The Vietnam War: A Film By Ken Burns and Lynn Novick

After a long and brutal war, Vietnamese revolutionaries led by Ho Chi Minh end nearly a century of French colonial occupation. With the Cold War intensifying, Vietnam is divided in two. Communists in the North aim to reunify the country, while America supports Ngo Dinh Diem’s untested regime in the South.

President Kennedy inspires idealistic young Americans to serve their country and wrestles with how deeply to get involved in South Vietnam. As the increasingly autocratic Diem regime faces a growing communist insurgency and widespread Buddhist protests, a grave political crisis unfolds.

With South Vietnam in chaos, hardliners in Hanoi seize the initiative and send combat troops to the South, accelerating the insurgency. Fearing Saigon’s collapse, President Johnson escalates America’s military commitment, authorizing sustained bombing of the North and deploying ground troops in the South.

Defying American airpower, North Vietnamese troops and materiel stream down the Ho Chi Minh Trail into the South while Saigon struggles to “pacify” the countryside. As an antiwar movement builds back home, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and Marines discover that the war they are being asked to fight in Vietnam is nothing like their fathers’ war.

American casualties and enemy body counts mount as Marines face deadly North Vietnamese ambushes and artillery south of the DMZ and Army units chase an elusive enemy in the Central Highlands. Hanoi lays plans for a massive surprise offensive, and the Johnson administration reassures the American public that victory is in sight.

At the onset of the Tet holiday, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces launch surprise attacks on cities and military bases throughout the South, suffering devastating losses but casting grave doubt on the Johnson administration’s promise that there is “light at the end of the tunnel.” The President decides not to run again and the country is staggered by assassinations and unrest.

Public support for the war declines, and American men of draft age face difficult decisions and wrenching moral choices. After police battle with demonstrators in the streets of Chicago, Richard Nixon wins the presidency, promising law and order at home and peace overseas. In Vietnam the war goes on, and soldiers on all sides witness terrible savagery and unflinching courage.

With morale plummeting in Vietnam, President Nixon begins withdrawing American troops. As news breaks of an unthinkable massacre committed by American soldiers, the public debates the rectitude of the war. An incursion into Cambodia reignites antiwar protests with tragic consequences.

South Vietnamese forces fighting on their own in Laos suffer a terrible defeat. Massive U.S. airpower makes the difference in halting an unprecedented North Vietnamese offensive. After being re-elected in a landslide, Nixon announces Hanoi has agreed to a peace deal. American prisoners of war will finally come home—to a bitterly divided country.

While the Watergate scandal rivets Americans’ attention and forces President Nixon to resign, the Vietnamese continue to savage one another in a brutal civil war. When hundreds of thousands of North Vietnamese troops pour into the South, Saigon descends rapidly into chaos and collapses. For the next forty years, Americans and Vietnamese from all sides search for healing and reconciliation.

Under the stress of serving as an Army nurse at the 71st Evacuation Hospital in Pleiku, South Vietnam, Lieutenant Joan Furey faced a personal betrayal.

Most American military personnel stationed in Vietnam never saw combat. They served instead on bases as clerks, cooks, mechanics, MPs. The largest U.S. base in Vietnam was Long Binh Post, twenty miles from Saigon.

For years, Nguyen Tai had been in charge of espionage, assassination, and sabotage in and around Saigon. In 1970, he was captured. CIA Agent Frank Snepp was tasked with finding out what he knew.

In early 1968, while the Tet Offensive raged in South Vietnam, Lieutenant Vincent Okamoto was based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He was assigned to deliver bad news to families who lost loved ones in Vietnam.

Craig McNamara, the son of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, felt the divisions caused by Vietnam as acutely as anyone. In 1969, he faced the Oakland Draft Board.

John Musgrave, a Marine veteran who served at Con Thien in Vietnam where he was wounded. After returning home, Musgrave struggled with survivor’s guilt and depression. Today, he counsels active-duty soldiers and other veterans who are having trouble adjusting to life after their service in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Life is worth living. Any struggle it’s worth it. We’ve been through hell already. We don’t need to put ourselves through any more hell now that we’re home. The enemy that we’re struggling with now is as deadly as any enemy we’ve ever faced on the field of battle only it’s inside of us.” –John Musgrave

Nguyen Van Bay rose from humble beginnings to be the leading ace of the tiny North Vietnamese Air Force, credited with shooting down seven American planes.

In 2013, 33 years after he fled to Canada to avoid serving in the Army during the war, Jack Todd visited the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to share his story with the cadets.

Ron Ferrizzi, who served with the Army's 1st Air Cavalry Division as a crew chief in a scout helicopter, grew well acquainted with the wildlife of Vietnam’s Central Highlands and learned that even tigers and elephants could be casualties in war.

This program takes a look at creation of the upcoming series from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick: THE VIETNAM WAR. Featuring interviews with the filmmakers, behind-the-scenes footage, and exclusive clips from the series, this program will give viewers an advance look at this Fall's most anticipated film.