A Nation Builds Under Fire

[Music] for the motion picture that you're about to see. These are wonderfully strong pictures. They capture the spirit of the people of that country. Now, just take a look at this one. Throughout Vietnam, you see strong faces like this, determined and patient. The story, the hope, and the determination of these brave people of South Vietnam and what they are doing to build on their hopes has not been told as often as has the story of war in their ravaged land, but it's just as true. Here are some others. They are really building something over there. They are building the foundations of a society in which they and their children can live in peace and freedom. And they are doing this in the midst of an ugly war forced on them by aggressors who want to control them. They are doing it with their muscle and their hearts. But they are doing it at the ballot box, too. In hundreds of hamlets across the land, they are demonstrating their faith. faith in themselves and in their future. They're also proving their faith in us because we have taken our stand beside them. No one who really knows what these determined people are doing can doubt the rightness of their cause. Nor can they doubt the rightness of our help. For we are making possible the conditions under which they can build their nation. Their effort to build that nation is a story that needs to be told. It is a story of men who prize freedom and it is a story honoring men who put their lives on the line for freedom. [Music] The story of Vietnam today is the story of war and of the men of different nations who fight that war to end the enemy's aggression. [Music] It is the story of war's effect on the people who live in this troubled land. But the untold story of this historic moment in Vietnam is one of heroic adventure. It is a revolutionary undertaking by the people of the Republic of Vietnam to transform their national life and construct out of the chaotic legacy of the past a social order that will work for the betterment of all. [Music] It is the story of a people building a nation for themselves and building it amid the holocaust of war. [Music] There we go. [Music] A generation ago, not many Americans could have said with certainty where or what Saigon was. Today, no city in the world more urgently commands our attention. It is the capital city of a nation at war. the strangest war in which Americans have ever been involved. It is also the capital of a nation in the throws of a social revolution. And America's participation in that revolution is just as urgent as its involvement in the war. Being the capital city, Saigon is the source of South Vietnam's revolutionary effort. But you have to come out here in the countryside to see what it's all about. The Defense Department has asked me to help bring you this story of Vietnam's attempt to build itself into a nation. And to do this, I've called on some expert help. This is Lieutenant Mark Nelson, US Navy. He's commander of a division of the patrol craft which prevent infiltration of enemy troops and supplies along the coast. And this is Sergeant Shelley Blunt of the Air Force. Sergeant Ken Sanders with the third marine amphibious force at Daang and Spect 5 Dale Camry with the 25th Infantry Division. These fellas are stationed here and they know the country at least in the special way that American fighting men have come to know it. So from their own experiences and observations, they know the story and together we're going to try to give you an informed picture of what it is that's going on over here. We're in the hamlet of Niton about 15 miles north of Saigon. It's a peaceful looking rural community and life goes on here much as it has for hundreds of years in this part of the world. [Music] But there's an operation going on a mile or two from here. And the peace and quiet of this little village is shattered by the sounds of war. the drones of helicopters overhead and every once in a while this rumble of artillery. That's one thing you learn after you've been here in Vietnam for a while. But the war is never very far away. These hamlets and villages are the real soul of the country. Four-fifths of the people of South Vietnam live in them. And it is here in these dusty trails through the countryside, these thatched huts and farmland and jungle that the thrust of South Vietnam's great social revolution is directed. In Vietnam, revolution is a double-edged word. The enemy uses it. It's it's what they call the aggressive war they're using against the people over here. That's a story. And there's nothing mysterious about the kind of revolution the enemy has in mind. It's the same thing we've seen in many parts of the world ever since the communist revolution 50 years ago. Murder, assassination, terror. And over here they've killed over 20,000 civilian leaders. That is the story of the civilian population. It is public knowledge that these people in their fight for freedom have lost proportionately already more troops than we lost in the whole of World War II. And yet, in spite of this, there have always been men brave enough in this country to step forward and take the leadership from those who have been killed. And it's these same brave people who have had the will and the guts to conduct their own revolution, a real revolution for the betterment of their people. At the same time, they've been fighting a war for their very survival. What the government of Vietnam is launching is a national effort to eliminate and defeat a pattern of social misery which has plagued the people of Vietnam for generations. They intend to replace it with a society in which the needs of the people can be met. Now they call it revolution and it certainly is. And they call it nation building and it's that too. For these people emerged from a foreign domination just a little more than a decade ago and almost immediately they were subjected to the communists war of terror and isolation. No one in this land today has had the experience of living at peace in a free society that's responsive to the people's problems. To bring peace by ending the enemy's aggression is the purpose of the military effort here, theirs and our allies and ours. To bring about a stable society dedicated to the people's welfare is the heart of Vietnam's nation building revolution. The people over here have never had very much and they want their share. They want the things that are important to them. That is what they mean by revolution and what it's all about. They want a better life. They want social justice. But the guy in the rice patty wouldn't call it that. As a matter of fact, he probably wouldn't know what those words mean. But it's the same thing. He wants to be left alone. He's tired of being frightened, kicked around, and beaten up. He wants some personal dignity. And he certainly doesn't get very much of that over here. These people want education. It's the key to the future for them. And health is another big problem. Disease is the serious thing, and life expectancy is pretty low. Well, the war helps that along. It sure does. But some of these people never get to see a doctor. You ought to see the way they crowd around some of our medics. These people want dispensaries and clinics so that they can get taken care of and get their families taken care of so they can live a little longer. Social justice, if that's what you want to call it, or simply the desire not to be beaten up, education for the children, health facilities, the hunger for land, and to make the land more bountiful. These are the wants of the people. They are the objectives of Vietnam's social revolution. Trouble is, the Vietkong have told the people they'd give them the same thing. Yeah. And they shoot anybody that doesn't believe them. Well, but sometimes the people don't know who to believe. That's why the government has to make good on its promises right now. If they don't, their revolution is dead. But we can't wait on it. We've got to get this war won. If we don't, there won't be a nation to build. [Music] Yes, we in the South Vietnamese must win this war. The social revolution cannot be successful unless the people feel secure and safe from communist aggression. The country stretches for 900 miles through jungles, mountains, and rice patties. Virtually any part of it could be the battlefield. There is no front line. They the enemy hides in the foliage in the night. The mission is to break his grip on the countryside to persuade him with fire that his aggression will gain him nothing. The enemy was proud of the technique he had developed for pursuing what he called his wars of national liberation. Who could stop him? Not the Americans, or so he thought. The leaders of the North Vietnamese military forces said that the organization, composition, and training of American forces were not fit to tackle a revolutionary war. I guess they forgot 1776. Anyway, we Americans who knew something about revolution developed a revolutionary answer in the field to these cutthroats and terrorists. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] The myth of Vietkong invincibility is dead. The ground, sea, and air team in Vietnam has killed it. America decided a long time ago in principle to take its stand in Vietnam. It laid the foundations for that decision when it recognized that aggression against the weak could never be permitted to succeed if freedom was to survive. The fighting men in Vietnam are the inheritors of that decision and now they are its agents. Accolades [Music] in war are easy to give, but there is a general agreement that never before in its history has America put into combat a force so composed of men ready for their job. They serve the cause of freedom. Well, they're fighting men and not philosophers, so they don't talk much about freedom, but they know their job and they know how it figures in Vietnam's effort to build a nation. [Music] We've got to get this war won. If we don't, there won't be any nation to build. I am Major V, Chief of Hogmon District. It would be simple and no doubt more economical if we could do one thing at a time. Win the war first and then turn to the death of building our nation. Unfortunately, this cannot be done. Our social revolution is too urgent. Our people have waited too long already and they cannot wait any longer. So, we must carry forward our revolution. At the same time, we are fighting a war. I'm Lieutenant Colonel John Keeler with the United States Military Assistance Command in Vietnam. The Vietnamese face two major problems in getting their nation started. One of these is their lack of unity. I mean physical unity. They're a country of thousands of different hamlets and villages which have to be tied together. And we're helping to do this in a number of ways. First of all, of course, the military effort, the actual job of fighting the enemy and denying him the victory he thought he was going to have makes it possible for the Vietnamese to plan and to carry out their revolution. Then, too, as we open roads for travel in our combat operations, we're helping to improve their communications net. All over this country, hundreds of bridges are being built and roads opened. [Music] When we leave here, we're going to leave behind a half a dozen first class jet airfields and some of the finest port facilities in this part of the world. military necessity forced us to build a port at Cameron Bay, for instance, to break the serious logistical bottleneck. When this country is finally at peace, that port will still remain, and there isn't anything to match it between Hong Kong and Singapore. We've also helped start newspapers in the provinces, and we've set up a radio and television network that will eventually span most of the country. And this will certainly be an aid in unifying the nation. In addition, it'll be an educational boon. It can be used to teach millions of illiterate Vietnamese how to read and to write. All of these activities of ours will eventually help provide Vietnam with a physical cohesiveness and it desperately needs this before it can ever achieve that sense of nationhood that it is striving toward. Vietnam's other major problem is its lack of administrative skills, experience, people to carry out the government plan. The Vietnamese have no background in this. The years of colonization and war have made it difficult and often impossible to develop these skills. But now they're correcting this problem as fast as they can, training a body of civil servants who will be able to serve at all levels. To us Americans who don't have this problem, it might not seem important, but it is. A government can't run only on ideas. It has to have technicians, administrators who can make those ideas work. Otherwise, the best plans and programs are are worthless. In this training, as indeed across the entire spectrum of their activity, the Vietnamese are revealing the intensity of their determination to pursue the social revolution on which their future depends. The final outcome of the Vietnam story will not be determined in the cities or even in the places of open conflict with the enemy, but out here in these small clusters of rice farmers and fishermen. That captain over there is Peter Dawkins. Just a few years ago, he was making All-American at West Point. But now, he's up to his eyeballs in a really historic adventure. The effort of the Vietnamese government to create a nation where no real sense of nationhood has ever existed before. Well, with his help, I hope that we'll be able to show you what nation building means in thousands of hamlets across the country like this. Pete, you're on. Well, you know, this uh this nation building is an abstract term, and so is social revolution, which is the other term the Vietnamese use for what they're trying to do. But what these terms really boil down to essentially is an effort to bring a better way of life to the millions of Vietnamese that live in these villages and hamlets across the country. This is a staggering undertaking, but one of vital importance. The peasant of Vietnam is well overdue his claim to a better shake. The unusual thing is that the government is trying to give the peasant that better shake even while the war is going on. When you look at that fact closely, you discover something truly unique about this war. Improving the lives of these people is not just a humanitarian idea. It's a military necessity. And every American who comes over here to fight soon becomes aware of this. With uh with the the gung-ho spirit of God and a handful of Marines, we've we're winning the field in communications and logistics. But uh to get the people on our side is the only way that we'll ever get the full support of the people. And that's the most important thing we can do here. In order to win this particular war, I feel that you must have the cooperation of the people. Since the Vietkong themselves come from villages such as this, they come into the village at night and leave during the night. In order to find who they are, where they're at, you must have the cooperation of these people. They must come and tell you if they know Viet Kong or in the area. Otherwise, we can sit here and would never know they're here. You can't just send one group out to do it. Everyone's got to work together and getting the people on their side. Everyone has to work to secure the support of the people, and everyone does. The program to acquire this support is called civic action. It's an extensive program embracing just about every activity in which the fighting man is involved over here. When airmen risk their lives to evacuate villagers under fire, that's civic action. When Navy men devote their time and talents to training young Vietnamese in the skills that will enrich their lives and contribute to the betterment of their own future and that of their country, that's civic action, too. In this polytenic school in Daang, sailors volunteer to teach basic carpentry to boys who thus are provided with a capability which might well make a great difference in their lives. And this is the fundamental purpose of civic action undertaken by sailors and soldiers, marines and airmen alike, to make a difference in the lives of the people. [Music] Civic action does not exist in a vacuum, isolated from the war. It's an essential part of every combat operation. Tomorrow about midnight, you'll surround the village of Tanukan and completely seal it off. If you encounter any VC, you'll you'll take your normal combat action. After you seal off this village, it's going to be a little different. However, at first light, we're going to take the government of Vietnam to Tan Sutan. Going to be a large group of people going into this village that you've surrounded. And it's going to be their job to show them that the government of Vietnam is the best choice. And your job is just as important in that you've got to convince these people that you as soldiers are on their side. You're going to gain their confidence by working with them to build a little better life. I think we're definitely gaining a foothold in Vietnam, helping the people, convincing them that freedom is the best way, telling them about their government, helping the Vietnamese government itself get through to the people in these back villages where ordinarily they wouldn't take an interest in their government. By our people-to-people program, we're showing them that we're willing to help them if they help themselves. And also the Vietnamese are now the Vietnamese government are now training doctors, nurses, sending them into these villages to help their own people. It's one of their people helping their own people and this is being sponsored partially by the United States government and uh I feel that we're graing gaining very much ground in this field. The VC distributed pamphlets to us. Pamplets printed in English and uh some to uh our our villagers here. The the people brought the pamphlets to us and handed them into uh to our staff sergeant in charge here. There didn't seem to be any upheaval over it at all. We were happy about that. Basic kindness and generosity are not unknown in the tradition of the American fighting man overseas, but no one ever expected that they would become military weapons as well. But that's the kind of a war this is. [Music] Non-military assistance is also a major part of America's contribution to Vietnam's struggle and has been from the beginning. My name is Mike Rola. I'm with the United States Agency for International Development here in Vietnam. I've been here about 3 years now working in the province of Jaden. My work has involved almost everything that is non-military from the building of schools, maternity dispensaries, roads, and bridges. Basically what we've been trying to do though is work with the people and help them as much as they can to realize their aims and and their wishes. Basically what we're trying to do is help the government of Vietnam respond to these needs and these wishes. Helping the government respond to the needs of the people. The US is not alone either in the contributions it is making. This is one of a number of social centers used also as schools during the day which the West Germans have set up in the crowded and poor districts of Saigon. [Music] An Iranian surgical team provides badly needed hospital services in one of the districts. [Music] Such activities document the very important fact that 39 nations of the free world today are helping or have promised to help the Republic of Vietnam in one way or another. All of this is enormously important and helpful to the common cause. But these activities can only be considered as the initial steps to help get the process started. No matter how successful our troops or our aid representatives are in winning the support of the people, in the end, that job can only be done by the Vietnamese themselves. As good friends and allies, we can help strengthen the ties of the people to their government. But only that, we can only help. The Vietnamese know this and they're doing something about it. As a matter of fact, what they're doing constitutes the heart and soul of their effort toward building a nation. This is a training center at Vongtao. A very special training center. It's for the training of what the Vietnamese call revolutionary development cadri. The men who come here, 5,000 of them at a time, 20,000 a year, literally hold the hopes for Vietnam's social revolution in their hands. They come here to assimilate the principles of their government's plan to revitalize the country and learn the skills and techniques with which to translate those principles into effective action. Army. This is the uniform here at Yungttow. I'm an adviser here, but only that. You see, the Vietnamese are running the show, and it's an arous one. About half the total training is taken up with military subjects. The job of these men will be to move into areas which American or Arvin troops have cleared but subsequently passed on through, and their first responsibility will be to take up where the military had to leave off in providing security for the area. [Music] They are the sons of farmers and fishermen and have lived all their lives close to the soil. They don't need much instruction in how to harvest a rice crop or bring in a catch. But techniques for improving the crop and the catch are important parts of the curriculum. Someday a village's loyalty might turn on just such instruction. They become well schooled in the causes and progress of the war, probably as much as any national spokesman, and one fact is drilled into them constantly, the necessity of reaching the hearts and minds of the people among whom they will be working. When their training is completed at the end of 13 weeks, they are formed into cadri groups to take their revolution, the social revolution to the countryside. [Music] The program in which these cadri groups are involved actually begins well before they move into a village. First of all, regular forces, either ours or South Vietnamese, sweep through the area to clear it, destroy, capture, or chase out any Vietkong or main force enemy units. Then regional forces, companies of troops employed within a province, and popular forces, platoon and squads within a district, secure the area with their patrols and small-sized operations. Then the cadri groups move in, dressed in the black pajamas of the peasant, trained to look at the world as the peasant sees it, but also as the soldier must. This black pajama uniform is very important. Because it is the traditional garb of the peasant, it's easier for the peasant to identify himself with the cadri groups. It complicates our problems of identification, of course, for the Vietkong wear the same uniform. The cadri work with the people to gain their trust. This is made considerably easier by their being assigned to the districts they grew up in among the people who know them. [Music] They're not left entirely on their own. Military units on the periphery help to deter the enemy from coming back. But these men still carry a heavy share of the responsibility for village security. Within this screen of security, the Cadri teams begin rooting out the VC infrastructure, if one exists. [Music] At the same time, the spade work of the social revolution begins with a full explanation to the people of just what the cadri are in the village for and what they hope to accomplish. This is not always an easy step. The overwhelming majority of the people of South Vietnam are dead opposed to everything that the enemy stands for. But their experience has made them worry. Too often they've watched the VC murder anyone who has cooperated with a government. They have to be persuaded that this won't happen again. It's the job of the cadreies to do that persuading and also to persuade the villagers that their welfare is actually of deep concern to their emerging nation. One team starts out right away to find out what the people's particular problems are. What is needed the most to improve life in the village? [Music] Once the problems have been determined, another team starts organizing the effort to solve them. This is where the people's first commitment takes hold. For what the cadies must do now is encourage and lead the villagers into tackling the projects themselves. The team will find the necessary materials and supplies to be used, often from US sources, but the people have to contribute their labors and energies. As their work progresses, the Cadri encourage and supervise the election of community leaders. When a village gripped with fear or mired in apathy awakens to a sense of its own importance and feels the stirrings of faith in itself and in the faroff government which is demonstrating its compassion and concern when the people of a community begin to take their destiny in their hands. That is the transformation of social revolution. And it is precisely this which the revolutionary development cadri are endeavoring to bring to the villages of Vietnam. They stay in the village for several months, sometimes a year. When their job is through, if they've done it well, they will leave behind them a community of people who now are able to believe in their future, who are determined to work for it and to share in the defense of it. One of the final missions of a cadre group is to train a self-defense force from among the able-bodied villagers. a force prepared to help meet any attack by the enemy. When this happens, the people's commitment is complete. Vietnam has a lot writing on these men. We all have. That's right. We all have. Vietnam. [Music] Vietnam. Vietnam. No one can say with absolute certainty that Vietnam is going to succeed in building the nation it wants during the hardships of and trials of war. But powerful ideas generate their own growth even in the most bitter of climate. One of these is the belief in individual man's dignity and his right to determine his own course. It is this idea which animates Vietnam spirit today. It is an idea with which we Americans are familiar. It is to honor our commitment to this idea that we take our stand and will hold our stand in this troubled land of a worthy and to leave you with one thought in mind to understand to really understand what the Vietnamese are trying to do today. We can think of our own country just less than two centuries ago. We had won our revolution, won it on the battlefield. And it took from 1776 to 1787, 11 years for our founding fathers to build the substance and structure that is now our great nation. The Vietnamese are trying to do both of these things at once. Not because they want to, but because they must. Because history will not give them the luxury of the time that it once gave us. [Music] Looking at [Music] one. [Music] [Applause] [Music]