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It was fought in the north,

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and in the south,

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in the air

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and on the ground.

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It was fought in the White House

6
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and in the halls of Congress,

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in America's streets and colleges

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and living rooms.

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Now catch a special sneak peek

10
00:00:23,017 --> 00:00:25,084
at the television event of the year

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as PBS previews

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"The Vietnam War."

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Corporate funding for the production

14
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of "The Vietnam War"

15
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was provided by Bank of America

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with funding from the following...

17
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And by members of

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the Better Angels Society...

19
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The Corporation for Public Broadcasting,

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and by viewers like you.

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Thank you.

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When we approached the target,

23
00:01:06,726 --> 00:01:09,227
coming down from altitude,

24
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it was obvious that they could
pick us up on their radar.

25
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I remember my knees shaking,

26
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and I was saying, "Holy smokes.

27
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I'm going into war.

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This is war."

29
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I was a bit scared.

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Once we went in and they
started firing at us...

31
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The fear went away.

32
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Everything became smooth,
deathly quiet in the cockpit.

33
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It was sort of like a symphony

34
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in the sense that my plane was just like

35
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a ballet in the sky,

36
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and I was just performing
what I was doing...

37
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And then I got hit.

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Mayday, mayday. Going down.

39
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There was no way we could
avoid telling this story.

40
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We'd famously said, after "Civil War,"

41
00:02:03,848 --> 00:02:06,147
no more wars, and then got sucked in

42
00:02:06,216 --> 00:02:08,483
inexorably to the film "The War"

43
00:02:08,552 --> 00:02:11,687
on the second world war.

44
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By the time we were finishing that,

45
00:02:13,590 --> 00:02:15,824
we knew that we were
in some ways obligated

46
00:02:15,892 --> 00:02:17,926
to jump into Vietnam.

47
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Ken turned to me and said, "Ok.

48
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I think we could really
try to do Vietnam now,"

49
00:02:20,597 --> 00:02:22,230
and I said, "I'm in.

50
00:02:22,299 --> 00:02:23,564
I've been in since day
one. I've always wanted

51
00:02:23,633 --> 00:02:25,834
to do this story, so that's no problem."

52
00:02:27,103 --> 00:02:29,938
... The torch has been passed

53
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to a new generation of Americans

54
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born in this century,

55
00:02:35,645 --> 00:02:37,911
tempered by war,

56
00:02:37,980 --> 00:02:42,416
disciplined by a hard
and bitter peace, proud...

57
00:02:42,485 --> 00:02:46,186
I still believed very
much in this concept

58
00:02:46,255 --> 00:02:49,757
of an heroic America,

59
00:02:49,826 --> 00:02:52,893
America being a really special country,

60
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the best country in the world,

61
00:02:54,029 --> 00:02:55,395
the best democracy,

62
00:02:55,464 --> 00:02:59,333
all the things that we believe about it,

63
00:02:59,401 --> 00:03:02,836
which... and I didn't really
see anything wrong with that.

64
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I was sure that we were
right to be in Vietnam,

65
00:03:09,245 --> 00:03:11,611
you know, because it
started under Kennedy,

66
00:03:11,680 --> 00:03:14,313
and to me, JFK was God.

67
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There's been a lot done
about this subject...

68
00:03:18,353 --> 00:03:21,388
books, documentaries,
feature films, novels.

69
00:03:21,456 --> 00:03:24,223
I mean, it's not like
no one's ever tried,

70
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but it remains this kind
of unfinished business

71
00:03:26,561 --> 00:03:28,895
in American history.

72
00:03:28,963 --> 00:03:30,930
In order to move on as a country at all,

73
00:03:30,999 --> 00:03:33,032
we have to really
understand what happened,

74
00:03:33,101 --> 00:03:35,768
and we've never done that with Vietnam.

75
00:03:35,836 --> 00:03:37,904
So it's time now.

76
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The decades have passed.

77
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We have always felt that in any kind

78
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of historical presentation,

79
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you've got to have 25
or 30 years' perspective,

80
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the kind of triangulation
that can take place

81
00:03:49,349 --> 00:03:51,683
from that passage of time.

82
00:03:53,521 --> 00:03:54,887
I just stayed awake last night,

83
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thinking about this thing.

84
00:03:56,524 --> 00:03:59,324
The more I think of it, I
don't know what in the hell...

85
00:03:59,393 --> 00:04:02,394
it looks like to me we're
getting into another Korea.

86
00:04:02,462 --> 00:04:03,828
It just worries the hell out of me.

87
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I don't see what we can ever hope to get

88
00:04:05,532 --> 00:04:08,033
out of there with once we're committed.

89
00:04:08,101 --> 00:04:09,867
I don't think it's worth fighting for,

90
00:04:09,937 --> 00:04:11,702
and I don't think we can get out.

91
00:04:11,771 --> 00:04:13,671
It's damned easy to get in a war,

92
00:04:13,740 --> 00:04:16,641
but it's gonna be awfully hard
to ever extricate yourself.

93
00:04:19,245 --> 00:04:23,481
In many ways, the Vietnam
war was our second civil war,

94
00:04:23,550 --> 00:04:25,349
ripping the country apart

95
00:04:25,418 --> 00:04:27,952
in ways that hadn't taken place

96
00:04:28,020 --> 00:04:29,487
since the Civil War,

97
00:04:29,556 --> 00:04:31,656
and it's important now to go back

98
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and try to understand it.

99
00:04:34,593 --> 00:04:37,661
We have tried to take a
look at this from every side.

100
00:04:37,729 --> 00:04:39,263
So within the American experience,

101
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there's people who fought in the war,

102
00:04:40,732 --> 00:04:42,933
there's people who
fought against the war.

103
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There was a tremendous conflict
within the United States

104
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about the war,

105
00:04:46,038 --> 00:04:48,472
and then within Vietnam,
there's the winning side,

106
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there's the losing side.

107
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They were our enemy and our ally.

108
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There's just so many
different perspectives,

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we tried to bring them all together.

110
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Just hope we can stay alive day to day.

111
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Everybody just wants to go
back home and go to school.

112
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That's about it.

113
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Have you lost any friends?

114
00:05:04,255 --> 00:05:05,722
Quite a few. We lost one the other day,

115
00:05:05,791 --> 00:05:06,889
good buddy of mine.

116
00:05:08,059 --> 00:05:09,225
Whole thing stinks, really.

117
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This film is not an answer,

118
00:05:13,064 --> 00:05:17,200
but a set of questions
about what happened.

119
00:05:26,176 --> 00:05:29,378
I am getting a little bit antsy because,

120
00:05:29,413 --> 00:05:31,814
first of all, we're losing light.

121
00:05:31,849 --> 00:05:35,217
Second of all, we are now
outside of artillery range.

122
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We got to get out of there.

123
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We have to move out of here

124
00:05:39,923 --> 00:05:43,558
because they coming.

125
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And we don't have time.

126
00:05:47,264 --> 00:05:50,132
I went to the... Major
Nho, his name was...

127
00:05:50,167 --> 00:05:54,636
and I said, "Major, we have
got to get out of here now,"

128
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and Nho said, "Don't you forget.

129
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I am a major, and you are a lieutenant,"

130
00:06:01,011 --> 00:06:03,444
turned on his heel, and walked away.

131
00:06:03,479 --> 00:06:06,781
10 minutes later, all hell broke loose.

132
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There he is.

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00:06:11,555 --> 00:06:13,954
We have extraordinary
people looking for stills

134
00:06:13,989 --> 00:06:15,256
and archival footage and music

135
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and all the elements
that make up our series.

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They are all really
committed to finding material

137
00:06:22,398 --> 00:06:26,100
that is not only accurate and relevant,

138
00:06:26,135 --> 00:06:30,837
but they all have creative,
artistic minds and eyes,

139
00:06:30,873 --> 00:06:33,473
and we're really good as a team.

140
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We've pulled in hundreds

141
00:06:35,510 --> 00:06:38,111
of hours of footage for this project.

142
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The shooting of 4
students at Kent State is

143
00:06:41,283 --> 00:06:43,650
one of the most important
scenes in our film.

144
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We came across some scraps of footage

145
00:06:47,355 --> 00:06:48,588
that we had never seen before,

146
00:06:48,623 --> 00:06:50,323
and we didn't know
where it had come from.

147
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We got in touch with some of the people

148
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who had been at the Kent State protests

149
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and just started asking
them, "who do you know

150
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who may have been
shooting this footage?"

151
00:06:58,533 --> 00:07:00,032
And sure enough, one of those people

152
00:07:00,068 --> 00:07:02,267
put us in touch with Ray Kline,

153
00:07:02,336 --> 00:07:04,369
who happened to be the
brother of David Kline,

154
00:07:04,405 --> 00:07:07,206
who was a student at Kent State,

155
00:07:07,241 --> 00:07:09,241
and these protests were a big deal.

156
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They'd been going on for 4 days,
so he had been shooting them.

157
00:07:11,512 --> 00:07:14,780
Sure enough, his brother
had a box of old film reels.

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There were, you know, maybe 10 reels

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of 16-millimeter film
that hadn't been seen

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in more than 4 decades.

161
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I think everyone here recognized

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how important it would
be for our viewers

163
00:07:26,059 --> 00:07:27,726
to be able to see this incredible moment

164
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as it unfolded.

165
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There are literally 25,000 photographs

166
00:07:31,398 --> 00:07:33,064
that were pulled into our system.

167
00:07:33,100 --> 00:07:35,800
It's an enormous archivist's
job to keep track.

168
00:07:35,836 --> 00:07:38,837
One of our interviewees,
his name was Philip Brady,

169
00:07:38,872 --> 00:07:41,806
said, "I will tell you
my story if you can find

170
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this photo that ran in Paris Match."

171
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They found that the source was AP,

172
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and they called AP, and AP said,

173
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"Yeah, it ran, but we
don't have it anymore,

174
00:07:50,150 --> 00:07:51,415
we can't find it.

175
00:07:51,451 --> 00:07:52,617
We're so sorry,"

176
00:07:52,652 --> 00:07:54,118
and I thought, "Well, can we actually go

177
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back into your archive,
have us look at the folders

178
00:07:56,722 --> 00:07:59,357
because we feel like maybe
if we could just look?"

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And lo and behold, there was
a folder called "Advisors,"

180
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and Phil Brady was a marine advisor.

181
00:08:05,265 --> 00:08:07,331
We looked through,
and we found, actually,

182
00:08:07,367 --> 00:08:09,099
3 photographs of Phil Brady,

183
00:08:09,135 --> 00:08:11,035
two of which had never been seen before,

184
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had never been published,

185
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and they're... they're in the film.

186
00:08:13,706 --> 00:08:16,940
What we have is kind
of two parallel tracks

187
00:08:16,976 --> 00:08:21,011
in which research and the
collection of material is ongoing,

188
00:08:21,047 --> 00:08:22,813
and we have writing in the other track,

189
00:08:22,848 --> 00:08:24,247
which is ongoing.

190
00:08:24,283 --> 00:08:25,715
I can't believe I've been lucky enough

191
00:08:25,750 --> 00:08:27,617
with Geoff Ward for all these years.

192
00:08:27,653 --> 00:08:29,752
I can't imagine doing a
film like this without him.

193
00:08:29,788 --> 00:08:31,854
I don't think it would
actually be possible.

194
00:08:31,890 --> 00:08:33,823
We don't want to stop.

195
00:08:33,858 --> 00:08:35,792
We just want to make it better.

196
00:08:38,730 --> 00:08:40,263
Good morning, Mr. President.

197
00:08:40,332 --> 00:08:41,597
Hi, Jack.

198
00:08:41,666 --> 00:08:44,033
Uh, we need guidance
this morning, sir, on...

199
00:08:44,102 --> 00:08:46,468
Guidance? Uh, is that all you want?

200
00:08:46,537 --> 00:08:48,370
- Yes, sir.
- No quotation?

201
00:08:48,439 --> 00:08:49,505
- That's right.
- No attribution,

202
00:08:49,574 --> 00:08:50,807
- no connection?
- Yes, sir.

203
00:08:50,875 --> 00:08:52,809
Give it absolutely none.

204
00:08:52,877 --> 00:08:54,276
- Absolutely none.
- Your press is lying

205
00:08:54,345 --> 00:08:57,413
like drunken sailors every day.

206
00:08:57,481 --> 00:08:59,582
Two of the most important characters

207
00:08:59,650 --> 00:09:01,750
in our film we didn't interview.

208
00:09:01,819 --> 00:09:03,319
They're the two most
important presidents

209
00:09:03,387 --> 00:09:04,653
to the story of Vietnam...

210
00:09:04,722 --> 00:09:07,656
Lyndon Baines Johnson and Richard Nixon,

211
00:09:07,725 --> 00:09:11,561
and fortunately for us, we have tapes.

212
00:09:11,730 --> 00:09:12,739
Dr. Kissinger.

213
00:09:12,797 --> 00:09:13,829
Yeah. Mr. President?

214
00:09:13,898 --> 00:09:15,131
Yeah, Henry.

215
00:09:15,199 --> 00:09:16,298
This was the best
speech you've delivered

216
00:09:16,367 --> 00:09:18,434
since you've been in office.

217
00:09:18,582 --> 00:09:20,215
Yeah. I'll tell you one thing.

218
00:09:20,283 --> 00:09:22,417
This was... this little speech was

219
00:09:22,486 --> 00:09:23,886
a work of art, Henry.

220
00:09:23,954 --> 00:09:26,054
I... I know a little
something about speechwriting,

221
00:09:26,123 --> 00:09:28,456
and if it doesn't... if it
doesn't work, I don't care.

222
00:09:28,526 --> 00:09:30,091
I mean, right now, if it doesn't work.

223
00:09:30,160 --> 00:09:32,660
Then let me say, though,
I'm gonna find out soon,

224
00:09:32,729 --> 00:09:34,762
and then I'm gonna turn
right so goddamn hard

225
00:09:34,831 --> 00:09:36,031
it'll make your head spin.

226
00:09:36,099 --> 00:09:37,499
We'll bomb those bastards
right out of the...

227
00:09:37,567 --> 00:09:38,733
off the earth.

228
00:09:38,801 --> 00:09:40,035
I really mean it.

229
00:09:40,103 --> 00:09:42,603
It helps to kind of give us an access

230
00:09:42,672 --> 00:09:44,372
on the presidency.

231
00:09:44,441 --> 00:09:46,774
Now we have a chance
to put them together

232
00:09:46,843 --> 00:09:48,743
and really understand what had happened,

233
00:09:48,811 --> 00:09:50,978
and it is a fascinating portrait,

234
00:09:51,047 --> 00:09:54,248
so while this film is for
the most part bottom-up,

235
00:09:54,316 --> 00:09:57,418
it's hugely important portraits
of Truman and Eisenhower,

236
00:09:57,486 --> 00:10:00,555
but particularly Kennedy
and Johnson and Nixon.

237
00:10:00,623 --> 00:10:02,590
Rolling.

238
00:10:12,468 --> 00:10:14,368
Today, we are extremely lucky

239
00:10:14,470 --> 00:10:16,403
to be recording music with Yo-Yo Ma

240
00:10:16,472 --> 00:10:18,238
and the Silk Road ensemble.

241
00:10:18,307 --> 00:10:20,674
It's just such a privilege
to work with these musicians.

242
00:10:25,513 --> 00:10:28,314
Working with Silk Road is

243
00:10:28,383 --> 00:10:30,617
such an incredible joy for me

244
00:10:30,686 --> 00:10:34,654
because these are people who
are like brothers and sisters,

245
00:10:34,723 --> 00:10:37,123
and I think what musicians
specialize in doing

246
00:10:37,192 --> 00:10:39,758
is to actually locate emotions

247
00:10:39,827 --> 00:10:44,597
and even the juxtaposition of different
types of emotions in one thing,

248
00:10:44,665 --> 00:10:47,400
so by doing, like, a "Wounded
Soldier," for example,

249
00:10:47,469 --> 00:10:51,504
in 6 different ways, there are
so many ways you can show that.

250
00:10:53,534 --> 00:10:57,136
As many as 230,000 teenagers,

251
00:10:57,204 --> 00:10:59,171
many of them volunteers,

252
00:10:59,239 --> 00:11:01,140
worked to keep the roads open

253
00:11:01,208 --> 00:11:03,308
and the traffic moving.

254
00:11:03,377 --> 00:11:06,378
More than half of them were women.

255
00:11:08,515 --> 00:11:11,049
Le Minh Khue, who had
left her home in the north

256
00:11:11,117 --> 00:11:14,319
with a novel by Ernest
Hemingway in her backpack,

257
00:11:14,388 --> 00:11:18,390
observed her 17th birthday on the trail.

258
00:11:18,458 --> 00:11:20,613
_

259
00:11:20,914 --> 00:11:23,586
_

260
00:11:23,587 --> 00:11:25,960
_

261
00:11:26,561 --> 00:11:30,191
_

262
00:11:30,892 --> 00:11:34,750
_

263
00:11:34,974 --> 00:11:37,241
Thousands died on the trail

264
00:11:37,310 --> 00:11:39,677
from starvation and accidents,

265
00:11:39,746 --> 00:11:43,514
fevers and snakebite
and sheer exhaustion,

266
00:11:43,583 --> 00:11:46,817
as well as from the relentless bombing.

267
00:11:55,160 --> 00:11:56,560
We brought all our editors with us,

268
00:11:56,596 --> 00:11:59,196
and you can see them taking
a take in their own mind

269
00:11:59,231 --> 00:12:01,397
and pulling out a piece of
music that was sort of in there

270
00:12:01,433 --> 00:12:05,401
and putting this back in
and having it mean something.

271
00:12:07,039 --> 00:12:09,005
Ultimately, the music is gonna come

272
00:12:09,041 --> 00:12:11,274
from a variety of places.

273
00:12:12,945 --> 00:12:15,445
Some of them are very well-known tunes,

274
00:12:15,480 --> 00:12:17,780
like there's a lullaby that is very much

275
00:12:17,815 --> 00:12:20,583
really all known in Vietnam,

276
00:12:20,619 --> 00:12:26,889
and other pieces are tunes that
we try and show in different ways.

277
00:12:26,924 --> 00:12:29,959
Some of the greatest
musicians on the planet

278
00:12:29,994 --> 00:12:34,529
are in that room, and so when
you hear a violin or a viola

279
00:12:34,565 --> 00:12:37,432
or you're hearing
some Asian instruments,

280
00:12:37,468 --> 00:12:43,105
you're hearing them played by
practitioners at the highest level.

281
00:12:43,141 --> 00:12:45,474
- Whoo!
- Whoo!

282
00:12:53,884 --> 00:12:56,518
I went to the movies, and I saw a film,

283
00:12:56,553 --> 00:12:58,153
"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,"

284
00:12:58,188 --> 00:12:59,655
and I found myself sitting there,

285
00:12:59,690 --> 00:13:02,457
mostly listening to
the music and thinking,

286
00:13:02,493 --> 00:13:04,959
"That is exactly what we
want for our film on Vietnam."

287
00:13:04,995 --> 00:13:06,861
It's this constant state of tension.

288
00:13:06,897 --> 00:13:08,429
I stayed to watch the credits,

289
00:13:08,464 --> 00:13:11,599
and I saw the music was done by
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

290
00:13:15,872 --> 00:13:17,305
I got a call from my manager,

291
00:13:17,340 --> 00:13:19,274
who said, "Ken Burns and Lynn Novick

292
00:13:19,309 --> 00:13:22,310
have reached out about
a new, massive project

293
00:13:22,345 --> 00:13:24,845
they're working on about the Vietnam War

294
00:13:24,880 --> 00:13:26,614
and were wondering if you would like

295
00:13:26,649 --> 00:13:28,182
to be involved in composing,"

296
00:13:28,217 --> 00:13:30,584
and I just cut him off
and said, "For sure,

297
00:13:30,620 --> 00:13:33,354
we want to be involved in that."

298
00:13:33,469 --> 00:13:35,870
Their music is like an
extraordinary combination

299
00:13:35,905 --> 00:13:40,107
of a kind of cold,
metallic, electronic sound

300
00:13:40,142 --> 00:13:45,245
mitigated by this incredibly
beautiful, melodic sensibility.

301
00:13:47,439 --> 00:13:49,939
Somewhere around 80%
of our casualties came

302
00:13:49,975 --> 00:13:52,809
from landmines of all sorts.

303
00:13:54,513 --> 00:13:57,279
In Vietnam for me, just
to get up in the morning

304
00:13:57,315 --> 00:13:59,516
and look out at the land

305
00:13:59,551 --> 00:14:02,351
and think, "In a few minutes,
I'll be walking out there,

306
00:14:02,387 --> 00:14:06,556
and will my corpse be there or there?"

307
00:14:06,591 --> 00:14:10,259
It's always nerve-racking
handing off a lot of music,

308
00:14:10,294 --> 00:14:15,264
but I was amazed at how
sophisticated it was,

309
00:14:15,299 --> 00:14:18,600
how it goes from music
that we might have created

310
00:14:18,636 --> 00:14:20,836
to music of the era

311
00:14:20,871 --> 00:14:22,604
or stuff that Yo-Yo Ma did.

312
00:14:22,640 --> 00:14:24,273
It was mind-blowing.

313
00:14:24,308 --> 00:14:25,941
♪ One time ago, a
crazy dream came to me ♪

314
00:14:25,976 --> 00:14:29,578
♪ I dreamt I was walking
in World War III ♪

315
00:14:29,613 --> 00:14:31,212
It was the biggest crowd any of us

316
00:14:31,248 --> 00:14:34,716
had ever been in in our lives,

317
00:14:34,752 --> 00:14:38,486
and when the front of the march
got down to the united nations,

318
00:14:38,522 --> 00:14:42,390
the back of the march had
not yet left Central Park.

319
00:14:42,426 --> 00:14:45,427
That's how many people we were.

320
00:14:45,462 --> 00:14:49,197
The music of this era, the
Vietnam War era, is iconic.

321
00:14:49,232 --> 00:14:51,499
We knew we would be
including some very important

322
00:14:51,535 --> 00:14:53,568
and recognizable music.

323
00:14:53,603 --> 00:14:57,439
This is the best music in
American history, you could argue.

324
00:14:57,474 --> 00:14:59,507
We have Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin

325
00:14:59,543 --> 00:15:01,141
and Neil Young and Bob Dylan,

326
00:15:01,177 --> 00:15:03,343
and I think it was
important to the artists

327
00:15:03,379 --> 00:15:04,478
and to the record companies

328
00:15:04,513 --> 00:15:07,281
that if we're in 1968 in our film,

329
00:15:07,316 --> 00:15:08,583
we're not gonna play a piece of music

330
00:15:08,618 --> 00:15:10,484
that came out in 1972.

331
00:15:10,519 --> 00:15:13,287
♪ I like to dream ♪

332
00:15:13,322 --> 00:15:17,857
♪ yes, yes, right between
the sound machine ♪

333
00:15:18,860 --> 00:15:21,361
♪ on a cloud of sound
I drift in the night ♪

334
00:15:21,397 --> 00:15:24,164
♪ any place it goes is right ♪

335
00:15:25,667 --> 00:15:28,335
If you could just bring them
down even more to give...

336
00:15:28,370 --> 00:15:31,405
This is one of the most exhilarating

337
00:15:31,440 --> 00:15:34,373
and difficult and bittersweet parts

338
00:15:34,409 --> 00:15:35,675
of the whole process.

339
00:15:35,711 --> 00:15:37,143
This is mixing.

340
00:15:37,178 --> 00:15:39,012
Saigon's troops would
gradually take over

341
00:15:39,047 --> 00:15:42,181
responsibility for engaging the enemy.

342
00:15:42,297 --> 00:15:44,197
This is the first film I've worked on

343
00:15:44,232 --> 00:15:47,533
that I actually was a part of in a way

344
00:15:47,569 --> 00:15:48,902
'cause it's my generation.

345
00:15:48,937 --> 00:15:50,369
It makes my whole approach to it

346
00:15:50,405 --> 00:15:52,938
a little bit more intense,

347
00:15:52,973 --> 00:15:54,273
a little different than usual.

348
00:15:54,309 --> 00:15:55,441
I'm putting reverb on.

349
00:15:55,476 --> 00:15:56,709
- Ok. Good. Yeah.
- Good.

350
00:15:56,744 --> 00:15:58,377
I think the series has

351
00:15:58,413 --> 00:15:59,878
a very different sound than
the other work we've done,

352
00:15:59,914 --> 00:16:01,614
and I attribute that
mostly to the genius

353
00:16:01,649 --> 00:16:04,717
of our editors and sound editors.

354
00:16:04,752 --> 00:16:06,385
Each editor has their own personality,

355
00:16:06,421 --> 00:16:08,987
each editor has their
own interests in music

356
00:16:09,023 --> 00:16:11,256
and in stories that they like to tell,

357
00:16:11,291 --> 00:16:14,194
and so each one has brought
their own particular genius

358
00:16:14,261 --> 00:16:15,894
to their episodes.

359
00:16:15,930 --> 00:16:18,197
There are 4 editors and 10 shows.

360
00:16:18,232 --> 00:16:19,397
The producers just give it some thought.

361
00:16:19,433 --> 00:16:21,566
"Who would be good for the show?"

362
00:16:21,602 --> 00:16:24,669
I think sound is
important in every story.

363
00:16:24,705 --> 00:16:26,271
It's the other half.

364
00:16:26,306 --> 00:16:29,608
Without that full sound effect feeling,

365
00:16:29,643 --> 00:16:32,043
it's just one step shy of being real.

366
00:16:41,520 --> 00:16:44,555
We're coming up to Kent
State here in episode 8,

367
00:16:44,590 --> 00:16:47,391
and people seem to be
reacting very strongly

368
00:16:47,426 --> 00:16:48,659
to the Kent State scene.

369
00:16:48,694 --> 00:16:52,230
I held it in pretty much really well

370
00:16:52,265 --> 00:16:54,565
up until Kent State,

371
00:16:54,600 --> 00:16:55,733
and I just lost it,

372
00:16:55,769 --> 00:16:57,468
and I actually had to leave the studio

373
00:16:57,503 --> 00:16:58,869
and walk around for 10 minutes

374
00:16:58,904 --> 00:17:00,971
just to collect myself.

375
00:17:01,006 --> 00:17:04,275
That just symbolized for me

376
00:17:04,310 --> 00:17:08,111
what this war was doing to our culture.

377
00:17:08,147 --> 00:17:10,113
These were kids on both sides,

378
00:17:10,149 --> 00:17:13,984
young National Guard boys
who had very little training

379
00:17:14,019 --> 00:17:18,088
and probably scared,
uh, and not well-led

380
00:17:18,123 --> 00:17:20,190
and... and young men and
women on the other side

381
00:17:20,225 --> 00:17:22,492
protesting the war,
out there for, you know,

382
00:17:22,527 --> 00:17:24,661
idealistic reasons.

383
00:17:24,696 --> 00:17:29,166
And look at what happens
when we let things get

384
00:17:29,201 --> 00:17:32,134
as bad as they got.

385
00:17:33,971 --> 00:17:35,772
Stay tuned.

386
00:17:35,807 --> 00:17:39,542
When we return, we'll follow
the filmmakers on location

387
00:17:39,577 --> 00:17:42,578
and see how they captured the
war through the experiences

388
00:17:42,614 --> 00:17:44,714
of those who lived through it

389
00:17:45,349 --> 00:17:49,103
when PBS previews "The
Vietnam War" continues.

390
00:17:58,188 --> 00:18:00,755
We did take a camera
crew to Vietnam twice.

391
00:18:00,790 --> 00:18:03,458
We had to move our whole crew there.

392
00:18:03,494 --> 00:18:09,431
We had to figure out locations
and gear and workflow.

393
00:18:09,466 --> 00:18:10,832
We all wanted to represent

394
00:18:10,867 --> 00:18:12,066
the Vietnamese perspective,

395
00:18:12,101 --> 00:18:13,567
but we weren't sure we'd be able to.

396
00:18:13,602 --> 00:18:15,569
If we didn't find a way to do it,

397
00:18:15,604 --> 00:18:18,939
our whole film was gonna not
be what we wanted it to be.

398
00:18:18,974 --> 00:18:20,206
There were a couple of occasions

399
00:18:20,242 --> 00:18:22,643
where a few people said to us,

400
00:18:22,678 --> 00:18:24,845
"You know, we never tell
the truth about the war.

401
00:18:24,880 --> 00:18:26,847
The war was so terrible."

402
00:18:26,882 --> 00:18:28,916
We really had to try to explain

403
00:18:28,951 --> 00:18:31,384
that we wanted to hear
the real human story

404
00:18:31,420 --> 00:18:32,652
of what it was like,

405
00:18:32,687 --> 00:18:34,421
and once we could communicate that

406
00:18:34,456 --> 00:18:37,357
to our Vietnamese
veterans and civilians,

407
00:18:37,392 --> 00:18:39,192
people would stop and
take a breath and think,

408
00:18:39,227 --> 00:18:41,394
and then they would
tell us what happened.

409
00:18:41,430 --> 00:18:43,496
There are North Vietnamese soldiers

410
00:18:43,532 --> 00:18:45,365
and Viet Cong guerrillas

411
00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:48,233
and south Vietnamese civilians.

412
00:18:48,269 --> 00:18:49,735
Every day was a big surprise.

413
00:18:49,771 --> 00:18:51,804
Every day was a kind of
shake-your-head thing.

414
00:18:51,839 --> 00:18:54,607
You go in always realizing

415
00:18:54,642 --> 00:18:56,141
that the first thing
you have to do is shed

416
00:18:56,177 --> 00:18:58,277
what you thought you knew.

417
00:19:01,515 --> 00:19:06,442
_

418
00:19:08,100 --> 00:19:10,468
_

419
00:19:10,469 --> 00:19:14,151
_

420
00:19:15,252 --> 00:19:19,800
_

421
00:19:19,801 --> 00:19:23,740
_

422
00:19:23,741 --> 00:19:26,811
_

423
00:19:27,112 --> 00:19:31,920
_

424
00:19:31,921 --> 00:19:35,624
_

425
00:19:36,325 --> 00:19:38,501
_

426
00:19:41,554 --> 00:19:44,722
We hear from an American
participating in a firefight

427
00:19:44,757 --> 00:19:48,025
and talk to the people
who were doing the firing

428
00:19:48,060 --> 00:19:49,927
on the other side at the same moment,

429
00:19:49,962 --> 00:19:53,530
and that gives you a heightened sense

430
00:19:53,565 --> 00:19:55,065
of what it's really like.

431
00:20:14,919 --> 00:20:19,422
All of a sudden, you could see
the... the tracers coming out

432
00:20:19,458 --> 00:20:23,460
of the plantation hit
the helicopter and crash.

433
00:20:23,495 --> 00:20:26,328
We were ordered to go down
and retrieve the remains

434
00:20:26,364 --> 00:20:28,597
the following morning.

435
00:20:30,201 --> 00:20:31,467
We wanted to get to know the people,

436
00:20:31,502 --> 00:20:33,335
we wanted to get to know the place,

437
00:20:33,371 --> 00:20:35,437
we wanted to spend time there,

438
00:20:35,473 --> 00:20:39,542
we wanted to make people
feel comfortable with us,

439
00:20:39,577 --> 00:20:43,945
and then to try to bring
their story to life on film

440
00:20:43,981 --> 00:20:48,651
is a huge challenge and
a great responsibility.

441
00:20:48,686 --> 00:20:51,620
We had a wonderful Vietnamese
producer Ho Dang Hoa,

442
00:20:51,656 --> 00:20:55,691
and he was the one really who
helped us identify veterans

443
00:20:55,726 --> 00:20:57,893
and find people to talk to.

444
00:20:57,928 --> 00:21:03,290
_

445
00:21:03,291 --> 00:21:10,190
_

446
00:21:10,191 --> 00:21:14,410
_

447
00:21:14,411 --> 00:21:18,040
_

448
00:21:19,041 --> 00:21:24,080
_

449
00:21:24,081 --> 00:21:28,730
_

450
00:21:30,493 --> 00:21:32,226
For us to do interviews

451
00:21:32,261 --> 00:21:35,096
the way we like to do
them, in a foreign language,

452
00:21:35,131 --> 00:21:37,698
it was a challenge to come up with a way

453
00:21:37,734 --> 00:21:39,033
that we could feel like we were having

454
00:21:39,068 --> 00:21:41,368
a natural conversation.

455
00:21:41,403 --> 00:21:43,370
Mark Roy, our extraordinary soundman,

456
00:21:43,405 --> 00:21:46,140
came up with a system
where we basically had

457
00:21:46,175 --> 00:21:49,776
two interpreters everywhere we went.

458
00:21:49,811 --> 00:21:52,312
Our Vietnamese producer
would hear our question

459
00:21:52,348 --> 00:21:54,848
and then reinterpret that question

460
00:21:54,883 --> 00:21:56,750
for our Vietnamese interviewee.

461
00:21:56,785 --> 00:21:58,885
And then Ben Wilkinson,
our extraordinary

462
00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:01,288
consulting producer,
would be off in a closet

463
00:22:01,323 --> 00:22:04,357
or... or a bathroom or
down a dingy hallway.

464
00:22:04,392 --> 00:22:06,659
He was listening on an earpiece,

465
00:22:06,694 --> 00:22:09,395
whispering into a microphone,
and we could hear him,

466
00:22:09,430 --> 00:22:11,064
so we're basically having
like they have at the U.N.,

467
00:22:11,099 --> 00:22:13,133
simultaneous translation
of the interview

468
00:22:13,168 --> 00:22:15,401
so we could be responding in real time

469
00:22:15,436 --> 00:22:17,203
to what the people were saying.

470
00:22:17,239 --> 00:22:18,805
By the time the second
question was asked,

471
00:22:18,840 --> 00:22:20,740
they realized we were
just having a conversation,

472
00:22:20,775 --> 00:22:22,775
and even though we couldn't
actually understand each other,

473
00:22:22,810 --> 00:22:24,543
we really understood each other.

474
00:22:26,314 --> 00:22:30,416
What struck me was how beautiful

475
00:22:30,451 --> 00:22:32,752
Vietnam was to look at.

476
00:22:35,089 --> 00:22:37,156
There were just these endless acres

477
00:22:37,191 --> 00:22:40,458
of these jade-green rice paddies

478
00:22:40,494 --> 00:22:44,129
and these lovely villages
inside these groves

479
00:22:44,165 --> 00:22:47,499
of bamboo and palm trees

480
00:22:47,534 --> 00:22:52,570
and way off in the distance
these bluish jungle mountains,

481
00:22:52,606 --> 00:22:55,774
and it looked like Shangri-La,

482
00:22:55,809 --> 00:22:59,544
and I remember seeing this
line of Vietnamese women...

483
00:22:59,579 --> 00:23:02,246
or schoolgirls, I think they were.

484
00:23:02,282 --> 00:23:04,716
They actually looked
like angels come to earth

485
00:23:04,751 --> 00:23:06,484
or something like that,

486
00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:10,154
so it was really quite striking,

487
00:23:10,190 --> 00:23:12,523
but a little unsettling because...

488
00:23:12,558 --> 00:23:15,659
so how could a place
like this so beautiful

489
00:23:15,695 --> 00:23:19,430
and so enchanting be at war?

490
00:23:19,465 --> 00:23:26,337
We are now climbed up a
little hill in Lai Chau,

491
00:23:26,372 --> 00:23:28,872
shooting some incredible rice paddies.

492
00:23:28,907 --> 00:23:30,574
We don't quite know what's gonna happen.

493
00:23:30,609 --> 00:23:32,142
We have to be open-minded.

494
00:23:32,177 --> 00:23:33,544
We're driving down the road,

495
00:23:33,579 --> 00:23:34,945
"Oh, my God. The sun is
setting. There's a rice paddy,"

496
00:23:34,980 --> 00:23:37,314
jump out, cross the
road, "Get the camera.

497
00:23:37,350 --> 00:23:38,949
Quick, quick, quick!"

498
00:23:38,984 --> 00:23:40,217
You know, that happens all the time.

499
00:23:40,252 --> 00:23:42,285
Our cinematographer buddy squires

500
00:23:42,321 --> 00:23:43,686
just completely outdid himself

501
00:23:43,722 --> 00:23:47,557
to get the footage that
we thought we might use.

502
00:23:47,592 --> 00:23:50,126
One idea that we had was
to go to the Politburo,

503
00:23:50,162 --> 00:23:52,062
where the government of Hanoi met

504
00:23:52,097 --> 00:23:54,030
to decide the strategy for the war

505
00:23:54,066 --> 00:23:56,399
and see if they would
let us film the room

506
00:23:56,434 --> 00:24:00,370
and stage it as if they
were having a meeting.

507
00:24:00,405 --> 00:24:03,639
At the ninth party
plenum that began in Hanoi

508
00:24:03,675 --> 00:24:06,542
on November 22, 1963,

509
00:24:06,578 --> 00:24:09,712
the day President Kennedy
was killed in Dallas,

510
00:24:09,748 --> 00:24:15,485
the Politburo had argued over
how best to proceed in the war.

511
00:24:15,520 --> 00:24:19,054
North Vietnam's two communist patrons,

512
00:24:19,090 --> 00:24:20,923
the Soviet Union and China,

513
00:24:20,958 --> 00:24:23,025
were giving them conflicting advice.

514
00:24:23,661 --> 00:24:25,630
_

515
00:24:25,631 --> 00:24:27,870
_

516
00:24:27,871 --> 00:24:31,050
_

517
00:24:38,809 --> 00:24:41,075
We went to the Politburo
with a camera crew,

518
00:24:41,111 --> 00:24:45,447
and we started asking them
to move furniture around.

519
00:24:45,482 --> 00:24:47,382
We brought pictures with
us that we had gotten

520
00:24:47,418 --> 00:24:49,884
from their archives and our archives

521
00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:51,886
that showed what it
looked like during the war,

522
00:24:51,922 --> 00:24:54,355
the leaders sitting around
the table with the maps

523
00:24:54,391 --> 00:24:57,458
and the coffee cups and
their leather portfolios

524
00:24:57,493 --> 00:24:58,859
and ashtrays,

525
00:24:58,895 --> 00:25:01,229
and we were sort of
asking the curator there

526
00:25:01,264 --> 00:25:02,563
"We want it to look like this,"

527
00:25:02,598 --> 00:25:04,365
and she said, "Wait.
Where'd you get that picture?

528
00:25:04,401 --> 00:25:05,800
We don't have that picture,"

529
00:25:05,835 --> 00:25:07,768
and then they sort of
saw how serious we were,

530
00:25:07,804 --> 00:25:10,003
and they started pulling
things out of the cabinet.

531
00:25:10,039 --> 00:25:12,907
"Oh, we have the real
notebooks they used.

532
00:25:12,942 --> 00:25:15,843
Oh, this is Le Duan's eyeglasses.

533
00:25:15,878 --> 00:25:17,110
You know, no one gets to touch that,"

534
00:25:17,146 --> 00:25:19,146
and so they actually
got really interested

535
00:25:19,181 --> 00:25:20,915
and involved in our process.

536
00:25:20,950 --> 00:25:23,317
It was really exciting
to see so many aspects

537
00:25:23,352 --> 00:25:26,420
of what we do all come
together on that one day.

538
00:25:28,643 --> 00:25:30,077
This Vietnamese officer came to me,

539
00:25:30,112 --> 00:25:31,178
and he spoke English,

540
00:25:31,213 --> 00:25:32,779
and it was the first
real English speaker

541
00:25:32,814 --> 00:25:34,248
that I had seen,

542
00:25:34,283 --> 00:25:37,450
and he had a little
reel-to-reel tape recorder,

543
00:25:37,486 --> 00:25:39,853
battery-powered tape recorder,

544
00:25:39,888 --> 00:25:42,355
and he asked me to make
a message to my family

545
00:25:42,391 --> 00:25:45,157
to let them know that I was safe,

546
00:25:45,193 --> 00:25:47,293
and I could do that if
I would make a statement

547
00:25:47,328 --> 00:25:50,229
against the war.

548
00:25:50,265 --> 00:25:53,500
And I told him with great bravado

549
00:25:53,535 --> 00:25:55,434
that I would rather die
than make a statement

550
00:25:55,469 --> 00:25:56,735
against my country,

551
00:25:56,771 --> 00:25:58,938
and he said to me, uh,

552
00:25:58,973 --> 00:26:03,509
"You will find dying is very easy.

553
00:26:03,544 --> 00:26:07,246
Living will be the difficult thing.

554
00:26:07,282 --> 00:26:09,848
Living is the difficult thing."

555
00:26:09,884 --> 00:26:14,420
Hal Kushner was held in
a series of jungle camps.

556
00:26:14,455 --> 00:26:16,522
As we were editing and realizing

557
00:26:16,557 --> 00:26:18,524
he was becoming a major character

558
00:26:18,559 --> 00:26:21,126
and there was nothing
to show for his story.

559
00:26:21,161 --> 00:26:23,629
These camps don't still exist.
There are no pictures of them.

560
00:26:23,664 --> 00:26:24,930
He moved all the time.

561
00:26:24,965 --> 00:26:27,433
We decided that we would try to find

562
00:26:27,468 --> 00:26:31,869
some visual way to represent
where he was in the jungle.

563
00:26:31,905 --> 00:26:33,504
There are a few still photographs

564
00:26:33,540 --> 00:26:37,309
of what we imagine,
I think, are the huts

565
00:26:37,344 --> 00:26:40,312
that these men were kept in,

566
00:26:40,347 --> 00:26:44,449
and we said to Hoa,
our producer in Vietnam,

567
00:26:44,484 --> 00:26:47,418
"Could you find some
people to build some huts?"

568
00:26:47,454 --> 00:26:50,020
So Hoa said, "Sure. I can do that."

569
00:26:51,321 --> 00:26:55,690
_

570
00:26:55,691 --> 00:26:59,220
_

571
00:26:59,221 --> 00:27:01,975
_

572
00:27:01,976 --> 00:27:05,093
_

573
00:27:05,137 --> 00:27:06,470
And we turned the corner,

574
00:27:06,505 --> 00:27:08,839
and there at the top of this mountain

575
00:27:08,874 --> 00:27:11,475
is the hand-built bamboo hut,

576
00:27:11,510 --> 00:27:15,545
and it is like where Hal
Kushner would have been.

577
00:27:15,581 --> 00:27:17,814
There were moments on this film

578
00:27:17,850 --> 00:27:19,215
where we would be somewhere,

579
00:27:19,250 --> 00:27:21,417
and we would turn to each other and say,

580
00:27:21,453 --> 00:27:24,153
"Imagine what this was
like for Hal Kushner."

581
00:27:24,153 --> 00:27:26,554
It's an extraordinary
thing to be in a place

582
00:27:26,589 --> 00:27:28,689
and think about historic events
that happened in those places

583
00:27:28,724 --> 00:27:31,625
and also the people
who had to endure it.

584
00:27:31,661 --> 00:27:33,894
I think the thing that
I'm most proudest of,

585
00:27:33,930 --> 00:27:35,495
and I'm sure Lynn and Sarah are,

586
00:27:35,530 --> 00:27:38,165
is that we've been able to do something

587
00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:41,335
that operates on many different levels.

588
00:27:42,378 --> 00:27:44,044
Now many people in Vietnam are too young

589
00:27:44,079 --> 00:27:45,379
to remember the war,

590
00:27:45,414 --> 00:27:47,014
but they still have family members

591
00:27:47,049 --> 00:27:48,148
who know someone.

592
00:27:48,183 --> 00:27:49,849
I mean, it's that close,

593
00:27:49,885 --> 00:27:51,818
and you just sort of try to understand

594
00:27:51,853 --> 00:27:55,221
if you possibly can what this
experience meant for them.

595
00:27:55,256 --> 00:27:57,891
It's inspiring to see how
resilient people can be

596
00:27:57,926 --> 00:27:59,826
because you walk around Vietnam,

597
00:27:59,861 --> 00:28:01,694
there is no sign that
a war happened there.

598
00:28:01,730 --> 00:28:03,930
It's not as though there's
this dark cloud hanging

599
00:28:03,965 --> 00:28:05,498
over every part of Vietnam.

600
00:28:05,534 --> 00:28:06,900
It's not like that at all.

601
00:28:06,935 --> 00:28:10,836
You have to look hard to
find evidence of the war.

602
00:28:16,410 --> 00:28:17,943
Soldiers adapt.

603
00:28:17,978 --> 00:28:20,278
You go over there with
one mindset, you know,

604
00:28:20,314 --> 00:28:22,113
and then you adapt, you adapt

605
00:28:22,149 --> 00:28:24,015
to the atrocities of war,

606
00:28:24,051 --> 00:28:25,917
you adapt to...

607
00:28:27,587 --> 00:28:31,889
Killing, dying, you know.

608
00:28:31,925 --> 00:28:34,224
After a while, it doesn't bother you.

609
00:28:36,563 --> 00:28:40,030
Let's just say it doesn't
bother you as much.

610
00:28:40,066 --> 00:28:42,867
When I first arrived in Vietnam,

611
00:28:42,902 --> 00:28:45,570
there were some... there
were some interesting things

612
00:28:45,605 --> 00:28:47,904
that happened and I questioned

613
00:28:47,940 --> 00:28:50,140
some of the marines.

614
00:28:50,176 --> 00:28:53,577
I was made to realize that this is war,

615
00:28:53,612 --> 00:28:56,213
and this is what we do,

616
00:28:56,248 --> 00:28:58,015
and that stuck in my head.

617
00:28:58,050 --> 00:29:00,985
"This is war. This is what we do,"

618
00:29:01,020 --> 00:29:05,355
and after a while, you embrace that.

619
00:29:06,758 --> 00:29:10,360
This is war. This is what we do.

620
00:29:16,067 --> 00:29:17,868
Ok. Everybody here?

621
00:29:17,903 --> 00:29:19,369
Good morning, everybody.

622
00:29:19,404 --> 00:29:20,470
The biggest thing I want to say is

623
00:29:20,505 --> 00:29:23,106
this is not a finished film.

624
00:29:23,141 --> 00:29:25,941
We are 2 1/2 years from broadcast.

625
00:29:25,977 --> 00:29:27,877
As we said yesterday,
this is the earliest

626
00:29:27,912 --> 00:29:29,979
we've ever brought folks in to do...

627
00:29:30,015 --> 00:29:31,680
One of the great joys
of a project like this

628
00:29:31,716 --> 00:29:33,216
is that we get to work with some

629
00:29:33,251 --> 00:29:34,950
of the leading experts on the subject

630
00:29:34,986 --> 00:29:37,820
of the Vietnam War,
and we pulled together

631
00:29:37,855 --> 00:29:39,755
a wide range of historians

632
00:29:39,790 --> 00:29:44,192
who have many different
perspectives about the war.

633
00:29:44,228 --> 00:29:45,761
I think dropping it in
makes great sense, actually,

634
00:29:45,796 --> 00:29:47,696
so I may disagree
with Ed a little bit...

635
00:29:47,732 --> 00:29:49,932
Listening to those advisors helped us

636
00:29:49,934 --> 00:29:52,267
immeasurably, and as we go
around to get their comments

637
00:29:52,302 --> 00:29:53,868
and we take diligent notes,

638
00:29:53,904 --> 00:29:56,271
but you can almost read in their faces

639
00:29:56,306 --> 00:29:59,041
where they're at, what
their concerns are.

640
00:30:03,447 --> 00:30:07,082
Combat is like crack cocaine.

641
00:30:07,117 --> 00:30:09,383
It's an enormous high,

642
00:30:09,419 --> 00:30:12,319
but it has enormous costs.

643
00:30:12,355 --> 00:30:16,691
Any sane person would never do crack.

644
00:30:16,726 --> 00:30:18,526
Combat is like that.

645
00:30:18,562 --> 00:30:23,264
You're scared, you're
terrified, you're miserable,

646
00:30:23,299 --> 00:30:27,234
but then the fighting starts.

647
00:30:27,270 --> 00:30:29,170
There's a group of us outsiders

648
00:30:29,205 --> 00:30:32,573
who are taking a look at the
very, very rough first cut

649
00:30:32,608 --> 00:30:34,475
of the documentary,

650
00:30:34,510 --> 00:30:36,843
and a lot of the group are historians,

651
00:30:36,879 --> 00:30:38,879
who can say, "Well,
maybe you didn't quite get

652
00:30:38,914 --> 00:30:40,381
this right," or whatever..

653
00:30:40,416 --> 00:30:41,648
They work with us.

654
00:30:41,717 --> 00:30:43,617
They come to screenings,
they give us notes.

655
00:30:43,652 --> 00:30:45,052
We make changes.

656
00:30:45,087 --> 00:30:46,720
They come to more screenings,
they give us more notes.

657
00:30:46,755 --> 00:30:48,021
We make more changes.

658
00:30:48,057 --> 00:30:49,556
We listen to them talk
to each other and argue.

659
00:30:49,592 --> 00:30:52,826
For me, the focus is maybe
too much on the Americans

660
00:30:52,861 --> 00:30:55,528
and the North Vietnamese, uh, army.

661
00:30:55,564 --> 00:30:56,997
I think that's a really important point,

662
00:30:57,032 --> 00:30:59,265
and it gets to what I was
trying to argue earlier...

663
00:30:59,301 --> 00:31:01,201
One of our favorite
things is to listen to them

664
00:31:01,236 --> 00:31:02,868
disagree about things,
and then we realize,

665
00:31:02,904 --> 00:31:05,238
"Ok. There's no right answer here."

666
00:31:05,273 --> 00:31:06,473
There's disagreement.

667
00:31:06,508 --> 00:31:08,441
Vietnam is a particularly
unsettled subject

668
00:31:08,477 --> 00:31:11,010
about which historians and
people who lived through it

669
00:31:11,045 --> 00:31:14,614
disagree quite vehemently at times.

670
00:31:14,649 --> 00:31:16,248
We hated going there.

671
00:31:16,283 --> 00:31:18,918
When we'd get the word
"You're headed for Pinkville,"

672
00:31:18,953 --> 00:31:21,754
one guy would say to another,
"Somebody's gonna die,

673
00:31:21,789 --> 00:31:23,856
or somebody's gonna lose a leg."

674
00:31:23,891 --> 00:31:24,891
We were terrified of the place.

675
00:31:24,892 --> 00:31:28,861
It was littered with landmines.

676
00:31:28,896 --> 00:31:32,897
The villagers were... the
expressions on their faces,

677
00:31:32,933 --> 00:31:36,801
including the children
of, say, 6 or 5 years old,

678
00:31:36,837 --> 00:31:42,741
had a mixture of hostility and terror.

679
00:31:42,776 --> 00:31:44,543
I thought I knew the history of Vietnam

680
00:31:44,578 --> 00:31:46,345
as well as anyone in the country,

681
00:31:46,380 --> 00:31:48,913
and I've found out
otherwise in the last 3 days.

682
00:31:48,949 --> 00:31:50,248
"You want to know what it's like?

683
00:31:50,283 --> 00:31:52,717
Boom! There it is. I'll
give it to you right now.

684
00:31:52,753 --> 00:31:54,052
You want to feel it?"

685
00:31:54,087 --> 00:31:55,253
Partly, it's the new material

686
00:31:55,288 --> 00:31:56,354
that I'm not familiar with

687
00:31:56,389 --> 00:31:58,489
that some of the historians in the room

688
00:31:58,525 --> 00:32:02,426
are bringing to our analysis.

689
00:32:02,462 --> 00:32:05,963
We interviewed nearly 100
people for this project.

690
00:32:05,998 --> 00:32:07,965
The witnesses who appear onscreen

691
00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:09,700
are telling you their stories.

692
00:32:09,735 --> 00:32:11,536
This ought to be a bottom-up story

693
00:32:11,571 --> 00:32:13,304
so that if you weren't in the war...

694
00:32:13,339 --> 00:32:15,005
and that means combat...

695
00:32:15,041 --> 00:32:17,007
or you weren't waiting for a loved one

696
00:32:17,043 --> 00:32:18,842
to come back from that war,

697
00:32:18,878 --> 00:32:20,344
you're not really in our film.

698
00:32:20,380 --> 00:32:24,214
You've got to have been
sort of in the thick of it.

699
00:32:24,216 --> 00:32:26,817
I was there, and so
even though... it's odd.

700
00:32:26,852 --> 00:32:28,719
I mean, my view of the Vietnam War

701
00:32:28,754 --> 00:32:30,220
is sort of from a grunt's-eye view,

702
00:32:30,255 --> 00:32:32,022
which is pretty localized,

703
00:32:32,058 --> 00:32:34,091
but on the other hand, I can add things

704
00:32:34,126 --> 00:32:35,392
that a historian can't.

705
00:32:35,427 --> 00:32:36,727
I mean, it's like, "Well,
the hole in the tank

706
00:32:36,762 --> 00:32:38,094
couldn't have been made by a grenade.

707
00:32:38,129 --> 00:32:39,362
It had to be an RPG,"

708
00:32:39,398 --> 00:32:41,764
and so technical things like that,

709
00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:44,767
which... documentary
filmmakers, I'm sure, are plagued

710
00:32:44,803 --> 00:32:47,870
by military nuts out there
that are gonna nail them

711
00:32:47,906 --> 00:32:49,573
for getting something wrong,

712
00:32:49,608 --> 00:32:53,310
so I'm hoping I can help
avoid a few of those things.

713
00:32:53,345 --> 00:32:56,245
Watching it so far has been a bit like

714
00:32:56,280 --> 00:32:59,148
going into a dream

715
00:32:59,184 --> 00:33:02,151
that is a familiar dream,
one I've had before.

716
00:33:02,187 --> 00:33:05,621
It's a revisiting of my history

717
00:33:05,656 --> 00:33:07,790
as a veteran of Vietnam.

718
00:33:07,826 --> 00:33:10,792
It's a revisiting of an era,

719
00:33:10,828 --> 00:33:13,829
and the era is the era of my youth.

720
00:33:16,834 --> 00:33:18,701
We just felt we had to put our arms

721
00:33:18,736 --> 00:33:20,802
around as much of this war as we could,

722
00:33:20,838 --> 00:33:22,804
to take it back to the very beginning

723
00:33:22,840 --> 00:33:25,006
and bring it up right to today

724
00:33:25,042 --> 00:33:26,442
and say, "Here we are.

725
00:33:26,477 --> 00:33:27,843
What are we gonna do
with this information?

726
00:33:27,878 --> 00:33:30,378
How can we go forward as a people?"

727
00:33:30,413 --> 00:33:32,914
And I think, as divided as we are,

728
00:33:32,950 --> 00:33:36,251
we are yearning just below that surface

729
00:33:36,286 --> 00:33:38,453
to be reconnected again.

730
00:33:56,873 --> 00:34:00,074
♪ Oh, I marched to the
battle of New Orleans ♪

731
00:34:00,109 --> 00:34:03,343
Two weeks after the
marines landed at Da Nang,

732
00:34:03,379 --> 00:34:07,248
members of the University
of Michigan Faculty organized

733
00:34:07,283 --> 00:34:10,217
a night-long discussion
between professors

734
00:34:10,253 --> 00:34:12,719
and some 3,000 students

735
00:34:12,755 --> 00:34:15,856
about the escalation of the war.

736
00:34:15,892 --> 00:34:17,791
I grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

737
00:34:17,826 --> 00:34:20,193
Ann Arbor, Michigan,
in March of 1965 had

738
00:34:20,228 --> 00:34:22,162
one of the first teach-ins about the war

739
00:34:22,197 --> 00:34:23,730
and it began in the
anthropology department,

740
00:34:23,766 --> 00:34:26,132
and my father was in the
anthropology department,

741
00:34:26,168 --> 00:34:28,468
and so our family was being pulled

742
00:34:28,504 --> 00:34:32,773
in a lot of directions,
just as my country was.

743
00:34:32,808 --> 00:34:34,507
I was born in 1962.

744
00:34:34,542 --> 00:34:37,443
As I was growing up, it was
sort of in the background.

745
00:34:37,478 --> 00:34:41,414
This big, important, and
not good thing was happening,

746
00:34:41,449 --> 00:34:43,049
and I could sense that all the adults

747
00:34:43,084 --> 00:34:45,551
were concerned, talking about it,

748
00:34:45,586 --> 00:34:48,487
but I really didn't
understand what was going on.

749
00:34:48,556 --> 00:34:51,023
And as I got older,

750
00:34:51,058 --> 00:34:53,158
I began to sort of ask myself

751
00:34:53,194 --> 00:34:54,860
what is this thing that was happening,

752
00:34:54,895 --> 00:34:58,431
sort of overshadowing my
whole childhood basically?

753
00:34:58,466 --> 00:35:01,934
So we had a very different
idea of patriotism,

754
00:35:01,969 --> 00:35:07,272
so we began an era in which two groups

755
00:35:07,308 --> 00:35:09,007
of Americans, both thinking

756
00:35:09,043 --> 00:35:11,576
that they were acting patriotically,

757
00:35:11,611 --> 00:35:13,545
went to war with each other.

758
00:35:13,580 --> 00:35:17,349
Over 200,000 communist sympathizers

759
00:35:17,351 --> 00:35:18,683
in that park this morning

760
00:35:18,719 --> 00:35:22,321
tried to burn this flag,
but they didn't succeed.

761
00:35:22,356 --> 00:35:24,622
I think this film will help a lot.

762
00:35:24,658 --> 00:35:27,392
It does show a very balanced view.

763
00:35:27,427 --> 00:35:31,229
It shows the peace protestors
had a very legitimate role

764
00:35:31,264 --> 00:35:33,531
in that whole historical drama,

765
00:35:33,567 --> 00:35:36,100
and that very brave 18-year-olds

766
00:35:36,135 --> 00:35:39,036
went over to Vietnam
and performed admirably

767
00:35:39,072 --> 00:35:41,138
and that they have an
important part in it.

768
00:35:41,174 --> 00:35:44,575
You know, nothing is as simple
as you'd like to think it is

769
00:35:44,610 --> 00:35:46,244
when you're 19,

770
00:35:46,279 --> 00:35:49,213
and this is a very mature documentary

771
00:35:49,249 --> 00:35:51,648
that's looking at a
lot of shades of gray,

772
00:35:51,684 --> 00:35:54,218
and it's just the way the world is.

773
00:35:59,592 --> 00:36:03,560
My mother and father
were convinced that when

774
00:36:03,596 --> 00:36:06,563
Ho Chi Minh and his
government arrived in Hanoi,

775
00:36:06,599 --> 00:36:10,567
my father would be the
first one to be killed,

776
00:36:10,603 --> 00:36:15,205
and all of us would be persecuted...

777
00:36:15,240 --> 00:36:17,941
And I remember the day we left.

778
00:36:17,976 --> 00:36:19,442
I looked around, and I thought,

779
00:36:19,477 --> 00:36:23,380
"I'll never come back here again."

780
00:36:23,415 --> 00:36:25,315
It was extremely traumatic.

781
00:36:25,350 --> 00:36:28,451
It was... Like the ground

782
00:36:28,486 --> 00:36:30,653
was suddenly cut from under you.

783
00:36:30,654 --> 00:36:38,840
_

784
00:36:38,841 --> 00:36:46,970
_

785
00:36:49,606 --> 00:36:52,241
We've spent a decade
trying to put our arms

786
00:36:52,276 --> 00:36:55,244
around a hugely complicated
and controversial event

787
00:36:55,279 --> 00:36:57,179
in American history.

788
00:36:57,214 --> 00:36:58,480
We didn't have an agenda,

789
00:36:58,515 --> 00:37:00,349
we didn't have an ax to grind.

790
00:37:00,384 --> 00:37:02,551
We had a story that we wanted to tell.

791
00:37:02,586 --> 00:37:05,053
We think we're making this
film at the perfect time

792
00:37:05,088 --> 00:37:09,324
because the people who lived
through it are very much alive,

793
00:37:09,359 --> 00:37:11,927
very much aware of
what they went through,

794
00:37:11,962 --> 00:37:15,263
and at an age where they
want to talk about it.

795
00:37:15,298 --> 00:37:20,234
We hope that we might
be some agency of healing

796
00:37:20,270 --> 00:37:22,736
for the soldiers who lived through it

797
00:37:22,772 --> 00:37:25,340
to take whatever slight burden

798
00:37:25,375 --> 00:37:29,210
off the already immense
burden they still carry.

799
00:37:29,245 --> 00:37:31,412
I think we have tried to make a film

800
00:37:31,448 --> 00:37:33,381
that everyone will be
interested in watching,

801
00:37:33,416 --> 00:37:36,116
whether you're 18 or 80,

802
00:37:36,151 --> 00:37:38,552
whether you're a man or a woman,

803
00:37:38,588 --> 00:37:40,955
whether your politics are left or right.

804
00:37:40,990 --> 00:37:46,226
I think we want the film to inspire

805
00:37:46,261 --> 00:37:48,395
a new conversation about the war,

806
00:37:48,430 --> 00:37:51,365
but also, the film is
asking a lot of questions,

807
00:37:51,400 --> 00:37:53,400
and we don't pretend to answer them.

808
00:37:53,435 --> 00:37:55,435
We just want to throw
those questions out

809
00:37:55,471 --> 00:37:57,537
for our country to think about again.

810
00:37:59,241 --> 00:38:03,343
I've been to the wall,
um, more than once.

811
00:38:03,379 --> 00:38:05,112
When I look back at the war

812
00:38:05,147 --> 00:38:07,147
and, you know, think
of the horrible things,

813
00:38:07,182 --> 00:38:10,216
you know, we said to, you know, vets

814
00:38:10,251 --> 00:38:11,784
who were returning, you know,

815
00:38:11,820 --> 00:38:15,821
calling them baby killers and worse,

816
00:38:15,856 --> 00:38:20,291
I've, you know... I... I
feel very sad about that.

817
00:38:20,327 --> 00:38:24,830
Um, I can only say that,
you know, we were kids, too,

818
00:38:24,865 --> 00:38:27,399
you know, just like they were.

819
00:38:32,839 --> 00:38:35,773
Wars are so extraordinarily revealing,

820
00:38:35,808 --> 00:38:38,343
obviously, of the worst of humanity,

821
00:38:38,378 --> 00:38:42,247
but as it turns out,
also the best of humanity.

822
00:38:44,017 --> 00:38:47,451
As you dig deeper,
as you go in and reach

823
00:38:47,486 --> 00:38:50,021
into the lives of the
people we spoke to,

824
00:38:50,056 --> 00:38:53,123
you... you can understand
new dimensions of courage

825
00:38:53,159 --> 00:38:55,125
and new dimensions of heroism,

826
00:38:55,161 --> 00:38:57,127
and it may not take place always,

827
00:38:57,163 --> 00:38:59,463
in the case of this
war, on the battlefield.

828
00:39:00,967 --> 00:39:04,168
This is, without a doubt,
the most ambitious project

829
00:39:04,203 --> 00:39:06,603
that we have ever undertaken,

830
00:39:06,638 --> 00:39:08,405
and I would probably
suggest that this may be one

831
00:39:08,441 --> 00:39:10,974
of the biggest
undertakings of our network,

832
00:39:11,009 --> 00:39:13,410
but the most important
thing with regard to PBS

833
00:39:13,446 --> 00:39:15,812
is that this is the only
place it could have been done.

834
00:39:15,847 --> 00:39:17,981
This was the only network on earth

835
00:39:18,016 --> 00:39:20,550
that would have provided the bandwidth

836
00:39:20,552 --> 00:39:23,687
to permit us to go in
and study it as we have

837
00:39:23,722 --> 00:39:25,855
over the last decade and come to terms

838
00:39:25,891 --> 00:39:28,424
with a very complicated portrait.

839
00:39:31,997 --> 00:39:35,431
I fear that there's a
kind of national amnesia

840
00:39:35,467 --> 00:39:38,767
about Vietnam, that
we've erased the horror

841
00:39:38,803 --> 00:39:41,737
of the kinds of mistakes that were made.

842
00:39:41,772 --> 00:39:44,840
I think this film, at
this point in history,

843
00:39:44,875 --> 00:39:48,611
might be a terrific antidote to that.

844
00:39:51,616 --> 00:39:56,018
To see these kids who
had the least to gain,

845
00:39:56,053 --> 00:39:57,620
there wasn't anything
to look forward to;

846
00:39:57,655 --> 00:40:02,625
they weren't gonna be rewarded
for their service in Vietnam,

847
00:40:02,660 --> 00:40:05,293
and yet their infinite patience,

848
00:40:05,329 --> 00:40:07,696
their loyalty to each other,

849
00:40:07,732 --> 00:40:11,266
their courage under fire

850
00:40:11,301 --> 00:40:13,535
was just phenomenal,

851
00:40:13,570 --> 00:40:16,671
and you would ask yourself,

852
00:40:16,706 --> 00:40:20,875
"How does America produce
young men like this?"

853
00:40:23,212 --> 00:40:30,212
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