Hearts and Minds Page #3

The way things are

with the house in the rubble,

the bird comes home

and finds no nest.

Where am I to find a place to sit

and work for something to eat?

Even a bird needs a nest

it can go back to,

crawl into for sleep and food.

Look, they're focusing on us now.

First they bomb as much as

they please, then they film.

We fought against the

Chinese for 12 centuries.

We fought against the French

for 100 years.

And finally, when the war

was lost by the French in 1954...

at the battle of Dien Bien Phu,

the Vietnamese were liberated

from foreign oppression.

But it was at that precise moment

that the Americans came to Vietnam.

Little by little at first.

Then more and more as an invasion,

an invasion of the American army.

Five hundred thousand of them

in Vietnam.

And this war

became a war of genocide.

The people of North Vietnam

and South Vietnam...

fight only for freedom,

independence and national unity.

This war is a war against

the American imperialists.

This is our war for independence.

What we are trying to put across this

afternoon is to get you to realize...

that these weren't mythical,

hazy people from the past.

These were very real people.

When they rose up against the

most powerful army in the world,

they were actually putting everything

on the line that they had:

Their homes, their wealth,

their past and their future.

That all men are created equal.

That they are endowed by their creator

with certain unalienable rights.

That among these are life, liberty

and the pursuit of happiness."

And when you judge the Revolution

and the problems and the success we had,

it was a two-way street.

A good many citizens

at the time of the Revolution...

actually stayed

and fought with the British.

It was close to being a civil war

in many areas.

You actually split

many-many families.

Thomas Jefferson said,

"The tree of revolution is..."

or "The tree of liberty is...

watered by the blood of revolution

every generation."

And I think that's a little exaggerated,

but there's some truth to that.

The war had come

to Westchester County,

but so too had independence

and a new responsibility.

Men are getting killed, men are

killing. That's the parallel.

As far as politics,

are you kidding?

Oriental politics?

Don't put me on, man.

Fire!

We haven't found his weapon yet.

We're still looking for it.

- You got a weapon?

- No, sir.

He had one, man.

This guy's got ammo.

I'm planning to medivac this guy.

The people who are

living in the jungle,

under the bombs, without pay,

without their families,

are doing so because they are

fighting for independence.

Because they're fighting, in

this case, for unification...

and they're fighting

for revolution.

Of course, the name

for a conflict...

in which you're opposing a

revolution is counter-revolution.

And this is something we never

admitted to ourselves at all.

It's-It's what we

were really doing.

The letters and the

reports we had...

on Ho Chi Minh's attitude

back in 1946...

he wrote I think it was seven letters to

this government and received no reply.

The-The-The pathos, almost,

the sadness...

Here's a man who felt

and believed the United States...

would be sympathetic to his purpose

of gaining his independence...

from a colonial power.

And then to find we...

You know, this is what he'd read.

He'd been here, read our Constitution

and Declaration of Independence.

He thought surely the United States

would be interested.

We had testimony in the

committee that his one worry...

was that it was so insignificant...

Vietnam was so far away, insignificant...

we would never bother about it.

It's too small to ever attract the

attention of the United States.

He was sure in his own mind...

that if we ever put our minds in

focus upon it, we would be for him.

How different history would have

been for us and for them...

if we had felt a common interest...

in the colonial province

like Vietnam...

seeking its independence

from France.

The Ho Chi Minh of '56,

I don't think could have got elected

dogcatcher in South Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh, uh, dead...

Could beat any candidate

we've ever put up in Vietnam.

You asked me about

my oldest son Bing.

He was a graduate of Harvard, 1965.

And he was not a soldier at heart.

Uh, but he realized,

I'm sure, there's no question,

he realized he was part of a

big job that had to be done,

and he was gonna do it the way

he did everything... full out.

And he went out on this mission...

Minh River...

and it was a big assault mission

bringing elements...

to this area just south of Da Nang

along the railroad line.

And they encountered heavy, sustained,

uh, automatic weapons fire.

And the helicopter ahead of him,

I believe,

was, uh, uh, destr...

was shot down.

And then he went in

and his helicopter was, uh, uh...

He was actually killed in flight.

That's what they...

And the airplane crashed,

and he and his co... He was killed.

His copilot was very badly injured.

And I think there were 12 out of

15 or 16 of the people aboard...

were either killed or badly hurt.

Many bombs, many coffins.

These are for children.

Eight or nine hundred a week.

I have lost seven children myself.

Many have died here.

It's nothing like in the countryside.

Many more have died there.

In the country, there are no coffins.

There's no money to buy them.

How did all the children die?

Poison. Poison, you know.

These planes keep spouting and spraying

the stuff, and so many people have died.

It seems to destroy

their intestines.

With this spraying and bombing,

so many have died.

Each day, right on time,

the bomb craters appear.

Hundreds of tons

are dropped each day.

And we can't talk about it.

We can't talk about it...

because we are afraid

of the government.

Come on.

- You look nice.

- How do you feel?

What'd you do?

Uh, shaved.

I liked it better long.

So what you been doing?

In little more than a week,

I'll be going back to the military.

You what?

- Why?

- Well...

After what they've done to you?

Well, it's...

it's a choice between that...

or, uh, Canada, again.

Or, uh, staying underground.

Which is, uh, as you know,

impossible...

- Have you been in contact with them?

- No.

No. But I've got a lot of support.

You'll get the same deal

Mike's getting.

It's going to be a different type thing.

I'm going back publicly.

We're having, uh,

Ad Hoc Congressional Hearings.

Yeah?

It's really been building up

over the past couple of months.

- And...

- Am I going to be able to be there?

Of course you're going to be there. I'm

gonna try to get Ronnie there, too.

"Cause you know what

I feel about the army.

These people holding their heads

high because they lost a son...

in Vietnam or something.

I don't think

that's much to be proud of.

They've lost more than they'll ever

gain for the rest of their lives.

And I remember I was sitting

at the base of the hill,

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