- 7 hours ago
The Vietnam War through the eyes of eight individuals—six American soldiers, one nurse, and a Vietnamese refugee. It cuts through the politics to deliver an emotional, ground-level look at the conflict's devastating human cost...
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:12It's 50 years since America's war in Vietnam.
00:21A war that changed the world forever.
00:28And the people who fought in it.
00:35More than any other war, TV crews were allowed to follow American soldiers into battle.
00:45And capture it all on camera.
00:50Now MPs have gone into the embassy and are trying to get the snipers out.
00:56It had never happened before.
00:59And it's never happened quite like it since.
01:02That's me.
01:04Right there.
01:09It allows us to tell the story of the war.
01:13As it happened.
01:15To find the people in the footage.
01:20And half a century later, reunite them.
01:24I'm so glad to see you.
01:29You may have seen movies about Vietnam.
01:32But this is the real story.
01:35Told only by those who were there.
01:38And the jail?
01:40And the conqueror.
02:04As it happens.
02:05Than where more than ever were.
02:05And the trapped air.
02:07Right there is theШellaF مش.
02:07And the water and the power is really nice.
02:11Once again, a very good morning to you, ladies and gentlemen.
02:14It is Tuesday, March the 9th, 1965.
02:17And March has certainly been so far a wonderful month.
02:35I was 18, came home from work one day, and my mother was sitting on a stoop crying.
02:43My father was there with a brown envelope in his hand, laughing, saluting.
02:48Anyway, I opened it up, and it said, greetings and citations.
02:52Your friends and neighbors have elected you to serve in the armed forces of the United States of America.
02:57You are gone to Vietnam.
02:59I didn't even know where it was.
03:08Typical American boys here are being drafted.
03:11This is the nation's largest induction center.
03:18I was 17 years old, and they had this whole thing, the military makes you a man.
03:26I've always wanted to be a hero.
03:29Yeah, why not?
03:32You watch John Wayne.
03:33I mean, all we had were the movies.
03:36That's all we knew about war.
03:45July 1965, America has sent 75,000 combat troops to fight against communist North Vietnam.
04:02Many are teenagers just out of high school.
04:09I was a kid in Garland, Texas.
04:14I just wanted to be like my dad, be proud to serve our country.
04:19But I was still shy.
04:21You know, I never had a date until I was about 17.
04:26You know, I was sitting backwards on a big old army plane with probably a couple hundred men.
04:35But that's when I met Bowman.
04:40We sat right next to each other.
04:43Bowman was streetwise.
04:45He wouldn't be afraid to get in a fight with anybody.
04:48And that's part of the reason why I wanted to be around him, because he's, you know, he'd protect me.
04:54There was a guy in my unit called Gary.
04:57He said, Captain, if you don't mind, he said, I'd like to get assigned with Bowman over there, you know.
05:02Over there, who is this guy?
05:04I don't know this guy.
05:06What's he going to be assigned with me for, you know?
05:09Gary was young and kind of naive and stuff, you know.
05:13We taught him how to smoke and how to drink beer.
05:15And so I guess from that day on, he was like my, I guess you'd call him my little brother,
05:21you know.
05:25Jet finally landed and they opened the back door.
05:28And it was like you open the oven on the stove at 500 degrees.
05:32That heat just came into the plane and just like smacked you in the face.
05:41After the heat, the next thing that hits them is the camera crews.
05:46Their experience will be filmed like no other previous war.
05:51How does it feel to be in Vietnam now, soldier?
05:54Well, I'm glad to be here.
05:55You glad to be off that ship?
05:57Yes, I am.
05:58How does it feel to be here in Vietnam, soldier?
06:00Oh, it's pretty hot.
06:01Pretty hot.
06:02Thank you very much and good luck to you.
06:05Thanks a lot.
06:09Good morning, man.
06:10Good morning, sir.
06:13All right, first of all, welcome to A Company.
06:16Tickle to death to have you all in A Company.
06:19It's the best company in this battalion, best battalion in this division.
06:24I'd like for all of you to write your mothers or your wives, tell them you got here, you got
06:31here safely.
06:32You're here, you're in a good unit, you've been well taken care of.
06:36And that's better.
06:36Because you will be.
06:40Senior field leader says, all right, I'm going to give you some information.
06:44First of all, don't piss anybody off.
06:46He says, everybody carries a weapon.
06:48And then he says, sometime this year, you will go crazy.
06:52Maybe more than once, but you will go crazy sometime this year.
06:56And we just kind of all laughed and snickered about that, but he was 100% on the mark.
07:08The U.S. military is putting itself in the middle of a civil war between communist North Vietnam and America's
07:17ally South Vietnam.
07:44The enemy is everywhere.
07:46They're called Viet Cong Vietnamese communists.
07:49Everybody calls them V.C.
07:55And before the politicians or the American people, it's the soldiers on the ground who are the first to realize
08:03this war is not going to be what they thought.
08:31The first battle of the Vietnam War takes place on November 14th.
08:36The first battle of the Vietnam War takes place on November 14th, 1965.
08:55Leading his men into this battle is commanding officer Tony Nadal.
09:10I had been in command of that company for about a month, and my belief is it's time for me
09:19to earn my pay.
09:21I've been to ranger schools, special forces, et cetera, but this is the first time those soldiers have ever been
09:29in battle.
09:30They will follow me if they trust me, if they think I'm competent.
09:45A camera crew captures one of the first encounters with the enemy when a young Vietnamese soldier emerges from the
09:58jungle.
10:08He's cut off from his unit, and he's terrified.
10:13We captured a few prisoners.
10:16We had a Vietnamese interpreter with us, and he said, what are you doing here?
10:22And he says, oh, we're here to kill Americans.
10:26Oh, yeah?
10:27Well, where are your forces?
10:30And he points to the ridge and says, well, there's a regiment there, and there's a half regiment over there.
10:36Then there's more, each of us.
10:45We were probably outnumbered 15 to 1.
10:52I was scared to death.
11:01But I go with my two radio operators.
11:05And we move forward.
11:30And we move forward.
11:35Watch your flag down!
11:37Watch your flag!
11:42Get down, get down!
11:49Get low!
11:51We were pinned down with incoming fire.
12:05I thought, here I am in command for 30 days,
12:09and the survival of this battalion with those forces around
12:14rests on defending this landing zone.
12:22If they are to get out of there alive,
12:24they need to hold the area where helicopters can land.
12:34For six hours, they hold their position.
12:39But then things get more complicated.
12:47News comes through that a nearby platoon has been surrounded.
12:57I got my troops together as many as I could,
13:01and I gave them a pep talk.
13:02These are your friends, your buddies,
13:04and we're going to go bring them back.
13:07And you're going to follow me,
13:09because I'm going to lead the way.
13:11Now fix your bayonets, and let's go.
13:39All of a sudden, a machine gun or something opened up.
13:48I'm speaking to the young man next to me.
13:52When I see his chest explode, boom.
14:01He falls down, and my Sergeant Jack Gale, good friend of mine, good soldier, he falls down.
14:14And when I bent over, he said to me, tell my wife I love her.
14:21And then he passed, and I took the radio off of him and gave it to someone else.
14:39That's hard for me to talk about.
14:46I just talked to his wife yesterday.
14:59The first contact with the enemy has left 17 of Tony Nadal's men dead.
15:06But the lost platoon is rescued.
15:18Ultimately, America brings in the artillery.
15:23And claims victory in the Battle of Aya Drang.
15:29The first of the Vietnam War.
15:43Over the coming months, America increases its forces to a quarter of a million troops.
15:54Many are looking forward to their first taste of the action.
15:58Like the sweet song of the fire, you light my morning sky.
16:05We are protecting our homeland.
16:07This is our job here to protect our people at home before the situation reaches them.
16:13It's what we're trained for.
16:16And we will prevail.
16:18We will win.
16:19By the summer of 66, U.S. troops are fighting battles with Viet Cong guerrillas all across South Vietnam.
16:27From the North Vietnamese border to the countryside around the capital, Saigon.
16:47And that's where Bodeman and Gary are on patrol.
16:56And they've noticed something mysterious.
17:00When they capture Viet Cong territory, the enemy is nowhere to be seen.
17:05When we first got there, we'd get in firefights.
17:08And then it would stop.
17:11And we'd go sweep the area and couldn't find anything.
17:14Couldn't find any bodies, couldn't find any...
17:16You'd find some blood trails and some stuff like that.
17:20But it was like everything disappeared.
17:28One day, they made a sweep through the village.
17:40I think it was platoon sergeant.
17:42He said, Bowman, he said, go down there and check that bunker out and see if anybody's in there.
17:48I said, okay, I guess so.
17:53Come on first, come on.
17:58I had to go down several steps to get into the bunker.
18:02You know, and I went down, and there's the doorway, and I looked ahead of me.
18:06And there was another trap door going down.
18:12So I dropped down through the trap door, and I turned off my flashlight, and I was in a tunnel.
18:37You'd feel every drop of sweat rolling down your body.
18:45In that tunnel, there were cans of ammunition, boxes with documents in it.
18:52And had an escape tunnel off to the side.
18:57Went down to the end of that tunnel.
19:00Then it opened up into a room big as this, you know, rooms that they could operate on people in.
19:07They had rooms where troops could sleep.
19:09And it might be three or four levels down.
19:14It was amazing.
19:17I said, holy crap.
19:21If these stones were scattered around Vietnam, you were in big trouble.
19:33The scale of what they're up against is dawning on them.
19:37But the US military remains confident.
19:40They've never lost a war.
19:43And have no intention of losing this one.
20:06And have no intention of losing this one.
20:11Please hide me around the rock.
20:15There's no shortage of firepower.
20:18The problem is knowing where to use it.
20:22I can't hide you the rock right.
20:25I can't hide you the rock right.
20:28I ain't gonna lie down.
20:30I ain't gonna lie down.
20:31I ain't gonna lie down.
20:31I ain't gonna lie down all on that day.
20:43When a report comes through of gunfire coming from an area thought to be a Viet Cong stronghold, the Marines
20:50are sent in.
20:52One of those marines is Malik Edwards.
21:08I remember us, whatever was happening that day,
21:12it came down to us.
21:14We were going into this village,
21:17but the tension was higher because they came out
21:22and used the words,
21:24if you receive a round from the village level to village,
21:27they said those words.
21:31This is the first time that we had an order like that.
21:39Immediately, we received fire.
21:51So now we're pumped.
21:53We're pumped, you know,
21:55because now we really, we're ready to do some damage.
22:12I go up to a hut.
22:15And so I'm getting ready to fire.
22:18Before I could do any of that,
22:20this Vietnamese came out and he said,
22:22come bang, come bang, don't shoot, don't shoot.
22:25And then he goes over to the house
22:28and pulls up the side of the house.
22:31And this is where I see, like,
22:34this women and children,
22:35they just huddled right there,
22:37crying and freaking out and stuff.
22:42These are the women and children
22:44of the village filmed later that day.
22:54I didn't shoot them,
22:56but it freaked me out.
23:01It just freaked me out.
23:02And I just dropped to my knees.
23:04I'm like, oh, God.
23:12Even to this day,
23:14I'm stuck in that moment right there,
23:16those children.
23:22And you're thinking,
23:23God, what are we doing here?
23:37Meanwhile, Bowman and Gary
23:39are fast becoming the tunnel guys.
23:48Any time they come across a tunnel,
23:51Bowman, Heater, get up here.
23:53We got a tunnel for you to run.
23:57We did it together.
24:01No one wanted to go in,
24:02so we went in.
24:05Might get wood spiders.
24:07We got spiders over there
24:08as big as a fish.
24:11And you had to watch out
24:12for booby traps.
24:14They had tripwired.
24:17You didn't know when somebody
24:18was going to pop up
24:19out of who knew where
24:20and shoot you, you know?
24:22Yeah, I guess it was crazy.
24:24After a while,
24:25it becomes an addiction almost.
24:28You're looking forward
24:29to that adrenaline rush.
24:34There's one tunnel
24:35you had to grow
24:37on your hands and knees,
24:37but the tunnel got bigger
24:39and I was stumbling along,
24:41you know,
24:42and, you know,
24:43with the who-gives-a-crap attitude,
24:45you know,
24:47and stumbled in the room.
24:50I looked to the right
24:51and there was, like,
24:52bamboo bunks built
24:56and there was guys
24:57that there was people in them.
24:58I said, holy crap, you know,
25:00and you immediately
25:03start doing things.
25:04You don't even think
25:05about what you're doing.
25:07And I just started
25:09pulling the trigger
25:09on the .45
25:12and I think I hit
25:14the first guy.
25:15The other guys
25:16were running around.
25:17Some of them were trying
25:18to go out the other tunnel.
25:20When that slide
25:21slid back on my .45
25:23and locked in place,
25:24I know I didn't have
25:25any more bullets
25:26and it was time to leave.
25:29So, went back out
25:30through the tunnel
25:31and went up
25:32through the trap door.
25:32Now, I was so damn scared.
25:34I gathered up,
25:36I don't know,
25:3710, 15 pounds of C4.
25:40I opened the trap door
25:41and I pulled the igniter
25:42on the charge
25:43and just dropped the charge
25:44down there
25:45and closed the trap door
25:46and came back out
25:47and I was standing
25:48on top of the ground
25:49and all of a sudden
25:50the ground went boom
25:51like that.
25:53So.
26:03By now,
26:04Bowman has perhaps
26:05seen more of the tunnels
26:06than any other American
26:08but he still doesn't
26:10fully understand
26:11what they are for
26:12or the mindset
26:14of the people
26:15down there.
26:52There is a picture of this picture.
26:57Where is this picture?
27:01This picture is related to each other.
27:04It is related to each other.
27:06It is related to each other.
27:11It is related to each other.
27:18But when we eat, we have two or three of them.
27:22It is related to each other.
27:26It is related to each other.
27:29It is related to each other.
27:32It is related to each other.
27:36It is related to each other.
27:39It is related to each other.
27:39The force of Chi is a battle to attack the city of Saigon.
27:53So far, the battles in Vietnam have all taken place in the jungles,
27:58far from the center of US power.
28:00But that is about to change.
28:04The Viet Cong have been extending their tunnels to Saigon, the capital of the south.
28:19Currently, there are about 267,000 US fighting men in Vietnam.
28:24Here they come again.
28:27It is a little startling to remember.
28:29At the beginning of 1965, there were 23,000.
28:33And nationwide, the enemy still holds about as much ground as he ever did.
28:44In February 1967, the US mounts the largest operation of the war so far.
28:51Operation Junction City.
28:55Over 30,000 men are sent into a jungle north of Saigon to round up enemy fighters and find the
29:04Viet Cong's center of operations.
29:10The search and destroy teams are spearheaded by specialist units, the tunnel rats.
29:29After a while, Gary and I started getting really close.
29:33Be careful.
29:36We had that awe about us that, oh yeah, they're tunnel rats.
29:42Crazy people.
29:46We felt safe together.
29:52We'd go in tunnels one at a time.
29:55And if I didn't come out at a certain time, he'd come looking for me.
29:58And not many people would do that.
30:01Slept in the same foxhole, snuggled up together to stay warm.
30:05We'd develop a love for each other.
30:07I mean, it's more than just a brotherly love or, you know, it's, it's, you know, he's willing to die
30:15for you.
30:17And he knows I'm willing to die for him.
30:32September, 1967. Bowman's company has been on jungle patrol for three weeks, when they run into trouble.
30:42One day, we were in a, uh, area where there's a lot of tunnels.
30:49We were up there and kept getting a sniper fire.
30:55And, uh, captain wanted to go out and get the sniper.
31:02But I just didn't have a good feeling about the whole thing.
31:15Captain said, Skeeter, we gotta go. They're killing our guys. I said, well, let's go.
31:25I jumped up yelling, stop, stop.
31:29By that time, I saw Gary maneuver across.
31:43Gary went flying through the air.
31:51I stepped on the mine and I heard that click.
31:54Once you hear that click and that mine come up out of the ground, you just, you know it's over.
32:01But I, uh, I couldn't find my leg.
32:05And I asked the captain, I said, where's my damn leg?
32:07And he said, he pointed it up to my head.
32:10My foot was up here by my head.
32:12And, uh, you want to do something, then there's nothing you can do.
32:18And that damn thing you can do.
32:20That was my man. That was my buddy.
32:22That was my, my man.
32:24That was my man.
32:26Yeah.
32:49Finally got him out of there, got him on a chopper, I sat down on the dyke, cried my
32:56eyes out, cried like a baby. After he was gone, I never felt so alone in my life. Nothing
33:08mattered anymore. Nothing.
33:27I said that America is in a country where it is from our country and killed our people.
33:40There is nothing. There is nothing. There is nothing. There is nothing. There is nothing.
34:10The North Vietnamese soldiers were better trained and better motivated than we had expected.
34:20We knew that we were up because of a tough enemy.
34:32I thought Viet Cong was just going to lay down and run away when we raved the stars and stripes.
34:39That didn't happen. This was not going to be a cakewalk.
34:48It wasn't like a traditional walk. It wasn't front lines. It wasn't people charging you.
34:56And we walked almost into everything. We were bait.
35:08What happens is you regress into your animal instincts.
35:16You put your feelings away.
35:19You put everything else out your mind except combat.
35:24That's when I started doing crazy stuff.
35:35Towards the end of my tour, we got in a situation where one machine gun was shooting at us.
35:45And I just didn't care anymore.
35:48I told him, I'm going to outflank this guy.
35:53I was watching him and I was going to shoot him.
35:56I pulled my rifle up there and went to shoot and nothing happened.
36:05So, I don't even know if I should say that.
36:09Anyway, I just went crazy.
36:12I had an old French machete.
36:16And the end of it was cut off flat.
36:20It looked like a meat cleaver almost.
36:24I came in from behind him and I was just screaming, just screaming.
36:31And I had that and he stuck his head up and that was it.
36:40Things go into slow motion.
36:42And you see, anyway, I hit him, took his ear off and buried the machete in the side of his
36:51neck.
36:51And that was it.
36:58But then I felt all this power and hatred.
37:08Mad.
37:09I was mad at God.
37:10I was mad at everybody.
37:12To put me in that position.
37:16To have me feel good about it.
37:25And then they knew I was really nuts.
37:28I think I realized I was crazy by then.
37:33So, you will go crazy.
37:39Probably more than once.
37:41And he was right.
37:43He was right.
37:45So.
38:03People would ask me what was my worst experience of Vietnam and I tell them coming home.
38:10That was the loneliest feeling I ever felt.
38:16I was working for the telephone company.
38:20And Gary always told me he lived in Plano, Texas.
38:24And had a good friend that worked over there with the operators and stuff.
38:29So I said, hey, can you help me find a guy?
38:34I gave her Gary's name and stuff.
38:40She called him and he called me and we hooked up.
38:46And that got me through it.
38:54Who in the hell thought we'd be here 50 years later fishing, right?
38:59Yeah.
38:59I thought both of us would be dead.
39:05He's the best man I know.
39:10We're still the best of friends.
39:12And I hope it never ends.
39:30By the end of 1967, the American army seems to have a degree of control.
39:38But things are about to get a lot more intense.
39:43There are some shocking developments in Vietnam tonight.
39:47The North Vietnamese are about to launch a surprise attack.
39:51In over a hundred towns and cities in the south.
39:57How could this possibly be happening?
40:07What do you think?
40:09And it could be a bit of a space.
40:24What do you think?
40:24How could this be happening?
40:24How could this be happening?
40:26He was right there!
40:27The big part of our planet.
40:28Well, when it was a movie!
40:30Good night.
40:32I was just one of my house eş.
40:33What about this?
40:34How would this happen?
Comments