Far from Vietnam (1967) - full transcript
In seven different segments, Godard, Klein, Lelouch, Marker, Resnais and Varda show their sympathy and support for the North Vietnamese army during the Vietnam war.
(thumping)
(cables groaning)
(somber music)
(metallic screeching)
(helicopter blades whirring)
(airplane engine roaring)
(air raid sirens blaring)
(explosions)
(upbeat music)
(crowd chanting)
- [Man] It's our flag.
You can hold it upside down.
(American national
anthem playing)
(yelling)
(whistling)
- [Voiceover] I saw
a new western Europe,
that has achieved an
unprecedented degree of
well being, prosperity
and security,
and an increased sense
of identity and pride.
That Europe, Mr. President,
is testimony to the
soundness of our policies,
past and present.
And to the genius
and the industry
of the people and of the nations
of that continent.
And gentlemen I can
tell you that this
was possibly the most
rewarding two weeks
of political seminar
that I've ever had.
(trumpeting)
(bagpipes playing)
(rapid drumming)
- [Voiceover] Let's give
them all a great hand.
They're so nice today to come
here in their native costumes
to show us that they too
are loyal to America.
That they are fighting for
the same principles that we,
here in the United
States, fight for.
Wake up Tito!
Tito is an enemy of
the United States.
America, the free
world depends upon you.
Ladies and gentlemen they
do deserve a great hand.
(upbeat marching music)
- [Sailors] One, two.
- [Instructor] Do it again.
- [Sailors] Three, four.
- [Instructor] Repeat it now.
- [Sailors] One,
two, three, four.
One, two, three, four!
- A parade is a
parade is a parade.
(laughing)
- [Voiceover] The Telephone
Traffic Union of New York.
(jaunty music)
- This is a parade.
A parade is a
parade is a parade.
(laughing)
- [Voiceover] A Vietnam
veteran, give him a hand!
(cheering)
(clapping)
Now ladies and gentlemen,
there's a group coming
along with plenty of sounds.
- Give me a V!
I!
C!
T!
O!
R!
Y!
Victory!
- [Crowd] Victory!
Victory!
- Victory!
- A parade for Vietnam.
Support our boys in Vietnam!
- They're gonna bury us,
and they are burying.
Americans, why do you
support such individuals?
- Come on in folks,
join the crowds!
Come on in, support
our boys in Vietnam!
(marching band music)
That you vote for the people
who are supporting our
brothers and sisters,
and everybody who's dying!
(chanting)
- [Crowd] Hey, hey,
what do you say?
Let's support the USA!
Hey, hey, what do you say?
Let's support the USA!
- We're gonna do
it very orderly.
Let's all say together
the Lord's Prayer
for our men in Vietnam.
- [Crowd] Our Father,
who art in Heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on Earth as in Heaven.
Give us this day
our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who
trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil, amen.
- [Officer] Thank you very much,
please leave in an
orderly fashion.
Support your local police.
(cheering)
- It's time for the four
o'clock tour to come on,
let's go boys.
(crosstalk)
(shouting)
- [Crowd] Big firms
get rich, GIs die!
Big firms get rich,
GIs die!
Big firms get rich,
GIs die!
Big firms get rich,
GIs die!
Firms get rich, GIs die!
Stop the war in Vietnam!
Bring the troops home!
Stop the war in Vietnam!
Bring the troops home!
Stop the war in Vietnam!
(shouting)
- They sacrificed their
lives, you bunch of bums!
Parading down here,
guys are getting killed!
Big firms get rich,
GIs die!
Big firms get rich,
GIs die!
(heckling)
- [Opposing crowd] Bomb Hanoi!
Bomb Hanoi!
(birds chirping)
(rooster crowing)
(children chattering)
(woman speaking in Vietnamese)
(crowd laughing)
(wailing)
(applause)
(jaunty singing)
(book thuds)
(sighs)
(suspenseful music)
(somber music)
(beeping)
(explosions)
(suspenseful music)
(gunfire)
* I gotta letter from LBJ
* It said this is your lucky day
* It's time to put
your khaki trousers on
* Though it might
seem very queer
* We've got no job
to give you here
* So we are sending
you to Vietnam
* And Lyndon Johnson
told the nation
* Have no fear of escalation
* I am trying everyone to please
* Though it isn't really war
* We're sending 50,000 more
* To help save Vietnam
from Vietnamese
* I jumped off
the old troop ship
* I sank in mud up to my hips
* I cussed until the
Captain called me down
* Never mind how
hard it's rained
* And think of all the
ground we're gaining
* Just don't take one
step outside of town
* And Lyndon Johnson
told the nation
* Have no fear of escalation
* I am trying everyone to please
* Although it isn't really war
* We're sending 60,000 more
* To help save Vietnam
from Vietnamese
* Every night the local gentry
* Slip out past
the sleeping sentry
* They go out and
join the old VC
* In their nightly little dramas
* They put on
their black pajamas
* And come lobbing
mortar shells at me
* And Lyndon Johnson
told the nation
* Have no fear of escalation
* I am trying everyone to please
* Although it isn't really war
* We're sending 70,000 more
* To help save Vietnam
from Vietnamese
* We go round in helicopters
* Like a bunch of
big grasshoppers
* Searching for the
Viet Cong in vain
* They left a note
that they had gone
* They had to get down to Saigon
* There are government
positions to maintain
* And here I sit
in this rice paddy
* Wondering about big daddy
* And I know that
Lyndon loves me so
* Yet how sadly I remember
* Way back yonder in November
* When he said I'd
never have to go
* And Lyndon Johnson
told the nation
* Have no fear of escalation
* I am trying everyone to please
* Though it isn't really war
* We're sending 100,000 more
* To help save Vietnam
from Vietnamese *
(helicopter blades whirring)
(boat engine sputtering)
(truck engines rumbling)
(ominous music)
(trumpeting)
- The situation in
Vietnam has been accorded
the most intensive news
coverage in history.
Americans should
have, by this time,
their own image of the war.
The real objective of
the war is the people.
What we have is not a civil war.
It is a massive campaign
of external aggression
from North Vietnam.
The Viet Cong is
not a legitimate
nationalistic movement.
It is a movement organized,
controlled and supported,
by the communist government
of North Vietnam.
What support it
gets from the people
in south Vietnam is largely
the result of terror,
intimidation and murder.
One of the regrettable
facts of war,
any war,
is the casualties
that are not confined
to the military forces involved.
There are civilian
casualties in Vietnam.
And these are of
constant concern to me,
my commanders and men.
But civilian casualties
do not result
from indiscriminate
use of our firepower.
They are caused by
mechanical failure,
or human error.
This is in sharp contrast
to the Viet Cong policy
of calculated
attacks on civilians.
Never in history of warfare
have so many precautions
been taken by men in combat.
Never has a nation
employed its military power
with such restraint.
I am constantly impressed
by the concern for
the lives of others
shown by the men of my command.
They know that they
are helping to stop
the spread of communism
in southeast Asia.
And to give the people of South
Vietnam a freedom of choice.
But they are
dismayed and so am I,
by recent unpatriotic acts
here at home.
But I am mindful that the
military war in south Vietnam
is from the enemy's
point of view
only part of a protracted
and carefully
coordinated attack.
He does not understand
that American democracy
is founded on debate,
and he sees every
protest as evidence
of crumbling morale and
diminishing resolve.
Thus, discouraged by
repeated military defeats,
but encouraged by
what he believes to
be popular opposition
to our effort in Vietnam,
he is determined to continue
his aggression from the north.
This inevitably will cost lives.
The magnificent men and
women I command in Vietnam
have earned the unified support
of the American
people, thank you.
(applause)
(gunfire)
(intense music)
(slow instrumental music)
- To understand what...
Happened to Norman that day.
Might begin...
(child mumbling)
Was an article that
he was reading,
which was reported
in a Paris paper.
The article was a story about
a Catholic priest
in south Vietnam
who...
Had seen his people
massacred by
United States and
south Vietnamese bombs.
This was all because
Viet Cong had been
known to be in the community
and had taken refuge in
the church at one point.
But they were far
removed from the village
at the time that the
airstrike was called
on the village in south Vietnam.
You want down?
- No.
- No, no more.
This article was extremely
moving to Norman.
Most everyone knows he
went to the Pentagon and...
And poured kerosene
on himself and
used this form of...
Of protest.
One that the Buddhist
monks in south Vietnam
had used, I think
a few times before.
And around supper time,
I began to get phone calls
telling about what had happened.
I didn't know for sure
whether he was alive or dead.
The exact details of it until I
actually went to Fort Meyers
infirmary that night.
- Roll it.
- Okay, you can roll it.
Give her a chance, though,
let her do it.
I had no trouble
understanding it at all,
because of the kind of
person that Norman was.
Quite often, at mealtime, we...
Would talk about the
incongruity of our
health and prosperity
and our three healthy,
lovely children.
Contrasting this with the
suffering of the
people in Vietnam
and how difficult it was to know
that we were in some way
responsible for this.
How difficult it was
to live with this.
Part of what he
must've wanted to say
was this is how it feels
to be burned, as we
are burning people,
women and children
and men every day.
I knew that Norman
was a kind of person
who was willing to
make a sacrifice
for others if it
seemed necessary.
To do otherwise
would be unbearable.
For some people it was
an act of affirmation
that one person can care
that much for humanity,
to give his life.
I told both of the
children what had happened
right after they woke
up the next morning.
I think somehow they
probably understood
better than the
average children would
because they knew
how Norman felt.
Tina said, "Daddy has died,
"but now his love has spread."
But I know one thing,
for absolutely sure.
That individual lives
have been changed by this.
Changed, in some
cases dramatically,
towards concern for
society.
And I think it
has been worth it.
I mean, I think
he would say this.
A thousand times over.
- Love, love, love, love.
- Peace, peace, peace, peace.
(crowd murmuring)
- [Voiceover] Put yourselves
in between somebody
and the flag, they
won't bother you.
They're gonna try
and get past you,
they wanna get to their flag.
- Black power makes us proud!
Black power makes us proud!
Black power makes us proud!
- [Voiceover] We
need patrolling.
And one Captain assigned.
(drumming)
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- [Voiceover] For Uncle Sam?
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- [Voiceover] Vietnam?
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- [Voiceover] Are you going?
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- Are you going?
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- A little louder!
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- [Leader] Black people?
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- [Leader] White People?
- [Crowd] Hell no!
Black power!
Beep beep, bang bang!
Oh god, black power!
Beep beep, bang bang!
Oh god, black power!
Beep beep, bang bang.
Black power!
- You should be ashamed!
All of you!
What do you want, communism
on your front door?
I've got moral and
legal obligations
and you people aren't
letting us do it!
(mumbling)
Go ahead and fight!
You make me laugh!
How can you do this?
You have enough people here
to end the war tomorrow!
Half of you are kids, you
don't know what you want!
(crosstalk)
- [Crowd] We want peace!
We want peace!
We want peace!
(heckling)
- Let your voices
be heard against
north Vietnamese aggression.
Against rule by terror!
The United States
is not a nation
of aggressors, of murderers!
You know it in your hearts,
every one of you knows it!
If the north
Vietnamese come to the
conference table
tomorrow morning,
the war ends tomorrow morning!
Don't protest only
against America!
* Come by here
* We are brothers, Lord
* Come by here
* Oh Lord, come by here
* From every mountain top
* Let freedom ring
(cheering)
- America!
(yelling)
* And crown thy good
* With brotherhood
* From sea to shining sea
(yelling)
(chanting)
- Peace, please, peace, please!
Peace, please!
- Peace, peace!
Peace!
(screaming)
Please, peace!
Peace, please!
Peace, please!
- [Crowd] Peace now, peace now!
Peace now, peace now, peace now!
(shouting)
- [Crowd] Bring the troops home!
End the war in Vietnam,
bring the troops home!
- Down with the Viet
Cong, down with Hanoi!
- Stick it up your ass!
(shouting)
- [Crowd] Peace, peace, peace!
Hey hey, LBJ!
How many kids did
you kill today?
- [Leader] Vietnam?
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- [Leader] Are you going?
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- [Leader] Are you going?
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- [Leader] A little louder!
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- [Leader] A little louder!
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- [Leader] Are you going?
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- The history does not ask,
how many people were there?
The history ask,
was this the greatest
mass demonstration
in the American territory,
anywhere in the world,
against the war?
And the answer will be, yes!
- The whole issue is between
the power structure
of the western world.
With the police, the
whole entire world,
with white supremacy,
of nationalism!
No black man should go
because it is a genocide
against the history of the
black peoples in America.
We are tired of
fighting history!
- I am for killing
the Vietnamese people
when they come here!
- [Man] That's right!
- But they're fighting
for liberation,
independence, democracy,
neutrality and peace!
And the Viet Cong are
never gonna surrender!
They're never gonna
give their country away!
- America number one
is responsible for
all the trouble in the world!
The late President
Kennedy said in his
state visit to Brazil, he said,
it is not the communists in
the world that creates trouble,
it is the capitalist pimps
themselves who create trouble!
- That's right, that's right.
(crosstalk)
- If the rich man would
go, he's not going nowhere!
He wants you to go!
You're the fool, you're
the sufferers, man!
Do you understand me?
(crosstalk)
You understanding me?
That he tell you,
you can't do this,
and you can't do that.
Why?
There hasn't been
the fighting then.
If I can fight, I can do
what I want inside America!
(crosstalk)
And they said nonviolent,
they said peace, peace, peace.
But they're going to another
country and fight, for what?
America is violent,
very violent.
- You go and you die over there!
Why, what is the reason?
What kind of war is that
over there in Vietnam?
Do you agree about
that war over there?
The world is against that war.
- In other words, you're saying,
that you would not fight for
your country if you had to?
You would not fight?
You don't realize,
but the north Vietnamese are
not the ones we are fighting.
The ones we are
fighting are communists.
I don't see why anybody
in the United States
should sit here and stand by
and demonstrate
and everything else
until they went and
fight for their country.
- 500,000 peace marchers!
And you called them communists!
The south Vietnamese,
they are fighting with
the American troops,
the Americans are
no more sure...
(crosstalk)
- You know the Indian's
old expression?
(mumbling)
Somebody has to do
the job, Johnny!
- No Mister!
We don't need dirty job!
We need to do the clean
job, not dirty job!
- Well if them cats were
over here, from Vietnam,
you wouldn't be here.
(crosstalk)
How long you been
in this country?
How long ya been
in this country?
How long ya been
in this country?
- Don't shout at me, Mister.
As gentleman, you
can debate with me.
- Debate?
- You could learn something.
- Learn something?
Don't put your hands on
this suit I paid for!
- But I see that
you are already--
- Yeah, I'm a hothead!
(crosstalk)
How long you been
in this country?
- This morning.
The first day!
- You don't like it, go back.
Then go back.
- But I go back,
do you go back from Vietnam?
I go back!
- I was in Vietnam.
(crosstalk)
(singing)
(chanting)
- It's wrong to kill.
- [Woman] No it's not!
- Is it right to kill?
- So my kids don't
get killed, yes.
- What's so special
about your kids
than any other kid in the world?
- They're mine.
(crosstalk)
- You wanna see your kid happy,
destroy the rest of
the kids in the world?
- Survival is for the fittest.
- [Man] That's a selfish mother!
- If you were in Hanoi,
all of you would be executed.
I was China in 1944!
- Mister, mister.
(crosstalk)
- You read the papers lately?
My country, right or
wrong, it's my country.
- [Man] Finish the
other half of it!
And if she be wrong, by
God, let me make it right!
- Can I ask you a question?
Who's right and who's wrong now?
- [Man] Who's right?
- [Woman] The Viet Cong right?
The Russians right, or are we?
Who's right or wrong, I'm
asking you a question.
I just want an answer to it.
- [Man] If it's,
regardless of who
kills, it's wrong.
And who starts a
war, it's wrong.
- Yeah, but who's right
and wrong right now?
- [Man] If you have to
kill to defend yourself,
then you're right.
- You're not
answering my question.
Who's right and who's wrong?
- [Man] The United
States is wrong.
- Oh, and the others are right?
- [Man] Because of one thing.
- It's only by an
act of congress
that you're standing here alive!
- [Man] Come on,
don't walk away now.
Listen to my point.
- Are you kidding me?
We're wrong?
- Every day people
are dying in Vietnam,
we stand around here
like a bunch of idiots!
You don't know what
a bomb is, do you?
None of you know what a bomb is!
I'll show you what a bomb is!
This is a bomb!
- Heaven and Earth
shall perish away!
But not one word
shall pass, he says.
According to that
constant judgement!
The judgement is at hand!
Jesus is coming soon!
(murmuring)
(vocalizing)
- Napalm.
Napalm!
Napalm!
(yelling)
Napalm!
Napalm!
(vocalizing)
Napalm!
(crosstalk)
- [Older man] Oh, I get it now.
- Napalm.
- Vietnam!
(vocalizing)
What does napalm mean?
- [Protester] Napalm.
- [Cameraman] Nobody
knows what Napalm is?
- No, I don't.
- Is that the fire?
- Napalm, that's what it means?
- Napalm, napalm.
- No, what is it?
- Napalm is jellied gasoline.
It's being used in Vietnam
to burn up people and villages,
it clings to people's--
- What is napalm?
- Well napalm is
jellied gasoline.
Jelly gasoline, the napalm is.
(crosstalk)
- Do you know what napalm is?
- [Soldier] Napalm?
- It's kids like this that are
getting burned up by napalm.
Kids like this, and this woman.
All people, like
you, grown up people.
They're being burned up
for no good reason at all.
It isn't even helping anything
that anyone could want.
That's why if they,
they don't stop this war,
there won't be any...
(explosions)
(gunfire)
- [Voiceover] Hey, I'm Superman!
- [Voiceover] We gotta go home!
- [Voiceover] Look at that!
(crosstalk)
- We're in Vietnam,
fighting the war!
(mouthing gunfire sounds)
(yelling)
(mumbling)
- Scream.
Go ahead, scream.
(grunting)
(yelling)
- I was delighted to learn that
the MiG airfields
had been bombed.
At least two of them today.
(applause)
(crosstalk)
- [Paperman] Paper
tells you all about it!
(dramatic music)
(gunfire)
- I Was just try...
- [Voiceover] Yes,
it's a dirty world.
So even the smallest
scratch can get infected.
See why you need a
Band-aid sheer strip?
It keeps dirt out
and lets healing air in.
So protect every scratch
with a Band-aid sheer strip.
- [Voiceover] Ready,
aim,
press the button.
And 60 seconds later,
it's like opening a present.
- [Voiceover] Carmichael
repeated his call
for resistance for
the war in Vietnam.
- You're talking about you
don't want to be bothered,
and the honky gonna
snatch you up,
and send you to Vietnam
to shoot people.
And you come back and say,
"Yeah, we don't
believe in violence.
"It's all right to
shoot yellow people.
"It's all right to
shoot everybody else,
"but Lord, don't
shoot this honky!"
(applause)
You have to recognize
what they talk about!
Lyndon Baines Johnson
can't tell you
that violence never
accomplishes anything!
If the honky believes it,
tell 'em to use
nonviolence in Vietnam!
(cheering)
- [Voiceover] It's
gonna be a question of
putting maximum
pressure on the enemy.
We'll have to grind him down.
In effect, we're fighting
a war of attrition.
And the only alternative
is a war of annihilation,
which I think we've ruled
out as a matter of policy.
So the end is not in sight.
We must be prepared
for bitter fighting
in the days to come.
- And leave the driving to us.
(crosstalk)
- [Voiceover] On the rocks.
- Now I use Shake n Bake.
- It is true that over here,
the Americans, many of them say,
better dead than red.
They don't mean
that, believe me.
These people wanna live.
They don't mind
fighting that war
as long as it's
10,000 miles away.
The worst thing
that could happen
to the American morale
would be some damage
to a city on its own shores.
The Americans do not
know what it's like
to live under bombardment.
They feel very
happy waging a war
10,000 miles from its own shore.
The war that the United
States is waging now
is the war to
suppress revolutionary
movements everywhere.
- [Voiceover] At
100 miles an hour.
(mumbling)
- [Voiceover] Helena sweetheart,
we love you and so happy you
enjoyed the country music show!
- [Voiceover] Got a
big day coming up.
(sirens wailing)
- [Voiceover] We can
win the war in Vietnam.
(yelling)
- [Voiceover] Racing
begins at 2 pm!
(solemn music)
(explosions)
(suspenseful music)
(clanging)
(cables groaning)
(somber music)
(metallic screeching)
(helicopter blades whirring)
(airplane engine roaring)
(air raid sirens blaring)
(explosions)
(upbeat music)
(crowd chanting)
- [Man] It's our flag.
You can hold it upside down.
(American national
anthem playing)
(yelling)
(whistling)
- [Voiceover] I saw
a new western Europe,
that has achieved an
unprecedented degree of
well being, prosperity
and security,
and an increased sense
of identity and pride.
That Europe, Mr. President,
is testimony to the
soundness of our policies,
past and present.
And to the genius
and the industry
of the people and of the nations
of that continent.
And gentlemen I can
tell you that this
was possibly the most
rewarding two weeks
of political seminar
that I've ever had.
(trumpeting)
(bagpipes playing)
(rapid drumming)
- [Voiceover] Let's give
them all a great hand.
They're so nice today to come
here in their native costumes
to show us that they too
are loyal to America.
That they are fighting for
the same principles that we,
here in the United
States, fight for.
Wake up Tito!
Tito is an enemy of
the United States.
America, the free
world depends upon you.
Ladies and gentlemen they
do deserve a great hand.
(upbeat marching music)
- [Sailors] One, two.
- [Instructor] Do it again.
- [Sailors] Three, four.
- [Instructor] Repeat it now.
- [Sailors] One,
two, three, four.
One, two, three, four!
- A parade is a
parade is a parade.
(laughing)
- [Voiceover] The Telephone
Traffic Union of New York.
(jaunty music)
- This is a parade.
A parade is a
parade is a parade.
(laughing)
- [Voiceover] A Vietnam
veteran, give him a hand!
(cheering)
(clapping)
Now ladies and gentlemen,
there's a group coming
along with plenty of sounds.
- Give me a V!
I!
C!
T!
O!
R!
Y!
Victory!
- [Crowd] Victory!
Victory!
- Victory!
- A parade for Vietnam.
Support our boys in Vietnam!
- They're gonna bury us,
and they are burying.
Americans, why do you
support such individuals?
- Come on in folks,
join the crowds!
Come on in, support
our boys in Vietnam!
(marching band music)
That you vote for the people
who are supporting our
brothers and sisters,
and everybody who's dying!
(chanting)
- [Crowd] Hey, hey,
what do you say?
Let's support the USA!
Hey, hey, what do you say?
Let's support the USA!
- We're gonna do
it very orderly.
Let's all say together
the Lord's Prayer
for our men in Vietnam.
- [Crowd] Our Father,
who art in Heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on Earth as in Heaven.
Give us this day
our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who
trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil, amen.
- [Officer] Thank you very much,
please leave in an
orderly fashion.
Support your local police.
(cheering)
- It's time for the four
o'clock tour to come on,
let's go boys.
(crosstalk)
(shouting)
- [Crowd] Big firms
get rich, GIs die!
Big firms get rich,
GIs die!
Big firms get rich,
GIs die!
Big firms get rich,
GIs die!
Firms get rich, GIs die!
Stop the war in Vietnam!
Bring the troops home!
Stop the war in Vietnam!
Bring the troops home!
Stop the war in Vietnam!
(shouting)
- They sacrificed their
lives, you bunch of bums!
Parading down here,
guys are getting killed!
Big firms get rich,
GIs die!
Big firms get rich,
GIs die!
(heckling)
- [Opposing crowd] Bomb Hanoi!
Bomb Hanoi!
(birds chirping)
(rooster crowing)
(children chattering)
(woman speaking in Vietnamese)
(crowd laughing)
(wailing)
(applause)
(jaunty singing)
(book thuds)
(sighs)
(suspenseful music)
(somber music)
(beeping)
(explosions)
(suspenseful music)
(gunfire)
* I gotta letter from LBJ
* It said this is your lucky day
* It's time to put
your khaki trousers on
* Though it might
seem very queer
* We've got no job
to give you here
* So we are sending
you to Vietnam
* And Lyndon Johnson
told the nation
* Have no fear of escalation
* I am trying everyone to please
* Though it isn't really war
* We're sending 50,000 more
* To help save Vietnam
from Vietnamese
* I jumped off
the old troop ship
* I sank in mud up to my hips
* I cussed until the
Captain called me down
* Never mind how
hard it's rained
* And think of all the
ground we're gaining
* Just don't take one
step outside of town
* And Lyndon Johnson
told the nation
* Have no fear of escalation
* I am trying everyone to please
* Although it isn't really war
* We're sending 60,000 more
* To help save Vietnam
from Vietnamese
* Every night the local gentry
* Slip out past
the sleeping sentry
* They go out and
join the old VC
* In their nightly little dramas
* They put on
their black pajamas
* And come lobbing
mortar shells at me
* And Lyndon Johnson
told the nation
* Have no fear of escalation
* I am trying everyone to please
* Although it isn't really war
* We're sending 70,000 more
* To help save Vietnam
from Vietnamese
* We go round in helicopters
* Like a bunch of
big grasshoppers
* Searching for the
Viet Cong in vain
* They left a note
that they had gone
* They had to get down to Saigon
* There are government
positions to maintain
* And here I sit
in this rice paddy
* Wondering about big daddy
* And I know that
Lyndon loves me so
* Yet how sadly I remember
* Way back yonder in November
* When he said I'd
never have to go
* And Lyndon Johnson
told the nation
* Have no fear of escalation
* I am trying everyone to please
* Though it isn't really war
* We're sending 100,000 more
* To help save Vietnam
from Vietnamese *
(helicopter blades whirring)
(boat engine sputtering)
(truck engines rumbling)
(ominous music)
(trumpeting)
- The situation in
Vietnam has been accorded
the most intensive news
coverage in history.
Americans should
have, by this time,
their own image of the war.
The real objective of
the war is the people.
What we have is not a civil war.
It is a massive campaign
of external aggression
from North Vietnam.
The Viet Cong is
not a legitimate
nationalistic movement.
It is a movement organized,
controlled and supported,
by the communist government
of North Vietnam.
What support it
gets from the people
in south Vietnam is largely
the result of terror,
intimidation and murder.
One of the regrettable
facts of war,
any war,
is the casualties
that are not confined
to the military forces involved.
There are civilian
casualties in Vietnam.
And these are of
constant concern to me,
my commanders and men.
But civilian casualties
do not result
from indiscriminate
use of our firepower.
They are caused by
mechanical failure,
or human error.
This is in sharp contrast
to the Viet Cong policy
of calculated
attacks on civilians.
Never in history of warfare
have so many precautions
been taken by men in combat.
Never has a nation
employed its military power
with such restraint.
I am constantly impressed
by the concern for
the lives of others
shown by the men of my command.
They know that they
are helping to stop
the spread of communism
in southeast Asia.
And to give the people of South
Vietnam a freedom of choice.
But they are
dismayed and so am I,
by recent unpatriotic acts
here at home.
But I am mindful that the
military war in south Vietnam
is from the enemy's
point of view
only part of a protracted
and carefully
coordinated attack.
He does not understand
that American democracy
is founded on debate,
and he sees every
protest as evidence
of crumbling morale and
diminishing resolve.
Thus, discouraged by
repeated military defeats,
but encouraged by
what he believes to
be popular opposition
to our effort in Vietnam,
he is determined to continue
his aggression from the north.
This inevitably will cost lives.
The magnificent men and
women I command in Vietnam
have earned the unified support
of the American
people, thank you.
(applause)
(gunfire)
(intense music)
(slow instrumental music)
- To understand what...
Happened to Norman that day.
Might begin...
(child mumbling)
Was an article that
he was reading,
which was reported
in a Paris paper.
The article was a story about
a Catholic priest
in south Vietnam
who...
Had seen his people
massacred by
United States and
south Vietnamese bombs.
This was all because
Viet Cong had been
known to be in the community
and had taken refuge in
the church at one point.
But they were far
removed from the village
at the time that the
airstrike was called
on the village in south Vietnam.
You want down?
- No.
- No, no more.
This article was extremely
moving to Norman.
Most everyone knows he
went to the Pentagon and...
And poured kerosene
on himself and
used this form of...
Of protest.
One that the Buddhist
monks in south Vietnam
had used, I think
a few times before.
And around supper time,
I began to get phone calls
telling about what had happened.
I didn't know for sure
whether he was alive or dead.
The exact details of it until I
actually went to Fort Meyers
infirmary that night.
- Roll it.
- Okay, you can roll it.
Give her a chance, though,
let her do it.
I had no trouble
understanding it at all,
because of the kind of
person that Norman was.
Quite often, at mealtime, we...
Would talk about the
incongruity of our
health and prosperity
and our three healthy,
lovely children.
Contrasting this with the
suffering of the
people in Vietnam
and how difficult it was to know
that we were in some way
responsible for this.
How difficult it was
to live with this.
Part of what he
must've wanted to say
was this is how it feels
to be burned, as we
are burning people,
women and children
and men every day.
I knew that Norman
was a kind of person
who was willing to
make a sacrifice
for others if it
seemed necessary.
To do otherwise
would be unbearable.
For some people it was
an act of affirmation
that one person can care
that much for humanity,
to give his life.
I told both of the
children what had happened
right after they woke
up the next morning.
I think somehow they
probably understood
better than the
average children would
because they knew
how Norman felt.
Tina said, "Daddy has died,
"but now his love has spread."
But I know one thing,
for absolutely sure.
That individual lives
have been changed by this.
Changed, in some
cases dramatically,
towards concern for
society.
And I think it
has been worth it.
I mean, I think
he would say this.
A thousand times over.
- Love, love, love, love.
- Peace, peace, peace, peace.
(crowd murmuring)
- [Voiceover] Put yourselves
in between somebody
and the flag, they
won't bother you.
They're gonna try
and get past you,
they wanna get to their flag.
- Black power makes us proud!
Black power makes us proud!
Black power makes us proud!
- [Voiceover] We
need patrolling.
And one Captain assigned.
(drumming)
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- [Voiceover] For Uncle Sam?
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- [Voiceover] Vietnam?
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- [Voiceover] Are you going?
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- Are you going?
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- A little louder!
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- [Leader] Black people?
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- [Leader] White People?
- [Crowd] Hell no!
Black power!
Beep beep, bang bang!
Oh god, black power!
Beep beep, bang bang!
Oh god, black power!
Beep beep, bang bang.
Black power!
- You should be ashamed!
All of you!
What do you want, communism
on your front door?
I've got moral and
legal obligations
and you people aren't
letting us do it!
(mumbling)
Go ahead and fight!
You make me laugh!
How can you do this?
You have enough people here
to end the war tomorrow!
Half of you are kids, you
don't know what you want!
(crosstalk)
- [Crowd] We want peace!
We want peace!
We want peace!
(heckling)
- Let your voices
be heard against
north Vietnamese aggression.
Against rule by terror!
The United States
is not a nation
of aggressors, of murderers!
You know it in your hearts,
every one of you knows it!
If the north
Vietnamese come to the
conference table
tomorrow morning,
the war ends tomorrow morning!
Don't protest only
against America!
* Come by here
* We are brothers, Lord
* Come by here
* Oh Lord, come by here
* From every mountain top
* Let freedom ring
(cheering)
- America!
(yelling)
* And crown thy good
* With brotherhood
* From sea to shining sea
(yelling)
(chanting)
- Peace, please, peace, please!
Peace, please!
- Peace, peace!
Peace!
(screaming)
Please, peace!
Peace, please!
Peace, please!
- [Crowd] Peace now, peace now!
Peace now, peace now, peace now!
(shouting)
- [Crowd] Bring the troops home!
End the war in Vietnam,
bring the troops home!
- Down with the Viet
Cong, down with Hanoi!
- Stick it up your ass!
(shouting)
- [Crowd] Peace, peace, peace!
Hey hey, LBJ!
How many kids did
you kill today?
- [Leader] Vietnam?
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- [Leader] Are you going?
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- [Leader] Are you going?
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- [Leader] A little louder!
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- [Leader] A little louder!
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- [Leader] Are you going?
- [Crowd] Hell no!
- The history does not ask,
how many people were there?
The history ask,
was this the greatest
mass demonstration
in the American territory,
anywhere in the world,
against the war?
And the answer will be, yes!
- The whole issue is between
the power structure
of the western world.
With the police, the
whole entire world,
with white supremacy,
of nationalism!
No black man should go
because it is a genocide
against the history of the
black peoples in America.
We are tired of
fighting history!
- I am for killing
the Vietnamese people
when they come here!
- [Man] That's right!
- But they're fighting
for liberation,
independence, democracy,
neutrality and peace!
And the Viet Cong are
never gonna surrender!
They're never gonna
give their country away!
- America number one
is responsible for
all the trouble in the world!
The late President
Kennedy said in his
state visit to Brazil, he said,
it is not the communists in
the world that creates trouble,
it is the capitalist pimps
themselves who create trouble!
- That's right, that's right.
(crosstalk)
- If the rich man would
go, he's not going nowhere!
He wants you to go!
You're the fool, you're
the sufferers, man!
Do you understand me?
(crosstalk)
You understanding me?
That he tell you,
you can't do this,
and you can't do that.
Why?
There hasn't been
the fighting then.
If I can fight, I can do
what I want inside America!
(crosstalk)
And they said nonviolent,
they said peace, peace, peace.
But they're going to another
country and fight, for what?
America is violent,
very violent.
- You go and you die over there!
Why, what is the reason?
What kind of war is that
over there in Vietnam?
Do you agree about
that war over there?
The world is against that war.
- In other words, you're saying,
that you would not fight for
your country if you had to?
You would not fight?
You don't realize,
but the north Vietnamese are
not the ones we are fighting.
The ones we are
fighting are communists.
I don't see why anybody
in the United States
should sit here and stand by
and demonstrate
and everything else
until they went and
fight for their country.
- 500,000 peace marchers!
And you called them communists!
The south Vietnamese,
they are fighting with
the American troops,
the Americans are
no more sure...
(crosstalk)
- You know the Indian's
old expression?
(mumbling)
Somebody has to do
the job, Johnny!
- No Mister!
We don't need dirty job!
We need to do the clean
job, not dirty job!
- Well if them cats were
over here, from Vietnam,
you wouldn't be here.
(crosstalk)
How long you been
in this country?
How long ya been
in this country?
How long ya been
in this country?
- Don't shout at me, Mister.
As gentleman, you
can debate with me.
- Debate?
- You could learn something.
- Learn something?
Don't put your hands on
this suit I paid for!
- But I see that
you are already--
- Yeah, I'm a hothead!
(crosstalk)
How long you been
in this country?
- This morning.
The first day!
- You don't like it, go back.
Then go back.
- But I go back,
do you go back from Vietnam?
I go back!
- I was in Vietnam.
(crosstalk)
(singing)
(chanting)
- It's wrong to kill.
- [Woman] No it's not!
- Is it right to kill?
- So my kids don't
get killed, yes.
- What's so special
about your kids
than any other kid in the world?
- They're mine.
(crosstalk)
- You wanna see your kid happy,
destroy the rest of
the kids in the world?
- Survival is for the fittest.
- [Man] That's a selfish mother!
- If you were in Hanoi,
all of you would be executed.
I was China in 1944!
- Mister, mister.
(crosstalk)
- You read the papers lately?
My country, right or
wrong, it's my country.
- [Man] Finish the
other half of it!
And if she be wrong, by
God, let me make it right!
- Can I ask you a question?
Who's right and who's wrong now?
- [Man] Who's right?
- [Woman] The Viet Cong right?
The Russians right, or are we?
Who's right or wrong, I'm
asking you a question.
I just want an answer to it.
- [Man] If it's,
regardless of who
kills, it's wrong.
And who starts a
war, it's wrong.
- Yeah, but who's right
and wrong right now?
- [Man] If you have to
kill to defend yourself,
then you're right.
- You're not
answering my question.
Who's right and who's wrong?
- [Man] The United
States is wrong.
- Oh, and the others are right?
- [Man] Because of one thing.
- It's only by an
act of congress
that you're standing here alive!
- [Man] Come on,
don't walk away now.
Listen to my point.
- Are you kidding me?
We're wrong?
- Every day people
are dying in Vietnam,
we stand around here
like a bunch of idiots!
You don't know what
a bomb is, do you?
None of you know what a bomb is!
I'll show you what a bomb is!
This is a bomb!
- Heaven and Earth
shall perish away!
But not one word
shall pass, he says.
According to that
constant judgement!
The judgement is at hand!
Jesus is coming soon!
(murmuring)
(vocalizing)
- Napalm.
Napalm!
Napalm!
(yelling)
Napalm!
Napalm!
(vocalizing)
Napalm!
(crosstalk)
- [Older man] Oh, I get it now.
- Napalm.
- Vietnam!
(vocalizing)
What does napalm mean?
- [Protester] Napalm.
- [Cameraman] Nobody
knows what Napalm is?
- No, I don't.
- Is that the fire?
- Napalm, that's what it means?
- Napalm, napalm.
- No, what is it?
- Napalm is jellied gasoline.
It's being used in Vietnam
to burn up people and villages,
it clings to people's--
- What is napalm?
- Well napalm is
jellied gasoline.
Jelly gasoline, the napalm is.
(crosstalk)
- Do you know what napalm is?
- [Soldier] Napalm?
- It's kids like this that are
getting burned up by napalm.
Kids like this, and this woman.
All people, like
you, grown up people.
They're being burned up
for no good reason at all.
It isn't even helping anything
that anyone could want.
That's why if they,
they don't stop this war,
there won't be any...
(explosions)
(gunfire)
- [Voiceover] Hey, I'm Superman!
- [Voiceover] We gotta go home!
- [Voiceover] Look at that!
(crosstalk)
- We're in Vietnam,
fighting the war!
(mouthing gunfire sounds)
(yelling)
(mumbling)
- Scream.
Go ahead, scream.
(grunting)
(yelling)
- I was delighted to learn that
the MiG airfields
had been bombed.
At least two of them today.
(applause)
(crosstalk)
- [Paperman] Paper
tells you all about it!
(dramatic music)
(gunfire)
- I Was just try...
- [Voiceover] Yes,
it's a dirty world.
So even the smallest
scratch can get infected.
See why you need a
Band-aid sheer strip?
It keeps dirt out
and lets healing air in.
So protect every scratch
with a Band-aid sheer strip.
- [Voiceover] Ready,
aim,
press the button.
And 60 seconds later,
it's like opening a present.
- [Voiceover] Carmichael
repeated his call
for resistance for
the war in Vietnam.
- You're talking about you
don't want to be bothered,
and the honky gonna
snatch you up,
and send you to Vietnam
to shoot people.
And you come back and say,
"Yeah, we don't
believe in violence.
"It's all right to
shoot yellow people.
"It's all right to
shoot everybody else,
"but Lord, don't
shoot this honky!"
(applause)
You have to recognize
what they talk about!
Lyndon Baines Johnson
can't tell you
that violence never
accomplishes anything!
If the honky believes it,
tell 'em to use
nonviolence in Vietnam!
(cheering)
- [Voiceover] It's
gonna be a question of
putting maximum
pressure on the enemy.
We'll have to grind him down.
In effect, we're fighting
a war of attrition.
And the only alternative
is a war of annihilation,
which I think we've ruled
out as a matter of policy.
So the end is not in sight.
We must be prepared
for bitter fighting
in the days to come.
- And leave the driving to us.
(crosstalk)
- [Voiceover] On the rocks.
- Now I use Shake n Bake.
- It is true that over here,
the Americans, many of them say,
better dead than red.
They don't mean
that, believe me.
These people wanna live.
They don't mind
fighting that war
as long as it's
10,000 miles away.
The worst thing
that could happen
to the American morale
would be some damage
to a city on its own shores.
The Americans do not
know what it's like
to live under bombardment.
They feel very
happy waging a war
10,000 miles from its own shore.
The war that the United
States is waging now
is the war to
suppress revolutionary
movements everywhere.
- [Voiceover] At
100 miles an hour.
(mumbling)
- [Voiceover] Helena sweetheart,
we love you and so happy you
enjoyed the country music show!
- [Voiceover] Got a
big day coming up.
(sirens wailing)
- [Voiceover] We can
win the war in Vietnam.
(yelling)
- [Voiceover] Racing
begins at 2 pm!
(solemn music)
(explosions)
(suspenseful music)
(clanging)