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00:00Thank you very much.
00:45Thank you very much.
01:11Thank you very much.
01:18Thank you very much.
01:50The South Vietnamese army, backed by American air power, repelled the North's first onslaught.
02:00Over North Vietnam, the heaviest airstrikes of the war came close to bringing the country
02:05to its knees.
02:07But the North's second great offensive proved unstoppable.
02:24The American strategy had been to arm and train the South Vietnamese to defend themselves.
02:29American combat troops had gone.
02:35For South Vietnam, the result was catastrophe.
02:38In a fierce campaign lasting four months, North Vietnamese tanks smashed their way to the gates
02:44of Saigon.
03:12Hanoi's strategy for 1969.
03:15The plan was to keep up the pressure in South Vietnam.
03:17While negotiations were going on in Paris, they meant to improve their position on the battlefield.
03:34Half a million American troops were now deployed in the South.
03:37In February 1969, in an echo of the Tet Offensive the previous year, their bases were the targets of a
03:44major Viet Cong offensive.
03:471,140 Americans died.
03:53The newly inaugurated president, Richard Nixon, and his national security advisor, Henry Kissinger, immediately ordered retaliation.
04:03American B-52 bombers dropped half a million tons of bombs on Viet Cong base areas along the Vietnam-Cambodia
04:10border in a secret campaign codenamed MENU.
04:14Congress was not informed, and the flight logs and target destinations were falsified to hide the fact that the bombs
04:20were falling on Cambodia, a neutral country.
04:23At the same time, U.S. and South Vietnamese troops began to advance towards the Cambodian border.
04:45The Viet Cong offensive of spring 1969 had been launched by four divisions made up mostly of North Vietnamese Army
04:53units.
04:59After bitter fighting, the NVA battalions pulled back.
05:09Only local NLF battalions were left behind, and those were ordered to break down into smaller groups.
05:21In turn, big American units were also broken down and spread out over a wider area of countryside.
05:33Increasingly, American forces were paired with the South Vietnamese Army for operations in the most heavily populated areas of South
05:40Vietnam.
05:48In April 1969, a gruesome benchmark was reached which added to the pressure for Vietnamization.
05:56U.S. combat deaths surpassed the 33,629 men killed throughout the Korean War.
06:04Increasingly, the U.S. felt that the South Vietnamese Army would take control of the war for themselves.
06:13The American plan was to help the South Vietnamese government regain control over vast areas of the countryside.
06:20The populated areas were swamped with patrols, trying to find an increasingly elusive enemy.
06:27Often the aim was to draw the Viet Cong into attacking a small unit and then hit back with massive
06:32airstrikes and attacks by helicopter gunships.
06:36The new kind of war being fought in and around the villages was enormously destructive.
06:41American firepower caused heavy civilian casualties and widespread damage.
06:49For the NLF guerrillas, the second half of 1969 was a nightmarish ordeal.
06:54In less than two years, their casualties had been more than 70% in many areas.
07:00Food was desperately short as support from the villages faded away and American patrols interfered with supplies.
07:16Meanwhile, the Phoenix program, a campaign run by the American Central Intelligence Agency and staffed by American and South Vietnamese
07:24soldiers,
07:25killed up to 40,000 people suspected of being NLF sympathizers.
07:32Thousands more were tortured and imprisoned.
07:35In that year, desertions from the NLF and NVA were over 28,000.
07:41However, morale in the South Vietnamese Army was no better with the number of desertions reaching almost 110,000.
07:51While South Vietnamese government forces fought to wrest control of the villages from the NLF,
07:57American planners turned their attention to Cambodia.
08:00Already, the secret bombing campaign ordered by the American President Richard Nixon was well underway.
08:08Up to now, American ground forces had been banned from mounting operations into Cambodia.
08:13The country was legally neutral and its leader since the 1950s, the flamboyant Prince Sihanouk, had played both sides.
08:20Sometimes an ally of the Americans, he also allowed the NVA to route the southern part of the Ho Chi
08:26Minh Trail through his kingdom and maintain their base areas along the heavily jungled eastern border with Vietnam.
08:35Then, in March 1970, there was a CIA-backed coup to oust Sihanouk.
08:40The new government, led by Lan Nao, immediately moved to eject all Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops from Cambodian
08:47soil.
08:48Operations by the Americans and the South Vietnamese would follow.
08:59The Viet Cong base areas inside Cambodia were attacked from the west by the Royal Cambodian Army.
09:09North Vietnam quickly diverted army units to defend them.
09:18And with the help of the Cambodian guerrillas, the Khmer Rouge, they halted the Cambodian government advance.
09:31Meanwhile, the Americans and the South Vietnamese had deployed powerful forces on their side of the border.
09:43On April 29, 1970, South Vietnamese troops attacked into Cambodia, pushing towards the Viet Cong bases.
09:55Two days later, the U.S. force of 30,000, including elements of three U.S. divisions, mounted a second
10:02attack.
10:05The next target was a base area in the Sesam Valley.
10:08Soon after, more assaults were mounted further south.
10:33Operations in Cambodia lasted for 60 days.
10:36American and South Vietnamese troops uncovered vast jungle supply depots.
10:41They captured 28,500 weapons, as well as over 16 million rounds of small arms ammunition and 14 million pounds
10:50of rice.
10:57Although most Viet Cong troops had managed to escape across the Mekong, there were over 10,000 NVA and NLF
11:04casualties.
11:08However, when the South Vietnamese commander was killed in a helicopter crash, his forces withdrew.
11:18When news of the Cambodian incursion broke in the United States, there was public outcry.
11:24Many believed that in spite of President Nixon's promises to get out of Vietnam, he meant to expand the war.
11:37Protests erupted at universities all over the country.
11:41On May 4, 1970, at Kent State University in Ohio, National Guardsmen shot four students dead.
12:00The deep divisions about the U.S. role in Southeast Asia were having a powerful effect on American troops in
12:06Vietnam.
12:08Opinions about the war were divided, sometimes bitterly, as they were at home.
12:12Added to the conflict were growing tensions between the races and between social classes.
12:18It was a volatile and sometimes dangerous mix.
12:37By now, there were few career sergeants and officers still to serve their tours in Vietnam.
12:52Much of the burden of maintaining discipline was falling on newly promoted and often inexperienced leaders.
13:01Between 1969 and 1971, the U.S. Army would record more than 700 attacks by troops on their officers.
13:1083 officers were killed and almost 650 were injured.
13:15Many attacks were by fragmentation grenades rolled into the victim's tent, a practice known as fragging.
13:24The whole discipline problem was aggravated by widespread drug abuse.
13:33In 1971, fewer than 5,000 soldiers needed hospital treatment for combat wounds, but more than 20,500 were treated
13:42for serious drug abuse.
13:51By this time, it was plain to most soldiers that the United States would pull out of Vietnam.
13:57100,000 troops had been withdrawn and Nixon had promised another 150,000 would leave within a year.
14:04No one wanted to be the last American soldier to die in Southeast Asia.
14:20By the end of 1970, North Vietnam had replaced many of the losses suffered in the fighting of the previous
14:26year.
14:27Their leaders were intent on launching a new campaign and floods of men and supplies were being sent down the
14:33Ho Chi Minh Trail through Laos and Cambodia to South Vietnam.
14:43The buildup was soon detected by the Americans.
14:46U.S. commanders begged for permission to attack into Laos and once and for all destroy the supply lines down
14:52the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
14:58Their hopes were quickly dashed.
15:00The U.S. Congress banned any American ground operations beyond the borders of South Vietnam.
15:14This time, Saigon's forces would have to go it alone.
15:18If successful, the administration argued, they would gain two years in which to build the South Vietnamese Army.
15:33The South Vietnamese attack into Laos was codenamed Operation Lam San 719.
15:43The offensive opened with the U.S. Army's 24th Corps clearing Route 9 to Khe Sanh.
15:54On February 8th, 1971, three South Vietnamese Army divisions, about 17,000 men, supported by armor and a ranger group,
16:03attacked across the border.
16:05However, they were advancing into an NVA trap, carefully planned and with well-coordinated defenses.
16:14The targets were two major North Vietnamese Army bases, known as 611 and 604.
16:24They were defended by over 40,000 combat troops.
16:32The South Vietnamese had established a series of fire bases to protect their flanks.
16:38The NVA launched fierce counterattacks against these bases and the main advance,
16:43with T-54 tanks employed for the first time and 130-millimeter guns.
16:48Other NVA units moved to cut Route 9, trying to encircle the invading column.
17:00Two South Vietnamese battalions were eventually airlifted into Tha Phan.
17:10President Tew assumed command of what became a disastrous operation.
17:16And on March 8th, he ordered a retreat.
17:20It became a rout.
17:47More than 9,000 Southern troops were killed or wounded.
17:52They lost two-thirds of their armored vehicles,
17:55and large numbers of helicopters and planes were destroyed or damaged.
18:04A crucial test of the South Vietnamese Army's ability to fight without American support
18:09had ended in humiliation.
18:19Although the North Vietnamese had crushed the Southern offensive, they too had suffered casualties.
18:25Defending their bases in Laos and in Cambodia the year before
18:28had cost thousands of dead and many vehicles and guns destroyed.
18:33Viet Cong units were now ordered to avoid major actions while they rebuilt their strength.
18:48Viet Cong.
19:03Since the death of Ho Chi Minh in September 1969,
19:07Prime Minister Pham Van Dong,
19:11Lei Duan, the Communist Party leader,
19:14and General Jia, the Defense Minister,
19:17were determined not to abandon Ho's legacy.
19:30The struggle to reunite North and South Vietnam would go on, whatever the cost.
19:41Since the Americans had begun to withdraw troops from the South,
19:45Northern leaders had been faced with a dilemma.
19:49Should the North wait to mount another major offensive until after the Americans had gone,
19:53or should it keep up the momentum?
20:00In May 1971, the Politburo instructed General Giap to prepare a new campaign.
20:12For some time, the North's strategy had been to fight and negotiate at the same time.
20:18Talks with the Americans and the South Vietnamese had been going on in Paris, but there was no progress.
20:29Northern leaders now believed that a victory on the battlefield might break the stalemate.
20:34At the very least, it could prove to the Americans that their policy of Vietnamization was not going to save
20:41the South.
20:41North and South.
21:00Although the U.S. President Richard Nixon believed that Vietnam was damaging the United States at home and abroad,
21:06he was not prepared to make peace at any price.
21:16Nixon feared a climb down would dangerously weaken America's credibility as an ally in the eyes of the world.
21:22South Vietnam had to survive.
21:35As well as the formal peace negotiations in Paris, there were also secret meetings between Henry Kissinger,
21:42Nixon's National Security Advisor, and the North Vietnamese.
21:53Those talks, too, had stalled mainly over the future of the South Vietnamese government.
22:00The North was insisting that President Nian Van Thieu be replaced and that a new government include the NLF.
22:07As for Thieu himself, his great fear was that to end the war, Nixon meant to do a separate deal
22:13with Hanoi.
22:22In fact, Nixon and his advisor, Henry Kissinger, were looking not to North Vietnam, but to Moscow and Beijing.
22:32Nixon's hope was that the Chinese or the Russians would put pressure on the North Vietnamese to compromise.
22:42In February 1972, he embarked on the first visit by an American president to Communist China.
22:56Now that U.S. troops were withdrawing from Vietnam, China's leader, Mao Zedong, increasingly favored an end to the war.
23:05He had already pressed Hanoi to step up the search for a solution.
23:18Neither Nixon nor his advisors were aware of it, but because of centuries of mistrust, North Vietnam had no intention
23:25of listening to the Chinese.
23:48As they planned their most ambitious offensive yet, North Vietnam's leaders knew they were taking a big gamble.
23:55There would still be U.S. troops in South Vietnam, which could easily be reinforced.
24:01The question was, would the Americans send major combat units to save their South Vietnamese allies?
24:10Northern planners decided that in an American election year, they would not.
24:23The success of the coming campaign would depend on assembling huge quantities of weapons and supplies.
24:30That meant more aid from both the Soviet Union and China.
24:45Although by now both superpowers were reluctant supporters of the war, neither was prepared to lose influence to the other.
24:53As a result, the North succeeded in getting increased arms deliveries from both Moscow and Beijing.
25:09More than any offensive they had launched before, this one would depend on speed and mobility.
25:15For the North, it would be a new kind of battle, using tanks and artillery to smash through enemy lines.
25:22The plan foresaw three major armored thrusts slicing deep into South Vietnam.
25:41The first North Vietnamese attack would cross the demilitarized zone, separating North and South, and push East from Laos.
25:52Two whole provinces and the cities of Kuang Tri, Hui, and Da Nang would be captured.
26:05The second thrust would attack through the central highlands to the coast at Khinon.
26:14The third assault would strike from Cambodia and capture Arn Lakh.
26:23There, a provisional revolutionary government would be established for the South.
26:31If resistance was still light, units would press on and capture the capital, Saigon.
26:52North Vietnamese commanders knew that attacking the South in three different places was a risky plan.
26:58In none of the attacks would they have an overwhelming superiority of troops over the enemy.
27:04However, General Jaap believed that multiple thrusts would keep the South guessing about what might come next.
27:11Southern units would be forced to stay on the defensive, isolated and scattered.
27:16Jaap could then defeat them, division by division.
27:31Northern leaders calculated that even limited success would leave the NVA in control of large areas of South Vietnam.
27:44The NLF would then be able to re-establish political control over the countryside.
27:49Such gains would be a serious challenge to the Saigon government.
27:57At the same time, the North's bargaining position in future negotiations would be improved dramatically.
28:19By January 1st, 1972, only 133,000 U.S. servicemen remained in South Vietnam.
28:29Two-thirds of American troops had gone in two years.
28:37Australian and New Zealand contingents were also about to leave and South Korean forces had already begun to return home.
28:52The ground war was now almost exclusively the province of the South Vietnamese Army.
29:05As Vietnamization had gone on, U.S. field commanders had been under orders from Washington to keep American casualties down.
29:13Most operations were now defensive, designed to protect U.S. bases from mortar and rocket attacks.
29:26American air power was also being used in a different way.
29:31U.S. fighter bombers were still mounting vigorous attacks on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos.
29:37More than 70,000 sorties in 1971.
29:48But American air activity in South Vietnam had fallen dramatically.
29:54There, the South Vietnamese Air Force was expected to look after most ground support operations.
30:07South Vietnam's strategy for defending against attack had been devised by President Thieu himself.
30:14Thieu believed that any foothold won by the Viet Cong would seriously threaten his bargaining position in the Paris peace
30:20talks.
30:21As a result, he was determined to defend all of South Vietnam.
30:26The only orders he issued to the South Vietnamese Army were to hold onto every scrap of territory.
30:49The front line of the South Vietnamese Army's defense was a string of forts and outposts along the borders.
31:00Behind the forts were the army divisions, but each was responsible only for the defensive territory around its own base.
31:12The South's Joint General Staff also held a reserve of airborne and marine troops to act as a fire brigade
31:19in the event of an attack.
31:23The defense would be backed up by American strike aircraft, U.S. carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin, and B
31:31-52 bombers.
31:49For years, the United States had pressed President Thieu to improve the lot of the South Vietnamese people.
31:55Only then, the argument went, could support for the NLF in the countryside be undermined.
32:02By early 1972, Thieu had begun to introduce some of the reforms the Americans had wanted.
32:12Thieu introduced a program to give peasants ownership of the land they tilled.
32:19A school was established to train local headmen to administer their villages.
32:30Recruitment to local self-defense militias was stepped up.
32:35Thieu's hollow boast was that 97% of all hamlets and villages in the South were under government control.
32:50The End
33:06By the eve of the planned defensive named Operation Nian Hue after an 18th century national hero,
33:13the North Vietnamese Army had been transformed.
33:18It now had fully equipped armoured regiments. Artillery forces had been strengthened.
33:24From weapons to radios, all the frontline divisions were better equipped than ever before.
33:34The port of Haiphong was still jammed with Soviet shipping delivering military supplies.
33:47With the American bombing of North Vietnam long over, trains loaded with troops, tanks and field guns could move with
33:55no risk from attack.
34:02The North Vietnamese Air Force had more than 200 jet fighters which patrolled energetically over southern North Vietnam.
34:10But they rarely flew over the supply trails in Laos where American aircraft were most active.
34:15Nor would they play any direct part in the planned defensive.
34:26Instead, very large numbers of anti-aircraft guns had been deployed to cover the supply lines and assembly areas.
34:45Above the demilitarized zone, General Jap deployed two divisions, including the elite 308th and three independent infantry regiments.
35:01The infantry were backed by tank, artillery and sapper regiments.
35:09Another division was poised in Laos, opposite the former U.S. base at Khe Sanh.
35:23In the early months of 1972, the North Vietnamese infiltrated a division supported by independent infantry regiments into South Vietnam.
35:37Another two divisions were already on the coastal plain.
35:42More divisions were deployed on the western border.
35:51Further south, another formation threatened the Mekong Delta.
36:09Until now, North Vietnam had been fighting an infantry war.
36:13Its army in the field could maintain its operations as long as food and ammunition lasted.
36:22The coming offensive would be very different.
36:25A modern, conventional battle of firepower and maneuver would pose a whole range of completely new problems.
36:40The 125,000 men now massing on South Vietnam's borders would be going into battle alongside over 600 tanks, a
36:49bigger army than General Patton had commanded in World War II.
36:53The tanks would consume huge quantities of fuel and ammunition.
36:58The infantry would have to keep up with the armor, and that meant large numbers of trucks.
37:06The battle would move fast, putting strains on the communication and command systems, unlike anything the army had met before.
37:29The main North Vietnamese army tanks were the Soviet-designed T-54 and T-72, and their Chinese copies.
37:42They were armed with a powerful 100-millimeter gun and were highly robust vehicles, easy to maintain on the battlefield.
37:58Some units were also equipped with the World War II vintage T-34 tank.
38:06The T-34 was armed with an 85-millimeter gun and was even simpler to operate and look after.
38:17Like the T-55, it could fire either armor-piercing or high-explosive shells.
38:28The NVA also deployed a light tank, the PT-76.
38:35It was armed with a 76-millimeter gun, and it was amphibious.
38:40The ability to cross rivers and canals would make it a specially valuable weapon in the lowlands of South Vietnam.
39:00North Vietnamese artillery ranged from the superb Soviet-made 130-millimeter field gun to rockets and mortars of every size.
39:18All infantry units had their own air defense artillery and machine guns.
39:23There were also specialist air defense units.
39:50In 12 years of war in South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia,
39:55Viet Cong forces had suffered appalling losses.
39:58By early 1972, over 600,000 North Vietnamese Army troops and NLF had died.
40:07As well as those killed in battle, many thousands had perished from disease and American air attacks on the long
40:13journey down the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
40:22In North Vietnam, a severe manpower shortage meant the gaps in the NVA's ranks were not being filled.
40:29In the three months before the spring offensive, every male between the ages of 14 and 45 was called up.
40:40For the first time, the ranks of draftees even included the relatives of senior party officials.
40:55The NLF in South Vietnam was also suffering a manpower crisis.
41:01Saigon government troops and officials seemed to be everywhere, making it difficult for NLF recruiting teams to operate.
41:11Even the ranks of local guerrilla units were being boosted by North Vietnamese regular troops.
41:24The Northerners faced a host of problems, not least the lack of friends and relatives to provide information, food, and
41:31a hiding place.
41:43The ever-increasing dominance of the North Vietnamese over the NLF was causing real tensions in Viet Cong units.
41:51Many NLF members believed the North no longer saw them as equal partners.
41:56There was a growing fear that once victory was achieved, Northerners would simply take over the South.
42:03In every unit, political officers worked hard to ease friction between NVA troops and their Southern comrades.
42:37All camps of the NLFå¾…que and former NLF lands were zeroes,
42:39the NLFs were once against the NLFs.
42:39The North Vietnamese, affected by NLF.
42:40The forces of South Vietnam had grown to over a million men.
42:45The Americans' Vietnamization program was in full swing,
42:48with a massive equipment and training effort.
42:55The Army's supply and logistics system was also being built up
42:59to cope with a whole new scale of operations.
43:10Where once the South Vietnamese had been expected to get by on World War II surplus,
43:15the Americans were now providing advanced weaponry.
43:18The infantry got nearly a million M16 rifles and 20,000 machine guns.
43:28Heavy weapons included 400 new tanks and 2,000 howitzers,
43:33while the Air Force was built up to 2,000 planes.
43:37It would soon be the fourth largest Air Force in the world.
43:52Transforming the South Vietnamese Army into a modern fighting military machine
43:57was not proving easy.
43:59American tanks, helicopters and aircraft arrived with their maintenance manuals in English.
44:07South Vietnamese personnel, training to be technical specialists,
44:11had first to go through language school.
44:14Most American advisors agreed that building up the South Vietnamese Armed Forces
44:19into a credible defense was going to take more time than anyone had realized.
44:41South Vietnam was divided into four military regions,
44:45each the responsibility of an Army Corps.
44:53All together, the South fielded 11 Infantry Divisions,
44:57and an Airborne Division,
44:59three Marine Brigades,
45:02ten Ranger Groups,
45:04and four Brigades of Tanks.
45:10The Air Force deployed nine squadrons of combat aircraft,
45:1414 of helicopters,
45:16and three air transport squadrons.
45:24U.S. Army combat forces were now down to a handful of units at Da Nang,
45:30around Saigon,
45:32and at Kanto in the Delta.
45:40The Air Force also had two tactical fighter wings,
45:44a reconnaissance wing,
45:45and a B-52 wing in Thailand.
45:52The Navy carriers Hancock and Coral Sea were still on Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin.
46:13By early 1972,
46:15many of the 133,000 U.S. ground troops in South Vietnam
46:20were occupied closing up bases and preparing to withdraw.
46:24But aviation units of the Army, Navy, and Air Force
46:27were still operating, as were logistics and communications specialists.
46:35So were 1,400 Army and Marine advisors attached to South Vietnamese units.
46:51In spite of American protests,
46:54most of the South Vietnamese Army's infantry divisions were static defense forces.
46:58Their orders to hold territory at all costs meant that they had little incentive to use their new armored vehicles
47:04and helicopters.
47:06Nor were they developing the skills to fight fast-moving offensive battles.
47:20Because the Army's infantry divisions had their own territory to defend,
47:24they had grown increasingly settled.
47:26The divisional bases were soon surrounded by shanty towns as soldiers' families set up home close by.
47:40Bribery could secure a permanent posting, and soldiers ordered to move sometimes refused.
47:45In 1971 alone, over 140,000 government soldiers deserted.
48:11In the battles ahead, Southern forces would be faced with large North Vietnamese armored formations for the first time in
48:18the war.
48:21For the infantry, the main defense was the law, the light anti-tank weapon.
48:29It was a one-shot disposable launcher which fired a shaped charge rocket.
48:34It was already highly valued by the troops for destroying bunkers and fortified positions.
48:51It was the Americans who still had the most mobile and powerful anti-tank defense.
48:56The tow was a wire-guided anti-tank missile often mounted on a helicopter gunship.
49:02It had a range of more than 3,000 meters and was highly accurate.
49:14As long as the gunner kept his sights on the target, the weapon's computer system would ensure a hit.
49:35The most effective helicopter gunship in American service was the Huey Cobra.
49:40It was a revolutionary design.
49:43The gunner sat in front with the pilot above and behind.
49:46The Cobra was fast, able to fly at over 200 miles per hour and highly maneuverable.
50:02It could carry a devastating array of weapons, miniguns, automatic grenade launchers, a multi-barrel 20mm cannon, and 76 rockets.
50:21American gunships and the South Vietnamese Air Force's attack planes would provide most of the support for ground troops.
50:28However, vastly more destructive American air power was always present in the background.
50:34B-52 bombers, some able to carry over 31 tons of bombs, were still attacking targets in Laos and Cambodia.
50:50The Americans also had the most advanced supersonic strike aircraft in the world.
51:05The F-111 had a unique swing-wing design.
51:08With the wings extended, it could make low-speed landings.
51:12In swept-back configuration, it could fly at 1,600 miles an hour.
51:17The F-111 had advanced computer navigation and could bomb targets at night and in the worst weather.
51:24The F-111 had advanced computer.
51:25The F-111 had been spent 17 hours per hour.
51:28The F-111 had been spent on the internet with the machine and the other.
51:32The F-111 had been a second upgrade of the machine.
51:48The E-112 had been a second up to the computer and the local machine.
51:58Most major South Vietnamese Army units still had American military advisors.
52:03They were usually career soldiers, many on their second or even third tour of duty in
52:08Vietnam.
52:10The main role of advisors to infantry units was to coordinate the vast array of American
52:15firepower still on call.
52:16They also offered encouragement and tactical advice.
52:29In some units, the advisors' presence had an unforeseen drawback.
52:33Many South Vietnamese field commanders came to rely heavily on the Americans' military
52:38skills.
52:43As the months went on and advisors were gradually withdrawn, large numbers of South Vietnamese
52:49officers would find themselves unable to command on their own.
53:01For years, one of the biggest American complaints about their allies was the way promotions were
53:06awarded in the South Vietnamese Army.
53:09Political patronage was rife.
53:14The social connections of senior officers were far more important than their professional
53:18competence.
53:31There was one unexpected plus in the way that South Vietnamese Army promotions worked.
53:38Officers lacking political influence could stay in combat units for years.
53:43As a result, by 1972, many of the South Vietnamese Army's frontline formations were led by highly
53:49experienced and battle-hardened men.
54:04Amongst the many problems besetting the South Vietnamese Armed Forces, poor training was one
54:09of the worst.
54:10Army culture held training in contempt.
54:13When the military schools requested combat-experienced instructors, most frontline units unloaded their
54:20worst men.
54:21As a result, some training units failed to produce soldiers with even the most basic military
54:26skills.
54:49President Nixon meant to follow his triumphant visit to China by next going to Moscow.
54:55President Nixon meant to follow his triumphant visit to China by next going to Moscow.
54:58China by next going to Moscow.
55:02Hopes were high that relations between the world's great powers were entering a new era.
55:08In fact, events in Vietnam were about to threaten the whole plan.
55:16Since the American bombing of North Vietnam had ended in late 1968, U.S. reconnaissance activity
55:22had been intense.
55:30As well as conventional reconnaissance planes, the Americans deployed the top-secret Blackbird.
55:39The SR-71 could fly at 2,000 miles an hour and operate at 70,000 feet, well above anti
55:47-aircraft
55:47defenses.
55:55By the opening weeks of 1972, reconnaissance pictures of southern North Vietnam, as well as the border
56:01areas of Laos and Cambodia had shown a dramatic communist buildup.
56:08They photographed 7,000 to 8,000 trucks waiting in supply depots ready to go.
56:15The American response was to launch heavy airstrikes against the troop concentrations.
56:22U.S. intelligence believed the North Vietnamese blow would fall before the end of January 1972.
56:29When the month passed without incident, Saigon relaxed its vigilance.
56:34Senior South Vietnamese officers hoped that the preemptive airstrikes and the increasing strength
56:39of the army had forced the North to think twice.
56:52So confident were the Americans that the U.S. Defense Secretary, Melvin Laird, told Congress
56:57that a major communist offensive was not a serious possibility.
57:11Only five weeks later, he would be proved shockingly wrong.
57:16By late March 1972, in hundreds of North Vietnamese Army command posts and dugouts, the countdown
57:24had already begun.
57:39The North of North Vietnamese morning was the first five weeks later.
57:42Theno of South Vietnamese Artists
57:44by the north side of the North Vietnamese Army
57:45The North Vietnamese Army
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