1 00:00:48,908 --> 00:00:54,319 As World Fairs had in the past the fair in 1964 provided a timely glimpse 2 00:00:54,319 --> 00:00:58,519 of the planet's current realities and future expectations. 3 00:01:01,935 --> 00:01:05,495 The New York Times described it as a "glittering mirror 4 00:01:05,495 --> 00:01:07,385 of our national opulence." 5 00:01:07,805 --> 00:01:09,440 It seemed to portend a future 6 00:01:09,440 --> 00:01:11,564 where the biggest worry for average Americans 7 00:01:11,564 --> 00:01:14,001 would be how to spend their leisure time. 8 00:01:14,435 --> 00:01:19,277 I just took it for granted that I, you know, I'd always have a roof over my head and enough to eat. 9 00:01:19,277 --> 00:01:23,881 I never thought that I'd have to worry about where my next meal was coming from. 10 00:01:23,881 --> 00:01:25,918 These thoughts just didn't occur to me. 11 00:01:25,918 --> 00:01:28,213 But of course part of the reason we could think that way is that 12 00:01:28,213 --> 00:01:30,955 we took prosperity more or less for granted. 13 00:01:33,070 --> 00:01:36,017 In his speech at the World's Fair, President Lyndon Johnson 14 00:01:36,017 --> 00:01:38,422 touted a world of prosperity. 15 00:01:38,422 --> 00:01:46,415 "But that people, people: they shall have the best. All of these dreams." 16 00:01:48,214 --> 00:01:50,430 Only to find himself interrupted in mid-speech 17 00:01:50,430 --> 00:01:54,955 by demonstrators who felt themselves froze out of the world. 18 00:01:58,991 --> 00:02:02,172 Despite a lengthy struggle, millions of Black Americans 19 00:02:02,172 --> 00:02:04,920 still did not share in the nation's prosperity 20 00:02:04,920 --> 00:02:08,232 or enjoy the full rights of their citizenship. 21 00:02:08,232 --> 00:02:11,895 In 1964, many expected that such inequities 22 00:02:11,895 --> 00:02:13,600 would soon be addressed. 23 00:02:13,911 --> 00:02:17,694 We thought that essentially the material problems of the world had been solved 24 00:02:17,694 --> 00:02:22,006 and that the important thing now was to solve the moral problems. 25 00:02:22,850 --> 00:02:25,996 It was a society that had to be changed and there was not gonna be a change 26 00:02:25,996 --> 00:02:30,085 unless some people decided that they would dedicate their lives to changing it. 27 00:02:30,085 --> 00:02:32,126 It was not gonna change spontaneously. 28 00:02:34,498 --> 00:02:37,453 The World's Fair that year was held in Flushing Meadows, New York. 29 00:02:37,453 --> 00:02:39,120 It was supposed to promote the culture 30 00:02:39,120 --> 00:02:43,345 and customs of people everywhere, in keeping with its theme 31 00:02:43,345 --> 00:02:45,302 of "peace through understanding." 32 00:02:45,302 --> 00:02:50,774 But it would not be long before Americans would be driven apart by societal disagreements 33 00:02:50,774 --> 00:02:54,570 within their own borders, and a terrible, costly war 34 00:02:54,570 --> 00:02:56,940 on the other side of the globe. 35 00:02:56,940 --> 00:03:01,008 The country was not about to experience much of either peace or understanding. 36 00:03:03,744 --> 00:03:07,433 "We shall overcome" 37 00:03:07,433 --> 00:03:11,290 In the mid-1960s, the determination to challenge traditional boundaries 38 00:03:11,290 --> 00:03:14,428 seemed to be growing in almost every arena. 39 00:03:14,428 --> 00:03:18,165 Perhaps most striking was a broadening struggle for civil rights, 40 00:03:18,165 --> 00:03:21,878 a struggle that many whites now joined in large numbers. 41 00:03:25,462 --> 00:03:30,251 In the summer of 1964, hundreds of college students, white and black, 42 00:03:30,251 --> 00:03:36,397 headed south to Mississippi, where many Blacks were still mired in a Jim Crow world 43 00:03:36,397 --> 00:03:39,314 of poverty and political impotence. 44 00:03:40,871 --> 00:03:44,122 These students from the North hoped to register Black voters 45 00:03:44,122 --> 00:03:48,228 and establish so-called "Freedom Schools" to teach literacy skills 46 00:03:48,228 --> 00:03:50,261 to those who'd been denied them. 47 00:03:51,198 --> 00:03:55,144 They were traveling into a world where many people were set in their ways. 48 00:03:55,144 --> 00:03:57,556 President Lyndon Johnson warned the students 49 00:03:57,556 --> 00:04:01,575 that the federal government could not guarantee their safety. 50 00:04:02,502 --> 00:04:05,006 They received a lot of training in order to prepare them 51 00:04:05,006 --> 00:04:06,719 for life in Mississippi, which was not gonna 52 00:04:06,719 --> 00:04:10,587 be very easy--it wasn't easy for us--and we tried to make that very clear to people. 53 00:04:11,027 --> 00:04:15,754 I mean, our lives were in imminent danger every minute of the day. 54 00:04:17,014 --> 00:04:19,671 When we crossed the line into Mississippi 55 00:04:20,116 --> 00:04:22,459 and it said 'Mississippi welcomes you," 56 00:04:23,733 --> 00:04:26,259 it was the first time I felt really afraid. 57 00:04:29,110 --> 00:04:31,392 In the first group to arrive in Mississippi 58 00:04:31,392 --> 00:04:35,799 were students Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney. 59 00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:39,181 Within days, all three of them were missing. 60 00:04:44,072 --> 00:04:45,534 Bob Moses, who was the head of the 61 00:04:45,534 --> 00:04:50,938 Mississippi summer project, brought the group together, 62 00:04:50,938 --> 00:04:52,951 told us that they were missing, 63 00:04:52,951 --> 00:04:55,597 and it was clear to all of us that it was 64 00:04:55,597 --> 00:04:58,859 extremely likely that they were dead. 65 00:05:04,582 --> 00:05:06,524 Six weeks after their disappearance, 66 00:05:06,524 --> 00:05:09,974 the three were discovered buried in an earthen dam 67 00:05:09,974 --> 00:05:11,475 shot in the head. 68 00:05:17,544 --> 00:05:20,468 In that summer of 1964 the Ku Klux Klan 69 00:05:20,468 --> 00:05:23,528 was still trying to stop the forces of change 70 00:05:23,528 --> 00:05:26,069 but among the students and in the homes and churches 71 00:05:26,069 --> 00:05:27,132 of the Black community, 72 00:05:27,132 --> 00:05:30,586 the feeling grew stronger that change could not be prevented. 73 00:05:35,765 --> 00:05:38,039 We went up to the home 74 00:05:38,039 --> 00:05:40,197 of a very poor Black woman, 75 00:05:40,197 --> 00:05:41,518 sharecropper shack, 76 00:05:41,518 --> 00:05:43,105 she had a bunch of kids. 77 00:05:43,105 --> 00:05:45,124 She came to the door, she looked at her feet, 78 00:05:45,124 --> 00:05:46,941 she said "Yes'm" "No'm" 79 00:05:46,941 --> 00:05:48,610 to everything we said. 80 00:05:48,610 --> 00:05:51,385 And we tried to persuade her to sign this. 81 00:05:51,385 --> 00:05:52,889 And it was very clear if she signed it she might 82 00:05:52,889 --> 00:05:54,350 get thrown out of her home. 83 00:05:54,687 --> 00:05:56,978 After a few minutes of talking 84 00:05:56,978 --> 00:05:59,644 she suddenly straightened up, looked us in the eyes, 85 00:05:59,644 --> 00:06:03,525 and said 'I'll sign it.' And she signed it. 86 00:06:03,525 --> 00:06:05,254 That's how powerful the movement was. 87 00:06:12,473 --> 00:06:14,814 And the movement expanded to other causes 88 00:06:14,814 --> 00:06:17,174 at the end of the so-called "Freedom Summer." 89 00:06:19,009 --> 00:06:20,719 The first amendment didn't apply to any 90 00:06:20,719 --> 00:06:22,942 campuses in the country. 91 00:06:22,942 --> 00:06:25,079 You couldn't give a speech 92 00:06:25,079 --> 00:06:27,716 without getting it cleared by the administration. 93 00:06:28,281 --> 00:06:31,644 When Freedom Summer veterans at the University of California at Berkeley 94 00:06:31,644 --> 00:06:34,427 tried to recruit others to their cause 95 00:06:34,427 --> 00:06:36,670 they were barred by university regents. 96 00:06:38,755 --> 00:06:42,602 It just set off this explosion among the students 97 00:06:42,602 --> 00:06:46,295 and people who had never had a political thought in their head 98 00:06:46,295 --> 00:06:49,031 just got fired by the idea that someone couldn't 99 00:06:49,031 --> 00:06:53,122 tell them when and where to say what they wanted to say. 100 00:06:57,588 --> 00:06:59,971 United by what they saw as an injustice 101 00:06:59,971 --> 00:07:02,453 thousands of students began a series of protests 102 00:07:02,453 --> 00:07:04,119 that lasted eight weeks. 103 00:07:05,169 --> 00:07:07,299 When college officials threatened to expel 104 00:07:07,299 --> 00:07:09,429 several of the student leaders 105 00:07:09,429 --> 00:07:11,460 the conflict reached a boiling point. 106 00:07:13,664 --> 00:07:17,033 "There's a time when the operation of the machine 107 00:07:17,033 --> 00:07:20,822 becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, 108 00:07:20,822 --> 00:07:23,138 that you can't take part. You can't even 109 00:07:23,138 --> 00:07:24,658 passively take part." 110 00:07:24,658 --> 00:07:27,382 You have to put your body on the wheels 111 00:07:27,382 --> 00:07:29,716 and we're gonna go in there 112 00:07:29,716 --> 00:07:32,018 and we're gonna take over this building. 113 00:07:32,438 --> 00:07:35,990 And so the crowd began to move. I just went with it. 114 00:07:40,552 --> 00:07:41,982 Some people looked a little scared because 115 00:07:41,982 --> 00:07:43,886 they'd never done anything like that before. 116 00:07:44,676 --> 00:07:45,840 I was scared. 117 00:07:49,090 --> 00:07:51,566 "We're pissed off and we're sick and tired." 118 00:07:53,724 --> 00:07:56,286 When the student takeover of a campus building 119 00:07:56,286 --> 00:07:58,765 resulted in more than 800 arrests, 120 00:07:58,765 --> 00:08:00,816 the university faculty finally 121 00:08:00,816 --> 00:08:03,485 weighed in on the side of the demonstrators. 122 00:08:05,956 --> 00:08:08,357 Cornered as they were, the regents 123 00:08:08,357 --> 00:08:11,336 granted free speech to the students 124 00:08:11,336 --> 00:08:16,223 and thus began an era of confrontation at American universities. 125 00:08:17,316 --> 00:08:21,080 In late 1964, another fight was looming for Americans, 126 00:08:21,080 --> 00:08:23,596 this one thousands of miles from home, 127 00:08:23,596 --> 00:08:27,070 and with far more devastating consequences. 128 00:08:27,645 --> 00:08:29,069 For several years, American advisers 129 00:08:29,069 --> 00:08:30,852 had been sent to South Vietnam to help 130 00:08:30,852 --> 00:08:32,999 prevent what the administration said 131 00:08:32,999 --> 00:08:36,299 was a takeover by the Communist North. 132 00:08:36,299 --> 00:08:38,749 Things were not going well in the South. 133 00:08:38,749 --> 00:08:40,419 President Lyndon Johnson decided 134 00:08:40,419 --> 00:08:44,546 to dramatically increase the US military commitment to Vietnam. 135 00:08:45,448 --> 00:08:48,863 And just as they had throughout history, young Americans 136 00:08:48,863 --> 00:08:51,292 answered the call to arms. 137 00:08:53,110 --> 00:08:54,451 I didn't wanna see my son go 138 00:08:54,451 --> 00:08:56,993 and he promised nothing was gonna happen to him, 139 00:08:56,993 --> 00:09:00,135 you know, and that it was gonna be over very shortly 140 00:09:00,135 --> 00:09:03,309 and he'd be home before I knew it. 141 00:09:04,353 --> 00:09:06,743 You grew up watching those John Wayne movies 142 00:09:06,743 --> 00:09:09,549 where the good guys always win. 143 00:09:10,752 --> 00:09:12,206 I was being John Wayne, 144 00:09:12,206 --> 00:09:13,789 I was gonna go and I was gonna beat them 145 00:09:13,789 --> 00:09:15,744 and nothing could hurt me. 146 00:09:21,058 --> 00:09:23,445 Like many other young men in 1965, 147 00:09:23,445 --> 00:09:26,174 Jack Bronson knew very little about war 148 00:09:26,174 --> 00:09:29,085 except that America didn't lose them. 149 00:09:29,085 --> 00:09:32,467 This one looked at first to be no exception. 150 00:09:32,986 --> 00:09:37,779 Th United States, which had defeated Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan and held back 151 00:09:37,779 --> 00:09:39,171 the Communist Chinese 152 00:09:39,171 --> 00:09:42,397 in Korea, now faced a third world army 153 00:09:42,397 --> 00:09:44,677 of North Vietnamese soldiers 154 00:09:44,677 --> 00:09:47,821 and South Vietnamese Vietcong guerrillas. 155 00:09:48,987 --> 00:09:52,624 American commanders confidently predicted a swift 156 00:09:52,624 --> 00:09:54,325 and positive conclusion. 157 00:09:54,595 --> 00:09:55,990 I was excited about going to war. 158 00:09:55,990 --> 00:09:58,526 The whole battalion was excited about going to war. 159 00:09:58,526 --> 00:10:01,196 We were gung-ho. 160 00:10:07,286 --> 00:10:09,573 With 125,000 fresh troops 161 00:10:09,573 --> 00:10:13,578 and an armada of helicopters ranging all over South Vietnam 162 00:10:13,578 --> 00:10:16,580 American generals were spoiling for a good fight. 163 00:10:18,351 --> 00:10:20,419 They were about to get one. 164 00:10:25,079 --> 00:10:28,662 On November 15th 1965 Lieutenant Larry Gwen's unit 165 00:10:28,662 --> 00:10:31,395 was helicoptered to a valley in central Vietnam 166 00:10:31,395 --> 00:10:33,229 near the Cambodian border. 167 00:10:34,235 --> 00:10:39,145 They had gone to intersect the North Vietnamese supply routes to the south. 168 00:10:39,470 --> 00:10:42,112 North Vietnamese soldiers watched them arrive. 169 00:10:43,094 --> 00:10:46,050 It was my first real hot landing zone. 170 00:10:49,750 --> 00:10:52,747 And it was so hot that I had exited my ship, 171 00:10:53,734 --> 00:10:56,951 knelt on the grass for about 10 seconds, 172 00:10:56,951 --> 00:11:00,414 and a guy pops up next to me, whom I knew had just been shot through the shoulder 173 00:11:00,414 --> 00:11:01,793 and said 'I'm hit, Lieutenant.' 174 00:11:03,192 --> 00:11:04,695 A major battle with the enemy was just 175 00:11:04,695 --> 00:11:07,297 what the military brass had been hoping for 176 00:11:07,297 --> 00:11:09,900 only it was not going according to plan. 177 00:11:10,734 --> 00:11:14,602 At 10 in the morning Lieutenant Gwen was fighting for his life. 178 00:11:14,840 --> 00:11:17,214 Our first Lieutenant was overrun 179 00:11:17,214 --> 00:11:20,613 our second Lieutenant was pinned down by mortar fire. 180 00:11:20,613 --> 00:11:22,938 I saw about 40 North Vietnamese soldiers 181 00:11:22,938 --> 00:11:25,608 coming across the landing zone at us. 182 00:11:27,873 --> 00:11:29,641 And all I did was say 'here they come' 183 00:11:29,641 --> 00:11:31,126 and start shooting at them. 184 00:11:32,347 --> 00:11:34,981 1:00 PM the American commander sent out 185 00:11:34,981 --> 00:11:40,864 an emergency signal: "Broken Arrow. US troops in danger of being overrun." 186 00:11:46,135 --> 00:11:47,844 Every available aircraft was called in 187 00:11:47,844 --> 00:11:50,724 against the North Vietnamese positions. 188 00:12:00,300 --> 00:12:03,188 Including the giant B-52 bombers. 189 00:12:03,881 --> 00:12:09,421 The B-52 is terrible, terrible in many ways. 190 00:12:09,421 --> 00:12:14,231 Because firstly, there was no way you can fight back. 191 00:12:15,307 --> 00:12:16,468 You can't run. 192 00:12:16,673 --> 00:12:18,304 There's no time for you to run. 193 00:12:21,580 --> 00:12:25,940 You just lay there, wait for the death to come and grip you. 194 00:12:39,099 --> 00:12:41,916 And thousands of men died in those desperate 195 00:12:41,916 --> 00:12:44,679 hours. By the time the battle was over 196 00:12:44,679 --> 00:12:49,135 3500 North Vietnamese and 305 Americans 197 00:12:49,135 --> 00:12:50,275 had been killed. 198 00:12:50,783 --> 00:12:54,334 It was obvious to the men in the field what lay ahead. 199 00:13:05,018 --> 00:13:07,425 Preoccupied as he was with the growing 200 00:13:07,425 --> 00:13:09,492 war in Vietnam, President Johnson knew 201 00:13:09,492 --> 00:13:12,586 that he had to address problems at home. 202 00:13:12,586 --> 00:13:14,533 Despite America's prosperity, 203 00:13:14,533 --> 00:13:18,426 40 million citizens still lived below the poverty line. 204 00:13:19,059 --> 00:13:23,799 "And this administration today here and now 205 00:13:23,799 --> 00:13:28,904 declares unconditional war on poverty in America." 206 00:13:31,344 --> 00:13:35,149 In May 1964 the president unveiled the grand plan 207 00:13:35,149 --> 00:13:37,181 for what he called "the Great Society." 208 00:13:38,175 --> 00:13:41,008 Mr. Johnson hoped to match the power and vitality 209 00:13:41,008 --> 00:13:43,392 of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal 210 00:13:43,392 --> 00:13:46,796 with a list of welfare, job and educational opportunities 211 00:13:46,796 --> 00:13:49,133 to aide underprivileged Americans. 212 00:13:51,809 --> 00:13:55,028 But the privilege that many southern Blacks most desired 213 00:13:55,028 --> 00:13:58,202 was the right to vote, still often denied them. 214 00:13:59,642 --> 00:14:05,677 In Selma, Alabama, 97% of 15,000 eligible Black voters 215 00:14:05,677 --> 00:14:06,811 were unregistered. 216 00:14:07,433 --> 00:14:10,439 Some because of cynicism or apathy, 217 00:14:10,439 --> 00:14:13,552 but most because they faced violence and intimidation 218 00:14:13,552 --> 00:14:15,225 from local authorities. 219 00:14:15,645 --> 00:14:18,360 People could only attempt to register 220 00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:21,358 on the first and third Mondays of each month. 221 00:14:21,536 --> 00:14:23,579 "The voter registrar is not in session 222 00:14:23,579 --> 00:14:26,029 this afternoon, as you were informed. 223 00:14:26,029 --> 00:14:27,464 You came down to make a mockery 224 00:14:27,464 --> 00:14:29,332 out of this courthouse..." 225 00:14:29,800 --> 00:14:32,215 And you had to get some white person 226 00:14:32,215 --> 00:14:34,137 to vouch that you were of good character. 227 00:14:34,137 --> 00:14:36,375 No white person in his right mind 228 00:14:36,375 --> 00:14:37,842 in the state of Alabama 229 00:14:37,842 --> 00:14:39,225 was going to vouch that a Black person 230 00:14:39,225 --> 00:14:40,536 was of good character. 231 00:14:41,106 --> 00:14:42,250 "If we're wrong, why don't you 232 00:14:42,250 --> 00:14:43,291 arrest us?..." 233 00:14:43,618 --> 00:14:46,888 Selma rapidly became the new flashpoint 234 00:14:46,888 --> 00:14:48,925 of the Civil Rights Movement. 235 00:14:49,441 --> 00:14:52,001 On March 7th 1965 236 00:14:52,001 --> 00:14:55,404 600 Civil Rights activists planned a march 237 00:14:55,404 --> 00:14:57,041 that was to take them from Selma 238 00:14:57,041 --> 00:14:59,267 to the state capital in Montgomery 239 00:14:59,267 --> 00:15:00,973 some 54 miles away. 240 00:15:02,944 --> 00:15:05,624 Their route would take the non-violent demonstrators 241 00:15:05,624 --> 00:15:08,142 through what amounted to enemy territory. 242 00:15:08,142 --> 00:15:10,108 Roads and highways controlled by 243 00:15:10,108 --> 00:15:11,875 the Alabama state police. 244 00:15:16,658 --> 00:15:18,591 They came toward us 245 00:15:18,831 --> 00:15:20,524 beating us with nightsticks 246 00:15:21,444 --> 00:15:22,458 with bullwhips 247 00:15:23,500 --> 00:15:25,584 and trampling us with horses. 248 00:15:26,361 --> 00:15:28,696 I was hit in the head 249 00:15:28,696 --> 00:15:31,267 and just left lying there, and 250 00:15:31,267 --> 00:15:36,661 I felt like it was the last protest. 251 00:15:40,150 --> 00:15:43,038 The violence and brutality which ended this march 252 00:15:43,038 --> 00:15:44,272 quickly provoked plans 253 00:15:44,272 --> 00:15:46,942 for a much larger one, now joined 254 00:15:46,942 --> 00:15:49,148 by Dr. Martin Luther King. 255 00:15:49,492 --> 00:15:52,197 "We've gone too far now to turn back." 256 00:15:52,481 --> 00:15:54,053 Dr. King was determined to focus 257 00:15:54,053 --> 00:15:56,453 national attention on Selma 258 00:15:56,453 --> 00:15:58,255 and he enlisted the help of supporters 259 00:15:58,255 --> 00:15:59,857 from New York to Hollywood. 260 00:16:00,323 --> 00:16:05,763 "The reverend said 'The white man can't 261 00:16:05,763 --> 00:16:07,856 cool it because he never dug it.'" 262 00:16:08,368 --> 00:16:09,550 Marlon Brando was the one who 263 00:16:09,550 --> 00:16:12,434 got me involved in Civil Rights, honestly. 264 00:16:14,474 --> 00:16:15,474 I was walking down the street 265 00:16:15,474 --> 00:16:17,605 and he just pulled up in a car 266 00:16:17,605 --> 00:16:22,447 and he said 'How'd you like to go down to Selma?' 267 00:16:24,919 --> 00:16:27,540 and I said 'Selma?' 'Selma, we're gonna have a march 268 00:16:27,540 --> 00:16:29,489 from Selma to Montgomery. You wanna come?' 269 00:16:30,188 --> 00:16:31,645 and I said, 'Sure.' 270 00:16:35,533 --> 00:16:37,395 Before the second march had even begun 271 00:16:37,395 --> 00:16:40,178 the reverend James Reeb, a Civil Rights sympathizer, 272 00:16:40,178 --> 00:16:42,906 was beaten to death by a white mob. 273 00:16:42,906 --> 00:16:45,260 But rather than intimidating the marchers 274 00:16:45,260 --> 00:16:48,048 that violence seemed to give them a powerful ally. 275 00:16:49,012 --> 00:16:52,305 That night I was with Martin Luther King Jr. 276 00:16:52,305 --> 00:16:54,670 in Selma when we heard Lyndon Johnson 277 00:16:54,670 --> 00:16:57,512 we watched him make one of the greatest speeches 278 00:16:57,512 --> 00:17:00,199 any American president ever made 279 00:17:00,199 --> 00:17:01,782 on the whole question of Civil Rights. 280 00:17:02,951 --> 00:17:03,950 "Their cause 281 00:17:03,950 --> 00:17:06,860 must be our cause too. 282 00:17:06,860 --> 00:17:09,559 It's all of us 283 00:17:09,559 --> 00:17:11,394 who must overcome 284 00:17:11,394 --> 00:17:13,934 the crippling legacy of 285 00:17:13,934 --> 00:17:16,657 bigotry and injustice. 286 00:17:18,226 --> 00:17:20,730 And we shall overcome." 287 00:17:22,993 --> 00:17:28,015 Just think of a President with a southern accent 288 00:17:28,015 --> 00:17:32,185 from Texas saying to the Congress of the United States 289 00:17:32,185 --> 00:17:33,579 "We shall overcome." 290 00:17:34,282 --> 00:17:39,090 Finally, popular protest and public power 291 00:17:39,090 --> 00:17:40,230 had come together. 292 00:17:40,542 --> 00:17:42,529 And Dr. King literally started crying. 293 00:17:43,319 --> 00:17:44,920 Tears came down his face. 294 00:17:45,919 --> 00:17:49,376 I knew then that we would make it 295 00:17:49,376 --> 00:17:50,864 from Selma to Montgomery. 296 00:17:56,143 --> 00:17:58,509 On March 21st 1965, 297 00:17:58,509 --> 00:18:00,980 3200 people set out from Selma. 298 00:18:05,887 --> 00:18:08,831 Four days later, as the march approached Montgomery, 299 00:18:08,831 --> 00:18:11,155 there were 25,000 people marching. 300 00:18:14,190 --> 00:18:15,304 It was an amazing moment. 301 00:18:15,304 --> 00:18:17,266 It was scary, it was scary. 302 00:18:17,464 --> 00:18:18,764 There were helicopters everywhere, 303 00:18:18,764 --> 00:18:22,133 like some sort of angry bugs. 304 00:18:22,133 --> 00:18:23,593 And there were only confederate flags 305 00:18:23,593 --> 00:18:25,526 flying, we were the only ones with American flags. 306 00:18:26,339 --> 00:18:28,411 You know, and Martin Luther King gave a great speech. 307 00:18:29,445 --> 00:18:31,979 "All the world today knows 308 00:18:31,979 --> 00:18:34,272 that we are here and we are standing 309 00:18:34,272 --> 00:18:37,177 before the forces of power 310 00:18:37,177 --> 00:18:39,111 in the state of Alabama saying 311 00:18:39,111 --> 00:18:40,381 'We ain't gon' let nobody 312 00:18:40,381 --> 00:18:41,581 turn us around.'" 313 00:18:44,886 --> 00:18:47,220 There's very few times in your life that you know 314 00:18:47,220 --> 00:18:49,427 that you're someplace that, you're in a moment 315 00:18:49,427 --> 00:18:52,829 where--this is one of those things that as long as there's time 316 00:18:52,829 --> 00:18:54,887 there's gonna be this moment, and that was it. 317 00:18:56,179 --> 00:18:58,464 On August 6th, Lyndon Johnson signed 318 00:18:58,464 --> 00:19:00,277 the Voting Rights Act, 319 00:19:00,277 --> 00:19:02,602 finally guaranteeing Black Americans 320 00:19:02,602 --> 00:19:04,538 the right to vote. 321 00:19:05,638 --> 00:19:07,475 But just as it reached a high point 322 00:19:07,475 --> 00:19:09,012 the Civil Rights Movement seemed 323 00:19:09,012 --> 00:19:11,981 to split into warring factions. 324 00:19:11,981 --> 00:19:14,480 A revolution of rising expectations 325 00:19:14,480 --> 00:19:16,817 stirs people to believe that 326 00:19:16,817 --> 00:19:18,352 the promised land is there. 327 00:19:19,134 --> 00:19:21,758 It was when change was coming, when there was 328 00:19:21,758 --> 00:19:23,725 a sense of possibility, 329 00:19:23,725 --> 00:19:27,428 that everything broke loose and went wild. 330 00:19:28,465 --> 00:19:30,902 "You're better than the white men. 331 00:19:30,902 --> 00:19:33,003 You are better than the white men. 332 00:19:33,003 --> 00:19:34,505 And that's not saying anything." 333 00:19:34,739 --> 00:19:36,540 Despite the gains of recent years 334 00:19:36,540 --> 00:19:38,540 it seemed to many Blacks that the pace of change 335 00:19:38,540 --> 00:19:41,043 was too slow, that Martin Luther King 336 00:19:41,043 --> 00:19:41,978 was too accomodating. 337 00:19:42,782 --> 00:19:45,652 These Blacks began to adopt the separatist 338 00:19:45,652 --> 00:19:48,325 rhetoric of the charismatic Malcolm X. 339 00:19:48,755 --> 00:19:50,696 I used to hear Malcolm say, "If a man 340 00:19:50,696 --> 00:19:53,360 slaps me in the face, I'm not turning my cheek. 341 00:19:53,360 --> 00:19:55,857 If I slap him back, he won't slap me again." 342 00:19:55,857 --> 00:19:57,477 That made a lot of sense. 343 00:19:58,865 --> 00:20:00,203 Malcolm at that time said "Clearly, alright, 344 00:20:00,203 --> 00:20:01,415 what we need is power" 345 00:20:02,037 --> 00:20:03,874 while King would say "What we need is morality 346 00:20:03,874 --> 00:20:06,732 to help..." Malcolm said "Forget about them 347 00:20:06,732 --> 00:20:08,766 just get guns and that's how they gonna regulate the problem." 348 00:20:09,270 --> 00:20:11,072 The contradiction, however, was that 349 00:20:11,072 --> 00:20:12,642 Martin Luther King was involved in action, 350 00:20:12,642 --> 00:20:13,943 confronting the enemy, 351 00:20:13,943 --> 00:20:16,747 Malcolm X was not. 352 00:20:16,747 --> 00:20:17,713 So what you had to do was 353 00:20:17,713 --> 00:20:19,653 take the confrontation of King, 354 00:20:19,653 --> 00:20:20,910 and match it as best you can with 355 00:20:20,910 --> 00:20:22,121 the philosophy of Malcolm X, 356 00:20:22,121 --> 00:20:23,656 which is precisely what we did. 357 00:20:24,582 --> 00:20:25,828 "We want black power." 358 00:20:28,786 --> 00:20:30,769 The response was overwhelming. 359 00:20:36,561 --> 00:20:39,623 In 1966, militants in Oakland California 360 00:20:39,623 --> 00:20:42,619 founded the Black Panther party for self-defense 361 00:20:42,619 --> 00:20:44,848 and told America that the fight for Civil Rights 362 00:20:44,848 --> 00:20:46,512 would never be the same. 363 00:20:49,737 --> 00:20:51,716 If you come down here jumping on us 364 00:20:51,716 --> 00:20:53,284 and beating us up like you were beating up 365 00:20:53,284 --> 00:20:54,952 the peaceful protesters with your dogs, 366 00:20:54,952 --> 00:20:55,621 your cattle prods, 367 00:20:55,621 --> 00:20:57,267 and are shooting them up, 368 00:20:57,267 --> 00:20:59,623 murdering these peaceful protesters, 369 00:20:59,623 --> 00:21:01,161 we're not gonna take it. 370 00:21:02,349 --> 00:21:04,752 When you start shooting, we're shooting back. 371 00:21:04,752 --> 00:21:08,401 "The revolution has come" 372 00:21:09,682 --> 00:21:12,442 The call by militant leaders for total revolution 373 00:21:12,442 --> 00:21:14,333 received a sympathetic ear in 374 00:21:14,333 --> 00:21:17,340 many of the nation's impoverished inner cities, 375 00:21:17,340 --> 00:21:20,710 where the Great Society was still nowhere to be seen. 376 00:21:21,610 --> 00:21:26,515 We're in the south, where we had a powerful, nonviolent movement. 377 00:21:26,515 --> 00:21:29,787 People had a way to channel their frustration. 378 00:21:29,787 --> 00:21:31,732 In many poor areas of America, 379 00:21:31,732 --> 00:21:34,350 especially outside of the South, 380 00:21:34,350 --> 00:21:36,629 the fires of frustration, 381 00:21:36,629 --> 00:21:38,775 the fires of discontent, 382 00:21:38,775 --> 00:21:40,598 were beginning to burn. 383 00:21:41,699 --> 00:21:45,027 In 1967 that anger and discontent exploded 384 00:21:45,027 --> 00:21:47,750 into violence in Newark, New Jersey, 385 00:21:47,750 --> 00:21:50,412 Detroit, Michigan, and more than 100 other cities. 386 00:21:50,412 --> 00:21:54,274 80 people died in urban riots that summer. 387 00:21:59,730 --> 00:22:03,121 Lyndon Johnson was shocked, I think, 388 00:22:03,121 --> 00:22:04,026 at the riots. 389 00:22:04,732 --> 00:22:05,575 And angry. 390 00:22:06,073 --> 00:22:07,756 He took it personally 391 00:22:07,756 --> 00:22:11,886 and he got angry at Blacks for being 392 00:22:11,886 --> 00:22:15,438 ungrateful for these great laws that had been passed. 393 00:22:16,708 --> 00:22:18,006 Despite his disappointment, 394 00:22:18,534 --> 00:22:20,235 Lyndon Johnson believed that his 395 00:22:20,235 --> 00:22:22,137 war on poverty could still succeed. 396 00:22:22,569 --> 00:22:24,206 All he needed was more money. 397 00:22:24,807 --> 00:22:26,039 Well, the president said to me, you know, 398 00:22:26,039 --> 00:22:29,445 "We have this war going on now in Vietnam. 399 00:22:29,445 --> 00:22:32,048 It's going to take up all of the extra money we have 400 00:22:32,048 --> 00:22:35,688 right now to fight that war. But," he said, 401 00:22:35,688 --> 00:22:37,311 "Sarg, look, we're gonna be out of that war, 402 00:22:37,311 --> 00:22:40,181 that'll be finished in the next 12 to 18 months. 403 00:22:40,181 --> 00:22:42,494 As soon as that's finished, I will take the money 404 00:22:42,494 --> 00:22:45,065 we are now devoting to the war in Vietnam 405 00:22:45,065 --> 00:22:46,889 and we'll put it in the war against poverty." 406 00:22:48,655 --> 00:22:50,269 Obviously, that never happened. 407 00:23:00,574 --> 00:23:02,688 In 1964, a British rock band 408 00:23:02,688 --> 00:23:04,245 showed up in the United States 409 00:23:04,245 --> 00:23:06,087 that was described by one historian as 410 00:23:06,087 --> 00:23:08,685 "raunchier and more rebellious than the Beatles." 411 00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:10,255 They were called 412 00:23:10,255 --> 00:23:11,556 the Rolling Stones 413 00:23:12,263 --> 00:23:14,989 and in the mid-1960s they created 414 00:23:14,989 --> 00:23:17,594 a song that became an anthem. 415 00:23:18,529 --> 00:23:20,263 I had one of the first early 416 00:23:20,263 --> 00:23:23,034 Norelcos, sort of cassette players 417 00:23:23,034 --> 00:23:27,439 and I'd put it next to the bed 418 00:23:27,439 --> 00:23:30,212 and with the guitar 419 00:23:30,212 --> 00:23:31,685 and I crashed out 420 00:23:31,685 --> 00:23:33,244 and when I woke up in the morning 421 00:23:33,244 --> 00:23:35,584 I noticed that the tape had gone to the end 422 00:23:35,584 --> 00:23:37,074 and I'd put it in at the beginning 423 00:23:37,074 --> 00:23:41,826 and I ran it back, pushed play, and 424 00:23:41,826 --> 00:23:43,677 somewhere in the middle of the night 425 00:23:43,987 --> 00:23:45,857 I had woken up and played 426 00:23:45,857 --> 00:23:50,130 "duh, duh, duh, I can't get no satisfaction." 427 00:23:50,794 --> 00:23:53,522 And it's there, the verse and the chorus are there, 428 00:23:53,522 --> 00:23:55,803 and then it stops and the rest of the tape 429 00:23:55,803 --> 00:23:57,104 is me snoring. 430 00:23:59,208 --> 00:24:05,768 "I can't get no satisfaction" 431 00:24:06,541 --> 00:24:08,280 Rock music had accompanied America's youth 432 00:24:08,280 --> 00:24:09,842 on its journey to the forefront 433 00:24:09,842 --> 00:24:11,645 of the nation's consciousness. 434 00:24:11,645 --> 00:24:14,282 With songs like "Satisfaction," #1 on the charts 435 00:24:14,282 --> 00:24:17,986 in 1965, the journey took quite a radical turn. 436 00:24:25,418 --> 00:24:27,969 The message is the ordinary 437 00:24:27,969 --> 00:24:30,171 order of things is 438 00:24:30,171 --> 00:24:33,242 either broken or corrupt. 439 00:24:34,469 --> 00:24:36,168 I can't get no satisfaction, 440 00:24:36,168 --> 00:24:37,772 I gotta do something wilder. 441 00:24:37,772 --> 00:24:39,273 That's how you get your satisfaction. 442 00:24:42,176 --> 00:24:45,581 The message it sends is "cut loose" 443 00:24:48,818 --> 00:24:50,620 It was music that gave us 444 00:24:50,620 --> 00:24:51,627 as an entity 445 00:24:51,627 --> 00:24:54,904 as a community, a sense of cohesion 446 00:24:54,904 --> 00:24:56,392 and a sense of existing. 447 00:24:56,392 --> 00:24:59,130 A real sense of being more than a few demonstrations. 448 00:25:00,288 --> 00:25:02,788 The Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, the Doors, 449 00:25:02,788 --> 00:25:05,472 Bob Dylan, all of them sang in a way that 450 00:25:05,472 --> 00:25:07,115 invited challenge 451 00:25:07,115 --> 00:25:08,340 to the establishment. 452 00:25:08,972 --> 00:25:10,267 I think people were absolutely 453 00:25:10,267 --> 00:25:12,408 waking up but they didn't know exactly 454 00:25:12,408 --> 00:25:14,350 how to get out of bed yet. 455 00:25:14,350 --> 00:25:15,552 And what to do when they put their feet 456 00:25:15,552 --> 00:25:16,522 on the floor. 457 00:25:20,714 --> 00:25:22,051 We began to look around for 458 00:25:22,051 --> 00:25:25,991 things to do which would alert people 459 00:25:25,991 --> 00:25:28,098 to other possibilities, other ways 460 00:25:28,098 --> 00:25:28,826 of living. 461 00:25:35,132 --> 00:25:37,292 For some, other possibilities meant completely 462 00:25:37,292 --> 00:25:39,391 rejecting the values that had united 463 00:25:39,391 --> 00:25:41,236 their parents' generation. 464 00:25:43,072 --> 00:25:44,819 I mean, where is it written in stone 465 00:25:44,819 --> 00:25:47,577 that people have to work from 9 to 5? 466 00:25:48,744 --> 00:25:50,817 The Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco 467 00:25:50,817 --> 00:25:52,807 became the center of the counter culture. 468 00:25:53,540 --> 00:25:57,277 Suddenly, there was an environment 469 00:25:57,277 --> 00:26:00,295 where your personal history did not matter. 470 00:26:00,295 --> 00:26:02,196 Nobody cared who your parents were, 471 00:26:02,196 --> 00:26:05,101 whether you were rich, whether you were poor, 472 00:26:05,101 --> 00:26:06,871 you get up every day 473 00:26:06,871 --> 00:26:09,963 and you had no idea what the day would bring. 474 00:26:10,998 --> 00:26:13,443 There were the greatest looking women 475 00:26:13,443 --> 00:26:16,072 parading up and down the street 476 00:26:17,571 --> 00:26:20,077 There was a sense of adventure 477 00:26:20,077 --> 00:26:22,269 random combinations 478 00:26:27,865 --> 00:26:29,895 You could catch a woman's eye and 479 00:26:30,651 --> 00:26:32,390 offer her your arm 480 00:26:32,390 --> 00:26:35,192 and without a word, walk away 481 00:26:35,192 --> 00:26:36,360 and spend an afternoon 482 00:26:36,360 --> 00:26:38,901 making love and if you didn't talk 483 00:26:38,901 --> 00:26:40,338 that was okay. 484 00:26:41,226 --> 00:26:43,363 I was looking for a new way to express myself. 485 00:26:43,363 --> 00:26:45,299 You know, and I think everybody was. 486 00:26:45,865 --> 00:26:50,838 And unfortunately, a lot of people went to drugs. 487 00:26:50,838 --> 00:26:53,615 Because it came naturally out of 488 00:26:53,615 --> 00:26:55,410 it came naturally out of what we were doing 489 00:26:55,410 --> 00:26:56,244 at the time. 490 00:26:56,912 --> 00:26:58,548 "It's a food for the soul. 491 00:26:58,548 --> 00:27:00,482 Right now I'm on LSD. 492 00:27:00,482 --> 00:27:03,553 Every color is going through my mind." 493 00:27:04,153 --> 00:27:05,689 The psychedelic drug LSD became 494 00:27:05,689 --> 00:27:08,626 a rite of passage for many in the counter culture. 495 00:27:10,328 --> 00:27:12,063 These were awfully hard on people 496 00:27:12,063 --> 00:27:14,331 who were in their 40s at that time. 497 00:27:14,331 --> 00:27:15,432 Just awfully hard, 498 00:27:15,432 --> 00:27:18,011 with the hair and the drugs and the music, 499 00:27:18,011 --> 00:27:19,470 and the dirty clothes, 500 00:27:19,470 --> 00:27:22,445 and the foul language. It all became 501 00:27:22,445 --> 00:27:25,608 regardless of the political position one took. 502 00:27:26,942 --> 00:27:28,979 "Brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, 503 00:27:28,979 --> 00:27:30,471 if you truly care about your country..." 504 00:27:30,471 --> 00:27:32,859 Despised by many people in the older generation, 505 00:27:33,325 --> 00:27:36,050 the social ferment of the 1960s would nonetheless 506 00:27:36,050 --> 00:27:38,919 change forever the way young Americans 507 00:27:38,919 --> 00:27:40,559 looked at themselves. 508 00:27:42,541 --> 00:27:44,495 A long-dormant struggle for equality 509 00:27:44,495 --> 00:27:46,362 was revived by the new freedom that many 510 00:27:46,362 --> 00:27:47,832 young women were feeling. 511 00:27:48,274 --> 00:27:49,501 Women were given more choice 512 00:27:49,501 --> 00:27:50,534 with the introduction 513 00:27:50,534 --> 00:27:52,181 of the birth control pill. 514 00:27:52,637 --> 00:27:56,307 We could now control when and if 515 00:27:56,307 --> 00:27:58,176 we chose to have children. 516 00:27:59,866 --> 00:28:01,169 And it helped to propel 517 00:28:01,169 --> 00:28:02,634 I think, the development of 518 00:28:02,634 --> 00:28:04,182 the Women's Movement. 519 00:28:04,725 --> 00:28:07,429 In the 1960s, discrimination against women 520 00:28:07,429 --> 00:28:09,224 was solidly entrenched, 521 00:28:09,224 --> 00:28:10,458 particularly in the workplace. 522 00:28:11,126 --> 00:28:14,525 Job ads were divided into sections 523 00:28:14,525 --> 00:28:16,255 marked "male" and "female." 524 00:28:16,924 --> 00:28:18,259 Airline stewardesses were 525 00:28:18,259 --> 00:28:20,464 simply dismissed on their 32nd birthday. 526 00:28:21,731 --> 00:28:23,634 "The great majority of American women 527 00:28:23,634 --> 00:28:25,833 are not participating in terms of 528 00:28:25,833 --> 00:28:27,470 their full potential ability." 529 00:28:27,838 --> 00:28:29,874 In 1966 a group of feminists, 530 00:28:29,874 --> 00:28:31,733 most notably Betty Friedan, 531 00:28:31,733 --> 00:28:34,614 founded the National Organization for Women. 532 00:28:35,247 --> 00:28:36,387 This was a turning point 533 00:28:36,387 --> 00:28:37,822 in the Women's Liberation movement 534 00:28:37,822 --> 00:28:39,078 that was typical of many struggles 535 00:28:39,078 --> 00:28:39,842 at the time. 536 00:28:40,644 --> 00:28:42,947 Thus began another era of militancy. 537 00:28:43,583 --> 00:28:45,287 "Women have been particularly oppressed 538 00:28:45,287 --> 00:28:46,402 and now women are on the move 539 00:28:46,402 --> 00:28:47,818 and there ain't gon' be no stopping us." 540 00:28:48,754 --> 00:28:50,991 This one was--was my struggle, 541 00:28:50,991 --> 00:28:52,495 in which I was the actor. 542 00:28:52,961 --> 00:28:56,468 "Miss America stands 5 feet 7, 125 pounds 543 00:28:56,468 --> 00:28:59,793 and measures 36-24 1/2-36." 544 00:29:00,307 --> 00:29:02,977 On September 7th 1968 545 00:29:02,977 --> 00:29:04,580 the new Miss America was crowned 546 00:29:04,580 --> 00:29:06,615 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. 547 00:29:07,917 --> 00:29:11,877 Outside, 200 women demonstrated against the pageant. 548 00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:15,415 They threw their bras and their high heeled shoes, 549 00:29:15,415 --> 00:29:18,251 which they called "instruments of oppression," 550 00:29:18,251 --> 00:29:20,723 into so-called "freedom trash cans." 551 00:29:21,160 --> 00:29:24,426 "Women, use your brains, not your bodies." 552 00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:31,137 We had learned that from the Civil Rights Movement. 553 00:29:31,574 --> 00:29:33,367 You demonstrate, you stand up, 554 00:29:33,367 --> 00:29:34,702 you get in their face, 555 00:29:34,702 --> 00:29:35,871 and you get behind the scenes 556 00:29:35,871 --> 00:29:37,337 and you pass your legislation. 557 00:29:37,735 --> 00:29:39,374 We learned. We were political. 558 00:29:46,555 --> 00:29:48,658 For American soldiers in the field, 559 00:29:49,044 --> 00:29:50,993 it was grinding and bloody. 560 00:29:50,993 --> 00:29:54,596 But by mid-1966 the Vietnam war was 561 00:29:54,596 --> 00:29:56,990 settling into just the kind of conflict 562 00:29:56,990 --> 00:29:59,058 that General William Westmoreland 563 00:29:59,058 --> 00:30:00,561 believed America would win, 564 00:30:01,429 --> 00:30:02,463 a war of atrition. 565 00:30:06,849 --> 00:30:09,006 What General Westmoreland didn't recognize 566 00:30:09,386 --> 00:30:10,808 was that the North Vietnamese 567 00:30:10,808 --> 00:30:13,646 also saw a war they could win. 568 00:30:13,646 --> 00:30:16,404 As long as they didn't meet the Americans head-on. 569 00:30:17,086 --> 00:30:20,311 The booby-trap, the land mine, 570 00:30:20,881 --> 00:30:23,802 the raid, the ambush, 571 00:30:26,482 --> 00:30:29,061 any square yard of Vietnam 572 00:30:29,455 --> 00:30:32,292 could be this absolutely utterly peaceful place 573 00:30:32,292 --> 00:30:33,427 one second. 574 00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:36,162 And the next second, 575 00:30:36,162 --> 00:30:37,968 it was the end of the world. 576 00:30:42,242 --> 00:30:44,907 We are not fighting a conventional war. 577 00:30:44,907 --> 00:30:48,502 We would go in a kind of surprise attack 578 00:30:48,502 --> 00:30:50,450 and then withdraw immediately. 579 00:30:53,230 --> 00:30:54,297 Very effective. 580 00:30:56,648 --> 00:30:59,184 As the US grew frustrated by its inability 581 00:30:59,184 --> 00:31:02,463 to score decisive victories against the North Vietnamese 582 00:31:02,463 --> 00:31:04,325 and the Vietcong, 583 00:31:04,325 --> 00:31:06,604 the administration continued to pour more men 584 00:31:06,604 --> 00:31:09,697 and more machinery into Vietnam. 585 00:31:09,697 --> 00:31:12,837 By mid-1967, close to half a million Americans 586 00:31:12,837 --> 00:31:14,939 were involved in the fight. 587 00:31:18,812 --> 00:31:20,435 In the face of these escalations, 588 00:31:20,435 --> 00:31:22,593 the North Vietnamese continually 589 00:31:22,593 --> 00:31:24,836 adapted their strategies. 590 00:31:25,187 --> 00:31:28,319 The only option they never discussed among themselves 591 00:31:28,319 --> 00:31:29,489 was surrender. 592 00:31:29,990 --> 00:31:33,996 As long as alive Vietnamese there, the resistance 593 00:31:33,996 --> 00:31:35,698 would go on. 594 00:31:38,323 --> 00:31:41,194 We just wouldn't accept two Vietnams. 595 00:31:53,786 --> 00:31:56,484 For American troops, most of whom left Vietnam 596 00:31:56,484 --> 00:31:58,743 after one year of duty, things were not quite as clear 597 00:31:58,743 --> 00:32:01,906 at all. Almost anyone was a potential enemy. 598 00:32:01,906 --> 00:32:03,826 As the North Vietnamese and the Vietcong 599 00:32:03,826 --> 00:32:07,522 enjoyed widespread sympathy in South Vietnam 600 00:32:07,522 --> 00:32:09,792 in such an atmosphere of confusion 601 00:32:09,792 --> 00:32:12,464 areas were conquered and then abandoned. 602 00:32:12,464 --> 00:32:15,432 Villages saved, and then destroyed. 603 00:32:15,835 --> 00:32:18,949 "I believe I am correct in saying that in the 604 00:32:18,949 --> 00:32:21,306 past four and a half years 605 00:32:21,306 --> 00:32:27,648 the Vietcong have lost 89,000 men." 606 00:32:29,919 --> 00:32:31,678 Many Americans were dying, too, 607 00:32:31,678 --> 00:32:34,224 without ever understanding what they'd been fighting for. 608 00:32:40,005 --> 00:32:41,996 There was one kid who was previously injured 609 00:32:41,996 --> 00:32:43,760 and I had my arms around him 610 00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:48,006 trying to comfort him, but he was losing consciousness, 611 00:32:48,006 --> 00:32:50,390 and he just kept staring up 612 00:32:50,390 --> 00:32:52,008 with an expression on his face of 613 00:32:52,008 --> 00:32:56,237 "Why? Why? What's happening to me? What's happening?" 614 00:32:57,038 --> 00:33:00,407 By then, 1967 and 68, 615 00:33:00,407 --> 00:33:02,575 when we were losing hundreds a week 616 00:33:02,575 --> 00:33:04,745 in that same fashion, you had to start 617 00:33:04,745 --> 00:33:07,113 questioning how much longer could this go on. 618 00:33:13,496 --> 00:33:16,561 On January 20th 1968 US Marines 619 00:33:16,561 --> 00:33:19,500 got involved in a battle with the North Vietnamese 620 00:33:19,500 --> 00:33:22,222 near the American base at Khe Sanh. 621 00:33:22,222 --> 00:33:25,140 It was the beginning of a critical campaign. 622 00:33:26,070 --> 00:33:27,895 For several weeks the North Vietnamese 623 00:33:27,895 --> 00:33:30,464 hammered Khe-Sanh and its defenders. 624 00:33:34,334 --> 00:33:35,470 We were moving our way up 625 00:33:35,470 --> 00:33:39,186 the trench line and we came to a machine gun book. 626 00:33:39,186 --> 00:33:41,723 Someone was firing a machine gun. 627 00:33:41,723 --> 00:33:43,423 And I said "Where's everybody else?" 628 00:33:43,423 --> 00:33:44,794 and he said "There isn't anybody else." 629 00:33:44,794 --> 00:33:46,348 And I said "Where is your crew?" 630 00:33:46,348 --> 00:33:47,787 And he said "They're gone." 631 00:33:48,753 --> 00:33:50,458 The siege continued throughout February 632 00:33:50,458 --> 00:33:52,429 and into March. 633 00:33:59,267 --> 00:34:02,038 At home television viewers were shocked 634 00:34:02,038 --> 00:34:03,874 by the spectacle. 635 00:34:08,313 --> 00:34:10,574 Jack Bronson was a medic. 636 00:34:11,279 --> 00:34:13,454 They screamed for me, 637 00:34:13,454 --> 00:34:15,189 they screamed for their mothers. 638 00:34:15,189 --> 00:34:17,459 It is not like the movies; 639 00:34:17,459 --> 00:34:20,667 you are looking at this person 640 00:34:20,667 --> 00:34:24,189 who is begging not to die. 641 00:34:24,189 --> 00:34:26,491 And the first question they always would ask me: 642 00:34:26,491 --> 00:34:27,960 "Am I gonna make it, doc?" 643 00:34:27,960 --> 00:34:29,964 And I had to lie a lot of times. 644 00:34:34,234 --> 00:34:37,832 When I was hit, I knew I was hurt bad. 645 00:34:37,832 --> 00:34:39,546 And I can remember laying there 646 00:34:39,546 --> 00:34:40,750 and I could hear the Vietnamese. 647 00:34:40,750 --> 00:34:43,609 Cause they kept throwing grenades at us. 648 00:34:43,609 --> 00:34:44,844 I could hear them talking. 649 00:34:44,844 --> 00:34:47,211 And I can remember saying to myself, 650 00:34:47,211 --> 00:34:48,719 "You are going to die." 651 00:34:49,390 --> 00:34:51,621 I got the telegram telling me 652 00:34:51,621 --> 00:34:55,754 that he was very seriously hurt 653 00:34:55,754 --> 00:34:58,796 and that the prognosis was not good. 654 00:35:00,030 --> 00:35:03,526 He was so far away that if I could only see him 655 00:35:03,526 --> 00:35:05,839 it wouldn't be so bad. 656 00:35:05,839 --> 00:35:07,745 But he's way out there... 657 00:35:07,745 --> 00:35:08,912 he didn't know whether I loved him, 658 00:35:08,912 --> 00:35:12,636 or if I could only hold his hand or something 659 00:35:12,636 --> 00:35:15,042 cause I didn't expect to see him again. 660 00:35:16,513 --> 00:35:18,715 Severely wounded Jack Bronson would return 661 00:35:18,715 --> 00:35:22,274 home to a country unsure what to make of his sacrifice. 662 00:35:23,023 --> 00:35:25,463 In late March, the North Vietnamese simply 663 00:35:25,463 --> 00:35:29,031 melted away and Khe-Sanh became another 664 00:35:29,031 --> 00:35:32,058 in a growing tally of dubious victories, 665 00:35:32,058 --> 00:35:34,530 a base desperately fought over, 666 00:35:34,530 --> 00:35:36,129 and then abandoned. 667 00:35:38,240 --> 00:35:41,207 "Yeah, I don't know, they say we're fighting for something. 668 00:35:41,207 --> 00:35:42,531 I don't know." 669 00:35:42,831 --> 00:35:45,149 By now many Americans on the homefront 670 00:35:45,432 --> 00:35:48,412 didn't see the Vietnam war as one of national survival. 671 00:35:49,746 --> 00:35:52,215 Opposition to the high price being paid 672 00:35:52,215 --> 00:35:54,547 in American servicemen began to build. 673 00:35:56,421 --> 00:35:59,656 As we began to see what was happening 674 00:35:59,656 --> 00:36:02,459 in that war, watching on television, 675 00:36:02,459 --> 00:36:03,491 it was stunning. 676 00:36:03,864 --> 00:36:05,295 You know, it was something that 677 00:36:05,295 --> 00:36:07,820 we had never seen--we'd never seen that face of war-- 678 00:36:07,820 --> 00:36:09,412 you know, it was always World War II. 679 00:36:09,412 --> 00:36:12,618 The Good War. And nobody ever saw the Korean War 680 00:36:12,618 --> 00:36:15,005 I mean, how many pictures have you seen of the Korean War? 681 00:36:16,004 --> 00:36:19,764 Suddenly, there it was, 6:00, and you know, there were bodies, 682 00:36:19,764 --> 00:36:21,446 and firefights. 683 00:36:21,712 --> 00:36:25,020 What made the experiences of the Vietnam war generation 684 00:36:25,020 --> 00:36:28,546 so different from those of the World War II: 685 00:36:28,546 --> 00:36:30,284 their parents hadn't had TV when they were kids. 686 00:36:30,782 --> 00:36:32,488 That made them different from every generation 687 00:36:32,488 --> 00:36:33,621 that had gone before. 688 00:36:37,025 --> 00:36:39,034 The anti-war demonstrators in the United States 689 00:36:39,034 --> 00:36:41,968 now took their protest to a new level. 690 00:36:45,033 --> 00:36:47,204 took part in one of the growing number of demonstrations 691 00:36:47,204 --> 00:36:48,402 against the war. 692 00:36:49,519 --> 00:36:51,464 The confrontation was very intense, 693 00:36:51,464 --> 00:36:54,834 the cops very suddenly had moved in on people 694 00:36:54,834 --> 00:36:56,595 and started to crack heads. 695 00:36:56,595 --> 00:36:58,851 And they beat people pretty badly. 696 00:37:01,161 --> 00:37:02,450 There was a lot of blood, 697 00:37:03,084 --> 00:37:05,723 there were a lot of injuries, 698 00:37:05,723 --> 00:37:07,712 and all of a sudden people understood 699 00:37:07,712 --> 00:37:12,398 themselves as being at odds 700 00:37:12,398 --> 00:37:14,534 with the powers that be. 701 00:37:14,534 --> 00:37:16,070 That, for us, was a signal that we needed 702 00:37:16,070 --> 00:37:18,511 to come back strong, 703 00:37:18,511 --> 00:37:20,074 become more militant. 704 00:37:20,607 --> 00:37:22,610 In trying to stop the war in Vietnam 705 00:37:22,610 --> 00:37:25,604 the demonstrations intensified the war at home. 706 00:37:32,814 --> 00:37:36,585 There was a class dimension to the Vietnam protests. 707 00:37:36,751 --> 00:37:39,021 To a large extent it was college kids 708 00:37:39,021 --> 00:37:41,056 saying they didn't want to go fight this 709 00:37:41,056 --> 00:37:43,914 war that they didn't see much point in 710 00:37:44,261 --> 00:37:47,386 so the blue collar kids did. 711 00:37:47,832 --> 00:37:49,491 It was one of the uglier things about 712 00:37:49,491 --> 00:37:53,337 the Vietnam war, to an extent 713 00:37:53,337 --> 00:37:55,395 it was fought by the less fortunate 714 00:37:55,395 --> 00:37:57,164 in the society. 715 00:38:01,815 --> 00:38:03,917 In February and March 1968 716 00:38:03,917 --> 00:38:05,719 television brought another set of horrifying 717 00:38:05,719 --> 00:38:07,755 images home to Americans. 718 00:38:17,027 --> 00:38:19,425 US soldiers were fighting for their lives 719 00:38:19,664 --> 00:38:20,800 from one end of South Vietnam 720 00:38:20,800 --> 00:38:21,935 to the other, 721 00:38:21,935 --> 00:38:24,706 the US embassy in Saigon was being overrun. 722 00:38:30,396 --> 00:38:32,871 This was the Tet Offensive, a military defeat 723 00:38:32,871 --> 00:38:34,636 for the North Vietnamese, 724 00:38:34,636 --> 00:38:37,178 but ultimately a political victory. 725 00:38:37,648 --> 00:38:38,979 Despite hearing repeatedly 726 00:38:38,979 --> 00:38:40,790 that there was light at the end of the tunnel 727 00:38:40,790 --> 00:38:42,750 most Americans came to realize they were not 728 00:38:42,750 --> 00:38:46,258 going to win the war in Vietnam anytime soon 729 00:38:46,258 --> 00:38:47,524 if ever. 730 00:38:48,691 --> 00:38:51,993 On March 31st 1968, with the presidential election 731 00:38:51,993 --> 00:38:53,474 just a few months away, 732 00:38:53,474 --> 00:38:55,342 an exhausted Lyndon Johnson 733 00:38:55,342 --> 00:38:57,669 seemed to come to the same conclusion. 734 00:38:58,179 --> 00:39:00,181 "I shall not seek 735 00:39:01,141 --> 00:39:03,304 and I will not accept 736 00:39:03,954 --> 00:39:06,735 the nomination of my party for another term 737 00:39:07,219 --> 00:39:08,074 as your president." 738 00:39:08,608 --> 00:39:10,076 And I looked at the guys in the bunker 739 00:39:10,076 --> 00:39:12,415 with me and I thought, I said, 740 00:39:12,415 --> 00:39:14,116 "He's getting out." 741 00:39:14,218 --> 00:39:15,290 And the other guy says, "What do you mean?" 742 00:39:15,290 --> 00:39:16,942 I said "He's not gonna run for president, 743 00:39:16,942 --> 00:39:19,664 he's not running anymore. 744 00:39:19,664 --> 00:39:21,960 He's getting out, he's the commander in chief. 745 00:39:21,960 --> 00:39:25,030 If he's getting out, what are we doing here?" 746 00:39:37,109 --> 00:39:40,441 In America 1968 "peace and understanding" 747 00:39:40,441 --> 00:39:43,145 were fast becoming distant memories. 748 00:39:46,128 --> 00:39:50,951 As the Vietnam war became the longest war in American history 749 00:39:50,951 --> 00:39:55,028 over 100 college campuses were wracked by furious protests. 750 00:39:56,712 --> 00:39:58,485 In the spring many of the nation's cities 751 00:39:58,485 --> 00:40:01,563 exploded once again with racial violence, 752 00:40:03,953 --> 00:40:09,278 propelled by the terrible events of April 4 1968. 753 00:40:10,173 --> 00:40:11,251 When I heard of the news 754 00:40:11,251 --> 00:40:12,708 that Martin Luther King had been shot 755 00:40:12,708 --> 00:40:14,812 in Memphis, and then seconds later 756 00:40:14,812 --> 00:40:16,780 killed in Memphis, it was 757 00:40:16,780 --> 00:40:19,878 as if a member of my family had been killed. 758 00:40:19,878 --> 00:40:21,895 And it said to me, "Here's this guy 759 00:40:21,895 --> 00:40:23,051 who's been going around 760 00:40:23,051 --> 00:40:25,986 preaching peace and non-violence 761 00:40:25,986 --> 00:40:28,392 and peaceful resistance, 762 00:40:28,392 --> 00:40:29,958 and now someone has shot him dead." 763 00:40:30,958 --> 00:40:34,400 And it shattered my belief that we could 764 00:40:34,400 --> 00:40:37,701 work these things out in a peaceful way. 765 00:40:37,701 --> 00:40:39,098 "It's perhaps well to ask what kind of 766 00:40:39,098 --> 00:40:42,241 a nation we are and what direction 767 00:40:42,241 --> 00:40:43,320 we want to move in." 768 00:40:43,944 --> 00:40:45,212 That night, Robert Kennedy 769 00:40:45,212 --> 00:40:46,172 the leading candidate 770 00:40:46,172 --> 00:40:48,143 for the Democratic Presidential nomination, 771 00:40:48,143 --> 00:40:49,854 announced King's death to a room full 772 00:40:49,854 --> 00:40:51,108 of campaign workers. 773 00:40:52,547 --> 00:40:55,315 In Kennedy, many Americans, both black and white, 774 00:40:55,315 --> 00:40:57,718 saw a man who could turn back the tide 775 00:40:57,718 --> 00:40:58,686 of violence. 776 00:40:59,100 --> 00:41:01,156 Two months after the death of Martin Luther King, 777 00:41:01,156 --> 00:41:03,131 Robert Kennedy was killed. 778 00:41:05,896 --> 00:41:07,865 My wife came into the bedroom and said, 779 00:41:07,865 --> 00:41:11,538 "You know what they've done now? 780 00:41:11,538 --> 00:41:12,839 They shot Bobby Kennedy." 781 00:41:12,839 --> 00:41:14,373 This "they," a sort of paranoid moment 782 00:41:14,373 --> 00:41:16,981 of our own, the sense of 783 00:41:16,981 --> 00:41:19,270 everything coming undone. 784 00:41:22,675 --> 00:41:24,479 And you never quite get over it, 785 00:41:24,479 --> 00:41:26,647 you no longer feel safe, 786 00:41:26,647 --> 00:41:28,751 in your life the way you did as a child, 787 00:41:28,751 --> 00:41:30,160 when your parents were alive. 788 00:41:34,046 --> 00:41:35,837 In those turbulent days, 789 00:41:36,121 --> 00:41:38,896 you felt you never really will be safe. 790 00:41:40,193 --> 00:41:42,015 "Will the convention be in order" 791 00:41:42,015 --> 00:41:44,039 In late August the city of Chicago 792 00:41:44,039 --> 00:41:47,003 was the host city for the Democratic National Convention. 793 00:41:49,345 --> 00:41:54,092 "Will the sergeant of arms enforce order in the convention" 794 00:41:55,073 --> 00:41:56,243 Delegates from all 50 states 795 00:41:56,243 --> 00:41:59,487 arrived to find Chicago an armed camp 796 00:42:00,283 --> 00:42:02,184 The city's mayor, Richard Daly, 797 00:42:02,184 --> 00:42:04,823 knew that tens of thousands of young demonstrators 798 00:42:04,823 --> 00:42:06,329 were also on their way. 799 00:42:06,490 --> 00:42:10,025 "Chairman, they're here as guests of the Democratic party 800 00:42:10,025 --> 00:42:12,771 and let them conduct themselves accordingly." 801 00:42:12,906 --> 00:42:15,730 They were determined to have their say. 802 00:42:16,462 --> 00:42:18,167 All across the country the new Left was 803 00:42:18,167 --> 00:42:20,111 trying to provoke people into actions 804 00:42:20,111 --> 00:42:21,872 that would escalate the whole thing. 805 00:42:24,631 --> 00:42:26,733 You never saw people so provoked in all your life 806 00:42:26,733 --> 00:42:28,011 as those Chicago police, 807 00:42:28,011 --> 00:42:29,536 the things those kids said to them. 808 00:42:29,972 --> 00:42:32,215 "I take one look at these pigs out here 809 00:42:32,215 --> 00:42:33,393 and I know what America's about." 810 00:42:34,053 --> 00:42:35,428 The gestures they made to them, 811 00:42:35,428 --> 00:42:38,019 deliberately designed to bring on this reaction. 812 00:42:56,839 --> 00:42:58,943 I volunteered to go to the Democratic National Convention 813 00:42:58,943 --> 00:43:01,045 because I wanted to see it. 814 00:43:01,045 --> 00:43:03,143 And I can remember up at 2 in the morning 815 00:43:03,143 --> 00:43:04,673 trying to get to sleep 816 00:43:04,673 --> 00:43:06,506 it was a little difficult because 817 00:43:06,506 --> 00:43:08,922 our windows were open, it was very hot, 818 00:43:08,922 --> 00:43:10,789 and all we could hear was the chant 819 00:43:10,789 --> 00:43:12,690 "F you, Daly" 820 00:43:13,493 --> 00:43:15,061 It was quite an event. 821 00:43:15,331 --> 00:43:16,598 The Democratic party was coming apart 822 00:43:16,598 --> 00:43:18,122 right there in the streets of Chicago. 823 00:43:19,292 --> 00:43:21,162 It seemed to many the country itself 824 00:43:21,162 --> 00:43:22,574 was coming apart. 825 00:43:22,997 --> 00:43:26,466 In November, America elected a new president 826 00:43:26,466 --> 00:43:30,003 who promised to heal the nation's wounds. 827 00:43:30,003 --> 00:43:32,006 Richard Milhouse Nixon. 828 00:43:32,006 --> 00:43:33,913 "We're gonna sock it to 'em!" 829 00:43:50,383 --> 00:43:52,254 Just as American unity and confidence 830 00:43:52,254 --> 00:43:53,959 seemed to be crumbling, 831 00:43:53,959 --> 00:43:56,767 a man from Ohio lands on the moon. 832 00:43:57,422 --> 00:43:58,892 We'll see that on the next episode 833 00:43:58,892 --> 00:44:01,940 of the Century: America's Time. 834 00:44:01,940 --> 00:44:03,776 Thank you for joining us. 835 00:44:03,776 --> 00:44:05,140 I'm Peter Jennings.