35were not included.
0:18:37 > 0:18:39Hanoi remained immovable.
0:18:40 > 0:18:44They would not even admit they had troops in South Vietnam,
0:18:44 > 0:18:46let alone discuss withdrawing them.
0:18:47 > 0:18:51Now Kissinger warned that if there were no change in their position
0:18:51 > 0:18:52by November 1st,
0:18:52 > 0:18:57the one-year anniversary of President Johnson's bombing halt,
0:18:57 > 0:19:01President Nixon would consider steps of grave consequence.
0:19:15 > 0:19:20September 2nd, 1969 was the 24th anniversary
0:19:20 > 0:19:24of Ho Chi Minh's declaration of Vietnamese independence
0:19:24 > 0:19:26in Hanoi's Ba Dinh Square.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32At 9.45 that morning, Ho died.
0:19:34 > 0:19:39He was said to be 79, but like so much about him,
0:19:39 > 0:19:42the precise date of his birth was shrouded in mystery.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46He had been Uncle Ho for decades,
0:19:46 > 0:19:50the living embodiment of the struggle against the Japanese,
0:19:50 > 0:19:54the French, the Saigon government, and then the Americans.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02In a speech to the National Assembly, Le Duan,
0:20:02 > 0:20:05the first secretary of the Communist Party,
0:20:05 > 0:20:09who had been the architect of North Vietnamese military policy
0:20:09 > 0:20:15for a decade, promised to fulfil what he said was Ho's vision -
0:20:15 > 0:20:19the reunification of the country on Communist terms.
0:20:22 > 0:20:24Nothing had changed.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31MUSIC: Come Ye by Nina Simone
0:20:38 > 0:20:41We believe it's possible to create a substantial majority
0:20:41 > 0:20:43in this country for withdrawal from Vietnam,
0:20:43 > 0:20:45and that's what we're about, in the long run.
0:20:45 > 0:20:49In November, we'll be back again, in December, we'll be back again,
0:20:49 > 0:20:53and we intend to build a movement which will make it imperative
0:20:53 > 0:20:55that the United States withdraw from Vietnam.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58The organisers of the moratorium do not aim
0:20:58 > 0:21:01at confrontation or scuffles with the police.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04Instead, they want to involve the most people possible
0:21:04 > 0:21:07in some gesture of protest, however modest,
0:21:07 > 0:21:11to show the administration that a large block of Americans
0:21:11 > 0:21:15care not about winning or losing the war, but only about ending it.
0:21:19 > 0:21:20Thank you.
0:21:20 > 0:21:25Now, I understand that there has been, and continues to be,
0:21:25 > 0:21:28opposition to the war in Vietnam on the campuses,
0:21:28 > 0:21:29and also in the nation.
0:21:30 > 0:21:36We expect it, however, under no circumstances will I be affected
0:21:36 > 0:21:38whatever by it.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41Hoping to undercut support for the moratorium,
0:21:41 > 0:21:44Nixon cancelled the draft calls for the months
0:21:44 > 0:21:48of November and December 1969.
0:21:48 > 0:21:52And he instituted a random lottery system based on the date
0:21:52 > 0:21:57of a young man's birth, intended to treat rich and poor alike,
0:21:57 > 0:22:00and do away with unfair deferments.
0:22:00 > 0:22:04It was good policy and a brilliant political manoeuvre.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08I'm alive, brothers and sisters, I'm alive now!
0:22:10 > 0:22:12As people across the country organised
0:22:12 > 0:22:16for the peaceful moratorium, members of a radical faction
0:22:16 > 0:22:19of the Students For A Democratic Society,
0:22:19 > 0:22:22the Weathermen, took more direct action.
0:22:22 > 0:22:24MUSIC: Subterranean Homesick Blues by Bob Dylan
0:22:24 > 0:22:27Less interested in ending the war than
0:22:27 > 0:22:29in sparking a violent revolution,
0:22:29 > 0:22:33they staged what they called Four Days Of Rage, in Chicago.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38- REPORTER:- Weatherman takes its name from a line in a Bob Dylan song,
0:22:38 > 0:22:41which says, "You don't need a weatherman to know
0:22:41 > 0:22:42"the way the wind blows."
0:22:44 > 0:22:48BOB DYLAN: # You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. #
0:22:50 > 0:22:54The Weathermen assumed thousands would rally to the cause.
0:22:55 > 0:22:57Only 600 did.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01They ran through the streets, wielding chains and pipes,
0:23:01 > 0:23:05smashing windows and windshields, and charging police barriers.
0:23:08 > 0:23:14Six were shot, 250 were jailed, 75 policemen were injured.
0:23:18 > 0:23:24Probably, 1969 was the year in which most of us were more alienated
0:23:24 > 0:23:27and felt more like revolutionaries,
0:23:27 > 0:23:32and it led to a lot of crazy responses.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36I wanted the country to undergo a radical transformation
0:23:36 > 0:23:40of redistribution of wealth and power.
0:23:40 > 0:23:43But to try to bring that about through armed struggle
0:23:43 > 0:23:46in the United States was insane.
0:23:46 > 0:23:51These were all infantile fantasies that people came to out
0:23:51 > 0:23:55of the frustration of not having a workable strategy
0:23:55 > 0:23:56for ending the war.
0:24:01 > 0:24:06Still, the moratorium on October 15th, held all across
0:24:06 > 0:24:10the country, was the largest outpouring of public dissent
0:24:10 > 0:24:12in American history.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15MUSIC: Blackbird by The Beatles
0:24:35 > 0:24:39It was peaceful, middle-class, carefully focused on ending the war.
0:24:41 > 0:24:43"It's nice," one marcher said,
0:24:43 > 0:24:47"to go to a demonstration without having to swear allegiance
0:24:47 > 0:24:49"to Chairman Mao."
0:24:50 > 0:24:54- REPORTER:- Surely, this is a day unique in our history.
0:24:54 > 0:24:58Never have so many of our people publicly and collectively
0:24:58 > 0:25:02manifested opposition to this country's involvement in the war.
0:25:03 > 0:25:06It is unlikely we will remain unchanged.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08Hundreds and hundreds of thousands,
0:25:08 > 0:25:11in cities from New York, with its eight million people,
0:25:11 > 0:25:14to Dubois, Wyoming, with its 800 people,
0:25:14 > 0:25:16have sought to impress upon the President
0:25:16 > 0:25:18their opposition to the war.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26The first large protest march I went to was in Baltimore.
0:25:28 > 0:25:33Just the energy of the crowd itself was tremendous.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39I wondered if everybody was in it for the right reasons.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43I wasn't there to drink, or smoke pot...
0:25:44 > 0:25:45..not in those situations.
0:25:47 > 0:25:49These, to me, were serious business.
0:25:50 > 0:25:55This was the business of living life, this was not a party.
0:25:55 > 0:25:57I wanted to make a difference.
0:25:58 > 0:26:02And I, in no way, wanted to dishonour my brother.
0:26:07 > 0:26:11The children of several of the President's closest aides
0:26:11 > 0:26:14and cabinet members took part in the national moratorium.
0:26:15 > 0:26:20Vice President Agnew's 14-year-old daughter wanted to march,
0:26:20 > 0:26:21but he wouldn't let her.
0:26:24 > 0:26:29On November 3rd, the President sought to seize back the initiative.
0:26:29 > 0:26:31Good evening, my fellow Americans.
0:26:31 > 0:26:35He went on national television and called for patience
0:26:35 > 0:26:38and asked Americans to rally behind him.
0:26:40 > 0:26:45The great silent majority of my fellow Americans,
0:26:45 > 0:26:46I ask for your support.
0:26:47 > 0:26:52I pledged in my campaign for the presidency to end the war,
0:26:52 > 0:26:54in a way that we could win the peace.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58The more support I can have from the American people,
0:26:58 > 0:27:01the sooner that pledge can be redeemed.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04For the more divided we are at home,
0:27:04 > 0:27:07the less likely the enemy is to negotiate in Paris.
0:27:09 > 0:27:11Let us be united for peace.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE
0:27:46 > 0:27:51Bao Ninh was 17 when he was drafted into the North Vietnamese army
0:27:51 > 0:27:55to fight the Americans, just as his father had fought the French.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01His war would take place in the central highlands of South Vietnam.
0:28:02 > 0:28:06It was American firepower that Bao Ninh and his fellow soldiers
0:28:06 > 0:28:08feared the most.
0:28:08 > 0:28:09LOUD EXPLOSIONS
0:30:11 > 0:30:15I was stationed in Vietnam in a province called Quang Ngai.
0:30:17 > 0:30:20Even back during the time of the French, it was
0:30:20 > 0:30:23a very heavily Vietminh area,
0:30:23 > 0:30:26and when I arrived, heavily Vietcong.
0:30:26 > 0:30:31Tim O'Brien, from Worthington, Minnesota, served in Alpha Company,
0:30:31 > 0:30:35Third Platoon, 5th Battalion, 23rd Americal Division.
0:30:37 > 0:30:39Back in the spring of 1969,
0:30:39 > 0:30:44they had been sent into an area of operations the Americans
0:30:44 > 0:30:48called Pinkville - clusters of villages that included
0:30:48 > 0:30:50a hamlet they called My Lai.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56We hated going there.
0:30:56 > 0:30:57We were terrified of the place.
0:30:59 > 0:31:02The villagers were... The expressions on their faces...
0:31:03 > 0:31:05...had a mixture of hostility...
0:31:07 > 0:31:08..and terror.
0:31:11 > 0:31:13And I remember talking to fellow soldiers, thinking,
0:31:13 > 0:31:15"What is it with this place?"
0:31:16 > 0:31:20And then, about three quarters of the way through my tour in Vietnam,
0:31:20 > 0:31:23the story of the My Lai massacre broke in the States.
0:31:25 > 0:31:31On November 12, 1969, the Dispatch news service in Washington
0:31:31 > 0:31:34moved a story by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh.
0:31:36 > 0:31:40It was soon followed by the publication of graphic photos
0:31:40 > 0:31:43taken by army photographer Ronald Haeberle.
0:31:45 > 0:31:48The story and the pictures stunned the world.
0:31:51 > 0:31:5620 months earlier, on the morning of March 16th, 1968,
0:31:56 > 0:32:01105 men from a rifle company belonging to the Americal Division,
0:32:01 > 0:32:06and led by Captain Ernest Medina and Lieutenant Colonel William Calley,
0:32:06 > 0:32:09had been ordered to helicopter into the village of My Lai four.
0:32:11 > 0:32:15Since arriving in Vietnam, they had lost 28 men to mines
0:32:15 > 0:32:18and booby traps, and unseen snipers.
0:32:20 > 0:32:23Two days earlier, a popular squad leader had been killed.
0:32:25 > 0:32:30They had been told a unit of main force Vietcong was waiting for them,
0:32:30 > 0:32:32and they were eager for revenge.
0:32:34 > 0:32:36But they received no hostile fire...
0:32:38 > 0:32:40..encountered no enemy soldiers.
0:32:43 > 0:32:49Instead, over the next four hours, Medina, Calley and their men
0:32:49 > 0:32:56murdered 407 defenceless old men, women, children and infants.
0:33:07 > 0:33:11Many of the women and girls were raped, before they were shot.
0:33:15 > 0:33:17There would have been still more slaughtered,
0:33:17 > 0:33:21had a helicopter pilot named Hugh Thompson Junior
0:33:21 > 0:33:25not landed between the men and some of their intended targets,
0:33:25 > 0:33:30and ordered his crew to open fire on their fellow Americans if they did
0:33:30 > 0:33:32not stop shooting civilians.
0:33:36 > 0:33:39At the same time, just a mile or so away,
0:33:39 > 0:33:43another company murdered 97 more villagers.
0:33:45 > 0:33:49And suddenly, it was like a window shade going up and there's light,
0:33:49 > 0:33:54and we understood what had engendered this horror
0:33:54 > 0:33:59on these kids' faces, and the fear, and the hatred.
0:33:59 > 0:34:02100 and some American soldiers in four hours or so,
0:34:02 > 0:34:05butchering innocent people,
0:34:05 > 0:34:08in all kinds of ways - machine gunning them and throwing them
0:34:08 > 0:34:12in wells, scalping them, killing them in ditches,
0:34:12 > 0:34:14then taking a lunch break and doing it some more.
0:34:16 > 0:34:17Systematic homicide.
0:34:21 > 0:34:23Lieutenant Calley came over and said,
0:34:23 > 0:34:25"You know what to do with them, don't you?
0:34:25 > 0:34:27And I said, "Yes." So I took it for granted that
0:34:27 > 0:34:31he just wanted us to watch them.
0:34:31 > 0:34:36And he left and came back about ten or 15 minutes later and says,
0:34:36 > 0:34:39"How come you ain't killed them yet?"
0:34:39 > 0:34:41You killed how many at that time?
0:34:41 > 0:34:44Well, I fired them on automatic, so you can't...
0:34:46 > 0:34:47You just spray the area on them,
0:34:47 > 0:34:49so you really don't know how many you killed because
0:34:49 > 0:34:52it comes out so doggone fast.
0:34:52 > 0:34:55So I might have killed about ten, 15 of them.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00- Men, women and children? - Men, women and children.
0:35:00 > 0:35:02- And babies?- And babies.
0:35:03 > 0:35:07It's so hard, I think, for a good many Americans
0:35:07 > 0:35:12to understand that young, capable, brave American boys...
0:35:13 > 0:35:14..could line up...
0:35:17 > 0:35:20..old men, women, children and babies...
0:35:21 > 0:35:23..and shoot them down in cold blood.
0:35:29 > 0:35:31How do you explain that?
0:35:31 > 0:35:32I wouldn't know.
0:35:43 > 0:35:47The killing of civilians has happened in every war.
0:35:47 > 0:35:51In Vietnam, it was not policy or routine,
0:35:51 > 0:35:54but it was not an aberration either.
0:35:57 > 0:36:01Still, the scale, deliberateness and intimacy
0:36:01 > 0:36:03of what happened at My Lai was different.
0:36:05 > 0:36:09It was different because they were killing Vietnamese point-blank,
0:36:09 > 0:36:11with rifles and grenades.
0:36:11 > 0:36:12They were murdering them directly.
0:36:12 > 0:36:14They weren't doing it with bombs and artillery.
0:36:14 > 0:36:17If they'd been doing it with bombs and artillery,
0:36:17 > 0:36:19nobody would have said a word, because it was going
0:36:19 > 0:36:20on all the time.
0:36:20 > 0:36:23The My Lai story might have shocked the American public,
0:36:23 > 0:36:26but it was not news to the Army.
0:36:26 > 0:36:29It had occurred almost two years before,
0:36:29 > 0:36:31just after the Tet Offensive.
0:36:32 > 0:36:37Hugh Thompson, the helicopter pilot who had tried to stop the massacre,
0:36:37 > 0:36:39reported what he had seen,
0:36:39 > 0:36:43but no-one in the chain of command was willing to act.
0:36:43 > 0:36:45The slaughter was covered up.
0:36:47 > 0:36:50Later, an ex-corporal named Ronald Ridenhour,
0:36:50 > 0:36:53who had heard about what had happened from several men
0:36:53 > 0:36:58who had been there, wrote letters to the President of the United States,
0:36:58 > 0:36:59the Secretary of Defence,
0:36:59 > 0:37:03and more than two dozen other high-ranking officials.
0:37:04 > 0:37:08President Nixon's first reaction was to investigate those
0:37:08 > 0:37:11who reported the slaughter.
0:37:11 > 0:37:15"It's those dirty, rotten Jews from New York who are behind it,"
0:37:15 > 0:37:16he told an aide.
0:37:18 > 0:37:22Eventually, the Army did indict 25 officers and men.
0:37:24 > 0:37:26But only the platoon leader,
0:37:26 > 0:37:28Lieutenant William Calley,
0:37:28 > 0:37:32was found guilty of murder, and sentenced to life in prison.
0:37:34 > 0:37:38After just three-and-a-half years under house arrest, he was paroled.
0:37:40 > 0:37:41Who's responsible?
0:37:44 > 0:37:46The human beings who did this.
0:37:48 > 0:37:49These are war crimes.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56The individual human beings who put a rifle muzzle up
0:37:56 > 0:37:59against a baby's head and shot the brains out of that baby?
0:38:00 > 0:38:01Nothing happened to them.
0:38:03 > 0:38:04Nothing!
0:38:16 > 0:38:18Let's just say that being a Marine combat veteran
0:38:18 > 0:38:22on a college campus in 1969 and 1970,
0:38:22 > 0:38:24it wasn't a real good thing to be if you wanted
0:38:24 > 0:38:26to get dates and be popular.
0:38:29 > 0:38:30When I came home...
0:38:31 > 0:38:35..it seemed like I didn't have anything to give to anybody else.
0:38:40 > 0:38:44Marine Corporal John Musgrave had very nearly died in combat
0:38:44 > 0:38:48below the DMZ in the autumn of 1967.
0:38:48 > 0:38:53He had spent 17 months in Navy hospitals.
0:38:53 > 0:38:57He was now studying at Baker University in Baldwin City, Kansas.
0:39:03 > 0:39:05And the peace movement, for a while,
0:39:05 > 0:39:06got real nasty.
0:39:07 > 0:39:09Calling veterans baby killers.
0:39:11 > 0:39:14It did more than piss us off, it broke our hearts.
0:39:16 > 0:39:17What were they thinking?
0:39:18 > 0:39:22Musgrave was so hurt by the way some people treated him,
0:39:22 > 0:39:25that he volunteered to return to Vietnam.
0:39:26 > 0:39:29Because of his injuries, the Marines turned him down
0:39:29 > 0:39:32and asked him to help recruit men instead.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39I had friends in country, on a second tour, and, you know,
0:39:39 > 0:39:41I still considered myself a Marine.
0:39:44 > 0:39:47And the more I read, the less I found to be able
0:39:47 > 0:39:49to defend our presence there.
0:39:51 > 0:39:54So then I just stopped talking to everybody.
0:39:56 > 0:40:01Musgrave gradually felt as if he were being torn in two
0:40:01 > 0:40:04and he was still haunted by the memory of those Marines
0:40:04 > 0:40:07who had died while he had lived.
0:40:09 > 0:40:13I was dating my 45 in those years, you know.
0:40:13 > 0:40:15Coming home at night after drinking,
0:40:15 > 0:40:18pressing it up against my temple or putting it under my chin.
0:40:21 > 0:40:22Wondering if this was going to be
0:40:22 > 0:40:25the night I was going to have the guts to do it.
0:40:26 > 0:40:28I'd had it round chambered, and I'd taken the safety off.
0:40:28 > 0:40:30Same kind of pistol I carried in Vietnam.
0:40:33 > 0:40:36And I thought, "I'm really going to do it tonight."
0:40:37 > 0:40:39You know, like, "I'm really going to do it."
0:40:41 > 0:40:43And my dogs... I'd let my dogs in.
0:40:43 > 0:40:44I had two dogs,
0:40:44 > 0:40:47and they jumped on the front door and scratched on the front door,
0:40:47 > 0:40:49they wanted in.
0:40:49 > 0:40:51And I put the safety back on the pistol, set it down,
0:40:51 > 0:40:53and let them in.
0:40:54 > 0:40:57And they were so open in their love for me
0:40:57 > 0:40:59that I literally said out loud,
0:40:59 > 0:41:02"Whoa, if I really want to do this, I can do this tomorrow."
0:41:03 > 0:41:07And I went back in the room, and I put the pistol in the drawer, and...
0:41:07 > 0:41:10I think that was the closest I came.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13I think maybe I would have killed myself that night.
0:41:14 > 0:41:17But something as simple as my dogs wanting back in...
0:41:19 > 0:41:21..stopped that thought, you know.
0:41:24 > 0:41:26I'm really glad it didn't happen.
0:41:28 > 0:41:30But, at the time, it just made so much sense.
0:41:35 > 0:41:39Richard Nixon's troop withdrawals finally turned Musgrave
0:41:39 > 0:41:41against the war.
0:41:41 > 0:41:45"If it ain't worth winning," he said, "it ain't worth dying for."
0:41:47 > 0:41:52His loyalty to the Marines would not yet let him openly say that,
0:41:52 > 0:41:56but he told a campus anti-war meeting that they should stop acting
0:41:56 > 0:42:00as if they didn't give a damn about the men who had been asked to fight,
0:42:00 > 0:42:02and received a standing ovation.
0:42:07 > 0:42:09The turning point for me, I think,
0:42:09 > 0:42:13was one evening I spent with my friend, Sonny Walter, who had been,
0:42:13 > 0:42:16just been discharged from the Army and had come home
0:42:16 > 0:42:21and spent an evening before I went in, pleading with me not to go.
0:42:21 > 0:42:23He even offered to drive me to Canada.
0:42:24 > 0:42:29In late November 1969, Jack Todd reported for basic training
0:42:29 > 0:42:32at Fort Lewis, Washington.
0:42:32 > 0:42:34Morale just could not have been worse.
0:42:34 > 0:42:37And it seemed to include even the sergeants and the officers.
0:42:39 > 0:42:41Nobody wanted to go. Nobody wanted to go.
0:42:42 > 0:42:46Todd and another member of his unit began to talk at night
0:42:46 > 0:42:49about what it meant to be true to one's conscience.
0:42:52 > 0:42:54Really, two choices, it was - go to jail, or go to Canada.
0:42:54 > 0:42:57And for me, going to jail was just not...
0:42:57 > 0:42:59That one I couldn't face.
0:42:59 > 0:43:01So, I went to Canada.
0:43:01 > 0:43:04MUSIC: Farewell, Angelina by Bob Dylan
0:43:09 > 0:43:12And I remember, after we crossed the border, it was a breeze.
0:43:12 > 0:43:14They just sort of waved us through,
0:43:14 > 0:43:17looking in the rear-view mirror thinking, "There goes my country.
0:43:17 > 0:43:19"I'll never see it again."
0:43:32 > 0:43:33I get called a coward all the time.
0:43:35 > 0:43:36It took me a long time...
0:43:37 > 0:43:42..not to feel that what I had done was cowardly,
0:43:42 > 0:43:46because I still had that military ingrained feeling inside.
0:43:48 > 0:43:50That was the bravest thing I ever did.
0:43:51 > 0:43:53It was the bravest thing I ever did.
0:43:56 > 0:43:59Jack Todd eventually found work as a reporter,
0:43:59 > 0:44:03which allowed him to gain landed immigrant status,
0:44:03 > 0:44:05a step towards Canadian citizenship.
0:44:07 > 0:44:11Only a quarter of the estimated 30,000 Americans
0:44:11 > 0:44:13who crossed into Canada managed to do so.
0:44:20 > 0:44:23At the same time, some 30,000 Canadians
0:44:23 > 0:44:26would volunteer to fight in Vietnam.
0:44:34 > 0:44:37President Nixon's first year had been a triumph.
0:44:39 > 0:44:43He had withdrawn 115,000 troops from Vietnam.
0:44:45 > 0:44:47American casualty figures were down.
0:44:49 > 0:44:53Reduced draft calls and the President's new lottery system
0:44:53 > 0:44:56had blunted some opposition to the war.
0:44:59 > 0:45:00If, when the chips are down...
0:45:01 > 0:45:05..the world's most powerful nation, the United States of America...
0:45:06 > 0:45:09..acts like a pitiful, helpless giant...
0:45:11 > 0:45:16..the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations
0:45:16 > 0:45:18and free institutions throughout the world.
0:45:19 > 0:45:24On April 30th, 1970, President Nixon shocked the world
0:45:24 > 0:45:28by announcing that he had sent 30,000 American troops
0:45:28 > 0:45:30storming into Cambodia.
0:45:32 > 0:45:35The objective was to attack North Vietnamese base camps
0:45:35 > 0:45:39and supply lines, and to buy time for the South Vietnamese Army
0:45:39 > 0:45:42as it got ready to fight on its own.
0:45:45 > 0:45:50Nixon told the public he had ordered an incursion, not an invasion,
0:45:50 > 0:45:55intended only to protect American boys in South Vietnam
0:45:55 > 0:45:58and in response to North Vietnamese aggression.
0:46:02 > 0:46:05I wasn't worried about political conflict.
0:46:05 > 0:46:10I was worried about, "Am I going to be alive in the next ten minutes?"
0:46:11 > 0:46:14We were on the western edge of the invasion.
0:46:14 > 0:46:18We went as far as anybody went in Cambodia.
0:46:18 > 0:46:22I got holes shot in my backpack.
0:46:25 > 0:46:27I really didn't think I would see the end of that week.
0:46:35 > 0:46:39The sight of American troops crossing the border into Cambodia
0:46:39 > 0:46:41reignited the anti-war movement.
0:46:43 > 0:46:48If the troops were coming home, if the war was winding down,
0:46:48 > 0:46:52why had Nixon decided to widen it?
0:46:52 > 0:46:56How could invading another country help bring peace
0:46:56 > 0:46:57to Southeast Asia?
0:46:59 > 0:47:02The reaction on the campuses was swift and predictable,
0:47:02 > 0:47:05the students and many of their teachers were against the President.
0:47:10 > 0:47:14On Monday morning, May 4th 1970,
0:47:14 > 0:47:18some 2,000 students gathered on the Commons at Kent State University
0:47:18 > 0:47:19in Kent, Ohio.
0:47:21 > 0:47:24Some were simply moving from class to class,
0:47:24 > 0:47:29others planned to attend a rally called to protest Nixon's widening
0:47:29 > 0:47:34of the war and the presence of the Ohio National Guard on campus.
0:47:41 > 0:47:44The guardsmen's weapons were loaded with live ammunition.
0:47:45 > 0:47:47Though no-one in the crowd knew it.
0:47:54 > 0:47:56The students were ordered to disperse.
0:47:57 > 0:47:58They stood their ground.
0:48:06 > 0:48:07Tear gas scattered some of them.
0:48:28 > 0:48:30The guardsmen seemed to fall back...
0:48:31 > 0:48:35..but then, members of troop G wheeled around
0:48:35 > 0:48:39and opened fire on students gathered in and around a parking lot.
0:48:42 > 0:48:44HEAVY GUNFIRE
0:48:52 > 0:48:55GUNFIRE FADES OUT
0:49:12 > 0:49:14Get them to call another ambulance!
0:49:16 > 0:49:19There's people dying down here, get an ambulance up here!
0:49:19 > 0:49:21PANICKED SHOUTS
0:49:21 > 0:49:22SCREAMING
0:49:25 > 0:49:3267 rounds in 13 seconds killed two young women and two young men.
0:49:36 > 0:49:39Including an ROTC scholarship student
0:49:39 > 0:49:41who had simply been an onlooker.
0:49:47 > 0:49:53That dead child on the ground was one of ours.
0:49:56 > 0:49:58If we could kill our own students...
0:50:00 > 0:50:03..what had happened to our country?
0:50:06 > 0:50:12Nine more students were wounded, one of whom was permanently paralysed.
0:50:29 > 0:50:32According to one national poll,
0:50:32 > 0:50:3658% of the American people thought the killings justified.
0:50:41 > 0:50:45The parents of the dead ROTC student received a flood
0:50:45 > 0:50:49of hate mail, suggesting that they should be grateful
0:50:49 > 0:50:50their boy was dead,
0:50:50 > 0:50:53since he'd been just another Communist.
0:51:00 > 0:51:03During the days that followed, all across the country,
0:51:03 > 0:51:07more than four million college students demonstrated
0:51:07 > 0:51:11against the war and what had happened at Kent State.
0:51:11 > 0:51:14MUSIC: Woodstock by Joni Mitchell
0:51:31 > 0:51:34448 campuses closed down.
0:51:36 > 0:51:39And the National Guard was called out in 16 states.
0:51:45 > 0:51:48At Jackson State University in Mississippi,
0:51:48 > 0:51:50state police opened fire on a dormitory.
0:51:50 > 0:51:52SIRENS BLARE
0:51:52 > 0:51:54Two students died.
0:51:54 > 0:51:5612 more were wounded.
0:51:59 > 0:52:02Jackson State, those are my people. Those are black kids...
0:52:04 > 0:52:05..and they died.
0:52:09 > 0:52:14Army private Tim O'Brien was now back home in Minnesota.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19There was a huge march after the Kent State shootings
0:52:19 > 0:52:21in Saint Paul and I joined the march.
0:52:23 > 0:52:27I just wanted to put my body amidst these 100,000 people.
0:52:28 > 0:52:32That word, "No," being uttered by my body, if not by my mouth,
0:52:32 > 0:52:37by just making that march, that same march I was doing in Vietnam,
0:52:37 > 0:52:40it seemed senseless and purposeless, and without direction.
0:52:40 > 0:52:45Here, it felt sensible, purposeful and with direction.
0:52:45 > 0:52:48Heading for the state capital to say, "No."
0:52:51 > 0:52:52And boy, did it feel good.
0:52:58 > 0:53:01I remember when the kids were killed at Kent State.
0:53:03 > 0:53:05And I thought,
0:53:05 > 0:53:08"My God, we're killing our own children now.
0:53:08 > 0:53:10"We've really gone mad."
0:53:10 > 0:53:14And I wasn't... That's when I was hiding from things.
0:53:14 > 0:53:16I wasn't in anybody's movement then.
0:53:16 > 0:53:17I was just drinking.
0:53:20 > 0:53:24But that was one of the things that told me...
0:53:25 > 0:53:27..America needed a wake-up call.
0:53:27 > 0:53:30# By the time we got to Woodstock
0:53:30 > 0:53:34# We were half a million strong
0:53:34 > 0:53:42# And everywhere there was song and celebration
0:53:45 > 0:53:50# And I dreamed I saw the bombers
0:53:50 > 0:53:54# Riding shotgun in the sky
0:53:54 > 0:54:01# And they were turning into butterflies
0:54:01 > 0:54:05# Above our nation. #