The Vietnam War (2017): Season 1, Episode 10 - The Weight of Memory (March 1973 - Onward) - full transcript

TIM O'BRIEN: They shared
the weight of memory.

They took up what others could no longer bear.

Often, they carried each other,
the wounded or weak.

They carried infections. They carried
chess sets, basketballs,

Vietnamese-English dictionaries, insignia
of rank, Bronze Stars, and Purple Hearts,

plastic cards imprinted with
the Code of Conduct.

[Thunder Rumbles]

They carried diseases, among
them malaria and dysentery.

They carried lice and ringworm and leeches and
paddy algae and various rots and molds.

[Rain Pouring]

They carried the land itself...



Vietnam.

["My Country 'Tis of Thee" Playing]

[Mouths] Thank you.

[Indistinct Chatter]

[Applause]

I can tell you, as I look back over
those months and years,

that we have met with the
wives and the mothers

of those of you who were prisoners of war,

they were and are the bravest,
most magnificent women

I have ever met in my life.

And now, if they will give me my official
toasting glass, I will propose the toast.

Tonight...

NARRATOR: On May 24, 1973,
President Nixon invited

all the returned prisoners of war
and their families to Washington.



Among them was Everett Alvarez, the first
pilot shot down over North Vietnam.

EVERETT ALVAREZ: Sometimes, I feel too much
attention was being paid to us, the P.O.W.s.

And what about the poor guys that
fought the war, those kids?

You know, that came home,
uh... you know, amputees...

Uh... wounded with the injuries of war.

What about them?

We had our own challenges,

and the key was to... to face these
and yet maintain our... our honor.

That's what it was.

NARRATOR: Dr. Hal Kushner,

who had been a prisoner for more than
five years, was unable to attend.

He was reunited with his family at Valley Forge.

HAL KUSHNER: We flew to Valley
Forge, Pennsylvania.

And I came off the helicopter
and I saw my wife...

and my daughter, who I hadn't seen since she
was 2 and half and she was born in 1963.

So she was ten years old.

And my son, who I had never seen,
a week before his fifth birthday.

And he had on a little tie and a little coat.

And my mom and dad.

And my mother was just
overcome with emotion.

And I just... it was just... an
incomprehensible moment.

And we hugged everybody, and my
little boy had a flag, American flag.

NARRATOR: Like many P.O.W. marriages,
Hal Kushner's would not survive

On March 29, 1973, the last American
troops left South Vietnam.

Fewer than 200 Marines would remain,
assigned to guard consular offices

and the American Embassy and
other installations in Saigon.

Thousands of other Americans,
including C.I.A. agents,

diplomats, and contractors,
stayed behind, as well.

Over the next two years, the forces
of North and South Vietnam

would continue to savage one another.

And the Vietnamese people
would find themselves

back where they were at the beginning,

engulfed in an apparently endless civil war

and struggling over what kind
of future they would have.

For the United States, combat did end,
but controversy over the war did not.

TIM O'BRIEN: The best you
could say about Vietnam

was that certain blood was being
shed for uncertain reasons.

The blood was for sure... the bodies, the
widows, the orphans, they were certain.

Nobody disputed it, the dead people were dead.

But the rectitude of the war
was in great dispute.

Smart people in pinstripes couldn't
make their minds up about the war.

And I remember asking myself...

"Was it worth it?"

Maybe it was all a big mistake, and, you
know, what... what was it all about?

We answered the call,

me and probably 2 and half million other
young Americans who went over there.

It was a cause worth the effort.

And sometimes, things just don't turn out
and the guys in the white hats don't win.

But that doesn't make it uh, or doesn't basically
take away from the rectitude of the cause.

Subcommittee will come to order.

NARRATOR: Night after night during
the spring, summer, and fall of 1973,

Americans watched the Nixon
administration slowly come apart.

Blackmail... enemies lists... dirty tricks,
a vice president forced to resign,

perjury... cover-up... abuse of presidential
power... secret White House tapes.

FRED THOMPSON: Mr Butterfield are you aware
of the installation of any listening devices

in the Oval Office of the president?

I was aware of listening devices. Yes, sir.

Good evening. The country tonight
is in the midst of what may be

the most serious constitutional
crisis in its history.

I told the president about the fact

that there were money demands being made
by the seven convicted defendants.

He asked me how much it would cost. I
told him I could only make an estimate

that it might be as high as a million dollars or
more. He told me that that was no problem.

I had no prior knowledge of
the Watergate break-in.

I neither took part in nor knew about any
of the subsequent cover-up activities.

The one frustrating thing about, about going to
Canada was, it left me outside the debate here.

I felt about... frustrated with that till this day.

NARRATOR: As the Watergate
scandal unfolded, Jack Todd,

who had deserted the United States
Army and fled to Canada,

had never felt so bitter, so disenchanted,

so out of touch with what the United
States seemed to have become.

He asked himself, "How did we
let this gang take charge?"

Then he made a decision
he would always regret:

he renounced his American citizenship.

JACK TODD: I thought it was a political act,
renouncing my American citizenship.

And it was the stupidest thing
I have ever done in my life.

I'm a Canadian citizen and I'm proud of it.

It's a wonderful country, but
in here, I'm an American.

JOHN NEGROPONTE: Well, the agreement
was called "The Agreement to, uh...

End the War and Restore Peace in Vietnam".

And, of course, that was a huge euphemism. It
neither ended the war nor did it restore peace.

And if you look at the substance of it,
it really was a withdrawal agreement.

We were withdrawing our forces in
exchange for prisoners of war.

Those are the two matters that
were definitively settled

by the peace agreement. We got our troops
out and we got our prisoners back.

The rest is just all a model of nebulosity and
vagueness and didn't resolve a darn thing.

NARRATOR: Neither North nor South Vietnam

had had any intention of
observing the cease-fire

called for in the peace treaty signed
in Paris on January 27, 1973.

Even before the ink was dry, each side had
sought to claim as much territory as it could

in what became known as
"the War of the Flags".

Within three weeks of the ceasefire,

there were already some 3,000
violations by both sides.

South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu,

who now commanded the
fifth-largest army on Earth,

insisted the ARVN take and hold
every inch of South Vietnam,

something they had been unable to do

even with the help of nearly
600,000 American troops.

[Explosion]

Meanwhile, the North Vietnamese had attacked
Tay Ninh, near the Cambodian border,

hoping to establish a rival capital
of their own in the South.

Hanoi installed surface-to-air missiles
near Khe Sanh, just below the DMZ.

At the same time, ARVN troops attacked
enclaves seized by the North Vietnamese.

The fighting went on for months.

Hanoi built a new paved highway
within South Vietnam itself,

down which convoys of 200 to 300
vehicles soon began streaming:

trucks, tanks, and heavy guns
moving in broad daylight.

And they began laying down a giant oil
pipeline to fuel their vehicles in the South.

Nixon had privately promised President Thieu
that he would retaliate with American airpower

if Saigon ever seemed seriously threatened.

[Gavel Banging]

But in Washington, week by week, as the
secrets of Watergate kept tumbling out,

Nixon's influence on Capitol
Hill steadily weakened.

In June of 1973, an energized Congress,

reflecting the views of a majority of Americans,

voted to stop all military operations in or over
Vietnam, Laos, or Cambodia by August 15,

and insisted that they not be resumed
without congressional approval.

"America wants peace", Senator Edward
Kennedy of Massachusetts declared.

"Congress is strong in its resolve
to end the killing".

LEWIS SORLEY: To abandon
the South Vietnamese,

when all we were providing them at the
end was money, was reprehensible,

and disrespected the sacrifices of all soldiers,
ours and the South Vietnamese.

I think the moral obligation,

that doesn't stem from, uh... a philosophical
commitment to stopping communism.

Now it stems from our keeping our promises
to this... to this erstwhile, unfortunate ally.

That they had us as the ally where the
other guys had the Soviet Union

and communist China.

Most Americans, I think, would not like
to hear it said that the communists

were more faithful allies
than the United States.

But that is, in fact, what the case was.

ROBERT GARD: While one regrets that we
pulled the rug out, in some respects,

I think the ultimate outcome
would've been the same.

Had we continued, uh... it would have cost

probably more lives in the long term
with no change in the outcome.

NARRATOR: In the 18 bloody months that
followed the signing of the peace accords,

South Vietnam's position became
more and more precarious.

But by the summer of 1974, few Americans
were paying attention.

They were riveted by what was
happening to their own country.

...to investigate fully and completely

whether sufficient grounds exist for
the House of Representatives

to exercise its constitutional power
to impeach Richard M. Nixon,

president of the United States of America.

- SPEAKER: Mr. Danielson?
- Aye.

- SPEAKER: Mr. Drinan?
- Aye.

- SPEAKER: Mr. Rangel?
- Aye.

- SPEAKER: Ms. Jordan?
- Aye.

- SPEAKER: Mr. Lott?
- No.

- SPEAKER: Mr. Mare...
- NARRATOR: On July 27, 1974,

the House Judiciary Committee recommended

that the president be impeached
for abusing his office.

On August 9, rather than face impeachment,

Richard Nixon became the first president
in American history to resign.

RICHARD NIXON: Always remember,
others may hate you,

but those who hate you don't
win... unless you hate them,

and then you destroy yourself.

NARRATOR: At the presidential palace in Saigon,

President Thieu closed his office
door and refused to see anyone.

He had staked South Vietnam's survival
on Nixon's personal pledge

that North Vietnamese aggression would
be met by renewed American airpower.

Just a few days after the new president, Gerald
Ford, moved into the White House,

Congress cut in half the funds for
military and economic assistance

Nixon had promised to deliver to Saigon.

Conditions in South Vietnam
continued to deteriorate.

With the American military presence gone, one
out of every five civilian workers was jobless.

Prices soared.

DUONG VAN MAI ELLIOTT: There were many
mistakes made by the Americans,

but the biggest mistake was in creating
the sense of dependency.

Another mistake was in creating
an army in their own image,

an army that... that was used
to fighting a rich man's war.

And South Vietnam was too poor to be
able to sus... sustain that kind of war.

NARRATOR: Thieu had steadily
grown more authoritarian,

closing newspapers, restricting
opposition parties,

selling political and military appointments.

A coalition of Catholics and
Buddhists charged him

with corrupting every aspect
of South Vietnamese life,

and demanded his resignation.

Thousands of demonstrators poured
into the streets of Saigon.

Meanwhile, the chronically underpaid South
Vietnamese Army had its pay cut further.

It began to disintegrate.

As many as 20,000 men were
deserting each month,

most heading home to try to help their
families survive in such hard times.

Those ARVN who stood and fought

often had to do so without the
sophisticated weaponry

they'd been trained by the Americans to use.

Much of the equipment Nixon had provided

was ill-suited to the war the
South was now waging,

aircraft for which there were no
trained pilots or ground crews,

artillery and military vehicles for
which there were no spare parts.

And the U.S. Congress was in
no mood to provide more.

Fuel ran low. So did ammunition.

Before long, artillerymen
in the Central Highlands

could fire just four shells a day,

and infantrymen were limited
to 85 bullets a month.

NARRATOR: In November of 1974, the Politburo

and the Central Military Committee
met in Hanoi to discuss strategy.

Some members urged caution.

They worried that if they tried to push Saigon
to the point of collapse too quickly,

the Americans would return.

Final victory, they calculated,
would come in 1976.

Party First Secretary Le Duan didn't agree.

"Now that the United States
has pulled out", he said,

"it will be hard for them to jump back in".

He ordered a test attack

to see if the Americans would
intervene with airpower

as they had during the Easter Offensive
two and half years earlier.

[Artillery Fire]

In December 1974, North Vietnamese forces
attacked Phuoc Long, northeast of Saigon.

Within three weeks, they had
overrun the entire province

and had killed or captured thousands
of ARVN defenders.

The United States did nothing in response.

President Ford, preoccupied
with other problems...

inflation, unemployment, tensions in the
Middle East, held a press conference

that offered the South Vietnamese no comfort.

REPORTER: Are you considering any additional
measures, beyond a supplemental,

of assistance to the South
Vietnamese government?

Uh... I am not anticipating any further action
beyond that supplemental at this time.

NARRATOR: Washington seemed to have
no interest in fulfilling the secret pledges

Nixon had repeatedly made to Thieu.

He was stunned.

STUART HERRINGTON: With the communist
flag planted in a provincial capital

just to the north of Saigon, to me,
the handwriting was on the wall.

I then communicated with
my family, and told them

that even though my tour was supposed to take
me till August, that I would be home sooner.

And then I began to quietly, one little box at a
time, mail my possessions out of Vietnam.

["Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin Playing]

NARRATOR: The North Vietnamese
now undertook

a new assault on cities in the Central
Highlands, including Ban Me Thuot,

where their forces outnumbered the over
extended ARVN nearly six to one.

["Kashmir" Continues]

Ban Me Thuot fell in two days.

JAMES WILLBANKS: And here is the second
province to fall, and it falls fairly quickly.

At that point, they realize,"Well, we don't have
to wait till 1976, we can go for it now".

NARRATOR: Hanoi was delighted by
the Americans' lack of response.

But all the previous offensives Le Duan had
set in motion, in 1964... in 1968... in 1972...

had ended in failure.

This time, he turned to General Vo Nguyen Giap,

the architect of the great victory
over the French at Dien Bien Phu,

who had been sidelined
during the Tet Offensive.

NARRATOR: For weeks, the ARVN top command

had warned Thieu that his already weakened
forces were spread too thinly;

that it was no longer possible
to defend the entire country.

He had angrily resisted, but now,
suddenly, he changed his mind.

Thieu ordered his troops to abandon the
highlands, to withdraw under fire

and then regroup in order
to retake Ban Me Thuot.

It would have been a near-impossible
task with a carefully worked-out plan.

Thieu had none.

[Gunfire]

[Explosion]

The result would be disaster.

NARRATOR: Within a week, Pleiku and
Kon Tum were in enemy hands.

BAO NINH:

According to Western diplomats here in Saigon,

the South Vietnamese are quitting
the Central Highlands

because they hope to avoid a complete rout.

The withdrawal is said to be an attempt

to save men and equipment that
may become sorely needed

in other, more heavily populated
parts of the country.

NARRATOR: As the ARVN fled south,
400,000 civilians fled with them.

The enemy blocked the main roads so that
they had to take a disused back road.

Thousands died,

killed by North Vietnamese
shells and machine gun fire,

trampled by fellow refugees,
run over by retreating tanks,

blown apart by South Vietnamese bombs

dropped by pilots who mistook
them for the enemy.

Reporters called it the "Convoy of Tears".

Then, Hue fell.

NARRATOR: On March 29, 1975, the
North Vietnamese entered Danang,

South Vietnam's second-largest city.

Civilians and soldiers alike tried to flee.

[Crowd Clamoring]

"Danang was not captured", an
American reporter remembered.

"It disintegrated in its own terror".

[Plane Engine Starting]

NARRATOR: On the same beach
where the U.S. Marines

had landed nearly ten years earlier, beginning
America's combat involvement in Vietnam,

16,000 ARVN soldiers fought for space
with 75,000 terrified civilians

aboard an improvised fleet of
freighters and fishing boats

headed south for Cam Ranh
Bay, Vung Tau, and Saigon;

anywhere they thought Northern
troops might not follow.

Thousands drowned struggling
to reach the boats.

Thousands more were killed by enemy
shells raining down on the beach.

NARRATOR: Danang, Tam Ky, Quang Ngai,
Qui Nhon, Nha Trang, Cam Ranh Bay.

The North Vietnamese kept moving
closer and closer to Saigon.

It was stunning to sit there in Saigon, writing
the daily ledes on the fall of all these places.

You just were overwhelmed with
ten years' worth of history

and seeing all of it come unglued.

[Explosion]

FRANK SNEPP: At the end of March,
18 North Vietnamese divisions,

with five in reserve, were now arrayed against,
basically, six South Vietnamese divisions.

The manpower imbalance, was about three
or four to one, in favor of the communists.

This was breathtaking.

NARRATOR: The North Vietnamese now
decided to move against Saigon

and take it before Ho Chi Minh's
birthday on May 19.

It became clear to Thomas Polgar,
the C.I.A. station chief in Saigon,

that the time had come to begin
preparing for an evacuation.

There were still some 5,000
Americans in Saigon,

and there were also as many as 200,000
South Vietnamese and their families

who had cooperated with the United States.

But Ambassador Graham Martin disagreed.

He was a resolute Cold Warrior, who had
been appointed to reassure Thieu

of continuing American backing,

and his feelings had only been intensified
by the death of his son in Vietnam.

He had not been appointed ambassador,
he had told an aide,

to "give Vietnam away to the communists".

The C.I.A. was being alarmist, he said.

There would be no attack on Saigon,
and, therefore, no evacuation.

President Thieu also continued
to insist all was not lost.

The ARVN were ready to "fight on to the last
bullet and the last grain of rice", he said.

Just 40 miles east of Saigon,

North Vietnamese forces attacked the
town of Xuan Loc on Highway One,

the last obstacle on their way to Saigon.

Although they were outnumbered
and outgunned,

the South Vietnamese commander
refused to retreat.

He was determined to keep
the enemy from his capital.

REPORTER: You're certain that
you can hold Xuan Loc?

Surely, surely. I am certain to you. I am
sure with you I can hold Xuan Loc.

Even the enemies uses, you
know, the double forces

or maybe three time more than my forces.

But no problem, sir, no problem.

GERARLD FORD: A vast human tragedy has
befallen our friends in Vietnam and Cambodia.

NARRATOR: On April 10,

President Ford appealed to a joint session
of Congress for emergency aid to Saigon.

If they refused and Saigon fell, Congress, not
the White House, should take the blame.

Under five presidents and 12 Congresses, the
United States was engaged in Indochina.

Millions of Americans served, thousands died,

and many more were wounded,
imprisoned... or lost... over...

NARRATOR: The president asked Congress
for $722 million in military aid.

There was no applause.

Most legislators, and their constituents, thought
it was too late to make any difference.

In the end, Congress voted
against any military aid.

BUI DIEM: I didn't think that it is good for a
big nation like the U.S. to behave like that.

Because by that time, we didn't ask
for the blood of American soldiers.

I mean, the last minute, they
washed their hands like that.

It is not up to a diplomat to use strong
words against the American,

but I felt deeply sorry about it.

SNEPP: We broke every rule in the book to
get people out, the young officers did,

while the ambassador continued to stonewall
both the embassy and Washington.

NARRATOR: Evacuation plans
were finally drawn up.

There were four options:

sealift by cargo ships anchored
in the port of Saigon,

airlift by commercial airliner,

a military airlift,

and, as a last resort, evacuation
by flights of helicopters

to a flotilla of U.S. Navy ships
in the South China Sea.

Ambassador Martin continued
to show little interest.

The slightest sign that the United States
would abandon South Vietnam, he said,

would produce panic in the streets.

- [Gunfire]
- [Explosions]

On April 21, Xuan Loc finally
fell to the North Vietnamese.

The ARVN had valiantly held
on for 12 bloody days.

Highway One was now open
all the way to Saigon.

That evening, President Thieu resigned.

Four days later, the C.I.A. would
spirit Thieu to Taiwan,

where an American emissary brought him
a private message from President Ford.

It was not a good time for him to visit America.
Antiwar feelings were too strong.

"It is so easy to be an enemy of
the United States", Thieu said,

"but so difficult to be a friend".

News of Thieu's resignation had sent
thousands of panicked Vietnamese

rushing to Tan Son Nhut Airport, hoping
to get out of their country.

Some had exit visas, many did not.

Marines did what they could to establish order.

Master Sergeant Juan Valdez was
the noncommissioned officer

in charge of Marine Corps
Security Guards in Saigon.

He had been one of the first Marines
to land in Vietnam in 1965.

VALDEZ: People were trying
to bribe the Marines.

You know, they were bringing money out there,
jewelry, to get them out of the country.

I think just about every Marine that was at
the gate encountered this type of bribes.

But they had to refuse them, yeah, yeah.

NARRATOR: Duong Van Mai Elliott's
family had fled Hanoi in 1954,

leaving behind her older sister, Thang,
who had joined Ho Chi Minh's forces.

Now, 20 years later, with the North
Vietnamese closing in on Saigon,

they were faced with the prospect
of fleeing once again.

DUONG VAN MAI ELLIOTT:
My mother didn't want to leave.

She said she didn't want to be a refugee again.
She had been a refugee too many times.

Plus, my sister Thang was about to arrive
and meet us after all these years.

She said she wanted to stay and see Thang.

My father was determined to leave, because he
was afraid that if we stayed, we'd be killed.

He got mad at my mother, and they argued,
but in the end, my mother yielded

to his, uh... insistence that we
should... they should leave.

PHAN QUANG TUE: I knew that
the end was approaching.

When you are at the center of the
storm, you have to get out.

When I myself and my immediate family,
and my father and his immediate family,

went to the Tan Son Nhut Airport,

through the whole thing I said,
"This is crazy, you know.

Why... why do we have to leave under these
conditions?" It was so humiliating.

And I carry that humiliation with
me to the United States.

When I get in line to sign up for
a job, you know, I was a...

I remind them... of the war in Vietnam,
which the Americans hate.

You have to lose a nation and a dream
to feel... to feel that humiliation.

JEAN-MARIE CROCKER: We have always
sent a wreath to his grave at Arlington.

Partly in remembrance, of course, of him, but
also thinking, if other grieving people are there,

or just people that are visiting
to pay their respects,

that it's good for them to know that people
are... that the soldiers are remembered.

FORD: Today...

America can regain the sense of pride
that existed before Vietnam.

But it cannot be achieved by refighting a war
that is finished as far as America is concerned.

- [Applause]
- [Explosion]

NARRATOR: On April 27, 1975, rockets
landed in the heart of Saigon.

It was the signal for the North Vietnamese
to begin their main assault on the city.

They attacked from five sides, "like a
hurricane", their commander said.

The White House ordered
all American cargo ships

to sail out to sea without waiting
to take on any passengers.

There now could be no organized sealift.

[Jimi Hendrix Experience's "All Along
the Watchtower" Playing]

NARRATOR: When the communists began
shelling the seaside town of Vung Tau,

just southeast of Saigon, thousands
of terrified people clambered

into any vessel they could find in
hope of rescue by the Americans.

Before the exodus ended,

more than 60,000 refugees from
Vung Tau would be picked up.

But thousands more were left behind,
floating helplessly at sea.

At the American Embassy,

Ambassador Martin cabled Henry
Kissinger, now secretary of state,

that "It is the unanimous opinion
of the senior personnel here

that there will be no direct or
serious attack on Saigon".

SNEPP: A lot of us began to wonder
whether he had lost grip on reality.

He had come down with pneumonia in the
final days. He was terribly enfeebled.

And it's possible this affected his judgment.

NARRATOR: Evacuation planners had quietly
designated two spots within the embassy

as potential helicopter landing zones...

a courtyard that could accommodate
large choppers,

and the helipad on the embassy
roof, meant for smaller ones.

An old tamarind tree stood in
the center of the courtyard.

Again and again, the Marines
asked Ambassador Martin

for permission to cut it down so as not to
interfere with the lift-offs and landings

they were certain would soon have to begin.

He always refused.

That tree was a symbol of
American resolve, he said.

Cutting it down would send the wrong message.

Meanwhile, General Duong Van Minh,
who had been part of the coup

that overthrew President Diem 12 years earlier,

was sworn in as the new president
of South Vietnam.

He called for an immediate cease-fire, and
asked that Americans leave within 24 hours.

[Explosion]

NARRATOR: On April 29, at 3:58 in the morning,

North Vietnamese rockets began
falling on Tan Son Nhut Airport.

The North Vietnamese were just...
walking these shells...

these big 130-millimeter artillery
shells all over the airfield,

destroying the runway, basically.

It was close enough that you could
hear the incoming go overhead.

- [Whistling]
- [Explosion]

NARRATOR: Two Marine guards, Lance Corporal
Darwin Judge, of Marshalltown, Iowa,

and Corporal Charles McMahon,
Jr., of Woburn, Massachusetts,

were killed in the barrage... the last American
servicemen to die in Vietnam.

VALDEZ: I still blame the ambassador.
This shouldn't have happened.

You know, if the ambassador had taken action

and gotten people out of there, which he was
supposed to, this would have never happened.

NARRATOR: The runways were cratered
and blocked by wrecked planes,

littered with jettisoned bombs and fuel tanks.

The Americans had run out
of evacuation options.

It was time to call in the helicopters
from the offshore fleet.

There was no way all of the remaining
South Vietnamese could be evacuated.

[Chain Saws Buzzing]

The tamarind tree in the embassy
compound was finally hacked down

so helicopters could begin landing.

VALDEZ: So they had to chop this big tamarind
tree down, cut it in pieces, tow it away.

And then they had to get the fire department
to wash all the debris and everything so

when the choppers land, they wouldn't suck up
all those debris into the, uh... into the engines.

NARRATOR: Just after 11:00 a.m.,

a prearranged signal to evacuate was broadcast

over a special radio frequency in the capital:

"The temperature in Saigon is
105 degrees and rising".

["White Christmas" by Tennessee
Ernie Ford Playing]

NARRATOR: It was supposed to be followed
by Bing Crosby singing "White Christmas".

But the disc jockey couldn't find the record

and played Tennessee Ernie
Ford's version instead.

Americans and Vietnamese with proper papers

gathered at pre-arranged collection points
and boarded convoys of buses.

Angry South Vietnamese beat
on the sides of the vehicles

as they moved through the crowded
streets to the airport.

Philip Caputo, now covering the fall of
Saigon, was among the evacuees.

PHILIP CAPUTO: We were evacuated
from Tan Son Nhut Air Base.

But we drove past the embassy,
and you just saw this scrum,

this horde of people pressing up against the
walls, and Marines standing on the wall

and gun-butting people to, uh... to keep them...
to keep them from pouring over the walls.

NARRATOR: The evacuees at the airport were
divided into helicopter teams of 50 each,

and led down a long hallway to the tarmac.

Someone in Caputo's group joked about finally
seeing "light at the end of the tunnel".

The choppers take off, and they're flying,
uh... flying toward the coast.

And you could look down and all you could see,
all around Saigon, all around the airfield,

were just these plumes of smoke from burning
buildings, from exploding artillery shells.

And I'll never forget going over that coastline,
seeing the entire 7th Fleet...

dozens and dozens and this enormous
fleet out there like that.

And I just remember this sense
of... of disbelief, completely.

Disbelief and relief at the same time.

VALDEZ: There were anywhere from 10,000
to 12,000 people surrounding the embassy.

We're supposed to get Americans out of there.

And we were supposed to get South Vietnamese

that worked for us in the embassy.

The C.I.A. was behind us,

and they were pointing at the people
who were supposed to get out.

But every time you reached out
to grab a specific individual,

other people were grabbing your hands and
trying to pull you down with them, you know,

so that you could help them out.

SNEPP: Some Americans had left so rapidly,
they'd left the radios behind.

So their Vietnamese friends were on
the radios begging to be rescued.

"I'm Han, the driver". "I'm Mr.
Ngoc, your translator".

I realized what the Americans
had often done in Vietnam.

They had forgotten that these
were human beings.

My experience in Vietnam had often been
like a B-52 strike from... on high.

I never had to confront the
consequences of my action.

I could just let the bomb doors open...
and still remain... detached.

NARRATOR: Elsewhere in the embassy,

Marines frantically destroyed
classified documents.

VALDEZ: Uh... the top of the roof
had two big incinerators

right underneath the helicopter pad.

And the Marines burned classified
material around the clock.

But to my understanding, even when we left,
there was still classified material left behind.

SNEPP: Well, when the choppers
finally began coming in,

the downdraft ripped open those bags

and there was classified material
all over the parking lot.

When the North Vietnamese arrived,

they apparently Scotch-taped that material
back together and it became a blood list

that they could use to track down people,
Vietnamese, who'd worked for us.

NARRATOR: Embassy officials dumped bags
of currency into an oil drum and set it afire.

Millions of dollars in contingency
funds went up in smoke.

"This will be the final message
from Saigon station",

the C.I.A. chief Thomas Polgar
wired to Washington.

"It has been a long fight and we have lost.

"Those who fail to learn from history
are forced to repeat it.

"Let us hope that we will not have
another Vietnam experience

"and that we have learned our lesson.

Saigon signing off".

More than 50 U.S. helicopters now
crisscrossed the sky over Saigon,

picking up evacuees from designated
rooftops, as well as the embassy,

ferrying them to the fleet far out
at sea, then returning for more.

Some desperate South Vietnamese officers
also commandeered helicopters

for themselves and their families,

dangerously crowding the decks
of the American aircraft carriers.

There was no room for them.

WILLBANKS: The image that remains in
my mind is the picture of the helicopter

being pushed over the side of the carrier.

The helicopter was everything in Vietnam.

I mean, it was dust-off, it was resupply,
it was fire support, it was everything.

All I could think of was: what
a waste, what a waste.

As I watched that all unfold, I... I felt
uh... responsible. I was ashamed.

We had told these people that we would be
there to support them and we were not.

SNEPP: About 9:15 on the last night, Polgar
came and he said,"We've got to all leave.

"We've been ordered by headquarters
to leave, let's go".

NARRATOR: Ambassador Martin had
wanted to be the last man to leave.

But at about 4:00 in the morning of April 30, a
CH-46 touched down on the embassy roof.

Its pilot carried orders from the president
himself. Martin was to leave, now.

"I guess this is it", he said. As
Martin was helped aboard,

he was handed the furled American flag that
had flown from the flagstaff the previous day.

He lifted off at 4:58 a.m. and headed out to sea.

President Ford had also ordered that from then
on, only Americans would be evacuated.

Tens of thousands of South Vietnamese
would be left behind,

and more than 400 were still waiting
in the embassy courtyard.

Time and again,

they had been assured helicopters
were on the way to pick them up.

HERRINGTON: I was directed to stay with
the Vietnamese and keep them warm,

meaning, "Don't give any hint that all these
promises we made to them are for naught".

I felt sick at heart, I had a hard time.

It was dark out, so I didn't have to worry
about looking these folks in the eye.

But I made my excuse and, um,
[Speaks Vietnamese]...

"I have to go to the bathroom".

And left into the landscaping, circuitous
route to the back door of the embassy,

to the chancery building, and
made my way to the roof.

NARRATOR: Some 129 Marines
remained in the compound.

They did their best to pull back into
the embassy and up onto the roof

without alerting the Vietnamese that
they were about to be left behind.

VALDEZ: We locked ourselves inside the
embassy and found ourselves up on the roof.

It was actually after we got
up on top of the roof

that we started seeing all
these masses of people.

Some of them had already come
on the embassy compound.

And they broke those doors.

And that's how those, uh, South Vietnamese
were able to get inside the embassy.

RON NESSEN: This action closes a chapter
in the American experience.

The president asks all Americans to close ranks
to avoid recriminations about the past,

and to work together on the great tasks
that remain to be accomplished.

Now, to, uh... give you details of
the events of the past few days

and to answer your questions,
Secretary of State Kissinger.

REPORTER: Mr. Secretary, are you confident

that all the Americans that wanted
to come out are out of Saigon,

and do you have any idea of the number
of Americans who remain behind?

Uh... I have no idea of the number
of Americans that remain behind.

Uh... I am confident that every American
who wanted to come out, uh... is... is out.

What we need now in this country is to heal
the wounds and to put Vietnam behind us.

NARRATOR: An aide handed Kissinger a note.

It said that the 129 Marines had somehow
been left behind on the embassy roof.

Helicopters were dispatched to pick them up.

Eventually, only Sergeant Valdez and his
ten-man embassy security unit remained.

But then, an hour went by with no
sign of any more helicopters.

Their radio was dead.

The Marines had no way to contact the
fleet to see if anyone was on the way.

VALDEZ: Everything stopped.
We're being left behind.

People are sitting around in their own little
thoughts, uh... not doing too much talking.

We pretty much decided that
we were going to fight it out,

use these small arms that we had
and just fight it to the end.

We started seeing two puffs of
smoke coming from out at sea.

As they got closer, then we were able to
determine that they were helicopters.

It was a relief.

One of the Marines, I believe it was Staff
Sergeant Sullivan, my assistant,

grabbed me and started pulling
me in as the ramp's going up.

NARRATOR: At 7:53 a.m., April 30, 1975, the
last helicopter lifted off the embassy roof.

Master Sergeant Juan Valdez was the
last American to climb aboard.

[Sirens Wailing]

The government of South Vietnam
had less than five hours to live.

President Minh spoke from
the palace at mid-morning.

He urged what was left of the South
Vietnamese Army to stop fighting.

"We are here waiting", he said,
"to hand over the authority

in order to stop useless bloodshed".

NARRATOR: At noon, North Vietnamese
tanks flying Viet Cong flags

smashed their way through the gates
of the presidential palace.

Within hours, victorious soldiers were
calling Saigon "Ho Chi Minh City".

All over town, ARVN soldiers
tore off their uniforms

and did their best to melt into the crowds.

Families burned their photo albums
so there would be no evidence

that their sons or husbands had
ever fought for South Vietnam.

Colonel Tran Ngoc Toan had been fighting
the communists for more than 12 years,

and had survived terrible wounds
suffered at the Battle of Binh Gia.

He was leading what was left of the 4th
South Vietnamese Marine Battalion

near Bien Hoa, 20 miles east of Saigon.

His commanding general had long since bribed
his way aboard a ship and fled the country.

An American friend had urged
Toan to get out, too.

He refused.

NARRATOR: A South Vietnamese police officer
walked to a memorial built to honor

those who had fallen defending South Vietnam.

He saluted it, stood there for a time,
and then shot himself in the head.

DUONG VAN MAI ELLIOTT: It was a very
messy ending to a very messy war.

I felt a sense of relief, but also a sense
of sadness when it ended.

Uh... I felt relief that the killing, um...

destruction, finally came to an end,
and I didn't care which side won.

To me, Vietnam won. Vietnamese people won
because they finally could live... live normally.

And sad because I saw that my
family was again fleeing,

and this time from their homeland, and
their future was very uncertain.

And I knew that with the
communists taking over,

Vietnamese society would
be changed drastically.

NARRATOR: Lo Khac Tam had been fighting

in the North Vietnamese Army
for nearly ten years now,

beginning with the bloody clash
in the la Drang Valley,

the first full-scale battle of the American war.

Now he was watching that war's end.

In Vietnam, we finally have reached the end
of the tunnel, and there is no light there.

What is there, perhaps, was
best said by President Ford,

"a war that is finished".

LEWIS SORLEY: I happened to be at
a conference at Tufts University,

and the dean there was a former ambassador
who spoke to us late on that day,

as it turned out, the fateful day.

And he said he had just come
back from Washington... oh...

where the spring weather was beautiful
and the daffodils were in bloom,

to Boston, where it was gloomy
and gray as it was in his heart.

And people hissed him and booed him.

I was there in uniform.

One of my great regrets was that I did not get
up and start laying waste to those people

who disrespected the ambassador and his
sorrow at the fall of South Vietnam.

I got a call from the V.V.A.W. national office
from some friends of mine from the old days.

They were having a big celebration, drinking
booze and,"Ah, well, it's a great day, isn't it?"

And I said,"Are you nuts?" I said,
"No, it's not a great day".

To see America leaving like that, after we'd
given almost 60,000 of our sons & daughters,

that wasn't something to celebrate.

I knew we were abandoning millions of
South Vietnamese that had trusted us,

thrown in their lot with us. That
wasn't anything to celebrate.

I thought it was just one
of the saddest moments

I'd ever seen in American history.

So when some future politician,
for some reason, feels the need

to drag this country into a war,

he might come out here to Arlington, and
stand maybe right over there somewhere,

to make his announcement and
to tell what he has in mind.

[Cheering]

TOM VALLELY: In Vietnam, the
Communist Party is triumphant.

And they have exceptionalism, too.

And their exceptionalism gets in their way
just like our exceptionalism got in our way.

So they... they unify the country in
a military sense, and then they...

they don't really unify the country after that.
They... they... they try, but they fail.

NARRATOR: In the end, there was no bloodbath
on the scale many had feared,

but hundreds, perhaps thousands,
of people in the countryside

are thought to have been killed in individual
acts of revenge or political retaliation.

Those who had served the Thieu regime,
from generals to ordinary clerks,

were required to undergo re-education.

Enlisted men were assured they would only
have to submit to three days of "study".

Officers needn't attend for more than a month.

NARRATOR: A million and a half people

are believed to have undergone
some form of indoctrination.

ARVN cemeteries were bulldozed or padlocked,

as if the memory of an independent
South Vietnam,

and those who had died for that
cause, could both be obliterated.

DUONG VAN MAI ELLIOTT: The communists,
in their effort to erase vestiges

of the former regime, uh... have not
allowed the South Vietnamese

who lost their sons in the war to mourn, to have
their graves and to honor their memory.

It caused a division that lasts to this day,

that the... the... the winners would not
accommodate the losers in some way.

NARRATOR: After 30 years of war,
much of Vietnam lay in ruins.

Three million people are thought
to have died, North and South.

Still more had been wounded.

Thousands of children fathered by American
servicemen had been left behind.

Villages needed to be rebuilt,
land had to be reclaimed.

Cities were choked with refugees.

Millions were without work.

President Ford imposed an economic embargo.

Washington refused to recognize
the new government of Vietnam.

But Le Duan and his allies on the
Politburo remained optimistic.

"Nothing more can happen", one
committee member said.

"The problems we face now are trifles
compared to those in the past".

Le Duan resolved, with Soviet help, to
turn all of Vietnam into what he called

an "impregnable outpost
of the socialist system".

Hanoi forcibly collectivized
agriculture in the South,

virtually abolished capitalism,
nationalized industries,

and appointed planners to run it
all along strict communist lines.

The result would be economic disaster.

Inflation rose as high as 700%
a year. People starved.

NARRATOR: To compound its problems,
Vietnam found itself, once again, at war,

caught between the interests of
the two communist powers

that had once been its staunchest
allies, China and the Soviet Union.

- [Gunshot]
- [Man Yells]

After the brutal Maoist regime in
Cambodia raided border areas,

Vietnamese troops, with Soviet
arms and encouragement,

crossed the frontier in 1978 and overthrew it.

A frustrating ten-year

counterinsurgency campaign followed
that some called "Vietnam's Vietnam".

Before it was over, the Vietnamese
would lose some 50,000 more men,

almost as many as the Americans
had lost in their war.

[Explosions and Gunfire]

Meanwhile, communist China, determined to
punish Vietnam for invading Cambodia,

and to show Moscow it would not have
a free hand in Southeast Asia,

sent 85,000 troops storming
into northern Vietnam.

They devastated areas along the border...
before the Vietnamese pushed them back.

ED BRADLEY: The South China Sea, 1978.

They come ashore at the
rate of 10,000 a month,

much faster than the United States or any
other nation is willing to accept them.

They come chasing an elusive memory:
the promise of America.

NARRATOR: A million and a half people
would eventually flee Vietnam:

supporters of the old Saigon regime,

refugees from the renewed fighting
along the Cambodian border,

and ethnic Chinese residents of Vietnam,

whom the new government had
treated especially harshly.

Hundreds of thousands of the boat people died.

Others suffered in refugee camps
throughout Southeast Asia.

Some 400,000 eventually made it to America,
where they settled in nearly every state,

industrious, entrepreneurial, more eager
to take part in American political life

and more likely to become American citizens
than other immigrant groups from Asia.

But for that first generation
of Vietnamese Americans,

memories of their homeland
could never be erased.

KARL MARLANTES: I remember I was with
one of my daughters, uh... [Chuckles]

at an intersection and some guy came
up behind me and blasted the horn.

When I came to my senses,

I was on the hood of his car, about
to, trying to kick his windshield in.

And I went... and there's people all over looking
at me. I mean, this is crazy. This is crazy.

And then I started going,"Well, this is weird". I
sort of slinked back to my car and, you know,

my daughter, she's about four, looking
at me,"Wow, what's that all about?"

And I go, "What is that all
about?" I had no idea.

I had no idea that it was
even related to the war.

NARRATOR: It is as old as war itself.

The ancient Greeks called it "divine madness".

It was "soldier's heart" in the Civil War,

"shell shock" during the First World War
and "combat fatigue" in the Second.

Following Vietnam, it was given a new name,
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder... PTSD.

MARLANTES: And what you learn
is that PTSD doesn't go away.

But now if someone honks the horn,
and it startles me, I'm still...

My heart rate's still going to go up, and it'll be
there for five minutes and I'm like this, but...

"Ten, nine, it's just some asshole, he's had
a bad day at work, eight, seven, six,

"it's not... no one's shooting at you, you're safe,
it's seven, six, five, four, three, two, one", and

I can control it, whereas I couldn't do it before
because I didn't understand what was going on.

NARRATOR: Adding to the
pain many veterans felt

was their country's eagerness to forget the war.

There were few parades.

In many ways, everyone came
home from Vietnam alone.

When I got home, and my mom and dad were
there, my brothers and sisters, my wife.

And we're embracing and...

I couldn't relate to my wife or my mother what
I had seen, what I had done in Vietnam.

I could've talked to my brothers about it,
but they... they knew I didn't want to.

And so it just, uh... something unsaid, you know.

"Welcome back, Vince. You've been through
the, the wringer, but welcome back".

NARRATOR: In April 1981, a panel
of eight architects and sculptors

gathered in an airplane hangar at Andrews
Air Force Base outside Washington.

They were there to choose the winning design
for a Vietnam memorial for the nation's capital

from more than 1,400 submissions.

The memorial was the brainchild
of a single stubborn veteran,

a former rifleman named Jan Scruggs,

who, after suffering a frightening flashback,

told his wife he wanted to "build a memorial
to all the guys who served in Vietnam.

It'll have the name of everyone killed".

With other veterans, he established
a nonprofit organization,

the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund,

and went to work collecting
money and making plans.

In the end, some 650,000 Americans would
contribute more than $8 million.

- The judges chose submission number 1026.
- [Applause]

SUSAN PETERSON: 21-year-old Maya Ying Lin,

an architect student at Yale University,
got the $20,000 prize.

Her winning design is comprised of two
elongated triangles of black granite,

inset into a hill and inscribed with the names

of the 57,692 men and women
who died in the war.

Lin, whose parents emigrated from China in the
1940s to Ohio, thought she wouldn't win

because her design was too
strange and too strong.

I had a general idea that I wanted
to describe a journey,

a journey that would make you experience death

and where you'd have to be an observer, where
you could never really fully be with the dead.

It wasn't going to be something that was
going to say,"It's all right, it's all over",

because it's not.

NARRATOR: Differences about the war

colored people's feelings about
the proposed design.

Some who believed that the war
had been unjust and immoral

feared the monument was somehow
meant to glorify it.

Others feared its stark design
failed to do justice

to the cause for which Americans had fought.

The writer Tom Wolfe dismissed it
as "a tribute to Jane Fonda".

TOM CARHART: I don't care
about artistic perceptions.

One needs no artistic education to see this
memorial design for what it is: a black scar.

Black, the universal color of sorrow
and shame and degradation

in all races and all societies worldwide.

In a hole, hidden as if out of shame.

JANICE CONNALLY: Mr. Chairman,
members of the commission,

I speak as an individual, a member
from the general public.

What are the memorable images
from the war in Vietnam?

A guerrilla, shot at point-blank range.

A naked girl, afire, running, screaming
down a dusty road.

I think Maya Lin was right in going
beyond these kinds of images.

She resolved all the pain and
conflict of that unhappy time

in a simple message of sacrifice
and quiet heroism.

NARRATOR: In an official vote of
support for Maya Lin's design,

the American Gold Star Mothers spoke for many.

"Nowadays", they said,"patriotism
is a complicated matter.

"But perhaps that is why the
V-shaped, black granite lines

"merging gently with the sloping earth

"convey the only point about the war
on which people may agree:

that those who died should be remembered".

["Bridge Over Troubled Water" by
Simon and Garfunkel Playing]

# When you're weary #

# Feeling small #

# When tears are in your eyes #

# I'll dry them all #

RION CAUSEY: As you got out of the
car and you approached the wall,

the intensity of which, it grabs you...

You go up...

You see the names, you touch the names...

- [Crying] It's intense.
- # Bridge over troubled water #

# I will lay me down #

SORLEY: I did not like the Vietnam wall.

I considered it an ugly, black ditch and
that it said the only people that, uh...

to be commemorated are the dead,

not because they're heroes, but
because they're victims.

I didn't go.

Until...

one year...

they were going to put the wreath in front
of... the name of my roommate.

[Voice Breaking] I had... I had to go.

So I've gone every year since then
to remember those we... we lost.

And, um... I walk down to the far left
and I run my fingers over that name.

You go to that wall,

and even my son, who was nine
years old when I first took him,

and you see over 58,000 names, and you know
that unwritten behind or beside each name,

there's a mother or a father
or a wife or a daughter

whose lives were for... forever
shattered by that damn war.

NANCY BIBERMAN: I've been to
the wall, um... more than once.

When I look back at the war and, you
know, think of the horrible things,

you know, we said to, you know,
vets who were returning,

you know calling them "baby killers" and worse
I... you know... I... I feel very sad about that.

Um... I can only say that, you know, we were
kids, too, you know, just like they were.

It grieves me... it grieves me today.

It pains me to think of the things that I said
and that we said and I... I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

[Bird Calling]

CAROL CROCKER: I didn't want to go.

And it was a beautiful, uh... summer morning.

Went to the Lincoln Memorial first, uh...

A comforting place to be.

And...

And then crossed the street and
walked in towards the entrance.

And, as you know, at first, you
can't really see the wall,

and you're coming down into the grassy hill.

And when I caught sight of it,

I literally lost my breath.

Of course, I wept.

I had help getting lifted up so I could touch it.

I found my brother's name.

I looked at my brother's name in the
company of all those other people.

There was sadness.

But now he wasn't alone, either.

He was in the company of people.

And he was there for people to
know... and to think about.

And he wasn't forgotten, and he wasn't lost.

It was incredibly healing and freeing for me.

As I was walking towards it from the reflecting
pool, there were so many names on those walls.

And all of a sudden, my throat swole
up, and I thought, "I can't do this.

I can't do this right now".

And I collapsed.

And all the tears I'd been holding back...

I didn't cry, I sobbed. I was
on my knees... sobbing.

I couldn't stop, I couldn't get my breath.

And I was so grateful to God that it was there.

I thought, "This is going to save lives.

This is going to save lives".

VALLELY: I was struck by its beauty and how
at peace Vietnam looked from the air.

I had a sense of anticipation in my body.

I had worked hard for many months with others

to organize this trip and to negotiate our
arrival with the Vietnamese government.

How do you do? Toi ten Tom Vallely.

VALLELY: I came back to Vietnam as
a veteran, to learn from history,

and to see how the place had changed.

[Laughter]

There had only been 200 Americans that
had been to Vietnam since 1975,

and most of them had been correspondents
and had been in the South.

- [Clamoring]
- [Horn Honking]

Many of the kids, you'd walk down the street,

and they'd go, "Lien Xo, lien Xo",
which means "Russian".

And you'd go, "Nolien Xo, toi la nguoi
My"... "I'm an American".

And their face would light up, and they'd go,
"American!" and it would spread like wildfire

through the schoolyard, or the street
that... that Americans were here.

And they'd come out and they'd
be very, very friendly.

[Laughter]

- Goodbye. Goodbye!
- Goodbye!

[Laughter]

NARRATOR: Tom Vallely had served
with the Marines in Vietnam.

16 years later, the country drew him back.

He founded the Vietnam Program of
the Kennedy School at Harvard,

and helped educate some of
the country's future leaders.

I got very, very involved in the reconnecting
between the United States and Vietnam,

and how that reconnection takes place,

I spent a decade of my life putting
those pieces together.

NARRATOR: Although the United States did
not have diplomatic relations with Vietnam,

veterans had begun coming back on their own,

revisiting places where they had fought...

...meeting old foes...

...planting trees and building schools,
trying to put the war behind them.

Vallely worked closely with other veterans,
including three United States senators,

who became among the most influential
American advocates

for normalizing relations:

John McCain from Arizona, who had endured
six years as a prisoner of war;

John Kerry from Massachusetts, the
ex-commander of a Swift Boat;

and Bob Kerrey of Nebraska,
a former Navy SEAL.

Their task would not be easy.

Hanoi insisted the United States make good

on a promise to provide funds
for reconstruction.

For its part, the United States demanded
a complete accounting

of the 2,500 Americans whose remains
had never been recovered.

Hanoi, which had more than 300,000 missing
of its own, refused to cooperate.

But events both within Vietnam and far beyond
its borders slowly moved things along.

NARRATOR: Le Duan died in 1986.

His successors adopted what they calleddoi moi,

a more pragmatic reformist economic policy.

As the Cold War ended, Soviet aid disappeared,

and Hanoi finally began to help U.S. military
teams search for American remains.

VALLELY: The architects of normalization are
the Vietnamese. It's not the Americans.

And the normalization of Vietnam

is a strategy of the Vietnamese Communist
Party to join the world.

They want to join the world.

And the United States makes it
hard for them to join the world.

So John McCain insists, "Yeah, you
want to have normalization?

All your prisoners need to be
out of re-education camp".

"You want normalization?" John Kerry: "I need
all the information about the missing".

NARRATOR: In 1994, after the Vietnamese
met the Americans' demands,

the United States lifted its trade embargo.

Full normalization came the following year.

The new American ambassador
was Pete Peterson

who had spent 6 years in Hanoi as a P.O.W.

In November of 2000, President Bill
Clinton traveled to Vietnam,

the first American president
to visit that country

since Richard Nixon reviewed U.S.
troops there 31 years earlier.

BARACK OBAMA: Now we can say something
that was once unimaginable:

Today, Vietnam and the United
States are partners.

We have shown that hearts can change,

and that a different future is possible when
we refuse to be... prisoners of the past.

MIKE HEANEY: I went back to Vietnam.

I got in touch with a provincial
vets organization.

This is a huge organization of Vietnamese
vets... all former enemies.

All former enemies. But now,
mellowed quite a bit, like me.

You know, they're guys my age, grandpas.

And after we got past the initial checking each
other out, and is this a political thing or not,

they could not have been more
gracious and more loving.

They took me under their wing
like a brother soldier.

We exchanged painful memories, stories.

And I did a little ceremony
honoring the guys I'd lost,

honoring the Vietnamese
enemies that we'd killed.

And just telling them, you know,
they could be at peace now.

It was a wonderful, wonderful trip.

You know, you don't... you don't get
closure, but you get some peace.

You get some peace... I got some peace.

NARRATOR: In Vietnam, the
land has largely healed.

Old animosities have mostly been buried.

But ghosts remain.

Americans and Vietnamese work
together to clean up places

where Agent Orange has poisoned the earth.

Unexploded ordnance, half-hidden in the
ground, still takes lives each year.

Aged mothers and fathers from northern
Vietnam still roam the south,

seeking to discover what happened
to their sons and daughters.

SAM WILSON: As we finally came
lurching out of Vietnam...

We were beginning to doubt ourselves.

And, uh... that's a foreign
feeling for an American.

We... we seldom doubt ourselves.

This turned out to be... the most
bitter, the most divisive...

or second-most bitter and second-most
divisive war in our entire history.

And we still hurt because of it.

We have feelings of guilt about Vietnam.

NARRATOR: More than four
decades after the war ended,

the divisions it created between Americans
have not yet wholly healed.

Lessons were learned and then forgotten;

divides were bridged and then widened;

old secrets were revealed and new
secrets were locked away.

The Vietnam War was a tragedy,
immeasurable and irredeemable.

But meaning can be found in the individual
stories of those who lived through it,

stories of courage and comradeship
and perseverance,

of understanding and forgiveness
and, ultimately, reconciliation.

O'BRIEN: "They shared the weight of memory.

"They took up what others could no longer bear.

"Often, they carried each other,
the wounded or weak.

"They carried infections. They carried
chess sets... basketballs,

"Vietnamese-English dictionaries,

"insignia of rank, Bronze Stars
and Purple Hearts,

"plastic cards imprinted with
the Code of Conduct.

"They carried diseases, among
them malaria and dysentery.

"They carried lice and ringworm and leeches,

"paddy algae and various rots and molds.

"They carried the land itself... Vietnam,

"the place, the soil... a powdery orange-red dust

"that covered their boots
and fatigues and faces.

"They carried the sky. The whole atmosphere,

"they carried it... the humidity, the monsoons,

"the stink of fungus and decay, all of it.

"They carried gravity.

"They moved like mules. By daylight,
they took sniper fire;

"at night, they were mortared.

"They crawled into tunnels and walked
point and advanced under fire.

"But it was not battle, it was just the
endless march, village to village.

"They marched for the sake of the march.

"They plodded along slowly, dumbly,

"leaning forward against the heat,
unthinking, all blood and bone,

"simple grunts, soldiering with their legs,

"toiling up the hills and down into the paddies

"and across the rivers and up again
and down, just humping,

"one step and then the next and then another.

"They made their legs move.

They endured".

["Let It Be" by The Beatles Playing]

# When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me #

# Speaking words of wisdom, let it be #

# And in my hour of darkness, She is
standing right in front of me #

# Speaking words of wisdom, let it be #

# Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be #

# Whisper words of wisdom, let it be #

# And when the brokenhearted people
living in the world agree #

# There will be an answer, let it be #

# For though they may be parted, there
is still a chance that they will see #

# There will be an answer, let it be #

# Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be #

# Yeah, there will be an answer, let it be #

# Let it be, let it be, let it
be, yeah, let it be #

# Whisper words of wisdom, let it be #

# And when the night is cloudy, there
is still a light that shines on me #

# Shine until tomorrow, let it be #

# I wake up to the sound of music
Mother Mary comes to me #

# Speaking words of wisdom, let it be #

# Yeah, let it be, let it be, let
it be, yeah, let it be #

# There will be an answer, let it be #

# Let it be, let it be let it
be, yeah, let it be #

# There will be an answer, let it be #

# Let it be, let it be, let it
be, yeah, let it be #

# Whisper words of wisdom, let it be #