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Documentary, BBC Timewatch Kill' Em All: American War Crimes in
Korea
#Timewatch #Korea
Korea
#Timewatch #Korea
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LearningTranscript
00:00This is the hidden story of the American Army's attacks on South Korean refugees during the Korean War in 1950.
00:15No actual archive exists of these precise incidents,
00:18but all the archive images in this film used to illustrate the Korean War were taken during the Korean War,
00:24almost all of them filmed by US forces cameraman.
00:30ensored by Beowoy
00:33Start by the
00:34下面 of the
00:47www.ITSE.RO.PL.
00:52This is the
00:56Advanced Headquarters, 5th Air Force, 25 July 1950.
01:19The Army has requested that we strafe all civilian parties that are approaching our
01:23positions.
01:26To date we have complied with the Army request.
01:348th Army Headquarters, Secret, 3 January 1951.
01:38You have complete authority in your zone to stop all civilian traffic.
01:43Responsibility to place fire on them to include bombing rests with you.
01:53There's 25th Infantry Division, 26 July 1950.
01:57General Keene directed that all civilians moving around in the combat zone will be considered
02:01as unfriendly and shot.
02:09Kids, there was kids out there, it didn't matter what it was, 8 to 80, blind, crippled,
02:16or crazy, they shot them.
02:17It just seemed like all Koreans were the enemy.
02:26We were shooting openly, we didn't aim at somebody, just pointing their rifles and shooting.
02:34And then that 10 minutes that it went on, that was a nightmare in itself.
02:40Yeah, the guilt's still with me.
02:46I can't, I can't get rid of the guilt.
02:48I can't find peace of mind.
02:52Absolution is not there.
02:57I remember seeing this woman on her hands and knees.
03:03She was crawling.
03:05You could just see the bullets bouncing, treasure bullets bouncing around her.
03:11She kept crawling, crawling.
03:16And finally, I guess, you know, she would just hit and that was it.
03:20And she just stopped, just like that, you know, just like she was hanging on the side of this hill with her fingers.
03:50In the village of Kokan-ri, near the south coast of Korea, the Lee family gather to honour their war dead.
04:03This ancient Confucian custom requires living descendants to pay homage to their ancestors.
04:12On August the 10th, 1950, six weeks into the Korean War,
04:17several hundred members of the Lee family took refuge in their family shrine.
04:2524 hours later, 82 of them were dead, including 29 children under the age of 10.
04:36The irony is that they were all killed by troops sent to protect them from the North Korean invasion,
04:42American troops.
04:46The South Korean Defense Ministry has registered 61 separate incidents of alleged U.S. attacks on civilians.
05:10Last year, the U.S. government finally acknowledged one of them.
05:18Tokyo was a dream posting for any young GI in the spring of 1950 with its shattered economy and thriving black market.
05:43Three hour on the trolley at last month.
05:46You could buy a carton of cigarettes at the PX for a dollar and sell it on the street for ten.
05:51And ten dollars would buy you a Japanese wife for a month.
05:55I started to yell, so I called it to death.
05:58Life was easy.
05:59There was guard duty and marching on parade.
06:01But you never expected to fight.
06:09I remember waiting for a streetcar to take me into downtown Tokyo.
06:15And I said to myself, at that point, when you look back on this time,
06:20you're going to remember it as a really good time, because it really is the best time of your life.
06:29Most GIs only had two weeks of combat training in the summer and had rarely fired their weapons.
06:35The North Korean invasion of the South on June 25th changed all of that.
06:44Some guys were buying knives down there in Japan.
06:46They were sharpening them up, putting in their boots and, you know, like it was going to really be
06:53like being in a movie or something, so to speak.
06:56We were only told we're moving to Korea.
06:58The Koreans crossed the 38th parallel, which nobody knew where it was.
07:04Nobody cared.
07:07To us, we thought it was just an uprising, something that would be over in no time.
07:13American soldiers from Japan were rushed to the deteriorating front line.
07:20In their very first contact with the North Koreans, they were outmaneuvered and sandly defeated.
07:25The retreat was the only option.
07:31North Korean forces have driven 60 miles south of Seoul to a point only 15 miles from Tejun.
07:38Here, United States troops, backed by powerful air and artillery concentrations,
07:43have temporarily halted the communist tank drive, but no solid defence line has been formed.
07:49It was time to bring in the cavalry.
07:51The 7th Cavalry Regiment, General George Custer's old unit, landed in Pahang on July 22nd.
08:01I remember seeing a large banner, a big white banner that stretched across the street there.
08:07It said, welcome Americans, run commies, run.
08:13And all the South Koreans alongside the road, they were waving and cheering us on.
08:21Made us feel real good.
08:22We thought when we'd show up, you know, it'd be all over with, probably in a short time.
08:31But we had no, absolutely no idea of what we were walking into.
08:37And I mean, we walked into it.
08:42Things began to go wrong immediately.
08:45Within two days in Korea, the 7th Cavalry had shot several of their own men.
08:49On the next night, July 25th, elements were positioned on a hillside a few miles behind the front line.
08:58Rumours went around that the North Koreans had made a breakthrough, causing mass panic.
09:03In the morning, 119 cavalrymen were unaccounted for, along with many of the unit's heavy weapons.
09:10It was just nothing but mass confusion.
09:16You didn't know, you stop here, dig in, or just wait, or we're going to have to leave, or you're going to, nobody knew what was going on.
09:30Matter of fact, I didn't even know if we had a platoon leader, the majority of the time.
09:35I didn't know we had a platoon sergeant.
09:38There was nobody in charge.
09:39There was nobody in charge.
09:41Ill-trained, poorly led, and frightened, the 7th Cavalry was confronted with streams of refugees fleeing the front, some six miles away.
09:51By this stage of the war, nearly two million refugees, the so-called people in white, clogged the roads.
09:57Not only did they play havoc with road communications, but fears ran high of the North Koreans using refugee columns as cover to infiltrate behind US lines.
10:09It was the same.
10:11It was the same.
10:11It was the same.
10:13It was the same.
10:13It was the same.
10:15At this point, the stage was set for one of the worst atrocities in American military history.
10:19It began at the village of Im Keri on the 25th of July.
10:28American soldiers broke into our house with rifles and bayonets.
10:39They didn't even take off their boots.
10:45They searched inside the house with a torch, found us and ordered us out.
10:49I was young and scared.
10:54I hid behind my mother and father, clinging to them.
10:57My father said the Americans had come to evacuate us and we should pack up and leave our home.
11:07The Americans forced us out of our village.
11:08We didn't know anything, so we just followed them, because they said they'd take us to safety.
11:20Forced to evacuate their village, the Korean refugees soon came face to face with the frightened,
11:26inexperienced soldiers of the 7th Cavalry.
11:29A lot of refugees came down the road in a group.
11:36It was 50, 60, 70 people.
11:41So I ran up the road there by the railroad tracks to Captain Johnson and told him.
11:48He said, go down, take the machine gun, shoot those people and we'll pull out.
11:55I said, we can't kill all these people.
12:01And he pulled out his handgun, a .45 and pointed it at my head and he said,
12:08he said, I said, kill them.
12:11You're disobeying a direct order in combat.
12:14He says, I will kill you myself.
12:18He said, go back there and kill those people.
12:20I said, yes, sir.
12:24And I turned and I'm running.
12:27And I'm thinking all the time in my head, what am I going to do?
12:30What am I going to do?
12:32And I got back down there and I told my friend what I was ordered and what had happened.
12:39And he fired around down amongst them somewhere.
12:42I think he did shoot someone, one person.
12:45And after he said we were serious, they began getting off the road pretty fast.
12:53And to this day, I thought, did I do the right thing or the wrong thing?
13:03Later the next morning, U.S. troops forced the refugee column, now several hundred strong,
13:09onto the railway line, overlooked by the 7th Cavalry's main positions.
13:14There they were stopped and searched around midday.
13:22I was at the head of a long line of people.
13:24I could see the American soldiers standing with rifles, trying to keep us on the tracks.
13:30They seemed to make sure that we couldn't move at all.
13:34The U.S. troops then withdrew, leaving the refugees alone on the railway line.
13:59Just after one o'clock, I could see a reconnaissance plane circling above us.
14:04Then the Americans seemed to talk to each other on the radio.
14:14Then we heard the shrieking sounds of planes overhead.
14:19Terrifying noise.
14:23And then they dropped bombs on the contained group of people.
14:29Suddenly, a huge explosion erupted.
14:31I crawled out from under my mother and climbed on top of her.
14:39I shouted,
14:40Mom! Mom!
14:42But she was dead.
14:47When I stroked her head with my hand,
14:49I found my hand sliding inside.
14:52I didn't know what hit my mother.
14:54But the back of her head was blown off.
15:04All of a sudden, a huge fireball slammed into my face.
15:09It was such a terrible shock.
15:11I looked down and I could see my eyeball hanging from a thread.
15:25I never knew it could be so big.
15:27It was as big as my fist, dangling from my face.
15:38The bullets from the planes were still raining down,
15:41but I couldn't take cover because of my eye dangling in the air.
15:45I begged,
15:53Please, Mom, pull off my eye so I can crawl under you.
15:58She couldn't reach me.
16:00She was so badly injured.
16:02So she told me to do it myself, and I tried.
16:07But for the life of me, I could not pull it off.
16:12All the people around me were dead.
16:15So again, I turned back to my mother for help.
16:19Mom, please, pluck my eyeball out.
16:22She said, No, I cannot.
16:28But I want to crawl under you, Mom, but I can't because of my eye.
16:37I couldn't believe how desperate I was to live.
16:52After the strafing and bombing, everything went quiet.
17:16After the strafing and bombing, everything went quiet.
17:22Then I saw the American soldiers reappear.
17:27They started checking through the dead and living,
17:29poking the bodies lying on the railway line with their bayonets.
17:38Those who were still alive were forced to get up at gunpoint,
17:42and the Americans herded us further down the railroad tracks.
17:45So those of us who survived the bombing were made to move on again.
17:56The survivors of the strafing, many of them badly wounded,
18:00were moved further down the railway line towards the village of Nogunri,
18:04directly beneath the guns of the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Cavalry.
18:08I kind of looked to the left of that hill where the railroad tracks came around,
18:14and I see all these people.
18:16And they looked like refugees.
18:19But there was a problem with that.
18:22They were in an organized manner, more like you'd look at a platoon of soldiers walking along.
18:34They were in a group, close together, not strung out,
18:40not like refugees would be walking down the side of a railroad track behind each other.
18:46They were in a group.
18:51They got about halfway down the railroad tracks.
18:56I said, what are we going to do?
18:58We can't let them just keep coming and coming.
19:00If his enemy soldiers are there, we're going to have a problem.
19:11In my memory, I know there were Korean interpreters
19:16using loudspeakers, telling them that we weren't going to allow them through our lines,
19:21and that they needed to disperse, but they didn't.
19:26What are we going to do?
19:27We can't let them keep coming.
19:29So we called a fire mission.
19:31All we did was fire like a warning shot across the bow.
19:36You know, stop, go back, disappear, do something.
19:39And you could hear the round pass overhead, and we were looking.
19:45All of a sudden, the round hit.
19:48And when it hit and exploded,
19:51of all things, it landed directly dead center of all these people.
19:59I mean, if you had hand carried it and placed it there,
20:04you couldn't have been more deadly accurate.
20:06And that round went off, among all them people that's packed tightly together.
20:16That alerted the infantry, the machine gunners, and the riflemen.
20:20Immediately, I imagine, their thoughts were enemy.
20:23And then the small arms fire started.
20:30The old man, yes, right down the line, he was running,
20:34kill them all.
20:36So what do you do?
20:37And of course, there was a lieutenant screaming,
20:41like a madman, to fire on everything.
20:43Fire on everything.
20:46Fire on everything.
20:48Kill them all.
20:49I shot two.
20:56Shot up at people.
20:59I don't know if they were soldiers or what.
21:01Kids, there was kids out there.
21:03It didn't matter what it was.
21:05880, blind, crippled, or crazy, they shot them.
21:12Didn't take aim to shoot.
21:13All we did was just fire a weapon.
21:15Wasn't like enjoying it.
21:17We were just doing it because we were scared and everything was just went crazy.
21:30It was a hell of a lot of fire going.
21:33A hell of a lot of shooting.
21:36A hell of a lot of shooting.
21:38We used to carry 10, 15 bandoliers of ammunition and even help machine gunners carrying ammunition.
21:50It was a hell of a lot of expenditure of ammunition.
21:53It was probably the first time a lot of the, if not all of them, had been okay to fire on people.
22:03And so the firing turned into a frenzy.
22:06What did this all was hard of Ryukyam?
22:07The firewall was built into a鉄 topic.
22:09It was a особ base.
22:10And it was located then around.
22:18His lamp marked to control someone.
22:18And he was able to get rid of that service.
22:20If the firewall was built right there all night, it always cierdas each other.
22:24The firewall needed to have an outside case.
22:25We were able to try to catch a distance with a camera body.
22:27The firewall created the same building.
22:29We were taken in the fire and the salvar.
22:31It was going to kill at the weekend.
22:32Hundreds of terrified refugees, those who survived the initial onslaught, ran into the railway tunnels of Nogunri.
22:49They were to remain there, under rifle and machine gun fire, for the next three days.
22:55The floor inside the tunnel was a mix of gravel and sand.
23:05People clawed with their bare hands to make holes to hide in.
23:10Other people piled up the dead, like a barricade, and hid behind the bodies as a shield against the bullets.
23:19Everybody just ceased moving. No one was moving over there.
23:28They either were dead or were so seriously wounded they couldn't move, or if they were alive, they weren't moving.
23:35Because if they move, they know there's going to be far that some more.
23:44A baby boy's mother was killed during the strafing on the rail track.
23:49The father managed to get the baby to the tunnels, but the boy was hungry and frightened.
23:56He cried and cried.
24:02And the American troops fired their guns into the tunnels whenever the boy cried.
24:07The bullets fired in the direction of the crying.
24:12People screamed that more would be shot if the baby kept crying.
24:15The father didn't know what to do.
24:17He might have thought the baby would die anyway.
24:21But he decided to silence it in order to save the others.
24:28He took the boy to the back of the tunnel and pushed him face down into a pool of water.
24:35I watched him doing that and thought,
24:37what could be more tragic than this?
24:40He said, how many people are coming up next to me?
24:43I vida was a miracle.
24:58He is a miracle from a virgin in the back of the night.
25:01He has done a great job.
25:02He has done a great job.
25:03He has done a great job.
25:04He is a miracle to the people that were buried in the middle of the day.
25:06We will have him becoming a miracle.
25:07He has done a great job.
25:07He was killed by the youth in the early days.
25:08He has done a great job.
25:09He is a great job.
25:10I clung to my mother and despite her pain and injuries, she hugged me tightly.
25:18I cried like mad.
25:20I was so scared of the dead bodies piled up inside the tunnels.
25:25I still have vivid memories of people crying and moaning because of the shooting.
25:30There were so many cries in the tunnel.
25:33I can still see bodies writhing in agony.
25:44The final death toll at Nogunri will never be known.
25:50181 victims have been reported.
25:54The Korean survivors believe as many as 400 may have been killed.
26:01Of those reported dead, more than three-quarters were women, children, or men over 40.
26:09One in four of the known dead were children under the age of 10.
26:26It took 50 years for the massacre at Nogunri to be made public.
26:31The killings raised serious questions about the conduct of US forces in Korea.
26:36Why were unarmed civilians shot?
26:38And who was ultimately responsible?
26:43A group of journalists working for the Associated Press began an investigation into Nogunri based
26:48on declassified documents and interviews with survivors and veterans.
26:53It was published in newspapers around the world in 1999.
26:55Until then, the Pentagon had dismissed the allegations of mass killings, claiming that
27:00the 7th Cavalry were not even in the area at the time.
27:06The AP journalists had to plot the positions of various army units on combat maps from the
27:11period in order to prove that the 7th Cavalry were present at Nogunri.
27:17The AP team were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for their investigative work.
27:21It's always very interesting as we've gone along to see how the documents in detail back
27:27up what the Korean villagers say about such things.
27:31Their report left America deeply shocked.
27:35In response, the Pentagon was directed to lead a thorough investigation.
27:40Its findings were published in January 2001.
27:44We have determined, however, that US soldiers killed or injured an unconfirmed number of Korean
27:49refugees in the last week of July of 1950 during a withdrawal under pressure in the vicinity
27:56of Nogunri.
27:58The Pentagon acknowledged that US forces did kill refugees at Nogunri, but the report carefully
28:04avoided admitting responsibility.
28:06It argued that refugees may have been strafed by US planes, but that these were not deliberate
28:11attacks, that based on available evidence, US commanders did not issue orders to shoot civilians
28:17in the vicinity of Nogunri, that the deaths were an unfortunate tragedy inherent to war and
28:23not deliberate killings.
28:29The Pentagon declined to be interviewed, but the official who oversaw the inquiry, now no
28:34longer working for the Pentagon, agreed to speak to us.
28:39From a command responsibility perspective, the investigation and the report that ensued felt that this was not an action that had been directed by
28:53higher command authority, that this was within the rules of engagement of people who thought
29:00that their lives were in danger and that they were responding to a threat.
29:06But documents found in the US National Archives contradict the Pentagon's findings.
29:13Just the day before the shootings began at Nogunri, Colonel Turner Rogers, the operations chief
29:20of the US 5th Air Force in Korea, sent a memo to his boss.
29:24Rogers wrote,
29:25The army has requested that we strafe all civilian refugee parties that are noted approaching our positions.
29:32Rogers then confirmed that the US Air Force had actually been attacking refugees at the request of the army.
29:39To date, we have complied with the army request in this respect.
29:44This key evidence was omitted from the Pentagon's report.
29:49Rogers argued that the shooting of refugees should not be indiscriminate.
29:53He recommended that 5th Air Force should not attack civilians unless...
29:57They are definitely known to contain North Korean soldiers or commit hostile acts.
30:06Despite his recommendations, there is no evidence that the policy was ever changed.
30:11The Pentagon's claim that the strafing of civilians was not deliberate is refuted by Pete McCloskey,
30:17former congressman, Korean War veteran, and a member of the Pentagon's official advisory panel,
30:22which oversaw the Nogunri investigation.
30:27The planes, particularly the jets, they couldn't tell who was down there,
30:30but they did have orders to strafe people in white approaching the position.
30:35The Valley Forge carrier, they unearthed a log that the Navy pilots were told to shoot
30:41any group of 8 or 10 civilians approaching the army position.
30:44Well, I don't think there's any question that the strafing occurred, and under orders.
30:52There was no question that that was the order that the Air Force was obeying from the army strafe the refugees.
31:00But did senior US commanders order the 7th Cavalry to shoot civilians at Nogunri?
31:06The Pentagon says that there is no evidence to prove that such orders were given to the 7th Cavalry.
31:12Other documents show that at the time, it was the policy of the 8th Army,
31:18the highest level of command in Korea, not to let civilians cross the lines.
31:24No, repeat, no refugees to cross battle lines at any time.
31:28Movement of all Koreans in groups will cease immediately.
31:32On the day the killings at Nogunri began, more explicit orders to shoot refugees were given by the general commanding the neighbouring division.
31:42All civilians moving around in combat zone will be considered as unfriendly and shot.
31:48The most telling written order was that received two days before Nogunri by the 8th Cavalry, Sister Regiment the 7th.
32:04Their radio log records an order from Division HQ, the same division to which the 7th Cavalry belonged,
32:10to shoot everyone trying to cross their lines.
32:13No refugees to cross the line. Fire everyone trying to cross lines. Use discretion in the case of women and children.
32:21The Pentagon's statement that no equivalent orders exist in the 7th Cavalry regimental records is, on the face of it, true.
32:36But what the Pentagon didn't say is that the 7th Cavalry's communications log,
32:41the one that might have contained evidence of such orders, has disappeared.
32:47What's extremely important to realize is that the single critical document that would have carried the orders to shoot the refugees at Nogunri,
32:56the 7th Cavalry regiment log, is missing from the National Archives, inexplicably.
33:03And not only is it missing, but the Pentagon report does not disclose the fact that it's missing.
33:11And yet this report declares that there were no orders at Nogunri.
33:16It declares that flatly, although it doesn't have the document that would prove that one way or the other.
33:25The investigators, as historical sleuths, so to speak,
33:30knew that they would probably not unearth every single document, even documents that had been retained.
33:40So I don't think it's fair to say that they should be acknowledging what they didn't find.
33:48I think you have to build your conclusions based upon what you could find.
33:55And on that basis, they did a very comprehensive job.
34:00I'm sure that people can assert that there are other documents out there that might say something.
34:07But that's absolute speculation.
34:09What do I know? Everybody knows the goddamn thing, what happened.
34:14The troops who were ordered to shoot the civilians? They shot them.
34:18Now you're going to court-martial the troops instead of the goddamn big shots.
34:23These were occupation troops, not really combat troops.
34:27It was the very first day of the war.
34:29They were in full retreat.
34:32Their awareness of the tactical situation was minimal.
34:36But that having been said, it can't excuse the deliberate targeting of civilians.
34:42The law of war, even in that day, in 1950, is simple.
34:46You cannot purposely target civilians.
34:50So were the civilian deaths at Nogunri simply an unfortunate tragedy, as the Pentagon concludes,
34:57or the result of a deliberate policy to target refugees?
35:01In the first months of the war, at least 14 other documents from high-ranking officers point to a widespread policy of treating South Korean refugees as the enemy.
35:12They go unreported in the Pentagon investigation.
35:16Shoot all refugees coming across the river.
35:19All refugees are fair game.
35:22Refugees will be considered enemy and dispersed by all available fire, including artillery.
35:29The abundance of documents testifying to U.S. Army commanders ordering their troops to shoot civilians may explain why so many alleged incidents have been registered with the South Korean authorities.
35:42It is clear that American troops and their commanders feared refugee columns were being used by the North Korean army to infiltrate American positions.
35:53But that doesn't explain the apparent indifference that senior U.S. officers showed towards the people in white.
36:01One week after the massacre at Nogunri, the 1st Cavalry Division had retreated across the Naktong River.
36:12Thousands of refugees fleeing the fighting were massing on the western banks, trying to cross.
36:18At dusk on the 3rd of August 1950, General Hobart Gay ordered the demolition of the bridge at Weigwon.
36:25Up in the air with the bridge went hundreds of refugees, General Gay recorded in his memoirs.
36:31North Korean enemy forces were not to reach the Naktong River for a further four days.
36:48Further down the river, on the same day, the bridge at Tukseong Dong was blown up as refugees were running across.
36:56Results excellent, the 14th combat engineers noted.
37:00But the civilian deaths were never reported.
37:07With the bridges blown, Korean civilians were desperate and began wading across the river.
37:17When we were halfway across the river, what looked like American soldiers began shooting at us.
37:22First my father, who was in front, was shot.
37:29Then my younger brother was hit.
37:33I hid behind our cow, holding its tail.
37:38As the shooting became heavier, I saw piles of dead bodies floating down the river like straw.
37:48I hid behind the river.
37:49I hid behind the river.
37:53South Korean civilians were even attacked when they were stationary, and not approaching American positions.
37:58Seeking safety from the battle for the port of Pohang in late August 1950, over a thousand civilians took refuge on a sheltered beach.
38:09In full view of US warships stationed off the coast, they remained there for several days.
38:13At 11 o'clock on the morning of September the 1st, 1950, the warships suddenly, and unexpectedly, opened fire.
38:24Of all the terrible images I remember the most, it's the moment my sister's head was blown off, and my mother lost one of her breasts.
38:38These two images have haunted me my entire life.
38:41A little baby from our family was also killed, but how could I possibly forget seeing my sister's head being blown off in front of my eyes?
39:11In just 40 minutes, it is thought that 400 people died on the beach.
39:29So many people were hit by shrapnel.
39:41So many were screaming and crying.
39:44The whole beach was full of mutilated bodies.
39:47Some people screamed, some collapsed, and others died instantly.
39:52The sound of the shells was so loud.
39:56The impact of the explosions, huge.
40:00The warships were really close.
40:09Over a million civilians died during the Korean War.
40:14How many deaths resulted from American attacks is unknown.
40:24But there is a great need among the survivors for their suffering to be recognised.
40:30This group of women from half a dozen villages were all victims of strafing by US aircraft.
40:37They meet to share their experiences.
40:39Many want compensation, but that seems unlikely.
40:42The American government says it will not investigate any of the remaining 60 reported incidents of US attacks on civilians.
40:49Hoping that the no-gun re-inquiry would draw a line under the issue.
40:55The American government, the Pentagon, don't want to see the truth come out if it will embarrass the government.
41:01I think it's almost a rule of political science, a law.
41:02The government will always lie about embarrassing matters.
41:03And when you're up in the Pentagon, you're up in the Pentagon, and you're up in the Pentagon, you're up in the Pentagon.
41:04The American government, the Pentagon, don't want to see the truth come out if it will embarrass the government.
41:13I think it's almost a rule of political science, a law.
41:26The government will always lie about embarrassing matters.
41:31And when you're up in the Pentagon, and full colonel, and have a chance to make general, and general with a chance to become chief of staff,
41:38there's as much politics as high in the Pentagon as there is in the halls of Congress.
41:42And I think the Army just chose to try to downplay the terrible character of Army leadership in 1950.
41:55This is a Pandora's box for the US government.
42:00It does seem that a decision was made that they had to close the door on no-gun re in order to close the door on God knows how many other cases.
42:09The investigating team was directed to investigate the no-gun re incident.
42:14Obviously, things that occurred after that were not subjected to the same degree of scrutiny by this investigative team,
42:25because it was not part of its challenge.
42:27On the eve of the publication of the first AP report, the no-gun re survivors committee discovered that South Korean authorities had plastered over the bullet holes inside the tunnel.
42:47When we saw the National Railroad plastered this tunnel up,
42:55we couldn't help thinking that there must be someone behind this cover-up.
43:00There must be hundreds of tunnels in Korea that are leaking.
43:04We're convinced they plastered it in order to cover it up.
43:07But the survivors will not forget.
43:17Their committee has campaigned for compensation since 1960, and they're not about to give up now.
43:23American investigators distorted and whitewashed the investigation.
43:36All the eyes of the world are looking to America to speak the truth about the events of no-gun re.
43:42They should not ignore the voices of weaker countries.
43:53I believe this attitude of the Americans should be known throughout the world.
43:59So the US changes its position and repents.
44:03The US government is very unlikely to repent.
44:11It has refused to apologize formally for the killings at no-gun re,
44:16or to offer compensation to the survivors.
44:21But the American foot soldiers of the 7th Cavalry cannot forget.
44:26They have to live with the memory of no-gun re every day of their lives.
44:33There's a little girl running down the tracks, which I thought I had killed.
44:39There's not a day goes by where it doesn't bother me.
44:47I dream of that little girl quite a bit.
44:55And that little girl, particularly, I'm holding by the hand.
44:58And I don't see her face, but I know it's her because her haircut is black,
45:03trimmed straight across from the bottom.
45:10And I wake up cold sweat, shaking, scared, and I won't go back to sleep.
45:15I'm scared the dream will come back on me.
45:17You can't forget.
45:21No matter how much you try, no matter how much medication you take, it's there.
45:26It just eats your life.
45:28And the older you get, the harder it is.
45:32We were in hell.
45:35And we only made it halfway back.
45:44Nobody knows.
45:45Nobody knows.
45:57If I could turn pages of time back, I would have never joined the service.
46:02I would have stayed home like a good little boy, learned to trade, settle down, and would have had all this to live with.
46:20But I can't.
46:21And you're right.
46:22I'd you like to try and keep a glimpse of the answer.
46:25I'm sorry.
46:28I can't.
46:30I don't think I can.
46:32I can't.
46:33You're right.
46:34I'm sorry.
46:36I can't.
46:38You're right.
46:40You're right.
46:43You're right.
46:45You're right.
46:46You're right.
46:48Which one of the most important things is to take place to sit on your side.
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