Even as troop withdrawals continued during President Nixon's first term, the anti-war sentiment in this country continued to grow, and the gulf between Americans at home widened. Soldier morale by 1971 was quite possibly the lowest ever in the history of the country, with marijuana and heroin use among the troops at unprecedented levels. The Pentagon Papers, a cache of documents secretly held at the State Department, were stolen and copied by Daniel Ellsberg and released to the New York Times. They blew the lid off of the government lying to it's own people about the history and conduct of the war in Vietnam.
Meanwhile, South Vietnamese incursion into Laos to block movements along the Ho Chi Minh Trail was unsuccessful. Half of the seventeen thousand ARVN troops would be killed, wounded or captured. Without American support, the South Vietnamese Army would continue valiantly while floundering.
It's in this episode that we see the growing opposition to the war by returning veterans who served in Vietnam. Most prominent among these was future Senator and presidential hopeful John Kerry. Representing 'Vietnam Veterans Against The War', Kerry made an impassioned plea in Congress for getting all the troops out and putting an end to the conflict. By this time, Lieutenant William Calley was handed the only guilty verdict coming out of a trial of twenty five soldiers indicted for the My Lai Massacre. Due to my faulty recollection, I found it startling that at the time, a public opinion poll found seventy nine percent of the American people felt Calley was not guilty. Perhaps it was because I wasn't part of that seventy nine percent.
Before the next Presidential election in 1972, President Nixon and adviser Henry Kissinger wanted to get all American troops out of Vietnam. To apply pressure to South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu, Nixon began a series of overtures to the Soviet Union and China, with a stunning announcement that he would visit China before the election.
Alarmed by the possible loss of support from China, North Vietnamese President Le Duan launched yet another massive assault across the Demilitarized Zone, into the Central Highlands and to the west of Saigon. 'The Easter Offensive' would become a severe test of the administration's 'Vietnamization' effort, and it did not go well for the South. With only sixty thousand American troops left in country, President Nixon tried offering support with massive air strikes, which included an escalated series of bombings in North Vietnam. This helped for the time being, as the North took heavy casualties during the bombing campaign.
The latter part of this episode provided conflicting emotions for this viewer. Though by this time I personally found myself against the war, it was hideous to see Jane Fonda on her visit to North Vietnam denouncing American soldiers as war criminals. It wasn't mentioned in this documentary, but one of the most underhanded things she did was pass a POW's note given to her, right back into the hands of his North Vietnamese captors. I find that unforgivable.
Taking the sting out of that segment however, was seeing the joyful reunions of soldiers returning home in the first wave of troop withdrawals and release of U.S. Prisoners of War. Finally, the conflicting emotions created by the War in Vietnam would find some relief in the heartwarming reunions of soldiers returning to their families.
Meanwhile, South Vietnamese incursion into Laos to block movements along the Ho Chi Minh Trail was unsuccessful. Half of the seventeen thousand ARVN troops would be killed, wounded or captured. Without American support, the South Vietnamese Army would continue valiantly while floundering.
It's in this episode that we see the growing opposition to the war by returning veterans who served in Vietnam. Most prominent among these was future Senator and presidential hopeful John Kerry. Representing 'Vietnam Veterans Against The War', Kerry made an impassioned plea in Congress for getting all the troops out and putting an end to the conflict. By this time, Lieutenant William Calley was handed the only guilty verdict coming out of a trial of twenty five soldiers indicted for the My Lai Massacre. Due to my faulty recollection, I found it startling that at the time, a public opinion poll found seventy nine percent of the American people felt Calley was not guilty. Perhaps it was because I wasn't part of that seventy nine percent.
Before the next Presidential election in 1972, President Nixon and adviser Henry Kissinger wanted to get all American troops out of Vietnam. To apply pressure to South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu, Nixon began a series of overtures to the Soviet Union and China, with a stunning announcement that he would visit China before the election.
Alarmed by the possible loss of support from China, North Vietnamese President Le Duan launched yet another massive assault across the Demilitarized Zone, into the Central Highlands and to the west of Saigon. 'The Easter Offensive' would become a severe test of the administration's 'Vietnamization' effort, and it did not go well for the South. With only sixty thousand American troops left in country, President Nixon tried offering support with massive air strikes, which included an escalated series of bombings in North Vietnam. This helped for the time being, as the North took heavy casualties during the bombing campaign.
The latter part of this episode provided conflicting emotions for this viewer. Though by this time I personally found myself against the war, it was hideous to see Jane Fonda on her visit to North Vietnam denouncing American soldiers as war criminals. It wasn't mentioned in this documentary, but one of the most underhanded things she did was pass a POW's note given to her, right back into the hands of his North Vietnamese captors. I find that unforgivable.
Taking the sting out of that segment however, was seeing the joyful reunions of soldiers returning home in the first wave of troop withdrawals and release of U.S. Prisoners of War. Finally, the conflicting emotions created by the War in Vietnam would find some relief in the heartwarming reunions of soldiers returning to their families.