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Great Books is an hour-long documentary and biography program that aired on The Learning Channel. The series was a project co-created by Walter Cronkite and television producer Jonathan Ward under a deal they had with their company Cronkite Ward, The Discovery Channel, and The Learning Channel. Premiering on September 8, 1993, to coincide with International Literacy Day, the series took in-depth looks at some of literature's greatest fiction and nonfiction books, along with the authors who created them. Most of the narration was provided by Donald Sutherland.
Episodes feature insights from historians, scholars, novelists, artists, writers, and filmmakers who were directly influenced by the books showcased and discussed.
Sun-tzu's The Art of War, a treatise on war and strategy, and its impact on contemporary politics and business.
Episodes feature insights from historians, scholars, novelists, artists, writers, and filmmakers who were directly influenced by the books showcased and discussed.
Sun-tzu's The Art of War, a treatise on war and strategy, and its impact on contemporary politics and business.
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LearningTranscript
00:042,500 years ago, a Chinese military man named Sun wrote a 13-chapter, How-To Manual on War.
00:13It touches the political, the psychological, the material facts of armed conflict.
00:19It has shaped the way wars have been fought in Asia for thousands of years.
00:25Its starting point is this dark, plain reality that death cannot be reversed.
00:32Weapons, wrote Sunsa, are the instruments of misfortune.
00:36They should be used only when unavoidable.
00:40A government should not mobilize an army out of anger.
00:44Military leaders should not provoke war out of wrath.
00:49Anger can revert to joy.
00:53Wrath can revert to delight.
00:56But a nation destroyed cannot be restored to existence, and the dead cannot be restored to life.
01:17Sunsa Bingfa
01:23Sunsa Bingfa
01:23The Art of War
01:29The Art of War
01:30The Art of War
01:30The Art of War
01:33The Art of War
01:34The Art of War
01:36The Art of War
01:36The Art of War
01:36The Art of War
01:38The Art of War
01:42The Art of War
01:42The Art of War
01:44The Art of War
01:44The Art of War
01:44The Art of War
01:45The Art of War
01:45The Art of War
01:46The Art of War
01:47The Art of War
01:48The Art of War
01:49The Art of War
02:04War is a matter of vital importance to the state,
02:08the province of life or death,
02:10the road to survival or ruin.
02:12It is mandatory that it be studied thoroughly.
02:16Sun Tzu Chapter 1
02:18On the surface, it is a collection of simple instructions
02:22about how to win a war in China 2,500 years ago.
02:26Yet it is still available in all these English translations.
02:31Sun Tzu made his way to Hollywood in the 1980s,
02:34Oliver Stone lifted punchy lines for the movie Wall Street.
02:38All warfare is based on deception.
02:41Sun Tzu.
02:42If your enemy is superior, evade him.
02:46If angry, irritate him.
02:48If equally matched, fight.
02:50And if not, split, reevaluate.
02:55This is the kid.
02:57Calls me 59 days...
02:58Sun Tzu's tactics figure into bestsellers set in Hong Kong
03:01and techno thrillers about Japan.
03:03Their strategies have been adapted for computer games.
03:06This one pits him against an assortment of World War I warriors.
03:22In Japan, Sun Tzu comics are read on the subway.
03:26It's the rough equivalent of reading
03:28the illustrated adventures of Aristotle on the way to work.
03:32The phrases that have been a ten-year blip in American culture
03:35are ideas that have been woven through 2,500 years of life in Asia.
03:43At first glance,
03:45it seems like Western chess played with fewer pieces.
03:49But appearances are deceiving.
03:51The figures in Chinese chess move on the lines,
03:54not from square to square.
03:56Beneath the surface,
03:58there are remarkable differences in these two cultures.
04:01It goes right down to the very root of the society,
04:05the basic assumptions about relationships,
04:07the basic assumptions about life.
04:09They're so fundamental, we don't usually articulate them.
04:13To understand the effects of these differences,
04:16we need to understand the world in which Sun Tzu's art of war was born.
04:22770 B.C.
04:24The Chinese called this the Spring and Autumn Period.
04:28It was China's golden age,
04:30and it was moving into its decline.
04:34Battle was a gentlemanly pastime,
04:37quick,
04:37and played by the rules.
04:39When fighting season rolled around,
04:41small armies of aristocrats were driven to war
04:44in lacquered and gilded chariots.
04:50After the battle,
04:51the first order of business was sacrificed to the ancestors.
04:55A cow or a sheep,
04:57or sometimes a prisoner,
04:59was cooked in a sacrificial bronze cauldron
05:01and eaten in a ritual ceremony.
05:08Around 500 B.C.,
05:10battle ceased to be field sport.
05:13An example.
05:15The Viscount of Wu ordered 3,000 of his men
05:18to line up at the front of his formation.
05:21In full sight of the opposing army,
05:23the men committed suicide by cutting their own throats.
05:28The opposing army fled in terror.
05:31For the ancient states of Qi,
05:33Yan,
05:34Zhao,
05:35Han,
05:35Wei,
05:36Qin,
05:37and Chu,
05:38the Spring and Autumn Period
05:39turned into the era of the warring states.
05:42For the next two centuries,
05:44they killed one another by the hundreds of thousands.
05:47War went from being a family business
05:50to being an industry.
05:52There were now professional generals heading armies.
05:55Conscripts went to war on foot,
05:57swinging bronze halberts.
05:59Technology changed.
06:00Archers began to shoot their arrows and crossbows
06:03that could pierce a shield 600 feet away.
06:08Civil life followed the military life
06:10down the path of violence and brutality and excess.
06:14In the countryside,
06:16cutthroats and robbers waited in bands.
06:18Several thousand crimes were punishable
06:21by death or mutilation.
06:22Gastration,
06:24branding,
06:25slicing off the nose,
06:27chopping off the feet or toes,
06:29cutting leg tendons,
06:30and breaking kneecaps
06:31were common punishment.
06:34Safe inside the courts,
06:36there were well-equipped harems,
06:39dancing girls,
06:40expert chefs,
06:42musicians,
06:43and acrobats.
06:46Itinerant advice givers were also part of the entertainment.
06:52When we think of philosophers in our tradition,
06:55we think of people who are, by and large, irrelevant.
07:00You know, that the philosopher is a luxury.
07:03But in the Chinese tradition,
07:05these philosophers were going from state to state
07:08as potential coaches
07:11in a kind of tournament
07:13that certainly by the time of
07:16the beginning of the warring states,
07:18it became very clear to the Chinese rulers
07:20that to fail to win was to lose,
07:24big time.
07:25And we're talking destruction.
07:27What we think of as Chinese philosophy
07:30all originated during this period
07:32as a way to stop the violence.
07:35The Taoists turned to nature.
07:36Don't flail against the world, they said.
07:39Use it.
07:41Flexibility is the operative principle
07:43in the art of war.
07:45The legalists thought strict laws
07:48and swift and severe punishment
07:49would put the world in order.
07:52Confucius went from court to court,
07:54pitching a return to the basics,
07:56ordered human relationships,
07:58self-examination,
07:59high moral attitude,
08:00and the proper rights.
08:02No one was very interested at the time.
08:05Master Sun, too,
08:06was on the road selling his theory.
08:09Sun Tzu was born in the state of Qi.
08:11We know almost nothing of his personal life.
08:14Professionally, he was General Tzu,
08:16commander to the King of Wu.
08:18Tzu's job interview
08:20may be the most famous military story
08:22in Chinese history.
08:24His book, in a sense,
08:25is advertising his skills.
08:29He's saying to a king,
08:32war is a very, very serious business.
08:35It risks the existence of your state.
08:37Therefore, it must be undertaken
08:39only after great deliberation,
08:40and it must be waged with great skill.
08:42And then it goes on to explain
08:44that he is someone who is capable of that.
08:46The King of Wu read the art of war,
08:50then demanded proof.
08:52Make an army, he said,
08:54out of 180 court concubines.
08:56After careful instruction,
08:59Sun Tzu ordered the ladies to march left.
09:02The ladies giggled.
09:03He repeated the instruction,
09:05repeated the order.
09:06The ladies giggled.
09:08After the third round of instruction,
09:11order, giggled,
09:12Sun Tzu ignored the king's protests
09:15and beheaded two ladies.
09:17The remaining 178 marched left,
09:20precisely on cue.
09:22The king declined to watch the demonstration.
09:28And Sun Tzu then said to the king,
09:30it's very interesting.
09:31I mean, initially you see this
09:32as being a story about how discipline,
09:36how punishment can make an army.
09:39But as I think about it,
09:40I think it's really a story
09:41about Sun Tzu's idea
09:42of civil-military relations.
09:44Because he says to the king,
09:45I can tell from the way you've handled this
09:47that you are not serious.
09:50You say you want to have a great army.
09:51You say you want to do all these things.
09:53But you're not,
09:53you don't even understand
09:55what you're talking about.
09:56You don't understand what's involved.
09:58So what he's really doing
10:00by doing this is saying to the king,
10:01you don't understand
10:02what the stakes are in war.
10:04The Chinese provided well for their dead.
10:07And it is through these well-furnished tombs
10:10that we know what soldiers took to war
10:12and what citizens used
10:13in their day-to-day existence.
10:15Things like toiletry kits
10:18and a lot of bowls
10:22and instruments for eating.
10:25And if the person were a military person,
10:28then military techs would be included
10:31and weapons perhaps
10:32and other things that reflected
10:34what this person would want to take with them.
10:36Very often these things
10:37were very practical in nature.
10:39You had to live when you're dead.
10:42Engravings on bronzes found in the tombs
10:44tell who made them and why.
10:46This one was made by a son
10:48to honor his father.
10:49The son was a dentist.
10:54And the Chinese wrote books.
10:57Early books were characters
10:58written on bamboo strips
11:00tied together to form volumes.
11:01The Chinese appreciation of the written word
11:05is extraordinarily important.
11:09The notion of imperial libraries
11:11in the Chinese tradition
11:12passed on the wisdom of the tradition
11:16in terms of canonical texts,
11:19in terms of great books, if you will.
11:22In 1972, archaeologists
11:26found a decayed mass
11:27of 5,000 bamboo strips
11:29covered with characters
11:31in a Han dynasty tomb.
11:33Painstaking reconstruction
11:35led to a 2,100-year-old edition
11:38of the Art of War.
11:41Initially, they began
11:43as sort of a ball of black pulp.
11:45And this would be a photograph
11:47of the life-size bamboo strips
11:50on which the text is written.
11:51What this team of scholars
11:53has done then
11:54is to take
11:55the transcribed bamboo strips
11:57and put them together as a text.
11:59So we see this is the first chapter
12:01of the Sunzi.
12:02And we see that
12:03these two characters are missing.
12:05We can infer from the other text
12:08that this says Sunzi.
12:09Master Sun says,
12:14that war is a major undertaking
12:18of a state.
12:21That it must be taken very seriously,
12:24that we must investigate it thoroughly.
12:29The Art of War
12:30was memorized, copied,
12:34and handed down
12:35for hundreds of generations.
12:38The first European edition
12:40was published in France
12:41in 1772.
12:44And some say Napoleon
12:46studied Sunzi's Art of War.
12:59There are five ways
13:01to attack with fire.
13:03The first is to burn personnel.
13:05The second,
13:06to burn stores.
13:08The third,
13:09to burn equipment.
13:10The fourth,
13:12to burn arsenals.
13:13And the fifth,
13:15to use incendiary missiles.
13:17There are suitable times
13:19and appropriate days
13:20on which to raise fire.
13:23Times means when the day
13:24is scorching hot.
13:26Days means when the moon
13:28is in Sagittarius,
13:29Alpharet,
13:31Y,
13:31or Chen constellation.
13:33For these are the days
13:34of rising wind.
13:37Sunzi.
13:38Chapter 12.
13:42Delivery systems
13:43have been improved.
13:4420th century war
13:46is less labor-intensive.
13:50Technology has rendered
13:51the wait for a rising wind
13:54unnecessary.
13:56But soldiers and civilians
13:58in all cultures
13:59still die
14:01in the fires of war.
14:05Japanese atomic bomb survivors
14:07drew pictures
14:08and wrote what they remembered
14:10of the unforgettable fire.
14:12Master Unni,
14:13age 80.
14:17A first-year junior
14:18high school student
14:19asked me to give him
14:20some water.
14:22I heard that if people
14:23who had been exposed
14:24to the A-bomb
14:25drank water,
14:26they would die.
14:28The next day,
14:29when I passed by the place,
14:30he was lying dead
14:31on the ground.
14:33I wished then
14:34I would have let him
14:35drink water,
14:36even if he would have
14:37died sooner.
14:39I heard in the evening
14:40that my child
14:41had been calling
14:42Daddy,
14:43Mommy,
14:44that he had taken
14:45his last breath
14:46alone without seeing us.
14:48It is 29 years
14:50since my son died
14:51and his memory
14:51and the miserable image
14:53of the junior high school
14:54boy asking for water
14:55always haunts me.
14:59The consequence of war
15:00is a constant.
15:02The methods of waging war
15:04are not.
15:06Some argue that
15:07war is war is war.
15:09Others passionately
15:11and intellectually
15:12disagree.
15:14You've heard a lecture
15:15this morning
15:16by Professor Handel
15:17about Clausewitz.
15:18Clausewitz is usually
15:19taken as the exemplar
15:21of the Western approach
15:22to war.
15:23Now,
15:24I'm going to introduce
15:25you to Sun Tzu.
15:26Now,
15:27in Clausewitz,
15:29Book 1,
15:30Chapter 1,
15:31Section 2,
15:32where Clausewitz
15:33defines war,
15:35in two paragraphs
15:36you find
15:37this word
15:38gewalt,
15:39force,
15:39used eight times.
15:41The Chinese word
15:43li,
15:44which is
15:45roughly
15:46equivalent
15:46to force.
15:47And in the entire
15:49text of Sun Tzu,
15:51that word
15:51is used
15:52only nine times.
15:55The very definition
15:56of war
15:57is different.
15:58For General
15:59Carl von Clausewitz,
16:00a 19th century
16:01German military man,
16:03war was defined
16:03as use of force
16:04on the battlefield.
16:06Sun Tzu recognized
16:07war as a legitimate
16:08tool of statecraft,
16:10and force
16:11as a legitimate
16:11art of war,
16:13but too dangerous
16:14to be the method
16:15of choice.
16:21What's perhaps
16:22distinguishing
16:22about Sun Tzu
16:23is the way
16:25that he views
16:26conflict
16:27as a totality.
16:29He,
16:31the war,
16:33the conflict
16:34that he's talking
16:34about in this book
16:35includes all sorts
16:36of things
16:37which in the West
16:39would be considered
16:40to belong
16:40to the areas
16:41of politics,
16:42our diplomacy,
16:43or even
16:45peacetime.
16:47There have been
16:48three major
16:49military
16:50East meets West
16:51encounters
16:51in the last 60 years.
16:53In the 40s,
16:54we fought Japan
16:55in the Pacific.
16:56In the 50s,
16:57we fought in Korea.
16:58In the 60s
16:59and the 70s,
17:00we fought in Vietnam.
17:03In none of these
17:04encounters
17:05did the fighting
17:06stop when the
17:07shooting ended.
17:09War,
17:09in the Asian view,
17:11is not confined
17:12to the battlefield.
17:14War,
17:15trade,
17:16politics,
17:16or international relations,
17:18they were all tools,
17:20all part of the same game,
17:22all conducted
17:22under the same rules.
17:27When the enemy's envoy
17:29speaks in humble terms,
17:30but he continues
17:31his preparations,
17:32he will advance.
17:34Shun Fa,
17:35chapter 9.
17:39December 7th,
17:401941,
17:421 p.m.
17:45Japanese diplomatic
17:46representatives
17:47were scheduled
17:48to arrive
17:48at the U.S.
17:49State Department
17:49for yet another meeting
17:51on peace
17:52in the Pacific.
17:54Japanese military
17:55representatives
17:56began bombing runs
17:58over Pearl Harbor
17:59at approximately
17:59the same hour.
18:01The Japanese
18:02may have used
18:03Tsun Tzu's tactics,
18:04but they violated
18:06his basic strategy.
18:14Know your enemy,
18:17know yourself,
18:19and in 100 battles
18:21you will never be defeated.
18:22When you are ignorant
18:23of the enemy,
18:24but know yourself,
18:26your chances of winning
18:27or losing
18:28are equal.
18:29Sun Tzu chapter 3.
18:32Japan overestimated
18:34its military strength
18:35and knew far less
18:36about the American psyche
18:38than it imagined.
18:39There's no doubt
18:40about the sentiment
18:41of Congress.
18:44All differences
18:46have been laid aside.
19:09The attack on Hawaii
19:12neither awed
19:13nor demoralized Americans.
19:14They were chagrined
19:15and furious
19:16at being caught
19:17off guard
19:17by a tiny Asian country.
19:20Americans rallied
19:21around the flag.
19:26Men enlisted
19:27and women went to work
19:28doing jobs
19:29men left behind.
19:32Out of every eight people
19:33in America
19:34working full time
19:35for victory,
19:36one is a woman.
19:42Hollywood danced
19:43for the troops
19:45and sold bonds
19:46to civilians.
19:49To sell more bonds,
19:51Bing auctions
19:51a horseshoe
19:52worn by Seabiscuit.
19:54$2,250.
19:55This is really
19:56a handsome thing
19:57to have.
19:57You're getting this
19:58as a premium
19:58for a war bond
19:59for $2,250.
20:01So it's really
20:02a good purchase
20:03for anybody.
20:06Korea was a different
20:07kind of war.
20:091950,
20:10United Nations troops
20:11were in Korea
20:12to contain communism
20:13to keep an ideological
20:15blight from spreading
20:16out of Red China
20:17and North Korea
20:18into South Korea
20:19and the Free World.
20:21Western forces,
20:22fighting under
20:23the United Nations banner,
20:25were in trouble.
20:26The UN forces
20:28in Korea
20:29had been driven
20:30to a tiny perimeter
20:32around the port
20:32of Busan
20:33at the tip
20:34of the Korean peninsula
20:35and the question was
20:36how to reverse
20:37this potentially
20:37disastrous situation.
20:42The American general
20:43Douglas MacArthur
20:44proposed an audacious
20:45amphibious landing
20:46at Incheon,
20:48about halfway up
20:49the peninsula
20:49just across from Seoul.
20:56To be certain
20:58to take
20:58what you attack,
21:00attack a place
21:01the enemy
21:01does not protect.
21:03Sunsa Chapter 6
21:11Incheon is not
21:11a place
21:12that cries out
21:13for heavy guard.
21:14A ten-foot
21:15sea wall
21:16runs for hundreds
21:17of yards
21:17along the coast.
21:19Within a six-hour space,
21:21the tide ranges
21:22from a high
21:23of 32 feet
21:24to a low
21:25of 6 feet.
21:27A troop transport
21:28needs a minimum
21:29of 29 feet
21:30of water
21:30to stay afloat.
21:32When the tide
21:33is out,
21:34Incheon
21:35is a mudflap.
21:37In trial runs,
21:38soldiers were sucked
21:40into greasy muck
21:41up to their waists.
21:42There were three days
21:44when a landing
21:44was possible
21:45and three hours
21:47on each of those days.
21:49The American attack
21:50was not entirely
21:51a surprise.
21:53Mao Zedong
21:54protected
21:54the September 15th
21:55landing,
21:56but the North Koreans
21:57disregarded
21:58the possibility
21:59and MacArthur's attack
22:01was a stunning success.
22:03The communist
22:05September losses
22:05at Incheon
22:06were avenged
22:07by the Chinese
22:07the following November
22:09at the northern border
22:11where the Yalu River
22:11separates Korea
22:13from Manchuria.
22:18Subtle and insubstantial.
22:21The expert
22:22leaves no trace.
22:24Divinely mysterious,
22:25he is inaudible.
22:27Thus,
22:28he is the master
22:29of his enemy's fate.
22:31Sun Tzu
22:31Chapter 6
22:36Moving at night,
22:38hundreds of thousands
22:39of Chinese
22:39walked silently
22:41across the frozen
22:42Yalu River
22:42from China
22:43into North Korea.
22:46Dressed in white,
22:48they moved alongside
22:49and then behind
22:51the American forces.
22:52When the Americans
22:54were surrounded,
22:55the Chinese attacked.
22:57The result
22:59was the longest retreat
23:00in American history.
23:06The goal
23:07of a military
23:08operation
23:09should be
23:09is to move
23:10your opponent
23:11from a state
23:12of harmony,
23:14which is to say
23:15a state in which
23:15he can resist you
23:16and can think clearly
23:18and can make
23:19intelligent dispositions
23:21and whatnot,
23:21to a state
23:22where
23:23he becomes
23:25psychologically
23:26disorientated,
23:28where control
23:30breaks down,
23:31where people
23:31panic
23:32chaos
23:33in short.
23:35The American troops
23:36in Korea,
23:37some were retreating
23:37in good order
23:38and others
23:38were simply saying
23:39there were a whole
23:40lot of Chinese
23:40up there,
23:41we're going to bug out.
23:42And the word bug out
23:44in fact goes back
23:45to the Korean War.
23:46They were panic stricken.
23:47It's something
23:47that's very, very rarely
23:48seen in the American army.
23:50People who saw it
23:51remember it to this day.
24:02Vietnam.
24:04The view from Marble Mountain
24:06is beautiful
24:07on a hot December day.
24:09Standing on the top,
24:10you can see for miles,
24:13right down
24:14into what was
24:15the American airbase
24:16at Da Nang.
24:18For many young
24:19American soldiers,
24:21this was the first view
24:23of the exotic,
24:24unfamiliar land
24:25where they would die.
24:27Sun Tzu ultimately
24:28sees war
24:29as being a matter
24:30of deception
24:32and psychological
24:33dislocation
24:34and the attainment
24:36of psychological
24:37dominance.
24:38And what we tend
24:39to think of as war,
24:40namely fighting,
24:42destruction,
24:42sort of active coercion
24:44he sees as being
24:45a sort of,
24:47the sort of second rate
24:48or a less desirable
24:50form of war,
24:51an imperfect form of war.
24:52The essence of war
24:53has to do
24:55with achieving,
24:56with dislocating
24:58the enemy psychologically
24:59and then
25:01making him
25:02wax in your hands.
25:04In Vietnam,
25:06dislocation came
25:07with the territory.
25:10It was hot.
25:12It was wet.
25:14It was dark.
25:16The language
25:17was strange.
25:19And it was impossible
25:20to tell by looking
25:21who was a friend
25:23and who had just
25:24planted a mind
25:25to kill you.
25:29General Va Nguyen Giap
25:31was the leader
25:32of the North Vietnamese
25:33military forces.
25:35Together with Ho Chi Minh,
25:36he was a major architect
25:38of the victory
25:39over first the French
25:40and then the Americans
25:41in Vietnam.
25:44Soviet leaders
25:45asked me,
25:46the Americans
25:46have so many
25:48divisions of tanks
25:50and artillery
25:51and missiles
25:53and how many
25:55divisions have you got?
25:58General.
25:59And I answer,
26:01if we have
26:02the same calculations
26:04as you do,
26:06we cannot
26:07fight
26:08two arms.
26:10but we fight
26:11in the Vietnamese
26:12way
26:12and we
26:13with
26:14the ice
26:15came here
26:15with the rifles
26:16and I
26:18had my own
26:19way of
26:19receiving them.
26:25General William
26:26Westmoreland
26:27came of age
26:28in the American
26:28military tradition.
26:30His first exposure
26:31to the sights
26:32and sounds
26:32and smells
26:33of battle
26:33was fighting German General Erwin Rommel
26:36in North Africa during the Second World War.
26:39Every war is different.
26:41I mean, I've fought three wars.
26:45I went through seven campaigns during World War II,
26:48and you were fighting an orthodox enemy, the Germans,
26:51and initially the Italians.
26:54We were fighting the type of war that, say,
26:57the American army was trained to fight.
27:01And then we went to Korea,
27:04and we confronted the Chinese.
27:09And their strategy and their tactics
27:17was considerably different.
27:25Agitate him and ascertain the pattern of his movement.
27:30Determine his disposition,
27:32and so ascertain the field of battle.
27:35Probe him,
27:37and learn where his strength is abundant
27:39and where deficient.
27:41Sun Tsa, Chapter 6
27:47The Vietnamese looked for weaknesses
27:49and found them at the place on the map
27:51where Laos, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam
27:54share a common border.
27:56In January 1968,
27:59the North Vietnamese army
28:01became a full court press at Khe Sanh.
28:04American marines were at Khe Sanh
28:05to defend against infiltration
28:07and as a jumping-off point
28:09in the case of operations in Laos.
28:12Americans were committed to defending Khe Sanh.
28:17At that time,
28:20revolutionarily,
28:21our force was quite weak.
28:24We used the time
28:26to get stronger.
28:29The longer the war lasted,
28:32the more casualties and deaths.
28:35It was very difficult.
28:36We had to sometimes eat
28:40the leaves in the jungle.
28:43But step by step,
28:47we succeeded.
28:53Khe Sanh was the beginning.
28:56On the nights of January 30th and 31st,
28:59the Vietnamese forces found other weaknesses.
29:02Taking advantage of the Tet holiday,
29:05they attacked Saigon,
29:07Quang Tri,
29:09Hue,
29:10Da Nang,
29:12Nha Trang,
29:13Quynh Nhan,
29:14Compton City,
29:16Ban Mê Thuat,
29:17Dalat,
29:19Phan Thuat,
29:20Mì Thu,
29:21Cante,
29:22and Ben Chê.
29:25The fighting was prolonged
29:27and bloody in Saigon.
29:29And it may have been humiliating
29:31to have the Viet Cong troops
29:33in the American embassy compound,
29:35but the real damage,
29:37the physical damage,
29:39the psychological damage,
29:41was done in Hue.
29:45The Viet Cong took the forbidden city
29:48and the citadel.
29:50American and South Vietnamese military forces
29:52were unable to drive out
29:54the communist troops.
29:56And in the end,
29:58the Americans bombed the grounds
30:00until what was once a city of the emperor
30:04ceased to exist.
30:09Across the river
30:10in the residential section of Hue,
30:13mass murders
30:14and other atrocities
30:15by the Viet Cong
30:16convincingly demonstrated
30:17that the Americans
30:19could provide
30:19no safe haven.
30:21No one,
30:22not those in the countryside,
30:24not those in the pacified hamlets,
30:27not those in South Vietnamese cities
30:28could be protected
30:29if the Viet Cong
30:31chose to attack.
30:33The Tet Offensive
30:34created thousands of refugees,
30:36refugees whom the
30:38South Vietnamese government
30:39had to feed and house.
30:41Heartbreaking refugees,
30:43casualties of war,
30:44were featured nightly
30:46on the network news.
30:48By the end of February,
30:50Americans had captured
30:516,000 Vietnamese
30:52and the U.S. military
30:53estimated 37,000
30:55North Vietnamese dead.
30:57They were prone
30:57to accept major casualties
31:00where they would move
31:03into action
31:05against odds,
31:06strongly against them.
31:09And casualties
31:10did not seem
31:11to be as meaningful
31:12to them
31:13as it seemed
31:16with respect
31:17to a fight
31:18with the Germans.
31:22And I would say
31:23the same would apply
31:26the Japanese
31:30were also
31:31during World War II.
31:35The Japanese
31:36being a part
31:36of the Oriental Society
31:38seemed to be
31:39more callous
31:41to casualties
31:45than the Germans
31:47or the Western Society.
31:53The North Vietnamese
31:55had taken
31:55a high number
31:56of casualties.
31:58But in exchange
31:59for their losses,
32:00they learned
32:01that the American public
32:02was unwilling
32:03to tolerate
32:04a large number
32:05of dead.
32:06I think in war
32:07after war,
32:07you find that
32:08the turning point
32:09is not a sort of
32:09physical turning point.
32:11Rather,
32:11it's a psychological
32:12turning point.
32:13A decisive battle
32:14is one that people
32:14think is decisive.
32:15Sun Tzu's identification
32:17of the creation
32:19of chaos
32:19and disorder
32:20in the hearts
32:21and minds
32:22of the enemy
32:22is very,
32:23very useful
32:24from the point
32:25of view
32:25of understanding
32:26how military operations
32:27really work,
32:28how wars
32:28are really resolved.
32:32When he is united,
32:34divide him.
32:36Sun Tzu chapter one.
32:44We never have
32:46a purely
32:46military strategy,
32:48only overall
32:50strategy
32:51involving
32:52the economy,
32:54politics,
32:55diplomacy,
32:56military.
32:57There was no land
32:58to take,
32:58so the American military
33:00measured success
33:00in numbers.
33:01Number of attacks,
33:02number of prisoners,
33:03number of dead.
33:04I record a number
33:05of meaningful statistics,
33:06such as the roads
33:08that are being opened,
33:10increasing number
33:11of enemy
33:11that have been killed,
33:13the number
33:14of defectors
33:15that are coming in
33:16from the communist side
33:17to the government,
33:19the number of weapons
33:20being captured,
33:22and other
33:23statistical information
33:25which suggests
33:26that we are
33:27making progress
33:28and we are winning.
33:29We are pleased
33:30with the results
33:31that we're getting.
33:32We are inflicting
33:35greater losses
33:35than we're taking.
33:42The American public
33:44measured failure
33:44with the same numbers.
33:46Now there are
33:47finite limits
33:48to the destruction
33:49Vietnam can absorb.
33:50There are only
33:51so many buildings
33:52and so many people,
33:53and too many
33:54of the buildings
33:55now lie in rubble
33:55and far too many
33:56of the people
33:57lie dead.
33:58Laying aside
33:59all other arguments,
34:00and there are
34:01a great many more,
34:02the time is at hand
34:03when we must decide
34:04whether it's futile
34:05to destroy Vietnam
34:07in the effort
34:08to save it.
34:10Unlike World War II,
34:12Americans did not
34:13rally around the flag.
34:15There were no lines
34:16of young men
34:17clamoring to do
34:18their part.
34:20In this war,
34:22Hollywood was on
34:23the other side.
34:24At the 1975
34:25Academy Awards,
34:27winners of Best Documentary
34:29read a telegram
34:29of congratulations
34:30from the North
34:31Vietnamese.
34:32Jane Fonda
34:33went to Hanoi.
34:35The country
34:36was divided.
34:38Policy was being made
34:39in the streets
34:39and at the ballot box.
34:42In Chicago,
34:42at the Democratic
34:43National Convention,
34:45police battle
34:46demonstrated.
34:47A president
34:48was forced
34:48out of politics.
34:49I shall not
34:50seek,
34:52and I will
34:53not accept
34:55the nomination
34:56of my party
34:57for another term
34:58as your president.
35:00In Ohio,
35:01four young people
35:02were killed
35:02in a bloody battle
35:03between students
35:04and the National Guard.
35:06Unlike their fathers
35:08in World War II,
35:09thousands of draft-age men
35:11refused to disrupt
35:12their lives
35:12to fight a war.
35:14In our democracy,
35:15to get anything done
35:17that is costly
35:18in lives
35:19or money
35:21requires a support
35:23by a majority
35:24of the people.
35:29He whose ranks
35:30are united in purpose
35:31will be victorious.
35:33Sunsa, Chapter 3.
35:40Our aim
35:42was not
35:42to annihilate
35:44the whole
35:45American army.
35:48Our strategy
35:48was to
35:50inflict
35:51defeats,
35:53political
35:53and military
35:54defeats,
35:55on the
35:56Americans,
35:57so they had
35:58to withdraw
35:59the forces.
36:01During the whole
36:02course of the war,
36:03we never lost
36:06a battle
36:06of any consequence.
36:07We probably
36:09lost a few
36:09small skirmishes,
36:10but that was
36:12about it.
36:15Jump was
36:16a very talented
36:16man,
36:17and with,
36:18I would say,
36:19limited resources,
36:21limited to hours,
36:22he did an amazing
36:23job.
36:25But he didn't win
36:26on the battlefield.
36:42On April 30th,
36:441975,
36:46the last American
36:47flight left
36:48Vietnam.
36:53The West
36:54divides the world
36:55into categories.
36:57There is business,
36:58there is philosophy,
37:00there is literature,
37:01there is religion,
37:02there is order
37:03and sequence,
37:04a way to take
37:05things apart,
37:07to isolate them.
37:09The East
37:10has a different
37:11sense of reality.
37:14The Chinese people
37:16are much more
37:17sensitive
37:18to abstract reality.
37:21What you learn
37:21from spirituality,
37:22what you learn
37:23from philosophy,
37:24what you learn
37:24from business
37:25or your family
37:25relationship
37:26are all
37:27interchangeable.
37:28Let's go forward.
37:30Let me show you
37:31the...
37:31The original philosophy
37:33comes from the
37:34Chinese watching nature.
37:36How does nature work?
37:37How does God work?
37:39So once you watch that
37:41and know how
37:41the rhythm
37:42of the universe,
37:43and you take that
37:44and take it
37:46into your business,
37:47that's why
37:47it's so portable.
37:49The Sun Tzu's
37:50Art of War
37:50can easily
37:51take it to the
37:53business world.
37:55For centuries,
37:56soldiers have used
37:57the tactics
37:57in the art of war.
37:59They reflect the
38:00conditions of armed combat.
38:02For centuries,
38:03Asians have used
38:04the strategies
38:04in the art of war.
38:06They reflect
38:07an Asian view
38:07of life.
38:08But in the 1980s,
38:10Sun Tzu's philosophy
38:11moved outside Asia,
38:13outside the military,
38:15to Wall Street.
38:16The book about war
38:18applies to business
38:19because the objective
38:22in both cases
38:23is very specific.
38:25The objective
38:26in both cases
38:27is about winning,
38:29and the objective
38:30is also about winning
38:31with as little effort,
38:32using as little time,
38:35and with as much reward
38:37as possible.
38:41Plunder the fertile countryside
38:42to supply the army
38:43with plentiful provisions.
38:45Sun Tzu, chapter 7.
38:48In the 80s,
38:49Asher Edelman
38:50was a corporate raider,
38:51a new breed of Wall Streeter,
38:53who followed
38:53Sun Tzu's advice.
38:54He taught the art
38:55of corporate raiding
38:56at the Columbia
38:57Business School.
38:58A raider uses
38:59the value of a company
39:00he doesn't yet own
39:01to buy it.
39:02Once he owns it,
39:03he can sell it off
39:04piece by piece
39:05and make a great deal
39:06of money in the process.
39:07My view then,
39:08and it was an honest view,
39:09was that people
39:11who did what I did,
39:12which was to acquire
39:12companies and try to
39:13change them
39:14to being more efficient
39:15and better,
39:17did something
39:17quite constructive.
39:19My view,
39:20starting in about
39:211987, 1988,
39:22was that it was
39:24a simple financial
39:25transaction,
39:26and though it was
39:27quite constructive
39:28for those who did
39:28the transactions,
39:30and sometimes
39:31constructive financially
39:32to those on the other
39:34side of the transactions,
39:37my view is it didn't
39:39do much good
39:39for the companies.
39:42Oliver Stone's
39:43Sun Tzu on Wall Street
39:45was a stylish sleaze
39:46named Gordon Gekko.
39:48I don't throw darts
39:49at a board.
39:51I bet on sure things.
39:54Read Sun Tzu,
39:55the art of war.
39:56Every battle is won
39:58before it's ever fought.
40:01Think about it.
40:03Time magazine said
40:04Edelman was a role model
40:06for the fiendishly greedy
40:08Gekko.
40:09There were newspaper articles
40:11and publicity of various kinds
40:14that if I were really alone
40:15in the world
40:16wouldn't have troubled me
40:17at all,
40:17but the fact that my wife,
40:19my kids, my mother,
40:20and other people
40:21who cared about me
40:22were reading
40:22did trouble me.
40:24Today, Edelman mixes
40:25his business interests
40:26with directing
40:27the Contemporary Art Museum
40:29in Lausanne, Switzerland.
40:31Edelman may have found
40:32Sun Tzu useful,
40:33even profound,
40:34but he remains
40:36a Westerner
40:36who divides the world
40:37into categories
40:38and comes to it
40:40as an individual.
40:41It translates easily
40:43into certain kinds
40:44of activities
40:45in the Western world.
40:49I don't think
40:50it translates at all
40:51into Western philosophy.
40:53I think that the first translation
40:55that I see
40:56into Western thought
40:59comes from Freud.
41:01The ability to operate
41:03in the world
41:05through the understanding
41:06of oneself
41:07is probably the most
41:09poignant point
41:09in Sun Tzu.
41:11That is all Freud is about.
41:15While the Westerner
41:16is sealing the world
41:17into watertight compartments,
41:19the Easterner
41:20takes a more
41:21holistic view,
41:22and that is a continuing
41:23source of tension
41:24in business
41:25and diplomatic relations.
41:26The trick of any game
41:27is to have everybody
41:28playing by the same rules,
41:30and the real injuries
41:31occur when one party
41:32is playing by one set
41:33of rules
41:33and the other
41:34is by the other set
41:35of rules.
41:36The important thing
41:36is just that we're all
41:37in the same field
41:38at the same time.
41:40In the art of war,
41:41he speaks a great deal
41:42about knowing the terrain.
41:43Knowing the physical terrain
41:45or the economic terrain
41:46or the business terrain
41:47is really critical
41:48to any kind of business
41:49or personal victory.
41:52The terrain in the East
41:53also includes the mind
41:55and the emotions.
41:57Mind game
41:58is the most important thing
42:00to the Asian,
42:01and business
42:02is about mind game.
42:04Politics
42:04is about mind game.
42:11All warfare
42:12is based on deception.
42:14Therefore,
42:14when capable,
42:15feign in capacity.
42:16When active,
42:17inactivity.
42:18Sunsa chapter one.
42:20In the West,
42:21rising in the world
42:22depends on what you know.
42:24If you've got it,
42:25flaunt it.
42:25Works well here.
42:26But pride
42:27can make you vulnerable.
42:28As a matter of fact,
42:29this is a true story.
42:30See,
42:30the Japanese technicians
42:31will come to the floor
42:32and ask very innocent questions.
42:35Something very,
42:35very simple.
42:36And you will not even suspect
42:38what their intention is.
42:40And then,
42:41you get the engineer,
42:42American engineer,
42:43get them to talk.
42:44And eventually,
42:45they will slip in
42:46some essential point
42:47they really need to know.
42:49And you know,
42:50normally,
42:50the American engineer,
42:51nobody ever asks them
42:53how much they know.
42:54And they love to brag.
42:56And soon,
42:57somebody else wants to ask them
42:58about how much they know.
42:59They love to tell
43:00all about how much they know.
43:02And they gave it away
43:03for nothing.
43:05To Westerners,
43:06pretending ignorance
43:07to collect information
43:08seems unfair.
43:10A kind of cheating.
43:12To an Easterner,
43:14that attitude seems naive.
43:16It's get back to the basic.
43:19Know thyself,
43:20know thy opponents.
43:21Hundred battles,
43:22hundred victories,
43:23and Chinese do practice that.
43:24Espionage is the way
43:26to get information.
43:27Sun Tzu is talking about
43:28pay your spies well.
43:31Because one good spy
43:33is better than millions
43:35of good soldiers.
43:36But what Sun Tzu is talking about
43:38is a deep psychological
43:40understanding of another.
43:42Empathy,
43:43as much as espionage.
43:44It's not the kind
43:45of information
43:46that depends on
43:47electronic eavesdropping equipment.
43:49After the fall of Saigon,
43:51I went to Saigon,
43:53and I saw
43:54the operational
43:56section
43:57of the American
43:58armed forces there.
44:00I saw a lot of
44:01modern military equipment
44:03and electronic weapons
44:05and so on.
44:06And I said to myself,
44:08they have their own logic
44:10because they own
44:11a lot of modern,
44:14state-of-the-art
44:15military technology.
44:17And that logic
44:18is fundamentally incorrect.
44:21We have the human factor
44:23and it's the decisive factor.
44:26It's like Sun Tzu said,
44:28know the enemy,
44:30know yourself,
44:31and you will
44:34win
44:34one hundred battles.
44:39That maxim
44:40from Chapter 3
44:41of the Art of War
44:42is set in a marble block
44:44in the central courtyard
44:45of the Sun Tzu Museum.
44:49Though the museum itself
44:51seems to be designed
44:52for the tourist trade,
44:54Westerners are as likely
44:55to come away
44:56with psychological insight
44:57as with those
44:59gift shop knick-knacks.
45:07Should someone ask me
45:08how do I cope
45:09with a well-ordered enemy
45:10about to attack me,
45:12I reply,
45:13seize something
45:14he cherishes
45:15and he will conform
45:17to your desires.
45:19Sun Tzu Chapter 11
45:21What he cherishes
45:22may be entirely invisible
45:24and without value
45:25to others.
45:26Like pride,
45:28impatience can be
45:29the psychological equivalent
45:30of bearing the throat.
45:32Chinese feel
45:33time is eternal.
45:35Time has no value.
45:37Things, material,
45:38has a price.
45:40Time is free.
45:41So Chinese always
45:42have that going for them,
45:44is that they can wait
45:45and see,
45:46and they can change
45:48and wait.
45:50American executors
45:51always say,
45:52give me the strategies.
45:53One, two, three steps.
45:55Three steps tell me
45:56how to deal
45:56with the Chinese.
45:57Three steps I can use
45:59very effectively.
46:00And it's really,
46:01really difficult.
46:02I think it's a lazy way
46:03to get the job done.
46:10In an Asian culture,
46:12a Confucian culture,
46:13who you are
46:15depends on what you are.
46:16Wife, mother,
46:18son, friend, teacher.
46:20You are what your role
46:21says you are.
46:22There is simply no
46:23Eastern counterpart
46:24to Western individualism.
46:26The idea of
46:27you as an individual person
46:30pursuing what you
46:31yourself
46:31want for yourself
46:34in the Confucian tradition
46:36would be almost
46:37pathological
46:38to act without
46:40reference to
46:41the web
46:43of people
46:44who constitute
46:45yourself.
46:45It would alienate you
46:47from your community
46:48and from yourself.
46:49You have a morality
46:50that is effective
46:53within that group,
46:55but you don't have
46:56either the obligation
46:57or necessarily
46:58the desire
46:59to extend it
47:00beyond that group.
47:02If the East
47:03is shaped
47:03by relationships,
47:05the West
47:05is shaped
47:06by law.
47:07In Western law,
47:09justice,
47:09to be justice,
47:10must be blind
47:11to existing
47:12relationships
47:12and ties.
47:13And this is things
47:14Americans
47:15have no concept of
47:17because Americans
47:18look at the law.
47:19We live
47:20from an
47:21orderly society.
47:23What is right
47:23is right,
47:24what is wrong
47:24is wrong.
47:25In China,
47:26everything is gray.
47:28Right and wrong
47:28is a different
47:29degree of greatness.
47:31It's not about
47:32black and white.
47:33The Chinese society
47:34sacrificed the small
47:35for the large.
47:36In the Chinese history,
47:38there's a story.
47:40A city was under attack.
47:43It was so strategically
47:43important.
47:44So the emperor
47:45ordered to hold
47:46this city at all cost.
47:48And when after
47:48they finished eating
47:49all the rats,
47:51all the trees,
47:52all the leaves,
47:52all the roots,
47:53they started
47:54to exchange babies.
47:55So I'll give you
47:56my baby so you can
47:57slaughter my baby
47:58and cook it,
47:59et cetera.
48:00And the Chinese
48:01feel this is the
48:01right way to do it.
48:03Survival of a greater
48:04unit is more
48:05important than
48:05survival of a
48:06small unit.
48:08So when you're
48:08talking about
48:09good and bad,
48:10there's really
48:10a different culture,
48:11there's a different
48:12way to label
48:14what good is about.
48:16How you judge
48:17the morality
48:18of this story
48:18depends almost
48:19entirely on which
48:20side of the
48:21cultural divide
48:22you are.
48:23Westerners may find
48:24in it an appalling
48:25disregard for life.
48:27Easterners may find
48:28in it a great
48:29sacrifice.
48:30Failure to understand
48:31the way the other
48:32comes to that
48:33judgment makes the
48:34modern world a
48:35difficult place to
48:36live in.
48:37My own feeling is
48:38that we in the
48:38United States do
48:39not yet grasp how
48:41very, very important
48:42it is for us to
48:43understand, genuinely
48:44to understand the
48:45rest of the world.
48:46And I don't say this
48:47because I think we're
48:48going to have to
48:48fight in the rest of
48:50the world, although
48:51there is that
48:52possibility, but
48:53because I think that
48:54only with that kind
48:55of understanding and
48:56detail and ability
48:58to operate in
48:59cultural systems
49:00that are different
49:00from our own, can
49:01we avoid conflict?
49:04Weapons, wrote
49:05Sun Tsa, are the
49:06instruments of
49:07misfortune.
49:08They should be used
49:10only when unavoidable.
49:12Anger can revert to
49:13joy.
49:14Wrath can revert to
49:16delight.
49:17But a nation
49:18destroyed cannot be
49:19restored to existence
49:20and the dead
49:22cannot be restored
49:24to life.
49:35You know,
49:54we must all
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