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Discusses how the war has affected America, Asia and the world and what has become of the principal figures in the conflict.
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France's involvement in Vietnam from the end of WW2 to gathering at Dien Bien Phu.
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The historic battle that led to the withdrawal of French forces from Vietnam.
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The US continues to back the South Vietnamese government against a growing Communist threat.
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Episode Five, covering Bhuddist complaints of government corruption leading to riots, five monks self-immolate in protest. Henry Cabot Lodge arrives as ambassador to try and restore unity with Washington. Discussions happen between Washington and the Souths military that the US would not stand in the way of a coup. The CIA comes to Vietnam to try to pressure for governmental reforms without influencing any coup. Eventually Washington sends a message approving a coup the generals request confirmation that the US would still support Vietnam if a coup happened, the answer came back "Yes" The Souths generals throw a coup to remove Diem and then assassinate him after he surrenders. The US recognizes the new government. Three weeks later, JFK is assassinated in Dallas and LBJ takes over the presidency.
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President Johnson makes two important decisions that change the course of history.
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Episode Seven chronicles the tactics and strategies used by General William Westmoreland. LBJ calls the war the most complex war ever fought. The overall US strategy is a war of attrition kill as many enemy as possible. March 1965 the first US combat troops arrive in Vietnam. South Vietnam is losing the war, it has a 500,000 man army, but it was poorly lead and motivated. By the end of '65 the north controls the country and the south the cities. Westmoreland's tactics are "Search & Destroy" The north's tactics were to "Ambush" the better trained and equipped Americans. The north's tactics are attrition, outlast the US forces.
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The sudden presence of 500,000 American troops and their affluence proves culturally overwhelming to the South Vietnamese, causing envy, corruption and a rift in the alliance that is never fully healed.
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North Vietnam lived under a state of war for decades.
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An expedition down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, examining the jungle and mountain paths that were used as Communist supply routes linking North and South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
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The costly US firepower advantage allowed them to win battles, but not decide the war.
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Without peasant support, neither side can win the war.
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Helicopters, airplanes and bombs played an important role in the Vietnam war.
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US forces endure 77 days of siege at Khe Sanh.
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Episode Fifteen covers the Tet Offensive. January '68, The Viet Cong attack throughout the country all at once. Almost every US installation sees some sort of assault. Television brings the attack to the living rooms of every American household. Two years since the involvement of ground troops in the war, the prevailing opinion was that the US was winning the war. The North decides to attack. 80.000 Viet Minh troops infiltrate the south led by the South Vietnamese communists known as the Viet Cong. They even penetrated the US embassy and set it afire. 4,000 Northern troops are fighting in Saigon itself. Casualties are heavy with no sign of ceasing. South Vietnamese cities are destroyed, one US army officer states on TV that "We had to destroy it to save it." For the first time the Viet Minh come out and fight a pitched land battle, they quickly take the provincial capital Hue from the South's troops. US Marines supported by tanks take it back throwing the Vietminh out and driving them back across the border but not without heavy casualties in hard street fighting. Both sides consider it a victory. For the South and US a tactical victory, for the North a strategic one. It was clear that the war was far from won. LBJ now sees the war as un-winnable and believes withdrawal as the only solution. He views the war as having destroyed his presidency and decides to not seek re-election.
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Episode Sixteen covers American society from late '67 forward. This period involves some of the most violent dissent in America since the Civil War. October '67, the march on the pentagon brings together the all the factions of the anti-war movement in a huge protest march. The administration views the protesters as political shills in support of communism. The peoples view was that we were indiscriminately bombing anyone and everyone, the television images every night of the destruction in Vietnam bring home the fact that what the government was saying about the war was not true. LBJ is increasingly intolerant of opposition viewpoints dismissing advisers that take an opposite view of his position. The black civil rights movement adopts the slogan "Hell No, We Wont Go" which is adopted by the peace movement altogether. The draft is now challenged by young Americans with many leaving the country to avoid military service in a war that is increasingly viewed as American government imperialism in action. Thousands of young choose prison rather than serve in the military in what is considered an unjust war. Tet brings the war home on TV every night. The only places LBJ gets support is the military bases, otherwise, he sees protests everywhere he goes, even overseas. The assassinations of MLK and Robert Kennedy spark riots in the anti-war movement, Washington mobilized 15,000 troops to put down the protests there. Which is also brought to the American public on TV every night. The war goes on for four more years, but Americans now have a general distrust of government that never existed before.
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The Seventeenth volume of The Ten Thousand Day War examines 1969 the period of peak military involvement in Vietnam. The troops have a breakdown in discipline and moral. Drug abuse becomes rampant. With occasional outbursts of rebellion against authority. the GI's slogan becomes, "Don't be the last GI killed in the war" The average age of an American Soldier in WWII was 26, In Vietnam it was 19. It was a war with no clear objective, no clear mission. For the troops, it was a situation of survival, don't do anything to get yourself killed, you have a year to serve and just survive until your chance to go home. Hamburger Hill, Marines fought for days to take a hill suffering heavy casualties, only to abandon it the next day. One Marine Corps report stated that troop morale was so low that troops in those units that were not on the border of open rebellion were in risk of complete collapse. During this period, 4,000 troops would be admitted to hospitals for combat injuries and 26,000 would be admitted for drug abuse. American withdrawal continues, by late '71 only 45,000 American troops remain in Vietnam. The only heroes of Vietnam are the troops that never left, those that died innocently in belief of a dream that was never real in the first place.
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Episode Eighteen emphasizes Vietnamization. President Nixon's policy of having the South fight their war on their own with US assistance instead of Americans fighting it for them. ARVN forces reactivate the Khe Sanh base and use it to invade Laos to destroy an enemy supply base. What they didn't realize that they were outnumbered 2-1. The mission was an abject failure. Vietnamization was a return to Kennedy's policy of "It is their war to win or lose" All Southern males are conscripted into the army and hurriedly trained. The US begins to upgrade the Souths army with latest weapons technology and trains them in their use. The Souths air force becomes the fourth largest in the world. President Nixon officially hands responsibility for the war over to South Vietnam, Nixon's priority is to end the cold war altogether, Kissinger states that Vietnam is nothing but a sideshow. The South loses in their invasion of Laos, losing most of their most experienced officers in the process, South Vietnam's leaders blame America's withdrawal for the failure. Prior to the Paris peace accords allowing the US to leave Vietnam for good, the US supply's the South with all the aircraft and advanced weapons it can afford to give. Nixon assures the south that they will always have American support. Within six months, all the well supplied bases the US leaves behind are stripped down to their bones by black marketeers, nothing remains. In 18 months Nixon will resign and, in two years, the South will surrender.
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Episode Nineteen covers demands in America that we get out of Vietnam. February '69, Nixon is sworn in as president. He sets about trying to build a national consensus on the war and what we should do, he ignores the protesters. He settles on a process of negotiate but continue the fight until an honorable withdrawal is possible. North Vietnam continues with the same policy and pushes another 100,000 troops into the south. Nixon orders a secret bombing campaign from Cambodia in retaliation. There is public uproar of these raids. Nixon proposes that both sides withdraw their troops within a year, there is no agreement. Nixon writes directly to Ho Chi Minh proposing a settlement and withdrawal in four months, Ho's reply was to rebuff Nixon, Ho believes that he is winning the war and doesn't need an agreement on withdrawal. Ho Chi Minh dies four weeks later. The anti war movement plans a protest in the summer of '69. In a letter to the protesters, Hanoi's prime minister wishes them great success in their protestations. US forces advance in Vietnam, protests erupt all over the country. May '70, Kent State University, National Guard Troops open fire on protesters, four students die from the gunfire. America is divided as never before.
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Episode Twenty covers the December Bombing of Hanoi. America's last offensive act in Vietnam, Nixon is trying to force a peaceful resolution to the war, but Hanoi delays. The first B-52 mission of 101 planes carrying over 100 bombs apiece drop them over Hanoi. Sam missiles bring down three B-52's. The next day they fire over 200 missiles and bring down none. The next day was a night mission, they again fire over 200 missiles bringing down 6 B-52's, It was called our darkest hour. After day four, total US losses was 9 B-52's and four F-111 bombers. Hanoi is almost defenseless against B-52's. Congress threatened Nixon with a halt to the bombing, Nixon promises that Hanoi will come to the table by January 2nd, Hanoi stalls for a later date. Nixon now orders the most massive bombing raids of the war. 120 B-52's, the bombers are over Hanoi for only 15 minutes but drop over 100,000 tons of bombs over each of the next 9 days. Hanoi tells Nixon that they will be back at the table in five days. Nixon calls off the bombing after only 12 days. Before the bombing campaign the North was intransigent, unwilling to compromise. After, they were very cooperative. They wanted the war over as soon as possible.
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Having promised peace, Nixon and Kissinger try public and secret talks to arrive at a peace accord with North Vietnam.
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Two American P.O.W.s give contrasting accounts of their treatment and actions at the Hanoi Hilton camp.
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The readjustment from jungle to Main Street is painful for 2.8 million American soldiers. For the Vietnam veterans, it is a silent homecoming. America wants to forget the war. The soldiers cannot.
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Episode Twenty-four covers the end of Ho Chi Minh's war. January 1975, two years after the American withdrawal, the great final offensive is about to begin. The North plans for a two year long fight to retake the South, but it is over in 55 days. The almost one million man south Vietnamese army that the Americans left behind has dwindled. The billions of dollars of supplies left in place for the defense of the south are gone, stolen, sold on the black market, or just plain stripped and left to rot. Desertions reach 5,000 men per day. A few units fight and fight well but most just fold up and melt away against the North's onslaught.
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The chronology of battle from the start of the spring 1975 Communist offensive to the domino collapse of South Vietnam's cities within 55 days. The fall of Saigon ends 10,000 days of war.
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Five years after the fall of Saigon, the question is asked: What went wrong in Vietnam? The response of policy makers and combatants reveal the deep divisions over Vietnam which still remains.
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