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American Experience
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Transcripts and Credits


Vietnam examines America's longest war in the context of France's earlier colonial experience as well as Southeast Asia and Vietnam's 2,000-year history of resistance to foreign invaders. Originally broadcast as 13 programs, the series was later edited to its current 11-program length. The programs provide a rich tapestry of archival footage combined with provocative interviews with participants on all sides of the conflict.

Access program transcripts and credits:

Roots of a War (1945-1953)
This program traces the rise of a pro-American Vietnamese nationalist, Ho Chi Minh, whose Viet Minh guerrillas grab a stunning victory over French colonial forces.
(Program Credits)

America's Mandarin (1954-1963)
The United States is drawn into Vietnam through its support -- then abandonment -- of South Vietnam's president, Ngo Dinh Diem, who is assassinated in a coup.
(Program Credits)

LBJ Goes to War (1964-1965)
Charging that North Vietnam has attacked American ships in the Gulf of Tonkin, President Lyndon B. Johnson orders bombing raids and sends 200,000 troops into an undeclared war.
(Program Credits)

America Takes Charge (1965-1967)
With the South Vietnamese army in disarray, the U.S. military assumes control of the war, leading to increased American casualties in a country both beautiful and horrific.
(Program Credits)

America's Enemy (1954-1967)
(Program Credits)

Tet 1968
North Vietnam's dramatic offensive on the lunar New Year stuns American military and political leaders, leading to calls for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
(Program Credits)

Vietnamizing the War (1969-1973)
As the U.S. turns over the war to the South Vietnamese army, American soldiers and Vietnamese citizens feel the dimming prospects for victory.
(Program Credits)

Cambodia and Laos
With fighting already spread to neighboring Laos, President Richard Nixon orders a secret bombing campaign against Cambodia, which will soon endure a nightmarish post-war holocaust.
(Program Credits)

Peace Is at Hand (1968-1973)
As President Nixon escalates the bombing of Hanoi and North Vietnamese troops advance, negotiators struggle for four years to sign a peace treaty that will be broken quickly.
(Program Credits)

Homefront USA
(Program Credits)

The End of the Tunnel (1973-1975)
This episode rebroadcast with the title The Fall of Saigon in April 2005, on the 30th anniversary of the South Vietnamese capitulation. Ten years after American ground troops arrived in South Vietnam, communists seize Saigon in a lightning attack that brings the war to a startling conclusion.
(Program Credits)

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