The Vietnam War | Part 1 | Vietnam and the War | Free Documentary History

[Music] the red is god [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] this is the story of america's war with vietnam and how it began [Music] the history of vietnam is one of conflict and great dynastic struggles which have led to fragmentation of the country over the centuries as well as inheriting the influence of many cultures the idea that there has been one people called the vietnamese throughout the last 2000 years is a bit of a modern invention after centuries of war in vietnam the one that began in 1955 would be internationally reported news and last for 20 years america say that they're fighting an army of peasants so how could they possibly lose however these people culturally know about war much better than any american does war that america deemed necessary in the fight against communism these very intelligent men really thought that it was the beginning of the communist takeover of the world there was a genuine basic misinterpretation of what the threat the communism held for the united states and the rest of the free world that's one of the really astounding things about the war that such intelligent men could have been so wrong the test offensive the fact that the vietcong had entered the american embassy in saigon caused a great deal of damage it did turn american public opinion totally against the war the protests were not even so much the soldiers as their mothers because what the hell is my boy doing in vietnam the devastation of this war continues to resonate today [Music] vietnam is the story of two major river deltas the red river delta in the north and the mekong delta in the south [Music] the three geographic areas of vietnam were first settled as far as we know from the archaeology by three different ethnic groups the vietnamese in the north the charm people in that central coastal strip who belong to various kingdoms known as champa and then the mekong delta were settled earliest by cambodians the charm people came actually from across the sea probably from the north coast of borneo and they were great sailors and seafarers and traders and they speak a language that's related to malay and they develop their own civilization in central vietnam largely influenced by hinduism and to some extent buddhism as well from india they used to be the dominant kingdom you know the dominant political society on the south china sea for you know five or six centuries it was the sham that controlled trade on the south china sea trade then expanded from europe to china seeing the arrival of western traders as well as muslim traders from india and the middle east slowly champa became mostly converted to islam while christianity became very important in the central and northern regions full-scale war broke out between the northern and the southern vietnamese kingdoms part of their weaponry came from trading with the westerners so that the dutch would supply weapons to the trin in the north and their ships would cross over the portuguese ships supplying weapons from macau near hong kong to the norton family in the southern kingdom those are the first european contacts but they were rapidly followed by the dutch and then the british and the french before the europeans arrived and throughout this period there were flourishing local quite sophisticated communities and societies often with cultures that had borrowed elements from religion to the way that kings ruled to political organisation from india more than from china [Music] vietnam's interaction with europe brought the arrival of catholic missionaries particularly the portuguese it was not until the arrival of french missionaries from the mid 17th century that their influence across vietnam was really felt the most significant of these missionaries was alexander de rhodes he studied the vietnamese language and compiled a dictionary into french this opened up the language to foreign influence the french converted an increasing number of vietnamese from confucianism to roman catholicism the emperor became angry and ordered the execution of many missionaries this was a turning point from friendly trading relations to aggressive behaviour the french almost seemed to use the execution of their missionaries as a reason to invade they were without any territories unlike the british in india the portuguese in the philippines the dutch in indonesia they decided to take over vietnam and establish a colony there was this constant tension between different regions of vietnam and the french arrived in that context and indeed conquered vietnam piecemeal around 1860 the french seized the area near saigon in the next two decades they moved through central and northern vietnam with french troops expanding their control over all six provinces on the mekong delta and formed a colony known as koshinshin they divided the country into those three regions which had never been divided into before france assumed control over the whole of vietnam french indochina was formed in october 1887. cambodia and laos were added in 1893. in the following years the french influence would play a significant role in shaping vietnam throughout its history the country had been invaded by a stream of dynasties and by the late 19th century vietnam had become vulnerable to french ambition years of civil war had led to a split between the north and the south it was into this environment that resentment to french occupation gave a space for nationalism and then communism to rise the influence of russia and china alarmed the usa south vietnam is already under attack [Music] but how did events lead to such a catastrophic loss of life and how necessary was america's involvement in a war so far from home [Music] by 1884 france had taken control over vietnam forming the territories of tongkin anam and koshinshin the french were keen to bring vietnam under french law and it wasn't long before french culture grew across the country the french conquest was in fact supported by some vietnamese including catholics but also some others who thought that the french could bring modernization to vietnam so there were some vietnamese who sided with the french and including some who benefited economically they were distributed lands in the south particularly in the mekong delta so a new landlord class developed as french influence expanded they soon established the bureaucracy and architecture of their towns building town halls law courts and schools the education system evolved for the expatriates but soon became a fashion for the wealthy local residents as well in hugh capital of the annan section of indochina the japanese always so polite do not disturb the semblance of ancient rule likewise carefully preserved by the french colonial administration in a modern home built for her by the french at dalat the empress of anand brings up her three attractive children in truly royal atmosphere she accepts with oriental resignation the obvious facts of the situation it was clear to parents that if they wanted their children to rise in the bureaucracy and get positions they needed to know the new newly adopted latin alphabet which came to be known as quotenu or the national script and so the vietnamese culture became internationalized in a way it hadn't been before and at the same time a familiarity a new familiarity with western political ideologies including communism [Music] it was into this climate of french education that ho chi minh was brought up the man who would change vietnam's history forever as a young man he was keen to see the world and took employment on ships as a deckhand he traveled to america lived in london for a while where he was rumored to have spent time as a cook and also lived in paris whilst in paris he petitioned for the independence and civil rights of the vietnamese people from french rule when this failed in the u.s under president woodrow wilson ho chi minh became disillusioned which furthered his communist zeal he spent time in russia and china before being imprisoned by chiang kai-shek his reputation at home was developing and when he returned in 1941 he had almost a hero status he was a very much a man of the world he'd been educated by the french he traveled around the world as a sailor worked as a chef in in london in the paris peace talks in 1919 he turned up at versailles and demanded freedom from french colonialism for the vietnamese people and was thrown out ho chi minh was a member of the french socialist party which split in 1919 and he joined the communist faction which founded the french communist party during the second world war france had fallen to nazi germany in june 1940. the vichy government in paris immediately ceded control of saigon and hanoi to japan japan enforced the right to land forces in vietnam they needed to block the transportation of war materials through vietnam to the allies when ho chi minh was released from prison in china he returned to vietnam to lead the viet minh independence movement they fought against the vichy french and japanese forces during world war ii ho chi minh would return to china and with general japan and others set up a communist resistance who fought the japanese in 1945 they'd taken over the north part of vietnam the south was liberated by by the british who to justify taking back their own colonies in in the far east rearmed the japanese to hold the country until the french turned up to reoccupy south vietnam [Music] the japanese and the french were very anti-communist and the vietnamese communist party had been founded in 1930 by ho chi minh he and the other vietnamese communists rejected both the japanese and the french and they were the only large political party in vietnam which did oppose both the french and the japanese but at the end of the war when both of those groups lost the communists led by ho chi minh were in a stronger position to take over i remember that many people at that time talk a lot about ho chi minh who they called alcohol at that time everyone thought he was somewhere like up there going now to help but obviously he also human being with some kind of ambition participant people respected ho chi minh as a great patriot and were willing to support it they were tired of being dominated by the french and now the japanese and fought for their freedom he oversaw many successful military actions against the french and then against japanese occupation of vietnam during world war ii supported secretly by the united states office of strategic services ho chi minh had meanwhile formed a alliance with the united states and was rescuing french and american pilots who were shot down by the japanese and delivering them to the american forces in the south of china and so ho chi minh was able to build an army with some support from the united states and was in a position to take over once the japanese were defeated over the years ho chi minh had developed a significant army the country was in the midst of a huge famine the vietnam peasants blamed the french and japanese who were keeping the rice to feed their troops even exporting it to japan after the japanese had handed vietnam to the viet minh in 1945 an estimated two million vietnamese people had died one of the problems at the end of the second world war is it led into a variety of other wars particularly in indochina and the vietnam war which the united states inherited from the french which they had lost was in fact inherited from ho chi minh himself when he had been an ally of the united states and i think that the basic problem was ho chi minh was a nationalist first and foremost not a communist since 1945 the american foreign policy was the containment of communism there was the famous domino theory that if south vietnam fell to the communists so it allows cambodia thailand it when it was spread down the malay peninsula until eventually australia would become communist and one cenata famously said we don't want to start fighting when they land on waikiki beach there's no question in my mind that these very intelligent men mcnamara and rusk really thought that it was the beginning of the communist takeover of the world i mean that famous domino theory and they all believed it and it was dead wrong the french finally built up to a point where uh ho chi minh and the vietnam north decided to resist and they started to attack the french in hanoi in december of 1946 and the war which lasted until 1954 began then meanwhile the situation in fringe indochina grows greater as bitter fighting sweeps through hanoi leaving misery and destruction in its wake french troops move up country to engage the well-equipped forces of the vietnam republic who made a desperate but unsuccessful bid to massacre the entire french population of the city the french don't let vietnam independent and that just push the country into the company's hand because everyone wanted to be independent and only communist was organized well organized the only intention as far as i can tell that ho chi minh had about any other country was south vietnam president eisenhower's refusal to help the french with the air strikes at the time of bienvenue ho chi minh was so able to to marshal his forces get soviet aid in and at the same time keep the chinese from getting frantic about it and getting help from them as well and then that was his determination of the extraordinarily brilliant general over to the french fighting communism in indochina as ju-52 planes lend their weight in an all-out offensive against the red jungle strongholds of the vietnam forces particularly after the fall of china to the mao's communist regime and the start of the korean war in 1949 and 1950 respectively the united states began to give massive military support and political support to the french effort in indochina from 1950. the americans were initially very reluctant to support them but partly in exchange for support for france and nato in europe the americans decided to support france in indochina which led to american financial support and advisors and that sort of thing the fight for indochina goes on french pilots flying american planes take up where the big guns left off blasting communist divisions which had infiltrated french positions in the hanoi delta for the next four years of that war the united states paid for about 80 percent of the french military budget and at the same time the chinese were supporting the vietnamese independence movement led mostly by communists and fought mostly in the north many many people from the south like everyone in vietnam at that time joined vietnam because their relationship their involvement with resistance they have the heart for it war comes to peaceful rice paddies rich prize the reds were hoping to seize until the french aided by the loyal vietnamese drove them into the sea but from the back waters of war come the helpless victims of aggression the women the children the old and infirm communism passed their way they have little left now but a spark of life that drives them on toward escape and sanctuary behind the french lines it's clear that people on all sides were fighting for different reasons the americans were fighting to stop this tide of communism that would sweep down from china through vietnam into the rest of indochina the rest of southeast asia um the vietnamese some of them may have thought they were part of an international movement but many of them were just fighting for their own personal uh reasons you know to liberate the country against foreign occupiers or to get rid of the power of landlords and that kind of thing the war that broke out in 1946 dragged on for eight years and has its culmination at the battle of diane bunfu in in 1954 where a very bold move by the french military goes completely wrong and they're out fought and out thought by the guerrillas under general zapp the first indochina war came to an end with the battle of dien bien fu in 1954 culminating in a comprehensive defeat for the french france agreed to withdraw its forces from all its colonies and a conference at geneva decided on the division of vietnam with control of the north given to the viet minh as the democratic republic of vietnam under ho chi minh and the south becoming the state of vietnam nominally under emperor bao dai this prevented ho chi minh from gaining control of the entire country after the division of vietnam into north and south the north is seen as a communist threat by the united states south vietnam's prime minister no dim diem faced a two-year deadline for a nationwide reunification vote however the us feared that tiem might not win in the north the viet minh had formed the national liberation front under ho chi minh known as the viet cong and started guerrilla warfare in the south of the country in an attempt to gain control president came back to vietnam with the acceptance from the last emperor maori in a referendum he ousted badai sent him into exile in france and he became president the the south was still administered from saigon until there was going to be an election which would then unite the country when the americans realized that they wouldn't win any election against the communists they backed prime minister diem in south vietnam to set up an independent state state which so it would be analogous to north and south korea because of the influence of the korean war upon american thinking when the french lost at the end benfo and eisenhower had to decide what to do about the country he decided to support the south vietnamese government in in place and they supported that dreadful man diem diem was like a south american dictator about whom some american general i think once said he's a son of a [ __ ] but he's our son of a [ __ ] and that strain of thought ran through the american government when they look at their allies around the world and it was a mistake half of the villages were under communist rule in 1954 and it wasn't clear who was going to come out on top and indeed the united states and the other political groups also expected that the communists would win wasn't anything great american conspiracy to rule the world or anything they just didn't want the russians to take over when they realized that soviet communism as they saw it was a menace which it was it would influence other parts of the world that they thought they could reach and uh and as a consequence vietnam after the french were defeated at diane benfo was was a prime candidate for american heart and so the cm regime immediately turned its attention to the religious or the political religious sects uh in the mekong delta and attacked them first and so there was fighting in the streets of saigon in 1954 and 1955 and much of it spread to the mekong delta there was a sort of civil war in the early days of the south vietnamese the regime and unrest in vietnam continued the rioting intensified and the vietnamese people continue to see ho chi minh and the national liberation front as a way to gain back their independence america continued to closely monitor the situation uneasy at the rapid rise of communism in vietnam which they deemed to be a direct threat to them this mood prompted president kennedy to send in aid ultimately ending in over half a million u.s troops and a bloody war that would last for 20 years in the 20th century vietnam had endured invasion from france and china it had seen the creation of indochina under french rule and the development of french culture and influence in the coming years after the defeat of the french at the battle of dien bien phu the geneva peace conference divided the country with control of the south now led by gm supported by america north vietnam was given to the democratic republic of vietnam led by ho chi minh he formed the national liberation front also known as the viet cong and began an uprising against the south to this world the national liberation front were gaining significant strength in vietnam to many vietnamese the viet minh were heroes to america's leaders ho chi minh represented communism and a significant threat man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life and yet the same revolutionary belief for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe the viet men were able to recruit in the south centre and north the religious groups in the south were not able to recruit in the centre and north the vietnamese nationalist party was more northern based and ngodin cm's following was largely among vietnamese catholics and particularly in his home base of central vietnam and so the viet men built the biggest political organization the viet minh were able to recruit the peasants whereas most of the other political groups didn't uh show much interest it's a communist party that there are it's disciplined there are lots of people has the ability to take power from the top right down into the villages and mobilize large numbers of people by the early 1960s hanoi's policy shifted further again towards supporting the guerrilla war that was already developing fast in the south meanwhile the united states had built up its own forces they had surpassed the geneva limit on foreign forces in south vietnam the position of this administration has been carefully considered and we have sought to make it just as clear as we know how to the government's concern president kennedy pledged aid to dm it hadn't been long since america had not been able to defeat the communists in north korea and they were intent on not losing to them again in vietnam in 1961 400 american green berets special advisers are sent to train soldiers in the fight against the vietcong guerrillas under ho chi minh in october that year general maxwell taylor reports to the president and advises kennedy to expand the number of u.s military advisers and to send 8 000 combat soldiers the number of troops sent by kennedy will eventually surpass 16 000 by 1963. it was a serious mistake for kennedy to get involved as he did with american force in that part of the world thinking that this great monolithic soviet style communism would rule the roost when he could have played it differently i believe and fought it more subtly the great word of the the vietnam war gave us was escalation because it starts off with kennedy sending in just 400 military advisors who are actually special forces organizing and controlling the action and then more go in and then more go in he should have fought it with the limited aid he gave it initially with the development of the special forces the green berets as they're called and and other small tactical units and not created this great uh surge of north vietnamese resentment south vietnam is already under attack sometimes by a single assassin sometimes by a band of gorillas recently by full battalions the peaceful borders of burma cambodia and india have been repeatedly violated and the peaceful people of laos are in danger of losing the independence they gained not so long ago the eventual result was that the united states decided that the south would lose very quickly if it didn't change policy and that the united states needed to move in with regular forces on a large scale the chinese were the communists or nationalists were age-old enemies of the vietnamese it was the soviet the threat of soviet communism and the fact that china had fallen with mao in a way that was assisted by the soviets was to the americans they created this monster in their imaginations and they had to go and fight it [Music] there's something happening here but what it is ain't exactly clear [Music] in the final analysis it's their war they're the ones who have to win it or lose it we can help them we can give them equipment we can send our men out there as advisers but they have to win it the people of vietnam against the communists so all we can do is help and we're making it very clear but i don't agree with those who say we should withdraw that'd be a great mistake [Music] president kennedy was conflicted about vietnam he realized that he couldn't give up the territory but faced a crisis by july despite increased u.s support the south vietnamese military was not making any ground against the viet cong forces the regime of south vietnam's president negodin diem comes to an end in a wave of violence a few days before the army revolt these last pictures showed a man who seemed to have no premonition of the horrible death he was to meet the situation in saigon was intensifying as the viet cong fought against tm ultimately leading to his death border fire concentrates on tanks and armored carriers blocking the way to the palace for two and a half hours the palace comes at a heavy bombardment before the white flag is raised meanwhile diem and his brother nego denu had fled the palace into skies they were later captured only to die in an armored car that was taking them to prison [Music] three weeks later in the u.s the nation was to be shocked by the tragic assassination of president kennedy on november twenty second nineteen sixty three at one twenty five the motorcade moves into the downtown area death is six minutes away in a warehouse a sniper with a rifle poised waits the cheers of the crowd almost muffled the three shots the assassin's aim is deadly from dallas texas the flash apparently official president kennedy died at one pm central standard time two o'clock eastern standard time some 38 minutes ago vice president lyndon johnson has left the hospital in dallas but we do not know uh to where he has proceeded presumably he will be taking the oath of office shortly and become the 36th president of the united states lyndon johnson was thrust into the presidency after the assassination the country was in disarray the worsening situation in vietnam had been kennedy's most pressing problem and johnson inherited america's commitment to vietnam and to defeating communism president johnson for all his great virtues wasn't very strong on foreign policy he was had been in the navy during the pacific war and he believed one that overwhelming force worked militarily and number two he was a great texan wheeler dealer he figured if he waved the big stick he could negotiate with ho chi minh didn't want to negotiate with anyone he knew eventually he would win they could control how many people they were losing and all they were doing was keeping their casualties down to below their birth rate [Music] in august 1964 an incident of the gulf of tonkin triggered a reaction from president johnson the determination of all americans to carry out our full commitment to the people and to the government of south vietnam will be redoubled by this outrage ultimately this reaction would lead to the beginning of a war in vietnam a war that still resonates the justification remains a question to this day lyndon johnson became the 36th president of the united states after the assassination of john f kennedy in november 1963. he inherited an economic crisis in america that saw him proclaim a war on poverty he had inherited another conflict a war on communism and america's commitment to vietnam the increased strength of the viet cong and the rise of communism demanded more resources from johnson but until now he had resisted the need to escalate the situation however in august 1964 president johnson decided to act after events at the gulf of tonkin destroyers of the united states navy are assigned routine patrols from time to time sunday august the 2nd 1964 the destroyer maddox was on such a patrol shortly after noon the calm of the day is broken as general quarters sound when the gulf of tonkin in vertical and that there's a a a spurious report that that american warships have been attacked by by vietnamese patrol boats they use as an excuse the gulf of tonkin incident illustrates this capability for instant retaliation against unprovoked attack the uss maddox's captain sent a report that three north vietnamese torpedo boats supposedly fired on them but then sent a retraction that it had been foul weather and not an attack however president johnson ignored the retraction and ordered the bombing of torpedo boat bases and an oil depot president lyndon johnson obtained a almost unanimous approval from the u.s congress to escalate the war in vietnam and bombing aircraft was sent north he knew everyone on capitol hill he could get anything through he wanted they gave him this gulf of tonkin resolution which he said it was like grandmother's night shirt it covered everything and it just gave him um carl blanche to to to fight how he wished it is my duty to the american people to report that renewed hostile actions against united states ships on the high seas and the gulf of tonkin have today required me to order the military forces of the united states take action and reply eastern world it is exploding violence loading you're old enough to kill but not for voting you don't believe in war boys ain't got your children and even the jordan river has bodies [Music] [Music] destruction but repeated acts of a violence against the armed forces of the united states must be met not only with alert defense but with positive reply that reply is being given [Music] as i speak to you tonight full-scale military action on vietnam had begun the viet cong retaliate with a bombing onslaught on a u.s air base one of the major impacts of the united states buildup of ground troops in south vietnam was that the communist guerrillas in the south started recruiting at an increased level themselves and in fact from 1964 to 1965 the communist guerrillas quadrupled their recruitment meanwhile the united states was building up and its forces at an even faster rate uh to hundreds of thousands the american commitment on the ground in south vietnam rises from twelve thousand to two hundred thousand and suddenly everyone in america is is affected despite a campaign for de-escalation of u.s involvement johnson's attack on vietnam is greeted with much support in the usa and his popularity rises he wins a landslide victory to be u.s president within a year he had given the command for operation rolling thunder to begin [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] forces on both sides built up with the contribution made from north vietnam of regular troops coming into the fighting as well and the destruction that was being conducted and carried out in the villages of south vietnam particularly the populated areas where the impact was greatest but also in the forested areas the level of destruction escalated enormously from the mid 60s onwards and had an enormous impact on the vietnamese people's livelihood on the way people tried to survive in the cities fleeing from the countryside where the war was strongest into the cities the cities began to fill up with rural refugees protest movements developed in the cities [Music] [Applause] the continuous arrival of u.s troops and a large buildup of the south vietnamese army meant that america could inflict large casualties not just on the northern vietnamese regulars who would move south but also on the gorillas and the south vietnamese communist regular troops as well large-scale rioting in saigon continues [Music] we have made a national pledge to help south vietnam defend its independence and i intend to keep that promise [Applause] [Music] america could not politically invade the north because they hadn't declared war this this was a police action so that they couldn't invade the north but they did feel that they were able to bomb it this was called operation rolling thunder and they just tried to pulverize all the industry all the supply lines everything in the north and in a month they would drop as much ordinance from north vietnam as it had been dropped in the whole of world war ii [Music] this bombardment of air raids would last three years together with the deployment of agent orange [Music] this was just the start of a war that would rage for many years a war that would affect vietnam and america for decades to come [Music] [Music] me [Music]

Channel: Free Documentary - History

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Keywords: Free Documentary, Documentaries, Full Documentary, documentary - topic, documentary (tv genre), History, History Documentaries, Free Documentary History, History Documentary, The Vietnam War, Vietnam War, Vietnam War Documentary, Vietnam, Viet Cong, US Army Documentary, US Marines, Saigon, Ho Chi Minh, Indochina, Indochina Documentary, Dien Bien Phu, Hanoi, Lê Duẩn, Võ Nguyên Giáp, JFK, Lyndon Johnson, Gulf of Tonkin incident, John F Kennedy, Robert McNamara, South Vietnam, ARVN

Id: Z_YkVo0qEAA

Length: 42min 43sec (2563 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 10 2022