00:00:18
I am the Ed
00:00:20
photograph
00:00:22
[Music]
00:00:24
[Applause]
00:00:25
a your
00:00:27
country has shot all for these choose to
00:00:32
be
00:00:33
self-evident that all men have
00:00:38
created Mr
00:00:40
gorbachov tear down this
00:00:43
[Applause]
00:00:45
[Music]
00:00:57
wall Eagle houster we see you is
00:01:00
terrible over on the night of July the
00:01:02
20th 1969 two American astronauts were
00:01:06
attempting to do something no human
00:01:08
being had ever done
00:01:10
[Music]
00:01:18
before Neil Armstrong from Ohio and Buzz
00:01:21
Aldren from New Jersey were the two men
00:01:23
sent to complete a promise made by
00:01:25
President Kennedy at the beginning of
00:01:27
the decade during our descent everything
00:01:31
looked good approaching the point coming
00:01:34
around the Moon except our communication
00:01:36
was a little
00:01:38
scratchy uh we're going to try it
00:01:41
there's an anxious moment go for landing
00:01:45
retro GC e surge go Capcom we go for
00:01:50
landing altitude 42 you're go for
00:01:52
landing over I was in the control center
00:01:54
of
00:01:55
Houston down niely 200 4 half
00:02:00
you know there was some doubt about this
00:02:02
clear up to the
00:02:03
last just where they were coming in whe
00:02:06
they had enough fuel or not were they
00:02:07
going to be able to land where they knew
00:02:08
there was a surface that was going to be
00:02:11
reasonably good for them to land
00:02:13
[Music]
00:02:16
on tality base here the eagle has
00:02:21
landed it's a it's a g whz and few uh
00:02:25
it's a it's a yeah we're down and and I
00:02:28
can remember just
00:02:30
uh looking this way and leaning over and
00:02:32
patting Neil on the back and just kind
00:02:34
of saying well we made it we copy it
00:02:37
down
00:02:38
Eagle a journey of a qu million miles it
00:02:41
took 300,000 American workers to make it
00:02:45
happen step off the lamb now that's one
00:02:49
small step for
00:02:51
man
00:02:53
one for
00:02:56
man 600 million people were watching 1/5
00:03:00
of the entire world's
00:03:03
population seeing things that no one had
00:03:05
seen before Stark Beauty so pure and
00:03:10
it's so perfect magnificent desolation
00:03:14
on the Sea of Tranquility Armstrong and
00:03:16
Aldren left a plaque that read we came
00:03:19
in peace For All
00:03:21
[Music]
00:03:28
Mankind
00:03:37
[Music]
00:03:41
on Earth in the summer of 1969 peace and
00:03:44
Tranquility were merely
00:03:50
Concepts at the end of the 60s America
00:03:52
was still haunted by memories of the
00:03:54
young president whose election had
00:03:57
ushered in the decade and whose assassin
00:03:59
Nation had shattered its optimism
00:04:02
Kennedy's inaugural pledge to pay any
00:04:04
price and bear any burden to defend
00:04:06
Freedom was being severely tested in
00:04:09
Vietnam President Johnson's further
00:04:11
escalation of the war had cost him the
00:04:14
presidency and in 1968 Richard Nixon was
00:04:17
elected largely on the promise to win
00:04:20
peace with honor to his supporters that
00:04:24
meant an outcome that would further
00:04:26
American interests and ideals in the
00:04:28
world to his his critics it meant
00:04:31
prolonging the
00:04:33
horror
00:04:37
[Music]
00:04:45
[Applause]
00:04:58
are January 20th
00:05:01
1969 inauguration day for the 37th
00:05:04
President of the United
00:05:11
[Music]
00:05:16
States in these difficult years America
00:05:19
has suffered from a favor of
00:05:20
words we cannot learn from one another
00:05:25
until we stop shouting at one
00:05:27
another until we speak quietly enough so
00:05:31
that our words can be heard as well as
00:05:34
our
00:05:36
voices there were virtually two Americas
00:05:39
when Richard Nixon took office and they
00:05:41
collided that day in the first major
00:05:43
disruption of an inaugural ceremony in
00:05:46
the history of the
00:05:50
Republic eggs were thrown obscenities
00:05:53
were thrown the placards were out there
00:05:56
that were just awful it we were so torn
00:06:00
apart that we couldn't even inaugurate a
00:06:04
freely elected president with the
00:06:06
dignity and the pp and circumstances
00:06:08
second occasion demands it was really a
00:06:10
terrible low point in American history
00:06:13
what I seen on newspapers and television
00:06:16
it was hard to
00:06:18
believe desecration of a flag that I
00:06:22
personally fought for and put my life on
00:06:24
the line along with many other people
00:06:28
and here you are
00:06:31
carrying Kong
00:06:33
Flags uh this this really Disturbed me
00:06:36
uh to uh uh really uh bad boiling
00:06:43
points he divided the public and he was
00:06:46
in some
00:06:48
ways the worst possible leader that we
00:06:52
could have had in the time of this great
00:06:55
divisiveness because that was nixonian
00:06:57
politics to play to the divisive
00:07:00
to divide the body politic into them and
00:07:05
[Music]
00:07:13
we the we in that equation were the
00:07:16
people the administration referred to as
00:07:18
hardworking taxpaying patriotic
00:07:28
Americans
00:07:33
their enemies the them were represented
00:07:35
by the vociferous demonstrators who said
00:07:38
they were patriots too move by
00:07:40
conscience to oppose the war in November
00:07:44
of
00:07:44
1969 700,000 of them came to
00:07:50
Washington youing I'm not sure looking
00:07:53
back that uh going to a rally like this
00:07:56
was going to make any difference but
00:07:57
that was a time where there was an elect
00:07:59
Elric it in the everybody's Soul was was
00:08:02
involved in it everybody's heart was
00:08:04
involved in it we felt that we had some
00:08:06
input in the world and we could change
00:08:09
the
00:08:11
world there's a Revolution going on and
00:08:15
we were all a part of it I think the
00:08:16
people were really fed
00:08:18
up uh with that Crowd by the time we
00:08:21
went into office I think that during the
00:08:25
Nixon Administration Patrick buano was a
00:08:27
speech writer for the president and the
00:08:28
vice president
00:08:30
a silent majority was what we call
00:08:31
Middle America it looked upon these kids
00:08:34
as very privileged they were going to
00:08:36
college and then they were behaving like
00:08:38
that and the other kids were in Vietnam
00:08:40
doing their Duty so it was more a sense
00:08:42
of disgust and fed upness is our
00:08:46
hero is our
00:08:48
hero is our
00:08:51
hero and while a counterculture may have
00:08:53
worshiped its rock stars vice president
00:08:56
agnu gave Middle America a hero of its
00:08:59
own
00:09:01
but agy's role was the banet of the
00:09:03
Republican party and the Tribune of the
00:09:04
silent majority thank you very much and
00:09:07
he played that role extremely
00:09:09
well thank you very much the man who had
00:09:12
been a joke in
00:09:13
1968 at the end of 69 was the third most
00:09:17
admired man in America behind the
00:09:19
president and Billy
00:09:20
Graham a spirit of national masochism
00:09:24
prevails encouraged by an aat core of
00:09:28
impudent s JS who characterize
00:09:31
themselves as
00:09:34
intellectuals AG new speeches delivered
00:09:36
to enthusiastic audien has attacked
00:09:38
everything from professors students and
00:09:40
reporters to the counter culture's
00:09:43
favorite music and movies by the late
00:09:45
60s everything was
00:09:50
political a popular recent movie I won't
00:09:53
name it here because I don't want to
00:09:54
promote it has as its Heroes two men who
00:09:58
are able to live a Carefree life off the
00:10:01
proceeds of illegal sales of drugs no
00:10:04
sympathy is wasted on the wrecked lives
00:10:07
of the people who bought their drugs or
00:10:09
financed Our Hero's Easy
00:10:12
[Music]
00:10:19
Ride one of the big movies in this
00:10:22
superheated time became a metaphor for
00:10:24
the widening gap between the straight
00:10:26
and the hip the old and the Young
00:10:30
Easy Rider oh yeah Easy Rider yeah there
00:10:33
we are well
00:10:36
um Easy Rider yeah well where do you
00:10:40
want to start
00:10:42
there that film was so extraordinarily
00:10:44
unlike anything that have gone
00:10:47
before its sense of really growing out
00:10:50
of the culture uh not even trying to
00:10:52
reflect the culture but just being the
00:10:54
culture what the hell is this
00:10:56
troublemakers that had so much to say
00:10:58
about the societ about the becoming a
00:11:01
society of two cultures along
00:11:02
generational lines and other kinds of
00:11:05
lines why don't you get a
00:11:07
ha that it was like getting hit in the
00:11:11
gut by a
00:11:22
fist my idea was basically to talk about
00:11:25
America talk about the problems and at
00:11:27
that time I felt that the country was
00:11:29
going to explode it was exp it wasn't
00:11:31
going to it was exploding and it was
00:11:33
really
00:11:34
happening as the 60s came to a close the
00:11:37
violent and deadly backlash in Easy
00:11:39
Rider was an eerie foreshadowing of real
00:11:42
events to come commun with somebody
00:11:46
South
00:11:57
push in operation with the Armed Forces
00:12:00
of South Vietnam attacks are being
00:12:02
launched this week to clean out major
00:12:05
enemy sanctuaries on the Cambodian
00:12:08
Vietnam
00:12:11
border this is not an invasion of
00:12:16
Cambodia in May of 1970 when President
00:12:19
Nixon announced that American troops
00:12:20
were being sent into Cambodia 350
00:12:24
college campuses erupted in violent
00:12:28
protest
00:12:30
[Applause]
00:12:31
and Nixon have been promising we're
00:12:33
getting out of there and all of a sudden
00:12:35
Here Comes This invasion of Cambodia
00:12:38
another country added to the
00:12:40
list it was just a shock wave around the
00:12:45
nation leave this area
00:12:50
immediately at Kent State University in
00:12:52
Ohio The ROC building was firebombed the
00:12:55
governor called in the National
00:12:58
Guard
00:13:03
taunts and rocks were
00:13:07
[Applause]
00:13:11
thrown before it was over four college
00:13:14
students were shot and
00:13:19
killed the represented a country gone
00:13:21
mad American troop shot down American
00:13:24
students who were taking
00:13:26
classes that's the point we had gotten
00:13:28
to
00:13:30
after the violence of Kent State polls
00:13:32
found 58% of the respondents sided with
00:13:35
the Guardsmen only 11% with the students
00:13:39
by order of President FL the University
00:13:42
campus has been closed please return to
00:13:44
your dormitories and leave the campus by
00:13:46
the shortest the backlash of opinion
00:13:48
against campus demonstrators would only
00:13:50
grow following Kent State some 75
00:13:53
colleges were closed down for the rest
00:13:55
of the year the cause they said was
00:13:57
student unrest
00:13:59
[Music]
00:14:06
[Music]
00:14:09
4 days after Kent State a massive
00:14:11
demonstration in lower Manhattan set off
00:14:14
Legions of hard hats whose rage had been
00:14:17
building for years it was never planned
00:14:20
to explode but it did explode well I was
00:14:24
on Water Street and we all just headed
00:14:27
towards Broadway and and all you could
00:14:30
hear was just shouting in senses of
00:14:33
let's get the bastards and and let's
00:14:35
finish this once and for
00:14:37
[Applause]
00:14:39
[Music]
00:14:46
all and there was some blood
00:14:49
[Applause]
00:14:49
[Music]
00:14:52
[Applause]
00:14:56
spilled but it was all in anger all in
00:14:59
Vengeance let's get them and and a lot
00:15:01
of people including myself was was
00:15:05
releasing the the hate and and the
00:15:08
feelings that you
00:15:09
had look like an americ of course a lot
00:15:12
of us felt the uh winners we felt very
00:15:16
proud uh we scattered the
00:15:21
enemy the hard hats were Heroes for a
00:15:24
few days praised by Wall Street workers
00:15:27
given free coffee by AR a lunchonette
00:15:30
owners the leaders of the construction
00:15:32
unions were invited to the White House
00:15:34
where they presented President Nixon
00:15:35
with an honorary hard hat and the hard
00:15:38
hat became a symbol for the so-called
00:15:41
silent majority those who felt their way
00:15:44
of life was now Under Siege by the early
00:15:47
1970s it wasn't just anti Vietnam
00:15:49
protesters on the streets and on the
00:15:51
news anymore but a dizzying array of
00:15:54
other forces as well women Native
00:15:57
Americans Cho Puerto Ricans black
00:16:00
panthers gray Panthers the openly gay
00:16:02
Pink Panthers all these groups forged in
00:16:06
this era of so-called identity politics
00:16:09
were all militantly demanding their
00:16:13
rights the backlash against this
00:16:16
politics of protest was just about ready
00:16:19
to
00:16:21
explode an event in September of 1971
00:16:25
hastened the eruption when 1500 prison
00:16:28
inmates rioted and demanded their rights
00:16:31
the nation's anger and frustration
00:16:33
became focused on the ateka correctional
00:16:35
facility in Upstate New
00:16:38
York the inmates captured 50 hostages
00:16:41
took control of the prison's dard and
00:16:44
issued what they called five
00:16:46
non-negotiable
00:16:50
demands wait AE New York Times Reporter
00:16:53
Tom wicker was one of the outside
00:16:55
observers the inmates called on to help
00:16:57
negotiate the non negotiable the ATA
00:17:01
inmates revolted basically against uh
00:17:04
internal prison conditions but the
00:17:07
rhetoric of the Revolt was very Marxist
00:17:10
you know um the oppressed peoples of the
00:17:12
world arise the entire incident that has
00:17:16
erupted here at Atta is a result of the
00:17:19
unmitigated oppression wrought by the
00:17:21
racist administrative network of this
00:17:24
prison as this tense real life drama
00:17:27
unfolded families of the hostage
00:17:29
desperate for word on the condition of
00:17:31
their husbands or fathers or brothers
00:17:33
clustered around the
00:17:35
prison would you take that would you
00:17:37
take a mic out they saw Black Panther
00:17:39
leader Bobby seal come to visit the
00:17:41
inmates they heard that North Vietnam
00:17:44
offered the rioter
00:17:46
Asylum ateka quickly became a symbol for
00:17:49
all of America's boiling
00:17:51
hatreds I went outside the prison uh to
00:17:55
uh report on what was happening inside
00:17:58
and all of a sudden there began to be
00:18:00
these shouts and screams from the crowd
00:18:01
I hope they kill you all that sort of
00:18:03
thing they identified us The Observers
00:18:06
with the with the
00:18:08
inmates the tensions mounted as neither
00:18:11
side seemed willing to make concessions
00:18:14
and the state ready to take the prison
00:18:16
back by
00:18:17
force on the morning of the revolts
00:18:20
fourth day prison officials did not let
00:18:22
The Observers back into
00:18:27
dard arms state troopers were perched on
00:18:30
the Prison
00:18:31
Walls everybody got a gas
00:18:34
Mas and certainly those uh scared young
00:18:38
Troopers thought the inmates were going
00:18:40
to kill the
00:18:43
hostes
00:18:45
so they came in
00:18:47
scared they came in shooting they came
00:18:49
in taking no chances the hostages are on
00:18:53
the C box with knives at their
00:18:57
throat
00:19:03
the 4-day standoff ended in 9 minutes of
00:19:07
Mayhem helicopters dropped CS gas on
00:19:10
dard and State Police Marksman opened
00:19:13
fire killing 29 inmates and 10
00:19:17
[Music]
00:19:25
hostages it's crazy they didn't have to
00:19:27
do that you have to State just sat there
00:19:29
just sat
00:19:30
there for two more weeks maybe three at
00:19:33
the outside I mean those guys would have
00:19:35
given
00:19:45
up your hands on top of your head and
00:19:50
the
00:19:53
of what is it now 20 odd years later I
00:19:57
can't get over that feel it didn't have
00:19:58
to do that you know but they
00:20:03
did what happened at adeka was the
00:20:05
largest and deadliest attack on
00:20:07
Americans by other Americans since the
00:20:09
Civil War and in 1971 it often looked as
00:20:13
though the country was in the middle of
00:20:15
another civil
00:20:16
[Music]
00:20:27
war
00:20:33
[Music]
00:20:47
I'm just like a lot most of the guys I
00:20:49
would say in Vietnam I'm just going to
00:20:51
do my time and get out of here if I can
00:20:54
I'm not here to win a war I'm just here
00:20:57
to do my time and
00:20:59
rotate how short am I how much time do I
00:21:03
have left that's the biggest concern of
00:21:05
everyone and can I make
00:21:09
it the war was not going to be won it
00:21:12
was just going to be exited in the best
00:21:14
possible political
00:21:18
Manner and it was about doggy dog and
00:21:21
surviving really a very brutal
00:21:23
prison-like existence of of
00:21:27
survival
00:21:29
inside that really eats away at you that
00:21:31
has a has a tremendous negative effect
00:21:34
on your spirit and your your sense of
00:21:36
worth and your sense of purpose yeah I
00:21:39
was tired of all of it weary of it too
00:21:42
many deaths and too much pain and too
00:21:44
much
00:21:50
[Music]
00:21:55
suffering by 1970 American troops left
00:21:58
in Vietnam felt the country was
00:22:00
abandoning the war and them
00:22:06
hey the number of American Ground Forces
00:22:09
had been cut in half as part of
00:22:10
President Nixon's pledge to win Peace
00:22:13
With Honor as the pullout continued new
00:22:16
recruits overwhelmingly draes felt they
00:22:19
were being asked to fight a war already
00:22:21
lost on the battlefield and despised at
00:22:27
home
00:22:29
the enemy had no doubt about its purpose
00:22:31
its only way out of the war was Victory
00:22:34
or death unlike American soldiers who
00:22:37
came to Vietnam and they came only for
00:22:39
one year and then got out in Vietnam
00:22:43
there was no drop period like a one or
00:22:47
two years so you would go on to the end
00:22:50
of the day to the end of the
00:22:57
war
00:22:59
[Music]
00:23:08
shot the third one you can do that this
00:23:11
one I'll buy you Cas
00:23:15
beer they were tough and they proved
00:23:19
it when the trails were bombed they
00:23:22
would carry all of their gear on their
00:23:24
back they would hump it for days they
00:23:26
were fighting for home which is
00:23:28
something I wasn't doing when you're
00:23:30
fighting for home you get
00:23:38
down as American ground forces were
00:23:40
being cut back air attacks were being
00:23:42
stepped up in an effort to pound
00:23:44
concessions out of the
00:23:46
[Music]
00:23:48
enemy we had to rely on caves and
00:23:51
tunnels and underground bunkers to
00:23:54
defend us because the B52 is a terrible
00:23:58
B High take if you see half of the long
00:24:01
bomb like this then we know for sure
00:24:04
that it would go to another
00:24:07
place but when you look up and you see
00:24:10
ra bomb like this it means that it's
00:24:13
right on
00:24:20
you but continuous rounds of bombing and
00:24:23
hundreds of thousands of casualties did
00:24:25
little to deter an adversary
00:24:27
continuously re supplied by China and
00:24:29
the Soviet Union and able to recruit
00:24:32
seemingly endless numbers of
00:24:36
people there is truly a national
00:24:39
mobilization in that own people men and
00:24:42
women young children took part in the
00:24:45
National effort of
00:24:48
War we saw an
00:24:50
escalation of the antiw movement all
00:24:54
over the world and even in
00:24:56
America we heard about the killing of
00:25:00
the student in Ken State and uh
00:25:04
everything the news from the
00:25:06
antiw movement all over the world gave
00:25:09
us
00:25:14
strength Walt Curts Tennessee four Brian
00:25:18
stars in America by the early 70s
00:25:21
protesters against the war included some
00:25:23
of the men who had fought in it once
00:25:26
eager soldiers who now felt Li to and
00:25:29
betrayed I pray the time will forgive me
00:25:31
and my brothers what we did I wasn't in
00:25:34
Washington where they threw their medals
00:25:35
I thought I'd try to do one better and I
00:25:37
sent my campaign ribbons to uh President
00:25:40
Nixon I saw the war as as completely
00:25:43
unwinable which made it even worse even
00:25:45
more criminal go on fighting a a war
00:25:48
that you know you can't and won't
00:25:52
win struck me as as worse than criminal
00:25:54
struck me as
00:25:56
Insanity as the war dragged on into the
00:25:58
the 10th year of American Military
00:26:00
involvement there was still no end in
00:26:03
sight Vietnam had already brought down
00:26:06
one president and was now threatening to
00:26:07
bring down another President Nixon
00:26:09
standing in the polls dropped severely
00:26:12
as the promise of Peace With Honor
00:26:14
proved elusive peace talks in Paris with
00:26:17
the North Vietnamese were stalled over
00:26:19
the concept of mutual withdrawal and the
00:26:22
release of American prisoners of war
00:26:25
secret negotiations between National
00:26:27
Security adviser R Kissinger and Le do
00:26:30
toe were not making any progress but in
00:26:33
February of
00:26:35
1972 another set of secret negotiations
00:26:38
did lead to one of the biggest
00:26:41
diplomatic coups of the 20th
00:26:45
century in one stunning swoop the Cold
00:26:48
War politics of the postwar era changed
00:26:51
America was recognizing and dealing with
00:26:54
the
00:26:55
Communists Nixon was the Great
00:26:57
anti-communist
00:26:59
and to come on national television and
00:27:01
announce that I've been invited to China
00:27:03
and I've accepted with pleasure it was
00:27:06
astonishing and you could tell by the
00:27:08
reaction of the
00:27:10
press White House Aid Patrick Buchanan
00:27:12
was on the trip the president called the
00:27:14
weak that changed the
00:27:17
world we have at times in the past been
00:27:21
enemies we have great differences today
00:27:24
he went to Beijing frankly because he
00:27:26
was trying to work foreign policy game
00:27:29
to get the United States out of Vietnam
00:27:32
With
00:27:32
Honor Nixon's aim was to have the
00:27:35
Chinese pressure their North Vietnamese
00:27:37
allies to come to terms at the peace
00:27:40
table and just four months after China
00:27:43
Richard Nixon became the first American
00:27:45
President to visit Moscow where he and
00:27:47
landed breev signed the first strategic
00:27:49
arms limitation treaty the president got
00:27:52
something else as
00:27:54
well he wanted Ma and Jo and Li in
00:27:57
Beijing to have sleepless nights
00:27:59
wondering what's Nixon talking to BNF
00:28:01
about over there in Moscow
00:28:04
tonight and he was a genius at
00:28:07
this and putting those tensions on would
00:28:11
had the effect of blocking Soviet or
00:28:14
Chinese getting together to present a
00:28:17
united front against the United States
00:28:18
in Vietnam Nixon had taken a calculated
00:28:22
chance and it had worked the Soviet
00:28:25
Union cared more about getting controls
00:28:27
on American offensive missiles and
00:28:30
preventing the Americans from broadening
00:28:31
and thickening an anti-ballistic missile
00:28:34
system and they do about their little
00:28:36
allies in North Vietnam who were getting
00:28:39
the living hell bombed out of them and
00:28:41
there was a sense of being betrayed sop
00:28:46
you know at that time by the by the
00:28:49
superpowers no longer able to depend on
00:28:52
their powerful allies the North
00:28:53
Vietnamese appeared ready to make
00:28:55
concessions at the peace talks in
00:28:57
October 1972 there was an announcement
00:29:00
from the National Security adviser we
00:29:03
believe that peace is at hand a month
00:29:07
later President Nixon now seen as a
00:29:09
seasoned World Statesman was reelected
00:29:11
in a
00:29:17
landslide but by December peace was
00:29:19
still not at hand the North Vietnamese
00:29:22
had left the negotiations and President
00:29:24
Nixon ordered the bombing of Hanoi and
00:29:26
the port of Hong to force them back for
00:29:30
11 days American B-52s pounded Hanoi
00:29:33
with 40,000 tons of
00:29:46
bombs Hanoi was in rubbles the railroads
00:29:50
the bridges were all down they had
00:29:52
selected targets obviously and the US
00:29:54
knew where we were and the only thing
00:29:56
that happened in p Camp there's a piece
00:29:59
of plaster fell down and it hit one of
00:30:01
the PS in the head and cut his head
00:30:03
that's the only the only injury
00:30:05
throughout that whole bombing Bob Jones
00:30:07
was in Hanoi during the Christmas
00:30:09
bombings he was one of 500 American
00:30:11
prisoners of War held in a prison they
00:30:14
called the Hanoi
00:30:16
Hilton there was a uh a loudspeaker
00:30:20
every morning and every afternoon we had
00:30:22
an English
00:30:25
broadcast the prisoners of War whose
00:30:28
release had become a crucial part of the
00:30:30
peace negotiations were scolded about
00:30:32
the bombings by their captors and Hanoi
00:30:35
Hannah said how can the United States
00:30:38
continue with their bellicose and
00:30:40
obdurate policies bombing and strafing
00:30:44
innocent women and children churches
00:30:46
hospitals how can they do all that after
00:30:48
they've placed a plaque on the moon
00:30:50
saying we come in peace For All Mankind
00:30:53
and everyone said on the
00:30:55
moon and that was the first we knew
00:30:58
about our moon landing there were cheers
00:31:01
all the way through the
00:31:04
camp after that we'd point the guards
00:31:07
the guards would come up and we'd go
00:31:09
we'd point to the Moon you know and say
00:31:10
us
00:31:13
us for some prisoners of War it was
00:31:16
their seventh Christmas in captivity at
00:31:19
the end of 1972 there was still no
00:31:21
guarantee that they never get
00:31:24
[Music]
00:31:26
home
00:31:29
[Music]
00:31:46
the end of America's longest war was met
00:31:48
with no celebration in Time
00:31:53
Square no honking of horns on Main
00:31:57
Street USA
00:32:00
the day the peace agreement in Vietnam
00:32:02
was signed went by like any other people
00:32:06
were prospering economy was booming and
00:32:09
most of the people didn't give a damn
00:32:10
about Vietnam whatever they say now they
00:32:12
really didn't that was very despairing
00:32:14
and very rough years coming back from
00:32:17
that war from most fets I didn't feel
00:32:20
like I fit or
00:32:22
something I wasn't the same person
00:32:24
that's for sure I didn't feel like a
00:32:26
civilian uh
00:32:28
it's hard to explain I was very
00:32:30
uncomfortable coming home very
00:32:35
uncomfortable I'm on a civilian plane
00:32:37
I'm flying from Los Angeles to New York
00:32:39
Non-Stop and a Gentleman sat down he was
00:32:42
in a three-piece suit and he had a
00:32:45
briefcase and he kind of flipped down
00:32:46
his tray and he was going through his
00:32:48
briefcase and we made small talk before
00:32:49
we took off you know Marine i y I see
00:32:53
that where you coming from I told him
00:32:54
Vietnam and as soon as the sign came on
00:32:58
that you were free to move around the
00:32:59
cabin he pushed the button for the
00:33:01
stus she came and he looked up at her
00:33:04
and she said can I help you and he said
00:33:06
yes I need another seat on this airplane
00:33:09
as far away from this gentleman as I can
00:33:13
get returning vets often felt they
00:33:16
represented a war that Americans wanted
00:33:18
to
00:33:18
forget but if there was one moment that
00:33:21
felt like a victory it was the return of
00:33:23
the American
00:33:26
PS so we thought well you know maybe you
00:33:30
get your name in the paper but nothing
00:33:32
like uh that it
00:33:34
was uh people everywhere we went that
00:33:37
didn't know us we didn't know them uh
00:33:39
outpourings of emotion and uh feelings
00:33:43
tears uh it was just uh overwhelming it
00:33:46
really
00:33:56
was president Nixon invited us to the
00:33:59
White House for a a party a dinner and
00:34:02
everything so many
00:34:05
believe we never could
00:34:07
win our choices were
00:34:10
Grim but you had faith in him there was
00:34:13
a lot of celebrities and I remember John
00:34:15
Wayne was there so we were uh walking
00:34:18
around talking with with the Duke you
00:34:20
know was pretty pretty cool you're the
00:34:22
best we have and I'll ride off into the
00:34:25
sunset with you
00:34:26
anytime
00:34:35
it was it was a grand time it was fun A
00:34:37
lot of
00:34:40
[Music]
00:34:44
fun to
00:34:50
[Music]
00:34:56
our
00:35:04
it was the nexton presidence he had to
00:35:05
Peak he had ended the war with honor and
00:35:08
the PS were uh were there at the White
00:35:10
House and Nixon was at 70% it was really
00:35:13
the Apex I think of the Nixon
00:35:19
Administration and within a month of
00:35:21
course the Watergate uh thing ruptured
00:35:24
and
00:35:25
broke the crisis in Vietnam would soon
00:35:28
be replaced by a new crisis at home a
00:35:31
growing Scandal stemming from a break-in
00:35:33
at the Democratic National Committee
00:35:34
headquarters in the office complex known
00:35:37
as
00:35:40
Watergate hearings on Watergate dragged
00:35:43
one White House Aid after another in
00:35:45
front of Congress to answer questions
00:35:47
about systematic wrongdoing in the
00:35:50
highest office in the land the Water
00:35:52
Gate was certainly a fascinating
00:35:54
spectacle suddenly all the bad bad
00:35:57
things the left had been saying
00:35:59
throughout the Vietnam protests seem to
00:36:01
be proven true in Spades Mr Butterfield
00:36:04
will you stand the televised hearings
00:36:06
Drew in an enormous audience you SW the
00:36:09
evidence that you should give this was
00:36:11
the first time the American people had
00:36:12
ever heard that a president United
00:36:13
States did things like that but I
00:36:16
guarantee you he knew what the
00:36:17
predecessors had
00:36:18
done it didn't all start with
00:36:21
Watergate there was ample precedent for
00:36:23
everything that Nixon did Nixon got
00:36:26
caught there was one outrageous charge
00:36:28
after another break-ins spying on
00:36:31
anti-war activists punishing political
00:36:33
enemies and all of the millions of words
00:36:35
of testimony there is not the slightest
00:36:37
suggestion that I had any knowledge of
00:36:38
the planning for the Watergate Breakin
00:36:41
congressional committees and their
00:36:42
battery of loyers were bringing the
00:36:44
charges closer to the Oval Office one of
00:36:47
the president's lawyers at the time was
00:36:48
Leonard garment this was the show of the
00:36:51
week month the year decade for young
00:36:54
lawyers hello young lawyers Wherever You
00:36:57
Are
00:36:58
and uh they were drawn by the excitement
00:37:00
of the uh of the pursuit of this the
00:37:04
great white whale all these
00:37:08
aabs there was a constant Pursuit by
00:37:11
Congress and the press it sometimes
00:37:13
seemed the administration was coming
00:37:15
unpinned it looked that way in New
00:37:17
Orleans when President Nixon shov press
00:37:20
secretary Ron Zigler toward a horde of
00:37:22
reporters and Nixon was trying every
00:37:24
which way how could he save his
00:37:26
presidency how could he depended on
00:37:28
somebody else how could he rationalize
00:37:30
what happened the Nixon White House was
00:37:32
in at least from the external and even
00:37:35
from the journalist point of view was in
00:37:36
real shambles they were paralyzed I mean
00:37:38
that they could do nothing but defend
00:37:40
against
00:37:41
wargate and in the middle of all that
00:37:43
the country was subjected to further
00:37:45
signs of collapse I will not resign if
00:37:48
indicted I will not resign if
00:37:52
indicted in October of 1973 vice
00:37:55
president agu the administration's top
00:37:57
spokesman for Law and Order did resign
00:38:00
after he was charged with extortion
00:38:02
bribery and tax evasion in a separate
00:38:05
Scandal all his own ladies and gentlemen
00:38:07
the president of the United
00:38:09
States but even as his allies were
00:38:11
falling around him the president was
00:38:13
determined to finish his
00:38:20
watch I welcome this kind of examination
00:38:22
because people have got to know whether
00:38:24
or not their president is a crook well
00:38:26
I'm not a crook I've earned everything
00:38:29
I've got imagine a president of the
00:38:31
United States in a news conference on
00:38:34
National Television say I'm not a crook
00:38:37
you know you never even before that ever
00:38:39
conceived that a president might be a
00:38:41
crook it just all began to mount up and
00:38:44
ultimately it it was a collapse good
00:38:47
evening this is the 37th time I have
00:38:51
spoken to you from this office where so
00:38:53
many decisions finally it was all too
00:38:56
overwhelming even for the toughest of
00:38:58
battles scar
00:39:01
politicians I shall resign the
00:39:03
presidency effective at noon
00:39:07
tomorrow he could never take the
00:39:09
presidency quite as seriously
00:39:13
again it maybe
00:39:16
was perative it kind of ended uh ended
00:39:20
that particular unhappy decade to have
00:39:23
Nixon resign and uh they rather blank
00:39:28
but benign figure of Jerry Ford take
00:39:30
[Music]
00:39:34
[Applause]
00:39:36
[Music]
00:39:38
over his resignation was a a
00:39:44
relief casting off of an old snakes skin
00:39:47
moving
00:39:51
[Applause]
00:39:56
forward
00:40:07
in April of 1975 2 years after American
00:40:10
combat troops had left Vietnam North
00:40:13
Vietnamese forces reached the outskirts
00:40:15
of Saigon the South Vietnamese
00:40:19
Capital an ally the United States had
00:40:21
supported with men and material for
00:40:23
nearly two decades was about to fall to
00:40:26
the Communists it's almost like we were
00:40:28
never there now and uh that's the
00:40:31
tragedy of it I
00:40:35
think on April the 29th there were still
00:40:38
more than a thousand American Personnel
00:40:40
of the city they and 6,000 desperate
00:40:43
South Vietnamese were helicoptered out
00:40:46
as the last remnants of American power
00:40:48
fled
00:40:53
Saigon veteran Phil kaputo had returned
00:40:56
to Vietnam as a reporter and the North
00:40:59
Vietnamese were shelling tonsen
00:41:02
[Music]
00:41:03
Airbase boy I remember um some of those
00:41:06
shells Landing close to by me the
00:41:07
building was just trembling and somebody
00:41:09
said go go go and I remember running out
00:41:13
and just leaping in this big ch-53
00:41:15
helicopter huge thing come on this way
00:41:18
hey this way come on come on
00:41:24
let must have been 60 70 maybe 80
00:41:28
Vietnamese refugees and a few American
00:41:30
newsmen handful of people uh from the
00:41:33
embassy and then the helicopter took
00:41:39
off remember just looking down and just
00:41:41
seeing this this brown and green country
00:41:44
and then uh we crossed the
00:41:47
coast the site I'll never forget but the
00:41:50
seventh fleet had mustard out there they
00:41:52
were going to take refugees out I looked
00:41:55
at all of this m
00:41:59
and I said we got
00:42:01
whipped by a bunch of peasant gorillas
00:42:05
in the
00:42:08
end on the next day Victorious North
00:42:11
Vietnamese troops rolled into
00:42:15
saon at 10:00 in the morning the radio
00:42:19
announced that you know the South
00:42:21
Vietnamese at
00:42:23
surenda and and that was it you know we
00:42:26
hued one another and cried
00:42:30
and for me it's a long many long
00:42:34
years and now we see the final
00:42:41
day I felt that a whole range range of
00:42:44
emotions I mean I
00:42:45
felt sad I felt regretful I felt
00:42:49
relieved that it was
00:42:51
over maybe the one emotion I didn't feel
00:42:54
was any sense of happiness or or joy
00:43:01
I felt a sense of
00:43:03
loss like it stays with you forever
00:43:06
Vietnam will be there until the day I
00:43:07
join the till I join the friends of mine
00:43:10
who died before
00:43:11
me I think it won't ever go
00:43:19
away for America the fall of Vietnam
00:43:22
would symbolize the end of an era the
00:43:25
post-war era of confidence unity and
00:43:28
[Music]
00:43:31
optimism America had found that there
00:43:33
were some burdens too great to
00:43:36
bear and some prices too steep to
00:43:40
[Music]
00:43:51
pay the fall of Vietnam was the ner of a
00:43:54
humiliating episode in American history
00:43:56
the design to begin again to recover
00:44:00
some sense of national purpose would
00:44:02
drive American life through the
00:44:03
remaining years of the
00:44:05
1970s that's on the next episode of the
00:44:08
century America's time and we hope
00:44:10
you'll join us I'm Peter
00:44:13
[Music]
00:44:26
Jennings
00:44:29
[Music]
00:44:59
ah
