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00:10¶¶
01:15Vietnam and its neighbors, Laos and Cambodia, later Campuchia, were to endure a long agony
01:21which began almost as soon as Japan surrendered in 1945.
01:34Conflict in this part of Southeast Asia was to continue well into the 1990s.
01:39It would also leave an indelible scar on the United States.
01:51The first phase of the conflict lasted for almost 10 years as the French struggled to retain
01:56their rule over colonial Indochina.
02:14The fall of Dien Bien Phu in May 1954 marked victory for Ho Chi Minh and his Communist
02:20Viet Minh movement.
02:26The subsequent Geneva peace conference gave Ho Chi Minh control as far south as the 17th
02:31parallel.
02:35Ngo Dinh Diem, on the left, headed the non-communist state of South Vietnam, with Saigon as its
02:42capital.
02:47Cambodia found itself under the leadership of pro-communist Prince Noradon Sioc.
02:55In Laos, the situation was more complicated.
02:57The French gave the country independence within the French Union as early as 1949.
03:03Three political groupings sprung up.
03:06Neutralist, Communist and pro-Western.
03:08A civil war broke out in 1953, which successive weak coalition governments were unable to wholly
03:15contain.
03:17North Vietnam was, however, bent on a unified Vietnam, but under Hanoi's communist rule.
03:25To this end, former members of the Viet Minh remained underground in South Vietnam and became
03:30known as the Viet Cong.
03:37The 1954 Geneva agreements had stipulated that elections should be held in both North and
03:42South Vietnam in July 1956.
03:45South Vietnamese Premier Diem, however, claimed that those held in North Vietnam would not be
03:51free and refused to take part.
03:57He was encouraged in this by a declaration made by American President Dwight Eisenhower in 1954,
04:03that the United States would make every effort to protect South Vietnam against communist aggression.
04:09Indeed, American advisers were already in country, helping to form and train South Vietnam's armed forces.
04:24In 1957, encouraged by propaganda from Hanoi against the Saigon regime, the Viet Cong renewed its guerrilla activities in the
04:33rural areas of South Vietnam.
04:42Concerned that the Viet Cong was threatening to destabilize the country, the United States dramatically increased the number of its
04:48military advisers in 1961 to 650 and then to 900.
04:54Diem himself had been forced to introduce a degree of repression of civil liberties in order to combat the Viet
05:00Cong.
05:06This made him increasingly unpopular, and in 1960, army officers attempted a coup against him, resulting in bloodshed on the
05:13streets of Saigon.
05:20The number of American advisers continued to increase in the face of objections from Hanoi, which accused the United States
05:27of preparing for war.
05:30In January 1961, the North Vietnamese announced the formation of the National Liberation Front in South Vietnam, dedicated to overthrowing
05:39the Saigon regime.
05:41This served to encourage the Viet Cong still further.
05:46In the face of this, President John F. Kennedy declared in October 1961 that the United States would give South
05:53Vietnam all support in combating the communist threat.
06:01He sent General Maxwell Taylor to Vietnam to establish how best this could be done.
06:08Before the year was out, the first U.S. support units, two helicopter companies, had arrived.
06:15In February 1962, U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam was established.
06:21No less than 9,000 Americans were working for it by the end of the year.
06:29An early measure was the setting up of the strategic hamlets program.
06:33This reflected the successful British policy in Malaya to counter communist guerrilla intimidation of rural communities by moving them into
06:41protected villages.
06:43Unfortunately, coercion applied by the South Vietnam government served to drive many peasants into the arms of the Viet Cong.
06:52DiEM's growing unpopularity, not least because many top government positions were held by members of his family, boiled over during
06:59the summer of 1963.
07:01The main opposition came from the Buddhists, who formed 70% of the population.
07:12So passionate did the protests become that some Buddhist monks even set themselves on fire.
07:27Senior army officers were also becoming disillusioned.
07:33Led by General Duong Van Min, known as Big Min, they organised an attack on DiEM's palace in November 1963.
07:46DiEM and one of his brothers were murdered, and Big Min now set up a military junta to rule the
07:52country, promising positive action to bring about victory over the Viet Cong.
08:03In January 1964, General William Westmoreland arrived in Vietnam as Deputy Commander, Military Assistance Command, prior to heading it six
08:12months later.
08:13He was aghast at what he found.
08:19The Viet Cong appeared to control most of the rural areas, and indeed were levying taxes in 41 out of
08:25the 44 provinces.
08:27Operating in groups of 350 men, they were steadily isolating and reducing government posts.
08:34Morale in the South Vietnam forces was low, and in spite of the presence of US advisers, there was little
08:40attempt to seize the initiative off the Viet Cong.
08:43So gloomy was the situation that some members of the US government believed that the only solution was to launch
08:49a bombing campaign against North Vietnam.
08:52On the 2nd of August 1964, the American destroyer Maddox, on an intelligence gathering mission in the Gulf of Tonkin,
09:00was fired on by North Vietnamese patrol boats.
09:03She was not hit, the boats themselves being sunk. Maddox was attacked again two nights later.
09:12American reaction was swift, with air strikes mounted against North Vietnamese naval bases and oil installations.
09:19US President Lyndon B. Johnson stated,
09:21To any armed attack upon our forces, we shall reply. To any in Southeast Asia who ask our help...
09:31But he assured the American people that he sought no wider war.
09:35Even so, the Tonkin incident marked the real beginning of America's long, agonising but undeclared war in Vietnam.
09:42In the meantime, Westmoreland had taken over military assistance command and launched a pacification strategy aimed initially at the rural
09:50areas around the main cities of South Vietnam.
09:57His efforts, however, were hampered by political infighting within the Saigon regime, which would result in no less than 13
10:04governments in nine months.
10:09The Viet Cong had also begun to attack American targets, especially air bases around Saigon.
10:23Worse, in December 1964, two Viet Cong regiments attacked and captured the village of Binh Gia, just 40 miles from
10:31South Vietnam's capital.
10:46Even with American air support, South Vietnamese efforts to recapture the village during the next few days met with disaster.
11:06Further major Viet Cong attacks in January temporarily cut South Vietnam in two, even though they suffered heavy casualties.
11:18It was thus clear to the Americans that their policy of creating an environment in which the South Vietnamese would
11:23be able to overcome the Viet Cong on their own was not working.
11:43United States participation would have to be very much more active.
11:49Consequently, on the 8th of February 1965, Operation Rolling Thunder was put into effect.
12:01This was directed against selected targets in North Vietnam and was designed to dissuade Hanoi from helping the Viet Cong
12:08and to bring it to the conference table.
12:15But Westmoreland continued to worry over the security of airfields used by American aircraft in South Vietnam.
12:22He asked for two Marine battalions to help secure that at Da Nang, 70 miles south of the border.
12:30On the 8th of March 1965, US Marines stormed ashore.
12:35Not for the first or the last time, they did so expecting to have to fight their way off the
12:40beach, only to find that there was no opposition.
12:45Rolling Thunder, however, did not achieve its aim.
12:50The day after the first air attacks, Soviet Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin visited Hanoi.
13:05Soon the Russians were sending anti-aircraft guns and surface-to-air missile systems to help protect the North Vietnamese
13:12capital, together with other weapons.
13:21China, too, voiced its condemnation of US actions, signing an economic and technical assistance agreement with Hanoi.
13:29As 1965 wore on, an increasing number of US ground troops began to deploy to South Vietnam.
13:36Initially, they were confined to coastal areas and only allowed to engage in offensive operations in the immediate vicinity of
13:43their enclaves.
13:44This was to deter the South Vietnamese from placing the main burden for defeating the Viet Cong on American shoulders.
13:52By now, Ho Chi Minh and his military commander, General Giap, believed that a unified communist Vietnam could only be
13:59achieved through use of the North Vietnamese Army, the NVA.
14:03They planned to draw military attention away from Saigon, while they built up their forces around the city.
14:10They would then isolate and assault it, and seize the reins of power.
14:15During the early phases of the implementation of this plan, the South Vietnamese suffered further military defeats in spite of
14:22increasing American air support.
14:25This was also beginning to suffer.
14:42Westmoreland therefore told Washington that he must be allowed to use American troops more offensively, or otherwise the South Vietnamese
14:49might well collapse.
14:52Accordingly, in mid-1965, President Johnson agreed that US ground forces could now give support to the South Vietnamese Army.
14:59To this end, he ordered a massive reinforcement of troops.
15:05Troops from Australia and South Korea, both of whom had a geographic interest in preventing the spread of communism in
15:12Southeast Asia, also arrived to lend weight to the US effort.
15:24In the meantime, the bombing of North Vietnam went on, as did air attacks against suspected Viet Cong camps in
15:31the South.
15:43Increasingly used in the latter was the massive B-52 bomber, whose carpet bombing of jungle areas literally altered the
15:51map of South Vietnam.
15:53Aircraft also covered jungle areas with a defoliant known as Agent Orange.
16:00But in the United States, not all supported this undeclared bombing war against North Vietnam.
16:05In particular, Soviet and Chinese condemnation created fears that it might widen the conflict and even bring about the feared
16:12Third World War.
16:18During 1966, the American strength in Vietnam increased dramatically, from 60,000 to nearly 270,000 men.
16:27The vast majority were 18- and 19-year-old conscripts, who served a year in country with a short
16:34mid-term break for rest and recreation leave, known as R&R.
16:39The American strategy was to establish fortified fire bases.
16:44From these, troops carried out frequent search-and-destroy operations, designed to locate and kill or capture Viet Cong, as
16:53well as the NVA, which was beginning to make its presence felt.
17:01Increasingly, it was the helicopter that dominated operations.
17:04As the French had shown in Algeria, it could give the ground forces great flexibility and an element of surprise.
17:25Helicopters also gave commanders more effective control over operations.
17:32A new breed of attack helicopter, the Huey Cobra, would cover the landing zone with suppressive fire, using rockets, grenades
17:40and cannon.
17:49In December 1965, President Johnson had halted the air campaign, in the hope that the North Vietnamese might come to
17:56the negotiating table.
17:57When they did not, United States aircraft have resumed action in North Vietnam.
18:05V-52s now began to bomb targets around Hanoi, and the main port of Haiphong.
18:24Soon, the North Vietnamese capital was beginning to look like a blitz city in World War II.
18:37But the North Vietnamese had now received MiG-17s from the Soviet Union, and these began to try to challenge
18:43US air power.
18:46They found it an uphill struggle against the more experienced American pilots, who shot down an increasing number.
19:09The Soviet-built surface-to-air missiles, or SAMs, proved to be a much greater threat.
19:19Their toll of American aircraft shot down rose.
19:23A growing number of US aircrew were captured.
19:26These found themselves being used as propaganda tools, as well as giving the North Vietnamese people a chance to vent
19:32their anger against the bombing.
19:37Another major air target was the supply line which ran through the jungles of Laos and Cambodia from North Vietnam,
19:44the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
20:031967 saw the American strength in Vietnam rise to almost half a million men.
20:08New Zealand and Thai troops had also been sent, joining America's other active allies, South Korea and Australia.
20:17This enabled Westmoreland to organise ever-larger search-and-destroy operations.
20:27In the low-lying, less jungly areas, armoured fighting vehicles added to the weight of firepower.
20:46Sometimes, these search-and-destroy operations would last for weeks, with the troops taking part, relying on resupply by helicopter.
20:59Huey Cobra gunships were constantly in the skies above.
21:13Casualties inflicted on the NVA and Viet Cong were heavy.
21:18Success was being measured in terms of body counts.
21:21And as 1967 wore on, the message being given out by the American High Command was that they were winning
21:27the war.
21:31Vietnam was the first major conflict to be covered by the television news cameras.
21:36And the American people, nightly viewing the massive weight of firepower that their forces were able to deploy,
21:42generally believed that the military was right.
21:49But there was a growing number of doubters, and not just in the United States, that what was happening might
21:55not be morally justified.
22:03Scenes of dead, injured and terrified Vietnamese peasants sat uncomfortably with the aim of the Vietnam operation.
22:11Namely, to save them from the evils of communism.
22:29It was also questionable as to whether the South Vietnamese regime was popular with the people as a whole.
22:36And numerous internal coups did not reflect much stability.
22:41But in 1967, General Nguyen Van Thieu did appear to have a popular mandate when he came to power on
22:48the assurance that he was prepared to talk to Hanoi and the Viet Cong.
22:57President Thieu was to rule South Vietnam for the next seven and a half years.
23:07But the peasants themselves were in an impossible situation, pressured equally by the Viet Cong and the Saigon government and
23:14its allies.
23:15All they could do was to bend with the prevalent wind in their area.
23:21In January 1968, however, dramatic events took place.
23:26First, the air base of Khe Sanh was attacked by 20,000 NVA troops and Viet Cong.
23:32This air base was held by 5,000 US Marines.
23:36They were now to face the beginning of the climax to the Hanoi military plan evolved two years earlier.
23:47But the attack on Khe Sanh was a diversion designed to cloak the main offensive.
23:52This was to be launched during Tet, the Buddhist New Year festival which had been previously marked by a communist
23:58temporary ceasefire.
23:59In the meantime, now totally cut off, Khe Sanh had to be maintained by air.
24:11On the 30th of January, the NVA and Viet Cong launched simultaneous attacks on no less than five major cities
24:19and 80 towns.
24:20They did so with men who had gradually infiltrated into the urban areas during the past few months.
24:33In most towns, the attackers were quickly contained and resistance eradicated.
24:38But in South Vietnam's northern city of Hue and in the capital Saigon, the fighting was fierce and protracted.
24:48At one point, the fighting actually reached the grounds of the US Embassy in Saigon.
25:01This came as a shock to American television viewers.
25:09The fighting in Saigon and Hue continued throughout February 1968.
25:23The South Vietnamese in particular gave little quarter to captured Viet Cong and NVA.
25:33The physical damage to Hue and Saigon was widespread.
25:53But the Tet offensive cost the communists some 50,000 casualties, and the Americans were quick to claim a major
26:00victory.
26:04Yet Tet was to prove the major turning point of the war.
26:18Claims that the Tet offensive of early 1968 had been a communist defeat were greeted in the United States by
26:25renewed opposition to the Vietnam War.
26:27This was mirrored in Europe and elsewhere by people who believed that America was fighting an unwinnable war and inflicting
26:35untold suffering.
26:39Americans were also becoming increasingly aware of the number of US casualties.
26:43The total of those killed in action had been nearly 10,000 in 1967 and would rise to 14,500
26:51in 1968.
26:56In the meantime, Khe San, which had been enveloped by North Vietnamese forces earlier in January 1968, remained under siege.
27:12The US Marines holding the base were subjected to constant artillery fire from the surrounding hills.
27:18And only US air power was able to keep them supplied and prevent them from being overwhelmed by the North
27:24Vietnamese.
27:26But other US and South Vietnamese forces were struggling northwards to relieve Khe San.
27:40The US Marines Cesare
27:40The US Marines
28:00Not until mid-April was the siege finally lifted.
28:15In America, it was election year.
28:19President Johnson, now under growing international and domestic pressure, halted the bombing
28:24of North Vietnam once more, in the hope that he could persuade Hanoi to negotiate a settlement.
28:29At the same time, he declared that he would not stand again for president.
28:34During the run-up for the elections, Richard Nixon won the opposing Republican Party's
28:38nomination.
28:40To the now ailing Ho Chi Minh, this, together with the growing anti-war movement in the
28:44United States was an indication that the Tet Offensive had achieved significant results.
28:50Accordingly, and amid clashes between opposing factions outside the conference building,
28:55peace talks opened in Paris in May 1968.
28:57The Americans hoped that they could disengage from Vietnam with dignity.
29:07But the talks did not mean any lessening in the intensity of the fighting.
29:11During the spring of 1968, the Americans and their allies mounted two massive search and
29:17destroy operations in the hope of regaining the initiative.
29:38In early May, the Communists responded with attacks on no less than 120 military installations
29:44throughout South Vietnam.
29:45They followed this up with a month-long rocket bombardment of Saigon.
29:51This provoked a renewal of air attacks on North Vietnam, which did little to further
29:56progress in the peace talks.
30:13But by mid-1968, General Westmoreland's position as the overall American commander had become
30:19untenable.
30:20He was replaced in July by General Creighton Abrams.
30:26Throughout the summer of 1968, both sides continued to attack each other.
30:38At the end of September, another weapon was introduced into the massive US armory.
30:42This was the veteran World War II battleship New Jersey, which was seeing action as a coastal
30:48bombardment platform.
31:02By now, the American presidential election was drawing near, but Lyndon Johnson was determined
31:07to get the Hanoi government to agree peace terms.
31:10I have now ordered that all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam cease as of 8am Washington
31:24time Friday morning.
31:27A week later, Richard Nixon was voted into office on the platform of peace with honor in Vietnam.
31:33This involved a twin-track approach.
31:36The Vietnamization policy was to be introduced, whereby the South Vietnamese would gradually
31:41take over the war, enabling American forces to be brought home.
31:45At the same time, military pressure was to be maintained on North Vietnam in order to keep
31:50her at the negotiating table.
32:06But Hanoi and the Viet Cong were also bent on keeping up military pressure, so as to put
32:12themselves in a stronger negotiating position.
32:15In late February 1969, they mounted a month-long mortar bombardment of cities and
32:20bases throughout South Vietnam.
32:24Meanwhile, the Vietnamization program began to get underway, with the first American unit
32:30handing over its base and equipment at the end of April 1969.
32:43At the same time, U.S. forces reached their peak strength in Vietnam of nearly 550,000 men.
32:49In addition, there were over 70,000 Australians, New Zealanders, South Koreans, and Thais.
32:57There were also a vast naval armada and U.S. air force bases on Guam in the Pacific and
33:03in Thailand, besides those in South Vietnam.
33:12But in spite of President Nixon's declared aim of seeking a just peace, opposition to the war
33:18grew alarmingly in America as 1969 wore on.
33:22An increasing number of Americans chose to evade conscription, sometimes burning their draft
33:28cards in public.
33:35Anti-Vietnam agitation was especially rife on university campuses.
33:39On one of these, Kent State in Ohio, National Guardsmen were brought in to quell an unruly demonstration.
33:53They did so by firing on the students, killing four and wounding ten.
34:01There was too a visit made to North Vietnam by Jane Fonda, leading Hollywood star and anti-Vietnam
34:08activist.
34:16This provided Hanoi with an enormous propaganda coup.
34:23Feelings were further aroused by the revelation that in March 1968, U.S. troops had massacred
34:29200 Vietnamese civilians in the village of My Lai, seen here during investigations over a year later.
34:39There were accusations of a military cover-up, but the officer held directly responsible,
34:44Lieutenant William Calley, was eventually court-martialed.
34:55The truth was that My Lai was but a symptom of the nature of the war in Vietnam.
35:00U.S. troops had seen their comrades blown to pieces on Viet Cong mines and booby traps.
35:05They knew that the Vietnamese peasantry was aiding the communists, willingly or not.
35:19The gulf between the American troops and the Vietnamese people was growing ever wider.
35:31U.S. soldiers began to regard the peasants with their incomprehensible language and customs,
35:36as aliens from another planet who were not to be trusted.
35:48Unlike during former American wars, U.S. fighting men returning home found themselves increasingly
35:55shunned by their countrymen.
35:58Matters were not helped by the fact that the war continued to be fought by young conscripts.
36:02Very few reservists were called up for service, since the U.S. administration had not made
36:08any formal declaration of war.
36:10The conscripts were sent to Vietnam as individual replacements, rather than informed units.
36:21They found themselves among strangers, and because of the one-year rotation system and casualties,
36:27seldom got to know their fellow soldiers and officers.
36:39The result was that unit cohesion suffered, and combined with growing disillusion with the
36:44war, led to drug taking, corruption, and even the murder of junior leaders who were thought
36:49to risk lives.
36:51Yet the war ground on.
36:54increasingly, American attention was drawn to the main supply line from North Vietnam
36:58to the south, which ran through Laos and Cambodia.
37:02If this could be throttled, then some form of victory might yet be achieved.
37:07In July 1969, the Laotian government acceded to U.S. requests to be allowed to bomb the Ho Chi
37:14Minh Trail.
37:22But although the air offensive was intense, North Vietnamese supplies and men still got
37:27through.
37:33A major blow to North Vietnam came, however, on the 3rd of September 1969, when Ho Chi Minh
37:39died.
37:40His people mourned for him, but heeded his last will and testament for them to fight on
37:45until ultimate victory had been gained.
37:48Yet for the Americans, there was an encouraging development in March 1970.
37:54The left-wing Prince Sihanouk, who ruled Cambodia, was deposed when absent in France undergoing
37:59medical treatment.
38:04His successor was pro-Western General Lon Lol.
38:14With his agreement, U.S. ground forces crossed the border into Cambodia to disrupt the Ho Chi
38:19Minh Trail.
38:31President Nixon assured his people that the operation was limited.
38:35Indeed all forces were back in Vietnam by the end of June.
38:38Many however regarded this as a widening of the conflict, and anti-war agitation was refuelled.
38:46As for Sihanouk, he formed a government in exile, siding with the Chinese, North Vietnamese,
38:52the Communist Patet Lao guerrillas in Laos, and the Viet Cong.
38:581971 saw the South Vietnamese beginning to assume the lead role in ground operations.
39:04In February, they spearheaded further incursions into Laos and Cambodia.
39:16Four months later, they assumed responsibility for the defence of the most northerly province
39:20of South Vietnam.
39:27As a result, by the end of the year, the U.S. strength in Vietnam was down to under 160
39:32,000
39:33men.
39:41The Communists took advantage of this Vietnamisation by launching a major attack across the border
39:47at the end of March 1972.
39:50Further attacks were mounted across the Cambodian and Laotian borders.
40:10The South Vietnamese army suffered heavy casualties, and looked as though it might collapse.
40:29In retaliation, President Nixon ordered a resumption of the bombing of North Vietnam,
40:34under the code name of Linebacker.
40:36What was significant about this was that the Americans began to use so-called smart bombs,
40:43which were guided by laser onto their target.
40:49But neither Linebacker nor American battlefield air support could stop the North Vietnamese from
40:54seizing the northern provincial capital of Quang Tri, and making other significant gains.
41:07The South Vietnamese army was forced to surrender more and more territory.
41:23In May, President Nixon ordered the blockade and mining of North Vietnamese harbours.
41:30This was accompanied by a stepping up of the bombing of North Vietnam.
41:44Eventually, at the end of June, the South Vietnamese launched a counter-offensive.
42:06In mid-September, they succeeded in recapturing Quang Tri.
42:18A month earlier, however, the United States had ended its ground role in the war.
42:32Throughout all this time, the peace negotiations in Paris had made little progress.
42:41But behind the scenes, other talks had been taking place.
42:52American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had had a series of secret meetings with North Vietnamese envoy, Le Duc Tho.
43:01In late October 1972, Kissinger announced that they were on the verge of a breakthrough.
43:07Nixon therefore halted attacks on North Vietnam.
43:10But the negotiations stalled once more.
43:18Consequently, Linebacker was resumed in mid-December.
43:3912 days later, the North Vietnamese said that they were prepared to resume their seats at the negotiating table, and
43:45the bombing was halted.
43:46Nixon followed this up on the 15th of January 1973, by ordering a halt to all offensive action.
43:58Eight days later, Kissinger announced a ceasefire from Paris.
44:08In return for the release of all US prisoners in North Vietnam, the United States agreed to remove all its
44:14remaining forces from South Vietnam.
44:27In Laos, however, US aircraft were in action at the request of the Laotian government, after Patet Laos ceasefire violations.
44:36In Cambodia, too, the fighting continued, as did American air operations.
44:41These, however, ceased in August, as a result of pressure from the US Congress.
44:51The Americans continued to provide weaponry for South Vietnam, but this was much reduced, after talks between Hanoi and Saigon.
44:58Part of the 1973 ceasefire agreement became deadlocked in April 1974.
45:12Besides diminished US support, President Thieu's government in South Vietnam was also growing increasingly unpopular, and disillusion set in among
45:21the armed forces.
45:25Taking advantage of all this, the North Vietnamese suddenly struck across the border in March 1975.
45:32In a lightning campaign, the NVA swept all before it.
45:36On the 30th of April, North Vietnamese troops entered Saigon.
45:56As they did so, there was a last-minute evacuation from the US Embassy in Saigon, of Vietnamese who had
46:02committed themselves to the American cause, as well as US nationals.
46:22This marked the end of the American involvement in Vietnam.
46:26It had been a searing experience, which continued well into the 1990s, to cast a long shadow over US foreign
46:33policy.
46:37Vietnam itself now became a unified socialist republic.
46:40Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City, and many of its inhabitants were forcibly relocated in the countryside.
46:58As a result, many South Vietnamese, fearful for their future, fled the country during the next few years, often being
47:05rescued from very unseaworthy boats.
47:08The boat people who survived the stormy South China Sea and its pirates found themselves in refugee camps, especially in
47:16Hong Kong.
47:24Both Laos and Cambodia also came under communist control in 1975.
47:36Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge movement caused the people of Kampuchea, as he renamed Cambodia, to suffer most.
47:44It forced all town dwellers into the countryside, and systematically set about killing anyone that might possibly oppose its views.
47:56By the beginning of 1977, some one and a half million people lost their lives in the killing fields.
48:04Many others had fled to neighbouring Thailand and Vietnam.
48:15Those who fled to Vietnam were ethnic Vietnamese.
48:19Likewise, ethnic Chinese had found themselves under persecution in Vietnam.
48:24Traditional rivalries had now replaced those between the superpowers in Southeast Asia, and were to lead to more conflict.
48:37Accusing the Vietnamese of interfering in their internal affairs, Khmer Rouge forces crossed the border from Kampuchea in April 1977.
48:46By the autumn, they had penetrated some 90 miles.
48:50On the last day of the year, the Vietnamese retaliated and reached a point only 40 miles from the Kampuchean
48:57capital, Phnom Penh.
48:58They then withdrew and offered to negotiate with Pol Pot, who would have none of it.
49:04Clashes, therefore, continued throughout 1978.
49:12Finally, in December 1978, the Vietnamese launched a full-scale invasion of Kampuchea.
49:32Outnumbered, Pol Pot quickly withdrew his Khmer Rouge forces to the jungles astride the border with Thailand.
49:45The Vietnamese installed a new government under former Khmer Rouge leader, Heng Samrin.
49:55But China had allied itself to Pol Pot in retaliation for the persecution of Chinese in Vietnam, and to counter
50:02Soviet influence over Hanoi.
50:11Peking, therefore, reacted to the invasion of Kampuchea by attacking Vietnam in February 1979.
50:17The Chinese were soon slowed by the combat-hardened Vietnamese troops.
50:22Fearful of a protracted war, the Chinese withdrew back over the border by the end of March, closely followed up
50:28by the Vietnamese forces.
50:35Meanwhile, the Khmer Rouge continued to harass Vietnamese forces in Kampuchea.
50:39At the same time, there was a worsening of relations between Vietnam and Thailand, because of suspicions that the latter
50:45was giving aid to the Khmer Rouge.
50:57Eventually, however, in 1989, with their economy under increasing pressure, the Vietnamese forces withdrew from Kampuchea.
51:12But that did not mean an end to the sufferings of that troubled country.
51:16With the Khmer Rouge still very much in being, the spectre of a return to the killing fields remained.
51:24The End
51:24The End
51:25The End
51:29The End
51:30The End
51:40The End
51:42The End
51:42The End
51:43The End
51:49The End
51:54The End
51:56The End
51:56The End
51:57The End
51:58The End
51:58The End
51:58The End
51:59The End
51:59The End
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