Timecode In

Subtitle

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The US leaders said going to

Vietnam was to help Vietnam.

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That wasn't true.

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I struggled to get by then.

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My story would fuel the hatred in the soldiers.

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I witnessed my people suffering,

my country was lost.

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Now I can tell my story

of the American War.

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VETERAN DOCUMENTARY CORPS

presents

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[fade in] THE AMERICAN WAR

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[fade in] VO Cao LOi

MY Lai Massacre Survivor

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[fade in] NguyEn ThI NhU Mai

ViEt cOng Guerrilla

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[fade in] HuYnh DUc

North Vietnamese Army Soldier

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[fade in] HuYnh ThI BInh

ViEt cOng Informant

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[fade in] PhAm ThI Thao

Long-Haired Army Leader

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[fade in]  Nguyen Dinh Ngat

North Vietnamese Army Officer

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[fade in]  a film by

Daniel Leonard Bernardi

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Our country was divided,

our people invaded.

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They said America was here to support Saigon.

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But Saigon was not a government of the people.

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If we didn't have such a clear objective

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victory would have been more difficult.

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You can't imagine our faith

to the country and people.

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We had to liberate the country

to drive off the Americans.

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Everyone wanted to liberate

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our people from slavery and suppression.

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We were enthusiastic and zealous.

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We took death as light as a feather.

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There – that was the spirit of the time.

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I still remember my mother's image when I joined.

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She led me out of the gate at night

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and encouraged me to

fulfill the duty of a young man.

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Therefore all followed Uncle Ho's call –

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especially the young people –

to fight the enemy.

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Save the country!

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At the time my father was sick.

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Because America invaded

I went on the revolutionary path

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temporarily leaving my old father behind.

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There are memories

of my father I can't forget.

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My mother was a homemaker.

My father was a fisherman.

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The French burned down our grandparents' house.

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They burned it

and the boat we used for fishing.

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The French burnt all of them.

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When the Americans came,

I joined the fight.

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Actually I didn’t have the intention to join the military.

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Like my older brother,

I wanted to go to college to find a job.

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He was attending college in Saigon.

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When he visited our village, it had just been liberated.

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But because it was controlled by the revolution

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the area became separated from the South –

he couldn't go back to Saigon.

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So he stayed and joined the revolution.

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My mother said, “Since our family

doesn’t have anything you should study hard...

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...The only thing I can do is make you literate.

Besides that I have nothing to give."

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That statement reveals that

even though she was just a woman farmer

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she had a profound look at life.

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If I told them I was 14

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the government wouldn't let me enlist.

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I added 3 years to my age

to be allowed on the path.

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I have been 3 years older

in my biography ever since.

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I was the leader of the village’s women guerillas.

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The militiawomen.

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My comrades and I encouraged people to stand up

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to demand a general election.

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Our first concern was of the tanks.

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Then the helicopters – many of them.

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After attacking we retreated quickly

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not allowing them to strike back.

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We fought with the cunning of the liberation force

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and made the Americans fight

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Vietnamese style.

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The duties of the guerillas were to guard

and inform people when the enemy raided.

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There was no radio or communication.

There was only word of mouth.

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At 20 I became the commander...

 leader of the 400 "Long-haired Women" army.

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Each year we transported

more than a dozen tons of arms.

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We divided into groups

to dig holes half a meter to a meter deep.

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We put the dynamite in those holes.

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After that we used shovels to pave the road

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to make it smooth so vehicles could get through.

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At that time, I saw helicopters spreading

some type of poison that I didn't know of.

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Later on I learned from others

that it was chemical poison.

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When I was living in the mountains

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I only drank water from the stream.

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The stream water was poisoned.

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Wherever the water ran, fish and animals died.

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It destroyed the environment.

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When I was on duty

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I saw B-52s spreading poisonous chemicals.

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As the planes flew by,

big trees on the mountain started shedding leaves.

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At that moment, I realized the Americans

were spreading poisonous chemicals.

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Because of that,

my comrades are still afflicted.

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[fade in] center for agent orange victims

and unfortunate children

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Every war has losses.

That's something we have to accept.

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I think the loss is tremendous.

There is no way the pain can go away.

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You and I would feel the same.

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I think American soldiers were very young...

so very young.

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Most of them were barely 20.

They weren't fully aware of what was happening.

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Later on I read memoirs

written by American authors.

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I often read – for example this one

written by an American major about the Vietnam War.

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He claimed during the time he was in Vietnam

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very few Americans considered

Vietnamese people as humans.

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They granted themselves the right to kill us.

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They considered our lives dispensable.

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To bring soldiers here,

there had to be something to justify it.

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So they alleged things about the communists.

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They tricked us,

pitting capitalism against communism.

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Not only was my family affected by the war

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my whole country also suffered

the damage done by the American enemy.

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So I transformed my grief into action –

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my hatred into strength –

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to build my country up better

than it was before the war.

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During the Tet Offensive

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our forces attempted to liberate the cities.

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So when the campaign was planned,

it was not just us soldiers who were prepared.

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The force of the whole people

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including workers and volunteer youth

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and civilians also helped transport rice and arms.

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Many nights we snuck into the delta

to bring rice to the wounded.

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Though we were carrying rice,

all we had to eat was cassava (a root).

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Whenever someone was wounded,

they needed immediate transport for treatment.

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Rice and ammunition can wait.

The wounded cannot.

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Our youth was sacrificed

for the cause of the revolution.

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A woman weighing 50 kg had to carry

twice her weight on her back.

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They entered later life with serious health problems.

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My unit had the responsibility

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to strike the center of Da Nang.

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At that time when we entered Da Nang

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our army was small while the enemy's was vast.

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They outnumbered us twentyfold.

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Our plot was exposed and we were hit.

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An M79 tore holes in my legs

and left shrapnel in them.

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There is still shrapnel in here and here.

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In this side too. 

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And cut my two fingers.

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There is a scar up here. This is M79 shrapnel.

The scar, here.

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During the Tet Offensive

I was serving in the central highlands

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marching towards Pleiku.

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We were fighting on the outskirts,

unable to liberate it.

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My three comrades were hiding from B52s in the shelter.

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But the B52 hit the shelter

and they lost their lives.

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Those were my cadres.

I cannot count all my fallen comrades.

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My parents used our family's boat

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to help soldiers cross the river.

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When the enemy counter-attacked

they destroyed my family's boat.

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My mother died immediately.

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I couldn't even see her face the moment she passed.

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I wasn't there for it.

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Prisoners of war...

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That's just the essential rule of war.

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In 1956 the committee ordered a boat

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to take me and my comrades to escape north.

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Many boats were crossing the frontier.

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But unfortunately mine sunk in the storm.

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The brothers and sisters held on to the mast

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as we drifted to Quang Dien, Thua Thien.

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We were captured immediately.

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I was wounded when I was captured.

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As a soldier, I knew I was going to be put in prison.

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I thought,"I am a soldier who fights for my ideals"

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"and the happiness of my people."

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We were ready to assert to the enemy

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"I am a soldier. I am wounded and captured by you"

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"I will only submit to being a prisoner. That's it."

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[fade in] hoi an prison

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When they transferred me to this prison

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they took me straight to the interrogation zone.

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First, they tortured me with an electric rod.

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Second, they hung me to the ceiling,

hit me and swung me back and forth.

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Third, they filled my throat with soapy water

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and trampled my stomach til water spurted out.

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After failing to extort information

they confined me to a cell.

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They kept me half-naked under the sun

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surrounded by barbed wires,

tucked in here with others.

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Each day we were fed

a rice ball and a pinch of salt.

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They didn't care if anyone died.

00:31:02:23

Then this sergeant major

claimed that my friend and I

00:31:12:22

were stubborn Quang Nam folks

who supported the Viet Cong.

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So he summoned us to the warden's room.

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This guy's peculiarity – we don't see here –

but back then

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he wore hundreds of teeth around his neck...

human teeth.

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My friend and I had our teeth carved out.

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Two molars.  Here.

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He used a hammer and a chisel

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and placed it here.

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He is 85 now.

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When he carved out my tooth, it broke lengthwise.

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I thought I died.

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It was harder on me than my husband.

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They only had to tell their side.

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I couldn't bear the suffering.

I was broken after a week.

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I didn't know what to confess.

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Excuse me for saying this –

I lost my nipples and had my ears clipped.

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...I lost my nipples.

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They told me to confess,

and I confessed to receiving documents.

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Don’t say those things. 

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But they are filming. I need to tell it all.

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You shouldn't have said you confessed.

They're Americans.

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After a week

I didn't say a word.

00:33:00:15

South government troops.

00:33:02:11

The 2nd division of Dien Ban

who cooperated with local police.

00:33:15:15

One time after Liberation

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I saw the man when I was on a bicycle.

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I told my mother-in-law, "Mom...

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...that guy used terrible measures to interrogate me."

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We stopped the bike to confront him.

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But I told her to relent.

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"He committed a crime but there's

the country's clemency policy."

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"Let's just go home."

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She listened and went home with me.

00:33:52:22

He ran away.

00:35:57:03

On March 16, 1968

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helicopters hemmed in at 6 AM

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to send the signal to bombard My Lai.

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Normally I would have just stayed home.

00:36:26:14

That day my mother told me,

"You're a grown-up now...

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...you can no longer stay home."

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She gave me a bag

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put in a pair of clothes and two cups of rice

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and told me to run.

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I ran from one shelter to another

hiding in bushes

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to keep out of the helicopters' sight.

00:37:02:00

After 30 minutes I arrived at my uncle's house.

00:37:09:08

Vo Cao Tai –

his house was by a river

00:37:13:11

so we ran to the bank and hid.

00:37:19:22

As we reached the river bank

the Americans arrived.

00:37:30:17

Once they crossed the bridge

they formed a horizontal formation.

00:37:38:17

Then they started exploding

grenades to slaughter civilians.

00:37:51:15

I heard explosions from

9 all the way until 2 in the afternoon.

00:38:01:23

Then they stopped.

00:38:08:06

I wasn’t aware of what was going on in my village

00:38:12:02

whether the Americans retreated

00:38:13:22

but I heard they left after killing many people.

00:38:18:15

From there, I ran home.

00:38:27:02

I couldn't see her face.

She was prone.

00:38:47:02

When I saw her like that,

I held her and wept.

00:39:06:07

Slaughtering 500 people at once –

including newborn babies – is a crime.

00:39:17:05

It's no longer called "a loss",

or "an accident" of war.

00:39:33:19

[fade in] my lai massacre museum

quang ngai province

00:39:47:17

The person who was charged,

Lieutenant Calley, was a low-ranking officer.

00:39:55:23

Calley might have recently apologized...

00:39:59:17

...to relieve the torment he was living with.

00:40:06:21

I think that was better than keeping silent.

00:40:13:23

But the mistakes

were from people of higher ranks.

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It was the leaders.

00:42:14:06

Every time my wife has a seizure

or nervous breakdown

00:42:22:14

we thought of the wardens who tortured us

00:42:31:12

and cause her suffering to this day.

00:42:36:06

We always thought of it with immense hatred.

00:42:40:17

But when my wife saw the guard who tortured her

00:42:47:11

she let it go for harmony's sake.

00:42:52:19

One shouldn't further mutual hatred within Vietnam.

00:42:57:23

That’s our spirit.

00:43:16:18

It is said that in war

00:43:21:15

pain and suffering are multiplied.

00:43:27:04

When there is peace

00:43:29:22

that pain will gradually subside.

00:43:38:17

Shrapnel and memories of

the experiences can be relieved in part.

00:43:47:10

But never completely.

00:43:53:10

War's wounds will never disappear.

00:44:06:16

The day I pass away I will feel pleased

00:44:11:15

for the life I devoted

to my country, people and family.

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To the future generations, from my heart –

00:44:25:01

I want to inspire in them the tradition of our ancestors

in which I also take part.

00:44:51:11

After I was released I was delirious...

00:44:55:02

...constantly startled.

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Whenever I laid down or slept – I trembled.

00:45:02:11

Whenever I recalled the torture – I shivered.

00:45:09:11

I have no idea how I had the strength to bear it.

00:45:17:03

The Vietnamese are willing to forgive...

00:45:23:03

...forgive whoever caused us suffering,

whatever crimes were inflicted upon us.

00:45:29:03

Peace has been reestablished.

00:45:34:13

We are on our way to construct

a just and equal society.

00:45:42:20

Whatever happened during the two wars –

whatever it is – we accept.

00:45:52:18

If we don’t let it go, we still suffer.

00:46:08:06

The war has gone.

00:46:10:18

Time has passed.

00:46:13:13

Life moves on.

00:46:19:03

Everybody comes back to his normal life.

00:46:25:23

"The past and the glory,"

as the saying goes

00:46:29:03

"can only be appreciated if we know how to

make life beautiful until we close our eyes."

00:48:28:21

To be honest, after the Liberation in 1975

the hatred subsided.

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Gone... Why?

00:48:40:10

I felt this was the pain the country shared,

not just any individual suffering.

00:48:47:10

The Southerners had their own pain.

00:48:51:07

How could they not?

00:49:11:23

I have many memories of my mother.

00:49:17:17

One of the fondest I have

00:49:21:09

is from when we were little.

00:49:23:19

Me and my brother Thang

00:49:27:18

often teased and fought each other.

00:49:31:17

Mother couldn't stop us.

00:49:34:23

That night she locked us in an abandoned house.

00:49:42:19

She thought that would be punishment enough.

00:49:45:09

She thought we were scared of ghosts!

00:49:47:10

But my brother and I,

once we were inside

00:49:51:17

weren't afraid.

00:49:54:08

We were happy and laughed with each other.

00:49:58:13

She didn't expect to hear us

still joking around inside.

00:50:02:21

She gave up!

00:50:05:04

There wasn't any fitting punishment for us.

00:50:07:04

She absolutely never hit us.

00:50:09:03

That was the thing about her.

She never used the rod to punish us.

00:50:13:19

She used other methods,

 but even those didn't work.

00:50:17:14

Ever since she stopped locking us up.

00:50:20:17

When we grew up

 we came to listen to our mother...

00:50:25:13

...and love her even more.

00:50:43:15

[fade in] The United States lost over 58,000 of its youth in Vietnam -

tens of thousands more upon returning home.

Since 1955, an estimated 3 million

South East Asians have died in the American War.

00:51:01:01

[fade in]  DIRECTED & PRODUCED BY

Daniel Leonard Bernardi

00:51:05:10

PRODUCERS

TrAn ChAu Trang

Daniel Chein

Carolina Gratianne

00:51:09:10

CINEMATOGRAPHER

Andrés Gallegos

00:51:13:10

EDITOR

Daniel Chein

00:51:17:10

ILLUSTRATOR & ANIMATOR

Jian Giannini

00:51:21:10

SOUND DESIGN

Warren Haack

00:51:25:10

ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS

DOAn TuAn DUc

TrAn HOng Hanh

00:51:29:10

second CAMERA

DoAn TuAn DUc

00:51:33:10

PRODUCTION SOUND

Warren Haack

00:51:37:10

PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS

TrAn BAo Trang

NgO ThI HOng Hanh

00:51:41:10

COLORIST

Andrés Gallegos

00:51:45:10

SOUND MIX

Dan Olmsted

00:51:49:10

ASSISTANT EDITORS

Sreang Hok

Deepika Metkar

Post Production Assistants

Sophie Clement

Tessa Tze

00:51:54:08

TRANSLATORS

TrAn ChAu Trang

TrAn BAo Trang

DoAn TuAn DUc

00:51:57:10

ARCHIVAL

Critical Past

ViEtNam Film Institute

John Baumhackl

The Vietnam Center and Archive

00:52:01:10

MUSIC

"Help Us in This Life"

© Glitterbeat Records

Performed by pham Mong Hai

Used by Permission. All Rights Reserved.

"Please Wait For Me"

© Glitterbeat Records

Performed by Quoc Hung

Used by Permission. All Rights Reserved.

"For the Fallen"

© Glitterbeat Records

Performed by Pham Mong Hai

Used by Permission. All Rights Reserved.

"Road to Home"

© Glitterbeat Records

Performed by Nguyen Thi Lan

Used by Permission. All Rights Reserved.

"The Wind Blows It Away"

© Glitterbeat Records

Performed by Quoc Hung

Used by Permission. All Rights Reserved.

00:52:05:10

SPECIAL THANKS TO

Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Sojin Bernardi

Sondro Bernardi

Sunny Bernardi

Karl Cohen

Nguyen Thi Hien

HuYY

Pat Jackson

NguyEn BAo Khanh

Steve Kovacs

Jenny Lau

HuYnh KhAnh Linh

Helen Na

do Minh NgOc

Elizabeth Ramirez-soto

Sue Rosser

Johnny Symons

Cu Thi Tham

Pham duc Nam Trung

Vo Nhu Tung

Le Nguyen Hai Yen

Museum of Military Zone 5, da Nang

Serene Hotel

Chau Chau Café

00:52:11:12

AND

The Center For Agent Orange Victims

And Unfortunate Children

00:52:17:00

Shot on location in ViEtNam

00:52:24:12

© Daniel leonard Bernardi 2018